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__label__wiki	0.985755	0.985755	1 arrested, gunman sought after deadly shooting at Sacramento City College One person was fatally shot near the baseball field at Sacramento City College, Sept. 3, 2015. (KGO-TV) SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A Sacramento community college reopened Friday as officers searched for a gunman who fatally shot one man and wounded two others in a parking lot at the edge of campus, officials said. Sacramento police Sgt. Doug Morse said the gunman ran away after the shooting near a campus baseball field Thursday afternoon and wasn't found in a sweep of the campus and surrounding neighborhood. Update: Shooting occurred in a parking lot, just north of Sutterville Rd, south edge of campus pic.twitter.com/N9QTuyEAS4 — Sacramento Police (@SacPolice) September 4, 2015 The Sacramento County coroner's office said Friday that Roman P. Gonzalez, 25, died at the scene, according to The Sacramento Bee. Another victim was hospitalized and is expected to survive, authorities said, and a third was grazed by a bullet. Their names have not been released. All three were students at the school. The shooting began as an argument between two groups of men, said Dustin Poore of the Los Rios police, which patrols Sacramento City College. A physical fight escalated when a knife and gun were pulled out, said police in a news release late Thursday. Police said the shooting victim was believed to be involved in the fight. Detectives made an arrest on one of the subjects who was involved in the altercation. The man who sustained a minor wound, identified as Rico Ridgeway, has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon and placed on a parole hold in connection with this case. Ridgeway was booked into the Sacramento County Jail earlier this morning. Authorities have not ruled out gang involvement. It was also unclear whether the gunman has any ties to the school, and police have not given a motive. The gunman, wearing a white T-shirt and cargo shorts, remained at large Friday. The campus was locked down for about two hours Thursday before police officers had cleared all the buildings and allowed students and staff to leave, Morse said. Police descended on the campus shortly after the gunfire broke out, and students were told to stay in their classrooms and lock the doors. "My stomach dropped," student Lars Beesom told KCRA-TV. "It was definitely really, really scary, but we all stayed calm." Beesom added: "It's school. It's supposed to be a good environment, and you don't want to be scared here." Jackie Flores, 50, who lives across the street from the parking lot, said she heard four or five gunshots. "It all happened so fast," she told the Bee. Classes were in session at the two-year college in central Sacramento with a student body of about 25,000. The fall semester began Aug. 22. The corner of campus where the shooting occurred is surrounded by strip malls with chain restaurants on one side and a golf course on the other. sacramentocrimesearchhospitalshootingman shotman killed 1 student dead, 2 injured in shooting at Sacramento City College What you need to know about Amazon's Prime Day	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line553
__label__wiki	0.710443	0.710443	Opening date finally set for long-delayed Meadowlands megamall EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey -- Officials have finally set an opening date for a massive retail and entertainment center in the Meadowlands. The long-delayed American Dream project will open Oct. 25. The announcement was made Wednesday by its developer, Triple Five. American Dream will feature 3 million square feet of retail, dining and entertainment, including more than 450 stores and restaurants. The project includes an amusement park, an indoor ski slope, an indoor ice skating rink, an indoor water park and more. The project has been plagued by financial problems since the first contract was awarded in 2003. The immense structure, once called "the ugliest damn building in New Jersey" by former Republican Gov. Chris Christie, has sat unfinished between MetLife Stadium and the New Jersey Turnpike for years. businesseast rutherfordbergen countymallmeadowlands	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line554
__label__cc	0.602321	0.397679	Absolute Write Water Cooler > Discussion > AW Roundtable > a pen name for each genre? View Full Version : a pen name for each genre? Do any of you have this problem? A half of you believes that the purest art form is writing that doesn't dive into the depths of unreal, the other half loves to image wildest things... and each of the halves write their own stories. Should a writer use a pen name for one of the genres if he/she wants to write literary/mainstream novels and also dark/urban fantasy novels (but with a literary twist)? Should one do it so that the readers aren't confused? I can imagine loving a horror novel by John Doe and buying another of his books, only to find it's a historical romance and feeling disappointed. Or is it just doubling the PR work you and your representatives have to undertake? I think it depends on how far apart the genres are, and how distinct you keep the pseudonyms. Nora Roberts/JD Robb is a good example of an author who's chosen to use a pen name, but not keep them very distinct. She writes Romance under one name, Mystery under the other, so fans don't get confused, but the first many JD Robb (her 2nd identity) books were billed as "Nora Roberts writing as JD Robb". So she's got the clarity, but also the convenience of only needing one website, etc. I don't think this would work as well if she were writing, like, Christian Inspirationals and Hardcore Erotica. One thing to keep in mind is that it's good to build a name in a genre through fairly frequent publications; if you're not prolific, you may struggle with a book-a-year minimum in two or more different genres. ChaosTitan The first example that came to mind is an author acquaintance of mine who writes adult and YA urban fantasy under one name, and she also writes erotic fiction under another. Some authors choose to cop to those pseudonyms in order to help fans find other writings of theirs; others choose to keep the identities separate. It really does depend on the genres you write and how different they are, as well as whether or not the genres will appeal to crossover audiences. Thanks, this is a good example -- I'd like to do something like that (Nora Roberts). It's not that I'm ashamed of publishing both things under my own name, I just don't think all horror or dark fantasy readers would like to buy a book and find out it's a collection of slice-of-life flash fiction. Do you really think it's obligatory to publish a book a year under each pen name? That could be a problem. On the other hand, Cormac McCarthy can get away with publishing post-apocaliptic SF and nobody seems to care... Jamesaritchie the purest art form is writing that doesn't dive into the depths of unreal I don't even know what this means. But I also discount pretty much any writing, or anything else, that's called "art". But, yes, I use pseudonyms. For most prolific writers, it's just good business. DeleyanLee I know an author who writes SF, Fantasy, Inspirational Romance and Paranormal Romance, as well as work-for-hire (which isn't under her name at all). She's had many pen names over the years, depending on what sales numbers connect with what name. She generally does use a different pen name for the different types of Romance, but similar names for the SF/F works. If you go to her website, she acknowledges all of her pen names and has only one website. It makes sense, given the diversity of what she writes. Like Nora Roberts, she is very proficient and could easily flood the bookstores with 10-12 books a year. That kind of thing can get overwhelming for readers trying to keep track of what they've read, etc. There are many arguments for and against. I'm on the side of just using one name as long as you aren't writing a combination of kidlit and erotica. Your name is something recognizable in the social media world, and whether you like social media or not, it can help people find out about your books. I can't imagine trying to maintain different twitter names, etc. for various pen names I don't think it's obligatory, but I think it's beneficial, especially when you're just starting out. If you want to build a following, you should make it as easy as possible for people to remember that they like you and want to pick up your next book, and that gets harder the longer they're expected to wait. Maybe it would make sense to establish yourself in one genre, and then branch out later if inspiration strikes. Again, I think Nora Roberts would be a good example of that strategy working well. ...also, Clive Barker writes fiction for kids under his own Cenobite-bitten name. I really don't know what to think about this issue. Authors I admire the most never wrote in different genres, so I have no example to follow. Bukowski and Vonnegut and Brautigan and Carver were one and the same voice in each of their books. In a way, the author's persona is as much a piece of creation as his novels are. So maybe it should be consistent. As for having to tweet twice, I don't intend to ever tweet, or spend too much time on internet PR anyway -- it's the real life that makes the writer, not the amount of time spent at his hypno-box. Sorry for rambling, I'm just torn inside ;-) Well good for you. Come back six months after your first book is out and let us know how you got people to find your book. I do it. Have published short work under two pseudonyms and my real name. Had no issues. Not sure about novels. PN1: Sci-Fi PN2: Literary Fiction Real Name: narrative non-fiction, poetry Actually it's funny because I had an editor once who required me to explain why I used a pen name because he/she distrusted the idea of a pseudonym. I gave this exact reason. My genres are widely varied. Not that I actually think one aught to justify using a pseudonym. I found it a little bizarre, but I didn't mind as the editor was willing to publish my work :D Brukaviador I thought about doing this at some point in the future. My reason was because I write dark fiction with a fair amount of sex and/or violence in it. It's not something I want to advertise as being for younger audiences. Sometime in the future though, I can see myself doing a few sci-fi or lighter fantasy pieces that I would want to market to a larger audience. The seperate pen names would be more for my readers than myself, so they can pick up a book and know how graphic it's going to be before hand. It gives them the option to stick to the lighter stuff, or (for the good parents) be sure their underage children do. Though I've got to get published under one name before I ever think about another. If I ever write children's or YA fiction, I'll consider a pen-name for that. At the moment, and after long consideration, my sf&f and my erotic fiction are all being submitted under a variation of my real name. For two reasons: 1) Many of the stories are linked into the same universe, so it would be confusing to have two different names attached to the work. 2) At this stage in my life, it's unlikely that I'll be working in any industry or social group that would be put off by my writing. The arts are a lot more forgiving than education or finance. Rhoda Nightingale I'll just echo the general sentiment here--not for every genre, but for genres that are divergent enough that they'll attract a completely different readership. Well, in theory anyway. Like YA versus erotica, or even horror. I've decided to leave it up to my agent/publisher, once I acquire one. I write mostly horror and YA, and if they feel like I should use a penname for one or the other, I'm good with it. If not, I'm good with that too. Other people besides me are the experts on what will make it marketable, so I'm not bothered by them (again, theoretically) having the final say in something like this. It can be obligatory. If you have a name contracted with one publisher, the name may have restrictions written into the contract, should you want to write for a different publisher. Of course. Pen names can be publisher-vetted, as much as titles. I'm working on getting a publisher first, then we can hammer out details. thethinker42 Agreed. I maintain two pen names (one for romance, one for gay romance) for the same reason Nora Roberts does -- just to keep readers from getting confused. Joint website, no attempts to keep them separate/secret, etc. Even then, maintaining two pseudonyms is not without its challenges. You have to build two names AND keep both of those names visible, both in terms of publication and promotion. I'm fairly prolific, so haven't had too much trouble keeping up with the publication demands, but the double promotion can be a bit of a headache when I'm trying to keep up with deadlines, edits, etc. It certainly can be done, and if I had it to do over, I'd still have done it this way, but it definitely creates some additional -- if relatively minor -- challenges. I see why it's a necessary evil given the literary market's segregation of non-straight sex literature, but I have to say it's a sad world we live in that a reader has expectations of sexual orientation, either in literature or life. For romance it's obviously a bit different if only because the reason people read romances may vary from those reading, say, sci-fi or fantasy. It would be hard to provoke the sexual desires of a homosexual male via a straight sex scene or visa versa, it seems (if that is in fact the scene's goal--not implying romance is all smut or anything). Your decision makes sense because it may depend on the reader's enjoyment of romance since love and sex are directly tied to sexual orientation. But you just got me thinking, would someone do this in a genre other than romance? Does the market preclude gay literature so heavily that someone writing so-called "straight" books would need multiple pen names to write about a gay character? To think this makes my moral compass throw up in my mouth a little bit. Though I would never blame the author for stipulations placed upon them by the market place. Of course it's better to get the "gay" book published and on the shelf than to argue over a pen name. Anyone know about this particular facet of using multiple pen names? The reason I ask is that, if I wrote a gay MC into a sci-fi story, for instance, I would probably want to keep the same pen name. Adobedragon Bolding mine. That would be my take on the matter. I've notice that some writers, mostly the epublished, seem to use a different pen name for every subgenre. I.e., they have a pen name for UF, another for paranormal romance, another for erotic romance, another for their interracial books, and so on. This being accompanied by a legion of FB author pages, Twitter accounts, websites, etc. If the books are similar in tone--e.g. sexy--I really don't see the point of multiple pen names. As a reader, I think this approach makes it hard to find more of an author's books. I guess my question is, how do readers choose what to buy? Most of my books come from the library, so I don't have a strong basis of comparison. But, when I pick up a book at the bookstore (or library), it's usually because the title, cover or author name caught my eye. Even if the author is a favorite of mine, I still read the backcover blurb. I also glance at the cover. Since romance novels--hetero or gay--usually feature the protagonists on the cover, that and the blurb would be enough to decided that this book isn't for me. Not that I don't read M/M romance. My point is, if that's not your thing, wouldn't you be clued in by the blurb and cover? I mean, if you don't like reading romance between two men, wouldn't the picture of two sexy guys be a clue "not to buy this book." Or do people just grab a book by an author without even looking at those things? The so-called auto-buy? At least where my work is concerned, it's mostly a matter of personal taste on the part of the readers. Some like gay romance, some prefer straight, and many readers on EITHER side absolutely WILL NOT read the other. There are plenty of authors who write both under the same name and have no problem, and you can usually tell the orientation of the characters from the cover art. Using two names was a decision I made so my readers wouldn't say "Oh! Another release! Cool! Wait...oh, it's [whichever side they don't prefer]. Dammit." I have many readers who read both, and many who only read one, but at least this way they know when they see a Lauren Gallagher book, it's hetero, and when they see an L. A. Witt book, it's M/M. Same principle as Nora Roberts/JD Robb. (The challenge right now is which pseudonym to put on the book I'm pitching now that has bisexual characters...) How would this play out in non-romance genres? No idea. My understanding is most people go by blurb and cover art, as well as author recognition, series recognition, publisher recognition (especially with small pubs), etc. My decision to use two names was just to give readers one more quick reference to flag the content of the book. It's certainly not the only thing to differentiate the two, but I figured it wouldn't hurt. I have some readers who are downright disgusted by the idea of even LOOKING at hetero romance (yes, hetero), so the names just let them know "stop and look at this one!" or "move along, you probably don't want to read this one." It's certainly not a requirement in romance, and many authors do just fine using one name for both gay and straight. With the polarization between some (not all) readers of either subgenre, I figured a little extra to distinguish between the two wouldn't hurt. I just want to tell a great story. It really doesn't matter to me whether the protagonists are straight or gay, and in most of my books I have both straight and gay romantic relationships. If someone's shallow enough that they won't read one or the other, that's their choice. I know the erotic romance e-pubs work off a different strategy, but in more mainstream SF&F, my favorite writers have never differentiated between the two. Instead, they've built interesting worlds where both gender preferences can exist as equally-valid choices. Hence, my one pen-name. I don't know about expectations of sexual orientation, but I damned sure don't want to get home with a romance novel before discovering that it's about a homosexual romance. Something, jacket copy, etc., needs to give it away before I buy. If it does, I don't care whether the two types are segregated or not. But like every other genre separation, having a section for each makes it a heck of a lot easier for readers to find exactly what they want, and that's what it's all about. Sorry for the threadjack...I'll try to keep this somewhat short... For romance, differentiating between gay and straight is pretty necessary, given that the relationship (and depending on the heat level, sexual encounters) is the focal point of the story. Just as a reader who prefers sweet romances might not be interested in a kinky erotic romance, someone who prefers M/M romances may very well have zero interest in a hetero one. I don't think that's shallow, it's just people reading stories according to their own personal tastes. Now, mainstream fiction where characters happen to be gay or straight? I agree, that shouldn't be segregated. Erotic romances, where characters are repeatedly engaging in graphic sex? Let's put it this way: I have readers who won't touch BDSM fiction with a ten-foot pole, and others who won't pick up a book unless it promises at least a certain level of kink. Neither preference invalidates the other, people just have different tastes, different turn-ons, different characters they can relate to (i.e., I have readers who just cannot relate to someone who's a Dom or submissive, while others crave characters like that because that's who they do relate to). Same with gay vs straight erotic romances. I mean, passing over or turning up one's nose at a SFF book because one character happens to be gay or because there is a romantic pairing between two characters of the same gender isn't quite the same (to me) as passing over an erotic romance because it contains significant amounts of graphic sex of a variety that doesn't interest you. (Hopefully I'm articulating this somewhat clearly...if I'm not, I'm going to blame the lack of coffee...) Agreed. Some romance readers want to read about gay pairings, some want to read about straight pairings, and some want to read both. I don't have a problem giving them as much information as I can up front about what they can expect in each book, including having different pen names to cut down on confusion. Thethinker, that's cool, it's still on subject. The way I've started to see it just now, maybe it's not even a question of keeping the readers informed about the expected content of my books. It seems to me that An Author (persona + oeuvre) is a full-packet creation. I get a strong feeling writing some stories that I wouldn't like them to be a part of My Official (Royal) Oeuvre, is all. Also, it's such a refreshing, liberating feeling: it's him who wrote it, not me!! I can gallop and frolic freely in the grass of graphomania! I think a pen name has just saved me from a writer's block 8-\| Yeah as I said it definitely makes sense for romance. Just curious because I actually have heard horror stories about gay MCs in other genres. And I think it definitely relates to the thread because multiple pen names. Sorry thethinker if it came off as any kind of attack on you. I get your reasoning but I don't always get the book industry's reasoning (in non-romance situations). No worries. :) And yes, I agree, outside of the romance genre, I don't get the need or desire to separate books with gay characters from books without. I've found a nice example. John Banville - literary; Benjamin Black - crime fiction. This works really like gay/non gay in romance; a product destined to fulfill another need in readers. Roald Dahl, however, cared not for such trivial matters. Wrote soft-porn and books for children under the same name :-D Mr Flibble Roald Dalh wrote porn? goes to check copy of The Enormous Crocodile I know he wrote adult stories (Tales of teh Unexpected!), but porn? Uncle Oswald :-) Well, steamy frivolous erotica... But, to be honest, his stories for children also have this little je ne sais quoi, risky twistedness and dangerous style that could point towards his other interests. Adult certainly, not sure erotica the word/genre that springs to mind. Definitely not porn. Whatever you wish to call it is fine with me, IdiotsRUs. Doesn't change the fact that Uncle Oswald was bound to be quite a pleasant surprise for the boys in their early teens who found it under a Christmas tree. scarletpeaches I see why it's a necessary evil given the literary market's segregation of non-straight sex literature, but I have to say it's a sad world we live in that a reader has expectations of sexual orientation, either in literature or life.I've never found this to be a necessary evil at all. I write straight, bi and gay characters all under the same pseudonym and have never had any suggestion from readers or editors that this should change. I trust the readers to read the blurb and find out for themselves who the main characters are and if they don't, well, that's their own lookout. I take no blame for mistakes made by careless bookstore browsers. I don't know about expectations of sexual orientation, but I damned sure don't want to get home with a romance novel before discovering that it's about a homosexual romance.You might want to try reading the blurb, then. That's what it's there for. I know he wrote adult stories (Tales of teh Unexpected!), but porn?I'll never read The BFG in the same light again. :Wha: I recently had my first het Romance accepted and was planning to use a different pseudonym than the one I use for my m/m stuff, but my new publisher AND my m/m publisher said they didn't think it was necessary. In their opinions, there is enough crossover between the two markets to make it an asset to use the same name. I'll obviously make the distinction clear on my website, but it should also be clear from the covers, the blurbs, the category classifications, etc. I think someone would have to work pretty hard to not notice the sex of the main characters in a Romance novel based on the cover alone. Pretty much every site (if we're talking ebooks) has its books divided into categories, with each one clearly marked, so if you can't read classifications on ARe, for example, I doubt you can read an entire erotica novel. (Which reminds me -- why call it romance? That always seems like a softer word to me. Technically it is, I guess, just with more smut added, but I have no hesitation in saying I write erotica/erotic romance.) For me, Erotica doesn't necessarily follow the Romance rules - HEA, etc. I think Erotic Romance is a valuable classification, since it makes it clear that the story will focus on the emotional connection (the twu wuv!) but will also explore the physical passion of the characters (the hot smexin!). There's not anything wrong with calling it Erotica, if that's what you write, but there's nothing wrong with calling it Romance if that's what you write. (And don't get me started on how anything with m/m content seems to immediately get bumped one notch further along toward erotica, regardless of the actual steaminess!)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line556
__label__cc	0.523326	0.476674	Absolute Write Water Cooler > Writing Genre > Science Fiction \| Fantasy > The next step View Full Version : The next step HConn I sincerely believe that, when a genre or form takes a major leap into a new area, it comes from discontent. Some writer is dissatisfied with the way things are currently being done and writes a book that matches the writer's idea of How It Should Be Done. Maybe they're sick of the Usual Protagonist. Maybe they're sick of the Usual Situation. Maybe they're sick of Unrealistic Settings. Maybe they think the story is Irrelevant In These Times. Whatever the cause, the writer does something that satisfies themselves, and so creates a New Thing. At least, that's what used to happen. But maybe the field has grown so big and so diverse that there is nothing to reject. We can find whatever we want somewhere in the field, and avoid the stuff that doesn't work. Can we have another New Wave? Is it even possible? Yeshanu One thing I see possible for the fantasy genre (and I think it's going to happen very soon) is a shift away from medieval-type worlds, where magic is present, but people still drink in smoky, dimly-lit taverns (ever heard of a light spell?), live in castles meant to repel ground attacks (so what happens when a dragon flies by?), knights wear plate armour that is absolutely worthless against magical attacks, and where literacy is widespread, but everyone still write by hand on scrolls... (huh?) Let's get real here, folks! A world with magic in it would be a lot different from a medieval world... aka eraser No other genre is so dependent on a writer's imagination. New ground is broken by the most creative and then often becomes a well-trodden path by those who follow. Ultimately readers decide where they want to go and who they want to take them there. Judging by sales, a great many prefer the comfort of revisiting the "known" over and over again. As long as they do, writers will oblige. I noted once on one of the AW boards that in the last decade I've gone from reading hundreds of books a year to a handful. So I'm in no way qualified to talk about the leading lights in SF&F these days. With that disclaimer out of the way, I'm going to predict that 20 years from now, perhaps on this very board, a consensus will point to Tad Williams' Otherland series as one of the half-century's greatest achievements. It is an epic fantasy without familiar parameters. To my knowledge, it borrows from nothing. It could almost take place today. Its "magic" is technology that exists in rudimentary form now. I suppose that gives it a bit of a SF flavour. It's the book that leaped to mind when I read HConn's post. I don't think Williams was necessarily disgruntled with what's being published today; it's more that his imagination knows no bounds and thankfully, he has enough of a track record with his publisher that they gave him free reign to exercise it. macalicious731 A world with magic in it would be a lot different from a medieval world... Very interesting you should say that Ruth. Very interesting indeed.... acetachyon I would think it depends on how prevalent magic is in said world. If everybody knew and used magic, then yes, every tavern would use a light spell instead of being dim and smoky. And if dragons routinely flew the skies, the architects would erect buildings capable of withstanding dragon attacks. But consider: in most of those fantasy worlds, the populace rarely had contact with wizards and the like. And if they did, they'd either run away in fright, go after them as an angry mob, or revere them as wise people with great powers. If you had a light spell in every tavern, consider the reaction of the patrons. Are they well-schooled and know the spell is merely a convenience? Or will they fear it, thinking the glowing ball in the middle of the room will curse them and cause their crops to die? A fantasy novel in which the setting is not medieval and magic is used everyday by everybody? I'd call that contemporary fiction. Terra Aeterna You could call that "magical realism" or "urban fantasy", but I don't think I'd call it contemporary fiction. General fiction or Contemporay fiction or whatever you want to call it tends to have a different focus I think than Fantasy. However much character development there is in Fantasy, ultimately the play's the thing (to horribly warp some Shakespeare ;-P). Contermporary fiction seems to mainly be about angsting. Or maybe I've just had poor luck with reading contemporary fiction. Oops. My bad. Forgot about urban fantasy. Ravenlocks01 I couldn't help picturing a lightbulb as I was reading this. :p There's always the ambiance factor. Many bars and restaurants are dim. And some junky tavern might prefer that the clientele not look too closely at the condition of the food. I've never read the book, but all of this lightbulb talk reminds of a YA novel (fairly new, I believe, in all of this Harry Potter light) that centers around a world with no light... _The City of Ember_, maybe? Ember is in the title, I know.... Flawed Creation actually, i've been struggling with just this issue. in my two WIPs, i have taken radically different approaches. Magic is the technology of a fantasy world. this is indisputable. technology is the means by which we exploit the natural laws of the universe. magic in a fantasy world is the means by which people exploit the laws of the universe. ultimately there's no difference between natural and supernatural. in fact, there's no such thing as supernatural. if dragons exist, they exist. they're as real as cows. in Tolkien's middle earth, magic exists but is no part of people's daily lives, because there aren't enough magic users. (on the other hand, maybe it IS part of daily lives. the elves of lothlorien, e.g, live in a forest kept healthy and safe by galadriel's Ring.) if wizards are at all common, then some will find employment using their powers to improve the standard of living. in Harry Potter, wizards do with magic everything we do with technology. in one book i'm writing, "flawed creation" the prevalence of magic has changed. the world makes little distinction between magic and technology. the obvious difference is that not everyone can use magic, because it requires enlightenment. however, the people of Babylon used magical devices (and purely scientific) created for them by the enlightened. I, personally couldn't build a TV, but i can use one. similarly, if creating a crystal ball requires a wizard, many people can leanr to operate one. by the time of the book, the angels have decreed it heretical for humans to use magic. they stamped out the human magic users, and disappeared fromhumans daily life.it helps that my books is very light on magic. the only supernatural creatures i have are angels. magic is generally limited to what we would call paranormal phenomena- telekinesis, telepathy, precognition, pyrokinesis, etc. in my other book (which has four possible titles. "Delusion", "prophecy', "hero" and "hero(ine)?") low scale magic plays a part in people's daily lives but powerful magic is available only in big cities most people never see in their lives, and couldn't affor to pay for anyway. but the village shaman can provide minor magical assistance. (for a demonstration of how thin the line between fantasy and skiffy can be, see niven's "the flying sorcerers") Nyki27 Tolkien referred to the difference between people who use magic and people who find it strange, when the elves don't understand what the hobbits mean by "magic". Because it's part of their lives, it isn't separate from anything else they do. A world where magic is everyday would certainly be interesting, but I prefer writing about settings where the average guy in the street would be just as freaked to witness magic as in our world. I think the attraction of the standard fantasy world for this (half medieval, half classical, half exotic barbarian - what, it is fantasy) is that your average medieval peasant or Babylonian citizen would take it for granted that magic existed - but "out there" somewhere. Just like the hobbits. So much to respond to. One thing I see possible for the fantasy genre (and I think it's going to happen very soon) is a shift away from medieval-type worlds, This has already happened. There are lots of non-medieval books out there. Check out Freedom and Necessity by Steven Brust and Emma Bull, or the Age of Unreason series, by Greg Keyes (first book: Newton's Cannon). where magic is present, but people still drink in smoky, dimly-lit taverns (ever heard of a light spell?), This and the snipped part of your post, is part of world-building. In many fantasy worlds, an oil lamp will be preferable to a light spell. And knights in armor will face more swords and axes than magical lightning. I'm reading The Dragonbone Chair, by Tad Williams right now. It's well written, with an interesting world and solid characters, but it's so boring that I'm tempted to set it aside. Only his rep has kept me going as far as I have. If the book doesn't pick up soon, I'm not going to be reading any of his other work. Did you mean "contemporary fantasy?" Magic is the technology of a fantasy world. It doesn't have to be. I think think this is overly-restrictive. Fantasy "magic" can be much more (or less) than technology. But I understand your point. To crib from Lawrence Watt-Evans, if the dragon is made by magic, it's fantasy. If it's created by genetic engineering, it's science fiction. www.watt-evans.com/sfvsfantasy.html (http://www.watt-evans.com/sfvsfantasy.html) If you clink on the link (and you should, it's a good article--and short), be sure to also read "Laws of Fantasy." wizards are basically the same as genetic engineers. they spend all day in underground labs, muttering things we don't understand and sending adventurers in search of rare herbs, stones, and animals. then they unleash some new and strange power upon ythe rest of society. Except that genetic engineers don't have pointy hats and staffs. Or bushy eyebrows, as a rule (though I expect some do).:D be sure to also read "Laws of Fantasy." Really good stuff. Thanks, HConn. vstrauss One of the things that bugs me about much fantasy is that the magic exists in worlds that would not be much different if there were no magic. And I don't mean light spells instead of oil lamps, but something much more fundamental. Magic, even if you give it intrinsic limitations (such as deciding it can't do this or that or making it exact a price from the user) is a power that exceeds ordinary human powers in the same way that a bomb exceeds a handgun--and it's governed entirely by the human will. It therefore always presents the potential for chaos. Why should the wise old wizard serve the king, when he could go out and kick ass and terrorize the populace, or conjure up a castle and turn the milkmaids into sex slaves? The only thing that binds him is his own acceptance of whatever terms and conditions are placed on him. The king he serves has no means of coercing him. You can come up with various ways to address this, such as magical guilds or or sorcerous bindings or severe brainwashing or some kind of religious setup that involves moral strictures on magic use, but those are measures that derive from the magic users themselves, so the basic problem remains: Why should they cooperate? And what happens if they don't? (The standard Dark Lord or renegade sorcerer doesn't count.) For me, a world in which magic exists is a scary world, a world in which non-magic-users are always potentially under threat from magic-users. This is something that has to have an impact on society. Perhaps the magic-users will dominate the culture--and if so they'll have to have a highly structured organization or else they'll be annihilating each other all the time. Or maybe society as a whole will come up with some way to control them. Or maybe there's some sort of countermeasure that's intrinsic to the world. I've used variations of all these setups in my books, not entirely to my satisfaction. Kempo Kid Well, some of us still write about dragons and wizards and bards. :o But I do go into attack from the sky, and in the second book I explain why there is no magic and where the dragon came from. Victoria, in a discussion on other boards about a "realistic" world of superheroes, one person said that, if superheroes really existed, we'd all be wearing badges identifying which we belonged to. I suspect the same would be true for most high fantasy wizards. Imagine the loyalty you could command if you could cure diseases or restore someone's youth. IMagine the punishments for betrayal. But to bring this back to my original point: it's exactly this kind of dissatisfaction that fuels new ideas in the genre. "That's not realistic" is one of the few big insights that make a writer change the course of a genre. HollyB HConn, I think your question is so interesting. Do you think it's a matter of 'the next big thing,' or just a resurgence of the typical publishing cycle? With so much focus on fantasy in the world of spec lit, perhaps it's time for SF to come around again... maybe the mysterious "slipstream" I keep hearing about? Or "literary" SF? I certainly don't have the answers, but I think it's interesting to talk about. I think the question of why mages don't do exactly what they want is rather equivalent to why don't nuclear scientists use their knowledge to hold the world to ransom for what they want? (Outside of James Bond films, that is). In the first place, mages would be human beings, who will be on the same sliding scale of good, bad & indifferent as the rest of us. In the second, there's no automatic reason to assume that magic makes you unbeatable - most magical systems seem to have built-in limitations, even if it's as simple as spellcasting being tiring. And thirdly, a degree of self-regulation of unusual skills seems to be a human trait. >>Do you think it's a matter of 'the next big thing,' or just a resurgence of the typical publishing cycle?<< Often a publishing cycle, similar to a fashion cycle, IMO at least. The recent popularity of "new space opera" is an example. It's not so much that it's new, as that it fell out of fashion for a while, and now has returned in a somewhat modernized form. And don't even get me started on the "New Weird". Come on, Victoria. Tell us about the New Weird. "That's not realistic" is one of the few big insights that make a writer change the course of a genre. Okay. I've been thinking more about this, and I have a preliminary list of "Dissatisfactions" that spur writers to force a genre in a new direction: Dissatisfactions: 1. "That's not realistic." (whether referring to setting or character behavior) 2. "None of these characters are like me." 3. "All these characters are like x. What if they were like y instead?" 4. "This would be a better book if it was more like x." (where "x" is another genre, a classic story, or some other media form that can be blended with the initial genre) 5. "I'm bored with this setting." 6. "Can't they be honest about this?" ("this" being sex, or the effects of violence, or some other aspect of life that has been typically glossed over or avoided in fiction.) Care to disagree or add to the list? Keep in mind: I'm only looking for forward-looking changes. Wanting to go back to Howard-esque Conan stories or Golden Age space westerns isn't taking the genre into a new direction. Or maybe you want to disagree that changes are made by author's dissatisfaction? I would venture a guess that author dissatisfaction is the primary seed of the kind of change you're talking about. #'s 1 & 3 are things authors should concern themselves with no matter what they are writing. #2 smacks of narcissism. Can that propel a genre in a new direction? Possibly, I suppose. #4 I'm not so crazy about. Seems a little like rehashing old ideas with a different wardrobe. It wouldn't necessarily become the proverbial pig in a dress, but it could if the author wasn't careful. I'd like to read (or write for that matter) stories that spring from #'s 5 & 6. #4 was inspired by the paranormal romances I've been hearing about over the last couple years, plus the New Wave movement that tried to marry literary qualities to sf. (I'm no scholar of sf; I may have mischaracterized either of those two examples.) I listed #2 because of writers I've heard of who wanted African-American heroes, or fantasy settings based on non-European cultures, and so on. None of these are mutually exclusive, of course. A single reaction may fall under several categories. Can you think of any additions to the list? Ah, now I understand. Taken that way, #2 becomes a darn good reason to want to change the genre. A great example is what Tony Hillerman did for the cop novel with his Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn Navajo characters. As for additions to the list, I'll have to give it some more thought. Perhaps someone else has some idears. ??? Yes, I was going to object to #2 as well, since personally the last thing I want are characters that are just like me. But I get the point about different ethnic backgrounds. The same with female characters becoming more interesting in both F & SF. Given that nothing is really entirely new, I think combining genres that haven't previously been connected can be a very powerful force for change. DaveKuzminski Hopefully, I won't set back Hillerman's progress with my detective dragon in Redwing, Dragon from Venus that will soon be published by Double Dragon Publishing. ;) So, Dave, does this make you number 2, 3 or 4? For me, a world in which magic exists is a scary world, a world in which non-magic-users are always potentially under threat from magic-users. Katherine Kurtz's Deryni series addresses this problem to some extent. The humans fear the Deryni, so they outlaw them, exile them, hunt them down. There's also a drug that can counteract Deryni powers, so naturally the humans use it against them. And it's true that the only thing (other than the drug) keeping the Deryni from dominating the world and those around them is their own will NOT to do so. HConn, I guess you'll have to read it when it comes out to make that determination. I didn't have any of those in mind when I came up with the idea and wrote the story. I just thought it would be interesting to have a dragon detective come to Earth and try to work undercover, though in his case that meant without being seen. Then I gave him a personality that liked watching Earth cop shows because he could pick up the signals that bled from the Earth's atmosphere and let him form some wrong conclusions about how Earth cops operated. Then it was just a matter of having him sent to Earth because he knew more about it than anyone else in his police department--surefire way for him to get into trouble and do some of the wrong things. Who loves ya, Baby? There are already two reviews out for it. One is at www.bewilderingstories.co...ooks2.html (http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue104/books2.html) and the other is at www.baryon-online.com/bar...edrde.html (http://www.baryon-online.com/baryon96/redrde.html) HConn, I guess you'll have to read it when it comes out to make that determination. Dave, that's a smart answer. :grin edited to add: I just read your reviews. Humor never gets the respect it deserves. Risseybug I don' t know the one you're talking about, but I just finished a YA series by Garth Nix, where there is a world with no sun, only artificial light. The Seventh Tower. It was pretty good, too. Oops, I forgot the quote. It was back a page, about the book about the world with no light. Sorry. True, HConn, but they're both honest reviews. I love the derynin books! of course, the deryni have oppressed the humans before. it's always been up to other deryni to stop them. that what's unusual abot a minority that's wealthier better eductaed and mroe talented. as for magic being scary, it all depends. power exists in our world in a number of forms. magical power is typically viewed as personal power. and that's perhaps what's most interesting about it. magic can give mroe power to an individual than the real world does. however, much of what is done by "magic" in fantasy can be duplicated by modern technology. in a world where magic acted just like our technology, with everyone enjoying the widespread benefits, and socities completely based on magic, it wouldn't be scary at all. no one would find a light spell mroe dangerous than a light bulb. as magic is made rarer and less accessible to the public, it becomes the subject of rumor, and people hear more about the negatives than positives. people don't hear about the conveninces of a wizard's tower. but they certainly remeber the time a mad wizard completely destroyed a city. the peasantry then fear the magic the way we fear weapons of mass destruction. people don'yt know what the enemies have to unleash. your own kingdom/sides wizards are always trying to check the power of enemies. but magic is something that you don't understand and that might unexpectedly ruin you day. how scray magic is, like technology depends on who has it. and remember, most fantasies are modeled after the dark ages. often, there was a magical society that fell, and now there's only chaos. magic is mostly lost, and controlled only by a few powerful people. rarely do we see a fantasy world that has progressed to the level of sophistication of our modern world, in whiuch the spells and inventins of talented wizards keep people alive to be 90, save manual labor, and provide entertainment. magic is no different than any other tool. I have nothing against the New Weird as a writing style--some very good writers are working in that vein. But as with the New Space Opera, it isn't truly so very new (you can look back to books like John Crowley's Little, Big or even further to the Ghormengast trilogy), so reviewers blathering about stretching boundaries and pushing envelopes make me roll my eyes. It also bugs me that a good number of people seem to feel that the New Weird (and the New Weird-ish, because many writers the literati admire don't quite fit into that category) is the lonely standardbearer for literariness in fantasy. While I'm not a big Tolkien fan, the wholesale dismissal--even condemnation--of Tolkien-style epic fantasy by some of the fantasy literati really rubs me the wrong way--not least because it strikes me as a lot like the dismissal of fantasy in general by people who don't read fantasy. The literary bar for speculative fiction has risen a lot in the past couple of decades. Sure, there's still a lot of schlocky stuff coming out; that's true of any branch of literature. But there is literary work being done in every branch of fantasy, and it seems to me that readers and critics should acknowledge and respect that, rather than seizing on a single trend and denigrating or dismissing the rest. I agree with everything you said, Victoria. I think. Problem is, I've never heard the term "New Weird" before. John Crowley is on my "ought to read" list, and _Little, Big_ is at the top. Who else would be considered New Weird? What sorts of stories are they? Contemporary fantasy with lit pretentions? New Weird, as I understand it, means books with surreal/phantasmagorical settings, as well as a kind of baroque density of story and detail. A few I can think of: K.J. Bishop's The Etched City, Steph Swainston's The Year of Our War, Ricardo Pinto's The Stone Dance of the Chameleon series (though this may edge a little too close to epic), Ian MacLeod's The Light Ages (a fabulous novel--I can't recommend it highly enough), Jeff Vandermeer's books, and of course the prime exemplar, China Mieville (I think he may actually have coined the term). The reason I've been thinking about this is that I just finished (and reviewed) The Warrior-Prophet, the second volume of Scott Bakker's The Prince of Nothing series, which is about as epic as you can get, and also one of the most challenging, literary books I've read in a while. Kind of like Robert Graves, if Robert Graves had been a fantasy writer. Yet many who follow the New Weird banner might completely dismiss these books because they are so much in the Tolkien mode. Do read Little, Big. It's a really fascinating work, one of my all-time faves. Thanks, Victoria. So many books. So little time. That's given a few names to add to my reading list. If they're Gormenghastish-sort-of-things, I might well enjoy some of them, though I'd never come across the term new Weird before. I agree completely about the literary snobbishness thing. Whether or not it always achieves it, epic fantasy has the capacity to be serious as well as entertaining. It just doesn't fit the very limited code of the literary establishment. Mukaden HConn, I would add this to your list of dissatisfactions: I'm tired of seeing the same "Beginning, Act I, Act II, Act III, End" structure in all kinds of literature, but in SF/F in particular. I've been getting the feeling that SF/F authors for some time now have been stretching the boundaries of the trappings of storytelling without really changing the storytelling itself. It's the same cake mold, just with different frosting. (For a humorous take on this, check out How to Write a Bestselling Fantasy Novel (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~imcfadyen/notthenet/fantasy.htm).) Perhaps, as SF/F have a tradition of being pulp novels written for young males, there is a preconcieved notion that anything more challenging than the most simplistic plot structure would nullify the SF/F label. I would argue, though, that SF/F readers and writers have become much more sophisticated, and that something more structurally challenging could be really refreshing for both genres. For example, I think it would be neat to see someone challenge the notion of "Beginning, Middle & End," or maybe play with the false boundary between reader & text, or even do something unique with POV. Examples outside the genre that received popular acclaim as well as critical would be the films Fight Club or Momento. Both of these films had pretty simple stories; nothing groundbreaking there. Where they excelled is in how they told their stories. Fight Club kept reminding the viewers that they were watching a fabricated narrative, while Momento did some inventive things with chronology. And I don't think anyone would call these films "literary" or "academic." The fact that I (personally) haven't found anything similar within the SF/F genres (genres I love), is perhaps the biggest influence on my own writing style. Fight Club is a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, so in that sense the film is literary...I've never read the novel, but the narrative trick the film pulls isn't exactly new--to name just one example, Thomas Tryon did something very similiar in his 1971 novel The Other. I loved Memento--that was a great puzzlebox of a film. Again, though, it's based not on any real iconoclasm of form, but on a single narrative trick. Trickery of that sort is much easier to sustain in film than in fiction--I think because you get a film in a single short dose, whereas fiction is assimilated more slowly over a longer period of time. If you're looking for more experimental SF try Zoran Zivkovik's The Fourth Circle. Or J.G. Ballard's Super-Cannes. Or you could go back much further to some of Anthony Burgess's SF--I like The Wanting Seed. And of course, Philip K. Dick, whose books often make no sense at all, but in a very intriguing way. For fantasy, try Jonathan Carroll's The Wooden Sea (I don't like Carroll much, but he certainly plays with narrative form). Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves uses a highly experimental structure to tell two interpolated stories. And I recommend again Little, Big. Experimental fiction is a minority in any genre, but it's out there in SF/fantasy too. I'll echo Victoria's endorsement of Little, Big, a wonderful read. Must dig out my copy for a re-read. And I remember reading Philip Dick's books like gobbling M&Ms (or maybe acid - it was the 60s after all...). He'd open doors in your mind you didn't realize were there and reveal delightful surprises. I would give both these narratives more credit than "narrative trickery." I would call it trickery if I thought it was unnecessary to the story; a sort of "window dressing" added to make an otherwise bland story interesting. But I don't think that is the case here. In Momento, you have a narrative that is fragmented in order to replicate the narrator's own fragmented sense of identity and time. If the story had been done from beginning to end in standard chronological order, the effect would have been completely lost. I saw Fight Club as continually drawing attention to itself as a narrative artifact, a technique I find particularly interesting and compelling. No, I don't think it is completely new (I've heard compelling arguments that this sort of self-conscious narrative exists in The Odyssey). My point in bringing up these two film examples is that this sort of narrative experimentation can reach and find broad appeal with a mass audience. Otherwise, I think that this sort of experimentation can be carried out in a novel-length work. I just finished John Barth's The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor and was astounded. I couldn't help thinking of the potential for an SF/F story using similar techniques found in that novel. It would be challenging, to be sure, but more accessible than Joyce or Faulkner. **As an aside, I would like to say that I really don't like the terms literary/non-literary or high-art/pop-art. I find them to be poorly veiled reworkings of the haves/have nots. I enjoy Tolkien just as much as I do Robbe-Grillet, and no one can convince me that one is intrinsically better than the other. As for your recommendations: I've been a long fan of Dick, and really enjoyed Burgess's Clockwork Orange. I haven't read any of the other titles/authors you've mentioned, though. I'll have to check those out. Thanks. Thanks for some more interesting suggestions, Victoria. I checked some of them on Amazon, and was very intrigued. A funny thing caught my eye, though. In the review for Etched City, this comment was made: "...this grim tale should strongly appeal to aficionados of literate dark fantasy." I'm not sure what to make of this. If I like Tolkien, does this mean I'm a fan of "illiterate fantasy?" :huh Nonetheless, I'll have to pick this up, as I like grim stories featuring complex, morally flexible characters. I enjoy having to guess who the good guy is (or even if there is a good guy). An idea they played with (to a smaller extent) in Farscape. I forgot to say in my last post, I've got a great movie recommendation for those who like offbeat SF films: Code 46, with Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton. I just saw it this past week. It's more of an art-house film than either Fight Club or Memento, and rather slow--but like Fight Club it is a self-conscious narrative, with a narrative frame (a voiceover by one of the characters) whose real meaning isn't clear till the end (no twist, though). It's done totally without special effects or elaborate sets, yet it achieves a very futuristic look, and more important, feel and mood. Very interesting. Code 46 is slow and the main plot is actually kind of ho hum, but it is full of wonderful sci-fi ideas (not just technologies, but the socio-cultural aspects of it). i know i've seen fantasy and sci-fi that plays with the structure of the story before, but can't think of it now. my own WIP starts with the end of the story, introduces the story itself as narrated by one character form the end, and continues to evolve the two plotlines, past and present, alternating, until it is made clear both what led u[ to the current situation and what everyone is going to do about it. I'm writing something fairly similar, a fantasy novel whose POV character (who is about 3000 years old) spends the night before a major battle remembering his past life, out of order, and the events in the various time-scales mirror and influence one another. The final two chapters, for instance, are 3000 years apart but direct parallels. One of the book's themes is the nature of time (in a fantasy rather than SF way). I'd been reading The Crow Road by Iain Banks just before I started it - it's a realist novel, but uses time-frames in a similar way. wow... that sounds really interesting- and difficult. what i'm doing is much simpler. the entire story is a flashback. there's a brief opening set in the present, the main story, and a final scene also in the poresent. One of the hardest bits is remembering exactly what the reader does or doesn't know at that point, and getting just the right level of tease if they don't know.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line557
__label__cc	0.747211	0.252789	Primates World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) PWRDF commits $15,000 for Ecuador relief through ACT ACT Alliance member PWRDF will send an initial grant of $15,000 through the ACT Alliance for relief efforts in Ecuador after the deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake of April 16, 2016. The epicentre was just 170 kilometres northwest of Quito, the capital city. It was the most powerful earthquake to hit the region in 36 years. The Latin American Council of Churches (CLIA) is an ACT member that already works in the area, and is coordinating with the Ecuadorian government and UN agencies. Other ACT members, including the Lutheran World Federation and Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe (DKH) are joining in the response, providing food, water, shelter, medical supplies, counselling, and household items in the first days after the earthquake. The most powerful earthquake in 36 years rocked northern Ecuador, followed by aftershocks and another big quake over the ensuing week. Infographic: ACT Alliance	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line559
__label__wiki	0.79282	0.79282	Aberdeen City EfW Project - preferred bidder announced 26 FEBRUARY 2019 by Will Date, Lets Recycle Acconia and Indaver favoured for Aberdeen EfW contract A consortium involving the construction company Acconia and waste firm Indaver has been named as the preferred bidder for a contract to build and operate an energy from waste plant in Aberdeen. The ‘Ness Energy Project Residual Waste Treatment’ contract is being procured by a partnership of three north east Scottish local authorities: Aberdeen city, Aberdeenshire and Moray councils. Artists impression of the 150,000 tonnes per year East Tullos facility Consortia comprising FCC and the energy from waste specialist HZI, MVV and Baumgarte, and a Suez partnership with the industrial engineering group CNIM had also been involved in the procurement. The contract will see the development of a £150 million energy from waste plant in the East Tullos area of Aberdeen, which is due to come online by 2022. Linked to a heat network, the facility will use moving grate technology and have the capacity to process a total of 150,000 tonnes of waste per year. Spanish-owned construction firm Acconia has also recently been awarded a contract to develop a 400,000 tonnes-per-year capacity energy from waste plant in Perth, Australia. The Ness Energy contract would represent an additional gain for the pan-European business Indaver in the UK market, which has recently expanded its presence in the UK through an agreement to work on the Rivenhall energy from waste project in Essex (see letsrecycle.com story). Indaver’s energy from waste plant at Doel in Belgium (Picture: Indaver) Indaver is currently involved in a project to develop a £250 million waste incinerator in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, on behalf of Arc21 and has planning permission for an incinerator in Cork, Ireland at Ringaskiddy, as well as operating plants in the Netherlands and Belgium. Acciona will act as the lead contractor as part of the Ness Energy deal and will form a ‘Special Purpose Vehicle’ to deliver the construction of the facility within the three year works period. Acciona will then subcontract the operation and maintenance of the facility to Indaver, for a 20-year services period. A final decision on whether to proceed with the project will be taken individually by the three Scottish councils in early March. Each council will be asked to approve the recommendation to award and the inter-authority agreement which defines how the councils will work together. The contract is then expected to be signed shortly after. Residual waste According to documents released ahead of a meeting on the proposals next week, the main factors influencing the decision were the “balance of cost and risk for developing an EfW facility in the region managed by the three councils against the export of waste to EfW facilities elsewhere, most likely in Europe.” The councils are seeking to secure a long term outlet for residual waste ahead of a ban on sending biodegradable waste to landfill in Scotland from January 2021. “This is a significant project for the north east and shows what can be achieved when councils work together.“ Linda Ovens Project director, Linda Ovens, said: “Reaching this point in the procurement is testament to the effort and hard work afforded by the project team and the bidders involved. I’m delighted that we have identified a high quality, affordable solution for the councils and look forward to finalising the details with Acciona over the coming months. Ramón Jiménez, from Acciona, said: “This project is an important milestone for Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, and Moray councils, as it will provide a more efficient and clean waste management system in line with European emission standards. “Acciona is committed to sustainability and the development of new clean technologies that contribute to making cities more livable. For this reason, we are proud to bring to the region our experience in the development of large-scale waste to energy projects and to contribute to the development of the Ness Energy project.” by AEadmin Keeping the Lights on After Brexit: No-Deal's Impact on Energy by Helen Robertson Bloomberg February 21, 2019 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. will leave the European Union on March 29 and so far there’s no agreement to replace the rules and regulations that govern vital trade between Britain and the rest of the world. If a no-deal happens, here’s what it could mean for the country’s energy industry. Almost certainly not. The amount of power the U.K. imports from continental Europe fluctuates but was 6.6 percent of total supply in the third quarter of 2018, according to government data. After Brexit, British electricity systems will be decoupled from the European Internal Energy Market. That doesn’t mean gas and power will stop flowing, according to Joseph Dutton, a policy adviser at climate change think tank E3G, but trading could become less efficient and longer-term supply less certain, increasing costs for consumers. This would be especially true in times of unplanned supply interruptions or extreme weather. There are four high voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnectors linking the U.K. electricity system to mainland Europe. The EU doesn’t currently charge import duties on electricity and has a small tariff of around 0.7 percent on natural gas, which it doesn’t apply in practice. If the U.K. exits the EU without a deal it would default to World Trade Organization rules for energy imports and exports. According to the majority of experts Bloomberg spoke with, tariffs aren’t expected to be placed on energy imports. Brexit will happen after the end of peak winter demand, which will help mitigate any short-term risk of imported power flows being interrupted, and any potential issues would be resolved quickly, according to consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd. A fall in sterling could increase the cost of energy imports, it said. “We’re assuming the cost of electricity will rise, but we don’t know by how much or when,” Confederation of British Industry senior energy policy adviser Tanisha Beebee said in an interview. The situation on the island of Ireland is more complicated because Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are part of a Single Electricity Market. A no-deal Brexit would potentially leave this “without any legal basis,” and “with a high risk that it would not be able to continue,” according to E3G. The sudden separation of Northern Ireland’s electricity market from the south would be an incident without precedent. The SEM is so complex that it’s hard to see how anyone could impose customs rules over it, said Munir Hassan, partner at law firm CMS. Still, Hassan was confident that the political will exists to ensure power continues to flow even if there’s no deal. “I’m a big believer that sense will prevail,” he said. To ensure that any interruption to the flow of goods through U.K. ports doesn’t prevent vital maintenance work, some companies have already begun stockpiling equipment, Beebee told reporters at a briefing in London. That includes wind turbine blades and spare parts for power plants, she said. Will North Sea Oil Suffer? Some North Sea oil and gas operators have also begun looking into stockpiling vital equipment, according to Alan McCrae, head of U.K. tax for energy, utilities and mining for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC. “Power generators, pumps, all sorts, blowout preventers,” said McCrae. “It would be key pieces of kit on a platform, that if something fails you can’t produce.” Oil & Gas U.K., the offshore energy industry trade association, cites the example of importing equipment from Bulgaria before it joined the EU. It took four days to transport goods from the country into Aberdeen, where they could be delayed at the border for up to a week. Reverting to WTO rules could increase costs in the sector by 500 million pounds ($651 million) a year, the trade association said. If essential equipment is delayed, temporarily halting oil and gas production, the effect on energy prices can be significant. In 2017, a small crack in the Forties oil pipeline system, a critical conduit in the North Sea, pushed crude prices to their highest level in more than two years as the operator needed weeks to fix the problem. Operators are also concerned that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, any immigration restrictions could severely affect projects in the long-term if highly skilled workers they need aren’t able to live and work in the U.K. About 5 percent of the U.K.’s oil and gas workforce comes from the EU, according to Oil & Gas U.K. In the long-term, the political uncertainty around Brexit could hurt investment, according to Wood Mackenzie. An aging oil province like the North Sea needs constant work to maintain output and “fiscal stability and cost certainty are critical” when competing globally for investment, it said. Is the Fuel-Trade at Risk? The impact on imports of crude oil and refined fuels looks relatively benign. The nation’s refiners wouldn’t experience any “day-one issues” in a no-deal scenario and would be able to avoid any supply chain “pinch points,” the U.K. Petroleum Industry Association said. Under WTO rules there are no duties on crude oil imports, although VAT is charged at 20 percent, so the U.K. being out of the EU isn’t going to impact the oil industry “very much at all,” Lesley Batchelor, director general, Institute of Export & International Trade, said in an interview. While imports look secure, there’s some uncertainty about crude exports to Asia. South Korea is currently a major buyer of U.K. oil because it has a free-trade agreement with the EU. There are few signs that the British government can arrange a deal to replace that by March 29. China also buys North Sea oil, but flows tend to depend on trading economics, so any lost demand from South Korea could be hard to replace. What About Natural Gas? The U.K. imports most of its natural gas from countries in the European Economic Area, which includes Norway. Norwegian pipelines remain the main source of U.K. gas imports, and accounted for 87 percent of incoming flows in the third quarter of 2018, according to government data. Liquefied natural gas and pipeline supplies from Belgium and the Netherlands make up the rest. Access to natural gas supply isn’t expected to be affected if it exits the EU without a deal but trading could also become less efficient and less liquid. Not everyone shares this view. John Wood, chief executive officer of energy infrastructure development firm InfraStrata, sees heightened gas-price volatility as likely. This will increase liquidity on the U.K.’s National Balancing Point gas hub as a result, he said. “There shouldn’t be any material impact on the availability of gas to meet U.K.’s demand and supply requirement,” Wood said by email. “At the moment both the U.K. and Europe are witnessing a deluge of LNG cargoes primarily because, relative to the Far East, we are offering the highest prices.” For gas exporters to Europe it could, however, have an impact. In the event of a no-deal Brexit, all U.K.-based natural gas shippers will lose the right to supply the French market, creating potential shortages and higher prices for French consumers if alternative arrangements aren’t in place, the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies said in a report. French energy giant Total SA plans to move its natural gas trading operations from London to Geneva and Paris, although the company said this was not related to Brexit. Jonathan Westby, co-managing director of Centrica Plc’s energy marketing and trading, said in an interview that the company already has a European trading base and so isn’t considering moving staff out of the U.K. “Our preparations are just about how we make our existing business work,” Westby said. “We, like every U.K. company, are preparing for Brexit, putting in place measures to deal with whichever outcome. But the outcome is still uncertain.” For nuclear power, Britain is setting a new safety regime that will maintain the industry’s ability to trade. It’s signing nuclear cooperation agreements with Australia, Canada and the U.S, allowing the U.K. to continue civil nuclear cooperation when the current European Atomic Energy Community, or Euratom, arrangements cease to apply in the U.K. The U.K. said Feb. 14 that it has all the replacement international agreements in place to ensure continuity in the civil nuclear trade. Electricite de France SA, the operator of 15 nuclear reactors in the U.K., has negotiated with the British government to ensure that EDF employees, including those working on the Hinkley Point project, can seamlessly travel in and out of the country. EV Charging solution from Connected kerb Connected Kerb unveils ‘ground-breaking’ kerbside EV charging solution Image: Connected Kerb. Jan / 2019 by Current± Staff Connected Kerb has unveiled its maiden install of its kerbside public charging station in what’s been described as a “ground-breaking” development for the electric vehicle sector. The installation, completed on Borough Road in the London borough of Southwark, was supported by both Virgin Media and National Grid and constitutes the first of its kind in the UK. The project has utilised Virgin Media’s underground fibre broadband cable areas and the telecoms provider’s broadband and wireless technologies to connect and offer consumers so-called ‘drive-up’ roadside charging and internet connectivity. Connected Kerb said it was essentially able to turn ‘dumb’ charging point plugs hosted on residential streets into smarter, more versatile points that can be upscaled and upgraded as new technologies and applications emerge. In addition, the kerbside chargers can also collect and provide environmental, weather and traffic monitoring data to local authorities that adopt them. Connected Kerb won the Mayor of London’s Award for Urban Innovation last year and has since been working with a number of local authorities throughout the UK to expand its charging point network, building up to its maiden install, which was unveiled today (Tuesday 29 January 2019). Paul Ayres, COO at Connected Kerb, said the acceleration of EV ownership had meant that the need for a nationwide EV infrastructure was now “critical”. Connected Kerb’s intention is that today’s install will be just the first in a much wider roll-out of kerbside EV chargers in London and beyond. UK EV Charging Infrastructure Zouk Capital named preferred bidder to run government-backed EV Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund Image: Chargepoint. Feb / 2019 by Liam Stoker - Editor Current+_ News Editor Infrastructure fund manager Zouk Capital has been named as the preferred bidder for the government’s much-vaunted EV Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (CIIF). The £400 million fund – half of which will be raised from the private sector and matched by the UK government – was announced in the 2017 Autumn Budget amongst a raft of other measures designed to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles in the UK. The CIIF was launched in a bid to both enable the more rapid expansion of public EV charging networks and to stimulate further capital investment in the sector, with the government aiming for the fund to act as a catalyst for further investment. A bidding process was launched by HM Treasury’s Infrastructure and Projects Authority last summer, inviting tenders from investment managers to be tasked with either the entire CIIF or a section of it. The detailed tender process was initially expected to have concluded before the end of last year, however Current± reported in December that the level of interest in the fund had seen the IPA nudge the awarding of the contract into the New Year. However, having now elected Zouk Capital as the preferred bidder, it is still expected that, subject to negotiations, the fund will launch in the spring. The fund is to be invested in by UK companies and platforms that comprise “all elements” of public EV Charging infrastructure with the ultimate aim of delivering attractive returns for both HMG and its private sector investors. Exchequer secretary to the Treasury Robert Jenrick described the announcement as a “crucial step” in the government’s environmental plans. “We want to increase the number of electric cars on our roads, but to achieve this we need to ensure drivers have access to the right infrastructure, including charge points. “That’s why the Chancellor announced £400 million of investment to make this a reality, revolutionising the way we travel, creating jobs and protecting our natural environment for future generations.” Samer Salty, managing partner at Zouk Capital, said the CIIF placed the UK government at the international forefront of supporting EV ecosystems. "This fund will build a lasting public EV charging network that runs on clean energy, is fully open access and highly reliable to meet the needs of EV drivers today and give those yet to join the EV revolution the confidence to do so,” he said. ‘Economically’ could be dropped from TEEP 12 FEBRUARY 2019 by Steve Eminton - letsrecycle.com A major and potentially controversial change to the regulations governing the sorting of waste for recycling is being proposed, with the removal of the word “economically” from the TEEP requirements. The TEEP regulations are part of rules around the collection of waste for recycling and are an essential part of Duty of Care and other legislative requirements in the UK. They require separate collections (typically by material), but this doesn’t have to happen if it can be shown that one or more of three factors apply – technically, environmentally and economically practicable – so that there is a valid case for not collecting separately. TEEP requirements set out how councils must weigh up the different options for collecting recyclables from householders The European Union notes that TEEP stands for technically, environmentally and economically practicable and Commission guidance on the topic is available – European Commission guidance (paragraphs 4.3.4 and 4.4). TEEP The TEEP rules have been poorly enforced in the UK and have caused a considerable amount of angst and confusion within the waste sector and among local authorities. At the end of last month (January 2019) recycling and resource minister Dr Therese Coffey suggested there would be changes to the TEEP rules, via implementation of the Resources and Waste Strategy (see letsrecycle.com story). She said: “A lot of councils are already required to collect a number of materials, but they can use an exemption called a TEEP exemption and in effect my intention is to remove that excuse not to collect at home what people can and should be recycling.” While they were introduced originally by the European Union, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) itself stopped short of giving any guidance on the topic and many local authorities researched the matter with the involvement of consultants. However, TEEP is given as a current requirement by Defra in waste legislation. When TEEP was brought in there were fears among some operators of materials recycling facilities that the requirements could lead to more kerbside sorting and collections of separated material, despite investment in sorting technology at MRFs and the belief that commingled collections can lead to higher recycling rates and be more appropriate in some areas. Now, in the policy change, it looks as though the regulations will become TEP – technically and environmentally practicable – in England and likely in Wales too. Environment Agency official Pandora Rene told conference delegates last week that ‘Economically’ will be dropped as a requirement from TEEP The changes to TEEP are expected to be contained within a consultation document on “Consistency in Collections” being published shortly by Defra as part of its suite of consultations over the Resources and Waste Strategy. Giving details of the TEP proposal, senior Environment Agency official, Pandora Rene, told delegates at last week’s MRF conference in Solihull that “we’re going to take the economic bit out of TEEP.” Such a move would seem to imply that, even if it cost more to collect more recyclables separately at the kerbside, Defra would see this as an acceptable option to help meet higher recycling targets unless it was not technically and environmentally practicable. However, under future financing schemes for local authorities, the consultation papers will propose that councils recycling more materials will receive money from a variant of the current PRN producer responsibility system, to help fund more recycling, so extra local authority costs could be paid for by packaging firms, for example. Overall, the MRF conference portrayed a positive future role for MRFs with commingled streams to be sorted and the options for MRFs to be flexible on sorting different types of materials such as paper or separating plastics and metal. Mrs Rene noted that Defra “was worried about not enough resources being directed at the MRF regulations” and that from 1 April 2019 a change in the Agency’s structure would see new national pan-area teams created to better deliver regulatory work. From 1 April 2019 four non-site-based waste regimes will be delivered by a national model of Pan Area Teams (PATs) reporting to ORS (Operational Regulatory Services). The four regimes are: Producer Responsibility; International Waste Shipments; Separate Collections; and Materials Recycling Facilities. RDF exports decline in 2018 Exports of waste derived fuels – RDF and SRF – from England to energy from waste facilities overseas appear to have fallen during 2018, provisional figures published last week suggest. Analysis of the data on international waste shipments released by the Environment Agency for the 12 months to the end of 2018, suggests that as much as 300,000 tonnes less was exported during the year compared to 2017 (see letsrecycle.com story). Figures based upon provisional Environment Agency data (click to enlarge) In total the figures – which may be subject to change – suggest that 2,898,707 tonnes of RDF and SRF were exported during 2018, compared to 3,200,787 tonnes in 2017. A drop in exports has somewhat been anticipated by industry experts. It comes after a number of years of strong growth in exports of waste as a fuel, as companies seek to move away from landfilling material – taking advantage of demand for waste feedstock from facilities overseas, particularly in the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia. In more recent years RDF exports from England have been levelling out as more opportunities arise on the domestic market and energy from waste facilities in European countries reach their capacity. Analysis of the figures suggests that the Netherlands continues to be the largest destination for exported RDF and SRF from England, receiving 1.28 million tonnes during the year. However, this represents a decrease from the 1.54 million tonnes exported in 2017. Table showing some of the largest recipients of RDF & SRF from England (click to enlarge) Sweden and Germany also remained prominent markets for RDF and SRF, receiving 540,040 tonnes and 495,680 tonnes respectively. Other prominent destinations for RDF and SRF from England included Norway, Denmark, Latvia, Cyprus, Poland, Bulgaria, Portugal, Greece, France, Finland, Spain and Belgium. In terms of facilities receiving the waste – AEB’s 1.4 million tonnes-per-year capacity energy from waste plant in Amsterdam is the largest individual recipient of material, consuming around 245,000 tonnes of waste from England alone. The AEB facility in Amsterdam – which the figures indicate is the largest individual consumer of RDF from England On an exporter level, the figures suggest that the Norwegian-owned waste fuels specialist Geminor has overtaken Biffa as the largest exporter of fuels, to top the table by exporting 363,366 tonnes of RDF in 2018. Biffa, which has topped the table for the past four years, exported 350,167 tonnes over the year 2018 – a drop from 460,383 tonnes for 2017. This was followed closely by N&P at 334,154 tonnes. Other companies to export over 100,000 tonnes during the year were Suez (302,393), Seneca (166,773), FCC (162,870), Veolia (158,206), Berling Enviro (147,492), Andusia (146,620) and Renewi (138,355). Out of the total 2.9 million tonnes exported, 322,467 of this was reported as solid recovered fuel (SRF). This shows that the rate companies are diversifying into SRF continues to rise – up from 186,191 tonnes in 2017. UK's Drax Power Station begins carbon capture project In a press release on February 7, Britain's energy and clean growth minister Claire Perry said, "This innovative technology has the potential to make huge strides in our efforts to tackle climate change while kick-starting an entirely new cutting-edge industry in the UK." The giant Drax power station near Selby in North Yorkshire burns seven million tons of wood chips annually to generate electricity. The company has invested £400,000 in a pilot project that will capture one ton of carbon dioxide a day during the pilot. If everything goes according to plan, the technology could be scaled up to capture 50 million tons of carbon dioxide per year by 2050 - nearly half the country's target says the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering. Drax has already become the largest decarbonization project in Europe after it upgraded two-thirds of its generating units from coal to use biomass. DRAX Power Station in Drax, North Yorkshire. Paul Glazzard C-Capture technology Carbon dioxide is captured at the Drax plant using Leeds-based C-Capture's innovative technology. The company was formed in 2009 as a spin-out from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Leeds. The technology is called Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). C-Capture approaches carbon capture and storage (CCS) a little differently than what is being done now. Current practices basically use amines to capture the CO2, holding it in an aqueous solution. The solution is then heated up to 120 degrees Centigrade where the CO2 is returned to its gaseous state, allowing it to be stored. C-Capture uses an amine-free solvent to capture CO2. Once the CO2 has been ‘captured’ it can then be released as a pure stream and transported for safe, long-term storage or used in other manufacturing processes. This innovative technology can also be used for other applications including the capture of CO2 from other large point source emitters, such as cement plants and steel plants. The Peterhead Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project in Aberdeenshire, UK. Penn Energy The pros and cons of CCS The BBC outlines very nicely how Carbon Capture and Storage works: When a forest grows, the trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to make their wood. If you burn that wood, the process doesn't emit any extra CO2 into the atmosphere—because the trees removed it from the air in the first place. It's called carbon neutral. If you go one step further by capturing the CO2 from wood burning, you're actually reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere overall. Proponents of CCS argue that we need to do something to get the CO2 out of the atmosphere in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change. The CO2 can be stored and later used for other purposes. Many scientists are onboard the technology because they say the politicians are not doing enough to limit the effects of a warming planet. Kemper CCS power plant in Kemper County Mississippi. XTL1V0010 The arguments against CCS are also reasonable. Critics argue the technology is too expensive to implement on a large scale for it to be commercially viable. "One way to reduce coal's impact is to capture, compress and bury its emissions—but it's much simpler, cheaper and safer to simply leave the coal in the ground," Simon Holmes à Court, a senior adviser to the Energy Transition Hub at Melbourne University, wrote in the Guardian. Looking specifically at the Drax project, critics point out the company burns about 7 million metric tons of wood chips - mostly from the southern U.S. to generate six percent of the UK's electricity. While technically, trees are a renewable resource, a large amount of land is needed to renew this resource and harvesting trees also disrupts wildlife that depends on forests. "We must be cautious of technologies that aim to remediate the carbon problem while greatly expanding our impact on the land," Harvard University professor David Keith warned to the BBC. EUROPE’S WASTE PROBLEM IN NUMBERS MAURO ANASTASIO JANUARY 31, 2019 CIRCULAR ECONOMYFEATUREDWASTE Newly released data shows little to no progress in reducing waste across the EU. EU countries generated 487kg of waste per person in 2017, according to Eurostat. That’s only eight kilograms less than the 496kg generated in 1997, when figures were first compiled. The analysis considers all the waste generated by households and offices. Figures reached a peak of 524kg per person in 2007 and a low point of 479kg per person in 2013, when they began growing again. With over 600kg per person, Germany, Denmark, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta generated the most waste across the EU. The primary objective for EU countries is to reduce waste, according to the European Commission’s strategy to transition to a circular economy, where waste is prevented and materials are recycled. Zero Waste Europe told META: “Over the past few years, waste generation rates in the EU have been stagnating if not slightly increasing. Recycling is not enough – to lead Europe into a genuine circular economy, we need binding waste prevention targets.” The growing amounts of waste raise financial, health and environmental concerns. When not collected for recycling, our rubbish ends up being burned or sent to landfill, which can be a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. More waste also means more costs for collection and increasing logistical efforts – something that municipalities are not always able to ensure. This may result in rubbish piling up in the streets, especially in countries with poor recycling infrastructure. But the biggest problem with waste is its indirect contribution to climate change, according to environmental experts. The amount of rubbish we generate reflects the production patterns in our economy. In short, the more products and materials we waste the more energy and resources we’ll need to produce new ones. Cutting waste can have a massive impact on climate change, as less production means fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Savings (negative values) of greenhouse gases or contribution to greenhouse gases (positive values) through waste prevention, recycling/composting or disposal of mixed waste (Source: EUNOMIA) According to the research group Eunomia, the potential for CO2 emissions savings is much greater when waste is prevented rather than recycled. This is because of the additional energy and resources required to recycle materials. Where does all this waste go? Eurostat has also updated its latest figures for waste management. Overall in the EU, 30% of the waste was recycled, 17% composted, 28% incinerated and 24% landfilled in 2017. Despite an increase in recycling and a steady decline in landfilling, the report shows that waste incineration has sharply increased over time – 74kg per person in 1999 as opposed to 133kg in 2017. Incineration, which includes the practice of converting waste into energy, is one of the biggest challenges for waste management according to Piotr Barczak, a waste expert with the European Environmental Bureau (EEB). He said: “Europe’s priority is to reduce waste. But this is difficult when our governments spend billions of euro to build or renovate incinerators which need large amounts of mixed waste to serve their purpose and justify the investment.” He added: “Until we stop funding incinerators, we’ll continue to generate and burn waste at the expense of prevention and recycling.” EEB@Green_Europe Listen to the second META podcast! We talk about the costly renovation of a waste incinerator in Paris with @ZeroWasteFR #waste #circulareconomy https://meta.eeb.org/2019/01/24/one-billion-euro-up-in-smoke-meta-podcast/ … 5:04 PM - Jan 27, 2019 One billion euro up in smoke? – META podcast The costly renovation of a waste incinerator in Paris has been met with anger and dismay. This week, META speaks to Thibault Turchet, head of legal affairs at Zero Waste France (ZWF), who has led t… meta.eeb.org See EEB's other Tweets However, Barczak also warned that waste management data is difficult to compare because member states are still using different methodologies for their calculations. Last year, a study by Eunomia revealed that the world’s leading recycling countries are overstating their level of recycling. 59Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)59 EU takes timid steps towards circular economy despite slashed targets In "Circular Economy" E-waste: here’s why we’re getting it all wrong Packaging industry try and shirk responsibility for litter UK carbon capture project begins Image caption The project aims to capture one tonne per day of CO2 The giant Drax power station, near Selby in North Yorkshire, has become the first in Europe to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from wood-burning. Drax burns seven million tonnes of wood chips each year to drive generators to make electricity. The firm has now begun a pilot project to capture one tonne a day of CO2 from its wood combustion. The technology effectively turns climate change into reverse on a tiny scale, but it’s controversial. How does it reverse climate change? When a forest grows, the trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to make their wood. If you burn that wood, the process doesn’t emit any extra CO2 into the atmosphere - because the trees removed it from the air in the first place. It’s called carbon neutral. If you go one step further by capturing the CO2 from wood burning, you’re actually reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere overall. In an ideal world you’d go one step further by creating useful products from the waste CO2. Why is it needed? This technology is known as Bio Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). Many scientists believe it will be needed because they don't trust politicians to curb the CO2 emissions that are over-heating the planet. They say that unless carbon emissions start falling dramatically, we will overshoot the recommended safety limit of a 1.5C rise in global temperature. Image caption Drax's is one of several different approaches to carbon capture Carbon capture sounds smart – why is it controversial? There are two main reasons for controversy. First is the impact on the plants and animals living on the huge amount of land needed to grow the trees and plants needed to generate power on a wide scale. Second is the amount of additional energy needed to capture and store the carbon. Let’s just take the example of Drax. The power station generates 6% of the UK’s electricity whilst burning seven million tonnes of wood a year – that’s more wood than is harvested in the whole of Britain. The majority of the supply comes from the US, where forests are expanding as small-scale farmers allow unprofitable land to go back to nature. Drax says most of its fuel is residue from forest industries – that’s offcuts and unsuitable trees for timber. A previous BBC investigation found that some of the wood almost certainly also comes from species-rich swamp forests in the southern US. What if the world wants to generate carbon neutral energy by burning wood? This is where the numbers get a bit mind-boggling. One estimate suggests that a staggering amount of land would be required to make BECCS feasible under the Paris climate agreement — perhaps as much as three times the area of India. Harvard University professor David Keith warned: “We must be cautious of technologies that aim to remediate the carbon problem while greatly expanding our impact on the land.” That impact will depend on many variables, such as whether the wood is so-called “waste”; whether it comes from plantation forests or natural forests; how its removal from the forest reduces the amount of material that will lock up carbon in the soil; how it’s transported – and more. How does the carbon capture work? Image copyright PA Image caption Drax generates 6% of the UK's electricity Drax is trialling a new system devised at Leeds university. Most existing carbon capture technologies use a chemical in the amine group. It is drizzled down through a flue gas chimney, where it absorbs the CO2. A further process separates the CO2 from the amine, which can be re-used. The Drax experiment is working with a tech spin-off called C-Capture. It uses an organic solvent which it says is less toxic than amine and uses less energy. It’s one of several products on the market as chemists strive to find new ways of taking CO2 out of the air. What do people say about the Drax experiment? Andy Koss, CEO of Drax Power, admits that its carbon capture pilot is tiny – but says it's an important step towards getting the whole plant capturing its CO2 - and finding a market to use it. “This is a really important technology,” he told us. “We are definitely going to need it if we want to keep within the 1.5C temperature limit proposed by scientists. " Almuth Ernsting from the pressure group Biofuelwatch takes the opposite view. “Burning biomass is absolutely the wrong option for so many reasons,” she said. "Forests are vital for the health of the climate so we need to keep them not burn them. "The Drax experiment is so ridiculously tiny it’s hard to believe it’s not 'greenwash'." Follow Roger on Twitter. A Future with Hydrogen? Published Monday, January 14, 2019 With a global shift to clean energy growth, is hydrogen part of the decarbonising solution? In this article we explore what’s driving the need for change and some of the work underway to test the vision of a future with hydrogen. Carbon dioxide levels are at their highest in 650,000 years1. Arctic sea ice is dropping by an average of 12.8 percent per decade2 and other impacts range from extreme weather events and rising sea levels, to increasing ocean acidification and global temperature rise. In October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a warning about the serious threat posed by climate change and the considerable difference in the impacts that we can expect to see with 1.5 and 2 degrees of warming. The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC highlighted that limiting global warming to 1.5ºC requires rapid and far-reaching changes in all aspects of society, including land, energy, industry, buildings, transport and cities. As Jacobs grows its sustainability work, we continue to partner with clients around the world exploring opportunities to deliver a more sustainable and equitable society and protect our natural ecosystems. No matter the challenge, we’re providing deep technical and market knowledge and digitally-enabled solutions to help tackle some of the world’s big issues. Particularly, in cities spaces where there are tough challenges around air quality, connectivity, mobility and placemaking. The U.K.’s Climate Change Act 2008 has a 2050 target to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent of 1990 levels. With heat being the most difficult decarbonization challenge facing the U.K., meeting this target implies decarbonising nearly all heat in buildings and most industrial processes. This is driving different initiatives, fuels and technology combinations to be explored to see which have the potential to make a significant contribution. The U.K. Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) set up its Energy Innovation Portfolio to accelerate the commercialization of innovative, clean, cost-effective and reliable energy technologies by the mid-2020s. It’s looking at innovation needs across nuclear, renewables, lower carbon and more energy efficient industry and residential and other priorities. The potential of large-scale hydrogen conversion to significantly reduce carbon emissions Heating and cooling U.K. homes accounts for about half of all energy consumption and a third of carbon emissions. And about 80 percent of homes use natural gas (methane) for heating and cooking3. One of the options being explored is to replace methane with hydrogen, as hydrogen releases no carbon dioxide when converted to heat. A U.K.-wide conversion to hydrogen gas could reduce heat emissions by at least 73 percent as well as supporting decarbonisation of transport and localized electrical generation4. This offers a major step towards meeting the U.K.’s carbon reduction targets. BEIS is considering several options, from how hydrogen could be produced sustainably at scale, through to what it would cost to change. With experience across hydrogen production, transmission and transportation, Jacobs is part of this cutting-edge work, involved in a series of projects that offer the potential to deliver world firsts. BEIS commissioned Jacobs, along with partners Element Energy and Cardiff University, to complete analysis on the potential use of full hydrogen for industrial appliances, as part of the Hy4Heat program. The Hy4Heat feasibility study is exploring whether it is technically possible and safe to replace natural gas with hydrogen in residential and commercial buildings and gas appliances. The team is investigating the potential future conversion of industrial heating appliances to hydrogen, including costs, technical and commercial requirements, timeframes, safety and other considerations. This specific work package will provide an evidence base for the Hy4Heat program, inform future government decisions regarding potential energy pathways and outline the kind of hydrogen trials and appliance development work required, ahead of any potential decisions around industrial conversion to hydrogen. The ground-breaking “H21 North of England (NoE) report” released (November 23) in the U.K., sets out how 3.7 million homes and 40,000 businesses in the north of England, currently heated by natural gas, could be converted to hydrogen and made emission-free by 2034. Northern Gas Networks (NGN) and Cadent, in partnership with Equinor, have developed a H21 North of England concept design study. Jacobs provided technical expertise relating to hydrogen pipeline modelling to this detailed plan for the decarbonisation of circa 14 percent of U.K. heat through conversion of the North of England. The full NoE report also provides a vision for rollout of the hydrogen economy across the U.K. This important study explores how an expansion of the hydrogen economy could work and informs future strategies for a range of challenges to create a new era in low carbon heat and transport for the U.K. More information is available here. The availability of low-cost bulk hydrogen in a gas network could transform the potential for hydrogen vehicles and, via fuel cells, support a decentralised model of combined heat and power and localized power generation. Leveraging our expertise in hydrogen, reformer technology and CO2 capture, Jacobs’ work in this area is not confined to the U.K. We are also providing a feasibility study for Equinor to evaluate the possibilities for building a hydrogen production plant, including CO2capture, liquefaction and export facilities, at Eemshaven in the Netherlands. The hydrogen will be supplied as fuel to an existing natural gas-fired power plant that will be converted into a hydrogen-fueled power plant designed to lower the plant's carbon emissions at a large scale and to a future hydrogen market via a hydrogen pipeline and storage facilities. The liquefied CO2 will be shipped to Norway for off-shore storage. Collaboration of expertise, innovation and vision is crucial to accelerating energy transition and developing sustainable economies that are more climate-friendly and less energy-consuming. Our Netherlands operation joined the Dutch Energy Transition Coalition in 2017 as businesses came together to support the acceleration of energy transition across the country. Hydrogen’s role in the future of transport With approximately 70 percent of the world population forecast to live in urban areas by 2050, fast and reliable transport connectivity, both within and between urban areas, is essential for the movement of people and goods, and ensuring geographical distribution of growth. The challenge for city leaders is to lay down the frameworks which allow this development to take place. With city congestion at an all-time high, air pollution is an increasing concern – and hydrogen offers the potential of another alternative as a low-carbon transport fuel in the future. Hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles convert compressed hydrogen into electricity to power the electric motor. Published last year, Shell’s study5 on the future of hydrogen in the transport sector, jointly produced with the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, said that in 2050, 113 million fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) could save up to 68 million tonnes of fuel and almost 200 million tonnes of carbon emissions, making a significant contribution to reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions in the transport sector. Exploring hydrogen-powered train technology, for example, Jacobs recently worked on a Hydrail Feasibility Study Report with Metrolinx, a Government of Ontario (GO) agency that manages and integrates regional transportation planning in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. With the support of Ernst & Young Orenda Corporate Finance Inc. and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, the Jacobs-led team determined it is technically feasible to use Hydrogen Fuel Cells (HFCs) as a power source for electrifying the GO rail network, which carries more than 70,000 passengers annually. Taking the green hydrogen economy one step closer to be circular The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) also just launched a new project to explore how circular economy approaches can be applied to optimise the efficiency of hydrogen production and stimulate the development of a local oxygen market in Orkney. The project aims to identify potential applications for the commercial use of oxygen and heat as by-products of the hydrogen production process, ultimately developing a circular business model for hydrogen. The work is being supported by Zero Waste Scotland and delivered by Jacobs as part of the circular economy business support service, an initiative supported by funding from both the Scottish Government and the European Regional Development Fund through the $92 million (£73m) Resource Efficient Circular Economy Accelerator Programme. EMEC has been producing ‘green’ hydrogen since 2017 using renewable energy from local wind and tidal resources to power an electrolyser, splitting water into its chemical components: hydrogen and oxygen. However, the cost of producing hydrogen is high as roughly one third of input energy is lost as oxygen and low-grade heat during production. This cost is driving business innovation to increase the efficiency and circularity of the process by identifying end applications for heat and oxygen by-products. Local industries such as aquaculture, horticulture, diving, health and aviation all use oxygen as part of daily business. Integrating locally produced oxygen into the supply chain will increase island resiliency and reduce the environmental impact of businesses currently getting oxygen delivered from the U.K. mainland. 1 www.ncdc.noaa.gov/indicators/ 2 www.jpl.nasa.gov/news 3 & 4 Hy4Heat 5 Shell - The energy future, hydrogen	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line560
__label__cc	0.672775	0.327225	Cam’ron & Too $hort Albums Set For Vinyl Release On Record Store Day Get On Down is also presenting other exclusive projects. (AllHipHop News) Record Store Day 2018 is scheduled for Saturday, April 21. Label/online boutique Get On Down is offering fans the chance to purchase vinyl versions of albums by Cam’ron, Too $hort, Willie Colon, Lyrics Born, and Compton’s Most Wanted. Cam’ron’s fourth full-length, Purple Haze, will be presented as a purple 2-LP. For the first time since 1990, Short Dog’s In The House by Too $hort will be available in vinyl format, and the Get On Down black edition will also come with a poster. Additionally, consumers will have the chance to buy Willie Colon's Wanted By The FBI: The Big Break, La Gran Fuga, Lyrics Born's Later That Day [15th Anniversary Edition], and Compton’s Most Wanted's Music To Driveby. All five albums will be available in-person-only at participating U.S. stores.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line563
__label__wiki	0.648044	0.648044	Click to copyhttps://apnews.com/226bb0dfb0544732945668357e94b5cb Moon vows to increase trade with Singapore, Southeast Asia South Korea President Moon Jae-in, left, and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong hold a press conference at the Istana Presidential Palace in Singapore, Thursday, July 12, 2018. Moon is on a three-day visit to Singapore. (Wallace Woon/Pool Photo via AP) SINGAPORE (AP) — South Korea’s president has pledged to increase trade with Singapore as part of a strategy to raise its economic influence in the region. President Moon Jae-in says the two countries agreed to “invigorate mutual investment” by significantly increasing the trade volume, which is currently at $20 billion. He says: “We will spare no effort to ensure that the companies of our two countries will be able to do joint projects and make joint inroads into third countries together.” The push is in line with the country’s “New Southern Policy,” which aims to strengthen its relationships with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Moon is on his first state visit to Singapore until Friday.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line566
__label__cc	0.690981	0.309019	“Perpendicular recording” and very large hard drive platters Maxtor commercializes hard drive technology that will allow for 175 GB hard … Eric Bangeman - Oct 13, 2003 6:04 pm UTC Perpendicular recording is a technology which has been around for years, but never widely adopted due to some technical challenges. Maxtor has a new twist on old tech. Perpendicular recording involves arranging magnetic charges ? which hold digital information ? vertically on a platter. In a sense, the disk surface is made up of tiny magnets standing vertically. The approach contrasts with the current industry standard method, called longitudinal recording. In longitudinal recording, charges are arranged horizontally on the surface of the platter. Maxtor has developed a cost-effective technique for manufacturing drives using this technique, which will allow up to 175 GB of data on a single 3.5" platter. Hard drive data density has skyrocketed over the past decade, but technical obstacles such as difficulty of creating smaller heads and the superparamagnetic limit (the point at which space devoted to individual bits is so small that loss of magnetic charge is possible) have slowed growth. If Maxtor is able to get drives using the new tech to market, it will trump Seagate, which last month announced drives with 100 GB platters. Eric Bangeman Eric has been using personal computers since 1980 and writing about them at Ars Technica since 2003, where he currently serves as Managing Editor.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line567
__label__cc	0.679158	0.320842	LET’S BE HONEST, THE WEATHER HELPED 18 May - 13 Oct 2019 Installation view Walid Raad – Let’s be honest, the weather helped, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2019, Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij. Walid Raad, Postface to the ninth edition-On Marwan Kassab-Bachi (1934-2016). 2017. 27 acrylic, graphite on second hand framed canvases, various dimensions. Courtesy the artist & Sfeir-Semler Gallery Hamburg / Beirut Let's Be Honest, The Weather Helped 18 May - 13 October 2019 The Stedelijk Museum presents the first solo exhibition by the Lebanese-American artist Walid Raad (b.1967) in the Netherlands. In Let’s be honest, the weather helped he shares his perceptive, critical, politically engaged, and often playful perspective of the complexities of the Lebanese wars and the current boom of contemporary art in the Middle East. Raad works in a wide variety of visual media, complemented by performances and essays. The exhibit features photos, drawings, videos, and sculptures, including new work that will be on display for the first time. Walid Raad’s oeuvre delivers sharp analyses of the historical, political, economic, and aesthetic aspects of war. His artworks concentrate on the Lebanese wars as well as the Middle East’s rapidly burgeoning art world. “For the most part, my work is about the effects of violence on bodies and minds, on culture and tradition.” On view in each room are often entirely new combinations of series from Raad’s three major long term projects: In The Atlas Group (1989-2004), Raad created stories and documents about the Lebanese wars of the past few decades. Borrowing from the genres of literary fiction and conceptual photography, Raad imagines documents, characters and events that could have existed in times of war. Taken as a whole, the material comprises an archive of sorts, one that holds significant meaning for Raad, who views his imaginary documents as potential artifacts for the writing of a new history. In his practice with The Atlas Group, Raad adopts the role of archivist presenting us with his finds. These stem from historical material that is filtered through his imagination and research in an attempt to reach some of the less visible effects of war. Sweet talk commissions Beirut (1987–ongoing) is composed of various photo assignments. Beginning in the late 1980s, Raad starting commissioning himself to document Beirut’s changing urban landscape, its streets, buildings, and shopfronts. He concentrated on the neighborhoods where he lived, just on the margins of the urban battlegrounds. This project continued in the “post-war” as a grandiose new city center emerged. When asked about the project, Raad says, “In 1987, I committed myself to producing photographs in Beirut. I titled this commitment Sweet talk, as a reference to the city’s residents ‘sweet-talking’ themselves, by creating fascinating ways to live in a city that was under the constant threat of military assault, urban destruction and renewal.” The theme of Raad’s third project, Scratching on things I could disavow (2007–ongoing), engages with how violence affects tradition and art in material and non-material ways. His attention falls on the rise of new infrastructures for the arts in the Arab world, with particular emphasis on the Gulf states. On the one hand, Raad addresses the struggle for soft power and prestige in today’s Arab world via the building of massive new museums such as the Louvre Abu Dhabi. On the other hand, he explores how Islamic, modern or contemporary “Arab” artworks resist, adapt, or cloak themselves as they enter these new spaces. Among the new works in the survey are Raad’s three sculptures titled, I feel a great desire to meet the masses once again _ VI, XVII, XXXIII. As Raad writes, “In 1975, at the beginning of the wars, most public monuments in Beirut were hastily disassembled and stored in unmarked crates. The crates were dispersed to various secure storage sites. Thirty years later, the crates were gathered and opened in the hope of reassembling the monuments. However, the lack of a breakdown and reassembly protocol resulted in the odd composition of new public works, three of which are on display here.” The exhibition is organized by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in collaboration with Moderna Museet, Stockholm. The exhibition goes on view at Moderna Museet from 15 February–10 May 2020. An artist’s book will be published on the occasion of the exhibition. The book highlights two of Walid Raad’s thoughtful and witty artworks. Better be watching the clouds concentrates on the local, regional and international political figures whose faces and names became fixtures in the Lebanese landscape; I want to be able towelcome my father to my house leans on diaries that Raad’s father kept throughout the wars. Raad present us with documents that seem to belong to some kind of archivist, a witness and a mediator. He proceeds from found photographs and other artifacts to create the documents that provoke his but also our imagination. Published in collaboration with Roma Publications. Graphic design by Roger Willems. www.stedelijk.nl Tags: The Atlas Group, Walid Raad Edit Stedelijk Museum	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line570
__label__wiki	0.671228	0.671228	Ryan Preece avoids two 'Big Ones' in Daytona 500 upset bid The Modified ace turned Cup Series rookie will race full time in the No. 47 Matt Weaver HHP for Chevrolet Ryan Preece threatened to upset the traditional powers of the NASCAR Cup Series in the closing stages of the Daytona 500. Ryan Preece battled a variety of factors in his bid to upset the traditional powers of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in the closing stages of his first Daytona 500. Making his debut in the JTG-Daugherty Racing No. 47, the 2013 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Champion narrowly avoided two multi-car crashes and was running fifth at the time of the final restart. He had a shot to pull off the upset but believes his inexperience and manufacturer affiliation worked against him. "Sitting here watching this, I’m probably going to get frustrated with myself because there’s a couple things I could have done different to help my chances," Preece said as he watched the replay. "I was so committed to pushing Joey (Logano), I focused more on him than I did some of the runs I probably should have focused on. While he was pushing Logano, Erik Jones got a run behind him, and Preece's attempts to block the No. 20 cost them both momentum. Once Jones got by, Preece was left without any other Chevrolets inside the top 10, and he faded to eighth. Preece wore a disappointed smile as he watched a second replay. "It’s just so frustrating watching it," Preece said. "I'm not a fan of blocking, but that's what this comes down to. I need to do a better job of blocking runs. I stopped us from getting a top-three or top-four when I didn't do a good enough job of blocking Erik on the backstretch." And even if Preece didn't win the show, he put on a show as he just barely avoided getting caught up in the last two big crashes. He said he didn't close his eyes as he gunned down the throttle and threaded the needle through the 20-car pileup. "No, I didn't close my eyes," Preece said. "For all the people that I raced throughout my career. I don't like wrecking equipment. I try extra hard to not tear up equipment or cost my guys time in the shop. If you wreck, you can't win. That mentality paid dividends over my career." And at least through one race in his debut full-time NASCAR Cup Series career, it provided him a top-10 in the Great American Race and 12th in the championship standings through one race. How, @RyanPreece_? Just ... how? #DAYTONA500 pic.twitter.com/9oJkYuwdas — NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 17, 2019	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line572
__label__cc	0.59169	0.40831	The GranTurismo Coupe and Convertible include a 433-horsepower, 4.7L hand-built V8 engine, combined with a 6-speed automatic transmission. The GranTurismo MC and Sport Convertible models get more power, from a special version of the brand's 4.7L V8 engine, making 444 horsepower and 376 pound-feet of torque. The GranTurismo Sport Coupe gets a 454 horsepower version of the same engine. The MC can get to 60 mph in just 4.8 seconds and reach a top speed of 185 mph. All U.S. versions of the GranTurismo come with a 6-speed automatic transmission with both manual and sport modes, with the latter opening up the exhaust system for a louder, deeper note during acceleration. Sport mode also reduces shift times by about 50 percent. The GranTurismo Convertible (GranCabrio) has nearly the same interior arrangement as the GranTurismo Coupe, but with a canvas soft top that can be opened automatically in just 24 seconds. Convertible models also have the same amount of trunk space whether the top is up or down--which differs from models with folding-hardtop arrangements. Shoppers can choose from a long list of color combinations for the GranTurismo; here are six colors for the roof alone, with three interior choices and ten different colors available for the Poltrana Frau leather seats. Carpet and contrasting stitching are offered in six different colors and a perfectly coordinated luggage set is also available.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line573
__label__cc	0.528082	0.471918	Welcome to Back to the Summit Hello, my name is Omer Rains and I am the author of “Back To The Summit.” I encourage you to take a few minutes to visit and explore the “Back To The Summit” website, some of the information presented will provide insight about the book and its structure. However, other parts, including the multimedia and video spots, contain content that could not be accommodated in the book itself. In any event, I think that you will find the website interesting but, more importantly, I hope that you will find the book inspirational. My life, with peaks that have been extremely high and valleys that have been very low, has been a cascade of challenges. “Back To The Summit” chronicles how one after another these challenges were overcome, with special emphasis on the greatest challenge of all—being struck down in the prime of life by a life threatening brain aneurysm and hemorrhagic stroke that life me in a paralytic state. Yet today, my life is dedicated to helping the impoverished and dispossessed gain literacy and economic prosperity, whether it be high in the Himalaya mountains or in the lowlands of South Asia and Latin America. Finally, if you are so inclined, feel free to contact me directly, which can be done by navigating to the contact section found on the website. Thank you. Reflections on Public Service “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” As the sun set on my political career I re&ected, wondering, searching the corners of my conscience and my heart to see if I had any regrets. It didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that I didn’t regret one second that I ever spent in public service. It was truly a privilege to serve my district and the people of California. I was secure in the knowledge that anyone who ever examined my legislative record would come away convinced that I had left an imprint on the lives of every single Californian that very few people of my generation would ever have the opportunity to do. While my primary legislative interest was on the environment, civil and human rights, and political reform I had been very active in other areas as well. As the Legislature’s representative on the California Law Revision Commission, I had carried a series of bills that struck from the books innumerable outdated laws, and as the Legislature’s representative on the State Judicial Council I had taken action over strong opposition of the insurance industry to aid aggrieved parties and consumers by authoring landmark legislation allowing for the payment of pre-judgment interest on court judgments for the !rst time in Californian history. My efforts in the area of criminal law produced in 1981-82 what has been referred to as “the most comprehensive anti-crime package in California history” and this was accomplished without, in my opinion, sacri!cing the vigilant protection of constitutional guarantees for which I had always actively stood and fought. In the area of child molestation and child abuse, I authored a bill that specified that if a social worker, teacher, doctor, or police o$cer observed evidence of child abuse, it would be incumbent on him or her to report it to the appropriate authorities. Every group affected said, “Great idea, but it shouldn’t apply to us.” Some, especially doctors, resisted strongly not wanting either the responsibility or the potential liability since there were sanctions for those who failed to report abuse. I will never forget the headlines in a major California daily a year after this bill went into e#ect. It read something like “Child Abuse in California Increases Tenfold in Last Year.” Obviously child abuse had not increased—it was simply being reported! In the area of children’s rights, I had also authored legislation to ensure that all school children are immunized against measles, polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanus—!ve dreaded childhood diseases that some families could not afford to provide their children. To provide part-time work for persons unable to work full-time, I authored legislation to establish California’s first “Part-time Employment Act.” In addition, to help prevent a healthcare breakdown, I carried legislation during a special session in 1975 designed to curtail skyrocketing malpractice insurance rates which had placed California’s healthcare services in serious jeopardy. I fought with vigilance for more !scal responsibility at all levels of government, not just in the aftermath of the passage of Prop 13, but throughout my legislative career.Sensitive to the needs of California’s business community and as Chairman of the Select Committee on Government Regulation I acted to identify and cure regulatory abuses.In addition, I authored laws streamlining the state’s cumbersome permit process, in addition to starting California down the road to “zero-based” budgeting and establishing timetables for periodic review of state agencies (encompassing the “Sunset” concept to eliminate programs whose existence could no longer be justi!ed). Vigilant adherence to zero-based budgeting and sunset provisions for all new legislation are absolute imperatives if anyone is serious about halting the growth of government, either at the federal or state levels. To further the creation of a more healthy business climate in the state of California, I jointly authored the “Holmdahl-Rains-Lockyer Economic Development Act” which consolidated the economic planning functions of several state agencies into one Department of Economic and Business Development, and established an “Office of State Tourism.” In the area of political reform, and as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Elections and Reapportionment and of the Select Committee on Political Reform, throughout my legislative career I vigorously fought for the principles of full disclosure and open government and authored far reaching legislation that has minimized false endorsements in political campaigns and banned the fraudulent solicitation of campaign funds. Another of my measures created a Code of Fair Campaign Practices to which candidates running for public office would subscribe. Admittedly, however, the latter bill has been of limited success since in order to secure the votes to gain passage, it was necessary to make the act voluntary. Guess how many candidates choose to subscribe? One of the projects during this period that did not come to fruition while I was still a member of the Senate was my strong push for a state college in Ventura County. Governor Brown was against the idea because he didn’t believe it was needed given the proximity of the University of California, Santa Barbara to the north and California State College at Northridge in LA County to the south. But from my point of view, Ventura was the only heavy population center that did not have a State College or University Campus in or near it in the state. Moreover, the infrastructure was already in place by way of use of the truly beautiful grounds with structures still in good condition at the then recently closed and vacated Camarillo State Hospital. After Governor Brown left office, the college gained approval and was named Channel Islands State College. I pressed and gained funding for restoration and renovation of the historic Presidio in the City of Santa Barbara. The Presidio is a monument to the history of this beautiful and famous city. Having been steeped in the civil rights movement and as Chairperson of the Joint Committee on Legal Equality, the only Legislative Committee in the United States established to address legal inequality between the sexes, I authored and developed a comprehensive package of sixty-eight bills to allow the cause of women’s rights to successfully advance in California from one of discussion to one of action and to bring California’s codes into compliance with the “Equal Rights Amendment.” However, I am sure that I am best remembered for my constant fights to preserve, protect, and enhance California’s precious and unique environment. In this regard, one matter on which I worked long and hard and hand-in-hand with Congressman Phil Burton of San Francisco was the sponsorship of a bill to create an expanded Redwoods National Park in Northern California. Burton carried the bill at the federal level and I carried necessary enabling legislation at the state level. The bills passed in both DC and Sacramento. This National Park, with its phenomenal trees covering thousands of square miles was open to the public in the late 1970s and will remain a national treasure for all time. Similarly, I worked with certain members of California’s Congressional Delegation to establish the Channel Islands National Park comprised of five Islands (offshore in the Santa Barbara Channel and within my District) stretching from Point Conception in the north and running south to Anacapa Island off the coast of Ventura. Concurrently, I labored successfully to have the Park Headquarters located at the Ventura Port. The California deserts are unique, too. There is certain plant life found in that environment that is to be found nowhere else in the world. People were digging up and pirating many of California’s exotic and native plants, especially rare members of the cacti family and selling them on the open market. They were showing up all over the world. Many of them ended up overseas in Japanese gardens. Not only was it denuding the desert of much of its native growth, but it was removing important parts of the desert’s ecosystem. I authored legislation to put a stop to that. I hate the possibility of destruction of any aspect of nature. Nature has always been my cathedral. This was especially true when it came to protection of California’s beaches. To this end I authored the Oil Spill Liability Act, which specifically sanctioned oil companies if they spilled oil in our oceans and caused damage to our beaches. In addition, I authored legislation to purchase beach property for public use and an act of legislation to prevent strip mining in California’s national and state forests. As Vice-chairman of the Senate Energy and Utilities Committee, as a member of the Senate Natural Resources Committee and as the Gubernatorial Appointee to the State Geothermal Resources Taskforce and the SolarCAL Council I authored pioneering legislation encouraging the development and use of alternative energy sources such as solar, geothermal, co-generation, wind, bio-mass conversion, and developing ocean technologies. I also authored legislation to ban plastic “six-pack” holders, a petroleum bi-product that is not biodegradable, and which ensnares in a death grip birds, fish, and other wildlife. Unfortunately, after my retirement from the Senate, this legislation was repealed through efforts of those whose opposition I had originally managed to overcome. I also oversaw establishment of an interconnecting network of hiking, biking, and equestrian trails between state parks, California missions and state and federal historic sites which is unique throughout the United States. The state of California subsequently named one of these trails after me: “The Omer Rains Bike Trail” which runs through some beautiful country offering panoramic vistas connecting various state beach parks from south of the Santa Clara River to north of the Ventura River—now finally ending up in the city of Ojai, nearly twenty miles in length. A close friend of mine, Mark Dubois, had in the mid-70s started an organization called “Friends of the River.” The organization tried to prevent construction of a dam on the Stanislaus River southeast of Sacramento in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Eventually the issue was placed on the ballot where it lost in a statewide election by a narrow margin. However, that effort led to the passage of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, which I co-authored and strongly supported in concert with the bill’s principal author, Senator Peter Behr. This act emboldened similar measures in other states and in other countries too. This was a classic case where although the battle may have been lost, the war in large measure was won. As for Mark, he was to go on and eventually become International Chair of Earth Day as we entered the new millennium in the year 2000. The measure for which I am probably best known is the California Bottle Bill. Each year, with the reserved number of Senate Bill 4, I introduced the legislation. This was my annual bill to encourage the return of reusable and recyclable beverage containers. Passage of the bill in its purest form was designed to save enormous amounts of energy wasted in the manufacture of over 60 billion “throw-away” bottles and cans each year. Obviously, it would also have reduced litter and, in addition, would have saved consumers money with each purchase. According to an article that appeared in Reader’s Digest, the opposition to my bill was described as “the most powerful and well-organized in the entire country.” It added, “This lobby plays hard and it plays for keeps.” Nevertheless, some years I got the bill to the Senate floor and some years it remained “bottled up” in Committee. Because of the size of the California marketplace, the Container Deposit Legislation that was eventually enacted became in effect a national law. I do not necessarily deserve the accolade, but I’m proud to sometimes be introduced as the “Father of the Bottle Bill.” Letter to a Son “The only people who never fail are those who never try.” — Omer Rains Having lost the race for Attorney General, I penned the following letter to my son as the date of his graduation from high school approached. “You are now eighteen, and I want you to know how very proud I am of you as tomorrow’s high school graduation approaches. But how did the weeks, the months, and the years move so swiftly by? The memories of your birth are as yesterday, and the various milestones in your short lifespan all seem as though they just happened. It is truly hard to believe that you have already reached adulthood… Having said that, I want to talk a bit about myself and, in so doing, hopefully impart to you not just a better understanding of me, but also lessons which may help guide you as you continue down the roadway of life. I haven’t forgotten, for example, that you asked me the night I lost the race for Attorney General why I had given up a safe seat in the Senate to engage in what was obviously an uphill fight against a better financed, better known opponent. I remember telling you that I felt good about the challenge I had accepted, even though I had lost, and that I thought that every person must from time to time face defeat in order to proceed into the future with humility and with renewed vigor. The fact is that as someone once said: “Although most people can see, few have vision.” Sometimes it’s not until one steps back (even if involuntarily) away from something in which he has been totally immersed, that one can again speak with the vision that any true leader must from time to time have. It’s akin to the proverbial not being able “to see the forest because of the trees.” My loss in the Attorney General’s race is, for illustrative purposes, good to dwell on for a moment, because I suspect that to most people it is the one great stumble I have made around the track of professional life. But I do not look upon it that way. Remember that as you go through life, the only people who never fail are those who never try. The fact of the matter is that I, at that particular time in my life, simply needed a new challenge. From time to time in your life you will find that you, as well, need new challenges. I also had come to realize the extraordinary sacrifices I had made in order to engage in public service. Although I am very proud of my accomplishments in public life, I realize how unfair public service can often be to one’s family and I certainly feel deeply how much I missed in not having more time to spend with you as you grew to adulthood. But as one travels the road of life, one often comes to forks in the road, and for better or worse one must decide from time to time which fork to take (with apologies to Robert Frost). You will often encounter such choices as well. In my case, by choosing public service I know that I had an opportunity to serve which few shall ever have. Being but one of forty members of the Senate representing the interests of over thirty million people allowed me to set my imprimatur on the history of California and to some extent the nation in a way that would otherwise have been impossible. I worked hard and I left the Legislature with a clear conscience. I represented well my constituency during a trying period in our political history, especially in the aftermath of Watergate, Vietnam, and other traumatic national experiences. I tell you this because as you travel the road of life, if you get from one spot to another and feel good about the route you have traveled, that will give you a sense of enormous gratification, and it will make the road taken (however much in need of wear) a great adventure. Also when I left the Legislature, I truly did not know what the future portended. But I did know that there were new horizons to view, new mountains to climb, new challenges to face, and I have begun to view those horizons, to climb those mountains and to face those challenges — without regret. In other words try always to look forward with optimism and hope and without bitterness over past losses, defeats or failures, for surely you as everyone else will from time to time have losses, defeats and failures, whatever you seek to accomplish in life. In addition, I want you never to stand in awe of any other person, for I assure you that you are his/her equal. I have had the opportunity to know so many of the “greats” of the world — John F., Robert, and Teddy Kennedy; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Menachem Begin; Anwar Sadat; Margaret Thatcher; Tony Blair; Prince Charles; Mother Teresa; Gerald Ford; Richard Nixon; Jimmy Carter; Ronald Reagan; Muhammad Ali; Larry Holmes; both Sugar Ray’s (Robinson and Leonard); Larry Bird; Kareem Abdul Jabbar; Bill Russell; Magic Johnson; Willis Reed; Joe Montana; Steve Garvey; Ozzie Smith; Reggie Jackson; Evel Knievel; Mario Andretti; Arnold Palmer; Charlton Heston; Johnny Cash; Bo Derek; Elvis Presley; Steve McQueen; Sammy Davis Jr.; Ella Fitzgerald; John Denver; John Malone; Bob Magness; Leonard Tow; etc. The list could go on and on and on. It would, to be sure, include virtually every politician about whom you have read or heard during the course of your life, and an extraordinary number of entertainers and sports heroes, as well as so-called “captains of industry” and “beautiful people,” whom we individually and collectively tend to worship in our society. The importance of this is not that I have met and gotten to know such people, but rather that I have learned from such acquaintances that although many, indeed most, of these people are very nice, they are also very ordinary. I cannot really tell you what separates the so-called “great” or famous people of the world from anyone else you meet in daily travels —it may be a matter of inheritance, or timing, or luck, or hard work— who knows. But what I can tell you is that what separates these people from anyone else is really very small, very miniscule or very slight and almost impossible to discern, much less to describe. Don’t get me wrong. There are many great people (Anwar Sadat, for example, truly stands out in my mind as a man of extraordinary vision and courage, one who was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for what he believed to be correct; and who in modern history has been more inspirational than Nelson Mandela; and who has been more admired — except by a few Chinese government officials— than his Holiness, the Dalai Lama). But the point I am trying to make is that most who inhabit this earth are really not that different from their neighbors. We all have strengths and we all have weaknesses, and we all put our pants on one leg at a time. You should never, therefore, be afraid to challenge another for fear that he is smarter than you, or richer than you, or more athletic than you, or in any way better than you. If called for, make your challenge and if in so doing you fail, that’s okay so long as you have given your best. Perhaps that person who best summed up what I have been trying to say to you in this letter was Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt so well articulated on several occasions the importance of trying, of doing one’s best even when on occasion that means failure. I have looked up a few of my favorite Theodore Roosevelt quotes, and I would like to share them with you: ‘Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.’ ‘It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of the deed could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust, sweat, and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again … because there is no effort without error and shortcoming.’ ‘It is the man who actually strives to do the deeds who knows the great enthusiasm; the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement … and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.’ In short I started this letter by saying how proud I am of you, and that I am. You shall achieve great things, and I pray that you shall also enjoy great happiness. But I am fully cognizant of the fact that your achievements and happiness will not come easily, because it does not come easily for anyone. It must be worked at. From time to time you will stumble and, indeed, you may fall, as from time to time I have stumbled and fallen. But there is an old Scottish ballad that goes something like this: “I am hurt, but I am not slain. I shall lay me down to rest a little and then get up to fight again.” Whenever you stumble or fall, just get up, pull yourself together, dust yourself off and continue forward—continue forward, always forward, and never backwards—throughout life. Do this, and your journey will be a glorious one. Your proud and loving father.” Pakistan, the Taliban and Paco Tech “The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person fears to do.” Later that same year, 1995, I began to represent a South African company known as Paco Tech. Paco Tech, headed by a white South African named Brian Harmer, took almost any type of organic material, whether wheat, straw, rice hulls, coconut husks, or any other type of organic crop and compacted it through a patented process. What was left was building material that could be used to construct homes, office buildings and all sorts of other structures. Harmer at the time was afraid that South Africa was going to go up in flames and that his family would be placed in jeopardy and his businesses burned. As a result, he wanted to relocate his business to another part of the world. Initially, I contacted Jimmy Carter and Habitat for Humanity because I felt that they might have an interest in the technology of Paco Tech. I also spent considerable time in DC speaking with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and even to the Rockefeller Winrock office in DC and later at their hands-on center in Arkansas. About the same time I began to represent a Pakistani-American named Rashid Saeed. Saeed had dual citizenship as he had been born in Pakistan and still maintained a home there. He also had business interests both in Pakistan and in America. When I explained how Paco’s technology could reduce the cost of housing and provide other benefits to lesser developed nations, Saeed took a personal interest. Through Saeed’s connections, I received an invitation from Pakistan’s Minister of Commerce representing the recently elected Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, to visit Pakistan. The newly elected government was trying to entice foreign investment in Pakistan, especially in an area that Pakistan referred to as “Free Kashmir” (that portion of Kashmir that Pakistan occupies rather than India). In effect, Pakistan was prepared to offer full tax dispensation to a foreign company that invested and developed a business in “Free Kashmir” for twenty years if the company was prepared to locate in that area. I left for Pakistan not long after I returned from Nepal and Tibet and after I had successfully concluded the trial that caused me to return early from the Everest expedition. I initially flew into Lahore, the capital of the state of Punjab. Harmer was arriving from South Africa later that same day. I was picked up at the airport and driven to an enormous home that belonged to a man who had recently retired as the doctor to the royal family of Saudi Arabia. This home was an incredible mansion with high walls all around the grounds. There were guard posts at each corner manned by men with automatic weapons. We drove in through the gates and I saw yet more armed guards. It was like an armed fortress. I was no shrinking violet when it came to luxurious surroundings, but this place was a real eye opener. After I was introduced to the doctor, my host, I asked “My Lord, why all the guards?” His answer was, “Anyone who is rich in this country is in danger.” My curiosity was piqued. “How many guards do you have here?” “About twenty-eight.” Why so many?” He laughed. “Actually my wife wants more. How many do you have?” Jokingly I said, “Only two.” He looked surprised. “Oh, is that enough?” I started laughing and told him that truth be told I had none. “I wouldn’t be comfortable with armed guards.” “If wealthy, you couldn’t get along here without armed guards.” And he was deadly serious. Harmer arrived at the complex later that same day. The following morning we were driven across the border into Kashmir to the town of Bhimber, the region in which Pakistan wanted to see development take place. Although the tax advantages were great, when Harmer saw how close his facilities would be to two huge nuclear-armed enemies facing each other a short distance away from one another, he gave up the idea entirely. Not exactly a great environment for business. So Harmer returned to Lahore and flew home to South Africa. However, I had planned to stay in Pakistan for awhile as I had been invited to meet with Prime Minister Bhutto in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. She remembered that meeting when many years later I spoke briefly with her again at a reception at Lake Tahoe. This latter incident was only a few years before her assassination. Although my meetings in Islamabad focused primarily on the possibility of future business opportunities, I intended also while in Pakistan to go north to see the Karakoram Mountains. The most significant is K-2, the second highest peak in the world. The Karakoram’s in the far north of Pakistan are in disputed territory, parts of it claimed by China, parts by India, and parts by Pakistan. The Prime Minister told me that she would have me flown to Skardu and from there have an army officer drive me north because, according to her, the guides in the area could not be trusted. I declined the invitation to fly to Skardu as I preferred to rent a car. I wanted to drive through the Swat Valley and northward from there in order to see the countryside and meet some of the people. Probably a mistake. The trip took me close to thirty hours and the Karakoram Highway is one of the more harrowing roads in the world. Nevertheless, I finally made it. As I had gone north from Islamabad, I was looked on with great curiosity and I am sure with suspicion by people that I passed by. I would just smile and wave. When I made stops, I would ordinarily find someone who could speak at least a bit of English so that I could communicate my needs. When I arrived at my hotel in Skardu, an army officer was awaiting my arrival. The following morning, the two of us set out in an army jeep. It was a good thing I had the driver because army checkpoints were all along the road. The Karakoram’s themselves are even more beautiful than the Himalayas. The mountains tend to stand out alone, thus giving them a more dramatic silhouette. I was not equipped for any kind of mountain climbing although I had brought boots and warm clothing with me. We finally got to the point where I was able to peer up at K-2, the second highest mountain in the world and considered by most mountaineers to be far more dangerous to climb than Mount Everest. This is the region recently made famous by Greg Mortenson in his book, “Three Cups of Tea.” Some of the people I met in this area had light skin and blue eyes and they claim to be descendants of Alexander the Great’s troops. It is possible. It was an amazing peek into a strange part of the world that few ever see. Because my trip to the Karakoram’s had taken longer than anticipated, when I returned to Skardu I decided to fly rather than drive back to Islamabad. Arriving at my hotel in Islamabad I found a message waiting for me. It was from Rashid Saeed who had been monitoring my travels. The message said, “Please call me as soon as possible. It’s important.” I called my friend Saeed who asked me to visit his home in Faisalabad in order to meet his family and a few friends. As he was a friend and client and as he had been covering many of my expenses in Pakistan, I felt obliged to do so. He arranged a flight for me from Islamabad to Faisalabad. I picked up the ticket at the airport. On the flight, however, the plane ran into very bad turbulence. Finally, the pilot announced, first in Urdu and then in English, “We must divert because of the storm. We will be landing in Lahore.” When we landed in Lahore, to my surprise Saeed and his driver were there waiting for me. They had also learned about the diversion made necessary by the raging storm. Faisalabad is quite some distance west of Lahore. By the time I got my luggage and we were on the road, it was well past midnight. The wind and dust storm was horrific. The wind was so bad that it was literally bouncing the car around, and the driver was having trouble just staying on the road. Visibility due to blowing dust was almost nil. We eventually reached Faisalabad around 4:00 am. The entire trip had been incredibly hot as there had been no air-conditioning in the car. When we entered the home, the first room was bare except for a bed near the back of the room. The room was rectangular in shape and very large. Ordinarily it was used as a reception area. Saeed said, “Senator (that’s what he always called me), please lie down here on this bed and get some sleep. We will talk in the morning. I want you to meet my family and some people in the community tomorrow. I will go back now to join my wife and children.” I removed my sweat-soaked and dusty clothes and gratefully laid down on the bed and fell asleep immediately. A couple of hours later I was awakened. I opened my eyes and was startled to see a string of men coming through the front door. They were entering the room to the right and were slowly circling the room single file in serpentine style. Pretty soon they had filled each wall of the room and had sat down cross-legged on the floor. I wasn’t exactly ready for visitors. In fact, I was in my skivvies, and nothing else. Not to mention that I had no idea who these people were or what they were doing here. I sat up on the bed flabbergasted. Most of the men were older, though not all of them. They were squatting and most were speaking in a foreign language that I could not understand but knew to be Urdu. Some however — especially the younger ones — were speaking Pashtu. It was an incredibly awkward situation and I wasn’t sure what to do. Seemingly, no one spoke English and no one looked friendly. About this time Saeed bolted into the room from the back of the house. Unlike me he was fully dressed. “Senator, I apologize. I overslept. These are the town leaders of Faisalabad and some of their friends from surrounding areas and they have come to talk to you. They knew that you were coming and they are very honored to have you here and would like to ask you questions. I will translate.” At least sixty people were in the room by now. I was very uncomfortable for all sorts of reasons. I just woke up from a deep slumber and before I even had a chance to wipe the sleep from my eyes I began to be peppered with difficult questions. It quickly became evident that Saeed had told people in Faisalabad, a major Pakistani city, that he was hosting a United States Senator. I was pissed. He was speaking to them in Urdu so I could not understand what was being said but I clearly began to get the gist of it. Because I do keep myself conversant in world affairs I knew what was being discussed because of the questions I was being asked. For the most part I also knew the American position on the various issues that were being raised. The questions were all over the place and, by and large, they were very intelligent questions. But it wasn’t at all a pleasant kind of give and take. To the contrary, the mood was at times confrontational and I sensed that some of the younger men were sympathetic to or associated with the Taliban of neighboring Afghanistan. They wanted to know why we (the United States) were holding hundreds of millions of dollars of Pakistani money that their country had paid to buy war planes and why we were not allowing the planes to leave American soil and at the same time were not returning their money either. I knew that the official American position was that Pakistan had refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Of course, India, Pakistan’s long-term adversary, hadn’t signed it either. Nor had the United States. I had no good answer as to why we had not returned their money. Then again, I was not a duly appointed spokesman for the United States government, but they were certainly acting as though I was. Their attitude was, “How can you say you are going to punish us for not signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty when you yourselves won’t sign it?” The American position, when you come right down to it, really in effect is saying, “We are the good guys. We are responsible.” But I wasn’t at that moment exactly in a position where I could articulate that very well. The fellow who seemed to be the leader was extremely persistent and somewhat demanding. He began to talk about Afghanistan. “You wanted our help in running the Soviets out of Afghanistan,” he said. “So all the supplies that the Afghans received came through our country. Now that the Soviets have been driven out you are buddying up to India. We were there for you, but you’re not there for us.” I repeatedly told them that I did not speak for the United States government. I did not speak for the Clinton administration. I am not a United States Senator. I have no diplomatic passport. I am just a plain American citizen and I can’t answer your questions with any kind of authority whatever. I have a suspicion however that Saeed was not translating any of that. It was clear that he wanted to appear important and impress his countrymen. He had in fact told them that I was a Senator, and by that they thought that I was a current member of the United States Senate. It was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life and I was really pissed off at Saeed. After two hours or more, they all filed out and I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, take a shower, and get clothed. It had been a very intense and confrontational experience. I am still friends with Saeed, but at the time I was really upset and yelled at him. Very uncharacteristic behavior for me. He was apologetic but it gave me no solace. After cleaning up, meeting his family and having a bite to eat, I rented a car and drove southwest across the rest of Pakistan through Hyderabad and on to Karachi on the Arabian Sea, the country’s largest and, arguably, poorest city where after a day of “sightseeing” in a city where there isn’t much to see other than extreme poverty, I took a flight back to the United States. Notwithstanding the incident in Faisalabad, I continued to represent Saeed. I had also met some very nice people in Pakistan, including a man named Rashid Khan who owned hotels in Pakistan and when he later visited the United States began to invest in the States as well. In addition, some of my very best friends are Pakistani-American and I have great respect for them. In fact, one is an individual with whom I today serve on the READ Global Board of Directors. As for Paco Tech, I also continued to represent Brian Harmer and the company, but they no longer had any interest in Pakistan. I couldn’t blame Harmer. I would have made the same decision he did. After all, who would want to establish a business smack-dab between two nuclear armed enemies? “Not all who wander are lost.” Near the end of that same year, I was approached by a group of people who lived in the States, most but not all of whom were citizens, who wanted to do a project in the country of Turkmenistan. The group included an attorney, some engineers, and principals who had originally come from Turkmenistan but were now living in the United States. The latter continued to have family and other ties to Turkmenistan. Knowing that I was involved in international finance, they asked if they could retain my services because they had the idea of constructing a fertilizer facility in southeast Turkmenistan near the borders of Iran and Afghanistan. All of the “Stans,” Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan were former Soviet Republics. These are historically Muslim countries but because of the Soviet-era influence, the Islamic religion is much less influential in those countries than in most other parts of the Islamic world. Turkmenistan has one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world. It also has ammonia. Gas and ammonia are the two key ingredients needed to produce fertilizer. Turkmenistan also grows a cotton crop. That’s basically it. Not a very diversified economy. To produce the cotton, they rely on irrigation coming from the Aral Sea, which is one of the most polluted waterways in the world and is now diminishing in size because of heavy overuse by the countries that draw from it. Those driving this particular project knew that I had previously dealt with the alphabet soup agencies in Washington, DC. They had located a fertilizer facility in the State of Oklahoma which they wanted to dismantle and transport to Turkmenistan. I became intrigued by this project. The company wanted me to accompany principals of the company to Turkmenistan. Before leaving for Turkmenistan, I went to Washington, DC and began to talk with governmental agencies that I thought might be of help. The biggest problem was that the President of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, was one of the most oppressive dictators in the world. The personality cult surrounding Niyazov was so intense that the United States Department of State had the country of Turkmenistan blacklisted. I was trying to persuade the agencies in DC to allow the project to go forward with the use, in part, of their finances. They still had the matter under consideration when I left for Turkmenistan in October 1995. Changing planes in Istanbul, one of my favorite cities in the world, we continued on to Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. Ashgabat lies only a few miles north of the Iranian border. However, the two countries are separated by a mountain chain called the Caput Range. Turkmenistan and Iran had very good relations and insofar as I know, they still do. Now, I had been in countries with dictatorial regimes before, and I had seen the cult- like personality before as well, but this was far beyond what I had ever seen. Here every citizen walked around wearing a lapel pin bearing a photo of Niyazov. You could stand at any intersection in the city of Ashgabat and look in any direction and see huge banners of Niyazov hanging from the buildings. Ashgabat will never be a tourist destination. Yet, Niyazov built many beautiful hotels at great public expense. Very few people go there. The only visitors are the occasional international business people who are primarily interested in the natural gas reserves of the country. Turkmenistan had no way of moving its natural gas to the rest of the world unless it did so through the use of Russian pipelines and the Russians exacted great sums of money as tribute for the use of their pipelines. That was not the reason that took us to Turkmenistan but it did seem to dominate the conversation in most of the meetings in which I was involved. Turkmenistan was looking for options to take its gas to other parts of the world at a lower price than they were able to do by shipping it through Russia. The most logical option was to build a pipeline down through Iran to the Persian Gulf. But that had its own problems because the mullahs and other clerics were in control of Iran. Therefore there was concern that the Iranians could take control of the pipeline at any time. Most of the American companies involved in this complex situation wanted a pipeline to go west over to the Caspian Sea and eventually into the area around Turkey. Anything to get the product to the western markets. At the same time the Chinese had become huge players and were leaning on Turkmenistan to have the pipeline go east to China. As I said, it was a complex political situation to say the least and I was never quite sure why we were involved in such discussions. At one time, Niyazov invited me to go to the national bank, which was called “The Peoples Bank of Turkmenistan,” obviously a holdover from the days of Soviet rule. Turkmenistan has its own native language, closer to Turkish than any other. However, most government officials I met with still spoke Russian. But when I went to see the President of the Bank, he also spoke English. In a way it was a funny conversation but in actuality it was tragic and spoke volumes. I asked him, “How do you decide who gets a loan?” A rather baffled look crossed his face. He said, “Well, whatever the President says. If the President says they get a loan, they do. If he says they don’t, they don’t.” That pretty much described the business and social environment of Turkmenistan. I was in Turkmenistan with my colleagues for some time and the talks were seemingly proceeding fairly well. We were meeting with government officials but I know that my Turkmen clients, behind the scenes, did not want me to know too much because they knew that I would not violate our “Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.” There were also other meetings taking place in which I was not involved. I am sure there was a lot of quid pro quo taking place. Nothing happens in that country and in those parts of the world unless the government approves it. In any case, during the first week in November, the President instructed his staff to plan a celebration for us. We drove quite some distance to the west of Ashgabat. The road went right along the base of the mountain range separating Turkmenistan from Iran. Finally, we came to a park like setting. Our hosts, the government officials, had brought a huge lamb which they intended to barbeque for us as part of the celebration. Although the mountains were quite high near the capital, Ashgabat, they were not at all high where we stopped for the picnic. There was an entrance at the base of the mountains that went to underground thermal pools beneath the Caput Mountains. They were renown for their therapeutic qualities. After being in the water for awhile and being intrigued by my surroundings, I left the others and advised my hosts that I was going to climb a “short distance” up one of the low mountains separating Turkmenistan from Iran. So I excused myself, got dressed and told the others I was just going to take a hike. They knew that I was an experienced outdoorsman. I left the caves and started up the mountain. For me, it was an easy climb. At the top of the mountain I realized that I was in fact looking directly into Iran. I was looking down on desert type country with a village about a mile in the distance. I don’t know what possessed me, but I decided I wanted to take a few steps into Iran. I made my way down the hill, trying to remain covert because the nearest Iranian village, as indicated, wasn’t that far off. As long as I didn’t see anyone, I advanced a good distance downhill. There was almost no foliage on the hillside but there were some relatively large boulders. I kept going downhill from boulder to boulder crouching behind each one as I got to it. I’m not sure why I kept going downhill, but I did. What was I going to do when I got to the bottom? I wasn’t sure. Then I saw a jeep charging toward me, dust flying. “Oh fuck! I’ve been spotted!” There were four soldiers in a jeep. I didn’t try to run but simply raised my hands to show that I was unarmed. One of the soldiers spoke pretty good English. He asked me who I was and I identified myself by name. Knowing they had good relations with President Niyazov I explained that I was his guest and I was just out for a hike and I didn’t realize I had entered Iran. I apologized for the intrusion. The fellow who spoke English translated all this into Farsi, the language of Iran. They all thought it was funny and began laughing. Soon another jeep came up loaded with townspeople. There must have been ten of them loaded into a jeep that was really built for only four people. Surprisingly they began to tell me how much they liked Americans—it was just our government that they disliked. I told the English speaking soldier, who was also clearly the Commander, that my hosts would be worried about me and that I had to get back. He said, “No problem.” He directed one of his men to take me up a trail that they knew of. I shook hands with each of the soldiers and said goodbye to the townspeople. As I left, the Commander said that he hoped that one day our two countries would again have good relations. I replied that I hoped so, too. Back at the barbeque, my colleagues were indeed beginning to worry and were happy to see me. I had probably been gone for about three hours. Realizing that my actions could have precipitated an international incident, I wasn’t about to tell them that I had unlawfully entered Iran. It was one of the many rash adventures that people who don’t know me might find hard to understand. I don’t always understand myself why I do certain things. My yearning to explore and discover new things for myself often seems to have no bounds. We returned to Ashgabat that night, and flew out the following day. In Istanbul others proceeded on to the States. I had other business planned in Europe so my route took me from Istanbul to London and from London onto other places. Not long after I returned from Europe, a small delegation came from Turkmenistan to the States. A project was eventually built, but it did not involve the matter of our visit. However, the delegation brought with them a painting as a personal gift to me from the President. The inscription on the plaque on the paintings frame said: “To Senator Omer Rains from his Excellency Sapamurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan.” “I have to say it now; it’s been a good life all in all; it’s really fine to have a chance to hang around.” — John Denver (“Poems, Prayers & Promises”) To be sure, I have led a rugged, adventurous, and blessed life. I am blessed to have been born in the United States, a country which I dearly love, where opportunities abound for anyone who is willing to work hard and persevere through hardships. I have been blessed to have seen and experienced parts of the world that most people never dream of seeing—and I managed to see most of them before the world became “flat” and homogeneous. I am blessed to have had English as my native tongue because this richly diverse country—the United States—has been such a beacon to the world that wherever I have traveled, within minutes I have invariably been able to find someone with whom I could communicate. I am blessed to have lived in an age of medical marvel and miracles. At no other time in the history of mankind could I possibly have survived some of my ordeals. Of that I am certain. I have been blessed to have fathered beautiful children who, sometimes in spite of my absences and lapses, have turned into caring and contributing adults. They, in turn, have provided me with three adorable grandchildren and, who knows, there could always be more in the future. Each morning, I open the paper first to the obituary page. If my name is not there, I think “Isn’t this day off to a great start! Now, accept the blessing and make the most of it.” So while I’ve not yet “gone fishing,” I have only my own hard charging personality to blame. My suspicion is that, while I may preach to the contrary, till the day I die I will keep busy (and never regret a moment of it). So what’s next for me? That chapter has yet to be written. Yet, one constant remains as certain in my life as the rising of the sun tomorrow. Whatever fate may have in store for me and whichever road I choose to follow, most assuredly there will be something new around the next bend. The insatiable quest for knowledge burns as brightly today as ever. Robert Frost put it best when he wrote: The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. Find what you're looking for ... enter keywords below: Get Your Free Excerpt of “Back to the Summit” Omer Rains Official Website Oceanic Library READ Global “Back to the Summit” records the amazing story of Omer Rains, a person who in spite of having to overcome one challenge after another during his lifetime, has left us with a legacy of legislative and humanitarian achievements that few of his generation can match. I got to know Omer particularly well during the 2000 Presidential Campaign when I was the nominee of the Natural Law Party, the Reform Party and, in New York, of the Independence Party. Little did I know then that he would face his greatest challenge of all less than two years later when death stared him in the face. But fighter that he is, once again he rose to the occasion and today continues to leave his mark helping others both here at home and throughout the developing world. We can all learn profound lessons from this book. Dr. John Hagelin Internationally Renowned Particle Physicist 3-Time Candidate for President of the U.S. National Director, Transcendental Meditation Program President, Global Union of Scientists for Peace Author, “Manual for a Perfect Government” I first met Omer Rains on Mount Everest in 1995. At age 55, he was remarkably fit. Seven years later, while seemingly still active and fit, Omer was unexpectedly struck down by a ruptured brain aneurysm and stroke. Only through a series of miracles and intense personal willpower was he able to survive and later recover. I am Nepalese—a Sherpa—and Omer’s inspirational and heroic story of recovery is a moving one both in my native land of Nepal and in other countries where he does untold humanitarian work. Today, Omer retains his ties to Nepal through frequent visitations as Chairman of READ which built the library in which I received my own education, including my ability to read and write in English. He is one of my heroes. This book is a must read for anyone with a loved one who has ever suffered a near death experience. Kaji Sherpa Former Holder of World Record Fastest Ascent of Mount Everest Reading “Back to the Summit” causes me to feel good about my own life and my chosen profession of medicine. However, it also tells a story of powers beyond medicine. As the primary treating physician after Omer Rains initially survived a brain aneurysm and stroke, I can attest to the fact that there is no adequate medical explanation for him being alive today and for the remarkable recovery he made. This book should be an inspiration for anyone who has ever suffered, or may in the future suffer, a life threatening challenge. Dr. David Dozier (ret.) Chief Treating Neurologist of Omer Rains Omer Rains, Chairman of READ Global, is dedicated to promoting literacy and creating jobs in rural and remote parts of the developing world. It is only because of Omer that in my own village of Ullon, West Bengal, India that we now have the “Oceanic Library.” Indeed, the Oceanic Library is a tribute to a person who survived a near-death experience and is now renown in the developing world for his work to help impoverished villages where few people know how to read or write. He is truly helping to change the world. “Back to the Summit” tells how Omer was inspired to commit his life to such humanitarian efforts. Kapilanda Mondal CEO & Secretary, VSSU (Ullon, India) “Back to the Summit” illustrates how in America one can still overcome great obstacles given enough will power, determination, and tenacity. The way in which Omer Rains overcame a paralyzing near death experience is as inspirational as any story can be.” John C. Malone Chairman, Liberty Media Chairman, Liberty Global Inc. CEO, Discovery Holding Company Former Pres. & CEO, Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) Omer Rains was a law student of mine many, many years back. Little did I know then the life challenges he had already overcome in order to even attend – much less excel – in college. It was a bit ironic when later, as Chancellor of the University of California (Berkeley) and in a classic reversal of roles, I would annually visit Omer in his capacity as a California State Senator on behalf of the University. Omer’s story, told in “Back to the Summit,” is not just the inspirational story of how he survived a near fatal brain aneurysm, but of his humanitarian efforts to help others around the world to acquire literacy and, thus, education. This book truly speaks to a life well led. Ira Michael Heyman Emeritus Professor of Law, University of California (Berkeley) Former Chancellor, University of California (Berkeley) Former Secretary, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.) Omer Rains was one of my prized patients. My specialty is in working with people who have suffered a stroke and/or a brain injury, as was the case with Omer. His book “Back to the Summit” chronicles how someone with sufficient inner-strength, determination and resolve can recover from a paralytic state to the point that today he leads more than a full and complete life, primarily in the service of others. I’m pleased to have been able to play a role in his recovery process. But the person who deserves most of the credit is Omer himself. “Back to the Summit” is an inspiring book about an inspiring person. If you’ve ever been faced with a physical challenge, read this book. It may help you find your own pathway to recovery. Waleed Al-Oboudi, MOT, OTR/L Internationally acclaimed in field of occupational therapy and rehabilitation Occupational Therapy Professional of the Year Originator of Neuro-Integrative Functional Rehabilitation and Habitation (NEURO-IFRAH) “Back to the Summit” is a riveting read. How Omer Rains came back from a near death experience and dedicated his life to helping others undeniably has a powerful spiritual undertone. Raised in a spiritual setting in the 1940s, it is my belief that Omer’s early religious surroundings played a major role in his amazing recovery. As one of his doctors told him: “The only explanation for the recovery you’ve made is that The Creator is not finished with you yet.” That explanation resonates with me, and perhaps speaks in large measure to the way in which Omer today selflessly helps people in need here at home and in many other parts of the world. Rev. Ernest Chu Director, The Soul Currency Institute Best Selling Author, “Soul Currency” The recovery of Omer Rains from a near death experience, and the way in which it was accomplished by drawing on prior life experiences, is an amazing story. One of the very early environmental leaders in the U.S., today Omer takes his message throughout the world. I have had the pleasure of working with READ Global, of which Omer serves as Chairman of the International Board. That Omer can today do the work he does in multiple countries, often in challenging conditions, is a testament to his drive to help those less advantaged than those of us in the developed world. To read “Back to the Summit” is to be truly inspired. Gunter Pauli Founder, Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI) Author of 16 books, including “The Blue Economy” Omer Rains met my brother, Bill, in the Amazon over 25 years ago, and I have known him almost as long. Every step of Omer’s life has been a testament to his fortitude and to his determination to make a difference. We can all learn much from “Back to the Summit,” a book that tells the story of a man who thinks, breathes and lives life to the fullest. As an actor, writer and producer, I can attest that even here in Hollywood, the entertainment capital of the world, it would be difficult to write a more inspiring script. Deborah Raffin Actress; Director; Publicist backtothesummit.com Flexx Theme by iThemes	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line579
__label__wiki	0.790929	0.790929	Assassination of Russian Ambassador Signals Expansion of Syrian Conflict By Blaise Misztal A new front is opening up in what persistently refuses to be and is continually misnamed as the Syrian conflict: Turkey. In 2014, the fighting spread to and enveloped Iraq. With two bombings and now the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey, it appears in 2017 the factions fighting this multi-faceted and borderless war will expand it to Turkish soil. While Kurdish groups and ISIS have previously carried out attacks in Turkey, what appears to be an attack by a Syrian opposition group on a foreign target is unprecedented. It could also mark the beginning not just of Turkey as a battleground in the Syrian conflict, but the Syrian-ization of Turkey itself. While the perpetrator has been identified as a Turkish police officer, no group has taken responsibility for the brazen attack on Ambassador Andrey Karlov in an Ankara art exhibition. It is unlikely to be the work of the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), the affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), that is believed to be behind the bombings in Istanbul on December 10 and Kayseri on December 17 that killed, together, some 60 policemen and wounded hundreds more. There is no active conflict between Russia and any Kurdish group. In fact, Kurds have been attempting their own rapprochement with Moscow—a possibility that seems they would not want to preclude with such a ruthless act. Turkey’s government, however, has a penchant for prematurely and reflexively blaming terrorist acts on the PKK and they might very well do so here because it would serve their strategic purposes to drive a wedge between the Kurds and Russia. While the perpetrator has been identified as a Turkish police officer, no group has taken responsibility for the brazen attack. Nor, despite early Russian claims that the assassination was a radical Islamic attack, does the attack seem like it would be the handiwork of ISIS; they would have little reason to target Russia. Despite Russian claims that its intervention in Syria is targeting the terrorist group, its warplanes have largely ignored the large swath of territory in northeastern Syria held by ISIS. While it is not inconceivable that ISIS might seek to burnish its terrorist credentials by attacking a Russian target, expanding its long list of enemies at a time when it is already suffering major losses would be a significant strategic miscalculation. What seems most likely is that the attack on the Russian ambassador was carried out by a group that actually has been targeted by Russian forces in Syria and borne the brunt of Moscow’s brutal, ruthless, and unforgiving slaughter of opposition fighters and civilians in Aleppo. This possibility is supported by early reports that the gunman shouted “we die in Aleppo, you die here.” If true, this attack could have been perpetrated by a “radical Islamic” group from the Syrian opposition, like Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra and officially affiliated with Al-Qaeda) or Ahrar al-Sham, perhaps even carried out by a foreign fighter from within their ranks, such as a Chechen or other Russian national that would have already had animus toward Moscow. The cleavages and factions that are warring in Syria and Iraq are also present in Turkey. But whatever the direct and specific grievance that animated this attack, it appears to be part of a larger trend of the parties to the Syrian conflict taking their fight into Turkey. Increasingly, the conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK has to be understood as a broader, regional fight. Turkey has attacked Kurdish groups that it believes to be PKK affiliates in Syria and Iraq; the most recent TAK bombings are as much reprisals for this Turkish adventurism as they are escalations of the PKK conflict. And with both Syrian opposition groups and ISIS coming under increasing pressure, it is entirely possible they will lash out in places where they might have greater freedom of movement, like Turkey. Indeed, given that Turkey has been a crucial transit and logistical hub for Syrian jihadist groups, they are likely to already have the networks and means to operate inside Turkey. As Turkey continues a confusing foreign policy in Syria—stating a willingness to work with the United States to limit Iranian influence there at the same time as it is preparing to attend a summit with Russian and Iranian leaders to discuss cooperation; signaling both a determination to oust Assad and a willingness to allow him to remain in power—it gives all sides plenty of reasons to distrust and target it. And, finally, as a major influx of refugees, over 3 million at this point, adds to Turkeys already diverse ethno-sectarian mix, the cleavages and factions that are warring in Syria and Iraq are also present in Turkey. Indeed, the greater fear is not that the battles of the Syrian conflict will be waged in Turkey, but that Turkey itself will become Syrian-ized: that the already polarized divisions of its society become inflamed, erupting into the sort of all-against-all melee that has ripped apart Syria and raised significant doubts about how the country could be reconstituted and governed as a whole. While such Syrian-ization of Turkey might still be prevented, it will require a concerted strategy to extinguish the ethno-sectarian flames that have been stoked in Syria—flames that have been exploited, but were not sparked, by ISIS and flames that will not just burn out but continue to spread through and consume the region if ignored. Beyond the Myth of Partnership: Rethinking U.S. Policy Toward Turkey Under Trump, A New Dynamic for U.S.