pred_label
stringclasses 2
values | pred_label_prob
float64 0.5
1
| wiki_prob
float64 0.25
1
| text
stringlengths 182
1.01M
| source
stringlengths 39
44
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
__label__wiki
| 0.906406
| 0.906406
|
CBS News — Immigrant Workers at SF Restaurant Awarded $316k in Wage Theft Case
Listen to the podcast here or visit the website.
A group of immigrants who worked at a Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco’s Richmond District have been awarded more than $300,000 in a major wage theft case.
Luong Vuong was a waiter for more than a year at the Pho Clement restaurant. He said through a translator on Wednesday that he came forward in August after working 12.5 hour days, 6 to 7 days a week without tips or breaks for about $5 an hour.
Shaw San Liu with the Chinese Progressive Association said that Vuong and seven co-workers were all victims of wage theft.
“Wage theft is one of the many ways in which this economic inequality is manifesting itself and hurting our communities,” she said.
The Association helped the workers sue Pho Clement and a settlement was reached in the case, awarding them $316,000.
Donna Chen with the Department of Labor Standards and Enforcement said their priority is to ensure minimum wage and other work laws are followed.
“We are very proud of you for coming forward to provide us the information and letting us know about your poor working conditions,” said Chen.
It’s estimated that wage theft costs California workers $8 billion a year, with many of the victims immigrants.
Several other investigations have been launched since San Francisco enacted a wage theft ordinance in September.
Anna Duckworth
KCBS News
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1176
|
__label__wiki
| 0.746791
| 0.746791
|
Doubts as Sri Lanka says Commonwealth meeting open
By Sumit Galhotra/CPJ Asia Program Research Associate on July 17, 2013 4:19 PM ET
As Sri Lanka prepares to host the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo in November, some journalists have wondered whether they will be able to access the summit given the island nation's abysmal press freedom record.
On Saturday, a subcommittee of the government taskforce organizing the summit issued a press release stating that "Sri Lanka is committed to providing full media access" and that it "welcomes all journalists to cover this very important summit."
In a recent letter to the Commonwealth Secretariat, CPJ expressed concern about the accreditation procedures amid press reports that the Sri Lankan government will conduct stringent background checks on foreign journalists covering the meeting, with the apparent intention of denying permission to enter the country.
Richard Uku, spokesman for the Secretariat, responded to CPJ's executive director via Twitter, stating that the Secretariat is the final authority on media accreditation procedures for international journalists.
But the signals are still mixed. Since then, local media have raised the issue of whether journalists like Callum Macrae, producer of the bold Channel 4 documentary, "No War Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka," will be allowed into the country. Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella responded by saying the government will have final say over who is allowed in, underscoring the lingering concerns. Some journalists predict that Sri Lanka will find ways to deny visas to journalists who have been critical of the country, even if they are granted accreditation from the Secretariat.
This week, Bandula Jayasekara, Sri Lanka's consul-general in Sydney, vowed to block Macrae's entry, according to press reports--after referring to him in a Twitter tirade as a "mercenary with blood money" and "the Chief Propagandist of the LTTE terrorists overseas," referring to the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam:
@Callum_Macrae I have bn consistent about what I have said /say about you Chief propagandist of the LTTE terror rump Callum Mercenary
-- Bandula Jayasekara (@bundeljayse) July 16, 2013
@Callum_Macrae You are nothing but a Mercenary with blood money over you and the Chief Propagandist of the LTTE terrorists overseas .
Sri Lanka has a long track record of obstructing the independent press. In the past year, Colombo has introduced a draft media code in parliament that would impose harsh restrictions on journalists' ability to report freely (it has been withdrawn for now, under criticism) and interrupted transmissions of BBC's Tamil service while the ethnic Tamil press continues to face attacks.
Sri Lanka's intentions will soon be tested. Registration for accreditation is now open for international and local journalists.
Sumit Galhotra is the research associate for CPJ's Asia program. He served as CPJ's inaugural Steiger Fellow and has worked for CNN International, Amnesty International USA, and Human Rights Watch. He has reported from London, India, and Israel and the Occupied Territories, and specializes in human rights and South Asia.
Any impartial person, strong enough to resist Tiger incentives or false stories, can visit Sri Lanka to see for himself or herself that democracy and press freedom are alive and well in Sri Lanka, unlike in the USA which has become almost a Police state by being paranoid over free speech and as such the Western media is afraid to report anything exposing US violations both within the country as overseas.
It is obvious to anyone why the BBC reporter Callum Macrae is touring the world with fabricated movies carrying the message of the Tiger rump. He and persons of his ilk have no shame,fear or feelings when harming the future of innocent civilians of Sri Lanka, tortured by the Tigers, with his false propaganda. Though he is a Westerner, up to now I am not aware of him exposing any of the human rights violation by USA and Western nations, within those countries or in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afganistan, Pakistan etc nor heinous crimes committed by the Tigers. Such people are a discredit to respectable journalists with self esteem.
Raja July 17, 2013 9:56:59 PM ET
You are really concerned about the press freedom of Sri Lanka but you never concerned about professional ethics code of the journalist, these two journalist Callum Macrae and Frances Harrison are paid agents of the one of the most ruthless terrorist organisation in the world
Do you believe under the press freedom that all innocent SL people to suffer, must be joking
Whare were you last 30 years when this terrorist organisation ruining day to day life of SL people , did your journalist report to the world truth about this terrorist organisation under media freedom.
kris July 17, 2013 10:57:53 PM ET
This chap Bandula Jayasekera is a number one joker when he was media advisor to the president, He stooped to such levels to get a posting in Australia . He is an absolute clot when it comes to diplomacy
Renu July 18, 2013 2:40:43 AM ET
Sri Lanka certainly welcome un-bias free journalists without any hidden agendas - press freedom does not mean that you can say or write whatever you think is write - because what you think write may not be the correct story - so it is better to be factual - presenting all the possible facts and let the reader decide - without sensationalizing certain facts - Macrae is not a journalist - but a paid opportunistic idiot who do not mind white washing the criminal history of LTTE and their blood thirsty supporters - as long as he get his booty - so he should not enter SL as a journalist -
Rabok July 18, 2013 7:18:07 AM ET
Terrorists and their supporters should'nt be allowed to come to SL.Their intention is to destroy SL. Be aware the government.
Jfdo July 18, 2013 7:23:05 AM ET
Callum Macrae and Frances Harrison have been merely holding the mirror! If the images are horrific the problem lies not with them but with the objects they have portrayed before the world!! Surely it is no secret that SL governments have been blood letting under cover of the ignominious PTA over the last 40 years for abject political failures of governments to solve the problems of its own citizens!!! Cover-ups will not efface nor erase the problems but only help aggravate them as has been happening over the past 65 years of failed independence. It is time to come to real grips and solve the hidden problems at least for the future's sake. The UN's involvement is crucial.
Srivanamoth July 22, 2013 5:23:34 PM ET
Bandula Jayasekara
Callum Macrae
CHOGM
Keheliya Rambukwella
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Richard Uku
Short URL: https://cpj.org/x/5628
Lots of talk but little progress in Sri Lanka over journalist murders
January 9, 2018 3:16 PM ET
It was the police line-up from hell. Forget all those "Law and Order" scenes where a victim stands anonymously behind a one-way mirror. Sri Lankan journalist Namal Perera had to stand eyeball-to-eyeball with 42 army intelligence officers in April, each of whom, Perera explained to me while demonstrating his...
How Sri Lanka's new president can ease decade of repressive press measures
January 12, 2015 5:55 PM ET
The stunning defeat of Sri Lanka's incumbent president Mahinda Rajapaksa by challenger Maithripala Sirisena on Friday has given way to questions about what changes, if any, will come for press freedom in a country that had grown deeply repressive under the previous leadership....
In Sri Lanka crackdown, mobs and death threats turned on journalists
There is genuine cause for alarm about the anonymous death threats going to Sunil Jayasekara's phone. They started streaming to Jayasekara, the convener of Sri Lanka's Free Media Movement, an umbrella group (hence calling the leader a convener) of journalists' organization in Sri Lanka, just before an FMM press...
Support Our Work:
"); text = text.replace(/#([A-Za-z_0-9]+)/g,'#$1'); text = text.replace(/@([A-Za-z_0-9]+)/g,'@$1'); return text; } var s = ''; $.getJSON('/ui/js/latest.json', function(data) { $.each(data, function(idx, value) { if(idx > 3) return; s += '
'; s += ''; s += '
@' + this.user.screen_name + '
'; s += replaceURLWithHTMLLinks(this.text); s += '
'; s += '
'; }); $('.cpj--tweets').append(s); });
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1178
|
__label__wiki
| 0.926621
| 0.926621
|
Caster Semenya: Olympic 800m champion loses appeal against IAAF testosterone rules
Caster Semenya has won the Olympic 800m title twice and the world title three times
Caster Semenya has lost a landmark case against athletics’ governing body meaning it will be allowed to restrict testosterone levels in female runners.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) rejected the South African’s challenge against the IAAF’s new rules.
But Cas said it had “serious concerns as to the future practical application” of the regulations.
Olympic 800m champion Semenya, 28, said in response to the ruling that the IAAF “have always targeted me specifically”.
“For a decade the IAAF has tried to slow me down, but this has actually made me stronger. The decision of Cas will not hold me back,” the statement continued.
“I will once again rise above and continue to inspire young women and athletes in South Africa and around the world.”
Previously, she had said that she wanted to “run naturally, the way I was born”.
Now she – and other athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) – must either take medication in order to compete in track events from 400m to the mile, or change to another distance.
Cas found that the rules for athletes with DSD were discriminatory – but that the discrimination was “necessary, reasonable and proportionate” to protect “the integrity of female athletics”.
However, Cas set out serious concerns about the application of the rules, including:
Worries that athletes might unintentionally break the strict testosterone levels set by the IAAF;
Questions about the advantage higher testosterone gives athletes over 1500m and the mile;
The practicalities for athletes of complying with the new rules.
Cas has asked the IAAF to consider delaying the application of the rules to the 1500m and one mile events until more evidence is available.
Semenya is still eligible to compete at the Diamond League meet in Doha on Friday and can make an appeal against the Cas ruling to the Swiss Tribunal Courts within the next 30 days.
What are disorders/differences of sex development (DSD)?
People with a DSD do not develop along typical gender lines.
Their hormones, genes, reproductive organs may be a mix of male and female characteristics, which can lead to higher levels of testosterone – a hormone that increases muscle mass, strength and haemoglobin, which affects endurance.
The term “disorders” is controversial with some of those affected preferring the term “intersex” and referring to “differences in sex development”.
The new rules come into effect on 8 May, which means athletes who want to compete at September’s World Championships – also in Doha – will have to start taking medication within one week.
Those affected by the rules will have to have a blood test on 8 May to test their eligibility. A statement from the IAAF said that no athlete “will be forced to undergo any assessment” and that any treatment was up to the individual athlete.
Athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) have higher levels of natural testosterone, which the IAAF believes gives them a competitive advantage – findings that were disputed by Semenya and her legal team.
Her lawyers had previously said her “genetic gift” should be celebrated, adding: “Women with differences in sexual development have genetic variations that are no different than other genetic variations in sport.”
They have also suggested that Semenya “does not wish to undergo medical intervention to change who she is and how she was born”.
What are the proposed changes?
The rules, applying to women in track events from 400m up to the mile, require athletes to keep their testosterone levels below a prescribed amount “for at least six months prior to competing”.
However, 100m, 200m and 100m hurdles are exempt, as are races longer than one mile and field events.
Female athletes affected must take medication for six months before they can compete, and then maintain a lower testosterone level.
The rules were intended to be brought in on 1 November 2018, but the legal challenge from Semenya and Athletics South Africa caused that to be delayed until 26 March.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has called the plans “unnecessary, harmful and humiliating” and South Africa’s sports minister called them a “human rights violation”.
What next for Semenya?
On Friday, Semenya won 5,000m gold at the South African Athletics Championships – a new distance for her, and one outside the scope of the IAAF rule change.
It was only the second time Semenya had run the distance and she finished more than 100m ahead of defending national champion Dominque Scott.
However, Scott said she was unsure whether Semenya could be a serious Olympic contender over the longer distance.
Semenya is national and Commonwealth champion at 1500m, and also broke the African 400m record in August.
Semenya wins 800m gold as Sharp comes eighth
‘Wrong in principle’ – reaction to verdict
Eighteen-time Grand Slam champion Martina Navratilova “The verdict against Semenya is dreadfully unfair to her and wrong in principle. She has done nothing wrong and it is awful that she will now have to take drugs to be able to compete. General rules should not be made from exceptional cases.”
Marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe: “I understand how hard a decision this was for Cas and respect them for ruling that women’s sport needs rules to protect it.”
Megha Mohan, BBC Gender and Identity reporter: “The spectrum of identity stretches far beyond the binary, say human rights activists, so shouldn’t Semenya’s physical abilities be celebrated the same way as Usain Bolt’s height and Michael Phelps’s wingspan are? Either way this verdict does not signal the end of the debate.”
31 July 2009: 18-year-old Semenya runs fastest 800m time of the year to win gold at the Africa Junior Championships.
August 2009: Semenya undertakes a gender test before the World Championships in Berlin. She is unaware of the purpose of the test, with Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene telling her it is a random doping test.
19 August 2009: Semenya wins 800m world gold, breaking the world-leading mark she set in July. After her victory, the news of Semenya’s gender test is leaked to the press.
November 2009: There are reports that Semenya’s test has revealed male and female characteristics. The results are not made public.
6 July 2010: Semenya is cleared by the IAAF to compete again.
22 August 2010: Semenya wins the 800m at an IAAF event in Berlin.
11 August 2012: Semenya wins 800m silver at the 2012 London Olympics. This is later upgraded to gold after Russian winner Mariya Savinov is given a lifetime ban for doping violations. Semenya is also upgraded to 2011 world gold.
July 2014: India sprinter Dutee Chand, 18, is banned from competing after a hormone test shows natural natural levels of testosterone normally only found in men.
23 March 2015: Chand begins a legal challenge against the IAAF’s so-called gender tests.
27 July 2015: Chand is cleared to compete; the Court of Arbitration for Sport suspends, for two years, the introduction of an earlier version of IAAF rules requiring female athletes to take testosterone-suppressing medication.
20 August 2016: Semenya wins 800m gold at the Rio Olympics, but the decision to allow her to compete is questioned by other athletes.
4 July 2017: Research commissioned by the IAAF finds female athletes with high testosterone levels have a “competitive advantage”.
26 April 2018: The IAAF introduces new rules for female runners with naturally high testosterone.
19 June 2018: Semenya says she will challenge the “unfair” IAAF rules.
18 February 2019: Semenya’s legal hearing begins at Cas.
1 May 2019: Semenya loses her challenge.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1187
|
__label__cc
| 0.709758
| 0.290242
|
Diabolique Magazine Indulge your passion for the macabre!
The Forgotten Golem: Michael Mann’s The Keep (1983)January 29, 2020
Scenes: ManhunterJanuary 28, 2020
Invisible Man in JapanJanuary 23, 2020
My Name is Sara: Subverting the Final Girl, and Setting the Animals Free in Friendly Beast.January 22, 2020
An Interview with Actress Lee GrantDecember 12, 2019
Being Roger Avary: Lucky Day, Incarceration, and Rekindling His Friendship with TarantinoDecember 9, 2019
An (Audrey) Rose By Any Other Name: An Intimate Conversation With Susan SwiftDecember 1, 2019
Buying a Ticket at the Suburban Grindhouse: An Interview with Author Nick CatoNovember 26, 2019
London Korean Film Festival Review: The Flower in Hell and Ieoh IslandDecember 11, 2019
Blu-Ray Review: Ida Lupino: The Filmmaker CollectionDecember 3, 2019
London Korean Film Festival Review: The Devil’s Stairway Takes Viewers to a Fun, If Familiar, Dark PlaceNovember 25, 2019
London Film Festival Review: The Antenna [2019]November 3, 2019
Classic Horror on Disc: Arrow’s An American Werewolf in London (1981)December 24, 2019
Classic Horror on Disc: Kino Lorber’s Zoltan – Hound of Dracula (1977)December 2, 2019
Classic Horror: Kino Lorber’s Hercules in the Haunted Word (1961)November 23, 2019
“This is not a Triumph of Cinema” – Ivan Nagy’s Skinner (UK Blu-ray Review)October 27, 2019
Touching Back: 5 Great Performances from Night GalleryDecember 1, 2019
Midnight Approved: The 10 Most Memorable Episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark?October 25, 2019
Broadway Dancer, Golda Meir, and the Free-Spirited Rhoda: Celebrating the Life Energy Left by Valerie HarperSeptember 5, 2019
Our Father, Rod Serling: Finding Family in The Twilight ZoneJuly 4, 2019
The Sophomore Supremacy of Peace Sells: But Who’s Buying? (1986)January 26, 2020
The Men With X-Ray Eyes: Somewhere with DEVODecember 10, 2019
Megadeth and the soundtrack for retribution: Killing Is My Business…And Business Is Good! (1985)November 19, 2019
Darted in Your Armchair: Episode Two – The Tubes Star in Young & RichOctober 1, 2019
Wicked Woman: Jinx Dawson on Coven at 50June 27, 2019
Mystic Demon Killer: An Interview With Director David FussellApril 12, 2019
Goblin Keyboardist Maurizio Guarini Talks Suspiria and New Dawn of the Dead Commemorative AlbumJanuary 10, 2019
Howling Joyful Treason Through a Season in Hell: Interview with Joseph Talbot of IDLESSeptember 3, 2018
World Weariness Among the Eighties Socialites: Cristina’s “Sleep It Off”October 28, 2019
Return to ‘The Beyond’ — An Exclusive Sneak Peek at Fabio Frizzi’s Composer’s CutSeptember 25, 2019
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown: Live in New York CitySeptember 25, 2019
Ari Lehman: First Jason Live!April 13, 2019
Art, Culture, Literature
An analysis of Sebastian Corbascio’s Sarah LugerJanuary 28, 2020
A Hell of a Life: The Nine Lives of John AshleyDecember 6, 2019
Ode to the Amazons: Feminism, Cheesecake, & the Art of Being FearlessOctober 30, 2019
Looking Back at Faust: Love of the DamnedOctober 7, 2019
“The Ghastly One Is Coming! ByNWR Is Here!” An Interview With Jimmy McDonough — Biographer of Andy Milligan and Co-Conspirator of Nicolas Winding RefnDecember 13, 2019
A Chat with Elizabeth Shepherd: “Tomb of Ligeia” on Film and AudioOctober 23, 2019
A Dream Within a Dream: A Moment with Jeffrey CombsAugust 31, 2019
Tom Savini’s Night of the Living Dead ’90: The Version You’ve Never SeenOctober 18, 2019
The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft: Beyond Arkham (Book Review)October 4, 2019
Midnight Movie Monographs: Tommy (Book review)September 23, 2019
Tormentors and the Tormented: Bullies in the World of Stephen KingSeptember 14, 2019
The Dripping, Psychedelic Horror of Noel Freibert’s Graphic Novel ‘Old Ground’October 26, 2018
‘Batman: Damned’ Review: Hell Comes For Bruce WayneSeptember 18, 2018
Review: Jane is a Worthy Modern Day Retelling of Charlotte Brontë’s Classic TaleSeptember 23, 2017
The Footprints are Massive- Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: GiantsSeptember 2, 2017
Hell’s Belles
The Rear Window
Captive Eye
The Sound Of Fear
A Real Horror Show
No Exit: Hell is a Film Related Facebook Group.January 18, 2020
Don’t Be Simon: Cinema is for Everyone.March 18, 2019
Annabelle Comes HomeSeptember 30, 2019
Enter for A Chance to Win The Shining, Pan’s Labrynth and Gremlins in 4K Ultra HD™!September 30, 2019
Diabolique Magazine Is Offering Scholarships for Miskatonic LondonDecember 19, 2018
DEATHCEMBER is LIVE on Kickstarter!December 6, 2018
Diabolique’s Top 10
Music to Get Your Spook On!: 31 Great Albums for the Halloween SeasonOctober 2, 2018
8 Movies That Shouldn’t Be Missed at the Fantasia International Film FestivalJuly 7, 2018
19 Vigilante Movies That Are Way Better Than Eli Roth’s ‘Death Wish’ RemakeMarch 3, 2018
“When You Get Caught Between the Knife and New York City”: New York Urban Horror FilmsMarch 3, 2018
An Englishman’s Guide to Italian Gothic
An Englishman’s Guide to Italian Gothic: The Castle of the Living Dead (1964)January 27, 2020
An Englishman’s Guide to Italian Gothic: The Long Hair of Death (1964)September 20, 2019
An Englishman’s Guide to Italian Gothic: Castle of Blood (1964)May 30, 2019
Why You Need to Watch…
Why You Need to Watch… Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole (1951)June 22, 2018
Unleash the Savage Instincts
Unleash the Savage Instincts: The Bat People (1974)April 13, 2018
Unleash the Savage Instincts: Penetrating X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes (1963)March 30, 2018
Unleash the Savage Instincts: The Melting Toupee of Ray Milland: David Del Valle Talks Frogs (1972)March 2, 2018
Legacies of Sade
Legacies of Sade: Gothic Kink in The Whip and The Body (1963)August 29, 2018
Legacies of Sade: Libertine Black Metal and the Sadeian World of Carpathian ForestJuly 26, 2018
Legacies of Sade: Justine and Juliette, Vice and VirtueJuly 19, 2018
Gods & Monsters: Teenage Kicks in Jaws 2 (1978)April 11, 2018
Gods & Monsters: Captive Wild Woman (1943) vs. Sssssss (1973)March 28, 2018
Gods & Monsters: “Listen to them, children of the night…” Tod Browning’s Dracula (1931)March 14, 2018
Watching the Watchdogs: Lillian Gish and Bowling Green State UniversityJuly 12, 2019
Watching the Watchdogs: James Gunn is the Latest Casualty of Outrage CultureJuly 24, 2018
Watching the Watchdogs: Rokudenashiko and 3-D Vagina ArtJune 14, 2018
Sonic Attack
Darted in Your Armchair: The Tubes in What Do You Want From Life?May 26, 2019
Who Can Touch Us When We Run?: The Pain & Beauty of Strange AdvanceJanuary 5, 2019
Sonic Seraphim: The Interstellar Voices of Klaus Nomi & King DiamondNovember 10, 2018
The Bloody Chamber
The Bloody Chamber: Angela and the Wolf: On Angela Carter’s The Company of WolvesSeptember 22, 2016
Diabolique in Print
Diabolique Magazine No. 27 (Fall, 2017) – There is nothing perhaps more enchanting than a good old folk, or fairy tale. Add in a little witchcraft and you have the recipe for something truly magickal.
Back Issues (See All)
Home / Film / Home Video / The Reptile (German Blu-Ray Review)
The Reptile (German Blu-Ray Review)
Posted by: Dima Ballin in Home Video, Slider September 12, 2015 0
Cast: Noel Willman, Jennifer Daniel, Ray Barrett, Jacqueline Pearce, Michael Ripper
Rating: FSK: 16
Region: B
Disks: 1
Label: Anolis Entertainment
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1,66:1
Type: Color
Audio: German DTS HD-MA 2.0 Mono, English DTS HD-MA 2.0 Stereo
Subtitles: German (optional)
Audio Commentary with Dr. Rolf Giesen and Volker Kronz
Video commentary with Dr. Rolf Giesen and Volker Kronz (in English)
“The Serpent’s Tale”: Making of The Reptile featurette
British Trailer
American TV commercials
German press book
32-page booklet written by Dr. Rolf Giesen and Uwe Sommerlad (exclusively in Mediabook)
Increasingly, German company Anolis Entertainment is making their Hammer blu-ray releases English-friendly. This is good news, as their releases tend to be among the most comprehensive in the industry in terms of extra features and technical presentation. After some superlative Hammer releases in 2015, including The Evil of Frankenstein and Plague of the Zombies, Anolis now tackles The Reptile (1966), with predictable excellence.
Michael Ripper in Hammer’s The Reptile (1966) [Click to enlarge]
Hammer made a number of lower-profile horror films in the 60s, which are every bit as imaginative and worth seeking out as their more famous Dracula and Frankenstein counterparts. One of the best of these is John Gilling’s The Reptile, which was shot back to back with Gilling’s Plague of the Zombies, using many of the same sets and at least two of the same actors.
What’s particularly interesting about The Reptile is that it features a female monster—not a beautiful female monster like the luscious Carmilla Karnstein, but a beautiful woman who transforms into a loathsome snake-like creature. Such horrifying monsters are typically men’s domain, so The Reptile offers a refreshing twist, standing firmly in the tradition of films like The She-Creature (1956), Blood of Dracula (1957), The Wasp Woman (1959), and Hammer’s own The Gorgon (1964).
The plot of The Reptile concerns a Cornish village which is being terrorized by a series of mysterious murders. When the brother of one of the victims (Ray Barrett), along with his wife (Jennifer Daniel), arrive to investigate, it’s not long before their suspicions fall on Dr. Franklyn (Noel Willman), a sinister theologian who studies obscure religions of the far East. While on a research expedition to Borneo, he and his beautiful daughter (Jacqueline Pearce) are cursed by practitioners of a mysterious snake cult, and now Pearce periodically transforms into a hissing snake beast, much like Oliver Reed’s lycanthropic transformations in Curse of the Werewolf.
Marne Maitland in Hammer’s The Reptile (1966) [Click to enlarge]
Unlike Curse of the Werewolf, The Reptile never delves too deeply into the existential or even emotional angst of being transformed into a monster through no fault of your own. In fact Pearce’s is a peripheral character. This is not “her” film. She is not even the main villain. That honor falls on Willman who plays her brooding father. To that extent, the film’s patriarchal context does become rather obvious.
The film moves at a nice pace and is fluently written by Anthony Hinds, one of the chief architects of Hammer’s Gothics. The titular monster is kept mostly out of sight until the end, which prolongs our anticipation and keeps us focused on uncovering the mystery behind the murders. Only at the end is the film let down by a clumsy piece of exposition, where the main villain pontificates on what he’s doing and why he’s doing it. Why do movie villains have a need to be understood?
Atmospheric sets and production design are exemplary and full of period detail, and Hammer aficionados will enjoy the familiarity of some of the sets from other films. Special mention needs to be made of Don Banks’ exotic score—surely one of the very best he has written.
Jacqueline Pearce in Hammer’s The Reptile (1966) [Click to enlarge]
The ubiquitous Michael Ripper also deserves special mention—this wouldn’t be a Hammer film without his reassuring presence. Here, much more than in Plague of the Zombies, he really comes into his own as a major player in advancing the plot. He is obviously a very fine character actor when given the chance to do his thing. The rest of the actors are very well cast in their respective roles, and the striking Jacqueline Pearce has just the right kind of dark look for the part of the cursed daughter. What’s remarkable—though not remarkable for Hammer—is how even the smallest parts are filled out by top British character actors, such as George Woodbridge and Charles Lloyd Pack.
Jennifer Daniel and Ray Barrett in Hammer’s The Reptile (1966) [Click to enlarge]
Anolis has accessed the same Studio Canal HD master of The Reptile which was released in the UK in 2012, and the same critique applies to this release as did to that one. The opening two shots of the pre-credit sequence, as well as the opening credit sequence are obviously mastered from an inferior print—which is very grainy and lacks detail—but the rest of the film looks very fine indeed. Colors are beautifully saturated and have an earthy, vintage look. Detail and image depth look fine as well, as does the contrast. There are no signs of egregious noise filtering or edge sharpening, and the natural film grain is evenly distributed. Overall, Studio Canal did a very fine job with this one.
For this release, we are given two tracks: a German mono dub and the original English stereo track. Both tracks do the job adequately, but the English track has more body and sounds less boxy—especially noticeable in the more vehement sections of Don Banks’ score. Dialog is clear and easy to follow and any obvious age-related anomalies have been nicely cleaned up. The disk defaults to the German track, but it’s easy to switch to English. Optional German subtitles are provided.
Noel Willman in Hammer’s The Reptile (1966) [Click to enlarge]
For extra features, we are given a full length audio commentary with Dr. Rolf Giesen and Volker Kronz, which is in German only. However, the two commentators also provide a separate 33-minute video commentary in English. It’s a scholarly trip through, not only the making of The Reptile, but the cultural context in which it was made, the possible origins of the story, what influences inform the film, and how the film may have influenced other films. The commentators possess a wealth of knowledge, which makes this an interesting listen. This video commentary is exclusive to this release.
Next, Marcus Hearn’s 28-minute featurette The Serpent’s Tale: Making of The Reptile has been ported over from the UK release. The excellence of Hearn’s Hammer featurettes is well established at this point, and this one is no exception. It features interviews with Marcus himself, and experts Jonathan Rigby, Mark Gatiss, David Huckvale, and Wayne Kinsey. Also interviewed are Hammer’s Art Director Don Mingaye and actress Jacqueline Pearce. The featurette includes a short section on Studio Canal’s restoration of The Reptile.
Also included are an original British Trailer (2:28 min), American TV commercials, German press book, Image gallery, and a 32-page booklet written by Dr. Rolf Giesen and Uwe Sommerlad (exclusively in the Mediabook).
The Reptile is definitely worth seeking out for fans of vintage horror. It may be short on the sheer star power of Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing, but the cast is excellent and John Gilling’s stylish, no-nonsense direction makes for an exciting Gothic viewing experience. If you are looking for a good BD release of this film, Anolis provides a good alternative to Studio Canal’s, and includes some exclusive extra features that are worth any cinephile’s time. Highly recommended.
Details Director: John Gilling Cast: Noel Willman, Jennifer Daniel, Ray Barrett, Jacqueline Pearce, Michael Ripper Year: 1966 Length: 90 min Rating: FSK: 16 Region: B Disks: 1 Label: Anolis Entertainment Release Date: September 11, 2015 Video Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Resolution: 1080p Aspect Ratio: 1,66:1 Type: Color Audio Audio: German DTS HD-MA 2.0 Mono, English DTS HD-MA 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: German (optional) Extras Audio Commentary with Dr. Rolf Giesen and Volker Kronz Video commentary with Dr. Rolf Giesen and Volker Kronz (in English) "The Serpent's Tale": Making of The Reptile featurette British Trailer American TV commercials…
British Horror Hammer Horror Jacqueline Pearce Jennifer Daniel John Gilling Michael Ripper Noel Willman Plague of the Zombies Ray Barrett The Reptile 2015-09-12
Dima Ballin
Tagged with: British Horror Hammer Horror Jacqueline Pearce Jennifer Daniel John Gilling Michael Ripper Noel Willman Plague of the Zombies Ray Barrett The Reptile
Previous: Lost After Dark Fails to Live Up to its Image
Next: ‘Jeepers Creepers 3’: An Offer We Can Refuse
About Dima Ballin
Dima is the founder and publisher of Diabolique Magazine and the co-founder of the Boston Underground Film Festival. He is currently working on several screenplays and trying to attain enlightenment through Buddhism.
Heroic Bloodshed: When Hammer met Shaw Brothers
Classic Horror on Blu: ‘Plague of the Zombies’
Dracula: Prince of Darkness (US Blu-Ray Review)
Horror of Dracula (1958 – US Blu-Ray Review)
30 Days of Night: Hammer Horror’s Vampire Cults
Fantastic Fest Review: The Boat (2018)
No Exit: Hell is a Film Related Facebook Group.
Don’t Be Simon: Cinema is for Everyone.
Enter for A Chance to Win The Shining, Pan’s Labrynth and Gremlins in 4K Ultra HD™!
Diabolique Magazine Is Offering Scholarships for Miskatonic London
DEATHCEMBER is LIVE on Kickstarter!
31 Days of Gialloween Adam Wingard Alfred Hitchcock American Gothic American horror Blu-ray Book Review British Horror Christopher Lee Dario Argento Diabolique Documentary Dracula Edgar Allan Poe Eli Roth film French cinema Friday the 13th Giallo Guillermo del Toro Halloween Hammer Horror Horror IFC Midnight Italian Cinema Italian Horror Italian Season Jess Franco John Carpenter Kino Lorber Larry Fessenden Mario Bava Peter Cushing Robert Vaughn Roger Corman sci-fi Scream Factory Shout Factory Slasher Stephen King The Exorcist Thriller Tom Savini vampires Vincent Price
https://t.co/CxYViTScFW 4 mins ago
Read our interview with actress Lee Grant... https://t.co/mfrHAzDPvP 4 hours ago
Mike McPadden interviews the legendary Jimmy McDonough... https://t.co/D35msf3I8N 7 hours ago
https://t.co/tbvWo3fHQK 2020/01/28
A tribute to Michael J Pollard. https://t.co/LMsHcIiRIF 2020/01/28
Episode 5: The Fearless Vampire Lovers!
Episode 29: Dirty Girls: The Films of John Hayes
Episode 5: Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Music to Get Your Spook On!: 31 Great Albums for the Halloween Season
8 Movies That Shouldn’t Be Missed at the Fantasia International Film Festival
19 Vigilante Movies That Are Way Better Than Eli Roth’s ‘Death Wish’ Remake
CineManiacs
The Horror Happens Radio Show
Diabolique Magazine
Diabolique Magazine No. 27 (Fall, 2017) £7.68
Diabolique Magazine No. 26 (Apr/Jul 2017) £7.68
Diabolique Magazine No. 25 (Jan/Mar 2016) £7.68
Diabolique Magazine No. 24 (July/Sep 2015) £7.68
Diabolique Magazine No. 23 (Mar-May 2015) £7.68
Diabolique Webcast
Episode 4: Fellini’s 8½ (1963)
Episode 3: Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940)
Episode 2: Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966)
Episode 1: Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977)
Episode 28: I Saw What You Did: The Later Films of William Castle
Episode 27: Sex Without Shame: The Telephone Book (1971) and Elle (2016)
Episode 26: A Few Of Our Favorite Things
Episode 25: Live Flesh – The Transgressive Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar, Part 1
Editor-in-Chief: Kat Ellinger
Managing Editor: Kieran Fisher
Associate Editor: Lee Gambin
Associate Editor: Samm Deighan
Associate Editor: Joseph E Dwyer
Web Editor: Magdalena Sałata
Publisher, Producer, Artistic Director: Dima Ballin
© Copyright 2017, Diabolique Magazine. All Rights Reserved. | Powered by Diabolique Productions
Stay Informed. Subscribe To Our Newsletter!
You will never receive spam. Unsubscribe at any time.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. By continuing to use this site you consent to our use of cookiesOkCookie Policy
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1198
|
__label__cc
| 0.710236
| 0.289764
|
Modification to Ability Draft
Thread: Modification to Ability Draft
A change needs to be made to AD so that games are more balanced and the outcome is based on skill more so than luck.
The biggest problem with the mode is the randomness factor of being assigned a hero and a position in the drafting phase. The position itself is just the RNG and that's just part of the mode, but the hero shouldn't also be arbitrarily assigned. So often games are imbalanced with teams of Pugna, Axe, TB, CK and Silencer versus a lineup of Alch, Weaver, Riki, Visage and Timbersaw. The game's over before the the picks and it's a waste of time for both teams.
A simple fix for this would be to have the hero selection from the available pool as the first phase of the draft. The person in the first position gets the first choice of hero but last pick of their skill - essentially as it is now, just starting with hero selection. This change would make the games more balanced and consistently more fun. It also adds a level of skill by giving teams the ability to coordinate their lineups based on heroes and skill trees. And like the two extra ultimate skills available in AD, the change should include two extra heroes so the person with the last pick can make the decision to choose between Riki, Slark, or Weaver (or whatever trash is left).
tl;dr - Make AD better by adding a hero selection as the first phase of the draft.
XAgent
I do agree on the problem you are stating. Though i do not agree on your solution.
I think your idea is not optimal. First of all, it is a good solution to the firstpick problem. The Dire team could get the first hero pick for example.
Problem with it is though, that the picking phase is already very long. And I think that last picks are just going to get the shitty heroes.
Another solution that I thought about is this:
Make the random hero selection symmetric. Meaning that both teams get same attributes and attacktype.
If one team gets 5 strength heroes, the other team should as well.
And if one team has a melee agility hero, the other team should have a melee agility hero as well.
Sure, some heroes of the same attribute and attack type are stronger than others, but there will always be some kind of unbalance.
This would, in my opinion, at least get us closer to not losing because you got worse heroes. (Or at least make it rarer to happen)
Also, please disable Silencer int steal, shits broken.
The small things first: at no point in Ability Draft is the picking phase time ever an issue. I almost exclusively play this mode and know the regulars who play are never complaining about the draft time. It's part of what makes the mode. If people want to play a fast game they can go play All Pick Turbo Mode or Fortnite. I do concede that the time AFTER all the talents are drafted takes a bit long. That part of the phase should be changed to allow players to buy items before the actual game starts - like regular DotA after the hero picks are completed.
The other small point being your problem with Silencer and I'm assuming other heroes with passives like Treant and Void. I agree with you that they can be annoying to deal with, but I don't ever see them being game breaking. They are definitely strong but so is permanent invisibility.
In regards to your solution: it's a common point plenty of people seem to make in regards to the hero problem in Ability Draft which is for the developers to essentially create an algorithm that ranks the hero models and randomly assigns them in game so that the teams are balanced. I really dislike this idea for a couple of reasons.
1. The WHOLE point of AD is to draft skills for a concept hero and have that hero work in the team you're drafting with. Depending on the skill of the players on the team this works out better in certain games than others. Either way, the random assigning of heroes is just bad to begin with. Nobody plays All Random so why have that function in AD?
2. It doesn't make sense for the developers to take on more work creating and maintaining a ratings system to assign to the heroes. And it's not a simple thing to do, because the hero itself may be strong but based on certain skills in the pool the hero may be way less effective. A Sniper who gets the two Sniper passives is a monster, while a Sniper that gets no Sniper passives may be better off creating the hero to be a caster to take advantage of the cooldown reduction and shrapnel bonus in his talent tree. The Slardar model is a beast of a tank if he isn't building around the bash bonus in his skill tree. The rating changes on how the individual plays. I don't want an algorithm to decide on the hero matchups and, while this would still be better than what's in place now, it isn't the correct answer or the best solution.
The beauty of the mode is the creation of a concept hero. The problem with the mode is you don't get to choose the hero model. The easiest and most effective way to remedy this is to add an initial phase of the draft where players choose their hero from an available pool. There will be obvious first pick choices like Silencer or Willow or Axe or Omni or Mirana, but there will be strategy picks based on talents in the pool, talent tree bonuses and factoring on what you think will be available by the time it's your turn to pick. It adds more skill elements and removes the randomness factor. It allows teams to form concept builds (similar to having Luna, Vengeful Spirit, Beastmaster and Drow on the same team). It allows teams to vary the amount of melee and ranged heroes on a team. It doesn't require devs to get involved making evenly-ranked randomly assigned teams. It's the best solution to remedy the biggest problem with Ability Draft.
jonisykes
I agree with the original proposed solution.
I would add to it a system whereby heroes with talent trees that have only ability based selections get priority for that skill.
Drumbledoor
Does anyone else think Silencer is too strong for Ability Draft? I almost every time see how silencers win games being way too strong from start to the end of the game if they have their 2nd.
Quick Navigation Ability Draft Bugs Top
ability draft
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1209
|
__label__cc
| 0.69033
| 0.30967
|
Difference between revisions of "Talk:FGD"
Nacimota (talk | contribs)
m (→Anyone feel like making a nice FGD editor?)
ArmageddonSnipe (talk | contribs)
: Unfortunately "Sourcesdk -> Current Game" selector still does not list HL2 ep1, and modelviewer cannot find any new resources ... what else do I need to do ? [[User:Beeswax|Beeswax]] 14:20, 12 Oct 2007 (PDT)
:Hmm it should pop up okay and should always have ep1, try re-installing the sdk. Also make sure you extract models and textures to source sdk content folder to the hl2 folder. Yeah also you make a mod and put the models and textures in there.--[[User:MrTwoVideoCards|Gear]] 17:55, 12 Oct 2007 (PDT)
== Editing auto-visgroup ==
Did someone find a way to make it work? --[[User:ArmageddonSnipe|ArmageddonSnipe]] 12:04, 10 July 2012 (PDT)
1 Anyone feel like making a nice FGD editor?
2 Connecting spawnflags in the .FGD with code in the .DLL
3 Additional Variable Types
5 HL2ep1 fgd update: installation instructions
6 Editing auto-visgroup
Anyone feel like making a nice FGD editor?
Anyone feel like making a nice FGD editor? :) - Chris Bokitch 16:58, 7 Jul 2005 (PDT)
Gulp. . .um, I could do that, 32bit MS OSes.
Almost afraid to ask but how did you invision that working? i.e. Informational support from Valve, updates, testing, validation, etc. [1] --wisemx 06:19, 8 Jul 2005 (PDT)
Well, I guess I was just thinking of a visual environment for creating and managing the FGD. Thinking of each "block" (entity, comment, baseclass, etc) as an object that can be inserted and moved around. Managing references (base references), inserting/removing the helper attributes (color, etc). Chris Bokitch 11:26, 11 Jul 2005 (PDT)
Why not... ;) In about a week I´ve finished my exams, so I have time for this --King2500 15:11, 11 Jul 2005 (PDT)
Meanwhile, seven years in the future --Nacimota Talk | Contributions 13:15, 31 May 2012 (PDT)
That would be nice to have around. - Shens 15:15, 11 Jul 2005 (PDT)
do npcclass & pointentityclass actually work?—Ts2do 22:58, 23 Sep 2005 (PDT)
I'm not planning to make an editor, but I've got a formal grammar for ANTLR working pretty well right now. Reading it is the harder part anyway, because there's more variation... --Terr 11:36, 11 December 2009 (UTC)
Connecting spawnflags in the .FGD with code in the .DLL
Does anyone know how the values of each spawnflag (like 65536, 131072, and so on) are chosen? I realize their binary representations set a single bit to one, but other than that how are the values in the fgd correlated to the values in the .dll?
each flag is 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128...this is how they're defined in the dll—ts2do (Talk | @) 23:35, 24 Nov 2005 (PST)
Additional Variable Types
I'm currently writing a mod with many entities that reference external script files. It would be a godsend if a new variable type was allowed in FGD files, so that you could browse for ANY file type - much the same as the current implementation of the "scene" variable type, only for generic files. An alternative would be to allow browsing for any .txt files, though as many people may use script files with their own file extensions that might not be quite as useful.
As it stands, I need to type in every file path manually, which is quite a chore when dealing with hundreds of entities! It would also be really handy if hammer then had an "open" button underneath properties of this variable type, so you could launch the default program to open the file you had browsed for. I'm just using .txt files as my scripts, so it would be a really useful feature to be able to open them with notepad from hammer, rather than fiddling around in folders trying to hunt them down.--ReNo 22:15, 4 Apr 2006 (PDT)
What are you trying to accomplish with scripts and have you considered alternatives?—ts2do 22:18, 4 Apr 2006 (PDT)
I'm creating an AI system for background characters - think of it as a more elaborate take on the actbusy system. The scripts DO contain data that could easily be used as entity properties instead (eg. min_time, ideal_population, etc...), but they also contain others that are not so suited. For example, each activity point (a point entity at which NPCs can do a set of activities) links up to a script that defines all of the activities available at that location, and each of the listed activities can have a variable number of "tags" (which are a generic strings used to encourage order to the selection of behaviours). Keeping everything in scripts rather than splitting the data between scripts and entity properties means that things are easily reusable and maintainable. --ReNo 08:19, 5 Apr 2006 (PDT)
I know it would be easiest to use scripts then...but consider using the approach like ai_actbusy_tags with up to 20 tags (how many you need)...and reference those using nodes...then if you need to reuse them later, just make prefabs—ts2do 13:49, 5 Apr 2006 (PDT)
I had considered doing that but never thought of the prefabs idea for reusability. I think I'm gonna stick to using scripts for now, as the system allows for some other neat features (eg. each script can use a #include style system, meaning you can include common base activity scripts and add specialised tags on top of them, etc...), but thanks a lot for your suggestion. This mod is being developed as my uni honours project, and so the use of the Source engine is more to provide me with a solid base of features rather than for me to compliment the engine, so I'm trying to compromise the engine to work with my system rather than compromise my system to work best with the engine. I just feel that scripts are a useful thing to be able to reference from the editor - at least browsing for them, and even better being able to launch/edit them - so if any Valve bods come across this, give it a thought guys ;) I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd find it useful.--ReNo 16:14, 5 Apr 2006 (PDT)
Have you thought of designing a script browser/list?—ts2do 17:45, 5 Apr 2006 (PDT)
Its something I've considered, but the real benefit I am looking for is being able to choose and edit the script for an entity from Hammer for the sake of ease of use. Notepad is a fine editor for such simple scripts, and the directory structure I'm using is easy enough to navigate, so I don't really see much benefit in a seperate editor/frontend for the scripts with my current implementation. I've spent some time these evening changing the script loaders to search the correct paths and fill in missed out file extensions automatically so that in hammer I now only have to enter the actual filename of the script, and that has gone some way to simplifying the level editing step.--ReNo 18:11, 5 Apr 2006 (PDT)
Is there any way to add conditionals to the FGD so different keys can be shown/hidden depending on others? AFAIK theres not (haven't ever seen anythin like it before), so would anyone support the idea for Valve to implement? Wraiyth 02:27, 15 Aug 2006 (PDT)
There's no way to do this currently but you could split what you want into different entity names, link them to the same class and use string comparison to see if a certain entity is chosen. You could also just add a note that a certain keyvalue is only used for a certain setting. Or you could just disregard hiding anything and pick from them in code.—ts2do 10:02, 15 Aug 2006 (PDT)
HL2ep1 fgd update: installation instructions
Copy the new fgd updates ("base_Geardev.fgg" and "halflife2_Geardev_ep1.fgd") into "\steamapps\<username>\sourcesdk\bin" folder.
Use GCFscape [2] to load "episode 1 shared.gcf" and (right click on "episodic" in the right-hand pane) to extract the goodies into "\steamapps\<username>\half-life 2 episode 1".
Restart Steam.
Unfortunately "Sourcesdk -> Current Game" selector still does not list HL2 ep1, and modelviewer cannot find any new resources ... what else do I need to do ? Beeswax 14:20, 12 Oct 2007 (PDT)
Hmm it should pop up okay and should always have ep1, try re-installing the sdk. Also make sure you extract models and textures to source sdk content folder to the hl2 folder. Yeah also you make a mod and put the models and textures in there.--Gear 17:55, 12 Oct 2007 (PDT)
Editing auto-visgroup
Did someone find a way to make it work? --ArmageddonSnipe 12:04, 10 July 2012 (PDT)
Retrieved from "https://developer.valvesoftware.com/w/index.php?title=Talk:FGD&oldid=169885"
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1211
|
__label__wiki
| 0.788093
| 0.788093
|
Tbilisi summons Ukraine’s ambassador about Saakashvili appointment
Mikheil Saakashvili was last week appointed adviser to Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko. (Interpressnews.)
TBILISI, DFWatch–The government in Georgia has summed the Ukrainian ambassador to explain why ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is wanted in his home country, has been appointed to a high position in Kiev.
Ambassador Vasyl Tsybenko was asked to come to the Foreign Ministry in Tbilisi some time the coming week.
Also the Georgian ambassador to Ukraine will be dispatched for a similar purpose, to meet with the Kiev government and hear their explanation as to why Saakashvili was appointed as head of the Advisory International Council of Reforms, despite being a wanted man for which Interpol has issued a Red Alert.
Saakashvili is wanted in four criminal cases: For having ordered the beating of a parliamentarian in 2005, for covering up the murder of a 28 year old man in 2006, for ordering the dispersal of an opposition rally and storming an independent TV studio in 2008, and for embezzlement of more than four million US dollars.
Neither Ukraine’s ambassador to Georgia nor Georgia’s ambassador to Ukraine had commented by press time.
By DFWatch staff| 2015-02-16T03:18:48+00:00 February 16th, 2015|Categories: News|Tags: questioning of Saakashvili March 2014, Saakashvili adviser for Kiev|0 Comments
Georgian doctor freed from South Ossetian captivity
South Ossetia refuses to reopen Akhalgori checkpoint
Georgia’s opposition TV channels’ accounts seized amid growing concerns of government pressure
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1212
|
__label__wiki
| 0.676622
| 0.676622
|
Doctor Who Time and Space is a weekly podcast from Son and Father team of Lewis Moon and D-Cool. Together they take a trip through the Whoniverse, sharing latest news, discussing a different Who topic each week, reviewing a random Who episode (Classic and Nu) and finishing with a weekly Who related game.
RSS Feed: http://doctorwhotimeandspace.podomatic.com/rss2.xml
Doctor Who Time and Space Statistics
8 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes and 5 seconds
6 days, 3 hours, 55 minutes and 18 seconds
Doctor Who Time and Space Episodes
Doctor Who Time and Space (350)
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool host their fourth series 12 review show, this time focusing on Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror, but following the disastrous Orphan 55, will this episode prove to be a return to form for the previously promising series? Time to find out...
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool review one of the most divisive episodes of the modern era, Orphan 55, but after their positive views on both Spyfall Parts 1 and 2, will they enjoy it as much or will this prove to be a show of negativity like in series 11? Plus, there's an interesting discussion about the state of Doctor Who in the grand scheme of things. Enjoy!
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool give their verdict on the second episode of series 12, Spyfall Part 2, but after they both enjoyed part 1, it remains to be seen whether they will enjoy the second part as much, or more. Tune in to their review of series 12 episode 2 to find out!
Happy new year! The time you've all been waiting for is here! Lewis Moon and Dr Cool are here to review the first episode of series 12, Spyfall Part 1. Will they hate it as much as they think they are going to? Will it be a pleasant surprise? What will be their two good two bad? Time to find out...
29 December 2019 (12:05pm GMT)
Lewis Moon is here for the final episode of the podcast for 2019, and for the decade as a whole. It's also the last show before series 12 and our reviews of the new series commence, so there's a preview for the series, as well as a review for A Christmas Carol.
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return for their Christmas show and their penultimate edition of the decade! Today they give their verdicts of the Runaway Bride as well as sharing their views of the odd bits of news here and there.
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool make their entry into advent as their reviews of the Christmas specials commence with their verdicts on the Christmas Invasion, the first festive adventure of new who. Plus, there's an analysis of the latest news as the broadcast of series 12 dawns closer.
4 December 2019 (9:38pm GMT)
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return with another show, as they give their opinions on the second series 12 trailer and a shed load of news items that we received this week. Plus, it's the final pre-Christmas and series 12 Classic Who episode review, this time of Warriors Gate, the last classic episode we will watch until March.
28 November 2019 (10:17pm GMT)
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return with another edition of their Doctor Who podcast, this time with a series 12 trailer to debate, discuss, review and breakdown, as well as crunching down some rumours, some particularly absurd ones included (Potentially with some spoilers within, so beware, folks!). Also, there's an overview of Torchwood to round off a series of shows showing the boys first watch of the spin off show.
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool are reunited for another news and review filled edition of the programme, as they give their verdict on the shedload of series 12 news they have received (Which is a rariety), as well as giving their verdicts on the Troughton story the Dominators and the final two episodes of Torchwood Miracle Day.
Lewis Moon returns for the first of two shows this week, albeit a much shorter one tonight, as he gives his verdict on all of the latest series 12 news, the next few months of the podcast and the Tom Baker story Power of Kroll, to make up for the lack of a show last week.
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return for another edition of their weekly Doctor Who podcast, Doctor Who time and space, following a weeks break. This week they review the Sylvester Mccoy story Survival and episodes 5 to 8 of Torchwood Miracle Day as well as a general discussion about the state of the programme.
Dr Cool is back after a week off, perhaps about to change his title. He joins Lewis Moon to debate two pieces of Whoniverse media, the Peter Davison story The Awakening and episodes 3 and 4 of Torchwood miracle day.
Lewis Moon returns for a solo show this week without Dr Cool, and its a slightly shorter one, as he debates both the reconstruction of Mission to the Unknown and the first two episodes of Torchwood's miracle day.
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return for another edition of their weekly Doctor Who Podcast, Doctor Who Time and Space, as they give their overall verdict on Torchwood's Children of Earth and the Patrick Troughton adventure Tomb of the Cybermen.
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return for another edition of their weekly Doctor Who podcast, this week beginning their reviews of the third season of Torchwood with their verdicts on the first three days of Children of Earth.
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool are back for another week of Doctor Who reviews, updates and discussions. This week they give their verdict on the Tom Baker story Terror of the Zygons and the final two episodes of the second season of Torchwood, Fragments and Exit Wounds.
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return for another dosage of Doctor Who news, reviews and gossip, as this week they give their verdicts on the Tom Baker story the Horror of Fang Rock and the Torchwood episode Adrift.
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return for another edition of their weekly Doctor Who Podcast as they focus their attention on all things Torchwood with reviews of "Something Borrowed" and "From out of the Rain".
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return for yet another week of Doctor Who discussions, debates, reviews and news updates. This week they give their verdicts on the Hartnell era story the Gunfighters and the Torchwood episode A Day in the Death. They also pay their respects to the late Terrance Dicks, who passed away this week.
Lewis Moon is joined by Dr Cool once again for a Torchwood special of the show as they review three episodes of season 2 of the Doctor Who spin off, "Adam", "Reset" and "Dead Man Walking". Plus, they debate what the current team are doing wrong marketing wise, whether series 12 will do well and the return of the Cybermen.
Lewis Moon returns for a solo show without Dr Cool in this bank holiday special of Doctor Who Time and Space as he reviews the Peter Davison story Four To Doomsday and the Torchwood episode Meat. Enjoy!
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool host the latest edition of Doctor Who Time and Space with reviews of the Seventh Doctor adventure The Happiness Patrol and the Torchwood episode To the Last Man. Enjoy!
8 August 2019 (8:57pm GMT)
The dynamic duo of Lewis Moon and Dr Cool are back in Dorset after last weeks London show and are ready to put the show back onto its weekly schedule after missing a few weeks. This week it's a torchwood special as they give their verdicts on Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and Sleeper, as well as their opinions on the rumours that have been circulating about Chris Chibnall departing the show and a possible Torchwood movie!
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool are live from London with a special show as they discuss their time at the Sunday of Showmasters film and comic con event while also reviewing Torchwood's season 1 finale End of Days and the Patrick Troughton story the Krotons, as well as debating some of the latest news from the whoniverse this week. And be warned, it's a manic one this week.
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return to host this weeks edition of doctor who time and space as they give their verdicts on the rumoured return of the Cybermen, the Tom Baker story Full Circle and the Torchwood instalment Captain Jack Harkness.
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return for another edition of their weekly doctor who podcast as they debate whether a rumoured new K9 spin off is a possibility, their thoughts on Battlefield and a review of Torchwood's eleventh episode, Combat.
Lewis and Dr Cool return for another edition of their weekly doctor who podcast as they give their thoughts on this weeks review stories, the William Hartnell adventure Planet of Giants and the Torchwood tale Out of Time.
Dr Cool and Lewis Moon host another episode of Doctor Who Time and Space as they give their verdict on this weeks review stories, "Black Orchid" and the Torchwood episode "Random Shoes", as well as thoughts on the latest news.
Lewis Moon returns for a rare solo podcast without Dr Cool as he gives his verdict on two stories from the whoniverse, the Tom Baker serial the Masque of Mandragora and the Torchwood episode They Keep killing Suzie. Enjoy!
Dr Cool and Lewis Moon return for another week of Doctor Who discussions as they give their verdicts on the Tom Baker story the Android Invasion and the Torchwood episode Greeks Bearing Gifts, as well as offering their thoughts on all the latest series 12 news.
Dr Cool and Lewis Moon return once again for another week of Doctor Who related chat, banter and discussions. This week they debate the Tom Baker era story, The Horns of Nimon, discuss the latest news and review the sixth episode of Torchwood, Countrycide. (How many Nimons have you seen today, listeners?)
Dr Cool and Lewis Moon are back once again for another edition of their weekly Doctor Who Podcast as they give their verdict on this week's review stories, the Patrick Troughton story Seeds of Death and the Torchwood episode Small Worlds.
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return for another edition of their weekly doctor who podcast as they give their verdict on the Tom Baker serial Creature from the Pit and the Torchwood episode Cyberwoman, as well as their thoughts on the news of the return of the Judoon.
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return for yet another edition of Doctor Who Time and Space, this time offering up their opinions on both the William Hartnell story, the Rescue and the Torchwood episode, Ghost Machine. Plus, they discuss the latest news from the last seven days in the doctor who universe!
11 May 2019 (12:08pm GMT)
It's time for another edition of Doctor Who Time and Space, this time slightly later than usual. On this week's show, Lewis and Dr Cool discuss the Patrick Troughton story the Invasion and the infamous second episode of Torchwood, Day One.
Everything changes for Doctor Who Time and Space as Lewis Moon and Dr Cool receive their first tastes of Torchwood with the first episode of the spin off programme. Plus, there's a review of the first four parts of the Troughton serial, the Invasion.
This week on Doctor Who Time and Space Lewis and D-Cool return for another podcast as they give their verdicts on the Pandorica Opens and the Big Bang and supply an overview of series 5 of nu who as a whole.
Doctor Who Time and Space is back, but slightly later than normal. Dr Cool and Lewis Moon return to host this weeks episode as they give their verdict on this weeks review story, Terror of the Autons and classic who season 8 as a whole. Also, there's a roundup of the latest news from the last seven days in the doctor who universe.
It's time for another edition of Doctor Who time and space! This week Lewis Moon and Dr Cool present you with a review of the series 3 finale, Utopia, The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords and an overview of that particular season as a whole. Enjoy!
3 April 2019 (7:39pm GMT)
This week on Doctor Who Time and Space the duo are back with another dose of weekly who themed entertainment. They give their review of the recently animated tale, the Macra Terror and reveal which stories they want to be animated next.
This week Dr Cool and Lewis Moon are back for another week of doctor who podcasting goodness. On the show it's a Colin Baker spectacular as they review Revelation of the Daleks and give their verdict on the sixth doctors era as a whole. Enjoy!
It's time for another edition of Doctor Who Time and Space-this time on a Thursday rather than a Wednesday! We discuss the Matt Smith adventure Victory of the Daleks and reveal exclusives from Bournemouth Film and Comic Con 2019.
This week on Doctor Who time and space the duo are back for another week worth of discussions about the Whoniverse, this week focusing on TARDIS teams and a review of the Peter Davison era story Snakedance. Plus, more slating of series 11 and Lewis Moon trying to pronounce Kinda!
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return for another week of who related chat, this week focusing on the Eccleston era of the show, with their review of Boom Town and their overview of series 1 of the show.
Dr Cool and Lewis Moon return once again for another edition of their weekly long running podcast as they review the Brain of Morbius, give their verdict on the Hinchliffe era and debate the latest news and views from the last seven days in the doctor who universe. Plus, more series 11 slating. I mean, what did you expect?
This week on Doctor Who Time and Space it's a Capaldi centric show, as our hosts give their verdict on Listen and discuss their thoughts on Peter's first season of the show overall, series 8. And Dr Cool compliments series 11 for once. That's one to look out for!
Lewis Moon and Dr Cool return for the latest edition of their weekly Doctor Who Podcast as they review Pertwee adventure the Time Monster, before discussing pace in general in the whoniverse, and when it has and has not worked in the shows history. Enjoy!
The boys return for another edition of their weekly Doctor Who podcast as they review Eccleston adventure the Empty Child and the Doctor Dances. Also, they discuss horror in the shows history, when it works and when it doesn't. Will they go a whole show without mentioning how much they hate series 11? Tune in to find out!
The dynamic duo are back once again with a roundup of some of the latest news, opinions and reviews. This week, they offer their thoughts on the Five Doctors and delve into the pros and cons of multi doctor stories as a whole.
«« First « Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next » Last »»
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1216
|
__label__cc
| 0.597807
| 0.402193
|
Dog Brothers Public Forum
Welcome to the Dog Brothers Public Forum.
INSTRUCTORS FORUM
TRIBE FORUM
Dog Brothers Public Forum »
DBMA Martial Arts Forum »
Martial Arts Topics »
MMA Thread
Author Topic: MMA Thread (Read 389614 times)
Crafty_Dog
Yee hah!
Looks like I get to go to tomorrow night's UFC for free!
Howling Dog
Re: MMA Thread
Woof Guro Crafty, Thats a Damn good price. . Have a great time.
Im going with Lesner.....Though the potential for a good fight is there.
His power has proven to be too much thus far....
And, given the crew who is bringing me along, the seats promise to be rather good Keep on eye for me on your TV screen
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Cain new champion VIVA MEXICO ahaha jeje sorry mexican pride
guau desde mex ^^
woof from mex ^^
Sebresos
Man, here we go again, nice fight, Lesnar got whooped, lets see how long Cain can keep it! Cain can sure let his hands fly, CRACK!!!!
I had fourth row in the VIP section. Dana and Randy Couture were about 8 seats diagonally from me.
In his last fight Lesnar flinched on one good hit and covered up until Shane Carwell got gassed. Here CV was not intimidated, and had no problems with gas in the tank or staying calm in BL's initial bull surges. BL still does not like getting hit.
Woof GC, Very cool seats! Also tough tickets to get. I looked for you, but alas to no avail.
And so goes the heavy weight div.....CV is a very good well rounded fighter with plenty of gas in the tank.
But we are back to the 230 something pound heavy weights, which is ok...but I don't see him holding the title long.
I can remember when everyone including myself thought Andre Arlovski was the next big thing
Jr. Dos Santos waits in the wings......and has a decent chance to be the next champ.
TAC! HD
Mr. Denny, just out of curiosity, what was the look on Dana Whites face after Brocks TKO.
I didn't get to get to see it I suspect though that he will find a way to make money
Quote from: pau on October 23, 2010, 09:30:09 PM
He was born in California, so....
Stickgrappler
"...grappling happens. It just does." - Top Dog
Copying and pasting some pix posted by my friend Ausgepicht from elsewhere.
Dana White looks disappointed that Lesnar lost.
What a cut on Brock's face!
Congrats to Cain! I really like him. I was anti-Lesnar to begin with, thought it gimmicky of White to have him in the UFC. But after Brock beat Shane Carwin (who I also like) coupled with Lesnar's coaches (Erik Paulson and Greg Nelson = JKD!!!!), I started to like Lesnar a little.
Think Junior Dos Santos is next up for Cain Velasquez, which should be a good fight, but the fight I want to see is Cain vs Shane Carwin.
My thanks to Ausgepicht for posting the pix as well as to the original gif makers.
"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny
Pau, Chad:
I confess to being irritated by the Brown Power tatoo he recently got and the tone of some things said.
Just rewatched the fight, tell me Cain didn't use some trapping on the ground, on Brock! Yeah it's obvious that in his life Brock was used to being the hitter and not the hittee, if thats a word.
Quote from: Crafty_Dog on October 25, 2010, 02:09:42 PM
Wow i ment nothing bad
Pau:
Nothing amiss with your comment. Inadvertently you stepped into an American political minefield. Like Rarick, I take the tatoo as a symbol of divisiveness, all the more inflammatory in the context of the brouhaha over Arizona's law about illegal immigration wherein many people IMHO have showed great disrespect to the concept of America. I count myself as amongst those who believe that if you come to America, then come to be an American. Unfortunately it seems that they is a growing number of people here who do not feel that way.
Furthermore and apart from that, I would be irked at "Yellow Power" or "Red Power" or anything like that.
Well their's a saying in my family "Don't discus Politics, Religion, Race, or Futball cus some one is always going to get angry" and this from my one personal family hehe we are all FMA family all colors all creeds come together cus of DBMA this is an MMA thereat so lets get back to topic.
On The Ultimate Fighter how do you guys see Koscheck as a trainer??? man the guy is 6-2 is it cus HE is bad as a trainer?? to me he is an ass all the way, i know it makes good TV but to me he is a bad example for the people how love the sport.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2010, 11:40:23 PM by pau »
Thats' the thing that gets me most- he's not from Mexico. His Dad became a naturalized citizen on his SEVENTH try. Cain is an American. So he can't be the First Mexican HW champ. It really has nothing to do with race- I'm upset with the fact that Dana White has politicized my one escape from the real world in MMA.
I agree Kozcheck sure comes off as a a**hole. This will be the first time I am cheering for GSP...
Chad:
Exactly so.
By billing himself as a Mexican champ and tatooing himself with "Brown Power" Cain elevates race to the highest loyalty.
selfcritical
Lyoto almost ended the fight 4 times. Rampage was never close to doing so even once. I don't see giving him the decision off of one takedown and two uppercuts.
a) Freddie Roach on GSP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpkjn8Wufz8&feature=player_embedded
b) Machida vs. Jackson: Hard to see how the judges came to that decision!
c) Last night on the TUF finale event, Joe Rogan had a riff on how bad decsions are getting to start to thing that MMA is starting to get corrupt; he went on to say that it is because the Nevada Athletic Commission, which basically is boxing people, is putting clueless morons judging UFC fights. I was surprised at how candid his comments were.
d) Exciting finale to the TUF event. I really like that kid who won (name slips my mind at the moment) but he sure took too many strong hits in the first round. IMHO shots like those have a cumulative effect. He really needs to clean up his standing striking game.
I am glad Rogan spoke out. Nobody else in the UFC organization will say it. Rogan is a wealthy man, he can afford to be candid.
Re: Sundry
Quote from: Crafty_Dog on December 05, 2010, 02:37:38 PM
Jonathan Brookins. You'd think he would have learned that lesson after fighting Jose Aldo(and doing suprising well before getting knocked out)
UFC 125 gifs
Copied and pasted my friend Ausgepicht's post from his forum... some gifs from UFC 125. They are links to the gifs so as not to slow the page loading. Enjoy!
Leben and Stann exchange
Stann BLASTS Leben out
Gray's left hook to start the madness
More damage from Gray
Sweet slam from Frankie
Illegal knee from Nate?
Failed Dongdown
Guida's Guillotine on Gomi
Stephens dispatches Davis
Robert's Kimura/DWL/Hammerlock
Baroni focusing on being silly
Tavares takes out Baroni
Poirier's Thai Clinch
Poirier the beast!
Man-rape from Thiago
Vera outdoes Franklin with obliterated nose
My thanks to Ausgepicht and the original gif makers.
It was cool seeing a Dogbrother(tm) cornering in the UFC. Are there any more other than Lucky Dog that are active in the organization?
Quote from: Chad on January 07, 2011, 05:42:39 AM
Woof Chad,
Sometime ago, I recall reading that Surf Dog was also coaching. Not sure if he is still actively coaching.
