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Bob Dylan and Jimmy Carter: Road Trips In The ’70s
Jeff Cochran 07/15/2019
Bob Dylan, left, Jimmy Carter, right. Photo obtained via Wikimedia Commons
Analyzing the songs of Bob Dylan is not for the timid. Few do it well. Michael Gray, Clinton Heylin, John Hinchey, Greil Marcus, Tim Riley and Robert Shelton are among those who’ve succeeded. Their insights may not be in line with Dylan’s, but they enlighten and entertain.
“It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” is a landmark Dylan song, scrutinized by critics and Dylanologists. Included on the 1965 Bringing It All Back Home album, it has remained in Dylan’s concert repertoire through the years. The song still fascinates. All at once it’s a jeremiad and an affirmation.
In his book, Behind The Shades, Heylin gets right to a key element of “It’s Alright Ma.” He says it “opened up a whole new genre of finger-pointing songs, not just for Dylan but for the entire panoply of pop.” With this song, he asserts Dylan produced a “damning roster of America’s malaise.” He goes on to observe that before “It’s Alright Ma,” a popular song was not a medium for critiquing society, only for isolating specific injustices.”
In Hard Rain, Riley says the song is “less an indictment of the system than a coil of imagery that spells out how the system hangs itself with the rope it’s so proud of.”
In summer ’64, when Dylan wrote “It’s Alright Ma,” America’s youth had just recently discovered and wildly embraced the Beatles. The country was also still hurting from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. His successor, Lyndon Johnson, was well qualified for the office but did not have the youthful appeal that spoke to Americans “born of this century,” as JFK put it in his inaugural address. Still Johnson was expected to win election in his own right that November.
Johnson won big. He carried 45 states, losing only his opponent Barry Goldwater’s Arizona and 4 Southern states resisting the civil rights legislation Johnson advocated. The president worked to keep the war in Vietnam from becoming a big issue prior to the election. Unless people were paying close attention, Vietnam didn’t register. From ’56 through ’64, only 401 American servicemen had been killed in the war. Widespread protests against American involvement in Vietnam were still a year off. Yet there was the Tonkin Resolution in August ’64. Rumblings were felt. People were beginning to lose trust in the country’s leaders, be they in government, business, or religion.
“It’s Alright Ma” reflected the change in American sensibilities.
While Preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.
Lyndon Johnson’s prosecution of the war in Vietnam diminished his domestic achievements. Richard M. Nixon would succeed Johnson in ’69 and find his presidency impeded by the war also. But he would win reelection in ’72 as Americans came to believe he was bringing “peace with honor” to Vietnam. Although there was little honor associated with Nixon, rank and file Americans were tired of the war and even more tired of the conflict it created in their country. Despite the “credibility gap” of Johnson’s years, then Kent State, and a recent break-in at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, Americans, perhaps knowing better, opted to trust in the established order again.
But it all depends on how one defines order. The Watergate break-in emanated from the corrupt apparatus in the Nixon White House. Corruption and indifference to legalities would lead to Nixon resigning in August ’74. The better part of his last year in office was spent determining how to stay in office. The President of The United States was dealing with unwelcome exposure.
On January 21, 1974, no doubt one of the days Nixon and his enablers worked on ways to avoid impeachment, Bob Dylan and The Band played the first of two concerts in Atlanta’s Omni Coliseum. Both shows were sold out. The city’s rock community was buzzing. Since Atlanta was the ninth city in the twenty-four city tour information on what to expect at the concert had spread.
Widely reported was how audiences erupted with cheers when Dylan sang “It’s Alright Ma,” declaring that “even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.” The audience in Atlanta cheered loudly. If the line now served as a dig at Nixon, so be it.
Amazingly, that night, as fans expressed their disfavor with the 37th President of The United States, among them was the man who three years to that day would spend his first full day at work as the 39th President. In the sixth row of The Omni was Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter.
Having learned about Dylan through his sons, Carter became a fan and attended the concert. He also invited Dylan, The Band and several others to the Governor’s Mansion after the show for food and drink. It was an example of southern hospitality but it was more than that. Carter’s term as Governor would end the following January. He was in pursuit of a new job: President of the United States. Only trusted insiders knew of his plans. Still, people would soon learn of his hosting a rock legend at the Governor’s Mansion. Now that was interesting, newsworthy even. It wasn’t what people expected from southern politicians. But Carter aimed to be different. His late night party certainly proved that and it was likely the first thing many Americans learned about Jimmy Carter.
Soon Carter was on the road and talking about himself. He also mentioned Bob Dylan. In his famous Law Day speech at the University of Georgia later that year, Carter went a step further and explained himself and what influenced him.
The Governor was rolling, “I listen a lot and I read a lot. One of the sources of my understanding about the proper application of criminal justice and the system of equities is from Reinhold Niebuhr. The other source of my understanding of what’s right and wrong in this society is from a friend of mine, a poet named Bob Dylan. Listening to his records about ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’ and ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ and ‘The Times They Are A-Changing,’ I’ve learned to appreciate the dynamism of change in a modern society.”
Jimmy Carter’s Law Day speech on May 1, 1974, amazed a lot of people, particularly those who previously paid him little attention. Journalist Hunter S. Thompson, in Rolling Stone, wrote that he asked Carter later that day for a copy of the speech, declaring it was “one of the damndest things I’ve ever heard.”
In the latter part of ’75, Bob Dylan kicked off his Rolling Thunder Revue tour. It was a rock and roll road trip that served as the polar opposite of the tightly packaged coliseum tour with The Band nearly two years before. Performing mostly in towns by the northeastern seaboard, Dylan led a caravan of musicians featuring T-Bone Burnett, Steven Soles, Scarlett Rivera, Joan Baez, Mick Ronson and Roger McGuinn. “Take Me Away,” a song on McGuinn’s ’76 album, Cardiff Rose, described the tour’s vitality and carnival atmosphere with the musicians “Flashin’ up New England skies like the fires of the revolutionary war.”
Jimmy Carter and his caravan also hit the road. The race for the Democratic Presidential nomination was on. Caucuses and primaries filled the calendar from January 19 through June 8 of ’76. According to Kandy Stroud in her book, How Jimmy Won, Carter proved an energetic and personable campaigner. Stroud wrote “He could roll up his sleeves, stalk through farmers’ markets, slog through mines or fox-trot with senior citizens with as much ease as he could mingle with the stars of Hollywood or the millionaires of Manhattan.”
Carter also continued to quote from Bob Dylan’s songs. On the night he was nominated President by the Democratic party, he referred to a line from “It’s Alright Ma.” Of course he didn’t recite the aphorism about the President sometimes having to stand naked. What he did as he drew to a close was declare that “We have an America that in Bob Dylan’s phrase, is busy being born, not busy dying.”
That November Jimmy Carter was elected President of The United States. His one term in office was not easy for him or the country, though he served honorably. In the years since leaving The White House, he’s been involved with numerous humanitarian causes and has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Whatever one thinks of his politics, he has set a new standard for ex-Presidents. Thinking of the history he has made and been part of, it’s interesting to think back on that Atlanta night in January ’74, unbeknownst to any of us there, when his chances of becoming President improved considerably.
Beltline/ Entertainment
When Jimmy Carter Met Bob Dylan
Five presidential administrations later than we might have thought, Bob Dylan played The White House on Wednesday, February 10, 2010.
It was a great honor for Dylan, albeit long overdue; a White House gig seemed most likely during the Jimmy Carter Administration (1977-81). After all, Carter mentioned Dylan’s name often in his first presidential campaign. He spoke highly of Dylan’s music. As he began what seemed a long-shot race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, Carter revealed certain things about himself unknown to even Georgians who had closely followed his political career. He liked rock music. He could recite poems by Dylan Thomas. He referred to Bob Dylan as a “friend.”
Succeeding the segregationist Lester Maddox as Georgia’s governor, Jimmy Carter was, by comparison, a progressive. Quite so. In his inaugural address on Jan. 12, 1971, he declared, “the time for racial discrimination is over.” To some this seemed a surprising statement from one who sought endorsements from former Gov. Marvin Griffin and others opposed to the civil rights movement. But Jimmy Carter would long prove to be an intriguing and surprising figure. The people of Georgia had apparently elected a Renaissance man to be their governor.
It’s Jan. 21, 1974, Jimmy Carter and family members are at the Omni, Atlanta’s new basketball and hockey arena, which, with its 16,000 seats, also serves as a major concert venue. Limited by Georgia’s Constitution to just one consecutive term as governor, Carter is spending much of his final year in office planning for an even more prestigious job. As it turns out, his presence at the Omni to see Bob Dylan and The Band will serve as a point of reference as he sought that more prestigious position, president of the United States.
The people at the Omni that night gave more thought to Bob Dylan’s return to the concert stage than they did to any of Carter’s ambitions. Dylan and The Band showed why immediately, opening (and encoring) with an energetic “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine).” The pacing of the concert was nearly perfect. From loud to soft, from brash to gentle, Dylan and The Band played such favorites as “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” “Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat,” and “Blowin’ In The Wind.” Each phase of Dylan’s career was represented.
Dylan would also step away, allowing The Band a share of the spotlight, as they performed “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “Stage Fright,” and others. It was, for everyone, a greatest hits kind of evening, particularly as Dylan and The Band closed with “Like A Rolling Stone.” The lights went up, the Omni was rocking, and even after the energetic encore, it seemed way too early to head home.
Home was where the paying customers went, but Dylan, The Band, promoter Bill Graham and other friends piled in cars and took the eight mile ride to the Governor’s Mansion, in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood. An invitation by Gov. Carter had been extended a month earlier for a post-concert party. Scrambled eggs, grits, country ham, fresh veggies with cheese sauce, along with beer and wine, were served. According to Paul West, in his Rolling Stone article, dated 2/28/74, Dylan opted for veggies and orange juice as the governor took him on a tour of the mansion, pointing out antiques and chatting quietly.
Carter referred to Dylan as “painfully timid.” West went on to report Carter indicated Dylan “never initiated a conversation but he’ll answer a question if you ask him.”
From there, at least during a crucial political period, Carter did a lot of talking. He had to convince people he was the preferred candidate for President of the United States. Friends with money help, but friends who are living legends such as Bob Dylan help even more, just by skillfully dropping their names.
In his autobiography penned for the campaign, Why Not The Best, Carter informs readers of his roles, his accomplishments and interests: “I am a Southerner and an American. I am a farmer, an engineer, a father and a husband, a Christian, a politician, and a former governor, a planner, a businessman, a nuclear physicist, a naval officer, a canoeist, and among other things, a lover of Bob Dylan’s songs and Dylan Thomas’s poetry.”
Journalists, even those of the gonzo variety like Hunter S. Thompson, found themselves more than just curious about Jimmy Carter. On May 1, 1974, Carter gave a Law Day speech that added gravitas to his reputation while gaining the respect of Thompson and others. Carter invoked Dylan while speaking of class barriers in America. He spoke of his days as a child in depression era Georgia: “I grew up a landowner’s son. But I don’t think I ever realized the proper interrelationship between the landowner and those who worked on the farm until I heard Dylan’s record, ‘I Ain’t Gonna Work On Maggie’s Farm No More.’ ”
Scrubbing The Floor, Looking For Meaning . . . . There are various interpretations at what Dylan is getting at in “Maggie’s Farm.” Is the protagonist oppressed or just bored with his menial work?
Well, I wake up in the morning,
Fold my hands and pray for rain.
I got a head full of ideas
That are drivin’ me insane.
It’s a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor.
I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more.
John Hinchey thoughtfully reviews the poetry of Dylan’s songs from the ’60s in his 2002 book, Like A Complete Unknown. He enjoys “Maggie’s Farm,” noting it to be Dylan’s second genuine rock and roll song*, but he does not view it as a serious outcry against imperial employers. He notes Dylan is protesting the “sing while you slave” ethic but “reduces his rebel stance to antic capering.”
Contacted recently, Hinchey says he has since reconsidered and now believes “antic capering is not something to object to,” going on to say “the whole point of the song is that the world needs a lot more antic capering and a lot less slaving away.” He says, “Dylan’s complaining about being made to scrub the floor still strikes me as annoyingly snobbish,” but he realizes “the song does paint the portrait of an unjust society; the aspect Carter would have responded to.”
The unjust society perspective is thoroughly covered in studies of Dylan’s work. Tim Riley in Hard Rain refers to “Maggie’s Farm” as the counterculture’s war cry. In No Direction Home, The Life and Music of Bob Dylan, Robert Shelton calls “Maggie’s Farm” an “anti-work song” that contains a “strong condemnation of all meaningless labor.” He goes on to remark that Dylan “sounds a declaration of independence against conformity.”
Clinton Heylin, with three Dylan books to his credit, writes about “Maggie’s Farm” in Revolution In The Air, The Songs Of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973, published in 2009. Heylin calls the “lady’s farm a place where exploitation is rife, rebellion is imminent and escape to the city a dream.”
Still the exploitation and rebellion are mixed with a worker whose attitude toward physical work is likely dubious. The worker may realize he’ll end up in a comfy job soon enough. He’s as much observer as he is worker. Complacently, Dylan’s protagonist shrugs off the “sing while you slave” ethic by saying, “I just get bored.”
Reporters and historians considered Carter’s embrace of “Maggie’s Farm” quite seriously. In her 1980 book, Jimmy Carter, In Search of the Great White House, Betty Glad says the song reflects “the burning resentment of poor whites toward the middle class.” Perhaps in highlighting the song, Carter could have been sending a message to some voters that he “might really be a closet radical interested in redistribution of wealth.”
Any inkling of Carter redistributing the wealth did not register with the left wing of the Democratic Party. Those left-of-center were slow to embrace Carter anyway, and toward the end of the primary season, an Anyone-But-Carter effort began. Liberal candidates Frank Church and Jerry Brown entered the fray. But despite topping Carter in some Western states, they succeeded only in slowing Carter’s amazing drive to the presidential nomination.
Carter’s campaign was hot when it mattered most. His big victories in Pennsylvania, Texas, North Carolina, Florida and other states made it clear the nomination would be his. Party regulars still didn’t know what to make of Jimmy Carter, but they got behind him and worked for his victory against President Gerald Ford in November. Fears of disgruntled American workers rising up, singing “Maggie’s Farm” eased. Carter was a centrist candidate, even if he recited poetry and called Bob Dylan his friend.
In the March ’78 Playboy interview, Dylan was asked by Ron Rosenbaum what he thought of Carter claiming to be his friend. Dylan’s response was splendid. “I am his friend,” he answered, saying he thought “Carter’s heart was in the right place.” When asked if he felt Carter was using him by inviting him to the Governor’s Mansion that night, he replied, “No, I believe that he was a decent, untainted man and he just wanted to check me out.” Dylan then went on to describe the qualities he admired in Harry Truman, saying, “He had a common sense about him, which is rare for a president.”
Jimmy Carter wanted to check him out, but there would be no Dylan appearances at the Carter White House. Who knows why? Scheduling conflicts? The pressure of petty politics? A failure of the administration’s supposedly incompetent staff to follow up on something so obvious? The promise of “a new spirit” on the day Carter became president had faded. During his last year in office, he dealt with the Iranian hostage crisis, a failing economy and an election battle that made his ’76 campaign seem a breeze. And Carter, having disappointed millions of his supporters, returned to Georgia four years earlier than he planned.
Carter has kept up with Dylan since leaving The White House. He and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, have attended at least two Dylan concerts in Atlanta, including show number 30 of the “Never-Ending Tour” in July of ’88. That was a hard-rocking concert with dazzling performances by Dylan’s lead guitarist, G.E. Smith. The Carters were seated near the front. Jimmy Carter has stated a preference for the pre-electric Dylan recordings; but despite the volume and high energy, a Renaissance man could only love the show. It was, well, electrifying.
*”Maggie’s Farm” is indeed a swinging, rocking song, recorded in one take. It appeared on Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan’s first “electric” album, released March 22, 1965.
The Sad Short History Of The NHL In Atlanta
Image provided to Atlanta Loop.
By Jeff Slate, contributor
Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina with a metro population of 1.2 million, is the home of the 2006 Stanley Cup Champions Carolina Hurricanes. Tampa, Florida, (metro: 3.2 million) is the home of the 2004 Stanley Cup Champions Tampa Bay Lightning. St Louis, Missouri (metro: 2.8 million), a town identified mostly with a humongous arch, is the home of the current Stanley Cup Champions, the St Louis Blues.
Atlanta, with a metro population of 6.2 million, almost as many people as all three cities combined, has no arch, no Stanley Cup, no NHL team but loads of Waffle Houses. At Christmas in Atlanta there are numerous pop-up skating rinks where people skate, some even with a hockey stick and puck. And sometimes they venture over to a Waffle House to gobble down those calorie-packed buttery waffles and afterwards watch their former hometown teams, the Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames on TV.
So how did the South’s most dynamic city become the only metropolis with two spectacularly failed NHL franchises? Are the inhabitants to blame? Are there too many other sporting events to attend? Are the facilities inadequate or was location a problem? Or maybe …. was the city tagged with possibly the worst ownership group in the history of not only the NHL but of all sport franchises?
Playing the male version of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” the original nine squabbling housemen of “The Atlanta Spirit Group,” owners of the Atlanta Thrashers, were from Boston, D.C and Atlanta. The Atlanta contingency was comprised of sons and a son-in-law of former Hawks and Thrashers owner Ted Turner and Mike Gearon, former president and chairman of the Hawks.
The combined housemen’s knowledge of hockey was maybe slightly more than the Housewives, but just slightly. The Thrashers were a throw-in — but one the housemen had to accept in order to obtain their real prize, the Atlanta Hawks. It was a package deal. The dysfunctional rulers of Philips Arena, the Thrashers and Hawks thought of themselves as basketball gurus, despite the Hawks never making it past the second round in the playoffs. Within a few short years the “Spirited” men were in court, but not the kind with nets and referees — the kind with lawyers. They were fighting among themselves over everything from trades to the team’s value. One owner called another owner “evil.” The Housewives had nothing on this muddled bunch.
Not surprisingly, the Thrashers stunk. The team concluded 11 inglorious seasons in Atlanta with just one playoff appearance, resulting in a 4-0 sweep by the New York Rangers. Not one playoff win in 11 years. Yet Atlanta fans were asked to support the squabbling, disingenuous bunch and their consistently losing teams. The lone playoff year, 2006-7, the team drew a respectable 16,240 per game, more per game than either Boston and Chicago, two of the Original Six NHL teams.
The Atlanta Flames inaugurated NHL hockey in the Georgia capital in 1972. The team attracted 12,516 per game, more per game than the New York Islanders, the other expansion team of ’72. And that with a record of 25 wins, 38 losses and 15 ties.
The Flames played at the now defunct Omni, an arena which Cliff Fletcher, the team’s general manager, described as “out-of-date when it opened.” There was no revenue from luxury suites, TV money was minimal and the Flames, though qualifying for the playoffs six out of eight years, never won a playoff series. The team’s overall record in Atlanta was mediocre, but compared to the other mid-70s Atlanta pro teams, mediocrity was hardly shameful. In fact, in five of their eight Atlanta seasons, the Flames posted winning records. And much of the metro area’s north side, where thousands of transplanted white collar professionals from northern cities had settled, was quite taken with the Flames. The family that moved to Dunwoody from Oak Park, Illinois would continue to root for the Chicago Blackhawks, but they would still go to the Omni and watch the Flames. As long as they weren’t playing the Blackhawks, they’d root for the Atlanta squad. The Flames developed players such as Tom Lysiak, Eric Vail and Willi Plett who were recognized as among the league’s best in their rookie seasons. Those guys and certainly the team’s popular coach, Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, would never have to worry about paying for their drinks at any of the Roswell Road taverns. Though the team’s failure to come through in a playoff series peeved the fan base, for a few years the Flames reflected city leaders’ hype: Atlanta was regarded as an emerging international city with progressive ideas,new attitudes and more ways to enjoy life. The NHL seemed all a part of that.
But when it comes to professional sports, Atlanta is a front-running town. By the late ’70s, attendance declined significantly. There was already talk of the team finding another city. Politicians and business leaders were implored to buy tickets and talk up the Flames. What sounded even better than a politician pulling strings, however, was the Flames’ acquisition of a newly-minted American hero, Jim Craig, the goalie for the USA’s 1980 Olympic hockey team. The team that won a gold medal after defeating Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union and Finland. It was called the “Miracle on Ice,” and the star of the miracle was Jim Craig, who stopped 36 of the 39 shots in the match against the Soviet Union. Less than a week after the USA team won its gold medal, Craig was guarding the net for the Flames at a sold-out Omni. It was another brilliant night for Craig, stopping 24 shots in a 4-1 victory over Colorado. Making his second start 13 days later, Craig made 27 stops in a match against the Los Angeles Kings. Maybe, Atlantans thought, this guy’s for real — and maybe the Flames won’t move. Such optimism was uncalled for. On March 25, Craig made his final start against the Edmonton Oilers in which another promising player by the name of Wayne Gretzky scored two goals on Craig. That followed an even worse performance against the Rangers in New York. Sadly, Jim Craig couldn’t even make it through one month as Atlanta’s toast-of-the-town.
As the 79-80 NHL season was wrapping up, Flames owner Tom Cousins let it be known he wanted to sell the team. The Flames’ playoff failures and declining attendance added to Cousins’ problems as he was already struggling to vast real estate holdings together. The actor Glenn Ford, promising to keep the team in Atlanta, made an offer but it didn’t come close to what Cousins wanted. However a consortium of Canadian businessmen made an offer of $16 million and on May 21 it was announced the team would move to Calgary before the start of the next season. Left to skate in Calgary, a metro populace of 1.6 million. Calgary kept the name Flames, despite its historical tie to Sherman’s burning of Atlanta. Whatever, Atlanta hockey fans felt burned and they would again as the Thrashers fled for Winnipeg in 2011. The Manitoba city, population 1.2 million, ditched the “Thrashers” handle to become the second version of the Winnipeg Jets.
The first version of the Winnipeg Jets now make their home in Glendale, Arizona and are known as the Arizona Coyotes. As with the Florida Panthers, playing in the city of Sunrise, Florida the Coyotes are primed for relocation. There is general disinterest in hockey in both Arizona and south Florida and both teams possess what ailed the Flames and Thrashers: poor management. But somehow, at the last moment, the teams survived the dreaded moving vans.
Atlanta never had such a moment particularly with the Thrashers. The Spirited Housemen had so decimated the “spirit” of the team, the city, the fan base, that any chance of any businessman from the area coming in and being the savior of hockey never occurred. There was some interest from Tom Glavine, the Braves Hall of Famer and a one-time NHL prospect. Despite his efforts to entice others to invest, the “Spirit” had zapped all life out of hockey in Atlanta. Glavine was alone. No one wanted in. The Mayor of the city, Kasim Reed, did virtually nothing to rally support for the Thrashers. In contrast to Reed committing taxpayers’ money to partially fund Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank’s Mercedes Benz Stadium and Hawks’ owner Tony Ressler’s renovation of State Farm Arena (formerly Philips Arena), Reed’s lack of interest in hockey was comparable to the Atlanta Spirit’s commitment to the Thrashers – none.
Two years ago, the NHL expanded into Las Vegas, Nevada. According to all the movies featuring Murder Inc’s Bugsy Siegel, besides killing lots of people, Bugsy was quite the visionary. But never did the hitman, in any of those films, mention hockey in the dessert. The NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights reached the Stanley Cup their first year in 2018. Averaged 18,042 per game at 103.9% capacity.
In 2020 the league will add Seattle. Any mention of further expansion usually includes cities such as Houston, Portland, Kansas City, Quebec City and Hamilton, Ontario. Despite State Farm Arena being a first-class facility to host hockey and Atlanta representing the 9th largest market in the country, there is virtually no mention of hockey ever returning to the Georgia capital. Apparently two, not three, strikes and you’re out.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta are in their 11th season, the same number of seasons the Thrashers skated in the city. The Housewives are likely to be back for a 12th. Congratulations Housewives! If only we have had you as owners.
Beltline/ Opinion/ Politics
One Man’s Opinion: Bill Crane on Bill Crane
Bill Crane
By Bill Crane, contributor
I am a native Atlantan (Crawford Long Hospital baby), born and raised primarily in the Decatur area, and fortunate to have grown up in a newspaper family. For almost 50 years, two generations of the Crane family published and produced at peak eight weekly community newspapers, in DeKalb, south Fulton, Clayton, Fayette and Henry counties.
Our family owned small business enterprise was based in Decatur, and the Decatur News Publishing Company had a peak publication circulation of more than 300,000 homes across DeKalb County and the metro southside. Those included DeKalb county’s legal organ, The Decatur-DeKalb News and free distribution community weeklies including the DeKalb News/Sun (north and south editions), Southside Sun (covering East Point, College Park and Hapeville), Clayton Sun, Henry Sun, Fayette Sun and Lithonia Observer. Though our family sold the small chain in 1996 and most of those publications were merged into other papers or no longer exist, that experience and those years in a newsroom helped form the person I am today. My grandfather, William “Bud” Crane, was co-publisher, along with my grandmother, Mary L. Crane, and those two hard scrabble Yankee carpetbaggers arrived in Decatur in 1949, unemployed and expecting a job that had been “arranged” for Bud, but which never materialized running a gas station on the Decatur square.
They arrived in a jet stream trailer, along with my then 7-year old future father, Jerry Crane, and his toddler sister Sheila. Fortunately at the time, Georgia Power and DeKalb County weren’t quite so speedy in turning off power and water for unpaid bills, and my grandfather hooked the trailer up to the back of that closed gas station. It wasn’t too many years later that the pair had started a modest “shopper” newspaper to challenge the local political power structure of that day, and in particular a well-regarded and generally viewed as benevolent dictator, the one-person county commission and longtime chair of DeKalb County, Scott Candler. Those scrappy, Yankee Cranes helped DeKalb send Commissioner Candler on to a new job as the first Director of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, and DeKalb County politics have been evolving ever since.
I know that is a lot regarding time before I was even born, but history and politics have long shaped and informed my world view. Bud wrote a weekly column for just under a quarter century prior to his retirement and move to Florida in the early 1990’s, he called it “One Man’s Opinion.” When I was asked invited in 2008 to pick up that mantle and begin a weekly column on DeKalb county politics, history and other topics, by Carolyn and Doc Glynn, the current owner/publishers of DeKalb County’s legal organ, The Champion and its sister publication, DeKalb’s Champion Free Press, I leaped at the chance, and “One Man’s Opinion” was re-launched, in homage to Bud. Now, I will be sharing my thoughts twice a month with visitors to The Atlanta Loop. The platform of my column has broadened to more statewide, as One Man’s Opinion now appears in more than 30 newspapers, websites, shoppers and media outlets like The Atlanta Loop, as well as for a decade a similar companion column, Georgia View, appeared primarily on the inside back cover page of Georgia Trend magazine.
My personal politics lean to the right. I consider myself a fiscal conservative and otherwise Libertarian. I vote and support candidates in both major parties and have served in senior staff and campaign/communication roles for more than three decades for a too long list to mention here in both major state and national parties including two U.S. Senators and one Governor here in Georgia. I tend to have deep personal loyalties and affiliations, proven over time, which also supersede any party platform or ideology. I am also known for my work in crisis communications and reputation management, and since 2009, have owned and operated a full-service corporate communications firm, CSI Crane, LLC, with offices based in Decatur.
In our visits and my columns, I will try to inform and well as entertain you, mixing a healthy does of “ha ha’s” with the Ah-hahs. My commentary and reporting is fact-based and documentable, surrounded by informed opinion, versus opinion buttressed by facts only which support those opinions. As you choose to read along, I think you will gain a better understanding of my viewpoint. I am not a member nor aligned with any political party, and if I am actively consulting or directing any campaign, candidate or public policy discussion, you will be among the first to know that here first. Since the summer of 2000, I have served as the primary broadcast political analyst first for 11Alive Atlanta’s NBC affiliate, and since (starting in 2006), WSB-Radio AM/FM and starting in 2011, WSB-TV’s Action News. I’m beginning my 20th year in this market in this capacity, making me the senior political analyst on any of the network affiliates in Georgia, though Bill Nigut, now at GPB, took nearly a decade off while doing other work before stepping back into the industry a few years ago.
I am a lifelong resident of DeKalb County, Ga, though my travels and professional work have taken me to five of the seven continents, including extended stays and work in New York City and Washington, D.C. I am a southerner to my bones and soul, and that too shapes my opinion and thinking. The bonds of friendship and community are among my top priorities in life apart from my family and profession. I am the very proud father of two daughters, Barclay Carson, a Gwinnett County school teacher, and her younger half-sister Olivia who will enter the fifth grade later this fall. As we share thoughts and issues of the day, I hope you will reach out to me, share your thoughts in reply or even suggest topics for future columns and focus. I also have a passion for civic and non-profit work, which you will likely come across in other parts of The Atlanta Loop. You can reach me at bill.csicrane@gmail.com, or via my mobile at 404-964-5609. My firm, CSI Crane, LLC has offices in Decatur, not far off the square and near the Avondale MARTA station. If you see me out and about, please say hello. It will be my pleasure trying to help keep you in the Loop, with the Atlanta Loop.
One Man’s Opinion: Trumpster Fire
Like, love or loathe him, it is clear that President Donald J. Trump’s brand of politics is scorched earth. If you take a swing, he will swing back and probably harder. His blows don’t always connect of course, and he often ends up damaging himself.
A reasonably well-respected United Nations Ambassador, Nikki Haley, announces her own pending departure. Before this became an almost weekly event in the Trump White House, there was a significant amount of punditry around who might replace her, or become the ‘face of America’ on the floor of the U.N. Assembly Hall. Trumpster fire distraction…”I might appoint my daughter Ivanka.”
White House Chief of Staff, Defense Secretary and Director of Homeland Security depart in successive order, leaving a series of “acting” Secretaries in place without Senate confirmation. Trumpster fire… “I might appoint my son-in-law Jared.” I think I’m noting a pattern here.
The U.S. economy continues to perform as if on steroids. The month of June and second quarter, when many economists were forecasting a slowdown and “cooling,” produced nearly a quarter million new jobs. President Trump and his trade representatives have negotiated the U.S./Mexico/Canada, Trade Agreement to replace NAFTA, however the new treaty has not begun the confirmation process required in the U.S. Senate, and though brinkmanship and threatening massive tariffs may destabilize the financial markets, it has, so far, been a successful brokering tool for getting China back to the negotiating table.
As with President Trump’s recent desire for a massive spectacle and salute to the military on the Fourth of July, the devil is in the details. His speech was reasonably high-minded and patriotic, without devolving into jingoism or becoming a campaign platform. The President stuck largely to script and teleprompter, and he stayed until the end despite some pretty heavy rainfall (which he despises) and which somewhat made he and his First Lady appear a bit wilted before they were able to make a speedy exit.
And yet this platform also provided the perfect stage for another missed opportunity.
For nearing a quarter century, during Democratic and Republican administrations alike, Congress and the White House have been wrestling with a gaffe and glitch in federal law which has diminished survivor death benefits for widows of service personnel. This glitch is known as “The Widow’s Tax.” A long standing V.A. death benefit is a roughly $15,000 annual payment, paid monthly, to the survivors of uniformed service personnel killed in the line of duty.
A second program, offered by the Department of Defense, the Survivor Benefits plan, is funded out of potential retirement benefits of the enlisted, via payroll deduction and subsidized by the DOD, providing survivors up to 55 percent of the salary of the departed soldier. As a cost-saving measure, post-Vietnam and prior to the first Persian Gulf conflict, the DOD introduced a funding cut offset. For every dollar paid out by the V.A. death benefit, up to $15,000 per year, the pay-out from the DOD survivor benefits plan is reduced by matching dollar amount paid to widows. Many families figured this out and changed the beneficiary on the second policy to their children, versus the widowed parent. This saved families suffering great loss more than $1,000 a month. Until the 2018 Tax Law went into effect. The new law ended the benefit of passing this benefit through to surviving children, and subjects that income to an income tax of up to 35 percent.
The latest Congressional bill to “fix” this mess has 324 U.S. House and 72 U.S. Senate co-sponsors. Bi-partisan with greased skids anyone? The President should have challenged Congress to have this bill on his desk, ready for signature prior to Labor Day, while celebrating the Fourth with veteran families at the same time.
This would have been wedding the President’s stated priorities with his actions, and not just symbolism, Tweets or commanding attention. The cost of this change is estimated to be about $5.6 billion, and will immediately impact roughly 65,000 survivor families. And with that type of substantive “real news” in his remarks, several attending members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, might have appeared a bit happier to be there.
So Mr. President, though I know you are not one greatly prone to taking advice and counsel from others: more action, less distraction. Communicate, complete and deliver more of your agenda: less million shots a day, more laser beam, less shotgun style. Fewer Trumpster fires, more solutions that matter. You’ll be glad you did.
Album review: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Western Stars’
By Tommy Housworth, contributor
It’s been a few years since Bruce Springsteen dropped hints about a mysterious solo project, one he indicated would be different from his previous ventures that have excluded his legendary E Street Band. He mentioned Aaron Copland and Jimmy Webb as influences and talked of vast musical landscapes with sweeping arrangements.
The project lived on a studio shelf for years, as Bruce toured behind the odds-and-ends pastiche of High Hopes, followed quickly by a 35th anniversary global outing for “The River,” the release of his best-selling memoir, and the staging of his long-running one-man Broadway show. The question remained, when the restless Springsteen settled back down, would this project see the light of day or would he leave it for the archives?
Thankfully, Bruce felt the collection, titled “Western Stars,” was a worthy addition to his canon.
Listeners will find fingerprints of everyone from Bacharach and Kristofferson to Glen Campbell and Roy Orbison on these compositions. Those who choose to settle in with the album, rather than dismiss it as simply “his cowboy album”, will find rich rewards.
As with many veteran artists, Springsteen has a strong contingency of fans who merely wish he would continue to revisit his glory days (no pun intended), with stadium-sized anthems and tales of young men looking for a way out of their stagnant geography. But the 25 year old who beckoned Mary from her front porch in “Thunder Road” is now on the doorstep of 70, and life’s fears and dreams look very different than they did when he sought the closest two-lane out of town to go case the promised land.
And yet, it is that very notion of a promised land that continues to emerge on Springsteen’s musical canvas. He paints it very differently than he did on 1978’s “The Promised Land”, when his view of the mythical west was a metaphor for a seemingly unattainable peace of mind. Today, that hungry soul staring down “a dark cloud rising from the desert floor” has made way for a wearier but hopeful wayfarer who has made a fragile peace with the storms he can’t tame.
“Western Stars” makes no apologies for embracing the archetypes of the west. Springsteen himself deemed the collection “Grand Canyon music.” The songs celebrate open roads and open skies. He sets the tone with “Hitchikin’,” a light-as-a-breeze opener that features our protagonist skimming across the plains with a variety of strangers willing to give a lift to a pilgrim who professes “maps don’t do much for me, friend. I follow the weather and the wind.”
“Tuscon Train” chugs along with the steady rhythm of the 5:15 and a string arrangement that would make the original Rhinestone Cowboy proud. “Sundown,” too, benefits from the lush sonic architecture that ensconced some of Campbell’s best work with Jimmy Webb. “There Goes My Miracle” follows suit, while pushing Springsteen toward some of his purest vocal work in years, hitting a majestic stride on a chorus that soars like the refrain of Campbell’s classic “Galveston.” For those who argue that the Boss can’t sing, this song may give you pause before you double down on that criticism.
Of course, no Springsteen album is complete without character studies, ballads of men who exist in the margins. In the past, those characters have been factory workers and migrants, people in search of the elusive promised land that America claims to be. This time, Springsteen builds his personas from another California staple: the movie business. In “Drive Fast”, he embodies a Hollywood stuntman, who has accepted his fate as an aging day player who doesn’t “mind the scars,” a trade-off for the adrenaline that allows him to still feel something. On the album’s title track, accented by a hint of Ennio Morricone, he’s an actor who leverages his career highlight, being shot by John Wayne, as an opportunity to tell his tale of glory as curious barflies buy him drinks to hear about his scene with the Duke. What he really longs for, though, is to be one of those cowboys he portrayed, out where “the western stars are shining bright again.”
Springsteen revisits the introspective lyrics that defined Tunnel of Love in “Stones”, a song about a man confronting his own acts of betrayal, weighing him down with no seeming access to redemption. Likewise, “Hello, Sunshine,” which moves along with a steady cadence of bass lines and drum brushes, goes inward – a gentle nod to Springsteen’s bouts with depression, which seemed to consume him in recent years. The balladeer pleads for the sun to prolong its visit, and yet, seems resolved to its impermanence, while making the best of whatever else the vast, empty roads may offer, all too aware that, at 70, “miles to go is miles away.”
Springsteen has dabbled in lush orchestration before, most recently on some of the meticulously produced tracks from 2007’s “Magic” and 2009’s “Working on a Dream.” Some of these songs soared, such as the Brian Wilson homage “Girls in their Summer Clothes”, but others sunk under their ambitious weight, and a couple (think “Queen of the Supermarket”) were just misguided enigmas.
What “Western Stars” provides is cohesion, a stylized sound that gives Springsteen permission to play in a certain time and space, and that freedom sounds as if it liberated him – at least for a moment – from the burden of being The Boss. While given a sense of unity and structure by virtue of its musical oeuvre, “Western Stars” authenticity comes from Springsteen’s weary yet hopeful voice. It’s a voice – shifting from narrator to narrator – that is open to what the road may offer, to the breaks in the rolling clouds, and that – some forty years after first singing it – still believes in a promised land.
Beltline/ Business/ Opinion
Editor’s note: A new direction for Atlanta Loop
Jeff Cochran
Dear Atlanta Loop readers,
Nearly a year ago, we welcomed Derek Prall as the new editor and publisher of Atlanta Loop. Hyperlocal publishing is a thankless job, but Derek dedicated himself to the work and kept Loop running these past 10 months. Like many of us, Derek has other professional obligations and over the last few weeks it’s become clear that those other obligations need to take priority in his life.
Derek will be leaving Loop as of July 1. That’s not a reflection on him or his work. We mutually agreed that it was the right decision for all of us. We thank him for the job he did and hope he will contribute articles to Loop in the future. He’s a talented journalist. We would love to work with him again.
Loop isn’t going away, though. On July 8, Jeff Cochran will take over as publisher.
Jeff is the current ad sales director for Decaturish who has a lengthy publishing resume.
In the ’70s he wrote for The Great Speckled Bird, Creative Loafing and The Atlanta Gazette. From the mid ’70s until the early ’80s, he was the Regional Advertising Director for Peaches Records and Tapes. In 1981 he began a 27-year career in advertising at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since then he has served as the Advertising Director at Arts Atl and Decaturish. He is also a contributing editor to Like the Dew and Beatlefan magazine.
In the five years we’ve worked together, Jeff has become a trusted partner and friend. He has business savvy and integrity. He is passionate about the future of journalism and he has big plans for Atlanta Loop.
Under his leadership, Loop will become more thoughtful and introspective. The breaking news beat in Atlanta isn’t covered like it used to be, but it’s still covered well. We think there’s more room in Atlanta for deep analysis of the issues affecting the city and its residents, as well as stories that take an inventory of the city’s past with an eye toward its future.
Jeff has passion and if you love what you do, it shows. I’m confident he can take Loop to the next level.
Please join me and welcoming him to Loop and thanking Derek for his months being a good steward of this publication.
The journalism world needs more people like Jeff Cochran and Derek Prall.
– Dan Whisenhunt, owner of Decaturish.com and Atlantaloop.com.
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Download the Magazine
The Politicians of Our Future – Kansas teenagers in different parties with similar policies run for office
by Lily Garvey
A dog and six teenagers are running for Governor in the upcoming Kansas 2018 elections due to the lack of legal requirements.
Three of the teens are running for the Republican party nomination, one for the Democratic party, one Libertarian, and one Independent. These candidacies show it is important for young people to exercise their political rights in whatever way they can. These teenagers are crossing the lines between parties in ways that only young people can. However, lack of experience in government seems to be a problem for some of the candidates, as can be seen in rushed platforms and economically impractical proposals.
The strongest of these teenage candidates are Jack Bergeson and Tyler Ruzich, who address important issues and offer solutions that could work.
Bergeson, a 17-year-old Democrat, states that education is an issue that he will address. He promises to give Kansas public school teachers a 7.5% pay raise, which he would fund by making marijuana legal and taxable in Kansas. But Bergeson doesn’t believe that winning is everything. “It doesn’t matter much if I win or lose. I’m giving people the option,” he says. All of the teens have a low chance of winning, but Bergeson’s chance of winning is the highest, as he has been the only one invited to participate in events with older candidates from his party. He also wants more young people to get involved in voting because it gives them a chance for their ideas to be heard. Bergeson believes in the Second Amendment, as the majority of Kansans do, but thinks that there should be rigorous background checks and a ban on semi-automatic weapons.
Ruzich, a Republican, also believes in the importance of education and gun safety. In fact, Bergeson inspired Ruzich to run and encouraged him to do so on social media. Ruzich said, “I thought that was just so cool that someone my age was doing that…He really started to tell me, well, why aren’t you throwing your hat in the race?” This inspiration is especially important because it shows that there can be unity between people of different parties. Ruzich also supports the Second Amendment but wants to repeal the recently passed law that allows guns to be carried on the campuses of public universities in Kansas. This is controversial with his fellow Republicans in Kansas, but he nevertheless believes that it needs to be addressed. Ruzich also proposes a moderate tax increase for businesses with over 50 employees, but not for any small businesses.
Aaron Coleman is running as an Independent. Although he has some constructive ideas, such as putting body cameras on police to monitor them, many of the solutions he suggests would lead to further problems. Coleman wants to raise the minimum wage to seventeen dollars an hour, provide universal medicare, and make tuition for universities and community colleges free. He offers these expensive ideas, however, with no explanation for how the government will pay for them.
Ethan Randleas is running on behalf of the Libertarian party. He wants to lower taxes, give the government less power, pardon non-violent drug offenders, and restrict abortions.
There are candidates from many different parties running, but they share similar policies. They all want to reform the Kansas education system, and most of them want background checks for guns. Traditionally, older voters have carried the votes. This seems to be changing now because the effects of recent school shootings, especially in Parkland, Florida, as well as the 2016 election results that have inspired young people to get involved in politics. It is good to be passionate about running, but we must also focus on voting.
In the 2016 election, less than half of all eligible voters age 18-29 cast their ballots. Around seventy-two percent of citizens above the age of 60 exercised their right to vote. Clearly, older people are influencing the issues that affect the younger generation. This causes younger generations’ opinions to be overlooked even though we will live in this country longer than older folks. It’s important to applaud the young candidates from Kansas who are running, but we must also encourage young people to contribute to politics—and that starts with voting.
2020 Election: Who Should Run?
The Blue Splash: How much will the 2018 midterms matter?
Exploiting Resentment; What Brazil’s Presidential Election Says About the State of Global Politics and the Future of the Democratic Party
Centrism in the Democratic Party A Necessity for Legislative Control
Lily Garvey
ABOUT THE POINT OF VIEW
The Point of View is the official political opinion magazine of Buckingham Browne & Nichols. Each year we publish three full-length magazines, as well upload articles, cartoons, and political polls to our website on a regular basis. The Point of View is always looking for new contributors in the BB&N student body.
If you are interested in joining, send an email to our Co-Editors-in-Chief, Athena Chu and Elisa Tabor. We would love to see your opinion in print.
If you have any problems with viewing the website, send an email to our Website Manager, Thomas Sulikowski.
© 2019 Point of View. All rights reserved.
Designed by WP Zoom. Modified by Michael Goldfine
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News, Science & Research
New research aims to improve solar panels
University study creates more affordable environmentally stable, conscious solar cells
By Eugene I. Hrabarchuk
Courtesy of Brown University
Researchers found that a new material — Cesium Titanium (IV) Bromide — can take the place of lead in a specific type of solar panel that is more affordable and offers increased conductivity.
According to a recent study by University researchers, a new material called Cesium Titanium (IV) Bromide can replace lead in a specific type of solar panel. The study’s goal is not necessarily to replace commonly used silicon solar cells, but to create environmentally stable and conscious solar cells that are more affordable and have broader applicability.
The new solar cells are about “1,000 times thinner” than silicon solar cells, said Nitin Padture, co-author of the study, professor of engineering and director of Brown’s Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation. “These thin films can be made flexible. If you try to bend a silicon wafer, you’ll shatter it. But when the film is so thin, it can be flexible, so you can put them on a camping tent, or a backpack, or clothes or umbrellas,” Padture said.
The researchers focused on solar panels based on perovskite, a material with a crystal structure allowing for increased conductivity, lower cost and better solar cell properties, according to the American Ceramics Society. The study found that lead-based perovskite panels contributed to toxicity in the environment and increased volatility, but this new material provides a less toxic alternative.
“The amounts of lead in solar cells are quite small,” said Robert Hurt, professor of engineering and head of the Laboratory for Environmental and Health Nanoscience. “We have lead in a lot of old products, we have lead pipes that our drinking water flows through, but those are all legacy things,” he added. “But to put new products on the market that contain lead is always going to be of some concern.”
“(Perovskite solar cells) also contain an organic molecule in the crystal structure that actually helps it be a good absorber,” Padture said. The presence of this molecule and the lead make a “good” solar cell, but the molecule is volatile outside the lab and lead is toxic, so the goal was to circumvent these issues, Padture added.
“Typically, (solar panels) are made of silicon,” but due to the complex formation process, “there is a lot of cost involved,” Padture said. “So there’s always been a motivation for reducing the cost in the last 25 to 30 years.”
“In 2009, this new technology of perovskite solar cells took a foothold,” and while the efficiency was just 4 percent in the beginning of development, the cells recently reached a new record of about 23 percent efficiency at a reduced cost, Padture said. “The reason that these solar cells are so efficient is because they contain lead, and lead helps in absorbing light.”
“Our goal is not to replace the silicon solar cells. We want to boost the efficiency,” said Min Chen GS, co-author of the study.
Tandem cells can be formed by combining perovskite and silicon technologies, Padture said. This process boosts the overall efficiency of the solar cell, as each type only absorbs certain spectrums of sunlight, Padture said. “Perovskite you can actually tune to absorb a complementary part of the solar spectrum that silicon doesn’t absorb,” he added.
The project is in collaboration with the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where they run “computational modeling, because there are thousands of compounds that are lead-free, but we cannot test each of those in the lab,” Padture said. “They complete experiments on computers screening thousands of possible compounds” based on the desired properties for the solar cells, he added.
“If you just do experiment after random experiment, there are too many, and you’re not going to be able to find the perfect combination,” Padture said. “Integration of computation and experiment is really key for making advances, and that is where the future is for research.”
Researchers at the University took the suggested compositions from modeling for further testing, Padture said. This showed that computational modeling predictions could be actualized in a lab environment, and led to the use of this new substance..
“Silicon needs to be melted at 1500 degrees Celsius,” while the new materials only need to be heated from around 100 to 200 degrees Celsius, so there’s a huge energy savings cost, Padture said.
“It’s not just the device itself, but someone has to make the device, and people have to mine the lead, and there’s a whole chain behind it. So if you can get rid of the toxic substance in the beginning, then you’ve certainly done a good thing,” Hurt said.
“There are a lot of other costs with using cheap toxic materials, so you have to take special steps to protect the workers and the environment,” Padture said. “In general, cheap toxic materials do not make good economic sense.”
Topics: brown research, renewable energy, science and research, solar panel
Honorary degree recipients 2019
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New device brings us closer to coin-sized medical labs
The illustration above depicts agglutinated blood (left) and un-agglutinated blood (right) moving through a chip. The agglutinated blood moves slower (shown in the center chamber) compared to the un-agglutinated blood. Illustration: Lab on a Chip
By CORY NEALON
“It’s kind of like plumbing; we’re moving fluids around and dealing with different pressures and flows. Only we’re doing it on a microchip, as opposed to a house.”
Kwang Oh, associate professor
Departments of Elecrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering
It sounds like a science fiction movie: Using a handheld device, a doctor draws blood from a patient and, seconds later, the device provides in-depth medical information about the patient.
The idea — shrinking a medical lab onto a chip the size of a small coin — is known as “lab on a chip.” It’s closer to reality than you might think, but obstacles remain; among them is finding an efficient and reliable way to mix and move blood and other fluids through the chip’s tiny valves and pumps.
A new study, appearing on the cover of the Jan. 21 edition of the journal Lab on a Chip, moves the scientific community closer to solving the problem.
The study describes how a multidisciplinary research team at UB fabricated a chip that uses two different types of force — capillary- and vacuum-driven — to manipulate how fluids travel in micro- and nano-sized channels.
The advancement solves a vexing issue, the researchers say, because in such devices, when blood is mixed with a reagent to produce a biological and/or chemical reaction, the pressure difference between the two fluids often causes them to flow backward instead of into the desired channel.
“It’s kind of like plumbing; we’re moving fluids around and dealing with different pressures and flows. Only we’re doing it on a microchip, as opposed to a house,” says Kwang W. Oh, associate professor of electrical engineering and biomedical engineering, and the study’s lead author.
“The chip could become the basis for faster, more efficient and reliable lab-on-a-chip devices,” Oh continues. “It puts us closer to using such devices where medical labs are lacking, such as the developing world, battlefields and even our homes.”
In a series of experiments, the research team showed how its chip was able to accurately decipher the eight blood types based upon time it takes for different blood types to flow through the chip. For example, when mixed with a certain antibody, Type A blood will thicken and flow slower.
Oh says the device could be used for other biological and chemical assays. What’s more, the new chip requires no sensors or external sources of power. That’s key for medical device manufacturers that are searching for ways to inexpensively produce disposable lab-on-a-chip products.
The research was partially supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and Qualcomm.
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Singapore calling!
July 3, 2015 July 10, 2018 BritMumInNZ
It’s been over ten years since I last visited Singapore, in 2005. That visit was accompanying my hubby on business, with our first born daughter (at 19 months of age).
I’d also travelled before children, back in 2002 (which was an entirely different experience!).
On Sunday night I will be flying to Singapore again, with hubby and all three of our daughters, for a fortnight’s holiday! We are meeting up with my parents-in-law, the children’s grandparents, which will be so wonderful. We are very much looking forward to experiencing the cultural richness and variety that Singapore offers (as well as the waterparks, the incredible Zoo, Universal Studios and Sentosa Island!); though with humidity hovering around 75%, and daytime temperatures usually climbing to over 30°C, we shall have to pace ourselves! Fortunately the air-conditioned sanctuary of a shopping mall is never far away…
I remember the cathedrals of consumer heaven very well – and of course the ‘Mecca’ of them all – Orchard Road. A whole day is definitely needed to explore the 2.5km stretch. Multi-level shopping malls, selling designer goods from around the world, sit majestically where a dirt road in the 1840s used to be; lined with orchards, nutmeg plantations, burial grounds and the occasional home.
All the major hotels are located along Orchard Road too, such as The Hilton, the Singapore Marriott, the Grand Hyatt, the Mandarin Singapore and Le Meridien. With numerous nightspots, bars, lounges, pub, cafes, movie theatres and restaurants, it is a prosperous symbol of Singapore’s economic power.
I doubt the children will be very interesting in shopping, but the cinemas will be a draw-card. The architecture of the modern malls is quite entrancing too. In the centre of Orchard Road, the temple-like, marble clad, form of Ngee Ann City towers to the sky.
But Singapore is about so much more than shopping. Within a country the size of Lake Taupo (in the centre of New Zealand – at 646 sq km’s) there lives a vast blend of cultures and architecture; China Town, Little India, Malaysian influences and that of the European settlers in the colonial days (Raffles instantly springs to mind… along with a Singapore Sling!).
Singapore is so easy to travel around, with a well supported public transport system, combined with the prohibitively high cost of travelling by private transport, ensuring reasonable free flowing traffic in and around the city. Road traffic consists largely of taxis, buses, industrial vehicles and the occasional large and sparkling, private car (well, if you can afford to drive in Singapore there’s no point in doing it half-heartedly!).
When I was last there I travelled extensively on the ‘MRT’ – Singapore’s underground train system. A transit-link fare card gave me freedom to hop on and off any train or bus that took my choosing.
My first stop, back in 2002, sans children, was Raffles Place, to explore Chinatown.
Chinatown opens the senses with wonderful smells of food, the aroma of incense sticks and beautiful scenes of traditional architecture and elaborate temples. It lies next to Singapore’s Financial District, but they present two very different pictures. In contrast to Chinatown’s retention of the atmosphere of old Singapore, the skyscrapers of Raffles Place, and the rest of the Financial District, symbolise everything new and dynamic about the modern nation.
However, the division between the two areas is not clear-cut. Old and new intimately blend. One moment your thoughts can be carried back to times long ago, as you take in the scent of coiled incense hanging above your head in an elaborate temple, and the next – you see a towering skyscraper dominating the skyline to bring you right back to the modern day.
The heart of Chinatown is a colourful cluster of narrow streets running off South Bridge Road. Once a densely packed area of shops, coolie lodging-houses, coffee houses and opium dens, the area has now been carefully restored.
It is home to antique shops, bars, restaurants and plenty of traditional colour with beautifully fashioned fabrics, glittering jewellery, temple paraphernalia and curious Chinese health shops.
The shuttered buildings, painted in a rainbow of colours, with terracotta-tiled roofs, are in stark contrast to the high-rise neighbours encircling them from above.
From Chinatown to the Financial District I remember feeling thrust back into the modern world – along with refreshing availability of a cool beer (even if it was costly!). Boat Quay, home to Singapore’s elite workers. Situated along Singapore River, with views of Parliament House and colonial grandeur on the opposite bank, Boat Quay offers an eclectic choice of cuisines and outdoor dining. The two to three level white washed buildings, with their terracotta roofs, stand in charming defiance to the skyscrapers lining the horizon behind. There are bars and restaurants to suit every taste – from an authentic London styled Victorian pub and Irish jolly, to the exotic spices of India and China.
However, Boat Quay is costly, and it was for that reason that, back in 2002, I ventured onto the ‘Satay Club’ at Clarke Quay (we will be staying in an apartment in the Clarke Quay area on this holiday).
I remember stepping onto a ‘Bumboat’ to enjoy the cool breeze, as I cruised along the Singapore River from Boat Quay to Clarke Quay. Traditionally the bumboats used to jostle for position at the quay, ferrying goods from the harbour to the warehouses, now-a-days they make for another mode of transport.
Alighting from the bumboat I was greeted by a festive atmosphere of music filling the still air and fairy lights, dancing with a welcome glow from the bars lining the quay. Featuring blocks of restored warehouses, Clarke Quay is home to hip entertainment, dining outlets and shops of all kinds. The streets are lined with craft stalls and satay delights.
The area caught the eye of developers in the 1990s, prior to that it used to be a strip of dilapidated 19th century warehouses run by predominantly Chinese traders. I am very much looking forward to seeing how much more it has changed in the past decade.
Another area I am looking forward to revisiting is the Colonial Core (though I doubt the children will share my passion). In 2002, I travelled on the MRT to emerge in daylight, as though I had travelled through time. In Raffles I found myself in an oasis of tranquility. My thoughts drifted back to the days when gracefully dressed ladies and gentlemen would accommodate Singapore, a peaceful island of elegance amidst the heat and bustle of Southeast Asia.
The courtyards, gardens and covered walkways created a lingering feeling of calm and peace. Of course I had to sample a Singapore Sling, in the cool comfort of ‘The Long Bar’, darkly lit with elegant shutters and wooden beams setting the backdrop, wicker arm chairs and tables inviting me to linger, and heart shaped fans on the ceiling providing cool relief from the heat.
After a refreshing cool down I vividly remember stepping back out into the heat. I’m told it takes two weeks for the body to adjust (and two weeks was all the time I had!). It was an exhausting, humid heat (which is why I know we will have to pace our exploring with the children). I strolled to Fort Canning Park. The park was the seat of the Malay Kingdom of Temasek back in the 14th century. It was also the first Christian cemetery on the island. The grand Fort Canning Centre was built as a British army barracks in 1926. After a spell as an office block, it was restored and converted to a gallery and performance space.
From Fort Canning Park I walked to Chijmes. Today Chijmes consists of bars and shops, akin to Covent Gardens in London, but in yesteryear it was the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus. The sisters of the convent, which was founded in 1854, ran a woman’s refuge, orphanage and well-respected school until 1983 when the convent was relocated.
The architecture is enchanting, with the facade an elegant white and the centrepiece a magnificent five-floor-high spire capping the chapel. The walkways, of which there are 648, are beautifully decorated with carvings of tropical plants and animals. The atmosphere, by day, is peaceful – but at night the laughter and conversation winds its way up amongst the walkways to the night sky.
Heading back toward the Singapore River I enjoyed a leisurely walk around the Padang – a rectangular playing field where sporting activities take place. The Padang is surrounded by Old Parliament House, the Supreme Court, City Hall, the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall and Singapore Cricket Club – all most impressive buildings of grandeur in Victorian styled architecture.
Reaching the river I crossed at Cavenagh Bridge (Singapore’s only suspension bridge). But, before doing so, paid my respects to the founder of Singapore – as a trading post – by Sir Stamford Raffles (the East India Company), who in 1819 signed an agreement with the Sultan of Johor giving the British the right to establish a trading post on the island, proclaiming it a free port. And so it was that modern Singapore was born.
Despite Singapore’s high-density population it is surprisingly ‘green’ in appearance with many parks and gardens to find relaxation. The Singapore Botanic Gardens are a beautiful oasis of nature, located practically on the doorstep of Orchard Road’s shopping hub. There are many other opportunities to get close to nature in Singapore at places such as the wonderfully open-plan style Singapore Zoological Gardens, the Jurong Bird Park, the Bukit Tamah Nature Reserve, Mandai Orchid Garden, Japanese and Chinese Gardens. Since I last visited there has been the addition of the amazing ‘Gardens by the Bay‘.
And as well as travelling by bus, train, MRT and bumboat, there’s also a cable-car, from the heights of Mount Faber to Singapore’s recreational playground – Sentosa Island (where I imagine our three daughters will have high on the list of ‘must do’ activities!). Sentosa Island provides an amazing array of attractions from ‘Dolphin Island‘ and ‘Universal Studios‘ to a butterfly & insect park and the world’s largest aquarium. We will definitely be visiting the ‘Adventure Cove Waterpark’ and spectacular ‘Lake of Dreams‘.
The island of Sentosa has quite an interesting history – being transformed from a fishing village to military base and now an island of entertainment. There are a number of historical exhibits, which I delved into on my visit in 2002, prior to children!
The British used the island as a military base until 1967. Fort Siloso – the last bastion of the British during World War II, was built in the 1880s, and is an intriguing complex of bunkers, cannons and underground passageways.
I visited the ‘Images of Singapore‘ – a marvellous trip though time to learn more about Singapore through the ages. I can’t wait to revisit this now, over a decade on, and see how it has developed. I remember a vivid and colourful section of this exhibit, the ‘Festivals of Singapore’, which brought to life the traditions and festivals of the main ethnic groups in Singapore, including Chinese, Indian and Peranakans (also known as Straits-born Chinese – who descended from the early Chinese traders who settled in the Straits Settlements of Malaya and Indonesia, from the 16th century, and intermarried with the local Malay and Indian women).
I loved this walkway of colour too – reminding me of the architectural wonders of Gaudi in Barcelona.
A walkway to the beach, of mosaic brilliance, twisted metal and water fountains.
The ‘Spirit of Singapore’ Boat Ride looks like an amazing new attraction to take the family on!
I can’t wait! I’m just hoping that we can pace ourselves in the heat!
There is just so much to see and do, as detailed in this ‘100 Best Things to do in Singapore‘ by Jen Reviews.
Fifty travel hot spots in Singapore
Three days of Singapore fun on a backpacker budget
TripAdvisor just made layovers better
Inaugural Singapore Restaurant Month – 1 July to 10 August 2015
Adventures, Blasts from the past, Holidays Blasts from the past, Holidays, Singapore, travelling. permalink.
Mini creations
Back in town!
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HEALTH MAIN LIVING WELL DIET & FITNESS MENTAL HEALTH CONDITIONS HEALTH A-Z
What do you do about post-election blues?
Supporters of both winners and losers in the 2008 elections may feel let down
Experts: Avid followers may feel depression, grief, withdrawal
Some say they're just ready for the elections to be over
iReport.com: What does Obama's victory mean to you?
Next Article in Health »
By Elizabeth Landau
(CNN) -- When David Kronmiller wakes up and sits down at his computer in the morning, he usually checks the Huffington Post, the Drudge Report, Politico and the polls on RealClearPolitics. But the day after the election, he realized he didn't need to check those polls. There weren't any.
David Kronmiller will focus on writing and filmmaking now that he doesn't have election polls to check.
"There is some sadness to that," said Kronmiller, a North Hollywood, California, resident who frequently contributes his views to iReport.com.
Although he supported President-elect Barack Obama since the primaries, the end of the presidential election means he won't have a race to follow anymore.
"I expect serious withdrawal, like, tonight or tomorrow," he said Wednesday.
After two intense years of campaign ups and downs for both major U.S. political parties, the nation has finally settled on a president. Although initially, Obama's victory brings celebrations for supporters, experts say the let-down that voters of each side may feel after the campaign is akin to postpartum depression.
"There's this run-up: OK, it's nine months, and then the baby is delivered," said Rosalind Dorlen, a clinical psychologist in Summit, New Jersey. "All of the waiting is over, and the focus of the attention is no longer on the pregnant woman, but there's all kinds of feelings about the loss of the pregnancy.
"Maybe we will have some people who will have post-election depression because they have been expectantly looking forward to this blessed event that they participated in," she said.
Nancy Molitor, a clinical psychologist Wilmette, Illinois, started seeing some post-election despair even before the final results came in. Some of her patients wondered what they would do with their time in the absence of polls and campaign coverage.
MayoClinic.com: Health Library
"This lady is in her 80s, and she told me she's never in her life been excited about a campaign as she is about this campaign, and she knows it's filled this void in her life," she said.
Supporters of the winning candidate may feel as if they are going through withdrawal from a drug, Molitor said. They may also develop anxiety over what will change with the new president or become cynical about anything changing at all.
By contrast, someone whose favored candidate lost may go through something similar to grieving: starting with numb disbelief and then moving to anger, sadness and, eventually, recognition of the need to move on, she said.
Mourning over a lost campaign resonates with Donna Brazile, a CNN contributor who worked on Al Gore's campaign in 2000. In a column for CNN.com, she recalled feeling lost and disillusioned at first, and had no idea what to do with her life.
"It hurts like hell," she wrote. "It is like death of someone close to you -- the difference is no corpse or casket to help bring closure, just more election analysis and pundits spewing out what you did wrong."
She advises staff members, volunteers and supporters of candidates who lost on Tuesday to let out their grief: "Grieve. Mourn. Let it out." Read Donna Brazile's 'A letter to the losers'
To combat the letdown of the period after the election, Molitor advises people to put routine back into their lives. Political junkies who lost their sleeping and eating routines should get back on schedule, she said. They should also take part in community activities, such as book clubs or other interest groups.
Even supporters of winning and losing candidates may feel a little off for two weeks or more, she said.
For some, the excitement will continue for a couple of weeks, until the reality sets in that the candidates they elected won't be able to do anything until January, said Jana N. Martin, a licensed psychologist in Long Beach, California.
Anyone who feels depressed, hopeless or powerless after the election should realize that they as individuals have the ultimate control over their everyday lives, she said.
"The president is not going to find you a job; the president is not the one who manages your individual budgets," she said. "If people want changes, they can do that in their day-to-day lives. They don't need a candidate to do that."
Those who feel truly overwhelmed should see a psychologist who can help them think out loud, she said.
Aric Butler, a Pennsylvania State University student who supported Sen. John McCain, said he's not upset that Obama won but does feel a sense of withdrawal.
"I love discussing and debating politics, and now that the election is over it seems like nobody wants to discuss politics anymore, which is very disappointing (in) this short (time) after the election," he said in a recent e-mail.
But for some, the end of the election season brings feelings of relief. Alex Khanye, a student at California State University in Sacramento and a McCain supporter, said Thursday that he feels better now than throughout the campaign because of the bitterness and anger that it sparked in some people. A few weeks ago, when he was at a rally, someone slashed the tires of his car, which had a McCain bumper sticker.
"We had all kind of accepted that Obama was going to win probably, for the last month for so, so it wasn't like we were really that hopeful going into the election, so we had come to grips with it, at least I had," he said. "I'm ready for everything to kind of go back to normal."
Others say the end of the election simply means they'll have more time to focus on other aspects of their life. Adam Sieff, a Columbia University student who supported Obama, said he'll now have more time to concentrate on schoolwork and maintains that his "withdrawal" will not be of postpartum proportions.
With more free time in the absence of campaign-following, Kronmiller said he's going to get focused on his own writing and filmmaking. iReport.com: 'Obama won -- now maybe we can move forward'
"As (Obama) said (Tuesday) night, it's time to get to work, and get things moving forward again, instead of all this fighting, all this resistance that we've had," he said.
All About Depression • Psychology • Election Campaigns
Sound Off: Your opinions and comments
Post a comment | iReport.com: Put your thoughts on video
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Pentagon unveils details of Operation Desert Fox
Web posted at: 7:40 p.m. EDT (2340 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Here are some of the details of Operation Desert Fox, unveiled at a Pentagon briefing Wednesday night by Defense Secretary William Cohen and Gen. Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
The military operation began at 1:00 a.m. Thursday in Baghdad (5 p.m. EST/2200 GMT Wednesday). It included forces from the United States and Britain. Cohen said the objective of the military attack was to erode Iraq's military capability and ability to make chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. He would not give a timetable for how long the attack would last.
The attack included U.S. Navy aircraft launched from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and land-based aircraft from both the U.S. Air Force and the Royal Air Force, operating from unspecified bases in the region.
Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched both by U.S. Air Force B-52 bombers and from U.S. Navy ships at sea.
Because the operation was not complete, neither Cohen nor Shelton would discuss specifics of the attack, including the number of missiles launched, the number of aircraft sorties, a list of targets or a damage assessment. Cohen did say, about 90 minutes into the attack, that he was not aware of any U.S. casualties to that point.
Flashback 1991
Forces in the Gulf
Bioweapons Explainer
UNSCOM Documents
Blasts over Baghdad
Clinton: Iraq has abused its final chance
Transcript: President Clinton explains Iraq strike
Blair: Saddam Hussein a 'serial-breaker of promises.'
Transcript: Blair's remarks on Iraq attack
In the wake of the attack, the U.S. military is sending additional firepower to the Persian Gulf area, including: an air expeditionary wing with 36 combat aircraft, including fighters, bombers and anti-air defense aircraft; F-117A stealth aircraft; the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, accompanied by the ships in its battle group, which will arrive Friday; and an additional brigade of ground troops to augment the 20,000 soldiers already in Kuwait.
Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine, said that the pending impeachment of President Bill Clinton in the U.S. House played no role in the decision to bomb Iraq.
"I have come to the conclusion, looking at the facts, that this was in America's national security interests," Cohen said. "I am prepared to place 30 years of public service on the line to say the only factor that was important in this decision is what was in the American people's best interest. There were no other factors."
Shelton said logistical considerations, including the pending arrival of a second aircraft carrier, made Wednesday the right time to launch the attack and that the military plan had been approved back in November. "I wholeheartedly supported the president's decision," he said.
In-depth special:
Showdown with Iraq
Iraq vs. U.N.
Explosions in sky over Baghdad - December 16, 1998
Iraq not cooperating with U.N., chief inspector says - December 15, 1998
Visiting U.N. weapons inspectors depart Iraq - December 14, 1998
Iraq oil sale wins approval from U.N. chief - December 12, 1998
Cohen: Iraq could be attacked at any time - December 10, 1998
U.S. reacts sternly to Iraq's rebuff of inspectors - December 9, 1998
Pakistan begins troop withdrawal from Indian border
White-collar workers in Jakarta join anti-Habibie chorus
Veteran politicians hand over EU reform blueprint
Klan rally in New York fizzles under counterprotests
Falwell hosts summit with gay minister
Critics assail plan to give women addicts money to use birth control
Chemical that could power microbes is found at Jupiter moon
Texas downs No. 3 Huskers, continues hex
Illinois stuns No. 9 Michigan 35-29
Agilent plans $1.1 B IPO
Agents boycott United for slashing commissions
Advocates assail legislation encouraging mergers
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The history of estate taxes in America has been a long and winding road. Careful estate planning is still one of the most important ways to manage and protect your assets for your heirs.
The Stamp Act of 1797 was the first federal estate tax in the United States and was passed to help fund an undeclared war with France; it was repealed in 1802. The Revenue Act of 1862 reinstated the estate tax in order to fund the Civil War; it was abolished in 1870. To finance the Spanish American War, the War Revenue Act of 1898 was passed, and subsequently abolished in 1902. Due to the costs of World War I, the Revenue Act of 1916 reinstated an estate tax that, in some form or other, has been in effect ever since.
The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 gradually increased the federal estate tax exemption, until finally repealing the federal estate tax altogether for the 2010 tax year only. The Tax Relief Act of 2010 reinstated the federal estate tax with a $5 million exemption, indexing the exemption for inflation after 2011. The provisions of the Tax Relief Act of 2010 expired on December 31, 2012.
The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 increased the federal estate tax rate from 35% to 40%, but left in place the higher exemption level, which reached $5.49 million in 2017 (up from $5.45 million in 2016); both provisions are now permanent. It also left in place the “portability” of any unused exemption between spouses.
