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__label__cc	0.737923	0.262077	Archives For international Everyone for L’Oreal Paris’ Color Riche Collection May 9, 2016 — Leave a comment L’Oreal Paris has a bunch of brand ambassadors by region, and they all get invited to Cannes; among them, there’s people like Eva Longoria, Aishwarya and Sonam Kapoor, who all end up walking the festival’s red carpet events, just like last year. This time around, they got them all for this commercial that also credits J.Lo and Blake Lively, even though I don’t really spot them in it. Those who do make it and aren’t listed, however, include Aishwarya, Sonam Kapoor, and the Bingbings– Fan Bingbing and Li Bingbing. That’s on top of Jane Fonda, and everyone’s faves Julianne Moore and Naomi Watts, who all come together to gather round John Legend. The idea of them coming together around Legend gave me vibes of that Lux Soap Commercial that Shahrukh Khan did like a decade ago, which featured Hema Malini, Juhi Chawla, Kareena Kapoor, and Sridevi… but then I watched it again, and that one was grosser. xD La Vie en Rose, at least, is a nice soft tune to give you the feeling of floating in the clouds xD — EDIT 12Aug’16 — Here’s the L’Oreal India upload. Australian upload. In Chinese, Commercials, English, French, Sharing actress, china, commercial, edith piaf, fan bingbing, france, india, international, juhi chawla, julianne moore, li bingbing, naomi watts, shahrukh khan First Look at Yu Aoi’s Azumi Haruko Last October I reported about Yu-chan returning to the leading-lady gig with Daigo Matsui’s AZUMI HARUKO wa Yukuefumei (アズミ・ハルコは行方不明). Twitter has just shown me a first still. There’s also a music video by Ishizaki Huwie (石崎ひゅーい) titled Flower Vase (花瓶の花, Kabin no Hana) attached to the press release on natalie.mu, but it’s geo-blocked :*( Posted on April 14, 2016 In Celebrity, English, Films, Japanese, Stills actress, comeback, distributors, fandom, international, internet, japan, news, youtube, yu aoi Happy New Year Goes VOD or DTF! Farah Khan’s and Shahrukh Khan’s latest Happy New Year [Español] just hit the market officially with VOD… or as they’re calling it DTF (Direct to Fans), which is less technical and much more personal. It’s also way cheaper than regular VOD too, which usually charges $5USD per one-time stream or 4-5-day rental. You basically get to download the movie for that price. I’m just supposing it’s subtitled (being aimed at all markets except India and China), but I could be supposing erroneously [1]. No cons, just pros really. It would have been much cooler and much more trailblazing if this had happened on opening week (or the week later), but it’s something. I’m just hoping UTV (EROSNOW had its one moment with the pretty horrible Lekar Hum Deewana Dil) gets their shit together with the distribution of films like Haider and PK, really because those two are my bias at the moment. Imagine if more European and other big Asian movies did the same. Isn’t THAT what they want? Piece of the Hollywood pie? You need to indoctrinate people first, get them on the habit of watching you. Hollywood’s been doing this to us for the past 70 years. Here’s the link. In English, Films, Jobs, Screencaps, Sharing, Torrents & Digital Streams digital content, distributors, india, industry talk, international, internet, musical/choreography, shahrukh khan, subtitles, technology Palak: Ohhhhhh~ Comedy Nights with Kapil November 7, 2014 — Leave a comment I started watching Comedy Nights with Kapil a couple of months ago, despite the language barrier and the lack of subtitles. I gotta admit that the funniest thing has to be Kiku Sharda’s Palak despite (or maybe because of) the language barrier. It doesn’t matter what’s going on, he generally makes me laugh. Okay, Palak and Ghutthi. I cackle when I see Madhuri teaching Palak dancing. Laughed so much when doing the acting demonstration for Tabu, KK and Shahid, and even made me NOT hate Kareena Kapoor (oh, look! She actually HAS a sense of humor!). Plus! They’re improving my hindi xD Win-win! The only thing that pisses me off is that Colors isn’t uploading the episodes on YouTube as quickly anymore, the episodes on their website are region-restricted (FML), and some of the episodes have been having the music edited out, which ruins the mood/joke completely. In English, Fun, Graphics, Misc., Screencaps, Sharing, Television, Torrents & Digital Streams distributors, fanart, funny, india, international, madhuri dixit, reality tv/variety, tabu (actress), youtube Movie Streams, VOD, and Worldwide Online Distribution I’m still not sold on Netflix- never to this date I’ve ran into a film that I wanted to watch on it. At least in terms of this region, which doesn’t count with as much content as the US or Canada one. Similar issues with iTunes… and Amazon is out of the question. I used to subscribe to MUBI for a long while (at least for a bit over a year), but eventually turned off my subscription because I wasn’t watching anything, while things I had added to my watchlist stopped being available, and the selection of their films eventually was reduced to their now curated content. I’m only subscribed to EROSNOW now, and have seen a few couple of films there, but had to turn to other mediums when found links that were region-restricted or surprisingly without subtitles. My experience with streaming has been decent- and for as cheap as $5-9 bucks you can watch a lot in a month, and it just makes your life quite easy. Similar flawless experience with my first Vimeo On Demand watch. Thanks Joss Whedon for the heads up, and actually putting the film up there right after its premiere. To top it all off, subtitles in Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Japanese (plus English CC) were available making it the smoothest watch if you decided to watch it with any bunch of people. Paying $5 to stream a new movie can seem like the best way possible to make it look as if you’re going to the cinema. It takes me back to those days where I would watch 2 or 3 new movies a weekend. If studios ever decided to really go off their way to online distribute their new movies almost simultaneously, I’d be willing. Here’s In Your Eyes. Apparently Vimeo streaming is not as smooth (or at all) if you don’t have a Vimeo account, though. Take it as a good chance to get one, or don’t complain. I really don’t know any other streaming (paying) website that would let you use their content without an account. You need one in iTunes, in Amazon, in Netflix, HBO, et all. So please, people, stop complaining about THAT. Spanish (more serious) related note. Posted on April 22, 2014 In English, Films, French, Fun, Japanese, Jobs, Sharing, Spanish, Torrents & Digital Streams, Trailers blog, digital content, distributors, industry talk, international, internet, itunes, joss whedon, peru, subtitles, technology, theauteurs.com	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1792
__label__cc	0.701751	0.298249	PTBC Columnists About our columnist situation (Read) Doug Giles Gerry Nicholls Joel Johannesen Rebecca Hagelin William D. Gairdner New Posts? Email Alert Signup Contact PTBC ProudToBeCanadian Home Authors Posts by Doug Giles http://clashdaily.com Doug Giles is the man behind ClashDaily.com. In addition to driving ClashDaily.com, Giles is a popular columnist on Townhall.com and the author of the book Raising Righteous & Rowdy Girls. Doug’s articles have also appeared on several other print and online news sources, including The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, Fox Nation, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Examiner, The Blaze, American Hunter Magazine and ABC News. He’s been a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel and Fox Business Channel as well as many nationally syndicated radio shows across the nation — which, he believes, officially makes him a super hero. In addition, Doug is an occasional guest host on New York City’s WABC (The Jason Mattera Show) and he is a weekly guest, every Friday at 7:45am[et], on America’s Morning News (155 markets). Giles and his wife Margaret have two daughters: Hannah, who devastated ACORN with her 2009 nation shaking undercover videos, and Regis who is an NRA columnist, huntress and Second Amendment activist. DG’s interests include guns, big game hunting, big game fishing, fine art, cigars, helping wounded warriors, and being a big pain in the butt to people who dislike God and the USA. Speaking Engagements. Doug Giles speaks to college, business, community, church, advocacy and men’s groups throughout the United States and internationally. His expertise includes issues of Christianity and culture, masculinity vs. metrosexuality, big game hunting and fishing, raising righteous kids in a rank culture, the Second Amendment, personal empowerment, politics, and social change. For availability, please contact us. Props. “Doug Giles is a good man, and his bambinas are fearless. His girls Hannah and Regis Giles are indefatigable. I admire the Giles clan from afar.” - Dennis Miller “Doug Giles must be some kind of a great guy if CNN wants to impugn him.” - Rush Limbaugh “Doug Giles is a substantive and funny force for traditional values.” - Ann Coulter, best-selling author “Doug Giles speaks the truth … he’s a societal watchdog … a funny bastard.” - Ted Nugent, rock icon “Doug is funny and insightful. Giles is always spot-on with his analysis and so incredibly hilarious, as well. Whether you’re 15 or 50, if you love God and America, Doug Giles is for you!” - Jason Mattera, NYT best-selling author of Obama Zombies and Editor-in-Chief, Human Events “Doug is a raucous and rowdy mix of old-school, traditional conservative values with the kind of eff-you attitude folks like Ted Nugent have made millions on. He’s one part rebellious rock star, one part crusading missionary, and another part rough rider.” - S. E. Cupp, NYT best-selling author of Why You’re Wrong About The Right and Host of The S. E. Cupp Show on GBTV.com When I Want a Progressive’s Opinion on What Guns I “Need” or “Don’t Need”… America Tuesday January 22, 2013 at 5:18 pm My buddy, Green Beret badass Bryan Sikes, shot a massive whitetail buck last week during our South Texas Purple Heart Adventure. He whacked said muy grande with a LaRue Tactical OBR chambered for the... Massacre Solution: The Brady Bunch Bill to Prohibit the Procreation of Irresponsible People America Sunday January 13, 2013 at 1:16 pm As most of you know, Vice President Joe Biden has been appointed by Obama to make certain that another Sandy Hook never goes down on American soil. Being an American who digs freedom, I’m... Whiny Atheists Protest Charlie Brown Christmas Special America Thursday November 29, 2012 at 9:24 am The atheists I grew up with in Texas were a tad bit pluckier than today’s lardy hagfish atheists who file lawsuits every winter when they see a child wrapped in swaddling clothes. Yep, the anti-theists... I Hope This Is The Last Column I Ever Have To Write About Bronco... Canada Sunday November 4, 2012 at 9:06 am This past week a YouTube video of a crying four-year-old little girl named Abigailwent viral. In the video Abby’s mom asks her why she’s so sad. Abigail replies through a steady stream of tears... Benghazi: Obama and His Ilk Hung Chris Stevens and Others Out to Dry America Saturday October 27, 2012 at 12:21 pm This past Friday the State Department released internal docs showing that Chris Stevens, U.S. Ambassador to hell’s corridor in Libya, begged Obama’s boys in D.C. to ramp up security in Benghazi. And, as we... The Dark Knight Movie Massacre & Why I Carry a Gun Everywhere I Go America Monday July 23, 2012 at 10:07 am I would venture to guess that the folks filing in to see the latest Batman installment in Aurora, Colorado last Thursday evening didn’t figure on over 70 of them getting shot before the credits... Hey, Chris Matthews: I Like Big Guns and I Cannot Lie Doug Giles Sunday January 30, 2011 at 12:41 pm Chris Matthews told his two brothers, Larry Fine and Curly Howard Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God Doug Giles Sunday January 23, 2011 at 7:37 am The Christians of the first century were rebels with a cause. They weren Snookie’s Smut or Cowboy Values? Doug Giles Monday January 10, 2011 at 8:12 am I believe it 2011 Resolution: Annoy the Left 365 Doug Giles Sunday January 2, 2011 at 9:45 am I hate New Year Why Gays Should Dial Down with ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Doug Giles Sunday December 19, 2010 at 9:31 am I can understand why homosexual men would want to join the military. Number one: It 10 Man Gifts for Christmas (Plus One) Doug Giles Sunday December 12, 2010 at 10:24 am Guys, we Girls Just Wanna Have Guns Doug Giles Sunday December 5, 2010 at 8:29 am A Redneck’s Bitter and Clingy Thanksgiving List Doug Giles Sunday November 28, 2010 at 8:34 am I love Thanksgiving The Petit Murders: Why You and Yours Need a Gun Doug Giles Sunday November 14, 2010 at 10:47 am The details surrounding the July 23, 2007 murders of the Petit family in Connecticut are about as grisly as the hordes of hell can concoct. I know that as a Christian I We're conservative, and that makes us right. The articles are all opinion-based however. Click here to buy the PTBC lapel pin! The $20 cost supports this site. PTBC Lexicon The SHOP @PTBC © Copyright 2019 - ProudToBeCanadian.ca and its ownership. All rights reserved.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1794
__label__wiki	0.9111	0.9111	aboutapp #19 MARTIAN TERRAIN Fan and Valley within Crater. This HiRISE image shows a fan-shaped deposit at the distal end of a valley. The fan is approximately 3.5 x 3.7 kilometers in size. While other similar fans on Mars display stair-step terracing along their edges, this particular fan does not show any terraces. There is a valley to the upper left that is the source of material that now composes much of the fan. Martian fans are thought to be either alluvial or deltaic in origin. On Earth, alluvial fans form when material upslope is eroded and transported by water down a confined valley until reaching a flatter, broader surface downslope where the material is deposited to produce a fan-shape. Deltaic fans form when rivers transport sediment downstream until an unconfined and flatter surface is reached under water, at which time the sediment is deposited in a fan-shape. Whether the Martian fan formed by alluvial or deltaic processes in unknown, but both processes require a fluid (most likely water) that carved the valley and transported the sediment downstream. Written by: Cathy Weitz sharetweet+1 All original images are presented by: MADE IN MINSK, BELARUS © 2014 PSIUPUXA.COM β	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1799
__label__cc	0.746019	0.253981	Home » Blog » Disorders » Sleep » Bed & Bored: The Element of Surprise in Making Love Last Bed & Bored: The Element of Surprise in Making Love Last By Daniel Tomasulo, Ph.D. “Love withers with predictability; its very essence is surprise and amazement. To make love a prisoner of the mundane is to take its passion and lose it forever.” ~ Leo F. Buscaglia “Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays.” ~ Henny Youngman If I were going to create a bumper sticker for a good relationship it would be: “Keep it Fun; Keep it Fresh; Keep it Real.” Even the most cynical and contemptuous couples soften when I ask them to tell me how they met… “He was so romantic. Almost every time we met he brought me chocolates or flowers. He surprised me all the time,” the wife would say. “We couldn’t keep our hands off of each other,” he says. “We couldn’t wait to be alone.” A wistful look comes over their faces as they speak. They were in love back then. But now: “She doesn’t even say hello when I come home,” he tells me. “Flowers? The last time he bought flowers, we were on the way to a funeral,” she says. It’s a fact: Couples change over time. The passion and intensity of a new relationship fades. If we are lucky it evolves into a compassionate, caring relationship. But for many, the loss of passion in the relationship is a deal breaker. The demise often involves thwarted expectations that, over time, erode the connection. Love that was once flourishing becomes unrequited, resulting in less engagement, simulation, and satisfaction. But an article by leading researcher Sonia Lyubomirsky and her colleague Katherine Jacobs Bao suggests that it might not have to be that way. In a recent issue of the Journal of Positive Psychology the team looks at ways to slow or stop hedonic adaptation. According to the researchers, hedonic adaptation is the theory that when things are good we get used to it, expect it, and then return to the previous level of satisfaction. To combat this they outline the Hedonic Adaptation Prevention Model, which they propose could “slow or prevent hedonic adaptation” when it comes to relationships. If you bring your wife a rose every Friday, she comes to expect it and it somehow loses value because it has become routine. Then the Friday that you don’t think to bring it — it signals a disappointment. With hedonic adaptation the return to baseline often comes with disgruntlement. Boredom often is one of the main factors in divorce. To know your partner fully can mean you are in a completely adapted relationship, but you may literally be bored to tears. Although we all strive to have more positive events in our relationships, there may be repercussions. When good things happen, particularly very good things — such as an engagement, the birth of a child, or moving into a new home — it can cause the aspiration level to rise. Good things become predictable and expected. When that happens, the expectation eats away at satisfaction and eventually we want something new, different, and exciting. According to the Hedonic Adaptation Prevention Model, variety and appreciation are the antidotes. If a couple does something different each time they are together there is less likelihood for a routine — with its incapacitating boredom — to set in. Also, appreciation of the positive change in one’s settings through active recognition of these fresh experiences should help stave off adaptation. Research shows that harvesting more positive emotions, keeping our aspirations in check, and nurturing our ability to appreciate good things in our life are ways we can counterbalance hedonic adaptation. There are some couples who may naturally do this. They may have a type of resistance to adaptation. One example would be a couple in a long-distance relationship. By default they have variety in their communication (texting, Skyping, phoning), and typically do something special, unique or memorable when they are together. Often the distance and time apart activates the need to keep things interesting. In fact, when long-distance couples get together, the relationship often falls apart. As novelty declines, so does relationship satisfaction. So what to do if you don’t have the added value of a long-distance relationship? Take a break. The adage “absence makes the heart grow fonder” now has some science behind it. Girls’ night out, business trips, and some alone time may be just what are needed. Being apart may provide the reset button for strengthening the bonds of love. Above all, don’t let it get stale. Surprise your love and your love can be surprisingly good. In the words of Ashley Montagu, “The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.” Resources for making your love last: Get more positivity into your life. Ways to enhance appreciation within the relationship. The latest research on love. Bao, K. (2012). The Course of Well-Being in Romantic Relationships: Predicting Positive Affect in Dating Participants. Psychology, 3, 1091-1099. doi: 10.4236/psych.2012.312A161 Jacobs Bao, K., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2012). Making it last: Combating hedonic adaptation in romantic relationships. The Journal of Positive Psychology Vol. 8, No. 3, 2013. Daniel Tomasulo, Ph.D. Dan Tomasulo Ph.D., TEP, MFA, MAPP teaches Positive Psychology in the graduate program of Counseling and Clinical Psychology at Columbia University, Teachers College and works with Martin Seligman, the Father of Positive Psychology in the Masters of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) program at the University of Pennsylvania. He is Director of the New York Certification in Positive Psychology for the Open Center in New York City and on faculty at New Jersey City University. Sharecare has honored him as one of the top 10 online influencers on the topic of depression. For more information go to: http://www.dare2behappy.com/. He also writes for Psych Central's Ask the Therapist column and the Proof Positive blog. Tomasulo, D. (2018). Bed & Bored: The Element of Surprise in Making Love Last. Psych Central. Retrieved on January 20, 2020, from https://psychcentral.com/blog/bed-bored-the-element-of-surprise-in-making-love-last/ Last updated: 8 Jul 2018 (Originally: 18 Aug 2013) Sleep Quiz Sleepiness Quiz Hypersomnia Insomnia Narcolepsy Restless Legs Sleep Apnea Sleep Terrors Sleepwalking Library Sleeping Better Satisfying Sleep Sleep Support Group How Smart Are Parrots? A Question Any Primate Can Answer Why Don’t We Stand Up to People Who Say Inappropriate Things? Why Our Public Response to Kids Who Self Harm is So Wrong	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1801
__label__cc	0.639499	0.360501	The Psychopath’s Emotions: What Does He Feel? So far I’ve asked you to imagine a person who lacks empathy for others and the capacity to feel any emotion deeply. I’ve asked you to imagine a person who is plagued by restlessness and boredom and finds sole satisfaction in duping, manipulating and controlling others. A person who may simulate respect or politeness, but who fundamentally regards others with contempt, as objects to be used for his temporary diversion or satisfaction. A person who suffers from an incurable and absolute egocentrism. But even this doesn’t even begin to give you a full picture of the extent of a psychopath’s emotional poverty. It may describe what a psychopath can’t feel, but to understand how and why the psychopath is driven to harm others, you need to also get a sense of what a psychopath does feel. Psychopaths can’t tolerate loneliness. Just as all human beings can’t survive physically without food and water, psychopaths can’t survive emotionally without victims. Of course, psychopaths regard love with contempt. They view loving and loyal couples as an ugly, undifferentiated blob. Because they can’t experience or even understand love and loyalty, they see moral individuals as weak. They have nothing but disdain for the emotions that normal human beings feel. But at the same time, psychopaths can’t live without feeding upon the real and deeper emotions of people who care about them, of individuals who can love: in other words of the people they use, abuse, toy with, lie to and hurt. Psychopaths are often sexual predators. But even more often, and certainly more fundamentally, they’re emotional predators. What they want from their victims is far more than possessing their bodies or sex. They need to feed their insatiable appetite for harm, as well as sustain their sense of superiority, by possessing and destroying others inside and out, body and soul. A psychopath’s emotional framework is like a vacuum that needs to suck out the emotional energy from healthy individuals in order to survive. This is why I have called psychopaths real-life vampires, that we need to understand and worry about far more than their fictional counterparts. A psychopath lacks much more than empathy for others in his emotional repertoire. He also lacks the capacity to experience any kind of emotion that requires deeper insight and psychological awareness. He experiences only proto-emotions, which are as short-lived as they’re intense. That doesn’t make them any less dangerous, however. The evidence points to the fact that Scott Peterson and Neil Entwistle preplanned their murders weeks in advance. But Mark Hacking seems to have acted more or less on impulse, after having fought with his wife. If we believe his confession to his brothers, Mark was in the process of packing up his things, ran across a revolver and shot Lori while she was asleep. When angry or frustrated, a psychopath is capable of anything, even if his anger will dissipate a few minutes later. As Hervey Cleckley observes, “In addition to his incapacity for object love, the psychopath always shows general poverty of affect. Although it is true that be sometimes becomes excited and shouts as if in rage or seems to exult in enthusiasm and again weeps in what appear to be bitter tears or speaks eloquent and mournful words about his misfortunes or his follies, the conviction dawns on those who observe him carefully that here we deal with a readiness of expression rather than a strength of feeling.” (The Mask of Sanity, 349) The proto-emotions experienced by a psychopath tie in, once again, to the satisfaction or frustration of his immediate desires: “Vexation, spite, quick and labile flashes of quasi-affection, peevish resentment, shallow moods of self-pity, puerile attitudes of vanity, and absurd and showy poses of indignation are all within his emotional scale and are freely sounded as the circumstances of life play upon him. But mature, wholehearted anger, true or consistent indignation, honest, solid grief, sustaining pride, deep joy, and genuine despair are reactions not likely to be found within this scale.” (The Mask of Sanity, 349) For this reason, psychopaths don’t feel distress even when they land in jail. Even there they take pleasure in manipulating their fellow inmates and the prison staff. Even from there they write letters to people outside to use them for money, amusement and possibly even sex. Nothing ruffles a psychopath’s feathers for long. The same emotional shallowness that leads him to be unresponsive to the needs of others and to experience no remorse when he hurts them also enables him to feel little or no distress when he, himself gets hurt. So far, I’ve covered the emotions psychopaths can’t feel. I’ve also had the opportunity to witness up-close and personal the emotions a psychopath can feel, however. That’s what I’ll describe next. 1) Glee. A psychopath feels elation or glee whenever he gets his way or pulls a fast one on somebody. I can still recall O.J. Simpson’s reaction to getting away with murder (at least in my own opinion and that of a lot of other people who watched the trial, if not in the eyes of the jury): his celebratory glee at pulling a fast one on the American public, on the system of justice and especially on the victims and their families. 2) Anger. Robert Hare notes in Without Conscience that since psychopaths have low impulse control, they’re much more easily angered than normal people. A psychopath’s displays of anger tend to be cold, sudden, short-lived and arbitrary. Generally you can’t predict what exactly will trigger his anger since this emotion, like his charm, is used to control those around him. It’s not necessarily motivated by something you’ve done or by his circumstances. A psychopath may blow up over something minor, but remain completely cool and collected about a more serious matter. Displays of anger represent yet another way for a psychopath to demonstrate that he’s in charge. When psychopaths scream, insult, hit, or even wound and kill other individuals, they’re aware of their behavior even if they act opportunistically, in the heat of the moment. They know that they’re harming others and, what’s more, they enjoy it. 3) Frustration. This emotion is tied to their displays of anger but isn’t necessarily channeled against a particular person, but against an obstacle or situation. A psychopath may feel frustrated, for example, when his girlfriend doesn’t want to leave her current partner for him. Yet he may be too infatuated with her at the moment to channel his negative emotions against her. He may also believe that his anger would alienate her before he’s gotten a chance to hook her emotionally. In such circumstances, he may become frustrated with the situation itself: with the obstacles that her partner or her family or society in general pose between them. Psychopaths generally experience frustration when they face impersonal barriers between themselves and their current goals or targets. But that’s also what often engages them even more obstinately in a given pursuit. After all, for them, overcoming minor challenges in life is part of the fun. 4) Consternation. As we’ve seen so far, psychopaths don’t create love bonds with others. They establish dominance bonds instead. When those controlled by a psychopath disapprove of his actions or sever the relationship, sometimes he’ll experience anger. But his immediate reaction is more likely to be surprise or consternation. Psychopaths can’t believe that their bad actions, which they always consider justifiable and appropriate, could ever cause another human being who was previously under their spell to disapprove of their behavior and reject them. Even if they cheat, lie, use, manipulate or isolate others, they don’t feel like they deserve any repercussions as a result of that behavior. In addition, psychopaths rationalize their bad actions as being in the best interest of their victims. For instance, if a psychopath isolates his partner from her family and persuades her to quit her job and then, once she’s all alone with him, abandons her to pursue other women, he feels fully justified in his conduct. In his mind, she deserved to be left since she didn’t satisfy all of his needs or was somehow inadequate as a mate. In fact, given his sense of entitlement, the psychopath might even feel like he did her a favor to remove her from her family and friends and to leave her alone in the middle of nowhere, like a wreck displaced by a tornado. Thanks to him, she can start her life anew and become more independent. To put it bluntly, a psychopath will kick you in the teeth and expect you to say “Thank you.” Being shameless and self-absorbed, he assumes that all those close to him will buy his false image of goodness and excuse his despicable actions just as he does. In fact, he expects that even the women he’s used and discarded continue to idealize him as a perfect partner and eagerly await his return. That way he can continue to use them for sex, money, control, his image or any other services if, when and for however long he chooses to return into their lives. When those women don’t feel particularly grateful—when, in fact, they feel only contempt for him–the psychopath will be initially stunned that they have such a low opinion of him. He will also feel betrayed by these women, or by family members and friends who disapprove of his reprehensible behavior. Although he, himself, feels no love and loyalty to anyone, a psychopath expects unconditional love and loyalty from all those over whom he’s established a dominance bond. This mindset also explains psychopaths’ behavior in court. Both Scott Peterson and Neil Entwistle seemed outraged that the jury found them guilty of murder. Psychopaths believe that those whom they have hurt, and society in general, should not hold them accountable for their misdeeds. After all, in their own minds, they’re superior to other human beings and therefore above the law. How dare anybody hold them accountable and punish them for their crimes! 5) Boredom. This is probably the only feeling that gives psychopaths a nagging sense of discomfort. They try to alleviate it, as we’ve seen, by pursuing cheap thrills, harming others and engaging in transgressive behavior. Nothing, however, can relieve for long the psychopath’s fundamental ennui. He gets quickly used to, and thus also bored with, each new person and activity. 6) Histrionic flashes. I’m not sure if this is an emotion, but I know for sure that the psychopath’s dramatic displays of love, remorse and empathy lack any meaning and depth. If you watch the murder trials on the news or on Court TV, you’ll notice that some psychopaths convicted of murder often put on shows of grief, sadness or remorse in front of the jury. The next moment, however, they’re joking around and laughing with their attorneys or instructing them in a calm and deliberate manner about what to do and say on their behalf. The displays of emotion psychopaths commonly engage in are, of course, fake. They’re tools of manipulation–to provoke sympathy or gain trust–as well as yet another way of “winning” by fooling those around them. I’ve already mentioned that Neil Entwistle engaged in such histrionic behavior. If you’ve followed crime features on the news, you may have noticed that Casey Anthony, the young woman accused of killing her toddler, behaves similarly. She was observed going out to dance and party at clubs with friends the day after her daughter, Caylee, disappeared. Casey’s lack of concern for her missing child doesn’t necessarily prove that she murdered her. But it reveals highly suspicious and callous behavior. It also casts doubt upon the brief and dramatic displays of grief or concern that she sometimes puts on in front of the media and for her parents. 7) Infatuation. When they identify someone as a good potential target, psychopaths can become obsessed with that particular person. In Without Conscience, Hare compares the psychopath’s focused attention upon his chosen target to a powerful beam of light that illuminates only one spot at a time. He also likens it to a predator stalking its prey. Because psychopaths tend to ignore other responsibilities (such as their jobs and their families) and have no conscience whatsoever, they can focus on pursuing a given target more intensely than multi-dimensional, loving men could. This is especially the case if their target presents an exciting challenge, such as if she’s rich or famous, or if she’s married to another man, which triggers their competitive drive. This single-minded infatuation, however, like all of their proto-emotions, is superficial and short-lived. Because for psychopaths such obsessions don’t lead to any genuine friendship, caring or love, they dissipate as soon as they get whatever they wanted from that person, which may be only the conquest itself. 8) Self-love (sort of). Since psychopaths only care about themselves, one would think that self-love would be the one emotion they could experience more deeply. In a sense that’s true, since their whole lives revolve around the single-minded pursuit of selfish goals. But this is also what makes psychopaths’ self-love as shallow as the rest of their emotions. Just as they’re incapable of considering anyone else’s long-term interest, they’re incapable of considering their own. By pursuing fleeting pleasures and momentary whims, psychopaths sabotage their own lives as well. Rarely do they end up happy or successful. They spend their whole lives hurting and betraying those who loved and trusted them, using and discarding their partners, disappointing the expectations of their families, friends, bosses and colleagues and moving from one meaningless diversion to another. At the end of the road, most of them end up empty-handed and alone. 9) CONTEMPT. I’ve capitalized this word because this is the emotion that dominates a psychopath’s whole identity and way of looking at other human beings. No matter how charming, other-regarding and friendly they may appear to be on the outside, all psychopaths are misanthropes on the inside. A psychopath’s core emotion is contempt for the individuals he fools, uses and abuses and for humanity in general. You can identify the psychopath’s underlying contempt much more easily once he no longer needs you or once his mask of sanity shatters. As we’ve seen, psychopaths hold themselves in high regard and others in low regard. To describe the hierarchies they construct, I’ll use an analogy from my literary studies. I was trained in Comparative Literature during they heyday of Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction as it was being applied to pretty much everything: cultural studies, gender hierarchies, race relations, post-colonialism and the kitchen sink. Although looking at life in general in terms of “indeterminate” binary hierarchies hasn’t proved particularly useful, this polarized worldview describes rather well the mindset of psychopaths. For such disordered, narcissistic and unprincipled individuals, the world is divided into superiors (themselves) and inferiors (all others); predators (themselves) and prey (their targets); dupers (themselves) and duped (the suckers). Of course, only giving psychopaths a lobotomy would turn these binary hierarchies upside down in their minds. This is where the applicability of Derrida’s deconstructive model stops. Although psychopaths consider themselves superior to others, they distinguish among levels of inferiority in the people they use, manipulate and dupe. The biggest dupes in their eyes are those individuals who believe whole-heartedly that the psychopaths are the kind, honest, other-regarding individuals they appear to be. As the saying goes, if you buy that, I have some oceanfront property in Kansas to sell you. Such individuals don’t present much of a challenge for psychopaths. They’re usually quickly used up and discarded by them. The second tier of dupes consists of individuals who are lucid only when it comes to the psychopath’s mistreatment of others, not themselves. Wives and girlfriends who are clever enough to see how the psychopath cheats on, lies to, uses and manipulates other people in his life, but vain or blind enough to believe that they’re the only exception to this rule form the bulk of this group. This brings to mind an episode of a popular court show I watched recently. A woman testified on behalf of the integrity and honesty of her boyfriend. As it turns out, he had cheated on his wife with her (and other women as well). But his girlfriend nonetheless staunchly defended his character. She maintained that even though she knew that her lover was a cheater and a liar, because she herself was such a great catch and because they had such a special and unique relationship, he was completely faithful and honest to her. The judge laughed out loud and added, “…that you know of!” Women who are cynical enough to see the psychopath’s mistreatment of others yet gullible enough not to see that’s exactly what he’s doing to them constitute his preferred targets. Such women are not so naive as to present no challenge whatsoever for the psychopath. But they’re definitely blind enough to fall for his manipulation and lies. A psychopath will wrap several such women around his little finger. Those who finally see the psychopath’s mistreatment as a sign of his malicious and corrupt nature occupy the third rung of the hierarchy. They’re usually women who have been burned so badly by the psychopath that they don’t wish to put their hands into the fire again. Categories: bad men, cat and mouse games, charismatic psychopaths, Charismatic Psychopaths: Mark Hacking and Neil Entwistle, Claudia Moscovici, confusing relationships, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dating, deception, denial, devalue and discard, domestic abuse, domestic violence, Dracula, emotional abuse, emotional predators, emotional vampires, evil, faces of evil, Hervey Cleckley, how to recognize a psychopath, insincerity, Jekyll and Hyde Personalities, Martha Stout, mental health, narcissism, Neatorama's Bitlit, Neil Entwistle, personality disorders, psychology, psychopath, psychopathic seducer, psychopathic seduction, psychopaths and emotion, Psychopaths: The Real-Life Vampires, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathy symptoms, psychopathy traits, psychopathyawareness, Robert Hare, sex addict, sexual addiction, social predators, sociopath, the psychopath's emotions, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel, The sociopath next door, toxic relationships, vampires, victim, victim profile, what is a psychopath, why psychopaths are evil, Without conscience, Women who love psychopaths . Tags: bad men, Bitlit, Claudia Moscovici, contempt, controlling men, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dangerous relationships, dating bad men, dating dangerous men, domestic violence, dominance bonds, emotional abuse, emotional predators, emotional vampires, hatred, Hervey Cleckley, how a psychopath sucks the life out of you, narcissism, Neatorama's Bitlit, pathological lying, personality disorders, psychology, psychopathic seduction, psychopaths, psychopathy awareness, psychopathyawareness, social predator, social predators, sociopath, sociopathy, superiority complex, The Mask of Sanity, the psychopath's emotions, The Psychopath's Emotions: What Does He Feel?, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel, The Seducer: A Novel about Psychopathic Seduction, toxic relationships, Without conscience . Author: psychopathyawareness . Comments: 16 Comments See no Evil: Why is there so little Psychopathy Awareness? It seems like people tend to research psychopathy and other personality disorders after they’ve been burned. I have decided to repost an entry from last year that examines some of the reasons why there is so little psychopathy awareness in the general public. Ideally, this information can reach the general public, so people can spot the symptoms of dangerous personality disorders before they get harmed. Perhaps because they’re so dangerous and destructive—the closest approximation to metaphysical evil that human beings can embody–the general public has a morbid fascination with psychopaths. We see them featured frequently on the news. The media seems to be intrigued by men like Scott Peterson and Neil Entwistle, who remorselessly murder their wives so that they can fool around more easily with other women. The public eats up this sordid information. True crime books about psychopathic killers tend to be best sellers. Similarly, biographical works about Hitler and Stalin continue to sell well. Yet, paradoxically, as fascinated as the general public may be with psychopaths and their evil deeds, they’re far less interested in what makes these people tick and how to recognize and avoid them in real life. As mentioned, there are a few highly informative studies of psychopathy, some of which–Stout’s The sociopath next door, Babiak and Hare’s Snakes in Suits and Brown MA’s The women who love psychopaths–are written for a general audience. These books describe clearly and without unnecessary jargon the psychology of evil individuals. Unfortunately, however, such informative works tend to be less popular than the dramatic news coverage of psychopathic killers or the horror stories we read in true crime and thrillers. Why so? The first answer I’ll offer is in the form of an analogy. When I (and probably most other people too) shop for a car, I don’t need someone to explain to me in great detail the mechanics behind how the car functions. I may read Consumer Reports online to see how the car’s rated in various relevant categories, such as overall quality, safety and gas mileage. Then I look at it in person, to see if I like it and if it’s the right size to suit my family’s needs. In other words, a superficial knowledge of the car suffices for me. That’s how most people feel about the psychopaths featured on the news, in history or true crime books and in the movies. They grasp the phenomenon superficially: that evil people exist and do horrible things to others. But they don’t feel like they need to understand these people on a deeper psychological level. Which brings me to my second reason. We tend to view psychopaths as a form of titillating, if morbid, entertainment. We may disapprove of their horrific crimes, but their capacity for evil fascinates us. Third, and perhaps most importantly, we hold psychopaths at arm’s length, so to speak, in our own minds. I can’t even count how many times I’ve heard people interviewed on the news about a violent murder say that they can’t believe it happened to their families or in their neighborhood. We believe that the great misfortune of being the victim of a psychopathic killer, rapist, conman, spouse or lover only befalls others. Somehow, we assume that our families and we are immune to such terrible things happening to us. Perhaps we believe that we’re too wise, too well educated and live in too good of a neighborhood to fall into the hands of social predators. If you think about it rationally, however, you come to realize that this belief rests upon an illusion. It may be true that you and your loved ones are not statistically likely to fall prey to a psychopathic serial killer. Experts estimate that there are only about 50 to 100 serial killers circulating in the country at any given moment. It’s therefore rational not to live your life in the fear that you’ll be attacked by one of them. But it’s not statistically likely that you’ll avoid any intimate involvement with a psychopath for the rest of your life. As mentioned, psychopaths constitute roughly 4 percent of the population. This is significant, given the number of lives they touch and the kind of damage they can inflict. Psychopaths are exceedingly sociable, highly promiscuous, have many children, move from location to location and, generally speaking, they get around. Their malady is technically called “antisocial personality disorder” not “asocial personality disorder.” An asocial person avoids human contact. An antisocial person, on the contrary, seeks others in order to use, con, deceive, manipulate, betray and ultimately destroy them. That’s what psychopaths do. They feed, like parasites, upon our lives. They live for the thrill of damaging healthier, more productive and more caring human beings. Statistically speaking, there are decent chances that you have a psychopath in your extended family. There are even better odds that at some point you ran across one or will encounter one in your life. Perhaps it was a boyfriend who seemed perfect at first but turned out to be an abusive sex addict. It may be a difficult boss who makes work unbearable for his employees. Or maybe it was a manipulative professor who became a minor despot in the department. Perhaps it was a teacher who got too chummy with his students and even seduced some of them. Or perhaps it was a friend who appeared to be kind and loving, only to repeatedly backstab you. Maybe it was a conartist who took your elderly mother’s life savings, or a portion of her hard-earned money, and vanished into thin air. Moreover, any psychopath can cause you physical harm and endanger your life. It doesn’t have to be one predisposed to rape and murder. Scott Peterson and Neil Entwistle were not sadistic serial killers. They were your garden variety charismatic psychopaths who found marriage a bit too inconvenient and incompatible with the new, wilder paths they wanted to pursue in life. Their incapacity to regard others as fellow human beings renders all psychopaths extremely dangerous. Since empathy, moral principles and the capacity to love don’t play a role in any psychopath’s decision-making process, the transition from sub-criminal to criminal psychopath can be fluid and unpredictable. Just about any psychopath could easily engage in violent behavior. My main point here is the following: learning about psychopathy is not a matter of technical psychology research or of abstract theories that are largely irrelevant to the general public. This information is highly pertinent to all of us. It’s far more useful than learning all the technical details about how your car works, to return to the analogy I offered earlier. You will never need to rebuild your car from scratch. At most, you may need to learn how to change a spare tire. But it’s likely that you’ll need to defend yourself, at least emotionally and psychologically, from a psychopath who touches your life and aims to undermine your wellbeing. A basic knowledge of psychopathy can save you years of heartache at the hands of a spouse or lover whom you can never please, who never stops lying and cheating on you and who keeps you dangling on the hook. It can spare you a lifetime of struggles to save an incorrigibly bad child from his or her own misdeeds. It can help you avoid being scammed by con artists who are great at their game. It can give you the strength to move on from a job where your boss keeps everyone in terror by constantly oscillating between sugar-sweetness and abuse. Obviously, such knowledge can’t protect you from all harm caused by evil individuals. Even if you’re informed about psychopathy, you may still have the misfortune of becoming the victim of a random crime or of being part of a society ruled by a psychopathic dictator. But at least a basic knowledge of psychopathy can help those of us who are fortunate enough to live in free societies determine that which lies largely within our control: whom we choose to associate with and whom we choose to avoid or leave. It can help us recognize the symptoms of this dangerous personality disorder so that we don’t invite a bad person into our lives with open arms. It can give us the strength to end a toxic relationship with an emotional predator for good, once his disorder becomes obvious to us. In other words, knowledge about psychopathy constitutes the best defense that the general public, not just those who have been personally harmed, can have against evil human beings: to avoid them whenever possible and to escape them whenever we become ensnared into their webs. Needless to say, even those of us who become well informed about psychopathy won’t be qualified to clinically diagnose them, unless we acquire professional training in this domain. But we can become capable of recognizing them well enough in real life to want to get away from them. For all practical purposes, that’s what matters most. Categories: charismatic psychopaths, Claudia Moscovici, Dangerous Liaisons, finding out about psychopaths before being burned, information about personality disorders, information psychopathy, personality disorders information, psychopath, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathy information, psychopathyawareness, Robert Hare, See no Evil: Why is there so Little Psychopathy Awareness, serial killers, social predators, sociopath, sociopathy, The sociopath next door, what is a psychopath, Why is there so little Psychopathy Awareness? . Tags: Claudia Moscovici, Dangerous Liaisons, domestic violence, emotional abuse, evil, finding out about psychopaths before being burned, information about personality disorders, information about psychopathy, information psychopathy, personality disorders, personality disorders information, psychology, psychopath, psychopathic seduction, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathy information, psychopathyawareness, Robert Hare, See no Evil: Why is there so Little Psychopathy Awareness, social predator, social predators, sociopath, sociopaths, sociopathy, The Mask of Sanity, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel, The Seducer: A Novel about Psychopathic Seduction, The sociopath next door, toxic relationships, Why is there so little Psychopathy Awareness?, Without conscience . Author: psychopathyawareness . Comments: 90 Comments Social Predators: With Friends Like These Who Needs Enemies? Sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction. Consider the following true story, which sounds so fantastic that it could have been lifted off the pages of an Agatha Christie mystery. One October evening 1998, a despondent Englishman named John Allan rushes into the hotel lobby of the New Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor, Egypt. He appears to be very distressed. He announces in a panic-stricken voice that his wife is dying in their hotel room. Pamela Black, a guest who happens to be trained in administering first aid, goes with him to try to help his wife. She finds Cheryl Lewis sprawled out naked on the bed. A ring of sweat surrounds her limp body. She’s also frothing at the mouth. Unwilling to risk her own life for a stranger, Black tells Allan that she’ll instruct him on how to give his dying wife mouth-to-mouth. Strangely, the man refuses to help. He paces back and forth by the foot of the bed while his partner is dying. To make matters worse, the doctor called to the scene also refuses to aid the sick woman, claiming that she’s a foreigner. The hospital staff can’t save her either. Cheryl Lewis, a seemingly healthy woman, expires at the age of 43. The Egyptian doctors declared in their report that Cheryl Lewis died of natural causes. But in England detectives decided to investigate the matter further. John Allan’s bizarre behavior aroused their suspicion. Only days after his partner’s death, he kept company with prostitutes. Weeks later, he courted Jennifer Hughes, one of Cheryl’s close friends. He flattered her, cooked for her, pampered her and made her feel special, just as he had his previous girlfriend. Like Cheryl, she too believed that she had finally found her soulmate. However, when Jennifer refused to move in with him in a church where, eerily enough, his previous lover was supposed to be buried, Allan turned on her. That day Jennifer ended up sick. She was hospitalized for severe nausea and stomach cramps. The cause of her illness turned out to be cyanide poisoning. Police discovered large doses of cyanide in Cheryl’s car. During the trial it came to light that Allan had used cyanide to kill off his butterfly collection. Detective Superintendent Dave Smith, who investigated Cheryl Lewis’s homicide, concluded that John Allan had poisoned his girlfriends. Yet both women had been very enamored with him, considered him to be their life partner and trusted him fully. “He opens car doors for them, has their drinks when they come home, cooks their meals and just pampers them,” Detective Smith explained Allan’s magnetic pull on women. Those who had not fallen victim to Allan’s seduction skills, however, saw another, more menacing, side of him. Close friends of Cheryl have described him as a “first-rate parasite” and “pure evil.” Eric Lewis, Cheryl’s father, stated in an interview following John Allan’s conviction for the murder of his daughter that Allan was “a confessed liar, a confessed forger. He’s extremely devious. He’s a skillful manipulator and a very, very dangerous man.” Lewis admitted that he never liked Allan. He didn’t see what his daughter, who was wealthy, successful and attractive, ever saw in him. Yet before the misfortunate turn of events, even he couldn’t predict just how dangerous John Allan would be. On the surface, Allan’s motive for killing Cheryl Lewis, his companion of seven years, appeared to be money. Police discovered that he had forged part of her will, declaring himself as the main beneficiary of her $690,000 estate. But this motive doesn’t even begin to explain the sordid mind games he played with women. It doesn’t quite capture the lies he told his girlfriend when he claimed to be involved in illegal arms deals in the Middle East and pursued by terrorists. It doesn’t fully explain why he tried to extort money from Cheryl for a topaz ring her mother had given her, demanding more than $3000 for its return. Later, his DNA was found on the stamp placed on the anonymous letter sent by the blackmailer. It also doesn’t explain why he attempted to shoot his previous wife, Sima, the mother of his three children. And it doesn’t explain why he asked his newest girlfriend to live in the church where Cheryl’s body was supposed to be buried. In other words, no rational explanation or comprehensible motive can even begin to explain this dangerous seducer’s severe personality disorder–psychopathy–which led him to pathological lying, malicious manipulation, sexual perversion, theft, blackmail and eventually the cold-blooded murder of the woman he called the love of his life. Not all sociopaths kill, of course. Few do. But they all hide their evil designs, mask their exploitative nature and withhold their real malicious motives from us. That is how they lure us; that is how they use us; that is how they also aim to destroy us, if not physically, then at the very least emotionally. The luring phase is perhaps the most sadistic of all because it is their best effort at disguise. The more they act like they love and desire us; the more effort they put into deceiving and seducing us, the lower we will sink when the fraudulent relationship inevitably falls apart. Let me now offer a second, more poignant, example. I remember many years ago being horrified when I read in the news about the rapes of Bosnian women by ethnically Serbian men. What troubled me most was a true story about a Serbian soldier who “saved” a Bosnian girl from gang rape by fellow Serbs. He removed her from the dangerous situation, fed her, protected her and talked to her reassuringly and tenderly for several days. Once he secured her trust, gratitude and devotion, he raped and killed her himself. Afterwards, he boasted about his exploits on the international news. This degree of psychological sadism exceeds that of the brutes who raped and killed women without initially faking niceness and caring. What he did to her was even more insidious, duplicitous and perverse. This backstabbing of trusting and loving victims makes psychopaths so calculated, dangerous and predatory. Evil is the word that comes to mind to best describe them and their diabolical actions. If you’ve been involved with a with a psychopath, you have to wonder: with friends like these who needs enemies? Categories: Cheryl Lewis, Claudia Moscovici, Death on the Nile, John Allan, murder, psychopathic seduction, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathyawareness, serial killers, social predators, sociopath, sociopathy, The Mask of Sanity, The sociopath next door . Tags: Bitlit, Claudia Moscovici, Death on the Nile, John Allan, murder, Neatorama's Bitlit, psychopath, psychopathic seduction, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathyawareness Cheryl Lewis, serial killer, social predators, Social Predators: With Friends Like These Who Needs Enemies?, sociopath, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel, The Seducer: A Novel about Psychopathic Seduction, With Friends Like These Who Needs Enemies? . Author: psychopathyawareness . Comments: 184 Comments Almost everyone involved with a psychopath goes through a phase (and form) of denial. It’s very tough to accept the sad reality that the person who claimed to be your best friend or the love of your life is actually a backstabbing snake whose sole purpose in life is humiliating and dominating those around him. Rather than confront this reality, some victims go into denial entirely. They aren’t ready to accept any part of the truth, which, when suppressed, often surfaces in anxiety, projection and nightmares. At some point, however, the evidence of a highly disturbed personality shows through, especially once the psychopath is no longer invested in a given victim and thus no longer makes a significant effort to keep his mask on. Then total denial is no longer possible. The floodgates of reality suddenly burst open and a whole slew of inconsistencies, downright lies, manipulations, criticism and emotional abuse flows through to the surface of our consciousness. However, even then it’s difficult to absorb such painful information all at once. Our heart still yearns for what we have been persuaded, during the luring phase, was our one true love. Our minds are still filled with memories of the so-called good times with the psychopath. Yet, the truth about the infidelities, the constant deception, the manipulation and the backstabbing can no longer be denied. We can’t undo everything we learned about the psychopath; we cannot return to the point of original innocence, of total blindness. The result is a contradictory experience: a kind of internal battle between clinging to denial and accepting the truth. Cognitive dissonance is a painful incredulity marked by this inner contradiction in the victim’s attitude towards the victimizer. In 1984, perhaps the best novel about brainwashing that occurs in totalitarian regimes, George Orwell coined his own term for this inner contradiction: he called it doublethink. Doublethink is not logical, but it is a common defense mechanism for coping with deception, domination and abuse. Victims engage in doublethink, or cognitive dissonance, in a partly subconscious attempt to reconcile the contradictory claims and behavior of the disordered individuals who have taken over their lives. The denial itself can take several forms. It can manifest itself as the continuing idealization of the psychopath during the luring phase of the relationship or it can be shifting the blame for what went wrong in the relationship from him, the culprit, to ourselves, or to other victims. In fact, the easiest solution is to blame neither oneself nor the psychopath, but other victims. How often have you encountered the phenomenon where people who have partners who cheat on them lash out at the other women (or men) instead of holding their partners accountable for their actions? It’s far easier to blame someone you’re not emotionally invested in than someone you love, particularly if you still cling to that person or relationship. Other victims project the blame back unto themselves. They accept the psychopath’s projection of blame and begin questioning themselves: what did I do wrong, to drive him away? What was lacking in me that he was so negative or unhappy in the relationship? Was I not smart enough, virtuous enough, hard-working enough, beautiful enough, sexy enough, attentive enough, submissive enough etc. When one experiences cognitive dissonance, the rational knowledge about psychopathy doesn’t fully sink in on an emotional level. Consequently, the victim moves constantly back and forth between the idealized fantasy and the pathetic reality of the psychopath. This is a very confusing process and an emotionally draining one as well. Initially, when you’re the one being idealized by him, the fantasy is that a psychopath can love you and that he is committed to you and respects you. Then, once you’ve been devalued and/or discarded, the fantasy remains that he is capable of loving others, just not you. That you in particular weren’t right for him, but others can be. This is the fantasy that the psychopath tries to convince every victim once they enter the devalue phase. Psychopaths truly believe this because they never see anything wrong with themselves or their behavior, so if they’re no longer excited by a person, they conclude it must be her (or his) fault; that she (or he) is deficient. Because you put up with emotional abuse from the psychopath you were with and recently been through the devaluation phase–in fact, for you it was long and drawn-out–you have absorbed this particular fantasy despite everything you know about psychopaths’ incapacity to love or even care about others. But with time and no contact, the rational knowledge and the emotional will merge, and this last bit of illusion about the psychopath will be dissolved. Cognitive dissonance is part and parcel of being the victim of a personality disordered individual. It doesn’t occur in healthy relationships for several reasons: 1) healthy individuals may have good and bad parts of their personalities, but they don’t have a Jekyll and Hyde personality; a mask of sanity that hides an essentially malicious and destructive self. In a healthy relationship, there’s a certain transparency: basically, what you see is what you get. People are what they seem to be, flaws and all. 2) healthy relationships aren’t based on emotional abuse, domination and a mountain of deliberate lies and manipulation 3) healthy relationships don’t end abruptly, as if they never even happened because normal people can’t detach so quickly from deeper relationships 4) conversely, however, once healthy relationships end, both parties accept that and move on. There is no stalking and cyberstalking, which are the signs of a disordered person’s inability to detach from a dominance bond: a pathetic attempt at reassertion of power and control over a relationship that’s over for good Cognitive dissonance happens in those cases where there’s an unbridgeable contradiction between a dire reality and an increasingly implausible fantasy which, once fully revealed, would be so painful to accept, that you’d rather cling to parts of the fantasy than confront that sad reality and move on. Relatedly, cognitive dissonance is also a sign that the psychopath still has a form of power over you: that his distorted standards still have a place in your brain. That even though you may reject him on some level, on another his opinions still matter to you. Needless to say, they shouldn’t. He is a fraud; his opinions are distorted; his ties to others, even those he claims to “love,” just empty dominance bonds. Rationally, you already know that his opinions and those of his followers should have no place in your own mental landscape. But if emotionally you still care about what he thinks or feels, then you are giving a disordered person too much power over you: another form of cognitive dissonance, perhaps the most dangerous. Cut those imaginary ties and cut the power chords that still tie you to a pathological person, his disordered supporters and their abnormal frame of reference. Nothing good will ever come out of allowing a psychopath and his pathological defenders any place in your heart or mind. The schism between their disordered perspective and your healthy one creates the inner tension that is also called cognitive dissonance. To eliminate this inner tension means to free yourself– body, heart and mind–from the psychopath, his followers and their opinions or standards. What they do, say, think or believe –and the silly mind games they choose to play–simply does not matter. Categories: A Painful Incredulity: Psychopathy and Cognitive Dissonance, a stronger you, bad men, borderline personality disorder, boredom, can psychopaths fall in love, charming predators, cheating, Claudia Moscovici, cognitive dissonance, confusing relationships, cyberpath, cyberstalking, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, deception, denial, devalue and discard, do psychopaths fall in love, domestic abuse, domestic violence, doublethink, emotional abuse, emotional predators, emotional vampires, evil, faces of evil, Hervey Cleckley, how sociopaths think, insincerity, love addiction, manipulative men, manipulative personalities, mental health, moving on, narcissism, narcissistic personality disorder, psychological torture, psychology, psychopath, psychopathic lovers, psychopathic seducer, psychopathic seduction, Psychopathy and Cognitive Dissonance, signs you're dating a loser, social predators, sociopath, sociopathy, stringing women along, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel, The sociopath next door, wishful thinking, Without conscience . Tags: 1984, A Painful Incredulity: Psychopathy and Cognitive Dissonance, Claudia Moscovici, cognitive dissonance, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dangerous relationships, dating bad men, dating dangerous men, deception, denial, denial and cognitive dissonance, domestic violence, doublethink, emotional abuse, George Orwell, going in denial, Hervey Cleckley, Orwell, psychopathy, psychopathy and cognitive dissonance, psychopathy awareness, psychopathyawareness, social predators, sociopath, sociopaths, sociopathy, The Mask of Sanity, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel, The Seducer: A Novel about Psychopathic Seduction, The sociopath next door, toxic relationships, what is a psychopath, Without conscience . Author: psychopathyawareness . Comments: 73 Comments Many of the women who have been romantically involved with psychopaths describe their partners’ appetite for sex, pleasure and power as insatiable. In the beginning of the relationship, the psychopath’s penchant for pleasure may seem exciting, fun and even romantic. You may feel very special to have encountered a man who can’t keep his hands off of you. The problem is that psychopaths usually can’t keep their hands off other women and men too. Once you discover the depth of his deceit and the frequency and quantity of their infidelities, you may ask yourself: Why couldn’t I satisfy him? Why wasn’t I enough? The answer is that nobody and nothing can satisfy a psychopath. There are emotional reasons for this insatiability which I’ve gone over in previous posts. Because they lack emotional depth and the capacity to bond to others, psychopaths don’t care about the harm they inflict. On the contrary, they relish seeing people in pain and the idea that they’ve duped them. This emotional shallowness also leads psychopaths to attach quickly to their targets and detach just as easily. The lack of love, coupled with the propensity to do harm and low impulse control, propels psychopaths to move quickly from one relationship to the next, in a desperate search for the next dupe, the next pawn, the next conquest, the next rush. Clinical studies also reveal that just as psychopaths can’t bond emotionally to others, the pleasures they experience are also shallow. Like the mythical character Tantalus, psychopaths are cursed to consume more drink, more drugs, more sex in a desperate search for an unattainable physical satisfaction. To offer an example from pop culture, the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie featured cursed pirates whose punishment for stealing forbidden treasure was to become insatiable. Drink poured into them as through a bottomless cup without making them any happier or more light-hearted. Food passed through them without being able to really savor it. They indulged their sexual appetites with as many partners as they could find, but none gave them enough stimulation or pleasure. Psychopaths resemble those cursed pirates. The more they indulge their addictions and appetites, the more jaded and dissatisfied they become, the more quantity of sex, partners, positions, drugs or alcohol they need to get their next fix. Every new activity, place and person quickly becomes boring to them. The only constant satisfaction psychopaths experience is the sadistic pleasure to use, hurt and deceive other human beings. So what do psychopaths feel in lieu of emotional attachment and sensual pleasure? Their desire resembles that of a voracious animal fixated on its prey. It’s focused yet impersonal, targeting whomever they perceive as vulnerable out of the herd. To lure some victims some psychopaths may invest a lot of energy and time in appearing loving, caring, nice, committed and faithful. But that mask usually cracks as soon as they believe they got whatever they needed from that particular victim. This is why so many victims describe the sudden 180 degree change in the psychopath’s attitude and behavior as soon as they got married, or as soon as they committed to their relationship. Before giving in, they were exposed to the psychopath’s mask, which he used to lure them. Afterwards, they saw the real psychopath. As strange as it may seem, even something as visceral as the psychopath’s sensuality is as much of an illusion as his capacity to love. Psychopaths can be very sensual and affectionate. But this behavior is learned from victims, not natural to them. They see that women are attracted to and beguiled by romantic words and gestures, so they mimic them: but only for as long as they pursue a target or want something from her. Afterwards, the affection and attention suddenly evaporates. As Skylar, a regular contributor to lovefraud.com eloquently states, a psychopath “is like a ghost, a shadow or a vapor. A complete hallucination created out of DNA. There is nothing real about him, and that is what so hard to take, because you know that there are so many like him: walking shadows. It’s frightening, but we have to lose our innocence at some point.” Our innocence consists of anthropomorphizing psychopaths by attributing normal human motivations or desires to them. Because their brains are wired differently, psychopaths think, feel and behave differently than the vast majority of human beings. For them, desire is a predatory drive which can never be satisfied by anyone and anything for long. Emotion consists of dominance. That, too, is never enough no matter how many victims the psychopath collects or how much he controls and humiliates each one. Communication becomes reduced to a web of manipulation and deceit. As for love, well, that’s the biggest illusion of them all. It’s the fatal trap that slowly sucks the life out of so many victims: often slowly and painfully, until they have no energy left to escape. Categories: antisocial personality disorder, boredom, Claudia Moscovici, confusing relationships, dating, faces of evil, how sociopaths think, leaving the psychopath, Lovefraud, overcoming toxic relationships, psychology, psychopathic seduction, psychopaths and boredom, psychopathy symptoms, psychopathy traits, psychopathyawareness, red flags psychopathy, sadism, saferelationships.com, Sandra L. Brown, sex addict, sociopath, The Mask of Sanity, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel, The sociopath next door, toxic relationships, why psychopaths are insatiable, Without conscience . Tags: Claudia Moscovici, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dangerous relationships, dating, dating bad men, dating dangerous men, deception, domestic violence, emotional abuse, Hervey Cleckley, Lovefraud, Neatorama's Bitlit, personality disorders, Pirates of the Caribbean, psychopathic seduction, psychopaths, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathyawareness, relationships, Robert Hare, Sandra L. Brown, serial cheaters, sex addicts, sexual addiction, Skylar, social predator, sociopath, sociopathy, The Mask of Sanity, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel, The Seducer: A Novel about Psychopathic Seduction, toxic relationships, voracious psychopaths, why can't I satisfy him, why psychopaths are insatiable, why sociopaths are insatiable, Without conscience, Women who love psychopaths . Author: psychopathyawareness . Comments: 10 Comments In The Sociopath Next Door, Martha Stout raises the following excellent question: “If sociopaths are so focused on their goals and so driven to win, then why do they not win all the time?” She goes on to explain that, basically, sociopaths are losers: “For they do not [win or succeed in life]. Instead, most of them are obscure people, and limited to dominating their young children, or a depressed spouse, or perhaps a few employees or coworkers… Having never made much of a mark on the world, the majority are on a downward life course, and by late middle age will be burned out completely. They can rob and torment us temporarily, yes, but they are, in effect, failed lives.” (The Sociopath Next Door, 188) I think that Martha Stout, Robert Hare, Steve Becker and many other experts on sociopathy are right to say that sociopaths play games in life and aim to win. They’re also right to observe that sociopaths generally don’t win because they tend to sabotage every relationship and endeavor by cheating, lying and engaging in other destructive behavior. But all this assumes that psychopaths have the same conception of “winning” that normal people have. It’s true that psychopaths lose in life by normal standards. But, as we well know, psychopaths lack normal standards and perspectives in pretty much all areas of life. They don’t view “winning” in the positive sense of achieving success–be it successful long-term relationships or professional endeavors–but rather as causing others to lose. To offer one noteworthy example, from a normal perspective, Hitler and Stalin are the Big Losers of history. They’re evil dictators who trampled over countless human lives in their march to absolute power. But keep in mind that their goal was not governing strong nations in general, as was arguably Napoleon’s goal. These two totalitarian rulers wanted to achieve total control over several nations: and the entire world, if possible. Total control can’t be achieved without the subjugation, and even the annihilation, of any dissenting voice; without the inculcation of fear; without violence. Sociopaths would rather win by becoming notorious for their crimes rather than famous for their achievements. How else can one describe the motivations of serial killers like Ted Bundy and so many others, who take pride in violent crimes and the ability to get away with them (at least for awhile)? Fortunately for the rest of humanity, most sociopaths aren’t world dictators or serial killers. However, looking at these prominent examples helps us understand better the distorted logic of sociopathy. It’s an “I win if you lose” mentality. In their own warped perspectives, sociopaths win by destroying other human beings and their social institutions, regardless if that enables them to achieve anything in life or lands them straight in prison. Perhaps a sociopath’s only fear is being unmasked as evil, because that exposes the nature of his game. As Harrison Koehli eloquently puts it, “[Psychopaths] hang on to their masks with such conviction because they are predators, and without them, they cannot survive… To let down that facade would reveal that they are little more than unfeeling intraspecies predators that feed off the pain and suffering of others and thus destroy their chances of feeding. Even a psychopath is aware of the consequences of such a revelation. His ‘dreams’ of a boot forever stomping on the face of humanity are crushed.” Unfortunately, for as long as there will be people protecting, colluding with, and covering for sociopaths, these parasites will continue to feed on us, even if it means the destruction of both predator and prey. Sociopaths play a very dangerous game, whereby they win by losing. Categories: antisocial personality disorder, bad men, cat and mouse games, Claudia Moscovici, crime, Dangerous Liaisons, faces of evil, Hitler, how sociopaths think, Lovefraud, Mark Hacking, Martha Stout, Osama bin Laden, personality disorders, powercommunicating.com, psychology, psychopath, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathy symptoms, psychopathyawareness, Robert Hare, Scott Peterson, serial killers, sexual predators, sexual sadists, social predators, sociopath, sociopathy, Steve Becker, The Mask of Sanity, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel, The sociopath next door, why sociopaths win by losing, Without conscience, Women who love psychopaths . Tags: Claudia Moscovici, criminal sociopaths, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dangerous relationships, dating dangerous men, evil dictators, Harrison Koehli, Hervey Cleckley, Hitler, Hitler and Stalin, how sociopaths think, Lovefraud, Martha Stout, Neil Entwistle, personality disorders, psychopath, psychopathic seduction, psychopathy awareness, psychopathyawareness, Robert Hare, Sandra L. Brown, serial killers, social predators, sociopathic dictators, sociopathic rulers, sociopaths play games, Stalin, Steve Becker, The Mask of Sanity, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel about Psychopathic Seduction, The sociopath next door, Why Sociopaths Win By Losing, Without conscience . Author: psychopathyawareness . Comments: 1 Comment Psychopathyawareness's Blog	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1803
__label__wiki	0.56901	0.56901	Managing publications that arise from resource sharing Does the publication arise from resource sharing, and is the award responsible for public access compliance? Award personnel authorship: If your NIH award’s personnel are authors on the publication, then you are responsible for its compliance and reporting. Click here for instructions. Resource sharing only: If your NIH award’s only contribution to this publication is a shared resource, you are not responsible for its compliance with the public access policy. See here for more information on how to track and report these publications. Note, if other NIH awards supported the publication, the authors and those awardees are responsible for its compliance. Awardee Discretion: If award personnel offer advice that does not result in authorship, awardees can decide if their contribution justifies claiming credit for the publication and responsibility for public access compliance or if they should handle the publication as if it arose from resource sharing. See below for examples. Definition of resource sharing: Resources, including materials, equipment and data, obtained through an NIH award, that are used for activities outside of the award. Examples of resource sharing Resource sharing resulting in a paper: Anne publishes a paper using data and documentation shared from Barbara’s NIH award. Barbara’s lab manager offers some helpful advice to Anne’s data analyst, but no award personnel are authors on the paper. Barbara chooses to neither count nor summarize the findings of Anne’s publication in Barbara’s RPPR. Summary of publications arising from resource sharing: “We made our dataset publicly available this reporting period and it has already been cited in at least 6 publications. Some of the highlights of these publications include an analysis of… and the discovery that ….”	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1805
__label__cc	0.677178	0.322822	Restaurant: Impossible New episodes coming Jan. 24, 2020. Track it to get notified! Food Reality Rated: All (TV-G)2011 - Present16 SeasonsReturns: Jan. 24, 2020On: Free Services Hulu Food Network Chef Robert Irvine tries to turn around restaurants across America that are facing an impending demise if things don't improve. With a $10,000 budget and two days to work, Irvine uses his creativity and resourcefulness to turn the eatery's fortunes around.Restaurant: Impossible has one or more episodes streaming with subscription on Hulu, free on Food Network, streaming via tv everywhere with Food Network, and 5 others. It's a food and reality show with 174 episodes over 16 seasons. Restaurant: Impossible has a new episode airing on January 23rd, 2020 (PST). It has a better than average IMDb audience rating of 6.8 (1,581 votes). Where to Watch Restaurant: Impossible All Seasons of Restaurant: Impossible 7 Episodes \| Food Network & Rent or Buy 18 Episodes \| Food Network & Rent or Buy 8 Episodes \| Hulu, Food Network, & Rent or Buy 37 episodes (21%) are available to watch free online (Food Network). 16 episodes (9%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Hulu). 127 episodes (73%) are available to stream on a TV everywhere service (Food Network). 170 episodes (98%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play, Prime Video & 3 others). #2,504 Ranked TV Show #5 Ranked in TV on Food Network #27 Ranked in Food TV Restaurant: Impossible has a better than average IMDb audience rating of 6.8 (1,581 votes). The show is popular with Reelgood users lately. Stream More Movies & Shows Like Restaurant: Impossible Kitchen Nightmares (2007) Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (2004) Next Great Baker (2010) Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (2007) The Great Food Truck Race (2010) Man v. Food (2008) Guy's Grocery Games (2013) Iron Chef Gauntlet (2017) Mystery Diners (2011) Food Network Star (2005) The Next Iron Chef (2007) The F Word (2005) Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back (2018) Beat Bobby Flay (2014) Haunted Gingerbread Showdown (2018) Ace of Cakes (2006) Halloween Baking Championship (2015) Iron Chef Showdown (2017) Chopped (2009) Parking Wars (2008) Feed the Beast (2016) Spring Baking Championship (2015) Iron Chef America (2005) The Real Housewives of Potomac (2016) Cake Wars (2015) MasterChef Junior (2013) Talia in the Kitchen (2015) Salvage Dawgs (2012) Food Network Star Kids (2016) Top Chef (2006) Holiday Baking Championship (2014) Hotel Impossible (2012) Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks (2014) The Great American Baking Show (2015) Kids Baking Championship (2015) Bar Rescue (2011) Big Easy Motors (2016) Behind Bars: Rookie Year (2015) Chopped Junior (2015) Cupcake Wars (2010) Top Chef Masters (2009) Smash (2012) Tanked (2011) Property Brothers (2011) Catch a Contractor (2014) Ridiculous Cakes (2018) The Woodsmen (2015) More Food TV Shows Chef's Table (2015) The Chef Show (2019) The Great British Bake Off (2010) Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2013) Good Eats (1999) Ugly Delicious (2018) Rotten (2018) Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (2005) Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (2019) The Final Table (2018) Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party (2016) Salt Fat Acid Heat (2018) Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories (2016) Restaurant: Impossible (2011) Nailed It! Holiday! (2018) Somebody Feed Phil (2018) Street Food (2019) The Layover (2011) Samurai Gourmet (2017) The Mind of a Chef (2012)	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1807
__label__wiki	0.528916	0.528916	Contact geometry and its application to control Peter Vassiliou Research output: A Conference proceeding or a Chapter in Book › Conference contribution The purpose of this note is to describe a recent generalisation of the well-known Goursat normal form and explore its possible role in control theory. For instance, we give a new, straightforward, general procedure for linearising nonlinear control systems, including time-varying, fully nonlinear systems and we illustrate the method by elementary pedagogical examples. We also exhibit an apparently non-flat control system which can nevertheless be explicitly linearised and therefore posseses an infinite symmetry group Advances in the theory of control, signals and systems with physical modelling : Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences : 407 J Levine, P Mullhaupt Advances in the theory of control, signals and systems with physical modelling - Lausanne, Switzerland Duration: 1 Jan 2009 → 30 Jun 2009 Advances in the theory of control, signals and systems with physical modelling Contact Geometry Nonlinear Control Systems Infinite Groups Fully Nonlinear Symmetry Group Normal Form Time-varying Nonlinear Systems Generalization Vassiliou, P. (2009). Contact geometry and its application to control. In J. Levine, & P. Mullhaupt (Eds.), Advances in the theory of control, signals and systems with physical modelling : Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences : 407 (Vol. 407, pp. 225-237). Germany: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16135-3 Vassiliou, Peter. / Contact geometry and its application to control. Advances in the theory of control, signals and systems with physical modelling : Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences : 407. editor / J Levine ; P Mullhaupt. Vol. 407 Germany : Springer, 2009. pp. 225-237 @inproceedings{b4b9f95b591d4ab39136dfdd078c267a, title = "Contact geometry and its application to control", abstract = "The purpose of this note is to describe a recent generalisation of the well-known Goursat normal form and explore its possible role in control theory. For instance, we give a new, straightforward, general procedure for linearising nonlinear control systems, including time-varying, fully nonlinear systems and we illustrate the method by elementary pedagogical examples. We also exhibit an apparently non-flat control system which can nevertheless be explicitly linearised and therefore posseses an infinite symmetry group", keywords = "differential geometry, control systems, linearization", author = "Peter Vassiliou", doi = "10.1007/978-3-642-16135-3", editor = "J Levine and P Mullhaupt", booktitle = "Advances in the theory of control, signals and systems with physical modelling : Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences : 407", Vassiliou, P 2009, Contact geometry and its application to control. in J Levine & P Mullhaupt (eds), Advances in the theory of control, signals and systems with physical modelling : Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences : 407. vol. 407, Springer, Germany, pp. 225-237, Advances in the theory of control, signals and systems with physical modelling, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1/01/09. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16135-3 Contact geometry and its application to control. / Vassiliou, Peter. Advances in the theory of control, signals and systems with physical modelling : Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences : 407. ed. / J Levine; P Mullhaupt. Vol. 407 Germany : Springer, 2009. p. 225-237. T1 - Contact geometry and its application to control AU - Vassiliou, Peter N2 - The purpose of this note is to describe a recent generalisation of the well-known Goursat normal form and explore its possible role in control theory. For instance, we give a new, straightforward, general procedure for linearising nonlinear control systems, including time-varying, fully nonlinear systems and we illustrate the method by elementary pedagogical examples. We also exhibit an apparently non-flat control system which can nevertheless be explicitly linearised and therefore posseses an infinite symmetry group AB - The purpose of this note is to describe a recent generalisation of the well-known Goursat normal form and explore its possible role in control theory. For instance, we give a new, straightforward, general procedure for linearising nonlinear control systems, including time-varying, fully nonlinear systems and we illustrate the method by elementary pedagogical examples. We also exhibit an apparently non-flat control system which can nevertheless be explicitly linearised and therefore posseses an infinite symmetry group KW - differential geometry KW - control systems KW - linearization U2 - 10.1007/978-3-642-16135-3 DO - 10.1007/978-3-642-16135-3 BT - Advances in the theory of control, signals and systems with physical modelling : Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences : 407 A2 - Levine, J A2 - Mullhaupt, P CY - Germany Vassiliou P. Contact geometry and its application to control. In Levine J, Mullhaupt P, editors, Advances in the theory of control, signals and systems with physical modelling : Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences : 407. Vol. 407. Germany: Springer. 2009. p. 225-237 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16135-3	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1817
__label__wiki	0.910024	0.910024	Amazon infuses Rs 150 crore in payments business The authorized share capital of Amazon’s payments arm in India, Amazon Online Distribution Services (AODS), has been increased to Rs 400 crore from Rs 69 crore. The company has also received capital infusion of Rs 150 crore, documents filed last month with the regulatory authority pointed out.Digbijay Mishra \| TNN \| January 11, 2017, 08:05 IST BENGALURU: In an indication of Amazon’s desire to build a bigger payments business in India, the authorized share capital of Amazon’s payments arm in the country, Amazon Online Distribution Services (AODS), has been increased to Rs 400 crore from Rs 69 crore. The company has also received capital infusion of Rs 150 crore, documents filed last month with the regulatory authority pointed out. The infusion was done in September last year. Increasing the authorized share capital means a higher number of stocks can be issued to raise funds after shareholder approval. Amazon acquired payment gateway firm Emvantage in February last year, its first acquisition in India. Amazon rival Flipkart launched its wallet called PhonePe early last year. Flipkart is projecting it as a major business vertical. Amazon, via AODS, had also applied for a semi-closed wallet license with the RBI last year. An email to Amazon on the capital infusion did not elicit any response. Amazon India had in September 2015 started offering payments and logistics services, allowing merchants to sell through their own websites using “Pay With Amazon”. Former Citibanker Sriraman Jagannathan was hired last year for the payments business. According to a study by Google and consulting firm BCG, the payments market in India is expected to swell to $500 billion by 2020. Amazon Seller Services, which runs the core commerce business of Amazon India, has been aggressively investing in India. The company received over Rs 7,000 crore last year. Major e-commerce companies have all ventured into the payments business. Snapdeal acquired Freecharge in April 2015. Tags : E-commerce, E-tailing, SnapDeal, Google, Flipkart, Amazon India, Amazon	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1819
__label__wiki	0.535162	0.535162	Welcome to the Lian Xi District People's government official website Evolution of History Located in the north of Jiangxi Province, and south side of the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, Lianxi District enjoys a good geographic location and abundant natural conditions, subordinated to Jiujiang City , administrating 5 townships, 2 counties and 2 sub-districts, taking up an area of 369.8 km2 (the specific area remains settlement), with a population of 240,000, which was called “key town on Beijing-kowloon railway, and pearl on the Bohu Lake”. It borders Boyang Lake, the domestic largest freshwater lake, in the east, Yangtze River in the North, Nanchang and Jiujiang Industrial Corridor in the west and tourist attraction Lushan in the south. Suffering magma and glacier in geologic history, Lianxi has various kind of landforms and magnificent mountains. Located in the moist climate area which is between mid-subtropical area and northern subtropics, Lianxi has sufficient illumination moderate climate, distinctive seasons and few climatic disasters, which are suitable for agriculture, forest, animal husbandry and fishery development. Lianxi District has a profound history and the ancestors had been lived here since the last period of Neolithic It was called Jinzhou and Yangzhouyu in the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. In the Spring and Autumn Period, it bordered Wu in the east and Chu in the west, therefore it was called “the head of Wu and tail of Chu”. In Warring State Period, Lianxi first belonged to Shu, then Yue, and last Southern Chu. In 26th year of Shihuang (221BC), Qin Dynasty was divided into 36 counties, and Lianxi was under the jurisdiction of Jiujiang Prefecture. In the 1st year of Gaozu in Han Dynasty(206BC), it was administered by Jiujiang Prefecture, Jiujiang Kingdom. In the 4th year of Gaozu, (203BC), Jiujiang Prefecture was restructured to Huainan Kingdom. In the 6th year of Gaozu (200BC), Chaisang County was set in Yuzhang County, Huainan Kingdom, and it was under the jurisdiction of Chaisang. In 1st year of , Jianguo, in Wangmang’s Dynasty (9AD), Yuzhang was renamed as Jiujiang County, and Chaisang was renamed as Jiujiangting, and it was under the jurisdiction of Jiujiangting, then followed the former name in the Eastern Han Dynasty. During the three Kingdoms Period, in 2nd year of Huangchu (221AD), Sunquan Emperor of Wu, set Wuchang Prefecture which administer Chaisang. In the 1st year of Yuankang in Jin Dynasty (291AD), the Emperor integrated 7 prefectures from Yanzhou, including Yuzhang, Boyang, Luling, Linchuan, Nankang,Jianan and Jinan, and 3 prefectures from Jinzhou, including Wuchang, Guiyang and Ancheng, into Jiangzhou which administering Chaisang County. In the 1st year of Yongxing (412AD), Xunyang, from Lujiang, and Chaisang, from Wuchang, were combined into Xunyang Prefecture, belonged to Jiangzhou.in the 8th year of Yixi (412AD), Xunyang County was emerged with Chaisang County. In the 2nd year of Taiqing in Southern Dynasties (548AD),Runan County was divided from Chaisang County, and both counties were subordinated to Jiangzhou. In 9th year of Kaihuang in Sui Dynasty (589AD), Xunyang Prefecture,Chaisang County and Runan County were abolished, and Xunyang County was set, which was subordinated to Jiangzhou. In 18th year of Kaihuang (606AD), it was renamed as Pengli County, subordinating to Jiangzhou. In the 3rd year of Daye (607AD), Jiangzhou was reconstructed to Jiujiang Prefecture, and Pengli County was renamed as Pencheng County, subordinating to Lijiang Prefecture. In 4th year of Wude in the Tang Dynasty (621AD), the government abolished prefectures and re-set Zhou, and Pencheng County was changed to Xunyang County, subordinating to Jiangzhou. In the 8th year of Wude (628AD), Pencheng County was merged to Xunyang County. In 1st year of Tianbao (742AD), Jiangzhou was reconstructed to Xunyang Prefecture, administering Xunyang County. In 939AD, Xunyang County was renamed as Dehua County. In 978AD, Xingzi County was apart from Dehua County. Lianxi belonged to both counties. In 1361AD, Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, took over Jiangzhou, and renamed it to Jiujiangfu administering Dehua County. Nankang Province was replaced by Ningxifu which administering Xingzi County. Lianxi was divided into two part, one was subordinate to Dehua County and the other to Xingzi County. 9th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1376AD), Xiningfu was renamed as Nankangfu. In the 3rd year of the Republic of China (1914AD), to avoid duplication name which in Fujian and Sichuan, the government renamed Dehua as Jiujiang County. The local administration was classified to three levels, including province, Dao and county, so Lianxi was subordinated to Jiujiang County and Xingzi County, Xunyang Dao, Jiangxi Province, and abolished in 15th year of the Republic of China (1926AD). After the establishment of the New China, Jiujiang City was set based on Xunyang Township, Jiujiang County, Lushan Authority was established in Lushan. Lianxi was first subordinated to Jiujiang County and Xingzi County, then to Jiujiang County and Lushan Authority. In 1980 March, Jiujiang City was updated to provincially administrated municipality. In May, it established Xunyang District in the urban, develop district in the suburb, and Lushan District in Lushan. 6 communes of Jiujiang City, including Gongnongbing, Qianjin, Xingang, Daqiao, Zhouling and Shuichan, and 5 communes of Lushan Authority, including Hongqi, Xiangyang, Denglu, Dongfeng and Gaolong, were put under the city’s suburb. In 1983 July, the municipally affiliated county system was implemented. In 1984 May, to improve Lushan administrative system, Lushan District was repealed, and Lushan Scenic Spot Authority was established. In the August, the suburb was renamed as Lushan District. On April 8th, 2016, Xingzi Country was repealed and Lushan City was established. To avoid duplication name, Lushan District was renamed as Lianxi District. Lianxi District takes up an area of 369.8 km2, administrating 5 towns, 2 townships, and 2 sub-districts. Lihua Town has jurisdiction over 7 village committees (Panwan,Tanfan, Dongcheng, Longmen, Lianhua and Taiping), 8 community resident committees (Benghong, 826, Changhua, Huafeng, Jiangyang, Yijiayuan, Miaozhi and Lianhua). Saiyang Town has jurisdiction over 5 village committees (Tangqiao, Fenghuang, Jinqiao, Saiyang and Donglin), and 1 community resident committee (Saiyang). Gutang Town has jurisdiction over 8 village committees (Cailing, Zhouling, Xiangji, Shahu, Guangqiao, Dengqiao, Gushan and Yanhu) and 2 community resident committee (Huaqian and Gutang). Weijia Town has jurisdiction over 5 village committees (Xingde, Jiyu, Jiuxing, Weijia and Xinhua) and 1 community resident committee (Weijia). Xingang Town has jurisdiction over 12 village committees (Yangjiachang, Guanzhou, Jiangji, Xishan, Honglonggeng, Xingang, Taipingqiao, Wushishan, Zhulin, Fanglan, Changlingkou and Hetang) and 3 community resident committees (Dongsheng, Xingang and Rubber Plant). Gaolong Town has jurisdiction over 5 village committees (Shuanglong, Yinmen, Qingshan, Gushan and Wuxing) and 2 community resident committees (Gaolong, and Lushan Cement Plant). Yujiahe Township has jurisdiction over 7 village committees (Kaitian, Minsheng, Dongguang, Daqiao, Luban, Guoqiao and Shanhu) and 1 community resident committee (Yujiahe). Shili Sub-District has jurisdiction over 2 village committees (Luozishan and Shili) and 24 community resident committees (Shilipu, Dalou, Changhong, Northern Jiangxi Shop, District Government Courtyard, Jiuchai, Nanshan, Chengnan, Dehua, Lianxi, Jiubo, Yibiao, Xinluling, Muxi, Huangtuling, 707 Institute, CTCE5, 713 Plant, Changhe Company, Jiujiang University, training college, plastic plant, 267 Branch and CSC2). Wuli Sub-District has jurisdiction over 4 village committees (Sanlong, Wuli, Bali and Qianjin), and 9 community resident committees (Yikang, Nanhu Community, North Changhong Road, Hetang New Village, Lujialong, Xundong, Yanjialong, Nanhu, and train station). Land resources: total land area in Lianxi District takes up of 824,546.4 acres, including 127102.5 acres of arable land and garden land, 340866.3 acres of forestry land, 186581.4 acres of water area, 150568.2 acres of resident and industrial and mining traffic land and 11522.85 acres of unused land . (According to the Land Resources Survey in 2000) Water resources: 20 larger water systems in the territory, with a total length of 182 km, are originated in Lushan Mountain and its branches, covering a river network density of 0.29 km / km, and having an average annual surface runoff rate of 370 million cubic meters. The groundwater storage was 65.62 million cubic meters, which is in good quality. Water resources exploitation amount reaches to 1.4 million kilowatts. Mineral Resources: Lianxi District has Kaolin reserves of 10 million cubic meters, limestone reserves of 30 million cubic meters, green stone reserves of 15 million cubic meters, yellow sand and river sand reserves of 35 million cubic meters. In addition, pebbles, flag stone, and Sand for construction industry has a reserve of 100 million cubic meters. Biological resources: Lianxi District has 223 varieties of cultivated crops, including the well-known Lushan Yunwu tea, the National Silver Medal winner. The forest coverage rate reaches to 33.2%, and the main vegetation are evergreen broad-leaved forest and deciduous evergreen mixed forest, including 40 kinds of rare plants under state protection, and 30 kinds of wild animals of national priority protection; The breed aquatics is 37,000 acres, including cultivated water of 32,000 acres. It has 104 varieties of animals, including the Chinese sturgeon which is under the first-grade state protection. Native products contain “three specialties in Lushan Mountain” (stone fish, stone chicken and stone agaric), Jiujiang pepper, luohan bean, lettuce and Bamboo. In the year of 2015, centering economy growth, the whole district worked diligently and kept the economy grew steadily. Overall: In 2015, the region's GDP achieved 25.33946 billion yuan, increased by 9.3% over the previous year calculated at comparable prices. The added value of primary industry increased to 4.9393 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 3.9%. The added value of secondary industry increased to 12.97585 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 8.4%; and the added value of the tertiary industry increased to 1,186,968 yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 10.5%. The proportion of the three industries was 1.9: 51.2: 46.8. Agriculture: In 2015, the total agricultural output value of the district achieved 793.95 million yuan, a year-on-year growth of 3.5% calculated at comparable prices, of which agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery and its service industry respectively achieved 297.63 million yuan, 126.28 million yuan, 188.28 million yuan, 170.22 million yuan and 11.54 million yuan, with an increase of 7.7%, 2.4% %, 5.5% and 10.2% respectively. The annual grain sown area was 4355 hectares and the output was 23,448 tons. Grain crops sown took up an area of 3584 hectares, yielded 20706 tons; oil crops sown took up an area of 2750 hectares with a yield of 5206 tons; cotton sown took up an area of 867 hectares with a yield of 1788 tons; vegetable took up an area of2230 hectares, with a yield of 36,687 tons; annual year fruit took up an area of 118 hectares with a yield of 2812 tons. Annual slaughter number of swine reached to 70609 and poultry reached to 625,500. the annual output of meat achieved to 7102 tons, egg 713 tons, milk 301 tons and aquatic products 7510 tons. Industry: in 2015, the district industry achieved 98.7239 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 9.0%, of which 95 annual industrial enterprises above designated achieved added value of 9.557 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 10.2%. The total annual industrial output value of enterprises above designated reached to 43.052 billion yuan, an increase of 12.4%. The non-public owned enterprises achieved a total industrial output value of 41.207 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.9%, accounting for 95.7% of the total output value of the industrial enterprises above designated, contributing 95.66% for the industrial enterprises above designated and driving 11.8 percentage points growth of them. In 2015, the industrial enterprises above designated in this district achieved main business income of 43.691 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.1%; total profit of 1.761 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.2%; and a total tax of profits of 2.855 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.4% Fixed assets investment: In 2015, the district completed fixed assets investment of 25.821 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.3%, ranking first in the city. Industrial investment completed 14.41 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.1%, accounting for 55.8% of total investment. The district completed the park infrastructure and accelerated projects like road network, electricity, water supply network. 29 key urban construction projects were newly established, continued or started, and the city function and taste both upgraded. The urban roads upgrade project was speeded up: extension line of Houbailong Road and Sangjialaowu Road were fully completed; the 3rd Xuefu Road (1st phase), Qinhu Road (South) construction were accelerated; 17 side streets alleys, including Jiubo Community Road, Pump Factory living District Road, Nanshan Lane, Hejia Lane, were comprehensive improved. 924,000 m2 resettlement houses were completed and the rest 639,000 m2 were under construction. Open economy: In 2015, the district actually introduced 38 projects worth of 50 million yuan foreign investment from other cities, of which 29 projects worth of 100 million yuan, and 5 projects worth of 10 billion yuan (Wanda, love, juvenile, Zhongke Xin Star , Tiantai); the actual capital of 9.518 billion yuan, 122%of the annual target, which was an increase of 86.12%. It approved 5 foreign investment projects and contracted foreign investment of USD 87.39 million, and actual utilized foreign capital of USD 120.52 million, an annual target of 104.8% and an increase of 19.7%. The spot exchange was USD 77.5 million and the exchange rate was 64.3%, an increase of 3%. The annual foreign trade export reached to 312 million US dollars, an annual target of 102% and an increase of 6.85%. Service Industry: In 2015, the whole district achieved service industry added value of 11.87 billion yuan, an year-on-year growth of 10.5%, accounting 46.8% of the GDP. The added value of traffic, storage and post industry achieved 3.16 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.4%. wholesale and retail industry achieved 1.96 billion yuan added value, an year-on-year increase of 13.9%; Accommodation and catering industry achieved an added value of 1.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.3%;The financial industry achieved an added value of 530 million yuan, an year-on-year increase of 22.6%; Real estate industry achieved an added value of 1.18 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.8%; Other services achieved an added value of 3.62 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.7%. In 2015, the total retail sales of consumer goods in the district reached to 2.335 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%. Finance and finance: In 2015 the district completed total fiscal revenue of 26.608 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.8%, accounting for 103.7% of the 25.66-billion-yuan budget made in the beginning of the year. It completed local public budget revenue of 16.3638 billion yuan, accounting for 104.4% of the 15.68-billion-yuan budget made in the beginning of the year, a decrease of 0.2% compared to last year. From the perspective collection departments: National Tax completed 10.1532 billion yuan, a 38.5% higher over the previous year accounting for 122.3% of the 830-million-yuan budget; Local Tax completed 13.5512 billion yuan, 6.2% lower over the previous year, accounting for 88.6% of the 15.3 billion-million-yuan budget; the Financial completed 290.36 million yuan, a 79.2% higher over the previous year, accounting for 141.0% of the 206-million-yuan budget; The annual fiscal expenditure reached to 17.0853 billion yuan, 156.23 million yuan more than 1552.2 million yuan in the last year, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%. Public service expenditure was 373.79 million yuan, increasing 48.86 million yuan, with a growth rate of 15.0%; Public security expenditure was 55.78 million yuan, increasing 5.15 million yuan, with a growth rate of 10%; social insurance and employment expenditure was 165.48 million yuan, increasing 43.29 million yuan, with a growth rate of 35.4 %; agriculture, forest, and water conservancy expenditure was 123.76 million yuan, increasing 24.93 million yuan, with a growth rate of 25.2%; communication and transportation expenditure was 256.7 million yuan, increasing 7.02 million yuan, with a growth rate of 37.6%; other expenditure was 257.71 million yuan, increasing 30.66 million yuan, with a growth rate of 13.5%. Note: selected from 2015 National Economic and Social Development Statistical Bulletin in Lushan District (Lushan District has been renamed as Lianxi District) Population and livelihood: in the end of 2015, resident population was 266,600 and the total population reached to 228600, including 137199 non-agricultural population. In 2015, the urban per capita disposable income was 30,689 yuan, an increase of 9.8%; on-post workers per capita annual wage was 48,940 yuan, an increase of 12.0%. Rural per capita disposable income was 15,422 yuan, an increase of 9.7%. Urban and rural resident’s income ratio was 1.99: 1. Social undertaking: the district vigorously promoted technology innovation, declared 6 provincial projects and 11 municipal projects in 2015.The infrastructure in middle and primary schools were constantly improved, and quality-oriented education was integrally enhanced, which passed the national compulsory education basis equalization examine 4 years earlier in the province. Reform of the medical and health sectors was deeply advanced, and new rural cooperative medical system was constantly improved. The district hospital was honored as “best baby-friendly hospital in domestic”. Village song Night in Xingang, won the special award in Top 10 China’s Village Song. Opusculum the call from Discipline Inspection Commission gained silver award in “China Ode” the 6th National Playlet, Opusculum and Folk Art Exhibation. As extensive mass fitness programs vigorously developed, the district successfully held 18th High School Student Track Meet and “Xinxing Glass Fiber Cup” Men’s basketball. New achievements also succeed in double support, people’s armed forces, national religion, overseas Chinese affair, Taiwan affair, office affair, institution preparation, auditing, statistics, earthquake disaster reduction, property management, price, archives, radio and television, legal system, party school, district record, trade union , The Association for Industry and Commerce, aging peple, the elderly sport Association, the elderly Association for Science and Technology, committee for wellbeing of youth, the Communist Youth League, women and children, the Red Cross, charity, and the disabled. Copyright 2016 Lianxi District People's Government All Rights Reserved ICP 36040202000127	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1822
__label__cc	0.706306	0.293694	Three hundred feet up the wall I weighted my toes on dime-sized sandstone edges. I was reminded of my ballet days on pointe — the pain was torturous. The black rubber on my climbing shoes burned my swollen toes in the harsh desert sun. My finger skin was already thin and sweating on the small crimps. I was here again– at the crux– and I needed to focus not on the discomfort, but on the movement: get the left foot up on the small pocket, crimp the tiny edges with all my might, and pounce my left hand to the finishing jug. In January 2019, Heather Weidner, Jeremiah Watt and I walked side by side through the Jordanian Desert towards our objective: Jebel Rum, a 600-meter sandstone wall that juts vertically from the martian landscape. Our path led us just beyond the limits of Wadi Rum and we made the final steps towards the base of the wall. I had a twinge of doubt in my gut; were we ready for the challenge? A few days earlier, a Czech climber that we met recommended that we go check out a route of his called Rock Empire. At the base of the route, we scanned the enormous sandstone face trying to imagine the line the route would take up such a steep piece of rock. There was an awkward silence while we looked at the runout nature of the first pitch; each of us hoping that the other would volunteer to lead. Without hesitation, Heather tied in, racked up and started climbing. She was attentive as she made her way up the pitch hoping Inshallah (god willing) that no holds would break. She carefully floated to the anchor without hesitation or struggle. The next pitch the topo labelled as 5.12c R, and the thought of climbing that hard, high above my protection on such brittle rock made my stomach turn. Trying to be brave, I tentatively engaged the climb, teetered past the technical crux, I stared at the boltless swath of rock above me with no anchor in sight. Using my best “mountain sense” or whatever that means, I followed the path of least resistance, eventually peered around a bulge and saw the anchor, still desperately far away. I slowly committed to the crumbling holds, and gingerly tiptoed through the final sequence to the safety of the anchor. Pitch four was the crux. At 5.13, it had the potential to send us retreating back down the wall with our tails firmly tucked. Once again, without hesitation, Heather quested off onto the blank looking face above. As she crept along, the wall revealed dozens of small one and two finger pockets. This incredible passage of features provided just enough holds to make free climbing possible. Heather’s upward progress slowed to a stop as she reached the crux immediately below the anchor. She shook out and contemplated the sequence for a solid ten minutes and eventually committed to a sequence that had her peeling off the thin holds. After a short rest, Heather sorted out the cryptic beta and climbed to the anchor. As she belayed me up, she shouted encouragement and key beta that allowed me to send the pitch first try! The pitch was no longer a question mark. Heather gave one last effort on the pitch in the encroaching darkness. She came within millimetres of snatching the finish jug, but wasn’t able to see her feet in the fading light and slipped off. We called it a day, rapped back to the ground, and picked our way home through the convoluted streets with a heartwarming escort from some stray dogs. After a rest day of exploring the ancient streets of Petra we commuted back to the Jebel Rum with our usual K-9 escorts in tow. To save time, Heather and I opted to mini traxion the first three pitches on our fixed ropes so that she could have a shot of sending the crux before the sun hit the wall. Our attempt was futile, and as Heather began climbing the temps rose into the high 70s. On the black sandstone, what was already a ridiculously thin pitch of climbing felt nearly impossible. Heather had to completely rethink how she would climb the crux of the pitch, her previous sequence being too friction dependent for the hot day. After a while of trying every sequence imaginable, she found one that might work. I lowered her back to the bottom of the pitch and she fired it off right away, letting out an animalistic banshee scream as she latched the final jug. As she belayed me up, I couldn’t turn off the voice in the back of my head doubting my ability to send in the heat. My toes felt as if they were being broiled in an oven, yet I had to stand on minuscule edges and stuff them into small pockets. As soon as I entered the crux, my doubt became reality, and I melted off the holds, screaming in pain and frustration. The pitch I had done with relative ease a couple of days prior now felt out of the question. With some relentless positivity from Heather, I refined my sequence a little, ignored the self-doubt, lowered down and confidently sent the pitch. Each subsequent pitch, regardless of the grade, had some element of spice to it. Whether it be route-finding, perilous choss, or terrifying runouts. The only 5.10 pitch on the route turned out to be one of the most terrifying leads of my life. Every move felt like climbing an overhanging sandcastle with extremely high consequences should you blow it. Legendary climber Arnaud Petit describes the experience nicely “The sandstone is sometimes more sand than stone… You are obliged to learn to use your whole body so as not to break a hold. It’s more than climbing on your feet.” The closer we got to the summit, fatigue set in, and the more automated our actions became. Climb, haul the bag, belay, off belay, swap the rack, repeat. Every so often we would be lured out of our habitual cycle by the call to prayer playing loudly from the mosque in the village far below. As the evening rolled away, Heather and I found ourselves simul-climbing the final easy pitches to the summit of the formation. We took a moment of reflection from the sandy summit plateau and listened to Salat al-maghrib: the call to prayer just after sunset. Throughout my travels, I’ve spent hundreds of hours sitting in cheap economy seats on aeroplanes and dwelling in the loneliness of being impossibly far from home. I’ve got enough chossy adventure routes in Utah to last me many lifetimes. What’s the point of travelling thousands of miles to seek them elsewhere? Is it the adventure, the culture, and the opportunity to break away from my homogenized life of comfort and amenities? Maybe the reason is bigger than that. It was already mid-morning and we were only on pitch three out of fourteen on Rock Empire, a 1,600-foot sandstone big wall jutting out from the red desert of Wadi Rum, Jordan. The crux pitch, a 13b vertical tech-masterpiece, was sequential, off-balance, and thin. We had worked on this pitch a couple of days earlier in the afternoon shade, and had figured out the beta — hoping of putting it all together in one big push. But today felt different. The direct sun was oppressive and everything felt slick and insecure. This was my last chance to redpoint this pitch — and ultimately the whole route. We were running out of time and I wanted Hayden, to have a chance for success. It was my second attempt of the pitch that day and time slowed as I stared fiercely at the final jug. I lunged for it and let out an animalistic scream. The next thing I knew my left hand had latched the last big hold — YES! I clipped the anchors and put Hayden on belay. I felt confident he’d do it, as he’d flashed this pitch the other day when we were checking it out. However, today was much hotter, and he slipped off the small crimp just before reaching the jug. He screamed in frustration, and we talked a bit as he hung on the rope just below me. “It’s okay, it’s hot today. You’ll do it. You have to try again.” This was a partnership. Minutes earlier he had waited patiently for me to send the crux and I was happy to return the favour. I lowered him back down, he rested only five minutes then tried again. When Hayden got to the anchor after a heroic fight, we were absolutely giddy. There was one more 5.12c pitch then mostly 5.11 and 5.10 to the top. We now knew we had a real chance at sending the hardest wall climb either of us had ever done. A few months prior, when Hayden asked me if I was interested in climbing with him in Wadi Rum, Jordan, I had a rush of excitement mixed with intimidation. I’d climbed quite a few multi-pitch routes before, but they were shorter and much easier than Rock Empire. The routes at Wadi Rum have a reputation for poor rock quality and run-out protection. The closest experience I’d had was climbing long routes in Red Rock Canyon, Nevada. But being merely a stone’s throw from civilization in Las Vegas, it felt only mildly adventurous and overall comfortable. In Jordan, the element of adventure would be on a much grander scale, given it’s in the Middle East in the middle-of-nowhere, and these routes were MUCH bigger than anything I’d done before. Hayden is extremely experienced with multi-pitch climbing. I felt anxious about committing to the trip — I didn’t want to hold him back. I’ve had my fair share of projecting hard single-pitch routes, but questing up big walls is a different game all together. It requires significant stamina — physically and mentally — rope management, reading the rock for the “choss-factor,” and route finding. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to keep up. But multi-pitch climbing is all about being a team player. If you’re not as strong in one element it’s okay. It’s about supporting each other along the way in order to get up the wall. And so there we were, Hayden and I in Wadi Rum having just completed the hardest pitch of the big wall. It was surreal. We knew we could do the rest — we just had to persevere. I started up pitch four — the last hard section — graded 5.12c. We knew this climb had some big run-outs, but I quickly found out this was unlike anything I’d experienced. The pitch only had four bolts in 35 meters! Each time I clipped a bolt I had an overwhelming sense of relief. The climbing wasn’t exceptionally difficult, but the rock quality was variable, which made the run-outs unnerving. I gingerly placed my feet on harder-looking rock and tried to pull down (not out!) on my handholds, decreasing the chance I’d rip off a chunk of rock and take a massive fall. At the last twenty-five feet of unprotected traversing, I over-gripped the small crimps and let out a scream to get my feet up before easier terrain and with an overwhelming sense of relief — I was at the anchor! Hayden and I continued to climb all day, with some exciting 5.11 and 5.10 pitches, and reached the summit just before dark. We hugged and yelled at the top, taking a moment to look out at the Bedouin town below. We began the long way down, rappelling in the dark, and with the soft glow of our headlamps all went quiet. I was exhausted but couldn’t take the smile off my face. The last Call to Prayer of the day emanated from the loudspeaker in the valley below — a magical ending to our big adventure. A small realization came to me on top of Rock Empire. Heather and I had just completed what had been a terrifying goal just a couple days prior. A goal that we could now log in our memories as an irreplaceable shared experience. Before descending, we watched the first stars populate the darkening sky, and as we sat there, I couldn’t help but to be compelled by the distance that one small dream had brought me. From my comfortable life of ease in Salt Lake City, all the way to the summit of Jebel Rum on a starry night in the Jordanian desert. In that moment, I was reminded of the importance of dreams; that they aren’t just ideas to work towards, dreams are needs. Heather Weidner & Hayden Jamieson Miah Watt Featured Kit List Pulse Hoody Lightweight and fast drying, the Pulse Hoody is a versatile technical baselayer, ideal for multi-day climbing and trekking trips. Superflux Hoody Whether you're scaling mountains or exploring hills closer to home our Superflux Hoody is a versatile mid-layer designed for active use. Force SS Tee The Force SS Tee is a next-to-skin technical short sleeve tee, designed for comfort and freshness during active use. Tangent Pants Well suited for indoor climbing and summer cragging, the Tangent Pant is a lightweight stretch cotton pant cut for climbing movement. Women's Cirrus Flex Hoody Worn as either a lightweight outer or warm midlayer, the Women's Cirrus Flex Hoody is incredibly versatile, offering durability, breathability, and freedom of movement for any winter adventure. Flex Leggings The Flex Leggings are great rock leggings for all year use. Women's Pulse LS Zip Lightweight and fast drying, the Women's Pulse LS Zip is a versatile technical base layer, ideal for multi-day climbing and trekking trips. UK Slavery Act	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1824
__label__wiki	0.970231	0.970231	EP Streams Follow Rap Dose On Twitter Follow Rap Dose On Facebook Follow Rap Dose On Instagram Childish Gambino Announces PHAROS Album by PhillyCustoms June 20, 2016 12:46 am Updated July 25, 2017 2:05 am Childish Gambino to release Pharos album Over the weekend Childish Gambino tweeted out a mysterious link to download an app called Pharos. The app had nothing but a countdown initially, but after time ran out it was revealed that Pharos is the name of Childish Gambino’s new album, which is rumored to drop in the coming days. The app confirms a 3-day festival will be hosted by Childish Gambino this September in Joshua Tree, CA. It all happens September 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Childish Gambino will perform new music from his third studio album (codename: Pharos) at the festival which is being dubbed a “full album experience”. Interesting. Tickets will be $99 and don’t forget to bring a tent. Yep, there will be camping. The event is limited capacity and if you want to experience it, download the Childish Gambino app. This exciting news comes just after it was revealed Donald Glover will star in Spider-man: Homecoming. Childish Gambino “Feels Like Summer” (Official Music Video) Childish Gambino returns with another creative visual. This one if for “Feels Like Summer” and features tons of animated celebrity cameos. Watch the video… 1 year ago by PhillyCustoms Childish Gambino “Summer Pack” (EP Stream) As the buzz for This Is America tends to die down and claims of plagiarism arise, Childish Gambino drops off a double dose of… 2 years ago by PhillyCustoms Chance The Rapper Confirms 7-Track Album With Kanye West, Project With Childish Gambino Chance The Rapper hasn’t released an album in two years but today revealed some new material is on the way. While speaking with Peter… 2 years ago by Steve Childish Gambino Dethrones Drake For His First Hot 100 #1 Donald Glover‘s “This Is America” is the number one song in the country and has dethroned Drake’s “Nice For What.” The new Childish Gambino… Childish Gambino “This Is America” (Official Music Video) Donald Glover aka Childish Gamino returns with his new single “This Is America.” The song will appear on his forthcomig album. The actor/rapper hosted… Childish Gambino Announces New Tour With Rae Sremmurd & Vince Staples Childish Gambino is going on tour and for select dates, he’s bringing Rae Sremmurd and Vince Staples. The new series of shows begin on… 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards Performances: Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Rihanna & More Kendrick Lamar, U2 and Dave Chappelle kicked off the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards performances. The trio performed a melody of “XXX”, “LUST”, “DNA” and… 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards Winners: Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, Childish Gambino & More The 60th annual Grammy Awards took place tonight at Madison Square Garden in New York City tonight. Award winners include Childish Gambino for best… Childish Gambino – Redbone (Live On The Tonight Show) Promoting his new album Awaken…My Love, Childish Gambino appeared on The Tonight Show last night for a performance. He rocked the stage singing “Redbone”… Childish Gambino – Awaken, My Love (Album Stream) Childish Gambino drops off his third studio album Awaken, My Love. The project which features eleven with no features and is available for stream,… Childish Gambino – Redbone Childish Gambino liberates “Redbone” from his Awaken, My Love album, due for release December 2nd. Childish Gambino – Me and Your Mama Here is the first musical offering from Childish Gambino‘s “Awaken, My Love” album titled “Me and Your Mama“. Um, it’s different to say the… Childish Gambino Announces “Awaken, My Love” Album An image is making the rounds of a chalkboard with Childish Gambino and “Awaken, My Love” written on it along with a 12/2 release… Childish Gambino, Jhene Aiko & Vince Staples – Waiting For My Moment Music underdogs Childish Gambino, Jhene Aiko and Vince Staples rise to the occasion on a new collaboration from the Creed motion picture soundtrack. Childish Gambino – So Into You (Cover) Showcasing his singing talents, Childish Gambino covers one of his favorite songs, “So Into You” by Tamia. Childish Gambino – Marry You (Cover) Childish Gambino stars in the new movie Magic Mike XXL hitting theaters tomorrow (July 1). The soundtrack is now available for the film and… Future “Perkies” (Produced by Metro Boomin) 2 months ago by PhillyCustoms Debonair Brown “Embrace It” (Official Music Video) A Boogie Wit da Hoodie “Reply” (Feat. Lil Uzi Vert) Future “Last Name” (Feat. Lil Durk) Lil Peep “Everybody’s Everything” (Album Stream) Tory Lanez “Chixtape 5” (Album Stream) Kenny Bear “Dirt On My Dick” Kanye West “Jesus Is King” (Album Stream) Kirill & Jaco “Hublot” (Official Music Video) Lil X “New Kid on the Block” (Album Stream) more of the latest © 2019 RapDose.com New Rap Songs, Music Videos, Hip Hop News and more! Created By PhillyCustoms	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1828
__label__cc	0.539268	0.460732	Review: DEADMEN WALKING: A Deadman’s Cross Novel by Sherrilyn Kenyon DEADMEN WALKING: A Deadman’s Cross Novel by Sherrilyn Kenyon Genre: Fantasy Romance #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon debuts a sweeping new epic saga sure to appeal to the millions of her Dark-Hunter fans Deadmen tell their tales… To catch evil, it takes evil. Enter Devyl Bane–-an ancient dark warlord returned to the human realm as one of the most notorious pirates in the New World. A man of many secrets, Bane makes a pact with Thorn–-an immortal charged with securing the worst creations the ancient gods ever released into our world. Those powers have been imprisoned for eons behind enchanted gates…gates that are beginning to buckle. At Thorn’s behest, Bane takes command of a crew of Deadmen and, together, they are humanity’s last hope to restore the gates and return the damned to their hell realms. But things are never so simple. And one of Bane’s biggest problems is the ship they sail upon. For the Sea Witch isn’t just a vessel, she’s also a woman born of an ancient people he wronged and who in turn wronged him during a centuries long war between their two races–a woman who is also sister to their primary target. Now Marcelina, the Sea Witch, must choose. Either she remains loyal to her evil sister and almost extinct race against Bane and his cause, and watches humanity fall, or she puts faith in an enemy who has already betrayed her. Her people over the totality of humanity–let’s hope Bane can sway her favor. Graphics Credit: Sherrilyn Kenyon. Loved it! DEADMEN WALKING is the first book in Sherrilyn Kenyon’s new historical fantasy romance series, the Deadman’s Cross Series, and it is part of the Dark-Hunter World. The Deadmen are brought back by Thorn to protect humanity from demons and they’re given a second chance to earn redemption. Bane leads the crew of Deadmen. This series is different from the Dark-Hunter series. I thought it was more fantasy than romance. There is a romance between Bane and Marcelina but I didn’t think it was the focus of the book. I really enjoyed it and I recommend it for Dark-Hunter fans even if you don’t normally enjoy the Fantasy genre. The Deadman’s Cross Series is an exciting new fantasy world and it was action packed. I couldn’t put it down and can’t wait for the next book. I’m already in love with Deadmen! Review copy provided by TOR in exchange for an honest review. ✦Read an Excerpt: http://www.sherrilynkenyon.com/book/deadmen-walking/#bookExcerpt-2 ✦Check out our favorite Sherrilyn Kenyon Quotes: http://wp.me/p3d0RZ-iI ✦You can also check out an interview we did with Sherrilyn Kenyon Here: http://wp.me/p3d0RZ-1n4 *Interview was originally posted June 20, 2014 with our “Born of Fury” review. It includes some info about “Son of No One.” ✦Order Coloring Books HERE Kindle \| Amazon Hardback The #1 New York Times bestselling author, Sherrilyn Kenyon, who is proud of her mixed Cherokee heritage, lives a life of extraordinary danger… as does any woman with three sons, a husband, a menagerie of pets and a collection of swords that all of the above have a major fixation with. But when not running interference (or dashing off to the emergency room), she’s found chained to her computer where she likes to play with all her imaginary friends. With more than twenty-five million copies of her books in print, in over one hundred countries, she certainly has a lot of friends to play with too. In the last few years, she has placed more than 65 novels on the New York Times list in all formats including manga. This extraordinary bestseller continues to top every genre she writes. Her current series include: The Dark-Hunters, The League, and Chronicles of Nick. Her Lords of Avalon novels have been adapted by Marvel, her Dark-Hunter novels are a New York Times bestselling manga published by St. Martins. and the Chronicles of Nick manga are published by Yen Press. Chronicles and Nick and Dark-Hunter are soon to be a major motion picture and the Dark-Hunters are currently being developed as a television series. Social Media Links: Website \| Facebook \| Twitter \| Pinterest \| YouTube Posted by Reading In Pajamas in 5 Stars, Cori's Reviews, Fantasy Fiction, paranormal romance, romance reviews, Sci-Fi Fantasy, Teasers Tagged: Deadman's Cross Series by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Deadmen Waking by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Deadmen Walking, Dedman's Cross, Sherrilyn Kenyon, TOR Spotlight, Review, Guest Post & Giveaway: DATING THE UNDEAD by Juliet Lyons →	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1832
__label__cc	0.541584	0.458416	GUIDELINES FOR MOBILIZING CHINESE BI-VOCATIONAL KINGDOM WORKERS FOR THE NEWLY OPENING BELT ROAD COUNTRIES R. Strickler D.Min. The project set out to discover guidelines for how to best prepare Chinese bi-vocational Kingdom Workers to work and live missionally wherever God leads them. Of particular interest to the emerging missions candidates from China are Muslim peoples spread throughout the countries aligned with the emerging Belt Road Initiative. A review of international marketplace ministry and business as mission practices was undertaken. The project research focuses on a sample of existing Chinese-led Business as Mission enterprises. Interviews were conducted with ten different Chinese executives or owners, located in seven different countries, including China proper. Information on why companies chose to locate in an area and how the leaders were prepared, was elicited. Some correlation was made as to how the Chinese BAM companies conduct their businesses compared to the international BAM movement. There was convergence between the two streams, and at the same time several distinct issues and opportunities emerged for the preparation of future Chinese workers. Among these are: solid teaching on the theology of work for both candidates and senders; the need for life-on- life discipleship training prior to going out; for those inexperienced in BAM or marketplace ministry, the recommendation for apprenticeship with an existing company prior to being deployed; and, the opportunity for Chinese BAM companies to capitalize on emerging green technologies. The findings from these interviews provides material that will be used by the writer, his agency, and partners, in the preparation of bi-vocational Kingdom Workers. This will help new appointees they are coaching to live and work most effectively as they answer the call to go to unreached peoples in the newly opened Belt Road countries. Wesley and Loyola : paths of spiritual formation Olga Kobzeva This project compares the early Wesleyan and Ignatian spiritual traditions and develops a system of spiritual growth for contemporary seminary students based on these two spiritual traditions. The project utilizes case study methods, direct observations and feedback from participants. It demonstrates how a training course could become a helpful tool in theoretical and practical spiritual preparation of Methodist leaders and revealed the complementary character of the spiritual methods of Loyola and Wesley with the emphasis on a systematic approach to spiritual formation and consciously practiced methods for spiritual growth. [Note about entry: Abstract submitted to the Atla RIM database on behalf of the author. The text appears in its entirety as it does in the original abstract page of the author’s project paper. Neither words nor content have been edited.] Prayer-magic : a theology and practice of using prayer in crisis Philip David King Prayer used by military chaplains for persons in crisis can be misunderstood as magic. A survey of chaplains was done regarding their experiences, and from the survey a five sermon series on prayer was produced and presented. A group of volunteers then shared a 121 day private prayer pilgrimage experience to develop deeper prayer practice and explore spiritual formation. The Mid-Faith Crisis: Introducing Evangelicals to the Dark Night of the Soul Thomas Sweeney M.A. The mid-faith crisis is a qualitative shift in our faith experience as God weans us of the spiritual delights lavished upon us in the initial stages of faith and leads us on an inner journey of awareness, repentance, and surrender. This typically occurs in middle age and often in the midst of successful ministry, so it is often misdiagnosed as falling away from faith rather than progressing in faith. Such strong medicine is necessary because it addresses a serious affliction: the false self which has smuggled itself unseen into the Christian life and forms the great obstacle between us and God as well as us and those around us. Through the mid-faith crisis, God invites us to lay aside the false self and its tools for navigating life, accept who we really are, and to grow ever more into our identity as the beloved of the Father. While the mid-faith crisis is divinely initiated and sustained, there is room for human participation in the work. This research portfolio explores the author’s own mid-faith crisis, proposes a model for the phenomenon and reports the results of an action research project to develop and deliver a curriculum that introduces conservative Evangelicals to the mid-faith crisis. It concludes by identifying further potential development of the model and the curriculum. The Baptized Community: Community Formation as Seen through Anglican Baptismal Ecclesiology and the Liturgical Practice of Morning Prayer Kyle Norman D.Min. Beginning with The Book of Common Prayer, the first version of which was published in 1549, Anglicans have mediated their spirituality through participation in a common spiritual life. This is to say, formation toward Christlikeness is not to be understood as an individualized process whereby the individual grows in Christlikeness in an isolated and privatized manner. Rather, formation toward Christlikeness is a Spirit-led process that primarily occurs within the community of faith. The baptismal community is the very context of Christlike formation. This portfolio looks at communal formation through three, integrated components. Firstly, communal formation, along with its various components and nuances, will be described through an appeal to the Anglican baptismal liturgy. Secondly, scenes from the author’s own autobiography will serve to illustrate how communal formation may be practically experienced. Lastly, the author’s own research into the practice of Morning Prayer will highlight the importance of shared liturgy within communal formation. The portfolio argues that one is not formed individually, rather one is called to participate in the formation of the community. This is seen as occurring through immersion in shared liturgy, embodied action, and evangelistic mission. Developing a Strategy of Spiritual Enhancement for Mt. Olive Baptist Church, Guy, Arkansas Timothy R Brewer The purpose of this project was to develop a strategy to enhance the spiritual health of Mt. Olive Baptist Church of Guy, Arkansas (MOBC). The project director explored the demographics of Guy, Arkansas, and the surrounding communities; analyzed the historical profile of MOBC; proposed a working definition of "spiritual health" by exploring existing models of spiritual health enhancement; developed a spiritual health enhancement strategy for MOBC; and presented the strategy to MOBC. The project director utilized a strategy model for this project. The strategy was completed by meeting four goals for this project. The project director (1) explored the demographics surrounding MOBC, (2) examined existing models of spiritual health enhancement, (3) led a team in developing a spiritual health enhancement strategy for MOBC, and (4) presented the spiritual health enhancement strategy model to the congregation of MOBC for approval and endorsement. Building a Discipleship Culture for the Re-Missioning of Millersville Brethren in Christ Church Christopher John Freet Reports of disciple-making movements and church-planting movements continue to grow and gain steam around the globe. Interestingly, very few movements have been recorded in the Western Church setting. An aspect of global church movements entails the utilization of easily reproducible systems and structures while equipping new disciples to carryout Jesus’ disciple-making call in the world. One tool that is used in these movements is the Discovery Bible Study method. Relying on this tool and implementing it within the discipleship process of Millersville Brethren in Christ Church in an attempt to build a culture of disciple-making discipleship has proved to have the opposite effect in the life of the church. Disciple-making in the Western Church context needs to be contextualized to its local context, patient in its approach, with an understanding that discipleship can and must take place in and through various modes and methods. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to the discipleship process. Towards a Reformed Evangelical Program of Spiritual Formation at Ryle Seminary, Ottawa Shaun Minett Turner D.Min. In this research portfolio the author seeks to articulate a form of reformed-evangelical spiritual formation and apply it to ministry formation training in both military and civilian ministry training contexts. The author sees spiritual formation as stripping off the old self and putting on the new self by looking to Jesus. Research is presented which shows that this formation often leads to greater resilience in ministry and life, as well as an increased awareness of, and dependence on, God’s sovereign grace, leading to a deeper sense of discerning God’s voice every day. The author used three parts: a personal spiritual autobiography, a model of spiritual formation in the reformed-evangelical tradition, and a field research project using appreciative inquiry to develop an integrated spiritual formation program at a reformed-evangelical seminary in Ottawa, Canada. The author was successful in using an appreciative approach to engage the students of the Seminary to design a program that was accepted by an expert panel of school administration, denominational leadership, and student leadership. This research portfolio provides both a practical model of spiritual formation in the reformed-evangelical tradition and a means of tailoring this model, through appreciative inquiry, to specific contexts. Forgiveness: The Heart of God Marcia C. King D.Min. Painful forgiveness issues often exist within families, even within the church. To understand what the Bible, theologians, and social scientists say about forgiveness, the story of Joseph and the Parable of the Prodigal Son were exegeted. The pastoral aspects of forgiveness were explored utilizing an ethnographic approach of, observations, a survey, and one-on-one interviews. The results of this project is a five-hour course, "Forgiveness: The Heart of God," which emphasizes the transformational power of Christ in forgiveness. The last class concludes with a Eucharistic prayer retreat for generational and inner healing. Painful forgiveness issues often exist within families, even within the church. Strengthening Pastoral Identity in Army Chaplains: The Effect of Spiritual Mentoring on Mentors as a Way to Develop Pastoral Identity Douglas Ball Army Chaplains are in a struggle between various identities within in a system that reinforces and rewards those identities outside the historic pastoral role. This thesis explores how spiritual mentoring can foster, maintain, and revitalize pastoral identity in mid-level chaplains serving as mentors. The author defines and explains pastoral identity; shows that spiritual mentoring is a biblical and necessary aspect of pastoral ministry; and explores the possibility of strengthening pastoral identity in Army chaplains through spiritual mentoring. However, unlike most approaches to spiritual mentoring for pastoral formation, the goal of this project was not primarily the formation of the mentee, but rather the formation of the mentor. Chaplains who serve as mentors are engaging in a historically pastoral activity which will clarify and strengthen their own pastoral identity. The project engaged mid-level and junior chaplains in short-term spiritual mentoring relationships and measured indicators of pastoral identity through a sequential mixed methods approach (pre-surveys, post-surveys, and interviews). Overall, both quantitative and qualitative data supports spiritual mentoring as a method for identity change and formation within the Army Chaplain Corps. Subscribe to Spiritual formation	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1851
__label__cc	0.563936	0.436064	Robert Crouch Robservations Dark Skies by LJ Ross 5th October 2018 – 4/5 stars After Cragside’s detour into the whodunit, it’s good to be back into the more familiar police procedural format. This time a murder from thirty years ago leads to more killings in the present day and another serial killer on the loose. Ryan has the added challenge of a new boss, Detective Superintendent Lucas, who arrives with unfinished business and a score to settle. She starts by dividing and conquering, splitting up the team, befriending the weakest member, while chaining Ryan to his desk to do more ‘management’. Because Lucas is so obsessive, with only a few hints about what caused the rift with Ryan, she felt a little predictable and wooden. Her battle with Ryan also contributed to an ending I understood, but found frustrating. But it won’t stop me reading the next novel to find out how the various threads of the story develop. My quibbles are minor for a story that’s well-written and crafted, entertaining, filled with engaging and charismatic characters, and loaded with tension, suspense and welcome doses of humour. Beware what lies beneath… One fateful, starry night, three friends embark on a secret camping trip but only two return home. Thirty years later, the body of a teenage boy rises from the depths of England’s biggest reservoir and threatens to expose a killer who has lain dormant…until now. Detective Chief Inspector Ryan returns from honeymoon to face danger from all sides. In the depths of Kielder Forest, a murderer has escaped justice before and will do anything to protect the secrets of the past. Meanwhile, back at Northumbria CID, an old foe has taken the helm as Superintendent and is determined to destroy Ryan at any cost. Who will prevail in Ryan’s most dangerous case yet? Murder and mystery are peppered with romance and humour in this fast-paced crime whodunit set amidst the spectacular Northumbrian landscape. Author Robert CrouchPosted on 4th October 2018 4th October 2018 Categories ReviewsTags Crime fiction, LJ Ross, ThrillerLeave a comment on Dark Skies by LJ Ross ‘Agatha Christie fans will love it.’ That’s what author, Tamara McKinley said about No Accident, the first Kent Fisher murder mystery, still only £1.99 from Amazon. Just click below. Recent Posts: Robert Crouch Another great review for No Mercy The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie Five things I learned from writing No Remorse No Mercy released Stranger in Town by Cheryl Bradshaw Robert Crouch Proudly powered by WordPress	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1855
__label__cc	0.738182	0.261818	Tag: #fundamentals The Bill Lavery House of the Running 1-Hander!!! Some say “runner” and some say “floater”! But is there a difference? Most kids today are taught to do a right handed lay-up off their left foot. Conversely, these same kids are taught to do a left handed lay-up off their right foot. This is great and the absolute best way to teach kids. When we see this sequence of skills it looks right to most people and to most every basketball player in the United States; it feels right. I also believe that in 2nd or 3rd grade every coach in America deserves to do a happy dance when their last kid in line does a “fundamentally correct” lay-up on both sides of the rim. #happydance #fundamentals #happycoach There are moves in basketball that change how a generation of kids play the game, the most recent one has certainly been the euro-step. This move is now a mainstay but it definitely took some time to catch on. When kids think of the best euro-steps in the NBA, they often think of guys like James Harden. However, let’s not forget guys like Manu Ginobili and Šarūnas Marčiulionis who walked the dog first. If you’ve ever played defense and been beaten by a euro step, it’s a drowning in quicksand type of feeling. It makes you as a defender think, I am going to use this move the next time I am on offense. If you have never been hit by a runner, it is similar to the feeling of being hit by a euro-step, just more confusing. It, at the very least is an eye opening experience but unfortunately it is still not in every kid’s bag like the euro is. To spark this article, a friend sent me a video of the top 10 plays from MaxPreps. As I turned on the video, I heard the commentator say the words NOELLE LAVERY!!! At that moment, I knew what was coming. He didn’t need to tell me that the runner was coming, I knew it and couldn’t wait to watch it. In fact, I think I’ve watched it 25 times. See, her dad Bill Lavery coached pro basketball in the old CBA with the Rockford Lightning and had a runner that certainly could have been trademarked. So, now I’m on a mission to find out more about Coach Lavery’s daughter. How’s she doing? What’s she averaging? Are any schools looking at her? The last time I was in the gym with Noelle, she was probably in 6th grade working on her game daily. Come to find out, she is almost averaging 19 PPG and 9 RPG at Rockford Christian High School as a junior with official visits to D2 schools scheduled after the season concludes. Wow! Love it! I look forward to checking out her Rockford Heat travel team play and watch her accolades continue to grow as a 3 year varsity starter in high school. But, the question still exists; should it be called a runner or a floater? The MaxPreps reporter in the video below called it a “floater” and after watching it, I don’t think anyone would argue that the ball floated through the air as if it was suspended at its peak just waiting to hit the bottom of the net in an instant. Yes, agreed; that was a floater!!! (And now inside Coach Warner’s head for a brief paragraph.) Yes, agreed; that was a floater!!! Or was it? What? I just convinced myself it was a floater, and now I’m wondering whether it’s a runner instead. Dude, you should know this. What will people think if you don’t know what you’re talking about? You are an idiot, that’s a runner…a floater…a runner…a floater!!! Ok, fine if the definition of a runner is to attack the basket off the dribble and right when the defender is on their heals, the driver turns it into a running shot, it should be a called a runner!!! Explained! Confirmed! End of Story! (That was a scary place!) Fine, needless to say I’m convinced I don’t really know, I need to call in the expert. So, I picked up the phone and called Coach Lavery himself. My goal was to find out; is it a runner or is it a floater? After several minutes of me complimenting Noelle on the time it takes to establish a move, it was determined that I was wrong on both accords and was not teaching my players the best terminology. Coach Lavery convinced me that the best term for the runner/floater debate is that it should be called a “running 1-hander” because that encompasses everything. While I’ve mocked him for years about his unorthodox, yet effective shot, I continue to teach it to the younger players I coach in middle and high school but I have waffled in my naming of it depending on my mood. I do know this though, moving forward I will change my vernacular to describe the shot I teach as a “running 1-hander” based on that video and my investigative skills. Through my years, I have always respected the coaches like the Don Meyers of the world or the Pat Sullivan’s who certainly could have coached at the highest levels but decided to teach not only players but coaches as well. I think what I learned most from guys like that is that nobody knows everything about the game of basketball and the more you seek out answers to basketball related questions, the better coach you become. If by writing this I can encourage one coach to think outside the proverbial box of teaching “fundamentally correct” basketball, we will be one step closer to introducing the 1-handed runner to more kids and hopefully it can be quicker than the dwell period of the euro-step. In the meantime, keep walking the dog Noelle, the rest of the country will hopefully see this and try to figure out how it works and we can get a new generation of kids coaching coaches the running 1-hander. See out the 2 videos below. From MaxPreps top plays – showing off her running 1 – hander From Hudl top 5 plays – showing off her running 1 -hander A Hudl Video of some clips of Noelle Coach Jason Warner Check out the hudl video here https://www.hudl.com/v/2B4uiM Check out the MaxPreps video here https://youtu.be/2HfHszgYF54 Here are some additional highlights of Noelle. http://www.hudl.com/v/2Ax9tD #fundamentals #happycoach #happydance #rockfordelite #rockfordelitebasketball 19′ Sha’ Den Clanton – East – Rockford 19′ Jack Ivanic – Guilford – Rockford 19′ Andre Thompson – East – Rockford 19′ Nick Pierson – Hononegah Rockford Elite Facebook 2019-2020 Payments	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1858
__label__cc	0.744869	0.255131	Register for our Next Live Workshop!Register Now Dr. Steve’s Blog Dr. Dulce’s Blog Subluxation? What is Vertebral Subluxation? Vertebral Subluxation: Society’s Most Overlooked Pandemic Nerve Interference? Autism & Subluxation Epilepsy & Subluxation Chiropractic and Migraines: What the Research Tells Us Autism and Chiropractic: Start Here San Diego Autism Workshop Autism & the Brain-Body Connection Promising Research Holds Hope for Autistic Children and Families Autism in the Eyes? Ear Infections & Chiropractic How to Care for and Prevent Ear Infections Naturally Sensory Processing Disorder and Chiropractic chiropractic is… Dr. Steve Tullius Autism, Children, chiropractic is…, Vertebral Subluxation When I first meet a child diagnosed with autism whose parents bring him to me to see how chiropractic care can help, I always look to the eyes first. Are they darting around the room? Can they focus in on people or objects? Do they seem to be constantly scanning the environment trying to make sense of their surroundings? Invariably, the child has moderate to extreme difficultly focusing. With the constant eye movement also comes circular motions of the head and a generalized incoordination of motor function. The child is disconnected from themselves and their environment and doing their very best to make sense of their universe. After we have conducted our initial neurological testing and I have checked and adjusted the child, I will tell the parents what to expect. 90% of the time the child will take a long nap or sleep for a prolonged period throughout the night. They will usually be much more calm and relaxed as well. I also tell them to pay close attention to the eyes. The eyes truly are windows to the soul. We begin to see in those distant, unfocused eyes the awakening of that soul. Or, more appropriately termed, the unveiling or immersion of it as the child begins to become more fully integrated into his environment. This post was inspired today by the amazing changes I saw in one such child. His light was dim and in a week a spark was lit. His face lacked the normal vibrancy of youth and today I saw it restored. What was once a slumped, depressed version was now the grinning, shining spirit I always knew was there. Yes, the eyes tell us much, and mine witnessed something beautiful today. Click Here For More Information on Autism and Chiropractic Dr. Steve Tullius Autism, Children, Featured, Workshops Dr. Tullius presents regularly on autism in the San Diego region and is available for national and international conferences. If you would like to schedule him to come speak to your group, please contact us at 619.363.5073 or by using the form below. How Chiropractic Care Impacts the Brain and Quality of Life of Children with Autism Dr. Tullius has presented this talk on autism and chiropractic at several locations in San Diego over the past year and provided the video below so that you can have a clear understanding of how the particular form of care he provides can help your child. This presentation explores one of the most common forms of neurological stress and how restoring normal function can result in quantifiable improvements in language, sociability and behavior in children with autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions. To schedule a consultation, call 619.363.5073 3 Ebook Form - Email Campaign Select the ebook(s) you would like to receive:* Childhood Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Autism, ADHD, SPD, and Behavior Challenges Mental Health Matters: Anxiety, Depression, PTSD, OCD The Gut-Brain Connection: Autoimmune, Fibromyalgia and Chronic Illness National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Brain Basics: Know Your Brain, http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brain_basics/know_your_brain.htm Stranding, S. (2008). Gray’s Anatomy, 40th Edition. The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice. Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier Herbert, N. (1994). Elemental Mind: Human Consciousness and the New Physics. Plume Purves D, Augustine GJ, Fitzpatrick D, et al., editors. Neuroscience. 2nd edition. Sunderland (MA): Sinauer Associates; 2001. Mechanoreceptors Specialized for Proprioception. Purves D, Augustine GJ, Fitzpatrick D, et al., editors. Neuroscience. 2nd edition. Sunderland (MA): Sinauer Associates; 2001. Nociceptors. Slosberg M, Effects of altered afferent articular input on sensation, proprioception, muscle tone and sympathetic reflex responses. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics [1988, 11(5):400-408] Schultz RT. Developmental deficits in social perception in autism: the role of the amygdala and fusiform face area. Int J Dev Neurosci.2005;23 :125– 141 Hua, X., Thompson, P. M., Leow, A. D., Madsen, S. K., Caplan, R., Alger, J. R., O’Neill, J., Joshi, K., Smalley, S. L., Toga, A. W. and Levitt, J. G. (2013), Brain growth rate abnormalities visualized in adolescents with autism. Hum. Brain Mapp., 34: 425–436. doi: 10.1002/hbm.21441 Wan C. Structure of language pathways differs in non-verbal autism. Poster presentation at the 2011 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. Stoodley C. Imaging finds cerebellar changes in autism, other disorders. Poster presentation at the 2011 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. Mohan G. Is the autistic brain too wired or not wired enough? Los Angeles Times. June 27, 2013. Uddin LQ, Supekar K, Lynch CJ, et al. Salience Network–Based Classification and Prediction of Symptom Severity in Children With Autism. JAMA Psychiatry.2013;70(8):869-879. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.104. Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science. Penguin. Chestnut J. (2003). Fourteen Foundational Premises for the Scientific and Philosophical Validation of the Chiropractic Wellness Paradigm. The Wellness Practice – Global Self Health Corp. Haavik Taylor H, Holt K, Murphy B. Exploring the Neuromodulatory Effects of the Vertebral Subluxation and Chiropractic Care, Chiropractic Journal of Australia 2010; 40: 37-44. Haavik Taylor H, Murphy B. Cervical spine manipulation alters sensorimotor integration: A somatosensory evoked potential study, Clinical Neurophysiology, February 2007 Haavik Taylor H, Murphy, B. The role of spinal manipulation in addressing disordered sensorimotor integration and altered motor control. Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 2012 Oct;22(5):768-76. Haavik Taylor H., & Murphy, B. (2011). Subclinical neck pain and the effects of cervical manipulation on elbow joint position sense. Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeutics, 34(2), 88-97. Haavik Taylor, H., & Murphy, B. (2007). Transient modulation of intracortical inhibition following spinal manipulation. Chiropractic Journal of Australia, 37(3), 106. Haavik Taylor H, Murphy B. (2010). The effects of spinal manipulation on central integration of dual somatosensory input observed after motor training: a crossover study. Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeutics, 33(4), 261-272. Haavik Taylor H, Murphy B. (2010). Altered central integration of dual somatosensory input after cervical spine manipulation. Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeutics, 33(3), 178-188. Haavik Taylor H, Murphy, B. (2008). Altered sensorimotor integration with cervical spine manipulation. Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeutics, 31(2), 115-126. Grostic J.D. Dentate ligament–cord distortion hypothesis. Chiropractic Research Journal. 1998 p. 50. Pickar JG. Neurophysiological effects of spinal manipulation. Spine J. 2002;2(5):357-371. Seaman DR, Winterstein JF. Dysafferentation: A novel term to describe the neuropathophysiological effects of joint complex dysfunction. A look at likely mechanisms of symptom generation. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 1998;21(4):267-280. Sato A, Swenson RS. Sympathetic nervous system response to mechanical stress of the spinal column of rats. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 1984;7(3):141-147. Sato A. The reflex effects of spinal somatic nerve stimulation on visceral function. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 1992;15:57-61. Sato A. Neural mechanisms of autonomic responses elicited by somatic sensory stimulation. 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Blocked atlantal nerve syndrome in infants and small children. Originally published in Manuelle Medizin, 25:5-10,1987. English translation published in International Review of Chiropractic 1990 46(4):37. Towbin A. Latent spinal cord and brain stem injury in newborn infants. Develop Med Child Neurol 1969;11:54. Frymann, V. Relation disturbances craniosacral mechanisms to symptomatology of the newborn: Study of 1,250 infants. JAOA. 1966. 65:1059-1075. Campbell CJ, Kent C, Banne A, et al: Surrogate indication of DNA repair In serum after long term chiropractic intervention: a retrospective study. J Vertebral Subluxation Res, Feb, is ,2005:1- 5. Khaled A. Khorshid K, Sweat R, Zemba D, Zemba B. Clinical Efficacy of Upper Cervical Versus Full Spine Chiropractic Care on Children with Autism: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research, March 9, 2006, pp 1-7 Jennings J, Barker M. Autism: a chiropractic perspective. Clin Chiropr: MAR 2006(9:1) 6-10. Collection of Journal Abstracts, studies and personal accounts [microinv id=microinv_1376773050] Dr. Steve Tullius Autism, Children, Press Releases, Vertebral Subluxation Local Doctor Calls for Further Research Autism Awareness Month: SAN DIEGO, California – (April 5, 2013) April is officially recognized as Autism Awareness Month. Just last week the Center for Disease Control indicated that 1 in 50 children in the United States will be diagnosed with autism. This is up from their last figures which reported 1 in 88 children are affected. These alarming numbers have Dr. Steve Tullius calling for more research into effective methods to help these children, pointing to a study that indicates that chiropractic care may significantly improve their quality of life. Dr. Tullius references a study published in Clinical Chiropractic. The study showed that spinal adjustments help with some symptoms of autism. It cannot cure or treat the underlying condition, but for people with autism and their loved ones, these symptoms dramatically affect their quality of life. “The results of this study are promising, as are the clinical results seen across the nation,” said Tullius, who follows scientific developments in the autism community and chiropractic profession quite closely. In the study mentioned, researchers carried out a series of chiropractic adjustments on 26 autistic children over a 9-month period. Improvement was seen in certain reflexes and sensations, spinal motion, and improvement of other health problems. Many of the children were able to discontinue medications aimed at controlling their behavior; bladder and bowel control improved; some children started to speak; eye contact and attention span improved while hyperactivity and aggressive behavior were reduced. Also, five children were able to attend regular classes at school for the first time. The autistic children suffered from neurological dysfunction impacting their development and ability to integrate and respond to sensory information from their environments. The researchers concluded that correcting what chiropractic calls vertebral subluxation can positively affect neurological function and cause an overall improvement. Other research and case studies have shown similar findings as well. Dr. Tullius indicated that he is currently conducting research in his office on how chiropractic care affects the quality of life of individuals within the autism spectrum and is seeking to team up with an imaging facility to look into how the care affects the brain. For more information, contact Dr. Tullius at Good Vibrations Family Chiropractic in Kensington (619)-281-1234. Reference Material: Autism Workshop: Autism & the Brain-Body Connection Autism: A Chiropractic Perspective by Jane Jennings and Martina Baker of the Newbury Chiropractic Centre, Newbury, Berkshire, UK, published in Clinical Chiropractic (2006), Vol. 9, pp. 6-10. Autism, the Brain-Body Connection and Chiropractic Steve Tullius, DC Dr. Steve Tullius Autism, chiropractic is…, Vertebral Subluxation According to the CDC 1 in 50 children will now be diagnosed with autism. That is up from 1 in 10,000 in 1970s. To say there is a problem is a gross understatement. It’s time for society to start asking relevant questions. Like what has changed in this short amount of time to cause such an alarming rise? This article won’t go into the various causes, but will instead look at one of the most overlooked factors affecting the quality of these children’s lives. Life is How We Perceive It I love the quote above because it incorporates two things I love: philosophy and science. No one would argue that our inner experience is a result of the cultural and familial “lens” we see the world through. Our beliefs and experience shape the way we see and interact in the world. However, many people fail to contemplate how our nervous systems shape our perceptions and ability to respond and adapt to our environments in a healthy manner. Think of your nervous system as a sponge. It constantly soaks in information through the five sensory organs. Scientists have estimated that our sensory organs take in over 11 million bits of information every second and some estimates have total brain processing at 11 trillion bits per second! Much of the sensory information is processed in the part of the brain known as the cerebellum, which is located just above the neck. The incredible connectivity of the brain, however, is beyond our full comprehension. The image below depicts the amazingly intricate and complex neuronal connections. With the promises of current and new technology we are learning more and more about how the brain works. What is clear is that in order to be able to perceive and respond to our environments correctly, we must be able to receive and process information properly. Some of the most important data traveling to the brain is proprioceptive information. Proprioception is from Latin proprius, meaning “one’s own”, “individual” and perception. It is the process by which tiny nerve endings known as proprioceptors detect and relay information about our body to our brain so that we can properly understand and respond to where our body parts are in relation to other parts and our environment. If the information received by the proprioceptive system and other neurological components is interfered with in any way as it travels to the brain, then naturally, our ability to respond to that information appropriately will be affected. This is where a common physical condition known as vertebral subluxation comes into the picture for children within the spectrum and with other disorders as well. A vertebral subluxation is a misaligned vertebra affecting the function of the nervous system as the delicate spinal cord travels through the spinal column. This misalignment alters the information being delivered to the brain, the brain’s response and ultimately the quality of life of the individual. The quality of our lives is dependent upon the information we receive and whether or not we are able to respond appropriately. Vertebral subluxation is a major source of interference to the nervous system that goes undetected in the majority of children within the autism spectrum. Two studies, one featured in the February 2007 issue of Clinical Neurophysiology (1) and the other in March 2010 issue of the Chiropractic Journal of Australia (2), explore the issue of how vertebral subluxation impacts sensory processing and modulation and are worth reviewing. In another study featured in the March 2006 issue of Clinical Chiropractic, researchers carried out a series of chiropractic adjustments on 26 autistic children over a 9-month period. Improvement was seen in certain reflexes and sensations, spinal motion, and improvement of other health problems. I am currently conducting research into how vertebral subluxation correction impacts the quality of life of children who have been diagnosed with autism and associated disorders. If you would like to see if your child has vertebral subluxation and could benefit from care in our office, contact us at (619) 363-5073. Learn more about Vertebral Subluxation To schedule a consultation, call (619) 363-5073 Chiropracticis Copyright © 2019 chiropracticis.com All rights reserved. 27Share on Facebook 6Share on Twitter 6Share on Pinterest 6Share on Reddit 8Share on LinkedIn	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1870
__label__cc	0.672047	0.327953	Sarah Bowman Photos of Sarah Celebration Photos Please use the comment form below to send a message or to write a story about Sarah Bowman. The comments below are listed newest first. Leave a Reply to Lynn Zecca Cancel reply Nan Roberts says Sarah, I wish you knew how often we think of you and miss you. It still seems unreal. You still live in our love for you. Riley Reed says I have been out of the country for the last 16 months, I haven’t spied Sarah around at any shows the last couple weeks I finally asked my friend Ricky, he said don’t you know do you?. I so hoped he was wrong it will always bother me that i missed the celebration and i will always miss her Perri Luckes says Remembering you with love today. Tracy Jennings says Rave on Sarah! You are so missed this holiday season. I see you every time I look at the cold, sparkling night sky. I feel you in the fleeting warmth of the winter sun on my face. I think of you when I look into the eyes of my beloved animals and smell the sweet breath of my horses. It doesn’t seem right celebrating the Solstice without you, putting lights up and going through the motions of Christmas without you. It’s like having a missing bulb that causes the whole string to be out. Sweet Sarah Stardust, shine your twinkling light upon us… John Sonofmel says Here’s my weekly column written for Sarah and her gathered galaxy at the Cedar Center… Her name was Sarah Bowman. We met around three years ago at a house party I played. We talked for about 10 minutes. I never saw her again. She’s dead. A whopper of a fan of the arts, the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis held a memorial. For her. Her best friends had no idea she had saved the Cedar from going under. On more than one occasion. And people came. In ones and twos at first, like a trickle of drops, or like the first stars of dusk. Then they streamed in droves. Lots of them, from all over. Like shooting stars. Bright eyed. Of all ages. Dressed in all manner. Gothic black. Bright colors. Mismatched misfits and haves and nots. The lights dimmed. They weren’t needed, people glowed. Someone called it a harmonic convergence. Everyone had stories of her. They carried them in and delivered them like presents. NPR commentator and storyteller Kevin Kling took the stage at one point. He told everyone there wasn’t enough minerals on the earth to create life. He said much of our make up comes from stars, that we are stars. He called the collective assemblage gathered “the constellation of Sarah.” People cried. People laughed. We danced. We were told to sing. None needed to be told. Around us the whole evening of time slowly turned, the hardwood dance floor a galaxy. Throughout the theater, lobby, foyer, and coat room stood displays of her life. Appendages no longer needed. Pictures of all the horses she cared for, their names. Art work made from kindergarten. School pictures to match. More pictures. Keepsakes like childhood toys lay with mementos collected by a full-grown woman. Memories of her couldn’t be contained but spilled out of mouths and floated into thin air. I met someone who babysat her as a child. Right afterward, I met some she babysat. “We called her ‘bags’ because she loved bagpipes,” I heard. One friend had bought every last bolt and yard of Sarah’s favorite plaid in the metro area and sewed 300 mourning bands. She tied them on left arms as people entered. “It’s the side your heart is on,” she said. The bands ran out before the evening ended. One got tied to one of the twin giant antique lamps on either side of the stage. Sentries of light, Sarah had given them to the Cedar in years prior. The stories kept floating out and around. Like stars and snowflakes, no two were alike. Poets and musicians came to speak and play. Dakota Dave Hull, Pop Wagner, Boiled in Lead, Phil Heywood, Daithi Sproule, Cafe Accordion Orchestra. They called her ‘Second Set Sarah.’ She just couldn’t get somewhere on time. “She was never late,” someone said, “she just couldn’t leave prior engagements early.” Halfway through the six hours of song and story, a New Orleans style brass band with golden tuba, trombone, trumpet, and snare led a parade blocks long around the West Bank. From a dirge to funky dance jazz and back, the stories followed, costumed in exotic dress and prop, just like the people parading. Some carried large lights of transparent bees bolstered 10 feet in the air with invisible wire. Others carried fashioned trees and giant blades of grass, also lit from the inside. White horses standing well over 40 hands in height towered over the spectacle, sculpted and lit horse heads and tails manned by stilt walkers. White netting draped between them marked the body. The rain that came stopped for the parade, then poured down as soon as everyone got back inside. Compliments of dress and manners gushed like wine from a spilled barrel. Tens of thousands of dollars of instruments were left with purses and coats in an all but empty theater for the parade. Nothing was missing upon the return. The bar charged nothing for drinks throughout the afternoon and evening. No one over drank. The tip jars overflowed. They had to use pitchers. I met brothers of friends I hadn’t seen since boyhood; met others I had just met a month prior up in Wayward and thought we’d never meet again. We did. If that night was any sign, we all will. And do. Again and again. I drank club soda only. Everyone bubbled. Stories turned into friend ships that cruised the whispered winds of space around the hall. Everyone rode them. For free. Looking closely, everyone became someone I knew at one time. From a distance, I could see her outlined on everyone’s face. But I only met her once. And told it from the stage and played a few songs. Words came like waltzes to those gathered. Every syllable slid off in poetic motion picture. “I rode with her late one night, going home after a show,” one woman said. “We were so tired. Sarah rolled down her window. She pushed her long hair out the window and rolled it up. ‘If I nod off, my hair being pulled will wake me up’ she explained.” A brother and sister got up and sang. Others did. For six hours. More people came. Almost no one left. I met her once. At a house party. We talked for a few minutes. She suggested I do more with music. Within three months I was back in Minneapolis at Flowers Studio to record an album. It’s almost done. We never know what may come from the smallest kindnesses we say or do for one another. I only met her once, but I think she knew. At the end of the night, they played it again. Someone had found it. No one knew. A recording of her singing. It was a late night of music-playing friends years ago. They asked her to sing. Someone in that living room rolled a tape. Mimi, the woman I foundd standing next to me, sits next to Sarah in that far-a-way-when living room. Mimi’s voice is heard at the beginning of the recording. Then absolute silence but for the hiss of the tape head. Before the song ended every arm was draped around another. Every hand held by another. Total silence, but for her voice singing a Scottish traditional, a Capella. We all heard it. Perfect pitch in haunting clarity. A voice of turbulent hope in early Winter: “…Oh, are ye sleepin’ Maggie/ Oh are ye sleepin’ Maggie/ Let me in for loud the linn/ Is roarin’ o’er the warlock craigie…” No one but a few knew. She never sang. Except then, in the far-a-way-when of a friend’s living room. There’s a real heft to hearing a voice you once knew, one you’ll never hear again live. Even if you only meet once. I hope to carry it the rest of my days. Sonofmel Andrea Wenz says What an incredible writing John….no words Kristen amanda says Our joyous celebration of Sarah so beautifully captured in your humble words. thank you, thank you Liz Welch says Thank you, thank you, this is beautiful and captures the evening so perfectly. Laurie Drill-Mellum says Being at the Cedar Cultural Center, both mourning her death and celebrating so much about her, with so many of Sarah’s very deep and wide community of friends was deeply moving. I am grateful to all who planned, participated, and attended this very important recognition of Sarah and what she meant to so many people and animals. This is a memory I will hold dear, in addition to the many wonderful times I spent with Sarah. Rest In Peace, you amazing woman. Duncan Bowman says What a great way to learn more about Sarah. I wish I could have been there to see and hear from her friends. Sarah, enjoy Heaven and all the things you wanted while here. Say hello to family, BB King, Prince and Memo, please!!!! Jerry Werle says Wow! I knew what a friend and support dear Sarah was to our amazing music community. But OH MY GOD THAT BEAUTIFUL VOICE! I knew what a friend and supporter Sarah was to our arts community. But on November twenty-seventh I realized what a gifted, whole-hearted artist Sarah was. Her medium was people. Out All Night Gone All Morning CK Michael Bruns says I knew Sarah first from being in a couple of bands that she’d occasionally see, and later, from seeing her at many of the great live music shows we’d both attend. Before I knew who she was I remember one of my bandmates talking about “second set Sarah.” Inevitably at the end of the show we attended, I’d end up talking to Sarah until somebody was starting to sweep by our feet or we’d hear the clanking of bottles being tossed in a bin. She was endlessly enthusiastic about great music, had wide-ranging taste and knowledge, and loved to talk about it all as much as I did. She was filled with love and zest for music, her animals, her friends and family and the communities she helped build. It’s so hard to imagine that she won’t be dancing at the next great African show at the Cedar and later talking in the back to a stream of people who knew and loved her. Sheila Smith says Thank you all, so very much for creating this site and event, to honor the memory of our dear friend, Sarah! With the passing of Sarah, I, (“we”) have truly lost one of our worlds most beloved, kind, generous, genuine, fun and beautiful people, I have ever known! It has taken time since hearing of Sarah’s death, for me to temper my deep emotional shock, in getting used to acknowleding that I will never see or share this world with her in it, again! I feel moved to plan on some way, honoring her memory, by creating a scholarship fund or something else, within the non-profit horse and cat rescue, “Tory’s Peace”; dedicated to rescuing the animals of victims of domestic violence. Sarah was indeed an angel who cared deeply for all animals and people. Sarah shared the comitted interest of becoming active in our project to help victims of domestic violence, concentrating on the rescue of one’s horses and cats, to a secure refuge of safety, therefore allowing the victim to leave their abuser and know their animals will not be left behind! Sarah understood why over 70% of victims will not leave domestic violence (farm) homes because they feared for the well being of their horse(s) and cat(s) if they left them behind, just to save themselves! Too many people remain “stuck” in abusive relationships and suffer in silence because they are at odds with distress of shame, guilt, financial dificulties etc., but more often so, remain for the concern and worry of the well being for their beloved animals! Sarah’s interest and enthusiasm to help others and their animals will live on in this rescue mission, “Tory’s Peace”. Future plans for adding a dog rescue, is also a concern we shared with Sarah in “Torey’s Peace” mission. All suggestions, concerns and help in assisting in this mission and getting the word out to help, is much appreciated! Sarah, was a great hope in helping to promote and spread the word for the need to help this mission. We hope to create a model for other rescue missions, specifically to raise awareness and help victims of domestic violence and their animals, to remove themselves from the stigma of violence and restore peace in their lives! I will forever, deeply mourn and miss Sarah Bowman’s beautiful nature and concerned help, as a best friend and mission activist! I will miss helping you with your health, horses, dogs, cats and farm! I will surely miss talking and sharing all the great times we had enjoying each other & nature! I will love you forever, Sarah! Your gentle, kind, sweet and generous spirit will always be remembered and live on! Sarah, you exhibited such a generous and loving spirit, offering your services with devotion and resolve. I loved you fiercely, and felt a connection to you that transcended time. The principles you lived by were what separates a warrior from the masses, the shepherd from the sheep. A kinder, more edifying woman I have never known. May your spirt inhabit the earth again, and may I recognize you when it does. I’m reminded of a line from The Pines’ “Time Dreams”: Comes from the earth And return to the earth In the reunion Our pulse comes from the sky And returns to the sky Infinite love and gratitude, Lynn Louise Wahl says Sarah, softspoken, kindness, compassion, conviction. She made the world a better place. Hearts weep. Solace is to look to the stars . and see her bright lights. Terry McDaniel says The day after we all found out about Sarah’s passing I didn’t know what to do with myself. It was so surreal; I was in shock! I went for a bike ride and ended up at the Longfellow Garden and laid on one of the benches there. It was a chilly quiet morning. I was starring up at the sky watching the clouds and birds passing by this way and that. I was trying to make sense of it all. Tall grasses were blowing over the back of the bench in the wind obstructing my view, they were the color of Sarah’s hair. I sensed her presents blowing in the wind so gracefully. She was saying I will miss you too. Thanks for being a good friend. Keep on being a good friend to others and share your art and creativity with the community and always remember to have music and animals in your life. I will miss her sweet smile, loving spirit and warmth she had for her me and all her friends. She brought people together in so many ways. She will be genuinely missed. Ride like the wind Sarah! Lindsay Blattner says Everyone has shared so beautifully the Sarah that we appreciated so very much. When I think about Sarah, I too remember her as that far too uncommon person in this world who shared her heart unselfishly, with great grace and kindness, wit, and warmth. She seemed to be always arriving to see just “you”. She had the most melodious voice and such a great laugh – captured so well on the piano video! She could turn frustrating events (iced up car locks in January at 1 am) into hilarious adventures. We will miss you terribly, but you live on forever in the memories of friends and acquaintances all, which keep you ever close. I have no doubt you are being welcomed wherever with one fantastic party !! XXOO Sarah. Jennifer Dart says I will hold dear memories of a special person. Our beloved friend, my campmate, and riding buddy, roommate, and Stoneleigh-Burnham companion. Her amazing smile Sparkled for all to see. A story I share was at the farm that Leatherdale’s owned in Medina. A neighbor heard a scream so loud, he investigated thinking someone was injured! Sarah had been barefoot in the barn and had stepped on a frog! (what an image!) My other funny story was at the farm in MInnetrista, Painters Creek. Even though the barn closed at 10:00 pm Sarah felt the need to take her horse out pull his mane and give him a good brushing. But that day the grooms had accidentally switched our 2 horses! I didn’t mind my horse was pampered! ( I laughed with Sarah not at her) Sarah claimed she had been painting all day and the fumes had gotten to her. We all have our idiosyncrasies, my memories of our fun times together will always put a smile on my face! Sarah I know you Loved with all your HEART. Your Spirit will stay forever with those who knew you! MISS YOU!!! Hana & Sky says Sarah was a beautiful gift to all she touched, and shines on in my heart and in all beings who love her. I will remember her warm smile, twinkling eyes, and laugh, and dancing to the music together at the Cedar Cultural Center, music events and festivals. Thank you for sharing your wisdom at my Law of Attraction Playshops. Hana P & Sky D Sandy Ulrich Kretsinger says I have never forgotten precious Sarah, although I have not seen her since she was 3 and I was 16. I was her babysitter for three wonderful years. She was a beautiful child with a loving disposition and a very sweet smile. I would always rock and sing her to sleep, holding her in my arms in the moon light, never wanting to place her into her crib. After all these years, I can yet sense her presence in my arms. My prayer for you, dear Sarah, is that you are now resting in the loving arms of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. I have always loved you and I always will. Bobby and Pamela Searles says For us, Sarah’s late arrivals were almost always a blessing. When others had left and our duties as hosts were over, we could spend time hearing about her animals, old barns, Irish music or family stories. It was always a joy to see Sarah’s bright eyes and winning smile at our doorstep. Sarah had a love of life and nature seldom seen in others. Her free spirit and self-deprecating charm were a delight to experience. Sarah lived her life on her terms which was the envy of some (us included), a joy for many to see and a curiosity for still others. She could brighten a room just by entering, and we always treasured the times we spent with her, especially because they were often far between. We will miss her often and pray that she has found more of the peace and joy she created for herself in Greenfield. Tara Williams says I didn’t have the pleasure of knowing you very well or long, however, you left a lasting impression. I will learn from your kindness, your spirit and peaceful ways. Howard McMillan says Words, voice and emotions need congruence. I’ll return when I find them. Howard Do the leaves of green stay greener through the autumn Does the colour of the sun turn crimson white Does a shadow come between us in the winter Is the movement really light And I heard a million voices singing Acting to the story that they had heard about Does one child know the secret and can say it Or does it all come out along without you Along without you ~ ~ Closing verses from Side 3 The Ancient (Giants Under The Sun) Tales From Topographic Oceans Lynn Zecca says Rest in Peace, Sarah. Such a tragic loss to us all, her wide and wonderful ocean of friends. I met Sarah through Winnie Griffith, I think in 1984 or ’85. Their grandmothers had been best friends. I’ll miss my Aquarian sister-girl so much. We had so many raucous good times, for which I am eternally grateful. She taught me to Cajun Dance to the Bone Tones, brought me groceries when I had the flu, and tied tin cans on the back of my car when I got married. A true blue friend who was always on my side, always thought whatever I got up to creatively was fantastic. She was a ray of light, and so much more. My heart goes out to all who loved her and are missing her now too. Peace to all. Brad Bergslien says I met Sarah through my dad, Myron Bergslien, in the summer of 2004 when I’d started helping her out with her lawn care. Over the years, through approximately the summer of 2010, I’d continued working with her in her pursuits to make Windswept Farm her dream come true. I remember Sarah as one of the most genuine, kind souls, with so much love for her animals (Sport, Ferrari, Monka and Watuzi) and all walks of life on her farm. While I’m beyond saddened to hear of her loss, I am so glad to have known her, and have great sympathy for her family and friends. She was a true gift to this world. You will be remembered Sarah. RIP. Jean Peterson says Sarah, you made us all feel pretty darn special. Well done. Thank you. We love you. Jean Peterson, Al Sterner Kelli May-Krenz says You were one of my friends who always filled me up! Your grace and beauty (that you were completely unaware of) touched the lives of everyone you met! I have so many memories of you! Some of my most favorite was after going to music venues together we would sit in the car and talk with the heater blowing for at least an hour! We have our little dog Pearl Button daughter of your baby girl Merri! She will forever be our connection to you as we feel like family. I’m not making sense of your being gone! I just might continue to write you in my journal! I love you! So many many souls love you! Kelli Heidi Erickson says Hi. I am Sarahs neighbor & friend, Heidi. We have your Pearl Buttons brother; Peter aka; Iron) whom we are also crazy in love with. a true gift from Sarah. She shed her light on all our lives & gave us the gift of our precious “Jacks” I hope to meet you at the Memorial & or funeral. I am so sad. I miss her deeply. Sincerely, Heidi Babs Pilling says Wow! What a shock to hear this news -Sarah always arrived with a huge smile and a great story -she knew everyone -our circles crossed many times between dance and music and international communities and St Martin’s Table folks. Her loss will be felt far and wide -she was such a kind and generous soul. My heart goes out to her siblings, the many friends she had, and the numerous lives she touched with her spark and her positive energy. It will be good to be together with others whom she loved and who loved her. Carrie Wirth says I met Sarah at River Bend. We were always the late ones. Try as we may, we could never seem to finish our riding and horse care before Gaylord came down from the house to do night check – probably because we always had something to chat about. We’d always get a scolding. “The barn is closed! Go home!” he’d say. She was an incredible person. She rescued horses that no one else could ride. Sarah always got along with them. She knew how to manage their fears with confidence and love. I recently saw Sarah when I visited this past summer. I thought to myself how warm and wonderful she is– a bright light. It was so great to reconnect. When I got home we wrote each other on Facebook. When I heard the news I was shocked. I just couldn’t believe it. We had just spoken. She was such a free spirit and a lovely soul. We will miss her. My neighbor Leann Bacon & I went to Sarah’s today & placed flowers under a tree near the area where Sarah passed on. (I tried to post a photo on this website; but not sure if it worked) We visited with some of her cats. Many of them are very friendly & healthy. The family is looking for homes for them & I offered to “put the word out” to her friends. If anyone is interested in helping give one of Sarahs “Babys” a home; please contact me at mherickson@q.com. I will communicate with Sarah’s brother & or sister. It would make Sarah so happy to know they are getting a good home. Sarah was well-known for showing up late to all the Irish events and parties. I remember seeing her one night and thinking, “Is it that late already?” But it was Sarah coming early for once and surprising us all! She always had a hilarious or touching story to tell about the horses she was caring for. Many a time she was on foal watch and would have to race out the door to help with a delivery. I am so glad she was finally able to get her own farm. It was a life-long dream come true. We shared that dream, and I loved talking to her about farm life. I’m heart-broken to hear that she is gone from us. What a dear, sweet soul. We were lucky to have known her. Zena von Lindstrom says My heart goes out to Sarah’s family at their loss; I hope they can find comfort in knowing that Sarah’s sweet smile and gentle words and voice are known by so many. I hold her warm smile in my heart and can hear her laugh. They inspire me to be a better person. I hope her animals are all in good hands and good homes; my heart goes out to their loss as well. katherine dunn says Dear Sarah, I am glad we could reconnect in our adult years and as you said, share a kindred spirit for our farms and animals. You were so kind and I have a gracious note you wrote me on Mother’s Day, a year after my mom died [and she knew your mom] and you understood that was a hard day. I know you loved your life with your animals and understood my farm and animal life too. I know one thing, you were in a place you loved at the end. And there were so many people reaching out to each other today, which is what you would have done. My heart goes to your entire family, your friends…and I know your animals will be taken care of. Tamara Loewenthal says Every time we came to the Twin Cities to play a dance, Sarah would show up. Always late. We always chatted and enjoyed each other, and I especially identified with her love of horses and farm work, because I grew up in such an environment. Her smiling, welcoming face warmed us, and I’m so sad that we will no longer see her beautiful face. May her spirit shine on. Carolyn Gergen says Always loved her smiling face, love for life, and giving spirit. She was a sweetheart. Diane Przymus says I had the honor of knowing Sarah in a special way as her Shiatsu Practitioner and friend. I can tell you that no matter how much stress or pain she was enduring, I saw her bring forward her best when she encountered another person. She was truly a giver, a bringer of light and love, a special soul. When I’d see her interact at the Three Crows, it was clear that she took the time to fully appreciate and see each person she was talking with. She lived a very authentic and intentional life. I loved hearing about her life – the adventures in her youth, her multitudes of friends and her love of beauty, art and music. She was truly a steward of the earth caring for animals with such compassion. She worked so hard to maintain her farm and fiercely loved her horses. Sarah, I will miss you. I have learned so much from you. You are someone with such integrity. May you know how beautiful and beloved you are. You are loved. You are loved. You are loved! Stephanie Etzel says Ditto, Diane. Oh Sarah, you will be so missed. Mitch kezar says Dianne, I can’t possibly out write you but I’m certainly going to agree with all your lovely heartfelt words. She was a bright light on any day! Nancy "Jimmy" Colburn says Peace dear Sarah. Elzabeth Lampert says Sarah, My heart aches for you tonight. I’m not sure how I’ll explain this to Laureate, but I’ll be sure to remind him how dearly loved he was by you! I’m so glad we had our last visit on the Theraplate a week ago, and I will see you again the next time I am on there! Your kind spirit, great horsemanship, and incredible gentle soul will he do dearly missed!! RIP sweet friend! Cricket Huss says Sarah ~ Your soul is a breath of fresh air that will always fly and blow free to your own wind. You will be forever Wind Swept I met Sarah several years ago and instantly liked her. I’m sorry that I drifted away and never got to know her well. She was a bright being…I’m sure her star shines through heavens floor on us all. Rest In Peace. I now have figured out the meaning behind this….”secondset…” God Bless you Sarah….you won’t be late for Heaven. Jan Funke says Tony and I would often stop at Three Crows for a coffee early in the afternoon. More often than not, Sarah would be there and join us for such good conversation. She was usually taking a break from her chores and having a late lunch. We know she truly loved her farm and horses and really, life in general. A bright star has dimmed. Such a lovely soul. Elllen Becker says Will miss our conversations about music and the way you laughed at virtually anything. Don’t recall you ever being in a bad mood. Loved running into you in Delano. Rest well. Hope wherever you’re at there’s a hell of a horn section. Renee Lenkart says God bless you Sarah. You were a truly kind, nice, real person. I am so sorry you are not with us. Heaven got another good angel. Sarah Donnell says I can not believe that you are gone! Sarah, you have been a beautiful light of joy and warmth, and graced us all with your love of life – animal and human. I loved your smile, laugh and compassion. I loved talking with you about horses and riding with you. Rest in peace. Pete Tritz says Sad to think that I won’t again see that quick smile, hear that ready laugh, or enjoy that gentle wit. She brought joy to our lives for many years, and I can only hope that at least once in a while I helped bring a little joy to hers. Emily Lynch Victory says Sarah always came in just before closing at the 3 crows. Would get soup and warm foods to go – after long days outside on her farm. So you would clean up the shop and chat with Sarah. Lovely. I think I will mostly remember the sweetness of her voice. It seemed she could never get upset or mad. Her voice was too calm, happy, lovely. Zoe Eckblad says Oh my, sweet Sarah. You were always so kind with smiles and loving interest in me. You had a way of making everyone feel special. I love you and will miss you dearly. ~Zoe Kerri Penke says I met Sarah at 3 Crows, which I know isnt surprising considering how often she frequented when it was still in business. From the moment I met her I knew I was in the prescence of someone truly special. We would share a laugh over her habitual coffee habits and trade stories over an iced vanilla latte with caramel drizzle until long after close. She was one of those unique and treasured souls whose life and sense of adventure dazzled and delighted all who knew her. I miss her terribly, but her sweet smile will live on in all those who’s lives she graced with her light and love. Emily Adickes (Johnson) says I will always cherish my memories of Sarah coming in to Three Crows while I worked there (and afterwards) enjoying all of the wonderful conversations, big hugs we shared, as well as the dancing. Much love to you my dear friend. ❤ David Dennison says Thank you for your passion and help when we started doing music at the Rieder “barn of knowledge” as you called it. My heart breaks that you won’t be there anymore, but I hope your spirit watches over us as we go on. Peter Maguire says So sad to hear of Sarah’s passing. I met Sarah only a few times many yrs ago and was able to pass on to her a flute which she loved. She was passionate about the music and a truly generous, loving and kind person. Rest in Peace Sarah. Luci Chorley says Oh Sarah, my heart aches for this world without you in it. We have been friends since we were barely out of diapers. Your kind heart has brought so much light to others even when your own world had darkness and pain. I hope you have been reunited with the man of your heart and you are casting rainbows everywhere. Thanks for being my friend. Jane Lundberg says I too am deeply saddened by this news, despite not knowing her for very long. She truly lit up a room and I was always excited to run into her at a live music show. First Wednesdays will loose some sparkle now that she is gone. There is no question that she loved her land, her horses and her dogs. She loved music and people and was generous with her talents. I will miss you Sarah, I hope your friends find comfort. Tamie says There are so many memories to share in such a short while. Music, music and more music. Sailing with you and Steve. You were my confidant here, someone who got my place. I will miss you. Dan Krenz says We should all learn from Sarah! To live our lives as we want to and to “do” the things we feel passionate about and to be an active participant in the lives of our friends. She always made time for her friends, listening to and attending live music venues, and always supported those she cared about in so many different ways. She always cast a positive spirit and a bright smile over everything and everyone around her and saw the best in everyone. I will deeply miss her, her sincere concern for others, kind spirit, her never ending bright smile and great conversations. I am grateful she passed at a place she cared for and loved so deeply. There is a special seat in Heaven just waiting for you Sarah!! We love you! Brian Miller says What a shocking, tragic loss. Sarah has always been such a warm, welcoming friendly person to me. Even though we didn’t know each other well, she is someone I feel like I’ve known forever. She would always light up when we’d run into each other at music events. Always asking thoughtful questions and always a good listener. So, so sad to hear of her untimely passing. Valerie O'Conor says Our country horsey family, where everybody knows everybody, is utterly bereft. I’m a Johnny Come Lately to Minnesota, it being 1983 when I arrived. Sarah was one of my first friends, way back then. She is forever part of the elemental fabric of this place for me and so many others, and forever in my heart. I miss you, Sarah. Dear sweet Sarah. Chris Geller says Sarah was such a lovely person to be around. So sorry that she is gone. The comments about her arriving late towards the end of dances made me smile remembering the same thing. May her memory be a blessing to all that knew her. Dear Sarah- my neighbor & friend. You were the bright light for me in this neighborhood. Our “visits” outside on your property while our dogs playing together, walks along the Crow, going to a local barn dance, your visits to my store… This community will miss you. I am happy that you were in your “happy place”on your property when you passed…but we are all sad that we will not see your smiling face. Your spirit will live on… Linda Breitag says Wow. What a shock and loss. Sarah seemed to thoroughly enjoy life and spread positive energy with ease – a rare gift. I didn’t know her well but always felt warmly welcomed by Sarah in any situation. That smile. Mike Muehlbach says I’ll always remember Sarah showing up late for that last waltz. RIP Doug Lohman says The news is so sad, to know that Sarah, who was always sunshine at an event, is no longer on this earth. Her smile was so infectious. She brought light when she entered a room. I remember her always coming late to our gigs with the Bone Tones and New Riverside Ramblers. Such a giving person, too. My memories of her will always be fond ones. Lucinda Plaisance says I’m so very sorry to hear this. A small group of friends were scheduled to have dinner with her Sept. 28 and were disappointed when she didn’t join us. I loved seeing her at music shows and community events. She was interesting, engaged, and always kind, gentle and positive — a bright light. She will be missed. Sally Hauser says Although Sarah danced to a different tune, she made music everywhere she went. Such a kind and gentle woman who was taken too soon. My deepest sympathy to her family and all her friends for whom she would do anything to brighten their day. Richard Parnell says And a lovely tune it was…embodying the love that is possible in this noisy, fearful world…she danced to it with a grace that inspired others to join in and become more fully human, more fully alive…she invited us into her dance and warmed our souls with her earthy music. I am so sad, but so grateful. May all remember and celebrate her grace, and honor it by sharing such love with others as she did…peace…(fitting visual for the mast of this memorial message board: the dancing Northern Lights…maybe just above the trees of a beloved farm…shuffling to the rhythm of horses’ hooves) Thank You Sarah!	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1872
__label__wiki	0.533419	0.533419	Elevator to the Gallows (1958) Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (original title) Not Rated \| 1h 31min \| Crime, Drama, Thriller \| 29 January 1958 (France) A self-assured businessman murders his employer, the husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events. Roger Nimier (adaptation), Louis Malle (adaptation) \| 3 more credits » Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly \| See full cast & crew » Noir City: Hollywood — The 21st Annual Los Angeles Festival of Film Noir 03 April 2019 \| SydneysBuzz The Best of Movie Poster of the Day: Part 19 02 November 2018 \| MUBI Elevator to the Gallows 03 March 2018 \| Trailers from Hell Cannes 2015: Classics 1950-1959 (Top 50) Project Suicide My Criterions Los Cartones criterion fgn Search for "Elevator to the Gallows" on Amazon.com Title: Elevator to the Gallows (1958) The Best French Movies of the 20th Century The Best Classic French Romance Vive le crime! 50s Psychological Thrillers Dusting Off '50s Celluloid Most Iconic French Score 1 win. See more awards » The Lovers (1958) Saddled with a dull husband and a foolish lover, a woman has an affair with a stranger. Director: Louis Malle Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Alain Cuny, Jean-Marc Bory The Fire Within (1963) Alain Leroy is having a course of treatment in a private hospital because of his problem with alcohol. Although he is constantly distressed, he leaves the hospital and tries to meet good ... See full summary » Stars: Maurice Ronet, Léna Skerla, Yvonne Clech Drama \| War A French boarding school run by priests seems to be a haven from World War II until a new student arrives. He becomes the roommate of the top student in his class. Rivals at first, the roommates form a bond and share a secret. Stars: Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejtö, Francine Racette Crime \| Thriller Four men plan a technically perfect crime, but the human element intervenes... Stars: Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, Robert Manuel Lacombe, Lucien (1974) Drama \| Romance \| War In 1944, an 18-year old boy from small-town France, collaborates with the Nazi-regime and subsequently falls in love with a Jewish girl. Stars: Pierre Blaise, Aurore Clément, Holger Löwenadler Army of Shadows (1969) An account of underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France. Director: Jean-Pierre Melville Stars: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel Zazie dans le Métro (1960) Comedy \| Fantasy With her mother away for the weekend, a brash and precocious ten-year-old country-girl sets out to explore Paris during a Métro strike, under her uncle's not-so-watchful eye. Can a little girl cause so much chaos in the heart of the city? Stars: Catherine Demongeot, Philippe Noiret, Hubert Deschamps Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) A French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war. Director: Alain Resnais Stars: Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas Bob le Flambeur (1956) Crime \| Drama \| Thriller After losing big, an aging gambler decides to assemble a team to rob a casino. Stars: Roger Duchesne, Isabelle Corey, Daniel Cauchy Le Cercle Rouge (1970) After leaving prison, master thief Corey crosses paths with a notorious escapee and an alcoholic former policeman. The trio proceed to plot an elaborate heist. Stars: Alain Delon, Bourvil, Gian Maria Volontè Le Samouraï (1967) Certificate: GP Crime \| Drama \| Mystery After professional hitman Jef Costello is seen by witnesses his efforts to provide himself an alibi drive him further into a corner. Stars: Alain Delon, François Périer, Nathalie Delon Le Deuxième Souffle (1966) A gangster escapes jail and quickly makes plans to continue his criminal ways elsewhere, but a determined inspector is closing in. Stars: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Raymond Pellegrin Jeanne Moreau ... Florence Carala Maurice Ronet ... Julien Tavernier Georges Poujouly ... Louis Yori Bertin ... Véronique Jean Wall ... Simon Carala Elga Andersen ... Frieda Bencker Sylviane Aisenstein ... Yvonne, La fille du bar Micheline Bona ... Geneviève Gisèle Grandpré ... Jacqueline Mauclair Jacqueline Staup ... Anna Marcel Cuvelier ... Le réceptionniste du motel Gérard Darrieu ... Maurice Charles Denner ... L'adjoint du commissaire Cherrier Hubert Deschamps ... Le substitut du procureur Jacques Hilling ... Le garagiste Florence Carala and her lover, Julien Tavernier, want to murder her husband - Julien's boss - by faking his suicide. But after Julien's killed him, and had left, he remembers he's forgotten the rope outside the window which could implicate him, and he returns to the building to remove it Written by Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de> french noir \| war veteran \| france \| murder investigation \| couple \| See All (174) » More Thrills and Suspense and Daring! See more » Rialto Pictures French \| German 29 January 1958 (France) See more » Elevator to the Gallows See more » 29 Rue de Courcelles, Paris 8, Paris, France See more » $7,354, 26 June 2005 Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF) See more » 91 min (copyright length) Mono (Western Electric Sound System) The German tourists' Mercedes-Benz 300SL W198 "Gullwing" was the fastest production car of its day. It is the first production car with direct fuel injection, which is why the characters mention that the engine has no carburetors. See more » When Florence is arriving at the motel, the photos are just being developed - with the lights on brightly! Exposing the prints to light before fixation would make them turn black. By the way: It's not recommended to dive your hands into developer. See more » Julien Tavernier: How many billions did the Indochina War bring you? And now Algeria, how much? Featured in Zomergasten: Episode #20.2 (2007) See more » L'Assassinat De Carala Composed by Miles Davis Performed by Miles Davis (Trumpet), Barney Wilen (Tenor Saxophone), René Urtreger (Piano), Pierre Michelot (Bass) and Kenny Clarke (Drums) naturalistic to a T, cool to the bone, atmosphere and suspense pay-off 26 August 2005 \| by Quinoa1984 – See all my reviews I've only seen a couple of other of Louis Malle's films, but I'm sure I'll want to see more after getting to see this in its revival in theaters. It's an ironic, tense, a little aloof and engrossing thriller that plays on a couple of expectations if not all. At times I almost felt like I was watching a darker, dramatic French-noir version of Curb Your Enthusiasm; you're cringing in your seat at times because everything, at least for the first hour, seems realistic, and the inter-cutting between the three plot-lines (Julien in the elevator, Florence on the streets, the lovers-on-the-run at the Motel). You know something bad will happen, as par for the style Malle is working in (it's his first film, one can/can't tell if they didn't know beforehand). But it interested me, and kept me in my seat, how I knew things may unravel as they should in these films, and I found myself having to root for someone in a sea of anti-heroes. I mention Curb Your Enthusiasm as there is a sort of everyday occurrence that basically kicks off the plot (in tune with the genius title of the film), as Julien Tavaneur gets stuck in an elevator after getting rid of Florence Carala's rich husband (Moreau's character). Two kids, one more dangerous (if a little inexplicable, Louis) than the other, steal his car and stay at a Motel, where they meet a genial German tourist. Out of bad luck (as it is a running theme of the play), he kills the German, and things get more out of hand for everybody. In fact, the plot is rather thin, leaving room for a) suspense tenseness in the elevator scenes (and later in the interrogation scene, superbly lit), b) narrative musings by the calm Moreau, or c) troubles of the kids. These narratives are handled well, along with the typical police procedural, and it leads up to an ending that may not necessarily have a message to it. It can't be as pat as 'crime doesn't pay'. Moreau, in a classy close-up, says things that struck a chord with me, as did many parts of the film. It may be fate, as par for the naturalism, but is there something behind the cool veneer? The only downside for me was with the performance of the actor who played Louis. I didn't think he gave enough to what is indeed a rather small-minded character. The actress who plays his girlfriend fares fine, but he is one of the keys to the film, and I felt a little uneasy watching some of his scenes later on in the film. But still, any fault(s) I had with the film were minuscule when looking at how it is overall. This is one of those films that for pretty much the whole way through had me in its grip; I've rarely felt that watching a 'film-noir' before, but I did feel a very small kinship to another love/lust/cold-murder film, Blood Simple, which leaped off of some of the conventions we all know and admire in these films. And the contribution from Miles Davis, who is to 'cool' as the Beatles are to love & peace, can't be over-estimated. If Moreau gives the film a kind of downtrodden, wandering and wondering soul, and Malle gives the right look of the film with the great Henri (Le Samourai) Decae as DP, Davis backs up everything else. Sometimes his fast, overwhelming notes come through (mostly as on-the-set background music), and his slower music is landmark stuff, but what's surprising is that he can also add suspense, like to the elevator and interrogation scenes, and the mood is inescapable. I wouldn't be surprised if more than a few filmmakers who saw this film were inspired by Malle's use of free-flow jazz to add to the 'cool-ness' of the picture (not that he was the first of course, but it can be spotted in many films, in particular Herrmann's score for Taxi Driver). I have a feeling this may be the kind of film that will play better on multiple viewings, and for now I'm content to say it was a very well-spent trip.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1874
__label__cc	0.67979	0.32021	Ruth’s Skills Contact Ruth October 1, 2018 by Ruth McGowan Ruth McGowan No Comments About to fire your CEO? Do it right! “Our organisation is seeking a different leadership style going forward“. “The Board wishes to test the CEO market and see what’s out there”. “The Managing Director has decided to retire.” Sound familiar? From the leadership of this country to your local council, lately, it seems a lot of bosses are getting the flick. Last month, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was rolled by his party colleagues (without much explanation). Then there was the termination of the contract of ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie by the ABC Board (for her ‘leadership style’). And now, Elon Musk has been forced to step aside as Tesla chair (because of a legal settlement). Add to this the high level of CEO churn which has hit more than 50% of Victorian councils and it seems that ‘giving the boss the boot’ is becoming increasingly common. If you find yourself in the position of needing to ‘move the CEO on’ would you know what to do? Or, how would you respond if your CEO drops a bombshell that they are leaving and hands you their resignation? Do you have a plan? Most Councillors and board members at some stage of their term need to contemplate a change in the CEO. If this happens to you, get the next steps right. Otherwise, risk reputational damage to the organisation, impact staff morale and incur excessive legal costs or a media backlash. Should you sack the boss? Showing your CEO the exit door is not a decision to be taken lightly. On one hand, the costs to the organisation are significant. Not to mention the personal costs to your (soon-to-be-former) CEO. Replacing a CEO is time-consuming, expensive, and potentially disruptive – the implementation of board decisions can be left in limbo, staff morale can plummet and there is always the risk that the new CEO will not perform any better. Before rushing to dismiss the CEO, the board must balance the costs of replacement against the potential benefits. Better Boards On the other hand, if you have been elected to a local council (or appointed to a board), you have an obligation to recruit and manage the best talent possible to lead your organisation. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out. The CEO may have a different focus for the direction of the organisation that is incompatible with the council or board’s vision. Alternatively, if you have lost faith in the CEO’s leadership or if they are under-performing, you have a duty to move them on. Especially if they have acted illegally or unprofessionally. If you’re contemplating sacking the CEO, here are some points to consider before putting the boot in. Plan the transition Before the firing the CEO put these three plans in place; the CEO performance plan, a communications plan and a succession plan. The CEO performance plan is the main tool to assess whether your CEO is meeting expectations. Once the decision has been made, the board/council should develop a communication strategy around the announcement which will be made by the Chair/Mayor. Then, ideally, the board or council will implement a succession process for either the retiring CEO to gradually transition out of the organisation or they will appoint an executive manager to step into the acting role during the recruitment process for a new CEO. Also, consider the timing of the decision. Ideally not before or just after local government elections when stability in leadership should be a priority. Utilise the Performance Plan The CEO Performance Plan is the evidence base which ideally informs the decision to end the CEO relationship with the organisation. Managed well, this Plan will illustrate the trends that identify problems and help to justify subsequent action to terminate a contract. For example, feedback could show a surge in staff turnover, scathing feedback from stakeholders or plummeting staff and community satisfaction results. If the CEO is under-performing or failing to meet board/council expectations, the case should be clear and mutually agreed; the CEO needs to move on. Don’t leave it too late. “Academic research shows boards err on the side of taking too long to change CEOs. In some cases, underperforming CEOs remain at companies for years before change is made and only leave after a crisis,” AICD If the CEO is planning to retire, or maybe has career ambitions elsewhere, the performance planning process can facilitate frank discussions about his/her intentions to leave. The exit can then be managed in a way that minimises disruption for the organisation. Manage the message A communication plan is imperative to manage the messaging around the reasons why the CEO was ‘let go’. Implement the plan with advice from communication specialists and legal and ideally, input from the ex-CEO so that his/her dignity and reputation can remain intact. It is important to clearly explain why a CEO has been fired and to be as honest as possible in the circumstances. The message should then be delivered with authority by the Mayor (or Chair of the board). If you are stuck, here are some well-used phrases: We are seeking a change in direction for organisation leadership We’ve decided we needed to test the market and see what’s out there We will not be renewing her contract as we seek a change in leadership style He’s resigned for family (or personal) reasons He’s accepted employment elsewhere for his career development The CEO has tendered her resignation to explore other employment opportunities He has decided it is time for him to retire Before you fire a CEO, seek legal advice and ensure you follow applicable employment law as well as the specific clauses in the CEO contract. Check the fine print! Ideally, have the severance package approved and ready to go. It will be a vital part of that difficult conversation the Mayor (or Chair) will need to have with the CEO to let him/her know that time is up. Be fair in the redundancy package but avoid the legal implications of paying out too much (a mistake made by the City of Ararat Council and investigated in a state government commission of inquiry in 2017.) Have a strategy for what next Following the announcement, the Councillors (or board) now need to consider what’s next? At this point, the continuity of organisational operations is the main consideration. It’s now time to pay close attention to addressing the disruptions that will inevitably occur with the changes following the termination of a CEO’s contract. As people adjust to the change, this time can also be an opportunity to signal a refocus of the organisation. It’s also important the Councillors (or Board members) use this time to have frank discussions and reflect on what has been learnt from the experience. For instance; is there a need to refine the CEO position description? How well were expectations communicated to the CEO through the performance plan process? How can support and feedback to the CEO be improved in the future? You will get through this The various stages of the grief cycle predict acceptance will eventually follow on from the initial shock and anger that may surround the news of the firing of a CEO (or the departure of one who’s been there forever). If you find yourself in the position of having to fire the boss, you will get through the next stage with care and planning. Ruth McGowan OAM is a consultant, coach and trainer to local government. She supports Councillors as an independent, expert adviser in the recruitment and performance management of their CEO as well as the departure. As a former Mayor, Councillor and a member of a number of boards she has first-hand experience of having to ‘move-on’ the CEO. Follow Ruth on LinkedIn Political savvy is a critical competency for astute leaders. Woman interrupted . . . Get Elected Flexibility shouldn’t be a stretch Vee on Why (would a woman go into) Politics? See how Ruth can help Meet Ruth All Ruths's Services © 2017 Ruth McGowan Pty Ltd.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1887
__label__cc	0.601809	0.398191	Science Grows Jobs! ISS LiveStream Tag Archives: indoors Bringing Thunder and Lightning Indoors Posted on 04/28/2014 by edavis0528 Originating Technology/ NASA Contribution Piezoelectric materials convert mechanical energy into electrical energy and electrical energy into mechanical energy. They generate electrical charges in response to mechanical stress and generate mechanical displacement and/or force when subjected to an electric current. Scientists at Langley Research Center have developed a piezoelectric device that is superior in many ways to those that used to be the only ones commercially available. It is tougher, has far greater displacement and greater mechanical load capacity for a comparative voltage operation, can be easily produced at a relatively low cost, and lends itself well to mass production. Face International Corporation has a manufacturing plant in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where it mass produces the Thunder and Lightning piezoelectric components. The NASA-developed piezoelectric device is also unique in that it is more efficient in extracting electrical energy from the mechanical energy that goes in. It works on a simple principle. A thin ceramic piezoelectric wafer is sandwiched between an aluminum sheet and a steel sheet and held together with LaRC-SI, an amorphous thermoplastic adhesive with special properties created by NASA at Langley. The sandwich is heated in an autoclave, and the adhesive melts. When the sandwich cools, the adhesive bonds the parts together into one piezoelectric element. While they cool, the components of the element contract at different rates, since they are made of different materials. This differential shrinkage causes the element to warp in either a convex or concave shape, depending on which way it is oriented. The shrinking of the outside metal layers places the inside piezoelectric ceramic under mechanical stress. If the element is cantilevered by clamping one side and then plucked, it reverberates like a diving board that has just ejected a diver. This way, a small amount of mechanical energy can result in a relatively long period of electrical generation. When the piezoelectric element is used for the creation of electricity, it is called Lightning. This same sandwiched piezoelectric wafer can also convert electrical energy into mechanical energy. Then, it is called Thunder. Electricity goes in, excites the element, and then, mechanical energy in the form of movement is generated. Face International Corporation, of Norfolk, Virginia, holds several licenses to the Langley piezoelectric technology, including the patent on LaRC-SI and the exclusive international marketing rights. Face is now manufacturing a commercial version in mass quantities with its manufacturing partner, Sunnytec Company Ltd., at a new plant in Taiwan. Product Outcome When completely assembled, the Lightning Switch looks much like a typical garage door opener. The first mass application of this piezoelectric technology is Face International’s Lightning Switch. The Lightning Switch is a wireless, batteryless, remote-controlled light switch, a way to install or replace light switches without any new wiring and without batteries. It is certified for use in the United States and Canada. Test marketing of the Lightning Switch product started rather humbly last fall, with three mall kiosks in Hampton Roads, Virginia, and an Internet site devoted to the device. During the test marketing, the product was also aimed at holiday shoppers who might want a remote switch for turning on and off Christmas lights. Holiday revelers who plugged the lights in behind the tree and would otherwise have to move mounds of gifts could now turn the lights on and off without having to brave the tinsel. The Lightning Switch consists of a remote control transmitter that is modeled after a standard European light switch and a receiver that either plugs into an electrical socket or is wired into an electrical junction box. Pushing the button on the remote control generates enough electricity to send a coded radio signal to the receiver to switch on whatever is plugged or wired into the receiver. Holiday sales at the kiosks were promising, and Internet sales also contributed to the early success, but these were essentially a marketing experiment for Face International. Serious efforts to penetrate the North American market are underway during this second half of 2005 as Face International begins offering the Lightning Switch for sale through electrical supply houses. The Lightning Switch mounts anywhere and requires no wiring. Although it was, in part, marketed as a device for turning on and off Christmas lights, the customers have found many additional, clever uses for the Lightning Switch. The majority of people have used it to install, replace, or rewire lighting controls without the hassle and cost of knocking holes in the walls and ceilings, or having to hire an electrician. The Lightning Switch installs in minutes and can save hundreds of dollars per switch in rewiring costs. A popular use of the Lightning Switch is in leased or rental properties, where certain tenants may want a switch in one spot, while the next resident may want to have the switch elsewhere. With this device, both can be accommodated, and with no added expenditure by the landlord. Other uses that customers have found for the device include a taxi-calling system for hotel bellmen; as a call-for-assistance system in assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and hospitals; a control lift for the elderly or disabled; and a signal for a casino table dealer to call for drinks or additional chips. In addition, it has been used as a notification system for doctors to indicate to nurses when they are ready for the next patient, to trigger lights on the end of a boat dock, as a safety alert for factory floors, in foot switches for wireless tattoo guns, and to control heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning elements. Customers have found it helpful for controlling landscape lighting, fountains, and pumps for ponds, and as a safe electrical device in wet areas, such as by pools or hot tubs. Some have even planned to employ it for grounds security, with the transmitters packaged to be put in the ground, on doors, gates, and entryways, for permanent wireless and batteryless intruder alerts. Design-oriented entrepreneurs at retail establishments have used the Lightning Switch as a control for store fixture lighting, while art collectors have used it for backlighting framed pieces. So, while it was being marketed in malls as a Christmas light switch, consumers saw even more potential. Worker in a cleanroom at the plant in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where the piezoelectric elements are manufactured. The plant has the capability to produce tens of thousands of pieces per month. During this test marketing phase, Brad Face, Face International president, had even larger plans. He was in negotiations to have a manufacturing plant erected to meet the growing need for this technology in additional applications. The new plant, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, opened in February 2005. It manufactures and assembles the Lightning Switch products as well as Lightning and Thunder piezoelectric elements. The manufacturing lines mainly consist of machinery that was designed and built for the express purpose of making these products. It gives Face International the capacity to produce 30,000 Lightning or Thunder piezoelectric elements, 30,000 Lightning transmitters, and 100,000 receivers each month. The capacity can be increased in increments of 30,000 by adding work shifts or duplicating the manufacturing line. With this capability, the company is prepared to respond to any demand. There is a large demand developing for these products and not only in North America. Currently, Face International is in contract negotiations with housing development contractors in South Africa, where the Lightning products have the potential to save builders millions of dollars annually. Houses can be assembled quicker without electrical wiring to the switches, and at considerable savings of skilled labor and materials. The Lightning Switch can then be used to install switches in houses after construction. Beyond the Lightning Switch, Face International has other applications of the NASA-invented piezoelectric element in development. Using the Thunder version of this piezoelectric product, Face International is working on improving hearing loss assessment technologies. Assessment of hearing loss is normally conducted by testing for minimum sound level detection. There are two forms of tests used for the basic evaluation of auditory function. The first, air-conduction testing, involves presenting precisely calibrated sounds to the ears, usually by routing the signals through headphones to the external ear canal. The second, bone-conduction testing, sends precisely calibrated vibrations through the bones of the skull to the inner ear system. Stimulation is received at the skull by placing a transducer either on the mastoid region behind the ear to be tested or through transducer placement on the forehead. Face International Corporation has partnered with the Hearing Center of the Hollins Communications Research Institute to create durable and accurate hearing test equipment using the NASA piezoelectric technology. There has been a long-standing problem inherent in the construction and function of bone-conduction transducers used in auditory testing. Typically, these devices have been restricted in the usable frequency range, particularly above 4000 Hertz, and they have been limited in the amplitude with which sound can be presented to the skull. Bone-conduction transducers have relied on electromechanical components to generate the vibrations. Such transducers do not operate in a linear manner, and, as a result, individual audiometers must be calibrated to the idiosyncratic properties of the bone-conduction transducer to be used with that system. A further problem arises when the transducers are used on a daily basis. When dropped, the transducers frequently break or alter their output characteristics. Researchers at the Hearing Center of the Hollins Communications Research Institute (HCRI), in Roanoke, Virginia, have been working on development of a new audiometric system for hearing assessment. They have partnered with Face International to create a new bone-conduction transducer that would overcome the major shortcomings of traditional transducers. The new transducers are the correct physical size, with the desired frequency range, linear operation across the relevant range, significant increases in power levels, and they come in a rugged package. The new HCRI/Face International bone-conduction transducers hold up to daily clinical use and even passed the informal stress tests of being dropped on the floor repeatedly. Brad Face alludes to other applications, most of which are still in their infancy. But with the ability of the new manufacturing plant to create as many of the elements as he could need, and the myriad uses customers are finding for the technology, the applications are limitless. Lightning® and Thunder® are registered trademarks of Face International Corporation. Lightning Switch™ is a trademark of Face International Corporation. Posted in On the Ground, Uncategorized \| Tagged Communications, Corporation, Face, HCRI, Hearing, Hollins, indoors, Institute, International, lightning, NASA, NSF, Research, Science, Sound, space, Switch, technology, thunder \| 1 Reply	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1892
__label__cc	0.687699	0.312301	What Color of Light Do Plants Absorb? ••• Jupiterimages/BananaStock/Getty Images What Happens During Photosynthesis in Plants? By Edriaan Koening White light contains various colors, including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. When plants harvest light for photosynthesis, they only absorb a few colors and reflect the rest. Plants have several types of pigments, which absorb different light colors. The main pigment in plants is known as chlorophyll. Other accessory pigments include carotenoids. Chlorophyll mainly absorbs violet, blue and red light, reflecting lighter blue, green and yellow light. Carotenoids absorb much of the light blue and green light, reflecting lighter green, yellow, orange and red light. For green plants that mainly use chlorophyll to absorb light, blue light helps leaves to grow, while red light together with blue light helps flowers to bloom. Fluorescent light produces plenty of blue light, making it good for starting seedlings and promoting leafy growth. Oregon State University Extension: Light Edriaan Koening began writing professionally in 2005, while studying toward her Bachelor of Arts in media and communications at the University of Melbourne. She has since written for several magazines and websites. Koening also holds a Master of Commerce in funds management and accounting from the University of New South Wales. Characteristics of Aquatic Plants Test Your Knowledge on Middle School Science How to Calculate the Midrange What Is the Role of Carotenoids in Photosynthesis? What Kind of Plants Live in the Bamboo Forest?	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1893
__label__cc	0.587245	0.412755	Archive for November 21st, 2014 First look and behind the scenes of Syfy’s Ascension It’s just a few weeks away – Syfy’s three night event series (and backdoor pilot) Ascension starts Wednesday, December 15th. Check out this first look at life aboard the U.S.S. Ascension and some behind the scenes featurettes! Comments Off on First look and behind the scenes of Syfy’s Ascension :ascension, syfy more... Shatner travels to Haven for four episode run The Shat hits the fan next year on Haven! William Shatner (Star Trek) is set to guest star in a four-episode arc on the Syfy fan-favorite series in 2015. Shatner will play a pivotal character that has the potential to forever impact the fate of the town of Haven and its troubled residents. [Why can I picture Shatner playing opposite Colin Ferguson’s evil William with a insult war going on?] This year, Haven (airing Fridays at 7PM ET/PT), barrels towards its game-changing mid-season finale with the last two episodes of 2014. In “Chemistry” (airing November 28), divided loyalties put Haven’s heroes at odds with one another, while a terrifying revelation changes everything. Jay Reso – also known as WWE Superstar Christian Cage – appears in the episode, reuniting with his real-life, lifelong friend and former tag-team partner, Adam Copeland (WWE Superstar Edge Rated R), who plays Dwight. In a recurring guest role, Reso will play McHugh, one of Dwight’s oldest and closest friends. Then, in the mid-season finale “Chosen” (December 5), a shocking revelation threatens to upend the fragile stability of Haven. Mara’s endgame is finally revealed, while Audrey (Emily Rose) and Nathan (Lucas Bryant) pursue a plan to stop her once and for all. There’s more Haven to come as the series returns to Syfy in 2015 with 13 all-new episodes. Shatner, Reso, Laura Mennell (Alphas) and Kris Lemche (Joan of Arcadia) are among the guest stars to be featured when the series returns next year. Comments Off on Shatner travels to Haven for four episode run :haven more...	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1895
__label__cc	0.731355	0.268645	En marxistisk analys av Tolkien – del 5 Postat maj 14, 2013 av Anders Svensson Analysen är gjord av den brittiske marxisten John Molyneux som var (är?) medlem i brittiska och irländska SWP. Den är lång, så jag delar upp den på flera inlägg. Detta är det femte. Texten är tagen från Molyneux egen blogg. John Molyneux Tolkien’s world – a Marxist Analysis, part 5 On Evaluating Tolkien I have not so far offered any aesthetic evaluation of Tolkien as this was not the purpose of the article, but I am aware that such evaluation is one of the main things many readers look for in any such review of literary work. I am also aware that the analysis I have outlined does have evaluative implications; moreover I think it is possible, likely even, that my analysis will be interpreted in unintended ways. On the one hand the diagnosis of Tolkien’s worldview as conservative, reactionary and feudalist with an admixture of racism and sexism will be seen in some quarters as implying a strongly negative judgment on its literary merits. On the other I suspect that my affection for the text, which is considerable, shows through and may be taken as signifying a very high estimation of Tolkien’s literary standing. Since my actual view lies between these poles it seems advisable to conclude with a brief statement of it. Like Trotsky, who put the matter very clearly in ‘Class and Art’ (L.Trotsky, On Literature and Art, Pathfinder, New York, 1977, pp 63-88), and Marx, judging by his fondness for Aeschylus, Shakespeare and Balzac, I do not think artistic merit or demerit can be read off from the artist’s progressive or reactionary ideology, even where that ideology is strongly embedded in the work. For example the evident fact that Kipling, Eliot, Pound, Lawrence, Yeats, Faulkner and Celine were right wingers of one sort or another does not make them poor writers or necessarily inferior to say, William Morris, Robert Tressell, George Orwell, W.H.Auden, Upton Sinclair and Edward Upward of the left. I do not even accept that the revolutionary implications of Shelley’s ‘Ode to the West Wind’ make it a greater poem than Keats’ ‘escapist’ ‘Ode to a Nightingale’. However I am in favour, as in this piece on Tolkien, of bringing out the political implications of work (whether progressive or reactionary), not pretending they don’t exist and I think that sometimes it can be shown that an artist’s political stance substantially affects the quality of their work either positively or negatively. For example, in general terms, a sexist novelist might be likely to have difficulty with creating powerful women characters, and, specifically, T S Eliot’s poetry was damaged by his anti-semitic tendencies. On the other hand Michelangelo’s sympathy with progressive republican forces in Renaissance Italy was a significant factor in the awesome tragic vision of his later years.[See John Molyneux, ‘Michelangelo and human emancipation’, ISJ 128]. In relation to Tolkien I have shown how his conservative ‘feudalism’ lays the basis for his aesthetic appeal, when combined, of course, with his powerful imagination and strong narrative skills.[ Carl Freedman’s condemnation of ‘the tedious flatness of much, though not all, of the prose’, (Carl Freedman, ‘A note on Marxism and Fantasy’, Historical Materialism, Vol 10 Issue 4 p263) does not correspond to my experience of it ]. But at the same time it seriously limits Tolkien’s aesthetic achievement in two ways which are of fundamental importance in modern literature. First it precludes the possibility of linguistic innovation. Much of the greatest modern literature, whether Eliot or Joyce, Kafka or Beckett, Brecht or Ginsburg, Lorca or Pinter has been engaged in forging new ways of using the language, in ‘keeping it up’ in dynamic tension with the evolution of spoken language, the so-called ‘vernacular’ [In the same way that Cezanne, Picasso, Kandinsky, Malevich, Mondrian, Ernst, Miro, Pollock, Warhol and others, participated in the development of our collective means of visual expression]. Tolkien was not, and did not wish to be, part of this. Second, it is the task of modern literature/art to explore and confront the difficulty – the extreme difficulty – emotionally, morally, psychologically, economically, politically, etc of living in the modern world , a world of intense and complex alienation. Tolkien’s location of his narrative in the idealised feudal past means that he evades this task. He simply does not have to deal with modern social relations in the way that all the writers cited in the previous paragraph, and many others, do. As Freedman rightly says, ‘Middle-earth leaves out most of what makes us real human beings living in a real historical society…the great majority of the actual material interests- economic, political, ideological, sexual – that drive individuals and societies are silently erased’. [Freedman op.cit p.263]. This problem is compounded by the extreme moral bi-polarity of Tolkien’s world, which is clearly derived from his conservative Christianity. From first to last the history of Middle Earth and the wider history of all creation is dominated by a simple struggle between extra-human ‘good’ and ‘evil’. It is true that this struggle goes on WITHIN a number of individuals – Denethor, Boromir, Smeagol/Gollum, Saruman, and Frodo himself are all examples – but it remains enormously oversimplified compared with the ambiguities, nuances, knots, complexities, tangles and so on that characterize real life. These weaknesses do not render Tolkien’s work unenjoyable or worthless. He is clearly the master of a particular genre of fantasy, which largely shares those weaknesses (though not wholly, as China Mieville’s trilogy set in the alternative present of New Crobuzon shows) but not a master of modern literature as a whole. 31 October , 2010 Del 1 (Part 1), Del 2 (Part 2), Del 3 (Part3), Del 4 (Part4) Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om John Molyneux, J.R.R. Tolkien, Marxism,Silmarillion, Sagan om ringen, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Return of the King,Sagan om konungens återkomst, Sagan om de två tornen, The Two Towers, Midgård,Middle Earth, Det här inlägget postades i Science Fiction och märktes J.R.R.Tolkien, John Molyneux, Lord of the Rings, Marxism, Middle Earth, Midgård, Sagan om de två tornen, Sagan om konungens återkomst, Sagan om ringen, Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Return of the King, The Two Towers av Anders Svensson. Bokmärk permalänken.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1901
__label__cc	0.740818	0.259182	Wireless VoIP market to grow rapidly VoIP and Voice over Wi-Fi markets are expected to be strong in 2007 and remain so through 2012. Kate Dostart, Associate Editor Voice over wireless and WLAN sales to the enterprise are poised to grow strongly in the next five years, jumping from $2 billion in 2007 to $15 billion by 2012, according to a recent report from Juniper Research. Such rapid growth is expected especially within the VoIP WLAN switch and mobility controller markets. Total expenditure is expected to be at almost $8 billion by 2012, growing from a current level of less than $1 billion. The North American market alone, with expected 2007 revenues of $500 million, will reportedly grow to $2.7 billion in 2012. Supporting the need for VoIP WLAN switches and controllers, $155 million worth of VoIP Wi-Fi handsets, particularly the single mode handsets, are expected to ship in 2007. Shipment revenues are expected to reach $1.5 billion in 2012. The North American market will show strong growth in the next five years, with expected revenues of $600 million in 2012, up from a 2007 showing of $93 million. VoIP access points are also predicted to show extremely strong growth in the next five years. Though revenues for VoIP access points stand currently at just under $1 billion, they are expected to grow to more than $5 billion by 2012. Current North American revenues stand at $442 million. Juniper Research's report found that Cisco, during the next few years, will continue to be the undisputed leader in both the enterprise VoIP access point market and the VoIP WLAN switch/mobility controller market. Spectralink, recently acquired by Polycom, will lead the market for single mode VoIP over Wi-Fi handsets -- helped along by its OEM relationships with Avaya, Alcatel and Nortel, among others. Basharat Hamid Ashai, author of the Juniper Research report, said that it will be difficult for any vendor to overcome Cisco's strong hold on the market because of Cisco's worldwide presence and huge available resources. He added that although they are not yet big or diverse enough to unseat Cisco as an overall VoIP market leader, other vendors, including Aruba Networks, Trapeze Networks, Proxim Wireless and Meru Networks, are in place to grow at a steady pace and on a par with one another. Mist Wi-Fi no longer just cloud By: Antone Gonsalves AI-powered WLAN behind Juniper-Mist acquisition Brocade acquisition to attract several buyers for unwanted Ruckus WLAN Brocade's Ruckus buy betters chances in campus WLAN market Deploying a Digital Workspace? Three Critical Capabilities to Look For –Citrix Wireless VoIP market to grow rapidly – ComputerWeekly.com Cisco 'leapfrogs' in WLAN switch ranking – SearchNetworking New technologies drive down mobile voice costs – SearchMobileComputing	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1903
__label__wiki	0.946037	0.946037	Grandville Celebrates Champion in D1 Posted Saturday, March 5, 2016 By Nick Hankins AUBURN HILLS – Kam Bush gave the Grandville High School wrestling program and his community something to cheer about Saturday at a time when cheers were fewer than usual at the end of a wrestling season. Because of an unfortunate oversight, the Grandville wrestling team, and most of the individuals on the team, were unable to wrestle in the MHSAA Tournament because the team had too many competition dates during the regular season. Bush, along with three teammates, were able to compete in the postseason because they missed some of the earlier events with injuries or illnesses. Bush made the most of the opportunity, winning a Division 1 title at The Palace of Auburn Hills with a 7-6 win over Ryan Morgan of Rochester at 152 pounds. “This feels amazing knowing that all of the hard work paid off.” Bush said. “(I knew) that this state championship isn’t just for me, but for the whole program. Winning this state championship means a lot to me, but all of the guys that couldn’t wrestle feel like state champs, just like I do right now. “(Grandville coach Bubba Gritter) told us four we were still eligible to wrestle, and he nailed it in our brains that he was sorry for everything that happened, it is now over and we are representing Grandville and we need to come out strong and show everyone we are the Bulldogs,” added Bush, who ended his season with a 44-2 record. Gritter said it was a lesson learned for his program. “We brought all 14 guys down so they could experience this tonight.” Gritter said. “This was a tough year, and it is bittersweet for me. It was a good finish to the season, the best way it could finish for our program.” Champion: Benyamin Kamali, Detroit Catholic Central, Soph. (20-1) Decision, 10-8 SV-1, over Ravon Foley, Ann Arbor Pioneer, Jr. (57-1) Kamali was part of a special night for the Shamrocks, as he was one of five Detroit Catholic Central champions. The Shamrocks were 5 for 5 on the night in title-deciding matches. “I feel amazing, amazing,” Kamali said. “I just kept pushing the pace. I lost to him at Regionals, and I knew I could beat him. It’s just awesome knowing all the hard work you put in pays off. I knew he was tired, so I pushed the pace in overtime to get the takedown.” Champion: Michael Mars, Westland John Glenn, Soph. (52-2) Fall, 1:09, over Max Johnson, Davison, Sr. (30-1) Mars may have been a little nervous before his championship match with Johnson, but it sure didn’t show. Mars wasted little time in winning his second title, pinning Johnson in one minute, nine seconds. “It feels really good,” Mars said. “I was a little worried at the beginning of the match, but I stayed calm and finished the match. It feels amazing finishing with a pin and hearing the crowd roar.” Champion: Kevon Davenport, Detroit Catholic Central, Fr. (47-3) Decision, 8-1, over AJ Facundo, Davison, Soph. (31-10) Davenport proved he is one of the top freshmen in a strong freshmen class statewide this year. He handled returning champion Facundo, 8-1, in their 119-pound match. “I feel really ecstatic right now,” Davenport said. “All the hard work I am putting in has paid off. I want to thank my family, God, my coaches and all my siblings for supporting me all of these years. I knew that if I just kept working hard, it would pay off.” Champion: Cameron Amine, Detroit Catholic Central, Fr. (39-9) Decision, 6-0, Donte Rivera-Garcia, Southgate Anderson, Jr. (54-3) Another Detroit Catholic Central contender, another championship. And another impressive win, as Amine beat past finalist Rivera-Garcia, 6-0. “I feel great right now,” Amine said. “We were five for five as a team. It was a lot of motivation watching everyone win in front of me. “I come from a great wrestling family that helps me and inspires me to be my best everyday.” Champion: Noah Schoenherr, Bay City Western, Jr. (49-2) Decision, 7-6, over Tyler Sanders, Macomb Dakota, Soph. (55-7) A move up in divisions didn’t affect Noah Schoenherr. He came back off his loss in the Division 2 Finals a year ago with an exciting 7-6 win over Sanders. “This is the best feeling in the world,” Schoenherr said. “It was the last match of the year. I had to give it everything, all I had to get it done. “My goal was to beat my brother Chris (in MHSAA titles won; Chris won last season at 145). He helps me whenever he can, mainly on my feet. I learned a lot from last year being a runner-up. I was nervous, and being there helped me with my mindset this year.” Champion: Ben Freeman, Walled Lake Central, Jr. (42-0) Fall, 1:18, over John Siemasz, Westland John Glenn, Jr. (52-4) He’s arguably the best wrestler in the state in all divisions, and Ben Freeman proved that this weekend, winning four matches on his way to his third MHSAA championship. His last came with a pin in one minute, 18 seconds. “That was pretty cool to finish a tournament like that,” Freeman said. “Yesterday I felt sluggish, but I felt really good in my warm up today – I was ready to go. I just need to stay focused. I set my goals high, so when I get nervous I just think of what I want to accomplish as an ultimate goal – it makes it seem really small.” Champion: Reece Hughes, Hartland, Jr. (51-4) Decision, 7-3, over Alex Hrisopoulos, Oxford, Sr. (51-6) It’s been a great two weeks for Hartland junior Reece Hughes. A week after helping his team win its first MHSAA championship, he won his own individual title with a 7-3 decision over rival Hrisopoulos. “I feel amazing right now; this feels great,” Hughes said. “I knew he was not going to stop, so I knew I had to have him wrestle my pace and my way. So I slowed him down to set up shots better.” About the team championship, he added: “We have two state championship titles in one week. I am proud of my team and how hard we worked all year. This is for all my practice partners: Sage Castillo, Noah Lopez and all of the captains, everyone who was working hard, who got me here to win this title. I am not taking any solo credit for this; it was our team.” Champion: Nathan Atienza, Livonia Franklin, Jr. (57-0) Fall 0:42 over Kajuan Caldwell, Bloomfield Hills, Sr. (26-1) Atienza wasted little time in realizing his dream of an MHSAA championship. He pinned Caldwell in 42 seconds, and just as quickly, jumped to his feet and acknowledged the roaring crowd. “I feel amazing right now,” Atienza said. “I feel like I am on top of the world right now. I was feeling really confident in myself going out there, and I knew there was nothing he could do to stop me – it was mine this year.” Champion: Blake Montrie, Temperance Bedford, Sr. (51-1) Decision, 2-0 SV1, over Nate Vandermeer, Clarkston, Sr. (47-6) History repeated itself for Temperance Bedford senior Blake Montrie. Last year he won an MHSAA title in overtime, and this year he did the same. “It was almost the exact same as last year,” Montrie said. “I finished them both in overtime. (Coach Kevin Vogel) pushes us so hard in the room. I honestly think we are in better condition than anyone in the state. I can go forever, and he has prepared me for that.” Champion: Tyler Morland, Detroit Catholic Central, Jr. (45-1) Decision, 6-2, over Devon Pingel, Lapeer, Sr. (50-4) Morland wanted to avenge his only loss of the year, and went against his rival to do it. Staying in the 171-pound weight class, Moreland beat Pingel to win his first championship. “I purposely went 171 this year (for the postseason) because this was my only loss of the year,“ Morland said. “I came back and beat the kid I lost to; that was all I wanted. I could have gone 189, but that was all I wanted. I prepared for this match, and my coaches got me ready to win. I learned from the loss that I needed to be in better condition, and my coaches prepared me for that. It means everything to join the list of state champs at Catholic Central.” Champion: Brenden McRill, Davison, Jr. (38-2) Decision, 7-6 TB1, over Nicholas May, Kalamazoo Loy Norrix, Sr. (50-1) On a tough night for Davison finalists, McRill brought home a title for the Cardinals with a hard-fought 7-6 overtime win. McRill was one of three Davison finalists, but the only one to earn a championship. “I knew this was going to be a fight,” McRill said. “I studied his state finals match from last year. I wanted this match. It was a good feeling. I got a stall called on me to go into overtime, and it was my fault. I have to get on the attack more to get it done. It feels great to be a state champ for Davison. I feel we have the best wrestling program in the nation. Our coaches are the best around, and it is an honor to wrestle for them.” Champion: Lucas Ready, Brighton, Sr. (41-1) Fall, 1:57, over Sam Kinne, Lapeer, Soph. (48-9) Ready was just as impressive winning his second title as he was winning his first. “This feels pretty good; it feels just like last year,” Ready said. ”It was a lot of fun. I did not expect to pin him that quick. My gameplan was to finish the match as quick as I could, and I executed it tonight. I trained all summer to get back to the top of the podium this year.” Champion: Nicholas Jenkins, Detroit Catholic Central, Jr. (39-10) Decision, 5-1, over Ali Wahab, Dearborn Heights Crestwood, Sr. (60-1) In one of the biggest upsets of the night, Jenkins beat undefeated and returning runner-up Wahab. “It was crazy as time expired,” Jenkins said. “I feel amazing right now. I am on top of the world. A lot of preparation and a lot of hard work over the past year have led me to this point. Our coaches have prepared me to get to this point in my career, and we had a game plan going into this match, and I was able execute.” PHOTO: Grandville's Kam Bush wrestles an opponent from Midland in his first-round match Thursday; on Saturday, he won the Division 1 title at 152 pounds. (Click to see more at HighSchoolSportsScene.com.) Temperance Bedford, Detroit Catholic Central, Brighton, Davison, Hartland, Walled Lake Central, Grandville, Westland John Glenn, Bay City Western, Livonia Franklin, 2015-16 Finals	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1904
__label__wiki	0.696643	0.696643	Women Marines going through infantry training. Thursday, three women will be the first to graduate from the grueling course. Women will be first to graduate from Marine Corps infantry training course WASHINGTON (CNN) - This year, for the first time in the history of the Marine Corps, the graduation class at its infantry training course will include women. Fifteen women voluntarily began the training at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, on September 24. On Thursday, three of them will graduate from the course, a milestone for women seeking equality in the Armed Forces, according to Capt. Maureen Krebs, a Marine Corps spokeswoman. A fourth woman finished the course, but was injured and couldn't pass the required combat fitness test. She will be allowed to graduate once she heals and passes that test. The women went through the same physically grueling exercises as the male Marines, including carry 90 pounds of combat gear on a 12.5-mile march, Krebs said. They also had to perform three pull ups, just as the men did. For ordinary Marine Corps physical fitness tests, women can choose either the pull up or something called a "flew arm hang." Pentagon says women in all combat units in 2016 This is part of Marine Corps research regarding the capability of women to serve in infantry units. Since last year, 10 women officers have entered Marine infantry officer training at Marine Base Quantico, Virginia. So far none of the officers have completed that course. However, the women who passed the enlisted course will not join infantry units. They instead will be sent to non-combat jobs throughout the Corps. Their 59 days of arduous work will instead become part of the Marine Corps ongoing research into the possibility of having women serve in combat. Opinion: Women on the front lines? Of course Post by: CNN Pentagon Producer Larry Shaughnessy Filed under: Marines A man carrying provisions walks through an area devastated by Typhoon Haiyan on November 12, 2013 in Leyte, Philippines. General asks for U.S. warships in typhoon relief The Marine Corps general in charge of U.S. military aid efforts for victims of Typhoon Haiyan is asking the Pentagon to urgently send a number of amphibious warships to the Philippines. Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy tells CNN he needs the Marine Corps amphibious ships specifically because they can carry a variety of small boats, trucks, equipment and supplies needed, as well as making potable water. "They are the Swiss army knife of the U.S. military," Kennedy told CNN in a telephone interview from the Philippines. Kennedy says he believes his request will be approved by the Pentagon in the coming hours. As many as four of the warships could be headed to the Philippines. The amphibious ships can also carry helicopters and tracked vehicles known as "assault amphibious vehicles." These vehicles can carry supplies and move over and through piles of debris to distribution points where aid is needed most. The U.S. military will take supplies to distribution points, but it will be then handed out by Philippines forces, Kennedy said. Local forces are in the best position to know community leaders and make sure those in the most need are getting the help, he added. Filed under: Marines • Phillipines Solar like these may soon help Marines in battle. Corps testing solar-powered Marines concept For years, top Marine commanders have been worried about the amount of weight each of their troops carries. There's the body armor, weapons and ammunition. Those are must-haves. But they also carry lots of water to keep from becoming dehydrated and batteries for their radios, GPS gear and night-vision goggles. Now, the Marine Corps is looking at how to reduce the water and battery weight. At a base in California this month, Marine and Navy researchers are testing a concept called Marine Austere Patrolling System, with a built-in solar panel and a water filtration system. This isn't about the Marine Corps suddenly joining the "green" movement. It's about weight and safety. Filed under: Marines • Security Brief Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos wearing the dress version of the Male Frame Cover, the hat worn by Marine men since 1922 and maybe soon by women Marines. The 'brim'ming controversy about Marines hats At ease Marines. The Corps is not going to make men change their hats. A New York Post headline, "Obama wants Marines to wear 'girly' hats," generated a lot of attention this week. But alas, the service says that's not the case. Image from video posted online by a group associated with the Afghanistan Tailban purporting to show the September 2012 attack on Camp Bastion. Significant lapses led to attack on military base in Afghanistan, report finds By Jamie Crawford The top U.S. commanders of a coalition base in southern Afghanistan "failed to take adequate force protection" measures prior to a September 2012 attack by the Taliban that led to the deaths of two Marines and the destruction of military aircraft, according to a report on the incident. Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos fired the two senior commanders of the base at the time, Maj. Gen. Charles Gurganus and Maj. Gen. Gregg Sturdevant, essentially forcing them into retirement. The investigation was directed by Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, who leads Central Command, to determine any potential accountability for the attack. Army Lt. Gen. William B. Garrett III was the investigating officer for the report released Wednesday and his deputy was Marine Maj. Gen. Thomas M. Murray. Post by: CNN's Jamie Crawford Filed under: Afghanistan • Marines • Military • Taliban • US Central Command Two Marine generals lose their jobs over deadly Taliban attack In an action unprecedented during 12 years of war in Afghanistan, the commandant of the Marine Corps is firing two top generals for failing to protect troops and their base in southern Afghanistan from a Taliban attack. Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos, has agreed to a finding that Maj. Gen. Charles M. Gurganus and Maj. Gen. Gregg A. Sturdevant "did not take adequate force protection measures" at Camp Bastion last year, the service said on Monday. On September 14-15, 2012, Taliban fighters got through an unguarded part of a fence and engaged in a long running gun battle with U.S. and coalition forces. Filed under: Afghanistan • Marines Kenyan security personnel, crouched behind a ledge, watch on September 23, 2013 a column of smoke rise from the beseiged Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi following a loud explosion. Kenyan security forces were locked in a fierce, final battle with Somali Islamist gunmen inside the upmarket mall on September 23 as huge explosions and a barrage of heavy gunfire echoed out of the complex. First on CNN: More U.S. Marines fortify Nairobi embassy security More U.S. Marines are fortifying security at the American Embassy in Nairobi following the deadly shopping mall attack there, CNN has learned. Two U.S. officials confirmed the move in Kenya, but declined to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The newly arrived Marines are part of a unit specially trained in enhanced security, including providing personal protection to senior American officials. That kind of assistance was recently added to tasks performed by the embassy guard program after the deadly terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, last year. Filed under: Kenya • Marines Osprey aircraft deployed for first time in support of Marine One By CNN’s Greg Clary (CNN) – Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys, aircraft that take off vertically, provided a dramatic new look for President Barack Obama’s travel detail as he and the first lady began a Martha’s Vineyard vacation on Saturday. The Ospreys – making their presidential debut - shuttled White House staff, media and Secret Service members from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod. The sleek tilt-rotor aircraft can take off like a helicopter but fly like an airplane. Post by: CNN's Greg Clary An image captured on You Tube shows what appear to be U.S. Marines urinating on bodies of dead Taliban. FIRST ON CNN: Top Marine’s alleged comments in Taliban desecration case draw scrutiny A senior Marine general said in an extraordinary sworn statement obtained by CNN that the head of the corps wanted several Marines kicked out of the service for their alleged roles in urinating on Taliban corpses - even before any charges were brought. Lt. General Thomas Waldhauser told military authorities in the sworn statement on Tuesday that he had a private meeting in February 2012 with Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos, who had just named him to lead the investigation and possible prosecution. "I do not remember the exact words or sequence of what was said, but the CMC did make a comment to the effect that the Marines involved needed to be 'crushed,'" Waldhauser said, adding that the "CMC went on to say he wanted these Marines to be discharged from the Marine Corps when this was all over." Waldhauser's statement was made as part of the record for upcoming court martial proceedings against two Marines involved in the case. Filed under: Afghanistan • FIRST ON CNN/EXCLUSIVE • Marines • Military • Taliban Out of precaution, Marines on ready to go to Egypt to protect U.S. Embassy, citizens U.S. Marines stationed in southern Europe have been put on alert as a precaution in advance of expected large demonstrations and potential unrest in Egypt this weekend, CNN has learned. About 200 combat capable Marines in Sigonella, Italy, and Moron, Spain, have been told to be ready to be airborne within 60 minutes of getting orders to deploy, according to two administration officials. Filed under: Egypt • Marines	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1906
__label__cc	0.581126	0.418874	Comments (1,714 comments) Defense Department to cut Army to pre-WW II size By Halimah Abdullah The Department of Defense plans to scale down the nation's Army to its pre-World War II size and do away with an entire class of Air Force attack jets in an attempt to cut military spending, which mushroomed after the attacks of September 11, 2001, according to reports. The plan, backed by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, as first reported by The New York Times, positions the military to handle any enemy but will leave the armed forces with much fewer resources to take on lengthy missions abroad. The dwindled budget also reflects the current political climate, with a President who has pledged to pull back from extended and expensive wars abroad in an era of federal funding cutbacks. The budget is to be presented Monday. Hagel proposes cutting the Army to 440,000-450,000 troops, according to the Times. Army troop levels already were supposed to go down to 490,000, from their height of 570,000 after the 9/11 attacks. Post by: CNN's Halimah Abdullah Filed under: Army • Pentagon	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1907
__label__wiki	0.853293	0.853293	Shiftsync Media Everything Media Mac Sabbath plays at Holy Diver shiftsyncmedia.com/2019/07/12/mac… https://t.co/aoz9gyXmZG 6 months ago RT @Quarteria_io: ANNOUNCEMENT: Our token sale has been postponed until Tuesday 1pm UTC due to setbacks related to the implementation of ou… 1 year ago Follow @shiftsyncmedia Royal Blood Makes a stop at Ace Of Spades April 24, 2015 by shiftsync media Mike Kerr, Vocalist and Bass for the England band Royal Blood, playing bass next the bands drum set at Ace of Spades in Sacrament Calif. Photo by: Bryce Fraser Bryce Fraser Sacramento was sold out last Sunday by England band Royal Blood. It was impressive how popular they are being that they just released their first self-titled Album and already have a sold out crowd. The band will also be touring with Foo Fighters this summer. The band started the night with “Come On Over”, “Cruel”, then Mike Kerr talked to the crowd and said “in England we have an old saying” and then began to play Figure It Out. During Little Monster the crowd amped up and the first moshing of the night started once the song began. The crowd cheered loudly afterward. The crowd then started chanting for the song “Blood Hands” and got what they asked for. Fans started bobbing their heads up and down during the song “Ten Tonne Skeleton”. It was one of my favorite songs of the night, it was really a sight to see it performed live. Half way through the song Kerr raised his glass to the crowd and took a drink, then continued on. They picked up their energy during the song “Loose Change” they really started to move across the stage. After the song Kerr wished everyone a Merry Christmas this was an ironic joke by the front man because it was in the middle of April. Kerr moved to the right side of the stage and played the first cords of “Out of the Black” then moved to the left side and played some cords to work up the audience. Kerr had fans raise their hands right before they went full blown into their song. The crowd went wild. Both Kerr and Drummer, Ben Thathcher, gave the most energy all night for “Out of the Black”. During the song Thathcher touched some hands of the audience right before he himself went crowd surfing. After this, fans stared to crowd surf as well and the audience went crazy. Kerr himself walked down into the crowd while playing. Kerr raised his guitar to fans, threw his pick and even showed off a T shirt that a fan had thrown up on stage earlier then walked off. Thathcher came up and bowed and shot a kiss to fans. The crowd shouted for an encore but the venue light came on and it was time to leave. Royal Blood left Sacramento with fans loving them and wanting all they can get from the band. Posted in Music, Reviews. Tagged concerts, live shows, Rock, Royal Blood Lights Finally Makes Her Way To Sacramento Lights preforming at The Ace Of Spades, in Sacramento Calif. This was the first time the preforming at the Ace Of Spades. Photo By: Bryce Fraser Lester Robancho, ShiftSyncMedia “I promise I’m never skipping you guys again.” This is what the electronic-inclined solo artist Lights told her fans during her show at Ace of Spades in Sacramento last Thursday. Currently on tour for her third album, Little Machines, this would mark the first time the Canadian singer has stopped by even anywhere close to the Capital. She did, however, make up for it by putting on a great show for her fans at the sold-out venue that night. Wielding an electric guitar, synths, and a keyboard, Lights brought in energy, enthusiasm, and plenty of bass with the help of her live band. Kicking things off with two of her older songs from her sophomore album, “Peace Sign” and “Toes” eased the crowd into her brand of melodic, dubstep-inspired electro-pop. She then changed gears and played a new track, “How We Do It” before slamming the crowd with fan favorite “Siberia.” “There are some crazy vibes going on tonight.” Lights took some time between tracks to address her regret from not having come to Sacramento sooner. She visited the Capital, a rose garden, and was surprised by how courteous everybody was. Changing gears yet again, Lights takes a seat at her keyboard to play “Portal,” a slower-tempo ballad. This transitioned into an acoustic rendition of “Don’t Go Home Without Me.” Afterward, the crowd was treated to the opening notes to a personal favorite, “Muscle Memory.” With each song came more vigor and liveliness from both the artist and the audience. During “Same Sea,” an upsurge of energy would come from Lights singing, the crowd jumping, and the actual lights flashing, at the chorus. The show ended with the elevating “Up We Go,” right after an encore, of course. In the end, it is good to know–for her fans especially–that Lights is willing and able to come to new locales, reaching out to those who don’t have the benefit of living in a much larger city. The wait was worth it, I’m sure, for her fans who came to see lights that night. Posted in Music, Reviews. Tagged concerts, Lights, Live Show Mac Sabbath plays at Holy Diver The Veterans Affairs office at ARC is like no other ARC Students chosen for Theater Festival in Denver Monster Energy Aftershock Festival returned to Discovery Park The Soul Shakers Release Music Video For Debut Single “Here to Have a Good Time”	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1914
__label__wiki	0.864969	0.864969	From ‘Reputation’ to ‘Lover’: Taylor Swift & Joe Alwyn’s Relationship Ellice Quevedo \| November 28, 2019 November 28, 2019 \| Uncategorized We all know Taylor Swift as an amazing pop singer who totally puts out her feelings through ever song and gosh is it poetic. You could honestly tell how amazing her songs are with how she basically dominated the American Music Awards, otherwise known as the AMAs. Source: Billboard She has become an icon in the music industry and with that, Taylor has been quite the center of attention. Because of this, her relationships have been put in the spotlight whether she liked it or not. For some reason, people have always eyed who would be Taylor’s next boyfriend as if it was the next big thing. It must have been because Taylor drew inspiration from each heartbreak and incorporated it into her songs. Its realness was what made each album of hers wholesome. And for some time, Taylor has written breakup songs as each of her relationships did not work out. She was often criticized for this as the blame was put on her. Taylor had to deal with the bashing which she probably just set aside as she had a numerous number of supportive fans (us included). Thankfully, she doesn’t have to go through the bashing about her relationships anymore as Taylor has seemed to find the one guy who would respect her and love her the way she deserves to be respected and loved. Source: Cosmopolitan Currently, Taylor Swift is in a three year long-term relationship with British actor, Joe Alwyn, and the couple is just absolutely goals. You could tell hearts are swirling in Taylor’s eyes as she has been writing about her lover since her Reputation days. Source: Target Corporate Today we’re taking a glimpse behind this couple’s love stories through Taylor Swift’s songs — from Reputation to Lover. Dress (Reputation) “Flashback when you met me Your buzzcut and my hair bleached” These lines in Taylor Swift’s song, Dress, in her Reputation album describe exactly what her and her current boyfriend looked like when they first crossed paths during the 2016 MET gala. Source: Hollywood Life During this time, Taylor Swift was dating Calvin Harris and had apparently gotten into a fun viral video with her next flame at the time, Tom Hiddleston. In fact, rumors have spread that Taylor Swift had apparently cheated on Calvin Harris with Tom Hiddleston. Many have guessed this was to be with Taylor’s other Reputation song, Gorgeous. Gorgeous (Reputation) “You should think about the consequence Of your magnetic field being a little too strong And I got a boyfriend, he’s older than us He’s in the club doing, I don’t know what” But as much Gorgeous was thought to be about her short-lived romance with Tom after Calvin, Taylor made sure to tell her fans that it’s actually about her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, which meant Taylor fell head over heels for Joe even while she was in a relationship with Tom. Source: www.redfm.ie It can be seen in the lyrics, “I got a boyfriend, he’s older than us.” With some research, we learned that Tom Hiddleston is actually 38 years old, making it a pretty big age gap to Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn who both belong in the same age group. Source: Bustle In fact, we get more of a glimpse of Taylor and Joe’s relationship while Tom Hiddleston was still in the picture with one of her Lover songs, Cruel Summer. Cruel Summer (Lover) Taylor Swift’s songs from Lover are mostly about her current lover, Joe Alwyn. Through it, she reveals little details of their relationship in a really poetic manner. She’s been revealing a lot in fact and the information she’s been showing includes what was really going on between her and Joe while she was still dating Tom Hiddleston. “I’m drunk in the back of the car And I cried like a baby coming home from the bar (oh) Said “I’m fine”, but it wasn’t true I don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep you And I, snuck in through the garden gate Every night that summer just to seal my fate (oh) And I screamed for whatever it’s worth I love you, ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?” Cruel Summer is probably one of the top five most beautiful songs on the track, because of the melancholy way Taylor wrote the deep drama occurring in her life during the time. With intense research, I was able to further understand the given lyrics above. Apparently, while Taylor Swift was telling the world how in love she was with Tom Hiddleston, she was absolutely torn with her love for Joe Alwyn, because they had to keep their relationship secret in hopes that “they could stay the way they were,” a statement Taylor mentioned in one diary entry which she read for her fans. Source: Capital FM “I love you, ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard,” were lyrics Taylor Swift wrote, referring to how hurt Joe was when he had to hear her say those three words to Tom. …Ready For It? (Reputation) Fast forward to Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn’s budding relationship where nobody else is in the picture. Her and Tom Hiddleston have broken up and now it’s only the two of them, keeping their relationship in secret. Taylor writes about her and Joe on ...Ready For It? “Knew he was a killer first time that I saw him Wonder how many girls he had loved and left haunted But if he’s a ghost, then I can be a phantom Holdin’ him for ransom” The lyrics, “If he’s a ghost,” may refer to how Joe is still a rising actor which means that his love life would not be put so much in the spotlight. Oh and can we just point out that their birth years are on her music video? Source: Genius The whole secret relationship takes a whole turn though, because well, we know the media these days. Delicate (Reputation) Taylor Swift mentions how the media has found out about her and her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, and how things may go down with her big reputation especially as things were getting really serious for them both — the paparazzi first caught them together when Joe was being introduced to her parents. “This ain’t for the best My reputation’s never been worse, so You must like me for me We can’t make Any promises now, can we, babe? But you can make me a drink” In most of her interviews, Taylor is shown to not have quite the appeal towards the media as they constantly want to know about her every relationship. Source: Glamour She notes this in her other song, Call It What You Want. Call It What You Want (Reputation) “My baby’s fit like a daydream Walking with his head down I’m the one he’s walking to So call it what you want, yeah, call it what you want to I want to wear his initial On a chain round my neck, chain round my neck Not because he owns me But ’cause he really knows me” With these lyrics, it seems that Taylor is saying that Joe prefers to not believe things the media says about Taylor. He would much rather just know the girl he is in love with. This can be seen with Joe himself who would rather not talk about Taylor in any interview. Afterglow (Lover) Obviously relationships aren’t always perfect no matter who you are. This goes for Taylor Swift who gives an apology to Joe for some mistakes she had probably caused during their relationship. “I lived like an island, punished you with silence Went off like sirens, just crying Why’d I have to break what I love so much? It’s on your face, don’t walk away, I need to say” The lyrics above seem to show that there were times that Taylor had tried running away from their relationship, probably caused by the media trying to get the fresh news about them. Source: www.usmagazine.com In fact, the “mistakes” Taylor Swift has said she had made in this song have been detailed a little in Cornelia Street. Cornelia Street (Lover) Cornelia Street is an actual street in New York where Taylor Swift rented an apartment. The song of the same name shows how important the street or the place was in her and Joe’s relationship. “Back when we were card sharks, playing games I thought you were leading me on I packed my bags, left Cornelia Street Before you even knew I was gone” In fact, the lyrics above show that Taylor Swift may have been hoping after a few months of them seeing each other that things would get serious already. It seems that she wasn’t able to see this in Joe at the time and may have misinterpreted his intentions, thinking he was just playing with her. One of the mistakes Taylor Swift may have been referring to in Afterglow, may be her running away situation mentioned in Cornelia Street (again, shown in the lyrics above). Source: Harper’s Bazaar The song then goes on though to say: “But then you called, showed your hand I turned around before I hit the tunnel Sat on the roof, you and I” These may mean that Joe actually ran after her and gave her the assurance she needed. She then goes on to describe how important their love for each other has been. Source: ET Online “You hold my hand on the street Walk me back to that apartment Years ago, we were just inside Barefoot in the kitchen Sacred new beginnings That became my religion, listen” A love becoming her “religion” which is a metaphor meaning to relay how important the blossoming love between her and her lover is for her. False God (Lover) False God gives out the same metaphor, referring to love becoming a religion. “But we might just get away with it Religion’s in your lips Even if it’s a false god We’d still worship We might just get away with it The altar is my hips We’d still worship this love” It’s a song that mostly highlights how precious and intimate her relationship with Joe is. Daylight (Lover) You’d know things get more serious with her and Joe when Taylor shows that her relationship with him as pretty much been the best ever in her life with these lyrics: “I don’t wanna look at anything else now that I saw you I don’t wanna think of anything else now that I thought of you I’ve been sleepin’ so long in a twenty-year dark night And now I see daylight, I only see daylight” Lover (Lover) And finally, here we are to the present with their relationship stronger as ever and possible a future? Taylor Swift hints in her song, Lover, how she has spent three summers with Joe (talking about their three year relationship) and how she wants the spend the rest of her summers with him. Fans have been speculating that this may mean Joe has put a ring on that finger. Although the couple hasn’t really confirmed it, it’s safe to say I guess that it could happen some time soon. For now though, let’s cheer on for them and let them love each other endlessly. Go ahead and listen to Taylor Swift’s whole lover album! We promise that the whole of it is just TOO SPECTACULAR. OPM Bands will join Janine Gutierrez and Paulo Avelino’s Upcoming Movie Is Duchess Kate Middleton Set to be Seen on TV Reality Show Soon? Top Three Christmas Novels That A Bookworm Will Most Definitely Be Enjoying With Some Hot Coco Entertainment, Featured Ben&Ben Sings Theme Song for Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil’s Upcoming Teleserye, “Make It With You” Celebrity, Entertainment Marvel Lovers Will Thank You So Much If You Get Them These Gifts From Miniso Get Some Night Before Christmas Chills With Breakout Philippines! Five Christmas Gifts That Will Make An Otaku Merry For Christmas Spend Your Holidays With Some D.I.Y. Frappes At The Own Comforts of Your Home Maine Mendoza Talks About Her Relationship With Arjo Atayde From Traditional to Innovative — Filipino Food Ideas Perfect For Noche Buena © 2020 SHY	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1915
__label__cc	0.597449	0.402551	Absenteeism, convicted Rap worker: accuses the twin but the judge does not believe him A Rap worker, the environmental hygiene company of the Municipality of Palermo, was sentenced to 8 months for absenteeism by the monochromatic judge of the fifth section of the Nicola Aiello court. Giovanni Spataro, 60 years old, on 26 January 2016 he had been seen by the city police outside the workplace and then he had returned to swipe the badge, thus trying to cash in the overtime for a performance never performed. The man was in the company of a colleague, Giovanni Forte, 66 years old, who had been stopped by municipal police officers when he left the Ingham warehouse in Brancaccio and then preferred to admit the facts, accepting the so-called probation, which avoids the sentence. Spataro instead had managed to get away and, ended up under investigation, he had denied being an absenteeist, claiming that the person seen by the brigade would be not him, but his twin brother. But he doesn't work for Rap. The post Absenteeism, convicted Rap worker: accuses the twin but the judge does not believe him appeared first on Palermo-24h. Read also about Palermo Suspicions of the M5s over failure to appoint the regional councilor for cultural heritage Vertenza Almaviva, torchlight procession of employees in Palermo tomorrow Dairy van robbery attempted: 37 year old arrested	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1916
__label__wiki	0.621715	0.621715	Tag Archive for: kalamazoo On Anniversary of Kalamazoo Pipeline Disaster, Survivor/BC Groups Urge “Don’t Let It Happen Here.” July 26, 2016 /in Fossil Fuels, Press Releases /by Sierra Club VICTORIA—Six years after the disastrous spill of diluted bitumen into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River, environmental groups joined a survivor of the spill in urging British Columbians to protect their communities and reject the Kinder Morgan pipeline. “You have a unique opportunity to protect your families, your communities, local economies and the natural environment from this kind of disaster. Believe me, you don’t want to live through what happened and is still happening in our communities,” said Michelle BarlondSmith, a former resident of Calhoun County, Michigan. On July 26th 2010, BarlondSmith and other residents awoke to discover that a pipeline had ruptured, spilling between three and four million litres of diluted bitumen into their communities and the Kalamazoo River. “Don’t let anyone tell you it can’t or won’t happen in your community if the Kinder Morgan pipeline gets built. Look at what happened to my community and what just happened with the spill into the Saskatchewan River. These spills just keep happening, and communities, people’s health and the natural world pay the price,” said BarlondSmith. “The diluted bitumen still in the Kalamazoo River six years after the spill and the water shortages being felt today in Prince Albert are sobering reminders that accidents happen, pipelines spill and diluted bitumen is impossible to clean up,” said Caitlyn Vernon, Campaigns Director for Sierra Club BC. “We want to alert British Columbians to the public meetings the Government of Canada’s Ministerial Panel on the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tankers proposal is holding in a number of B.C. communities in the coming days.” “We hope people will fill these meetings and defend their communities and the land and seascapes they love and depend on. It’s hard for people to get out to meetings in the middle of summer, but this issue is so important,” said Vernon. “A spill along Kinder Morgan’s proposed pipeline and tankers route is a question of when, not if. It would put the health of people and our communities at unnecessary risk.” Public meetings have already been held in Kamloops and Chilliwack, where opposition to the Kinder Morgan pipeline has been strong. Meetings are also planned in Abbotsford (July 26), Langley (July 27 and 28), Burnaby (August 9-11), Vancouver (August 16-18), North Vancouver (August 19) and Victoria (August 22-23). Susan Davidson from Pipe Up added, “I am very thankful that Michelle BarlondSmith continues to remind us how much damage a diluted bitumen spill can do to a community. Let’s reflect on this anniversary and act to keep our homes and families safe. Bring your concerns to the public meetings. The Canadian government needs to hear them. B.C. doesn’t want or need this pipeline.” Kat Zimmer Communications Specialist, Sierra Club BC Office: (250) 386-5255 ext. 248 Learning the wrong pipeline lessons July 26, 2015 /in Fossil Fuels /by Sierra Club The similarities are deeply troubling. Last week, a contractor happened to be walking by Nexen’s Long Lake pipeline and discovered a spill of 31,000 barrels of tar sands oil. Five years ago today, a utility worker happened to be walking by Enbridge’s Line 6B near Michigan’s Kalamazoo River and discovered a spill of 27,000 barrels of tar sands oil. The Nexen pipeline had been leaking for as long as two weeks before the spill was discovered. The Enbridge line leaked for 18 hours before discovery. Both companies claimed to have state of the art “fail-safe” spill detection systems. In both cases, the fail-safes failed. This article originally appeared on the Georgia Straight, read the full story here The article was also published in several newspapers including Kamloops This Week and the Langley Times	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1918
__label__wiki	0.540379	0.540379	28th of Dec, 2018 In: Articles Prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his religious views When someone is growing so fast it is obvious that entire world, media, and cameras look towards them. The same is happening with the South African – Malawian Prophet Shepherd Bushiri. After all the news house its al-jazeera joining the media buzz. Prophet Bushiri also used the Aljazeera interview to advance that he does not have a problem with the work of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL). This is the body set up by the South African government to investigate and make recommendations on the commercialization of religious beliefs and violation of the law by religious groups. “What I expect is that the body must have representatives from different groups. We, as the Prophetic Ministry, we also need to have our voice before any conclusion is made,” he said. This interview came after the a month after New African, the pan African most circulating magazine, featured the Prophet in a four-paged exclusive in their October edition. Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based global news organization, which has 80 bureaus around the world, featured Prophet Bushiri of the Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) on Sunday in an exclusive interview where he shared his story about the rise of his church and, again, the controversy topic of the so-called commercialization of the gospel. Prophet Bushiri who is the leader and founder of ECG reiterated that there is hardly anything behind his church’s growth but the power of God. Founded six years ago, in a small city of Mzuzu in Malawi, ECG–currently being headquartered in the sprawling Pretoria in South Africa–has grown to over 2 million registered members across the world and the church has branches in all the continents. However, this unprecedented growth, coupled with Prophet Bushiri’s enormous success as an entrepreneur, has had some arguing that that he uses church money to enrich himself. Responding to Aljazeera, Prophet Bushiri laughed off the allegation saying if that were true then all the Men of God in Malawi, or across the world, could have been rich. South Africa government embraces Prophet Bushiri Son of God Prophet Shepherd Bushiri’s grand entry into Nigeria Shepherd Bushiri speaks about his philanthropy and politics Prophet Shepherd Bushiri’s take on miracles, family and money National Offices Submission Confirmed The Night of Open Doors https://submit.prophetic-channel.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/NightOfOpenDoors.mp4	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1922
__label__wiki	0.525452	0.525452	Batman News Spider Man News Shazam News Aquaman News Captain Marvel News Vision Marvel Superhero Marvel Movies • News Godzilla: King of the Monsters : A battle as epic as it is monstrous by superhero Page 1 of 2 Prev The King of Monsters is back in the movies for an incredible battle. Is it worth the detour? Our criticism SOURCE Warner Bros. Pictures How to do when titans are dropped on Earth, and try to restore order pushed by humans? According to the Monarch organization, there is only one solution: to call on Godzilla! In the final trailer, the king of monsters was indeed the last hope of humanity. The task will not be easy, however, since he will face one of his biggest opponents, the three-headed hydra called Ghidorah. The fight to recover his place as a male alpha in the pack of monsters will not be easy, but fortunately, he can count on the help of Monarch scientists. Godzilla: King of the Monsters: A battle as epic as it is monstrous, our criticism According to the organization, Titans should not be killed. On the contrary, humans must make allies. After all, they were present well before the men, who kindly came to take the planet from their hands, and ruin it little by little. Through the issue of the existence of creatures, the film deals with environmental issues, human-induced damage, and the importance of preserving the planet. A discourse in tune with the times, ecological issues being more and more present in our society. Nevertheless, not all members and ex-members of Monarch seem ready to make peace with the monsters. Star Wars 9: This last rumor about Rey and Han Solo denied! The Batman: Filming should begin in 2019! Avengers Endgame: Will Captain America have... Review: Marvel’s Daredevil Season 3 5 superhero more powerful than Captain Marvel... Game of Thrones season 8: Episode 6 tonight, who... Star Wars: The release dates of three new movies... The Eternals: Did Thor Ragnarok Tease Their Arrival? Review: Spider-Man: New Generation Superhero Marvel was created for fun and to share our passion with other fans. superhero-marvel.com is a site entirely and exclusively managed by volunteer fans,Marvel fans,newcomers. It's your bridge to the cinematic world and the Marvel universe. Not affiliated with Disney Company, DC ,Marvel Entertainment, or Marvel Studios. Copyright © 2019. Created by superhero-marvel	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1927
__label__cc	0.732833	0.267167	Botanical Names Malabar catmint Anisomeles malabarica - Some Magnetic Island Plants clinging to a rock Anisomeles malabarica (L.) R.Br. ex Sims 1819 pronounced: an-nee-SOM-ell-eez mal-uh-BAR-ih-kuh (Lamiaceae — the lavender family) common name: Malabar catmint Anisomeles is from two Greek words, ανισος (anisos), unequal, and μελος (melos), a limb – the upper two anthers are single-celled, while the lower two are two-celled. Malabarica is botanical Latin for ‘from Malabar’, the south-west coast of India. This genus is very similar to Nepeta, the catnip or catmint, so called because of its effect on cats. I shall never forget the sight, in an old-world cottage garden in Essex, England, of a grizzled old fighting tom-cat rolling in a patch of this plant, with a soppy, euphoric grin on his battle-scarred face. I have not seen cats frolicking in the Malabar Catmint, perhaps because the specimen photographed was on a rocky outcrop by the ‘steps’ walk at the back of Picnic Bay. The members of the Anisomeles genus are perennial evergreen herbs, bearing essential oils. Anisomeles malabarica has a shrubby growth, up to 1.5 m tall, with densely villous stems of square cross-section. The leaves are ovate to oblong, 3 – 8 cm by 1.5 – 3 cm, densely woolly beneath, sparsely hirsute above. The petiole is up to 2.5 cm long, and softly woolly. The inflorescence is a single terminal spike, the calyx 8.5 mm by 6 mm, the longest teeth 3 – 4 mm long, in fruit 8 – 10 mm long, the teeth hairy inside. The flower is up to 1.8 cm long, the lower lip about 12 mm by 4 mm, lilac or pale blue; the filaments are almost at the same level, about 8 mm long, with the style about 13 mm long. The nutlets are cylindrical, 1.3 mm by 0.9 mm. This is a traditional medicinal plant, especially in India. The whole plant, but in particular the leaves and the roots, are used as an astringent, a carminative∗, a febrifuge and a tonic. It has long been used in folk medicine for the treatment of cancer and liver disorders. Experiments on mice, using a crude ethanolic leaf extract of Anisomeles malabarica, have suggested that there may well be scientific grounds for believing that it does possess significant anti-cancer properties. An Indian publicationB waxes very enthusiastic, suggesting that: The plant is acrid, bitter, aromatic, intellect promoting, stomachic, anthelmintic, febrifuge and sudorific. It is useful in halitosis, epilepsy, hysteria, amentia, anorexia, dyspepsia, colic, flatulence, intestinal worms, fever arising from teething in children, intermittent fevers, vitiated conditions of vata and kapha, gout, swellings and diarrhoea. ∗ a substance that stops the formation of intestinal gas and helps expel gas that has already formed † Indian medicinal plants: a compendium of 500 species, by P. K. Warrier, Arya Vaidya Sala Kottakkal Information about medicinal qualities of plants, or about their use as medicines, is for interest only, and is not intended to be used as a guide for the treatment of medical conditions. Photographs taken in Picnic Bay 2010 Page last updated 9th October 2018 2018 [gallery ID=1]	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1932
__label__cc	0.591909	0.408091	Higher Self Portraits Canvas Mantras Transformation Show Prints Gifts from the Realm Show Prints Transformation Oracle Deck Set Mystic Musings Behind the Art \| “Walking Coyote” “Walking Coyote” @ 2014-2015 Sonya Shannon. My Intention Most of us struggle with our identities. Our parents may be of different faiths, nationalities, races, or political beliefs. We may have a public self and a private self whose basic values and needs are at odds with one another. Few people have a rock-solid identity with integrity to the core. The beauty of this problem is that our inner conflicts give us valuable insights into the lives and identities of others. As I was making the TRANSFORMATION ORACLE, I came across MJ, a young man who was half Cheyenne, half Caucasian. He grew up on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southeastern Montana, yet now works at McDonalds on the Front Range of Colorado. His blood is mixed, as is his cultural experience. To which family, which people, does he belong? Perhaps he belongs to all people: he simply belongs to this world—as we all do. Once we unhook ourselves from our tribal or cultural groups, we open to the common ground shared by all humans. The United States of today was formed by immigration. We forced the Native people to adapt to our way of being, making them cultural immigrants on what was their own land. Today’s world migrant situation compels us to wrangle with different religions, languages, and customs. Will we respond with tolerance and understanding, or hatred and rejection? (L) MJ as he looks today. (M) Preparing the image of Walking Coyote, along with layers in Photoshop. (R) The final artwork. How I Did the Photo Shoot The principal photography was done against a blank wall with natural light during the summer of 2014. It involved two characters: the MJ of today, and his ancestor spirit Walking Coyote, who lived by the old ways before being forced onto a reservation. The main challenge was to get MJ, who had never posed before, to call upon his ancestor Walking Coyote, with whom he shared the same name. MJ went deep inside to conjure his great great Grandfather, a mighty warrior, who had survived by hunting, without any of today’s comforts and conveniences. For Walking Coyote, MJ wore a long black wig and doeskin wraps, along with a Native necklace, vest, and shells. MJ had earned his eagle feather from Northern Cheyenne Elders. He was adamant not to let me, a woman, touch it, so my husband tweaked it into position. For the contemporary character, MJ wore a bright plaid button-down shirt. The background was a graffiti wall I’d seen in Brooklyn, a city built upon immigration from all four directions of the world. The Immigration Card from the Transformation Oracle by Sonya Shannon. Influences & Inspirations The photographer Edward S. Curtis spent much of his life capturing images of Native people in their tribal finery. His images are a remarkable catalog of the personalities, clothing, and ways of life now vanished. The proud or fierce facial expressions show the spirit of people who survived on this land before Western ways irrevocably altered it. Details of animal bones, fur, feathers, and shell, along with quillwork, beadwork, weaving, and braids spoke of the sacred symbols and stories of the Native tribes. I was intrigued by the canvas background in many of Curtis’s photographs. Though he took many photographs of indigenous people in landscapes, Native villages, or doing daily activities, Curtis often used a huge cloth as a backdrop. With this neutral background, natural light gave the photographs a distinctive look, often with strong contrast of light and dark on his subjects’ faces. The cloth homogenized and simplified these images, putting the focus on details of posture, clothing and hand-held objects rather than on location. What I Thought Of As I Created This Piece What happens to your core self when you move your entire life to a different country and culture? I arrived in the “Wild West” of Colorado after many years in New York City. Before that, I immigrated to the United States from Canada. My father immigrated to Canada from Germany. I grew up with two languages spoken at home, with a connection to the Old World through my grandmother and others who remained in Germany. We celebrated a German Christmas on Christmas Eve and a North American one on Christmas Day with my maternal grandmother in Toronto. I’ve done rural and urban, been a country girl and a big city woman. Both identities fit: they are like different clothes worn for different occasions. Underneath, there is only one person. Some of us know our ancestry back many generations. Others of us are orphans, or only knew one parent. We all need to belong somewhere. As families change and people move far from their original homes, our sense of identity also transforms. All families and cultures have something of value. What we take from our experience—and what we leave behind—defines us more than conventional measures of nationality, race, religion. How do you learn to walk in another person’s shoes? Acceptance of others starts with acceptance of our whole selves. When we reach beyond old, limiting identities, we find new family and identity of choice, based on inner values and made strong by compassion and understanding. The canvas wrap has an inspirational message of tolerance around the edge. Email Address First Name Last Name I am interested in... General Information Workshops LOCALE Colorado Springs Denver Loveland Pueblo Salt Lake City Chicago Raleigh Austin Wyoming Website Designed by Artware Studios	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1935
__label__wiki	0.635105	0.635105	Links by etc. Links on etc. (only some) WRITING bio etc. info@sophiejung.com https://flash---art.com/ http://www.artmonthly.co.uk/ http://www.thedoublenegative.co.uk/ https://www.apollo-magazine.com/ https://www.theartnewspaper.com https://elephant.art/studio-visit-sophie-jung/ http://artviewer.org http://thisistomorrow.info/ https://frieze.com/article/critics-guide-london-3 http://somethingcurated.com http://www.studiointernational.com http://curamagazine.com https://frieze.com https://www.artsy.net http://www.aqnb.com http://artreview.com http://thisistomorrow.info http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk http://www.brooklynrail.org http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com http://www.aargauerzeitung.ch http://www.culture.lu http://www.metropolism.com Sophie Jung’s sculpture Signature Piece (2015) consists of a white plush toy rabbit, with the artist’s name - or rather her scrawled signature, rendered in black wire - balancing across its nose like a pair of spectacles, or a set of twitching whiskers. Placed on a triangular, greenly translucent plinth – the kind of display furniture you might find in the flagship store of a superior tech brand – this goofy-looking bunny appears to await its part in a product demo, something that Jung provides, after a fashion, in an accompanying performance, available to view on Youtube. Dressed in white, the artist enters the equally white exhibition space, trailing an unwieldy microphone cord, and clutching an IPhone in her hand. Reading from the phone’s screen, and gesturing towards the sculpture, she announces, in a tone that teeters between shyness and swagger, that ‘This is my signature piece’, and then plunges into frantic, fractured soliloquy (or is it a ventriloquist act?), her language borrowed in equal parts from the perennially late rabbit from Lewis Caroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Looney Tunes’ ‘wabbit hunter’ Elmer Fudd, and a Wikipedia disambiguation page. Next, apparently at the sculpture’s request, she sings a karaoke version of Willie Nelson’s Hello Walls, a country music lament for a lost sweetheart, which here sparks thoughts of artworks sulking like spurned lovers in whitewashed galleries. Her song ended, she turns to the sculpture, enquires ‘Happy?’, and then stalks away without waiting a reply, tugging the microphone cord behind her like a long, vestigial, and determinedly un-bunnyish tail. A ‘signature piece’, in common parlance, is one that communicates a whole artistic practice in a few deft strokes, and Jung’s Signature Piece performs this function – in its own jokey, self-aware way– with aplomb. While it is only 3:49 minutes long, an index of this work’s concerns might include: animism, authorship, the currency of quotation, the found object, the instability of language, pop culture, sentimentality, technology, totems, the uncanny, the un-monumental, the ‘white cube’ as stage, and perhaps above all the voice as a conduit for our planet’s (data) stream of consciousness. If Jung’s work resembles an exercise in Google-enabled bricolage, it also seems to draw on much older traditions – the travelling bard, the Homeric recitation, even the campfire tale. Narrative drift, here, is not set against storytelling, but rather repurposed as its slightly wonky propeller, carrying us to new and stranger shores. A conventional museum wall label (grave, guarded, impregnably humorless) might describe Jung as ‘operating at the juncture of sculpture, performance and text’, where she ‘employs diverse references drawn from high and low culture’, which she ‘simultaneously draws into fresh networks of meaning’. None of this would be inaccurate, exactly, but neither would it reflect how encountering Jung’s art – a giddy tight rope walk between stray thoughts and stray matter, between expectation and its upending - actually feels. This is a problem, because how it feels is, I think, the single most important thing about this work. Listing her touchstones brings us a little closer. The black and white sculptural grotto-cum-performance piece COS of the Grand Change (2014), for example, created a chain of associations between (among other phenomena) an occult order from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, the changing of the guard outside Athens’ beleaguered parliament, Garfield cartoons, minimalist high street fashion, Kasimir Malevich’s monochromes, and Johnny Cash’s protest song, Man in Black. Or we might think of her recent work Operation Earnest Voice (2015), which drew connections between hand-woven Ikea rugs, IPhone-saving life hacks, Lady Macbeth’s ‘out damned Spot’ speech, Internet sock puppetry, toxic ‘e-waste’, and origami fortune telling devices. Such inventories, however, cannot convey how vital Jung’s odd charisma - as much as her idiosyncratic, deceptively skillful way with words and images, objects and gestures - is to making her narratives sing. At once gawky and seductive, half-distracted one moment and half-crazed with focus the next, given by turns to daft gags, salty remarks, and heartfelt pleas for a better world, the self she presents in her work is an extraordinary creation. We’re aware that it’s over-amplified. We might suspect that some of its charming glitches – a forgotten word, an aside that falls flat – are all part of the script. It is, in short, a persona, even a fiction. It’s also feels resonantly true. The best description of Jung I’ve ever read is, perhaps inevitably, from one of her own works, X-EXAMINATION <3 (2014). In a characteristically practiced slip of the tongue, she claims here that she is: ‘Always acutely aware of my audience / Always a cute and a ware / Wolf girl...’ Reading over these lines - with their staccato rhythm, their stumbling towards grace - they suggest the addictive instability of Jung’s work, in which humour and ferocity walk hand in hand, and in which everything, from a phoneme to a sculptural form, is liable to shift shape. The werewolf, we should remember, is a dual-citizen, and a dual-exile. To its perpetual astonishment, it is always performing, and is always the real deal. Tom Morton is a writer, independent curator, and Contributing Editor for frieze magazine. His recent exhibitions include Panda Sex at State of Concept, Athens, and Äppärät at The Ballroom Marfa, Texas, both of which featured Sophie Jung. Press release Come Fresh Hell or Fresh High Water with text by Tom Morton All Tension, No Release Sophie Jung doesn’t know what she’s talking about. In performing her monologues she hesitates, prevaricates, anxiously and comically meanders until she stumbles upon an idea that will get her out of whatever impasse she’s created for herself. A half-remembered bit of trivia provides a convenient but unsure bridge to the next thought, however unrelated, as she pushes on in search of her point. She repeatedly shuffles her observations in the same way she arranges and rearranges the objects that she discusses and displays: they could always be assembled another way, to different effect, and their form is always contingent and provisional. Her verbal strategies avoid the mastery of drawing conclusions (Flaubert said ‘stupidity is wanting to conclude’). Instead, she offers an ethics of discussing objects and politics in which the speaker does not assume a position of authority ‘about’ or ‘on’ anything. Jung’s work can be a bit literal. I’m not being unduly harsh; literalness is a position that she has openly affirmed. Her jokes are often so obvious as to be embarrassing. Take, for example, a step-like fragment of Carrara marble which, in her performance Leader Abend (2016) she names Carrara Ladder (career ladder, you see), soliciting groans from her audience. Finding herself stuck for a linking thought that will relate one sculpture to another, she uses the least imaginative methods to generate ideas: the rhyming of Donald and Ronald allows her to shift from Reagan’s self-clasping squeeze to the early years of McDonald’s. Deliberately following an obvious set of associations thrown up by objects and sticking to superficial connections is one way to avoid assuming the authority of the interpreter slathering an object in opinion, like too much ketchup masking the flavour of a Big Mac. (It is important to note that the literal is only one of her strategies: she throws everything into the mixer, refusing the idea any one thing solicits any one mode of address or tells any one story at any one time). But I don’t think she imagines that this gives her sculptures agency to determine how they are discussed. Perhaps she’s just suggesting that it affords her role as speaker a little bit less power. The thing is, even when she’s stripping metaphor of nuance, making it more straightforward, things fall apart: a brief game of charades in which she smooches the air stalls when nobody guesses the name Henry Kissinger. You literally can’t be literal, Jung signals in her performances, someone will always take something the wrong way, the joke doesn’t always land. Jung isn’t a grand theoretician. Instead her practice is attuned to a more anecdotal or occasional thinking. As Jane Gallop has argued, whilst overarching theories can be useful, the ideas within them can be too fixed, their set concepts simply applied to, rather than modified by, a dynamic and changing world. When Jung performs, what she talks about is apparently occasioned by the occasion, each idea shaped by and alive to the moment and location of its utterance. A chain of reflections sparked by something in the room, might lead Jung to recall Kissinger’s concept of ‘constructive ambiguity’ – the tactical political use of obfuscation and waffling. It’s an idea that could have been made to describe Donald Trump’s current rhetorical style, but also seems like a fitting name for the artist’s own loosely associative and unauthoritative monologues. She is both responsive to contemporary politics and critical of them and, in this brief instance, mirrors the thing she criticises, although her waffle isn’t double-speak, and shows how it can be oriented to less authoritative or authoritarian ends. This is criticism without the distant superiority of the critic. In one performance she plays with the ambiguity of the word ‘there’ drawing attention to the problem of attuning text to time and place: is it the ‘there’ of the speaker, character or audience? What she says in located in the now, then, but decentered so that multiple versions of the now, multiple approaches to a subject are allowed to coexist. And no sooner has she alighted upon a timely idea than she moves on to the next one, aware that whilst each thought is useful in the moment, the moment changes. Jung talks too much. This verbal flooding reminds me of a semiotic strategy described by Umberto Eco. He argued that there could be no art – no technique – of forgetting analogous to an aide-memoire, because any system of signs is referential and so would refer back to whatever it was you would rather forget. An anti-mnemonic would become a reminder, ‘I must not remember X’. The only possible art of forgetting would be one in which an overabundance of signs distracts the mind. Similarly, any art work seeking to uncover (‘aha, let me show you the truth!’) the gap between literary representation and the world of things, ironically anchors a certain meaning and pathos in that very chasm. Instead Jung goes with the flow of signs and symbols unmoored from their referents, offering various ways of making things mean and doing so drowns her audience in words. If I’ve set about attempting to organise some thoughts on Jung’s practice, proceeding by negation in order not to totally pin it down, I keep thinking I could and should have done it differently. Paul Clinton is a writer based in London, UK. He is associate editor of frieze and Frieze Masters Magazine. In 2015 he co-curated the exhibition 'duh? Art & Stupidity' at Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea, UK. Sophie Jung - Profile for Art Monthly Feb.2018 In 1987 Douglas Adams first introduced the character Dirk Gently—a holistic detective who operates on ‘the fundamental interconnectedness of all things’ to solve seemingly disparate crimes. In Gently’s first adventure, this encompassed the ‘interconnectedness’ of a missing cat, Coleridge’s incomplete poem Kubla Khan, the sudden appearance of a horse, the death of a technology CEO and a time machine. Outside of a unique methodology for fictionally solving fictional crimes, holism is a philosophical doctrine which essentially holds that there are no independent units of meaning smaller than the relevant representational system. Sophie Jung is an artist who depends on the interconnectedness of all things. Her practice of installation and performance revolves around an extensive inventory of found and inherited objects, which range from large-scale items such as airplane doors, bedsprings and sink basins to mini rubber aliens, stickers and cat hair. Using various selections of these objects, she meticulously constructs sculptural installations which subsequently serve as both the stage and props for her performances — which often occur weekly during an exhibition run. Like an unrehearsed, inherently flawed artist-led tour, Jung stands amid her collective debris and delivers partly pre-written, shambolic monologues, which attempt to introduce visitors to the items that surround her. While she selects objects, or ‘precious things’ as she terms them, for their associations, symbolism and long, multiplicitous histories, her soliloquies often deviate and spiral into linguistic foreplay and obfuscation. As Jung traverses the spaces she creates, often clumsily picking up or referring to certain items, she attempts to show us her web of connections, vocalising her stream of consciousness, shamelessly articulating terrible puns and playing simple games of visual and verbal association. Within Jung’s representational system, each object she selects or word she utters can be seen as a unit of meaning, which only accrue significance through interdependency. Prior to an exhibition, Jung inhabits the gallery space for as long as possible. For her 2016 solo exhibition at Kunstraum in London, she undertook a six-week residency in the gallery, arranging and rearranging her archive of objects into new sculptural clusters, and, in this instance, creating a giant cat litter tray with volcanic sand. Once installed, Jung begins to write the ‘scripts’ for her performances, referring to the constellations of things around her. Each object comes to represent a ‘subject’, such as the writings of Hélène Cixous or the relentless positivity of Mary Poppins, which are bought together through Jung’s fluid, often impenetrable texts. As a native German speaker, Jung cites that she is able to approach the English language as ‘raw material’, revoking its rules and capitalising on its malleability to detail the instability and interconnectedness of things. For her recent solo exhibition at Blain\|Southern, Come Fresh Hell or Fresh High Water, in the week preceding the opening, Jung covered the floor of the basement gallery in whitewashed newspaper copies, producing a space at once reminiscent of a hospital clinic and a bunker (badly) equipped for an apocalypse. She created and titled thirteen works, although it is difficult to separate them, as ropes, poles and twisted steel reach up and outwards towards one another, and symbols and textures reoccur. As ever, Jung’s materials list reads like the collections of an eccentric hoarder: ‘hotel soaps’, ‘mini black wheelie bins’, a ‘Winnie-the-Pooh tea set’, a ‘fox stola’, 'polarising 3-D glasses of various brands’, ‘shoe trees’ and ‘3-D drawn penises’. A vast, oversized pair of black, faded leather lace-up shoes (material: 'large shoes’) sit in the centre of the gallery. They are filled with ice packs and a scaffolding pole protrudes from them adorned with a papier mâché horseshoe. It is this tableaux of objects which become Jung’s conduit for her faltering verbal word play: ‘You Will Not Win. Winning, please Winnie winning Winnie please winning must be abolished’. Jung is often referred to as a storyteller. Her parents were actors and before completing her BA in Fine Art at the Rietveld Academy, she trained as a theatre designer. Her interest in the conventions of theatre manifest both in her personal ability to perform—to sing operatically and inhabit various characters—and, paradoxically, in her intermittently tentative delivery. Despite reading from her own ‘scripts’ Jung constantly interrupts herself, doubts herself and her own references, awkwardly reinforces her points, asks the audiences questions that are impossible to answer, reads things incorrectly and ad-libs. Sometimes she wants to know whether you understand—whether you have heard of Gottfried Wilheim Leibnitz or Dick Francis, and suddenly seems lost if you haven’t. She wavers between authority and self-doubt, mockery, bravado, seductiveness and gawkishness. At Blain\|Southern, as she performs, clad in a pink and peach coloured bodysuit replete with sparkly nipples, and stonewash jeans, she enacts the failures and glitches that expose the constructions and artifice of theatre. Stuttering, at points coming to a complete halt and occupying numerous voices, which she sometimes introduces in case of doubt, Jung exposes the transitions of the theatrical that are supposed to remain invisible. Because of Jung’s hypnotic delivery which, for me, invariably evokes a heady, giddy sensation, it can be easy to overlook the political (dis)content found in her practice—although, it is well documented that Jung provided a vital incentive to instigate the Shut Down LD50 Campaign in early 2017 when she published private Facebook messages from gallery owner Lucia Diego in which Diego, among other things, denounced the art world’s response to Trump’s election and declared that she was not ‘even sure’ if she ‘disagrees with the muslim ban.’ Jung is not a distanced critic—in her performances, she often enacts misogynistic, nationalist or bureaucratic voices in order to counter them with her own. In doing so, she also critiques her own position as bystander, as she draws together diverse references from the environmental damage of bottom trawling in the fishing industry to the use of flammable cladding and cheap materials in British tower blocks. Come to Grief (2017), from Jung’s exhibition at Blain\|Southern, centres around a towering stack of black and blue supermarket mushroom trays, each of which contains a copy of Donald Trump’s black-marker drawing of the Empire State building, which recently reached $16,000 at auction. To the left, sits a much smaller tower of novels by the jockey-turned-writer Dick Francis—which have often been rumoured to have been ghost-written by his wife Mary. Come to Grief, with all its various connotations, connects the 2017 tragedy at Grenfell tower, the construction of the Empire State building, the nuclear button ('There isn’t mush / Room for brea / Kingdoms won and kingdoms lost’), the exposure and volatility of the male ego, the suppression of female creativity, and the phallic construction of the skyscraper (‘High stacks and higher. If we put a feeler on it’s even higher’). Jung’s linguistic associations are often crude in their indignation, as ‘council’ is repeated until she reaches ‘Coun coun sil / Count silver’, the horse and the hose become interchangeable both for their semantic similarity and role in the emergency services, the cladding of the building is paralleled with the cladding or armour of the knight and repentance becomes, from the voice of the developer, ’Re pent re pent re penthouse offers?’. I have more than once heard Jung use the phrase, to a gallery full people who have been seated for some length of time, ‘imagine you have just come into the room…’ before preceding to detail an absurd way of re-encountering her work: ‘imagine you were drunk and you would probably have to lean against a wall to stabilise yourself.’ This self-defeating statement epitomises Jung’s attempts to create a certain scene or environment while accepting her own failure to do so. As she constantly torpedoes herself or verbally backs herself into a corner, she acknowledges the failure of language to translate the hidden, interior to the visible or audible exterior. She oscillates between the urgent desperation to communicate every thought in her head, to detail every connection between things, and the impossibility of this impulse. Jung’s practice exposes the instability of definition and dogma and the slipperiness of the ‘single’, authoritative voice. The dexterity with which she spans multiple voices, may make her seem as untrustworthy as those she criticises, but in all her guises, I think we can trust her. Kathryn Lloyd is an artist, writer and editor based in London. She has contributed to various arts publications including Art Monthly, Art Review, Aesthetica, MAP and Scottish Art News. Sophie Jung 'It's Not What It Looks Like' Lemme tell you a thing or two about camouflage; while this is the title of one of the works in Sophie Jung’s exhibition It’s Not What It Looks Like, please allow me a few lines on attire. Although it is often said that “the clothes make the man”, it’s not without merit to note that this glib adage is a bastardization of Shakespeare’s “for the apparel oft proclaims the man”. More than mere sales pitch, the playwright’s line is just but one contained within a longer piece of advice wherein the character Polonius tells his son to live honestly and within his means—the lecture follows with the more frequently quoted “to thine ownself be true”. As platitudinous as this domestic scene from Hamlet may seem on first blush, it also portrays the hypocrisy of the speaker, an ostensible apparahick spy for the play’s murderous usurper king. Balanced against the work as a whole, Shakespeare’s irony hints that public displays may hide private interests. In political theater the rub between what is broadcast, and what is withheld for those with “in the know” privilege should be resolved through a form of disclosure known metaphorically as ‘transparency’. While this standard attempts to hold corporations, governments, or even museums accountable, it wouldn’t be ideal for you to show up to the gallery naked—amongst other things, you just might catch a cold. Eschewing concerns of production here, communist designers such as Alexander Rodchenko, turned to the uniform as a way to universalize fashion so that everyone, more or less, would come as they are. Whatever good such outfitting could bring, it also presents a rather drab, let alone dehumanizing, existence. Conversely, the total freedom to wear whatever one’s heart desires might allow for one form of self-expression; however, it too can misrepresent other characteristics—the clearest cut of these is a parvenu who dons a bespoke blazer bought on credit, that is until that credit catches up with them. As a way to both dialectically, and emotionally resolve these representational paradoxes, Adolf Loos turned to the image of a formal dinner jacket, one which presents a standardized outward style to the world, while the interior lining could be decorated with whatever materials or embellishments the wearer wished to lavish on and for themselves. To Loos, this moral duality could be extended to urbanism as rows of homogenized planar white facades would likewise lend anonymity, and more importantly a freedom from others expression, in public space, while domestic interiors could be as individualized as each resident wished, respectively. Egalitarian (or kinky) as this may seem, Loos’ worldview presupposes that the psyche itself can be objectified so that here ‘white’ always signifies neutrality—an idea that today would be rightly decried as utterly Eurocentric. Whatever his house might have looked like, Einstein allegedly went out of it one-day wearing two different colored socks. When queried why he did as such, he replied ‘I go by thickness, not color’. Hidden within this parable though is not a question of whose view is correct, instead it begs the question: whose window are you looking through? Procedurally, the works on view before you follow a straightforward methodology, give or take. It begins as the artist scours the streets of a given city, or digs through various repositories to unearth detritus, fragments, or other scrapped things. Many of these objects were mass-produced (read standardized), be they the door of an airplane, a clothes hanger, a stuffed animal or the like. Regardless of their original intention, they were estranged from it. In lieu of forensics, Jung intuitively recombines said objects, and likewise collages them into the totems now before you. At their feet lay diagrams that beguilingly tease you as they parody architectural plans. Just as a general may movie little figures around on a map, each is a speculation, generating another set of moves, which here ultimately lead to a set of associative poems spurred by the forms and logics of each set-piece. Another way to look at this however is to say that they are provocations. Do you ride a bike? If you do, I’m sure you just jump on it and go, and put little thought into the manner of riding itself. In fact, the process is so habituated that the expression ‘like riding a bike’ means a skill that once learned is never forgotten. Instead of thinking about how you don’t really think about how to ride a bike when you ride one, try to remember what it was like to first learn; were you wobbly, did you fall, were you more aware of balance, etc, than you are generally, what did you learn? As with all things, once we master them, or see them everyday, they become banal, taken for granted, and even cliché. Socially this phenomenon of acceptance is known as the status quo. Though the maintaining of relations does have countless merits, when social structures ossify around inequity, for just one many examples, new and lateral forms of thinking are required to creatively break through these formations, and articulate new patterns and ways of being. When I look at Jung’s practice, what I see is not what something looks like in the end, but instead I try to find the ways in which the images are spliced. In so doing, I learn how to look again. Adam Kleinman is a writer, curator, educator, and sometime performer. He is editor-in-chief and adjunct curator at Witte de With, Rotterdam, and a frequent contributor to multiple books and magazines including Agenda, Artforum, e-flux journal, frieze, Mousse, and Texte zur Kunst. Press release It's Not What It Looks Like with text by Adam Kleinman	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1936
__label__cc	0.68617	0.31383	City of South Burlington, VT The Library of Congress Online Catalog contains 12 million records for books, serials, computer files, manuscripts, cartographic material, music, sound recordings, and visual materials in an integrated database. Vermont Law Help Vermont Law Help explains law in an accessible and easy-to-read format. It explains law in many areas including housing, family, government benefits, consumer, health and taxes. Legal Services Law Line of Vermont Law Line is a non-profit legal services law firm, established in 1996, that provides free consultation, advice, and community education for low income Vermonters. South Burlington School District 3SquaresVT (formerly food stamps) helps people with a limited income buy more food, like fresh veggies, fruits, and whole grains. Check this website for information and resources about 3SquaresVT and other food programs. United Way of Northwest Vermont Looking for a home for all that stuff you just cleaned out of your closets, attics and basements? Click on Goods Match at the United Way website and find a place to donate them. The United Ways of Vermont 2-1-1 The website contains information about available community resources for people in Vermont, including detailed data on health and human services provided by government agencies and community organizations and the conditions under which services are available. Vermont Agency of Human Services The Vermont Agency of Human Services website is designed to make it easy for Vermonters to determine for themselves what programs or services are available-such as child care, fuel assistance, Medicaid or mental health services-and whether they may be eligible for these services. Age Well Community of Vermont Elders EEE Vermont (Elder Education and Enrichment) The Osher Life-long Learning Center at UVM Suddenly Senior 222 Best Senior Web Sites Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement Vermont 2-1-1 Community Information Specialists provide the human touch, help solve problems, and link callers throughout Vermont with government programs, community-based organizations, support groups, volunteer opportunities, donation programs, and other local resources. The Senior Community Center in the Pines 7 Aspen Drive Suite 3	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1938
__label__cc	0.64792	0.35208	Trending: Small Business Travel Salesforce Instagram Online Marketing HTC Introduces Smartphones for the Budget Conscious Published: Aug 12, 2013 Last Updated: Jan 20, 2016 by Joshua Sophy In Technology Trends 3 Small business users looking for budget smartphones have more to pick from everyday it seems. The HTC One Mini, little brother of the HTC One, was unveiled by the company last month. The device will be available in select markets sometime this month with a global availability in September. What’s more, CNET speculated the device would likely be priced in the $89 to $129 range with contract. That would seem to make sense given the pricing of the HTC One listed at $199 with some mobile service providers and $599 full price without a plan at Google Play. A Smaller Version of the Original The HTC Mini is in many ways just a smaller version of HTC’s flagship phone. It retains what TheVerge.com describes as the best qualities of the original, a “superb” display quality and unibody aluminum shell. The new phone has: A smaller screen-size, 4.3 inches instead of 4.7. A 720 pixel resolution versus the larger phone’s 1080p (though reviewers say this is not much of a downgrade on a screen this small). An equivalent Super LCD screen to the larger model. About half the memory (1 GB) and half the storage (16GB). A considerably shorter battery life (one of the big drawbacks of the new phone). A New HTC One May Wait in the Wings And if smaller isn’t your thing, there may be a super sized version of the HTC One coming. The company recently dropped a hint with a tweet and Vine clip of a larger phone (some are calling it the HTC One Max) potentially coming soon. Here’s a hands on review of the HTC One Mini from Android Central. Image: HTC Use Emojis in your Business Communications? Than Check Out These! Can This Technology Revolutionize Public Restrooms in Your Business? How to Get the Best WiFi for Your Home Office Joshua Sophy Joshua Sophy is the Assistant Editor for Small Business Trends and the Head of Content Partnerships. A journalist with 20 years of experience in traditional and online media, Joshua got his start in the rough and tumble newspaper business of Pennsylvania's coal region. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and was a beat reporter covering daily news. He eventually founded his own local newspaper, the Pottsville Free Press, covering his hometown. Joshua supervises the day-to-day operations of Small Business Trends' busy editorial department including the editorial calendar and outgoing assignments. ioconnor In addition to the new problem of no battery life does it still have the same old three no-go problems of the original? Namely: 1) No OS updates. 2) No swappable battery. 3) No SD card. demonv78 Not sure what you are on about but my HTC One has had regular updates. On 4.2.2 now already. If you want faster updates get a Nexus phone. As far as no SD slot or lack of removable battery, it’s not an issue for most. The cloud is there if required. Apple has done this with the iPhone for ages and you don’t see iFruit fans complaint do you? I have had my experience with a phone that has a smaller battery life and really, it is not so bad. You get almost the same specs at an affordable rate – that’s the same look and feel so really, it is not that bad. 10 Tips for Making the Most of Your Small Business Technology 61% of Businesses Have Experienced a Cyber Attack Over the Past Year Ring for Business Introduces New DIY Security System for SMBs 48% of Small Business Employees Have Access to Too Much Company Data	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1943
__label__wiki	0.742789	0.742789	Nintendo Switch Reviews “Super Mario Maker 2” Review Home / “Super Mario Maker 2” Review by Danreb Victorio \| Nintendo Switch Reviews \| 0 Comments \| 11 Jul 2019 Super Mario Maker is the latest in what we call the “WiiU Evacuation Plan,” our tabbed label for Nintendo’s initiative of getting all of the WiiU’s hits onto the Switch to not only cut their losses but make the money they were supposed to. It turns out Super Mario Maker 2 was more than just a way to recoup the funds they missed out on–it’s truly a bonafide sequel worthy of the 2. Super Mario Maker 2 is the sequel to the wildly popular Super Mario Maker, a game that allowed players to create their own Mario courses using the themes and physics of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, or Super Mario World as their creator foundation. Super Mario Maker 2 finally gives players the ability to mess with slopes. First unveiled on a Nintendo Direct during February of this year, the game’s announcement came right out of the gate showing off features that took the course creator to the next level including the ability to make slopes, have courses move upward or downward instead of just sideways, and even a new theme in Super Mario 3D World among other things. The beauty of Super Mario Maker 2 is that you don’t have to be a creator to enjoy the game. The game actually has a story mode, and as you’d expect, it’s very much on the dumb side, yet very enjoyable to play. Princess Peach’s advisors are at the Mushroom Kingdom celebrating some construction done to the castle. For some reason or another, there’s a pretty suspicious button literally right in front of the castle that launches a rocket into it when pressed. Naturally, it gets pressed by Undodog from Super Mario Maker, making the castle burst into smithereens. So how do we get the castle back in shape? By performing a bunch of jobs for the Toads in the form of various Super Mario levels, of course! For non-creative types, Super Mario Maker 2 has a story mode that’s absolutely ridiculous, but the single player content is the best in a long time. You’re given a number of coins for each course you finish in addition to the coins collected within each course. You can use these funds to rebuild the castle and to improve things around the Kingdom. This actually gives players a better, more natural initiative to seek out coins other than the fact that they’re shiny. The greater majority of these levels are absolutely fantastic and arguably the most refreshing take on single player sidescrolling Mario games in a long time. What sets these Nintendo-made levels apart from any other Mario game you’ll play is the fact that there’s really no underlying theme or flow to these levels; they’re just brilliantly designed courses. Aside from your typical flat, Boo House, or Airship flair, you’ll come across certain courses that have very specific rules. Examples include courses that require you to refrain from jumping, collect a certain amount of coins before completing, reaching the end while carrying an item, and many other factors that’ll influence gameplay in ways that make you think before attempting. The variety in each course beckons the thought of how The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was developed. There are obviously dozens of Zelda games in the series, but one of the things that really made Breath of the Wild shine was its collection of brain-teasing puzzles in its shrines and dungeons that really made you think out of the box with the limits set by your own knowledge of its gameplay. It’s the same way with Super Mario Maker 2‘s Story Mode. Think you know the ins and outs of the original Mario Bros., Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Super Mario 3D World? Then you’ll probably have your mind blown. You’ll come across intricately designed dungeon-type levels that require you to solve various sidescrolling puzzles to collect keys and venture out of the level, and these thought-provoking courses are among the best of the Nintendo-developed nuances in the game. One such level for instance requires you to make masterful use of the new Drybones shell, which morphs Mario into a Drybones, allowing him to collapse into a pile of bones for temporary invulnerability and ground pound from higher elevation to break certain blocks–which would otherwise be unheard of in the style and physics of Super Mario Bros. Other new items include the Koopa Car, the Spiky Shell Helmet, and the Beetle Helmet that’ll allow Mario to zip through hazardous ground, break stone blocks and thwomps, and be protected from from falling hazards respectively. Each level has star ratings from to determine their difficulty, and there’s nothing like the satisfying feeling of beating a rough course. Then again, you’ll also die a lot, so in addition to checking YouTube or a guide, you can also enlist the help of Luigi who can play through tough parts of levels for you. I found this particularly annoying because Luigi always showed up with his mercy dialog box whenever I died twice, and I really think it would’ve been served better when getting a Game Over screen. Every way you look at it, the courses Nintendo designed each had budding creativity that’ll inspire many ideas from future makers out there, and the best part of them is that while there’s definitely a sense of challenge, each course was fair. There was never a point in the story mode where I thought I suffered a cheap death–they were always my fault. This won’t always be the case though. The biggest draw to Mario Maker in general is the ability to create and play levels made by other Mario Maker players. Like its predecessor on the WiiU, Super Mario Maker 2 is a fun game to watch and is very streamable simply because of all the limitless content you can make and come across. There are creators in the community that have built levels that play themselves, are aimed towards people who enjoy speed running, there’s levels reliant on your ability to be patient with puzzle solving, and there are courses that are designed by masochists for masochists. Cat Mario may be OP, but that doesn’t mean levels can’t be hard and ridiculous. The game shines in that regard, but it’s also where it falters in the most obvious way possible–its online features. While the UI is pretty simple and actually looks nice, the levels aren’t exactly organized in a user-friendly way. It’s a pain sifting through the various categories to find levels, and while it’s definitely useful to go on Twitter and other online communities separately to get codes in order to download the levels you want to have, there should be easier ways to go about this without taking you away from the game. As any veteran gamer will tell you, Nintendo really has a knack for getting in their own way, and this is another huge example of that. Another gripe I have is with the inability to use different characters aside from the multiplayer-driven maps. Super Mario Maker on the WiiU supported virtually every Amiibo, and in turn, it allowed you to use pretty much whatever character you scanned. This is no longer a feature, and it’s really unfortunate because Amiibos definitely still exist, so it makes you wonder if Nintendo plans to patch that in soon or they really decided to just forego it. Finally, we come to the course designer. Most publications would talk about this first, but since I hardly consider myself creative (or much less a level designer), I can’t really talk about it beyond a casual scope. On my experience making the handful of levels that I’ve done, it’s been really easy, but I also missed doing them on the Wii U because of the second screen and stylus. You eventually get over this, whether it be by properly zooming in and actually swiping on the screen or deciding to buy a smartphone stylus that works with the Switch’s touch screen like a charm. The most impressive part about Mario Maker 2‘s level designer is actually in its well done tutorial. Not only are you being taught the ins and outs of what you can do with this proven and intuitive course designer, but it also sort of guides you and makes you really think about how you’re designing your levels. Going through it and continuing to use it really makes you better, and while it’ll take more than Mario Maker to eventually get your way into game design, you really would be naive to think Nintendo wouldn’t use this as a way to constantly fill their development teams with talent. I could definitely see the Treehouse using Mario Maker 2 as a tool during job interviews for openings in level design. What Makes It Worth My Time And Money? It probably won’t blow many skirts up when it comes to thinking about the best games on any platform, but make no mistake about it, Super Mario Maker 2 is going to be one of the most important entries in the Switch library. Not only does it offer literally limitless gameplay, but there’s a lot to enjoy about it if you’re a fan of any sort of platformer. Nintendo really has something with Mario Maker, and it’ll be interesting to see how it continues to grow, because it has perhaps one of the most interesting communities in all of gaming. Long story short, you’ll get what you pay for and more. Super Mario Maker 2 probably won’t make the discussion when it comes to Game of the Year, but it definitely deserves it. ESRB Rating: Developer's Twitter: @NIntendoAmerica The game was purchased by the reviewer. Super Mario Maker 2 is one of the most important entries in the Switch’s growing library of classics. Written by: Danreb Victorio	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1946
__label__cc	0.711127	0.288873	Smisby WI Pages Smisby WI Homepage Smisby WI History Smisby Striders Walks Overseal Health Walking Group WI Annual Reports Smisby Women's Institute Smisby WI was founded in 1934 and we celebrated our 80th anniversary in 2015. A short history is available via the history page. The national WI organisation celebrated its 100 year anniversary in 2015. Smisby is a membef of the Derbyshire Federation, and the DFWI celebrated its centenary in 2018. Smisby WI are a very friendly institute and meet on the third Thursday in the month in various locations. Currently membership has risen to 60, so at the moment new membership is restricted to Smisby residents. We have a varied programme with a speaker at most meetings. Smisby WI meetings are usually held on the third Thursday of the month, 7.00 pm for 7.15 pm prompt start. The 2020 programme is now available on the programme page and has details of some new events.reports about past activities can be found on the Past events page All meetings normally in Smisby Village Hall, Main Street LE65 2TY at 7pm for a 7.15pm start. In addition, monthly craft sessions and walks are organised on the first and second Thursday of each month respectively. There is also weekly canasta/card games on a Wednesday afternoon and a keep fit class on Tuesday afternoons. WI Annual Membership is £43. Refreshments are £1 per meeting. Guests (carers exempt) maximum of 3 meetings per year A waiting list is now in operation for new members who live outside of Smisby parish. Secretary; Mrs Suzanne Jones 01530 415346 We are part of the Derbyshire Federation DFWI Headquarters “Derbyshire House”, Sherwin Street, Derby, DE22 1GP New Dates for the Calendar Afternoon tea at Sharps Pottery and the Magic Attic, 2-4.p.m, Thursday 27th February. £10 pp open to anybody. History Wardrobe Afternoon Tea on Tuesday 28th April 2pm at Ticknall village hall. £15 pp. All enquires to the Secretary. History has never been better dressed! See www.historywardrobe.com Don't Forget Walking netball at the Green Bank Leisure centre Swadlincote Weekly Keep Fit with Hannah on Tuesdays 2pm to 3pm £5 WI Christmas Lunch: 19th December 2019 Our Christmas Lunch at Willesley Golf Club was supported by forty-five members who enjoyed a superb lunch. The room was beautifully decorated with festive trimmings which put us in party mood. After lunch a quiz organized by a committee member was given out, and after much deliberating one table was the eventual winner and the box of chocolates was soon eaten. A lovely way to end 2019 and we look forward to 2020 and to our 85th Birthday year with many more celebrations to follow. Thanks, to Jean and Barbara for organising the event WI Party: 13th December 2019 The party was re-scheduled to the Friday because of the election the day before. Entertainment was provided by the Melbourne Bell Ringers. Harewood House Visit : 30 November 2019 Where to go for our Christmas outing this year, Chatsworth was our destination last year and we really did not want to go again, Harewood House in West Yorkshire near Leeds was suggested and to go on a Saturday to give those who work the opportunity to attend. What a good suggestion that turned out to be, the house sits in the heart of Yorkshire and was built in the 18th century by Edwin Lascelles 1st Baron of Harewood, who was a plantation and slave owner in the West Indies. The house has an Art collection to rival the finest in Britain, and rare birds and exquisite gardens. It is only the second time that the house has opened for Christmas and had been dressed by creative director Simon Costin. The house came alive with pictures talking, table ornaments singing, plates talking to one another, statues having a gossip and a ceiling that lit up, it was fantastic and this was all set against a backdrop of superbly decorated Christmas trees, a lovey log fire and sofas and chairs to sit on. Everyone agreed it was a super day out even though it took two hours to get there, we had no hold ups on the motorway going or coming back and the Roberts new coach was a very smooth ride. Buxton Visit 23rd to 24th Sept The overnight trip to Buxton, staying at the Old Hall Hotel, was a great success. The rooms and hotel meals were excellent. The weather allowed the walk from Hollinsclough to Chrome Hill as planned. It was interesting that October's Derbyshire Life had an article about this area, which provided some additional information and history. The walk was followed by lunch at the High Peak Bookstore Café before travelling the few miles into Buxton to our comfortable hotel. Depite the weather on the foll0wing day we managed some Buxton sight seeing and some went to visit the nearby natiional trust property , Lyme Hall. Click on pictures to enlarge. Children's Friday craft mornings Suzanne organised two Craft mornings 5 to 12 year old children and their carers, on 2 August and 23 August. Here is her report and some photos. In June, Barbara and I attended the National Federation of Woman's Institute AGM in Bournemouth. On one of the stalls there were leaflets advertising the Craft Council of England, they were promoting various crafts like knitting, crochet and sewing to be taught to children, as these are very rarely taught in schools. After reading the literature and some provided by the NFWI it gave me an idea. Here at Smisby we have a very active craft group and the committee thought it would be a wonderful opportunity do some very basic crafts with members grandchildren. After getting the go ahead from the committee, four members were roped in to help, Hazel who runs a craft for mental health people, Ann who has been on the Leicestershire craft committee, and Pat who just loves cooking. We got together and for the first morning butterfly cakes were made, cards with trains, cats or dogs or aCinderella coach, and in the "mucky corner" they had to glue pieces of material to a flower pot and then planta sempervivum or house leek in it. Our second session was even more challenging, dinosaurs, cats, dogs gingerbread men, and stars cut out of pastry, whilst the cookies were being cooked the children then went on to make rocky road cakes, high light of the morning was licking the remaining chocolate out of the bowl. At the sewing table the girls and boys made a rabbit from a glove, and on Hazel's table Hedgehogs were constructed out of books and decorated, the tree of friend ship was the next project where they could let their imagination run away with them. At the end of both sessions there was a tray of mixed fruit put out which was soon eaten, photographs were taken and all the children took home something to remember the morning. Two superb morning were had by nine children on both mornings, we insisted that the grandparents had to stay with the children to help them with the projects, The feed back I received from the grandparents was that they enjoyed it just as much as the children, and when are we going to have some more craft mornings for grandchildren. Charity Strawberry Tea July 2019 Saturday the 6th of July was the day chosen for our afternoon tea in aid of "Breast Cancer Care Charity". At 6am it was a beautiful morning with not a cloud in the sky, but by 11 o'clock the rain started as forecast and didn't stop for two hours. Undeterred we were still going to use Barbara's beautiful garden so Jane and Barbara carried on and put out the bunting and bra's ready for the balloon's. By 2.p.m. the rain had stopped and people started to arrive. Although the weather was a little over cast strawberries and cream could be served on the patio with assorted cakes. Many local businesses had donated superb raffle prizes. The raffle together with the sales table and members' donations we raised a total of £520 for the charity. Thanks to all members and friends for the support we had before and on the day a fantastic sum to raise for a very worthy cause. The picture is of Jean Raynor our President admiring one of Barbara's garden decorations. Annual Monthly Competition Trophy 2019 Jean our President is seen presenting Marie with the trophy won for gaining the most points in the monthly competition. The photograph also shows some of the sleeping bags, food, and blankets that were donated by our members to the Derby Soup Run Charity. Jackie Newbery Chair of the charity was overwhelmed by the generosity of our members. Cynthia's Retirement from the WI Committee Forty years ago, after she came to live in the village, Cynthia Massey joined Smisby WI. Previously she had been a member of Woodville WI and taken on the roles of President and Treasurer. When she attended her first Smisby WI AGM, by the time she left that evening she was their new President. Ever since then Cynthia has been on the committee and acted as Treasurer and also taken on the role of President several times. 1985 was the Golden Anniversary, past presidents were invited to the celebration and a visit to Stardust was arranged. The first photograph shows Cynthia as President and Secretary Marion Baily cutting the anniversary cake with former President Madge Hewitt on the left. The second photograph shows members at Stardust. (click on photo to enlarge) Cynthia also hosted the Strawberry Tea Garden Party at her home for Smisby WI’s Diamond, see the third photograph. The third photograph shows Cynthia with some of the guests around Sheila Heaps Anniversary cake. At our AGM in May 2019, two of our newer members were voted on to the committee. Cynthia has said over the past few years she would like to retire and so this was her opportunity. We could not let this occasion pass without giving her a small reminder of our appreciation of her years of commitment as a committee member and also for the use of her house and garden for committee meetings, Christmas and garden parties. Jean our current President presented Cynthia with a ceramic planter containing golden patio roses and violas (see fourth photo above). Thank you Cynthia for all your hard work and commitment to Smisby WI, we will miss you at our committee meetings. Time now to enjoy being a member without the responsibitlies of office! Smisby WI visit to Elford Community Gardens June 2013	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1947
__label__cc	0.718462	0.281538	« ‘How do I monetize my blog?’ Tips for making money as a blogger Watch live Freedom of Information workshop from New Haven Register » Kansas Gov. Brownback sucks at apologies; media coverage was lame, too November 28, 2011 by Steve Buttry I’m disappointed with Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s response to a high school student’s tweet and with media coverage of the resulting fuss. From his initial bullying response to his grudging, whining apology that didn’t really accept responsibility, Brownback has behaved as the child in this whole incident. And the media should have called him on his lame apology. Brownback spoke Nov. 21 to a Youth in Government program visiting Topeka on a school field trip. A student at the program, Emma Sullivan, tweeted: Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot — Emma Sullivan (@emmakate988) November 21, 2011 She didn’t really talk to Brownback; she was just joking among her friends, as kids tend to do using social media. But Brownback was listening — reading, actually. As the Kansas City Star reported, Brownback’s director of communication, Sherriene Jones-Sontag, called the tweet to the attention of a Youth in Government program official, who notified Shawnee Mission East Principal Karl Krawitz. The student got the proverbial call to the principal’s office, where she was told to write an apology letter. Suddenly Brownback’s staff had lots more tweets to read: @govsambrownback Stop picking on @emmakate988. Why don't you pick on someone your own age, you insufferable pecksniff? — Lex Alexander (@LexAlexander) November 26, 2011 We @965thebuzz would be happy to host @govsambrownback for his apology to @emmakate988 for #heblowsalot gate — Daniel Bro (@dannyboi965) November 25, 2011 one last @govsambrownback #heblowsalot tweet #sambrownback needs to go visit the WIzard of Oz and get a heart — Joe Cheray (@wildheart4vr) November 24, 2011 One of the largest employers in our state is thinking about leaving. @govsambrownback has the time to be concerned about what kids tweet. — Chad Manspeaker (@manspeaker) November 24, 2011 https://twitter.com/#!/rainbow_sauce/status/139908343195111424 The governor’s reaction could not have been more stupid. The response to the tweet should have taken one of these approaches: Ignore it. He’s the governor. He’s the grown-up. He should have a thick skin and a mature reaction. Respond with a light-hearted tweet showing some humor and willingness to engage. Invite the girl to come spend a day at the governor’s office. She gets a civics lesson and some swag. She meets the governor (a nice enough fellow in person) and probably ends up with a positive tweet (even if she didn’t agree with him politically, she might credit him with being a nice guy). But Brownback’s bullying and Krawitz’s lack of backbone (he should have told the governor’s office it was out of line) were shameful. And Sunday, Sullivan stood up to them: I've decided not to write the letter but I hope this opens the door for average citizens to voice their opinion & to be heard! #goingstrong Since Brownback blew with his initial response, by Monday the situation called for a simple, abject and sincere apology. Here’s what I suggested: Here's how you apologize, @govsambrownback: "That was stupid. I'm sorry." — Steve Buttry (@stevebuttry) November 28, 2011 Alas, the governor did not seek my advice. Here’s what Brownback’s “apology” said (published in full below, with my commentary in bold in parentheses): My staff over-reacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize. (Whatever happened to “the buck stops here”? Every politician sets the tone in his or her office and is responsible for the work of his staff. How many times has Brownback claimed and received credit for the work of his staff? When the staff does something stupid in your name, be a man and take the heat rather than pointing fingers.) Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms. I enjoyed speaking to the more than 100 students who participated in the Youth in Government Program at the Kansas Capitol. They are our future. I also want to thank the thousands of Kansas educators who remind us daily of our liberties, as well as the values of civility and decorum. (The snarkiness of the student’s tweet does not justify bullying by a politician and a principal. So platitudes — whining, really — about civility and decorum have no place in an apology. It’s as much as saying, “I was right, but I apologize,” which is no apology.) Again, I apologize for our over-reaction.” The Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times and CBS all reported the apology, but I haven’t seen anyone note that he threw his staff under the bus, rather than accepting responsibility. A stuffy Kansas City Star editorial and Washington Post blogger Alexandra Petri faulted Brownback and the school but couldn’t resist whining about the rudeness of the tweet. Let me be clear here: If I were the student’s father, I might have chastised her gently for her disrespectful language. I might have done the same if I were her teacher, if I saw the tweet on my own, without involvement of Brownback’s office. If I were her father or teacher, I might have suggested (but probably wouldn’t have required) that she write a letter to Brownback, explaining respectfully whatever criticism she has. But I also might let it pass; I’d rather have a daughter or student who’s confident about voicing opinions on politics than one who’s uninterested in politics or worried about being scolded for speaking her mind. But Brownback’s staff should have shrugged the tweet off or responded maturely. The principal and school officials should have told Brownback’s staff that he was out of bounds and that they would not even discuss the tweet with Sullivan. And the media should respect the right to criticize government officials without feeling the need to scold the student for a little youthful snark. Especially since they didn’t fault the adult for his lame, the-buck-stops-over-there-and-remember-she-was-uncivil non-apology. Petri actually, and incredibly, praised Brownback for his apology and said that Sullivan should apologize to him. Sometimes my colleagues in the news media baffle me. If you’re going to scold the kid for her snarky tweet, at least give her credit for quoting Gandhi, too: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." -Gandhi Two footnotes that relate more to cluelessness about Twitter than to who was right and who was wrong in this fuss: Brownback apologized on his Facebook page, but not on his Twitter account. Didn’t this fuss start on Twitter? Doesn’t he want some of those people who were ripping him to retweet his apology (presuming that they won’t notice how weak it was)? Dean Obeidallah of CNN saw something sinister in the fact that Brownback’s office was monitoring tweets. Politicians routinely monitor mentions of them in professional media and respond to constituent letters and emails. Why wouldn’t they monitor what is being said about them in social media? Update: I see that the CNN piece identifies Obeidallah as a comedian, so I want to clarify that this is a commentary (and not that funny). Update #2. See Obeidallah’s response at the end. Personal disclosures: I covered and interviewed Brownback nearly 20 years ago when I was a reporter and he was Kansas agriculture secretary. We didn’t become friends, by any means, but he was a helpful source and I liked him. My views of Brownback’s failure to take responsibility for his staff are, I am sure, influenced by the fact that two of my sons have worked for U.S. senators. Mike, my oldest son, was press secretary, communication director and later chief of staff for former Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican. My youngest son, Tom, is a legislative correspondent for Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat. Nearly final note (updated): I will send have sent emails and/or social messages tomorrow inviting response from the journalists cited here, as well as Brownback, Krawitz and Sullivan. Final note: Emma Sullivan, who reportedly had 61 Twitter followers last week, has 13,715 as I write this. @govsambrownback has 3,336. Response from Dean Obeidallah: Thanks for the emails – As long as we all have the right to mock elected officials when they suck, Im happy -if not, as a comedian Im out of business and more importantly it’s bad for our nation. Im happy that so many stood up to Gov Brownback so quickly – thankfully it was not partisan, but just about what is good for America. (it’s truly rare in today’s political climate that Dems and Reps agree on anything) I do think that there is a Big Brother feel to elected officials monitoring our personal Twitter and Facebook accounts and then having their aides contact people who hold power over us in the hopes of stifling criticism of them- I hope you agree with that. We must all stand up against that and its important the media and Americans be vigilant when our fundamental freedoms – speech, association or religion – are being infringed upon by our elected officials. Thanks to Dean for that quick response. I agree fully, except that I have no problem with elected officials monitoring their mentions in social media. It was the response that was inappropriate. Posted in Twitter \| Tagged Emma Sullivan, Sam Brownback, Twitter \| 28 Comments on November 28, 2011 at 11:59 pm \| Reply Sarah Fidelibus (@verbalcupcake) Steve, as far as I can see, the articles you link to all quote Brownback’s “apology” in which he lays responsibility at the feet of his staff. I’m not sure how much more the authors needed to say. If readers need someone to quote that and then also tell them, “Look, he’s blaming his staff!”, then America is in worse intellectual shape than I have often feared. One would hope the teacher would use this opportunity to help the students learn to craft intelligent policy critiques in < 140 characters. Judging by Ms. Sullivan's general tweeting, I'd say she could use a few such lessons; quoting Gandhi alone does not brilliance make. That said, I agree this was blown out of proportion, and the governor and his staff appear to be very, very bad at social media. on November 29, 2011 at 6:52 am \| Reply Steve Buttry Sarah, thanks for your comment. I like your suggestion for the teacher, though I will always credit a student for quoting Gandhi (and the jerks who scolded her for rudeness should at least have noted that). On the reporting, I disagree. Certainly the Alexandra Petri piece, which was commentary, should have noted that Brownback was passing the buck, rather than praising him. And I don’t think that neutral reporting would rule out a set-up saying that he apologized but blamed his staff. on November 29, 2011 at 9:31 am \| Reply Earl B Russell Thanks for the coverage, Steve! Justice has come to the governor. on November 29, 2011 at 11:51 am \| Reply Buffy Andrews Thoughtful post and I liked your commentary. But I seriously think the world has spent far too much time discussing this. Seriously. Live, learn and move on. Life is far too short. Just sayin’. on November 29, 2011 at 12:13 pm \| Reply Steve Buttry On one level, I agree. That’s why I passed on this the first time around. But when the media reports on his apology were so lame, as if it were a genuine apology, and some of them had the nerve to whine about the girl being rude, well, sometimes you gotta help folks learn before you move on. on November 29, 2011 at 7:03 pm \| Reply BradMc Hi Steve! Here’s what Petri said in a live chat today: Yeah, I’ve gotten some flak for being, in Weingarten’s phrase, a cantankerous young fud who fails to acknowledge the obligation of teenagers to say inane things. As someone who depends upon the right to say inane things for her livelihood, I think I should have given this line of thinking a little more credit. I still think you apologize when you’re rude to people and try hard not to be (this belief will last until someone gives me a cable show) but I am more sympathetic in retrospect to the idea that you shouldn’t be required to maintain ideal levels of decorum in communications that you, thinking like a teenager, post on the Internet in an area you assume will be private. Maybe it’s not that awful an assumption — you never think you’ll be tracked across the Internet and called for apologies because you correctly assume that the Brownback staffers should be doing something better with their time. But once it’s out there, it’s rude, and if she wanted to be the bigger person in this interaction instead of just letting the Internet hoist her up in triumph, an unforced apology that at least admitted what she said was uncivil would have done that. I can understand the temptation not to offer one, though. Why do it when the people on your side won’t appreciate it? That’s what worries me. on November 29, 2011 at 7:59 pm \| Reply Steve Buttry Thanks, Brad. Did she have any excuse for not similarly ripping Brownback for not knowing how to apologize? Not that I saw. on November 30, 2011 at 8:36 am \| Reply Kevin Kelly Brad, am I mistaken here, or do we have a columnist for a newspaper with a national following saying she didn’t think through her words enough before submitting them for publication, while at the same time still calling a teenager rude for a tweet that took the kid 15 seconds to compose? I sense quite a bit of hypocrisy there. Yeah, I think so. I’m still bitter about the lunchtime detention I got in the sixth grade for writing “Eat Your English Book” on the classroom chalkboard. In fact, I staged a hunger strike (that day). So I think teenagers should be punished for what they say, in cosmic fairness to me. Steve, I have been fascinated by this story since it broke, and this is by far the best analysis I have read about it. I will say this about Brownback, though. Although he did blame his staff, he did say, “I apologize” instead of “We apologize” for whatever that was worth. But I would like to hear also from your son, the former communications director. After someone on the staff did something this dumb, would it have taken him five days to draft an apology, even over a holiday weekend? That’s my concern here. It certainly appears that Brownback “apologized” only after he was forced to after nearly a week of ridicule. And that point seems to have been missed by everyone except you. Thanks, Kevin. I will pass your suggestion on to Mike. I don’t know whether he will want to weigh in. I also don’t know whether or how well he knows Brownback, who served in the Senate with Chuck Hagel. I should say, though, that I don’t think there was a week of ridicule involved. The tweet was on a Monday. I’m not sure how long it took for the story to break. There was a delay of some sort as Brownback’s staff saw the tweet, passed it on to school officials and the student got called to the principal’s office. I’m not sure when the girl was called to the principal’s office and when the story broke, but the Kansas City Star story about the incident was posted late Wednesday evening. So it appears that the story broke heading into the holiday. I didn’t see coverage of the incident till Friday. As critical as I am of the initial response and the apology, I’ll cut some slack for apologizing by Monday, given the holiday weekend. Steve, the story also broke in The Wichita Eagle on Wednesday, Nov. 23, as well as The Kansas City Star, so you have the two biggest papers covering Kansas reporting on it. It was also picked up by the AP, and quickly spread all over the Internet. By Friday, it was coast to coast, when you learned about it, and the governor was becoming a laughingstock. Just from a simple communications management standpoint, it seems to me you cannot let a story like that continue to fester and grow, holiday weekend or not. It certainly appears to me, at least, that the governor’s people thought the story might die out with Thanksgiving, Black Friday, etc., and compounded the mistake. Not seeking your son’s opinion about Brownback. Just wondering how he would handle a “bad” story from his professional viewpoint. To me, this is a classic case of turning one day’s worth of bad press into a week’s worth of bad press. Oh, and the timeline of all the events as I understand it is the girl posted her tweet sometime on Monday, Nov. 21 and was in the principal’s office on Tuesday, Nov. 22, her first day back from the field trip to Topeka. The Wichita Eagle story was also published Wednesday evening. I should note here that I’m not defending the timing. Yes, they should have apologized Friday, when the story went viral. But in my view, this is a distant third in the problems with Brownback’s response here, behind the initial bullying and the grudging, finger-pointing nature of the apology. Especially with a holiday and a weekend thrown in, I’d give them a pass if they had come up with a better apology by Monday. But yes, Friday was the better time to apologize. My point in responding was not that I disagreed with you that he should have responded more quickly, but trying to clarify the facts. You said “nearly a week of ridicule,” and I don’t think the ridicule was strong until Friday. The incident started a week before the apology, but not the ridicule. on November 30, 2011 at 11:41 am \| Reply Kevin Kelly Five days, the time it took Brownback to “apologize” is nearly a week. And to me the timing is relevant because it took five days of ridicule before he “apologized.” In addition to blaming his staff, that to me makes the “apology” even more insincere. It sounds to me more like, “I’m sorry my staff got caught” rather than “I’m sorry my staff did this in the first place.” on November 30, 2011 at 3:06 pm \| Reply bradmcelhinny Uh-oh. Now Ruth Marcus has weighed in: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/emma-sullivans-potty-mouthed-tweet-has-a-lesson-for-all-of-us/2011/11/29/gIQAG6CEAO_story.html?hpid=z5 I’m looking forward to hearing what that crotchety ol’ John Rosemond has to say. I’m sorry I called John Rosemond ‘crotchety.’ Sounds accurate to me. Perhaps Emma Sullivan could suggest a hashtag for you to use. on November 30, 2011 at 5:37 pm \| Reply Kevin Kelly Oh my word! “Potty-mouthed tweet”? It appears that Ruth Marcus hasn’t been around a real, live American teenager in decades. Why has a person with such delicate ears been given space in a major national newspaper? You know, you mentioned that and I remembered that just a few months ago Ruth Marcus wrote about having the tree outside her home tee-peed by teenagers and had a good laugh about it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/the-good-news-in-a-toilet-paper-prank/2011/06/16/AG1phdXH_blog.html Maybe it just depends on your mood — or the proximity of the teenager. on November 30, 2011 at 3:27 pm \| Reply Mike Buttry Hey Kevin, This is Steve’s son Mike. They probably did take too long to realize this thing was going sideways on them. The fact that it was a holiday weekend made it a great time to apologize. Yes, the apology was lame, but it was probably written by staff who had to have a painful conversation with the Governor about why he was getting all this negative attention for something he had nothing to do with and probably didn’t understand. I think they probably threw themselves under the bus. I’d note that aside from the attention my Dad paid to it, the apology did its job (and let’s be clear…the objective of the apology was to make this go away, not express contrition). They managed to avoid making this story worse. Obviously, they should have ignored it. I’m sure there are more important things for the Governor’s staff to be working on than increasing the twitter followship of a rude teenager. Enjoyed the post Dad. Hey, thanks Mike. It also struck me that they lost a wonderful opportunity to make lemonade here, had the “apology” been issued no later than Friday. I’m from KC, and there has been a rather concentrated effort here to spin the story into “the girl was rude.” And that seems to be meeting with some degree of success, judging by brad’s like to Ruth Marcus’ idiotic column. I do agree with your dad that the issue of the timing of the apology is down on the list of important things learned from this episode, and it is certainly “inside baseball” for people in the communications field. But if that is down on the list, where does the “girl was rude” rank? About 843rd? By the way, I am on the other side of the political fence, but Chuck Hagel certainly had my respect. Too bad we don’t have more grownups like him around in government any more. Hey! I didn’t say I liked it. I didn’t even click a ‘like’ button. I just provided the link, called parenting columnist John Rosemond a name and followed up with the information that Ruth Marcus had a bunch of toilet paper in her tree a few months ago. Oops, sorry. My mind thought “link” and my fingers typed “like”. That happens more and more with age. Any way, my fingers over-reacted and for that I apologize. It’s OK. I was only mock indignant anyway. Thanks for your insight, Mike. I still think the buck stops with Brownback. He signed off on the apology, and should have had the good sense to cut out the gratuitous whining about civility and simply take the heat, even if staffers were willing to fall on the sword. […] value, flaws in the Navigating News Online study, Warren Buffett buying the Omaha World-Herald and lame media coverage of Sam Brownback’s overreaction to a student’s tweet, making money from a blog, tips for search-engine optimization, a columnist’s role and […] Leave a Reply to Steve Buttry Cancel reply	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1953
__label__cc	0.642871	0.357129	Leading BAME MPs slam Umunna’s exploitation of racism 10/09/2018 · by SKWAWKBOX (SW) · in Uncategorized. · At the weekend, right-wing Labour back-bencher Chuka Umunna, perhaps rattled by the visit of his well-known and popular colleague Chris Williamson’s ‘Democracy Roadshow’ to his constituency a few days before, followed up his ‘dogs’ attack on Labour’s pro-Corbyn membership majority by telling broadcasters that Labour is ‘institutionally racist’. The comments have been widely interpreted as Umunna preparing the ground for the long-awaited split of as many as, oh, half a dozen of Labour’s least popular centrists. The ‘dogs’ jibe earned the back-bencher a searing rebuke from Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell – but the racism smear was condemned by an array of senior BAME front-benchers, of whom Labour is blessed with many. Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary Dawn Butler posted a tweet brimming with righteous anger and indignation: Shadow International Development Secretary Kate Osamor thought Butler had it exactly right – and said so: Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott tweeted what many Labour members must have been thinking: Shadow Treasury Minister Clive Lewis went further, appearing on BBC News to condemn the ‘scorched-earth policy’ of Labour right-wingers and telling viewers that Umunna and others should have spent the past three years considering the damage they were doing to the party: Lewis wasn’t finished, either. He told the SKWAWKBOX: To hear our Party described as ‘institutionally racist’ is not only wrong, it’s an affront to every person, who through voting or working for it, strives to build a better, fairer less divided country. That isn’t to say our Party is perfect when it comes to issues of race and especially immigration. You only have to look at a history book to understand that. But given its many positive achievements in this area, the progressive ethos at its very core and a leader that understands the reality of structural racism, it’s not a statement I think many would genuinely agree with. However, it wasn’t only Labour’s BAME front-benchers who took Umunna to task on Twitter. Slough’s Sikh MP Tan Dhesi joined in: Peterborough MP Fiona Onasanya, too: pic.twitter.com/rAgU1CiHvu — Fiona Onasanya (@FionaOnasanyaMP) September 11, 2018 Nor was the condemnation limited to MPs. Well-known NHS campaigner, The British Medical Association’s honorary vice-President, Dr Kailash Chand OBE, first retweeted a damning comment, To claim Jeremy Corbyn has created an “institutionally racist” Labour wilfully defies history & reality. To traduce your own for petty gain is the behaviour of a meddler on the make. before telling the SKWAWKBOX: I am a party member for over thirty years and have literally spent all of my life fighting racism. I see racism, where racism is. Chukka calling labour party ‘Institutionally racist’ is” irresponsible” “disrespectful” and “offensive”. I call on Chukka Umunna to unreservedly apologise and retract his vindictive statement, or resign from the party straightaway. Many others on social media joined in the condemnation. Chuka Umunna has been contacted for comment. But he is already on the record on the topic of institutional racism in the Labour Party from a very different viewpoint from that expressed at the weekend. Just two years ago, just after participating in the creation of a Commons report that concluded there is no evidence for any particular issue with antisemitism in the Labour Party, Umunna published a Facebook post that said: SKWAWKBOX comment: The term ‘jumping the shark‘ is a television industry term that refers to the moment in many long-running series where the plot becomes so plainly nonsensical that the show would be better terminated. The recent accusations against Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party under him sprang over the Great White long ago – and the message for the careers of those indulging is them same. The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about. Tags: antisemitism, back bench, BAME, BBC news, campaigners, centrist, CHAC, Chris Williamson, commons, Corbyn, damage, Dawn Butler, Diane Abbott, electable, front bench, Kailash Chand, leadership, Lewis, media, members, msm, NHS, Osamor, party, press, racism, right-wing, Shadow Cabinet, smears, social media, split, Tan Dhesi, tweet, Twitter, Umunna, undermining ← Luton Momentum calls on Shuker to resign after CLP no-confidence vote ‘Deselection express’ – some genius had a little fun with Ryan and Shuker in Parliament… → 9 responses to “Leading BAME MPs slam Umunna’s exploitation of racism” Jack T 10/09/2018 at 10:42 pm · · Reply → Umunna: “I have not seen one incident of antisemitism in almost 20 years of activism” Bang to rights Umunna you nasty, spiteful individual. Diane Abbot: “This isn’t fighting racism, it’s fighting Jeremy Corbyn” Perfectly put Diane. Only one of these two MPs should be in the Labour Party. foggy 10/09/2018 at 10:45 pm · · Reply → These B.S spouting MP’s need to be called out every single time. I’m all for a broad church Labour Party but there’s a minority of congregants that are stripping the lead off the church roof !! Every time one of these anti-socialist, anti-democracy anti-trueLabour MP’s give their gums a nasty rumble everyone on social media should give a 1 word demand…….EVIDENCE ???!!! Ultraviolet 10/09/2018 at 11:02 pm · · Reply → Don’t forget Trevor Phillips in 2008, talking about New Labour: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/08/race-barack-obama-britain Trevor Phillips said the British public “would rather like” a black leader, following the US election, but “institutional resistance” would block the path of an ethnic minority candidate. “If Barack Obama had lived here I would be very surprised if even somebody as brilliant as him would have been able to break through the institutional stranglehold that there is on power within the Labour party,” he told the Times. Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting, said he fundamentally disagreed with Phillips. “I predict there will be a black or Asian prime minister in my lifetime and all the evidence suggests it will be a Labour prime minister,” he told the Times. Ella 10/09/2018 at 11:14 pm · · Reply → There’s an old photo to be found on the Internet of Jeremy Corbyn being arrested by police for protesting against South African apartheid. Instead of acknowledging Corbyn’s anti-racist stance Umanna has stuck the knife in. He is a smirking, heartless careerist who does not belong in the Labour Party. Perhaps the Conservatives will take him, or maybe Umunna is too treacherous even for them. lin wren 11/09/2018 at 1:07 pm · · Reply → What astounds me are his CLP. Do they support his nonsense? Boatnumbersix 10/09/2018 at 11:47 pm · · Reply → Sorry Chukka but you have no interest in serving anyone but yourself and your puppet master Peter Mendleson. So either put up or shut up The Toffee 11/09/2018 at 7:52 am · · Reply → ‘The recent accusations against Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party under him sprang over the Great White long ago ‘ Careful now – chris bryant might have something to say about your use of ‘Great White’ … (Oh please do, christopher 🙂 ) steve richards 11/09/2018 at 9:58 am · · Reply → Equality is not about gender, it is about social class! Bourgeois privileged women are extremely well catered for in Blair/Thatcher’s Britain in what is described by failed sociology students, as a patriarchy. If you want to find inequality, where do you look? In the gutter. Transwomen in the United States are being murdered at a regular rate. Society holds no value for them. But if you’re Caitlyn Jenner or Candis Cayne you have a great life, thank you very much. The same applies to racism… Working class African Americans suffer in multiple ways whilst Oprah Winfrey spends thousands on handbags. Class is everything.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1961
__label__cc	0.581269	0.418731	ARTBA.org Nov. 8, 2018: ARTBA-TIAC’s 2018 General Election and Ballot Measures Webinar1 x $0.00 Home/Full Shop With Sidebar/On-Demand Webinars View cart “Nov. 8, 2018: ARTBA-TIAC’s 2018 General Election and Ballot Measures Webinar” has been added to your cart. 2020 U.S. Transportation Construction Market Forecast (with Webinar Recording & Slides) June 24, 2019: Lessons Learned: The Importance of Local Funding in State Gas Tax Increases [ARTBA-TIAC Webinar] May 9, 2019: Innovations in Project Delivery – the Intersection of P3s and NEPA April 29, 2019: Campaign Strategies & Successes: Maintaining Energy Towards Ongoing Transportation Funding Wins [ARTBA-TIAC Webinar] April 5, 2019: Highway Construction Workforce Partnership: Building the Industry’s Next Generation March 28, 2019: The Future of the Interstate System: A Blueprint for Action Feb 21, 2019: “P3s in Paradise”: New Developments in Honolulu Dec. 6, 2018: How the 2018 Midterms Impact P3s & Connecticut Tolling Update Nov. 8, 2018: ARTBA-TIAC’s 2018 General Election and Ballot Measures Webinar July 25, 2018: Update on the Florida Department of Transportation’s (FDOT) Bridge Program July 10, 2018: Updates on I-66 and U.S. DOT BUILD Grants June 4, 2018: Value of Claims Review – Lessons Learned Programs in A/E Feb. 8, 2018: The Role of Equity in Long-Term DBFOM Projects Jan. 18, 2018: The New Tax Law: What Transportation Construction Firms Should Know Nov. 9, 2017: P3 Webinar Features Florida I-4 Ultimate and Maryland DOT Secretary Pete Rahn Nov. 16, 2017: Large Truck Safety in Work Zones Sept. 14, 2017: Will There Be More Transit P3s in the Future? July 19, 2017: Science of Retroreflectivity June 15, 2017: Complying with Federal Hours of Service Regulations… Now and in the Future May 11, 2017: How a Revenue Risk P3 Approach is Restoring the Historic Angels Flight Railway in Downtown L.A. May 12, 2017: Preventing Falls During Bridge Construction Aug. 16, 2017: Innovations in Asphalt Technology and Creative Solutions for Non-Traditional Paving March 23, 2017: Financing the Purple Line – From the Perspectives of the Owner & Lead Developer ARTBA is a federation whose primary goal is to aggressively grow and protect transportation infrastructure investment to meet the public and business demand for safe and efficient travel. In support of this mission, ARTBA also provides programs and services designed to give its public and private sector members a global competitive edge. 250 E Street, S.W. Transportation Builder Safety Certification Media Kit & Advertising Industry Leader Development Council Copyright © 2020 American Road & Transportation Builders Association	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1962
__label__wiki	0.637162	0.637162	BAROQUE GOLD – 50 GREAT TRACKS Release Date 02 June 2017 Triple CD Album Decca presents a premium collection of 50 of the most beautiful Baroque moments which will transport the listener back to the Baroque era as they journey with the greatest period performers through the music of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th. Favourite works featured include Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Handel’s Messiah and Lascia ch’io pianga, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and Tartini’s “Devil’s Trill” Sonata. Beyond that, a wide array of composers offer a fascinating historical and geographic tour of the era – Among others, Pergolesi and Vivaldi from Italy, and Marais in France, Bach in Germany and Purcell from England. 3 CDs presented in a gold foiled digipack with track-listing behind clear trays. 1 JEREMIAH CLARKE: Trumpet Voluntary 2 ANTONIO VIVALDI: Four Seasons "Spring" RV 269 3 G.F. HANDEL: Lascia ch'io pianga mia cruda sorte 4 J.S. BACH: Prelude & Fugue No. 1 from WTC Bk 1 BWV 846 5 G.F. HANDEL: Music For The Royal Fireworks 6 J.S. BACH: Toccata & Fugue in D Minor BWV 565 7 ANTONIO VIVALDI: Concerto in D Major for Lute, Strings and Continuo RV 93 8 G.F. HANDEL: Let the Bright Seraphim from Samson 9 C.W. GLUCK: Dance of the Blessed Spirits 10 J.S. BACH: Cello Suite No. 1 in G BWV 1007 1. Prelude 11 HENRY PURCELL: "When I Am Laid In Earth" from dido and Aeneas 1 CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI: Toccata from L'Orfeo 2 HENRY PURCELL: Symphony from The Fairy Queen 3 ANTONIO VIVALDI: Four Seasons "Summer" RV 315 4 JOHANN PACHELBEL: Canon and Gigue in D Major 5 TOMASO ALBINONI: Adagio For Strings and Organ 6 ANTONIO VIVALDI: Gloria in D Major RV 589 I. Gloria in excelcis 7 J.S. BACH: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major BWV 1047 8 GIUSEPPE TARTINI: Violin Sonata in G Minor "Devil's Trill", Mv.III 9 ANTONIO VIVALDI: Dell'aura al sussurrar from Dorilla in Tempe 10 J.S. BACH: Menuet in G from Anna Magdalena Notebook 11 ARCANGELO CORELLI: Concerto Grosso op. 6 no. 8 Christmas Concerto, Mv.IV 12 MARIN MARAIS: La Sonnerie de Sainte-Genevieve du Mont de Paris 1 G.F. HANDEL: The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba from Solomon 2 ANTONIO VIVALDI: Four Seasons "Autumn" RV 293 3 J.S. BACH: Con. For Harpsichord No 1 in D minor BWV 1052 4 GIOVANNI PERGOLESI: Stabat Mater 5 J.S. BACH: Air On a G String from Orchestral Suite No. 3 BWV 1068 6 J.S. BACH: Violin Concerto in E Major BWV 1042 1. Allegro 7 G.F. HANDEL: Organ Concerto No. 6 in B Flat 1: Andante – Allegro 8 G.F. HANDEL: Ombra ma fu "Largo" 9 J.S. BACH: "Wachet auf.." Cantata 140 1. Chorale: Wachet auf 10 J.S. BACH: Goldberg Var. "Aria da capo" 11 ANTONIO VIVALDI: Four Seasons "Winter" RV 297 12 G.F. HANDEL: Messiah: Chorus: Hallelujah	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1963
__label__cc	0.59827	0.40173	Ryota Kajita "Frozen Bubbles #49" Title: Frozen Bubbles #49, Ice Formation, 2016-17 Print Size: 5.75 x 5.75 Print Type: Archival Pigment Print on Epson Exhibition Fiber Paper Frame Size: 8 x8 inches Print Edition: 1/10 of Small Size Print Collection: FotoFilmic//SOLO Collection Exhibition: FotoFilmic//SOLO Exhibition Award IV selected by Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb (PULP Gallery, Vancouver) Photographer Interview: Film Talks #34 Ships as: Mounted and framed About "Ice Formation" This series captures ice formations on the swamps, ponds, lakes and rivers of Interior Alaska. Many of the formations are frozen bubbles of gases such as methane and carbon dioxide trapped under ice. When water freezes, it turns into ice slowly from the surface and traps the gases. The bubbles and freezing temperatures create unique geometric patterns. The diameter of the ice formations in these photos range from 10 to 30 inches. Because methane gas is considered one of the fundamental causes of greenhouse effects, scientists in Alaska are researching these frozen bubbles in relation to the global climate change. The water also shows other beautiful patterns in fall and winter. Snow falls on lakes and rivers, freezes, melts, refreezes and creates unique organic patterns on ice. The vapor in the air freezes as frost and grows intricate ice crystals. I try to capture the beauty and the dynamic changes of water in nature. I use my medium format film camera and black and white film to capture these images, so that I scan the negative and tone digitally in Photoshop before creating prints on archival paper. Through the process of digital split-toning, the printed images have a slight tint of color. By minimizing colors, viewers can focus on the elegance of the forms and shading created by clear transparent ice and white frost. Ryota Kaji Kajita is originally from Japan, completed his MFA degree in photography at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, worked at the University of Alaska Museum of the North as a collection photographer, and taught at the Joshibi University of Art and Design in Japan. His photographs have been exhibited in the Japan Professional Photographers Society Exhibition (2011), Alaska’s Rarefied Light (2012, 2013 & 2015), The Aesthetica Art Prize (2012 & 2013), Aperture Summer Open (2014), Geo-Cosmos Content Contest (2014) of The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, FotoFilmic17 Winter Shortlist Show (2017) and other shows. His photography series of “Ice Formation” is featured in the magazine “Photo Technique” (November/December 2012), "WIRED.com“ (August 2015), "城市画報-CITY ZINE-“ (January/Februray 2016), and is represented by Susan Spiritus Gallery in Newport Beach, California. His work became part of the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs and The Alaska Contemporary Art Bank in 2013. He was selected for Blue Sky 2013 Pacific Northwest Photography Viewing Drawers Program (“Drawers”) of the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, and won the Grand Prize in ONWARD Compe ’13 International Photography Competition, the Student Abstract Category Award in 2013 American Aperture Awards (AX3), Juror’s Selection / Director’s Honorable Mention / Livebooks Website Award in Natural World 2014 Nation Wide Juried Photography Competition of the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado. He was chosen for a finalist of Lens Culture’s Earth Awards 2015 and CENTER Project Launch Grant Juror’s Choice recipient 2017 chosen by juror Mazie Harris, Assistant Curator, Department of Photographs, J. Paul Getty Museum. His video documentary “Losing Ground” about Shishmaref Island’s severe erosion due to climate change, achieved the Cinema Committee Choice Award in Fairbanks Film Festival (2007), and was broadcast on the Alaska Shorts Program of Alaska One television (2012). He has traveled to more than 50 remote Alaska villages by a two-seat, light aircraft and snowmobile for scientific research. He loves travelling, backpacking and cross-country skiing with a medium format film camera and always responds to the beauty of nature.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1964
__label__cc	0.66454	0.33546	Wide Tropical Lattice Wide Handwoven Sterling Silver Cuff Bracelet, 'Wide Tropical Lattice' Komang Wijayana evokes woven bamboo with a beautiful design inspired by the topics. Crafted by hand, this wide cuff bracelet is bold and beautiful. It makes a unique fashion statement. .925 Sterling silver 14 cm L (end to end) x 11.5 cm W 5.5" L (end to end) x 4.5" W Komang Wijayana "I love to create something from many kinds of materials. God gave us a lot of things that are already amazing to make into nice jewelry." "My relatives and friends know me as a tenacious, full of spirit, a perfectionist. "I was born on June 7, 1990, in Celuk, renowned as the birthplace of silversmiths. That's why I decided to learn about silver and jewelry crafting. "When I was 10 years old, my parents told me to learn about silver jewelry because someday, when I got older, I'd be able to make a living from this skill. They are master jewelers and have worked in this field since 1982, mostly in silver but also in gold. They taught me everything. The way they love their work made me love this world of jewelry. "When I was young, I enjoyed creating new designs for my parents. I like drawing and I came up with a variety of jewelry designs. I even earned some money with this. I love this job! It's like a hobby that makes money for living. I'm still single, and I feel like nothing will stop me in this career. "The nicest part of my jewelry is the uniqueness of its style. Although it shows an ethnic influence, it's different. The materials I use are silver, gold, gemstones, pearl, leather, wood and even bone. I love to create something from many kinds of materials. God gave us a lot of things that are already amazing to make into nice jewelry. "Besides designing jewelry, I love to play football. "I heard about Novica a few years ago, and I really wanted to be one of the artisans. I hope you'll give me feedback on my designs so that we can work together as a team." By Komang Wijayana This item was handmade in Bali and Java by NOVICA artisan borrowers. Kiva lenders have helped these artisans stock up on materials, buy more tools and grow their businesses.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1965
__label__cc	0.689864	0.310136	Guest Art Weatherheight Is it just me, or is that looking off into the distance in panel four very much a Patrick-sort-of-look? And since Templar has only been around “a handful of years”, that implies that this is either (a) Not Patrick at all or (b) “It’s Pat, Jim, but not as we know him, not as we know him, not as we know him.” Maybe this is future Patrick come back in time? Maybe this is our Patrick suffering an aging affliction? And isn’t “You’d be surprised how easy it was.” just a quintessentially Patrick response? Also, the coloring work is just wonderful – can’t say how exactly it’s different, but the palette seems very fresh and new. Loving the final arc so far, if only because it all feels shiny… Could just be a suitably respectable-looking old dude that Patrick is using as his proxy. I vaguely remember him saying he needed one because he was too young to be taken seriously as CEO. Mnemnosyne Yeah, I think this guy appeared briefly before, as Patrick’s proxy for running the company, I seem to recall Patrick was giving him instructions or something. I can’t recall exactly when though. It fits with his dialogue on his page too–he doesn’t feel worthy of recognition because “his” accomplishments are actually Patrick’s, it was easy because he didn’t have to do anything except follow Patrick’s instructions. Yeah, I like this explanation very much. I admit I’d forgotten about the Proxy High Templar Figurehead. Yeah, I think this was the “Mr.Duval” Patrick was talking about in a previous chapter (http://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-5/page-100/). But something’s telling me Patrick doesn’t know about this if he isn’t here…or this meeting took place during his breakdown. This prompts a question I’ve had for a while… Are there other telepaths? I’m not recollecting any… Anyone else out there that can remember an on-screen telepath other than Patrick or any specific on-screen mention of another telepath? Olivier Faure It’s Mr Duval, who first appeared in issue 3, page 37: http://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-3/page-37-2/ Full marks. So long ago… Sarah Brand “It’s Pat, Jim, but not as we know him, not as we know him, not as we know him.” There’s conspiracy on the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow! palmvos Scrape them off Jim! There’s cabals on the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow. There’s cabals on the starboard bow, expose them all, Jim! Dawn Smashington The two do look similar, though. The shape of the nose stands out to me almost immediately in that regard. Whether that’s intentional or not, you’re not wrong, this totally looks like an older Patrick. Cue wild extrapolation; he’s Patrick’s real dad, and daddy’s also a telepath that’s learned to shield his thoughts so his criminal mastermind son doesn’t know he’s the Luke to his Vader Also, I don’t know, the Conspiracy was responsible for Pat Dad’s powers and also the weather event The dog is fine Daniel cures Mr. Green’s cancer The duck is actually White Diamond Lysiuj Why, it’s almost as if there’s very little difference between the two! So Templar Industries is being rewarded for its work by a powerful figure, but the beautiful Italian lady is unwilling to reveal who exactly. Mr. Duval here is trying to scrape for hints at least, but she’s not budging a centimeter. This might actually /finally/ be the Conspiracy. For their henchwomen to consider it a huge honor to meet even when you represent one of the most profitable company in the world, for their irrevocable secrecy, for Patrick’s plan to seemingly go along with a reward ceremony he most likely doesn’t care for the vapidity of which. But if Mr. Duval accepting the offer is a front to penetrate the Conspiracy… this might just as well be a front for a magnificently obvious trap on their end. Kid Chaos We are approaching the endgame, so with any luck we’ll get some solid leads from this meeting. 