~sg
Well, in addition to our being turned down in the early days of the UFC for being "just too extreme" (see the copy of the letter on this website) I was a judge at UFC 10. Surf Dog was a judge for several years at "King of the Cage" which was something of a feeder event leading fighters to the UFC where I filled in for him when one of his students was fighting and Surf Dog is a regular judge at the UFC, TUF, and various MMA events around California-- of course only when one of his guys is not fighting. Boo Dog is a regular sparring partner to elite UFC/MMA fighters out of Gokor Chiviikyan's gym (e.g. Manny Gamburian).
TAC!
Thank you Guro C.
I should also mention my days at the RAW Gym (Rico Chiapparelli, Frank Trigg, Vladimir Matyushenko, and others of note).
Fightmetrics - UFC Stats
http://fightmetric.com/ufcrecords.html
Top Ten Stats for:
Shortest Avg. Fight Time
Longest Avg. Fight Time
Knockdowns Landed
Takedowns Landed
Takedown Accuracy
Takedown Defense
Significant Strikes Landed
Significant Strike Accuracy
SLpM - Strikes Landed per Min.
Total Strikes Landed
SApM - Strikes Absorbed per Min.
Significant Strike Defense
My thanks to my friend Ausgepicht for posting this elsewhere.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2011, 07:50:58 AM by Stickgrappler »
Some good fights on the finals show of TUF I thought, though my recorder cut off just before that actual finals. Great showing by Clay Guida!
Too bad about Lesnar's diverticulitis. I disliked him before the TUF season began, and disliked him more as the season went by. I would have liked to see Junior Dos Santos kick his ass. Tis a thought without evidence beyond the curiosity of the timing, but I find myself wondering at the timing of the re-appearance of his diverticulitis , , , I read Lesnar as a bully and when a bully gets his ass thoroughly kicked as BL did by CV, the psychological implications for the bully's ego can be very challenging indeed.
Great face time for Erik Paulsen as the trainer for Team Lesnar!
Sisco T.
looking forward to the 2nd round of Strikeforce's heavyweight Grand Prix this Sat. on showtime. Overeem vs Werdum(good fight!) and barnett vs rogers(a kind of a gimme fight for josh). a pretty decent undercard too.
i might miss it live though. L.A. film fest starts this weekend and there is a screening of the Evan Tanner documentary ''Once I was a Champion". im probably going to check it out. ill see if i can stay off internet to watch the fight replay later in the evening.
I think Werdum beat Roidereem once before, Josh Barnett has been talking a lot of trash, I don't give Rogers much of a chance, but I hope he gets in a lucky punch and knocks Barnett out!
No one gave Rogers a chance against Fedor, but he did well... also could be a factor of Fedor being overconfident.
On any given day, any fighter can beat any other fighter. It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings.
Quote from: Sebresos on June 15, 2011, 02:52:34 AM
it's funny you call Overeem ''Roidereem''. don't get me wrong, i also find his physique......suspect. especially if you look at him from just 4yrs ago, but he has never tested positive to my knowledge.
then you have josh barnett there. he was once one of my favorites. not only because of his fighting ablilty, but also his affinity for anime, manga, comics, and quoting ''fist of the north star'' to his opponents . having been caught on THREE different occasions, and pretty much killing ''affliction'' you'd think he'd be geting more attention for his positive tests.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7hzcLZ7uRc&feature=related
Forgive me if this is not the proper place for this, but wasn't this the guy who trained Kimo and then danced in the octagon with him when Royce Gracie decided not to continue after his fight with Kimo in UFC III?
I also seem to remember this guy being involved in a UFC fight before groin shots were illegal during which someone was repeatedly punched in the groin. I can't remember if this guy was on the receiving end or the giving end, so to speak.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44867359?GT1=43001#.TpUcIxx8SzY
Dr. Bryan Stoops, Ed.D.
Semi-Private/Private Instruction
Offered in Chino Hills, California
JKD/FMA/Silat/muay Thai/DBMA,
Savate/Wing Chun/grappling
http://stoops-martial-arts-academy.com/
bryan@stoopsma.com
He also was the GM of Joe San-do. Really.
Quote from: Guide Dog on October 11, 2011, 10:05:30 PM
IIRC he was delivering the groin shots.
Seeing-Eye Dog
Keith Hackney was delivering the groin shots to Joe Son.
DVM SPIRO, SPERO
C-Yo Dog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57Mva-3n7TY
new fight leauge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iYzTkOrHrp8
Okay, C-Yo Dog, I haven't laughed out loud that hard for some time. Thank you. That deserves afro smiley face.
theskirt
Quote from: C-Yo Dog on October 12, 2011, 10:00:45 PM
"cutting edge techniques" - I like that one. Florian really can give Ben Stiller a run for his money.
Alex Davis on Ego in MMA
My friend Xen Nova, on a different forum, gave me a heads-up to this article/interview. Pretty much substitute "Life" for "ego" and it's my thoughts too...well Alex Davis is way more articulate than I ever will be. Not sure if we have a thread devoted to ego only, so hoping this is the proper thread for this.
Copied from http://mmajunkie.com/news/25767/as-mma-continues-global-growth-veteran-manager-alex-davis-warns-of-egos-ugly-side.mma:
As MMA continues global growth, veteran manager Alex Davis warns of ego's ugly side
by John Morgan on Oct 22, 2011 at 3:00 pm ET
As a lifelong practitioner of judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, not to mention a founding member of MMA's famed American Top Team academy, noted MMA manager Alex Davis has seen the sport grow from the beaches and jungles of his native Brazil to a global phenomenon.
And while Davis believes there are still plenty of opportunities for growth in the sport, he's also bothered by a growing enemy within the sport: ego.
"Time and time again, I find myself staring ego in the face," Davis recently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "A lot of money has been spent, events have been created, fights have been accepted, enemies have been made and big decisions taken – all based on ego."
"Ego is a part of us, it is a definition, it is a part of our mind that we use to identify our self. It is a subjective factor that drives many of us. And it is also a major factor in our sport. Many decisions are based on ego, strange as it may seem."
In some ways, ego is an integral part of a fighter's psyche. After all, in order to lock yourself in the cage with another man intent on separating you from consciousness, a certain confidence is required. But even if MMA's fighters are forced to toe the line of cockiness, Davis believes the athlete's support team should be available to make more rational evaluations. However, Davis said he doesn't believe this is always the case in today's MMA landscape.
"I don't know why ego so permeates MMA," Davis said. "Maybe it's the feeling that we get when we watch a fight that brings it out? We see a great fighter obtain a knockout or a submission, and we watch as he celebrates. At that moment, he is the man – the hero, the winner! We all want to be like him; we want that aura. We want to be looked at in the same way we are looking at him. We want to be near him, to participate in the glory; we want a piece of this. It's intoxicating. It touches us right in our ego, doesn't it?
"But, it's not reality. Whatever motivated this same guy to end up in that ring, a whole lot of hard work also went into it – a lot of sweat and a lot of pain. And here is where ego gets in the way. Your normal person, who for the most part has never really taken any activity as far as where these guys have taken what they do in order to do it, don't get it. They do not understand this reality. All they know, and its unconscious, is that they want a part of that glory. They want to be like that, and a lot of people act on that feeling. They act motivated by ego, and they will try to buy that feeling.
"Ego is a sorry decision-maker. It's a sorry trainer and sparring partner. It's a lousy manager. Ego turns champions into losers. It makes them forget what got them there in the first place. Some guys seem to be inoculated against it. Other guys are completely moved by it, and a whole bunch of other wackos are intoxicated by it."
It's Davis' perceived influx of those "wackos" into the sport that have him most concerned. It's new breed of manager, a new wave of trainers – perhaps even a few prospective professional fighters – who have allowed ego to overtake the true spirit of martial arts.
"Decisions based on ego will always be the wrong ones," Davis said. "It's not a logical factor. It's a feeling, although a real one, and decisions based on it will deviate from the objective, which in our case is to win fights.
"Martial arts teach us humility, teaches us about ourselves. When we step on a mat to compete or into a ring to fight, at that moment we are all by ourselves. No friend or trainer can share that moment. It's us and that other guy giving us that dirty look from the other side as he goes through and deals with the same moment."
It's an ages-old creed for those who train in traditional martial arts. Honor and respect over ego and personal gain. But as MMA continues its rapid global expansion, Davis believes some late arrivals to the scene are searching for financial gains and ego boosts instead of remaining true to the roots of the sport.
"The potential damage ego can cause is something a lot of people getting involved in this sport need to learn," Davis said. "It's pathetic to run into these people that just jumped on the bus but seem to think that they can just come up and buy a window seat in the front. Reality is not like that and careers are being ruined by this attitude. Fighters are being pried away from places like Greg Jackson's or American Top Team and fed an illusion of what some newcomer can do for them – what a Greg, who has spent a lifetime time doing this, supposedly can't. And what is all of this based on? Ego!
"I guess it also has to do with our culture – what we see on TV, how heroes are created and fed to us. I have been many, many times to Japan for fights, and one thing that has always struck me is the completely different way in which the Japanese fans see fights and fighters. In Japan, a loser can be as much a hero as the winner. He is appreciated by how hard and valiantly he fought. He is worshiped for never giving up, even though in the end, he lost.
"There is a deeper meaning to martial arts and MMA. It's what makes this sport noble rather then a bloodsport. Ego has no part of it. Ego is shallow and futile in comparison. The fighter learns that lesson, and that's why for the most part, fighters can be some of the nicest people out there. But in all aspects of MMA, not just fighting, we must learn to separate ourselves from our ego.
"What makes fighters win fights? Hard training with the right people and the right attitudes at the right times. It's determination. It's the will to overcome, to stick with it, to surpass our own selves, to become better and better. Maybe some people are motivated to do this out of their own ego. I guess what makes each person tick is different. But for sure, the moment ego takes over as the main decision-maker, things will go downhill."
Evans and Torres "miscues"
http://mma-boxing.si.com/2011/12/08/dana-white-responds-to-rashad-evans-miguel-torres-media-miscues/?sct=hp_t2_a17&eref=sihp
Miguel Torres has been let go by the UFC and Rashad Evans apologized to Dana White, both for expressing inappropriate thoughts.
Tonight's fights
Any comments/predictions on tonight's fights?
An interesting article on Dana White.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-ufc-dana-white-20111228,0,970295.story
Lesnar vs. Overeem & other fights tonight
http://mmajunkie.com/news/26745/ufc-141-preview-x-factors-muddy-otherwise-easy-lesnar-overeem-fight-breakdown.mma
Surf Dog and TUF in Brazil
Surf Dog, who has become one of the top judges in MMA (regularly judging the UFC, Strikeforce, TUF, etc) will be one of the judges for this coming season where the coaches are Vitor Belfort and Vanderlei Silva. The season will be in Brazil, filming begins Feb 6. Surf Dog will be there for 6 weeks.
In other news female MMA fighter "Cyborg" tested positive for steroids after knocking out her Japanese opponent in 16 seconds.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1217
|
__label__cc
| 0.571683
| 0.428317
|
Peas, Carrots and an Aston Martin (The Peas and Carrots Series Book 1)
“An uplifting coming of age story for the mid-life crisis generation.”
In this witty and humorous novel, Londoner Eric Sibley discovers his only inheritance is his father’s classic car — with one rather major string attached.
Life quickly becomes a chaotic kaleidoscope of heavy machinery mishaps, missed deadlines and grumpy pensioners as Eric is forced to juggle his hectic career and family life with regular visits to the small riverside town of Burlam. It’s not long before his job, his marriage and his sanity are hanging in the balance. Can he claim his prize before he loses all three?
Peas, Carrots and an Aston Martinis the first book in the delightfully funny Peas and Carrots series from the award-winning author of The Afterlife of Walter Augustus. This quintessentially British novel will have you laughing and crying until the very end.
Peas, Carrots and an Aston Martinis also a finalist of the 2018 Wishing Shelf Book Award
Praise for Peas, Carrots and an Aston Martin
“I absolutely loved this book! It’s funny, uplifting, contains a whole host of unforgettable characters and I can’t wait to read the sequel! I was looking for something to cheer me up and this fit the bill. A highly recommended 5 star read.”
“Peas, Carrots and a Aston Martin was brilliant from start to finishjust downloaded the second book would definitely recommendto anyone.”
“Will have you laughing one moment and misty eyed the next. This was a joy to read. Her characters a vividly drawn and strangely relatable. Recommend.”
“I loved this book! Had me gripped from the first page. A real feel-good factor. Might need a tissue at some points. Hugely recommended.”
“This ticked all the boxes as you can really relate to the main character and feel all their emotions. l can’t wait to start the next book.”
“Peas, Carrots and an Aston Martin is a charming, bittersweet and humorous story. I am so happy that this is the start of a series and I am really looking forward to reading the next book.”
“Got totally carried away could not put this book downtill the end.Brilliant writing.”
“This is a really enjoyable read. Couldn’t get through it fast enough.”
“OMG! I have not stopped laughing. Eric’s frustrations fall off the page, Faulty Towers eat your heart out. Definitely read more in the series”
“This was a delight! Such good fun with a warm sincere message at the heart.”
“A beautifully writtenstory with charming characters. Couldn’t put it down. A must read.”
“I loved the characters within this book, they were so deliciously lovely, quirky and believable, even when at their most absurd.”
“It’s a book that oozes charm.”
“Wonderful book to get lost in. Adored the characters and loved the way the book was written – very easy to read and I loved, laughed & criedin equal measures – great!”
“So many funny moments, the prose is witty and bouncy, and I can’t wait to read more from the Author”
Textbook of Natural Medicine
Ecology: The Economy of Nature
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1225
|
__label__wiki
| 0.661212
| 0.661212
|
Box 416, 1957-2003
File — Box: U300.04.0416
Identifier: U300.04.0416
Division of Athletics and Recreation Records
Legacy Working Files
1 items : half letter document box
From the Collection: The bulk of the records in this collection have been generated by the Media Relations unit, which is an administrative unit within the University of Denver Division of Athletics and Recreation. These records include: media guides, game programs, team rosters, press releases, photographs, and related promotional materials.
From the Collection: University of Denver. Department of Athletics and Recreation (Organization)
Physical Storage Information
Box: U300.04.0416 (Mixed Materials)
Part of the Special Collections and Archives Repository
http://library.du.edu
2150 East Evans Avenue
archives@du.edu
U300.04.0416, Box 416, 1957-2003, Box: U300.04.0416. Division of Athletics and Recreation Records, U300. Special Collections and Archives. https://duarchives.coalliance.org/repositories/2/archival_objects/8408 Accessed January 29, 2020.
When would you like to view the materials?
Please provide any additional details that may help us fulfill your request, e.g. "I would like to know more about University Hall's history, and would like to view U201 Box 27."
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1230
|
__label__wiki
| 0.520047
| 0.520047
|
A post-production community in Dublin, Ireland
Dublin Editors
In Profile : Tony Cranstoun
Posted on February 3, 2014 by John Murphy in Uncategorized
This Thursday see the latest in our In Conversation events and the first get together of 2014. This time we are delighted to welcom BAFTA and ACE winning editor Tony Cranstoun. One of the leading cutters operating in Ireland and the UK.
Here’s Tony talking about editing
and a longer audio piece for the SDGI
Tony’s list of credits is extensive and mightly impressive and in advance of Thursday event we are going to give a little flavour of just some of the stuff Tony was worked on.
Newlywed couple Nat and Josh are deliriously happy despite their differences, though friends and family aren’t convinced that they can last. With their first anniversary approaching and attractive alternatives in the mix, can they last?
Directed by Dan Mazer
DEATH OF A SUPERHERO
A dying 15-year-old boy draws stories of an invincible superhero as he struggles with his mortality.
Directed by Ian Fitzgibbon
THE BASS PLAYER
From the depths of suicide and depression to the heights of new beginnings, marriage proposals, and homecomings. The Bass Player explores Niall McKay’s relationship with his Jazz musician father, Jim, who in the 1970’s raised his two young sons on his own in Dublin. This film questions what is means to be a son, a husband and a father.
PERRIERS BOUNTY
A gangster named Perrier looks to exact his revenge on a trio of fugitives responsible for the accidental death of one of his cronies.
A FILM WITH ME IN IT
A broke, jobless actor and a broke, jobless screenwriter set out to make a movie and then find that life starts imitating art.
MR BEANS HOLIDAY
Mr. Bean wins a trip to Cannes where he unwittingly separates a young boy from his father and must help the two come back together. On the way he discovers France, bicycling, and true love, among other things.
THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN’S APOCALYPSE
The notorious fictional town of Royston Vasey is under threat and its inhabitants are forced to leave.
The disappearance of 14-year-old Amber Bailey sets off a two-year search during which her family will go through unimaginable pressures. What happened to Amber?
WHEN HARVEY MET BOB
Part 2 – Part 3
In October 1984, rock musician Bob Geldof is appalled by the misery of starving Ethiopians as seen on television and persuades his pop musician friends to record the million-selling charity single ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’. Bob goes to Ethiopia and, horrified at the scale of the famine, plans a global rock concert to be staged simultaneously in England and America the next summer. He brings in hard-headed rock promoter Harvey Goldsmith who provides a realistic anchor to Bob’s idealistic wish-list of performers. Preparations are fraught with arguments, and Bob is especially disappointed not to secure Bruce Springsteen, in anticipation of whose services he postponed the event. After addressing his old school, where he was less than academically bright but hopes to inspire the students, and with five days before the big event, Bob gets involved with the complicated matter of financial logistics and organizing international broadcasts but gets Prince Charles and Princess Diana to attend simply by asking them. Finally the day of the concerts arrives and, as Paul McCartney sings ‘Let it Be’, Harvey and Bob know that they have triumphed. The show over, the two men sit alone to reflect on matters.
Controversial Drama which chronicles the lives of Stuart and Vince, and also 15 year old Nathan who is in love with Stuart
An abrasively eccentric forensic psychologist aids in the solving of difficult police cases.
(1995) Ep 3.2 – “Best Boys”
“Bill Preece (John Simm) is a runaway from a childcare facility who finds work in a local factory. He has no place to stay so the foreman, Stuart Grady (Liam Cunningham), offers him his sofa for a night.
A dispute with the landlady leads to her being killed and Bill soon drags his new friend into a spiral of crime. He especially wants to exact revenge against those he feels treated him badly as a foster child.
Fitz (Robbie Coltrane) soon realizes that two people are committing the murders, though he believes the perpetrators to be a man and a woman..
THE FORSYTHE SAGA
Before the Bradys, the Carringtons, the Ewings, the Forresters, the Abbots, there were…. the Forsytes. A highly charged miniseries at the turn of the century London that follows the intrigues and scandals of a landed middle class family… and the one woman who will turn their world upside-down.
Soames Forsyte, a landed lawyer and a man of property is immediately smitten with the penniless pianist Irene Heron and determines to marry her. Initially reluctant, Irene is eventually pressured by her stepmother into accepting but it does not take her long to realize that her artistic temperament does not suit with her husband’s possessive nature. After four years of unhappy marriage, her only comfort is her husband’s cousin June Forsyte, a vivacious and free-spirited individual engaged to Philip Boissiney, a rising architect. But when Boissiney finds himself drawn to Irene’s quiet, enigmatic grace and she to him, things will never be the same… A man of property is always sensitive to the dignity of his own position and Soames will never relinquish what he once possessed.
A British sitcom about a family going through everyday life in the Royle family house.
An interweaving narrative chronicling the antics of such diverse characters as: a transsexual taxi driver, a family obsessed with hygiene and toads, a fiery reverend, a carnival owner who kidnaps women into marriage, and a xenophobic couple who run a local shop for local people.
An acutely observed, forensically honest, warts-and-all look at a working-class couple in their mid-20s.
Tagged Bob Geldof, Harvey Goldsmith, Ian Fitzgibbon, Irene Heron, Stuart Grady, Tony Cranstoun
Published by John Murphy
View all posts by John Murphy
Previous Post Dublin Editors Christmas Drinks
Next Post IFTA 2014 Editing Nominations
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1231
|
__label__wiki
| 0.671102
| 0.671102
|
Manga hochladen
lesen sie manga
Letzte Veröffentlichung
Beliebte Manga
Manga Verzeichnis
Erweiterte Suche >>
Anime Series Like Ascendance of a Bookworm
Jane Dans
Motosu Urano loves books. She recently got her librarian certification and was about to enter her dream job when an earthquake caused her to be crushed by her collection of books. She is reincarnated into a new world as the five year old daughter of a soldier. Unfortunately, in this world, books are reserved for the elite nobility. What do you do when you station does not afford you access to books? Make your own. It’s the isekai of the season, but with a more interesting twist than most recent “isekai twists” have been. If you are looking for anime recommendations like Ascendance of a Bookworm, we got you. For Fans of Non-Battle Isekai Restaurant to Another World The nondescript Youshoku no Nekoya is a cafe that has been in business for 50 years. However, while it serves salarymen and other workers most of the week. On Saturdays, it closes down to the public in order to serve special guests, mythical creatures that come from another world looking f
Ansichten 2061
Bemerkungen 0
11 Epic Anime Series That Feature Wars
Manga Lover
War, or rather our interest in it, never changes. While the days of a constant barrage of war movies has died down a bit, humanity will always have an interest in it. It is the perfect venue for tales of bravery and sacrifice, accented by the horrific suffering happening to everyone involved and caught in the middle. While anime doesn’t always have the same interest in telling war stories, it is a useful venue for particular plots. So if you are looking to, as a certain Metal Gear Solid villain would say, give war a chance, these are the best examples you can find in anime. Code Geass Though it has other elements to it, Code Geass is, for the most part, a war story. You follow an exiled prince who is given a magnificent power and then uses it to ignite a revolution that was already smoldering. It delves deep into the politics of this war as well as shows the inevitable tragedy that goes with it. Mobile Suit Gundam Close your eyes and pick
Anime Series Like Snow White With The Red Hair
Shiraiyuki is an herbalist that lives a normal life in the country of Tanbarun. However, when her beautiful red hair is noticed by the Prince Raji, he tries to make her his concubine. She then decides to cut her hair and flees into the forest. It is there she is rescued by the second Prince of neighboring Zen Wistalia. In order to repay her life debt to him, she sets her hopes on becoming the court herbalist in the capital of Clarines. Inspired by the fairy tale in some ways, there is ten tons more depth and a way better romance story waiting for you in this series. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Snow White With The Red Hair, then head on down below. For Fans of Red Hair Yona of the Dawn After having her luxurious life shattered by the betrayal of her cousin, Princess Yona is forced to escape with her childhood friend Son Hak. However, leaving her palace forces her to see the poverty and strife that really makes up her belove
8 Yaoi / Boy Love Anime Series That Aren’t Uncomfortably Predatory
While both Yaoi and Yuri anime series share a few problems in the depiction of same sex couples, yaoi has a problem that is unique to its own genre – predation. The yaoi genre likes a few very specific tropes like lack of consent (a “I’ll make you love me” approach, if you will) and either a very uncomfortable age gap or power dynamic (i.e. student/teacher or any other set up where the dom truly has domination.). It certainly paints the male side of same sex couples in a really terrible way, and yes, there is a certain allure to these taboos for some fans. However, maybe you are the boy love fan that wants a normal and more realistic yaoi anime series. It’s not easy to find a yaoi/BL recommendation list without those tropes because they are widespread, but this one is for you. Given Why is it that music anime series usually have top-tier romances too? Well regardless, Given is about two people that are drawn together by music. The feelings fo
Anime Series Like Radiant
The world is ravaged by monsters called Nemeses. These demons fall from the sky and cause complete destruction to everything around them. In their path are Sorcerers that can defeat them. Seth is one such Sorcerer that seeks to destroy every Nemesis. He travels with his friends to destroy the near-mythical source of these monsters – Radiant. Generic shounen to the fullest despite being based on a French comic, the charms in Radiant are not immediately apparent and require watching further than some anime fans are willing to stick with a series. Those fight scenes are stupid-beautiful, guys. If you are looking for more charming anime recommendations similar to Radiant, then head on down below. For Fans of Magic Wielders Black Clover After being abandoned at the same church, Asta and Yuno grew up together. Together they grew up aiming for the same title – The Wizard King, the strongest wizard in the kingdom. However, it became soon apparen
Returning to Anime? The Best Anime Series of 2016 That You Missed
Been away from anime for awhile? We understand. You go out and have your life, anime will always be waiting for you when you come back. They always come back. If you are finally coming back and stopped watching sometime in or before 2016, here are all the best anime series that you missed and definitely should go back and watch. My Hero Academia Since he was a child, Izuku Midoriya has wanted nothing more than to manifest a quirk, a newly discovered super power that some people develop, so that he can be a hero. Unfortunately, he was not one of those lucky few. One day, Izuku meets the number one hero and his personal idol, All Might. All Might’s quirk is a unique ability that can be inherited, and he has chosen Izuku to be his successor. My Hero Academia is one of those series that is seeping out of the anime sphere and even attracting non-anime fans. This is likely because it is about western-inspired super heroes, but it doesn’t fall into the
Anime Series Like Terror in Resonance
After a terrorist attack on a Japanese nuclear facility, the country was paralyzed to act. After six months of searching for the perpetrators, the public is shown a video tape of two boys known as Sphinx that take credit for the attack. Threatening more mayhem, it is up to the police to catch these terrorists. Although this widely anticipated anime about terrorism fumbled the ball at the end, it still provided and intriguing ride about a subject that many find themselves curious about. If you are looking for similar anime recommendations, then perhaps we can help. For Fans of Cat and Mouse Games With Terrorists Death Note Light Yagami is a high school prodigy and genius. However, he has an ever-increasing boredom and disdain for the rotten violent world. One day, he happens upon a notebook, called a Death Note, which states that if you write a name in it, the person will die. To his surprise, the notebook’s claims turn out to be true. This Death Not
17 Anime Series With Absolutely No Fan Service
It is, at present, No Nut November, and those participating whether it be for the meme or for the actual good cause may be in need of some distraction. In all honesty, anime may not be the best place to turn. These days, many series come with fan service. There is just no stopping it now. However, if you are looking for something good, but with out fan service to avoid temptation or just because you kind of hate fan service, you have options. Typically if you want to avoid fan service, you will want to lean towards slice of life series or series with younger characters because even Japan won’t try to sexualize them…Mostly. However, while those sort of series are on the list, we have also offered you up some action series if slice of life isn’t really your sort of genre. Vinland Saga As there is actually a lack of female characters in Vinland Saga, there isn’t a lot of room for fan service. Mostly, it is just Vikings fighting. Erased As
Anime Series Like Charlotte
Yuu Otosaka has the ability to slip into other people’s mind and control them for five seconds at a time. He has been using it to get good grades, but after he is caught by the enigmatic Nao Tomori, he is forced to transfer to a special school with his sister. At this supernatural new school he is forced to use his powers to hunt down other students who are abusing their own powers. While it has a synopsis that sounds pretty standard, Charlotte has an impressive creative pedigree behind it that translated into a low-key but pretty great series. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like it, then we have you covered. For Fans of Special High Schoolers Beyond the Boundary As the last surviving member of her clan of spirit warriors, Mirai Kuriyama must use her special power of fighting using her blood in order to subdue Youmu, creatures that are the manifestation of negative human emotions. One day at school she happens across Akihito, a ra
8 Anime Series Featuring Kaiju Giant Monsters
For enduringly popular as Godzilla, the original Kaiju, is, there is not actually that many solid depictions of Kaiju in in anime. Certainly there are monsters galore, but large ones that can decimate cities? Not so much. However, if you are looking for Kaiju-inspired anime series, there are a few options. Attack on Titan While Attack on Titan doesn’t feature kaiju in the way you expect, titans do in fact classify. They are more like giant warped versions of naked, genital-less humans that have smiles that invade your nightmares, but they have the same desire to smash up your cities and eat your mothers. SSSS.Gridman As you will soon learn, the mecha genre is, for the most part, your best bet for Kaiju action. SSSS Gridman provides a solid, Pacific Rim-esque experience of giant robots fighting giant monsters that attack their city. Furthermore, it actually comes with a really interesting plot atypical of your general kaiju series. Neon Genesi
Anime Series Like Darker Than Black
After the appearance of the Heaven and Hell Gates, then rose the Contractors, individuals that gave up their humanity for supernatural powers. In Section 4 of Japan around the Hell Gate, Chief Misaki finds herself constantly at odds with a Contractor named Hei, a man who takes missions from the ruthless underground Syndicate that slowly peel away the layers covering a threat to all Contractors. While it looks like typical edgelord fare, there is some depth beneath the surface in Darker Than Black that, despite an unsatisfying ending, leads to a intriguing show. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Darker Than Black, then look no further. For Fans of Supernatural Powers Hamatora In this world, a small number of people have manifested the power to create small miracles. In Yokohama, two miracle users create a detective agency and use their powers to help people. However, one day they realize that the jobs they are receiving have a se
13 Anime Series With a Ton of Characters
You like characters? Why wouldn’t you? Sure, a series can do crowds of generic characters, some who may or may not even get faces, but it is not the same as creating a series with tons of characters that all have unique designs and personalities. If you enjoy learning about a lot of characters in a series, there are quite a few anime series that can set you up. Kingdom While the Kingdom manga has literally tons of characters in it that pop in and out of the story, the anime itself only embraces a fraction of that due to its lack of subsequent seasons. However, even a fraction of the characters is enough to still be a pretty long list. While it takes place in a fictional historical area, you can still find some historical inspirations too. Assassination Classroom Part of the many charms of Assassination Classroom is that it takes a literal classroom of problem children and embraces them. It focuses on the main character at times, but every student has
Anime Series Like Chihayafuru
Growing up in the shadow of her older sister, Chihaya Ayase is strong-willed and a tomboy with no dreams of her own. However, after meeting a young boy with a passion of a card game called karuta, he inspires her to become a karuta master. This isn’t your little brother’s Yugioh. As a card game anime, Chihayafuru puts focus on more than just the game. If you are looking for anime recommendations similar to Chihayafuru, then head on down below. For Fans of Classical Japanese Games Hikaru no Go One day, Shindou Hikaru is rummaging through his grandfather’s attic and finds and old Go board. This board also happens to be possessed by Fujiwara no Sai, a once great Go player that committed suicide. This spirits begs Hikaru to play Go so he can search for his perfect game. While Hikaru no Go has a distinctly more shounen vibe to it, it matches the occasionally more shoujo vibe of Chihayafuru. Both are about traditional Japanese games and find ways
Creature Features – 11 Anime Recommendations Featuring Terrifying Creatures
Zombies, demon, witches – anime series can place these classic horror monsters in their anime. However, these days, the best horror anime series feature creatures that are outside that realm. They are new to the world and terrifying because we know nothing of them. If you are looking for these creature features in anime, we have some recommendations. Tokyo Ghoul Ghouls in Tokyo Ghoul combine the best parts of zombies with the brains of humans. They can only really survive by eating human flesh, but there are those that believe they can co-exist with humanity. Others believe humanity should be as cattle. The show focuses a lot on these politics, but when you see a ghoul feed, you will see it in your nightmares. Parasyte While the creatures in Parasyte are technically aliens that took over human bodies, they transform their flesh into a mass of moving teeth and razor sharp tentacles. For most of them, all they want to do is kill, and are able to d
Anime Series Like Granblue Fantasy
This is a world of skies where islands are adrift in a sea of clouds. Gran, a young boy, lives on the island of Zinkenstill. One day, he happens across Lyria, a girl that had escaped the militarily powerful Erste Empire. When they come after her, Gran gets pulled into the middle of it and they both flee the empire by taking to the skies with one destination in mind, the Island of the Stars. Based off a Japanese mobile game, I’m pretty sure we lost a little connection because we never played it in the west. Despite that, if you liked its sweeping JRPG journey, we have more anime recommendations for you. For Fans of Game Adaptions Tales of Zestiria the X Sorey is a human that was raised among the seraphim, spiritual beings that are not visible to normal humans. However, one day when a human princess-knight wanders into their territory, he finds himself drawn to the human capital. This eventually leads him to become the new Shepherd, the one destined t
Hell Raising – 15 Anime Recommendations Featuring Demons
At this very moment, we are deep into October, the spookiest month. So what would October be without covering spooky subjects like demons. Yet, demons serve for good anime any time of year. Whether it is slaying them, as is popular in anime, or using them for comedy, the demons will always be waiting for you. Black Butler The demons in Black Butler are often as we would imagine demons – blending and moving around among us. The titular butler in Black Butler is a demon that is bonded to a young noble out for revenge. In return for helping him reap his vengeance, the butler Sebastian will get to devour his soul when he is finished. It seems like a lot of footwork for one meal, but we all know young boy souls are the caviar of souls. Demon Slayer The title says it all about this anime series. It is about slaying demons, mostly. A boy comes home to find his entire family slaughtered by demons, save for his sister who was turned into one. He manages
Anime Series Like Sankarea
After his cat gets run over, Chihiro is convinced that he can make a potion to resurrect him. On his task to do so, he meets a wealthy girl from his school who comes to an abandon spot to yell in a well about her troubles every day. The two bond and she encourages him to continue his resurrection potion creation. Eventually, he succeeds after adding poisonous hydrangea leaves. Sanka, however, doesn’t know it has worked, and decided to kill herself with what should be a poisonous potion. Suddenly, Chihiro has a beautiful zombie on his hands. Is it a series that tries to do something new with romance or tries to do something new with the zombie genre? Regardless, it turned out better than anyone expected, and if you want more anime recommendations like it, we got you. For Fans of Zombies Zombieland Saga For Sakura Minamoto, she started her day off normally, right up until she skipped outside and got hit by a speeding truck. She died of course, b
12 Anime Series Where the Protagonist Joins a Badass Group of Fighters
It is a classic recipe for an action anime – your average protagonist somehow finds themselves entwined with a group of fighters and they plot builds out in many different ways from there. They could be fighting the government, fighting for money, or just fighting because they want to get stronger. Either way, it is a great way for the audience to meet a bunch of hopefully interesting characters and the protagonist to grow under the influence of said characters. Seraph of the End Nothing like a childhood tragedy to convince you to join a militaristic group of freedom fighters, right? Seraph of the End has humanity ravaged by a virus that leaves only children behind. Of course, this means the vampires can surface and raise these children as fodder. While almost narrowly escaping with some other kids, main character Yuichiro sees them all slaughtered but escapes to join an organization formed for fighting back against this vampire menace. Tokyo Ghoul
Anime Series Like D. Gray Man
After three years training with one of their prestigious Generals that saved him as a kid, Allen Walker is finally ready to join the Black Order, an organization of exorcists that fight Akuma and their leader, the Millennium Earl. With their Innocence weapons, Allen and his fellow exorcist embark on a journey to stop the Earl’s plot of ultimate destruction. D. Gray Man never quite took off as a staple shounen show, but for those who gave it a chance, there is a unique tale to fall in love with full of macabre stories and unique powers. If you are looking for something similar, then check out these D. Gray Man anime recommendations. For Fans of Dark Shounen Blue Exorcist Humans and demons have always been separated by two different worlds, humans in Assiah and demons in Gehenna. The only way to travel between the worlds is by possession, which is how Satan, the ruler of Gehenna, wages his war. Blue Exorcist follows Rin Okumura, a somewhat trouble tee
9 Anime Series That Feature Arranged Marriages
Arranged marriages, in reality, are relics. Yet, they do still happen. Some find it easier to just be set up with a marriage partner instead of having to go through the whole dating scene. While they are not as common in Japan today, they did once have arranged marriages in their culture. Now marriage meetings are more like blind dating arranged by a parent rather sealing their fate in matrimony right away. Still, if you are into the concept of arrange marriage, as it is part of the Japanese culture, they have some anime series that deal with it. Engaged to the Unidentified What a surprise Kobeni gets when she turns 16 and discovers that her grandfather had arranged a marriage for her! Kobeni takes it in stride though, even after her betrothed and his sister move into their home. The show is majorly comedy, but there are a few sweet moments as they get to know each other, and one weird twist near the end. The World is Still Beautiful Th
1 2 3 4 5 Nächste>>
Neueste ACG
Heiß ACG
15 Romance Anime Recommendations Featuring Multiple Couples
Anime Series Like My First Girlfriend is a Gal
Top 20 Best Yuri Anime Series
One Bust to Rule Them All: The 15 Most Bodaciously Huge Boobs in Anime
How to Watch the Monogatari Series in Order
10 Anime Series with the Darkest Endings
15 Swords & Sorcery Fantasy Anime Recommendations
13 Anime Series That Parody Other Anime
Our Top 9 Picks for Underrated Anime Series
Anime Series Like Made in Abyss
Maximale Größe des Bildes Erfolg Warnen Hoppla! Etwas stimmt nicht Erfolgreich übertragen Bericht Übertragen Zeig mehr Hilfe Gefolgt sind sie sicher zu löschen? Stornieren Bericht Keine weiteren Kommentare Lassen Sie die Antwort + add - bild Nur .JPG .JPEG .PNG .GIF Bild größer als 300 * 300px Erfolgreich löschen! Erfolgreich entfernen! Link kopieren Original Nicht mehr ... Rate ist nicht richtig Größe stimmt nicht Bitte lade 1000 * 600px Bannerbild hoch Wir haben ein neues Passwort an Ihre registrierte E-Mail gesendet! Bitte überprüfen Sie Ihre E-Mail oder senden Sie es nach 60 Sekunden erneut! sind sie sicher zu löschen? Der Inhalt darf nicht leer sein Titel darf nicht leer sein sind sie sicher zu löschen? Sind Sie sicher, die Veröffentlichung zu stornieren? ihre manga - wird nicht jedem zeigen nach absagen - verlag.sind sie sicher, dass zu veröffentlichen? veröffentlichen. * manga name wurde gegeben. Erfolgreich löschen! Mindestens ein Bild Du bist keinem Verein gefolgt Folgen Sie Club * manga name kann nicht leer sein. * manga name wurde gegeben. Mangabezug ist erforderlich etwas stimmt nicht Ändern Sie erfolgreich Altes Passwort ist falsch Die Größe oder Art des Profils stimmt nicht https://de.niadd.com Anhänger Entfernen Die schwarze Liste ist leer wie mein Kommentar: Post Du folgst noch niemandem Sie haben noch keinen Anhänger Du hast keine Nachricht. Scrollen Sie mehr Nicht mehr ... Bemerkungen Liebling Loading ...
Unsere App-Produkte
MangaDog
AnimeClub
iEditor
Novel Cool
Manga Dogs
Manga Tag
Niadd
Neue Manga
©2019 Niadd.com
Read 100k+ manga online
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1239
|
__label__cc
| 0.650075
| 0.349925
|
Alexiou, C. (2010). A Keynesian-Kaleckian model of investment determination a panel data investigation. Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 32, 427-444..pdf
lcr89
speichernAlexiou, C. (2010). A Keynesian-Kaleckian model of... für später speichern
Women Reinventing Globalisation
John Maynard Keynes the General Theory of Employment Interest and Money a Critique by Brett DiDonato
Session 6 Classical and Keynesian Economics
Eco401 Paper Final
Lec Notes 104-5
The economization of Life
77 Reasons Why You Are Awful at Managing Money
Constantinos Alexiou
A KeynesianKaleckian model of
investment determination:
a panel data investigation
Abstract: The undertaken study purports to assess the empirical merits of the
Post Keynesian doctrine as this is reflected by both the Keynesian as well as
the Kaleckian theoretical approaches to investment determination. In doing
so, a generalized method of moments panel data methodology provides the
econometric platform upon which the respective models have been vigorously
tested. Annual time-series data were used, spanning from 1970 to 2005, for
the G7 economies. The generated evidence confirms previous analyses insofar
as capacity utilization and profits assume a key role in the determination of
investment.
Key words: investment modeling, Kalecki, Keynes, panel data.
The dominant assumption permeating the neoclassical and other orthodox
economic theories is that investment is undertaken by well-informed
profit-maximizing agents. These agents apparently behave in a rather
predetermined manner unfettered by any signs of uncertainty pervading
the market environment within which they operate.
More specifically, according to the orthodox dogma, uncertainty can be
measured in terms of risk probability within the macroeconomic environment which is a reflection of the micro-behavior of individuals and firms
(Friedman, 1979; Hahn, 1973, 1985). The resulting dogmatic interpretation of economic fluctuation can thus easily be formulated through technical mathematical expressions in a rather coherent and logical way.
In stark contrast, Post Keynesians challenge the neoclassical approach
by seeing the real world characterized by more complicated axioms, and
Constantinos Alexiou is an assistant professor in the Department of Urban-Regional
Planning and Development Engineering at Polytechnic School, Aristotle University,
Thessaloniki, Greece. The author thanks an anonymous referee of the journal as well
as Jerry Courvisanos for insightful comments on an earlier version of the paper. The
usual disclaimer applies.
Journal of Post Keynesian Economics/Spring 2010, Vol. 32, No. 3427
2010 M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
01603477/2010 $9.50 + 0.00.
DOI 10.2753/PKE0160-3477320307
428 JOURNAL OF POST KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS
therefore any conclusions based on the orthodox tradition may very well
be invalidated. For Post Keynesians, entrepreneurs are far from rational
profit-maximizing entities while uncertainty assumes a focal point that
should be treated with caution.
This study purports to assess the relative empirical merits of the Post
Keynesian school of thought as this is reflected by both the Keynesian
as well Kaleckian theoretical frameworks of investment activity.
Theoretical considerations
In his effort to explain the inability of the capitalist system to achieve
full employment, Keynes (1936), by linking the microfoundations of
the neoclassical (Marshallian) theorythat is, the marginal efficiency
of capital principle (MEC, hereafter)came up with a macroeconomic
framework on the basis of which investment behavior is instrumental in
conditioning unemployment.
According to his analysis, MEC in relation to business cycles refers to
the volatile shifting of the MEC schedule due to uncertainty. The formation of uncertain long-term expectations precipitates volatile investment
behavior.
Despite the fact that Kalecki embraced the Keynesian conceptual
framework of the role of investment in determining the flow of saving
(or profits), he was rather critical of the MEC analysis:
rejecting the implied rising marginal cost curve of capital goods industries
and recognising that higher capital goods prices only relate to ex post
investment when the MEC is supposed to deal with ex ante decisions of
investment. (Kalecki quoted in Courvisanos, 1996a, p.160)
Within the neoclassical investment framework, I distinguish between
the user cost of capital and the q theory approaches.1 Dornbusch and
Fisher (1984) and Sawyer (1982) argue that the cost of capital model
is generally bound up with the way investment fluctuates in various
economies.2 In an attempt to explain aggregate investment using q theory
analysis, McKibbin and Siegloff (1988) generated evidence suggesting
that only 10 percent of the predicted investment is explained by q theory
For more on both approaches, see Jorgenson (1963) and Tobin (1969).
In a more recent study, Alexiou (2009) reconsiders the theoretical underpinnings
of the accelerator and Jorgensons models by providing new empirical evidence on the
economic ramifications that the underlying theories imply. On the basis of the initial
estimation of the unrestricted models, it transpired that the accelerator models outperformed the neoclassical models.
A KeynesianKaleckian Model of Investment Determination 429
and the remaining 90 percent are explained by the profit theory in nonoptimizing behavior. The fact that numerous investment empirical studies
have produced mixed results may well be ascribed to the oversimplifying
assumptions of the rational behavior of optimizing agents.
In the Post Keynesian tradition, rational behavior is the result of painstaking deliberations rather than the outcome of mathematical processes.
Emphasis is placed on the impact of uncertainty in a nonergodic world.
Given the close ties between the Keynesian school of thought and the Post
Keynesian doctrine, many studies have attempted to assess the Keynesian
belief in relation to the psychological factors and the ensuing profound
effect of the latter on rational behavior. Unfortunately, the underlying
theoretical model implied by Keynes has proven to be rather complex.
Nevertheless, different clusters of economists within the womb of Post
Keynesianism have been formed in relation to the investors capacity
to behave rationally. Among others, Bateman (1990), Dow and Dow
(1985), Gerrard (1994), Littleboy (1990), Meeks (1991), ODonnell
(1989), and Skidelsky (1992) share the belief that there is continuity in
the development of Keyness perception of rationality in his early works
as expressed in the Treatise on Probability (1973) and his later beliefs
as elucidated in the General Theory (1936). On a different note, Mini
(1990), Shackle (1972), and Winslow (1986) argue that Keyness work
presents the irrationality and destructiveness reflected by the subjectivism of economic behavior.
According to Keynes (1936) and Schumpeter (1939), animal spirits
and innovation should be internalized into firms behavior.3 In the same
spirit, Courvisanos (1996a), in a rather articulate manner, maintains that
factors relating to firms behavior should be vigorously analyzed in a
behavioral model incorporating microeconomic institutional elements.
In addition, alternative views on the interpretation of rational calculation
and animal spirits in the General Theory are expressed by a number of
scholars who maintain that both are determined by sensible expectations
and convention rather than irrational or rational expectations (see, e.g.,
Crotty, 1992; Davidson, 1991; Lawson, 1981, 1985, 1995; Littleboy,
1990; Minsky, 1975, 1986; Robinson, 1979). More specifically, Littleboy (1990, p.34) argues that conventional behavior lies between two
extremes, the fully rational and the fully irrational, whereas Robinson
(1979) looks upon Keynesian conventions as nonrational.
3 Both factors were thought to be exogenously affecting investment fluctuations
(Samuelson, 1980).
Recently, the inherent interaction of financial markets and investment
has caused a wave of new research studies to emerge. Arguably, the bulk
of the explorative research done on investment by the proponents of the
mainstream tradition is based on the assumption that a firms ability to
obtain financing is contingent upon the profitability of the prospective
investment projectthat is, the project is appraised at a cost of capital
based on market interest rates.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom, novel theoretical frameworks
have been proposed by academics in an attempt to capture the impact of
an inherent feature of the financial worldnamely, finance constraints.
According to the theoretical underpinnings of the finance constraints
concept, limited access to finance is an additional factor that will adversely affect investment (Fazzari, 1988; Fazzari and Petersen, 1993).
For a firm, seeking sufficient external funds (rather than internal funds)
to finance an investment project may be rather costly for a number of
reasons. The transactions costs involved when seeking external finance
are rather substantial due in the main to the fact that financial intermediaries must cover their own costs and make a profit on the deal (Fazzari
et al., 1988).
Further problems for firms in need of finance may arise from asymmetric information as well as the financial condition of the firm (Fazzari,
1993). Potentially, the ability of a firm to either internally or externally
finance an investment project has significant ramifications in relation to
the channels through which accelerator effects operate. In particular, the
underlying close association of fluctuations of internal finance, profits,
and business cycles suggest that periods of extensive recessions would
increase the cost as well as the external credit that firms can obtain.4 According to Fazzari, the impact of fiscal policy on the course of business
cycle may be a much more important channel of influence for investment than effects that work through the cost of capital (ibid., p.19). It
is therefore imperative that appropriate economic policies are in place
to both effectively create and contain the business cycle.
On a slightly different note, Courvisanos (1996b) developed a susceptibility cycle model in an attempt to gain further insight into the patterns
of investment behavior.5 According to his approach, the key Kaleckian
4As investment spending rises, lenders are less willing to provide funds for marginal investment projects (Fazzari and Papadimitriou, 1992). As the cost of external
finance goes up, the supply price follows suit (Fazzari and Mott, 1986).
5According to the IPS test (Im, Pesaran, and Shin, 2003), when individual effects
and deterministic trends are included, the null hypothesis of a unit root in all panels is
occasionally strongly rejected.
variablesprofits, increasing risk, and excess capacityact as a catalyst
in influencing the decision-making process of investment activity. More
specifically, as investment activity picks up, tensions build up to such an
extent that investment is susceptible to a collapse (Courvisanos, 2007).
High susceptibility is, in effect, identified with decreasing profit rates,
increasing finance costs, and dwindling utilization rates. Having thus
reached the lower point of the downturn, firms will subsequently seek to
expand investment, the prospect of which will, to a large extent, depend
on the firms exposure to risk and uncertainty. Empirical evidence on the
susceptibility cycles hypothesis can be found in Courvisanos (1996b)
and Laramie et al. (2004).
Money and finance: a Post Keynesian perspective
Apart from trying to merely interpret key Keynesian concepts, Post
Keynesians have taken a step further in attempting to refine, for instance,
Keyness analysis of the importance of money and finance in a world of
uncertainty that conditions investment decisions. Such an effort provides
an alternative to the ModiglianiMiller assumption according to which in
a world of perfect capital markets, the cost of different forms of financing
will be the same for all firms in a given risk category.
In contrast, within the Post Keynesian tradition, money plays an instrumental role in an uncertain environment. In particular, money affects
investment decisions in the following two ways: through interest rates,
as these are determined by the demand for money (liquidity preferences)
and supply of money, as well as via the business or the finance motive
(Davidson, 1965). The latter in the Keynesian analysis is thought to
serve as a component of transactions demand for money. According to
this analysis, capitalists command over money is conditioned not only
by business confidence but by the willingness of banks to lend money as
wellthat is, the state of credit. In effect, any financial turbulence that
precipitates economic austerity will cause financial institutions to curb
their lending to potential entrepreneurs. What is even more interesting in
their analysis is the notion that while business confidence or state of credit
is sufficient to derail economic activity, getting out of the slump requires
that both business confidence and state of credit recover substantially.
In a nutshell, Post Keynesians consider that finance is a very significant
factor that affects investors decisions, and that the supply and price of
money are endogenously determined. The implication of such a notion
is that capitalist economies are characterized by inherent instability as
uncertainty affecting one sector can spread so easily through the macro
According to Harcourt and Sardoni (1995), imbalances between finance
capital and industrial capital can be sources of uncertainty. Thereby, the
endogenous determination of money supply in conjunction with the prospect of instability will cause liquidity in the private sector to decrease,
thus deteriorating the environment within which investment opportunities
can be exploited (Davidson, 1978).
Kalecki on profits
It is widely held that Kaleckis main theoretical exposition was akin to
that of Keynes. More specifically, Kalecki (1943) argued that profits is
a significant variable that affects capital accumulation. He was swift to
assert, however, that the underlying relationship is rather complex due
in the main to the existing bidirectional feedback from capital accumulation to profits and vice versa. Profits will finance investment but actual
investment expenditure will cause capital stock to increase (i.e., capital
accumulation), thus creating expected profits to be reaped in the future.
Robinson (1964), by elaborating on these ideas, developed a conceptual
framework on the basis of which the double-sided relationship does
exist, but this relationship is far from stable. She went on to argue that
the underlying relationship changes all of the time because of volatile
animal spirits.
In an attempt to explicitly illustrate the way profits and savings are
intertwined to investment decisions, Kalecki (1943) devised a formula on
the basis of which the rate of investment is increasing in gross corporate
savings, decreasing in the rate of change of capital stock, and increasing
in the rate of change in profits. The mathematical expression of the above
is envisaged as follows:
I = aS +
+ dt ,
where I denotes rate of investment, S is gross savings, /t is the
rate of change in profits, K/t is the rate of change in capital stock,
and dt is a deterministic trend.
The way Equation (1) is articulated reflects the belief that investment
decisions are heavily constrained by finance. According to Kalecki
(1973), the principle of increasing risk is inextricably linked to economic
booms. More specifically, economic booms are accompanied by increasing investment activity, economic growth, and dwindling unemployment.
At the same time, however, financing fixed investment will eventually
cause debt to build up, rendering it thus unsustainable. In view of the
latter, lenders will start increasing the risk premia they attach to their
lending rates, which in turn will chock off investment. It is for this reason
that Kalecki (ibid.) held that firms would be exposed to less risk if they
used their own corporate saving generated from the profit variable as a
source of financing their investments.
In the same line of argument, Mahdavi et al. (1994) argue that internal
funds play a far more significant role than external funds. Internal funds
have the ability to increase investment activity by regenerating more funds
as well as serve as a cushion when economic conditions deteriorate. An
increase in the debt-to-equity ratio will cause lenders and borrowers risk
to increase, which in turn will precipitate an increase in the discount rate
and, thus, a dwindling demand price of capital. In a similar fashion, the
increased risk will cause the cost of borrowing to follow suit as well.
Minsky (1986), by drawing on the Kaleckian principle of increasing
risk, looks upon endogenous money as well as finance as being the major
culprits for bubbles and crises. His contention stems from the fact that the
banking system can boost investment through its ability to create money.
He goes on to add that due to its inability to provide a sound reasoning
of the role of endogenous money in capitalist economies, conventional
theory is unable to explain financial crisis. By building on Keyness approach, Minsky (ibid.) regards the state of credit as well as the state of
confidence as two factors that play an instrumental role in influencing
financial investment decisions. From his perspective, particular attention
should be paid to the way profits and investment are linked with one
anotherthat is, the existence of a bidirectional relationship between
the two variables. In particular, current investment, which determines
business ability to finance their debts in the future, will generate profits
through augmenting capital stock. It should also be noted in passing that
it is expectations of future profits that make debt financing possible, but
these future profits will only materialize should investment continue in
the foreseeable future. Effective demand is therefore a key component
of the entire process.
Modeling investment activity
Prior to devising models of real-world investment activity, it is imperative
that we have a clear view as to the nature of uncertainty that we want to
consider. In the neoclassical literature, uncertainty is reclassified as risk,
calculating afterward the probability. As far as aggregate uncertainty is
concerned, however, the story is somewhat different as it is very difficult
to incorporate into the fundamentals of microfoundations of neoclassical theory.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Keynesian and Post Keynesian
theories have always treated uncertaintyinsofar as this is communicated
through financial and speculative channelswith caution, as this can be
a destabilizing factor for economic and particularly investment activity.
The destabilizing effects of a volatile environment in conjunction with
the state of confidence can be pernicious to investment.
According to Keynes (1936; 1937), the MEC is a variable with the utmost importance in the determination of investment. Given the profound
impact of expectation and the state of confidence on the MEC, one can
confidently deduct that both subjective as well as objective factors should
be taken into account when modeling investment activity. If, for instance,
pessimism about prospective yields sets in, then the propensity to save
will increase and vice versa. As a result, the entire capitalist economic
edifice will be far from self-equilibrating irrespective of any neoclassical
remedies to redress the balance.
In the sketch of the above arguments, Post Keynesian investment
analysis focuses predominantly on the role of uncertainty, the attitude
toward money, conventional behavior, and the instrumental role of the
availability of finance.
Econometric methodology
In an attempt to craft a model that includes elements of Post Keynesian
insights, I arrived at the following specification (letters in italics denote
natural logarithms):
it = a0 + a1pt1 + a2Kt1 + a3yt1 + a4cut1,
where i is investment, is profit, k is capital stock, and y is output. Cyclical factors are captured by capacity utilization cu (proxied by actual/
potential output).
Prior to estimating the present model, it is imperative that the series are
checked for stationarity. In doing so, both the augmented DickeyFuller
(ADF) and a panel unit root testing approach proposed by Im, Pesaran,
and Shin (IPS; 2003) were used.
The IPS test, instead of pooling the data, uses separate unit root tests
for the N cross-sectional units. By modifying Levin and Lins (1993)
framework, Im et al. consider a model in which the coefficient of
the lagged dependent variable is homogeneous across all units of the
panelthatis,
yi ,t = i + yi ,t 1 + i ,z yi ,t z + i ,t .
z =1
They substituted i for and thus arrive at a model consisting of individual effects and no time trend.
yi ,t = i + i yi ,t 1 + i ,z yi ,t z + i ,t .
The respective null and alternative hypotheses are envisaged as follows:
H0: i=0 for all i=1,...,N; HA: i<0 for all i=1,...,N1 and i=0 for
all i=N1+1,...,N, with 0<N1N. The IPS test is based on the ADF
statistics averaged across groups.6
The IPS statistic is given as
z = N t E ( t ) / Var ( t ).
By letting tiT (pi, i) with i = (i,1,...,i,p), the test is expressed in the
tNT =
tiT ( pi , i ).
N i =1
The critical values generated by Im et al. (2003) are based on stochastic simulations. They also show that as the number of countries and the
number of observations tend to infinity, the tbar statistic converges to a
standard normal distribution.
For the empirical investigation, a generalized method of moments
(GMM) approach (see AppendixA) was adopted. In spite of the growing concern of potential heterogeneity among the cross-sectional units
when performing pooled data analysis, proponents of the homogeneous
panel sustain that gains from pooling outweigh any costs. In contrast, a
number of scholars (e.g., Pesaran and Smith, 1995; Pesaran et al., 1996;
Robertson and Symons, 1992) dismiss pooling the data across heterogeneous units on the grounds that heterogeneous estimates can be combined
to obtain homogeneous estimates. More specifically, Pesaran and Smith
(1995) argue that the inherent parameter heterogeneity of panels makes
the homogeneous assumption redundant and therefore the average from
individual regressions should be used instead. Maddala, Srivastava, and
Li (1994) and Maddala et al. (1997), on the other hand, are in favor of
estimators that shrink the heterogeneous estimators toward the pooled
homogeneous estimator. It is worth noting, however, that even with the
6The results of the individual ADF unit root tests have been intentionally left out
for economy of space.
recent development of a number of heterogeneous estimators, relatively
little is known as to how effective those are.7
Even though the scope of this study is far from elaborating on the
sophisticated theoretical arguments as to which is the most plausible
estimator, two different approaches were used to gauge the robustness of
the present results. I set off with the standard pooled estimators: ordinary
least squares (OLS), which ignores the country effects; the within estimator, where heterogeneity between cross-sectional units or time periods is
captured by individual or time-specific intercepts; and generalized least
squares (GLS), which assumes that country effects are random. I then
proceed with the random coefficient (RC) regression estimator (i.e., a
weighted average of the least squares estimates where the weights are
inversely proportional to their variancecovariance matrices) proposed
by Swamy (1970).
The data set used for the estimation of the model consists of N crosssectional units, denoted i=1,...,N, observed at each of T time periods,
denoted t=1,...,T. In this context, annual data for the group of the seven
of the largest world economies (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
United Kingdom, and the United States) that span from 1972 to 2005
was used. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Federal Reserve, and the World Bank were the main
data providers.
The generalized regression model provides our basic framework:
yit = i + ixit + it
it i.i.d. (0,i2).
where i is a scalar and i is a (k 1) vector of slope coefficients.
The underlying assumptions are similar variances among banks (i.e.,
i2=2 i) and zero covariances among banks (i.e., Cov(it, js)=0
for ij).
In the present context, consider the following regression equation:
iit = i + xit + it,
where i is gross investment and x denotes the set of explanatory
variables.
Time dummies were used to account for period-specific effects, though
these are omitted from the equations in the text. The definition of variables is in AppendixB.
7 For an extensive analysis on applications of random coefficient models, see
Swamy and Tavlas (1995).
On the basis of the ADF and IPS unit root tests reported in Table 1, the
null hypothesis of the unit root is rejected at various significance levels
of the teststhat is, 1 percent, 5 percent, and 10 percent. All variables
should therefore be treated as I(0) processes and therefore no further
that is, cointegrationinvestigation is needed.
During the econometric investigation, several specifications were estimated. On the basis of the selection criteria (Schwarz information criteria
[SIC] and Akaike information criteria [AIC]) as well as the tests (Ftest,
Hausman test) that were conducted to determine the most coherent model,
the fixed effects model is preferred to both the pooled model as well as
to the random effects model. Table 2 presents the standard fixed effects
estimates and the random coefficients estimates.8
In view of the evidence yielded, both models appear to be well specified. More specifically, the high R2 of all estimated models suggests
that a relatively significant proportion of the variation in the dependent
variable is well explained by variations in the independent variables. All
variables are significant at the 5 percent level and bear the expected signs
apart from capacity utilization in the random coefficients model, which
is significant at the 10 percent significance level. Insofar as the model
is log linear, the estimated coefficients approximate elasticities. Given
the latter, the results can be interpreted as follows: a 1percent increase
in profit will cause gross investment to go up by about 0.36 percent.
Similarly, a 1percent increase in the capital stock and the gross domestic
product (GDP) will cause gross investment to go up by about 0.24 and
0.25 percent, respectively. Finally, the variable reflecting the cyclical
factors in the model (i.e., capacity utilization) appears to be playing an
instrumental role in affecting positively investment activity. Such a finding though appears to be akin to these obtained by Bean (1981), Coen
(1969), and Eisner and Nadiri (1968) and stands at stark contrast to that
obtained by Baddeley (2003).
Within the Post Keynesian tradition, uncertainty, profits, and finance are
the key variables that affect investment decisions. The endogenous nature
8 For economy of space, only the most plausible estimates are presented. As a
result, the pooled and the random effects estimates have been left out intentionally.
However, the respective tests that took place during the model selection process are
provided.
Notes: Lags are given in parentheses. For the ADF tests, the critical values are 4.316, 3.572, and 3.223 for the 1 percent, 5 percent, and 10 percent level
of significance, respectively. For the panel test, the critical values are 2.326, 1.645, and 1.282, respectively.
Panel tests
Country by country (ADF tests) and IPS panel unit root tests
Standard fixed effects estimates and the random coefficients estimates
Dependent variable: i
yt1
Fixed effects model (R2 = 0.62)
(2.87)*
Random coefficients model (R2 = 0.61)
(1.91)**
Notes: t-statistics are shown in parentheses. Sargan test: [p-value = 0.64] (the null hypothesis is that the instruments are not correlated with the residuals); fixed effects: AIC=2.43,
SIC=2.49; random effects: AIC=2.40, SIC=2.97, F-test = 17.32, p-value: [0.00];
Hausman test: 20.67, p-value: [0.00]. * and ** significance at the 5 percent and 10 percent
levels, respectively.
of money in conjunction with profits, render any capitalist economic
system unstable and prone to wide economic fluctuations.
The results obtained suggest that the models estimated in this study
have meritsthat is, confirming previous analyses on the importance of
capital stock, GDP, capacity utilization, and profits as key variables when
modeling investment. It is therefore imperative that policymakers, at least
in the scrutinized economies, try to adopt policies geared toward boosting aggregate demand and thus stimulating economic activity. Creating
an environment conducive to capital growth and healthy entrepreneurial
activity will ensure that the economies move out of periods of prolonged
stagnation.
In view of the resulting inefficiency of the markets and the inadequate
volume of investment activity, the government is thought to assume a
key role in moderating uncertainty as well as in creating an environment
conducive to boosting investment activity.
Alexiou, C. Modelling Investment Behaviour: Emerging Evidence. Indian Economic
Journal, 2009, 56 (4), 2136.
Alonso-Borrego, C., and Arellano, M. Symmetrically Normalised InstrumentalVariable Estimation Using Panel Data. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics,
1996, 17 (1), 3649.
Arellano, M., and Bond, S. Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo
Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations. Review of Economic Studies,
1991, 58 (2), 277297.
Arellano, M., and Bover, O. Another Look at the Instrumental-Variable Estimation of
Error-Components Models. Journal of Econometrics, 1995, 68 (1), 2952.
Baddeley, M. Investment: Theories and Analysis. New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
Bateman, B.W. The Elusive Logical Relation: An Essay on Change and Continuity in
Keynes Thought. In D.E. Moggridge (eds.), Perspectives on the History of Economic
Thought, Volume IV: Keynes, Macroeconomics and Methods. Aldershot, UK: Edward
Elgar, 1990, pp. 177193.
Bean, C. An Econometric Model of Manufacturing Investment in the UK. Economic
Journal, 1981, 91 (361), 106121.
Blundell, R., and Bond, S. Initial Conditions and Moment Restrictions in Dynamic
Panel Data Models. Discussion Paper, Department of Economics, University College
Coen, R.M. Tax Policy and Investment Behaviour: Comment. American Economic
Review, 1969, 59 (3), 370377.
Courvisanos, J. Keynes and Keynesians on Investment Decision-Making: A Behavioural Perspective. History of Economics Review, WinterSummer 1996a, 25,
159171.
. Investment Cycles in Capitalist Economies: A Kaleckian Behavioural Contribution. Aldershot, UK: Edgar Elgar, 1996b.
. The Dynamics of Innovation and Investment, with Application to Australia,
19841998. In R. Holt and S. Pressman (eds.), Empirical Post Keynesian Economics:
Looking at the Real World. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2007, pp.141177.
Crotty, J.R. Neo-Classical and Keynesian Approaches to the Theory of Investment.
Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Summer 1992, 14 (4), 483496.
Davidson, P. Keyness Finance Motive. Oxford Economic Papers, 1965, 17 (1),
. Money and the Real World. London: Macmillan, 1978.
. Comment. In R.M. ODonnell (ed.), Keynes as Philosopher-Economist.
Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1991, pp. 6172.
Dornbusch, R., and Fisher, S. Macroeconomics. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984.
Dow, A., and Dow, S. Animal Spirits and Rationality. In T. Lawson and M.H.
Pesaran (eds.), Keynes EconomicsMethodological Issues. Beckenham, UK: Croon
Helm, 1985, pp. 4665.
Eisner, R., and Nadiri, M.I. Investment Behaviour and the Neoclassical Theory.
Review of Economic Statistics, 1968, 50 (3), 369382.
Fazzari, S. Financing Constraints and Corporate Investment. Brooking Papers on
Economic Activity, 1988, 2, 141195.
. Investment and U.S. Fiscal Policy in the 1990s. Public Policy Brief no. 9,
Jerome Levy Economics Institute, Annandale-on-Hudson, 1993.
Fazzari, S., and Mott, T. Post Keynesian Investment Theory: A Study of Firm Data
19701982. Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Winter 198687, 9 (2), 171187.
Fazzari, S., and Papadimitriou, D. Financial Conditions and Macroeconomic Performance: Essays in Honor of Hyman P. Minsky. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1992.
Fazzari, S., and Petersen, B. Working Capital and Fixed Investment: New Evidence
on Financing Constraints. Rand Journal of Economics, 1993, 24 (3), 328342.
Fazzari, S.; Hubbard, R.G.; and Petersen, B. Finance Constraints and Corporate
Investment. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1988, 1, 141195.
Friedman, M. The Methodology of Positive Economics. In F.H. Hahn and M. Hollis
(eds.), Philosophy and Economic Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979, pp.
1835. [Originally published in 1953.]
Gerrard, B. Beyond Rational Expectations: A Constructive Interpretation of Keynes
Analysis of Behaviour Under Uncertainty. Economic Journal, 1994, 104 (423),
Hahn, F.H. The Winter of Our Discontent. Economica, 1973, 40 (159), 322323.
. In Praise of Economic Theory: 1984 Jevons Memorial Lecture. London:
University College London, 1985.
Harcourt, G.C., and Sardoni, C. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and
Money: Three Views. In P. Arestis (ed.), Keynes Money and the Open Economy: Essays in Honour of Paul Davidson, vol. 1. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 1995, pp.
Im, K.S.; Pesaran, M.H.; and Shin, Y. Testing for Unit Roots in Heterogeneous Panels. Journal of Econometrics, Autumn 2003, 115, 5374.