The latest major piece of tax legislation is the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was signed into law on December 22, 2017. This Act doubled the federal estate tax exclusion to $11.18 million in 2018 (indexed annually for inflation) while retaining the 40% tax rate. The 2019 federal estate tax exclusion is $11.4 million. In 2026, the exclusion is scheduled to revert to its pre-2018 level.
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With Hostile Intent, Robert Gandt
Signet, 2001, 368 pages, C$9.99 mmpb, ISBN 0-451-20486-7
One of the great genre fiction tragedies of the past decade has been the progressive atrophy of the military thriller. From the genre’s heyday in the early nineties, we’ve been saddled with a number of unconvincing stories written by authors whose technical knowledge greatly exceeded their ability to tell a story effectively. Numerous best-selling authors have become mere parodies of themselves (I’m looking at you, Dale Brown) as others have moved on to other things or simply stopped writing.
In the absence of reliable authors, finding new material has taken a hit-and-miss quality. While there’s been a steady number of new writers coming out of the US military, their novels haven’t all been wonderful. A lot of these books are burdened with far too much military jargon and not much of a story. Most feature unpalatable characters. Many are contaminated with the kind of gung-ho militarism that makes them incomprehensible even to well-intentioned civilians. Of the late-nineties crop of military authors, only James H. Cobb has struck me as an interesting and reliable writer.
While it’s a bit early to judge Robert Gandt on reliability, his first novel With Hostile Intent suggests that he’s an author worth watching. It’s not a perfect book, but it’s certainly one of the most promising military fiction debuts in recent memory. Simply consider this: It’s a thriller in which the action scenes are not necessarily the most interesting part of the book.
It all takes place around the turn-of-the-millennium Persian Gulf, from Bahrain to Baghdad. In this pre-9/11 setting (Published in October 2001, With Hostile Intent may end up being the last thriller of the twentieth century), this is a familiar area: Saddam Hussein is the undisputed ruler of a sanctions-bound Iraq and the Americans are enforcing a no-fly zone over most of the country. The action begins as a mistake is made and an Iraqi fighter is shot down.
What follows is a pretty darn spiffy story of professional rivalry, tangled romances, aircraft carrier life and occasional military suspense. It’s not the first novel to take place on an aircraft carrier (see whole sections of Stephen Coonts’ oeuvre, for instance), but Gandt shows an uncanny knack at combining shipboard politics with more straightforward naval aviation action.
By far the best thing about With Hostile Intent is how it quickly develops sympathy for its characters. Protagonist Brick Maxwell may sport a pulp-fiction name, an outlandish biography and a steely behaviour, but he’s nearly the perfect viewpoint character: His undisputed skills don’t diminish his struggles as a new guy on the block. He’s got good friends and excellent enemies. Plus he gets to act like an idiot and atone for it. The gallery of supporting characters is also serviceable in creating an involvement with the book.
As an added bonus, With Hostile Intent isn’t the kind of jingoistic propaganda piece that gives military fiction a bad name. There are several rotten apples in this aircraft carrier, and our protagonist deals with them. The main Iraqi antagonist is described with some degree of respect and sympathy. Even the “sold-out” American journalist gets his fair moment of glory.
It’s stuff like that which gives With Hostile Intent an extra edge when comes the time to compare it to other contemporary military fiction. The writing style is limpid and uncluttered with the kind of techno-fetishism that ofter overwhelms similar books. It’s a welcome change of pace to find our interest as engaged in interpersonal strife than in the air combats. While parts of the book are unbelievable (isn’t anyone else paying attention to the number of crashes for this particular cruise?), they stand out because the rest of the book seems so realistic.
Time and other novels will tell if Gandt can sustain the promise shown by his first novel. But judging from With Hostile Intent, he certainly seems able to juggle the various demands of military fiction and deliver a pleasant reading experience on top of everything else. I may be suffering from low expectations, but this book delivered everything I could ask from such a thriller.
Robert Gandt
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Uniting for women, children and adolescents
#2018PMNCHLive • #EWECisME
MEDIA INFO YOUTH LIVE STREAMING
Virtual Forum
Virtual Side Events
The story behind the logo
In the initial stages of planning for the Partners’ Forum, the Government of India and PMNCH agreed that a compelling logo for the event was needed that reflected the key themes of the Forum and the broader agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), making people the central focus and reflecting the location of the Forum in India.
A key theme of the 2018 Partners’ Forum is the power of innovative cross-sectoral partnership to bend the curve for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health. The Forum will showcase country examples of successful cross-sectoral collaborations exemplifying Every Women Every Child’s six priority themes: adolescent health and well-being; early childhood development; empowerment of women, girls and communities; humanitarian and fragile settings; quality, equity and dignity in services; and sexual and reproductive health and rights. The logo had to represent each of these distinct but closely linked themes, while weaving them into a cohesive whole.
Culture, craft and identity
Lopez Design, a Delhi-based branding and communications firm, was selected to design the logo and the overarching visual identity for the Forum. They have considerable experience in using design to inspire action – for example, using bright colours and clear images to increase the uptake of health services in rural communities in India.
For the Partners’ Forum logo, six images were used showing women, children and adolescents, each representing one of the six EWEC themes. It was important also to represent the role of men – for example, in caring for and nurturing young children, and in sharing with their partner’s decision-making about sexual and reproductive health decisions. The images were linked in a circle, reflecting the fact that the six themes can be seen as a ring of human endeavour, based on the paradigm of “a world made of many parts come together as a whole.” The circular form of the logo, and the centrality of the people depicted, echo the interconnected themes of the SDGs and the importance of working together.
The Partners’ Forum logo on the hand-stitched scroll presented to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi
Appliqué, a craft practised in many societies across the world, was chosen as the medium for the logo. Pipli, named after the village in Odisha where it originated, is a popular Indian form of appliqué. Pipli’s colourful and simple representations of people and the natural world were used to create a vibrant visual image with universal appeal. From organizations and national leaders to young people, women and children in small towns and villages: everyone can connect with this image of handcrafted Pipli.
The use of Pipli also gives the logo a sense of place, referring to the Forum’s location in India. The symbol for the Partners’ Forum represents the country’s vibrant spirit and makes it universally applicable.
The logo’s development from initial sketch to its final circular form
From Pipli to the world: the village behind the logo
Craftspeople in the village of Pipli reproduced the logo in appliqué form. The six motifs they produced were sewn together and placed on a digitally printed white background to make a unique scroll. This was packed in a specially crafted presentation box.
The making of the Pipli scroll by craftspeople from Odisha
At the global kick-off event for the Partners’ Forum in April 2018, the scroll was presented by key global champions of the Forum to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. Photographs of this milestone event were tweeted by the Minister of Health, Shri Nadda, and by Priyanka Chopra, actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
The Partners’ Forum Pipli logo is formally presented to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. Participants from left to right: Preeti Sudan, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; Jagat Prakash Nadda, Minister for Health and Family Welfare; Michelle Bachelet, Chair of the PMNCH Board and former President of Chile; Prime Minister Modi; Priyanka Chopra, actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador; Ashwini Kumar Choubey; and Helga Fogstad, Executive Director of PMNCH .
The logo will be used in multiple creative projects in the lead-up to and during the Partners’ Forum, conveying its message of putting people at the centre of all efforts to achieve the SDGs. PMNCH, the Government of India and Lopez Design are all committed to sustainably and ethically sourcing all products depicting Pipli craft for the Forum (e.g. banners, conference bags, backdrops, etc.), and partnerships with local craftspeople for their production are being explored. It is hoped that Forum participants will take home beautiful souvenirs from the Forum which inspire renewed commitment to and action for the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents everywhere.
Be a part of the forum
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Copyright 2018 PMNCH. All rights reserved.
For any queries email us at
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Hannah Reynolds--Redefining a Life and a Death
Pall bearers carry Hannah Reynold's coffin during the Footsteps to Freedom program in 2015. Photo by National Park Service.
Hannah Reynolds was 60 years old when the armies converged on a small county seat in south central Virginia. Her owner and master, Dr. Samuel Coleman, took his family and fled from Appomattox Court House leaving Hannah and her husband, Abram, behind. Hannah and Abram were still there in the Coleman’s house on the morning of April 9, 1865 when the Army of the Potomac, which had been harassing and pressing the Army of Northern Virginia for nearly a week, finally surrounded the Confederates. In a final desperate effort to make it to the safety of the rail lines and provisions believed to be waiting in Lynchburg, Robert E. Lee launched an attack on the Federal position. Soon, a full-fledged battle was raging and the sleepy town of Appomattox Court House was in the line of fire.
During this battle, a cannon ball fired from a Union artillery piece punched through the walls of the Coleman home and wounded Hannah severely. After the ceasefire that announced what would be a lasting peace between the two armies, she was tended to by a Union army doctor at a field hospital set up behind the Coleman home.
Hannah did not survive her wound, which was described by the 8th Maine Volunteer Infantry’s Chaplain, J.E.M. Wright, as “a concave wound…corresponding to the size and shape of the ball.”
Hannah was the only civilian casualty of battle and for many years, her story was a tale of a sad irony. The liberating army had arrived, but she had died just hours before the official surrender of the Confederate army made her free.
Were that the end of the story, she would probably be confined to a footnote of history. However, in preparation for the April 2015 sesquicentennial of the battle and subsequent surrender, the National Park Service tasked local Appomattox Pastor Alfred L. Jones III with writing and delivering a eulogy for Hannah as part of its commemoration. The program, Footsteps to Freedom, celebrated the life of Hannah and the freedom granted by the Confederate army's surrender to the 4,600 Appomattox County slaves.
In his research about Hannah, Jones came across a document that redefined Hannah’s life: a death registry. In it, Hannah Reynold’s death date is listed as April 12, 1865, not April 9 as was always assumed.
The difference in those three days meant the difference between dying a slave hours short of liberation and dying a free woman.
The importance did not appear to be lost on Dr. Coleman, who was listed in the register as the person who reported Hannah’s death. He listed himself as Hannah’s “former owner”.
Hannah’s funeral, held April 11, 2015, featured Pastor Jones’ eulogy, a 100 member gospel choir and 4,600 luminaries—one for each slave in Appomattox County liberated by the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.
1. What reasons could Hannah and Abram have had for staying in the Coleman home after their master left? Why do you think they didn’t take the opportunity to escape to the Union army lines?
2. What defines home to you? Would you risk your life to protect it?
3. If Hannah had been conscious, how do you think she may have responded to the idea of dying a free woman?
4. Is there an intrinsic value to freedom that transcends a person’s ability to take advantage of it?
References and Further Reading
Discovery Gives New Ending to a Death the Civil War's Close
Funeral for a Former Slave Takes Center Stage at Appomattox
'Wounded as a Slave; Died as a Free Woman': Appomattox Anniversary Program to Honor Hannah Reynolds
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Opinion ›
Viewpoints ›
Investing in Waller Creek is worth the cost
Photo Credit: Veronica Jones | Daily Texan Staff
Published on September 23, 2018 at 10:02 pm
By Jim Walker
For most students, staff and faculty at UT-Austin, the experience of Waller Creek as it meanders through campus may be a passing afterthought. However, the creek is an integral part of campus we should all pay more attention to.
The Waller Creek watershed covers about 6 square miles, with the creek itself running about 7 miles before flowing into Lady Bird Lake. The UT-Austin campus covers less than 11 percent of the watershed.
Waller Creek was first integrated into campus in the 1933 Paul Cret master plan. He envisioned the creek as an opportunity to connect the campus with the surrounding city. Around this same time, University staff began planting small cypress trees along the creek, perhaps to emulate the look and feel of other Hill Country creeks.
By the late 1960s, the University had built up, around and almost on top of the creek. Events in 1969 chronicled as “The Battle of Waller Creek” exemplifies the tension of the day, with students sitting in trees protesting building expansion. During the next several decades, the creek was allowed to grow wild. This period coincides with the development of Hyde Park and other neighborhoods to the north of campus, and one of the oldest active sewer lines in Austin underneath the creek.
Today, Waller Creek is one of the city’s most polluted as a result of Austin’s increasing urbanization. You’ve probably seen the litter or a plastic bag in a tree after a big rain. What you can’t see is that Waller Creek also has some of the highest E. Coli bacteria counts of all creeks in Austin according to City of Austin data. There’s a reason we warn visitors, “Don’t touch the water!”
The University takes stewardship of Waller Creek seriously. Primary responsibility for litter and cleanliness resides with the Landscape Services department, and the Environmental Health and Safety office coordinates two Waller Creek CleanUps every year. The next one is planned for Saturday, Oct. 20.
The Environmental Health and Safety office also fulfills the University’s regulatory responsibilities with the State of Texas related to the water quality in Waller Creek. We must maintain a municipal separate storm sewer system permit, also known as an MS4 permit, which describes how we monitor water quality and what we do to protect the creek from sources of pollution such as construction and storm runoff. The University is very diligent in those efforts.
Remember, most of the watershed is “above,” or to the north of, campus. Water sampling by researchers from both the City and UT Austin show the creek already has elevated pollutant levels before reaching campus. Even so, the University and City have been sharing data and ideas on how to improve water quality. It’s perhaps not the kind of connection Paul Cret imagined, but a worthy collaboration for the modern day.
Recently, the University began re-embracing Waller Creek for its aesthetic potential. The Sasaki 2012 master plan envisions that “the Waller Creek and San Jacinto corridor will be transformed from a major north-south barrier between the core and central campus to a connective seam that balances the natural ecology of Waller Creek with an efficient and convenient transit corridor.” How cool would that be combined with Bevo Boulevard?
The Sasaki 2014 landscape master plan identifies strategies for restoring the ecological functions of the creek. The concepts in the landscape master plan were first implemented at the Dell Medical School, which is very worth an afternoon visit.
In 2016, the University launched a more focused effort, the Waller Creek Framework Plan, to integrate the priorities of improving safe circulation and wayfinding, creek bank stability and the ecological resilience of the creek. The framework plan is anticipated to be complete this fall.
The next time you find yourself near Waller Creek on campus, I encourage you to pause a moment and recall its long history with the University. I remind you it is currently too polluted to touch, but ask you to consider investing your time in helping clean up the creek and supporting the University’s and City’s grander efforts to restore Waller Creek to a safe and enjoyable natural haven for the entire campus community.
Walker is the Director of Sustainability at UT-Austin.
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Weekend Labor History
National Typographical Union founded, Cincinnati, Ohio. It was renamed the Int’l Typographical Union in 1869, in acknowledgment of Canadian members. When the ITU merged into CWA in 1986 it was the oldest existing union in the U.S. Metro Washington Council affiliate Columbia typo 101, founded in 1816, is the longest continuing local union in the country - 1852
On Chicago’s West Side, police attack Jewish workers as they try to march into the Loop to protest slum conditions - 1886
Some 14,000 building trades workers and laborers, demanding an 8-hour work day, gather at the Milwaukee Iron Co. rolling mill in Bay View, Wisc. When they approach the mill they are fired on by 250 National Guardsmen under orders from the governor to shoot to kill. Seven die, including a 13-year-old boy - 1886
(Unions for Beginners: It is a time when unions have returned to the front pages of newspapers and blogs and demonstrators are in the streets of America every day. It is a time when the right wing has tried to strike the final blow against what remains of the right to collective bargaining. It is a time when millions of members of the middle class are falling through the cracks in a downward economic trend that parallels the decline of unions. It is this time when people are turning again to the history of unions. Unions for Beginners provides an introduction to that essential history.)
Nineteen machinists working for the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad gather in a locomotive pit to decide what to do about a wage cut. They vote to form a union, which later became the Int’l Association of Machinists - 1888
Italian-American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are arrested in Boston for murder and payroll robbery. Eventually they are executed for a crime most believe they did not commit - 1920
Heavily armed deputies and other mine owner hirelings attack striking miners in Harlan County, Ky., starting the Battle of Harlan County - 1931
John J. Sweeney, president of the Service Employees Int’l Union from 1980 to 1995, then president of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009, born in the Bronx, N.Y. - 1934
Lumber strike begins in Pacific Northwest, will involve 40,000 workers by the time victory is achieved after 13 weeks: union recognition, a 50¢-per-hour minimum wage and an 8-hour day - 1937
The U.S. unemployment rate drops to a 30-year low of 3.9 percent; the rate for Blacks and Hispanics is the lowest ever since the government started tracking such data - 2000
Works Progress Administration (WPA) established at a cost of $4.8 billion—more than $80 billion in 2015 dollars—to provide work opportunities for millions during the Great Depression - 1935
Four hundred Black women working as tobacco stemmers walk off the job in a spontaneous revolt against poor working conditions and a $3 weekly wage at the Vaughan Co. in Richmond, Va. - 1937
The Knights of St. Crispin union is formed at a secret meeting in Milwaukee. It grew to 50,000 members before being crushed by employers later that year - 1867
Two die, 20 are injured in “Bloody Tuesday” as strikebreakers attempt to run San Francisco streetcars during a strike by operators. The strike was declared lost in 1908 after many more deaths, including several in scab-operated streetcar accidents - 1907
Philadelphia’s longest transit strike ends after 44 days. A key issue in the fight was the hiring and use of part-timers - 1977
Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services
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Alt-pop duo The Brinks on the success of their debut EP Special
By Adrian Peel Sep 18, 2016 in Music
Los Angeles - Busy promoting their debut EP (released in December last year), the LA-based duo consisting of New York City producer, songwriter and keyboardist Matt Friedman and Australian singer, guitarist and songwriter Scott Mellis made time for Digital Journal.
Out now on Louder Than Life/Sony Music, Temporary Love was executive produced by Salaam Remi, known for his work with the likes of Amy Winehouse and Alicia Keys. Amazingly, Friedman and Mellis only began recording demos together in 2015, finding an early supporter in the form of Pharrell Williams, who tweeted about the band to his eight million followers.
The Brinks have already chalked up a number of impressive accolades, with their debut single - the title track of the EP - receiving 10 million plays on Spotify. The song also peaked at number three on Hype Machine's Popular Chart and has also received airplay on Jason Kramer's KCRW show and Pharell's Beats 1 radio show. I spoke to the pair.
How are you? What have you been doing recently?
Scott (S): "Great thanks! We've been mostly working on the live show and getting prepared to play our stuff out live."
Please tell me about your debut EP, Temporary Love. Where did the title come from? How long did it take to write and record?
S: "The EP is named after the title track. It was about six months of hanging out at Matt's apartment writing and recording all the songs."
How did you end up working with Salaam Remi and what did he bring to the table?
Matt (M): "Pusha T made that connection. He was initially into the music and forwarded it on to Salaam. Salaam is now our A&R person."
I gather the title track is doing rather well on Spotify? What's it about?
M: "Yeah, it keeps getting added to great playlists and then sticking around... It's been really fun to watch."
S: "The song is about searching for something and questioning whether it's a reality."
You've also been championed by Pharrell Williams. What is it about your music that appears to have struck a chord with listeners?
S: "I'm not really sure exactly... He retweeted us and then we got to meet him and he said he dug the music - which was crazy!"
Which of the songs on the EP particularly stand out for you? Do you plan to release a full-length album at some stage?
S: "'Limit of the Deadline' and 'Temporary Love.' Yes at some stage, but the next release will likely be an EP."
What themes do you address on the EP? What do you like to write about in general?
S: "We like to keep it pretty general and focus on the human condition and universal subjects. We also like lyrics that conjure up visual imagery, but we try to find a balance between being that and being too abstract."
How would you define your sound? Who are your biggest musical influences?
S/M: "Pop music disguised in a blanket of autumn leaves. So many influences from Prince, The Cure, Portishead, PIL, George Clinton, The Bee Gees..."
How did the two of you first meet? Where did the name 'The Brinks' come from? What do you like most about working together?
M: "We met through mutual friends and realised quickly that we liked working together. We both have very different musical perspectives and that's what keeps it interesting for us. The name has a concept to it, but it was more like sound designing a word that felt like our music to us."
What ambitions do you hope to fulfill?
S: "Our ambitions are to write the best songs we can and create something a little different."
Temporary Love is available on iTunes.
For more on The Brinks, visit their official Facebook page.
More about the brinks, altpop, temporary love, pharrell williams, Amy winehouse
the brinks altpop temporary love pharrell williams Amy winehouse Alicia keys matt friedman scott mellis Spotify Salaam Remi pusha t Prince The Bee Gees the cure portishead Pil george clinton Los angeles Australia USA
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Americans Tired of Foreign Policy Failures -- By Walter Russell Mead & Staff, The American Interest
This is what comes of feckless presidential leadership. A new joint poll from the WSJ and NBC shows that Americans are weary of America’s global military presence and support the reduction of our overseas commitments:
The poll findings, combined with the results of prior Journal/NBC surveys this year, portray a public weary of foreign entanglements and disenchanted with a U.S. economic system that many believe is stacked against them. The 47% of respondents who called for a less-active role in world affairs marked a larger share than in similar polling in 2001, 1997, and 1995.
Similarly, the Pew Research Center last year found a record 53% saying that the U.S. “should mind its own business internationally” and let other countries get along as best they can, compared with 41% who said so in 1995 and 20% in 1964.
More than anything else, the failures of our last two Presidents are to blame for these responses. Under President Bush we fought two inconclusive wars, and things haven’t gotten much better during President Obama’s tenure. Only 37 percent of respondents in the WSJ poll approve of Obama’s handling of Ukraine, down from 43 percent in a March survey. And Ukraine is just the most recent example of how he has floundered, especially during his second term.
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Published on Welcome to Ekklesia (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk)
Home > Global Reformed church leaders celebrate Calvin by planning merger
Global Reformed church leaders celebrate Calvin by planning merger
At an historic meeting in Geneva, Switzerland later this month, leaders of two global Reformed church organizations representing over 80 million Christians will gather to plan their merger into one worldwide communion of churches.
“This move towards unity is a fitting tribute to [16th century Reformer John] Calvin by his modern day heirs,” ” says Peter Borgdorff, President of the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC).
The meeting of the executive committees of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council marks the first time the two groups have met in the city where Calvin urged the diverse factions of the church to join in “visible unity”.
“How appropriate that these meetings should coincide with celebrations of the 500th anniversary in 2009 of John Calvin,” adds WARC’s President, Clifton Kirkpatrick. “It is proof of his enduring legacy for the worldwide church.”
A group of 40 leaders from 37 churches will gather at the John Knox Centre (21-31 May 2009) to lay the foundations of an organization which will unite 75 million Reformed church members around the world.
Discussions will focus on plans for the merger of the two organizations to form the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC).
“We will be looking at ensuring the financial base of the new organization in light of the current financial climate. This means shaping the structure so that we can meet the challenges of today while planning for the future,” says Borgdorff.
“The objective,” Kirkpatrick emphasizes, “is sustainability.”
The joint executive committee will receive proposals for the staff structure for the WCRC, the location of the organization’s offices and the budget. Programme discussions will include decisions about the future directions of WARC’s flagship initiatives – Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth; Mission; and Theology and Ecumenical Engagement.
The proposal to merge came in February 2006. The organizations’ executive committees approved the proposal at meetings in 2007. In October 2008, WARC and RECaffirmed a draft of the constitution and preliminary plans for transition.
At the time, WARC’s president, Kirkpatrick, hailed the move towards unity between the two organizations as “a very significant moment to witness to the reconciliation we find in Christ.”
Although the views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Ekklesia, the article may reflect Ekklesia's values. If you use Ekklesia's news briefings please consider making a donation to sponsor Ekklesia's work here [1].
Source URL: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/9447
[1] http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/about/donate
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Corporate entry CSIRO Division of Applied Geomechanics (1970 - 1983)
Syndal, Victoria, Australia
Industrial or scientific research
Syndal, Victoria
In 1970, the Division of Soil Mechanics changed its name to become the Division of Applied Geomechanics. After thirteen years of operations, this Division became the Division of Geomechanics.
c. 1933 - c. 1943 CSIR Soil Physics Section
c. 1943 - 1955 CSIRO Soil Physics and Mechanics Section
1955 - 1967 CSIRO Soil Mechanics Section
1967 - 1970 CSIRO Division of Soil Mechanics
1970 - 1983 CSIRO Division of Applied Geomechanics
1983 - 1993 CSIRO Division of Geomechanics
1993 - CSIRO Division of Petroleum Resources
Controlling Corporate Bodies
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Commonwealth of Australia (1949 - )
Aitchison, Gordon Douglas (1918 - 2003)
Chief of the Division of Applied Geomechanics, CSIRO
Gill, Edmund Dwen (1908 - 1986)
Research Fellow in the CSIRO Division of Applied Geomechanics in Syndal
Kelsall, Denis Fletcher (1918 - 1982)
Denis Kelsall was Chief of the CSIRO Division of Applied Geomechanics from 1979 to 1981.
Price, Graham Pope (1947 - )
Historical Directory of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, 1926-1976, CSIRO, Canberra, 1978, 101 pp. Details
'Primary description of agency CA 4542; CSIRO, Division of Geomechanics, Headquarters, Melbourne. Registration of entity: 1 October 1987', in RecordSearch, National Archives of Australia, 2000, http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/SearchOld.asp?Number=CA+4542. Details
Created: 6 October 2000, Last modified: 2 May 2006
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Leave No Worker Behind
Will the just transition movement survive mainstream adoption?
Samantha Harvey
photo Peg Hunter Grassroots activists worry that that once taken over by philanthropies and governments entrenched in a corporate model, the principles that birthed the just transition movement – principles of bottom-up community leadership, cultural inclusion, food sovereignty, and localized economies – would be lost forever.
“There is a right way to do ‘just transition.’”
The statement echoes through the humid halls of the historic Stringer Grand Lodge Masonic Temple in Jackson, Mississippi, on an unseasonably scorching day in late February, 2018. Mingling with the ghosts of Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 150 labor leaders, environmental justice activists, philanthropists, and national environmental organization staffers move from one side of the room to the other – far right for “strongly agree,” and far left for “strongly disagree.”
The group has come together to find alignment around the concept of just transition, so laughter erupts at the almost 50-50 split. But the mood soon settles. With the backdrop of a president who has filled his cabinet with oil executives, brutishly dismissed climate change, and denounced the Paris Accord, it’s hard to shake off what’s happening outside for too long: Puerto Ricans are fleeing the devastating effects of Hurricane Maria with no end in sight, #MeToo is a household term, and activists are railing against the assault on unions in the historic Supreme Court case Janus v. AFSCME . Those in the temple are steeped in these threats and more. But they also understand that while climate change, racism, patriarchy, and plutocracy are terrifying, they are not impenetrable, and dismantling one may lead to the unraveling of others.
Global activists share this systemic view, and around the world, locally based, integrated models are being built to support people working and living together in community. This decarbonized vision connects jobs and environment rather than pitting them against one another; breaks down patriarchy and systems of oppression; honors caring, culture, and community leadership; and reshuffles the paradigm that hails profit as the sole pinnacle of goodness. They call it “ buen vivir ” (good living) in South America, “commons” and “degrowth” in Europe, “agroecology,” “ecofeminisms,” and “rights of Mother Earth” in Indigenous communities, and in the United States, incorporating principles of all these concepts, “just transition.”
After much debate across the temple, a woman raises her hand from a spot dead center between the two poles. “Just transition will look different in different places, because it’s place-based,” she says. “But the principles behind it have to be the same. So there is a right way, but the right way is many ways.” She doesn’t mention that some “right ways” are more “right” than others. All seem to agree just transition fundamentally requires a shift off of fossil fuels, and in a radically climate-changing world, nothing could be more urgent. But grassroots movements also demand economic, racial, and gender justice underpin that shift. In fact, they assert decarbonizing simply cannot happen exclusive of justice.
This approach has been threatened since “just transition” hit the big time, so to speak: when it appeared in the preamble of the Paris Accord in late 2015. Movement leaders fear its public adoption on a global platform threatens to dilute the concept, undermine it, co-opt it. They believe policymakers and large philanthropies are too wedded to the capitalist economy to be able to imagine anything outside of it, and the consolidation of wealth, spurred by white supremacy and patriarchy, is the foundation of a capitalist system whose growth-at-all-costs philosophy is killing the planet. To these leaders, tackling climate change without justice is a zero-sum game, a way for the wealthy to delay the catastrophic effects of fossil fuel use on themselves, perhaps, but certainly not a way to dig out the roots of the underlying systems that created resource grabs and climate change in the first place.
And so it is that José Bravo, executive director and founder of the Just Transition Alliance, finds himself in Jackson, doing his best to protect the roots of this radical alternative framework. He is inside the temple’s main room as much as he is out in the hall in off-the-cuff meetings, throwing an avuncular arm around the shoulders of passersby, and then patiently building the case for solidarity with workers and communities. He is as comfortable cracking jokes as he is debating high-level policy, a disarming quality that has served him well through decades of movement building.
Bravo was there at the beginning of the just transition movement, a participant in the first People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, and five years later, a co-writer of the seminal “Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing.” The Jemez principles would later ground principles of the Just Transition Alliance, the Indigenous Environmental Network, and the Climate Justice Alliance. In today’s parlance, Bravo qualifies as a movement O.G., so in the current rush to define “just transition,” he gets asked a lot why the Just Transition Alliance never copyrighted the term.
“Because we don’t believe in that,” he says. “We believe just transition is as open-source now as it’s ever been. But we do want people to know it didn’t start today.”
The origins of this movement trace back to the early ‘90s, when Tony Mazzocchi, a labor leader and top official of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW), saw the inevitability of a labor transition away from toxic fuels and chemicals.
As Bravo remembers it, “Here you had workers who depended on 100 percent of the most vile things on the planet. The chemicals, the fuels, the artillery, the weapons … And they said, You know what? The stuff we produce, and many of the things we put together in these plants, probably shouldn’t be put together on the face of this planet.” But stopping production would mean job losses.
In 1993, writing for the EcoSocialist Review – in a piece shortly thereafter excerpted by Earth Island Journal – Mazzocchi proposed a “superfund for workers” to assist those working in an era of environmental cleanup to transition to new, cleaner jobs, replete with training programs, full wages, and benefits for those who found themselves unemployed.
“We are not asking that environmentalists change their agenda,” he wrote. “However, we urge consideration of the economic impact upon workers.”
Mazzocchi started collaborating with national environmental organizations, but their prime motivation at the time was shutting down the plants, not necessarily assisting workers facing unemployment. “They kept doing actions, rappelling off smokestacks, pissing off workers,” Bravo remembers of the NGO activists. So the OCAW instead approached the environmental justice (EJ) movement, brand new at the time.The working class and communities of color represented by the movement lived in toxic neighborhoods on the fencelines of the plants, and were uniquely able to connect their own struggles to those of the workers.
The new OCAW-EJ partnership identified five sites throughout the country. From Richmond, California to Ponka City, Oklahoma, the sites shared two qualities: labor disputes requiring resolution, and strong relationships between EJ leadership and vulnerable fenceline communities. Bravo’s job was to talk to both residents and workers at these sites, connect them through shared challenges and needs, and train the now mixed groups on this developing concept of just transition – a move away from toxic production that also valued justice, transparency, and protection for both workers and communities.
For a while they were off and running, but outside those five communities were about 90,000 workers in the OCAW, which in 2005 merged with the United Steelworkers Union. With a newly ballooned, conservative-leaning membership of 800,000, what began as a groundbreaking partnership became a David and Goliath proposition.
Joe Uehlein, former secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO’s Industrial Union Department and founding president of the Labor Network for Sustainability, has some insight on what went wrong. “American labor is a microcosm of America,” Uehlein says, “and America has a conservative streak. Here, we not only allow, but we engineer fear into the workers’ kitchen tables. Fear for how they’re going to provide for healthcare, pension, benefits, education, vacation … and that’s a big part of why we’re so resistant to change and to the just transition framework.”
Organized labor saw any shift from business-as-usual as a threat, and backed away, but the concept of systemic change beyond green jobs continued to develop over the decades within EJ and movement support groups throughout the US. At the same time, in the global policy realm, the International Labour Organization built its own platform around just transition, and in November 2015 released guidelines for transitioning to a low-carbon economy while simultaneously protecting workers.
For movement leaders, tackling climate change without justice is a zero-sum game.
Then on December 11, 2015, flanked by a floor-to-ceiling mural of nineteenth-century Frenchmen harpooning a dolphin, a group of the world’s most influential philanthropic presidents and program officers gathered at the Institut Océanographique de Paris to celebrate the signing of the Paris Climate Accord. Filing out of the drafty lecture hall, they “high-fived” to mark not only the landmark accord to stem global warming, but also the inclusion of “just transition” in its preamble. But even as they clinked glasses, some funders surreptitiously Googled this new phrase and wondered how they would write it into foundation programs back home.
Eight metro stops away at the Zone d’Action Climat , global activists were sewing the final threads into a banner that read “COP 21 = +3°c,” which they would set ablaze at a mass mobilization the following day on the lawn of the Eiffel Tower. They saw the recognition of “just transition” on the mainstream policy stage as oxymoronic. They worried that once taken over by philanthropies and governments entrenched in a corporate model, the principles that birthed the term – principles of bottom-up community leadership, cultural inclusion, food sovereignty, and localized economies – would be lost forever.
Kandi Mosset, lead organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network’s (IEN) Extreme Energy and Just Transition Campaign, traveled to Bonn in November 2017 for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s COP 23, even though she saw little utility.
“This is the 23rd one,” she says. “If they haven’t figured it out by now, are they ever going to?”
Mosset hails from Fort Berthold, North Dakota, near the “head of the snake,” the now infamous Dakota Access Pipeline, which in 2016 inspired the largest convening of Native peoples in generations at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. She certainly has enough to occupy her at home. But there were two solid reasons to represent in Bonn – first, she says, to call out leaders for promoting greenwashed tactics that hurt communities.
“If we’re not there they’ll just make a bunch of decisions about false solutions,” Mosset says, referring to schemes like cap and trade, carbon capture and sequestration, and geoengineering, all viewed by environmental justice advocates as ways for corporations to rationalize polluting in low income communities, Indigenous communities, and communities of color. Or, in the case of geoengineering, to create untested and potentially destructive “fixes” so they can continue business as usual.
The second reason Mosset gave for traveling to Bonn was community. “When I was in Bonn,” she says, “we were talking about just transition from an Indigenous perspective, but we were also there with La Via Campesina, the peasant farmworkers. We were there with people from African communities who were talking about agroecology, people from Puerto Rico, and so what I saw were a lot of similarities, actually, which was encouraging.”
This centering of community shows up in IEN’s Just Transition Principles, which assert, “We will … address the root causes of climate change by changing the system, first within ourselves, our families, our clans, our community, our Native Nations and then radiate this power out to the world.”
But if carbon taxes and geoengineering are false solutions, what are the true ones? In addition to strong community, what does a just transition look like in practice?
For activists like Mosset, just transition could take any number of forms. As one example, she mentions Lakota Solar Enterprises, a local business in South Dakota that’s part solar equipment manufacturer and part skills school. It’s also part of the burgeoning new economy, through which proprietor Henry Red Cloud hopes his tribe, the Oglala Sioux, can break free from fossil fuels and develop a sustainable, community-focused future.
“The grid system in the US is aging; it’s a Goliath,” Mosset says. “To make changes to that takes a really long time. Whereas at a local scale, things can change more quickly and more efficiently.” That’s exactly what Red Cloud is doing. Acting at the local level, Lakota Solar has produced thousands of solar units and graduated hundreds of students from its training program. Red Cloud has also sold solar products to other tribes, assisting them in their own transition towards energy independence.
photo Mohamed Ali Just transition can take any number of forms, from solar endeavors that support workers and move communities away from fossil fuels, to cooperative farming programs that improve food sovereignty.
Another example emerging some 1,500 miles away is Cooperation Jackson, host of the just transition meeting in Mississippi and a groundbreaking worker cooperative with an expansive mission to build what they call a solidarity economy. Cooperation Jackson connects civic education with People’s Assemblies, the construction of eco villages, and food sovereignty by way of urban farms. Members insist on incorporating everything from visual and performing arts to a cooperative financial institution into the community’s work.
brandon king, who says with the hint of a smile that he spells his name in lowercase because he doesn’t believe in capitalism, is an anchor of Freedom Farms, the co-op’s agricultural arm. He also works to ensure Cooperation Jackson’s vision pervades all the work they do. “To be completely 100, all this stuff we’re doing? We’re learning while doing … It’s being the example and showing the alternative – I think when people see it, and they see how much fun we’re having, that draws folks to it.”
king adds that a vast economic and environmental transition requires cultural transformation. “It takes us taking steps away from the TV screen and actually seeing each other, being with each other, being in community with each other,” he says. “And this is something we have to relearn.”
But he’s confident people in Jackson are primed for change. Jackson’s population is more than 80 percent African-American, and king explains the appetite for radical politics in a Republican Southern state like so: “The Black people in Mississippi are the Black people who stayed during Jim Crow,” he says, “so there’s a level of resilience and there’s a level of understanding around communities that stick together and help each other.”
There’s likely also a level of resolve that comes from simply unplugging from a historically oppressive system.
king also stresses the enduring power of small-scale farmers, who, with access to just a quarter of the world’s farmlands, manage to feed more than 70 percent of the population. Putting food back into the hands of communities fosters cultural shifts and freedom from the global industrial agriculture system, which by some estimates spews more than half the world’s greenhouse gas emissions via the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers, processing, packaging, transport and more. So, in his work with Freedom Farms, king seeks to learn from the success of small farmers, and to make food more accessible to those with limited resources.
“In the current economic system we live under … it’s highly improbable for farmers, especially small-scale farmers, to make a living,” he explains. “And that’s by design. So, when we’re thinking about growing food and growing food locally, we’re thinking about exchange value and trying to shift that exchange value from the monetary system we’re currently under. And we’re using time banking, using sweat equity, as ways for people to have access to the food, and for there not to be a barrier based on whether you’ve got a dollar bill or not.”
And it’s not just small farmers who have a role in the just transition movement. Ed Whitfield is co-managing director of the Fund for Democratic Communities, a private foundation whose leadership is spending down capital faster than it can be replenished – essentially putting themselves out of business over time – as a way of democratizing finance, putting financial resources directly back into communities.
“The assets of foundations have ultimately come from working class people and working class communities around the world,” Whitfield says, “and they belong back there, not in the control of people who are able to control money, but with people who are within communities working to meet community needs and elevate quality of life.”
For grassroots activists struggling to transform environment, culture, and economy, there is no room for compromise. And because of that, the adoption of “just transition” in the international policy realm feels more like co-option than progress. They fear its propagation in bureaucratic policy-making circles will not only dilute the vision, but undermine it. They worry frontline communities and local labor will lose their voice in a movement meant to be driven from the ground up. And perhaps most of all, they believe a just transition requires an overhaul of business-as-usual policies – it should not be perceived or embraced as an add-on to an extractive, growth-at-all-costs economic model.
“The capitalist system makes this assumption that there’s never-ending, continual growth for ever and ever and ever,” Mosset says. “That never was and never will be sustainable. They create this false sense of, well, that’s just the way it is. Just transition would be teaching people that that’s just not the case.”
But not everyone agrees a hard, anti-capitalist line is realistic. Indeed, Samantha (Sam) Smith, director of the Just Transition Centre at the International Trade Union Confederation, believes popularization on a global scale leaves more room for a diversity of approaches.
“We’ve gone from the COP in Paris where just transition was in there, and many big governments were thinking, What is this? And now we have three governments right around the time of the COP [in Bonn] saying We’re going to have a just transition commission. And they have climate targets that back it up,” she says. Smith is referencing New Zealand, Canada, and Scotland, which each announced task forces pledging to reduce emissions without harming their economies.
As part of her work, Smith gathers concrete examples of labor-friendly shifts toward a low carbon economy and shares them widely, through convenings, videos, case studies, reports, and more. The idea is to take a concept that’s previously been aspirational and experimental, and disseminate it as a reality that trade unions worldwide can get behind.
In some cases, the dissonance between just transition at an international policy level and in grassroots movements lies not within what is said, but what is not said. While the Indigenous Environmental Network and its ally the Climate Justice Alliance directly call out nuclear energy as a “false solution,” and while they clearly name capitalism as a system that must be dismantled as part of a decarbonized economy, the International Labour Organization and International Trade Union Confederation do no such thing.
“I would never try to tell people what these words should mean, what kind of work you should do,” says Smith. Some union members do in fact support a system change away from capitalism, while others just want a capitalist system that’s less exploitative and extractive.
“We all want to fight corporate power and inequality and extractive systems,” Smith adds. “But at some point, the 183 million people in the International Trade Union Confederation would not all have that interest. They would still like to have companies and employers.”
In other instances, the critique of grassroots just transition principles focuses on issues of practicality. Can small-scale, local enterprises truly power, feed, and shelter the world? While local examples are still emerging across the globe, communities like Mosset’s and king’s are writing a new narrative, asserting that just transition is possible when matched with a culture shift around consumption and community power.
As Ed Whitfield says, “We will have to basically conceive of and engage in business in a different kind of way, with a different purpose. Because right now the purpose of it does tend to be growth, as opposed to the purpose of it being meeting people’s needs and elevating the quality of life.”
At the UN level, with endless cycles of receptions, meetings, and maxed-out hotels, unplugging from global systems as an answer to global problems may seem absurd. But it’s possible the new world just can’t be conceived using the same terms as the old. It’s possible our collective vision in the dawn of the twenty-first century isn’t quite making it, and the full flourishing of a justly transitioned system will look unlike anything we’ve ever imagined. It is also possible the full manifestation of this new world is a process rather than a product, that it’s steadfastly building all around us, but we just can’t quite see it. Perhaps we’ll all wake up one day and realize we’ve reached a tipping point, and the world has changed for the better.
Samantha M. Harvey is a writer and fellow with EDGE Funders Alliance.
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2016, Belgium, Fulbright, Research
Visits to Belgian museums and universities: Royal Museum of Central Africa, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Université de Liège & Vrij Universiteit Brussel
As my Fulbright experience in Belgium continues, I remain awed by the ubiquitous statues, intricate building façades, grandiose and splendid edifices, charming streets and historic red roofs with modern skylights placed therein. All of these representations of cultural patrimony are precious national treasures, as are the materials I am currently examining at various Belgian institutions. At the Royal Museum for Central Africa, I have continued my study of nonhuman primates and have begun investigating Colobus angolensis, a black and white colobus monkey from the Congo known for its folivorous, or leaf-eating proclivities. The sides of their teeth are stained black from a critical resource in their diet of leaves, stems and herbs with some fruit, and on occasion, soil. The collection has also yielded some surprises such as an individual with M4, or a fourth molar in place of the normal three commonly found in monkeys, apes and humans.
I have also begun investigating the extensive collection of Neolithic remains at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, including those from Hastière Caverne M, Hastière Trou Garçon and Sclaigneaux. These are among a number of caves in the Meuse river valley of southern Belgium that have yielded group burials and are dated to the late Neolithic, about 4,350 to 4,155 years ago—just prior to the advent of the Bronze age in Belgium. The preservation is exceptional and working with the curators has been a highlight of my visit, including verifying the discovery of a Carabelli’s cusp on a child (deciduous) molar.
Dr. Williams studying Neolithic remains at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
I also had the opportunity to visit the Evolution & Diversity Dynamics Lab of the University of Liège to examine the beautifully preserved remains of Engis 2, a young Neandertal child. The fossil will be the focus of a study of dental microwear to infer the dietary proclivities of young Neandertals based on patterns found in nonhuman primates, human foragers, agriculturalists and the Neolithic remains from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.
Dr. Williams examining a Neandertal fossil at the Université de Liège
Last week I was invited to give a lecture at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel http://arcpigvub.wix.com/arcpig#!upcoming/ctzx, the Flemish speaking counterpart of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. The lecture concerned my recent publications on dietary reconstruction in fossil primates as well as my projects currently underway in Belgium. The lecture was given to a collaborative cross-disciplinary community known as ArCPig, the Archaeology, Conservation, Palaeontology Interdisciplinary Group, http://arcpigvub.wix.com/arcpig, which includes faculty, post-doctoral researchers, Ph.D. candidates and graduate students from a variety of departments of the university. I was asked to lecture in English given the range of languages represented by the group and the presentation was followed by a stimulating question/answer period and lunch.
Dr. Williams presents his research at the Vrij Universiteit Brussel
While locating and returning from these various destinations, invariably I have gotten lost. I have been impressed by the uncommon generosity of strangers who have offered directions in French, Dutch and sometimes in English. Furthermore, the hospitality of my hosts at these Belgian institutions has been unparalleled. These curators have been extremely generous in providing published literature, professional expertise, courtesy and access to Belgium’s world-class museum collections, adding immensely to my Fulbright experience.
— Dr. Frank Williams,
2015-2016 Fulbright scholar to Belgium
October 24, 2015: Discover Mons, the European Capital of Culture
Reporting back from the first 2017 Fulbright Enrichment Seminar
List of 2012-2013 Belgian Fulbright Grantees Announced
2015, Fulbright, Research
Encounters with the Belgian Garbage System
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Contact: Jacqueline Reis 781-338-3115
Patrick Administration Announces 2015 Teacher of the Year
Belmont High School Social Studies Teacher Jeffrey Shea receives state's top educator award
BELMONT - The Patrick Administration today announced Jeffrey Shea of Belmont High School as the 2015 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year. The Massachusetts Teacher of the Year Program is the state's top award for educators and annually recognizes excellence in teaching across the Commonwealth by selecting a teacher who exemplifies the dedication, commitment, and positive contributions of educators statewide. "We have outstanding teachers in Massachusetts which makes this honor even more special," said Governor Deval Patrick. "Jeffrey Shea and the finalists represent the best of their profession. I congratulate them all on a job well done." State education officials used the occasion of Tuesday's National Teacher Day to make the announcement. Shea, who lives in Arlington, is the state's 53rd recipient of this award and automatically becomes the state's candidate for the National Teacher of the Year Program. "I know how hard the teachers in Massachusetts work, and I also know we don't say thank you nearly enough," said Secretary of Education Matthew Malone. "Today we honor Jeffrey Shea and all the teachers across the Commonwealth for a job well done. The work they are doing will make our communities better and stronger for generations to come." "Jeff Shea's commitment to ensuring that each of his students is prepared for success after high school as lifelong learners and citizens in a global economy is spot on," said Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester. "I am so pleased to recognize Dr. Shea with this honor that embodies the high standard of educator excellence we see in classrooms across the Commonwealth." The selection process for the 2014-15 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year began last fall with a call for nominations from administrators, teachers, students, parents, and others. An initial review of each nominated teacher's written application led to the selection of semifinalists, who then submitted additional supporting material. Five finalists were selected and interviewed by an independent review panel of experts, including past Massachusetts Teachers of the Year. That panel then recommended one finalist to be named Massachusetts Teacher of the Year by Commissioner Chester. The other four Teacher of the Year finalists for this year's award were: Nancy Barile, an English teacher at Revere High School; Rebecca Duda, an eighth grade social studies teacher at Lakeview Junior High School in Dracut; Adam Ingano, an 11th and 12th grade history teacher at Clinton High School; and Daniel Lipton, a second grade teacher at Edward Devotion School in Brookline. Shea will join other outstanding educators, including the Massachusetts History Teacher of the year, the Milken Family Foundation Award winner for Massachusetts, the finalists for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, and Teacher of the Year finalists and semifinalists, for an awards ceremony at the State House on June 12, 2014. "We are very proud of the high-quality, innovative teachers that have chosen to teach in our system," said Senator William N. Brownsberger. "As I have visited public schools across Belmont, Watertown and Boston, I have seen lots of great things happening. I'm so glad to see Jeff Shea's excellent work recognized." "On behalf of the entire community, I extend my congratulations to Dr. Jeff Shea for this truly remarkable accomplishment," said Representative David M. Rogers. "In addition to providing an outstanding educational experience for his students, he also brings well-deserved recognition to the Belmont Public School System, one of the best in the Commonwealth. Dr. Shea reminds us that teachers are some of our finest public servants, deserving of both our profound gratitude and our vigorous support." "Dr. Jeffrey Shea exemplifies the best and brightest in the teaching profession," said Belmont Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Kingston. "I have visited Jeff's classroom on several occasions and witnessed the extent to which he has been able to inform a comprehensive high school effort to improve delivery of content, instill 21st century learning skills, and elevate the civic engagement of students. Jeff is an outstanding teacher, and we are most pleased to learn that he has been named the Massachusetts Teacher of the Year." "Students, parents and colleagues find Dr. Shea easy to talk to because he listens carefully and attentively; he speaks after thoughtful consideration and maintains his sense of humor at all times," Belmont High School Principal Daniel Richards wrote in his letter of recommendation. "He has mentored many troubled students who owe their high school diploma to his willingness to stand behind them, yet hold them accountable for their work and achievement." About Jeffrey Shea Jeffrey Shea grew up in Andover and attended Andover High School. He credits his mother, who started a substance abuse library in Lawrence, with being the first person to teach him about social justice. However, it wasn't until Shea went to Tulane University in New Orleans that his view of the world expanded. After graduating, he worked in international travel and then as a golf professional before joining Belmont Public Schools as a sixth grade language arts and social studies teacher in 2004. His engaging lessons included one in which a professional aid pretend to be a dying pharaoh while students prepared their "ruler" for the afterlife. Shea went on to earn a master of education degree from Endicott College and the College for International Studies in Madrid and a doctor of education degree from Northeastern University. He began teaching at Belmont High School in 2009, and he asks students for advice on how to make his classes interesting each year. He is a meticulous planner who varies his lessons with different approaches and technology. In 2012, Shea was instrumental in the development of the school's one-to-one iPad initiative through a pilot program supported by the Foundation for Belmont Education. The pilot, based partly on his work, expanded in the current school year. Shea believes it is his duty to help students look beyond their own lives to consider the lives of others, and he believes doing so also leads to effective teaching and learning. In addition to American Studies, he teaches global leadership, a course he designed. He also worked with his colleagues to create an interdisciplinary global certificate program at the school. His students have done video conferences with classrooms in Jordan, visited the Boston office of the global non-profit Partners in Health, and run and publicized a screening of "Girl Rising," a film about obstacles to girls' education in parts of the developing world.
Last Updated: May 6, 2014
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Home > Album Review: Typesetter—’Nothing Blues’
Album Review: Typesetter—’Nothing Blues’
Posted: 7th November, 2018 by The Editor
Typesetter, like their similarly mononymous contemporaries Restorations, fall in the liminal space between punk and alternative rock. On their sophomore record Nothing Blues, they lean into the latter while retaining their punk spirit.
Some of this can be attributed to the addition of keyboard/brass player Sarah Bogosh. The keys lend an airier feel to tracks like “Real Conversations with Imaginary Friends” and “See the Light,” and it’s cool to hear horns that don’t feel like they’re ripped out of an American Football song. “Real Conversations” features horns in the verses to great effect, and the closing “Viva” actually manages to make trumpets sound triumphant.
There are moments when the band kicks into straight-up rock territory, too. “See the Light” has a bridge that could’ve been lifted from a Nirvana song and the solos in “Regardless” and “Only” are two of the most badass moments on any punk-adjacent record of the year. The album’s most straightforward punk song is the penultimate “Marigold,” which feels like a throwback to ‘90s Green Day. It’s probably the catchiest song on Nothing Blues (a pretty big feat, honestly), and a well-needed jolt of energy between the ballad “White Noise” and the dreary first minute of “Viva.”
Nothing Blues by typesetter
“White Noise” is probably the biggest misstep on Nothing Blues, a four-and-a-half minute acoustic dirge that never really picks up. It doesn’t help that it’s sandwiched between two of the best songs on the album, the earwormy “Only” and “Marigold.” The album’s other pseudo-ballad is “Technicolor,” which is proof that the band absolutely can nail slower tracks. It doesn’t hurt that Lydia Loveless is featured on the song, giving it a much different feel from the rest of the record.
Typesetter’s punk roots shine through most in the lyrics, and nowhere more than in “Viva.” As the song collapses into itself, Marc Bannes shouts, “You can all just fuck off into the air.” It’s meant as a reference to The National, but it also throws back to Violent Femmes’ classic 1983 song “Kiss Off.” In this way, Nothing Blues feels tied to two legendary rock bands. While Typesetter might never reach the commercial heights of these groups, it’s not hard to imagine them attracting the same type of reverence in the punk scene if they keep putting out albums like Nothing Blues.
Disappointing / Average / Good / Great / Phenomenal
Zac Djamoos | @greatwhitebison
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Common sense suggests that life after death is a reality because?
average rate of sea level rise over the past 20,000 years?
asked 6 years ago in Geology by anonymous
Replacement rate, the number of births needed to keep a population at a stable level without immigration, requires a total fertility of
asked 4 years ago in General by anonymous
The superposition of offshore facies over nearshore facies occurs when sea level rises and the shoreline migrates inland during a marine?
27. Assume that the debt ratio is 60 percent, the cost of debt is 6 percent, the cost of equity is 10 percent, the tax rate is 50 percent, and annual earnings after taxes are $10,000 for a multinational company. What are the company's weighted average cost of capital and its market value?
asked 7 years ago in Economics by anonymous
14. A foreign project has an initial investment of $1,400. Its net cash flows are expected to be $900, $1,000, and $1,400 for each of the next three years. The certainty equivalent coefficients of the project are 0.75, 0.55, and 0.35 for each of the next three years. With a 6-percent riskless rate of return, determine the certain net present value of the project.
34. What is the effective interest rate on a $10,000 loan at 12 percent interest rate if the bank requires a 20-percent compensating balance and a payment of the interest at maturity?
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Jack White is an American singer, musician and producer, best known as the frontman of punk-blues band The White Stripes. One of the most adored guitarists of the past two decades, he also collaborated with various artists, participated in a range of other projects and enjoyed widespread critical acclaim as a solo artist. Jack played an crucial role in the garage rock revival of the 2000s.
Born “John Anthony Gillis” in Detroit, Michigan in 1975, he was the youngest of ten children and both his parents worked for the Archdiocese of Detroit. Jack developed an early interest in music and started playing various instruments including guitar, drums and piano. He cites Blind Willie McTell, Gene Krupa, the Doors, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin as some of his major musical influences.
Before attaining worldwide fame with The White Stripes, Jack White worked as an upholstery apprentice with his family friend, Brian Muldoon. The two formed a garage punk band called the Upholsterers and recorded their first album, Makers of High Grade Suites. Jack started working as the drummer for the Detroit band Goober & the Peas, a cowpunk band from Detroit, Michigan, in 1993.
Jack met Meg White at a local bar called Memphis Smoke in 2006. The couple eventually got married the same year. Jack took his wife’s last name and became “Jack White”. Meg started playing drums with him in 2007, even though she had very little musical experience. The two formed a band, The White Stripes, featuring Jack on guitar and vocals and Meg on drums.
The band quickly gained popularity in the underground rock and roll scene and signed a recording contract with Italy Records in 1998. The White Stripes released their eponymous debut album in 1999, garnering highly favorable reviews from critics. The band had their first major breakthrough with the release of White Blood Cells in 2001. The album peaked at number 61 on the Billboard 200, receiving Platinum status after selling more than one million units.
The White Stripes’ sixth studio album, Icky Thump (2007), debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart and number one on the UK Albums Chart.
Jack has also collaborated with various artists and produced Lorretta Lynn’s comeback album Van Lear Rose in 2005, as well as Wanda Jackson’s comeback album The Party Ain’t Over in 2011. He released his debut solo album, Blunderbuss, in 2012. The album achieved gold status in 2013, having sold more than 500,000 copies in the United States.
Jack White has earned numerous awards and accolades in his career, including eleven Grammys, five MTV Video Music Awards, and a Brit Award.
Jack White’s personal life has been the subject of extensive media attention. He has been married twice, but both his marriages did not work. His 1996 marriage to fellow singer Meg White ended in a divorce in 2000, long before their band attained mainstream popularity. White married British model Karen Elson in 2005. They have two children, Scarlett Teresa White and Henry Lee White.
White is prominent philanthropist who donates a good amount of his income to charity organizations.
Download Jack White Songs:
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Nations urged to accelerate efforts to wipe out hunger and malnutrition
With hunger and obesity on the rise, a global forum aims to catalyze urgent action to end all forms of undernutrition by 2030
28 November 2018, Bangkok, Thailand - With rising levels of global hunger putting the goal of ending malnutrition in all its forms by 2030 in serious jeopardy, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) have today launched a global conference aimed at urgently accelerating efforts to achieve Zero Hunger worldwide.
After decades of impressive reductions in the numbers of undernourished people, hunger is again on the march. According to the latest report published jointly by FAO and four other UN agencies, about 820 million people on the planet are malnourished.
"This is the third consecutive year that progress in ending hunger has stalled and now hunger has actually increased (in 2015, 2016 and 2017). Child stunting is a major problem and nearly two billion still suffer from hidden hunger or a deficiency of important nutrients. This also includes people who are overweight or obese," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva in a video message to the confrence.
Pointing out that the number of hungry and malnourished people in the world has gone back up to levels last seen ten years ago, he added: "After decades of gains in fighting hunger, this is a serious setback and FAO and the UN sister agencies, together with member governments and other partners, are all very concerned."
While there are big challenges in reaching Zero Hunger, FAO and IFPRI are stressing that the goal is still achievable.
But there is no time to waste.
"After many years of tremendous global progress in reducing hunger and malnutrition, it is painfully clear that our current pace is not sufficient to end hunger by 2030, but we can still achieve this goal," said Shenggen Fan, IFPRI Director General. "Many countries - from China, to Ethiopia, to Bangladesh, to Brazil - have achieved remarkable reductions in hunger and malnutrition, and those successes hold important lessons for the places currently struggling to make significant progress."
The conference, attracting delegates primarily from Africa and Asia is providing a platform to accelerate the sharing of existing specialty knowledge, approaches and tools that have led to success in many countries so others can learn, adapt and accelerate their own work to reduce hunger and malnutrition in sustainable ways.
Ending hunger and malnutrition by the numbers
While Africa continues to be the hungriest continent per capita, the Asia-Pacific region has the highest total number of undernourished - more than 500 million by FAO estimates.
The size of the global challenge means it must be addressed meaningfully and immediately. For example, the Asia-Pacific region is home to more than 60 percent of the world's undernourished, and in order for it to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 the countries of the region need to collectively lift more than 110 000 people out of hunger each and every day for the next 12 years.
The urgency of the task at hand cannot be overstated - and ending undernutrition is more complex than many realize. The rise in global hunger is witnessed alongside an increase in obesity, which brings with it an entirely different set of health and economic challenges for the world now and in the future.
Leveraging good public policy and knowledge to accelerate the arrival of Zero Hunger
The conference is highlighting how great strides have been made in many countries in reducing hunger and malnutrition, rapidly and sustainably, through improvements in public policies, focused investments and the harnessing of new technologies.
Bangladesh, for example, has achieved one of the fastest reductions in child underweight and stunting in history, largely by using innovative public policies to improve agriculture and nutrition. Policies supporting agricultural growth helped increase agricultural production, while other policies supported family planning, stronger health services, growing school attendance, greater access to drinking water and sanitation, and women's empowerment. Together, these policies reinforced each other to create an environment of improved food security and nutrition for millions of Bangladeshis.
Economic growth in China lifted millions out of both hunger and poverty, while Brazil and Ethiopia transformed their food systems and diminished the threat of hunger through targeted investments in agricultural research and development (R&D) and social protection programmes. Starting in the mid-1980s and continuing over two decades, crop production in Brazil grew by 77 percent and that -- combined with the country's Fome Zero programme, established in 2003 to provide beneficiaries a wide range of social services -- saw hunger and undernutrition nearly eradicated in just ten years.
Similarly, Ethiopia's large-scale investments in agricultural have led to substantial growth in the production of cereals and the availability of food, while the creation of the Productive Safety Net Programme provides food and/or cash to needy households, which are direct for the most needy and conditional on a work requirement for others. These investments, combined with large public expenditures in health and education, have dramatically reduced hunger and undernutrition, shifting the international image of Ethiopia from victim of frequent famines to development success story.
Accelerating the roll out of technology and better food systems
Worldwide, improvements in technology are helping to deliver better nutrition. For example, boosting the nutritional value of staple foods through fortification or crops themselves through biofortification is helping reduce incidence of harmful health conditions like anemia and improve cognitive development in places as diverse as Zambia and India.
And approaches like precision farming, drip irrigation, conservation agriculture, and the introduction of staples that are resilient to droughts and floods all represent additional examples of powerful tools that can help us produce greater amounts of more nutritious foods in more sustainable ways.
The proliferation of new communications technologies, and ability to harness big data, also offer opportunities to scale up successes significantly to even greater impact.
But innovation extends far beyond apps, drones or farm machinery. Innovation in agriculture can involve using new social, organizational and institutional processes to support farmers and sustainably intensify production. These can range from building stronger producer self-help groups and extension services, to improving access to markets and credit in pioneering ways, to developing new ways of processing, storage, transport and marketing food. Innovation can be decidedly "low tech" - for example leaving stands of trees on farms intact to promote soil health and enhance agroecosystem productivity. Innovations in intervention design can boost their potential impact, like when behavior change communications that encourage the adoption of ideal nutrition and child feeding practices are integrated into social protection programmes to improve household nutrition as well as food consumption.
Marshalling political will, knowledge, and brainpower
By convening key figures from the worlds of research, policymaking, and development programme implementation to share knowledge of the policies, interventions, and technologies that have effectively accelerated the elimination of undernutrition, the conference aims to catalyze the next era of rapid reductions in hunger and malnutrition.
"We have the tools, and we have the knowledge to eliminate hunger in the next 12 years," said Fan. "By empowering key actors in policymaking, research, and program implementation with those tools and knowledge, we can reach this goal and help millions of people achieve their full potential."
"We need to work closely together more than ever, sharing with each other those successful experiences. If we can accelerate this knowledge exchange, then we can accelerate its implementation and take actions that are more concrete," Graziano da Silva said. "Hunger and obesity are not simply an individual's problem. They are public issues. That is why this conference jointly convened by IFPRI and FAO is so important. We must accelerate our actions to end hunger and malnutrition. But we also need stronger political will and greater financial commitment to get the job done. Political will is fundamental."
The IFPRI-FAO Conference on Accelerating the End of Hunger and Malnutrition, is taking place in Bangkok and runs 28-30 November, 2018.
According to the latest report published jointly by FAO and four other UN agencies, about 820 million people on the planet are malnourished.
The conference is providing a platform to facilitate the sharing of existing specialty knowledge so many countries can accelerate their work to reduce hunger and malnutrition in sustainable ways.
IFPRI-FAO Conference
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (2018)
IFPRI
FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Allan Dow
Regional Communication Officer FAO (Asia-Pacific)
Allan.Dow@fao.org
Drew Sample
IFPRI Media Engagement Officer (Washington, D.C.)
d.sample@cgiar.org
Dipartimenti ed uffici della FAO
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Film Review: TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE
Trouble with the Curve is a good old fashioned, feel good movie longing to put a well needed smile on your face.... Naomi
JOHN GOODMAN as Pete Klein, AMY ADAMS as Mickey and CLINT EASTWOOD as Gus in Warner Bros. Pictures' drama "TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE," a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo by KEITH BERNSTEINWHAT'S IT ABOUT?
A moving film exploring aging out of a career even though the passion and skills surmount all else - something easily related to. This film also tells the story of a family who, by struggling to do the best by each other, end up doing the opposite.
There is a little baseball in there too, but I don't know much about that. It always looked like so much fun in the American movies I watched as a child - all those hotdogs and the kid delighted at catching the famous guys ball and "I love you" printed on the big screen in a grand proposal - I went to a game during the Sydney Olympics and it was slow and boring and there were no vegetarian hotdogs, so I guess it's something to do with sharing the game with others as you grow up, a bit like cricket and football.
In the film the boring bits of the game are cut out and we just see careers made and crushed. There's a cute love story and John Goodman... I'm loving seeing him in a few more films... bring on more John Goodman and Clint Eastwood too.
AMY ADAMS as Mickey and JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE as Johnny in Warner Bros. Pictures' drama "TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE," a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo by KEITH BERNSTEIN
The major stars are Clint Eastwood, John Goodman, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake and the screenplay was written by Randy Brown.
If life thows you a curve ball, try to keep your eyes open & take a moment to think before you respond
Film, Film ReviewsNaomi Rossdeutscher 27 November 2012 Amy Adams, Clint Eastwood, John Goodman, Justin Timberlake, Trouble with the curveComment
Film Review: THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
Film, Film ReviewsNaomi Rossdeutscher 30 December 2012 Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Ian McKellen, The Hobbit
Film Review: THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
Film, Film ReviewsNaomi Rossdeutscher 27 November 2012 Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Logan Lerman, Perks of being a wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
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Following the 2007 release of the book Devil in the Milk by Keith Woodford, there has been growing concern expressed by the general populace about A1 and A2 beta-casein content in milk.
A2 beta-casein is the beta-casein that cows have produced since before they were first domesticated, over 10,000 years ago. It is considered safe and nutritious and has no known negative effects on human health. Sometime in the past few thousand years, a natural mutation occurred in some European dairy herds that changed the beta-casein they produced. The gene encoding beta-casein was mutated such that the 67th amino acid in the 209 amino acid chain that is the beta-casein protein was switched from proline to histidine. This new kind of beta-casein that was created is known as A1 beta-casein, and is generally more common in many of the big black-and-white cow breeds of European descent such as the Holstein and Friesian. Due to their size, milk production, and demeanor, these breeds of cow are used to produce the vast majority of Northern Europe and America’s milk.
The cause for concern with milk containing A1 beta-casein is that the 67th amino acid switch from proline to histidine readily allows a digestive enzyme to cut out a 7 amino acid segment of the protein immediately adjacent to that histidine. When proline is present in that location (as it is in A2 beta-casein), that same segment is either not separated at all or the separation occurs at a very low rate. The 7 amino acid segment that is separated from A1 beta casein is known as beta-casomorphin-7, often abbreviated as BCM-7.
BCM-7 is the real “devil” in A1 milk for a number of reasons. It is an exogenous (doesn’t naturally occur within the human body) opioid that interacts with the human digestive system, internal organs, and brainstem. While no direct causal relationships have been demonstrated between BCM-7 and these diseases due to a wide range of contributing factors for each illness, BCM-7 has been linked to type 1 diabetes, heart disease, autism, and other serious non-communicable diseases as well.
We at Houston Mountain Ranch learned about the A1/A2 issue by reading Keith Woodford’s Devil in the Milk. We are proud to offer 100% A2/A2 raw milk and customized dairy products as yet another example of our wholehearted commitment in providing you, our shareholders, with natural, real, fresh, local food.
Here is a general synopsis by Dr. Thomas Cowan of The Devil in the Milk by Keith Woodford which examines links between A1 milk and a wide range of health issues.
http://keithwoodford.wordpress.com/category/a1-and-a2-milk/ is a link to Keith Woodford’s blog, specifically listing all of his posts regarding A1 and A2 milk and related topics.
http://www.betacasein.net/ and http://www.betacasein.org/ are both thorough collections and discussions of scientific literature regarding beta-casein, its variants, beta-casomorphin-7 (BCM-7), and links between BCM-7 and several non-communicable diseases.
A2/A2 Grass Fed Dairy
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About A1 and A2 beta-casein in cow’s milk:
Our 3rd generation family ranch runs a Raw Milk Herd Share Program. This is the only way to obtain nutritious raw milk in Colorado unless you own and milk your own cow. Our A2/A2 Jersey cows are all grass fed on rotating pasture. In winter, they are fed Certified Organic Grass Hay. We have fresh spring water running year round through the herd’s pasture that has been tested clean and free of dangerous bacteria or other contamination. We are proud to be members of the Weston A. Price Foundation and Farm To Consumer National Organizations. We are also registered with Colorado’s Dept. of Public Health & Environment, and our milk is tested regularly at the Colorado State University Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado.
Also available to Herd Share Owners are customized raw dairy products such as our Raw Sea Salted or Unsalted Butter, Kefir, Yogurt, Buttermilk, and Sour Cream, Ghee and cheese.
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Home St. Charles History - Then and Now KaneCoHist_Vol2_pg136
History of Kane County, IL, Volume II
KaneCoHist_Vol2_pg136
136 KANE COUNTY HISTORY
and Hannah Johnson. The four children of this marriage are John H., Ernest H., Edith B. and George E. William George is the next member of the family. Flora May is the wife of Hiram Casner and unto them have been born five children : Mamie, John, Earl P., Fannie and Edna. Henry Lyman completes the family.
Mr. Rowcliffe voted with the republican party but was never a politician in the sense of office seeking. He was truly a self-made man and deserved great credit for what he accomplished. He realized the fact that diligence and perseverance are important elements in success and he worked along those lines to make for himself a creditable place in the business world. Whatever prosperity he enjoyed was attributable entirely to his own labors and in all of his dealings he was straightforward and honorable, enjoying the regard of his fellowmen by reason of an active and upright life.
TIMOTHY ADAMS WHEELER.