-Turkish Relations Trump in the Middle East: A New Strategy or More of the Same? Turkey vs. ISIS and PKK	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line591
__label__wiki	0.782043	0.782043	Posts tagged with "Washington State": West Coast sees big wins (and losses) in architecture and urbanism ballot initiatives As Democratic voters moved to retake the House of Representatives and key gubernatorial seats, a series of local architecture-, urbanism-, and climate-related initiatives saw mixed results in western states. Aside from being a referendum on the divisive governance style of President Donald Trump, the midterm election brought with it fierce debates over contentious issues like expanding rent control and funding supportive housing in California, taxing carbon emissions in Washington State, and boosting renewable energy generation in Arizona and Nevada. Here’s a state-by-state breakdown of some of the major initiatives and their outcomes. Arizona: Proposition 127: An initiative to require electric utilities to use renewable energy for 50 percent of their power generation by 2035 failed in the state. The battle over Proposition 127 saw the highest amount of political spending in the state this year, with the state’s main electrical utility, Arizona Public Service, pouring over $30.3 million into a political action committee dedicated to fighting the measure. California: Proposition C: San Francisco’s supportive housing ordinance was overwhelmingly supported by the city’s voters. The initiative will raise $300 million per year for supportive housing and services from a modest tax levied on companies in the city that gross over $50 million annually in revenue. The measure is similar to the so-called “head tax” in Seattle that was passed and quickly repealed earlier this year. Proposition 1: An initiative to approve $4 billion in “housing-related programs, loans, grants, and projects and housing loans for veterans” in the state gained wide approval. Proposition 2: An initiative to dedicate $2 billion from the state’s 2004 “millionaire’s tax” toward providing “homelessness prevention housing for persons in need of mental health services“ was approved. Proposition 4: An initiative authorizing $1.5 billion in bonds for the “construction, expansion, renovation, and equipping of children's hospitals in California” was approved. Proposition 6: Voters in the state defeated a Republican-led effort to repeal a recently-passed gas tax increase. The recent increase is helping to fund bridge and road repairs while also providing new—and much-needed—mass transit funding for the state’s growing public transportation systems. Proposition 10: A state-wide effort to repeal the controversial Costa-Hawkins law that limits how municipalities can institute rent control was soundly defeated. Rather than instituting rent control statewide, the measure would have allowed municipalities the flexibility to set their own policies. Tenants’ rights and anti-displacement advocates saw the effort as providing a lifeline for their constituencies; ultimately, the $76 million raised by real estate and Wall Street interests against the measure was too much for grassroots voters to overcome. Colorado: Proposition 112: Voters in the Centennial State chose to reject a ballot initiative that would have increased oil and gas drilling setbacks from homes, businesses, and waterways. Resistance to the measure was no match for heavy spending by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, the proposition’s main opponent. With controversial hydraulic fracturing rising to new highs in the state and an increasingly bleak outlook for climate change-related disasters around the world, Colorado’s pro-environment movement has been dealt a powerful rebuke. Nevada: State Question No. 6: Voters in Nevada approved a measure that would require state utilities to generate 50 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030. In order for the measure to become law, however, it will need to survive a second vote in 2020. Washington State: Measure 1631: Washington state residents largely rejected a measure that would have imposed a first-in-the-nation tax on carbon emissions. The initiative performed well in liberal King County—home to Seattle—but lost pretty much everywhere else in the state. Measure 940: Washington state residents approved a measure that would require law enforcement officials to receive “de-escalation” and mental health training as well as provide first aid under certain circumstances. The initiative would also require authorities to conduct an investigation after a deadly use of force by a member of law enforcement in order to verify that such force meets a “good faith” test. Spokane, Washington, aims to be free of fossil fuels by 2030 The city council of Spokane, Washington, has adopted a new ordinance that would make it the second city in the state after Seattle to set the goal of being powered entirely with renewable energy by 2030. The so-called Fossil Free Spokane initiative will create a new Sustainability Action Commission in the city that will update Spokane’s Sustainability Action Plan to include a specific climate action roadmap aimed at reducing its fossil fuel consumption down to zero. The plan aims to do so by deploying a mix of community-benefitting sustainable energy initiatives that include creating a low-income solar program, expanding regional access to clean transit, and working with local utility providers to transition to renewable generation methods. “Creating an electrical grid from 100 percent renewable energy is urgent, but requires collaboration across all sectors,” said Spokane council member Breean Beggs during a recent meeting. Beggs added that work was already underway with local utility Avista to “create a pragmatic and cost-effective approach to upgrading Spokane’s electrical grid.” The pledge will bring the number of American cities vying for 100 percent renewable energy generation to 79, a group that includes large, medium, and small-sized cities, including Salt Lake City, Utah, Sarasota, Florida, St. Louis, Missouri, San Diego, California, and Concord, New Hampshire. These cities are all aiming to derive all of their energy from renewable resourced by 2030 or 2032, according to the Sierra Club. At the county level, nine counties have made the pledge, including Multnomah County, Oregon, Buncombe County, North Carolina, and Pueblo County, Colorado. The state of Hawaii has signed on to a similar promise, as well. Though it might seem like a pie-in-the-sky effort, five smaller American cities have already hit this lofty goal. Those cities are Aspen, Colorado, Burlington, Vermont, Greensburg, Kansas, Rock Port, Missouri, and Kodiak Island, Alaska. A recent report by the environmental group CDP found that over 100 cities worldwide generate a majority—over 70 percent—of their power from renewable sources, up from just 42 in 2015. The report found that 40 cities worldwide are entirely powered by clean energy and that investment in renewable energy sources was highest across Europe, Africa, and Latin America, where billions of dollars in recent clean energy investments are remaking the energy portfolios around the world following the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015. Washington State is embracing mass timber construction With a mix of recently-enacted and forthcoming legislation, Washington State is beginning to embrace mass timber construction. Washington State Governor Jay Inslee recently signed legislation for State Bill 5450, a new law that directs the state’s building code council to “adopt rules for the use of mass timber products for residential and commercial building construction.” The law will allow state and local jurisdictions to begin to work mass timber construction into local building and zoning codes, a first step toward the wider adoption of the construction technology. The law includes the requirement that rules adopted for the use of mass timber products by the state building code council “must consider applicable national and international standards,” a nod to the forthcoming changes to the International Building Code (IBC) that would institute new guidelines for mass timber structures rising as high as 18 stories. The proposed changes are currently under consideration by IBC’s Ad Hoc Committee on Tall Wood Buildings, which was established in 2016. The committee will begin collecting public comments on the proposed changes in April of this year. In a more aggressive move, the Washington State Legislature is also working toward enacting State Bill 5379 (SB 5379), a measure that would require all public buildings in the state rising 12 stories or less be built using Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT). The move is a natural one for Washington, which has a thriving timber industry and has some catching up to do in terms of mass timber adoption when compared to neighboring Oregon. According to the Washington State Department of Commerce, the timber industry brings in over $28 billion in sales annually across the state and employs over 105,000 workers garnering over $5 billion in wages. The potential law would make the state the first in the country requiring mass timber construction. Currently, SB 5379 is only in committee at the moment and a timeline for passage and enactment has not been released. Kirkland Urban development outside Seattle breaks ground Construction has started on the Kirkland Urban, an 11.5-acre mixed-use development designed and master planned by Seattle-based architects CollinsWoerman for the Seattle-adjacent city of Kirkland, Washington. The complex, a redevelopment of an existing shopping mall, is being redesigned around the notion of an “18-hour city,” a designation typically reserved for the mid-sized metropolitan centers that offer the density of amenities, jobs, and housing present in larger cities but do not necessarily run around-the-clock. The model relies on the mixed-use configurations to maintain a more balanced streetlife than prototypical purpose-built business districts, which typically shut down after business hours. In a press release for the first phase of the project, partners PGIM Real Estate, Talon Private Capital, and Ryan Companies, US detail their plans for the first phase of Kirkland Urban: 390,000-square feet of Class-A office space, 140,000-square feet of retail, 185 apartments, and 1,700 parking spaces. The office spaces will take the form of a pair of six-story towers resting atop a multi-tiered retail podium. The developers are in the process of filling the towers with tech workers—tech companies Wave and Tableau have already signed on as anchor tenants—and plans also include a 50,000 grocery store to be operated by Kroger. The complex aims to include public art-lined “multi-family open spaces” and will feature a series of plazas oriented toward an adjacent recreational park, Peter Kirk Park. The residential component of the project, housed in a brick-and-balcony-clad apartment block, will be designed by Seattle-based Weber Thompson and feature a roof deck, club room and fitness center. Seattle-based firm Hewitt will provide landscape design services for the project. The developers and architects are aiming for LEED Gold certification for the project. The second phase of the Kirkland Urban has not yet been announced, but phase one is scheduled for completion in 2018. Catch a Design Film at the Seattle 2016 ByDesign Film Festival What could be better than film, urbanism, architecture, and design? When film, urbanism, and design unite, we get powerful and insightful results: there’s La Haine, a French film that follows three young men in the banlieues of Paris; there’s Mon Oncle, that pokes fun at the absurdities of residential Corbusian inspired architecture; and more recently films like My Architect, where Louis Kahn’s son seeks to know his father's work, and through his work, his father. For those of you in the Seattle area this week, a heads up: the Northwest Film Forum (NWFF) is hosting its annual design film festival, ByDesign 2016 that features films exploring architecture, art, urban design, and other design-related themes. The festival runs for four days: April 14-17. BYDESIGN 2016 TRAILER (COURTESY NORTHWEST FILM FORUM) NWFF is screening the German film, Beyond Metabolism, which looks at the impact of Metabolism, an architectural post-WWII movement in Japan (that could be a distant cousin to Brutalist architecture with its imposing, monumental concrete forms) through the lens of Sachio Otani’s Metabolist 1966 International Conference Center in Kyoto. Then there’s Getting Frank Gehry, that presents Gehry's controversial and first Australian-built project: the one-year-old tree-house-inspired Dr Chau Chak Wing Building, which serves as the home for the University of Technology business school in Sydney. Farther north, Strange and Familiar: Architecture on Fogo Island, delves into Todd Saunder's architecture—an inn and artist studios that populate a rugged island in Newfoundland and Labrador in eastern Canada. The Chinese film, The Land of Many Palaces investigates the intersection of urban relocation, development, real estate, ownership, and coal in China’s largest ghost city, Ordos City, located over 400 miles west of Beijing. Built by the government with the wealth of newfound Ordos coal deposits, officials are moving farmers living in the countryside to the newly developed urbanized area. “Neighbors and friends,” says a woman with a microphone in the movie trailer who appears to be a government representative addressing new residents, “We are trying to create a more civilized city.” The festival opens with a film staring artist Tom Sachs, A Space Program, who will attend the Seattle premier. If you live closer to New York City and Los Angeles, the two cities will play host to architecture and design film festivals this fall (filmmakers: there's an open call for submissions). Anything but boring: World's largest tunnelling machine, Big Bertha, is stuck under Seattle, Tweets an interview Big Bertha, Seattle's famous tunnel boring machine, is stuck underground again. Bertha was running for just under a month following a two year delay to fix a broken cutter head. And the machine has taken to Twitter, as we imagine it can get lonely so far beneath the city. A little over two weeks ago, a large sinkhole formed while Bertha was drilling the over-57-foot-diameter Highway 99 tunnel to replace the earthquake prone viaduct. No one knows exactly why it happened. Just earlier that day, a nearby Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP) barge tilted, offloading tunnel dirt into Elliot Bay and dismantling part of a dock. The 15-foot-deep, 20-feet-wide, and 35-foot-long sinkhole was quickly filled with 250 cubic yards of concrete and sand. But Bertha is still stuck. STP wants to start Bertha again, but the Washington State Department of Transportation (WDOT) hasn't given them the necessary written permission to move forward yet. SDOT says they need more information. But enough of the dismal facts and figures. And now, for something different: The nonprofit blog Strong Towns interviewed @StuckBertha, Bertha's unofficial Twitter account, in January. Enjoy some excerpts from their tongue-in-cheek conversation, below. Check out the full interview on the Strong Towns blog. We all hope Bertha gets unstuck very soon. Report: Red tape and deferred maintenance balloon U.S. infrastructure costs to $3.7 trillion A new report attempts to quantify the cost of our national reluctance to fix aging bridges, railroads and power lines. Delays in approving infrastructure projects cost the United States some $3.7 trillion, according to the nonpartisan think tank Common Good—more than twice what it would take to fix the infrastructure in the first place, according to a report titled Two Years, Not Ten Years: Redesigning Infrastructure Approvals. That staggering price tag includes the costs of prolonged inefficiencies and unnecessary pollution that continues while local, state, and federal agencies forestall fixes to infrastructure that the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates is due for $1.7 trillion in repairs and maintenance through 2020. The New York–based think tank based their numbers on a six-year delay, which they reasoned was accurate according to available data about how long projects typically take to get shovel-ready: Although large projects often take a decade or longer to permit, we assume that the avoidable delay on major projects is six years. There is ample anecdotal evidence of actual years of delay in the US for different types of infrastructure projects, but little cumulative data. The Federal Highway Administration estimated that the average time for approval of major highway projects was over six years. Five to ten years is a common timeframe for interstate transmission lines, and for wind farms and solar fields on federal lands on either coast. Infrastructure maintenance and repair is, of course, a thoroughly unsexy topic. But, as the Wall Street Journal writes in an editorial about Common Good's report, it's important—and perhaps politically viable even in a presidential election cycle: Common Good suggests building a process that shuttles projects through in a prompt two years. Environmental reviews should be handled by one designated official and kept to 300 pages; litigation should be restricted to the first 90 days after the permit is issued; the White House should be granted authority to appoint an agency as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for interstate projects. Congress could address the permitting morass this fall as part of the transportation bill, and the presidential candidates could include the issue and a horror story or two in their agendas for faster economic growth. It’s hard to imagine a more sensible and politically achievable idea—and one better suited to restoring public confidence that government can carry out its basic duties.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line593
__label__wiki	0.69422	0.69422	Tag Archives: Twain Art History, Literature History, Mark Twain “The Best of the Season:” Mark Twain’s Indiana Lectures November 28, 2016 Justin Clark “America’s Best Humorist,” Mark Twain. Lithograph by Joseph F. Keppler, 1885. Library of Congress. From James Whitcomb Riley to Kurt Vonnegut, Indiana is well-known for its literary heritage. This heritage developed, in-part, through personal appearances, where authors read from their works and shared new material with audiences. Of the lecturers, one of the most successful during the Gilded Age was Mark Twain. Born in Missouri as Samuel L. Clemens, Mark Twain became one of the late-19th century’s most popular and acclaimed authors. Alongside his successful career as a novelist and cultural critic, Twain crisscrossed the country, regaling packed theaters with stories, readings from new written material, and plain-old good jokes. Map highlighting Mark Twain’s lectures in the Midwest. Mark Twain Project. One of his first visits to Indiana as a lecturer was January 4, 1869, when he performed a reading of “The American Vandal Abroad.” As reported by the Indianapolis Daily Sentinel: We caution our readers not to forget the treat prepared for them this evening by the Library Association. Mark Twain, one of the real humorists of the day, will deliver his lecture entitled “The American Vandal Abroad,” and his merits entitle him to a large audience. The lecture will be delivered at Metropolitan Hall, and reserved seats may be secured without extra charge at Bonham’s Music Store. Mark Twain, circa 1860-1880. Indiana Memory, While the exact content of his performance from that night was not reported, he had repeatedly given the lecture through 1868-69, and a compiled version was published by literature scholar Paul Fatout, in his book, Mark Twain Speaking. In this lecture, Twain referred to the “American Vandal” as someone who “goes everywhere and is always at home everywhere . . . His is proud and looks proud. His countenance is beaming. He does not fail to let the public know that he is an American.” Twain’s lecture, like his broader work, represents an American voice that spoke to the Midwest, especially places like Indiana. Indianapolis News, January 1, 1872. From Hoosier State Chronicles. In 1872, Twain returned to Indiana and gave a lecture sharing snippets from his then-upcoming work, Roughing It. According to the Indianapolis News, Mark Twain gave his lecture at the Y.M.C.A. Association hall on January 1, 1872, at a cost of 50 cents at the door, 75 cents for reserved seats (what a bargain!). As the News reported: Mark Twain, the noted humorist and author, lectures here to-night [sic] on “Passages from Roughing It.” Mr. Twain has a national reputation and should appear before a hall of people; besides the Y. M. C. A., under whose auspices he lectures, are in absolute want through lack of means. Let Association Hall be crowded to-night [sic]. This lecture was a marked departure from “Vandal,” both in style and in subject. Twain shared with audiences his experiences out west, from camping in the outskirts of Carson City, Nevada to riding colt horses and getting in duels. Terre Haute Evening Mail, January 6, 1872. From Hoosier State Chronicles. Twain’s stories were printed in newspapers during his time in Indiana in 1872 as well. For example, the Terre Haute Evening Mail published an article entitled “Mark Twain on His Travels.” Among the witty stories than were shared by the Mail, this one is golden: When we got to Rochester I called for a bowl of bean soup. I send you the receipt for making it: “Take a lot of water, wash it well, boil it until it is brown on both sides; then very carefully pour one bean into it and let it simmer. When the bean begins to get restless sweeten with salt, then put it in air-tight cans, hitch each can to a brick, and chuck them overboard, and the soup is done.” The above receipt originated with a man in Iowa, who gets up suppers on odd occasions for Odd Fellows. He has a receipt for oyster soup of the same kind, only using twice as much water to the oyster and leaving out the salt. However, not everyone was taken with Twain’s sardonic lectures. The Indianapolis People wrote that “It is the decided opinion of all we heard speak of Mark Twain’s lecture that it read better than it was spoken.” George W. Cable. Library of Congress. When Twain returned to Indiana in 1885, he came with a traveling lecture partner. George W. Cable, novelist of the southern-creole experience and an influence on William Faulkner, shared selections from his novels while Twain shared early pages from Huckleberry Finn as well as stories like “The Golden Arm.” Twain and Cable couldn’t have been more different. Twain was described by the Indianapolis Sentinel as “awkward and lanky” whereas Cable was more reserved. As Fatout observed, Twain often bristled as Cable’s religiosity and rigorous commitment to formality while Cable scoffed at Twain’s unorthodox and scattered disposition. To get a sense of their differences, review this blurb from the Indianapolis News: “Mr. Cable eats chocolate ice cream at midnight, after his readings, and still lives. His yoke-fellow, Mark Twain, hurls his bootjack at St. John, and uncorks a bottle or so of pale ale.” Indianapolis Daily Sentinel, January 7, 1885. From Hoosier State Chronicles. Nevertheless, their joint appearance at Plymouth Church in Indianapolis, Indiana on January 7, 1885 was greatly lauded. The Indianapolis Sentinel reported that their performances was “the best of the season” and the Indianapolis News wrote that it was “one of the finest audiences that could be gathered.” The Greencastle Times even reported that efforts were underway to bring the two over to Greencastle to perform (alas, it was not to be). That evening, Twain shared with the audience his short story, “Dick Baker’s Cat,” a short tale about a special cat who had a propensity for mining. Here’s a short snippet from the story: ‘Gentlemen, I used to have a cat here, by the name of Tom Quartz, which you’d ‘a’ took an interest in, I reckon—, most anybody would. I had him here eight year—and he was the remarkablest cat I ever see. He was a large grey one of the Tom specie, an’ he had more hard, natchral sense than any man in this camp—’n’ a power of dignity—he wouldn’t let the Gov’ner of Californy be familiar with him. He never ketched a rat in his life—’peared to be above it. He never cared for nothing but mining. He knowed more about mining, that cat did, than any man I ever, ever see. You couldn’t tell him noth’n’ ’bout placer-diggin’s—’n’ as for pocketmining, why he was just born for it.’ The rest of story involves a hilarious scenario where the mining-savvy cat gets stuck in a quartz shaft, which explodes, and he flies out of there all covered in soot and his whiskers burned off. It was exactly the kind of zany, improbable yarn that Twain was so gifted at and the audience at Plymouth Church agreed. Twain’s and Cable’s appearance would be the last time they would appear together in Indiana and Twain’s last lecture in the state. Over the next 20 years, Twain continued to travel the county and the world, going so far as India and New Zealand, to share his lectures and stories. His last known lecture, according to the Mark Twain Project, was a reading for Mary Allen Hulbert Peck on the Island of Bermuda on March 27, 1908. Mark Twain died on April 24, 1910 at the age of 74 from heart failure, at his home near Redding, Connecticut. An obituary in the Plymouth Tribune complimented Twain’s success as a novelist, humorist, and lecturer. It also cited the loss of much of his family, particularly his daughter, and friends as one of the main reasons for his passing. Plymouth Tribune, April 28 1910. From Hoosier State Chronicles. Reflecting on what was referred to as the “American style” of humor, Mark Twain shared his thoughts to a reporter from the Detroit Post, later reprinted in the Terre Haute Express: “Is the American taste for humor still growing, in your opinion?” “Yes, I think so. Humor is always popular, and especially so with Americans. It is born in every American, and he can’t help liking it.” “Is it true that the American style of humor is becoming very popular in England?” “Yes, the liking of American humor over there has become immense. It wakens [sic] the people to new life, and is supplanting the dry wit which formerly passes for humor. American humor wins its own way, and does not need to be cultivated. The English come to like it naturally” In his lectures in Indiana and elsewhere, Twain exhibited the type of natural humor “born in every American” that characterizes the American cultural identity. Mark Twain, 1907. Library of Congress. HistoryhumorIndianaIndiana Historylecture circuitliteratureLiterature HistoryMark TwainregionalismTwain	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line595
__label__cc	0.595074	0.404926	Puppies Visit Care Home, Hilarity Ensues Elizabeth Nelson By Elizabeth Nelson An Ohio man named Ross Smith and his 92-year-old grandmother, who goes by “Granny,” have been making funny videos for five years. The comedy duo has gone viral for their unique sense of humor and particularly for the quick wit and rambunctious spirit of little old Granny. They now have over 19 million fans on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. And they’ve become best friends while doing it. “We’re just trying to spread as much positivity as we can,” said Smith. “It makes us happy too.” In an attempt to bring some holiday cheer to Alzheimer’s patients and other senior care residents this holiday season, Smith and Granny spent the Monday before Thanksgiving visiting four senior living facilities in the area. They used their comedy talents and an extra special surprise to make the day truly special for the residents there. Photo: Facebook/Ross Smith “It was time for me to come up with an idea to use this voice we have and to give back,” Smith said. “A lot of people were reaching out and saying they can’t speak to their grandma and grandpa anymore because they have dementia, and they live vicariously through us.” The surprise? Why, puppies, of course! What else could it be? Smith and Granny enlisted the help of Petland, a pet store in Lewis Center, Ohio, to bring puppies to residents at The Village at Westerville, The Inn at Olentangy Trail, Sage Park Alzheimer’s Special Care Center, and Otterbein Senior Life. They spent a few hours at each facility, allowing each resident to cuddle, pet, and play with their own adorable little pup. “What I learned is people who are affected by Alzheimer’s and dementia, they aren’t receptive much,” Smith said. “But with animals and music, they really have old memories come back and hit them hard. So, when I go into these rooms and I speak to people … you can tell they’ve been affected by this disease. But when you give them a puppy, it’s like radio silence and they’re so focused. It’s like night and day.” This comedy team went all out, even wearing dogs on their shirts and getting Thanksgiving-themed costumes for the puppies to wear, including a turkey, a pumpkin, and a pilgrim. And Granny, of course, curated some extra special stand-up material for the occasion. As the residents played with and petted their pups, Granny went around talking to each individual and making jokes like, “I was on the Mayflower!” and “You folks are a perfect match. Did you meet on Tinder?” She even led several residents in gobbling like turkeys. “Do you know who let the dogs out?” Granny asked one resident. “I did!” To another patient, she said, “Do you want to start a food fight at lunch?” One thing is for sure. This is one hip grandma, and her energy is boundless! She has such a sweet and playful spirit, and we’re so glad her grandson picked up on her bright light and decided to help share it with the world! But Granny’s fountain of energy had to run dry eventually. She ended up catching a cat nap (or a puppy nap?) at one of the care facilities while the residents played with their puppy friends. Not wanting to leave the patients empty-handed at the end of the day, Smith and Granny devised a plan to leave each senior with a special gift that would help comfort them just like the puppies did. They created custom pillows to look like each of the puppies so that every care home resident could keep a plush toy that looks exactly like the puppy they had the pleasure of cuddling! At the end of the day, Smith and Granny thanked the residents and the staff for letting them and the puppies come and have so much fun celebrating Thanksgiving. “Turn up!” Granny shouted as they left. Luckily, you can still share in this touching and comical event even if you weren’t there, because Smith recorded the event and shared it on social media on Thanksgiving Day. His goal with the video was to let seniors with Alzheimer’s and dementia know they are not forgotten, especially during the holiday season. “[People] just forget about folks when they’re old,” Smith said. “We want to give all we can to those who might not have families for the holidays or might not have a home or might have a hard time remembering the holidays.” Check out the viral video to see this hilarious comedy team in action. This is the best combination of hilarious and heartfelt we’ve ever seen, and the smiles on the faces of the residents says it all! We brought puppies to people affected with Alzheimers This Thanksgiving we brought puppies to people affected with Alzheimers. We are so thankful to put smiles on so many beautiful faces. I challenge all of you to spread your love with someone in need this holiday season ❤️ Posted by Ross Smith on Thursday, November 22, 2018 Thank you, Smith and Granny, for using your special talents to improve the lives of those around you, especially some of the most vulnerable and often forgotten people of this world. Your work will not go unappreciated! Babysitting Your Grandchildren Once in a While Could Help Keep Alzheimer's at Bay: Click “Next” below! Elizabeth Nelson is a wordsmith, an alumna of Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, a four-leaf-clover finder, and a grammar connoisseur. She has lived in west Michigan since age four but loves to travel to new (and old) places. In her free time, she. . . wait, what’s free time?	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line596
__label__cc	0.668457	0.331543	“Indian Tea: Its Culture and Manufacture” by Claud Bald On October 3, 2012 October 3, 2012 By William I. Lengeman IIIIn Resources and Information The Indian tea industry was not yet a century old, in 1908, when Claud Bald published (the second edition of) Indian Tea: Its Culture and Manufacture, but it was doing quite nicely for itself. The first forays to assess the Assam region for its tea growing potential didn’t really get rolling until about eighty years prior to that and it was at least another decade before production actually got underway. Indian Spiced Chai – click on image to see more Indian teas! (Photo source: The English Tea Store) Since the subtitle points out that this is “a Text Book on the Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea” the reader shouldn’t really be surprised if this volume can veer toward being a bit dry, in spots. Unless you’re really interested in the nitty gritty of running an Indian tea estate as of about a century ago, you could safely skip or skim though the first 19 chapters. Near the end of the book, after chapters on pruning, manuring and the ever riveting tea blights, Bald presents a few chapters that might be of more interest to the casual reader. Chapter 21 is an interesting albeit quite practical look at green tea. As the author notes, in the early days of the Indian tea industry green and black teas were both rather common, but production of the former gradually tapered off, at least for the most part. While a few producers started making green tea again in the years immediately prior to Bald’s book being published, to this day green tea makes up a small part of India’s output. Also of interest is a chapter that discusses India’s efforts to move into producing the brick tea that was so popular in Tibet at the time. The chapter on Accounts, as the name suggests, takes a look at the actual nuts and bolts of running a tea estate from a financial standpoint. The final chapter, The Cooly, might not win any awards for political correctness, but if you follow the news coming out of India’s tea estates even to this day it’s apparent that labor troubles there are not just an issue for the history books. Mix in a selection of historical photos and a number of interesting advertisements for tea processing machinery and other items and it adds up to a volume, that while it’s probably not suitable for beach reading, is worth a look. tea book 5 Teas Perfect for Cooler Weather Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Teapot	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line599
__label__cc	0.665064	0.334936	100 Great Geosites A Geological History Tour of the British Overseas Territories Posted on May 16, 2014 by Florence Bullough Leave a comment Location of some of the British Overseas Territories The geosites blog is off to warmer climes this week to look at the geology of more sites further afield in the British Overseas Territories. But first, an explainer: what technically is a British Overseas Territory? Well there are 14 territories which are under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United Kingdom but they do not form part of it. They are those parts of the former British Empire that have not acquired independence, or have voted to remain British Territories. They all have their own internal leadership but share the Queen as head of state. Here we take you through just a few of them and a brief introduction to their geology. Tristan da Cunha. Tristan da Cunha (named after its discoverer, Tristao da Cunha) is part of a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. Despite its proximity to the Mid-Atlantic ridge, the volcanic activity is due instead to a hotspot thought to have formed by an upwelling of mantle, so named the Tristan hotspot. It is the most remote island population in the world. The island is entirely volcanic in origin comprising mostly basantic and phonolitic lava flows and most recently erupted in 1962. Geosite: Visit Queen Mary’s Peak, 2062 metres above sea leve, the peak of the massive shield volcano that makes up the island and see the heart-shaped crater lake sitting at the top. British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Continuing south to colder climes is the British Antarctic Territory, site of many cutting edge geoscience research projects. With 99% of Antarctia covered in snow and ice the geology is a little harder to find but Antarctia is home to some of the most spectacular mountain ranges including the Antarctic Pensinula, the Transantarctic mountains and the highet mountain, Vinson Massif in the Ellsworth Mountains. Map of the outline of the British Antarctic Territory. Geological features of Antarctica include Nunataks (small areas of rock emerging above ice sheets and glaciers) and Dry Valleys. Volcanoes are also an important component of the Antarctic region, formed by mantle plumes acting on the stationary Antarctic plate. The region also includes one of the best examples of a long-lived continental margin arc (Antarctic Peninsula), a very young marginal basin (Bransfield Straight) and an oceanic island arc (South Sandwich Islands). Geosite: The Sandwich islands for an excellent example of an oceanic island arc and associated structures and deposits. Map of the Soufriere Hill exclusion zone on Montserrat. Montserrat, located in the Caribbean is famous for its volcanic eruptions. Made up of 3 volcanic centres, they date back to the Pleistocene. It is most famous for the Soufreiere Hils Volcanic Eruption that occured in 1995 and 1997. Thought to be dormant for centuries, the volcano destroyed the capital city, Plymouth, the dock, the airport and left most of the southern portion of the island uninhabitable. As such the southern portion of the island has been placed in an exclusion zone and cut off to inhabitants and visitors. The eruption in 1997 consisted of a pyroclastic flows and surges that swept down the north eastern flanks of the volcano. The havoc wrought by the volcano can now be visited by a series of viewing points and boat trips. For more on the volcanic hazards on Montserrat see the BGS website here. Geosite: Montserrat Volcano Observatory where you can see the various hazard monitoring processes going on as well as explanations of the famous eruption. Cayman Trough in the Caribbean. So, next stop is the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. Located just to the nothwest of Jamaica and the South of Cuba, it is made up of 3 islands: Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. These islands are formed of outcrops of the ‘Cayman Ridge’ a submarine mountain range which includes the ‘Sierra Maestra’ mountains of Cuba all the way to Belize. This ridge formed due to the interaction between North American and Caribbean tectonic plates. The ridge is the northern margin of the Cayman Trough with these islands formed as individually uplifted fault blocks. They Caymans have a granodiorite at their base, a cap of basalt and an uppermost layer of carbonates formed by living organisms that have been laid down during sea level changes in the last 30 million years. ‘Hell’ on Grand Cayman. Geosite: A site of particular geotourism value is a place named ‘Hell’ and is located on Grand Cayman. It is a group of short, black, jagged limestone formations formed from the weathered remains of a local rock called ironshore. The black colour is owed to the coating of algae. Oeno atoll, the Pitcairn Islands The Pitcairn islands comprise the islands of Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno in the south pacific. They are the southerneastmost extension of the archipelago of the Tuamotus of French Polynesia. They are formed by a centre of upwelling magma called the Pitcairn hotspot. The predominat geology across the islands is different. Ducie island and Oeno are both atolls, while Henderson island is an uplifted coral island and Pitcarin island is volcanic. Geosite: Christian’s cave Christian’s Cave, Pitcairn Islands. Visit Christians cave, along the shoreline, where lead mutineer Fletcher Christian is said to have watched for approaching ships and hid from fellow settlers. British Indian Territory Aerial shot of Diego Garcia. The British Indian Territory (or Chagos Islands) is made up of 6 atolls of the Chagos Archipelago. The biggest of which is Diego Garcia. The Chagos Archipelago sits at the very southern tip of the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge, an enormous submarine range in the Indian Ocean topped by coral reefs and atolls. This submarine ridge is formed by volcanoes above the ‘Reunion’ hotspot. Diego Garcia is the visible rim of a coral atoll made up of Holocene coral and sand which overlays pleistocene limestone deposited on a seamount rising approximately 1800 metres from the floor of the Indian Ocean. The islands and surrounding area form a vast oceanic Environment Preservation and Protection Zone. The rim of the atoll almost entirely encloses around a lagoon. Diego Garcia is frequently subjected to earthquakes caused by movememt along the Carlsberg Ridge just to the west of the island, one in 2002 measurig 4.6 on the Richter Scale. Geosite: The Great Chagos Bank, a strict nature reserve, contains habitats such as shallow limestone reef mostly submarine with a few emerging reefs said to be one of the healthiest and cleanest reef systems in the world. Previous post ← 100 Great Geosites Nomination: Cwm Idwal National Nature Reserve Next post Let’s talk about fracking →	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line600
__label__wiki	0.556273	0.556273	Firefox Add-ons Cross More Than 3 Billion Downloads! Amy Tsay We are excited to announce that we just crossed more than 3 billion downloads* of Firefox Add-ons! That’s almost half of the world’s population and more than the number of people on the Internet today. Mozilla introduced add-ons to the Web in 2004 with the Firefox Add-ons Gallery and first brought them to phones in 2009 as a way for you to customize the features, functionality and look of your Web experience to make Firefox truly your own. Firefox Add-ons enable you to customize the features, functionality and look of your Web experience. With add-ons, you can personalize Firefox to fit your needs and interests in music, games, entertainment, sports, appearance, language support and more. More than 85 percent of Firefox users have at least one add-on installed and of those people with add-ons installed, they have an average of five add-ons. The most popular add-ons include AdBlock Plus, Firebug, NoScript, Personas Plus and Video DownloadHelper. Most popular categories include privacy and security, search tools, bookmarks and themes. There are more than 150,000 user-created collections of Firefox Add-ons to choose from, including Family Organizer, Traveler’s Pack, Sports Fanatic, The Paranoid Kit, Web Developer’s Toolbox and Online Shopping. This amazing milestone was made possible by the hundreds of millions of Firefox users and more than 25,000 Firefox Add-ons developers around the globe. To thank you, we wanted to share the below infographic for a snapshot of Firefox Add-ons statistics and milestones. Thank you! We hope you continue to enjoy using Firefox! * This number includes only downloads from the Firefox Add-ons Gallery and does not include themes. Categories: end users, general Francisco wrote on July 26, 2012 at 11:02 am : Grande FirefoX sigan innovando ! About Amy Tsay @mozamo Amy is a product manager for add-ons at Mozilla. More from Amy	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line601
__label__cc	0.514786	0.485214	Justice Obama? ‘President’ Hillary would consider it, ABC reports After eight years of Barack Obama in the White House, American voters might have the chance to see him appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court for life, because Hillary Clinton yesterday told a crowd in Iowa that, if elected, she would “certainly take that under advisement,” ABC reported today. Her statement, in reaction to an audience question at a campaign event in Deocorah, may raise eyebrows in the Second Amendment community. Even just the thought of a possible Obama presence on the high court may cause American gun owners to turn out en masse this November at the polls, as they did in 1994 when they flipped Congress to Republican control. By no small coincidence, it was that election 22 years ago that took Congress away from Clinton’s husband following passage of the Brady Law in 1993 and the Clinton 10-year ban on so-called “assault weapons” in ’94. At the time, Mrs. Clinton had been all in for both measures, and during her tenure in the U.S. Senate, she showed no indication of a change of heart on guns. Yesterday’s remarks were captured on video, which was picked up by the Daily Caller. In her comments, Clinton acknowledged that the next president may be able to appoint “one to three” new Supreme Court justices. This is why, gun rights advocates continually remind their grassroots constituents, “Elections matter.” The next president will also appoint more judges to the federal benches, at the circuit and appeals court levels. If Clinton is elected, along with a Democrat majority in the Senate – where judicial appointments are confirmed following hearings before the Judiciary Committee – her appointments would likely sail through. Second Amendment advocates are convinced that no Clinton judicial appointee will be friendly to the right to keep and bear arms. This fact was not lost on Clinton, who reminded the crowd, “Now we do have to get a Democratic Senate to get him confirmed so you’re going to have to help me on that, OK?” That may increase the odds that gun owners will be sure to participate in this year’s Senate races. In 2008 and 2010, the high court barely confirmed that the Second Amendment protects an individual civil right and that it applies to the states via the 14th Amendment. It was a one-vote margin both times, and a leftward shift on the court could doom both the Heller and McDonald rulings, narrowing the right if not reversing them altogether, rights activists fear. Since 2010, the high court has rejected several cases for review, and right now, the justices seem to be sitting on the sidelines while the executive and legislative branches of government aregue. Clinton dubbed the proposal “a great idea.” But that’s a matter of perspective. Gun owners, especially in the West, would not think having Obama on the Supreme Court is a great idea. Quite the opposite. Got an opinion about this column? Share your thoughts in the “Comments” section below. Richard Nixon would tell Hillary Clinton to not run for president Ted Cruz jokes would consider running over Trump with his car on Jimmy Kimmel President Obama "Mr. Trump will not be president" President Obama still won't publicly endorse Hillary Clinton Hillary Clinton applauds President Obama's expected action on gun safety	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line604
__label__cc	0.748785	0.251215	Pre-order Plate Hunger Heroes John Lennon self-portrait image authorized by Yoko Ono Lennon. ©Yoko Ono Lennon HELP END HUNGER IN CALIFORNIA, ONE PLATE AT A TIME! The Department of Motor Vehicles will begin the process of creating the program to issue the ‘Imagine No Hunger’ license plates upon receipt of 7,500 pre-paid applications. The Need for a California ‘Imagine No Hunger’ Specialty Plate Every day in California, nearly 1 in 8 households face food insecurity, defined as the occasional or constant lack of access to the food one needs for a healthy, active life. For the 6.5 million Californians struggling with food insecurity, hard choices must be made between buying food and meeting such basic needs as housing, medicine, transportation, or childcare. Food insecurity disproportionately affects children and seniors, and tragically, 1 out of every 4 California kids may go to bed hungry each night. While the impact of hunger is not always obvious, its effects are present in nearly all of our communities and classrooms on a daily basis. Despite strong support, food banks cannot yet offer a proportional response to the vast need for food among Californians. According to the national food bank organization Feeding America, Californians are lacking over 1 billion meals annually, and at an average retail cost of $2.80 per meal, it would take over $3 billion to create food security in our state. Fortunately, food banks are able to take advantage of donated foods and economies of scale to cut those costs dramatically. The California Association of Food Banks estimates that hunger in California could be eliminated with an investment of $300-500 million dollars annually. – If 10 million California drivers purchased the ‘Imagine No Hunger’ specialty plate – hunger would be eliminated from the state! The CDSS is working with CAFB to address hunger issues in California The creation of a new California ‘Imagine No Hunger’ special Interest license plate to address the need for hunger relief in California will have many benefits to hungry Californians, food banks, and the state itself, including: Increased awareness of hunger issues in the state. A meaningful recurring revenue source of funds to address hunger in California. No cost to the state of California to create or market the plate; all costs are covered by revenue generated from purchasers of the special interest plate. California Association of Food Banks (CAFB) is a membership organization representing 42 food banks from throughout the state with a shared mission to build a well-nourished California, and a firm commitment to providing cutting-edge leadership in the anti-hunger community. Major programs include Farm to Family, which works with growers and packers to provide fresh produce to food banks; statewide programs for SNAP outreach and enrollment; robust state and federal advocacy efforts; produce and nutrition education; and, member services that provide technical assistance and engage members in special projects to reduce the prevalence and consequences of food insecurity in California. Over the past year, CAFB has worked with its members and partners to: Distribute 140 million pounds of fresh produce to those in need; Secure over $7.25 million in funding for our member food banks; Reach over 180,000 people through nutrition education programs focused on promoting consumption of fresh produce; Provide CalFresh (food stamp) information and application assistance to over 100,000 households; and, Successfully advocate for major changes in CalFresh operations that have boosted participation by 13 percentage points. Food banks play a critical role in California’s food safety net, reaching over two million people in need annually, including children, seniors, the working poor, disabled, homeless and veterans. Using creativity and innovation, along with careful stewardship of resources, food banks in California have developed models of food procurement, food distribution, and nutrition education that are replicated nationally. Today, California food banks not only distribute food through traditional methods such as community pantries and soup kitchens, but also operate such innovative programs as school pantries, back pack programs for children, senior brown bags, farmer’s market style distributions, and programs for people with special dietary needs, such as diabetics. California Department of Social Services (CDSS) CDSS is eligible to sponsor a specialized license plate program to promote its work with respect to supporting food banks and helping to end hunger in California. The creation of a new California specialized license plate to address the need for further hunger relief in California will have many benefits for five million food insecure Californians, food banks, and the state itself. Specifically, funds raised will be expended to support: a. Increased awareness of hunger issues in the state b. Directly address major hunger issues in California CDSS intends to work with the California Association of Food Banks (CAFB), a membership organization representing over 40 food banks throughout the state that collectively provide food to 6,000 community-based organizations and to two million Californians in need. The license plate funds will go to help address the existing shortfall in funding for hunger relief in California. CAFB’s major programs include Farm to Family, which works with growers and packers to provide fresh produce to food banks; produce and nutrition education; and member services that provide technical assistance and engage members in special projects to reduce the prevalence and consequences of food insecurity in California. For more than a decade, CAFB has been the largest contractor with the state of California for CalFresh Outreach, and currently supports 50 community-based organizations in 31 counties to connect eligible people with CalFresh benefits. CAFB regularly consults with CDSS on matters related to the federal Emergency Food Assistance Program, California’s State Emergency Food Assistance program, disaster relief, drought relief, and other antihunger efforts. Revenues generated by the specialized license plate program will be allotted to CAFB for distribution to its member food banks to address hunger issues in their respective counties. Funds will be used to purchase food and support hunger relief programs. California Motor Vehicle Code Section 5159 limits to 25 percent of total revenues, CDSS’ annual expenditures for the administrative costs, marketing, or other promotional activities associated with encouraging application for, or renewal of, the specialized plates. CAFB will be responsible for promotional activities associated with the specialized plates and will not exceed the 25 percent maximum, including any administrative costs for activities associated with the specialized plates incurred by CDSS. The proposed specialized license plate includes the iconic John Lennon self-portrait image, authorized by Yoko Ono Lennon, which provides a powerful symbol of his humanitarian legacy, raising awareness to the need to address hunger in our state and providing an image that will promote significant funding to help end hunger in California. Imagine No Hunger in California www.CaliforniaImagine.com California Association of Food Banks 1624 Franklin St, Oakland, CA 94612 California Imagine © Copyright 2018 California Imagine	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line606
__label__wiki	0.637194	0.637194	Home / Editorials / The Cavs Are Quickly Realizing How Tough Life Is Without LeBron James The Cavs Are Quickly Realizing How Tough Life Is Without LeBron James When former Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James announced that he was leaving on July 1 to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, the team knew that the challenge of competing this season would be difficult. After dropping their first five games of the 2018-19 season, the scope of that challenge is presumably beginning to sink in for the Cavaliers. Having a player on the team that qualifies as one of the greatest basketball players ever will improve the fortunes of any team, which was especially true in the case of the Cavaliers. After James left in free agency the first time in 2010, the Cavs collapsed and ended up earning the top pick in the NBA draft three times in a four-year span. Once he returned in 2014, the team reached the finals in each of the next four seasons and won the franchise’s first league title in 2016. Getting to this current forgettable stage has come about over an extended period of time, with the first steps having been taken over a year ago. Preparing for the Worst To avoid a similar scenario of disaster without James, the Cavaliers took some steps that were seen as a way to more easily navigate life without James. That meant infusing a veteran-laden team with some youth, which included steps taken prior to and during last season. First, the prospect of James leaving had not come as a total surprise, with rumors having constantly been floated about that likelihood. That’s one reason why a key component of last year’s Kyrie Irving trade was an expected lottery pick, a choice that the Boston Celtics had previously acquired. That selection was seen as something of a buffer to protect the Cavs if James left, with the choice ultimately used on point guard Collin Sexton. Second, at midseason last year, the Cavs picked up two more younger players in Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr., who had begun their careers with the Lakers. Clarkson was seen as either a potential starter or scoring weapon off the bench, while Nance was to give the Cavaliers depth in the paint. While Clarkson has had a strong start, Nance has had to battle back from a preseason injury and Sexton has experienced some typical rookie missteps. How the latter two players develop in the weeks ahead and whether or not Clarkson can sustain his production may offer a hint on whether youth will be served. False Bravado Even though James left, the front office of the Cavaliers expressed confidence that the team would still be a playoff contender, though stopping short of predicting another trip to the finals. However, there was some speculation that Cavs owner Dan Gilbert reportedly relished the idea of competing without James, with that approach reportedly tied to the lack of credit directed at Gilbert’s previous financial largesse regarding the team’s payroll. Tristan Thompson then offered a daring preseason boast about how the Cavaliers should still be considered the top team in the Eastern Conference until proven otherwise, drawing plenty of criticism and ridicule. In the reported case of Gilbert and especially Thompson, acknowledging the obvious might have been the wisest course of action. Early Defensive Woes Even when James was on the Cavaliers, the team’s defense had been routinely criticized. Yet, without him, they allowed over 130 points in two of the first three games and struggled in trying to defend against opposing 3-pointers. That continuing issue has simply added to the burden of finding a way to make up for the absence of James. Not Keeping Pace The goal of Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue almost from the time he took over in January 2016 was for the team to play at a faster pace. While the team has appeared to play a little faster in their five games so far, the bottom line is they have only five losses to show for that effort. Adapting to a new style instead of choosing to rely heavily on James’ many skills was inevitably going to result in some growing pains. The problem is that right now, the pains are more evident than any signs of growing into a cohesive unit. That was evident during the second quarter of the first three games, when the Cavs were outscored by an average of 13 points in that period. One of the continuing problems in the early going that multiple Cavs players have cited is a lack of communication among teammates. This has resulted in the aforementioned defensive problems and other issues. During James’ time with the Cavaliers, getting his point across to the players on the court with him was never much of an issue. Numbers Don’t Lie The simplest aspect of the Cavaliers struggles can be seen in the fact that the they have had to replace a player who last year averaged 27.5 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 9.1 assists. In short, close to a triple-double in every game, an effort that couldn’t help but come up short. The player in the unfortunate role of taking James’ spot is second-year man Cedi Osman, who’s averaging 12.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists. Those are improvements on his rookie numbers, yet his contributions and those of the players who fill that spot in a reserve capacity are still inadequate in filling the chasm left by James leaving. Having dropped both home games so far to weak teams in embarrassing fashion, the Cavaliers’ prospects would right now appear to be dim. Figuring out what works and what doesn’t was going to deal some painful early lessons, but the team and its fan base weren’t expecting such an early miserable performance. Of course, with 77 games left on the regular season schedule, there’s still plenty of time to get things fixed. Yet knowing that one of those fixes won’t be James donning a Cavaliers jersey is stark evidence of what the team lost when he made his decision to leave the team again. boston celticsCedi Osmancleveland cavalierscollin sextondan gilbertfeaturedjordan clarksonkyrie irvinglarry nance jr.lebron jamesLos Angeles Lakersnews tickerTristan ThompsonTyronn Lue ← Previous Story Why the Larry Nance Jr. Contract Extension is a Huge Win for Both Parties Next Story → Why the Cleveland Cavaliers Should Tank for Zion Williamson	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line611
__label__cc	0.568866	0.431134	Posts tagged ‘close caption’ You’re Not Dreaming. It’s Quality Captioning. by Kim von Keller, CompuScripts’ Caption Editor Many people have not only favorite movies, but favorite movie scenes. If you’re a fan of science fiction, you remember the big reveal in “Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back” when Darth Vader stuns Luke Skywalker — and the audience — by saying, “I am your father.” Maybe you enjoy a courtroom procedural. In that case, you likely recall the heated exchange in “A Few Good Men” in which Colonel Jessup yells at Lieutenant Kaffee, “You can’t handle the truth!” But if you’re a fan of the family sports film, you can repeat verbatim the last lines from “Field of Dreams.” In this story, Ray Kinsella is given the opportunity to meet a much younger version of his deceased father, John, from whom he was estranged in life. As the two men stand on a baseball diamond, John tells Ray that there is a heaven. “It’s the place dreams come true,” he says. As John turns to leave, Ray calls out to him. “Hey, Dad… you wanna have a catch?” Thanks to closed captioning, the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities are able to view and understand televised movies like “Field of Dreams,” plus a full complement of series, news programming, and sporting events. But the quality of the viewing experience may depend on the quality of the captions. The National Association of the Deaf refers to the act of closed captioning as “Making sounds visible.” In addressing the quality of closed captioning, the NAD states that captions are not limited to the display of the spoken word. Captions also include speaker identification, sound effects, and music description. These captions should be displayed as close as possible to the “corresponding visual information.” In other words, captioned speech is placed onscreen near the speaker. Captioned sound effects are placed near the source of the sound. In addition, captions should be synchronized to the audio. (http://www.nad.org/issues/technology/captioning) The complete description of sound plus the accurate placement and timing of pop-on captions attempt to match the experience of the hearing viewer by enriching the experience of the deaf or hard of hearing viewer. It is the continuing goal of CompuScripts Captioning to provide a complete viewing experience to those who rely on closed captioning. CompuScripts is proud to be endorsed by the Described and Captioned Media Program, which is administered by the NAD and funded by the U. S. Department of Education. Achieving DCMP “Approved Captioning Service Vendor” status is a prestigious honor in the captioning industry. Of those who participate in the rigorous evaluation process to acquire approved vendor status, only half actually earn the distinction Now let’s imagine that moving final scene from “Field of Dreams,” this time with sound description. It is twilight, and birds twitter from an Iowa cornfield. Orchestral music plays softly in the background as the two men discuss heaven. Footfalls are heard as they walk upon the packed dirt of the baseline. John drops his catcher’s mask, and it slaps the chest protector that he’s left on the ground by home plate. As the conversation pauses, the music swells. Ray looks toward his home, and his daughter giggles loudly as she sits on a porch swing with her mother. John begins to walk away, but Ray calls to him, his voice breaking, “Hey, Dad… you wanna have a catch?” John and Ray toss the ball gingerly at first, and then the ball whacks the leather mitts. A heavy switch clicks as Ray’s wife turns on the outfield lights, and father and son continue their long-overdue game. Makes you cry just reading it. To view a clip from “Field of Dreams” that does not include captions, click here. CompuScripts Captioning has been providing NAD quality captions and sound effects since 1997. We’d be honored to add quality captions and sound effects to your production’s media! close caption DCMP kim von keller pop-on Do I Need to Closed Caption My Program? Although much attention is being paid to new Federal Communications Commission regulations concerning the closed captioning of Internet video, it is also important to understand the legislation that first mandated the captioning of television video, the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The provisions of Section 713 of the Act are intended to “ensure that video programming is closed captioned and accessible to persons with hearing disabilities.” (FCC Report and Order, August 22, 1997) That accessibility goal notwit hstanding, the Commission did provide exemptions to the captioning requirement. Some exemptions are self-implementing, meaning that a programming provider does not need to seek Commission approval through petition. Programming that is exempt from captioning requirements includes, but is not limited to, that which is in a language other than English or Spanish, that which consists mainly of non-vocal music, and that which is shown between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. local time. There are also two exemptions based on the annual revenue of the programming provider. FCC rules exempt all programming providers with annual gross revenues of less than $3 million per year from the captioning requirement. This is based on the conclusion that it would be economically burdensome for these providers to offer captioning. If their revenues exceed $3 million per year, programming providers are permitted to limit their spending on captioning to 2% of their annual gross revenues. If the programming provider does not meet any of the standards of self-implementing exemption, the provider may petition the FCC on grounds that closed captioning is economically burdensome. The factors that will be considered upon examination of the petition include the nature and cost of the closed captions for the programming, the impact on the operation of the provider or program owner, the financial resources of the provider or program owner, and the type of operations of the provider or program owner. For a full list of television programming exemptions, please go to http://transition.fcc.gov/cib/dro/ccfactsh.html. Accessibility, FAQ's caption exemption caption internet video caption webcast Telecommunications Act of 1996 webcast caption Look Who Stopped by NRB Booth 659 Look Who Stopped By Events, Staff broadcasters convention Christian programs religious broadcasters subtitling service CVAA of 2010 Captioning for Internet Videos The Federal Communications Commission released final rules for implementation of the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA) on January 13, 2012. These new rules require video programming owners to send required caption files for IP-delivered video programming to video programming distributors and providers along with program files and set January 13, 2012, as the date to which compliance deadlines are linked. The FCC defines a video programming owner as “any person or entity that either (i) licenses the video programming to a video programming distributor or provider that makes the video programming available directly to the end user through a distribution method that uses Internet protocol; or (ii) acts as the video programming distributor or provider, and also possesses the right to license the video programming to a video programming distributor or provider that makes the video programming available directly to the end user through a distribution method that uses Internet protocol.” In issuing final rules, the FCC set the schedule for compliance with the CVAA: “All prerecorded programming that is not edited for Internet distribution and is subject to the new requirements must be captioned if it is shown on television with captions on or after the date six months after publication of these rules in the Federal Register;” “All live and near-live programming subject to the new requirements must be captioned if it is shown on television with captions on or after the date 12 months after publication of these rules in the Federal Register;” “All prerecorded programming that is edited for Internet distribution and is subject to the new requirements must be captioned if it is shown on television with captions on or after the date 18 months after publication of these rules in the Federal Register.” The FCC also defines the video programming distributor or provider. For purposes of the CVAA, the VPD or VPP is considered to be “any person or entity that makes video programming available directly to the end user through a distribution method that uses IP.” Of special interest to the VPD or VPP is the regulation regarding archival programming: “Archival content must be captioned according to the following deadlines: Beginning two years after publication of these rules in the Federal Register, all programming that is subject to the new requirements and is already in the video program distributor’s library before it is shown on television with captions must be captioned within 45 days after it is shown on television with captions. Beginning three years after publication of these rules in the Federal Register, such programming must be captioned within 30 days after it is shown on television with captions. Beginning four years after publication of these rules in the Federal Register, such programming must be captioned within 15 days after it is shown on television with captions.” Visit www.fcc.gov for more information. CVAA prerecorded program video accessibility video program captions Visit Us at NRB Expo Don’t miss out on connecting with us at NRB February 19 through 21. Debbie, Bruce and Angela will be in Nashville, TN, for the National Religious Broadcasters’ Annual Convention and Exposition, Booth 659. We have been busy this past year upgrading our captioning facility to better serve the expanding needs of our clients in the offerings of SD and HD captions/subtitles for broadcasts, webcasts, and DVDs. Hope to see you soon! National Religious Broadcasters NRB Expo Hello, SCBA! Bruce Balmer, VP and Operations, as well as Kim von Keller, Caption Editor, will be hosting CompuScripts Captioning’s booth this Thursday at the South Carolina Broadcasters Association’s Expo here in Columbia, SC, at the Embassy Suites Hotel. They look forward to speaking with you and sharing the many upgrades we have made to our offerings to better serve you! SCBA Expo South Carolina Broadcasters	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line613
__label__cc	0.557853	0.442147	HomePosts tagged 'Bruce Springsteen' Review: BORN TO RUN by Bruce Springsteen (Simon & Schuster) June 19, 2017 Civilian Reader Uncategorized Audible, Audiobook, Biogrpahy, Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen, Memoir, Most Anticipated 2017, Music, Non-Fiction, Simon & Schuster An interesting, if not-particularly-revelatory memoir from the Boss In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl’s halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That’s how this extraordinary autobiography began. Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs. He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger, and darkness that fueled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as “The Big Bang”: seeing Elvis Presley’s debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work and shows us why the song “Born to Run” reveals more than we previously realized. Born to Run will be revelatory for anyone who has ever enjoyed Bruce Springsteen, but this book is much more than a legendary rock star’s memoir. This is a book for workers and dreamers, parents and children, lovers and loners, artists, freaks, or anyone who has ever wanted to be baptized in the holy river of rock and roll. Like many people, I was very eager to get my hands on Born to Run when it came out. I have been listening to Springsteen’s music my whole life, really — Born in the USA was a regular on our family stereo, and was the first album I ever loved. (I used to stage ‘concerts’ of it, using my G.I. Joe figures as stand-ins for the band…) Due to work and other reasons, it took me some time to get around to reading Born to Run, but I eventually got the audiobook. I found it quite interesting… if slightly underwhelming. Continue reading →	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line619
__label__wiki	0.886309	0.886309	Donington Luke Garrett scorches his way to Division 2 hat-trick at Thruxton Luke Garrett powered his way to an impressive hat-trick of wins in Division 2 of the MV Commercial BTRA Championship at Thruxton this past weekend (June 29/30) whilst Steve Powell also served up a stellar drive triumph. Following a lengthy in-season break, the titans of the truck racing scene descended on the fastest circuit in the UK aiming to put on a show as a bumper crowd basked in the searing sun. Having powered his way to pole position at both Brands Hatch and Pembrey, reigning champion Garrett saw his fine qualifying form halted as Paul Rivett claimed a career-first pole position in the series. Setting a blistering time of 1:38.399, the former Renault UK Clio Cup champion proved to be in a league of his own to charge to the summit of the time-sheets. Having missed out on pole position, Garrett redeemed himself in the opening encounter as he cantered to his fifth win of the season. Getting the jump on Rivett as the lights went out, the MAN driver opened up his advantage as each lap passed to score victory. Whilst Rivett held station in second place, the WDE Motorsport driver came under late pressure from Simon Cole and Steve Powell; however the experienced racer was able to hold station to take the chequered flag and with it more silverware. Race two saw Powell come to the fore as he tallied his third win of the year. Slotting into second place off the start, Powell hounded the DAF of Brad Smith before making a move for the lead in the latter stages. Unable to resist the challenge of the MAN driver anymore, Smith not only lost out to Powell but also Garrett, who demoted him down to third by the end of the race. Garrett was back on the top step of the podium for race three as he led from start-to-finish. Former champion Adam Bint, who is beginning to build a wave of momentum behind him, showed that he is not to be counted out as he finished in second place with John Powell rounding out the rostrum. Like they had done earlier in the day, the fourth and final race of the weekend saw Division 2 share the grid with those in Division 1, setting up a blockbuster finale for those in attendance. Garrett underlined his credentials as a true force, as this time he took the chequered flag in dominant fashion. Powering away from the rest of the field, the experienced racer built up a sizeable gap over both Division 1 & 2 competitors to bring the curtain down on the event and extend his lead in the standings. To view the full classification of results for all Division 2 sessions from this past weekend’s event at Thruxton, click here. The MV Commercial BTRA Championship continues its 2019 season with a trip to mainland Europe next on the calendar, with the UK stars joining some of the biggest names in the world at the Nurburgring on July 19/20/21. « Ryan Smith basks in the Thruxton sun to claim Division 1 clean sweep Competition Winners! » Official Home of the British Truck Racing Association Members Sign Up Our Racing Code of Conduct Web Design by 418Design Ltd	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line622
__label__wiki	0.9587	0.9587	Orchard Park teen headed to MLB All-Star Week to compete in pitch, hit and run competition Abby Torgerson, a 14 year-old player from the Western New York Sting, will compete in Washington during the Pitch, Hit and Run competition. (Shuran Huang/Buffalo News) By Danielle Allentuck\|Published Fri, Jul 13, 2018 While the best players in Major League Baseball participate in All-Star festivities next week, Orchard Park teen Abby Torgerson will be right there alongside them. She is one of three finalists in the 13-14 age group in the Pitch, Hit and Run softball competition, and will compete Monday against the two others to determine the champion at Washington's Nationals Park, which is hosting the All-Star Game. Torgerson, 14, will be a freshman at Orchard Park High in the fall. Torgerson, who has been playing softball since she was 5, said her mother Janie was the one that found out about the competition originally last year. It consists of three rounds (local, regional and one at an MLB ballpark) and three disciplines (pitch, hit and run). More than 625,000 children from the United States and Canada attempted to qualify this year, including participants in all the age groups, according to a news release. Last year, Torgerson made it to the team round and competed at Yankee Stadium but did not advance. This year, she competed at Citi Field and found out days later that she was among the national finalists. "It's pretty amazing because it's the last year I can compete (because of her age)," she said. "It's cool that I did it finally." For the pitch portion, the player stands 35 feet away from home plate and aims for the target. Then they test their speed by running from second base to home, and show off their strength in the batting portion. Torgerson almost didn't even get a chance. Her travel team, the Western New York Sting, had a tournament she didn't want to miss. “Talking to her mom and dad, this was a once in a lifetime chance and this is her last year. So she played in one game, drove an hour, did the next round, drove back and played in our next game," said Scott Zipp, her Sting coach. "That qualified her to go to Citi Field." Torgerson, who also played on the modified team at Orchard Park last spring, plays mainly third base but also catcher and outfield if needed. In her 20 games with the Sting this season she has a .369 batting average, a .383 on base percentage and has eight stolen bases. She also plays field hockey in the fall. Beyond the competition, Torgerson will have the chance to participate in other All-Star festivities, including the Fanfest and watching the Futures Game, legends and celebrity game and workout day. She will also catch the balls during the Home Run Derby, and hopes to get to meet as many players as she can. "Anybody could be cool, but pretty much anybody from the Yankees," she said.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line623
__label__wiki	0.877021	0.877021	Articles about recent or upcoming releases, Angel comics This article is about the comic meta-series. For other uses, see Angel. This article is about a recent or upcoming release and therefore might not yet be complete. Angel comics may refer to one of two closely related terms: Comics in which Angel is the main and/or title character. Comics based on the Angel television series, which a publishing company is allowed to create, because they have bought a license to do so from 20th Century Fox, who hold the intellectual property rights to Angel. In many cases these two terms overlap. In October 1998, Dark Horse Comics published its first Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic, based on the license for the television show. In the summer of 1999, before the Angel television series was created, Dark Horse Comics published a three-issue miniseries, "Angel: The Hollower", with Angel as the title character. In November 1999, a day after the sixth episode of Angel had aired, Dark Horse Comics published the first issue of Angel as an ongoing series. This series lasted seventeen issues and was followed by a four-issue miniseries, "Long Night's Journey", which was published over the course of nearly a year. After this, Dark Horse Comics decided not to renew the Angel license. Senior managing editor Scott Allie later described: "I’ve always regretted letting Angel go in the first place."[1] In 2005, after the Angel television series had already ended, IDW Publishing took up the rights to the Angel license and began publishing several miniseries and one-shots, some of which were set after the Angel series finale "Not Fade Away". The work of one of the writers of these miniseries, Brian Lynch, impressed Joss Whedon so much, that they collaborated on the a canonical seventeen-issue continuation of the television series, After the Fall,[2] which disregarded the continuity of their previous continuations. IDW Publishing chose to continue the Angel series beyond the initial seventeen issues, although the canonicity of these later issues is uncertain. Furthermore, several spin-off miniseries and one-shots were also created. A conflict between writers and publishing companies arose over using the cAngel character as the villain in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight comics from Dark Horse Comics, which eventually led IDW Publishing to relinquish its license in 2011. Dark Horse Comics subsequently picked the license up again, bringing the both licenses back to the same publishing company. In 2011, Dark Horse Comics started publishing the twenty-issue Angel & Faith series, which ran parallel to Buffy Season Nine. In 2014, Dark Horse started publishing Angel & Faith Season Ten, which ran parallel to Buffy Season Ten. In 2017, the solo title returned as Angel Season Eleven with twelve issues, parallel to Buffy Season Eleven. These stories were wrapped up in Buffy Season Twelve finale, when it was revealed that both comics' license was moving from Dark Horse after 20 years. In 2019, the 20th Century Fox-owned publishing house Boom! Studios picked up the license of the comics from Dark Horse, debuting in 2019 the Angel, spin-off to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reimagining series. Angel (Dark Horse series) (1999–2001) (17 issues) Angel (IDW series) (2007–2011) (44 issues) After the Fall (2007–2009) (17 issues) Angel & Faith (2011–2013) (30 issues) Angel & Faith Season Ten (2014–2016) (25 issues) Angel Season Eleven (2017) (12 issues) Angel (Boom! series) (2019) (ongoing) "Angel: The Hollower" (3 issues) (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Classic) "Long Night's Journey" (4 issues) "The Curse" (5 issues) "Old Friends" (5 issues) "Auld Lang Syne" (5 issues) "Smile Time" (3 issues) "Not Fade Away" (3 issues) "Blood & Trenches" (4 Issues) "A Hole in the World" (5 issues) "Barbary Coast" (3 issues) "Illyria: Haunted" (4 issues) "Only Human" (5 issues) "Spotlight" (5 issues) "Masks" Angel vs. Frankenstein Last Angel in Hell "Lorne: The Music of the Spheres" Angel vs. Frankenstein II "Yearbook" Lovely, Dark and Deep The Nepalese Switcheroo City of Despair Angel: Untitled Haunted (Prologue) (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Classic) Angel (Dark Horse series) Trade paperback: "The Hollower" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Classic) "Surrogates" "Earthly Possessions" "Hunting Ground" "Past Lives" "Autumnal" "Strange Bedfellows" "Long Night's Journey" Omnibus: "Angel Omnibus" Angel (IDW series) "Old Friends" "Only Human" "Spotlight" "Auld Lang Syne" "Smile Time" "A Hole in the World" "Not Fade Away" "Barbary Coast" "Blood & Trenches" "The John Byrne Collection" "Illyria: Haunted" "Angel 100-Page Spectacular" "Angel Season Six, Volume 1" "After the Fall, Volume One" "After the Fall, First Night" "After the Fall, Volume Three" "After the Fall, Volume Four" "Last Angel in Hell" "Immortality for Dummies" "Crown Prince Syndrome" "The Wolf, the Ram, and the Heart" "After the Fall: The Premiere Edition" "The End" "Angel Omnibus, Volume 1" Angel & Faith Season Nine "Live Through This" "Daddy Issues" "Family Reunion" "Death and Consequences" "What You Want, Not What You Need" Library edition: "Angel & Faith Season Nine Library Edition, Volume 1" Angel & Faith Season Ten "Where the River Meets the Sea" "Lost and Found" "United" "A Little More than Kin" "A Tale of Two Families" Angel Season 11 "Out of the Past" "Time and Tide" "Dark Reflections" Angel (Boom! series) "Being Human" (trade paperback) "Being Human" (hardcover) Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics Fray series Tales meta-series ↑ "Angel Returns to Dark Horse Comics". Dark Horse Comics, August 19, 2010. Retrieved May 24, 2012. ↑ Emmett Furey, "Brian Lynch talks 'Angel: After the Fall'". Comic Book Resources, November 6, 2007. Retrieved May 24, 2012. Retrieved from "https://buffy.fandom.com/wiki/Angel_comics?oldid=197869" Articles about recent or upcoming releases	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line624
__label__wiki	0.909824	0.909824	Flint Water Crisis: Update A judge has ordered Michigan’s health director to stand trial for involuntary manslaughter over two deaths linked to legionnaires’ disease in the Flint area, the highest-ranking official to face criminal charges as a result of the city’s tainted water scandal. Nick Lyon is accused of failing to issue a timely alert about the outbreak. District court judge David Goggins said deaths probably could have been prevented if the outbreak had been publicly known. He said keeping the public in the dark was “corrupt.” Goggins found probable cause for a trial in Genesee county court, a legal standard that is not as high as beyond a reasonable doubt. Lyon also faces a charge of misconduct in office. When the judge announced his decision, a woman in the gallery said, “Yes, yes, yes.” “It’s a long way from over,” Lyon told the Associated Press. He declined further comment. Some experts have blamed legionnaires’ on Flint’s water, which was not properly treated when it was drawn from the Flint river in 2014 and 2015. Legionella bacteria can emerge through misting and cooling systems, triggering a severe form of pneumonia, especially in people with weakened immune systems. At least 90 cases of legionnaires’ occurred in Genesee county, including 12 deaths. More than half of the people had a common thread: they spent time at McLaren hospital, which was on the Flint water system. The outbreak was announced by the governor, Rick Snyder, and Lyon in January 2016, although Lyon concedes that he knew that cases were being reported many months earlier. He is director of the health and human services department. Nonetheless, he denies wrongdoing. Lyon’s attorneys said there was much speculation about the exact cause of legionnaires’ and not enough solid information to share earlier with the public. The investigation by the office of the state attorney general, Bill Schuette, is part of a larger investigation into how Flint’s water system became contaminated when the city used Flint river water for 18 months. The water was not treated to reduce corrosion. As a result, lead leached from old pipes. “We’re not looking at today as a win or a loss. We’re looking at today as the first step and the next step for justice for the moms, dads and kids of Flint,” said Schuette’s spokeswoman, Andrea Bitely, who specifically mentioned the families of two men whose deaths the prosecution blames on Lyon – 85-year-old Robert Skidmore and 83-year-old John Snyder. An additional 14 current or former state and local officials have been charged with crimes, either related to legionnaires’ or lead in the water. Four agreed to misdemeanor plea deals; the other cases are moving slowly. “Normally we don’t see government officials accused of manslaughter based on what they didn’t do,” said Peter Henning, a professor at Wayne State University law school in Detroit. “That does make it an unusual case, and it will make government officials be much more cautious. Maybe that’s the message here.” Defense attorney John Bursch said the judge’s decision was “mystifying.” Goggins spent more than two hours summarizing evidence from weeks of testimony, but he did not specifically explain what swayed him to send Lyon to trial. “We had 20 pages of argument in our legal brief that he didn’t address,” Bursch said outside court. “He didn’t talk about the law at all.” A trial would be many months away after Snyder’s term as governor ends on 1 January. He said Lyon “has my full faith and confidence” and will remain as Michigan’s health director. A courtroom spectator, Karina Petri, 30, of Milwaukee said sending a senior official to trial is “long overdue.” “He withheld the truth. There’s no excuse,” said Petri, who wore a “Flint Lives Matter” shirt. “He could have changed hundreds of lives.” Posted in Leadership, U.S., Uncategorized and tagged Flint, Flint Lives Matter, MIchigan. Bookmark the permalink. Former Nazi Concentration Camp Guard Lived in U.S. for 70 Years, Now Deported to Germany to Face Charges Donald Trump says interview with Mueller could be “Perjury Trap”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line627
__label__wiki	0.798644	0.798644	Now Batting, for the United States of America… Posted by Eric Angevine in A, Baseball, Midwest League, NCAA, Prospects. Tagged: Jonathan Johnston, Kane County Cougars, U.S. Naval Academy. 