Jorgenson, D.W. Capital Theory and Investment Behaviour. American Economic
Review, Summer 1963, 53, 247259.
Kalecki, M. The Determinants of Investment: In Studies in Economic Dynamics. London: Allen and Unwin, 1943.
. The Principle of Increasing Risk. Economica, 1973, 4 (16), 440447.
Keynes, J.M. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. London: Macmillan, 1936.
. The General Theory of Employment. Quarterly Journal of Economics,
Winter 1937, 51, 209223.
. Treatise on Probability. In D.E. Moggridge (ed.), Collected Writings of
John Maynard Keynes. London: Macmillan, 1973.
Laramie, A.; Mair, D.; and Miller, A. Kaleckis Investment Theory Reconsidered. In
Z. Sadowski and A. Szeworski (eds.), Kaleckis Economics Today. London: Routledge,
2004, pp. 143161.
Lawson, T. Keynesian Model Building and Rational Expectations Critique. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1981, 5 (4), 311326.
. Uncertainty, and Economic Analysis. Economic Journal, Winter 1985, 95,
. Economics and Expectations. In S. Dow and J. Hillard (eds.), Keynes,
Knowledge and Uncertainty. Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar, 1995, pp. 77106.
Levin, A., and Lin, C. Unit Root Tests in Panel Data: Asymptotic and Finite Sample
Properties. Discussion Paper, Department of Economics, University of California,
San Diego, 1993.
Littleboy, B. On Interpreting Keynes: A Study in Reconciliation. London: Routledge,
Maddala, G.S.; Srivastava, V.K.; and Li, H. Shrinkage Estimators for the Estimation
of Short-Run and Long-Run Parameters from Panel Data Models. Ohio State University, Columbus, 1994.
Maddala, G.S.; Trost, R.P.; Li, H.; and Joutz, F. Estimation of Short-Run and LongRun Elasticities of Energy Demand from Panel Data Using Shrinkage Estimators.
Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 1997, 15 (1), 90100.
Mahdavi, S.; Sohrabian, A.; and Kholdy, S. Cointegration and Error Correction Models: The Temporal Causality Between Investment and Corporate Cash Flow. Journal
of Post Keynesian Economics, Spring 1994, 16 (3), 478498.
McKibbin, W.J., and Siegloff, E.S. A Note on Aggregate Investment in Australia.
Economic Record, 1988, 64 (186), 209215.
Meeks, J.G. Keynes on the Rationality of Decision Procedures Under Uncertainty:
The Investment Decision. In J.G. Meeks (ed.), Thoughtful Economic Man. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp. 126160.
Mini, P. Keynes, Bloomsbury and the General Theory. London: Macmillan, 1990.
Minsky, H. John Maynard Keynes. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975.
. Stabilizing an Unstable Economy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.
ODonnell, R.M. Keynes: Philosophy, Economics and Politics. London: Macmillan,
Pesaran, M.H., and Smith, R. Estimating Long-Run Relationships from Dynamic
Heterogeneous Panels. Journal of Econometrics, 1995, 68 (1), 79113.
Pesaran, M.H.; Smith, R.; and Im, K.S. Dynamic Linear Models for Heterogeneous
Panels. In L. Matyas and P. Sevestre (eds.), The Econometrics of Panel Data: A
Handbook of the Theory with Applications. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 1996,
pp.387420.
Robertson, D., and Symons, J. Some Strange Properties of Panel Data Estimators.
Journal of Applied Econometrics, 1992, 7 (2), 175189.
Robinson, J. Kalecki and Keynes. In J. Robinson (ed.), Collected Papers, vol.3.
Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1964, pp. 335342.
. What Has Become of the Keynesian Revolution? In J. Robinson (ed.), Collected Economic Papers, vol.5. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1979, pp.168177.
Samuelson. P.A. Economics. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980.
Sawyer, M. Macro-Economics in Question: The Keynesian-Monetarist Orthodoxies
and the Kaleckian Alternative. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1982.
Schumpeter, J.A. Business Cycles: A Theoretical, Historical and Statistical Analysis
of the Capitalist Process. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1939.
Shackle, G.L.S. Epistemics and Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
Skidelsky, R. John Maynard KeynesThe Economist as Saviour, 19201937. London:
Macmillan, 1992.
Swamy, P.A.V.B. Efficient Inference in a Random Coefficient Regression Model.
Econometrica, 1970, 38 (2), 311323.
Swamy, P.A.V.B., and Tavlas, G.S. Random Coefficient Models: Theory and Applications. Journal of Economic Surveys, 1995, 9 (2), 165196.
Tobin, J. A General Equilibrium Approach to Monetary Theory. Journal of Money,
Credit and Banking, 1969, 1 (1), 244260.
Winslow, E.G. Keynes and Freud: Psychoanalysis and Keynes Account of the Animal Spirits of Capitalism. Social Research, 1986, 53 (4), 549578.
Taking the first difference of Equation(6) in the main text yields Equation(A1) devoid of any country-specific effects:
iit iit1 = (xit xit1) + (it it1).
The inherent endogeneity of the explanatory variables as well as the
correlation of the error term in Equation (A1) with the lagged dependent
variable calls for an instrumental variable treatment. More specifically,
the GMM panel estimator uses the following moment conditions:
E xit x ( it it 1 ) = 0, for s 2; t = 3,..., T .
On the basis of the preceding conditions, the GMM estimator is referred to as the difference estimator. It has been shown that when the
explanatory variables are persistent over time, lagged levels make weak
instruments for the regression equation in differences (Alonso-Borrego
and Arellano, 1996; Blundell and Bond, 1997).
To reduce the potential biases and imprecision associated with the usual
estimator, I opt for a relatively new estimator that combines in a system
the regression in differences with the regression in levels (Arellano and
Bover, 1995; Blundell and Bond, 1997). The instruments for the regression in differences are the same as above. The instruments for the regression in levels are the lagged differences of the corresponding variables.
In addition, given the assumption that there is no correlation between
the differences of right-hand side variables and the country-specific effects, the lagged differences of the corresponding variables can be used
as instruments in the estimation process.
Using lagged two-period instruments (t2), and employing a GMM
procedure, I generate consistent and efficient parameter estimates. I use
a variant of the standard two-step system estimator that controls for
heteroskedasticity. Typically, the system estimator treats the moment
conditions as applying to a particular time period.
Obtaining a consistent GMM estimator is heavily contingent upon the
validity of the instruments. Ensuring that the latter is the case, I consider
two specification tests suggested by Arellano and Bond (1991), Arellano
and Bover (1995), and Blundell and Bond (1997). The first is a Sargan test
testing the overall validity of the instruments, and the second one examines the hypothesis that the error term it is not serially correlated. (I test
whether the differenced error term is second-order serially correlated.)
Definitions of variables:
i: gross fixed capital formation
p: profit rate
k: capital stock
y: gross domestic product
cu: capacity utilization (proxied by actual/potential output)
To order reprints, call 1-800-352-2210; outside the United States, call 717-632-3535.
Copyright of Journal of Post Keynesian Economics is the property of M.E. Sharpe Inc. and its content may not
be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written
Keynesianische Ökonomie
Instrumentelle Variable
Neoklassische Ökonomie
Dokumente ähnlich wie Alexiou, C. (2010). A Keynesian-Kaleckian model of investment determination a panel data investigation. Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 32, 427-444..pdf
soyouthinkyoucaninvest
SAPTARSI
Mahesh Panigrahy
zahidwahla1
Perry Wing Yeung Tang
vecalero
mad_max247
Mongolia - Competition and Ownership Affect Enterprise Efficiency
Bolormaa Enkhtaivan
Abstract Guta 1
Rafaih Khan
jpschubbs
Critical Appraisal of Market-led Economic Approaches - Reality vs. Perception by Siya Biniza
Siya Biniza
A Study of Japanese Regions
economistdave
Impact of Foreign Direct Investment and Trade on Economic Growth
Lae Isabelle
Mehr von lcr89
Dobbin, F. R. (1993). the Social Construction of the Great Depression Industrial Policy During the 1930s in the United States, Britain, And France. Theory and Society, 22(1), 1-56.
Brus, W. (1999). Great Debt and a Few Grievances a Note on Michal Kalecki as My Adopted Mentor.
A Very Short Explanation of Profit- Versus Wage-led Growth – Radical Political Economy
Araujo, R. a., & Teixeira, J. (2016). Growth Regimes in a Structural Economic Dynamic Approach to the Neo-Kaleckian Model. Brazilian Keynesian Review, 2(1), 26-39.
Swank, D. (2014). the Political Sources of Labor Market Dualism in Post-Industrial Democracies, 1975-2011. Review of Keynesian Economics, 2(2), 234-257.
Foster, J. B. (1990). Crises Lasting for Decades. Science and Society, 54(1), 73-81
King, J. E. (1990). Labour Economics an Australian Perspective. Book Service
Sasaki, H. (2015). Profit Sharing and Its Effect on Income Distribution and Output a Kaleckian Approach. Cambridge Journal of Economics
Laudan, L. (1978). Progress and its problems Towards a theory of scientific growth. Univ of California Press..pdf
Abrena, M., Epstein, G., & Jayadev, A. (2007). the Correlates of Rentier Returns in OECD Countries (No. 123). PERI. Working Paper.
Kalecki, M. (1955). the Problem of Financing of Economic Development. Indian Economic Review, 2(3), 1-22.
Capuano, C., & Purificato, F. (2012). the Macroeconomic Impact of Organized Crime a Neo-Kaleckian Perspective.
Dünhaupt, P. (2016). Determinants of Labour’s Income Share in the Era of Financialisation. Cambridge Journal of Economics
Jump, R., & Mendieta-Muñoz, I. (2016). Wage Led Aggregate Demand in the United Kingdom.
Palley, T. I. (2016). Why Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP) is Ineffective and Dangerous. WP
McColloch, W. E. (2016). Acolytes and Apostates. WP UMass.pdf
Patriarca, F., & Sardoni, C. (2014). Growth With Unused Capacity and Endogenous Capital Depreciation. Metroeconomica, 65(4), 646-670.
Harris, A. L. (1942). Sombart and German (National) Socialism. the Journal of Political Economy, 805-835.
Azmat, G., Manning, A., & Reenen, J. v. (2012). Privatization and the Decline of Labour's Share International Evidence From Network Industries. Economica, 79(315), 470-492.
Palley, T. I. (1999). Conflict, Distribution, And Finance in Alternative Macroeconomic Traditions. Review of Radical Political Economics, 31(4), 102-132.
Steinmetz, G. (1998). Critical Realism and Historical Sociology. a Review Article. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 40(01), 170-186.
Bloch, H. (2000). Schumpeter and Steindl on the Dynamics of Competition. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 10(3).
Bloch, H. (2006). Steindl on imperfect competition The role of technical change. Metroeconomica, 57(3), 286-302..pdf
Bloch, H., Dockery, A. M., Morgan, C. W., & Sapsford, D. (2007). Growth, Commodity Prices, Inflation and the Distribution of Income. Metroeconomica, 58(1), 3-44.
Bloch, H., Courvisanos, J., & Mangano, M. (2011). the Impact of Technical Change and Profit on Investment in Australian Manufacturing. Review of Political Economy, 23(3), 389-408.
Christensen, K. (2014). Technological Change and Government Policy in the Deunionization of the American Coal Industry. Review of Keynesian Economics, 2(2), 147-170.
Blecker, R. a. (1991). Import Competition, Investment Finance, And Cumulative Decline in the US Steel Industry, 1962–1981. International Review of Applied Economics, 5(2), 171-195.
Besomi, D. (2006). Formal Modelling vs. Insight in Kalecki's Theory of the Business Cycle. Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, 24(a), 1.
Beliebt in Profit (Economics)
Porter's Five Forces Analysis of Sony Corporation
Priyanka Barua
Practice for Final Exam 2014 c
childrengetolder
MGT 368- Marketing Plan
aspire5572wxmi
William G Nickels; James M McHugh; Susan M McHugh; Rita Cossa; Bob Sproule Understanding Canadian Business
Jerry Cheng
tanajeek
Kinked Demand Curve and Keynesian Theory
Anshita Garg
Distribution Channels - Copy
M Yasir Ali
Economics 1021 TT2 2011F
examkiller
Generating and Screening of Project Ideas P.F.3 (Final)
Satish Verma
1- Management and Society & External Evnironment
SoumavoGhosh
Pengaruh Tingkat Pemahaman Nilai-Nilai Islam terhadap Perilaku Bisnis Pedagang dalam menghadapi Persaingan Usaha
'eXpouria' Aditya Punyaa
In Re Flat Glass Antitrust Litigation (Mdl No. 1200) Brian S. Nelson, D/B/A Jamestown Glass Service Mel's Auto Glass, Inc. A. Waxman & Co., on Behalf of Itself, and All Others Similarly Situated Designer Windows, Inc., on Behalf of Itself and All Others Similarly Situated Moses Moore All Glass Aspects, Inc., on Behalf of Itself and All Others Similarly Situated Aaa Glass, Inc., on Behalf of Itself and All Others Similarly Situated, D/B/A the Glass Doctor the Lurie Companies, Inc. Vstb Enterprises, Inc., D/B/A Perfecto Auto Glass & Upholstery and Its Successors Port City Glass & Mirror, Inc., on Its Own Behalf and on Behalf of All Others Similarly Situated John Healy, Jr. County Auto Glass, Inc., on Behalf of Themselves and All Others Similarly Situated Gerard J. Clabbers, on Behalf of Himself and All Others Similarly Situated Kirschner Corporation, Inc., T/a Berwyn Glass Company, on Behalf of Itself and All Others Similarly Situated Hartung Agalite Glass Co., D/B/A Hartung Glass Indust
Bus Mgt FG Revision Booklet
knoxacademy
Solow Model
Kunal Ramaiya
MicroLecture4.ppt
Sarvar Sheikh
SUMMER+A+2012+Final+Exam
UFECO2023
241562315-ANALYSIS-OF-MICHAEL-PORTER-S-FIVE-FORCES-MODEL-IN-VARIOUS-INDUSTRIES.docx
KamauWafulaWanyama
12 MC and Oligopoly.pdf
AMBWANI NAREN MAHESH
Pepsi Case
Ashish Indolia
Market Impact Model - Nicolo G. Torre, Ph.D. Mark J. Ferrari, Ph.D.
EXPOMAR PAPER.pdf
Kim Piol
Price Searcher Markets With Low Entry Barriers
Khawaja Naveed Haider
MBA OUM Demo Lecture Questions
Sugan Pragasam
Elmar Wolfstetter. Topics in Microeconomics Industrial Organization%2c Auctions%2c and Incentives. 21-150
Mafe Espinosa
Harold O. Fried, Shelton S. Schmidt, C. a. Knox Lovell-The Measurement of Productive Efficiency_ Techniques and Applications (1993)
pedrosoares__
Nature of Managerial Economics
Arap Rutto
Notes on Supply Chain Management
hgopalkrishnan
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1240
|
__label__cc
| 0.571823
| 0.428177
|
History Of Ely
Tag Archive for: nutholt
You are here: Home / nutholt
The Wildlife Trust: ‘Water Voles’ An illustrated talk by Ian Webb – 15th January 2016
Friday 8 Jan, 2016 /in Events /by Karl Bedingfield
Date: Friday, 15 January 2016 – 7:45pm Ely Local Group of the Wildlife Trust B.C.N 'Water Voles' an illustrated talk by Iain Webb The Talk commences at 7.45pm in the Vernon Cross Room behind Ely Museum Refreshments on sale during interval Parking can be accessed from Nutholt Lane Non-members welcome Suitable for wheelchair users Cost: £2.50 Contact: Will Burdett Telephone: 01353 661339 Email: willburdett@btinternet.com Website: The Wildlife Trusts Location Ely Museum Market Street Ely CB7 4LS United Kingdom See map: Google Maps
See the original post here:
http://elyonline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/eol-logo-1.jpg 0 0 Karl Bedingfield http://elyonline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/eol-logo-1.jpg Karl Bedingfield2016-01-08 15:20:232016-01-08 15:20:23The Wildlife Trust: 'Water Voles' An illustrated talk by Ian Webb - 15th January 2016
Fantastic Careers and Skills Fair highlights potential in East Cambs
Wednesday 28 Oct, 2015 /in ECDC Press Release /by Karl Bedingfield
Reference:Â
Date:Â
Students and local businesses came together last week at the annual East Cambridgeshire Careers & Skills Fair to see how they could help shape each other’s future.
The event brought together Year 11 and Sixth Form students from the four secondary schools in East Cambridgeshire and Kings School Ely to talk to the top employers in the district through speed networking, Q&A sessions and exhibitions.
The full ECDC press release can be viewed here:Fantastic Careers and Skills Fair highlights potential in East Cambs
http://elyonline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/eol-logo-1.jpg 0 0 Karl Bedingfield http://elyonline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/eol-logo-1.jpg Karl Bedingfield2015-10-28 12:07:202015-10-28 12:07:20Fantastic Careers and Skills Fair highlights potential in East Cambs
A spooky recycling opportunity for East Cambridgeshire
Residents in East Cambridgeshire no longer have to worry about leftover Halloween pumpkins creating a recycling horror story thanks to the District Council teaming up Ellgia Recycling.
Normally the authority encourages people to put food waste in their green wheelie bins, however for this Halloween special pumpkin recycling bins will be located at the Council offices on Nutholt Lane in Ely.
The full ECDC press release can be viewed here:A spooky recycling opportunity for East Cambridgeshire
http://elyonline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/eol-logo-1.jpg 0 0 Karl Bedingfield http://elyonline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/eol-logo-1.jpg Karl Bedingfield2015-10-28 10:10:272015-10-28 10:10:27A spooky recycling opportunity for East Cambridgeshire
Memories Of Little Downham’s ‘Lofts’ Shop
Wednesday 15 Oct, 2014
I new Ben Lofts very well wen I was a child. I use to live around the corner at one Main Street. My farther Harold use to work for Greens the farmers who’s farm is now a Housing...
Friday 19 Sep, 2014
Hi, I’m 65 years old now,and used to play football for Little Downham Swifts reserves when I was 15 many times,Sam Murfitt was the captain. I played a match at Isleham where I broke my...
Friday 22 Aug, 2014
Hi all, I am trying to track down a Mr Murfitt/Murfett (not sure of spelling) who lived in Lawns Crescent in about 1951. I believe he was married and had a daughter. Did anyone grow up in...
Archives Select Month November 2017 (6) November 2016 (2) October 2016 (8) September 2016 (8) August 2016 (9) July 2016 (19) June 2016 (17) May 2016 (37) April 2016 (34) March 2016 (34) February 2016 (27) January 2016 (25) December 2015 (27) November 2015 (45) October 2015 (30) September 2015 (24) August 2015 (40) July 2015 (18) June 2015 (11) May 2015 (27) April 2015 (19) March 2015 (41) February 2015 (18) January 2015 (27) December 2014 (44) November 2014 (29) October 2014 (48) September 2014 (62) August 2014 (47) July 2014 (38) June 2014 (37) May 2014 (66) April 2014 (69) March 2014 (73) February 2014 (49) January 2014 (25) December 2013 (60) November 2013 (36) October 2013 (59) September 2013 (45) August 2013 (54) July 2013 (52) June 2013 (20) May 2013 (64) April 2013 (10) March 2013 (11) February 2013 (44) January 2013 (55) December 2012 (46) November 2012 (31) October 2012 (51) September 2012 (29) August 2012 (22) July 2012 (37) June 2012 (46) May 2012 (51) April 2012 (16) March 2012 (66) February 2012 (25) January 2012 (44) December 2011 (17) November 2011 (41) October 2011 (37) September 2011 (32) August 2011 (27) July 2011 (36) June 2011 (43) May 2011 (32) April 2011 (35) March 2011 (43) February 2011 (9) January 2011 (30) December 2010 (18) November 2010 (17) October 2010 (18) September 2010 (12) August 2010 (12) July 2010 (17) June 2010 (19) May 2010 (9) April 2010 (10) March 2010 (21) February 2010 (10) January 2010 (9) December 2009 (14) November 2009 (15) October 2009 (22) September 2009 (19) August 2009 (12) July 2009 (20) June 2009 (17) May 2009 (13) April 2009 (12) March 2009 (20) February 2009 (11) January 2009 (5) December 2008 (2) November 2008 (1) October 2008 (1) September 2008 (1) August 2008 (1) July 2008 (3) June 2008 (3) May 2008 (2) April 2008 (3) February 2008 (3) January 2008 (3) December 2007 (1) November 2007 (3) October 2007 (2) September 2007 (1) August 2007 (3) July 2007 (11) June 2007 (8) May 2007 (6) April 2007 (6) March 2007 (14) February 2007 (12) January 2007 (5) December 2006 (1) August 2006 (1) July 2006 (4) June 2006 (8) May 2006 (4) April 2006 (5) March 2006 (6) February 2006 (4) January 2006 (5) December 2005 (4) November 2005 (3) October 2005 (1) September 2005 (6) August 2005 (9) July 2005 (12) June 2005 (11) May 2005 (20) April 2005 (3) March 2005 (1) January 2005 (1) July 2004 (1) March 2004 (1)
Where is Ely?
Ely Car Parking Map 2009
Hereward Wakes – Ely’s New Pub Opens
Afternoon Tea With The BBC
Ely Parking Charges Demonstration
The Friday Focus: Parking Charges For Ely
Your Advert Here!
Enquire about having your advert here.
Ely Website Design
Local website design & creation company. Also website hosting & domain name registration.
© Copyright - Ely Online | The Other Side Of Ely - & Gillett Multi Marketing
Fatal error: Exception thrown without a stack frame in Unknown on line 0
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1241
|
__label__cc
| 0.735837
| 0.264163
|
Dare to dilate: Evaluation of acute visual loss in the emergency department
By Shawna Bellew, M.D.
Why don't we dilate in the emergency department?
Dilation can induce acute angle closure glaucoma. Emergency medicine texts are riddled with warnings against precipitating acute angle closure glaucoma via pharmacologic dilation in patients with shallow anterior chambers. This is an incredibly rare phenomena, estimated at 3 in 10,000, an incidence which can be further lowered by using a penlight to estimate the patients AC depth prior to dilation[1, 2]. It is important to note that dilation does not cause a shallow anterior chamber but simply unmasks its presence, an event which could actually be sight-saving for the patient. In fact, historically ophthalmologists have attempted (and failed) to identify a provocative test for angle closure in order to preemptively provide therapy. Therefore, we should not fear this complication, but instead be aware of the possibility of this event as well as its therapy.
Dilation takes time. Application of a few drops while seeing another patient, performing tonometry or slit lamp exam, should not unduly interfere with patient flow.
Why should we dilate?
Direct funduscopy is difficult and we probably aren't very good at it. Even in the dilated eye, less than half of graduating medical students feel comfortable examining and identifying key pathology[3, 4]. This is reflected by the fact that emergency physicians frequently do not perform funduscopy, even when the patient’s chief complaint likely warrants it. When we do, our exam is insensitive to relevant findings[5]. For learners, it is particularly important to dilate while learning to recognize normal and abnormal retinas.
When should we dilate?
Highest yield is likely painless monocular visual loss: Here's a case:
60 year old male, sudden, painless vision loss in his right eye 1o minutes ago. Physical exam reveals an normal appearing external eye. Intraocular pressure is 16 on the right and 12 on the left. He can intermittently count fingers if held a foot from the right eye with the left eye covered.
You ask yourself: Do I need an ophthalmologist right now? Is there anything I can do to treat this now? Do I need further imaging? A dilated eye exam can help you answer these questions as well as your patient's, "Will I ever see again?"
When not to dilate:
If you are concerned about elevated intracranial pressure. Dilation obscures your ability to do repeat neurologic examinations and evidence of impending herniation.
Active angle closure glaucoma (patients with a history of angle closure glaucoma are likely post-iridectomy and dilation should not pose a threat to them).
How to dilate:
Pearl: All mydriatic solutions have RED caps. (Red = STOP, therefore these paralyze the muscles of the iris).
Apply phenylephrine (Neo-Synephrine) 2.5%, which lasts a total of 3 hours , this agent alone may be enough to facilitate your exam and has the benefit of not affecting the patient’s vision.
If you are not satisfied with phenylephrine alone you may also apply tropicamide (Mydriacyl) 1%, which lasts a total of four hours.
Always counsel your patients that they will be sensitive to light and have fuzzy vision for several hours before applying tropicamide.
Patients with lighter iris colors are more sensitive to cycloplegic agents.
Check back in 10-15 minutes. The pupil should now be dilated.
Direct funduscopy is a challenging skill even in the best of circumstances.
It is essential for resident physicians to build this skill, ideally with the help of dilation when necessary.
Dilation is safe, easy, and should not be time consuming.
Dilation of the eye should be a tool in every emergency physician’s arsenal, best applied in patients presenting with painless, monocular visual loss.
Wolfs, R.C., et al., Risk of acute angle-closure glaucoma after diagnostic mydriasis in nonselected subjects: the Rotterdam Study. Investigative ophthalmology & visual science, 1997. 38(12): p. 2683-7.
Patel, K.H., et al., Incidence of acute angle-closure glaucoma after pharmacologic mydriasis. American journal of ophthalmology, 1995. 120(6): p. 709-17.
Schulz, C. and P. Hodgkins, Factors associated with confidence in fundoscopy. The clinical teacher, 2014. 11(6): p. 431-5.
Roberts, E., et al., Funduscopy: a forgotten art? Postgraduate medical journal, 1999. 75(883): p. 282-4.
Bruce, B.B., et al., Diagnostic Accuracy and Use of Nonmydriatic Ocular Fundus Photography by Emergency Physicians: Phase II of the FOTO-ED Study. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 2013. 62(1): p. 28-33.e1.
Adam T. Gerstenblith, M.P.R., Wills Eye Manual, The: Office and Emergency Room Diagnosis and Treatment of Eye Disease, 2012. Source of images.
Reviewed by Daniel Cabrera, M.D.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1242
|
__label__cc
| 0.591688
| 0.408312
|
Facts About Nikko AM
Sustainability & ESG
ETF Centre
Japanese Overseas Equity Exposure Rising
We expect that Japanese pension funds will continue to shift their investments into risky assets in 2015.
Please choose your country or region:
販売会社・個人投資家のお客さま
機関投資家のお客さま
ETF 上場投資信託
Institutions & Advisers
Europe & Americas
by Naoki Kamiyama, Chief Strategist
We expect that Japanese pension funds will continue to shift their investments into risky assets in 2015; largely these outflows from Japan are going into global equity and bond markets.
Figure 1. Annual fund flows from Japan abroad
Source: Japan Ministry of Finance
The Ministry of Finance’s figures for Japan’s balance of payments and portfolio investment assets/liabilities show that long-term foreign investment flows significantly changed in CY2014. After selling large amounts of foreign assets in 2013, as the depreciation of the Yen led to large profits on accumulated foreign investments, Japanese investors bought large quantities of foreign assets in 2014. Another key difference in 2014 was Abenomics and its encouragement of risk taking which led to overseas equity purchases hitting a record high.
Before Abenomics, Japanese investors were primarily “yield hunters,” that bought US bonds with relatively high coupons funded with low cost JPY liabilities; many Japanese investors thought that Japanese interest rates would remain low in Japan due to persistently low inflation. The JPY had remained stable long enough (though at a high level of around 80) to keep this “yield hunting” profitable, but their risk appetite was not strong enough to increase their overseas equity investments even after panic from the Lehman shock had waned. Although Japanese equities were strong in 2013, Japanese institutions were net sellers as their fundamental assumption that low inflation would continue remained unchanged.
Japanese investors did not begin significantly rebalancing portfolios until late 2014, long after the 2% inflation target policy had been announced by the BoJ in April 2013. A critical tenet of this policy’s ability to generate inflation is the rebalancing of Japanese portfolios. As investors begin to develop an expectation of inflation, it was expected that they would begin selling domestic bonds and buying equities, real estate and foreign assets. Yet in 2013 they sold foreign assets, including overseas equities and it wasn’t until late in 2014 that Japanese investors finally started portfolio rebalancing to protect themselves in anticipation of rising domestic bond yields.
The portfolio rebalancing in 2014 is clearly different in its risk appetite from the earlier “yield hunting” era. In 2014, Japanese investors were large buyers of overseas equities whereas in 2013 they were net sellers of overseas assets as the yen depreciated (as shown in Figure 2). We believe this is a clear change reflecting an attitude of increased risk taking by Japanese investors.
Figure 2. Monthly fund flows from Japan abroad since Nov. 2012
In the “yield hunting” era, the most aggressive buyers of overseas assets were life insurance companies and banks, but recently, pensions have started to purchase overseas assets for their own portfolio re-allocation. Most notably, the GPIF (Government Pension Investment Fund) decided to increase its overseas equity allocation for its JPY137 trillion yen in assets from 12% to 25%. After the announcement, other large public pension funds followed, such as the Pension Fund Association for Local Government Officials (JPY18.9 trillion), the Federation of National Public Service Personnel Mutual Aid Associations (JPY7.6 trillion), and the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan (JPY3.8 trillion).
Figure 3. Net purchase of overseas assets by type
As you can see in the above chart, trust banks, the custodians of the public pensions, were buying overseas assets such as global equities in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2014.
We expect these trends will continue in 2015. The GPIF has a potential purchasing power of JPY 3 trillion for overseas equities in 2015, the same as in 2014. It is our view that other public pensions (and mutual aid funds) will increase their exposure to risky assets, just as the GPIF has done. The recent reforms will very likely encourage Yucho (the Japan Post Bank) and Kanpo (the Japan Post Insurance Company) to become larger buyers of overseas equities. The total estimated purchases of overseas equities by the major institutions above should exceed JPY4.8 trillion (USD 400 billion). A similar trend is anticipated for overseas bonds; we anticipate JPY15.7 trillion yen of bond purchases from Japan, including JPY10 trillion by life insurers. At the same time, we anticipate JPY4.6 trillion of Japanese equity purchases by these major institutions. We expect the rate of growth by these specific institutions to plateau in 2015, as they achieve their optimal portfolio allocation.
The overall trend of outflows from Japan is likely to continue for several years, as the JPY will likely stabilize and as Japanese financial institutions adapt to a new environment where domestic interest rates begin rising. We don’t expect this trend toward a greater risk appetite to reverse. In 2014 there were JPY12 trillion of overseas purchases in total (JPY6.7 trillion was in equity). We would not be surprised if the number increases in 2015 to the JPY15 trillion (+23%) level achieved in 2009, and to JPY20 trillion in 2016. JPY6.7 trillion of equity investments in 2014 was a record high, but we expect this to continue under the process of normalization following the Lehman shock; equity investments are likely to reach JPY8.2 trillion, also a 23% increase. If the JPY reaches JPY/USD125 by the end of 2015, overseas bond investments should accelerate in 2016 by JPY10 trillion with a similar amount of equity investments (JPY20 trillion in total). In 2017, it is possible for the total amount of outflow from Japan to reach JPY23 trillion, achieving the record-level of 2010. In 2013, overseas equities were largely US equity purchases, but in 2014 it’s mostly flowing into Asia. Before interest rates are normalized in the US, risk-taking capital will likely flow into riskier regions such as Asian equities, as a bet on a global economic re-acceleration.
The implication of the above shift in the risk appetite of large Japanese investors is not only about money flows, but it’s also a very good sign of future inflation that’s being driven by BoJ policies. Governor Kuroda testified in the Upper House two years ago that portfolio rebalancing is a critical component of generating a healthy degree of inflation. Japanese investors have now just shifted their portfolios in expectation of near-term inflation, as they look to protect their assets from the potential of higher interest rates in Japan. As this expectation takes root, inflation is much more likely to develop in line with the policy of inflation targeting.
This material has been prepared solely for the purposes of Nikko AM to communicate about the market environment, etc. It is not solicitation for a specific fund. Moreover, the information in this material will not effect Nikko AM's fund investment in any way.
Mentions of individual stocks in these materials neither promise that the stocks will be incorporated nor constitute a recommendation to buy or sell. The information in these documents have been prepared from what is considered to be reliable information but the accuracy and integrity of the information is not guaranteed by the Company. Figures, charts, and other data in these materials are current as of the date of publication unless stated otherwise. In addition, opinions expressed in these materials are as of the date of publication unless stated otherwise.
* The graphs, figures, etc., contained in these materials contain either past or back-dated data, and make no promise of future investment returns, etc. These documents make no guarantee whatsoever of future changes to the market environment, etc.
Opinions expressed in these documents may contain opinions that are not Nikko AM's but the personal opinion of the author, and may be changed without notice.
• Important disclaimer information
Please note that much of the content which appears on this page is intended for the use of professional investors only.
Naoki Kamiyama Chief Strategist
Naoki Kamiyama serves as a member of Nikko Asset Management's Global Investment Committee, which creates the intermediate-term house view on the global economy and asset markets.
As a veteran strategist with 30 years of experience in the securities and asset management industries, Kamiyama has developed a strong reputation among Japanese and non-Japanese institutional investors and has ranked highly in investors' polls of analysts.
More by Naoki Kamiyama
Japan Equity Monthly - January 2019
Japan Equity Monthly - December 2018
Japan Equity Monthly - November 2018
Japan Equity Monthly - October 2018
Japan Equity Monthly - August 2018
For more information on Nikko Asset Management's UCITS or tailored investment mandates, please contact:
Email: EMEAenquiries@nikkoam.com
Nikko AM has been certified as carbon neutral for the first time, after entering into a carbon offset programme with the UK-based international organisation Carbon Footprint Ltd.
UK Stewardship Code
Proxy Voting Rights
Fiduciary and ESG Principles
TCFD Report 2018
Capital Requirements Directive Pillar 3 Disclosure
Best Execution Policy
MiFID II RTS28 Report April 2018
Nikko Asset Management Europe Ltd
Authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority (reference number 122084).
Copyright © 2014 - 2020 Nikko Asset Management Europe Ltd. All rights reserved.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1244
|
__label__cc
| 0.505382
| 0.494618
|
Is Deliveroo Co-op’s route into the online grocery market?
By Alex Sword
14th February 2019 - 4:54 pm
This week saw Co-op announce that it is trialling home delivery using Deliveroo from a number of its London stores. The service is now available from 11 London stores, in addition to the five in Manchester where it has been trialled since last year.
The product range includes fresh foods, beers, wines, spirits and snacks and confectionery.
Co-op already offers home grocery deliveries, which are free for orders of over £25. So how is this different?
At the moment, however, Co-op’s delivery option is just offered in stores. The customer completes their shopping and then books a slot for a home delivery at a kiosk.
At the moment, the company’s online portal simply offers the latest prices for goods. Chris Conway, head of digital at the Co-op, commented in an InternetRetailing webinar last year that the retailer may sell online in the future.
However, he says when it comes that the offering will not be similar to that of its rivals, but “something very different and unique.”
Perhaps this “different and unique” online offering has arrived. The range of online home grocery options are advancing fast, with options available from rivals such as Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Waitrose and pure players such as Ocado.
Co-op is not the only retailer with such a partnership. In the UK, Spar and Paul Stone have both worked with Deliveroo since 2016. Elsewhere, Dutch grocer Albert Heijn also recently teamed up with the app to deliver hot meals in Amsterdam’s city centre.
The downside is, of course, that Deliveroo will take a margin from every transaction. There is no public fixed rate of commission that the app charges to its partners, as it is negotiated individually with each outlet.
The upsides are that Deliveroo has a network that is already ready to go and claims customers will receive orders in an average of 32 minutes. Co-op will not need to sink a chunk of capital into a gamble that may not pay off.
It also offers a different way to reach customers; those who search in a particular postcode will be able to discover Co-op since it will be presented alongside other local options. This could help the retailer reach a new convenience-focused, brand-agnostic customer base.
It is Sainsbury’s where perhaps the closest parallel exists to this new service. Through its Chop Chop app, the supermarket offers deliveries of up to 20 items within one hour.
A statistic, albeit somewhat limited, illustrates the obstacles Sainsbury’s faces. Chop-chop has over 10,000 installations from the Google Play Store whereas Deliveroo has over 5 million. By partnering with Deliveroo rather than launching its own service, Co-op has the chance to get a smaller slice of a bigger pie.
It is of course only a trial at the moment, but Co-op as a convenience store may be positioning itself for convenience without the store. After all, if a weekly shop can fit on the back of a bike then why visit the shop at all?
Opinion: Free delivery and returns –…
Croatian Post carries out drone delivery…
Consumers care more about packaging than…
Hermes upgrades branding for parcel shop…
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1247
|
__label__wiki
| 0.736989
| 0.736989
|
Dortmund 2004: A pictorial farewell
8/6/2004 – The Dortmund Super-GM is over, most of the players have migrated to Mainz to play in the Chess Classic., and there still remains a lot to show and tell. Like many unpublished pictures, or the press conference held by ACP president Joel Lautier, outlining the plan of the professional chess organisation. Here's our final Dortmund report.
CHESS-MEETING
22 July to 1 August 2004
If you've not been living in a cave you will know that India's Vishy Anand won the event, beating Vladimir Kramnik in the tiebreak of the final. Peter Svidler did the same to Peter Leko in their match for third place. You will find a complete list of all reports carried by the ChessBase news page to cover the tournament below.
On the penultimate day in Dortmund the first game of the final between Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik was ceremoniously started, as is often done in such cases, by a well-known public personality. Except here it was a colleague and sometimes Kramnik second, Joel Lautier. As president of the Association of Chess Professionals Joel has achieved celebrity status. Well, at least there was no problem on his moving the wrong pawn or making an illegal move. And also we love the look on Vlady's face in the picture above.
After the ceremonious pushing of the e-pawn for Anand Joel Lautier held a press conference on the plans of the professional chess organisation to stage an ACP Tour, similar to the system that exists in all major individual sports. The ACP Tour will be a tournament circuit which regroups strong international individual events during a one-year chess season. Only tournaments with an average rating of 2575 or higher will be counted.
Chess journalists and players listen attentively
Players taking part in events of the Tour gain points according to a ranking system devised by the ACP. The first ACP Tour takes place from the 1st of July 2004 until the 30th of June 2005. Once the season is over, a given number of best players are qualified for a final event, called the ACP Masters. The winner of the ACP Masters shall be declared the best chess player of the season according to the ACP. Only ACP members are eligible to play in the ACP Masters.
The full text of Joel Lautier's statement is given below.
Farewell pictorial report
Dortmund was hot, and many locals had better things to do than play or watch chess
Outdoor blitz on the free day (Svidler, Bologan and Naiditsch)
Visitors get a chance to take a thorough thrashing from world-class players
The organisers (left Carsten Hensel, 2nd from right Gerd Kolbe) in great spirits
Bee without a sting: actually a bee mimic fly that joins in your coffee break
Peter Leko arrives for the penultimate round in a chauffeured limousine
The youngest participant Sergey Karjakin gets the same treatment
Watch it, Vladimir! You can break a leg getting to your game in time
Peter Svidler (left) on foot, carrying photographic equipment for journalists Frederic Friedel and Olena Boytsun
Chess art on display in Dortmund
Pictures showing male and female human chess sets
Spectators in the State Theatre waiting for the action to start
Vladimir Kramnik preparing to do battle with Vishy Anand in the final regular game in this tournament (it ended in a draw)
Anand ponders the black side of his Sicilian Taimanov
Bologan and the Boy: GM Viorel Bologan vs 14-year-old Sergey Karjakin
The Ukraines: journalist Olena Boytsun and chess mom Tatiana Karjakina
On the wrong side of the camera: Olena caught by rookie photographer Sergey Karjakin
Everybody's favourite: chess wife Aruna Anand in the press centre
The prize giving ceremony with Spiderman topicality? The town hall in Dortmund
Wives and in-laws (right: the Leko clan) wait for the ceremony to begin
Old friends: Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler in serious discourse
Sergey Karjakin and Arkadij Naiditsch (right: arbiter Dr. Andrzej Filipowicz)
Vishy Anand takes first, Vladimir Kramnik must for once be satisfied with a Dortmund second
All together now: the full Super-GM group pose for a final farewell picture (click to enlarge)
Pictures by Jeroen van den Belt, Frederic Friedel and Olena Boytsun
ChessBase reports
Dortmund Sparkassen Chess-Meeting 2004
21.04.2004 The strongest tournament in Germany is the Chess-Meeting in Dortmund. This year it will be held from July 22 to August 1 and features Anand, Kramnik, Leko, Svidler, Rublevsky, Bologan, Karjakin and Naiditsch. Here's the information you need to prepare for Dortmund 2004
Dortmund R2: Anand wins heavyweight bout
24.07.2004 The gloves came off today in Dortmund, but the only fighter to land a knock-out blow was Vishy Anand. He beat Peter Svidler in a fantastic display of tightrope calculation to take the lead in Group 1. Kramnik-Leko was an interesting draw, as were the other two games. 14-year-old Karjakin again showed his toughness. Full report with games, results and pictures.
Dortmund R3: Svidler strikes back
24.07.2004 If there's anything scarier than a super-GM it's a motivated super-GM wanting to come back after a loss. That's what Germany's Arkady Naiditsch had to face today when he sat down across from Peter Svidler. The four-time Russian champ would not be denied. Group 2 kept its 100% draw quotient. Report, analysis, and photos.
Dortmund R4: Kramnik almost Karjaked
25.07.2004 Today the tournament's young guns took their turn with white against legends Vishy Anand and Vlady Kramnik. Arkady Naiditsch played to win versus Anand, while 14-year-old Sergey Karjakin came oh-so-close to beating the world champion in a wild game that lasted 86 moves. We bring you some remarkable annotations of this remarkable game.
Dortmund R5: Anand and Svidler make their moves
26.07.2004 Would somebody in Group 1 go wake up the guys in Group 2? Anand and Svidler beat Rublevsky and Naiditsch while Group 2 was again all draws. Where do you go for analysis when the #2 and #3 players in the world are in action? To #1, of course! We also bring you a behind-the-scenes pictorial report by Olena Boytsun
Dortmund Semis 1: Semifinals begin with draws
30.07.2004 The preliminaries are over and the mini-match phase has begun. Anand played a short draw against Leko. Svidler drew against Kramnik after suffering for a long time in the Grunfeld. In the consolation tourney for 5th-8th Naiditsch won his second straight game by doing what Kramnik and Leko could not. He beat Karjakin. Games and report.
Dortmund Semis 2: Anand and Kramnik reach final
30.07.2004 It hasn't exactly followed an exciting script, but in true Hollywood fashion we get a happy ending anyway. Both semifinal games were drawn. Anand-Leko and Kramnik-Svidler both drew the rapid games and went to blitz tiebreaks. The world's #2 and #3 will face off in the final starting Saturday. Report and photos.
Dortmund Final 1: Battle Royal!
01.08.2004 Vishy Anand was closing in for the kill but Vlady Kramnik had been saving his best for last. The first game of the final was drawn after a sensational defense by Kramnik. The only win of the day was scored by Naiditsch, his fourth in a row. The event concludes Sunday. Report, photos, and analysis
Dortmund concludes: Vishy Anand Victorious
01.08.2004 Anand picked up his first Dortmund trophy by crushing Vladimir Kramnik's Sicilian in their second rapid tiebreak game. It was a draw-filled tournament but in the end it found a deserving winner and the four top seeds on top. Svidler downed Leko in rapids to take third place. Naiditsch and Bologan won their consolation matches. Games and report.
Joel Lautier's Press Statement in Dortmund, 31st JULY 2004
Dear Chess Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The aim of today's press conference is to announce and present before you a new concept for tournament chess - the ACP Tour. If successfully implemented, the ACP is convinced this new enterprise will change the face of professional chess for years to come.
Until now, a major defect in the organization of today's top-level chess has been the lack of an integrated system of tournaments, as it exists in all major individual sports. Whether it be tennis, golf or Formula 1 racing, a clear set of rules, uniting all important competitions in the course of a year, forms the backbone of the sporting season. This has made these sports more interesting to follow for a larger audience, and ultimately, commercially successful. In order to promote chess on a greater scale, the creation of an ACP Tour has therefore become a top priority for us.
I will expose a summary of the rules and mention only the most significant parts. The full text of the rules will be distributed to all journalists present and put up on the ACP website.
The ACP Tour is a tournament circuit which regroups strong international individual events during a one-year chess season. This means that tournaments held according to different formats, either round-robins, swiss systems or knock-out events, will all be included, as long as their average strength is higher than an elo rating of 2575. Determining an average rating for round-robins is easy enough, but how precisely this is done for larger events such as swiss systems or knock-out tournaments is described in the regulations.
Events played at both classical and rapid time-controls are counted, albeit with an inferior coefficient for rapid events compared to classical ones. All the above implies that blitz tournaments, team competitions, national championships and insufficiently strong individual tournaments will not be part of the ACP Tour.
Players taking part in events of the Tour gain points according to a ranking system devised by the ACP. The first ACP Tour takes place from the 1st of July 2004 until the 30th of June 2005. Once the season is over, a given number of best players are qualified for a final event, called the ACP Masters. The winner of the ACP Masters shall be declared the best chess player of the season according to the ACP.
A complete list of tournaments included in the ACP Tour will be published on our website and updated as the season unfolds. Likewise, updated players' standings will be published on the 15th of every month during the whole season.
It should be noted that only ACP members are eligible for qualification in the ACP Masters event. A player has to be an ACP member for both 2004 and 2005, in order to have his results taken into account.
For those players who are not yet ACP members in 2004, they may apply for membership before the 15th of November 2004. Past this date, the results of players who are not members will not be counted for the 1st ACP Tour.
At the end of the season, the sum of the best five performances in ACP tournaments will be calculated for each ACP member. The eight players who have scored the highest number of ACP points are qualified for the Masters.
The ACP Masters will be held over approximately two weeks, between September and December 2005. The ACP Board will consider adding a very limited number of players to the eight qualifiers from the Tour, by granting them wild-cards. This will only be done if such a measure conditions the sponsorship of the event. However, whenever possible, the ACP Board will give preference to a tournament format comprising only the eight qualifiers from the ACP Tour.
The exact format and prize-fund are currently being discussed with interested sponsors. All relevant information will be published on our website in due time.
In a nutshell, this is the general description of how the ACP Tour will function.
As you can see, there are several advantages to having such a system uniting major chess competitions. To start with, you create a sense of unity by establishing a clear calendar of events. The impact of each local event is enhanced by the fact that it belongs to a worldwide circuit and results achieved in one tournament has an effect on the whole chess season. The stronger the tournament, the bigger the effect, hence organizers are naturally stimulated to improve their tournaments from one year to the other. More importantly, open and rapid tournaments will, for the first time, be counted alongside classical round-robins. For numerous players, the benefits of this improvement are obvious, since invitations to closed events are by nature exclusive and only a limited number of players have access to these events. Swiss systems, on the other hand, are open to all, therefore the number of candidates for qualification to the Masters increases significantly.
Another positive effect is that good results are emphasized and poor ones ignored. Contrary to the current elo rating system, where a participant is sanctioned when playing below expectations and must, as a result, be careful in his choice of tournaments, the ACP points system rewards players for their activity and ambitious play. Since one excellent result and two bad ones will still earn you more points than three average results, taking risks becomes the recommended approach. This should bring more excitement to our sport where until now, elite tournaments have sometimes produced disappointing results for the fans as the players were being too cautious.
So far, organizers around the world have responded very positively to the ACP Tour. For the single month of July, seven tournaments have already been registered and more are signing up. At the moment, the complete list of ACP events for July includes three round-robin GM tournaments - Biel (Switzerland), Taiyuan (China) and Dortmund (Germany), and four open tournaments - Paris (France), Amsterdam (Holland), Biel (Switzerland) and Pardubice (Czech Republic).
Organizers of all major events are invited to contact ACP Board Member Pavel Tregubov (gmtregubov@hotmail.com), who is in charge of the ACP Tour, if they wish to join. We are informed of most events in the calendar but it makes our task easier if organizers contact us, in order to include their tournaments in advance.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have helped with the project. Besides Pavel Tregubov, who has been the chief designer of the complete rules, mention must be made of Grandmasters Miguel Illescas and Sergey Shipov, as well as International Arbiter Eduard Dubov, who have suggested valuable ideas that were used in our system. The ACP Board would also like to thank Dr Valery Golubenko and Vladimir Bazhenov and his hard-working team for helping out with the administrative work.
In closing, I would like to give you a foretaste of how the ACP Tour results will look like at the end of the season. Using our freshly crafted ACP Points System, we have computed the results of the top 12 international events for the first half of the year 2004. Based on these calculations, eight players would have qualified for the Masters, in the following order: Vishy Anand, Sergey Rublevsky, Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Leko, Shakhryar Mamedyarov, Gary Kasparov, Alexander Grischuk and Nigel Short. The sample of tournaments used here is not large enough, nonetheless, one can see some interesting trends: the top four rated players during this period (Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik and Leko) made it to the final, together with three players who mainly obtained their qualification through strong performances in open tournaments (Rublevsky, Mamedyarov and Short). This is precisely what the ACP Tour aims to achieve: to give a fair chance to players who perform well, regardless of their invitations to elite tournaments.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1250
|
__label__wiki
| 0.911125
| 0.911125
|
1981 in video games
(Redirected from 1981 in video gaming)
Find sources: "1981 in video games" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Fueled by the previous year's release of the colorful and appealing Pac-Man, the audience for arcade games in 1981 became much wider. Pac-Man influenced maze games began appearing in arcades and on home systems. Nintendo broke from their mediocre early releases with Donkey Kong which defined the platform genre.
List of years in video games
Science +...
1.1 Magazines
1.2 Business
2 Notable releases
2.1 Games
MagazinesEdit
January - Atari computer magazine ANALOG Computing begins 9 years of publication. Most issues include at least one BASIC game and one machine language game.
November - The British video game magazine Computer and Video Games (C&VG) starts.
Winter - Arnie Katz and Bill Kunkel found Electronic Games, the first magazine on video games and generally recognized as the beginning of video game journalism.
BusinessEdit
New companies: DK'Tronics, Games by Apollo, Gebelli Software, Imagic, Spectravision, Starpath, Synapse Software
Defunct: APF Electronics
The arcade game market in the US generates $4.8 billion in revenue[1] (equivalent to $13.5 billion in 2020).
The home video game market in the US generates $1 billion in sales revenue[2] (equivalent to $2.81 billion in 2020).
The home video game market in Europe is worth $200 million[3] (equivalent to $562 million in 2020).
Notable releasesEdit
GamesEdit
February, Konami releases Scramble, the first side-scrolling shooter with forced scrolling and multiple distinct levels.[4]
February, Williams Electronics releases influential scrolling shooter Defender.
July 9, Nintendo releases Donkey Kong, which introduces the characters of Donkey Kong and Mario, and sets the template for the platformer genre. It is also one of the first video games with an integral storyline.[5]
September, Namco releases Galaga, the sequel to Galaxian which becomes more popular than the original.
June, Konami releases Frogger.
October, Frogger is distributed in North America by Sega-Gremlin.
October 21, Williams Electronics releases Stargate, the sequel to Defender.
October, Sega releases Turbo, a racing video game that features a third-person perspective, rear-view racer format.
October, Rock-Ola's Fantasy is the first game with a continue feature.
October, Atari Inc. releases Tempest, one of the first games to use Atari's Color-QuadraScan vector display technology. It was also the first game to allow the player to choose their starting level (a system Atari dubbed "SkillStep").
November, Namco releases Bosconian, a multidirectional shooter with voice.
December, Jump Bug, the first scrolling platformer, developed by Hoei/Coreland and Alpha Denshi, is distributed in North America by Rock-Ola under license from Sega.
Midway releases fixed-shooter Gorf with multiple distinct stages.
Taito releases abstract, twin-stick shooter Space Dungeon.
Data East releases the vertically-scrolling isometric maze game Treasure Island.
Atari, Inc.'s port of Asteroids is a major release for the Atari VCS, and is the first game for the system to use bank-switching.
Mattel releases Utopia for Intellivision, one of the first city construction games and possibly the first sim game for a console.
June, Ultima is released, beginning a successful computer role-playing game series.
September, Wizardry for the Apple II is the first in a computer role-playing franchise that eventually spans eight games.
IBM and Microsoft include the game DONKEY.BAS with the IBM PC, arguably the first IBM PC compatible game.
Muse Software releases the stealth action adventure Castle Wolfenstein for the Apple II.
The Atari Program Exchange publishes Caverns of Mars, a vertically scrolling shooter for the Atari 8-bit family, and wargame Eastern Front (1941). APX also sells the source code to Eastern Front.
Epyx releases turn-based monster game Crush, Crumble and Chomp!.
BudgeCo's Raster Blaster sparks interest in more realistic Apple II pinball simulations and is the precursor to Pinball Construction Set.
Infocom releases Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz.
HardwareEdit
July, the Namco Warp & Warp arcade system board is released.
October, the Sega VCO Object, the first arcade system board dedicated to pseudo-3D, sprite-scaling graphics, is released.
March 5, Timex releases the Sinclair Research ZX81 in the UK, which is significantly less expensive than other computers on the market.
June, Texas Instruments releases the TI-99/4A, an update to 1979's TI-99/4.
August 12, the IBM Personal Computer is released for USD$1,565, with 16K RAM, no disk drives, and 4-color CGA graphics.
Astrovision distributes the Bally Computer System after buying the rights from Bally/Midway.
Acorn Computers Ltd releases the BBC Micro home computer.
Commodore Business Machines releases the Commodore VIC-20 home computer.
NEC releases the PC-8801 home computer in Japan.
Coleco Industries releases the Total Control 4 home console.
Sega test markets the SG-1000 home console in Japan.
November - Nintendo's Game & Watch is released in Sweden.
Microvision is discontinued.
^ Video Game Myth Busters - Did the "Crash" of 1983/84 Affect Arcades?, The Golden Age Arcade Historian (December 27, 2013)
^ George Lucas and the Digital Revolution Archived January 29, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, p. 296, 2006
^ http://2600connection.com/library/magazines/spectrum/spectrum_dec82.pdf#page=7 Archived November 7, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
^ Game Genres: Shmups[permanent dead link], Professor Jim Whitehead, January 29, 2007, Accessed June 17, 2008
^ "donkey kong [coin-op] arcade video game, nintendo co., ltd. (1981)". Arcade-history.com. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1981_in_video_games&oldid=936015943"
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1251
|
__label__wiki
| 0.611777
| 0.611777
|
From the Encore Movement
For media inquiries, email Marci Alboher, Vice President, Strategic Communications, Encore.org at [email protected].
Encores for Nonprofit Leaders?
by Phyllis Segal | Jun 26, 2012
What's next for long-term nonprofit founders and leaders who have devoted their working lives to solving social problems? That's the focus of a survey featured this week in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. "Virtually all of the people in the study, which included some...
My Experience as an Encore Fellow
by Encore.org | May 18, 2012
By Louisa B. Hellegers About two years ago, I was leafing through The New York Times when my mother called. The conversation went like this: “Have you read today’s paper yet?” “Just reading it now.” “You have to read the Style section; there’s an article about an...
Rethinking Your Relationship With Money During an Encore
by Marci Alboher | May 14, 2012
Laura Vanderkam has developed a bit of a specialty in convincing people they have more than they think they do. In her last book, 168 Hours, she did it with time. In her latest, All the Money in the World, she focuses on money. Vanderkam’s book is an important read no...
Big Shifts Happen in and Beyond Midlife
by Marci Alboher | Apr 9, 2012
I was so impressed with Marc Freedman's last book, Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life, that I left my work as a journalist to help build the movement for encore careers for the greater good. Marc's new book The Big Shift: Navigating the New...
Bridging the Gap to an Encore Career
by Aanchal Dhar | Mar 21, 2012
After decades in real estate, Dave Hughes was ready for his encore career. He applied for jobs at nonprofit organizations near his new home in eastern Oregon, hoping to capitalize on his years of church volunteer work. He got no offers. “We needed the additional...
Making it Easier to Finance Encore Transitions
What's the biggest challenge for midlife career changers seeking work for the greater good? If you guessed finances, you'd be right. With support from MetLife Foundation and Encore.org (formerly Civic Ventures), researchers at Penn Schoen Berland surveyed nearly 2,500...
Matt Lauer Says He Loves This Encore Story
by Marc Freedman | Feb 14, 2012
AARP's Jane Pauley didn't mince words on this morning's Your Life Calling segment on NBC's Today show. Jenny Bowen, she said, had no child development expertise, no foreign policy experience and no knowledge of the Chinese language when she set out to radically change...
AARP’s Jane Pauley on Encore Careers and the Myth of Reinvention
by Stefanie Weiss | Feb 9, 2012
Jane Pauley recaps her encore career and talks about the dangerous myth of reinvention.
Goodbye 30-Year Retirements, Hello Encore Years
by Marc Freedman | Feb 3, 2012
We need a new map of life. We've been making do with one that was fashioned for an expected longevity of threescore and 10. We shouldn't knock that legacy. At one time, that constituted progress. But we can't stuff a 21st century life span into a life course designed...
Working Past 50 Can Bring More Satisfaction
by Marci Alboher | Jan 20, 2012
If you're over 50, chances are that continuing to work -- and being truly engaged in what you do -- will boost your well-being. Researchers at the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College found that people 50 and older are more likely than younger adults to...
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1254
|
__label__cc
| 0.658925
| 0.341075
|
Pendarovski: We have state consensus that we continue our path to the EU
Macedonia 20.10.2019 / 20:15
Following the first part of the leaders’ meeting at Villa Vodno, President Pendarovski said that EU leaders’ decision to not open accession talks with the EU was discussed. He noted that the meeting is focused on two topics, the first being the conclusions of EU leaders, and the second being early parliamentary elections.
I asked to reaffirm our position that we continue our path to the EU. Our country is in a similar situation for the third time, Pendarovski said, explaining all three situations, but unlike the previous ones, this time Macedonia has fulfilled all preconditions, Pendarovski said.
He stressed that all leaders agreed that the only path for the Republic of Macedonia is Euro-Atlantic aspirations.
We have a clear state consensus that all relevant political leaders are behind us to start accession negotiations with the EU as soon as possible and to become a member of the union, Pendarovski said.
He said all leaders had agreed with the a new methodology announced by the EU for the possibility of a return to the negotiation process if some of the closed chapters had a setback.
Stevo Pendarovskileaders’ meeting
Pendarovski about attacks on Mizrahi: One’s comment can hurt feelings of a nation or religion
Pendarovski meets EU Enlargement Commissioner Varhelyi
Pendarovski on “TNT” case: In order for the rule of law to be respected, judicial authorities shouldn’t allow political or business influence on their work
Macedonia News
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1258
|
__label__cc
| 0.635514
| 0.364486
|
“Days of Living Archaeology” at the Prehistoric Archaeopark Vsestary, Czech Republic
https://exarc.net/ark:/88735/10287
Radomír Tichý (CZ)
Issue 2017/2
Until recently, the presentation of archaeology in the Czech Republic was solely connected to classic museum exhibitions. Unfortunately, not all museums have archaeological exhibitions. For example, the National Museum in Prague currently does not have any, not even temporary, archaeological exhibition due to the reconstruction of the historical building. With the exception of the successful exhibition Lovci mamutů (Mammoth hunters) archaeology was present only as a side topic in temporary exhibitions. Another example of missing permanent archaeological exhibition is from Eastern Bohemia, the regional museum in Hradec Králové. This situation led to the founding of the Prehistoric Archaeopark Všestary.
From the programmes of museum events we can see that in Czech prehistorical museology there is a long-term tendency to tailor all programmes to children. This causes excessive simplifying of presented reality. The original aim of the Archaeopark was to introduce visitors to our current knowledge of prehistory supported by experiments, although certain activities / experiments are not fully available to modern visitors because of time demands, for example, pottery firing, as it takes too long.
The concept of alternative forms of archaeological presentation via archaeological experimentation and an open-air museum has, in the Czech Republic, been known for a long time, from foreign examples. During the 1960s, the idea was that this should be carried out by a central specialised organisation, namely the Institute of Archaeology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Science in Prague (Sklenář 1983). It was successfully carried out in Březno u Loun(north-western Bohemia) on the site of an excavated polycultural prehistoric and medieval settlement (Štauber 2000). Unfortunately, this project, with reconstructions of several prehistoric and medieval buildings, served mostly archaeologists and not the general public.
At the same time in Kosmonosy, north of Prague, there was the Dětský pravěký skanzen Altamira (children’s archaeological open-air museum) (Cvrček & Najman 2000). Following the ‘Velvet Revolution’, the new democratic environment of the 1990s led to the appearance of a number of archaeological open-air museum projects. The common denominator was the construction of prehistoric and medieval buildings, which were the most sought-after features by both general public and archaeologists. A number of these projects were never finished, while others changed their location (Keltoi Mladá Boleslav moved to Prášily in southern Bohemia). One of the long-term successes is Villa Nova Uhřínov in Orlické Mountains in eastBohemia,which pursues both research and education (Dragoun 2000). Another site also in eastern Bohemia, the Celtic Archaeopark in Nasavrky is currently restarting. The situation in Moravia has developed differently. Due to the leadership of Archaeological Institute of Czech Academy of Science in Brno, an open-air museum with a reconstruction of an early medieval hill-fort was created on an excavated site, in Chotěbuzon the Moravian-Polish border. With help from the town Modrá u Velehradu, a Great Moravian (early medieval) church, princely hall and part of a hill-fort was constructed.
Archaeoparks
The Prehistoric Archaeopark Všestary was founded in 2012 – 2013 to replace the Centre of Experimental Archaeology, which was created in 2000. The new feature of the Archaeopark is a combination of a building with a permanent archaeological exhibition and an open-air museum (Tichý2012). This combination was also used in Chotěbuz in 2016.
The term “archaeopark” has started to be used widely. In 2016 a new museum in southern Moravia dedicated to the period of Mammoth hunters, called Archaeopark Pavlov has been founded. At the moment, it has only an indoors exhibition but there are plans for an open-air addition.The topical problem now is how to ‘enliven’ such sites. After the initial wave from 1990s onwards, in which the original projects were by enthusiasts, the parks have now been taken over by state owned museum institutions.
This has demonstrated that creating dynamic programmes is a demanding task, and may succeed only one to three times a year, which is usually not enough for those in charge of the sites. One solution seems to be moving ‘enthusiasts’ into economically stable state institutions (Makýš 2003, 209). At the same time within Czech archaeology, the division between archaeology and its presentation has persisted (Mikešová 2015), even leading to doubts as to whether such presentation is part of archaeology or just ‘playing’ (Tichý2014 a). The following text presents one possible approach to archaeology presentation, as practised in the Prehistoric Archaeopark Všestary.
Aims of the Prehistoric Archaeopark Všestary
The Prehistoric Archaeopark in Všestary was created as a combination of an open-air and indoors exhibition (Tichý 2012). The building hosts a permanent exhibition divided into three floors. This exhibition covers archaeological finds within their context, a model of a prehistoric landscape and a chronological overview of prehistory. There is a hall for temporary exhibitions (which presents original archaeological material from rescue excavations) and a projection hall. The open-air part of the Archaeopark contains prehistoric buildings, a cemetery, workshops, clay pits and other features. An important part of the open-air exhibition is a roofed model of an archaeological excavation. The Archaeopark is connected to Hradec Králové, the regional centre and the biggest potential source of visitors, by a cycle path which goes through some important archaeological sites.
After its opening in 2013, we realised that the time when a visitor simply walked from one exhibit to another was gone. It was necessary to start again and complement both permanent and temporary exhibitions with interactive programmes. Apart from programmes for schools, there are also thematic weekends. These ‘Days of Living Archaeology’ have become important features for the Archaeopark, these weekends truly make the Archaeopark ‘an archaeopark’ and are the reason for repeated visits by archaeology fans. There are not many such activities in the Czech environment, as the current trend is to focus on entertainment and sport activities for children rather than education.
There are also economic reasons for the organisation of the ‘Days of Living Archaeology’. The Archaeopark acquires 40% of its support from the region of Hradec Králové, but the rest of budget depends on entry fees and support from the University of Hradec Králové. This allows us to keep in the programme ‘live’, with elements of prehistoric technologies, contact with replicas and space for hands-on activities for visitors.
Virtual reality is used in the Archaeopark in only one touch screen where it is necessary. The programme of the cinema hall is a projection with a live commentary. Hands-on activities are appreciated especially by grandparents, but there has been an increase in damage to the Archaeopark equipment. This is partially due to a lack of discipline in some visitors (“Nobody told us that we can’t take that home.”) and partially to lack of manual dexterity, the prerequisite for hands-on activities.
The situation as described led to the idea of a programme of twelve ‘Days of Living Archaeology’ a year, one each month. At the beginning it seemed that the content of each event would be based on a topic, for example food, rituals, but time has shown that the public prefers events dedicated to time periods, for example Mammoth Hunters, Celts or Romans. The ‘Days’ content is therefore a combination of both approaches. The great ambition is to not to repeat any activities during any one year.
From the opening of Archaeopark Všestary in 2013, the content of ‘Day of Living Archaeology’ has constantly evolved. The open-air part of the park (See Figure 2) creates a backdrop for some of the activities, especially at times of favourable weather. In Bohemia, favourable weather is unpredictable. Even in summer, excessive heat or torrential rains can negatively influence an event. Despite that the popular topics mentioned earlier, topics with technology presentations like Neolithic, Hallstatt or Bronze Age are put on from April to September. Other topics demand adverse weather (Winter in Prehistory) or use roofed areas (See Figure 3). They can also make use of the interior of the building (See Figure 1) when the open-air exhibition is not connected to the topic (Classical World, Evolution).
Each event has a similar structure. There is an interactive projection on the given topic in the Archaeopark cinema, and a stall with hands-on activities for children. In winter months with less visitors, there is a game for children connecting posts in the archaeopark, stalls with educational information or technology demonstrations (See Figure 4 and 5), or a theatre (puppets or live actors) (See Figure 5). Some of the technology presentations are run by guests including foreign colleagues and members of the Department of Archaeology of Hradec Králové University. The aim is that every visitor, both adult and child, takes home with them information about the period presented (Tichý 2014b) (See Figure 7). The single stalls present a mosaic of various elements of the given period, the connecting component is the interactive projection. Its realisation is demanding because of the composition of the target group, especially the number of children. The presence of children does not mean there is a pressure on the speaker to simplify the topic. The Archaeopark is not visited by large numbers (about 15,000 a year including schools) and the visitors are often deeply interested in archaeology.
Below we are presenting a yearly list of events based on what topics proved successful due to the time of the year, possibilities of technology presentation and visitor accessibility. In winter there may be only 200 visitors over the weekend while in summer there can be over 600 visitors which is the maximum capacity of the Archaeopark. In winter therefore, there are more contact activities, while in summer there needs to be distance from the visitor due to the large visitor numbers.