In the history of the early development of Kane county, mention should be made of Timothy Adams Wheeler, who, arriving here in pioneer times, bore an active and helpful part in the pioneer development and progress in this part of the state. He was born February 21, 1809, in Cavendish, Windsor county, Vermont, his parents being Amos and Lydia (Adams) Wheeler. He acquired his education in the common schools and was reared to farm life, early becoming familiar with all the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. He arrived in Illinois in 1835. His parents and other members of the family had preceded him a short time and had settled on a tract of land four miles up the river from Charleston. In 1836 he returned to Vermont and was married in Cavendish in November of that year. With his bride he immediately started for Illinois, making the trip by way of Lake Champlain, the St. Lawrence river and the great lakes to Detroit, where he bought a horse and wagon and household goods, the latter amounting to fourteen hundred pounds in weight. The balance of the journey was thus made across the country and some days they traveled less than seven miles, owing to the poor condition of the roads. They settled on a part of the Wheeler tract, which had formerly been secured by other members of the family, and there lived for five or six years when they came to St. Charles. Here Mr. Wheeler engaged in the grain business with his brother and also in the lumber business. He became one of the enterprising and energetic merchants of the town, and in promoting his individual interests also contributed in substantial measure to the welfare of the community. While living here he built his home at the corner of Eighth and Main streets, on the site of the present residence of his daughter, Mrs. Reed. In the '60s Mr. Wheeler removed to the farm which he owned in DuPage county, and there he resided for a few years, after which he took up his abode upon a farm near St. Charles, which was owned by his son, Charles. There he continued to spend his remaining days, his death occurring June 2, 1867. He was a man of
Title History of Kane County, IL, Volume II
Creator Joslyn, R. Waite (Rudolphus Waite, b. 1866); Joslyn, Frank W. (Frank Wilber, b. 1860)
Subject [LCSH] Kane County (Ill.)--Biography
Kane County (Ill.)--History
Description "Illustrated with portraits and views." Running title: Kane County History, Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Published by The Pioneer Pub. Co: Chicago, IL. Highlights communities and history of numerous villages, cities and townships of Kane County. Some blank pages were omitted. (912 pages; 1.5 GB)
Geographic Coverage United States--Illinois--Kane County
Contributing Institution St. Charles Public Library
Rights Materials in this collection are made available by St. Charles Public Library. To request reproductions or inquire about permissions, contact: St. Charles Public Library, One South 6th Avenue, St. Charles, IL 60174; Phone 630-584-0076. Please cite the item title and collection name.
Date Digital 2002-07-05
Digtization Specifications 600 dpi, Bitonal, TIFF, Omniscan 8.0
Format Book
Digital Format JPEG
Collection Name St. Charles History - Then and Now
Title KaneCoHist_Vol2_pg136
Transcript 136 KANE COUNTY HISTORY and Hannah Johnson. The four children of this marriage are John H., Ernest H., Edith B. and George E. William George is the next member of the family. Flora May is the wife of Hiram Casner and unto them have been born five children : Mamie, John, Earl P., Fannie and Edna. Henry Lyman completes the family. Mr. Rowcliffe voted with the republican party but was never a politician in the sense of office seeking. He was truly a self-made man and deserved great credit for what he accomplished. He realized the fact that diligence and perseverance are important elements in success and he worked along those lines to make for himself a creditable place in the business world. Whatever prosperity he enjoyed was attributable entirely to his own labors and in all of his dealings he was straightforward and honorable, enjoying the regard of his fellowmen by reason of an active and upright life. TIMOTHY ADAMS WHEELER. In the history of the early development of Kane county, mention should be made of Timothy Adams Wheeler, who, arriving here in pioneer times, bore an active and helpful part in the pioneer development and progress in this part of the state. He was born February 21, 1809, in Cavendish, Windsor county, Vermont, his parents being Amos and Lydia (Adams) Wheeler. He acquired his education in the common schools and was reared to farm life, early becoming familiar with all the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. He arrived in Illinois in 1835. His parents and other members of the family had preceded him a short time and had settled on a tract of land four miles up the river from Charleston. In 1836 he returned to Vermont and was married in Cavendish in November of that year. With his bride he immediately started for Illinois, making the trip by way of Lake Champlain, the St. Lawrence river and the great lakes to Detroit, where he bought a horse and wagon and household goods, the latter amounting to fourteen hundred pounds in weight. The balance of the journey was thus made across the country and some days they traveled less than seven miles, owing to the poor condition of the roads. They settled on a part of the Wheeler tract, which had formerly been secured by other members of the family, and there lived for five or six years when they came to St. Charles. Here Mr. Wheeler engaged in the grain business with his brother and also in the lumber business. He became one of the enterprising and energetic merchants of the town, and in promoting his individual interests also contributed in substantial measure to the welfare of the community. While living here he built his home at the corner of Eighth and Main streets, on the site of the present residence of his daughter, Mrs. Reed. In the '60s Mr. Wheeler removed to the farm which he owned in DuPage county, and there he resided for a few years, after which he took up his abode upon a farm near St. Charles, which was owned by his son, Charles. There he continued to spend his remaining days, his death occurring June 2, 1867. He was a man of
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Location: Home | Artist News | David Bowie embraces Technology
David Bowie embraces Technology
Posted 04 Mar 2013 in Artist News, Featured
In a day where many bands scream and yell when it comes to how their music is produced and distributed, David Bowie shows everyone how it’s done and streams his new album “The Next Day” in its entirety on iTunes until its official release.
In his first new studio material since 2003, Bowie let’s us have it with “The Next Day”. This album features the single “Where are we now” (already available for purchase on iTunes) as well as “The Stars (Are out tonight)”. As a matter of fact, the video for “The Stars” was just released last week, and is available for viewing below.
The official launch date of the album is March 12 of this year (yes, 2013) and until the launch date, you can listen to the album in its entirety on iTunes, free of charge. Yes, the entire album. If you want to listen, give a click right here, or just open iTunes and look for the huge David Bowie The Next Day image.
I personally applaud Davie Bowie for his bold method of releasing his music. With access to his new material being available for everyone to try out, more people have the opportunity to decide if the music is a fit for them. It may honestly drive more sales of fans who really do appreciate the content.
One of the interesting tidbits of the new album, it the cover art. It is a modified version of David Bowie’s 1977 album, “Heroes”. What does it mean? By obscuring the original cover, the message is said to portray “forgetting or obliterating the past”.
“The Next Day” comes in two versions, a standard and a deluxe version. The deluxe version adds 3 additional songs to the playlist. Speaking of which, here it is:
The Next Day Track List:
Number Track Name Run Time
1 The Next Day 3:51
2 Dirty Boys 2:58
3 The Stars (Are Out Tonight) 3:56
4 Love is Lost 3:57
5 Where Are We Now? 4:08
6 Valentine’s Day 3:01
7 If You Can See Me 3:16
8 I’d Rather Be High 3:53
9 Boss Of Me 4:09
10 Dancing Out In Space 3:24
11 How Does The Grass Grow 4:33
12 (You Will) Set The World On Fire 3:30
13 You Feel So Lonely You Could Die 4:41
14 Heat 4:25
15 So She ** 2:31
16 I’ll Take You There ** 2:44
17 Plan ** 2:34
** Denotes track available only on Deluxe version
And as promised, here’s the video of “The Stars”:
About Jams
Introduced to good old Rock n Roll at an early age, Jams has spent his life in a love affair with music of all kinds. But as he says, there's nothing else in music to compare to a talented guitarist shredding their axe.
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HP+ staff and partners across the globe are widely recognized as leading subject matter experts. Sharing the voices of such established thought leaders provides valuable professional and personal perspectives on people-centered policies, supplementing formal findings and research results. Viewpoints provides a platform for these experts to share their thoughts and perspectives on a variety of global health issues.
World Population Day 2019 - The Road from Cairo and the Journey Ahead
World Population Day 2019 provides an opportunity to pause and reflect on what has happened over the past quarter century—the advances that have taken place and the unfulfilled aspirations yet to be achieved.
To Tackle Population Issues, Meet People Where They're At
This World Population Day, an HP+ staff recounts her experiences in Malawi, where HP+ supports programs that inform the youth population of services that are available to them. This is part of the country’s national growth and development strategy and youth-friendly health services strategy.
Nothing is Free: The Emergent Role of Health Insurance as Donor Funding Declines
After decades of unwavering donor support for the financing of family planning, HIV, and other priority health services, many have come to see free service provision as a given. But this perception, that essential health services and commodities are “free”, is only partially true.
For Guatemala's Children, Hope Shines On
In most cases, children in Guatemala drop out of school to earn a living for their families. With limited local job opportunities available, they are often forced to migrate in search of better opportunities and a prosperous future.
Resilient Health Systems, Prepared Communities, and Empowered Individuals
Keeping a health system functioning during the best of times isn’t easy; keeping it working during times of shock and crisis requires that a greater number of factors work in coordination.
At the recent UNAIDS conference, the need for greater political will emerged as a major factor that is still needed to strengthen sustainable financing, in a time of stagnating and uncertain donor support.
Will Africa's Path to Universal Health Coverage be Paved with Primary Healthcare?
Two HP+ colleagues recount their experience at the 5th African Health Economics and Policy Association (AfHEA) Conference in Accra, Ghana. There, hundreds gathered to discuss if and how securing primary healthcare could be the foundation for making progress on universal health coverage in Africa.
Nepal Passes Breakthrough Legislation Enshrining Respectful Maternity Care into National Law
In October 2018, the Government of Nepal adopted the Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Rights Act of Nepal. The legislation marks the first time that respectful maternity care has been included in national legislation.
#IDemandRespectfulCare: Making the Case for RMC in India
In a world that has normalized disrespect and abuse (D&A) of pregnant women and mothers, WRA India is amplifying the voices of Indian women and girls to create a new culture of respectful care through a multi-pronged campaign that is actively growing a community of mothers who are demanding respectful care.
Three Sweet Dreams and a Nightmare
I have three dreams I'd put forward to family planning donors: sustained commitment to high-quality, voluntary family planning; inclusion of family planning into universal health coverage (UHC); and increased country ownership of family planning program efforts.
Through a Gender Lens: Clarifying the Demographic Dividend
Among the discussion on the demographic dividend, there’s an important topic that is overlooked?—?the importance of addressing gender to maximize the opportunity to achieve a dividend. All too often, family planning is the woman’s responsibility. Addressing gender biases is at the front of many FP/RH programs, and until we change them achieving a demographic dividend will remain beyond the grasp of those who are working toward it.
Investing for a Lifetime of Returns
Family planning is an investment that yields returns on many fronts. It contributes to economic growth by allowing women and couples to decide on the number and timing of children they want; it contributes to female empowerment; and nations reap the benefit of family planning with accelerated economic growth.
Fulfilling Our Promises: Securing Financing for Future Family Planning
In order to secure family planning financing for future generations, planning for sustainable funding must start now. Strategies and investment cases for family planning, now a mainstream practice, still focuses too much on what can be funded through external resources; mobilizing domestic resources seems to be an afterthought.
Reaching Youth through Radio Programs in Malawi
Malawi's Youth-Friendly Health Services Strategy was designed to increase family planning for the country's young people. To spread the word, HP+ is helping teach young people to produce local weekly radio programs that inform youth about available family planning services.
Why Policy Matters: Contraception and Family Planning
HP+'s Deputy Director of Family Planning and Reproductive Health, Jay Gribble discusses on World Contraception Day why policy matters for contraception and family planning.
Strengthening the Self-Reliance of Malawi's Health Sector, One Building Block at a Time
Henry Mphwanthe is a health economist, seconded by the USAID-funded Health Policy Plus project to Malawi's Ministry of Health.
Family Planning Can Mean Big Progress for the Sustainable Development Goals—And Here's How
Funded by USAID, the Family Planning-Sustainable Development Goals (FP-SDGs) Model projects how different levels of family planning use—directly and indirectly through their impact on demographics—can affect a country's ability to make progress toward the SDGs by 2030 and 2050. The open-source model covers a wide range of SDGs and their indicators, including water, sanitation, and housing.
As Practitioner and Mother, Empowerment is the Goal
As the mother of a 17-year-old son, I worry about a lot of things, from school safety to gender norms that support "boys being boys" and everything in between. One thing I don’t worry about is my son's capacity to advocate for his health. He knows his right to high-quality care that respects his level of development, or underdevelopment as the case may be.
#IWD2018: Pressing for Progress
This International Women's Day, #IWD2018, we asked, "How do you #PressforProgress?" Here's what you said.
A New Year, a New Determination
Over the past five years, the partnership achieved its goal of one million additional family-planning users, and has now increased its goal to 2.2 million by 2020. In the past two years, the partnership has added 910,000 additional users, representing achievement of 41% of their goal.
Dollars and Sense: Invest to Prevent Political Instability
Working-age young adults in places characterized by low employment prospects, social services, and educational opportunities are more susceptible to recruitment by rebel or extremist groups. While a young population does not equate to armed conflict or violence, addressing the needs of youth—education, jobs, and health—are critical to helping individuals and nations overcome challenges and achieve their potential.
Acting on the Call: Everyone Needs to Play Their Part
Improving the quality of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) services will be critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Sustainable Development Goal 3, which focuses on preventing maternal and child mortality and adolescent pregnancies.
Law, regulation and policy: How do they impact universal health coverage?
This blog post is part of a wider HSG blog series in the lead up to the Universal Health Coverage Forum 2017, which takes place in Tokyo, Japan from 12 - 15 December. In this series, HSG members provide their perspectives on how Health Policy and Systems Research is fundamental to achieving Universal Health Coverage by 2030.
#endAIDS: Increasing Impact through Transparency, Accountability, and Partnerships
We asked our staff around the globe to tell us how their HIV-related work promoted Transparency, Accountability, and Partnerships. Here's what they had to say.
The Road to Decentralization: Achieving Guatemala's Promise of Accountable, Inclusive Democracy
Recent efforts of key government agencies, supported by the current presidential administration and HEP+, have demonstrated significant progress and promise in establishing a clear and well-defined plan for decentralization. With the continued success of these efforts, Guatemala may finally begin to realize its vision of the transparent, accountable and inclusive democracy, three decades in the making.
Religious Leaders Take On Managing Malawi's Population Growth
As Malawi’s population is rapidly increasing, the impact will be felt across diverse development sectors—requiring a multisectoral response to address the rapid population growth. With 97% of Malawi’s population made up of religious followers, religious leaders are a vital tool for population advocacy. Malawi’s religious leaders have partnered with the government through HP+ to advocate to their congregations on population growth management and family planning.
Joined Efforts to Combat Infectious Disease Threats are Proactive, Capable, and Inclusive
Health, finance, agricultural ministers and others gather this week in Kampala, Uganda, for the 4th Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA High-Level Ministerial Meeting. Participants will take stock of progress and chart future directions for country, regional, and international responses to advance global health security. The GHSA, to which more than 50 countries around the world have committed, aims to protect communities from infectious disease threats.
Aligning Employment, Youth, and Family Planning to Drive Economic Growth
We have the largest youth population ever. The young age structures- especially in African countries- reinforce the need to take effective action to address employment prospects for youth.
Accountability and Action: Women Lead the Way for Family Planning in Uganda
Timely and accurate data are key to developing and implementing family planning policies and programs. But what happens when those tasked with using data for decision making don't make those decisions? Or what if they make decisions based on incomplete or inaccurate data? Who is accountable for data quality? And how are they held accountable? A group of women leaders for family planning in Uganda explored these questions through a participatory assessment.
Lessons from the Far East: Indonesia's Progress Toward Universal Health Coverage
In Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation in the world, the government initiated its national health insurance scheme Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (or JKN for short) in January 2014, aiming to cover 95% of its population by 2019. With over 260 million people scattered across 6,000+ inhabited islands, providing universal access to affordable, timely, high-quality healthcare equitably is no small feat.
Learning from the Best
Participating in the 2017 International Health Economics Association (iHEA) World Congress last month was an opportunity to view our work through a different lens. The wide array of experiences and lessons shared during the conference represented new ways of thinking about the challenges of mobilizing and sustaining sufficient domestic resources for health in developing countries.
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals Hinges on Family Planning
It will take work and time, but we can achieve a sustainable future—an alternative to the population growth we're currently facing and the cascading consequences that come along with it. Investing in family planning means giving the world a more measured growth curve and giving countries the chance to put the necessary systems and infrastructures in place to meet the demands of their people, accelerate growth, and make progress toward the SDGs.
Shifting Norms on Family Size: Niger Focuses on Youth
Niger has a young and growing population. There is a role for development partners to help young girls in Niger—and in other West African countries—reach maturity before they begin having children. Young people need the opportunity to grow and learn and to understand that children by choice, not chance is part of creating healthier communities.
Dollars and Sense...Investing in Mothers
Can family planning save mothers' lives? Yes, and how it works is really quite simple. This Mother's Day, HP+'s Jay Gribble weighs in.
Midwives, Task Sharing, and Family Planning: Experiences from Florida to West Africa
This year, the theme for the International Day of the Midwife, celebrated on May 5, is "Midwives, Mothers and Families: Partners for Life!" The word “partners” is key: midwives know the value of partnering with their clients and their clients’ families and communities. But another important partner, sometimes overlooked, are the other health workers that midwives routinely work with as they deliver well-woman, pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care.
Dollars and Sense...Why Invest in Family Planning
How can limited resources for global health be spent to have the biggest possible impact? Health Policy Plus’ Jay Gribble does some soul searching and makes the case for family planning’s strong return on investment in his latest blog, where he argues, “Family planning isn’t just a good investment—it’s a great investment and yields large positive returns. But perhaps more important is the transformative role that family planning can play at the individual, family, community, and national levels.
A Few Thoughts on Diplomacy and Demography
While it’s not always true, the lamentable truth is that demography as destiny is the case for most of the world’s population. One way to begin breaking down the demography-destiny cycle, and improve global security, is through health diplomacy, and in particular through family planning.
A recent meeting of advocates supporting the introduction and scale up of the injectable contraceptive DMPA-subcutaneous (DMPA-SC)—commonly known as Sayana® Press, which is currently the only formulation on the market—provided the chance to learn how the method is being introduced in countries, discuss challenges countries are facing, and map the way forward to ensure that women who want to use it have access to it.
Beyond the Gender Binary: Gender and Sexual Diversity Training on HIV
Gender and sexual minorities are treated unfairly in almost every society. Violence, stigma, and discrimination directly affect their health and interfere with access to health services, including HIV-related prevention, care, and treatment. In 2014, the Health Policy Project (HPP), in coordination with a U.S. government interagency team, developed a training aimed at sensitizing PEPFAR staff and their implementing partners in 38 countries.
Is Health Insurance Global Health's Magic Bullet?
UHC and health insurance coverage are often assumed to mean the same thing. However, it is not necessarily true that the road to UHC must be paved with expanded health insurance! Here, we discuss common misconceptions about how insurance schemes advance the principles of universal health coverage.
How Kenya Can Achieve the SDGs and Universal Health Coverage
In 2013 Kenya devolved much of the function and authority of its central government out to 47 newly created counties. This devolution of power, if effectively leveraged, creates an opening for the country to accelerate progress toward achieving both the Sustainable Development Goals and universal health coverage.
#HIVprevention: Part of a Comprehensive HIV Continuum
This World AIDS Day, see what the HIV continuum means to us, why we’re putting our hands up for #HIVprevention, and tell us what the HIV continuum means to you.
HSR 2016: From Health Systems to Systems for Health
What would you do to access health care? Would you take a bus for three hours to a clinic? Arrange child care with friends and family? If you missed that bus, would you take a ride from the police? The Fourth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research opened with a story of what one woman from a rural indigenous community endured to get a simple biopsy in British Columbia, Canada. Out of this story emerged a common theme: Researchers must consider systems for health, not just health systems.
Communities Demanding Quality Maternity Care
The White Ribbon Alliance, with support from the USAID-funded HP+ Project, is working to ensure respectful maternity care in Malawi. Citizens’ Hearings held in Malawi brought to light that many midwives often treat expectant mothers disrespectfully during childbirth at the health centres and hospitals.Malawi’s Citizens’ Hearings started in June 2016 and have so far taken place in 10 districts in the country attracting more than 6,000 citizens.
Engaging Politics For Universal Health Coverage: Analyze, Advocate, Align, Account
The global health community has rallied around universal health coverage (UHC) to ensure equitable access to high-quality services while mitigating financial hardship. This blog provides considerations for engaging politics from policy to action to help achieve UHC worldwide.
Moving from Development to Execution: Applying Lessons from the Corporate World to Execute CIPs
This blog discusses ideas of how can we help countries develop and implement strong family planning programs across the globe.
Malawi Struggles in Providing Quality and Accessible Maternal Care
The Government of Malawi committed to achieving the SDGs by 2030 at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015, but is struggling in its efforts to achieve quality and accessible health services in accordance with the SDGs. This blog describes the reasons why that's the case.
Economics, financing & HIV: Reflections from the 2016 IAEN Preconference
Blog reflecting on the 2016 IAEN pre-conference, and how the field of health financing has changed since IAEN last met in Durban 16 years ago.
The Custodians of Today and Tomorrow: Youth Deserve a Say in Their Treatment Journey
Sara Bowsky, HP+ Deputy Director for HIV, concludes her blog post with, "It’s time for us as researchers, clinical care providers, and policymakers to listen up and take note. These youth are not just the future; they are our experts today."
The biggest question at AIDS 2016 - how do we find the money & momentum to sustain the HIV response?
Health Financing experts Catherine Barker and Thomas Fagan discuss the financial challenges we face in eradicating HIV and the innovative approaches to financing that have the potential to revolutionize our response.
Reducing Stigma Against Gender and Sexual Minorities - A One-Day Training Makes a Difference
To reach the ambitious targets of the global HIV response, including universal treatment and viral suppression, we must first reach all populations with lifesaving HIV services. This blog discusses the HPP-developed gender and sexual diversity training and how it's affected communities and programming across the globe.
Civil Society Briefing Brings Opportunity to (Re) Engage Civil Society Leaders in HIV Response
Civil Society Briefing Brings Opportunity to (Re) Engage Civil Society Leaders in HIV Response.
Political Leadership, HIV, and Health: Keeping Leaders Accountable
In the lead-up to the UN High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS, to be held in New York in June, this blog shines a light on the importance of political leadership to meet ambitious goals to help end the AIDS epidemic—and the need for civil society to set demands and hold government accountable for their stances and promises.
Combatting Fear and Stigma while Living with HIV in Jamaica
Advocate promotes prevention, works to change perceptions with her personal tale of triumph over a frightening virus and the stigma that it can bring.
Zero Discrimination Day 2016
Studies from different parts of the world reveal that there are three immediately-actionable causes of HIV-related stigma in health facilities: lack of awareness among health workers of what stigma looks like and why it is damaging; fear of casual contact stemming from incomplete knowledge about HIV transmission; and the association of HIV with improper or immoral behavior.
Family Planning in the Sustainable Development Goals: Seeking the Goldilocks Approach
In just a few years, we have shifted from an era when family planning was often marginalized due to political sensitivities or paid mere lip service, toward an invigorating, inspiring atmosphere of commitment that is fully evident here at ICFP.
ICFP 2016: Bali...Finally!
Jay Gribble, Deputy Director, FP/RH and Senior Fellow reflects on attending the 2016 ICFP conference
The Power of One: Anita Datar's Contributions to the Global AIDS Response
The global health community lost one of its stars on November 20, when Anita Datar of Palladium was among those killed in Bamako, Mali, where she was working to launch a new project that would improve that nation’s health policy and financing landscape.
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Five Hits of Community Well-Being for June
by Sandy Cummings, on May 19, 2014
The weather's looking good, and it's time to get out and enjoy it. Here's a quick list of community events to help improve your well-being in June.
June 6 – National Yo-Yo Day
National Yo-Yo Day is the perfect day to get out your yo-yo and have some fun playing “Sleeper,” “Walk the Dog” and “Shooting the Moon.” Believed to be invented in ancient Greece, the Yo-Yo became popular in America when Donald F. Duncan Sr. manufactured the “Duncan Yo-Yo” in the early 1900s. You can visit the National Yo-Yo Museum in Chico, California.
June 7 – National Trails Day
National Trails Day is a celebration of America’s magnificent trail system and features a series of outdoor activities designed to promote the importance of the 200,000 miles of trails in the United States. Trails provide access to the natural world for recreation, education, exploration, solitude and inspiration, and they give us a means to support good physical and mental health. Pick a trail and breathe fresh air, get your heart pumping, and escape from stress.
Individuals, clubs and organizations from around the country host a wide array of trail activities: hiking, biking, paddling, horseback riding, trail running, bird watching and more. Check out the website for an official event being held near you.
Heath Jones, Healthways Coach-of-the-Year and member of the Innergy team at Healthways' Seattle Well-Being Improvement Center, is “Stepping It Up” in June as he gets ready for a 40-mile hike in Yosemite over Fourth of July weekend. In preparation, Heath will be hiking by himself or with a group every week, mountain biking twice with his friend Nick, logging at least four miles on the step-mill at the gym each week, and continuing his regular strength training routine. That's Heath training in the great outdoors of the Pacific Northwest!
June 14 – National Get Outdoors Day
National Get Outdoors Day encourages healthy, active outdoor fun. Prime goals of the day are to reach first-time visitors to public lands and reconnect youth to the outdoors. Participating partners will offer opportunities for families to experience traditional and non-traditional types of outdoor activities.
June 19 – National Recess at Work Day
Rich DiGirolamo, founder of Recess at Work, believes that to keep people engaged, loyal and productive, you need to create a work environment that is fun. But having fun at work and being a fun place to work are two very different things. Recess at Work is an opportunity to create team spirit, engage employees, increase morale, improve health and wellness, and share your fun side with your colleagues.
June 28 – Great American Backyard Campout
The Great American Backyard Campout is a part of the National Wildlife Federation’s efforts to help inspire Americans to protect wildlife, including a three-year campaign to get 10 million kids to spend regular outdoor time in nature. Thousands of people across the nation will gather in their backyards, neighborhoods, communities and parks to take part in this annual event that provides a fun-filled evening for all generations to get outside and connect with nature.
Topics: Healthy Living Well-Being In the News Exercise Workplace Well-Being Physical Health Health Emotional Health Community Daily Challenge Healthways Events Wellness Program
Dr. Dean Ornish on Sustaining Lifestyle Changes
by Sandy Cummings, on April 30, 2014
Dr. Dean Ornish has been a part of the Healthways family for not quite a year now. As he travels the world, discussing both the impact of positive lifestyle changes and the best ways to go about about making sure those changes can be sustained, I'm often struck by how consistent and powerful his messages are.
For example, in this HuffPost video, where he says, "Fear, shame and guilt are not sustainable."
Or in this Parade article, which leads off with his reassuring, "Your genes are not your fate."
And then, when comparing lifestyle change to traditional medical approaches: "These simple lifestyle changes work even better at a fraction of the cost, and the only side effects are good ones," which he shared recently in Everyday Health.
Dr. Ornish is at the forefront of a movement to change our nation's emphasis on "sick care" -- work so powerful, it's becoming the cornerstone of healthcare reform initiatives, as this article in USA Today describes.
Whether you're grappling with chronic disease or simply living a life that somehow feels like it's missing the mark, having a clear path to well-being improvement makes a big difference. I hope you'll spend a few minutes with Dr. Ornish via this coverage and start walking down that path.
Topics: Healthy Living Well-Being In the News Healthcare Health Community Prevention Wellness Healthways Chronic Disease Ornish Lifestyle Medicine
Alabama's Anniston Star Gets It
by Sandy Cummings, on March 27, 2014
This week, Gallup and Healthways released our analysis of the state of well-being for communities, states and congressional districts in the United States. We've been conducting this research and analysis for six years now, and it always yields interesting tidbits -- for example, Boulder has the nation’s lowest obesity rate at 12.4%, making it the only community in the United States (covered by the report) that meets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s stated goal of 15% obesity rate or lower.
The analysis generates some media attention each year. After all, we care about where we live, and we want to know how our states and communities fare in the rankings. Does the research echo what we believe to be true about our homes and our experiences?
We were excited to see the news covered this year by USA Today, The Huffington Post, the Boston Globe and many other media outlets -- even Diane Sawyer gave us a shout-out on "ABC World News Tonight." That's heady stuff.
But the editorial board at Alabama's relatively small Anniston Star really captured the reason that we collaborate on the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index in the first place. Take a look. It's a quick read, but an important one, because Alabama ranked 47th this year, ahead of only three states — Mississippi, Kentucky and West Virginia.
Well-being isn't the same as being happy, nor is it synonymous with good physical health or wealth. Tom Rath, who literally wrote the book on well-being, describes it as "the interaction between physical health, finding your daily work and interactions fulfilling, having strong social relationships and access to the resources you need, feeling financially secure, and being part of a true community."
In short, in areas where well-being is high, people have a greater tendency to be leading their best lives. And that, in turn, impacts business performance, healthcare costs and many other factors that are vital to helping communities thrive and grow.
Understanding where a population -- a state, a community, a company -- stands when it comes to well-being is the first step toward setting successful strategies for improvement. Because well-being can be improved -- it just takes leadership.
As the editorial board of the Anniston Star put it:
Not everyone in Alabama is obese. Not everyone has habits harmful to his or her health. Not everyone has trouble finding decent housing or healthy food. Not everyone has a fatalistic outlook on life. Yet, we all must work together.
Alabama is an example of what happens in the absence of leadership. Too many of its residents are denied an opportunity at the American Dream.
Past performance doesn't lock us into this prison forever. Everyone has a stake in seeing these conditions improve. Our prosperity as a state depends on it.
Topics: Well-Being Links of the Week Basic Access In the News Healthcare Community Well-Being Index Gallup Leadership
Colleague Appreciation in True Healthways Fashion
by Jennifer Rudloff, on June 21, 2013
Each summer, Healthways has an event at its various locations to show appreciation to all of the colleagues who work so hard all year long.
In true Healthways fashion, each location incorporated activities to boost well-being.
This year, some locations like Franklin, Tenn., held a Summer Block Party, complete with family bootcamp, numerous inflatables, one-of-a-kind relays, carnival games, live music, face painting and caricature drawings.
Other locations, like St. Louis, Mo., had a Summer Party complete with recess games in the courtyard, barbecue and a "Tacky Tourist" costume contest.
To see a few more pictures, visit our Facebook page.
Topics: In the News Workplace Well-Being Community
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The Cruel Sea
Ever since I can remember, I have been interested in the social history of war – of how those taking part are affected. Of course, as someone with my head regularly in history books, I need to remember that those in the services today are suffering, and I am aware that I should be giving the current situation due attention too. I was looking today at the photographs of soldiers from 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland serving in Afghanistan taken by photographer Lalage Snow, who first met them during their training, and of her comments on how shocked she was to see the changes in them during and after their tour of duty. My husband has a photograph of his grandfather taken on his return from the Western Front at the end of the First World War –the deep lines between his eyebrows and the haunted look in his eyes are very telling.
I recently re-read Nicholas Monsarrat’s fictionalised account of his time serving on the Atlantic Convoys, The Cruel Sea. My husband bought me the DVD of the film for Christmas, as well as Western Approaches,written and directed by Pat Jackson. We watched the former, and it has certainly stood the test of time. Like others my age, as a child I spent many a Sunday afternoon watching the old black and white war films. Jack Hawkins is marvellous in the lead role, supported by a fantastic cast of British stalwarts.
I was prompted to put the film on my Amazon Wish-List (currently 54 items!) by a visit to the National Maritime Museum on 19 November last year to a small exhibition about the Arctic Convoys, mounted to mark the 70th Anniversary of the first Allied convoy to Russia during the Second World War. The convoys carried vital supplies to the Soviet Union – more than 4 million tons of supplies including tanks, fighter planes, fuel, ammunition, raw materials and food. We had heard about this on PM on Radio 4, when Eddie Mair had interviewed a wonderful gentleman, Edward Cordery, who had served on HMS Belfast, signing up at the age of 17. A number of veterans were, we were told, travelling to the Museum on that day to meet members of the public. We made sure we got there, as we felt this was an unmissable opportunity to meet, listen to, thank and shake the hands of these men. We also informed Phil Winter, the son of Bill Winter, who died on the Convoys and is included in my book Southborough War Memorial, and he travelled up with his son.
We felt moved and honoured to meet these courteous and humble, now elderly men, and so grateful for the chance to do so. These included Edward Cordery, Robert Sutton (HMS Berwick), Mr Micklewhite (3 years’ service on HMS Belfast, and who had travelled down from Liverpool for the day), Mr Webb from Bournemouth, and Charles, who lives in Greenwich, now 86 years old, and who had come along to see the exhibition, having himself served in the Pacific.
Needless to say, this is not a hymn to the so-called glory of war. Harry Patch, the WW1 veteran, memorably said that in his opinion war was murder, nothing else.
I continue to add information on my SWM Extra page about the war casualties of Southborough, and have begun a new page for those who did not die, but were injured.
For further details of the Arctic Convoys, here are two excellent BBC links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/categories/c55648/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/kent/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8585000/8585492.stm
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Posts for tag: orthodontic treatment
By Kampfer Dental, P.C.
Tags: celebrity smiles braces orthodontic treatment
The 2019 Grammy Awards was a star-studded night packed with memorable performances. One standout came from the young Canadian singer Shawn Mendes, who sang a powerful duet of his hit song "In My Blood" with pop diva Miley Cyrus. But that duo's stellar smiles weren't always quite as camera-ready as they looked that night.
"I had braces for four and a half years," Mendes told an interviewer not long ago. "There's lots and lots and lots of photo evidence, I'm sure you can pull up a few." (In fact, finding one is as easy as searching "Sean Mendes braces.")
Wearing braces puts Mendes in good company: It's estimated that over 4 million people in the U.S. alone wear braces in a typical year—and about a quarter of them are adults! (And by the way: When she was a teenager, Miley Cyrus had braces, too!)
Today, there are a number of alternatives to traditional metal braces, such as tooth-colored braces, clear plastic aligners, and invisible lingual braces (the kind Cyrus wore). However, regular metal braces remain the most common choice for orthodontic treatment. They are often the most economical option, and can be used to treat a wide variety of bite problems (which dentists call malocclusions).
Having straighter teeth can boost your self-confidence—along with helping you bite, breathe, chew, and even speak more effectively. Plus, teeth that are in good alignment and have adequate space in between are easier to clean; this can help you keep your mouth free of gum disease and tooth decay for years to come.
Many people think getting braces is something that happens in adolescence—but as long as your mouth is otherwise healthy, there's no upper age limit for orthodontic treatment. In fact, many celebrities—like Lauren Hutton, Tom Cruise and Faith Hill—got braces as adults. But if traditional braces aren't a good fit with your self-image, it's possible that one of the less noticeable options, such as lingual braces or clear aligners, could work for you.
What's the first step to getting straighter teeth? Come in to the office for an evaluation! We will give you a complete oral examination to find out if there are any problems (like gum disease or tooth decay) that could interfere with orthodontic treatment. Then we will determine exactly how your teeth should be re-positioned to achieve a better smile, and recommend one or more options to get you there.
If you have questions about orthodontic treatment, please contact our office or schedule a consultation. You can read more in the Dear Doctor magazine articles “The Magic of Orthodontics” and “Lingual Braces: A Truly Invisible Way to Straighten Teeth.”
Get Ahead of a Developing Cross-Bite with This Early Intervention Measure
Tags: orthodontic treatment
Applying braces or clear aligners to move misaligned teeth is only part of an orthodontist's overall mission to eliminate poor bites (malocclusions). Sometimes a malocclusion isn't caused by the teeth at all—the size of the jaw is the problem!
One type in particular, a cross-bite, often happens because the upper jaw has developed too narrowly. As a result, many of the upper teeth fit inside the lower, the opposite of normal. But a tool called a palatal expander can alleviate the problem if it's applied at an early enough age.
The device works because the upper jawbone initially forms as two halves that fit together along a center line in the roof of the mouth (the palate) running from the back of the mouth to the front. These two bone halves remain separate during childhood to facilitate jaw growth, but eventually fuse around puberty.
Consisting of two sets of wire arms joined together by a hinge mechanism in the middle, the expander device is positioned up against the palate. The orthodontist extends each arm to press against the inside of the back teeth, then adds more outward pressure by turning the mechanism in the middle with a small key. During wear, the patient or caregiver will turn the mechanism in the same way to keep up the pressure on the two sides of the jaw.
This continual pressure keeps the two bones moving away from each other and maintaining a center gap between them. In response, more bone forms on the two halves to fill the gap. In time, the newly formed bone should widen the jaw enough to correct any developing malocclusion.
Timing is everything with a palatal expander—if not used before the jaw bones fuse, the patient will need a surgical procedure to separate the bones to pursue treatment. To catch the problem early enough, children should have an orthodontic evaluation on or before they turn six. An orthodontist may be able to identify this or other emerging bite problems and intervene before it becomes worse. Taking this approach can help save you and your child more expensive orthodontic treatment down the road.
If you would like more information on correcting poor bites, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Palatal Expanders: Orthodontics is more than just Moving Teeth.”
Tags: celebrity smiles orthodontic treatment retainers
In her decades-long career, renowned actress Kathy Bates has won Golden Globes, Emmys, and many other honors. Bates began acting in her twenties, but didn't achieve national recognition until she won the best actress Oscar for Misery — when she was 42 years old! “I was told early on that because of my physique and my look, I'd probably blossom more in my middle age,” she recently told Dear Doctor magazine. “[That] has certainly been true.” So if there's one lesson we can take from her success, it might be that persistence pays off.
When it comes to her smile, Kathy also recognizes the value of persistence. Now 67, the veteran actress had orthodontic treatment in her 50's to straighten her teeth. Yet she is still conscientious about wearing her retainer. “I wear a retainer every night,” she said. “I got lazy about it once, and then it was very difficult to put the retainer back in. So I was aware that the teeth really do move.”
Indeed they do. In fact, the ability to move teeth is what makes orthodontic treatment work. By applying consistent and gentle forces, the teeth can be shifted into better positions in the smile. That's called the active stage of orthodontic treatment. Once that stage is over, another begins: the retention stage. The purpose of retention is to keep that straightened smile looking as good as it did when the braces came off. And that's where the retainer comes in.
There are several different kinds of retainers, but all have the same purpose: To hold the teeth in their new positions and keep them from shifting back to where they were. We sometimes say teeth have a “memory” — not literally, but in the sense that if left alone, teeth tend to migrate back to their former locations. And if you've worn orthodontic appliances, like braces or aligners, that means right back where you started before treatment.
By holding the teeth in place, retainers help stabilize them in their new positions. They allow new bone and ligaments to re-form and mature around them, and give the gums time to remodel themselves. This process can take months to years to be complete. But you may not need to wear a retainer all the time: Often, removable retainers are worn 24 hours a day at first; later they are worn only at night. We will let you know what's best in your individual situation.
So take a tip from Kathy Bates, star of the hit TV series American Horror Story, and wear your retainer as instructed. That's the best way to keep your straight new smile from changing back to the way it was — and to keep a bad dream from coming true.
If you would like more information about orthodontic retainers, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can learn more about this topic in the Dear Doctor magazine articles “Why Orthodontic Retainers?” and “The Importance of Orthodontic Retainers.” The interview with Kathy Bates appears in the latest issue of Dear Doctor.
Anchors Make all the Difference in Successful Orthodontic Treatment
Tags: orthodontic treatment tads
Orthodontics shares a principle with the classic tug of war game: if you want things to move in the right direction you need a good anchor. Anchors help braces and other appliances apply constant pressure to misaligned teeth in the direction they need to go to correct a malocclusion (poor bite).
Orthodontic treatments work in cooperation with an existing oral mechanism that already moves teeth naturally in response to biting forces or other environmental factors. The key to this mechanism is an elastic tissue known as the periodontal ligament that lies between the tooth and the bone. Besides holding teeth in place through tiny attached fibers, the ligament also allows the teeth to move in tiny increments.
Braces’ wires laced through brackets affixed to the teeth exert pressure on them in the desired direction of movement –the periodontal ligament and other structures do the rest. To maintain that pressure we need to attach them to an “anchor”—in basic malocclusions that’s usually the back molar teeth.
But not all malocclusions are that simple. Some may require moving only certain teeth while not moving their neighbors. Younger patients’ jaws and facial structures still under development may also need to be considered during orthodontic treatment. That’s why orthodontists have other anchorage methods to address these possible complications.
One example of an alternate anchorage is a headgear appliance that actually uses the patient’s skull as the anchor. The headgear consists of a strap running around the back of the head and attached in front to orthodontic brackets (usually on molar teeth). The pressure it exerts can trigger tooth movement, but it can also help influence jaw development if an upper or lower jaw is growing too far forward or back.
Another useful anchorage method is a tiny metal screw called a temporary anchorage device (TAD) that is implanted into the jawbone above the teeth through the gums. Orthodontists then attach elastic bands between implanted TADs and specific braces’ brackets or wires to exert pressure on certain teeth but not others with pinpoint accuracy. After treatment the TADs can be easily removed.
Using these and other appliances allows orthodontists to customize treatment to an individual patient’s particular malocclusion. With the right anchor, even the most complex bite problem can be transformed into a beautiful and healthy smile.
If you would like more information on orthodontic treatment, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Orthodontic Headgear & Other Anchorage Appliances.”
Mayim Bialik has spent a good part of her life in front of TV cameras: first as the child star of the hit comedy series Blossom, and more recently as Sheldon Cooper’s love interest — a nerdy neuroscientist — on The Big Bang Theory. (In between, she actually earned a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA…but that’s another story.) As a child, Bialik had a serious overbite — but with all her time on camera, braces were just not an option.
“I never had braces,” she recently told Dear Doctor – Dentistry & Oral Health magazine. “I was on TV at the time, and there weren’t a lot of creative solutions for kids who were on TV.” Instead, her orthodontist managed to straighten her teeth using retainers and headgear worn only at night.
Today, there are several virtually invisible options available to fix orthodontic issues — and you don’t have to be a child star to take advantage of them. In fact, both children and adults can benefit from these unobtrusive appliances.
Tooth colored braces are just like traditional metal braces, with one big difference: The brackets attached to teeth are made from a ceramic material that blends in with the natural color of teeth. All that’s visible is the thin archwire that runs horizontally across the teeth — and from a distance it’s hard to notice. Celebs like Tom Cruise and Faith Hill opted for this type of appliance.
Clear aligners are custom-made plastic trays that fit over the teeth. Each one, worn for about two weeks, moves the teeth just a bit; after several months, you’ll see a big change for the better in your smile. Best of all, clear aligners are virtually impossible to notice while you’re wearing them — which you’ll need to do for 22 hours each day. But you can remove them to eat, or for special occasions. Zac Efron and Katherine Heigl, among others, chose to wear clear aligners.
Lingual braces really are invisible. That’s because they go behind your teeth (on the tongue side), where they can’t be seen; otherwise they are similar to traditional metal braces. Lingual braces are placed on teeth differently, and wearing them often takes some getting used to at first. But those trade-offs are worth it for plenty of people. Which celebs wore lingual braces? Rumor has it that the list includes some top models, a well-known pop singer, and at least one British royal.
So what’s the best way to straighten your teeth and keep the orthodontic appliances unnoticeable? Just ask us! We’d be happy to help you choose the option that’s just right for you. You’ll get an individualized evaluation, a solution that fits your lifestyle — and a great-looking smile!
For more information about hard-to-see (or truly invisible) orthodontics, please contact our office or schedule a consultation. You can read more in the Dear Doctor magazine articles “Orthodontics for the Older Adult” and “Clear Aligners for Teenagers.”
Older Posts orthodontic treatment (2)
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One of the first scientifically recorded meteorites landed in Possil, in north Glasgow, Scotland.
A. De Gasparis discovered asteroid #24 Themis.
J. Palisa discovered asteroid #257 Silesia.
A. Kopff discovered asteroid #632 Pyrrha.
Born, Mikhail Sergeyevich Ryazanskiy, Russian Chief Designer of Nll-885 (1946-1951 and 1955-1987), specialized in radio control systems for Soviet rocketry and spacecraft
ref: www.astronautix.com
S. Belyavskij and G. Neujmin discovered asteroid #749 Malzovia.
K. Reinmuth discovered asteroid #2235 Vittore.
C. Jackson discovered asteroid #1116 Catriona.
Born, Donald Lynden-Bell, British astrophysicist best known for his theories that galaxies contain massive black holes at their center and that such black holes are the principal source of energy in quasars
H. Alikoski discovered asteroid #2714 Matti.
Born, Judith A. "Judy" Resnik PhD (at Akron, Ohio, USA), NASA astronaut (STS 41D, STS 51L-Challenger 10; nearly 6d 1h in spaceflight) (deceased)
Astronaut Judy Resnik, mission specialist, NASA photo S78-35305 (21 September 1978)
Source: NASA STS-51L Shuttle Mission Imagery
Judith Arlene Resnik (5 April 1949 - 28 January 1986) was an astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion during the launch of the mission STS 51-L.
Born in Akron, Ohio, Dr. Resnik received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1970, and a doctorate in that field in 1977 at the University of Maryland. After graduation from Carnegie-Mellon, she was employed at RCA where she was a design engineer, and later worked with various NASA projects contracted to the company. While working toward her doctorate, Dr. Resnik was affiliated with the National Institutes of Health as a biomedical engineer. She later worked as a systems engineer with Xerox Corporation.
Dr. Resnik was selected for the astronaut program in January 1978, and had served as a mission specialist on the maiden voyage of Space Shuttle Discovery (STS 41-D), August-September 1984. She was likewise a mission specialist aboard the Challenger.
in honor of her work, a crater on Venus and Asteroid 3356 ware named after her.
Born, Franklin R. Chang-Diaz PhD (at San Jose, Costa Rica), NASA astronaut (STS 61C, STS 34, STS 46, STS 60, STS 75, STS 91, STS 111; 66d 18.25h total time in spaceflight)
Astronaut Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, NASA photo
NASA civilian pilot Neil A. Armstrong flew the X-15A MH-96 test mission # 49 to an altitude of 54.864 km with a maximum speed of 4587 kph (Mach 4.12) in a test of a new automatic control system.
NASA's X-15 mission # 49 was flown 5 April 1962 by civilian test pilot Neil Armstrong in a test of a new automatic control system that was to be used in the Dyna-Soar and Apollo spacecraft. The previous electronic control system had been automatic only while the X-15 was in the atmosphere; the new system was automatic in space as well. X-15 # 56-6672 was air dropped over the Hidden Hills drop zone at Edwards AFB by NB-52 003. The aircraft reached a maximum altitude of 54.864 km (34.091 mi) and a maximum speed of 4587 kph (2850 mph) during the flight.
The USSR launched a Soyuz flight with cosmonauts Lazarev and Makarov aboard that was aborted shortly less than five minutes after launch.
The Soviets launched the original Soyuz 18 mission on 5 April 1975 carrying commander Vasili Lazarev (an Air Force major) and flight engineer Oleg Makarov (a civilian), intending for them to visit the Salyut 4 space station. However, the mission was aborted because of a launch vehicle malfunction: The launch proceeded according to plan until T+288.6 seconds at an altitude of 192 kilometers, when the second and third stages of the booster began separation. Only three of the six locks holding the stages together released, and the third stage's engine ignited with the second stage still attached below it. The third stage's thrust broke the remaining locks, throwing the second stage free but putting the booster under an unanticipated strain that caused it to deviate from the standard trajectory. At T+295 seconds, the deviation became severe enough that an automatic safety system separated the Soyuz spacecraft from the third stage booster, and then separated the orbital capsule of the spacecraft.
When the safety system initiated separation, the spacecraft was already pointed downward toward Earth, which accelerated its descent significantly. Instead of the pre-calculated load factor in such an emergency situation of 15 G (147 m/s/s), the cosmonauts experienced up to 21.3 G (209 m/s/s). Despite very high overloading, however, the recovery parachutes opened properly and slowed the craft to a successful landing after a flight of only 21 minutes.
Reports differ about where the capsule landed: Some reports indicate it was in a rocky area of the northwestern part of China near Gorno Altaisk, less than a mile (1.6 km) from the Mongolian border and around 50 miles (80 km) from the Soviet border. Other reports indicate it was southwest of Gorno-Altaisk at a point 829 kilometres (515 mi) north of the Chinese border. The capsule reportedly landed on a snow-covered slope and began rolling downhill towards a 152 m (499 ft) sheer drop before it was stopped by the parachutes' becoming snagged on vegetation. The crew was evacuated by Soviet helicopter a few hours after landing, without China being notified. In Brezhnev's time it was not typical to disclose anything about Soviet failures, and so the first detailed publication about the realities of the flight was not made until 1983 in the Army newspaper "Red Banner".
The Soyuz 18"a" flight was the only case to date (2016) of a manned booster accident at high altitude, and the first abort of a manned mission. The mission is referred to in the literature as Soyuz 18-1 or Soyuz 18a, since the following Soyuz mission was also numbered 18 to disguise the accident.
Died, Howard Hughes, film producer, inventor, recluse
Howard Robard Hughes (24 December 1905 - 5 April 1976) was at times a pilot, a movie producer, a playboy, an eccentric, a recluse, and one of the wealthiest people in the world. As a teenager, he declared that his goals in life were to become the world's best golfer, the world's best pilot, and the world's best movie producer. In 1923 while attending Rice University he inherited the highly profitable Hughes Tool Company from his father, Howard R. Hughes, Sr., who invented the diamond-studded drill bit for oil wells. He dropped out of Rice and became CEO of Hughes Tool in 1924 at the age of 19. In aviation, Hughes set many world records, and designed and built aircraft through his Hughes Aircraft company.
One of his most famous projects was the Spruce Goose, a massive flying boat completed just after the end of World War II. The Spruce Goose only flew once, with Hughes at the controls, in 1947. Because of metal rationing during the war, the plane was built largely from wood (birch, rather than spruce as its name would imply). The plane was on display alongside the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California for many years before being moved to McMinnville, Oregon.
On 19 January 1937 Hughes set an air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds. Also, on 10 July 1938, he set another record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world.
Felix Aguilar Observatory discovered asteroid #2928.
E. Bowell discovered asteroided #2383 Bradley and #2433 Sootiyo.
A. Mrkos discovered asteroid #3364.
The first launch of a Pegasus aircraft-release rocket was performed, and the Pegsat satellite was inserted into polar orbit.
ref: www.orbitalatk.com
Died (commercial airplane crash while on NASA business travel), Sonny Carter, NASA astronaut (STS 33; 5d 6m in spaceflight)
Manley Lanier "Sonny" Carter, Jr. (15 August 1947 - 5 April 1991) was a NASA astronaut who flew on STS-33. He was also selected to fly on STS-42 as a mission specialist at the time of his death in the crash of Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311 in Brunswick, Georgia while on travel for NASA.
NASA launched STS 37 (Atlantis 8, 39th Shuttle mission) carrying the Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) to orbit.
STS 37 was launched 5 April 1991 after a brief delay due to low level clouds in area. Its primary payload, the Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO), the heaviest shuttle-launched payload to date, was deployed on flight day three (7 April 1991). The GRO high-gain antenna failed to deploy on command; it was finally freed and manually deployed by Ross and Apt during an unscheduled contingency space walk, the first since April 1985. The following day, the two astronauts performed the first scheduled space walk since November 1985 to test means for astronauts to move themselves and equipment about while maintaining the Space Station Freedom, then still in the planning stage. Several times during the flight, Atlantis passed within view of the Mir station. The crew attempted to contact their Soviet conterparts via ham radio, but were unsuccessful.
The GRO science instruments were the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE), Imaging Compton Telescope (COMPTEL), Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) and Oriented Scintillation Spectrometer Experiment (OSSEE). Secondary payloads on STS 37 included Crew and Equipment Translation Aids (CETA), which involved a scheduled six hour space walk by astronauts Ross and Apt (see above); Ascent Particle Monitor (APM); Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment II (SAREX II); Protein Crystal Growth (PCG); Bioserve/Instrumentation Technology Associates Materials Dispersion Apparatus (BIMDA); Radiation Monitoring Equipment III (RME III); and the Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS) experiment.
STS 37 ended on 11 April 1991 when Atlantis landed on revolution 93 on Runway 33, Edwards Air Force Base, California. Rollout distance: 6,364 feet. Rollout time: 54 seconds. Launch weight: 255,824 pounds. Landing weight: 190,098 pounds. Orbit altitude: 248 nautical miles. Orbit inclination: 28.45 degrees. Mission duration: five days, 23 hours, 32 minutes, 44 seconds. Miles Traveled: 2.5 million. The landing was originally scheduled for 10 April, but was delayed one day due to weather conditions at Edwards and KSC. The orbiter was returned to Kennedy Space Center on 18 April 1991.
The flight crew for STS 37 was: Steven R. Nagel, Commander; Kenneth D. Cameron, Pilot; Jerry L. Ross, Mission Specialist 1; Jay Apt, Mission Specialist 2; Linda M. Godwin, Mission Specialist 3.
NASA's Galileo probe made its third Ganymede flyby during its seventh orbit of Jupiter.
ref: www.dmuller.net
Died (natural causes), Vitali Ivanovich Sevastyanov, Soviet cosmonaut (Soyuz 9, Soyuz 18; over 80d 16.25h total time in spaceflight)
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The Hague Abduction Convention in South Africa
The following are excerpts, without footnotes, of an article published in the Judges’ Newsletter on International Child Protection Vol. XX, Summer – Autumn 2013.
The full article is available on the website of the Hague Conference on Private International Law.
Concentration of Jurisdiction under the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction: South Africa
By The Honourable Mrs. Justice BelindaVAN HEERDEN, Supreme Court of Appeal, Bloemfontein, South Africa
International child abduction
The Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (hereinafter the 1980 Child Abduction Convention) was incorporated into South African domestic law in terms of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction Act 72 of 1997 (date of commencement 1 October 1997). From the outset, jurisdiction in Hague matters was vested only in the High Courts. Indeed, the Central Authority for South Africa is the Chief Family Advocate who has delegated her powers under the 1980 Child Abduction Convention to the Office of the Family Advocate attached to each of the High Courts which to all extents and purposes function at provincial level. The whole of the 1980 Child Abduction Convention Act was repealed by section 313 of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 (date of commencement 1 April 2010). However, section 275 of the Children’s Act states that the 1980 Child Abduction Convention “is in force in the Republic and its provisions are law in the Republic, subject to the provisions of this Act”. The whole Convention is annexed to the Act as a schedule. Section 45(3) retains the exclusive jurisdiction of the High Courts in Hague abduction matters. Lower courts, such as children’s courts at magistrate’s court level, are therefore excluded.
The main problem with concentration of Hague abduction jurisdiction in the High Courts is that these courts have broad civil and criminal jurisdiction and do not have a special chamber dealing with family and child law in general, and Hague abduction matters in particular. Prior to 2007, this meant that there were no High Court judges with specialized training in the 1980 Child Abduction Convention to deal with such matters. In January 2007, a high level meeting took place between the Chief Justice (the head of the judiciary in South Africa), the author of this note and Lord Justice Mathew Thorpe, Head of International Family Law in the United Kingdom, to address instances of the failure of the judicial system in South Africa to achieve acceptable international standards in the management and determination of return applications brought under the 1980 Child Abduction Convention. Spearheaded by the Chief Justice, at a subsequent meeting of the Heads of Court in November 2007, the Judge- President of each High Court nominated one or more judges to assume a special responsibility for international family law cases. The intention was that the judges nominated would receive specific training to equip them better to deal with the special challenges of international family law cases. These judges would then build up a repository of experience in the management and adjudication of such cases. In exceptional circumstances preventing the nominated judge (or one of the nominated judges in High Courts with several nominees) from trying the case, the nominated judge would be available to assist the judge to whom the case was assigned. In addition, the nominated judges were to be responsible for liaison and collaboration with judges in other jurisdictions within the Global Hague Network. The author of this note was designated by the Chief Justice as the co-ordinator of the nominated first instance judges, and as the primary liaison judge for the South African jurisdiction.
This gave rise to a South African Judicial Network spanning the provincial High Courts, enabling particular judges at each High Court to apply their special expertise in Hague Abduction matters, while retaining their jurisdiction to deal with general civil and criminal cases. Apart from specific training of the nominated judges, which took place in 2008, there has been ongoing in-house training at several of the High Courts. Moreover, practice directives dealing with the urgency of Hague Abduction matters and dedicated case management of such cases have been issued at some of the High Courts. Regulations issued under the Children’s Act also cover the practical aspects required to implement the 1980 Child Abduction Convention, including a provision that proceedings for the return of a child under the Convention must be completed within six weeks from the date on which judicial proceedings were instituted in a High Court, except where exceptional circumstances make this impossible.
By and large, this informal concentration of jurisdiction in nominated High Court judges has worked well. There is, however, a need for an ongoing training of nominated judges and the speedy replacement of nominated judges who leave the High Court (usually on appointment to the Supreme Court of Appeal).
The Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (hereinafter the 1993 Adoption Convention) was incorporated into South African domestic law by section 256 of the Children’s Act and the whole Convention is annexed to the Children’s Act as a schedule. In terms of the Children’s Act, a children’s court has jurisdiction over inter-country adoptions. For purposes of the 1993 Adoption Convention, the Central Authority is the Director-General of Social Development.
Before the coming into operation of the Children’s Act, section 18(4)(f ) of the then applicable Child Care Act 74 of 1983 prohibited a non-South African citizen from adopting a South African child. This effectively meant that inter-country adoptions were unlawful. In Minister of Welfare and Population Development v Fitzpatrick 2000 (3) SA 422 (CC), this section was declared to be unconstitutional and invalid. The Constitutional Court ruled that inter-country adoptions should proceed through the existing children’s courts, like all other adoptions. In the subsequent Constitutional Court judgment in AD & another v DW and others 2008 (3) SA 183 (CC), the court noted that, in the context of inter-country adoption, the correct route to follow would be adoption proceedings before the children’s court. As indicated above, this exclusive jurisdiction of the children’s court in respect of inter-country adoptions has now been formalised in terms of the Children’s Act.
A children’s court has a status similar to a magistrate’s court at district level, and as there are children’s courts in every magisterial district in South Africa, they are much more accessible to litigants, and much less expensive, than the High Court. While children’s courts have a specialised child law jurisdiction, this jurisdiction spans a wide range of matters involving children, including South African domestic adoptions. It is, however, generally accepted that children’s courts do have the necessary expertise and experience to ensure proper compliance with the 1993 Adoption Convention and that the concentration of jurisdiction in such courts in this regard ensures that the safeguards and procedures envisaged by the Convention are followed. Since children’s courts are found in every magisterial district throughout the country, in the region of 384 such courts exist in South Africa. Concentrated training of all presiding officers would not be possible under present circumstances.
The Hague Abduction Convention in Paraguay
Concentration of Jurisdiction under the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction: Paraguay
By María Eugenia GIMÉNEZ DE ALLEN, Judge of the Court of Appeals for Children and Adolescents, Central Department, Asunción, Paraguay
Achieving the correct application of international treaties on the international return of children raises the issue of concentrated jurisdiction, with specialisation to handle these cases. In this brief analysis, I state my opinion on the utility of concentrated jurisdiction in Paraguay.
Some facts about Paraguay
Firstly, I consider it important to provide some facts about my country, the Republic of Paraguay, in order to better assess the suitability of concentrated jurisdiction for handling cases involving the international return of children. Paraguay, according to Article 1 of its Constitution, “is a social State under the rule of law, which is unitary, indivisible, and decentralised.” Paraguay has an area of 406,752 km2, and, according to official figures from the latest census of 2012, a population of 6,672,631 inhabitants. The Judiciary of Paraguay is decentralised in 17 Judicial Districts, with a total of 39 Courts of First Instance for Children and Adolescents. These courts have exclusive jurisdiction in cases relating to the rights of children and adolescents, i.e., they are courts specialised in these matters. In summary, there are 39 judges across the country with authority to judge a case on the international return of children in the first instance, not including judges at higher judicial levels who could have jurisdiction in these matters.
Current regulation in Paraguay
Paraguay does not currently have what would be called concentrated jurisdiction, and thus the resolution of these issues would fall to any of the Judges of First Instance for Children and Adolescents. Under current regulations, the judge of the place of habitual residence of the child or adolescent has the authority to resolve a request for the international return of children, under the international legal instruments ratified by Paraguay: the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (hereinafter the 1980 Child Abduction Convention) and the Montevideo Convention of 15 July 1989 on the International Return of Children.
Training to gain expertise
The most signify cant advantage of concentrated jurisdiction in which only some judges have jurisdiction to handle cases of the international return of children, in my opinion, is the expertise they gain on this matter: obviously, the more cases they solve, the more experience they gain. However, in a small country like Paraguay, concentrated jurisdiction is not the only way to ensure the correct application of international treaties on the international return of children. With a smaller number of judges with jurisdiction in child and adolescent issues, providing them with training is not too difficult a task. It is a need that can be satisfied with ongoing training programs for the range of justice operators involved in the application of international treaties on the international return of children: not only Judges of First Instance, but also Public Defenders (Defenders of the Child), Courts of Appeals for Children and Adolescents, and the Supreme Court itself, in addition to multidisciplinary teams specialised in the area of children and adolescence.
Training by the Judges of the Network
Training in the application of international treaties involves the Judges of the International Hague Network of Judges in particular, who have the important role of contributing to the organisation and participating in training seminars where best practices on the correct application of legal instruments in this area are publicised. It is a function of the Judges of the Network to advise colleagues on jurisdiction issues in relation to international treaties and other legislation, and on existing relevant international jurisprudence, without breaching the independence of each judge in solving every dispute subject to their decision.
It can be said that Paraguay has made significant progress with the appointment by its Supreme Court of two judges as members of the International Hague Network of Judges, who are fulfilling, in practice, this important role of training and advice to fellow judges on the correct application of international instruments.
A change in the rules
In my opinion, the implementation of concentrated jurisdiction in the Paraguayan legal system would require legislation providing for this change, as it would entail changing rules of jurisdiction laid down by the law, bearing on issues of public order.
In closing, I would like to state that concentrated jurisdiction certainly has significant advantages; however, considering the circumstances of my country (territory, population, legislation and judicial organisation), at present, the training of justice operators is the most practical way of achieving the correct application of legal instruments on the international return of children in the Republic of Paraguay.
The Hague Abduction Convention in Panama
Concentration of Jurisdiction under the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction: Panama
By Delia P. CEDEÑO, Judge of Children and Adolescents of the First Judicial Circuit of Panama, Panama City, Panama
When we speak of “jurisdiction” we are referring to the authority of each State to apply the law to resolve a dispute, definitively and irrevocably, exercised exclusively by courts composed of autonomous and independent judges.“Concentration” is a technique in the service of judicial economy – a legal approach used by the judge and recommended to the parties, in order to hear a variety of connected legal questions at a single trial.
The above leads us to note that when we refer to “concentration of jurisdiction,” it would be with the objective that international return applications are processed in certain courts in order to comply with the constitutional guarantee to directly assume the role of resolving a conflict between a requesting party and the respondent.
In Panama, since the creation of the Special Jurisdiction for Minors (by Act 24 of 1951), applications for the international return of children were in principle received at the General Secretariat of the Supreme Court of Justice by way of international warrants submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to then be sent to the Tribunal for Minors for processing, or alternatively to the Juvenile Court (which by that time had been created), always taking into account the domicile of the child. Panama adopted the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (hereinafter the 1980 Child Abduction Convention), by Law 22 of 10 December 1993.
When the Family Code of 1994 entered into force, international return requests were sent directly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Juvenile Court of the domicile where the identified minor was residing with the alleged perpetrator of the wrongful removal or retention, pursuant to Article 778 of the Family Code. We can confirm that in the Republic of Panama, concentration of jurisdiction has been accomplished in order to hear requests for the return of a child since the creation of the Juvenile Court, as a special court to deal with issues concerning underage persons since 1951.
Subsequent to the entry into force of the Family Code, in 1995, Article 747 established that Special Jurisdiction for Minors would be exercised by the Supreme Court, by Superior Courts, and by the Regional Juvenile Courts.
The same law stated in Article 744 that in any proceeding which is related to a minor, the Juvenile Courts would have exclusive jurisdiction. These courts are currently called Childhood and Adolescence Courts, mandated by the modified Act 40 of 1999 (and added in Article 157 in order to establish the change in designation of these courts).
In defining the competencies of courts specialised in childhood and adolescence in Article 754 of the Family Code, it is stated that these courts have jurisdiction over disputes that are not expressly attributed to another authority, and thus by not giving this jurisdiction to another court judges for childhood and adolescence matters have concentrated jurisdiction.
In Supreme Court jurisprudence from 1997 (the case of Horna Whitehurst), the Court determined that the Childhood and Adolescence Courts, which are part of the Special Jurisdiction for Childhood and Adolescence, are competent for international return applications, which reaffirms that there is concentration of jurisdiction for this procedure.
Based on experience, we note that concentrating jurisdiction allows the taking and implementation of quick measures in order to secure the prompt return of children, as is foreseen in Article 7 of the 1980 Child Abduction Convention. At the same time, the exercise of the judicial function in these procedures is facilitated, including the hearing, judicial determination and enforcing of a decision, with the aim of protecting minors from the harmful effects that can be caused by their wrongful removal or retention, and to facilitate their safe return to their habitual residence.
The Hague Abduction Convention in the Netherlands
Concentration of Jurisdiction under the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction: the Netherlands
By Annette C. OLLAND, Senior Judge Family Law and International Child Protection at the District Court of The Hague, President of the Dutch Office of the Liaison Judge International Child Protection
Historically, the Netherlands counted 19 District Courts and each of them had jurisdiction in cases of international child abduction. Combined with the limited number of incoming International Child Abduction cases in the Netherlands (between 25 and 30 on a yearly basis), in practice this meant that a family judge in a district court would handle a few child abduction cases in a lifetime. Many district courts and individual judges, as well as other parties, thought that this was undesirable given the required specialist knowledge for these cases and their urgent nature. It was generally felt that this practice, combined with the length of the proceedings – which, including the proceedings before the Court of Appeal and before the Dutch Supreme Court, could mount up to 18 months or more – was not in the best interest of the child and it lead to a lot of criticism from several parties and institutions, including politicians.
Meanwhile, in January 2006, the Family Division of the District Court of The Hague set up a bureau, the so-called Office of the Liaison Judge International Child Protection (hereinafter:
BLIK), in order to build up and expand knowledge in the field of international family law. The direct cause for establishing BLIK was the appointment of the President and Vice-President of the Family Division of the District Court of The Hague as Liaison Judges in 2005. Their task is to facilitate contacts between Dutch judges and their foreign colleagues in pending cases involving the same minor(s) that are filed with courts in different States. BLIK soon developed into a knowledge centre and help desk for judges hearing international family law cases and a contact point for foreign judges. Thus, the Family Division of the Court of The Hague gathered specialist knowledge in the field of international child abduction and international child protection. Soon other District Courts in the Netherlands expressed their wish to be able to refer international child abduction cases to the District Court of The Hague. The District Court of The Hague was willing to hear these cases if necessary.
The criticism of the implementation of the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (hereinafter the 1980 Child Abduction Convention) in the Netherlands lead to the publication of a report by the Royal Commission on Private International Law that was published in August 2008, which addressed the question whether the implementation could be improved.26 The report held two recommendations. Firstly, it recommended that appeal to the Dutch Supreme Court in Hague child abduction cases should be limited to appeal in cassation on a point of law. Secondly, the Commission recommended concentrating the administration of justice at first instance and on appeal in Hague child abduction cases in one or a limited number of courts.
Inspired by this report of the Royal Commission on Private Law, the Dutch Minister for Justice declared his intention to improve the position of those directly involved with international child abduction. To this end, the Dutch International Child Abduction Implementation Act and the Dutch International Child Protection Implementation Act needed to be amended. On 1 April 2010 the preliminary draft amendment was presented to Parliament. In anticipation of this draft amendment and in response to the District Courts’ call to be able to refer international child abduction cases to the District Court of The Hague because of its specialist knowledge in the field, the Dutch Council for the Judiciary by decision of 4 February 2009 appointed the District Court of The Hague as the alternative court with the power to hear child abduction cases in addition to other District Courts. This designation meant that the other courts were able to hand over the cases of international child abduction for the whole procedure to the court of The Hague, without the consent of the parties. It turned out that the Courts referred their international child abduction cases most of the times and the Family Division of the District Court of the Hague would, from then on, handle most of the incoming International Child Abduction Cases.
The aforementioned developments finally lead to a change of the Dutch International Child Abduction Implementation Act that came into force on 1 January 2012. This amended
Act aimed to considerably speed up the return application procedure and make an end to two other undesirable situations. In short, the amended Implementation Act (among others) implied the following:
- The court of first Instance in The Hague and consequently the Court of Appeal of the Hague are competent for all incoming International Child Abduction Cases (instead of, before, 18 courts). Thus, the Family Division of the Court of the Hague and of the Court of Appeal of the
Hague have become specialised Courts, dealing with about 25 to 30 cases on a yearly basis;
- Parties can no longer appeal to the Dutch Supreme Court in Hague Child Abduction cases;
- In all cases, the child will stay in the Netherlands for the duration of the appeal in the return application proceedings.
As of 1 January 2012 the concentration of jurisdiction at first instance at the District Court of The Hague is a fact. From our experience, the benefits of concentration of jurisdiction are evident: the Family Division of our Court now has formed a team of experienced and specialised judges who handle Hague Child Abduction cases on a regular basis. Not only our judges but also our clerks and other staff are dedicated to a swift and smooth handling of these cases. The increased number of cases to be handled made it possible for the Family Division of the District Court of the Hague – in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, the Dutch Central Authority, the Dutch Centre of International Child Abduction, the Bar and specialised family mediators – to develop and implement the so-called ‘pressure cooker procedure’, including cross-border mediation. As a result, the proceedings before the District Court, including cross-border mediation, do not take up more than six weeks.29 An appeal to the Court of Appeal may be lodged within two weeks. A hearing will take place within two weeks from the lodging of the appeal, and the Appeal Court decision will follow two weeks later. Consequently, the proceedings from the notification at and handling by the Central Authority (which should take up to 6 weeks) until the final decision of the Court of Appeal takes up 18 weeks (3x6) at the most.