10 comments Usually, OMDQ puts one of these columns up to denote the Major League arrival of one of the Bus League faithful. But Lt. Jonathan Johnston is no ordinary player. A 2006 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Johnston had already spent a year on active duty before the Oakland A’s took a flyer and selected him in the 42nd round of the 2007 first-year player draft. His .317 senior-year batting average for Navy no doubt grabbed their attention, but the amazing 35 stolen bases (for a catcher!) had to be the clincher. While Johnston’s ship, the USS Peleliu, was in port, his commanding officer allowed him to join the Oakland As affiliate – The Kane County Cougars. The Navy man played in 36 games and was just starting to shake off a year’s worth of rust before he got the unwelcome word that the Peleliu was setting sail for the Persian Gulf, and he was expected to be on board, at his gunnery station. Johnston’s no shirker. He signed up, and he’s willing to serve. He just wonders why he’s getting a different deal than some other members of the armed forces. “I’m proud of the fact I’ve served two years and feel I have done my duty well. I’m not trying to get out of my last three years, I just want to find a way to keep playing baseball while still serving… just like the Army guys,” Johnston said. Johnston is referring to the fact the United States Army is allowing West Point graduates to participate in professional sports while on active duty. A total of five former Army baseball players – 2006 graduates Nick Hill (Seattle Mariners) and Milan Dinga (Los Angeles Angels) along with 2007 alums Cole White (Pittsburgh Pirates), Drew Clothier (Florida Marlins) and Chris Simmons (Pirates) – are currently playing in the minors. “I’m the first Naval Academy player to go through this process and I’m trying to do it the right way,” Johnston said. [Hometown Annapolis] It’s tempting to think that maybe Johnston is being handled differently because he’s not as good as he thinks he is. But consider this – the A’s had every notion of assigning him to the Rookie League to start out. But Johnston’s skills and maturity forced them to reconsider, and put him in A ball. Johnston is already 24 years old. He knows this is his only shot. He still has a request pending that could allow him to serve as a recruiting officer – essentially using his semi-celebrity status to put a pleasant face on the Navy, and bring more new sailors into the fleet. Considering how difficult it has become for the armed services to recruit during this time of hostility, that might be an effective tradeoff. Whichever way it turns out, we wish Lieutenant Junior Grade Johnston the best of luck, and thank him for his service.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line628
__label__cc	0.675384	0.324616	All in all, you might have been better off using Match.com (2012) Horror (Magnet) Calvin Reeder, Adam Wingard, Lane Hughes, Hannah Fierman, Mike Donlan, Joe Sykes, Drew Sawyer, Joe Swanberg, Sophia Takal, Norma C. Quinones, Drew Moerlein, Chad Villella, Matt Bertinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Paul Natonek. Directed by David Bruckner, Joe Swanberg, Ti West, Radio Silence, Glenn McQuaid and Adam Wingard While technology improves, some things stay the same. We can upgrade our recording systems but the images don’t change much. One vacation video is pretty much the same as another, whether it was taken in 1982 or 2012. But these are anything but vacation videos unless you have a peculiar idea of relaxation, but let’s start from the beginning. An unknown party hires four small-time criminals who are known for making videos of women that they catch in parking garages and brutally show off their naked breasts. These make tons of money on the Internet, but their mysterious employer isn’t interested in boobs. He wants the gang of four to enter a house that’s more or less deserted (and it turns out to be less), and steal a videotape. Break in they do and they enter the house to find a dead body and a pile of videotapes. As one of the group checks out the tapes to figure out which one is the right one, the rest of the group goes to investigate a series of mysterious noises – and you know that is going to end badly. The first tape concerns a trio of frat boy-sorts who attach a spy-cam to one of the lad’s glasses and they go out hoping to get him laid. After some trial and error and enough alcohol to prove that these boys (save the one with the camera) are pretty much assholes when drunk, they manage to pick up a couple of girls. One of them passes out quickly but the other, named Lily, takes a shine to the cameraman (“I like you” she says repeatedly) but apparently one of the frat boys likes her a lot and decides to horn in on the action. Lily doesn’t seem to mind at first but, well, she’s a very special girl. In the second, a newly married couple visit a southwestern tourist attraction – a wild west ghost town and do some hiking in the mountains. They are followed by a young woman who seems a little creepy, particularly to the husband. He really doesn’t know the half of it as some of the minor annoyances on their trip are her doing. But what are her intentions and why is she doing this? In the third, a quartet of friends visit the home town of one of them who once they enter the woods around the town begins to act strangely. It turns out that there were some inexplicable murders there a few years earlier and that their friend knows more about the subject than she’s let on. As her creepy pronouncement that they’re all going to die there looks more and more likely, they’ll discover that the killer is still around and a creature like him they’ve never seen – say hello to Glitch Man. The fourth is mainly the Skype conversation between a doctor and his girlfriend, who is convinced that the house she is in is haunted. He, being a rational sort is skeptical but he begins to see things too. Soon he’s more concerned about her situation than she is – she’s convinced that she can reason with the spirits and send them on their merry merry. But she may have miscalculated their intentions, particularly in relation to the mysterious bump on her arm. The final tape shows a group of four friends who are invited to a Halloween party at an isolated house on the edge of town. Sounds like fun so the high-spirited boys and off they went to a very nice house in the middle of nowhere. When they get there, nobody’s there even though the house is unlocked and all the lights are on. While they speculate that this might be a Halloween attraction of some sort, however, it’s not the sort of attraction you’d want to spend money on and when the boys make it into the attic, all hell is going to break loose. Anthologies are a horror film mainstay. It’s an effort to tell shorter stories that might deserve a telling without devoting an entire movie In this case, each vignette is directed by a young up-and-coming filmmaker in the underground and mainstream horror genres. West is the best known, having directed the sequel to Cabin Fever which actually wasn’t all that bad for a direct-to-video effort and a really fine horror movie from last year called The Innkeepers. The rest are not as familiar to me so I didn’t really know what to expect. And pretty much as you might expect, the efforts here run from really good (the first tape) to not so much (the fourth). The acting is as you also would expect rather uneven as well, although there are some finds. Hannah Fierman as Lily in the first movie is genuinely creepy. Her transformation from meek party girl to…well, I don’t want to spoil it but trust me it’s pretty spectacular and Hannah has a lot to do with it. If you see her in a bar near you walk on my friend, walk on. The glitch man in the third vignette is also pretty nifty although the constant noise and jumpiness in the film gets really old really fast. In fact, one of the conceits of the movie is that they are all from videotapes so the quality of the images is pretty weak but that doesn’t mean the cinematography is bad, if that makes sense. There is a gratuitous amount of gore and bare breasts, so if those things offend you my guess is you wouldn’t be interested in seeing a movie like this anyway. Everyone else, this is a solid and spectacular in places horror anthology that won’t completely win you over (the weak portions can be pretty boring and the movie at a little over two hours is about 20 minutes too long for my taste – a whole vignette could have been eliminated and they would have been much better off. Short of that, it’s available on VOD right now so if it isn’t playing near you, you can still check it out. REASONS TO GO: Lots of gore and lots of boobs – mainstays for an excellent horror film. REASONS TO STAY: Some of the vignettes are more successful than others. FAMILY VALUES: A load of strong and often gruesome violence, lots of nudity, a fair amount of bad language, some horrific images and a bit of drug use. Oh, and some sex TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Director Ti West grew up in Delaware and went to the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. CRITICAL MASS: As of 10/27/12: Rotten Tomatoes: 52% positive reviews. Metacritic: 54/100. The reviews are as mixed as you can get. COMPARISON SHOPPING: Videodrome HORROR FILM ANTHOLOGY LOVERS: This comes from a tradition of horror film anthologies, several tales (often with different directors) linked together by a single story; among the more recognized anthologies include Twilight Zone: The Movie, Creepshow, Tales of Terror, Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, Trilogy of Terror, Cat’s Eye and The House That Dripped Blood. NEXT: Day 3 in the Six Days of Darkness 2012 This entry was posted in New Releases and tagged Adam Wingard, breasts, Calvin Reeder, cinema, creatures, delinquents, Films, Glitch Man, gore, hiking, honeymoon, horror anthology, horror movie, knives, Magnet Releasing, movies, mysterious woman, reviews, Skype, Sophia Takal, Ti West, V/H/S, videotapes, Wild West by carlosdev. Bookmark the permalink.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line632
__label__wiki	0.660684	0.660684	Carnival Cruise Line Takes Delivery of 26th Ship, Carnival Horizon by Joyce Oliva March 28, 2018 In a traditional maritime handover ceremony held earlier today at the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy, Carnival Cruise Line officially took delivery of the new 133,500-ton Carnival Horizon, the 26th ship in its fleet. The 3,954-passenger ship will reposition to Barcelona, Spain, where it will depart April 2 on an inaugural 13-day voyage – the first of four sailings from the European port. The ship will then operate a trans-Atlantic crossing before arriving in New York May 23, 2018, for a pierside overnight gala and naming ceremony featuring the ship’s godmother, Grammy award-winning musical artist and acclaimed actress Queen Latifah. Following a summer schedule of four-day Bermuda and eight-day Caribbean sailings from New York, Carnival Horizon will shift to Miami… 0 FacebookTwitterGoogle +PinterestLinkedinEmail Carnival Cruise President Christine Duffy Selected For Prestigious Department Of Defense Conference Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, has been selected to participate in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC) hosted by the Secretary of Defense. The JCOC program is the oldest and most prestigious public liaison program in the Department of Defense. As a JCOC participant, Duffy will join other business leaders in an intense week-long agenda from June 10-16, 2018, engaging with senior military officials and U.S. Service members. In addition to visiting key military installations and participating in tactical training exercises, she will gain a better understanding of the roles and mission of the U.S. Armed Forces; their skills, capabilities and equipment employed in defense of our nation. “I’m honored to be selected to participate in this… Carnival Paradise Resumes Year-Round Cruise Service From Tampa Following Extensive Multi-Million-Dollar Makeover Carnival Paradise returns to year-round cruise service today from Port Tampa Bay following an extensive month-long dry dock that added a variety of spaces and innovations, including a spectacular water park, 38 new staterooms, 98 balconies added to existing accommodations, and an array of exciting food and beverage concepts. Carnival Paradise departs this afternoon on a five-day Caribbean cruise to Cozumel and Grand Cayman – part of the ship’s year-round sailings from Tampa that also include four-day cruises to Cozumel and five-day cruises to Cozumel and Mahogany Bay (Roatan), Key West or Grand Cayman. The ship also offers four- to eight-day cruises to Cuba featuring day-long and overnight calls in Havana, as well as visits to popular ports throughout… Carnival Foundation Awards Four-Year College Scholarships to 16 South Florida High School Students Carnival Foundation, in partnership with Florida Prepaid College Foundation, presented 16 Miami-Dade high school seniors with four-year college scholarships during halftime at last night’s HEAT game. The students currently participate in the Carnival Scholarship & Mentoring Program, an innovative workplace program sponsored by Carnival in partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Miami that pairs a student with an employee mentor from Carnival. Prior to entering high school and participating in the Carnival Scholarship & Mentoring Program, the students attended the HEAT Academy, an after-school enrichment program for at-risk youth. The 2018 scholarship recipients include: Jerome Baker – Booker T. Washington Senior High School (Carnival mentor: Carlos Garcia) Cristopher Carranza – South Miami Senior High School (Carnival mentor:… Reservations Now Open For New Carnival Panorama’s Year-Round Departures From Long Beach Carnival Cruise Line today began accepting reservations for the 133,500-ton Carnival Panorama, which kicks off its year-round seven-day Mexican Riviera schedule from Long Beach, Calif., Dec. 14, 2019, becoming the first new Carnival ship homeported on the West Coast in 20 years. Prior to the launch of seven-day service, Carnival Panorama will offer a special one-time three-day cruise to Ensenada from Long Beach Dec. 11-14, 2019. Carnival Panorama will offer a three-port, seven-day itinerary from Long Beach, departing every Saturday to stunning destinations along the Mexican Riviera, including Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta. During these cruises, guests can relax on world-class beaches, visit centuries-old historical sites, and enjoy unforgettable dining and shopping opportunities and exciting experiences ashore. “Carnival… Carnival Sensation Welcomes Special Guest, NFL Hall of Fame Coach Tony Dungy Carnival Sensation this week welcomed a special guest – NFL Hall of Fame Coach Tony Dungy who was sailing with his family on a five-day cruise to the Caribbean. Prior to departure from PortMiami, Dungy enjoyed a tour of the ship’s navigational bridge and took time out for a photo with Captain Francesco La Farina, Hotel Director Stewart Howard and Carnival Corporation & plc CEO Arnold Donald. Carnival Cruise Line Earns Best Children’s Programs Honors, Carnival Fantasy Named Most Improved Ship in Cruiseline.com Members’ Choice Awards by Joyce Oliva March 9, 2018 Carnival Cruise Line, the number one cruise line for families carrying 800,000 kids a year, earned Best Children’s Program, while Carnival Fantasy was named Most Improved Ship in Cruiseline.com’s annual Members’ Choice Awards. The awards are best on feedback from Cruiseline.com readers who are asked to rate cruise lines in a variety of product- and service-related categories. Carnival earned Best Children’s Programs honors for its popular family-friendly offerings which include fun, supervised programs for kids in three age groups – Camp Ocean (2-11), Circle “C” (12-14) and Club O2 (15-17) – along with its exclusive Seuss at Sea program operated in partnership with Dr. Seuss Enterprises and expansive water parks fleetwide. The line’s ships also feature all-ages activities like… Carnival Cruise Line Names Chis Chiames Vice President and Chief Communications Officer Carnival Cruise Line announced today that Chris Chiames has been named to the newly created role of vice president and chief communications officer (CCO) following a nationwide search. Chiames is reporting directly to Carnival President Christine Duffy. As CCO, Chiames serves as a key advisor to Carnival’s leadership team and is responsible for corporate reputation management, internal and external communications, issues management, executive communications and other communications that enhance the brand and reputation of Carnival Cruise Line. “Chris is a hands-on communications leader and strategist with more than 30 years of experience in travel and tourism,” said Duffy. “With his vast experience and fresh perspective, we expect Chris will set a new standard of excellence for Carnival’s global communications… Dr. Seuss’ Birthday Celebrated ‘Carnival-Style’ with Fun Fleetwide Festivities Today is Dr. Seuss’ birthday and Carnival Cruise Line invited its guests to “Choose Fun” and celebrated the beloved children’s with a variety of fun and festive events that are part of Seuss at Sea, the line’s exclusive partnership with Dr. Seuss Enterprises. Families enjoyed birthday celebrations aboard each ship, complete with Dr. Seuss-themed treats, fun giveaways, a balloon drop in the atrium, appearances by The Cat in the Hat and more. Today’s festivities complement the many activities offered in Seuss at Sea, a fleetwide program featuring exciting youth, family, dining and entertainment experiences inspired by the amazing world and words of Dr. Seuss. The program includes such fun activities as the Seuss-a-palooza Parade and Story Time and The… Queen Latifah Named Godmother of Carnival Cruise Line’s Newest Ship, Carnival Horizon Queen Latifah – Grammy award-winning musical artist, acclaimed television and film actress, label president, author and entrepreneur – has been named the godmother to Carnival Cruise Line’s newest ship, Carnival Horizon. Latifah will participate in the ship’s official naming ceremony as well as a special “Lip Sync Battle: Horizon” showcase that is part of the line’s authentic shipboard reproduction of the hit Paramount Network series. The event will be held during an invitation-only overnight gala onboard Carnival Horizon in New York City on May 23, 2018. Currently starring in the FOX series “STAR,” Latifah is an incredible talent earning an Oscar nomination, a Golden Globe nomination and a SAG Award nomination for her portrayal as Mama Morton in Chicago.…	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line633
__label__cc	0.745726	0.254274	HST 104 : Ancient Societies (Pre-history - 500 C.E.) Ancient Societies Provides a survey of the development of world civilizations and nomadic/pastoral lifestyles. Investigates cultures, politics, belief systems, and lifestyles from prehistoric times through 500 C.E. Covers origins of civilizations in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Africa, China, and the Indian subcontinent. Also covers the establishment of early European civilizations, the world of the Greeks and Romans, and the Fall of Rome. Uses a comparative perspective in order to understand larger changes provoked by climate change, nomadic incursions, and interactions on the Silk Road. 1. Interpret the relationship between the past and the present, which takes into account social, cultural, political, and religious perspectives. 2. Analyze primary historical evidence of the ancient world. 3. Identify historical arguments found in secondary sources. 4. Construct an historical argument in a written essay. 5. Challenge shared assumptions and cultural stereotypes through discussion, written and oral means. 6. Identify the chronology and construct a narrative about the ancient world, from prehistoric times through 500 C.E. 7. Identify geographical context of historical events in the ancient world. General education/Related instruction lists Discipline Studies/Social Science Discipline Studies/Cultural Literacy	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line634
__label__wiki	0.610412	0.610412	Inspiring the Next-Gen of Women in "S.T.E.A.M." "Project Mc²" is back for another season on Netflix. The original series follows four girls who use science and technology skills to save the day. ... "Essential" Hits the Smartphone Market The "Essential" phone is now on the market. The device is the first offering from Android creator Andy Rubin, who launched the "Essential" company. The device comes without a logo, and aligns with the company's mission of "simple is always better." Niccolo de Masi, President and COO of Essential, brings the brand new phone to Cheddar's set and demonstrates how the products 360-degree camera works. Inspiring the Next-Gen of Women in "S... "Project Mc²" is back for another season on Netflix. The original series follows four girls who use science and technology skills to save the day. Cheddar's Alyssa Smith speaks with two of the series actresses, Mika Abdalla and Ysa Penarejos, about what it's like to star in the streaming series. ... How PayPal is Bringing Venmo Experien... Last quarter, Venmo recorded $8 billion in volume and is growing by more than 100% year over year. Bill Ready, COO of PayPal, says PayPal's goal is to bring the Venmo experience to businesses. Ready says that what sets PayPal apart from its competitor, Square, are its services across both consume... Rep. Dwight Evans: New FBI Director N... Congressman Dwight Evans (D-PA) joins us to dig into the high stakes of the Comey investigation and where it goes from here.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line635
__label__cc	0.54809	0.45191	REVIEW: The Nutcracker (House Theatre) Rediscover the whimsical genius of House Theatre House Theatre presents Adapted by Jake Minton and Phillip C. Klapperich Music by Kevin O’Donnell Directed by Tommy Rapley at Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division (map) through Dec 26 \| tickets: $25 \| more info If there is a theatre company in town that has a corner on childlike whimsy for adults, it would be the House, hands down. Every production they put up is sure to have flashy, comic book-style visuals, a frenetic, cartoony energy from the actors, and plenty of gags. And lately (although I wasn’t able to see the season opener, Thieves Like Us – our review ★★½), their work has been falling flat on it’s face. For example, last season’s Girls vs. Boys (our review ★½), a musical that was supposed to reveal the dark underbelly of the American teen, was a generic, loud, overdramatic hormone pile. They may have recaptured their groove that made Chicago love ‘em, though. With The Nutcracker (an adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffman’s classic story penned by Housers Jake Minton and Phillip Klapperich, first produced in 2007 at the Steppenwolf Garage), there’s a delicious blend of fun and heart. They also throw in fistfuls of that whimsical House magic that has you leaving the Chopin full of childish wonder. The show is easily the best thing I’ve seen there. The story is a distant cry from Tchaikovsky’s ballet, by far the best known adaptation of Hoffman’s short story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” Minton and Klapperich tinker with the classic story to make it a much more personal tale, eschewing the sugarplum fairies for familial conflict. The play focuses on the relationship between Clara (Carla Kessler) and her brother Fritz (Chance Bone), who dies on the battlefield one Christmas Eve and then comes back, reincarnated as a nutcracker by Uncle Drosselmeyer (Blake Montgomery). Of course, the fantasy is still front and center. The whole play follows Clara and the nutcracker’s battle against the rats for Christmas. They are aided by other playthings hobbled together in Drosselmeyer’s workshop, including Hugo (Joey Steakley), a robot; Phoebe (Trista Smith), a pull-string doll; and Monkey (Michael E. Smith), a francophone sock monkey. Together, they attempt to make cookies, fend off rats, chop down a tree, and bring Christmas back to the house left joyless by Fritz’s death. Clara’s mother and father (Carolyn Defrin and Minton, respectively) are not amused by Clara and Drosselmeyer’s antics, believing the two are opening a barely-scabbed wound. Tension pervades the entire piece. We’re wondering if Clara and her family will move past Fritz’s untimely demise, or if Clara will delude herself into thinking the nutcracker is an appropriate substitute. It’s a remarkably smart, unpredictable, and complex conflict for a group known for spectacle. And it’s much more refreshing than another traipse around Candyland. The cast has a seemingly endless supply of energy. The always great Defrin, for example, leaves as the depressed and angered Martha just to quick change and pop back in as a nefarious rat. The petite Kessler bursts with the energy of a twelve-year old. The best part is the motley crew of toys, especially Smith, who, donning the monkey costume, is the funniest one in the show. Kevin O’Donnell’s compositions do a great job of implying a Christmas feel without repeating overplayed Christmas carols (the British accented rats even due a Clash tribute). However, the complete Americanization and contemporizing of the story was unnecessary for me. Although it leads to some great jokes (e.g., pizza bagels), the story begs to be more timeless. There were also a couple of plot gaps that the audience sort of swallows along with the show. The Nutcracker had some absolutely brilliant moments—one being the magical transition from inside to outdoors and the other being the terrifying Rat King (something that gave me a nightmare or two). With this show, the House finds the perfect content to match their style. Let’s hope they keep it up. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 7 p.m., with matinee performances at 3pm on Friday November 26, Saturday, November 27, and Friday, December 24, plus additional 8pm performances on Wednesday, November 24 and Wednesday, December 22. There are no performances on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and there is no evening performance on Christmas Eve. The Nutcracker plays at the Chopin Upstairs Theatre 1543 W. Division St., Chicago). Regular tickets are $25 and $10 for students/industry at the door. The Nutcracker is The House’s holiday show and is not included with The House’s 2010/2011 season subscription (but subscribers do receive $5 off all tickets). Tickets may be purchased by calling (773) 769-3832 or online at www.TheHouseTheatre.com. Filed under: 2010 Reviews, Barry Eitel, Chopin Theatre, Holiday Show, House Theatre \| Tagged: Barry Eitel, Blake Montgomery, Carla Kessler, Carolyn Defrin, Chance Bone, Chopin Theatre, Chopin Upstairs Theatre, E.T.A. Hoffman, Jake Minton, Joey Steakley, Kevin O'Donnell, Michael E. Smith, Phillip C. Klapperich, The House Theatre of Chicago, The Nutcracker House Theatre, Tommy Rapley, Trista Smith \| « REVIEW: The Iliad (A Red Orchid) REVIEW: The Four of Us (Theater Wit) » REVIEW: Odradrek (House Theatre) « Chicago Theater Blog, on January 18, 2011 at 2:54 pm said: […] dip into darker subjects, especially death (Dave DaVinci Saves the Universe, The Nutcracker – our review ★★★½), sometimes drugs (All the Fame of Lofty Deeds – review ★★★), and, once, […]	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line639
__label__cc	0.727628	0.272372	Organization Finances Scientific & Medical Advisory Board About the CCF Annual Conference Our Blog: Cholangio . . . what? Cholangiocarcinoma Staging Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma Staging Perihilar Extrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma Staging Distal Extrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma Mutations Matter Patient & Caregivers Biliary Emergency Info Card Specialist Map GWAS Action Alert CholangioConnect Ask Dr. Giles ICRN (Int’l CCA Research Network) Biliary Tract Cancer Cell Lines & PDX Resources CCA Mutations Major Cancer Center Form Genome-Wide Association Study Donate Online/Tributes In Lieu of Flowers Planned Giving/Gifts of Stock Order Wristbands Get Moving with TeamCCF Fundraising Event Form Host Your Own Local Event Fundraising Spotlights Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma develops in the smaller bile duct branches inside the liver. It can sometimes be confused with cancer that starts in the liver cells, which is called hepatocellular carcinoma, and is often treated the same way. Only about 1 in 10 cholangiocarcinomas are intrahepatic. T Categories for Intrahepatic Bile Duct Cancer No description of the tumor’s extent is possible because of incomplete information. There is no evidence of a primary tumor. Cancer cells are only growing in the mucosa (the innermost layer of the bile duct) and have not grown into deeper layers of the bile duct. This stage is also known as intramucosal carcinoma and was previously called carcinoma in situ. A single tumor that has grown into deeper layers of the bile duct wall, but it is still only in the bile duct. The cancer has not grown into any blood vessels. Split into 2 group: T2a A single tumor that has grown through the wall of the bile duct and into a blood vessel. 2 or more tumors, which may (or may not) have grown into blood vessels The cancer has grown into nearby structures such as the intestine, stomach, common bile duct, abdominal wall, diaphragm, or lymph nodes around the portal vein. The cancer is spreading through the liver by growing along the bile ducts. N Categories Regional (nearby) lymph nodes cannot be assessed. The cancer has not spread to nearby lymph nodes. The cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes. M Categories The cancer has not spread to tissues or organs far away from the bile duct. The cancer has spread to tissues or organs far away from the bile duct. Stage Grouping Once a patient’s T, N, and M categories have been determined, this information is combined in a process called stage grouping. The stage is expressed in Roman numerals from stage 0 (the least advanced stage) to stage IV (the most advanced stage). Some stages are subdivided with letters. (Tis, N0, M0) The cancer is only growing in the innermost layer of the bile duct (Tis) and has not spread to lymph nodes (N0) or distant sites (M0). (T1, N0, M0) The cancer is a single tumor that has grown into deeper layers of the bile duct wall (T1), but it has not grown into any blood vessels. It has not spread to lymph nodes or distant sites. The cancer is either a single tumor that has grown into a blood vessel (T2a) or there are multiple tumors (T2b). The cancer has not grown into any nearby organs or structures. It has not spread to nearby lymph nodes (N0) or distant sites (M0). The cancer has grown into nearby structures such as the duodenum (first part of the small intestine), colon, stomach, abdominal wall, diaphragm, or lymph nodes around the portal vein (T3). It has not (N0) spread to nearby lymph nodes or distant sites. IVB (T4, N0, M0) OR (Any T, N1, M0) Either the cancer is spreading through the liver by growing along the bile ducts, OR the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes. It has not spread to distant sites. (Any T, any N, M1) The cancer has spread to distant sites (M1). Adapted from The American Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.gov/ ©2019 Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation - Disclaimer	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line642
__label__wiki	0.841528	0.841528	Home Press Library Bradley Cooper Interview for ‘The Hangover’ Bradley Cooper is heading into what could be the best summer of his life. On June 5, the man heretofore known as the jerky boyfriend in ‘Wedding Crashers’ hits theaters in the R-rated Vegas bachelor party comedy ‘The Hangover’ — a film with so much good buzz that a sequel’s already in the works. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the 34-year-old actor: He’s also rumored to be the top contender to play the titular superhero in ‘The Green Lantern’ (though in response to this possibility he simply says, “I don’t know”) and the notoriously good-looking “Face” in the upcoming ‘A-Team’ movie. In an exclusive interview, Cooper dishes on going blow-for-comedy-blow with Mike Tyson, flirting with Julia Roberts on a plane … and having a naked man’s junk shoved in his face. Bradley Cooper is heading into what could be the best summer of his life. On June 5, the man heretofore known as the jerky boyfriend in ‘Wedding Crashers’ hits theaters in the R-rated Vegas bachelor party comedy ‘The Hangover’ — a film with so much good buzz that a sequel’s already in the works. In an exclusive interview, Cooper dishes on going blow-for-comedy-blow with Mike Tyson, flirting with Julia Roberts on a plane … and having a naked man’s junk shoved in his face. Filming this movie must have been rough, what with hitting the Vegas casinos and clubs and your characters staying in the ‘Rain Man’ suite. What was your favorite part of the shoot? The movie as a whole was just an awesome experience. It was like we did a war movie almost [laughs]. Because we lived in Vegas in Caesar’s Palace and played these guys who got the s*** kicked out of ourselves. To be able to do that with Todd Phillips and Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms, it was just amazing. You had to do some pretty out there stuff — fighting with a naked dude, pretend humping a tiger, etc. Were there any scenes that were particularly awkward to shoot? I think it was awkward more for the crew to watch a naked Asian man’s testicles dangle in front of my neck 40 or 50 times [laughs]. But for some reason I didn’t realize how sort of ridiculous it all was. I know Ken [Jeong, the owner of the Asian testicles]. He’s a really good friend of mine. We did a movie called ‘All About Steve’ together, so it was his idea to be naked, and as he was pitching that to Todd, and it was like, “Whooooa. Okaaaay.” And then I didn’t even have a second thought about it. It wound up really making that scene. I think it’s one of the funniest scenes in the movie, actually. During the tiger scenes, did you ever feel like you were in danger? Luckily, we didn’t have to do anything outrageous to it at all, other than it living in an unnatural environment with humans and being on a leash. So whatever its aggravated state was normally, we had to live with. But, you know, you never get used to it. It’s a tiger. When you weren’t filming, did you and the guys take advantage of the debauchery that was conveniently right at your fingertips? You know, all the craziest stuff we did in Vegas while we were filming the movie is going to be in theaters on June 5. That’s where the craziness happened. It’s hard to come from a day’s work when you’ve been running around with a baby that you don’t know who it belongs to, in a cop car driving on a sidewalk with a tiger — and then top that. You know, what are you going to do: go and get drunk in a strip club? That’s pretty lame compared to what we had to shoot that day [laughs]. What’s Mike Tyson like in person? Did you get to hang out with him off-camera? We did actually. Shooting this movie was long hours with a lot of waiting around and setting up lights, so you’re spending 16-17 hour days with the people you act with. So I did get to know him a little bit, as much as you get to know people working with them — and I can’t say enough about that guy. He was fantastic. It’s hard to go into a movie, jump into a comedy especially like this one, and work three days and sort of immerse yourself and leave your mark — and he certainly did that. I don’t think singing is his strongest suit, but it doesn’t really matter [laughs]. Have you ever been to a bachelor party that rivaled the stuff that happened in this movie? No, I’ve never even been to one that one would define as “raucous.” The only bachelor party that I’ve ever been to was in Palm Springs with five guys playing golf. There’s already a ‘Hangover’ sequel being prepped. Any idea what the plot is going to be? And will you all be back? I’ve heard that, too, but there’s nothing set. We’ll just focus on this movie first and see how it does. But I would certainly do eight more ‘Hangovers’ because it’s very rare that you get to work with people that you love and in a project that you just love. Magic sort of happened on set with this movie, and I would love to do it again. It was just announced that you’re playing a gay man dating a closeted pro football player in the romantic comedy ‘Valentine’s Day.’ What got you interested in the part? You know, I have a really small role. It’s like two days I’m doing on that movie, and it was really just the opportunity to play it with Julia Roberts. I did a play with her about three years ago. And I thought it would be great — it’s a really sort of sweet relationship between these two people on a plane. So it’s a quick little thing I’m going to do and be able to work with her on film. I’m excited for that. In terms of the fact that that’s the character kind of gives away the — I don’t know why they were able to release that because it kind of ruins the story a little bit. We don’t know that he’s gay. At least you’re not supposed to — the way I read it. I guess they don’t care [laughs]. © 2009 Moviefone \| Written by Thomas DiChiara \| No copyright infringment intended.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line645
__label__cc	0.591383	0.408617	New Clues in Predicting Spontaneous Preterm Birth and Preeclampsia Seven to eight percent of pregnancies end in spontaneous preterm birth. About five percent of pregnancies involve preeclampsia. The problem is, we do not do a good job predicting which women are at heightened risk for these issues. “During early prenatal care, it’s almost as if we’re driving blind with respect to the risks of these conditions,” said Thomas F. McElrath, MD, PhD, associate obstetrician and gynecologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. While obstetrics as a field has excelled in screening for relatively rare birth defects such as Down syndrome, it has lagged in screening for spontaneous preterm birth and preeclampsia—two issues that affect many more mothers and babies. “We’ve gotten used to tolerating these conditions that are such major sources of morbidity, but we haven’t focused on how to screen for them more effectively,” Dr. McElrath said. Traditionally, screening for spontaneous preterm birth has been largely based on a women’s pregnancy history (which Dr. McElrath called “an imperfect method”) or on events that occur toward the end of a pregnancy (when a woman presents clinically). In his research, Dr. McElrath has instead concentrated on the 12-week mark of pregnancy. In a 2016 study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Dr. McElrath and his co-authors analyzed plasma samples obtained as part of the prospectively collected LifeCodes birth cohort. Established by Dr. McElrath and David Cantonwine, PhD, also of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, LifeCodes is an extensive biobank of samples, including blood, urine and placental samples, collected during almost 6,000 pregnancies. It is used to research biomarkers that may be associated with pregnancy complications as well as the effects of environmental exposures on pregnancy outcomes. “Our study found that proteins that are being expressed within the maternal-fetal system at 10 to 12 weeks begin to predict the outcome later in pregnancy,” he said. “Long before it’s something that’s clinically recognizable as a potential risk, you’re already starting to see these early, subtle changes in women who go on to have spontaneous preterm birth versus those who don’t.” The study authors noted that with further validation, “these changes…will allow the stratification of patients at risk of spontaneous preterm birth before clinical presentation.” Dr. McElrath is the lead author of a paper currently under review that validates the findings of the 2016 study in a separate, multicenter population. The possible therapeutic implications of these studies, explained Dr. McElrath, is that simply realizing a woman is at increased risk can have a positive impact. “If high-risk women receive increased attention—even just a nurse calling them every week, as was the case in one study—or have more frequent visits, they do better than women with the same risk background who receive standard care,” he said. “We don’t know exactly why, but just knowing something is going on and paying closer attention to the patient is effective in its own right.” The next step, Dr. McElrath suggested, will be determining which of the known modalities—e.g. cerclage, cervical pessary, progesterone, aspirin—might be effective given the pattern of protein expression associated with each woman’s risk. “Here’s the really intriguing part: Might there be therapy that can be tailored to a particular pattern?” Dr. McElrath asked. “Rather than treating all women at risk for preterm birth with the same therapy, which we do now, can we tailor each woman’s specific profile to a specific therapy?” Over time, Dr. McElrath imagines creating a model similar to what is used in oncology today. That is, a patient diagnosed with cancer undergoes a battery of tests that characterize the cancer and ultimately inform the specific and individual type of chemotherapy recommended. “I’d like to be able to test a pregnancy around 12 weeks and then apply the therapy that’s most appropriate based on the results of that test,” Dr. McElrath said. “The therapy may differ from individual to individual, but it will be based upon knowing the most effective therapy for that presentation.” GynecologyBWH Strategic Communication0 comments Just the Right Dose: Antiepileptic Drug Clearance Changes Early in Pregnancy The Measure of a Molecule: Studying the KIM-1 Biomarker	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line651
__label__cc	0.58258	0.41742	Is Criminality More Influenced By Genes Or Environment? December 16th, 2009Criminal behavior has always been a focal point for many. Psychologists examine a person's environment and genetics when studying criminal behavior. Webster's online dictionary defines genetics as the science concerned with the passage of traits from parents to offspring. Is it the effect of the environment or a person's genetic makeup that makes someone a criminal? Recently, psychologists, psychiatrists and neuroscientists have conducted extensive studies regarding this debate. The result is that criminal behavior is driven more by genes than environment; especially when one considers the in-depth studies of twins, adoption, family history and laboratory experiments.In 2001, psychologist Jay Joseph declared that genes were fully responsible for criminal activity. He went further to state that criminals could be identified by their psychological features (180). As surprising as this may sound, other scientists have agreed. In 2003, criminal anthropologist Cesare Lombroso's claim was that "criminals represent a particular physical type, distinctively different from those of non-criminals" (131). In other words, he believed genes were the sole factor contributing to criminal behavior. In addition, these studies suggested that there are ways to predict who will become career criminals by using measures of biological function.To fully understand the nature of how genes and environment influence criminal behavior, one must first know what constitutes criminal behavior. It ranges from being incarcerated to antisocial behavior, such as personality disorders which the research will prove are more influenced by genetics than a person's environment.First, psychologists refer to studies of twins, where a comparison is made between identical twins and fraternal twins regarding the rate of criminal behavior. If the outcome of these twin studies shows a higher concordance rate of identical than fraternal twins in criminal behavior, then it can be assumed that there is a genetic influence (Mednick and Tehrani 24). One study looked at thirty-two identical twins reared apart and adopted by non-relatives a short time after birth. The results show there was a high degree of hereditability with both childhood and adult antisocial behaviors (Joseph 180). This study was of particular importance because it examined the factors of separate environments. Another researcher studied eighty-five identical and 147 fraternal twin pairs. It found a higher concordance rate for the identical twin pairs. Ten years later, after checking the police records of these same twins, two other researchers concluded that there was a fifty-four percent hereditability of liability to crime (Joseph 181). The final analysis is that genetic factors are more influential on criminal behavior than environmental factors.Adoption studies better separate environmental and genetic effects. They test the hypotheses that parents with a predisposition to antisocial behavior may pass on... Find Another Essay On Is Criminality More Influenced by Genes or Environment? How Rap Is Influenced by God 1140 words - 5 pages Hip hop has become an important figure to mainly the African Americans turning into African American “English” relating to the culture because of the singing culture/tradition. Many agree that people do look for ways to find accustoms towards the culture or tradition. “Rap is the verbal-musical element of hip-hop which society mostly associates.” (Stewart) Many songs relate through some sort of expression, describing the way the hardships of The Processes by Which Genes and Environment Operate Together to Influence Development 2419 words - 10 pages The Processes by Which Genes and Environment Operate Together to Influence Development Psychologists have argued for centuries over which has played the larger role in child development, heredity or environment. The British philosopher John Locke (1632 –1704) proposed one of the first theories in the IS EDUCATION MORE EXPENSIVE OR IGNORANCE? 1520 words - 7 pages this system, the government can earn higher interest, and gather more money from each debtor. It also lesser the burden for students, and simultaneously benevolent to the student and beneficial. 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She tried to influence me by explaining how my school and personal life would be more easy and effective by being organized. Also, even though my father is a disorganized person, he was no Language Development Essay The Relevance of Tolerance and Persecution The Crucible by Arthur Miller Ethical Issues of Stem Cell Research The War on Drugs Essay Affecting Change Essay Organizational Behavior Essay Manifest Destiny Essay Effects of Homelessness on Children and Their Educational Success	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line653
__label__cc	0.733314	0.266686	Sports Memories Essay Many people enjoy attending sporting events because they enjoy the action, or perhaps they follow a particular team. Some may follow one team closely for a very long time – possibly their entire life. Unfortunately, sometimes a person’s long-term memory is limited in how much it can remember. You may have attended a football game 10 years ago, but you might not remember it very well. In addition, a game that you attended in person will have a bit of “added meaning” and you may want to document your experiences at that game. As implied, those sports fans that enjoy attending games have a problem with tracking the events they have attended. I am assuming that most sports fans don’t already meticulously track games and highlights and lowlights of each game. Judging from conversations with fellow sports followers, I think this is a fair assumption to make. I’m also assuming that this is something that would provide value to fans, especially in the long-term. As I have witnessed first-hand friends unsuccessfully trying to recall information about games from a few years ago, I definitely believe that there would be value in this kind of system. Currently, most people simply store memories in their mind. A benefit to this is being able to recall a piece of information off the top your head instead of needing to look something up. However, I hope to somehow transfer these memories to a more concrete source, available for lookup at a later point in time. I think the most important usability goals for this system would be efficiency (so that the process of storing the information is a quick one) and satisfaction (there would be no point to such a system if the user was not satisfied with its performance). A quality user experience goal would be that it is helpful, as that is one of the main goals of the system. My solution to this problem is to create a web application that tracks sporting events attended by a person. The user will enter relevant information to the game such as location, teams, final score, highlights and lowlights of the game, and any other “unusual” events that may occur. This game is added to a database, although it may be edited later. The real benefit of the system comes in when the user returns to the application looking for information relating to a past game. The user can search for a specific game by entering one or more fields (sport, location, winner, team, etc.) or simply view all games in the database. Those results will be sortable by a number of categories. This will allow the user to answer a question such as, “How many Husker football... Find Another Essay On Sports Memories violence in high school sports Essay 1242 words - 5 pages High school sports are one of American student’s favorite extracurricular activities. High school sports provide a sense of school pride and dedication to the athlete’s school. Many students play in hopes of a college scholarship in their desired sport. Despite the dreams that come with sports the sad truth is that many sport careers end short by some sort of injury. Injuries in high school sports vary from a range of things. High school The Memory Process Essay 852 words - 3 pages individual remembers events. The sights and smells of Christmas, or remembering the events when he or she played a crucial role for a sports team would both be episodic. Semantic memories, on the other hand, would not have as much contextual information involved with them. A person’s memory of multiplication tables or the knowledge needed to drive a car would be semantic memories. By using both types of memory, we can store important moments Does Involement in Sports Begt Better Character Development? 795 words - 3 pages Acts of violence, drug use, promiscuous or aggressive sexual attitudes, and cheating are some common issues on college campuses today. These behaviors things can happen amongwithin athletes and non-athletes alike. HoweverYet, most people perceive sports as being pure, and are regarded as highly instrumental in developing an enhanced morality, a propensity to follow rules and regulations, and a general respect for others, all of which in turn 1275 words - 6 pages cannot absolutely guarantee if this is correct. I may have been a year or two older or perhaps even a year younger. In fact, I have a number of memories from my adolescence that according to my parents and those who were close to me at the time I remembered incorrectly. 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It was a team sports where people of different dialect background clustered together to have fun and interact with one another. Unfortunately, Mr Hor was unfit to provide more detailed sharing of his memories of the sentimental site. Hence, in order to provide for a substantial information about the amusement park, Mr Lee Kien Yip, a 52 year old man who spent his childhood at Why Sports Are an Important Part of High School Life 1336 words - 5 pages letterman jacket is a great way to look back on for memories of high school and the sports they played.Many football alumni will return with their letterman jackets to watch football games from the new football team and have a great time seeing how much they have grown. This is why High School sports are also great for the community. It really says something terrific about the community when five thousand or more people show up to a Cocalico Personal Narrative: My Mistake 602 words - 2 pages Although high school was over for me in June 2009, I still think about the memories of my freshman, sophomore, and junior years. In these first three years of my high school experience I did not participate in school activities except drama club and a beauty pageant. I regret my decision of not participating in clubs, or going to the sport games, and not attending events in school. I would go back and change this decision for many reasons. Not An Analysis of Coach Carter and High School Sports 1385 words - 6 pages door to success. As Elise Patkotak states in her article, “Memories of winning a game won't get you into college or count for much on a job application, especially if that paper you have is a certificate of attendance and not a diploma.“ Works Cited Bowen, Daniel. “High-School Sports Aren't Killing Academics.” The Atlantic. The Atlantic, 2 Oct. 2013. Web. 15 April 2014. Coach Carter. Dir. Thomas Carter. Perf. Samuel L. Jackson. Paramount The Yearbook 812 words - 4 pages immersed themselves into sports bands, and clubs, but also of those who chose more diverse interests? The memories a yearbook captures should include all these ideas and must be as relevant as anything so that the parents of all the students that play sports, bands and are in clubs can be able to enjoy them. Crucial events such as Homecoming and prom should be included so that these memories are kept and immortalized. The straightforward answer to Case Analysis on Youth Sports 3825 words - 15 pages disagreements between coaches, referees and parents and the violence that takes place during games also help in creating negative perceptions about organized sports.Perhaps the greatest sin of organized sports is removing the fun aspect of sports. The fun aspect of sports needs to be preserved and even enhanced if we want children to have pleasant memories of sports and thus maintain a life long commitment to play and physical activity and a healthy Ethnographic Interview Essay 874 words - 4 pages ball.” “It was a way for me to bond with my family and friends as I was growing up.” From this interview I learned that athletics/sports were a way that Andrew bonded with his dad/family. I believe this is true for many American children. Many people have fond memories of their dads teaching them to throw a ball, or going to their first professional sports game with their dad. Like Andrew, for many people sports is an excellent way for children Sports Are Entertaining And Fun Essay 2254 words - 9 pages events can be so entertaining because you get to spend quality time with your family and friends and share in all of the memories to come. I want to find out if people have the same thoughts and opinions that I do about sports. I want to see if men take sports more seriously than women do, or is there a lot more women involved then we think. I want to find out what sports men and women like to play and watch and compare the Sports And School (My Experience) Essay 1198 words - 5 pages playing a sport. A winning sports season in a school-supported sport also raises the moral and efficiency of students. They become proud of their school and what they have done and want to keep the good name they have earned. Students will talk about the season and have better memories of school. Ten years later a reunion will echo with, ?Do you remember?? instead of having a reunion where no one shows up because they felt as if they were not a part Ballparks Economic Report 1264 words - 5 pages many people disagree, I feel that the ballparks create more tourism, more tax money, and memories that are priceless.Speaking to this issue, Roger Noll and Andrew Zimbalist explain that "People will come out yearly in the millions and they should feel some of the economic burden of keeping their teams, as should the cities" (Noll & Zimbalist, pg 55). Even people who do not attend sporting events benefit from revenue brought in by sports. The Hamlet's Change in Philosophy Essay Abortion: Pro-Life is the Logical Argument Music as an Agent of Socialization Campaign Finance Reform Essay Off the Leash: Censoring the Internet The Problem of Racism and Discrimination in American Society The Cheshire Region Essay Normalisation Essay	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line655
__label__cc	0.695759	0.304241	On July 2, 2019 July 3, 2019 By Swarn GillIn Commentary Yesterday, one of my fellow bloggers made a post about how he doesn’t get all the drama surrounding national anthems, whether you stand, sing along, put your hand over your heart etc. I share his sentiment. I’m not much for forced rituals that are supposed to have meeting, but seem so common place, overdone, and generally practiced by so many people who don’t even seem to share those values that it just feels superficial. I’d like to go a step further and say, I just really don’t understand the sentiment that people of your country are somehow more important than people from any other country. This has been on my mind with the migrant crisis at the border. You see so many comments from people who at best demonstrate indifference for refugees, to what essentially boils down to disgust. I can’t for the life of me how the first reaction can’t be one of compassion. These people are literally dying to get here, being made to suffer in intolerable detention centers because of the conditions that they are fleeing. Instead of accepting that an entire political party simply uses any excuse to see them as people who need help. Forget about accepting the fact that we made this problem through our fruitless war on drugs and that we should bear at least some responsibility for helping them now. And nevermind the fact that when Syrian refugee crisis existed, the most moderate of Republicans well still like…”I won’t take them here, but we can help them over there.” Meanwhile, I’ve heard when it was suggested that we provide aid to the central American countries as a way of keeping people there, people now say why should we give money to other countries? Conservatives will talk about all the help American’s need here at home, but they won’t support welfare programs, they don’t put homelessness at the top of their political platforms, they won’t support first responders from 9/11. I find the disregard for humans in need just insufferable. Like being American was something most of us tried to do. It wasn’t a choice, most of us were just born here. If there is anybody who actually wants to be American it’s the people coming to our borders in need of help. Accidents of geography are no basis to deny people who are suffering help. Yet this patriotism banner is being waved like it actually means something. Just maybe if such people were interested in helping Americans I might just believe it, but it’s all talk. There are the people who can help, and those that need help. That’s all. Nationalism is meaningless to me, unless through that structure you can use that power to make lives better for other people on the planet that sustains us all. Honestly I just don’t understand. Anybody else that can help me to understand, I’m all ears. AsylumCentral AmericaConservativesHelpingHumansMexicoRefugeesRepublicansSufferingWar on Drugs 26 thoughts on “Discussion: Understanding Patriotism” It’s all superficial crap. And to make it worse: if we look at the Syrian crisis many of the weapons are supplied by superpowers. Britain for one. Theresa May’s husband has interests in a company that makes fighter jets I believe. Nothing like bombing the shit out a nation to bring them to heel, right? And all this hoopla conveniently forgets that superpowers like the US almost annihilated the indigenous population out of existence; reckoned to be one of the worst cases of genocide in human history. And do we need to mention the exploits of most of the colonial powers during the times of expansion? Well, maybe we do. Be proud? Hmm… sometimes I wonder. Yeah, I mean the levels of hypocrisy and ignorance here are without measure for all the reasons you’ve mentioned as well. So much of the high standard of living that many western nations enjoy is built on so much blood from aboriginals and slaves, it’s hard to imagine feeling pride before having pay a lot of penance first. The Pink Agendist Interesting. If you doesn’t and I doesn’t, then who did it? 😁 Drink typing? Swarn’s Line 1: “Yesterday, one of my fellow bloggers made a post about how I doesn’t get all the drama.” That’s climate scientist speak. Or he wants to sound like an African American blues singer from the 1st half of the 20th century. …Or a white Trump voter from South Carolina I fixed it….now stop…this is getting worse for me! lol JZ with the lowest blow! Oh, I can go lower, and I know Pink will follow me down that rabbit hole 😉 judyt54 I’ve never been a red white and blue patriot, I find the entire business embarrassing and tedious. When the Iran crisis was in full swing, even in this relatively remote part of the country it reached a point of ferocity: someone put yellow ribbons on every damn telephone pole along one highway (“Tie a Yellow Ribbon’ has become the song of choice for that sort of behavior), gigantic American flags were draped over clotheslines, nailed to barns, and some were seen whipping themselves to shreds at 60 MPH on cars, some flags big enough to obstruct vision in both directions. None of this did a thing for the hostages in Iran, but it made some companies a great deal of money. I told my husband, thank goodness no one can see us from the road–we were the only house in the neighborhood not flying a flag ‘in support”. I think a lot of this jingoistic ‘local’ pride comes from the fact that most of our population is of ‘immigrant” stock themselves, and they remember stories about famines and wars and oppression and how proud Grampa was when he became a citizen. And we still have that ‘new shoes’ shine about our patriotism. Not to excuse it, but perhaps to explain it. It’s narrow, it’s mean, sometimes, and it’s also very very close to being a religion. And yet for all of that every new wave of immigrants, from the Irish to the Cubans to the Chinese and Spanish is treated with a disdain and jealousy that’s embarrassing. “let them go back to where they came from” is common. We even join forces against another state “invading” our state, and locals put up a wall of reistance, even at that level. In thinking about it, it seems territorial, and maybe with such a violent birth as this country had not that long ago, historically, we are still afraid to let go . Most of the older countries have functioning buildings that were old before we were ever a country. Their population has learned to make room for outsiders. When you’re sure in your own skin, you’re more generous. Maybe we just haven’t been a country long enough to relax, and learn some manners. and yes, Trump and his toads is an embarrassment to me, as well. I think I agree with you, it’s just still hard to wrap my head around how that nationalistic pride can be built on escaping oppression, famine, wars, etc, and not therefore have sympathy for groups of people doing the same thing. And I also agree, there is something of a petulant teenager attitude about the U.S. right now in comparison to older nations. I hope that it will grow up. Don’t like my comment! Just fix the first sentence!!! 😛 Someone should crash Trump’s parade with a cage full of children float. I mean that’s funny…but it also wouldn’t be funny…because sadly that’s what is happening. Oh and somebody tried to convince me that conditions really aren’t that bad there…all CBP are just people like you and me trying to do good for people. And then that 9500 member facebook group that was making fun of the refugees and people who support them came out…I’m not convinced that there are that many regular people among them. Dehumanising the ‘other’ is the first step to places we should never go. Make them dirty. Make them desperate. Crowd them together like cattle. This play has been done before. Agreed John. I’m listening to a podcast that is talking about what strategies humans for cooperation. I was thinking about making it a topic for another blog post. It seems that there are both positive and negative ways of getting people to work together in a group. Dehumanizing others is certainly a strategy, but as you point out, it is a self defeating one, Because if dehumanizing others becomes the basis for a society, it can easily dehumanize from within. makagutu this is such a passionate plea to people to be humans. how has it been so had to be humane? we are in a border dispute court with Somalia and every few days I see tweets which are a short call to making a war cry and the irony is many woke people admit these borders are colonial in origin as there were no fixed borders before. I think our hunter-gatherer selves find the idea of a border confusing. As climate changed and availability of resources changed many of our ancestors simply migrated elsewhere. Such things still happen today, except now borders change. We haven’t chosen a sustainable lifestyle, and I don’t think humans were ever really good at that simply because we did have more freedom to move. The hate is extra hypocritical given that we are a country of immigrants who are now saying that people fleeing persecution don’t deserve a chance at being here. The fear mongering campaign has been successful apparently. Do they also round immigrants of European origin in the country illegally? Well not to my knowledge…although I don’t know that there are enough illegal Europeans in the country to round up. lol In the small town my university is in there were some Roma people there for awhile who immigration placed in the town until their asylum cases could be heard because they figured putting them in a detention facility for a prolonged period of time was unfavorable. Of course this was also before Trump was president. Roma are European and not white and they at least received some humane treatment. But there isn’t a big propaganda campaign against Hispanic people and I don’t know how widespread that practice is of placing people in other towns in temporary housing instead of detention centers. Of course this country has a bad history of treating the next wave of immigrants as scum. Whether it be Italian or Irish. We also denied asylum to Jewish people during WWII as there is a good streak of antisemitism here as well. The big difference here, in my mind, is how our policies on drugs are directly related to the crisis here. Way back when marijuana was made illegal the U.S. also put pressure on Mexico and other central American countries to make drugs illegal, and this in large part has been what has caused those countries to fall under the weight of drug cartels, while we here at home can use the drug laws to be more punitive to African-Americans and Hispanics. We have this on tape from two people who used to work in the Nixon administration. The drug pathways from South America come up either Central America or the Caribbean. So many countries in both those regions have been taken over by drugs and cartels. It’s clear as day that the war on drugs is a failure, and that we would be far better off if we legalized drugs. Cartels would lose their highest paying customers, less people would be in our prisons and would have a chance to contribute positively to society, and we could actually create revenue from regulated legal drugs, and using the surplus for education and addiction treatment. shelldigger I don’t think patriotism is the cause for what is going on, it is the cover. Down here in the south you can tell the most patriotic people from the highway. They are the ones with confederate flags flying, “Don’t Tread on Me” bumper stickers, and empty beer cans overflowing the beds of their no longer running pickup trucks. All I can do is agree with you 100%. One of my favorite mantras is, “nobody is that special.” If that makes me un-American, so be it. It’s a shameful thing to be anyway, these days. And I’m not so sure our history is as stellar as many would like to believe. It’s not unusual as countries go, but subjugation of others in order to expand empire and fill the pockets of the uber wealthy is unsustainable and disrespectful of human differences. And it can never lead to any viable solutions. Aloha, Swarn. Honestly I don’t think it’s very un-American given that the idea behind this American experiment is to be open to all those who have experienced persecution in their country of origin, to have a home based on values rooted in liberty and justice. The average asylum seeker isn’t coming to take away freedoms, but to have them. Yet the fear mongering by the conservative crowd would have you believe that they are a huge drain on our economy at best, criminals or terrorists at worst. But I think you’ve hit on an important point, is that there really isn’t enough honesty in how we view our history and policies. This dishonesty can even be found in many democrats as well. Perhaps because it is political death, even on the left to admit that America isn’t perfect. That lack of humility will be our undoing. Oh gosh, amen to that. Hubris has caused the downfall of many a civilization. And again, I cannot but agree with all you have said here, Swarn. Shameful, this hatred of differences which can only enrich the whole. Aloha. 🙏🏽💕	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line656
__label__cc	0.503308	0.496692	Home / A glimpse into the future A glimpse into the future As we celebrate our 75th anniversary, we’ve been doing a lot of looking back. During our 50th anniversary, we asked College members what they thought the future of allergy would be like in 25 years – in 2017. Now, we’re looking back to see if those predictions came true – and making a couple of new predictions. What will the future of allergy look like when the College turns 100 in 2042? College members have some ideas. Joseph Bellanti, MD, FACAAI, College historian 1992 Prediction “If our specialty is to survive to the year 2017 – allergists will have to embrace clinical immunology…and find new disease entities.” Did it come true? “This is still true today." "I think there’s a bright future ahead for the specialty. As we move into the fields of precision and personalized medicine, I think it's important to stress that the allergist-immunologist has a much broader opportunity to embrace other fields of clinical Immunology. And we shouldn't lose sight of those opportunities for immune deficiency, for autoimmune disease, for the new advances in cancer immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors. So, this knowledge of immunology expanding and having clinical application, I think, is very important for a membership, and particularly our young membership, the Fellows-in-Training. So, I think this area is very important.” Ralph Hale, MD, FACAAI, past president ACA (ACAAI’s name at the time) 1971-72, deceased “We will develop a POTENT NON-STEROIDAL, ANTI-INFLAMMATORY drug without serious side effects for long-term use.” Bobby Lanier, MD, FACAAI, past executive medical director “Dr. Hale is partially correct in that montelukast has been developed. While it is not as potent as we hoped – it is very safe. Currently, for long-term treatment, we have developed a series of biologic medications attacking the basis of inflammation. Monoclonal antibodies have been developed which get closer to both preventing the inflammation as well as the accumulation of damage.” "Allergists will drift from concentration on antibody E to a broader consideration of all antibodies and cellular messengers. Subcutaneous allergy injections, the current standard of care, will become rare as advanced methods of influencing the immune system become possible." Susan Bailey, MD, FACAAI, Speaker of the AMA House of Delegates “In the year 2017 – clinical allergy will STILL be a rewarding area of practice. Improved understanding of rhinitis and asthma will result in superior medications…as immunotherapy evolves into GENE THERAPY.” "Clinical allergy is still a very rewarding area of practice; although it has changed with allergy medications going OTC, our allergy and asthma patients still very much need our partnership in developing safe and effective management plans. It is as rewarding as ever to see a child with poorly controlled asthma become active and athletic with good allergy care. Immunotherapy is still our primary disease modifying therapy for allergic disease and asthma. Biologics are playing a rapidly increasing role, which I never would have guessed 25 years ago. We are becoming better at identifying asthma phenotypes, but gene therapy seems quite distant given the increasing complexities we discover." "In 25 years, there will still be a need for allergists. I believe telemedicine can help us reach patients that have not had access to us before. Food desensitization will be routine. Pharmacogenomics will help us decide which medications or biologicals are best suited to our patients, without having to go through trial and error like we do now." Jack Selner, MD, FACAAI, past president 1992-93, deceased “We’ll have to adapt to drastic changes in technology for diagnosis and treatment…or fade into the sunset.” James Sublett, MD, FACAAI, past president and executive director of advocacy and governmental affairs for the Advocacy Council "This may surprise our readers, but I feel the single most significant technologic advancement was hard to visualize in 1992 – the power of high speed internet and the resulting connectivity. This, along with the rapid development of personal devices have empowered our patients to want to understand more about allergic diseases. The ability for allergists to communicate electronically has not only opened the door to increased professional education (access worldwide to peer reviewed literature, webinars, the College Learning Center, virtual meetings) but also enhanced patient engagement to provide better education and communication for our patients. "For more than the last decade the College has been working to enhance electronic communication through continuously improving delivery of information, to our members, and our current and future patients. Our strength is in the processing of information. The immune system is as complex as the most sophisticated supercomputer, and we are the only specialty trained to diagnose and treat diseases of the immune system." "We are currently moving out of the symptomatic treatment era to the era of “biologics.” Currently, in our field, they have been developed for difficult-to-treat asthma, urticaria and atopic dermatitis, but I expect application to other disease states in the future. For the last 100 years, we have had allergen-specific subcutaneous immunotherapy, which, if developed today, would be touted as a huge breakthrough. With increased identification of allergen components (the dust mite has over 25), we will move to using patient specific component immunotherapy as a better way of treatment. This will be applied, not only to food allergy, but inhalants. "I hope that we will have in a significant way moved to better understanding of the gene-environmental interaction. With the use of ‘Big Data’ and personal monitoring of exposure we should be able to understand better the role of gene-environment interaction and the development and prevention of allergic diseases. "Just as ‘brick and motor’ stores have been impacted by online shopping, adaptation by allergists to use telemedicine (already in progress), eConsults, apps, and personal electronic devices, both for real-time monitoring and communication, will dramatically change the way we interact with and treat our patients."	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line660
__label__cc	0.69936	0.30064	According to the Oxford Dictionary, an ossuary is “a container or room in which the bones of dead people are placed. The ossuaries of Paris fit the description, with the bones of an estimated 6 million individuals. Their skeletons were exhumed from cemeteries in the 18th and 19th centuries. Everywhere you look in Paris, there are limestone building. It turns out that Paris once sat on large deposits of limestone. In the 13th century they figured out how to get large blocks of limestone from underground mines. Initially the mines were on the outskirts of Paris, but over time the population grew and they built over the underground mines. In December, 1774, the first collapse occurred with houses, an entire street, and 300 hundred people perishing. Today the street is Avenue Denfert-Rochereau. There a metro stop, Denfert-Rochereau, across from the entrance to the catacombs. When we exited the metro stairs we could see a line that wrapped around the block. Fortunately, Marcia had purchased tickets in advance. We walked to the head of the line and were ushered and given the audio tour guides. Before arriving at the ossuaries, we went down 300 steps and followed a tunnel for what felt like a kilometer. It turns out that the underground tunnels run for more than 300 kilometers (literally more than a 200 miles). The are limestone plaques that give an indication of where the graves were located prior to being exhumed. Ella’s comment on the catacombs, “It was kinda interesting, but boring after walking by the same thing for a long time.” Rachel thought “It was kinda creepy, weird and I’m surprised that tourist go there. Why do people go to see bones?” Sarah summarized, “a lot of dead people, but I felt normal, not scared.” Although most of the catacombs were tunnels designed for workers less than 6 feet, this is a picture looking up in one of two areas where the ceiling was 36 feet After the catacombs we saw one of the common sights, a truck making a delivery to fifth floor. It turns out that many many of the residential buildings are five or six stories. When they have elevators, they are too small to fit large items. As there is much remodeling/renovation taking place, you frequently see these trucks in action. Author Comings and GoingsPosted on March 19, 2016 Leave a comment on Catacombs	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line661
__label__cc	0.594425	0.405575	Professional Development Studies (PDS) Launching September 3, 2019! New Certificate Program: Digital Asset Management (DAM) SC&I’s new non-credit certificate program, Digital Asset Management (DAM), is perfect whether you are a seasoned professional already working in the information field, or you are interested in a career change. School of Communication and Information (SC&I) Valenza Honored by AASL and ALA Joyce Valenza, Assistant Teaching Professor of Library and Information Science at SC&I, has been a librarian for over 40 years, and has recently been recognized by two distinguished library associations. Journalism and Media Studies Major Research at School of Communication and Information Too Much Screen Time for the Kids? Grandparents May Also Be Complicit In the age of high-tech electronics many kids spend about half their visit with grandparents watching videos or playing with apps Communication Major Rutgers School of Communication and Information Alumni “Don’t Underestimate the Potential of Making Your Passion Your Paycheck” Kyrah Arthur, who graduated in May, 2019 with a Bachelor’s degree in communication from SC&I, was recently awarded a $28,000 scholarship to pursue a master’s degree at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California. Third Annual JMS Showcase Highlights the Best in Digital Media On May 7th, students from several JMS classes presented their digital media projects to students, parents, and faculty. Itzhak Yanovitzky Promoted to Full Professor The Rutgers University Board of Governors has conferred the title of full Professor, with tenure, effective July 1, 2019, to Associate Professor Itzhak Yanovitzky.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line662
__label__cc	0.638495	0.361505	← Diving to locate mistasiny on CBC’s As It Happens A chapter in Cree history from Saskatoon’s Star Phoenix: “History Matters: ‘My people made war gently'” → Shannon Koostachin Monument Unveiled at New Liskeard Posted on October 29, 2015 by Arden Ogg http://muskratmagazine.com/sudbury-artist-unveils-sculpture-honouring-shannen-koostachin/ Congratulations to Jules Koostachin who headed the memorial project on seeing this vision realized. Listen to Jules on CBC radio talking about the change that Shannen didn’t get to see, but that others continue to pursue in her memory: https://www.facebook.com/CBC.caAboriginal/videos/1129058070454951/ From Muskrat Magazine, 27 October 2015: Sculpture by Tyler Fauvelle Lively, Ontario, P3Y 1M9 For Immediate Release – October 27, 2015 Sudbury Artist Unveils Sculpture Honouring Shannen Koostachin Public art commemorates Cree youth who led the struggle for a new school in Attawapiskat SUDBURY, Ontario – A monument commemorating Shannen Koostachin, a young Cree activist from Attawapiskat First Nation, was unveiled on October 24th at the New Liskeard, Ontario waterfront. Koostachin led the struggle for a new school in Attawapiskat, and was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize. Tyler Fauvelle, a professional sculptor based in Sudbury, Ontario, created the figurative bronze sculpture, which depicts Shannen dancing in traditional regalia, and features symbols reflecting her Cree heritage. (www.tylerfauvelle.ca) Jules Arita Koostachin, multi-media artist and a relative of Shannen’s, led the commemorative project, which included installing butterfly benches near the monument, and the production of a short documentary film. Kenneth (Jake) Chakasim, lecturer with the Laurentian University School of Architecture, and Rick Miller, an accomplished Canadian photographer and videographer, were part of the project team. When the only elementary school in Attawapiskat was condemned, and replaced with portable trailers that were cold and mice-infested, Shannen Koostachin led the youth-driven Attawapiskat School Campaign, persistently advocating for a “safe and comfy” school. The students eventually succeeded, but Shannen didn’t live to see it – she was fifteen years old when her life suddenly ended in a motor vehicle accident in 2010. Family, friends and community started Shannen’s Dream, a campaign for decent schools for all First Nations children across Canada, and for quality, culturally-based education. On October 24th, Shannen’s family joined friends and dignitaries to honour and lovingly remember Koostachin. Among the dignitaries were Theresa Spence (former Chief of Attawapiskat First Nation), Charlie Angus (MP), and Carman Kidd (Mayor of Temiskaming Shores). The solemn event included a traditional blessing, and smudge ceremony. “I’ve attended several unveilings of my work,” said Fauvelle, “but this one was different. When the bronze of Shannen was unveiled, there wasn’t a sound. No one spoke. Then, I saw all the tears, and the quiet smiles. It was an emotional reminder that this proud young activist, admired by so many, had also been a daughter, a sister, a friend.” Fauvelle sculpts in clay, and casts his work in bronze. His public art includes commemorations of the Wendat people, John Graves Simcoe, famous prospectors of the Porcupine gold rush, Ukrainian cultural hero Taras Shevchenko, and Canadian folk/country singer, Stompin’ Tom Connors. He is currently working on a life-sized bronze of Francis Pegahmagabow, the most highly-decorated First Nations soldier in Canadian history. (Photo credit: Tyler Fauvelle) This entry was posted in From the Mainstream, In Memoriam. Bookmark the permalink.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line668
__label__cc	0.630876	0.369124	Creech, Ruishton, Thornfalcon Parish Churches Ruishton Creech St. Michael Thornfalcon Prayer & Bible Study Social & Fund Raising Searching our registers and memorials Home > Information > Notices Vocations Fair “Called and Serving” Saturday 12th October from 10.00am – 3.30pm at St James Church, Taunton. This is being organised by Taunton Deanery. This is an opportunity to come and find out more about the wide variety of lay and ordained ministries available in our churches and communities. You can come for the whole day, or drop in for part of the day. Leaflets will be available in our churches explaining more about it. RUISHTON CHURCHYARD AND CEMETERY PLAN We have now received the final version of the Ruishton Churchyard and Cemetery plan. Mr Eric Chown presented it to me at the end of May and a copy is now in our church for anyone to view when the church is open. To view the plan online please click here. We are very grateful to Eric for producing this for us. It will be a great help to anyone wanting to research their family history, or find a relative’s grave. In case anyone is not aware, the cemetery is found through the gates of the Old Vicarage and behind the church meeting room. This is now in the hands of Taunton Deane Borough Council as it is now closed to new burials. Eric has made a meticulous and detailed plan for us which will make it much easier for us to maintain and for future generations to research their family history. We have given a small gift to Eric to thank him for all his hard work. Rebecca Harris Bible Recycling A homel ess person recently asked me whether I could give him copy of the Bible. He had lost his copy and wanted to read more. I was not sure where to find one in the church to give him at that moment and was frustrated at not being able to help This led me to think about people coming off the street into our churches. People who might feel prompted to read more and don’t have God’s Word to take with them. They may not have enough money to buy their own Bible or they might just be desperate at that moment. It seems to me a bit bizarre that as an open church we might not be able to spread God’s word. If our local churches were to offer free Bibles I think this might meet people’s need and so I feel nudged to collect and distribute them. Now I always carry a spare one, but would love to be able to offer more. So I wonder whether you have an unmarked spare copy of the Bible you could donate to give away. If so, please bring the Bible to one of our services or leave in one of the churches with a note indicating that it is a donation. Creech St Michael in two World Wars It has recently been announced that the War Memorial in Creech St Michael has been granted a Grade II listing by Historic England so perhaps it is fitting to ask about all the names of the men of the parish who lost their lives during the two major conflicts of the last century. I am doing research into all the names on the memorial in the churchyard. Sadly so little detail has survived about them, who they were and their family lives before the war. Do you have any of these local names in your family? ADAMS ALLEN BURT DART DAY DUKE DUNNING FOXWELL HARVEY HILL HOOPER HOPKINS HURFORD LEDDINGTON MITCHELL POOLE THATCHER VERRIER VILE WALSH WEST I am trying to trace all the family connections in the parish and to compile a commemorative book to be available in the church. I already have some details for all of the named men from the parish. My aim is to give a very short biography of each serviceman, family connections to the parish and add details of their military service including the circumstances of their death. To include the military unit, rank, medals and any honours etc. Most of the service records for the men of the Great War (1914 – 1918) were lost, being burnt during the Blitz on London during the 1939 – 1945 war, so military details are very sparse. But by using local sources, census information, newspapers and other lists available from the Somerset Heritage Centre, a picture of these men’s lives has emerged. Anything that those with family connections can add either as a direct descendant, relative, friends or marriage lines will help to bring the memories back to the parish for us all to share. Some of the families may have lost their ties to the village so if anyone reading this can add or give details of known family members who served and lost their life in the two world wars it would help to complete our knowledge of these brave men. My list includes limited stories about the six men from the parish who are named during the Second World War (1939 – 1945). These men’s military details are closed* for 100 years so less personal information is known. *Families can apply for early release of sealed information from the National Archives, the current cost is about £30. The on-going research is continuous, seeking details that will add to our understanding of the lives the men and families. Every endeavour will be made to ensure that the individual histories are correct. This is the reason for this appeal in the Church magazine. If you have any details you wish to share please contact Eric via the Benefice office St Michaels Church now has a book of remembrance. If anyone would like a loved one’s name added please fill in a form available in Church or contact Liz via the Benefice office. Bell-ringing at Ruishton If anyone is interested in bell-ringing, the new bell tower captain at Ruishton would be pleased to hear from you! Please contact Mervyn via the Benefice office.