January: January is the most likely month in the Czech Republic for snow. Therefore, Winter in Prehistory (See Figure 8) is a natural choice of presentation. The aim is to allow the visitor to see the open-air part in the way they do not know it (See Figure 9). The stalls concentrate on topics connected to keeping warm (textile working, felt making, fire starting, there is a possibility to sit by fire in the house), cycle of the Ice Ages and the find of the ‘Iceman’ - the well-preserved natural mummy of a man who died around 3,300 BCE in Tyrolean Alps.
February: Human Evolution is a topic which has no support in the open-air area. Bleak February weather favours staying inside. The only open-air part is throwing a fully wooden spear. The topics of the stalls include demonstrations of making scrapers and hand axes from flint, a wooden spear and a bone tool (See Figure 10). Children can work on a wooden stick with a flint.
March: Classical World, which was present in the Czech Republic in Moravia. This topic again has no support from the open-air part of the archaeopark. The children’s workshop is set up as the interior of a Roman villa (See Figure 11). Hands-on activities are represented by making of a mosaic tile and Samian Ware. Visitors always enjoy tasting baked goods and wine. The children can also try on Roman clothes.
April: Salt and Iron are topics connected to the Early Iron Age. In the open-air area there is a smelting kiln, salt extraction (See Figure 12) and grinding of corn with a Greek style quern, children can play about the trade of the time, there is also a stall which makes predictions from liver. Children can also make an ornament known from a ritual site in southern Bohemia.
May: Romans and Germans theme presents the Age of the Roman Empire and the Migration of Peoples. The topic concerns the border regions of Rome, with demonstrations of fighting (See Figure 13). There is a possibility to shoot a bow, throw a spear, and play board games with a ‘Roman’. Children can also make a painted shield, and have their face painted as well.
June: The theme of The First Farmers of the Neolithic includes summer solstice celebration in the roundel, drilling and polishing stone, grinding corn (See Figure 3), pottery firing, demonstration of the use of a sickle and other agriculture implements. Visitors can make an amulet from stone by drilling with a flint drill.
July: Celtic Crafts is one of the most visited events. The topic contains iron smelting (See Figure 14), bronze casting, pottery firing (See Figure 15) and also making flour with a rotary quern. The atmosphere is complemented by a theatre programme about Celtic warfare. The children can mint a coin.
August: Mammoth Hunters is another popular programme. Technology is represented by knapping demonstrations. It is also possible to try an atlatl, or spear-thrower. Exhibition of spears and a ceremony led by a Shaman are used to indicate the importance of hunting. Engraving on stone is done by a presenter but animal figures from clay can be made by visitors.
September: The technological topic of The Bronze Age is bronze casting (See Figure 4). Demonstrations include making moulds, weaving and cloth dying, and cooking in a footed pot. Visitors can try the sharpness of bronze and stone tools, children can make jewellery from wire and a ‘Phaistos disc’.
October: The topic Archaeology coincides with the International Day of Archaeology and presents archaeology from various environments and different methods (dendrochronology, metal detecting, surveying and documentation). Children fulfil tasks for young archaeologists (See Figure 16).
November: The All Soul’s Remembrance of Ancestors is reminded by a programme featuring the Aeneolithic. Visitors get to take part in a ceremony around an ’ancestral’ grave (See Figure 17). The workshop stalls represent some of the injuries and illnesses of the era, smithing of the first copper objects, herbal infusions, and creation of rock art from the Alpine regions. Children can make masks and immediately use them during the ceremony.
December: We normally address the topic of Rituals but because of low visitor numbers during Advent it was decided to not have any programme in December in 2017. The topic of various rituals will be addressed throughout the year as mentioned above.
Regular yearly conferences on presentation and reconstruction of archaeological features organised by Bohumír Dragoun, founder and head of Villa Nova Uhřínov pod Deštnou (Dragoun 2014) plays an important role in the Czech environment. It is a place where representatives of archaeological open-air museums and archaeoparks can meet and discuss the sector. Experimental archaeology is less and less presented in conference contributions. There are even less experiments as part of archaeological demonstrations. A significant role is now played by re-enactment, which is implemented for later periods of protohistory and the Middle Ages. Another increasing phenomenon are interactive exhibitions. Unfortunately, this often only shows objects which the visitor could see in glass cases again in photographs on the screens of various tablets and computers, which does not explore the full possibilities of the media to widen the visitor’s experience.
The last conference in Uhřínově pod Deštnou in November 2016 showed unambiguously that to attract more visitors, projects have to focus on entertainment rather than education. Inevitably this means that the number of visitors learning something new is the same as in educational projects with smaller visitor numbers. Everything has to reflect the economic footing the project is based on. The founders of the Archaeopark, Hradec Králové Region and the University of Hradec Králové will not increase financial support, it is therefore necessary to make the running of the museum sustainable within the terms of lower visitor numbers and consequent financial income. This is pursued by quality programmes for visitors based on hands-on activities and elements of archaeological experimentation, visitor experience and the capabilities of presenters. It is possible that word of mouth may bring new visitors. This could be also helped by the proximity of a new motorway and the results of the large archaeological excavations connected with its construction. The strong authenticity of place and landscape inhabited since prehistory hopefully also adds to the innovative exhibitions and sense of place.
Cvrček, J., Najman, R.(2000). Dětský pravěký skanzen Altamira Kosmonosy, Rekonstrukce a experiment v archeologii 1, 175-178
Dragoun, B. (2000). Villa Nova Uhřínov, Rekonstrukce a experiment v archeologii 1, 179-180
Dragoun, B. (2014). Dvacet let „experimentálních“ setkání, Živá archeologie 16, 85-86
Makýš, O.(2003). Realizácia experimentálnych rekonštrukcií stavieb – poznámky, Rekonstrukce a experiment v archeologii 4, 201-210
Mikešová, V.(2015). Popularizace archeologie v 21. století: Proč, jak a pro koho?, Archeologie ve středních Čechách 19/2, 883-888
Sklenář, K.(1983). Skanzenové expozice pravěkého stavebnictví, Muzejní a vlastivědná práce 21, 193-201
Štauber, B.(2000). Archeologický skanzen Březno a jeho muzejní využití, Rekonstrukce a experiment v archeologii 1, 149-150
Tichý, R.(2012). Archeologie a veřejnost. Jakou podobu má mít v současnosti „brána do pravěku“?, Živá archeologie 14/II, 89-95
Tichý, R.(2014a). Archeodidaktika jako alternativa vztahu muzeologie a archeologie. Je prezentace archeologie vědou?, Sborník k poctě Jiřího Kalfersta, Archeologie východních Čech – supplementum 1, Hradec Králové, 297-302
Tichý, R.(2014b). Archeodidaktika jako didaktická transformace dějin pravěku. Příklad řešení v Archeoparku pravěku ve Všestarech, Živá archeologie16, 58-66
Fig 1. Inside the museum building
Fig 2. The open-air part of the museum…
Fig 3. The roofed outside space during…
Fig 4. Days of Living Archaeology’…
Fig 5. Example of a scientific…
Fig 7. Attempt to graphically express…
Fig 9. The Neolithic house in winter
Fig 10. Days of Living Archaeology…
Kernave Archaeological Site – the Place for Experimental and Living Archaeology
Gene Fornby - the Ancient Village of Gene
Tangible and Intangible Knowledge: the Unique Contribution of Archaeological Open-Air Museums
Living History as an Instrument for Historical and Cultural Exchange in German Archaeological Open-Air Museums: an Online Survey Defines Present Status
75 Years of History on Concrete Floors
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1260
|
__label__wiki
| 0.534767
| 0.534767
|
Explore content to help your bank grow, compete and innovate.
I'd like help with:
Deal Structuring
Pricing for Risk
RM Effectiveness
Portfolio Steering
Home » Podcasts » How Does Your Commercial Bank "Coach"?
How Does Your Commercial Bank "Coach"?
What is coaching like at your bank? More importantly, what should it be like at your bank?
Banks that are tapping into the true potential of coaching are doing much more than giving pep talks, or one-on-one mentoring sessions.
PrecisionLender CEO Carl Ryden explains what transformational coaching at banks looks like in this week's podcast.
Carl Ryden on LinkedIn and Twitter.
How Coaching Networks Will Create the First Facebook Scale Enterprise
What Can Andi Do for Your Bank?
Applied Banking Insights: Gather. Analyze. Act. Improve
Accenture Workforce Banking Survey: Realizing the Full Value of AI.
History of the Jack Russell Terrier
Jim Young: Hi, and welcome to The Purposeful Banker. The podcast brought to you by Precision Lender, where we discuss the big topics on the minds of today's best bankers. I'm your host Jim Young, Director of Communications at Precision Lender.
I'm joined today by Precision Lender CEO, Carl Ryden. Most of you know that when Carl comes on the podcast, he's not here to talk about CECIL or Libor, but rather some of the big picture ways of thinking about banking.
And that's the case again today as we're going to talk about coaching at banking. What that means, where it can provide an impact, and what role does tech play in it?
So, Carl, let's start with what we mean when we say coaching at banks. Back when we wrote Earn It, we included a speech that Al Pacino gave during Any Given Sunday. Is that what we're talking about here? Motivational pep talks, that thing?
Carl Ryden: Well, there's some of that. Of course, it all starts with folks being motivated and energized and having a sense of purpose of what they're trying to achieve. We of course, talk about that a lot with The Purposeful Banker Podcast with BankOnPurpose our conference.
But once you have those things in place, it really boils down to what are we trying to achieve against that purpose, how are we measuring ourselves? And a lot of banks focus on reporting, looking at arrears, where we've been versus our goals, those things, but I think the key part of coaching is not just seeing where you've been and what you've done, also, seeing where you're going. But then once you see that report, it boils down to one simple question for me is what are you going to do differently Monday morning once you know that, right? What are we going to do differently?
So we can look at all the stats. Going back to the football metaphor, we can look at all the stats of the last game and we didn't get enough yards per rush. We fumbled the ball, and ultimately, you can't just say, score more points, give up fewer points and don't turn the ball over. Right? That's not coaching. That's just obvious, right? That is a slightly different restatement of the goals.
What you need to say is, "What are we going to do different? How are we going to prepare differently this week? What are we going to change in our behaviors and how are we going to remind ourselves that we're going to do things differently?" And provide that coaching back into the moment to help change behaviors and change what you're doing.
One of my favorite quotes, I think it's true, I think it is largely true, is, "Statistically speaking, the world's most accurate weather forecast is tomorrow will be just like today." Habits occur. Habits have to be built. Habits have to be changed. If you look at a report and you're not getting what you want, you've got to say, what behaviors need to change? What do we need to change about what we do? That's where think coaching comes in.
I think tech actually is playing a larger and larger role in this as it evolves and we can talk a little about the history of how tech, particularly information technology has been used within institutions and banking as well.
Jim Young: You talk about this type of coaching and that not just the here's what happened and go out and close more deals, but much more of a here's our approach and what we need to change, but then the question becomes, and we've seen this in banks, there are some sales managers who are really great personal coaches. They know how to intuitively do this, but how do you take that at a bank and scale that thing? And that's, I would say, is where is tech can come into play. Can you talk a little bit about that and I guess also why the phrase network gets used rather than just maybe tool?
Carl Ryden: Well, I'll start with what do we see happening within banks? And this is not just true of banks. Lots of companies, but we deal with banks. We see pockets of improvement, pockets of change, pockets of agility where a sales manager sees that his market is changing. Salesmen, regional manager, regional vice president sees that their market is changing, understands that their strategy is a little bit unique or a little bit different for the market that they serve. They're in a growth market versus a market where they have dominance or other things. And then they would actually coach their RMs to make sure that they're aligned with not generic goals, but around where they're trying to take the portfolio, what are the strategic objectives of the bank, and they would coach them on behaviors they would coach them on, here's what we ought to do differently, here's what we need to change.
We would see that and we would see the difference in performance between one group and another based on that within PrecisionLender. And what we would do is try to disseminate that. And at PrecisionLender, a lot of stuff we do, we do people, then process, then product. So we started out with great people who interact with our clients and help them get better. Then we actually started seeing stuff like this and we develop a process of saying, "Okay, last time we saw a bank like you with this strategic needs, here's what we saw really work. Tell your folks to do this."
And then once we see that has an impact and we do that through our client success reviews, once we see that has an impact, then we'll go to the product stage. Okay, how do we scale this wider? How do we make it so that people are infinitely flexible and really malleable and smart, but they don't scale really well? Process scales across people really well and the product ultimately scales really immensely.
That's what we introduced with Andi and as we started going down that route with Andi and the coaching and I think I've told the story behind Andi, and it might be worth repeating here. You tell me if is. But it came from that where somebody at a bank, Andy Max of First National Bank of Omaha was saying, "Hey Carl, could you put a dot on the screen an nudge them to do this when they see that? When you see a lender like business pricing a deal like that to a customer like that, nudge them this way, remind them this is what we want to do differently."
And those little nudges add up and there's actually a lot of behavioral economics and things around, there's a book called Nudge, which was about the cumulative effect of these little nudges and they started adding up to real impact, so we try to take that and build it into the product delivered at scale.
Jim Young: So then I'm going to go down the two letters here that are both powerful and sometimes misleading and go ahead and say that these are our AI related questions and I guess that's the first one.
Is this concept of a coaching network and that thing, is this fundamentally a artificial intelligence concept and then is this about automation taking this and doing this so that humans and replacing humans or is this about augmentation?
Carl Ryden: No, it's about augmentation. I mean, we've covered this before on reference other podcasts. We've done this thing. But it really is about intelligence augmentation and it's not necessarily about some artificial. I mean, I always say nobody really wants artificial intelligence. They just want intelligence. And if I have to go artificial and that's the most effective and efficient way of doing it, I'll do that because now there's a wide range of tools and the data that allows me to do that. There's some problems that suit itself to AI and more machine learning type answers, estimating the usage on a line of credit or mathematical problems, but there are other things that actually simple heuristics, the coaching that the best sales managers provide their folks given strategy. It just putting a heuristics, the rules based coaching that you put in there.
The key part about that is when you put it in the rules based coaching is, by the way, is no different whether you do it with tech or you do it with humans, right? Is to know that we're putting in this rule because this is our strategy for where we are today and here's the outcomes we're hoping to achieve. And then you can actually measure that the outcomes are what you thought they were and know when to take it out because that strategy is no longer in effect, right? Because the world does change.
So being able to automate the delivery of coaching and customize it is a huge trend. And that's where Gordon Ritter, who's a friend, who runs a company called Emergence Capital Partners comes in, I've talked about him in some talks I've given recently, and we talk a lot, and he comes up with this concept called coaching networks, so it's worth given the history of Gordon in his view on the world.
Jim Young: Gordon was next up on my question. Go for it.
Carl Ryden: And then, I think really like to come back to and we'll see if it makes the final cut here is the history of IT within banking and how that's evolved within orgs. I think there's two parallel paths here that actually line up and point to the same place. I mean, they run quite a bit.
So back to Gordon. Gordon runs a venture capital firm out in San Francisco called Emergence Capital Partners, and it's a smaller firm for Silicon Valley standards and it's very thesis driven. So they actually forced themselves to have the discipline of what's the thesis, what do we believe is going to drive the next wave of innovation, the next wave of impact and value in the world?
So 20 years ago, which seems like forever ago, his thesis was enterprise SaaS software, software as a service, cloud based solutions, was going to take over the enterprise. And that was 20 years ago. That was not as obvious as it is today, and his first investment he put a million dollars into a little company called Salesforce. He was the first million dollars into that, and that turned out really, really well. It turned into quite the juggernaut now that most banks and others have found their way to adopting.
His next thesis 10 years later was that the first wave of software as a service of SaaS software, was horizontal in nature. Horizontal meaning Salesforce is a CRM software, but it serves a wide array of industries. It's a horizontal function that is applied to many different vertical industries. And you saw tools like Marketo, Netsuite, other things. Same thing. Horizontal functionality that was in customized and applied to a vertical.
His next thesis was that the next wave of SaaS software was going to be vertical and it was gonna be bigger than the first, in that the specific domain knowledge about a vertical allows you to deliver a far better solution to that vertical and the adoption of cloud solutions has got to the point now where it starts to verticalize. The first investment you made there was a company called Veeva. He put $6,000,000 in to own about a third. That company never raised any more money and went public about 8 years later and now they're worth $15,000,000,000. It's a vertical SaaS solution fo, the life science industry and has been a very successful company. And Peter Gassner, the CEO, we've talked to him quite a bit as well.
So his first thesis was enterprise SaaS going to take over. The first wave was horizontal. Second wave is going to be vertical. His most recent thesis that he's come out with is what you're seeing now is that these forms based applications, the fill out of form, hit next, hit next, hit next, hit next, put the data in the database, then get a report back from that and then try to adjust course based on that. He thinks those are going to go away and he says now where we're getting to with AI machine learning and cloud and large data, is that the machine, as a human, you do what you do. The machine sees what you do, gathers that information, then compares it to what people like you do and who achieve better outcomes, and then coaches you on how you could do it better.
He takes it even one step further, he says the machine sees what you do and it goes and fills out that system of record for you. And so one of the examples, which is one of his portfolio companies, which I'm actually talking to the CEO of it next week, I think, or maybe even today, if a schedule separate, but the company called Chorus.ai, which I think is when I was with a group of 200 commercial bankers at their sales kickoff meeting a couple weeks ago. I mentioned this and I told them the story. It was funny when I told them the story, how they just all lit up and they were like, "God, that's what I need."
And I told them the story about this idea of the flywheel. Start with the bankers. You build them a system that allows them to do what they do, have empathy and judgment and creativity and trust and the things you really need a human to do. The machine then sees what they do, gathers what they do, fills out the systems of record for them. Does what the machine should do, then compares what they did versus other folks grounded to the outcomes that they achieved and coach them on what they could have done better.
I gave them the story about as an example of that, one is Precision Lender was they were all familiar with. The second one is a company called Chorus.ai. And chorus.ai is one of Gordon's companies and what it does is on sales calls, the salesperson has the call with the customer they're going to have it with, chorus.ai listens in on the sales call, records it, uses natural language understanding machine learning to extract out what will said. It takes that, fills out Salesforce.com for the user, captures the next steps, what was discussed, those things, the notes for the call schedules, the follow ups in the to do's into Salesforce for them. Then compares what they said versus what other at Salesforce said, and coaches them on what they could have done differently.
This is Gordon's idea of like if you think about this, the machine's doing everything, then the machine should do well really well so that the humans can get better at what they do well. And in this case, Gordon who runs ultra marathons, he says, "I don't run a mile and then go fill out a form based application, hit submit and get a report on how I did the last mile and then run the next mile. I just run and I have a Fit Bit in my ear. It knows my pace. It knows my cadence. It knows my goals. It knows what I can achieve. It knows the terrain I'm running on and it says, here's a place where you need to pick up your pace, where you can gain some time. Here's a place where you need to slow down, you're going to burn out. You're not gonna make it to the end. I do what I do to achieve what I'm trying to achieve. It knows my goals, it knows what I'm doing, and then it provides that feedback."
And this is what he calls the coaching network. He thinks the world is going to be dominated by these coaching network companies. So back to his original thesis, the first wave of SaaS software in the enterprise was horizontal. The next day wave vertical and it was bigger than the first. The next wave we're in now is, this is one he and I talk about, is personal. First it was about the function, the horizontal function. You're doing sales. You get to CRM. The next one's about the industry. We understand you're in the life sciences or you're the banking industry, so we can bring that domain knowledge to bear. The next one is just like in Precision Lender, for a customer like this to when a deal like this with a banker like this, at a bank like this, with a strategy like this, here's what you ought to do differently. Here's what you ought to talk to them about. Here's what the best bankers face with this situation, the ones that produce the best outcome, here's what they did.
And that coaching network feedback loop is incredibly powerful because it really allows you to learn as an organization at scale and get better and better and better.
Jim Young: He mentioned a phrase that I thought was interesting and we will link to an article he has on Emergence Capital's site. It's called How Coaching Networks Will Create the First Facebook Scale Enterprise Solution. He talks about humans are the mutation engine and the evolving process of the coaching network. What does that mean exactly to you?
Carl Ryden: I know we have bankers, so I'm a math guy, so I might get a little bit math wonky, so you may edit this out.
Jim Young: You're saying bankers wouldn't like this or would?
Carl Ryden: We'll see. I'm just kidding.
In math and in machine learning and algorithms and in math in general, there's this idea of exploration versus exploitation. The exploitation is not the moral term of exploiting, mathematical exploitation. So for example, you have to explore what works and then once you figured out what works, you then exploit it, right?
Jim Young: Right.
Carl Ryden: And you see this just so example, one of the algorithms for this is called a banded algorithm, which is basically like the setup is, there's a bunch of slot machines and some of them are better than others, so you have to go pull all the arms on the machines to see which ones are paying better and then as you have a certain bankroll size and your goal is to maximize your winnings, you have to explore to find the best ones, but then you also have to exploit the ones that you know are paying. And that's a really interesting mathematical problem and a really difficult one.
But this algorithm occurs almost everywhere. So when you go and you search on Google or you go to ESPN and they decide what articles to put above the fold, they want to maximize their engagement with you at ESPN.
Carl Ryden: Right.
And so they want to give you articles they know you're going to read, however they want and sometimes inject one that they're not so sure about to explore, and this is called the exploration exploitation trade-off and there's a mathematical algorithm for that. And so we come back to this in terms of the Facebook-scale company in Gordon's, I don't even know what got use started on this actually.
Jim Young: I was asking you about humans as a mutation engine.
Carl Ryden: Oh yes. So humans are the exploration piece. So what we use is, is really hard for what computers are good at and what humans are good at are really two separate things and in fact, we're almost exactly complimentary. Everything that machines are really good at, we're bad at, like doing massive amounts of mathematical calculations and huge amounts of data and huge amounts of long-term and short term memory, we don't have that.
Jim Young: And doing process number 1000 the exact same as you did process number one.
Carl Ryden: It's very difficult for a person. Machines are really good at that. However, the judgment, the empathy, the creativity, the intuition, all the things that humans are really good at, that a three year old is really good at and that's one of the best ways to see what's good at, the things that a three year old really good at catching a ball, a computer machine is really bad at. Intuition, other things, empathy, they have that. The things that humans have to work 20 years to be good at, the things we actually teach you in school, statistics, it takes a lot to get a human to do that and there's only a few who can exert the discipline to be really good statisticians. But computers, they're all good at statistics. I mean, they can calculate that stuff constantly.
The idea of the coaching network is the lower half of that loop where it's the machine gather, compare, and coach, right?
Carl Ryden: That's the exploitation piece. That's the mechanical mathematical piece, but the top of that, the exploration in a uncertain world with other humans, or it's a human interaction role as is it can be in commercial lending, you need the humans to be that, he goes to the flicker in the flame there, the exploration engine, they're the piece that introduces that, finds these new ways to do it. They explore. Then the machine figures out, "Okay, Jim just found a really good way of approaching this and it really created a great outcome. I want to make sure we exploit that and every body like Jim who's doing a deal like Jim just did sees that."
So I think it's that exploration, exploitation and it's this hybrid of using the humans for the exploration and using the machine to determine the best path or exploitation, and we do this. This is not unusual. Amazon does this, Google does this, this is not crazy in the world.
Jim Young: Yeah, that's interesting. That does play off that part of, obviously with these networks you are crunching numbers and all that stuff, but you're also taking what the best performers are and in our world it's relationship managers and the best ones they're doing and taking that and applying that as additional coaching. It's not always a number, number, but it's also Bob over here is great at this thing and this is how he does it, so we should.
Carl Ryden: But by the way, that's what doing it with the relationship managers and what the behaviors they exhibit. Remember, the goal is what are the behaviors that drive better actions? So if I can see the behaviors and outcomes they create, then I can actually, when I see a similar person in a similar situation, I can coach them on the behaviors that tend to lead to better outcomes. Now, that piece right there is really not any different from Netflix. Netflix, they know people like you who've watched what you've watched, who've liked what you've liked, who've gone and binge watched all 47 episodes of Seinfeld, which you probably have or however many. There's 400 episodes of those. They're going to say people like you tend to watch this. Right?
Jim Young: Yep.
Carl Ryden: And what they're doing is they're looking at the behaviors you have and the outcomes that generated, which for them was engagement with those shows, engagement with that content. And then they say, "Well, people like you tend to engage with this stuff" and they feed that back. Amazon does the same thing when you go shopping on there and you look for a 52" television and then you look for a 60" Sony and a LG, and it says, "You're probably gonna buy the 54" Samsung, and when you do, you're going to buy these three cables with it to hook it up to your other thing." They can front and run that and say, "People like you who have exhibited these behaviors tend to reach this place, tend to go here?"
And you just front and run that. And the key thing is, in every one of those cases, the training data came from human behaviors, right? These AI systems that it's all machine, what good is that? Right?
Carl Ryden: I mean, the most important interaction for us is that human to human interaction. So how do we enable that to be better?
Jim Young: And I guess the one final thing I would ask about this though, is that these are suggestions and not necessarily commands, right? At the end of the day, it's still up to a human to decide whether they're going to take that information and apply it or whether they might have some judgment that tells them maybe not.
Carl Ryden: Oh, absolutely. And that also gives us two bites at the learning apple, right? The first one is, well, okay, what have other folks done, right? For other bankers at the bank who are looking at a deal like this with a customer like this, and an industry like this, with a relationship like this, here's what they did. But then I offer you suggestions, hey, you might want to think about this. Either you take that suggestion or don't. Either you click on it or you don't, either you act on it or you don't.
That gives us another bite in the learning apple, which gives us, for a banker like you, and by the way, this is no different than the Amazon thing. Amazon takes the area data and says,
"Okay, here's some suggestions for you Jim." And then you either click on them or you don't. If you click on they're like "Yeah, plus one, we got that one right. We're starting to understand Jim a little better and how to move Jim forward."
Google does the same thing. Now there's social implications of this that we end up in a filter bubble where all those things, which is a whole different story, but on the enterprise side, within a bank, that's less of a concern.
Jim Young: Right, and like you said also, that's also where the explore element comes into it, right? Where you can get out of that danger to filter bubble by occasionally throwing in something that's different from them.
Carl Ryden: Correct. You have to add some diversity into the system.
This is a side note. I've have to Jack Russel terriers and I love Jack Russell terriers. And what's interesting about Jack Russell terriers, for the longest time, they weren't part of the AKC, the American Kennel Club. The AKC was built by Victorians where they would inbreed dogs, to get a particular look and you'd end up with a dog with a really particular look. But they were absolutely genetically a mess, right?
Jim Young: Oh yeah.
Carl Ryden: Like prone to disease, don't get me started on the Cocker Spaniels, I have friends like this, but it's like the dumbest dog in the world. But the Jack Russells for the longest time, they weren't bred for look, they were bred for function. They were meant to hunt foxes and rats and rodents. So they would intentionally introduce beagle blood, other things to drive behaviors. So they were bred for function. This is why Jack Russells, they all look a little bit different, but all of them have the same attitude and the same tenacity, and the same persistence.
I think this is the thing is if you end up with that feedback loop without introducing outside genetic material, you end up with a really dumb algorithm that's fraught with peril, it's very fragile. Introducing that diversity in there, that exploration phase, brings in that diversity that makes the algorithm not only more valuable but more robust.
Jim Young: Yeah, and I guess also, if you don't introduce that stuff, you end up really, really good at bank at selling a product that nobody actually wants anymore. Right? Because if you haven't looked at what's going on and how people are doing.
Carl Ryden: Well, there's that and then the other thing is you can end up with a really, I'll draw the metaphor, the Cocker Spaniel is a pretty dog, but not really smart. And because it's inbred is prone to disease and other problems and you'll see these really hyper bred dogs where they are really prone to ailments. An algorithm, like I said, not necessarily machine learning algorithm, it can be a simple heuristic algorithm, and those algorithms can be deployed via software, they can be deployed via humans. And so I would say the eight is great algorithm, which was the cross sale algorithm at Wells Fargo.
That algorithm, I would say the feedback loop from that algorithm, it wasn't inherently bad at the start, but the feedback loop amplified itself and it became inbred, which made it not only fragile but prone to disease. So that resiliency you want to put in here of is it still our strategy, is it still achieving the customer's objectives, is still fit for our purpose as a bank? Whether you do it with technology or whether you do it with a sales slogan, those are algorithms you're deploying into your organization. Being able to do that with tech gives you the advantage of being, one is it's more scalable. Two, it's more agile. Three, it's more flexible to change. And four is you can better connect it and two metrics to know and look at early warning signs. Is this still fit for purpose?
Jim Young: Yeah, yeah. This has to be the only commercial banking podcasts in which Jack Russells and Cocker Spaniel breeding plays into it. But it's a fascinating topic of coaching networks and definitely recommend you read the and we'll link to it again in the show notes, the article from Gordon Ritter and Emergence Capital. And this also, you probably heard us talking about it. There are concepts, and Carl mentioned it, applied banking insights and this flywheel. We'll link to those pieces of content here as well.
We've seen some interesting information from Accenture recently that a lot of frontline bankers are very much excited about this, they found a discordance where the sales managers assumed that frontline people would be freaked out about this stuff, the automation aspects of it and losing jobs, and rather the frontline people were saying, I really, really am excited about what these types of technology can do. And so I think the coaching network concept is ripe for really a lot of success in the commercial banking space.
Carl, unless you have any other dog breeding related insights here, I think we'll probably call it a wrap on this podcast. Thanks for coming on again.
Carl Ryden: Sure.
Jim Young: All right. That'll do it for this week's show.
Now for just a few friendly reminders, if you want to listen to more podcasts or check out more of our content, you can visit our resource page precisionlender.com, or you can head over to our home page to learn more about the company behind this content.
Finally, if you like what you've been hearing, make sure to subscribe to the feed in iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. We love to get ratings and feedback on any of those platforms.
Until next time, this has been Jim Young for Carl Ryden, and you've been listening to The Purposeful Banker.
Interested in learning more about PrecisionLender?
Visit PrecisionLender.com
Jim Young, Director of Communications at PrecisionLender, is an award-winning writer with experience in a range of positions in media and marketing, from reporter to website editor to content marketer. Throughout his career has focused on the story – how to find it, how to understand it, and how best to share it with others. At PrecisionLender he manages the many ways in which the company shares its philosophy on banking and the power of relationships Jim graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Duke University and holds a masters degree in journalism from Columbia University.
Follow on Linkedin More Content by Jim Young
Why Your Bank's CRM Is Failing
Lot of banks have implemented or are in the midst of implementing CRMs. But many of those banks aren't gett...
Hot Topics from Small Biz: Banking Conference
Tim Shanahan recaps the main talking points from Small Biz: Banking Conference: Finding bankers who can sel...
Pricing Competitively with Market Insights | Feb 13 at 1pm ET
Introducing: Market Insights
Tim Shanahan introduces PrecisionLender's newest product: Market Insights. What's the problem Market Insights was built to solve? And how does it solve it? Tim provides the answers in this episode!
A Sneak Peek at the State of Commercial Banking Webinar!
Gita Thollesson, PrecisionLender's SVP of Market Insights, joins the podcast to give a sneak peek at a few of the findings she'll share in her upcoming State of Commercial Banking webinar.
Recession Prep Survey - What Do Bankers REALLY Think?
Commercial bankers responded to a Q4 survey about their bank's state of preparation for an economic downturn. In this episode, we look at the answers and discuss what bankers are REALLY saying.
Top Purposeful Banker Episodes of 2019
Another Purposeful Banker Podcast season is in the books! Here are the top 5 podcasts from 2019.
Finding the Bank's Purpose: Atlantic Capital Bank
Atlantic Capital Bank CEO Doug Williams shares the story of his bank, a difficult acquisition that spurred Atlantic Capital's search for purpose, and how that led to a better bottom line.
Hot Topics from the Small Biz: Banking 2019 Conference
Dallas Wells returns from American Banker's Small Biz: Banking conference and shares his thoughts on the hottest topics of discussion among bankers at the event.
Commercial Banking's Revenue Problem
Greg Demas, PrecisionLender VP for Community & Regional Banking, offers his thoughts on where banks can improve performance. Specifically: more focus on revenue growth and less on expense reduction.
What Commercial Banks Are Saying About Tech Spending
In this episode of the Purposeful Banker, we take a look at Bank Director's 2019 Tech Survey and what it says about commercial bank strategic priorities and spending habits.
The Regional Bank Goldilocks Challenge
What are the challenges regional banks currently face as they strive to become the Goldilocks solution for commercial clients: Not too small, not too big, but ... just right?
What's in a (Bank) Name?
How much do bank names matter? What prompts them to sometimes make a name change? And why are so many bank names so ... similar? All that and more on this Purposeful Banker episode!
The Yield Curve Conundrum
What to about the inverted yield curve? Learn how bankers should adjust to this tricky environment and how their banks can help them make sound long-term decisions about each customer and each deal.
The Story of Beal Bank: Why It Still Resonates
In this episode, we discuss Beal Bank, an unusual bank with an interesting story. It's one that should resonate with banks that are wondering if they’re prepared for a potential downturn.
Bank Strategy for the Next Recession
Will your bank be ready for the next economic downturn? PrecisionLender CEO Carl Ryden and 11:FS CEO David Brear discuss how banks can not only weather the storm but also prosper during tough times.
What's Happening With Commercial Deposits?
Gita Thollesson, PrecisionLender's SVP of Market Insights, comes on the podcast to share some of the findings from her upcoming webinar on the pursuit of commercial deposits.
Key Results from our Commercial Pricing Market Survey
Our recent survey asked commercial bankers about their pricing processes and technology, and the deals their RMs price each day. In this week's episode, we discuss some of the most surprising results.
What You Need to Know About Libor and SOFR
Is Libor really on the way out? Will SOFR be the index to replace it? And how will these changes affect the loans already on your commercial books and the ones you're going to price in the future?
What Poker Pro Annie Duke Can Teach Bankers
What can poker pro, author, and BankOnPurpose 2019 keynote speaker Annie Duke teach commercial bankers about how to make critical decisions with incomplete information?
Winning Tactics of Top RMs: Scaling Best Behaviors
How do you tap into the value of your top RM's behaviors? What should you measure? How do you do measure it? How do you scale that knowledge? Gita Thollesson answers these questions on the podcast.
Riches in the Niches: The Case for Commercial RM Specialization
Greg Martin, a business services officer for BB&T, shares his approach to developing his commercial book. He makes the case for pursuing industry specialization to find "the riches in the niches."
Interview with 11:FS Bank Innovator Leda Glyptis
11:FS chief of staff Leda Glyptis talks about how commercial banks should balance innovation and risk, where banks have gotten their innovation efforts wrong, and where there's hope for the future.
Andi® Skills Builder
Banking Insights Our Story Leadership Careers Culture In the Community Partners Contact Us
Overview Andi Skills Builder Trust & Security Request a Demo
Client Stories Getting Started Support System Status
Resource Center Webinars News Newsletter Sign-Up Podcast BankOnPurpose
info@precisionlender.com
Copyright © 2020 PrecisionLender. All rights reserved. 4201 Congress Street, Suite 200, Charlotte, NC 28209. View our Terms of Service or Privacy Policy.
× Navigation
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1262
|
__label__cc
| 0.633963
| 0.366037
|
The mission of F3 is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership.
New to F3
I’m in F3
QSource
The F3 Nation Podcast
F3 is on Slack
A Guide to Your First Q
Truebadours
F3 Foundation
Workout Locations
GrowRuck
F3 Gear Store
Regional Gear
Use of F3 Trademarks
Dexicon
Posted on May 1, 2018 May 1, 2018 by Dancing Idiot
INFLUENCE (Q2.2)
Igniting A Palpable Desire For Movement
Movement must be voluntarily
A HIM IMPACTs other people through forcible contact to strong effect. The result, the strong effect, is an Advantageous change to the Status Quo in which the IMPACTed person formerly found himself. What he was prior to IMPACT is not as good as where he finds himself afterward—his circumstances having been changed for the better. That is the Advantage.
Because it results in a change in circumstance from the Status Quo, the seeking of Advantage requires a Movement that is beyond the ken of most people on the Sur-Ser Continuum. A Survivor can’t Move (even if he wants to) because he is broken. A Sad Clown won’t Move (even though he could) because he is not Right—which leads him to cling to his Status Quo.
Confronted with people who can’t or won’t initiate Movement in their own lives, the HIM might be tempted to compel Movement through the force of his will rather than initiate it through the strong effect of his forcible contact. Because he is a Virtuous Leader, the HIM will resist that temptation because he knows that it will not work. He has learned, through training or experience (most likely both) that Movement must be voluntary for it to result in a true Advantage. He is also restrained by his personal Guardrails which will not allow him to resort to compulsion to achieve an Outcome that he wants. Knowing what he knows and being who he is, the HIM employs persuasion rather than compulsion to initiate Movement.
We will delve more fully into this topic in the third quadrant (Lead Right), but for now it is enough to know that Persuasion is the initiation of first Movement. It is the use of Influence to convince a man to want to Move rather than the exertion of power to make him move because he has no other choice.
Movement is a release of energy
Ignition is the act of setting something on fire and starting it to burn. It is the transformation of energy from the potential to the kinetic. Potential energy resides in something held motionless by restraint, like water impounded behind a dam. That restrained energy cannot be transferred until it is released and begins to flow.
Likewise the potential of a man. To become kinetic, to be transferable, it must be released into Movement. The HIM helps other men do this by Influencing them to open the floodgates of their lives and let the water flow. He does this primarily through example, by the way he talks and the things he does. Seeing this in the HIM (and the effect it has), the Sad Clown is infected with a palpable desire to initiate Movement in his own life.
A palpable desire is one that can be plainly perceived. Whether by sight, touch or feel it is a yearning (once obscured) that has been driven to the surface and can no longer be ignored. Until his potential energy is released a man stuck behind a dam is inert, suspended in a state of non-Movement. Through Influence, the HIM helps people release their deepest desires for action. He unblocks the dam to let the river flow. He unlocks the Status Quo and releases energy.
The HIM Influences through word and deed
The methods by which a HIM Influences other people are a matter of his own skill and hard-wiring. But the means that all HIMs use are essentially the same: word and deed. The HIM Influences by word and deed. He ignites a powerful desire for Movement in other people by the things he says (and the way he says them) and the things he does (and the way he does them).
Through the combination of word and deed, the HIM Persuades people to abandon their inert life and begin Movement away from the Status Quo. By convincing them that they can do that something that they already want to do, he leads them to then convince themselves that they must do it—or at least try. And it’s the trying that really matters.
I wish I could provide a simple blueprint for the Skill of using words and deeds to Influence, but I can’t. For while I have been blessed to have been powerfully IMPACTED by several HIMs in my life, the methods they each used varied so greatly from man to man that there is no way to do it. The best I can do is reflect on the four broad characteristics they all seemed to share. These are the things that made them Influential.
First, there was something different about them, not from each other but from the other Members of the Organizations in which I encountered them. This difference manifested itself primarily by their apparent unwillingness to go along to get along, even when the getting along was to their individual Advantage. They seemed to be guided primarily by their own sense of Purpose, which often led them to be Disruptive to the Organizational Status Quo. Not surprisingly, this did not endear them to the Organizational Governance, but that was not something that seemed to concern them in the least. Like Peter and the other first apostles who were warned by the Jewish rulers to stop talking about Jesus in the early days after his crucification, their obedience was to a higher Purpose rather than other human beings.
Second, their words were clear and uncompromising. When they spoke, they left me with no doubt as to what they believed or why they believed it. They rarely used the passive voice to avoid taking or assigning responsibility and never said “we” when they meant “I”. As I got to know them, I would invariably discover that one reason their words were so uncompromising was because they themselves were not compromised men. They were Right, in proper personal alignment with themselves, their Concentrica and their Creator. They spoke from the heart because their hearts were pure, unadulterated by the fear and anxiety that are the bitter fruit of personal misalignment.
Third, their deeds were unselfish. This does not mean that everything they did was for the Advantage of others and never themselves, but that nothing they did was ever self-serving while detrimental to the Group. When necessary, they willingly denied themselves or sacrificed their ambitions for the Group’s betterment, but without seeking a flinty martyrdom as a reward. In sum, their deeds evinced a consistent and disciplined desire to subordinate their own will to the Group’s Advantage.
Finally, they approached Problem-solving like Pros rather than Amateurs. For them, an undesirable circumstance was only a Problem if it created a Group dis-Advantage that could and must be remedied. They didn’t waste time trying to alter Conditions that, while unfavorable to the Group, were not things that could be fixed. Likewise, they didn’t waste energy on little-P problems, those dis-Advantages that were either personal to them or only affected a small minority of the Group’s Membership. Rather than react emotionally to Conditions and little-P problems, they Prepared for them.
They were the type of men who would cast a light, if it were both possible and necessary, but would never curse the darkness if wasn’t.
CategoriesInfo, QSource TagsInfluence (Q2.2)
4 Replies to “INFLUENCE (Q2.2)”
Pingback: Preblast for the Week of 5/7/18 – F3 Memphis
Bryce Mahoney says:
That last sentence, to cast a light when possible, but never cursing the dark if not. That hits home as I see too many men cursing the darkness in the absence of light.
Pingback: Qsource Pre-Blast; Q 2.1 – Influence | F3 Cherokee
Pingback: QSource | Q2.1 Impact
Previous PostPrevious IMPACT (Q2.1)
Next PostNext MISSIONALITY (Q2.3)
FiA (Females in Action)
Freed to Lead
Review our privacy policy and terms and conditions.
Announcing the F3 Board of Directors
Application for F3 (Nation) Board Membership
GrowRuck 16 Naperville Pre-Blast
MEETING (Q1.12)
STUDY (Q1.11)
F3 Nation Archives
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1266
|
__label__wiki
| 0.510689
| 0.510689
|
FACES of Clevedon
Clevedon Art Club
Culture Home
The Curzon
Clevedon Pier
Clevedon Marine Lake
Clevedon & District Archaeological Society
Clevedon Civic Society
Conservation and Planning
Clevedon Court
Sustainable Clevedon
Clevedon Twinning Society
All Saints C of E School
Clevedon School
Mary Elton Primary School
St John the Evangelist Church School
St Nicholas’ Chantry
Tickenham C of E Primary School
Yeo Moor Primary School
The Theatre Shop
Theatre Groups
CLOC & CLOC Juniors
Alexandra Road
The Sea-Front
Monthly Sunday Market
Weekly Thursday Market
Monthly Farmers Market
Independent Sellers
Art Humans of Clevedon Independent Sellers
Humans of Clevedon – Grace Kelly
Posted on 11/03/2019 by facesofclevedon
Reading time 11 minutes
I knew that I would be meeting someone special when I met Grace Kelly and I wasn’t disappointed. Grace is a really engaging, bubbly, vivacious individual. She’s one of those people who light up a room when they enter it.
When I first made an appointment to meet up with her, I thought we would start by talking about her paintings which I absolutely adore but then a couple of days prior to meeting her I discovered that she is primarily an actor, and she does the art in her down time! How fabulous to be talented in two such exciting but very different areas and with 85% of actors out of work all the time, how fortunate that she is!
Acting as a career has no job or financial security, and when you are fortunate enough to get into a production, you never know whether it will be your last one. Grace has friends who went straight to the West End from college but have done nothing since. It’s a profession where you are constantly being judged and rejected and you never really get to know why.
Painting as a second job is ideal for someone like Grace because it offers such flexibility. She has the freedom to attend auditions and do the acting without feeling that she’s letting an employer down. She has total control over the number of orders she takes and if she’s in a production she can just stop taking the orders. And, she’s doing something she adores! Happy days!
It was at the age of eight watching a West End performance of Les Mis, where she was speechless with awe and wonder about what was unfolding before her eyes, that Grace knew that acting was going to be her future. After her A – levels Grace was lucky enough to get a place at Arts Ed, in London, an organisation of considerable repute which is not easy to get into. Some of the more well-known Arts Ed alumni include Julie Andrews, Tuppence Middleton, Martin Clunes, Bonnie Langford, Danny Mac and Finn Jones. Find out more about Arts Ed here:
Grace has performed lead roles in the West End, Germany, Toronto and more, all of which she spoke about with great passion. Coming straight out of drama school, she performed in “Titanic, The Musical” which was a brand new story, unconnected to Rose and Jack, focusing instead on the final hours of a mix of real life characters, all unaware of the fate awaiting them. The Third Class, steerage passengers share their dreams and hopes of a better life in America, the newly enfranchised Second Class imagine themselves achieving the lifestyles of the rich and famous, and the millionaire barons of the First Class dream of their achievements and high status lasting forever. Although people singing as they drown sounds horrendous, Grace described the music and lyrics as very beautiful and she loved her role as Kate Murphy, a young Northern Irish girl who dreamt of life as a governess in a better place.
Other productions that Grace particularly enjoyed was her time with the UK tour of SPAMALOT where she was ensemble and also the understudy to the Lady of the Lake. She played the role for a week in Dublin at the Bord Gais Energy theatre which seats over 2000 people; playing Jemima Puddleduck/Mrs Tiggywinkle in ‘Where is Peter Rabbit?’ and singing live on Radio 2’s ‘Friday Night is Music Night’ hosted by Michael Ball.
I was curious to know what her dream role would be and she mentioned Miss Honey in Matilda. The clever, book loving Matilda describes Miss Honey as
‘………….a mild and quiet person who never raised her voice and was seldom seen to smile, but there is no doubt she possessed that rare gift for being adored by every small child under her care.”
Grace would also be very interested in playing Sophie from Mamma Mia – the bubbly, kind, free-spirited twenty something who has always wanted to meet the mysteriously absent father that her mother refuses to talk about.
I could easily imagine Grace in both of these roles and hope that one day she gets to play them. I would happily have spent the rest of the day talking to her about the acting but neither of us had the time and I am so keen to share what drew Grace to my attention in the first place – her considerable art skills,
Whilst pondering what she could do between acting jobs and after a lot of waitressing, Grace remembered the doodles of fairy tale or story book characters that she used to create when she was younger. With the encouragement from family and friends she set up Pencil and Grace in 2016 hoping to sell a few personalised portraits of family, friends, pets and places to help support her acting. Pencil and Grace has now grown more than she had hoped, so much so that she now feels that maybe one day the painting could take over!
Quality is important to Grace and she uses a professional grade watercolour paper of the highest quality and the fabulous, vibrant watercolours of Winsor and Newton. Armed with these beautiful materials Grace creates original, personal pieces of art from family photos and memories. It’s a process that Grace enjoys from start to finish, she loves discussing her commissions and making sure she has fully understood what is required. She loves that her art brings people together, in the sense that she has on many occasions been asked to create a piece which may include the image of someone who has passed away or who lives abroad, and she loves people’s reaction when they get to see their commission for the first time.
I wondered what had influenced Grace’s style of art and she immediately mentioned the work of Nick Sharett who did all the wonderful illustrations for Jaqueline Wilson’s children’s books. Perhaps that’s why I like Grace’s work so much because although I would describe it as contemporary art, it evokes all the happy memories of childhood reading and reading to Matthew my son. Focusing on the images added so much to the stories and lent itself to endless musings on the characters and what adventures were yet to befall them.
The acting career that Grace has chosen is not an easy one – the competition is fierce, the auditions are physically and psychologically demanding and life is basically a roller coaster of highs and lows! Having a passion that is so different, albeit creative and totally absorbing, offers Grace a chance to do something she loves whilst enjoying some downtime. Sitting at her desk, looking out of the window of her top floor flat, creating her beautiful art, glancing up occasionally to look at the Pier is a far cry from the hurly – burly of auditions.
Grace’s plans for the future include a range of lovely products such as gift paper, mugs, cards and hopefully more of these lovely collections like the ‘Inspirational Ladies’ who are featured on the banner at the top of this post. However Pencil and Grace develops, it’s sure to be exciting just like it’s creator.
It was such a pleasure getting to know Grace, she hasn’t been in Clevedon very long but loves it, she particularly mentioned the support that she has had since moving here. FACES of Clevedon are happy to be a part of that support and we will keep you in touch with her work through our Facebook Page, Twitter and Instagram.
Thank you for the commission you recently did for me Grace, I’ll be in touch again at Christmas. All the best with both of your passions.
Have a look at Grace’s Etsy Shop here:
Why am I just hearing about Doris Hatt?
‘I like to move it, move it!’
Have something to say? Leave a Reply... Cancel reply
Search FACES of Clevedon…
Mrs C M Holmes on Humans of Clevedon – Alistair…
facesofclevedon on Humans of Clevedon – Jan…
Jay Gilliland on Humans of Clevedon – Jan…
facesofclevedon on Clevedon Sunday Market
Alexandra Bridger on Clevedon Sunday Market
Clevedon FACES on Twitter:
Alexandra Road (6) Announcements (4) Art (9) Bars (4) Cafés (5) Charities (5) Clevedon Art Club (3) Clevedon Marine Lake (2) Clevedon Pier (3) Clevedon School (8) CLOC & CLOC Juniors (1) Community (1) Culture (16) Dance (7) Entertainment (16) Food (9) Health (4) Hill Road (12) Humans of Clevedon (19) Independent Sellers (9) Markets (3) Monthly Sunday Market (4) Music (9) Pubs (5) Restaurants (6) Schools (1) Shopping (20) Sport (2) Theatre Groups (9) The Curzon (10) The Sea-Front (8) The Theatre Shop (3) The Triangle (9) Tickenham C of E Primary School (1) Weekly Thursday Market (1) Yeo Moor Primary School (1)
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkReject non-functional cookies
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1268
|
__label__cc
| 0.702875
| 0.297125
|
by Stacy Roman
Full of glamour, beauty and stunning scenery, Italy captivates our imagination and leaves us breathless. The Amalfi coast is one such place. Tucked along a 50-kilometer-long stretch of rugged coastline, lemon and olive groves flourish in the rocky and jagged hills above the crystalline waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea. While visitors often flock to the busier and more well-known cities of Positano, Salerno and Sorrento (and rightfully so), there are plenty of tiny villages dotting the landscape of this UNESCO World Heritage site yearning to be discovered.
A mere 25-minute drive from larger Positano, it’s easy to see why the ancient fishing village of Praiano was a favorite summer residence for the Amalfi royalty. Sun-bleached houses line the craggy hillside above the idyllic beaches below. Take a hike to the ruins of Torre a Mare, a tower which once protected the town from pirates. During the summer, catch the time-honored festival Luminaria di San Domenico in the Piazza San Gennaro. More than 2,000 lights and candles illuminate the square, with locals performing heart-stopping fire dances.
Nestled into the rocks of the “Valley by the Sea,” this charming village is a fantastic spot to eat, drink and be merry. Visitors can take a short boat trip to Grotto dello Smeraldo, a cave with stalactites jutting from the ceiling and stalagmites piercing through the floor. Filled with turquoise water, the light emanating from fissures in the grotto give it an ethereal glow. Once you’ve got your land legs back, head to one of the quaint cafes for the local delicacy “sfogliatella Santa Rosa.” This mouth-watering flaky pastry was invented by local nuns and has become so popular, a weeklong festival is held in its honor every August.
Atrani, Italy | Photo by khunaspix
Escape the hustle, bustle and mass tourism of neighboring city Amalfi and head approximately 10 minutes east to the quiet village of Atrani. This peaceful hamlet is one of the best-preserved ancient fishing villages in this part of Italy. With less than 1,000 people, visitors get a more genuine Italian experience and gorgeous vistas of Amalfi minus the crowds. There are plenty of medieval churches and castle ruins to explore, as well as a golden, warm beach to relax on.
With jaw-dropping vistas of the rocky cliff sides and the Tyrrhenian Sea, Ravello is one of the few villages along the Amalfi coast which isn’t directly on the water. Tucked three kilometers above the shoreline, this bustling town is known for its beautiful, locally handmade pottery and the stunning white-washed Duomo di Ravello. Built in the 11th century, the cathedral features an ornate pulpit and colorful mosaics. Need a breather from sight-seeing? Why not try your hand at Italian cooking? The famous Mamma Agata Cooking School offers delicious, family-friendly culinary classes in authentic cuisine.
A summer paradise since the Roman Empire, Maiori is a fantastic place to unwind. Boasting the longest stretch of sandy beach along the coast, there are plenty of spots to soak up the sun. As you walk through the village, you’ll notice the architecture may be more modern than expected. In 1954, a devastating flood ravaged much of the original historical center. Luckily, the exquisite Santa Maria a Mare cathedral was spared. With a uniquely tiled dome, colorful artwork and panoramic vistas, it’s well worth the 200 steps to get to the top.
Vibrant lemon groves, winding vineyards and olive trees abound in the sleepy fishing village of Erchie. Less than 100 people call this tiny locale home, which lends to an old-world feel and charm. Take a boat through the crystal clear waters of the nearby grotto to reach the secluded Spiaggetta degli Inamorati, or lovers’ beach. Don’t worry too much about traffic and congestion in town – the seaside area is inaccessible to cars and motorcycles.
Veitri sul Mare, Italy | Photo by Selina Irina
Only 15 minutes west of Salerno, the dividing line between the two cities is literally a concrete harbor wall jutting out in the azure waters. Vietri sul Mare is more industrious and less reliant on tourist dollars than its neighboring villages. Dating back to the Roman Empire, they’ve perfected the art of ceramics and porcelain-making. With distinctive hues of greens, blues and yellow, the quintessential pottery is sold in storefronts along the steep, narrow alleys and streets. You can’t miss the distinguished tiled dome and bell tower of the Church of St. John the Baptist, which dates back to the 1730s. Sip on locally made limoncello cocktails while watching the sun fade into gorgeous hues of pink and purple.
Whether you’re looking for regional specialties, one-of-a-kind adventures, dazzling sandy beaches to relax on, or just an authentic Italian experience, you won’t want to miss the amazing Amalfi Coast.
Lovely Lithuania
The charm of Italy’s Cinque Terre
5 reasons to visit Matera, Italy
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1273
|
__label__wiki
| 0.755247
| 0.755247
|
About ESS
The ESS Mandate
The ESS Story
Neutrons: The Science of Everyday Life
ESS Organisation
ESS Privacy and Cookies Policies
Contact ESS
Tours & Visits
Science & Instruments
Science Using Neutrons
Chemistry of Materials, Magnetic & Electronic Phenomena
Engineering Materials, Geosciences, Archeology & Heritage Conservation and Fast Neutron Applications
Life Science & Soft Condensed Matter
Instrument Technologies
Chopper Systems
Choppers Research & Development
Detector Systems
Detectors Research & Development
Neutron Optics & Shielding
Data Management & Software Centre
Science Support Systems
PREMP
FLUCO
TEFI
SULF
SCUO
Workshops & Facilities
Beam Physics, Operation & Beam Diagnostics
Specialized Technical Services
LINAC
Engineering Resources & Safety
Building ESS
The Building Project
Site, Architecture & Sustainability
Licensing & Planning
Radiation Protection & Safety
Site Weekly Updates
Partners & Industry
Procurement Listings
Contract Award Notices
Grants & Events
Living & Working in Scandinavia
In Sweden
ESS Family Support
ESS Inside
The ESS Mandate ESS Organisation News & Press Publications Legal & IP Contact ESS
Science Using Neutrons Instruments Instrument Technologies Data Management & Software Centre Science Support Systems Workshops & Facilities
Technical Management Accelerator Target Controls
Partnerships & Collaborations The Building Project Site Weekly Updates Aerial Views Webcams
In-Kind Contributions Procurement Industrial Suppliers Grants & Events
Vacancies Living & Working in Scandinavia ESS Family Support
Behind ESS
Pan-European ESS Data Management and Software Centre Takes Form in Copenhagen
The Experiment Data.
The ESS Data Management and Software Centre is an integrated part of the design and construction of the ESS instrument suite and a key driver in the development of the facility’s user program.
Above: A schematic showing the domain of the ESS Data Management & Software Centre relative to Instruments, Instrument Technologies, and ICS. IMAGE: ESS
COPENHAGEN and LUND—From the moment the first neutrons produced by the European Spallation Source (ESS) register their existence on a detector, the raw experiment data will flow from Lund, Sweden, to Copenhagen, Denmark, and then on to the ESS scientific user community throughout Europe. Constructing and operating this comprehensive data workflow is the core function of the ESS Data Management and Software Centre (DMSC), which is a vital part of the ESS scientific user program.
DMSC Director Mark Hagen in his office in Copenhagen. PHOTO: ESS
“DMSC is an integral part of the ESS Science Directorate. Our work is completely focused towards supporting the scientific research programme of ESS,” states Mark Hagen, the Centre’s director, who previously worked at the ISIS neutron source in the UK and the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA during their respective construction phases.
“In the near term—the next few years—we are very much focused on enabling the instruments to operate by developing the control software, the data reduction software, and the initial data analysis software,” explains Hagen. “In the longer term we are dedicated to ensuring that the data analysis and modelling software is available to extract the maximum amount of scientific information from the experimental data.”
Processed in real time, the continuous stream of experiment data from the ESS instruments will be converted to scientifically meaningful information that can be displayed on a user interface, on-demand and worldwide. Through an iterative, software-assisted process of visualisation and analysis, researchers will be able to view the output of a neutron scattering experiment as it is taking place and begin to interpret results.
Network of European Collaboration
The success of the ESS scientific user program, which is expected to begin in 2023, will rest on a strong network of global research collaborations and in-kind partnerships diligently cultivated across the project for more than three decades. The ESS In-Kind Contributions (IKC) model is of a scale never attempted before in a research infrastructure project. In order to achieve its goals, DMSC will likewise take a community-driven approach to software development that fits neatly within the ESS IKC model.
To develop the data reduction and analysis software required by ESS, DMSC expects to draw upon the experience and resources of in-kind partners that include ISIS, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland, and the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) in Germany. Other neutron facilities and university groups in Europe and globally will also participate, such as the USA’s SNS.
The DMSC staff in Copenhagen. From left, Mark Hagen, Sune Rastad Bahn, Thomas Holm Rod, Brian Lindgren Jensen, Simon Heybrock, Danielle Adonis, Jesper Rude Selknaes, Petra Aulin, Tobias Richter, Thomas Larsen, Jonathan Taylor, Torben Nielsen, Michael Wedel, and Céline Durniak. Absent from the photograph are Daniel Fulla Marsa and Peter Willendrup. The group is standing in front of an apple tree planted on the UCPH campus that has been grown from a sapling originating from the tree under which Newton supposedly first conceived his theory of universal gravitation. PHOTO: ESS
Additionally DMSC is part of two recently established European Union programmes funded through Horizon 2020—SINE2020 and BrightnESS. Each will provide additional focus in a software area critical to ESS.
In SINE2020—world-class Science and Innovation with Neutrons in Europe for 2020, managed by Institut Laue Langevin (ILL)—DMSC will lead a Joint Research Activity (JRA) on Data Analysis and Software to develop a pan-European, modular, interoperable analysis suite. This work will be done in collaboration with ILL and Laboratoire Léon Brillouin (LLB) in France, JCNS/MLZ, ISIS, and the Swiss Spallation Source (SINQ) at PSI.
BrightnESS is a €20 million grant that will support ESS through a broad range of activities, including work packages in the area of detector event processing software. Detector event processing is a task traditionally done via electronics, but ESS’s software-based processing will allow scientists to be more flexible and selective, and potentially more precise, in discriminating and locating neutron events on detectors. This project will add to DMSC’s expertise that of scientists and software professionals from PSI, the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) and the synchrotron source Elettra in Italy.
“One of the things I really find great about ESS with DMSC is that it’s an international collaboration,” says Sune Rastad Bahn, a UCPH and Technical University of Denmark (DTU) alumnus who joined DMSC in May 2015. “I think we should always remind ourselves it’s about all of the partner countries. It goes all the way down to the individual scientists who will visit us. They should all feel they’re part of ESS.”
The DMSC workflow. Click for a more detailed graphic. IMAGE: ESS
Ramping Up
The DMSC is located on the campus of UCPH and has itself emerged from an early partnership between ESS and the University. Originally known as the Interim Data Centre at UCPH’s Niels Bohr Institute, the group began its work as part of the Danish pre-construction contribution to the ESS project. On January 1, 2014, the Interim Data Centre staff members officially joined ESS as DMSC, and were organized into four groups: Data Management, Instrument Data, Data Analysis & Modelling, and Data Systems & Technologies.
The scheduled ramp-up for activities within DMSC necessarily aligns closely with that of the engineering and construction of the ESS instrument suite and the development of the facility-wide Integrated Control System (ICS). As the data centre prepares for hot commissioning of the first ESS instruments, the next two years will see a rapid growth in collaborative software development involving many partners. Currently, an extensive operation to gather requirements from neutron science users and facilities across Europe is underway.
DMSC currently has a staff of 15, which will soon grow quickly as in-kind partners begin their work. A decade from now, when ESS is fully operational with thousands of experiments performed annually, the staff is expected to peak between 60-70 employees working as part of the larger support structure of the ESS scientific user program.
“Historically in neutron scattering the instrument scientists had to do everything for an instrument,” explains Hagen. “They were the people who had to fill the cryostat, tighten bolts on the instrument, and work on the data analysis. Nowadays, it’s clear that the amount of work to do for a neutron scattering experiment has gotten larger and larger and it really takes a team to support the experiments. A team with a variety of different skills, and the people at DMSC will be part of that team.”
The Hardware
One of DMSC’s first priorities is to establish reliable and easy access to experiment data. To this end, a system of software servers is currently being designed for placement in Lund and Copenhagen, with the focal computational power housed at the DMSC’s building in Copenhagen.
Rastad Bahn (left) in the DMSC server room in Copenhagen. PHOTO: ESS
“As soon as the infrastructure design is ready, we will do a lot of preliminary set-up and testing,” says Sune Rastad Bahn, group leader for the Data Systems & Technologies group that has responsibility for DMSC’s hardware. “As we get closer to the instruments being commissioned, we will start to scale up. The infrastructure will be rock solid. Instrument users should rightfully have full trust their data is kept safe.”
A dedicated optical fibre will connect the two sites for data transfer across the Öresund Bridge and tunnel that span the waterway between Sweden and Denmark. The cable is scheduled to be in place by 2018.
The Instrument Interface
To begin an experiment on one of the neutron instruments in the ESS Instrument Hall in Lund, researchers will rely on the instrument’s experiment control interface. DMSC’s Instrument Data group and in-kind partners PSI and the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the UK are developing the interface software.
The experiment control interface will be used to control a wide range of user-definable instrument settings. Depending on the instrument, these may include chopper configurations, adjustments to beam-defining components like collimation and aperture size, and sample environment parameters such as temperature and pressure. Naturally, this information is also critical to calculations that determine the significance of the raw data generated at the detectors, and is recorded as the experiment’s metadata.
“The control interface will be a modular software system,” explains Jonathan Taylor, leader of the Instrument Data group. “It will have the same look and feel across the entire instrument suite of ESS with specific customisations for each of the instruments, depending on the differing science areas served by the instrument and the different methods the instrument scientist wants to use.”
This expandable and customisable set of discrete software modules is being designed to form the basis of an adaptable standard, applicable throughout Europe. This software will direct mechanical adjustments to the instrument and sample environment through its interface with EPICS, the industry-standard Experimental Physics & Industrial Control System, which is implemented and managed by the ESS ICS Division.
“Our work will be done with in-kind partners, and essentially we’re going to take an existing experiment control framework and develop on top of it,” explains Taylor. “The aim is then not to just have commonality across ESS but also commonality with our partner neutron labs in Europe.”
Stream, Reduce, Visualize, Repeat
Once the parameters for the experiment have been set and the instrument and sample environment adjusted, the experiment is run. Data collection begins when the neutrons scattered from a sample are recorded in the instrument’s detectors. For each of these detected neutrons the positions and arrival times are recorded as event data organized in “frames”. A frame is the time interval between neutron beam pulses, which at ESS will be 71 milliseconds. Each frame of neutron data, along with its metadata, is then transmitted to data-aggregating computing stations in Lund and Copenhagen.
DMSC group leaders, clockwise from top left: Jonathan Taylor, Sune Rastad Bahn, Thomas Holm Rod, and Tobias Richter. PHOTOS: ESS
From here, the goal is to achieve an optimal processing speed that allows ESS to stream the raw data, process it, and return meaningful and scientifically valid data back to its users in as close to real time as possible. The visual data will be made available, in Lund or elsewhere, as a continuously streamed channel, available on demand. Individual scientists monitoring the experiment will be able to subscribe and “tune in” frame by frame.
“We plan to have a prototype data streaming system running by the end of 2016,” says Tobias Richter, leader of the Data Management group. “It may not have the performance at that time for the full flux of ESS, and some of the processing may not be in place, but we will have a pipeline for continuous improvement to reach our targets. It is critical to transport the data correctly, and this really motivates us to do a good job and write reliable software.”
The data-aggregating software and systems managed by Richter’s group will also write a backup copy of the data both in Lund and Copenhagen for the rare case that the stream is interrupted. The Data Management group, together with its European in-kind partners, will also supply data writing and data cataloguing services for ESS users.
Once aggregated, the raw data is then reduced into scientific units—such as momentum transfer (Q) from time-of-flight data—using Mantid, an Open Source software framework originally developed at ISIS. This large-scale live data reduction—to be developed by Taylor’s Instrument Data group in collaboration with STFC—will allow the data to be modelled into meaningful representations and returned to the instrument users as dynamic one-, two-, three- and four-dimensional visualisations of the particle interactions measured by the experiment.
Mantid data reduction and visualisation in action, using data from a simulated neutron scattering experiment. IMAGE: ESS
From Reduced Data to Scientific Understanding
The process of converting the reduced data into scientific models that can be visualized and interpreted is an iterative one that typically requires human interaction with the data. Delivering the software to enable this is the role of the Data Analysis & Modelling group, headed by Thomas Holm Rod.
“It is crucial for us to get our in-kind contributions in place soon so that we can start on providing and developing the data analysis software that will be required to ensure the scientific success of the first ESS instruments when they come online,” says Holm Rod. “These in-kind contributions are essential for us because they are a means to leverage the experience and knowledge of the European neutron scattering community.”
To develop and test their data analysis and modelling software, the group will use virtual data generated by a neutron instrument simulation program called McStas.
“Peter Willendrup, from DTU, is a lead developer of McStas and spends a third of his time in my group to assist us with using it,” says Holm Rod. “Torben Nielsen in my group has already used McStas to test aspects of the data flow and analysis for the instrument LoKI, which is a small-angle neutron scattering instrument and one of the first instruments to be endorsed for construction at ESS.”
The DMSC Data Analysis group, from left: Torben Nielsen, Thomas Holm Rod, and Céline Durniak. PHOTO: ESS
A Foundation for Future Development Across Europe
In addition to delivering the software for data analysis for the first days of instrument operations at ESS, it is also the goal of Holm Rod’s group to deliver a platform that can be used for future development of more sophisticated analysis tools. This platform will be designed to enable developers in the neutron scattering community to contribute in a controlled fashion.