Thus, from our experience, concentration of jurisdiction has lead to a considerable improvement, both in terms of quality of the decisions and in terms of duration of the proceedings.
Expats with Children: Top Tips from an International Family Lawyer
Expats with Children
… Top Tips from an International Family Lawyer[1]
I have worked for many years counseling international parents around the world about international child custody issues.
Here are some of my “international family lawyer’s best tips” for clients with children who may move overseas. This article does not deal with financial issues except as they may relate to children issues.
Before you move overseas, you absolutely must realize, understand and fully evaluate the fact that if you are in a new country with a child you may find yourself trapped there if the other parent refuses to let you take the child home. Under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, you will “wrongfully remove” a child if you take the child away from his or her habitual residence in breach of the rights of custody that the other parent has under the law of the country in which the child was habitually resident immediately before the removal. What that means is that once your child is “habitually residing” in the new country, which can occur quite quickly, the other parent will normally be able to block your removal of the child from that country and if you take the child to the United States a U.S. court will normally compel you to return the child forthwith. In fact it will often be a criminal offense for you to take the child away without the other parent’s permission. Example: Angie the American and Gus the Greek (from Cyprus) moved to Cyprus with their baby. Life in Cyprus didn’t work out for Angie. In fact, she absolutely hates it there. But Gus refuses to leave and he refuses to allow Angie to take the baby back to the States to live. Since both Cyprus and the U.S. are parties to the Hague Convention, Angie will be in big trouble if she takes the child back to the States without Gus’ permission. Angie wishes she had consulted an international family lawyer before she moved overseas. Now she’s stuck there.
Foreign courts, not U.S. courts, probably have jurisdiction. When you go overseas you will probably be subjecting all issues about child custody to the courts of the foreign country. There are complex rules about international custody jurisdiction under the laws of each American state – as to which you will need to consult with knowledgeable counsel – but usually the American courts will defer to the foreign courts if your family has relocated overseas. And in any event none of that usually matters to a foreign court, which is governed by the jurisdictional rules of its own legislature. In most countries, once you’re habitually residing there the local courts have jurisdiction to handle the case.
Foreign law usually applies. Some people think that when they go away their American citizenship somehow travels with them and provides a cloak of protection concerning child custody matters. Usually that is absolutely wrong. You need to assume that when you are in Rome you must do as the Romans do. And when you are in Saudi Arabia, Saudi law will govern. Most countries apply their own domestic law to child custody matters, even if all of the family members are foreigners. And in the minority of countries that apply the law of the parents’ common nationality to custody issues you need to understand that the foreign court will probably have great difficulty in understanding and applying the law of your local American state and might well have great reluctance to apply it in any similar way.
The law in real life is not the law on the books. Most of the laws about child custody and parental rights that are on the books in countries around the world read well. But there can obviously be all the difference in the world between the law as it is written and the law that is actually applied. China has rules about divorce jurisdiction that do not seem to be applied in cases concerning foreigners. The Japanese Civil Code has innocuous provisions about child custody that disclose nothing about how cases there are really conducted. Obtaining strategic and experienced advice about these matters is usually absolutely essential.
The Hague Convention won’t protect you. Just because the foreign country has signed the Hague Abduction Convention does not mean that the courts there will be ready, or willing or able to help you. As stated above, the Convention may bar you from taking your child to your home country. And there are no provisions in the Convention that will help you if you are arguing with the other parent about custody matters.
An American court order may not count. Just because you have a clear court order from a U.S. court that supposedly gives you protection and provides clear rules about who has the kids and at what periods of time, you’re far from guaranteed that the terms of the order will be respected overseas. The rules about recognition and modification of custody orders overseas are usually entirely different from the rules in the United States. The provisions of our Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction & Enforcement Act are not paralleled in foreign countries. Very many countries have no requirement or practice of applying foreign custody orders. And the courts in almost all foreign countries are empowered under their own laws to modify foreign custody orders once a child is habitually resident in the foreign country, which can occur quite quickly.
Beware of exit controls. The United States has no exit controls. With minimal exceptions, no one checks whether you have a legal right to remove a child. But the same is not true overseas. For example, you cannot take your child out of most South American countries without a notarized document establishing that the other parent has consented, or a local court order.
Beware of visa rules. You can’t normally stay overseas or re-enter the foreign country without complying with the correct local residency requirements. This can be a terrible problem if the other parent has control of your status and therefore owns the virtual “key to the door.” Example: A Saudi father agreed that his wife could leave Saudi Arabia for a family visit to the States. She left their child temporarily in Riyadh. While she was away he divorced her in Riyadh and canceled her visa. She could never return. He had the child and she was powerless to stop it.
Beware of local laws. In many countries a parent’s conduct that may be acceptable in the United States may be frowned upon or even criminal elsewhere and engaging in any activities that could be deemed to be inappropriate could adversely affect your rights to custody or even access to your child. Example: A client’s husband accused her of adultery – and worse -- in Dubai. Knowing the extreme seriousness of the charges in the UAE, we recommended that she leave Dubai that night without her young child, who was in the husband’s possession. (We later used other methods to help retrieve her child).
If you make a deal with your husband or wife that you’re going overseas just for a trial and that you’ll return if it doesn’t work out – Get it in writing! Verbal agreements always seem to be forgotten when things blow up. But also know that even a written agreement may not work. A foreign court handling your child custody case may well state that it doesn’t care what your deal with was with the other parent; it must only consider what it thinks is best for the child.
Before leaving home, you should hope and plan for the very best. But you also need to be prepared for the very worst. So if you are a “trailing spouse,” consider the following:
-Don’t sell the house. If you maintain an address in the States it will be easier to claim that you maintained your home as your permanent residence. Certainly it will indicate that it continues to be your “domicile” (the place you live in indefinitely, which remains as your domicile even if you move temporarily to another place). Having a place to return to will also make your case a lot stronger if you need to prove that your kids should be allowed to move “back home.”
-Keep your contacts with your job. Prepare for the day when you may want to re-enter the job market back home. Perhaps you can even continue to do some work even while overseas.
-Keep your network of friends and family at home. Stay in touch with them. Visit them if possible.
If you’re overseas and are “planning” to get divorced, be as strategic as possible. Plan your moves. Consult with someone who really understands the big picture in these cases. Figure out where it’s best for you to be at the time you tell your soon-to-be-ex that it’s all over. You may need to move yourself, the kids, the soon-to-be-ex and the marital assets to another place before you break the news that you want out of the marriage. And don’t leave without the evidence. It’s very frustrating when a client tells me a story of the other spouse’s gruesome physical abuse and shameless hiding of marital assets and, when I ask for the evidence, I’m told that it was all left behind in the foreign country before the client came back home. Intelligent planning, with strategic professional advice, is the key.
If you’re feeling stuck overseas and have children with you, don’t just bolt for the (airplane) door with the kids and run “back home” to the States. Plan things out first. If you take the kids you may be guilty of international child kidnapping. You could even be arrested at the airport before you leave. If you make it to the States, you may well be forced by an American court to return your child – and then, to completely add insult to injury, you’ll probably have to pay your spouse’s legal fees and travel expenses as well as your own. Then, when you return overseas, your case will be heard in the foreign court, where you will be branded as an international child abductor. Consult with knowledgeable international family law counsel sooner, rather than later.
On the other hand, if it’s your spouse who’s feeling unhappy and upset and who may “do a runner” back home, there are lots of things that you should be doing in advance. Some are pretty obvious: Be kind; be understanding; and don’t stay out all night with the guys or gals from the office. Other tips are not so clear, and whether you implement them depends very much on the circumstances. Hide the passports. Befriend her travel agent, who may tell you if she’s making an airline reservation. Consult her friends. Suggest counseling. Have a plan to call the police and alert the border guards if you discover that she has taken the kids.
If you’re overseas and pregnant, and not 100% confident that you’ll always want to live in the overseas country, consider very seriously getting out of there now. If your baby is born overseas, whether in Sweden or Saudi Arabia, the child’s “habitual residence” for purposes of the Hague Convention will likely be Sweden or Saudi Arabia – and that can create terrible problems if you want to take your baby “back home.”
Don’t assume that the local authorities won’t help. So many times, expats feel that the local social welfare agencies won’t understand and that they will automatically side with the other spouse who is a citizen. In fact, in many countries the support services are excellent and you should try them. Plus, an American court in a Hague Convention case won’t accept your defense that returning a child to the foreign country will put the child in grave risk of harm unless you can show that the foreign support services are unable to provide the needed protection.
Consult with an experienced international family lawyer. You need to plan strategically but you cannot do that without knowing the basic facts. Local family lawyers may not be your best bet. There is just so much wrong information out there about these issues. It is absolutely shocking how many clients have previously been given poor advice that is often not only mistaken but also damaging. An experienced international family lawyer, who consults with local lawyers as appropriate, can give you much more objective “big-picture” advice and, most critically, can assist you in creating the best strategies.
* Jeremy D. Morley may be reached at 212-372-3425 and through his website, www.international-divorce.com. Jeremy has written the leading treatises on international family law. He consults on international family law matters with clients around the world, always working with local counsel as appropriate.
[1] This copyrighted article may be reproduced, in unabridged form if full credit is given to the author and if the asterisked information about him is fully included, but not otherwise.
The Hague Abduction Convention in Israel
Concentration of Jurisdiction under the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction: Israel
By Judge Benzion GREENBERGER, District Court of Jerusalem, Israel
The concept of “Concentration” as it applies to the Hague Convention posits that there is an obvious advantage for each Member State to “concentrate” the judicial jurisdiction to hear Hague cases in a particular, specialised, court or courts within its country-wide judiciary, thus developing a cadre of judges with mastery of Hague Convention jurisprudence, and thereby improving, if not guaranteeing, the professionalism and the quality of the Hague decisions emanating from that country. Of equal importance, a specialised bench will be more sensitive to and aware of Hague jurisprudence developments in other countries as well as its own, and this will in turn contribute to increasing uniformity in the corpus of Hague judgments worldwide.
In Israel, the above advantages of concentration have long been recognised in the field of Family Law generally, as expressed in the adoption of the Family Courts Act of 1995, which established the Family Courts in the various districts of the country. Prior to the passage of this important legislation, judicial jurisdiction regarding the various aspects of family law litigation was bifurcated among various courts: cases regarding the various aspects of family law, including, of course, cases involving children, were heard in the Juvenile Court, Magistrate’s Court, District Courts, and even the Supreme Court (habeus corpus motions), depending on the particular subject matter of the case; and alongside all of the above, the Rabbinical Courts possess concurrent jurisdiction in many matters relating to family law disputes.
The establishment of the Family Courts in Israel concentrates the original jurisdiction relating to all family law matters in specialised courts, empanelled in each district in the country, thereby adopting the principle “one family one judge” as the appropriate judicial approach to all family law matters. Of particular importance is the statutory requirement, unique to Family Courts, that in addition to the general requirements for eligibility to appointment to the bench, judges appointed to the Family Courts must have acquired professional experience and knowledge in the particular field of Family Law as a prerequisite to their appointment.
Regarding Hague Convention cases, these are heard in Family Court, and all Family Court judges are qualified to hear them. Thus, while there is no specific concentration vis-à-vis Hague cases, these are heard by a relatively limited number of judges in the country who specialise in family law, and who are therefore better qualified to be involved in this complex area of the law.
A recent development worthy of note in this regard is the administrative decision of the Chief Judge of Jerusalem District Court, in which three-judge panels hear appeals from the Jerusalem Family Court, to empanel a specialized three judge panel for Hague Convention appeals specifically, and on which panel will sit the judge representing Israel in the Hague Convention Judges Network. This model has yet to be adopted in other districts in the country, but this promising development is a further indication of the trend toward concentration in Israel to date.
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Cancer patients 'under siege financially'
Extra costs of up to €1,200 per month
Cancer patients can face extra costs of up to €1,200 per month, leaving them feeling ‘under siege financially', the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) has warned.
It has just launched its Budget 2020 submission, which calls on the Government to reduce the major financial strain being placed on patients and their families.
"Many families suffer a big drop in income when someone gets cancer. At the same time, they have to pay for everything from chemotherapy appointments to anti-nausea medication and hospital parking charges. With extra costs of up to €1,200 a month, they find themselves under siege financially, while also trying to manage the physical and psychological burden of having cancer," explained ICS chief executive, Averil Power.
The pre-budget submission is calling for a range of measures, including:
-The removal of inpatient charges, which currently cost €80 per visit up to a maximum of €800 a year
-A reduction in the Drugs Payment Scheme threshold from €124 a month to €100 for families and €72 for single people
-The removal of the prescription charge for medical card holders, which is currently €2 per item up to a maximum of €20 per person or family per month
-Reduced hospital parking charges for frequent visitors.
Marie Moran is a breast cancer survivor from Co Mayo. She faced inpatient charges while dealing with her cancer diagnosis during pregnancy.
"It was such a whirlwind. I was diagnosed with breast cancer 32 weeks into my pregnancy. It was such a stressful time for me, physically and emotionally, and to be landed with bills of €80 for each treatment session was a real shock. When bills quickly turned into final notices demanding payments, it caused me so much stress and worry at an already difficult time," she said.
Meanwhile, Gerry Carroll, a 57-year-old leukaemia survivor explained that as part of his treatment, he was an inpatient in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital for 115 days.
"During that time, my wife, Trish, came to visit me twice a day, five days a week. It cost her almost €1,200 in parking charges alone. That's a lot of money. If Trish was able to get free parking, or even a reduced rate, it would've been a great help to us," he said.
Ms Power emphasised that there is big public support for reducing the costs experienced by cancer patients and their families. For example, in a survey recently carried out by Core Research, almost three-quarters of people supported the removal of inpatient charges.
"It also found those on medical cards often don't take all their medication because they can't afford prescription charges, while more than one in two chose to pay for their child's medication ahead of their own.
"Unable to afford essential medicines, such as anti-nausea tablets, patients' suffer far worse side-effects from their cancer treatment than they should. This is incredibly unfair and must be addressed," Ms Power insisted.
The full Budget 2020 submission can be viewed here.
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MainAll NewsInside IsraelBedouin Sheikh Supports Shalit
Bedouin Sheikh Supports Shalit
Bedouin Sheikh Salam Hozeil holds public protests on behalf of Gilad Shalit despite threats, violence.
Maayana Miskin, 27/07/09 19:37
Shalit protest tent
Israel News Photo: (Flash 90)
Bedouin Sheikh Salam Hozeil of Rahat is in the middle of a campaign to bring attention to the plight of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was taken captive by Gaza terrorists three years ago. Hozeil's latest stops, in Beit Kama and Be'er Sheva, have been plagued by threats and violence, but he is determined to continue.
The sheikh has traveled to Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to set up his tent, encourage passersby to remember Shalit, and gather signatures on a petition calling for the young soldier's release.
The story of Hozeil's involvement in Shalit's cause began one year ago, when he took part in a rally for Shalit in Jerusalem. “I decided that the story is tragic, and I must take part in the rally to show my solidarity,” he explains.
"When I got to the protest tent I extended my hand to Gilad's father and told him, 'I came to show solidarity with you, your pain is shared by me and by all fathers who go through tragedy.'” That very night, after returning to Rahat, he decided to wander the country in order to bring attention to Shalit's cause, he recalls.
He first received death threats one week ago, after setting up a tent at the Beit Kama intersection in the Negev. Hozeil believes the threats originated with members of the Islamic Movement, some of whom serve in local councils.
The death threats were followed by a more serious incident late last week, when gunfire was directed at Hozeil's home in Rahat. Nobody was injured in the attack.
A local Arab-language paper, Shbua Arab, carried a column last week denouncing Hozeil and his activities. On Sunday night of this week, signs calling for Shalit's release at the Be'er Sheva protest tent were defaced by swastikas and other graffiti.
Despite opposition to his activities, much of it from his fellow Bedouin Muslims, Hozeil has no intent of stopping. He continues to collect signatures in Be'er Sheva, where almost 3,000 people have stopped at his tent near the Central Bus Station and signed his petition. Next week, he plans to do the same in Ashkelon.
In every city, soldiers, students and volunteers have come out to express their support and help him run the tent, Hozeil says. Passersby are overwhelmingly supportive of his mission, he reports.
Tags:Rahat, Gilad Schalit
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Home - All about coffee - Coffee types
Coffee types
The vast majority of coffee beans used for consumption are produced by two species of shrub of the genus Coffea, namely the Coffea arabica (Arabica) and the Coffea canephora, and within the latter the Coffea robusta variant (Robusta). It is worth mentioning one more species here, the Coffea liberica, which is marketed in a small quantity. In 2014 nearly 60% of the world's coffee production consisted of Arabica, while the remaining 40% was represented by the Robusta coffee.
The world’s coffee production
Arabica coffee
Coffea arabica is a shrub that can grow up to 10m tall. It prefers the tropical climate zone and an altitude between 600 and 2000m. Its seed has a mild, aromatic, and acidic flavour with low caffeine content.
The plant cultivated today nearly all over the world was originally native to Ethiopia. Several legends and myths are connected to the “discovery” of coffee that dates as far back as the Old Testament times. In the beginning, it was apparently eaten as food for its stimulating effect – the fruit of the coffee plant was simply chewed or eaten ground – and its consumption as a drink evolved only later.
Photo credit: David Stanley
The early spread of coffee was connected to the religion of Islam. The shrubs coming presumably from the Kaffa Province were taken to Arabia, Persia, Egypt, and Turkey in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. After the Islamic world, the coffee also conquered Europe, where it rivalled gold in value. By the mid-seventeenth century it had become one of the most important export goods of Arabia, and therefore it was forbidden to be taken abroad under pain of death. In spite of this, Dutch merchants succeeded in obtaining some shrubs, and founded their first plantations in Ceylon and Java. In the New World, French, Dutch, and Spanish colonizers contributed to its spread in the eighteenth century. By the middle of the nineteenth century coffee cultivation had practically spread in the whole world.
There are countless varieties of the Coffea arabica species that developed either naturally or as a result of plant breeding and crossing. Most of them derive from the two Arabica variants, called Typica (Coffea arabica var. Typica) and Bourbon (Coffea arabica var. Bourbon). The rating of varieties is based fundamentally on their resistance to diseases and their yield performance, but the taste quality of the coffee beans and their historical backgrounds are also taken into account.
One example for this is the type Gesha originating near Gesha town, in Ethiopia. After some unsuccessful attempts at cultivation, this type was almost completely "forgotten." Then in 2004 the Gesha varietal from a small farm in Panama won the Cup of Excellence competition in Panama, as a result of which its growing was re-started.
Image by Elcambur
Robusta coffee
Coffea robusta is the most common variant of the Coffea canephora species, which are often identified with each other, because this variant constitutes 95% of the species. It is similar to the Coffea arabica in appearance, but it grows at lower elevations, below 800 m, within the tropical climate zone. Its seed is heavier bodied and bitterer, and has higher caffeine content. It produces a thicker crema when brewed.
Photo credit: Ji-Elle.jpg
History / Spread
The Robusta was discovered in the area of Congo in 1898. Its distribution began a few years after its discovery, as it showed high resistance against infections and pests that endangered the Arabica shrubs. Its success was due to its strong growth, heavy yield of fruit, and partly to that its habitat was different from that of Arabica. It is grown in greater quantities in the western half of Africa and Southeast Asia.
It is often added to blends because it has a heavier-bodied taste, it produces good crema, and has a low price. Coffee is only rarely made exclusively of Robusta. The Kopi Luwak, which counts as a luxury product, is one of the few exceptions.
Photo credit: Sarah Ackerman
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Abbas: Israel agreed to let refugees into West Bank from Syria
Jan. 21, 2013 6:55 P.M. (Updated: Jan. 23, 2013 4:34 P.M.)
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israel agreed to allow 150,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria to return to the West Bank, President Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview with Al-Mayadeen satellite channel on Monday.
The offer was reportedly made last week, but Abbas rejected an Israeli condition which would force refugees to sign a statement saying that they would give up the right of return to Israel, according to The Associated Press.
The president said it was better to die in Syria than give up the right of return, The AP reported.
In a two-hour interview Monday with the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen, Abbas said efforts were ongoing to return secretary-general of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine Nayif Hawatmeh from Syria to Palestine.
The president also discussed veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and said there were plots to kill the PLO official. Israel has exerted great efforts to get rid of Erekat, who "knows more information than he should know," Abbas said.
Abbas also defended his doctoral thesis about the relationship between Zionists and the Nazi party in Germany, saying he "challenges anyone who can deny that the Zionist movement had ties with the Nazis before World War II."
Speaking about his own party Fatah, Abbas said the movement should awaken.
The Palestinian people, said Abbas, have waited long, and in return they were awarded meagerly. "The question of Palestine is a big question to the world, a great question to the Arabs, and a question of life and existence to the Palestinians."
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Apple’s next iPhone to support UK’s first 4G Network?
21 August, 2012 - Paul Dixon
UK communications regulator Ofcom has today given Everything Everywhere — the parent company of mobile network providers Orange and T-Mobile, the green light to roll-out the country’s first 4G network. And according to a report by Pocket-lint, Apple’s next iPhone could be one of the first devices to support the new service.
Notably, Everything Everywhere can begin offering its high speed service from the 11th of September, which just happens to be the day before Apple are expected to unveil a new iPhone with 4G LTE connectivity. But that isn’t the only reason to believe that the iOS device will support the high-speed network.
Pocket-lint points out that although it hasn’t done so globally, Apple has previously produced iPhones with slightly different chipsets for different US carriers. Everything Everywhere’s service will use the same 1800MHz spectrum band as mobile network providers in Australia and a number of European countries, representing a large market for sales of a compatible device.
If the next iPhone does work with 4G networks in the UK, Everything Everywhere will in effect have an exclusive. Other mobile operators, including Vodafone and O2 won’t be able to offer 4G services until next year, and their networks will operate on different 800MHz and 2600MHz bands.
Besides 4G LTE capabilities, numerous reports have claimed that Apple’s next-generation smartphone will feature a taller 4-inch display, and sport a smaller 9-pin dock connector.
[Image Credit: Blackpool Creative]
Apple CEO Tim Cook to hold last-minute settlement talks with Samsung counterpartRare iPhone 4 prototype appears on eBay
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Vision Divine signed to Frontiers records
Frontiers Records is excited to announce the signing for a multi album deal of the mighty VISION DIVINE, Italy's Melodic Metal Finest. The new cooperation will bring the first fruits with the release of the band's brand new studio album "9 Degrees West of the Moon" on January 23rd 2009.
Born as a side project of the esteemed guitarist and songwriter of Labyrinth, Olaf Thorsen, to keep his working relationship with Fabio Lione (former Labyrinth vocalist who had moved on to Rhapsody) Vision Divine evolved during the years in a real band who released 5 acclaimed studio albums, one DVD and toured several times in Japan, South and North America and played in several European countries.
The new album is particularly important in the history of the band as it marks the return of Fabio Lione on lead vocals, after Thorsen's decision to say goodbye to Michele Luppi in June 2008. "Fabio's return is like going back to square one for us", comments the band's creative mastermind Olaf "However Vision Divine is a band that did always move forward and I think that with his voice and interpretation he has enriched the songs and gave them a very peculiar and personal edge. I am truly enthusiast of his return in the band and look forward to bring this record out there with his amazing vocal abilities". Vision Divine line-up is completed by Alessio Lucatti on keyboards, Cristiano Bertocchi (ex-Labyrinth) on bass, Federico Puleri on guitar and Alessandro Bissa on drums.
Produced by none other than the former Stratovarius mainman Timo Tolkki, Vision Divine created what is easily their most mature and intense record to date. Entitled "9 Degrees West of The Moon", this is Vision Divine 's heaviest, but yet most melodic and catchy album ever, showing why they are now the number 1 band in the Italian Metal scene. "Melodies are the most important element of our music. However our songwriting is very diverse" explains Olaf, who adds "all the songs have very different atmospheres and can go from melodic songs like Violet Loneliness to very aggressive and heavy ones. I think there is something for everyone on this record".
Vision Divine are also working hard on putting up a new World Tour which will bring the band to play again in Asia, South America and possibly Europe outside their homeland Italy. "9 Degrees West Of The Moon" is a fantastic journey that fans will consider as the true Vision Divine career defining statement!
The album's final tracklisting includes: Letter To My Child Never Born; Violet Loneliness; Fading Shadow; Angels In Disguise; The Killing Speed of Time; The Streets Of Laudomia; Fly; Out In Open Space; 9 Degrees West of The Moon; A Touch Of Evil; Fading Shadow (demo version - Exclusive Bonus Track for Europe)
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Dr. Todd W. Axlund, DVM, MS, ACVIM (Neurology)
Dr. Axlund began his academic career as an undergraduate student at the University of Northern Colorado and Oxford Polytechnic in Oxford England. He then attended veterinary school in his home State of Iowa at Iowa State University, graduating with distinction in 1996. An internship at the University of Missouri followed in 1996-97, where he was honored to receive the Outstanding Intern award. Dr. Axlund moved to Auburn, Alabama next where he completed his residency at Auburn University in Neurology and his masters thesis work. Board certification, issued by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, specialty of Neurology, was achieved in 2000, and Dr. Axlund received his Masters of Science degree in 2003.
Dr. Axlund served as a faculty member at Auburn University from 2000-2007, where he became a Tenured Associate Professor of Neurology/Neurosurgery in 2004. He is a frequent contributor in the veterinary literature on subjects including surgical management of atlantoaxial subluxation, hydrocephalus, status epilepticus, and pituitary dependent hyperadrenocorticism (via hypophysectomy) among others. A selection of some of his publications can be seen below. He has presented material at the. American Veterinary Medical Association Annual Meeting, Western Veterinary Conference, Central Veterinary Conference, and the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Annual Forum to name but a few. His research results have been presented at major conferences both nationally and internationally including the Veterinary Cancer Society and Society for Neuroscience annual meetings.
Dr. Axlund moved to the Akron, Ohio area in 2007 with his wife, Nancy, who is a veterinarian as well, his two children, and a house full of 3- and 4-legged loved ones that were adopted over the years. While not spending time at the practice, Dr. Axlund likes to hike in the scenic Cuyahoga River Valley with his family and spend time on a single track riding one of his mountain bikes. A love of nature dictates most of his spare time in general, and the rule at the Axlund house is “be outside whenever possible”! The Axlund’s feel strongly about community service as well, with the public school system, after school programs and the local Humane Societies receiving top attention.
Axlund T.W. , Isaacs A.M., O’Brien D. Fibrocartilaginous Emboli in the Brainstem of a Dog: A case report. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine. J Vet Int Medicine 2004;18(5):15-19.
Isaacs A.M., Axlund T.W. Hepatic Encephalopathy: diagnosis and treatment in dogs. Standards of Care Emergency and Critical Care Medicine 2004;66:1-7.
Axlund T.W., Behrend E.N., Winkler J. Surgical Treatment of Canine Hyperadrenocorticism. Compend Contin Educ Pract Vet. 2003;25(5): 334-347.
Axlund T.W., Hudson J. Computed Tomographic Appearance of the Normal Lumbosacral Intervertebral Disc Space in Dogs: 22 cases. Vet Rad Ultrasound 2003;44(6):630-634.
Axlund T.W., McGlasson M.L., Smith A.N. Treatment of Intracranial Meningiomas in the Dog with Surgery Alone or in Combination With Irradiation. Journal Amer Vet Med Assoc 2002;221(11):1597-1599.
O’Brien D, Axlund T.W. Brain Disease. In Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 6th ed. Ettinger SJ, Feldman EC (eds.). WB Saunders, 2004.
Axlund T.W., O’Brien D. Central Vestibular Disease. In Small Animal Ear Diseases, An Illustrated Guide. Gotthelf, L (ed). WB Saunders, 2005.
Axlund T.W., O’Brien D, Sorjonen DS. Feline Dysautonomia Revisited. In Consultation in Feline Internal Medicine, 4th ed. August, JR (ed). WB Saunders, 2001, pp 381-4.
Isaacs, A., Axlund T.W. Case of the Month: Spinal Toxoplasmosis in the Cat. Online Journal of Veterinary Neurology and Neurosurgery, www.neurovet.org, December, 2002.
Axlund T.W., Wolf C. Atlantoaxial Subluxation. In Textbook Clinical Veterinary Advisor. Cote, E. (ed). Mosby, 2007.
Axlund T.W., Narak J. Fibrocartilaginous Embolism. In Textbook Clinical Veterinary Advisor. Cote, E. (ed). Mosby, 2007.
Coates, J.R., Axlund T.W., Dewey, C.W., Smith J. Hydrocephalus in Dogs and Cats. Compendium 2006;Feb:136-146.
Tieber L.M, Axlund T.W., Simpson, S.T., Hathcock J.T. Survival of a Suspected Case of CNS Cuterebrosis in a Dog. J. Amer. An. Hosp. Assoc; May/June 2006;42:238-242.
Carnes M.B., Tieber L., Axlund T.W. Management of Canine Idiopathic Epilepsy. Standards of Care Emergency and Critical Care Medicine 2006;8:1-6.
Axlund T.W. Excercise-induced Collapse in Labrador Retrievers. Standards of Care Emergency and Critical Care Medicine 2005;7:7-11.
Axlund T.W., Behrend E.N., Sorjonen D.C., Simpson S.T., Kemppainen R.J. Canine Hypophysectomy using a ventral paramedian approach and an ultrasonic surgical aspirator. Veterinary Surgery; 2005;34:1-11.
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Congress-JD(S) Gain in Karnataka, BJP Tally May Fall by 6: Survey
Apr 04, 2019: One of the first states where Rahul Gandhi formed an alliance as Congress president is Karnataka. Here the Congress formed a coalition government with the Janata Dal (Secular) backing its leader HD Kumaraswamy as the chief minister in May 2018.
With the alliance in place, Karnataka is tipped to be one of the states where the Congress can inflict losses on the BJP. On the other hand, the BJP is looking at Karnataka as the only state in the south where it has some chance of doing well.
If this happens, it would be a loss of six seats for the BJP from the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in which it won 17 out of 28 seats in Karnataka, the Congress 9 and JD(S) two. In the Assembly elections, the BJP was ahead in 13 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress in 11 and the JD(S) in 4.
In terms of vote share, the survey predicts that the Congress-JD(S) alliance could get 51 percent votes while the BJP could end up with 45 percent.
The comparison with the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections becomes interesting if we factor in the alliance impact.
If the Congress and JD(S) had contested as allies in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with a perfect transfer of votes, they would have won 13 seats while the BJP would have won 15.
And if they had contested the 2018 Assembly elections with a complete transfer of votes, the UPA would have led in 21 Lok Sabha seats and the BJP in 7.
So while the alliance is making significant gains compared to the Lok Sabha elections, the prediction of 17 seats is less than the 21 seats in the Assembly polls.
This means that either or both of these two things are happening:
The BJP has gained ground since last year’s Assembly elections.
The transfer of votes between Congress and JD(S) hasn’t been as effective.
These two factors have made several seats unpredictable.
Close Contests And Regional Differences
Out of Karnataka’s 28 seats, the Congress-JD(S) alliance has a huge lead in eight seats, according to the survey. On the other hand, the BJP has a sizeable lead in 4 seats. The UPA has a slight edge in three seats and the BJP in four.
But in the remaining 9 seats, the contest is too close to make a decisive prediction. Even a minor swing of 2-3 percent from one side to the other can make these seats switch.
There is a clear regional pattern to this. The Congress-JD(S) alliance has a huge lead in the Old Mysore region, where both are supposed to be strong and the BJP is comparatively weak. The alliance is extremely well placed in Tumkur, where former prime minister HD Deve Gowda is contesting as well as in seats like Hassan, Chamarajanagar, Mandya, Chikkballapur and Bangalore Rural.
On the other hand, the BJP is better placed in its strongholds like Udupi Chikmaglur in coastal Karnataka, Dharwad and Bagalkot in the Mumbai-Karnataka region in the North and South Bangalore seats.
However one stronghold of each party could be in danger due to internal rebellion. In Mandya, Sumanlatha, the widow of late Congress leader Ambareesh, threatens to harm the prospects of JD(S) candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy, who also happens to be the chief minister’s son.
On the other hand, in Bangalore South, the state BJP unit is unhappy with the candidature of Tejaswi Surya in place of the widow of late Union minister Ananth Kumar.
Irrespective of what happens in Bangalore South, the survey reveals that the BJP has made significant gains in the three urban seats in Bengaluru – Bangalore South, Bangalore Central and Bangalore North – compared to the Assembly elections.
This could possibly be because of the Modi factor (especially after the Pulwama attack) as well as the comparatively low popularity of the party’s state leaders in the city, which adversely affected its chances in the Assembly elections.
Since as many as 16 seats have very small margins according to the survey, the prediction of 17 for UPA and 11 for the BJP could change.
The strong base of the BJP in coastal Karnataka and Mumbai-Karnataka regions and of the JD(S) in the Old Mysore region and its weakness in other parts of the state will ensure that neither side will get completely wiped out.
(Survey methodology: The survey was conducted in February in all Assembly segments across 10 states. 50 respondents were interviewed at different locations in each Assembly segment, using random stratified sampling.)
Courtesy:Yahoo.com
KRPrabhu, Mangalore/Bangalore Thu, April-4-2019, 2:00
what could be expected if Yeddi is the president of the party...all candidates are his choices...
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M Squared Lasers
At the forefront of technological advancement, M Squared Lasers is on a mission to improve our world through the design and manufacture of advanced, laser-based photonics, quantum technologies, and related applications
Designing lasers and laser-based systems, components and instruments, through the use of advanced photonics technology, M Squared focuses on three core areas: quantum technology, which it views as the next generation of technology, lasers for chemical sensing applications, and biophotonics, which uses lasers to observe biological and neurological phenomena.
In particular, quantum technology is allowing M Squared to create newer, more advanced and previously unimaginable applications. Since it was previously featured in Manufacturing Today Europe in September 2016, the company has developed a quantum device to measure gravity.
This device can detect and measure atomic interference; a manifestation of wave-particle duality that matter can display when it is in a quantum state at temperatures slightly above absolutely zero, the quantum gravimeter brings unprecedented levels of precision to measurements of gravitational forces as well as the detection of gravitational fields of hidden objects.
The gravimeter, which uses the company’s novel lasers, control and vacuum systems, was developed as part of a project known as ANAGRAM, co-funded by Innovate UK and part of the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme, with M Squared contributing laser engineering and system integration in collaboration with the University of Birmingham.
“When the initiative around quantum technologies was announced, this helped underpin our own technology strategy. We had already been enabling the global quantum technology community for a decade through the development of our SolsTiS laser platform, which had been helping scientists around the globe probe complex quantum systems. We also wanted to become a system integrator, so we were in a prime position to drive the commercialisation of quantum technology and specifically the gravimeter from within our business and to position ourselves at the cornerstone of a formative global supply chain,” says Dr Nils Hempler, Head of Innovation at M Squared.
“We started off with a collaboration with the University of Birmingham, aligning ourselves critically with their hub, which is one of the four hubs in the quantum technologies programme. We began our journey in-house with hardware development more than two years ago, and demonstrated the quantum gravimeter for the first time in July 2017. Considering how complex the technology is, it was an incredibly fast turnaround and a great achievement,” he adds.
Using quantum technology to bring unprecedented levels of precision to gravitational measurements and the detection of gravitational fields of hidden objects, the gravimeter is anticipated to bring a range of social, economic and environmental benefits in the coming years. Indeed, thanks to the gravimeter’s results, quantum gravity is paving the way for new applications in sectors like the oil and gas market, where it will help detect new deposits and survey unknown underground infrastructures such as pipes and cables.
“Other sectors interested in the gravimeter include defence for both having the sensitivity to look into the ground and see exactly where to dig and also navigational purposes; if you imagine GPS is being tampered with and isn’t available any more, quantum technologies and gravimeters can be used for this. The technology can also be used on submarines, planes, boats or trucks, anything that is to do with navigation and any sectors related to this. Civil engineering is another sector, as companies will be able to see what is under the ground before beginning building of a house, for example,” explains Nils.
Continuing to discuss other notable developments that have taken place since September 2016, Nils comments: “We have also focused on the development of our ‘Aurora’ Airy Beam Light Sheet Microscope, which can observe biological material at a cellular level, so we can look at individual and larger groups of cells. This is a really exciting market and we hope that one day it will help lead to cures for neurological and regenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Our work on the light sheet system was done in collaboration with the University of St Andrews and led to us opening a dedicated office in Surrey that now has a team focusing on commercialising next-generation light-sheet microscopes for medical applications. Our collaborative approach to projects drives technology forward and enables smaller, more agile companies like us compete with larger firms that are already established in certain markets.”
With the European Commission planning to launch a one-billion-euro flagship initiative on quantum technology, which will put Europe at the forefront of the second quantum revolution, Nils sees major opportunities coming up in the near future: “We believe quantum technology has the potential to supersede digital electronics in the same way that digital electronics superseded analogue technology. We think we are on the brink of a major shift in how we live our lives and we are very much involved in this development.”
Looking at the upcoming developments and opportunities for M Squared, Nils concludes: “Since September 2016, we have been very successful, growing to circa £15 million in revenue and achieving 48 per cent growth. This success has led to increasing our staff, with 20 scientists and commercial staff being added to our company, bringing us to 100 employees. This growth in size is part of our plan to become a truly scalable business; this is something we will continue to do over the years to come as we remain committed to improving our capabilities to ensure we are prepared for the future and always at the cutting edge of laser and electronics technologies.”
Products: Advanced laser platforms, lab instrumentation and novel photonics systems and applications
Tags:BioInstrumentationLaserM Squared LasersMeasurementMicroscopePhotonicsQuantum
Williams Industrial Services (WIS Group)
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EWAG AG
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Home > Film Reviews > Bumblebee review
Posted by admin on January 10, 2019
Oh boy, another Transformersmovie and… wait a minute… Michael Bay isn't making this one? Okay movie, you've got one major thing fixed, but there's still some issues that need to be addressed. What about the characters, design of the robots, plot, effects…hmm…according to the previews, everything seems to be taking a turnaround from before. It's set in the 1980s and were focusing on a teenage whose not being objectified for the sake of sexuality? And the robots are designed similar to the animated series counterpart? Okay movie; now you really got me curious.
You can't blame me or a lot of people for having low expectations when it comes to Transformers. I'm not as well read on the toys, shows, or comics, but the movies have been examples of "fast food cinema"; where instead of substance and a compelling story, were given constant action scene after action scene set against well shot backdrops along with glorifying the military, bikini girls, and everything macho. I'd understand if people like that sort of thing, but it only worked for the first movie. The others have been overlong, dull, and even dumb. So with Bumblebee actually trying something lighter, it's persuaded me to give the series another chance now that director Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) is in charge.
In 1987, a planet evacuation of Cybertron sends Bumblebee to Earth, where a special opts team called Sector 7 mistakes him for a treat and attack him. At the same time, a Decepticon follows Bumblebee and fights him while agent Jack Burns (played by John Cena) continues his assault. Though the Decepticon is defeated, Bumblebee loses his voice and hides in plain sight as a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle.
Sometime later, teenager Charlie Watson (Played by Hailee Steinfeld) is still mulling over the death of her father while making it as a loner eighteen year-old. While working at her uncles junkyard, she gets the same yellow Beetle as a birthday present. Upon working on it at home, it transforms into Bumblebee who is without a voice and scared from his encounter from Sector 7. This establishes right away that he's not a threat and Charlie vows to protect him. So while trying get his memory back, Charlie tries to get him to stay hidden. At the same time, two Decepticons intercept Sector 7 and agree to work with them in exchange to access to the worlds communications system in order to find Bumblebee.
I'm glad to say the big changes were all for the good as Bumblebee may be the best Transformers movie of the franchise, even better then the first. It wasn't just a good movie on it's own, but it felt like I was watching a live action adaptation of the 1980's cartoon. A lot of it is because a long with a smaller story, I finally felt like that several characters had genuine arcs. Bumblebee changes and learns to trust people. Charlie learns to accept her father's passing and move on. Even Jack learns about the value in something we don't understand. The script actually understood that personalities affect story and can go through something to make something of the plot.
If some of this is sounding familiar, it's because Bumblebee took a lot of inspiration fromE.T., WarGames, and a lot of 1980's style movies. What Travis Knight knew was that the majority of those movies knew how to capture the innocence of an adolescent. Hailee Steinfeld does well at playing this kind of character (which some might see as similar to Edge of Seventeen, but she seems to have some idea of what she wants to do later in life).
The actions scenes are also improved upon thanks to the fact that their better shot and aren’t as needed within the story. Bumblebee relies more on the connection between this car and human then on the thousands of explosions that Michael Bay had used.
Is Bumblebee a masterpiece? Probably the best a Transformers movie can become. What I mean is that it isn't a game changer to this story, but it is at least really good at it. It's entertaining and knows how much to give before taking the toys away.
I'll give this four and a half old Transformers animation cels out of five. I'll be curious to see if this is going to a part of the old series (which it makes that connection) or if it's a part of a bigger reboot. I'm hoping for the latter as this deserves to be a starting point to something better. Autobots, roll out and go see it.
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21 October 2014 by Military Bridge
FANTASTIC MILITARY DISCOUNT OFFER FOR ACTIVE DUTY, VETERANS, AND RETIRED MILITARY MEMBERS!
Military Tribute Days
Knott’s Berry Farm continues its tradition of honoring the brave men and women who have served in the U.S. military, both past and present, with free admission during its 25th annual Military Tribute. The free-admission offer applies to all U.S. veterans, retired and active military personnel and one guest. Up to six additional tickets may be purchased at Knott’s Ticket Booths for only $24 each from November 2 through 21 and for $29 each from November 22 through January 4. Military personnel may also purchase additional tickets at a participating local Military ticket office. U.S. veterans, retired and active military personnel must present military ID or proof of U.S. military service at Knott’s ticket booths to receive the complimentary tickets. Veteran, retired and active military personnel must be present.
Learn more about Knott's Berry Farm:
Fun is always in season at Knott’s Berry Farm! With dozens of rides, shows and attractions in five themed areas, there is something for everyone at Knott’s. Splash down the Timber Mountain Log Ride, featuring new scenes, thrills, and special effects. The new Boardwalk area offers three rides for the whole family and Xcelerator, which launches riders 82 miles per hour in less than three seconds! Stroll the streets of the Old West Ghost Town® where you’ll meet its many residents – but look out for bandits! Camp Snoopy, home of the PEANUTS gang, will round out your day with pint-sized adventures in a High Sierra setting.
Contact Knott's Berry Farm:
8039 Beach Boulevard Buena Park, California 90620
Visit Knott's Berry Farm website to learn more
Bridge Church
BRIDGE CHURCH is a contemporary and energetic church with a vision to reach those separated from Go...
Bar Louie is an eclectic urban bar and eatery made famous for their handcrafted signature martinis....
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EU fines Google record €4.3bn over Android app dominance
Google has been fined €4.34bn (£3.8bn) by the EU for abusing its control of the Android operating system by forcing vendors to pre-install its apps.
The fine is the largest penalty ever imposed by the European Commission and comes as the web giant is already fighting a previous record fine of €2.4bn (£2.2bn) for using Search to give its own online shopping service an illegal advantage.
Google Search is pre-installed as the default web search service on most Android devices sold in Europe, closing off ways for rival search engines to access the market according to the EU ruling.
This happened because Google gave companies financial incentives to pre-install its apps which also prohibited them from making alternative devices using competing operating systems.
The EU’s competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Google was in breach of competition law barring companies from exploiting their market dominance.
“Google must now bring the conduct effectively to an end within 90 days or face penalty payments of up to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet, Google’s parent company,” the EU said.
Google plans to appeal against the decision.
“Android has created more choice for everyone, not less. A vibrant ecosystem, rapid innovation, and lower prices are classic hallmarks of robust competition,” said a spokesperson for the company.
The EU’s competition office, which has earned a reputation under Ms Vestager for tackling American technology giants, also has an ongoing investigation into Google’s advertising business AdSense.
Android is the most widely used mobile OS in the world, installed on roughly 76% of all smartphones, including those manufactured by Samsung, Sony and Huawei.
Google Search is also the most widely used search engine in the world, performing roughly 95% of all searches despite the efforts of competing services such as Bing and DuckDuckGo.
Calls to extend the ruling from the EU to the US competition regulators have followed the announcement of the fine.
Ads, Content, Mobile, Regulation, Search advertising, Android, apps, Europe, Google
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Disaccharide
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Sucrose, a common disaccharide, composed of one glucose molecule (left) and one fructose molecule (right).
A disaccharide is a type of carbohydrate consisting of two monosaccharides (simple sugars) linked together by covalent bonds. Common nutritionally important disaccharides are sucrose, lactose, and maltose.
Disaccharide is one of the four basic categories of carbohydrates, the others being monosaccharide, oligosaccharide, and polysaccharide. Monosaccharides, such as glucose, are the monomers out of which disaccharides are constructed.
While the disaccharides sucrose, lactose, maltose, and cellobiose have the same chemical formula, C12H22O11, and all have at least one glucose molecule as part of their structure, they differ substantially in their properties. Even maltose and cellobiose, which are made up of two covalently bonded glucose units, differ due to the nature of the linkage, with maltose easily hydrolyzed to its monosaccharides in the human body whereas cellobiose cannot be digested. This reveals not only a complex coordination in nature, but also reflects on the diversity in creation.
The general chemical formula for carbohydrates, C(H2O), gives the relative proportions of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in a monosaccharide (the proportion of these atoms are 1:2:1). In disaccharides (and oligosaccharides and polysaccharides), the molar proportions deviate slightly from the general formula because two hydrogens and one oxygen are lost during each of the condensation reactions that forms them. These carbohydrates have the general formula Cn(H2O)m.
1 Overview and formation
3 Common disaccharides
Overview and formation
Carbohydrates are a class of biological molecules that contain primarily carbon (C) atoms flanked by hydrogen (H) atoms and hydroxyl (OH) groups (H-C-OH).
The four categories of carbohydrates are classified by their number of sugar units:
Monosaccharides (mono- "one," saccharide- "sugar") are the monomers (small molecules that may bond chemically to form a polymer) out of which larger carbohydrates are constructed. Monosaccharides such as glucose, ribose, and fructose are simple sugars.
Disaccharides (di-"two"), such as sucrose and lactose, are two monosaccharides linked together by covalent bonds.
Oligosaccharides (oligo- "several") are made up of from three to 20 monosaccharides.
Polysaccharides (poly- "many") are large polymers composed of hundreds or thousands of monosaccharides. Starch, glycogen, and cellulose are polysaccharides.
In other words, the repeating units of disaccharides (and oligosaccharides and polysaccharides) are simple sugars called monosaccharides.
There are two categories of monosaccharides: aldosugars, with a terminal carbonyl group (a carbon atom double-bonded to an oxygen atom), and ketosugars, with an internal carbonyl group typically on the second carbon atom. Within these two groups, sugars are named according to the number of carbon atoms they contain. Sugars that have between three and seven carbon atoms are termed triose (three carbons), tetrose (four carbons), pentose (five carbons), hexose (six carbons), or heptose (seven carbons). Among the monosaccarides, glucose is an aldohexose, fructose is a ketohexose, and ribose is an aldopentose. Each carbon atom that supports a hydroxyl group (except for the first and last) is optically active, allowing a number of different carbohydrates with the same basic structure. For instance, galactose is an aldohexose but has different properties from glucose because the atoms are arranged differently.
When two monosaccharides are combined, such as glucose with glucose or glucose with fructose, a disaccharide is the result. As the two sugars are joined together, a molecule of water is removed. For example, milk sugar (lactose) is made from glucose and galactose whereas cane sugar (sucrose) is made from glucose and fructose. The two monosaccharides are bonded via a dehydration reaction (also called a condensation reaction) that leads to the loss of the molecule of water.
Three common disaccharides, and nutritionally important, are sucrose, lactose, and maltose. Each of these has the same chemical formula (C12H22O11) and each has at least one glucose unit as part of their structure.
That is, the aldohexose D-glucose, the single most common monosaccharide, represented by the formula C6H12O6, occurs not only as the free monosaccharide, but also in disaccharides. The bond that link the two units covalently is called a glycosidic bond—a functional group that joins a carbohydrate (sugar) molecule to an alcohol, which may be another carbohydrate. This is what forms by the condensation reaction in which there is a loss of hydrogen (H) from one molecule and a hydroxyl group (OH) from the other. The resulting glycosidic bond is the characteristic linkage between sugars.
Maltose, pictured here, has an α-linkage, the OH group of carbon 1 on the first glucose points downwards. Cellobiose has a β-linkage, the OH group of carbon 1 on the first glucose points upwards.
Maltose links two glucose units by an α(1→4) glycosidic linkage, that is, a glycosidic bond forms between carbon one of the first glucose molecule and carbon four of the second glucose molecule. (The carbons of glucose are numbered beginning with the more oxidized end of the molecule, the carbonyl group.) Lactose (milk sugar) involves glucose and galactose bonded through a β1-4 glycosidic linkage. Sucrose (common table sugar) consists of a glucose and a fructose joined by a glycosidic bond between carbon atom one of the glucose unit and carbon atom two of the fructose unit.
Although the disaccharide maltose contains two glucose molecules, it is not the only disaccharide that can be made from two glucoses. When glucose molecules form a glycosidic bond, the linkage will be one of two types, α or β, depending on whether the molecule that bonds its carbon one is an α-glucose or β-glucose. An α-linkage with carbon four of a second glucose molecule results in maltose, whereas a β-linkage results in cellobiose. Although maltose and cellobiose are disaccharide isomers, both having the formula C12H22O11, they are different compounds with different properties. For example, maltose can be hydrolyzed to its monosaccharides in the human body where as cellobiose cannot. Some organisms have the capacity to break down cellobiose.
In other words, the glycosidic bond can be formed between any hydroxyl group on the component monosaccharide. So, even if both component sugars are the same (e.g., glucose), different bond combinations (regiochemistry) and stereochemistry (alpha- or beta-) result in disaccharides that are diastereoisomers with different chemical and physical properties.
Depending on the monosaccharide constituents, disaccharides are sometimes crystalline, sometimes water-soluble, and sometimes sweet-tasting.
Common disaccharides
Disaccharide Unit 1 Unit 2 Bond Disaccharidase
Sucrose (table sugar, cane sugar, saccharose, or beet sugar) glucose fructose α(1→2) sucrase
Lactose (milk sugar) galactose glucose β(1→4) lactase
Maltose glucose glucose α(1→4) maltase
Trehalose glucose glucose α(1→1)α trehalase
Cellobiose glucose glucose β(1→4) cellobiase
Maltose and cellobiose are hydrolysis products of the polysaccharides, starch and cellulose, respectively.
Becker, W. M., L. J. Kleinsmith, and J. Hardin. The World of the Cell. San Francisco: Benjamin Cummings, 2006. ISBN 0805346805
Bender, D. A., and A. E. Bender. A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0198609612
King, M. W. Disaccharides Indiana State University, 2006. Retrieved June 30, 2007.
Purves, W. K., G. H. Orians, and H. C. Heller. Life, The Science of Biology. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, 2004. OCLC 76768203
Disaccharide history
History of "Disaccharide"
Retrieved from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Disaccharide&oldid=989970
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Talk:2005/05/04 Denver, CO
Does anybody remember the song that Trent said they would never play live again? I was at that show and I could have sworn it was "All the love in the world" and I don't seem to remember them playing "home". -Rkturbo (Dave)
The only song that I have heard of Trent saying that about is in fact All The Love In The World... However, no one has verified that it was played, and all of the rough set lists around don't have that anywhere... So I don't know if this is credible enough :( Jgrizzy89 17:55, 12 April 2007 (PDT)
Retrieved from "http://www.nin.wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2005/05/04_Denver,_CO&oldid=9929"
This page was last modified on 12 April 2007, at 17:56. This page has been accessed 1,935 times.
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Toby Smith talks to two longtime members of The Tennis Club of Albuquerque.
Chuck Maguire started going when he was 9 years old. Carolyn Mohoric first showed up when she was 31. Together, Maguire and Mohoric have spent more than 100 years on the tennis courts at Indian School Northeast, near Girard. The two will be among many others on Sept. 9 and 10 when the Tennis Club of Albuquerque celebrates its 60th birthday. Maguire, 69 and Mohoric, 91, recently talked about their years at the club and what TCA has meant to them.
Why did you join TCA?
Chuck: My parents, Pauline and Norman Maguire, were charter members. They joined because I was a swimmer. It was always a family club, with tennis and swimming. I swam for four or five years when I was a young kid. Tennis at the time was considered by some people to be a sissy sport.
Carolyn: We moved to Albuquerque from Pueblo, Colorado, in 1952. We lived at first on Vista Largo. When TCA opened in 1956, our kids could walk to the club, which was nice. My husband Frank Mohoric and I were charter members. Frank died six years ago. He played tennis. Oh, he wasn’t a champion; he just liked the game. He’d play with the guys, Frank Marberry, Bill Thompson, and others on weekday mornings. It was a fun group. Everyone loved Frank and his silly jokes. I first picked up a racket when I was 8 years old. We lived in Salt Lake City then and there was a park with tennis courts across the street.
Carolyn: Four couples played on Sunday afternoons. Frank and me, Phyllis and Frank Marberry, Bill and Pris Thompson, and Chuck and Mary Mayer. My Frank was in the Battle of the Bulge. One fourth of all casualties in World War II happened in that battle. I used to tell my kids they were lucky to be here.
Chuck: My younger brother, Dick, was a pretty good tennis player. But you don’t let your little brother beat you. My matches with him as a kid made me fall in love with tennis. I really got serious about tennis when I was 16. I played for Highland High School and graduated in 1965. We won state that year I graduated, for the fourteenth or fifteenth time, I think.
Do you two still play tennis?
Carolyn: I continue to play doubles on Friday mornings. Eight a.m. or 8:30. Phyllis Marberry was my doubles partner for years. When we were 50, we won the 50s Southwest. I used to be on league teams, but not anymore. I play doubles with Peg Heffernan, who is 70. Barb Chase who is 65. Peggy DeGrazio. Sometimes Roxanne Guerra and Vera Watson come as a sub, They’re all in their 60s. I have a pretty good placement on my shots. I’m not a strong player; I’m like a good 3.0. My serve needs some work. I’m taking some serving lessons from Amy (Badger). I was not a swimmer, but my sons Scott and Mike were. They were on the TCA swim team and each won a state championship. Scott in backstroke, Mike in breaststroke. Our daughter Shawne swam, too. She won the all-around city championship for her age group.
Chuck: I continue to hit with a lot of different people at TCA. It’s always been family-oriented. The club was always making the social pages of the Journal and the Tribune, but it was never a snooty place. TCA started as a member-owned club and it still is to this day. Some years ago we had a ceiling on membership of 200. That’s long gone now. So is a waiting list to become a member. TCA is super-friendly and welcomes anyone.
Carolyn: As much as I like tennis, I did other things at TCA. Through the years I helped with dinners and served on a lot of club committees. I’ve been a fill-in on bridge games at the club.
Chuck: I learned how to string rackets from Joe Ferguson and Dennis Dellinger at the club. Both worked in the pro shop here for a time. I went to college first at Eastern New Mexico and transferred to California, Berkeley. I went to study architecture. I got to know Dennis Van Der Meer there. He was the famed teaching pro at the Berkeley Tennis Club. I helped him with his summer program. When I was 25 or 26, I became a pro at TCA. I had learned a lot from Dennis, most especially about remembering people’s names. I was a pro at the club for 11 years. Eventually I opened my own architectural firm in Albuquerque, Maguire Design.
Carolyn: There have always been many well-known Albuquerque people as members here. Doctors, lawyers, bankers, UNM professors, architects.
Chuck: The architect for the club was Francis Stanley. He had a clear vision about what the club should look like.
Carolyn: I think at some point I took group lessons with you, Chuck.
Chuck: Sounds right.
Carolyn: I also took lesson here way back from Joe Ferguson, I recall. And with Ocho, of course. Ocho (head pro Dave Ochotorena) was here for a long time.
Chuck: I worked with lots of youngsters. The Wheeler brothers, Jerry, Ronnie and Gary. They were in high school then. Also, Woody Supple, Randall Clark, Jim Altamirano. Carol and Curtis Neeld. Their mother, the great Nancy Neeld, started them off. Nancy passed them along to me.
Do you still give lessons?
Chuck: If people want them. But we have three great professionals on staff. I can’t imagine my life without the club. When I was the pro here, I never woke up in the morning and said, My God, I have to give 10 more lessons today. Instead, when I came home at night I would say, That was really fun. Sometimes I worked 15 hours a day. Twelve hours on the court and three hours in the pro shop. I loved it.
Carolyn: TCA offers so many things now. There’s a fitness club and yoga. All sorts of events take place at the club: Birthdays, anniversaries, dances, parties, graduations, you name it. I just love this place. It’s a wonderful family club. It’s a place for everybody.”
Chuck: I can’t imagine my life without the club.
The Tennis Club of Albuquerque will be celebrating its 60th birthday party September 9th and 10th at the Tennis Club of Albuquerque. On Friday, from 6pm to 10pm, there will be a dinner and dance. On Saturday morning, starting at 9am there will be tennis exhibitions from local pros and TCA juniors. For more information, contact the Club Manager Liz Briganti at 505-262-1691.
If you know someone who might be a good candidate for the Got a Minute column, contact tobysmith68gmail.com and tell him.
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Sovereignty protest at Native Title Conference
Anthony Templeton
Townsville Bulletin 6th June 2012
Protests broke out at the Annual National Native Title conference yesterday, with a small band of activists claiming legislation doesn't do enough to recognise Aboriginal sovereignty.
Hundreds of indigenous representatives and lawyers from across Australia attended the first day of the conference, held at the Townsville Entertainment and Convention Centre, to learn about policy and legal issues for native title applications.
Despite promoting the economic and social benefits of successful native title claims for indigenous communities, the conference was targeted by protesters.
Townsville-based indigenous leader Dr Gracelyn Smallwood led the protest in an attempt to highlight flaws with native title legislation.
"If Eddie Mabo were alive to day he would be protesting with us," she said.
"Native title is not land rights."
Dr Smallwood said the former Howard government's decision to amend native title legislation decreased the chances of indigenous communities having a successful claim.
"They're paying white anthropologists and lawyers to endorse native title," she said.
"Because they removed our ancestors from their homelands (stolen generations), they have trouble proving their bloodlines."
North Queensland Land Council chief executive Dewayne Mundraby said the conference had attracted visitors from all parts of Australia.
"I think the fact that we have people that have come thousands of kilometres to be here shows the conference has been a success," he said.
"We have had all of Australia's 11 native title representative bodies here to discuss policy, cultural and legal issues surrounding native title claims.
"There's still (today) to go, but the workshops available have been popular and helped share their experiences with different aspects of bringing forward a claim."
Mr Mundraby said he was not concerned about the protests.
"Everybody is allowed to have their views in a democratic country," he said.
"There are some constructive criticisms (made by the protesters) we can probably learn from.
"It didn't make the day negative in any way."
Protester Virginia Wyles said native title had turned families against each other.
"To hell with money and royalties, we want our economic independence," she said.
Attorney-General Nicola Roxon is expected to address the conference today.
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News, commentary, random musings, and occasional Deep Thoughts about Diana Gabaldon's books.
Interview with Diana Gabaldon
SEVEN STONES TO STAND OR FALL FAQ
Friday Fun Facts
An OUTLANDER quiz
THE EXILE is available for the Nook!
Christmas quotes from Diana Gabaldon's books
Chanukah gifties from Diana Gabaldon!
SCOTTISH PRISONER discussions on Compuserve
Live Chat with Diana Gabaldon on 12/20
"The Space Between" is done!
Diana in Mallard Fillmore comic strip!
OUTLANDER Reading Challenge 2012
Diana's inscription in my book
SCOTTISH PRISONER is #1 in Canada!
SCOTTISH PRISONER on the NYT Bestseller List!
I'm going to Scotland in July!!
My review of THE SCOTTISH PRISONER
Interview with Diana at the Debutante Ball
THE FIERY CROSS unabridged on audible.com
November poll results
Notable Dates This Month
July 8, 1741 - Lord John's brother Hal wagers 20,000 pounds that "the Duke of Pardloe was not a traitor" (BOTB)
July 1, 1745 - The date on the Deed of Sassine of Lallybroch, actually signed on April 15, 1746 (DRAGONFLY)
July, 1764 - Jamie realizes he will have to leave Helwater before people begin to suspect he is Willie's father (VOYAGER)
July, 1767 - Claire and Jamie find a woman dying from a botched abortion performed by the slave Pollyanne; Jamie decides to accept the Governor's offer of a land grant in the mountains (DRUMS)
July 4, 1769 - Bree starts her voyage to the Colonies, accompanied by Lizzie, on board the Phillip Alonzo (DRUMS)
July, 1769 - Roger arrives in Inverness and signs on board Stephen Bonnet's ship, the Gloriana (DRUMS)
July 27, 1772 - Claire records in her medical journal the circumstances of Rosamund Lindsay's death, possibly due to an allergic reaction to penicillin (FIERY CROSS)
July, 1774 - Jemmy learns to swim (ABOSAA)
July, 1775 - Roger's plans to be ordained as a minister are interrupted when Brianna is abducted by Stephen Bonnet (ABOSAA)
July 4, 1776 - Ian hides a gemstone up his nose (ABOSAA)
July 9, 1776 - Bree and Roger meet Jamie's illegitimate son, William (ABOSAA, ECHO)
July 10, 1776 - Stephen Bonnet is staked to drown; Brianna shoots him as an act of mercy and forgiveness (ABOSAA)
July 6-8, 1777 - General Burgoyne's army attacks Ft. Ticonderoga; Jamie and Claire flee with the other rebels; William encounters Claire among the civilians fleeing Ticonderoga (ECHO)
July 4, 1777 - Lord John meets Percy Beauchamp in Philadelphia (ECHO)
July, 1969 - Roger visits Bree in Boston; they attend a Highland Festival, where Roger performs, and watch the moon landing together (DRUMS)
Here is my review of Diana Gabaldon's new novel, THE SCOTTISH PRISONER.
THE SCOTTISH PRISONER is at least as much Jamie Fraser's story as Lord John Grey's. It takes place in 1760, during the time when Jamie was at Helwater, and it fills in many of the details of a time in Jamie's life that readers of the OUTLANDER series know very little about.
THE SCOTTISH PRISONER is very much a character-focused, character-driven book, but there's plenty of action, and the story seems very well-paced. The structure of the book, with the alternating points of view between Jamie and Lord John, reminds me in some ways of VOYAGER (and I think it's effective for the same reason). Just as in the parts of VOYAGER that deal with the search for Jamie, and Claire's decision to go back, we as readers have some idea what's coming, we're rooting for it to happen, and when it finally does, it's enormously satisfying.
As a reader, I want to see John and Jamie reconcile and resume their friendship, and although that's not the whole focus of the plot, it makes me hypersensitive to the smallest gesture that indicates progress is being made there. ("They're smiling at each other!" "He said, 'Call me John'! FINALLY!" etc.) There is a sense of the pieces of their relationship falling into their rightful place, particularly in the last part of the book, and that's very satisfying to me as a reader.
John and Jamie's adventure in Ireland was highly entertaining, and kept my attention throughout. I see now why it was necessary to take both of them out of their normal environment before they could begin to re-establish any sort of relationship. Clearly they couldn't do that at Helwater, let alone on Hal and John's turf in London. Ireland is neutral territory, so to speak; it gives them a way to begin to interact as equals, and once that happens, once Jamie starts to let go of the hostility, anger, and depression, and begins to relax a bit and let down his guard around Lord John, the chemistry between the two of them really starts to shine through, and that makes the story even more fun to read.
The scenes with Jamie's young son Willie are terrific -- all of them. Diana Gabaldon has a real gift for writing about young children in a way that's quite natural and believable. We see Jamie's relationship with Willie evolve very gradually over the course of the book, and by the end of the story, it's hard to imagine how Jamie will ever be able to leave his son. Seeing them together in SCOTTISH PRISONER makes their eventual separation, in VOYAGER, even more heartbreaking.
And speaking of separation....
The constant reminders of Claire's absence, the way she is never far away from Jamie's thoughts (or dreams), are just heartwrenching. I kept wanting to assure him, "Don't worry, she's fine, you'll see her in a few years."
There's plenty for Lord John fans to enjoy in this book, too. Many of the major characters from the Lord John novels appear in THE SCOTTISH PRISONER, including Tom Byrd, who is one of my favorites. It's interesting to see how Jamie interacts with all these characters. His reactions to seeing John's brother Hal and Harry Quarry were particularly memorable.
(Just as a side note: Diana Gabaldon has said that you don't need to have read any of the Lord John books and stories in order to enjoy THE SCOTTISH PRISONER, but I think the story will have a lot more depth if you've read LORD JOHN AND THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLADE, at least.)
I really wish I could think of a way to communicate to the fans at large, especially those who don't normally read the Lord John books, how much I think they're going to want to read this book. There's so much in this story that will appeal to even casual OUTLANDER fans. I think it would be a real shame for people to dismiss this book on the basis that they don't like Lord John, or don't want to read gay sex scenes, or whatever.
In my opinion, Diana Gabaldon has done everything she possibly could in SCOTTISH PRISONER to make the point that
a) This is all one immense, interrelated story,
b) The boundary between "the OUTLANDER series" and "the Lord John books" is largely an artificial one, created by the publisher or the marketing people or whoever.
c) People who choose not to read the Lord John books (for whatever reason) are missing important pieces of both the overall story, and the relationship between Jamie and Lord John in particular.
I think it's going to be really interesting to see how readers react to this book, and I honestly do think that readers who dismiss it because they think it's going to be "just another Lord John book" are going to be missing out, big time.
Posted by Karen Henry at 8:24 AM
Outlander Kitchen said...
Great review, Karen! I, too, loved the book, and it's got me to go back and start the LJG books again. As you said, there is just so much richness to enjoy about this GIANT, interrelated story. Theresa
Jane Greaney said...
I really enjoyed your review Karen!! I downloaded it right away onto my Kindle but am waiting to read it. Have a LONG flight coming up on Thursday and am thinking The Scottish Prisoner will help make the hours fly by. Your review helped with the wait!
kimberely said...
Can't wait to read this! Wonderful review.
Kimberely
@unshakable soul
Karen Henry said...
Thanks to all of you! I sent the link to this blog post to Diana Gabaldon, and she has retweeted my review to all 10,000+ of her Twitter followers! Wow. Her comment on Twitter was, "Thank you, Karen! Wonderful review! <g>"
Herself is right... this is a wonderful review! I very much enjoyed this story, and will reread it... just as soon as I finish rereading Echo. I loved what you said about his separation from Claire, that you kept wanting to assure Jamie that he'd see her in a few years. I found that I had to go straight to my copy of Voyager and read where she finds him in Edinburgh. Neither is whole without the other, and I felt her absence as well. I did love how he kept using her expressions, even when they were from her time and not his. Thank goodness we know they'll be together again, because reading this story without that knowledge would make his heartache even more heart-wrenching than it already is.
And Lord John... the more I read about him, the more appealing he becomes. I only got into his series this past summer and have been pleasantly surprised with how much I have come to love him as a character. I certainly enjoyed having so much Jamie in this book, but I'll continue to read any other Lord John books for Lord John's sake alone.
I guess we're back to waiting for the next book... thank goodness Diana gives us those daily lines, which really should be labeled what they are... daily excerpts!! And aren't we lucky that shares?!?
Julie at Outlandish Dreaming said...
I just finished TCP and your insightful review is right on the money, I agree 100% with it! Jamie makes it, but all the characterizations are great (I love Tom too!). His interaction with John's family is fascinating in London - this is a whole new world and side to Jamie we haven't seen before. It's vintage Jamie - he's in fine form and I loved the way he was able to be "himself" again - a laird, a gentleman, as he was before Culloden. Yes, his yearning for Claire was heartwrenching, I felt the same you did. Interesting about Minnie, I wonder if Diana will ever write a short piece including that hearth rug moment! ;)
Lisa W said...
Terrific review! I just finished TCP, and agree wholeheartedly that this book is a part of the whole (and for that matter, so are all the Lord John books). I've always found the first part of Voyager to be incredibly moving, as we discover what Jamie went through during the twenty years after Culloden. TCP expands on what we already know, and really lays the groundwork for the depth of friendship between Jamie and John which we see in later books.
While I enjoyed the mystery and adventure in TCP, it was the character development (Jamie & Willie! Amazing!) that really made this an incredible reading experience. Anyone who skips the Lord John books and TCP is missing some key parts of the story!
Deniz Bevan said...
I agree - I don't quite understand how any fan of the series could miss out on the Lord John books.
Great review, Karen!
Well, a few years on, and I've just read SP. So I wish I was as enthusiastic. To be sure, I love Lord John and was happy to start "his" series with this book (because I naturally love JAMMF, too, and figured twice the fun, you know?) but I wasn't so totally taken with the story. I very much appreciated the relationship bits, if you know what I mean, and DG does bring these people so to life for me whenever they're interacting. But I couldn't bring myself to care much about the other characters and found it oddly easy to put the book down and be distracted to something else (which otherwise never happens to me with her books).
I'll go on to "Blade" just to see if there's something else to keep me with the LJ side series, besides the presence of Jamie. But I was disappointed. It was worth a read, but I don't feel compelled to reread as I always do with her other books.