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line671
__label__cc	0.684265	0.315735	Framework for Serious Game with Easily Pluggable Content Supakit Kiatrungrit HSS 282 Professors Ilmi Yoon & Bill Hsu In this project, we present a prototype of framework for authoring serious games. Authoring serious games is a challenging task because (1) most educators in diverse fields are not familiar with developing games or interacting with game developers, (2) game designers or developers do not have knowledge of the specific field for which the game is being developed, (3) it is difficult to assess the amount of benefit gained from playing the game, therefore it is difficult to integrate educational components into games that provide a solid learning experience. The framework developed in this project is inspired by the idea of traditional board games. For instance, traditional board game like Cranium™ contains educational components achieved by competition between the players of the game. In addition, board games are flexible for embedding training, game-based learning effect and facilitate easy switching from one educational domain to the other. The framework consists of easily configurable board game in 3D environments as well as immersive simulations using motion-captured 3D character animations. The contents are provided by professors at nursing department and the game is called "Nursing Life." The game contents can be easily adjusted from a web browser that allows the game to evolve with rich educational contents over time. Serious game, Pluggable contents, Nurse training.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line672
__label__wiki	0.764749	0.764749	News archive - October 2015 NTU subject ranking National Taiwan University (NTU) has published its annual ranking of world universities based on the performance of scientific papers, aiming to investigate the world’s top research universities. David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science ranked #19 globally by U.S. News and World Report For a second time, the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science has ranked in the global top-20 in subject-area rankings for Computer Science by U.S. News & World Report. The global universities ranking uses a pool of 1,000 institutions to create the list of the top 750 schools. The top 750 schools were ranked using 12 indicators such as global research reputation, regional research reputation, publications, books, and conferences. News by audience Current students (159) Current graduate students (2) Future students (143) Future undergraduate students (1) Future graduate students (3) Donors \| Friends \| Supporters (45) Employers (29)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line673
__label__wiki	0.875317	0.875317	Geo-Monitor Penny Colton, P.Geoph. Manager of Geoscience Affairs for the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA). Mar 2004 \| VOL. 29 No. 03 \| View Issue August 2003: From the Directory Issue of CIM Bulletin (Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum See www.cim.org); "The A.O. Dufresne Award for 2003 was awarded to ARTHUR A. BRANT, posthumously, "in recognition of his many contributions to the science and practice of mineral exploration, both in Canada and internationally." Dr. Brant was a SEG Distinguished Lecturer ill 1960, became an Honorary Member in 1963 and, in 1987, he was awarded the Maurice Ewing Medal. Arthur A. Brant, who died January 28, 2002 in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 91, left an enormous legacy in the science and practice of mining geophysics, both in Canada and internationally. Born in Toronto, October 23, 1910, Mr. Brant was a direct descendant of Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), legendary Mohawk chief. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1932, winning the Gold Medal in mathematics and physics. He obtained his M.A. in 1933 and then went to Princeton on the Queen's Scholarship in physics. He was given a German Exchange Fellowship at the University of Berlin, where he received a doctorate in 1936. He returned to Toronto in 1937 as a professor of physics where he traced a newly discovered high-grade hematite deposit, which helped to establish the credibility of geophysics among the Canadian mining community. In 1946, with the Newmont Mining group, Arthur Brant successfully developed the induced polarization technique for the discovery of buried porphyry copper, bedded lead-zinc, and sulphide-related gold deposits. Over the years, he published 22 papers and was granted 14 patents. He always kept a foot in academia, where he lectured widely: the Hoots Lectures at Stanford, the McKinstry Lectures at Harvard, Regents Lectures at Berkeley as well as countless lectures in Japan, India, Germany, Australia, and Canada. He served on various advisory committees at Princeton, UCLA, Berkeley, and several others. Mr. Brant was adjunct professor at both Columbia University and the University of Arizona. He organized the first mining program at the 1948 Society of Exploration Geophysics meeting in Denver. The five CIM Distinguished Lecturers for 2003 included ALICE V. PAYNE of Calgary, Alberta, as Calgary Branch Nominee, in recognition of a lifelong contribution to both mineral and petroleum geology, leadership in encouraging young women to pursue careers in geology, and enthusiastic commitment to technical and professional associations and community activities. Above Information previously published in the 2004 CIM Directory - reprinted with permission of the CIM. November 18, Ft McMurray: The CIM Oil Sands Branch hosted CIM Distinguished Lecturer, Alice Payne, on "Tom Payne's Search for Gold". The talk outlined how, after a stint in northern Manitoba, Tom Payne finally discovered a rich gold mine among the quartz veins at Yellowknife; he formed Quin Kola Gold Mines Limited and made a historic mining deal with Cominco. Tom's four claims became part of the 'Con' mine; one of Canada's largest operating gold mines. Instead of retiring later in life, he found new partners and drilled an oil well in Alberta. His story illustrates the heady excitement of frontier exploration, with the persistence and luck required for success. Montreal, December 3, 2003 - CIM adopts Estimation Best Practices Guidelines: At its Council meeting in Montreal on November 23, 2003, the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) adopted best practice guidelines for the estimation of mineral resources and mineral reserves as presented in the report "Estimation of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Best Practice Guidelines" dated May 30, 2003. This report is available in PDF format on the CIM website at www.cim.org/committees/estimation2003.pdf AAPG Explorer, November 2003: "Mackenzie Delta Production Tests Positive - Gas Hydrate Research Advances", by Art Johnson and Tim Collett. (See www.aapg.org), In addition to a review of US and GOM perspective, the on-line version of the Explorer includes links to the website of the MH21 Research Consortium, which is lead by the Geological Survey of Canada, and the Japan National Oil Company. That site has an interesting video clip about the WT Mallik tests. See www.mh21japan.gr.jp/english/ Austin Texas, Jan 25, 2004: Texas Board of Geoscience Professionals (http://tbpg.state.tx.us): There are now 6010 Professional Geoscientists in Texas. Approximately 4000 applications we re filed in the last weeks of August 2003 to meet the legislated grand father clause deadline. Approved applications suggest the disciples are represented as 85% Geology, 14% Geophysics, and 1% Soil Science. All new applicants must take the ASBOG (American Society of State Boards of Geology) exam in their discipline to complete their application to the Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists. Exam information for Geophysics and Soil Science will be added to the website as it becomes available. The site also contains a link to the AAPG article, by Peter Rose, titled "Is Licensure Good Business?" See http://www.aapg.org/explorer/business_side/2003/01jan.html. The geological map of Texas is from the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology at http://www.aipgtx.org/graphics/texgeo.jpg Share This Column Popular Columns Science Break: Steel (Oct 2013) Science Break: Polynesian Navigation (Sep 2008) Science Break: Plant Hydraulics (Feb 2013) Science Break: Immaculate Conception, Christmas, Etc. (Jan 2014) Science Break: Encryption, part one – the pre-digital era (Mar 2013)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line674
__label__cc	0.566906	0.433094	USWNT Jersey Sales Setting Records For Nike, Fanatics Filed Under:Ryan Mayer, USWNT, Women's World Cup (CBS Local/CBS New York)- The United States women’s national team locked up a spot in their third consecutive World Cup final Tuesday with a 2-1 win over England in the semifinals in France. The three straight finals appearances is a record and fans have been loudly cheering for Jill Ellis’ group as they make their title defense. Aside from showing their support on Twitter or with watch parties, fans are showing their pride in the women’s team with their wallets. According to a report from ESPN, the women’s team’s jersey is now outselling all other soccer jerseys from the two licensed suppliers, Nike and Fanatics. In the latest Nike earnings report, the company stated that the women’s 2019 home stadium jerseys are now the number one selling soccer jersey ever sold on Nike.com in one season. Meanwhile, Fanatics reports that the uniform is the top-selling U.S. men’s or women’s national team jersey of all-time. “It’s hard to overstate how important this year has been to the evolution of the women’s offense at Nike,” president and CEO Matt Parker said on the company’s earnings call. “The business grew double digits in fiscal ’19, accelerating in the back half of the year. Our momentum in women’s [sports] is a great example of how our renewed focus is really moving the needle through thoughtful design, powerful brand messages and digitally-led distribution.” With the World Cup final set for this upcoming Sunday, July 7th, one would imagine the jersey sales numbers would only continue to climb as fans gear up to cheer on the women one more time in this World Cup.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line681
__label__cc	0.730309	0.269691	Summer Benefits in my Backyard: Memorial Day 2018 Jonathan Kaupanger How it started is still up for debate. Originally called Decoration Day, Memorial Day began as a grass roots effort to honor soldiers who lost their lives in the Civil War. Union General John A. Logan called for the first nationwide Memorial Day in 1868. He chose May 30 because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle. According to stories, May was the preferred time because of good weather and an abundance of spring flowers. Logan’s idea for the day was simple, emphasize honor and dignity. “Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland at the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor…” How people should do this was left up to each person. Gen. Logan said, “In this observance, no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials.” Whether you commemorate the day with a parade, picnic, barbeque or brass band, there is only one rule you need to follow, and that has to do with the American Flag. On Memorial Day, the flag is to be flown at half-staff until noon and then full staff from noon to sunset. You can go here to find more American flag etiquette and guidelines. VA's National Cemetery Administration host’s Memorial Day ceremonies at VA national cemeteries across the country. The National Memorial Day Concert is Sunday, May 27, from 8:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. this year. General Colin Powell, Gary Sinise and Leona Lewis are just some of the featured guests. The concert is in DC, but it will also be broadcasted live on PBS. You can check your local listings here. The National Memorial Day Parade is also in D.C. but live-streamed online and shown on TV on May 28 at 2:00pm EST. Native Americans who sacrificed their lives while in the US military are honored at the Memorial Day weekend Open House at the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota. This four day event, May 25 – 28, features American Indian artists in the Welcome Center. If you bring three cans of food and your entry fee is waived. Poppy Memorial on the National Mall. The memorial is displayed on the southwestern side of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool – with the Lincoln Memorial to the west, the Korean War Memorial to the south, the reflecting pool due north and the World War II Memorial to the east. Go to a National Park. This is a very busy weekend at our National Parks, you should try to get in before 9 a.m. Here’s just a few park events going on Memorial Day weekend. Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland has ranger tours and cemetery programs you can join on Memorial Day Tour bunkers with WWII re-enactors at Point Loma in Cabrillo National Monument in California Learn about the US Coast Guard while touring an active station at Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina In South Carolina you can learn about the past from living history interpreters representing every war from the French and Indian War to today’s military at the Kings Mountain National Military Park Place flags at each headstone in the Chalmette National Cemetery at the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in Louisiana Since Memorial Day started with the Civil War, why not explore the impacts of the Civil War at Fort Scott National Historic Site in Kansas Since it marks the beginning of summer, Memorial Day weekend is a great time to look for concerts. Here’s a few that might be close enough to you to check out. Oak Ridge, TN. Founded in 1944 to give amature musicians a place to play, the Oak Ridge Community Band has four free outdoor and six indoor concerts this summer. Monterey County, CA. Monterey County Pops! Has a special Memorial Day concert on the grounds where the state’s first Constitution was drafted. It’s on Monday, May 28 and the doors open for this free concert at 10 a.m. Philadelphia, PA. The third annual Philly POPS Memorial Salute is Saturday, May 26 at 7 p.m. Tickets are free, but registration is required. Columbus, IN. Friday, May 25 check out the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic’s SALUTE! Concert. It’s at the Bartholomew County Memorial for Veterans lawn and starts at 7 p.m. If you want to visit the oldest Memorial Day Parade, you’ll have to travel to Alton, IL. This year marks the 151st anniversary of the town’s first Memorial Day Parade back in 1868, just three weeks after the end of the Civil War. Commerce City, CO. One of the largest parades in the Denver area is in Commerce City. This year’s parade features bands, military units and floats. Chicago’s Memorial Day Parade is Saturday, May 26 this year. There’s a wreath laying ceremony at 11 a.m. and the parade starts at noon. During the wreath laying, Gold Star lapel pins are presented to families who have lost loved ones. This presentation is at Daley Plaza (Dearborn and Washington Streets) Dracula, GA. With arguably one of the best named parades ever, the Dracula Memorial Day Parade is the only Memorial Day Parade in Metro Atlanta. It’s the largest in the state and starts at 10 a.m. on Memorial Day. 62nd Annual Memorial Day Ceremony in Virginia starts at 10 a.m. at the Heilman Amphitheater and Shrine of Memory. There is a patriotic music concert at 2 p.m. and the center will be open for extended hours. Virginia’s three state veterans’ cemeteries at Amelia, Dublin and Suffolk will each have a public Memorial Day ceremony. 99 Restaurants. Veterans and active duty military can purchase any meal and get a free entrée from a special list on Memorial Day. Proof of service must be presented at the restaurant. Domino’s Pizza. Through May 27, two-topping pizzas are just $5.99 when military personnel order carryout. Fogo de Chao. Veterans and active duty receive 50 percent off their meal! Bring up to three guests with you and they can take 10 percent off their meals also! Golden Corral. Active duty and veterans get a free Memorial Day breakfast at select locations. Call before you go! Hooters. Veterans and active duty can pick a free meal from a select menu on Memorial Day. McCormick & Schmick’s. Gold Star Parents and Souses, veterans, active duty and National Guards get a free entrée on Memorial Day. Mission BBQ. Show up on Memorial Day and active duty get free sandwiches all day. SweetFrog. Show up on Memorial Day and receive a 20 percent discount. Texas de Brazil. On Memorial Day, veterans and active duty receive 50 percent off lunch or dinner. Bring up to seven of your friends because they can take 20 percent off their meals too! Do you know of a program or benefit that we didn't include? Shoot us an email and let us know about it gethelp@connectingvets.com Memorial Day events 2018	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line684
__label__cc	0.724208	0.275792	CORDIO participated in the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21/CMP11), to highlight the stark threat to coral reefs. The COP was hosted in Paris and chaired by France from 30 November to 11 December 2015. We were involved in the following events and stories: Climate change and the loss of coral reefs. See CORDIO’s contribution on our blog. An event hosted by Univerity of Queensland’s Global Change Institute and XL Catlin Seaview Survey on 3 December, 3-4:30 PM Oceans Day at COP21 Paris – event hosted by the Global Ocean Forum on 4th December, 11-17:00 The Great Barrier Reef at COP21, Catlin Seaview Survey film launch with Sir David Attenborough, Sir Richard Branson, Sylvia Earle and others, on 5 December at La Maison des Oceans, Paris. Don’t forget the oceans at Cop21, say East Africa researchers and activists – an interview on Radio France International’s English service on oceans and climate change. Ocean data gap puts Pacific islands in peril – an interview on SciDevNet, on the need for monitoring of oceans (and the same in Pacific Island News). promoting the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Associations call for action to the COP. The Paris Agreement A surprise outcome from the COP, to many, was the adoption of the aspirational “Paris Agreement“. It was adopted by all countries, and is to be signed and ratified during 2016. Download the agreement. The surprise was that the agreement committed countries to maintaining climate change to below the generally agreed “safe” level of 2°C, with further aspiration to limit change to less than 1.5°C. Further, countries agreed to update their targets every 5 years. This common ground was a big surprise given the lack of commitment and agreement shown by countries in prior COPs, in particularly Copenhagen, in 2009. Nevertheless, critics of the Agreement are many, as it did not include any quantitative or binding targets, leaving implementation up to the goodwill of countries. See the links below to useful commentary on the Paris Agreement and the way forward. Blog post at the MAHB – is there cause for jubilation? Guardian newspaper – key points of the Agreement Guardian newspaper (Simon Donner) – why we need the 1.5C target New York Times – inside the climate deal Friends of the Earth – the agreement falls short Climate & Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) – general comments Climate change and the oceans A broad literature is being generated on both the impacts to the oceans from climate change, and climate solutions that can come from the oceans. A brief summary of these prepared for the newspaper ‘Le Monde Diplomatique’ by Thorsten Kiefer of FutureEarth is presented here. Background to the UNFCCC The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted during the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992, recognizing the reality of anthropocentric (human-induced) climate change and giving industrialized countries an opportunity to combat it. The Kyoto Protocol, adopted at the UNFCCC COP in 1997 was a milestone in the international negotiations around climate change. The protocol for the first time, offered binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for industrialized countries. The protocol, which entered into force in 2005, was intended to cover the period 2008-2012. The Bali Action Plan of 2007, introduced a longer term vision which set timelines for the negotiations towards reaching a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012. It was expected that an agreement would be reached in the Copenhagen COP of December 2009. The Copenhagen COP failed ot deliver on this agreement. At COP15 in Cancun, Mexico , countries recognised the common objective of abating the increase in global temperature below 2°C. The Durban platform for enhanced action (ADP), in 2011 demonstrated willingness of counties to act. This would be achieved by all countries, both developed and developing, to the table to develop “another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force” applicable to all the States Parties to the UNFCCC. Over the next few yeasr, all States were invited to submit their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions ahead of COP21, turning away from the prescribed, top-down approah previously used, to a voluntary effort document by monitoring and evaluation. In Paris 2015, CORDIO will be representing different efforts geared towards providing practical solutions in tackling climate change and adapting to its impacts. Regular updates will be provided through blogposts and social media.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line687
__label__wiki	0.863232	0.863232	Nick Faldo: Tiger’s Play Has Created A Great Buzz Entering Master’s This Year Filed Under:Augusta National, CBS Sports, Dave Shedloski, GolfExpertTakes, masters, PGA Tour, Pro Golf Interviews, The Masters This year’s Masters Tournament will mark CBS Sports’ 63rd consecutive year providing television coverage, by far the longest partnership between a broadcast network and one of golf’s major championships. It truly is a tradition unlike any other, though changes always occur to the formula. This year, CBS Sports will produce more than 110 hours of programming among its network, cable and digital platforms, providing viewers and fans an ample fill of coverage to golf’s most popular television event. An added wrinkle, an undoubtedly a welcome one, will be the introduction of Shot Tracer for the first time at Augusta National Golf Club. The technology, the traces the arc and direction of a shot, will be used on five holes: Nos. 9, 10, 13, 15 and 18. “We’re trying to blend in the technology with our traditional coverage,” said CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus. “We’ve had good success with this on our digital platforms, and we think the time is right to introduce it into our regular coverage on Saturday and Sunday.” Just 86 players will descend on Augusta National, the smallest field since 1997 when Tiger Woods romped to a record 12-stroke victory. Speaking of Woods, his return for the first time since 2015 is likely to be the top story of this Masters, regardless of his performance, though his form this year in his comeback from back surgery has been impressive. “I think we’re going to get an outstanding rating no matter what,” McManus said. “I think we’re all familiar with the bump you get in ratings when Tiger is in contention. It would be nice if he were on the leaderboard and in contention on Saturday and Sunday. But I don’t think our Masters telecast will live or die with the presence of Tiger Woods.” And as host Jim Nantz, preparing for his 33rd Masters, points out, Woods only embellishes a potential storyline that might be among the most intriguing ever witnessed in the tournament, noting how many of the top-ranked players are playing well at present. “I’ve never seen so many stars of the sport have their A-game heading to Augusta,” he said. McManus, Nantz and CBS lead analyst Sir Nick Faldo, a three-time Masters champion, offered their observations on the year’s first major championship during a recent hour-long teleconference. Can Tiger Woods win his fifth green jacket, 13 years after his last one and 10 years removed from his last major victory at the 2008 U.S. Open? And how big would that story be if he contends or wins? Sir Nick Faldo: Does he have the nerve? He’s certainly loving the opportunity, and he’s certainly fit enough, healthy enough to be able to compete with the best of them. It’s amazing that he’s right in the mix. It’s been 10 full years since his last major win though. Majors are different to close. It would be unbelievable. If Tiger does come back, it will be another show. Is this the greatest comeback in sports, let alone golf? This would be phenomenal to go through four surgeries and win another major. It would be his greatest achievement. But every part of his game looks excellent. He does have that odd shot when he aims left and it goes left, and if he fixes that then we’ll see. Jim Nantz: There’s a different thing between challenging and winning. But if he wins, you’re going to be talking about one of the epic moments in the history of the sport. No matter how he gets there. But to have him back in Butler Cabin would be one of the all-time scripts. This is an event that has an amazing ability to produce these Hollywood stories. You walk away most years wondering, “How did this happen?” What has been the impact of Tiger in contention this year in events leading up to the Masters? What has been the atmosphere? Sir Nick Faldo: Obviously, Tiger has created a great buzz this year. It started in San Diego with us. We’ve had a really good run with his game and the on-course attention has been very much like the old days of Tiger. It’s been great. And here we are we have a great field, a lot of players on form, and Tiger is amazingly close. Jim Nantz: Tiger has returned and far surpassed anyone’s expectations of what he would do. And it’s exciting for the game. It’s indisputable that there is a great buzz when he is in the middle of it. It’s interesting at the same time, I don’t know if it’s related, but the best players in the world, virtually every one of them but not all of them, but almost all, have seen their games rise to a healthy level approaching Augusta. It’s the fact that Phil (Mickelson) won for the first time in five years. Rory shot 64 the last day at Bay Hill and birdied five of the last six holes. You’ve got Bubba Watson winning twice, a two-time Masters champion, so he knows how to win there. Justin Thomas, the Player of the Year, he won in early March at the Honda and he’s ready to contend for a green jacket, and he is the most recent winner of a major championship last August at Quail Hollow in Charlotte (at the PGA Championship). And Jason Day won at Torrey Pines. You look at the superpowers of the sport, and almost all of them are peaking at the right time. What do you make of Rory McIlroy’s chances of closing out the career grand slam, which would make him the first to do so in the modern era? Jim Nantz: If Rory were to win, that would be in the top five all time stories. He’s had a few swings at finishing off the career grand slam. It hasn’t happened. He needs Augusta. The only one who completed the career grand slam at Augusta was Gene Sarazen in 1935. Tournament coverage didn’t begin until many years past that. The idea that he would be coming down the stretch and we would get to watch a career grand slam completed at Augusta National, it may not be as big as Tiger coming back to win – that would trump all. That would be 1. This would be 1A, and it could happen. Sir Nick Faldo: Once we see Rory get that intensity and a spring in his step it channels his focus and he can just about do anything. Remember when he finished with his six 3s at Quail Hollow and then Bay Hill (last month) was the same thing. There’s no fear. He can hit any shot and he can hole any putt. If he gets into that kind of mode, he’s plowing along, so, yes, he’s probably feeling this is his best opportunity. Favorites have been pointed out given their form – McIlroy, Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Mickelson and Day. Who is lurking out there as a dark horse? Sir Nick Faldo: Xander Schauffele is the guy I look at. Kiradech Aphibarnrat is going along nicely. Kevin Kisner, he ran out of steam (at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play) but he is playing and putting really well. You’ve got to look at guys who are quite comfortable hitting downhill putts from 20 feet, find a way to make those kinds of putts. Tommy Fleetwood or Ross Fisher if you’re looking for European guys. Jim Nantz: A guy I like who has a big game is Jon Rahm. I will give you Paul Casey. Paul getting over that hurdle at Valspar was a huge thing for him. He’s going to be tough at Augusta. Then there’s the everyman champion, and I’m serious because he’s consistently good, and that’s Charley Hoffman. He’s a solid player and he knows how to get it around Augusta. He’s very capable of winning the green jacket.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line688
__label__cc	0.550957	0.449043	Jun 14, 2014 – Jan 11, 2015 A native of Los Angeles, Anthony Friedkin (b. 1949) honed his photographic skills at an early age and became a professional artist after he graduated from high school in the late 1960s. A variety of magazine assignments took him into the streets of his hometown, where he created vivid photo essays that examined the diverse neighborhoods and touched on some of the most important social and cultural issues of the time. During the culturally tumultuous years of 1969 to 1973, Friedkin made a series of eloquent and expressive photographs that chronicle the gay communities in Los Angeles and San Francisco at the time. The Gay Essay was a self-assigned project and, although largely unknown today, it arguably comprises the most important set of photographs in Friedkin’s portfolio to date. For the first time, the full depth and range of this unique series will be presented in an exhibition at the de Young. Coinciding with the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City, Anthony Friedkin: The Gay Essay will present approximately 75 vintage prints. Friedkin’s portraits, taken in streets, hotels, bars, and dancehalls, demonstrate a sensitivity and an understanding that has imbued the series with an enduring resonance. Contact prints, documents, and other materials from the photographer’s archive will also be on view, illuminating the conception, process, and execution of this work and the broader historical context that gave rise to it. Daylight Editions In partnership with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Daylight has reproduced the original 1973‒1975 maquette of Anthony Friedkin's The Gay Essay (exhibited at the de Young for the first time) along with audio commentary by the artist and ephemera related to the work. Daylight is an organization dedicated to sharing art and stories via print and digital media experiences termed “Editions.” Daylight Editions incorporate rich media (images, audio, video, text) and sharing functionality to offer immersive encounters with works of art, the stories behind them, and their makers. Through partnerships with museums, galleries, artists, and collectors, Daylight Editions serve as companions to exhibitions and printed publications. For free access to the digital edition, visit: www.daylight.co/thegayessay Exhibition Video 'Gay Essay' Photographer Helped Bring Queer Life out of Shadows This exhibition is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line689
__label__wiki	0.988142	0.988142	Erb Faculty member, Andy Hoffman quoted in, “The Troubling Return of Al Gore” – New Republic By Carolyn KwantAugust 7, 2017News Gore is the most polarizing figure in climate politics—disputed on the left, and widely loathed on the right. According to research by environmental scholar Andrew Hoffman published in 2011, nearly 40 percent of all articles casting doubt on climate change mentioned Gore. “He had become extremely provocative for many people, and that limited his voice,” Hoffman told me. “Now that he’s stepping back into it, we’ll see what happens.” Gore’s return has provoked a predictable reaction from the right. Senator Jim Inhofe mocking him on the Senate floor. The Daily Caller dubbed the new film “climate narcissism.” This reception from conservatives corners raises red flags for inclusionists. “I think reaching new audiences is key,” said Holthaus. By “new audiences,” he means people who aren’t already alarmed about climate change—which is the majority of Americans, according to research from the Yale Climate Communications Project. Hoffman and Holthaus agree that it’s useless to try to convince firm climate deniers to change their minds. But for the “undecided middle,” they believe the messenger can be more important than the message. “When Al Gore or the Environmental Defense Fund or the EPA say climate change is going to effect our lives, people might tune out,” Hoffman said. “When the CEO of Carlson is saying it, though, that has tremendous impact.” Make no mistake: Gore is great at motivating people who are already worried about climate change. But when it comes to winning over others, he may be doing more harm than good. “He will appeal to those who already believe climate change is real,” Hoffman said. “He will become a lightning rod for those who don’t.”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line693
__label__wiki	0.86221	0.86221	Tag / Baseball October 26, 2018 October 26, 2018 by mvfour Review: ‘Long Time Coming: A 1955 Baseball Story’ – Captivating and Heartfelt Activism, Arts, documentaries, Film, History Baseball, JonStrong, LongTimeComing, OrlandoKiwanis, PensacolaJaycees Photo Credit: Courtesy of Common Pictures, Film Poster of Long Time Coming: A 1955 Baseball Story Documentaries, if the subject matter is compelling enough, are meant to educate, stir up emotions, challenge perceptions, and shed light on topics otherwise nonexistent in mainstream films. Long Time Coming: A 1955 Baseball Story exemplifies all these attributes. Whether you’re a baseball fanatic or not, this documentary is a must-see to learn about the sport’s historical and cultural significance – not just within a sports context, but as it relates to the progression of race relations in America. The film, about the first racially integrated Little League Baseball game played in the South in Orando between the Orlando Kiwanis and the Pensacola Jaycees, by first-time feature documentary filmmaker, Jon Strong, interviews the players from both teams, 60 years after playing in this monumentally historic game, and documenting their unexpected reunion. Photo: Courtesy of Common Pictures, Film Still (L to R) of Stewart Hall of the Orlando Kiwanis revisits Florida’s 1955 Little League Tournament with Will Preyer of the Pensacola Jaycees We first meet, Will Preyer, once team captain of the all-black Pensacola Jaycees, as he describes playing baseball in the South in the mid 1950s during segregation and his experiences as a 12-year-old black youth. Will proceeds to meet up with Stewart Hall, the team captain of the rival team: the all-white Orlando Kiwanis, whom Preyer hadn’t seen since that fateful day in August 1955 as the two teams, one black, one white competed against each other, breaking color barriers and cultural stigmas. Director, Jon Strong, does a fantastic job of juxtaposing these men’s stories with their love of baseball and perspectives on race with candor. The limitations placed on one group based on their skin color versus the other. It’s poignant, revealing of peoples’ past and present prejudices, which the director was unapologetic about depicting. According to Strong, “I wanted to dig into the uncomfortable, real stories that many find difficult to share.” And that he did. He shares sports milestones and also features interviews from prominent figures in Major League Baseball such as Hank Aaron, Cal Ripken Jr. and Davey Johnson and Civil Rights Leader, Andrew Young to give contextual background into pivotal movements in sports and cultural history that changed society – for the better. Photo: Courtesy of Common Pictures, The 1955 Pensacola Jaycees All-Stars and the Orlando Kiwanis All-Stars reunite in 2016 during the filming of Long Time Coming Long Time Coming: A 1955 Baseball Story doesn’t portray victims or villains with heroes and protagonists and subscribe to a tidy, happy resolution. Instead it tells a story of a vehicle, in this case: baseball, as a unifier of people with a shared love for a sport that transcends race and economic status. It presents opposing views and aims to continue the conversation of race relations in present day America. Released nationwide, Long Time Coming: A 1955 Baseball Story can be seen just in time for the World Series. The Hank Aaron Chasing The Dream Foundation, Derek Jeter’s Turn 1 Foundation, and the Global Peace Film Festival have screened the documentary and acknowledge the power of its historical significance to affect change. To learn more about Long Time Coming: A 1955 Baseball Story, click here.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line696
__label__wiki	0.54248	0.54248	New York Yankees: Manny Machado was informed of Troy Tulowitzki signing beforehand (Report) (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images) The Troy Tulowitzki signing doesn’t mean the New York Yankees are out on Manny Machado. In fact, they informed Machado of the move beforehand. The New York Yankees are still in the hunt for Manny Machado. Don’t let the Troy Tulowitzki signing muddy the waters. According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the Yankees reached out to Machado to inform him that they were signing Tulowitzki to a minimum contract. This signals New York’s interest in Machado and shows that they didn’t want to send the wrong message. Furthermore, the superstar infielder shouldn’t be threatened by Tulowitzki. The former All-Star shortstop has only played 66 games in the last two years and the Yankees are not taking much of a risk by signing the 34-year-old. The focus is still very much on Machado and if he does sign with New York, that presents the Yankees with a choice. General manager Brian Cashman will have to figure out what he wants to do with the crowded infield. One possibility is that the Yankees cut their losses and move on from Tulowitzki. Another option would be to trade Miguel Andujar while his value is extremely high. But Cashman won’t have to make a decision immediately. Didi Gregorius is going to be out for much of the season recovering from Tommy John surgery. As a result, Machado could play shortstop or third base until the energetic Gregorius returns. As free agency crawls on, Machado’s decision will remain one of the most compelling storylines of the winter. The Yankees still covet the superstar infielder and signing any player to a league-minimum contract doesn’t change that. NEXT: Manny Machado's Social Media Activity May Be The Writing On The Wall	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line699
__label__cc	0.739394	0.260606	Tag Archives: Alex Wheatle Posted on June 7, 2014 by emilykmorrison Alex Wheatle’s “East of Acre Lane” I chose to read Alex Wheatle’s novel, East of Acre Lane, for the region of Greater London in this literary challenge. It is set in the “concrete jungle” (227) of ghetto Brixton in 1981, where the so-called African-Caribbean community is confined to council estates; where “dangers […] come from any lane, shadow or building” and “vandalism touches everything” (7-8). This is an underworld of violence, gangs, drugs and crime, of “boarded-up housing, the rubbish on the streets, the graffiti that covered the railways brides” (8), and of “filthy syringes that were breeding in dark corners” (13). The black youth within these pages are filled with fear and fury in equal measure, directed against the drug barons that live on their very doorsteps, as well as the white, racist police force that patrol the streets abusing, threatening and blackmailing as they go. From the very outset of the novel, the reader is aware that “somet’ing gonna snap, man” (23). As you might have guessed, Wheatle’s novel tells of the run-up to the violent Brixton Riot of April 1981, when civilian protests against the racist brutality of the corrupt Metropolitan Police turned into “Bloody Saturday”. Approximately 299 officers and 65 members of the public were injured as bricks and Molotov cocktails were thrown, fires were started and shops were looted. Brixton Riots 1981 Wheatle presents the clash as not only having been fuelled by “talk of ism, schism an’ racism” but also by the apparently even greater issue in England: “de classism in dis country” (220). Frustrations of the young people, who suffer from poor housing, education and high rates of unemployment and crime, are portrayed through the protagonist, Biscuit, and his circle of friends, including Coffin Head, Sceptic, Carol, Floyd and Brenton. These young men are forced to involve themselves in crime in order to provide for their families; they are forced to feel like unwanted foreigners in their own country due to the prejudice and stereotyping of “middle England” (117); they have no pride in their African-Caribbean roots since, in their eyes, it only serves to alienate them from English society. They are, in more ways than one, the rootless generation. It was the riot-oriented plot that initially drew me to reading this novel. I have read a fair few novels about real-life riots, protests and their complex political origins; it’s something I find, when done an apt, engaging way, can be particularly powerful. There’s a lot of opportunity for controversy, memorable characterisation, and dramatic state-of-England commentary. When done in the wrong way, of course, that type of thing can be a bit boring. In summary, David Peace’s GB84 gets the mixture very very right. East of Acre Lane, I think, falls a little short. In essence, the novel was not as dramatic or tense as I wanted it to be, or think it could have been. The build-up to the clash was drawn out, but in a come-on-get-on-with-it rather than suspenseful way. I wanted to share in the characters’ profound sense of injustice and feel the tension rising with every page. However, although I engaged with the protagonist to a certain extent, the plot’s outlook gradually narrowed to predominantly Biscuit’s relationship with his family (a family which rather lacked in characterisation/originality), meaning domestic drama rather took away from political intrigue. What’s more, I think Wheatle had a great opportunity to tie in his characters’ frustrations with the general atmosphere of protest in Britain in the late 70s and 80s – not on every page, perhaps, but a couple of mentions of protests in other parts of the country would have gone down well. It would have been ironic too – black people ostracised by white Britain on racist and classist terms, and yet considering themselves part of working class discontent across the country. But despite a couple of references to the ironically-named council estate areas of “Shakespeare Road” (68) and “Albion Road”, otherwise known as “black-people-don’t-belong street” (147), the outlook of the novel was distinctly limited to “SW9” (19). Yes, that could have been the point. But these things are a matter of taste. Due to the limited characterisation, too many ‘he said/she saids’ in dialogue and overall lack of suspense in what should have been a genuinely gripping story, I give this novel a 2/5 star rating. Next week I’ll be reading the bizarre The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde, for Berkshire. Join me then! WHEATLE, Alex. East of Acre Lane. London: Harper Perennial, 2006. Featured Image: A Brixton council estate http://www.brixtonblog.com/community-police-meeting-tonight-in-brixton/3995 Posted in 2 Stars ** - Average \| Tagged 1981, African, Alex Wheatle, Belonging, Black, Brixton, Brixton Riot, Brixton Riots 1981, Caribbean, City, Class, Community, East of Acre Lane, England, Family, Fiction, Ghetto, Greater London, Home, London, Middle Class, Murder, Police, Racism, Riot, Terrorism, War, Wheatle, White, Working Class \| Leave a reply	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line701
__label__wiki	0.854795	0.854795	(Redirected from Bangsamoro Autonomous Region) For other uses, see Bangsamoro (disambiguation). Bangsamoro, officially the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or BARMM, (Filipino: Rehiyong Awtonomo ng Bangsamoro sa Muslim Mindanao; Arabic: منطقة بانجسامورو ذاتية الحكم‎ Munṭiqah banjisāmūrū dhātiyyah al-ḥukm) is an autonomous region within the southern Philippines. بانجسامورو (Arabic) باڠسامورو (Tausug) Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Filipino: Rehiyong Awtonomo ng Bangsamoro sa Muslim Mindanao Arabic: منطقة بانجسامورو ذاتية الحكم فى مسلمى مينداناو‎ Left to right, top to bottom: Bulingan Falls, Lamitan, Basilan; Sulu Provincial Capitol; Panampangan Island, Sapa-sapa, Tawi-Tawi; Polloc Port, Parang, Maguindanao; Lanao Lake at Marawi City; and PC Hill, Cotabato City Creation plebiscite Formulation of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority Turnover of ARMM to BARMM Cotabato City[1] (de facto) Devolved regional parliamentary government within a unitary presidential constitutional republic Bangsamoro Transition Authority • Wali Kalifa Usman Nando • Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim • Deputy Chief Ministers[2] Ali Solaiman (Deputy for the Mainland) Abdul Sahrin (Deputy for the Islands) • Speaker of the Parliament Pangalian Balindong UTC+08:00 (PST) Basilan (except Isabela City) 2,590 (includes 63 Cotabato barangays) Cong. districts Maguindanaon Sabah Malay bangsamoro.gov.ph Replacing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region was formed after voters decided to ratify the Bangsamoro Organic Law in a January 21, 2019 plebiscite. The ratification was announced on January 25 by the Commission on Elections.[3][4][5] This marks the beginning of the transition of the ARMM to the BARMM. Another plebiscite was held in nearby regions that sought to join the area on February 6.[6][7][8][9] This plebiscite saw 63 of 67 barangays in North Cotabato join Bangsamoro.[10][6] Bangsamoro took the place of the ARMM as the only Muslim-majority region in the Philippines.[11] See also: Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Early history and arrival of IslamEdit For the most part of Philippines' history, the region and most of Mindanao have been a separate territory, which enabled it to develop its own culture and identity. The westernmost and west-central areas have been the traditional homeland of Muslim Filipinos since the 15th century, even before the arrival of the Spanish, who began to colonize most of the Philippines in 1565. Majority of Mindanao was the homeland of indigenous Lumad groups, who were neither Christians nor Muslims. Muslim missionaries arrived in Tawi-Tawi in 1380 and started the colonization of the area and the conversion of the native population to Islam. In 1457, the Sultanate of Sulu was founded, and not long after that, the sultanates of Maguindanao and Buayan were also established. Many indigenous Lumad communities were displaced as a result of some of the area's 'Islamization'. At the time when most of the Philippines was under Spanish rule, these sultanates maintained their independence and regularly challenged Spanish domination of the Philippines by conducting raids on Spanish coastal towns in the north and repulsing repeated Spanish incursions in their territory. It was not until the last quarter of the 19th century that the Sultanate of Sulu formally recognized Spanish suzerainty, but these areas remained loosely controlled by the Spanish as their sovereignty was limited to military stations and garrisons and pockets of civilian settlements in Zamboanga and Cotabato,[12] until they had to abandon the region as a consequence of their defeat in the Spanish–American War. Spanish colonial eraEdit The Moros had a history of resistance against Spanish, American, and Japanese rule for over 400 years. The violent armed struggle against the Japanese, Filipinos, Spanish, and Americans is considered by modern Moro Muslim leaders as part of the four centuries long "national liberation movement" of the Bangsamoro (Moro Nation), although the term is only used in mainland Mindanao as those in the Sulu archipelago had a much distinct culture.[13] The 400-year-long resistance against the Japanese, Americans, and Spanish by the Moro Muslims persisted and morphed into a war for independence against the Philippine state.[14] American colonial eraEdit The United States' Insular Government of the Philippine Islands had only been in existence for two years in 1903 when it initiated the "Homestead Program," which was meant to encourage migration of landless populations from non-muslim areas of the country into the muslim-majority areas in Mindanao. Lanao and Cotabato in particular saw an influx of migrants from Luzon and Visayas. This influx of migrants led to tensions about land ownership and disenfranchisement of Lumads and Muslims, because the mostly-Christian migrants established claims on the land, whereas the native peoples of Mindanao didn't have a land titling system in place at the time. This US-led Homestead Program, which was later continued or copied by Philippine administrations after independence, is therefore often cited as one of the root-causes of what would later become the larger Moro conflict.[15] World War IIEdit In 1942, during the early stages of the Pacific War of the Second World War, troops of the Japanese Imperial Forces invaded and overran Mindanao, and the native Moro Muslims waged an insurgency against the Japanese. Three years later, in 1945, combined United States and Philippine Commonwealth Army troops liberated Mindanao, and with the help of local guerrilla units, ultimately defeated the Japanese forces occupying the region. Postwar eraEdit Under pressure to resolve agrarian unrest in various parts of the country, and noting that Mindanao was rich in mineral resources and weather favorable to agriculture, later Philippine presidents continued the promotion of migration which the American colonial government began in 1903. Massive arrivals of non-Muslim migrants happened particularly during the Commonwealth period under President Manuel Quezon and later under right-wing presidents Ramon Magsaysay and Ferdinand Marcos.[16] As a result, the proportion of indigenous peoples in Mindanao to shrink from majority in 1913 to minority by 1976.[16] The best lands in Mindanao were given to settlers and owners of corporate agriculture, while most development investments and government services were offered to the Christian population. This caused the Muslim population to be backward and rank among the poorest in their own country.[17] The resettlement programme was not entirely peaceful as some settlers managed to obtain land from the native Muslims through harassment and other violent efforts which drove the Muslims out of their own lands.[18] The Muslims felt alienated by the Philippine government and felt threatened by the migrants' economic and political domination in their own homeland, the same way the Lumads were displaced centuries ago when Islam arrived in the Philippines. Some Muslim groups turned to extortion and violence to protect their land and avoid being displaced. These efforts at “integration” are credited for helping the Moro identity in mainland Mindanao crystallize, because the Muslims’ ability to identify with the rest of Filipino nation suffered in light of the threat to their economic and social well being.[buzzword][19] As an effect of the resettlement, traditional Muslim leaders (also referred as datu) were also voted out during the polls as Christians, who made up a significant majority of the voters, preferred the Christian politicians over them. These local datus suffered a loss in prestige as they could no longer control the Muslim lands.[20] These politicians lost much of the capabilities they had possessed initially to manage the Muslim populace.[21] The Jabidah Massacre and its impactEdit Main article: Jabidah Massacre In March 1968, fishermen in Manila Bay rescued a Muslim man named Jibin Arula from the waters. They discovered that he had suffered from gunshot wounds, and he later recounted that he was the lone survivor of what would later be termed the "Jabidah Massacre."[18][22] According to Jibin Arula's account, the Marcos administration had gathered a group of Tausug recruits for an operation called "Project Merdeka" (merdeka being the Malay "freedom"). The military began training them on the island of Corregidor to form a secret commando unit called "Jabidah," which would destabilize and take over Sabah.[23] The trainees eventually rejected their mission, for reasons that are still debated by historians today. Jibin Arula said that whatever the reasons behind their objections, all of the recruits aside from him were killed, and he escaped only by pretending to be dead.[22] Rashid Lucman and the Bangsamoro Liberation OrganizationEdit Main article: Rashid Lucman Then Lanao del Sur congressman Haroun al-Rashid Lucman called for Congress to begin proceedings to impeach President Marcos after the "exposé" implied that Marcos was ultimately responsible for the massacre.[24] When his proposal didn't get enough congressional support, he became convinced that Muslims should rule themselves in Muslim Mindanao - a conviction which led him to eventually establish the Bangsamoro Liberation Organization (BMLO),[25] which later joined forces with the Moro National Liberation Front.[24] Datu Udtog Matalam and the Muslim Independence MovementEdit Main article: Muslim Independence Movement Cotabato Governor Datu Udtog Matalam [26] saw the anger of the Muslim people of Mindanao and established the Muslim Independence Movement (MIM), which openly called for the secession of the region to create a Muslim state.[27] The MIM did not last long because Datu Udtog Matalam negotiated with Marcos and accepted a post in his cabinet, but many of its members broke away and became the main force of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).[28] Martial Law and the creation of the Moro National Liberation FrontEdit Main articles: Martial law under Ferdinand Marcos and Moro National Liberation Front On September 23, 1972, Ferdinand Marcos announced that he had placed the entirety of the Philippines, including Muslim Mindanao, under Martial law. While Datu Udtog Matalam's MIM was already defunct, one of its former members, Nur Misuari, established the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) a month after the declaration of Martial Law, on October 21, 1972.[28] Proclamation 1081 dissolved the various political groups that had been previously established in the Moro provinces, and with the MIM having already been dissolved, Marcos' declaration of martial law effectively assured the MNLF, which was more radical than its predecessors, would come to dominate the Moro separatist movement.[29] The 1976 Tripoli AgreementEdit Main article: 1976 Tripoli Agreement On December 23, 1976, the Tripoli Agreement was signed between the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) with the deal brokered by then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Under a deal an autonomous region was to be created in Mindanao.[30] Marcos would later implement the agreement by creating two regional autonomous governments, rather than one, in Regions 9 and 12,[30] which cover ten (instead of thirteen) provinces. This led to the collapse of the peace pact and the resumption of hostilities between the MNLF and Philippine government forces.[31][32] Establishment of the Moro Islamic Liberation FrontEdit Main article: Moro Islamic Liberation Front In signing the 1976 Tripoli Agreement, however, Misuari did not consult on of the MNLF's key commanders, Ustadz Salamat Hashim. Salamat formed a splinter faction along with 57 other MNLF ground commanders, which then became the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).[33] 1987 Jeddah AccordEdit Main article: Jeddah Accord A year after Marcos was ousted from power during the People Power Revolution, the government under Corazon Aquino signed the 1987 Jeddah Accord in Saudi Arabia with the MNLF, agreeing to hold further discussions on the proposal for autonomy to the entirety of Mindanao and not just the thirteen provinces stated in the 1976 Tripoli Agreement. In 1989, however, an act establishing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was passed. The MNLF demanded that the thirteen Tripoli Agreement provinces, majority of which were Christian provinces, be included in the ARMM, but the government refused; eight of those provinces were predominantly Christian. Shortly thereafter, the government held only four provinces as only Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-tawi voted to be included in the ARMM. The four provinces were the only Muslim-majority provinces at the time.[32] ARMM and peace deal with the MILFEdit Main article: 1996 Final Peace Agreement A plebiscite was held in 1989 for the ratification of the charter which created the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with Zacaria Candao, a counsel of the MNLF as the first elected Regional Governor. In September 2, 1996, a final peace deal was signed between the MNLF and the Philippine government under then President Fidel Ramos. MNLF leader and founder Nur Misuari was elected regional governor three days after the agreement. In 1996 peace talks between the Philippine government and MNLF's rival group, the MILF, began.[30] The first deal between the national government and the MILF was made in 2008; the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain. The agreement would be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court many weeks later.[30] Under the administration of President Benigno Aquino III, two deals were agreed upon between the national government and the MILF: the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro signed on October 15, 2012 and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in March 27, 2014.[34][35] which include plans regarding the establishing of a new autonomous region. Attempts to create a Bangsamoro autonomous regionEdit In 2012, Aquino intended to establish a new autonomous political entity under the name "Bangsamoro" to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao which he called a "failed experiment."[36] Under his administration, a draft for the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) was made but failed to get traction to become law to the Mamasapano clash of January 2015[30] which involved the murder of 44 mostly-Christian Special Action Force (SAF) personnel by allegedly combined forces of the MILF and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) after an operation to kill Malaysian militant Zulkifli Abdhir known by the alias "Marwan".[37] Bangsa Sug declaredEdit In 2018, a unification gathering of all the sultans of the Sulu archipelago and representatives from all ethnic communities in the Sulu archipelago (Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-tawi) commenced in Zamboanga City, declaring themselves as the Bangsa Sug peoples and separating them from the Bangsa Moro peoples of mainland central Mindanao. They cited the complete difference in cultures and customary ways of life as the primary reason for their separation from the Muslims of mainland central Mindanao. They also called the government to establish a separate Philippine state, called Bangsa Sug, from mainland Bangsa Moro or to incorporate the Sulu archipelago to whatever state is formed in the Zamboanga Peninsula, if ever federalism in the Philippines is approved in the coming years.[38] Bangsamoro Organic Law and 2019 plebisciteEdit Main articles: Bangsamoro Organic Law and 2019 Bangsamoro Autonomous Region creation plebiscite Voters look for their names at a precinct in Marawi during the January 21 BOL plebiscite. Under the presidency of Aquino's successor, Rodrigo Duterte, a new draft for the BBL was made and became legislated into law as the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) in 2018.[30] A plebiscite was held on January 21, 2019 to ratify the BOL with majority of ARMM's voters deciding for the ratification of the law which meant the future abolition of the ARMM and the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region. Voters in Cotabato City voted to join the new autonomous region while Christian-majority Isabela City voted against inclusion. The Commission on Elections proclaimed that the BOL "deemed ratified" on January 25, 2019.[39][40] The provincial government of Sulu, where majority voted against inclusion, was also not in favor of the law with its governor challenging the constitutionality of the law before the Supreme Court. Despite voting against inclusion, Sulu was still included in the Bangsamoro region due to rules stated in the BOL, sparking outrage from the natives.[41][42] In February 2019, the second round of the plebiscite was held in the province of Lanao del Norte and some towns in North Cotabato. The plebiscite resulted in the inclusion of 63 of 67 barangays in North Cotabato which participated. It also resulted in the rejection from the province of Lanao del Norte against the bid of 6 of its Muslim-majority towns to join the Bangsamoro, despite the 6 towns (Baloi, Munai, Nunungan, Pantar, Tagoloan and Tangcal) opting to join the Bangsamoro by a sheer majority with one town even voting for inclusion by 100%. A major camp of the MILF was within the Muslim areas of Lanao del Norte.[43][44][44] Transition processEdit Main article: Bangsamoro Transition Authority President Rodrigo Duterte sounds the agong during the inauguration of Bangsamoro. He is joined by Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim. With the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law following a plebiscite on January 21, 2019 the abolition process of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) begins paving way for the formal creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region. Under the law a transition body, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), is to be organized pending the election of the new region's government officials in 2022. The second part of the plebiscite held on February 6, 2019 expanded the scope of the future Bangsamoro region to include 63 barangays in North Cotabato.[45][45] The members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority took their oaths on February 22, 2019 along with the ceremonial confirmation of the plebiscite results of both the January 21, and February 6, 2019 votes. The official turnover from the ARMM to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region took place on February 26, 2019 which meant the full abolition of the former.[1][46] The inauguration of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the inaugural session of the Bangsamoro Parliament took place on March 29, 2019.[47] Administrative divisionsEdit Bangsamoro will consist at least 3 component cities, 116 municipalities, and 2,590 barangays. The city of Isabela despite being part of Basilan will not be under the administrative jurisdiction of the autonomous region. Likewise, 63 barangays in North Cotabato also are part of Bangsamoro despite North Cotabato and their respective parent municipalities not under the administrative jurisdiction of the autonomous region.[48] Population (2015)[49] Muni. Bgy. Lamitan 9.2% 346,579 1,103.50 426.06 310 800 1 11 210 Marawi 27.6% 1,045,429 3,872.89 1,495.33 270 700 1 39 1,159 Buluan 31.0% 1,173,933 4,871.60 1,880.94 240 620 0 36 508 Jolo 21.8% 824,731 1,600.40 617.92 520 1,300 0 19 410 Bongao 10.3% 390,715 1,087.40 419.85 360 930 0 11 203 ‡ — 6.6% 299,438 176.00 67.95 1,700 4,400 1 — 37 North Cotabato barangays ‡‡ — — — — — — — — — 63 ‡ Cotabato City is an independent component city; figures are excluded from Maguindanao. ‡‡ 67 barangays are part of the region while their parent municipalities and parent province North Cotabato are not part of Bangsamoro; Total population and area figures for the whole Bangsamoro is yet to into account of these barangays. GovernmentEdit Between the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law and the inauguration of its first permanent government in 2022, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority will head the region. After the ratification of the BOL, the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) begins to transition the ARMM into the BARMM. Organizational structureEdit Based on the Organic Law, the autonomous Bangsamoro government system is parliamentary-democratic similar to the one practised in the United Kingdom which is based on a political party system.[51] CeremonialEdit The ceremonial head of the region is a Wali. The future Bangsamoro Parliament will select and appoint the Wali. The Wali will have ceremonial functions and powers such as moral guardianship of the territory and convocation and dissolution of its proposed legislature.[52] ExecutiveEdit The regional government will be headed by a Chief Minister. An interim Chief Minister will be appointed by the Philippine President to lead the Bangsamoro Transition Authority. Once the Bangsamoro Parliament is created the Chief Minister will be elected by the members of the Bangsamoro Parliament. The Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro is the chief executive of the regional government, and is assisted by a cabinet not exceeding 10 members. He appoints the members of the cabinet, subject to confirmation by the Bangsamoro Parliament. He has control of all the regional executive commissions, agencies, boards, bureaus, and offices. CabinetEdit The Bangsamoro Cabinet is composed of two Deputy Chief Minister and Ministers from the members of the Parliament. The Deputy Chief Minister will be nominate by the Chief Minister and elected by the members of the Parliament while the Ministers in the cabinet will be appointed by the Chief Minister.[53] Council of LeadersEdit The Council of Leaders advises the Chief Minister on matters of governance of the autonomous region. It is roughly an equivalent of an unelected Senate, though only advisory, without legislative powers, and not part of the Parliament.[53] The council shall include: Members of the Congress from the Bangsamoro Governors and mayors of chartered cities in the Bangsamoro Representatives of traditional leaders, non-Moro indigenous communities, women, settler communities, the Ulama, youth, and Bangsamoro communities outside the region. Other sector representatives subject to mechanism laid out by the parliament LegislativeEdit The Bangsamoro Parliament convening at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex in Cotabato City. Under the Bangsamoro Organic Law, the Bangsamoro Parliament serves as the legislature of the autonomous region and is to compose of 80 members and is led by the Speaker. The Wali, a ceremonial head, could dissolve the parliament. Regional ordinances are created by the Bangsamoro Parliament, composed of Members of Parliament, also elected by direct vote. Regional elections are usually held one year after general elections (national and local) depending on legislation from Congress. Regional officials have a fixed term of three years, which can be extended by an act of Congress. Under the Bangsamoro Organic Law ratified in 2019, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), is to be organized as a transition body pending the election of the new region's government officials in 2022, with the first regular session of the parliament to be held in 2022. JudiciaryEdit The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region will have its own regional justice system which applies Shari'ah to its residents like its predecessor the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Unlike its predecessor though, the Bangsamoro will have a Shari'ah High Court to be consist of five justices including a presiding justice in addition to appellate courts, district courts, and circuit courts. Non-Muslims could also volunteer to submit themselves under the jurisdiction of Shari'ah law. The Bangsamoro justice system also recognizes traditional or tribal laws but these would only apply to disputes of indigenous peoples within the region.[54] Relation to the central governmentEdit Bangsamoro Organic Law provides that BARMM "shall remain an integral and inseparable part of the national territory of the Republic." The President exercises general supervision over the Regional Chief Minister. The Regional Government has the power to create its own sources of revenues and to levy taxes, fees, and charges, subject to Constitutional provisions and the provisions of No. 11054. Cultural heritageEdit Main articles: Music of the Philippines, Kulintang, List of mosques in the Philippines, and Spanish Colonial Fortifications of the Philippines The people of the Bangsamoro region, including Muslims, Lumads, and Christians, have a culture that revolves around kulintang music, a specific type of gong music, found among both Muslim and non-Muslim groups of the Southern Philippines. Each ethnic group in BARMM also has their own distinct architectures, intangible heritage, and craft arts.[55][56] A fine example of a distinct architectural style in the region is the Royal Sulu architecture which was used to make the Daru Jambangan (Palace of Flowers) in Maimbung, Sulu. The palace was demolished during the American period after been heavily damaged by a typhoon in 1932, and was never rebuilt.[57][58] It used to be the largest royal palace built in the Philippines. A campaign to faithfully re-establish it in Maimbung town has been ongoing since 1933. A very small replica of the palace was made in a nearby town in the 2010s, but it was noted that the replica does not mean that the campaign to reconstruct the palace in Maimbung has stopped as the replica does not manifest the true essence of a Sulu royal palace. In 2013, Maimbung was designated as the royal capital of the former Sultanate of Sulu by one of the family claimants to the Sulu Sultanate throne where the pretenders are buried there.[clarification needed][59][60] Marawi, Lanao del Sur Bacolod-Kalawi, Lanao del Sur Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Grand Mosque of Cotabato City Daru Jambangan (Palace of Flowers) in Maimbung, Sulu before it was destroyed by a typhoon in 1932. Jolo, Sulu Bongao, Tawi-Tawi A Moro brass lantaka or swivel gun. 19th century illustration of a lanong, the main warships used by the Iranun and Banguingui people Pagoda-style mosque in Taraka, Lanao del Sur Maranao Torogan in Lanao del Sur Details of a torogan Tausūg horsemen in Sulu, taken on 30 December 1899. Sarimanok statue Yards of Yakan people's cloths A Sama-Bajau lepa houseboat (c. 1905) Pis siyabit (headscarf) of the Tausūgs Kabasi, a Tausūg dish. Tausūg dancers in traditional attire. A kutiyapi A malong bearing okir designs. Moro blades made from Basilan "basih" (iron) Lami-Lamihan Festival Kulintang Natural heritageEdit The region possesses a vast array of natural landscapes and seascapes with different types of environs. The mainland area includes the Liguasan Marsh, a proposed UNESCO tentative site, and Lake Lanao, one of the 17 most ancient lakes in the world. The Sulu archipelago region includes the Turtle Islands Wildlife Sanctuary (a UNESCO tentative site), Bongao Peak, and the Basilan Rainforest. Proposed set-up in a federal governmentEdit Main article: Federalism in the Philippines The Bangsamoro Basic Law bill was considered for shelving by the 17th Congress of the Philippines. The bill was planned to be integrated to the federalism concept proposal by President Rodrigo Duterte.[61] In case the proposed federalism fails to be passed, President Duterte said that he will concede to the provisions of the bill.[62] In January 2017, Nene Pimentel proposed in a federalism forum that the Bangsamoro state should be divided into two autonomous regions, namely, mainland Muslim Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, as the two Muslim areas are distinct from each other in terms of culture.[63] He made the statement after going around the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, whose people told him that the Muslims of the offshore islands (Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi) do not want to be lumped together with the mainland Muslims of Mindanao as they are distinct from each other. Pimentel also noted that Shariah law could only be applied in the Bangsamoro state (composed of Autonomous Region of Mainland Bangsamoro and Autonomous Region of Sulu) if the two parties are Muslims, but if one or both parties are non-Muslims, national law will always apply.[63] ComparisonsEdit (National Government only) Constitutional document ARMM Organic Act (Republic Act No. 6734) Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (Republic Act No. 11054)[64] Constitution of the Philippines Head of the region or territory Regional Governor of the ARMM Wali of Bangsamoro President of the Philippines Chief Minister of Bangsamoro Executive Departments of the ARMM Bangsamoro Cabinet Executive Departments of the Philippines Regional Legislative Assembly Bangsamoro Parliament Bicameral: Senate and Congress None (under Supreme Court) Shariah High Court (under Supreme Court) Supreme Court Legal Supervisory or Prosecution None (under Philippine government) Planned (before 2016) Department of Justice Police Force(s) Philippine National Police; under the National Government Philippine National Police Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP); under the National Government Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Philippine peso Philippine peso None full rights Shariah law Yes, for Muslims only "Code of Muslim Personal Laws of the Philippines" issued in 1977 under Presidential Directive 1083[65] Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro Peace process with the Bangsamoro in the Philippines Federalism in the Philippines ^ a b Unson, John (27 February 2019). "ARMM turns over power to Bangsamoro authority". The Philippine Star. Retrieved 27 February 2019. ^ Arguilas, Carolyn (27 February 2019). "Murad vows a government "free of all the ills of governance;" names 10 ministers". MindaNews. Retrieved 27 February 2019. ^ Depasupil, William; TMT; Reyes, Dempsey (23 January 2019). "'Yes' vote prevails in 4 of 5 provinces". The Manila Times. Retrieved 23 January 2019. ^ Galvez, Daphne (22 January 2019). "Zubiri: Overwhelming 'yes' vote for BOL shows Mindanao shedding its history of conflict". Inquirer.net. Retrieved 22 January 2019. ^ Esguerra, Christian V. (25 January 2019). "New era dawns for Bangsamoro as stronger autonomy law ratified". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved 25 January 2018. ^ a b Sarmiento, Bong S. "21 of 67 villages in North Cotabato join BARMM". newsinfo.inquirer.net. ^ Suson, Divina. "'No' wins in 13 Lanao del Norte towns; 'Yes' wins in only 9 towns". newsinfo.inquirer.net. ^ Jennings, Ralph (27 July 2018). "Historic Autonomy Deal for Philippine Muslims Takes Aim at 50 Years of Strife". Voice of America. Retrieved 28 July 2018. ^ Esguerra, Anthony Q. (27 July 2018). "EU expresses support for Bangsamoro Organic Law". Inquirer.net. Retrieved 28 July 2018. ^ Fonbuena, Carmela. "63 out of 67 barangays in Cotabato to join Bangsamoro region". Rappler. ^ Kapahi, Anushka D.; Tañada, Gabrielle (2018). "The Bangsamoro Identity Struggle and the Bangsamoro Basic Law as the Path to Peace". Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses. 10 (7): 1–7. JSTOR 26458484. ^ Mindanao Peace Process, Fr. Eliseo R. Mercado, Jr., OMI. ^ Banlaoi 2012, p. 24. ^ Banlaoi 2005 Archived 2016-02-10 at the Wayback Machine, p. 68. ^ Damien Kingsbury; Senior Lecturer in International Development Damien Kingsbury; Costas Laoutides (5 March 2015). Territorial Separatism in Global Politics: Causes, Outcomes and Resolution. Routledge. p. 55. ISBN 978-1-317-63139-2. ^ a b Werning, Rainer (2009). "Southern Philippines: Bitter Legacies of a Long-Lasting War". In Graf, Arndt; Kreuzer, Peter; Werning, Rainer (eds.). Conflict in Moro Land: Prospects for Peace?. Universiti Sains Malaysia. pp. 6–8. ^ Rodell, Paul A. (2005). "The Philippines and the Challenges of International Terrorism". In Smith, Paul J. (ed.). Terrorism and Violence in Southeast Asia: Transnational Challenges to States and Regional Stability. M. E. Sharpe. pp. 125–127. ^ a b Muslim, Macapado A. (1994). The Moro Armed Struggle in the Philippines: The Nonviolent Autonomy Alternative. Office of the President and College of Public Affairs, Mindanao State University. pp. 91–93. ^ Wurfel, David (1988). Kahin, George McT. (ed.). Filipino Politics: Development and Decay. Cornell University Press. p. 31. ^ Rüland, Jürgen (2006). "Ethnic Conflict, Separatism and Terrorism". In Hoadley, Stephen; Rüland, Jürgen (eds.). Asian Security Reassessed. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. p. 233. ^ McKenna, Thomas M. (1988). Muslim Rulers and Rebels: Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in the Southern Philippines. University of California Press. p. 137. ^ a b Marites Dañguilan Vitug; Glenda M. Gloria (18 March 2013). "Jabidah and Merdeka: The inside story". Rappler. Archived from the original on 13 September 2015. Retrieved 13 September 2015. ^ "Marcos order: Destabilize, take Sabah". Philippine Daily Inquirer. 2 April 2000. Retrieved 19 June 2015. ^ a b "Martyrs & Heroes: LUCMAN, Haroun Al Rashid". Bantayog ng mga Bayani. 26 May 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2019. ^ Fallon, Joseph E. (August 1989). "Igorot and Moro National Reemergence". Fourth World Journal. 2 (1). Archived from the original on 18 August 2007. Retrieved 5 September 2007. ^ George, T. J. S. (1980). Revolt in Mindanao: The Rise of Islam in Philippine Politics. Oxford University Press. pp. 130–134. ^ Majul, Cesar A. (1985). The Contemporary Muslim Movement in the Philippines. Mizan Press. p. 45. ^ a b Yegar, Moshe (2002). Between Integration and Secession: The Muslim Communities of the Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand and Western Burma/Myanmar. Lexington Books. pp. 267–268. ^ "Moro National Liberation Front". Stanford University Mapping Militants Project. Retrieved 8 March 2019. ^ a b c d e f Unson, John (27 January 2019). "Plebiscite in Mindanao: Will it be the last?". The Philippine Star. Retrieved 27 January 2019. ^ Kin Wah, Chin (2004). Southeast Asian Affairs 2004. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 978-9812302380. ^ a b Howe, Brendan M. (2014). Post-Conflict Development in East Asia. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-1409469438. ^ Mayuga, Sylvia L. (26 March 2019). "Stripped naked by history". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 26 March 2019. ^ Legaspi, Amita O. (9 April 2015). "'Who is he?' Senate panel to press Iqbal on real name". GMA News. Retrieved 10 April 2015. ^ Regencia, Ted (25 March 2014). "Philippines prepares for historic peace deal". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 23 August 2015. ^ Calonzo, Andreo (7 October 2012). "Govt, MILF agree to create 'Bangsamoro' to replace ARMM". GMA News. Retrieved 15 October 2012. ^ Orendain, Simone (28 March 2015). "Philippines, Muslim Rebels Try to Salvage Peace Pact". Voice of America. Retrieved 23 August 2015. ^ Garcia, Bong (10 May 2018). "Sulu Sultanate, Bangsa Sug push revision of BBL". SunStar Zamboanga. Retrieved 26 January 2019. ^ "Sulu, cities of Isabela, Cotabato to reject BOL". 20 January 2019. ^ Ranada, Pia. "Comelec: Bangsamoro Organic Law 'deemed ratified'". Rappler. ^ "Sulu voters reject BOL". GMA News Online. ^ Tomacruz, Sofia. "Sulu rejects Bangsamoro law". Rappler. ^ France-Presse, Agence. "Key rebel stronghold left out of Bangsamoro territory". ABS-CBN News. ^ a b News, ABS-CBN. "Excluded Lanao del Norte towns may still benefit from new Bangsamoro region - transition body member". ABS-CBN News. ^ a b Arguillas, Carolyn. "Bangsamoro law ratified; how soon can transition from ARMM to BARMM begin?". MindaNews. Retrieved 26 January 2019. ^ Arguillas, Carolyn (18 February 2019). "Bangsamoro Transition Authority to take oath Feb. 20; ARMM to BARMM turnover on Feb. 25". MindaNews. Retrieved 18 February 2019. ^ Arguillas, Carolyn (20 March 2019). "BARMM inauguration reset again; new date is March 29". MindaNews. Retrieved 24 March 2019. ^ Arguilas, Carolyn (8 February 2019). "Pikit's fate: 20 barangays remain with North Cotabato, 22 joining BARMM". Minda News. Retrieved 9 February 2019. ^ Census of Population (2015). "ARMM – Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao". Total Population by Province, City, Municipality and Barangay. PSA. Retrieved 20 June 2016. ^ "Bangsamoro Development Plan Integrative Report, Chapter 10" (PDF). Bangsamoro Development Agency. 2015. Retrieved 31 May 2016. talk page. ^ Quintos, Patrick (25 January 2019). "After Bangsamoro Organic Law is ratified, now comes the hard part". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved 26 January 2019. The autonomous Bangsamoro government will be parliamentary-democratic, similar to the United Kingdom, and based on a political party system. ^ Calonzo, Andreo (10 September 2014). "PNoy personally submits draft Bangsamoro law to Congress leaders". GMA News. Retrieved 2 February 2015. ^ a b Gavilan, Jodesz (31 January 2019). "Key positions in the Bangsamoro government". Rappler. Retrieved 23 February 2019. ^ "Bicam approves creation of Shari'ah High Court in Bangsamoro". Rappler. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 8 February 2019. ^ Kamlian, Jamail A (1999). "Bangsamoro society and culture : a book of readings on peace and development in Southern Philippines". MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology. Iligan Center for Peace Education and Research. Retrieved 26 January 2019 – via University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries. ^ "Bangsamoro Development Plan Integrative Report, Chapter 11" (PDF). Bangsamoro Development Agency. 2015. Retrieved 31 May 2016. ^ Selga, Miguel (1932). "The Typhoon of Jolo—Indo-China (April 29–May 5, 1932)". Monthly Weather Review. 60 (5): 124–125. doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1932)60<124b:TTOJAM>2.0.CO;2 – via AMS Publications. ^ Philippines. Weather Bureau (1932). Meteorological Bulletin. Bureau of Printing. ^ Whaley, Floyd (21 October 2013). "Obituary: Jamalul Kiram III / Self-proclaimed 'poorest sultan'". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2 February 2015. ^ Whaley, Floyd (21 September 2015). "Esmail Kiram II, Self-Proclaimed Sultan of Sulu, Dies at 75". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 February 2015. ^ Diaz, Jess (22 May 2016). "No BBL: Next Congress to focus on federalism". PhilStar Global. Retrieved 18 July 2018. ^ "Duterte to concede to BBL if federalism bid fails". PhilStar Global. 10 July 2016. Retrieved 18 July 2018. ^ a b Pimentel, Nene (2016). "Balancing the Distribution of Government Powers (Federalism)" (PDF). Development Academy of the Philippines: 54 and 63 of 130. Retrieved 26 January 2019. ^ "DOCUMENT: Marcos submits overhauled Bangsamoro bill". Rappler. 10 August 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2018. ^ "A Decree to Ordain and Promulgate a Code Recognizing the System of Filipino Muslim Laws, Codifying Muslim Personal Laws, and Providing for Its Administration and for Other Purposes". The LawPhil Project. Retrieved 26 January 2019. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bangsamoro Autonomous Region. Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Bangsamoro. Bangsamoro Transition Commission Bangsamoro Organic Law Bicameral Final Report text Bangsamoro Basic Law in draft form OpenBangsamoro Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bangsamoro&oldid=904610856"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line703
__label__wiki	0.955156	0.955156	Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega is an Indian variety entertainment reality show that aired on Sony Entertainment Television (India) on weekdays. It premiered on May 25, 2009 along with a couple of other new shows, as part of a major revamp by Sony TV. Mona Singh (season 1-5) Vishal Malhotra (season 1-4) Krushna Abhishek (season 5) No. of seasons Production location(s) Original network Original release 25 May 2009 (2009-05-25) – 10 June 2014 (2014-06-10) The first season of the show was hosted by Mona Singh and Vishal Malhotra, and Farah Khan and Anu Malik were the judges. All the episodes were shot in Sony TV's Mumbai studio. ConceptEdit Entertainment Ke Liye aur bhi Kuch Bhi Karega was based on the popular American reality TV talent show 30 Seconds to Fame in which participants show off their unique talent and stand to win a cash prize. A participant must perform for one minute, without being voted out by the audience or judges, to win the cash prize of Rs. 11,111. The judges and audience have the authority to vote out a participant, although the judges can use their veto to give a disqualified participant another chance. To cast their vote, they are provided an electronic disapproval voting system. If more than 60 percent of the audience or either of the judges cast a negative vote, a so-called "deadly hooter" sounds and the participant is eliminated. However, if the participant is not voted out within the one-minute period, he or she qualifies for the cash prize of Rs. 11,111. At the end of every show, the judges pick two of the qualifiers to participate in the weekly finale episode on Friday, where they get to perform one more time and stand a chance to win a bigger prize of Rs. 500,000.XXX SeasonsEdit Season 1Edit The show's first season aired from May 25, 2009 to July 3, 2009, after which it was replaced by another reality game show, Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao. Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh was the special guest for the finale episode. The season was named as Entertainment Ke Liye sub Kuch Karega Season 3 started from August 16, 2010 Special Guests (Season 3)Edit Mithun Chakraborty (Mon, Aug. 16) Anil Kapoor (Fri, Aug. 20) Rakhi Sawant (Fri., Aug. 27) Salman Khan (Mon., Sept. 6) Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra (Mon., Sept.27) Akshay kumar (Sun., Oct.10) (Grand finale) [the season was hosted by Mona Singh and Vishal Malhotra. Started from June 6, 2011. The winners of Season 4 are The Raibishi group from West Bengal. Salman Khan (Mon, June 6) Sunil Shetty (Mon, June 23) Sonu Sood ( Wed, July 27) Double Dhamaal Arshad Warsi, Ritesh Deshmukh, Jaaved Jaffrey, Ashish Choudary Dayanand Shetty Sreesanth Season 5 started from 12 May 2014. The auditions for this season began on January 26, 2014.Anu Malik and Farah Khan again are the judges and the show is hosted by Krushna Abhishek and Mona Singh. Sony TV's official Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega website Watch Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega Online Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Entertainment_Ke_Liye_Kuch_Bhi_Karega&oldid=852555879"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line704
__label__wiki	0.732712	0.732712	Stories for January 2nd 2018 Tuesday, January 2nd 2018 - 11:19 UTC Busiest air route in North America is Mexico City/Cancun with 3.7m pax A new study shows that Mexico City to Cancun is the busiest air route in North America. Almost 3.7 million passengers traveled the 1,294 km journey between Mexico City Juarez and Cancun in the twelve-month period between November 1, 2016 and October 31, 2017, putting it at the top of the study’s rankings. The average cost of a ticket was US$72. Panama Papers enable tax authorities worldwide to recoup US$ 500 million More than US$500 million has been recouped by tax authorities worldwide after the Panama Papers revelations, first published in April 2016. Spain alone collected US$122 million after an investigation into the affairs of tax residents who had stockpiled money offshore. Among the countries represented in the Panama Papers data, a total of 15 – on three continents – have publicly commented on the amount of taxes recovered by tax authorities. Airbus closes a deal for a 430 aircraft order valued at US$ 49.5bn Airbus announced that it had finalized agreements with Indigo Partners and its four portfolio airlines for the purchase of 430 additional A320neo Family aircraft for ultra-low-cost airlines Frontier Airlines (United States), JetSMART (Chile), Volaris (Mexico) and Wizz Air (Hungary). Berlusconi looks as kingmaker for 4 March general election; Merkel wished him good luck Italians will head to the polls on 4 March in elections that look set to result in renewed instability and thrust former leader Silvio Berlusconi back to the centre of the political stage. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni's cabinet set the date for the election after President Sergio Mattarella dissolved parliament. Brexit: First quarter of 2018, point of no return for financial services industry The clock is ticking for the financial services industry, with banks said to be months away from being forced to act on Brexit contingency plans that could see thousands of jobs leave the UK. The first quarter of 2018 has been dubbed the “point of no return” for banks, insurers and asset managers as the industry calls on the UK to clinch a transition period that would extend market access to the EU beyond March 2019. Japan prepared to lift its ban on beef imports from Uruguay Japan is planning to lift a ban on beef imports from Uruguay next year, ending a more than 17-year embargo following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the South American nation in 2000, according to government sources in Tokyo. Royal Mint coins to celebrate Frankenstein, the Armistice, Women's vote and RAF The United Kingdom will make new coins this year to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein’’ as well as commemorate a century since women started gaining the right to vote. Designs on special two-pound coins will also honor the end of the First World War and the creation of the Royal Air Force in 1918, the U.K.’s Royal Mint said in a statement. Hyperinflation that degrades any salary increase A new salary increase arrived to Venezuela -the seventh in a year-, but the purchasing power of Venezuelans continues insignificant compared to the high price of low supply due to hyperinflation. While it is not possible to slow down the variation of prices in the different products of the basic basket, any wage increase is insufficient and exacerbates the problem. In one year, salary increased 511%, while inflation in 2017 closed at 2.735%, the highest in the world. New Year in Uruguay begins with a raft of goods and services price increases New Year has taken off in Uruguay with a raft of utilities' rates increases which includes power, fuels, drinking water, telecommunications, urban bus fares, plus extra taxes on tobacco and gambling. Inflation in the twelve months to November was 6.30%. Icebreaker Irizar calls at Ushuaia on her 2017/18 Antarctica campaign Argentina's flagship of Antarctica operations is back after ten long years. The refurbished icebreaker ARA Almirante Irizar, called at Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, on New Year before leaving for the 2017/18 summer campaign.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line705
__label__cc	0.586102	0.413898	Evolve Is Defined By Its Core Values At EVOLVE, we can provide the personalized support that you would expect from a small, private agency while offering the expertise and program variety of a larger organization. You can expect support through every step of the way, from every perspective of an evolving family. Our staff embrace and are passionate about working with individuals of any age, ethnicity, culture, or family structure. We have a global perspective that extends beyond the “typical” agency experience, breaking down any barriers towards family formation. We’re located anywhere from the heart of the Twin Cities to the middle of the St. Croix Valley but work statewide, as well as in western Wisconsin, to unite children with loving families. Child-Focused In all we do, we consider the lifelong impact on a child. Working together, we are stronger. The unique strength, voice and experiences of every individual are valued. Passionate, fun and hope-filled people can change the world. Innovation and continued learning are crucial. Without compromising the truth, we are honest and respectful. Children all over the world are growing up without permanent families. These children are in desperate need of affection, stability, and a place to call home. At EVOLVE, we work diligently to unite these children with families who will love, support, and value them as individuals. The idea of “family” is evolving every day. We understand that each situation is unique, personal, and significant, and we treat it as such. We welcome and are committed to serving all individuals and families, regardless of race, religion, age, economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or marital status. Our staff is dedicated to helping families throughout the entire adoption process, supporting them in their transitions, and preparing them for life as a family. EVOLVE offers a variety of programs because we know families can be built in multiple ways. Our programs are designed to support all evolving individuals and families by: Providing a variety of Domestic Infant programs to fit the needs of those families looking to adopt an infant from anywhere in the US. Guiding and supporting families in our International Adoption programs as they grow their family through the adoption of children in need of families all over the world. Recruiting and training families interested in our Foster Care program. These families serve as foundational support for children in times of life transition. Offering free, unbiased support to those experiencing an unplanned pregnancy, in our Pregnancy Services program. Our pregnancy counselors help women and their families know their options and make the decisions that are best for them, free of judgment or pressure. Working with children directly, taking time to get to know them, their interests, and what makes them unique in our Child-Focused Recruitment program. Statistics have shown the value of individually preparing and supporting children in foster care on their journey to find a family. A world where everyone has nurturing, permanent and supportive familial relationships. To achieve our Vision by providing a full breadth of inclusive, ethical programming: adoption, foster care, pregnancy support, youth services, and therapeutic support and education. EVOLVE Adoption & Family Services was formed in the summer of 2014 through a union of two strong, growing agencies with each over 38 years of adoption and family support experience: Crossroads Adoption Services and HOPE Adoption & Family Services. EVOLVE operates as a nonprofit corporation originating from the 1977 licensure and continues to evolve based on the needs of our community. Crossroads Adoption Services was licensed as a child-placing agency by the State of Minnesota under the name of OURS Children’s Services. Crossroads’ primary focus was working with children and families who weren’t being served by other agencies due to varying restrictions. Crossroads worked hard to unite children born both domestically, as well as internationally, from countries all over the world, such as China, Colombia, India, Nepal, The Philippines, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, and others. HOPE Adoption & Family Services started after a group of friends attempting to adopt realized that agencies during that time were either not doing international adoptions or that those agencies were only open to certain types of families. These friends decided their organization would be founded on inclusivity–focusing on the many children who waited, but also on the individualism of families ready to open their hearts. Throughout these 40 plus years of service to our community, our combined agencies have helped over 7,000 children unite with permanent, loving families through foster care adoption, domestic adoption, and international adoption. We also served over 500 individuals and families experiencing an unplanned pregnancy through pregnancy services and assisted hundreds of families interested in foster care. Equal Opportunity Statement and Non-Discrimination Policy The Board of Directors of EVOLVE is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons. It is the policy of the agency, in recognition of the essential rights of all children and individuals, to provide agency services without regard to race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, union or political affiliation, religion, national origin, citizenship status, age, marital status, disability, or reliance on public assistance except where a bonafide qualification exists.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line706
__label__wiki	0.854252	0.854252	The Six Shooter The Six Shooter was a weekly old-time radio program in the United States. It was created by Frank Burt, who also wrote many of the episodes, and lasted only one season of 39 episodes on NBC (Sept. 20, 1953-June 24, 1954). Initially, it was broadcast on Sundays at 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time, through October 11th. Then it was heard at 8:30 p.m. for three weeks. Finally, on November 8, 1953 through March 21, 1954, it was broadcast Sundays at 8 p.m. Beginning April 1, 1954 through the final episode it was on Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. One old-time radio directory called the program "a last, desperate effort by a radio network (NBC) to maintain interest in adventure drama by employing a major Hollywood movie star in the leading role." James Stewart starred as Britt Ponset, a drifting cowboy in the final years of the wild west. Episodes ranged from straight western drama to whimsical comedy. A trademark of the show was Stewart's use of whispered narration during tense scenes that created a heightened sense of drama and relief when the situation was resolved. [wikipedia] Ben Schofield (Audition Episode) Jennie Garver McAdams Cattle Drive Silver Annie's Mine Rink Larkin Red Lawson And Dan Mayler Ben Schofield Stacy Gault Dink Faulk Escapes Old Sheriff Gabe Starbuck New Sheriff Billy Riddle Is Britt Getting Married? A Western Christmas Carol Cora Plummer Quincy The Stepbrothers-1st 5min Distorted Hiram's Gold Strike The Silver Belt Buckle Helen Bricker-last 3 minutes audio drops low Clay Fenton And The Sorrel Wes Singer, Gunfighter Aunt Emma General Gilford's Widow Crisi At Easter Creek Johnny Stringer Revenge At Harness Creek Anna Nordquist Ranchers vs Sodbusters The Shooting Of Wyatt King Blood Relation Virtue City Election Barnum And The Thespians	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line708
__label__wiki	0.807912	0.807912	Influenced by Danny Gatton Musicians found #name# #location# Instrument #instruments##instrumentsmore# Genres #genres##genremore# Influences #influences##influencesmore# Expand your search a little. If you know someone who should be listed here, invite them. There was an error. Totally Fandalism's fault. Do me a huge favor and email support@fandalism.com the following info so I can fix it: {"influence":"Danny Gatton","genre":"","country":"","latlon":"","radius":"50","age2":"","gender":"","zipcity":"","instrument":"","age1":"","src":"bio influence"} '); } } }) All genres Alternative Blues Classic Rock Classical Country Death Metal Electronica Folk Funk Hair Metal Hard Rock Hardcore Hip Hop Indie Rock Industrial Jazz Jazz Fusion Metal Oldies Pop Prog Metal Prog Rock Punk R&B Reggae Rock Southern Rock Other... Anywhere In or near... All countries Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and Mcdonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras Hong Kong-China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Kosovo Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand The Netherlands Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States United States Minor Outlying Islands Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.s. Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Within 10 miles (16 km) of... Within 25 miles (40 km) of... Within 50 miles (80 km) of... Within 75 miles (120 km) of... Within 100 miles (160 km) of... Within 250 miles (400 km) of... Within 1,000 miles (1600 km) of... All ages Age range... From 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 To 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 Any sex Male Female Influenced by this artist (optional)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line717
__label__cc	0.661399	0.338601	Dads, DON’T Be Your Kids’ Hero! by Justin Batt Pretty much every movie that’s ever been made follows a familiar pattern: there’s a hero, there’s a villain, and there’s some sort of conflict that occurs with the hero typically emerging victorious. But amidst the conflict, you have a guide who leads the hero to success or helps the hero recover from failure. Look at the first Star Wars film: Luke Skywalker is the hero and Darth Vader is the villain. There’s the conflict of darkness versus light and you’ve got Yoda, the little green guy, who emerges as the guide to help Luke Skywalker along the journey. Too often, as fathers, we try to make ourselves the hero of the story; we try to live our lives through our children and, unintentionally or not, play the role of hero for egotistical reasons or as a means of overcoming our own insecurities. I’m sure you’ve seen that “Dad Is My Hero” T-shirt, but I believe that’s actually the completely wrong approach, because if the dad is the hero of the story, then it positions the child to never experience failure or achieve success on his or her own. I see the “hero dad” approach producing a generation much like Gen Y or Millennials (those born between 1981–1996), often called the “Snowflake Generation.” Whether true or not, older generations perceive them as being less psychologically resilient or more emotionally vulnerable. It’s a generation where everyone got a trophy for participation, and when everyone succeeds, no one fails. They didn’t have the opportunity to experience their share of failures as a child, making them more fragile as adults. This was never more evident than on the hugely popular talent show American Idol. People who thought they were superstar performers would audition only to find out that, in fact, they’re terrible, but no one ever helped them discover, develop, and use their true gifts and abilities. In fact, they were probably told: “You can do and be anything you want to be!” So it’s not their fault. They’re the product of the society that they grew up in, and in many cases, it’s because their dad positioned himself as the hero of the story. If you are a Millennial father reading this, you need to know you have the potential to be the greatest generation of fathers ever in this country. You are vital for the future of fatherhood because Gen Z is right behind you, watching your every move. If we are going to be successful as fathers and do our best for future generations, it’s imperative that Millennial fathers understand their potential and the possible pitfalls based on how they were raised. The most pressing pitfall I see that many Millennial fathers need to overcome is what can be called “future proofing,” which is very common when children aren’t allowed or encouraged to face fears and overcome failures. It’s natural for all of us as fathers to want to protect our children from anything that may bring harm upon them. However, we shouldn’t always paint failure as a negative outcome. I would much rather let my kids fail when they’re eight than when they’re 28. Failure for an eight-year-old is: “I ran with the ice cream cone in my hand, the ice cream fell off the top, and I no longer have an ice cream cone.” Or maybe: “I gave up five goals in today’s soccer game.” But failure at age 18 or 28 is: “I lost my job because of underperformance and I’m in a downward spiral of depression, drinking, drugs, and potentially suicide because I don’t know how to handle this.” Chances are, that person has never experienced failure before. We see this currently playing out with young adults. For many millennials, their first meaningful encounters with failure happen during adulthood, and most don’t know how to process them. And without prior experiences working through setbacks and building some internal grit, failures have the potential to become catastrophic events in their lives. The repercussions are now big and far-reaching. What’s at stake is no longer an ice cream cone or a soccer game; now it might be a career, a house, maybe thousands of dollars, maybe a marriage or relationships with their children. But the good news is that our children can learn to handle and grow from failures during their early years, when the cost of failing is relatively low and they have parents there to guide and love them through it. Failure is part of life. If you’re not experiencing failure, then you’re not really living. Successful people are typically standing on a mountain of failure. As hard as it may be and as unnatural as it may feel, letting your children experience failure now can set them up for success later in life. Becoming the hero of their own story, with you serving as their guide, is the best way to ensure they have what it takes to thrive in the hard world we live in—now and later on in adulthood. The Guide to Being a Guide So how do you allow your child to experience failure—with the goal of helping them develop internal grit and learn important life lessons? You encourage it. Our family has a routine on Friday evenings during family dinner. We go around the table and each person, including my wife and me, shares at least one thing we tried and failed at during the week and what we learned from the experience. My kids’ ages range from eleven to five, and when they share a failure it’s typically something around a grade they received in school, a practice or game moment where they missed a shot or messed up a play, or something new they tried that didn’t work out. Over time I’ve witnessed my children begin to push themselves, self-coach and handle failure more appropriately. These “micro” failures we discuss as a family each week have also enhanced our relationship through increased communication. My children have become much more comfortable coming to me to discuss failure because they’ve seen how I react each Friday and know it’s a safe zone. I’ve also had some priceless opportunities to encourage them in these areas. In order to raise good kids that become great adults, we fathers must remove the hero cape and assume the role as the guide. Our role is to help our kids look at their victories and accomplishments and ask, “What led to that success?” And when they experience failure: “How can I learn from this and move forward?” Dads, you already are your kid’s hero and you always will be. As hard as it may be at times, you need to be less like Luke Skywalker and more like Yoda. Justin Batt is founder of Daddy Saturday (DaddySaturday.com), a platform to create intentional fathers who raise good kids that become great adults. He is also an entrepreneur, business advisor, healthcare consultant, public speaker and author of Daddy Saturday (2019). Justin and his wife Heather have four children and live in South Carolina.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line721
__label__wiki	0.532042	0.532042	Greg Strader To say Greg Strader is waiting for a disaster to happen is true. In fact, he’s been waiting and preparing his community for more than ten years as the founder and CEO of BRACE, the Be Ready Alliance Coordinating for Emergencies located in Escambia County in NW Florida. BRACE’s vision is to make their community the most disaster resilient community in America. Prior to Greg’s role with BRACE, he served as CEO of the American Red Cross of Northwest Florida and the Coordinator for the Escambia Long Term Recovery following hurricanes Ivan and Dennis. The relationships he developed during those times has helped him develop strong partnerships which are the cornerstone of success at BRACE. Recovery following a disaster is a messy and complicated process. Greg has demonstrated the ability to navigate the mess, document lessons learned and build successful partnerships. BRACE has been recognized at the local, state and national level for its work including 13 awards and honorable mentions by FEMA through the Individual & Community Preparedness Awards program. BRACE received the John D. Solomon Preparedness Award in 2012, the highest presented through the FEMA Awards Program. BRACE also received the Promising Partnership Award in 2011, because of its success in engaging over 500 organizations as partners. In January 2012, Greg was named a “Champion of Change” at a White House ceremony for the accomplishments of BRACE during 2010 and 2011, including the mobilization of 1,950 volunteers in response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Greg’s service throughout his career was recognized with the “2016 Distinguished Service Award” at the Florida Governor’s Hurricane Conference. When Greg isn’t preparing his community for disasters you might find him watching the Kansas City Chiefs. His affinity for the Chiefs goes back to when he had the opportunity to command the color guard at the 1971 AFC Divisional Playoff Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins which turned out to be the longest professional football game ever played. Greg has been married to his wife and best friend Kathy for nearly 25 years. They work together and of course they travel together too. They traveled to Australia and experienced snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, watching the Penguin Parade just outside of Melbourne and riding Brumbies in the Snowy Mountains where “Man from Snowy River” was filmed. Greg serves as an Advisory Board Member at the University of Florida, Public Issues in Education Center and the Florida Association for Volunteer Resource Management is pleased to have him on our board too! Traci Blue Traci is the Director of the Volunteer Resource Center at Heart of Florida United Way where she leads a team of professionals who manage opportunities for volunteer engagement for corporate, faith-based, school-related and civic groups and individuals. She is inspired in her work at United Way by the difference they are making in their community and the people they serve. She serves on boards of youth related non-profits, and volunteer-focused organizations, and serves as a mentor. Growing up, Traci wanted to be a teacher like her grandmother and aunts so she could have a positive influence on youth. Her grandmother, Doris Ann Holman, is her hero. She was an educator who was passionate about teaching and served in the Los Angeles School District for 35 years. She was also extremely active in her church and teaching sorority, and was a mentor and community servant for her whole life. Traci was inspired to serve by her grandmother and has adopted a similar pattern of service in her own life. In Traci’s personal life, she is very proud of her is 21 year old son, Tevin, who is a junior at FAMU, and Tyler, her 18 year old daughter who is attending FAMU this fall. Traci is also a HUGE Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan! She can be a little adventurous at times. She’s rappelled down from a three story building and plans to skydive with her son soon! Traci Blue is Certified in Volunteer Administration and serves on the Florida Association For Volunteer Resource Management Board as an At Large Director. Joyce Wilson Joyce Wilson dreamed of being a business owner but her life’s path was redirected to serving not just herself but caring for and about others. Joyce credits her mother with instilling service and volunteerism in her as a young child. Her mom, now retired, continues to model service through her own volunteering with children and seniors. As Executive Director of Unity Family Community Center, Joyce has the opportunity to share her personal purpose; to serve others, to bring happiness and to improve the quality of life. She is inspired by the people she serves and strives to build partnerships to help others. Joyce says “As we dream of how our lives are to be lived out, there is always another path ahead of us. With my mother’s wisdom embedded in me, I currently volunteer with faith based organizations, substance prevention coalitions, mentoring program and nonprofits. Each organization’s mission is to serve others.” Unity Family Community Center is in Williston and their mission is to ensure services make positive changes in the lives of the youth served. This is accomplished through role models, improved family support, strengthened coping skills, and productive lifestyles through programs in prevention, intervention, and education. Joyce holds a B.A. in Business Administration with specialization in Management, Dual Master of Arts in Management and Leadership and Human Resource Management. She currently serves as a At Large Director on the Florida Association For Volunteer Resource Management Board.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line722
__label__wiki	0.897921	0.897921	Federal employees honored for tech, humanitarian work By Chase Gunter The EPA's Philip Brooks and Byron Bunker and the Department of Justice's Joshua Van Eaton At a time of generally low public trust in government, the Partnership for Public Service honored the work of civil servants at its annual awards gala. The seven Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals, known as the Sammies, are selected by a committee of representatives from government, business, academia and media. The awards were presented at a ceremony Sept. 27. "The 2017 Service to America Medal recipients represent the best in government, the unsung heroes who quietly work behind-the-scenes to serve their country and the public good," said President of the Partnership for Public Service Max Stier, "It is important, especially in these uncertain times, to celebrate and recognize the Sammies honorees and their colleagues throughout the government who are making a positive difference in people's lives." The Environmental Protection Agency's Philip Brooks and Byron Bunker and the Department of Justice's Joshua Van Eaton were presented with the Federal Employees of the Year award for their role in discovering and intervening in Volkswagen's fuel emissions scandal. The German automobile company was found to have rigged more than 500,000 vehicles in the United States to skirt consumer and pollution laws by installing software in their cars that could detect when they were being tested and intentionally fool regulators. Brooks, Bunker and Van Eaton headed a team of scientists, engineers and lawyers to build a case against the car company that led to the largest sanction ever assessed against an automaker. In all, Volkswagen agreed to pay $17.4 billion in penalties. Dr. Tedd Ellerbrock, chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's HIV Care and Treatment Branch, won the Career Achievement Medal for expanding the U.S. medical assistance program. Rory Cooper, Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs' Human Engineering Research Laboratories, received the Science and Environment Medal for designing high-tech wheelchairs with robotic arms and hands and that can traverse terrain that ordinary wheelchairs can not. Timothy Camus, a deputy inspector general for investigations at the Department of the Treasury, won the Homeland Security and Law Enforcement Medal for leading a team to dismantle a fraud scheme in which callers preyed on Americans by impersonating IRS debt collectors -- leading to the indictment of more than 60 people. Alex Mahoney and the Middle East Crisis Humanitarian Response team at the U.S. Agency for International Development won the National Security and International Affairs Medal for leading a relief effort in Syria and Iraq to deliver food, medicine and clean water. Flora Jordan, an engineer in the Marine Corps Systems Command, won the Promising Innovations Medal, a new award, for developing a body armor 45 percent lighter than the 150-pound armor Marines have previously worn. Courtney Lisa and Stayce Beck of the Food and Drug Administration were awarded the Management Excellence Medal for their roles in getting the first artificial pancreatic device approved by FDA three years faster than anticipated. The Service to America Medals People's Choice, voted on by the public, was awarded to Surabhi Shah, director of the Urban Waters Program at EPA, for her interagency work in reducing pollution across the country. Chase Gunter is a former FCW staff writer.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line724
__label__wiki	0.952683	0.952683	John Pope Hennessy This article is about the colonial administrator. For his grandson, the art historian, see John Pope-Hennessy. Irish-born British politician, 8th Governor of Hong Kong Sir John Pope Hennessy 15th Governor of Mauritius 1 June 1883 – 11 December 1889 Sir Frederick Napier Broome Sir Charles Cameron Lees 8th Governor of Hong Kong 22 April 1877 – 30 March 1883 Sir Francis Colborne Edward Donovan John Sargent Colonial Secretary John Gardiner Austin William Henry Marsh Sir Arthur Edward Kennedy Sir George Bowen 10th Governor of Barbados and the Windward Islands Sanford Freeling, acting George Cumine Strahan 25th Governor of the Bahamas Sir George Cumine Strahan Sir William Robinson Governor of Sierra Leone John Jennings Kendall, acting Robert Keate Governor of the Gold Coast Herbert Taylor Ussher Charles Spencer Salmon, acting 6th Governor of Labuan Hugh Low Sir Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer (1834-08-08)8 August 1834 County Cork, Ireland, United Kingdom 7 October 1891(1891-10-07) (aged 57) Rostellan Castle, County Cork, Ireland, United Kingdom Irish Parliamentary Party Conservative (1859–1865) Catherine Elizabeth Low A. M. Conyngham 2 daughters, 3 sons Queen's University of Ireland 軒尼詩 Hīn nèih sī Hin1 nei4 si1 Sir John Pope Hennessy, KCMG (8 August 1834 – 7 October 1891), was an Irish and British politician and colonial administrator who served as the eighth Governor of Hong Kong and the fifteenth Governor of Mauritius. 2 Public service 3 Early colonial service 4 Governor of Hong Kong 5 Governor of Mauritius 8 Namesakes John Pope Hennessy was born in County Cork, the son of John Hennessy (originally Ó hAonghusa) of Ballyhennessy and educated at Queen's College, Cork. He completed his medical training at Queen's University of Ireland. Public service[edit] He started his Public Service career as the Supplemental Clerk at the Privy Council, and eventually became a minor Conservative member of the British Parliament, representing King's County from 1859 to 1865.[1] Whilst an MP he studied law at the Inner Temple, being called to the bar in 1861. In 1890, as MP for North Kilkenny he joined the Irish National Federation. He died the following year.[1] Early colonial service[edit] Caricature by Ape in Vanity Fair, 1875 Hennessy eventually joined the Colonial Office and became colonial Governor of Labuan in 1867 where he put the Crown Colony into solvency by introducing convict labour from the Straits Settlements. He went on to become the Governor of Sierra Leone from 1872 to 1873, when he moved to the governorship of the Bahamas.[2] He became Governor-in-Chief of the Windward Islands, from 1873 until 1877, with primary authority over Barbados, and executive oversight over the various British Lt. Governors and Administrators charged with running day-to-day affairs on the various islands. Although Hennessy was born into the Anglo-Irish landowning gentry, his status as a Roman Catholic made him something of an outsider, particularly in his dealings with Protestant British colonial elites, whether in Barbados, Hong Kong, or Mauritius. Indeed, his earliest contributions as a Member of Parliament in 1860 pertained to the temporal power of the Pope, and unfolding events in Italy.[3] Coming into colonial administration, he was among a cohort of "new thinkers" whose ideas gained ground following the Sepoy Mutiny in India in 1857. Speaking at length in the House of Commons on 26 July 1860 about British civil and military forces in India, Hennessy urged a shift in policies so that "the military administration of India would be conducted with greater skill, with more economy, and, as a natural result of a higher educational standard, with a greater regard for the feelings and interests of the Native population. Indeed, recent events furnished us with the most conclusive evidence that many of the British officers, entrusted with grave authority in India, had, from an ignorance of popular customs and a disregard of national habits and traditions, given great cause of complaint and encouragement to disaffection. As long as we send out officers to India who seem inclined to treat the Natives as slaves, who seem unable or unwilling to appreciate the noble qualities, of that unfortunate people, and who add the grossest military outrages and insults to the civil misgovernment and financial burdens we have imposed upon them, so long will our rule in India be a blot upon civilization".[4] Governor of Hong Kong[edit] Immediately after his tenure in Barbados, Hennessy was appointed as Governor of Hong Kong, a position from which he served until 1882. During his tenure, Hennessy realised that the Chinese people, who were treated as second-class citizens up to that time, had developed an increasingly important influence on the Hong Kong economy. With that in mind, he lifted the ban that forbade Chinese people from buying lands, constructing buildings, and operate businesses in the Central District. This caused a development boom in the Central District. Also, he allowed Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong to naturalise as British subjects. He appointed the first Chinese member (Ng Choy, who would later become the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China) to the Legislative Council. Also, during his rule, he established the first Grant-in-Aid system, a milestone in the educational history of Hong Kong. Soon after arriving in Hong Kong, in April 1877, Hennessy set out to implement the "separate system" in Victoria Gaol, meaning separate cells for prisoners, during the night if not also during the day. This plan hinged upon sending long-term prisoners to Labuan, for convict labour.[5] Governor of Mauritius[edit] After his tenure as Governor of Hong Kong was over, Hennessy went on to become the 15th Governor of Mauritius from 1 June 1883 to 11 December 1889. Upon his arrival on 1 June 1883 on the island, Hennessy undertook to mauricianise the local administration by reducing the powers of the English officials, appointing Mauritians to positions of responsibility and proposing a new constitution based on the principle "Mauritius for Mauritians". It was therefore natural that he moved closer to the Mauritian lawyer William Newton, leader of the reform movement who demanded a more direct involvement of settlers in the administration of their affairs. It was under Hennessy that Mauritius as known it first shudder of democracy. This was his last post in the Colonial Service. Hennessy's family On 4 February 1868, Hennessy married Katherine Elizabeth (1850–1923), daughter of Hugh Low. They had three sons, including Richard Pope-Hennessy. He earlier had two illegitimate daughters with his mistress, Miss A. M. Conyngham.[6] His personal motto was "Three Grand Qualifications to Success", which he described as "The first is audacity, the second is audacity, and the third is audacity". Sir John Wyndham Pope-Hennessy (1913–1994), who was a British art historian and the director of the British Museum from 1974 until 1976, was Hennessy's grandson. Hennessy died of heart failure on 7 October 1891 at his residence, Rostellan Castle, near Cork, Ireland. A statue of him by M. Loumeau was erected in Port Louis, Mauritius, in 1908.[6] His grandson James Pope-Hennessy published a biography in 1964. Honours[edit] Sir John Pope Hennessy Governor of Mauritius, medal by Oscar Roty KCMG (1880) Namesakes[edit] As he was not popular among the European community of Hong Kong, there was no construction named after him until much later. On 14 June 1929, Hennessy Road, which is a main road located on the new reclamation, present-day a crowded commercial and shopping area at Wan Chai and Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island was named after him. A major street, Pope Hennessy Street, in Port Louis, capital of Mauritius is named after him. Hennessy Road is a street in civil lines, Nagpur, Maharashtra state, India is also named after him. List of heads of Hong Kong by education ^ a b Leigh Rayment's House of Commons pages: K ^ "Hansard 1803–2005". ^ http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons ^ House of Commons debate, 26 July 1860, Hansards, Vol. 160, cc. 231-59, 235 ^ Hong Kong Government Gazette, 23 February 1878 ^ a b Stearn, Roger T. (2007). "Hennessy, Sir John Pope (1834–1891)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22537. Accessed 2 August 2018. "Sir John Pope Hennessy dead" (PDF). New York Times. Retrieved 21 August 2012. Pope-Hennessy, James (1964). Verandah: Some Episodes in the Crown Colonies: 1867–1889. London: George Allen and Unwin. Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Pope Hennessy. Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Pope Hennessy https://archive.org/details/sirwalterraleigh00pope Sir Patrick O'Brien, Bt Loftus Henry Bland Member of Parliament for King's County With: Sir Patrick O'Brien, Bt Succeeded by John Gilbert King Edward Marum Member of Parliament for North Kilkenny 1890 – 1891 Succeeded by Patrick McDermott Sir Hugh Low Governor of Labuan Herbert Taylor Ussher Governor of the Gold Coast John Jennings Kendall, acting Governor of Sierra Leone George Cumine Strahan Governor of the Bahamas Sanford Freeling, acting Governor of Barbados and the Windward Islands Sir Arthur Edward Kennedy Governor of Hong Kong Sir William Henry Marsh, acting Sir Frederick Napier Broome Governor of Mauritius Governors of Hong Kong MacDonnell Des Vœux W. Robinson MacLehose SNAC: w6m62hgq Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Pope_Hennessy&oldid=901839123" 19th-century Hong Kong people British governors of the Bahamas Colonial Administrative Service officers Governors of Barbados Irish Conservative Party MPs Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Kilkenny constituencies (1801–1922) Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for King's County constituencies (1801–1922) Politicians from County Cork UK MPs 1859–1865 Use British English from December 2010	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line725
__label__wiki	0.859809	0.859809	character in "Hamlet" Hamlet character Russian actor Nikolai Massalitinov as Claudius with Olga Knipper as Gertrude in the Moscow Art Theatre production of Hamlet (1911–1912). Gertrude (wife) King Hamlet (brother) Prince Hamlet (nephew, stepson) King Claudius is a fictional character and the primary antagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. He is the brother to King Hamlet, second husband to Gertrude and uncle and later stepfather to Prince Hamlet. He obtained the throne of Denmark by murdering his brother with poison and then marrying the late king's widow. He is loosely based on the Jutish chieftain Feng who appears in Chronicon Lethrense and in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum. There had never been an actual Danish King of that name. 2 Interpretation 3 Portrayals 4 Characters modelled on Claudius Claudius is seen at the beginning of the play to be a capable monarch as he deals diplomatically with such issues as the military threat from Norway and Hamlet's depression. It is not until the appearance of King Hamlet's Ghost in the courtyard that the reader questions his motives. During the play's progression he takes a turn for the worse by first resorting to spying, and, when that fails, murder. Der Kronenräuber ("The Crown Thief": Claudio [sic] Murders His Brother, King Hamlet, By Pouring Poison into His Ear as He Lies Sleeping in the Garden) (Johann Heinrich Lips and Henry Fuseli, 1806) It is in Act III Scene 3, when Claudius forestalls Hamlet's revenge by confessing his sins to God in his own private chapel, that the audience can be sure of his guilt. He is shown to be discontent and unhappy with the events taking place. The young prince spies him brooding about his wrongdoings and trying to pray for forgiveness, but he knows all too well that prayer alone will not save him if he continues to benefit from his own sin. If he were to truly repent, he would have to confess his sin and give up all he achieved through it, which he chooses not to do. Despite his remorse, the king still seeks Hamlet's death in an effort to save both his throne and his life, as he believes the prince is now aware of his part in King Hamlet's death. Hamlet is ready to kill him, only to back down, feeling that to kill the king in such a way would contradict the revenge conditions given to him by his father, who commanded him specifically: "Taint not thy mind." When Laertes seeks revenge for his father Polonius' death at Hamlet's hands, Claudius finally concocts a 'surefire' plan to deal with Hamlet once and for all. He arranges a fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes, but plots with Laertes to poison his foil and give Hamlet a poisoned drink. The king's plan fails; Queen Gertrude drinks from the poisoned chalice instead of Hamlet and dies, and Hamlet, after being struck by the poisoned foil, captures the same sword and strikes Laertes, who then finally reveals Claudius' plot. As Norway's army, led by young Prince Fortinbras, surrounds the castle, Hamlet finally exacts his revenge and slays Claudius by stabbing him with the sword and then forcing him to drink the poison that he had intended for Hamlet. Interpretation[edit] The character Claudius is both the major antagonist of the piece and a complex individual. He is the villain of the piece, as he admits to himself: "O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven" (Act III, Scene 3, Line 40), yet his remarkable self-awareness and remorse complicates Claudius's villain status, much like Macbeth. Claudius's fratricide is the corruption permeating the play's world – that which is, in the words of Marcellus (a guard), "something … rotten in the state of Denmark."[1] Shakespeare reminds the audience of the crime several times by having characters mention the story of Cain and Abel, including Claudius himself, who admits being inflicted with "the primal eldest curse."[1] Claudius's cruelty is reflected in his schemes to kill Hamlet – sending him to England to be killed, as well as setting up a rigged fencing match.[2] Claudius is also a heavy drinker, proposing numerous toasts and presiding over a rowdy court; he appropriately succumbs to his own poisoned wine.[1] The king is not without redeeming virtues, though. He is seen to be an able monarch (notwithstanding the unfavourable comparison to his murdered predecessor in Hamlet's first soliloquy) as well as a quick thinker and smooth talker, who in Act IV, Scene 5 converts Laertes from rebel to accomplice.[2] In Act III, Scene 1 he fleetingly shows remorse for his crimes, and attempts to pray in Scene 3, even as he realises that he cannot sincerely repent ("Words without thoughts never to heaven go"), and eventually continues in his evil ways.[2] Most commentators agree that the king's evil nature is evident, and that the other aspects of his nature exemplify Shakespeare's ability to portray his villains as fully human.[2] The king is named after the Roman emperor Claudius, who was considered the archetype of an evil ruler in Shakespeare's time.[2] The historical Claudius's incestuous marriage to and alleged poisoning by Agrippina the Younger, who was later herself murdered by her son Nero, are mirrored in the play, as Hamlet himself appears to note in Act III, Scene 2: "Soft! now to my mother. / O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever / The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom ...."[2] Although the character is referred to as "Claudius, King of Denmark" in one stage direction, the name "Claudius" is never spoken by any character in the play. Portrayals[edit] Eduard von Winterstein portrayed Claudius in the 1921 German silent film adaptation of Hamlet. Basil Sydney portrayed Claudius in Laurence Olivier's film adaptation of Hamlet. Alan Bates portrays Claudius as a drunken, buffoonish, craven schemer in Franco Zeffirelli's film adaptation of Hamlet. In Kenneth Branagh's 1996 film version of Hamlet, Claudius is played by Derek Jacobi. Jacobi had not only been Branagh's mentor as an actor, but had previously played Hamlet himself with Patrick Stewart playing Claudius in a BBC production. In Michael Almereyda's 2000 film version of Hamlet, Claudius is played by Kyle MacLachlan. Patrick Stewart once again portrayed Claudius with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2008, in a production directed by Gregory Doran. Characters modelled on Claudius[edit] Claudius also inspired the character Miraz in C.S. Lewis' novel Prince Caspian, part of The Chronicles of Narnia series. Ron Perlman portrays Clay Morrow in the television series Sons of Anarchy, which relies heavily on the general plot structure of Hamlet; his character is based on Claudius. Ron Perlman has said, "I'm sure they're going to stick to the structure of Hamlet all the way to the end" of the series.[3] In Disney's The Lion King, the villain, Scar (voiced by Jeremy Irons), is modelled after Claudius; both characters murder their brothers and dissemble to their nephews to ascend to the throne. Theatre portal ^ a b c Boyce, Charles (2005). Critical Companion to William Shakespeare: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. Facts on File, Inc. p. 147. ISBN 0-8160-5373-1. ^ a b c d e f Boyce, Charles (2005). Critical Companion to William Shakespeare: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. Facts on File, Inc. p. 148. ISBN 0-8160-5373-1. ^ Goldberg, Matt (31 August 2008). "Ron Perlman Interview – SONS OF ANARCHY". collider.com. Retrieved 23 October 2008. William Shakespeare's Hamlet Fortinbras The Gravediggers Soliloquies "To be, or not to be" "Mortal coil" "What a piece of work is a man" "Speak the speech" Words and phrases "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" "Thy name is" Dumbshow Quiddity Legend of Hamlet The Spanish Tragedy Ur-Hamlet Horwendill Saxo Grammaticus House of Gonzaga Damon and Pythias Common phrases from Hamlet Hamlet in popular culture References to Ophelia Human skull symbolism Moscow Art Theatre (1911–1912) Richard Burton (1964) The Rest Is Silence (1959) The Bad Sleep Well (1960) Johnny Hamlet (1968) One Hamlet Less (1973) The Angel of Vengeance – The Female Hamlet (1977) Strange Brew (1983) Hamlet Goes Business (1987) Let the Devil Wear Black (1999) The Banquet (2006) Tardid (2009) Karmayogi (2012) Haider (2014) Hamlet A.D.D. (2014) Hamlet Had an Uncle (1940) Too, Too Solid Flesh (1989) Gertrude and Claudius (2000) Dating Hamlet (2002) Ophelia's Revenge (2003) The Dead Fathers Club (2006) Something Rotten (2007) Hamlet's Father (2008) The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (2008) Hamletmachine (1977) Dogg's Hamlet (1979) Fortinbras (1991) Rockabye Hamlet (1973) Hamlet (Australian TV, 1959) Hamlet at Elsinore (BBC, 1964) Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (BBC, 1980) Hamlet (BBC 2, animated, 1992) Hamlet (BBC 2, 2009) 15-Minute Hamlet The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) Io, Amleto The Klingon Hamlet "Lyle the Kindly Viking" To Be or Not to Be: That is the Adventure "Tales from the Public Domain" The Skinhead Hamlet "My Robin is to the Greenwood Gone" (16th century) "Pull Me Under" (1992) "Song for Athene" (1997) Opera/classical Hamlet (Thomas) Amleto (Faccio) Hamlet (Tchaikovsky) Tristia (Berlioz) Die Hamletmaschine (Rihm) Hamlet (Dean) Story within a story To Be or Not to Be (1942) Acting Hamlet in the Village of Mrdusa Donja (1973) Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) Last Action Hero (1993) Renaissance Man (1994) In the Bleak Midwinter (1995) Hamlet 2 (2008) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (2009) Three Days (2012) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) Stage Blood (1974) I Hate Hamlet (1991) Hamlet, Revenge! (1937) Theatre of War (1994) "The Undiscovered" (1997) The Shakespeare Stealer (1998) Interred with Their Bones (2007) "The Producer" (1966) "The Conscience of the King" (1966) "Born to Be King" (1983) "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow" (2001) Slings & Arrows (2003) Affe mit Schädel Hamlet (2010) Intertextuality Asterix and the Great Crossing Hamlet and Oedipus Hamlet and His Problems Hebenon Hamlet Q1 Ostalo je ćutanje The Chronicles of Amber "Symphony No. 65" (Haydn) The Hobart Shakespeareans Gertrude – The Cry Poor Murderer Something Rotten! Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=King_Claudius&oldid=905033328" Characters in Hamlet Fictional Danish people Fictional kings Fictional murderers Male Shakespearean characters Fictional fratricides Fictional regicides Male literary villains	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line726
__label__cc	0.508608	0.491392	Pantala hymenaea Spot-winged glider Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1] Order: Odonata Infraorder: Anisoptera Family: Libellulidae Genus: Pantala P. hymenaea (Say, 1839)[2] Pantala hymenaea (spot-winged glider)[1] is a dragonfly of the family Libellulidae. It is a migratory species and is native to North, Central and South America, travelling widely and breeding in temporary water bodies. It looks very similar to the wandering glider, with the addition of a dark basal spot on the hindwing. It is a common species with a very large range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed it as being of "least concern". 2 Distribution and habitat The spot-winged glider is a robust species with a cylindrical abdomen and broad hindwings. Its length is about 5 cm (2 in) and its wingspan 7.5 cm (3 in). The eyes are red and the face is also red in breeding males. The general body colour is brown, and females and immatures have a diagonal white marking on the thorax.[3] There is a small dark brown spot at the base of the hindwings and this distinguishes this species from the otherwise similar wandering glider (Pantala flavescens).[4] Distribution and habitat[edit] The spot-winged glider is a widespread and common species in the New World, occurring in North, Central and South America. Its range includes six provinces in Canada (British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Québec), 45 states in the United States, 24 states in Mexico, the West Indies, Central America and much of South America as far south as Argentina. It is a migratory species and a strong flier, and although it may not breed in all these countries and states, it likely does in most, with the exception of British Columbia and Manitoba, where it is probably a vagrant. Breeding takes place in temporary wetlands, flooded areas, pools and garden ponds. The most important factor for successful breeding is probably an absence of fish, as the nymphs feed in the open.[1] Ecology[edit] In North America, there is a northward migration of these dragonflies from tropical areas in the summer, and a southerly migration in the fall; presumably these are a different generation, but the biology of this species is little known.[3] ^ a b c Paulson, D.R. (2018). "Pantala hymenaea". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2018.1. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 29 September 2018. ^ "Pantala hymenaea". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. ^ a b "Spot-winged glider (Pantala hymenaea)". Migratory Dragonfly Partnership. Retrieved 29 September 2018. ^ Abbott, John C. (2005). Dragonflies and Damselflies of Texas and the South-Central United States. Princeton University Press. p. 290. ISBN 0-691-11364-5. Pantala hymenaea on BugGuide.Net Wikidata: Q144118 Wikispecies: Pantala hymenaea BugGuide: 25585 EoL: 1034432 IUCN: 49254542 NCBI: 1592237 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pantala_hymenaea&oldid=868410620" IUCN Red List least concern species Libellulidae Odonata of North America Odonata of South America Insects described in 1839 Taxa named by Thomas Say This page was last edited on 12 November 2018, at 01:00 (UTC).	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line727
__label__wiki	0.742324	0.742324	This article is about the Scottish burgh. For other uses, see Peebles (disambiguation). Find sources: "Peebles" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Scottish Gaelic: Na Pùballan Scots: Peebles Bridge over the River Tweed in Peebles Peebles' Coat of Arms Location within the Scottish Borders 3.85 km2 (1.49 sq mi) [1] 2,176/km2 (5,640/sq mi) OS grid reference Council area Lieutenancy area Tweeddale Sovereign state Post town Postcode district Dialling code Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale. List of places 55°39′N 3°11′W / 55.65°N 3.18°W / 55.65; -3.18Coordinates: 55°39′N 3°11′W / 55.65°N 3.18°W / 55.65; -3.18 Peebles (Scottish Gaelic: Na Pùballan)[2] is a royal burgh in Peeblesshire, of which it is the county town, within the Scottish Borders region. According to the 2011 Census, the population was 8,376.[3] 3 Historic features and traditions 4 Coat of arms 7 Twin town Initially a market town, Peebles played a role in the woollen industry of the Borders during the 19th and early-20th centuries.[4] Most mills closed by the 1960s, although the last one remained open until 2015.[5] The character of Peebles has changed; the town serves as home to many people who commute to work in Edinburgh, as well as being a popular tourist destination, especially in the summer. In the mid-to-late 19th century health tourism flourished, centring on hydropathic establishments, which over time morphed into a hotel format, with Peebles Hydro Hotel being one of the few survivors of that era.[6] Notable buildings in the town include the Old Parish Church of Peebles and Neidpath Castle. Other local attractions include a museum and the Kailzie Gardens. Peebles has won multiple awards for the range of shops on its High Street. Peeblesshire Civil Parish map. https://archive.org/stream/imperialgazettee02wilsuoft#page/n616/mode/1up Peebles lies at the confluence of the River Tweed and Eddleston Water (locally called "the Cuddy"). The Tweed flows west to east, and the Eddleston flows from the north, turning to flow south-west 300 yards before the confluence. This south-westerly turn demarcates a raised triangular piece of land, open to the east but contained by the rivers to the south and north. The name is generally accepted to come from the Brythonic pebyll tents, signifying a temporary settlement.[7] The eastern side was defended in historic times by a town wall, which ran in an east facing arc, through which the road to Glentress passed at the East Gate. The road passing through this gate, the Eastgate, is one of four gates in Peebles, the others being Northgate, Bridgegate (where the Eddleston Water was crossed to the north of town), and Ludgate (the western gate of the town), now called Young Street. At the junction of Eastgate and Northgate roads, where the Eastgate becomes High Street, is an ancient market cross. The present-day market is held in the station car park, to the north and south ends of which are the remains of the town wall. Peebles High Street runs parallel with the Tweed along the spine of a ridge, at the west end of which is the parish church. Historic features and traditions[edit] First World War monument, Peebles by Reginald Fairlie The oldest building in Peebles is the tower of St Andrew's Church. The church was founded in 1195. It was destroyed (along with many other Borders abbeys and priories) by the soldiers of Henry VIII. The stones of the ruins were pilfered for many other local buildings leaving only the tower standing amongst the gravestone of the churchyard. Another ancient church in the town is the Cross Kirk, founded in 1261. Although now mainly ruins, the Cross Kirk plays a prominent part in the local festival. The annual local festival in Peebles is called the Beltane, and involves (as with many Borders festivals) a Common Riding. The Beltane, proclaimed at the cross, culminates with the crowning of the Beltane Queen (a girl chosen from one of three local primary schools) along with her court, including the likes of the First and Second Courtiers, Sword Bearer and Standard Bearer; on the steps in front of the parish church. The adult principal of the festival is the Cornet, a local young man chosen by the organising committee on a basis of being considered worthy of representing the town, who then carries the town standard for a year. To the west of the town is Neidpath Castle, which can be reached on foot through Hay Lodge Park, the route has views of the castle. The castle is now closed to the public. On the south side of High Street are the old burgh offices. These incorporate the town's library, art gallery and local museum. The building occupied by these are called the Chambers Institution, being deeded to the town by William Chambers, a member of the Chambers publishing family who originated in the town. Chambers' house can be found on the oldest street in Peebles - Biggiesknowe. Peebles is no longer connected to the railway network. In years past, the Symington, Biggar and Broughton Railway had lines that connected Peebles to Edinburgh and Galashiels. Historically Peebles and the Scottish borders have been the location of many textiles businesses. Still today, March Street Mills is the location of Robert Noble along with its sister company Replin Fabrics. In 2016, Peebles was the first town in the UK to raise funding for a Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) talking Book.[8] Coat of arms[edit] The arms carved in stone at Northgate The arms of the Royal Burgh of Peebles features three salmon on a red field. The heraldic blazon is: Gules, three salmons counter-naiant in pale proper. The motto is Contra Nando Incrementum, Latin for "There is growth by swimming against the stream", referring to the annual migration of salmon up the River Tweed in order to breed. The one salmon facing forwards and two facing backwards represent the fact that for every salmon that goes up the river, two come back to the sea. The arms are very old, first appearing on the town's mercat cross, which was built some time before 1320.[9] Originally the colours were not standardised, the background variously appearing as blue, green or red. The latter seems to have been most common, and it was red that was chosen when the arms were formally granted by Lord Lyon in 1894, following a petition from the town clerk, William Buchan, who had previously received a letter from A. C. Fox-Davies questioning the burgh's right to use the arms.[10] After the abolition of the old Scottish burghs in 1975, the arms became redundant. In 1988 they were regranted to the Royal Burgh of Peebles and District Community Council, who continue to use the arms today, with the addition of a community council's coronet.[11] The traditional province of Ångermanland in Sweden also has a very similar coat of arms, but with a blue background. Traditionally, a person born in Peebles was called a gutterbluid, although few people can now claim that distinction as Peebles no longer has a hospital. Most babies are born in Edinburgh or Borders General Hospital at Melrose. A person living in Peebles but whom was born outside of Peebles is traditionally known as a stoorifit.[citation needed] Eric Bogle (b. 1944), Folk musician resident in Australia, born in Peebles Scott Brash (b. 1985), Olympic gold medallist John Buchan (1875–1940), author, practised law in Peebles, and his house (opposite the old Sheriff Court) bears a commemorative plaque Robert Chambers (1802–1871), publisher and author of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation William Chambers (1800-1883), publisher, brother of Robert. Brian Cook (football administrator) (b. 1955), Australian footballer administrator, born in Peebles. Sir Robert J. M. Inglis FRSE TD DL (1881-1962) railway engineer John Mathison (1901–1982), New Zealand MP born in Peebles Ernest Maylard FRSE (1855-1947) surgeon and mountaineer, retired to Peebles and is buried there Mungo Park (1771–1806), practised medicine, and his house on the north of the Cuddy bears a commemorative plaque Kevin Thomson (b. 1984), footballer who grew up in Peebles. Charles Leedham-Green Mathematician at QMUL, famous for his work on computational group theory Peebles overview from Cademuir Hill, the Hydro Hotel can be seen on the right In 2014 Creative Scotland named Peebles the most creative place of its size in Scotland, presenting the town with a Creative Place Award and £100,000 to enhance arts events, festivals and arts commissions. Most arts performances take place in the Eastgate Theatre on the High Street which has a year-round programme of music, drama, dance, talks and classes for children and adults. The town also has four major annual festivals - the Beltane Festival, Peebles Arts Festival, Tweedlove Bike Festival and Imaginarium. Just east of the town, Glentress Forest is a base for mountain biking, and attracts over 300,000 visitors a year.[citation needed] For walkers, the John Buchan Way starts at the west side of the town. Some of these walkers make use of the hotels, guest houses and campsites in and around the town. Peebles has an 18-hole golf course, located at the upper end of Kirkland Street. The golf club was formerly owned and run by the local council before being taken over and run by its own members. Peebles has three primary schools: Kingsland (now relocated to Neidpath Road from its original position on Rosetta Road), Priorsford and the Roman Catholic Halyrude Primary School. Peebles also has the largest secondary school in the Borders, Peebles High School, which is attended by pupils from all over Tweeddale. In 2005, a study by the New Economics Foundation ranked Peebles as the best town in Scotland (second best in the UK, after Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire), for range of independent shops and 'home town identity'.[12] Twin town[edit] Hendaye, Basque Country, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France ^ "Peebles (Scottish Borders, Scotland, United Kingdom) - Population Statistics, Charts, Map, Location, Weather and Web Information". www.citypopulation.de. Retrieved 4 April 2019. ^ "An Stòr-dàta Briathrachais" (in Scottish Gaelic). University of the Highlands and Islands. Retrieved 24 November 2011. ^ "Populations of Borders Towns & Village". www.ourscottishborders.com. Retrieved 8 January 2017. ^ "Mr Walter Thorburn, MP". www.historyofpeebles.com. Retrieved 28 July 2016. ^ "Job losses as Robert Noble mill in Peebles to close". BBC News. Retrieved 28 July 2016. ^ Bradley, James; Dupree, Mageurite; Durie, Alastair (1997). "Taking the Water Cure: The Hydropathic Movement in Scotland, 1840-1940" (PDF). Business and Economic History. 26 (2): 426–437. Retrieved 16 November 2011. ^ Pringle, George C. (1914). "County and Shire - The Origins of Peebles and Selkirk". Peebles and Selkirk. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 16 November 2011. ^ Tatum, Kris (4 February 2017). "Peebles talks itself into the UK history books". Peebleshire News. Retrieved 25 February 2017. ^ Marquis of Bute, John (1896). The Arms of the Royal and Parliamentary Burghs of Scotland. William Blackwood & Sons. p. 310. ^ Urquhart, R.M. Scottish Burgh and County Heraldry (1973 ed.). Heraldry Today. p. 230. consulted 19 December 2013. ^ "Royal Burgh of Peebles and District Community Council, Scottish Borders". Heraldry Society of Scotland. Retrieved 25 January 2015. ^ Carvel, John (6 June 2005). "Retail chains 'cloning' UK towns". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 16 November 2011. Chambers, William (1843). A History of Peeblesshire (8th ed.). Edinburgh & London: William and Robert Chambers. Retrieved 6 December 2009. Full text at Google Books. Joe Brown and Iain Lawson, History of Peebles: 1850-1990 (Mainstream) 1990. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Peebles. Official Peebles Town Website peebles.info History of Peebles: 1850-1990 River Tweed, Great Britain Flows into (upstream to downstream) Tweedsmuir Innerleithen Walkerburn St Boswells Major tributaries (upstream to downstream by confluence) Cor Water Talla Water Holms Water Lyne Water Manor Water Quair Water Leithen Water Caddon Water Ettrick Water Yarrow Water Gala Water River Leader River Teviot River Till Whiteadder Water Blackadder Water Major bridges Carlow's Bridge Neidpath Viaduct Tweed Bridge Yair Bridge Leaderfoot Viaduct Drygrange Old Bridge Dryburgh Suspension Bridge Mertoun Bridge Kelso Bridge Hunter's Bridge Coldstream Bridge Ladykirk and Norham Bridge Union Bridge A1 River Tweed Bridge Royal Border Bridge Royal Tweed Bridge Berwick Bridge Longest UK rivers Great Ouse Ure/Ouse MusicBrainz: 4623edcb-4606-4d32-83a0-ab91c6a79db4 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peebles&oldid=898313142" County towns in Scotland Towns in the Scottish Borders Populated places on the River Tweed Parishes in Peeblesshire CS1 Scottish Gaelic-language sources (gd) Use British English from September 2013 Articles needing additional references from November 2011 Articles containing Scottish Gaelic-language text Articles containing Scots-language text Articles with OS grid coordinates Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz area identifiers	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line728
__label__wiki	0.795285	0.795285	Citrus Growers and Plant Breeders Should Pay Attention to Citrus Flush to Fight Citrus Greening Disease Entomology Today February 16, 2016 Leave a Comment An Asian citrus psyllid. Photo by David Hall, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bugwood.org. By Ed Ricciuti Scientists have found a more efficient way to infect experimental trees with citrus greening disease, boosting efforts to find citrus varieties that are able to resist the bacterium which causes the disease. At the same time, their research has produced an unexpected bonus: a new strategy that growers can use to protect their trees against insects that transmit the disease, which threatens groves nationwide. Ed Ricciuti The time when trees are most vulnerable to citrus greening disease — and therefore the best time to infect them and to spray them in the field — is during “flush,” a stage in growth from the emergence of leaves until they expand to full size, but before they become thick and leathery. Such is the conclusion of research by USDA scientists, which is described in the Journal of Economic Entomology. Citrus greening disease, also known as Asiatic huanglongbing (HLB), is spread by the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri). The disease mars leaves, shrinks and turns fruit bitter, and eventually kills trees. So far incurable, it has cost the Florida citrus industry alone $1.3 billion. Indeed, the USDA warns that HLB “threatens the survival of Florida citrus and is a potential threat to the entire U.S. citrus industry.” Growers lacking effective control strategies for HLB have resorted to removing infected trees in hopes of stemming its spread. Thus, the discovery of any new weapon against it could have profound economic significance. The first four leaves (left to right) show the progression of a flush from new tiny leaves to an almost fully expanded flush leaf. The leaf to the extreme right is a mature leaf. Photo by David Hall. HLB, caused by the bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), seems to have emerged in China during the early 1900s. It appeared in Florida in 2005 and since, along with the Asian citrus psyllid, has reached Texas and California. Mottled brown on body and wings, the Asian citrus psyllid lays its eggs on the tiny, feathery leaves that emerge from buds breaking open during the initial stage of flush. The psyllid nymphs and adults also feed on the leaves, and they pick up bacterium from infected plants and transmit it to others. The reproductive cycle of the psyllid is closely tied to flush, according to the authors, and so is the rate at which the psyllids infect citrus with the bacterium. “CLas transmission rates are increased when citrus flush is present,” they wrote. Since trees are most vulnerable during flush, that is when growers should mount most vigorous control methods. The paper puts it succinctly: “Healthy citrus should be protected from ACP infestations throughout a flush.” Finding the new approach to combating HLB was fortuitous, said lead Dr. David Hall of the U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory, who presented his findings to Florida citrus growers at the end in January 2016. He and his colleagues are at the forefront of a USDA effort to identify and develop strains of citrus that resist the disease. He has even appeared on NBC national television news to discuss HLB. The plant on the left has tiny, young flush towards the center. The plant on the right has fully-expanded, soft, light-green flush leaves on top. Both plants have mature, dark-green leaves below. Photo by David Hall. “We were looking for the best ways to test varieties for susceptibility,” he said. To do that, researchers need an efficient method of infecting experimental plants with the disease, because it is not a given that infection will always take place. The more plants in an experimental sample that can be infected, the better resistance can be gauged. “We are trying to understand disease transmission by the psyllid to increase our success in infecting plants,” Hall said. Trees can be infected with HLB by hand via the grafting of infected shoots. But instead of such a labor-intensive procedure, Hall and his team opted to let the psyllids do the work for them, mimicking nature in the process. Since the psyllid lays its eggs on emerging leaves, Hall and his partners decided to see if flush played a role in disease transmission and if it would impact experimental infection. “I actually thought that it would not matter if flush was present,” Hall said. “But I was wrong. We now know that our success in infecting plants will be much better if flush is present.” Very much better, the results of experiments indicate. The percentage of seedlings with flush that developed HLB after exposure to infected psyllids was much higher than a control group that was not in flush. The results of one experiment were particularly vivid. Seventy-seven percent to 97 percent of one strain, a hybrid rootstock, was infected compared to just 40 percent in the control group. The researchers simulated the levels of flush by trimming the trees, with those in the older stage of flush trimmed first and those in the youngest stage two weeks later. A group of trees without flush was used for comparison. After one week of exposure to psyllids, the trees were grown for six months and then evaluated for HLB. A similar, second experiment with Valencia sweet orange trees resulted in a 23 percent infection rate during young flush, 80 percent during old flush, and only three percent when the trees were not in flush. Overall, the scientists concluded that not only should growers protect trees throughout a flush, but that older flush promotes the highest infection rate. In the end, said Hall, whether the goal is to infect citrus or protect from HLB, a flush beats all. – Transmission Rates of ‘Ca. Liberibacter asiaticus’ by Asian Citrus Psyllid are enhanced by the Presence and Developmental Stage of Citrus Flush Ed Ricciuti is a journalist, author, and naturalist who has been writing for more than a half century. His latest book is called Bears in the Backyard: Big Animals, Sprawling Suburbs, and the New Urban Jungle (Countryman Press, June 2014). His assignments have taken him around the world. He specializes in nature, science, conservation issues, and law enforcement. A former curator at the New York Zoological Society, and now at the Wildlife Conservation Society, he may be the only man ever bitten by a coatimundi on Manhattan’s 57th Street. asian citrus psyllid, citrus greening disease, Diaphorina citri, Ed Ricciuti, HLB, Huanglongbing An Opportunity to Study Bees and Pollination in Costa Rica Free Resources on Aedes aegypti and Zika Virus Research	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line731
__label__cc	0.673029	0.326971	The United States is at a crossroads. Regrettably, all of us listened to our parents, teachers and Walt Disney, who conspired to convince us that we should believe in ourselves–and now, everyone believes in themselves. It’s a disaster. We believe in ourselves and thus believe that our ideas, preferences and personal beliefs hold universal authority. When daily life demonstrates that our beliefs are not universal, we push back–sometimes violently–to silence all those who threaten our mental perfection. Did I say mental? Yes, I did. We are mental. The problem with mental perfection is that it’s a fraud. We enshrine ourselves in a temple dedicated to self-serving ideals and declare ourselves the perfect example of the righteousness of these ideals. Religious people do it, liberals and conservatives do it, and those who seek power love it because you can ride self-righteousness like a tidal wave, all the way to the top. The perfection that Jesus demands in the Gospel of Matthew is different. It’s a perfection that shames us and strips us of power. It’s a perfection that makes clear—in no uncertain terms—that we are not to believe in ourselves; that we are a fraud; that we cannot accomplish the most basic requirements of human morality, let alone the demands of the Torah. It’s a perfection that can only be realized in our defeat on the cross, the symbol of a teaching that consigns all perfection to the dead. Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Matthew 5:40-48. Listen:https://tracking.feedpress.it/link/15937/10743242/TBAL%20Episode%20251.mp3 Episode 251 Matthew 5:40-48; Subscribe: http://feedpress.me/the-bible-as-literature; “Fearless First” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com (http://incompetech.com/) (http://incompetech.com/)) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http:// creativecommons .org/ licenses /by/3.0/	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line732
__label__wiki	0.606312	0.606312	Washington’s Huskies-A Team I Loved to Hate Coach Ken Woody October 11, 2018 Editorials 17 Comments I was a long-time Washington Husky fan, and I harbored dreams of playing for my favorite team, but they did not recruit me, even as walk-on, which is an opportunity I would not have passed up. You see, as a senior at Roosevelt High School in Seattle, I was selected All-City as a running back, setting a record for yards-per-carry (8.5) and kicking a field goal, which at that time in high school, was an unusual occurrence. This turned out to be a recruiting opportunity missed that would bring misery to Washington’s head football coach, Jim Owens. Instead, I researched Oregon’s decorated school of journalism and the smaller running backs that had toted the pigskin for the Ducks. I also liked the uniforms and having been recruited as a walk-on by assistant coach Bruce Snyder, (future HC at Cal and ASU) I got on a train and headed for Eugene. University of Oregon Sports Media My playing days at Oregon… In those days, the freshman team was separate and played only four games: two against the Beavers and one each against Washington and Washington State. I had a very successful season (1967), especially against the Husky Pups, blocking a punt, kicking a field goal and three extra points in a 30-7 romp in Husky Stadium. It was a great homecoming and my first victory in a quest for respect. I also kicked a decisive field goal to help win the second game with Oregon State. I did not get much sleep the week before the Husky game, as I tossed and turned in an angry buildup for the revenge I was focused on for the Huskies’ arrogance of not recruiting me. The freshman win set the stage for more installments of Woody’s Revenge. In 1968, before a rain-soaked crowd of 58,000 in my hometown, the Ducks and Huskies fumbled and bumbled for 56 minutes and Oregon had moved the ball deep into Washington territory. I was called on to kick a field goal, which was wide to the left. Unfortunately for the Dawgs, the referee was looking as one of their defenders rushing the kick gave me an elbow to the helmet as he ran by me. After the penalty and several unsuccessful offensive plays, Coach Jerry Frei called my number again and this time I did not miss—final score 3-0 after the defense held the Huskies four plays inside the Ducks’ ten-yard line. It was Jerry’s first conference win. My legacy grew exponentially. I was carried off the field by my teammates who had pounded me all week on the scout team—such was the plight of a kicker who also played defensive back. The buildup to that game was the same as the year before: not much sleep, tossing and turning and thinking about how much I hated the Huskies; every night! When game time came, I was out of control—my hardest hits came in pre-game tackling before Washington games. I would let out a primal scream each time; hoping Husky coach Jim Owens could hear every one. I worked as a substitute sports writer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer during the summer and after the game, one of the PI’s reporters, much to my glee, asked Owens if he ever thought he’d get beaten by a sportswriter? But my revenge, to that point sweet, had not been fully realized; after all, I still had two more games left against the Huskies before I graduated. Register-Guard What can I say? I was pretty happy to beat the Huskies. In 1969, the week after a 60-13 thrashing at the hands of Air Force, Frei told the Duck Club that no one would have to ask him to quit if he wasn’t satisfied with how his team responded in the upcoming Husky game. In the locker room, on Monday, Duck players were in tears as they heard his promise; Washington had no chance. On Saturday, in Autzen Stadium, I kicked three field goals that put Oregon ahead 9-7 and after the last one, turned and shouted to Owens, “you should have recruited me!” The final was 22-7 and the week leading up to the game was like all the other Husky games—no sleep, excessive adrenaline and an intensity I had never experienced before. I was constantly visualizing dominating the Huskies, this time as a wide receiver, a position I switched to that fall. In 1970, Oregon had one of its better teams in several years, with the likes of Dan Fouts, Bobby Moore, Tom Graham, Leland Glass and Tom Blanchard being the matinee stars, along with me, who seemed to have one good game a year—against the hated Washington Huskies. The game was in Seattle and it was a thrill to be picked a captain and go out for the coin toss and shaking the hand of the Huskies’ Bo Cornell who had played on the same little league team with me when I lived in Seattle. The stage was set for the “hat trick”: three wins over my rivals. The Ducks had back-to-back wins over UCLA and USC and had stuck their nose into the race for the roses coming into Husky Stadium. I kicked a school-record field goal that game, had another one blocked and hit the upright on an extra point try, lost points that would end up decisive in a 25-23 loss. The Huskies had the last laugh and I was crushed after visualizing every day of the year about beating Washington again. I was in shock and it hurt, forever. One of the winning field goals against Washington with John Harrington, (Joey’s father) holding. Further irony came after I graduated and coached Jerry Frei’s last season in Eugene. He went on to the Denver Broncos and I ended up coaching for Owen’s last three years at Washington. I was shocked to learn that Husky players were just like Ducks, and that they had immense respect for Oregon. My time in Seattle was cathartic, balancing out my hatred with respect and admiration for Owens, who I would classify as a great, dignified football coach. The intensity of the rivalry and my own personal feelings made the annual game with Washington a huge part of my development as a college coach and later, as a sportsman who could shake off the hatred and realize the Huskies and Ducks were built of the same cloth. We played three times and the Dawgs won twice, a close one in 1972 and a romp in 1974. In between, in Eugene, Oregon won 56-0 and although on the losing end, I could appreciate how delicious the victory was for the Ducks. I went on to television with FOX as a commentator for Oregon and worked with Sonny Sixkiller, an Oregonian quarterback who led the Huskies to many wins over his career. He was a good man, who was very respectful and appreciative of the Ducks’ football program and in his own right, furious the Ducks overlooked him in recruiting. I felt I was lucky to have worked both sides of the rivalry and once my playing days were over, decompressed and gave the Huskies their due. Think of this when you root for whomever you’re going to, lose yourself in the intensity of the greatest rivalry Oregon gets to play. When the game’s over know there are great young men on both sides, despite how they acted during the game. I love to hate the Huskies, and also got to do that as an assistant at Washington State towards the end of my coaching career. But when the games are over, I’m glad they are the Ducks’ rival. It wouldn’t be as much fun without them. Coach Ken Woody Top Photo of Ken Woody kicking and John Harrington holding was right before his remark to UW HC Jim Owen. Photo by Seattle Post-Intelligencer Mike Bellotti, ESPN analyst and Former-Oregon coach: “Ken Woody’s ability to break down the game with interesting, entertaining insights comes from a career as a college player and coach, influenced by some of the top coaches in football. Woody spells it out in a simple, refreshing, humorous manner.” Dan Fouts, NFL Hall of Fame, Oregon Ducks quarterback: “Entertaining and easy to understand.” “Every Oregon fan should have a copy to learn from as I do.” Charles Fischer Buy the book here to learn from Coach Woody, or give a gift of football, a great gift for the fan who wants to learn and enjoy more of the Duck (or whoever your favorite team is) football experience. Ken Woody is a former Fox Sports football commentator who played defensive back, receiver and kicker for Oregon from 1966 to 1970. He coached college football for 18 years, including stints as an assistant coach at Oregon, Washington, Washington State and Utah State, and was head coach at Whitman College and Washington University-St. Louis. He writes x’s and o’s, a weekly column in the Register-Guard, RG online coverage of Duck football and is the author of “After Further Review—an inside look at what’s really happening on the football field.” Woody is on KUGN (590 am) 2:45 before kickoff and 30 minutes after each game with coaching and game analysis. Ken also conducts weekly coaching clinics for fans at Eugene’s Valley River Inn every Thursday during football season at 6:00 PM. The clinics are free and open to the public. Women Save "Lost Weekend" for Oregon Basketball Programs Pac-12 ... Show us the MONEY! Female Athletics: What's Saucy for the Drake Should be Saucy for the Hen Four Reasons Why Oregon Will Be Better in 2019 Oregon Can Top Its 2019 Recruiting Class “I learned football working under many great coaches, among them Len Casanova, Jerry Frei, John Robinson, Bruce Snyder, George Seifert,and Ron Stratten at the University of Oregon, Jim Owens at the University of Washington and Jim Walden at Washington State University. Most of my coaching experience was on the offensive side of the ball with quarterbacks, receivers and kickers although as a head coach I coached defensive backs, linebackers and offensive line. I achieved my first goal of being the youngest head coach in college football at the age of 26 and throughout my career in coaching and outside of it, as a journalist and broadcaster, have experienced how exciting and gratifying it is teaching the game to others.” Beating Huskies as player and coachCoach Ken WoodyJerry FreiOregon Ducks FootballOregon Washington Rivalry	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line735
__label__cc	0.694908	0.305092	Three Brands That You May Have Never Associated With FMN FMN started operation with flour milling in the ports of Apapa. Through the agency of its Golden Penny Brand, the company has produced a plethora of iconic food products that have nourished the country from generations to generations for more than six decades. It is the flagship of FMN; there is little wonder it is the most popular brand. Many even view Golden Penny and FMN as synonyms that can be used interchangeably. However, beyond the boundaries of food, the group of companies that is FMN also own brands that are undisputed leaders various other spheres in the agro-allied, support and logistics sectors of the economy. This article examines three well-known brands that you may have scarcely associated with FMN. The first is TOP FEEDS. Produced by Premier Feeds, Top Feeds is the brand name that has become a general term for animal feed in Nigeria. It has a complete range of products that cover all aspect of animal feed requirement. In June 2010, Premier Feed Mills completed the building of Africa’s most modern, fully automated feed factory with a 300,000 tonne per year animal feed factory in Ibadan, Oyo State. Combined with other facilities that it possesses, Premiere feeds has the capacity to produce about 600,000 tonnes of animal feed in one year. During the 2015/2016 year, Top feeds sold more than 400,000 tonnes of animal feed for the first time in history, surpassing the prior year sales with a growth of 25%. This volume represented the largest single company sales in the country and placed “Top Feeds” as the number one brand in Nigeria. Apart from the production of quality feeds at unbeatable prices, Top feeds advises and guides customers, on request, on all relevant feeding issues as well as farm management and animal health matters. Top feeds have a number of veterinary doctors, farm management specialists as well as nutritionists in its employ and holds frequent education programmes all across the country. Many people recall the first company in Nigeria to produce woven polypropylene sack in Nigeria, Bagco, but very few people know that it is an FMN brand. Nigerian Bag Manufacturing (BAGCO) was established as a wholly owned subsidiary company of FMN Plc. in Lagos in 1972 to provide quality sacks to support the industrial and agricultural sectors of the Nigerian economy. In 1990, Northern Bag Manufacturing Company Limited was established in Kano to increase the capacity of sack production further and improve distribution. In 2007, BAGCO was quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and became a Plc when FMN sold 30% of its equity holding to the Nigerian public. It was during this first year as a publicly quoted company that BAGCO was awarded the NSE President’s Award for its Trade Group. With a production capacity of 32 million bags monthly and many awards to show for, Bagco is a leading name in packaging solutions of businesses across the nation and the sub-Saharan Africa. The third brand that you may not have associated with FMN is Golden Fertilizer. Unlike the previous two, this brand may only be familiar with farmers; nevertheless, it is the name behind most of the food that is grown in the country. Golden fertiliser is a leading brand in the agro-allied supply chain in the country. It is blended, packaged and distributed by the Golden Fertilizer Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of FMN that was established almost two decades ago. More than just a brand or business, Golden fertiliser represents one of FMN’s numerous commitment to establish a solid fertile base for Nigeria’s re-emerging agricultural sector in order to meet the nation’s target for self-sufficiency. The company provides a broad range of effective fertilisers for a bountiful yield on the farm. Made under the finest circumstances with the highest quality, these are the farmer’s partner for success and profit. Now you know what Bagco, Top Feeds and Golden Fertilizer have in common, FMN. This entry was posted in General. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. « THE MEMORIAL SERVICE OF GEORGE STAVROS COUMANTAROS THAT PAUSED THE BUSY CITY OF LAGOS FOR HOURS • FMN produces first female graduate of African milling school »	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line738
__label__wiki	0.906493	0.906493	Scientists have found a ‘fossil graveyard’ linked to the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs Posted 7:54 AM, April 3, 2019, by CNN Wire An international team of scientists has discovered a fossil graveyard containing what it describes as “extraordinary evidence” that an asteroid that hit the Earth 65 million years ago was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. The team of paleontologists from the University of Kansas and the University of Manchester found the “motherlode of exquisitely preserved animal and fish fossils” in North Dakota, according to a study published Monday. The impact of the asteroid, which created the Chicxulub crater beneath Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, was one of the most destructive events in Earth’s history, extinguishing 75% of the planet’s animal and plant species. The devastation caused by the impact included massive tsunami-like surges and “ejecta” — torrents of rocks, like fine sand and small glass beads — the report said. “A tsunami would have taken at least 17 or more hours to reach the site from the crater, but seismic waves — and a subsequent surge — would have reached it in tens of minutes,” said Robert DePalma, the report’s lead author. At the fossil site — Tanis in North Dakota’s Hell Creek Formation — the surge left “a tangled mass of freshwater fish, terrestrial vertebrates, trees, branches, logs, marine ammonites and other marine creatures,” DePalma, a doctoral student from the University of Kansas, said. “No other site has a record quite like that,” said DePalma. “And this particular event is tied directly to all of us — to every mammal on Earth, in fact. Because this is essentially where we inherited the planet. Nothing was the same after that impact. It became a planet of mammals rather than a planet of dinosaurs.” Phil Manning, a paleontologist from the University of Manchester and co-author of the study, called the find a “unique geological and paleontological treasure trove” that contains the first direct evidence of larger organisms killed by the Chicxulub impact. “The sediments, fossils and associated impact debris make this an important site for those who study the extinction event that helped wipe out the dinosaurs,” he said. However, prominent paleontologists not involved in the study sounded a note of caution. “The geological interpretation seems very credible to me, and the fish fossils do seem to record a catastrophic event at or near the asteroid impact. But the dinosaur aspect of the story isn’t so clear to me,” Stephen Brusatte, a lecturer and researcher in paleontology at the University of Edinburgh, told CNN. “The only dinosaur fossil mentioned in the paper is a single partial hip bone,” he added. “I hope there are other dinosaur fossils at the site, and I look forward to hearing more about them. I just hope this hasn’t been over-sensationalized. It would be awesome if it’s all true.” Paul Upchurch, professor of paleontology at University College London, also had some reservations about the study’s findings. “It’s a cool find and very satisfying to get a snapshot of what happened in one particular part of the world — it certainly adds to the evidence of how devastating the impact was, even hundreds or thousands of miles away,” he told CNN. However, he added that if the ejecta came from a different, or perhaps much smaller, impact at a different time and place, or the ejecta did come from Chicxulub but stayed in the water system for a long time afterward, “then it is possible that the fish etc died for some other reason — something less spectacular and more local — and had little to do with the Chicxulub impact.” Topics: asteroid, c, dinosaur, fossils Furry Friends with Molly, the American Bulldog mix Scientists say fossils found in Colorado are from 68-million-year-old triceratops Dinosaurs return to Smithsonian fossil hall after 5-year renovation There’s a huge mass embedded in the center of the moon, and astronomers aren’t sure what it is A mile-wide asteroid with its own mini moon will swing close (but not too close) to Earth this weekend This interstellar visitor was not an alien spacecraft, researchers say It’s the size of a quarter, with big, bug eyes. And it’s the strangest crab that ever lived NASA’s spacecraft is orbiting closer to an asteroid than ever before Scientists in Chile have found a 15,000-year-old footprint, the earliest sign of humans’ presence in the Americas A giant asteroid named after a god of death will whiz by Earth in 10 years These prehistoric reptiles could fly immediately after birth How the first photo of a Black Hole was captured Warming oceans are killing dolphins, causing fewer dolphin births, study finds Early humans breastfed their young for a year, study says	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line741
__label__wiki	0.522067	0.522067	Home » About » Worship » Sermons “Beautiful Souls” by Mark W. Harris October 7, 2018 – “Beautiful Souls” by Mark W. Harris October 7, 2018 – First Parish of Watertown Opening Words – from Thomas Merton “You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.” Readings – “Courage” by Anne Sexton It is in the small things we see it. The child’s first step, as awesome as an earthquake. The first time you rode a bike, wallowing up the sidewalk. The first spanking when your heart went on a journey all alone. When they called you crybaby or poor or fatty or crazy and made you into an alien, you drank their acid and concealed it. if you faced the death of bombs and bullets you did not do it with a banner, you did it with only a hat to cover your heart. You did not fondle the weakness inside you though it was there. Your courage was a small coal that you kept swallowing. If your buddy saved you and died himself in so doing, then his courage was not courage, it was love; love as simple as shaving soap. if you have endured a great despair, then you did it alone, getting a transfusion from the fire, picking the scabs off your heart, then wringing it out like a sock. Next, my kinsman, you powdered your sorrow, you gave it a back rub and then you covered it with a blanket and after it had slept a while it woke to the wings of the roses and was transformed. when you face old age and its natural conclusion your courage will still be shown in the little ways, each spring will be a sword you’ll sharpen, those you love will live in a fever of love, and you’ll bargain with the calendar and at the last moment when death opens the back door you’ll put on your carpet slippers and stride out. The Journey by Mary Oliver One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice — though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. “Mend my life!” each voice cried. But you didn’t stop. You knew what you had to though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do — determined to save the only life that you could save. Everyone one of us in some time or place has been called a name, been taunted, or endured a difficult trial. As Anne Sexton says in her poem “Courage,” “When they called you crybaby or poor or fatty or crazy, and made you into an alien, you drank their acid, and concealed it.” I took those taunts of fat boy home, and cried about it, but as I said two weeks ago in my jock sermon, I learned how to run, and soon beat them all in a school race. We may all recall times when we think we exhibited courage in our own lives. We hear echoes of some of those in our story for all ages, and in our readings. Perhaps it was when that bicycle was wobbling back and forth, but rather than panicking, we pedaled faster, and showed our determination to ride. Or maybe it was that time that all the other kids were grabbing hold of the rope swing and riding it out over the pond only to let go for what looked like an amazing ride into the water below. I did that once, but forgot to let go, and found a bright red rope burn from head to toe. Was the ride worth it? It was kind of a badge of honor to show my bravery. Yes, I tried it, even though I was afraid. I did it, and had the scar to show for it. Andrea and I were recently at a photography exhibit by Sally Mann at the Peabody Essex Museum, where a photo of a horse showed a lifetime of wounds. Mann referred to this as “proud flesh,” the scar tissue over the horse’s wounds. Mann also has a series of photos of her husband, mostly showing his aging body. We, humans, end up with proud flesh, too, and are reminded daily that aging is not for sissies. A new scar now adorns my abdomen, where I had surgery for the bowel blockage this year. So, perhaps you have been worried what people will say to you about your aging or injured body, so you conceal it, or try to change it in some way. But Mann’s photos remind us to be proud of these scars of life. We know we have endured and survived. When I was in Atlanta last weekend waiters and hotel staff kept calling me “young man,” and I didn’t know if it was Southern hospitality or a not so subtle way of reminding me that I was not so young, and it showed. The last two weeks of television news about the Supreme Court Justice nomination process have been painful. We all witnessed in varying degrees the testimony of Christine Blasey-Ford who showed such courage in coming forward to tell her story of how she was sexually assaulted as a teenager by the nominee. Like her, so many women carry untold stories of assault, drinking the acid and concealing what they once endured. We learn that true courage is living with the pain of the attacks, knowing that telling the story may expose them to taunts and ridicule or cries of false accusations, which in Blasey-Ford’s case resulted in death threats. Yet she came forward. Her testimony was a reminder of what true courage is. I think many of us, especially men, learn that courage is often considered physical courage, especially in war. So the medal of honor winners are those soldiers who rescue wounded comrades at the risk of being wounded or killed themselves, or it is the firefighter going into the burning building to save the life of a person. Courage, we learned, is serving your country, risking your life, and following orders to reach a goal of gaining power and control over an enemy. I am reminded of the Henry Fleming character in Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, who runs from the battlefield, and considers himself a coward until he can show he has a wound, a red badge of courage, and upon his return, he volunteers to be the flag bearer. This idea of bravery moved me to become a student of the Civil War, because war with my historically accurate toy gun in my hand seemed glorious and honorable, but I soon learned otherwise. This is the point Atticus Finch makes in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, when he indicates his admiration for Mrs. DuBose, a mean and cranky old woman who is battling a morphine addiction. As punishment for destroying her flowers, Jem, Atticus’ son, had to read to her to help her focus on something besides her addiction, and the desire for drugs. Every time he came to visit, she would make the timer go longer to try to force herself away from the addiction. When the alarm clock rang it was time to take a dose. The time delay works, and she is able to stop and finally be free of the addiction before she dies, at which time she leaves Jem a single perfect camellia blossom. Atticus tells Jem, “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” There are two stories of courage that stand out from my youth. One of these was the Bible story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den. I can still picture coloring in the brave Daniel surrounded by once vicious Lions, that somehow have been pacified. It is a story of redemption when it feels like everything has been lost, and further a story of the refusal of a person of conscience to give in to the pressure of laws and unjust administrators. In the story King Darius appoints several administrators to help him govern. Their leader, Daniel, is liked by the king, but despised by his fellow advisors. They trick the king into passing a law that prohibits anyone from worshipping anyone except the king. If the new law was violated, the punishment was to be thrown into the lion’s den. Daniel, who is a highly devout man continues to kneel and pray to God on a daily basis violating the new law. Unfortunately, even though the king loved Daniel, he could not revoke the new law because of a custom whereby once a law was passed, it could not be repealed. As you may remember, the nasty advisors caught Daniel in the act of praying, and he was thrown into the lion’s den at sundown. Poor Darius could not revoke his decree, and he stayed awake all night worrying that Daniel would become dinner for the lions. At dawn, Darius ran to the lions’ den and saw that Daniel had been protected by God, and survived. I suppose a traditional interpretation of the story would be that faithfulness to God will bring you through, but it seems to me we can give it a humanist twist to see that it tells us that a person who follows their conscience and lives with integrity reflects the courage to persevere, endure and survive. If Daniel’s story of living with integrity and courage is one powerful childhood memory, then the other was the annual family TV viewing of the Wizard of Oz, which featured Bert Lahr as the cowardly lion. You may remember this endearing character who when Dorothy first meets him acts like a growling bully, who chases Toto, only to have Dorothy slap him, and bring him to tears. It turns out that the king of the jungle is afraid of everything, saying “I even scare myself.” He shows them the circles under his eyes indicating lack of sleep because he lives in such fear all the time. He says he can’t even count sheep to go to sleep because he is afraid of them. He then goes on to sing, “If I Only Had the Nerve.” The Cowardly Lion believes that his fear makes him inadequate, somehow thinking that if fear were not present he would be okay. He fails to realize that courage means acting in the face of fear, which he often does in the movie. As Nelson Mandela once said, “Courage is not the absence of fear but the triumph over it.” I would say that those two stories gave me some solid grounding as a kid in what being courageous means. It also began to give me a lesson that courage was not merely about physical strength, but that moral courage was required, too. Mark Twain once said, “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” That is perhaps what is so astounding and heartbreaking about this Supreme Court nomination process. One side was totally oblivious to the extent of the lying, anger, and disrespectful behavior shown by the nominee. Investigating allegations of sexual assault meant they completely avoided the character issue and did not consider how his angry, callous, politically charged behavior disqualifies him for the position of Supreme Court judge. Both what he did many years ago plus his demeanor today, and the insistence of the Republican majority to win at all costs regardless of how the fight was fought or the disturbing character of the person they were supporting show the ongoing sexism of the culture. The sexual behavior that has been tolerated, and the trauma that it causes are legion. There is some hope that this is going to change. But the mocking disparagement and ridicule Christine Blasey Ford endured at the hands of our highest officials was inhumane. Perhaps worst of all is that Blasey Ford remembers the cruel laughter of her attacker’s as the worst memory seared into her psyche from the events of that night of the assault. “They were having fun at my expense, she says. And then we have to witness at a Presidential rally a replication of this humiliation with people laughing and jeering in a public display of hatred. For a number of years, I watched the TV show Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Recently the star of that show Mariska Hargitay, received an award for the organization she created, the Joyful Heart Foundation, which helps victims of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse. She said she was humbled to receive the award during this time when so many extraordinary women’s voices — so many brave survivors — have brought so much long-awaited and deeply necessary change.” Coincidently, she received the award on the night that Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Hargitay told the assembled group, I just want to say that I am and have always been deeply moved by courage. And I believe that is what I witnessed today.” Blasey Ford spoke of her fear of coming forward, and how it was her civic duty. We have to bear witness to her story. How she held this in for so long, and then came forward to endure private threats and public mocking. We each need to ask ourselves how we can make it easier for these stories to be told. Is it any wonder that women are angry? When such behavior continues to be tolerated, male privilege continues to be upheld, and only when women show remarkable courage to speak-up do we get some sense of what has been tolerated in our society. How many have not come forward for fear of being scorned? Under what circumstances do we come forward? What impels us to defy authority and convention and speak up? Beautiful Souls, my title today, is a book by Eyal Press about people who showed courage in the face of danger. One such person was Avner Wishnitzer, who grew up on a kibbutz in Israel. For him virtue was measured by how much you contribute to society. He joined an elite military unit defending Israel against its enemies. After some years of service, his sister invited him to a lecture. It was about an area where Palestinians were routinely hassled by Jewish settlers seeking to force them off their land. Eventually he visited the land and saw the destruction which had occurred. Could hisarmy mistreat people in such a way? He had never served in the occupied territories or even spoken directly to Palestinians. Then he went on a bus trip to the site of a settler incursion and met a Jewish officer. He tried to convince him he was a comrade in arms not a beautiful soul, which oddly was a Hebrew expression for someone who was naïve. Avner left when an altercation took place. The officer was just doing his job, which was following orders to control the fight with M-16 rifles. Avner was beginning to see the misuse of Israeli power. He began to realize that he had to betray his commitments. He realized he would refuse to serve in what he now considered an occupying army. Was it a duty to resist an unlawful order? When do we act under the command of our conscience? Cultivating Beautiful Souls may be naïve but we can have faith that people can live with the truth by having the courage to express it. The question becomes what do we let happen in our lives when we don’t speak up. Most people, Avner realized are bystanders. But he also realized that he could enjoy no such privilege. If you didn’t oppose the occupation, you were with the occupation because you let it go on. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,J.K. Rowling writes, “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” Avner was really having to stand up to his friends, and say this is morally unconscionable. While we often are able to speak our outrage against those whom we disagree with politically, I find it much more difficult to show courage with friends. We often don’t have the courage to speak up in church when someone is mean or disrespectful. We are even afraid to speak up when another person’s child misbehaves. And yet either of these actions would help the community. A child could learn there are limits, and adults who are not saying anything would have their anger or frustration relieved. When I desperately sought to be married a second time to gain some relief from years of being a single parent, why didn’t someone have the courage to speak up and tell me, you are doing the wrong thing. It would have saved a lot of heartache. We sometimes say or do shortsighted things, and if our friends had the courage to tell us, it could make a big difference in our lives. What we have seen in this Supreme Court nomination process is people plowing ahead at all costs determined to win without any sense of the consequences. Courage means telling people to wait a minute and listen to the full story. In this case, we have disregarded the long-term consequences of what it does to the country, and the character fitness of the person nominated. We say it all depends upon three Senators to do the right thing. Why don’t we say it depends upon 100 Senators to do the right thing? Do we give these old white men a free pass because we expect them to mindlessly vote to win without regard for morality? We must remind each of them to have a moral compass, that notices bullying, privileged male behavior and sexism. We all must learn to listen to the stories people tell about what has happened in their lives. Having courage is not just about following your conscience. We live in a time where there is too much attacking of the other. When he was President, Lincoln fought a terrible war to its conclusion. But in the end, he did not want to destroy the enemy with venom or hatred. In his second inaugural he said four lasting words, “with malice toward none.” If we want people to speak the truth, then we must give them room to be heard. If we want people to come forward with courage, then we must learn to listen with respect and kindness. We want to cultivate a moral conscience in everyone. Ultimately, we must put ourselves in the shoes of those who suffer, and extend sympathy to them. Avner went and met the Palestinians first hand. He had to have the courage to meet the other. Flake was confronted by a woman in the elevator who said you must investigate further. While the investigation may have been a sham, at least he was forced to see the pain and anguish of the other. Ultimately, courage means not demonizing the other, because when we do so, we become the demons. Living in community requires courage. Living requires courage. We all live in fear. There is that fear of confronting aging bodies, and the natural conclusion of life. Over the years Andrea and I have met many parents with children of special needs. They often endure the judgments of others, and have little support.. It is lonely and difficult. Yet it is their life. Not one they have chosen, but the one they have. And we often see those parents meeting this life with enduring courage. Think of all those who carry burdens sitting in this room today, parents, victims of sexual assault, those with chronic illnesses, and the courage they have to live hopeful lives. May we all give each other space to tell our story, share our truth, listening with compassion and understanding. Closing Words by Brene Brown “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line742
__label__wiki	0.510653	0.510653	Alfie Darling thesquonk / April 26, 2018 You’d think that the unavailability, or unwillingness, of a star to take part in the sequel to one of their films would put the breaks on things. Even more so when we’re talking about a film that really put a certain actor on the map. Such was the case with Michael Caine and the 1966 film Alfie. However, following the success of that film, the author of the original play wrote a follow-up novel. When they looked to turn that book into a sequel film, nine years after the original, they weren’t going to let the lack of Michael Caine stop them. So in 1975 we got former Animals keyboardist Alan Price taking over the role in Alfie Darling. This time around, Alfie works driving a truck, I mean “lorry,” along with a friend. They often have to drive things to France, where Alfie has a number of ladies who are more than willing to share their beds with him whenever he rolls into town. On one particular trip, he keeps encountering a woman in a red convertible. He makes an effort to pursue her, which often leads to his truck getting pulled over for traffic violations. Eventually, he does get to meet the woman, Abby Summers (Jill Townsend), who works as an editor for a big magazine. Upon returning to London, he tracks her down while still continuing affairs with other women. This includes Fay (Joan Collins), whose husband is often away on business trips. At first, Abby wants nothing to do with Alfie; her job keeps her way too busy, after all. However, the two soon start a relationship which is derailed slightly when they first spend the night together because…well…Alfie can’t get it up. He ends up straightening things out, so to speak, with Fay later, which results in a run in with her husband. Eventually, though, Alfie, the ultimate player, soon finds himself falling in love and hoping to marry Abby. Having to recast major parts in movie sequels is certainly nothing new, and it still happens today. I mean, one day the Hulk is Edward Norton and the next thing we know it’s Mark Ruffalo. That’s not such a big deal, but here we go from Michael Caine to the guy who played keyboards for the Animals. Now, before you take that the wrong way, I will say that Alan Price does a decent job. He doesn’t have the charisma of Michael Caine, but we knew that would be the case going in. Price does what needs to be done to keep the story afloat, but doesn’t really contribute anything that leaves a lasting impact. I think it’s fair to say the most interesting member of the cast is Joan Collins as Alfie’s go-to sexy older woman. Collins does steam things up a bit and does the best job of injecting some humor into the rather flat proceedings. I wasn’t so sold on Jill Townsend as Abby, however. She plays a successful independent woman who has her life way more together than Alife does. Yet, she’s kind of boring. I mean, I get why Alfie is first drawn to her; chasing her convertible around like she was Christie Brinkley in the first Vacation movie. When we get to know her, though, she comes across as pretty uninteresting. The film goes along a pretty predictable course as the story moves forward, and we follow the on again off again nature of this couple. There are no real surprises in terms of how this relationship plays out. That is, until we get to the ending. I won’t spoil it other than to say it is horrible. Absolutely horrible! One of the worst endings of a movie I have ever seen and I’m not exaggerating. No matter how much you might have enjoyed the first ninety minutes of this movie, you will curse this film once you behold the final five minutes. In fairness, though, Alfie Darling is a film that is not particularly bad, it just lacks oomph. Even the gimmick of having Alfie talk directly to the camera (which Caine did in the first film) is half-baked here. Price’s Alfie never addresses the audience until about thirty minutes in. The device is then pretty much abandoned again in the film’s third act. It’s all very wishy washy, which ultimately a pretty good description of the film in general. April 26, 2018 in Forgotten Sequels. Tags: Alan Price, Alfie Darling, Forgotten Sequels, Jill Townsend, Joan Collins, Movies The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training ← Forgotten Filmcast Episode 106: Relentless The Sting II →	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line747
__label__cc	0.571182	0.428818	Hockey Uncategorized Hall’s Point Streak Comes To End By Timothy Oger March 9, 2018 Leave a Comment on Hall’s Point Streak Comes To End New Jersey Devils’ Taylor Hall was unable to continue his enormous point streak in the Devils 3-2 loss to Winnipeg Thursday, ending the streak at 26 games. Beginning on January 2nd, Taylor Hall recorded a point in every game he played, although he did miss three games at the end of January. Over the stretch of 26 games, Hall was able to record 18 goals, and 20 assists. The longest point streak belongs to Wayne Gretzky with a point in 51 consecutive games in the 1983-84 season. Hall’s streak of 26 is the longest since Patrick Kane went 26 games in 2015-16, aside from that the next longest was when Mario Lemieux went 28 games in a row with a point in the 1995-96 season. When looking at the statistics of scoring in the NHL today and when Gretzky went 51 games in a row, Hall’s streak is extremely impressive. In the 1983-84 season, the average goals scored per game per team was 3.94, opposed to 2.96 goals per game today. Take it a step further, Gretzky’s team in 1983-84 averaged 5.58 goals per game, Hall’s Devils have averaged 2.91 goals per game this year. So when looking at it from this perspective, the fact that Hall was able to put up 18 goals and 20 assists in the last 26 games is pretty incredible in my opinion. Featured: www.nj.com www.globalnews.ca Tags: New Jersey Devils NHL Taylor Hall Previous Entry Race for Vezina Heating Up Next Entry 2018 Houston Astros Preview!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line750
__label__wiki	0.704855	0.704855	A Case of Mistaken Identity New Dinosaur Identified at Garden of the Gods On May 24, 2008 Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center announced the world's only known fossil of an entirely new dinosaur species, Theiophytalia kerri. Theios is of Greek origin, meaning "belonging to the gods" and phytalia means "garden." kerri honors the name of the scientist who first discovered this 125 million year old skull in Garden of the Gods Park. In 1878, Professor James H. Kerr of Colorado College discovered what he believed to be "portions of 21 different sea monsters" in the Garden of the Gods Park. Kerr wrote of his discovery to associates back east which caught the attention of O.C. Marsh, the famous dinosaur paleontologist from Yale University. In 1886, Marsh came to Colorado Springs and obtained the fossil skull, identified it as a Camptosaurus dinosaur, and shipped it to the Peabody Museum in New Haven, Connecticut. For one hundred and seventeen years, Dr. Kerr's dinosaur fossil was forgotten. In 1994, the new Garden of the Gods Visitor Center was under construction. When geology exhibits were being created for the center, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science was consulted about a dinosaur exhibit. Dr. Kirk Johnson and Dr. Ken Carpenter surprised the city park staff with information about the Camptosaurus skull found in the Park. Kirk Johnson hand carried the dinosaur fossil from Yale to Denver so that Ken Carpenter could study the ancient dinosaur skull and make a precise replica (cast) of it. In 1997, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science gave a cast of the Camptosaurus skull to the City of Colorado Springs to be exhibited in Garden of Gods Visitor & Nature Center. It was a rare gift, with an ancient and modern story, but the surprise ending was yet to come. For more than ten years, the dinosaur known as "Campi" had been part of the Jurassic exhibit. But, from the time he made the replica, Dr. Carpenter had his doubts about this dinosaur's true identity. In 2006, Dr. Carpenter along with his associate, Kathleen Brill, published a paper that resolved irregularities in the attributes of that skull and its camptosaur heritage - the shape and length of the skull and snout, and the position and shape of nasal and eye-socket openings. Those variations, plus issues with the soils originally embedded around the fossil, have resulted in the designation of the first and only Theiophytalia kerri. The new Cretaceous period Theiophytalia kerri is thus determined to be a new species of dinosaur, the only one known in the world and "belonging to Garden of the Gods." 1878 James Kerr, geology professor at Colorado College, finds a fossil skull "in one of the ridges of the Garden of the Gods." 1886 O.C. March, famous 1800's dinosaur collector from Yale University, obtains the fossil skull from James Kerr, identifies it as a Camptosaurus and sends the fossil to the Yale Peabody Museum. 1886-1995 The dinosaur fossil skull safely rests in the Yale Museum, but is forgotten in Colorado Springs. 1994 Colorado Springs City Park Staff research new exhibits for the Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center set to open in 1995. 1995 Kirk Johnson, curator of paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, refers the Park Staff to his colleague, Dr. Ken Carpenter, an expert dinosaur scientist. Ken Carpenter remembers seeing in his files "something about a dinosaur fossil found in Garden of the Gods" 1996 Kirk Johnson (a Yale alumnus) secures permission to hand-carry the Camptosaurus fossil from the Yale to Denver so Ken Carpenter can make a cast of the fossil. Dr. Carpenter notices irregularities in the Camptosaurus fossil and decides to re-examine the fossil when his schedule permits. 1997 The Camptosaurus fossil replica is given to the City of Colorado Springs and is exhibited at the Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center 2006 Dr. Carpenter and his associate Kathleen Brill reassess the fossil skull and note that it differs from other Camptosaurus skulls in several significant ways. – Shape and length of the snout – Position and shape of the nasal and eye socket opening – Variation of rock matrix on fossil reveal Cretaceous period soils The dinosaur skull is actually a brand new genus and species - Theiophytalia kerri. 2008 Theiophytalia kerri is proudly re-exhibited at the Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line751
__label__wiki	0.600706	0.600706	Congress explores environmental destruction caused by illegal border crossings Published on February 21, 2018 February 25, 2018 by Marjorie Haun — Published with Permission of FreeRangeReport.com — Graphic from House Oversight hearing memo on Illegal Border Crossings “Illegal migrants, human traffickers, and drug smugglers, whether crossing by foot or using vehicles cause substantial damage to the natural and cultural resources found on federal lands. Tremendous amounts of human waste and garbage are left on borderlands every year. Medical supplies, diapers, clothing, and even broken-down cars are all left behind.” On February 9, the House Committee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on existing regulatory impediments to securing the southern border. One of the topics addressed is the checkerboard of ‘sensitive’ wildland designations in states along the border with Mexico. The Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies are unable to gain ‘operational control’ of large regions of the border due to such designations and their accompanying prohibitions on access. The hearing memo, titled “The Costs of Denying Border Patrol Access: Our Environment and Security” explains: This oversight hearing will focus on the access challenges faced by Border Patrol agents on federal borderlands and the environmental impact of illegal border crossings and drug smuggling. Policy Overview The remote location of large portions of federally owned borderland make them a popular location for cross border violators (CBVs), such as drug and human smugglers, foreign nationals, and terrorists and terrorist organizations. Many stretches of federally owned borderland have minimal security infrastructure and poor roads, making it difficult for Border Patrol agents to effectively patrol dangerous terrain. Environmental laws and varied jurisdictional responsibility among land management agencies further complicate border security efforts. Although a 2006 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) executed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of the Interior (DOI), and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) intended to facilitate cooperation and communication between agencies, its practical effects can restrict Border Patrol’s security efforts. For example, approval processes per the MOU can take months, robbing Border Patrol the necessary operational flexibility and access to effectively respond to evolving CBV routes and drug cartel operations. While Border Patrol agents must balance environmental concerns and law enforcement access to protect our borders, CBVs and their accomplices completely disregard our natural resources and environmental protection laws. Cross border violations on federally owned borderland cause extensive ecological and environmental damage. See the hearing video below Illegal Immigration-related Environmental Destruction The House Oversight hearing explored the environmental impact of illegal border crossings, which is largely ignored mainstream media. The memo includes these facts: Environmental Damage caused by an Unsecured Border: Human Waste and Garbage Illegal migrants, human traffickers, and drug smugglers, whether crossing by foot or using vehicles cause substantial damage to the natural and cultural resources found on federal lands. Tremendous amounts of human waste and garbage are left on borderlands every year. Medical supplies, diapers, clothing, and even broken-down cars are all left behind on federal borderlands. Throughout the borderlands, trash strewn lay-up points, staging areas where illegal immigrants and smugglers discard waste in preparation for being picked up by vehicles, are a common sight in dry river beds and washes. In Arizona’s southern region alone, the Bureau of Land Management reportedly collected and removed 794,320 pounds of trash between FY2011-2016.21 The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality estimates that each year 2,000 tons of diapers, plastic bottles, and other garbage is left behind by CBVs. Garbage and human waste from CBVs has been identified as one of the major contributors to pollution in the San Pedro River, where volunteers cleaned up more than thirty temporary camps set up by CBVs in 2008 alone. Wildland Fires CBVs are also responsible for man-made wildland fires started on the border. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), between 2006 and 2010, illegal immigrants and drug traffickers were likely responsible for 30 out of 77 investigated wildland fires on federal lands. High levels of CBVs complicate fire suppression efforts and forces firefighters to change tactics. For example, nighttime firefighting activities may be reduced due to firefighter safety concerns of encountering armed drug and human traffickers. Moreover, coordinating aerial firefighting operations along the border is more difficult because CBVs often use the same radio frequencies as firefighters. Threat to Habitats In addition to the massive volume of trash and dangerous man-made wildfires, illegal border crossings inflict serious damage to vegetation and species habitats. Like the loss of life and threat to public safety, the environmental cost of illegal immigration and smuggling is a constant concern. The Public Lands Foundation’s states that “the smuggling of controlled substances and people into the United States from Mexico is increasingly causing substantial and oftentimes irreparable damage to natural and cultural resources on federal, tribal, and private lands along America’s southwest border.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) identified mass illegal immigration as a likely contributing factor in the 79 percent decline in the U.S. Sonoran pronghorn population between 2000 and 2002 at the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. FWS’s report on the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, which shares 56 miles of border with Mexico, used high resolution aerial photography to map 7,968 miles of vehicular trails associated with illegal border crossings in the refuge. FWS also found that “the amount of damage from off-road activities [in Cabeza Prieta] may be significantly impacting the natural quality of wilderness character . . .” through erosion, changing plant distribution, destruction of wildlife habitat, and soil compaction. Given the environmental threats of CBVs, FWS recommended increasing personnel and horse patrols as well as deploying more technological assets in Cabeza Prieta. Click here for additional information on the hearing Added by editor Decades of environmental degradation due to mass illegal immigration through wild lands, including national monuments and national parks along the America-Mexico border is well-documented. In 2002, Julie Watson (AP) reported the following: TRAMPLED WILDERNESS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, DRUG TRAFFICKERS DESTROYING BORDER PARKS EL PINACATE BIOSPHERE RESERVE, Mexico Drug traffickers scar volcanic desert with illicit runways, while law enforcement officials chase them through once-tranquil parks. Thousands of migrants traipse across delicate backcountry areas sending campers fleeing to ranger stations, fearful of crowds trekking by their tents in the night. Wilderness areas on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border are taking a beating from an onslaught of migrants, drug traffickers and law enforcement officials, a new study says. Some national treasures in both countries have been lost forever. Few parks have taken a greater toll than the U.N.-designated biosphere reserve El Pinacate and Arizonas adjoining Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Last year, officials caught 200,000 migrants and 700,000 pounds of drugs in Organ Pipe alone. Last month, Pinacate and Organ Pipe officials completed the borders first environmental impact studies of illegal activities. The findings were eye-opening: It could take 20 years to recover from the damage, while some archaeological sites are gone forever. Full report here: The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality documents environmental destruction on the border on its page, Arizona Border Trash. It explains: The collection and disposal of waste in remote areas along Arizona’s 370-mile border with Mexico poses difficult challenges. An estimated more than 2,000 tons of trash is discarded annually in Arizona’s borderlands. A variety of federal and state government entities, Native American tribes and private landowners are affected by the problem, and addressing it requires extensive coordination. The environmental impact caused by illegal immigration, and the trash left behind, is increasingly being found in areas that are more fragile and remote. See more here: From Arizona Border Trash page Desert Invasion U.S. has used photographic and anecdotal evidence to document the terrible environmental and human destruction that has resulted from the open-borders policies of recent years. The environmental impacts have come from the trampling of vegetation, desert soils, pollution of springs and seasonal streams, and tons of garbage left by illegal immigrants consisting of plastic containers, tarps, backpacks, clothing, human waste, drug paraphernalia and other forms of trash. The website features an article by Ed Ashurst, an Arizona rancher whose property is on the border, which details the kinds of destruction he has personally witnessed. Among those incidents were numerous fires set by illegal aliens which burned over 100,000 acres in the fragile desert landscape. The following images of illegal immigrant-related environmental destruction can be found on Desert Invasion U.S. Diablo Mtn Click here for additional information: In 2011 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its report on wildland fire funding. The part played by illegal immigration in wildland fires is significant. It says: Wildland fires can result from both natural and human causes. Human-caused wildland fires are of particular concern in Arizona–especially within 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border because this is a primary area of entry for illegal border crossers and GAO has previously reported that illegal border crossers have been suspected of igniting wildland fires. Over half of the land in the Arizona border region is managed by the federal government–primarily by the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and four agencies within the Department of the Interior. These agencies collaborate with state, tribal, and local entities to respond to wildland fires. GAO was asked to examine, for the region, the (1) number, cause, size, and location of wildland fires from 2006 through 2010; (2) economic and environmental effects of human-caused wildland fires burning 10 or more acres; (3) extent to which illegal border crossers were the ignition source of wildland fires on federal lands; and (4) ways in which the presence of illegal border crossers has affected fire suppression activities. GAO reviewed interagency policies and procedures; analyzed wildland fire data; and interviewed federal, tribal, state, and local officials, as well as private citizens. From 2006 through 2010, at least 2,467 wildland fires occurred in the Arizona border region. Of this number, 2,126, or about 86 percent, were caused by human activity. See the report here: Published in: NewsTagged: environmentalists, immigration Saying You’re Against Fascists Doesn’t Excuse Acting Like One Crony Capitalism: Thriving In Idaho – The Clagstone Meadows Rip-off Assange: Today’s Generation Last to be Free; Technology May End Civilization A Ruse is a Ruse is a Ruse! The left is our misfortune	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line754
__label__wiki	0.85003	0.85003	BBC Radio 1 England, 4 May 2000 14.00 BBC Radio 1 is a radio service which began broadcasting on 30 September 1967. Feedback about Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 1 England, 14.00, 4 May 2000 Please leave this link here so we can find the programme you're referring to: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/dfadcf9cb9414b4489f1674ac78d325d	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line756
__label__wiki	0.556684	0.556684	The Great Internet Buildout Continues Om Malik Sep 21, 2009 - 6:30 AM CDT One of the good aspects of returning from a long trip is that you’re forced to catch up on a lot of stuff, which often entails reading emails, web sites and my favorite blogs in a sequential manner. And when you do that, you can sometimes pick up unlikely patterns that help connect the dots. For instance, you can draw a straight line between the popularity of Facebook and a developing boom in Internet infrastructure — like I did once I got done reading. Earlier this month, Facebook announced that it has 300 million subscribers. The fantastic growth of the company is mirrored by the rapid advancement of Twitter and many other web services that have spawned ecosystems of their own. While these services get most of the media attention, a much bigger story is what lies beneath — the Internet’s infrastructure and the grid that powers it. “We have entered this new era where essentially everything is on all the time,” Alan Meier, a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, recently told The New York Times. And increasingly, everything is connected to the Internet. The biggest impact is being felt by the electricity grid. The power consumed by servers alone doubled between 2000 and 2005 to about 123 billion kilowatt-hours. Data center power use is likely to increase another 76 percent by 2010, according to Jonathan Koomey, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley and Stanford University. I can’t imagine the energy implications of what’s coming next. There are 444.3 million broadband subscribers in the world, according to the Broadband Forum, and that number is only going to increase over the next few years as emerging telecom economies such as India, Brazil and Russia ramp up their Internet efforts. A whopping 250 million people are going to connect to the Internet wirelessly by the end of 2009. Just imagine the bandwidth and computing horsepower needed if all of them started streaming movies from Netflix, listening to music by visiting Spotify, and sharing videos and photos via Facebook. We are starting to see a spike in demand for everything from data centers to backhaul connections to content delivery networks. In the month of September alone, four new major data centers were announced that would cost upwards of $1.3 billion to add over 750,000 square feet of new data center space. On Sept. 10, details emerged about Apple’s plans to build a 500,000 square-foot data center in Maiden, N.C., that is going to cost over $1 billion spread over 10 years. Equinix, a data center service provider, said it will build two data centers — a 152,000 square-foot facility in Washington, D.C., and a 170,000 square-foot facility in Silicon Valley — that will collectively cost about $245 million. New York Internet plans to open a 40,000 square-foot facility in Bridgewater, N.J. Codera is building a 22,000 square-foot data center in downtown Phoenix. NTT America recently announced plans to add a 10,000-15,000 square-foot data center in San Jose, Calif., to support Twitter’s hyper-growth. NTT also added a new 15,000 square-foot data center in Santa Clara, Calif. Just as demand for data center space is rising, we are seeing an increase in the desire for bandwidth. For instance, Cogent Communications, a large Internet service provider, reported that the traffic on its network grew 10 percent from the first to second quarter of 2009 (PDF). Qwest Communications (s Q) recently announced plans to upgrade its long-haul network to 100Gbps. The company recently said that Internet traffic is doubling approximately every 19 months, and that each year, individual Internet users consume approximately 43 percent more bandwidth than the previous year. Mike Hatfield, CEO of Cyan Optics, recently told me that his company’s clients are seeing demand for bandwidth double every 12-18 months. Add all these random tidbits, and you start to see a larger picture emerge. Network operators added 9.4 terabits per second of new capacity during the 12 months ending July 2009, bringing the global capacity to about 25Tbps, a recent report by Telegeography shows. That compares with 8.7Tbps of new capacity in the 12 months ending July 2008. Online video is going to help accelerate the infrastructure buildout. At present, we are watching only 3-4 hours of web video a month (vs. over 150 hours of old-fashioned TV), and this number is going to increase as more and more TV Everywhere-styled services go online. Some are predicting 3D-centric video content that would be made possible by gigabit speeds. What does this all mean? The demand for everything from routers and switches to servers is going to swing up, as will the urgent need for power and the problems that would come with that need. Whichever way you look at it, there is a technology revival taking shape. Get ready for it. Photo Credit: Barcelona Skyline by David via Flickr. 12 Responses to “The Great Internet Buildout Continues” Chris Damvakaris September 24, 2009 Itâ€™s not just consumers and social media that are driving this build-out either â€“ the demand for hosted SaaS business applications and other cloud computing services isnâ€™t slowing down. In fact, from our perspective, the recession has only heightened this need, with hosted services being looked to as cheaper, more efficient and, to a certain extent, more secure and stable than building out an in-house network. Just imagine what the traffic figures will look like when a majority of small businesses in America switch to hosted e-mail, cloud-based business suites and hosted unified communications. This will place greater pressure on a more efficient and secure approach to the Internet. Natalie Michelson September 21, 2009 Great post! Very cool and fitting analogy =). Rahul September 21, 2009 Great post, Om. Although the Internet is growing so rapidly, web companies need to be aware of the impact of their ventures on the environment. Perhaps (and hopefully) we will be seeing more eco-friendly data centers in the not-too-distant future. Nothing about data centers is Eco-Friendly. They use tons of energy, and thats really the gist of it. You can make them more efficient, but that just means you can cram twice as many servers in the same space, and save some money. The solution to data center’s using energy is to clean up the production of energy with a source that is reliable 24/7 and can meet the uptime needs of a data center (Nuclear). Nothing else is going to reduce their indirect negative influence on air pollutants. Eirikur Sveinn Hrafnsson June 7, 2010 That’s exactly what is happening in Iceland where we have 100% clean and renewable energy powered data centers like Verne Global, ThorDC, Midgard etc. My company Greenqloud is the world’s first truly green public compute cloud (Infrastructure as a service) that will run on these data centers. We will be presenting at GigaOm’s LaunchPad at Structure 2010 in SF where we have been selected as one of the top 10 startups in cloud computing. GigaOm’s article on Greenqloud: http://earth2tech.com/2010/05/28/greenqloud-icelands-clean-power-cloud-computing-co/ We will open in Q4 2010 and are collecting beta registration at our website: http://www.greenqloud.com Eirikur, CEO Greenqloud The Future of Software Innovation? Hardware-Enabled AI & ML Innovation Greg Fisher Apr 1, 2019 - 10:12 AM CDT Getting the basics right Five questions for… Keri Gilder, Chief Commercial Officer, Colt Technology Services. Can Connectivity be linked to Customer Experience? Jon Collins Mar 4, 2019 - 3:54 AM CDT A GigaOm Research Infographic GigaOm Infographic: Connectivity and Customer Experience Jon Collins Feb 25, 2019 - 7:00 AM CDT Performance & Benchmarking Report API Management Benchmark Report William McKnight and Jake Dolezal On Demand Webinar Selecting the Best in Enterprise Microservices and API Management William McKnight and Jake Dolezal Feb 21, 2019 - 12:00 PM CDT CIO Speaks – Episode 3: A Conversation with Colin Corbett of 7 Hills Consulting, Part 1 Steve Ginsberg	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line761
__label__cc	0.685526	0.314474	Incorporate in Nevada – Nevada Incorporation Advantages Corporation Law, Nevada Nevada is not a perfect corporate haven. Those seeking to incorporate in Nevada (about $280 for a bare-bones incorporation) far exceed Colorado’s $50 incorporation filing fee or Florida’s $70 filing fee. Nevada has recently nudged its fees upwards, and based upon that, one can reasonably expect that it will continue to do so. Also, Nevada requires organizers to name an initial director in the articles of incorporation, or (in the case of an LLC) name an owner or manager in the articles of organization. This appointment then becomes part of the entity’s public record, ultimately searchable by anyone over the internet or through the Secretary of State’s office. Despite this, Nevada is otherwise generally a ‘privacy state,’ one that offers its owners (but not its directors) a great degree of anonymity. We’ll discuss Nevada’s privacy rules at length below. But why has Nevada become America’s hottest corporate haven? Advertisements touting Nevada incorporation advantages appear everywhere, from airline magazines to email spam. The answer is that throughout the last few decades the Nevada Legislature underwent a conscious, deliberate, and effective program to make its state business-friendly and corporate-friendly. Are you ready to form your Corporation or LLC today? Traditionally, the most popular state for incorporation was Delaware, and its dominance began early in our nation’s history. Delaware is corporation-friendly, offers low corporate taxation, and offers officers and directors a great degree of liability protection for their business decisions and actions. For this reason, the state of Delaware has traditionally enjoyed an abundant stream of registration fees, and a sizeable industry developed to serve the corporations that filed there. Eventually, other states grew wise and mirrored Delaware’s corporation-friendly approach. Nevada is easily the most notable example; Nevada began in the early 90s with an aggressive program to attract companies to incorporate in Nevada . The remarkable growth of Nevada’s filings in the past 10 years reveal that Nevada’s business-friendly and corporate-friendly environment is working. Why Incorporate in Nevada? The Advantages of Nevada Incorporation or LLC Formation Nevada incorporation carries many benefits, among which are the following, and all of which are described in detail below: Nevada does not tax corporate profits or LLC profits. Nevada does not tax corporate shares or LLC ownership. Some states (not many, mind you) tax individual shares in a company. Nevada has no franchise tax. Nevada has no personal income tax. Nevada does not have an Information Sharing Agreement with the US Internal Revenue Service. Shareholders in a Nevada corporation and owners in a Nevada LLC are not a matter of public record — shareholders can remain completely anonymous. Officers and directors of a Nevada corporation can be protected from personal liability for lawful acts of the corporation. Nevada corporations may purchase, hold, sell or transfer shares of its own stock. Nevada corporations may issue stock for capital, services, personal property, or real estate, including leases and options. The directors may determine the value of any of these transactions, and their decision is final. The Nevada Secretary of State provides excellent customer service and excellent Web support. Incorporate in Nevada: Nevada’s Generous Taxation Rules for Businesses Nevada enjoys a windfall of tax revenues from its most notable industry: gaming. As a result, Nevada’s residents and business enjoy some of the lowest state taxes anywhere. Nevada does not impose a tax on corporate profits; many other states do, such as New York and California. California even imposes a 1.5% income tax on S Corporations, which do not pay income tax at the federal level. Similarly, Nevada imposes no tax on corporate stock or LLC ownership shares. This isn’t saying much; almost no states impose taxes based on stock or ownership. Nevertheless, by way of comparison, New York imposes an annual filing fee on LLCs of between $325 and $10,000, depending on the number of LLC members. Nevada imposes no franchise tax. A franchise tax is a tax levied in consideration for the privilege of either incorporating or qualifying to do business in a state. A franchise tax may be based upon income, assets, outstanding shares, or a combination. Put another way, a franchise tax is a tax one pays for ‘just being there.” Many states impose franchise taxes on businesses. While Nevada’s Secretary of State touts the absence of a personal income tax as a benefit to businesses, this is more of a reason to reside in Nevada, and not really a reason to incorporate in Nevada . Personal income tax is paid in an individual’s state of residency and not in the state where his entities are chartered. For example, a California resident that operates a Nevada corporation will be subject to California’s personal income tax on corporation income paid to her despite her choice of Nevada for the state of charter for her corporation. Nevada’s Privacy Protection Rules Nevada offers a tremendous degree of privacy to those seeking to incorporate in Nevada . Note that this degree of privacy is not extended to directors and officers of Nevada entities. Nevada has no US Internal Revenue Service Information Sharing Agreement–and Nevada is not afraid to boast about it. The IRS has in place an Information Sharing Agreement (‘ISA’) with about 33 states. The purpose of the ISA is to combat abusive tax avoidance. Even if Nevada participated in the agreement, it would have no information to share. Because Nevada has no corporate income tax and no personal income tax, it has no corresponding tax forms and no corresponding tax department. Under agreements with individual states, the IRS will share information (and vice versa) on abusive tax avoidance transactions and those taxpayers who participate in them. As reported by the IRS, states that participate in the ISA include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Along the same lines, owners of Nevada LLCs and shareholders of Nevada corporations need not identify themselves in any public records. This makes it very difficult for the government, police, or for third parties to determine who a Nevada entity’s owners are. Unfortunately, Nevada’s privacy protections are widely misused. By way of example, and not by way of recommendation, many individuals and businesses have improperly and illegally used Nevada business entities to hide assets from creditors and even their own spouses. The other obvious misuse is tax avoidance. Despite occasional abuse, Nevada’s privacy protections do offer value to the legitimate and law-abiding businessperson. Probably the single greatest benefit of Nevada’s privacy protections is that it serves to protect business owners from unscrupulous creditors, aggressive attorneys, and frivolous litigation. In my law practice, I have served as counsel to several companies that have been the victims of lawsuits that could only be fairly described as totally baseless. Often, the owners of businesses are dragged into the suit as defendants simply as an intimidation tool. Frivolous lawsuits are an unfortunate reality in today’s business climate. Also, lawsuits are never win-win, they are always win-lose; the successful defense of a lawsuit following the time and expense of a trial is not a pure victory, it is a victory that comes at great cost. The real victory is not to ever be sued. Experienced businesspersons and lawyers know this. Nevada’s privacy protections can go a long way in achieving this goal by effectively hiding business owners from public view and thereby protecting them from litigation. Of course, Nevada’s privacy protections are not absolute, they do have limits. A good plaintiff’s lawyer with enough money and time (it would take a lot of both) could ultimately peek into a Nevada entity’s ownership. Overall, though, Nevada’s privacy protections are quite valuable. The other obvious benefit to the businessperson of Nevada’s privacy protections is shelter from the prying eyes of government. This benefit is obvious, even to a completely law-abiding company or company owner. Our government, police, and courts, while the finest anywhere, are capable of occasionally pursuing the innocent. Again, the successful defense of a criminal matter following the time and expense of a trial is not a pure victory, it is a victory that comes at great cost. Privacy, for lack of a better term, is good. I am quite comfortable advising my business clients to maintain their privacy as much as possible in their business affairs regardless of the type of business they conduct. As a general rule, that which need not be disclosed should not be disclosed. Nevada’s privacy rules have an important exception, however. Nevada’s privacy protection carefully protects owners and shareholders, but such privacy protection does not extend to company officers, directors, and in the case of LLCs, members. Nevada is one of a few states that requires an incorporator or organizer to appoint by name at least one initial director in a corporation’s articles or in the case of an LLC, at least one member in the articles of organization. In both cases, the articles are a public record, and anyone can request copies by paying a small fee. Even worse, however, is Nevada’s requirement that every corporation and LLC file an “Annual List of Officers and Directors” each year–the oft-dreaded Annual List requires companies to disclose the full names of their officers and directors, and the information is then posted on the Nevada Secretary of State’s Web site and is searchable through any web browser by anyone. This easily searchable public database makes it remarkably easy for any member of the public to determine a Nevada entity’s management team. Keep in mind, however, that Nevada does offer a great degree of privacy to owners–as long as those owners do not participate as managers; such owners can easily remain anonymous. By comparison, Delaware (as well as many other states) require no disclosure of the identities of officers and directors. Insider Tip: Nevada’s schizophrenic approach to privacy (complete anonymity for shareholders, but complete disclosure of managers, directors, and officers has produced an interesting cottage industry: the nominee director. A nominee director is an appointed manager/officer that serves as the appointed public representative of a corporation or LLC. The nominee director/manager is often charged with a solemn duty: to serve as the guardian of an entity’s owners’ privacy– the entity’s owners “hide” behind the publicly disclosed nominee director. A common use of a nominee director is for asset protection; a Nevada entity owner that wishes to hide assets can assign the assets to the Nevada entity and can then appoint a nominee director and the owner can thereby direct the nominee director to serve the owner’s interest. The use of nominee directors, however, has little value to an ordinary small business, but is an effective device for asset protection. Protection of Officers, Directors, and Managers From Personal Liability for Lawful Acts of the Corporation or LLC Directors and officers of Nevada corporations enjoy generous protection (sometimes called “indemnity”) from personal liability to the corporation or to a corporation’s shareholders in connection with their service to the corporation. Nevada’s rule on director and officer liability states: A director or officer is not individually liable to the corporation or its stockholders or creditors for any damages as a result of any act or failure to act in his capacity as a director or officer unless it is proven that: (a) His act or failure to act constituted a breach of his fiduciary duties as a director or officer; and (b) His breach of those duties involved intentional misconduct, fraud or a knowing violation of law. The preceding passage is a pro-management version of the “business judgment rule.” The business judgment rule that is in effect in most states dictates that courts will not review directors’ business decisions or hold directors liable for errors or mistakes in judgment, so long as the directors were 1. disinterested and independent; 2. acting in good faith; and 3. reasonably diligent in informing themselves of the facts. Obviously, Nevada goes much farther, allowing liability to attach to directors and officers only when the director or officer breaches her fiduciary duty or commits fraud or a knowing violation of law. So, how would this rule apply in the real world? Well, imagine a Nevada corporation with five shareholders and one director/officer. Assume the officer caused the corporation’s funds to be withdrawn from the corporation’s savings account with the funds he thereafter caused the corporation to purchase a risky stock investment on a tip from a friend without making even a simple inquiry into the worthiness of the investment. Assume further that the stock investment went sour and caused the corporation to lose $50,000. This is a common model discussed in law school classes. The likely outcome depends on whose law applies. In Nevada, the protective officer liability rule would shield the officer from liability. Sure, he made a bad investment of the corporation’s funds, but he broke no law and committed no fraud. The corporation and its shareholders would therefore suffer the loss without recourse against the officer. In a state that follows the general business judgment rule (keep in mind that every state will have a slightly different rule) the officer might face liability from the corporation or the shareholders. Because the officer was not diligent in informing himself, his decision would likely be found to be liable for his error. Of course, when directors and officers enjoy enhanced rights, some other party will suffer diminished rights. Such is the case here. The protective business judgment rule in Nevada restricts the rights of the corporation and shareholders to pursue claims against the officer. Now, if you are contemplating a corporation where you are the sole shareholder and the sole officer, this rule is irrelevant–you would obviously never sue yourself for making a mistake. But, if you are an officer, director, or both you may want the protection against lawsuits and claims made by shareholders. But what about liability protection for LLC managers? The preceding passages discussed the liability protection of corporate directors in Nevada. LLC managers do not enjoy the same protection that corporate directors and officers enjoy. Essentially, LLCs have the option of protecting managers to the same extent as corporate officers, but this decision can be overridden by a vote of the majority of the owners of the LLC. If iron-clad indemnity protection is important to you, the corporate form will offer greater protection. Nevada Corporations May Purchase, Own, and Sell Shares of Its Own Stock A Nevada corporation may purchase, own, hold, sell, transfer, pledge, or assign shares of its own stock. This may not seem important, but actually this is an important and convenient right that I find quite useful. Not all states allow corporations to own their own shares. Shares of a corporation held by the corporation itself are known as “treasury shares.” The process of transferring shares into the name of the corporation is familiarly known as “returning shares to treasury.” Keep in mind that the corporation cannot issue new shares to itself, treasury shares are only acquired through transfer back to the corporation from a third party that formerly owned the shares. In practice, treasury shares might work as follows: Assume a corporation issues shares to a shareholder in exchange for services. If the shareholder fails to perform the services, or performs the services poorly, the corporation might have a claim against the shareholder. A convenient method of resolving that dispute is to have the shareholder transfer the shares into the corporation’s treasury in exchange for a release of the corporation’s claim. This is a very common way by which a corporation acquires treasury shares. Once the corporation receives the shares, it can hold the shares or sell the shares to another party. Keep in mind, however, that treasury shares do not carry voting rights, and are not entitled to dividends and distributions. Nevada Corporations (and LLCs) May Issue Stock for Nearly Anything of Value, and the Valuation of Shares Cannot Be Questioned Nevada corporations (and LLCs) may issue stock for nearly any sort of consideration: capital investment, services, personal property, or real estate, including leases and options. Not all states grant such power to a corporation. This is an important and convenient right that Nevada corporations enjoy. This freedom allows Nevada corporations to issue shares for the services of employees and consultants. Perhaps more importantly, the corporation’s directors may determine the value of any of these transactions, and their decision is final. This rule is advantageous to organizers of companies–it gives them the power to adjust stock ownership as they see fit. For example, if three persons come together and want to form a corporation, but only two of the three owners have capital to invest, the third owner can join the corporation or LLC as a 1/3 owner and her contribution to the entity can be an employment contract. The directors enjoy the power to value the employment contract as they wish, and that decision can never be questioned. Nevada has wisely organized the Secretary of State’s office into an efficient and effective customer service organization. The office is not perfect, but generally speaking, it is an effective organization. First, the Secretary of State’s Web site is informative and easy to navigate. The searchable database allows one to quickly check on the status of one’s own corporation or LLC. Is one’s entity overdue in its annual report? Is one’s entity in good standing with the Secretary of State’s office? What are my filing fees for my annual report? A simple check on the web will answer these questions. The Secretary of State’s Web site also offers a plethora of easy-to-use forms in portable document format (PDF) that can be easily viewed and filled out with a standard web browser. We’ll cover the preparation of forms below in Chapter 6: The 14 Steps to Nevada Incorporation. Note that in the last few years, Nevada has moved to a system where Nevada corporate and LLC filings are only accepted if filed on Nevada’s pre-printed forms. Formerly, Nevada allowed both pre-printed forms and traditional typed documents. Nevada also allows persons to make filings by facsimile–not every state allows facsimile filings. I find this to be an invaluable convenience, and it can usually save one day and $20 of overnight charges. Nevada processes filings quickly. A typical filing will be processed in three to seven days, but there is a variance depending on their workload. For a fee of $125, users can request 24-hour processing. So, a filing that is faxed on a Monday with the expedite fee will be processed on Tuesday and can be delivered by overnight delivery on Wednesday. Disadvantages of Nevada Incorporation and LLC Formation Nevada incorporation and LLC formation does carry a few drawbacks that are for the most part largely outweighed by the benefits, among which are the following, and all of which are described in detail below: In Nevada, you must select and name your initial directors in your articles of incorporation. Nevada requires an annual filing in which you must disclose the identities of your management. Nevada recently increased its incorporation fees, making it one of the most expensive states in the nation in which to incorporate. Nevada corporations carry a slight stigma because Nevada corporations are often used by unscrupulous business persons to accomplish illegitimate goals, such as hiding assets. Many corporation service companies openly tout Nevada as the best state to incorporate in order to achieve certain illicit goals. The Nevada Stigma Unfortunately, Nevada corporations carry a faint stigma. Many corporation service companies openly tout Nevada as the best state to incorporate in order to achieve certain illicit goals. Furthermore, Nevada’s reputation for vice in other areas may add to its “corporate stigma.” True, unscrupulous business persons sometimes incorporate in Nevada to accomplish illegitimate goals, such as hiding assets. On the other hand, the stigma is slight, and I have found that it has never hampered the goals of my clients and their business. Furthermore, in the day to day operation of your business, most persons you deal with will not necessarily know your state of incorporation. Your business correspondence will carry the name of your corporation, but you need not disclose your state of organization. Nevada Has High Formation Expenses–But Balance It Nevada recently increased the fees to incorporate in Nevada , making it one of the more expensive states in the nation in which to incorporate. The initial fees to incorporate in Nevada (about $280 for a bare-bones incorporation) far exceed Colorado’s $50 incorporation filing fee or Florida’s $70 filing fee. Of course, Nevada charges far less than California’s $900-plus organizational filing fee. Nevada has recently nudged its fees upwards, and based upon that, one can reasonably expect that it will continue to do so. Not only are the initial filing fees expensive, but the annual report filing fees are expensive ($125 minimum), as well as the fees for filing amendments to articles ($175 minimum), and articles of merger ($350). On the other hand, Nevada’s taxation is favorable. There are two lessons here. First, Nevada has likely had to raise its fees to keep the slim tax revenues up. Second, as a businessperson, you’ll simply need to balance the incorporation and periodic expenses against the more forgiving tax environment. What Is the Best State to Form a Corporation? Nevada Corporation – Incorporate in NV – Nevada Incorporation Nevada Small Claims Court Nevada LLC – Nevada Limited Liability Company – LLC in Nevada Michael Spadaccini Michael Spadaccini is the author of 8 books on self-help legal matters such as, Ultimate LLC Compliance Guide: Covers All 50 States (Ultimate Series), Ultimate Book of Forming Corps, LLCs, Partnerships & Sole Proprietorships, and Ultimate Guide to Forming an LLC in Any State, Second Edition (Ultimate Series). You can view his Amazon Author Profile Here. April 21, 2008 /0 Comments/by Michael Spadaccini https://gimmelaw.com/wp-content/uploads/gimme-law-1.png 0 0 Michael Spadaccini https://gimmelaw.com/wp-content/uploads/gimme-law-1.png Michael Spadaccini2008-04-21 17:26:322008-04-21 17:26:32Incorporate in Nevada - Nevada Incorporation Advantages Nebraska LLC – NE Limited Liability Company – LLC in Nebraska Nevada LLC – Nevada Limited Liability Company – LLC in Nevada	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line762
__label__wiki	0.765748	0.765748	'Come From Away' Star Chad Kimball on Portraying 9/11 in a Different Light By Jimmy Kontomanolis \| January 3, 2019 \| People Typically, you leave a Broadway musical with a feel-good attitude from a message that’s been delivered with much pomp and circumstance, and you go on with your life. But every once in a while, there’s an important piece of theater like Come From Away—a story that hits close to home for not only New Yorkers, but anyone who lived to experience the tragedy of 9/11—a show whose message resonates for days, months, even years. The musical tells the story of thousands of travelers who were stranded in Gander, a town on the island of Newfoundland, off the coast of Canada, when North American airspace was shut down following the attacks. We chatted with one of Come From Away’s stars, Chad Kimball, about what makes the show unique and special, tackling a sacred subject like 9/11, and the real-life stories and town that the musical portrays. Come From Away portrays such an incredible 9/11 story. People typically immediately think of NYC when they think of 9/11, and how the city was so tragically affected. But there are so many stories of stranded travelers, like those in the musical, who were trying to contact their loved ones or trying to get back home. Why do you think it’s so important to tell a story like this, or to tell a 9/11 story from this perspective? CHAD KIMBALL: The thing that we’ve really come to understand and appreciate about the show is that it definitely does tell the story of that day. But it does it in a real roundabout way. We find a lot of people have some major scars from that day that they don’t realize they have, and definitely people who are closer to the tragedy, who lost someone, or who are directly affected by the attacks themselves, but everyone’s got something from that day. And what a lot of people don’t realize is how close to the surface those feelings are. So a lot of people don’t approach 9/11, so this is a way for them to approach that day again without head-on diving right into it. However, it really is diving right into it, because the show really shows not just the goodness from that day, but the opposite of evil. We get that there’s kindness because we get that there’s evil. To get to revel in the kindness is a lot different from reveling in the tragedy of that day. We do that every year, we memorialize and we remember. And what we heard from survivors and first responders and other people who are really close to the tragedy of the day is that it didn’t take away any of the pain, but it added an element of goodness. There was goodness happening in the world. What do you love most about the show? CK: It’s such a pat answer to say, “We love it because of the audience.” But it’s really just a rollercoaster ride, and they are just reacting from the gut. So that’s fun, and that kind of energy is just what you live for when you’re on stage, because it really is another cast member. But the other really great part is no matter how many times someone sees the show, there’s something new that they might have missed the time before. The show is such a quick pace and is so specifically directed by Christopher Ashley, that there are just things that you miss. So people who see it three, four times, always see something different. Because we’re changing characters, we’re switching scenes, we’re switching environments, all in a split second. So to be able to ride that energy of the audience is really one of my favorite things. As you mentioned, you and your castmates all portray several different characters throughout the show. How difficult is it to change characters in such a fast-paced format? CK: Oh my gosh, it’s every actor’s dream to sit back and go “Hey, look what I can do!” But it’s also a thrill. It was difficult in the beginning, in rehearsal, trying to come up with the character and at the same time switch to another one, while you’re still trying to figure out the other one. So there was some bleed-over in the beginning, but it really is a joy to do. As a viewer, you experience a wide range of emotions during the show. Amidst the tragedy, Come From Away is injected with moments of humor and joy. Is there a moment or particular story that resonates with you most? CK: There are so many favorites, but one of them is one of the first moments that the audience gets the idea that it didn’t matter who you were, the moment when the bus driver—it happens to be my moment—when the bus driver speaks to the African man and his family through a Bible verse. It’s such a simple thing, but speaks volumes to how much the same we are, and how we can communicate on such simple levels. People may not realize that the show is based on true stories and one of the characters you portray recently published a memoir about the experience at Gander. Have you had a chance to read the book? CK: I have read it, he would kill me if I hadn’t. We’re actually really good friends, Kevin Tuerff and I, and he has written this book, Channel of Peace, and it tells stories of his that weren’t told in the musical. He left everything and moved to New York and started a consulting firm to teach people about immigrants and refugees. It’s the example of the show really, but putting it into action and in real time. He also started the Pay It Forward 9/11 movement, which is really just a way to get people thinking about kindness and how to spread it. He’s a really compassionate man and I’m happy to be able to play him. Have you and your castmates had the opportunity to meet any of the other subjects you portray? CK: It’s funny, the national tour opened in Seattle and I got a text from my mom saying “Hey, I’m at dinner with Beulah.” And that’s really how deep our relationships go. Most of the people we portray come to every production on opening night, we bowed with them on the opening night on Broadway, we have family and friends who have gone to Gander and have stayed with them. We really have become a part of this big, warm family, which is such a different take on things. I’ve never, ever experienced something like that. It’s been a wonderful experience. We actually went to Gander and did two concert-style productions of the show, in the world’s largest walk-in refrigerator, in the hockey rink, for about 6,000 people, before we came to Broadway, and it was one of the most meaningful experiences of our lives. Just to be able to get the blessing from the community to go on and tell this story, and that we weren’t portraying them in an odd light, but we were being authentic in our portrayals of them. We got to be good friends with them and they took us around town. We went to all the different places we talk about in the show, and we were able to get a good feel for the place. It was a really memorable experience. Chad Kimball with fellow cast members on stage in Come From Away. What’s Gander like? Is it as idyllic as the show portrays it to be. CK: It’s just a town! It’s this town with this one big, long road in the middle. And just people—people who have been there for years, generations. And it gets really cold there. So their thing is, to survive, we have to help each other out. It’s just something that they do. And they’re always shocked that people are so taken aback by what they did. Of course, we experience kindness all over the world. But we looked to Gander because it was such a perfect example of what was happening across the world. It’s such a unique experience. Are there any other moments that have really stood out to you or left an impact on you? CK: The 9/11 community is incredibly protective of the legacy of that day. The Museum, the first responders—we wanted to be very careful about how we presented ourselves to that community and to the New York community at large. And they have really embraced us. So one of the more meaningful moments for me, the week of 9/11 this year, some of the docents from the Museum came to the show, and we had a talk-back after the show, and they honored us with FDNY patches that were taken from actual uniforms. And it was just such a surreal moment, because one of the things I love about this show—it’s everything I ever dreamed I could do as an actor, which is to possibly affect change in people’s lives and tell a remarkable story, and at the same time do something now that I wasn’t able to do back on that day. You couldn’t help on the day, you couldn’t do anything. So to now feel like I could do something, and then be honored by them was even more special. You have a long-running career on the stage, in shows like Godspell, Into the Woods, and Memphis. What’s your favorite Broadway musical of all time? CK: This one definitely holds a very special place in my heart because of the meaning it has for me and for New York and for our time. But I also would say that Memphis holds a special place, too, because I worked on that show for 10 years, and Huey Calhoun was kind of this guy who popped up out of nowhere, and was such a kismet character to play. He played me as much as I played him. Although, I would say playing a cow in Into the Woods was a lot of fun! Aside from Come From Away, what other shows are you loving right now? CK: It’s really hard to see anything else. Let’s see, I haven’t seen anything in a few months. Farinelli and the King was such a beautiful piece of theater to experience, and Mark Rylance was, as always, a phenomenal presence on stage. My goal is to get out there and see as much as I can when I take my vacation in January! What do you do in your down time? Any favorite NYC hangouts? CK: Right now, it’s the dog run up at Teddy Roosevelt Park at the Museum of Natural History. And I just got married, so my wife and I are kind of starting to explore all sorts of different aspects of New York. It’s interesting, you live here and you never look up. So when you’re with someone else and you’re kind of just spending time, it’s such a new city in a lot of ways. We’ve been to a lot of different restaurants in the Upper West Side that are a lot of fun and very good. We’re trying to get to know our neighborhood and get to know the city more. We’re walking a lot more in Central Park! For tickets to Come From Away and to learn more, visit comefromaway.com. Manuel Rodriguez Releases a New LGBTQ Photography Book	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line763
__label__cc	0.528198	0.471802	Home Regulars I Don’t Get It: Queerness 101 I Don’t Get It: Queerness 101 Sometimes it can feel like the LGBTIQ+ alphabet is just a jumbled mouthful of ever-growing letters, and we totally understand that sometimes, when you don’t understand keywords in the discussions, it can feel like you’re getting a little bit lost. So if you’re feeling like you “don’t get it” when it comes to queer theory, here is a little guide to the basic queer alphabet: L is for… Lesbian: Let’s start with the ones you’ve probably heard of before, the terms which describe a homosexual attraction to a singular gender. The word lesbian comes from the Greek island of Lesbos, home to all-round queer babe and Grecian poet Sappho, and is used to describe women who are emotionally, romantically, or sexually attracted to women. G is for… Gay While the word ‘gay’ was initially used to describe a cheerful or carefree feeling, in the 1960’s It became the primary word used by homosexual men to describe their sexuality. Men who identify as gay are those who are emotionally, romantically, or sexually attracted to men. It should be noted here that queer women will also use the term gay to describe themselves, however, both communities definitely think you should never use the word gay to describe things you don’t like – that implies that being gay is a bad thing. B is for… Bisexual+: Bisexual refers to an individual who is emotionally, romantically, or sexually attracted to people of more than one sex, gender, or gender identity. Bisexuality is expressed differently in all individuals, does not have to happen simultaneously, in the same way, or to the same degree. Contrary to popular belief, bisexuality does not solely refer to individuals who are attracted to only cisgendered men and women and therefore is largely considered an umbrella term which encompasses sexually fluid, polysexual, and pansexual identities. Bisexual+ people tend to face a fair amount of erasure in both heteronormative and queer spaces. It is important to remember that a bisexual person is still bisexual regardless of their relationship being with a member of their own or another sex (just because a bi+ man is in a relationship with a woman it doesn’t make him any less bisexual, and vice versa), and that they should never be required to “pick a side already”. T is for… Trans+ Trans+ originates from the term transgender, an umbrella term used to discuss individuals whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from that of the sex they have been assigned at birth. The trans+ community includes those who identify external of the binary conceptions of male and female gender identities, and therefore includes genderqueer, non-binary, and agendered individuals as well. In case you were wondering, individuals who do identify with the gender identity and/or gender expression of their assigned sex are referred to as cisgendered. It is important to acknowledge and respect the pronouns of trans+ individuals and respect their identification with either a binary gender or a non-binary pronoun such as ‘they’. A great way to think about this is to remember that if a person asked you to refer to them as “Bobby” instead of “Robert,” it would be pretty rude to still call that person Robert. The same goes for respecting the pronouns of individuals when informed of them, regardless of whether they are he/him, she/her, or they/them. I is for… Intersex Intersex is another umbrella term encompassing several variations in chromosome, hormones, genitalia, and other sexual characteristics. Intersex does not refer to a sexual identity or gender expression, rather it refers to individuals whose bodies exist outside of the binary male and female sexual anatomy. There is no one condition which makes an individual intersex, and intersex as a term can refer to individuals with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), Klinefelter Syndrome, Ovo-testes, or any other recognised condition. A common misconception is that intersex people are inherently queer, it is important to note that Intersex concerns variations in an individual’s body and does not require those intersex people to identify as belonging to any particular sexual identity. Q is for… Queer/Questioning+ Queer is used interchangeably with the LGBTIQ+ acronym to refer to the queer community as a collective of individuals. The word was originally used to describe situations or individuals which are seen as strange or odd, however it has come to be accepted and embraced as a collective celebration of the LGBTIQ+ community’s diversity of experience, expression, and identity. For this reason, the use of queer in the acronym allows for the inclusion of many other sexual and romantic identities along the spectrum, including asexual, aromantic, flexibility and fluidity in sexuality, etc. The Q is also used to acknowledge those who are questioning their identities. Questioning includes those who are still coming to terms with their queer identities, those who are curious, or even those yet to understand why they feel “queer” from society’s enforced gender and sexual norms. If you’re not really sure if you could be queer, don’t worry because it is a journey to understanding that we all take at our own pace. Identity is a complex and sometimes confusing thing to navigate, but at least until you figure it out you’ve got a handy Q in the acronym ready to accept your burgeoning queerness. If you don’t identify as queer, I hope that this has helped to unpack some of the confusion in what the queer alphabet means and that now you do “get it”. Grapeshot Scholars x	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line765
__label__wiki	0.87336	0.87336	Justice Department Sues AT&T Over Time Warner Merger Despite Charges of Political Motivation Rhett Jones Filed to: AntitrustFiled to: Antitrust state attorney generals For those who feel the merger between AT&T and Time Warner is a dangerous consolidation of media power, today is bittersweet. The Department of Justice has decided to go forward with a lawsuit to block the merger. But if reports that the suit is motivated by the Trump administration’s desire to punish CNN for its coverage prove to be true, this could be a tough case to win. Donald Trump Denies Ordering DOJ to Stop AT&T and Time Warner Deal Unless They Sell CNN President Donald Trump denied on Saturday reports that he had ordered the Department of Justice to… Earlier this month, reports emerged that officials inside the Department of Justice were asking for CNN, which is owned by Time Warner, be excluded from the potential merger in exchange for allowing it to go unchallenged. The New York Times claimed that: In one account of the meeting, Justice Department officials called on AT&T to sell Turner Broadcasting — the group of cable channels under the Time Warner banner that includes CNN — as a potential requirement for gaining government approval, according to three people from the companies involved, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because of the delicacy of the negotiations. Trump has famously feuded with CNN since he became a presidential candidate in 2016. He relentlessly tweets his displeasure with the network’s coverage of his exploits in the White House, degrades CNN’s reporters to their face, and most famously tweeted a GIF of himself wrestling the CNN logo—the logo was fake, the wrestling match was “real” footage of Trump when he was an actual professional wrestler. He’s also spoken out about the deal in less personal terms, telling reporters, “AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration, because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.” As far back as July, the New York Times was cited a senior administration official who claimed that White House advisers have discussed using the pending merger as a form of leverage against CNN. And most recently multiple outlets have run reports that Rupert Murdoch was “working behind the scenes” to push the Trump regime into killing the deal. Murdoch considers it revenge after Time Warner rejected his $80 million bid to acquire the company himself, according to Vanity Fair. The administration has denied that it requested any sort of spin-off of CNN as a condition of the merger. Despite the fact that it would be pretty easy for AT&T to demonstrate that Trump, at least as an individual, has a bias against the deal, the DOJ has decided to move forward with a lawsuit. In a statement sent to Gizmodo, AT&T strenuously objected to the decision. David R. McAtee II, AT&T’s Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel, wrote: Today’s DOJ lawsuit is a radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent. Vertical mergers like this one are routinely approved because they benefit consumers without removing any competitor from the market. We see no legitimate reason for our merger to be treated differently. Our merger combines Time Warner’s content and talent with AT&T’s TV, wireless and broadband distribution platforms. The result will help make television more affordable, innovative, interactive and mobile. Fortunately, the Department of Justice doesn’t have the final say in this matter. Rather, it bears the burden of proving to the U.S. District Court that the transaction violates the law. We are confident that the Court will reject the Government’s claims and permit this merger under longstanding legal precedent. Gizmodo has reached out to the DOJ for comment and we’ll update this post when we receive a reply. This is a gut-wrenching case in which two media companies want to become even more dominant than they already are, and the administration is allegedly using backchannels to censor free speech. Neither party is a hero. The only good news is that the discovery process in court should be pretty interesting. [AT&T] Yeah, CNN Is Getting Stepped On The Dreaded T-Mobile and Sprint Merger Is Officially Dead What’s Going on With the Rumored, Not Good T-Mobile and Sprint Merger Recent from Rhett Jones How to Sign In to Twitter The Online Icons That Didn't Survive the Web's First 30 Years A 'Dark Day': Copyright Law That Threatens the Internet as We Know It Passes Final EU Vote	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line767
__label__cc	0.532448	0.467552	Oceanside: (760) 722-1234La Jolla: (858) 459-9282Email: receptionist@glkhwlaw.com Greenman, Lacy, Klein Hinds, Weiser Civil Litigation, & Bankruptcy Kenneth L. Greenman, Jr. Janet Bledsoe Lacy Michael L. Klein Kelly L. Hinds Kurt Weiser Katie A. Anderson Jeffrey Lacy Angela M. Jenkins Kyle Pederson David Doria Amber Crothall Jennifer Bledsoe Lacy Bachelor of Sciences-Finance, University of Southern California, 1965 Graduate Studies in Finance & Economics, University of Southern California 1966 Juris Doctor, Magna Cum Laude, United States International University-California Western School of Law, 1971 Doctor of Laws, California Western School of Law, 2009 Decedent’s Affairs Contested Trust Matters Financial Elder Abuse Kenneth L. Greenman, Jr., J.D., Dr. Although since January 1, 2013 Dr. Greenman has been semi-retired, he continues to serve as “Of Counsel” to the firm and work with clients on a limited basis. He also serves as a private fiduciary in probate and trust matters. Dr. Greenman has practiced estate planning, trust, wills and probate law exclusively for over twenty-five years with special focus on complex estates. Dr. Greenman has served and is currently serving as a trustee and as an executor for a variety of trust and estates. For many years, he has held the top Martindale-Hubbell Attorney Rating of “AV Preeminent”. Dr. Greenman is a member of the United States Supreme Court Bar, the California State Bar, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Ninth, Seventh and Fifth Circuits and the United States District Courts for the Central and Southern Districts of California. In Law School, Dr. Greeman was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review, received American Jurisprudence Awards in Wills and Trusts, Corporations and Conflicts of Law. He received the Dean’s Award-Outstanding Law Student and graduated Magna Cum Laude. Upon graduation, Dr. Greenman was selected as a United States Attorney General Honor Law Graduate Fellow, serving as an Attorney in the United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., U.S. Supreme Court appellate section. Thereafter he served as a San Diego Deputy City Attorney. In 1974, Dr. Greenman established his own firm, practicing civil litigation with an emphasis on business, real estate and personal injury matters. In 1983 he merged his firm with the North County firm which is now known as Greenman, Lacy, Klein, Hinds, & Weiser. In 1986 he transitioned from the practice of civil litigation to overseeing the firm’s estate planning, probate, trusts and wills section, which he continuously did until 2013. Dr. Greenman is a member of the San Diego County Bar Association and San Diego North County Bar Association. He has served as Director and Vice President of the San Diego County Bar Association, Director and President of the San Diego County Bar Foundation, Trustee and Chairman of the California Western School of Law, Director and Vice Chancellor of Lambda Chi Alpha International Fraternity, Director of the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce, Director of Scripps Gift Planning Advisory Board, President of Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity during Law School, and Elder of the La Jolla Presbyterian Church. He has served as an Arbitrator for the American Arbitrations Association and has been a Member of the California State Bar Estate Planning Section since 1983. In addition, Dr. Greenman is an avid supporter of the arts and has been involved in many community organizations including serving as a men’s student advisor at the University of San Diego for the last twenty years. Oceanside Office 900 Pier View Way Oceanside, CA 92054 Oceanside, CA 92049-0299 La Jolla Office 7825 Fay Avenue, Suite 200 Greenman, Lacy, Klein, Hinds, Weiser © 2019. All Rights Reserved. Website by BAZINGA! solutions	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line768
__label__wiki	0.681567	0.681567	Dennis Altman // Can the United Nations Empower Queer Rights? HomeNews & EventsUSC Global Health Lecture Series2016-2017 USC Global Health Lecture SeriesDennis Altman // Can the United Nations Empower Queer Rights? As a number of states, led by the U.S., push for international recognition of LGBT rights, there is an emerging global polarization, with strong opposition to this development from Russia and most Arab and African governments. Dennis Altman, professorial fellow in human security at LaTrobe University, discussed how to further the struggle for queer rights without entrenching the idea that this is the imposition of western values against the claims of culture, tradition and religion. Dennis Altman Professorial Fellow in Human Security LaTrobe University Dennis Altman is the author of thirteen books ever since Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation was published in 1972. The Bulletin named him one of the 100 most influential Australians in 2006, and he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2008. He has been president of the AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific and a member of the International AIDS Society governing council and Oxfam Australia board. His recent books include The End of the Homosexual?; Queer Wars with Jon Symons; and How to Vote Progressive in Australia, co-edited with Sean Scalmer. This lecture was part of the 2016-2017 USC Global Health Lecture Series and co-hosted by the USC Institute for Global Health, Program on Global Health & Human Rights and Center for Feminist Research.