For these same reasons, the Data Analysis & Modelling group will coordinate the SINE2020 JRA on Data Analysis and Software—in partnership with ILL, JCNS/MLZ, LLB, ISIS, and PSI—with the aim of creating the foundation for a common software suite at European neutron sources. This highlights another important aspect of IKCs, which is that partner facilities in many cases will be able to use the software that they contribute to ESS at their own facilities. This provides ESS with the opportunity to test the software on real data from real instruments during the ESS Construction Phase, when it will not be possible to test it on ESS instruments.
dmsc_intro_pdf.pdf1.44 MB pdf
dmsc_workflow_ar.pdf18.84 KB pdf
First staff move into brand-new Lab Buildings
ESS gets a visual identity facelift
Getting a green light to operate, step by step
Changing landscape for Europe's neutron science community
Better batteries for a rechargeable world
© ESS. All rights reserved
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1274
|
__label__cc
| 0.631182
| 0.368818
|
EV marketplace
Tesla Model S 75D
More deals to explore
2017 Tesla Model S 75D
* Your data will be kept confidential and shared only with the dealer of this car.
About this car
Tesla Model S 75D has a 75 kWh battery which provides a range of up to 259 mi.
It is powered by two AC-induction motors with a power output of 329 hp (245 kW) and 485 lb-ft of torque.
The car accelerates 0-100 mph in 4.2 s and reaches a top speed of 143 mph.
Max charging power is 11.5 kW when charging at AC charging stations or 120 kW at DC fast charging stations.
It can tow up to lb.
Get a Personal Deal for Tesla Model S 75D
We'll search through all dealers in your area and negotiate with them to find the best price specially for you
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1277
|
__label__wiki
| 0.938591
| 0.938591
|
© kornwa dreamstime.com Electronics Production | January 17, 2013
Lexington, CloverTrail+ and BayTrail
Editor: Staff Editor
Intel rolled out a new processor platform —formerly known as Lexington— at CES in Las Vegas last week.
Intel unveiled a new low-power Atom processor-based platform (formerly "Lexington") and smartphone reference design, targeted at the value smartphone market segment, which industry sources predict could reach 500 million units by 2015. "The addition of the low-power Atom platform enables Intel to address new market segments and further rounds out our expanding portfolio of smartphone offerings," said Mike Bell, vice president and general manager of the Mobile and Communications Group. "We believe the experience that comes with Intel Inside will be a welcomed choice by first-time buyers in emerging markets, as well as with our customers who can deploy more cost-conscious devices without sacrificing device performance or user experience." Bell also highlighted the forthcoming Intel Atom Z2580 processor platform (formerly "Clover Trail+") targeted at performance and mainstream smartphones. The platform includes a dual core Atom processor with Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, and also features a dual-core graphics engine. He also unveiled details about the company's next-generation 22nm Atom SoC, codenamed "Bay Trail," which is already booting and scheduled to be available for holiday 2013. "With Bay Trail we will build on the work done with our current SoC development and accelerate very quickly by leveraging Intel's core computing strengths," Bell said. "We will take advantage of the tremendous software assets and expertise at our disposal to deliver the best products with best-in-class user experiences."
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1280
|
__label__cc
| 0.590438
| 0.409562
|
Proof of Concept (PoC) (24) Apply Proof of Concept (PoC) filter
United Kingdom (2123) Apply United Kingdom filter
Displaying 1 - 50 of 293. Show 10 | 20 | 50 | 100 results per page.
Project acronym 9 SALT
Project Reassessing Ninth Century Philosophy. A Synchronic Approach to the Logical Traditions
Researcher (PI) Christophe Florian Erismann
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT WIEN
Summary This project aims at a better understanding of the philosophical richness of ninth century thought using the unprecedented and highly innovative method of the synchronic approach. The hypothesis directing this synchronic approach is that studying together in parallel the four main philosophical traditions of the century – i.e. Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic – will bring results that the traditional enquiry limited to one tradition alone can never reach. This implies pioneering a new methodology to overcome the compartmentalization of research which prevails nowadays. Using this method is only possible because the four conditions of applicability – comparable intellectual environment, common text corpus, similar methodological perspective, commensurable problems – are fulfilled. The ninth century, a time of cultural renewal in the Carolingian, Byzantine and Abbasid empires, possesses the remarkable characteristic – which ensures commensurability – that the same texts, namely the writings of Aristotelian logic (mainly Porphyry’s Isagoge and Aristotle’s Categories) were read and commented upon in Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic alike. Logic is fundamental to philosophical enquiry. The contested question is the human capacity to rationalise, analyse and describe the sensible reality, to understand the ontological structure of the world, and to define the types of entities which exist. The use of this unprecedented synchronic approach will allow us a deeper understanding of the positions, a clear identification of the a priori postulates of the philosophical debates, and a critical evaluation of the arguments used. It provides a unique opportunity to compare the different traditions and highlight the heritage which is common, to stress the specificities of each tradition when tackling philosophical issues and to discover the doctrinal results triggered by their mutual interactions, be they constructive (scholarly exchanges) or polemic (religious controversies).
This project aims at a better understanding of the philosophical richness of ninth century thought using the unprecedented and highly innovative method of the synchronic approach. The hypothesis directing this synchronic approach is that studying together in parallel the four main philosophical traditions of the century – i.e. Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic – will bring results that the traditional enquiry limited to one tradition alone can never reach. This implies pioneering a new methodology to overcome the compartmentalization of research which prevails nowadays. Using this method is only possible because the four conditions of applicability – comparable intellectual environment, common text corpus, similar methodological perspective, commensurable problems – are fulfilled. The ninth century, a time of cultural renewal in the Carolingian, Byzantine and Abbasid empires, possesses the remarkable characteristic – which ensures commensurability – that the same texts, namely the writings of Aristotelian logic (mainly Porphyry’s Isagoge and Aristotle’s Categories) were read and commented upon in Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic alike. Logic is fundamental to philosophical enquiry. The contested question is the human capacity to rationalise, analyse and describe the sensible reality, to understand the ontological structure of the world, and to define the types of entities which exist. The use of this unprecedented synchronic approach will allow us a deeper understanding of the positions, a clear identification of the a priori postulates of the philosophical debates, and a critical evaluation of the arguments used. It provides a unique opportunity to compare the different traditions and highlight the heritage which is common, to stress the specificities of each tradition when tackling philosophical issues and to discover the doctrinal results triggered by their mutual interactions, be they constructive (scholarly exchanges) or polemic (religious controversies).
Project acronym A-LIFE
Project Absorbing aerosol layers in a changing climate: aging, lifetime and dynamics
Researcher (PI) Bernadett Barbara Weinzierl
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2014-STG
Summary Aerosols (i.e. tiny particles suspended in the air) are regularly transported in huge amounts over long distances impacting air quality, health, weather and climate thousands of kilometers downwind of the source. Aerosols affect the atmospheric radiation budget through scattering and absorption of solar radiation and through their role as cloud/ice nuclei. In particular, light absorption by aerosol particles such as mineral dust and black carbon (BC; thought to be the second strongest contribution to current global warming after CO2) is of fundamental importance from a climate perspective because the presence of absorbing particles (1) contributes to solar radiative forcing, (2) heats absorbing aerosol layers, (3) can evaporate clouds and (4) change atmospheric dynamics. Considering this prominent role of aerosols, vertically-resolved in-situ data on absorbing aerosols are surprisingly scarce and aerosol-dynamic interactions are poorly understood in general. This is, as recognized in the last IPCC report, a serious barrier for taking the accuracy of climate models and predictions to the next level. To overcome this barrier, I propose to investigate aging, lifetime and dynamics of absorbing aerosol layers with a holistic end-to-end approach including laboratory studies, airborne field experiments and numerical model simulations. Building on the internationally recognized results of my aerosol research group and my long-term experience with airborne aerosol measurements, the time seems ripe to systematically bridge the gap between in-situ measurements of aerosol microphysical and optical properties and the assessment of dynamical interactions of absorbing particles with aerosol layer lifetime through model simulations. The outcomes of this project will provide fundamental new understanding of absorbing aerosol layers in the climate system and important information for addressing the benefits of BC emission controls for mitigating climate change.
Aerosols (i.e. tiny particles suspended in the air) are regularly transported in huge amounts over long distances impacting air quality, health, weather and climate thousands of kilometers downwind of the source. Aerosols affect the atmospheric radiation budget through scattering and absorption of solar radiation and through their role as cloud/ice nuclei. In particular, light absorption by aerosol particles such as mineral dust and black carbon (BC; thought to be the second strongest contribution to current global warming after CO2) is of fundamental importance from a climate perspective because the presence of absorbing particles (1) contributes to solar radiative forcing, (2) heats absorbing aerosol layers, (3) can evaporate clouds and (4) change atmospheric dynamics. Considering this prominent role of aerosols, vertically-resolved in-situ data on absorbing aerosols are surprisingly scarce and aerosol-dynamic interactions are poorly understood in general. This is, as recognized in the last IPCC report, a serious barrier for taking the accuracy of climate models and predictions to the next level. To overcome this barrier, I propose to investigate aging, lifetime and dynamics of absorbing aerosol layers with a holistic end-to-end approach including laboratory studies, airborne field experiments and numerical model simulations. Building on the internationally recognized results of my aerosol research group and my long-term experience with airborne aerosol measurements, the time seems ripe to systematically bridge the gap between in-situ measurements of aerosol microphysical and optical properties and the assessment of dynamical interactions of absorbing particles with aerosol layer lifetime through model simulations. The outcomes of this project will provide fundamental new understanding of absorbing aerosol layers in the climate system and important information for addressing the benefits of BC emission controls for mitigating climate change.
Project acronym ABINITIODGA
Project Ab initio Dynamical Vertex Approximation
Researcher (PI) Karsten Held
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN
Summary Some of the most fascinating physical phenomena are experimentally observed in strongly correlated electron systems and, on the theoretical side, only poorly understood hitherto. The aim of the ERC project AbinitioDGA is the development, implementation and application of a new, 21th century method for the ab initio calculation of materials with such strong electronic correlations. AbinitioDGA includes strong electronic correlations on all time and length scales and hence is a big step beyond the state-of-the-art methods, such as the local density approximation, dynamical mean field theory, and the GW approach (Green function G times screened interaction W). It has the potential for an extraordinary high impact not only in the field of computational materials science but also for a better understanding of quantum critical heavy fermion systems, high-temperature superconductors, and transport through nano- and heterostructures. These four physical problems and related materials will be studied within the ERC project, besides the methodological development. On the technical side, AbinitioDGA realizes Hedin's idea to include vertex corrections beyond the GW approximation. All vertex corrections which can be traced back to a fully irreducible local vertex and the bare non-local Coulomb interaction are included. This way, AbinitioDGA does not only contain the GW physics of screened exchange and the strong local correlations of dynamical mean field theory but also non-local correlations beyond on all length scales. Through the latter, AbinitioDGA can prospectively describe phenomena such as quantum criticality, spin-fluctuation mediated superconductivity, and weak localization corrections to the conductivity. Nonetheless, the computational effort is still manageable even for realistic materials calculations, making the considerable effort to implement AbinitioDGA worthwhile.
Some of the most fascinating physical phenomena are experimentally observed in strongly correlated electron systems and, on the theoretical side, only poorly understood hitherto. The aim of the ERC project AbinitioDGA is the development, implementation and application of a new, 21th century method for the ab initio calculation of materials with such strong electronic correlations. AbinitioDGA includes strong electronic correlations on all time and length scales and hence is a big step beyond the state-of-the-art methods, such as the local density approximation, dynamical mean field theory, and the GW approach (Green function G times screened interaction W). It has the potential for an extraordinary high impact not only in the field of computational materials science but also for a better understanding of quantum critical heavy fermion systems, high-temperature superconductors, and transport through nano- and heterostructures. These four physical problems and related materials will be studied within the ERC project, besides the methodological development. On the technical side, AbinitioDGA realizes Hedin's idea to include vertex corrections beyond the GW approximation. All vertex corrections which can be traced back to a fully irreducible local vertex and the bare non-local Coulomb interaction are included. This way, AbinitioDGA does not only contain the GW physics of screened exchange and the strong local correlations of dynamical mean field theory but also non-local correlations beyond on all length scales. Through the latter, AbinitioDGA can prospectively describe phenomena such as quantum criticality, spin-fluctuation mediated superconductivity, and weak localization corrections to the conductivity. Nonetheless, the computational effort is still manageable even for realistic materials calculations, making the considerable effort to implement AbinitioDGA worthwhile.
Project acronym ACTIVENP
Project Active and low loss nano photonics (ActiveNP)
Researcher (PI) Thomas Arno Klar
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT LINZ
Summary This project aims at designing novel hybrid nanophotonic devices comprising metallic nanostructures and active elements such as dye molecules or colloidal quantum dots. Three core objectives, each going far beyond the state of the art, shall be tackled: (i) Metamaterials containing gain materials: Metamaterials introduce magnetism to the optical frequency range and hold promise to create entirely novel devices for light manipulation. Since present day metamaterials are extremely absorptive, it is of utmost importance to fight losses. The ground-breaking approach of this proposal is to incorporate fluorescing species into the nanoscale metallic metastructures in order to compensate losses by stimulated emission. (ii) The second objective exceeds the ansatz of compensating losses and will reach out for lasing action. Individual metallic nanostructures such as pairs of nanoparticles will form novel and unusual nanometre sized resonators for laser action. State of the art microresonators still have a volume of at least half of the wavelength cubed. Noble metal nanoparticle resonators scale down this volume by a factor of thousand allowing for truly nanoscale coherent light sources. (iii) A third objective concerns a substantial improvement of nonlinear effects. This will be accomplished by drastically sharpened resonances of nanoplasmonic devices surrounded by active gain materials. An interdisciplinary team of PhD students and a PostDoc will be assembled, each scientist being uniquely qualified to cover one of the expertise fields: Design, spectroscopy, and simulation. The project s outcome is twofold: A substantial expansion of fundamental understanding of nanophotonics and practical devices such as nanoscopic lasers and low loss metamaterials.
This project aims at designing novel hybrid nanophotonic devices comprising metallic nanostructures and active elements such as dye molecules or colloidal quantum dots. Three core objectives, each going far beyond the state of the art, shall be tackled: (i) Metamaterials containing gain materials: Metamaterials introduce magnetism to the optical frequency range and hold promise to create entirely novel devices for light manipulation. Since present day metamaterials are extremely absorptive, it is of utmost importance to fight losses. The ground-breaking approach of this proposal is to incorporate fluorescing species into the nanoscale metallic metastructures in order to compensate losses by stimulated emission. (ii) The second objective exceeds the ansatz of compensating losses and will reach out for lasing action. Individual metallic nanostructures such as pairs of nanoparticles will form novel and unusual nanometre sized resonators for laser action. State of the art microresonators still have a volume of at least half of the wavelength cubed. Noble metal nanoparticle resonators scale down this volume by a factor of thousand allowing for truly nanoscale coherent light sources. (iii) A third objective concerns a substantial improvement of nonlinear effects. This will be accomplished by drastically sharpened resonances of nanoplasmonic devices surrounded by active gain materials. An interdisciplinary team of PhD students and a PostDoc will be assembled, each scientist being uniquely qualified to cover one of the expertise fields: Design, spectroscopy, and simulation. The project s outcome is twofold: A substantial expansion of fundamental understanding of nanophotonics and practical devices such as nanoscopic lasers and low loss metamaterials.
Project acronym AdjustNet
Project Self-Adjusting Networks
Researcher (PI) Stefan SCHMID
Summary Communication networks have become a critical infrastructure of our digital society. However, with the explosive growth of data-centric applications and the resulting increasing workloads headed for the world’s datacenter networks, today’s static and demand-oblivious network architectures are reaching their capacity limits. The AdjustNet project proposes a radically different perspective, envisioning demand-aware networks which can dynamically adapt their topology to the workload they currently serve. Such self-adjusting networks hence allow to exploit structure in the demand, and thereby reach higher levels of efficiency and performance. The vision of AdjustNet is timely and enabled by recent innovations in optical technologies which allow to flexibly reconfigure the physical network topology. The goal of AdjustNet is to lay the theoretical foundations for self-adjusting networks. We will identify metrics that serve as yardstick of what can and cannot be achieved in a self-adjusting network for a given demand, devise algorithms for online adaption, and validate our framework through case studies. Our novel methodology is motivated by an intriguing connection of self-adjusting networks to known datastructures and to information theory. AdjustNet comes with significant challenges since, similar to self-driving cars, self-adjusting networks require human network operators to give away control, and since more autonomous network operations may lead to instabilities. AdjustNet will overcome these risks and achieve its objectives by pursuing a rigorous approach, devising a theoretical well-founded framework for self-adjusting networks which come with provable guarantees and incorporate self–protection mechanisms. The PI is well-equipped for this project and recently obtained first promising results. As the community is currently re-architecting communication networks, there is a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and have impact.
Communication networks have become a critical infrastructure of our digital society. However, with the explosive growth of data-centric applications and the resulting increasing workloads headed for the world’s datacenter networks, today’s static and demand-oblivious network architectures are reaching their capacity limits. The AdjustNet project proposes a radically different perspective, envisioning demand-aware networks which can dynamically adapt their topology to the workload they currently serve. Such self-adjusting networks hence allow to exploit structure in the demand, and thereby reach higher levels of efficiency and performance. The vision of AdjustNet is timely and enabled by recent innovations in optical technologies which allow to flexibly reconfigure the physical network topology. The goal of AdjustNet is to lay the theoretical foundations for self-adjusting networks. We will identify metrics that serve as yardstick of what can and cannot be achieved in a self-adjusting network for a given demand, devise algorithms for online adaption, and validate our framework through case studies. Our novel methodology is motivated by an intriguing connection of self-adjusting networks to known datastructures and to information theory. AdjustNet comes with significant challenges since, similar to self-driving cars, self-adjusting networks require human network operators to give away control, and since more autonomous network operations may lead to instabilities. AdjustNet will overcome these risks and achieve its objectives by pursuing a rigorous approach, devising a theoretical well-founded framework for self-adjusting networks which come with provable guarantees and incorporate self–protection mechanisms. The PI is well-equipped for this project and recently obtained first promising results. As the community is currently re-architecting communication networks, there is a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and have impact.
Project acronym AGEMEC
Project Age-dependent mechanisms of sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease in patient-derived neurons
Researcher (PI) Jerome MERTENS
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAET INNSBRUCK
Summary Sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) accounts for the overwhelming majority of all AD cases and exclusively affects people at old age. However, mechanistic links between aging and AD pathology remain elusive. We recently discovered that in contrast to iPSC models, direct conversion of human fibroblasts into induced neurons (iNs) preserves signatures of aging, and we have started to develop a patient-based iN model system for AD. Our preliminary data suggests that AD iNs show a neuronal but de-differentiated transcriptome signature. In this project, we first combine cellular neuroscience assays and epigenetic landscape profiling to understand how neurons in AD fail to maintain their fully mature differentiated state, which might be key in permitting disease development. Next, using metabolome analysis including mass spec metabolite assessment, we explore a profound metabolic switch in AD iNs that shows surprisingly many aspects of aerobic glycolysis observed also in cancer. While this link might represent an interesting connection between two age-dependent and de-differentiation-associated diseases, it also opens new avenues to harness knowledge from the cancer field to better understand sporadic AD. We further focus on identifying and manipulating key metabolic regulators that appear to malfunction in an age-dependent manner, with the ultimate goal to define potential targets and treatment strategies. Finally, we will focus on early AD mechanisms by extending our model to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients. An agnostic transcriptome and epigenetic landscape approach of glutamatergic and serotonergic iNs will help to determine the earliest and probably most treatable disease mechanisms of AD, and to better understand the contribution of neuropsychiatric risk factors. We anticipate that this project will help to illuminate the mechanistic interface of cellular aging and the development of AD, and help to define new strategies for AD.
Sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) accounts for the overwhelming majority of all AD cases and exclusively affects people at old age. However, mechanistic links between aging and AD pathology remain elusive. We recently discovered that in contrast to iPSC models, direct conversion of human fibroblasts into induced neurons (iNs) preserves signatures of aging, and we have started to develop a patient-based iN model system for AD. Our preliminary data suggests that AD iNs show a neuronal but de-differentiated transcriptome signature. In this project, we first combine cellular neuroscience assays and epigenetic landscape profiling to understand how neurons in AD fail to maintain their fully mature differentiated state, which might be key in permitting disease development. Next, using metabolome analysis including mass spec metabolite assessment, we explore a profound metabolic switch in AD iNs that shows surprisingly many aspects of aerobic glycolysis observed also in cancer. While this link might represent an interesting connection between two age-dependent and de-differentiation-associated diseases, it also opens new avenues to harness knowledge from the cancer field to better understand sporadic AD. We further focus on identifying and manipulating key metabolic regulators that appear to malfunction in an age-dependent manner, with the ultimate goal to define potential targets and treatment strategies. Finally, we will focus on early AD mechanisms by extending our model to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients. An agnostic transcriptome and epigenetic landscape approach of glutamatergic and serotonergic iNs will help to determine the earliest and probably most treatable disease mechanisms of AD, and to better understand the contribution of neuropsychiatric risk factors. We anticipate that this project will help to illuminate the mechanistic interface of cellular aging and the development of AD, and help to define new strategies for AD.
Project acronym AGNOSTIC
Project Actively Enhanced Cognition based Framework for Design of Complex Systems
Researcher (PI) Björn Ottersten
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE DU LUXEMBOURG
Summary Parameterized mathematical models have been central to the understanding and design of communication, networking, and radar systems. However, they often lack the ability to model intricate interactions innate in complex systems. On the other hand, data-driven approaches do not need explicit mathematical models for data generation and have a wider applicability at the cost of flexibility. These approaches need labelled data, representing all the facets of the system interaction with the environment. With the aforementioned systems becoming increasingly complex with intricate interactions and operating in dynamic environments, the number of system configurations can be rather large leading to paucity of labelled data. Thus there are emerging networks of systems of critical importance whose cognition is not effectively covered by traditional approaches. AGNOSTIC uses the process of exploration through system probing and exploitation of observed data in an iterative manner drawing upon traditional model-based approaches and data-driven discriminative learning to enhance functionality, performance, and robustness through the notion of active cognition. AGNOSTIC clearly departs from a passive assimilation of data and aims to formalize the exploitation/exploration framework in dynamic environments. The development of this framework in three applications areas is central to AGNOSTIC. The project aims to provide active cognition in radar to learn the environment and other active systems to ensure situational awareness and coexistence; to apply active probing in radio access networks to infer network behaviour towards spectrum sharing and self-configuration; and to learn and adapt to user demand for content distribution in caching networks, drastically improving network efficiency. Although these cognitive systems interact with the environment in very different ways, sufficient abstraction allows cross-fertilization of insights and approaches motivating their joint treatment.
Parameterized mathematical models have been central to the understanding and design of communication, networking, and radar systems. However, they often lack the ability to model intricate interactions innate in complex systems. On the other hand, data-driven approaches do not need explicit mathematical models for data generation and have a wider applicability at the cost of flexibility. These approaches need labelled data, representing all the facets of the system interaction with the environment. With the aforementioned systems becoming increasingly complex with intricate interactions and operating in dynamic environments, the number of system configurations can be rather large leading to paucity of labelled data. Thus there are emerging networks of systems of critical importance whose cognition is not effectively covered by traditional approaches. AGNOSTIC uses the process of exploration through system probing and exploitation of observed data in an iterative manner drawing upon traditional model-based approaches and data-driven discriminative learning to enhance functionality, performance, and robustness through the notion of active cognition. AGNOSTIC clearly departs from a passive assimilation of data and aims to formalize the exploitation/exploration framework in dynamic environments. The development of this framework in three applications areas is central to AGNOSTIC. The project aims to provide active cognition in radar to learn the environment and other active systems to ensure situational awareness and coexistence; to apply active probing in radio access networks to infer network behaviour towards spectrum sharing and self-configuration; and to learn and adapt to user demand for content distribution in caching networks, drastically improving network efficiency. Although these cognitive systems interact with the environment in very different ways, sufficient abstraction allows cross-fertilization of insights and approaches motivating their joint treatment.
Project acronym AIRSHIP
Project Acute Inflammation Resolution by Soluble Human Inhibitory Protein
Researcher (PI) Giulio SUPERTI-FURGA
Host Institution (HI) CEMM - FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM FUER MOLEKULARE MEDIZIN GMBH
Summary "Acute inflammatory processes are associated with infections as well as autoimmune flares at the basis of a variety of human diseases. While the molecular components and the logic of pro-inflammatory program are relatively well understood, less is known about the molecular mechanism of resolution, governing the termination of inflammatory responses. In the course of carrying out the i-FIVE ERC grant project plan, we identified a novel, secreted, soluble enzyme as a negative regulator of pro-inflammatory immunity receptors. Here we propose a defined and focused set of measures aimed at obtaining solid evidence for therapeutic feasibility of this novel biological agent in resolving inflammatory processes as well as for the securing of intellectual property. The AIRSHIP workplan proposes to obtain enough purified, soluble, endotoxin-free, active and glycosylated protein material to execute two critical tests, one monitoring the inflammatory response in human cells, and one addressing beneficiary effects in a lung murine infection model. Armed with such a successful proof of concept package and having strategically positioned and secured our intellectual property rights we would be determined to embark into an ambitious commercialization initiative."
"Acute inflammatory processes are associated with infections as well as autoimmune flares at the basis of a variety of human diseases. While the molecular components and the logic of pro-inflammatory program are relatively well understood, less is known about the molecular mechanism of resolution, governing the termination of inflammatory responses. In the course of carrying out the i-FIVE ERC grant project plan, we identified a novel, secreted, soluble enzyme as a negative regulator of pro-inflammatory immunity receptors. Here we propose a defined and focused set of measures aimed at obtaining solid evidence for therapeutic feasibility of this novel biological agent in resolving inflammatory processes as well as for the securing of intellectual property. The AIRSHIP workplan proposes to obtain enough purified, soluble, endotoxin-free, active and glycosylated protein material to execute two critical tests, one monitoring the inflammatory response in human cells, and one addressing beneficiary effects in a lung murine infection model. Armed with such a successful proof of concept package and having strategically positioned and secured our intellectual property rights we would be determined to embark into an ambitious commercialization initiative."
Project acronym ALPHA
Project Alpha Shape Theory Extended
Researcher (PI) Herbert Edelsbrunner
Summary Alpha shapes were invented in the early 80s of last century, and their implementation in three dimensions in the early 90s was at the forefront of the exact arithmetic paradigm that enabled fast and correct geometric software. In the late 90s, alpha shapes motivated the development of the wrap algorithm for surface reconstruction, and of persistent homology, which was the starting point of rapidly expanding interest in topological algorithms aimed at data analysis questions. We now see alpha shapes, wrap complexes, and persistent homology as three aspects of a larger theory, which we propose to fully develop. This viewpoint was a long time coming and finds its clear expression within a generalized version of discrete Morse theory. This unified framework offers new opportunities, including (I) the adaptive reconstruction of shapes driven by the cavity structure; (II) the stochastic analysis of all aspects of the theory; (III) the computation of persistence of dense data, both in scale and in depth; (IV) the study of long-range order in periodic and near-periodic point configurations. These capabilities will significantly deepen as well as widen the theory and enable new applications in the sciences. To gain focus, we concentrate on low-dimensional applications in structural molecular biology and particle systems.
Alpha shapes were invented in the early 80s of last century, and their implementation in three dimensions in the early 90s was at the forefront of the exact arithmetic paradigm that enabled fast and correct geometric software. In the late 90s, alpha shapes motivated the development of the wrap algorithm for surface reconstruction, and of persistent homology, which was the starting point of rapidly expanding interest in topological algorithms aimed at data analysis questions. We now see alpha shapes, wrap complexes, and persistent homology as three aspects of a larger theory, which we propose to fully develop. This viewpoint was a long time coming and finds its clear expression within a generalized version of discrete Morse theory. This unified framework offers new opportunities, including (I) the adaptive reconstruction of shapes driven by the cavity structure; (II) the stochastic analysis of all aspects of the theory; (III) the computation of persistence of dense data, both in scale and in depth; (IV) the study of long-range order in periodic and near-periodic point configurations. These capabilities will significantly deepen as well as widen the theory and enable new applications in the sciences. To gain focus, we concentrate on low-dimensional applications in structural molecular biology and particle systems.
Project acronym AMBH
Project Ancient Music Beyond Hellenisation
Researcher (PI) Stefan HAGEL
Host Institution (HI) OESTERREICHISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN
Summary From medieval times, Arabic as well as European music was analysed in terms that were inherited from Classical Antiquity and had thus developed in a very different music culture. In spite of recent breakthroughs in the understanding of the latter, whose technicalities we access not only through texts and iconography, but also through instrument finds and surviving notated melodies, its relation to music traditions known from later periods and different places is almost uncharted territory. The present project explores relations between Hellenic/Hellenistic music as pervaded the theatres and concert halls throughout and beyond the Roman empire, Near Eastern traditions – from the diatonic system emerging from cuneiform sources to the flourishing musical world of the caliphates – and, as far as possible, African musical life south of Egypt as well – a region that maintained close ties both with the Hellenised culture of its northern neighbours and with the Arabian Peninsula. On the one hand, this demands collaboration between Classical Philology and Arabic Studies, extending methods recently developed within music archaeological research related to the Classical Mediterranean. Arabic writings need to be examined in close reading, using recent insights into the interplay between ancient music theory and practice, in order to segregate the influence of Greek thinking from ideas and facts that must relate to contemporaneous ‘Arabic’ music-making. In this way we hope better to define the relation of this tradition to the ‘Classical world’, potentially breaking free of Orientalising bias informing modern views. On the other hand, the study and reconstruction, virtual and material, of wind instruments of Hellenistic pedigree but found outside the confinements of the Hellenistic ‘heartlands’ may provide evidence of ‘foreign’ tonality employed in those regions – specifically the royal city of Meroë in modern Sudan and the Oxus Temple in modern Tajikistan.
From medieval times, Arabic as well as European music was analysed in terms that were inherited from Classical Antiquity and had thus developed in a very different music culture. In spite of recent breakthroughs in the understanding of the latter, whose technicalities we access not only through texts and iconography, but also through instrument finds and surviving notated melodies, its relation to music traditions known from later periods and different places is almost uncharted territory. The present project explores relations between Hellenic/Hellenistic music as pervaded the theatres and concert halls throughout and beyond the Roman empire, Near Eastern traditions – from the diatonic system emerging from cuneiform sources to the flourishing musical world of the caliphates – and, as far as possible, African musical life south of Egypt as well – a region that maintained close ties both with the Hellenised culture of its northern neighbours and with the Arabian Peninsula. On the one hand, this demands collaboration between Classical Philology and Arabic Studies, extending methods recently developed within music archaeological research related to the Classical Mediterranean. Arabic writings need to be examined in close reading, using recent insights into the interplay between ancient music theory and practice, in order to segregate the influence of Greek thinking from ideas and facts that must relate to contemporaneous ‘Arabic’ music-making. In this way we hope better to define the relation of this tradition to the ‘Classical world’, potentially breaking free of Orientalising bias informing modern views. On the other hand, the study and reconstruction, virtual and material, of wind instruments of Hellenistic pedigree but found outside the confinements of the Hellenistic ‘heartlands’ may provide evidence of ‘foreign’ tonality employed in those regions – specifically the royal city of Meroë in modern Sudan and the Oxus Temple in modern Tajikistan.
Project acronym ANALYTIC
Project ANALYTIC PROPERTIES OF INFINITE GROUPS: limits, curvature, and randomness
Researcher (PI) Gulnara Arzhantseva
Summary The overall goal of this project is to develop new concepts and techniques in geometric and asymptotic group theory for a systematic study of the analytic properties of discrete groups. These are properties depending on the unitary representation theory of the group. The fundamental examples are amenability, discovered by von Neumann in 1929, and property (T), introduced by Kazhdan in 1967. My main objective is to establish the precise relations between groups recently appeared in K-theory and topology such as C*-exact groups and groups coarsely embeddable into a Hilbert space, versus those discovered in ergodic theory and operator algebra, for example, sofic and hyperlinear groups. This is a first ever attempt to confront the analytic behavior of so different nature. I plan to work on crucial open questions: Is every coarsely embeddable group C*-exact? Is every group sofic? Is every hyperlinear group sofic? My motivation is two-fold: - Many outstanding conjectures were recently solved for these groups, e.g. the Novikov conjecture (1965) for coarsely embeddable groups by Yu in 2000 and the Gottschalk surjunctivity conjecture (1973) for sofic groups by Gromov in 1999. However, their group-theoretical structure remains mysterious. - In recent years, geometric group theory has undergone significant changes, mainly due to the growing impact of this theory on other branches of mathematics. However, the interplay between geometric, asymptotic, and analytic group properties has not yet been fully understood. The main innovative contribution of this proposal lies in the interaction between 3 axes: (i) limits of groups, in the space of marked groups or metric ultralimits; (ii) analytic properties of groups with curvature, of lacunary or relatively hyperbolic groups; (iii) random groups, in a topological or statistical meaning. As a result, I will describe the above apparently unrelated classes of groups in a unified way and will detail their algebraic behavior.
The overall goal of this project is to develop new concepts and techniques in geometric and asymptotic group theory for a systematic study of the analytic properties of discrete groups. These are properties depending on the unitary representation theory of the group. The fundamental examples are amenability, discovered by von Neumann in 1929, and property (T), introduced by Kazhdan in 1967. My main objective is to establish the precise relations between groups recently appeared in K-theory and topology such as C*-exact groups and groups coarsely embeddable into a Hilbert space, versus those discovered in ergodic theory and operator algebra, for example, sofic and hyperlinear groups. This is a first ever attempt to confront the analytic behavior of so different nature. I plan to work on crucial open questions: Is every coarsely embeddable group C*-exact? Is every group sofic? Is every hyperlinear group sofic? My motivation is two-fold: - Many outstanding conjectures were recently solved for these groups, e.g. the Novikov conjecture (1965) for coarsely embeddable groups by Yu in 2000 and the Gottschalk surjunctivity conjecture (1973) for sofic groups by Gromov in 1999. However, their group-theoretical structure remains mysterious. - In recent years, geometric group theory has undergone significant changes, mainly due to the growing impact of this theory on other branches of mathematics. However, the interplay between geometric, asymptotic, and analytic group properties has not yet been fully understood. The main innovative contribution of this proposal lies in the interaction between 3 axes: (i) limits of groups, in the space of marked groups or metric ultralimits; (ii) analytic properties of groups with curvature, of lacunary or relatively hyperbolic groups; (iii) random groups, in a topological or statistical meaning. As a result, I will describe the above apparently unrelated classes of groups in a unified way and will detail their algebraic behavior.
Project acronym Andrea
Project A Novel Detection protocols for REliable prostate cancer Assays
Researcher (PI) Jan TKAC
Host Institution (HI) CHEMICKY USTAV SLOVENSKEJ AKADEMIEVIED
Call Details Proof of Concept (PoC), ERC-2018-PoC
Summary The technology validation was successfully completed indicating a great commercial potential, and the innovative and inventive aspects of the assay platform are now covered by the filed priority European Patent Office (EPO) patent applications. Validated glycoprofiling of the proteins now uses lectins in a format, fully compatible with clinical PSA assay kits. This PoC grant focuses on 1. Pre-clinical retrospective validation of the early stage biomarker of prostate cancer (PCa) and 2. Commercialisation of the PCa diagnostics kit. Pre-clinical (60 human serum samples) is ongoing and retrospective validation study (450 human serum samples) of the assay will be performed by statistical analysis using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The PoC describes all steps, which have been developed so far and all necessary steps, which need to be done for retrospective validation study, product development and commercialisation through our newly incorporated start-up Glycanostics Ltd. (www.glycanostics.com). We will provide PCa diagnostic test resulting in a second opinion to guide the right decision if the biopsy is needed. This will avoid the needless and unreliable biopsies and in the future rival an inaccurate PSA testing.
The technology validation was successfully completed indicating a great commercial potential, and the innovative and inventive aspects of the assay platform are now covered by the filed priority European Patent Office (EPO) patent applications. Validated glycoprofiling of the proteins now uses lectins in a format, fully compatible with clinical PSA assay kits. This PoC grant focuses on 1. Pre-clinical retrospective validation of the early stage biomarker of prostate cancer (PCa) and 2. Commercialisation of the PCa diagnostics kit. Pre-clinical (60 human serum samples) is ongoing and retrospective validation study (450 human serum samples) of the assay will be performed by statistical analysis using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The PoC describes all steps, which have been developed so far and all necessary steps, which need to be done for retrospective validation study, product development and commercialisation through our newly incorporated start-up Glycanostics Ltd. (www.glycanostics.com). We will provide PCa diagnostic test resulting in a second opinion to guide the right decision if the biopsy is needed. This will avoid the needless and unreliable biopsies and in the future rival an inaccurate PSA testing.
Project acronym ANGULON
Project Angulon: physics and applications of a new quasiparticle
Researcher (PI) Mikhail Lemeshko
Summary This project aims to develop a universal approach to angular momentum in quantum many-body systems based on the angulon quasiparticle recently discovered by the PI. We will establish a general theory of angulons in and out of equilibrium, and apply it to a variety of experimentally studied problems, ranging from chemical dynamics in solvents to solid-state systems (e.g. angular momentum transfer in the Einstein-de Haas effect and ultrafast magnetism). The concept of angular momentum is ubiquitous across physics, whether one deals with nuclear collisions, chemical reactions, or formation of galaxies. In the microscopic world, quantum rotations are described by non-commuting operators. This makes the angular momentum theory extremely involved, even for systems consisting of only a few interacting particles, such as gas-phase atoms or molecules. Furthermore, in most experiments the behavior of quantum particles is inevitably altered by a many-body environment of some kind. For example, molecular rotation – and therefore reactivity – depends on the presence of a solvent, electronic angular momentum in solids is coupled to lattice phonons, highly excited atomic levels can be perturbed by a surrounding ultracold gas. If approached in a brute-force fashion, understanding angular momentum in such systems is an impossible task, since a macroscopic number of particles is involved. Recently, the PI and his team have shown that this challenge can be met by introducing a new quasiparticle – the angulon. In 2017, the PI has demonstrated the existence of angulons by comparing his theory with 20 years of measurements on molecules rotating in superfluids. Most importantly, the angulon concept allows one to gain analytical insights inaccessible to the state-of-the-art techniques of condensed matter and chemical physics. The angulon approach holds the promise of opening up a new interdisciplinary research area with applications reaching far beyond what is proposed here.
This project aims to develop a universal approach to angular momentum in quantum many-body systems based on the angulon quasiparticle recently discovered by the PI. We will establish a general theory of angulons in and out of equilibrium, and apply it to a variety of experimentally studied problems, ranging from chemical dynamics in solvents to solid-state systems (e.g. angular momentum transfer in the Einstein-de Haas effect and ultrafast magnetism). The concept of angular momentum is ubiquitous across physics, whether one deals with nuclear collisions, chemical reactions, or formation of galaxies. In the microscopic world, quantum rotations are described by non-commuting operators. This makes the angular momentum theory extremely involved, even for systems consisting of only a few interacting particles, such as gas-phase atoms or molecules. Furthermore, in most experiments the behavior of quantum particles is inevitably altered by a many-body environment of some kind. For example, molecular rotation – and therefore reactivity – depends on the presence of a solvent, electronic angular momentum in solids is coupled to lattice phonons, highly excited atomic levels can be perturbed by a surrounding ultracold gas. If approached in a brute-force fashion, understanding angular momentum in such systems is an impossible task, since a macroscopic number of particles is involved. Recently, the PI and his team have shown that this challenge can be met by introducing a new quasiparticle – the angulon. In 2017, the PI has demonstrated the existence of angulons by comparing his theory with 20 years of measurements on molecules rotating in superfluids. Most importantly, the angulon concept allows one to gain analytical insights inaccessible to the state-of-the-art techniques of condensed matter and chemical physics. The angulon approach holds the promise of opening up a new interdisciplinary research area with applications reaching far beyond what is proposed here.
Project acronym AQSuS
Project Analog Quantum Simulation using Superconducting Qubits
Researcher (PI) Gerhard KIRCHMAIR
Summary AQSuS aims at experimentally implementing analogue quantum simulation of interacting spin models in two-dimensional geometries. The proposed experimental approach paves the way to investigate a broad range of currently inaccessible quantum phenomena, for which existing analytical and numerical methods reach their limitations. Developing precisely controlled interacting quantum systems in 2D is an important current goal well beyond the field of quantum simulation and has applications in e.g. solid state physics, computing and metrology. To access these models, I propose to develop a novel circuit quantum-electrodynamics (cQED) platform based on the 3D transmon qubit architecture. This platform utilizes the highly engineerable properties and long coherence times of these qubits. A central novel idea behind AQSuS is to exploit the spatial dependence of the naturally occurring dipolar interactions between the qubits to engineer the desired spin-spin interactions. This approach avoids the complicated wiring, typical for other cQED experiments and reduces the complexity of the experimental setup. The scheme is therefore directly scalable to larger systems. The experimental goals are: 1) Demonstrate analogue quantum simulation of an interacting spin system in 1D & 2D. 2) Establish methods to precisely initialize the state of the system, control the interactions and readout single qubit states and multi-qubit correlations. 3) Investigate unobserved quantum phenomena on 2D geometries e.g. kagome and triangular lattices. 4) Study open system dynamics with interacting spin systems. AQSuS builds on my backgrounds in both superconducting qubits and quantum simulation with trapped-ions. With theory collaborators my young research group and I have recently published an article in PRB [9] describing and analysing the proposed platform. The ERC starting grant would allow me to open a big new research direction and capitalize on the foundations established over the last two years.
AQSuS aims at experimentally implementing analogue quantum simulation of interacting spin models in two-dimensional geometries. The proposed experimental approach paves the way to investigate a broad range of currently inaccessible quantum phenomena, for which existing analytical and numerical methods reach their limitations. Developing precisely controlled interacting quantum systems in 2D is an important current goal well beyond the field of quantum simulation and has applications in e.g. solid state physics, computing and metrology. To access these models, I propose to develop a novel circuit quantum-electrodynamics (cQED) platform based on the 3D transmon qubit architecture. This platform utilizes the highly engineerable properties and long coherence times of these qubits. A central novel idea behind AQSuS is to exploit the spatial dependence of the naturally occurring dipolar interactions between the qubits to engineer the desired spin-spin interactions. This approach avoids the complicated wiring, typical for other cQED experiments and reduces the complexity of the experimental setup. The scheme is therefore directly scalable to larger systems. The experimental goals are: 1) Demonstrate analogue quantum simulation of an interacting spin system in 1D & 2D. 2) Establish methods to precisely initialize the state of the system, control the interactions and readout single qubit states and multi-qubit correlations. 3) Investigate unobserved quantum phenomena on 2D geometries e.g. kagome and triangular lattices. 4) Study open system dynamics with interacting spin systems. AQSuS builds on my backgrounds in both superconducting qubits and quantum simulation with trapped-ions. With theory collaborators my young research group and I have recently published an article in PRB [9] describing and analysing the proposed platform. The ERC starting grant would allow me to open a big new research direction and capitalize on the foundations established over the last two years.
Project acronym AQUAMS
Project Analysis of quantum many-body systems
Researcher (PI) Robert Seiringer
Summary The main focus of this project is the mathematical analysis of many-body quantum systems, in particular, interacting quantum gases at low temperature. The recent experimental advances in studying ultra-cold atomic gases have led to renewed interest in these systems. They display a rich variety of quantum phenomena, including, e.g., Bose–Einstein condensation and superfluidity, which makes them interesting both from a physical and a mathematical point of view. The goal of this project is the development of new mathematical tools for dealing with complex problems in many-body quantum systems. New mathematical methods lead to different points of view and thus increase our understanding of physical systems. From the point of view of mathematical physics, there has been significant progress in the last few years in understanding the interesting phenomena occurring in quantum gases, and the goal of this project is to investigate some of the key issues that remain unsolved. Due to the complex nature of the problems, new mathematical ideas and methods will have to be developed for this purpose. One of the main question addressed in this proposal is the validity of the Bogoliubov approximation for the excitation spectrum of many-body quantum systems. While its accuracy has been successfully shown for the ground state energy of various models, its predictions concerning the excitation spectrum have so far only been verified in the Hartree limit, an extreme form of a mean-field limit where the interaction among the particles is very weak and ranges over the whole system. The central part of this project is concerned with the extension of these results to the case of short-range interactions. Apart from being mathematically much more challenging, the short-range case is the one most relevant for the description of actual physical systems. Hence progress along these lines can be expected to yield valuable insight into the complex behavior of these many-body quantum systems.
The main focus of this project is the mathematical analysis of many-body quantum systems, in particular, interacting quantum gases at low temperature. The recent experimental advances in studying ultra-cold atomic gases have led to renewed interest in these systems. They display a rich variety of quantum phenomena, including, e.g., Bose–Einstein condensation and superfluidity, which makes them interesting both from a physical and a mathematical point of view. The goal of this project is the development of new mathematical tools for dealing with complex problems in many-body quantum systems. New mathematical methods lead to different points of view and thus increase our understanding of physical systems. From the point of view of mathematical physics, there has been significant progress in the last few years in understanding the interesting phenomena occurring in quantum gases, and the goal of this project is to investigate some of the key issues that remain unsolved. Due to the complex nature of the problems, new mathematical ideas and methods will have to be developed for this purpose. One of the main question addressed in this proposal is the validity of the Bogoliubov approximation for the excitation spectrum of many-body quantum systems. While its accuracy has been successfully shown for the ground state energy of various models, its predictions concerning the excitation spectrum have so far only been verified in the Hartree limit, an extreme form of a mean-field limit where the interaction among the particles is very weak and ranges over the whole system. The central part of this project is concerned with the extension of these results to the case of short-range interactions. Apart from being mathematically much more challenging, the short-range case is the one most relevant for the description of actual physical systems. Hence progress along these lines can be expected to yield valuable insight into the complex behavior of these many-body quantum systems.
Project acronym ARCHADAPT
Project The architecture of adaptation to novel environments
Researcher (PI) Christian Werner Schlötterer
Host Institution (HI) VETERINAERMEDIZINISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN
Summary One of the central goals in evolutionary biology is to understand adaptation. Experimental evolution represents a highly promising approach to study adaptation. In this proposal, a freshly collected D. simulans population will be allowed to adapt to laboratory conditions under two different temperature regimes: hot (27°C) and cold (18°C). The trajectories of adaptation to these novel environments will be monitored on three levels: 1) genomic, 2) transcriptomic, 3) phenotypic. Allele frequency changes during the experiment will be measured by next generation sequencing of DNA pools (Pool-Seq) to identify targets of selection. RNA-Seq will be used to trace adaptation on the transcriptomic level during three developmental stages. Eight different phenotypes will be scored to measure the phenotypic consequences of adaptation. Combining the adaptive trajectories on these three levels will provide a picture of adaptation for a multicellular, outcrossing organism that is far more detailed than any previous results. Furthermore, the proposal addresses the question of how adaptation on these three levels is reversible if the environment reverts to ancestral conditions. The third aspect of adaptation covered in the proposal is the question of repeatability of adaptation. Again, this question will be addressed on the three levels: genomic, transcriptomic and phenotypic. Using replicates with different degrees of genetic similarity, as well as closely related species, we will test how similar the adaptive response is. This large-scale study will provide new insights into the importance of standing variation for the adaptation to novel environments. Hence, apart from providing significant evolutionary insights on the trajectories of adaptation, the results we will obtain will have important implications for conservation genetics and commercial breeding.
One of the central goals in evolutionary biology is to understand adaptation. Experimental evolution represents a highly promising approach to study adaptation. In this proposal, a freshly collected D. simulans population will be allowed to adapt to laboratory conditions under two different temperature regimes: hot (27°C) and cold (18°C). The trajectories of adaptation to these novel environments will be monitored on three levels: 1) genomic, 2) transcriptomic, 3) phenotypic. Allele frequency changes during the experiment will be measured by next generation sequencing of DNA pools (Pool-Seq) to identify targets of selection. RNA-Seq will be used to trace adaptation on the transcriptomic level during three developmental stages. Eight different phenotypes will be scored to measure the phenotypic consequences of adaptation. Combining the adaptive trajectories on these three levels will provide a picture of adaptation for a multicellular, outcrossing organism that is far more detailed than any previous results. Furthermore, the proposal addresses the question of how adaptation on these three levels is reversible if the environment reverts to ancestral conditions. The third aspect of adaptation covered in the proposal is the question of repeatability of adaptation. Again, this question will be addressed on the three levels: genomic, transcriptomic and phenotypic. Using replicates with different degrees of genetic similarity, as well as closely related species, we will test how similar the adaptive response is. This large-scale study will provide new insights into the importance of standing variation for the adaptation to novel environments. Hence, apart from providing significant evolutionary insights on the trajectories of adaptation, the results we will obtain will have important implications for conservation genetics and commercial breeding.
Project acronym ArcheoDyn
Project Globular clusters as living fossils of the past of galaxies
Researcher (PI) Petrus VAN DE VEN
Summary Globular clusters (GCs) are enigmatic objects that hide a wealth of information. They are the living fossils of the history of their native galaxies and the record keepers of the violent events that made them change their domicile. This proposal aims to mine GCs as living fossils of galaxy evolution to address fundamental questions in astrophysics: (1) Do satellite galaxies merge as predicted by the hierarchical build-up of galaxies? (2) Which are the seeds of supermassive black holes in the centres of galaxies? (3) How did star formation originate in the earliest phases of galaxy formation? To answer these questions, novel population-dependent dynamical modelling techniques are required, whose development the PI has led over the past years. This uniquely positions him to take full advantage of the emerging wealth of chemical and kinematical data on GCs. Following the tidal disruption of satellite galaxies, their dense GCs, and maybe even their nuclei, are left as the most visible remnants in the main galaxy. The hierarchical build-up of their new host galaxy can thus be unearthed by recovering the GCs’ orbits. However, currently it is unclear which of the GCs are accretion survivors. Actually, the existence of a central intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) or of multiple stellar populations in GCs might tell which ones are accreted. At the same time, detection of IMBHs is important as they are predicted seeds for supermassive black holes in galaxies; while the multiple stellar populations in GCs are vital witnesses to the extreme modes of star formation in the early Universe. However, for every putative dynamical IMBH detection so far there is a corresponding non-detection; also the origin of multiple stellar populations in GCs still lacks any uncontrived explanation. The synergy of novel techniques and exquisite data proposed here promises a breakthrough in this emerging field of dynamical archeology with GCs as living fossils of the past of galaxies.
Globular clusters (GCs) are enigmatic objects that hide a wealth of information. They are the living fossils of the history of their native galaxies and the record keepers of the violent events that made them change their domicile. This proposal aims to mine GCs as living fossils of galaxy evolution to address fundamental questions in astrophysics: (1) Do satellite galaxies merge as predicted by the hierarchical build-up of galaxies? (2) Which are the seeds of supermassive black holes in the centres of galaxies? (3) How did star formation originate in the earliest phases of galaxy formation? To answer these questions, novel population-dependent dynamical modelling techniques are required, whose development the PI has led over the past years. This uniquely positions him to take full advantage of the emerging wealth of chemical and kinematical data on GCs. Following the tidal disruption of satellite galaxies, their dense GCs, and maybe even their nuclei, are left as the most visible remnants in the main galaxy. The hierarchical build-up of their new host galaxy can thus be unearthed by recovering the GCs’ orbits. However, currently it is unclear which of the GCs are accretion survivors. Actually, the existence of a central intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) or of multiple stellar populations in GCs might tell which ones are accreted. At the same time, detection of IMBHs is important as they are predicted seeds for supermassive black holes in galaxies; while the multiple stellar populations in GCs are vital witnesses to the extreme modes of star formation in the early Universe. However, for every putative dynamical IMBH detection so far there is a corresponding non-detection; also the origin of multiple stellar populations in GCs still lacks any uncontrived explanation. The synergy of novel techniques and exquisite data proposed here promises a breakthrough in this emerging field of dynamical archeology with GCs as living fossils of the past of galaxies.
Project acronym ARIPHYHIMO
Project Arithmetic and physics of Higgs moduli spaces
Researcher (PI) Tamas Hausel
Summary The proposal studies problems concerning the geometry and topology of moduli spaces of Higgs bundles on a Riemann surface motivated by parallel considerations in number theory and mathematical physics. In this way the proposal bridges various duality theories in string theory with the Langlands program in number theory. The heart of the proposal is a circle of precise conjectures relating to the topology of the moduli space of Higgs bundles. The formulation and motivations of the conjectures make direct contact with the Langlands program in number theory, various duality conjectures in string theory, algebraic combinatorics, knot theory and low dimensional topology and representation theory of quivers, finite groups and algebras of Lie type and Cherednik algebras.
The proposal studies problems concerning the geometry and topology of moduli spaces of Higgs bundles on a Riemann surface motivated by parallel considerations in number theory and mathematical physics. In this way the proposal bridges various duality theories in string theory with the Langlands program in number theory. The heart of the proposal is a circle of precise conjectures relating to the topology of the moduli space of Higgs bundles. The formulation and motivations of the conjectures make direct contact with the Langlands program in number theory, various duality conjectures in string theory, algebraic combinatorics, knot theory and low dimensional topology and representation theory of quivers, finite groups and algebras of Lie type and Cherednik algebras.
Project acronym ATMEN
Project Atomic precision materials engineering
Researcher (PI) Toma SUSI
Summary Despite more than fifty years of scientific progress since Richard Feynman's 1959 vision for nanotechnology, there is only one way to manipulate individual atoms in materials: scanning tunneling microscopy. Since the late 1980s, its atomically sharp tip has been used to move atoms over clean metal surfaces held at cryogenic temperatures. Scanning transmission electron microscopy, on the other hand, has been able to resolve atoms only more recently by focusing the electron beam with sub-atomic precision. This is especially useful in the two-dimensional form of hexagonally bonded carbon called graphene, which has superb electronic and mechanical properties. Several ways to further engineer those have been proposed, including by doping the structure with substitutional heteroatoms such as boron, nitrogen, phosphorus and silicon. My recent discovery that the scattering of the energetic imaging electrons can cause a silicon impurity to move through the graphene lattice has revealed a potential for atomically precise manipulation using the Ångström-sized electron probe. To develop this into a practical technique, improvements in the description of beam-induced displacements, advances in heteroatom implantation, and a concerted effort towards the automation of manipulations are required. My project tackles these in a multidisciplinary effort combining innovative computational techniques with pioneering experiments in an instrument where a low-energy ion implantation chamber is directly connected to an advanced electron microscope. To demonstrate the power of the method, I will prototype an atomic memory with an unprecedented memory density, and create heteroatom quantum corrals optimized for their plasmonic properties. The capability for atom-scale engineering of covalent materials opens a new vista for nanotechnology, pushing back the boundaries of the possible and allowing a plethora of materials science questions to be studied at the ultimate level of control.
Despite more than fifty years of scientific progress since Richard Feynman's 1959 vision for nanotechnology, there is only one way to manipulate individual atoms in materials: scanning tunneling microscopy. Since the late 1980s, its atomically sharp tip has been used to move atoms over clean metal surfaces held at cryogenic temperatures. Scanning transmission electron microscopy, on the other hand, has been able to resolve atoms only more recently by focusing the electron beam with sub-atomic precision. This is especially useful in the two-dimensional form of hexagonally bonded carbon called graphene, which has superb electronic and mechanical properties. Several ways to further engineer those have been proposed, including by doping the structure with substitutional heteroatoms such as boron, nitrogen, phosphorus and silicon. My recent discovery that the scattering of the energetic imaging electrons can cause a silicon impurity to move through the graphene lattice has revealed a potential for atomically precise manipulation using the Ångström-sized electron probe. To develop this into a practical technique, improvements in the description of beam-induced displacements, advances in heteroatom implantation, and a concerted effort towards the automation of manipulations are required. My project tackles these in a multidisciplinary effort combining innovative computational techniques with pioneering experiments in an instrument where a low-energy ion implantation chamber is directly connected to an advanced electron microscope. To demonstrate the power of the method, I will prototype an atomic memory with an unprecedented memory density, and create heteroatom quantum corrals optimized for their plasmonic properties. The capability for atom-scale engineering of covalent materials opens a new vista for nanotechnology, pushing back the boundaries of the possible and allowing a plethora of materials science questions to be studied at the ultimate level of control.
Project acronym AUTOMOLD
Project Automatized Design of Injection Molds
Researcher (PI) Bernd Bickel
Summary The goal of this project is to develop the proof of concept for a novel injection-molding design workflow, making mold design accessible to a new, semi-professional user base of designers, engineers, and artists. It will provide a more more cost-efficient way of bringing lower-volume and customized products to the market. Recently, the related Materializable ERC Starting Grant has lead to the invention of novel computational tools for mold design, where the decomposition of a general 3D shape into moldable parts - together with the generation of the corresponding mold geometry - is performed fully automatically. The three main advantages of our method are (i) a drastic reduction of the time requirements of mold design (from hours/days down to minutes) and (ii) the discovery of highly efficient shape decompositions with curved part boundaries, which are very hard to design manually due to their counterintuitive nature. Furthermore, our method allows (iii) a non-expert to refine the aesthetics of the decomposition without being aware of the specifics of molding; these are enforced in the background. In order to evaluate the industrial and commercial potential of this invention, we propose the development of a software prototype for automatized mold design.
The goal of this project is to develop the proof of concept for a novel injection-molding design workflow, making mold design accessible to a new, semi-professional user base of designers, engineers, and artists. It will provide a more more cost-efficient way of bringing lower-volume and customized products to the market. Recently, the related Materializable ERC Starting Grant has lead to the invention of novel computational tools for mold design, where the decomposition of a general 3D shape into moldable parts - together with the generation of the corresponding mold geometry - is performed fully automatically. The three main advantages of our method are (i) a drastic reduction of the time requirements of mold design (from hours/days down to minutes) and (ii) the discovery of highly efficient shape decompositions with curved part boundaries, which are very hard to design manually due to their counterintuitive nature. Furthermore, our method allows (iii) a non-expert to refine the aesthetics of the decomposition without being aware of the specifics of molding; these are enforced in the background. In order to evaluate the industrial and commercial potential of this invention, we propose the development of a software prototype for automatized mold design.
Project acronym AutoRecon
Project Molecular mechanisms of autophagosome formation during selective autophagy
Researcher (PI) Sascha Martens
Summary I propose to study how eukaryotic cells generate autophagosomes, organelles bounded by a double membrane. These are formed during autophagy and mediate the degradation of cytoplasmic substances within the lysosomal compartment. Autophagy thereby protects the organism from pathological conditions such as neurodegeneration, cancer and infections. Many core factors required for autophagosome formation have been identified but the order in which they act and their mode of action is still unclear. We will use a combination of biochemical and cell biological approaches to elucidate the choreography and mechanism of these core factors. In particular, we will focus on selective autophagy and determine how the autophagic machinery generates an autophagosome that selectively contains the cargo. To this end we will focus on the cytoplasm-to-vacuole-targeting pathway in S. cerevisiae that mediates the constitutive delivery of the prApe1 enzyme into the vacuole. We will use cargo mimetics or prApe1 complexes in combination with purified autophagy proteins and vesicles to reconstitute the process and so determine which factors are both necessary and sufficient for autophagosome formation, as well as elucidating their mechanism of action. In parallel we will study selective autophagosome formation in human cells. This will reveal common principles and special adaptations. In particular, we will use cell lysates from genome-edited cells in combination with purified autophagy proteins to reconstitute selective autophagosome formation around ubiquitin-positive cargo material. The insights and hypotheses obtained from these reconstituted systems will be validated using cell biological approaches. Taken together, our experiments will allow us to delineate the major steps of autophagosome formation during selective autophagy. Our results will yield detailed insights into how cells form and shape organelles in a de novo manner, which is major question in cell- and developmental biology.
I propose to study how eukaryotic cells generate autophagosomes, organelles bounded by a double membrane. These are formed during autophagy and mediate the degradation of cytoplasmic substances within the lysosomal compartment. Autophagy thereby protects the organism from pathological conditions such as neurodegeneration, cancer and infections. Many core factors required for autophagosome formation have been identified but the order in which they act and their mode of action is still unclear. We will use a combination of biochemical and cell biological approaches to elucidate the choreography and mechanism of these core factors. In particular, we will focus on selective autophagy and determine how the autophagic machinery generates an autophagosome that selectively contains the cargo. To this end we will focus on the cytoplasm-to-vacuole-targeting pathway in S. cerevisiae that mediates the constitutive delivery of the prApe1 enzyme into the vacuole. We will use cargo mimetics or prApe1 complexes in combination with purified autophagy proteins and vesicles to reconstitute the process and so determine which factors are both necessary and sufficient for autophagosome formation, as well as elucidating their mechanism of action. In parallel we will study selective autophagosome formation in human cells. This will reveal common principles and special adaptations. In particular, we will use cell lysates from genome-edited cells in combination with purified autophagy proteins to reconstitute selective autophagosome formation around ubiquitin-positive cargo material. The insights and hypotheses obtained from these reconstituted systems will be validated using cell biological approaches. Taken together, our experiments will allow us to delineate the major steps of autophagosome formation during selective autophagy. Our results will yield detailed insights into how cells form and shape organelles in a de novo manner, which is major question in cell- and developmental biology.
Project acronym AuxinER
Project Mechanisms of Auxin-dependent Signaling in the Endoplasmic Reticulum
Researcher (PI) Jürgen Kleine-Vehn
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAET FUER BODENKULTUR WIEN
Summary The phytohormone auxin has profound importance for plant development. The extracellular AUXIN BINDING PROTEIN1 (ABP1) and the nuclear AUXIN F-BOX PROTEINs (TIR1/AFBs) auxin receptors perceive fast, non-genomic and slow, genomic auxin responses, respectively. Despite the fact that ABP1 mainly localizes to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), until now it has been proposed to be active only in the extracellular matrix (reviewed in Sauer and Kleine-Vehn, 2011). Just recently, ABP1 function was also linked to genomic responses, modulating TIR1/AFB-dependent processes (Tromas et al., 2013). Intriguingly, the genomic effect of ABP1 appears to be at least partially independent of the endogenous auxin indole 3-acetic acid (IAA) (Paque et al., 2014). In this proposal my main research objective is to unravel the importance of the ER for genomic auxin responses. The PIN-LIKES (PILS) putative carriers for auxinic compounds also localize to the ER and determine the cellular sensitivity to auxin. PILS5 gain-of-function reduces canonical auxin signaling (Barbez et al., 2012) and phenocopies abp1 knock down lines (Barbez et al., 2012, Paque et al., 2014). Accordingly, a PILS-dependent substrate could be a negative regulator of ABP1 function in the ER. Based on our unpublished data, an IAA metabolite could play a role in ABP1-dependent processes in the ER, possibly providing feedback on the canonical nuclear IAA-signaling. I hypothesize that the genomic auxin response may be an integration of auxin- and auxin-metabolite-dependent nuclear and ER localized signaling, respectively. This proposed project aims to characterize a novel auxin-signaling paradigm in plants. We will employ state of the art interdisciplinary (biochemical, biophysical, computational modeling, molecular, and genetic) methods to assess the projected research. The identification of the proposed auxin conjugate-dependent signal could have far reaching plant developmental and biotechnological importance.
The phytohormone auxin has profound importance for plant development. The extracellular AUXIN BINDING PROTEIN1 (ABP1) and the nuclear AUXIN F-BOX PROTEINs (TIR1/AFBs) auxin receptors perceive fast, non-genomic and slow, genomic auxin responses, respectively. Despite the fact that ABP1 mainly localizes to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), until now it has been proposed to be active only in the extracellular matrix (reviewed in Sauer and Kleine-Vehn, 2011). Just recently, ABP1 function was also linked to genomic responses, modulating TIR1/AFB-dependent processes (Tromas et al., 2013). Intriguingly, the genomic effect of ABP1 appears to be at least partially independent of the endogenous auxin indole 3-acetic acid (IAA) (Paque et al., 2014). In this proposal my main research objective is to unravel the importance of the ER for genomic auxin responses. The PIN-LIKES (PILS) putative carriers for auxinic compounds also localize to the ER and determine the cellular sensitivity to auxin. PILS5 gain-of-function reduces canonical auxin signaling (Barbez et al., 2012) and phenocopies abp1 knock down lines (Barbez et al., 2012, Paque et al., 2014). Accordingly, a PILS-dependent substrate could be a negative regulator of ABP1 function in the ER. Based on our unpublished data, an IAA metabolite could play a role in ABP1-dependent processes in the ER, possibly providing feedback on the canonical nuclear IAA-signaling. I hypothesize that the genomic auxin response may be an integration of auxin- and auxin-metabolite-dependent nuclear and ER localized signaling, respectively. This proposed project aims to characterize a novel auxin-signaling paradigm in plants. We will employ state of the art interdisciplinary (biochemical, biophysical, computational modeling, molecular, and genetic) methods to assess the projected research. The identification of the proposed auxin conjugate-dependent signal could have far reaching plant developmental and biotechnological importance.
Project acronym AYURYOG
Project Medicine, Immortality, Moksha: Entangled Histories of Yoga, Ayurveda and Alchemy in South Asia
Researcher (PI) Dagmar Wujastyk
Summary The project will examine the histories of yoga, ayurveda and rasashastra (Indian alchemy and iatrochemistry) from the tenth century to the present, focussing on the disciplines' health, rejuvenation and longevity practices. The goals of the project are to reveal the entanglements of these historical traditions, and to trace the trajectories of their evolution as components of today's global healthcare and personal development industries. Our hypothesis is that practices aimed at achieving health, rejuvenation and longevity constitute a key area of exchange between the three disciplines, preparing the grounds for a series of important pharmaceutical and technological innovations and also profoundly influencing the discourses of today's medicalized forms of globalized yoga as well as of contemporary institutionalized forms of ayurveda and rasashastra. Drawing upon the primary historical sources of each respective tradition as well as on fieldwork data, the research team will explore the shared terminology, praxis and theory of these three disciplines. We will examine why, when and how health, rejuvenation and longevity practices were employed; how each discipline’s discourse and practical applications relates to those of the others; and how past encounters and cross-fertilizations impact on contemporary health-related practices in yogic, ayurvedic and alchemists’ milieus. The five-year project will be based at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at Vienna University and carried out by an international team of 3 post-doctoral researchers. The research will be grounded in the fields of South Asian studies and social history. An international workshop and an international conference will be organized to present and discuss the research results, which will also be published in peer-reviewed journals, an edited volume, and in individual monographs. A project website will provide open access to all research results.