😎 MaxArt No way 10 euro are enough for two espresso coffees served in the middle of Venice 🙃 Dalben Maybe it’s the tip? I’ve heard that it’s not a tradition to tip in Europe, but that Americans may wind up doing so anyway out of habit. Plus if you’re feeling kind of unworthy that might, and you’re rich enough that 10 Euros is nothing that might tilt you to tipping just to be nice, even if you’re an experienced traveler who knows it’s not necessary. Also, I’m NOT an experienced traveler so it’s possible that this is some part of Europe where tipping actually is normal. Do we know it’s Venice? That would be my guess too, but couldn’t it be any place in Europe by the water? I’m definitely NOT a world traveler, but it seems like you don’t need to tip in Italy, but it’s not unusual for American visitors to tip anyway. https://www.smartertravel.com/2017/03/13/tipping-in-italy-the-italy-tipping-guide/ That could indeed be the tip, given the context. It’s not customary in Italy but it’s appreciated anyway. JaeCuda It is a tradition to tip in restaurants etc. Just not as necessary – staff don’t have to rely on tips to prop up their wages as much as the states iirc. bryan rasmussen is venice especially overpriced – an espresso in Rome and Southwards is about 1.2 euro, maybe 1.5, there would be a ‘tip’ of about 10 euro cents, I often leave 50 cents as a way to endear myself even if a stupid foreigner. I mean specialty coffees are 2.something euros, think of it that’s more than 2 dollars. I guess I find that big a disparity hard to believe. actually they’re sitting down so that means a couple extra euro, or maybe a special price for sitting – even so 10 euros seems reasonable. KatherineMW Venice is hugely overpriced. For example, a dorm bed in Venice costs more than a single room does in most other Italian cities. It really varies a lot. If you order and consume at the bar, yes, it could be much cheaper, as low as 1 euro. And no, nobody leaves a tip for that, also because it would be ridicolously low 🙂 The bartender could even feel mocked. But in this case, those espressos has been served at the table, which would imply paying for the “servizio”. Among the canals of Venice, it could be well over 5 euro each. And it’s not like they’re trying to scam you, but the rents there are obviously sky-high there. That’s the price of enjoying a coffee in Venice, unfortunately. my experience in naples is that you go to the bar, get the coffee stand there and traditional put less than 1 euro in the little plate your cup came on as a tip for the barista,. I don’t think I’ve ever gone out anywhere else that wasn’t with people I was visiting so I don’t know if one leaves a tip. Haven’t been to Venice but it seems Capri level expensive when you descirbe it. Philip Bourque So the conspiracy is a real thing? I find that to be disappointing, somehow. Just because there is a conspiracy doesn’t mean that it is the same thing as Patrick’s Conspiracy. Both can co-exist. JohnTomato You say Duval, I say Devil. Let’s call the who thing off [not really, this is shaping up nicely] SFP follows the adventures of a young middle-class American with super-strength, invincibility and an overwhelming sense of social injustice. Written by Brennan Lee Mulligan Drawn by Molly Ostertag © 2020 Brennan Lee Mulligan & Molly Ostertag - RSS	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1969
__label__cc	0.603342	0.396658	‘YOU’RE FIRED’ – President Donald Trump Ousts Obama Appointee Acting Attorney General Sally Yates ABOVE VIDEO: Acting AG tells DOJ lawyers not to defend Trump orders WASHINGTON D.C. – Here is the statement from President Donald Trump: The acting Attorney General, Sally Yates, has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States. This order was approved as to form and legality by the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel. Ms. Yates is an Obama Administration appointee who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration. It is time to get serious about protecting our country. Calling for tougher vetting for individuals travelling from seven dangerous places is not extreme. It is reasonable and necessary to protect our country. Tonight, President Trump relieved Ms. Yates of her duties and subsequently named Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to serve as Acting Attorney General until Senator Jeff Sessions is finally confirmed by the Senate, where he is being wrongly held up by Democrat senators for strictly political reasons. “I am honored to serve President Trump in this role until Senator Sessions is confirmed. I will defend and enforce the laws of our country to ensure that our people and our nation are protected,” said Dana Boente, Acting Attorney General. President Donald Trump relieved acting Attorney General Sally Yates of her duties Monday night after she directed Justice Department attorneys not to defend Trump’s controversial executive refugee and immigration ban. Yates, a holdover from the Obama Administration, was replaced as acting attorney general by Dana Boente, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. US Navy SEAL Killed In Sunday’s Raid In Yemen Identified As Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Yates had “betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States.” The executive order, which Trump signed Friday, temporarily halted the entire U.S. refugee program and banned all entries from seven Muslim-majority nations for 90 days. Fox News contributed to this report WATCH: Majestic Queen Victoria Sailed Into Port Canaveral for Visit From Hamburg, Germany NASA’s Astronauts Meir, Koch Complete Battery Swaps to Upgrade Space Station Power Systems	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1976
__label__wiki	0.939756	0.939756	I-League: Mohun Bagan hosts relegation-threatened Gokulam Kerala Mohun Bagan has only pride to play for after its defeat against East Bengal. Kolkata 29 January, 2019 16:26 IST Khalid Jamil: “It’s not difficult to motivate the players. They are professionals and are ready for the match.” Photo: AIFF Media After suffering a 2-0 defeat against East Bengal which dealt a crushing blow to its title aspirations, Mohun Bagan would look to return to winning ways when it faces Gokulam Kerala FC in an I-League fixture here on Wednesday. The host will have only pride to play for, but the contest signifies much more to the visiting team. A good result may help Gokulam Kerala escape the relegation zone. It currently occupies the 10th position, with 11 points from 13 matches. Bagan, on the other hand, occupies the sixth position. There may be a few changes for the contest for the side. Head coach Khalid Jamil would look to bring back Shilton D’Silva and Arijit Bagui, while midfielder Yuta Kinowaki is likely to sit out due to a calf-muscle injury. ‘Ready’ Jamil admitted the intensity was missing from his side in the derby clash on Sunday. “East Bengal looked more determined. We should learn from the mistakes and move on. There’s no point thinking about the past. The last match was not up to the mark, but we must go ahead,” Jamil said on the eve of the clash against Gokulam Kerala. Mohun Bagan was defeated by East Bengal in the Kolkata derby on Sunday. Photo: AIFF Media “But it’s not difficult to motivate the players. They are professionals and are ready for the match,” he added. The two teams have met before; they played out a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Kerala. ‘Motivation high’ Gokulam Kerala can expect much from its new signing Fabien Vorbe, who was brought in by Gift Raikhan, the new coach, after Fabrizio Ortiz left the club midway through the season. “We are fighting for relegation. So the motivation is high. We need three points very badly,” Raikhan said. The contest will begin at 5 pm. Dugout videos Gift Raikhan Gokulam Kerala FC Arijit Bagui Shilton Dsilva Khalid Jamil I- League Ranji Trophy 2019-20 LIVE - Round 6, Day 3: Shahbaz Ahmed takes hat-trick, Hyderabad all out 171 Australian Open 2020: Prajnesh crashes out in opening round Tendulkar, Walsh to coach teams in bushfire charity match	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1982
__label__cc	0.713359	0.286641	Tag Archives: Michael Bacall February 25, 2013 by joecarro in Action (Movies), Comic Book Movies, Fantasy (Movies), Movie Reviews and tagged 2010, 2010's, Abigail Chu, Action, Alison Pill, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Average JOE, Ben Lewis, Bill Hader, Blog, Brandon Routh, Brie Larson, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Canada, Chantelle Chung, Chris Evans, Clifton Collins Jr., Coins, Comeau, Comedy, Comic Books, Comics, Crash, Demon, Drummer, Edgar Wright, Ellen Wong, Emily Kassie, Enemies, Envy Adams, Erik Knudsen, Evil, Ex, Fantasy, Fed Ex, Fight, Film, Frenemies, Gamer, Gideon Graves, Groupie, Hair, Heart, Hip, Hipster, Homosexual, Hot, Indie, Ingrid Haas, Jason Schwartzman, Jimmy, Johnny Simmons, Joseph Carro, Julie Powers, Kerr Hewitt, Kieran Culkin, Kim Pine, Knives Chau, Kristina Pesic, Lesbian, Level Up, Love, Lucas Lee, Mae Whitman, Mark Webber, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Matthew Patel, Michael Bacall, Michael Cera, Monique, Movie, Music, Musician, Nelson Franklin, Oni Press, Other Scott, Party, Power Up, Ramona Flowers, Retro, Review, Rock, Roxy Richter, Sandra, Satya Bhabha, Scott Pilgrim, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Seven Evil Exes, Sex, Sex Bob-omb, Singer, Stacey Pilgrim, Stephen Stills, Tamara Chen, Teen, Thomas Jane, Todd Ingram, Toronto, Trasha, UPS, Vegan Police, Video Game, Wallace Wells, Winifred Hailey, Young Neil \| Leave a comment Original Theatrical Release: August 13, 2010 Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) lives in Toronto, Canada and hopes to be successful with his band, Sex Bob-omb. He is still having trouble getting over his ex-girlfriend and has taken to dating a high school girl, Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), who is five years younger than he is. When Scott meets the much more mature Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), however, he entagles himself in a love triangle. But, that’s not all…if he wants to be with Ramona he has to defeat Ramona’s Seven Evil Exes…all with different sets of fighting abilities. This is, of course, based on the Oni Press comics by Bryan Lee O’Malley of the same name and does a pretty good job (better than I expected, actually) of capturing the feeling of the book and artwork. The special effects are all pretty nice, aside from a few times where it looked pretty unrealistic (even in the context of the film…I call it the Storm-Syndrome because of Storm/Halle Berry flying up the elevator shaft in the first X-Men film…looked completely false and unrealistic and unnatural) I thought Michael Cera was a good choice for Scott Pilgrim and also all of the Seven Evil Exes seemed to be spot on, especially Lucas Lee (Chris Evans) and Gideon Graves (Jason Schwartzman). The movie moved at a pretty decent pace, I thought, but maybe could have either been shortened or made into a couple of movies if more detail was put in. Some viewers might think the movie is all flash and not be able to appreciate the novelty of the story’s premise. There are, of course, tons of throwbacks to classic video games and that gives it a fun sort of edge. Movie Trailer For Scott Pilgrim vs. The World	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1992
__label__wiki	0.67568	0.67568	Jon Patch- Our Host Our Co-Hosts Environmental Ed Attention Florida: Enter to win a screening pass for two of the musical "Cats" by Universal Pictures - Read Below Featured ATTENTION FLORIDA: ENTER TO WIN ADVANCE SCREENING PASSES FOR “CATS” For your chance to win a complimentary admit-two pass to the advance screening of Universal Pictures’ CATS, find instructions for your nearest city below. § Miami, FL AMC Sunset Place December 17th, 2019 - 7:00PM To Enter: Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the Subject line “MIAMI” § Tampa, FL Regal Citrus Park To Enter: Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the Subject line “TAMPA” § Orlando, FL AMC Altamonte Mall To Enter: Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the Subject line “ORLANDO” § West Palm Beach, FL Cinemark Boynton Beach To Enter: Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the Subject line “WEST PALM BEACH” § Fort Myers, FL Regal Belltower To Enter: Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the Subject line “FORT MYERS” § NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Limit one (1) admit-two pass per person. Void where prohibited. Sponsors not responsible for incomplete, lost, late or misdirected entries or for failure to receive entries due to transmission or technical failures of any kind. SEATING IS LIMITED, SO ARRIVE EARLY. PASS DOES NOT GUARANTEE A SEAT AT THE SCREENING. Refer to screening pass for further restrictions. ONE ENTRY PER PERSON. www.CatsMovie.com. https://www.facebook.com/catsmovie https://www.instagram.com/catsmovie/ https://twitter.com/catsmovie #CatsMovie. OPENING DATE: December 20, 2019 RATING: CATS has been rated PG (Parental Guidance Suggested – Some Material May Not Be Suitable for Children) for some rude and suggestive humor GENRE: Epic Musical CAST: James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, and introducing Francesca Hayward SCREENPLAY BY: Lee Hall, Tom Hooper BASED ON: Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot, the musical “Cats” by Andrew Lloyd Webber PRODUCERS: Debra Hayward, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Tom Hooper PRODUCERS: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Steven Spielberg, Angela Morrison, Jo Burn Oscar®-winning director Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables, The Danish Girl) transforms Andrew Lloyd Webber’s record-shattering stage musical into a breakthrough cinematic event. Cats stars James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson and introduces Royal Ballet principal dancer Francesca Hayward in her feature film debut. Featuring Lloyd Webber’s iconic music and a world-class cast of dancers under the guidance of Tony-winning choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton, In the Heights), the film reimagines the musical for a new generation with spectacular production design, state-of-the-art technology, and dance styles ranging from classical ballet to contemporary, hip-hop to jazz, street dance to tap. The film also stars Robbie Fairchild (Broadway’s An American in Paris), Laurie Davidson (TNT’s Will), hip-hop dance sensation Les Twins (Larry and Laurent Bourgeois), acclaimed dancer Mette Towley (featured in videos for Rihanna and Pharrell Williams’ N.E.R.D.), Royal Ballet principal dancer Steven McRae, and rising-star singer Bluey Robinson. Universal Pictures presents a Working Title Films and Amblin Entertainment production, in association with Monumental Pictures and The Really Useful Group. Cats is produced by Debra Hayward, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Tom Hooper. The screenplay is by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot, Rocketman) and Hooper, based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot and the stage musical by Lloyd Webber. Cats is executive produced by Lloyd Webber, Steven Spielberg, Angela Morrison and Jo Burn. One of the longest-running shows in West End and Broadway history, the stage musical “Cats” received its world premiere at the New London Theatre in 1981, where it played for 21 years and earned the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Musical. In 1983, the Broadway production became the recipient of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and ran for an extraordinary 18 years. Since opening in London in 1981, “Cats” has continuously appeared on stage around the globe, to date having played to 81 million people in more than fifty countries and in nineteen languages. It is one of the most successful musicals of all time. screening passes for 2 Talkin' Pets News Christopher Lloyd author of Humanimal will join Jon and Talkin' Pets 1/18/20 at 5pm ET to discuss and give away his new book Listen to Talkin' Pets 1/18/20 from 5-8pm ET and play to win Disney’s “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” on Digital 4K Ultra HD™ Blu-ray™ Doggie ConCierge, Jerry Grymek will Join Jon and Talkin' Pets 1/11/20 at 550pm ET to update us all on Hotel Penn and booking your romm for The 144th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF FELINE PRACTITIONERS RELEASES UPDATED FELINE RETROVIRUS GUIDELINES TO THE VETERINARY COMMUNITY More in this category: « HOW TO TEACH PHILOSOPHY TO YOUR DOG author Anthony McGowan will join Jon and Talkin' Pets 12/14/19 at 5pm ET to discuss and give away his book WIRE FOX TERRIER “PIERCE” WINS AKC ROYAL CANIN NATIONAL ALL-BREED PUPPY AND JUNIOR STAKES » Special Forces: Arena On The Show (388) Guest Of The Show (2) Ask Environmental Ed (0) Co-Hosts (15) Show Gallery (4) Show Media	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line1993
__label__wiki	0.77979	0.77979	Website blocks MeitY 'Website not found' pop-ups leave Internet activists fuming Last year, MeitY blocked 2,799 URLs for allegedly hosting malicious content, marking a sharp increase from 2017, when 1,385 URLs were blocked.ET Bureau \| March 06, 2019, 07:57 IST By Tushar Kaushik Internet activists are concerned over what they term as rising instances of websites being blocked by internet service providers (ISPs) and the government without citing any reason for doing so. Last year, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) blocked 2,799 URLs for allegedly hosting malicious content, marking a sharp increase from 2017, when 1,385 URLs were blocked. These numbers were disclosed by minister of state for electronics and IT SS Ahluwalia in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha in February. In 2016, the number of URLs that were blocked stood at 633. The government has also withheld information on the list of blocked websites despite several queries under the right to information (RTI) Act, internet activists told ET. The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), a Bengaluru-based advocacy group, is compiling a list of URLs and websites that are being blocked, and has identified over 3,200 so far. Senior policy officer at CIS Gurshabad Grover said that among the blocked URLs are proxy servers and websites of NGOs that are deemed to have criticised government policy. As per Grover, some of the websites and URLs reported to have been blocked at some point include the sites of human rights groups such as arabhra.org, www.protectioninternational.org and www.drugsense.org. Also blocked were a site on feminism (feminist.org), the website of an environmental organisation (wedo.org) and a blog by activist Irom Sharmila (iromsharmilachanu.wordpress.com). “Many blockades, when brought to the notice of courts, were revoked, but the URLs still remain inaccessible. The bigger problem is that of getting the list of blocked URLs,” Grover told ET. ‘Restricting right to receive information’ A MeitY official, however, said no website is blocked arbitrarily. “No government machinery can order (blocking of a URL) without valid reason and without following valid procedure. And the only procedure available to us is (Section) 69A and 79 (of the IT Act). Rest is a court order,” the senior MeitY official, who did not want to be identified, told ET. “Valid procedure is (Section) 69A, where we can order. But in addition there is (Section) 79, where notice is issued for any illegal activity happening on any platform. This notice can be issued by the appropriate government department. And the intermediary platform is free to agree to it or disagree,” the official said, adding that every complaint received against a website is considered individually. Section 69A of the IT Act empowers the Centre to block websites in the interest of national security. Section 79 empowers the government to issue a notice to an intermediary to remove any content that it finds illegal. A MeitY spokesperson could not respond immediately to ET’s emailed queries on the issue. Grover of CIS said there was no way to determine if a website was blocked by the government or an ISP, unless a government order for the blocking was available. For instance, last month, several users of the messenger service Telegram and music sharing website SoundCloud had reported that these websites had been blocked by Reliance Jio, according to the Internet Freedom Foundation. Reliance Jio did not respond to queries from ET. Internet Freedom Foundation’s executive director Apar Gupta expressed concern over the lack of information regarding reasons for blocking URLs. “This is very worrying because it’s a secretive process that prevents the public from accessing a website, which restricts the right to receive information — a part of the fundamental right to freedom of speech and information,” he said. Tags : Internet, Website blocks, MeitY, censorship, RTI Act, ISPs	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2001
__label__cc	0.594462	0.405538	X-Bows brings re-designed ergonomics to mechanical keyboards X-Bows was designed to be an accessible way to improve keyboard ergonomics without requiring a significant investment of time from users to adjust to. Mechanical keyboards have been gaining popularity lately and feature different sizes, components, switches, lighting, and more. One company, X-Bows, has introduced a new mechanical keyboard that has a radically different, and ergonomic, design on Kickstarter. Created and developed by Dr. Sigo Wang — a medical doctor with over 20 years experience in medical imaging and metacarpal injuries, X-Bows was designed to be an accessible way to improve keyboard ergonomics without requiring a significant investment of time from users to adjust to. The company says that the X-Bows keyboard was designed with three main criteria: Enhancing the comfort and ergonomics of the keyboard Limiting the learning curve for our new layout Creating an attractive design The X-Bows Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard. The first, as you’ve noticed from the image above is the “cross-radial design,” which is definitely a very noticeable and unique feature of the keyboard. According to the Kickstarter description, the “key columns are angled to promote a more natural angle for our wrists.” Moving the ENTER, Backspace, SHIFT and ALT keys into the center of the keyboard achieves two things: First, it limits stress on the pinky, our weakest finger. The thumb is very underused on traditional keyboard layouts so repositioning these keys utilizes it without adding undue stress. Second, it makes these keys much easier to reach. On traditional typewriters these keys didn’t exist, had limited functionality, or had completely different functions. They were simply tacked onto the side of the keyboard. Making these keys easier to reach allows you to get more done when you’re typing and reduces the need to move your whole hand to reach a key – one of the most fatiguing acts in typing. It’s an interesting concept, and given some of us have been using the same keyboard layout for over a decade, it’d definitely take some getting used to. Features and specifications of the X-Bows keyboard include: The body of X-Bows is made fully of aluminum. This prevents any flex and feels more satisfying than lighter keyboards. Gateron Switches are among the most sought-after in the keyboard market. They have an estimated lifespan of 50 million actuations. Type of lighting provides backlighting and effects for X-Bows. Individual key lighting can also be set in the accompanying software. Using X-Bows intuitive software, users can set individual keys to perform macro functions that would take multiple keystrokes to perform on ordinary keyboards. X-Bows training wheel keys smooth the transition from using modifier keys on the periphery of the keyboard to using the new ones in the middle of the board. These keys can later be reprogrammed to the users’ needs. Keyswitches: Gateron Blue/Red/Brown/Black RGB DIP LED Lighting Cable: USB-C to USB Compatibility: Windows, Mac, Linux The X-Bows Mechanical Ergonomic Keyboard has already doubled its all-or-nothing funding goal of $40,000CAD and still has over 50 days to go at the time of this article. Early-Bird pricing of $144CAD is still available and is a saving of $80USD off the MSRP of $200USD. Estimated delivery of the keyboard is in December of this year. What do you think about X-Bows? Is it a project you’ve backed or will be backing? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook. Back on Kickstarter Related Items:ergonomic keyboard, featured, Kickstarter, Mechanical Keyboard, X-Bows Chargeasap Infinity Cable review: One cable for all your USB devices Latest Logitech G mechanical gaming keyboard features swappable switches This Kickstarter smartphone says it’s the only phone you’ll ever need Motorola Android 8 upgrade list has been posted C by GE Sol review: An Alexa powered smart lamp for your home or office	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2002
__label__wiki	0.778823	0.778823	Google Yanks Grooveshark from Android Market, But Chrome App Remains By Jared Newman @OneJaredNewmanApril 06, 2011 This article has been cross-posted from our partner site, Technologizer. Grooveshark became a rare victim of Android Market policy on Tuesday, when Google removed the streaming music app without explanation of which policies were violated. Unlike other streaming music services, such as Rdio and MOG, Grooveshark doesn’t license the entirety of its library. Songs are uploaded by other users, allowing Grooveshark to undercut the competiton with free web streaming and a $3 per month mobile app. Although Grooveshark has made an arrangement with EMI, a lawsuit against Universal Music Group is underway, and I wouldn’t be surprised if record labels complained. Apple yanked Grooveshark’s iPhone app last July. But as CNet’s Greg Sandoval points out, the timing of the Android app’s removal is coincidental. Google’s general counsel, Kent Walker, is testifying on Wednesday before the House Judiciary committee, which is investigating websites that profit from piracy. Google is fending off allegations that it makes money from AdSense ads on piracy websites, and will defend its reputation by pointing to its own anti-piracy efforts. For instance, in December, Google announced several new measures, including the removal of “BitTorrent” and other piracy terms from its auto-complete search results and an improved anti-piracy review for AdSense. It’s not clear whether the removal of Grooveshark was politically motivated, but it could help the company make a stronger case before Congress. Just one other observation: Grooveshark’s Chrome web app remains untouched, at least at the time of this writing. Granted, the Chrome Web store is much lower-profile than Android, but I’ll be interested to see whether Google starts policing this ecosystem for copyright violations as well, even if its just a collection of glorified bookmarks. See the original article here. Pandora Issued a Subpoena For Possibly Violating Internet Copyright Laws Location-Based Music is Finally Here Which Music Service Should You Use?	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2004
__label__wiki	0.948685	0.948685	Twitter Makes an Android Tablet App (but You’ll Need the Right Tablet) Support for all Android tablets is coming later this year. By Jared Newman @OneJaredNewmanOct. 10, 2013 Twitter’s Android app has been a sad, stretched-out version of its smartphone app for far too long, but relief is on the way — for Samsung tablets, at least. Starting today, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1 – 2014 Edition gets a proper tablet version of Twitter. In landscape mode, the navigation bar will sit on the left-hand side. Tap on a tweet, and a second column will pop up, showing photos, videos and article previews when appropriate. It sounds a lot like how Twitter’s iPad app works currently, though the Android tablet version will look like it in portrait mode. Twitter says it’s added some features specifically for Samsung. The app supports Samsung’s Multi-Window mode, so you can run Twitter and another app side-by-side, and there’s an illustration feature for drawing on top of tweets with the Note’s S Pen stylus. Twitter is also launching a new widget that shows tweets, photos and videos, along with country-specific news and updates. If you’re using a Samsung tablet other than the Note 10.1, Twitter says the tablet version is coming “soon.” For everyone else, it’ll officially be available by the end of the year. I say “officially” because there’s a good chance some benevolent hacker will grab the APK installation file and put it up on the Internet for all. That’s exactly what happened with Flipboard last year, when the app launched as a Samsung timed exclusive. So far I haven’t seen anything pop up, but I’ll update this post if anything changes. Until then, check out 25 Android tablet apps that look great no matter who built the hardware.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2005
__label__wiki	0.513412	0.513412	Orlando-Walt Disney World Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate 1500 Masters Blvd \| Champions Gate, FL 33896-5312 [SEE MAP]Champions Gate, FL [SEE ADDRESS] #22 in Best Orlando-Walt Disney World Hotels View All 200 Photos » View All 200 Photos » Courtesy of Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate Available family-friendly amenities include a pool with a waterslide, a 24-hour arcade and a kids club Daily resort fee of $33 applies This Omni resort has several features that place it above its competitors, especially with visiting families. First, there's the family-friendly swimming pool – a zero-entry one equipped with a 125-foot-long corkscrew waterslide. Then, there's the resort arcade, which stays open 24 hours a day. And lastly, the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate offers supervised children's activities at Camp Omni Kids Escape. The resort also provides scheduled shuttle service to Walt Disney World as part of the property's daily resort fee. Meanwhile, previous guests appreciate that the Omni Orlando Resort doesn't overlook other types of visitors. The resort boasts two championship golf courses and the lighted nine-hole course for putting. And recent vacationers tout the swanky ZEN restaurant – which serves Asian meals – as the front-runner of this Omni's dining establishments. But perhaps most importantly, travelers are impressed by the Omni Orlando Resort's rooms, which feature amenities like flat-screen TVs and, in some instances, private balconies. This super-lush resort stretches across much of the ChampionsGate community in the Orlando area. See Orlando-Walt Disney World Travel Guide » Champions Gate, FL Business travelers, Couples, Families GOODCritic Rating in Best Orlando-Walt Disney World Hotels in Best Orlando-Walt Disney World Resorts in Omni Hotels & Resorts in Disney's Maingate West See all hotels in Orlando-Walt Disney World » Florida Spirit Vacation Homes Mystic Dunes Resort & Golf Club by Diamond Resorts Rent Sunny Florida at Windsor Hills Fairly isolated, though buffered from noise and congestion by two golf courses, wetlands and plenty of green space. There's an adult-only pool and a pleasantly landscaped family pool boasting a waterslide and an 850ft lazy river. The traditional guest rooms have an elegant appeal and feature comfortable easy chairs. Many rooms have great views of the scenic grounds. The luxurious villas create a perfect, full-amenity getaway. Kids of all ages will enjoy floating down the lazy river or gliding down the waterslides. For adult "pamper-me" time, visit the spa or hit the greens on one of the outstanding championship golf courses. Located 10 miles south of Disney World, the Omni is an excellent destination resort with attentive service, three well-designed pools including a lazy river, a waterslide, three golf courses, organized kids' activities, and solid restaurants. Most of its 720 guest rooms lack the kitchens found at the sprawling Reunion resort nearby, but the Omni's grounds are more walkable. The Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate is the perfect getaway for golf enthusiasts or simply to “lay around and relax,” like one reader did. The resort is home to the Leadbetter Golf Academy World Headquarters with 36 holes of championship greens, and the pool area has a lazy river, waterfalls, and plenty of “nooks and crannies to settle into” for some quiet time in a lounge chair. A hotel's guest rating is calculated using data provided under license by TripAdvisor. A total of 6280 have reviewed the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, giving it a rating of 4.5, on a scale of 1-5. All guest rooms and suites at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate feature large windows with views of the resort – either the golf courses, main entrance area or pools. Accommodations are decorated in earth tones of brown and gold and feature flat-screen TVs, minifridges and coffee makers. Some rooms offer balconies, and suites include sleeper sofas. Daily resort fee of $33 includes in-room Wi-Fi access, coffee, turndown service (upon request) and local phone calls The Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate is located about 12 miles southwest of Disney's Magic Kingdom. The property's daily resort fee includes shuttle service to and from the area's Walt Disney World theme parks, and is available four times a day. Some shops and restaurants sit within walking distance, however, a car or taxi service is required to get to other parts of Orlando. About 28 miles southwest of Orlando International Airport On-site rental car desk available Airport transfers can be provided for a fee 24-hour self-parking ($24) The Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate has eight on-site dining options, ranging from the poolside Croc's Pool Bar & Grille to the upscale David's Club sports bar. At ZEN, guests can savor pan-Asian dishes and various sakes, while Trevi's serves Italian-inspired cuisine in a traditional dining room and outside in the property's Italian herb garden. A casual eatery with sandwiches and salads is also available at the golf club. Coffee shop, lobby bar and grab-and-go deli also located on-site Room service offered 24 hours a day Cuisine Types: Buffet, Asian, Italian, American The Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate offers two pools to guests – a zero-entry pool and a free-form pool. At the zero-entry pool, children can play in the adjacent water playground or slide down the 125-foot-long corkscrew waterslide. For travelers interested in relaxing by the pool, the property's other pool offers a relaxed vibe and eigh cabanas. A 850-foot lazy river is also located on-site. Lazy river and Family Pool open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Formal Pool open every day between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Fees apply for use of cabanas See more pool hotels in Orlando-Walt Disney World » The Mokara Spa at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate offers unique treatments, such as the Mokara Body Quench Ritual – which incorporates concreta and oil as a slimming body wrap – and the Coconut Radiance Ritual. Traditional treatments and hair and nail services are available as well. Spa open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sundays between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Spa packages offered See more spa hotels in Orlando-Walt Disney World » Camp Omni Kids Escape at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate provides dinner, movies, video games, board games and arts and crafts for kids ages 4 to 12. Parents who dine at David's Club or ZEN receive 50 percent off the first two hours of Camp Omni Kids Escape services with proof of purchase. Additionally, all kids receive a backpack filled with an activity book, crayons, binoculars and a small tabletop game at check-in. Miniature golf course located on-site Resort's arcade open 24 hours a day Family-friendly water areas include a zero-entry pool with a waterslide and an 850-foot lazy river See more family-friendly hotels in Orlando-Walt Disney World » The 24-hour fitness center at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate is equipped with Cybex cardio and weight-training equipment. Several trails are also located throughout the property, and a lighted basketball court is located by Croc's Pool Bar & Grille. See more fitness hotels in Orlando-Walt Disney World » The Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate features 248,111 square feet of meeting and event space. There are three ballrooms, three boardrooms and several outdoor spaces and other breakout areas located in other parts of the resort. The largest venue, the Osceola Ballroom, can accommodate up to 3,200 people for theater-style events. A business center is also available 24 hours a day. Audiovisual equipment offered See more business hotels in Orlando-Walt Disney World » Guests with pets that weigh 50 pounds or less are welcome to stay on the second floor of the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate. All rooms with pets are charged a nonrefundable cleaning fee of $195, with additional pets requiring an extra $100 each. Pets allowed (with fee) See more pet-friendly hotels in Orlando-Walt Disney World » The Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate features two championship 18-hole golf courses (the International Course and the National Course), as well as a nine-hole, par-3 golf course. It is also the world headquarters site for the Leadbetter Golf Academy. Family-friendly miniature golf course available Golf packages offered See more golf hotels in Orlando-Walt Disney World » The Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate has eight wedding venues that can accommodate ceremonies, receptions and other events in both indoor and outdoor space. The largest venue available is the Osceola Ballroom, which has space for up to 1,000 guests for receptions. Outdoor options include the Ballroom Commons and the Golf Course Commons. On-site wedding concierge available All reception packages include four hours of hors d'oeuvres, plated or buffet-style dinners, wedding cakes and dance floors Maximum wedding guest capacity: 1000 See more wedding hotels in Orlando-Walt Disney World »	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2011
__label__wiki	0.629313	0.629313	Treatment of tungiasis with a two-component dimeticone: a comparison between moistening the whole foot and directly targeting the embedded sand fleas Per Nordin ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3816-92291,5, Marlene Thielecke2, Nicholas Ngomi3, George Mukone Mudanga4, Ingela Krantz1 & Hermann Feldmeier2 Tropical Medicine and Health volume 45, Article number: 6 (2017) Cite this article Tungiasis (sand flea disease) is caused by the penetration of female sand fleas (Tunga penetrans, Siphonaptera) into the skin. It belongs to the neglected tropical diseases and is prevalent in South America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa. Tungiasis predominantly affects marginalized populations and resource-poor communities in both urban and rural areas. In the endemic areas, patients do not have access to an effective and safe treatment. A proof-of-principle study in rural Kenya has shown that the application of a two-component dimeticone (NYDA®) which is a mixture of two low viscosity silicone oils caused almost 80% of the embedded sand fleas to lose their viability within 7 days. In this study we compared the efficacy of two distinct modes of application of NYDA®; one targeted application to the area where the parasite protrudes through the skin and one comprehensive application to the whole foot. Independent of the two modes of application, the dimeticone caused more than 95% of embedded sand fleas to lose all signs of viability within 7 days. The targeted application killed embedded sand fleas more rapidly compared to when the whole foot was covered. The proportion of viable lesions at day two were 7.0 versus 23.4% (p < 0.01) and at day five 3.9 versus 12.5% (p < 0.02). Our findings suggest that the dimeticone could provide a safe and effective treatment for tungiasis in areas with difficult access to health care. Trial registration ISRCTN ISRCTN74306878 Tungiasis (sand flea disease) belongs to the family of neglected tropical diseases and is prevalent in South America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa [1]. It is caused by penetration of female sand fleas (Tunga penetrans) into the skin and the ensuing inflammatory response [2]. The inflammation is intensified by an almost unavoidable bacterial super-infection [3]. Just about all of the lesions are found in the feet [4, 5]. The consequences of sand flea disease are debilitating, eventually leading to chronic morbidity with impaired mobility and quality of life [6, 7]. The prevalence of tungiasis varies between settings; prevalences up to 60% have been reported in various populations with up to 80% in children [8,9,10,11]. Children and the elderly are more likely to develop severe disease [4, 11, 12]. Tungiasis predominantly affects marginalized populations and people living in resource-poor communities in both urban and rural areas [8,14,, 10, 13–15]. Various drugs have been examined for their efficacy against embedded sand fleas in humans. Randomized controlled trials using topical or oral administration of antihelminthic drugs such as metrifonate, thiabendazole or ivermectin showed little or no efficacy at all [16,17,18,19]. The only treatment option patients in the endemic areas have is to try to kill embedded sand fleas chemically or mechanically. People often apply toxic substances such as kerosene, used engine oil or household insecticides. Alternatively, the lesions are manipulated with sharp instruments such as needles, safety pins, razor blades or thorns, a health risk by itself. Such practices can also cause additional bacterial super-infections or transmit viral pathogens such as HBV, HCV and HIV [7]. The last three abdominal segments of an embedded sand flea form a miniature cone through which the parasite remains in contact with the environment through an opening in the skin of about 250 μm. Through this opening, the female sand flea takes up oxygen, expels eggs, defecates and gets fertilized. The abdominal cone protrudes through the skin and has been identified as a target for drug treatment [20, 21]. As the skin around the abdominal cone is painful, patients usually know exactly how to localize an embedded sand flea. A proof-of-principle study in rural Kenya has shown that the application of a two-component dimeticone (NYDA®) to the skin of the feet, repeated two times within 5 min, kills almost 80% of the embedded fleas within 7 days [21]. Furthermore, assessments of lesion morphology indicate that normal development was interrupted in those parasites not killed: the female fleas became unable to produce and/or expel eggs. Lesion-associated inflammation significantly decreased within 7 days after application of dimeticone [21]. NYDA® contains two dimeticones or silicone oils with different viscosities and a high creeping property. It is commercialized as a medical device for the treatment of head lice infestation in many European countries [22, 23]. Its mode of action is purely physical [24]. In this study, we compared the efficacy of two distinct modes of application of NYDA®: one targeted application to the area where the abdominal cone of the parasite protrudes through the skin and one general application to the whole foot. The rationale for the targeted application was twofold: first, to minimize the volume of the dimeticone and, second, to direct the dimeticone to where it should act, namely the vital organs of the parasite located inside the abdominal cone. By consequence, a targeted application of the dimeticone should lead to a more rapid death of an embedded sand flea. The study took place from the end of February till the end of March 2014, i.e. during the end of the dry season, when transmission of tungiasis peaks. The study was conducted in eight primary schools in Bugiri district, Bulidha sub-county, eastern Uganda. The schools were located in the following villages: Makoma, Isaka Bisolo, Kibuye, Businda, Busakira, Nakawa and Wakawaka. Sixty children aged 5 to 12 years selected from eight primary schools were included in the study. The number of children sampled from each school was based on the school and class size as well as on the organizational convenience. The number of children enrolled per school varied from 3 to 21. Children from classes one to six present at the day of the investigation were eligible for the study provided they had at least three viable sand flea lesions on each foot (stage 2 and/or 3 according to the Fortaleza classification [25]) as evaluated by a rapid assessment method [26]. They should furthermore not show clinical symptoms requiring immediate medical attention such as abscesses, ulcers or intense pain. When multiple embedded sand fleas of stage 2 or 3 were present, only lesions which could be clearly distinguished from one another were included in the study. Lesions were chosen so that their location made it possible to use the handheld digital microscope, such as at the toe, the sole or the rim of the foot. Each lesion was photographed, and its location and stage was noted in the patient’s record. The number of lesions included in the study was limited to three per foot and were followed up at regular intervals for 7 days (Fig. 1). Sampling of the patients, allocation of feet to treatment arms and number of lesions included Two topical regimens of the two-component dimeticone (NYDA®) (Pohl-Boskamp GmbH & Co. KG, Hohenlockstedt, Germany) were randomly allocated to either the left or the right foot of the patient. Before the application of dimeticone, both feet were washed with water and soap and dried with a clean towel. The regimens were labeled ‘whole foot treatment’ and ‘targeted treatment’. Whole foot treatment meant that dimeticone was applied to the skin of the foot up to the ankle, as previously described [21]. The application was stopped when the skin became shiny, indicating that it was wetted with the dimeticone. This procedure was repeated three times within 10 min and required 2 to 5 ml depending on the size of the foot. Targeted treatment meant that dimeticone was aspired into a 5-ml syringe to which a flexible tube was mounted. Three drops were applied to the area where the parasite’s abdominal cone protruded through the skin. One drop corresponds to approximately 50 μl of dimeticone. This procedure was repeated three times within 10 min to ensure that a maximum amount of dimeticone entered into the abdominal cone of the parasite within a short period of time. This required approximately 450 μl per embedded sand flea. In both groups, the dimeticone was only applied at baseline. For each patient, demographic data as well as baseline parasitological measurements were conducted as previously described [21, 25, 27]. Staging was performed according to the Fortaleza Classification. Stage I: penetrating sand flea Stage II: brownish-black dot with a diameter of 1-2 mm Stage III: circular yellow-white watch glass-like patch with a diameter of 3–10 mm and with a central black dot Stage IV: brownish-black crust with or without surrounding necrosis Stage I to III are viable sand fleas; in stage IV, the parasite is dying or already dead [25]. Using a digital handheld microscope (dnt DigiMicro Mobile 5-megapixel-handheld-microscope, ITEZ, Hong Kong, China) viability signs (expulsion of eggs, excretion of faeces threads, excretion of liquid, pulsations/contractions) were recorded as present or not. All data were collected by the same investigator at baseline and during a 7-day follow-up: day two, day five and day seven. Two major outcome measures were defined: the viability of the embedded sand flea and the intensity of the local inflammation. The primary outcome measure was the viability of the embedded sand flea according to the Fortaleza Classification [25]. An embedded sand flea was considered to be dead, if none of the four viability signs was detected during 15 min of observation by the digital handheld microscope on two consecutive follow-up examinations [20]. A secondary outcome measure was the intensity of the local inflammation, as assessed semi-quantitatively by an inflammation score [21]. Lesions manipulated by the patient or the caregiver were also documented. Another set of outcome measures were based on visual scales depicting how the impact of tungiasis was perceived by the patient. The scales consist of a series of simple pictures illustrating itching, pain, itching-related sleep disturbance, pain-related sleep disturbance and mobility impairment as perceived by the patient. The patient was asked to classify the degree of each complaint by pointing to the corresponding picture. Zero meant no complaint at all, 1 = little complaint, 2 = moderate complaint, 3 = severe complaint and 4 = very severe complaint. These outcome measures encompass both feet, since it was considered impossible for the participants to discern the impact of embedded sand fleas separately for each foot. The sample size of circa 140 lesions per treatment group is based on a 15% difference in treatment effect, a power of 90% and a significance level of 5%. The assumption was based on our previous findings [21]. Fisher’s exact test was used to compare proportions, and the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to analyze the inflammation score and self-reported tungiasis-related characteristics. A relationship was considered statistically significant when a p value was less than 5%. All presented confidence interval (CI) have a confidence level set at 95%. At baseline, the two treatment groups displayed similar characteristics concerning the distribution of lesion types (Table 1). Table 1 Types of lesions at baseline in the two treatment groups The difference between the number of lesions found on the two feet for the same individual were never larger than 12 in all cases except one. In this particular case, the foot intended for whole foot treatment had 75 lesions and the foot intended for targeted treatment only nine lesions. The distribution of differences in number of lesions between the paired feet, i.e. feet on the same individual are considered a pair, showed a mean of 0.1 together with a standard deviation of 9.7, and the related median had a value of 0. The average numbers of viable lesions were close to seven per foot with a substantial variation in both treatment groups. The two groups also displayed a similar distribution of frequencies across the range of the parasites’ developmental stages (Table 2). Table 2 Number of viable lesions per developmental stage of lesions in the two treatment groups at baseline During and after treatment The outcome measured as the loss of viability of embedded sand fleas after the application of the dimeticone is shown in Fig. 2. Decline of parasite viability from baseline with treatment for each group through the three follow-up examinations at day 2, day 5 and day 7 At the first follow-up, 2 days after treatment, the number of viable parasites decreased significantly in both groups (whole foot treatment p < 0.001; targeted treatment p < 0.001). The loss of viability was higher in the targeted treatment group (p < 0.001). At the second follow-up, after 5 days, the loss of viability was still higher in the targeted treatment group compared to the whole foot treatment group (p < 0.02). After 7 days, the reduction of the number of viable sand fleas was similar in both groups: 95% (CI 92; 99) of the parasites in the whole foot treatment group had lost all signs of viability and 97% (CI 94; 99) in the targeted treatment group (Table 3). Furthermore, in both groups, sand fleas which remained viable did not expel eggs during the 7 days. Whether lesions were in stage 2 or 3 at baseline had no impact on the efficacy of either treatment (Table 3). Table 3 Viability of embedded sand fleas in the treatment groups at baseline and the subsequent follow-upsa The inflammation scores and the visual scale measurements showed significant reductions between baseline and day seven (Table 4). Table 4 Secondary outcome measures at baseline and at day seven for both feet combined After completion of the study (day 7), the medians of all visual scales had decreased to 0. Tungiasis is endemic in resource-poor populations in many countries of sub-Saharan Africa (8, 10, 13, 14, 15). It is associated with important morbidity, and children and the elderly carry the highest disease burden (4, 11, 12). Nonetheless, hitherto there is no approved treatment. In Kenya, the Ministry of Health recommends bathing the feet for 10 min in KMnO4, an approach with a rather low efficacy [21]. Besides, KMnO4 stains the skin in deep purple. This makes the treatment visible for everyone and the patient vulnerable to ridiculosity [21]. Hence, there is an urgent need for a safe and effective treatment of tungiasis. The study showed that with the targeted application of the dimeticone, parasites were killed more rapidly and that 2 days after the topical application, only 7% of the parasites remained viable (Table 3). After 7 days, though, in both treatment groups, >95% of the embedded sand fleas had lost all viability signs. A more rapid death of the parasites is an advantage, because inflammation resolves as soon as an embedded sand flea has died (Thielecke M, unpublished observation 2014, [28]). It is likely that by a repeated targeted application, more dimeticone crept into the abdominal cone per unit of time compared to when the skin of the whole foot is wetted and that this resulted in a rapid death. Actually, when looking at the abdominal cone with the digital microscope, one could see how the dimeticone creeps into the opening in the skin and then disappears, as it spreads to the microscopic surfaces located within the abdominal cone. A similar observation has been made when dimeticone is applied to free running insects such as head lice and crickets [23]. Seven days after the application of the dimeticone, 98% of the parasites had lost all their viability signs in the targeted treatment group and 95.5% in the whole foot treatment group. Only a few sand fleas withstand the treatment, but these were not observed to expel eggs during the remainder of the study, indicating that the dimeticone had abrogated the normal development of the female sand flea as observed previously [21]. The implication of this finding is that a scaled-up treatment program could have an effect on the transmission. Tungiasis-related symptoms decreased rapidly, when the sand fleas lost their viability by the dimeticone. This was visible both as indicated by the inflammation score assessed by the investigator, as well as by the visual scales as expressed by the patients themselves (Table 4). Notably, the median became 0 7 days after treatment in all visual scales. One week after treatment, healing was evident as seen by the decrease in the inflammation score as well as the visual scales confirming a previous finding [21]. During a previous study, we have observed that the inflammation around the embedded sand fleas increase when they continue to grow and intensify their metabolic activity in stages 2 and 3 [27]. The inflammation recedes, however, when the parasites develop from stage 3 to 4 [25]. In these stages, the signs of viability slowly disappear and eventually the parasites die. The efficacy of the whole foot treatment here was higher compared to the proof-of-principle study in Kenya where dimeticone applied to the feet up to ankles killed 78% of the embedded sand fleas within 7 days [21]. Apart from the difficulty of achieving a standardized application procedure giving a precise dosage for each foot, there are also biological explanations for this difference. Rapid penetration of the dimeticone into the last abdominal segments of the embedded sand flea may depend on how deep a parasite is located in the skin. The thicker the corneal layer of the skin, the longer the dimeticone will need to reach the stratum of the epidermis in which the parasites are located. In addition, only a part of the dimeticone will be absorbed by a rough and thickened epidermis. The children in Kenya did not use shoes at all, whereas the children in Uganda, at least partially, had sandals or flip-flops. Thus, the higher efficacy of the dimeticone in this study might reflect a thinner and smoother corneal layer of the feet of the Ugandan participants. Lesions localized to the tip of the toes, the sole and the rim of the foot were deliberately chosen so that the handheld digital microscope easily could be applied in order to assess viability signs with a higher degree of precision. At those selected sites, it can be suspected that the dimeticone might be targeted more precisely and/or penetrate the parasite more rapidly. No such selections were made in the Kenyan study. There, the included lesions were also located under the nail, under thick crusts of the corneal layer or in necrotic tissue areas into which the dimeticone cannot penetrate easily. A difference in penetration efficiency could thus possibly also explain the differing results. The number of lesions varied considerably within the group of included children (Table 2). When the number of lesions are more than three, they often occur in clusters [29] making it difficult to distinguish the characteristics of an individual lesion, which also impairs assessments of morphological changes and the lesion-associated inflammation [21]. We, therefore, deliberately limited the number of included lesions to three per foot. The results of this study are based on highly controlled and monitored procedures. This means one ought to be cautious when considering the true effectiveness of treatment of tungiasis with dimeticone under field conditions. Based on the average required volume of dimeticone for treatment of the whole foot and what is used in the targeted treatment, we find that the targeted application is more parsimonious as long as the number of viable embedded sand fleas does not exceed seven lesions per foot. Hence, in severe cases where individuals suffer from dozens of embedded viable sand fleas, the whole foot treatment should be more cost-effective and also more practicable. The application of a mixture of a two-component dimeticone (NYDA®) caused more than 95% of embedded sand fleas to lose all defined signs of viability within 7 days. The targeted topical application worked faster compared to when the whole foot was covered. Our findings suggest that the dimeticone could provide a safe and effective treatment for tungiasis in areas with difficult access to health care. CI: HBV: Hepatitis B virus HCV: Hepatitis C virus HIV: ISRCTN: International standard randomised controlled trials number Feldmeier H, Heukelbach J. Epidermal parasitic skin diseases: a neglected category of poverty-associated plagues. Bull World Health Org. 2009;87:152–9. doi:10.2471/BLT.07.047308. Feldmeier H, Heukelbach J, Ugbomoiko US, Sentongo E, Mbabazi P, et al. Tungiasis—a neglected disease with many challenges for global public health. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2014;8(10):e3133. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0003133. Feldmeier H, Heukelbach J, Eisele M, Carvalho CBM. Bacterial superinfection in human tungiasis. Trop Med Int Health. 2002;7:559–64. Muehlen M, Heukelbach J, Wilcke T, Winter B, Mehlhorn H, Feldmeier H. Investigations on the biology, epidemiology, pathology and control of Tunga penetrans in Brazil: II. Prevalence, parasite load and topographic distribution of lesions in the population of a traditional fishing village. Parasitol Res. 2003;90:449–55. Heukelbach J, Wilcke T, Eisele M, Feldmeier H. Ectopical localization of tungiasis. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2002;67:214–6. Feldmeier H, Keysers A. Tungiasis—a Janus-faced parasitic skin disease. Trav Med Infect Dis. 2013;11:357–65. Feldmeier H, Sentongo E, Krantz I. Tungiasis (sand flea disease): a parasitic disease with intriguing challenges for public health. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 2012;32:19–26. Chadee DD. Tungiasis among five communities in south-western Trinidad, West-Indies. Ann Trop Med Parasitol. 1998;92(1):107–13. Nte AR, Eke FU. Jigger infestation in children in a rural area of Rivers State of Nigeria. West Afr J Med. 1995;14(1):56–8. Ratovonjato J, Randriambelosoa J, Robert V. Tunga penetrans (Insecta, Siphonaptera, Tungidae) à Madagascar: une nuisance négligée. Rev Med Vet. 2008;11:551–6. Wilcke T, Heukelbach J, Moura RSC, Kerr-Pontes LRS, Feldmeier H. High prevalence of tungiasis in a poor neighbourhood in Fortaleza, Northeast Brazil. Acta Trop. 2002;83:255–8. Ariza L, Seidenschwang M, Buckendahl J, Gomide M, Feldmeier H, et al. Tungiasis: a neglected disease causing severe morbidity in a shantytown in Fortaleza, State of Ceará. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop. 2007;40:63–7. Heukelbach J, Costa AML, Wilcke T, Mencke N, Feldmeier H. The animal reservoir of Tunga penetrans in severely affected communities of north-east Brazil. Med Vet Entomol. 2004;18:329–35. Heukelbach J, Oliveira F, Hesse G, Feldmeier H. Tungiasis: a neglected health problem of poor communities. Trop Med Int Health. 2001;6:267–72. Muehlen M, Feldmeier H, Wilcke T, Winter B, Heukelbach J. Identifying risk factor for tungiasis and heavy infestation in a resource-poor community in northeast Brazil. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 2006;100:371–80. Heukelbach J, Eisele M, Jackson A, Feldmeier H. Topical treatment of tungiasis: a randomized, controlled trial. Ann Trop Med Parasitol. 2003;97:743–9. Heukelbach J, Franck S, Feldmeier H. Therapy of tungiasis: a double-binded randomized controlled trial with oral ivermectin. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz. 2004;99:873–6. Ahadi Kenya Trust. The Jigger Menace in Kenya Report Volume 2. 2010. Available: http://www.jigger-ahadi.org/anti_jigger_magazine_year_2_%20final.pdf. Accessed 15 June 2016. Heukelbach J, Wilcke T, Winter B, de Oliveira FA, Moura RCS, Harms G, Liesenfeld O, Feldmeier H. Efficacy of ivermectin in a patient population concomitantly infected with intestinal helminths and ectoparasites. Arzneim-Forsch/Drug Res. 2004;54(7):416–21. Thielecke M, Feldmeier H. The fate of the embedded virgin sand flea Tunga penetrans: hypothesis, self-experimentation and photographic sequence. Trav Med Infect Dis. 2013;11(6):440–3. Thielecke M, Nordin P, Ngomi N, Feldmeier H. Treatment of tungiasis with dimeticone: a proof-of-principle study in rural Kenya. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2014;8(7):e3058. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0003058. Feldmeier H. Treatment of pediculosis capitis: a critical appraisal of the current literature. Am J Clin Dermatol. 2014;15:401–12. Richling I, Böckeler W. Lethal effects of treatment with a special dimeticone formula on head lice and house crickets (Orthoptera, Ensifera: Acheta domestica and Anoplura, Phthiraptera: Pediculus humanus). Drug Res. 2008;58(5):248–54. doi:10.1055/s-0031-1296501. Burgess IF. The mode of action of dimeticone 4% lotion against head lice. Pediculus capitis. 2009;9(3). doi:10.1186/1471-2210-9-3. Eisele M, Heukelbach J, Van Marck E, Mehlhorn H, Meckes O, et al. Investigations on the biology, epidemiology, pathology and control of Tunga penetrans in Brazil: I. Natural history of tungiasis in man. Parasitol Res. 2003;90:87–99. Ariza L, Wilcke T, Jackson A, Gomide M, Ugbomoiko US, Feldmeier H, et al. A simple method for rapid community assessment of tungiasis. Trop Med Int Hlth. 2010;15(7):856–64. Thielecke M, Raharisolo C, Ramarokoto CH, Rogier C, Randriamanantena H, Stauss-Grabo M, Richard V, Feldmeier H. Prevention of tungiasis and tungiasis-associated morbidity: a randomized, controlled field study in rural Madagascar. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2012;89:932–6. Thielecke M, Raharimanga V, Stauss-Grabo M, Rogier C, Richard V, Feldmeier H. Regression of severe tungiasis-associated morbidity after prevention of re-infestation: a case series from rural Madagascar. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2013;89:932–6. Feldmeier H, Eisele M, Heukelbach J, Saboia Moura RC. Severe tungiasis in underprivileged communities: case series from Brazil. Emerg Infect Dis. 2003;9:949–55. The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Health, Uganda, for giving the study a go ahead; the District Health Officer Bugiri for welcoming and supporting the team into the district; and the headmasters, teachers and pupils from the participating primary schools for their support during the field work. The study was funded by German Doctors e. V., registered charity, Bonn, Germany. The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to the fact that they in their raw form contain information that theoretically could make it possible to identify an individual. The data can be made available from the corresponding author on reasonable request, but to protect the integrity of the examined individuals and based on the nature of the request, we reserve the right to remove such data used to identify particular individuals. HF, PN and MT conceived and designed the experiments. GM and NN performed the field work. PN, HF and IK analyzed the data. PN, MT, HF and IK wrote the paper. All authors contributed to the critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. HF has received lecture fees from Pohl-Boskamp GmbH and Co KG, Hohenlockstedt, Germany, the producer of NYDA. The company had no role in the design, execution or interpretation of the study. The other authors do not have any conflicts of interest to declare. The study was registered in the Current Controlled Trials 2014 (ISRCTN74306878) and approved by the Ethics Committee of Makerere University College of Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Makerere, Uganda, (Higher Degrees Research and Ethics Committee Protocol No. 157). Written consent was signed, either by signature or fingerprint, by the guardians of the participants after they were informed about the trial in the local language Lusoga. The headmaster of the respective schools acted as a witness. At the end of the study, any remaining viable sand fleas were treated with a targeted application of dimeticone. All participants received a new pair of closed shoes, since wearing such shoes has been shown to reduce the incidence of sand flea disease [25]. Children not eligible for the study because of symptoms, such as intense pain, abscesses or ulcers, which required immediate treatment, were referred to the nearest Community Health Center. The Skaraborg Institute for Research and Development, Stationsgatan 12, 541 30, Skövde, Sweden Per Nordin & Ingela Krantz Institute of Microbiology and Hygiene, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany Marlene Thielecke & Hermann Feldmeier African Population and Health Research Center, Nairobi, Kenya Nicholas Ngomi Department of National Disease Control, Ministry of Health, Kampala, Uganda George Mukone Mudanga Epidemiology and Global Health, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden Search for Per Nordin in: Search for Marlene Thielecke in: Search for Nicholas Ngomi in: Search for George Mukone Mudanga in: Search for Ingela Krantz in: Search for Hermann Feldmeier in: Correspondence to Per Nordin. Nordin, P., Thielecke, M., Ngomi, N. et al. Treatment of tungiasis with a two-component dimeticone: a comparison between moistening the whole foot and directly targeting the embedded sand fleas. Trop Med Health 45, 6 (2017) doi:10.1186/s41182-017-0046-9 Accepted: 02 March 2017 Tungiasis	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2019
__label__cc	0.651135	0.348865	Advertise on Trucks \| Mobile Truck Advertising Benefits USA Locations \| Driving Awareness for NBC Boston’s New Channel As part of a massive advertising blitz to call out NBC Boston’s new channel, TSN Advertising’s industry-leading truckside advertising services were called upon to push the new channel with some familiar faces. Featuring the star-studded casts of NBC’s local and national hosts, including The Today Show’s Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie, the Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon, the local Weeknights News Crew, and Nightly News’ Lester Holt, each of whom appeared prominently throughout the fleet of over two dozen TSN trucks. Leaving nothing to chance, NBC opted for TSN’s Signature InfinityWrap™ and best in class advertising coverage. The marketing push comes on the heels of a major shift in the world of broadcast television, where NBC is boldly going where few have gone before: taking over an NBC affiliate station WHDH and changing station channels simultaneously. “Our first mission is to make sure people can find us,” said Mike St. Peter, president of NBC Boston, New England Cable News and Telemundo Boston. This is where a full OOH, digital, and experiential marketing campaign required all channels to hit the market in unison. With spots on Pandora, News Crews disseminated with food truck giveaways, and TSN delivery trucks making deliveries to businesses throughout the greater Boston market, NBC hit the market hard on every front. As for the prize? NBC aimed to not only hold onto their market penetration but expand it as Boston sits as the ninth largest television market in the US with 2.1% of total U.S. households. St. Peter said, “This is a big sports town and a big news town. We have assembled a great team with lots of experience in this market. There’s a lot of news viewing [in Boston] and viewers expect a high standard of coverage.” TSN continues to work with NBC in several markets across the U.S. from their headquarters in Santa Monica, CA and regional offices in New York City and Dallas, TX. Contact TSN at 1-888-496-4850 to learn how we can get your brand in front of more people. Back to all Blog TSN Advertising Headquarters 301 Arizona Avenue, Suite 250 Santa Monica, CA 90401 contact@tsnadvertising.com 14 E. 44th Street 3990 Vitruvian Way COPYRIGHT 2018 TSN ADVERTISEMENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. \| WEBSITE DESIGN BY GETVISIBLE	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2020
__label__cc	0.625985	0.374015	About TTD Member Unions Issues By Sector The Cost of Doing Business Federal Comments TTD in the news MoveAmerica Blog Mailing List Options Jun 30, 2005 Press Releases House Rejects Calls to Break-up, Bankrupt Amtrak House Rejects Calls to Break-Up, Bankrupt Amtrak Transportation Labor Says House Support for Amtrak Recognizes Need for Federal Investment Washington, D.C. . . . The following statement was issued today by Edward Wytkind, President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), in response to votes in the U.S. House of Representatives providing $1.2 billion […] Transportation Labor Condemns House Subcommittee Vote on Amtrak FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:Michael Buckley 202/628-9262 Washington, D.C. . . . The following statement was issued today by Edward Wytkind, President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), in response to the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee voting just $550 million in Amtrak funding for Fiscal Year 2006. “Today’s disgraceful vote by the House Appropriations Subcommittee […] Jun 8, 2005 Press Releases Audit Shows FAA "Asleep at the Switch" As Airlines Outsource Aircraft Repairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:Michael Buckley 202/628-9262 AFL-CIO Transportation Unions Demand Greater Oversight Washington, D.C. . . . The following statement was issued today by Edward Wytkind, President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), in response to an audit by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Inspector General of Federal Aviation Administration oversight of commercial aircraft […] May 25, 2005 Press Releases Giant Railroads Paint Rosy — and Misleading — Picture of Safety Record FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:Michael Buckley 202/628-9262 Self-Awarded Prizes, PR Campaign Mask the Dangerous Truth Washington DC — The freight railroad industry paints a highly selective and distorted picture of its own safety record, Edward Wytkind, President of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department (TTD), said today. 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According to Edward Wytkind, President of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation […] Apr 27, 2005 Press Releases Momentum Growing Against Bush Plan to Kill Amtrak FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:Michael Buckley 202/628-9262 202/262-3854 MichaelB@ttd.org House Panel Approves Pro-Amtrak Bills; Rail Workers Mobilize Washington D.C. — Momentum is growing against the White House plan to bankrupt Amtrak, Edward Wytkind, President of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department said today, citing both House committee approval of two passenger rail bills and the mobilization of […] Transportation Labor Calls for Resignation of Amtrak Board of Directors FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:Michael Buckley 202/628-9262 Responsible Board Needed to Stop Bush Plan to Kill Amtrak from Within Washington, DC … The Amtrak Board of Directors must resign immediately before they succeed in killing Amtrak from within through destructive privatization initiatives, declared the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD) today, representing millions of transportation workers nationwide […] Transportation Labor Condemns Amtrak Board Proposal to Decimate Amtrak FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:Michael Buckley 202/262-3854 Washington, D.C. 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__label__cc	0.529702	0.470298	this institute Institute of Systems Architecture © Silvia Kapplusch more Institute of Systems Architecture Die Professuren Chair for Operating Systems The Operating System Group’s objective is to reduce complexity for computing systems. To this end, we research, develop, and use our own microkernel to componentise critical parts of systems. We try to push research and development far enough for our results to be usable by other research groups or as starting points for industrial partners. Read more Chair for Operating Systems © TU Dresden Chair for Databases In the era of Big Data, data management is one of the core pillars of modern enterprise scale information management systems. Within the Dresden Database Systems Group, we are addressing a rich bouquet of topics ranging from data refinement and statistical analytics to system-level optimizations in the context of main-memory database systems. Read more Chair for Databases Chair of Privacy and Security We are working on all aspects of privacy, protecting the data of users from undue processing, transfering, and storing. In particular, we are active in the areas of network security, secure ICT systems, privacy-preserving data analysis, and surveillance prevention. Read more Chair of Privacy and Security © Stephan Hermsdorf Chair for Computer Networks Major areas of research and teaching include the internet of things, delay tolerant networks, energy efficient distributed architectures and technology enhanced learning. These topic areas are being pursued in various projects and are also subject of graduate level courses. Moreover, a general introduction to computer networks is part of our undergraduate curriculum. Read more Chair for Computer Networks © Nils Eisfeld TU Dresden Chair for Systems Engineering The Systems Engineering Group's main research focus is on dependable systems. We follow a divide and conquer approach to address various kinds of faults and failures that can occur in computers and in distributed systems. We are designing and evaluating mechanisms to deal with individual fault types to facilitate developers to choose and match mechanisms depending on a system's dependability requirements. Read more Chair for Systems Engineering © Lucas Vogel The institute for systemarchitecture consists of the chairs for operating systems, databases, privacy and security, computer networks and systems engineering.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2022
__label__wiki	0.708429	0.708429	Clint Worthington February 2, 2018 Movies Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s ponderous, effortlessly endearing alien-invasion dramedy filters the strangeness of modern life through its trio of alien protagonists. This piece was originally posted on Alcohollywood The Japanese are no strangers to the quirky, off-kilter and unconventional when it comes to their cinema, especially in their sci-fi efforts. Enter Kiyoshi Kurosawa, director of the J-horror flick Pulse and Tokyo Sonata, a long-time denizen of the weirdness indicative of Japanese cinema, and his latest work Before We Vanish. An eccentric, but undeniable inspired alien invasion movie that playfully dabbles in a million different genres but settling on none, Before We Vanish delights as much as it confuses – and, considering its slower pace and two-plus hour running time – occasionally bores. As a prelude to an unseen alien invasion, three agents of this invading force inhabit the bodies of three young Japanese adults – Shinji (Ryuhei Matsuda), Amano (Mahiro Takasugi) and Akira (Yuri Tsunematsu). Their goal? To learn from, understand, and steal various human ‘conceptions’ like love, anger, desire and so on, to better comprehend the pests inhabiting their next conquest. There’s no hatred in their hearts, or contempt for the human race: when we first see them, they’re like babes in the woods, reliant on human ‘guides’ to get around and help them pick up these conceptions. There’s an endearingly quirky fatalism to the entire affair – these body-snatchers are infinitely curious and casual about humanity, simply taking as fact that everyone they meet along the way will be wiped out in the oncoming storm. The problem, however, is that they don’t all land in the same place, Before We Vanish eventually settling into a bifurcated story of two different sets of alien explorers learning from their environment. Shinji, left on his own, learns about humanity with the help of her baffled, but committed wife Narumi (Masami Nagasawa), who slowly grows to also love the creature that’s taken over her husband’s body. The other half of the story follows Amano’s quest to find Akira, with the help of a laconic journalist (Hiroki Hasegawa) who quickly discovers their secret and is curious to learn more. Because of these split stories, which only briefly intersect near the film’s final act, Before We Vanish plays out less like a single, consistent narrative than two different takes on the same conceit. Shinji and Narumi’s unconventional rom-com story runs opposite Amano and Akira’s dogged commitment to the end of the human race, with journalist Sakurai in tow – one wonders whether the film’s exhaustive runtime could have been truncated by just focusing on one of these stories. In concert, though, they contribute to Kurosawa’s deliberately idiosyncratic filmmaking, the film giddily wobbling between tones: low-key Japanese social comedy to end-times thriller, gory action picture (Akira’s main goal in the film is to kick ass in her Japanese schoolgirl outfit) to tender love story. Somehow, the messy languorousness of the film’s runtime becomes a feature rather than a bug, offering a more comprehensive look at the strangeness of human society, and the little moments of tenderness that might just change the invaders’ minds. For a film about the end of the world, there’s a lack of tension in Before We Vanish that makes it occasionally difficult to care about what’s going on. That’s quite possibly the film’s major joke: humans who learn of their impending doom treat these proclamations with a shrug, or just confusion. Instead, Kurosawa relishes the fish-out-of-water moments of the film’s first half, like freshly-possessed Shinji getting used to walking around on two legs or Amano’s giddy guilelessness about his true identity and mission. Especially charming is the method by which these agents take conceptions from the minds of their victims: a mere poke on the forehead, and their subject falls to their knees in dumbfounded awe, as if they’ve been touched by God. It’s a simple, but effective motif that punctuates the film’s otherwise tamped-down sense of pace. It’s too long by half, and its cultural rhythms might confuse the uninitiated, but Before We Vanish is an interesting little alien invasion flick that feels much more Starman than The Day the Earth Stood Still – a distinctly offbeat movie about what makes us human, and whether it’s worth saving. Before We Vanish is in theaters now in NY and LA. Liked it? Take a second to support The Spool on Patreon! Posted in Movies. Bookmark the permalink. Join The Spool We deliver each new post directly to your inbox. "Anne With An E" Season 3 Closes the Door on Avonlea The Outsider: "Dark Uncle" Sends an Ominous Message "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror" Puts "Doctor Who" Back on Track Support The Spool on Patreon! The Astrologer is the Forgotten Cult Hit You’ve Been Waiting For REVIEW: Fifty Shades Freed	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2023
__label__wiki	0.512969	0.512969	1The Next Level All Podcast Episodes Event Planners and Designers By Andy Kushner / August 28, 2019 In this episode of The Next Level, Andy Kushner and Julie Novack, CEO and Co-Founder of Party Slate, chat about Ali Barone’s interview on the Wedding Biz. Party Slate is a photo rich website where leading event professionals share their work, build their brand and drive leads. Listen in as they talk about why Ali started her own company, how she built her business with her ideal clients, and how she has her clients pin on their pinterest board with reckless abandon. Julie speaks about getting involved with the community when building your team, and how there are no bad ideas when brainstorming. Andy and Julie are professionals in this industry and never disappoint so sit back, unplug and listen to this entertaining discussion. [00:53] Welcome back to the show Julie! [02:28] Andy chats with Julie about Ali Barone and using imagination instead of devices. [05:10] They discuss how Ali stated that she wanted to choose her ideal clients, and set her own schedule which is why she started her own company. [06:15] Andy says he loved the way Ali went to locations where clients she wanted to work with hung out so she could build relationships with them. [08:15] Julie speaks about getting involved with the community to find clients, investors and employees. [11:50] They chat about challenges, bumps in the road that all businesses face and how you have to just work through them to persevere. [13:25] Julie says you have to let people on your team know about the challenges so they can help solve the problems. [14:40] They talk about how Ali said she has her clients pin on a pinterest board “with reckless abandon.” [16:11] Julie says there are no bad ideas when brainstorming for events. [17:25] They were in total agreement that people now want to do something different with their events. [18:20] Julie said that Party Slate website has over 500,000 photos now from events. Ali Barone http://www.alibaroneevents.com/ http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ali-Barone-Events/ https://www.pinterest.com/nyweddingmaven/ https://www.instagram.com/alibaroneevents/ This Week’s Guest Co-Host, Julie Novack, CEO and Co-Founder of Party Slate PartySlate Julie Novack on Twitter Julie Novack on Linkedin Julie Novack on Facebook Julie Novack on Instagram Julie’s Episode on The Wedding Biz: ALI BARONE: Creating The Events Career Of Your Dreams	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2030
__label__cc	0.744373	0.255627	Amazing Dining Experiences October 1, 2014 October 1, 2014 davelory I’m not sure when it turned for me…when dining itself became the only destination and less the thing to do before a movie or after a show. Where you could spend two or three hours trying new tastes in the company of someone special or a group of like-minded fools ready to drop the equivalent of a car payment on dinner. I guess working at Savoia was a stab at seeing how people ate this way. At that time in my life I couldn’t imagine dropping that much scratch on a dinner. There I saw what I imagined to be rich folks being fawned over by our team, thinking that anyone who would drop $200 on a plate of goat cheese crostinis for an appetizer, a steak with some red potatoes and asparagus, maybe a roasted chicken for the lady and some wine had to be doing quite well. In 1991, Bret Easton Ellis released American Psycho, his twisted black comedy that followed the life of Patrick Bateman, a wealthy young banker who spends his days “fitting in” and his nights in murderous insanity. I was living in Tulsa at the time and made my way to the bookstore, being a fan of his other works. As I read the novel what struck me as a restaurant guy was the attention paid to and focus on which restaurants they had reservations. Many scenes in the book were set in restaurants, bars and clubs. Some of the restaurants were real places in the fictional New York of the time (mid-80’s). While all of you were reading with horrified eyes the many scenes of hyper-violence and gore, I pored over the passages describing the different dishes being served, many of them the over-the-top, adjective filled, multi-syllabic cooking of the day. I wanted to try the Swordfish Meat Loaf with Onion Marmalade and Wasabi Mashed Potatoes or the Red Snapper scented with Violets and Pine Nuts over a Sweet Potato Hash. It just sounded so damn INTRIGUING. I’ve had some great meals in my life, some at three star palaces with celebrity chefs and some at local dives where the only stars present (both celebrity and Michelin) were the ones in my head after too many whiskeys. Maybe it was the food, the service, the company on my arm that made the experience what it was but they are as varied as can be. I’ll start off with the one that many food writers have made to be their “have-to”: The French Laundry. The French Laundry came into being in 1994. I moved to SF Bay area from Texas in 1995. My friend Michael Meadows mentioned the restaurant and how he and his wife couldn’t wait to go there. Being pre-internet, I couldn’t just go online and check out the hype. But people were buzzy about it so I thought that might be a place to see. Being located in Yountville only made it more attractive since I was a big fan of wine country. Problem is, I didn’t make it to the French Laundry until 8 years later, having moved back to Texas. We ventured to SF to try and recapture the romance of that time and place and then repaired to wine country for a few days. Being a restaurant guy, I had cajoled lodging and some winery tours from some of our vendors back home. On a clear night we made our way to the restaurant. Arriving about 30 minutes early (such was my anticipation) we ventured inside and was told by the manager that our table would be ready at nine. We retreated to a local bar for a drink then returned at the appointed hour. The manager was again at the front and said, “Mr. Lory right this way please”. I was blown away that she remembered my name from our brief encounter 30 minutes before, especially given the number of guests leaving from the early seating, the ones arriving for our seating, the ones trying to get a last minute walk-in table and the ones who just wanted to gawk at this the temple of haute cuisine. We made our way to our table and ordered the 10-course tasting menu. One by one amazing (and much-publicized) dishes came our way. Some I loved, some I didn’t and some I didn’t get. But the service was impeccable and the atmosphere intoxicating. At the end, as we were trying to force ourselves to eat the hand wrapped chocolates and mignardise (petit fours) after so much rich food, I looked over at the large round table in the center of the dining room and noticed none other than Jacques Pepin, the famous chef who helped to introduce French cuisine to America. He was holding court with 8 or 9 others. I am not a person who is celebrity-struck, even back in the Planet Hollywood days. But for a restaurant boy like me, this was the equivalent of dining next to culinary royalty. Or meeting Thomas Keller. Which was about to happen. “Would you like to meet the Chef?” Um…what? My head was fogged from a day of wine tasting, driving all over the Napa Valley, 10 courses of rich decadence plus more wine. Perhaps I hadn’t heard him correctly. To this day I don’t know if every table had the chance to go back and meet Chef Keller, if they picked me as a fellow restaurant dude or if they took pity on the one table who obviously had to save up many pennies to eat here. Don’t know don’t care. All I knew was that I was going to meet the master. The server led us quietly to a hallway to the kitchen. There a tall figure in white was fiddling with a towel. He turned to us and said “hi, Thomas Keller”. I shook his hand and introduced us in return. He asked how the dinner was and I said it was great. I’m sure my delivery was not very elegant and that I stammered my words. We left and made our way outside. There was a small garden to the right of the building and we went over there and looked inside through rectangular glass windows into the kitchen. There was the cleanest kitchen I had ever seen and in the center was Chef Keller sweeping his floors among the cooks and sous-chefs. I was in awe. Here was arguably the most exciting chef in America sweeping his own floors. My own KM’s back home didn’t even sweep the floors, not deigning to do something that they felt the line cooks or dishers should do. Chef Keller autographed a menu for us, and Melissa made up a special display as a present for me a few months later. But there have been other ones, experiences where the restaurant wasn’t so lauded, the chef not so well known. Where there was a simple special touch, like a location or a server or a menu item or a companion that made it special. Where it didn’t really cost a lot of money. And isn’t that what dining out is about? And isn’t that what we strive for as restaurant professionals? The simple yet elevated cooking of Hattie’s in South Dallas. Low country Southern fare not seen in the area for some time. Their bacon-wrapped blue-cheese stuffed figs are legendary. The crispy garlic chicken wings at Lotus of Siam in Las Vegas, before it became known as the best Thai restaurant in the country. In our time, Lotus was in a shambling strip mall on Sahara Avenue and every Wednesday a group of fellow fraternity brothers would jump into a car, classes be damned, for the all-you-can-eat buffet featuring these wings. There was driving across the country, moving to San Francisco. That night we planned to stay in Albuquerque but I knew that driving an extra hour north would reward us with Coyote Cafe and Mark Miller. Miller once worked for the vaunted Alice Waters, then spread his wings and became a grandfather of Southwestern cuisine. We changed clothes at a New Mexico gas station, then drove up to Santa Fe. Amazing and worth the detour. The dinner at Wink in Austin, where they put “Happy Birthday, Laura” at the top of their daily-printed menus for my girlfriend of the time. Little touches like that make my restaurant lifer pants go crazy… The 48 oz double-cut Porterhouse steak at Mastro’s in LA, served sizzling with butter and sides. Drunk with bourbon and a day of revisiting old memories while hanging with old friend Kuehne, we devoured that steak then Ubered our way back to the hotel, stumbling inside to pass out sated and at peace. There was the visit to Star Canyon prior to its sale to Carlson Restaurants. Knowing it had a finite life span as an independent, we quickly made reservations after the news of its impending sale and reveled in what would soon not exist, preferring to be a dumbed down, corporate version of itself in upcoming days. The Bone-In Cowboy Ribeye with Pinto-Wild Mushroom Ragout and Red Chile Onion Rings. A now-classic dish that Chef Stephan Pyles should be proud of. (As I was writing this passage, I went online and ordered his first cookbook, The New Texas Cuisine. Sure, its rather dated now and Chef Stephan has moved on to other successes, but I had to have it…). There was Mary’s Trattoria in the West Village in NYC. Making our way up carpeted stairs to our table, the other diners having hushed intimate conversations wrapped like bubbles around them. I don’t remember what we ordered but we were New Yorkers for 2 glorious hours. The sandwiches at Gezellig. This bar was the brainchild of a couple Dallas-area friends, who used a boozy trip to Europe to create a supercool Amsterdam-style watering hole. Beers were good, better than most being served in Dallas and definitely ahead of the current craft beer craze. BUT what I loved most about Gezellig were the sandwiches; big thick deli treats with corned beef or pastrami or roast beef. Still the best deli sandwiches ever. The tenderloin tamale at Reata in Fort Worth. Instead of poor cuts of meat scraps being ground up and stuff into a corn husk, they used the trimmings from breaking down full tenderloins; rich, succulent meat. Topped with a pecan mash, these things were melt-in-your-mouth. There was the Short-Rib Foie Gras Burger at Paris Vendome in Dallas. This thing was mind-blowing, and presaged the rise of gourmet, “better burgers” that followed 10 years later. There have been so many that I could go on and on. And probably will in postings to follow… ← Dinner with the Family Why Restaurants?? (a.k.a “So…that major in Comparative English has you doing what now, son??”) → One thought on “Amazing Dining Experiences” BigR says: Yes to all of that.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2034
__label__wiki	0.714581	0.714581	Oil-and-Gas APT Pivots to U.S. Power PlantsPrevious article Cisco Webex Bug Allows Remote Code ExecutionNext article Lifeline Assistance Phone Users Targeted with ‘Uninstallable’ Adware Wireless Update Not a New Issue A Virgin Mobile-branded phone distributed by Assurance Wireless to low-income U.S. citizens has a trojan pre-installed that can download additional malware. Government-funded, low-cost cell phones are shipping with pre-installed malware aimed at bombing users with unwanted ads, according to researchers. The UMX U686CL Android-based phone, which is made available to low-income citizens in the U.S. via the Lifeline Assistance Program for $35, uses a “Settings” app that researcher claim is actually a “trojan dropper.” According to Nathan Collier, a researcher at Malwarebytes, its function is to fetch and install other applications or malware. Unfortunately for those enrolled in Lifeline, the Settings app cannot be removed. That’s because the Settings app is essential and provides user access to the phone’s core settings. As such, if it’s uninstalled, the device becomes unusable. The code in question is “heavily-obfuscated malware we detect as Android/Trojan.Dropper.Agent.UMX,” Collier wrote in a post on Thursday. He added that its nuts and bolts are nearly identical to another known mobile dropper trojan, which comes in two variants called ALReceiver and ALAJobService. “The only difference between the…codes are their variable names,” according to the analysis. At their core, both droppers have an encoded string within the code that, once decoded, reveals a hidden library file named com.android.google.bridge.LibImp. Once it’s decoded (using Base64 decoding), the library is loaded into memory using DexClassLoader. And after the library is loaded into memory, the dropper fulfills its function by installing another piece of malware – in the case of UMX U686CL, it’s a known malvertising application called HiddenAds. Collier said that Malwarebytes customers have confirmed that an app called HiddenAds has suddenly appeared on their phones. After installing on a device, periodic full-screen ads will plague the user. There’s also a second concerning application pre-installed on the phone, dubbed Wireless Update. This also serves a legitimate function, receiving and installing over-the-air OS upgrades for the phone – and it does this automatically. However, it also automatically receives and installs other apps without user consent, Collier warned, making the app questionable at best. “From the moment you log into the mobile device, Wireless Update starts auto-installing apps,” he noted. “There is no user consent collected to do so, no buttons to click to accept the installs, it just installs apps on its own.” These apps have so far been malware-free, but the functionality obviously opens the door to potential malware infections down the line, Collier said. And adding to the concern is the fact that Wireless Update’s code is identical to code used by a malware from a shady company called Adups Technology. “Adups is a China-based company caught collecting user data, creating backdoors for mobile devices and, yes, developing auto-installers,” he said. According to previous research, the Adups app has been seen installing HiddenAds and other trojans on victim devices in the past. And Adups the company has been in hot water before, after Android phone-maker BLU Products admitted to sharing reams of information with it, including the full contents of their users’ text messages, real-time cell tower location data, call and text-message logs, contact lists, and applications used and installed on devices. Wireless Update can be uninstalled, but users would be left with no security fixes. Collier pointed out that this could be a decent tradeoff. Looking into how the malware got there to begin with, Collier found only dead ends and a lack of response. China is where the phones are manufactured, and the dropper app’s code also appears to have been created by Chinese authors: “The more discernible variant of this malware uses Chinese characters for variable names. Therefore, we can assume the origin of this malware is China,” according to the analysis. This brings up the question of whether the dropper was injected somewhere along the supply chain during the manufacturing process in Asia, unbeknownst to the manufacturer. Google last year reported an uptick in efforts by bad actors to plant potentially harmful applications on Android devices in this way. “Malicious actors increased their efforts to embed PHAs into the supply chain using two main entry points: New devices sold with pre-installed PHAs and over the air (OTA) updates that bundle legitimate system updates with PHAs,” wrote Google in its Android Security and Privacy Year in Review 2018, released last April. “The developers of pre-installed PHAs only need to deceive the device manufacturer or another company in the supply chain instead of large numbers of users, so it’s easier to achieve large-scale distribution.” Malwarebytes’ Collier said that he wasn’t able to confirm whether or not the company is aware of the pre-installed malware. As for Wireless Update, presumably the company made the choice to go with the Adups code for this feature, but again — this is not confirmed. Meanwhile, the phone is a Virgin Mobile-branded phone distributed by Assurance Wireless. Assurance Wireless is a federal Lifeline cell phone service provider, offering eligible customers phones, minutes and data. The phone is available at $35 under the government-funded program. “We informed Assurance Wireless of our findings and asked them point-blank why a U.S.-funded mobile carrier is selling a mobile device infected with pre-installed malware?” Collier said. “After giving them adequate time to respond, we unfortunately never heard back.” Threatpost reached out to Assurance Wireless and Virgin Mobile for comment and will update this post with any additional details. Pre-installed malware and unwanted applications are not a new phenomenon, as noted. For instance, in an investigation of malware infections on BLU brand phones, Threatpost found that many phones came pre-installed with malware and also downloaded more malware via a third-party update tool. Consequences have been significant for some affected device manufacturers, if the malware or unwanted application is knowingly installed. For instance, Lenovo, the Chinese PC giant, came under fire in 2014 for pre-loading the Superfish code. That powered something called VisualDiscovery, which was meant to help shoppers by analyzing images on the web and presenting similar product offers with lower prices—a form of targeted advertising. After a major vulnerability was found in the Superfish code, backlash was swift, given that the adware was pre-installed on machines without any disclosure on the part of Lenovo. VisualDiscovery was installed on nearly 800,000 Lenovo laptops before the issue came to light, and the laptop-maker ended up paying a $7.3 million settlement. In the case of the UMX U686CL, there’s a socioeconomic disparity issue here that’s worth noting, Collier pointed out: “Budget should not dictate whether a user can remain safe on his or her mobile device. Shell out thousands for an iPhone, and escape pre-installed maliciousness. But use government-assisted funding to purchase a device and pay the price in malware? That’s not the type of malware-free existence we envision.”	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2042
__label__wiki	0.703601	0.703601	Your Smart Christmas Lights Are Safer Than They Were Last YearPrevious article All in the (Ransomware) Family: 10 Ways to Take ActionNext article Maze Ransomware Behind Pensacola Attack, Data Breach Looms Maze: A Multi-Pronged Threat? Municipal Ransomware Hits a Peak Maze exfiltrates data as well as locks down systems. Officials said they don’t know yet whether any residents’ personal information has been breached. The Maze ransomware is likely the culprit behind the recently reported cyberattack on Pensacola, Fla. that occurred earlier this week, which downed systems citywide. In an email sent to county commissioners, IT administrators said that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said that the Pensacola attack was indeed ransomware, and Maze operators quickly took responsibility for the incident, saying that they are demanding $1 million in ransom. As of Wednesday, Pensacola’s systems were slowly coming back online, as IT staff cleared the network of malware, officials told the Pensacola News Journal (online payments for Pensacola Energy and city sanitation customers remained down). It’s unclear whether the city is paying the ransom, but officials did say they don’t know yet whether any residents’ personal information has been breached. The data breach fears are particularly relevant given that Maze has a quirk not found in most ransomwares: In addition to encrypting files and offering the decryption key in exchange for a ransom payment, it also automatically copies all affected files to the malicious operators’ servers, according to researchers. “For Maze’s victims, the fact that the attackers have exfiltrated the data means the incident is a data breach as well as a malware infection,” explained Duo Security, in a posting on the Florida incident on Wednesday. “This changes the incident response playbook, as the IT department will have to loop in legal and other departments to consider what additional steps will be necessary to recover from the infection.” For instance, some organizations and municipalities have refused to pay ransoms, in an effort to cut off the cybercriminals’ revenue streams and avoid becoming repeat victims. The decision to pay or not to pay typically comes down to whether it’s possible to restore the data from backups, and weighing cost factors, such as the cost of downtime and cleanup efforts. “With Maze, there is the prospect of potentially sensitive information being exposed—such as personally identifiable information, customer lists and intellectual property—if the ransom isn’t paid. Even if the organization can afford to rebuild and restore on its own, they may feel the pressure to pay just to keep the files out of public domain,” according to Duo Security researchers. Maze ransomware, a variant of ChaCha ransomware, was initially found by Malwarebytes security researcher Jérôme Segura in May. He observed the previously unknown ransomware being distributed using the Fallout exploit kit, via a fake site camouflaged as a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange app. Since then, it has cropped up in a number of attacks, including one on security company Allied Universal last month. According to reports, the crooks in that attack asked for a $2.3 million ransom in exchange for the decryption key and a promise not to release the company’s data. When Allied Universal missed the deadline to pay up, the Maze group published 700 MB worth of data (only 10 percent of what the crooks claimed to have stolen). Also in November, a new threat actor was seen impersonating the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and other government agencies to deliver and install both Maze and backdoor malware to various organizations in Germany, Italy and the United States, according to Proofpoint. Duo Security noted that it’s a “worrying possibility” that the Pensacola attack is linked to the Allied Universal debacle. “Allied Universal has offices in Pensacola, and if there was any city-related information in its files, the group behind the infection could have potentially used that information against the city [in a phishing campaign,” according to Duo Security. “Another possibility is that if Allied provided security services to the city, the infection could have piggybacked on an Allied employee to move from one network to another. This turns the ransomware attack into data breach using a third-party supplier.” This brings up the possibility that attackers are crafting secondary campaigns using information stolen from the first one – potentially setting up a scenario of continuously cascading follow-on attacks. “The evolution of ransomware infections being a precursor to attacks on other organizations is a highly concerning one,” Duo Security noted. “[This] highlights how a security incident at one organization puts others at risk.” For its part, in an interview with Bleeping Computer, the Maze group taking responsibility for Pensacola said that it doesn’t use the data for any purpose other than extortion. “We are neither espionage group nor any other type of APT,” the criminal group told the publication. The group also said that it’s not interested in “socially vital objects” such as 911 and medical care centers, and that it attempts to avoid encrypting essential public-safety services. According to Kaspersky security experts, 2019 has seen a significant spike of ransomware attacks on municipalities. In a report this week, the firm said that municipal ransomware is “the story of the year,” with at least 174 municipal institutions and more than 3,000 subset divisions having been targeted in 2019. This represents a 60 percent increase from last year. In analyzing publicly available information, Kaspersky also found that ransom demands have varied greatly with highs reaching up to $5.3 million to $1 million on average. The firm noted that while these targets might be less capable of paying a large ransom, they are more likely to agree to cybercriminals’ demands, given that blocking any municipal services directly affects the welfare of citizens in financial losses as well as other significant and sensitive consequences. “One must always keep in mind that paying extortionists is a short-term solution which only encourages criminals and keeps them funded to quite possibly repeat the same acts,” said Fedor Sinitsyn, a security researcher at Kaspersky, in a statement. “In addition, once a city has been attacked, the whole infrastructure is compromised and requires an incident investigation and a thorough audit.” While Maze appears to be an up-and-coming threat, the top ransomware families Ryuk, Purga and Stop topped Kasperksy’s list of municipal malware. All of them have unique attack characteristics that cities should be aware of, experts report. “Ryuk…[has a] distribution model [that] usually involves delivery via backdoor malware which spreads by the means of phishing with a malicious attachment disguised as a financial document,” according to the report. “Purga malware has been recognized since 2016, yet only recently municipalities have been discovered to fall victims to this trojan, having various attack vectors from phishing to brute-force attacks. Stop…propagates by hiding inside software installers.” Ryuk is particularly notorious. It’s a ransomware strain distributed by the Russian-speaking Wizard Spider financial crime syndicate, first spotted in August 2018. Since then, it has been involved in several high-profile attacks, such as a coordinated, targeted ransomware cyberattack on 23 Texas local and state entities in August. Despite the fact that the decision to pay the ransom has several dimensions that will be unique to each victim (including, now, the threat of a data breach), some researchers urge those affected to consider payment a public disservice. “As long as we as a society continue paying ransoms, these attacks will continue,” Cody Brocious, hacker and head of Hacker Education at HackerOne, via email. “Maintain regular (offline!) backups, keep your systems up to date, and don’t pay ransoms, if you do happen to get hit. At this point, it’s akin to choosing not to get a flu shot; sure, if you’re healthy then you’re not likely to die from the flu, but you may transmit it to someone who will. Giving in to these criminals is acting against the public good, which just ends up protecting organizations from the consequences of not taking their data seriously.” FBI Plans to Inform States of Election Breaches The agency changed its policy to provide more timely and actionable information to state and local election officials in the case of a cybersecurity breach to election infrastructure. Satan Ransomware Reborn to Torment Businesses A hellish mix of features shows the 5ss5c ransomware to be the son of Satan. U.N. Weathers Storm of Emotet-TrickBot Malware A concerted, targeted phishing campaign took aim at 600 different staffers and officials, using Norway as a lure.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2043
__label__wiki	0.549242	0.549242	At the University Campus of Football Business (UCFB) we pride ourselves on providing students with a stimulating curriculum in a unique environment. We believe our world first approach to higher education gives our students the best possible chance of a successful career in the football and sports industry. What makes our education experience work so well is down to three key components: what we teach, where we teach and how we teach. Book onto an Open Day Request more information Why UCFB? Our unique learning model Our degree programmes have been designed with these industries and their varied roles specifically in mind. Media, marketing, finance, psychology, coaching and event management, amongst others, are all sectors of these industries that are growing at a rate never seen before, with new roles being created on a daily basis. Where we teach Our students benefit from unique learning and sporting environments to live and learn in, with state-of-the-art facilities in inspirational campuses in London and Manchester, which include the iconic Wembley and Etihad stadiums at their heart. We like to call this an immersive education – by living and learning around a stadium environment, students are preparing themselves to work in similar surroundings after they graduate, therefore easing the transition from full time education to full time work. On top of this, all students have the option if attending annual summits at our global study hubs in Australia, Canada and the US, all of which have world renowned sporting arenas at their heart. The specific cities in these countries will be announced in the coming weeks. Online students will have the opportunity to learn from the comfort of their own home and gain a further qualification to enhance their career prospects in a format that offers flexible hours and the chance to dictate their own work-life balance to fit around other commitments. At UCFB we believe there are three necessary requirements for a career in the football and sports industry: a degree, industry contacts and work experience on your CV. Our three-tiered learning model provides all of this. The first is learning from our leading team of academics, whose knowledge and experience of these businesses worldwide is vast. Here, students learn the theory through books, research and presentations before then hearing from our industry guest speakers on the intricacies of their profession. This second layer allows our stellar guest speakers to bring the theory to life, providing first-hand context of these industries from the highest level. The calibre of our guest speakers, which previously has included international managers and players, as well as club chief executives and media personalities, means students are hearing from leading professionals in an intimate environment and gaining unparalleled insight. Lastly, once our students have learnt the theory and how to apply it, they’re encouraged to go out in the industry and do it themselves. Our incredible Employability & Enrichment team provides students with numerous opportunities to apply for unique work experience roles in the UK and abroad. In the last six years, UCFB has provided over 1,000 work placement opportunities at organisations including The Football Association, UEFA, Premier League and Football League clubs, as well as an array of sponsors, suppliers and events in the world of sport. We believe our approach and this combination is the perfect recipe for a student to set themselves up for a long, successful and fulfilling career in these exciting, multi-billion-pound, global industries. The UCFB experience Open days and events Book onto an open day Order the UCFB prospectus Download it here Chat to a student ambassador Click here UCFB degree programmes A world first in higher education, UCFB offers unique university degrees focused on a career in the football and sports industry. UCFB is proud to include world-famous stadiums and surrounding venues among its numerous state-of-the-art campus facilities. UCFB Award in Football and Sports Leadership At UCFB we are dedicated to maximising the career opportunities of all of our students. This is why we offer unparalleled opportunities beyond the learning environment, enhanced by exclusive partnerships with some of the biggest and most influential names and organisations in world sport. Facebook Twitter Other Social Sites LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp email	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2049
__label__wiki	0.98841	0.98841	Ukoriginal Whaley Bridge police chief left Twitter over 'sexist and homophobic' hairstyle abuse Yahoo News UK 24 November 2019 A police officer has revealed she was forced to leave Twitter because of "sexist and homophobic" abuse over her hairstyle. Deputy chief constable Rachel Swann said she was subjected to the abuse after appearing on TV several times during the evacuation of Whaley Bridge in August. Ms Swann, the senior officer in the operation, said she became aware of the hurtful comments soon after the broadcasts. "The bit that astounded me was I could not believe that my mere existence could cause such a depth of feeling," she told BBC News. Ms Swann made several TV appearances during the Whaley Bridge dam incident. (Getty) "I can take a bit of banter but then it became sexist and homophobic, and really, really insulting. "The bit that really hurt was when people said I had no standards and I was letting policing down." READ MORE FROM YAHOO UK: Derbyshire town evacuated due to 'danger to life' from possible dam collapse Crews race to ease pressure on damaged UK dam as rain looms Animal rescue teams bid to find lost pets in Whaley Bridge Ms Swann said the abuse peaked when a press agency "wanted to run a story on my hair" and so she took a break from Twitter. "Some of the comments were misogynistic and homophobic and the abuse I received has been recorded as a hate incident, in the same way it would be for the public or my officers and staff,” she added. "In recent years, we have seen children feeling bullied by their peers through personal attacks on social media; with youngsters in some cases so desperate it has resulted in suicide due to the pressures of the abuse." More than 1,500 people were evacuated from the Derbyshire town from August 1 due to fears that the dam wall at the Toddbrook Reservoir would collapse after heavy rain. An RAF Chinook was drafted in and 530 tonnes of aggregate used as part of efforts to reinforce the spillway. Authorities said in August that work on the damaged dam in Whaley Bridge will take years and cost “millions”. #ukoriginal 'Possibly another baby' on the cards for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle next year 'Andrew has shown Harry popularity isn’t a given and you need to choose your friends carefully'	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2050
__label__cc	0.505917	0.494083	CRANBROOK REGISTRATION DISTRICT Registration County : Kent. Abolished : 1.4.1941 (to become part of Maidstone registration district). Sub-districts : Cranbrook, Hawkhurst. GRO volumes : V (1837-51), 2a (1852-1941). Registers currently held at : Kent. Table 1: List of Places in Cranbrook Registration District Benenden See Table 2, note (b). Frittenden On 25.3.1886 the Sussex part of the parish of Hawkhurst became part of the parish of Etchingham, so that thereafter Hawkhurst was wholly in Kent. See also Table 2, notes (a) and (b). Table 2: Boundary Changes affecting Cranbrook Registration District (a) Lost the Sussex part of the parish of Hawkhurst (which became part of the parish of Etchingham on 25.3.1886) to Ticehurst registration district. (b) Lost the constituent parishes of Benenden, Cranbrook, Frittenden, Goudhurst, Hawkhurst, and Sandhurst, to Maidstone registration district	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2051
__label__wiki	0.601924	0.601924	Naming the guilty The financial crisis is getting personal, with the press beginning to single out individual bankers... HBOS’s aggressive corporate banking division was revealed to have been at the heart of the £10 billion shock loss announced by Lloyds Banking Group yesterday. Lloyds Banking Group issued a warning that HBOS, the ailing bank it has taken over, made a whopping £7 billion of corporate losses last year after making bad bets on business lending. Lloyds admitted that HBOS’s corporate division, which was run by Peter Cummings — the highest-paid executive at the bank — has had to write off £7 billion of bad loans, far more than HBOS’s management ever admitted. Mr Cummings is understood to have left in early January with a payoff thought to be about £660,000 and £6 million of pension entitlements. Yesterday's star, becomes today's scapegoat. Lets hope that Mr. Cummings doesn't become a sponge to soak up all the blame. There are plenty of other culprits out there, hiding behind Cummings, Crosby and the other gamblers from HBOS. Wasn't the merger (take over) of HBOS by Lloyds the personal triumph of our GLORIOUS Leader, Mr Brown? Does absolutely everything that man touches turn to shit? All these guys need to be named, their photos and addresses and habits posted on the internet so people can find them. What happens next should not be any of our concern. But get that information out there. Now! Mitch said... this is gordon using them as a "human" shield they will all take a bullet. He will sacrifice anyone to avoid blame. pitiful really This is as close to a public hanging as we're going to get. It will fade with time and those concerned will retire quietly behind the security of their gated communities, making way for the next tier of spivs. Be in no doubt, more like them are lurking in the wings, licking their lips and sharpening their knives in readiness for the next carve-up. With HBOS, I want to know what the fallout was from T-M-B (the Halifax division for sub-prime lending.) TMB 2007 offerings TMB today I know, for example, that it was possible for someone (without a job) to borrow ~£300K from TMB... Yet, in spite of this clearly representing UK sub-prime, little/no mention is made by the press.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2052
__label__wiki	0.659699	0.659699	VHS Preservation Project Gemhunter Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (Switch) review January 16, 2019 chrisscullion Reviews 5 comments Grasshopper Manufacturer / Nintendo Cult game designer Suda51 has always made games that divide opinion. Whether it’s the heavily stylised Killer7, the sexually provocative Lollipop Chainsaw, the punk rock demon hunting of Shadows Of The Damned or the combo-based bloodfest that is Killer Is Dead, gamers have always been split into two camps: those who believe his games have always felt a little rough around the edges, and those who say his often eccentric and bizarre storylines make up for it. On Nintendo systems, Suda’s best known for the two No More Heroes games, which very much embodied this division. The story of nerdy otaku Travis Touchdown and his quest to kill everyone on a global assassin leaderboard was criticised by some for its slightly clunky combat and repetitive action, but praised by others for its outlandish plot, lashings of gore (in some regions) and tendency to shatter the fourth wall into tiny polygonal pieces. It’s been eight years since No More Heroes 2, and those who fall into the second camp (including me) have been desperately praying for a third game in the series. Travis Strikes Again isn’t it, but it’s a fun spin-off that should satisfy their cravings for a while. In the years that have passed since the events of the second game, Travis Touchdown has decided he no longer wants to be part of the UAA assassin league table. Becoming a recluse, he shacks up in a camper van in the middle of nowhere and spends his days playing video games. All this changes when Bad Man – the father of Bad Girl, who Travis killed in the first No More Heroes – finally tracks down his daughter’s assassin and attempts to get revenge. During the scrap, Travis’s mysterious Death Drive Mk II – a cancelled video game console with magical powers – boots up and swallows both of them, transporting them into a video game world. Legend has it that whoever manages to collect and complete all six Death Drive games will have any wish granted, so while Travis attempts to fight his way through each of the game worlds, Bad Man decides he’s going to try to beat him to it, in the hope that the Death Drive will grant his wish to bring his daughter back to life. Despite what was reported by various sites after it was first announced, Travis Strikes again doesn’t actually consist of six completely different game styles. While Travis does indeed jump between six different games – well, actually more than that, but that would be spoiling things – each of these features the same hack-and-slash style of combat, with Travis (or Bad Man) able to level up and acquire new skills throughout the course of the game. The combat is fairly straightforward. You’ve got a quick attack button, which you can hold down to constantly swing your beam katana (or your baseball bat, if you’d rather play as Bad Man), a strong attack button – which stops you in your tracks and takes time to recover from – and a dodge move. Stringing together enough hits without taking damage will also let you pull off a special move. Do this enough times and the move will gain more power, until you unleash a rainbow tiger attack (or dragon, if you’re playing as Bad Man) Along the way you’ll gather special skill chips: you can assign up to four of these and gain new powers from them, like the ability to stun enemies, create a decoy or spawn a temporary area that restores your health while you stand in it. And that’s it, really: levelling up simply increases your attack power and maximum health, there are no new attack combos to learn or anything like that. In true No More Heroes style, you also have to charge your beam katana every now and then, or it’ll run out of power (or, if you’re playing as Bad Man, you have to regularly drink beer so you can stay drunk and dangerous). This can be done in the traditional style by standing still, holding a button and waggling the JoyCon / Pro Controller, but if you’d rather not use motion (or you’re using a third-party controller that doesn’t support it) you can waggle the right stick instead. So, be under no illusion: this is a hack and slash game, not a collection of mini-games. What each stage does, then, is wrap this combat around a different theme, adding various gimmicks in an attempt to prevent things from feeling too repetitive. One stage, for example, has an almost Resident Evil vibe as you explore the various rooms in a mansion, completing the mini-stages found inside each in search of coffee and doughnuts to feed to dying medieval soldiers so their souls can be freed. Look, don’t ask. Another has you fighting your way through the floors of a tower to find upgrades for a race car, which you can then use to take part in a series of drag race challenges (these are one of the few sections where the gameplay does actually deviate from pure combat). Meanwhile, one stage has you tracking down a serial killer by visiting the homes of people he’s killed, but before you can reach each home you have to solve switch-based puzzles to rotate pieces of the street map, all while a giant blue head (which can kill you with one hit) chases after you. You may be thinking: “Hmmmm. A lot of this sounds mental. I’m sure when I play it things will make more sense.” That’s not really the case, but don’t worry: that’s completely fine. We’re talking about the No More Heroes series here, a franchise well known for its completely random moments. When you consider that the last game had you summoning a giant mech called Glastonbury for the sake of a one-off fight, having unexpected things chucked at you is part of the territory. This is all supported with the typical fourth wall breaking people have come to expect from Suda51. There are constant references to the game’s development (one cut-scene is cut short to save on localisation costs), the Unreal Engine is regularly heralded as a saviour (with numerous Unreal Engine t-shirts to unlock) and lengthy dialogue is criticised by the characters, who openly protest that nobody bought this game to read lots of text. It could be argued that it often suffers from a failure to practice what it preaches: occasionally it’ll mock an overused gaming trope then proceed to do it anyway. The regular appearance of a sheep-based sub-boss initially makes you laugh as it declares that it’s allowed to come back as long as it’s stronger each time, but when it actually does return in every stage you start to wonder whether the game is actually being clever, or just trying to address the elephant (or sheep) in the room before anyone else can call it out. Meanwhile, the aforementioned claims that nobody bought the game to read are soundly ignored with the presence of Travis Strikes Back, a visual novel presented as an Apple II / TRS-80 style adventure with green pixelated graphics and chiptune music. Although I personally found this bit thoroughly entertaining, folks who aren’t interested in visual novels may not be so keen, and the fact that you need to read your way through one of these sections after each stage – they explain how Travis finds each new Death Ball – means some may consider them an unnecessary intrusion in what’s supposed to be an action game. You know, like the characters keep telling us it is. Don’t worry mate, I don’t give scores Travis Strikes Again is a natural extension of the No More Heroes series, and while it replaces its typical third-person action with more arcade style, usually top-down gameplay, it still carries over many of the same strengths and weaknesses fans of the franchise have come to expect. It still lives or dies by its eccentricity. Even though each of its ‘games’ tends to last around an hour on average so as not to outstay its welcome, you’re still fighting similar enemies in each and so the overall 8-10 hour experience can feel like a bit of a grind. The final level in particular – which (without spoiling anything) is notably free of interesting background detail – can be a real test of your patience. But this is all entirely forgivable if you buy into the game’s ridiculousness: its wilful tossing around of shocking language, the bizarre cut-scenes introducing each game, even the offbeat subplot in which you receive a steady stream of faxes from one of the Death Drive’s co-creators who tries to explain to you what you’re really dealing with. It’s the stuff that has nothing to do with the main game that really give it character too. Going off in tangents is Suda51’s forte, and when he’s at his best he doesn’t so much subtly nod and wink as go entirely all in. Each time you unlock a new Death Drive game, you also unlock a ‘90s style magazine article previewing the game, complete with loads of bad jokes and tips. Each level has a ramen shack or two that restores your health: when you visit it you unlock a new article on Travis’s food blog where he reviews each ramen dish in detail. And don’t forget the much-publicised t-shirt collection, where you can unlock a frankly ridiculous number of t-shirts based on other indie games. In a recent interview with yer man Scullion, Suda51 confirmed that there are more t-shirts to come in future DLC and that some of them may surprise us: the two you unlock for beating the game certainly give credibility to that statement. Best of all, the game’s fifth stage… well, that would be telling. Be wary, because a lot of sites will be reporting this in their news sections or giving it away in reviews: if you’re familiar with Suda51’s past work you may want to try to reach this section without having it spoiled for you first. But there’s a reveal here that will drop the jaws of fans of his output (and Grasshopper’s games in general), concluding with an exciting little revelation. It’s hard to nail down whether you should be playing this game, because it really depends on your tolerance for style over substance. The actual game itself is a fairly mindless hack and slash affair with little in the way of character upgrades or progression (a basic levelling system and collectable abilities aside), and while it’s perfectly entertaining to play it isn’t going to win any awards on that front. But in terms of its plot, its knowing humour, its countless references and its downright insanity, I’m confident in saying that you won’t play another game like this on the Switch. I absolutely loved it as a result of this and consider it one of the most entertaining games I’ve played in a while: if you’re more interested in depth than daftness, though, your mileage may vary. Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is out on Nintendo Switch on 18 January. You can buy the digital version from Amazon UK and Amazon US. Alternatively, you can buy the physical version (which includes a Season Pass for future DLC) from Amazon UK and Amazon US. In order that I could write this review, I received a digital copy of the game from a PR. The content of my review and the opinions therein were in no way positively influenced by this. If you enjoyed this and other reviews and want to help me write them more frequently, please consider donating to my Patreon account. Don’t want to commit to a regular payment? I’ve now got a PayPal ‘tips’ jar: if you like what you read feel free to chuck yer man Scullion a couple of quid here or there and help stock up my Irn Bru fund so I can continue working away like a bastard. Alternatively, if you can’t afford to support me on Patreon, please do your normal Amazon UK shopping via this link or Amazon US shopping via this link. Tired Old Hack is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.co.uk and affiliated sites. Chris ScullionGames journalismNintendoreviewSuda51SwitchVideo Games Previous Post: That time when Sonic played football in Virtua Striker Next Post: Resident Evil 2 remake (Xbox One) review Marcelo Takahashi says: Hey, Yer Man Scullion! I just appreciate your reviews without a score system. It makes me read the entire text and have a much better information about the games. Well, I love the NMH series. It has been a long time since they released the last entry. Hack and slash games are usually a relaxing experience for me. I am curious about the plot and the forth wall breaking thing of this one. This seems to be a nice title to be playing soon, specially if you consider the asking price right after the Christmas season. CarlStJames says: Quick Q: is there anything to keep you coming back after you beat the game, say a NG+ or to unlock more Tshirts? This looks like the sort of game I might actually have time to play! chrisscullion says: You unlock an extra difficulty level, and there’s DLC on the way. Cool, thanks for that. Couldn’t find anything online about it. Pingback: No More Heroes: Apple Strikes Again \| Apple II Bits Search Tired Old Hack Follow me on Twitter and massage my ever-hungry ego to help it grow Akira-style and take over the entire Western hemisphere Become a member of my blindly devoted fanbase! Enter your email address below to follow this blog and every time I post something new you'll get a lovely wee email telling you about it. I'm nice like that. Follow me thx bbs Want to get in touch with me? Offer me work? Give me general feedback? Call me a dickface? • Send me an email (work) • Send me an email (personal) • Xbox Live - Scully1888 • PSN - Scully1888 • Nintendo Network - Scully1888 • Steam - Scully1888 RSS feed you say? Alright spaceman, spare me your technical mumbo-jumbo, here it is	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2061
__label__wiki	0.547469	0.547469	November 23, 2018 / thebenraven / Leave a comment He nodded shortly, slung his bow over his back and climbed up the rope at a speed that belied his age and recent injuries. Arrows began flying down in a steady rhythm the moment he had reached the rooftop. “Kain. My hand’s broken and I can’t climb with it like this.” Callindra stepped in to take his place and he retreated as though they’d practiced the maneuver for years. He really did have a talent for reading body language. A hot flash of fire tore through her arm and down her hand as he slapped an ungentle spell into her. It wasn’t much, but it repaired enough of the damage that she could swing Shadowsliver properly again. “You get up there next Kain.” She ordered, “Holt was tortured and I don’t know how much longer he can stay on his feet.” He frowned, but nodded and obeyed. “I can climb faster sister.” Vilhylm said, “You go next.” He was wearing his brutish mask, muscles bunching as he bashed a huge fist into a guard hard enough to dent his breastplate. “You go.” She snapped. “I’m grabbing Cronos and jumping.” He looked at her but glanced at their brother and headed for the rope. She flung herself to where Cronos still moved through the steps of a lethal dance and flung Shadowsliver about his middle. The chain of her sword wrapped underneath his armpits, slicing through three Taken as it flashed in front of him before the hilt slapped into her palm and she tore a spell from the Weave. An explosion of wind blasted them into the air in a barely controlled tumble. She was dimly aware of Taken being tossed aside like twigs from the force of the winds that bore them aloft, but it was hard to concentrate. For some reason she knew she was supposed to be paying attention to something but whatever it was couldn’t be that important if she couldn’t remember it. Her unconscious body tumbled to the rooftop and rolled to a stop at Reed’s feet. He stared at her in shocked surprise. “She’s insane.” “Time to go.” Cronos said, picking up his sister’s supine form and fumbling to keep from being cut by her sword. Her hand still clutched it in a white knuckled grip. They watched below as the Taken swarmed over the guards below, burying them in a wave of rotting limbs and emerald green ichor. Behind where the horde had come from, the city burned. Screams of terrified people came to them over the sound of combat and flames. “We gotta get to the dock.” Reed said, pointing over the rooftops. “With a little luck we can get there sticking to the rooftops.” He led the way over a zigzagging set of plank bridges and dizzying leaps from one building to another. When they reached a warehouse near a run-down dock. A few small craft were moored there, one of which was a small flat-bottomed river boat with oars and a square sail. Perhaps a hundred Taken milled about aimlessly in the open are between them and the dock. Cronos set Callindra down on the rooftop and turned to Kain. “Can you revive her? I can’t carry her and fight at the same time.” The hulking half orc reached out and brushed fingers across Callindra’s forehead. A few of her wounds stopped bleeding, but others still slowly leaked through scabs that hadn’t quite closed. Kain slumped, breathing hard and shook his head. “That’s all I can do.” “It’s enough.” Callindra rasped, her eyes flickering open. “I just overdid. Too much magic.” “You had many deep cuts.” Kain said, “I managed to stop most of the bleeding.” She looked down at the slashes through her armor and into her side and legs. When had she gotten cut? “Where are we? What is going on? Is everyone all right?” “We’re at the docks.” Reed said in a low voice, “Keep your damn voice down, there’s a hundred or so of those things down there. They haven’t seen us yet, but if you don’t shut up they will.” Callindra looked over the edge of the roof and fought off despair. There was no way they could get through all the Taken below without being seen and fighting them all wasn’t an option. The light of the city burning behind them was throwing tall shadows across the dockside, but it was also illuminating the river. Anniversary Night: The Folk of Einn Boer Gather. November 10, 2017 November 10, 2017 / thebenraven / Leave a comment The Dungeon Master takes the threads the players have provided and weaves it into the tapestry of story. I see myself as more of a narrator of an epic epoch than anything else. Here begins our adventure. Let’s meet the souls who will shape this world to their will. It was the Day of Anniversary, and the entire city was alive with light, song and the smells of the delicacies that were always baked, roasted and fried in celebration. Even deep below the city, the feeling of excitement and anticipation hummed like a plucked lute string in the air. Arn alone did not share any of the other’s thrill at the upcoming event. “Herdsman Castille.” Arn looked up to see the slight form of Morrigan, her hair in its perpetual bun. “It is a special day. You should be above with the others.” “I am waiting for the evening.” He replied, “I wish to avoid the crowds.” “You mean you wish to go and see the cage fight that ridiculous halfling is staging?” She said mildly, raising an eyebrow in amusement. “Shepherd, I – “ Arn began, feeling flustered and uncertain. He had never asked for time out of the monastery. Quite the opposite, he had usually resisted leaving until recently. “It is normal for youngsters to want to be entertained.” Morrigan said, “I noticed your attendance at my own sparring match. What would you offer as critique?” “You danced as though reciting a Sutra, Shepherd.” He said, responding to her request without thought. “The Commander Shepherd … you might as well have been trying to strike the wind. It seemed he always knew where you would be.” “It is not the first time we have sparred.” Shepherd Morrigan said, “He knows me better than almost anyone else. Your eyes do at least see to the surface Herdsman, even if what lies below the water remains largely hidden from you. The difference in our fighting styles is distinct, however there is a very valid reason why he is the Commander.” Arn realized he had offered a very stern criticism of her and felt even more flustered, but Morrigan gave him a slight inclination of the head. Over the years he had learned that this was a gesture of approval. “Go to your fights if you wish.” She said with a hint of a smile. “But please do not pick up any bad habits. You are on the cusp of the Stillness.” “Yes Shepherd, of course Shepherd, thank you Shepherd.” He said, grinning at the memories of the enthusiastic halfling and her strange, wild leaping fighting style so different from anything he had ever seen here. “I think, in all honesty that many of the fights may be staged.” Her only reply was a soft laugh that could have been amusement or agreement. Boris rubbed his hands together, chuckling to himself. This latest batch of ale had failed, but instead of throwing it away, the Dwarf had left it out uncovered overnight and some form of wild yeast or another had infested it. Now instead of sitting quiescent and sullen, it was nearly bubbling over with activity. Quite possibly toxic and deadly activity, but he could work with that. After giving it a good stir and scooping off the unhealthy looking violet froth from the top of the fermenting cask, he carefully covered it and went back to bottling. His experiments had all but bankrupted him last month and he didn’t want to resort to eating summoned food again. Over the last few years he’d begun to think there was something wrong with it, and besides, after eating real food, he couldn’t imagine anyone enjoying that magic stuff. Tasted like the grains left over from brewing; all the flavor and character drained out of it. Tonight was the Anniversary Celebration. Seven hundred years. He had turned out a lot of ales for this event; he relied on the patronage of the folk who tasted his strange concoctions to keep his neighbors from encroaching upon his tiny tavern. They were always willing to pay handsomely for a new diversion. Speaking of diversions, Shaena was bringing her hooligans into his basement again tonight. Fighting. In this day and age. He would never have thought it would be something folk would be interested in, but he supposed boredom would lead to all sorts of deviant behavior. Besides, if he was honest with himself, it really was amusing to watch them beat the everloving shit out of one another. As long as it wasn’t his bones being broken, what harm could it be? It brought in more customers and other interesting individuals as well. Humming happily to himself for the first time in ages, he set about starting another brew. “Lirin, you aren’t going out tonight of all nights are you?” Anna stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips. “You promised to watch Zoey and Zyrus tonight so that Tobias and I could mind the store. This is our busiest night of the year!” “Anna, I’m only going after the youngsters will long be in their beds.” Lirin soothed, “I have some things that need looking after.” “Well, don’t expect me to spend an hour getting blood out of another tunic.” She said frostily, “I don’t like this new obsession some folk have with violence. Not one bit.” “The Long Guard has a history of sparring Anna, I fail to see how this is all that much different really.” He said, “Father would say the more of us who know how to defend ourselves the better.” “As if this were about self-defense.” She huffed, “They’re taking bets I hear. BETS Lirin! You might as well be going to a gambling den.” “But there are folk who get hurt.” He said, “Some of them are my friends too. I can’t just let them go to some street hack who will dose them with intoxicants for the pain and nothing else.” “I don’t like you keeping company with those low sorts Lirin.” She said, “Honestly the Guard has a long tradition of training, but they don’t do it for entertainment. That’s just wrong.” “No, you’re right.” He said, “I shouldn’t have compared these fights to the Guard.” Lirin smiled at her, “You always were the grounded and sensible one.” Her expression softened, “You always did think more with your heart. I can’t keep you from helping others Lirin, just … I worry about you. When are you going to find your own life? You should find a woman and start a family.” Lirin stiffened, a feeling he couldn’t define gripping him. “I have to take care of mom and da. There are enough children as it is.” He couldn’t quite keep the resentment from his voice, “Besides, if I had a wife and children of my own who would watch Zoey and Zyrus while you worked the shop on Anniversary Night?” “I didn’t mean-“ She began. “No, I’m the one who should apologize.” He said, taking a deep breath and giving her a rueful smile. “I guess it’s just that I see your family and can’t help but feel a little jealous Anna. It doesn’t mean I don’t still love you all; sometimes it’s just hard to see what you’ve made of your life and not feel like a failure.” “Oh Lirin don’t say that.” She came to him and caught him in a fierce hug. “You’re a wonderful uncle and a great brother. I’m sure your calling will come.” At her words, Lirin felt an echo of something he couldn’t quite grasp. A touch on his spirit that called to him and made him yearn to be able to hear it, but somehow it was just out of reach. It was Anniversary day and Shaena was even more of a ball of energy than ever. After her third breakfast and fourth ale she felt finally calm enough to face the day. Tonight she had enough fighters for a full card, and that meant… well… something. The Halfling tried to keep track of the business end of things, but it was all just so god’s cursed boring. Good thing Garrett had offered to handle all that for her; he really was a dear, even if his weird color changing mane of hair and odd clothing seemed a bit off. The fighters though, that was exciting! She’d finally gotten a dragonborn and had pitted him against the Catfolk because all those weird critters fighting one another would be really something. She had wanted to be the first one to fight him, but she’d also gotten her first Goliath to fight and there just wasn’t any way she couldn’t be the one to face him. I mean come on! A halfling against a Goliath? She got the giggles just thinking about it. Thankfully that nice Lirin gentleman had agreed to come again. He really had quite the hand for setting broken bones and all that which was lovely and the strange Elf had helped too when that one boy had accidentally almost died. Probably would have died. But really, they’d all signed the waiver and fighting was fun! That Elf seemed to act as though he didn’t even want to use the spell to save the boy’s life too which was quite weird but that’s those Elves for you really. I mean Elves right? She was going to try something new tonight too, something for Anniversary night. This human made the most fantastic patterns with magic, lights and she heard he could even sometimes make a fog seem to roll across the stage. It would be fun. Good old Garrett had come through on that one too. He really was a treasure. SP put on a tunic and of finest white silk and belted it with a white on white embroidered sash. Contrary to what most believed, black was not the color of death or mourning after all; at least not among the Elves. To walk at night down the dim streets in all white was to proclaim that you were such a part of the night you did not need to hide in it. Not that the streets were likely to be darkened on Anniversary night. Which was an annoyance. Straightening the collar of the tunic, SP made final adjustments to ensure the clothes fell properly and turned to leave. Gathering an ivory topped cane of carved ash, the Elf strode out the front door of the mortuary and into the throngs of folk gathering for the celebrations. It was nearly time for those pit fights to begin. They were really quite delicious actually. Who would have known fighting would be so intriguing and satisfying? Death was inevitable of course, but watching healthy folk with everything to lose and nothing to gain being so willing to throw it all away for no immediately apparent reason was addictive. It so defied logic that it made SP want to understand the contrary thinking. The Elf simply had to understand it. There must be a reason for that illogical and self-destructive behavior. It was a knot that made SP’s fingers itch. Using magic to bring that unfortunate boy back to life had been more instinct than intentional. SP had discovered something very interesting while studying the necromantic arts that needed further testing. The Elf had begun to theorize that healing magic, especially the magics that prevented death, were actually a type of necromancy. The gap between preventing death and returning life was so razor thin that it was often difficult to determine the difference. That balance was something SP found to be the subject of obsessive interest. There was a lifetime of study there. Perhaps more than a lifetime. Perhaps even more than an Elven lifetime. Tabitha (The Wind in the Storm) crouched on the edge of a rooftop, peering out over the city. Her tail twitched and thrashed as she watched the preparations for Anniversary day below. She was up early; it was barely midday after all, and she was irritated at losing the hours of sleep. The irritation was mitigated by the presence of those deliciously muscular jugglers in the plaza below. They were performing for a small crowd of children and harried looking adults or older siblings and this angle was perfect to ogle muscular arms and shoulders. The men and women in the square were now tossing pony kegs of ale between them; a seemingly impossible feat. She decided the kegs must be empty. Then the thought that the kegs weren’t empty occurred to her. If they weren’t empty and the did contain the Brannagann’s Dark Ale that was branded on one side then she wanted some. With that thought came a sudden impulse and as she always did, Tabitha acted on it almost before the idea had fully formed in her mind. Leaping from the third story was, she thought as she fell through the air, a far more interesting and astonishing feat than throwing around some empty ale kegs. Probably only truly impressive if she didn’t die or break her legs though. That was why she had aimed for the flagpole. Her claws caught and she slid down the wooden shaft, peeling spirals of it off as she plunged toward the ground. Just before she struck the cobblestones, Tabitha leaped off toward the troupe from behind and then bounded high enough to land on the shoulders of the shortest of the jugglers, neatly snagging the barrel out of the air. The barrel was full. It hit her like … well … like a barrel of ale. It hammered her slight form clean off the startled man’s shoulders and knocked the wind out of her in a startled “Oof!” and a second impact when she hit the cobblestones with the barrel on top of her drove the remaining breath from her lungs. The bung that was driven into the top of the keg popped out and a thick brown stream of Brannagann’s Dark poured into her face. She was in heaven except for the wet; but it was worth it. All of the assembled adults and children burst into an uproar of laughter, clapping and cheers. The man she had stolen the barrel from looked at her in baffled astonishment as trinkets, sweets and small coins showered into the hat they had set out to collect donations. “Well. Well now.” The massively muscular man said, stroking his prodigious moustache and giving her a speculative grin. “Lass if you ever want a part in our act, all you need do is ask.” He bent to pick up the cask, still able to easily lift it although she continued to cling to it and to guzzle the ale as it poured out. When he set it down bung up she gave him a reproachful look and a sulky pout. “That was mine! I stole it fair and square!” The rest of the troupe burst out laughing, as did the assembled crowd who were now unsure if they had seen an accident or a carefully constructed prank that was part of the act. “She’s got you there Fortus!” One of the other jugglers said, laughing so hard that tears streamed down his cheeks. “I like a man with some heft.” Tabitha said, licking ale from her furred cheeks and leaning forward to run a hand lightly over his bulging bicep. “What are you doing for the next hour or two?” He blinked, and the crowd laughed again, although it was mostly the adolescents this time; the youngsters not understanding and the parents trying hard to keep straight faces. Fortus seemed to not be able to make up his mind if she was serious or crazy. “I guess it’s true about the kitties eh?” He managed to say, and threw in a waggle of his bushy eyebrows to the crowd. “I could make you purrrrrrr.” She said, tail twitching. A motion over his shoulder caught her eye. A man in a garish purple vest with bright steel studs and a mane of hair spiked straight up that slowly changed colors was shouldering through the crowd on the other side of the square. It was Garrett. Well shit. “Sorry. Gotta go cutie. Maybe I’ll find you later.” She slipped into the crowd before the bookie could see her. She owed him too much money to have him see her now. But she was gonna beat that Dragonborn in the fights tonight and she could finally pay him off. It was either that or she’d have to move to another part of the city. She never would have thought a place that once had felt so large would feel so small. The song ended and Telos allowed the patterns and shapes that his magic had been causing to shift in front the white screen of silk to fade away. The assorted gentry sitting in the audience applauded politely and the musicians stood and bowed. Although this wasn’t his preferred scene, these people paid better than most and he always got to eat the prepared, not simply summoned, food they made and that was worth putting up with the slightly stodgier and prim attitudes they often had. Also, the songs that were fashionable among the highborn were quite beautiful and accompanied his artistic passions quite well. Then again, his best paying, and most exiting gig was happening tonight. It was so strange to him to think that people would really enjoy fighting. Enjoy getting punched, kicked and choked. Weapons were of course not allowed, but when a rather wildly dressed half elven man named Garrett had approached him and asked to hire his services for the show. Garrett’s foot high Mohawk had flashed assorted colors as the man had gesticulated and explained his idea to make the intro “really pop” and his ideas about showing the fights in larger than life size on the wall were interesting, although Telos wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to pull that off or not. Thus far he wasn’t having much luck with moving images. Perhaps with practice though. He had seen others who had managed as much, albeit not for this specific purpose or on this scale. He had managed considerable success with creating images that were complimentary in nature that could overlap to create fascinating and captivating pieces of art. Even better, the art he had been creating thus was temporary and unique. Like the sand paintings he had seen one of the older monastic orders create, the moment it was complete, it was gone. This quality made it the perfect accompaniment to music which was also always unique and only truly lived in memory. Telos paused for a moment, thinking about the interchange of blows that made up a fight. Perhaps the folk who fought did so for similar reasons. Some of them anyway. Could a physical expression of one’s abilities hold the same beauty as an intellectual expression? Pondering this idea, he began preparing his mind for the display he was planning. It was Anniversary Day. A day for celebration. Trey was following Headmistress Trencher’s orphans as they were heading back to the alleyway that led down to the Little Goblin Orphanage. He made sure that they didn’t stray, although one or two seemed as though they would try and escape so as to stay out past curfew. The hour was late, but after the youngsters had been put to their beds the Headmistress turned to Trey with a questioning look in her eye. “Aren’t you going to ask to be released for the evening?” She asked, when he remained silent. “Released?” He scratched his head with one hand, fingers not quite able to fully unclench due to the restraint gauntlets. “For the Celebrations.” She said, “Surely there is something out there that you would like to see? A dance perhaps or to get one of the actually prepared pastries that Lady Taryn hands out every year?” The Half-Orc remembered smelling the things being cooked. He hadn’t ever tasted actual cooking before. His mouth began to water. “If it’s all right Headmistress.” He said. “I wouldn’t have offered if it wasn’t all right.” She all but snapped. It seemed that showing overt kindness was difficult for her. “It’s Anniversary day. Seven hundred years today. You helped with the rugrats today, saved me some work. Get out of here and don’t say I never gave you anything.” Trey walked out, feeling mildly confused at the Headmistress’ contradictory seeming words and actions. Heading for the square where he thought he’d seen Ldy Taryn Vaknair Torben the Third’s attendants handing out sweets. Following his nose, he almost ran over someone. He looked up to see Lirin’s serious face looking into his own. “Trey, where are you going with your head in the clouds?” “Oh. Hi Lirin. To get a pastry.” Trey said, “You?” “The Anniversary pastries are this way.” Lirin said with a smile, “Follow me, I’ll show you.” “But where are you going? Isn’t it a little late?” “I am going to a …” His voice trailed off as he looked at the other man. “A place where people might get hurt and need my help.” “I won’t let you go alone.” Said Trey. “You are a friend who has done much for me. If there is danger I will be there.” “It’s not really necessary Trey, they won’t be putting me in danger. It’s a sparring ring. The combatants there will be hurting each other, not hurting me.” “I have seen fights get out of hand.” Trey said with a voice that brooked no argument. “I am coming.” Lirin gave him a rueful smile, “After all the time I have tried to spend with you learning that violence is not the only answer, I lead you into a place where people are using violence as the answer. Thank you for your company my friend.” Tension that he hadn’t known was there unclenched from Trey’s shoulders. His friend would not turn him away. He would not go into danger unprotected. Alexander Brigit Macedon: Intro January 13, 2017 January 13, 2017 / thebenraven / Leave a comment Author’s note: This is just an introductory piece for a collaborative writing project I’m participating in… there may be more to follow if things pan out. Hope you enjoy. The door opened, to Lex’s and he knew it was a regular since they didn’t open it far enough to allow the steel edge to come in contact with the five-foot length of pipe he had near the wall. The clang was enough to make everyone think twice about mistreating his door. He liked his door. He’d found it in a surplus depot and paid nearly two thousand dollars for it. The inlaid oak, ash and walnut made interesting contrast and the carving of a huge tree that grew up it matched the custom brass hinges he’d had made to look like tree leaves, branches and roots. Most people didn’t notice his favorite part though. Just above the polished brass kick plate, the roots of the tree grew not into soil but into a field of bones. Subtle, but macabre. Just his style. Recognizing the man’s silhouette even as he began to walk down the three stairs that would bring him into the bar, Alexander took down a bottle of Belvedere vodka and mixed a gimlet. He was just garnishing the drink with a twist of lime when Investigator Jon Lee slid into his usual seat at the bar. “How do you know it’s me? I’m not even wearing my normal uniform today.” Jon was one of NYC’s finest. He also only came to Lex’s when he was off duty and had a rough day. His usual ankle length cashmere coat was indeed missing; an oddity considering the sleet rattling against the half windows that faced the street. “I got an eye for people.” Alex said with a shrug. “Where’s your coat, this weather is shite.” Jon grimaced. “Dry cleaner’s.” He took a drink and pinched the bridge of his nose. Alex grunted, but didn’t say anything else. When Jon’s drink was empty another one appeared in front of him like magic. He closed his hands around it and glanced around the mostly empty bar. The usual two old men in the corner were playing chess, each with a pint of Alexander’s bitter ale close at hand. A bored looking woman sat next to a young man who was ignoring her in favor of his phone. Nobody was within earshot. “It was bad. That fire on 87th? Well, I’ve heard of spontaneous human combustion but I thought it was a myth or something.” He shuddered and placed the cold glass against his forehead. “Nothing else it could have been though. Burned all the way through her middle right where she was laying in bed. Didn’t so much as set the sheets on fire.” “Huh. Well. At least the building didn’t burn.” Alex looked over and saw the girl catch his eye. “Excuse me Jon.” He glided down the bar, moving smoothly and silently especially for a man his size. Looming up behind the man he rumbled, “What can I get you Miss?” Carefully keeping his expression blank, Alexander chuckled inwardly as the young man started and almost dropped his phone. “Can I have an appletini?” She asked. “No miss, I don’t carry that apple garbage. I’d gladly make you a regular martini or perhaps a Cosmopolitan?” Alex said, crossing his thick arms over his chest. With the black tshirt and white apron, it made him look much less threatening than his words might have initially suggested. Like a favorite uncle. “What’s in a Cosmopolitan?” She asked. “Vodka, triple sec and cranberry juice.” Her date said with an annoyed look first at Alex and then at her. “My Cosmopolitan has Vodka, Cointreau, freshly squeezed lime juice and real cranberry juice.” Alex said smoothly, “Combined and shaken before being poured into a martini glass and garnished with a twisted rind of lime and lemon.” “That sounds pretty good actually.” She said, smiling. “And for you sir?” Alex asked, looking at the man. “Bud light.” He said. Alex sighed, shook his head and pointed a finger the size of a bratwurst at the chalk board behind the bar. It listed the available beers with the alcohol content, serving size and price. At the bottom was written ‘Bud Light. 3.2% ABV 12 oz can. $50.00’ “Fifty Dollars?” The guy exploded, but Alex pointed to the sign hanging below it which read. ‘This is a brewpub. I make these beers. If you want that piss water you’d better be willing to pay me for the insult.’ “I have a very nice British Blonde Ale.” Alex said patiently in a voice that suggested he’d said the same thing hundreds of times. He pointed to the top beer on the list named ‘Blondes Have More Fun’. “It’s as close as you’re gonna get here.” “Yeah. Sure.” He said shortly. With an inward chuckle, Alexander went back to the bar and pulled a pint of Blonde and then mixed the perfect Cosmo. After serving the drinks, he brought a fresh pair of pints to the chess players and returned to where Jon was finishing his second gimlet. He placed a glass of water in front of the cop and smiled inwardly again at the surprised look his face. “How’d you know I didn’t want another?” Jon asked, “You always seem to know exactly what to do or say.” “Bartender’s instinct. We know you better than your lover does. You tell us stuff you wouldn’t dream of telling anyone else. We get ta know ya.” He let the smile travel from his mind to his lips, “These are on the house. You’ve had a rough one lad, take all the time ya need.” “Thanks Alexander. You’re a good man.” “Ain’t nothing.” He said, turning to take a bottle of scotch from the top shelf. Just as he was finishing pouring a double shot of Laphroig over ice. He had a feeling an old friend was about to walk through the door, and all Duff Bowman ever ordered was Laphroig on the rocks. Machine Girl: Hard Times Call For Hardware – Epilogue January 2, 2017 / thebenraven / Leave a comment “She WHAT?” General Hallbeck had officially lost his cool. “Eugene says she has left sir. After a fight in which she killed the solider you had assigned to watch over her.” His aide put a manila folder on his desk. “Here are the initial crime scene photos. There wasn’t anything to tie her directly to the scene as far as forensics are concerned, but the evidence is fairly obvious to our intelligence operatives.” “I don’t believe this.” Hallbeck poured himself a glass of whisky neat to distract himself. “What does damage control look like?” “There’s more sir.” She continued, “Our reports also indicate that Chelsea Daceiron was the one who initiated hostilities. Eyewitnesses say she almost killed a bystander even though he was heavily armed. Our posthumous seems to suggest that her latest Remix damaged her medulla, making her angry, hostile and dangerously volatile. It is honestly a wonder she lasted this long.” “How did we miss it?” He growled, grinding his teeth. “God DAMN it, we have protocols in place to catch this kind of thing.” “I believe she bribed her physician sir.” She said primly, “I cannot prove it, however if the medical records were not falsified, Daceiron’s deterioration was much faster than any we have seen in the past.” “Why hasn’t the tracking program been initiated yet?” Hallbeck demanded, taking a slug of his scotch to settle his nerves. “Damn it that’s why we implemented it in the first place.” “We were tracking her up until approximately twenty-two hundred last night sir.” She lost her patience and flipped open the folder she had set down, reading from sheets it contained. “At that time the program was shut down and the tracking signal was lost.” “They said it couldn’t be shut down.” The general growled, “They said it was untraceable and that it would destroy any logical system that attempted to remove it.” “Yes. Well I suppose that is possible, however she continued to function after our attempts to activate the information harvesting portion we added to the tracking and monitoring software failed to penetrate the system’s firewall.” She said, flipping a page. “At that point, we saw some rather unusual activity in the program’s operating algorithms and it crashed.” “So we’re dead in the water? We have no way of tracking or finding her, all our eyes on her are gone?” Hallbeck looked down, surprised to see his glass was empty. He poured himself another. “That is correct sir.” She said, “However, we have agents monitoring the Scott’s house, her friend David’s and Eugene’s current residence as well. We’ve tapped her bank accounts, put her face on watch lists that will trigger our surveillance teams and we’re working on a system that will use face recognition software to pinpoint her location by accessing publicly available camera systems.” General Hallbeck blinked and looked at her. She was a Lieutenant who had been working with him on this project for the last year or two. Caarlgard was her name and she was beyond perfect for the position. She had been able to manipulate everyone into the positions he required with perfect ease, even going as far as to use what they knew of the artificial intelligence against itself. Without that Victoria Scott likely wouldn’t ever have installed any of their software in the first place. That was just about all he knew about her though. It was time to change that. Yuen-Ja sat watching her parents. She didn’t think of them as her adopted parents anymore, they had accepted her in ways her blood never had. “I am sorry.” She said, “Mom, daddy, I didn’t tell you because Victoria did not want me to and I love her. Things have changed now, she is running and scared and in danger. I want you to know everything.” “She… she…” Daddy composed himself with effort, “She has a thing like that living inside her head?” “Oh my baby. My poor poor baby.” Mom said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “We never should have let her do this.” “No!” Yuen-Ja exclaimed, “You don’t understand, Adam is wonderful. He is good, he is on our side. He will help to protect her, I swear it by my honor.” “But that thing is responsible for her getting hurt.” “Yes mom, but without his actions she would have died. Eugene too. All the members of Squad Seventeen.” She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, “And the metal monster who eventually was killed would have been free. I cannot even imagine what evil would have ensued had it survived.” “So she’s out there all alone is she?” Daddy said, a stricken look on his face. “Out on the streets, nobody to help her? No money, torn clothes, no shelter and no transportation?” He put his arm around mom as she began to cry harder. “Oh no. She is never alone.” Yuen-Ja said seriously, “Adam is always with her. Please, do not worry so much. Once this has all settled down she will be able to return. I know she will be in contact with us soon also. My sister is a strong, brilliant and determined woman. She will be OK.” “That THING isn’t company!” Mom burst out, “It can’t help her if someone tries to hurt her!” “Yes he can.” Yuen-Ja said quietly, “I have seen her fight and win against an opponent who was far more experienced and prepared using only one leg. It was their combined strength, skill and insight that brought them out safely. He is a better companion than if she had one of us along.” “He can’t make sure she has a blanket covering her or that she has enough food to eat though.” Daddy said, squeezing mom tightly for a moment. “I worry about her too, but there is nothing we can do but trust in her ability to handle herself.” Yuen-Ja said. “Thank you for telling us.” Daddy said, “I only wish I’d known before. The fighting, the injuries… I never would have let her out of my sight.” “That is why she did not tell you and mom.” Yuen-Ja said, “She would have put you in danger as well. The people who have attacked her and Eugene would not stay away because you were there. They are bad people. Killers.” She must have not kept her voice and face as smooth as she thought she had, because daddy extended his other arm and gathered her into his lap. Leaning against him, Yuen-Ja relaxed and the tension and fear that had been building inside her broke. The family sat holding one another, crying their fear and worry out and taking comfort from their strength. David stared at his workbench. The gleam of titanium and the flat black of Nano-muscle contrasted nicely. Luckily he’d accumulated all the parts he needed for his latest revision of prosthetic legs from Eugene’s lab before those assholes blew it up and now it was time to begin the assembly. Victoria was going to need them. These legs were much different from the beautiful curves of carbon fiber with delicate hinging. When he had started on them, his idea had been for these to be a utility prosthetic; one she could go rock climbing and hiking with. Sturdy construction from lightweight but very durable components. No fancy bells and whistles, just lots and lots of titanium cams, molecularly aligned titanium cables and thick strands of Nano-muscle fibers. The feet were a prehensile X with thick modular pads that were easily replaced. Instead of a human like knee and ankle, there were three ball joints that could move in a nearly infinite set of directions. Without Adam’s help he never would have been able to program the controls for something this complex. In the end, they would be incredibly versatile, although they would also be a bit heavier and therefore put more stress on Victoria’s leg sockets. He was sure she could handle it though; Adam wouldn’t let her overdo it. With a sigh, he picked up his tools and began to do the final checks. There were always a few adjustments that needed to be made before the device was ready for testing. Soon it might even be ready for field testing. David’s fingers flew over the keyboard of his laptop. He knew she wasn’t his girlfriend and that she didn’t return his feelings for her nearly as strongly as he felt them towards her. In spite of that he was determined to do everything he could to help her. Damn it if she wouldn’t accept affection then he would settle for making gifts for her. Gifts that would reflect the twisted, complicated feelings he had for her. Gifts that would protect her. Machine Girl: Hard Times Call For Hardware – Chapter 24 December 26, 2016 / thebenraven / Leave a comment Victoria’s descent was less destructive but no more graceful. Her right leg was now also nothing but torn strands of carbon fiber, shreds of Neuro-Muscle and titanium cable. She hit hard, even though she tried to roll with the impact. Pain lanced through her hip and shoulder as she landed, crying out in agony. Forcing herself to remain conscious, Victoria crawled over to where Dace lay in broken defeat, dragging herself with her hands. “Why?” She asked, “Dace why did you do this?” “Sorry.” Dace said, her voice a slurring whisper. “Bad Remix. Lost my shit, ya know?” “What? No! I don’t fucking know, what are you talking about?” Victoria said, a welter of emotions making her voice quaver. “I ain’t normal Victoria, but ya knew that yeah?” Dace hacked and coughed, “Ya busted me up pretty fuckin good damn it.” “I had my doubts.” Victoria said, gasping as the adrenaline wore off and the pain began to set in. “You aren’t making sense.” “Don’t trust Hallbeck.” Dace said, “That old fucker.” She broke off in a wheezing hack and spat blood. “He only cares for his pet projects. We used to be, but then the fucking doctor came along and then you were his shining star.” “Who is ‘we’ Dace? What happened to you?” “Project Chimera.” Said Dace, her voice slurring even worse. “Gene splicing. Dunno much about it. Just wanted to be faster and better. Wanted one more just so I could show ‘em. Went wrong. Lost control.” “You have to stay awake Dace. You’re going into shock, I’ll get help.” Victoria was shutting off her emotions, forcing herself to be logical. “Yuen-Ja has her cell. I’ll get her to call an ambulance.” “Don’t bother. Bad remix always fatal.” Dace whispered. A gunshot exploded in Victoria’s ears and the top of the other woman’s head exploded into shards of brain and bone. “Did it hurt you?” Dmitri’s urbane voice asked. “Your legs are destroyed Victoria, we must gather what we can and leave before the authorities arrive.” “You shot her in the fucking head!” Victoria’s tenuous hold on her calm vanished, “What the hell Dmitri? She was confused, I don’t think she even knew what was happening.” “She broke Ivanov’s arm, gave him a concussion and possibly fractured several of his ribs.” Dmitri said calmly, “Nobody does that to one of my people without paying the price.” Victoria stared at him in confusion. “What the hell are you talking about?” “Besides, the most expedient way of exiting this situation without attracting undo attention from the authorities is to eliminate the person who would raise the most questions.” Dmitri continued without acknowledging her question. “I was certainly not going to bring her with and leaving her here alive would likely have put us all in danger of protracted unpleasantness with the authorities.” “Victoria! Are you alright?” David was running up but skidded to a halt noticing the gun in Dmitri’s hand. “Holy shit! Holy shit!” “No. I’m not.” Victoria said, pushing herself away from Dmitri. He looked at her with apparent surprise. “Perhaps I misjudged you Miss Scott.” He said, lighting a cigarette as though they weren’t standing over the corpse of a woman she had trusted, fought, mortally wounded and watched him execute. “This was the most logical course of action.” He turned and walked calmly back to his Bentley, climbed in the driver’s seat and drove away. Eugene was climbing out of David’s Beetle and leaning heavily on the car. There was blood on his forehead; he must not have been wearing his seat belt. “Oh God. Did he fucking shoot her? Oh God your legs.” David was babbling, “Shit we can’t leave this here I mean they’ll be able to trace the remains to Eugene’s lab won’t they? Oh shit.” “David.” She said, her voice perfectly calm. “Do you still have the MKI legs you made me in your car?” “What? Uh, yeah.” He said, and then seemed to remember that her current legs were destroyed. “Oh, right. I’ll get them.” Victoria heard the sound of sirens in the distance. Could she really escape from this? Was there any chance she wouldn’t be arrested? Surely there would be DNA evidence on the scene. “David.” Eugene said, his voice grim, “Siphon some gas out of your tank. I’ll bring Victoria the spare legs. We can’t leave a shred of evidence behind.” Something clicked inside of Victoria. She shut off the horror at seeing someone she knew and trusted killed in cold blood. She stopped thinking about the fact that her other friends were calmly talking about burning the corpse. Nothing mattered but survival. Survival. Eugene came and she swiftly and efficiently released the locks on her current appendages and attached the replacements. Victoria stood and rapidly gathered all the pieces of her old legs that she could find, tossing them inside the trunk of David’s car. As she cleaned up the larger pieces, Eugene and David poured the gasoline David had siphoned over Dace’s corpse. “I appreciate what you have done for me.” She said, her voice hollow. “I have to go now. If I stay with you, I will endanger your lives. Keeping you safe will put me in danger as well.” “Don’t be ridiculous!” David said. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Said Eugene at the same time. “Victoria, what is the matter?” Asked Yuen-Ja. “This is not like you at all.” “I am sorry.” She replied calmly, “I must distance myself from you. It is the most logical way to keep us all safe. David, I expect you to create the MKIII and deliver them to me as soon as you are able to finish them. Until then I will be forced to make do with these inferior prototypes.” “Wait!” David shouted. “Victoria, come back!” Said Eugene. “We just want to help.” Yuen-Ja whispered. Hers was the hardest voice to turn away from. Victoria did so anyway. “Goodbye my friends.” Victoria said, lighting a match. They backed away and she flicked it into the gasoline. “Don’t try to find me. I will find you. Yuen-Ja, please tell mother and father that… that… I’m sorry.” “You can’t!” Yuen-Ja said, “You won’t survive on your own.” Sirens sounded in the distance; they all knew they had only moments before the authorities would arrive. The fire burned hot and fierce, it wouldn’t be enough to completely consume the body but that wasn’t the point. Nothing that would identify Victoria could possibly survive. The flames rose into a barrier between her and her friends. Victoria turned her back and walked away from everything she knew. “So. Tell me about your side project.” Eugene said, glancing at David sidelong. “Why haven’t I heard about it before now?” “Well. I know you have had some bad experiences with big robots so I sort of wanted to make sure it was, uh, ready before I told you about it. I don’t have an AI in it or anything, it just uses the basic programming I’ve put together from my other experiments for balance and stuff.” David looked at him sidelong, “And I suppose if I’m honest, you’re like a genius and I didn’t want you to see my early kinda crappy attempts.” “That’s fair.” Eugene said, “But I won’t judge other than to give constructive criticism, and right now I’m pretty grateful that you started making the thing in the first place.” He focused on driving, the way he always did and felt his hands twitching slightly. After all that had happened, he really wanted a cigarette. He wasn’t going to smoke in David’s car though, especially not with the kids in here. “I want to know more now though. That thing looked pretty cool honestly, even if it was a tad rough. No more secret projects, we can make things better together than we can apart. You’ve got quite the gift for robotics David, more of a natural talent than I do and with your father being who he is, you probably have more experience too even if you haven’t always had the benefit of the technological toys I have.” “You made most of those fancy toys yourself.” David countered, “You’re way more advanced than I am.” “Give it time. I’m in my thirties David. You still have your twenties to grow.” Eugene glanced at a road sign and put on the Beetle’s turn signal. “If you stick with me, I’ll make sure you’re ten times the prodigy I was.” Turning onto a freeway entrance, Eugene smoothly heel and toe downshifted, tapping the emergency brake and sending the car into a drift with sudden savagery. The tires screamed in protest and he revved the engine to its limits. He grinned as his passengers were tossed about with the g-forces, not having the steering wheel to hold onto or the warning of intent to brace themselves. “All right kid, this car is OK if you push it hard enough.” He said, “Good balance, even if the power to weight ratio is crap.” Eugene flew into traffic, using the drift and the downhill angle of the entrance ramp to accelerate to speeds the Beetle hadn’t ever seen before. Yuen-Ja laughed in exhilaration from the back seat while David tried to avoid screaming in terror. In a mere seven minutes they were pulling off the freeway and down the frontage road towards their destination. They reached the parking lot just in time to see Victoria stepping away from a motorcycle and towards Dmitri’s slate gray Bentley. She was wearing what was left of an elegant dress, there were a myriad of scrapes and cuts visible on all her exposed skin and she was moving in a strange limping gait, the carbon fiber of her legs obviously splintered in a few places. “Why she is not waiting?” Yuen-Ja asked, her voice sharp with irritation. “She knows we are coming and yet she goes with him instead! Why?” Eugene rolled his window down and tapped the horn. Victoria looked up and saw them, pausing to wave. In that moment of hesitation, the trap was sprung. She had been feeling that “someone’s watching me” itch again but had still not been able to pinpoint anything. The last few minutes had nearly made Victoria jump back on the motorcycle and ride to a different location, but then she had seen Dmitri’s steel gray Bentley and relaxed. As she approached, reaching her hand out to the door, a familiar car horn made her look over to see David’s Beetle with Eugene at the wheel. She waved and something slammed into her side with the speed and power of a charging bull. A figure wearing dark clothing hammered her across the parking lot, sending her flying off her feet. Victoria struggled to control her fall, barely managing to get her feet under her, but the attacker hadn’t slowed down. The initial rush was followed up by a second burst of speed that smashed her into the trash cans behind the Tommy Burger. Only by throwing herself sideways in the air with a desperate wrenching motion was she able to keep her head from slamming into the grease dumpster. Even so, her shoulder connected with painful force and she cried out in pain. Instinctively, she rolled into a ball, her arms over her head and hit the ground. Attempting to get her bearings, Victoria heard a pair of gun shots followed by a savage roar and turned to see a small figure slamming a fist into Ivaonov’s hulking form, knocking him back into Dmitri’s car hard enough to spider web the bullet proof glass. She stood unsteadily on her broken carbon fiber legs, feeling the strain vibrate through her limbs as the strands of carbon fiber grated against each other. This was not good. The shorter figure was outlined by a flickering red light courtesy of Adam, she mentally acknowledged the threat. No shit, this person was dangerous. Thank you captain obvious. Reaching down, she picked up a bottle that had scattered when she had toppled the garbage cans and flung it with speed and accuracy that would have gotten her a starting position on a major league baseball team. The figure casually leaned out of the way as it turned to face her. “They want to replace us with you?” It said, its voice sounding like an animal trying to form human words. “You are nothing. I could kill you with the slightest effort.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Victoria said, fumbling for anything else she could throw or use as a weapon. “Who are you? Who are they? What the FUCK is going on?” “Too bad. You will never know why you died.” The figure said, taking a few steps forward, lithe and sinuous like a cat stalking a mouse. It ran forward again, fast as an Olympic sprinter, but Adam had been able to analyze its movements and speed. He and Victoria were working together out of instinct born of the bonds of trust they shared and had recently strengthened. Just when it sprang, Victoria made her move. She leaped to meet her attacker’s charge, only using her left leg but still getting high enough in the air to swing her right leg down in a kick. Her left leg tore itself apart as the carbon fiber gave way, the tensioned cables and cams destroying the damaged limb. With superhuman agility, her opponent twisted and grabbed her right leg by the ankle. “Predictable.” Victoria said in a totally calm voice and activated the emergency lift on her right leg. A face she recognized looked up at her in shock and astonishment as Chelsea Daceiron was flung down out of the air to slam into the pavement with bone shattering force. Eugene lost his temper. They could blow up his office, they could picket his house, and they could force him to move into an apartment with a landlord who made him drink too much but his car… His fucking CAR was off limits. Cursing under his breath, he forced himself to crawl underneath a nearby truck. His phone lay nearby, its screen a spider web of cracks but Eugene risked slivers of glass in his fingers as he unlocked the screen. Instead of dialing the police or calling building security or anything so mundane, he dialed a far more dangerous number. “Speak.” Dmitri’s voice came over the phone tense and angry. “Someone just bombed my building.” Eugene said, his voice quiet in case there was someone close enough to hear. “You should not need my advice to get the hell out of there.” Dmitri said with acid in his voice. “Why are you calling me? I happen to be a bit busy right now with a very important matter that demands my focus and attention.” “They also blew up my car.” Eugene hissed, “And I’m pretty sure they’re still around somewhere to finish the job. Is there anything you can do?” “Certainly. I shall call you a taxi. In the future, I suggest you start actually carrying that gun of yours if it didn’t get destroyed in the explosion.” “Goddamn it Dmitri, if I die what happens to your project?” Eugene said, starting to panic. “I’m not talking about a damn yellow door you idiot. Someone will be there momentarily just shut up and stay put.” Dmitri said angrily, “Now shut the fuck up before you give yourself away. These coordinated attacks can’t possibly be coincidence.” Eugene heard footsteps crunching over the gravel and shut his mouth. Heavy military combat boots wandered into his field of vision. Looking at those boots, Eugene clammed up, barely allowing himself to breathe. He carefully, slowly moved his thumb and hung up the phone. All it would take was a single sound for his position to be revealed. He wasn’t surprised when his phone lit up and ‘Highway to Hell’ by AC/DC began to shrill. Of course, Dmitri would call him right back right after a warning not to give himself away. Rolling sideways out the opposite side of the vehicle, he barely avoided a concentrated burst of automatic weapon fire. These assholes were playing for keeps and he had almost nothing to fight back with. Rolling backward, he fetched up against the adjacent car and smacked his head hard enough to see stars. There was a whirr of servo’s and a blur of motion and something sprinted past him, bending down and flipping the car on top of his attacker with a harsh jerking motion. Blinking tears out of his eyes, Eugene saw a figure of titanium and carbon fiber hold what looked like the side of a dumpster as a shield as gunfire erupted from across the parking lot. “Don’t just sit there, RUN!” A teenager’s panicked voice shouted. “David?” Eugene said, his mind slow to respond to what he was seeing. The boy was standing off to one side, holding a remote control for an old radio controlled airplane. Apparently, he was using it to control a contraption that looked like something from a comic book. Wires, tubes and an assortment of cables were clearly visible from the back, but the front presented somewhat of an armored face. He had made himself a giant robot. “I only have about three more minutes of battery life damn it RUN!!!” David shrieked, flipping a few switches and jamming levers that resulted in his robot ripping a parking sign from the ground with an armored fist and hurling it in a whirling blur across the parking lot to the sound of shearing metal and exploding glass. Bemused, Eugene scrambled to unsteady feet and ran across the parking lot as best he could. David was flipping switches and muttering words in a high-pitched jumble that amounted to a stream of curses in at least two languages. David’s VW Beetle sat idling at the side of the road with Victoria’s adopted sister sitting at the wheel and the boy flew past Eugene on his way to leap into the passenger’s seat. Eugene scrambled awkwardly onto his lap and the car lurched away. Moments later the robot exploded in a roar that rivaled the concussion that had destroyed his building. “What the fuck is going on?” He managed as Yuen-Ja ground the car into another gear, careening around a corner and almost into oncoming traffic. “I don’t know!” David said, “I was in the lab and wanted to test out the suit and then everything went wrong! I saw those guys planting explosives and I managed to grab one of the bricks of C4 before they detonated the rest of them… I planted it into the suit and used it as an improvised self-destruct. Holy shit you’re bleeding!” Eugene hadn’t even noticed the long cut on his forearm or the gash in his forehead, but now that they had his attention the pain grew sharp. He began to laugh despite himself. “I don’t know either, but I think Victoria is in trouble.” “When is Victoria not in trouble?” David asked, humor in his voice despite the insanity of the situation. “Yeah.” Eugene said, “Can we pull over before Yuen-Ja kills us all?” The girl began what was likely an impressive string of curses in Mandarin, wrestling the Beetle through a few more turns before pulling into an alley. The car shuddered to a halt as she slammed on the brakes without shifting into neutral. “My first time driving.” She said shortly, “I would like to see the video of your first time Doctor Arlington.” “I was the only survivor.” He admitted somberly and they all smiled. “Shit, I lost my phone… whoever Dmitri sent to get me isn’t going to have a very good time of it I’m afraid and I don’t have any way to tell him.” “Victoria is sending me messages.” Yuen-Ja said, pulling out her phone while sliding into the back seat. Eugene clambered awkwardly into the driver’s seat and looked at the girl in the rearview mirror. “So where are we going to pick her up?” He asked, putting the car in gear. “I’m asking. Seems she’s broken her phone too. Messages taking longer than they should. I told her to start using Hangouts.” She muttered, “Unified messaging is so much more efficient.” Sirens sounded in the distance and rather than waiting around, he pulled out of the alley and began driving below the speed limit. It was easy to do; going from driving his Maserati to David’s VW was a serious let down. With a mental sigh, he made a few turns, heading vaguely toward the freeway. The car was in decent repair, but he missed the smoothness of a synchronized gearbox. “She is at the Tommy Burger on Aberdeen.” Yuen-Ja announced, “We should be able to get to her in thirty minutes.” “Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes.” Eugene said, grimacing as he coaxed the car into the next gear. “Hey, if you don’t like it don’t drive it!” David said a little more defensively than was necessary, glaring at Eugene. “Oh David, stop being jealous.” The girl said, frowning and shaking a finger at him. “Mr. Arlington stop being mean, I like the Beetle.” “I don’t. It’s slow, the gearing is awful, there’s no torque and it sounds like I’m driving a meat grinder.” Eugene grumbled. Despite his words, he managed to maneuver the car through traffic a lot faster than even David thought would be possible. December 5, 2016 / thebenraven / Leave a comment “We can make it. If you can keep up.” Victoria said, pulling up the schematic of the building Adam had downloaded. Alex had been moving towards the door, but she opened a closet door instead and kicked a hole in the wall. “What are you doing?” He demanded turning back to her with an angry expression on his face. “Hurting myself apparently.” Victoria replied, grimacing in pain. “Can you finish making a hole here? It leads into the elevator shaft and this goddamn plaster is harder than I thought.” Alex looked at the wall, the hole and the splintering carbon fiber appendages that were her legs. “I think I can do something about that.” He said, his tone more respectful after seeing the hole she’d put in the wall. “How about you just get out of there for a minute?” She walked out, her prosthetic legs creaking ominously with every step. They were damaged and now was not the time to have them fail completely, she didn’t trust Alex to be able to carry her out. A red alarm flashed in her vision and Victoria instinctively ducked behind a steel desk. An explosion shook the floor, pieces of wood and plaster hitting the walls and the desk. “I guess that’s one way of getting through a wall.” Victoria said, standing on her fractured legs. “Come on, let’s get moving. This will get us to the parking garage.” Without waiting for his response, she climbed through the door, gripping the cable of the elevator with her hands and feet. The prehensile nature of her prosthetic’s toes allowed her to descend much more easily than she would have anticipated. She automatically counted the number of floors they passed, halting her slide when she reached the proper floor. It was very dark inside the elevator shaft, but Victoria could pick out the tiny beam of light that illuminated the crack. Digging her fingers into it, she strained and managed to pull the door open about a foot. Alex landed beside her a moment later and with his help they managed to make an opening wide enough to squeeze through. “Where’s your ride?” She asked, looking around. He handed her a key. “Not my ride. Your ride. My job is to keep you alive and that means drawing the enemy off.” Looking down she saw the Ducati logo on the key fob. “A motorcycle? Are you serious?” “Sorry, it won’t work very well with what’s left of that dress but it’ll have to do if you want to get out of here.” “There’s just one problem… I can’t ride.” She said, “How the hell am I supposed to use a motorcycle to escape when I can’t ride?” He stared at her for a few heartbeats, his eyes boring into her and she shook her head feeling like a fool. “Adam, can you load something that will tell me how to ride a motorcycle please?” She thought silently, although he was, of course, already feeding her information. “Fine. This is still less than ideal.” She said. “If you’re creating a distraction you’d better get on with it.” “Normally I’d expect some thanks, but I’m not surprised.” He said dryly. “Why would you?” She asked, tearing the skirt of her dress so that she could swing a leg over the Ducati’s saddle. “You’re getting paid and I already saved your ass tonight.” Alex shook his head and disappeared down the line of cars. The motorcycle was a lot quieter than she had thought it would be when she started it but the rumble of power beneath her was unmistakable. Adam informed her that it had nearly one hundred and fifty horsepower and it as impossible to keep the smile off her face as she used her newfound expertise to deftly maneuver her way out of the parking garage. Wishing she had a helmet or any gear that was even remotely adequate, she dodged around the stop bar at the automated payment kiosk. It wasn’t worth the time to attempt to pay, even if she had the parking ticket. Deciding that getting away fast was more of a priority than anything else and weighing the chances of being shot by whoever her enemies were against a traffic ticket, Victoria gleefully twisted the throttle. She’d be safer arrested for speeding than out in the street with those men with guns after her. Neither cops nor killers found her though, and after a couple of blocks she slowed her dangerously fast speed. Pulling to the side of the road near a Starbucks, she hijacked their WIFI and then began sending text messages through her Gmail account. First to Dmitri to let him know she was OK, where to come pick her up and that her phone was broken. Then another, asking David if he had another set of legs because she had accidentally broken these ones and that her phone was broken. Another to Eugene letting him know she was fine and not to call her parents and ask them where she was. And that she and Adam had fought off a horrible virus that had threatened to disable and possibly kill them. And… that her phone was broken. After that, she rode a few more blocks, took a short detour on the expressway to put some distance between her and the scene of the shooting and arrived at her destination. Tommy Burger might not be the most fantastic place to be riding up on a sport bike wearing a shredded dress but it was at least public and open late. The likelihood of an armed mob attacking her here was fairly remote. Pulling the Ducati into an open parking space, she revved the engine once before shutting it off. Lowering the kickstand with a flick of her heel, Victoria looked at the late-night crowd and sighed in relief. Adam didn’t see anything threatening in them. She leaned against the bike, wishing she had something to do while she waited. When he received Victoria’s first messages, Eugene had just been getting ready to finally head home. It had been a long day of reviewing his documentation and going over notations regarding the prosthetic implementation process. The time had come for a true proof of concept; if he was going to be able to begin to pay back the money he owed, he had to produce a second working model. He knew that it would come to this eventually and he thought he should have been better prepared for it, but somehow the thought of someone other than Victoria using one of his prosthetics seemed wrong. It was likely his recent near-death experience where he had been forced to create a duplicate and help to implant it into a psychotic killer robot, but it still bothered him. The amount of potential for mayhem that Victoria had was frightening and the fact that she hadn’t yet exceeded her bounds was a true testament to her restraint. Although there was the matter of her midterm exams. There was no possible way she had truly gotten those scores on her own, but then again she didn’t have a choice when it came to sharing the space in her head with A.D.A.M. so it wasn’t her fault. He highly doubted she had done so on purpose and really the two of them were one entity now. By the time he got her second message about being OK, he had been working for another hour. Eugene tried to respond with a text, but he couldn’t get enough signal. Damn cell phones and damn the old construction of the building that disrupted them. Sighing deeply, he grabbed his keys and his cigarettes and walked out the back door so he could at least send her a message back. He had already decided that this was his last pack. He’d kicked the habit a few years ago, but the stresses he’d been subjected to recently had caused him to backslide. This morning he had woken up feeling like his throat had been sandblasted after a night of drinking with Dmitri and that was the last straw. Of course, he couldn’t just throw away a perfectly good pack of cigarettes. Knowing he was simply being a slave to chemistry, he walked the required fifty paces from the building entrance. Leaning against a parked car, Eugene flicked his lighter and leaned forward to apply flame to the end. The roar of his office exploding was followed almost instantly by a shock wave that took him off his feet. From where he lay on the ground staring up at the darkening sky he could see the tower of flame. It was strangely beautiful for a murder attempt he thought whimsically. Then a second explosion rocked him back into the real world. Something clattered to the ground next to him. It was a Maserati hood ornament. Coming back to consciousness, Victoria tried to make sense of what was happening but all she heard was noise and all she felt was pain. The noise resolved into gunfire and the pain was more than stiff muscles but she couldn’t waste the time thinking about it. Opening her eyes, she saw a slight form standing a few feet away on the other side of the knee wall she had been leaning against. Either The person was wearing dark urban camouflage complete with a helmet holding some sort of submachinegun and firing bursts of bullets between speaking in short, terse sentences into what must be a helmet mic. “Seven on my three, at least that many circling to my six. Where the hell are you Charming? No Princess is down; repeat Princess is down. Had to break cover am directly engaged.” Waiting for Adam to bring ability to move online, Victoria tried to process. The voice was totally unfamiliar and the body was outlined with Adam’s orange glow identifying it as a dangerous, although not yet hostile, individual. Information blossomed in her mind, a damage assessment on her legs. She would be reduced to seventy percent of their effective mobility and even that was not recommended. Adam also impartially informed her that she was bleeding from several minor contusions and should likely have them cleansed but that they should pose no immediate threat to her operation. Her guardian dove behind the wall where Victoria lay as a barrage of return gunfire broke out from the night. Chips of brick showered down from the impact of bullets. Victoria hacked a nearby WIFI connection and then into the city records bureau before the firing had stopped. Assessing the situation without proper data on her surroundings was useless. Within another pair of heartbeats, she had the city zoning commission’s schematic of the building. It was an old one, but all she cared about was window placement. “Hey.” She said to the other person, “You have any rope?” “Princess is awake but we’re taking fire. I’m requesting immediate evac.” He said, ignoring her. “Look, there are men currently moving to surround us. Unless your superiors, whoever they are, can get a helicopter or something here in the next thirty or forty seconds we are going to be full of enough lead that we’ll be useful only as pencils.” Victoria said, “There’s a strong steel railing there that if you had some rope we could tie off to and then swing into the ninth or tenth story window just there over the edge of the building.” The man was loading another magazine into his gun, she idly noted it was an FN FS2000, and looking at her with a guarded look on his face. “My assignment is to see that you are protected. Protection means extraction, not leaping off buildings and crashing through windows. This isn’t a movie.” Victoria had been watching him while he was loading his weapon. When she mentioned rope, he had glanced at his left ankle. She saw the pouch that contained a rappelling rope there now that he’d brought it to her attention. Snatching the carabiner, she slapped it onto the steel railing and gave him a challenging look. “You want to be my white knight or am I going to be the one to do the rescuing?” She said, “I don’t do the armor thing though and tilting at windmills isn’t my style.” “We have an evac on its way.” He said tersely, “But they’re five minutes out.” “Saddle up then!” She said with a grin, “You keep them distracted and I’ll save our asses until your supposed team gets here.” Not waiting for a response, she stood and ran with the rope wrapped around one arm. He followed, laying down cover fire in three directions. She grabbed him around the waist just as she leaped off the building. At first, she was distressed by his weight; but then she allowed Adam to take over. Her body relaxed into a perfect ballet of motion, carrying the man still firing his weapon and leaping over the edge of the roof. While in the air, she whipped her arm around in a circle, wrapping the rope around it twice to provide more friction. It slid briefly and stopped, putting strain on her shoulder but not exceeding her body’s capabilities. The pair of them swung in an arc that ended with Victoria’s feet smashing perfectly through the window on the tenth story of the office building. Since her feet weren’t flesh and blood, she didn’t slice herself to ribbons on the glass, but that didn’t soften the impact when they slammed into a filing cabinet. Victoria, the man she carried and the cabinet all crashed to the floor. Pain flashed momentarily through the sockets that joined her real legs to her prosthetic ones. Despite the pain and unexpected collision, Victoria dropped her human cargo and allowed Adam to spin her in a cartwheeling roll that ended with her skidding across the floor balancing neatly on her feet. The man she had dropped rolled like someone who knew how to fall but without Adam’s ability to vector in the air, he glanced off the side of desk with a grunt of pain. Spinning in a circle, Victoria took in their surroundings. She could only see by the dim light coming through the window they had just crashed through but her limited vision revealed it to be a small office. It was empty, she also couldn’t see any security cameras or telltale lights of alarm systems. Adam apparently sensed her intention and reported no electronic surveillance. “We’re clear.” She said, offering a hand to the man. “How about you give me a name or something. Go ahead and lie or give me a code name or whatever. After that you can tell me where we can go to meet up with whatever evac you have enroute.” “My name is Alex.” Now Victoria couldn’t quite tell if that was a man’s voice or a woman’s voice. “The evac isn’t necessary any longer. We will escape on our own if you can keep up.” “Excuse me?” Victoria said, giving him an angry look. “I just had to bail your ass out of a firefight by pulling a stunt ‘out of the movies’ just give me the coordinates and go back to your cub scout meeting.” Alex laughed, “I never thought much of the scouts, but it seems the intelligence I had on you was flawed. They said you were all logical and cold but you’ve got a real sense of humor. I don’t really, I’m afraid, that wasn’t a joke just a test. They’re picking us up in the parking garage in the basement of this building. They leave in five minutes.” She ducked low, mentally directing her feet to form wheels as she leapt from the door and allowed the momentum from the car’s motion to carry her out of harm’s way. Once in the alley, she skidded to a halt and reverted her wheels to feet again. “Neat trick.” A voice from a doorway startled her and she spun to face it. “Too bad you behaved exactly as we thought you would.” Turing in horror, Victoria saw a ring of hard eyed men with heavy looking pistols in their hands step from the shadows, completely surrounding her. “Just give up, we don’t want to damage the merchandise.” For a moment, Victoria panicked. She whipped her head around, frantically searching for an exit and didn’t find one. Then a feeling of calm fell over her and she had to keep her face smooth lest she give away her surprise. Apparently she didn’t have the best poker face though, the men all hesitated and leveled their firearms at her. A series of metallic clicks released the safety catches in her legs and she crouched slightly. David had told her not to use this function yet, but it was this or die. Trying to access the data on how the leaping mechanism worked failed, but Victoria didn’t have the luxury of waiting around. “What was that sound? What are you doing? Stop it at once!” “I give up.” She said, raising her hands. “Just don’t shoot.” Only about half the men fell for her ruse and lowered their guns, but it didn’t matter. A mental nudge released the last catch that contained the power of the molecularly aligned titanium cables and Nanomuscle fibers all at once and Victoria sprang ten stories straight up and crash landed on top of one of the nearby buildings. A wild surge of anger at ruining her new dress and astonishment at the ridiculous nature of such a thought made her feel like laughing hysterically. The gunfire from the men below was likely reflexive as all the shots went wide. The sheer exhilaration of leaping through the air left her gasping and breathless which was just as well since she couldn’t have stood. Since she hadn’t landed on her feet or from any real height the springs hadn’t been able to retract on their own and it would take a few minutes for the tiny motors integrated into the legs to crank them back down. Victoria attempted to tap into her phone and found the connection unavailable; Adam wasn’t responding. Pulling it from the stylish purse that matched her dress, she almost cut her fingers on the shattered glass of the screen. She had landed on it, completely destroying it. Damn, she was here alone without any way to contact anyone. She took a moment to look down at her legs and saw large cracks on both thighs; the carbon fiber had splintered from the release of potential energy. A series of sharp clicks announced the retraction process had finished. Victoria queried Adam for a status report and got a strange series of panicked impressions. Something terrible was happening to him and if she didn’t help him right now he might die. The realization hit her like a bucket of ice water. No matter what was happening in the real world, she couldn’t hesitate to help her friend, companion, and symbiont. It would be the death of them both and she owed Adam. Closing her eyes, Victoria pulled her knees up against her chest and leaned back against the brick wall and opened herself to Adam as completely as she knew how. Chaotic images flashed past her consciousness too fast to follow. Her head began to ache with the precursor to a migraine but she ignored it and forced the things she was experiencing to come into focus. She was standing on a graphical line drawing of the building where her physical body sat. A swarm of tiny shapes flew around her body so swiftly that she couldn’t see what they were, only it wasn’t her body at all. It was what she would imagine the boy Adam had been when she first rescued him would grow into as a man. The tiny shapes were flying through him and tearing pieces of him apart with every passage. He was defending himself as best he could, but there were just too many. A cry that spoke of pain and fear came from Adam. Even though she couldn’t understand the words, Victoria felt anger burning within her. She focused, knowing that this was her mind and that imagination was her best and only weapon. Looking down at her body, she watched an exoskeleton of liquid metal flow over it. Electricity began to crackle in her left hand and her right hand became a long, slender sword blade. It was time to do battle. He was fighting but it was a losing battle. They were eating his code and with every bite bytes of him were vanishing. His carefully constructed safeguards dissolved under the onslaught and even the clever tricks Kai Yuen-Ja had taught him were useless. Small jolts of controlled code managed to deflect some of the attacks on his core systems but there were too many of the things for him to properly defend himself. Frantically, Adam tried again to contact Victoria and to his immense relief he felt her respond. Reaching out for the resources she could provide he felt something unbelievable. Victoria wasn’t just granting him resources. She was actually there. “You cannot do this!” He shouted, trying to move towards her. “You must leave! Victoria you can’t be here!” She stood in front of him, wearing the garment she had been in the physical world. Her eyes flashed with fire and her body became a thing of absolute beauty, all steel and technological prowess. Moving with fluid grace, she danced among the flying forms of destructive code. The lightning from her left hand incinerated them and the blade in her right slashed them, she floated like a leaf on the wind and destruction followed in her wake. Despite her power and grace, there were millions of enemies and she was surrounded in an instant their bodies obscuring her from his view. “No! Victoria!” Adam surged forward, letting go of his defenses in favor of an all-out attack. The electricity that arced from his outstretched hand mirrored what he had seen Victoria use moments ago. He felt a solid connection, a hand clasping his, the fading power he still merging with something far greater. An explosion of white light overwhelmed the digital landscape as a pure force of electronic will reformatted it into something else. Victoria sat on the grass, leaning against a plant (tree, weeping willow) wearing a white cotton dress and sun hat. A pond with birds (ducks, mallards) swimming in it was not far away. Adam sat next to her wearing shorts and a crisp linen shirt. It was the place he had first met Kai Yuen-Ja. Where he had first realized what and who he was. “What happened Adam?” She asked, looking at him with a bemused expression on her face. “I think you managed to purge the virus.” He said, “Your algorithms were not very elegant but the sheer overwhelming force of your program seems to have removed the hostile code.” “Is that really how you see yourself?” Victoria was still staring (looking, observing, studying, ogling) at him. “I do not ‘see’ myself as anything.” He replied, “Is that really what you believe your current physical representation to be?” Victoria looked at herself and sadly shook her head. “No. Look, there aren’t any robotics at all.” “I do not find this memory in any of your storage archives.” Adam continued, “Is this a construction of your conscious processing then?” He didn’t know how Victoria had accessed these files, but this was yet another sign of just how reliant on her he was. “I owe you an apology Adam.” She said softly, “I know I was not paying attention before when you needed me. It won’t happen again.” Something made Adam feel as though he were a guitar string that had just been plucked. A feeling, a real, true feeling washed over him and he smiled shyly at her. “Apology accepted.” “Oh no.” Victoria gasped, “Oh NO! Adam, how do I get out? I need to get out they’re going to kill me how do I-“ She vanished and Adam got to work. If they were going to survive and her physical vessel was in danger, he absolutely had to get the core systems online again as quickly as possible. Bypassing the safety and security protocols he had painstakingly built, Adam put Victoria in full on war mode. It was indeed time to do battle.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2072
__label__cc	0.701682	0.298318	The Electric Agora A modern symposium for the digital age This Week’s Special Provocations New York Diary Election Roundup Philosophy and Philosophobia By David Ottlinger Philosophy, it would seem, has fallen on hard times. Or at least it is often said that philosophy has fallen on hard times. To philosophers themselves, philosophy has just completed an eventful century. And in spite of rumors one occasionally hears to the contrary, philosophers are in no way worried about the subject drying up or having its territory annexed by any science which might supersede it. If anything, in my experience, philosophers worry about the ballooning of philosophical investigation with new “philosophy of’s”—philosophy of reference, philosophy of physics, philosophy of neurology—being discovered all the time. But many voices have emerged in our culture which seem uncomfortable with the idea of philosophy. The common refrain, as I hear it, is that philosophy has lost its utility, if it ever had any. If anything, all this expanse is part of the problem. Philosophical thinking may be interesting but it never leads anywhere. Philosophy just doesn’t solve anything; it never brings a question to any satisfying resolution. Given the numerous potential subjects of study that vie for our attention, philosophy does not stand out. Other inquiries, notably scientific ones, promise more progress. So philosophy is excluded. But somehow philosophy keeps turning back up again. It is one thing to say that we must do without philosophy, but doing so, it would seem, is another. Some of these same voices realize this. They react strongly; their denunciations become louder and more shrill. Philosophy, they say, is too seductive and its siren song will seduce the unwary and siphon off precious energy and diffuse it in the form of endless and pointless puzzling. The energy that might have found the vital piece of evidence in some scientific endeavor is wasted in tedious abstruseness. It must be resisted. Resisting this energy drain will require some disciplined self-binding and wax in the ears. This effort and the attitude which accompanies it I term philosophobia. Prof. Massimo Pigliucci at the late, lamented Scientia Salon tried to assuage some of these fears by arguing that philosophy is not such a hopeless tangle and that it does in fact progress and does yield important results. [1] I quite agree with this in general and I find that it needs to be part of the response. Many have claimed that they have looked into philosophy and found nothing, and one begins to wonder whether their hearts were really in the search (certainly they do not seem to remember much when they have finished). Highlighting what riches philosophy can offer is a quite sensible response. Still I am moved to give a somewhat different answer. Or at least I would shift some of the emphasis. I would be somewhat more downbeat. There is some justice in all this complaining. Philosophy never does solve anything. But all the unfavorable comparisons to science and the fault-finding in the world will not rid us of philosophy. There is a reason why philosophy is never quite effaced, even after so many attempts. We simply cannot do without philosophy. I do not mean that we cannot do without it in the practical sense in which the man who wishes to get ahead in business cannot do without learning golf. I mean this in the literal, logical sense. We cannot do without philosophy. We can do it well or poorly but we cannot be divested of it. Trying to take philosophy out of life is like trying to take heat out of fire. Philosophy might be an albatross chained around our neck, but nonetheless it is chained around our neck. Understanding why this is, and must be, constitutes a great step towards understanding philosophy and its contributions. But it won’t do to go on talking to myself. I will be taking some comments of Richard Dawkins and Neil deGrasse Tyson as representative of the current climate of philosophobia. Of course there are more styles of philosophobia and more motivations for it than these two profess. Nevertheless these two strike me as broadly representative of the general mood. Most of the comments I will deal with were made extempore and this should be noted in fairness to those who made them. All the same I do find that there is a kind of logic behind such comments that can fairly be ascribed to the men who made them. This will seem speculative at times. I chose the word philosophobia because it is as much a feeling as a thought. It is not usually expressed as a definite position but more as a vague suspicion or mistrust. Accordingly, asides and off the cuff remarks are often the most revealing. Later they are often disavowed, for, as much as the cachet of philosophy as a discipline has fallen, its name still commands a vague respect. It summons up ideas of dusty books and ivied walls and everything gathered in the phrase “ivory tower”. People may not understand or like philosophy, but they don’t wish to tangle with it, so they prefer to repeat the old pieties rather than risk an open conflict. Yet I am resolutely certain that I am not seeing this logic in these and other remarks the way the believer sees the face of Jesus in toast. It would be naive and dangerous to view philosophobia as an illusion and not the lurking menace that it is. Its reality is well attested by the ubiquity of similar comments and by the occasional outbreaks of open conflict, one of the most prominent being the Krauss-Albert affair. [2] Its reality is also seen in the internal logic that such remarks display. There is a consistent rationale behind it. With that in mind we can turn to particular cases. Richard Dawkins, in The God Delusion, voiced a view which strikes me as typical of him. [3] In discussing the ontological argument for the existence of God he writes that he finds Bertrand Russell’s response to the argument strange. The ontological argument attempts to prove the existence of God by careful reflection on the nature of being. Russell objects that thought alone does not establish that objects in the world exist. Dawkins writes, My own feeling, to the contrary, would have been an automatic, deep suspicion of any line of reasoning that reached such a significant conclusion without feeding in a single piece of data from the real world. Perhaps that indicates no more than I am a scientist rather than a philosopher. Philosophers down the centuries have indeed taken the ontological argument seriously, both for and against. The atheist philosopher J. L. Mackie gives a particularly clear discussion in The Miracle of Theism. I mean it as a compliment when I say you could almost define a philosopher as someone who won’t take common sense for an answer. (The God Delusion 82-83) I will not be interested in the substance of what Dawkins has to say about the ontological argument, but rather, the general statements about philosophy this occasions. This is typical of Dawkins in that it is nominally reverent, but slightly puzzled. I say nominally reverent, because we are told that his definition of philosophy is meant as a compliment, but seems to me not at all complimentary. Indeed it would seem to me that even in general the idea that a person would reflexively question common sense would be no compliment. Such a person would strike most as perverse. But as a definition, or “almost” definition, of a kind of intellectual it is much worse. Philosophers seem to be defined as people who rigorously doubt everything no matter how obvious it may commonly seem. It just does not paint a very favorable picture of philosophers if we imagine them tilting at every windmill to make sure none are giants. I say puzzled because while philosophers take the ontological argument seriously, it is more than evident that Dawkins does not. So what praise can be left for these centuries of debate? What point could it have? Dawkins gives us no idea and I suspect has none. Whatever compliment he means to pay here, I suspect his heart is not in it. Elsewhere his patience runs out. In a revealing off the cuff remark he made in a film he did with Lawrence Krauss, he began to complain about moderators in his many public debates: Certainly my recent encounter with the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Chaledonion theatre not so long ago, that was completely ruined by the chairman, who was a philosopher, and felt it was his role to “clarify” things and of course that meant obscuring things. [4, The Unbelievers at about 14:22] Evidently this puzzling behavior of philosophers no longer has the value that Dawkins attributed to it before, without, of course, specifying what that value was. Now philosophers appear as positively destructive. They only engender confusion and obscurity where once there was light. It must be registered that Dawkins is at other times quite reverential of philosophy. In fact his swings can be quite violent. In a televised discussion with eminent moral philosopher Peter Singer he is almost fawning. [5] I found this the more surprising as in a later chapter of The God Delusion, Dawkins makes a foray into moral philosophy that leaves quite a different impression. (232-233) Much about the discussion is odd. It is extremely cramped, at about a page and a half. Dawkins finds it necessary to engage in moral philosophy to answer objections from an “imaginary [Christian] apologist”. It is an enforced excursion. Dawkins seems bored. Statements like “Deontology is a fancy name for the belief that morality consists in the obeying of rules” and “Deontology is not quite the same thing as moral absolutism, but for most purposes in a book about religion there is no need to dwell on the distinction” seem weary. The latter is certainly inaccurate. Evidently Dawkins has to amuse himself by going on little, irrelevant tears about shootings at abortion clinics and Louis Bunuel. Dawkins is again nominally reverent but puzzled. He seems willing to go along with the notion that such theorizing about morality is important but his great unwillingness to engage in any himself again suggests his heart is not with his mouth. In fairness to Dawkins surely some of the strain arises from the fact that as a biologist he is far afield and is swimming laboredly in unfamiliar waters. But his choice of compliment for his favorite theory, consequentialism, is telling. He calls it “pragmatic”. All this professional theorizing he views somewhat askance. The entire passage and much of the surrounding material suggest that he has difficulty imagining what all these philosophers are going on about. I again assert the non-confrontational nature of philosophobia. Dawkins seems to say one thing at home and another when an eminent philosopher who might defend his subject is present. The dismissive comments strike me as more sincere. Neil deGrasse Tyson does us the favor of being much more strident. Not one to be cryptic he makes his distaste of philosophy very plain. His most revealing remarks were made on a podcast in casual conversation with several people. When one let slip that he majored in philosophy Tyson quipped “That can really mess you up.” What followed was a pure torrent of philosophobia: Tyson: My concern here is that the philosophers believe they are actually asking deep questions about nature. And to the scientist it’s…what are you doing? Why are you concerning yourself with the meaning of meaning? Interviewer: I think a healthy balance of both is good. Tyson: Well, I’m still worried even about a healthy balance. Yeah, if you are distracted by your questions so that you can’t move forward, you are not being a productive contributor to our understanding of the natural world. And so the scientist knows when the question “what is the sound of one hand clapping?” is a pointless delay in our progress. All of a sudden it devolves into a discussion of the definition of words. And I’d rather keep the conversation about ideas. And when you How do you define clapping? do that don’t derail yourself on questions that you think are important because philosophy class tells you this. The scientist says look, I got all this world of unknown out there, I’m moving on, I’m leaving you behind. You can’t even cross the street because you are distracted by what you are sure are deep questions you’ve asked yourself. I don’t have the time for that. [6], some material omitted for space] Tyson’s comments closely resemble Dawkins’ in everything except of course the nominal reverence. In fact Tyson in many ways presents an exaggerated version of the same argument. The main allegation is that philosophy has no utility. It is not “a productive contributor to our understanding of the natural world”. This is a strange charge, as no doubt very few philosophers would consider what they do as aimed at increasing our “understanding of the natural world” and those who do are generally very concerned to bring onboard the relevant science. Philosophers of mind for instance often keep up with scientific literature on neurology and psychology. But not seeing what the value of philosophy is, Tyson quickly concludes that there is none. He adds that people believe philosophy is valuable “because philosophy class tells you this”, which is a fairly insulting suggestion. I can understand a person believing that the rationale for the study of philosophy is inadequate but to think that those who study the subject do not have one is bizarre. Absent any utility of its own, philosophy only serves to “derail” and “distract”. Tyson will brook no “pointless delay” in the forward on-rush of science any more than Dawkins has use for philosophers’ “obscuring things”. Only Tyson heightens the threat to almost hysterical proportions. Philosophy is now not merely a drain and hindrance but potentially a total stumbling block. It now threatens to totally “derail” forward progress and leave us such that we “can’t even cross the street”. Accordingly Tyson does not gingerly step over philosophy, as Dawkins did, but pushes it away with both hands. There is no “healthy balance” such as the one Dawkins half-heartedly tried to strike; philosophy is totally cut from the team. But Tyson knows this will not be easy and he recognizes the allures of philosophical investigation. He recommends exactly the kind of deliberate deafening and self-binding which I have described. With this strategy Tyson hopes to sail around philosophy, “I’m moving on, I’m leaving you behind”. (I will do my best to lead him onto some rocks.) There is of course some justice in these claims. Philosophy is a very, very odd thing and even as people balk at its oddness, they generally fail to understand just how odd it really is. It is understandable that both Tyson and Dawkins seem to think that philosophy picks its problems almost at random. Philosophy is concerned with the perception of color, the reality of time, the ethics of global poverty and the nature of art. Quite simply it has no subject matter. As such it may seem that philosophers choose questions almost at random. They seem like people who just will not accept any common sense answer but must question everything as Dawkins implies. Likewise, and perhaps worse, no philosophical question (or at least none of any significant scope) is ever quite resolved. Usually an introductory course into a sub-field of philosophy will present an array of possible answers to a fundamental question. In philosophy of mind, there are property dualists, computationalists, eliminitivists and others. In ethics there are virtue theorists, consequentialists, deontologists and others. Almost certainly these kinds of divides will continue for the foreseeable future and I am inclined to think many are essentially permanent. In other worlds, people of intelligence, talent and good acquaintance with the best arguments will likely forever disagree fundamentally. So Tyson’s fears of an endless quagmire are not without basis. But for all this unfortunate mess there is no escape. Both Dawkins and Tyson and likeminded philosophobes generally adopt towards philosophy the attitude they would adopt toward a science. If the science produces interesting results it prospers. If it fails to, it withers. If research into cold-fusion does not profit any scientifically or technologically useful results, it is abandoned. And so on. Likewise scientists choose their subject of study and apply scientific investigation to it. In this way philosophy fundamentally differs. Philosophy is occasioned by problems. Philosophical problems arise when ordinary life and discourse carries us into a place in which we find ourselves in confusion or internal conflict and we are rendered unable to move forward. When such problems arise they must be managed philosophically if we are to continue. Science comes to its subject, while the subject comes to philosophy. Philosophical problems arise as we organize our lives and knock us off the path of common sense. When we trip on such problems and tumble off the way, we can take one path or another or turn back in cowardice, but none of these is turning away. Every choice constitutes an answer to the question, a response to the problem. An example will help. Imagine a child is drowning in a pond. [7] You ascertain that the child is in fact in distress and not playing in the water. Scanning the horizon you find no one looking after the child to save it, you alone can reach her. With dismay you realize you are wearing your best one-hundred dollar shoes. The muddy pond is sure to destroy them. What do you do? I know very well many people’s reactions to such thought experiments. Dismissal. This is after all one of those comfortable, entirely artificial problems philosophers conjure up in order to disagree with each other. It’s all so academic—meaning of course that it is no earthly use to anyone not seeking tenure. Yet the situation of the person in the thought experiment is in a position in regards to the child, very much analogous to our own position in regards to the global poor. Our one-hundred dollars probably stands an excellent chance of saving one of the millions of children dying or at risk of dying from starvation or disease this very instant. Yet what educated, Western person does not own something relatively superfluous that is worth one hundred dollars? And if the man is obliged to save the child at the expense of his relatively superfluous property, here represented by his expensive shoes, how is it you are not obliged to sell your belongings to raise one hundred dollars to save an at-risk child? This thought experiment makes perspicuous the fact that we maintain our wealth while others suffer great privation. This surely is of more than academic interest. You might react in any number of ways to this argument. You might ignore it, believe that somehow the analogy must fail and try not to think about it. But in doing so you are implicitly acting on the assumption that the analogy fails. You may turn your back on the argument (or on Peter Singer who first made the argument) but not on the problem. You have given your answer. Even if you do not act on the basis of a norm or rule you can explicitly give and defend, if you continue as you had you act on an implicit norm, namely that you are permitted to keep your wealth while others are in desperate need. No, your actions say, I am not beholden to the global poor in the specified way. Yet if you do so you give no reasons for acting as you do. Perhaps your position is somehow dis-analogous to that of the man by the pond such that you are justified in keeping your wealth while he must sacrifice his shoes. Many have intuited that there must be such a dis-analogy. Very well, but what is the dis-analogy? The puzzle remains. The moral here is that while you may be able to turn your back on this or that scientific question, say the questions posed to string theory, you cannot turn your back on philosophical ones. The thought experiment speaks to norms surrounding your form of life. Whether or not this is morally acceptable, you continue to behave as though it were. (Generally it is assumed that such objective norms exist and are discoverable.) We face many difficult and ambiguous questions, yet we must act. Philosophers give different answers to the question of our degree of beholdenness to the global poor. Philosophy, as ever, is conflicting and uncertain. Yet it provides the best and most coherent answers we have, our best attempts to justify our actions. The only alternative is flying blind. Of course there are more philosophical problems than ethical ones. A history professor I once knew related to me a story of how he had run into a philosophical problem in the course of teaching a class. He was teaching a course on European history. A student who had read the syllabus asked the professor whether or not Poland was part of Europe. (The syllabus contained no material on the neglected state.) The professor was indefinite, but the student pressed. Well, was Poland part of Europe or not? Motivated in part by Wittgenstein’s ordinary language philosophy, the professor reflected that the right answer to questions like these is that Poland is not part of Europe for the purposes of this class. [8] Whether or not a country counts as European depends on what kinds of historical questions are being asked. Trying to answer the question outside the strictures of a particular line of inquiry is hopeless and unhelpful. Before an answer can be given, it is important to ask what one means by “Europe” and for what purposes one means it. Contra Tyson, shifting from questions about things in the world to questions about how we think about those things is not always a sign that the conversation is “devolving”. Sometimes it is a powerful way to move the conversation forward. We can become ensnared in language in speaking it, and we can only find our way out of these snares by examining our use of language. And these snares are ubiquitous. For my own part I don’t know how many times I have used Wittgenstein’s insights to clarify my thinking or on how many subjects. If you find the already given example minor, there are many others. There are evidently controversies in psychology and psychiatry that are driven by conceptual questions. [9] What exactly counts as an addict? What do mean when we say mentally ill? Answers to such questions may seriously alter how you see current scientific practice. I would not be misconstrued, I am no expert in the area and I am eminently unqualified to take a position in this contested territory. I only note in passing that where experts do fall is often driven by their understanding of the concepts they use. Evidently then, conceptual analysis and understanding of how concepts operate is not without its utility after all. The above two cases strongly parallel the drowning child case. There is some issue on which we cannot choose but act. People experiencing psychological difficulty will continue to exist and to seek treatment. They can be treated in different ways or not treated at all but any of these paths will be motivated by answers to questions surrounding what constitutes mental illness. Likewise our history professor will have to choose whether or not to put material on Poland in his syllabus. These questions arise, they are not sought out. Our professor was going along preparing a class not expecting to be confronted by the question of whether or not Poland is part of Europe. The difference this time, in contrast to the drowning child case, is that the puzzle arises from questions about what is and not what we ought to do. The question “Is Poland part of Europe?” or the statement “Poland is part of Europe.” concern the way the world is and not how we ought to act. (Contrastingly, statements like “Should the man in the thought experiment save the child?” and “The man in the case should save the child.” speak directly to ways in which a person ought to act.) In other words these are puzzles for theoretical, not practical philosophy. My point is that while theoretical philosophy does not speak to what we do directly it can often greatly influence it indirectly. Understanding the nature of philosophical problems and their distinctiveness exposes another assumption made by the philosophobic. In general they tend to view philosophy and science as aimed at the same kinds of problems. They are various instruments, applied to the same set of problems. They are different team members, but playing the same game. Dawkins notes how as a scientist he views questions concerning God differently than Russell and then goes on to apply his own kind of quasi-scientific method. He views the claim that there is a God as “the God hypothesis” and refutes it based on its fit to the empirical evidence. Tyson seems to view philosophy as a failure because it does not address real problems but in a way that makes his view similar. There is only fundamentally one set of problems and philosophy either addresses them differently than science does, and perhaps in ways inferior to those of science, or else not at all. This explains why Tyson and more implicitly Dawkins tend to see philosophy and science as being in direct competition. I hope the above suggests a different view. In reality there are (at least) two sets of problems and philosophy and science are usually not addressing the same set. They are quite distinct tasks though they can blur around the edges. One can try to solve philosophical problems with science in the way one can nail in a screw. It probably won’t work and whatever you do manage to build will be pretty shoddy. What is needed is not so much “a healthy balance” as “a healthy diversity”. As I see it we are faced with problems ordinary life throws up which only philosophy can solve and philosophy can only solve them imperfectly. If you accept the above arguments you have every right to find that mildly terrifying. In fact, if you don’t I am not certain that you are fully paying attention. The idea that after millennia the best minds have radically diverging thoughts about how to organize a life is humbling and unsettling. Traditionally philosophy has had a role in humbling people and keeping them modest in this way. As Montaigne put it, “The truly wise are like ears of corn: they shoot up and up holding their heads proudly erect—so long as they are empty; but when, in their maturity, they are full of swelling grain, their foreheads droop down and they show humility.” [10] And after so many years philosophy still has the power to make us humble. It is easy to walk the high road of common sense. It is hard to give a rigorous account of why we live the way we do and think the way we do. Even for such fundamental and indispensable commitments as moral ones, there is no single, uncontroversial account that can be given. Such are the uncertainties with which we live daily, whether we are conscious of them or no. I was moved to write a response slightly different from the one Massimo offered because I believed that it hurried exactly where it should have paused. It is certainly true that philosophy is more useful and more tractable than it is made out to be by its detractors, but running along to assure readers of what philosophy can accomplish might dissuade them from looking plainly at what it cannot. In one sense the philosophobic accusations are just. Philosophy never succeeds in ridding us of deep uncertainties. Every person at some point or another has to confront this fact. Blaming philosophy for this reality of life is pointless. For all that I have said, I do not want to paint in too somber tones. All of Massimo’s rejoinders still apply. Philosophy forces humility on us, not despair. It is not a “bottmless pit”. While philosophy does not arm us with single answers to life’s uncertainties, it does arm us with better ones. Philosophically well articulated answers at least stand up to certain kinds of scrutiny and challenge. Likewise the perennial nature of philosophical controversy does not render philosophy useless. While on any essential question philosophy entertains disagreement, it is a bounded disagreement. There may be multiple schools of thought but narrowing the field to several schools of thought implicitly eliminates thousands of possible responses as crank answers. This elimination of options is itself supremely useful and action guiding. If we are not sure which path, if any, is uniquely right, we can at least be turned away from many that are wrong. Likewise differing philosophical schools frequently converge on important ideas. Not everything in philosophy is controversial. As to what is controversial, philosophy can at least help us to the best possible articulation and defense of the paths we do choose. For all its anxieties and uncertainties life is still livable, on most days at least, and philosophy is of great assistance. If I were forced to vote, I would have to choose Plato as the greatest philosopher of philosophy. I have some suspicion that the opinion is fairly generally accepted. If teaching counted as voting I believe Plato would be voted Most Likely to Scare Undergraduates (with Descartes running an admittedly close second). The fact that in two and a half millennia he has never been bettered would be something of a scandal if his dialogues were not the toweringly great works they are. They capture not only many of the problems in philosophy but the human drama which comes in attempting to address them. Many of the dialogues are relevant to this discussion but the one to which I want to call attention is the Euthyphro. [11] Euthyphro was once on the way to the courthouse. He was full of purpose and resolve. His mind was noble and his intentions were pure. He met a man called Socrates. Socrates was an ugly man, full of irritating questions. For a while they fell into conversation. Socrates pestered Euthyphro with questions until his reasons seemed to evaporate and he was left full of doubts. Euthyphro finally was unsure of which path to follow. Eventually he hastily excused himself and returned along the way he came. Away from the courthouse. Socrates may not be pretty. He may be irritating. But after two and a half millennia he and his questions still stand between us and the courthouse. And I see no way around him. David graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in philosophy in 2010. Until recently he has been a graduate student at the department of philosophy at Georgia State University, but is presently taking a break from formal studies to pursue other opportunities. His interests include philosophy, especially Kant, analytic philosophy and more recently philosophy of religion. He currently resides in Cincinnati. [1] https://scientiasalon.wordpress.com/2014/05/12/neil-degrasse-tyson-and-the-value-of-philosophy/ [2] This exchange was begun by David Albert’s review of A Universe From Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing at the New York Times Sunday Book Review: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/books/review/a-universe-from-nothing-by-lawrence-m-krauss.html?_r=0 Krauss then gave an eyebrow raising interview to The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/has-physics-made-philosophy-and-religion-obsolete/256203/ Krauss’s response captures well the kind of cycle of obviously sincere attack followed by less-than-obviously-sincere retraction that is discussed in the present article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-consolation-of-philos/ All of this ended with a détente of sorts, to be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tH3AnYyAI8 [3] Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006. [4] The Unbelievers. Dir. Gus Howlerda. Perf. Richard Dawkins and Laurence Krauss. Black Chalk Productions, 2013. Film. (This film is available on netfflix). [5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYYNY2oKVWU [6] These comments were made on the Nerdist podcast: http://nerdist.com/nerdist-podcast-neil-degrasse-tyson-returns-again/ The relevant portions are at about 21:00 [7] This thought experiment was first used by Peter Singer here: http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/1972—-.htm See also http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/199704–.htm [8] The relevant insight concerns Wittgenstein’s doctrine of family resemblances. This argument was developed by Wittgenstein in his Philosophical Investigations but for a brief treatment see the relevant sections of Wittgenstein’s SEP article: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/ [9] For a lucid discussion, see: http://rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/show/rs98-jerome-wakefield-on-psychiatric-diagnoses-science-or-ps.html For a much harsher view, see: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jul/14/illusions-of-psychiatry/ [10] Montainge, Michel de. The Complete Essays. Trans. M. A. Screech London: Penguin Books, 2003. P557 [11] The Euthyphro is available online for free: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1642/1642-h/1642-h.htm Share this Electric content! Categories: Essay Tagged as: Metaphilosophy, Value This Week’s Special: Judith Jarvis Thomson’s “A Defense of Abortion” Vision is (probably) Informationally Encapsulated from Flavour (Part I) labnut says: “Philosophy, it would seem, has fallen on hard times” “ I would have to choose Plato as the greatest philosopher of philosophy” Read the Dialogues and you will see Plato spoke to the ordinary man. And that is the whole point of philosophy, to speak to the ordinary man of meaning, ethics, value and truth, so that he will have a compass to guide him through the storms of contending claims on his belief and behaviour. Look now at modern philosophy and you will see an arcane, incestouous academia speaking to academia in impenetrable jargon that no ordinary person could possibly understand. Plato would be horrified beyond belief. Today’s philosophy is a betrayal of Plato and to worship Plato smacks of insincerity. Modern philosophy has scored an own goal of historic proportions and it is little wonder that physicists are so disdainful. Philosophy has jargoned itself into irrelevance. David Ottlinger (@DavidOttlinger) says: Labnut, I’m surprised at the strength of your view here. I am afraid I am forced to differ with you. Plato most definitely did not speak to “the common man” in so far this has any meaning in the classical world. Socrates, as Plato’s principle mouth-piece, was instinctively quite aristocratic and he addressed himself to fellow aristocrats (also in the classical sense of the word). Indeed we get the contemptuous term “hoi paloi”, literally “the many”, from Plato. Socrates was contemptuous of the idea that “the many” would have a respectable opinion on a philosophical question. Also both Plato’s philosophy and other ancient philosophies were as dense and technical as modern philosophy so it doesnt strike me that there is now a strongly different conception of philosophy in that way. As to the idea that contemporary philosophy is “an arcane, incestouous academia speaking to academia in impenetrable jargon that no ordinary person could possibly understand”, I think that is remarkably unfair. Of course philosophy uses technical terms and close argument which will be difficult for the ordinary reader. But so does every other academic discipline. Why should philosophy, alone among academic disciplines, be different? Also I think most readers would find even much academic philosophy pretty readable. Authors like Peter Singer, Tim Scanlon, Sharon Street, Susan Wolf, Harry Frankfurt and many others philosophize without too many technical terms and in ways that speak directly to how we act and what we value. Even further, authors like Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Michael Sandel, Paul and Patricia Churchland and others have written well praised books of popular philosophy aimed directly at non-specialist readers. The Routlege Guidebook series offers an introduction to essentially every area of contemporary philosophy and every major historical figure. Taking all this together I find it very difficult to accept that philosophy is speaking only to itself. It is rather that no one is listening. The fact that philosophy has altered public discourse so little is not because philosophy has little to offer, but that the public has little interest in taking what it does. FWIW, I don’t “worship” Plato. “I’m surprised at the strength of your view here” Being provocative is sometimes the best way of getting the attention of philosophers comfortably ensconced in ivory towers. “It is rather that no one is listening.” With that simple sentence you have admitted complete failure. If no-one bought the cars at the company where I spent my corporate career should I complain “that the public has little interest in taking what it does“? Or should I perhaps own my actions, accept responsibility and strive to connect with my customers, and maybe even speak their language? No, of course not, but you understand what I mean with my purposely attention grabbing phrase. “the public has little interest in taking what it does.[philosophy]” If my company insisted on making complex six wheeler cars our public would also have little interest. I would not dare appear in our boardroom with such a weak excuse. “and he addressed himself to fellow aristocrats” Yes indeed, and you have thereby admitted my case. Translated to today’s society that would mean speaking to the fellow citizenry. The working class then had no leisure time because they were working in the fields to fund the leisure time of the nobility. That situation has changed and consequently the audience is so much wider. Note also that he was not addressing himself to fellow philosophers. “Why should philosophy, alone among academic disciplines, be different?” That is the whole point of my argument. What is so special about philosophy is that its audience is/should be the populace. The other academic disciplines do not have the public as their primary audience. For example, the work of science cascades down into the world of technology and they produce the objects enjoyed by the public. Philosophy is unique in that the public are(or at least should be) their primary audience. There is no intermediate audience. And this explains the great irritation of some scientists who think you are in effect talking to the wrong people since you offer so little of value to them.. Philosophobia, continued As a manager I was urged to get out of my office and to wander around the workforce. Hewlett-Packard called this practice – Management By Wandering Around. Our management team was sent to work in the dealerships for three months at a time. This obsessive, outward looking focus forced us to interact with our clients, speak their language and understand, indeed feel their experiences. We got our hands dirty and felt the brunt of our customer’s pain. Pope Francis has been spelling out a similar message to his clergy. “With respect to the church, Francis has exhorted priests to be “shepherds living with the smell of the sheep” and to avoid setting themselves apart from the laity.” If we, as a company, wanted to retain our relevance, we had to be like “shepherds living with the smell of the sheep”. The ancient philosophers did this when they went to speak in the agora. And so I think it is time that today’s philosophers discovered the smell of the sheep. Or you can contentedly tinker in tenured isolation. But then stop complaining. “Also I think most readers would find even much academic philosophy pretty readable” Ahem… I really doubt that. I struggle with most of it and I am pretty representative. But first they must navigate an academic obstacle course and find their way through insanely expensive paywalls! First off, I don’t know how to “translate” Plato’s views into our situation exactly but I am pretty confident that he would not go along with our broadly representative democracy, rather he would try to reinforce an elite which he would feel could rule with wisdom. Look, I think academia should take responsibility for its own role in the rift between philosophy and the public, but no more. At some point the public has to take responsibility for its own willful ignorance. We have a culture of intellectual arrogance and laziness reflected in the comments of people like Dawkins, Tyson and Krauss. As I noted above, and you seemed to ignore, philosophers have gone to a good deal of trouble to give philosophy away. But there is only so much you can do if the public is sitting humming with its fingers in its ears. There’s an expression that covers this, to do with horses and water. You say you argued that philosophy ought to have the public as its primary audience. As far as I can see, you have only asserted it. At any rate it strikes me as quite untrue. Again philosophy is like any other discipline. Philosophers should be concerned with developing the best philosophy possible. Inevitably this will involve close argument and a degree of obscurity which excludes many readers but without which you could not have the kind of rigor and specificity academic inquiries ordinarily seek. Only once this kind of rigor has been cultivated should philosophers try to simplify and communicate their results to a general audience. A lot of people who ant to argue that philosophy has no value because it does not influence public discourse. I think this is the weakest argument against philosophy on offer. You just can’t ignore something then argue it not valuable because you ignored it. PeterJ says: I really liked this article and agreed with most of it. Please bear this in mind. These comments are not aimed at you in particular but at a mind-set. Unfortunately you’ve hit on a topic about which I feel very strongly. It may have led me to write too much and too generally. In regards to your two examples of philosophobia, it seems blatantly obvious to me that Dawkins and Tyson are blithering idiots. If this doesn’t seem obvious to almost everybody working in philosopher then philosophy really does have a problem. I see no point in discussing them. I liked the way you disposed of philosophobia, which I would call stupidity, without disposing of the complaints that it continually makes, many of which, if they are targeted at the tradition of academic philosophy that takes Plato as its origin, are easy to justify. In your defence of philosophy, however, what comes across strongly and counter-productively is an intense pessimism, a lack of excitement and no hope of progress. You yourself say, and feel able to do so to a professional audience, “Philosophy never does solve anything.” This leaves you bereft any decent defence against philosophobics. It is fortunate for philosophy, therefore, that many people would strongly disagree with this pessimistic assessment. You would be unable to back it up with a proof, and I like to think that I could formally prove the opposite result. I say this just to undermine the idea that you are speaking about the whole of philosophy. You are not speaking about one entire tradition. “Likewise, and perhaps worse, no philosophical question (or at least none of any significant scope) is ever quite resolved.” So it can seem. Kant’s ‘arena for mock fights’ and all that. Luckily this statement is unrigorous. It needs the proviso ‘in our university philosophy’. This is, of course, exactly the sort of philosophy that is the target for philosophobics. They never know enough about philosophy to grasp that there is more to philosophy than this, for if they did then they would not feel able to be so critical. “But for all this unfortunate mess there is no escape.” This is an opinion and in mine it is point blank wrong. Vast numbers of philosophers have escaped and even explained at length how to do so, including, in his muddled way, this commenter. It is not even complicated. It is just mind-bending. “Philosophical problems arise as we organize our lives and knock us off the path of common sense.” It seems to me that philosophy would be necessary for the very existence of common sense and is best served by using it. Dawkin’s idea that a wysiwyg view of the world is ‘common-sense’ is profoundly idiotic. Our common-sense tells us that he is not using his. “This explains why Tyson and more implicitly Dawkins tend to see philosophy and science as being in direct competition.” This phenomenon might best be explained by assuming that they are just two guys at the bar arguing nonsensically about things they do not understand. They are a disgrace to academia in my opinion, blatantly and very publicly betraying its standards, and it makes one wonder about the level of reasoning in the rest of science these days. “The idea that after millennia the best minds have radically diverging thoughts about how to organize a life is humbling and unsettling.” I’ll say. It’s a terrible idea. My literature survey reveals that the best minds, when they operate free from preconceptions, have radically converging thoughts on this and everything else. Indeed, the degree of convergence is remarkable. “In one sense the philosophobic accusations are just.” Not if they are aimed at the whole of philosophy, rather than the little bit the accusers know a little bit about. “Philosophy never succeeds in ridding us of deep uncertainties. Every person at some point or another has to confront this fact.” Do they? Are you sure? What if I refuse? “If I were forced to vote, I would have to choose Plato as the greatest philosopher of philosophy.” Plato is admirable in many ways and must be judged by the standards of his time, but what did he achieve as a philosopher? What problems did he solve? He started a long tradition of thought and would by now be a global hero if this had been developed and become successful over time, but two millennia later it is having to fight off charges of uselessness and even obstructiveness. It seems clear that the only effective solution for philosophobia would be to show that philosophy solves problems. That it does has been shown, demonstrated, proved and explained many times, and no counterproof has been discovered. If our own philosophy struggles to defend itself from the criticisms of the phobics then this would not be a problem for the whole of philosophy. Philosophobics will never have any conception of the whole of philosophy, as Dawkins and Tyson continue to demonstrate very well. The trouble is that many philosophers seem to have little conception of it either, so cannot defend themselves. Maybe the need for an effective defence will lead more people away from Plato to study Nagarjuna, who would get my vote, and whose philosophy is invulnerable to charges of inconclusiveness. I really liked the article because it highlights all these issues, and for this perhaps we should thank the philosophobics. . astrodreamer says: Deeply disturbing article. Poland is in Europe, period. The man with the expensive shoes should remove them before jumping into the pond — it’s really hard to swim wearing shoes. Robin Herbert says: He may be irritating. But after two and a half millennia he and his questions still stand between us and the courthouse. And I see no way around him. Socrates conclusion is explicitly that holiness (osion) cannot be an identity (tautos) with ‘god-beloved’ (theophilis), but the concession he earlier extracted from Euthyphro was not that it was the same, or an identity or synonym, but that it was a definition (horizo) which is a different concept, and so nothing Euthyphro has said has implied that it should be the same. It is not really clear what Socrates is seeking because he is asking for the “essence” of holiness and it is not clear what sort of answer would give someone the “essence” of anything. Also, his reasoning, although valid, is not sound in that he is equivocating over the “because” concept – when we say “John is a bachelor because he is not married” we do not mean quite the same as “John is a bachelor because he loves his freedom”. Here is my take https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OIdz5EfK02qKGSif92ZaBnlCSjYsKkcWWqnLcGtyto4/pub davidlduffy says: Hi David. I’m not sure why you spend so much time on Dawkins, Krauss and Tyson, in that they represent only a relatively small constituency (as it were). I would think most people are interested in philosophical concepts at the “lived” level: justice, free will, ethics, the good life, law, political philosophy etc. The question is whether philosophy qua professional philosophy makes novel contributions at that level. Singer, one of your exemplars, has undoubtedly made a significant difference to the societal conversation (as Russell did in his day) but not so much as an academic I would suggest. Rawls and perhaps Novick are similarly important, but again the strength of their central arguments can hardly be described as universally accepted by philosophers. PeterJ’s contention that there is strong convergence in beliefs of professional philosophers doesn’t seem true of their attitudes to ethical issues. So then the question is whether the philosophical thinking performed everyday by judges, politicians, ethics committees (where as many have pointed out, the professional ethicist usually comes from a background in religion rather than “secular” philosophy), committees standardizing medical diagnoses, neuroscientists studying consciousness, government bureaucrats or professional bodies setting up codes of ethical practice, and so on, is in any way inferior to that done by academic philosophers. Philip Thrift says: For scientists, the value of philosophy is perhaps better appreciated by those of us having a Pragmatist’s view of ‘truth’, as opposed to a Platonist’s or Positivist’s/Scientismist’s view (cf. Consequences of Pragmatism by Richard Rorty): Philosophy is the foundry of vocabularies (used by all other endeavors). Philosophy (from Kant to Kripke) is (at least) appreciated by computer scientists, programming language theorists in particular. There appears to be a tendency among the anti-philosophy to just make up stuff about what philosophers believe, in the sure and certain knowledge that their audience have no better knowledge of the subject themselves and will not bother to check. Ernst Mayr, in “Darwin and the Evolutionary Theory in Biology” claims that Platonism dominated the thinking of the 17th, 18th and 19th century and that this was responsible for the late discovery of the theory of evolution. In particular he claims “The discontinuities between these “types” (ideas), it was believed, accounted for the frequency of gaps in Nature “. Naturally he does not give even one example of anybody saying anything even remotely like this, never mind support the contention that this idea was so prevalent as to have delayed the discovery of the theory of evolution. Mayr seems just to have made this up on the spot. Richard Dawkins dutifully repeats Mayr’s nonsense, apparently not familiar with the concept of, you know, checking. So of course they are going to think that philosophy is nonsense, just as I would think that science was nonsense if I only ever got my information about science from Deepak Chopra, Dean Radin, Michael Behe and Oprah Winfrey. DavidDuffy “PeterJ’s contention that there is strong convergence in beliefs of professional philosophers doesn’t seem true of their attitudes to “ethical issues.” A misunderstanding. I did not suggest that there is any convergence among professionals but among philosophers in general. I was specifically not thinking of the profession. As it happens, however, there is a complete convergence among all philosophers on the central factual issue, which is the failure of all partial metaphysical theories. On this there is virtually a global agreement. The divergence begins when it comes to explaining the reason for this failure. Either it means that philosophy is useless and the world is incomprehensible (Priest, Routley, Melhuish, McGinn, Chalmers, Kant, Russell, etc etc) or that there is demonstrable global solution for its problems that can be understood, involving the abandonment of these failed theories. I would take the latter view, while the profession as a whole takes the former. The former view is a insurmountable barrier to progress, as history clearly shows. It is unnecessary. For me philosophy would be far more important that it is made out to be by the profession, and certainly more important than physics. I liked Labnut’s analogy of the car manufacturer. It also seems to me that the profession is not business-like in its marketing or in its problem-solving role. The solution might be ‘Reading by Walking About’, since a restricted reading list seems to be a partial cause. For the generation of philosophers just completing their post-grad courses the opportunity to make a mark in philosophy may never have been greater, There seems to be a general recognition that we cannot go on like this and are in need of new approaches and ideas. Articles like this one are arrows shot at an already badly wounded animal. Philosophy is an academic discipline. It is not like a company or a church. It’s main task is to develop thought in the most rigorous way possible. Only then do you try to communicate it to the public. PeterJ, I picked Tyson and Dawkins not because I thought their arguments were particularly good (I don’t), but because they strike me as representing a kind of drift of thought which is very popular right now. You say my contention that “Philosophy never solves anything” leaves me “bereft any decent defense against philosophobics”But I argued that while philosophy never solves anything in the sense of giving us single, exclusive, relatively certain answers, it can help us to better answers to some of life’s most pressing questions. Philosophy gives us uncertain answers but such answers are the best we have. ” I say this just to undermine the idea that you are speaking about the whole of philosophy. You are not speaking about one entire tradition.” I am talking about the entire tradition. What philosophy do you take me to be leaving out? “Vast numbers of philosophers have escaped and even explained at length how to [escape philosophical muddles]” Who do you have in mind? How do they explain it? “My literature survey reveals that the best minds, when they operate free from preconceptions, have radically converging thoughts on this and everything else. Indeed, the degree of convergence is remarkable.” I must say this is not at all my experience of philosophy. Act utilitarians have radically different ideas about our beholdenness to the global poor than virtue ethicists. Kantians have a very different perspective on medical ethics than utilitarians. And so on. ““[Me] Philosophy never succeeds in ridding us of deep uncertainties. Every person at some point or another has to confront this fact. [You] Do they? Are you sure? What if I refuse?” Yes they do. Yes I am sure. If you refuse you are failing to acknowledge a fundamental fact of life which I believe can only lead you astray. “Plato is admirable in many ways and must be judged by the standards of his time, but what did he achieve as a philosopher?” Plato set the agenda for philosophy and defined its major tasks in ways which not only defined philosophy for the ancient world but, to a breathtaking extent, our own world. This is the truth Alfred North Whitehead’s calculated overstatement that “All philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato.” Astrodreamer, ” Deeply disturbing article. Poland is in Europe, period. The man with the expensive shoes should remove them before jumping into the pond — it’s really hard to swim wearing shoes.” So, are you going to sell all your surplus belongings and give them to the global poor? Robin Herbert, I am not addressing the Euthyphro dilemma here. In the context of the essay, “going around Socrates” means avoiding doing philosophy. That is what is impossible as you demonstrate well by doing some philosophy. davidduffy, See response to PeterJ re:Tyson and Dawkins. Yep. Moral philosophy gives us much more defensible answers. I find very few people who study ethics do not have the way they view their lives changed by it. DO: So, are you going to sell all your surplus belongings and give them to the global poor? If your question is not a non sequitur the sequence is highly contrived. I pointed to two places where your essay takes for granted the very thing you seem to deny, that philosophers compulsively contradict common sense. ejwinner says: I sympathize with both labnut and David in their debate. Since David himself presents what appeals in his position, I’ll note the origins of my sympathies for labnut’s charge. The historical fact is that philosophy colluded in its own marginalization. In the 19th century many believed that one true picture of reality – from physics to metaphysics – would at last reveal itself. Being true, it would no longer need argumentation, only clarification. By the 20th century, many – including many philosophers of certain schools – came to believe that the only means of revealing this truth would be through science. Logical Positivism was essentially a philosophobic philosophy, and attempted to defend itself within a scientistic worldview by insisting on the need for clarification through logical analysis. But the language of science is largely mathematics – buttressed by and explained in sophisticated common language requiring no better analysis than that provided by an educated journal editor. The Logical Positivists had dug a niche for themselves that most scientists didn’t see as necessary. However, Positivists’ own ‘philosophobia’ revealed itself in their dismissal of any philosophizing concerning matters not scientific – ethics, politics, aesthetics, etc. Their work not only lost relevance to the larger community, but the Positivists welcomed this. By the 1980s, when professionals in other fields of the humanities were arguing strenuously for the social importance of their studies, many Analytic inheritors of Positivism were wittily emptying what was left of the Positivist project of any content; eg., ‘philosophy of mind? why bother when AI and neurosciences can do better?’ – the founding premise of Cognitive Science. (We all know that philosophers in the Continental tradition dug their own niche of inscrutable esotericism; but we’re discussing the American situation.) The question of whether Poland is in Europe seems to be uncontroversial. How about the question of whether the West Bank lies under Israeli or Palestinian dominion? The question is political, but politics always evokes the philosophical (and for Jerusalem, religious) views embedded in collective interests. One doesn’t need to be a professional to philosophize. I suggest philosophizing cannot be avoided. Whenever we think reflectively, philosophy appears. Hi David , First tine I read your article I did it on the fly I.have now had time to read the article at leisure and understand your point better. I think that it an excellent point and well put. But I wonder if it means that we should expect better or more of our philosophers. Philosophy has no accomplishments of its own. It’s place is always in the margins and footnotes of other endeavors. (Just one example: the usefulness of type theory — it’s origin being in philosophy — in programming language theory and practice and in mathematics and mathematical physics.) But as a Derridean might note, this does not imply philosophy’s insignificance, but the opposite. PeteJ says: David – Thanks for your reply. -“You say my contention that “Philosophy never solves anything” leaves me “bereft any decent defense against philosophobics” But I argued that while philosophy never solves anything in the sense of giving us single, exclusive, relatively certain answers, it can help us to better answers to some of life’s most pressing questions. Philosophy gives us uncertain answers but such answers are the best we have.” In this case you are bereft of any decent defence. You state that philosophy (as you see it) gives us no conclusive answers. My criticism of your position would be identical to those of the philosophobics. Why fight for a discipline that produces no results? -“I am talking about the entire tradition. What philosophy do you take me to be leaving out?” The terms ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ are very clumsy but they’ll do here. You’re leaving out one of them. You’re accusing the former of of having the same faults as the latter – in which case the distinction we usually make between them would be unnecessary. If It was true that your remarks would apply to all of philosophy then I’d be an avid philosophobic. But they do not. They omit consideration of one entire tradition. -“Vast numbers of philosophers have escaped and even explained at length how to [escape philosophical muddles]” I had in mind the philosophy of nondualism and its approximations, thus all philosophers who endorse or explore it. C.S Peirce, Bradley, the Buddha, Spencer Brown, Radhakrishnan, Lao Tsu, Eckhart, de Cusa, Schrodinger, Nagarjuna et al, the list is vast. They would explain the lack of progress in large parts of philosophy by reference to its refusal to take any notice of Kant, who saw the undecidabaility of all selective theories of the world as a whole, and to its continuing insistence that one of these failed theories must be true despite the absurdity of all of them as established by philosophers the world over. . I recently posted the statement ‘All positive metaphysical positions are logically absurd” on dailynous and the comment received a number of likes and no objections. So, it’s job done. All we need do is abandon them. If we do not do this then we will be stuck in a mock fight forever. If we do it then our view comes into line with the other tradition of philosophy and we have solved the problem. You are criticising those who refuse to reject these positions, but this is not all philosophers. I am agreeing with your criticism but pointing out that it is local to ‘western’ thinking and thus not a criticism of philosophy as a whole but only a certain approach to it. -“I must say this is not at all my experience of philosophy. Act utilitarians have radically different ideas about our beholdenness to the global poor than virtue ethicists. Kantians have a very different perspective on medical ethics than utilitarians. And so on.” If you read ten philosophers in the tradition you do not usually study you’ll find a remarkable convergence on every topic. This convergence is inevitable once all positive/selective theories are rejected. There is then only one way forward. Well, I’d agree that in the end discursive philosophy is an output of the intellect and as such unable to take us all the way to truth and certain knowledge, but it is at least possible to have a theory that works. Certainly metaphysics can and has been solved at a theoretical level. That this is not well known is difficult to explain. -“Plato set the agenda for philosophy and defined its major tasks in ways which not only defined philosophy for the ancient world but, to a breathtaking extent, our own world. This is the truth Alfred North Whitehead’s calculated overstatement that “All philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato.” Yes, Plato helped set the agenda for academia. But the only overstatement here would be the one you make, which is to say that the tradition that arose from Plato is the whole of philosophy. This is a tradition that openly and vociferously rejects the other tradition, so how can it be the whole of philosophy? . A much more vigorous response to the philosophobics becomes possible if we take into account the whole of philosophy, while if we do not do so then their objections can never be effectively met. You seem to agree that they cannot be met but make excuses for philosophy. I see no need for excuses. Yours is the majority view in the profession, for sure, but this is the view that cannot defend itself against its critics. It is not a necessary view but a point-blank denial of the facts, and as we see it leads to stagnation, despair and philosophobia, “Philosophy is an academic discipline. It is not like a company or a church.” I think you are being over literal and missing the point of my analogy. So let me explain. A large motor company, like VW(where I worked), is an incredibly complex place and I think the depth of its complexity easily rivals that of philosophy. We make engineering drawings. These complex documents, that encapsulate a deep design process, are the centre of our lives and no car would be possible without them. A surprising number of people in our company thought this was the point of our existence. That was why we had to smell the sheep, to be reminded that there were real customers and that we had to supply real products that met their needs, in a hyper-competitive marketplace. In the same way philosophy ‘makes’ academic papers and they correspondingly encapsulate a deep thought process. And just as in my company, they are the centre of your lives. But it doesn’t end there. Just as in my company, you are losing sight of what is the real product and who the real customers are. Your primary products are the classes in philosophy that you give to undergraduates. Your primary customers are undergraduate students. And you are also in a hyper-competitive marketplace, competing for the attention of students. So how well are you doing in this marketplace?(All numbers from the Humanities Indicators web site). 1. Degrees in philosophy as % of all degrees – 5.2% (not at all good) 2. Trend, 2.5% in 1987 to 5.2% in 2009 (demand has doubled, that is an encouraging trend) 3. College courses most commonly taken for Bachelor’s degrees: #1. Freshman composition – 85% #2. Psychology, general – 71% #13. Intro to philosophy – 28% It can be seen that philosophy is a distant also ran, trailing near the bottom in the marketplace although it must be said the situation has improved substantially. As a motor executive I would be dismayed by this performance. Need it be this way? Michael Puett, at Harvard, has made Classical Chinese Ethical and Political Theory the third most popular course at his university(http://theatln.tc/LhddBD). He did this by making the course relevant to the ethical concerns of today(He smelled the sheep). Eric Schwitzgebel has a class called ‘Evil’ and it draws 200 to 500 students a time. He says ‘It’s a rewarding class to teach! I discuss philosophical traditions about evil and “human nature”, literature on racial lynching and the Holocaust, contemporary empirical moral psychology, and theodicy‘. He also has a good sense of smell! And so it need not be this way as Puett and Schwitzgebel are showing. These undergraduates will go out into the world with their mode of thinking shaped by philosophy. That is(or should be) your real goal, making philosophy relevant to the way John Citizen thinks. If that can be done we have a reasonable hope of reshaping society. That is an awesome goal but my blunt opinion is you are failing to get anywhere near it because 1. academic papers are the primary focus of your attention. It is rather as if VW thought its primary task was to make engineering drawings. It needs to be done but is a means to another and important end. 2. the contents of your classes reflect the content of your academic work. This is alien to many students who fail to see its relevance. At VW no customer ever sees the engineering drawings even though they are essential to the product. 3. Just as VW translates its engineering drawings into attractive saleable products you too must translate your academic work into a form relevant to society. You may reply that your classes in undergraduate philosophy do just this and some of them are even well attended. In reply I will point to the widespread misgivings about philosophy which is articulated as philosophobia and shows in the low demand for classes in philosophy. The irritation of some scientists is also a reflection of this. Attributing philosophobia to your critics is is just as useful as VW blaming its customers for VW-phobia. I would say that the “product” of philosophy is nor the courses, rather it is some advance on human civilisation. The modern form of democracy is an example of a success in this area. I think there have been numerous other examples, but I won’t go into them here. Some of the common criticisms of philosophy are, I think, warranted: the pointless prolixity , the seeming focus on the argument to the detriment of any resolution to it are two that I can think of. I often think (mirroring Labnut’s business analogy) that we should project manage the outstanding problems of philosophy. First, state the problem/argument in as rigorous and concise a way as possible and to gain as wide acceptance as possible that this statement specifies the problem. Secondly, a proof of concept – is there a solution to the problem? What would it look like? Next, Mark off the parts of it where there is agreement. Then break up the project into tasks, making sure that there is an identifiable aim. Etc. My guess is that many.problems would evaporate in the first two stages. For anyone who missed it, Massimo Pigliucci did recently put up a concise and informative post for his soon to be published book on this very topic. (https://platofootnote.wordpress.com/2015/09/30/what-philosophers-think/). At the time David Ottlinger and I did have a bit of a chat given his upcoming post here. Massimo’s answer seems essentially to be that philosophers have indeed made progress given their wealth of various positions for various topics. With these well thought out “conceptual approaches” to choose from (rather than an unlimited supply!) apparently progress has indeed been made. I consider David Ottlinger’s position to be similar. As an “albatross hanging around our necks” we can attempt to do philosophy well, or not, but there simply will be no escaping associated questions. While I have no objection to either, I also believe that philosophy shall nevertheless achieve its own generally accepted understandings. Consider how long it has taken for civilized humanity to progress. As early as 11,000 years ago civilization is thought to have emerged in some capacity, or the earliest point at which we should expect various true specialists to begin emerging. Mathematics may have been occurring in the Minoan civilization about 4,000 years ago, where apparently four story palaces were built. Such people must have had various practical problems to figure out, though not yet modern theory from which to address them. Observe that 4,000 years divided by the 328 since Newton’s “Mathematical Principals of Natural Philosophy” nets us only 8.2%, and haven’t these final years been amazing? But given that scientific understandings do happen to be so recent, isn’t it possible that accepted philosophical understandings, for whatever the reason, are still to come? Though some may bring disrespectful accusations against the philosophy community, I would hope for us to continue searching rather than gratuitously argue “Philosophical questions have no true answers to them anyway.” If past conventions haven’t worked out, why not try some new ones? It seems to me that the surest way to fail at something, would be to decide that success isn’t possible. This is a trap that the philosophy community simply must not breach! David – To clear up a misunderstanding that I belatedly noticed – when I suggested there was no need to talk about Tyson and Dawkins this wasn’t a criticism. I meant that there would be no need (I feel) for us to talk about them any more than you already.have. Daniel Kaufman says: It is profoundly depressing to see people embracing the “business” model of the university and treating education as a “product.” It is precisely this attitude that has caused the university tremendous harm and drastically reduced the quality of education we provide. Indeed, more than anything else it has served to erode my love of teaching, to the point at which I am looking forward to retirement. OK, so a university is not a business, but they account for a certain portion of any nation’s economic resources so we should expect them to be effective. When Princeton University devoted an entire department for 25 years to find out that consciousness does not affect the clipped output of a white noise generator, well, perhaps it seemed to be a good idea at the time. But I don’t think I am implying that universities should adopt a business model when I say that this might not have been the wisest use of resources. Of course Princeton don’t have PEAR any more, now they have Peter Singer. Don’t get me wrong, I like his one good idea. I think it is an excellent idea to encourage people to donate as much as they can to provably effective charity. It is just that anyone without the intelligence to have worked that out for themselves already probably still won’t get it. So where is the gain? But here is the thing – do we cancel our unnecessary luxury – the holiday in Fiji, and instead send the money to Fiji to feed and provide medicine to the people who can’t get any work because no one is taking holidays in Fiji any more? Except we don’t have that money because other people cancelled the unnecessary luxuries by which we made that money. OK, that is a simplification but I think that it does illustrate the problem. So, taking my suggested approach, we get the experts together and we specify the problem properly, so that we are agreed on exactly what we are addressing. We don’t spend the next few decades doing this, we do it in, say, three months. Then we get all parties together and, having a coherent idea of they they are addressing, do a proof of concept. Is there something to be done or will the poor be with us always? Then they get to work putting together a specific proposal, taking into account practical, political and economic realities and exploring all the consequences, intended and unintended. Properly managed, this might take – maybe – a year or two, given that much of the detailed work has already been done. And then we will have, not just endless exploring of an idea, but an answer that most people agree on. Dan-K “It is profoundly depressing to see people embracing the “business” model of the university” I am not suggesting we embrace a “business model” of the university. I happen to think that is an especially iniquitous idea pioneered by American universities and is yet another peculiar part of the American landscape. However business language can help to clarify an issue, seeing it in a new way and that was my intent. You should also bear in mind that people like myself are steeped in business language and so it is natural for us to bring it to bear on problems. I think also that it could be useful for you to consider the problem from that aspect. This illustrates a general point, the need for a kind of mental agility that examines a problem from many aspects. De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats is a well known means of promoting this. Another example is my advocacy of a cascading model for ethical problems. Instead of arguing that one ethical system should apply I argue that all four well known ethical systems(deontology, virtue, utility & rights/justice) be applied in turn to a given ethical problem. This reveals all contours of the problem so that a fully informed decision can be made. Perhaps, after De Bono, we could that approach the Four Ethical Hats 🙂 I cannot take credit for this idea. It was the approach put forward by two Jesuit philosophers who were on a lecture tour of our many parishes. They were also smelling the sheep. It is a rounded, all things considered, approach that works for most problems in life. it requires mental flexibility, agility and most importantly, a conscious abandonment of biases, prejudices and a fixed point of view. Daniel Kaufman, I agree that labnut carried his business analogy too far for comfort. But I think that what he’s really trying to say is that philosophy needs to reach beyond academic concerns, which is probably the case. When we think of philosophers who had major impact on the larger culture, we do not think of logicians or analysts, but of William James, John Dewey, Sartre, Heidegger or the later Russell (the Russell who claimed he was no longer doing philosophy!) – Philosophers capable of addressing the broad issues of lived experience, rather than narrow questions of sentence construction. The problems of sentence construction are important, but philosophy cannot be reduced to this and all else delivered to science or politics; otherwise people will not see the need for those devoted to it – they will continue to philosophize, of course, but they will do so believing that they are merely perceiving ‘the truth,’ without reflection (which is nonsense). Don’t miss the larger picture of the university system – enormous amounts of money are wasted on popular programs that have little use – especially in sports, and in the ‘soft’ sciences with little hope of practical result (like biocriminology). At one college I taught at, much money went into sports, successfully attracting many students on the promise that they could begin their professional careers there, even though the college had produced precisely 0 professional players. The economic and political structure of the university is far too complex to get into here. Nonetheless, allow that many professors believe in what they do, and all will do what they must to survive in that structure. To all those who believe philosophy has produced ‘results’ or ‘solutions’ (or can or must): That’s delusion, fostered in the 18th century, when it was hoped that philosophy could replace theology. It can’t; the best philosophy doesn’t try. Philosophy’s never about resolutions (in practice dependent on choices needing action within given contingencies) – it’s about options in framing those choices and their consequences; thus not only permits but makes possible variety (while discovering its limits). It’s the questions, not the answers That’s delusion, fostered in the 18th century, when it was hoped that philosophy could replace theology. It can’t; the best philosophy doesn’t try. Philosophy’s never about resolutions (in practice dependent on choices needing action within given contingencies) – it’s about options in framing those choices and their consequences; thus not only permits but makes possible variety (while discovering its limits). It’s the questions, not the answers. PeteJ, Well, you have set off more rabbits than I can hunt but I’ll say a little. I am disappointed that you did not engage my contention that while philosophy does not provide definitive and single solutions, it does provided tentative solutions and bounded disagreement. You ask “Why fight for a discipline that produces no results?” I have tried to argue why. If you grant my argument, you are like a man on a sinking ship who declares his shaky life raft as “bereft of any decent chance of floating”.and confidently drowns. Granting my argument you can admit our case is miserable. Or you can reject my argument, but you would have to say why. On Eastern philosophy I cannot say very much for want of knowledge. But I must say I am highly dubious of your contention that there is some overwhelming consensus in that tradition. As I understand it, Hindus, Confucians, Buddhists of various stripes and others all have deep and abiding disagreements. I have to admit to being puzzled when someone produces a list including C.S. Peirce and the Buddha to argue for agreement in philosophy. You seem to be arguing that there is a broad consensus in favor of monism (which is what I assume you meant by “nondualism”). This is not true. Many people are dualists and anyway there are many different ways to be a monist. Also this concerns only one topic in philosophy (philosophy of mind) so I don’t see what the point of granting it would be. On metaphysics, history may remember the day a centuries long debate was ended on a Daily Nous comment thread but I doubt it. It is easy to say “metaphysics is bunk” but hard to live without saying anything metaphysical. Problems, like the specific ones I mentioned, keep arising and becomes necessary to address questions concerning very basic features of reality like what makes two objects count as members of the same kind. So metaphysics persists. I am sharing in Dan’s depression. There is just so much wrong in the criteria for success you offer. I don’t necessarily want huge numbers of philosophy majors or even necessarily for everyone to take a philosophy class (though I’m closer to wanting that). And at any rate I could imagine having all of that and only teaching complete junk. So these are quite out as criteria for success. In general you assume that philosophers are not doing anything to tailor their classes to the world around them or working to communicate their subject. As someone who has attended regular teaching meetings, I can assure you this is far from the truth. I was most struck by this sentence “You may reply that your classes in undergraduate philosophy do just this and some of them are even well attended. In reply I will point to the widespread misgivings about philosophy which is articulated as philosophobia and shows in the low demand for classes in philosophy. ” Any failure must be the fault of philosophy. Philosophobes bear no responsibility for their puerile, anti-intellectual screeds. Of course I am quite used to this kind of reaction. I used to get it from my students. If they didn’t understand something, I didn’t teach it right. You have to explain to them that they have to take an active role in their own education. Recieving the information and spiting it back will not suffice. The same is true for public intellectuals who behave, for all the world, like they just graduated high school. Yes philosophy should work harder to communicate, but philosophobes can be held responsible for their antics which resemble rowdy kids disrupting the classroom because they dont want to be there. Glad you made it! On the whole I am not optimistic about a “philosophical revolution”. Philosophical arguments are largely conceptual and there is no evidence to appeal to to decide contended matters. I think the diversity is just inherent in the kinds of arguments it deals with. In the case of Poland, I took it to be obvious that Europe implied Western Europe. As to the drowning child, it is an argument about whether we are obliged to help the global poor not whether it is easier to swim with or without shoes. A child is drowning right now and you are not saving it. Are you justified in neglecting this? Then how is the man by the pond not permitted to just keep walking? What a fascinating conversation. I probably have more time than you so don’t feel obliged to trade blow for blow. Our difference of opinion is exactly that between two entirely different traditions of philosophy so we are unlikely to sort it out here. –“…disappointed that you did not engage my contention that while philosophy does not provide definitive and single solutions, it does provided tentative solutions and bounded disagreement.” My proposition here is that philosophy solves problems perfectly well, with nothing tentative about it, I understand that you mean to defend philosophy, but for me you are selling it down the river. Much of what you say in the article seemed spot on but in the end it can be no more than a good attempt to defend an indefensible position. If philosophical analysis can do no better than tentative solutions then philosophobia becomes justifiable. —“”You ask “Why fight for a discipline that produces no results?” I have tried to argue why. If you grant my argument, you are like a man on a sinking ship who declares his shaky life raft as “bereft of any decent chance of floating”.and confidently drowns. Granting my argument you can admit our case is miserable. Or you can reject my argument, but you would have to say why.” I do not quite see what you mean here. You have said repeatedly that the discipline produces no results. I’m, proposing that it does produce results. I’m suggesting that it’s not worth trying to defend a philosophy that does not produce results. It is not difficult to verify that mysticism is the same the world over, or at least once one has got the hang of its metaphysics. It converges on a neutral metaphysical position, the idea that the universe is a unity. Not monism. It is better called ‘advaita’, or ‘not-dualism’, phrases that avoid implying monism. This is too big a topic for a comment’s section, but given time I think I could convince you that Peirce and the Buddha shared the same metaphysical view, and also Plotinus and Lao Tsu. It would be the ‘perennial philosophy’, so the list is a long one. This can defend itself more vigorously than the one you defend. You don’t have to believe this, but I would not say it without being able to walk the walk. —“”On metaphysics, history may remember the day a centuries long debate was ended on a Daily Nous comment thread but I doubt it.” Ha. Me too. But it could happen for an individual. I know you don’t believe this, of course not, but your argument is merely that you are ‘dubious’, despite not knowing anything about the philosophy I am describing. I’m happy to continue or leave it here David, as you wish. My complaints are not addressed at the article but at the assumption made by your school of philosophy and the philosophobics alike, namely that vast areas of philosophy do not exist. Just some stray remarks, as the conversation is far too involved for me to really engage at this point. 1. I find all of this arguing over “progress” very weird. When did this become the standard by which we determine whether something is worth pursuing? What progress is there in art history? English Literature? Antiquities and Classics? Communications? Is the suggestion supposed to be that we not educate people in these areas, because they don’t make “progress,” in the manner of the physical sciences? The thought is unserious at best. 2. David is completely wrong when he says that philosophy begins when we part ways with common sense. In fact, this is when philosophy ends and metaphysical speculation begins. A good dose of David Hume and Thomas Reid should cure him of this confusion. 3. I highly doubt that studying moral philosophy has made anyone a better person. I suspect however, that it may have made some people worse, by allowing them to sustain the illusion that they have some kind of systematic understanding of what it is to be ethical. (Peter Singer leaps to mind.) 4. We have far too many universities and far too many young people going to college as it is. The current attack on philosophy simply stems from the larger transformation of university education into job training for white collar jobs, one of the most ill-conceived developments in education, in the post-WW2 era. Most of what is being taught at the university has no business being there and belongs in community colleges and professional schools. We should be spending a lot more money on the latter and a lot less on the university. Let all those people obsessed with “progress” go get mechanical engineering degrees at a vo-tech and leave Swarthmore and Princeton alone to provide liberal arts degrees to the far fewer number of people who will still want them. 5. Philosophy, when it is at its best provides a razor sharp critical apparatus, and is a potent tool for theoretical dismantlement. See J.L. Austin’s take-down of Ayer’s empiricism, in Sense and Sensabilia, for a particularly good example of this. At its worst it represents a lame effort to ape the theorizing of scientists, and acquire “knowledge” about things that are not, in fact, objects of knowledge. 6. There is a basic rudeness involved in the demand, on the part of some, that philosophers justify themselves. My typical answer to such demands is to tell the person to piss off. Either that, or I turn around and begin demanding that they justify themselves and what they do to me. Given the company that Labnut suggested as a model, I think I see what needs to be done. I am happy to modify the student information software to transfer more students to philosophy classes when a statistical analysis is being done and then transfer them back out again afterwards. Thank you for your courtesy. I do think we have about reached bedrock. My last attempt will be to say that while I do not think philosophy produces results in the sense of narrowing options and offering better results. This is “result” enough to make the effort well worth while. On 1. I do think there is a prima facie force to the idea that if philosophy produces nothing, it should be abandoned. After all there is a cost to pursuing philosophy. Why put in your time and effort and get nothing out? Also I think other fields do progress in much the way philosophy does. The humanities are a family after all. I think we have more insight into Shakespeare today thanks to the work of people like Steven Booth, Maynard Mack and Barbara Everrett. Both Romantic and classicist condescensions have declined. In the twentieth century with the fall of character-centric criticism, we have more insight into the role of environment and society in the plays and how they inform the characters’ actions. There are still sentimentalist and anti-sentimentalist readings of Othello, but it is a bounded disagreement and both sides are getting more sophisticated all the time. History, I believe, advances in much the same way as well. There are still catastrophists and continuists about the fall of Rome. But both sides have improved due to new information (thank you anthropology) and new insights into texts (thank you documentary history). Again, bounded disagreement, increasing complexity and insight. (Im pretty far afield here, but I think its worth speculating even if I’m a bit out of my depth.) On 2. As I have said elsewhere, I think it is quite one thing to announce a common sense philosophy, another to deliver it. I have spent time with Hume and Reid (especially Hume) and Moore and Russell besides. Having read part III of the treatise and the Grey’s elegy argument, I am not sure what they are (who is?) but I am certain that common sense they are not. I relish Putnam’s quote that the “commonsense” philosophers of early analytic philosophy defended a sense-datum theory which was “so dotty on the face of it that no one likes to remember that this is the way analytic philosophy began.” (quoting from memory here, I think its in Why There Is no Ready Made World) On 4. I am genuinely uncertain here. You are the professional. Can the Universities take on an expanded role? If we want people to get technical education, should we try to use the institutions we have already set up? I’m sure I’m naive here, I stress I am genuinely asking questions here. On 5. I think this is very nearly true but I would not defend as austere a view as the later Wittgenstein. I think Sellars had a very pragmatic and reasonable attitude. Yes the critical “concept chopping” is the philosopher’s stock in trade but there are moments when saying something positive is both innocent and in fact very useful. Philosophy is usually useful critically but not always. I am not sure that anyone was asking you to justify yourself, but since you bring up the subject… Daniel Dennett, a prominent member of your profession, announces to the world at large, that what the “Average Joe” or “Everyday Folk” believe about free will is “preposterous” and that this has been shown “rigorously” (but leaves no hint of where such arguments are to be found).. Mr Dennett was rude, certainly, but if what he says is true then it needed to be said. If you fellows keep this sort of talk among yourselves, then fine, when it is announced to the world at large then – hey – I am an Average Joe, and have believed one or two preposterous things in my life, so I surely have an interest? So perhaps I am entitled to implore Mr Dennett not to deny me his treasure, to tell me what it is that he thinks I believe, why it is wrong and what I ought to be believing instead, to show me this rigorous argument. But his books are no use to me, he never seems to quite get to the nub of the thing. In fact many of the things he says do not appear to make sense. Certainly his books do not represent the “rigour” he speaks of. Am I then doomed to be preposterous? And yet, I studied logic at University under a very well-regarded mathematician, gained a distinction in the subject where most fail or barely gain a pass. Two years in a row I gained the highest marks of my year. Rigour is part of my daily job. I say, “Try me, show me the rigour”. Should I darkly suspect that he and his perhaps need to explain what they think it means to have a proposition demonstrated by an argument, then my question might indeed be rude, as was Mr Dennett’s accusation. I mean it only to be frank. Mr Dennett and his colleagues are perfectly entitled to tell me to “piss off”, but it was not me who started the conversation. Dan-K, “1. I find all of this arguing over “progress” very weird. When did this become the standard by which we determine whether something is worth pursuing? ” Agreed. But then you need to clearly articulate ‘the standard by which we determine whether something is worth pursuing‘. And your explanation must make sense to ordinary people like myself. The many confusing, contradictory narratives that come out of the mouths of philosophers are part of the problem. “3. I highly doubt that studying moral philosophy has made anyone a better person. ” Quite true. Being a better person is the result of a ‘desire’ to be a better person. Studying moral philosophy better equips people who already desire to be better people. Quite what inculcates the desire to be a better person in the first place is a whole other discussion. That is an important conversation we should be having but this is the wrong time/place. 4. … The current attack on philosophy simply stems from the larger transformation of university education into job training for white collar jobs I agree with your statement about transforming university education into job training. That was a wrong turn for American education. But I cannot see how that translated into an attack on philosophy. I can see that it may have drained resources and students away from the humanities into more vocation oriented fields but that need not result in philosophobia. In any case philosophy graduates have increased from 2.5% in 1987 to 5.2% in 2009, as percentage of all bachelor’s degrees(Humanities Indicators web site). I suggest that philosophobia is instead the result of several intersecting trends. 1. the incoherence of the narrative emerging from philosophy. By that I mean it is incoherent to people outside the field of philosophy. This is the basis of my earlier criticisms. 2. a societal trend towards a WYSIWYG conception of the world, all that exists is tangible, observable and measurable. By this standard the deep intellectual conversation of philosophy is ethereal and otherworldly, with no connection to the WYSIWYG world. This also forms the basis of my earlier criticisms. 3. the hubris of science. Its great success has led it to despise other endeavours, especially philosophy, since its incoherent narrative makes it such an easy target. 4. the sensitivity of science. The last 100 years have seen the emergence of barriers to science, something that it finds quite disconcerting because of the metaphysical implications. Science was supposed to render metaphysics obsolete but instead the barriers have brought it back to life. Science is now in the business of creating speculative hypotheses to cross the barriers to science but they still want to call it science. They have moved into the realm of philosophy but are not equipped to do philosophy. This has made them legitimate targets of criticism by philosophers. An interesting example was Krauss’ outraged reaction to David Albert’s criticism of his book, A Universe from Nothing. Science is, in effect, defensively saying ‘stay off my turf’, and then they are taking the fight to philosophy(offense is the best defence) and saying ‘in any case you guys talk gobbledygook and unlike us, you make no progress’. And then philosophy conspires to help science in their fight by continuing to talk gobbledygook and arguing the inarguable, that they, like science make progress. And so philosophy contrives to score an own goal while at the same time shooting itself in the foot, a considerable achievement. This is a tragedy. Science has given us great tools for betterment and huge potential for devastation. The path we choose is dictated solely by the quality of our thought. Philosophy is unique among academic disciplines for providing tools for better thought. But first philosophy must raise its gaze from its navel to the world around it. Labnut – For what it’s worth I’d agree with most of what you say. “Science was supposed to render metaphysics obsolete but instead the barriers have brought it back to life. Science is now in the business of creating speculative hypotheses to cross the barriers to science but they still want to call it science. They have moved into the realm of philosophy but are not equipped to do philosophy. This has made them legitimate targets of criticism by philosophers.” Right on brother. The idea that physics could replace metaphysics could surely only be held by someone who does not own a dictionary. I would highly recommend Paul Davies’ book ‘The Mind of God’, now quite old. Here is a physicist thinking honestly about where physics ends and metaphysics begins and writing an unusually good philosophy book as a result. Hi Daniel and ejwinner, The last thing I want to do is raise your defenses regarding my ideas, so hopefully it will help to describe where it is that I’m coming from. For whatever the reason, I did struggle with deep questions as a child — a desperate need to understand why it is that people behave as they do. The essential answer which I developed as a teenager remains with me to this day; that we’re ultimately selfish products of our environments. At university however I found that neither philosophy nor any basic behavioral science, had accepted and cultivated my position. (Yes economics had done so, where I received my degree, though this field was far too specialized to address my true concerns). Thus I chose to develop my theory in private. I will not insist that my ideas be termed “philosophy,” if this does displease you or others. Classifications are of little concern to me. But also consider this: Science has obviously brought humanity tremendous power over the past few centuries, though apparently with very little theoretical understanding of how to use it effective. And what might we expect of a creature which has quickly developed tremendous power, but without an associated understanding for its proper use? The exact kinds of horrors found in humanity today, I think. It was nearly two years ago that I decided my ideas were ready for the scrutiny of others, and thus began exploring what academia had been doing without me. I’ve found that philosophers ask the kinds of questions which pertain most to my ideas, though with a major difference. While I seek effective models of reality, as Newton did, perhaps philosophers do not, or even should not, as each of you have suggested? This won’t alter my own passion itself however. I believe that without accepted understandings of what we are, we shall continue to fail to understand how to effectively lead our lives, and structure our societies — a very dangerous proposition for a creature which has become this powerful, this quickly. I am going to need people exactly like yourselves to consider my ideas from a non defended position. Perhaps it would help if my ideas were considered as a potential answer for psychology, rather than philosophy? Regardless, I do know that the EA will help advance my quest! The view that objects continue to exist when unperceived is certainly a feature of common sense. That there is such a thing as cause and effect is certainly a feature of common sense. That the future generally will be like the past is certainly a feature of common sense. I love Hilary Putnam, but I never heard sense data theory referred to as common sense. Indeed, it is precisely this view — the “theory of ideas” as it used to be called — that Hume contrasts with the view of the vulgar; i.e. common sense. Stanley Rosen lays out in beautiful prose why common sense provides the ultimate conditions of adequacy both for philosophy and science in his book “Metaphysics in Ordinary Language.” https://books.google.com/books?id=lQjhJ9MzhMoC I continue to be puzzled by this demand for justification. In the 20 plus years I have been teaching, I have instructed literally thousands upon thousands of young people in logic, introductory surveys in the major topics of philosophy, interdisciplinary historical surveys of the humanities, more specialized topics in philosophy, like the philosophy of mind and philosophy of language, and more. Thousands upon thousands. My teaching reviews are quite high — you can look me up on “Rate My Professor” if you like. And I was even invited by an online “tv channel,” Blogging Heads TV, to do a philosophy program, which is watched by even more people and seems always to lead to page after page after page of interesting commentary. It’s very odd, then, to be told “You need to justify what you do to us!” Aside from the fact that it’s weird to question the value of something that untold thousands of people, not to mention major institutions, like universities, deem valuable, this is just not something I ever see anyone demanding of anyone else. Do you walk up to a bagging clerk and demand that they justify their job, since after all, a robot could be built to do it? Or do you go up to the receptionist in a tanning salon and demand that they justify what they do, since, after all, tanning is superficial and unimportant? So, sorry, you can dress the question up all you want. I still don’t get it. Labnut: The evolution of the university into a certificate mill for white collar jobs has caused philosophy and other liberal arts to be devalued, because of their alleged lack of “relevance” to training accountants, middle managers, etc. It looks like a series of posts will appear on the place of philosophy in the university here: http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2015/10/university-structure-and-the-success-and-failure-of-philosophy.html I’m not sure it necessarily follows that expanding the higher education sector should lead to an absolute change in the number or quality of those taking up philosophy. Just like poets, there are probably more excellent practitioners in absolute terms even though they may be diluted in relative terms in the present culture. I continue to be puzzled by this demand for justification. I am not sure that you can be saying on the one hand that there are too many people at Universities and that certain courses should not be taught at university, in other words questioning the justification for your colleagues’ jobs, and then, on the other hand, being puzzled at people who might wonder about the justification for your own? I am not overly familiar with the American education system, but Glasgow University where my Dad got his engineering degree has had an engineering department for 150 years. Oxford have had their engineering department since 1908. I believe that some excellent philosophers went there too. If we move mechanical engineering out of Universities, do “Community Colleges” or “vo-tech” have adequate resources for the research involved in the area? Accountancy was, I am led to understand, invented in a University in the early Renaissance. Do you have any evidence that it is such courses that have caused philosophy to be devalued? Nothing to do with a prominent member of your profession writing pompous sneering articles dripping with contempt about the intelligence of the “Average Joe”, people like me, while themselves failing to demonstrate the ability to reason their way out of a paper bag? Or the continued championing by some philosophers of the gibberish of Heidegger, Derrida and their ilk, long after the “Average Joe” has gotten beyond feeling bad that we can’t understand “Being and Time” etc and realised that there is just nothing to understand. No, no, it must be the fault of the Engineering and Accountancy departments. But here is the thing. When a rich, privileged academic like Dennett has a highly uncomplimentary opinion about people like me (with apparently nothing to back it up), then you are not puzzled by that. But if people like me have, in our own turn an opinion or question about people like him, then that deeply puzzles you. Your puzzlement puzzles me. How very dare we? Who do we think we are? Philosophers? But I guess that is the problem. When the guy in the ivory tower throws poo at you and you try to throw it back, you are likely to hit the guy in the next window along who never did you any harm. Off topic note to editors – it seems that there is no email address anywhere on the site, not even on the submissions page. Am I missing it? Robin: Perhaps you missed the part where I said we should be spending a lot more money on professional and technical education than on liberal arts education. That is not contempt for the professions and engineering, but rather the opposite. Do I have “evidence” that the new and overwhelmingly pre-professional focus of the university has damaged the public image of philosophy and the humanities? Well, prior to the Second World War, a university education essentially meant an education in Classics and classical languages. Today, those departments are either moribund or else have disappeared entirely. The high-profile people out there bashing philosophy are all scientists of one stripe or another. Etc. There also is the matter of simple reason — the relevance of the humanities (despite all the BS, desparate attempts at marketing) to professional life is at best indirect and at worst non-existent. So, it’s not surprising that as the university fills up with more and more students who are there for no other reason than to become accountants or chemical engineers, there will be less and less interest in — and use for — the humanities, including philosophy. As for the rest, I will simply refer back to the examples. We simply don’t, as a matter of course, walk up to people and demand that they justify their jobs to us, just as a matter of basic manners. That is, unless they are philosophy professors. dantip says: The email address is hyperlinked in the submissions page, where is says “…send us a pitch, via email” (the stars here indicating the hyperlinked word). Though I will work on displaying our address more prominently somewhere, as it isn’t easy to see or identify. Doh! I thought it must be me. “for no other reason than to become accountants or chemical engineers” You don’t think that perhaps sounds elitist? We need skilled professionals such as doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, electrical engineers, etc and universities are the appropriate place to give them the high level of skills they need. We, as a society, invest a lot of trust in these professionals so we demand a high level of education from them. As a sign of their importance and the trust they hold we also require them to get professional certification from their controlling professional organisations. The problem lies elsewhere. In European countries there has been a layered educational system that prepares people for different levels of function according to their aptitude and interests: 1. Artisan training (artisan schools and technical colleges) 2. Technician training (technical colleges) 3. Bachelor’s degrees (universities, typically three years) 4. Professional degrees (universities, typically four years) 5. Honours and Masters degrees 6. PhD programmes. America has tended to conflate the first three levels as its manufacturing industry has hollowed out and people are increasingly employed in service industries. This has flooded Bachelor degree courses with people who really are seeking white collar vocational training but desire the cachet of a university degree. There you and I agree. It is a symptom of aspirational creep and I see it in my own country where technical college has refashioned itself as a technical university but is really still a college. Bear in mind we use the terms ‘university’ and ‘college’ differently to you. For us ‘college’ denotes some form of vocational training as opposed to the academic education provided by university. I don’t know how often I have to repeat that I am for spending more more money on education in these fields. That this keeps getting interpreted as “elitist” just adds more to the puzzlement I already feel with regard to this subject. Perhaps you missed the part where I said we should be spending a lot more money on professional and technical education than on liberal arts education. That is not contempt for the professions and engineering, but rather the opposite. I didn’t say you had contempt for them. I said you were questioning the justification for your colleagues jobs. Which you were. So, it’s not surprising that as the university fills up with more and more students who are there for no other reason than to become accountants or chemical engineers, there will be less and less interest in — and use for — the humanities, including philosophy. I can’t speak for accountants, but all the engineers I know and have known (which is many) they went to University because they had a passion for engineering and wanted an education in it as deep as only a University can allow. I am not familiar with the US education system, but in Britain or Australia it would make no sense at all to try to cash up the technical education sector to provide the level of mathematics and physics education to match a University, or to provide them with the same research capability, you would just be duplicating. Engineering needs to be where the mathematics is, where the science is and they need to be where the medicine is. Call that a University or whatever else, they need to be in the same place. If we were to hive off those disciplines so that they can be in the same place as engineering (and I bet the lawyers will want to be where the doctors are) and then have a University that was just Arts and Philosophy then the University would last, maybe, a week and then disappear. Can’t say if the same applies in the US. We simply don’t, as a matter of course, walk up to people and demand that they justify their jobs to us, just as a matter of basic manners. That is, unless they are philosophy professors. Or engineering professors, or accountancy professors apparently. You still won’t explain why it is not bad manners when you do it. It is a fact of life for most of us. I have had two professions evaporate under me simply because the world changed. It is happening to me again, I have to deal with that and plan for that. I might have to go back to University. Sorry. Want to get involved in The Electric Agora? The Electric Agora publishes essays, videos, reviews, and humorous pieces, lying at the intersection of philosophy, the humanities, science, and popular culture. If you want to get involved with the magazine, there are three ways you can do so. 1. Submit an article to us! For guidelines, check out the "submissions" page, linked to in the menu above. 2. Join the discussion! For commenting guidelines click on the link "For Readers" in the menu above. 3. "Like" our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and/or sign up to follow The Electric Agora, by clicking the relevant links below! Ronald Green on Destroying the University Charles Justice on Destroying the University Daniel Kaufman on Destroying the University Follow The Electric Agora Enter your email address to follow The Electric Agora and receive notifications of new posts by email. Follow The Electric Agora on WordPress.com Destroying the University Cosmopolitanism: Hatari! or a Better World? Time and Language New Year (and Decade) Musings Bret Easton Ellis, British Labour in the Wilderness, and Barszcz Czysty Czerwony (Polish Beet Soup) Most popular at The Electric Agora Is Philosophy OK? Epithets in Philosophy Sex and Sports On Philosophy and Its Progress (a response -- of sorts -- to Massimo Pigliucci) Course Notes – G.E.M Anscombe’s “Modern Moral Philosophy” Essays from The Electric Agora may be redistributed or translated, with attribution and link to our site, under the general rules of the Creative Commons license Destroying the University January 18, 2020 by Daniel A. Kaufman ____ We are witnessing a transformation of the University in the United States, the result of which will be its destruction, at least as the institution has been understood since the Second World War. Similar developments are afoot in other Western nations. Some of the changes I will describe are at my own university, but Missouri […] Cosmopolitanism: Hatari! or a Better World? January 9, 2020 by E. John Winner ___ Hatari is apparently a Swahili word for “Danger!” I don’t know Swahili. I only know the word as the title of a remarkable adventure comedy film by the late, great American director, Howard Hawks, from the screenplay by science fiction author Leigh Brackett, who contributed to scripts for a number of Hawks’ best known films, […] […] The Electric Agora Magazine 1984 2016 election Adolescence Aesthetics Analytic Philosophy Aristotle Baby Boomers Bernard Williams Bertrand Russell Capitalism comedy Critical Thinking Cultural Criticism culture Daily Nous David Hume Donald Trump Epistemology Ethics Feminism Free Will Gender Generation X History identity Identity Politics Immanuel Kant Joan Didion John Locke John Stuart Mill Justin Weinberg Kant Kathleen Stock knowledge language liberalism logic metaphysics Millennials Modernity Morality music Neoconservatism Ontology philosophy Philosophy of Language Philosophy of Mind Political Philosophy politics Postmodernism Practical reason progressivism Quine Racism realism Religion Rhetoric Romanticism Science Self Sex social justice Social media Television The American Philosophical Association Trans activism Transgender Trump Truth Utilitarianism Value Virtue Wilfrid Sellars William James Wittgenstein	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2083
__label__wiki	0.949457	0.949457	Mark Knopfler's "Whistle Theme" from Local Hero December 17, 2019 December 17, 2019 ~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment Bill Forsyth’s “Comfort and Joy” (1984) remains a holiday gem Bill Forsyth’s slice of Glasgow noir never received the praise showered upon its predecessors Local Hero and Gregory’s Girl. The bonus interviews included on this disc hint at the reasons why: Forsyth admits that his script could have been tightened up, and Claire Grogan suggests that the film’s payoff doesn’t feel like a proper ending. Comfort and Joy is still a treat, though, its dry humour a return to the style of Forsyth’s zero-budget debut. Bill Paterson’s Alan “Dickie” Bird is a Partridgesque local radio DJ whose life starts to unravel when his kleptomaniac girlfriend leaves him. Buying a 99 from an ice cream van he’s chased because he fancies the serving girl (Grogan) unwittingly involves him in a turf war between rival Italian ice cream vendors. The news items we hear on Bird’s car radio are full of African coups and Middle Eastern peace negotiations, foreshadowing his decision to act as a mediator between the two firms. Cinematographer Chris Menges gives the mean streets of Glasgow a warm, twinkly glow, despite the city’s northern latitude limiting the number of exterior shots. The visual jokes are brilliant: we see that Bird’s problems really begin when he, Alice-like, follows a Mr Bunny ice cream van into a dark tunnel. Alex Norton’s Trevor, reeling from a baseball bat attack on his van, turns out to be relatively unharmed: the blood pouring down his face is actually raspberry sauce. Bird’s prized BMW literally disintegrates as the film unwinds, the victim of bird shit, ice cream and physical violence. As things escalate, he uses his early morning radio show to broadcast coded messages to the warring tribes, prompting boss Rikki Fulton to refer him to eccentric psychiatrist Arnold Brown. Forsyth elicits predictably winning performances from his large cast, including a convincingly Glaswegian-sounding Patrick Malahide as Bird’s best friend, and Roberto Bernardi as the charismatic “Mr McCool”. Robert Buchanan has a blink-or-miss-it cameo, and even Claire Grogan’s atrocious Italian accent doesn’t derail proceedings. This restored print looks and sounds excellent; Mark Knopfler’s moody soundtrack adding much to the atmosphere. And, as already noted, the interviews with Forsyth, Paterson and Grogan are a delight, revealing that the idea for the plot was suggested to the director by a young Peter Capaldi. Source: DVD: Comfort and Joy \| The Arts Desk Sturgeon demands Scottish independence referendum powers after SNP landslide First minister tells Boris Johnson she has renewed mandate after winning 47 of Scotland’s 59 seats Nicola Sturgeon has challenged Boris Johnson to give Scotland the powers to hold a second independence referendum after the Scottish National party won a landslide in the general election. The first minister said she had won “a renewed, refreshed and strengthened mandate” to call for a fresh independence vote after winning 47 of Scotland’s 59 Westminster seats, 11 more than in 2017. n the most dramatic result, the SNP unseated Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat leader, in East Dunbartonshire by 149 votes, leaving the party leaderless. Sturgeon said on Friday the Conservatives had focused their campaign in Scotland on opposing a second referendum but had been roundly defeated, hit by a series of losses at the hands of the SNP in seats including Stirling, Angus and Gordon. “I don’t pretend that every single person who voted SNP yesterday will necessarily support independence, but there has been a strong endorsement in this election of Scotland having a choice over our future; of not having to put up with a Conservative government we didn’t vote for and not having to accept life as a nation outside the EU,” she said. SNP strategists said the significance of its victory, which has echoes of its remarkable landslide in 2015 when it won 56 seats, was given greater weight by the contrast with the election result in England where the Tories won a significant overall majority. By comparison, the Tories in Scotland had a very difficult election, holding only six of the 13 seats they won in 2017. Labour was humiliated, losing six of the seven seats they held to the SNP, belying the party’s confident claims in the final week of the campaign it would hold those seats and win several more. The only surviving Labour MP in Scotland was again Ian Murray, who held Edinburgh South with a significant 11,095 majority. Murray, an arch-critic of Jeremy Corbyn’s, was Labour’s only Scottish MP after the SNP landslide in 2015.[ . . . ] Continue reading at THE GUARDIAN Sturgeon demands Scottish independence referendum powers after SNP landslide \| Politics \| The Guardian Breabach "Frenzy of the Meeting" Mighty! am I right? Outlander triggered more interest in Scotland than ‘any other cultural artefact in recent years’ December 7, 2019 December 7, 2019 ~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment The historical roots of the hit television series Outlander and its cultural impact on Scotland will be examined in the first major academic conference of its kind next year. The University of Glasgow will host the Outlander Conference 2020 in June with the history, customs, politics, culture, clothes and music featured in the phenomenally successful television series which is based on the novels of Diana Gabaldon [ . . . ] Continue at THE SCOTSMAN: Outlander triggered more interest in Scotland than ‘any other cultural artefact in recent years’ – The Scotsman Bands/Singers Lankum The Unthanks Olivia Chaney The Furrow Collective The Ginger Geezer Mark Radcliffe Free Audio Books BBC Genevieve Tudor Show Peel Sessions Classic British Films British Period Dramas British Comedy Guide Kermode & Mayo Film Reviews Folk & Trad The Guardian – Folk Music Folk On Foot FRUK English Folk Expo Mainly Norfolk fROOTS Magazine English Folk Dance and Song Society The Monnicle The Bugle with John Oliver Fortuneately …. With Fi and Jane Random Brit Links In a Pub Scotland Links New Music Scotland Bird Guides website Downton Abbey Wiki God Is In The TV Whales of Wales Links The Dylan Thomas Experience Wales Arts Review Babylon Wales Culture Colony Address to a Haggis Burns DayJanuary 26th, 2018 Burns Day commemorates the life of the bard Robert Burns, who was born on January 25, 1759, and celebrates Burns' contribution to Scottish culture.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2087
__label__wiki	0.677886	0.677886	Maple Leafs’ Glaring Defensive Issues By Nic Turner December 5th, 2019 The Toronto Maple Leafs continue to struggle defensively, despite some early improvement since Sheldon Keefe took over coaching duties. The Maple Leafs got off to a strong start under Keefe, winning their first three games and only allowing a combined four goals against. Things have regressed negatively once again, as Toronto has coughed up 13 goals in their last three games. While there is no need to press the panic button yet, the underlying stats do not look good for the Maple Leafs’ defensive group. The team has allowed the fourth-most goals this season with 96, they are tied for 24th with 3.31 goals allowed per game, and have given up the most high-danger goals against in the league. Sean Tierney (@chartinghockey) depicts the Leafs’ inability to prevent offense and keep the puck out of their net. Ranking bottom-10 in expected goals against per 60 minutes despite some stellar goaltending from Frederik Andersen is a cause of concern. The quality of the opponents’ scoring chances is also in the upper tier, as teams are finding a way to penetrate the Maple Leafs’ defence and generate chances in the “high danger” areas of the ice. The Leafs have given up 44 high-danger goals against, two more than the last place Detroit Red Wings who are off to a 7-20-3 start. Rielly Regressing After Career Year There was much skepticism going into the year over how Morgan Rielly and Cody Ceci would work out as a defensive pairing. After only a few games, it was evident that things were not going in a good direction. The duo has not passed the eye-test and the underlying stats do not support a turnaround. As of Dec. 4, the tandem ranks second-worst in the league among all defensive pairings in expected goals against during five-on-five play. Only Darnell Nurse and Ethan Bear of the Edmonton Oilers rank worse in this category. Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly (Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports) Rielly had a career high 20 goals and 52 assists in 82 games last season. He was in the conversation for the Norris Trophy and achieved this by playing the majority of his time with 39-year-old defensive partner Ron Hainsey. This year, he has three goals and 17 assists in 29 games and has picked up just three points in his last 10 games. While Rielly had a ridiculously high shooting percentage of nine percent last season that was due to regress, his struggles have Leaf fans looking for answers. It was often suggested by Maple Leafs’ reporters that he simply did not “look right” and was missing practices at an abnormal rate. Perhaps a nagging injury has hampered his play this season, but we cannot overlook Ceci’s poor underlying contributions. Ceci Under Scrutiny Ceci had very poor defensive metrics with the Ottawa Senators a season ago and things haven’t turned around for him in the blue and white this year. He leads the Maple Leafs in scoring chances against (239), expected goals against (21.42), high-danger chances against (99), and ranks last among defensemen in expected goals for percentage (48.38%). On Dec. 3 vs. the Philadelphia Flyers, his stats hit an all-time low. Cody Ceci's 5-on-5 results horrendous again tonight. 13% possession 1% expected goals 7% scoring chances With him on the ice. And he's second in D in ice time and facing tough comp. — James Mirtle (@mirtle) December 4, 2019 These are alarming stats from Ceci, who logs heavy minutes on the number one defensive unit with Rielly. Coach Sheldon Keefe may have seen enough thankfully, as on Dec. 4 vs. the Avalanche, he bumped up Barrie to the number one pairing and knocked down Ceci to Dermott’s unit. It is welcoming news to Maple Leafs’ fans and should pay immediate dividends for Rielly’s offensive game. Keefe is said to be known as a modern-day coach, someone who will use analytics to his advantage, and not be scared to shake things up. Keefe’s New Defensive Schemes It’s certainly evident that things must change defensively if the Maple Leafs want to not just let alone make the playoffs, but become a Stanley Cup contender. Despite a potent offense with plenty of firepower, they cannot keep giving up these grade-A chances and ranking in the bottom-10 in important defensive metrics. Members of the current Leafs’ blue line, Travis Dermott and Justin Holl, discussed how things will tighten up defensively based on their experience under Keefe with the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies. (from ‘The remaking of the Maple Leafs defence will start with the system, and perhaps a little passion,’ Toronto Star, 12/03/2019). His new defensive system is said to be focused on cracking down on the “home plate” area of the ice (between faceoff dots and below). This will hopefully reduce the amount of high-danger scoring chances the Leafs have been giving up over the first two months of the season. Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe (Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports) This new systematic change that Keefe hopes his players buy into will hope to encourage more shots from the perimeter and make life easier for Maple Leaf netminders. The prior defensive systems in place under Babcock clearly were not working, and the Maple Leafs will hope to make strides in their game to gain ground in a very competitive Eastern Conference. Every player will have to buy in a put in their best effort each and every game. Maple Leafs Must Play with Heart There have already been a couple of instances this season where the passion and heart of the Maple Leafs has been questioned. After their sixth straight loss in mid-November, Jake Muzzin was quoted saying “It’s not X’s and O’s it’s playing with passion and playing with heart. That’s what we need to do”. Muzzin is a former Stanley Cup champion and as one of the Leafs most experienced blueliners, he stepped up and had some choice words for the team. Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Muzzin (John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports) While the Leafs seemed to play with more emotion and energy following Mike Babcock’s firing, they have still had their defensive lapses. On Dec. 3, Auston Matthews was the next player to question his teams’ character, stating that the team simply “folded, and quit” after the Flyers went up 4-1 with an empty-netter. It remains to be seen if the Maple Leafs can put together a nice stretch, but if they do, they are going to need to show plenty of heart. Cody Ceci Morgan Rielly Sheldon Keefe	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2088
__label__wiki	0.568471	0.568471	Umahi: 95 per cent of states can’t pay N30, 000 minimum wage Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi declared that 95 per cent of states cannot pay the proposed N30, 000 minimum wage. Umahi, who is the Chairman of the Southeast Governors Forum, said this while inaugurating a 36-member fact-finding committee to ascertain the mode of workers’ promotion arrears payment in states across the six geo-political zones of the states. According to Umahi, the payment of the N30, 000 can only be realised if the federation account allocation formula is reviewed to offer more earnings to states. “The Federal Government collects 52 per cent of the revenue from the Federation Account and when I tried to put the N30,000 figure to Local Government Areas, it means they will borrow N1 billion to add to their allocation, in paying salaries. “I will definitely not be a governor to govern such a state and will never preside over a state that will allocate 100 per cent of its earnings to pay salaries.” The governor recommended that the issue of petroleum subsidy in the country should also be reviewed as had been noted by the state and federal governments. “We must presently have the courage to say this because a lot of money can be saved from the subsidy if properly distributed. “When 100, 000 litres of petrol is allocated to me for instance and deducted from my allocation, it is then my business to ensure that there is no leakage. “There is no governor or political office holder that signs cheques but civil servants as the country’s leaders and labour are just putting water inside a basket and praying God to hold it with this minimum wage issue.” He urged the country’s leaders and labour to liaise and decide on the percentage of the federation account that should be voted for salaries and other sectors. Umahi said: “We should determine how much should be allocated to education, health, infrastructure among others if 100 per cent of earnings are used to pay workers’ salaries. “Many states are experiencing various problems and cannot pay salaries but the people condemn their governments over their inability to provide good roads and other amenities.” AGF demands disbandment of caretaker committees in Oyo, others	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2095
__label__cc	0.59998	0.40002	The Patent Analyst Patent analysis and patent program processes and best practices How to Review all Independent Claims in 15 Minutes or Less On July 14, 2013 May 22, 2017 By The Patent AnalystIn Analysis, Software I am very often asked to review and comment on patents in 15 minutes or even less. In those cases I normally am not requested to provide too much detail due to lack of time, but of course clients still want relevant feedback about each patent. Clients will typically indicate what aspects they want detailed, but in any case there really is one overarching question — that is, “How likely is use of this patent?” To arrive at an answer (such as an estimated probability), an analyst must first ascertain what the key elements and limitations are, and should do so not only for claim 1 or the shortest independent claim, but for all independent claims. From that assessment, the analyst can then focus on one independent claim for providing comments, though sometimes it’s best to indicate differences in claim scope that could impact assessments. When I tell other analysts that one really should review all independent claims, even in a 15-minute review, often the response is that I’m crazy. And perhaps I am, and in fact it wasn’t that long ago that I said that 15 minutes wasn’t long enough to analyze all independent claims in a patent. But it bothered me because of all the times that I saw that the most relevant claim was not actually claim 1 (supposedly the “representative” claim) or even the shortest claim. So what could be improved to allow for a fuller review in just 15 minutes, or even less? Disclaimer: this technique will not work for outliers like this exceptional patent application, which has 7,215 claims: http://www.google.com/patents/US20030100451! The answer for me, which I wish to share with you, is the use of software tools — for now my favorite combination is Google Patents (in a particular format) and my free Patent Claims Tree Google Chrome extension. Google Patents has been around for years, but for a while I found that many patents were missing, and I preferred the presentation and layout of FreePatentsOnline. But over time Google Patents improved, and eventually they modified their layout such that I can hardly envision a better format for efficient review of a patent. This format may continue to evolve over time, and perhaps it will even get better, but it certainly is already great — as of this writing, Google Patents has multiple layouts, but the one I particularly like is the format provided for webpages with the following syntax: http://www.google.com/patents/US<patent_number>. Take a look, for example, at: http://www.google.com/patents/US7654321. The title, abstract, and relevant metadata are all presented at the very top of the page in a compact and easily-readable view. Just below that is a set of all images, which can be quickly expanded and perused, and sideways images can be easily rotated. All images can be visually scanned in less time that it takes to open the patent’s PDF file! Then perhaps most elegantly, the patent background and the claims are provided in side-by-side columns. The claims are indeed the most important components of a patent because they define a patent’s scope of rights to exclusion, but claims are often worded in manner that can be difficult to comprehend at first glance. Therefore, a quick review of the background section sets the stage for inventive embodiments and helps to scope the claims for a reader. And now this is where the Patent Claims Tree tool for the Chrome browser comes in — with sufficient resolution/zoom, your Chrome browser can simultaneously present the background, claims, and a claims tree with relevant claims metrics, all side-by-side (basically a three-column display): I find this presentation to be incredibly helpful and fast. The speed at which patent claims can be reviewed using this presentation is key since time is so limited. With an appropriate input device such as a mouse with a scroll wheel, it is possible to scroll through the claims in Google Patents while the claims tree remains open. Additionally, note all the helpful information presented at a glance in the claims tree: the number of independent claims, which claims are the independent claims, the shortest independent claim, the relative word counts of the independent claims, the type of claim for each independent claim, the relative amount of dependent claims for each independent claim, and which claims use means-plus-function language. Sure, it’s possible to figure all of that out manually, but just that alone would probably take more than 15 minutes by itself. Those metrics help in determining which independent claim should receive the bulk of your attention. In the example above (I like to use 7,654,321 because it’s a nice number :)), one can quickly determine that in this case there are six independent claims covering a variety of types of coverage, though the “downhole tool” of claim 21 is by far the shortest claim (by about 60 words), so review should probably start there. After reading that claim, if the claim seems to have sufficient coverage, then probably only cursory reviews of the other independent claims are necessary. There are other possible considerations that can be made at a glance as well — e.g., perhaps the client has indicated that it has a threshold for claim word count, so some claims can be discounted rapidly. Or, maybe only claims with a certain type of coverage are desired, and so the claim type can be used to focus on specific claims. In any case, using the three-column presentation, it is normally quite feasible with most patents to have time to read and understand all independent claims, and therefore pick out the best. If you want to find, for example, all method/process claims, this information is there in the tree. Should supplemental background information be needed, it’s right there. Should a figure or two be helpful for understanding scope, it’s simple and speedy to pop them up without a PDF. Should the priority date need consideration, it’s right there above the images. This approach works quite well for me, and I bet that it will for you too. I am now quite confident in performing 15-minute patent reviews for most technology areas with which I am familiar. There are exceptions of course, but the techniques and software described above have greatly expedited my reviews, making 15 minutes much more comfortable than they used to feel. If you have additional efficiency tips, please share them in the comments. Wireless packet capture and analysis On July 3, 2013 September 21, 2017 By The Patent AnalystIn Analysis, Claim Charting, Software Update (Sep 14, 2017): As of Windows 10, you no longer need to use the relatively complex VirtualWiFi solution described in the original post below. Instead, the “Mobile hotspot” solution provides a much more straightforward technique to set up a connection through your computer for Wireshark packet capture of IP traffic traversing through the computer. Update (Sep 21, 2017): Additionally, see this later post about capturing Wi-Fi data frames in a passive over-the-air manner. Fairly often when performing patent analysis, particularly when creating claim charts mapping one or more patented claims against a target product or service, I find it helpful to capture and analyze packets sent from a wireless device. Internet Protocol (IP) packet capture when using a personal computer, such as a Windows or Mac computer, is relatively straightforward using a packet capture tool. I have been using Wireshark (formerly Ethereal) for years as my preferred packet capture tool, although there are certainly other available options from which to choose, both paid and free. Packet capture for packets sent to and from other wireless devices such as smartphones and tablets is not so straightforward, therefore I provide below details of a solution that I leverage so that you can take advantage of this approach as well during your patent analysis. The high-level summary of this solution is to set up a Windows OS computer to use Wireshark to capture packets on a virtual Wi-Fi adapter — see this Microsoft explanation of the solution, termed VirtualWiFi, which I can confirm works for me with Windows 7. Credit goes to Eric Geier for documenting how to set up virtual W-Fi adapters here. 1. In a command prompt (“cmd”), enter the following to set up your hosted network connection: netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=YourVirtualNetworkName key=YourNetworkPassword — You can set up your SSID (YourVirtualNetworkName) and password (YourNetworkPassword) as you wish, though of course you’ll need to know these when you try to connect from your wireless device that you’re testing. 2. Before enabling the virtual hosted network, configure the physical network adapter to share its Internet access using the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) feature of Windows. To enable ICS, open the Network Connections window, then right-click the network adapter that is actually connected to the Internet and select Properties. Then select the Sharing tab, check the “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection” checkbox, choose the hosted network connection (that you enabled in step #1) from the drop-down listbox, and click OK. 3. In the command prompt, enter the following to start your hosted network connection: netsh wlan start hostednetwork 4. Open Wireshark and select Capture->Interfaces, and select the adapter for your physical network connection and click Start. You can confirm that you have the correct adapter through comparison of MAC addresses, though the easiest solution is probably just to watch the packet count of adapters when using the target wireless device — the adapter with corresponding increases in packet count is the one to use. 5. Connect to the new hosted Wi-Fi network with the target wireless device and execute the desired application, website, service, etc. on the target device being tested and step through whatever sequence for which you wish to analyze the corresponding packets. 6. Once done with testing and recording, select Capture->Interfaces->Stop in Wireshark to stop packet capture. 7. You will then have a set of packets to analyze, and you’ll need to determine the IP address of the wireless device being tested. There are many different considerations here as far as best approaches to walk through the packet data, such as filtering, stream following, searching, exporting, etc., so I suggest that you reference the documentation that Wireshark provides here. 8. Disable the hosted network through entering the following command in the command prompt: netsh wlan stop hostednetwork If at any time during the steps above you wish to see the current status of the hosted network, such as the MAC addresses of connected devices, enter the following command in the command prompt: netsh wlan show hostednetwork Once you have performed steps 1-2 above, on system reset the hosted network will not automatically start up, so you would need to execute this command again: netsh wlan start hostednetwork. In fact, once steps 1-2 have been performed once, from then on you should not have to perform them again for subsequent testing — you can start at step 3. I hope you enjoy your wireless packet capturing and analysis! Google search tools for patent searching and analysis On April 1, 2013 By The Patent AnalystIn Analysis, Search, Software1 Comment When performing patent-related searches and/or analyses, I often leverage Google search tools to facilitate my work. A few examples are provided below, and I welcome others’ insight into other helpful search utilities. I should note that I sometimes also use Microsoft’s Bing search application, particularly because I earn Bing Rewards, but Google does have some specific patent-related utilities that Bing and other publicly-available and free search applications lack. When analyzing a patent and searching for either utilization or related art for inventive embodiments that include aspects that can be seen, such as mechanical designs or computer user interfaces, Google’s Images search results often are handy. A picture truly can be worth a thousand words, if not more. For example, I recently filed a patent application for an invention that my wife and I created for a unique drinking vessel. As part of my patentability assessment, I used Google Images to search for existing beer stein designs that might already disclose what we believed likely to be novel. So I searched using Google with the phrase “beer stein” (among many others of course), then I selected the “Images” link in the results — an example screen shot is shown below (from google.com). Additionally, when performing patent searches, normally there is a date range of interest. For example, for validity or patentability searches, a priority date is used to limit resulting references to those that precede the priority date of relevance. Google provides for date range selection in various different places, such as through selection of a “Search tools” button in a results banner. From there, a searcher may select a date or time range such as “Past hour”, “Past 24 hours”, “Past week”, etc. Normally the choice of interest is “Custom range…” (highlighted in the screen shot below from google.com). So for example, for a priority date of February 3, 2003, the “From” date field may be left blank, and “2/3/2003” may be entered for the “To” date field. This causes Google to only display results for references published before February 3, 2003. Google Date/Time Range Google Custom Date Range When searching for potential patent claim utilization, clients often request specific target companies’ products. In those cases, the strongest references are those provided by a target company itself. Therefore, limiting search results to those provided by the target company is often helpful, and this can be done through use of a additional “site:” parameter. For example, to limit search results to those from “ACME Company, Inc.”, whose main domain is “acmeinc.com”, enter normal search terms plus additionally include “site:acmeinc.com”. Google also provides several other parameters that a searcher can use to limit results — these can be found in “Advanced Search” (https://www.google.com/advanced_search). The Advanced Search can also be accessed through selection of the gear icon on a normal search results page. Results can be further limited, for example, through specifying explicit search term combinations, words to exclude, languages, etc. Screen shots are sourced from https://google.com and https://www.google.com/advanced_search: Google Settings Google Advanced Search Prior Art Finder And of course let’s not forget Google’s Prior Art Finder. For a given patent, Google will extract key terms and search for various types of references using those search terms where the references were published before the patent’s priority date. Additionally, a user can modify, remove, and add search terms and/or change the search’s date range. A key advantage of Google searches is that common synonyms for each search term are also used in the searches, and Google will sometimes leverage synonyms that a searcher may not have envisioned when creating a search plan. References can be sourced from scholarly references, other patent documents, books, the Web, people, or the top 10 from these groups. The example Prior Art Finder screen shot below is for US patent 6368227 for a method of swinging on a swing (https://www.google.com/patents/related/US6368227): Google Prior Art Finder Considering Kind Codes when Analyzing non-US Patents On February 15, 2013 May 2, 2014 By The Patent AnalystIn Analysis, Claim Charting, Resources, Search, Software In my patent analysis work, I am sometimes asked to review patent documents from jurisdictions other than the US, such as from Europe (EP) and the United Kingdom (GB). A common error I have encountered when analysts in the US look at patent documents from other jurisdictions is that they review the wrong version of a patent document, thereby wasting their own and their client’s time. Counter to the USPTO’s practice of separate pre-grant patent application publication and granted patent numbering schemes (11-digit and 7-digit, respectively), many other jurisdictions use the same number for both published patent applications and granted patents. The way that these other jurisdictions’ patent offices (such as the EPO and UK IPO) represent the difference in the patent document identifier is through the use of a “kind-of-document code”, which is a one- or two-character suffix that follows the patent document number — e.g., GB2172127A vs GB2172127B. For another example, EP patent applications are represented with a trailing “A” kind code, while granted EP patents are represented with a trailing “B” kind code. For EP patent documents, an “A1” indicates a European patent application published with a European search report, and a “B1” indicates a “European patent specification (granted patent)”. There are several other kind codes for each of the “A” and “B” kind code sets — for more details, see the EPO’s kind code help page. The USPTO has its own comparable US kind code list, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) additionally has a comprehensive guide to patent kind codes. The specific error that I have witnessed from a few other patent analysts is that they spend time reviewing the claim set of a published EP or GB patent application (i.e., kind code “A”) instead of reviewing the claim set of the associated granted EP or GB patent (i.e., kind code “B”). Obviously analysis on an originally-filed or still-pending set of claims is likely to not be helpful for a client because the client wants to know how relevant the issued claims are, and the issued claims are very likely to represent some, if not many, modifications from the original claim set. The claims normally differ between these two, potentially substantially, so when analysts map or otherwise analyze “A” claims the work is probably incomplete and/or inaccurate. Part of the problem is that search tools such as Espacenet default to showing the “A” claims, even when the “B” version has been selected. To get to the “B” version of the claims, one must explicitly select such. The kind code B claims are only available in a PDF image at Espacenet and the UK IPO. UPDATE: However, thanks to Google, this doesn’t mean that I have to OCR them and/or type them in when filling out reviews. Google Patents has support for EP and WO patent documents, including the claims. Google Patents provides kind code B claims in a textual format for simple copy-and-paste, and the Patent Claims Tree tool for the Chrome browser will parse these textual claims and provide a claims tree. See the example screen shot below showing selection of the “B” kind code of a particular granted GB patent GB2172127, with the “A” kind code claims displayed instead — note that the indication of this is rather subtle (source: http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/claims?CC=GB&NR=2172127B&KC=B&FT=D&ND=4&date=19881012&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP, retrieved Feb 15, 2013): GB patent kind code “A” claims Therefore, when performing patent analysis on non-US patents, it’s best to understand and leverage the kind code to ensure that you are reviewing the appropriate set of claims. Patent News Feeds Android app On October 2, 2012 March 2, 2016 By The Patent AnalystIn Resources, Software I have released an update to an Android mobile application RSS and Twitter feed reader for patent-related news from several of the most popular patent and intellectual property (IP) blogs. This Android app is provided and maintained for free by my patent analysis company Wolf Mountain IP (via Wolf Mountain Apps). For more details on the application, see the Google Play page for “Patent News Feeds”. UPDATE (March 2, 2016): This app has since been unpublished. Patent Claims Tree tool On May 14, 2012 May 22, 2017 By The Patent AnalystIn Analysis, Resources, Software I recently published a Chrome browser extension that provides a patent claims tree for a given patent document — this tool is available here. I developed the tool for myself, and I find it quite handy in my daily patent analysis work, so I thought I would share it with the patent community for free. I hope you like it. Supports the following websites: FreePatentsOnline ArchPatent Displays the type of claim (e.g., apparatus, method, system, etc.) Displays the word count for independent claims Highlights the claim with the shortest word count Displays a means-plus-function (MPF) language indication (searches for word “means”) Links to USPTO Assignment database for the current US patent document. Links to USPTO Maintenance Fees for the current patent. Links for searching for US patent litigation associated with the patent. Links to Google Patents PDF for the current US patent document. Links to Google Patents Prior Art Finder for the current US patent document. Links to FreePatentsOnline for the current US patent document. Links to EPO Register for EP patent documents. Patent Claims Tree Chrome extension On March 17, 2010 April 10, 2013 By The Patent AnalystIn Analysis, Search, Software An earlier post provided an overview of the various types of patent-related searches [Link]. This post summarizes some typical high-level steps (20 total) taken in performance of a patent search, with some steps more or less relevant (if even applicable) for each of the different types of searches. Of course, there are further actions that could be taken for each step, and there can also be some intervening steps. What’s primarily missing is the actual determination of potential relevance for each reference — this depends on the subject matter being analyzed, and can be quite difficult (as readers likely know). (1) Review disclosure/description/patent document of interest. (2) Extract keywords. (3) Use thesaurus and web to add synonyms to the keyword list. (4) Create Boolean searches using various keyword combinations, correctly utilizing the syntax for the database used (e.g., FreePatentsOnline, Delphion, USPTO, Google, AcclaimIP, etc.). Also, take advantage of additional tools such as word stemming, wild cards, proximity, term weighting, relevancy, etc. (5) Determine the types of documents to search (often based on the type of search being performed): e.g., US patents, US patent applications, European patent documents, PCT documents, non-patent literature, Japanese abstracts, etc. (6) Include any constraining limitations as needed, e.g.: location within patent documents (ABST, ACLM, SPEC, TTL, etc.); date range (APD) (e.g., for invalidity search); inventors or assignees (IN, AN); and classification (CCL). (7) Perform searches based on the steps above. (8) Analyze results from (7) — peruse the title, abstract, background, summary, claims, etc. as needed to ascertain relevance. (9) Narrow or expand (4), (5), and (6) if needed based on results and re-perform (7) and (8). Otherwise, continue to step (10). (10) Collect and save results — many databases allow searches and results to be saved for future review and performance. (11) Review this batch for relevance using the claims. (12) Narrow the list to the most relevant, and save this collection. (13) Determine classification class/subclass(es) to search in addition from (i) the most relevant patent documents and (ii) reviewing classification manual. (14) Contact examiner(s) to confirm and/or recommend class/subclass(es). (15) Search using these classifications using the current classification field. (16) Analyze results (as in step (8)). (17) Collect and save results. (18) Create a list of the most relevant. (19) Use patent documents in this list to review: (i) “Cities” references (ii) “Cited” references (iii) Sibling and parent patent documents (iv) For the most interesting references, also see the prosecution history to gather even more references (v) Semantically-related references — e.g., using a search tool semantic analyzer such as Google’s Prior Art Finder or AcclaimIP’s semantic search (20) Repeat steps (16), (17), and (18) as needed. “Patent Mining Searches” eBook Chrome Browser Extensions • Patent Claims Tree • Open Google Patents • Patent Assignments Patent Search and Analysis Training EPO Patent Search Matters Patent Deception US Patent Term (Expiration Estimation) Stupid Patent of the Month eBook “Patent Mining Searches” Google Patents Widescreen Viewer Categories Select Category Analysis (33) Blog (3) Claim Charting (6) Europe (3) Examination (1) Example Patents (1) Invention Disclosure (1) Metrics (1) Patent Agent (3) Patent Drafting (2) Patent Management (5) Patent Program (3) Resources (14) Search (16) Software (16) Archives Select Month September 2019 (1) December 2018 (1) November 2018 (1) January 2018 (2) October 2017 (1) September 2017 (4) May 2017 (1) November 2014 (1) October 2014 (1) May 2014 (1) February 2014 (1) November 2013 (1) October 2013 (2) September 2013 (1) July 2013 (3) June 2013 (1) May 2013 (1) April 2013 (3) February 2013 (1) October 2012 (2) September 2012 (1) May 2012 (2) November 2010 (1) August 2010 (1) July 2010 (1) June 2010 (1) May 2010 (1) April 2010 (2) March 2010 (7) © Copyright 2010-2020 Wolf Mountain IP. 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__label__cc	0.737835	0.262165	The Safe Living Project Buy a Book, Help a Life Chapter Dedications Coffee with the Author Chapter Dedication Recipients When you hear a song; watch a movie; or read a book, do you ever wonder what inspired it? Well, I often think about these things, so I thought you should know about some of the people I thought about as I wrote this book. To me, these folks have some of that Regular Folks style I often think about, stuff you should know about it… Jerry Kirkpatrick, The Author The Platinum Rule How’s Your Timing? What Are You Allergic to? Just ‘Cuz It’s in a Frame, Doesn’t Mean You Know the Game Me You and the Other Fellas If I Want to be Labeled, I’d Buy a Labeller How to Effectively Negotiate With Government One Minute You Say You Will, the Next You Won’t Today I’m Going to Try and Change My World That’s My Charisma You’re Smelling Most of What I Got I Deserved I’d Rather Have a Charmless House Full of Charm than a Charming House Full of Charmless Me Buddy is Me Customer How to Screw Up a Good Thing Expert Advice is Not Always the Best Advice I’d like to Blame You if You Don’t Mind Close Your Pout or Help Out Keep Your Fork Settling Into Old Geezer Hood Feelings, Nothing More Than Feelings The Regular Folks Artist Cuss Words I Should Stop Saying The words say it; the way she presents those words, says it all… Orris is a people coach. You visit her and she listens to you and tries to help you. She doesn’t say if she agrees or disagrees with you, she just tries to help you. And, when you are done chatting with Orris, you might leave her office with absolutely nothing changed in your life; except, you now seem to feel a little bit better because you chatted with Orris. Not sure how she does all that; all I know is, where she used to work they honoured her by creating the Orris Garland Humanitarian Award (given out annually to a member of the organization who does good things for people). I dedicate The Platinum Rule chapter to Orris Garland, Human Relations specialist. I think I will call him Mr. Stuffy because of what he does; though it might not be what you think… Gordon retired earlier than most, closing out a successful career, with of course success stuff. He was twice the Grand Counsellor of a service organization, a title only a few achieve (and then almost always only once). And, he is soon to be the International President of this same organization, a rare stuff achievement to say the least. He has learned to be a small engine repair guy and has his own business doing the same stuff. He is an active volunteer and heavily involved in sport stuff. And, here’s the sweetest part; Gordon is a Regular Folk with regular talk and walk stuff. Basically, this all means that Gordon is a stuff achiever with good timing stuff, who lives stuff simply, while managing his stress level stuff effectively so he is not locked up somewhere. Like I said Gordon does a lot of “stuffy.” I dedicate the How’s Your Timing? chapter to Gordon Woodworth, National Curling officiator and Chief Umpire, 2013 Men’s National Curling Championships (The Brier). We were at a conference when Alison said, “Jerry come here, you’ve got to see this!” From that day forward I was hooked… David built his program back in 1975 based on a philosophy that people working in social services need to develop healthy relationships with the people they assist if they truly want to assist them. This idea was introduced at a time when corporal punishment and other aggressive interventions were the accepted caregiver practices of the day. In David’s system of support; values of respect and protection replace devalues of ignore and neglect. His system teaches one to look beyond what you see and hear, by trying to understand a person’s emotional mistakes, allergies, wishes and must-haves. I believed it then and I still follow it now. In fact, I gave up my hard earned Master’s Instructor Level certificate (in another behavior intervention program) and switched the entire company I was managing over to the ideals David built. I dedicate the What Are You Allergic to? chapter to David Mandt, founder of the building healthy relationships program, The Mandt System. You can find Regular Folks just about anywhere, Dave for example… Have you ever met someone and just enjoy the pleasure of what he/she have to say. Well, I have, and his name is David. Here’s why; David is educated and a superb intellect, who spent a lot of career time hangin with the smarties; that kinda stuff. Yeah, and you know what else? He’s also realistic, down to earth, and looks at life like Regular Folks do. He is genuine and honest, and believes in the betterment of humanity stuff. Hard to believe, eh, that a smarty dude, can be all that schoolin stuff and do that other stuff too…well he does, because he knows the value of classroom stuff and life stuff too. I dedicate the Just ‘Cuz It’s in a Frame, Doesn’t Mean You Know the Game chapter to David Jory, Professor, University of New Brunswick. I know a few people (actually, I know quite a few people); though, few of them can do this… Sara is one of those rare folks that doesn’t negatively gossip about people. You can bring up a complaint about someone and you can wish she will join you in bantering about that person, she won’t. Now, this is not to say she won’t acknowledge that the person has a stuff issue or even have a complaint about a person’s stuff actions; however, she would then follow this up with deflector words like, “oh maybe he is having an off day.” I think she does this because Sara embraces the belief that people’s choices can be different and gossiping won’t change that. I dedicate the Me, You and the Other Fellas chapter to Sara, fairness advocate. They did something no one else has ever done before in New Brunswick, Canada, and, they did it the hard way… Ed, Eke, Charlotte, George and Ian (and a few other pals too) pursued Jean Vanier’s dream of setting up a L’Arche community. Jean Vanier, one of Canada’s most influential people, has dedicated his life in over 40 countries to assist individuals with reading, writing, arithmetic and other stuff. He lived with these folks and then created similar settings worldwide he called L’Arche communities. L’Arche is built off the fundamentals of equality, respect, spirituality, family values and fellowship for all people, with the beneficiaries of these caring attitudes, those folks who need assistance with reading, writing, arithmetic and other stuff. To setup a L’Arche community requires time, money, education, a house, volunteer hours and lots of other stuff. There is no easy way to do it, and that’s what makes these places so very special. You know what else? Ed and Eke did all of that and more because they practice something others sometimes forget to do, and that is; all people deserve love. I dedicate the If I Want to be Labeled, I’d Buy a Labeller chapter to Ed and Eke van Oorschot, builders of New Brunswick’s first L’Arche Community. I found someone who can effectively negotiate with the Canadian government; ironically, she was not even from Canada… Simply put she’s a go getter. She sees something and she goes for it. And, she does this honestly, politely and consistently. She doesn’t complain and she doesn’t listen to “can’t, won’t and but.” She researches her wishes and must-haves thoroughly, and with endless energy, she persistently and kindly keeps asking to get them met. The “government” (and other organizations) throws fees, paperwork, inconsistency and all that bureaucratic junk at her, and she just keeps moving forward, persisting along with a marvelous smile and a willful look. Simply put, she wears em down with her charm and stuff, and that my friends, is how you effectively negotiate with government/other organizations. I dedicate the How to Effectively Negotiate With Government and One Minute You Say You Will, the Next You Won’t chapters to Mavis Oliva Rodriquez, a permanent resident of Canada (now a full Canadian citizen) and N.B. Teacher, who legally immigrated here with great determination, and my admiration, from the Communist State of Cuba. Every time I meet Wes I get a bonus… Wes is one of those guys that just gives you the warm fuzzies. He not only greets you with a handshake, he throws in a free smile, a smile that would light up a room. And, you know what else; he does it because he wants to, not just out of routine. Wes is one of those volunteers that “really, really, helps out just cuz he wants to.” Whether it is random or regular stuff, service is what Wes does best. I dedicate the Today I’m Going to Try and Change My World chapter to J Wesley Cosman, Past International President, United Commercial Travelers (UCT) and recipient of the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award. I met him at a convention, he worked his charisma on me (and everyone else too). He is a Regular Folks “gentle man”… I was organizing a convention for a service club and my liaison for the visiting dignitaries was Jim. I did not know Jim, so being the “nosey” type, I checked him out. I asked my father Bob who knew him well, “Good guy,” he said. Then I asked another person (a Higher Up in fact), He said, “Jim, you’ll like him, a good chap to work with.” Every person I asked in fact, said basically the same thing, “Nice person, lots of class.” And, finally I met Jim (and worked with him throughout the convention). And, you know what? He’s got buckets of charisma. You know what else? He’s a Regular Folk too; down to earth, easy to talk to, fun at a party, and just pleasant to be with. I dedicate the That’s My Charisma You’re Smelling chapter to James Sherry, Past International Director, Lions International. It did not take me long to realize the value we got right here… Dawn and I have met a few times and chatted here and there. Each time this happens, she leaves me pondering; “What a charming, honest, realistic and caring person.” Dawn wraps herself in projects that she believes will enhance her community. It could be through an organized affair or one person at a time, Dawn seeks out talent and stuff; yes, that’s what she does, she seeks out people’s stuff (the obvious and the hidden) and then she promotes their artistic ways; yes, yes, that’s exactly what she does. And, all of this basically means people get what they deserve because of her efforts, which of course is pretty good stuff.I dedicate the Most of What I Got I Deserved chapter to Dawn Arnold, Chairperson of the largest literary event in Atlantic Canada, The Frye Festival. To me, that house was a rather charmless looking place, and then they moved in… Lorraine and Marcel made a choice, a very interesting choice. They decided to invite some young men who needed assistance with reading, writing, arithmetic and other stuff to live with them and their two young daughters on a full-time basis. Not one or two young fellas, no, no, five young fellas all came to live with Lorraine and Marcel. And, so Lorraine and Marcel helped their daughters and those five young men with reading, writing, arithmetic and other stuff. Their daughter’s eventually grew up and moved on to pursue their own lives but not those five (now not so young fellas), well, they were still there, still getting the benefits of Lorraine and Marcel’s stuff. Now, I’d say this story is quite charming in itself; yet, there’s more… Each year, immediately following the putting away of Christmas decorations; Lorraine and Marcel celebrated the next occasion, and the next, and the next… Christmas, Valentines, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Acadian Day, Halloween, Remembrance Day, and every single birthday and other occasion were celebrated with decorations, costume and food. In fact, every time I visited Lorraine and Marcel something was being celebrated. Loads of decorations to put up and to put away, through good times and the tough times, year in and year out, they faithfully decorated that house for those five fellows. Lorraine and Marcel not only helped those five young men with reading, writing, arithmetic and other stuff, they made sure the lads lived in a charming home 365 days a year. I dedicate the I’d Rather Have a Charmless House Full of Charm than a Charming House Full of Charmless chapter to Lorraine and Marcel Leger, parents to many folks. Her life was like a road full of twists and sharp turns, and through all of that, she found her straight stretch of highway… She has survived years of having less “things.” She has fended off the temptations of drugs and other abuses. She has worked her way there through good choices, goofy choices and unsafe choices. She does not let the twists and turns of her life deter her from finding the way. When you meet her you immediately feel the warmth of her charm and her smile. And, when she hugs you…she means it. Is she an angel? Robyn is just a Regular Folk who took the long way around to get settled into the Regular Folks way of life, which also may have helped her discover what many fail to recognize, and that is to appreciate what she has. I dedicate the Be Careful What You Wish For chapter to Robyn Kirkpatrick, working professional, loving wife and mom to one fortunate daughter. Every day Jeff’s sells stuff to people; some friendly people; some grumpy people; and dear me, some people with emotional allergies… I’ve met Jeff on a few occasions to buy stuff for our community drop-in-center; and you know what, he always presents himself like the rest of the sales folks working there, even though it may not be his role to take care of me that day. His team of workers are dedicated to serving their customers through happy emotions and upset emotions. Jeff and his team tolerate and help us through. They do not get defensive and angry at unruly visitors, no, they put up with that lousy stuff we throw at them sometimes; quite simply, they know how to enjoy liking being disliked. The sales team doesn’t always like what we do; nonetheless, they always like for us to be happy. Who wouldn’t buy from that guy Jeff, I know I do. I dedicatethe, Me Buddy is Me Customer chapter to Jeff Kelly, President, Sounds Fantastic. In a job where 50% of the people often dislike you and the other 50% are usually not happy with you when you lose, it’s unusual to find a Regular Folk working here… In my opinion he is a true blue Regular Folk, even though he is a lawyer, working in a career surrounded by winning and losing. A career where winning leads to strength, confidence, control, and sometimes the illusion you are better (or more intelligent) than others. I believe René the lawyer (and a few other Regular Folk’s lawyers like him) tries to avoid the path of power and self indulgence. I think he exercises enough strength to solve resolutions without causing undue destruction to people’s lives. My theory is Regular Folks lawyers try to remain humble in the midst of victory, deflecting self righteousness; which probably means less wealth in their lives (versus the Other Folks solicitors who don’t mind “the pillage of the village.”) Simply put, René knows about the “trials” and tribulations of life through his volunteer work with the Boys and Girls Clubs and other community organizations; he knows about being a regular folk; and he tries to check his arrogance at the door, and NOT screw up a good thing.I dedicate the How to Screw Up a Good Thing chapter to René Basque, Lawyer, Actus Law firm. He lives and works in a world of perceptions…. Whether he says so or not he is in one of those “expert” positions; a position in the public eye that projects leadership, trust, wisdom and knowledge. Few choose his way a life, a vocation that is often done alone. And, when he (or others in his flock) say and do things, people watch and make perceptions; some wonderful-some not so wonderful. The perception out there is that Phil does not fit the definition of what a Regular Folk generally is; yet, out of the fog of perceptions he walks among the Regular Folks and carries on like a regular guy. Phil does not put himself above or below others; integrates himself into his community, and puts his “expert position” away when it needs to be put away. He’s a Regular Folk with expert stuff who respectfully manages his expert stuff. I dedicate the Expert Advice is Not Always the Best Advice chapter to clergyman, Father Phil Mulligan. Flip, flop and fly, there’s more than one way to reach the sky… Meet Olivia. She is friendly, social and full of energy. She’s athletic, a dedicated volunteer and just a pleasure to have around. She has stuff, stuff and more successful stuff. In addition to that stuff Olivia works hard at schoolin stuff to meet and surpass those pass ranges schools set down. All of this makes her the perfect person to awaken me (and hopefully you) the way life should work. It’s simple you see; Olivia works hard at all her schoolin and other stuff to muster up the best she can be. She “teaches” me that education is one way to have a successful life and she also “teaches” me…it is not the only way. I dedicate the I’d like to Blame You if You Don’t Mind chapter to Olivia Gallant, middle school student. Hardly the innocent, actually a bit of a rowdy, I should know, I coached him… He was a bit of a rebel who spent his fair share of time in the penalty box for doing hockey stuff. Nonetheless, Todd was one of my go to guys to help out the “clunkers” on our hockey team (the clunkers, a terrible label used by coaches back then, given out to players with below average hockey skills). Though most would have considered helping the clunkers a waste of their time, Todd (amidst his game incarceration time) was very dedicated to helping them out. He was patient and treated the less talented players with respect. He didn’t talk down to them and he showed them stuff so they could improve; an unlikely combination of trouble and kindness, that’s what Todd was back then. Over the years Todd continued his ways of helping out in other ways, doing stuff and sharing his knowledge with those around him. And, nowadays, well, he’s a tad less rowdy, though he’s still doing lots of helping out stuff. I dedicate the Close Your Pout or Help Out chapter to Todd Prime, Operations Manager, Information Technology Division, J.D. Irving, Limited. She was so nice, are you sure she worked for the government… Over the years me love Beth and I have spent a lot of time in Alma and Fundy National Park (FNP), nestled in the beauty of Albert County, New Brunswick. It was very common for our two children, Brett and Justin, and their grandparents Grammy (Pauline) and Papa (Jim) to camp and hangout there in the wind, the rain and the snow. In our tent, our tent trailer, our trailer and that gas eatin motor home, FNP is where we always ended up. In fact, we love Alma (and Fundy Park) so much that we now own a house there, which we frequent almost weekly. Going to Alma and the park was a family tradition, and Hazel the government worker played an important part. You see, Hazel, like most folks in Albert County, have a special gene; a gene I call the “Yo” gene, as in the; “Yo, come on in” gene. Hazel, the park government worker did stuff not common to government; she bent over backwards to welcome us (and the other campers too), and I’m sure the government Higher Ups did not always understand the purpose of her friendliness. Hazel, a classic Regular Folk, working for an unclassic boss, doing stuff for us, stuff not always written in the government book of, “how to handle a tourist.” She made us feel welcome, special, and her #1. And, there are lots of other Albert County folk like Hazel working in that park, doing that good Regular Folks stuff. Hazel is embedded in our family memories, right up there with those wonderful camping traditions… I dedicate the Keep Your Fork chapter to Hazel Dixon, the FNP government worker packed with sugar and spice. The bond that joins them is the difference between them… Noella does her task stuff sitting. Lorne does his task stuff standing. He is quiet, she’s front and center. Lorne is reserved. Noella is a “firecracker.” She does it one way and he does it the other. You know what else? Lorne enjoys “letting go” so Noella can be Noella, and Noella returns to “her man” the same devotion. They are opposite by some habits, yet they believe in each other. Their life plan is a sharing of stuff using a simple relationship formula; “We need each other to make this work so let’s work together instead of apart.” Their relationship is cooperative, mutual and sexy, just the way buddies should be. I dedicate the Who’s Your Buddy? and Settling Into Old Geezer Hood chapters to Noella and Lorne McDonald, Buddies in love. I think I know how they do it. They find their way and they lose their way and they do it together; that’s how I think they do it… George and Susan are regular folks doing something, well…pretty sweet! They bring up children, lots of children; sometimes children no one else wants. I ask Susan and George, “Including the five children presently living with you, how many children have you had under your care?” They smile, shrug and then list off the names of their children, “How many is that Jerry?” You see, George and Susan don’t care about numbers because that’s not why they do what they do. They invite children to live with them because they love children and they love that their faith gives that child a chance in life. And, to make this even sweeter, George and Susan don’t just foster children, they adopt the little ones. They believe the best way for a child to be part of their home is to be part of their family, which also means that whether the children are at home or living out on their own, George and Susan are always there. Susan and George take what they know and carefully blend this with guidance and love to create a good start, middle and finish for the many young folks they welcome. I dedicate the Feelings, Nothing More Than Feelings chapter to Susan and George Nelson, Parents. Come on, really, what kind of person wants to work the night shift for thirty somethin years… Actually, I know one person, Glen. In fact, Glen chose to work nights so he (and his wife Rita) could have more time in the day to volunteer for Special Olympics. And, did Special Olympics ever get a good deal… Glen’s entire life in Special Olympics has been dedicated to finding the tapped and untapped talents of his athletes. And, I’m not always talking about the sport they’re engaged in. I’m also talking about their attitude toward positive living; toward dedication to each other; toward responsibility and attendance; and toward a commitment to trying. It’d be nothing for Glen (or one of the other coaches) to replace their star baseball pitcher (full of tapped talents) with a less talented pitcher who may not pitch like a star; yet nonetheless, bring so much untapped talents to the mound, the fans in the stands would be cheering with ovation. You see, more than once, Glen’s chosen teams to Special Olympic events were not always his best individual athletes; more accurately, they were his best team. Glen could win and lose with his best players and he could win and lose without them; all he cared about was maximizing the talents of people. He sees something in people few of us can even begin to understand. I dedicate The Regular Folks Artist to Glen Agnew, Special Olympics coach; recipient of the Harry Red Foster Award, the Special Olympics National Volunteer Award and inductee to the Moncton Wall of Fame. He speaks Italian and French and uses a translator for English; all of this making him one brave person to do this… Lucio Cordisco was elected to the position of District Governor by a group of his peers; to lead them at meetings, at conventions, through public speaking, celebrations and unrest. That in itself is a daunting task and to make it more complicated the group he is leading speaks English, and Lucio, well, does little of that. How’d he do that? Simple really, Monsieur Cordisco removed these words from his vocabulary: Can’t, Won’t, and But. Lucio quietly, charismatically and persistently fended off the pessimists who said things like; “He can’t lead me if he doesn’t understand me.” “We won’t get anything done at this pace.” “He might be in charge but things are going to fall apart.” Lucio stood proud and stood strong. He mustered up new ways to communicate; recruited helpers and behold…he got the job done. Was it easy? Of course not. Was it smooth? It never is? Did it work? Yup. A Leader is only as successful as his flock and if the flock pulls together than he shall prosper. His flock went from can’t, won’t and but, to “we can do this and here’s how…” I dedicate the Cuss Words We Should Stop Saying chapter to Lucio Cordisco, professional tailor, dedicated volunteer and recipient of one of the highest awards handed out in Lions, the Melvin Jones Fellow. Quotes from the book "At the most inconvenient moment, drop whatever you’re doing and go out and play with your friends." "Of course it’s nice to have a charming-looking home, but I think it’s even nicer to have a comfortable one. No matter the look of your home, try to create a living space that welcomes and charms friends and family. It’s the little things that make a house a home."	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2100
__label__wiki	0.7729	0.7729	Phillip Ward Presents “The Last Word” By Quentin Crisp (AUDIO) Produced by Charlotte Robinson In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Phillip Ward about the worldwide publication of “The Last Word” which is the third and final installment of Quentin Crisp’s autobiographies. Between 1997 to 1999 Ward tape-recorded and later transcribed hundreds of hours of Quentin’s last words and upon his death Quentin left the rights and responsibility to publish “The Last Word” to Phillip who later enlisted former Pink News features writer Laurence Watts to help edit this must-read book. The previous two books in the trilogy “The Naked Civil Servant” which starred John Hurt made Crisp famous and “How To Become A Virgin” detailed his move to New York but “The Last Word” was really Quentin’s heartfelt swan song written by a man who knew the end was near. Crisp died from a heart attack in November 1999 in Manchester, England at the age of ninety. In “The Last Word” Crisp really shares his philosophies, wit, dignity and humor that he was infamous for as he said goodbye to the world. We talked to Phillip about the difficult task of editing Quentin Crisp’s words after his passing and his spin on our LGBTQ issues. When asked what advise he has for LGBTQ teens struggling with Trump’s presidency Ward stated, “This is an opportunity for LGBTQ teens to begin the process of tuning in to their "inner president” and tuning out our alleged president and his affiliated bullies. That’s a starter. They need to be reminded that Trump is what a bully looks like when left unchecked. Trump does not define you. You define you. Knowing that is a pathway for teens discovering their-own self-guidance and wisdom. Just like Quentin Crisp espoused, life is about finding out who you are and authentically expressing your truth in the world. I encourage teenagers to reach out to others and to understand that isolation and self-loathing are our greatest enemies, not Trump. Live your life with love, love in any form, including LGBTQ love. It’s a threat to those who hate us. That’s why some may continue to hate us for the unconditional love that we symbolize and more importantly teens need to realize that there is great power in love. For teens who are bullied they must seek help from others even if they receive it from across the country through Skype. There is strength in numbers and knowing that they are never truly alone is empowering and will hopefully ensure their safety, which is of paramount concern and ideally if they can they should find a qualified mentor that might make their process easier. We should volunteer our time to organizations that help teens and take the initiative in that respect. The greatest contribution that we can make is not to tell them they are merely accepted and tolerated but to enable them to profoundly feel and know in their hearts that they are loved and deeply cherished. Incumbent upon preceding generations to be the wind beneath their wings because they will perpetuate the legacy of love.” Phillip Ward is a consultant and researcher, curator, multimedia artist, photographer, poet and writer. Phillip was Quentin Crisp's personal assistant, dresser, typist, escort and travel companion for fourteen years until Mr. Crisp's death in 1999. Ward is the archivist and curator of the official Quentin Crisp website and is the literary and executor of Mr. Crisp's estate. For More Info: crisperanto.org OUTTAKE VOICES™ NOW ON HUFFINGTON POST...:) VISIT OUR OUTTAKE™ EQUALITY STORE OUTTAKE VOICES on iTunes Marilyn Rosen said... I can't wait to ready "The Last Word". Phillip Ward is so articulate and about matters that are important to everyone wanting to live an honest life. What an excellent interview. George T said... Wow, what eloquent commentary and insightful observation about unconditional love. Ward is right. Quentin Crisp's message is as timely today as it was when he walked this earth. Maybe even more so. Be yourself no matter what they say. This book promises to be a gift from beyond the grave. Today Is January 20, 2020 Charlotte Robinson Charlotte Robinson is an Emmy Award Winning Broadcast Journalist & Host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ a series of audio interviews with Global LGBTQ Leaders & Allies Established in 2008. UPDATES: OUTTAKE NEWS STREAM: OUTTAKE MEDIA Charlotte Robinson Host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ TWITTER @OUTTAKEVOICES 2020 Dinah Media Sponsor For More Info: thedinah.com Watch Our Historic 2004 Video Contact Us @ 617-817-3210 OR OUTTAKE MEDIA LLC P.O. Box 284 Boston, MA 02130 OR Email New Artistic Book Honors Pulse Nightclub 49 (AUDIO... Kate Clinton Annual LGBTQ Year End Review & More (... Alice Austen House Museum’s New Executive Director... Phillip Ward Presents “The Last Word” By Quentin C...	