How did you discover the OUTLANDER books?
Looking for OUTLANDER discussions? Check out TheLitForum.com!
My interview with Diana Gabaldon!
Season 4 Blu-ray/DVD is now available!
25th Anniversary Edition of VOYAGER is now available!
Trip to Scotland 2012
OUTLANDER book trailer!
***PLEASE NOTE***
This site is intended to be an "excerpt-free zone". It's fine if you want to speculate, but please DO NOT discuss excerpts from Diana Gabaldon's unpublished books or stories. I don't read excerpts or #DailyLines myself, and I would prefer not to see any discussion of them here.
All quotes, characters, and events from the OUTLANDER and Lord John books are copyright (c) Diana Gabaldon. This site is not intended to infringe on the author's copyright in any way.
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A bit of nostalgia for the olds folks: You can't go home again
Date de la conférence : 27 janv. 2018
Contexte : Engadin Art Talks
Première conférence de Pacôme en anglais. Réalisée le 27 janvier 2018 à 16h30 dans le cadre de l'Engadin Art Talks 2018 en Suisse. Le texte a été traduit en anglais par Chloé Perrin. Il est le premier d'une série de texte en anglais à venir.
Sujet principal : David Lynch
Cité(s) également : Aretha Franklin, Beatles , Jean Renoir, Lost , Malcolm Lowry, Mani, Marvin Gaye, Twin Peaks
We’re subjected to History. We’re defined by change, whether it be evolution, degradation, or mutation. And this is what usually opposes natural order to human history. Nature relies on the cycle of seasons. When humans are seen as part of nature, they belongs to a cycle too. Cyclical time is the time of the ancients. Whereas modern time, the time of monotheisms and rationalisms, is an arrow that can lead either to the end of the world, or to progress. In monotheist or modern time, nature can’t adjust to the human way of always going forward into the unknown and accumulating discoveries that shape the environment, even if it means menacing or even destroying it. In the Bible just as in modern philosophy, humans are “masters and owners of nature.” From then on, time isn’t the cyclical time of natural order anymore, but the time of technique or production. The whole tragedy of humanity revolves around its separation from nature and natural order, and from the fact that we “can't go home again”. Is any mention of nature doomed to sound nostalgic, then? Related to the past of humanity, to the Golden Age, to the childhood of the world, to a lost serenity?
There’s another way of seeing things. And this other way is related to the “broken” time of the Kingless Race, which argues that this world is a prison in which humans fell and have been trapped, and from which they must get away. With the depth of his prophetic vision, Mani gave nature itself the mission to get away from the dark bottom of demiurgic creation. Nature isn’t beautiful just because it’s “natural”, but because it’s trying to get away from a background that’s been cursed.
Mani was born in the 3rd century AD in Ctesiphon, in present-day Irak. He was raised in a Jewish-Christian community under the patronage of Elchasi, but soon took his distance, wary of the dogmatic tendencies of the Elchasaites: according to him, they were leading to an externalized form of spirituality instead of focusing on the birth of the inner divinity. He was the recipient of two revelations, the first when he was twelve and the second when he was twenty-four, from al-Taum, his double or “heavenly twin”, who showed him the fight that human beings can’t avoid; the fight between Light and Dark. First and foremost, this fight is taking place within their own heart.
According to Mani, there is a germ of Light within every human, and their task is to do everything so this germ gets the upper hand on the powers of darkness. Such a germ exists within the heart of every community, every civilization, every spirituality as well. That’s why Mani never stopped traveling in order to collect the sparkles of Light that have been scattered in all the “mixed” cults of humans. When King Bahram I, worried about the influence he’d gained, threw him in the jail of Belapat, Mani told him, despite his martyr (his irons were being gradually tightened): “Every human being stays and dwells where they led themselves. Everyone goes according to their own actions. So they go and go back again—again and again—turning their deeds into their destiny.” This last sentence suggests that the idea of metempsychosis can be found in Manichean views, but that it’s seen as the complex balance between freedom and fate, fate being the dark consequences of free acts that one must get away from through a luminous deed.
Manicheans thought that Light and Dark were principles that were separated at first, and would be separated again in the end, but that the in-between was always a moment of “mix”: there is a blend of Light and Dark within every human, every doctrine, every tradition. This can explain their nonviolence as well as their ecumenism, but also their very strong sense of beauty as seen in nature. Abu Shakur al-Salimi « describes Chinese Manicheans worshiping the sun, water, trees, plants, animals, because “in everything beautiful dwells the divinity of light.”
Considering the role of nature in Twin Peaks at two different moments, 25 years ago and today, it’s obvious that its “arcadian” (“consoling” would have said Van Gogh) dimension disappeared. It isn’t necessarily that nature itself changed, but the possibility for humans of accessing serenity through it did. In the series from 1991-1992, not only the forest but the city of Twin Peaks itself were regarded as productions of nature, or more precisely, as the possibility for nature and humanity to coexist peacefully, the human community of the city being a community “of nature”, where order would be first, and disorder second; where Law would be, for the most part, respected (as show the characters of the sheriff and his deputies Hawk and Andy), although violated in details, especially by an evil coming from the outside, more precisely from the other side of the Canadian border, embodied by the Renault brothers, and by the inexplicable (at first) murder of Laura Palmer, appearing in Twin Peaks like “a thunderbolt from a clear sky” as Marx would say.
Dale Cooper coming to Twin Peaks is the arrival of a city dweller discovering the countryside. It’s a discovery of Paradise lost, which can be heard in his talk with judge Clinton Sterwood in episode 12, when the judge asks Cooper what he thinks of his small town: “Heaven, sir.” Sterwood then points out:“Well, this week, heaven includes arson, multiple homicides and an attempt on the life of a federal agent.” To which Cooper answers humorously: “Heaven is a large and interesting place, sir.” In another scene, Cooper asks Diane to check out the prices of real estate in Twin Peaks: obviously, the FBI agent wants to come and live in the countryside.
But this paradise was a lure. Twin Peaks wasn’t a heavenly place where humans were still living close to nature, in an environment full of harmony. Evil was there, everywhere, always, it’s just that people had the means—financial ones especially—to ignore it. And it didn’t come just from the outside: first, the Renault brothers and the influence of the Canadian mafia would have been nothing without the plots of the Horne family. And last, Laura’s killer was her own father, admittedly under the influence of the demon Bob, but the source of this demon was in the very heart of Twin Peaks. Fire Walk with Me shows the truth of what the series was presenting as a lie: the hell that this incestuous, perverted, destructive place is. From Fire Walk with Me on, the lure of Twin Peaks as paradise lost would not come back. The first image of Twin Peaks in season 3 is the trailer somewhere in the forest where Dr. Jacoby lives. Here, he receives shovels that he paints gold before selling them through his YouTube channel. We discover his double Dr. Amp in episodes 5, 10, and 12 (although the show of episode 12 is just an edited version of the one of episode 5).
“We're sinking down deep in the mud,” says Dr. Amp in episode 5, “and the fucks are at it again! The same vast global corporate conspiracy. Know the ingredients. Just read what's on the box. In fact, read between the lines. What's lurking in that toaster waffle, those muffins, that frozen children's treat? Poison! Deadly poisons, that's what's there. And what's waiting for you? Cancer, leukemia, autoimmune disorders, pulmonary embolism, warts, psoriasis, eczema, cardiac arrest, anorexia, body-image bullshit, microbial toxins, bacterial toxins, environmental toxins! Our air, our water, our earth, the very soil itself, our food, our bodies poisoned! You must see, hear, understand, and act. Act now. Friends, we all live in the mud. In the shit! Shovel your way out of the shit.”
He goes on in episode 10: “And the fucks are at it again! We're sheep to these monsters, and they don't give a shit! We grow our wool, and just when we're getting warm, they come along with their electric clippers and shear our wool off, and we're just naked, screaming little fucks! No wool for us! Freezing and hungry, in the night, and they don't give a shit. Then when we get sick, the pharmaceutical companies make billions. They own the fucking hospitals. Filled to the brim. They own the morgues, they own the embalming fluids, they own the mortuaries, the graveyards! Fucking us at the grocery store, at the bank, at the gas pump! They're feeding our children chemical shit coated in sugar. Why don't these monsters bite into those tasty treats themselves? 'Cause they'll die in the streets, just like us, and then they'll bloat like a big red fucking balloon. Stop! Stop distracting yourself with all this diverting bullshit, and pay attention. Save the children! Shovel your way out of the shit.”
Season 3 shows the city in a state of complete disrepair, suffering the consequences of the financial crisis, which is evoked not only by the investor hovering around Norma but also by Carl Rodd when he is talking about people having to sell their blood to survive. In the Las Vegas section of the series, Janey-E herself joins the choir when she tells the bookmakers: “We are not wealthy people. We drive cheap, terrible cars. We are the 99 percenters.”
Most of the characters live in extreme poverty: just like Dr. Jacoby, Miriam, the schoolteacher, lives in a trailer. So does Becky, the daughter of Bobby and Shelly. The police station keeps on getting phone calls about young people suffering the terrible consequences of a new drug. In a strange scene happening in front of the RR, Bobby sees a sick young girl, face pale and spit running from her lips.
The few moments of happiness in the series are sequences where characters are all of a sudden allowed to act freely. The most spectacular liberation is the reunion of Ed and Norma to Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” after a whole life of renouncing their love. But this moment is a direct consequence of Jacoby’s YouTube show. It’s a magical act of self-liberation, which is pretty much the only positive project we can have for the characters of season 3, even though it’s presented by a huffing and puffing Jacoby in irascible sermons. Ed’s liberation is the profane expression of what the series is saying on a metaphysical level. Cooper has to free himself from the Black Lodge first, then from amnesia. Audrey has to free herself from her flat first, then from her madness. Laura has to be freed from death first, then, as Carrie, she has to be freed from Odessa. But first and foremost, she has to free herself from amnesia so she can be able to fight Judy.
The color gold is important as well because it refers to alchemical transmutation, which an ex-Jungian psychoanalyst like Jacoby can’t ignore. There are three other occurrences of gold in season 3 (and these are the only occurrences of this metal or color in Twin Peaks as a whole and even in the work of David Lynch altogether): the color of the circle at the bottom of the sycamore that is leading to the house of the Fireman, the one of the Laura Palmer orb produced by Fireman, and the one from the Log Lady’s last words: “My log is turning gold.”
One of the distinctive features of season 3 is the complete change in musical direction. In the first two seasons, the city of Twin Peaks was draped in Angelo Badalamenti’s music like in a protective environment: themes both jazzy (bass decrescendo, drum brushes, vibraphones) and romantic (synthetic violins, glittering piano) gave the sequences a familiar tone. In season 3, the silence accompanying most of the scenes gives the whole thing a much drier atmosphere. The return of a theme is always some kind of a breach, a memory both unexpected and dramatic: in episode 4, Laura Palmer’s theme makes a blaring appearance when Bobby discovers her picture. He burst into tears, and says: “Brings back some memories.” The theme of the last episode (“Dark Mood Woods”) can be heard when Hawk looks at the circle of the twelve sycamores, the theme of the series when Cooper wakes up from his coma and comes back to his youthful character, and lastly, “Audrey’s Dance” when, in a dream-like scene, Audrey, who just stepped in the Roadhouse looking for Billy (whom she’ll never find) is invited to dance by herself. The return of all these themes says only one thing: the past will never come back. Just like Gordon Cole discovering the doppelgänger instead of his agent Cooper, we should be warned that “Something is very wrong” and that we weren’t greeted properly. The subject of season 3 is the impossibility of going back to Twin Peaks unless we are willing to be met by the evil twin of the town instead of our beloved Twin Peaks. On a wider scale, it’s about the impossibility of moving back into the world. The impossibility to find back nature, the world, human community, life itself. Except for the fact that this paradise lost was actually an artificial paradise. In fact, since Fire Walk with Me, David Lynch destroyed the town of Twin Peaks as a pseudo-heaven by putting the viewer through the last days of Laura Palmer. Season 3 is replaying this idea and giving it a wider scope. Twin Peaks is a paradise lost twice, but also the story of Laura Palmer alive twice.
The pseudo-heaven of Twin Peaks that the viewers loved so much in the first two seasons will never come back: whether it be because of the accumulation of convoluted, hard to connect side-stories, the town itself where we never spend enough time per episode to really settle, the music that never appears long enough to get back its osmotic quality, and of course the constant play on the viewer’s patience, who has to wait 16 episodes before seeing good old Cooper, and 17 to see good old Cooper in good old Twin Peaks—just before he leaves it again. We’ll find this pseudo-heaven in the most unlikely place, though: the artificial world of Las Vegas. But it’s only there as a lure. The lightness and playfulness of these sequences shouldn’t fool us on the nature of what is actually shown: this world only considers itself happy because of the quantity of money that can be made there. In that sense, this world is Judy’s, at least as much as the world from the last episode.
During Cooper’s adventures in Las Vegas, the only reason he makes people happy is that he gives them money. The Mitchum brothers—that Cooper regards as “hearts of gold”—are mobsters, criminals living from the money they make in their casino, which means from the poverty they inflict to other people. Their casino isn’t called the “Silver Mustang” for nothing: the horse is a symbol of Judy. During their first appearance, they smash one of their employee’s face because he made them lose some money, and they’re always with three silent, lethargic escorts that seem to live in a state of happiness as fake as the brothers’ kindness: they look like three junkies. Even the old lady to which Cooper brings happiness by helping her pick the right slot machine is reunited with her son… who left her in the first place because she was poor! Finally, the happy end Cooper provides Janey-E and Sonny-Jim takes the shape of a tulpa, a being without any natural will, almost an automaton. On top of that, strange detail: red balloons similar to the ones of Sonny-Jim’s birthday party can be found everywhere; on the square in front of the Lucky 7 building, and in the house where a child lives with his drugged-out mother. The artificial happiness shown in these Vegas sequences evokes the artificial happiness of the first Twin Peaks, and these red balloons are obviously the ones Dr. Amp is talking about in his YouTube videos. Las Vegas is the artificial paradise that the viewer is dreaming about when he gets distracted with all this diverting bullshit instead of “saving the children”, and it shouldn’t be regarded as anything else. Seen as it really is, this happiness looks horrifying. Let’s free ourselves of the shit we have in our eyes: that’s what the season 3 of Twin Peaks is actually saying.
The goal of this season isn’t to go back to some kind of paradise lost, but to show the world of Twin Peaks as the place of a fight between Light and Dark. It is the boxing match that Sarah Palmer is watching on a loop in episode 13, with the boxers replaying the same fight over and over again, the one with the black shorts always throwing the one with the white shorts to the floor. “Round, round, round. The right hand catches the big guy by the ear! And he finally goes down, hangs onto the ropes. The gentleman asks him if he's okay. Looks like round number one and two underway. Now it's a boxing match again. Round, round, round...” The one who just fell and who is hanging onto the ropes is agent Cooper, symbolized by the white shorts. But the judge (the Fireman, Gordon Cole, David Lynch) asks if he’s OK, and the match goes on. This sequence unveils the true story told by Twin Peaks, not the artificial paradise that the public wanted and that it found back, in a truly perverted way, in the Las Vegas storyline.
This scene can also be associated, on a rhythmical perspective, to the poem pronounced by the Woodman in episode 8, that is also repeated in a loop: “This is the water, and this is the well. Drink full and descend. The horse is the white of the eyes and dark within.” A well and a horse are also mentioned in Inland Empire: “The horse was taken to the well” meant that the Ghost managed to come back in the plot, that he recreated the infernal loop in which the same sick-amour storyline could be replayed. Here, the water and the well symbolize the memory lapse through which the horse—the power of the Dark—can get in: the white of the blind-looking eyes of the Black Lodge characters in episode 29, the inner darkness of Sarah Palmer we keep on going back to in season 3.
In Mulholland Drive, Dan tells his friend Herb about a recurring dream he had where he would see, behind everyday reality (the Winkie’s), a hobo. And the hobo “is the one who's doing it.” This hobo marks the apparition in Lynch’s movies of poverty as America’s best-kept secret. His face covered in black, he seems to be the first of the Woodsmen as we see them in season 3 (in Fire Walk with Me, their face wasn’t black nor their clothes covered in oil). Just like Jean Renoir in La Chienne, with Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, Lynch starts to depict misery as a consequence of the curse of sick-amour. Diane turning into Betty and Nikki turning into Sue are images of a drop in status. In season 3, Frost and Lynch are depicting the massive proletarianization of the middle-class consequent to the subprime mortgage crisis.
The world of Judy, Odessa, is dominated by poverty. Carrie’s house has an ugly garden, just like the neglected garden of the Consul in Under the Volcano : “We destroyed the structure and the beauty but could not destroy the memory of that beauty” (Malcolm Lowry). In the entrance, we can see a chair with a trash can and toilet paper rolls on top. That’s why all we can answer to “What year is this?” is “Now.” There hasn’t been a historical time since the post-World War II economic expansion when the population was as poor as now: misery became the collective fate of humanity. As we go on breaking our hearts on sick-amours that will never save us, as we distract ourselves with the sordid tales of happiness of mobsters and billionaires, as we try to make sense of storylines that have nothing to do with each other, misery grows, and Judy’s world is becoming one with ours. What should we do then?
Stop distracting ourselves with all this diverting bullshit. Save the children.
There are a lot of musical quotations in the third season of Twin Peaks, and some of them are quite unexpected. It starts with Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” in episode 1. One of the most moving is the lines from the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” in Freddie’s monologue (“Woke up, fell out of bed, drag a comb across my hair”). But the most significant one is probably Dr. Jacoby’s “Save the children” at the end of his YouTube show, quoting Marvin Gaye’s “Save the Children” from What’s Goin’ On, one of the most important American soul albums.
I just want to ask a question
To save a world in despair
There'll come a time, when the world won't be singin'
Flowers won't grow, bells won't be ringin'
Who's willing to try to save a world
That's destined to die
When I look at the world it fills me with sorrow
Little children today are really gonna suffer tomorrow
Oh what a shame, such a bad way to live
All who is to blame, we can't stop livin'
Live, live for life
But let live everybody
Live life for the children
Let's save the children
Save the Children could have been the subhead of the season 3 of Twin Peaks. First, because there are many children. And then, because they definitely need some help. The children of the series’ protagonists, to begin with: Wally, the son of Andy and Lucy, who rides his motorcycle across the USA in some kind of naive Beat poet impersonation. Becky, the daughter of Shelly and Bobby, and her husband Steven, two millennials who are completely lost; Steven cheats on Becky with Gersten, Donna Hayward’s younger sister who appeared as a gifted child in episode 8 of the first season of the series, and who comes back in season 3 as a drugged-out, exhausted, and disoriented young woman. When Steven threatens to commit suicide in Gersten’s arms, he reaches some kind of surrealistic poetry describing the metamorphoses that he will go through after his death: “Where will I be? Will I be with the rhinoceros? The lightning in the bottle? Or will I be completely turquoise?” And Richard, the spawn of Audrey Horne’s rape by the doppelgänger, runs over a child and kills him without showing any sign of remorse, and ends up struck by lightning as he is “testing” the coordinates for his own father (the doppelgänger adding infanticide to the already long list of dirty tricks he did in order to get these damned coordinates). We also hear about the suicide of the son of Franck Truman, the town’s new sheriff. And, because although he’s not a child anymore, he still is the son of one of the series’ main characters, there is Bobby Briggs. Even if he disappeared 25 years ago, Major Briggs looks like the best father of the whole series, still keeping an eye on his son, and absolutely confident in Bobby’s future. Although Becky’s life isn’t quite successful, the way Bobby talks to her and the help he offers shows that he’s taking his father role very seriously. If James “is still cool” according to Shelly, Bobby joined the team of the sheriff of Twin Peaks, working with Hawk, Andy, and Lucy. He’s one of the “good ones” to quote the Log Lady. Then, there are all these characters we run into at the Roadhouse, who look like they’re not coming from anywhere, and are not going anywhere either: Chloe, Ella, Natalie, Abbye, Megan, Sophie, and the most moving of all, Ruby, that two assholes put on the floor and who crawl to the music before starting to scream. The only millennial who seems out of place in this universe is Freddie, the young, green-gloved Englishman, to the point that he looks like he’s coming from another series or another universe. From Lost especially, where the actors have a very strong British accent and quote the Beatles, where people talk about fate and go to a sacred place without questioning the one who sent them there, just out of trust in destiny.
And then, there are the teenagers, that we hardly see at all, except for the young girl from New Mexico, 1956, who swallows the flying frog during “My Prayer”. The only ones we hear about in nowadays world are the prostitutes of Jean-Michel Renault, the Roadhouse’s new boss: they aren’t 17 like Laura and Ronnette anymore, now they’re 15! “They are whores, pure and simple,” says Renault with a chilling chuckle.
At last, there are the children. They don’t appear that often in David Lynch’s movies, except for his second short film, The Grandmother, which is about a supernatural relationship between a child and his grandmother, two characters that could be found as spirits in the first Twin Peaks. Admittedly, there are also the short apparitions of Dorothy’s son at the end of Blue Velvet, and of Sailor and Lula’s at the end of Wild at Heart, but none in Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, and a nameless one again that pops out from nowhere at the end of Inland Empire to symbolize the family “offered” or “given back” to the Lost Girl by Nikki Grace. The scenes with children would clock around one minute per hour in Lynch’s work before season 3.
In the new Twin Peaks, they’re many. Most of the time, they’re nameless. There’s the son of the young junkie of Rancho Rosa, who seems bored, looks out of the window all day long, and is almost killed when he plays near Dougie’s car. There’s the one who gets ran over by Richard Horne, whose soul ascending to the sky is seen by the very old Carl while all the witnesses stare at the scene, afflicted, devastated—among them the young Miriam, schoolteacher in Twin Peaks, who just told Heidi and Shelly that the kids this year are so cute… There is the little girl who noticed the “funny smell” of the killing dwarf in Las Vegas. There is the group of kids who were playing with a ball when they noticed a bloody Miriam crawling towards the road. There is the child who shot on the RR because he was playing with the gun of his parents at the back of the car, and the sick girl that Bobby sees drooling and moving like a zombie in the middle of the traffic jam. There is the son of the warden Dwight Murphy who sees his father get killed by Hutch and Chantal, the doppelgänger’s employees. Most of all, there is Sonny Jim, the only child who has a name: the son of Dougie and Janey-E. He looks incredibly sad and impenetrable. In episode 5, when Janey-E is getting ready to drive Cooper/Dougie to work, Cooper looks at Sonny-Jim, and seeing his perpetually mysterious and melancholy face, he starts to cry. It’s very sad for the viewer as well: it’s obvious in all these sequences that nothing good will ever happen to these children, that the world they live in will never get better, that things aren’t going in that direction. And it’s not a stupid gym set that will make things better.
If the season 3 of Twin Peaks works on two levels, and the first level is about destroying Bob and punishing the doppelgänger, the second level, Judy, can be traced back in the whole story as soon as we realize that it’s there. Except for the doppelgänger’s quest for the coordinates and the Ruth Davenport murder storyline, all the season is about the way Judy already started to damage this world and the state of deterioration our time reflects. Judy started damaging this world a long time ago, way before she came out of the glass box in New York. Judy is our blindness about the material conditions that we regard as our happiness.
Judy is the young girl falling asleep at home to the Woodsmen’s poem, but it’s also the America of the 50s’ which can treat itself to nostalgic dreams about love thanks to all the havoc it caused, from the extermination of the Native Americans to the first nuclear tests in New Mexico—and of course, to the use of the bomb on Hiroshima—: yes, “something is missing”, as says the Log Lady: it’s the outstanding debt of America, and Hawk will be able to find it through his heritage, just like Naido will find Judy through hers (hence the importance of Penderecki’s Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima).
Judy is good old Twin Peaks where girls are always sexy, where Audrey dances in her red shoes, where Cooper eats cherry pies, but also where high schoolers prostitute themselves for drugs, and where parents rape their children. Judy is our own world as long as it will feed on the sacrifice of young girls, as long as it will need Laura Palmer dead, our hopes broken, and our loves deceived to live on. In Blue Velvet, Jeffrey and Sandy were smiling thinking about the fact that robins eat bugs. In Twin Peaks, Cooper and Diane aren’t smiling anymore. The bugs are eating robins now.
Judy is Twin Peaks once Bob has been beaten, once the temporary embodiment of evil stopped playing its part, which is to blind us about the price of happiness and about the extent of our misery. It’s because Laura Palmer knew that Twin Peaks, just like this world, is Hell, that she’s the only one who can fight Judy. It’s because Laura Palmer would be the last one to miss good old Twin Peaks that she can reach it. “Everybody knew she was in trouble. But we didn't do anything. You wanna know who killed Laura? You did! We all did,” says Bobby in episode 3 of the first season. When Judy reaches the spiritual world, even the best of men forget that they are part of the misery of this very spiritual world. It’s Las Vegas becoming the spiritual center of the world, some kind of money and drugs Tibet.
In that respect, Cooper succeeded. He didn’t manage to “save Laura” and bring her back to the Fireman’s house—but was it really what he was trying to do? Or was he trying to find Judy through her, and to allow Laura to fight her? When Philip Jeffries sends him back to the 23rd of February 1989, he doesn’t tell him: “This is where you’ll save Laura”, but “This is where you'll find Judy.” At the end of his trip through time, Laura is kidnapped and sent at “Judy’s”. But once he gets out of the circle of the twelve sycamores in episode 18, the path of Cooper is quite linear: “430”, “Richard and Linda”, “Judy’s”, “I want to take you to your mother's home”, “It’s very important”… Until the last moment: when unable to find Sarah Palmer back, Cooper thinks he failed. At that moment, he caves in under the weight of the darkness gathered inside of him and even starts to wonder what year it is...
… This moment is when Laura is experiencing anamnesis. It’s when she hears the voice of Sarah and screams. If this ending seemed so dark to the viewers, it’s because blinded by Judy and the artificial paradise of the first Twin Peaks, they may not have understood that this moment is precisely the only substantial victory won by Cooper in the whole season. It’s the moment when Laura shovels her way—and Cooper’s—“out of the shit”. The fight between Light and Dark never ceased: it isn’t a mishap of the world, but its very substance. Twin Peaks is the description of this fight.
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by Lena Dunham / Photos by Dan Monick
PAPERMAG
"My vitamins are, like, right here," Sarah Silverman moans, pointing to her diaphragm and letting out the pained cry of a cartoon baby. "And it hurts so bad -- I've never felt it like this!" She's mugging like Jim Carrey and trying to massage some recently ingested vitamins down her tubes. ("These are also what I give to my dog," she says of the supplements.) "Are they moving? I can't tell! Help me!" Several patrons of this Silverlake coffee shop look up from their soy lattes and chuckle heartily.
Sarah Silverman's pain makes people laugh. And that's because she can laugh at her own pain. She can laugh at the pain of others, too -- when a woman drops a bottled beverage on her way to the register, Silverman looks up and snaps, "OK, we can't have nice things!" It's an old Paula Poundstone joke she often invokes in a butterfingers moment.
Forgoing journalistic distance, let me just say: I was very excited to meet Sarah Silverman. Ever since the 2004 viral video in which she demanded that Santa Claus "give the Jew girl toys," she has been, quite frankly, my friend in my head. This one-sided kinship was only strengthened by her 2005 film Jesus Is Magic and her Comedy Central pseudo-sitcom The Sarah Silverman Program, which just finished its third season. Following her on Twitter has provided daily doses of the impish and controversial comic stylings that, to this girl's mind, paved the way for a plethora of comic female voices unapologetically tackling issues like sex, race and bodily (mal)functions.
Her heady brew of keen social commentary, broad bathroom humor and the exorcism of personal demons is fully on display in her latest venture, The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, a collection of personal essays that hit shelves last month. (Silverman famously suffered from the titular malady well into her teens, a reality she discussed in a startlingly open, and bravely unfunny, interview with Katie Couric in 2008.)
"I've been asked to do a book a bunch of times because I'm a comic and once you hit any kind of level with that, it's an easy book. But I never felt like I had a book in me. Until this time. I have a new perspective that comes from getting older and I thought, 'I have a book in me.'" The resultant tome, she says, "is all true, unless there's something that's clearly all lies."
So how did this master-tweeter -- a recent favorite: "I don't wanna be 'THAT GUY' exists exclusively as the precursor to being 'that guy'" -- take to long-form writing? "There is so much to unlearn," she says. "As a comic you're used to boiling every idea down to the nut. In the beginning I wrote with such a furrowed brow, the way I thought writers should write. I had to throw a lot of that away." With none of the audience give-and-take, "writing is so lonely" she says of the slog, which brought her eight months over deadline. "You learn to give yourself rewards every time you make any kind of stride. Like, 'Oh, I deserve a nap.'"
In a world where the same celebrity will release a sex tape and then say, "No comment," Silverman's ability to lay herself bare with class and composure borders on revolutionary. She's clearly at ease with her past, but how did the subjects of her book feel about their depictions? "I didn't betray anyone," she says. "I think you can make something interesting without being like [she assumes a tragic martyr's voice], 'This person did this to me!'" The book focuses mainly on Silverman's early life in New Hampshire, essentially bypassing her time in Hollywood and last year's much-discussed breakup with longtime boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel (to whom she once famously sang, "I'm fucking Matt Damon.") But she did detail the loss of her virginity at age 19 at the hands of an older comic. Silverman sent the chapter to the fellow, now married, to get his blessing. Then, in a meta-move, she chose to include the resultant email back-and-forth as an epilogue to the tale.
Silverman has used her singular, bawdy brand of humor to conquer screens both big and small, the Internet and now the written word. So prior to our meeting, the question that continually arose from my equally Silverman-smitten girlfriends was: "Will she be funny in person?"
The answer becomes clear mid-interview, when a mustachioed guy on a skateboard passes by and flashes the peace sign. He's working on Silverman's cover shoot that's about to begin around the corner in a Warholian warehouse space. She assumes a hipster drawl: "I get it, you're really fucking cool. Let me guess you do coke ironically." She slaps a hand over her mouth. "I shouldn't! It's just my insecurity. This neighborhood is too cool for me. I live in an old-people neighborhood. My building, my neighbors -- all old people. I pass them on the tennis court with my dog and heckle them."
If L.A. is still slightly alien, it's because Silverman's formative years as a comic were spent in New York. "I still think of myself as a New Yorker, even though I moved there when I was 18 and moved here when I was 24," she says, wistfully recalling her East Village walkup. "I love my life in L.A., but I love New York like a person," she says, clutching her breast.
That said, Silverman has an actual person to love these days; and for that she can thank the modern marvel known as Twitter. "I have friends who were mocking me, like, 'Oh, you do Twitter? Why don't you go tweet something?' You're right, guys, don't embrace any new technology creatively. That would be so gay." She gets serious. "Don't you feel a responsibility on some level to embrace all forms of technology that you can be creative with? Why would you not do that? How is that not cool?"
And Twitter is how she first noticed now-boyfriend Alec Sulkin, a former standup and current writer and producer of Family Guy. "I didn't know him but I followed [him on Twitter] and thought he was so funny. So I direct messaged him and said, 'You're funny.'" They continued direct messaging (a form that is also, it should be noted, limited to 140 characters) for a week or so, then transitioned to email. "It's the most modern romance but also the most old-fashioned romance, like we were contacting each other through telegram."
One night, Silverman recalls, "I had dinner with some friends, washed my face, brushed my teeth, got into bed with my laptop, and saw that he had written me. So I just wrote, 'Do you want to come over and feel my forehead until I fall asleep?' and he emailed back and said, 'Yes.' So I gave him my address and then thought, 'Oh my God, he's coming to murder me,' and I was thinking of that scene in Election when Matthew Broderick is about to have a sexual encounter and he goes home and washes his balls really fast." He arrived half an hour later, knocked on the door, extended his hand and said, "Hi, I'm Alec."
Yesterday was their "13 weekversary" and she has the jealousy-inducing glow of a woman under the influence. "We've had 93 sleepovers. Actually 92, because one night [dramatic mock-whisper] I had diarrhea."
So now that she's got both the career and the boy, what's next? "There's no master plan. There's never been one. The advantage I have is that I really don't care about money. Money doesn't drive me. I own my car. After this year I'll own my apartment. Besides that, I don't want for much. So I've been able to do what I think is awesome, whether it's a video on my couch for free, or a web series, or a TV show on Comedy Central that no one sees. I've just been able to do whatever I think is fun or cool." She adds, "I have an idea for a movie and I'm just sort of waiting for that to fully hit me. I know I'm 39 but I'm not in a rush. I don't know what's going to happen next."
What happens in the more immediate future is this: As we get up to leave, our barista approaches. "Excuse me," he says. "I didn't realize who you were before. I wanted to introduce myself and ask... I just thought I'd ask..." he's shaking. "I make music, it's like Billy Idol meets 50 Cent, and I thought maybe you could get my demo to Dr. Dre."
"Oh, no!" Silverman cries. "I don't even know Dr. Dre!"
He looks crestfallen. "I've exhausted all my other avenues."
"But you have to just keep it up. Do shows and shows and shows and shows. I wish I knew Dr. Dre, but I don't."
"I'm sorry to disappoint him," she says as I walk her around the corner to her shoot. On the way, I nosily wonder whether she's ever dated anyone who wasn't a comic. "I dated a writer," she says, before pausing to reassess this statement. "Well, he was a comedy writer. I guess I've always gone out with people in comedy." She shrugs: "I'm attracted to funny."
So is everyone else, clearly, because the moment we arrive, the crew assembles around her, their faces morphed into perma-smiles. A small exotic bird named Pierre is placed on her shoulder, a living, breathing prop. "Pierre," she coos as he nibbles her hair. "Do you speak English or only French?" Everyone laughs. Because she's funny in person. She is a funny person.
Margaret Qualley, Tarantino's New Manson Girl
Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness Spark Dating Rumors
HBO's New Series 'Los Espookys' Is Trailblazing In More Ways Than One
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TV Review: A messy ending doesn't ruin a confidently character driven Doctor Who
S10E02 - "Smile"
Contains spoilers.
When one hears the word "Emojibots" in connection to Doctor Who, a slight panic attack is inevitable. Let's be honest, it just sounds awful. What a relief it is, then, that not only is the word "Emojibot" never uttered in the episode at all but the robots themselves are actually kind of effective. Written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who also penned the unfairly criticised "In the Forest of the Night", "Smile" is an episode that didn't sound great on paper but, in its execution, has become a confident, compelling hour of sci-fi television.
It's also far darker than an episode called "Smile" has any right to be. Don't let the stunning, gleaming white set design fool you, "Smile" isn't just a cutesy, fun little trip to the future at all - but we'll get to that later. When the Doctor and Bill arrive at the futuristic colony, they immediately notice something is wrong - this human colonisation is severely lacking in humans. They stumble across robots that speak via Emoji, and start trying to work out what's really happening in this bizarre place.
Unquestionably, the best aspect of "Smile" is its structure. After a somewhat unnecessary opening flash to the colony, once the Doctor and Bill arrive in the TARDIS we just stay with them, and them alone. Besides the Emojibots and the skulls that roll out of the fertiliser container, no other face pops up until at least the 30-minute mark. What we have, then, is essentially a two-hander, with Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie more than up for the task.
Bill is already proving a brilliant addition to the show. Inquisitive without being annoying and excitable without being childish, she brings a playfulness back to the show that's been missing for a long time now. Don't get me wrong, I've been a huge fan of the darker version of Doctor Who that Steven Moffat has served up for the two previous seasons, but this more light hearted return is still welcome. It also helps that Mackie is sinking her teeth fully into this character, her performance is committed without ever appearing so. She feels natural in the role, it's delightful to watch.
Isolating the Doctor and Bill for a good half an hour allows "Smile" to take on two identities at once. We have the investigation of a futuristic sci-fi world, and we have two new friends trying to work each other out. Bill is essentially learning as much about the human colony as she is about the Doctor. It's all a matter of perspective, and Cottrell-Boyce strikes that chord perfectly here. Peter Capaldi is as reliably on form as ever, he possesses such a firm grasp on his Doctor that I already dread the moment he leaves the TARDIS.
Where "Smile" fares less successfully, however, is in its final fifteen minutes - AKA, when guest stars begin to appear. It's a kind of double edged sword, really. Spending so long with just the Doctor and Bill is an absolute treat but it forces a handful of thinly sketched supporting characters into the spotlight come the resolution. Every decision made makes perfect sense, there just isn't a lot of weight behind any of it.
And that's a real shame, as "Smile" starts to offer up some dark, complex material as it heads into its final act. Essentially, the "Emojibots" are really a species called the Vardi, who see humanity as a kind of singular entity and ended up wiping out a crew of engineers entirely through misinterpretation, creating a moral battle between right and wrong all while acting as a surface level metaphor for the society we occupy right now. Killing one sad person makes everyone around them sad, forcing them to also be killed and so forth. The Doctor words it best himself, "grief as plague".
Still, a jumpy resolution doesn't give in to what is, for the most part, a confidently character driven episode. Bill and the Doctor's relationship is fleshing out nicely, it's a dynamic we haven't really seen before and it's giving the show a nice shake up - the set up feels retro but the dynamics feel new. "Smile" is fun right up until the moment it gets dark, if it had managed to land its resolution a bit cleaner and fill its supporting characters in a bit faster, it could've been a classic. As it stands, it probably won't make anyone's top 10 list but it's still upper tier Doctor Who with its heart and mind in the right place.
Notes-
Nardole's brief moment here was well used. This talk of a vault is certainly interesting, and very different to any other narrative thread we've had so far.
This has gotta be the most visually stunning episode since Heaven Sent. The gleaming white cityscape, the beautifully framed cornfield, the beautiful TARDIS interior. Director Lawrence Gough did a great job here.
Bill's immediate realisation that no-one eats animals in the future was nice, and her "food sexism" line was pretty hilarious.
As was the Doctor's "I met an emperor made of algae once. He fancied me...." Capaldi's delivery of that line was perfect. As was his fake smile. This man is golden.
Seriously, Cottrell-Boyce's other script for this show is massively underappreciated. "In the Forest of the Night" is hardly game changing, but it's a perfectly middle tier, character focused episode that shows Doctor Who's tonal range. It's a freakin' fairy tale.
The episode ended right where the next will begin. I feel like that has happened before, but I can't remember where...
The Pilot - Previous | Next - Thin Ice
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Hayley Atwell Confirms Tommy Lee Jones To Co-Star In 'Captain America'
Blair Marnell 05/27/2010
Earlier this year, Hayley Atwell joined the cast of director Joe Johnston's "The First Avenger: Captain America" as Peggy Carter, a resistance fighter and Cap's first love.
While the majority of the film's cast has already been locked down, Atwell inadvertently confirmed that veteran actor Tommy Lee Jones will also play a part within the movie during a recent event.
"I've yet to meet Tommy Lee Jones, although I think I have a scene with him, which I'm really looking forward to doing," revealed Atwell during an interview with Leicester Square TV. According to ComingSoon.net, Jones is rumored to portray the man who recruited Steve Rogers into the super soldier program, General Chester Phillips.
Atwell also stated that she has already met two of her other co-stars, Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan.
"I've met up with Sebastian Stan and Chris Evans who play Bucky and Captain America," related Atwell. "And they're lovely and absolutely charming boys. We went to see 'Iron Man 2' together and just get a sense of what Marvel is about. That was great fun."
With filming scheduled to begin next month, Atwell also revealed that she is currently in training for her role.
"I'm training at the moment, six days a week to make her a little more military," said Atwell. "And [to] make it convincing that I could kick butt. But it's great fun and I'm really looking forward to doing it."
"The First Avenger: Captain America" will invade theaters on July 22, 2011.
What are your thoughts on Tommy Lee Jones' casting in "Captain America"? Are you looking forward to seeing Atwell "kick butt" on the big screen? Toss your shields and let us know what you're thinking in the comment section or on Twitter!
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Henry Cavill wears Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris at Mission Impossible Premiere
© Jaeger-LeCoultre
At the world premiere of the 6th Mission: Impossible, a movie whose death-defying action includes gripping scenes set in Paris, British-born global movie star Henry Cavill wore his Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Chronograph in rose gold.
“The Polaris is such an attractive watch that it can fit into almost any part of my daily life. I wear it as often as possible, says Cavill, who in the past year has joined Jaeger-LeCoultre’s friends. “I first came across Jaeger-LeCoultre after they invited me to the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup Polo match. I was also fortunate enough to attend the lunch beforehand at Lord and Lady Cowdray’s house, where I had the great pleasure of being taught how to swing a polo club, sadly on foot, however, not from horseback!”
In a series of recent photographs for Jaeger-LeCoultre, shot by Damian Foxe, Henry Cavill also chose to wear the Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris in its Chronograph iteration. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Collection celebrates the 50th anniversary of the iconic Memovox Polaris watch from 1968.
An actor who brims with classic English style and is passionate about performing his own stunts, Henry Cavill made his feature film debut in The Count of Monte Christo. He was the first non-American to step into the iconic, Superman suit. Man of Steel, a worldwide box office hit became the highest-grossing Superman film of all time.
Inspired by the iconic Memovox Polaris watch from 1968, Jaeger-LeCoultre has developed a new collection to join the brand’s existing pillars. Not just a single homage to a historical reference, the new Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris collection takes the spirit of Memovox Polaris and applies it to today’s man of action with a full range of timepieces: a three-hand automatic, a chronograph and a chronograph world time, as well as two models with a stronger vintage feel: the Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Date and the Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Memovox.
German watchmaking in Beirut
Grand Complications 2016 Show in Dubai
Blooming party for the opening of SIHH 2018
Digital time display
GPHG 2017
Salon des Grandes Complication in Riyadh
Magnificent Jewels auction by Christie’s
It's all about Gold at the Shine party of Piaget in Dubai
What's New from SIHH 2019?
The Winning Watches of GPHG 2018
Christie’s auction sale of Magnificent Jewels in Hong Kong
IWC Schaffhausen and Atamian celebrate IWC’s 150th anniversary in Lebanon
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Difference between revisions of "Glossary"
m (→V)
(→N)
;node
:A single object or device in the node network which generates or modifies data and may accept input data or create output data or both, depending on its function. Nodes usually have their own settings which control the data they create or how they modify data passing through them. Nodes are connected together in a network to perform work in a network-based user interface. In Terragen 2 nodes are connected together to describe a scene.
;node list
:The Node List is a part of the Terragen interface that shows a list of nodes along the left side of the application window. The Node List generally shows only those nodes that are relevant to the current Layout (e.g. Terrain, Atmosphere). It sometimes includes buttons or other controls that are specific to a particular Layout as well. The Node List is hierarchical and each level is collapsible.
;node network window
:The Node Network Window is a part of the Terragen interface that shows the connections between nodes and their visual layout in the shading network. The Node Network Window is usually on the bottom-right of the Terragen interface, although when you switch to the Node Network Layout it occupies the entire right side.
===P===
;toolbar
:In a graphical user interface (GUI) on a computer a toolbar is a row, column, or block of onscreen buttons or icons that, when clicked, activate certain functions of the program.
;topography
:A detailed graphic representation of the surface features of a place or object. The features themselves; terrain.
===V===
B[edit]
When Terragen renders, it divides the image up into buckets or tiles. Each bucket is rendered separately, allowing multiple buckets to be rendered at once. It also allows memory to be used more efficiently.
bitmap image
In computer graphics, a raster image, or bitmap, is a dot matrix data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium. Bit-mapped image formats in Terragen include raster heightfield terrains, image-based textures and masks, object textures, and rendered images saved to disk.
The bounding box is a box which surrounds (or bounds) an object or shader. This box shows the maximum extents of the item inside it. Sometimes abbreviated as "b-box".
C[edit]
context click
Context clicking shows a contextual menu. On Windows this would normally be done with a right click. On OS X this could be a control-click or a right click.
D[edit]
Deprecated items are still supported and available to use but their use is not recommended. Such items will be removed at some point in the future. In most cases an alternative is recommended and that should be used instead.
Literally, to change the position of something. In graphics terminology to displace a surface is to modify its geometric (3D) structure using reference data of some kind. For example, a grayscale image might be taken as input, with black areas indicating no displacement of the surface, and white indicating maximum displacement. In Terragen 2 displacement is used to create all terrain by taking heightfield or procedural data as input and using it to displace the normally flat sphere of the planet.
G[edit]
Graphical User Interface, a general term that refers to the interface of any program running in a modern graphical operating system and which does not operate exclusively from the commandline.
H[edit]
heightfield
heightmap
A heightmap or heightfield is an array of height values, usually in a grid which describe the height at specific points in a defined area. Heightfields are used to represent real-world and virtual terrain in a specific, easily converted format. Most heightfields can be represented as simple image data in grayscale, with black being minimum height and white being maximum height.
L[edit]
This is essentially the brightness of the colour. Terragen converts RGB colours to greyscale by taking the luminance of the colour.
N[edit]
The Node List is a part of the Terragen interface that shows a list of nodes along the left side of the application window. The Node List generally shows only those nodes that are relevant to the current Layout (e.g. Terrain, Atmosphere). It sometimes includes buttons or other controls that are specific to a particular Layout as well. The Node List is hierarchical and each level is collapsible.
node network window
The Node Network Window is a part of the Terragen interface that shows the connections between nodes and their visual layout in the shading network. The Node Network Window is usually on the bottom-right of the Terragen interface, although when you switch to the Node Network Layout it occupies the entire right side.
P[edit]
A parameter is an individual setting in a node parameter view which controls some aspect of the node.
A single element of an image which describes values for color and/or intensity, depending on the color system which the image uses. Groups of ordered pixels together form a raster image.
procedural function
In general a “procedure” is a series of steps that should result in a specific and reproducible outcome. In Terragen 2 a “procedural” is a mathematical function describing output which may be visualized and sampled to create anything from terrain to clouds.
R[edit]
S[edit]
A sample refers to a value or set of values at a point in time and/or space. The defining point of a sample is that it is a chosen value out of a continuous signal. In Terragen 2 it is usually a mathematical (procedural) function that is being sampled.
A scalar is a single number. 1, 200.45, -45, -0.2 are all examples of scalar values.
A shader is a program or set of instructions used in 3D computer graphics to determine the final surface properties of an object or image. This can include arbitrarily complex descriptions of light absorption and diffusion, texture mapping, reflection and refraction, shadowing, surface displacement and post-processing effects. In Terragen 2 shaders are used to construct and modify almost every element of a scene.
T[edit]
In a graphical user interface (GUI) on a computer a toolbar is a row, column, or block of onscreen buttons or icons that, when clicked, activate certain functions of the program.
A detailed graphic representation of the surface features of a place or object. The features themselves; terrain.
V[edit]
A vector is a set of three scalars, normally representing X, Y and Z coordinates. It also commonly represents rotation, where the values are pitch, heading and bank.
Virtual memory is provided by the operating system to allow a program to use a larger amount of memory than the size of the installed RAM allows. For Terragen this means that it's possible to render scenes it might not otherwise be able to, but virtual memory is slow to access and this means rendering can slow noticeably.
Retrieved from "http://www.planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Glossary&oldid=12038"
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Liberal Appointee Sued NEB, Donated To Greens And NDP
August 19th, 2016 | Poletical News
Canada's Environment Minister, Catherine McKenna, appointed a four-person panel on August 15th to study how environmental assessments are done in Canada, which includes reviewing the process of approving pipelines across the country.
The panel includes Rod Northey, who has sued the National Energy Board on behalf of the Tsleil Waututh Nation in an effort to stop the Trans Mountain Pipeline.
Records from Elections Canada show that Northey has also donated $12,700 to the Green Party since 2004 and $3,000 to the NDP. Both parties have expressed staunch opposition to pipeline projects in Canada. More importantly, the same records show that Northey has donated more than $17,000 to the Liberal Party since 2004.
Northey donated more than $800 to help Banff-Airdrie candidate, and strong pipeline critic, Marlo Raynolds get elected in 2015. Marlo Raynolds lost the election handily to Conservative MP Blake Richards, but was later appointed to chief-of-staff under Catherine McKenna.
McKenna's office responded to criticisms by claiming that Rod Northey deserved to be on the panel that will determine how future pipelines are approved.
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Recent Appearances...
-Land of the Free
House Intel Committee Subpoenas Michael Flynn
[BREITBART] The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday subpoenaed retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and former Trump Deputy Campaign Manager Rick Gates for documents and testimony.
...Showboating U.S. Representative for Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,'s 28th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Schiff has served in Congress since 2001. He currently serves as the chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In a manner reminiscent of Joe McCarthy, on March 22, 2017, in a interview with Chuck Todd on MSNBC Schiff claimed there was “more than circumstantial evidence now” that Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia." Todd followed up by asking if he had seen direct evidence of collusion and Schiff responded that there was "evidence that is not circumstantial and is very much worthy of investigation.",..
(D-CA), the panel’s chairman, claims the pair have been uncooperative in Congress’s "oversight" investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
"As part of our oversight work, the House Intelligence Committee is continuing to examine the deep counterintelligence concerns raised in Special Counsel Mueller’s report, and that requires speaking directly with the fact witnesses," Schiff said in a statement. "Both Michael Flynn and Rick Gates were critical witnesses for Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation, but so far have refused to cooperate fully with Congress."
The Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Democrat continued: "That’s simply unacceptable. The American people, and the Congress, deserve to hear directly from these two critical witnesses. We hope these witnesses come to recognize their cooperation as being with the United States, not merely the Department of Justice."
Flynn and Gates are to turn over documents to the committee by June 26th and sit for an interview, under oath, on July 10th, the subpoena states.
Flynn admitted to making false statements to the FBI regarding conversations he shared with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in 2017, while Gates pleaded guilty to false statements and conspiracy charges related to political consulting efforts he and onetime Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort undertook for Ukraine. The trio was charged as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into now-debunked collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.
Home Front: WoT
Under CIA Chief Gina Haspel, an Intelligence Service Returns to the Shadows
Isn't that where it was supposed to be?
[WSJ] At a gala dinner in February to raise funds for the families of Central Intelligence Agency officers killed in the line of duty, CIA Director Gina Haspel surprised her audience by delving into details of spycraft the agency has used to run agents on the streets of Moscow. But the crowd’s astonishment at the unusual revelation quickly evaporated when the spy chief confided that the material came from a journalist’s book.
After a year atop the CIA, Ms. Haspel is giving away few secrets. With a 35-year career in clandestine operations and a U.S. president who pounces when his spy chiefs contradict him publicly, she and her agency have adopted their lowest public profile in decades.
“She’s gone to ground,” said Mark Lowenthal, a former CIA official and staff director of the House Intelligence Committee. “It’s not going to be any good for her to be out there attracting lightning bolts.”
Interviews with nearly 20 current and former U.S. intelligence officials reveal a portrait of a CIA director who has been warmly received by the workforce she has spent her life among.
The CIA’s first female director since its 1947 founding, she has put in place her own leadership team—which also includes many women—and so far has avoided having President Trump’s political allies embedded in the agency’s senior ranks.
But if Ms. Haspel’s primary mission is overseeing a global spy agency charged with addressing threats ranging from terrorism to climate change, it sometimes seems her second priority is protecting the agency she has devoted her life to from the domestic threat of a toxic U.S. political culture.
“I think that she’s adopting a strategy much like [FBI Director] Chris Wray of keeping a lower profile, avoiding situations where she’s put in the position of publicly contradicting the president,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, which oversees the CIA.
Home Front: Politix
Samantha Powers Unmasked Over 260 Americans During 2016; Soon We'll Learn Why
This filthy Shanty Irish Willem Defoe lookalike is a Deep State whore
[Red State] When U.S. intelligence agencies gather information on foreigners, often the name of a U.S. citizen or entity will be collected. Under current U.S. law, information about innocent citizens gathered in this way is referred to as incidental collection. Their names and data must be masked to protect their privacy.
Authorized government officials, under certain conditions, may "unmask" the identity of an individual.
When John Bolton served at the United Nations, he "unmasked" the identities of three individuals. In the year leading up to the 2016 presidential election, then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Powers unmasked over 260 Americans.
On September 20, 2017, Fox News reported that the remarkable number of Americans who had been unmasked at Powers' request "was an attempt to uncover associates of President Trump. She was "unmasking" at such a rapid pace in the final months of the Obama administration that she averaged more than one request for every working day in 2016, even seeking information in the days leading up to President Trump&'s inauguration."
In October 2017, Powers testified before a closed session of the House Intelligence Committee. Then Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) spoke to Fox News' Brett Baier afterward and said:
Her testimony is they [the unmasking requests] may be under my name, but I did not make those requests.
I think if she were on your show, she would say those requests to unmask may have been attributed to her, but they greatly exceed by an exponential factor the requests she actually made...So, that's her testimony, and she was pretty emphatic about it.
So, we've got to get to the bottom of that. If there is someone else making requests on behalf of a principal in the intelligence community, we need to know that because we're getting ready to reauthorize a program that's really important to the country, but also has a masking component to it.
Judicial Watch founder Tom Fitton filed an initial FOIA request for all State Department documents relating to Powers' unmaskings in October 2017, and has been unable to obtain them.
Hint: Hatred of teh Joooos and West Bank Settlements
Rep. Mark Meadows: Adam Schiff, Democrats are raging over 'information coming that will curl your hair'
[Washington Examiner] Rep. Mark Meadows said on Wednesday that Democrats are in a panic because "there is information coming that will curl your hair," referring to the expected declassification of key documents related to the Russia investigation.
During an interview on Fox News, the North Carolina Republican said Democrats, and in particular House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, know that when these documents come out it will be trouble for them.
"There is information coming that will curl your hair. I can tell you that the reason why it is so visceral ‐ the response from the Democrats is so visceral right now ‐ is because they know, they've seen documents. Adam Schiff has seen documents that he knows will actually put the finger pointing back at him and his Democrat colleagues, not the president of the United States," he told host Sean Hannity.
Democrats in the House are engaged in a multi-pronged effort to investigate President Trump, his inner circle, and his finances. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News on Tuesday that this is all a "coordinated effort to take down the president."
Devin Nunes: Mueller knew there was no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion on day one
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., went further than Attorney General William Barr to answer the question of when special counsel Robert Mueller knew there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
In an interview that aired Friday on Fox News, Barr said he "couldn't say."
Appearing after Barr, Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, was not so hesitant.
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Steele's stunning pre-FISA confession: Informant needed to air Trump dirt before election
[TheHill] If ever there were an admission that taints the FBI’s secret warrant to surveil Donald Trump’s campaign, it sat buried for more than 2 1/2 years in the files of a high-ranking State Department official.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec’s written account of her Oct. 11, 2016, meeting with FBI informant Christopher Steele shows the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded British intelligence operative admitted that his research was political and facing an Election Day deadline.
And that confession occurred 10 days before the FBI used Steele’s now-discredited dossier to justify securing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and the campaign’s ties to Russia.
Steele’s client “is keen to see this information come to light prior to November 8,” the date of the 2016 election, Kavalec wrote in a typed summary of her meeting with Steele and Tatyana Duran, a colleague from Steele’s Orbis Security firm. The memos were unearthed a few days ago through open-records litigation by the conservative group Citizens United.
Kavalec’s notes do not appear to have been provided to the House Intelligence Committee during its Russia probe, according to former Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). "They tried to hide a lot of documents from us during our investigation, and it usually turns out there’s a reason for it," Nunes told me. Senate and House Judiciary investigators told me they did not know about them, even though they investigated Steele’s behavior in 2017-18.
One member of Congress transmitted the memos this week to the Department of Justice’s inspector general, fearing its investigation of FISA abuses may not have had access to them.
Nonetheless, the FBI is doing its best to keep much of Kavalec’s information secret by retroactively claiming it is classified, even though it was originally marked unclassified in 2016.
The apparent effort to hide Kavalec's notes from her contact with Steele has persisted for some time.
State officials acknowledged a year ago they received a copy of the Steele dossier in July 2016, and got a more detailed briefing in October 2016 and referred the information to the FBI.
But what was discussed was not revealed. Sources told me more than a year ago that Kavalec had the most important (and memorialized) interaction with Steele before the FISA warrant was issued, but FBI and State officials refused to discuss it, or even confirm it.
The encounter, and Kavalec’s memos, were forced into public view through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation by Citizens United. Yet, all but a few lines have been redacted after the fact. Officials are citing as the reason national security, in the name of the FBI and a half-century-old intelligence law.
Nunes: Mueller report 'cherry-picked' information about mysterious Maltese Professor Mifsud
[FOX] House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes, in a Fox News interview Sunday, blasted "cherry-picked" findings in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report about Joseph Mifsud -- the mysterious professor from Malta who helped ignite the Russia probe in 2016.
The California Republican previously said he wanted to know exactly who was employing Mifsud when he spoke with George Papadopoulos, a former adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump.
"If the FBI does in fact have transcripts of Papadopoulos talking to anyone ... I think Congress, and the American people, have a right to know this because in fact we paid for it, and we had to deal with this for two and a half years. We had to suffer through this," he told Maria Bartiromo on "Sunday Morning Futures."
Mifsud largely has vanished from public eye after his name began surfacing in news stories.
"Vanished" as in Seth Rich vanished, or simply on holiday somewhere ?
Last week, Nunes sent a letter addressed to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, CIA Director Gina Haspel, National Security Agency Director Paul Nakasone and FBI Director Chris Wray. It asks them to hand over all information they had on Mifsud by May 10.
Schiff makes criminal referral to DOJ for Erik Prince
[Politico] House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Tuesday made a criminal referral to the Justice Department for Erik Prince based on evidence that "strongly indicates" the Trump ally lied to Congress.
In a letter to Attorney General William Barr, Schiff claimed Prince, the billionaire founder of a military contracting firm, intentionally misled the House Intelligence Committee and impaired their probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Schiff wrote the publication of the Mueller report shed light on discrepancies between Prince's interview with the special counsel and his testimony before the committee in November 2017, when he denied he was attempting to establish a back channel between Russia and Trump during the president’s transition.
"Mr. Prince’s false statements hindered the Committee’s ability to fully understand and examine foreign efforts to undermine our political process and national security, develop appropriate legislative and policy remedies to counter future malign influence operations targeting campaigns and presidential transitions, and inform the American public, as appropriate," Schiff wrote in the letter.
Schiff highlighted six instances in which information revealed about Prince in the Mueller report diverged from his testimony before the committee. He homed in on Prince's meeting with a Russian banker who is reportedly close to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Seychelles islands in January 2017, an encounter Prince later told congressional officials took place purely by chance.
Adam Schiff tiptoes away from demand for Trump impeachment
[NYPOST] Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), one of President Trump’s most relentless critics, is tiptoeing away from demanding his impeachment ‐ saying instead that it’s up to the nation to "vote his ass out of office."
"I’m not there yet on impeachment," Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Friday night on HBO’s "Real Time with Bill Maher."
"I may get there. [Trump] may get me there," Schiff added.
"At the end of the day, Bill, there’s only one way to deal with this problem, whether we impeach him or not. And that is to vote his ass out of office."
On Sunday, Schiff said he expected House Democrats to debate going forward on impeachment hearings, after party leaders came under pressure from progressives to do so ‐ even though Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not find evidence that Trump’s campaign had colluded with Russia, as Schiff had charged.
Mueller’s report came to no conclusion about allegations that Trump had obstructed his investigation, but Attorney General William Barr decided not to pursue indictments into the matter
Democrats to meet in the next few weeks to discuss impeachment of Trump, key lawmaker says
[Independent] House Democrats will hold a meeting to discuss whether to pursue impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, a key lawmaker said on Sunday.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said on Fox News Sunday that the House Democratic caucus will meet in the coming weeks to discuss the matter.
"That’s going to be a very consequential decision and one that I’m going to reserve judgment on until we’ve had a chance to fully deliberate on it," Mr Schiff said.
In an appearance on ABC News’ "This Week," Mr Schiff also said that while the findings of the Mueller report are "serious and damning," he does not believe the Senate would convict Mr Trump if the House were to impeach him.
"Now, it may be that we undertake an impeachment nonetheless. I think what we are going to have to decide as a caucus is: What is the best thing for the country?" he said.
Carter Page Is Mr. Clean By Eric Felten
[NR] However implausible it may seem now, there was a time when Carter Page was treated like a dangerous character. So much so that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was specifically tasked with investigating the onetime foreign-policy adviser to candidate Donald Trump.
Once his placement and access was lost, he was free to go.
After naming Mueller special counsel, Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein penned two secret memoranda detailing Mueller’s powers and focus. Rosenstein told him he "had been authorized since his appointment to investigate allegations that three Trump campaign officials ‐ Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and George Papadopoulos ‐ ’committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials with respect to the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.’" Page was not just tagged as an explicit target of Mueller’s probe; he was first on the list. Given what soon befell Manafort and Papadopoulos, one might have expected Page to be wearing the new black. And yet, not only is Carter Page a free man, Mueller never even managed to get him on an overdue parking ticket. The question isn’t so much what happened as what didn’t.
Poor form, arresting your own sources. Who knows what they may say in their own defense.
If anyone should have been prosecutable, it should have been Page ‐ if he had committed any crime, that is. For starters, the FBI had Page under surveillance and all of his communications in their possession for a full year. How many political players could survive such colonoscopic scrutiny?
Add to this that Page behaved in ways that would have made it easy for any aggressive prosecutor to go after him. He allowed himself to be interviewed by the FBI repeatedly. He testified before a grand jury. He not only raised red flags, he waved them: Having been excoriated for his July 2016 trip to Moscow, where he gave a Putin-friendly speech, he went back to Moscow in December and tried to drum up some business. He appeared before Congress and made bold claims under oath.
Consider his opening statement before the House Intelligence Committee in November 2017: "Whereas I have never done anything wrong in Russia, no documents, records, electronically stored information including email, communication, recordings, data and tangible things could reasonably lead to the discovery of any facts within the investigation’s publicly announced parameters as it relates to actions by the Russian government." If Mueller had anything at all on Page, nothing would have been easier than to add a lying-to-Congress charge to the indictment.
Hey, I reported all my foreign travel and contacts. I provided you copies, remember? I have no intention of losing my clearance.
Nor is Page the sort of evil genius who would be needed to outwit some of the DOJ’s top lawyers. Read the transcript of Page’s House testimony and you’ll be struck by the witness’s odd and awkward responses. Trying to be his own lawyer, he keeps making legalistic distinctions, such as whether his contact with someone had been a "meeting" or a "greeting." Page makes the mistake of talking about being careful rather than actually being careful. Being a careful deponent is rather like being a pilot with the right stuff. If you talk about having the right stuff, you don’t have it; if you testify that you’re being cautious with your answers, you’re not being nearly careful enough.
The perfect beltway-insider 'wannabe' source. Hey watta ya want me to do ....."wear a wire."
Even the Republican members quickly lost patience with Page: "You seem to draw a distinction between a meeting, a greeting, a conversation, and you hearing a speech," said Representative Trey Gowdy. "So to the extent you may have said that you have met with senior members of Russian Government or legislators in Russia, were those meetings, greetings, conversations, or were you sitting in the audience listening?"
Gowdy was referring not only to Page’s reliance on inconsequential legalisms, but also to his unfortunate habit of self-puffery. Page would take information he heard in a speech and present it to the Trump campaign as though he had learned it in a private conversation. For example, as Mueller puts it, "In communications with Campaign officials, Page also repeatedly touted his high-level contacts in Russia and his ability to forge connections between candidate Trump and senior Russian governmental officials." Talk up your "high-level contacts in Russia" enough and people might just start to suspect that you’re a little too tight with Russian officials. Well, that, or a certain sort of political operative might get the idea to spread suspicion about you.
I find the term 'useful idiot' comes to mind.
Page was in a bad enough position: Abandoned and shunned by Team Trump and annoying to Capitol Hill Republicans, Page was short on allies to help him contend with the Mueller squad. So what did he do? He painted a prosecutorial target on his back by refusing to accept Mueller’s enterprise as legitimate. Loudly and relentlessly he declared that the entire investigation was the outgrowth of a fraud perpetrated by Clinton operatives. Page demanded that what he calls the "dodgy dossier" itself be investigated.
Potentially having only limited knowledge of the extent of the Deep State operation, it is likely Page at some point, had a 'woke' moment.
House Intelligence Chairman Schiff May Lose Clearance & Chair - BINGO
[Townhall] Rep. Matt Gaetez (R-FL) on Wednesday filed a resolution to remove House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) from the Committee and revoke his security clearance.
Gaetz appeared on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" to explain why he filed the resolution.
"I have filed legislation today, sent to the House, that Adam Schiff needs to be removed from the Intelligence Committee, because how are the rest of us supposed to be able to rely on a man, who you just showed, lied to the American people when he said that there was not spying? Or when he lied and said that there was actual evidence of collusion or clear evidence of collusion?" Gaetz began.
"If Adam Schiff is able to review covert operations and intelligence, and if we have to rely on his representation, our whole system is broken," Gaetez said. "It would be like putting Lori Loughlin in charge of the college board. It would be like putting Jussie Smollett in charge of the hate crime of the FBI."
Others, including the nine Republicans on the Intelligence Committee, have called on Schiff to resign.
-12 More
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100 years of steel in architecture
Some of the major and most innovative buildings in the 20th century have been constructed from steel. It was recognised in the US, during the late 1800s, steel frames could be used to build tall buildings quickly. Initially the UK authorities were concerned about the use of steel frames in buildings but by the 1900s legislation had been changed to allow their construction in Britain. The structure of the 85 storey Empire State Building, New York, US, was built from steel in 1930. The construction of the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, in 1977, demonstrated the innovative use of steel.
Author: Cruickshank, Dan
Publisher: EMAP Architecture
Publication Name: Architects' Journal
History, Architecture, 20th century AD, Architecture, Modern, Modern architecture, Building, Iron and steel, Steel construction
Northampton takes care of its town hall
Northampton, England has a fine High Victorian town hall. The original building was designed in the 1860s by Edward Godwin who was influenced by Ruskin and devised a gothic building involving the use of craft skills and fine internal decoration. The building was extended in 1889 in sympathetic style but was not improved by the changes. In 1989 a competition for the design of a further extension was won by Stimpson Walton Bond. The new building reflects the original but in a mechanical style. The interior has also been restored.
Product information, Design and construction, Works, Northampton, England, City halls, Godwin, Edward, Stimpson Walton Bond
Immersed in history in Bath
The Building of Bath Museum opened in Jun 1992 and deals with the building of the city of Bath in Georgian times. It is owned by the Bath Preservation Trust and housed in the Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel, an 18th century listed grade II* building on the Paragon. Architects Michael Brawne & Associates were given the brief to organise the displays and their integration into the Chapel keeping the design flexible so the building could also be used for lectures. This has been done by using a steel structure within the interior.
Museums, Art museums, Architectural design, Bath, England, Architectural museums
Subjects list: Buildings and facilities
Abstracts: Big three battle for the soul of architecture. Man at the helm. Switching on to design
Abstracts: Reasons of state. The Thai factor. Aiming for the top
Abstracts: Perks of office. Amnesty upheld. Bitter's end: Carlsberg hopes to sell Thailand on milder beer
Abstracts: Think rich! The ABCs of investing: a primer for the novice
Abstracts: AJ gets a face for the '90s; the Architects' Journal has a fresh new design next week. Self-build chosen by an arts-and-crafts specialist
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Volkswagen plays down dodgy software
Embattled car-maker Volkswagen is working hard to minimise its emissions-test scandal.
The company says a small handful of employees were responsible for the software that was found to cheat US diesel emissions tests, and certainly no board members were involved.
Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch says the scandal was the result of a “chain of errors”, and it would be months before it was clear which individuals were to blame.
“No business justifies crossing legal and ethical boundaries,” Mr Poetsch said.
“Even though we cannot prevent misconduct by individuals once and for all, in future it will be very difficult to bypass our processes.
“We are talking here not about a one-off mistake but a chain of errors.
“Based on what we know today, it was a very limited group which acted irresponsibly.”
Volkswagen is working on an agreement with US environmental authorities that would allow it to start recalling affected cars there.
But despite the scandal, orders are up by 3.5 per cent this year.
It also forced the recognition of VW’s long-time chief executive and wiped 13 per cent (about 10 billion Euros) off its market value.
However, the executives said the legal cost of the scandal could take a big toll on the company, as it had made no provisions to cover fees.
Chief executive Matthias Mueller will soon visit the United States for the first time since becoming chief executive after the scandal broke. He says he will apologise for the situation, but added: “I don't think I will be going down on my knees there ... I will look ahead optimistically and confidently.”
Around 11 million cars around the world have the software installed that defeats emissions tests.
The costs of fixing the cars, paying fines and dealing with legal challenges are estimated to hit tens of billions of euros.
Mr Mueller said it was fairly cheap and simple to fix the affected cars.
He said he was often asked why the company did not do so in the first place, and claimed that the technology for the fix was not available when the cars were built.
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The latest...
The Untold, In-Depth, Outrageously True Story of Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment
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Comic Books (1348)
DVD And Blu-ray Reviews A-F (1603)
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DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1544)
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Ian Jane
Author: Marco Siedelmann, Nadia Bruce-Rawlings, Stephen A. Roberts
Released by: Editions Moustache
Released on: May 12th, 2016.
While fans of eighties action and horror films have long sung the praises of Cannon Films and their amazing output, it’s still important to recognize that Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment was constantly nipping at their heels. Formed in 1984 by Leonard Shapiro and director James Glickenhaus with the intention of producing and distributing low budget genre fare, the company managed to release over a hundred films before shuttering ten years later. The Untold, In-Depth, Outrageously True Story of Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment, a fairly massive tome written by Marco Siedelmann, Nadia Bruce-Rawlings and Stephen A. Roberts, takes on the admirable task of documenting the company’s history, evaluating its output and interviewing many of the men and woman that were involved with the company over the years.