The project will examine the histories of yoga, ayurveda and rasashastra (Indian alchemy and iatrochemistry) from the tenth century to the present, focussing on the disciplines' health, rejuvenation and longevity practices. The goals of the project are to reveal the entanglements of these historical traditions, and to trace the trajectories of their evolution as components of today's global healthcare and personal development industries. Our hypothesis is that practices aimed at achieving health, rejuvenation and longevity constitute a key area of exchange between the three disciplines, preparing the grounds for a series of important pharmaceutical and technological innovations and also profoundly influencing the discourses of today's medicalized forms of globalized yoga as well as of contemporary institutionalized forms of ayurveda and rasashastra. Drawing upon the primary historical sources of each respective tradition as well as on fieldwork data, the research team will explore the shared terminology, praxis and theory of these three disciplines. We will examine why, when and how health, rejuvenation and longevity practices were employed; how each discipline’s discourse and practical applications relates to those of the others; and how past encounters and cross-fertilizations impact on contemporary health-related practices in yogic, ayurvedic and alchemists’ milieus. The five-year project will be based at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at Vienna University and carried out by an international team of 3 post-doctoral researchers. The research will be grounded in the fields of South Asian studies and social history. An international workshop and an international conference will be organized to present and discuss the research results, which will also be published in peer-reviewed journals, an edited volume, and in individual monographs. A project website will provide open access to all research results.
Project acronym BECONTRA
Project How Birth Control Pills Affect the Female Brain
Researcher (PI) Belinda PLETZER
Host Institution (HI) PARIS-LODRON-UNIVERSITAT SALZBURG
Summary Birth control pills have been on the market for almost 60 years now and are used by almost 200 million women worldwide. Particularly, the use of birth control pills increases among adolescents. However, the effects of birth control pills on the brain have widely been ignored. It was my own research that found the first indication that birth control pills affect female brain structure and masculinize female brain function. Furthermore, I recently obtained evidence that these changes are strongly dependent on the type of synthetic hormone contained in birth control pills and might affect some brain areas, like the hippocampus, beyond the duration of contraceptive treatment. This poses the question, whether effects of birth control pills on the brain are fully reversible after women stop taking the pill, especially if pill use occurs during sensitive periods of brain development, like in adolescents. Previous studies suffer from small sample sizes and insufficient study designs. Importantly, they compare women on birth control pills to naturally cycling women (cross-sectional designs) rather than following the same women from before she starts taking the pill through the first months of her pill use and vice versa (longitudinal designs). Accordingly they may be confounded by sampling bias. Therefore the general aims of this proposal are (A) to study the effects of birth control pills on the brain – for the first time – systematically in a longitudinal design, and (B) to address whether the effects of birth control pills on the brain are fully reversible. I seek to link changes in the brain to changes in behaviour, and address whether different types of pills cause different effects. Most importantly, a specific focus will lie on teen use of birth control pills. In order to address these questions, this project will employ a multi-modal imaging design, following several groups of pill users over multiple time-points before, during and after contraceptive treatment.
Birth control pills have been on the market for almost 60 years now and are used by almost 200 million women worldwide. Particularly, the use of birth control pills increases among adolescents. However, the effects of birth control pills on the brain have widely been ignored. It was my own research that found the first indication that birth control pills affect female brain structure and masculinize female brain function. Furthermore, I recently obtained evidence that these changes are strongly dependent on the type of synthetic hormone contained in birth control pills and might affect some brain areas, like the hippocampus, beyond the duration of contraceptive treatment. This poses the question, whether effects of birth control pills on the brain are fully reversible after women stop taking the pill, especially if pill use occurs during sensitive periods of brain development, like in adolescents. Previous studies suffer from small sample sizes and insufficient study designs. Importantly, they compare women on birth control pills to naturally cycling women (cross-sectional designs) rather than following the same women from before she starts taking the pill through the first months of her pill use and vice versa (longitudinal designs). Accordingly they may be confounded by sampling bias. Therefore the general aims of this proposal are (A) to study the effects of birth control pills on the brain – for the first time – systematically in a longitudinal design, and (B) to address whether the effects of birth control pills on the brain are fully reversible. I seek to link changes in the brain to changes in behaviour, and address whether different types of pills cause different effects. Most importantly, a specific focus will lie on teen use of birth control pills. In order to address these questions, this project will employ a multi-modal imaging design, following several groups of pill users over multiple time-points before, during and after contraceptive treatment.
Project acronym BeStMo
Project Beyond Static Molecules: Modeling Quantum Fluctuations in Complex Molecular Environments
Researcher (PI) Alexandre TKATCHENKO
Summary We propose focused theory developments and applications, which aim to substantially advance our ability to model and understand the behavior of molecules in complex environments. From a large repertoire of possible environments, we have chosen to concentrate on experimentally-relevant situations, including molecular fluctuations in electric and optical fields, disordered molecular crystals, solvated (bio)molecules, and molecular interactions at/through low-dimensional nanostructures. A challenging aspect of modeling such realistic environments is that both molecular electronic and nuclear fluctuations have to be treated efficiently at a robust quantum-mechanical level of theory for systems with 1000s of atoms. In contrast, the current state of the art in the modeling of complex molecular systems typically consists of Newtonian molecular dynamics employing classical force fields. We will develop radically new approaches for electronic and nuclear fluctuations that unify concepts and merge techniques from quantum-mechanical many-body Hamiltonians, statistical mechanics, density-functional theory, and machine learning. Our developments will be benchmarked using experimental measurements with terahertz (THz) spectroscopy, atomic-force and scanning tunneling microscopy (AFM/STM), time-of-flight (TOF) measurements, and molecular interferometry. Our final goal is to bridge the accuracy of quantum mechanics with the efficiency of force fields, enabling large-scale predictive quantum molecular dynamics simulations for complex systems containing 1000s of atoms, and leading to novel conceptual insights into quantum-mechanical fluctuations in large molecular systems. The project goes well beyond the presently possible applications and once successful will pave the road towards having a suite of first-principles-based modeling tools for a wide range of realistic materials, such as biomolecules, nanostructures, disordered solids, and organic/inorganic interfaces.
We propose focused theory developments and applications, which aim to substantially advance our ability to model and understand the behavior of molecules in complex environments. From a large repertoire of possible environments, we have chosen to concentrate on experimentally-relevant situations, including molecular fluctuations in electric and optical fields, disordered molecular crystals, solvated (bio)molecules, and molecular interactions at/through low-dimensional nanostructures. A challenging aspect of modeling such realistic environments is that both molecular electronic and nuclear fluctuations have to be treated efficiently at a robust quantum-mechanical level of theory for systems with 1000s of atoms. In contrast, the current state of the art in the modeling of complex molecular systems typically consists of Newtonian molecular dynamics employing classical force fields. We will develop radically new approaches for electronic and nuclear fluctuations that unify concepts and merge techniques from quantum-mechanical many-body Hamiltonians, statistical mechanics, density-functional theory, and machine learning. Our developments will be benchmarked using experimental measurements with terahertz (THz) spectroscopy, atomic-force and scanning tunneling microscopy (AFM/STM), time-of-flight (TOF) measurements, and molecular interferometry. Our final goal is to bridge the accuracy of quantum mechanics with the efficiency of force fields, enabling large-scale predictive quantum molecular dynamics simulations for complex systems containing 1000s of atoms, and leading to novel conceptual insights into quantum-mechanical fluctuations in large molecular systems. The project goes well beyond the presently possible applications and once successful will pave the road towards having a suite of first-principles-based modeling tools for a wide range of realistic materials, such as biomolecules, nanostructures, disordered solids, and organic/inorganic interfaces.
Project acronym Big Splash
Project Big Splash: Efficient Simulation of Natural Phenomena at Extremely Large Scales
Researcher (PI) Christopher John Wojtan
Host Institution (HI) Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Summary Computational simulations of natural phenomena are essential in science, engineering, product design, architecture, and computer graphics applications. However, despite progress in numerical algorithms and computational power, it is still unfeasible to compute detailed simulations at large scales. To make matters worse, important phenomena like turbulent splashing liquids and fracturing solids rely on delicate coupling between small-scale details and large-scale behavior. Brute-force computation of such phenomena is intractable, and current adaptive techniques are too fragile, too costly, or too crude to capture subtle instabilities at small scales. Increases in computational power and parallel algorithms will improve the situation, but progress will only be incremental until we address the problem at its source. I propose two main approaches to this problem of efficiently simulating large-scale liquid and solid dynamics. My first avenue of research combines numerics and shape: I will investigate a careful de-coupling of dynamics from geometry, allowing essential shape details to be preserved and retrieved without wasting computation. I will also develop methods for merging small-scale analytical solutions with large-scale numerical algorithms. (These ideas show particular promise for phenomena like splashing liquids and fracturing solids, whose small-scale behaviors are poorly captured by standard finite element methods.) My second main research direction is the manipulation of large-scale simulation data: Given the redundant and parallel nature of physics computation, we will drastically speed up computation with novel dimension reduction and data compression approaches. We can also minimize unnecessary computation by re-using existing simulation data. The novel approaches resulting from this work will undoubtedly synergize to enable the simulation and understanding of complicated natural and biological processes that are presently unfeasible to compute.
Computational simulations of natural phenomena are essential in science, engineering, product design, architecture, and computer graphics applications. However, despite progress in numerical algorithms and computational power, it is still unfeasible to compute detailed simulations at large scales. To make matters worse, important phenomena like turbulent splashing liquids and fracturing solids rely on delicate coupling between small-scale details and large-scale behavior. Brute-force computation of such phenomena is intractable, and current adaptive techniques are too fragile, too costly, or too crude to capture subtle instabilities at small scales. Increases in computational power and parallel algorithms will improve the situation, but progress will only be incremental until we address the problem at its source. I propose two main approaches to this problem of efficiently simulating large-scale liquid and solid dynamics. My first avenue of research combines numerics and shape: I will investigate a careful de-coupling of dynamics from geometry, allowing essential shape details to be preserved and retrieved without wasting computation. I will also develop methods for merging small-scale analytical solutions with large-scale numerical algorithms. (These ideas show particular promise for phenomena like splashing liquids and fracturing solids, whose small-scale behaviors are poorly captured by standard finite element methods.) My second main research direction is the manipulation of large-scale simulation data: Given the redundant and parallel nature of physics computation, we will drastically speed up computation with novel dimension reduction and data compression approaches. We can also minimize unnecessary computation by re-using existing simulation data. The novel approaches resulting from this work will undoubtedly synergize to enable the simulation and understanding of complicated natural and biological processes that are presently unfeasible to compute.
Project acronym Browsec
Project Foundations and Tools for Client-Side Web Security
Researcher (PI) Matteo MAFFEI
Summary The constantly increasing number of attacks on web applications shows how their rapid development has not been accompanied by adequate security foundations and demonstrates the lack of solid security enforcement tools. Indeed, web applications expose a gigantic attack surface, which hinders a rigorous understanding and enforcement of security properties. Hence, despite the worthwhile efforts to design secure web applications, users for a while will be confronted with vulnerable, or maliciously crafted, code. Unfortunately, end users have no way at present to reliably protect themselves from malicious applications. BROWSEC will develop a holistic approach to client-side web security, laying its theoretical foundations and developing innovative security enforcement technologies. In particular, BROWSEC will deliver the first client-side tool to secure web applications that is practical, in that it is implemented as an extension and can thus be easily deployed at large, and also provably sound, i.e., backed up by machine-checked proofs that the tool provides end users with the required security guarantees. At the core of the proposal lies a novel monitoring technique, which treats the browser as a blackbox and intercepts its inputs and outputs in order to prevent dangerous information flows. With this lightweight monitoring approach, we aim at enforcing strong security properties without requiring any expensive and, given the dynamic nature of web applications, statically infeasible program analysis. BROWSEC is thus a multidisciplinary research effort, promising practical impact and delivering breakthrough advancements in various disciplines, such as web security, JavaScript semantics, software engineering, and program verification.
The constantly increasing number of attacks on web applications shows how their rapid development has not been accompanied by adequate security foundations and demonstrates the lack of solid security enforcement tools. Indeed, web applications expose a gigantic attack surface, which hinders a rigorous understanding and enforcement of security properties. Hence, despite the worthwhile efforts to design secure web applications, users for a while will be confronted with vulnerable, or maliciously crafted, code. Unfortunately, end users have no way at present to reliably protect themselves from malicious applications. BROWSEC will develop a holistic approach to client-side web security, laying its theoretical foundations and developing innovative security enforcement technologies. In particular, BROWSEC will deliver the first client-side tool to secure web applications that is practical, in that it is implemented as an extension and can thus be easily deployed at large, and also provably sound, i.e., backed up by machine-checked proofs that the tool provides end users with the required security guarantees. At the core of the proposal lies a novel monitoring technique, which treats the browser as a blackbox and intercepts its inputs and outputs in order to prevent dangerous information flows. With this lightweight monitoring approach, we aim at enforcing strong security properties without requiring any expensive and, given the dynamic nature of web applications, statically infeasible program analysis. BROWSEC is thus a multidisciplinary research effort, promising practical impact and delivering breakthrough advancements in various disciplines, such as web security, JavaScript semantics, software engineering, and program verification.
Project acronym CanCoop
Project Understanding the Proximate Mechanisms of Canine Cooperation
Researcher (PI) Friederike Range
Summary Although it is clear that human collaborative skills are exceptional, elucidating similarities and differences of proximate processes underlying cooperative interactions between non-primate and primate taxa may have important implications for our understanding of cooperation in humans and non human-animals via a profound knowledge of 1) socio-cognitive skills as adaptations to specific environments and/or 2) the evolutionary background and origin of our own skills. The closely related wolves and dogs constitute the ideal non-primate model to implement this approach, since cooperation is at the core of their social organization and they are adapted to very different environments. I propose a series of experiments with wolves (N = 20) and identically raised and kept dogs (N= 20) that will focus on cognitive processes closely linked to the emotional system such as empathy, inequity aversion and delayed gratification that are thought to be involved in triggering and maintaining primate cooperation. In Part 1 of the project, we will investigate whether and to what extent these processes are present in canines, while in Part 2 we will elucidate how they influence partner choice in cooperative interactions. Using social network theory, we will integrate knowledge about animals’ emotional tendencies and cognitive abilities to model canine cooperation. This is an important step towards unifying theoretical and empirical approaches in animal behaviour. CanCoop incorporates innovative methods and a novel approach that has the potential to elucidate the interactions between proximate and ultimate processes in regard to cooperation. The nature of CanCoop guarantees public and media attention needed for proper societal dissemination of the results, which will be relevant for animal behaviour, social sciences, wildlife and zoo management.
Although it is clear that human collaborative skills are exceptional, elucidating similarities and differences of proximate processes underlying cooperative interactions between non-primate and primate taxa may have important implications for our understanding of cooperation in humans and non human-animals via a profound knowledge of 1) socio-cognitive skills as adaptations to specific environments and/or 2) the evolutionary background and origin of our own skills. The closely related wolves and dogs constitute the ideal non-primate model to implement this approach, since cooperation is at the core of their social organization and they are adapted to very different environments. I propose a series of experiments with wolves (N = 20) and identically raised and kept dogs (N= 20) that will focus on cognitive processes closely linked to the emotional system such as empathy, inequity aversion and delayed gratification that are thought to be involved in triggering and maintaining primate cooperation. In Part 1 of the project, we will investigate whether and to what extent these processes are present in canines, while in Part 2 we will elucidate how they influence partner choice in cooperative interactions. Using social network theory, we will integrate knowledge about animals’ emotional tendencies and cognitive abilities to model canine cooperation. This is an important step towards unifying theoretical and empirical approaches in animal behaviour. CanCoop incorporates innovative methods and a novel approach that has the potential to elucidate the interactions between proximate and ultimate processes in regard to cooperation. The nature of CanCoop guarantees public and media attention needed for proper societal dissemination of the results, which will be relevant for animal behaviour, social sciences, wildlife and zoo management.
Project acronym CARAT
Project Commercial Applications for RF Arrays of Traps
Researcher (PI) Otto Rainer BLATT
Summary "The ERC-funded project CRYTERION has a goal of scaling up simulations and computations with trapped ions. One possible route for this is the use of a 2D array of ion traps. During the development of these 2D arrays, a novel method of being able to address the interactions was conceived, allowing addressing of individual ions and nearest-neighbour interactions between ions in the array. A patent has been granted on the design and the ERC-POC grant is being applied for so as to develop an implementation with the goal of licensing the patent. Technical tests of this idea with calcium ions have been performed on a mesoscale array of ion traps. Basic ideas for creating micro-scale traps are under investigation. We propose that this micro-array concept be developed, to the point where traps can be provided to potential customers for evaluation. Besides the technical realization of the POC it is necessary to analyse the market, i.e. identify customers as well as producers and develop a strategy for how to target these two groups successfully"
"The ERC-funded project CRYTERION has a goal of scaling up simulations and computations with trapped ions. One possible route for this is the use of a 2D array of ion traps. During the development of these 2D arrays, a novel method of being able to address the interactions was conceived, allowing addressing of individual ions and nearest-neighbour interactions between ions in the array. A patent has been granted on the design and the ERC-POC grant is being applied for so as to develop an implementation with the goal of licensing the patent. Technical tests of this idea with calcium ions have been performed on a mesoscale array of ion traps. Basic ideas for creating micro-scale traps are under investigation. We propose that this micro-array concept be developed, to the point where traps can be provided to potential customers for evaluation. Besides the technical realization of the POC it is necessary to analyse the market, i.e. identify customers as well as producers and develop a strategy for how to target these two groups successfully"
Project acronym CATCHIT
Project Coherently Advanced Tissue and Cell Holographic Imaging and Trapping
Researcher (PI) Monika Ritsch-Marte
Host Institution (HI) MEDIZINISCHE UNIVERSITAT INNSBRUCK
Summary We envisage a new generation of dynamic holographic laser tweezers and stretching tools with unprecedented spatial control of gradient and scattering light forces, to unravel functional mysteries of cell biology and genetics: Based on our recently developed, highly successful and widely recognized amplitude and phase shaping techniques with cascaded spatial light modulators (SLM), we will create new holographic optical manipulators consisting of a line-shaped trap with balanced net scattering forces and controllable local phase-gradients. Combining these line stretchers with spiral phase contrast imaging or nonlinear optical microscopy will allow quantitative study of functional shape changes. The novel tool is hugely more versatile than standard optical tweezers, since direction and magnitude of the scattering force can be designed to precisely follow the structure. In combination with conventional multi-spot traps the line stretcher acts as a sensitive and adaptable local force sensor. In collaboration with local experts we want to tackle hot topics in Genetics, e.g. search for force profile signatures in regions with Copy Number Variations. Possibly the approach may shed light on basic physical characteristics such as, for example, chromosomal fragility in Fra(X) syndrome, the most common monogenic cause of mental retardation. The new design intrinsically offers enhanced microscopic resolution, as SLM-synthesized apertures and waveforms can enlarge the number of spatial frequencies forming the image. Ultimately, nonlinear holography can be implemented, sending phase shaped wavefronts to target samples. This can, e.g., be used to push the sensitivity of nonlinear chemical imaging, or for controlled photo-activation of targeted regions in neurons.
We envisage a new generation of dynamic holographic laser tweezers and stretching tools with unprecedented spatial control of gradient and scattering light forces, to unravel functional mysteries of cell biology and genetics: Based on our recently developed, highly successful and widely recognized amplitude and phase shaping techniques with cascaded spatial light modulators (SLM), we will create new holographic optical manipulators consisting of a line-shaped trap with balanced net scattering forces and controllable local phase-gradients. Combining these line stretchers with spiral phase contrast imaging or nonlinear optical microscopy will allow quantitative study of functional shape changes. The novel tool is hugely more versatile than standard optical tweezers, since direction and magnitude of the scattering force can be designed to precisely follow the structure. In combination with conventional multi-spot traps the line stretcher acts as a sensitive and adaptable local force sensor. In collaboration with local experts we want to tackle hot topics in Genetics, e.g. search for force profile signatures in regions with Copy Number Variations. Possibly the approach may shed light on basic physical characteristics such as, for example, chromosomal fragility in Fra(X) syndrome, the most common monogenic cause of mental retardation. The new design intrinsically offers enhanced microscopic resolution, as SLM-synthesized apertures and waveforms can enlarge the number of spatial frequencies forming the image. Ultimately, nonlinear holography can be implemented, sending phase shaped wavefronts to target samples. This can, e.g., be used to push the sensitivity of nonlinear chemical imaging, or for controlled photo-activation of targeted regions in neurons.
Project acronym CC4SOL
Project Towards chemical accuracy in computational materials science
Researcher (PI) Andreas GRÜNEIS
Summary This project aims at the development of a novel toolbox of ab-initio methods that approximate the true many-electron wavefunction using systematically improvable perturbation and coupled-cluster theories. The demand and prospects for these methods are excellent given that the highly-accurate coupled-cluster theories can predict atomization- and reaction energies in a wide range of solids and molecules with chemical accuracy (≈43 meV). However, the computational cost involved inhibits their widespread use in the field of materials science so far. A multitude of suggested developments in the present proposal hold the promise to reduce the computational cost beyond what is currently considered possible by the community. These include explicit correlation methods that augment the conventional wavefunction expansion with terms that depend on the electron pair correlation factors. In contrast to the widely-used homogeneous correlation factors, this proposal aims at the investigation of inhomogeneous correlation factors that can also capture van der Waals interactions. Furthermore this proposal seeks to employ a recently developed combination of atom-centered basis functions and plane wave basis sets, maximizing the compactness in the wavefunction expansion. The combination of these ideas bears the potential to reduce the computational cost of coupled-cluster calculations in solids by three orders of magnitude, leading to a breakthrough in the field of highly-accurate ab-initio simulations. As such the study of challenging solid state physics and chemistry problems forms an important part of this proposal. We seek to investigate molecular adsorption and reactions in zeolites and on surfaces, pressure-driven solid-solid phase transitions of two dimensional layered materials and defects in solids. These problems are paradigmatic for van der Waals interactions and strong correlation, and methods that describe their electronic structure accurately are highly sought after.
This project aims at the development of a novel toolbox of ab-initio methods that approximate the true many-electron wavefunction using systematically improvable perturbation and coupled-cluster theories. The demand and prospects for these methods are excellent given that the highly-accurate coupled-cluster theories can predict atomization- and reaction energies in a wide range of solids and molecules with chemical accuracy (≈43 meV). However, the computational cost involved inhibits their widespread use in the field of materials science so far. A multitude of suggested developments in the present proposal hold the promise to reduce the computational cost beyond what is currently considered possible by the community. These include explicit correlation methods that augment the conventional wavefunction expansion with terms that depend on the electron pair correlation factors. In contrast to the widely-used homogeneous correlation factors, this proposal aims at the investigation of inhomogeneous correlation factors that can also capture van der Waals interactions. Furthermore this proposal seeks to employ a recently developed combination of atom-centered basis functions and plane wave basis sets, maximizing the compactness in the wavefunction expansion. The combination of these ideas bears the potential to reduce the computational cost of coupled-cluster calculations in solids by three orders of magnitude, leading to a breakthrough in the field of highly-accurate ab-initio simulations. As such the study of challenging solid state physics and chemistry problems forms an important part of this proposal. We seek to investigate molecular adsorption and reactions in zeolites and on surfaces, pressure-driven solid-solid phase transitions of two dimensional layered materials and defects in solids. These problems are paradigmatic for van der Waals interactions and strong correlation, and methods that describe their electronic structure accurately are highly sought after.
Project acronym CDK6-DrugOpp
Project CDK6 in transcription - turning a foe in a friend
Researcher (PI) Veronika SEXL
Summary "Translational research aims at applying mechanistic understanding in the development of "precision medicine", which depends on precise diagnostic tools and therapeutic approaches. Cancer therapy is experiencing a switch from non-specific, cytotoxic agents towards molecularly targeted and rationally designed compounds with the promise of greater efficacy and fewer side effects. The two cell-cycle kinases CDK4 and CDK6 normally facilitate cell-cycle progression but are abnormally activated in certain cancers. CDK6 is up-regulated in hematopoietic malignancies, where it is the predominant cell-cycle kinase. The importance of CDK4/6 for tumor development is underscored by the fact that the US FDA selected inhibitors of the kinase activity of CDK4/6 as "breakthrough of the year 2013". Our recent findings suggest that the effects of the inhibitors may be limited as CDK6 is not only involved in cell-cycle progression: ground-breaking research in my group and others has shown that CDK6 is involved in regulation of transcription in a kinase-independent manner thereby driving the proliferation of leukemic stem cells and tumor formation. We have now identified mutations in CDK6 that convert it from a tumor promoter into a tumor suppressor. This unexpected outcome is accompanied by a distinct transcriptional profile. Separating the tumor-promoting from the tumor suppressive functions may open a novel therapeutic avenue for drug development. We aim at understanding which domains and residues of CDK6 are involved in rewiring the transcriptional landscape to pave the way for sophisticated inhibitors. The idea of turning a cancer cell's own most potent weapon against itself is novel and would represent a new paradigm for drug design. Finally, the understanding of CDK6 functions in tumor promotion and maintenance will also result in better patient stratification and improved treatment decisions for a broad spectrum of cancer types."
"Translational research aims at applying mechanistic understanding in the development of "precision medicine", which depends on precise diagnostic tools and therapeutic approaches. Cancer therapy is experiencing a switch from non-specific, cytotoxic agents towards molecularly targeted and rationally designed compounds with the promise of greater efficacy and fewer side effects. The two cell-cycle kinases CDK4 and CDK6 normally facilitate cell-cycle progression but are abnormally activated in certain cancers. CDK6 is up-regulated in hematopoietic malignancies, where it is the predominant cell-cycle kinase. The importance of CDK4/6 for tumor development is underscored by the fact that the US FDA selected inhibitors of the kinase activity of CDK4/6 as "breakthrough of the year 2013". Our recent findings suggest that the effects of the inhibitors may be limited as CDK6 is not only involved in cell-cycle progression: ground-breaking research in my group and others has shown that CDK6 is involved in regulation of transcription in a kinase-independent manner thereby driving the proliferation of leukemic stem cells and tumor formation. We have now identified mutations in CDK6 that convert it from a tumor promoter into a tumor suppressor. This unexpected outcome is accompanied by a distinct transcriptional profile. Separating the tumor-promoting from the tumor suppressive functions may open a novel therapeutic avenue for drug development. We aim at understanding which domains and residues of CDK6 are involved in rewiring the transcriptional landscape to pave the way for sophisticated inhibitors. The idea of turning a cancer cell's own most potent weapon against itself is novel and would represent a new paradigm for drug design. Finally, the understanding of CDK6 functions in tumor promotion and maintenance will also result in better patient stratification and improved treatment decisions for a broad spectrum of cancer types."
Project acronym CeMoMagneto
Project The Cellular and Molecular Basis of Magnetoreception
Researcher (PI) David Anthony Keays
Host Institution (HI) FORSCHUNGSINSTITUT FUR MOLEKULARE PATHOLOGIE GESELLSCHAFT MBH
Summary Each year millions of animals undertake remarkable migratory journeys, across oceans and through hemispheres, guided by the Earth’s magnetic field. The cellular and molecular basis of this enigmatic sense, known as magnetoreception, remains an unsolved scientific mystery. One hypothesis that attempts to explain the basis of this sensory faculty is known as the magnetite theory of magnetoreception. It argues that magnetic information is transduced into a neuronal impulse by employing the iron oxide magnetite (Fe3O4). Current evidence indicates that pigeons employ a magnetoreceptor that is associated with the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve and the vestibular system, but the sensory cells remain undiscovered. The goal of this ambitious proposal is to discover the cells and molecules that mediate magnetoreception. This overall objective can be divided into three specific aims: (1) the identification of putative magnetoreceptive cells (PMCs); (2) the cellular characterisation of PMCs; and (3) the discovery and functional ablation of molecules specific to PMCs. In tackling these three aims this proposal adopts a reductionist mindset, employing and developing the latest imaging, subcellular, and molecular technologies.
Each year millions of animals undertake remarkable migratory journeys, across oceans and through hemispheres, guided by the Earth’s magnetic field. The cellular and molecular basis of this enigmatic sense, known as magnetoreception, remains an unsolved scientific mystery. One hypothesis that attempts to explain the basis of this sensory faculty is known as the magnetite theory of magnetoreception. It argues that magnetic information is transduced into a neuronal impulse by employing the iron oxide magnetite (Fe3O4). Current evidence indicates that pigeons employ a magnetoreceptor that is associated with the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve and the vestibular system, but the sensory cells remain undiscovered. The goal of this ambitious proposal is to discover the cells and molecules that mediate magnetoreception. This overall objective can be divided into three specific aims: (1) the identification of putative magnetoreceptive cells (PMCs); (2) the cellular characterisation of PMCs; and (3) the discovery and functional ablation of molecules specific to PMCs. In tackling these three aims this proposal adopts a reductionist mindset, employing and developing the latest imaging, subcellular, and molecular technologies.
Project acronym CeraText
Project Tailoring Microstructure and Architecture to Build Ceramic Components with Unprecedented Damage Tolerance
Researcher (PI) Raul BERMEJO
Host Institution (HI) MONTANUNIVERSITAET LEOBEN
Summary Advanced ceramics are often combined with metals, polymers or other ceramics to produce structural and functional systems with exceptional properties. Examples are resistors and capacitors in microelectronics, piezo-ceramic actuators in car injection devices, and bio-implants for hip joint replacements. However, a critical issue affecting the functionality, lifetime and reliability of such systems is the initiation and uncontrolled propagation of cracks in the brittle ceramic parts, yielding in some cases rejection rates up to 70% of components production. The remarkable “damage tolerance” found in natural materials such as wood, bone or mollusc, has yet to be achieved in technical ceramics, where incipient damage is synonymous with catastrophic failure. Novel “multilayer designs” combining microstructure and architecture could change this situation. Recent work of the PI has shown that tuning the location of “protective” layers within a 3D multilayer ceramic can increase its fracture resistance by five times (from ~3.5 to ~17 MPa∙m1/2) relative to constituent bulk ceramic layers, while retaining high strength (~500 MPa). By orienting the grain structure, similar to the textured and organized microstructure found in natural systems such as nacre, the PI has shown that crack propagation can be controlled within the textured ceramic layer. Thus, I believe tailored microstructures with controlled grain boundaries engineered in a layer-by-layer 3D architectural design hold the key to a new generation of “damage tolerant” ceramics. This proposal outlines a research program to establish new scientific principles for the fabrication of innovative ceramic components that exhibit unprecedented damage tolerance. The successful implementation of microstructural features (e.g. texture degree, tailored internal stresses, second phases, interfaces) in a layer-by-layer architecture will provide outstanding lifetime and reliability in both structural and functional ceramic devices.
Advanced ceramics are often combined with metals, polymers or other ceramics to produce structural and functional systems with exceptional properties. Examples are resistors and capacitors in microelectronics, piezo-ceramic actuators in car injection devices, and bio-implants for hip joint replacements. However, a critical issue affecting the functionality, lifetime and reliability of such systems is the initiation and uncontrolled propagation of cracks in the brittle ceramic parts, yielding in some cases rejection rates up to 70% of components production. The remarkable “damage tolerance” found in natural materials such as wood, bone or mollusc, has yet to be achieved in technical ceramics, where incipient damage is synonymous with catastrophic failure. Novel “multilayer designs” combining microstructure and architecture could change this situation. Recent work of the PI has shown that tuning the location of “protective” layers within a 3D multilayer ceramic can increase its fracture resistance by five times (from ~3.5 to ~17 MPa∙m1/2) relative to constituent bulk ceramic layers, while retaining high strength (~500 MPa). By orienting the grain structure, similar to the textured and organized microstructure found in natural systems such as nacre, the PI has shown that crack propagation can be controlled within the textured ceramic layer. Thus, I believe tailored microstructures with controlled grain boundaries engineered in a layer-by-layer 3D architectural design hold the key to a new generation of “damage tolerant” ceramics. This proposal outlines a research program to establish new scientific principles for the fabrication of innovative ceramic components that exhibit unprecedented damage tolerance. The successful implementation of microstructural features (e.g. texture degree, tailored internal stresses, second phases, interfaces) in a layer-by-layer architecture will provide outstanding lifetime and reliability in both structural and functional ceramic devices.
Project acronym CharFL
Project Characterizing the fitness landscape on population and global scales
Researcher (PI) Fyodor Kondrashov
Summary The fitness landscape, the representation of how the genotype manifests at the phenotypic (fitness) levels, may be among the most useful concepts in biology with impact on diverse fields, including quantitative genetics, emergence of pathogen resistance, synthetic biology and protein engineering. While progress in characterizing fitness landscapes has been made, three directions of research in the field remain virtually unexplored: the nature of the genotype to phenotype of standing variation (variation found in a natural population), the shape of the fitness landscape encompassing many genotypes and the modelling of complex genetic interactions in protein sequences. The current proposal is designed to advance the study of fitness landscapes in these three directions using large-scale genomic experiments and experimental data from a model protein and theoretical work. The study of the fitness landscape of standing variation is aimed at the resolution of an outstanding question in quantitative genetics: the extent to which epistasis, non-additive genetic interactions, is shaping the phenotype. The second aim of characterizing the global fitness landscape will give us an understanding of how evolution proceeds along long evolutionary timescales, which can be directly applied to protein engineering and synthetic biology for the design of novel phenotypes. Finally, the third aim of modelling complex interactions will improve our ability to predict phenotypes from genotypes, such as the prediction of human disease mutations. In summary, the proposed study presents an opportunity to provide a unifying understanding of how phenotypes are shaped through genetic interactions. The consolidation of our empirical and theoretical work on different scales of the genotype to phenotype relationship will provide empirical data and novel context for several fields of biology.
The fitness landscape, the representation of how the genotype manifests at the phenotypic (fitness) levels, may be among the most useful concepts in biology with impact on diverse fields, including quantitative genetics, emergence of pathogen resistance, synthetic biology and protein engineering. While progress in characterizing fitness landscapes has been made, three directions of research in the field remain virtually unexplored: the nature of the genotype to phenotype of standing variation (variation found in a natural population), the shape of the fitness landscape encompassing many genotypes and the modelling of complex genetic interactions in protein sequences. The current proposal is designed to advance the study of fitness landscapes in these three directions using large-scale genomic experiments and experimental data from a model protein and theoretical work. The study of the fitness landscape of standing variation is aimed at the resolution of an outstanding question in quantitative genetics: the extent to which epistasis, non-additive genetic interactions, is shaping the phenotype. The second aim of characterizing the global fitness landscape will give us an understanding of how evolution proceeds along long evolutionary timescales, which can be directly applied to protein engineering and synthetic biology for the design of novel phenotypes. Finally, the third aim of modelling complex interactions will improve our ability to predict phenotypes from genotypes, such as the prediction of human disease mutations. In summary, the proposed study presents an opportunity to provide a unifying understanding of how phenotypes are shaped through genetic interactions. The consolidation of our empirical and theoretical work on different scales of the genotype to phenotype relationship will provide empirical data and novel context for several fields of biology.
Project acronym chemos
Project Chemical Hematology: breaking resistance of hematological malignancies through personalized drug trials
Call Details Proof of Concept (PoC), ERC-2016-PoC, ERC-2016-PoC
Summary Personalized medicine aspires to provide optimal therapy in real-time during patient treatment, however current methodology falls short to deliver this in a robust manner. With this in mind, we invented a method for the screening of thousands of drug responses in small samples of an individual’s peripheral blood by automated microscopy and single-cell image analysis. We termed this method pharmacoscopy. In the course of carrying out the i-FIVE ERC grant project plan, we began screening for novel anti-viral or immune modulating drugs. In the quest to increase the physiological relevance of our screening settings, we investigated the possibility of using peripheral blood cells or bone marrow from individuals. We have thus far been able to show that the approach allows for the screening of anti-inflammatory properties of compounds, and to score for distinct sub-population specific cell cytotoxicity profiles of clinical anti-neoplastic agents through the tracking of fluorescent antibodies and probes. Moreover, we have been able to show that the approach empowers the therapeutic decision-making capability of hema-oncologists in a concrete clinical setting using primary myelofibrosis and lymphoma as test diseases. With funding from this grant, we intend to obtain further clinical data through retrospective trials, and incorporate the results into an information package attractive enough to draw the attention of potential investors. We have secured the intellectual property rights and have assembled the know-how required to enable commercialization efforts. With the unique image-based single cell analysis of human liquid tissues, we believe that chemos has the potential to develop into a service that enables and advances personalized medicine and drug discovery for a broad spectrum of hematological disorders.
Personalized medicine aspires to provide optimal therapy in real-time during patient treatment, however current methodology falls short to deliver this in a robust manner. With this in mind, we invented a method for the screening of thousands of drug responses in small samples of an individual’s peripheral blood by automated microscopy and single-cell image analysis. We termed this method pharmacoscopy. In the course of carrying out the i-FIVE ERC grant project plan, we began screening for novel anti-viral or immune modulating drugs. In the quest to increase the physiological relevance of our screening settings, we investigated the possibility of using peripheral blood cells or bone marrow from individuals. We have thus far been able to show that the approach allows for the screening of anti-inflammatory properties of compounds, and to score for distinct sub-population specific cell cytotoxicity profiles of clinical anti-neoplastic agents through the tracking of fluorescent antibodies and probes. Moreover, we have been able to show that the approach empowers the therapeutic decision-making capability of hema-oncologists in a concrete clinical setting using primary myelofibrosis and lymphoma as test diseases. With funding from this grant, we intend to obtain further clinical data through retrospective trials, and incorporate the results into an information package attractive enough to draw the attention of potential investors. We have secured the intellectual property rights and have assembled the know-how required to enable commercialization efforts. With the unique image-based single cell analysis of human liquid tissues, we believe that chemos has the potential to develop into a service that enables and advances personalized medicine and drug discovery for a broad spectrum of hematological disorders.
Project acronym CHROMABOLISM
Project Chromatin-localized central metabolism regulating gene expression and cell identity
Researcher (PI) Stefan KUBICEK
Summary Epigenetics research has revealed that in the cell’s nucleus all kinds of biomolecules–DNA, RNAs, proteins, protein posttranslational modifications–are highly compartmentalized to occupy distinct chromatin territories and genomic loci, thereby contributing to gene regulation and cell identity. In contrast, small molecules and cellular metabolites are generally considered to passively enter the nucleus from the cytoplasm and to lack distinct subnuclear localization. The CHROMABOLISM proposal challenges this assumption based on preliminary data generated in my laboratory. I hypothesize that chromatin-bound enzymes of central metabolism and subnuclear metabolite gradients contribute to gene regulation and cellular identity. To address this hypothesis, we will first systematically profile chromatin-bound metabolic enzymes, chart nuclear metabolomes across representative leukemia cell lines, and develop tools to measure local metabolite concentrations at distinct genomic loci. In a second step, we will then develop and apply technology to perturb these nuclear metabolite patterns by forcing the export of metabolic enzymes for the nucleus, aberrantly recruiting these enzymes to selected genomic loci, and perturbing metabolite patterns by addition and depletion of metabolites. In all these conditions we will measure the impact of nuclear metabolism on chromatin structure and gene expression. Based on the data obtained, we will model for the effects of cellular metabolites on cancer cell identity and proliferation. In line with the recent discovery of oncometabolites and the clinical use of antimetabolites, we expect to predict chromatin-bound metabolic enzymes that can be exploited as druggable targets in oncology. In a final aim we will validate these targets in leukemia and develop chemical probes against them. Successful completion of this project has the potential to transform our understanding of nuclear metabolism in control of gene expression and cellular identity.
Epigenetics research has revealed that in the cell’s nucleus all kinds of biomolecules–DNA, RNAs, proteins, protein posttranslational modifications–are highly compartmentalized to occupy distinct chromatin territories and genomic loci, thereby contributing to gene regulation and cell identity. In contrast, small molecules and cellular metabolites are generally considered to passively enter the nucleus from the cytoplasm and to lack distinct subnuclear localization. The CHROMABOLISM proposal challenges this assumption based on preliminary data generated in my laboratory. I hypothesize that chromatin-bound enzymes of central metabolism and subnuclear metabolite gradients contribute to gene regulation and cellular identity. To address this hypothesis, we will first systematically profile chromatin-bound metabolic enzymes, chart nuclear metabolomes across representative leukemia cell lines, and develop tools to measure local metabolite concentrations at distinct genomic loci. In a second step, we will then develop and apply technology to perturb these nuclear metabolite patterns by forcing the export of metabolic enzymes for the nucleus, aberrantly recruiting these enzymes to selected genomic loci, and perturbing metabolite patterns by addition and depletion of metabolites. In all these conditions we will measure the impact of nuclear metabolism on chromatin structure and gene expression. Based on the data obtained, we will model for the effects of cellular metabolites on cancer cell identity and proliferation. In line with the recent discovery of oncometabolites and the clinical use of antimetabolites, we expect to predict chromatin-bound metabolic enzymes that can be exploited as druggable targets in oncology. In a final aim we will validate these targets in leukemia and develop chemical probes against them. Successful completion of this project has the potential to transform our understanding of nuclear metabolism in control of gene expression and cellular identity.
Project acronym ChromatinTargets
Project Systematic in-vivo analysis of chromatin-associated targets in leukemia
Researcher (PI) Johannes Zuber
Summary Recent advances in genome sequencing illustrate the complexity, heterogeneity and plasticity of cancer genomes. In leukemia - a group of blood cancers affecting 300,000 new patients every year – we know over 100 driver mutations. This genetic complexity poses a daunting challenge for the development of targeted therapies and highlights the urgent need for evaluating them in combination. One gene class that has recently emerged as highly promising target space are chromatin regulators, which maintain aberrant cell fate programs in leukemia. The dependency on altered chromatin states is thought to provide great therapeutic opportunities, since epigenetic aberrations are reversible and controlled by a machinery that is amenable to drug modulation. However, the precise mechanisms underlying these dependencies and the most effective and safe targets to exploit them therapeutically remain unknown. Here we propose an innovative approach combining genetically engineered leukemia mouse models and advanced in-vivo RNAi technologies to explore chromatin-associated vulnerabilities at an unprecedented level of depth. Following a first screen in MLL-AF9;Nras-driven AML, which led to the discovery of BRD4 as a promising therapeutic target, we aim to (1) construct a knockdown-validated shRNA library targeting 520 chromatin regulators and use it to comparatively probe chromatin-associated dependencies in diverse leukemia subtypes; (2) explore the mechanistic basis of response and resistance to suppression of BRD4 and new chromatin-associated targets; and (3) pioneer a system for multiplexed combinatorial RNAi screening and use it to identify synergies between established and new chromatin-associated targets. We envision that this ERC-funded project will generate a comprehensive functional-genetic dataset that will greatly complement ongoing genome and epigenome profiling studies and ultimately guide the development of targeted therapies for leukemia and, potentially, other cancers.
Recent advances in genome sequencing illustrate the complexity, heterogeneity and plasticity of cancer genomes. In leukemia - a group of blood cancers affecting 300,000 new patients every year – we know over 100 driver mutations. This genetic complexity poses a daunting challenge for the development of targeted therapies and highlights the urgent need for evaluating them in combination. One gene class that has recently emerged as highly promising target space are chromatin regulators, which maintain aberrant cell fate programs in leukemia. The dependency on altered chromatin states is thought to provide great therapeutic opportunities, since epigenetic aberrations are reversible and controlled by a machinery that is amenable to drug modulation. However, the precise mechanisms underlying these dependencies and the most effective and safe targets to exploit them therapeutically remain unknown. Here we propose an innovative approach combining genetically engineered leukemia mouse models and advanced in-vivo RNAi technologies to explore chromatin-associated vulnerabilities at an unprecedented level of depth. Following a first screen in MLL-AF9;Nras-driven AML, which led to the discovery of BRD4 as a promising therapeutic target, we aim to (1) construct a knockdown-validated shRNA library targeting 520 chromatin regulators and use it to comparatively probe chromatin-associated dependencies in diverse leukemia subtypes; (2) explore the mechanistic basis of response and resistance to suppression of BRD4 and new chromatin-associated targets; and (3) pioneer a system for multiplexed combinatorial RNAi screening and use it to identify synergies between established and new chromatin-associated targets. We envision that this ERC-funded project will generate a comprehensive functional-genetic dataset that will greatly complement ongoing genome and epigenome profiling studies and ultimately guide the development of targeted therapies for leukemia and, potentially, other cancers.
Project acronym ChromHeritance
Project Chromosome inheritance from mammalian oocytes to embryos
Researcher (PI) Kikue Tachibana-Konwalski
Host Institution (HI) INSTITUT FUER MOLEKULARE BIOTECHNOLOGIE GMBH
Summary One of the most dramatic transitions in biology is the oocyte-to-zygote transition. This refers to the maturation of the female germ cell or oocyte, which undergoes two rounds of meiotic chromosome segregation and, following fertilization, is converted to a mitotically dividing embryo. We aim to establish an innovative research program that addresses fundamental questions about the molecular processes controlling the mammalian oocyte-to-zygote transition to ensure faithful inheritance of genomes from one generation to the next. We are taking an interdisciplinary approach combining germ cell and chromosome biology with cell cycle and epigenetic studies to understand how maternal factors regulate chromosome segregation in oocytes and chromatin organization in the zygote. A molecular understanding of key players regulating these processes is a requisite step for investigating how their deterioration contributes to maternal age-related aneuploidy and infertility. Aneuploidy is the leading cause of mental retardation and spontaneous miscarriage. The current trend towards advanced maternal age has increased the frequency of trisomic fetuses by 71% in the past ten years. A better understanding of mammalian meiosis is therefore relevant to human reproductive health. A special feature of the female germ line is that meiotic DNA replication occurs in the embryo but oocytes remain arrested until the first meiotic division is triggered months (mouse) or decades (human) later. The longevity of oocytes poses a challenge for the cohesin complex that must hold together sister chromatids from DNA synthesis until chromosome segregation. We specifically aim to: 1) elucidate how sister chromatid cohesion is maintained in mammalian oocytes, 2) identify mechanisms regulating cohesion in young and aged oocytes, and 3) investigate how the inheritance of genetic and resetting of epigenetic information is coordinated with cell cycle progression at the oocyte-to-zygote transition.
One of the most dramatic transitions in biology is the oocyte-to-zygote transition. This refers to the maturation of the female germ cell or oocyte, which undergoes two rounds of meiotic chromosome segregation and, following fertilization, is converted to a mitotically dividing embryo. We aim to establish an innovative research program that addresses fundamental questions about the molecular processes controlling the mammalian oocyte-to-zygote transition to ensure faithful inheritance of genomes from one generation to the next. We are taking an interdisciplinary approach combining germ cell and chromosome biology with cell cycle and epigenetic studies to understand how maternal factors regulate chromosome segregation in oocytes and chromatin organization in the zygote. A molecular understanding of key players regulating these processes is a requisite step for investigating how their deterioration contributes to maternal age-related aneuploidy and infertility. Aneuploidy is the leading cause of mental retardation and spontaneous miscarriage. The current trend towards advanced maternal age has increased the frequency of trisomic fetuses by 71% in the past ten years. A better understanding of mammalian meiosis is therefore relevant to human reproductive health. A special feature of the female germ line is that meiotic DNA replication occurs in the embryo but oocytes remain arrested until the first meiotic division is triggered months (mouse) or decades (human) later. The longevity of oocytes poses a challenge for the cohesin complex that must hold together sister chromatids from DNA synthesis until chromosome segregation. We specifically aim to: 1) elucidate how sister chromatid cohesion is maintained in mammalian oocytes, 2) identify mechanisms regulating cohesion in young and aged oocytes, and 3) investigate how the inheritance of genetic and resetting of epigenetic information is coordinated with cell cycle progression at the oocyte-to-zygote transition.
Project acronym CITRES
Project Chemistry and interface tailored lead-free relaxor thin films for energy storage capacitors
Researcher (PI) Marco Deluca
Host Institution (HI) MATERIALS CENTER LEOBEN FORSCHUNG GMBH
Summary The goal of CITRES is to provide new energy storage devices with high power and energy density by developing novel multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) based on relaxor thin films (RTF). Energy storage units for energy autonomous sensor systems for the Internet of Things (IoT) must possess high power and energy density to allow quick charge/recharge and long-time energy supply. Current energy storage devices cannot meet those demands: Batteries have large capacity but long charging/discharging times due to slow chemical reactions and ion diffusion. Ceramic dielectric capacitors – being based on ionic and electronic polarisation mechanisms – can deliver and take up power quickly, but store much less energy due to low dielectric breakdown strength (DBS), high losses, and leakage currents. RTF are ideal candidates: (i) Thin film processing allows obtaining low porosity and defects, thus enhancing the DBS; (ii) slim polarisation hysteresis loops, intrinsic to relaxors, allow reducing the losses. High energy density can be achieved in RTF by maximising the polarisation and minimising the leakage currents. Both aspects are controlled by the amount, type and local distribution of chemical substituents in the RTF lattice, whereas the latter depends also on the chemistry of the electrode metal. In CITRES, we will identify the influence of substituents on electric polarisation from atomic to macroscopic scale by combining multiscale atomistic modelling with advanced structural, chemical and electrical characterizations on several length scales both in the RTF bulk and at interfaces with various electrodes. This will allow for the first time the design of energy storage properties of RTF by chemical substitution and electrode selection. The ground-breaking nature of CITRES resides in the design and realisation of RTF-based dielectric MLCCs with better energy storage performances than supercapacitors and batteries, thus enabling energy autonomy for IoT sensor systems.
The goal of CITRES is to provide new energy storage devices with high power and energy density by developing novel multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) based on relaxor thin films (RTF). Energy storage units for energy autonomous sensor systems for the Internet of Things (IoT) must possess high power and energy density to allow quick charge/recharge and long-time energy supply. Current energy storage devices cannot meet those demands: Batteries have large capacity but long charging/discharging times due to slow chemical reactions and ion diffusion. Ceramic dielectric capacitors – being based on ionic and electronic polarisation mechanisms – can deliver and take up power quickly, but store much less energy due to low dielectric breakdown strength (DBS), high losses, and leakage currents. RTF are ideal candidates: (i) Thin film processing allows obtaining low porosity and defects, thus enhancing the DBS; (ii) slim polarisation hysteresis loops, intrinsic to relaxors, allow reducing the losses. High energy density can be achieved in RTF by maximising the polarisation and minimising the leakage currents. Both aspects are controlled by the amount, type and local distribution of chemical substituents in the RTF lattice, whereas the latter depends also on the chemistry of the electrode metal. In CITRES, we will identify the influence of substituents on electric polarisation from atomic to macroscopic scale by combining multiscale atomistic modelling with advanced structural, chemical and electrical characterizations on several length scales both in the RTF bulk and at interfaces with various electrodes. This will allow for the first time the design of energy storage properties of RTF by chemical substitution and electrode selection. The ground-breaking nature of CITRES resides in the design and realisation of RTF-based dielectric MLCCs with better energy storage performances than supercapacitors and batteries, thus enabling energy autonomy for IoT sensor systems.
Project acronym CLOUDMAP
Project Cloud Computing via Homomorphic Encryption and Multilinear Maps
Researcher (PI) Jean-Sebastien Coron
Summary The past thirty years have seen cryptography move from arcane to commonplace: Internet, mobile phones, banking system, etc. Homomorphic cryptography now offers the tantalizing goal of being able to process sensitive information in encrypted form, without needing to compromise on the privacy and security of the citizens and organizations that provide the input data. More recently, cryptographic multilinear maps have revolutionized cryptography with the emergence of indistinguishability obfuscation (iO), which in theory can been used to realize numerous advanced cryptographic functionalities that previously seemed beyond reach. However the security of multilinear maps is still poorly understood, and many iO schemes have been broken; moreover all constructions of iO are currently unpractical. The goal of the CLOUDMAP project is to make these advanced cryptographic tasks usable in practice, so that citizens do not have to compromise on the privacy and security of their input data. This goal can only be achieved by considering the mathematical foundations of these primitives, working "from first principles", rather than focusing on premature optimizations. To achieve this goal, our first objective will be to better understand the security of the underlying primitives of multilinear maps and iO schemes. Our second objective will be to develop new approaches to significantly improve their efficiency. Our third objective will be to build applications of multilinear maps and iO that can be implemented in practice.
The past thirty years have seen cryptography move from arcane to commonplace: Internet, mobile phones, banking system, etc. Homomorphic cryptography now offers the tantalizing goal of being able to process sensitive information in encrypted form, without needing to compromise on the privacy and security of the citizens and organizations that provide the input data. More recently, cryptographic multilinear maps have revolutionized cryptography with the emergence of indistinguishability obfuscation (iO), which in theory can been used to realize numerous advanced cryptographic functionalities that previously seemed beyond reach. However the security of multilinear maps is still poorly understood, and many iO schemes have been broken; moreover all constructions of iO are currently unpractical. The goal of the CLOUDMAP project is to make these advanced cryptographic tasks usable in practice, so that citizens do not have to compromise on the privacy and security of their input data. This goal can only be achieved by considering the mathematical foundations of these primitives, working "from first principles", rather than focusing on premature optimizations. To achieve this goal, our first objective will be to better understand the security of the underlying primitives of multilinear maps and iO schemes. Our second objective will be to develop new approaches to significantly improve their efficiency. Our third objective will be to build applications of multilinear maps and iO that can be implemented in practice.
Project acronym CMIL
Project Crosstalk of Metabolism and Inflammation
Researcher (PI) Andreas Bergthaler
Summary Inflammation is a response to noxious stimuli and initiates tissue repair. If resolution fails, however, chronic inflammation develops, which drives tissue damage in many diseases including autoimmunity, cancer and infections. Inflammatory processes are increasingly being appreciated as tightly integrated with metabolic pathways. The molecular crosstalk occurs on different levels including secreted metabolites and cytokines. I hypothesise that this interface of metabolism and inflammation represents a functional rheostat that shapes tissue damage and disease. Here, I propose to analyse the metabolic and inflammatory processes in a mouse model of chronic viral hepatitis. I chose this model to explore the inflammatory rheostat because the liver is the central organ for metabolism and a hotspot for receiving, processing and distributing local and systemic signals. Cutting-edge technologies including deep sequencing, quantitative proteomics and metabolomics will let us create longitudinal multi-dimensional maps of virus-induced alterations. Paired with immunological, virological and pathological analyses, I expect to identify novel regulatory nodes between metabolism and inflammation. Within our systems-wide experiments and supported by preliminary results, we will specifically focus on the immunomodulatory roles of the metabolite bile acids and oxidative metabolism. These as well as other candidates will be investigated by genetic and pharmacological perturbations in cell culture and in mouse models. Bioinformatics integration of the orthogonal profiling kinetics is expected to reveal novel properties of the molecular networks mediating between metabolism and inflammation. This proposed cross-disciplinary approach aims to improve our understanding of the crosstalk of metabolism and inflammation. The results of this project may be relevant to viral hepatitis in man and bear broader implications for other inflammatory diseases.
Inflammation is a response to noxious stimuli and initiates tissue repair. If resolution fails, however, chronic inflammation develops, which drives tissue damage in many diseases including autoimmunity, cancer and infections. Inflammatory processes are increasingly being appreciated as tightly integrated with metabolic pathways. The molecular crosstalk occurs on different levels including secreted metabolites and cytokines. I hypothesise that this interface of metabolism and inflammation represents a functional rheostat that shapes tissue damage and disease. Here, I propose to analyse the metabolic and inflammatory processes in a mouse model of chronic viral hepatitis. I chose this model to explore the inflammatory rheostat because the liver is the central organ for metabolism and a hotspot for receiving, processing and distributing local and systemic signals. Cutting-edge technologies including deep sequencing, quantitative proteomics and metabolomics will let us create longitudinal multi-dimensional maps of virus-induced alterations. Paired with immunological, virological and pathological analyses, I expect to identify novel regulatory nodes between metabolism and inflammation. Within our systems-wide experiments and supported by preliminary results, we will specifically focus on the immunomodulatory roles of the metabolite bile acids and oxidative metabolism. These as well as other candidates will be investigated by genetic and pharmacological perturbations in cell culture and in mouse models. Bioinformatics integration of the orthogonal profiling kinetics is expected to reveal novel properties of the molecular networks mediating between metabolism and inflammation. This proposed cross-disciplinary approach aims to improve our understanding of the crosstalk of metabolism and inflammation. The results of this project may be relevant to viral hepatitis in man and bear broader implications for other inflammatory diseases.
Project acronym CMS
Project Crystalline Mirror Solutions
Researcher (PI) Markus ASPELMEYER
Summary The precise measurement of time and frequency is a critical technology in many different areas from fundamental sciences to sensing and communications applications. This project aims to explore and to secure the innovation potential of a new mirror technology that is targeted to improve on current standards of time- and frequency measurement.
The precise measurement of time and frequency is a critical technology in many different areas from fundamental sciences to sensing and communications applications. This project aims to explore and to secure the innovation potential of a new mirror technology that is targeted to improve on current standards of time- and frequency measurement.
Project acronym CohesinMolMech
Project Molecular mechanisms of cohesin-mediated sister chromatid cohesion and chromatin organization
Researcher (PI) Jan-Michael Peters
Summary During S-phase newly synthesized “sister” DNA molecules become physically connected. This sister chromatid cohesion resists the pulling forces of the mitotic spindle and thereby enables the bi-orientation and subsequent symmetrical segregation of chromosomes. Cohesion is mediated by ring-shaped cohesin complexes, which are thought to entrap sister DNA molecules topologically. In mammalian cells, cohesin is loaded onto DNA at the end of mitosis by the Scc2-Scc4 complex, becomes acetylated during S-phase, and is stably “locked” on DNA during S- and G2-phase by sororin. Sororin stabilizes cohesin on DNA by inhibiting Wapl, which can otherwise release cohesin from DNA again. In addition to mediating cohesion, cohesin also has important roles in organizing higher-order chromatin structures and in gene regulation. Cohesin performs the latter functions in both proliferating and post-mitotic cells and mediates at least some of these together with the sequence-specific DNA-binding protein CTCF, which co-localizes with cohesin at many genomic sites. Although cohesin and CTCF perform essential functions in mammalian cells, it is poorly understood how cohesin is loaded onto DNA by Scc2-Scc4, how cohesin is positioned in the genome, how cohesin is released from DNA again by Wapl, and how Wapl is inhibited by sororin. Likewise, it is not known how cohesin establishes cohesion during DNA replication and how cohesin cooperates with CTCF to organize chromatin structure. Here we propose to address these questions by combining biochemical reconstitution, single-molecule TIRF microscopy, genetic and cell biological approaches. We expect that the results of these studies will advance our understanding of cell division, chromatin structure and gene regulation, and may also provide insight into the etiology of disorders that are caused by cohesin dysfunction, such as Down syndrome and “cohesinopathies” or cancers, in which cohesin mutations have been found to occur frequently.
During S-phase newly synthesized “sister” DNA molecules become physically connected. This sister chromatid cohesion resists the pulling forces of the mitotic spindle and thereby enables the bi-orientation and subsequent symmetrical segregation of chromosomes. Cohesion is mediated by ring-shaped cohesin complexes, which are thought to entrap sister DNA molecules topologically. In mammalian cells, cohesin is loaded onto DNA at the end of mitosis by the Scc2-Scc4 complex, becomes acetylated during S-phase, and is stably “locked” on DNA during S- and G2-phase by sororin. Sororin stabilizes cohesin on DNA by inhibiting Wapl, which can otherwise release cohesin from DNA again. In addition to mediating cohesion, cohesin also has important roles in organizing higher-order chromatin structures and in gene regulation. Cohesin performs the latter functions in both proliferating and post-mitotic cells and mediates at least some of these together with the sequence-specific DNA-binding protein CTCF, which co-localizes with cohesin at many genomic sites. Although cohesin and CTCF perform essential functions in mammalian cells, it is poorly understood how cohesin is loaded onto DNA by Scc2-Scc4, how cohesin is positioned in the genome, how cohesin is released from DNA again by Wapl, and how Wapl is inhibited by sororin. Likewise, it is not known how cohesin establishes cohesion during DNA replication and how cohesin cooperates with CTCF to organize chromatin structure. Here we propose to address these questions by combining biochemical reconstitution, single-molecule TIRF microscopy, genetic and cell biological approaches. We expect that the results of these studies will advance our understanding of cell division, chromatin structure and gene regulation, and may also provide insight into the etiology of disorders that are caused by cohesin dysfunction, such as Down syndrome and “cohesinopathies” or cancers, in which cohesin mutations have been found to occur frequently.
Project acronym COHORT
Project The demography of skills and beliefs in Europe with a focus on cohort change
Researcher (PI) Vegard Fykse Skirbekk
Host Institution (HI) INTERNATIONALES INSTITUT FUER ANGEWANDTE SYSTEMANALYSE
Summary The central research theme of this proposal is the study of social change (skills, productivity, attitudes and beliefs) in Europe along cohort lines and as a function of changing age composition. Using demographic methods, age-specific and cohort-specific changes shall be quantitatively disentangled. The impact of migration flows as well as fertility differentials combined with intergenerational transmissions will be taken into account. It is expected that viewed together, these analyses will result in significant new insights and represent frontier research about likely social and economic challenges associated with ageing and demographic change in Europe and the appropriate policies for coping with them. Unlike projections of long-term economic growth or energy use, demographic forecasts tend to have comparatively low margins of error, even for forecasts half a century ahead. Traits that change systematically along age or cohort lines may therefore be projected with some degree of accuracy, which in turn can allow governments and individuals to better foresee and improve policies for predictable social change. The study will investigate two major topics, the first relating to human capital, skills, and work performance; the second relating to beliefs and attitudes in Europe. Understanding age variation in productivity and how to improve senior workers skills and capacities are paramount for ageing countries. Moreover, individual-level demographic behaviour can have aggregate level implications, including changing societal values and belief structures. The binding element is how such projections will improve one s capacity to foresee and hence develop more targeted policies that relate to ageing societies.
The central research theme of this proposal is the study of social change (skills, productivity, attitudes and beliefs) in Europe along cohort lines and as a function of changing age composition. Using demographic methods, age-specific and cohort-specific changes shall be quantitatively disentangled. The impact of migration flows as well as fertility differentials combined with intergenerational transmissions will be taken into account. It is expected that viewed together, these analyses will result in significant new insights and represent frontier research about likely social and economic challenges associated with ageing and demographic change in Europe and the appropriate policies for coping with them. Unlike projections of long-term economic growth or energy use, demographic forecasts tend to have comparatively low margins of error, even for forecasts half a century ahead. Traits that change systematically along age or cohort lines may therefore be projected with some degree of accuracy, which in turn can allow governments and individuals to better foresee and improve policies for predictable social change. The study will investigate two major topics, the first relating to human capital, skills, and work performance; the second relating to beliefs and attitudes in Europe. Understanding age variation in productivity and how to improve senior workers skills and capacities are paramount for ageing countries. Moreover, individual-level demographic behaviour can have aggregate level implications, including changing societal values and belief structures. The binding element is how such projections will improve one s capacity to foresee and hence develop more targeted policies that relate to ageing societies.
Project acronym CombaTCancer
Project Rational combination therapies for metastatic cancer
Researcher (PI) Anna Obenauf
Summary Targeted therapy (TT) is frequently used to treat metastatic cancer. Although TT can achieve effective tumor control for several months, durable treatment responses are rare, due to emergence of aggressive, drug-resistant clones (RCs) with high metastatic competence. Tumor heterogeneity and plasticity result in multifaceted resistance mechanisms and targeting RCs poses a daunting challenge. To better understand the clinical emergence of RCs, my work focuses on the poorly understood events during TT-induced tumor regression. We recently reported that during this phase drug-responsive cancer cells release a therapy-induced secretome, which remodels the tumor microenvironment (TME) and propagates disease relapse by promoting the survival of drug-sensitive cells and stimulating the outgrowth of RCs. Consequently, intervening with combination therapies during the tumor regression period has the potential to prevent the clinical emergence of RCs in the first place. Here, we outline strategies to (1) understand how RCs emerge and (2) to leverage our findings on the TME remodeling for combination therapies. First, we will develop a novel and innovative parental clone-lookup method, that will allow us to identify and isolate treatment-naïve, parental clones (PCs) that gave rise to RCs. In functional experiments, we will assess (i) whether PCs were already resistant before or developed resistance during TT, (ii) whether PCs have a higher susceptibility to develop resistance than random clones, and (iii) the mechanistic basis for metastatic competence in different clones. Second, we will study the TT-induced TME remodeling, focusing on the effects on tumor vasculature and immune cells. We will utilize our results to target PCs and RCs by combining TT in the phase of tumor regression with other therapies, such as immunotherapies. Our study will provide new mechanistic insights into the biological processes during tumor regression and aims for novel therapeutic strategies.
Targeted therapy (TT) is frequently used to treat metastatic cancer. Although TT can achieve effective tumor control for several months, durable treatment responses are rare, due to emergence of aggressive, drug-resistant clones (RCs) with high metastatic competence. Tumor heterogeneity and plasticity result in multifaceted resistance mechanisms and targeting RCs poses a daunting challenge. To better understand the clinical emergence of RCs, my work focuses on the poorly understood events during TT-induced tumor regression. We recently reported that during this phase drug-responsive cancer cells release a therapy-induced secretome, which remodels the tumor microenvironment (TME) and propagates disease relapse by promoting the survival of drug-sensitive cells and stimulating the outgrowth of RCs. Consequently, intervening with combination therapies during the tumor regression period has the potential to prevent the clinical emergence of RCs in the first place. Here, we outline strategies to (1) understand how RCs emerge and (2) to leverage our findings on the TME remodeling for combination therapies. First, we will develop a novel and innovative parental clone-lookup method, that will allow us to identify and isolate treatment-naïve, parental clones (PCs) that gave rise to RCs. In functional experiments, we will assess (i) whether PCs were already resistant before or developed resistance during TT, (ii) whether PCs have a higher susceptibility to develop resistance than random clones, and (iii) the mechanistic basis for metastatic competence in different clones. Second, we will study the TT-induced TME remodeling, focusing on the effects on tumor vasculature and immune cells. We will utilize our results to target PCs and RCs by combining TT in the phase of tumor regression with other therapies, such as immunotherapies. Our study will provide new mechanistic insights into the biological processes during tumor regression and aims for novel therapeutic strategies.