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line769
__label__wiki	0.942459	0.942459	Sport Clips Haircuts of Pasadena - Mountain Road 4139 Mountain Road Pasadena, Maryland 21122 Sport Clips Haircuts of Pasadena - Mountain Road IS A Proud Sponsor of NASCAR'S Joe Gibbs Racing with Drivers erik jones and Denny Hamlin Sport Clips Racing enters its 10th season in 2018 as a partner with Joe Gibbs Racing. Erik Jones finished his freshman season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series as the 2017 Sunoco Rookie of the Year, making his mark in the history books as the first driver to capture the honor in all three of NASCAR’s top level of competition. Jones completed the season with five top-five finishes, 14 top-10 finishes, one pole and 310 laps led. In addition to his Cup Series season, Jones competed in 18 NASCAR XFINITY Series races earning three wins, nine top-five finishes, 10 top-10 finishes, three poles and led 751 laps. For his sophomore season in the Cup Series, Jones returns to Joe Gibbs Racing taking over the driver’s seat of the No. 20 Toyota Camry. Joining Jones will be crew chief Chris Gayle, who called the shots for Jones during his rookie season. Denny Hamlin enters his 13th season with Joe Gibbs Racing, driving the No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Darlington Raceway in 2018. After an incredible 2017 season that left him contending in his 11th-career Chase for the NASCAR Cup, Hamlin wrapped up 2017 with two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and two Xfinity Series victories. Hamlin has scored wins for Sport Clips on five different occasions starting in 2011 at his home track of Richmond International Raceway in the Xfinity Series, 2012 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the Cup Series, Darlington Raceway in 2015 in the Xfinity Series, and sweeping the Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway in 2017 in both the Cup and Xfinity Series races. Proud Sponsor of JGR MX Sport Clips enjoys its Official Sponsor relationship with the JGRMX Professional Motocross Racing Team. Founded by Coy Gibbs, the son of NFL Hall of Fame Head Coach Joe Gibbs, the team debuted Jan. 5, 2008 in Anaheim, Calif., at the opening round of the AMA Supercross Championship. Coy Gibbs knows that building a motocross team from the ground up is no easy task, and having the right people will make all the difference in the success of the effort. Understanding that success in NASCAR will not directly translate into success in motocross, Coy has hired a team with extensive backgrounds in the sport. Jeremy Albrecht manages the team, with Dean Baker handling the engine development. Jonny Oler takes care of suspension, and Spencer Bloomer heads up the testing and settings refinement duties. Patrick Barker provides the tuning duties for Justin Brayton, while Ben Schiermeyer wrenches for Josh Grant. The team is based in Huntersville, North Carolina. 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series: February 10 Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona Motor Speedway February 14 Duel 1 & Duel 2 at Daytona Motor Speedway February 17 Daytona Motor Speedway March 3 Las Vegas Motor Speedway May 5 – Dover Speedway September 1 Darlington Raceway November 3 – Texas Motor Speedway 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series: August 31 Darlington	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line775
__label__wiki	0.680207	0.680207	EXHIBITIONSHAMPTONS In Pictures: Jack Youngerman’s Visual Language May 10, 2013 by Pat Rogers EXHIBITIONS, GALLERIES, HAMPTONS, Hamptons & East End, Modern Art, NEW YORK CITY, Painting In Gabrielle Selz’s review of “Jack Youngerman: Works on Paper 1951-2012” at The Drawing Room, Selz discusses Youngerman’s evolution toward his own style of organic, geometric abstraction through the works on view. The review can be found by clicking here. What follows is a visual counterpart to Selz’s review. Scroll down to see a few of the artworks in the exhibition. White Blue Construction by Jack Youngerman, 1951. Cut paper collage, 5 5/8 x 9 1/8 inches. Photo by Gary Mamay. Courtesy of The Drawing Room. Banlieue by Jack Youngerman, 1953. Oil on paper, 7 7/8 x 6 3/8 inches. Photo by Gary Mamay. Courtesy of The Drawing Room. Blue Delfina by Jack Youngerman, 1961. Gouache on paper, 21 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches. Photo by Gary Mamay. Courtesy of The Drawing Room. August 31, 1966 by Jack Youngerman, 1966. India ink on paper, 23 x 29 inches. Photo by Gary Mamay. Courtesy of The Drawing Room. Yellow/Black by Jack Youngerman, 1960. Watercolor on paper, 18 x 12 inches. Photo by Gary Mamay. Courtesy of The Drawing Room. July 2, 1972 by Jack Youngerman, 1972. Dr. Martin's watercolor on paper, 23 x 29 inches. Photo by Gary Mamay. Courtesy of The Drawing Room. Crucifer (study) by Jack Youngerman, 2008. Gouache on paper, 14 1/2 x 14 1/8 inches. Photo by Gary Mamay. Courtesy of The Drawing Room. Green/Orange/Blue by Jack Youngerman, 2010. Gouache on handmade Japanese paper, 13 x 11 5/8 inches. Photo by Gary Mamay. Courtesy of The Drawing Room. BASIC FACTS: “Jack Youngerman: Works on Paper 1951-2012” opened on May 3, 2013 and remains on view through June 3, 2013 at The Drawing Room. The gallery is located at 66H Newtown Lane, East Hampton, NY 11937. www.drawingroom-gallery.com. RELATED: "Art Review: Jack Youngerman's Visual Language" by Gabrielle Selz. Published May 10, 2013. © 2013 Hamptons Art Hub LLC. All rights reserved. “Robert Motherwell: The East Hampton Years, 1944-1952” at Guild Hall A Roy Newell Show Reveals an Abstract Painter Worth Knowing In Pictures: Ellsworth Kelly’s Singular Forms	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line777
__label__wiki	0.704684	0.704684	A Take on Chicago’s Architecture with Wayne Johnson and Christopher Grubb at NeoCon 2018 Chicago, the host city of NeoCon since its beginning back in the 1960s, is known throughout the United States and the world for its original and varying architecture. By Tina Jepson Chicago, the host city of NeoCon since its beginning back in the 1960s, is known throughout the United States and the world for its original and varying architecture. And since the House Tipster team, along with our friend, trade show expert, and renowned interior and product designer Christopher Grubb, just so happened to be in the Windy City for this annual event, we knew we had to talk to one of the most passionate voices on the local architecture: Wayne Johnson. Wayne is known throughout Chicago and the surrounding region for his entertaining and informative “Wayne’s Weekend” segments on NBC. He was also won the Today’s Show “Domestic Diva” award and is a local chef. But it’s his zeal for architecture and his role with both the Chicago Architecture Foundation and the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust that brought him to 2018’s NeoCon at The Merchandise Mart. Although we’re putting the finishing touches on the exclusive video interview now, you can read excerpts from the conversation here. Christopher Grubb (C.G.): If you’re a local here in Chicago, then you know Wayne Johnson from “Wayne’s Weekend” on NBC. Wayne is also a chef with a passion for architecture. Wayne, you’re even a docent at the Robie House. Tell us about your role at the Robie House. Wayne Johnson (W.J.): I’ve been a docent at the Robie House for six years, and right now, the house is in the middle of a restoration. The house designed in 1908 in Frank Lloyd Wright’s characteristic Prairie Style. The early 1900s were a great time for architecture. C.G. Chicago also is known for its urban living, and to me, Marina City stands out. W.J.: Yes! Marina City was built between 1959 and 1967, and the architect was Bertrand Goldberg. He wanted to design a complex that brought people into the city and away from the suburbs, but still had the same amenities as the suburbs. There’s a marina, a movie theater, an office building and two wonderful towers. He thought of the towers like trees when he was designing them, with the core of the building as the trunk, and the balconies like the leaves. C.G.: Chicago is one of my favorite cities because of the architecture. I’ve seen a lot of building repurposing here, such as the Palmolive Building becoming the Playboy Building. In 30 years, it’s estimated that around 70% of people will live in the “city.” What type of movements in urban living have you seen? W.J.: There is a lot of adaptive reuse here, and that’s because we have so many wonderful buildings in downtown Chicago, but they’re not designed in a way that makes them commercially successful. As a result, many have become residential. C.G: You are also a docent on the Chicago Architectural Foundation River Tour. Can you tell us about the tour? W.J.: What’s so fascinating is that here in Chicago, we have buildings on both sides of the river as it goes through the heart of downtown. In fact, I talk about 70 buildings during a 90-minute cruise! C.G.: What are some of the new things happening developmentally and style-wise here in Chicago? W.J.: There’s a new building called Vista, which was designed by Jeanne Gang from Studio Gang Architects. Vista is the third tallest building in the city, and it’s residential. It’s really amazing that out of the three tallest buildings in the city, two are residential. Vista actually won a PETA award because it’s designed to keep birds from flying into it! There are a number of planned developments happening as well, including Lakeshore East and Southbank. Overall, I really love the playful postmodern buildings. As you can see, Chicago is full of amazing architecture, and it was great to learn more about the city and its architectural evolution through the eyes of Wayne Johnson. Next time you’re in the area, don’t hesitate to book one of over 80 tours offered by the Chicago Architecture Foundation . Next: An Insider’s Look at NeoCon 2018 with Byron Morton, VP of Leasing christopher grubb	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line782
__label__wiki	0.768553	0.768553	Bravery, Love, Fights, Laughs & Vegans The Inaugural IAWRT African Film Festival introduced an amazing diversity of black women: trendy fashonistas in Manhattan; a woman who takes on champion wrestlers in a Burkina Faso village; an Egyptian woman taking us through the unrest and a South African 'virgin-vegan'. Women questioned or tested their relationships, their sexuality, and women’s roles in their homes, in their cultures and in politics. The well curated presentation of features and documentaries at the Bioscope in Johannesburg, South Africa, on the 28th and 29th of October, 2016, featured African based and expatriate women producers, along with two IAWRT produced international documentaries. It well and truly addressed the lack of diversity and women’s voices in film, with passion humour and skill. Members of IAWRT from around the world attended opening night at the independent film house in trendy Fox St, Maboneng, which featured Africa’s first screening of the acclaimed film In the Morning, directed by Nefertite Nguvu (pic left with Sara Chitambo, South African IAWRT Chapter head and Regional Conference and film festival team-leader). The delegates had come from several days of stimulating discussion about strategies to reduce the under-representation of women in African media, both as content producers and sources of stories. The limited range of portrayals of women is constantly being battled (and addressed) in numerous innovative ways by female media professionals. However, the power of independent producers to break down barriers was wonderfully portrayed at this film festival. Nguvu’s debut feature-film examining love, friendship and marriage and it's change and decline in a group of nine friends, took place over the course of 24 hours in Brooklyn, New York. The U.S. director told the audience that the crowd- funded drama was partially promoted by her exhaustion with the one-dimensional portrayal of black women on US Television. She wanted to examine love and its dimensions, through "regular folk". And she simply wanted to examine the timeless questions about love. Members of the audience were appreciative of her ability to create likeable, multi-dimensional black male characters who did not live lives of constant violent conflict. In the Morning has received a number of accolades including the jury award for 'Best International Film' at Siena, Italy’s 1st annual Terra Di Siena Film Festival "for the great ability in directing a convincing ensemble ... with great skill and direction, penetrating into the depths of human soul." The audience was taken on a completely different direction with a much lower budget, village-based documentary, The Fight Goes On by Laurentine Bayala from Burkina Faso. Notwithstanding the title, it was not dealing with the wider conflict in that country, but the universal violence of the uneven division of labour in the home between males and females. The ensuing battle, both physical and psychological, between the macho wrestlers of the village and their strong wives ended with an unrepentantly gentle twist. Another award-winning film from an expatriate director, Cameroon born Canadian, Dorothy Atabong, Sounds of Tears, is a heart-breaking portrayal of forbidden love and the perpetuation of patriarchal notions of shame, which lead to murders by family members. So-called honour killings are continuing even in more liberal cultures such as Canada. The South African section, in many ways had a lighter touch, whilst again effectively highlighting the frustrations and loneliness associated with cultural and religious impositions on women. The three selections were funded by the National Film and Video Foundation, an agency of the South African Department of Arts and Culture, as part of the Blingola female filmmaker project. The delightful short film, A Groom's Price by Mmabatho Monthso, has Meme and her two aunties, who she dragoons in to help her, using her own finances to pay a groom price for her long-term boyfriend, Musa. He cannot propose because he can’t afford the bride price. The quirky short film pokes fun at the continued existence of Lobola (originally it was paying a bride price in cattle) in the modern South African economy. In the wonderfully titled Virgin Vegan, Reabetswe Moeti also approaches women making their own choices. The sitcom writer uses her skills to tell a story about the diaspora and young people challenging cultural understandings , with a large dose of familial love. Our hero Thato returns to her township in Limpopo province to face a huge table of carfully prepared meats prepared to celebrate her return from the UK with an Masters in Business Administration. Unfortunatley she has changed and now observes a strict vegan diet, while her family expects her to lead their butchery business. Of course, misunderstandings lead to things going hilariously awry, when her family mishears 'vegan' as for “virgin” and tries to 'fix' the problem. The delicate and moving UNomalanga and the Witch, the winner of the Best Short Film Award in 2015 at the Durban International Film Festival, took a more gentle turn. it was revealing about the loneliness of outsiders, and women trying to fulfil roles they may not be meant for. It portrays a friendship between a newly married woman and a mysterious neighbour who is shunned by the local community. Ultimately the relationship develops into love and desire, in a community which is unlikely forgive their transgressions. The festival also gave voice to a Queer women project, playing a loop of Straightup Media's Pink Shorts between films. The group responsible, Jen, Keke, Dez, Didi and Dutwice have shot ten episodes this year, mostly featuring the queer women answering questions as ‘regular folk’ on everything from being single, to gender roles, to who likes what in the bedroom. (available on YouTube). The feature film The Trace of the Butterfly brought the audience back to the pain of loss and bravery of those involved in the civil unrest and the consequent killings of demonstrators which Egyptians suffered after the 25 January revolution. The award winning documentary by Amal Ramsis begins after the massive response to the death of Mina Daniel eight months later, at the Maspero massacre in October 2011. It traces the impact of the death of an activistw ho styled himself after his hero Che Gevara, through his surviving sister, Mary. The director's interest was piqued by Mary publicly accusing the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) of killing her brother and 27 other Coptic Christians during a peaceful march. Mary had held a red flag with Mina’s photo on it, in every march, since then. The Trace of the Butterfly was shot over two years of unrest, providing an intimate view of many activists of all religions, who are not generally known as heroes, at home and in the streets, . In the process the film documents the sufferings and struggles that women go through in a society like Egypt, along with the pain of losing someone close, and the ways of dealing with it. The Festival also showcased IAWRT'S documentaries Reflecting her (available by contacting secretariat@iawrt.org) and Hands on - Women Change - women seeking solutions which can be viewed here. Media coverage: http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/11/festival-spotlights-african-women-filmmakers/ HER AFRICA! Film Festival Screening Schedule.pdf 300.86 KB	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line783
__label__wiki	0.730769	0.730769	Browse: Home / Spirituality / Prophets, saints and spiritualists Many notable spiritual leaders, prophets and saints experienced voices and visions, here are some examples (click on the name for more information): Saint Birgitta of Sweden Joseph Caro Saint Catherine of Siena Evagrius Ponticus Margery Kempe Emanuel Swedenborg Abraham whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. According to both the Hebrew Bible and the Qur’an, through his sons Ishmael and Isaac, Abraham is the forefather of many tribes, namely the Ishmaelites, Israelites, Midianites and Edomites. Abraham was a descendant of Noah’s son, Shem. Christians believe that Jesus was a descendant of Abraham through Isaac, and Muslims believe that Muhammad was a descendant of Abraham through Ishmael. Abraham is notable for his advocation and promotion of monotheism. God appeared to Abram and told him to depart. After settling in Haran, where his father Terah died, God then told Abram to leave his country and his father’s house for a land that He would show him, promising to make of him a great nation, bless him, make his name great, bless those who blessed him, and curse those who cursed him. (Genesis 12:1–3) Following God’s command, at age 75, Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and the wealth and persons that they had acquired, and traveled to Shechem in Canaan. God appeared and said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram left as he was told. He was seventy-five years old at the time. Later on through his travels God spoke to him again, saying that he was confirming their covenant. That it will be kept with Abraham and his descendants. In exchange for land for his family to flourish, every male along them shall be circumcised as a sign of the covenant. Anthony the Great or Antony the Great (ca. 251–356), also known as Saint Anthony and Father of All Monks, was a Christian saint from Egypt, a prominent leader among the Desert Fathers. He is celebrated in many churches on his feast days: 30 January in the Old-Calendar Eastern Orthodox Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church; 17 January in the New-Calendar Eastern Orthodox Church, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Coptic Catholic Church. The biography of Anthony’s life by Athanasius of Alexandria helped to spread the concept of monasticism, particularly in Western Europe through Latin translations. He is often erroneously considered the first monk, but as his biography and other sources make clear, there were many ascetics before him. Anthony was, however, the first known ascetic going into the wilderness (about A.D. 270–271), a geographical move that seems to have contributed to his renown. Accounts of Anthony enduring supernatural temptation during his sojourn in the Libyan Desert inspired the often-repeated subject of the temptation of St. Anthony in Western art and literature. According to Athanasius, Saint Anthony heard a voice telling him, “Go out and see.” He went out and saw an angel who wore a girdle with a cross, one resembling the holy Eskiem (Tonsure or Schema), and on his head was a head cover (Kolansowa). He was sitting while braiding palm leaves, then he stood up to pray, and again he sat to weave. A voice came to him saying, “Anthony, do this and you will rest.” Henceforth, he started to wear this tunic that he saw, and began to weave palm leaves, and never got bored again. Saint Anthony prophesied about the persecution that was about to happen to the church and the control of the heretics over it, the church victory and its return to its formal glory, and the end of the age. When Saint Macarius visited Saint Anthony, Saint Anthony clothed him with the monk’s garb, and foretold him what would be of him. When the day drew near of the departure of Saint Paul the First Hermit in the desert, Saint Anthony went to him and buried him, after clothing him in a tunic which was a present from St Athanasius the Apostolic, the 20th Patriarch of Alexandria. Augustine was born in 354 in the municipium of Thagaste (now Souk Ahras, Algeria) in Roman Africa. His father, Patricius, was a pagan, and his mother, Monica, was Christian. Scholars believe that Augustine’s ancestors included Berbers, Latins and Phoenicians. In the summer of 386, after having heard the story of Placianus about his and his friends’ first reading of the life of Saint Anthony of the Desert, which greatly inspired him, Augustine underwent a profound personal crisis, leading him to convert to catholic Christianity, abandon his career in rhetoric, quit his teaching position in Milan, give up any ideas of marriage, and devote himself entirely to serving God and to the practices of priesthood, which included celibacy. According to Augustine his conversion was prompted by a childlike voice he heard telling him in a sing-song voice, “Take up and read”. More information here. Saint Birgitta (Bridget) of Sweden Bridget of Sweden (1303 – 23 July 1373; also Birgitta of Vadstena, Saint Birgitta (Swedish: den heliga Birgitta or Birgitta Birgersdotter), was a mystic and saint, and founder of the Bridgettines nuns and monks after the death of her husband of twenty years. She was also the mother of Catherine of Vadstena. She is one of the six patron saints of Europe, together with Benedict of Nursia, Saints Cyril and Methodius, Catherine of Siena and Edith Stein. As a child, she had already believed herself to have visions; these now became more frequent, and her records of these “Revelationes coelestes” (“Celestial revelations”) which were translated into Latin by Matthias, canon of Linköping, and by her confessor, Peter, prior of Alvastra, obtained a great vogue during the Middle Ages. Her visions of the Nativity of Jesus had a great influence on depictions of the Nativity of Jesus in art. Shortly before her death, she described a vision which included the infant Jesus as lying on the ground, and emitting light himself, and describes the Virgin as blond-haired; many depictions followed this and reduced other light sources in the scene to emphasize this effect, and the Nativity remained very commonly treated with chiaroscuro through to the Baroque. Other details often seen such as a single candle “attached to the wall,” and the presence of God the Father above, also come from Bridget’s vision: …the Virgin knelt down with great veneration in an attitude of prayer, and her back was turned to the manger…. And while she was standing thus in prayer, I saw the child in her womb move and suddenly in a moment she gave birth to her son, from whom radiated such an ineffable light and splendour, that the sun was not comparable to it, nor did the candle that St. Joseph had put there, give any light at all, the divine light totally annihilating the material light of the candle…. I saw the glorious infant lying on the ground naked and shining. His body was pure from any kind of soil and impurity. Then I heard also the singing of the angels, which was of miraculous sweetness and great beauty… After this the Virgin kneels to pray to her child, to be joined by St. Joseph, and this (technically known as the Adoration of the Child) becomes one of the commonest depictions in the fifteenth century, largely replacing the reclining Virgin in the West. Versions of this depiction occur as early as 1300, well before Bridget’s vision, and have a Franciscan origin, by which she may have been influenced, as she was a member of the Franciscan Order. Her visions of Purgatory were also well known. Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, also spelled Yosef Caro, or Qaro, (Toledo, 1488 – Safed, 1575) was author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the Shulchan Aruch, which is still authoritative for all Jews pertaining to their respective communities. To this end he is often referred to as HaMechaber (Hebrew: “The Author”) and as Maran (Aramaic: “Our Master”). Karo’s literary works are considered among the masterpieces of rabbinic literature. The Maggid Meisharim (1646; “Preacher of Righteousness”), another major work, a strange and mystical diary, is a kind of diary in which Karo during a period of fifty years recorded the nocturnal visits of an angelic being, his heavenly mentor, the personified Mishna (the authoritative collection of Jewish Oral Law). His visitor spurred him to acts of righteousness and even asceticism, exhorted him to study the Kabbala, and reproved him for moral laxities. The discussions treat of various subjects. The maggid enjoins Karo to be modest in the extreme, to say his prayers with the utmost devotion, to be gentle and patient always. Especial stress is laid on asceticism; and Karo is often severely rebuked for taking more than one glass of wine, or for eating meat. Whenever Karo did not follow the severe instructions of his maggid, he suddenly heard its warning voice. His mentor also advised him in family affairs, told him what reputation he enjoyed in heaven, and praised or criticized his decisions in religious questions. Karo received new ideas from his maggid in regard to the Kabbala Saint David (c. 500–589) (Welsh: Dewi Sant) was a Welsh Bishop during the 6th century; he was later regarded as a saint and as the patron saint of Wales. David was a native of Wales, and a relatively large amount of information is known about his life. He lived a simple life and practiced asceticism, teaching his followers to refrain from eating meat or drinking beer. His symbol, also the symbol of Wales, is the leek (this is questioned by some authorities and largely comes from reference in Shakespeare’s Henry V, VI 1). His emblem is a dove. Through his leadership, many monks went forth to evangelise Wales, Ireland, Cornwall and Armorica (Brittany and surrounding provinces). The story goes that David prayed for his people to have some warning of their death, so that they could prepare themselves. In a vision, David’s wish was granted and told that from then on, people who lived in the land of Dewi Sant (Saint David) “would be forewarned by the dim light of mysterious tapers when and where the death might be expected.” More information here. Saint Francis of Assisi (born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone; 1181/1182 – October 3, 1226) was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men’s Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis. St. Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history. Francis was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant in Assisi, and he lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi. While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life. After a pilgrimage to Rome, where he begged at the church doors for the poor, he said he had a mystical vision of Jesus Christ in the Church of San Damiano just outside of Assisi, in which the Icon of Christ Crucified said to him, “Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins.” More information here. In July 592 BCE, at the age of 30, Ezekiel describes his calling to be a prophet, by going into great detail about his encounter with God who rode upon a chariot of four wheels guided by Cherubs. For the next five years he incessantly prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, which was met with some opposition and drama. However, Ezekiel and his contemporaries like Jeremiah, another prophet who was living in Jerusalem at that time, witnessed the fulfillment of their prophecies when Jerusalem was finally sacked by the Babylonians in 587 BCE. Ezekiel was 50 years old when he began to have visions of a new Temple. He served as a prophet for at least 22 years until, according to scriptures, it is believed Ezekiel’s last encounter with God occurred in April 570 BCE.His time of death has not been recorded. More information here Mahatma Gandhi, the man who almost single handedly achieved Indian independence from Britain, relied on an “inner voice” for guidance. Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 17 September 1179), also known asSaint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. Elected a magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play. Hildegard says that she first saw “The Shade of the Living Light” at the age of three, and by the age of five she began to understand that she was experiencing visions. She used the term ‘visio’ to this feature of her experience, and recognized that it was a gift that she could not explain to others. Hildegard explained that she saw all things in the light of God through the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, confiding only to Jutta, who in turn told Volmar, Hildegard’s tutor and, later, secretary. Throughout her life, she continued to have many visions, and in 1141, at the age of 42, Hildegard received a vision she believed to be an instruction from God, to “write down that which you see and hear.” Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of Scivias were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering and tribulations.[ The temptation of Christ is detailed in the Gospels of Matthew,, and Luke. According to these texts, after beingbaptized, Jesus fasted for forty days and nights in the Judean desert. During this time, the devil appeared to Jesus and tempted him. Jesus having refused each temptation, the devil departed and angels came and brought nourishment to Jesus. Joseph Smith, Jr. (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, which gave rise to Mormonism. Smith is regarded by his followers as a prophet. According to Smith, beginning in the early 1820s he had visions, in one of which an angel directed him to a buried book of golden plates, inscribed with a Christian history of ancient American civilizations. In 1830, he published an English translation of these plates as the Book of Mormon, and organized the Church of Christ, as the restoration of the early Christian church. Church members were later called Latter Day Saints, Saints, or Mormons. According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born in a time when his people, the , were increasing in number and the Egyptian Pharaoh was worried that they might help Egypt’s enemies. Moses’ Hebrew mother, Jochebed, hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed, and the child was adopted as a foundling by the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slave-master, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian where he encountered the God of Israel in the form of a “burning bush“. One day, Moses led his flock to Mount Horeb (Exodus 3), usually identified with Mount Sinai — a mountain that was thought in the Middle Ages to be located on the Sinai Peninsula. There he saw a bush that burned, but was not consumed. When Moses came to look more closely, God spoke to him from the bush, revealing his name to Moses. God commanded Moses to go to Egypt and deliver his fellow Hebrews from bondage. Muhammed Muhammad (c 26 April 570 – 8 June 632 also transliterated as Mohammad, Mohammed, or Muhammed‎), full name: Muhammad Ibn `Abd Allāh Ibn `Abd al-Muttalib was the founder of the religion of Islam. He is considered by Muslims and Bahá’ís to be a messenger and prophet of God, and by Muslims the last law-bearer in a series of Islamic prophets. Most Muslims consider him to be the last prophet of God as taught by the Quran. Muslims thus consider him the restorer of an uncorrupted original monotheistic faith (islām) of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets. Born in 570 CE in the Arabian city of Mecca he was orphaned at an early age and brought up under the care of his uncle Abu Talib. He later worked mostly as a merchant, as well as a shepherd, and was first married by age 25. Discontented with life in Mecca, he retreated to a cave in the surrounding mountains for meditation and reflection. According to Islamic beliefs it was here, at age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that “God is One”, that complete “surrender” to Him (lit. islām) is the only way (dīn) acceptable to God, and that he himself was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as other Islamic prophets. Muhammad adopted the practice of meditating alone for several weeks every year in a cave on Mount Hira near Mecca. Islamic tradition holds that during one of his visits to Mount Hira, the angel Gabriel appeared to him in the year 610 and commanded Muhammad to recite the following verses: Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created- Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood: Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,- He Who taught (the use of) the pen,- —Quran, sura 96 (Al-Alaq), ayat 1-5 After returning home, Muhammad was consoled and reassured by Khadijah and her Christian cousin, Waraqah ibn Nawfal. Upon receiving his first revelations, he was deeply distressed and resolved to commit suicide. He also feared that others would dismiss his claims as being possessed. Shi’a tradition maintains that Muhammad was neither surprised nor frightened at the appearance of Gabriel but rather welcomed him as if he had been expecting him. The initial revelation was followed by a pause of three years during which Muhammad further gave himself to prayers and spiritual practices. When the revelations resumed he was reassured and commanded to begin preaching: “Thy Guardian-Lord hath not forsaken thee, nor is He displeased.” Sahih Bukhari narrates Muhammad describing the revelations as, “Sometimes it is (revealed) like the ringing of a bell” and Aisha reported, “I saw the Prophet being inspired Divinely on a very cold day and noticed the sweat dropping from his forehead (as the Inspiration was over)”. According to the writings in the New Testament, Paul was known as Saul prior to his conversion, and was dedicated to the persecution of the early disciples of Jesus in the area of Jerusalem. While traveling from Jerusalem to Damascus on a mission to “bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem”, the resurrected Jesus appeared to him in a great light. Saul was struck blind, but after three days his sight was restored by Ananias of Damascus, and Paul began to preach that Jesus of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah and the Son of God. Saint Patrick (387 – 460) was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland. When he was about 16, he was captured from Wales by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After entering the Roman Catholic Church, he returned to Ireland as an ordained bishop in the north and west of the island, but little is known about the places where he worked. By the seventh century, he had come to be revered as the patron saint of Ireland. As a slave in Ireland Patrick worked as a herdsman, remaining a captive for six years. He writes that his faith grew in captivity, and that he prayed daily. After six years he heard a voice telling him that he would soon go home, and then that his ship was ready. Fleeing his master, he travelled to a port, two hundred miles away he says, where he found a ship and, after various adventures, returned home to his family, now in his early twenties. Patrick also recounts that he had a vision a few years after returning home: I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: “The Voice of the Irish”. As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: “We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us. Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 – 1772) Swedenborg was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic and theologian. Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. At the age of fifty-six he entered into a spiritual phase, in which he experienced dreams and visions. Saint Joan of Arc Saint Joan’s “voices” have been interpreted in a variety of ways. It seems extremely unlikely from all accounts that she simply made up a claim of hearing voices for the sake of theatricality and attention. Saint John of the Cross St John of the Cross has been called the greatest psychologist in the history of mysticism. He was a member of the Catholic Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which was characterised by prayer, silence, meditation and contemplation. Just like the early Desert Hermits, silence and contemplation seems to have opened the door to voices and visions for St John. Teresa was firmly convinced that Jesus Christ presented himself to her in bodily form, though invisible. These visions lasted almost uninterrupted for more than two years. In another vision, a seraph drove the fiery point of a golden lance repeatedly through her heart, causing an ineffable spiritual-bodily pain. John Wesley (1703 – 2 March 1791) was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching. At the age of five, Wesley was rescued from the burning rectory. This escape made a deep impression on his mind, and he regarded himself as providentially set apart, as a “brand plucked from the burning” quoting Zechariah 3:2. In 1738, John Wesley, now a thirty-five year old Anglican minister, had a spiritual awakening after re-reading the Epistle to the Romans by St Paul, along with a preface by Martin Luther. He realized that true religion is seated in the heart. Wesley wrote: “the real nature of true religion did not consist in orthodox or right opinions, but deeper still, even in the hidden man of the heart.” Regarding voices, John Wesley’s counsel was: “Do not hastily ascribe things to God. Do not easily suppose dreams, voices, impressions, visions, or revelations to be from God. They may be from Him. They may be from Nature. They may be from the devil. Therefore believe not every spirit, but ‘try the spirits whether they be from God.'” Ellen Gould White (November 26, 1827 – July 16, 1915) was a prolific author and an American Christian pioneer. She, along with formed what is now known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Ellen White reported to her fellow believers her visionary experiences. James White, and others of the Adventist pioneers, viewed these experiences as the Biblical gift of prophecy. Ellen White described her vision experiences as involving a bright light which would surround her and she felt herself in the presence of Jesus or angels who would show her events (historical and future) and places (on earth, in heaven, or other planets). The transcriptions of White’s visions generally contain theology, prophecy, or personal counsels to individuals or to Adventist leaders.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line788
__label__wiki	0.522975	0.522975	Browse: Home / Further Reading and Resources 1. Research Papers Beavan, V., Read, J., & Cartwright. C. (2011). The prevalence of voice-hearers in the general population: A literature review. Journal of Mental Health, 20(3), 281–292. Longden, E., Corstens, D., Escher, S., & Romme, M. (2012). Voice hearing in biographical context: A model for formulating the relationship between voices and life history. Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches, 4(3), 224-234. McCarthy-Jones, S., & Longden, E. (2013). The voices others cannot hear.The Psychologist, 26(8), 570-575. McCarthy-Jones, S. (2012). Hearing Voices: The Histories, Causes and Meanings of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Moskowitz, A., Schäfer, I, & Dorahy, M.J. (Eds). (2008). Psychosis, Trauma and Dissociation: Emerging Perspectives on Severe Psychopathology, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Romme, M. Escher, S. (Eds.). (2011). Psychosis as a Personal Crisis: An Experience Based Approach. London: Routledge Varese, F., Smeets, F., Drukker, M., et al. (2012). Childhood trauma increases the risk of psychosis: A meta-analysis of patient-control, prospective- and cross sectional cohort studies. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 38 (4), 661–671. Whitaker, R. (2010). Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America. New York: Crown. Further Research papers can be found here Engaging with Voices Literature Review Living With Voices: An Anthology of 50 Voice Hearers Stories of Recovery By: Prof Marius Romme, Dr Sandra Escher, Jacqui Dillon, Dr Dirk Corstens & Prof Mervyn Morris. Published by: PCCS Books, September 2009 A analysis of the hearing voices experience outside the illness model resulted in accepting and making sense of voices. This study of 50 stories forms the evidence for this successful new approach to working with voice hearers. At the heart of this book are the stories of fifty people who have recovered from the distress of hearing voices. They have overcome the disabling social and psychiatric attitudes towards voice hearing and have also fought with themselves to accept and make sense of the voices. They have changed their relationship with their voices in order to reclaim their lives. All the people in this book describe their recovery; how they now accept their voices as personal, and how they have learnt to cope with them and have changed their relationship with them. They have discovered that their voices are not a sign of madness but a reaction to problems in their lives that they couldn’t cope with, and they have found that there is a relationship between the voices and their life history, that the voices talk about problems that they haven’t dealt with – and that they therefore make sense. There are a wide range of other books and publications about the hearing voices approach that you can find here 3. Other Resources “Voices Matter” This documentary about the Hearing Voices Movement was filmed over the course of three days at the 2012 World Hearing Voices Congress in Cardiff, Wales. INTERVOICE FaceBook group The Hearing Voices Media Watch FaceBook page INTERVOICE Twitter account INTERVOICE Youtube Channel INTERVOICE Groups and Networks Google Map	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line789
__label__wiki	0.643829	0.643829	Insights & Data » South America » What it Takes to be a Top 10 Most Reputable Company in 2018 2018 marks an impactful year for reputation. In many ways, this year represents a strategic inflection point with an overall decline in reputation for the first time since the end of the Great Recession. With fake news, cybersecurity, corporate tax reforms, and gender equality grabbing the headlines, the measurement and management of reputation — its impact on corporate culture, and ultimately revenue — becomes an essential part of business success. Each year the Global RepTrak® 100, annually published by Forbes, measures the top 100 global corporate reputation results. The study showed us this year that some companies are better at navigating macro-economic and societal headwinds, earning themselves a top 10 ranking in the RepTrak® 100 study. The World’s Most Reputable Companies in 2018: Global RepTrak® 100 1. Rolex – Switzerland For the third consecutive year, the Switzerland-based creator of luxury watches is the most reputable company in the world. Well over a century old, Rolex is consistently committed to innovation. The brand is credited for developing the world’s first waterproof wristwatch, the first wristwatch with an automatically changing date, and the first wristwatch to tell time in multiple time zones. Rolex has a long history of optimizing influencer marketing. It is the official timekeeper of Wimbledon and the Australian Open. Aligning itself with people at the top of their game, most recently with their Creatives of Cinema campaign honoring established filmmakers, Rolex maintains its status symbol brand that redefines winning. Rolex RepTrak® Pulse Score: 79.3 2. The LEGO Group – Denmark The Lego Group is the second most reputable company in the world for the second consecutive year. As a consistent leader in transparency and societal contribution, Lego is the only company to have a strong RepTrak® score in governance and only one of four to hold a strong score in citizenship. Aligning its product with purpose has proven to be a winning strategy for LEGO. Its Planet Promise initiative replaces its plastic products with sustainable materials at once combining values on societal contributions with business transparency. LEGO RepTrak® Pulse Score: 77.9 3. Google – United States This year’s fastest top-ten riser, Google, jumped from fifth to third place. The technology behemoth remains a consistent top-performer in the reputation space. Its landmark innovations and trend-setting workplace culture continue to transform work and life as we know it. Google does not shy away from taking a firm stand on sometimes controversial issues. This year the company launched the #ShowUp platform in support of the LGBTQ community. Google’s formal list of commitments are too many to list but include education, employment, and women’s rights. Google’s first Founder’s Letter states the company’s goal is “to develop services that improve the lives of as many people as possible.” Continuing to match this ambitious objective with life-altering technological advances is what keeps Google’s reputation sky high. Google RepTrak® Pulse Score: 77.7 4. Canon – Japan Canon specializes in the manufacturing of imaging and optical products, most notably cameras, photocopiers, and computer printers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Canon has a long history of enacting innovative green initiatives. The company’s ongoing commitment to corporate social responsibility is evident in its annual sustainability report and, more specifically, through its Bird Branch Project and Action for Greenenvironmental activities. Canon RepTrak® Pulse Score: 77.4 5. The Walt Disney Company – United States Steeped in a legacy rich in creativity and with an unmatched vision nothing short of magic, the Walt Disney Company once again joins the ranks of the top 10 most reputable companies in the world. The Disney Conservation Fund continues to focus on saving wildlife and protecting the planet with a variety of funding opportunities, grant-giving, and resources. In 2017, Disney continued to push its environmental commitment by diverting 46% of waste from landfills while reducing its emissions by 41%. The recent merger announcement of The Walt Disney Company with 21st Century Fox promises an even more robust suite of entertainment products and services, likely rewarding investors who have enjoyed a generally upward trending stock since the early 2000s. The Walt Disney Company RepTrak® Pulse Score: 77.4 6. Sony – Japan With expertise in electronics, gaming, entertainment, and even medical and financial services, Sony continues to be a highly diversified global company in both the consumer and professional spaces. Sony has a long-standing commitment to environmental and community causes that continue to shape its overwhelmingly positive reputation. Sony’s corporate social responsibility theme is named “For the Next Generation.” It supports the Sony Science Program where Sony engineers educate children at interactive workshops focusing on science and technology. Sony RepTrak® Pulse Score: 77.3 7. Adidas – Germany Retail giant Adidas returns as a top 10 most reputable company in the world this year, no doubt coinciding with its continued commitment to human rights and sustainability roadmap. Named in 2017 for the 18th consecutive time to the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, Adidas is considered one of the leading sustainability-driven companies worldwide. Adidas is rated best-in-class across areas as impactful as environmental policy and management systems, corporate citizenship and philanthropy, and human rights among others. Adidas RepTrak® Pulse Score: 76.6 8. Robert Bosch – Germany Bosch is the largest supplier of automotive components and is a multinational engineering and electronics company. It is unique in that it is an extremely large private company almost entirely owned by a charitable foundation. Bosch continues to place both its internal and external stakeholders in high regard while at the same time pushing for aggressive environmental targets, sustainable product development, and ongoing commitments to education and community. Bosch RepTrak® Pulse Score: 76.4 9. BMW Group – Germany A newcomer to the to the top 10 most reputable companies, BMW Group is a multinational producer of automobiles and motorcycles. BMW Group maintains a committed focus to emissions reduction, having recently added more electric vehicles to their fleet than any manufacturer in Europe. In addition to its innovative products, BMW Group facilitates the BMW Foundation, designed to inspire and connect leaders while investing in impactful organizations. BMW Group RepTrak® Pulse Score: 76.1 10. Microsoft – United States This year, Microsoft rises up to rejoin the top 10 most reputable companies, most notably for its positive influence on society and thanks to its appealing leadership. CEO Satya Nadella recently stated that he thinks “it’s important for companies like [Microsoft] to have a set of principles.” Nadella has outwardly taken a stance on controversial and social issues like privacy, security, and immigration. This purpose-driven leadership is likely what continues to set Microsoft apart. Microsoft RepTrak® Pulse Score: 75.8 What Other Companies Can Learn From the Study: Key Reputation Takeaways These top most reputable companies in the world vary drastically by size, industry, location, and even ownership in some cases. But they do share some key trending components worth noting as best practices for organizations aiming to boost their own reputation. Regain the benefit of the doubt. Although reputation scores have nearly universally slipped in 2018, there’s time to win over the “fence-sitters” by taking a stand on matters important to your stakeholders. Equal rights, workplace culture, millennial strategies, and other intangibles are what will continue to push the needle in favor of corporate reputation. Link products to enterprise purpose. A business has to be more than the sum of its products and services. Leveraging product quality, behavioral ethics, acts of fairness, and positive societal influence helps build reputational reassurance. Communicate authentically. For CEOs the message is clear — be a leader who is genuinely engaged with the world beyond your company’s products and services. Proactively navigate social issues. Have an opinion, own it, and share it. Doing so builds reputational equity and mitigates against risk. Contact us for more information about the world’s most reputable companies in 2018. The 2018 Global RepTrak® 100 indicates that achieving an excellent reputation in today's world is increasin... Measuring, Mining, and Managing Reputation	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line790
__label__cc	0.667992	0.332008	Make an appointment 845-454-1942 info@hvhemeonc.com Nurse Practitioners and Physicians Assistants Biologics and Other Infusions Chemotherapy Overview And Nutrition Energy, Activity and Personal Care Dr Nelson, MD Dr Nelson received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School after completing his undergraduate degree at Stanford University After completing his Internal Medicine residency at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, he completed fellowship training in Hematology and Hemostasis at the New York Medical College. . His research in Blood Coagulation was supported by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. His 35 years in practice in association with the Westchester Medical Center has been devoted to helping patients with complex issues of advanced Hematology. Is special interest is in the area of Hemostasis and Thrombosis He is the Director of the Hematology Clinic at the Medical Center and has been Director of the hospital’s Hematotherapy program. He is the author of 50 articles chapters and abstracts covering diverse topics in the field of Hematology. For each of the last sixteen years Dr Nelson has had the distinction of being named by his physician peers as one of the New York metropolitan area’s and Westchester’s Best Doctors as published in the Castle Connelly Guide. Locations: Hawthorne Designed by Hudson Valley Digital Marketing \| Powered by Service Area Pro	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line794
__label__wiki	0.8579	0.8579	One terrorist group operates relatively unhindered in America -- it's not even on the State Department's watch list. Terror Training Camps On American Soil One terrorist group operates relatively unhindered in America — it’s not even on the State Department’s watch list. “We are fighting to destroy the enemy. We are dealing with evil at its roots and its roots are America.” So said the Pakistani Sheikh Muburak Gilani, leader of the jihad terrorist group Jamaat ul-Fuqra. And the way that he and his organization are “dealing with evil at its roots” is to set up jihad terror training camps all over the United States — often under the noses of government and law enforcement officials who are either indifferent or too hamstrung by political correctness to do anything about it. Sheikh Gilani is no shrinking violet, and Jamaat ul-Fuqra is a force to be reckoned with both in the United States and elsewhere. Journalist Daniel Pearl was on his way to interview Gilani when he was kidnapped and beheaded in 2002. The following year, a member of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, Iyman Faris, pled guilty to plotting to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge. In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security included the group among “predicted possible sponsors of attacks” on American soil. And in 2006, the Department of Justice reported that Jamaat ul-Fuqra “has more than 35 suspected communes and more than 3,000 members spread across the United States, all in support of one goal: the purification of Islam through violence.” That means, of course, violence against unbelievers. Yet despite the fact that Justice and the DHS are obviously aware of what is going on, Jamaat ul-Fuqra continues to operate, relatively unhindered, in the United States. A new documentary from the Christian Action Network, Homegrown Jihad: The Terrorist Camps Around the U.S., tells the whole shocking story. CAN spent two years visiting many of these Jamaat ul-Fuqra terror compounds, at great risk to network personnel. The documentary filmmakers dared to go inside these camps, cameras rolling, to ask compound leaders pointed questions about who they were and what they were doing. The documentary reveals that these compounds are dedicated to the training of Muslims in terrorist activities. Most of these camps are tucked away in remote rural areas — Hancock, N.y., Red House, Va. — as far away from the watchful eye of law enforcement as possible. And what goes on in them is truly hair-raising: a training video that the network obtained shows American Muslims receiving training in how to fire AK-47 rifles and machine guns, and how to use rocket launchers, mortars, and explosives, as well as training in kidnapping, the murder of hostages, sabotage, and subversive operations. Yet the State Department doesn’t include Jamaat ul-Fuqra on its Foreign Terrorist Organization Watch List. And so far the mainstream media’s reaction to the documentary has run from indifferent to hostile. CBS News ran a hit piece on the film last Wednesday, saying that “officials describe the film to CBS News as ‘sensationalistic’ and without any real foundation. According to one official, it is strictly designed to upset and inflame people and does not present a true picture of any so-called ‘homegrown Jihad’ danger. No current intelligence exists to suggest any threat connected with this group, which officials describe as ‘wannabes’ and not terrorists.” No current intelligence? Someone should notify the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, which currently has posted on its website a page about Jamaat ul-Fuqra. “In addition to being suspected of committing numerous acts of domestic terrorism,” it says, “FUQRA members in the United States have been suspected of committing fraud against various governmental entitlement programs in an effort to financially support their activities.” And “FUQRA or its members have been investigated for alleged terrorist acts including murder and arson in New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, Toronto, Denver, Los Angeles and Tucson. UL FUQRA is suspected of more than thirteen firebombings and, at least, as many murders within the United States.” The Homegrown Jihad documentary, which premiered last week in Washington, does a great service in shedding light on this group’s activities. We can only hope that American law enforcement officials wake up out of their politically correct fever dream in time to close these camps and end once and for all the possibility that these jihadists could mount an attack on American citizens. Three Republican Governors May Reject Stimulus Cash ACORN and Obama: Together Again Written By Robert Spencer Mr. Spencer is director of Jihad Watch and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad, Stealth Jihad and The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran (all from Regnery-a HUMAN EVENTS sister company).	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line796
__label__cc	0.535554	0.464446	The Federalist No. 64: The Powers of the Senate Independent Journal To the People of the State of New York: IT IS a just and not a new observation, that enemies to particular persons, and opponents to particular measures, seldom confine their censures to such things only in either as are worthy of blame. Unless on this principle, it is difficult to explain the motives of their conduct, who condemn the proposed Constitution in the aggregate, and treat with severity some of the most unexceptionable articles in it. The second section gives power to the President, “by and with the advice and consent of the senate, to make treaties, PROVIDED TWO THIRDS OF THE SENATORS PRESENT CONCUR.” The power of making treaties is an important one, especially as it relates to war, peace, and commerce; and it should not be delegated but in such a mode, and with such precautions, as will afford the highest security that it will be exercised by men the best qualified for the purpose, and in the manner most conducive to the public good. The convention appears to have been attentive to both these points: they have directed the President to be chosen by select bodies of electors, to be deputed by the people for that express purpose; and they have committed the appointment of senators to the State legislatures. This mode has, in such cases, vastly the advantage of elections by the people in their collective capacity, where the activity of party zeal, taking the advantage of the supineness, the ignorance, and the hopes and fears of the unwary and interested, often places men in office by the votes of a small proportion of the electors. As the select assemblies for choosing the President, as well as the State legislatures who appoint the senators, will in general be composed of the most enlightened and respectable citizens, there is reason to presume that their attention and their votes will be directed to those men only who have become the most distinguished by their abilities and virtue, and in whom the people perceive just grounds for confidence. The Constitution manifests very particular attention to this object. By excluding men under thirty-five from the first office, and those under thirty from the second, it confines the electors to men of whom the people have had time to form a judgment, and with respect to whom they will not be liable to be deceived by those brilliant appearances of genius and patriotism, which, like transient meteors, sometimes mislead as well as dazzle. If the observation be well founded, that wise kings will always be served by able ministers, it is fair to argue, that as an assembly of select electors possess, in a greater degree than kings, the means of extensive and accurate information relative to men and characters, so will their appointments bear at least equal marks of discretion and discernment. The inference which naturally results from these considerations is this, that the President and senators so chosen will always be of the number of those who best understand our national interests, whether considered in relation to the several States or to foreign nations, who are best able to promote those interests, and whose reputation for integrity inspires and merits confidence. With such men the power of making treaties may be safely lodged. Although the absolute necessity of system, in the conduct of any business, is universally known and acknowledged, yet the high importance of it in national affairs has not yet become sufficiently impressed on the public mind. They who wish to commit the power under consideration to a popular assembly, composed of members constantly coming and going in quick succession, seem not to recollect that such a body must necessarily be inadequate to the attainment of those great objects, which require to be steadily contemplated in all their relations and circumstances, and which can only be approached and achieved by measures which not only talents, but also exact information, and often much time, are necessary to concert and to execute. It was wise, therefore, in the convention to provide, not only that the power of making treaties should be committed to able and honest men, but also that they should continue in place a sufficient time to become perfectly acquainted with our national concerns, and to form and introduce a a system for the management of them. The duration prescribed is such as will give them an opportunity of greatly extending their political information, and of rendering their accumulating experience more and more beneficial to their country. Nor has the convention discovered less prudence in providing for the frequent elections of senators in such a way as to obviate the inconvenience of periodically transferring those great affairs entirely to new men; for by leaving a considerable residue of the old ones in place, uniformity and order, as well as a constant succession of official information will be preserved. There are a few who will not admit that the affairs of trade and navigation should be regulated by a system cautiously formed and steadily pursued; and that both our treaties and our laws should correspond with and be made to promote it. It is of much consequence that this correspondence and conformity be carefully maintained; and they who assent to the truth of this position will see and confess that it is well provided for by making concurrence of the Senate necessary both to treaties and to laws. It seldom happens in the negotiation of treaties, of whatever nature, but that perfect secrecy and immediate despatch are sometimes requisite. These are cases where the most useful intelligence may be obtained, if the persons possessing it can be relieved from apprehensions of discovery. Those apprehensions will operate on those persons whether they are actuated by mercenary or friendly motives; and there doubtless are many of both descriptions, who would rely on the secrecy of the President, but who would not confide in that of the Senate, and still less in that of a large popular Assembly. The convention have done well, therefore, in so disposing of the power of making treaties, that although the President must, in forming them, act by the advice and consent of the Senate, yet he will be able to manage the business of intelligence in such a manner as prudence may suggest. They who have turned their attention to the affairs of men, must have perceived that there are tides in them; tides very irregular in their duration, strength, and direction, and seldom found to run twice exactly in the same manner or measure. To discern and to profit by these tides in national affairs is the business of those who preside over them; and they who have had much experience on this head inform us, that there frequently are occasions when days, nay, even when hours, are precious. The loss of a battle, the death of a prince, the removal of a minister, or other circumstances intervening to change the present posture and aspect of affairs, may turn the most favorable tide into a course opposite to our wishes. As in the field, so in the cabinet, there are moments to be seized as they pass, and they who preside in either should be left in capacity to improve them. So often and so essentially have we heretofore suffered from the want of secrecy and despatch, that the Constitution would have been inexcusably defective, if no attention had been paid to those objects. Those matters which in negotiations usually require the most secrecy and the most despatch, are those preparatory and auxiliary measures which are not otherwise important in a national view, than as they tend to facilitate the attainment of the objects of the negotiation. For these, the President will find no difficulty to provide; and should any circumstance occur which requires the advice and consent of the Senate, he may at any time convene them. Thus we see that the Constitution provides that our negotiations for treaties shall have every advantage which can be derived from talents, information, integrity, and deliberate investigations, on the one hand, and from secrecy and despatch on the other. But to this plan, as to most others that have ever appeared, objections are contrived and urged. Some are displeased with it, not on account of any errors or defects in it, but because, as the treaties, when made, are to have the force of laws, they should be made only by men invested with legislative authority. These gentlemen seem not to consider that the judgments of our courts, and the commissions constitutionally given by our governor, are as valid and as binding on all persons whom they concern, as the laws passed by our legislature. All constitutional acts of power, whether in the executive or in the judicial department, have as much legal validity and obligation as if they proceeded from the legislature; and therefore, whatever name be given to the power of making treaties, or however obligatory they may be when made, certain it is, that the people may, with much propriety, commit the power to a distinct body from the legislature, the executive, or the judicial. It surely does not follow, that because they have given the power of making laws to the legislature, that therefore they should likewise give them the power to do every other act of sovereignty by which the citizens are to be bound and affected. Others, though content that treaties should be made in the mode proposed, are averse to their being the supreme laws of the land. They insist, and profess to believe, that treaties like acts of assembly, should be repealable at pleasure. This idea seems to be new and peculiar to this country, but new errors, as well as new truths, often appear. These gentlemen would do well to reflect that a treaty is only another name for a bargain, and that it would be impossible to find a nation who would make any bargain with us, which should be binding on them absolutely, but on us only so long and so far as we may think proper to be bound by it. They who make laws may, without doubt, amend or repeal them; and it will not be disputed that they who make treaties may alter or cancel them; but still let us not forget that treaties are made, not by only one of the contracting parties, but by both; and consequently, that as the consent of both was essential to their formation at first, so must it ever afterwards be to alter or cancel them. The proposed Constitution, therefore, has not in the least extended the obligation of treaties. They are just as binding, and just as far beyond the lawful reach of legislative acts now, as they will be at any future period, or under any form of government. However useful jealousy may be in republics, yet when like bile in the natural, it abounds too much in the body politic, the eyes of both become very liable to be deceived by the delusive appearances which that malady casts on surrounding objects. From this cause, probably, proceed the fears and apprehensions of some, that the President and Senate may make treaties without an equal eye to the interests of all the States. Others suspect that two thirds will oppress the remaining third, and ask whether those gentlemen are made sufficiently responsible for their conduct; whether, if they act corruptly, they can be punished; and if they make disadvantageous treaties, how are we to get rid of those treaties? As all the States are equally represented in the Senate, and by men the most able and the most willing to promote the interests of their constituents, they will all have an equal degree of influence in that body, especially while they continue to be careful in appointing proper persons, and to insist on their punctual attendance. In proportion as the United States assume a national form and a national character, so will the good of the whole be more and more an object of attention, and the government must be a weak one indeed, if it should forget that the good of the whole can only be promoted by advancing the good of each of the parts or members which compose the whole. It will not be in the power of the President and Senate to make any treaties by which they and their families and estates will not be equally bound and affected with the rest of the community; and, having no private interests distinct from that of the nation, they will be under no temptations to neglect the latter. As to corruption, the case is not supposable. He must either have been very unfortunate in his intercourse with the world, or possess a heart very susceptible of such impressions, who can think it probable that the President and two thirds of the Senate will ever be capable of such unworthy conduct. The idea is too gross and too invidious to be entertained. But in such a case, if it should ever happen, the treaty so obtained from us would, like all other fraudulent contracts, be null and void by the law of nations. With respect to their responsibility, it is difficult to conceive how it could be increased. Every consideration that can influence the human mind, such as honor, oaths, reputations, conscience, the love of country, and family affections and attachments, afford security for their fidelity. In short, as the Constitution has taken the utmost care that they shall be men of talents and integrity, we have reason to be persuaded that the treaties they make will be as advantageous as, all circumstances considered, could be made; and so far as the fear of punishment and disgrace can operate, that motive to good behavior is amply afforded by the article on the subject of impeachments. The Council of the Vicious Baby Joseph Is Coming Home	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line797
__label__wiki	0.71574	0.71574	Terrorism has been tempered and transformed since 2009, when President Obama took office. Feds Still Enable Terrorists 10 Years After 9/11 Ten years ago, after 9/11, Americans chanted, “We will never forget.” Today the White House is chanting that it is not “just about us.” Terrorism has been tempered and transformed ever since 2009, when President Barack Obama took office and turned the global war on terror into an “overseas contingency operation” and coddled the global Muslim community from Cairo by saying that part of his “responsibility as president of the United States is to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear” and create a “partnership between America and Islam.” Since those actions, a slew of terrorists have slipped through the cracks of U.S. international and homeland security. Alex Jones’ Infowars.com recently documented several examples of how the feds have “dispensed with all pretense of the war on terror being focused on Al-Qaeda Muslims.” In April 2009, The Washington Times reported that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stood by a DHS intelligence assessment report that “lists returning veterans among terrorist risks to the U.S.” And in the same month, The Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI was running a probe targeting returning veterans as extremists and a major domestic threat. At the end of last year, an Atlanta station, WSB-TV, reported that “the State Department is sending hundreds of millions of dollars to save mosques overseas.” The anchor noted that the U.S. Agency for International Development granted enormous funds for mosques in Cairo, Cyprus, Tajikistan and Mali. In March, Judicial Watch obtained new documents via a Freedom of Information Act request that revealed that U.S. officials had apprehended 663 illegal immigrants last year with suspected ties to terrorist groups. Yet our borders and ports remain as porous for illegals as a screen through which gnats slip. In the same month, ABC News reported that the “U.S. government formally requested the early release of a convicted terrorist (Mohammed Babar) from federal prison, even though the terrorist admitted that he continued to support the killing of U.S. soldiers serving in Muslim countries.” Just a few weeks ago, as a part of its “If You See Something, Say Something” stoolie campaign, Homeland Security released two videos, in which nearly every segment shows a shift in federal strategy from catching foreign terrorists to targeting white middle-class Americans who are against big government as terrorists, including tea partyers, anti-Fed activists and even veterans. (These videos echo Vice President Joe Biden’s recent remarks that tea partyers are like “terrorists.”) On Aug. 26, Fox News reported that the State Department is protecting the privacy of terrorists by refusing to release documents about Anwar al-Awlaki, the Muslim cleric who became the first American on the CIA’s kill or capture terrorist list. In response to a Fox News FOIA request for al-Awlaki’s passport records, the State Department replied, “The release of this information to you would be an invasion of personal privacy of another person, without written authorization from that person.” It’s official: The feds have lost their minds, this time at the cost of forgetting the heart of 9/11 and all the sacrifices made to fight militant Islam since. Ten years after 9/11, the federal government has become an acute enabler of terrorism. It is suffering from a self-inflicted terrorist amnesia, despite the fact that even in the past two years, there have been 126 terror-related arrests, and all have been Muslims. With the killing of Osama bin Laden and President Obama’s recent order to withdraw more troops from Afghanistan, it appears that the feds soon will be raising the banner that the “overseas contingency operation is mission complete.” But what they really need is a wake-up call to jar them out of their terrorist amnesia! We should plant the feds in the heart of Afghanistan and have them seriously reconsider al-Qaida’s assault on America and exactly how and why our courageous troops and their families continue to sacrifice for us — something well-documented by film producer Mike Slee in his most recent film tribute to our service members and their families as a part of Operation Patriot Care Package, highlighted on Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel show and on Slee’s own website. Unfortunately, this terrorism amnesia has spread outside Washington and infected such officials as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has decided that a ground zero commemoration for the victims of 9/11 on the attack’s 10th anniversary will be held without prayer. Neither clergy nor first responders have been invited to the event, because Bloomberg apparently thinks politicians will be sufficient to comfort the still-grieving families and nation. Please sign the Family Resource Council’s petition to Bloomberg to reverse his decision and recognize that prayer is needed more than politics. Bloomberg needs to take a lesson from people like Rosellen Dowdell, the widow of Lt. Kevin Dowdell, who was a New York firefighter who gave up his life on 9/11. She told the Catholic News Service: “I’ve never blamed God. I’ve always looked to God for an answer. I guess I always hoped there was solace in going to church and being in the presence of God.” Similarly, Monsignor Michael J. Curran told CNS: “So many of these families, who have every reason to be angry at God, have not given up. They are still faithful. I’m more aware of the spiritual strength of people. Folks are not fair-weather friends of God. The question of ‘why?’ is still out there, but they are willing to trust God and keep him at the center of their lives. Nobody has just slammed down their bat and ball and gone home.” Ten years ago, in the wake of the worst terrorist attacks in our nation’s history, Americans turned to one another and God for help and comfort. The wise still seek him. They know the truth — as did most of America’s Founding Fathers — in Psalm 33:12: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” God bless and help all the victims of 9/11, from United Flight 93 to the Pentagon and New York and beyond, and may the real memory of 9/11 live on in our hearts and minds so that even our posterity will say, “We will never forget.” What if Congressional Black Caucus Were Accused of Wanting Jews Gassed? Georgia Redistricting to Benefit GOP Written By Chuck Norris Mr. Norris is a Martial arts master, actor, and concerned citizen.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0033.json.gz/line798

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