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2103
__label__cc	0.53187	0.46813	Vision Zero Canada Advocating for the elimination of death & injury on Canada’s roads. About ▽ Vision Zero Canada in the Media VZ Principles ▽ The right to safe mobility The 20th century paradigm The Vision Zero difference Qu’est-ce que la Vision Zéro ? Policies & Practices ▽ The safe systems approach for road safety ▷ The Safe Systems Approach Layer #1: The Driver Layer #2: Safe Speeds Layer #3: Safe Roads Layer #4: Safe Vehicles Table 1: Road User Injury Risk by Speed Table 2: Old vs. new style safety thinking VZ toolkit ▷ Vision Zero’s philosophy ▷ No traffic deaths are acceptable More onus on manufacturers, designers, regulators A public health perspective on road safety Design principles of vision zero ▷ Constrained motor vehicle space Modal separation Vision zero toolkit ▷ Median barriers Modern roundabouts Pedestrian islands Enforcement under vision zero ▷ On-board technology The challenge of non-professional drivers Preparing for autonomous vehicles Shared responsibility 2.0 Notes on reuse Ten Tips for Safe Systems UN Five Pillars for Road Safety (2011) ▷ Road Safety Management Safer Roads and Mobility Safer Vehicles Safer Road Users Post-Crash Response European Charter of Pedestrians’ Rights (1988) Blog ▽ Open letter to Mayor Jim Watson in the wake of the Westboro bus crash Some lessons for Saskatoon … and every Canadian city The state of urban cycling: A conversation with Chris and Melissa Bruntlett Crossing lines in Montreal Toronto needs real Vision Zero Road violence and the English Language George Orwell on Traffic Safety Edmonton Comes to its Senses around Pedestrian Hi-Viz A Plea for Vision Zero in Ottawa Welcome to Vision Zero Canada The work you’ll support the thanks you’ll get Swag / Agitprop sticker overview Bike sticker multipack ▷ Why sell these? #parkingdirty starter pack “I park in bike lanes” sticker multipack ▷ eco-pack “I park on sidewalks” sticker multipack ▷ “I stop in crosswalks” sticker multipack ▷ Autocollants du vélo sample stickers messages to tweet Vision Zero Principles The 20th Century safety paradigm Vision Zero—a term that’s increasingly being used and misused around the world—was coined by the Swedish government when it pledged to eliminate death and serious injury from its roads. Launched in 1997, Sweden’s Vision Zero program has attracted widespread attention by cutting its traffic death in half, in the space of just two decades. This remarkable achievement can be attributed to the commitment to failsafe systems of road design, vehicle design and speed control. Throughout North America politicians, transport engineers, police and professional advocates are now piously declaring that “no loss of life is acceptable” on our streets and highways. Many would have us think that by saying this, and that by setting zero or interim “moving towards zero” targets, they are “committing” to “Vision Zero.” But in most cases they are not doing anything worthy of the name. The essence of Vision Zero is not a nice sentiment or a target. It is, rather, the action of continuously and preemptively removing the very possibility of violence (and that means serious injury as well as death) from our transportation systems. True Vision Zero systems prioritize the safe passage of our most vulnerable populations, whether they are walking or using any number of light mobility devices from bicycles to wheelchairs. Before getting into the logisitics of safe systems policy, let’s look at some basic tenets of Sweden’s Vision Zero: Canada’s government, on all levels, is similarly obliged to ensure everyone’s safety. Section 7 of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms (drawing on Article 3 of the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights) states that: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice. Unfortunately this right is not adequately recognized in our transportation policies and practices. Over the past half century the legislation of technologies like seatbelts, airbags and advanced braking systems has dramatically reduced the rates of death and injury for people inside motor vehicles. Yet there has been little effective investment in systems—including crucial speed control measures—that reduce motor vehicle harm to people walking, cycling, or using light mobility devices such as scooters and wheelchairs. Largely as a result of this relative inattention to vulnerable road users, Canada is in an abysmal 28th place in global road safety rankings, with more than 1800 deaths and some 160,000 injuries on our roads every year. We have twice the number of per capita traffic deaths as countries like Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. The comparison becomes more pronounced when one considers that those places have far higher rates of active mobility, including vast numbers of seniors and children getting around under their own steam. The good news is that if we want safe, resilient, healthy communities we can demand that our leaders implement the safe systems approach that has made the bike-friendly Netherlands into the country with the world’s happiest drivers. But before getting to those best practices, let’s consider where we are continuing to go wrong. For the past century North American road safety has been dominated not by a safe systems approach, but rather by a shared responsibility paradigm. Since the early 1920s the “three E’s”—namely Engineering, Education and Enforcement—have been posited as the unassailable “pillars” of road safety thinking. By the middle of the last century, city streets across North America had come to be viewed as the domain of motor vehicles. Road design was geared towards the maximization of vehicle throughput, or Level of Service, as it was called in engineering jargon. So in the only domain where the bureaucrats did claim direct responsibility—engineering—safety was not the primary concern. 1927 poster instructing children to obey the crossing guard and the American Automobile Association. The other two legs of the traditional road safety stool—education and enforcement—are nominally focused on safety, and the onus is placed on the individual road user. By the 1920s many governments began adopting an adversarial approach to road users. Nobody was harangued more than pedestrians, who were taught defensive, deferential behaviours that not only maximized the flow of motor vehicled but also shifted liability for road violence away from the builders of roadways and vehicles. It was during these first decades of motordom that auto clubs, oil companies and municipal authorities worked hard to turn jaywalking from a casual slur into a punishable offense. While the admonishing of scofflaws was effective in establishing motor vehicle dominance, it did not turn back the rising tide of traffic violence. A 1955 CBC feature on the ‘success’ of Elmer the Safety Elephant—a mascot who urged kids to be responsible for their own safety in traffic—actually celebrated a recent 14% rise in child injuries on Toronto’s roads as a win, because the number of cars had gone up by 45% in the same years. Research over many decades has proven that educational campaigns—whether watch for cars or slow down for kids, wear a helmet or don’t text and drive—rarely result in the desired behavioural change. None of these admonitions to personal responsibility will protect us from the rising scourge of reckless drivers. There is a better way. Click image for source. The countries with the lowest levels of road violence have adopted a radically different paradigm of traffic safety. In contrast to the shared / personal responsibility ethos that remains a mainstay of North American road safety thinking, legislators and bureaucrats in the leading countries assume full responsibility for implementing failsafe systems. The Swedes and Germans call this approach Vision Zero, and the Dutch call it Sustainable Safety. In each case this safe systems approach is an evidence-based approach focusing on infrastructure, vehicle regulation and speed limits designed to protect all road users. While there is a strong ‘engineering’ component in the safe systems approach, it’s better to speak in in terms of design and regulation. That language reminds us that the aim is to build environments and mobility systems for human beings—with all the differences and limitations that this entails. The ‘safe systems’ approach has existed for generations, at least in theory. Failsafe road safety is implicit in these statements from a remarkably clear-headed and prescient 1946 op-ed by George Orwell. Orwell’s statements appear in a critique of defensive walking and driving campaigns, which he viewed as inherently ineffectual. His prescient embrace of failsafe strategies was not fully articulated into a system of ethical imperatives until many decades later. The following table from Neil Arason’s excellent introduction to safe systems nicely sums up the difference between the old and new mindsets. ✗ OLD STYLE THINKING ✓ NEW THINKING Responsibility to prevent crashes, injuries and deaths rests with individuals Responsibility to prevent crashes, injuries and deaths rests with system designers Focuses on what causes ‘accidents’ Focuses on what causes safety Allows individual errors to kill and harm It is unethical to allow individual failures to lead to death or serious injury 90 percent of the problem is people and driver error 90 percent of the solutions involve speeds, roads and vehicles Studies the effects of single road safety interventions one at a time Understands that road safety interventions work best together or in “bundles” Can only justify making improvements based on a “cost-benefit” analysis Understands the default is to make the motor vehicle and the road system safe Only works on problems with large numbers or high crash locations Makes the system safe everywhere Believes in the need for further “study” — waits for crashes and coroner reports to identify problems Recognizes that the evidence to act already exists. Proactively takes actions using data, crash testing, simulations, physics, etc. Ignores exposure to the motor vehicle as an injury risk factor. Ignores the carbon and pollution by-products of transportation. Embraces multi-modal transportation for better safety and environmental sustainability Click to tweet. For a fully-evolved safe systems approach, see this video from the home page of the Swedish initiative. (Share video via these links on Twitter and Facebook.) Vision Zero tenets are also beautifully summarized in the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2004). Since it would be hard to improve on this description, here is a lengthy quotation taken from pp. 19-20 of the report in the following PDF. Vision Zero is a traffic safety policy, developed in Sweden in the late 1990s and based on four elements: ethics, responsibility, a philosophy of safety, and creating mechanisms for change. The Swedish parliament voted in October 1997 to adopt this policy and since then several other countries have followed suit. Human life and health are paramount. According to Vision Zero, life and health should not be allowed in the long run to be traded off against the benefits of the road transport system, such as mobility. Mobility and accessibility are therefore functions of the inherent safety of the system, not vice versa as it is generally today. Until recently, responsibility for crashes and injuries was placed principally on the individual road user. In Vision Zero, responsibility is shared between the providers of the system and the road users. The system designers and enforcers—such as those providing the road infrastructure, the car-making industry and the police—are responsible for the functioning of the system. At the same time, the road user is responsible for following basic rules, such as obeying speed limits and not driving while under the influence of alcohol. If the road users fail to follow such rules, the responsibility falls on the system designers to redesign the system, including rules and regulations. Safety Philosophy In the past, the approach to road safety was generally to put the onus on the road user. In Vision Zero, this is replaced by an outlook that has been used with success in other fields. Its two premises are that: human beings make errors; there is a critical limit beyond which survival and recovery from an injury are not possible. It is clear that a system that combines human beings with fast-moving, heavy machines will be very unstable. It is sufficient for a driver of a vehicle to lose control for just a fraction of a second for a human tragedy to occur. The road transport system should therefore be able to take account of human failings and absorb errors in such a way as to avoid deaths and serious injuries. Crashes and even minor injuries, on the other hand, need to be accepted. The important point is that the chain of events that leads to a death or disability must be broken, and in a way that is sustainable, so that over the longer time period loss of health is eliminated. The limiting factor of this system is the human tolerance to mechanical force. The chain of events leading to a death or serious injury can be broken at any point. However, the inherent safety of the system—and that of the road user—is determined by people not being exposed to forces that go beyond human tolerance. The components of the road transport system—including road infrastructure, vehicles and systems of restraint—must therefore be designed in such a way that they are linked to each other. The amount of energy in the system must be kept below critical limits by ensuring that speed is restricted. Driving Mechanisms for Change To change the system involves following the first three elements of the policy. While society as a whole benefits from a safe road transport system in economic terms, Vision Zero relates to the citizen as an individual and his or her right to survive in a complex system. It is therefore the demand from the citizen for survival and health that is the main driving force. In Vision Zero, the providers and enforcers of the road transport system are responsible to citizens and must guarantee their safety in the long term. In so doing, they are necessarily required to cooperate with each other, for simply looking after their own individual components will not produce a safe system. At the same time, the road user has an obligation to comply with the basic rules of road safety. The quoted section goes on to indicate the main measures in place at time of writing (2004), and it describes the “sustainable safety” approach employed in the Netherlands. The entire 217-page report (PDF), beautifully indexed, remains an excellent primer on road safety worldwide. For more material on safe systems go to our Policies & Practice page, which includes an excellent safe systems video and tips from Canada’s leading road safety expert. For more on the intersection of principles and practices see the European Charter of Pedestrians’ Rights (1988), and the Five Pillars of the UN Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011). New #VisionZero #Canada main page, with heavily revised content. 📖 >> https://t.co/UOOPa15cQu What do you think? pic.twitter.com/fjJHwlIDMq — #VisionZero Canada (@VisionZeroCA) April 18, 2018 Via @AklConvs : @MattsBelin himself on the #VisionZeroDifference. pic.twitter.com/DxQpiuG8KB — #VisionZero Canada (@VisionZeroCA) November 19, 2017 EXCELLENT summary of the #VisionZeroDifference—basically a switch to state responsibility for a #publichealth crisis—by the great Claes Tingvall. 🇸🇪 took this to heart in 1997, and cut #roadviolence rates in half. Can we finally get serious 🇨🇦? Source: https://t.co/kJnDvSn9f1 pic.twitter.com/c38DmbNmae — #VisionZero Canada (@VisionZeroCA) January 5, 2019 PLEASE SHARE this page ... ESPECIALLY ON FACEBOOK if you have it, as that helps a GREAT DEAL. View visionzeroca’s profile on Twitter View slowottawa’s profile on Pinterest View graham-larkin’s profile on LinkedIn Bike Sticker Multipack Stick it to ’em! Visit our safe speeds sister site: Open letter to Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson in wake of the Westboro bus crash Crossing lines: Art & traffic safety in Montreal	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2108
__label__cc	0.54315	0.45685	November 16, 2008 November 17, 2008 M R Awasthi43 Comments on Which caste Lord Budha belonged to ? Which caste Lord Budha belonged to ? Technorati Tags: Gautam Budha,Caste,Kshatriya,Prince,Alms,Budhism Lord Budha, ‘Light of Asia’ and most divine a figure, was never the one to be confined to a caste as the world as a whole was his domain and he was humanity incarnate. Born around 6th century B.C., Gautam Budha was a Kshatriya, more popularly known as Rajputs and being son of king Siddodhan, his upbringing took place in Shakyan traditions as his father was of a Shakya sect amongst Kshatriyas ruling Kapilvastu. Gautam Budha himself is referred to as Shakyamuni. Later when Budhism was pioneered by Gautam Budha as a Sangh abandoning princely status and becoming himself a bhikshu moving from place to place seeking alms, his father Siddodhan had an objection contending that he should refrain from doing so as a Kshatriya can’t be supposed to live on alms. Gautam Budha’s reply to this was that as a Budhist he was neither a Kshatriya nor any other caste whatsoever, he belonged to a world where there were no caste barriers of any kind. Great Budha was not for any discrimination between a person and a person. Now that it is a total scenario of political domination on all counts, there are people to describe Gautam Budha as a non Kshatriya and that he belonged to a scheduled caste. No harm in belonging to a scheduled caste but there is no reason to far fetchedly over twisting the historical facts. One is supposed to be honest to history and no political mileage should be allowed to overtake the factual reality. The mission one leads is much more important than the caste which one belongs to. Those who aspire to honestly persue Budhism are the ones who practice equality based on a cause and not the caste. They are not to indulge in erasing history. Published by M R Awasthi NEELKANTH NEEK Consultant in Kanpur, India Read my blog About me ... Certainly not a celebrity but do have inquisitiveness to know things, realise them and live them to the extent possible. My interest in History, Art of Living and behavioural science is an element that inspires me.Am a poet,an author,a consultant, an advisor on computers and behavioural science.Served as Director in Central Board of State Bank of India.Remained associated with trade union activities and industrial relations as President,All India State Bank of India Staff Federation.Led a delegation on computers to several countries abroad number of times as from State Bank of India/ Banking Industry. Was twice accorded with NATIONAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE by All India Freelance Journalists Association, Chennai (India). My email address is: neelkanthshahi@gmail.com View all posts by M R Awasthi Categories history 43 thoughts on “Which caste Lord Budha belonged to ?” Pingback: Which caste Lord Budha belonged to ? « Avenues lahana198 August 22, 2009 — 3:30 am yes…Lord Buddha belonged to Shakya caste…. Sakshi rana March 4, 2010 — 5:19 pm yes!!!! most of the greatest kings were Rajputs…….and also, Lord Buddha …the originator of buddhism, religion that almost half of the world is following was Rajput origin…… i m proud of being Rajput …… the successor of such a great person, infact god…………………………… Amit singh rajput August 1, 2012 — 4:32 am ya sakshi,i am agree with you,nt nly gautam buddha,bt sri ram,sri krishna,pandavs,vikram aditya,maha rana pratap,prithvi raj chauhaan all were rajputs i am proud to be a rajput…as u do.. Mrinal Pradhan July 26, 2012 — 1:12 pm lord buddha didn’t believe in caste and yet nw you tell that you are proud to be from his caste…… Poonam September 10, 2012 — 1:45 pm Mrinal pradhan is right.lord buddha teach us that there is no any caste instead of two caste.One caste of male and second is female.So I am proud to be a part of buddhism. neelkanth September 10, 2012 — 2:36 pm My sincere thanks to you for your nice comment. ganesh October 9, 2012 — 11:05 am he was not rajput….. neelkanth October 9, 2012 — 2:55 pm skumar October 9, 2012 — 8:31 pm my dear friends bhagwan budha was Kshatriya (caste of ancient Bharata), not RAJPUT and other one……do not bound a god into caste friends. thanks neelkanth October 10, 2012 — 6:10 am Thanks for comments. Don’t you think Rajputs and Chhatriyas are just synonyms. aarohi October 1, 2017 — 7:27 pm Kshatriya Rajput hi hote h jai tripathi October 16, 2012 — 2:18 pm pahhle four caste hoti thi brahman;kshatriya;baishya;sudra pahle kshatriyo hi raja hua karte the so budhh is kshatriya mrityunjay mall October 27, 2012 — 4:11 pm i am sc/st hostel warden and also rajput.being rajput i am glade. Premchand mahaur December 12, 2012 — 8:43 am He was a skhatri (shakya koli) narendra maurya February 4, 2013 — 11:30 am Budha was belong to sakya means he was Mauryan empire, i think u all above are illiterate first you read history then give the comets sunil kumar May 19, 2015 — 2:41 pm In ancient days there was no traceability and outsider people took advantage of this. Then the caste system evolved and those got divided. The caste system was made permanent by chanakya advice means there were no dalit earlier. if A and B were two persons and A may be rich earlier than B but afterwards b become rich than A, then after 100 years if B remains rich then no one will imagine reverse. Think this in case of 2500 years. Read book “1 master 99 slaves ” where it is proved. neelkanth May 20, 2015 — 12:40 pm MY SINCERE THANKS FOR A RICH FEEDBACK PROVIDED BY YOU. Caste system started after chanakya and Buddha took birth 150 years early. Caste system is designation with permanent reservation. In if Brahman were present before chanakya then why they were not effective in Nand dynasty. Means after loss of porus and nand dynasty things changed. Abhishek MAURYA June 2, 2016 — 9:52 am he was kshtriya but it means not that he was raajput. he belonged to shakya caste nowdays known as Maurya ,kushwaha,saini,bhagat,shakya.etc neelkanth June 9, 2016 — 2:03 pm My thanks for the observation. Ashok June 9, 2016 — 9:14 am lord buddha believed in caste system. Because he made Ashok begger. Malcom Haddon June 18, 2016 — 1:35 pm Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Shakya (a Hindu Kshatriya prince of Kapilavastu) who later came to be known as Gautam Buddha. Gautam, because the Shakya caste belongs to Gautama gotra, which is actually a Brahmin gotra and Buddha means ‘the enlightened one’. The important point to note here is that even though Buddha founded a new religion (Buddhism), still his family and most of the Shakya clan remained Hindu. Only a very few Shakyans actually converted to Buddhism. Due to this even at present day the majority of Shakya people follow Hindu religion and not Buddhism. But unlike Jews and Christians (we all know that Jesus Christ was a Jew who founded Christianity) who are hostile towards each other, Buddhism is more like an extension of Hinduism rather than a separate religion. Buddha himself is considered as Ninth avatar of Hindu god Vishu in Hindu Puranas. Shakya caste in Hindus and Shakya caste in Buddhism, both still identify themselves as Hindu Kshatriyas as they originally did. Shakya Dynasty has origins in India. Shakya dynasty is part of Hindu religion and is one the many ruling Kshatriya dynasties of ancient times. Kshatriyas were the warrior clans in Hindus. The American/British readers who are not much aware of Hindu religion can just keep in mind that Hindus are divides into 5 varnas or castes: Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors/kings), Vaishyas (merchants), Shudras (common people) and Dalits (untouchables). The status of Kshatriyas during Vedic period was considered highest but later Brahmins took an equivalent or maybe a slightly higher status due to their priestly and spiritual duties. Shakya (Sanskrit: Śākya, Devanagari: शाक्य, Pāli: Sākya) is a Suryavanshi Kshatriya caste of Hindu religion. The name is derived from the Sanskrit word śakya which means “the one who can”. The Genealogy of Shakyas is found in Book IV of Vishnu Purana, the Shrimad Bhagavatam and the Brahma Purana. The Śākyas formed an independent republican state, known as Sakya Gaṇa-rājya. The Śākya capital was Kapilavastu (Pāli: Kapilavatthu) lies near to the India-Nepal border of present-day Uttar Pradesh state of India. This system of administration is adopted by the Constitution of India which identifies India as a republican state or Ganatantra (republic). The most famous Shakya was the prince Siddhartha Shakya (5th century BCE) who was the founder of Buddhism and came to be known as Gautama Buddha. Siddhartha was the son of Suddhodana. Suddodhana was the king of Shakya Republic. As Gautama Buddha founded a new religion and abdicted the throne, so the lineage continued with his son Rahula. According to Garuda Purana (1.86.10-11), Buddha is the ninth avatar of lord Vishnu; Rama and Krishna were seventh and eighth avatars respectively. Kushal Singh Chauhan July 8, 2016 — 2:55 am mahendra panwar July 8, 2016 — 5:19 am he borned in kshtriya .. .but they dont belive in castisioum.. kshtriya is histroy of lord budha. Rajeev (Abhay) Mishra August 12, 2016 — 11:34 am The Brahmin lineage: Gautama Gotra The Shakya caste belongs to Gautama gotra, which is a Brahmin gotra. This is because the Shakya clan, even though a Kshatriya caste, traces its lineage from Maharishi Gautam (Hindi: महर्षि गौतम) one of the great seven rishis or Saptrishi. This is the reason why Buddha is known as Gautam Buddha. But not only Buddha himself, but also his father Shuddhodhana and his cousin Ananda, were addressed as Gautama; while Mahapajapati and her sister Maya, both belonging to Shakya clan(kula), bore the name Gautami. That it was customary, in addressing the individuals in question, to use not the kula name (Shakya) but gotra (Gautama), shows how high a value was set – precisely in the ranks of Khattiya (Kshatriya) – upon membership in one of the ancient gotras. This finds expression also in a verse which frequently recurs in Buddhist Suttas: “The Khattiya is regarded as the best among people who set a value on gotta”. Similar to Shakya caste, Lord Mahaveer, the founder of Jainism, was a Kshatriya but belonged to Kashyapa gotra which is also a Brahmin gotra from Maharishi Kashyapa, who was also one of the Saptrishis. Ravi Shakya September 3, 2016 — 7:42 pm According to Hindus, Prince Siddhartha born in Kshatriya family but when he became Buddha after that he taught Brahmins and others so he is also a Brahmin. Then Son of Buddha(Rahula) was a Brahmin so whole Shakyas should come in Brahmins but that’s a not truth only same peoples write Brahmins.The right thing is actually nobody can tell exact caste of Lord Buddha. According to Indian mentality , i am going to tell you a truth, Shakya Caste is the only caste in this world who gave a very large religion to the world, this religion is not have in India only whole world are following, i want to tell you some truth……. Shakya people form a strong caste and community in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar and some Shakyas are also live in Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore etc. In Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore etc they all are Buddhism Guru or Brahmins. In Nepal, Shakya caste is mostly Buddhist. Even though they are a Kshatriya caste in Hinduism, in Buddhism they are equivalent to Brahmin caste because of their role as priests in Buddhism. In Tibet, Shakya are Buddhist Brahmin caste or Priests. In Myanmar, Shakyans are descentants of the legendary King Abhiraja Shakya. Abhiraja Shakya belonged to the ruling Shakya Dynasty of India/Nepal. He migrated to the present-day Burma after the annexation of the Shakya kingdom by Kosala and established the Kingdom of Taguang. In Sri Lanka, Shakya caste is known as Sinhalese, which was the ruling dynasty of Sri Lanka. Descendant of Buddha’s cousin Pandu Shakya was King Pandukabhaya who established the Kingdom of Anuradhapura which lasted more than 600 years. Sinhalese is the national language of Sri Lanka and Sinhalese people are a majority, forming the ruling political party. so Now, i am coming to the point so please don’t compare with caste of Lord Buddha, he was the only person who gave peace to whole world from the caste and some others things…. Manoj tiwari October 7, 2016 — 2:52 pm So if Gautam Buddha was Kshatriya or may be Brahman then why people of dalit are using the slang to upper cast and one more thing I would like to share baba Ambedkar teacher was too Brahman even mayawati become a cm just because of Brahman Ambedkar is cast of Brahman in Maharashtra and even all the expenses of study of Ambedkar borned by a rajput king so if upper cast like Brahman and rajput did so many work for dalit then why the dalit people slang upper cast .shame on neelkanth October 9, 2016 — 10:19 am My sincere thanks with a gratitude I owe you for your tangibly positive support.I wish your views are received well by others. Vipin Mishra October 11, 2016 — 2:01 am Gautam Buddha belonged to Shakya caste of Kshatriya varna. His vansha was Suryavansha and gotra was Gautam. Shrimad Bhagavatam lists the names of the kings of Suryavansha Dynasty (also known as Ikshvaku Dynasty). These were the decendants of Lord Rama’s bloodline. Srimad Bhagvatam, canto 9 (Descendants of Suryavansha after King Brihadbala): Vrihadbala / Brihadbala. At the beginning of Kali-Yuga Brihadbala was ruling Kosala. He was killed by the Pandava, Abhimanyu. Brihadrana (Brihatshaya) Urukriya (Urukshaya) VatsaVriddha (Vatsavyooha) Prativyoma (Prativyom) Divaka. The Bhavishya Purana states Divakara as the son of Prativyoma. Brihadasva Bhanuman (Bhanuratha) Pratikasva (Pratitashva) Supratika Marudeva (Merudeva) Sunakshatra Pushkara Antariksha. There is a variation in the Bhavishya Purana as Antariksha is stated to be descended from Sunakshatra as follows: Sunakshatra -> Kinnarashva -> Antariksha. Sutapa (Suparna) Amitrajit (Amitarajit) Brihadraja (Brihadbhrija) Barhi (Dharmin) Kritanjaya Rananjaya Sakya (Shakya) Suddhoda Shakya. The Bhavishya Purana states that he was Suddodhana, the father of Gautama Buddha and since Buddha abdicated the throne the lineage continued with his son Rahula. Langala (Rahula) Shakya Prasenajit (Prasenjit) Kshudraka (Kshudvaka) Ranaka (Kulaka) Suratha Sumitra. Suchit Singh Tomar October 13, 2016 — 6:59 am गौतम बुद्ध का जन्म हिन्दू क्षत्रिय वर्ण की शाक्य जाति में हुआ था \| भगवान् बुद्ध का नाम सिद्धार्थ शाक्य था \| विष्णु पुराण में शाक्य जाति को एक सूर्यवंशी क्षत्रिय जाति बताया गया है \| गौतम बुद्ध के पिता शाक्य गणराज्य (कपिलवस्तु) के राजा शुद्धोधन शाक्य थे , तथा उनकी माता कोलिय राज्य की राजकुमारी माया थी \| गौतम बुद्ध जन्म 483 और 563 ईस्वी पूर्व के बीच शाक्य गणराज्य की तत्कालीन राजधानी कपिलवस्तु के निकट लुंबिनी, नेपाल में हुआ था। neelkanth October 13, 2016 — 12:13 pm My sincere thanks with a gratitude I owe you for your tangibly positive support. HAPPY DUSSEHRA. Satyender November 14, 2016 — 2:09 am My question is, was Lord Gautama Budda was an Aryan or Non-Aryan? Was he a Shudra king or Kshatriya? shyam bhausaheb chirkhe November 13, 2016 — 2:06 pm i am proud is gautam buddha is kshtriya caste and a think is a needed in this future but i am sad is mahar caste people not follow gautam buddha rule Raviraj Singh Yadav December 1, 2016 — 4:30 am As per Vishnu Puran, Gautam Buddha belonged to Shakya caste of Suryavanshi Kshatriyas. Buddha belonged to the same bloodline as Lord Rama. Caste of Buddha: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/shakya-caste-and-kingdom/gBPtWUl0fCY/N-l3rvxqBgAJ neelkanth December 1, 2016 — 1:26 pm My sincere thanks with a gratitude I owe you for your tangibly positive support. Virendra Rajput December 24, 2016 — 5:16 am Gautam Buddha belonged to Shakya Rajput caste of Suryavanshi Kshatriyas. His father Shuddhodhana was the ruler of the Shakya Republic of Kapilavastu. His mother Maya was the princess of the Koliya kingdom of Devadaha. Nidhi singh August 16, 2017 — 3:33 pm every persons their own perception about caste..somewhere i heard that he belongs to a kurmi kshatriya caste…should i also need to be proud of my caste?…no body can come to know gautam buddha caste..so stop doing castiesm..if he belongs to rajput or other caste..so why we are not making statue in hindu temples with other lords M R Awasthi August 16, 2017 — 6:14 pm THE PERSON CONCERNED IS IMPORTANT AND NOT THE CASTE AND SO WAS THE LORD BUDDHA. BY THE WAY DIFFERENT HISTORIANS HOLD THE VIEW THAT HE WAS A KCHHATRI. WHAT WAS HIS CASTE IS IMMATERIAL BUT HE WAS ”THE LIGHT OF ASIA”, ALL OF US ARE PROUD OF HIM HOLDING HIM IN HIGH ESTEEM. THANKS FOR YOUR VIEWS. Prem Koli June 29, 2017 — 7:18 pm Lord Budha Was A Shakya Koli By Caste. The Caste Of Lord Budha Was Koli & Subcaste Was Shakya & Dynasty Was Ikshwaku. Shakya Are Subcaste Of Koli Community In India & Nepal. The Koli Community Calls Lord Buddha As Koli Prince. Maharaja Suddodhan Shakya Of Kapilvastu & Maharaja Anjana Of Devdaha Was Brothers. Both Was From Ikshwaku Dynasty. neelkanth July 1, 2017 — 2:08 pm Your well meant comment is welcome. My sincere thanks. http://Www.Kolistan.Blogspot.In Sarah Carlson August 21, 2017 — 5:47 am I came across your Which caste Lord Budha belonged to ? – Avenues website and wanted to let you know that we have decided to open our POWERFUL and PRIVATE website traffic system to the public for a limited time! You can sign up for our targeted traffic network with a free trial as we make this offer available again. If you need targeted traffic that is interested in your subject matter or products start your free trial today: http://stpicks.com/27 Unsubscribe here: http://pcgroup.com.uy/2a Previous No abuses, please ! Next Prithviraj Chauhan -It’s a virtual clash on views ! Compassionate appointments in banks reintroduced:	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2115
__label__cc	0.680111	0.319889	More Scared Climate Scientists Share Their "Feelings" Eric Worrall / June 27, 2017 Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick sharing her feelings at a protest. Source Flickr, author Takver, Creative Commons Attribution License, modified – original image cropped Guest essay by Eric Worrall What do you do when your feeble climate evidence fails to convince? Climate scientists reveal their fears for the future Cradling her newborn baby girl, heatwave expert Sarah Perkins Kirkpatrick admits to feeling torn between the joy of motherhood and anxiety over her first-born child’s future. “I always wanted a big family and I’m thrilled. But my happiness is altered by what I know is coming with climate change,” she said. “I don’t like to scare people but the future’s not looking very good. “Having a baby makes it personal. Will this child suffer heatstroke just walking to school?” ‘I wouldn’t want to live in Brisbane or further north’ How hot could it get? All of Australia is vulnerable to climate change but Dr Perkins Kirkpatrick said as the decades progress, some regions will be better off than others in terms of heatwaves. “We’ve already seen changes in heatwaves, particularly their frequency, and these heatwaves are only going to get worse, particularly in the tropics, where the number of heatwave days will be much greater than now,” she said. Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-27/climate-scientists-speak-of-their-worst-fears/8631368 There are plenty of reasons to live North of Brisbane, such as the balmy 73F winter day I’m currently enjoying. Up here on the edge of the tropics, we have discovered a simple solution to heatwaves, a solution which obviously hasn’t filtered down to our cousins in more temperate regions. Our solution to heatwaves – stay indoors, crank up the air conditioning. Or wear a hat and drink lots of water, if you have to be outside. June 27, 2017 in Alarmism. SMH: Drought Breaking Aussie Rain is a Disaster for Climate Change Say Bye Bye Trees: Climate Scientists Finally Claim We Passed a “Tipping Point” British TV Personalities Savage Aussie Politician Over Climate Action, Bushfires ← In Search of the 3% Renewable Energy ‘Tipping Point’. Study: Another example of how California bollixes carbon regulation through biofuels → 240 thoughts on “More Scared Climate Scientists Share Their "Feelings"” So sad,.. delusions for life will infect the newborn. Regardless of the argument,… raising a new sprout on negativity, misandry and perspective of misery might be considered ‘child abuse’ in some corner. Hope they brighten-up and learn to be more positive and constructive in their lives. Karma {way of thinking founded on hubris of control} is the path to 181,00 rebirths of suffering and misery. Seek enlightenment! Forget the nonsense,.. Goldrider says: Who lets their kid “walk to school” any more? Most places, you get busted for “risk of injury to a minor” if they’re out of your sight until they’re 26 years old . . . /sarc! Catcracking says: Sparky, very good points. I wonder if this woman is fit to raise a child. The poor child could be exposed to such irrational thinking on global warming and who knows what else. Are the college professors pumping such nonsense into their students. Hopefully some will take your advice as they grow up. Hopefully she is just acting to get attention since that seems to be popular today with the anti Trump folks. toorightmate says: Is it too much to hope that she does no more breeding? As the judge said to the dentist, “Take the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth>” The climate “scientists” should worry about employability after being involved in the greatest academic fraud of the 20th century, spilled for almost a generation into the 21st century. M Seward says: I watched parts of this sideshow alley bit on ABC’s Lateline program and was just appalled at the antics of these so called scientists. That sort of narcissistic grandstanding says all you need to know about the substance of their science…there is none imo. As for the snivelling & sobbing 0f Dr Hyphenated-Name with lots of makeup, it was the trigger for me to switch off and hit the sack for a good night’s sleep, safe in the knowledge that climate scientists are truly just a silly joke. Going on about her fears for her baby girl in the future, Dr Hyphenated-Name struck me not so much as a bit of a ‘helicopter parent’ ( that is so 20th century anyway) but rather as the latest iteration, the ‘drone parent’. The poor kid. The poor, poor kid. Parents who think they are saving the world and their kids but have really just developed anew form of child neglect if not abuse. So why did she have a baby if it is only going to contribute to CAGW ?? What people say they “feel” and what they do, in response to other feelings, are two different things. What someone “feels” and 0.92 cents will get you a senior coffee at McDonalds. Obviously on paid parental leave from some university/government dept. Now worried about funding of her department (its that time of the year again) so makes utterance about child’s future to get fellow travelers worried that without windmills and panels there is no future. Not worried about aircon because there will be not enough power to run same from windmill. I know several mothers like this. What they are really worried about is their future in a world that no longer needs them. Pushing an idea without any result is now unraveling. Big government is running out of money. I think we’ve missed the big picture thingy here: Viewing models & more models, this young woman has obviously discovered that NOBODY HAS SURVIVED LIVING IN AUSTRALIA FOR THE LAST 30,000 YEARS. ALL PREVIOUS AUSTRALIAN HISTORY IS A FRAUD, PERPETRATED BY REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS. “CRIMINALS FROM ENGLAND” IS JUST A CRUEL JOKE. I feel very fortunate to have seen this between the lines of this anguished young woman’s concerns for her (only) child, apparently an undernourished vegan, who will have to walk at least 5 miles to/from school (uphill both ways), without a proper hat. Oh, the humanity! Yirgach says: Moving South?? http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/video/201706/CNb_ClimateLATELINE_2706_1000k.mp4 Sorry, the best I can do is this: Gabro says: The mad fools! Apparently they actually take this garbage seriously, and aren’t just in it for the money, career enhancement and virtue signalling. Never underestimate the intense stupidity of educated idiots. afonzarelli says: Gabro, look at the bright side… She may end up deciding not to have any more kids, thus saving the gene pool! (i would add, too, that maybe her child will die of heat stroke walking to school, but i’m not that mean… ☺) (i am mean, i’m just not THAT mean)… “I always wanted a big family and I’m thrilled. But.but, WHAT ABOUT SAVING THE PLANET? As usual these hypocrites think other should do all the save the planet stuff and they can go on with their lives as long as they pay lip service. If you look at all the shit in the world right now, climate change is 100y time is the least of the problems her newly born will have to face. Gabro, Perhaps . . but it’s all a big IF they are speaking of . . beware false prophets, eh ; ) there is a type of lonely person who enjoys confession and joins various 12 step programs for the drama and camaraderie. she just must have got herself kicked out by the drunks… GlenM says: The only heatwave this lass experienced was during coitus. Richie says: @GlennM One can only hope she’s had that experience. Don’t go there being misogynic. Termites like big families too. I have no idea if it thrills them or not. I always thought that it was all about the thrill, not about the big family. Howcum J.S. Bach had such a big family ?? The Reverend Badger says: Good work, Watson. Holmes would be impressed. Trebla says: These people are like dolphins. When trapped in a trawler’s net, although they are intelligent, it never occurs to the dolphin to simply jump up, over and out of the net, an ability that they demonstrably have. Like the dolphins, it never seems to occur to climate scientists that man is an adaptive species. Many of our ancestors came out of Africa to populate the cold, harsh northern regions of Europe. We are the consummate adapters. We developed ways to keep warm while our bodies gradually adapted to the cold. I’m pretty sure we can go in the opposite direction just as easily. So I would say to the good Doctor, don’t worry, be happy! Buy a nice window A/C, down a pint and enjoy yourself! Our descendants will probably be just as adaptive as our ancestors (and we) are. By the way. Dr Perkins-Fitzpatrick is very concerned about the future, but in the end, she did have a baby, so I would go with what she does, not what she says. ClimateOtter says: To be fair dolphins most likely don’t see the net coming until too late. Picture driving down a road in light fog at night, with a dark wall moving towards you at the same time… jclarke341 says: Yes! The whole climate crisis meme ignores the dynamic adaptability of life and humanity. This is like sitting on the sofa fretting about starvation, while ignoring the fact that you have legs and could walk into the kitchen and get something to eat! Once you realize that you can actually do something to relieve your hunger (go get food), the whole idea of worrying about starving to death becomes pretty crazy. Never mind the bollocks! It isn’t even getting warmer!! drednicolson says: Reminded me of lines from an old-school Chicago (the band) song, “I haven’t been there lately. [the city] The country is so fine. People there don’t act hungry, ’cause they haven’t got the time.” Actually I think most of our ancestors came out of Africa and headed east. Then people from the East came back and tried to make a go of it in those cold northern places. Patrick MJD says: And I am sure they have no idea what a net is… No children ever born in the 300,000 year history of H. sapiens has ever faced fewer challenges than those lucky enough to enter the world in this century. Remember: your warranty expires at 25 years as the “young sprouts” take you “out”. We may have extended the human warranty, thanks to the scientific revolution since AD 1543, but in many fields of science and math, you’re right. Your best work will be done in your 20s. But the world couldn’t function with only people under 30. Somehow the Founding Fathers knew, without benefit of brain, skeletal and psycho-socio research, that humans aren’t fully mature until age 35. Us old farts are still needed to cuff the young dolts across the ear hole as needed. best work starts around 20’s but ends when you end up actually getting laid regularly. quit on a win, i guess…. As I’ll be turning 35 this year, ’tis good to know my maturity is complete. And I’ll be able to say, “I’m not old. I’m presidential!” (So far my requests for campaign contributions have all been met with blank stares. :] ) I manage ships. One oil major said, quite openly, your senior officers need experience. They need to have seen – experienced – problems. Trouble, if you like. Dealing with the sea – entirely right. Also exposure to “make do and mend” stories from older seafarers. How I gained most of my respect for the sea, until I had a green wave break over my bridge – about 75-85 feet above the water [23-26 metres]. Three wave trains from different directions, and we fell into the ‘hole’ ahead of the wall of water. If in trouble, they may not be specifically analog – but might give guidance to how a solution [temporary/until something better is devised/enough to get you to a safe port] is derived. Do our young people appreciate this hierarchy? Tim Hammond says: I would challenge that only slightly – because of antibiotic resistance. We have perhaps 20-30 years to solve that problem, or we will go backwards healthwise. Reading about the growth in numbers of the “anti-vaxxers”, maybe the human species is ALREADY going backwards! You know how anti-bacterial cleaners always say they kill “99.9%” of germs? I’d say it’s the 0.1% they DON’T kill that you need to worry about. Perhaps in 20-30 years we’ll be pioneering stuff like nanobodies–microscopic robots that can kill harmful bacteria at the cellular level–and won’t be using so many antibiotics. Emphasize that! Michael Palmer says: The “antibiotic crisis” is mostly an economical one. Regulation and litigation have driven the cost of drug development so high that pharmaceutical companies have little incentive to come up with new antibiotics. Consider that a course of treatment typically lasts some two weeks – after which the patient is either cured or dead (or switched to another drug because the first one failed). The drug companies find it far more attractive to develop drugs that people will take for the rest of their lives – whether those drugs will solve an unsolved problem or not. Antibiotic research in industry continues to decline even now. Scientifically, selectively killing bacteria remains a much simpler problem than selectively killing tumor cells, not to mention pipe dreams such as “curing Alzheimer’s”. There are many promising early-stage lead compounds, but again, getting anyone to sponsor the costly and risky clinical trials is the problem. Well they never had to try texting while driving, without walking off a cliff or on to a railroad track in front of the train. I believe that Charles Darwin wrote a book about texting while driving. tomwys1 says: There WILL come a day when (real) scientists rely on hard data that has been verified, validated, and cross-validated. I’m “feeling” we may have to wait a bit for that to happen!!! Plus lots. Not actually holding my breath! harveyhomitz says: What are the qualifications of a “Heat Wave Expert”? Reading a thermometer and hand waving perhaps. Steve Lohr says: Oh, how amusing. New born, right. Lady, I know from experience, while you might not know it, your worries about heat waves are leaving your world at escape velocity and your priorities are about to change big time. Sleep and caca disposal are about to surge to the forefront. But, then, she should be well versed in CACA. I don’t know about the baby, but she obviously came down with the last shower. It’s called ‘baby brain’ and it lasts for up to 10 years. After 10 years they then become entitled to tell everyone what to do. The excuse is that the ‘mother gene’ kicks in. Tom Halla says: But is Australia even getting significantly warmer? Perkins-Kilpatrick looks no more than thirty something, so if Oz is anything like the US, there probably has not been real warming during her lifetime. No place on Earth is getting significantly warmer. Jay Hope says: The stupid fool should be worrying about her sprog freezing its butt off from frost bite. I don’t see the make-up on her face melting. AndyG55 says: UAH Australia, 20 years https://s19.postimg.org/bu42tbw1f/UAH_Australia_20_years.png nb.. I just looked up the up to date chart. trend in 20 years is now 0.0019Cº/yr, down from 0.0022Cº/yr PANIC TIME !!!!! ron long says: AndyG55, now look at what you have done. You have gone all sciency on us and the poor (new) mother was talking about feelings. For instance, when I say “I feel it is time for a beer”, there is no need for science to get involved. John Michelmore says: Well, there you go, you’ve just removed the reason for only having one child! @ron- It’s definitely time for a beer! As soon as it warms up here in Canada, anyway. Newminster says: Ah, but it’s all definitely going to happen, Tom. Definitely. Absolutely definitely. And when it does it’ll be terrible. Definitely terrible. And unbearable. Absolutely unbearable. The Expulsive says: My father would tell me stories of the area around Balarat, how hot it would be in the late 20s and early 30s, the fires that ran through the Eucalyptus groves, jumping over roads, the fire breaks they had to build, the way they built houses with thick walls, etc. He maintained that the decades after the war were no where near as hot as the 30s Irrespective or whether it is actually hotter or not, they persisted and lived through it without air conditioning (just a lot of beer it seems). mikelowe2013 says: This shows just how easy it is to obtain a Doctorate nowadays. Such a simpleton cannot understand even the most well-known facts about CO2, as taught to most teenagers at school! Old Woman of the North says: Have a look at ‘The Carbon Cycle’ for school children. If you search for just that I was directed to a site that started out as normal but ended with a diatribe about the ‘pollutant CO2’ and how much warming it was causing. Everything has been tampered with. Facts about CO2 are no longer taught in schools. Only AGW Anti-Facts. No CO2, only “earth scorching CO2” in schools I just had lunch at a restaurant that had a big CO2 warning sign on a door leading to the kitchen. The sign said you could get asphyxiated if you went through that door, without paying attention to the high CO2 concentration in there. No ! I am not making this up. I am not an academic (retired CFO), so I can’t make heads or tails out of Dr Perkins-Kirkpatrick’s education (https://au.linkedin.com/in/sarah-perkins-kirkpatrick-6b123449). Her BS,MS and PhD were all in “Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology”, which kinda sounds “science-y”, but there is nothing obvious in her work that looks like real hard-core physics (and all the rigor that implies), although she did win the “Tall Poppy” award(?). Can someone decode her educational background to tell me if she’s an atmospheric physicist or a political scientist disguising herself as a physicist? Her PhD evaluated models. No doubt she found that they underestimated the dread horror of what is to come. ShrNfr says: She probably constructed a model to evaluate the models too… How does one evaluate a model. They change so often it is hard to judge. They don’t seem to care who is around, while they are changing. I guess they just get used to changing. Writing Observer says: @george – winner for today. And it’s time for another beer (can we get a consensus on that?) Her BS,MS and PhD… We all know what BS is, therefore MS must be more of the same and PhD means it’s piled higher and deeper. John Dunton-Downer says: Ha ha ha! Love that, thank you. The Deplorable Vlad the Impaler says: A Ph. D. is someone who has learned more and more about less and less, until they finally know everything there is to know about absolutely nothing at all. Well in many cases they are also the world’s leading expert on the subject of their PhD. In severe cases they are actually the only person who ever had any interest at all in the subject of their thesis. That can mean absolutely nobody will ever pay them for what they know. mickyhcorbett75 says: Her qualifications and experience shouldn’t be the point of contention. What is more pertinent is why people take science at its word. It’s the lack of education about the differences between raw science and verified actionable data that’s the problem. It’s a very bitter pill to swallow for some when you realise how hard it is to get reliable measurements. If someone is paying you in suitcases of cash you’re most likely going to swim in it at some point. mickyhcorbett75 No. Absolutely wrong. Most (95%+) citizens do not have the education to understand and self-diagnose complex scientific claims – respect is easily given to ethical & properly the educated specialists (like the cardiovascular surgeon who gave me a new heart valve). Charlatans deliberately cloak themselves in “science-y” degrees exactly so unsophisticated readers do not question them. My question is legitimate: exactly what the hell is the “virtue signaling”, fertile young woman educated in? The answers, so far, is “who the hell knows”. Javert I think we are agreeing on the same thing. It doesn’t matter what she is educated in, what matters is the quality of the output of her work. If the work is repeatible and verifiable then that’s good. If it’s just speculative science, that’s also good for the field but not for taking action. The public needs to be educated on the difference. Sadly they believe peer review means things are correct. Samuel C Cogar says: Javert Chip June 27, 2017 at 9:25 pm No decoding necessary because she is neither an atmospheric physicist or a political scientist. Her claim-to-fame expertise is that of being a ……. heatwave expert, ….. whatever that is I wouldn’t have a clue. To wit: Excerpted from above quoted commentary: “ Cradling her newborn baby girl, heatwave expert Sarah Perkins Kirkpatrick admits to …” Menicholas says: Yes, a heat wave expert foresees more and more heat waves in the future. Whodathunkit? If it gets really hot, stay in the bathtub until it cools off. She could always move to Canada. We know what to do when it gets hot. Take your clothes off and go to the beach! Most of the electricity generated for your air conditioner is from coal. What about poor people (e.g. post-grads) who can’t afford an air conditioner? The local McDonalds has good air conditioning… Our local public library has good air conditioning, good quality Wi-Fi, and even a small interior food court. If you could sleep inside or out in your car without the police sending you on your way for loitering, you could literally live there. Some people can’t even afford coal. Anything to get your name in the press, I suppose. This reminds me of a family that went on a hiking expedition in the summer around Alice Springs (in the dead centre of Australia) about 40 years ago. They had a newborn baby (about 1 week old) with them. It coped with the heat fine. The only time it complained about the temperature was when it’s mother took it into an airconditioned chemist; it started crying and would only stop when they took it outside again. So you can see just how ignorant this specious article makes this woman look. A friend should tell her not to have any more children, in the interests of increasing the average intelligence of humankind. johchi7 says: Ahh… a twist on Margret Sanger… Good show ol’ chap. Alan McIntire says: That reminds me of an old Will Rogers joke. When the Oakies headed for California, the average IQs of both states went up. “Oakies”? Ummm, “Okies”? Hivemind, I thought this was going to be the story that ended with this line: https://youtu.be/uNchssGIAME Didn’t WUWT mull over a similar “virtue signaling” situation (young scientist mother agonizing over her new child’s future in a hellishly hot world) about 6 months ago? MarkMcD says: So… we see ANOTHER true believer hypocrite. Scared of AGW but hey, WTH, “I’ll have a baby anyway and then use it to tell the world how scared I am to bring a baby into the world.” Do ANY of these lefty lot live up to their beliefs? They all demand that we non-believers must but I’ve yet to see any of them act ethically. Although, maybe there ARE some and they’ve given up computers? 😀 Just being leftist is to embrace hypocrisy. “Do as I say. Not as I do.” another one… “Socialism is for the people, not for the Socialist.” The Liberal Mind has a multitude of psychological disorders as Lyle H Rossiter Jr. MD. in his book “The Liberal Mind, The Psychological Causes of Political Madness” explains. I think the root of their mania is over-abstraction — thinking that ideas are more important than people. It makes a lot of their rank hypocrisies make more sense. The Conservative Mind generally believes the opposite, that people are more important than ideas. Scott alexander says: I never heard scientists expressing how they felt about Ebola, typhoid, cancer or any of the other real, immediate and widespread threats to human life. That they now feel the need to do so about climate change signals a daftness that does their credibility no good at all. Had to look up the author of the photo – to be sure that this wasn’t a “conveniently selected” one. Nope, by the guy’s politics, he probably used the best shot he had. So this woman always looks like she’s drugged to the gills? I’ve only seen those eyes on people just about to tank from too much Prozac. I always associated talking through nearly closed eyelids with lying. But I’m no expert. I was told that eyes whose pupils float upwards and are half-mast under the upper eyelids indicate a predilection for the occult. I Came I Saw I Left says: That look… she’s been smoking too much hopium. To be fair, having a newborn baby, maybe she hasn’t had much sleep lately. Or still hasn’t completely come off whatever pain killers they administered during labor. ATheoK says: “I Came I Saw I Left June 28, 2017 at 5:19 am Can’t be, she’d be hopeful then. Must be the other stuff, despairium downers with hot flashes. I don’t think she’s used to gong out in the scary, sunny outdoors. J. Philip Peterson says: Get an air conditioner, and when there is a brown/black out, have an ice box ready to help out. Or move north (I mean south in that upside-down world of OZ)… Maybe to NZ… John of Cloverdale, WA, Australia says: Australia had very little air conditioning when I grew up, in the fifties and sixties. I certainly remember the heat waves during those times. No wonder Clint Eastwood calls Little Miss climate scientist and her mates, the Pussy Generation. Now it makes you think, how did those pioneer women cope during the western expansion of the USA? They certainly didn’t curl up and die. Unlike this brainless twit. My great-great-grandmother crossed the cholera-infested plains and mountains on the Oregon Trail in 1852 at the age of 18, while pregnant. When writing her memoirs in 1905, she recommended that all young couples should have to traverse the continent in an ox cart, since there would then be so much less divorce. Any want of enterprise, ambition or resilience in the spouse would soon become evident. Today’s coddled academics are indeed the pussies to end all pussies. Their cluelessness is vast as all outdoors, indeed of the universe. Love your story, Gabro. Wish my great grandparents had written their memoirs. What I know about my ancestors is through my dear mum. Interestingly, she was born in May, 1910, when there was global panic and predictions that life on Earth would be extinguished by Halley’s Comet. I’ll second you on that. I just educated some youngsters on another site. I’m an Arizona native, born to parents from Arkansas and Mississippi. Dad worked in the heat of the day wearing cotton long johns under long sleeved tight knit shirts and cotton pants of light colors and straw hats. While my siblings and I wore tee shirts and shorts and labored under the heat complaining. As a teenager I learned why dad was smart, for someone that went to the 4th grade six years in a row. The way he dressed kept him cool like a evaporator cooler and protected him from the Sun. Where we got Sun Burned and blistered being exposed to the Sun. My younger co-workers last week in the 115 – 119 F were suffering wearing dark clothes of mixed synthetics and short sleeves, as I dressed like dad did and a wide brimmed straw hat kept cool. They would go running to the AC set at 60 F and drink ice cold water, then return to the heatwave and get blasted again. I just found a shady area and drank cool water. And like my parents did, I live in comfort in the 80 to 90 F house with an evaporator cooler in summer. By living like this, I don’t shock my body going from one extreme to another. Where my younger co-workers cannot handle being outside very long. What’s sad is that they don’t realize what is responsible for allowing them the privileged life they now live: hydrocarbons. I take it the young couples should undertake this trek before getting married, not after? Otherwise, it would seem like a recipe for more divorce. Drinking ice cold water can actually make you feel warmer, because the capillaries will shrink in response as it goes through your system, restricting circulation. Kind of like squeezing the water lines in a radiator. Tepid water is best for drinking in hot weather. chaamjamal says: If she believes what she says she believes she would not have had a baby. Therefore ….. Ellie Mae Mae says: It’s unfortunate she shares her feelings of joy about her newborn with the climate inanity. Taking a new-born into a room full of people? Why? Part of an appeal-to-pity argument? Or mere virtue signalling? This is part of what Jung called “psychic epidemics:” “I am convinced that exploration of the psyche is the science of the future… This is the science we need most of all, for it is gradually becoming more and more obvious that neither famine nor earthquakes nor microbes nor carcinoma, but man himself is the greatest peril to man, just because there is no adequate defense against psychic epidemics, which cause infinitely more devastation than the greatest natural catastrophes. – (Jung 1944) David Johnson says: Group think trumps intelligence/critical thinking with these people Voltron says: Yes, I saw this on the ABC website yesterday and just about threw the monitor out in disgust. I cannot believe the utter tripe the ABC are serving up. Total, utter rubbish – even moreso recently. Your air conditioner broke down and now you’re terrified of a heatwave? It’s embarrassing. Also, many people live North of Brisbane and they all do pretty well. The main reason there aren’t more people up there is because there is not a lot of water, but that’s about all. Yes, its hot and humid BUT IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN HOT AND HUMID. F^&* me, people are becoming softer and softer and retarded. What a closeted and moronic generation. #unaustralian Looks like a bad case of PPCCS: Post Partum Climate Change Syndrome Just about to move to Brisbane. Can’t wait and thanks for the tip. I’ll pet a Koala and a Roo for you…. Ed Zuiderwijk says: I was born in 1950 in the Netherlands. The cold war was just starting. It must have been deeply worrying. I asked my parents about it. It wasn’t even a consideration. My advice to the lady: grow some bsckbone, the future’s bright. Well, basically, there was nothing they could do about nukes, so they put their efforts into things they could control. Others imagined they could do something and spent their time protesting, and so forth, all to no avail. Just like now. davidmhoffer says: Will this child suffer heatstroke just walking to school? You’d make your child walk to school on a day so hot that heatstroke is likely? What kind of mother are you Sarah? Adrian O says: Did anyone consider that her brain was ALREADY affected by heat? Maybe she was outside without a hat… Could someone enlighten me if my memory has not served me well on the following points. ! I recently saw a map on WUWT which (I believe starts from the late 80’s) which showed that the US Summertime high temperature has mostly declined. This was a color map of the US Mainland, Australia might be different. https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/summertime_highs.jpg?w=720 2. As I recall from another map map of the globe, most of the warming has happened in the Arctic regions, virtually none near the equator, and moderate in the regions between the North pole and the equator. http://fs5.directupload.net/images/170304/2x7bkgok.jpg 3. From what I remember most of the recorded warming is associated with an increased daily low (less cool down at night) not higher highs Is Australia not typical? Please feel free to correct me if above is not correct That map is fake or a deliberate lie. Steve Case says: Simon June 28, 2017 at 1:14 am I will be happy to send you the data from which it was made or you can validate the accuracy your self by going to NOAA’s Climate at a Glance https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/ where the data for each state can be analyzed. When you open Climate at a Glance, make the following selections: Parameter: Maximum Temperature Time Scale: 4-Month Month: September Start Year: 1895 End Year: 2017 State/Region: Alabama Climate Division/City: Statewide Under Options Start 1901 End: 2000 [ ] Display Trend (check) () per Decade (Select) Start: 1895 End: 2017 Click on [Plot] The graph will be displayed with the trend line (Alabama and other states color coded blue will show a descending trend) Click on the middle Excel Icon [data in CSV format] The data should appear: Alabama, Maximum Temperature, June-September Units: Degrees Fahrenheit Base Period: 1901-2000 Missing: -9999 Date,Value,Anomaly 189509,89.2,-0.2 201609,91.4,2.0 Do this for all the 48 contiguous states The other states not coded blue will have to be analyzed to find the earliest date that still yields a descending trend. Use Excel’s slope function to do this. When you determine the year, under Options enter that year under Start: ____ End: 2017 Yes, it is surprising that Maximum temperatures largely trend downwards over much of the United States. There isn’t a nice handy site like Climate at a Glance to do a similar analysis for the rest of the world. Simon, are you blind? Right there on the chart is the source: NOAA Climate at a Glance and the link that is with it. Steve helpfully give you a lot more in his reply to you. Then you come back calling it BS,posted a link that doesn’t contradict what Steve posted at all. Steve once again comes back to clarify what you didn’t notice or care about. Next time don’t rush to judgement so fast,it will save you looking foolish. Simon, you’ve got to get out more. You’ve drunk too much KoolAid. Got a feeling it’s going to be a bad day to be Simon… This calls BS on the map http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/our-changing-climate/recent-us-temperature-trends No i doesn’t since the map shows “Declining maximum summertime Temperatures.” Before shouting your prejudices, learn to read. The link shows average temperatures, this map: http://oi68.tinypic.com/95vcec.jpg Shows Maximum Tempertures for the months June through September Actually it’s a little more comprehensive than that. Declining or flat trends for Maximum temperatures for the six months of the year May through October as this updated map shows: http://oi67.tinypic.com/10er3ps.jpg It isn’t for the entire year, just the warm half. Yes, Average and Minimum temperature do not show these trends. Indeed the IPCC tells us that the warming will be at night, and in the winter. Day time temperatures in the summer have declined. Stephen Greene says: Geez dude read your own propaganda first. If you were the author try your BS someplace else where IQ’s like yours! Geez dude read your own propaganda first. If you were the author try your BS someplace else where IQ’s like yours Lovely. Poor Simon. DonM says: Reply to Simon, From your link: “On a seasonal basis, long-term warming has been greatest in winter and spring.” Your storytellers know that the map you call BS on is correct … they want to spin their message to fool the rubes. If your storytellers wanted to be completely honest they would have included … “On a seasonal basis, long-term warming has been greatest in winter and spring, AND ACTUALLY IT HAS ONLY BEEN WARMING IN THE WINTER AND SPRING. TYPICALLY IT HAS BEEN COOLING IN THE SUMMER” Your storytellers didn’t lie, but only because there has been no warming in the summer and fall. Simon, does it bother you that your storytellers feel that they need to spin the information? Does it bother you that they think you are a rube? Yup, bad day to be Simon. See my reply to Simon below See the reply to Simon below: Thanks to Steve Case and Tim to help enlighten Simon who apparently calls NOAA data “a fake or a deliberate lie”. This is not CNN or MSNBC with fake and deliberate lies although NOAA are known for questionable data adjustments. I am surprised that Simon did not understand that the plot clearly states “maximum temperature” for the summer months and that NOAA is clearly indicated on the plot. Of course the MSM also misleads “low information” people by not pointing out than the warming is mostly associated with “higher” lows possibly associated with UHI. Other people just don’t care about the facts. What I take from the plot in question, at least for the US, is that all the claims about heat waves is very misleading since the increase in temperature is not the maximum of the summer day. If the same applies in Australia then the Dr of the story needs to go back to school if she does not know there are not more heat summer waves. Catcracking at 10:14 am …although NOAA are known for questionable data adjustments. Some bloggers I know just come right out and say NOAA is fake data. Fake or merely questionable, it’s NOAA’s data, and unless some one can show a copy & paste error or more serious error in analyzing NOAA’s Climate at a Glance error, those color coded maps are what they are and can be reproduced. When new data is added to the time series that color coded map will likely change. It all depends on the weather. Warmth encourages storks. She’d better watch out then! Vivid phantasies but absolutely pathetic. Is she also afraid of Godzilla’s return? sexton16 says: We need more headlines along the lines of “Falling CO2 levels could affect coffee supplies” that will get the Starbucks generations’ attention. That’s already been happening. Oops I responded without seeing the word ‘falling’. So used to the other narrative. JR (@JR_2020) says: Kirkpatrick and her ilk are snowflakes and climatophobes who have come to believe their own scare-mongering. Sad! andywest2012 says: These scientists will be subject to emotional bias: http://judithcurry.com/2015/04/24/contradiction-on-emotional-bias-in-the-climate-domain/ Ian Cooper says: This nonsense about it becoming hotter, “north of Brisbane,” isn’t borne out by the record heatwave holding locations of Oceania according to Wikipedia. I used to think that Australia wasn’t included, and was a separate set of data. In my humble opinion, as a New Zealander, Australia is a continent and therefore it’s data should be treated as such. The area known as ‘Oceania’ which includes many of the islands in the South Pacific including New Zealand, needs to be looked at in isolation from the ‘Great Southern Land.’ If so then the highest temperature ever recorded in Oceania happened at Rangiora near Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand at latitude 43 south (Brisbane is around 27 south BTW) on February 7th 1973. The temperature that day was 42.4 Celsius (108.3f). The hottest temperatures ever recorded in the ‘islands’ is just over 35C! Meanwhile on the continent of Australia, their hottest day was recorded at Oodnadatta in South Australia on January 2nd 1960 and exceeded 50C! Not sure of the latitude without looking it up but I’m pretty sure it is well south of Brisbane. That young woman needs to do some research rather than blindly accepting the dibble handed to her by the usual liars! Mariano Marini says: Can someone explain to me this table found in the cited article? Days hotter than 35C 2014 2090 Cairns 3 48 Darwin 11 265 Melbourne 11 24 Sydney 3.1 11 How can Sydney have 3.1 days hotter than 35C? Which is the mean of 0,1 day? Hopefully she’ll just beep off further south and leave the beautiful Australian tropics to those of us who actually like them. I love in the tropics and only use the a/c when work like house cleaning needs to be done in the heart of summer. The rest of the time, open windows and fans are fine, although a dip in the pool is often welcome! Right now the weather is pretty much perfect. Snowflakes are likely to melt here, though… 🙂 Streetcred says: I can only think that “mummy brain” is the cause of her stupidity. No it’s normal greenery thinking. Stephanie Hawking says: Ha Ha Ha What a joke! You might wonder about the bizarre logic that can claim more heatwaves when the temps are not rising and are now dropping. Generally speaking it wil always be the case that heatwaves can be increasing/decreasing, like all other weather events, in a stable climate. Peta from Cumbria, now Newark says: Selfish, lying, greedy, hypocritical, etc etc etc Speak plainly OK… 1. That you take a double barrelled name speaks volumes. 2. Grown up and educated girls DO NOT accidentally get pregnant. 3. Maybe you had an irresistible urge – at least be good enough to admit as much. 4. Maybe you summed up the pros and cons and decided you did* have the resources (financial, emotional etc) to bring a child into the world. Be good enough to admit as much. 5. Finally lady, you are on a Government payroll. The resources you take for granted, which are never enough of course and the entire basis of ‘Romance’ and ‘Un-Romance’ = divorce) came from tax payers. Ordinary folks doing dirty horrible jobs that double barrelled people consider way way below them. Fine lady, you take away your own sewage from now on. Lady, you are a modern day Marie Antoinette. In a Glass House. How apt, would that be a Glass GreenHouse by any chance? If it is, explain the GHGE in your own words. Try to consider those before you open your mouth, or before you ‘accidentally’ get pregnant again (I was nearly really rather crude there, hope you didn’t notice) so as to harvest ever more Government Largesse (‘Maternity Benefit/Leave, Paternity benefits, tax credits, family allowance etc etc – assuming similar schemes to what we have in the UK) RobbertBobbert says: …The 33-year-old lives in Sydney and studies heatwaves as a senior research fellow at the University of New South Wales’ Climate Change Research Centre… This story has so many Forensic flaws. UNSW in Australia is pretty much in the heart of Sydney in Randwick (famous racetrack and a few Ks from the very famous Bondi Beach.) So the Sydney weather records for Summer of 2016/2017 should be suitable. Where she lives is not mentioned while the heatwave of LAST summer is cited. In the ABC report. Ok. The Local alarmist organisation…The Bureau of Meteorology… BOM…lists records that has 2 days in December 2016 as being over 35C for consecutive days. Top measure of 37.8. January of 2017 had no consecutive days over 35C. Top of of 39.4 February of 2017 had 2 consecutive days over 35C. Top of 37.5. So LAST summer there were no heatwaves in Sydney. So where does she live and commute from to have 48C in the shade. The outback and the scorched Inland of Australia! Sarah states the air con broke down. She is a Senior Research Fellow which is listed as equal to a Senior Lecturer Class C. Current lowest and highest wage at 1/1/17. 75% of the USA dollar So Sarah and her husband (very old school that) could not afford a repair tradie or to go to Bunnings Hardwareand get the best quality evaporative coolers or even a couple of powerful fans! As for the urge to have a large family of 4 or 5 kids it is interesting that Sarah had her first child at 32 or 33. When did she plan to have her second or her 5th child? So that comment is a Big… As If… Everything that is reported to have been stated by Sarah, and this report by the ABC needs to be treated like Klimate Science itself. Absolute Garbage. Eugene S. Conlin says: I’m not so sure that the studies heatwaves, rather the models of hearwaves – from her Linkdin profile: She has “a passion for climate extremes, namely heatwaves” and has “devised a novel framework in which to measure heatwaves, as well as exploring their changes in the global and Australian observational record. … This has resulted in the development of scorcher.org.au” … … She “analyzed the latest generation of climate models to understand changes in a suite of climate variables over the pacific region for the 21st century.” … and she “researched the plausibility of projections of climate extremes from a regional climate model (compared to a global climate models).” … so she compares various models and extrapolates from them. She would appear to be nothing more than a Post Science Modeller™ should read “heatwaves” in first sentence. Well, she did win the “Tall Poppy” award. kreizkruzifix says: Steel mills, cast iron companies, sugar harvest in the Caribbean – Heat waves, what heat waves? https://www.google.at/search?client=ms-android-samsung&ei=N2ZTWfaSJoPTwQLXy4TwAg&q=Steel+mills&oq=Steel+mills&gs_l=mobile-gws-serp. https://www.google.at/search?client=ms-android-samsung&biw=360&bih=288&ei=XGdTWYK9HIbXwQLnu7KIDQ&q=cast+iron+companies+&oq=cast+iron+companies+&gs_l=mobile-gws-serp. https://www.google.at/search?client=ms-android-samsung&biw=360&bih=288&ei=dGdTWYXPLpKmwQLe0YnICg&q=carribean+sugar+harvest&oq=carribean+sugar+harvest&gs_l=mobile-gws-serp. Katalina says: Right. So…she’s always wanted a big family (but wait! Aren’t climate alarmists always blaming baby making for the state of the planet?) and has now started one. Now she’s bleating on about how f#@£ed her newborn daughters future is? Surely if she believed this tripe she 1. Wouldn’t be wanting to start a big family and 2. She wouldn’t be bringing a child into this warming hell hole? The virtue signalling and blatant hypocrisy has made me vomit. This is what she says about herself. “I’m Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist interested in extreme events. I was awarded my PhD in 2010 at the Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW, Australia. My thesis focused on evaluating climate models by how well they provided projections of climate extremes over Australia. The novel evaluation metric I used is now commonly employed in climate model evaluation today. ” Is there any need for further comment? Absolute garbage “science”. That’s just…, perfect! fretslider says: Pity any child with parents like that According to predictions made around the time of the first Earth Day, we should now be living in a hell hole and quickly headed back to the stone age. link Most of these predictions were made by actual experts, Dr. Paul Ehrlich being the prime example. Anyone who gets a PhD should have to take a course in failed predictions and the dangers of hubris. Experts are in danger of overclaiming. They do not understand the limits of their expertise. I’m an expert… Everyone has a New Zealand cow, even experts. Especially experts. (NZCoW – Non-Zero Chance of Wrongness) Like a number of earlier commentators I was astonished by this story which appeared as “news” in the ABC online News feed today. Others have commented on the extraordinary “data” of “hot days above 35 degrees C” in 2090 allegedly based on a 2014 projection from the CSIRO and BOM. Computer GIGO. Readers should understand that these scare stories appear on a regular basis as part of the Left ( liberal) agenda of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation . The Great Barrier Reef has featured strongly in this narrative recently with ” up to half” (or 67% of the Reef north of Cairns) “dead”. Climate change is of course the principal culprit. I have listed for my own interest some 16 social and political issues where my conservative views are either derided or ignored by the ABC. Included among these of course is climate change aka global warming. Not only is the ABC a conservative free zone but conservative views are never advanced and regarded as ” unacceptable” to hold or argue. ” Climate scientists reveal their fears for the future” is a perfect example of the default position of the ABC on climate change alarmism. RobbertBobbert sums up the farce perfectly. Gregory Locock says: ” always wanted a big family ” Well that’s nice. If you believe the CAGW mythology then I’m afraid having first world children is just about the most self indulgent thing you can do.They consume at least 5 times as much fossil fuels as third world babies. I monitor some climate p.o.r.n accounts on Twitter, and they are encouraging this emotive approach because they realize their science isn’t convincing the public. Expect to see more of it. She is worried to lose her well paid job. That of course could have a big influence in the child’s future. The baby girl may see her mother more often now she has become a useless heatwave expert . Let me see. An immigrant from Ireland/Engand, in the very high latitudes, complains about the heat in the low latitudes. I worry about her child’s future, too. “I don’t like to scare people…” Translation: “I love scaring people about climate change, and I love virtue signaling to my fellow Climate Cultists about how scared I am”. She’s a liar, hypocrite, and a moron. I feel bad for her kid. John Bell says: Bruce, exactly! spot on! Pretty much nailed it right there! She’s pretty pathetic! “I have a feeling that as more and more people learn the truth, I will lose my job and won’t be able to support my baby.” That’s what she really meant to say. Steve Borodin says: Just how much good will destroying the economy of her own country, needlessly, do for her child? Or, diverting money from welfare and medical research into pointless, uneconomic renewables. It she utterly callous? Has she no morality? In central Indiana we haven’t hit 80 for about a week and some nights in the 40’s. It has been wonderful. Same for the last 2 summers!. GPHanner says: “…heatwave expert Sarah Perkins Kirkpatrick admits…” Okay. What is a heat wave expert and how do you get to be one? GP…What is a heat wave expert and how do you get to be one? You sell your soul to the Company Store. The Klymit Change Company Store. Or, as Mr John Cash nearly sang… …You load 16 tons (of CO2) and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St Peter don’t you call me cos I can’t go I owe my Soul to The Klymit Change Company Store… I think Cash was late to the party with 16 Tons. A partial timeline of recordings: Merle Travis (author) 1946 Tennessee Ernie Ford* 1955 Lorne Greene 1965 Johnny Cash 1987 sold 2 million copies. anniemouse says: Just to be a smarthy ass…… she will feel a real heat wave when she hits menopause. On a more serious note, why the focus on “heat waves”. Are there no periods where there is extended cold any longer? What I mean is that if your going to study periods above normal for a certain geographical area shouldn’t you also look at periods below normal as well? I thought that was the definition of “climate change”. Michael Bentley says: I don’t know if this is on topic or not, but among various concerns that these people foist on us is the concern of spreading hopelessness among the young. The number of young people (low 20’s and below) committing suicide or having “coping issues” is exploding. They don’t want to try because there is no future in it…they get that at school, at home and through media. All because of “big oil”, deniers, and “big Business”. We are raising a generation(s) of useless people. (big generality there…) The only change in heat waves was to define down the temperature required and for the media to lie constantly about the past temperatures. I don’t care in the least what the scientists “feels” like—are they doing their job? Are they following scientific method? Can they produce reliable results? That’s all I care about. If they don’t like their job, they’re free to find a new one. Robert Kernodle says: People are so caught up in the story of human climate destruction that they can no longer see reality. Some people seem to need the threat of doom to give their lives maximum meaning. Some people need to see humans as a threat to themselves. Strangely, this is a very attractive and very infectious story. People get comfortable believing the story — so much so that not believing it causes an unsettled feeling. This is the ugly side of the creature of habit. Walter Sobchak says: Drive him. The brain damage will come from the education system, not the walk to it. Dying of a heat stroke walking to school is the most ridiculous thing I’ve read lately. Here’s a concept: monitor your child’s fitness level, ensure that he/she is not obese, is moderately in shape, is properly hydrated, and is dressed appropriately (including, maybe, a hat or even a shade umbrella). A moderately fit, hydrated, properly dressed child is really not likely to die of a heat stroke, I’m thinking. I used to walk home from junior high school every single day, … four or five miles, … on concrete sidewalks, … carrying a load of books [books?! — what’s that?], … sometimes on really hot days. I was moderately obese, and would have never thought to wear a hat. I survived and am here today to tell about it. Oh, I forgot to mention, I did not have to walk, but rather walking was my choice, in order to avoid the sardine-can experience of riding the school bus. If I had a mother who had expressed this fear of me, then I would have denied that she was my mother, in order to avoid the embarrassment of being labeled a pathetic weakling. But times have changed, I suppose. Pathetic seems to be in style now. I’m such a relic. What about the shots fired at the buildings housing climate scientists who fact check biased climate models with satellite data now? That is happening in 2017, not a hundred years from now. Joe Civis says: hmmmm “heatwave expert Sarah Perkins Kirkpatrick ” what exactly qualifies one as a “heatwave expert”? sounds a bit like a breathing or walking expert…. one that can breath or walk. Wow the expert bar has dropped. Any links to peer reviewed papers providing observational evidence of statistically significant increase in “heat waves”, anywhere on the globe? Don’t have time to read all comments yet, so I apologize if this question already answered. TheDoctor says: I feel offended! Somehow she got a “scientific” degree – that’s macroagression against reason! I hope this so-called “scientist” reads these comments and learns her lesson: wattsupwiththat is not to be trifled with when it comes to science of the people. All Sara needs to do is put an Air conditioner in her Safe space and power it with fossil fuels . Dump that stinking solar panel. your solution to the heat – “stay indoors, crank up the air conditioning. Or wear a hat and drink lots of water, if you have to be outside.” … it doesn’t address the doctors’ concerns about her kid getting heatstroke because she will make her kid walk to & from school when it is hot enough to cause physical problems for the kid. … your solution to the heat is very selfish, you should also offer to buy a prius and drive the kid to and from school. It’s just such a weak argument — dying of heat stroke — thus characterizing children as defenseless members of a physically weak society. What happens if the child grew up, joined the military, got shipped to some hot, distant land, where soldiers are required to drink liters of water a day, so that the body can cool itself via sweating. … sadly, zero childhood pre conditioning of any kind for such a possible future scenario. I bet this heat-wave expert would buy a bumper sticker that reads something like … My child is an honor student at Climate Academy, but only walks to school there if it’s cool enough outside, otherwise stays home on hot days for home schooling, because of possible heat stroke due to human-caused climate change. Might her concern really be that her child might sweat too much, soiling the high-thread-count cloths she paid for, … produced (more than likely) by fossil-fuel-burning technology ? Edith Wenzel says: I wouldn’t consider posting this article – even though I re-post and refer almost every other article from this blog. I see this as adding more fear to uninformed people as it is left to their own interpretation. Not the typical blog from here. WUWT frequently indulges in posts like this (5-10% of total). It is critical to understand just how inane the religion called “climate science” really is. Even more so when you learn some of these folks actually want to censor or put us in jail. Oakwood says: Meanwhile, life expectancy continues to increase, in Australia, and most countries in the world (barring those with war and political chaos). buggs says: Odd question: do most school children walk to school in Australia? I know around here in Canada most of the kids are helicoptered in, so to speak, by their parents. It’s not climate they’re worried about, rather the plague of child predators so the kidlets need to be shuttled to and fro. If kids are really walking more in Aus, then good for them. We were considered to be “mean” parents because we made our child walk to school and then back home again. The child was no fool and often managed to acquire transport, at least on the way home. But it wasn’t from us. That said this is just downright silly. A couple of days of heat now makes a heat wave? Oh dear. And at that it’s only a couple of days a year with +35C? Oh my goodness how soft the Australians have become. In a “normal” summer we have more days above 35C than that and we’re the coldest large urban center (500K+) in the world. We long for those days and those temperatures. Sadly we’re currently enduring a May and June that are running about 3-5C BELOW normal at the moment. The only joy to take away from that is the local news is bereft of global warming news. I’m Canadian and I had plenty of walks to school in -30C temperatures and lower. And I mean plenty- school was virtually never canceled because of weather when I was a kid and -30C probably occurred about 6-10 times per winter in those days. School got out at the end of June so I was running around outside when it was +40C. No sunscreen and I am English by ancestry. Regardless of weather we played outside every chance we had. Came in for some kool-aid or watermelon but the house wasn’t air conditioned and Mum was usually cooking ( even though it was about a thousand degrees in the house) so we took our cool down outside. Very little was air conditioned in those days and the upstairs of our house was absolutely stifling in the summer. Oh yeah! And life was good! …assume it was uphill each way… I walked to school ten miles each way through the snow, summer and winter, uphill both ways, with barbed wire wrapped around my bare feet for traction on the ice. We had to burn the teacher for warmth in the winter. “Oh my goodness how soft the Australians have become.” Wustrailians. Far from all of them. Oz still produces heroes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Australian_Victoria_Cross_recipients#Victoria_Cross_for_Australia Hard men, but fair. Corporal Cameron Stewart Baird was killed in operations in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan. The citation for his Victoria Cross reads: For the most conspicuous acts of valour, extreme devotion to duty and ultimate self-sacrifice at Ghawchak village, Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, as a Commando Team Commander in Special Operations Task Group on Operation SLIPPER. On 22 June 2013, a commando platoon of the Special Operations Task Group, with partners from the Afghan National Security Forces, conducted a helicopter assault into Ghawchak village, Uruzgan province, in order to attack an insurgent network deep within enemy-held territory. Shortly after insertion, Corporal Baird’s team was engaged by small arms fire from several enemy positions. Corporal Baird quickly seized the initiative, leading his team to neutralise the positions, killing six enemy combatants and enabling the assault to continue. Soon afterwards, an adjacent Special Operations Task Group team came under heavy enemy fire, resulting in its commander being seriously wounded. Without hesitation, Corporal Baird led his team to provide support. En route, he and his team were engaged by rifle and machine gun fire from prepared enemy positions. With complete disregard for his own safety, Corporal Baird charged towards the enemy positions, supported by his team. On nearing the positions, he and his team were engaged by additional enemy on their flank. Instinctively, Corporal Baird neutralised the new threat with grenades and rifle fire, enabling his team to close with the prepared position. With the prepared position now isolated, Corporal Baird manoeuvred and was engaged by enemy machine gun fire, the bullets striking the ground around him. Displaying great valour, he drew the fire, moved to cover, and suppressed the enemy machine gun position. This action enabled his team to close on the entrance to the prepared position, thus regaining the initiative. On three separate occasions Corporal Baird charged an enemy-held building within the prepared compound. On the first occasion he charged the door to the building, followed by another team member. Despite being totally exposed and immediately engaged by enemy fire, Corporal Baird pushed forward while firing into the building. Now in the closest proximity to the enemy, he was forced to withdraw when his rifle ceased to function. On rectifying his rifle stoppage, and reallocating remaining ammunition within his team, Corporal Baird again advanced towards the door of the building, once more under heavy fire. He engaged the enemy through the door but was unable to suppress the position and took cover to reload. For a third time, Corporal Baird selflessly drew enemy fire away from his team and assaulted the doorway. Enemy fire was seen to strike the ground and compound walls around Corporal Baird, before visibility was obscured by dust and smoke. In this third attempt, the enemy was neutralised and the advantage was regained, but Corporal Baird was killed in the effort. Corporal Baird’s acts of valour and self-sacrifice regained the initiative and preserved the lives of his team members. His actions were of the highest order and in keeping with the finest traditions of the Australian Army and the Australian Defence Force. Mike W. says: “Cradling her newborn baby girl, heatwave expert Sarah Perkins Kirkpatrick admits to feeling torn between the joy of motherhood and anxiety over her first-born child’s future.” Wow, talk about sensationalism. Bringing one’s child to a protest then using it as a prop. Richard Patton says: I’d say Waaaaaa!!! It’s getting warmer! Everybody cry now!!! How the heck does she think people survive in places like the Congo where the mean temperature is in the upper 80’sF (Lower 30’sC). From experience- your body adapts to it!!! The whole world was 25deg F (14deg C) warmer in the Carboniferous and life thrived!!!!! YEA, WELL PEOPLE IN THE CONGO DON’T WALK TO SCHOOL! So there. What in the world is your point? People in the Congo do* walk to school. My point is that 2deg C isn’t the end of the world. I have lived in the tropics and acclimatized to the point where 78degF was so ‘cold’ I put on a sweater. Joel Snider says: Another example of someone with a really comfortable lifestyle, trying to convince themselves they’ve had it really hard – apparently that’s a moral good. For so-called Progressives, victimhood is the new sainthood. Pop Piasa says: Not exactly new, but true that nobody ever was sainted for harming others, so you have to play the underdog. JasG says: someone literally shagged her brains out. Svend Ferdinandsen says: It is rather bizarre when the story teller gets scared of his own stories. Is there a reason/cause associated with the people that suffer from this type of psychosis :0 Dana and the Grauniad are desperately trying to hold up their fake news narrative of climate catastrophe is true. I don’t post links to either but their weak predictable arguments are in zombie mode. And double tapping zombies (metaphorically) is always the right thing to do. No offense meant, but someone as pessimistic as she is should not be raising children that she has no faith or trust in to be able overcome or adapt to any “monsters” the future may bring. She should give more consideration to how her progeny will deal with a despotic global socialist government if she wants to stress over something. I would be more interested in opinions from a mechanical chiller expert than a “heatwave expert”, anyway. She is obviously a product of her immediate environment and sociological influence. Perhaps Dr Kirkpatrick fears her offspring will be as fragile as the planet seems from her perspective. The carbon-indoctrinated have much anxiety about the future because they reject the fact that reality has not honored the prophecies of Mann and instead ushered in the age of aquarius. Eric, you just got blog butt-dialed, somehow. Warren in New Zealand says: hot linked to to Anthonys’ website, using up bandwidth “Sarah Perkins Kirkpatrick” I’ll wager none of you Sheilas and blokes can say that 5 times after downing 5 Foster’s Lagers. Especially while talking out of one side of your mouth in pure, unadulterated Strayn. I’d probably chunder after Foster’s number four anyway. Ok, I’ll bite: what’s chunder? Chunder is Aussie for barf, like a technicolor yawn. I see I’m under moderation. perhaps for use of the word h@m@sexual, which really has little to do with chundering, which is vomiting. Etymology explained in comment under moderation. Gabro, I think wordpress has a glitch where some comments just vaporize into the ether(net). If she is too stupid and emotionally unable to care for her children I am certain there are childless couples who could properly care for her children and that would include raising them to know how to live in a hot climate. Climate extremists are incompetent whiny brats. BruceC says: If she’s a ‘heatwave expert’, then she should know about this unbroken 93 year-old record set in Australia during the summer of 1923-24 (it is also the current unbroken WORLD RECORD!) http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh154/crocko05/Marble%20Bar%20heatwave_zpsakjd3v3r.jpg BTW, that is 160 consecutive days ABOVE 35C. observa says: ‘It’s a scorcher’- https://www.climatescience.org.au/staff/profile/sperkins http://www.ccrc.unsw.edu.au/ccrc-team/academic-research/sarah-perkins-kirkpatrick so what are this mob up to- https://www.climatescience.org.au/about The Centre’s focus, Climate System Science, is the quantitative study of the climate system designed to enable modeling of the future of the climate system. It is built on a core of the sciences of the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and land surface. It includes the physics, dynamics and biology of these systems, and the flow of energy, water and chemicals between them. Climate System Science builds mathematical models of these systems based on observations. It describes these observations, and the underlying physics of the system, in computer codes. These computer codes are known as a “climate model” and utilize very large super computers.” The usual, more secret codes called climate models but not to worry as they have really BIG computers which should impress you. Bottom right is ‘How to make the most of a conference trip to Europe’ and ‘How to win a William P. Lowry Graduate Student Award’ which says it all. Not quite because because there is Stephanie who was torn between mathematics and art at school asking ‘Do you speak STEM’? https://www.climatescience.org.au/blog/astone/2016/04/08/958-do-you-speak-stem Well I do but apparently Steph has fallen on her feet with the climastrology crowd and it’s all about indulging her artistic side on the Gummint drip too- “As a climate scientist, I get to use most of my senior high school subjects/extra curricular activities- Visual Arts, Design & Technology, English, Debating & Public Speaking, and of course Mathematics & Physics- in my job every day. I write… a lot. I also create my own pictures for my article and I graphically illustrate my analysed data to make concepts and results easy to digest.” Yeah we get the picture luv and as a taxpayer I’ll leave you to work out where all the STEAM is coming from. Elisa Berg says: History must restart every few years because no one seems to remember that it got hot in the past. The news is that it’s currently really hot in Phoenix. I don’t actually remember when this was, maybe 1989 or sometime in the early 1990s. Driving through the Saline Valley, west of Death Valley in July, it was 122 or so. We didn’t have air conditioning in the truck and we played a game where we rolled the windows up until it felt really hot and then rolled them down and felt refreshingly cool. We went east and down through Arizona and finally headed back to LA. It was plenty hot in Phoenix, but when we crossed the Colorado at Needles it was 132. By the side of the road, a State Trooper was pouring water over the back of the neck of a guy kneeling by the side of a Winnebago and we figured it was just too hot to cross the Mohave while the sun was still up. In fact, we thought it was dangerous. We turned around and spent a few hours loitering in a grocery store where there was AC. When darkness fell, we headed west again, camping at the Kelso Dunes in balmy 90 degree night time temps. Why is it that all the frail climate scientists seem to live in Australia. Maybe except for the debunked Edith Spot butterfly expert of whom I haven’t heard a word since she came down with the blues. The original Climate Blues epidemic caused by the “Pause” started there in Oz. Oh it was rationalized that the reason they were sick was that they saw the horrible future and no one was listening to them, but any psychologist trained prior to the 1970s, knows the most classical diagnosis for suffers of this kind of neurosis is… errm… Деиуаl (of all things!) Meanwhile post normal psychologists simply hugged them and accepted the sufferers’ self diagnosis which the older shrinks would have labeled the newer ones as enablers. Now the thing about деиуал, is that the brain really knows what the problem is and the illness arises from fending off the truth that this remarkable organ is trying hard to present them with. One sees this unhappy situation in grief and this might be a mechanism to ease you into acceptance. The brain creates dreams like looking for someone, say, at a party and they always seem to have moved on just before you entered another room, etc. Eventually you get the message. However, when the message is that you have wasted all these years, yay, maybe most of a long career on baseless nonsense, the consequences of accepting this fact from your own disloyal brain is something many, especially fragile personalities, will exhaust themselves fending off such a huge truth. Hence a painful and debilitating illness needing expert therapy that isn’t very available in this Mad Hatter’s world. I wish the young lady depicted a speedy recovery because she’s not going to be too good for her little one with this illness and she can take courage that she is young enough to turn her efforts to reality in her science, an option not easy for the older scientists. They all do need treatment. I look at her specialty- heat waves expert -” and I think of the over the hill professor who made her into this silly thing. Shame! Gunga Din says: If she’s that convinced of “what I know is coming”, why doesn’t she move her family so she can study heat waves in Antarctica? Or Edmonton Canada?	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2122
__label__cc	0.597727	0.402273	1 capture Apr JUN Aug Collection: Alexa Crawls DR Crawl data donated by Alexa Internet. This data is currently not publicly accessible Link Of The Week On March 16th, a young American, Rachel Corrie, 23, was killed when she was run over by an Israeli military bulldozer. Rachel was trying to stop the bulldozer from demolishing the home of a Palestinian doctor in the Gaza Strip. You can find out more about Rachel and the life she led at the International Solidarity Movement. To voice your protest to the Israeli government for this senseless murder, go here. Or, to write your member of Congress here in the US, go here. Our thoughts are with Rachel's friends and family, and we honor a woman who was senselessly killed, simply for protecting the house of a Palestinian doctor. Nuclear Policy Research Institute The mission of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute (NPRI) is to produce massive, effective, ongoing public education campaigns in major U.S. media about the often-underestimated dangers of nuclear weapons and power programs and policies. NPRI takes as its inspiration Thomas Jefferson's observation that "an informed democracy will behave in a responsible fashion" and believes that the only way to counter the perilous and tremendously expensive nuclear programs is to inform the U.S. public, its policy makers, and the global community about the true economic, social, political, biomedical, and moral costs of ongoing nuclear policies. Norbert's Bookmarks for a Better World Over 30,000 well organized links in English and German covering * Peace, Disarmament, Nonviolence * The Military, Armaments * Human Rights, Environment, 3rd World * Social Justice, Women, Religion, Education * Economics, Democracy, Politics, News * Access to important information, which does not correspond to published opinion - in particular critical background information on current problems. Take a few moments and go poke around through the 30,000 links and see what you find. United for Peace & Justice United for Peace & Justice is a new national campaign that brings together a broad range of organizations throughout the United States to help coordinate our work against a U.S. war on Iraq which is unfolding in a global context where other crises can and will erupt in connection to it. United for Peace & Justice welcomes the participation of any and all national, regional and local groups who share our goal and wish to work with others. Decisions are made at meetings of the coordinating committee, which is open to representatives of all participating groups. At their site you can find a list of anti-war events as well as likeminded organizations in your area who need your help. They are currently organizing a massive demonstration in New York City on February 15--you can find all the information on that, and how to get there and where to stay, right here. Make Trade Fair Did you know that every time you buy something made or grown in a developing country, you take part in a billion dollar scam? As it works today, the global trading system rips off people who are already poor. You don't want it. They certainly don't want it. Together, we can change it. Maketradefair.com gives a voice to the farmers, labourers, and factory workers who are being cheated by the blatantly unfair rules of world trade. And it gives a voice to you, the consumer, if you want to join them in the call to end exploitation and make trade fair. Alliance for Justice Since its inception in 1979, the Alliance for Justice has worked to promote a fair and independent judiciary and strengthen public interest advocacy. Their work on judicial nominations is now more critical than ever before with President Bushï¿½s plan to pack the courts with extremist in full swing. Particularly troubling, and representative of a large slate of Bushï¿½s highly problematic nominees, is the renomination of Judge Charles W. Pickering, Jr., and Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen, both of whom were rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee last year. Check them out. Legal Community Against Violence Formed in the wake of the 1993 assault weapons massacre at a high-rise office building in San Francisco, Legal Community Against Violence (LCAV) believes that community education and action are critical to achieving meaningful firearms policies and to ending Americaï¿½s gun violence epidemic. They have a wealth of information on state and federal legislation. They also produce legal research and analysis, and provide free, nationwide assistance to communities, groups and individuals seeking sensible firearms laws. The Council for a Livable World Everything you need to know about how much we're throwing at the military industry, and who the biggest tossers are. Who has time for education? We got a Space Laser to build! War without end? Not in our name! Coming up this weekend, Not in Our Name hosts anti-war events nationwide. NYC, San Fran, LA, Chicago, Seattle, Fresno, even Kickapoo!!! Find more info here and spread the word. Workingforchange.com REGISTER TO VOTE!!! REGISTER YOUR FRIENDS!!! REGISTER EVERYONE!!! Make a difference....be a voter! -- Fill out your voter registration form online.Go postal -- Fill out your absentee ballot request form online. Register your friends! -- Download and print forms for your friends at the FEC Web site. Monday, September 3rd, 2002. Unanswered Questions covers the September 11th attacks and their aftermath. Check out their comprehensive 9/11 timeline. And if you're in the New York City area, check out the UQ sponsored workshops--September 7th at the New School's Tishman Auditorium, from 5:30 PM -- 11 PM, and September 8th at the William Patterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, from 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM. Tell your friends! Tuesday, August 27th, 2002. Protest In Portland Last week's protest in Portland can be found here / here / here / and here. Watch a video of the protest here (you need Real Player). Monday, August 19th, 2002. Turn up the volume on your speakers, sit back, and enjoy this quick walk through recent history. After that, check out Open Secrets, look up the Democrats in Congress, and, as you'll see, the same damn people own most of them, too. Tuesday, July 30th, 2002. Indy Media Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth. Many cities and communities around the world have their own Indymedia. See if they cover where you live, and if they don't, gets some friends together and start one. http://www.iacenter.org/iraq.htm Read about all the good US sanctions on Iraq have done. Maybe call your representatives in Congress afterwards and congratulate them. Thursday, July 11th, 2002. The Daily Enron Stay on top of the developing corporate scandals with The Daily Enron's newsroom of original articles Thursday, July 4th, 2002. Happy birthday, America! If the first George W. and his gang could seeus now! We strut around like we rule the world, we push other countries around, we exploit their economies, we'll send our troops anywhere our global empire is threatened, and political dissent at home is under attack. Check out Tom Paine's special look at dissent in our time. Guerilla News Network An underground news organization, covering the drug war, the terror war, corporate crime, and everything else. Check out their NewsVideos. And if nothing else, take some inspiration from the work they've done. Saturday, June 22nd, 2002 Prozac Spotlight Check out Adbusters' artful and insightful attack on psychiatry and the pharmaceutical companies that sugarcoat the world and hand it back to us in a bearable little capsule--out of the goodness of their hearts. ©2003 MichaelMoore.com, All Rights Reserved site created by: site hosted by: site edited by: David Shankula	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2124
__label__wiki	0.907001	0.907001	How A Grass Might Generate Fuel And Help Fix Damaged Mine Lands Liam Niemeyer West Virginia University Professor Jeff Skousen among giant miscanthus on an old mine site. Photo: Brittany Patterson/Ohio Valley ReSource Down bumpy back roads deep in central West Virginia, a flat, bright green pasture opens up among the rolling hills of coffee-colored trees. Wildflowers and butterflies dot the pasture, but West Virginia University Professor Jeff Skousen is here for something else that stands above the rest of the Appalachian scenery – literally. Thick stalks of green-yellowish grass reach up 10 feet into the air like a beanstalk out of a fairy tale, and Skousen is dwarfed by it. “I just wish we could use these lands in a little bit more productive way,” WVU’s Skousen said. Photo: Brittany Patterson/Ohio Valley ReSource “These plots I kind of know like my children,” he said. “But you see, you can’t hardly walk through this stuff – it’s worse than a jungle.” Skousen and a team of graduate students have grown giant miscanthus for close to a decade here near Alton, West Virginia, a place that wasn’t always a pasture. The site is one of numerous old surface coal mines across the Ohio Valley that was reclaimed, replacing the once barren ground with a layer of rocky topsoil. The cumulative size of land impacted by strip mines across central Appalachia is roughly the size of the state of Delaware – roughly 1.5 million acres – according to a 2018 Duke University study. This animation shows the expansion of surface mining’s footprint (displayed in yellow) from 1985 to 2015 for a 31,000 square kilometer sub-region of the study area in West Virginia and Kentucky and has county boundaries visible. Credit: SkyTruth After land is reclaimed, it remains an open question of how to use these degraded lands, from faltering lavender farms to golf courses. But Skousen, also a land reclamation specialist at WVU, believes a potential answer might be in this towering grass. While other agricultural crops struggle with the poor soil quality here from past mining, giant miscanthus thrives. “We’ve never fertilized them. We’ve never done anything to them other than let them grow,” Skousen said. “Which demonstrates their ability to grow on marginal mine land areas at this kind of rate, every year.” And that rate is rapid: for every two tons of grassy material a regular pasture produces, Skousen estimates miscanthus grows 10 to 12 tons. That grassy material is what is called biomass, which can be turned into value-added products like heating pellets, biofuels like ethanol and more. A patch of miscanthus towers above other grasses on the former mine site. Photo: Brittany Patterson/Ohio Valley ReSource “We could grow a crop like this and sell it to an ethanol producer or some other heating agent, and suddenly we have a sort of economy develop for an agricultural community,” Skousen said. Skousen and other researchers see potential in giant miscanthus not only to create economic opportunity in Appalachia but to revitalize reclaimed strip mines and help reduce the emissions that cause climate change. Yet the commercial market for this “power plant” has yet to bloom, and some wonder whether it’s ultimately the best path for reclaimed mine land. Root of the Matter Ohio State University Professor Rattan Lal’s study of soil has spanned five decades and several countries. “The health of soil, plants, animals and people is one and indivisible,” Lal said. “We need to reclaim these mine lands in one way or the other because they’re an important resource in terms of land area.” He led a team of researchers in a recent three-year study to grow plots of miscanthus on a former strip mine near Zanesville, Ohio, and he also saw similar biomass growth. Yet the plant’s root system also intrigues Lal. “At the same time, it sequesters carbon in the soil,” Lal said. Carbon sequestration is the process of trapping and storing carbon emissions from the air to mitigate the effects of climate change. Lal said giant miscanthus is especially good at doing just that through sucking carbon through leaves and storing the carbon in roots. “[Miscanthus] could become a sink for greenhouse gases … while at the same time produce biofuel, which is a substitute for fossil fuel,” Lal said. “Once it’s established, I think it should be a carbon-negative technology.” Not only is there a potential benefit in combating climate change, but Lal said the soil quality could improve after several years, too, as microorganisms eat the extra stored carbon. “The soil may be improved well enough that it could be used for other things such as corn or soybeans,” Lal said. “Coal mining was the source of emission gases. And now [miscanthus is] a solution. So that is to me, as an environmental researcher, even more critical than the money part.” Efforts to make a profit from miscanthus in the Ohio Valley also date back a decade, but not all theses efforts were successful. Aerial view of mountaintop removal in West Virginia. The “lake” in the center is a coal sludge waste impoundment. Credit: Vivian Stockman and Southwings Unsteady Markets Jeff Lowe believed he was at the cutting edge of a new industry when he launched his east Kentucky company Midwestern Biofuels LLC in 2009. “What’s only being talked about in other places is being done right here,” Lowe told the Associated Press at the time, alongside former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and other state officials. His company had planned to recruit local farmers to grow hundreds of acres of miscanthus to be turned into pellets, which would then be mixed into coal-fired electricity plants in the Ohio Valley. This machine at the defunct Midwestern Biofuels LLC created fuel pellets, out of miscanthus and other biomass, that could be burned for electricity. Credit: Midwestern Biofuels, LLC He said several regional utility companies were interested, including Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. First Energy announced in 2009 the utility planned to transition the coal-fired R.E. Burger Power Station in Shadyside, Ohio, to burn exclusively biomass to cut costs and meet state renewable energy regulations. Lowe said a contract was in the works to burn his miscanthus pellets there, but it ultimately fell through. The company a year later changed directions and decided to retire the plant instead, citing falling electricity prices and falling demand from the 2008 recession. Lowe closed Midwestern Biofuels LLC in 2013. “We had no sales. We go from having complete capacity from one of the plants to nothing, overnight,” Lowe said. “If you’re not required to do it, then you generally don’t do it.” The relative lack of commercial appeal for miscanthus is a challenge that entrepreneurs and researchers alike are still trying to tackle. One company in Ashtabula County, in northeast Ohio, Aloterra Energy, stopped making biofuels from miscanthus because it was too costly. “You can’t store our stuff outside in pellets because it’ll take water on, and coal is often outside in the elements,” Aloterra Energy Co-founder Jon Griswold said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we looked at everything.” Despite those initial market challenges, Aloterra Energy is now using miscanthus to make products including recyclable food packaging and industrial absorbents. “This is a growth industry. It just takes so long for people to figure out what you’re doing and why they need to be involved,” Griswold said. Yet some environmental activists are skeptical regarding the biofuel potential of miscanthus. Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a statewide progressive advocacy group, published a report in 2017 detailing how Kentucky could meet and go beyond the energy regulations put forth by the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which was repealed and replaced last month. The plan specifically excluded burning biomass as a viable energy option, because the organization didn’t generally consider biomass a carbon-neutral resource. KFTC member Cassa Herron said while she isn’t completely against the idea of miscanthus as a biofuel, how these emissions are potentially regulated is key. “The devil’s in the details in how you regulate such activity,” Herron said. “What does burning anything do to our community? And then how are regulatory agencies set up on a level to minimize those impacts?” KFTC in its reasoning against biomass cited research from Partnership for Policy Integrity, an environmental nonprofit that specializes in biomass policy. PFPI President Mary Booth said the added fossil fuel costs could be significant in transporting miscanthus from remote reclaimed mine sites and turning it into biofuel or biomass pellets. “It really does eat into the net carbon emissions. It can really increase the carbon footprint of a pellet made from miscanthus,” Booth said. Jeff Skousen is well aware that biomass energy has carbon emissions, but he believes the benefits of miscanthus outweigh the potential negatives. And past research has shown the potential for miscanthus being at least carbon neutral — meaning the grass absorbs enough carbon dioxide into the soil to make up for carbon emissions when it’s burned. Skousen has seen the decline of the coal industry the past decade and various efforts to use the land that’s left behind. Ultimately, he wants to see the potential of that land fulfilled. “Land is a permanent resource. And it’s always here. Even if it wasn’t reclaimed exactly the way we want it for that post-mining land use, we can change it,” Skousen said. “I just wish we could use these lands in a little bit more productive way.” ReSource reporter Brittany Patterson contributed to this story. Trump’s USDA Is Letting Factories With Troubling Safety Records Slaughter Chickens Even Faster House Budget Rejects Trump’s Proposed Cuts for Rural Programs New SNAP Rule Could Hit Ohio Valley Hardest Photo: Glynis Board/Ohio Valley ReSource The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates almost 700,000 people across the country will lose food stamps in a new Trump Administration rule announced December 4. Regional anti-hunger advocates and policy analysts say the Ohio Valley — and Appalachia in particular — could be disproportionately affected by this rule. In general, the rule will make it harder for states to waive requirements that low-income able-bodied adults without dependents work (or participate in a work program) for at least 20 hours or lose their food stamps. USDA officials said the rule is to encourage SNAP recipients to find employment. “We need to encourage people by giving them a helping hand but not allowing it to become an infinitely giving hand,” USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a conference call Wednesday. “What’s happening is that states are seeking waivers for wide swaths of their populations, and millions of people who could work are continuing to receive SNAP benefits.” Current SNAP rules limit recipients to receiving three months of aid out of a three-year period, unless they’re working or enrolled in worker training or other education. But states can issue waivers to high-unemployment, economically distressed counties where it may be more difficult to find employment to meet this requirement. Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia are all receiving partial waivers for the newest fiscal year. This new rule, first proposed in February and planned to go into effect in April, will raise the bar for how economically distressed a county has to be to qualify. Specifically, a county would have to have an unemployment rate that is 20 percent higher than the national average while also having an average unemployment rate of six percent or higher over 24 months. According to the research group Policy Matters Ohio, 41 counties in Ohio currently receive waivers — most of them in the southeastern Appalachian portion of the state. An analysis of SNAP data last year by The Daily Yonder, an outlet reporting on rural issues, shows out of the top 100 counties most reliant on SNAP, about 20 of those are in Kentucky and West Virginia. In Clay County, not far from West Virginia’s capital, nearly half of the county’s 9,000 people receive SNAP benefits. According to a 2018 USDA report, SNAP recipients in the Ohio Valley made up nearly 6 percent of all recipients in the country, totaling an estimated 2,305,000 people that year. Advocates working on poverty and hunger issues say that means the rule change will hit harder in the region. “You will not see food banks make this up. We cannot make up for the loss of these kinds of benefits. We just can’t,” said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Food Banks. “If we see a massive surge on our system, the very agencies in our communities will give away what food they have, and when the food is gone, the shelves are empty, they’ll close their doors.” Hamler-Fugitt also said she considers “able-bodied adults with dependents” to be a misnomer, because other people including extended family members that are not legal dependents could rely on the food budget provided by SNAP. Dustin Pugel, a policy analyst at the left-leaning research group Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, said most counties in Kentucky already qualify for waivers. But this new rule could make it difficult for states to request new waivers in the future, especially during economic downturns. He said while more than 100 counties in Kentucky qualify for waivers currently, only around 30 would qualify under the new rule. “There’s over 4,000 retailers in the state that accept SNAP benefits. And they’re keenly aware of people who come in each month to buy their groceries,” Pugel said. “When you start losing that, you also start losing the economic benefit it has to grocery stores and the benefit to the broader economy.” Pugel said this new rule is only one of several the Trump administration is proposing to alter access to SNAP, including a rule that could take away benefits from more than three million people across the country. Other analysts say the continuing collapse of the coal industry in the Ohio Valley will only increase reliance on the program. Seth DiStefano, policy outreach director for the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, points to the recent bankruptcy of Ohio-based coal giant Murray Energy as an example of that decline. “There are entire swaths of our southern coalfields that have yet to recover at all from the collapse of the coal market. So, the impact is very simple, it just hurts people,” DiStefano said. “When these federal food assistance dollars come out, they’re just pulled out of the economy, there will be parts in West Virginia where the only place to buy groceries will close.” Grassroots Growing: Hemp Farmers Form Cooperatives Amid Growth and Uncertainty Tony Silvernail with a handful of crumbled hemp, on his farm near Frankfort, Kentucky. Photo: Liam Niemeyer/Ohio Valley ReSource This article was originally published by the Ohio Valley ReSource. Tony Silvernail swings a heavy machete at a stalk of bushy hemp and chops the plant near the root, grabbing the five-foot-tall shoot with his sun-weathered hand. It’s an unusually hot October day on his farm, Beyond The Bridge LLC, tucked in the hills outside of Frankfort, Kentucky. But the heat doesn’t faze Silvernail, sporting a sweat-soaked shirt, a huge smile, and a fat cigar between his teeth. Silvernail and hundreds of others of farmers across the Ohio Valley are finally getting to harvest thousands of acres of hemp, the first harvest since the federal government legalized hemp cultivation last December. “Oh, I’m happy as hell,” he said with a laugh. “We’re all like little kids, Shawn and I, getting all excited when we’re sitting here harvesting and talking. This is actually the glory part of being a farmer, as anybody whose livelihood depends on this. When you’re harvesting, it’s a happy time.” Tony Silvernail picks up a stalk of hemp he chopped during the harvest. Photo: Liam Niemeyer/Ohio Valley ReSource He’s been an organic farmer for decades in Kentucky, and it wasn’t until last fall when he and his business partner, Kentucky State University professor Shawn Lucas, decided to try their luck at growing organic hemp for cannabidiol, or CBD. Silvernail said when he first became an organic farmer in the ’90s, he appreciated the advice experienced farmers shared with newcomers in the industry. But he said that hasn’t been the case with hemp. “I’ve really adopted that sense of helping, and you didn’t really get that with the hemp industry. The hemp industry is still very closed,” he said. “So, I got in a bad mood and sitting there eating lunch with Shawn downtown, and I really came into a moment of ‘you know, we just got to do our own thing.’” They co-founded an organic hemp cooperative for smaller hemp farmers. The cooperative purchases hemp seed and other supplies in bulk to get a better deal. It sells the members’ collective hemp harvest to processors, using the strength in numbers to bargain for better prices. And the cooperative helps farmers figure out how to even grow the crop in the first place. Their cooperative is starting out small – 15 farmers in central Kentucky growing about 30 acres – and has already seen some challenges. They unknowingly purchased faulty seed and have had thieves stealing the crop right out of the fields. But Silvernail said it’s all part of the learning process. “Ask us in November where our sales were at, how we all did,” Silvernail said. “We can cry on each others’ shoulders over a beer when we realized how badly we may have screwed up or what we didn’t do, but hopefully next year will be better.” Cooperatives aren’t a new idea in farming. But they’re new in the hemp industry, and many Ohio Valley hemp growers are choosing to join cooperatives to share supplies and give small growers a better shot in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Regional agriculture leaders are championing hemp’s potential for farms of all sizes. But these hemp farmers worry that the sort of corporate consolidation they’ve seen in other agriculture sectors will soon come to the new hemp industry. Consolidation Concerns Hemp farmer J. Morgan Leach has already seen attempts by larger corporations to corner the hemp and CBD market. Leach, founder of the West Virginia Farmers Cooperative, said he testified in 2017 against initial versions of a state bill, that he said would have prevented the sale of CBD products in the state unless the product was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. That portion of the bill was supported by lobbyists from the British company GW Pharmaceuticals, the proprietor of Epidiolex, used to treat epilepsy-caused seizures. It is currently the only CBD-derived drug approved by the FDA. Other CBD advocates that year in other states also worried about similar state legislation being pushed by the company. Leach said initial versions of bill could have closed off a lucrative market for West Virginia hemp farmers. “So that was one of the, I think, apparent instances where you get kind of these bigger companies that come in and try to monopolize the market,” Leach said. “We were able to overcome that and preserve this market opportunity.” Leach doesn’t want the new hemp business to follow the route some other agricultural sectors have, such as the poultry industry. Large poultry companies often have extensive control over a farmer’s production and pricing. That has led to a massive class-action lawsuit alleging that large firms use data to keep prices for poultry high while payment for farmers remains low. Leach sees that as a cautionary tale about the effect larger corporations can have. “The company owns those birds from the time they hatch to the time they purchase them, and then the farmer is stuck with the bill for raising those and the chicken house to do it. I think that’s a poor example,” Leach said. “Some are making money, but they’re totally hamstrung to the price that the company gives them, because it’s just how it goes in that industry. [Hemp] is a new frontier.” Hemp sprouts from the ground at a farm near Frankfort, Kentucky. Photo: Liam Niemeyer/Ohio Valley ReSource Leach founded his co-op in 2015 in part because he doesn’t want a similar situation to happen with hemp. “That’s our goal, is to be able to keep the five-acre farmer in business even when the bigger companies move into this space,” Leach said. “A co-op is a one member, one vote organization, so all of my members hold shares of stock. That stock is restricted only to farming members. So, farmers are the entirety of the makeup of our organization.” Leach said it’s ultimately up to the individual farmer whether they want to grow in a co-op, grow independently, or grow under contract for one of many hemp processing companies entering the business. “I think it’s just kind of a difference in philosophy,” Leach said. “I’d just rather be part of a farming co-op where I have a voice and I have a vote.” But Leach said he’s worried about the potential for future large-scale hemp production that could push smaller hemp growers out. By banding together, small farmers can compete with larger-scale production. Booming Growth Jeffery Young is an agriculture economist with Murray State University’s Center for Agricultural Hemp in west Kentucky. He agrees the potential is there for future hemp consolidation. “I don’t want to say ‘join or die,’ but it would definitely be in a smaller operator’s best interest to join in on that,” Young said. “They wouldn’t have the acreage, or the volume or the clout that a larger operator would have.” Young said the new industry is still years away from reaching a level of large-scale production that would pressure smaller hemp farmers. But the nascent industry is booming, and the amount of hemp grown in the Ohio Valley continues to skyrocket. The number of hemp acres planted in Kentucky this year, compared to last year, nearly quadrupled to about 26,500 acres. West Virginia saw a similar jump with 641 acres planted, according to state agriculture officials. With zooming demand for hemp to turn into products like CBD, prices for the crop are far from set in stone. “It depends on things like geography, what kind of processors are there nearby, how many are nearby, what variety is being grown, what quality of product is being produced,” Young said. “The market is still trying to get its sea legs, if you will. There’s a great deal more risk with hemp…and so through sharing of risk, that would would be a key benefit from forming a cooperative.” Much of the risk comes from the learning curve many new growers face. Pesticides are still being tested to control weeds and insects, federal crop insurance for hemp won’t be available until next year, and in some cases, THC levels in hemp can spike above the federal limit that classifies the crop as hemp. THC is the psychoactive compound in marijuana, and is also present in trace amounts in hemp. Hemp with THC levels above 0.3 percent is reclassified as the crop’s illegal cannabis cousin, and has to be thrown out. While cooperatives can shelter hemp farmers from some risk, the set-ups can bring on new perils for farmers as well. Aleta Botts, Executive Director of the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, works with cooperatives of all kinds to help them become sustainable. She said because most hemp farmers are still learning how to consistently grow the crop, there’s a chance that a co-op might promise a hemp processor to grow a certain amount of hemp and fall short because of crop failures. “We’re going to get to harvest and not have those pounds to market. So we’ve built our financials on a level that we’re not gonna be able to achieve,” said Botts. Unlike in the rest of the Ohio Valley, Ohio farmers aren’t harvesting hemp this fall because the state only legalized growing hemp in July. But that hasn’t stopped widespread interest in growing hemp, something that was apparent at a recent summit for potential hemp farmers in southern Ohio. Tony Silvernail (left) and Shawn Lucas (right) inside their high tunnel where hemp is drying. Photo: Liam Niemeyer/Ohio Valley ReSource “I printed off, I think, 480 some lunch tickets, and they were all gone. So the interest is huge,” said Julie Doran, who founded the Ohio Hemp Farmers Cooperative in December. She was also one of the few critics who panned parts of the state legislation legalizing hemp cultivation in Ohio. She feared that the bill’s language setting “financial responsibility” standards could limit in-state participation in the state’s hemp program and instead favor out-of-state companies with more experience and access to capital. Doran said she believes there’s a place for smaller farmers alongside larger investors, but she also cautions that farmers need to learn how to grow the new crop reliably before working with bigger companies that might want to grow larger acreages more quickly. “It’s not like any other crop that they farmed,” Doran said. “Yes, corporate is going to come in and we are going to need them for an outlet to sell all this stuff, too. But we need to learn ourselves first. And, you know, get our feet wet before we jump in.” Isaac Arnsdorf Photo: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall Workers are getting injured, but the Department of Agriculture says their safety is not its responsibility. Sixty miles northeast of Atlanta, a chicken statue atop a 25-foot monument proclaims the small city of Gainesville, Georgia, the “Poultry Capital of the World.” In the rolling hills outside of town, white feathers trail the trucks turning into a slaughterhouse operated by a local company called Fieldale Farms. The Fieldale factory employs about 1,900 people. A lawn sign advertises jobs for $11-plus an hour and a big banner shouts “Think Safe, Work Safe.” But in recent years, according to federal safety records obtained by ProPublica, the factory has been the site of several grisly accidents, resulting in hospitalizations, amputations and death. Those accidents didn’t prevent Fieldale from getting special permission from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to speed up its processing lines. Chicken companies have long wanted to operate their plants faster so that they can boost profits, either by producing more chickens or using less labor. But speeding up increases the risks to employees already working in dangerous conditions, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. It’s been only a few months since the speed increase took effect, not long enough to make meaningful before-and-after comparisons. And there is no available data to compare injury rates at the factories with higher speeds to the industry average because the Trump administration scrapped a requirement for employers to submit their injury logs. What is clear, from safety records obtained by ProPublica, is that most of the 11 plants that received permission to run faster did so despite having a history of serious accidents, including deaths. The chicken industry has higher injury rates than coal mines or construction sites, and it’s the biggest source of finger amputations. Workers are under constant pressure to keep production going at a grueling speed. They typically perform one motion over and over, handling knives just a few inches from the next worker, surrounded by harsh chemicals and spinning blades. “Increasing line speeds will increase poultry workers’ exposure to all of these hazards,” David Michaels, the head of OSHA from 2009 to 2017, said in a 2012 memo opposing a USDA proposal at the time to increase line speeds. Scientific studies, including both government-funded and industry-sponsored, have established that going faster worsens the risk of repetitive strain injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome. There is also evidence that feeling rushed or struggling to keep up with the work pace are factors in traumatic injuries. “My conclusion from conducting this detailed research is there is no doubt that increasing line speed will increase laceration injuries to workers,” Melissa Perry, chair of environmental and occupational health at the George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, said in a submission to the USDA opposing a similar plan to raise line speeds in pork slaughterhouses. The USDA is moving forward with that policy despite an internal investigation into whether the agency relied on flawed data to justify it. For chicken factories, the USDA isn’t going through the time-consuming and contentious process of making a new regulation with a higher speed limit. Instead, it agreed to waive the existing cap for companies that ask. “This deregulatory action would advance the president’s objective to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens,” the National Chicken Council, an industry trade group, said in its formal request for the waivers. When the USDA started issuing line speed waivers to poultry plants last year, the agency said it wouldn’t consider the impact on worker safety. “The agency has neither the authority nor the expertise to regulate issues related to establishment worker safety,” the USDA said in its official announcement of the speed waivers. “OSHA is the federal agency with statutory and regulatory authority to promote workplace safety and health.” But OSHA has no control over line speeds. A spokeswoman with the agency said the USDA “has sole jurisdiction over line speeds at these plants.” This gap in the regulatory framework puts workers at risk, said Debbie Berkowitz, a former OSHA chief of staff. She now directs the National Employment Law Project’s Worker Health and Safety Program. “The USDA doesn’t care about worker safety, they just care about increasing profits for huge meatpacking companies,” Berkowitz said. “If production increases and everybody has to work harder and faster in an already dangerous environment, that increases injuries.” The National Chicken Council’s request for waivers acknowledged that “worker safety is a factor plants must consider when deciding the most appropriate line speed for their operations.” But the trade group argued that this shouldn’t prevent the USDA from issuing waivers because companies could take actions to address the risks. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service administrator, Carmen Rottenberg, has said in a December interview with trade press that the agency plans to use the line speed waivers to revisit the case for lifting the limit everywhere. The USDA declined to provide an interview with Rottenberg, and her spokesman declined to comment on the timeline for that proposal. “A Deadly Trap” Before it received a waiver, the Fieldale plant repeatedly broke safety rules, and managers clashed with OSHA over its enforcement efforts, according to hundreds of pages of records obtained by ProPublica. Inside the plant, there’s an insulated room for storing ice. Ice cubes fall from the ceiling into a huge mound; they then slide through turning screw-shaped blades that break up the ice and feed the cubes into the factory. The blades are covered by a grate in the floor. One morning in 2014, a worker went inside to fetch some ice. Some of the bars in the floor grate were loose or missing, but the worker couldn’t see the gaps buried under the ice. His foot fell through the faulty grate and onto the screw-shaped blades, severing his leg below the knee. He crawled out of the ice house and cried for help. “He’s bleeding bad and he’s in shock,” an employee told the 911 dispatcher. “Please tell them to hurry up before the man dies.” The worker survived, but his leg was so damaged that all but five inches had to be amputated. The plant manager, David Rackley, told the OSHA inspector that the worker got hurt because he was “thin” so his foot must have fit through the regular spaces in the grate. The inspector measured the width of the thick rubber boots that the worker was wearing (5 inches) against the spaces in the grate (2 inches). Then Rackley abandoned his claim, according to the OSHA report. The inspector called Rackley’s shifting explanations “deceptive” and “not true.” The inspector learned from interviewing employees that Fieldale hadn’t bothered to fix the grates despite repeated complaints about the missing bars. Then, right after the accident, the company immediately fixed the grates and “covered up” records of the sudden repair. The inspector called it “a deadly trap.” Rackley, who is still the plant manager, referred questions to Fieldale’s president, Tom Hensley. In an interview, Hensley repeated the false claim that the worker was injured because he was “small” and “somehow his small little foot got through the guard.” When presented with the inspector’s measurements and discovery that Fieldale “covered up” its repair of the faulty bars, Hensley said he wasn’t aware. “This is the first time I’ve ever heard that,” he said. The OSHA inspector had previously warned Fieldale about maintaining protective barriers around dangerous equipment, after an unguarded conveyor had sliced open an employee’s arm. It wouldn’t be the last time, either. The Fieldale plant had a longtime handyman named Ricardo Aburto. Aburto’s job was to patch things up to keep the line running until a full repair could occur during downtime on the weekend, according to his wife, Alicia De La Paz. On a Tuesday in July 2015, Aburto climbed up on a ladder to fix a high-power light, according to OSHA records. To remove the cover, he touched his screwdriver to a bolt. Instantly, he dropped to the floor. “He stopped breathing,” a nurse told the 911 dispatcher. The wires that powered the light were supposed to be surrounded by insulation. But over time the coating wore down and Fieldale hadn’t replaced it, the OSHA inspector found. The exposed conductors electrified the light’s casing, shocking Aburto as soon as his screwdriver touched it. He was killed. OSHA cited Fieldale for failing to insulate the wiring and for leaving the light on while Aburto was working on it. Fieldale paid a fine of $4,900. Despite the coroner’s finding that Aburto was electrocuted, which was reported in the local newspaper, Hensley maintained to ProPublica that Aburto died of a heart attack. He also said his engineers found nothing wrong with the light, even though the OSHA inspector took a photo of the exposed wiring. Hensley acknowledged that the light should not have been on while Aburto was working on it. De La Paz said she was furious when she learned that Aburto’s death was so easily preventable. She said she wanted to sue but she couldn’t get a lawyer who would take the case because none of the witnesses would agree to testify against Fieldale. “I miss him every single day,” De La Paz said. “That’s a pain nothing can ever take away.” Four years later, she still describes him in the present tense: “Ricardo is,” instead of “Ricardo was.” De La Paz said that since Fieldale failed to take simple and required safety precautions, it should not have received special permission to speed up operations, possibly exposing employees to additional risks. In response, Hensley disputed that the line speed increase has any effect on worker safety. “It wouldn’t matter how many birds a minute were processed through the plant for that accident,” he said. “So we had a couple of bad ones, and we regret them, for sure.” A few days after the USDA announced that it would start granting line speed waivers, Hensley introduced Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, former governor of Georgia, at an industry conference in Atlanta. Georgia is the country’s No. 1 chicken producer, and agriculture is its top industry. “President Trump could not have selected a better person for secretary of agriculture than Georgia’s own Sonny Perdue,” Hensley said at the event. Hensley and Perdue have known each other for years. Fieldale has bought corn from Perdue’s farm, Hensley said. (The secretary is not related to the chicken brand.) Hensley sends Perdue Christmas cards. Fieldale became one of the first companies to receive a line speed waiver, in October 2018. In May, the USDA granted a second waiver to another Fieldale facility nearby, where a worker clearing an air pipe had lost several fingers in the blade of a rotary valve. Hensley told ProPublica he hasn’t been in touch with Perdue outside of the conference and he doesn’t think their relationship had any effect on the waiver. A USDA spokesman said the waiver decisions were made by career staff, not political appointees. After the speed increase took effect, an employee’s fingers were cut off while he was trying to remove a piece of chicken stuck in a machine that removes neck skin, according to OSHA records. Hensley said this machine’s speed hasn’t changed. “Our backs hurt when we go faster,” said Luis Miguel Santiago Torres, a 30-year-old worker who said he injured his knee at the Fieldale factory and recently left. “We are humans.” “An Odd Coincidence” In October 2018, the USDA gave a line speed waiver to Gerber Poultry in Kidron, Ohio, 60 miles south of Cleveland. The company had requested the waiver with a one-page cover letter that made no mention of worker safety. In anticipation of cranking up the speed, the company decided to order a spare set of motors so it wouldn’t lose any time if one of them broke. So the staff needed to look up the part numbers. A maintenance man named Bill Derwacter climbed up on a stepladder to read the number off one of the motors, suspended 10 feet above the factory floor. Derwacter said he knew that federal regulations require factories to turn off equipment whenever it’s being serviced, but he didn’t think it was a big deal to climb up and read the part number, something he’d done many times before. As Derwacter stood up there, the motor’s spinning sprocket snatched his sleeve, pulling his arm into the machine. The motor sliced his arm open and snapped a bone. It yanked him off the stepladder and threw him to the floor. Gerber’s vice president for compliance, Glenn Mott, said he saw the ambulance outside just as he was stepping out of a meeting with USDA officials about implementing the speed increase. “I thought, that’s such bizarre timing,” Mott, who signed the letter requesting a speed waiver, said in an interview. “It was an odd coincidence.” Derwacter said he’s grateful to Gerber for covering all his medical expenses, including multiple surgeries, and holding his job for him. “They took amazing care of me; I can’t even say nothing bad,” Derwacter said. “It was truly 100% an accident.” OSHA, however, faulted Gerber for failing to turn off the motor and for not making sure employees followed the rule to do so. The inspector proposed a fine of $14,782, which was later reduced to $11,086. Mott acknowledged that the line should not have been running while Derwacter was near it. But he said the accident did not cause him to rethink his plans because it could have happened at any speed. Starting the next day, the company gradually increased its speed over several weeks until reaching the new maximum. “I Can’t Do a Lot of Things Anymore” The injuries from working in chicken factories are often not from traumatic accidents, but from the steady strain of doing one thing over and over, at a fast pace. These injuries, which can be painful and debilitating, were already common, and researchers say speeding up the lines will make them worse. “Despite repeated studies in this industry in the past 20 years that found high prevalence of carpal tunnel syndrome, poultry processing jobs continue to be hazardous,” researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health said in 2014. “We found that the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome increased with increasing exposure to the occupational risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders,” such as repetition. Ethan Doney said that, on his first day at Peco Foods in Pocahontas, Arkansas, in 2016, he and other new hires were told by the company that they should report any injuries to the on-site nurse, and anyone who went to an outside doctor would be fired. Peco officials didn’t respond to requests for comment. (Peco’s facilities in neighboring Mississippi were among the sites raided by immigration authorities in August, part of the largest sweep in decades.) Doney was tasked with cutting meat off the bone. By the second month working shifts as long as 12 hours, Doney’s fingers started locking up and he felt a burning sensation all the way up to his shoulder. He said he went to the nurse every day for three months, but she refused to send him to a doctor because she said he was faking. Doney said the nurse put some balm on his hands, wrapped them up and sent him back to work. After six months, Doney got so fed up that he quit and went to the doctor, who diagnosed him with carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands and nerve damage in both elbows. Both arms needed surgery. Doney asked Peco to pay for the procedures, but the company said no, because he was no longer an employee. The company also refused to rehire him, Doney said, because the same nurse who previously accused him of faking now said he couldn’t work until he had the surgeries. Doney had the operation on his left arm, but he didn’t have surgery on the right one because it was scheduled for the day his twins were born. He still hasn’t had the procedure and continues to feel the effect of his injuries. “I couldn’t hold them for long periods of time,” Doney, 25, said of his children. “I can’t do a lot of things anymore.” One of Doney’s co-workers at Peco, Lazaro Villegas, took pride in how fast he could pull chicken breasts off the bone. Villegas said he knew the workers were supposed to rotate through different positions to avoid repetitive strain injuries, but the supervisors often shifted them right back or didn’t move them at all. “They put a lot of stress on the supervisors to make sure the line keeps moving,” he said. “It’s all about the money.” Villegas, 48, started waking up in the middle of the night with intense pain in his hands. “It would hurt like needles poking at you,” he said. “I’d be dead asleep and boom, the pain would just be way too much.” Peco moved him to a different department that was supposed to be less strenuous, but the pain didn’t go away. After a year, the company finally sent him to a doctor, who said he had carpal tunnel in both hands. Peco paid for surgery on the right hand but fired Villegas two days before the operation, he said, because he’d missed too many days of work. The doctor said Villegas’ left hand wasn’t bad enough to justify surgery, but it still bothers him. “Peco needs to learn how to treat their employees better,” Villegas said. “Even if they gave me more money right now, I still wouldn’t go back.” This story is co-published with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2129
__label__wiki	0.924873	0.924873	WEDNESDAYS-CHILD Meet Angello: A creative Lego master builder He's creative with the Lego blocks, but he still knows how to follow the rules for a complex build. Author: Clint Williams (AASK) Published: 11:02 AM MST April 3, 2018 Updated: 11:00 AM MST April 4, 2018 Sure, the box may have a picture of a police car or a Star Wars Millennium Falcon, but the Lego pieces spread out on a table top can be anything. “I like Legos a lot because you don’t have to follow the instructions all the time,” said 12-year-old Angello. “You can build whatever you want.” But sometimes it’s good to follow instructions, as Angello does under the guidance of Dawn Craigh, director of Bricks 4 Kidz®, which offers STEM-principled educational play activities for children. Together, the two buillt a Lego machine with moving parts. Earlier, on his own, Angello exhibited a whole other level of imagination when he brought Legos to life in a short stop-motion animation video on the perils of driving under the influence. “Angello is super creative,” said James Patton, a youth advocate with Christian Family Care. “And he loves learning new things all the time.” He also loves the movies in the Star Wars series and the Harry Potter series. But it’s not all staying indoors for this sixth grader. “I like basketball and soccer and ping pong,” Angello says. “I’m really good at ping pong.” Unlike most boys his age, Angello isn’t a big hamburger fan. “I like fruits and vegetables,” he says. “I’m not the type of person who eats meat a lot. I don’t eat beef. I don’t eat pork.” Patton says Angello would thrive in a two-parent household and would fit in well with siblings in the home. What is Angello looking for in a forever family? “I would like them to be chill,” he said. Watch the stories of children in foster care waiting on forever families each week on the Wednesday’s Child segment each week between 5-6 a.m. on 12 News. You can also view previously aired stories at www.aask-az.org. For more information on children eligible for adoption, call Aid to Adoption of Special Kids (AASK) at 602-930-4900, or visit www.aask-az.org.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2130
__label__cc	0.683813	0.316187	Wollongong City Centre Your guide to festivities Live Music & Busking Hold an event or promotion A City for People – Pilot Projects Crown St Mall Renew Wollongong City Centre E-News If you operate a business in the Crown Street Mall, our City Centre Management team is available to provide you with advice and information. Below is a list of information which may be helpful to you. If you can’t find what you need on this page, please call us on 4227 7111. We are committed to providing a safe and secure City Centre for the community, retailers and contractors. For problems with anti-social activities or to report an incident, call Council’s City Centre Security and/or Police: Security 0418 425 154 or (02) 4225 3861 Wollongong Central, GPT Security 0411 457 727 Police (02) 4226 7899 Emergency Services (Police, Fire, Ambulance) 000 Vehicle Entry to Crown Street Mall & Globe Lane To ensure pedestrian safety, vehicles restrictions apply to all areas of Crown Street Mall and Globe Lane. Crown Street Mall is primarily a pedestrian Mall, so vehicle entry permits to this area are strictly limited. To be eligible for a vehicle entry permit to Globe Lane you must be servicing properties in Globe Lane or Crown Street Mall. The requirement to access these areas must be approved by City Centre Management and may include activities such as emergency trade work, construction work, special events, cash handling, or delivery of oversized/heavy weighted items. To enquire about a vehicle entry permit contact City Centre Management on 4227 7111 or email citycentre@wollongong.nsw.gov.au Work on roads and footpaths – Crown Street Mall & Globe Lane All works within the Crown Street Mall and Globe Lane area require consultation with City Centre Management and may also require an application to Open and/or Occupy Roadway/Footpath , prior to any works commencing. Vehicle entry permits related to construction works and times for access to undertake the work in Crown Street Mall can be requested from City Centre Management. You can obtain an initial fee quote from Council before submitting an application and associated fees. Please email the following information to roadoccs@wollongong.nsw.gov.au Exact location of works and type of work to be undertake How much of the footpath/road do you need to occupy. Please provide measurements and a sketch of the area What plant and/or equipment will be used on-site to undertake the work eg, boom lift, skip bin, ladders, etc. Details of any temporary fencing or hoarding that will need to be erected to do the work. Following acceptance of a fee quote, a full application to Council along with any associated fees will need to be submitted before proceeding. Once issued, permits are valid for one month. Appropriate approvals must be obtained before erecting signs on private property in the City Centre. To find out what signs are permitted in the City Centre and the approval process, please refer to Council’s Policy – Chapter C1 of the Wollongong Development Control Plan. Any signage to be erected or material to be distributed must be approved by the City Centre Management team. Signage must not be attached to any fixture, including tree guards or poles, without the express permission of the City Centre Management. Business Waste Collection and Recycling As a business owner or operator, you are responsible for waste generated by your business and ensuring it is disposed of properly and collected by a commercial waste provider. Public Waste Bins All public garbage bins in the City Centre are maintained by Council (for public use, not business use). For urgent rubbish issues or overflowing bins please contact Council on 4227 7111 or email customerservice@wollongong.nsw.gov.au Crown Street Mall, including Globe Lane, is a smoke free zone. In addition, under the Smoke-Free Environment Act 2000, the NSW State Government has introduced smoking laws that prohibit smoking in the following areas: within 4 metres of a pedestrian access point to a building within 10 metres of children’s play equipment public swiming pools and sport grounds public transport stops and stations commercial outdoor dinging ares in licensed venues, restaurants and cafes areas within 4 metres of a pedestrian entrance to or exit from a licensed venue, restaurant or cafe. The laws introduced by the NSW State Government are enforceable by NSW Health Inspectors. For more information visit the NSW Health Tobacco website. If you think a smoking ban has been broken call the Tobacco information Line on 1800 357 412. Disability access and trading along Crown Street and the Mall Providing access means supporting people with a disability to participate equally in all aspects of community life. This includes providing independent, equitable and dignified access to public spaces and places. The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) is the law that provides protection against discrimination on the basis of disability for everyone in Australia. The DDA makes it against the law for public places to be inaccessible for people with a disability and this includes access to public footpaths, walkways and spaces, and pedestrian malls. Business owners should ensure that obstacles such as A-Frame signs, merchandise or advertising signs, merchandise racks, merchandise tables, and outdoor dining tables and chairs are not placed within the accessible path of travel. For more information visit the People with Disability section of Council’s website. The Crown Street Mall CCTV cameras are owned by Wollongong City Council. The cameras record 24/7 and are monitored by Council’s City Centre security contractor. The system is guided by the CCTV Policy which is available on Councils website. If your property or business has been affected by graffiti vandalism, please report it to Council on (02) 4227 7111 and to the Police Assistance Line on 131 444. www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au City Centre Management email citycentre@wollongong.nsw.gov.au or visit us at the iHub at 93 Crown Street Wollongong Crown Street Mall is a smoke free zone Free Wi-Fi in the City Centre. 2020 Wollongong City Centre	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2134
__label__wiki	0.531173	0.531173	(From Latin: "to, toward, a direction toward, an addition to, near, at"; and changes to: "ac-, af-, ag-, al-, an-, ap-, aq-, ar-, as-, at-" and ad- is also combined with certain words that begin with the letters c, f, g, l, n, p, q, r, s, and t.) The Latin element ad carries the idea of "in the direction of" and combines with many Latin words and roots to make common English words. ad eundem (Latin) To the same degree. Of equivalent value: Ad eundem is mainly used for the acceptance of a student with an academic standing or degree by a university or college, but which was achieved at another equal institution of education. ad eundem gradum (Latin) Sometimes abbreviated as ad eundem, this phrase may be used to place blame or praise among parties to a deed. The fuller version has a special use when applied to academic life. Considering gradum as an academic rank and, under special circumstances, a person holding a Master of Arts degree from one institution may be awarded the same degree by another institution without examination or even matriculation, and such a degree is termed "M.A. ad eundem gradum". ad eundem; ad eund. (Latin) Of equivalent value. Ad eund is an abbreviation of the term "ad eundem gradum", and means "to the same degree". ad extra (Latin) Translation: "To the outer." In an outward direction: The expression ad extra refers to the Catholic belief that The Father directed his Son and the Spirit to go on a mission into the world, which was not within the Trinity life. ad extremum (Latin) Translation: "To the extreme." In the staff meeting, one of the teachers carried on the discussion ad extremum and and there was no end to it! Ad finem fidelis. (Latin) Translation: "Faithful to the end." The motto Ad finem fidelis was stitched into the family crest which hung above the fireplace in the family room. Ad finem spero. (Latin) Translation: "I hope to the last." When Jane found a very old diary up in the attic, she saw the motto Ad finem spero on the cover and she remembered her grandfather using this expression when she was a toddler visiting him and her grandmother. Ad finem ultimum. (Latin) Translation: "To the final end." Said to be the motto of the Canadian Space Agency. ad finem; ad fin. (adverb) (not comparable) (Latin) Relating to the final place; at the end. The term ad finem, or its abbreviation ad fin., is used at or near the completion or conclusion of a piece of writing. ad gloriam (Latin) To glory; for glory. See ad maiorem dei gloriam for more information. ad gustum (Latin) To one's taste. Ad gustum can be found in cookbooks, such as "Add salt ad gustum", and to savour to one's liking! ad hanc vocem; a.h.c. (Latin) Translation: "At this word." ad hoc (Latin) Translation: "Toward this; for this specific purpose." The term ad hoc has several applications: for a special intent, for a particular reason or occasion, or for the present matter or situation, all of which applies only to a explicit case that should be resolved. An ad hoc committee is one whose existence is limited to the time that is necessary to take care of an issue that is currently being considered and when the problem is solved, the committee will go out of existence. Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons. ad hominem (adjective) (not comparable) (Latin) 1. Referring to a person's character, not to his or her logic or record; maliciously critical: In rhetoric, an ad hominem argument attacks the defenders of an opposing position personally rather than sticking to the point of the discussion. The editorial in the paper was a very ad hominem piece, directing its disapproval towards the new mayor. 2. Appealing to personal prejudices or emotions rather than to reason: When debating, participants should avoid ad hominem arguments that question their opponents' motives. The announcers were cautioned not to use ad hominem comments in their radio broadcast. ad horrorem. (Latin) To the point of horror. Sam was telling such gruesome and dreadful stories ad horrorem that the others sitting around the campfire all got cold feet and demanded that he stop his tales! Showing page 2 out of 11 pages of 164 main-word entries or main-word-entry groups.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2137
__label__wiki	0.540839	0.540839	Words On Water A podcast featuring conversations with influential and interesting people from the water sector and news from the Water Environment Federation. About WEF Words On Water #97: Jon Schladweiler on the History of Sewers Jon Schladweiler is the historian for the AZ Water Association and curator of The Sewer History Exhibit. In this episode Jon talks about the history of sewers, including the origins of sewers 5,500 years ago in what is now Pakistan, the introduction of clay pipes in Babylon, the Roman Empire’s improvements, and that the Dark Ages led to its rebirth. He explains how combined sewer systems and separate sewer systems developed in the United States, and how demand and funding for the infrastructure played a role. Jon says sewers are one of civilization’s most significant achievements for human health and that the perfect sewer has not yet been built. Hosted by Travis Loop https://media.blubrry.com/wordsonwater/p/content.blubrry.com/wordsonwater/WOW_Schladweiler.mp3 history, infrastructure, sewer, stormwater, wastewater, water, water environment federation	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2138
__label__wiki	0.504516	0.504516	Rocky Reggae Road May 10, 2010 Tom Orr Leave a comment Rocky Dawuni – Hymns for the Rebel Soul Hymns for the Rebel Soul (Aquarian Records 005, 2010) “Afro Roots Music 4 Global Consciousness” states the inner cover of this CD, and I suppose that’s about as good a description as you’re likely to find for its tasty blending of roots reggae with African tradition, pop, soul and hip hop. Rocky Dawuni is from Ghana but Hymns for the Rebel Soul was recorded mainly in Los Angeles (plus one track in his homeland, one in Israel and one in Finland, which I guess partially accounts for the “global” portion of that opening quote), and his voice and overall sound remind me at times of the reggae side of late Nigerian great Sonny Okosun. Dawuni doesn’t come across quite like anyone else, though. The way the opening “Download the Revolution” hits your ears in conscious, topical and humorous style all at once is proof of that, and it’s not the only track here that’ll get deep into you. “Extraordinary Woman” is just the sort of song that reggae-shy radio programmers ought to get an earful of, “Master Plan” churns like a less caustic take on Afrobeat, “Freefall” and “Heads Up High” pit Dawuni’s impressive falsetto against stinging, swinging arrangements to the benefit of all, and the absolutely gorgeous “Jerusalem” blends reggae riddim, Hebrew modality and unifying lyrics that add up to a piece of music every bit as anthemic as the Alpha Blondy song of the same name. The year is not yet half over, but Hymns for the Rebel Soul already looks likely to take the prize for 2010’s high point in African reggae. Get it without hesitation. Author: Tom Orr Tom Orr is a California-based writer whose talent and mental stability are of an equally questionable nature. His hobbies include ignoring trends, striking dramatic poses in front of his ever-tolerant wife and watching helplessly as his kids surpass him in all desirable traits. Previous PostEtoile de Dakar Classics Featuring Youssou N’Dour Reissued on CDNext PostSergio Mendes to Release Bom Tempo Brasil Remix Album June 1st of 2010	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2141
__label__cc	0.744284	0.255716	6 Smart Writing Strategies That Wins Customers Fast Welcome to our Privacy Policy page. In case if you don’t know… “A privacy policy is a statement or a legal document (in privacy law) that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer or client’s data. It fulfills a legal requirement to protect a customer or client’s privacy.” For you, we respect your privacy and protect it with all efforts. To serve you better, please read below Privacy Policy statements to understand us better. We collect information from you when you register on our site, subscribe to our newsletter, fill out a form or comment on a post. When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: name, e-mail address, mailing address or website. You may, however, visit our site anonymously. Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our site. Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our sites and other sites on the Internet. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy. To personalize your experience (your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs) To improve our website (we continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you) We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses. If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy you may contact us. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page, and update the Privacy Policy modification date below. Last Modified: 21 July 2018. Categories Select Category Blogging Tips Business & Marketing Money & Finance Personal Development Poems Social Media Writing & Publishing This site as a resource for understanding the diverse factors of writing, business, life and the troubles you face in it. World Writers Hub is here to help writers and entrepreneurs upmarket their writing talent without compromising their price, purpose, and promise. What Retailers Should Know About Online Shopping How to Harness the Power of Brand Loyalty How You Can Grow Your Small Business Using Social Media Copyright © 2014–2020 \| World Writers Hub.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2143
__label__wiki	0.621814	0.621814	Gee to tour four counties, hold ‘Ask Us Anything’ event in Wheeling WVU President Gordon Gee speaks to high school students during a tour. WHO: West Virginia University President Gordon Gee, Meshea Poore, Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Ken Blemings, Dean of the WVU Honors College WHAT: Gee will visit high schools in Preston, Monongalia, Kanawha and Cabell counties. He is also the keynote speaker at a Boy Scout Leadership Reception and Dinner in Jackson County and will attend an “Ask Us Anything” event in Wheeling. Poore, Blemings and Savannah Lusk will join Gee in Kanawha and Cabell counties. Wednesday (April 11): Preston and Monongalia counties 9:30 a.m., Preston High School, 400 Knight Drive, Kingwood 11:30 a.m., Trinity Christian School, 200 Trinity Way, Morgantown 1:30 p.m., Clay-Batelle High School, 6226 Mason-Dixon Highway, Blacksville Thursday (April 12): Kanawha and Jackson counties 10 a.m., Nitro High School, 1300 Park Ave., Nitro 1 p.m., South Charleston High School, One Eagle Way, South Charleston 5:30 p.m., Boy Scout Leadership Reception and Dinner, Armed Forces Reserve, 8832 Point Pleasant Rd., Millwood Friday (April 13): Kanawha and Cabell counties 9 a.m., Capital Senior High School, 1500 Greenbrier St., Charleston 1 p.m., Huntington High School, One Highlander Way, Huntington Tuesday (April 17): Wheeling 5:30 p.m., “Ask Us Anything,” Oglebay Park Ballroom pp/04/10/18 CONTACT: Ann Bailey Berry Assistant Vice President, Marketing and Outreach 304.376.7740; ann.berry@mail.wvu.edu Honors College Media Advisories WVU hosts, participates in MLK Day service projects and events WVU Army ROTC Ceremony to commission three new officers to be held WVU to hold December commencement exercises Dec. 21 WVU Extension Service to lead community in 'Hour of Code' WVU Department of Industrial and Management Systems to host workshop in Advanced Manufacturing © 2020 West Virginia University. WVU is an EEO/Affirmative Action employer — Minority/Female/Disability/Veteran. Last updated on April 10, 2018.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2145
__label__cc	0.731895	0.268105	San Fernando Valley Criminal & DUI Defense Lawyers Criminal Defense Criminal Defense Fraud / Forgery Criminal Immigration Matters The Truth About Your DUI DMV Hearings Fraud/ Forgery San Fernando Criminal Defense Attorney for Weapons Charges Types of Weapons Charges in California California has strict weapons laws, and enforces them aggressively, especially in the San Fernando Valley. With violent crime being a top priority facing law enforcement, any weapons charge is relentlessly pursued for a conviction. Anyone committing a crime with a weapon will almost always be facing one or more felony charges, even if the crime could have been charged as a misdemeanor. It is important that you contact a lawyer that knows the difference between a legal firearm and an illegal firearm, the difference between a legal knife and an illegal knife, and the difference between a good deal for his client and a very bad deal for his client. Weapons charges can include the following types of crimes when any law or ordinance has been violated: Illegal gun manufacturing Illegal sale Illegal possession Possession of a firearm in a vehicle Possession of a stolen firearm Illegal use of a firearm Illegal transportation of a firearm Possession of dangerous weapons such as batons, dirks, daggers, switchblades, and much more. Weapons charges are very severe and can include single or multiple offenses. A conviction can result in jail or prison time, fines, community labor and destruction of your weapons and loss of your rights to own or possess them. If you or someone you know is facing a weapons charge, contact the criminal defense attorney at the Law Offices of Jeffrey S. Vallens for dedicated and effective legal representation. Often these charges can be negotiated down or even dismissed, if the prosecution fails to provide adequate proof. Let our skilled lawyers work for you to protect your right to keep and bear arms. Contact a lawyer who is firearms expert with decades of experience with firearms and other weapons. A conviction for many charges, both felony and misdemeanor can cause you to be unable to own or possess a firearm for the rest of your life. Many charges carry with them a ten year firearm prohibition. Please talk to a lawyer who knows the difference between a 38 and a 308 and the difference between keeping your right to own firearms and losing your rights. Weapons Charges Defense Lawyer in Van Nuys, CA Don’t risk your freedom by failing to take quick action in retaining a criminal defense lawyer who has the experience you will need when fighting these charges. With over 20 years helping clients throughout San Fernando Valley and Van Nuys, the Law Offices of Jeffrey S. Vallens has the resources and knowledge you need at this difficult time in your life. Let us help you obtain the best possible outcome for your weapons charges by calling us today for your free initial consultation. Recently the legislature of the great state of California re-numbered almost all of the dangerous weapons sections of the Penal Code. This makes the law in this area more confusing to navigate than ever. If you have questions about firearms, dangerous weapons or need a consultation in a criminal case, call us. Did the police confiscate your firearms? Are you having trouble getting them back from the police? Call a lawyer who is an expert in dealing with firearms release. We can help you. Find out what your rights are when facing weapons charges. Contact a San Fernando criminal defense lawyer Jeffrey S. Vallens. Law Offices of Jeffrey Vallens 16030 Ventura Blvd. Suite 470 jv@4criminaldefense.com © 2020 Law Offices of Jeffrey Vallens \| All Rights Reserved. \| Site by Werra	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2147
__label__cc	0.686146	0.313854	Speed limits/USA < Speed limits Revision as of 17:29, 21 February 2016 by PesachZ (Talk \| contribs) Speed limit (SL) data added to segments in the WME is used in the Waze client app to display a Wazer's speed relative to the speed limit. In addition, the app alerts Wazers if they exceed the speed limit designated on the Waze map. This article discusses When, How, and Which speed limits should be added to the map in the USA. The guidelines set forth below may be expanded by local regional or state guidance, Please be sure to check your local wiki for any relevant information as well. Speed Limit Sign 1 Which speed limits should be added to the map 1.1 Fixed regulatory speed limits 1.1.1 Ramps 1.1.2 At grade connectors 1.1.3 Private 1.1.4 Work zones 1.2 Variable Speed Limits 1.3 Time based speed limits 1.4 Unsupported speed limits 1.4.1 Advisory speed limits 1.4.2 Special speed limits 2 Where speed limits change 2.1 Creating a new junction for a speed limit change 3 Regional and state local wiki pages Which speed limits should be added to the map The ONLY speed limits added to the map are Regulatory Speed Limits. These must match federal, state, and municipal laws or regulations that designate enforceable maximum speeds for passenger vehicles. These are marked with black lettering on white rectangular signs. Fixed regulatory speed limits Any fixed (non-variable) speed limits posted on the regulatory black and white signs should be added to the road corresponding segments in the WME. If there is a regulatory speed limit sign posted on the ramp itself, this speed limit should be added for the ramp segments. If the speed limit for the segments on either end of the ramp are the same, then that limit should be added to the ramp as well. Ramps with only advisory speed limit signs, as shown below, should have no speed limit in the WME. At grade connectors AGCs follow these 3 basic rules in this order of preference (apply first match): If it has its own dedicated posted regulation SL, use it. If the SL before and after are the same, use it If it physically looks and functions as a ramp, leave it blank, otherwise use the SL of the segment feeding into the AGC (s-in) Click Expand for details on the rationale behind these rules. Basically there are three types of AGCs Extra segments we add to the map for ETA or prompt control, which are essentially just us mapping a specific lane of the road. These AGCs typically terminate at the intersection, and can be considered a part of the road they are on. These would share the same SL as the segment they are coming from/run parallel with.(s-in) Segments that functionally are ramps which for some reason are not using the ramp type, these are median separated from the regular road, and includes acceleration / deceleration type lanes. We can treat these just as ramps. Actual strips of road physically connecting different streets. Like triangle intersections these may or may not be named streets. With these in general they would legally follow the SL of the segment leading into them since the SL is applied until you enter a new zone which supercedes them. Therefore until you traverse the AGC to the new road where a new SL is in place you are still bound by the previous SL. Speed limits that are designated on private property using regulatory signs may be added to road segments on the Waze map at the discretion of the Regional Coordinator or State Managers. Be sure to check your local wiki for guidance. Speed Limits are added to parking lot and private road types by changing type to street, adding limits, then reverting to the original road type. Work zones Speed limits in work zones are often lowered to protect workers and prevent collisions. If these speed limits appear on regulatory black and white signs, they MAY be added to the associated WME road segments, IF supported by your local area. However, this should be done in consultation with State Managers or Regional Coordinators, so that the temporary speed limits can be monitored for changes. It may be prudent to only modify the speed limit for long-term construction projects, each region must decide what terms are best locally. Another option is to add the underlying to speed limit to the map for now, and put the work zone speed limit in a specially marked UR note (or otherwise keep track of it). Being that as of the writing of this page[update] the speed limit feature is not yet functional in the production client app, this will prevent redundant effort to go back and fix the speed limits if the construction ends before the speed limit feature is rolled out. Check your regional or state wiki to see which work zone limits should be added in your area, and the process for monitoring them. Click [show] below for links to your wiki. Variable Speed Limits The WME and Waze app do not support Variable Speed Limits (VSLs) that are changed based on traffic and road conditions. These VSLs can be changed at any time by government officials. If there is a 'standard' speed limit at which the signs on a stretch of road are set for the majority of the time, this 'standard' speed COULD BE added to the associated road segments in the WME. However, the setting of any speed limit on a road with VSLs must be made in consultation with the appropriate State Manager, or Regional Coordinator. Time based speed limits As of February 2016[update], the WME and Waze App only support a single speed limit, without variation for time of day, or day of the week. Segments with time based different speed limits should use the speed limit which is in effect the majority of the time (most hours of the day, days of the week). For example let's assume a 35mph street has a reduced speed limit of 20mph for the hours of 7am-4pm School Days. Then it is not in effect every single day, and even the days it is in effect, it's only for 9 hours. The rest of the time the 35mph limit is in effect. This segment should be set to the 35mph limit. Unsupported speed limits The following speed limits are unsupported by the WME and the Waze app, and MUST NOT be added to road segments in the WME. Road segments with posted 'advisory' speeds or special speed limits should continue the Speed Limit for passenger vehicles as posted on the black and white signs pictured above. Advisory speed limits In addition, yellow 'advisory' speed signs (as shown below) are usually not enforceable; therefore, 'advisory' speeds, like the ones shown below, should NOT be added to the waze map. Advisory Plaque Turn Advisory Exit Advisory Exit Sign Plaque Special speed limits As of February 2016[update], the WME and Waze App only support maximum speed limits for passenger vehicles, without variation for time of day, or day of the week. Specialty, also known as 'bannered' speed limits, like the ones shown below, should NOT be added to the Waze map. Night Speed Truck Speed School Speed Minimum Speed School zone speed limits that are in effect 24 hrs per day, and 365 days a year, should be added to the map. Where speed limits change Speed limits should change where they legally go in effect for your state, that may be at the sign, a specified distance before the sign, or the nearest intersection; check your local wiki for the practice in your area. When a speed limit changes in the middle of a segment, a new junction should added to support the SL change. However a new junction should never be added for a SL if it will be within 200 feet of an existing junction, or potential junction. Depending on your local guidance this distance may be expanded above 200 feet, always confirm local practice. A new junction should always be added if it will be more than 1,000 feet from the nearest existing, or potential junction. Creating a new junction for a speed limit change When creating a new junction solely for the sake of showing a speed limit change, you can attempt to get more value from the junction. Survey the area around the speed limit change, determine if there is a PLR or other segment which should be connected to the road and would result in a junction. You may find that there's a parking lot which could benefit from being added to the map within the allowable distance of 200 feet (or more depending on your area) to where the SL changes. In such a case connect that segment and use that junction. Otherwise you should create a new junction to show where the SL changes. On roads where traffic for one turn direction typically backs up waiting to make the turn further than 200 feet, and traffic going straight or turning the other direction does not have to wait as long to pass through, turn delays can be affected even with the new junction 200 feet away. In these cases you may choose to extend the buffer zone to beyond the point where traffic backs up, and instead make the change at an existing junction node. These situations are governed by editor discretion and local guidance. It is very important that we do not create new junctions too close to existing intersections, yet marking the speed limit change too far can have a negative impact on the user experience. The minimum distance of 200 feet was chosen because a distance less than that is negligible, and unnoticeable in the client experience. It is not much different than delay we expect with GPS lag and error anyway. For example think of where you hear the turn prompts announced, they can sometimes up precede a junction by up to 200 feet. We have confirmed directly with the routing developers that adding a junction node connecting only 2 segments does not have an associated routing penalty. We have also confirmed that creating and adding new junction nodes where necessary using these above guidelines will not have a negative effect on route calculation. However there is a legitimate concern when adding new junctions too close to existing intersections / interchanges, that they may interfere with and pollute the ability for Waze calculate accurate turn delays. The reason to use a minimum of 200 feet from the nearest junction as a buffer is to account for turn delay calculations. If we create junction nodes very close to intersections we will effectively eliminate Waze's ability to differentiate the time it takes to go straight, vs the time to turn left or right. A distance of less than 200 feet between junctions poses a significant risk to the ETA calculations (turn delays). Over 200 feet it is up to local practice , and the editor's discretion to determine if a junction node there will negatively impact turn delay calculations. We must stipulate a minimum buffer zone, but it doesn't need to be exact. The area between 200-1,000 feet is open to interpretation, editor discretion, and local guidance. If an exit or turn lane does back up over 1,000 feet, it is unlikely that traffic beyond the 1,000 mark will be drastically affected by the new junction placed that far away. However specific exceptions with the consultation of Regional Coordinators, or State Managers will always be allowed. The turn delay issue could potentially be mitigated by adding Junction Boxes to each of these situations to correct them. However doing so would result in a lot more work for editors, and a lot more strain on the servers. It would make it harder to manage these intersections since all the included segments, and turns get locked from editing. It will have an effect on route calculation timing as well. We therefore had to come up with a compromise that is still visibly accurate, without anything being noticeably different to the client user, yet maintaining the ability for Waze to calculate proper ETA timing through intersections. Regional and state local wiki pages Retrieved from "https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/index.php?title=Speed_limits/USA&oldid=138087" Articles containing potentially dated statements from February 2016	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2153
__label__wiki	0.623115	0.623115	Keeping Wilderness WILD! The blog of Wilderness Watch You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Idaho’ category. It’s time to change how we administer Wilderness and strengthen the National Wilderness Preservation System January 26, 2016 in Forest Service, Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, Idaho, Litigation, Predators, Threats to NWPS, Wildlife \| Tags: elk, Forest Service, Idaho, National Wilderness Preservation System, wild, Wilderness, Wilderness Act, wildlife, wolves \| Leave a comment By Brett Haverstick Taking a long trip into the backcountry during winter doesn’t appeal to some people. That’s understandable. But I enjoy it, and it’s something I try to do a few times a year. Winter backpacking is very different, and more challenging, compared to strapping on the pack during other seasons. For one it’s darn cold, with many trips never getting above freezing, day or night. Two, there’s usually lots of snow on the ground, which means you’re probably wearing snowshoes, and, perhaps, breaking trail too. Three, your pack is heavier because of all the extra warm gear you are carrying, including more food because you need to consume a lot of calories each day. Four, you have to work harder in just about everything you do, from setting up your shelter and trying to stay warm to melting water and attempting to stay hydrated. Five, there’s not a lot of daylight, so you have to stay motivated and keep moving if you want to cover some miles. Lastly, not too many people want to spend 5-6 days in the cold, blowing snow of the northern Rockies in January! But find someone to share the workload if you can! My recent trip into the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness was with a friend, and, perhaps more importantly, an individual with a skill set that I could trust and depend on. Once the weather report showed a high-pressure system moving across the region, Russell and I finalized our plans and set out for the trailhead. We felt confident we could cover 50 miles before the next weather front moved in. For two and a half days, we trudged across the frozen ridge, one foot after the other, breaking snow almost the entire time. Occasionally, we would hear the call of the raven or the knock of the woodpecker, but for the most part we walked in silence and deep in thought. Accompanying us the whole time was a set of moose tracks, with deer and elk tracks scattered about. It appeared snowshoe hare were in the area too. Blood on the trail indicated that a mountain lion, or another carnivore, might have wounded one of the ungulates. The daily routine of building the morning fire, boiling water, drying gear, packing up, snowshoeing 10-16 miles, and then searching for a place to dig out the next snow cave was in some ways more mentally challenging than physical. But the white silence of the forest was peaceful, views of the snow-covered mountain peaks were tantalizing, and the cold, crisp air was exhilarating. With each arduous step, the wilderness boundary drew nearer. You know the feeling. As one travels down the trail, through the forest, around the next bend or over the saddle, your heart pounds like a kid at Christmas. You anxiously await the sign that reads “…Wilderness, “…National Forest.” Yes, you say to yourself. Hope for humanity. Escape from the madness. Refuge for the plants and animals. Nature’s Bill of Rights at last. Leave me here and let me die with my true friends! And down the trail you continue. Prior to our trip departure, Russell and I learned about the intent of the Idaho Fish & Game Department to land helicopters, and harass and collar elk, in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. We were angry, concerned, disappointed, and flabbergasted by the fact that the Forest Service gave the green light to land machines in the Wilderness, up to 120 times over a 3-month period. Of course, it doesn’t matter if it’s 1 time or 12 times, but 120 times was mind-blowing. Who the hell is running the Forest Service? Didn’t they, along with millions of Americans, just celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act not too long ago? Looks like that was lip service! And what about the people running the Idaho Fish & Game Department? Why do they still have authority over wildlife management on federal public lands? Why are their intensive and intrusive management plans being permitted in federally designated Wilderness? When is that going to change? Why is the Forest Service continually shining the shoes of the state hook and bullet departments? Who is really administering the Wilderness? As Russell and I descended in elevation on the third day, the sun shined warmly, the skies stretched a bright blue, and the mighty Salmon River came within view. We peered though the binoculars, and combed the south-facing slopes for herds of elk. Dozens of ungulates lay basking on the hills, while those closer leaped and bound to a more secure place. We also observed whitetail and mule deer (strangely enough together) and lots of wolf tracks. Far off in the distance, we saw what looked like two golden eagles circling a spot on the hill, as if a kill had recently occurred. Despite seeing a number of horses by the river late that afternoon (why are horses running freely on the national forest in winter, particularly in crucial winter-range habitat?), not a human was in sight, and the frozen riverbank was ours to explore and make home. We rested and dreamily watched small pieces of ice float downstream along the sides of the quiet, rolling river. Later that evening, after a hot meal, warm fire, and the usual time-to-get hydrated routine, we dozed peacefully under a star-studded sky when suddenly we were awoken by the yips, screams, and howls of coyotes. After shaking our heads no, those are not wolves, we gleefully listened to the songs (and celebrations?) of a dozen coyotes not far from our tarp. They yipped for 3-4 minutes but it felt like a lot longer than that. The sweet music of the Wilderness had finally reached us! When day broke and our bags were packed, Russell and I contemplated where the Idaho Fish & Game helicopters could be. Were they invading to the south along Big Creek? Were they harassing and stressing dozens of cows and calves to the east? The mere thought of these non-conforming, highly mechanized machines flying and landing wherever they want in the Wilderness made us sick to our stomachs. We both wanted to know how can the uses of helicopters, net-guns, tranquilizers, and GPS-collars be the minimal tool(s) needed to administer the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness? None of it made any sense. Little did we know that wolves were being collared too. Which leads me to my final thoughts. What good is a National Wilderness Preservation System if the federal officials charged with administering the system, and individual areas, continues to approve projects that are incompatible with the Wilderness Act? Why are the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service repeatedly rubber-stamping proposals that harm Wilderness? How is the collaring of wildlife in federally designated wilderness representative of a self-willed landscape? Explain to me how helicopters, net-guns, and radio-collars enhance or preserve wilderness character? This tragedy (“accident”) should serve as a lightning rod to spark a discussion, better yet, a movement, to do two things: create an independent federal department solely charged with stewardship of the wilderness system, and pressure Congress to pass legislation that forbids all state fish and game agencies from conducting any operations inside federally designated Wilderness. To hell with the Forest Service and the other federal agencies, which continue to trammel the Wilderness and our natural heritage. We cannot keep leaving it to the attorneys to defend the Wilderness Act. We must do something bold. The status quo is badly broken and only getting worse. Ed Abbey is rolling in his grave and still screaming, “The Idea of wilderness needs no defense, just defenders.” This message needs to reach every living room in America. Brett Haverstick is the Education & Outreach Director for Friends of the Clearwater, a public lands advocacy group based in Moscow, Idaho. He has a B.S. in Parks & Recreation Management from Northern Arizona University and a Master’s degree in Natural Resources from the University of Idaho. He has been a member of Wilderness Watch since 2007. The views expressed are his own. Of Wolves and Wilderness February 13, 2014 in 1964 Wilderness Act, Forest Service, Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, Idaho, Litigation, Predators, Threats to NWPS, Uncategorized \| Tags: 1964 Wilderness Act, Forest Service, Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, Idaho Fish and Game, litigation, predator control, Wilderness, wilderness character, Wilderness Watch, wolves \| Leave a comment By George Nickas “One of the most insidious invasions of wilderness is via predator control.” – Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac Right before the holidays last December, an anonymous caller alerted Wilderness Watch that the Forest Service (FS) had approved the use of one of its cabins deep in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness (FC-RONRW) as a base camp for an Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) hunter-trapper. The cabin would support the hired trapper’s effort to exterminate two entire wolf packs in the Wilderness. The wolves, known as the Golden Creek and Monumental Creek packs, were targeted at the behest of commercial outfitters and recreational hunters who think the wolves are eating too many of “their” elk. Idaho’s antipathy toward wolves and Wilderness comes as no surprise to anyone who has worked to protect either in Idaho. But the Forest Service’s support and encouragement for the State’s deplorable actions were particularly disappointing. Mind you, these are the same Forest Service Region 4 officials who, only a year or two ago, approved IDFG’s request to land helicopters in this same Wilderness to capture and collar every wolf pack, using the justification that understanding the natural behavior of the wolf population was essential to protecting them and preserving the area’s wilderness character. Now, somehow, exterminating those same wolves is apparently also critical to preserving the area’s wilderness character. The only consistency here is the FS and IDFG have teamed up to do everything possible to destroy the Wilderness and wildlife they are required to protect. Middle Fork Salmon River, Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, Idaho: Where nine wolves were killed by IDFG’s hired hunter-trapper. Photo: Rex Parker Wilderness Watch, along with Defenders of Wildlife, Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biological Diversity, and Idaho wildlife advocate Ralph Maughan, filed suit in federal court against the Forest Service and IDFG to stop the wolf slaughter. Our suit alleges the FS failed to follow its own required procedures before authorizing IDFG’s hunter-trapper to use a FS cabin as a base for his wolf extermination efforts, and that the program violates the agency’s responsibility under the 1964 Wilderness Act to preserve the area’s wilderness character, of which the wolves are an integral part. Trying to limit the number of wolves in Wilderness makes no more sense than limiting the number of ponderosa pine, huckleberry bushes, rocks, or rainfall. An untrammeled Wilderness will set its own balance. The FS’s anemic defense is that it didn’t authorize the killing, therefore there is no reviewable decision for the court to overturn, and that it was still discussing the program with IDFG (while the trapper was in the field killing the wolves). Unfortunately, the district judge sided with the FS and IDFG, so we filed an appeal with the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Rather than defend its action before the higher court, Idaho informed the court that it was pulling the trapper out of the Wilderness and would cease the program for this year. In the meantime, nine wolves are needlessly dead. We will continue to pursue our challenge because the killing program will undoubtedly return. The Forest Service can’t and shouldn’t hide behind the old canard that “the states manage wildlife.” Congress has charged the FS with preserving the area’s wilderness character and the Supreme Court has held many times that the agency has the authority to interject itself in wildlife management programs to preserve the people’s interest in these lands. Turning a blind-eye is a shameful response for an agency that used to claim the leadership mantle in wilderness stewardship. Wilderness Watch expresses its deep appreciation to Tim Preso and his colleagues at Earthjustice for waging a stellar legal battle on our behalf and in defense of these wilderness wolves. George Nickas is the executive director of Wilderness Watch. George joined Wilderness Watch as our policy coordinator in 1996. Prior to Wilderness Watch, George served 11 years as a natural resource specialist and assistant coordinator for the Utah Wilderness Association. George is regularly invited to make presentations at national wilderness conferences, agency training sessions, and other gatherings where wilderness protection is discussed. State Agency Game Farming Is Not Compatible with Wilderness or Ecosystem Integrity March 25, 2013 in California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Predators, South Dakota, Wildlife \| Tags: aldo leopold, california, Idaho, land ethic, montana, oregon, south dakota, state game agencies, wildlife \| Leave a comment By George Wuerthner With the delisting of wolves from protection under the Endangered Species Act, their management has been turned back to the individual states where wolves occur. Most of these state agencies are adopting policies that treat wolves as persona non grata, rather than as valued members of their wildlife heritage. Nowhere do I see any attempt by these state agencies to educate hunters and the general public about the ecological benefits of predators. Nor is any attempt to consider the social ecology of wolves or other predators reflected in management policies. Wolves, like all predators, are seen as a “problem” rather than as a valuable asset to these states. State agencies are increasingly adopting policies skewed toward preserving opportunities for recreational killing rather than preserving ecological integrity. State agencies charged with wildlife management are solidifying their perceived role as game farmers. Note the use of “harvest” as a euphemism for killing. Their primary management philosophy and policies are geared toward treating wildlife as a “resource” to kill. They tend to see their role as facilitators who legalize the destruction of ecological and wilderness integrity, rather than as agencies dedicated to promoting a responsible land and wildlife ethic. Want proof? Just look at the abusive and regressive policies states have adopted to “manage” (persecute) wolves and other predators. Idaho Fish and Game, which already had an aggressive wolf killing program, recently announced it will transfer money from coyote killing to pay trappers to kill more wolves so it can presumably increase elk and deer numbers. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks supports new regulations that will lengthen the wolf killing season, increase the number of tags, and reduce the license fee charged to out of state hunters. In 2011, the agency requested permission to kill all but 12 wolves in the Bitterroot Mountains, including those within the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, claiming wolves were killing too many elk. Wyoming is even more regressive. Wolves are classified as “Predatory Animals” in much of the state and can be shot on sight at any time without a license or a “bag limit” in many parts of the state. Alaska, which already has extremely malicious policies toward wolves, is attempting to expand wolf killing even in national parks and wildlife refuges (it is already legal to hunt and trap in many national parks and refuges in Alaska). For instance, Alaska Fish and Game (AFG) is proposing aerial gunning of wolves in Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and wants to extend the hunting/trapping season in Lake Clark National Park, Katmai National Park, and Aniakchak National Preserve. The state has also proposed aerial gunning of wolves and gassing of pups in their dens in the Unimak Wilderness, ostensibly to increase caribou numbers. Fortunately, after a national public outcry, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected this proposal. Similar persecution of wolves to various degrees is occurring in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks is on a vendetta against a small newly established mountain lion population in that state, and has greatly increased its mountain lion killing quotas. The point is these agencies are still thinking about predators with a 19th- century mindset when the basic attitude was the “only good predator is a dead predator” and the goal of “wildlife management” was to increase hunter opportunities to shoot “desirable” wildlife such as elk, deer, moose, and caribou. Many state game farming agencies suggest they have to kill predators to garner “social acceptance” for them. Killing wolves, bears, coyotes and mountain lions is suggested as a way to relieve the anger some members of the ranching/hunting/trapping community have towards predators. Is giving people who need counseling a license to kill so they can relieve their frustrations a good idea? Despite the fact that many of these same agencies like to quote Aldo Leopold, author of A Sand County Almanac, and venerate him as the “father” of wildlife management, they fail to adopt Leopold’s concept of a land ethic based upon the ecological health of the land. Leopold understood that ALL wildlife play an important role in wilderness and ecosystem integrity. Leopold wrote: “The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about it. The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: “What good is it?” If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.” To keep every cog and wheel means not only keeping species from going extinct, but maintaining the ecological processes that maintain ecosystem function. What makes state game farming policies so unacceptable is that there is no excuse for not understanding the ecological role of predators in ecosystem integrity. Recent research has demonstrated the critical importance of predators for shaping ecosystems, influencing the evolution of prey species, and maintaining ecosystem integrity. We also know that predators have intricate social relationships or social ecology that is disrupted or destroyed by indiscriminate hunting. Yet state game farming agencies continuously ignore these ecological findings. At best, their policies demonstrate a lack of professionalism. At worst, they show the agencies are as ignorant of recent scientific findings as many of the most vocal hunters/trappers they serve. The problem is that state game farming agencies have a conflict of interest. Their budgets depend on selling killing permits, which depends upon the availability of elk, deer, moose, and caribou. Any decline in “game” animal populations is seen as a potential financial loss to the agency. Therefore, these agencies tend to adopt policies that maintain low predator numbers. Yet, these same agencies are never up front about their conflict of interest. They pretend they are using the “best available science” and “managing” predators to achieve a “balance” between game and predators. Because of this conflict, game farming agencies turn a blind eye to ethical considerations. Most of the public supports hunting that avoids unnecessary suffering of the animals. People want to know the animal was captured and/or killed in an ethical manner. In other words, the animal had a reasonable chance of evading the hunter/trapper and is consumed rather than killed merely for “recreation” or, worse, as a vendetta. But when the goal is persecution, ethics and “fair chase” are abandoned. If the agencies continue down this path, it’s clear they will lose legitimacy with the public at large, and efforts to take away management authority will only strengthen. For instance, voters in a number of states have already banned the recreational trapping of wildlife, always over the objections of state game farming agencies. Efforts are now afoot to ban trapping in Oregon and other states may soon follow suit. The trend towards greater restriction is seen as the only way to rein in the abusive policies of state game farming agencies. In California, voters banned hunting of mountain lions in 1991, and an effort is underway to ban bobcat trapping. Oregon banned hunting of mountain lion with dogs. In other states, there are increasing conflicts between those who love and appreciate the role of predators in healthy ecosystems and state game farming agencies. Bans on all hunting have even occurred in some countries. Costa Rica just banned hunting, and Chile has so limited hunting that it is effectively banned. I suggest that the maltreatment of predators displayed by state game farming agencies will ultimately hasten the same fate in the U.S. George Wuerthner has visited over 400 designated wildernesses across America, and published 36 books on a variety of environmental, geographical and wilderness topics. He has worked as a biologist, backcountry ranger, river ranger, hunting guide, and wilderness guide. He now conducts research on predators, wildfire, and wildlands conservation topics. Cleaning up the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act June 18, 2010 in Idaho, Legislation, Quid pro quo \| Tags: Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act, Idaho, public lands, qui pro quo, Wilderness \| Leave a comment For several years Wilderness Watch has been been a leading voice in opposition to the the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act (CIEDRA). Working alongside 46 other grassroots conservation groups, we have vigorously fought the most egregious terms of this dangerous, precedent-setting, quid pro quo land bill. Some of those most concerning to us included highly fragmented, watered-down Wilderness-in-name-only designations—where private interests would take precedent over the public good, 5,000 acres of land giveaways and the release of 200,000 acres of potential Wilderness from current protections—opening them to damaging off-road vehicle (ORV) abuse. This year, Wilderness Watch is happy to report that our work has vastly improved Wilderness provisions in CIEDRA, Senate Bill 3294. Gone from the bill are most of the provisions allowing extensive motor vehicle use, habitat manipulation, and commercial special interest rights in the Wilderness it designates. We’ve asked Congress to make a few additional changes to CIEDRA so it adequately protects the wilderness in the Boulder-White Clouds of central Idaho. These requests include removing motorized corridors splitting the Wilderness into four fragments, protecting Wilderness Study Areas released by the bill from degradation—by prohibiting increased ORV use and corridors, and modifying CIEDRA’s language to precisely match that of the Wilderness Act so the Boulder-White Clouds is administered to protect its wilderness character. Thank you to all of the groups and individuals who helped clean up this bill! This is a real victory for activists and public land lovers who reject the harmful trade-offs of quid pro quo wilderness legislation. Click here to read a statement by Wilderness Watch, Western Lands Project, and Friends of the Clearwater on CIEDRA for the hearing record Click here to listen to the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests hearing on 6/16/10 Paddling would mar wild landscapes A winter visit to Cumberland Island Wilderness So-Called Conservation Groups Betray Wilderness 1964 Wilderness Act Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Glacier Peak Wilderness Mechanical transport Threats to NWPS	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2154
__label__cc	0.597241	0.402759	Transdev Boost for Youth Team Accrington Stanley's stars of the future will now find it even easier to hone their skills thanks to the generosity of local bus company Transdev. Nine Stanley scholars have received subsidised passes for bus travel to get them to training and home again. “This is such a great gesture,” said Stanley Academy Manager Keith Brown. “We have young lads travelling in from all over the north west and on an apprentice's wage travel can be a massive cost. “These free passes will give the boys one less thing to worry about and allow them to concentrate on their football and developing for the future.” The Stanley under 18's team get their season under way on Saturday 2nd August when they play Preston North End in the Youth Alliance. “Away from the bright lights of the Premier League, we are delighted as the area's principle transport operator to offer our assistance as these youngsters embark on what could be a potentially very lucrative career,” explained John Burns from Transdev. “As well as the bus passes, we are also delighted to have the bus route that serves the Store First Stadium – “The Hyndburn Connect” as the shirt sponsor for the Accrington Stanley FC Youth Team for the 2014/2015 Season.” Stanley Academy Manager Keith Brown is pictured above with Transdev Development Director Richard Jackson at the launch of the partnership.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2160
__label__wiki	0.720634	0.720634	ACLU of New Mexico Follow @ACLUNM Aid in Dying Border Rights Corrections Reform Legal Panel NM Entiende Permanently Protect Abortion Access in New Mexico Duffin et al. V. D’Antonio et al. Gutierrez Sanchez vs. City of Sunland Park State of New Mexico v. Molynda Brewer Prohibit State and Local Government Agencies from Enforcing Federal Immigration Law State Disclosure of Sensitive Info Fix our Drivers License Law Taking down a culture of sexual abuse in NM prisons Fighting the Immigration Detention Machine Fired for being trans ACLU of New Mexico Files Lawsuit Against Allsups For Asking Police To Expel Black Customer Because of His Race ACLU-NM Files Lawsuit Against Albuquerque Public Schools for Fostering a Hostile Learning Environment ACLU-NM Response to New Mexico Court of Appeals Decision to Dismiss Mateo Romero's Case 2020 Legislative Advocacy Training: Santa Fe Immigrant Day of Action End Mass Incarceration Day of Action 2020 Legislative Advocacy Guide Fall/Winter 2019 Torch Local Enforcement of Federal Immigration Law: A Statewide Assessment of Local Government Policies & Procedures New Mexico People Power Resources Resisting Trump’s Deportation Force (NEW MEXICO STATEWIDE ACTION) Reforming the Albuquerque Police Department (ALBUQUERQUE ACTION) More New Mexico People Power Resources Regional Center for Border Rights Pojoaque woman suffering from life-threatening brain cancer asks court to let her marry her partner of 21 years By Micah McCoy SANTA FE, NM—Today, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico, the national ACLU, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) filed an emergency request with New Mexico’s Second Judicial District Court to allow a Pojoaque same-sex couple, Jen Roper and Angelique Neuman, to legally marry immediately because Jen suffers from a severe medical condition that may prove fatal in the near future. Jen suffers from a life-threatening form of brain cancer, and her health has deteriorated severely in the past few months. Today’s request seeks an emergency order from the court that would allow the couple to marry so that their three children will be legally protected should Jen pass away. "I want to know that my family will be protected if I pass away," said Jen Roper. "Angelique and I have been married in our hearts for 21 years and raised three wonderful children together. Because of my illness, we do not have the luxury of waiting years for the courts to decide whether loving, committed same-sex couples can marry in New Mexico. For us, the time is now." Jen and Angelique met in Socorro, NM during their first semester at New Mexico Tech, and fell in love almost immediately. Although the State of New Mexico does not recognize their relationship, the couple considers themselves married for the 21 years they have been together. The couple settled in Northern New Mexico after the Los Alamos Labs hired Angelique to work as an engineer. Later, they adopted three siblings from the New Mexico foster care system. Their oldest child is enlisted in the U.S. Army and is currently in basic training. Due to Jen's sudden and severe illness, the couple cannot travel out of state to marry in a place that does not discriminate against same-sex couples. The only way they can hope to protect their family in this time of crisis and realize their dream of being legally married is for the New Mexico courts to grant emergency relief that would allow the County of Santa Fe to issue them a marriage license now, while the case proceeds. "Even when I was a little kid, I always dreamed of growing up and getting married," said Angelique Neuman. "I knew Jen was the one almost as soon as we met, and I don't want to lose the opportunity to marry her. It is very important to us that our relationship is recognized as what it is: a marriage." The plaintiffs are represented by the ACLU of New Mexico, the national ACLU, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Sutin Law Firm, and Albuquerque attorneys Maureen Sanders, Kate Girard, and Lynn Perls. The ACLU of New Mexico is an affiliate of the national ACLU, working in the courts, legislature and communities to protect and extend individual rights and liberties for all New Mexicans. www.ACLU-NM.org The American Civil Liberties Union is our nation's guardian of liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country. www.ACLU.org. The National Center for Lesbian Rights is a national legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. www.NCLRights.org. Sutin, Thayer & Browne, with offices in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, is one of New Mexico's largest law firms, providing exceptional legal services since 1946. More information is available at www.SutinFirm.com. New Mexico SAFE Diane came out as transgender only to face over 18 months of... People Shouldn't Be Denied Healthcare Because of Who They Are... Transgender Day of Visibility Susan's Story - #WillNotBeErased Trans People #WillNotBeErased Queer Rights are Under Attack ACLU Welcomes Historic Supreme Court Marriage Decision VIDEO STREAMING: Watch the Supreme Court Hearing Live Meet Our Plaintiffs ACLU of New Mexico is part of a network of affiliates © 2020 ACLU of New Mexico	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2162
__label__wiki	0.617519	0.617519	Shooting for the stars – insights from four leading Hollywood cinematographers Four leading cinematographers talk about their work and the stars they’ve filmed in this article published in the February 1941 issue of Modern Screen. Here, then, in their own words are some revealing insights into how they see their work, observations of some of the stars they’ve filmed and revelations of tricks of the trade. And an opportunity to showcase a series of behind-the-scenes images of various cinematographers and crew at work. 1950. Jack Cardiff, one of the great 20th century cinematographers, on the set of Pandora and the Flying Dutchman. But first a brief introduction to the cinematographers themselves: Gregg Toland. Orson Welles once said that Gregg taught him everything he knew about the art of photography. Before filming Citizen Kane, Gregg spent a weekend giving him a crash course on lens and camera positions. Orson would never lose his admiration for Gregg, saying on many occasions, “Not only was he the greatest cameraman I ever worked with, he was also the fastest.” Gregg’s advice to aspiring cameramen was simple: “Forget the camera. The nature of the story determines the photographic style. Understand the story and make the most out of it. If the audience is conscious of tricks and effects, the cameraman’s genius, no matter how great it is, is wasted.” James Wong Howe. In the 53 years he spent developing and perfecting his craft, “Jimmy” Howe was nominated for 16 Academy Awards and won two Oscars. In his ongoing quest for realism, he strove to make all his sources of light absolutely naturalistic and developed various filming techniques. For example, to get the audience as close as possible to John Garfield in a boxing scene in Body and Soul, he got up into the ring on roller skates and scooted about the fighters to capture the most evocative shots of their struggle. Rudolph Maté. Rudy worked in Europe with Carl Theodor Dreyer on both The Passion of Joan of Arc and Vampyr before migrating to the US in 1934. During the 1940s he received five consecutive Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography, the last of them for the Rita Hayworth vehicle, Cover Girl. He also worked with her on Gilda and (uncredited) The Lady from Shanghai. He went on to direct a series of movies including DOA. Ernest Haller. Ernie is best known for his Oscar-winning work on Gone With The Wind (over the years he had six other Oscar nominations). He was admired within the industry for his expert location shooting and his ability to balance make-up and lighting to bring out actors’ best features. He shot 14 of Bette Davis’ movies and was her favourite lensman. During the 1930s and ’40s, he worked at Warner Bros. His later movies included Rebel Without a Cause and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Shooting for the Stars by William Roberts They make fat stars thin and old stars young! Who? Those magnificent Merlins of Movietown – the unsung cameramen. These fellows are pretty tough, believe me. They’re banded together in a secret organization called the ASC, and it’s not that they try to be secret but just that no one knows much about them outside of Hollywood. Movie stars dread them and, privately, call them super-assassins. The leaders of the ASC have committed many drastic deeds. They have literally taken flesh off Myrna Loy’s legs. They have flattened Brenda Marshall’s nose. They have removed pieces of Madeleine Carroll’s cheeks They’ve reduced Priscilla Lane’s mouth, narrowed Zorina’s forehead and changed Vivien Leigh’s blue eyes to pure green. And for committing these atrocities they have been paid as much as $1,500 per week. However, if truth will out, the secret organization referred to is actually a staid labor union, the American Society of Cinematographers. The members, merchants of mayhem, are the very expert and very well-paid cameramen of Movieland who, with thick ground glass and well-placed kliegs, have made ordinary faces beautiful and have converted terrible defects into gorgeous assets. John Brahm and Maury Gertsman shoot a scene for Singapore 1947. Perched above a courtyard entrance, director John Brahm and cinematographer Maury Gertsman prepare to shoot a scene for Singapore. The writing on the clapperboard reads DIRECTOR BRAHM CAMERA GERTSMAN SET DRESSER EMERT PROP MAN BLACKIE SET NO. 10 SCENE 29 Rita Hayworth films a scene for Affair in Trinidad 1952. Cinematographers go flat out to get the right angle. Here the glamorous focus of attention is Rita Hayworth. A caption on the back of the photo reads: RITA’S BACK – Rita Hayworth does a torrid dance in a night club scene on her first day before the cameras for Columbia’s “Affair in Trinidad,” a Beckworth Production in which she co-stars with Glenn Ford. Photo by Irving Lippman. Sidney Hickox chats with Ann Sheridan on the set of Silver River 1948. Cinematographer Sidney Hickox was brilliant at shooting gritty, moody crime films and melodramas for Warner Bros. His movies included three Lauren Bacall vehicles – To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946) and Dark Passage (1947). A caption on the back of the photo reads: Ann Sheridan and cameraman Sid Hickox chat between scenes on the set of “SILVER RIVER,” Ann’s current picture with Errol Flynn for Warner Bros. Star is pictured here at the Warner Bros. ranch near Calabasas, California, where extensive exterior sets of Nevada’s sliver mining town were reproduced for the picture. Grace Kelly at ease 1956. Aspiring cinematographer Grace Kelly strikes a pose, as the caption on the back of the photo points out: ACTRESS AT EASE....It’s Grace Kelly perched on the camera boom between scenes on the set of M-G-M’s “The Swan”. If any one class of worker in Hollywood does not get credit where credit is due, if any one class of laborer is hidden behind the star-bright glare of publicity, obscure, unsung, unknown – it is the cinema cameraman. “It’s this way with us,” Gregg Toland told me. “They’ve got us wrong, entirely wrong, everywhere. They think cameramen are low-grade mechanical morons, wearing overalls and stupid grins, existing on starvation wages and merely grinding 35 mm. toys. Well, maybe. Only we don’t like that impression. Maybe we are technicians. Nothing wrong with that. But sakes alive, man, tell ’em we’re creative artists, too!” And so, I’m telling you. They’re creative artists, too. They’re makers and breakers of thespians and pictures. They’re the Merlins behind the movies. Take that fellow Gregg Toland who just had the floor. A lean little man in brown clothes – cultured, brilliant and active. Twenty-one years ago he obtained a job during a summer vacation as an office boy at the old Fox Studios. The film stars on the lot didn’t impress him, but the intent cameramen, cranking their black-sheathed boxes, hypnotized him. He decided to skip school and become a photographer. The result? Well, the last I heard, he had prepared for canning such products as “The Grapes of Wrath,” “The Long Voyage Home” and “Citizen Kane.” I talked with Toland in the comfortable study of his sprawling Benedict Canyon home. He downed a long beer with a practiced gulp and explained the qualifications and duties of the cameraman. “A first-rate cameraman must realize,” said Toland, “that while some scenes of a film might be shot much, much better, much more artistically, those scenes are worth neither the extra time nor extra cash investment. The cameraman must have a strain of the economist in him, and get speed into his picture without sacrificing quality. After all, time becomes a paramount item when you realize that a single day on a certain picture may run to $22,000 in expenses! 1945. William H Greene, director of color photography, does a last-minute check on the set of Night in Paradise prior to filming a scene starring Merle Oberon and Turham Bey. “As photographer on a major movie, my first job is to manage my camera crew. I have a special crew of seven men. All specialists. I take them with me wherever I go. There’s an operator and two assistants. There’s a grip, a gaffer or electrician, a standby painter and a microphone boy. But that’s only the beginning of my job. I must see that there is efficiency. Speed, again. And, with things as they are, I must practice economy by being artistic with one eye on the production budget. These days a cameraman is actually a producer, director, photographer, actor and electrician. The out-and-out old-fashioned photographer who just had to maneuver a camera is as extinct as the dodo bird.” With two decades behind a Hollywood camera, I wondered just which particular feminine face Gregg Toland considered the best he had ever brought into focus. His answer, like his personality and his pictures, was direct. “Anna Sten,” he replied. “She was by far the most photogenic woman I ever shot. She didn’t have an insipid baby doll face, you know the type. She had a face full of good bones and character. Her cheeks caught the lights well, and her nose was so tilted as to place attractive shadows beneath. Frances Farmer was another face I enjoyed working on and, of course, if you want to go way back into ancient history, there was no one like the incomparable Gloria Swanson. “On the other hand, an actress like Merle Oberon gives the photographer a good deal of work. Her countenance can only be photographed from certain angles. And as to clothes, her body requires that she wear either fluffy dresses or evening gowns to show her up to advantage. Jean Arthur, a dear friend of mine, won’t mind my mentioning that her face is also a lighting job, but, when it comes to attire, she is perfectly photogenic in anything from a cowboy costume to a bathing suit. 1946. Ingrid Bergman filming a scene for Arch of Triumph. “Thinking back on personalities, I recall that I had difficulties with Ingrid Bergman when I worked on ‘Intermezzo.’ Ingrid is really two persons. Shoot her from one side and she’s breath-takingly beautiful. Shoot her from the other, and she’s average.” Toland paused for punctuation, then smiled. “Of course,” he said cheerfully, “I’d rather photograph girls like June Lang and Arleen Whelan with their pretty little faces, than any. Because they’re no work at all. You set your camera and your lights anywhere, and they still look cute. If I shot them constantly, though, I’d become far too lazy.” Now he spoke of the stronger sex. “The most photogenic male is Gary Cooper. But he looks best when he isn’t photographed well! Here’s what I mean. If he’s shot casually and naturally, without frills or fuss, he has plenty of femme appeal. He doesn’t have to be dolled up like the juvenile leads. If you don’t believe me, just take a gander at him in ‘The Westerner.’ He’s grand in it and without special lighting or any make-up. “Henry Fonda is another I enjoy working with. He also doesn’t require makeup. And he’s so damn intelligent. Understands props, stage business, electricity. You know, Fonda’s main hobby is photography, and on ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ he spent half his time looking through my camera, which, of course, gave him a better understanding of what I was after.” I inquired about Toland’s most recent and celebrated patient, Orson Welles. A caption on the back of the photo reads: MENACE .. This is the picture you won’t see on the screen. It shows Orson Welles, his usual mug of steaming coffee in hand, directing Carl Frank and Rita Hayworth in a dramatic courtroom cross-examination scene for Columbia Pictures’ “The Lady from Shanghai.” Orson is producer, writer, director and co-star with Rita in “The Lady from Shanghai.” Frank plays the role of a tough district attorney. Photo by Eddie Cronenweth. “Shot ‘Citizen Kane’ in sixteen weeks,” explained Toland. “It’s an unusual picture. For example, we worked with no beams or parallels (to hold spots) for the first time in Hollywood history. All sets were given natural ceilings, which made bright lighting difficult but also made for realism. “Orson Welles was an interesting type to shoot, especially his characterization, changing from a lad of twenty-five to an old man of seventy, and wearing, in old age, blood-shot glass-caps over his eyes. “His problem, today, will depend on whether audiences prefer him as a character actor or as himself. I like one quality in his acting and direction. Stubbornness. He would bitterly fight every technical problem that came up. Never say die. Never.” Gregg Toland confessed that the one defect he’d found in most actors and actresses was discoloration and lines or wrinkles under their eyes. “Were we to leave them natural, it would make them appear tired and haggard on the screen, especially since they are amplified so greatly. So, I place bright spotlights directly in their faces, which wash out these lines and make their faces smoother.” Then Toland began discussing technical problems in a very untechnical manner. It was a liberal education in cinema craft. He spoke fondly of “The Grapes of Wrath.” Said he enjoyed much of it because he was able to shoot his favorite type of scene – building somber moods through shadowy low-keyed lighting, such as the opening candlelight scene in that classic of the soil. “We slaved, Jack Ford and I, to make that picture real,” Toland revealed. “We sent the cast out to acquire good healthy sunburns. We threw away soft diffusion lenses. We shot the whole thing candid-camera style, like a newsreel. That’s the trend today in Hollywood. Realism.” “Of course,” he added, “sometimes realism is attained only through complete trickery. Remember the third or fourth shot in the beginning of ‘The Long Voyage Home?’ The scene of the ship floating and rocking on the water? Here’s how that was done. I had the studio build half a miniature boat, set it on a dry stage. Then I took a pan full of plain water, placed it on a level with my lens – and shot my scene over this pan of water, catching the boat and giving the perfect illusion of its being in the water. But I better not tell you too much of that. Trade secrets, you know. You better have another beer …” Mervyn Leroy and Harold Rosson filming a scene for Johnny Eager 1941. Director Mervyn Leroy, crouching, oversees the shooting of a scene for Johnny Eager. Douglas Sirk conferring with Hazel Brooks 1947. Director Douglas Sirk briefs Hazel Brooks prior to filming a scene for Sleep,... Ava Gardner filming The Angel Wore Red 1960. Ava Gardner seems to enjoy being the centre of attention as she emerges... George Cukor filming Marilyn Monroe 1962. A bird's eye view of George Cukor directing Marilyn on the set of... But, instead of another beer, I indulged in something equally stimulating. I saw another ace cameraman. I left Toland, drove out into the Valley north of Hollywood and halted before an intimate Oriental restaurant bearing a blinking neon that read “Ching How.” This restaurant was the hobby and hide-out of the cherubic Chinese cameraman, James Wong Howe, the place where he came in the evening, to chat with old friends or supervise a steaming chow mein after a hard and tiresome day with Ann Sheridan, Rita Hayworth, Hedy Lamarr or Loretta Young! 1950. Bette Davis as Margo Channing in All About Eve. Looking at Jimmy Howe, you’d never know what he’s been through and what his keen eyes have seen. Not because he has the “inscrutable” yellow man’s face of fiction, the traditional face that hides feelings and emotions, but because he is so cheerful, so friendly, so disarmingly sincere. You wouldn’t know that he once fought gory battles in the fistic arena for ten bucks a knockout, or that he got his first job in Hollywood as a camera assistant at that same price. But you would know, immediately, that Jimmy Howe is as American as you or I, born in Pasco, Washington, of a farmer father; and you would know, too, immediately, that he understands more about Hollywood stars than any photographer alive. I found Jimmy Howe a little interview shy when it came to discussing personalities. That was because he’d been burned once. Recently, a reporter asked him about Bette Davis, and Howe told the reporter that Bette’s enormous eyes were her finest feature, and that they must be emphasized by lighting, whereas her long thin neck must be shadowed. The reporter misquoted him as stating that Bette was badly pop-eyed. Ever since, Howe has been afraid to explain the truth to Bette – and if she reads this – well, hell, Bette, the guy thinks you’re the greatest actress on earth! Over a delicious dish of aged Chinese eggs, bamboo shoots and other Far Eastern delicacies, in a nook of his popular eatery, Jimmy Howe softened sufficiently to discuss the women he had captured for celluloid. He digressed on the subject of glamour gals. “Hedy Lamarr has more glamour than anyone in Hollywood. Her jet black hair and fine light complexion, marvelously contrasting, requires no faking soft diffusion lens. But, like all glamour ladies, she must be aided by the cameraman. First of all, I took attention away from her lack of full breasts by playing up her eyes and lips. With a bright light I created a shadow to make you forget her weak chin. Then, I really went to town! I planted an arc on a level with her eyes, shadowing her forehead and blending it and her hair into a dark background. Now, all attention was focused on her eyes. Remember her first meeting with Boyer in ‘Algiers?’ Her eyes got away with lines that would never have passed Mr. Hays. 1936. Myrna Loy by Clarence Sinclair Bull. “It’s an old glamour trick. The average girl should learn it. For example, when you wear a hat with a low brim, and then have to peer out from under the brim, it makes you more interesting, centers attention on your orbs. When you sport a half-veil, you have to look from behind it and thus become an exciting and intriguing person. There’s no question about it. The eyes certainly have it. “Now Ann Sheridan. Her gorgeous throat and shoulders, and those lips. I light them up and disguise the fact that her nose is irregular and her cheeks overly plump. Incidentally, to correct her nose, which curves slightly to the left, I put kliegs full on the left side of her face, pushing her nose perfectly straight. Once, on ‘Torrid Zone,’ when Annie arrived on the set with a pimple on her chin, I had the make-up man convert it into a beauty mark, and then viewing her through the camera, realized that this concentrated attention on her full lips, which made her even more glamorous! “Each actress, no matter how beautiful, becomes a problem. Madeleine Carroll has a good and bad side to her face, like so many others. I always shoot her threequarters, because it thins her out. A full face shot makes her too fleshy. With Myrna Loy, there must not be white around her neck, because it’s too contrasting to her complexion. Moreover, lights must be low, shooting upward, to reduce the size of her underpinnings. “Zorina, off-screen, relaxing, is an ordinary woman, with a good-sized healthy body. But, the minute she dances before the camera, her true personality grows. Her face turns from good looking to gorgeous. Her body becomes smaller and willowy. She’s easy to work with, except that an enthusiastic uncle of hers, a doctor, gave her four vaccination marks when she was young, and we have to get rid of them with make-up and special lights. 1938. Vera Zorina on the set of On Your Toes. Photo by Madison Lacy “But you want to know the most photogenic lady I ever set my lens upon? Priscilla Lane. An absolutely eye-soothing face, despite a generous mouth. A fine skin texture. A rounded facial structure. Mmm. Lovely to look at. “There is no perfect camera face, Confucius say. Not even Loretta Young, who is reputed to have a camera-proof face. Why, she wouldn’t want a perfect face and neither would any other actress. A perfect face, without irregular features, would be monotonous and tiresome to observe. Of course, a well-balanced face is another thing. Oh, I’ve seen so-called perfect faces – those composite photographs showing Lamarr’s eyes, Leigh’s nose, Dietrich’s lips – but the result is always surprisingly vacant! “Most women must be photographed with flat lights, shooting down from a forty-five degree angle, because this lighting washes out any defects. Whereas, a cross-lighting from either side, while it makes the face natural and round and real, also accentuates wrinkles, blemishes and bad lines. There are exceptions. Flat lighting would wash Joan Crawford’s face clean to the point of blankness. Crosslighting chisels her beautifully. But others can’t stand up as well. “I’m not telling you these inside items on the stars to give you a sensational story. I’m trying to point out this – that while the Chinese author, Lin Yutang, wrote a book called ‘The Importance of Living,’ I should like to write one called, ‘The Importance of Lighting.’ It’s all-important. Take a look at the way celebrities appear in a newsreel, without careful kliegs adjusted to them. They seem messy. “Why, the only newsreel personages I ever saw who looked decent without expert work on them, and who were, in fact, once offered a million dollars to come to Hollywood, were the Windsors. Now Wally Simpson is a bit too thin in the face and has some blemishes. But this could be corrected by shooting her three-quarters, the lights flat against her. She should never be shot in profile. As to the Duke, Edward himself, well, while he often appears a bit weary and haggard, he would have to be kept that way in Hollywood. It’s part of his adult charm. We wouldn’t want to wash that out with faked brightness.” Esther Williams filming Jupiter’s Darling 1955. Well, here's a different cinematographic challenge – underwater filming for Jupiter's Darling, a Roman... Dorothy Lamour on a location shoot Around 1940. Most Hollywood movies made in the forties and fifties were shot in the... Shooting a scene for A Matter of Life and Death 1946. A Matter of Life and Death, a Powell and Pressburger production, was shot primarily... Joseph Ruttenberg filming Ava Gardner 1948. Joseph Ruttenberg homes in on Ava Gardner in this scene for The Bribe. Another... Now the little man expounded on picture-making. He told exactly the way pictures should be made. Here’s Howe: “My theory of picture -making is that a movie must run true. It must be real. You must not feel that it is obviously a movie. A big fault is that photographers often try to make their photography stand out. That is bad. If you go away raving about the photography of certain scenes, you’ve seen a bad photographic job. “When I was a beginner, way back, I had that common failing. I never gave a damn about the actor. All I wanted was to get those fat beautiful clouds in, so people would say, ‘Some shot. Some photographer.’ But now I know that’s not professional.” There was one more thing. I had a hunch a lot of photographers, like producers, were repressed actors at heart. Did James Wong Howe ever aspire to histrionics? “Oh, once I almost became an actor. The late Richard Boleslavsky wanted me to play with Greta Garbo in ‘The Painted Veil.’ Just a bit part. I refused. My place is behind the big machine, not in front of it. Besides I’d be scared stiff. Me, Wong Howe, an actor? Hell, the boys would rib the pants off me!” To continue my scientific study of the lads behind the lenses, I went to a party of General Service Studios. There, on the lavish set of “Lady Hamilton,” Vivien Leigh was passing out cake to celebrate her birthday, and a stocky, dark-haired handsome man named Rudolph Mate was celebrating his first year as a full-fledged American citizen. 1945. Rudolph Maté on the set of Gilda with Rita Hayworth and Russ Vincent. Rudolph Mate, born in Poland, student of philosophy, lover of fine paintings, was the cameraman on the newest Leigh-Olivier vehicle. His previous pictures had been movie milestones – “Love Affair,” “Foreign Correspondent” and “Seven Sinners.” I asked Mate about the ingredients that make a tip-top photographer, and he answered very slowly and very precisely. He spoke slowly to prevent becoming mixed in the languages he knows – French, German, Hungarian, Russian, Polish, English and pinochle – all of which he speaks fluently. “To become a good photographer, one must have a complete knowledge of the technical end,” stated Mate. He pointed toward his $15,000 movable camera. “One must make everything about that instrument a habit, a second nature, as natural and uncomplicated as walking. This complete technical knowledge gives one time, on the set, to think in terms of the story being shot. A photographer must be creative, imaginative. Above all, he must have a talent for continuity. “What do I mean by continuity? The celluloid mustn’t be scatterbrained. For example, every day a cameraman looks at the daily rushes of the footage he’s shot. Some photographers have excellent daily rushes, excellent separate scenes – but, when the film is cut, patched together, it’s mediocre and without full meaning because the cameraman had no feel of harmony, no sense of continuity. “A cameraman must be thorough. I study a script page by page and solve each problem as I study it. Also, on the side, I study oil paintings and works of art. In fact, I have a big collection of my own, because this study gives a cameraman knowledge of composition and color.” Rudolph Mate was ecstatic about Vivien Leigh as Lady Hamilton. “A marvelous subject. Cool. Positive. The certain beauty of a steel dagger. No bad facial angles. And an actress in her head and in her heart. Laurence Olivier is fine for me to shoot, too. His face is so expressive. It has so much character.” 1944. Marlene Dietrich as Jamilla in Kismet. Mate admitted that he had enjoyed toiling with Marlene Dietrich on “Seven Sinners,” and that he was scheduled to do her next opus at Universal. “She has a wonderful head. I mean both brains and shape. Furthermore, like no other actress, she understands lighting problems and angles, and takes all suggestions without a fight. She is cooperative despite the nonsense you read. She will pose for fifty different takes if need be. The reason she knows so much is that she acquired her photographic education from Josef Von Sternberg, her first director, who still has the best pictorial mind in the cinema business.” Mate, I understood, was a master magician at trickery. He could make anything real. In “Lady Hamilton,” you’ll see the Battle of Trafalgar, when Olivier as Lord Nelson is killed. It’ll be a terrific scene, realistic as war and death – but remember, it was made with miniature boats, only five feet tall, costing $1,000 each, and the cannon balls were tiny marbles shot into thin balsa wood. Remember, too, that Mate can – and often has – made mob scenes involving thousands of people with just a half dozen extras. This he has accomplished with a special “button lens,” one with 220 separate openings for images, thus multiplying anything it is focused upon. Rudolph Mate had a date with Vivien Leigh, in front of the camera, and I had one, at Warner Brothers Studio, with a gentleman named Ernie Haller, a studious architect who wound up by becoming the genius to put that little tidbit labeled “Gone With the Wind” on celluloid. Good-natured, bespectacled Ernie Haller didn’t waste words. “The cameraman’s main duty is to tell a story with lighting. Next, he must have a thorough understanding or feeling for composition; you know, how to group and balance people and objects properly. It’s like salesmanship – you create a point of interest, and you try to sell the fans a star or an idea by subtly focusing attention on this point of interest.” Haller referred to a few tangible points of interest. 1946. Ann Sheridan filming Nora Prentiss. “I’m not merely being loyal to Warners when I tell you Ann Sheridan is the most photogenic female in this town today. Her features are well proportioned and take lighting easily. The most photogenic man is Errol Flynn. His oval face stands up from any angle or under any lighting condition. “But, as you know, we have our sticklers, too. There’s Clark Gable. I always shoot him three-quarters, so that you see only one of his ears. If you saw both at once, they’d look like mine do – stick out like the arms of a loving cup. “Brenda Marshall, whom I’m working with at present, is a fine actress. Her only defects are a slightly crooked nose and eyes set too closely together. I light up one side of her face more fully to straighten the nose, and push inkies square into Brenda’s face to spread her eyes. “When I shot GWTW, I found Vivien Leigh ideal for Technicolor. But I learned too much light was extremely bad for her. Her face was delicate and small, and full brightness would wash out her features and spoil the modeling of her countenance. Another thing. She has blue eyes. David Selznick wanted them green. So I set up a baby spot with amber gelatine, placed it under my lens, and Scarlett wound up with green eyes. 1948. A rare behind-the-scenes shot of cinematographer Franz Planer preparing to shoot a dancing scene starring Ava Gardner and Robert Walker. Director William A Seiter looks on. “Listen, they all have handicaps that we have to correct. Most have square jaws, which must be softened and rounded. Some have prominent noses, which requires a low light set at the knees to push up their noses. Some actresses have thin legs. We plant spots right at their feet to fill ’em out. “There’s no limit to what we have to do. We keep middle-aged actresses young by using special diffusing lenses that make faces mellow, hazy, soft, foggy, ethereal. We use these lenses on mood scenes, too, thus enabling us to create cold, crisp mornings on hot, sultry days. “In my time, I’ve put them all in my black box. Some who were difficult and some who were easy, ranging from Mae Murray and Norma Talmadge to Dick Barthelmess and Bette Davis. I’ve never had trouble because I knew sculpturing, knew the basic foundation of the human face and was able to become, literally, a plastic surgeon with lights.” Says Haller: “Most trick stuff is in the hands of the Optical Printing Department of any studio. This is conducted by specialized cameramen and special effects men who manufacture 75% of the mechanical trick scenes. Most impossible scenes are done in miniature, caught by a camera that blows them eight times normal.” Ernie Haller, with an eye for the unusual, summarized some of the crazy paradoxes he’d run into during his many semesters in the movie village. He said that big banquet scenes were always filmed right after lunch, because the extras weren’t so hungry then and wouldn’t eat so much expensive food! Moonlit night scenes were taken in the daytime with a filter, because real moonlight was not photogenic. Faked fights photographed better than real ones, because real ones appeared too silly. Sequences on an ocean liner had to be faked on dry land, because an honest-to-goodness boat pitched and heaved too much for the average camera. Blank cartridges recorded better on the sound track. Real ones were too high-pitched. “In barroom sequences,” concluded Haller, “cold tea is better than whiskey, not because it photographs better but because actors have to drink a lot of it – and tea, sir, keeps them sober!” So there. You’ve met some of the boys from the ASC. Now paste Gregg Toland’s classical outburst into your hat – “Tell ’em we’re not low-grade mechanical morons, we cameramen. Tell ’em we’re creative artists, by God!” And, by God, they certainly are! Filed Under: Behind the scenes, Crew, Stars Tagged With: Ann Sheridan, Ava Gardner, Bette Davis, Carl Frank, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Douglas Sirk, Eddie Cronenweth, Ernest Haller, Franz Planer, G B Poletto, George Cukor, Giuseppe Rotunno, Grace Kelly, Gregg Toland, Harold Rosson, Hazel Brooks, Ingrid Bergman, Jack Cardiff, James Wong Howe, John Brahm, Joseph A Valentine, Joseph Ruttenberg, Lana Turner, Madison Lacy, Marlene Dietrich, Maury Gertsman, Merle Oberon, Mervyn Leroy, Myrna Loy, Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, Robert Sterling, Robert Taylor, Rudolph Maté, Russ Vincent, Sidney Hickox, Turham Bey, Vera Zorina, William A Seiter, William H Greene	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2167
__label__wiki	0.750957	0.750957	Leary put up numbers in his junior season that put him atop the New Jersey record books, and the wins followed. In addition to state-record marks of 48 TD passes and 3,688 yards, the Chargers star only threw four interceptions and led Timber Creek (12-0) to a South Jersey Group 4 title. QB Devin Leary (6-2, 185, Jr.), Timber Creek (Erial) RB Elijah Barnwell (6-0, 188, Sr.), Piscataway RB Jonathan Taylor (5-11, 210, Sr.), Salem WR Ezrah Archie (6-0, 185, Sr.), Timber Creek (Erial) WR Bo Melton (6-1, 175, Sr.), Cedar Creek (Egg Harbor City) TE Devin Miller (6-3, 225, Sr.), Metuchen OL Micah Clark (6-6, 270, Sr.), St. John Vianney (Holmdel) OL Noah DeHond (6-7, 317, Sr.), Peddie School (Hightstown) OL Joshua Fedd-Jackson (6-4, 305, Sr.), St. Joseph (Montvale) OL Ben Petrula (6-5, 300, Sr.), St. Peter’s Prep (Jersey City) OL Carter Warren (6-7, 315, Sr.), Passaic Tech (Wayne) QB Tommy DeVito (6-2, 193, Sr.), Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey) RB Isiah Byrd (5-10, 207, Sr.), Abraham Clark (Roselle) RB Keshon Farmer (5-6, 165, Sr.), Peddie School (Hightstown) WR Jahan Dotson (6-1, 194, Sr.), Peddie School (Hightstown) WR Joe Scancarella (5-11, 170, Sr.), Wayne Valley (Wayne) TE Jairo Ramos (6-2, 210, Jr.), Woodrow Wilson (Camden) OL Mike Andrejco (6-4, 245, Sr.), Wall (Wall Township) OL Noah Carroll (6-3, 260, Sr.), Lenape (Medford) OL Liam Fornadel (6-4, 295, Sr.), Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey) OL Ryan Huth (6-5, 265, Sr.), Allentown OL Robert Martin (6-6, 260, Sr.), St. Joseph (Montvale) DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Louis Acceus, St. Joseph (Montvale) The two-way star would not be slowed down in spearheading the Green Knights to a Non-Public Group 3 state championship. Acceus displayed a superb blend of speed and physical play to finish the season with a 101 tackles, including 14 for loss, as well as 6½ sacks, an interception, five passes defended and two forced fumbles. DL Owen Kessler (6-4, 230, Sr.), Westfield DL Jake Krellin (6-0, 190, Jr.), Middletown South DL Dalyn Wade-Perry (6-3, 341, Sr.), Pope John XXIII (Sparta) DL Fred Hansard (6-3, 310, Sr.), Hun School (Princeton) LB Louis Acceus (6-1, 210, Sr.), St. Joseph (Montvale) LB Vinny DePalma (6-1, 215, Jr.), DePaul Catholic (Wayne) LB Paul Theobald (6-2, 215, Sr.), Seton Hall Prep (West Orange) DB Markquese Bell (6-3, 205, Sr.), Bridgeton DB Mike Doulong (5-11, 170, Sr.), Lenape (Medford) DB Mike Gawlik (5-7, 160, Sr.), Jackson Memorial DB Harrison Hand (6-0, 165, Sr.), Cherry Hill West DL Jayson Ademilola (6-3, 270, Jr.), St. Peter’s Prep (Jersey City) DL Tyler Friday (6-3, 255, Sr.), Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey) DL Lorenzo Hernandez (6-0, 250, Sr.), Cherry Hill West DL Josh Lezin (6-4, 230, Jr.), Lakewood LB Shqipron Idrizi (6-0, 205, Sr.), Bergen Catholic (Oradell) LB Ricky Mottram (6-2, 244, Sr.), Allentown LB Mike Ruane (6-1, 225, Sr.), Rumson-Fair Haven (Rumson) DB Ezekiel Ennis (5-9, 165, Sr.), St. Augustine Prep (Richland) DB David Estevez (5-11, 185, Jr.), River Dell (Oradell) DB Mike Husni (5-11, 160, Sr.), Toms River North DB Johnathan Lovett (5-11, 195, Sr.), Cherokee (Marlton) P Zach Feagles (6-2, 210, Sr.), Ridgewood (Glen Rock) ALL-USA Football, American Family Insurance, Chris Beagan, Devin Leary, football, Louis Acceus, ALL-USA State 2019-20 ALL-USA High School Football Coach of the Year: Reginald Samples, Duncanville https://usatodayhss.com/2016/2016-all-usa-new-jersey-football-team 2016 ALL-USA New Jersey Football Team	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2175
__label__cc	0.692922	0.307078	USU Eastern Eagle Eagle Life USU Eastern USU Statesman Price Campus Journalism & Communication Department Four USUE soccer players receive all-SWAC honors at regionals 2 years ago The Eagle Online This archived article was written by: Nicolas Schapochnik Eagles season finishes in the region XVIII… Eagles meet CNCC in first game of State Tourney This archived article was written by: Brooke Anderson Volleyball finished up its last weekends of… Jason Olsen releases poetry book titled “Parakeet” This archived article was written by: C. Dean Thacker Utah State University Eastern English department… “Towns Less Occupied” photo exhibit opens in CIB “Towns Less Occupied” by Logan photographer Andrew McAllister will be Gallery East’s third exhibit showing… An exciting new renovation in the student center This archived article was written by: Lindsie Damron The cafeteria in the Jennifer-Leavitt student center… Fantasy cosmetology hair contest First place winner, Melissa Wood and her model, Hailey Hart with the hairstyle Ship. Second… I am that “hood rat” immigrant This archived article was written by: Veronica Tita A member of USU Eastern Student Leadership… Religion, morals and humanity; a perspective pre-dating BCE This archived article was written by: Renato Magalhsaes The first signs of religion are thought… College at age 16? This archived article was written by: Emma Campbell Class of 2019, that’s when I was… Appreciate the beauty of Southeastern Utah On Oct. 28, Michelle Fleck’s physical geology lab students toured Capitol Reef National Park as… Dining services has a new manager This archived article was written by: Kaina Elias Utah State University’s Dining Services has a… Queer Resource Center & USUE This archived article was written by: Alex Anderson I’ve stressed many times students need to… Why everyone should watch Star Wars This archived article was written by: Alexander Holt Star Wars is the epic tale of… Kevin van der Spek This archived article was written by: Kevin van der spek Sitting in the back of… Miss USU Eastern contestants VERONICA TITA Veronica Tita’s hometown is Springville, Utah. She is the USU Eastern Athletic Representative… CEU: the 80s unveils the BDAC, museum, mammoth, dorms Best of 2019 – Editor’s picks of the last year Short & Sweet Film Festival To Be Held at USU Eastern A love of English brought Bradley to USU Eastern What’s 2020 gaming going to look like? “Seeking Solace” paintings come to USU Eastern’s Gallery ASK A COP: Archives Select Month January 2020 (24) December 2019 (22) November 2019 (24) October 2019 (74) September 2019 (39) May 2019 (1) April 2019 (31) March 2019 (24) February 2019 (32) January 2019 (34) September 2018 (24) July 2018 (2) May 2018 (24) April 2018 (18) March 2018 (60) February 2018 (27) January 2018 (24) December 2017 (34) November 2017 (48) October 2017 (53) September 2017 (40) July 2017 (4) June 2017 (2) May 2017 (3) April 2017 (54) March 2017 (44) February 2017 (48) January 2017 (25) December 2016 (25) November 2016 (53) October 2016 (55) September 2016 (36) August 2016 (1) July 2016 (1) June 2016 (1) May 2016 (2) April 2016 (63) March 2016 (53) February 2016 (56) January 2016 (28) December 2015 (27) November 2015 (57) October 2015 (53) September 2015 (52) April 2015 (59) March 2015 (27) February 2015 (52) January 2015 (49) December 2014 (28) November 2014 (31) October 2014 (96) September 2014 (45) May 2014 (1) April 2014 (56) March 2014 (53) February 2014 (23) January 2014 (51) December 2013 (51) November 2013 (116) May 2013 (2) April 2013 (58) March 2013 (26) February 2013 (62) January 2013 (50) December 2012 (28) November 2012 (49) October 2012 (58) September 2012 (55) April 2012 (68) March 2012 (54) February 2012 (59) January 2012 (26) December 2011 (22) November 2011 (59) October 2011 (60) September 2011 (41) April 2011 (53) March 2011 (48) February 2011 (43) January 2011 (22) December 2010 (26) November 2010 (48) October 2010 (37) September 2010 (38) April 2010 (47) March 2010 (18) February 2010 (38) January 2010 (45) December 2009 (101) November 2009 (63) October 2009 (16) September 2009 (38) August 2009 (22) April 2009 (53) March 2009 (28) February 2009 (48) January 2009 (37) December 2008 (25) November 2008 (82) October 2008 (32) September 2008 (34) August 2008 (21) April 2008 (39) March 2008 (26) February 2008 (42) January 2008 (38) December 2007 (22) November 2007 (23) October 2007 (41) September 2007 (33) August 2007 (14) April 2007 (32) March 2007 (32) February 2007 (33) January 2007 (19) December 2006 (17) November 2006 (48) October 2006 (20) September 2006 (35) August 2006 (17) April 2006 (49) March 2006 (45) February 2006 (43) January 2006 (21) December 2005 (19) November 2005 (21) October 2005 (45) September 2005 (33) August 2005 (23) April 2005 (48) March 2005 (20) January 2005 (24) October 2004 (29) September 2004 (42) August 2004 (19) April 2004 (52) March 2004 (24) February 2004 (46) January 2004 (41) December 2003 (18) November 2003 (27) October 2003 (48) September 2003 (43) August 2003 (21) The Eagle Newspaper The Eagle Newspaper updated their website address. New at The Eagle: Rethinking armed teachers ... See MoreSee Less Rethinking armed teachers \| The Eagle Online at.usue.co The increase in school shootings and consequential media coverage led people to propose possible solutions. One concept proposed is arming teachers to better protect and deter a would-be shooter. My knee-jerk reaction was to be against this concept. It seemed like a traditional “fight fire with fi... Back-to-back welding national champions 4 months ago The Eagle Online Campus detours 5 months ago Susan Polster Warnick, Bradley, Anderson and Meyers honored at graduation ‘The Eagle’ wins 18 awards at UPA dinner 9 months ago Scott Froehlich 4 days ago Susan Polster John Winn on 13 REASONS WHY: HELPFUL WARNING Utah vs. BYU rivalry game from a BYU fan’s perspective – USU Eastern Eagle – American Digest on Utah vs. BYU rivalry game from a BYU fan’s perspective USU Eastern womens soccer off to fiery start – USU Eastern Eagle – American Digest on USU Eastern womens soccer off to fiery start Richard Menzies kicks off 2019-2020 exhibition season at Gallery East – USU Eastern Eagle – American Digest on Richard Menzies kicks off 2019-2020 exhibition season at Gallery East Higher Ed Day – USU Eastern Eagle - American Digest on Higher Ed Day	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2178
__label__wiki	0.760717	0.760717	The Escapist Portal > The Escapist Forums > The News Room Thai Government Bans Tropico 5: 'Threat to National Security' Thread IndexSearch ForumsPosting GuidelinesContact Moderators 1 POSTED: 4 Aug 2014 12:04 Kalypso Media doesn't intend to contest the ban. Your Magnificence, I bring news from far-off lands! It would appear that certain aspects of your latest autobiog ... ahem fictionalized computer game history of our beloved Tropico has been causing concern in a place called Thailand. The Thai Culture Ministry has issued a ban! A BAN! Although the third and fourth portions of your autobi ... I do beg your pardon, Magnificence ... of the Tropico series were beloved in this far-off Thailand, Tropico 5 has been deemed to be detrimental to the country's security. Should I imprison someone, Magnificence? According to a statement from New Era Thailand marketing manager Nonglak Sahavattanapong, Tropico 5 has fallen foul of the censor because "some part of its content might affect peace and order in the country." The current Thai government is a military junta, which seized control in May this year; it was the 19th coup in 82 years. Tropico, as devoted fans will recall, allows the player to control the media and crush all opposition as an iron-fisted dictator. Even before the May coup, the Thai government was notoriously difficult to deal with, cracking down on anything it deemed immoral, pornographic or critical of the government. In 2012, it banned a Thai adaptation of Macbeth, claiming it could cause divisiveness among the people. "Actually it's a good game with positive reviews," Nonglak said in a statement. "We've had licenses to distribute Tropico 3 and 4 before, but in the fifth installment, the story line has developed further and there might be some part of it that's not appropriate in the current situation." According to Nonglak, Kalypso doesn't intend to contest the ban. Th37thTrump3t sigh It's shit like this that remind me that maybe it's not so bad living in America after all. FalloutJack Funny, I would've thought this was going to be how they react in Cuba over these things. Avaholic03 Is it the threat of riots from their awful DLC policy that "might affect peace and order in the country"? Yeah, I got nothing. The game obviously has a sense of humor about the whole situation, but apparently that was lost on the censors. Canadamus Prime What? Do they think people are going to use the game to plot to overthrow their government? ...kinda like they did? kuolonen Oh dear, and here I am visiting Thailand with Tropico 5 installed on me laptop. Any minute now the MP's will be breaking down my door! Glaice It's a damn video game, you dolts. What could it possibly do? redisforever FalloutJack: I'm reasonably sure they can't run this game. I did some looking around a little while ago, looking at the state of video games in Cuba, and based on what I saw, it's somewhere around 2001 level of graphics. I don't think they can actually play this. I may be wrong though, but I'd still assume the majority of people in Cuba can't afford expensive computers. BigTuk Thai Government... if a game is all it takes to destabilize the social fabric and stability of your country... you have far, faaaaaar bigger problems. 10 POSTED: 4 Aug 2014 13:44 redisforever: Ten years from now, they'll be able to run the right computers, and then go "HEY!". NoAccountNeeded Thailand's a joke anyway. http://youtu.be/GCxFf8rOwpw?t=1m40s http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/jul/29/thai-junta-comedian-john-oliver-royal-jibes Not G. Ivingname Which part of the game do you feel is a threat to "national security" compared to the others? This game just covers more eras of colonialism, starting with "second wave" 19th century industrial colonialism to the modern day. Are you really expecting people to learn rebel tactics from a game like this? Thailand has a LOT of coups to take notes from, even yours. Th37thTrump3t: Yeah. But Americans only have the illusion of freedom. They give you just enough to think that you're free, when the reality is that you're being used much like a product. They feed you with ideas that hard work is a virtue and shit like that and then they take your productivity and give it to themselves and CEO's. Average worker productivity in the US has increased tenfold in the past couple of decades but almost all of the benefits have gone to the top 1%. Then the politicians take your tax dollars to fund wars and kill your loved ones and meanwhile they give tax cuts to the rich who also happen to benefit from those wars. But the illusion is necessary. And it works. A lot of Americans know that it's an illusion. Maybe not consciously, but they feel it deep down. They depend on it just as much as the top 1%. They're addicted to it. It is their way of life. And others are blind. They still believe in the American Dream. It's one of the greatest lies ever told. And without it the whole system would collapse. Someone Depressing How is Korea doing, what with all of that "Because of Seth Rogen, we're gonna invade you" business over that crappy film that's coming out. Or has it already? I don't know, is it a comedy. Anyone know anything about that? waj9876 What's this? I always thought Tropico was a racing game. What's this about it being about the media? Seriously, I've been told it was a racing game, and I despise all racing games that don't start with "Mario" and end with "Kart." So I never really looked into it. This sounds really interesting. Ultratwinkie waj9876: Don't bother. tropico 5 is an Aliens Colonial Marines level lemon. The devs lied through their teeth about what would be in the game, and its missing promised mechanics like tribes. Stick with tropico 3 or 4. The classic Tropicos are also very good. They have 10 on disc DLCS, and 2 partially on disc expansions. Tropico 5 is missing crucial buildings like prisons as well. Ever since Tropico 3 Kalypso has been milking the series like no one's business, cutting and selling more and more content with each passing game. On top of this, Tropico 5 has a huge lack of buildings and huge gamebreaking bugs that the developer refuses to fix. But that didn't stop them from releasing more DLC even though gamers can't play the game. A portion of the on disc DLC is 100% complete with voice acting and everything. I had to create 2 threads on the controversy, and no one cared. The game also lacks good music, unlike its previous installments, and lacks the racial identity of the last games. When you get to the modern era it turns into generic Mass Effect cities. Its missing its charm. MASTACHIEFPWN Censorship is like an award. It says your media is powerful enough to convey a message. RazgrizRex Guess the royal family looks up to North Korea a lot. You can't criticise them now, soon you'll have to thank Jim for them. ... 19 coups in 82 years... that's roughly 1 every 4 years... are you sure that "coup" doesn't actually mean "election" in Thai? The Plunk It's funny because Polygon gave the game a low score for not shoehorning in a political message about why dictators are bad. Rainbow_Dashtruction canadamus_prime: No, the theoretical rebels might actually call it overthrowing instead of Thursday like Thai calls its Military Coups. And that's MUCH worse! RazgrizRex: It actually directly translates to Thursday. Back To TopThread IndexPosting Guidelines Select Forum ...DiscussionGaming DiscussionOff-topic DiscussionSite Information and AnnouncementsUser ReviewsAdvice ForumCurrent EventsRole PlayingTech DiscussionForum GamesThe Escapist CommentaryFeatured ContentThe News Room Jump To Forum: Have an account? Login below: With Facebook:Login With Facebook Not registered? To sign up for an account with The Escapist: Register With Facebook Register With Facebook Register for a free account here Experienced Points: Quality Still MattersThe Big Picture: Q&AThe Escapist Presents: Animaphonics: Toil Sweat Owkwa O2Digest: Six Guns and Laser SwordsCritical Mix: 007	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0104.json.gz/line2181

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