Project acronym COMBINE
Project From flies to humans combining whole genome screens and tissue specific gene targeting to identify novel pathways involved in cancer and metastases
Researcher (PI) Josef Martin Penninger
Summary Cancer care will be revolutionized over the next decade by the introduction of novel therapeutics that target the underlying molecular mechanisms of the disease. With the advent of human genetics, a plethora of genes have been correlated with human diseases such as cancer the SNP maps. Since the sequences are now available, the next big challenge is to determine the function of these genes in the context of the entire organism. Genetic animal models have proven to be extremely valuable to elucidate the essential functions of genes in normal physiology and the pathogenesis of disease. Using gene-targeted mice we have previously identified RANKL as a master gene of bone loss in arthritis, osteoporosis, and cancer cell migration and metastases and genes that control heart and kidney function; wound healing; diabetes; or lung injury Our primary goal is to use functional genomics in Drosophila and mice to understand cell transformation, invasion, and cancer metastases of epithelial tumors. The following projects are proposed: 1. Role of the key osteoclast differentiation factors RANKL-RANK and its downstream signalling cascade in the development of breast and prostate cancer. 2. Requirement of osteoclasts for bone metastases and stem cell niches using a new RANKfloxed allele; function of RANKL-RANK in local tumor cell invasion. 3. Role of RANKL-RANK in the central fever response to understand potential implications of future RANKL-RANK directed therapies. 4. Integration of gene targeting in mice with state-of-the art technologies in fly genetics; use of whole genome tissue-specific in vivo RNAi Drosophila libraries to identify essential and novel pathways for cancer pathogenesis using whole genome screens. 5. Role of TSPAN6, as a candidate lung metastasis gene. Identification of new cancer disease genes will allow us to design novel strategies for cancer treatment and will have ultimately impact on the basic understanding of cancer, metastases, and human health.
Cancer care will be revolutionized over the next decade by the introduction of novel therapeutics that target the underlying molecular mechanisms of the disease. With the advent of human genetics, a plethora of genes have been correlated with human diseases such as cancer the SNP maps. Since the sequences are now available, the next big challenge is to determine the function of these genes in the context of the entire organism. Genetic animal models have proven to be extremely valuable to elucidate the essential functions of genes in normal physiology and the pathogenesis of disease. Using gene-targeted mice we have previously identified RANKL as a master gene of bone loss in arthritis, osteoporosis, and cancer cell migration and metastases and genes that control heart and kidney function; wound healing; diabetes; or lung injury Our primary goal is to use functional genomics in Drosophila and mice to understand cell transformation, invasion, and cancer metastases of epithelial tumors. The following projects are proposed: 1. Role of the key osteoclast differentiation factors RANKL-RANK and its downstream signalling cascade in the development of breast and prostate cancer. 2. Requirement of osteoclasts for bone metastases and stem cell niches using a new RANKfloxed allele; function of RANKL-RANK in local tumor cell invasion. 3. Role of RANKL-RANK in the central fever response to understand potential implications of future RANKL-RANK directed therapies. 4. Integration of gene targeting in mice with state-of-the art technologies in fly genetics; use of whole genome tissue-specific in vivo RNAi Drosophila libraries to identify essential and novel pathways for cancer pathogenesis using whole genome screens. 5. Role of TSPAN6, as a candidate lung metastasis gene. Identification of new cancer disease genes will allow us to design novel strategies for cancer treatment and will have ultimately impact on the basic understanding of cancer, metastases, and human health.
Project acronym CoMoQuant
Project Correlated Molecular Quantum Gases in Optical Lattices
Researcher (PI) Hanns-Christoph NAEGERL
Summary In a quantum engineering approach we aim to create strongly correlated molecular quantum gases for polar molecules confined in an optical lattice to two-dimensional geometry with full quantum control of all de-grees of freedom with single molecule control and detection. The goal is to synthesize a high-fidelity molec-ular quantum simulator with thousands of particles and to carry out experiments on phases and dynamics of strongly-correlated quantum matter in view of strong long-range dipolar interactions. Our choice of mole-cule is the KCs dimer, which can either be a boson or a fermion, allowing us to prepare and probe bosonic as well as fermionic dipolar quantum matter in two dimensions. Techniques such as quantum-gas microscopy, perfectly suited for two-dimensional systems, will be applied to the molecular samples for local control and local readout. The low-entropy molecular samples are created out of quantum degenerate atomic samples by well-established coherent atom paring and coherent optical ground-state transfer techniques. Crucial to this pro-posal is the full control over the molecular sample. To achieve near-unity lattice filling fraction for the mo-lecular samples, we create two-dimensional samples of K-Cs atom pairs as precursors to molecule formation by merging parallel planar systems of K and Cs, which are either in a band-insulating state (for the fermions) or in Mott-insulating state (for the bosons), along the out-of-plane direction. The polar molecular samples are used to perform quantum simulations on ground-state properties and dy-namical properties of quantum many-body spin systems. We aim to create novel forms of superfluidity, to investigate into novel quantum many-body phases in the lattice that arise from the long-range molecular dipole-dipole interaction, and to probe quantum magnetism and its dynamics such as spin transport with single-spin control and readout. In addition, disorder can be engineered to mimic real physical situations.
In a quantum engineering approach we aim to create strongly correlated molecular quantum gases for polar molecules confined in an optical lattice to two-dimensional geometry with full quantum control of all de-grees of freedom with single molecule control and detection. The goal is to synthesize a high-fidelity molec-ular quantum simulator with thousands of particles and to carry out experiments on phases and dynamics of strongly-correlated quantum matter in view of strong long-range dipolar interactions. Our choice of mole-cule is the KCs dimer, which can either be a boson or a fermion, allowing us to prepare and probe bosonic as well as fermionic dipolar quantum matter in two dimensions. Techniques such as quantum-gas microscopy, perfectly suited for two-dimensional systems, will be applied to the molecular samples for local control and local readout. The low-entropy molecular samples are created out of quantum degenerate atomic samples by well-established coherent atom paring and coherent optical ground-state transfer techniques. Crucial to this pro-posal is the full control over the molecular sample. To achieve near-unity lattice filling fraction for the mo-lecular samples, we create two-dimensional samples of K-Cs atom pairs as precursors to molecule formation by merging parallel planar systems of K and Cs, which are either in a band-insulating state (for the fermions) or in Mott-insulating state (for the bosons), along the out-of-plane direction. The polar molecular samples are used to perform quantum simulations on ground-state properties and dy-namical properties of quantum many-body spin systems. We aim to create novel forms of superfluidity, to investigate into novel quantum many-body phases in the lattice that arise from the long-range molecular dipole-dipole interaction, and to probe quantum magnetism and its dynamics such as spin transport with single-spin control and readout. In addition, disorder can be engineered to mimic real physical situations.
Project acronym COMPLEX REASON
Project The Parameterized Complexity of Reasoning Problems
Researcher (PI) Stefan Szeider
Summary Reasoning, to derive conclusions from facts, is a fundamental task in Artificial Intelligence, arising in a wide range of applications from Robotics to Expert Systems. The aim of this project is to devise new efficient algorithms for real-world reasoning problems and to get new insights into the question of what makes a reasoning problem hard, and what makes it easy. As key to novel and groundbreaking results we propose to study reasoning problems within the framework of Parameterized Complexity, a new and rapidly emerging field of Algorithms and Complexity. Parameterized Complexity takes structural aspects of problem instances into account which are most significant for empirically observed problem-hardness. Most of the considered reasoning problems are intractable in general, but the real-world context of their origin provides structural information that can be made accessible to algorithms in form of parameters. This makes Parameterized Complexity an ideal setting for the analysis and efficient solution of these problems. A systematic study of the Parameterized Complexity of reasoning problems that covers theoretical and empirical aspects is so far outstanding. This proposal sets out to do exactly this and has therefore a great potential for groundbreaking new results. The proposed research aims at a significant impact on the research culture by setting the grounds for a closer cooperation between theorists and practitioners.
Reasoning, to derive conclusions from facts, is a fundamental task in Artificial Intelligence, arising in a wide range of applications from Robotics to Expert Systems. The aim of this project is to devise new efficient algorithms for real-world reasoning problems and to get new insights into the question of what makes a reasoning problem hard, and what makes it easy. As key to novel and groundbreaking results we propose to study reasoning problems within the framework of Parameterized Complexity, a new and rapidly emerging field of Algorithms and Complexity. Parameterized Complexity takes structural aspects of problem instances into account which are most significant for empirically observed problem-hardness. Most of the considered reasoning problems are intractable in general, but the real-world context of their origin provides structural information that can be made accessible to algorithms in form of parameters. This makes Parameterized Complexity an ideal setting for the analysis and efficient solution of these problems. A systematic study of the Parameterized Complexity of reasoning problems that covers theoretical and empirical aspects is so far outstanding. This proposal sets out to do exactly this and has therefore a great potential for groundbreaking new results. The proposed research aims at a significant impact on the research culture by setting the grounds for a closer cooperation between theorists and practitioners.
Project acronym Con Espressione
Project Getting at the Heart of Things: Towards Expressivity-aware Computer Systems in Music
Researcher (PI) Gerhard Widmer
Summary What makes music so important, what can make a performance so special and stirring? It is the things the music expresses, the emotions it induces, the associations it evokes, the drama and characters it portrays. The sources of this expressivity are manifold: the music itself, its structure, orchestration, personal associations, social settings, but also – and very importantly – the act of performance, the interpretation and expressive intentions made explicit by the musicians through nuances in timing, dynamics etc. Thanks to research in fields like Music Information Research (MIR), computers can do many useful things with music, from beat and rhythm detection to song identification and tracking. However, they are still far from grasping the essence of music: they cannot tell whether a performance expresses playfulness or ennui, solemnity or gaiety, determination or uncertainty; they cannot produce music with a desired expressive quality; they cannot interact with human musicians in a truly musical way, recognising and responding to the expressive intentions implied in their playing. The project is about developing machines that are aware of certain dimensions of expressivity, specifically in the domain of (classical) music, where expressivity is both essential and – at least as far as it relates to the act of performance – can be traced back to well-defined and measurable parametric dimensions (such as timing, dynamics, articulation). We will develop systems that can recognise, characterise, search music by expressive aspects, generate, modify, and react to expressive qualities in music. To do so, we will (1) bring together the fields of AI, Machine Learning, MIR and Music Performance Research; (2) integrate theories from Musicology to build more well-founded models of music understanding; (3) support model learning and validation with massive musical corpora of a size and quality unprecedented in computational music research.
What makes music so important, what can make a performance so special and stirring? It is the things the music expresses, the emotions it induces, the associations it evokes, the drama and characters it portrays. The sources of this expressivity are manifold: the music itself, its structure, orchestration, personal associations, social settings, but also – and very importantly – the act of performance, the interpretation and expressive intentions made explicit by the musicians through nuances in timing, dynamics etc. Thanks to research in fields like Music Information Research (MIR), computers can do many useful things with music, from beat and rhythm detection to song identification and tracking. However, they are still far from grasping the essence of music: they cannot tell whether a performance expresses playfulness or ennui, solemnity or gaiety, determination or uncertainty; they cannot produce music with a desired expressive quality; they cannot interact with human musicians in a truly musical way, recognising and responding to the expressive intentions implied in their playing. The project is about developing machines that are aware of certain dimensions of expressivity, specifically in the domain of (classical) music, where expressivity is both essential and – at least as far as it relates to the act of performance – can be traced back to well-defined and measurable parametric dimensions (such as timing, dynamics, articulation). We will develop systems that can recognise, characterise, search music by expressive aspects, generate, modify, and react to expressive qualities in music. To do so, we will (1) bring together the fields of AI, Machine Learning, MIR and Music Performance Research; (2) integrate theories from Musicology to build more well-founded models of music understanding; (3) support model learning and validation with massive musical corpora of a size and quality unprecedented in computational music research.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1285
|
__label__cc
| 0.575881
| 0.424119
|
Project acronym CatHet
Project New Catalytic Asymmetric Strategies for N-Heterocycle Synthesis
Researcher (PI) John Forwood Bower
Summary Medicinal chemistry requires more efficient and diverse methods for the asymmetric synthesis of chiral scaffolds. Over 60% of the world’s top selling small molecule drug compounds are chiral and, of these, approximately 80% are marketed as single enantiomers. There is a compelling correlation between drug candidate “chiral complexity” and the likelihood of progression to the marketplace. Surprisingly, and despite the tremendous advances made in catalysis over the past several decades, the “chiral complexity” of drug discovery libraries has actually decreased, while, at the same time, for the reasons mentioned above, the “chiral complexity” of marketed drugs has increased. Since the mid-1990s, there has been a notable acceleration of this “complexity divergence”. Consequently, there is now an urgent need to provide efficient processes that directly access privileged chiral scaffolds. It is our philosophy that catalysis holds the key here and new processes should be based upon platforms that can exert control over both absolute and relative stereochemistry. In this proposal we outline the development of a range of N-heteroannulation processes based upon the catalytic generation and trapping of unique or unusual classes of organometallic intermediate derived from transition metal insertion into C-C and C-N sigma-bonds. We will provide a variety of enabling methodologies and demonstrate applicability in flexible total syntheses of important natural product scaffolds. The processes proposed are synthetically flexible, operationally simple and amenable to asymmetric catalysis. Likely starting points, based upon preliminary results, will set the stage for the realisation of aspirational and transformative goals. Through the study of the organometallic intermediates involved here, there is potential to generalise these new catalytic manifolds, such that this research will transcend N heterocyclic chemistry to provide enabling methods for organic chemistry as a whole.
Medicinal chemistry requires more efficient and diverse methods for the asymmetric synthesis of chiral scaffolds. Over 60% of the world’s top selling small molecule drug compounds are chiral and, of these, approximately 80% are marketed as single enantiomers. There is a compelling correlation between drug candidate “chiral complexity” and the likelihood of progression to the marketplace. Surprisingly, and despite the tremendous advances made in catalysis over the past several decades, the “chiral complexity” of drug discovery libraries has actually decreased, while, at the same time, for the reasons mentioned above, the “chiral complexity” of marketed drugs has increased. Since the mid-1990s, there has been a notable acceleration of this “complexity divergence”. Consequently, there is now an urgent need to provide efficient processes that directly access privileged chiral scaffolds. It is our philosophy that catalysis holds the key here and new processes should be based upon platforms that can exert control over both absolute and relative stereochemistry. In this proposal we outline the development of a range of N-heteroannulation processes based upon the catalytic generation and trapping of unique or unusual classes of organometallic intermediate derived from transition metal insertion into C-C and C-N sigma-bonds. We will provide a variety of enabling methodologies and demonstrate applicability in flexible total syntheses of important natural product scaffolds. The processes proposed are synthetically flexible, operationally simple and amenable to asymmetric catalysis. Likely starting points, based upon preliminary results, will set the stage for the realisation of aspirational and transformative goals. Through the study of the organometallic intermediates involved here, there is potential to generalise these new catalytic manifolds, such that this research will transcend N heterocyclic chemistry to provide enabling methods for organic chemistry as a whole.
Project acronym CytoChem
Project A Chemical Approach to Understanding Cell Division
Researcher (PI) Ulrike Sophie Eggert
Host Institution (HI) KING'S COLLEGE LONDON
Summary Many mechanisms underlying cytokinesis, the final step in cell division, remain poorly understood. The goal of my laboratory is to use chemical biology approaches to address some of the unanswered mechanistic questions by studying cytokinesis at the process, pathway and protein levels. I aim to discover small molecules that specifically target cytokinesis by different mechanisms because they are important tools to study the biology of cell division and could catalyze the discovery of therapeutics. I am proposing here to use small molecules we discovered to study how the Rho pathway regulates cytokinesis. We will synthesize focused libraries around selected compounds to optimize their properties and to identify sites for affinity tags. I am proposing to identify our small molecules’ cellular targets using a combination of approaches, including a new strategy I designed that takes advantage of the fact that they target a discrete signalling pathway. Rho signalling is involved in every step of cytokinesis, but there are many outstanding questions about how this occurs and which proteins are involved. We have completed a genome-wide RNAi screen that has revealed the identity of new proteins connected to Rho signalling. We will combine functional investigations into how these proteins participate in cytokinesis with our newly discovered small molecules. With this array of tools in hand, we expect to use imaging and other cell-based assays to gain of comprehensive understanding of the role of Rho signalling during cytokinesis and other Rho-dependent processes.
Many mechanisms underlying cytokinesis, the final step in cell division, remain poorly understood. The goal of my laboratory is to use chemical biology approaches to address some of the unanswered mechanistic questions by studying cytokinesis at the process, pathway and protein levels. I aim to discover small molecules that specifically target cytokinesis by different mechanisms because they are important tools to study the biology of cell division and could catalyze the discovery of therapeutics. I am proposing here to use small molecules we discovered to study how the Rho pathway regulates cytokinesis. We will synthesize focused libraries around selected compounds to optimize their properties and to identify sites for affinity tags. I am proposing to identify our small molecules’ cellular targets using a combination of approaches, including a new strategy I designed that takes advantage of the fact that they target a discrete signalling pathway. Rho signalling is involved in every step of cytokinesis, but there are many outstanding questions about how this occurs and which proteins are involved. We have completed a genome-wide RNAi screen that has revealed the identity of new proteins connected to Rho signalling. We will combine functional investigations into how these proteins participate in cytokinesis with our newly discovered small molecules. With this array of tools in hand, we expect to use imaging and other cell-based assays to gain of comprehensive understanding of the role of Rho signalling during cytokinesis and other Rho-dependent processes.
Project acronym DUPLEX
Project Programmable Plastics
Researcher (PI) Christopher Alexander Hunter
Summary The unique properties of nucleic acids have made them the material of choice for complex nanofabrication. High fidelity formation of duplexes via non-covalent interactions between complementary sequences provides a straightforward approach to molecular programming of multicomponent self-assembly processes. The structure of the nucleic acid backbone and bases can be changed without destroying these properties, suggesting that there are all kinds of unexplored polymeric structures that will also show sequence selective duplex formation. This proposal investigates this rich new area at the interface of supramolecular, biological and polymer chemistry. The appeal of nucleic acids is that we can dial up any desired sequence via chemical solid phase synthesis or via biological template synthesis. With recent advances in polymerisation processes, which proceed under mild conditions compatible with non-covalent chemistry, we are now in a position to develop comparable processes for synthetic polymers. This proposal explores a ground-breaking approach to the synthesis of polymeric systems equipped with defined sequences of recognition sites. The aim is to establish protocols for routine solid phase synthesis of one class of oligomer, which can be used to template the synthesis of different classes of oligomer. This template chemistry will provide tools for polymerisation of conventional monomers using templates to determine the sequence of recognition sites and hence incorporate the selective recognition properties of nucleic acids into bulk polymers like polystyrene. The ability to program polymers with recognition information will open the way to new materials of unprecedented complexity and functionality with applications in all areas of nanotechnology where precise control over macromolecular structure and supramolecular organisation will be used to program mechanical, photochemical and electronic properties into sophisticated assemblies that rival biology.
The unique properties of nucleic acids have made them the material of choice for complex nanofabrication. High fidelity formation of duplexes via non-covalent interactions between complementary sequences provides a straightforward approach to molecular programming of multicomponent self-assembly processes. The structure of the nucleic acid backbone and bases can be changed without destroying these properties, suggesting that there are all kinds of unexplored polymeric structures that will also show sequence selective duplex formation. This proposal investigates this rich new area at the interface of supramolecular, biological and polymer chemistry. The appeal of nucleic acids is that we can dial up any desired sequence via chemical solid phase synthesis or via biological template synthesis. With recent advances in polymerisation processes, which proceed under mild conditions compatible with non-covalent chemistry, we are now in a position to develop comparable processes for synthetic polymers. This proposal explores a ground-breaking approach to the synthesis of polymeric systems equipped with defined sequences of recognition sites. The aim is to establish protocols for routine solid phase synthesis of one class of oligomer, which can be used to template the synthesis of different classes of oligomer. This template chemistry will provide tools for polymerisation of conventional monomers using templates to determine the sequence of recognition sites and hence incorporate the selective recognition properties of nucleic acids into bulk polymers like polystyrene. The ability to program polymers with recognition information will open the way to new materials of unprecedented complexity and functionality with applications in all areas of nanotechnology where precise control over macromolecular structure and supramolecular organisation will be used to program mechanical, photochemical and electronic properties into sophisticated assemblies that rival biology.
Project acronym ENTANGLED-TM-ALKANE
Project Entangled pincer ligand architectures and their application in the transition-metal-mediated activation of alkanes
Researcher (PI) Adrian Benjamin Chaplin
Summary The selective transformation of alkanes is an area of contemporary importance with wide-ranging implications for organic synthesis and the effective use of petroleum resources. While homogeneous transition metal catalysis is a potentially powerful means for achieving this objective, the fundamental organometallic chemistry of alkane activation reactions has proven to be exceedingly difficult to investigate due to the weakly interacting nature of alkanes. To address this knowledge gap and provide the foundation for future advancement of the field, ENTANGLED-TM-ALKANE outlines a systematic approach for the study of pivotal sigma–alkane complex intermediates; nominally transient and extremely reactive metal-alkane adducts formed through coordination of an intact C–H bond to the metal centre. Inspired from supramolecular chemistry, the approach involves the innovative use of systems containing alkane substrates held in close proximity to reactive metal centres through mechanical entanglement within supporting tridentate macrocyclic ‘pincer’ ligands (i.e. alkane based [2]rotaxanes and [2]catenanes). Through the interwoven topology of these systems, problematic dissociation reactions of sigma–alkane complexes will be circumvented, facilitating isolation and ultimately enabling their structure and reaction chemistry to be probed in much greater detail than has been previously possible. The project objectives are to: (a) develop and use new synthetic (supramolecular) methodologies for the preparation of these mechanically interlocked metal-alkane assemblies; (b) systematically investigate the organometallic chemistry of the metal centre and its interaction with the entangled alkane; and through variation of the macromolecules’ components (macrocycle donors and geometry, alkane, metal), (c) compile a definitive and unprecedented body of qualitative and quantitative structure-activity relationships for the activation alkanes using transition metals.
The selective transformation of alkanes is an area of contemporary importance with wide-ranging implications for organic synthesis and the effective use of petroleum resources. While homogeneous transition metal catalysis is a potentially powerful means for achieving this objective, the fundamental organometallic chemistry of alkane activation reactions has proven to be exceedingly difficult to investigate due to the weakly interacting nature of alkanes. To address this knowledge gap and provide the foundation for future advancement of the field, ENTANGLED-TM-ALKANE outlines a systematic approach for the study of pivotal sigma–alkane complex intermediates; nominally transient and extremely reactive metal-alkane adducts formed through coordination of an intact C–H bond to the metal centre. Inspired from supramolecular chemistry, the approach involves the innovative use of systems containing alkane substrates held in close proximity to reactive metal centres through mechanical entanglement within supporting tridentate macrocyclic ‘pincer’ ligands (i.e. alkane based [2]rotaxanes and [2]catenanes). Through the interwoven topology of these systems, problematic dissociation reactions of sigma–alkane complexes will be circumvented, facilitating isolation and ultimately enabling their structure and reaction chemistry to be probed in much greater detail than has been previously possible. The project objectives are to: (a) develop and use new synthetic (supramolecular) methodologies for the preparation of these mechanically interlocked metal-alkane assemblies; (b) systematically investigate the organometallic chemistry of the metal centre and its interaction with the entangled alkane; and through variation of the macromolecules’ components (macrocycle donors and geometry, alkane, metal), (c) compile a definitive and unprecedented body of qualitative and quantitative structure-activity relationships for the activation alkanes using transition metals.
Project acronym GADGET
Project Geometry and Anomalous Dynamic Growth of Elastic instabiliTies
Researcher (PI) Dominic Vella
Summary Elastic instabilities are ubiquitous, from the wrinkles that form on skin to the ‘snap-through’ of an umbrella on a windy day. The complex patterns such instabilities make, and the great speed with which they develop, have led to a host of technological and scientific applications. However, recent experiments have revealed significant gaps in our theoretical understanding of such instabilities, particularly in the roles played by geometry and dynamics. I will establish a group to develop and validate a theoretical framework within which these results can be understood. Central to my approach is an appreciation of the crucial role of geometry in the pattern formation and dynamics of elastic instabilities. As a starting point, I will consider the model problem of a pressurized elastic shell subject to a geometrically large deformation. This system develops either wrinkles or a stress-focusing instability depending on the internal pressure. As such, this is a natural paradigm with which to understand geometrical features of deformation relevant across length scales from deformed viruses to the subduction zones in Earth’s tectonic plates. My team will combine theoretical and computational approaches with tabletop experiments to determine a new set of shell deformations that are generically observed in contradiction of the classic ‘mirror buckling’. Understanding why these new shapes emerge will transform our perception of shell instabilities and provide new fundamental building blocks with which to model them. These ideas will also be used to transform our understanding of a number of other, previously mysterious, elastic instabilities of practical interest. Turning our focus to the dynamics of instabilities such as the snap-through of shells, we will show that accounting for geometry is again crucial. The new insight gained through this project will increase our ability to control elastic instabilities, benefitting a range of technological and scientific applications.
Elastic instabilities are ubiquitous, from the wrinkles that form on skin to the ‘snap-through’ of an umbrella on a windy day. The complex patterns such instabilities make, and the great speed with which they develop, have led to a host of technological and scientific applications. However, recent experiments have revealed significant gaps in our theoretical understanding of such instabilities, particularly in the roles played by geometry and dynamics. I will establish a group to develop and validate a theoretical framework within which these results can be understood. Central to my approach is an appreciation of the crucial role of geometry in the pattern formation and dynamics of elastic instabilities. As a starting point, I will consider the model problem of a pressurized elastic shell subject to a geometrically large deformation. This system develops either wrinkles or a stress-focusing instability depending on the internal pressure. As such, this is a natural paradigm with which to understand geometrical features of deformation relevant across length scales from deformed viruses to the subduction zones in Earth’s tectonic plates. My team will combine theoretical and computational approaches with tabletop experiments to determine a new set of shell deformations that are generically observed in contradiction of the classic ‘mirror buckling’. Understanding why these new shapes emerge will transform our perception of shell instabilities and provide new fundamental building blocks with which to model them. These ideas will also be used to transform our understanding of a number of other, previously mysterious, elastic instabilities of practical interest. Turning our focus to the dynamics of instabilities such as the snap-through of shells, we will show that accounting for geometry is again crucial. The new insight gained through this project will increase our ability to control elastic instabilities, benefitting a range of technological and scientific applications.
Project acronym HEALINSYNERGY
Project Material-driven Fibronectin Fibrillogenesis to Engineer Synergistic Growth Factor Microenvironments
Researcher (PI) Manuel Salmerón Sánchez
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
Summary "Cells within tissues are surrounded by fibrillar extracellular matrices (ECM) that support cell adhesion, migration, proliferation and differentiation. Fibronectin (FN) is an ECM protein organized into fibrillar networks by cells through an integrin-mediated process. This assembly allows the unfolding of the molecule, exposing cryptic domains not available in the native globular FN structure and activating intracellular signalling complexes. This project aims to engineer functional interfaces between living cells and synthetic biomaterials, making use of the fundamental role of fibronectin (FN) to direct cell-material interactions. First, we will engineer material surfaces able to direct the physiological organization of FN into fibrillar networks in absence of cells, so-called material driven fibronectin fibrillogenesis. These surfaces will trigger the organization of FN upon simple adsorption of FN from solutions and will provide a biomimetic interface better recognized by cells, since it resembles the nature ECM environment in tissues. The mechanisms that promote the organization of FN at the material interface will be elucidated making use of different FN fragments and key modifications of the protein. The enhanced cellular activities of the material-driven FN matrices will be used to direct the behavior of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), seeking to direct either cell lineage or multipotency in combination with the properties of the underlying surface. Secondly, we will engineer functional – living biointerphases, on which the intermediate layer of proteins between the material surfaces and the cell population is expressed on the surface of non-pathogenic bacteria. This radical idea will provide the field with a living interphase that consists of genetically modified bacteria with FN fragments in the membrane. These bacteria will be modified to secrete the desired proteins or factors in response to external stimuli, to direct the cell behavior of hMSCs."
"Cells within tissues are surrounded by fibrillar extracellular matrices (ECM) that support cell adhesion, migration, proliferation and differentiation. Fibronectin (FN) is an ECM protein organized into fibrillar networks by cells through an integrin-mediated process. This assembly allows the unfolding of the molecule, exposing cryptic domains not available in the native globular FN structure and activating intracellular signalling complexes. This project aims to engineer functional interfaces between living cells and synthetic biomaterials, making use of the fundamental role of fibronectin (FN) to direct cell-material interactions. First, we will engineer material surfaces able to direct the physiological organization of FN into fibrillar networks in absence of cells, so-called material driven fibronectin fibrillogenesis. These surfaces will trigger the organization of FN upon simple adsorption of FN from solutions and will provide a biomimetic interface better recognized by cells, since it resembles the nature ECM environment in tissues. The mechanisms that promote the organization of FN at the material interface will be elucidated making use of different FN fragments and key modifications of the protein. The enhanced cellular activities of the material-driven FN matrices will be used to direct the behavior of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), seeking to direct either cell lineage or multipotency in combination with the properties of the underlying surface. Secondly, we will engineer functional – living biointerphases, on which the intermediate layer of proteins between the material surfaces and the cell population is expressed on the surface of non-pathogenic bacteria. This radical idea will provide the field with a living interphase that consists of genetically modified bacteria with FN fragments in the membrane. These bacteria will be modified to secrete the desired proteins or factors in response to external stimuli, to direct the cell behavior of hMSCs."
Project acronym IMPUNEP
Project Innovative Materials Processing Using Non-Equilibrium Plasmas
Researcher (PI) Allan Matthews
Summary Current bulk materials processing methods are nearing their limit in terms of ability to produce innovative materials with compositional and structural consistency. The aim of this ambitious project is to remove barriers to materials development, by researching novel methods for the processing of engineering materials, using advanced non-equilibrium plasma systems, to achieve a paradigm shift in the field of materials synthesis. These new processes have the potential to overcome the constraints of existing methods and also be environmentally friendly and produce novel materials with enhanced properties (mechanical, chemical and physical). The research will utilise plasmas in ways not used before (in bulk materials synthesis rather than thin film formation) and it will investigate different types of plasmas (vacuum, atmospheric and electrolytic), to ensure optimisation of the processing routes across the whole range of material types (including metals, ceramics and composites). The materials synthesised will have benefits for products across key applications sectors, including energy, healthcare and aerospace. The processes will avoid harmful chemicals and will make optimum use of scarce material resources. This interdisciplinary project (involving engineers, physicists, chemists and modellers) has fundamental “blue skies” and transformative aspects. It is also high-risk due to the aim to produce “bulk” materials at adequate rates and with consistent uniform structures, compositions and phases (and therefore properties) throughout the material. There are many challenges to overcome, relating to the study of the plasma systems and materials produced; these aspects will be pursued using empirical and modelling approaches. The research will pursue new lines of enquiry using an unconventional synthesis approach whilst operating at the interface with more established discipline areas of plasma physics, materials chemistry, process diagnostics, modelling and control.
Current bulk materials processing methods are nearing their limit in terms of ability to produce innovative materials with compositional and structural consistency. The aim of this ambitious project is to remove barriers to materials development, by researching novel methods for the processing of engineering materials, using advanced non-equilibrium plasma systems, to achieve a paradigm shift in the field of materials synthesis. These new processes have the potential to overcome the constraints of existing methods and also be environmentally friendly and produce novel materials with enhanced properties (mechanical, chemical and physical). The research will utilise plasmas in ways not used before (in bulk materials synthesis rather than thin film formation) and it will investigate different types of plasmas (vacuum, atmospheric and electrolytic), to ensure optimisation of the processing routes across the whole range of material types (including metals, ceramics and composites). The materials synthesised will have benefits for products across key applications sectors, including energy, healthcare and aerospace. The processes will avoid harmful chemicals and will make optimum use of scarce material resources. This interdisciplinary project (involving engineers, physicists, chemists and modellers) has fundamental “blue skies” and transformative aspects. It is also high-risk due to the aim to produce “bulk” materials at adequate rates and with consistent uniform structures, compositions and phases (and therefore properties) throughout the material. There are many challenges to overcome, relating to the study of the plasma systems and materials produced; these aspects will be pursued using empirical and modelling approaches. The research will pursue new lines of enquiry using an unconventional synthesis approach whilst operating at the interface with more established discipline areas of plasma physics, materials chemistry, process diagnostics, modelling and control.
Project acronym iNanoEOR
Project In-situ produced nanoparticles for enhanced oil recovery
Researcher (PI) Dongsheng Wen
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
Summary The era of finding “easy oil” is coming to an end, and future supply will become more reliant on fossil fuels produced from enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process. Many EoR methods have been used, including mechanical, chemical, thermal and biological approaches, but there are still 50~70% of the original oil trapped in reservoir rocks after the primary and secondary recovery. NanoEOR, i.e, injecting nanoparticles (NPs) together with flooding fluids, is an emerging field. However all proposed applications are based on pre-fabricated NPs, which encountered enormous problems in NP stabilization and transport under reservoir conditions. This project proposes a revolutionary concept, iNanoEOR: in-situ production of NPs inside the reservoir for enhanced oil recovery. Rather than pre-manufacturing, dispersing and stabilizing NPs in advance, NPs will be produced in the reservoir by controlled hydrothermal reactions, acting as sensors to improve reservoir characterisation, or as property modifiers to effectively mobilize the trapped oil. This project will validate the innovative iNanoEOR concept by answering three questions: i) how the concept works? ii) what kind of NPs should be produced that can effectively mobilize trapped oil? iii) what are desired NP properties to allow them flow through a reservoir? Three work programs are designed, and a number of breakthroughs beyond state-of-art research are expected, which include i) proof-of-concept of the innovative iNanoEOR, ii) developing a new methodology for temperature measurement inside a reservoir, iii) revelation of the influence of NPs on EOR under reservoir-like conditions, iv) understanding the controlling factors in NP transport at different scales. The project will not only contribute directly to iNanoEOR, but also transfers the PI’s expertise in nanomaterials and multiphase flow into oil and gas sector and underpin many NP-related subsurface applications, which currently is non-existing in the Europe.
The era of finding “easy oil” is coming to an end, and future supply will become more reliant on fossil fuels produced from enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process. Many EoR methods have been used, including mechanical, chemical, thermal and biological approaches, but there are still 50~70% of the original oil trapped in reservoir rocks after the primary and secondary recovery. NanoEOR, i.e, injecting nanoparticles (NPs) together with flooding fluids, is an emerging field. However all proposed applications are based on pre-fabricated NPs, which encountered enormous problems in NP stabilization and transport under reservoir conditions. This project proposes a revolutionary concept, iNanoEOR: in-situ production of NPs inside the reservoir for enhanced oil recovery. Rather than pre-manufacturing, dispersing and stabilizing NPs in advance, NPs will be produced in the reservoir by controlled hydrothermal reactions, acting as sensors to improve reservoir characterisation, or as property modifiers to effectively mobilize the trapped oil. This project will validate the innovative iNanoEOR concept by answering three questions: i) how the concept works? ii) what kind of NPs should be produced that can effectively mobilize trapped oil? iii) what are desired NP properties to allow them flow through a reservoir? Three work programs are designed, and a number of breakthroughs beyond state-of-art research are expected, which include i) proof-of-concept of the innovative iNanoEOR, ii) developing a new methodology for temperature measurement inside a reservoir, iii) revelation of the influence of NPs on EOR under reservoir-like conditions, iv) understanding the controlling factors in NP transport at different scales. The project will not only contribute directly to iNanoEOR, but also transfers the PI’s expertise in nanomaterials and multiphase flow into oil and gas sector and underpin many NP-related subsurface applications, which currently is non-existing in the Europe.
Project acronym LAB-SMART
Project "Lewis Acidic Borocations: improving Suzuki couplings, Material synthesis, Alkylation and Radical Transformations"
Researcher (PI) Michael Ingleson
Summary "Carbon-carbon bond formation is arguably the most important reaction in synthetic chemistry, exemplified by the award of five noble prizes. The most recent Nobel prize was awarded for the development of palladium catalysed cross coupling, of which Suzuki cross coupling is the most widely applied version in industry and academia and utilizes organo-boronates (RB(OR)2) as the nucleophilic component. The aims of this project are; (i) to simplify the synthesis of organo-boron compounds that are utilized in (a) Suzuki cross coupling and (b) as boron containing materials for organic electronic applications. (ii) Reduce the dependency on expensive and toxic palladium by a) extending the Friedel Crafts C-C bond forming reaction to broad scope, electrophilic trifluoromethylation and electrophilic arylation (b) generating and applying efficient iron catalysts in an iron analogue of the Suzuki Reaction. To achieve each of our aims we will utilise the unique properties of electrophilic borocations. Previously we have used boro-cations that combine a coordinatively unsaturated and electrophilic boron centre with a ‘masked’ form of a strong base to develop fundamentally new reactivity. These borocations enabled the sequential one pot activation of a substrate by a strong Lewis acid (the boro-cation) and then release of the masked Lewis base for a subsequent step (e.g., deprotonation). This concept of a boron reagent enabling sequential reactivity by subsequent dissociation of a group is a continual theme through this proposal. This property of borocations will be combined with appropriate leaving groups on the nucleophile to tackle the important challenges outlined above. Key to expanding the synthetic utility is design of the borocation to enable the release not only of a neutral Lewis base (for direct borylation, including the synthesis of RB(OR)2) but also an anionic group (for arylation/alkenylation) or a cationic moiety (for alkylation)."
"Carbon-carbon bond formation is arguably the most important reaction in synthetic chemistry, exemplified by the award of five noble prizes. The most recent Nobel prize was awarded for the development of palladium catalysed cross coupling, of which Suzuki cross coupling is the most widely applied version in industry and academia and utilizes organo-boronates (RB(OR)2) as the nucleophilic component. The aims of this project are; (i) to simplify the synthesis of organo-boron compounds that are utilized in (a) Suzuki cross coupling and (b) as boron containing materials for organic electronic applications. (ii) Reduce the dependency on expensive and toxic palladium by a) extending the Friedel Crafts C-C bond forming reaction to broad scope, electrophilic trifluoromethylation and electrophilic arylation (b) generating and applying efficient iron catalysts in an iron analogue of the Suzuki Reaction. To achieve each of our aims we will utilise the unique properties of electrophilic borocations. Previously we have used boro-cations that combine a coordinatively unsaturated and electrophilic boron centre with a ‘masked’ form of a strong base to develop fundamentally new reactivity. These borocations enabled the sequential one pot activation of a substrate by a strong Lewis acid (the boro-cation) and then release of the masked Lewis base for a subsequent step (e.g., deprotonation). This concept of a boron reagent enabling sequential reactivity by subsequent dissociation of a group is a continual theme through this proposal. This property of borocations will be combined with appropriate leaving groups on the nucleophile to tackle the important challenges outlined above. Key to expanding the synthetic utility is design of the borocation to enable the release not only of a neutral Lewis base (for direct borylation, including the synthesis of RB(OR)2) but also an anionic group (for arylation/alkenylation) or a cationic moiety (for alkylation)."
Project acronym NANOGEN
Project Polymer-based piezoelectric nanogenerators for energy harvesting
Researcher (PI) Sohini Kar-Narayan
Summary Energy harvesting (EH) from ambient vibrations originating from sources such as moving parts of machines, fluid flow and even body movement, has enormous potential for small-power applications such as wireless sensors, flexible, portable and wearable electronics, and bio-medical implants, to name a few. Nanoscale piezoelectric energy harvesters, also known as nanogenerators (NGs), can directly convert small scale ambient vibrations into electrical energy. Scavenging power from ubiquitous vibrations in this way offers an attractive route to supersede fixed power sources such as batteries that need replacing/recharging, and that do not scale with the diminishing size of modern electronics. This proposal aims to develop NGs for future self-powered smart devices. Ceramics such as lead zirconium titanate and semiconductors such as zinc oxide are the most widely used piezoelectric EH materials. This proposal however focuses on a different class of piezoelectric materials, namely ferroelectric polymers, such as polyvinlyidene fluoride (PVDF), its copolymers, and nylon. These are potentially superior EH materials as they are flexible, robust, lightweight, easy and cheap to fabricate, as well as being lead-free and bio-compatible. The key strategy of this proposal is in combining i) materials engineering to create novel piezoelectric polymer-ceramic nanocomposite materials with enhanced EH functionalities, ii) state-of-the art nanoscale characterization to explore and exploit these novel materials, and iii) fabrication of high performance NGs for implementation into commercial devices, using insight gained from modelling of materials and device parameters. The proposed research will culminate in a well-defined process for the large-scale production of highly efficient and low cost piezoelectric NGs with reliable EH performance to power the next generation of autonomous devices, thus steering the field into the renewable energy market as a clean and competitive technology.
Energy harvesting (EH) from ambient vibrations originating from sources such as moving parts of machines, fluid flow and even body movement, has enormous potential for small-power applications such as wireless sensors, flexible, portable and wearable electronics, and bio-medical implants, to name a few. Nanoscale piezoelectric energy harvesters, also known as nanogenerators (NGs), can directly convert small scale ambient vibrations into electrical energy. Scavenging power from ubiquitous vibrations in this way offers an attractive route to supersede fixed power sources such as batteries that need replacing/recharging, and that do not scale with the diminishing size of modern electronics. This proposal aims to develop NGs for future self-powered smart devices. Ceramics such as lead zirconium titanate and semiconductors such as zinc oxide are the most widely used piezoelectric EH materials. This proposal however focuses on a different class of piezoelectric materials, namely ferroelectric polymers, such as polyvinlyidene fluoride (PVDF), its copolymers, and nylon. These are potentially superior EH materials as they are flexible, robust, lightweight, easy and cheap to fabricate, as well as being lead-free and bio-compatible. The key strategy of this proposal is in combining i) materials engineering to create novel piezoelectric polymer-ceramic nanocomposite materials with enhanced EH functionalities, ii) state-of-the art nanoscale characterization to explore and exploit these novel materials, and iii) fabrication of high performance NGs for implementation into commercial devices, using insight gained from modelling of materials and device parameters. The proposed research will culminate in a well-defined process for the large-scale production of highly efficient and low cost piezoelectric NGs with reliable EH performance to power the next generation of autonomous devices, thus steering the field into the renewable energy market as a clean and competitive technology.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1286
|
__label__cc
| 0.564605
| 0.435395
|
Shoplifting on the rise, says ONS
Merril Boulton · 28 April, 2017
An 8% rise in recorded shoplifting incidents has been revealed in the latest figures released by The Office for National Statistics (ONS) for the year ending December 2016 in England and Wales.
The figures show that there were approximately 358,235 incidents of shop theft in 2016, which is over 25,000 more incidents than in 2015. The figures support ACS’ own crime survey which also showed an increase in shop theft.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “On average every local shop loses £2,605 per year or the equivalent to 7p crime tax for consumers on every transaction because of shop theft. The police need to work closely with retailers to prevent shop theft and ensure that shop thieves are dealt with properly.”
“Where there are serious penalties available for repeat shop thieves or organised criminals, we want to see these used more effectively so that shop theft is never perceived as a victimless crime or one that can be committed without consequences. The Government’s review of out-of-court disposals is long overdue and this system needs to be reformed.”
Figures from the ACS Crime Survey 2017 show that shop theft alone cost the convenience sector over £232m between 2016-17, despite millions being spent on investment in crime prevention measures over the same time period. The most common items stolen from convenience stores are alcohol, meat and confectionary items.
The full Crime Report 2017 is available here: https://www.acs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ACS-Crime-Report-Guidance-2017-D3-V3-AW-OL-180-LR.pdf
shop theft
shop thieves
acs crime
convenience sector over
prevention measures over
crime prevention measures
17 despite millions
sector over £232m
Shop theft hits record high
ACS renews partnership with Crimestoppers
Retail has highest crime rate of all business sectors
ACS calls for tougher action over shop theft
New national forecourt crime initiative launched
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1290
|
__label__wiki
| 0.88356
| 0.88356
|
Home Flagship News
Sheffield lecturers to go on strike in less than three weeks
Ben Warner
UPDATE: The University of Sheffield have released a statement and some more information about the industrial action (see below).
Lecturers at the University of Sheffield are set to go on strike in less than three weeks, the University and College Union (UCU) have announced.
It comes after the results of a national ballot of UCU members was announced last week, and now 60 institutions across the country will strike in two separate legal disputes, one over pensions and one over pay equality. Some universities are only striking in one or the other, while the University of Sheffield is one of 43 universities which will see strike action over both issues.
The University will see strikes from Monday 25 November, in less than three weeks, until Wednesday 4 December, meaning a total of eight days of strikes.
UCU General Secretary Jo Grady said: “The first wave of strikes will hit universities later this month unless the employers start talking to us seriously about how they are going to deal with rising pension costs and declining pay and conditions.
“Any general election candidate would be over the moon with a result along the lines of what we achieved last week. Universities can be in no doubt about the strength of feeling on these issues and we will be consulting branches whose desire to strike was frustrated by anti-union laws about reballoting.”
Students’ Union Councillors at Sheffield SU will this week be asked to vote on whether the SU should support striking lecturers like they did in the previous dispute in 2018. The Student Executive Committee, made up of the SU Officers, is proposing a motion in favour of launching a solidarity campaign with the lecturers, while keeping students informed about the progress of the dispute.
Education Officer, Charlie Porter, said of the vote for strike action: “It’s a shame that it’s come to this situation again so soon after the previous strike. As a Students’ Union we’re working to support our students and defend their education.”
In a statement, Professor Koen Lamberts, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, said: “We understand that many staff at universities across the UK have concerns around pay and pensions in the sector and this was reflected in last week’s vote for industrial action following national ballots.
“At Sheffield, we recognise these are important issues and have been proactively and collaboratively working with our local trade unions to make the University a better place to work. Just last week, for example, we’ve agreed a joint statement with UCU on our new approach to casual teaching arrangements.
“It’s important to us that we’re able to offer our staff a good quality pension so we’ve also been working with UCU/trade union colleagues to respond to changes and to influence national debate on them. We have ensured that pension benefits remain the same but we know costs are increasing, which neither the University nor our staff welcome.
“While we respect the right of UCU or other trade union members to take industrial action, we have a responsibility to minimise any disruption to our students and staff who choose not to participate and will work hard to ensure that the impact of this action is minimal.”
The University also said that student wellbeing was their top priority in light of anxiety or uncertainty which could be caused by the strikes occurring during a busy period. They are working alongside their national representatives to resolve the sector-wide issue, they added, and have created informational webpages for students to access if they want to know more about the industrial action.
This was announced in an email to all students by Professor Wyn Morgan, Vice-President for Education, in an email to all students on Wednesday morning.
charlie porter
sheffield su
Previous articleALBUM REVIEW: The Desert Sessions Vols. 11 & 12: Arrivederci Despair & Tightwads & Nitwits & Critics & Heels
Next articleSports Thoughts: Could the Longstaffs be the next big Sibling duo?
Flagship News Ben Warner - December 13 2019
Screen Ben Warner - January 27 2020
Comment Ben Warner - January 27 2020
Music Review Ben Warner - January 26 2020
Ben Warner - January 27 2020
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1292
|
__label__wiki
| 0.750237
| 0.750237
|
"The Mirrored Heavens" by David J. Williams
Winners of the Andrzej Sapkowski / The Last Wish G...
"Mind the Gap" by Christopher Golden + Tim Lebbon
"Severance Package" by Duane Swierczynski
“The Hounds of Ash and Other Tales of Fool Wolf”
Interview with Greg Keyes
"The Wolfman" by Nicholas Pekearo
"The Digital Plague" by Jeff Somers
"Snuff" by Chuck Palahniuk
“Kéthani” by Eric Brown
“Napoleon's Pyramids” & “The Rosetta Key” by Willi...
"The Year of Disappearances" by Susan Hubbard w/Bo...
"House of Suns" by Alastair Reynolds
"The Host" by Stephenie Meyer
Winners of the Stephen Hunt Giveaway!!! Plus, Misc...
"The Kingdom Beyond the Waves" by Stephen Hunt w/B...
"The Last Wish" by Andrzej Sapkowski
"In the Small" by Michael Hague
Winners of the Stephenie Meyer/The Host giveaway!!...
"The Queen's Bastard" by C.E. Murphy
Winners of the Alan Campbell/Deepgate Code and Pam...
Interview with Chris Evans
SPOTLIGHT: Books of May 2008
“Napoleon's Pyramids” & “The Rosetta Key” by William Dietrich
Official William Dietrich Website
Order “The Rosetta Key” HERE
INTRODUCTION: “Napoleon's Pyramids” and “The Rosetta Key” by William Dietrich are two historical thrillers with a touch of the supernatural, the second being the direct follow-up of the first. A copy of “Napoleon's Pyramids” got in my hands by chance and I got hooked immediately, so the second volume became a buy on publication book. I will try not to give too many spoilers for “Napoleon's Pyramids” in talking about “The Rosetta Key”, but some will be inevitable so reader beware.
SETTING: Both books are set at the end of the 18th century, from 1798 to 1799. France's revolutionary fervor has been spent under the guillotine and now Paris is a city of decadence, excesses, uncertainty and plots. The weak five men ruling Directorate is trying to keep foreign conquests going on so the plunder for them and the mob keeps coming, but also to keep ambitious and popular generals like the Corsican Napoleon Bonaparte from plotting against them. So for plunder, glory and immortality, and encouraged by the Directorate to be as far from France as feasible, Bonaparte is leading an expedition to Egypt and later to the Holy Land. He brings with him an army of savants to decipher the mysteries of Egypt. Our hero, American adventurer and Benjamin Franklin protégée, Ethan Gage, joins the expedition as do some mysterious and unsavory characters like Count Silano, a sinister Cagliostro-like adventurer and reputed sorcerer. Since I am a history buff, I get very annoyed by sloppy research and famous persons portrayed completely out of historically-based character. Therefore, I am happy to say that these books have excellent research with reasonably accurate descriptions of real events and with pitch-perfect characterization for both Napoleon—he is fascinatingly intelligent, charismatic and repulsively megalomaniac—and our alter-ego hero Ethan Gage.
CLASSIFICATION/INFO: Both novels are historical thrillers so do not expect deep characterization or deep meaning, but a fun romp that you do not want to put down, and at the end of which you ask for more. Both books are first-person, present tense narratives by Ethan Gage with occasional recollections—especially in “The Rosetta Key” to give backstory for the events that occurred in “Napoleon's Pyramids”. They stand at around 350-400 pages each. To get a satisfactory ending you should read both since “Napoleon's Pyramids” ends on a literal “balloon-hanger” with almost nothing resolved. “The Rosetta Key” though ends quite satisfactorily, wrapping up almost everything of interest but leaving scope for more. And I want more!!!
PLOT HINTS AND COMMENTS: In 1798 Ethan Gage—an early thirties American, adventurer, gambler, mason and former employee and protégée of Ben Franklin—is living by his wits and luck at the card table in the decadent Paris of the Directorate age, just after the end of the Terror and before the age of Napoleon when uncertainty and corruption ruled the day. One day his luck turns—though it is unclear if it was for good or bad—when he wins a strange Egyptian medallion at a card game. Immediately a mysterious Count Silano offers him a nice price to buy it, but Gage does not like the count so he refuses, and then he is attacked in the street, framed for murder and thrown in jail.
However he receives an offer of pardon if he joins a mysterious expedition under the leadership of the current darling of the French people, the Corsican general Bonaparte, who is journeying to a mysterious destination at both his and the Directorate rulers behest. For the Directorate, the goal is glory, plunder and ridding France of a popular general who could be dangerous. Bonaparte takes lots of scientists, mathematicians, journalists, artists with him, and the destination is of course Egypt. Ethan is to be the expedition expert on that new hot thing that Franklin, now sadly dead, started taming—electricity—while we learn later that Napoleon has ulterior motives.
Ethan joins the gang with his friend, the journalist Talma, and strange things start to happen on the way to Toulon where they embark, with the famous English spy and adventurer Sidney Smith, recently escaped from a French prison, saving Ethan's life from an ambush.
Ethan participates at some of the most memorable events of the campaign: the capture of Malta; the two battles of Abukir; the battle of Cairo; he gets in, out, in, out of Bonaparte's favor; he meets Nelson; he visits the Pyramids; finds love with a beautiful mysterious woman; finds treacherous and cruel enemies; and makes and loses friends. The medallion, so badly wanted by various parties, may lead to books of ancient wisdom which would give their owners amazing powers. Gage is determined to find and destroy, or even better . . . hide those books, while the other parties look for them for their own purposes.
There are also some brilliant cameos, especially by the famous “black” general Dumas, the son of a French aristocrat and a black slave who was a leading general of the revolution before being eclipsed by Napoleon and then was the commander of the French cavalry in Egypt before parting ways with Bonaparte and dying in obscurity several years later. Of course his main claim to fame is that after he returned from Egypt he became the father of Alexandre Dumas.
In a clear homage to Dumas, the author has the main villain Count Silano having a Cagliostro scene with General Dumas, in which Silano challenges the general to a strange duel involving eating a pig—called Cagliostro's duel after the mysterious charlatan/sorcerer that figures so prominently in many Dumas novels. After Bonaparte forbids a classical duel with guns or swords and the general declines, storming from the room, Count Silano exclaims: “he was wise to refuse, this way he will get back to France and have a son who will become very famous”.
“Napoleon's Pyramids” ends with Bonaparte in shaky charge of Egypt after the English fleet under Nelson sank the French fleet at 2nd Abukir leaving the French conquerors stranded in Egypt and encouraging the locals to revolt. After one more out from Napoleon's favor and on the run, Gage steals a meteorological balloon from a French scientist and together with his lady love, the mysterious Egyptian Astiza, and hotly pursued by Silano and the French, tries to get away...
“The Rosetta Key” takes off pretty much where the first book leaves, though it starts dramatically with Ethan Gage awaiting execution as a spy, with roughly 4000 Ottoman soldiers captured by Napoleon at Jaffa and executed en masse in one of those rare Napoleonic moments of outright cruelty though done with some political purpose in mind. In this case to frighten the Ottoman soldiers and rulers of Syria to surrender to Napoleon who, with about 15k soldiers, wanted to emulate Alexander and conquer all lands all the way to India since the English navy is blocking the way to France. Of course it does not work, but that's only because the Syrians have a ruler they fear more than Napoleon—Djezzar The Butcher.
Ethan recounts the story of how he got there starting from his journey on the British ship he landed on at the end of the first book where he cleaned the sailors at cards—which later led to his current fate—to Jerusalem where he met another interesting girl, and to his capture by the French. His lover Astiza is still missing. The mysterious books are still wanted by everybody and Silano is still the odds on favorite to get them unless Gage finds them first.
Then after Gage escapes the mass execution, the story moves forward to the siege of Acre, where Djezzar, helped by the British and some French noblemen, fights Napoleon, and then to various places in the Holy Land, then Egypt, and it ends on a quite satisfying note in Paris.
In many ways this is a better book, more polished than the first one, the main historical characters are still memorable. For instance, when Napoleon arrives before Acre, Djezzar, a very feared 75 years old, climbs the wall and yells at the French, “I killed more men and bedded more women than Napoleon and I will ### him too”.
The one-liners are very funny:
Silano, “Gage don't they teach you classics on the frontier?”
Gage, “On the frontier classics make excellent fire-starters.”
The only weak moments that irritated me after a while were the repetition of Napoleon ordering Ethan's execution for some reason or another, Ethan escaping, and then coming back to Bonaparte for some reason or another.
In the end, “Napoleon's Pyramids” and “The Rosetta Key” are highly recommended romps that you do not want to put down once you start them, and if new Ethan Gage adventures get published I will read them for sure…
Lana said...
I really enjoyed this post. I hope you don't mind if I link to it at my review of The Rosetta Key here: http://caramellunacy.blogspot.com/2008/10/rosetta-key-william-dietrich.html
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1301
|
__label__cc
| 0.673069
| 0.326931
|
Three Recent SFF Books of Interest, Steven Amsterd...
"Quintessence" by David Walton (Reviewed by Liviu ...
No Return by Zachary Jernigan (Reviewed by Mihir W...
“River of Stars” by Guy Gavriel Kay (Reviewed by C...
GUEST POST: Word of Mouth: Or Just Let Me Be Read ...
“The Raven Boys” by Maggie Stiefvater (Reviewed by...
“Etiquette & Espionage” by Gail Carriger (Reviewed...
“Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell (Book/Movie Review...
Winner of the “River of Stars” Giveaway!!!
"Shadow of Freedom" by David Weber (Reviewed by Li...
GUEST POST: Writing Wuxia As Chinese Historical Fa...
NEWS: Ilona Andrews' New Series, Michael J Sulliva...
"Where Tigers Are at Home" by Jean-Marie Blas de R...
“Impulse” by Steven Gould (Reviewed by Casey Blair...
“Scarlet” by Marissa Meyer (Reviewed by Lydia Robe...
“The Indigo Spell” by Richelle Mead (Reviewed by C...
GUEST POST: The Legend of Vanx Malic & Other News ...
The Grim Company by Luke Scull (Reviewed by Mihir ...
WORLDWIDE GIVEAWAY: Win a SIGNED HARDCOVER COPY of...
GUEST POST: The Debut Novel: A Series of Intention...
"On the Edge" by Markus Werner (Reviewed by Liviu ...
NEWS: Ides Of March Giveaway, Gord Rollo's The Jig...
“Written In Red” by Anne Bishop (Reviewed by Casey...
No Return by Zachary Jernigan (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)
Order NO RETURN HERE
Read Zachary's guest post The Debut Novel: A Series of Intentions
Read Civilian Reader's Interview with Zachary Jernigan
AUTHOR INFORMATION: Zachary Jernigan was born and brought up in the United States and has lived for most of his life in the western half of the country. He has a BA in Religious Studies from Northern Arizona University (2005) and an MFA in Creative Writing from University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast program (2011). His short fiction has appeared in a variety of places, including Asimov's Science Fiction, Crossed Genres, and Escape Pod. He has previously worked in a variety of fields and avoids seeking management positions. He currently lives in Northern Arizona and No Return is his Debut novel.
OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: On Jeroun, there is no question as to whether God exists--only what his intentions are.
Under the looming judgment of Adrash and his ultimate weapon--a string of spinning spheres beside the moon known as The Needle--warring factions of white and black suits prove their opposition to the orbiting god with the great fighting tournament of Danoor, on the far side of Jeroun's only inhabitable continent.
From the Thirteenth Order of Black Suits comes Vedas, a young master of martial arts, laden with guilt over the death of one of his students. Traveling with him are Churls, a warrior woman and mercenary haunted by the ghost of her daughter, and Berun, a constructed man made of modular spheres possessed by the foul spirit of his creator. Together they must brave their own demons, as well as thieves, mages, beasts, dearth, and hardship on the perilous road to Danoor, and the bloody sectarian battle that is sure to follow.
On the other side of the world, unbeknownst to the travelers, Ebn and Pol of the Royal Outbound Mages (astronauts using Alchemical magic to achieve space flight) have formed a plan to appease Adrash and bring peace to the planet. But Ebn and Pol each have their own clandestine agendas--which may call down the wrath of the very god they hope to woo.
Who may know the mind of God? And who in their right mind would seek to defy him?
FORMAT/INFO: No Return is 292 pages long, divided over five parts which is further divided into twenty-three chapters and a prologue and epilogue. Narration is in the third-person primarily via Vedas Tezul, Churli Casta Jones, Berun, Pol Tanz Et Som, Ebn Bon Mari and Adrash. This book can be read as a standalone and has resolves most of its plot threads.
March 5, 2013 marked the publication of the US Hardback and e-book edition of No Return by Night Shade Books. The cover art is provided by Robbie Trevino.
ANALYSIS: Zachary Jernigan’s No Return is a debut that drew my attention to it like a moth to a flame. The blurb detailed a foreign world and races that was simply too enticing for a fantasy fan like me. The author was kind enough to send me a copy and I started reading it with high anticipation but not knowing what to expect.
The story is set on the world of Jeroun wherein a single habitable pan-continent is the focus of the entire tale. It is a world wherein a God named Adrash has existed for eons and now has left humanity and other races bereft of his divine presence. The world since then has developed in interesting ways after Adrash nearly destroyed it by causing two of his artificially created spheres to slam onto Jeroun’s surface and caused an ice age of sorts. The two main religions that have arisen due to these actions are Adrashi and Anadrashi that espouse either rule of Adrash or rule of man. Both these factions have long clashed with each other causing further rifts and doubts to arise. Adrash since then has created several spheres that he aligns in a fashion of sorts, which has been titled “the Needle” and threatens to wipe out Jeroun’s inhabitants. This has lead to an interesting development and now we find ourselves in midst of the story wherein all the characters are trying to achieve what they think they should.
Vedas Tezul is a warrior of the 13th order of Black Suits who is also the most adept fighter amongst them and is chosen to be their representative for the decennial tournament at Danoor. Churli Casta Jones is a warrior who has her own reasons to travel to the Danoor tournament but she’s not alone and will have to learn to trust other warriors again. Berun is a constructed man and therefore not entirely human but he shares within his mind, memories of his creator and will have to decide whether he is his own person or just a creation. Pol Tanz Et Som and Ebn Bon Mari are royal outbound mages who regularly make trips into space to observe Adrash and the Needle. They however have their own plans to accomplish and they will do anything everything to get their way. These are the main POV characters and the reader will have to ascertain what each and everyone wants.
This book is one of the weirdest and simply terrific fantasy-SF hybrids that I have ever come across. Firstly kudos to the author for coming up this plot and ensconcing a complex world, races, and magic system within such a slim volume. The author also retains a certain simplicity to his tale by not making it overtly obtuse a la Erikson or R. Scott Bakker. This was one aspect that I liked a lot, not that the author has made this story an overtly simplistic one as there’s a lot going on and packs quite a wallop within its pages. It focusses on religion, group mindsets and the way of life as evolved due to circumstances (as seen uniquely on this planet) and all of which makes for a very fascinating story.
His world and storyline are definitely unique in the sense that they combine different genres and themes to give us a story about finding the truth (be it about life, religion, one's role, etc). The author has to be lauded for his effort in undertaking such a different story as he also tackles various issues brought forth by religious viewpoints that differ drastically, ethnic and racial tensions and much more. He however has managed to combine all these difficult queries within the folds of his story in spite of the single volume nature of the tale. The author also takes a very vivid view towards the sexuality of his characters and writes some exotic scenes featuring alien anatomy. For a few readers who aren't used to such frank scenes, might not be able to fathom it entirely but again it will be upon the reader's perspective in regards to the judgment of these scenes.
If there is a drawback to this story then it would be the way the story ends, the reader will want to know more about the world and the characters introduced within. In this regard while the story ends on a climatic note, certain threads left open will cause some consternation for readers that are engulfed within the story. I was one among them and therefore I would very much like to know more about the future and past of this strange alien world. Zachary Jernigan has spoken about this aspect in his guest post a bit as well in his email correspondence. Hopefully most of the questions about the world and its history will be answered in a companion volume and so I’ll among the first to grab it whenever its written.
CONCLUSION: Zachary Jernigan writes with a flair for the weird and makes it endearing enough for readers to feel familiar with it. No Return is a magnificent debut that straddles fantasy and SF genres seamlessly and makes itself into a jewel faceting both fields. I completely loved this debut and will have very high hopes from Mr. Jernigan for all his future works based on the raw talent that is showcased within. Make sure you don’t miss this one as this book will be definitely featuring highly in my year end lists.
az060693 said...
The author's got a great sense of humor, check out his review of his own book on goodreads
Zacharyjernigan said...
Ha! You saw that? That makes me feel good. And thanks for saying I have a good sense of humor! I wish I could convince everyone else of that...
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1302
|
__label__wiki
| 0.721613
| 0.721613
|
Official website of FCB Basketball Basketball
Official main partner
FCBB Events
TICKETS FAN-SHOP
Search Fill-1
My account Hello USERNAME
MyFCB Profile
You will be logged out
Log in UN Hello USERNAME Menu
Marko Pesic Interview, Part 1
"We will be a top European team"
Created on 07-08-2019 at 14:00 PM
Increase font size Text size
The Off-season is in fulll swing. The championship celebrations are now finally behind the Bavarians and the new tasks in the BBL and EuroLeague lie ahead. Time for a little pause, a look back and basic thoughts between squad planning and holidays in an interview with FCBB managing director Marko Pesic.
Marko, during one game you chew 20 pieces of gum and drink a lot of water, even if you're not thirsty - all for reassurance. How many packs and how many liters did you go through this summer in the decisive series with Alba Berlin?
Marko Pesic: Four to five half-liter bottles for sure, I didn't count the chewing gum. When I started my job here, Uli Hoeness asked me why I wasn't sitting on the bench. I said, "I can do it, but I'll be in the way more than I'll help." No, I'm just too restless.
Double in 2018, Championship in 2019 - is the FCBB the new force in German basketball?
Probably this is a bad answer but I don't care that much. I'm interested in what we're going to do. We have the development in our hands. We have opened all the doors that we can open ourselves. Are we the new great force in German basketball? Currently yes. Will we stay it? That is our goal, our obligation. We have a very young team behind the scenes that is building this department so that it can be successful in the long term. Success must not be defined solely by the result on the court.
The footballers have been champions seven times in a row. Questions like "how" are actually a nuisance: Is that also true of basketball?
No, we are part of this big club and must not be annoyed. We also have our standards, and they are the highest. You just have to never forget that we don't have as long a history as our footballers. We develop and we develop quickly. We can learn an incredible amount from our footballers, in all aspects. I always wonder when people don't register what an enormous mental achievement it is to be the hunted player in every game and still be at the top in the end.
"You can't guarantee the playoffs."
A year without a title would be a bad year for footballers. Is it the same in basketball?
The crucial point is that you don't question the whole development when you don't win a title. I assume that we will win titles every year - I have been a competitor since my childhood, I have to think so. But of course there are never any guarantees.
Uli Hoeness wants to qualify for the top 8 in the Euroleague.
I agree in principle with our President that we must aim for that. But in operational terms this is a mammoth task. My vision is that we will be the basketball capital of Europe in the foreseeable future. The club has every opportunity as we have a lot to offer in terms of sport, and the best framework conditions. Munich is a wonderful city, in the heart of Europe. A basketball culture is developing here, the international scene is already registering this, and word of it will continue to spread. Before the third final, we had more than 20,000 ticket enquiries. The thrilling victories against Fenerbahce Istanbul and FC Barcelona were an incredible advertisement and I am sure that we will become a top European team.
So, playoffs next season?
I don't know if that will have to be next year. You can't guarantee that if you take a look at the spectacular transfers that have already taken place in the EuroLeague so far. But what I can guarantee is that we in the club will get the most out of it. And if it takes a year or two longer, that's okay. It simply has to be sustainable. Jordi Bertomeu, the head of the Euroleague, recently said that the other clubs should look to Munich because they are working so exemplarily on their structure. For me, such a statement is worth as much as a title.