We start off with an editor’s preface penned by Siedelmann that offers up a very quick overview of what SGE was all about and that sets the stage for the book proper to come, noting that this isn’t a history book per se, but more “an intentionally messy mixture of different points of view and personal memories from the financial, creative, marketing and distribution components of filmmaking at one iconic company.” He also notes that SGE’s silent partner, Alan M. Solomon, passed away in 2004 and therefore obviously could not be interviewed. This segues into an introduction written by none other than Charles Band, who talks the ‘Go-Go days’ of the eighties film boom.
The book is divided into sections, the first of which is “Let’s get this Party started: SEC becomes SGE” which starts off with a selection of pictures of the company’s early years before giving us the first part of an interview with Leonard Shapiro. Conducted by Stephen A. Roberts in 2015 over drinks, Shapiro talks about how he got into the movie business, working at AVCO Embassy where he met James Glickenhaus. The rest is history, and Shapiro is keen to talk about that history in this piece. The first section also includes an interview with Stephen A. Roberts himself. He started with SGE in 1985 and worked there for eight years, eventually making it to VP of Marketing Services and serving as associate producer on Moon Trap. He’s got some great stories about working with Bruce Campbell on that film. Sonoko Sakai is up next, talking about working with SGE in the early days, how she hooked up with these guys and some of the projects she had a hand in. Ted Rosenblatt is up next, which makes sense as he worked alongside Sonoki Sakai at Shapiro Entertainment, SGE’s predecessor. Lewis Horwitz is then interviewed about his work with The Lewis Horwitz Organization and how he had a big hand in helping to finance a lot of films that have gone on to become cult classics, not just through SGE but through a few other companies and production houses as well. You wouldn’t think that stories about the banking business side of filmmaking would be all that interesting but Horwitz has been involved in a lot of movies and he’s got some great stories. Last up in the first section is John Alexander, who talks about being born in Argentina and growing up in different countries all over the world before settling in the United States. If was there that he wound up working with SGE. It’s here that he talks up getting investors onboard for pictures like Red Scorpion and C.H.U.D..
The second section is entitled “SGE as a Production Company: Hiring Creatives was cheap then” and as you’d probably guess, it is made up of a serious of interviews with the various filmmakers that worked for SGE over the years. William Lustig is up first, and while the only movie he made for SGE was Maniac Cop, it was a big hit for them. He talks about working with the company on this project as well as other films that he was involved in. Lustig is an excellent storyteller and his interviews are always interesting. Frank K. Isaac is up next, as he discusses co-producing The Beastmaster and working with AVCO before becoming supervising the production of Blue Jean Cop, Shakedown, Maniac Cop, Lethal Pursuit and Black Roses for SGE. Frank Henenlotter, who should need no introduction to regular readers of this site, has an absolutely great interview here where he talks not just about making the two Basket Case sequels for SGE, but also about his work on Frankenhooker and all the trouble that this particular film involved while dealing with the MPAA. He also talks about the later part of his career working with Something Weird Video, how Basket Case 3 was supposed to go out unrated initially and quite a bit more. Nadia Bruce-Rawlings conducts this interview and as she too worked for SGE, there’s some fun back and forth between the two here. Kevin Tent is up next, and he talks about editing Moon Trap, some of Henenlotter’s films, a screening of Emmanuelle 5 and then offers up yet more info on what it was like working on Frankenhooker. This is followed by a piece with Jefferson Richard in which he talks about working with Scott Glenn on Slaughter Of The Innocents, his work on One Man Force, Maniac Cop, Ring Of Steel and the last SGE picture, Time Master. This section ends with an interview with Cynthia Cirile that will be of special interest to some of us as she talks at length about her working relationship with the late, great John Fasano on both Rock ‘N Roll Nightmare and Black Roses, what it was like working with Jon Mikl Thor and how SGE factored in to bringing Black Roses out to a wider audience. For me, this was a highlight of the book, but maybe my personal bias is showing there.
The third part of the book is “The VHS Explosion: SGE Goes Nuclear in Home Video” and the title more or less says it all. It starts off with the first part of an interview with James Glickenhaus where he talks about meeting Leonard Shapiro, their work together on various pickups and imports, working with Peter Weller and Sam Elliott on The Shakedown and later projects like Slaughter Of The Innocents and McBain. This extensive and important piece, conducted by Nadia Bruce-Rawlings, is a fascinating read as it really gives you a lot of background information on what these guys were up to and why. Andi Elliott is next, and he’s interviewed about his work on the SGE Home Video division. Obviously these guys were poised to take huge advantage of the VHS rental boom that was going on at the time, and yeah, of course he speals about that talking Frankenhooker VHS tape that anyone who was in a video store ‘back in the day’ came into contact with. J. Christian Ingvordsen follows suit, discussing with Nadia how he had almost ten titles that he directed distributed by SGE, such as Mob War and The Outfit. Low budget action movie producer Jalal Merhi offers up his two cents on what it was like dealing with SGE and working with the likes of Billy Blanks, Bolo Yeung and Cynthia Rothroc, which is followed by an interview with Jacqueline Palmiere that covers how she started with SGE as a receptionist only to work her way up and eventually work in the home video division of the SGE empire after working under Shapiro and Glickenhaus themselves. The highlight of this section, however, is a lengthy interview with Cynthia Rothrock herself. One of the few female martial arts film stars to make a name for herself in the male dominated eighties, here she talks extensively about her work on the two Rage Of Honor films, pictures like Sworn To Justice, Martial Law, Tiger Claws and a bunch more. Along the way she talks of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Corye Yuen, working for Golden Harvest, her experiences with Jackie Chan and lots, lots more.
The next section is “Expansion and The Red Scorpion Experiment” which starts off by interviewing Red Scorpion director Joseph Zito who talks about his early years on movies like The Prowler, his time at Cannon Films on pictures like Invasion U.S.A. and Missing In Action, and then, shockingly, all of the trials and tribulations involved in getting Red Scorpion made (it was SGE’s biggest theatrical release). The story behind this particular film is fascinating, not only for cashing in on Dolph Lundgren’s star power but because of the politics that were surrounding it at the time – don’t miss this, it’s a great read. Stephanie Denton worked with Alan Solomon and handled a lot of SGE’s sales. She’s interview next about her work with the company that would later lead to collaborating with companies like Lionsgate on the popular Saw films. Bob Berney handled SGE’s theatrical distribution arm at the time and was the man behind Red Scorpion’s domestic theatrical release. He covered a few other SGE release like Moon Trap and then went on to work on blockbusters like The Passion Of The Christ and My Big Fat Greek Wedding to name only a few. His story is also quite interesting, and hey, he even talks about working with Metallica! Marilyn Moore worked as Acquisitions Director at SGE and wound, after doing time there, working on shows like The X-Files and, oddly enough, America’s Next Top Model. Here she talks about the early part of her career working with SGE, how she went from working on Red Scorpion to America’s Next Top Model and quite a bit more. Finalizing this chapter is a section wherein Robert Chapin discusses handling VFX and stunts on pictures as varied as Robocop 3, Army Of Darkness and more, but also directing for SGE Ring Of Steel, his only contribution to their output. However, it was a stunt/action heavy film that required quite a bit of effort on his part – as such, his talk with Marco Siedelmann is quite illuminating as he talks about making ‘Bloodfist with swords.’
The last of the main chunks of the book is “The Remains of the Day: Life after SGE” and it starts off with co-author Nadia Bruce-Rawlings being interviewed by Siedelmann. Bruce-Rawlings might have worked on this book, but so too did she do time at SGE from 1987 through 1994 alongside Alan Solomon. In 2008 she started NBR Media which now handles the SGE library of titles, so she’s been around the block a few times and was clearly very much on ‘the inside’ as far as the company’s day to day operations were concerned. From there? The second part of the James Glickenhaus interview that kicked off the book. Here he talks about the end of the company and what he’s been up to since then, working on various oddball car projects. The main core of the book finishes up with the second part of the Leonard Shapiro that also began early in this nearly five hundred page tome. Shapiro closes things out by discussing working with Glickenhaus, the importance of 42nd Street theaters and the home video boom, big hits like the Exterminator, The Protector, Maniac Cop and The Soldier and his thoughts on this part of his career as a whole.
The book finishes up with an afterword entitled A Song of Solomon by Siedelmann who notes that his co-authors both worked with the man before his passing. He then offers up a concise but interesting biography for the man and touches on some of his career highlights, particularly as they pertain to the SGE legacy.
Along the way we get tons of great photos and illustrations showing off everything from Shapiro playing basketball in high school to concept art for Moon Trap, AFM laminates, poster art for classics like Frankenhooker, Piranha II, C.H.U.D., Point Break, Maniac, Red Scorpion, Firehouse, Basket Case 2 and 3, Maniac Cop, Emmanuelle 5, Comrades In Arms, Search And Destroy, Lethal Pursuit, TC 2000, The Lost Idol, Covert Action, Shock Troop, The Exterminator and YES, Rinse Dream’s Dr. Caligari. There are also behind the scenes photos from various SGE movies and office gatherings, script pages, contract pages, copyright registrations, trade magazine ads for old VHS releases (nostalgia blast!!!!). There’s also an index section that notes where all of the pictures and images used throughout the book originated from.
All in all, this is just what the title promises – a very detailed, in-depth look at what SGE did, how they did it and just as importantly why they did it. There are a lot of different people interviewed here and as such, a lot of different points of view but if nothing else, this always feels honest, warts and all. SGE may not get the credit that other, bigger 80s production and distribution houses did, but their story is just as, if not more, interesting than anyone that they were competing with at the time. Highly recommended.
Tags : book review, books, dolph lundgren, editions moustache, eighties movies, frank henenlotter, frankenhooker, john fascano, joseph zito, marco siedelmann, nadia bruce-rawlings, red scorpion, sge, shapiro glickenhaus entertainment, stephen a. roberts
CrumpsBrother - 02-06-2017, 11:55 PM
Sold! Thanks for the in-depth review.
sukebanboy - 02-07-2017, 02:32 AM
This looks amazing...
Shame there isnt a documentry like the CANNON one to go with the book...
Zachariah (Kino Lorber) Blu-ray Review
I really liked this one. The soundtrack is cool- esp. the James Gang stuff.
David H 07-14-2019 09:04 PM
Six Swedes In Ibizia (Sechs Schwedinnen Auf Ibizia)
The softcore cut is almost hardcore anyway. Its a shame though that ascot couldn't spend the money...
Lalala76 07-12-2019 02:46 PM
Savage Beach (Mill Creek Entertainment) Blu-ray Review
It has them yeah, you can see them in some of the caps.
Ian Jane 07-12-2019 08:14 AM
"the disc is free of obvious compression artifacts."
"obvious compression artifacts do appear...
Fundi 07-11-2019 07:27 PM
Watched this and Picasso Trigger on tuesday and was very pleased with the PQ on both.
I had my...
moviegeek86 07-11-2019 06:42 PM
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HomeCD ReviewsWicked Sensation - 'Crystallized'
Wicked Sensation - 'Crystallized' http://www.rocktopia.co.uk/media/reviews/photos/thumbnail/200x200s/89/ba/90/574_wickedsensationcrystallized_1284852373.jpg Hot
Added by Central Electronic Brain September 18, 2010
Wicked Sensation
This album brings nothing new to the table, even though it’s still a hearty meal in itself.
There seems to be rather a plethora of quality European hard rock acts around at the moment, and this month sees the return of German/Dutch quintet Wicked Sensation, reformed last year by founder Micheal Klein. He’s brought original vocalist Robert Soeterboek back into the fold, along with Punk Cream 69’s Dennis Ward, who plays bass and has no doubt had a hand in the production (although it doesn’t say either way on my info). Six years after their last album, it seems that the time is right for a band with a powerful melodic backbone, but it remains to be seen if they can again stand out from the pack.
Unsurprisingly, Wicked Sensation trot out the type of melodic hard rock favoured by the likes of Dokken and Whitesnake, albeit with a European tinge. There’s plenty of melody about, and this results in some great songs, such as ‘Lonely Is The Night’ and ‘Fistful Of Dreams‘. There’s also the very catchy ‘My Turn To Fly’ which features some guest vocals by Andi Deris, and these songs lead the way when it comes to melodic rock with a gritty edge. Guitars are very much favoured over keyboards throughout, and Dirk Bruinenberg’s drums are also pushed nicely up in the mix, giving ‘Crystallized’ a hard, solid foundation. Okay, so there’s the obligatory ballad in ‘The Love I Used To Know’, but it’s not too bad. Vocalist Soeterboek has a whiff of Coverdale about him, and sings very well without an obvious accent although he rarely seems to be required to stretch his vocal chords. I like his voice, which suits the material, but he doesn’t stand out any more than he has to.
As a piece of melodic hard rock, ‘Crystallized’ ticks all the right boxes. There’s good songs, good production and no weak links musically. It fitfully crosses the line the divides a good album from a great one, and will garner a lot of affection from fans of the genre. Certainly worth some of your time if you like your melody backed up with bone crunching guitars, but beware of the fact that it brings nothing new to the table, even though it’s still a hearty meal in itself.
Alan Holloway
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acott@sandleroneill.com
Andrew I. Cott
Principal, Fixed Income Sales
Andrew I. Cott is a Principal of Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P. Mr. Cott has worked with the firm's commercial bank and thrift clients for over 25 years. Mr. Cott works with senior management teams of middle-market commercial banks and thrifts to develop detailed strategic programs, including balance sheet restructuring, capital raising and mergers and acquisitions, each tailored to institutions’ strategic and financial goals.
Mr. Cott joined Sandler O’Neill in 1988, the firm’s first year. He was appointed Associate Director in 1991, Managing Director in 1995 and Principal in 2003. He supervised Sandler O'Neill's fixed income trading from 1991 to 1995.
Before joining the firm in October of 1988, Mr. Cott worked in fixed income sales for Chase Government Securities, Inc. Prior to that, he was a regulations analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Mr. Cott holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Washington University in St. Louis.
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In 1948, Allen Schoop created a formula for transforming fresh, made-to-order ground beef into what one newspaper calls the "finest hamburger this side of the moon."
It’s the same formula that Schoop’s restaurants use today.
From a modest site in Hammond, Indiana, Schoop sold the first burgers for 15 cents each, taking in $2000 in the first month. The original menu had burgers, french fries, chili, soup, and pie. Although there have been additions since, these simple items are still the mainstays of the Schoop’s menu.
In 1959, Schoop’s opened a second restaurant in Munster, Indiana. Mostly through word of mouth, customers found out about the burger and formed lines along Ridge Road for a chance at one of the 36 seats.
Schoop doubled the size of the restaurant in 1969 and people still stood in line.
In 1982, Rick and Randy Newell joined Mark Schoop, Allen’s son, in the Schoop’s family. The three Calumet Region natives have worked to help establish many Schoop’s in or around the Calumet Region.
“Now it’s time to share Schoop’s with the rest of the world,” Rick Newell said.
Questions, comments, concerns? Shoot us an email at comments@schoophamburgers.com
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Open Letter from Gilda Lakatos
Also published on rabble.
August 2nd is the day to remember the genocide of Roma people in Europe during the Second World War, so that such atrocities would never happen again. But the xenophobic extreme right is again on the rise in Europe.
Katalin Lakatos and her daughter Gilda, two Roma women from Hungary who have been fighting their deportation from Canada since their refugee claim was refused over a year ago, have been ordered deported on 11 August.
Here is a letter that 17-year old Gilda wrote about her long, long struggle to remain in Canada, about why her family left Hungary and does not want to return.
To find out how to support this family, click here.
My name is Gilda. I am 17-years old and I am Roma. I came to Canada with my mother, my father, and my brother five years ago. We came here to escape the racism, violence and discrimination we suffered in Hungary.
As a Roma family, we always lived in fear, but in the last years, things got worse. On television politicians were saying things like, “Gypsies are parasites we must eliminate”. Groups of “skinheads” dressed as soldiers with Nazi flags marched around Roma villages. They stopped in front of Roma houses and chanted, “Here you will die.” A family was killed. I was afraid to walk in the streets by myself, especially after my mother made a complaint against the police about the death of my brother. We were threatened and insulted sexually in the streets. These attitudes were everywhere. We couldn’t live a normal life.
In Hungary, school was difficult. Roma kids were separated from non-Roma Hungarian kids. We couldn’t play with the other children. There were special classes just for Roma. Our teachers never came to the class and even when they were there they didn’t answer our questions.
Racism in Hungary is everywhere, even in the hospitals. I was 11 when my other brother got very sick. We went to the hospital, but they didn’t want to help him. The doctors said there was nothing the matter with him and sent us home. Next day, he was even worse, he vomited blood, he had a high fever, and he couldn’t even get out of bed or walk. We called the doctor to come but he said he was too busy.
Next morning, he could hardly breathe, my father carried him to the hospital and the doctors had to send him to Budapest because his life was in danger. In Budapest, his heart stopped and he fell into a coma for five days. It was the second time that I almost lost a brother to racism and discrimination. The doctor told us that it could have been avoided if he had been seen earlier. In Hungary, Roma are often refused treatment by doctors. For my mother it was even more difficult, just when she had started to feel better she almost lost another son. My parents were both very depressed. We didn’t know what to do, it was just too much. Thank goodness, my brother awoke from the coma but we could no longer put up with it all. We came to Canada.
For five years in Canada, we had a good life. I was in school and was treated like other kids. I did well, there were school activities like a volunteer programme at an old age home for women, I learned to speak French, and to play basketball.
I made lots of friends at school. We went out and did things together. We talk regularly and they support me a lot. They helped me get through my past; gave me hope, they made me feel like everything was possible. This was so important to me, because in Hungary, I didn’t have non-Roma friends, nobody would talk to us because we are Roma. They would say, “we don’t talk to Gypsies.” I don’t want to lose my Canadian friends.
I feel hopeless when I think of my future. I don’t understand why we were refused, why they want to send us back to Hungary.
In April 2015, our refugee claim was refused. In September we put in an application for permanent residence on humanitarian grounds. In October we asked to be able to stay in Canada until there was a response on our humanitarian application. We felt terrible when they refused to allow us to wait for a response.
This was one of the most difficult times for my family. For five years, we had been able to live a normal life. We were like others for the first time, we were safe. We had such hope. The idea of returning to Hungary brings back all these memories; the slogans, the constant discrimination in all parts of our lives – school, work, hospital, in the streets. There is no escaping it, anywhere.
They ordered us to leave Canada on October 30th. We stayed and became “non status”, at risk of being arrested and deported at any time.
Because of this, I couldn’t finish high school. After the deportation order, I was afraid of continuing school. My classmates asked what was going on with me and my family and it was humiliating to have to explain my story and why I had to stop school.
In March, my father and brother were arrested during a routine police check of the car they were traveling in. After they were detained, my mother and I turned ourselves in to Immigration on March 8th. We were put in detention in Laval. We were in a kind of prison for 10 days. This was very hard on my mother and me. We were placed in a segregated section. We were alone with our thoughts and had nothing to do except think about all that had happened to us and what would happen to us back in Hungary.
My brother and father were deported a few days after we were put in detention. Now they are living in a lot of insecurity in Hungary. I am worried about my father. He tells me that he can’t sleep or eat. My mother and I are always worried about something happening to them.
I am also worried for my mother; her health is not good. The death of my oldest brother was very hard on her. Since his death she has suffered from depression a lot of the time. The uncertainty we have been living since our refugee claim was refused in April 2015 really affected her, and almost every difficulty has become too much for her. After we got out of the Laval detention centre, she didn’t get out of bed for three days. She hardly talked for those three days. I didn’t know what to do.
I am trying really hard but it is not easy. All these things have left a mark on me, forever. When I think about it, I become very stressed, I am afraid.
It is hard for me to even think about going back to Hungary. In Canada, I can live a normal life. I have dreams for the future, for my life in Canada. I want to continue school, finish high school, go to CEGEP and then university. I would like to work as a manager in a business or become a lawyer …
On May 12th, we were supposed to be deported to Hungary but we appealed to the minister to stay. With the help of friends and organizations who are supporting us, we got a temporary permit to stay until July 16th. I was relieved but also disappointed because we could still be deported. We were still in complete uncertainty.
And now we have been asked once again to leave, this time August 11th.
I am doing my best to not think about it. I am doing my best to be positive, help my family and others in similar situations, and to do everything possible to be able to stay here in Canada permanently.
These are the reasons that I am appealing to be given the chance to stay. With my family, I want to continue to build my future here, in Canada, which is also my country.
Gilda Lakatos
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A better alternative to “Medicare for All” is a U.S. National Health Service | Column
A U.S. National Health Service funded by the government would provide universal coverage but, unlike “Medicare for All,” would begin to address the issues of cost and quality, would leave in place the current reimbursement-based system.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a candidate for president, advocates Medicare for All. There's a better alternative. Associated Press (2019)
By Walter G. Bradley
Special to the Tampa Bay Times
Published June 20
Health-care reform will play a major role in the 2020 presidential election. Sen. Bernie Sanders proposes a government single payer, “Medicare for All,” and several other candidates support this. However, creation of a U.S. National Health Service is a far better way to achieve the goals of health-care reform — health care as a human right, cost reduction and quality improvement — while retaining the current insurance-based system that many know and love.
The current U.S. health-care system has three problems: It does not provide universal coverage, it costs too much, and it delivers less than optimal care.
As to costs, we spend 17 percent of GDP annually on health care, almost double that of any other nation; and drugs cost much more here than anywhere else. The main reason that U.S. health care costs so much is that the system is based on reimbursement of doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and other providers by insurance companies and the government — Medicare and Medicaid. That’s capitalism: Competition, the theory goes, produces lower costs and better quality. However, competition doesn’t work in health care because the consumer-patient with insurance has virtually no concern for costs when accessing services. The patient views a doctor who does three MRIs as better than one who does only two, and a new drug as better than an old one, even though it costs 10 times as much and is not proved to be superior. Hospitals compete by buying expensive high-tech equipment and then charge more to cover the costs, but the patient prioritizes high-tech, not costs, when choosing a hospital.
As to quality, Americans believe that we have the best health care in the world. We develop the new drugs and instruments that improve diagnosis and cure of diseases. But objectively U.S. health care is not the best. The Kaiser Family Foundation documents that maternal mortalities are six times higher than in the next 10 comparable countries and that neonatal mortalities are 70 percent higher, while patient satisfaction is among the lowest of any developed country.
Currently, though 70 percent of the U.S. population has health-care coverage — 56 percent with employer-based or private health insurance and 14 percent with Medicare — 30 percent (100 million) are under-insured with Medicaid or entirely uninsured, relying on free care from hospitals, which currently expend more than $40 billion annually for such care. Providing the reimbursement-based “Medicare for All” would not fix the glaring problems of our current health-care system — its high cost and poor quality. Replacing Medicaid and unfunded indigent care provided by hospitals with a U.S. National Health Service would provide, if not a cure-all, a major amelioration of those problems.
A U.S. National Health Service, like the U.S. Veterans Health Administration or the British National Health Service, would use facilities owned by the government and staffed by government employees. In contrast to “Medicare for All,” such a government-funded service would not be reimbursement-based. It would simply provide free coverage from primary care to hospitalizations for the 30 percent with Medicaid or no medical insurance, thus achieving universal coverage. Cost-savings would come from bulk purchasing of drugs and supplies, and from making evidence-based decisions about what drugs and services to provide. Quality would be improved by providing universal coverage and from eliminating the profit motive from medical decisions.
A U.S. National Health Service would provide a yardstick against which to compare the costs and quality of our current reimbursement-based system — a yardstick that health insurance companies could use as leverage in negotiations with their suppliers and against which to measure our currently unacceptable health outcomes. Because medical decisions in such a service would not include the latest, most costly, unproven advances, most members of the 70 percent would prefer to retain their current health insurance with the medical bells and whistles that it provides, with few moving to the free system.
A U.S. National Health Service would obviously cost money, though less than one might expect because it would be substantially covered by money currently going to Medicaid and indigent care by hospitals; and it would provide better service. It would be politically acceptable because it would not take away health insurance or Medicare from anyone who presently enjoys those benefits. It would also not have a major impact on our current health-care industry — an important component of the U.S. economy employing more than 13 million people, an abrupt change that could produce economic disaster.
In short, a U.S. National Health Service funded by the government would provide universal coverage but, unlike “Medicare for All,” it would begin to address the issues of cost and quality, would leave in place the current reimbursement-based system and would not rock the economic boat.
Walter G. Bradley is professor and chairman emeritus in the Department of Neurology at the University of Miami School of Medicine.
Hillsborough County needs more affordable homes. What can be done? | Column
More than 100,000 Hillsborough households pay more than half of their income for housing.
Editorial cartoons for Tuesday from Times wire services.
Hooper: Punitive immigration policy heavy on politics, light on compassion
The inhumane treatment of migrants is what’s under attack. America can do better.
Ready for e-scooters, St. Petersburg? Tampa's got some wisdom for you
As St. Petersburg readies for electric scooters on its streets, Sue Carlton says there's already something to be learned from Tampa's stint with scooters.
The Democrats’ apocalypse | Adam Goodman
Four social media-savvy Democratic members of Congress pull their party to the extreme and toward defeat.
Editorial cartoons for Saturday-Sunday-Monday from Times wire services
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Have A Seat!
Questions about online ticket purchases? Call Brown Paper Tickets at 800-838-3006.
1934 Dempster Street Evanston, IL, 60202 United States
info@studio5.dance
Studio5 Press Release
STUDIO5 HOSTS GRAND OPENING WEEKEND
EVANSTON’S NEW PERFORMING ARTS VENUE
CELEBRATES WITH LIVE MUSIC & DANCE
Friday, September 30 Through Sunday, October 2, 2016
Evanston, Ill.—The Evanston community has a new performing arts venue and directors Béa and Steve Rashid are throwing the doors open to the community the end of September for the grand opening celebration of Studio5 (1934-38 Dempster Street). The weekend schedule includes dance, music, and a children’s concert with tickets priced at $5 for each show. Tickets are available at the door.
On Friday, September 30th at 7 p.m., Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl kicks off the festivities with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, followed by dance performances by the Evanston Dance Ensemble, enidsmithdance, Be the Groove, Elements Contemporary Ballet, Glenn Leslie’s Classic Jazz & Tap Productions, Cartier Collective, Megan Biolsi, Christina Ernst, and Jump Rhythm Jazz Project founder Billy Siegenfeld. Saturday night Studio5 welcomes The Fat Babies, a 7-piece classic jazz band for an 8 p.m. performance with a 7:30 p.m. swing dance lesson before the music starts. On Sunday, October 2 at 3 p.m., award-winning children’s performer Jim Gill performs a concert for kids and their families. A full calendar of the weekend's events is available HERE.
The Rashids envision Studio5 as a performing arts space open to the community at large and available for master classes, music and dance series, theatre productions, and small festivals. They feel the possibilities are endless. With its state-of-the-art retractable seating system, Studio5 functions as both a 104-seat performance space and as additional dance studio space for Dance Center Evanston (DCE), which is located directly next door and is now connected to Studio5. Located in Evanston’s Dempster/Dodge Plaza, the Rashids describe Studio5 as an “unconventional use of a retail shopping center ... which has the added benefit of lots of parking.”
“Dance is a performing art form, and you need a place to perform,” states Béa Rashid, who opened Dance Center Evanston (DCE) 22 years ago and founded the Evanston Dance Ensemble two years later. “Evanston has been missing a performing arts space of this size and caliber. Studio5 is a natural extension of Dance Center Evanston and provides a close, intimate performing space where an audience can feel and see the dance.”
“Not to mention the music,” adds Emmy award winning composer/musician Steve Rashid. “Live performance is a direct relationship between the artists and the audience. We’ve worked hard to create excellent sound and sight lines for everyone. There isn’t a bad seat in the house. Our audiences will feel closely connected to the performers on the stage.”
The City of Evanston has thrown its support behind Studio5 with an Economic Development Grant to cover part of the cost of the retractable seating system, which allows Dance Center Evanston to convert the performance space into two additional dance studios for its student and adult classes. The conversion process takes only an hour and the five rows of cushioned seats retract to a depth of 4.5 feet. Studio5 features theatrical lighting, sound, curtains and a state-of- the-art audio and video system that allows for broadcast-quality recording and live streaming of performances.
For more information on Studio5 and its grand opening weekend, call 847-328-6683 or go to www.studio5.dance.
Maria Ballantyne, Public Relations
mbpr@comcast.net, 847.840.1732
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Sumter Mayor's Prayer Breakfast
"In the news"
Make plans now to attend the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast in May
Sumterites of all religious denominations are invited to attend the annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast on May 7 at 6:30 a.m. at Alice Drive Baptist Church, 1305 Loring Mill Road. The breakfast line will open at 6:30 a.m. and the program will begin promptly at 7:30 a.m.
Prayer Breakfast Committee Chair Chris Moore said the event, which is held in conjunction with the National Day of Prayer, is a great opportunity for everyone in the community to rally around faith and encourage others to strive to make a difference in the city and surrounding areas. The theme for this year's prayer breakfast is "Lord, hear our cry."
The keynote speaker is Vietnam War veteran Patrick Cleburne "Clebe" McClary. The recipient of the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts, McClary will provide an encouraging message about the importance of faith and prayer.
Also, community leaders will give prayers for seven important areas of Sumter: government, military, media, business and industry, education, church and family.
The event is funded solely by community donations and sponsorships. The deadline for donations is Friday, April 10.
Donations of any amount will be accepted, but guests can take part in three sponsorship opportunities: the "Red" sponsorship of $500, which includes 10 tickets; the "White" sponsorship of $300 for six tickets; and the "Blue" sponsorship of $100, which includes two tickets. All donations will go toward funding the event and all sponsors will be included on the program and will be recognized during the breakfast.
Checks should be made out to "Mayor's Prayer Breakfast" and the mailing address for donations is Mayor's Prayer Breakfast, 12 Frank Clarke St., Sumter, S.C. 29150.
Tickets for the breakfast are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Tickets can be purchased at The Olive Tree Christian Bookstore, 600 Bultman Drive or at the Swan Lake Visitors Center, 822 W. Liberty St.
Moore said the prayer breakfast committee has incentives for those who are interested in selling tickets and encouraging others in the community to attend.
Moore said the Sumter community is very fortunate to still host a prayer breakfast every year. "It's a day for us to encourage others and for us to be encouraged to look to where our blessings come from," he said.
For more information about the event, tickets or donations, contact Chris Moore at (803) 774-8665 orpastorchrismoore@gmail.com.
MAYOR'S PRAYER BREAKFAST
WHEN: Thursday, May 7, 2015
WHERE: Alice Drive Baptist Church, 1305 Loring Mill Road
TICKETS: $10 in advance; $15 at the door.
MAILING ADDRESS FOR DONATIONS: Mayor's Prayer Breakfast, 12 Frank Clarke St., Sumter, S.C. 29150
CONTACT: Chris Moore at (803) 774-8665 or pastorchrismoore@gmail.com
Story by ADRIENNE SARVIS of The Sumter Item.
Articles and information that have appeared in print or online about the annual prayer breakfast.
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Age-restricted sales are a key trigger for abuse against shopworkers - Usdaw ADM delegates call on t
Age-restricted sales are a key trigger for abuse against shopworkers - Usdaw ADM delegates call on the Government to act
Date: 05 May 2019 Shopworker’s trade union Usdaw has supported action to protect retail staff who enforce the law on age-restricted sales. Delegates at the union’s annual conference in Blackpool voted unanimously to lobby the Government on the issue.
Responding to the debate at the Annual Delegate Meeting, Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary said: “Enforcing age-restricted sales is still a major trigger for abuse, threats and violence. This abuse, threatening behaviour and violence against shopworkers must end, especially when they are upholding the law around age-restricted sales.
“The customer isn't always right and abusive, threatening or violent customers are never in the right. Our members have a legal responsibility to ask for ID, to challenge those who might be underage. If they fail in their responsibility, they face serious consequences. They could be disciplined, or even prosecuted and fined.
“Simply doing their job and following the law also puts shopworkers on the front line and abuse must never be accepted as just part of the job. So we will continue to lobby the Government about our Freedom From Fear campaign.
The Government has opened a ‘call for evidence’ on this growing issue of shopworker abuse, following pressure from Usdaw, employers like the Co-op and retailers’ representative organisations like the Association of Convenience Stores, British Retail Consortium and National Federation of Retail Newsagents. The Government is seeking the views of organisations and individuals who wish to contribute to their understanding of the problem of violence and abuse toward shop staff in England and Wales. This consultation closes at 11pm on 28 June 2019 and submissions can be made online at: www.homeofficesurveys.homeoffice.gov.uk/s/PVAUE/
Usdaw has called on the Scottish Government to back a protection of workers Bill. Daniel Johnson MSP (Labour, Edinburgh Southern) is seeking to provide additional protections for retail staff, including those who sell age-restricted items. His member’s bill has been through an initial consultation and overwhelmingly backed by shopworkers. It is also supported by Asda, Co-op and the Scottish Grocers’ Federation. The Bill is currently in the drafting stage.
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest and the fastest growing trade union with over 420,000 members. Membership has increased by more than one-third over the last couple of decades. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.
Results of Usdaw’s 2018 survey, based on 6,725 responses, show that in 2018: 63.8% were verbally abused, 40.4% were threatened, 12.1% of shopworkers had been assaulted during their career, with 3.5% assaulted during 2018.
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion
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Lady Warriors Finish 2nd at Pacific Tiger Invitational
Stockton, CA – With the pre-season now behind them the Warriors opened their invitational season against 37 schools in the Pacific Tiger Invitational at Elkhorn Golf Course in Stockton, Saturday.
The Lady Warriors, who came into the race ranked #14 in CCS, held their own against top competition from the San Joaquin Section, North Coast and WCAL rivals Sacred Heart Cathedral and Archbishop Mitty. Mackenzie Thomas took advantage of the flat, fast conditions and scorched a personal best for 5k, finishing as the Warriors top finisher in 20:09 for eleventh place.
Also finishing in the medals were Sophia Patterson and Jordan Hahn. Patterson finished 14th with a stellar run of 20:29, dropping an incredible 80+ seconds from her previous 5k best. Jordan Hahn, a freshman, is finding her groove and quickly settling into a varsity role this season. Hahn moved up steadily through the race to finish 15th in 20:31.
Hannah Theaker also had a big breakthrough as well finishing 23rd in 21:07. It was her first time breaking 22 minutes for the 5k distance. Immediately after the race it wasn't the 60+ second improvement that had her attention it was the 7 seconds that kept her from breaking 21.
Katelyn Stone finished as the 5th runner in 21:53, a strong debut for the freshman. Kayla Nanez was close behind in 22:00 as Ashley Clayton rounded out the varsity team with a personal best of 23:19.
It was a strong day for the Lady Warriors who finished second place in team scoring.
Sam Cuevas led the way for the boys team with a strong run of 17:16 that was good enough to finish top 20 in the medals. Wesley Deffenbaugh was next to finish in 17:56 and was followed by Cameron Lockard (18:05) and Ben Buckman (19:10). Joe Renati and Nedu Ndili did not compete.
The Junior Varsity Boys also made the trip and had an impressive showing of their own. Jonathan Pappas finished in the medals with a 14th place finish running the 2-mile race in 12:09. David Shao finished in 25th in 12:29 while Brandon Gaedke (12:44), Raghav Saran (12:54)and Preston Nguyen (12:54) all finished in the "12's."
The junior varsity boys finished fourth in team scoring.
The Warriors open league competition on October 5th in the Baylands in Sunnyvale.
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DOESN'T APPROVE OF
TITLE IN HIS FAMILY.
CRAIG HUNTER HEARS DAUGH-
TER WEDDED SON OF A LORD.
Post Cards Bear Announcement of
Marriage of Mrs. Adeline De
Mare to Henry Somerset
in England.
MRS. ADELINE DE MARE,
Who May Be Lady Somerset.
Post cards bearing the announcement of the marriage in London, England on June 16 of Mrs. Adeline De Mare of Kansas City, widow of Professor Georges De Mare, the artist who lost his life in the fire which destroyed the University building in this city in 1907, have given rise to the belief on the part of the friends and relatives of the young woman that she has wedded Henry Charles Somers Augustus Somerset, the son of Lord Henry Richard Charles Somerset, husband of Lady Henry Somerset, the famous temperance leader and suffragist.
According to the meager information conveyed by the postals, which were received from England yesterday by the father of the girl, Craig Hunter, a railway contractor with offices at 1002 Union avenue, and Mrs. Herman Lang, 3901 Forest avenue, a close friend of the family, Mrs. De Mare was married to a Henry Somerset in London on June 16. Partly through the way the announcements were worded and more through the presumption of those who received the announcements, the report was started that the Somerset in question is the son of the nobleman. Neither Mr. Hunter nor Mrs. Lang was in a position to confirm the report last night, but both were anxiously awaiting more information, which is expected to arrive by letter in a few days.
FATHER IS NOT PLEASED.
Mr. Hunter is not pleased with the thought that perhaps his daughter has become the wife of the son of an English nobleman.
"I sincerely hope that Adeline has not married into a titled family," he said yesterday. "I have always talked against such marriages, and if she has married Lord Somerset's son, she has acted directly contrary to any wish of mine. A good, plain American boy is my choice."
Mrs. De Mare, who graduated from the Central high school in the spring of 1905, married Professor Georges De Mare, head of the art department of the school, in December, 1906. Professor De Mare the following May was killed in a fire which destroyed the University building at Ninth and Locust streets. The death of her husband greatly preyed upon the mind of Mrs. De Mare and in order that she might be benefited by a change of scene she was sent to Paris to school in September, 1907.
She took up a course of study at the Sorbonne, the University of Paris. She was a proficient artist in instrumental music and completed a course in that study last spring. Last September her mother, Mrs. Hunter, went to Paris to return with Mrs. De Mare to America when her school work was completed. Mrs. Hunter and her daughter were to have sailed for America today form Naples. The plans of Mr. Hunter to meet them at New York are upset by the unexpected announcement of the daughter's marriage in London.
MARRIAGE A SURPRISE.
"Adeline's marriage was a complete surprise to me," said Mr. Hunter. "I received a letter from my wife two weeks ago in which she said that an Englishman by the name of Somerset was madly in love with the girl, but I did not think seriously of it. I did not think, either, that it might be a member of the Lord Somerset family. But now that I compare the meager descriptions I have received of the man with those of the son of the lord, I am firmly convinced that they are one and the same person.
"Mrs. Hunter said that the Mr. Somerset who was paying attention to my daughter was a widower and had a little daughter about 9 years of age. Henry Somerset, they tell me, was married in 1896 to the daughter of the Duke of St. Albans and should be at this time about the age of the man who married my daughter. He has been making his home in Paris for some time, so I guess there may be something to the report of my son-in-law being of a titled family. I hope, however, that it is not true."
Mrs. De Mare was 21 years old last September. She is a beautiful and talented woman and was very popular in the younger social set in Kansas City.
SOMERSET HISTORY EVENTFUL.
EASTNOR CASTLE, ONE OF THE FOUR HOMES OF LADY HENRY SOMERSET.
Somewhat eventful has been the history of the Somerset family. Nor has its domestic relations been of the happiest. The present Lady Somerset was married at the age of 18, after a brief season at court. The match between Lady Isobel and Lord Henry Somerset was arranged by the young girl's mother, and Lady Isobel's dowry was welcome to Lord Henry.
Two years after the wedding the only child, Henry Charles Augustus Somerset, was born. During those two years of married life there had been frequent ruptures between husband and wife with the result that divorce was frequently discussed by each. Shortly after the birth of the son the courts of England granted a divorce and gave the mother custody of the child.
For a while Lady Somerset kept up her social activities, but Queen Victoria looked into the causes of divorce and placed the social ban upon that immediate branch of the Somerset family. In June of 1902, however, King Edward, his wife and sister, Princess Beatrice, restored Lady Henry Somerset to court favor. This action on the part of King Edward occasioned favorable comment on the part of the British public and press.
RETIRED TO PRIVATE LIFE.
When Lady Henry fell into disfavor with the court she retired and lead a sequestered life, teaching her boy. Later she sent her son to Harvard university, from which institution he graduated.
Henry Somers Somerset was married in 1896 to Katherine De Vere Beaucher. There had been no news in America of a divorce or of the wife's death. She has been described as a very beautiful woman and a prime favorite of the Somerset's.
Lady Henry Somerset has been long identified with socialism and temperance work. At the present time she is the president of the world organization of the W. C. T. U. She has spent large sums of money to alleviate the distress occasioned by drink among the men and women of England. She has written many books upon the subject of temperance and has become widely known.
Lord Henry Somerset, the divorced husband, has been lost from sight and there is no record of his death.
Henry, the son, who is said to have married Mrs. De Mare, is 35 years old.
Labels: arts, England, Forest avenue, suffrage, Union avenue, wedding, women
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Alan Leong fires parting shots at CY Leung
Hello and Goodbye. Civic Party Leader, Alan Leong (right), whose term at the legislature ends on September 30, slams Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying at RTHK's Letter to Hong Kong. On his left is Jeremy Tam Man-ho, legislator-elect at Kowloon East.
Posted By: VOHK September 18, 2016
By Alan Leong Kah-kit –
1997 saw Hong Kong revert to a sovereign that practises people’s democratic dictatorship, and autocracy is the order of the day in Mainland China. Without a local government that is fully accountable to Hongkongers, our long cherished freedoms and institutions like the rule of law, apolitical civil service and Independent Commission Against Corruption are bound to wither and cannot stay.
It is regrettable that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), thus the Central People’s Government, has not honoured the One Country Two Systems constitutional order as promised by and enshrined in the Basic Law. One only has to remind oneself of the black and white letters of Article 22 to tell how flagrantly the Basic Law has been breached. The Article provides that:
“No department of the Central People’s Government and no province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central People’s Government may interfere in the affairs which the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region administers on its own in accordance with this Law.”
Only as recently as the Legislative Council Elections on September 4, interventions from Zhang Xiaoming, the Director of the CPG’s Liaison OfficeHong Kong, were rampant. The Liaison Office bent over backwards to make sure that people like Pau Tse Wai-chun, Eunice Yung Hoi-yan, Junius Ho Kwan-yiu, Priscilla Leung Mei-fun and Holden Chow Ho-ding were elected. Such manoeuvres had gone so far that cost the seats of anti-democracy incumbents Wong Kwok-hing and Tang Ka-piu from the Federation of Trade Unions, the most ancient supporters of the CCP in Hong Kong. And, those blessed by the Liaison Office are not slow to show their gratitude by thanking Zhang for his support, as if these were normal business, and conveniently forgetting all about the non-intervention guaranteed by Article 22.
On the subject of the treachery of the CCP, how can Hongkongers forget about the White Paper published by the State Council on June 10, 2014 and the Resolutions of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) on August 31? By the former, the CCP emphasized its total control over Hong Kong and the self-restraints this omnipotent sovereign had enticed Hongkongers into expecting was shattered by the stroke of a pen. By the latter, the CCP unequivocally denied to Hongkongers our right to elect the Chief Executive, with anyone allowed to stand.
Public outrage over the White Paper and the NPCSC Resolutions prompted the Umbrella Movement later in 2014. Thoroughfares in the heart of the city were occupied for 79 days. The Umbrella Movement has moved the world by showcasing how David can stand up against Goliath using peaceful means and by engaging in rational debates. Hongkongers have shown the world that giving in and foregoing principles is not the only option when facing up to the CCP. While it draws the world’s appreciation, the Umbrella Movement has to date failed to move the Beijing leadership an iota towards fulfilling its promises made in the 1980s to Hongkongers in its bid to entice us to accepting reversion to Chinese Sovereignty.
Leung the great divider
During the past four years with C Y Leung as the Chief Executive, Hong Kong saw our society being torn apart and polarized. Such a divide is getting wider by the day and one doubts if it can ever be mended, at least when Leung stays. At one pole are cynics or pragmatists who have long resigned to succumbing to the CCP and reaping whatever benefits they can by dancing to its tunes or even second guessing what the Beijing masters would like to see them do. Many of them, now occupying key positions in government and the civil society, contribute to the daily deterioration of Hong Kong’s core values and corruption of Hong Kong’s key institutions.
At the other pole are childish and naïve souls who, following our more elemental instincts, refuse to forget our original intentions and wanting to see implemented the vision we have been promised, namely, One Country Two Systems, high degree of autonomy and Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong.
We want our long-cherished freedoms and well-respected institutions to continue to flourish for the benefit of many more generations to come. Personalities dictate our destinies. When coming face to face with the adversity of suppression and overwhelmed by an apparently unmatchable power, individuals do react differently. I certainly would love to see more of the naïve souls and less of the cynics. It is not just our personal destinies that are at stake; Hong Kong’s fate is in the balance.
Elections of the Sixth Legislative Council, which completed on September 4, broke many records. 58%, or 2.2 million, of our registered voters came out to vote, which is unprecedented. Legislators-elect include Nathan Law Kwun-chung, Lau Siu-lai, Shiu Ka-chun and Cheng Chung-tai, who were core participants and very much involved in the 79 days of Occupy. Hongkongers have voted them into office so that they are properly mandated to continue fighting for a democratic Hong Kong, in the spirit of the Umbrella Movement. Besides, Eddie Chu Hoi-dick and Yiu Chung-yim have been civil society activists who see as their mission to deliver a fairer and more equal Hong Kong.
Unwise for CCP to ignore the democrats
These six, together with other Democratic Legislators-elect, have all openly declared frustration with what they are seeing of Hong Kong, and, to different extents and degrees, are advocating for Hongkongers to take charge of Hong Kong’s fate beyond 2047. The numbers of democratic versus anti-democratic legislators in the new Council will be 30:40. It will be politically impossible, or at least very unwise, for the CCP to ignore the voice of Hongkongers who have spoken through the ballot box and attempt to continue to suppress the Democratic Camp.
Engagement is the only reasonable way forward. The Civic Party has proposed a Hong Kong Affairs Conference, which should foot the bill in this connection and is worth serious consideration.
Just as I had told Zhang Dejiang, Chairman of the NPC, when we met a few months ago, the only way the CCP can prevent separatism from gaining popularity in Hong Kong is for it to deliver according to what has always been promised to Hongkongers by the Basic Law. If Xi Jinping stifles democracy even more, I can only predict that anger and frustration will grow, with separatist demands boosted.
Very soon, Hong Kong will elect 1,200 members to the Election Committee mandated to select the next Chief Executive who will assume office in 2017. The Democratic Camp is determined to win as many seats as practicable so as to be able to have a say in who is to be put at the helm for the next 5 years.
To me, Hong Kong has no luck at all if the incumbent stays on. He must go. Whoever is eyeing the top job must be able deliver hope to especially the young, up-and-coming generations of Hong Kong and to mend the divided society with apt and timely messages capable of taking into account the public sentiments of betrayal and frustrations.
This is an edited version of the speech of legislator Alan Leong Kah-kit, the Civic Party Leader whose term expires on September 30, at RTHK’s Letter to Hong Kong broadcast on September 18.
Photo: VOHK Picture
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How Leung loses his second term
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying sends a Christmas present to his critics and opponents. He says on December 9 he will not seek re-election, a plea featured in mass rallies since he takes office.
Posted By: VOHK January 3, 2017
By Chris Yeung –
Flashed back to November 8, 2014, Day 42 of the Occupy Central movement. Chinese President Xi Jinping highly praised Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying when they met at the margins of a Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) summit in Beijing. Borrowing a Chinese poem that says “strong wind tests the strength of grass,” Xi said Leung was proved to be a leader they could rely on at critical moments. On the same day, former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa launched think-tank Our Hong Kong Foundation, saying one priority task was to tackle the difficulty and aspirations of young people.
Fast forward to 2015, political reform blueprint was vetoed. Leung recommended the sacking of four principal officials. They are the then Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Greg So Kam-leung, Home Affairs Secretary Tsang Tak-shing and Secretary for Civil Service Paul Tang Kwok-wai. Beijing accepted the removal of Tsang Tak-shing and Tang, but kept John Tsang and So. In November, the rise of the “post-Umbrella soldiers” in the 2015 District Council polls has reflected people’s growing clamoring for change. And they believe, as shown in the success of some young hopefuls in the polls, change is not impossible.
Police fire tear gas canisters to try to clear protesters in Admiralty in 2014. The Occupy Central movement lasts 79 days.
Come 2016, a dispute between police and civilians in the evening of the first day of the Lunar Chinese New Year (February 8) in Mong Kok escalated into the worst clash between government and people since the 1967 Riot. The Government immediately labeled it as “turmoil.”
CitizenNews understands that Xi has ordered four key members of the Communist Party’s Leading Group on Hong Kong affairs to find out what happened in Hong Kong by the beginning of 2016. The four are National People’s Congress (NPC) chairman Zhang Dejiang, who is the group leader; Vice President Li Yuanchao; State Councillor Yang Jiechi and Wang Guangya, Director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office.
On December 9, Leung announced he would not seek re-election, citing “unbearable pressure” on his family. It is understood that a high-ranking official from Beijing informed Leung Beijing’s decision of not backing his re-election bid. By ruling himself out, Leung’s announcement helps Beijing solve the first major hurdle in picking the next chief executive.
Welcome to the second round of contest for the top post.
Moderate wind begins to blow in March
The annual NPC and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) plenary sessions, often known as “two meetings”, has traditionally been seen as the barometer of China’s policies, including its Hong Kong approach. Hot on the heels of the Mong Kok clash, pundits predicted strong condemnations on the “rioters” by Beijing. That was not the case. At a meeting with Hong Kong and Macau CPPCC delegates, Zhang called for “greater accommodating” for the overall interest of the society as he insisted not to condone violence.
On March 5, he met with Leung. At a post-meeting briefing, Leung quoted Zhang as saying he was “shocked” and “deeply grieved” by the unrest. Zhang reportedly said he did not understand why such as “violent, anti-social” incident had happened. An informed source revealed Zhang also said there should be “deep reflection” over the incident, which was not reported by Leung at his media briefing.
In related development during the “two meetings,” deputy director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office Feng Yi said Beijing’s views should be conveyed to Hong Kong people in a language they could “understand” and were “acceptable and familiar” to them. He said it would be “normal” if there were young radicals being elected to the legislative in the September election. As Beijing signaled moderation, “anti-Leung” voices have emerged from within the pro-establishment circle. CitzenNews understands that Zhang has spoken against the “we-they,” “friend-foe” dichotomy and the overweening approach in leadership. He said those who handled Hong Kong affairs should make a “change of paradigm.” Officials, he said, should promote harmony and togetherness and adopt an approach of “seeking consensus, accommodating differences.” His remarks are seen as veiled criticism against Leung.
Beijing dilemma over Leung’s second term
With the Mong Kok unrest broke out in the aftermath of the Occupy, President Xi felt increasingly impatient with the failure of Leung to improve ties with the pan-democrats in early 2016. An informed source said Beijing was caught in a dilemma. First, they did not have an appropriate reason for saying no to Leung’s re-election bid. But secondly, they found it increasingly difficult to get 601 votes, the minimum votes needed for a chief executive to be elected, for Leung even if they want to.
Beijing has decided not to give a green signal to Leung’s re-election to help encourage potential candidates to come out. Voices in support of a “contested” election have also surfaced from the pro-establishment camp. More important, Zhang paid a visit to Hong Kong in May. Although his trip featured a major Belt and Road conference, the major purpose of his trip was to forge dialogue with moderate pan-democrats. It was made possible after Zhang ordered a meeting with the pan-democrats was a must. An original plan to arrange a meeting between them was aborted after Leung’s office failed to agree with the pan-democrats on the arrangements.
The annual June 4 vigil is arguably no longer a stumbling block in dialogue between Beijing and the democrats.
In his major speech delivered at a dinner banquet, Zhang has underscored the importance of not forgetting the “original intent” of the “one country, two systems” policy and “patience” and “confidence.” Saying Hong Kong was a pluralistic society, he said it was natural that there were different voices, adding it was important to have rational dialogue. The informed source said nearly 80 per cent of Zhang’s speech was based on remarks made by Xi. Zhang’s historic dialogue with the pan-democrats has paved the way for the re-issuing of home visit permits to the democrats in November.
That there was no major initiatives taken by Leung on his ties with the pan-democrats since Zhang’s trip has reinforced one line of thinking in Beijing that Leung was indeed seen as a major obstacle in the implementation of Beijing’s softened approach towards the democrats.
Leung splits
Since taking office in 2012, one of the major criticism against Leung’s leadership was his failure to unite the society, or put it in a sarcastic way, his success in dividing the populace. A veteran political figure said a former close ally of Leung has privately said she would never work with him again. Never. Former chief secretary Sir David Akers-Jones, who was one of the key supporters of Leung four years ago, has lamented Leung’s failure to make more people “like” him. Sir David lent support to Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee in her election rally last month. Remarks made by pro-Beijing heavyweights including Elsie Leung Oi-sie and Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai in recent months stressing the importance of public support for the chief executive have been rightly seen as a not-so-subtle shot of Leung’s trouble.
Former Legislative Council Tsang Yok-sing was more explicit. In an interview with the US Time magazine published in late August, he warned polarisation of Hong Kong would not be eased if Leung was re-elected. “(But) if CY were going to rule Hong Kong for another term, he wouldn’t change the ways he has acted, especially his relations with the various political groups.” He said later he would consider running if no one came out to challenge Leung. Shortly afterward, Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah changed his mind and said he was willing to contest if that could be a help to the city. He resigned three days after Leung gave up seeking his second term.
Despite the failure of a couple of candidates who championed a “ABC”, or Anyone But C Y, platform in the September Legislative Council election, the rise of localists and advocates for the notion of “self-determination” was apparently clear. The defeat of Tse Wai-chuen, a key Leung ally, in the architectural, surveying, planning and landscape functional constituency by Edward Yiu Chung-yim is illuminating. It is the strongest sign of the shrinking of Leung’s support base in professional sectors. Leung is a member of Yiu’s functional constituency. Beijing’s worries about the failure to grab 601 votes for Leung in next year’s election deepened. Worse, he might not even able to get 150 nominations for him to be eligible for running. From Beijing’s perspective, they would not take any risk whatsoever of their chosen candidate being vetoed by the Election Committee.
Rise of ‘independence’ not necessarily benefits Leung
Events unfolded after the oath-taking antics of Sixtus Baggio Leung Chun-hang and Yau Wai-ching that triggered another Basic Law interpretation by Beijing had given credence to the theory that Leung Chun-ying’s re-election would be given a big boost as a result of that. The line of argument was that he could emerge as the best pick when it comes to the battle against Hong Kong independence. But a member of Leung’s team was unsure. He reportedly said at a closed door session with community figures the “independence” factor could be a plus, but also a minus to Leung. Leung’s supports began to smell the rat when Xi gave no message on his second term when they met at the margins of an APEC meeting in Peru in November. A political figure close to Beijing reportedly said privately Leung could do a big favour to Beijing if he announced publicly not to run.
It is obvious that the central government’s Liaison Office played a key role in propagating the message that the re-election chance of Leung was rising in November. The blitz of “pro-Leung” publicity came to an end on December 9 when Leung announced not to run. A knowlegeable figure described it as a “well-planned” move by Beijing to remove Leung with the final decision made by Xi. That it was triggered a few days before the December 11 Election Committee subsector election practically allowed no time for Leung to “make trouble.”
Rise of localists and advocates for ‘self-determination’ worries Beijing.
It is open secret Beijing had originally picked former chief secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen in the 2012 chief executive election. Senior mainland officials had twice told Leung not to run, but to no avail. Leung won the poll with 689 votes at the end of a scandal-plagued election. The source said some mainland officials were dismayed with the negative campaign and Leung’s campaign tactic. They have reservation about Leung, but have no choice but to back him at the late stage of campaign.
2017 marks the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty. The Chinese Communist Party is due to celebrate its 100th birthday in 2021. Later this month, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the next President of the United States. The last thing Beijing wants is Hong Kong becoming one more issue on its agenda of international politics. On the domestic front, Xi has championed a harmonious society. A sharply-divided Hong Kong is an embarrassment.
That the decision to dump Leung boils down to the simple truth that Beijing is unhappy with his work. Leung did not seem to know the wind has changed. At a recent private occasion, he reportedly said he was confident of getting 700 votes to win his second term. That will not happen. History looks certain to remember Leung is the first chief executive since the handover who has served one term.
Chris Yeung, Chief Writer of newly-launched CitizenNews, is founder and editor of the Voice of Hong Kong website. He is a veteran journalist formerly worked with the South China Morning Post and the Hong Kong Economic Journal. He writes on Greater China issues.
This is the first of a series of articles on the upcoming 2017 Chief Executive election. A Chinese version has and will be published on a new Chinese online platform, CitizenNews (www.hkcnews.com)
Photo: VOHK pictures
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Politics and oil: the unseen drivers of violence in Congo’s Ituri Province
Ituri Province, DRC
Cet article fait partie de notre dossier sur le sujet. Voir toute la couverture ...
GOMA, 4 avril 2018
Fiston Mahamba
Freelance journalist based in Goma
Freelance journalist and regular IRIN contributor
A recent wave of targeted attacks has left a trail of death, destruction, and mass displacement in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeastern province of Ituri.
The roots of the violence are framed in media reports as ethnic, but analysts and local observers say powerful political and commercial interests are what is really driving and exploiting the inter-communal tensions.
Between 1999 and 2004, some 50,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Ituri in fighting between different communities, sometimes backed by Uganda and Rwanda (see our In-Depth coverage). After more than a decade of relative peace, violence flared again in December and resumed in February on an even larger scale. More than 300,000 people have been displaced and thousands of homes torched in at least 70 villages, according to ACAPS, an independent humanitarian information service.
While there is little direct evidence, experts, Ituri residents, and the powerful Catholic clergy have all suggested that unseen forces are driving the violence. Jason Stearns, of the Congo Research Group, noted that inter-communal tensions had been “relatively well managed” since 2007.
Marcel-Heritier Kapitene, a former opposition activist who lives in exile in Belgium, where he works as a researcher on Congolese politics and mineral extraction at GRIP, a peace and security institute, warned that if competition over natural resources is the key underlying factor, as he fears, then the situation is likely to deteriorate.
“It could spread to other areas with a heavy human toll,” Kapitene said. “If a tribal militia allied itself to such and such Congolese or foreign armed group to try to have a certain dominance of minerals, gold, and above all timber, there is reason to fear the consequences could be much more severe.”
He added that, in Ituri: “People are dying; not because they are of one ethnicity or another, but because they share the same land with minerals.”
Unfinished peace
According to Thierry Vircoulon, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, many of Congo’s recent flare-ups, Ituri’s included, are fuelled by politics, often at multiple levels.
“Their immediate causes are local conflicts that have never been completely extinguished and which have been fanned by a national dynamic,” he said, noting an intense power struggle for administrative control in Ituri.
Vircoulon said the locations, perpetrators, and targets of the current violence in Ituri were similar to those at the start of the 1999-2004 fighting. He noted a sense of “déjà vu” and suggested the roots of the previous conflict had never been properly addressed.
“It was neutralised by the joint action of international forces and the International Criminal Court, before which several militia leaders were tried,” he said, referring to Operation Artemis, a French military mission briefly deployed in Ituri in 2002 under an EU banner.
For Nicaise Kibel’Bel Oka, director of the Eastern Congo Centre for Geopolitical Study and Research, chief among those unresolved issues are long-running land disputes between the predominantly agricultural Lendu and the cattle-rearing Hema.
Through Artemis and the ICC trials, “the international community thought it had restored stability to Ituri,” he said. “Sadly not."
“The little peace that reigned for the last 10 years was only ephemeral. It’s what we call a graveyard peace, unsustainable. It wasn’t enough to stop the resumption of violence, given that members of the two communities never handed over weapons they can still use at any time, and that the land disputes between them are still in place.”
Who is killing whom, and where
Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, the army’s spokesman in Ituri, said that youths from Lendu villages have been attacking and torching Hema villages and, more recently, targeting army positions.
The violence has been concentrated in Ituri’s Djugu Territory, which lies to the north of the provincial capital, Bunia. The neighbouring territories of Mahagi and Irumu have also been affected.
The attackers have given no reasons for their actions, and no rebel leader from the dozens of armed groups operating in eastern Congo has expressed common cause with them.
“The security and intelligence services are trying to find out if this is an organised movement, who its leader is, or whether it is a movement of armed bandits,” Ngongo said.
He explained that the attacks were mostly carried out with knives, arrows, and machetes rather than firearms, but said the assailants had taken some guns from the army posts they raided.
Jean-Bosco Lalu, a civil society leader in Ituri, said he hoped further light would be shed on the perpetrators and their motives when the 40-odd people who had been arrested in connection with the attacks appear in court.
So far, the police have yet to release the identities of those detained.
“Here in Ituri, there is nothing like an ethnic or inter-ethnic war,” local bishop Dieudonné Uringi told Radio France Internationale in mid-March. The fact the attackers had communication equipment, money, and were well organised suggested that “invisible hands” were manipulating them, he said.
After a meeting in late February, bishops and archbishops from the region issued a statement warning of powerful forces trying “to pit ethnic communities against each other [that] seems destined to empty these areas of their inhabitants for unknown interests.”
The view of the refugees
Across the border in Uganda, among the 50,000 residents of Ituri who have fled, giving up their homes and their livelihoods, there are strong opinions about who or what is responsible.
“It’s all about oil and elections,” said an Ituri politician and businessman now staying in a refugee settlement.
“All these people you see here come from the areas which are full of oil deposits,” said the man, who asked not to be identified by name. “The government of [President Joseph] Kabila is using the Lendu to hoodwink the international community that the conflict is a result of past differences between the two communities,” he said. Major international oil firms are financing the conflict, he added, but he offered no evidence.
“They think relocating and compensating these people from the prospecting oil areas to allow their exploration will cost them a lot of money,” he said. “So it’s easier to start violence, kill and chase away the Hema instead of incurring costs.”
“People are dying; not because they are of one ethnicity or another, but because they share the same land with minerals.”
Even if there may be a causal connection between oil and violence in Ituri, there is no evidence that the oil companies are instigating the bloodshed. The potential link between oil and violence was noted in a 2013 risk assessment commissioned by French oil giant Total, which last month had its exploration rights in Ituri extended.
“Should one community or group feel excluded or perceive that the benefits of labour, social projects and/or compensation are inequitably distributed, it is likely to create resentment among other communities or groups, and to increase existing divisions and tensions,” warned the assessment. Conflicts could worsen “when compensation is due on land whose ownership is under dispute,” it said, pointing to evidence that even at the time of the report’s writing conflicts over land were “resurging partly because people hope to benefit from oil.”
READ: Oil rich yet on edge in Turkana
Another not necessarily competing theory is that Kabila has a hand in the unrest as he seeks to use it to justify delaying elections and remaining in power – his mandate expired in December 2017 and polls are now scheduled for this December.
“Kabila is ordering the Lendu to cause havoc so that elections don’t take place in DRC,” said Phoebe Dz’venga, a farmer and mother of five who is also among the Ituri residents who fled to Uganda. “When there is war, no elections can be organised.”
Kapitene, the researcher and former opposition activist, said politics was also spurring violence in other parts of Congo, such as Kasai, northern Katanga, and parts of the Kivus. In all these places “Congolese politicians will look for all kinds of ways to derail the electoral process, or postpone it indefinitely,” he said.
“Ituri’s proximity to South Sudan and several uncontrolled parts of the Kivus mean it is affected by the proliferation of light arms,” he noted. “For those who fish in the troubled waters of Congolese politics, it is unfortunately a godsend.”
Among those echoing this analysis was Xavier Macky, who heads Justice Plus, an NGO based in Bunia.
Ituri is an ideal choice of location for political troublemakers “because they know that peace is still fragile there and they think it’s easier to manipulate the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups who are still travelling the hard road of reconciliation,” he told IRIN.
A major bump in that road lies in overcoming deep-seated attitudes about who Ituri belongs to.
"These Lendu people believe Ituri province is their place,” explained Bunia resident Kefa Baraka, now also a refugee in Uganda. “They believe that the Hema, who are known as people who migrated from Uganda to Congo, don’t have a place there."
Kapitene agreed that more should have been done to turn the page on Ituri’s tensions.
“We never helped the Lendu and Hema understand the importance of peaceful cohabitation. We simply stopped the violence without setting in motion proper reconciliation,” he said.
Batidho Banapea, of Search for Common Ground, an international peacebuilding NGO with an office in Bunia, said this effort must begin now. To succeed, the process will have to include many facets, including “the economy, health, education, women, youth, reintegration of former combatants, war victims and children who come out of armed groups,” he said.
In mid-March, the army began a series of operations codenamed Tunapenda Salama (“We Want Peace”) to stem the attacks and re-establish state authority.
Since then, according to Lalu, the civil society leader, safe corridors have opened up and some displaced people have started returning to their villages. The army spokesman said markets in some of the attacked villages have also begun to reopen.
The administrator of Djugu Territory, Alfred Bongwalanga, was encouraged that leaders of both the Hema and Lendu communities have been issuing calls for peace, and for peaceful cohabitation. Neither group profited from the previous conflict and are well aware it slowed down much-needed development in the province, he said.
No attacks against civilians have been reported over the last 10 days. But, according to ACAPS, disruptions of maize harvests mean the impact of the violence in Ituri is likely to last several months. More than 30,000 children in the province are out of school.
If the Hema community do try to retaliate, Lalu warned there could be a repeat of what happened in 1999-2004, when violence spread to engulf all of the province’s communities.
“Right now, we are calling for a total halt in hostilities,” he said. “After that, the courts must do their job properly so that victims benefit from legal reparation mechanisms.”
(Additional reporting by Samuel Okiror in Kyangwali, Uganda)
(TOP PHOTO: On 5 March 2018, internally displaced Congolese are seen in the early morning getting into boats that will take them to the relative safety of Uganda. CREDIT: John Wessels/MSF)
fm-cs-so/am/ag
See our In-Depth coverage of the Ituri Province
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Tyldesley Family History
James Tyldesley 1703
James Tyldesley was christened at Astley on 23 May 1703, this being recorded in the Leigh register.
Is this the same James Tyldesley who died on 24 October 1800 at the age of 98?
Assuming that the age at death is correct, he would have to have been born prior to 24 October 1702. His christening would therefore be later than typical, though still within reasonable bounds.
Posted by Peter J Tyldesley at 2:52 pm
Labels: James Tyldesley 1702-1800, Lancashire, Tyldesley, Tyldesley Family
Charles Tyldesley 1770
In 1770 Charles Varley (also known as Varlo) published A New System of Husbandry. Varley is an interesting character, famous both for his agricultural innovations and for an apparently spurious claim he made to the Governorship of New Jersey.
One of the subscribers to A New System of Husbandry was "Charles Tyldesley, Gent. Ollerton":
Could this be Charles Tyldesley, great-grandson of Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715? Charles Tyldesley was never traced by John Lunn, who said "He was a party to the sale of Holcroft hall on July 27, 1770, and then he disappears silently into darkness" [FN1]. Ollerton in Cheshire is a mere 15 miles from Holcroft Hall.
As will be seen in later postings, Charles Tyldesley was to marry and have children.
1. The Tyldesleys of Lancashire, John Lunn, 1966, page 136
Labels: Charles Tyldesley, Ollerton, Tyldesley, Tyldesley Family
Ralph Tyldesley 1840-1913
A report from the Manchester Evening Chronicle of 19 September 1907:
Mr. RALPH TYLDESLEY
Has been co-opted a member of the Atherton and Tyldesley Local Education Sub-Committee on his retirement after 24 years' service as school attendance officer, which event the teachers of the Tyldesley schools, together with the District Council officials, have celebrated by the presentation to him of a gold watch. Mr. Tyldesley was one of the founders in 1876 of the Tyldesley club, and for 31 years has taken an active part in its management. The club is one of the oldest in Lancashire.
Ralph Tyldesley has many descendants in England, Canada and the USA, and was the father of Addin Tyldesley 1877-1962 who represented Great Britain as a swimmer in the 1908 Olympic Games in London.
A report of Ralph Tyldesley's death in 1913 appears in a later post.
Posted by Peter J Tyldesley at 10:00 am
Labels: Addin Tyldesley 1877-1962, Lancashire, Ralph Tyldesley 1840-1913, Tyldesley, Tyldesley Family
Ralph Tyldesley 1737-1820 has previously been thought to be the son of James Tyldesley 1702-1800. As a baptism record has not been traced there is little evidence to support this suggestion other than the fact that they were buried in the same grave [FN1]. Whilst this may reasonably be regarded as establishing that they were related it is not conclusive proof that the relationship was that of father/son.
1,800 descendants of Ralph Tyldesley have been identified around the world—in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kindom and the United States.
Some limited family details are contained in Ralph Tyldesley's will:
In the Name of God Amen I Ralph Tyldesley of Tyldesley with Shakerley in the County of Lancaster Yeoman being of sound perfect and disposing memory and understanding to make and publish this my last Will and Testament as follows namely I do hereby direct my Trustees and Exors hereinafter named to pay off and discharge all such sun and Sons of money which I shall stand indebted and justly owe at the time of my decease together with my funeral expenses and the charge of the Probate of this my Will within Twelve months after my decease Then I give devise and bequeath all those my four Messuages Cottages or Dwellinghouses with every appurtenance thereunto belonging or in anywise appertaining situate in Tyldesley with Shakerley aforesaid and all and singular other my real and personal estate and effects whatsoever and wheresoever and of what nature kind or quality soever the same may be Unto my son James Tyldesley of Tyldesley with Shakerley aforesaid Weaver and Thomas Radcliffe of the same Township Shopkeeper their Heirs Exors and Admors Upon the trusts and to and for the intents and purposes hereinafter mentioned that is to say in trust to permit and suffer my Granddaughters Sarah and Mary (the daughters of my late daughter Mary deceased) to select and take to their own use and benefit the following parts of my household goods and furniture namely Sarah to take one pair of six fourth looms with every implement thereunto belonging or generally used therewith one Oak Chest or Dresser and Two pictures containing two quarters of the Globe And also to suffer and permit Mary to take one pair of nine eight looms with every implement thereunto belonging or generally used therewith and one Large Box And upon further trust with all convenient speed after my decease to make sale of and absolutely fell the whole of my household furniture save and except such parts as all before mentioned and given to my fate to granddaughters And I do hereby declare that my said Trustees and the survivor of them and the Heirs Exors and Admons of such survivor shall stand seized and possessed of and interested in all and every the said premises and hereditaments and the rents issues and profits thereof and of and in all and every the monies which shall arise from the sale as before directed to be made upon the several trusts and to and for the several end intents and purposes hereinafter mentioned That is to say in trust in the first place that they shall convey assign and transfer unto my said son James Tyldesley his Exors Admors and assigns all those two Messuages Cottages or Dwellinghouses with the appurtenances thereunto belonging or in anywise appertaining situate as aforesaid and now in my own possession and in the possession or occupation of David Brobbin Nevertheless that my said son James shall well and truly pay into the hands of my other Executor the full sum of Twenty pounds of lawfull British Money with lawful interest for the same from the day of the date of my decease until all my just debts shall be paid and duly and fully discharged And as for and concerning all that Cottage Messuage or Dwellinghouse with the appurtenances thereunto belonging situate as aforesaid and now in the possession or occupation of my son in law James Hampson that my said Trustees and the survivors of them and the Exors and Admors of such survivor shall stand seized and possessed thereof and interested therein for and during the term of the natural life of my daughter Ellen wife of the said James Hampson nevertheless she shall be permitted and suffered to take and receive the clear yearly rents and profits after payment of all charges taxes and impositions that may in anywise be imposed upon the said premises or any part thereof and also that she shall from time to time and at all times pay an equal share and proportion of the chief rent that is made payable off the said premises And after the defeat of my said daughter Ellen Then that my said Trustees shall as soon as conveniently may be divide the said premises or the value thereof equally between and amongst all and every the surviving children of my said daughter Ellen share and share alike and to their respective Exors and Admors And as for and concerning all that Messuage Cottage or Dwellinghouse with the appurtenances thereunto belonging situate as aforesaid and now in the possession or occupation of Moses Baxter That my said Trustees and the survivor of them and the Exors and Admors of such survivor shall stand seized and possessed thereof and interested therein until the youngest daughter (of my late daughter Mary deceased) shall obtain the full age of twenty one years And that then my said Trustees shall convey assigns and transfer unto my said granddaughters (the daughters of my late daughter Mary deceased) namely Sarah and Mary Tyldesley all and every the same premises with the appurtenances thereunto belonging and that now are in the possession or occupation of the said Moses Baxter equally between and amongst the said to granddaughters namely Sarah and Mary Tyldesley their Exors and Admors and also the rents profits and interest that may become due from time to time until the younger arrives to the full age of twenty one years as aforesaid and if it so happens that the younger does not arrive at twenty one years of age and the other be then living to the survivor solely anything hearing contained to the contrary notwithstanding And I hereby also declare that it shall be lawful for my said Trustees and the survivor of them his Exors and Admors to reimburse themselves and himself all such costs charges and expenses as they or he shall sustain or be put onto in the Execution of all or any of the trusts of this my Will And that one of them shall not be answerable or accountable for the other or others of them nor the Acts receipts or wilful default of the other or others of them that each of them for his own Acts and receipts and wilful default only and by no means for in voluntary losses And here by revoking all former Will or Wheels by me at any time heretofore made I declared this only to be and contain my true last Wheel and Testament And thereof to nominate constitute and appoint my said son James Tyldesley and Thomas Radcliffe aforesaid Executors
In witness whereof I the said Ralph Tyldesley the Testator have to this my last Will and Testament set my hand and seal this first day of October One thousand eight hundred and seventeen, 1817.
Ralph Tildsley
Signed sealed published and declared by the said Ralph Tyldesley the Testator as and for his last Will and Testament in the presence of us who at his request and in his presence and in the presence of each other have here and to subscribed our names as witnesses:George Partington (his mark) of Tyldesley Weaver
Peter Mitchel of Tyldesley Weaver
John Hope of Shakerley
Proved in the Consistory Court of Chester on 22nd March 1820 by James Tildsley one of the Executors
Power being reserved to Thomas Radcliffe the other executor
Testator died the 28th day of January 1820
Effects under £50
1. See also the rather less than definitive newsclipping from 1889.
Labels: James Tyldesley 1702-1800, Ralph Tyldesley 1737-1820, Tyldesley, Tyldesley Family, Tyldesley Top Chapel
Edward Tyldesley 1622
Edward Tyldesley 1582-1622 was the son of Thomas Tyldesley and Elizabeth Anderton. He married Elizabeth Preston and they had two children: Thomas Tyldesley born in 1612 and a younger son, Edward Tyldesley, who died in infancy.
It is clear from Edward Tyldesley's will that his marriage to Elizabeth Preston was not a happy one:
THE WILL OF EDWARD TILDESLEY OF MORLEYS, CO. LANC., ESQUIRE. 1622[FN1]
MARCH 23, 54 James [1620-1]. Edward Tildesley of Morleyes, co. Lancaster, esquier. To be buried in my owne chappell in the church of Leighe. Whereas I have made choice of a match for my sonne Thomas Tildesley according to my desire and likeing, and haveing accordingly married him to Anne, daughter of Edmond Breres, Esq., who hath paid me £600 for the portion of the said Anne, I require my said sonne at his yeares of consent to accept of the said marriage, as well for that out of my love unto him I have made choice thereof, as also to avoide the paiement of those great somes of money which I have charged him to paie if he refuse to consumate the said marriage, and I do hereby charge my said sonne that he do not suffer himself to be withdrawne from the said marriage by his unkinde mother, whoe by herself and others hath drawne from me contrarie to my meaneing an estate of £200 per annum dureing her widowhood, for my purpose therein was that she should have the same, being Poulton tythes, dureing her widowhood, if I happned to dye without issue male, haveing then none, and not otherwise. Besides she hath so neglected me and her children, myself being sicklie and they young, therein manifesting her litle regard of us ; and my minde and will is that she shall have nothing to do with either of them by tuicion or otherwise, and as far as in me lyeth, and I give the marriage and wardshippe of my sonne Thomas to Edmond Breres. I ratifie the deed of gift of all my goods that I have made to Edmond Breres and Robert Dewhurst. I give them also all such goods as are not given by the said deed, in trust, for Edward Tildesley my younger sonne. My herbage of Mierscough and my lands, &c., in co. Lancaster to my sonne Thomas. I make Edmond Breres gardian of my sonne Thomas (and of my sonne Edward) to the ende that he maie be matched and married to some of his daughters. James Massey, Esq., and Christopher Anderton of Lostock, gent., executors, and Roger Bradshawe, Esq., my unckle, and John Poole, Esq., my brother in lawe, overseers. To my servants two yeares wages. To my executor Christopher Anderton £60.
[Proved at York, 3 October, 1622.]
Edward's son, Thomas Tyldesley, was to become the famous Cavalier, Sir Thomas Tyldesley 1612-1651. Instead of marrying Anne Breres, as his father had wished, Thomas Tyldesley married Frances Standish, probably around 1634.
After Edward Tyldesley's death in 1622, Elizabeth Preston was to remarry twice—first to Thomas Lathom of Parbold and second to Thomas Westby of Bourne Hall. The Preston descent is given in The Preston Genealogy [FN2]:
Christopher Preston, Esq.,
who inherited from his father Holker Park, married first, Margaret Southworth, and second, Miss Jephson, and died on the 27th of May 1594. By his first wife he had issue:
i John Preston ; his successor.
ii Thomas Preston, who married the Lady Wandesworth, of Kirklington, but died without issue,
iii Ann Preston, who married Charles Laton, Esq., of Sexey, in Cleveland, and who also died without issue.
By his second wife Christopher Preston had issue
iv Elizabeth Preston, who married first, Thomas Tildesley, Esq., of Morley,by whom she had two sons, one of whom was the renowned Sir Thomas Tildesley, the celebrated loyalist,who lost his life at the battle of Wigan Lane. She married second, Thomas Latham, Esq., of Parbold; she married third, Thomas Westby, Esq., of Mowbreck, and had children by each husband, but of her issue no further account is given.
At his death Christopher Preston was buried at Cartmel Church, being the first of a long line of notable Prestons there entombed.
1. Chetham Society
2. The Preston Genealogy, L A Wilson, 1900
Labels: Edward Tyldesley 1582-1622, Morley's Hall, Sir Thomas Tyldesley 1612-1651, Tildesley, Tyldesley, Tyldesley Family
Thurstan Tyldesley MP 1554
In 1935 the Chetham Society published biographical sketches of Members of Parliament for Lancashire from 1290 to 1550 [FN1], including Thurstan Tyldesley:
S. and h. of Thomas T. (died 1495) of Tyldesley in West Derby hundred and Wardley in Salford hundred.1 Underkeeper of Myerscough park in Amounderness in 1531.2 Had land in Kellamergh 3 ; and was custodian of Greenhalgh castle, park, profits, etc.4 Receiver-general of Isle of Man 1532.5 Had grant from crown, 1540, in consideration of 326/. 13s. 4d.f of lands in Swinton, Hoghton, Westlakes, Kitepool, Westwood, and Morland in Worsley, part of the possessions of the dissolved monastery of Whalley.6 Acquired lands in Gt. Sankey, West Derby hundred in 1551.7 Returned as M.P. for co. Lanes. 24(F) Oct. 1547.8 His will dated 1547.9 Died 4 July 1554, his s. and h., by his first wife, Thomas, being aged 43 years.10
1. Duchy of Lanc. Inq. p.m. iii, 96 : Homage Roll. (R.S. L. & S. xii, pt. i), 18-20.
2. Duchy Pleadings i, 228. >
3. Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. x, 44.
4. Shirburne Abstract Bk. at Leagram.
5. L. & P. Hen. VIII.
6. P.R. : Towneley MS., DD. 958.
7. Pal.of Lane. Feet of Fines, bdle 14, m. 238.
8. Parliaments of England.
9. Lancs, and Ches. Wills and Inventories, etc., G. J. Piccope (C.S.) i, 97-114.
10. Duchy of Lanc.Inq. p.m. x, 44.
A biographical note with more family details was published in 1889, and a more detailed later sketch is available on the History of Parliament website [FN2].
1. Biographical Sketches of the Members of Parliament of Lancashire 1290-1550, Henry Hornyold-Strickland, Chetham Society, 1935 Vol 93
2. Taken from The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Labels: Lancashire, Thurstan Tyldesley 1554, Tyldesley, Tyldesley Family, Wardley Hall
James Tyldesley 1808-1889
In the papers of Helga Tyldesley 1910-1995 was a photocopy of a newspaper article from 1889 which gives a rather confused history of the Tyldesley family:
THE TYLDESLEY FAMILY
On Monday afternoon the remains of James Tyldesley, of Alexandra Street, Tyldesley were consigned to their last resting place in Tyldesley Chapel Yard. Deceased, who was in his 82nd year, is a descendant of the once mighty Tyldesley family, whose history dates back to the twelfth century. From the twelfth century there are records showing that the Tyldesley were Lords of the Manor of Tyldesley, and not only of Tyldesley, but the greater part of Lancashire. The names of some of the old historic buildings which the Tyldesley's possessed still remain with us, amongst them being Morleys Hall, Bedford, Garrett Hall, Grave Oaks, Light Oaks, Cleworth Hall, Culcheth Hall, Hurst Hall and the Dam House, Astley, but the original buildings have long ago become victims to the hand of the demolisher, so that little or nothing of them is left as a monument of that family's greatness. The Tyldesleys have also been noted for their gallantry, and the later generation embrace with great pride, the name of the Thomas Tyldesley who died fighting in 1651, for the King's cause, at Wigan under James Seventh, the Earl of Derby. At that period the civil rebellion was going on, in the time of Oliver Cromwell, and of the Commonwealth. At Wigan the Royalists were defeated; and in Wigan Lane, there stands a monument perpetuating the memory of Sir Thomas, where he fell. His body was interred at Leigh Parish Church, at the east end, under the heating chamber. The following inscription on brass is placed in the vicinity of the grave "At the east end of the north aisle, formerly the Tyldesley Chantry of St Nicholas within this ancient Parish Church, resteth the body of Sir Thomas Tyldesley, of Tyldesley, Morley Hall and Myerscough in this county, Knight and Major in his Majesty's Army, and Gov ernor of Lichfield, who was slain fighting gallantly for his Royal Master under James, Seventh Earl of Derby, in the Battle of Wigan, near this place, on the twenty-fifth of August 1651." Of the next link of the Tyldesley family, there can be found no record at all, though time after time diligent searches have been made through the registers of Parish Churches—Leigh for one—but those searches reveal nothing as to Sir Thomas's offspring, but in the latter part of the seventeenth, and the early part of the eighteenth century, Thomas Tyldesley, grandson of Sir Thomas, comes to light. His “personal records” for the years 17-12-13-14 were published in the Preston Chronicle of 1872. In the grave where James Tyldesley was interred on Monday afternoon, the body of one Thomas Tyldesley was interred, and the inscription on the tomb stone sheweth that "Thomas Tyldesley departed this life October 24th, 1800, in the 99th year of his age. It is believed that this person is the son of Thomas Tyldesley, the grandson of Sir Thomas, but there is a lack of documentary evidence to this effect. He, however, was the grandfather of James Tyldesley, whose death we record this week, James Tyldesley the father of the latter also being one whose life existed about threescore and ten years. There are also, in the same grave the remains of Ralph Tyldesley who died in the year 1820, aged 75 years, he being a brother to James Tyldesley, the elder. The present generations are descendants mostly of Thos Tyldesley a brother of James Tyldesley the younger, just deceased, James’s two sons having died while young. There are also several children of George Tyldesley, another venerable liver, and then lastly the children's children. There were over 60 at the funeral on Monday, who claim a descendancy from Sir Thomas, the Royalist, and that number only represent those who are of mature years; the younger ones being almost innumerable.
The newspaper in which this report appeared has not yet been identified. In the past it has been suggested that the report provides support for the notion that Ralph Tyldesley 1737-1820 is the son of James Tyldesley 1702-1800. This is crucial as the baptism record of Ralph Tyldesley 1737-1820 has not been located.
However, not only does the report not suggest that James/Ralph are father/son, but in addition it contains four major errors in its short description of the latter history of the Tyldesleys:
It is James Tyldesley not Thomas Tyldesley who died on 24 October 1800.
James Tyldesley 1702-1800 could not have been the grandfather of James Tyldesley who died in 1889. His grandfather is undoubtedly Ralph Tyldesley 1737-1820. James Tyldesley 1702-1800 may be his great-grandfather—but this assumes the unproven father/son relationship between James Tyldesley 1702-1800 and Ralph Tyldesley 1737-1820.
Ralph Tyldesley who died in 1820 was 83 not 75 (this error may have arisen because the gravestone records the death of another Ralph Tyldesley at the age of 75—but that was in 1870 not 1820).
Ralph Tyldesley who died in 1820 is also unlikely to have been "brother to James , the elder". We know that their respective years of birth are approximately 1737 and 1702, and the 35 year gap makes it highly improbable that they share a mother. They could be step-brothers but there is simply no evidence whatsoever to suggest this—it seems more likely that the report is simply a muddle.
It may be added that the report is quite wrong to suggest that there are no traces of the link between Sir Thomas Tyldesley 1612-1651 and Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715, the Diarist. The writer was clearly aware of the publication in 1873 of the Tyldesley Diary 1712-1714, and that volume contains the Tyldesley pedigree produced by Joseph Gillow and Anthony Hewitson along with further details of the link—Edward Tyldesley 1635-1685. And, in any event, Edward Tyldesley is a well-known figure.
In short, it seems unwise to rely on this report for details of the family relationships.
The two brothers of James Tyldesley 1808-1889 were Thomas Tyldesley 1801-1877 who married Esther Lythgoe 1806-1875 and George Tyldesley 1804-1871 who married Alice Blackly 1802-1881.
Labels: James Tyldesley 1702-1800, Ralph Tyldesley 1737-1820, Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715, Tyldesley
The Battle of Wigan Lane 1651
Sir Thomas Tyldesley 1612-1651 was slain at the Battle of Wigan Lane on Monday 25 August 1651. A monument to Sir Thomas was later erected on the spot by his former Cornet, Alexander Rigby. The battle was described by Ernest Broxap in The Great Civil War in Lancashire [FN1]:
It was a gallant company of royalists who rode out of Wigan that August afternoon to make their last stand for the King in Lancashire. In command was the Earl of Derby, the uncompromising enemy of the Parliament; and with him were Sir Thomas Tyldesley, the hero of many fights, the perfect exponent of all the cavalier virtues; Lord Widdrington, "one of the most goodly persons of that age, being near the head higher than most tall men, and a gentleman of the best and most ancient extraction"(1) ; Sir William Throgmorton, who had been Major-General in Newcastle's Yorkshire army; Colonel Boynton, some time Governor of Scarborough for the Parliament, and their chief instrument in the discovery of the Hothams' plot to betray Hull; with many others of equal bravery but of less note. Opposed to them were the stern, well disciplined cavalry of the Cromwellian army. The two forces were absolutely typical of the opposing armies of the Civil War. It is said that when Lilburne's men saw that they must fight they turned on the country people who had come out to see their march and dispersed them with harsh words.
The two forces were nearly equal in cavalry, for the Earl of Derby had by now 600, and Lilburne his own regiment, which would be 600 if the ranks were full; and Lilburne also had about 60 horse and dragoons which Birch had mounted for him from the Liverpool garrison. The royalists were superior in foot, having 800 to the Cromwellians 300; but the advantage was not so great as it appeared, for the Manxmen whom Derby had brought over with him were poor fighters; and moreover the battle was essentially a cavalry engagement, in which infantry played only a subordinate part. Wigan Lane was then a broad sandy lane bordered by hedges, and was thus as unsuitable a position for manoeuvring cavalry as could be imagined; but the time was too short for Lilburne to choose any other ground. Placing his musketeers behind the hedges, he awaited the royalist onset. The place had other memories for him, and perhaps for some of his men; for it was here that he had driven in Hamilton's rearguard in the campaign of 1648.
Difficult as the ground was, the combat which ensued was the fiercest of all the 10 years fighting in Lancashire. So furious was the royalist charge that they drove back the Cromwellians far along the lane. In the confined space no manoeuvring was possible, and for nearly an hour the cavalry fought at close quarters. At length at the third charge Lilburne brought up a small reserve, and the superior steadiness of the veterans of the new Model prevailed over the impetuous bravery of the cavaliers. The royalists wavered and began to give ground; Widdrington fell dead, Tyldesley was unhorsed and shot down as he attempted to extricate himself from the press, Derby himself was wounded, and Lilburne's men chased the now broken royalist squadrons down the hill into Wigan. The pursuit and slaughter continued through the streets and town. The rout was complete; Throgmorton and Boynton were also among the slain which numbered 300; 400 prisoners were taken, and the rest of the force melted away. In an hour the hopes of the royalists in Lancashire had been destroyed.
The Earl of Derby, who had fought with his accustomed bravery, was surrounded by six of his men and succeeded in reaching the town, where he slipped in through an open door of a house in the Market Place and lay concealed until nightfall. He had a number of slight wounds about the arms and shoulders, and his beaver which he wore over a steel cap was picked up afterwards in the Lane with thirteen sword cuts upon it. In the middle of the night he left his place of refuge disguised in a trooper's old coat, and accompanied only by Colonel Roscarrock and two servants, made his way out of the town and rode away to join the King.
1. The Great Civil War in Lancashire, Ernest Broxap, 1973 (2nd edition)
Labels: Sir Thomas Tyldesley 1612-1651, Tyldesley, Tyldesley Monument, Wigan Lane
Ambrose Barlow 1585–1641
Ambrose Barlow was canonized by Pope Paul VI and is one the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
Ordained as a priest in 1617, Barlow returned to England and took up residence with the Tyldesley family at Morleys Hall. He benefited from a pension left by Elizabeth Tyldesley née Anderton—grandmother of Sir Thomas Tyldesley 1612-1651—to enable him to take charge of poor Catholics in the area.
Barlow was seized at Morleys Hall as described by H V Hart-Davis [FN1]:
Morleys being in the Parish of Leigh, it is possible that this unchristian action was attributable to the then vicar the Rev. James Gottley, in his fanatical zeal for the reformed religion. Whoever this minister may have been, he suggested to his congregation that they should, in lieu of the usual prayers and sermon, embark in work more worthy of their zeal for the Gospel and go along with him to apprehend the noted Popish Priest Barlow, whom they would be sure to find in the midst of his flock at that time.
Relishing the proposition, the congregation to the number of some 400, armed with clubs and swords, followed the minister to the house where Mr. Barlow, having finished Mass, was making an exhortation to his people, about 100 in number, on the subject of 'Patience.' Though acting without a warrant, the minister ransacked the mansion at Morleys and arrested the Priest, carrying him before a neighbouring Justice of the Peace named 'Risley' probably a member of the family of that name seated at Risley Hall in the Parish of Winwick. By him the martyr was sent under an escort of 60 armed men to Lancaster. Information of the capture was dispatched to the Council, and on Friday, May 20, 1641, the following resolution was passed by the Lords :—
'Whereas this House was informed that a Romish Priest was apprehended on Easter Day last past, at the Hall of Morleys in the County of Lancaster, called by the name of Edward Barlow; who, upon his examination, confessed himself a Romish Priest, and has received orders at Arras, he being now committed to the Common Jail at Lancaster; it is ordered that the said Edward Barlow shall be proceeded against at the next Assizes, for the said County, according to Law.'
In accordance therewith Father Barlow was brought to trial, at the next Assizes, on September 7th, before Sir Robert Heath, who had received instructions from the Puritan Parliament to see that the extreme penalty of the Law was executed upon any Priest convicted at Lancaster 'for a terror to the Catholics, who were numerous in that County.'
As Father Barlow freely acknowledged himself to be a Priest, the Judge directed the Jury to bring him in 'guilty' and on the following day he sentenced him to death in the usual barbarous form. On September 10th the martyr was drawn on a hurdle to the .place of execution at Lancaster, and there hanged, cut down, and butchered, his quarters being parboiled in a cauldron of tar as was customary in such cases, in the 55th year of his age and the 24th of his priesthood.
1. History of Wardley Hall, H V Hart-Davis, 1908
Labels: Ambrose Barlow, Morleys Hall, Sir Thomas Tyldesley 1612-1651, Tyldesley
Sir Thomas Tyldesley 1612-1651
As yet the newspaper in which this piece appeared has not been identified—if you recognise it please let me know!
A Famous Lancashire Soldier
Sir T Tyldesley
Myerscough Lodge,Near Preston
It was the beginning of the Civil War, the breach between the King and his Parliament gradually became widened, and early in 1642 Charles had removed his Court to York. Here he received a petition from Lancashire signed by numerous knights, divines, and some 7,000 freeholders, in which they expressed their satisfaction in the measures taken by the King, but regretting " the distance and misunderstanding between Your Majesty and Your Parliament."
The King having made a last attempt to come to terms with the House of Commons, and failing in this, Parliament ceased to ask for the Royal Assent to their Bills, and by order of their own took full command of the militia. Negotiations having come to an end. Charles raised his standard at Nottingham, August 22nd, 1642.
This great civil strife was not one war but many wars, and the trouble had begun in Lancashire before the King had declared war at Nottingham. The first outburst took place at Preston, when the High Sheriff called a meeting and had read the King's reply to the petition already mentioned. This meeting broke up in great confusion, the greater number of people rallying round the opposition.
This same High Sheriff, having surprised the garrison at Preston and seized all the powder in the magazine, and Lord Strange, soon after to become the seventh Earl of Derby, having done the same thing at Liverpool, they both repaired to Bury. This so alarmed tne people of Manchester that they immediately took up arms, to the number of some 7,000 men.
Here it is that the subject of this short sketch comes into prominence, Sir Thomas Tyldesley, of Myerscough Lodge, near Preston. He, along with Lord Strange, paid a visit to Manchester, ostensibly to attend a banquet. During the dinner a Parliamentary force entered the town, and beat to arms. Tyldesley and Strange, with a small retinue, turned out, and a riot ensued, then the long struggle between the Monarchy and the Parliament may be said to have begun.
Tyldesley took an active part on the side of the King, raising at his own charge regiments of horse, foot, and dragoons, in command of which he served with distinction at the battle of Edgehill. His next notable exploit was the storming of the town of Burton-on-Trent, and for this he received the honour of knighthood, and was made a brigadier.
Later he was in command of a division of the army besieging Lancaster with the expectation of a quick surrender of the place when the Royal forces were totally defeated at Preston. August 17th, 1648. Obliged to retreat to the North, Tyldesley joined others of the Royalists at Appleby. Here, finding defence impossible, he along with others surrendered on October 9th, 1648, on terms which required the officers to go beyond the seas, and meanwhile to observe all ordinances and orders of Parliament.
Passing over to Ireland, he later returned with troops to join Charles II in his advance into England. The King sent word for him to hasten to him in the summer of 1651, when he, the King, was actually quartered at Myrescough Lodge, Tyldesley's home.
In that same year, Tyldesley was killed in a desparate engagement at Wigan Lane, the Royal army losing nearly half its officers and men, and was totally defeated.
The illustration reproduced here, is from a steel engraving, dated 1836, kindly lent by Mr. David Watt, of Hutton. It is taken from a picture in the possession of Sir William Hulton of Hulton Park, near Bolton.
In order to visualise what the Civil War meant, I will just mention what took place near home. The Parliamentary forces being at one time in possession of almost the whole of the county, much plundering took place in the Fylde district cattle being taken and houses sacked, and sometimes burnt, and I need hardlv mention the memorable siege of Lathom House. Greenhalgh Castle, near Garstang, or the part that Clitheroe Castle, etc., played during this terrible time.
Nothing now remains of the original structure of Myerscough Lodge except a few moulded stones built into the fabric of the present building of that name, which stands on the same site as the original.It will perhaps be of interest, to some of my readers, to know that Sir Thomas Tyldesley was buried in his own chapel of St. Nicholas in the Church of Leigh—where a monument covers his remains.—A.W.
Posted by Peter J Tyldesley at 12:30 pm
Labels: Myerscough, Sir Thomas Tyldesley 1612-1651, Tyldesley, Tyldesley Family
The Parliamentary Representation of Lancashire (County and Borough) 1258-1885 published in 1889 [FN1] gives a short biography of Thurstan Tyldesley:
Edward VI.
1547. Nov. 8. THURSTAN TYLDESLEY
Thurstan Tyldesley, of Tyldesley, in the Parish of Leigh, and of Wardley, in Eccles. The Tyldesleys were identified with the manor of that name at a very early date, their first recorded ancestor, Henry de Tyldesley, holding the tenth part of a Knight's fee, apparently of the Botelers Lords of Warrington, in the reign of Henry III. Wardley was acquired three generations later by the marriage of Thurstan de Tyldesley with the daughter and co-heiress of Jordan de Workesley, of Wardley.
Fifth in descent from the last-named Thurstan was Thomas de Tyldesley, Receiver-General of the Isle-of-Man under the first Earl of Derby. He was the father of the member for the County who likewise held the office of Receiver-General in 1532 and died in 1553. Of his two sons the elder, Thomas, continued the family at Wardley Hall, while Edward, the younger, acquiring the estate of Morley's Hall, in Astley, by marriage with the daughter and heiress of Thomas Leyland, Esq., founded the branch of Tyldesley of Morleys and Myerscough. Sir Thomas Tyldesley, Attorney-General for the County, and one of the Council of the North temp., James I, was of the elder branch, being grandson of the last-named Thomas. He died in 1635, leaving an only son, Richard Tyldesley, of Tyldesley and Wardley, at whose death, s. p., in 1632, the Wardley Hall line failed. His sisters and co-heiresses were Elizabeth, wife of Edmund Breres, of Brockhall, and Anne, married to Thomas Southworth, of Samlesbury. At the extinction of the senior line the Manor of Tyldesley passed to the younger branch then represented by the grandson of the before-named Edward, the celebrated Sir Thomas Tyldesley, of Morleys and Myerscough, Major-General in the Royal Army during the Civil War and Governer of Lichfield, who lost his life in the conflict at Wigan Lane in 1651. Descendants of this well-known cavalier officer were living at the close of the last century, though without estate, and it is not unlikely that representatives of this ancient Lancashire family still exist in comparative poverty and obscurity.
Arms of Tyldesley of Tyldesley : Argent, three mole-hills vert.
Thurstan Tyldesley was married twice and the two sons mentioned, Thomas and Edward, were half-brothers.. Thurstan's first wife was Parnell Shakerley and his second wife was Jane Langton, daughter of Ralph Langton, Baron of Newton.
A further biographical note—though with fewer family details—was published by the Chetham Society in 1935. There is also a more detailed sketch on the History of Parliament website
1. The Parliamentary Representation of Lancashire (County and Borough) 1258-1885, W Duncombe Pink and the Reverend Alfred B Beavan, 1889
Posted by Peter J Tyldesley at 7:30 am
Labels: Lancashire, Thurstan Tyldesley 1554, Thurstan Tyldesley MP, Tyldesley, Tyldesley Family
The Bleasdell Boulder
As noted in a previous posting, Agatha Tyldesley, daughter of Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715, married John Bleasdell of Goosnargh and had a son, also John Bleasdell.
Betty Savich of Ontario, Canada, the great-great-great-granddaughter of this younger John Bleasdell, has recorded her descent as follows:
John Bleasdell, son of John Bleasdell and Agatha Tyldesley
James Bleasdell 1767-1830 married Mary Hodson
William Bleasdell 1817-1889 married Agnes Cowell 1816-1894 in 1838 and emigrated to Canada in 1848
William Henry Bleasdell 1848-1910 married Agnes McCuaig 1859-1926 in 1879
Douglas Ralph Bleasdell 1893-1958 married Katherine Margaret McClement 1903-1927 in 1921
Betty Nona Bleasdell 1926- married John Savich 1917-1999 in 1953
A short biography of William Bleasdell 1817-1889 has been published by the Canadian Archival Information Network:
William Bleasdell, Anglican clergyman, was born in England in 1817, the son of James Bleasdell and Mary Hodson, and died in 1889. He was ordained deacon in 1845 and priest in 1846. He came to Canada in 1848 and became priest of St. George's Church in Trenton, Upper Canada. In 1862 he became examining chaplain of the Diocese of Ontario and in 1874 senior canon of St. George's Cathedral in Kingston. He wrote on historical and scientific subjects and in 1876 the University of Trinity College, Toronto, awarded him the degree of D.C.L.He and his wife Agnes had eleven children, three of whom died in infancy.
William Bleasdell took a particular interest in the geology of the Trenton area, and a granite boulder—argued to be the largest glacial erratic in North America—bears his name. It measures 13.4 metres long, 7.3 metres wide and 6.7 metres high and is now part of a conservation area managed by Lower Trent Conservation.
Labels: Bleasdell, Canada, Lancashire, Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715, Tyldesley
Agatha Tyldesley
Agatha Tyldesley was the daughter of Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715 by his second wife Agatha Winckley. She is mentioned in the Tyldesley Diary 1712-1714, which was published by Joseph Gillow and Anthony Hewitson in 1873. However, the 1873 edition of the diary did not include the later notes in a different hand which appear in the manuscript.
It seems clear that these are notes by Agatha Winckley—widowed by the death of Thomas Tyldesley in 1715. For example, in March 1724, Agatha records a visit from her daughter:
Aggey came from Sunderland
On Munday the March fair day
It was the beast faire
passion week
Sunderland is likely to be Sunderland Point, Overton—north along the coast from Fox Hall.
Agatha Tyldesley married John Bleasdell, who later died in a hunting accident on Ribbleton Moor. She had one son, also John Bleasdell. From this son there are many descendants including a major branch of the Bleasdell family in Canada.
Gillow and Hewitson [FN1] recount a Bleasdell family tradition that it is after the death of her husband that Agatha Tyldesley renounced the Roman Catholic faith:
Agatha married John Bleasdell, a Roman Catholic, who was killed by a fall from his horse while hunting on Ribbleton Moor. There is a tradition in the Bleasdell family that after her husband's death, she was in the habit of resorting to Broughton Church-yard, with her only son, to visit his grave, and that whilst sitting amongst the tombs during the time of service, she was attracted by the music and services within the Church. At first, says the tradition, she paid no attention to these services, then she listened at the windows, afterwards at the porch, and eventually she went into the Church, and embraced the Reformed Faith. The consequence of this step was, all her father's friends and relations, with the exception of her sister, were alienated from her. After her father's death, Winifred, who was never married, resided with her sister Agatha until her marriage, at Myerscough Planks, a small enclosure of land, with cottage and garden, a remnant of the Diarist's estate. This small estate (on the Preston side of the Ree-Buck Inn) was sold by the executors of the late James Bleasdell (the son of John Bleasdell, the grandson of the Diarist), whose son, the Rev. William Bleasdell [FN2], of the Rectory, Trenton, Canada, is the present representative of the family.
1. The Tyldesley Diary 1712-1714, Joseph Gillow and Anthony Hewitson, 1873 at page 87
2. After whom the Bleasdell Boulder was named
Labels: Bleasdell, Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715, Tyldesley, Tyldesley Diary 1712-1714
Edward Hyde, the first Earl of Clarendon, held a high opinion of Sir Thomas Tyldesley 1612-1651. In The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, he described his character thus:
Sir Thomas Tildesley was a gentleman of a good family, and a good fortune, who had raised men at his own charge at the beginning of the war, and had served in the command of them till the very end of it, with great courage; and refusing to make any composition after the murder of the king, he found means to transport himself into Ireland to the marquis of Ormond; with whom he stayed, till he was, with the rest of the English officers, dismissed, to satisfy the barbarous jealousy of the Irish; and then got over into Scotland a little before the king marched from thence, and was desired by the earl of Derby to remain with him. The names of the other persons of quality who were killed in that encounter (FN1), and those who were taken prisoners, and afterwards put to death, ought to be discovered, and mentioned honourably, by any who shall propose to himself to communicate those transactions to the view of posterity.
The portrait is an early 19th century stipple engraving by Robert Cooper. This is supposedly based on the Hulton portrait, but the resemblance seems limited—in particular the jawline and the shape of the face are quite different.
1. The Battle of Wigan Lane, 25 August 1651.
Labels: Lancashire, Sir Thomas Tyldesley 1612-1651, Tildesley
James Tildsley 1702-1800
Was James Tyldesley who died on 24 October 1800 a son of Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715, the Diarist?
It seems clear that they were related, and some researchers and writers have stated unequivocally that they were father and son:
Some people have wondered where Thomas Tyldesley, grandson of Sir Thomas Tyldesley, the royalist, lived when he came to Lancaster, about 1712. I may remark that he lived in a large house, formerly belonging to the Gibson family at the Stonewell end of St. Leonard Gate. He was buried at Churchtown, Garstang, prior to 1715, according to the Churchtown registers. He left a son, James, who lived to be 99 years old, and who died October 24th, 1800 (FN1).
The difficulties with this theory are twofold:
First, the only documentary evidence we have of the birth of a son James to the Diarist is the birth recorded in the Newchurch registers. This is clearly not the James who died at the age of 98 in 1800, since he was born in 1690. It has therefore been suggested that the James born in 1690 died when a child and that there was a second son named James Tyldesley. To be born in 1702, he would have to be a son of Agatha Winckley. It is known that a James Tyldesley, son of Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1714, was alive in 1755 when he was mentioned in the probate papers of his aunt, Anna Maria Tyldesley. However to date no evidence has been produced to show that James Tyldesley who was born in 1690 died prior to 1702, or indeed that Agatha Winckley had a son of that name.
Second, the baptism of a James Tyldesley at Astley was recorded at Leigh on 23 May 1703—his father being Ralph Tyldesley of Astley. One of the Tyldesleys' homes at this time was Morleys Hall in Astley. On the face of it, it seems more likely that this is the James who died in 1800, but can we be sure?
There is a further uncertainty. Was James Tyldesley 1702-1800 the father of Ralph Tyldesley 1737-1820? Most have assumed this to be the case since they were buried in the same grave. However whilst this establishes they were related it is not conclusive evidence that the relationship was that of father/son.
1. Historic Notes on the Ancient Borough of Lancaster, Cross Fleury, 1891.
Labels: James Tyldesley 1702-1800, Lancashire, Ralph Tyldesley 1737-1820, Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715, Tildsley, Tyldesley
Leigh Journal 16 February 2012
Peter seeks to preserve family history
By BRIAN GOMM
AN interesting relic of the descendants of Sir Thomas Tyldesley (1612·1651), the famous Cavalier, has been rediscovered and preserved.
Much is known of the Cavalier's grandson, Thomas Tyldesley, since he left a diary for the years 1712 to 1714.
However, by 1765 most of the family estates had been sold, and the family had fallen from prominence. Those descendants remaining locally lived in straitened circumstances.
With the arrival of Lady Huntingdon's Connexion in Tyldesley, the family gave up its adherence to Roman Catholicism, the faith to which it had been true for so long.
Ralph Tyldesley, 1737 to 1820, became the first warden at Tyldesley Top Chapel when it opened in 1789, and from 1793 the family burial plot was in the chapel graveyard.
For many years the earliest surviving Tyldesley gravestone could be seen there, recording, among others, the death of James Tyldesley in 1800, at what for the time was the extraordinary age of 98.
In 1947 the Top Chapel graveyard was reduced in size by Tyldesley Urban District Council to allow the widening of Astley Street, and the Tyldesley gravestone was one of a group moved and laid flat in Tyldesley Cemetery.
Unfortunately, the ground was not adequately prepared, and over the years most of these relocated gravestones have suffered significant damage.
Indeed, by 2011 the Tyldesley gravestone had been shattered into 14 pieces, was partially buried and had a small tree growing through it.
Although the gravestone was irreparable, a descendant of the family, Peter J Tyldesley, has paid for the pieces to be preserved, and for an exact replica of the original to be cut by K Bates, Master Masons of Leigh.
The replica, recently installed at Tyldesley Cemetery, will preserve the information it carries for future generations.
Mr Tyldesley, an academic at the University of Manchester, owns the manuscript of the Tyldesley Diary, and is conducting a DNA study to trace male line descendants of the Tyldesleys.
Labels: James Tyldesley 1702-1800, Ralph Tyldesley 1737-1820, Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715, Tildsley, Tyldesley, Tyldesley Family, Tyldesley Top Chapel
The Bispham registers
Bispham Church—rebuilt 1883
In the latter part of his life, Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715, the Diarist, appears to have spent much of his time at Myerscough Lodge or Fox Hall. It may be that his eldest son, Edward Tyldesley had been given the use of Holcroft Hall.
The closest church to Fox Hall was the Parish Church of All Saints in Bispham. This fell into disrepair, was demolished in 1883 and replaced. However the registers survive and were published in (FN1). They contain two entries of interest.
First, there is a note recording the birth of a daughter to Thomas Tyldesley and his second wife Agatha Winckley. It confirms the antipathy which existed towards the family's religious convictions:
Winifrid d. of Tho: Tildsley of Blackpoole within Layton cu Warbrecke was borne the 8th & Baptised as they say by a Roman Prist the—11 October 1701.
Second, a burial is recorded:
Charles s. of Thomas Tildeslay of Blackpoole within Layton cu Warbrecke—9 11 May 1705
For the burial, two dates are given. The first is the date of the burial and the second is the date of the affidavit required under the Burial in Woollen Acts 1666-80—legislation which provided that the dead other than plague victims should be buried in pure English wool shrouds. No indication is given of the age of Charles Tyldesley at death. It seems likely that he was young and therefore a son of Agatha Winckley, but from this entry alone it is impossible to be certain.
Entries in the Tyldesley Diary 1712-1714 indicate that there was a second daughter of the marriage with Agatha Winckley. On 1 May 1712 Thomas Tyldesley met his creditors. This led to an argument with Dick Stanley, who objected to an allowance for the two daughters of his second marriage:
the referrys al mett at dick Jackson's, but did not complete the sedull, because all the debts were nott comen in, and partly because my good cos germond Dick Stanley would not consent my 2 2nd doughrs tho theyr mothr brought above £700, which made us all in confusion...
The name of the second daughter was Agatha Tyldesley. Agatha is mentioned by name later in the diary on 28 September 1712 after her father had taken her with him on horseback to Aldcliffe:
In the morning tucke Aggy behind mee to Aldcliffe, to payrs, and the remaindr off the day att home...
It is Agatha Tyldesley who married John Bleasdell and whose descendants can now be found in Canada and the USA.
With the information from the Tyldesley Diary 1712-1714 and the registers from Garstang, Newchurch and Bispham it is possible to start to put together a list of the children of Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715. First, however, there is a question to be addressed regarding James Tyldesley.
1. Lancashire Parish Register Society, Vol 33, 1908.
Labels: Fox Hall, Lancashire, Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715, Tildsley, Tyldesley, Tyldesley Diary 1712-1714, Tyldesley Family
Fox Hall, Blackpool
Fox Hall was built in the latter part of the 17th century by Edward Tyldesley 1635-1685. His son, Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1714, is frequently to be found living there during the period for which his diary survives. The location at Blackpool—then largely a deserted coastline—has inevitably led to speculation that it was chosen to allow the Tyldesleys to practise their religion and pursue their political interests away from the public gaze.
A nearby "black pool" draining dark water from Marton Moss gave the area its name (FN1):
The peaty coloured pool, which gives name to the place, is at the south end of Blackpool, near the house called Fox Hall, once a sequestered residence of the gallant family of the Tyldesley but now a farm house.
Baines states that the property gained its name from the fact that the Tyldesleys kept a fox chained near the door (FN2). This may well be true—certainly Thomas Tyldesley records the purchase of a fox cub in his diary (FN3). Fishwick briefly described the property in 1887 (FN4):
Fox Hall
This house is not so old as has been generally supposed. It was erected by Edward Tyldesley of Morley (the son of Sir Thomas Tyldesley, slain at Wigan, Lancashire, in 1651) in the time of Charles II. It was originally a small three-gabled building, with a small tower at one side of it. The walls were made of sea-shore cobble stones, and were of great thickness. Over the main entrance was engraved " Seris factura nepotibus," a motto which Edward Tyldesley expected would be his own, as his name was down on the list of " Knights of the Royal Oak," which Charles II at one time proposed to create as a means of rewarding the faithful supporters of the Stuarts. Over the south gateway was inserted a stone on which was chiselled a pelican feeding her young, round which was inscribed “Tantum valet amor regiae et patriae." Inside the hall was a priest's hiding place, long known as the "king's cupboard," tradition saying that it was erected for King James (who, however, never came there) during the plots of 1690 and 1694. During the rebellion of 1715 Fox Hall was a private rendezvous for Popish recusants.
After its sale by the Tyldesleys in the early 18th century Fox Hall was used as a farm house, a hotel and a pub. Until the late 1980s some parts of the property survived. However, permission was granted for clearance of the site and the erection of this hideous building, which was completed in 1991. All traces of the oldest habitation in Blackpool were thus lost.
1. History, Directory and Gazetteer of the County Palatine of Lancaster, Edward Baines, 1824
3. The Tyldesley Diary 1712-1714, Joseph Gillow and Anthony Hewitson, 1873
4. The History of the Parish of Bispham in the County of Lancaster, Henry Fishwick, 1887.
Labels: Edward Tyldesley 1635-1685, Fox Hall, Tyldesley, Tyldesley Diary 1712-1714
The Newchurch registers
Newchurch—before the fire of 1903
As has been noted, the Tyldesley pedigree produced by Gillow and Hewitson in 1873 incorrectly names the second wife of Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1714 as Mary Rigby, rather than Agatha Winckley. It also fails to identify all of the children of the two marriages—and appears to place certain children with the wrong mother.
These may seem odd errors given that Gillow and Hewitson were editing the diary of Thomas Tyldesley. In fairness, however, it must be borne in mind that many of the records now available had not been published in 1873, and that the diary contains only limited information relating to members of Thomas Tyldesley's family.
Gillow and Hewitson concluded that Thomas Tyldesley had ten children:
Eleanor Holcroft
1. Edward Tyldesley
2. Francis
3. Elizabeth
4. Eleanor
Mary Rigby
6. Charles
7. Fleetwood
8. James
9. Agatha
10. Winifrid
In looking for the children of Eleanor Holcroft the relevant time frame is from 1679 when she married Thomas Tyldesley to 1693 when she died. It was by this marriage that the Tyldesleys gained Holcroft Hall (FN1) where Thomas and Eleanor lived until her death. In 1903, the nearby parish church of Newchurch in Culcheth, was destroyed by fire (FN2). Fortunately the registers survived. Published in 1905 (FN3) they include the following entries:
Edward s. of Mr Thomas Tilselie of Houlcraft Esquire—27 November 1679
ffleetwood s. of Mr Thomas Tilsely of Houlcraft Esquire—2 feberuarie 1682
Marie d. of Mr Thomas Tilsely of houlcraft Esquire—25 March 1684
Ann: d. of Mr Thomas Tilsely of houlcraft Esquire—18 Jully 1685
Eleanor Tilsley borne the 15 of November 1686
Ann Tilsley born the 14 of November 1687
Thomas Tilsley born the 10 of January 1688
James Tilsley born the 4 of May 1690
It follows that Gillow and Hewitson omitted three children altogether—Thomas and the two daughters named Ann. In addition, they appear to have allocated Fleetwood and James to the wrong mother. The other possibility, of course, is that Fleetwood and James died in infancy, and later sons were given the same names. It can be seen, for example, that the name Ann was given to two daughters. From the Garstang registers 1660-1734 we can see the reason for this, the first Ann sadly died and was buried on 21 June 1686.
At least one daughter, Frances, does not appear in the Newchurch register. Frances was later to join the Benedictines at Ghent where she was clothed aged 29 on 4 November 1721 and professed aged 34 on 21 November 1725. If we regard these details as accurate the implication is that she was born between 5 and 21 November 1691 inclusive. She was therefore a daughter of Eleanor Holcroft.
There appears to be a reference to a further daughter in the diary of Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715 on 21 July 1713:
...then doughr Betty and I went towards Preston...
John Lunn took this to mean that there was a daughter Elizabeth (FN4).
1. By this marriage the Tyldesleys also gained a connection to the notorious Colonel Blood who attempted to steal the Crown jewels. Colonel Blood was married to Eleanor's aunt, Mary Holcroft.
2. After the fire on 19 April 1903, the church was swiftly rebuilt and opened again in 1905. More information is available from its website.
3. Lancashire Parish Register Society, Volume 22, 1905.
4. History of the Tyldesleys of Lancashire, John Lunn, 1966 (page 100).
Labels: Holcroft Hall, Lancashire, Thomas Tyldesley 1657-1715, Tyldesley, Tyldesley Diary 1712-1714, Tyldesley Family
Contact and Home
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Including: Tyldesley, Tildesley, Teldesley, Tiddesly, Tidsley, Tildeslay, Tildeslegh Tildesly, Tildisley, Tildley, Tildsley, Tildsleyes, Tilsbey, Tilsdley, Tilsley, Tilsleye, Tilsly, Tinsley, Tyddesley, Tyldesly, Tylslay, Tylsley, Tynsley
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You are at: Homepage > Conflict info > News summaries > Archive of WiBs, MiBs, YiBs > WiB July 21 - 27, 2003
July 28th 2003 · Prague Watchdog · PRINTER FRIENDLY FORMAT · E-MAIL THIS · ALSO AVAILABLE IN:
The Week in Brief: July 21 - 27, 2003
Summary of the main news related to the conflict in Chechnya. Compiled by Prague Watchdog.
Aslan Maskhadov, President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, stated in a press release carried by Chechen news agency Chechenpress that he supports the proposal of Chechnya's "conditional independence" under international control, which was worked out by the Foreign Ministry of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
No major events.
Some 200 Chechen guerrillas have applied for amnesty since the moment it was declared, and about 90 of them have been granted the amnesty already, said Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov.
Chechen businessman Malik Saydullayev officially announced his intention to take part in the election of the President of the Chechen Republic, which the Kremlin will organize on October 5. Saydullayev asked the Chechen Election Committee to register him as a presidential candidate on July 25.
Avkhad Khachukayev of the Chechen State University asked the Chechen Election Committee to register him as a candidate for the President of the Chechen Republic, which the Kremlin will organize on October 5. Khachukayev was a member of the group that formally initiated the holding of the Moscow-organized referendum on the new Chechen constitution this March.
The Russian police stated that in the village of Tolstopaltsevo on the outskirts of Moscow it discovered explosive devices among which there were belts with explosives of the same type that have been recently used by Chechen suicide bombers.
At a meeting with the Moscow-backed leadership of the Chechen Republic, Russian President Vladimir Putin said without elaboration that Akhmad Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed acting president of the Chechen Republic, will join the Russian delegation that will represent Russia at the United Nations for a year.
The North Caucasus military district court sentenced Russian Colonel Yuri Budanov to 10 years in prison for the abduction and murder of Chechen girl Elza Kungayeva in late March 2000. Both Budanov's defence lawyer as well as the lawyer of Kungayeva's family said they would appeal against the verdict.
The new constitution of Dagestan, which was adopted on July 10, came into force. The constitution envisages the creation of the post of president, who will replace the State Council, which has so far been the top executive body of the republic.
According to Russian sources, a female suicide bomber attempted to assasinate Akhmad Kadyrov's son Ramzan Kadyrov, who commands one of the units protecting the Moscow-backed acting president of the Chechen Republic. The incident took place near Akhmad Kadyrov's residence in the Tsotsin-Yurt village. Thanks to security guards the woman failed to approach the building; however, the blast killed a woman that was just passing by.
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John Klimesh has found his way to give back to WMC Home Health and Hospice
Released: 06/23/16
John Klimesh and his wife, Mary, with Winneshiek Medical Center Home Health and Hospice staff, Nancy Haberichter, director, and Lynnette Kruse, RN. John is currently creating flower pots, stepping stones, and bowls out of concrete. His unique creations are available for purchase with all proceeds being donated to WMC Home Health and Hospice.
John “Java John” Klimesh, of Decorah looked for an outlet to express his feelings of grief following the loss of his brother. He found relief in attending the grief support sessions offered by Winneshiek Medical Center Home Health and Hospice. “I found comfort in knowing that I wasn’t alone,” said John.
After picking up a new hobby, John felt inspired to give back to the program that he found so helpful during his time of need. “It’s my way of giving back,” says John. His creativity led him to making and selling concrete flower pots, stepping stones and bowls- with all proceeds being donated to WMC Home Health and Hospice. He makes two to four pots a week, selling for $40, drapery pots for $30, bowl and tray set for $25 and stepping stones and smaller bowls priced at $10.
“John is a gifted artist,” says Nancy Haberichter, WMC director of Home Health and Hospice. “It’s donations such as John’s that ensure the programs we offer can remain available to those in the community during their time of loss.” WMC Home Health and Hospice offers grief support groups to give individuals a safe and confidential environment to express their feelings. WMC also offers monthly newly bereaved support group for those who have experienced a recent loss.
To purchase a uniquely designed piece, contact John by phone at 563-419-7410 or visit his home, 1793 Old Stage Road, Decorah (located across from Wal Mart), on Monday, Wednesday, or Saturday between 1:00-5:00pm. To learn more about the programs offered at WMC Home Health and Hospice contact 563-387-3024.
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Yiqun
China's media criticises anti-US protests at KFC outlets as jingoistic
on Jul 21, 2016 ·
Chinese state media has criticized anti-US protests outside KFC outlets across China as jingoistic, saying they do "a disservice to the nation".
The protesters are angry about an international tribunal ruling rejecting China's territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The case was brought by the Philippines, a US ally which has a competing claim in the area.
State newspapers said the authorities were "calling for rational patriotism".
KFC has more than 4,000 branches in China and is often seen as a symbol of US influence in the country.
How big have the protests been?
Not huge, but animated.
In recent days, small groups of protesters have gathered outside KFC outlets, starting in Hebei and spreading to other places including Changsha and Hangzhou, media reports said.
They have shouted anti-US slogans and held up banners with the words "Get out of China, KFC and McDonalds".
In some of the videos of protests which were posted to Sina Weibo, police can be seen intervening.
What have state media said?
The state Xinhua news agency said: "This is not the right way to express patriotism."
The China Daily newspaper said: "Instead of being patriotic, it is their jingoism that does a disservice to the spirit of devotion to the nation.
"Those who organize such activities without going through the necessary procedures and unlawfully harass others in the name of patriotism should be held accountable according to the law."
Both the China Daily and the People's Daily newspaper said police and media organizations were "calling for rational patriotism".
In China, protesting without seeking permission from the authorities is forbidden.
But what does KFC have to do with the tribunal?
Nothing. However, China has accused the US of encouraging its ally, the Philippines, to challenge China in the arbitration tribunal.
The tribunal ruled there was no evidence for China's claim of historic rights to the waters or resources within its "nine-dash line", and that it was violating the Philippines' sovereign rights with its operations there.
China has been engaged in vast amounts of construction on various disputed islands and its maritime authorities have been involved in altercations with Philippine fishermen in the Scarborough Shoal area.
China refused to participate in the proceedings and rejected the findings.
Is it just KFC?
Thousands of people from Hong Kong and Taiwan have signed up to a satirical Facebook event to offer "apologies" to China.
The "First Annual Apologise to China Contest" allows people to send in their regrets on how they might have wronged the People's Republic, the Hong Kong Free Press news website reports. According to the website, one person has apologised for having three children in the face of Beijing's now abandoned one-child policy; while another on the Facebook page is sorry for wearing New Balance shoes, the global brand which was ruled to be infringing upon the Chinese brand "New Barlun" in a Chinese court.
It's apparently a reaction to videos released by celebrities recently, apologising for actions and comments deemed to be insulting to China. One of these apologies features Taiwanese pop singer Chou Tzu-yu, whose apology for waving a Taiwanese flag during an online broadcast - an act deemed offensive on the Chinese mainland - has been viewed on YouTube over seven million times. Hong Kong actor Wong He made a similar apology in January after suggesting former Chinese leader Zhou Enlai "may be gay" and for posting a picture of the Dalai Lama on his Facebook page.
Such apologies are an important business. Actors and artists who don't send their regrets for actions deemed "anti-China" are often boycotted or sacked. US singer Lady Gaga was reportedly added to the "banned list" after meeting with the Dalai Lama last month.
The apology idea has struck a nerve with Chinese-language readers, with the Facebook campaign page attracting over 12,000 likes and thousands of comments. One Taiwanese user taunts mainland Chinese readers, saying: "The Taiwanese people are holding their first contest to apologise to the Chinese people, but you'll have to bypass the internet censors before you can see it. We are so sorry!"; while another says "In Taiwan we can freely and openly criticise our President Tsai Ing-wen, and the leader from our neighbouring country Xi Jinping. So sorry, China!"
Web users in mainland China have taken to the Weibo messaging service to snipe back: "I'm sorry that you're seeing all those actors and actresses apologising to China so that they can keep making Chinese yuan!" says one. Another sends his apologies for not falling for phone scams originating in Taiwan: "I have received many messages from my Taiwanese compatriots wanting to give me free iPhones and gifts, but I have never replied. I apologise for not accepting your goodwill!"
Turkish President Erdogan appears in Istanbul to denounce army coup attempt
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has flown in to Istanbul, after an army group said it took over the country.
He was seen surrounded by cheering supporters, saying in a live TV speech that the coup attempt was an "act of treason" and the army must be cleansed.
Sixty people died during overnight clashes, many of them civilians, and 754 soldiers were arrested, officials said.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the situation was largely under control.
He has ordered the military to shoot down aircraft being used by coup plotters.
Earlier, one of the helicopters being flown by forces involved in the coup attempt was shot down over the capital Ankara.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the military chief of staff, Gen Hulusi Akar, are still unknown. He is reported to have been taken hostage by rebel soldiers.
Gen Umit Dundar, commander of the 1st Army, has been appointed acting chief of staff.
Sporadic gunfire is still reported in major cities.
Reports also say rebel soldiers in some areas have been surrendering their weapons to police loyal to Mr Erdogan.
The surrender of one unit of 60 soldiers, who had taken control of one of the Bosphorus bridges in Istanbul, was shown live on TV on Saturday morning.
Istanbul's main Ataturk airport is now under army control, and flights - which had been interrupted for some hours - were due to resume from 06:00 (03:00 GMT).
In a statement, the Turkish foreign ministry said the coup attempt "was foiled by the Turkish people in unity and solidarity. Our president and government are in charge".
"Turkish Armed Forces was not involved in the coup attempt in its entirety. It was conducted by a clique within the armed forces and received a well-deserved response from our nation."
It is unclear who is leading the coup faction or how much support it enjoys.
The group earlier declared that a "peace council" now ran the country and there was a curfew and martial law.
Soldiers were seen at strategic points in Istanbul, with jets flying low in Ankara.
Two large explosion were also heard near Istanbul's central Taksim Square.
There were also reports of blasts at parliament building in Ankara. MPs were believed to be hiding in shelters.
Broadcaster CNN Turk was reportedly taken over by soldiers, and its live broadcast was cut.
In Washington, US President Barack Obama urged all parties in Turkey to support the "democratically elected government".
Nato called for "full respect" for Turkey's democratic institutions.
European Council President Donald Tusk said the country was "a key partner for the European Union".
"We call for a swift return to Turkey's constitutional order," he added.
'Parallel structure'
Speaking in Istanbul in the early hours on Saturday, President Erdogan promised to clean up the army.
"Those who drive around in tanks will have to go back to where they came from," he said.
He also dismissed the coup leaders as "terrorists".
Mr Erdogan earlier told CNN Turk by mobile phone the action was by a "parallel structure" that would bring the necessary response. He has used this term in the past to refer to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric he accuses of fomenting unrest.
Fethullah Gulen: Powerful but reclusive Turkish cleric
However, in a statement, Mr Gulen rejected any suggestion he had links to the events.
"I condemn, in the strongest terms, the attempted military coup in Turkey," he said.
Mr Erdogan had called on people to take to the streets to oppose the uprising.
He said: "I urge the Turkish people to convene at public squares and airports. I never believed in a power higher than the power of the people."
The president said he had returned to Istanbul from the holiday resort of Marmaris in the south-west of the country. He said the town was later bombed.
Defying the announced curfew, a number of Erdogan supporters turned out on Taksim Square in Istanbul late on Friday.
There were reports of clashes there, with some on Twitter saying that gunfire had been heard near the square.
After the military takeover was announced, a statement from the group was read out on national broadcaster TRT. It said that the democratic and secular rule of law had been eroded by the current government. There would be new constitution, it said.
Mr Yildirim told NTV by telephone: "There was an illegal act by a group within the military that was acting out of the chain of military command. Our people should know that we will not allow any activity that would harm democracy."
Traffic was stopped from crossing both the Bosphorus and Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridges in Istanbul.
Gunfire was also heard outside Istanbul police HQ and tanks were said to be stationed outside Istanbul airport.
Turkey's military coups
1993 - Claims of a "covert coup" intended to prevent a peace settlement with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
1980 - Military coup following armed conflict between right-wing and left-wing groups in the 1970s
1971 - Military coup known as the "coup by memorandum", which the military delivered instead of sending out tanks
1960 - Coup by group of young military officer outside chain of command, against the democratically-elected Democrat Party
Newlywed, Iraq Veteran Among The Dallas Police Officers Killed
Three of the five Dallas police officers killed in a sniper ambush on Thursday night were publicly identified by officials or relatives and included a newlywed and a Navy veteran of three tours in Iraq.
Seven other police officers and two civilians were wounded in the shooting at the end of a protest over this week's killing of two black men by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. The shooter was a US Army reservist who served in Afghanistan.
BRENT THOMPSON
Transit Police Officer Brent Thompson, 43, worked for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system since 2009 and was the first officer killed in the line of duty since the transit system formed a police department in 1989, DART said on its website.
"As you can imagine, our hearts are broken," a DART statement said.
Thompson spent more than four years in Iraq, working for private US military contractor DynCorp International as a police liaison officer who supervised Americans training and mentoring the Iraqi police force, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Thompson was married to a fellow DART officer, local television station WFAA reported, citing DART Chief James Spiller. USA Today reported that they married about two weeks ago and that Thompson was also a father and a grandfather from a previous marriage.
He attended the police academy at Navarro College in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and later taught classes there, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Thompson's Facebook page reflected the life of a devoted father, with numerous photos of family posted to his account. "My family," Thompson wrote in a caption accompanying a photo on his Facebook page. "I'm so blessed."
Thompson posted numerous pro-police memes on his Facebook timeline, some of which mocked the "Black Lives Matter" movement and accused US President Barack Obama of not adequately supporting law enforcement.
PATRICK "PATRICIO" ZAMARRIPA
Navy veteran Patrick Zamarripa, 32, who served three tours in Iraq, was one of the dead police officers, his family told Reuters. He served in the military reserves as well as working as a Dallas policeman.
His uncle, Hector Zamarripa, said by telephone that Zamarripa was a proud Mexican-American who leaves behind a wife, their toddler-age daughter and a stepson. Although he did not speak much Spanish, he went by the name Patricio among his Spanish-speaking friends and relatives.
"He enjoyed the job, that was his calling," his uncle said .
"Addicted to the thrill of this job. I own the night. I love my Country, Texas, Family, God, Friends, and Sports! Don't Tread on Me! 'Merica," Patrick wrote on his Twitter profile.
A lover of Tejano music, he posted pictures of his daughter, selfies with other officers on duty and his love for the Dallas Cowboys football team and the Rangers baseball team.
Many of his posts were salutes to other officers. He wrote "Rest in Peace" in honor of two New York cops killed in 2014 and posted an image of an eagle with a caption: "Home of the Free because of the Brave."
MICHAEL KROL
Also killed was Michael Krol, a 40-year-old officer with the Dallas Police Department, according to a statement from the Wayne County Sheriff's Office in Michigan, where Krol worked as a deputy in the jails from 2003 to 2007.
"We are saddened by the loss of the dedicated officers in Dallas - one of whom was a former member of this agency - and also the wounding of the other officers," Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon said in the statement.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said in a statement that he had been notified that "one of the fallen officers in Dallas is a Michigan native who previously worked in law enforcement in Southeast Michigan." But he did not name Krol.
Wimbledon 2016: Andy Murray beats Tomas Berdych - plays Milos Raonic in final
Britain's Andy Murray beat Tomas Berdych in straight sets to reach his third Wimbledon final, where he will face Canadian sixth seed Milos Raonic.
Murray saw off Czech 10th seed Berdych 6-3 6-3 6-3 on Centre Court, and is one win from repeating his 2013 triumph and winning a third Grand Slam title.
The Scot, 29, overtakes Fred Perry in reaching an 11th major final - a new record for a British man.
Raonic earlier beat Roger Federer in a thrilling five-set contest.
Murray might have played in 10 previous Grand Slam finals but Sunday will provide a new experience - his first major final without Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer across the net.
The British number one has a 6-3 record against Raonic, and beat the Canadian in the Queen's Club final ahead of Wimbledon.
"Obviously to make a Wimbledon final is a good achievement and I've got one more to go on Sunday," Murray told BBC Sport.
"The older you get, you never know how many chances you're going to get to play in a Grand Slam final. I'm glad I managed to get through today.
"You learn from those matches for sure, those experiences in the past have helped me a lot, playing against some of the best players of all time."
Murray picked his points on the backhand, hitting 74% of those shots to the ad side then pulling the trigger up the deuce line when he needed to. As you can see in this Hawk-Eye graphic, Murray hit six backhand winners on that side despite only directing 26% of his backhand shots there.
Testing this blog.
on May 31, 2015 ·
Your zeronet blog has been successfully created!
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Appeals court says teenage killer should get parole chance
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina appeals judges say a prisoner convicted of first-degree murder must have the chance to be released one day since he committed the crimes at age 17.
A state Court of Appeals panel said Tuesday that Montrez Benjamin Williams must be resentenced to life in prison with the possibility for parole for a pair of 2008 shooting deaths.
Williams initially was sentenced to life without parole, but U.S. Supreme Court decisions declared such mandatory sentences cruel and unusual punishments that could be handed down in part when determined that the youth's rehabilitation was impossible.
A lower-court judge re-issued the same sentence to Williams in 2015, but the appeals court ruled the judge erred with the sentence when he determined there was "no certain prognosis" of Williams' possibility of rehabilitation.
State courts
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Operation Southern Shield Starting Soon
Box office top 20: 'The House With a Clock' is no. 1
NEW YORK (AP) — A trio of wide-releases sputtered while the gothic family fantasy "The House With a Clock in Its Walls," starring Jack Black and Cate Blanchett, ticked its way to a weekend-best $26.6 million in ticket sales, according to final box-office figures Monday.
The Universal Pictures release, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, exceeded industry expectations on a weekend that was otherwise littered with disappointments.
Amazon Studio's "Life Itself," from "This Is Us" creator Dan Fogelman, bombed with a mere $2.1 million in 2,609 theaters. Sam Levinson's "Assassination Nation," which Neon made the top purchase at January's Sundance Film Festival, debuted with only $1.1 million. And Michael Moore's Donald Trump documentary "Fahrenheit 11/9," from the newly launched Briarcliff Entertainment, opened with $3 million, or about half what was expected.
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:
1. "The House With A Clock In Its Walls," Universal, $26,608,020, 3,592 locations, $7,408 average, $26,608,020, 1 Week.
2. "A Simple Favor," Lionsgate, $10,252,206, 3,102 locations, $3,305 average, $32,414,620, 2 Weeks.
3. "The Nun," Warner Bros., $9,965,635, 3,707 locations, $2,688 average, $100,610,942, 3 Weeks.
4. "The Predator," 20th Century Fox, $9,176,459, 4,070 locations, $2,255 average, $40,911,581, 2 Weeks.
5. "Crazy Rich Asians," Warner Bros., $6,346,641, 2,802 locations, $2,265 average, $159,271,124, 6 Weeks.
6. "White Boy Rick," Sony, $4,857,655, 2,504 locations, $1,940 average, $17,268,023, 2 Weeks.
7. "Peppermint," STX Entertainment, $3,684,122, 2,680 locations, $1,375 average, $30,296,681, 3 Weeks.
8. "Fahrenheit 11/9," Briarcliff Entertainment, $3,008,563, 1,719 locations, $1,750 average, $3,008,563, 1 Week.
9. "The Meg," Warner Bros., $2,265,438, 2,003 locations, $1,131 average, $140,438,357, 7 Weeks.
10. "Searching," Sony, $2,150,829, 1,787 locations, $1,204 average, $23,091,173, 5 Weeks.
11. "Life Itself," Amazon Studios, $2,123,463, 2,609 locations, $814 average, $2,123,463, 1 Week.
12. "Unbroken: Path To Redemption," Pure Flix, $1,284,253, 1,484 locations, $865 average, $4,539,775, 2 Weeks.
13. "Mission: Impossible — Fallout," Paramount, $1,162,813, 871 locations, $1,335 average, $218,137,480, 9 Weeks.
14. "Disney's Christopher Robin," Disney, $1,070,226, 1,252 locations, $855 average, $96,906,023, 8 Weeks.
15. "Assassination Nation," Neon Rated, $1,050,021, 1,403 locations, $748 average, $1,050,021, 1 Week.
16. "The Wife," Sony Pictures Classics, $890,350, 469 locations, $1,898 average, $4,891,527, 6 Weeks.
17. "BlacKkKlansman," Focus Features, $647,905, 454 locations, $1,427 average, $47,128,255, 7 Weeks.
18. "Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation," Sony, $575,995, 518 locations, $1,112 average, $166,052,980, 11 Weeks.
19. "Incredibles 2," Disney, $533,570, 500 locations, $1,067 average, $606,357,928, 15 Weeks.
20. "Alpha," Sony, $377,548, 544 locations, $694 average, $35,200,118, 6 Weeks.
Media and entertainment industry
Box office receipts
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FILE - In this April 24, 2018, file photo, French President Emmanuel Macron winks to members of the media during his meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. Trump and Macron enjoy putting on a show of exaggerated handshakes, kisses and taps on the back, but they disagree on key issues, including climate change, Iran and world trade. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
Much to disagree on as Trump, Macron meet on D-Day
CAEN, France (AP) — France wants the D-Day commemoration to showcase its long friendship with the United States.
But relations are strained as President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron prepare to meet on the sidelines of the 75th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy.
Trump and Macron enjoy putting on a show of exaggerated handshakes, warm kisses and taps on the back, but they disagree on key issues, including climate change, Iran and world trade.
But Macron's office insists the two leaders get along even when they disagree.
Trump and Macron will have bilateral talks in Caen following a ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery, near Omaha Beach, where the Americans landed.
Security, the fight against terrorism, the situation in the Middle East and trade policies are on the meeting's agenda.
Follow all the AP's coverage of D-Day at https://apnews.com/WorldWarII
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£325.00 Payment plans available.
Marine Biology I
BEN103
Statement of Attainment
STUDY MARINE BIOLOGY ONLINE
If you are looking to work in the ecotourism industry, this course will help build your knowledge and understanding of marine biology.
This is an introductory level course and will help you to be able to explain factors affecting marine environments and identify and understand a wide range of marine organisms. You will be introduced to a wide range of factors related to marine studies which include marine ecology systems, reef formation and function, marine organisms such as fish (including bony and cartilaginous), cephalopods and marine mammals, marine ecosystems and how human activity impacts on these.
Lesson Structure
There are 9 lessons in this course:
Marine Ecology Systems
Ecology; Marine Weather (including El Nino, Thermocline, Gulf streams, etc), Continental shelf, Nutrient cycle, Red tide, Plankton, Marine Plants (including Mangroves, Shallow & Deep water algae, etc)
Shallow Waters & Reefs
Coral Reefs, Rocky Shorelines, Estuaries, Introduction to marine arthropods
Shellfish & Crustaceans
Molluscs and Brachiopods. True Crabs, Hermit Crabs, Lobsters, Prawns etc
Squid, Octopus, and Other Primitive Animals
(Cephalopods and Clupeoids, etc)
Fish Part A
(Cartilaginous Fish) Sharks, Eels, Rays; Shark Lifecycle, How dangerous are sharks? Effect of sharks on tourism, etc.
Fish Part B
(Bony Fish) Fish Anatomy/structure (identifying external & internal parts); legalities (protection of wildlife), types of fish, etc
(Dolphins, Whales, etc) Types of marine mammals, protection and politics, position of these animals in the food chain, products derived from marine mammals & substitutes for those products.
Turtles, Sea Snakes and Seabirds
Types of turtles & sea snakes; toxicity of sea snakes; turtle protection, penguins and other sea birds (eg stints, knots, pelicans, swans, gulls, eagles, ibis, egrets, terns, shearwaters, gannets, albatross, prions, oyster-catchers and petrels).
Human Impact on Marine Environments & Fishing
Human impact on marine environments; commercial vs recreational fishing, significance of certain mesopelagic fish, techniques for managing stocks of fish & other marine life.
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Why it Pays to Know
When you work in ecotourism, planning, selling or leading tours, you will be asked questions about the places you are taking people.
Ecotourists want to know and understand the places they visit. That is all part of the experience for them; and getting to be a good ecotourism professional will always involve getting to know the places you visit and the things that inhabit those places.
Ocean Creatures -Large and Small
All sorts of animals inhabit the ocean, but whales are the largest and perhaps most important to ecotourism. Whales are biologically speaking, "ungulate animals".
Ungulates are a group of mammals that includes cattle, sheep, deer, elephants and even Ardvarks. All of these animals are actually more closely related to whales and dolphins than what seals are.
Whales and dolphins are members of a group of "ungulate" animals, called cetaceans.
Cetaceans may not be the obvious candidates to be “artiodactyls” but molecular analysis has shown them to be more closely related to ruminant artiodactyls than what ruminants are to pigs.
Over 80 species of whales, porpoises and dolphins populate the world’s oceans. There are also four species of dolphin which inhabit freshwater rivers and estuaries in regions of Asia and Central and South America. The Order Cetacea is divided into two main groups (or suborders) – Baleen whales (Mysticetes) and toothed whales (Odondocetes). Dolphins, Orcas and Porpoises fall into the Odontocetes group.
In general, the Baleen whales are much larger than the toothed whales. They also differ in that they use Baleen plates to filter food from water. Ondondocetes form a much larger group of species than the Mysticetes.
Characteristics of Cetaceans
Aquatic, hairless mammals
Front limbs modified into flippers, absent hind limbs, apart from internal remnants
Skull adapted so that the nostrils open on top of the head through a blow hole
Eyes and ears are relatively small
No vocal apparatus, but can produce distinctive sounds for communication with other whales or echolocation.
Mammary glands either side of the vaginal opening feeding into a single teat.
Habitat and Distribution
All species are fully aquatic, whilst most are pelagic and roam through the open oceans, although some species prefer to roam nearer coastlines. Cetacean species can be found in the oceans worldwide, and some within freshwater rivers of North and South America and Asia. Orcinus orca can be found roaming through all oceans across the globe, whilst other species are restricted to one hemisphere. Some Cetaceans form movement patterns which can vary from vast migrations to short distance travels. Generally, the short journeys occur when they are foraging for food or when it is mating season. Many species will travel annual migrations travelling thousands of kilometres, and with Whales most will travel to warm temperate or tropical waters in winter. It is usually here that they will breed and give birth. In summer, whales will either migrate to the Artic or Antarctica waters where it is calmer seas in this season. Some Cetacean species do not show clear migratory paths, but are seasonal migrators. This is the case with the Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin which seems to migrate when food sources decrease. Cetacean species can travel at fast speeds with great bursts, and the Blue Whale has been recorded travelling at 50km/hr. Cetaceans can also stay under water for long periods of time, varying between species, which assists in these long migratory travels.
Physical Characteristics and Physiology
Cetaceans, in general, are aquatic species which are large, streamlined and hairless. Their front limbs are modified to have either flippers or fins and exhibit no external hind legs, although there are internal remnants. They lack an external ear and only have a vestigial ear pinnae. They have adapted to have nostrils on the top of the head known as a blowhole, and this assists in their locomotion underwater. They have very small eyes which are positioned far back on the side of their heads which allows for excellent binocular vision. Their tails are long which expands in to two horizontal lobes or flukes which is flattened laterally and moves up and down allowing for fast thrusts of movement.
The size of a Cetacean varies between species and this Order comprises of the largest mammal on the planet, the Blue Whale, which is thought to be the biggest mammal ever to have existed. Weighing up to 140 tonnes and can reach up to a length of 34 meters, with flippers reaching to about three to four meters in length.
Most species are sexually dimorphic with variation; male Blue Whales are smaller than the females, and it is the opposite for Bottlenose Dolphins, with the males being larger in size than the females. Cetacean species have very large brains are thought to be highly intelligent. The skin is thick, and contains a subcutaneous layer filled with fat and oil which assists in regulating their body temperatures. Cetacean species do lack sweat glands, although they have very efficient and complex circulatory and respiratory systems. Smaller species contain a modified heat exchange system within their flippers and flukes which allows warmth from the arterial blood to heat up venous blood which is returning to the heart. This is very complex and assists in their habitat diversity.
Cetaceans have large, elongated bodies which assists in their torpedo speeds and also enables them to breach out of the water. This is a common sight with Dolphins which have slicker bodies, but can also be seen with Baleen Whales. Their reproductive organs are held internally which assists in their locomotion underwater to be more streamlined and efficient. This is probably another reason for the modified ears and nose structures.
Some Cetacean species have completely lost teeth within their jaws, Mysticetes, instead have modified structures which acts by filtering tiny plankton from the water for feeding. Other species have still retained their teeth on both the upper and lower jaw and these are known as Odondocetes species.
Cetaceans are able to produce distinct sounds for communication, mating and echolocation and are specific to the individual and can be heard for over a kilometre. Dolphins are a good example of the use of echolocation and, like bats, use it to identify prey and other objects. They produce sound as clicks which bounces off objects or potential prey, and ricochets back providing them with information about the location, distance and size.
Digestion and feeding habits vary between species, and this is one of the reasons for the split in to suborders. Mysticetes, or Baleen, species lack the presence of teeth instead have developed hair fringed plates, known as baleen plates, which are made up of keratin. These modified structures act like a sieve, filtering out tiny organisms and plankton for feeding. Odondocetes species (toothed species) will thrive on fish, crustaceans, squid, aquatic birds and mammals, even other smaller Cetaceans.
Cetacean species also have a chambered stomach to aid in their digestion. The first compartment is referred to as a forestomach, and this acts much like a crop in birds. The second compartment is known as the glandular stomach and it is here which the chemical breakdown takes place. The third compartment which is referred to as the pyloric stomach is a muscular organ which control flow into the intestinal tract.
The reproductive strategies and courtship can be quite difficult to study due to their location but it is believed most species are Polyandry (one female with various males), Polygyny (one male and variant females) and Polygynandry (strategy that a number of males mate with a number of females). Northern Right Whales exhibit courtship behaviour at the surface which shows various number of male individuals circling one female, who may mate with several of these males.
Most Cetacean species have a mating season once a year, with the females giving birth to one offspring every one to six years depending on the species. Reproduction, gestations and nursing varies between species but all females incubate the young inside their bodies and give birth to live young. Calves are born tail first and must swim the moment they are born.
Cetacean mothers are attentive who provide milk to their young calf, protect from predators and will accompany the young to the water surface for their first breath of air. Males are believed to have very little to parental care, however it has been observed that some male species will bring food to their young.
All Cetaceans are fully aquatic therefore have to be able to swim from the moment they are born. They do this by pumping their tail in an up and down motion, whilst using their flippers for stability. This allows them to reach high speeds, with Baleen species reaching 26km/hour and toothed species reaching over 30km/hour. Toothed species (Odondocetes) are able to gain extra speed form riding waves which can be exhibited when they follow the waves created by boats. Prior to diving, all Cetacean species will inhale then they may remain underwater for a few seconds to over an hour.
The social structure of Cetacean species varies greatly, and some species live single, solitary life, whilst others form unstable groups, and others form large herds made up of hundreds of individuals. The Bottlenose Dolphin, for example, will form bonds to last a lifetime, and Orcas will form dominance hierarchy pods.
Many species form migratory patterns, whilst others remain within the same area for life. The Humpback Whale is known for its extensive migratory route to temperate feeding grounds, and tropical breeding grounds.
WHY THIS COURSE?
If you are working in any coastal situation, as an ecotourism professional, it will be very important to have a solid, broad understanding of marine science.
This course can provide you with that foundation, and in that way, underpin your capacity to develop, market and deliver ecotour services in coastal and marine locations.
WHAT CAN YOU ACHIEVE?
Lots of people study marine biology; some end up working in it, others don't.
Our staff know where the employment opportunities are - they are not always full time, and most marine scientists don't start out as a marine scientist in their first job.
Talk to us - use our free career counselling course. Tell us about yourself first, and we can then help you to better understand the pathways that might lead you into employment in this industry.
Meet some of our academics
Dr Robert BrowneZoologist, Environmental Scientist and Sustainability, science based consultancy with biotechnology corporations. Work focused on conservation and sustainability. Robert has published work in the fields of nutrition, pathology, larval growth and development, husbandry, thermo-biology, reproduction technologies, and facility design.Robert has B.Sc., Ph, D.
Barbara SeguelTeacher and Researcher, Marine Scientist, Tourism and Outdoor recreation guide, Health and Safety Coordinator & Production Manager for Fisheries, National Park Staff/Farmer, Laboratory technical aide, Zoo, Wildlife and Marine Park assistant. Barbara has worked in Hawaii, Mexico, Chile, New Zealand, and Australia. Barbara has a B.Sc. Marine (Academic degree) and M.Sc Aquaculture Engineering.
Dr. Gareth PearceVeterinary scientist and surgeon with expertise in agriculture and environmental science, with over 25 years of experience in teaching and research in agriculture, veterinary medicine, wildlife ecology and conservation in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Post-graduate qualifications in Education, Wildlife Conservation Medicine, Aquatic Veterinary Studies and Wildlife Biology & Conservation. Gareth has a B.Sc.(Hons), B.V.Sc., M.A., M.Vet.S,. PhD, Grad. Cert. Ed.(HE), Post-Grad.Cert. Aq.Vet.Sc., Post-Grad. Cert. WLBio&Cons., Dipl. ECPHM, MRCVS.
Marius Erasmus Subsequent to completing a BSc (Agric) degree in animal science, Marius completed an honours degree in wildlife management, and a masters degree in production animal physiology. Following the Masters degree, he has worked for 9 years in the UK, and South Africa in wildlife management, dairy, beef and poultry farming.
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Universal Music Group launches Nigeria office
23-07-2018 07:21:27 | by: Bob Koigi | hits: 17425 | Tags:
Universal Music Group (UMG), the global music-based entertainment company has announced a significant expansion of operations within Western Africa, with the launch of Universal Music Nigeria.
This new strategic division, will operate from a new office in Lagos, under the leadership of seasoned music executive Ezegozie Eze Jr., who has been named General Manager of Universal Music Nigeria.
Eze and his team will support artists from Nigeria, Ghana, and Gambia throughout the continent and beyond, utilizing Universal Music Group’s global networks for wider discovery, marketing, promotion and distribution.
Eze, has previously held roles at Channel O Television, Empire Mates Entertainment (Banky W & WizKid) and was a founder of Pan-African creative companies, Republic 54, Alore Group, and Duma Collective, brings vital experience in the Nigerian music market. He will report to Sipho Dlamini, MD, Universal Music South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.
The label has signed a host of Nigerian-born artists including WurlD, Odunsi (the Engine), Tay Iwar, and Ghanaian-born artists Cina Soul and Stonebwoy. In addition, the label has recently signed marquee deals with acclaimed Banku singer and songwriter Mr Eazi for pan-African releases, co-signed Nigerian artist Tekno in conjunction with Island Records UK and Tanzanian singer and songwriter Vanessa Mdee in conjunction with AfroForce1 Records/Universal Music Central Europe/Universal Music South Africa.
These two signings mark the first time UMG labels from the two continents have combined to sign and release African artists globally, with other artist partnerships in the pipeline with UMG labels from around the world.
In making the announcement, Dlamini said, “In recent years there has been an increase in visibility of Nigerian and Ghanaian music and its influence on contemporary music around the world. Eze and his team are perfectly placed to support, nurture and help develop artists and musicians from the region, whilst creating opportunities for new talent from the region to reach the widest possible audience.”
Eze commented, “I am delighted to be officially launching Universal Music’s Nigerian division at such an exciting time for African music around the world. The world’s largest music company opening an office within the region is a huge statement of belief in our local music talent. The signings we have already made show our ambition to help our artists reach the widest global audience and we are looking forward to working closely with our UMG label partners around the world to make that happen.”
This new division will work in partnership with existing UMG operations throughout the continent including Cote D’Ivoire, Morocco and alongside key markets across English-speaking Africa in order to offer artists comprehensive opportunities throughout the region and provide pan-African talent the best possible launch pad for wider international success.
Universal Music Group operates two successful live music companies within Africa, both of which will also have divisions within Universal Music Nigeria. Launched in 2017 in Johannesburg, UMG Live Africa has quickly become one of the leading talent booking agencies within the continent.
It has succesfully helped redefine the role of a booking agency within Africa, with a broad roster of artists made up of both UMG talent and non-UMG signed artists making more than 600 performances throughout 2017.
ULive Africa was founded in 2016 and is engaged in staging, producing, programming and hosting large-scale live concerts and events throughout Africa including Runway Jazz, the innaugral African Comedy Awards, Lekki Sunsplash (30th Anniversary Edition), The Music Industry Awards in Nigeria, Afrochella and Baskets & Wine in Ghana, and Cocktails in the Wild in Uganda and Nigeria, with several other exciting projects in the pipeline.
Universal Music Group is also working closely in partnership with parent company Vivendi, and several of its divisions including CanalOlympia, Vivendi and Canal+ to support and develop the live music industry throughout the continent.
Universal Music Nigeria is currently developing plans to open a recording studio in Lagos in order to further advance the recording facilities available to local African talent. It will become UMG’s second fully purposed studio within Africa, alongside the existing facility in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Through these strategic investments, initiatives and executive appointments, UMG is accelerating the company’s focus on growing the entire African music ecosystem including recorded music, music publishing, production, live events, brand partnerships and merchandising efforts.
www.universalmusic.com
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AOP > About > Sponsors & Exhibitors > Schlumberger
Schlumberger is the world’s leading provider of technology for reservoir characterization, drilling, production, and processing to the oil and gas industry. Working in more than 85 countries and employing approximately 100,000 people who represent over 140 nationalities, Schlumberger supplies the industry’s most comprehensive range of products and services, from exploration through production and integrated pore-to-pipeline solutions for hydrocarbon recovery that optimize reservoir performance.
Knowledge, technical innovation and teamwork are at the center of Schlumberger’s work, and the company has been focused on leveraging these assets to deliver solutions for more than 80 years. Schlumberger invests heavily in research and engineering, with 125 research and engineering facilities worldwide. The company spent close to $1 billion in research and engineering in 2016.
Global Oil Firms Back First South Sudan Energy Event South Sudan Oil & Power 2017 takes place on October 11-12 at the UAP Equatoria Tower in Juba.
Kenya's Nock Steps Up Investment Kenya's national oil company plans investment in upstream, downstream.
Advances on the Oilfield South Sudan's Minister of Petroleum assures security and calls for investment in energy.
Fortuna FLNG Clears Path for FID
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Director: Sam Wood
Actors: Billie Burke, Florence Rice, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Robert Young, Samuel S. Hinds, Tom Brown
Following the murder of her father by hired hand Tom Chaney, 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S….
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Western
Big Fish & Begonia
Beyond the human realm, there is a magical race of beings who control the tides and the changing of the seasons. One of these beings, a young girl named Chun,…
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Old Yeller
Young Travis Coates is left to take care of the family ranch with his mother and younger brother while his father goes off on a cattle drive in the 1860s….
Immigrants from around the world enter Los Angeles every day, with hopeful visions of a better life, but little notion of what that life may cost. Their desperate scenarios test…
Stingo, a young writer, moves to Brooklyn in 1947 to begin work on his first novel. As he becomes friendly with Sophie and her lover Nathan, he learns that she…
Katie Says Goodbye
In order to best save the necessary funds to leave her desolate town and start anew, Katie prostitutes herself to a handful of regulars that frequent the diner she waitresses…
In the post–World War II South, two families are pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy and an unrelenting landscape as they simultaneously fight the battle at home and the battle…
A practicing Sikh is banned by the boxing commission for refusing to back down from his religious beliefs. Through racial profiling and stereotypical threats, he does what any strong American…
A physical therapist falls for the basketball player she is helping recover from a career-threatening injury.
Lie with Me
Happily unattached, the sexually voracious Leila satisfies her desires with a host of rapidly changing bed partners, unconcerned about the emotional consequences. But that all changes when she meets an…
Christmas with a View
Man in the Shadow
In effect, modern cow town Spurline is run by Virgil Renchler, owner of the Golden Empire Ranch. One night, two of Virgil’s henchmen go a little too far and beat…
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller, Western
That Cold Day in the Park
A rich but lonely woman, Frances Austen, one day invites a boy from a nearby park to her apartment and offers to let him live there.
Ingrid becomes obsessed with a social network star named Taylor Sloane who seemingly has a perfect life. But when Ingrid decides to drop everything and move west to be Taylor’s…
A motorcycle stunt rider considers committing a crime in order to provide for his wife and child, an act that puts him on a collision course with a cop-turned-politician.
Brad’s Status
Although Brad has a satisfying career, a sweet wife and a comfortable life in suburban Sacramento, things aren’t quite what he imagined during his college glory days. When he accompanies…
A young and devoted morning television producer is hired as an executive producer on a long-running morning show at a once-prominent but currently failing station in New York City. Eager…
A dog that helped soldiers in Afghanistan returns to the U.S. and is adopted by his handler’s family after suffering a traumatic experience.
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Family
Trailer: Navy Blue and Gold
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Sentebale Makara (32)
Home/Posts/2018/Justice & Law/Sentebale Makara (32)
Senior associate, Dispute Resolution, Webber Wentzel
Sentebale Makara is an impressive young lawyer with a sterling reputation and career.
He started his career at Webber Wentzel as a candidate attorney in 2012 and has, since then, been promoted to senior associate, advocated landmark cases that have developed South Africa’s jurisprudence for the better, worked tirelessly with nonprofit organisations to promote the democratisation of law in South Africa and fought internationally for human rights. Makara has also mentored young people in Webber Wentzel and the greater community and lectures at Wits University.
“There was a time in my schooling that I was made to believe that I would never amount to anything but another township statistic,” says Makara. “My mother broke her back to ensure my fees were paid — she had promised my father before he passed that she would ensure I got a good education. It is her belief in me that keeps me going in a very competitive and goal-driven environment.”
In spite of the setbacks presented by his school, Makara studied law at the University of the Western Cape using a diploma in Criminal Law and Justice that he’d achieved to compensate for his high school subjects. He then studied a LLM in Dispute Resolution at the University of Missouri where he also qualified as a mediator.
“When I came back to South Africa I joined Webber Wentzel and today I am a senior associate in the dispute resolution practice group,” concludes Makara. “I have met many remarkable people on my journey and my most humbling role has been as a member of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers.”
Makara has been involved in some impressive cases over the past few years and shows no signs of slowing down his meteoric rise. His goals for the future include earning his seat as a partner and ranked lawyer and effecting change across the country. — Tamsin Oxford
Twitter: @smakara9
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'HSM3's' new kids excited about film
HOLLYWOOD The East High seniors are graduating and that means its time to introduce a younger generation of Wildcats in "High School Musical 3."
"It's a privilege to be welcomed into the family and be part of the amazing cast," said Jemma McKenzie-Brown, "HSM3" actress.
"It's a little a little nerve racking though. It's happening, you know you're a role model, you always have to watch out for that. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world," said Justin Martin, "HSM3" actor.
The three new actors, Matt Prokop, Justin Martin, and Jemma McKenzie-Brown are learning how to handle the whirlwind of fan excitement that surrounds "HSM."
And fortunately, they have the original cast to look to for guidance.
"They've all been great in helping. For them, 3 years ago, they were just in a Disney Channel movie and had no idea what it would bring," said Matt Prokop. "It helps talking to them, because they actually have an insight about it. Having paparazzi spend the night at their houses. It's crazy, but they all said stay true to yourself. And true to the people that were there before the success of the movie.
And while "HSM3" doesn't even hit theaters until Friday, a fourth installment with these fresh new faces is already rumored to be in the works.
- Get more L.A. breaking news, weather, traffic and sports
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Review: Orange
January 8, 2017 January 8, 2017 Posted in reviewTagged anime, crunchyroll, funimation, orange, review, toho
To be honest, I haven’t paid much attention to the anime of Fall 2016, even though there were some really good shows that people are constantly going on about. October was a busy time in my life, and any shows I had put on my list to watch for the final season of 2016, I promptly forgot to even pay attention to, as I had other things to accomplish.
This anime, though, was one from the Summer 2016 season that I didn’t get around to finishing either. Now, finally, I had the chance.
In the city of Matsumoto, away from the urban life of the mega-cities of southeastern Japan, a quiet high school girl named Naho is about to start her second year of high school. Before the school’s entrance exam began, though, Naho received a peculiar letter in the mail. Inside were pages upon pages of writing.
Upon starting to read the letter, Naho realized this letter was actually from herself… 10 years in the future! “I need you to do me a big favor,” the letter says. As Naho begins her first day of school as a second-year, the letter matches exactly what happens to her, even down to the detail of her oversleeping. That day, her class got a new transfer student: a guy named Kakeru Naruse.
Kakeru moved into Matsumoto from Tokyo, and so he’s a bit less familiar with the non-hectic lifestyle here. Instantly, Naho and her friends – Suwa, Takako, Hagita, and Azusa – add Kakeru into their group, and they all get along really well.
“Now, ten years in the future, Kakeru is no longer with us. Please keep a close eye on Kakeru.”
The idea behind the story is an interesting one. Naho does what she can to protect Kakeru and to make sure that he doesn’t die within 10 years, through the guidance of a letter from her future. This letter details the events around her on a day-to-day basis, usually in relation to Kakeru. Each day, the letter usually ends with something that future-Naho regrets, and asks the present-Naho to do or not do. The hope is, with each bit by bit of change, it’ll lead to a future where Kakeru still lives. It’s an interesting concept.
Orange doesn’t do a bad job of giving realistic reactions to this letter, too. Of course, we see Naho be skeptical of the letter, and surprised to see it match up to things around her, and going through a number of steps from there revolving this relationship between her and this letter. Her trouble with how closely and how blindly she should follow this letter, combined with the situation around her that continues to diverge from the path of this letter, feels human and relatable. I give Orange respect for that.
Despite that, the biggest source of my frustration with this show also came from Naho. Pretty early on, we see Naho realize that she’s starting to fall for Kakeru. I can understand her being a shy, timid girl, afraid to speak up when there’s something she wants to say. However, there are times where Kakeru, and others, ask her whether she wants something. Deep down, she does want it, and at times it would take her more effort to say she doesn’t, but yet she denies it anyway. I feel there’s a difference between being characteristically shy, and being shy and “I’m okay as we are” for the sake of padding out the story.
The big focus of Orange is definitely on Naho and Kakeru, their relationship to each other, and how to ensure a future together. Suwa also is pretty instrumental in this as well, and he gets a lot of screen time alongside the main two. However, Azusa, Takako, and Hagita all get sidelined a decent amount in the series. They appear more on screen towards the latter end of the series, but at that point… Naho, Kakeru, and Suwa have already gone through some emotional experiences without them, and it feels a bit like they’re the lesser friends to this smaller, closer group – friends that have been put out of the loop.
I know it’d be kind of hard for a 13-episode anime to make all six of its main cast get a comparably decent amount of time to develop (not impossible, but not the easiest), but I wish that more than just Suwa and the main couple got really developed. To be honest, it seems more like Azusa and Hagita were more meant to be comic reliefs in this series anyway, and they both get some pretty funny lines (usually playing off each other). Takako… I don’t really know much about her. I feel she really didn’t get any time at all to actually become interesting in her own right.
Kakeru is the final piece of the puzzle that is this list of characters. He’s the focus of everyone’s efforts, and the one that, unfortunately, deals with the most hardships. I really feel for the guy at times. The anime does a really good job of really showing him being emotional and showing a human reaction to the difficult things that gets thrown at him in his life. Where lesser shows would’ve handled these issues with disrespect or misinformation, Orange treats the issues as real, and presents them appropriately. He and Suwa are definitely the strongest characters in this series.
Overall, the story shown here was really interesting, and I liked it a lot. It’s character-driven, and I like how the characters (at least 90% of the time) acted and reacted as humans would in situations like these. My difficulties with Naho, though, and some unrealistic things in the latter half of the series keep me from feeling the writers (or original material) really hit this out of the park.
The first thing that stood out to me in this series, visuals-wise, was the unusual eye design. By the end of the second episode, I found myself thinking, “Now this is what almond-shaped eyes really look like!” I feel they were going for something more realistic-looking than your standard anime eye design, but it ended up just looking a bit… odd.
This show has proven to be inconsistent with its art and animation throughout its 13-episode run. Although the first number of episodes all looked pretty good, there were notable dips in quality during the latter half. Not even the distinctive eye design was immune, and more “standard” eyes made an appearance. Episode 9 was particularly bad, followed by episode 10, which looked pretty good in comparison (episodes 11 and 12 wavered between the two). It seems this show fell victim to the poor time management curse that besets many an anime production, which is disappointing; this show would’ve been more effective to me, emotions-wise, if it were able to keep its quality.
I liked Orange’s character designs overall, moving on past their eyes. There are many a time where Naho just looks absolutely adorable, and Suwa looks all-around great throughout almost the entire series. Azusa also tends to look quite good throughout as well. The background art definitely looks watercolor-painted, and it’s pretty alright looking. Again, I’ve been spoiled by the absolutely stunning work of Kyoto Animation, but this show’s backgrounds are still pretty nice. I honestly don’t have any complaints about that.
The background music for this show, as you’d expect, has a lot of piano-filled pieces that are meant to be tear-jerkers. If the tracks didn’t sound so generic, they may have been more successful in really getting tears to move. Overall, though, the background music is not necessarily bad, but it’s not going to stand out, beyond you noticing that it simply… exists. That being said, there is a particular track used a bit over halfway into the final episode that I actually rather liked. If more of the soundtrack implemented those instruments, the show would’ve really benefited from it.
One thing I also really liked about Orange is how it did its background characters. To most, this will probably be a rather minuscule detail, but I honestly really liked it. For a lot of the scenes, we can hear conversations of the background characters and they sound like actual genuine conversations between classmates or what-not, rather than something standard or plain. It’s little things like that which really gives this world some life. It’s possible that I really only notice this in Orange because Crunchyroll subtitled these conversations here.
The opening song felt rather appropriate for this anime. It isn’t exactly the type of song I go out looking for, but it felt nice here. The opening animation was only comprised of scenes of nature, and the characters standing around or running. It’s a more cliché-looking opening; it’s inoffensive and simple, and it isn’t the worst thing for a more drama-focused show like this, but I may have liked something a bit more interesting.
The ending song, simply called “Mirai” (Future), is more of a ballad song, which isn’t really a song style that’s up my alley, honestly. The song’s not bad though, but I didn’t really have much desire to listen to it. The ending animation usually involves images of the characters panning on screen, which isn’t the most visually engaging, but it’s okay. Overall, the ending was pretty dull for me, but part of it is certainly my personal preferences.
Orange is a story about regrets, and going back to change them. Specifically, it’s about the regret over the death of a close friend. The hardships and feelings of the “friend” in this case, Kakeru, is really well done; the female lead, Naho, also proved to be human and relatable at some points… but at many points, she also provided some of my biggest frustrations for the series. This was not helped by the drop in visual quality for the latter episodes.
All in all, though, if I sent a letter back to myself, I wouldn’t tell myself to avoid this show. I did have fun with this show, and although there are certainly some negatives to its characters and presentation, the positives outweighed them in the end. This is a serious, character-driven drama; if that’s your type of thing, you won’t want to have regrets about missing this show. I recommend it.
+++ handling of serious issues is well done, Suwa is awesome, Naho’s reaction to the letter from her future
— visual quality is inconsistent especially towards end, Naho’s shyness causes frustrations, some characters in this friend group get short end of the stick development-wise
5 thoughts on “Review: Orange”
Anime_Girls_NYC says:
This anime annoyed me because of Naho. I really wish she wasn’t a character haha
Karandi says:
I have to agree. Naho drove me crazy. The story wasn’t too bad (except for the lame explanation of how sending a letter to the past was possible), but she just made me so angry in almost every episode.
Hahaha I’m glad someone agrees. Yeah and the whole sending the letter to the past had no real explanation. It didn’t make since how the letters got there
AnimeBird says:
yeah, I found the explanation kind of stupid too. I knew that the anime would have to explain something about how it happened at some point, but with the explanation it gave, part of me wishes they never explained it at all lol
Yeah, no explanation would have been much better than the one we got. Because even if it had worked, the letters should be floating somewhere in the ocean. Who found them and delivered them and how did that happen in an appropriate timeframe?
Farewell to 2016
Review: New Game!
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Congo, China and Battery Minerals
The demand of cobalt is bound to increase because of the batteries needed to power electric vehicles (EVs). Each battery uses about 10kg of cobalt. It is widely known that more than half of the world’s cobalt reserves and production are in one dangerously unstable country, the Democratic Republic of Congo. What is less well known is that four-fifths of the cobalt sulphates and oxides used to make the all-important cathodes for lithium-ion batteries are refined in China. (Much of the other 20% is processed in Finland, but its raw material, too, comes from a mine in Congo, majority-owned by a Chinese firm, China Molybdenum.)
On March 14t, 2018 concerns about China’s grip on Congo’s cobalt production deepened when GEM, a Chinese battery maker, said it would acquire a third of the cobalt shipped by Glencore, the world’s biggest producer of the metal, between 2018 and 2020—equivalent to almost half of the world’s 110,000-tonne production in 2017. This is likely to add momentum to a rally that has pushed the price of cobalt up from an average of $26,500 a tonne in 2016 to above $90,000 a tonne…
South Korean and Japanese tech firms and it’s a big concern of theirs that so much of the world’s cobalt sulphate comes from China. Memories are still fresh of a maritime squabble in 2010, during which China restricted exports of rare-earth metals vital to Japanese tech firms. China produces about 85% of the world’s rare earths.
Few analysts expect the cobalt market to soften soon. Production in Congo is likely to increase in the next few years, but some investment may be deterred by a recent five-fold leap in royalties on cobalt. Investment elsewhere is limited because cobalt is almost always mined alongside copper or nickel. Even at current prices, the quantities needed are not enough to justify production for cobalt alone.
But demand could explode if EVs surge in popularity… the use of cobalt for EVs could jump from 9,000 tonnes in 2017 to 107,000 tonnes in 2026. The resulting higher prices would eventually unlock new sources of supply. But already non-Chinese battery manufacturers are looking for ways to protect themselves from potential shortages. Their best answer to date is nickel.
The materials most commonly used for cathodes in EV batteries are a combination of nickel, manganese and cobalt known as NMC, and one of nickel, cobalt and aluminium known as NCA. As cobalt has become pricier and scarcer, some battery makers have produced cobalt-lite cathodes by raising the nickel content—to as much as eight times the amount of cobalt. This allows the battery to run longer on a single charge, but makes it harder to manufacture and more prone to burst into flames. The trick is to get the balance right.
Strangely, nickel has not had anything like cobalt’s price rise. Nor do the Chinese appear to covet it… Nickel prices plummeted from $29,000 a tonne in 2011 to below $10,000 a tonne 2017…. But by 2025 McKinsey expects EV-related nickel demand to rise 16-fold to 550,000 tonnes.
In theory, the best way to ensure sufficient supplies of both nickel and cobalt would be for prices to rise enough to make mining them together more profitable. But that would mean more expensive batteries, and thus electric vehicles.
Excerpts from The Scramble for Battery Minerals, Economist, Mar. 24, 2018
This entry was posted in climate change, Energy, Environment, geoeconomics, Markets and tagged battery minerals, CEM Chinese battery maker, China and cobalt, China and Congo, China Molybdenum, cobalt for batteries, Electric Vehicles (EVs), nickel for batteries, rare metals, rare metals demand, rare metals export ban, rare metals supply, stategic rare metals on May 17, 2018 by Stoa.
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Georgetown celebrated the achievements of its graduating students and the faculty, family, and friends who support and inspire them during 2019 Commencement Weekend, May 16-19.
Georgetown in Photos
Recent photos that capture a slice of life at Georgetown
Georgetown Law Alumnae, Professors Make 2019 Women’s Forum a Success
National Press Club Now Led by Award-Winning Georgetown Alumna
Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak, a 1991 Georgetown graduate and NPR health correspondent, takes on the role of National Press Club president.
Female Power: Current Alumnae Ambassadors, Diplomats Reflect on Leadership Roles
Current and former diplomats, including 12 Georgetown alumnae, shared perspectives on women’s roles in shaping communities around the globe ahead of International Women’s Day, March 8.
28 Georgetown Alumni Serving in the 116th Congress
27 Georgetown alumni took the oath of office in the U.S. House of Representatives, and seven in the Senate, representing a total of 21 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
A delegation of Georgetown University leaders traveled to the major metropolitan cities of Beijing, Seoul, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, and Tokyo in November 2018 to host panels, lectures, and small...
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (MPP’94) Elected to Lead House Democratic Caucus
Congratulations to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who was elected to the House Democratic Caucus chairmanship, the fifth most senior leadership position in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Alumna-Founded Mary’s Center Celebrates 30 Years of Prenatal Care for D.C.’s Immigrant Community
The center, created by Maria S. Gomez (NHS’77), MPH, RN, has grown from a basement-level clinic in the Adams Morgan neighborhood serving about 200 women to a multi-site organization serving about 50,000 women, men, and children each year.
This year’s International Alumni Weekend, held in October in Mexico City, connected more than 250 Hoyas from nine schools and 17 countries.
Six McCourters Selected for Prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship
Congratulations to the six McCourt students and alumni selected as Presidential Management Fellows Finalists for the class of 2019.
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Swiss Wheel Wins United States Championship Cheese Title
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (March 19, 2015) – A national panel of expert judges today named a Swiss wheel as the 2015 U.S. Championship Cheese.
Team Guggisberg Sugarcreek, of Guggisberg Cheese, Millersburg, Ohio, took top honors out of 1,892 entries from 28 states for their Swiss wheel. Out of a possible 100 points, the Swiss wheel scored 98.496 in the final round of judging, during which judges re-evaluated the top 16 cheeses at an evening charity gala to determine the overall champion.
First runner-up in the contest, with a score of 98.389, is a brick cheese made by John (Randy) Pitman of Mill Creek Cheese in Arena, Wisconsin. Second runner-up is a medium cheddar, made by the Kiel Production Team, in Land O Lakes, Kiel, Wisconsin which scored 98.337.
“Every medalist should be extremely proud of being recognized as the best of the best in the largest national dairy competition ever held,” said John Umhoefer, executive director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, which hosts the biennial competition.
Wisconsin took home the most gold medals, with 56 of the total 90 categories judged. New York came in second among the states, with 7 golds. California had 6 gold medals, Vermont had 5, Idaho had 4, and Oregon had 3. Wisconsin, New York and California captured the most medals in the debut yogurt classes, each winning 2 medals.
The United States Championship Cheese Contest is the largest technical evaluation of cheese, butter and yogurt in the country and is rooted in more than 120 years of history, beginning when the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association held its first cheese contest in 1891. In recent years, the event has flourished, more than doubling in size since 2001. This year, more than 33,000 pounds of dairy products were entered into the contest.
For more information on the contest, as well as complete results for all 90 entry classes and contest photos, visit http://www.uschampioncheese.org.
News Release from Ohio Cheese Makers Association | March 19, 2015
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Components of DC generator? why does a DC generator is replaced by an AC generator
ashlin July 1, 2019, 11:14am #1
What is a Generator
Generator is a device which is used for converting mechanical energy into an electrical energy its working is based on Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction, e.m.f is produced according to Faraday’s law, the law states that whenever a conductor is placed in a varying magnetic field an e.m.f will be induced in the conductor, and the e.m.f will cause a current flow to the conductor which will take place if the circuit is closed
Introduction to DC generator
There are two types of generator which are AC and DC generator a generator always converts mechanical power into electrical power. In an AC generator, it produces alternating current while in DC it produces direct current
A simple generator can be converted into a direct current generator by doing this
Current must be made to move in one direction
The current must be conducted from the rotating loop of the wire
Components of DC generator
It is the rotating device in the generator it consists of a single loop of wire made to rotate in a magnetic field. Mostly the rotor consists of several coils of wire wound on an armature
The armature is a cylinder which is made up of laminated iron and it is mounted on the axle, the axle is mounted in the external part of the generator. To make the rotor spin torque is applied to the axle.
Mostly the coil will be copper wire which is wounded to the armature, each end of the coil is either connected to two slip rings or it will be connected to two opposite bars of split ring commutator
It is the fixed part of the generator that supplies the magnetic field in which the coil rotates and it may consist of two permanent magnets with opposite poles which are shaped to fit around the rotor, the magnetic field may be provided by two electromagnets alternatively
The brushes will maintain contact with the coil by the help of slip rings or the split ring commutator. And the electric current will be conducted from the coil to an external circuit
Field electromagnets
The electromagnet has many turns of a copper wire coil wound on a soft iron core, the electromagnets are mounted in a way that the opposite poles face each other and wrap around the rotor
Uses of DC generator
Many DC generators are AC driven in a combination called motor generator sets and thus we could change the alternating current into direct current
It can be used in factories that do electroplating
It is used in factories which produce aluminum, chlorine and other industrial material needs a large amount of DC current
It is used in locomotives and ships driven by a diesel-electric motor
It is used in series arc lightning
Why does a DC generator is replaced by an AC generator
It is because the commutators of the Dc generator is complex and it is very costly and due to that a lot of DC generator is replaced by a modified AC generator and it is very economical
The AC generator modification is done by adding rectifiers which will change the current flow to only one direction
Types of Excitation system and how is it useful for power system
Types of DC generator ? the purpose of a commutator in a DC generator
Components of AC generator and AC generator types
Saran_S July 3, 2019, 6:17am #2
worthful…the content is perfect
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Migration & Memory: Revolutionary Jewish Arts in Clinton
Thursday, November 2nd, 2017 // Current Issue, November/December 2017
Leonid and Rimma Brailovsky, Procession, tempera on board. Collection of Vladimir and Vera Torchilin, image courtesy of Ballets Russes Arts Initiative.
MIGRATION AND MEMORY: JEWISH ARTISTS OF THE RUSSIAN AND SOVIET EMPIRES
MUSEUM OF RUSSIAN ICONS
CLINTON, MASSACHUSETTS
By Flavia Cigliano
Conceived to coincide with the cen- tennial of the Russian Revolution (1917), “Migration and Memory: Jewish Artists of the Russian and Soviet Empires” presents the work of 50 artists, predominantly Jewish, from the pre- and post-revolu- tionary eras. The exhibit was organized by Boston’s Ballets Russes Arts Initiative, and continues the Museum of Russian Icon’s ongoing public programs focusing on Russian art and culture.
Anna Winestein, executive director of the Ballets Russes Arts Initiative, served as the show’s guest curator. Winestein worked closely with Vladimir and Vera Torchilin, whose personal collection was the source of all the artwork in the exhibit. When the Torchilins emigrated from Russia to the United States in early 1990s, they brought with them an extensive art collection, started by Vladimir Torchilin’s father, which emphasized the works of Jewish artists.
A leading biochemist, pharmacologist and specialist in nanomedicine, Vladimir Torchilin is now distinguished professor and director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Nanomedicine at Northeastern University. Vera Torchilin, now retired, was an executive at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. They continue to collect art by Russian artists.
The 1917 Revolution, also referred to as the October Revolution, brought down the Russian Empire and established Communist rule in what became the Soviet Union. The revolution favor- ably changed the desperate situation of Jewish artists. Relenting on the oppressive control and marginalization of Jews that had characterized imperial rule, the newly established Communist government opened opportunities for them. Jewish artists in particular benefitted, since they now were able to practice their art or to immigrate to the West – usually to Europe or the United States with fewer state-imposed restrictions.
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Rest in Peace Yueh Hua
December 1, 2018 December 2, 2018 Meredith
“He’s gorgeous!” said my Mum, boggling at Yueh Hua playing the titular role in The Lizard. “He’s warm, funny, and he’s really really good.”
Yueh Hua in The Lizard. Image from hkmdb.com
The Lizard (1972) is a combination rom-com / kung fu / heist movie produced by Shaw Brothers Studios and directed by Chor Yuen. I could sense the surprise in my Mother’s voice. She is not a fan of martial arts movies – she can’t stand the violence – and only watched The Lizard to keep me company one evening. In fact, I chose the film when I realised that she would be sitting up with me as I thought she would enjoy the broad humour, the entertaining plot, the lovely sets and costumes, and the engaging performances. Like many Westerners who don’t watch martial arts movies, Mum was under the impression that the movie she would be viewing with me would be shoddily made with risible acting.
But Shaws didn’t set out to make bad movies, they were in the business of making crowd pleasers that reflected well on their brand and made the audience want to come back for more. They resourced productions like The Lizard with the best technical, and among the best human, resources available in Hong Kong at the time.
This included a large stable of talent, both behind and in front of the camera. One of Shaws’ most gifted stars was Yueh Hua. He died recently; you can read an obituary here.
Hua was a product of the Shaws system, as well as being one of its most reliable mainstays. His filmography boasts a remarkable 138 films, many of them for Shaw Brothers. His biography on The Hong Kong Movie Database states that he acted in about five films a year during the 1960s and 1970s. It must have been exhausting! However, the consistent work plus the opportunity to collaborate with other talented people would have given him a chance to refine his skills. In return, he proved to be a box office draw for Shaws, and a performer who could be relied upon to turn in consistently good, and often excellent, performances.
Working my way through Shaws catalogue of martial arts movies, one thing that has struck me about Hua was that he was a most versatile actor: at the start of his career he played the rambunctious Sun Wukong (King Monkey) in Ho Meng Hua’s trilogy of films inspired by Journey to the West as well as a seminal performance as the impish Fan Dapei / Drunken Knight in Come Drink with Me (1966). This made him a star and he then often played earnest leading men in films such as Killer Darts (1968) and The Shadow Whip (1971). I especially liked his portrayal of the jaded but morally robust hero in The Casino (1972) (he and co-star Lily Ho made a sexy couple in this film).
Yueh Hua in The Casino. Picture from hkmdb.com
During his career he also branched out into playing important character roles, such as the mysterious Monk Wu Hua in Clans of Intrigue (1977) or an ambiguously aloof wandering swordsman in Heroes Shed No Tears (1980). His performance in Death Duel (1977) shows that he could also make an effective cold-eyed villain. Regardless of which part he played, he always distinguished himself through subtle performances and a strong screen presence.
Yueh Hua in Death Duel. Picture from hkmdb.com
We are lucky that he left a wonderful legacy of films behind.
Thank you, Yueh Hua, and Rest in Peace.
I have written about Shaw Brothers Studios is ‘Ask for the Moon: Innovation at Shaw Brothers Studios’. If you would like to buy the book, please go here.
Posted in UncategorizedTagged Shaw Brothers, Yueh Hua
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United Arab Emirates (UAE), towards a new BCCI scandal
US Condemns General Khalifa Haftar ...
by ATNews April 7, 2019
This post was last updated on June 2nd, 2019 at 07:32 am
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), pearl of the Gulf, has deformed into a global money laundering hub for the corrupt oligarchs. According to a French media house, covert financial institutions in the UAE are managing the opaque monetary flows of the Algerian oligarchs.
UAE’s money laundering record
In 1991, a leading United States bank revoked all business ties with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), a Luxembourg-based banking institution. BCCI was established in 1972 by a Pakistani financier Agha Hasan Abedi, who initiated strong economic alliance in the private sector between Pakistan and the UAE.
The then UAE President, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan provided 75% capital investment to BCCI, which expanded its operations across 78 countries, with over 400 branches. During its early years, the Bank of America NT & SA (National Trust and Savings Association) was a 25% shareholder of BCCI.
Investigations disclosed that the bank accepted money from a million depositors from across the world, thereby turning into a personal treasury for its Arab and Pakistani owners. BCCI’s favored customers availed overdraft worth millions of dollars, usually without documentation, mostly violating the bank’s own lending policies.
The UAE-funded bank was accused of money laundering and other inconsistencies, such as, financing terrorists in the Middle East, underwriting of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein’s quest for a nuclear energy, etc.
BCCI under the protection of CIA
According to Richard Kerr, the former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), BCCI carried out sensitive intelligence-gathering operations under CIA’s control. Kevin Ryan, a prominent American entrepreneur, called it a “CIA-linked terrorist financing network”.
BCCI was used to supply guns to Iraq, fund Osama bin Laden’s Mujahadeen in Afghanistan and supply money in the illicit Iran-Contra operation. It also laundered money for Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services.
BCCI has worked with the “Arab and International Bank of Investments” based in the UAE.
UAE sovereign wealth fund: the financial weapon of war
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed (MbZ), the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, did not learn from his father’s involvement in the BCCI scandal, which spurred worldwide criticism for the country.
Even today, Emirati banks are operating in open economies, where globalization affects all sectors. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is exhausting its sovereign wealth fund by serving diplomatic, geo-strategic and military interests in the war-torn Yemen and Libya.
Mondafrique, a French media house, recently reported that the UAE has established numerous banking institutions, which provide a safe money laundering haven to the Algerian oligarchs. It was also accused of meddling with the Algerian political framework during the mass demonstrations against the government.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Arab hooligan, has always challenged the possibility of sanctions against illegal practices that disturb the global trade harmony. However, on March 12, the UAE was included on the EU list of tax havens with countries like Barbados, Bermuda, the Virgin Islands and Marshal, Guam, Samoa etc.
This announcement had a great hit on the overall Emirati economy. This could be a wake-up call for the UAE regime to mend ways, before its too late.
Asktruth seeks your important feedback through comments. You can also write to us or tip off at [email protected] We, at Asktruth, also welcome your opinions and stories at [email protected]
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TIFF 2016: The Best
From time to time, we all have to compromise our own values. It’s part of growing up. But do you remember the first time that you betrayed your own moral code?
According to Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu, director of the brilliant and beautiful 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (which I have not seen), Graduation is about a lot of things. “It’s about family. It’s about aging. It’s about you. It’s about me”. But mostly, as the Cannes Best Director winner articulated at the North American premiere, it’s about that pivotal moment in one’s life where they make a conscious decision for the first time to do what they know in their heart to be wrong.
Romeo (Adrien Titieni) couldn’t be more proud of his daughter Eliza (Maria-Victoria Dragus) when she gets accepted into a fancy British school but he still can’t relax. Despite her stellar grades, she still needs to pass her finals to get out their Romanian town. When a vicious random assault threatens to shake Eliza’s confidence just days before her exams, Romeo can’t help feeling tempted to use his position as a well-respected surgeon to bargain with her educators in exchange for some leniency.
Graduation takes its time. It takes time to establish the relationships, set up the scenario, and let the story play out. Mungiu doesn’t resort to melodrama or even a musical score to beg for our attention. Almost every scene plays out in just one meticulously framed take. It’s an approach that gives his actors plenty of room to shine and his story the time to come alive. If you don’t mind the slow pace, Graduation asks big questions and will get you talking. It’s a very rewarding experience.
My Entire High School is Sinking Into the Sea
Dash Shaw was in high school when James Cameron’s Titanic was in theaters and couldn’t help imaging what it would be like if his school sank like the famous ship with all of his classmates inside. When you think about it, to avoid drowning to death in a sinking building, the smartest would head for the top floor and try to get to the roof. Once Shaw, director of My Entire High School is Sinking Into the Sea and apparently quite an accomplished comic book writer, started imaging each floor being occupied by a different grade level, he knew he had a story worth telling.
To see a film called My Entire High School is Sinking Into the Sea without feeling like you’re seeing something completely unique would be a letdown. So I’m pleased to announce that, whether you love it or hate it, Shaw’s debut feature will not let you down. The unusual animation style takes a little getting used to at first and, even once you get comfortable, there is so much to look at that many of the movie’s jokes- and the jokes are almost constant- can be easy to miss. My Entire High School may eventually be best remember for its carnage (those who are spared from drowning are mostly impaled, electrocuted, or eaten by sharks) but it’s made all the more special by the hilarious and sometimes touching dynamic between three adolescent friends whose bond is in crisis just as their lives are in imminent danger. And it’s all brought to life by some of the best voice acting you’ll hear this year from Jason Schwartzman, Lena Dunham, Maya Rudolph, Reggie Watts, and Susan Sarandon.
It’s Only the End of the World
I was one proud Asshole walking out of the Toronto premiere of Quebec director Xavier Dolan’s latest family drama. I was genuinely moved by a Xavier Dolan film. I admired Mommy, his last movie, I really did. It was just too self-indulgent for me to really relate to it in any real way.
So I was pleased to find myself loving this movie, more than almost anything else I saw at the Festival this year. I was finally starting to get it. I was quite disappointed to see that not everyone was as impressed as I was. It’s Only the End of the World currently has a score of 48 on Metacritic. If you’re not familiar with that site, let me put that in perspective. That’s only four points higher than Batman v. Superman’s score. Ouch.
I stand by my recommendation though. Based on a play by Jean-Luc Lagarce, It’s Only the End of the World tells the story of a family who are easier to relate to than to understand. After a 12-year absence, Louis (Gaspard Ulliel) is finally coming home but he is bringing sad news with him. He is very sick and doesn’t have much time left. He’s not quite sure how to bring it up but it wouldn’t matter anyway because his mother, brother, and sister can’t stop alternating between picking fights with him and each other and awkwardly trying to force reconciliation. They try to bond over trivial things and fight over tiny details but can’t seem to bring themselves to talk about anything important.
The claustrophobic family reunion atmosphere seems to rein Dolan in a bit. He still manages to make Lagarce’s play his own though. For such a talky film, it’s surprisingly cinematic with its unnerving score and great performances from Ulliel, Nathalie Baye, Marion Cotilliard, Lea Seydoux, and Vincent Cassell. Using his signature tight close-ups, Dolan works with the actors to find subtext amid all the shouting. No easy task. Hard to act like you’re holding back when you’re screaming at each other.
I’m still not entirely sure what they were fighting about. But the story feels real and profoundly sad.
Careful with this one. The people around me at the TIFF encore screening of Nocturnal Animals were basket cases watching it.
It’s easy to imagine yourself in the same position as Tony (Jake Gyllenhaal), a husband and father whose family finds themselves terrorized while driving a lonely Texas highway in the middle of the night. The tension is nearly unbearable as this story unfolds. Those around me could barely sit still watching it and Susan (Amy Adams) is getting even more stressed reading about it. See, the scary part of Nocturnal Animals is but a story within a story. It’s the plot of a manuscript that Susan’s ex-husband (also Gyllenhaal) has sent her of his latest novel. As unnerving as the novel is to watch, it’s even worse for Susan. She’s quite sure the novel is about her.
The three narratives (there are also a lot of flashbacks of Susan’s marriage) are balanced beautifully in the second film from director Tom Ford (A Single Man). Susan is a successful art dealer and everything around her is beautiful and fake. In the story within the story, Tony’s world is harsh and all too real. Nocturnal Animals is sure to be divisive. Ford lays out his themes very clearly and I’m sure I feel comfortable with all of his implications. But there’s so much to look at and so much to feel, think,about, and talk about that you kind of just have to see it.
Oh, and if you’re not sold yet, Michael Shannon plays a crazy cop in it.
This entry was posted in Movie Reviews, Rants, Raves and Righteousness and tagged amy adams, animated movies, Canadian content, discussion, family drama, father daughter movies, foreign films, independent film, jake gyllenhaal, Jason Schwartzman, lena dunham, Marion Cotillard, Michael Shannon, movies about seniors and aging, Susan Sarandon, tiff, whoa there what the fuck just happened, xavier dolan on September 26, 2016 by Matt.
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27 thoughts on “TIFF 2016: The Best”
ninvoid99 September 25, 2016 at 2:54 pm
I so want to see It’s the End of the World because of Xavier Dolan and Nocturnal Animals as it features a small role from my boo, Jena.
Matt Post author September 28, 2016 at 11:49 am
I think you’ll be pleased, Jena’s actually quite good in her small part. I was glad to see her scenes with Amy Adams made it into the final cut. They shared the screen in Batman v. Superman but her scenes were deleted.
I know and for that, I will cut off Zack Snyder’s nuts.
Lara/Trace September 25, 2016 at 3:29 pm
What would I do without you guys? ❤
We only recommend the good stuff.
Jay September 26, 2016 at 3:01 pm
Some of these weren’t even on my long list, and some I’m still insanely jealous I didn’t get to see – but you’ve convinced me they’re all worth checking out, and I look forward to doing that.
I’m so excited to compare notes on Nocturnal Animals.
Nocturnal Animals portraits:
It’s Only the End of the World TIFF premiere:
Nocturnal Animals:
fragglerocking September 26, 2016 at 5:14 pm
cool reviews MAtt, think Nocturnal ANimals will be on my list.
It’s intense though, just to warn you.
fragglerocking September 28, 2016 at 12:35 pm
OK I’ll have a cushion at the ready 🙂
Courtney Small September 26, 2016 at 8:38 pm
I was a bit torn on My Entire High School is Sinking in the Sea. While it has many amusing moments, I found it to be a bit too repetitive at times. Ultimately I had fun, but was expecting a bit more.
Loved Nocturnal Animals. Probably in my top five for TIFF this year.
I reluctantly passed on Dolan’s film at TIFF as there were too many other films I wanted to see (plus I figured it would be an easier film to track down than some of the others I was seeing).
Matt Post author September 28, 2016 at 12:03 pm
I’m glad that you mentioned My entire High School so we could discuss. As much as I enjoyed it, it did lose my attention a couple of times which normally wouldn’t be a good sign for a movie that I think clocks in at less than 90 minutes. It lost me a bit when the humour got a little too juvenile. I liked it best when it focused on the relationships.
Tom Ford gave a great Q&A for Nocturnal Animals where he was unusually generous about explaining his potentially confusing film.
Courtney Small September 30, 2016 at 10:01 pm
Agree that the relationships are what keep the audiences attention. I also loved how they summed up the film’s own flaws when they read the book review at the end.
Would have love to have been at the Tom Ford Q&A, just hearing him talk about the stylistic choices would have been fascinating. Funny enough, I did not find the film all that confusing, though I could see how it could throw some for a loop.
Jay September 27, 2016 at 8:00 am
“When [Tom Ford] gets his mind set on something he goes full in. He knows exactly what he wants. And he’s a gentleman, the meaning of the word. He’s not a let down. And he smells good, too.”
Brittani September 27, 2016 at 8:33 am
I’m looking forward to both Nocturnal Animals and It’s Only The End of the World. I’ll have to check out Graduation now after reading this too.
I highly recommend Graduation. It’s probably the best thing I saw at the festival.
ruth September 27, 2016 at 10:04 am
I enjoy Michael Shannon’s fashion *sense* at TIFF, ahah. Nocturnal Animals sounds intriguing, and this is the first time I heard of Graduation, sounds like it’s worth checking out too!
I know, he was rocking so many interesting outfits in Toronto this year. I guess appearing in three films at the festival gave him a chance to show off his eclectic tastes.
J. September 27, 2016 at 5:05 pm
Some interesting sounding flicks there, but Nocturnal Animals looks fairly incredible and that’s one I really want to see.
kmSalvatore September 28, 2016 at 7:18 am
and the list keeps growing, thanks you guys. awesome pics too.
Haha thanks I actually did spend quite a bit of time trying to find the perfect pictures for Nocturnal Animals so that you would get a sense of it.
kmSalvatore September 28, 2016 at 12:08 pm
It worked😂👍🏻
vinnieh November 5, 2016 at 6:16 am
I just saw Nocturnal Animals, it is quite a film. Loved the overall style and the way the narratives dovetailed.
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IU Goes to Mexico 2018
A mission to Mexico
Posted on May 26, 2018 by Ryan Piurek
Bienvenido and welcome to the IU Goes to Mexico 2018 blog!
One of the hallmarks of any great university is its ability to recognize, respond to and help understand changes in the economic and cultural makeup of the communities it serves.
Recent years have seen a substantial growth in Indiana’s Latino population, which, according to IU’s own Public Policy Institute, represents the fastest-growing and youngest segment of the state’s total demographic. More than 429,000 Latinos live in Indiana, three-quarters of whom are of Mexican origin.
This growth mirrors what has transpired all across the nation. Since 1960, the U.S. Latino population has increased nearly ninefold, from 6.3 million then to 56.5 million by 2015, and it is projected to grow to 107 million by 2065.
Not surprisingly, Indiana’s ties to Mexico have expanded economically. Today, Mexico is the Hoosier state’s second-largest trading partner, and last year, we exported more than $5 billion in goods and products to Mexico.
Mexico City, Mexico.
It’s against this backdrop that Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie will lead, beginning tomorrow, a university delegation to Mexico City. While there, he will preside over the formal opening of a new global gateway office, which will provide the university with a physical presence in a major economic and cultural center in Latin America and a point of access to other countries within this dynamic and strategically important region of the world.
The IU Mexico Gateway is the university’s fourth such facility around the world, and it is located at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, the largest university in Latin America, the oldest in North America and a leading university of the Spanish-speaking world. Like IU’s other international offices in New Delhi, Beijing and Berlin, the IU Mexico Gateway is designed to strengthen IU’s global engagement by facilitating support for research and teaching; conferences and workshops; study abroad opportunities for students; and engagement with alumni, businesses and nongovernmental organizations. (Here’s a recent interview, courtesy of my IU Newsroom colleagues, with IU Mexico Gateway director Beth West, who discusses how the new office will support activities that advance IU’s mission in Mexico.)
While in Mexico City, McRobbie, IU Vice President for International Affairs David Zaret and their fellow delegation members will also attend several inaugural events in celebration of the office opening. Those events include a workshop on indigenous languages and literatures featuring a number of distinguished scholars, poets and cultural leaders from Mexico and the U.S., and a concert by the New Music Ensemble from IU’s world-renowned Jacobs School of Music, a result of longstanding ties between Jacobs faculty members and the UNAM Faculty of Music.
As part of the trip, delegation members will also meet with leaders in business, higher education, government and philanthropy to work on developing student and faculty exchanges, artistic and cultural programming, and other collaborative activities. Today, more than 350 IU students currently study abroad in Latin America, where IU’s successful overseas study programs originated.
The trip will also enable IU to deepen ties to its growing ranks of Latino alumni. The university currently has 10,000 Latino alumni, including nearly 550 who are affiliated with Mexico and are helping to build an active Mexico alumni chapter that President McRobbie helped inaugurate during his previous trip to the country in 2016. (Check out this story about the president of the IU Alumni Association’s Mexico Chapter, Peter Tattersfield.)
During that trip — the first by an IU president to Mexico since 1980 — IU also strengthened a nearly two-decades-long relationship with UNAM, one of only a few university campuses in the world designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. IU’s relationship with UNAM dates back to 1999, when collaboration began between the university and the Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at IU.The workshop was co-founded in 1973 by the late Nobel Prize-winning economist and IU Distinguished Professor Elinor Ostrom.
Recent IU-sponsored events have resulted in newer university and state connections with Mexico.
In January, IUPUI Chancellor Nasser Paydar led a delegation of campus officials to Mexico that worked to strengthen connections with Mexican universities and research partners, with a special focus on collaboration in the health sciences, law and engineering and technology. The chancellor’s visit was supported by the IU Mexico Gateway.
In March, IU hosted Dr. Roberto Salinas-León, president of the Mexico Business Forum. Dr. Salinas-León delivered the annual Patrick O’Meara International Lecture, during which he shared his insights about the future of North American partnership.
And in April, the IU men’s soccer team hosted an exciting and evenly contested match against the Mexico U-20 National Team, an annual event that has become a highlight of the spring sports season in Bloomington.
IU President Michael A. McRobbie, left, met in 2016 with Enrique Graue Wiechers, president of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. During the meeting, the two leaders agreed to explore further areas of collaboration between their respective institutions.
The next several days promise to add to this growing list of connections, as IU formally establishes a hub for its extensive research, scholarly and educational activities in Mexico and Latin America and strengthens its linkages with Mexico’s leading educational and cultural institutions.
As for me personally, I’ll have the pleasure of serving as your guide to our time in Mexico City, delivering daily summaries of the delegation’s activities and sharing some insights into IU’s increasing engagement in this important region of the world.
Thanks for joining me for this journey, and I hope you will check in regularly for the latest photos, stories and updates.
Please feel free to reach out to me directly with questions at rpiurek@iu.edu.
Coming soon: the opening of the IU Mexico Gateway!
Filed under: UncategorizedTagged Beth West, David Zaret, IU Alumni Association, IU Global Gateway Network, IU Mexico Gateway, IUPUI, Jacobs School of Music, Mexico, Michael A. McRobbie, Nasser Paydar, National Autonomous University of Mexico, New Music Ensemble, Ostrom Workshop, Peter Tattersfield, Roberto Salinas-León, UNAM
Welcome to the IU Goes to Mexico blog. Please visit this site regularly for stories and insights into Indiana University's trip to one of Latin America's largest, most dynamic and most culturally vibrant countries, one with increasingly important economic ties to Indiana. Here you will also find information about IU's extensive global resources, longstanding educational and cultural engagement efforts in Mexico, new international initiatives and continued expansion of the IU Global Gateway Network.
Learn more about the trip.
Where we’re going
Click the image above to see a full-sized interactive map.
View trip press releases.
See the latest trip photos.
ANUIES Anya Peterson Royce Beth West Christiana Ochoa David Zaret Herman Wells IU Alumni Association IU Global Gateway Network IU Mexico Gateway IUPUI Jacobs School of Music Mexico Mexico Remixed Michael A. McRobbie Nasser Paydar National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education National Autonomous University of Mexico New Music Ensemble Ostrom Workshop Peter Tattersfield Roberto Salinas-León UNAM
Ryan Piurek
A veteran member of IU’s news and strategic communications team, Piurek currently serves as IU assistant vice president for public affairs and presidential communications.
A graduate of IU's Media School, Piurek leads public affairs initiatives in support of IU's academic programs and initiatives, including IU's international engagement efforts, while also managing a broad range of communications activity in support of the bicentennial strategic priorities of the IU Office of the President.
Piurek is a Connecticut native who has been living in Bloomington for nearly two decades, with past experience in newspaper reporting, public relations, marketing, advertising, and copywriting.
IU Mexico Gateway
National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education (ANUIES)
Mexican Council on Foreign Relations (COMEXI)
University Museum of Contemporary Art
Office of the Vice President for International Affairs
School of Global and International Studies
IU Worldwide
IUPUI Goes to Mexico
IU Women's Philanthropy
IU Jacobs School of Music
Global Gateway Network
IU – Mexico connections
IU Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
IU Latino Studies program
IU Alumni Association Mexico Chapter
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https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2014/05/12/open-source-projects-take-on-some-work-of-standards-bodies/
CIO Journal.
Open Source Projects Take on Some Work of Standards Bodies
Rachael King
As more companies begin to participate in open source projects, these projects may begin to function as replacements for some standards bodies. On Monday Hewlett-Packard was the latest big company to deepen its relationship with open source efforts, committing $1 million and a programming staff to a project related to software-defined networking.
“Open source is becoming the norm for how companies collaborate,” Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, told CIO Journal. Some open source projects will become a de facto replacement for slower-moving standards bodies, he said.
In the telecom and computer networking industry, for example, collaboration once meant making one supplier’s hardware able to communicate with hardware from another supplier. That process could be time-consuming as standards bodies tried to balance interests of many large companies with competing products. Vendors often lobbied for their own approach as the basis for standards.
With the cloud, the nature of standardization is changing. “Standardization isn’t a way of talking between two boxes anymore, it’s the behavior of many elements,” said Neela Jacques, executive director of the OpenDaylight Project, an open source project related to software-defined networking. “The industry is moving to a place where standards can’t deliver,” he said.
HP said it would commit to $1 million over the next two years to OpenDaylight Project and the equivalent of 10 full-time programmers.
Instead of building standards to which all products are expected to adhere, companies can collaborate and build code that’s freely available. If enough companies adopt the code, then it becomes a de facto standard. OpenDaylight is trying to build software-defined networking code that can serve as a base that companies with competing interests can agree upon. It’s almost like if VHS and BetaMax had gotten together to agree on a basic format before releasing products.
So far, end users haven’t adopted software-defined networking as quickly as the industry had hoped, said Mr. Jacques. That’s partly because there are so many different ways to approach it currently, and CIOs don’t want to take a gamble with their core infrastructure on the wrong approach. “You’re asking them to bet on a horse in a 15-horse race,” he said.
OpenDaylight is designed as a neutral project where anyone can contribute. There are also different levels of membership. Along with H-P, vendors such as Cisco Systems, Ericsson, International Business Machines, Juniper Networks, Microsoft and Red Hat belong to OpenDaylight Project.
Write to rachael.king@wsj.com
Michael Hickins contributed to this story.
OPENDAYLIGHT
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Interest In Impact Investing Growing Among Asian HNWIs And UHNWIs
Blue & Green Tomorrow
A survey by Lombard Odier has revealed that Asia-based High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) and Ultra High Net Worth Individual (UHNWI) investors are seeking to allocate more money to impact investing.
The survey, which polled more than 100 of Lombard Odier’s HNWIs and UHNWIs clients in Asian markets, including Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines, found that almost every respondent (99.1%) agrees that social responsibility has become important in a post-COP21 world and, moreover, most (97.2%) are willing to increase their allocations to impact investing.
This growing sentiment towards impact investing comes amid global efforts to address the causes and impact of climate change on the global stage. The annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris last year saw countries make unprecedented commitments to adapt to and mitigate climate change, with countries including China, India and the U.S. having ratified the Paris Agreement in recent months.
When reallocating wealth to impact investment, the majority of respondents (60.2%) said they would shift money from traditional investments (equities and fixed income), while some (23.1%) would prefer to reallocate money from charitable donations. One quarter (25.2%) of respondents also believe that impact investing allows them to pursue financial and social impact returns.
Despite the clear interest in impact investing, most respondents (89.8%) said they would prefer to allocate less than 50% of their overall wealth to impact investing, while nearly half of the respondents (49.1%) said they would allocate less than 15% of their wealth into the asset class.
Vincent Duhamel, head of Asia, at Lombard Odier, commented, “The survey highlights Asian HNWIs and UHNWIs’ increasing awareness of the importance of impact investing, driven by societal and regulatory trends, but also their cautious approach to incorporating the strategy in their investments. It is encouraging that the topic has become a central theme among investors and this reflects many of the discussions we have with our clients.”
With Asia’s dramatic expansion over the three last decades, the region has witnessed huge problems associated with water, air and the impact of climate change
“With Asia’s dramatic expansion over the three last decades, the region has witnessed huge problems associated with water, air and the impact of climate change, as recognised by the Chinese authorities and other governments in the region. These issues have been of great concern not only amongst the older generation, but also the youth of today, who have been urging a rethink of the related issues. Two in five (41.4%) of respondents felt Asia’s efforts to tackle climate change in recent years had improved moderately and significantly.”
Ranked among the world’s best asset managers by the UN PRI (A+), Lombard Odier was one of the pioneering institutions to practice Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and has been developing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) analysis since as early as 1997.
“For Lombard Odier as a wealth manager for more than 220 years, with a focus of wealth preservation for the next generation, the notion of sustainability is at the heart of what we do. We hope to see this positive momentum continue with increasing commitments from the world’s leaders to address the challenges and provide a sustainable environment that encourages all forms of SRI,” Duhamel added.
Related Topics:Asiacop21high net-worth individualHNWIimpact investingLombard Odiersustainable investmentUHNWIUltra High Net Worth Individual
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