In 2021 the new hall will come - will you have to be an international heavyweight by then at the latest?
It's our job that people accept basketball even more and that we live up to the expectations that we ourselves have created. But the Audi Dome will remain our living room, where we always like to play. We won't give it up for the next ten years. We then go to the SAP Garden for the big games. This will be our ballroom.
Do the players and their advisors really understand that they are not earning millions in salaries even though FC Bayern invests large sums in football?
They have to. In the beginning it was difficult, but now we know how we work and with what means. Our former players are worth their weight in gold. Because they are our best ambassadors. A Malcolm Delaney or Tyrese Rice come around in the basketball world and talk about their experiences in Munich. That helps us a lot. The image you get of FC Bayern Basketball is getting stronger and stronger.
What can FC Bayern Basketball do to to bring in the best players?
It's no coincidence that every newcomer feels at home here within a very short time. Last season Derrick Williams came from the NBA, from another world, and after ten days our veteran, Alex King said to me: "Wow, he feels like he's been here for years!" Now we actually won Greg Monroe, among others, for us, who surely noticed Derrick's way. Talking about family in sports is often an empty phrase. But we've all been involved in this project since it was launched a good eight years ago - and that's something that's spreading to the floor. Our mentality is that an Alba Berlin not only plays against five players here, but against all of us. Of course, players leave us for various reasons, like now after three years Devin Booker, but everyone has at least a lump in their throat when they go.
PART II OF THE INTERVIEW WITH MARKO PESIC
TO THE FC BAYERN MÜNCHEN EMAGAZINES
93-85 over Bonn
Bayern extend their lead in the standings again
Game report of the BBL game between FC Bayern Munich and Telekom Baskets Bonn.
80-68 against Maccabi Tel Aviv
Bayern end their losing streak in the EuroLeague
The match report for FC Bayern Munich vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv in the EuroLeague.
Thursday's face off against third-placed EuroLeague team Tel Aviv
Bayern’s next challenge awaits in the form of Final Four candidates Maccabi
Two back-to-back home games in the Audi Dome after a disappointing week on the road
Real Madrid wins for the third time in a row at the Munich ANGT
The Bayern U18 win the third-place game
3,000 spectators in the Audi Dome, Sasha Grant voted into the tournament top-5.
81-74 loss in Ludwigsburg
Bayern lose first BBL game of the season
FCBB lacks concentration in their third away game in five days.
89-72 loss at Olympiakos Piräus
Bayern finishes their trip to Greece without a win
FCBB remains without an away win in the Euroleague
Two opening wins against Moscow and Ulm
The U18 of Bayern fights against Rome for a place in the ANGT final
Two opening wins against Moscow and Ulm.
Europe's up-and-coming stars are again in Munich
The "Adidas Next Generation Tournament 2020"
As part of the ANGT, the "Azubi Day" will also take place on Friday from 10 a.m. in the Audi Dome...
98-83 loss in Athens
Bayern falls short of an upset despite good play
TJ Bray celebrates a successful premiere.
At Panathinaikos, Olympiakos and in Ludwigsburg
Bayern goes "well prepared" into a difficult week away
Three extremely difficult road games in five days.
FC Bayern Basketball on Social Media
Football Fan-Shop Audi Dome FCBB-Magazin eSports
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1304
|
__label__cc
| 0.551929
| 0.448071
|
Best Games in History
No_Nickname
Yup, I even asked the guy when I pre-ordered it from Gamestop
"You can tell a lot about a fella's character by whether he picks out all of one color or just grabs a handful." -explaining why Reagan liked to have a jar of jelly beans on hand for important meetings
CO for 1st S.INC Shock Security Troop
germanicaus
i have seen many tralers and it looks great
I think it would be really cool if I could play as the germans in ww2 operation bararossa and berlin and normandy......!!!!!!
Would it be a cool idea to go back in time to WW1?
just a segestition
They should open it up and maybe do Korea or Vietnam that would be intence.
The single player game was excellent (Although missing some of the epic battles I would have wanted to see included, Iwo Jima and the defense of Guadal Canal after the initial establishment of the airfield and base to name a few).
The multiplayer is excellent and fun but to me it gets stale very fast because the game gives me my favorite guns to start with, Thompson and BAR(At like level 5??), although the Sturmgavier (Im sure spelling is off there) is fun to use and reminiscent of modern warfare once you get the arpature.
I would have figured they'd give you some of the junkier Russian and Japanese guns to start with and make your way up the ladder to some of the nice American pieces. I also have a problem with some of the damage the guns do (Obviously for balancing purposes but still).
I think the big appeal with modern warfare was all the awesome weapons you would continually unlock, as to where the majority of guns in CoD WoW arnt even guns i'm interested in using most of the time.
COD4 Addict
Haven't played it yet, i'm not really diggin the WW2 scenario for some reason.
comm. waffle
A Vietnam version would include, kind of the best of WWII and Modern Warfare. The Vietnamese used all kinds of weapons, including RPGs, RPDs, RPKs, AKs, WWII weapons, etc. Than you have the American M16, M14 (if so desired), M79, LAWs, M60...
And for their aircraft sneariao that COD is starting to use a lot now, could be a door gunner on a Huey or a pilot of a Spooky.... be kinda cool.
I am a simple man. I am by no means smarter than the average man. I am average...yet genius.
Paul Mann III
ACG Forums - General Staff
I'm playing Modern Warfare and World at War back-to-back right now.
The online for World at War is better by far, but Mordern Warfare is pretty sweet too...
"This life..., you know, "the life." You’re not gonna get any medals, kid. This is not a hero business; you don’t shoot people from a mile a way. You gotta stand right next to them... blow their heads off."
Isn't there a rumour going around that one of the next CODs is going to be about Vietnam?
Originally posted by -snafu- View Post
Sounds like wishful thinking to me.
Modern Warfare 2 is supposed to drop this summer, that's the last "rumor" I heard...
Summer? That's a surprise, usually they release them around October or November.
I also came across this article, it might be of interest.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/58608
But until it's on the shelf, I'll try not to get too excited.
I've seen alot of games not make it after they were claimed to be "in the works."
Snoops game was almost finished in 2004, for example..., it's still unreleased as far as I know...
Yeah, a Vietnam COD would be great, we'll just have to wait and see.
Ever heard of Duke Nukem Forever? That was announced in 1997.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Nukem_Forever
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1318
|
__label__cc
| 0.51664
| 0.48336
|
An open letter to Dice. Some of us have legitimately lost all trust & faith in you...
LFCFOREVER86p
7 postsMember, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Battlefield Hardline, Battlefield, Battlefield 1, CTE, Battlefield V Member
This is the last BF game I will purchase. It's an abomination of a game. So many things wrong with the game, too long to list and I really can't be bothered to list them.
Niick1402
88 postsMember, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Battlefield, Battlefield 1, BF1IncursionsAlpha, Battlefield V Member
Tip_the_Cap wrote: »
I've com to realize through reading and watching vids that it's EA that is mainly at fault for all our unhappiness. Dice, had to put this game out before it was finished and now are constantly playing catch up and fixing ****.
Lack of maps is my main gripe, and I have feeling EA is behind that as well. Making maps is the most time consuming part of making a game, and demands lots or resources, which means $$$. They tried to make this game on the cheap and charged full price for it.
You need to realize that whatever is said in a video or what you read is (alot of the time) just pure speculation based on nothing. Often it's also straight up bullsh*t that is incorrect. Take for example the guy a few posts up that says ea is providing improper severs for the game, it's simply wrong. Myself and many others don't have any server problems. I also am unhappy with the amount of maps but EA doesn't get involved in the creative aspect of the game, they also said they're investing heavily in the future of BFV. They said so in a .pdf they publish for shareholders wich was a report about EA company performance and future plans, atleast as far as i remember. It's always EA's fault because of their questionable reputation, i guess.
1337RagequitR wrote: »
TuskenAdz wrote: »
Of course it's just a game. That's not the point.
It's almost as if there's one top exec there whose the king of bad decisions that everybody is afraid to say 'Jorgen.. that's a stupid idea' for fear of losing their gig.
Been thinking that myself actually. Some moron from EA fresh out of business school calling the shots despite only using a computer for share trading with daddy's money. Can only see dollar signs. Damn shame.. If there is someone like that throw them back into the pit of hell they crawled out of FFS before we loose DICE and Battlefield.
Seems plausible that someone fresh out of business school who's trading shares with daddy's money is managing the 2nd most sold product(fifa=1) of EA(a publisher), a company worth billions of dollars and is telling DICE (the developer) how to do their job and nobody dares to say something about it for fear of being fired. I can't see any reason why this isn't the case. If only Sweden(DICE location) had labour unions or some laws that protect employees this situation you describe would have never happend. I guess their long sitting left government doesn't like those things.
Mann68heim
29 postsMember, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Battlefield, Battlefield 1, Battlefield V Member
March 30, 2019 11:56AM edited March 2019
DJTN1 wrote: »
I get you dude. I read your "wall-of-text" and I certainly understand your frustration but I think you're under the misconception that you, the customer, are a priority. You're not. Shareholders are. The ones who make the big decisions are only concerned with shareholders. To them you are one of many and easily replaceable with a well done video trailer and a deceiving marketing plan. They will continue to milk the community for everything it has and when it all runs out they'll blame the studio, close it and come out with a new game or ip from another studio. They we're disappointed they sold only 7 million copies of BFV and considered it a failure. They don't want more money, they want ALL the money. It is the world and times we live in.
That is definitely one of the most intelligent comments i read on all BF V forums so far. Very good understanding of the market + and valuable background information of how things work in the gaming industry.
But also: it's the customer's responsibility to understand that his wallet is POWER!
Kattegat_Twin
856 postsMember, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Battlefield, Battlefield 1, CTE, Battlefield V Member
Lt-Rapido wrote: »
Is there a tl,dr version?
EdwinSpangler wrote: »
I surely agree with your title. Not gonna read all that tho.
What's wrong with people? It's not that long a passage. True, the fact that this forum doesn't apply paragraph spacing is really stupid, but still, the requests for a TL;DR (and when people use that term, notice that it's the only time they ever use semi-colons) everywhere these days are ridiculous. Can kids not read for longer than a few seconds? Expecting people to summarise their posts because you're too lazy too do a small bit of reading is silly.
Soulbreeze
379 postsMember, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Battlefield, Battlefield 1, Battlefield V Member
It's telling that when I got on to play BF5 last night, my entire clan was playing on our BF1 server. A few of us moved over to 5 for an hour or so, but on any given night half our guys are on BF1. Several of them won't even play 5.
ragnarok013
3552 postsMember, Moderator, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Battlefield Hardline, Battlefield, Battlefield 1, CTE, BF1IncursionsAlpha, Battlefield V Moderator
Mann68heim wrote: »
MiMiMi everywhere, really guys ... it's a game. Get on with life or maybe get a life.
They know what they did wrong, they will fix some things, break others and eventually BF V will become decent in
a year or so. Same story with almost every BF game so far.
Just relax.. IT'S A GAME
@Mann68heim there's no need to be so combative as it only leads to a circle of baiting\flaming and trolling and ultimately thread closures and account infractions.
Soulbreeze wrote: »
@Soulbreeze I've seen this myself, but is it BF5's gameplay that is keeping your clan mates in BF1 or the fact that you have a clan server that you can control via RSP?
TuskenAdz
The problem with this theory though is, the concern for the shareholders should actually work in our favor. Shareholders wanted EA to get the Star Wars license and for them to make a game that sells a ton. They want each Battlefield to sell better than the last. 'Growth' and all that good stuff. Less people happy mean less sales mean unhappy shareholders. Good god... all these guys have to do is look at the competition. The Fortnite guys get it. They've spoiled their fans (& other devs probably hate them for it). Every week there's some little addition or change that keeps things fresh. Every 3 months a major refresh. And you only have to pay if you feel like it. Because there's so many happy li'l gamers, there's never any wait time to get into a game. And it's always great ping.
Tonight I had around 5 FS games and gave up. Only one was on a local server. A few times searching for a game and disconnecting. The last game was a couple of minutes just to squad up but then FIVE minutes to find a game. By the time boots are on ground... 10 minutes. Only to have a guy walk through my rocket and knife me soon as I landed (obviously due to lag).
I'd had enough. Straight into Apex and playing instantly on local servers with no hassles. Enjoying my weekend nights entertainment and 'having fun' rather than tearing my hair out and swearing at my console. I kinda feel guilty Dice has my money and the Apex guys don't.
Dice need to poach some matchmaking/network guys from ANY of the other companies. Every single other dev does that stuff WAY better.
The most frustrating part of all this is, despite what a lot of guys say on here, a lot of these changes wouldn't be difficult. Putting FS in the server browser would be an insignificant amount of work. Giving Battlefront 2 a server browser would be simple. All the work is already done in BFV. Adding private matches... already in the previous games. The work is done. No... this is something else. This kinda resistance to make simple changes and improve their games...to look at what the competition are doing successfully & make their customers happy and sell more games. The fact they will not listen and adapt is actually bizarre.
I'm in the same boat. I don't mind, because once the initial vibe of new content in BFV died off... BF1 is still great. And it's got a lot more content coz it's been around longer and had all the DLC etc. But I'm literally the only one in a group of about a dozen who dudes I frequently play with that bought BFV. All of us had BF4. We played the heck out of that. About half dropped off and didn't get BF1. That's a massive drop in sales if you average it out. 50% from BF4, and then 20% of that 50% from BF1. I'm sure it's not that drastic a drop in actual sales... but I'd be curious what the sales in the real world were from BF3 on...and whether it reflects something similar.
Just googled it...
As far as 'highest selling games for the year go... it looks like this.
2011: Battlefield 3 -No. 4 (15 million)
2013: Battlefield 4 - No. 4 (13.8 million)
2015: Battlefield: Hardline -No. 10 (4.1 million)
2018: Battlefield V -No. 14 (7.3 million)
So while not exactly in line with what I've witnessed personally... still pretty telling. I'm actually surprised 3&4 had half the sales of BF1 considering they were both arguably better games. But that's kinda how it should work. Everybody remembers how much they loved the last one & gets the next one... plus word of mouth & recommendations etc. mean more people jump on board. Also... Hardline probably did a lot of damage to faith in the brand. A lot of BF1's sales would have been from loyalty and people's expectations based on previous games. The drop from 25 million to 7 million for BFV is incredible though. It's indicative of a few things. It shows how many people didn't love BF1 perhaps as much as they thought they would, and probably had other, newer games and more options that interested them as opposed to 'more of the same' (which it did kinda look like it would be based on the marketing). It likely reflects there were quite a few 'boycotters' that followed through after the Battlefront loot box and BFV 'don't like it, don't buy it' drama.
More than anything... it shows you that Dice don't seem very good at listening to what their player base wants. They prefer to do what they want and tell their customers they can like it or leave it. Hopefully they'll figure out that their fans will (and did, apparently) leave it , before they're left in the dust by other devs who do listen, & not become extinct.
ragnarok013 wrote: »
Mostly it's not having a server we can control as many members have 0 faith in Dice's anti cheat.
GRAW2ROBZ
Curious what the sales are for Bad Company 2. Also Hardline could of did better. But was released at a bad time. Rockstar re-released GTA5 around a little bit after Hardline for XBOX1/PS4. So more less anyone on the fence thinking of buying cops and robbers Hardline. Picked up GTA5 instead.
MAJWolfcookies
581 postsMember, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Battlefield Hardline, Battlefield, Battlefield 1, CTE, Battlefield V Member
What's even more telling is how peak player counts crashed for BF1 compared to BF4. BF4 currently has more active players than BF1. I still play and love BF4. BF1 was an absolute joke!!!
DJTN1
306 postsMember, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Battlefield Hardline, Battlefield, Battlefield 1, Battlefield V Member
Growth, people and money are not infinite objects. The system as a whole is flawed in my eyes. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see BF is becoming more like Call of Duty and now Fortnite. The reason for this is because those games sell more than BF. Your fun or gaming experience has little to nothing to do with those decisions. BF has always been about the immersion of war... big intense war on the battle field with tanks, planes, big maps, high player counts, exceptional graphics and some of the best sound design ever in a game. The immersion is so great that a lot of us hard-core BF fans have been willing to overlook rediculus bugs, bad launches and a horrible UI. But all that greatness has become lost in their quest for trying to make more money by turning BF into these other games. It doesn't make sense to me that EA as a publisher, has 2 battle royal games competing with each other. They should have let Apex do its thing and BF V should have built upon the things that have made BF great. There is room for financial growth with cosmetic micro transactions but again, they don't want more money, they want ALL the money.
Stahlmach
1156 postsMember, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Battlefield, Battlefield 1, Battlefield V Member
Not him but i can answer that for me and my friends. It was the gameplay that drove us away and we wouldnt come back even if BF V would now get RSP.
We now switched full back to " Rocket League " and these days also to " The Divison 2 " when it comes to Online Games that we play together.
MAJWolfcookies wrote: »
I think it helps the core game of BF4 goes on sale often for like $10. $20 for premium included. Same with Hardline. So the community get re-populated with Christmas noobs every couple months. But I dont miss locker/metro 24/7 servers with like a million tickets. That burns ya out fast. I rather play the premium dlc with boats or that last map I cant remember what it was called but was cool.
misisipiRivrRat
Sixclicks wrote: »
I thought BF1 was great. It's one of my favorite BF titles. It has some issues too, and I really hated some of the changes they made later in the game and the lack of quality rental servers, but overall it was a good game and well worth the money I spent.
I've played every BF game since BF2 except for Hardline.
BFV is so lacking in weapon and class balance and content that I just can't play it anymore. I haven't played in about 8 weeks now. I still keep up with the game here in hopes that'll improve, but I'm very doubtful it will much at this point.
Everything they add lately just seems to be "too little, too late."
I'll probably return to the game at some point, but I don't know when that'll be or how long it'll last.
Gaming is a hobby that I greatly enjoy. I remember tiring of COD at one point and trying bfbc2. Oh man, from the first kill when I took out a heli pilot ( damn lucky shot ) in that game I was hooked. The destruction and sounds were awesome. I really wish I had come into bfbc2 earlier but I still had a great time. Loved bf3 and bf4. Bf1 not as much but still had fun. Bf5? Just a pain to play for me. Got barely 40 hours in and I've had it since launch. Prior bf's I'd have 100-150 hours played by now if not more.
Problem is BFV failed right from the start.
Bad decisions at the development (No iconic Battles, Just 2 Factions, Attriction system, Bad Map Design Like Fjell, wrong priorities Like Firestorm and Combined Arms). Remove of Premium.
Bad Marketing Like the reveal Trailer and acting Like "These fools will buy it anyway", sitting on the high horse.
Crap Release with Bugs and cutted Content that was announced.
Not releasing much new Content and Just Recycling BF1 guns. No new Maps until May. Setting wrong priorities.
Sorry If i Look at the Numbers compared to BF3 and 4 it failed even harder. Only Hardline was worst.
Sixclicks
misisipiRivrRat wrote: »
I've got 59 hours in BFV. I think I gave it more than enough of a chance with that time. And sometimes it was fun, but overall it's just become boring and more frustrating than fun most of the time.
In BF1 I played for 376 hours.
I can't really give an accurate count for BF3 and BF4 because I played over multiple accounts (my PC account, my Xbox account, and a roomate's Xbox account). But, on my PC account alone, I've got 122 hours in BF3 (most of my time was on my roomate's account which I don't have access to). And in BF4 my PC account is at 152.5 hours. I'd estimate I played each for at least 300 hours.
And who knows... maybe BFV will become much better, I'll come back to the game, and actually enjoy it and play it for much longer. But I'm skeptical that will happen at this point. It seems too late for recovery. Especially after seeing the recently released roadmap detailing their plan for most of the rest of this year.
Ah, that's interesting. And of course, just as important (if not more) than just sales figures. 'How many people kept playing... and for how long'. Coz Battlefront would have sold a ton... but lost it's player numbers rapidly.
I had no idea BF4 had more players than BF1. Makes sense tho...
See? That's another thing. Dice would know that. And if they could be bothered, it would take no time at all to turn up a couple of graphics settings for the Pro & X users and create some good will. But their priorities are all outta whack. I still think it's crazy they keep cranking out content in Battlefront 2 that nobody sees rather than fixing the issues that stop people playing. I've literally loaded the game and waited til it throws me in a new map with an empty lobby just to roam around and see the work they've put into it... only to never actually play on that map.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1319
|
__label__wiki
| 0.896331
| 0.896331
|
Woman’s sign at NHL game pleading for new kidney goes viral
Posted 7:37 pm, April 2, 2018, by Tribune Media, Updated at 07:34PM, April 2, 2018
WEST HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Penguins fan: Seeking hero.
The NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins tweeted those four words with a photo of 30-year-old Kelly Sowatsky, whose sign asking for a new kidney stood out in the crowd.
Sowatsky, of Lancaster County, has been sick for the past two years, according to WPMT. She's looking for a second chance at life and is calling all hockey fans, or anyone for that matter, for some help.
"This could work, in the right place," said Sowatsky, who figured a Penguins game might be perfect.
On Saturday night, she went to the game with her fiance, with her neon poster in hand.
"So when the players were playing during warm-ups I was down on the front glass so I would hold it like this so Jake Guentzel could see it from the ice," Sowatsky said. Everyone behind her saw the message on the other side of the poster: "Calling all hockey fans, I need a kidney! Kidney! Kidney! Gratefully yours, Kelly."
Within minutes a picture of her holding the sign started to circulate social media, spreading the word. Since she posted her phone number, Kelly says she's received numerous calls and texts.
We're with you in this, Kelly. https://t.co/Qjf0KgbcNb
— NHL (@NHL) April 1, 2018
"I mean all these unknown numbers in here, these are just all the numbers that I've been getting, all the unknowns, they just keep coming," said Sowatsky.
Back in 2015, she was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection, leading to a sepsis infection and later giving her more issues. Then, last year, the infection caused both of her kidneys to stop functioning.
"As I noticed the decrease in my kidney function, I thought, I need to get on it," she added.
That poster, now going viral, is her last hope.
"I never imagined in a million years though that it was going to reach as many people as it did," Sowatsky said.
"It's beyond my wildest dreams that there would be an interaction like this that would just help her and help us in such a tremendous way," said fiance Tyler Hart. "It's one of those moments that honestly restores your faith in humanity," he added.
The clock is ticking, but Sowatsky is staying hopeful.
"My hope, is that I graduate from college in just under six weeks, May 12th, that's my number one goal. I am going to get to May 12th, I am going to graduate from school with my bachelor's degree," said Sowatsky.
"The more people who share the better chance I have at finding a kidney and living," she added.
To become a donor or see if you are a match, you can contact Kelly at: 717-456-0766.
Topics: game, kidney, NHL, pleading, sign, viral, woman
‘He has his whole life ahead of him’: Ohio mom pleads for kidney donor to save son’s life
Sports St. Louis Blues
NHL All-Star game to feature women 3-on-3 event
Woman gives kidney to stranger, triggering transplant chain to help save 4 lives
A man donated his kidney to his wife of 51 years after finding out he’s her perfect match
Schedule of events, parking restrictions for NHL All-Star Weekend
Missouri News St. Louis Blues
NHL All-Star events catered to fans bring excitement and St. Louis pride
Fox Files: Imperial man blames hospital rating system for his kidney transplant denials
They matched on a dating site and got married. He needed a kidney, and they matched again
Co-workers bond over kidney donation and more
Blues share schedule of St. Louis NHL All-Star events
Turkey bowlers raise thousands for Penny, 3-year-old girl battling cancer
This officer donated her organ to a young stranger and then helped pay the medical bill
Mobile museum celebrates African American athletes during NHL All-Star Weekend
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1324
|
__label__cc
| 0.604695
| 0.395305
|
← Do private schools need to be better regulated?
Last chance to join the call for the new Education Crisis Platform to be adequately and sustainably financed →
Learning from former extremists
Posted on 4 April 2016 by GEM Report
By Lynn Davies
I met these other people, Muslims, and for some reason they saw something in me that I couldn’t see. They basically believed in me and they said that, ‘You can do more with yourself’.
Interviewing former extremists (far right and Islamist) about their reasons for joining and leaving extremism uncovered a complex mix of drivers. Our research in ConnectJustice, called ‘Formers and Families’, was part of a larger EU funded study with the Netherlands and Denmark. It aimed to explore the role of families both in radicalisation and in exit. Although the focus was the family, our exploration in UK found family background not to be a convincing ‘factor’ in motivation. A number of the extremists in our sample reported coming from loving and caring homes. As with many of the fighters going off to Syria, parents often did not know about their children’s journeys into violent extremism. There was no single, linear, recognizable pathway in and out. The process of radicalisation was a mix of a whole range of factors and drivers. Whether far right or Islamist, there is a sense of mission and purpose in life, wanting identity as a saviour – whether of the world or of the local community.
Together with this need for status is a search for excitement and adventure. Some came through a normalization of violence experienced in gangs before legitimizing this through a dehumanizing of particular ethnic of religious groups. For a few it was self-initiation, but most experienced skillful grooming by influencers.
Similarly, deradicalisation was a mix of greater maturity, including becoming a parent and not wanting one’s child to take this path; increasing unease at the extent, type and targets of violence; anger at being manipulated or betrayed by the groups that recruited them; and different sorts of private study which began the questioning process.
If I hadn’t researched, I’d have been a hardened BNP member, if I hadn’t the intelligence to think, this is wrong…
Overall there was a process of perspective taking, a sudden insight into oneself as an actor in relation to others:
I realised I was hating a bunch of people who were like me.
Looking at backgrounds, we found that neither school nor church/mosque attendance was protective of becoming an extremist. Experience of racism or violence at school did not help, but not all students who are harassed go on to engage in violence. Interestingly, more than one of our sample said they wished they had tackled this topic at school, as it might have stopped them.
The educational implications of our on-going study are primarily five-fold:
There cannot usefully be a checklist of ‘signs of radicalisation’ which teachers or administrators can employ
Extremism must however be tackled at school, with safe spaces for discussion of controversial issues and airing of divergent or even uncomfortable views (as well as safe spaces for discussion in community, church/mosque, with police and in the family itself)
There must be a continuous challenge to simplistic, black and white versions of social or political reality and equally of binary notions of people. A nuanced, critical citizenship or history education can provide a platform for addressing such complexity.
Normal political change is too slow for some young people: the former extremists recommended that there should be opportunities and skills training for students to create change and take up causes in a non-violent way.
Critical media literacy can enable students to analyse how messages are conveyed and whether there is evidence for claims being made.
Analysts of journeys into radicalization will typically talk of push and pull factors, with push factors including poverty and exclusion, a sense of injustice and actual or perceived humiliation as well as boredom and lack of voice. Pull factors include the ideological attraction of the mission, being given a sense of belonging and family, a charismatic recruiter who takes a personal interest and the appeal of adventure or romance.
Education on its own will not address all these push and pull factors in extremism; but it should at least do no harm, and at best try to provide some resilience. Just believing in young people, giving them dignity and a sense of importance, as well as an opportunity to openly and safely discuss controversial political issues, is a start.
This entry was posted in Conflict, syria, Uncategorized, violence and tagged conflict, syria, target 4.7. Bookmark the permalink.
4 Responses to Learning from former extremists
Helen Abadzi says:
The phenomenon we witness makes sense only from the perspective of evolutionary psychology. Males have been set up by evolution to coalesce in tightly knit groups that have hunting or military goals. Throughout the ages they could thus feed families. Women are set up to marry the victors and maximize the chance that their children will survive. Men feel great belonging to tightly knit groups, and doing military operations somehow feels right. Women feel somehow that that these are the right men to marry.
This behavior has been linked to Islam, but this is not the only example. Consider the Central American gangs. They operate on the same evolutionary principles but they have no profound rationale other than feeling good and getting money. And women go along with that.
One likely fuel for the events that we see has been the decades-long escalation in TV and videogame violence. Young males see dozens of murders a day as well as weapons pointed at them. With the adaptive imitation ability that our brains have, they learn what to do. Various studies have raised concerns. But though verbal violence seems to have risen in general as a result of TV violence, actual performance seems to involve only a minority; perhaps those of higher testosterone levels. So, researchers have been ignored.
One way to reduce the complex military attacks would be to reduce violence exposure. Given its links to evolutionary dictates, there should be international conventions to ban such content. But we know that this will not happen. So, what we see nowadays may only be the beginning, as cohort after cohort learns the craft of violence from cradle.
One phenomenon that has been hard to understand has been the suicidal bombers. But Moslems are not the only ones. In recent history there had been Japanese kamikazi and Tamil bombers. This practice reveals a tendency for young men to sacrifice themselves so that their relatives’ DNA will live on. Similarly, social insects sacrifice themselves so that their hive will live. Somehow the Islamic practices used make this trait reliably emerge in many young males.
So, in the 21st century we look for rational explanations, and we see that our genetic behavior tendencies are running circles around us. Much thought is needed on how to neutralize destructive genetic tendencies. It’s useful to understand the dictates of evolutionary psychology and take measures.
Pingback: The Importance of Education in Violent Extremism | Madrid+10
nigelraymentofmagnifiedlearning says:
Will Self recently had something interesting to say about online and film violence and its impact on the human mind: “I don’t think watching violence drives us to commit violent acts – I think it is a violent action in and of itself….. Plenty of doomsters worry about the impact of digital media on our cognitive function, but I think this is nonsense − however plastic the brain may be, it takes many millennia for its gross anatomy to evolve. But the human mind and the human persona are both shape-shifters par excellence, well capable of believing in almost anything, while accommodating to the most twisted of realities.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35943798
Pingback: Learning from former extremists – AMS Gauteng
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1339
|
__label__wiki
| 0.939091
| 0.939091
|
Home US/World U.S. soldier dies of non-combat injuries in Saudi Arabia
U.S. soldier dies of non-combat injuries in Saudi Arabia
U.S. flag. File photo: Maxpixel
Aug. 19 (UPI) — A U.S. soldier from Louisiana died last week of non-combat-related injuries in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the Department of Defense announced Monday.
Military officials identified the service member as Army Spc. Clayton James Horne, 23, of Atlanta, La.
The Department of Defense declined to offer details about the cause of Horne’s death, but the Winn Parish Sheriff’s Office, which employed Horne, said he fell off a tower. The military was investigating the incident.
“Clayton was an excellent deputy and I was looking forward to him completing his tour and returning to work at the sheriff’s office,” a post on the sheriff’s office Facebook page said. “Please keep his family and friends in your prayers during this most difficult time.”
Horne was assigned to the 351st Military Police Company, 160th Military Police Battalion in Ocala, Fla. He was deployed to Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.
Army Spc. Clayton James Horne
Previous articleSalt Lake City crews tackle garage fire, save surrounding buildings
Next articleCrews fight wildfire at top of Birch Creek Canyon
DoD says it will update vetting for foreign military students
Saudi military trainees to return home after Pensacola shooting probe
MTS Advantage lands $90.8M contract for cyber red team operations
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1346
|
__label__wiki
| 0.936514
| 0.936514
|
Samples Database
This material is available only on Freebooksummary
The role and character of Viola in the play, “Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare
The whole doc is available only for registered users OPEN DOC
Book: Twelfth Night
Topics: Character Analysis, Play
Pages: 3 Words: 570 Views: 6949
Access Full Document
Please Sign Up
to get full document.
Every film, concert and play needs characters to act out the themes and ideas of the scriptwriter, such as in the play “Twelfth Night”, written by William Shakespeare. There are many characters in the play “Twelfth Night” including Olivia, the Duke, Sebastian and Viola. Each character has his or her own personality traits, distinguishing qualities and purpose in the play. Viola, who is the main character, represents the two themes of love and disguise or mistaken identity in “Twelfth Night”.
Viola is a princess, who is shipwrecked on the island of Illyria and fears that she has lost her brother to the sea. Viola has many qualities, her brother, Sebastian, describes her as clever and talented, when he says, “She bore a mind that envy could not but call fair” Line twenty-one Scene One Act two. One will also notice that Viola is resourceful and courageous in Line fifty-four Scene two Act one, when she says “for such disguise as haply shall become”, this is the point in the play when Viola decides to disguise herself as a young man.
Viola introduces the theme of disguise and mistaken identity by disguising herself as a young man, named Cesario. Viola, as Cesario, plays the role of a servant, messenger and friend to the Duke of Illyria. The Duke says to Viola, “I have unclasped to thee/my secret soul” Line eleven to twelve Scene four Act one, expressing that he already trusts her and considers her a friend. Viola’s pretence is the source of much dramatic irony, which, in turn, creates much humour in the play.
Viola, disguised as Cesario, is assigned to the task of courting Olivia on behalf of the Duke, as one notices when Viola says, “I’ll do my best to woo your lady” Line thirty eight to thirty-nine Scene four Act one. Viola also plays a role in the theme of love. Viola then quietly says to the audience, “myself would be his wife”, stating that she is in fact in love with the Duke. A love triangle is created when Viola’s personality causes Olivia to fall in love with Viola herself, instead of the Duke. Olivia says to Viola in Line one hundred and thirty-three Scene one Act three, “I love thee”, showing that she loves Viola.
Viola’s role in the play, along with her pretence, cause a large amount confusion when her and her twin brother, Sebastian, are mistaken for one another by numerous other characters in the play. Olivia, who mistakes Sebastian for Viola, asks Sebastian if he would marry her and he obliges. Sebastian also promises to stay with her and not to return to the Duke. In Line ninety Scene one Act five, Olivia says to Viola, “you do not keep promise with me”, Olivia does not realise that she has actually married Sebastian and that Viola has not promised her anything.
Another example of the confusion created is when Sir Andrew challenges Viola to a duel and Antonio, thinking that Viola is Sebastian, steps in to save her. The confusion caused by the arrival of Sebastian creates a good deal of humour. I find that Viola plays the most important role in the play and has the most diverse character. She also has an effect on all of the other characters in the play. Teacher’s comment: It is a pity you did not elaborate on the effect she has on you.
Author: Brandon Johnson
Related Posts about The role and character of Viola in the play, “Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare
Love in Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night`s Duke Orsino Character Analysis
Twelfth Night Theme Essay - Love as the Cause of Suffering
Twelfth Night Vs. She's the man
Love and Relationships in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
The average student has to read dozens of books per year. No one has time to read them all, but it’s important to go over them at least briefly. Luckily, FreeBookSummary offers study guides on over 1000 top books from students’ curricula!
Quotes from Books
Essay Upload
freebooksummary.com © 2016 - 2020 All Rights Reserved
We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy.
Sorry, but only registered users have full access
How about getting full access immediately?
This material doesn't solve
your task?
Find the most relevant one
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1349
|
__label__wiki
| 0.841479
| 0.841479
|
Men's Swimming & Diving Aims for Ivy League Championships Repeat
Champ Central
DeNunzio Pool | Princeton
Ivy League Digital Network
IvyLeagueSports.com
Harvard looks to repeat as Ivy League Champions as the Crimson visits rival Princeton this week. (Gil Talbot)
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Harvard men's swimming and diving team has set its eyes on defending its Ivy League Championships crown from last season as it visits Princeton for the 2015 Ivy League Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at DeNunzio Pool this week. The Ancient Eight will come together Thursday through Saturday to determine the League's elite.
The Crimson (9-0, 7-0 Ivy), looking to repeat as Ivy League champions for the first time since 2000-01, is tapered and ready to attend the annual three-day event. The festivities get underway Thursday at 11 a.m. with the first prelims of the week, followed by finals at 6 p.m. The cycle repeats through Friday and Saturday as well. All events will be streamed live on the Ivy League Digital Network.
Since 1994, no school other than Harvard and Princeton has laid claim to the Ivy Championships, and one must go back to 1974 before neither the Crimson or Tigers were left off the podium altogether. The Tigers have taken 29 titles to the Crimson's 23 since 1957. Seeing as Harvard and Princeton came down to the wire at last year's Ivy's it looks to be an eventful three days in 2015.
Event-by-Event Harvard Preview
Sprint Freestyle: Senior co-captain Griffin Schumacher, the runner up in the 50 free last year, owns the Ivy League's top time in the shortest sprint (19.64), but sophomore Paul O'Hara is right on his heels with his 19.94 finish in the Texas Invite. Both Max Yakubovich and Steven Tan also have top-10 Ivy times in the 50 free, giving Harvard plenty of depth. In the 100, Schumacher owns an NCAA 'B' cut with a 43.73 – the Ivy League's second-fastest time – and fellow classmate Spenser Goodman is right there as well with the third-quickest pace in the Ancient Eight.
Mid-Distance Freestyle: The Crimson excels at mid-distance races, strutting its depth between the lanes. Goodman (1:36.36) owns Harvard's top time and the second-best time among Ivy peers, leading the charge of a bevy of Crimson. In fact four of the top six times hail from Harvard; sophomore Aly Abdel Khalik, freshman Jack Boyd and Schumacher go in order in the 200, while those four and Sava Turcanu posted top times in the 500 free as well. Harvard should earn a great deal of points in these two events, bolstering its attempt at a title.
Distance Freestyle: Co-captain Mike Gaudiani owns Harvard's best 1000 free finish, a top-15 Ivy time of 9:25.89.Turcanu and freshman Kent Haeffner also posted respectable times in the lengthy race under a mile. Those three, led by Turcanu's time of 15:21.56 (sixth in the Ancient Eight), look to prove their mettle in the 1650 as well, hoping to turn NCAA 'B' times into points for the Crimson.
Backstroke: An Ivy League champion in the 200 back last season, sophomore Jack Manchester returns to defend his title. As one of the League's fastest in the back, Manchester owns second-quickest in the 100 (47.87) and the top time in the 200 by more than two seconds (1:42.29). Harvard's youth shines in these events, as freshmen Koya Osada and Steven Tan also have posted top-6 times. Sophomore Christian Yeager and junior Mitchell Foster are also in the mix, each swimming well in the 200 back – both garnered top-10 League times.
Breaststroke: After a trip to the 2014 NCAA Championships, Eric Ronda looks to be Harvard's premier breaststroker, alongside freshman Shane McNamara. McNamara, who is a member of the USA Swimming National Junior Team, and Ronda have each posted top-3 times in the 100 and 200 breaststroke for Ivy League swimmers this year, both earning NCAA 'B' cut times along the way at the Texas Invite. Ronda has the fastest swim in the 200 this season, toppling the Texas Invite in 1:55.71. Their consistency at the top gives Harvard another boost in the race for the cup.
Butterfly: Harvard boasts more depth in the fly as well. Steven Tan showed his versatility all season and garnered Harvard's and the League's top time in the 100 butterfly (47.44), with Yakubovich just behind (47.75). Junior Jacob Luna has a top-five time among Ivy swimmers in the 100 as well, and holds the second-fastest pace in the 200 fly (1:45.51). The trio, along with juniors Leo Lim and Christian Carbone should give Harvard enough of an edge to take a fight to Princeton in the fly events.
Individual Medley: Harvard's IM'ers have been solid all year long through the dual meet season, led by Luna and Carbone. Luna's time of 1:48.49 at the Texas Invite is fourth among Ancient Eight swimmers, just ahead of Christian Yeager's time of 1:48.51, also set in Austin. Koya Osada has the seventh-fastest times in the 200 and 400 this season, proving he can be a solid point-earner in several events.
Diving: One of the most decorated divers in the Ivy League in recent memory, senior Mike Mosca looks to become the first Ancient Eight diver to ever sweep the 1- and 3-meter boards in three consecutive years. No other diver from an Ivy League institution has accomplished that feat. Mosca leads the way for a talented group of divers including fellow senior George Doran, sophomore Manasseh Oso and a pair of freshman rising the ranks in David Pfeifer and Bobby Ross. The five Crimson look to put Harvard over the edge when it comes to team points in an exciting meet.
Relays: The Harvard relay team is among the best when it comes to the medley event, as O'Hara, Tan, Yakubovich and Schumacher hold the League's top time in the 200 free relay (1:19.21), while Goodman, O'Hara, Tan and Schumacher have the No. 2 time in the 400 free relay (2:56.28). In what could be a deciding event down the stretch, the Harvard quartet of Abdel Khalik, Schumacher, Boyd and Goodman have put together some fast times in the 800 free relay as well. The fastest 400 medley relay unit in the League comes by way of Manchester, Ronda, Tan and Schumacher in speedy 3:12.91, two full seconds ahead of Princeton's top time.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1354
|
__label__wiki
| 0.801044
| 0.801044
|
Game Of Thrones Season
Home Theory Casting Leak of ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8 May Reveal the New...
Casting Leak of ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8 May Reveal the New Prince of Dorne
There was a line in Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 4 “The new Prince of Dorne pledges his allegiance”. This throwaway line in Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 4 might have felt like the last we’d ever hear of the southern Westeros kingdom, but a look back at some previously reported casting news may reveal that HBO has much bigger plans for the “new prince” than we guessed. Here’s what you need to know and what it means for Game of Thrones Season 8, Episodes 5 and 6.
About six months ago, actor Toby Osmond accidentally revealed via his online resume that he’d been cast for an unconfirmed role in Game of Thrones Season 8. The news was reported by Winter Is Coming, but it didn’t make much of a blip in the news.
But now, some fans are starting to connect the dots and realize that Osmond may have a pretty huge role to play in Game of Thrones Season 8. Winter Is Coming reports that “Osmond’s character will wear golden armor or a golden outfit,” which sounds a lot like the clothes Oberyn Martell wore back in Season 4. The report also notes that Osmond’s Mediterranean heritage makes him a strong candidate for the role of “new Prince of Dorne.”
Osmond has since scrubbed his online resume of any mention of Game of Thrones. It’s not on his IMDb page, either, but he did respond coyly after someone asked him point blank on Twitter if he’d show up in Season 8.
Have to wait and see 🙂
— Toby Osmond (@tobyosmond) May 9, 2019
The biggest clue, however, are a few photos shared by Osmond online (and reposted on Imgur) that appear to show Osmond hanging out off camera with none other than Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister!). So not only is Osmond probably in Game of Thrones Season 8, but he’s not just going to be hanging out down in Dorne. He was presumably on set with Dinklage, which means he probably shows up in King’s Landing, likely with a whole army of Dornish soldiers to take down Cersei Lannister.
“Earlier this year completed filming a great royal role in the next (and final) series of an epic network fantasy saga (airing Spring 2019).”
Fans made the assumption that this would mean Osmond would be appearing in HBO’s Game of Thrones. Osmond has since scrubbed any reference to Game of Thrones from his profile. Although, some images of Osmond on set still remain on Imgur.
While there is absolutely no proof other than Osmond’s slip up on his resume and a couple of images of him, one being with Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), fans are now speculating on Reddit over which character he might play if he were to actually show up in the final season of Game of Thrones.
A positive from Episode 4 is that the new Prince of Dorne has pledged allegiance to Daenerys. My wishes for the Dornish to attack King's Landing / Cersei might come to fruition after all.
Bet the new Prince is @tobyosmond https://t.co/FMyjt7XAVM
— MJ Īrvîñg ⚔️ (@MJI45) May 7, 2019
As for the name of this Prince of Dorne that Toby Osmond will likely play, we can’t say for sure. The show hasn’t done much to suggest who might be left of the Martell family (we kind of thought they were all dead at this point), though it’s possible some other great house of Dorne could take over the position.
In the A Song of Ice and Fire books, Trystane Martell (who died in Season 6, Episode 1) has a brother named Quentyn. We haven’t seen or even heard of him in Game of Thrones, but it’s possible he could turn up right when he’s needed most.
Previous articleClues That We’re Getting Baby Dragons In The Next Game of Thrones Episode
Next articleClues That We Might Be Getting Baby Dragons In The Next Game of Thrones Episode
‘Game of Thrones’ Theory Claims Bran Planned That Big Finale Twist
5 Unanswered Questions After the End of Game of Thrones
Why History Will Repeat Itself in the ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8 Finale
Why History Will Repeat Itself in the ‘Game of Thrones’ Season...
This Forgotten ‘Game of Thrones’ Prophecy May Reveal How Dany Dies
Latest GOT News
HBO cancels Game of Thrones prequel starring Naomi Watts
Cameras roll in Northern Ireland on Game of Thrones prequel
Isaac Hempstead Wright Says Bran’s Ending Is the Same in the...
Kit Harington Checked Into ‘Wellness Retreat’ Ahead of ‘Game of Thrones’...
Six Things We Learned From ‘Game of Thrones: The Last Watch’...
George R.R. Martin Reveals 5 New Details About The ‘Game of...
Lena Headey: ‘I wanted a better death for Cersei’
The Biggest Dragon In Westeros Hasn’t Appeared Yet & It May...
Here’s Where Drogon Was Going With Daenerys at the End of...
19 Most Liked Hot Photos of Emilia Clarke
GOT News120
Memes69
Characters52
Jon Snow23
Sansa Stark19
Daenerys Targaryen17
Arya Stark16
Game of Thrones Season is a GOT news and rumor site with all the information regarding Game of Thrones. A perfect place for GOT fans.
Contact us: contact@gameofthronesseason.com
© GameofThronesSeason 2018
10 Potential “Game Of Thrones” Prequels, And How They Might...
The Significance of Arya’s Horse on Game of Thrones
Clues That We Might Be Getting Baby Dragons In The Next...
Jaime Lannister’s shock connection to Bran Stark Exposed
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1358
|
__label__cc
| 0.715782
| 0.284218
|
GRAVES FAMILY BULLETIN
Vol. 19, No. 5, July 31, 2017
A Free, Occasional, Online Summary of Items of Interest to Descendants of all Families of Graves, Greaves, Grieves, Grave, and other spelling variations Worldwide
Copyright � 2017 by the Graves Family Association and Kenneth V. Graves. All rights reserved.
Information on how to be removed from the subscription list is at the end of this bulletin. If you received this bulletin directly, then you are already subscribed. If you received it from a friend and want to subscribe, send an email message with your full name to ken.graves@gravesfa.org.
Click on these links to visit the GFA website and our Facebook page.
** General Comments
** DNA Test Sale at Family Tree DNA
** Graves Family Gathering in Virginia, Oct. 25-28, 2017
** An Interesting Comment About Privacy, DNA and Family History
** Some Comments About Visiting Ancestral Areas in England
** We Need More Graves/Greaves Y-DNA Testers in England
** The Big Tree for Males Descended from SNP R-P312
** Updates to the GFA Website
** Some Interesting Articles
** Another Reason for Not Finding Surname Ancestry
** To Submit Material to this Bulletin & Other Things
I had hoped to complete a couple of articles about DNA testing for this issue, but they will have to wait for the next issue. On that general subject, however, we need people willing to use their expertise (or to learn how), for both Y-DNA and autosomal DNA, to move our DNA projects along. It isn�t very difficult to learn, but it requires people willing to spend time on a regular basis. I don�t have enough time to do much of what is needed, but I can help provide guidance and overall coordination.
In addition to the announcement of the August DNA testing sale by Family Tree DNA, this issue also has some articles on various subject of possible interest and help.
DNA TEST SALE AT FAMILY TREE DNA
If you are already a customer of Family Tree DNA, you have probably already received notification of their Friends and Family Sale, which will start Aug. 1 and will continue through the entire month of August. This is an opportunity for those males who are part of a family that has not yet had a Y-DNA test (to find which ancestral Graves/Greaves family they are part of) to take a test at a reduced price.
It is also a really good opportunity to take a Big Y test to find or confirm your place on the haplotree. The first announcement I received as a group administrator said they were going to charge a sale price of $449, but later today they changed that to $395, a very good deal! Details of the sale items and pricing are below.
For anyone who orders a test as a new customer, be sure to join the Graves DNA project. The easiest way to do this is to go to the Family Tree DNA website by clicking here. Then enter Graves in the box for �Search your Surname� and hit Enter. Then click on the project called Graves. You should then be able to order the sale-priced test you want as part of the Graves DNA project
NEW TESTS & ADD-ONS
Family Finder
mt/mtPlus to FMS
Y-37
Big Y
Y-37 + FF
Y12 – 37
FMS + FF
Y-67 + FMS + FF
Y-37 – 111
Y67 – 111
GRAVES FAMILY GATHERING IN VIRGINIA, OCT. 25-28, 2017
As previously announced, there will be a Graves Family Association Gathering in Virginia on Oct. 25-28, 2017. An updated schedule with full information has been posted on the GFA website (click here) and on the GFA Facebook page. This event is especially for all those whose ancestors lived in Virginia in the 1600s and 1700s, but all Graves descendants are welcome.
AN INTERESTING COMMENT ABOUT PRIVACY, DNA AND FAMILY HISTORY
Doris Wheeler just posted a comment on the ISOGG email list about Privacy and DNA testing that echoed my feelings. She wrote: �For those who want privacy in this day and age... Do not buy insurance products, do not visit a doctor or any medical facility, do not have a bank account, do not apply for or carry credit cards, do not own property or pay taxes, do not vote, do not work except for cash, do not access the internet, and the list goes on. It's absurd to focus on DNA testing. The return versus effort expended is minuscule compared to these others.�
These comments were made in regard to a class action suite against Gene by Gene, the parent company of Family Tree DNA. There is potential for this suit to severely impact the ability of Gene by Gene to conduct its business, and of DNA testers to receive all the services that they have been receiving.
This issue of privacy also applies to publishing family history books. From 1980-2002, I published 7 books on Graves families, only the first one about my own Graves family. In addition to the time and money involved in publishing or updating any future books, the privacy issue is a major problem. Unfortunately, I believe that perception of danger far overrules real danger, and I have handled the issue so far by not publishing more books. I am unsure about how to handle this issue in the future.
SOME COMMENTS ABOUT VISITING ANCESTRAL AREAS IN ENGLAND
I was hoping to visit some of the areas in England this summer where our Graves and Greaves families originated and lived. Prior to and during this visit, I was hoping to meet with descendants of these families. This was intended to be a scouting trip to be followed up the next year by a group tour for all those interested. For several reasons, my trip won�t be happening this year, but I will try to plan it for next summer.
My original plan was to concentrate on the R1-047 family consisting of genealogies 47 and 270. This Greaves family was found on both sides of the border between Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire. In addition to having documented more descendants of the family than any other, this happens to be the family I am descended from.
Partly with the objective of attracting more people, I have been thinking that maybe the trip should focus on 3 of the most important (i.e. largest) Graves/Greaves families. All 3 locations are very close together.
� R1-168, which includes genealogies 168 and the best-documented part of gen. 169 for Capt. Thomas Graves of VA. This family may be from the Hertford, Hertfordshire/Harlow, Essex area, although that is not certain. We have n genealogy nor any DNA testers of the family in England.
� R1-047 (mentioned above)
� R1-228b, with the emphasis on gen. 28 in London. Although this family group has the most branches in the U.S. and Canada of any Graves/Greaves family, gen. 28 is the only family in England proven to be part of this group.
Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions about this subject.
WE NEED MORE GRAVES/GREAVES Y-DNA TESTERS IN ENGLAND
Most of those with the Graves, Greaves, and other spellings of our name who have submitted genealogies and taken DNA tests, and are involved with the Graves Family Association, live in the former British colonies (especially in the U.S., Canada, and Australia). A problem is that many of the genealogies for families in England are sparse, most overseas families (especially those in the U.S. who often emigrated earlier) have difficulty connecting to families in England, and we have relatively few people in England who have taken DNA tests (especially Y-DNA tests).
We very much need more Y-DNA tests from people in England.
Recent comments from Debbie Kennett (an ISOGG member who lives in England) were: �If you want to identify the point of origin in Great Britain you need to proactively test people with your surname in Great Britain. This means using electoral registers, telephone directories and other records to identify living people with your surname and contacting them by post or by e-mail to encourage them to test. Ideally you should provide funding for the tests. If you are able to sponsor free tests, you can add the details to the list of free DNA tests in the ISOGG Wiki.� (We have had an offer of a free test there for years, but have never had any takers.)
�If people have a rare surname or an unusual forename then you can often find contact details with a simple Google search. I�ve also been able to contact people on various social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. On Facebook it�s better if you can set up a group for your surname because if you try and send messages to people who aren�t your �friends� the message gets filtered into an �Other messages� folder, which people rarely look at. If you post an offer of a free test people will respond by e-mail.�
ACTION PLAN – HELP US CONTACT FAMILY MEMBERS IN ENGLAND:
I have already contacted people on Ancestry and LinkedIn about this, with no positive response. I will now put occasional posts on our GFA Facebook page. Although I have a Twitter account, I don�t know how to use it effectively for something like this.
Can those of you who live in England or have contacts there begin to publicize our desire to get more testers in England? Can you try to contact those on electoral registers and in telephone directories? Can you find people in England who can recruit testers and help spread the word?
Regarding money to pay for free Y-DNA37 tests, we have some funds in the GFA account, and there is an account on the Family Tree DNA website to contribute to this effort. The instructions for contributing to this fund are:
1. Go to the General Fund Donation page.
2. In the first menu, select the first letter of the project�s name.
3. In the second menu, select the name of the project.
4. In the Donation Amount: field, enter the amount you wish to donate.
5. Fill out the Donation Type:, Donor Name:, and Note: fields.
6. Click the PayPal button and complete their form.
THE BIG TREE FOR MALES DESCENDED FROM SNP R-P312
Most male descendants of Graves/Greaves genealogies are haplogroup R, and most of those are either descended from SNP R-U106 or SNP R-P312. For those descended from R-P312, the Big Tree is very helpful. This includes R1-047 (for genealogies 47 and 270), R1-013 (for genealogies 13 and 591), R1-018 (for genealogies 84 and 145), and R1-168 (for genealogies 10, 65, 107, 168, 169).
The Big Tree is managed by Alex Williamson and can be accessed here. Participation in this project is encouraged. Instructions for submitting data can be accessed by clicking the Instructions link at the top of the page.
UPDATES TO THE GFA WEBSITE
Updated pages:
� charts.php, Numerical Listing of charts and genealogies
� index.php, Main Page
New charts
� chart214.pdf, Joel Graves of NY (Gen. 214 & 506)
� chart270a-Robert.pdf, Autosomal DNA chart for Robert Graves, descended from John Graves of Northamptonshire, England & VA (Gen. 270)
Updated charts:
� DNAchart65.pdf, Deacon George Graves of Hartford, CT (Gen. 65)
� chart116.pdf, John Graves of Frederick Co., VA (Gen. 116)
� DNAchart116.pdf, Graves families of Cambridgeshire, England (Gen. 116, 231 & 683)
� DNAchart166.pdf, John Graves of Concord, MA (Gen. 166)
� DNAchart168.pdf, Thomas Graves of Hartford, CT (Gen. 168)
� DNAchart247.pdf, John Greaves of St. Mary�s Co., MD (Gen. 247)
� chart270a.pdf, Autosomal DNA chart for John Graves of Northamptonshire, England & VA (Gen. 270)
New Genealogies:
� Gen. 649, George Grave/Greaves and Dorothy Goodman of Cumbria & Lancashire, England
Revised genealogies:
� Gen. 13, William Graves and Elizabeth ------ of VA, NC, TN & KY
� Gen. 116, John Graves of Frederick Co., VA
� Gen. 150, James Graves and Mary Copeland of VA and GA
� Gen. 214, Joel Graves of NY
� Gen. 363, Phillip Graves of KY
� Gen. 372, Parents of Joseph Graves of TN who married Amanda Vaughn
� Gen. 377, Reuben Grave of Cumbria, England
� Gen. 391, Thomas Greaves and Elizabeth Healey of Hinckley, Leicestershire, England
� Gen. 506, William Graves and Elizabeth Donnelson of NY & Lenawee Co., MI
SOME INTERESTING ARTICLES
Ethnicity and Physical Features Are NOT Accurate Predictors of Parentage or Heritage
This blog article by Roberta Estes can be seen here. She reports in her article that, as the result of ethnicity results from autosomal DNA testing, some people are doubting their parentage or their earlier ancestry. She emphasizes that the results of ethnicity testing is not an accurate predictor of parentage, and she explains why in considerable detail. She also explains what ethnicity testing does show, and how to test for paternity if desired.
Ancient Mummies Finally give Up Their Genetic Secrets
This article in the Smithsonian Magazine discusses DNA testing of two mummy collections from German universities. The mummies were 2,000 to 3,000 years old. This is interesting for at least two reasons. One is the historical information that is being learned from these studies, and the other the increasing ability to extract DNA from such ancient samples.
A Special Situation That May Confuse DNA Testing
There are certain situations where a person�s body can contain the cells and DNA identity of more than one individual. According to Wikipedia �A genetic chimera is a single organism composed of cells from different zygotes. This can result in male and female organs, two blood types, or subtle variations in form�. Another way that chimerism can occur in animals is by organ transplantation� For example, a bone marrow transplant can change someone�s blood type.�
A 2012 article from the International Journal of Legal Medicine, titled �Genetic investigation of biological materials from patients after stem cell transplantation based on autosomal as well as Y-chromosomal markers� showed that �not only post-transplant blood and buccal swab, but also recipient hair, up to now regarded as devoid of any donor�s cells, do not constitute entirely safe material for forensic purposes. Their analysis can lead to the false identification of gender or male haplotype.� Therefore, other methods should be used to confirm results obtained from crime scenes. Regarding DNA tests for genealogy, it is possible that stem cell transplants can sometimes give misleading results.
ANOTHER REASON FOR NOT FINDING SURNAME ANCESTRY
Roberta Estes has just published an article on her DNAeXpalined blog titled �Enforced Bastardry in Colonial America – A DNA Monkey Wrench.� You can read it here. Something I was not fully aware of was the complete nature of indentured servant practice in colonial America.
Roberta wrote: �One of the reasons surname matching issues can occur, but that we seldom think of, is the situation in colonial American where indentured servants, those who sold away from 5 to 9 years of their life in exchange for passage to America, were forbidden to marry. Therefore, if a female became pregnant, she was forced to have the child outside of marriage – meaning the child took her surname.
If a male indentured servant impregnated someone, he too was forbidden to marry – so the child took the mother�s surname and life went on.
Based on the court notes from Richmond County, Virginia, beginning in 1692, and from Rappahannock County, before that, this was a lot more common that one would think.�
There is much more discussion of history and the implications of this practice in the article.
ABOUT THIS BULLETIN:
This bulletin is written and edited by Kenneth V. Graves, ken.graves@gravesfa.org.
TO SUBMIT MATERIAL TO THIS BULLETIN:
Send any material you would like to have included in this bulletin to ken.graves@gravesfa.org. The editor reserves the right to accept, edit or reject any material submitted.
TO JOIN THE GRAVES FAMILY ASSOCIATION:
If you do not already belong to the GFA, you can join by sending $20 per year to Graves Family Association, 20 Binney Circle, Wrentham, MA 02093 (more details on GFA website). Payment may also be sent electronically to gfa@gravesfa.org via PayPal.
COPYRIGHTS:
Although the contents of this bulletin are copyrighted by the Graves Family Association and Kenneth V. Graves, you are hereby granted permission, unless otherwise specified, to re-distribute part or all to other parties for non-commercial purposes only.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1364
|
__label__cc
| 0.674616
| 0.325384
|
Tiffany Couture: A Great and Green Dry Cleaning Business in the Heart of Las Vegas
By Amanda JohnsonAugust 22, 2019 Member Stories
There are many reasons to go green, but for business owners, it is often a drive to do better for the community and environment that helps motivate company changes. Tiffany Couture Cleaners, based in Nevada, has made their mark in the sustainable dry cleaning movement by focusing on improving the health of their customers and employees. This Green Business Bureau member is changing the way they do business in order to meet their goal of being more eco-friendly, and their hard work is showing through their multiple, successful green initiatives.
An Eco-Friendly Family Business
Tiffany Couture Cleaners was started by Edward Germano in 1970 after a trip to Las Vegas convinced him and his wife to move from the east coast to launch a dry cleaning shop. Having grown up in the dry cleaning industry, and running a chain of dry cleaning shops called G&G Cleaners with his two brothers, Jack and Emilio, Edward was soon joined by his brothers to help run the business. In 2005, the operation was taken over by Edward’s daughter and son-in-law, Judy and Dan Del Rossi, and has grown into the well-known Las Vegas dry cleaner that it is today. The company is truly a family business, also employing Dan and Judy’s daughter, Gia, as a sales and marketing manager.
Green Business Journey Started in 2005
Today, Tiffany Couture Cleaners provides dry cleaning services for not just residential customers, but also for shows and entertainers on the Las Vegas strip. Since taking over in 2005, Judy and Dan have been focused on increasing green efforts and combating the bad image the dry cleaning industry has received in recent years. During the last 15 years, Tiffany Couture Cleaners has removed and replaced all chemicals, machines and all non-green components in their operation, and work to stay up-to-date on all technology and cleaning products that can help to further improve their business operations while staying environmentally safe.
Safe Green Cleaning Solvent Made From Corn
One of the biggest changes Tiffany Couture Cleaners has made is introducing one of the newest green cleaning systems on the market, SYSTEMK4. The system uses SOLVONK4, the cornerstone solvent of the SYSTEMK4 textile cleaning process and revolutionary in its composition. The blend of hydrocarbon with glycol or modified alcohols cleans better than Perc without any of the environmental or health related concerns. SOLVONK4 is made using carbon grown in corn, right here in the US making SYSTEMK4 the world’s only bio-based dry cleaning system. It has also been awarded the USDA bio-preferred seal for its non-hazardous, non-toxic, and biodegradable formulation.
Investing in Sustainable Changes for Customers and Employees
In addition to this investment, Tiffany Couture Cleaners has implemented green processes throughout various areas of their business practices. This includes:
Recycling 50 to 60 percent of company hangers each year;
Eliminating paper garment capes and offering reusable garments bags;
Applying permanent barcode labels to track client garments, which has eliminated paper tickets;
Emailing statements to customers to reduce paper waste;
Enforcing a no-idling policy for delivery trucks and focusing on delivery route optimization to reduce fuel costs;
Installing energy efficient lighting and high efficiency boilers; and
Launching an internal recycling program.
“In the Entertainment Capital of the world, people do not often think “green” in Las Vegas,” said Gia Del Rossi, Tiffany Couture Cleaners sales and marketing manager. “We provide the highest quality of cleaning to all of our customers in the most clean, efficient way possible. Our goal is to let all our customers know that you can be Great and Green at the same time!”
Learn more about Tiffany Couture Cleaners, commitment to sustainability.
Member StoriesMembers
Medinas Health – Lowering Healthcare Costs by Reducing Wasteful Spending
Kent ShanklinJanuary 24, 2020
MaKaela Carter, The Fraser Team – Keller Williams Realty Partners, Inc.
Rest Right Mattress – Specialists in Sustainable Sleep
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1366
|
__label__cc
| 0.73077
| 0.26923
|
astoriapost
flushingpost
foresthillspost
jacksonheightspost
licpost
ridgewoodpost
sunnysidepost
greenpointpost
Also serving Williamsburg and Bushwick
Outer Boro Media and its properties (greenpointpost.com, queenspost.com, licpost.com, sunnysidepost.com, astoriapost.com, jacksonheightspost.com, foresthillspost.com, flushingpost.com and queenspostmarket.com) respects your concerns about privacy. This Privacy Notice describes the types of personal information we collect, how we use the information, with whom we share it, and the choices you can make about our collection, use and disclosure of the information. We also describe the measures we take to protect the security of the information and how you can contact us about our privacy practices.
We may obtain personal information about you from various sources, including this and other Outer Boro Media websites, mobile applications, when you call or e-mail us or communicate with us through social media, or when you participate in events or other promotions. We also may obtain information about you from our business partners and other third parties.
The types of personal information we may obtain include:
– Your contact information (such as name, website, postal and e-mail address, or phone number).
– Information you provide by interacting with us through our websites.
– Other details that you may submit to us or that may be included in the information provided to us by third parties.
In addition, when you visit our websites or use our mobile applications, we may collect certain information by automated means, such as cookies and web beacons. A “cookie” is a text file that websites send to a visitor’s computer or other Internet-connected device to uniquely identify the visitor’s browser or to store information or settings in the browser. A “web beacon,” also known as an Internet tag, pixel tag or clear GIF, is used to transmit information back to a web server. We also may use third-party website analytics tools that collect information about visitor traffic on our sites and mobile applications.
The information we may collect by automated means includes:
– Information about the devices our visitors use to access the Internet (such as the IP address and the device, browser and operating system type)
– URLs that refer visitors to our sites.
– Dates and times of visits to our sites.
– Information on actions taken on our sites (such as page views and site navigation patterns).
– A general geographic location (such as country and city) from which a visitor accesses our websites.
– Search terms that visitors use to reach our sites.
We may use the information we obtain about you to:
– Provide products or services you request
– Respond to your questions and comments and provide customer support
– Communicate with you about our products, services, offers, events and promotions, and offer you products and services we believe may be of interest to you
– Enable you to communicate with us through our blogs, social networks and other interactive media
– Operate, evaluate and improve our business and the products and services we offer
– Analyze trends and statistics regarding visitors’ use of our sites, mobile applications and social media assets
– Enforce our Website Terms of Use
– Comply with applicable legal requirements and industry standards and our policies
In addition to the data uses described above, we may use the information collected through cookies and other automated means to identify and authenticate visitors.
We may combine the information we collect with publicly available information and information we receive from our business partners and other third parties. We may use that combined information to enhance and personalize your experience with us, to communicate with you about products, services and events that may be of interest to you, for other promotional purposes, and for other purposes described in this section.
We also may use the information we obtain about you in other ways for which we provide specific notice at the time of collection.
We do not sell or otherwise disclose personal information about you, except as described in this Privacy Notice.
We may share the personal information we collect with our business partners, ad network vendors and their participants, and other third parties for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice, including to communicate with you about products and services, offers, events and promotions that we believe may be of interest to you. We also may share personal information with our service providers who perform services on our behalf. These service providers are not authorized by us to use or disclose the information except as necessary to perform services on our behalf or comply with legal requirements.
We also may disclose information about you (i) if we are required to do so by law or legal process (such as a court order), (ii) in response to a request by law enforcement authorities, or (iii) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss or in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity. We also reserve the right to transfer personal information we have about you in the event we sell, merge or transfer all or a portion of our business or assets. Should such a sale, merger or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to direct the transferee to use personal information you have provided to us in a manner that is consistent with our Privacy Notice. Following such a sale, merger or transfer, you may contact the entity to which we transferred your personal information with any inquiries concerning the processing of that information.
We offer you certain choices about what information we collect from you, how we use and disclose the information, and how we communicate with you. Here are the choices we offer:
Marketing E-mails
You may choose not to receive marketing e-mail communications from us by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the marketing e-mails.
You may opt out of the aggregation and analysis of data collected about you on our sites by our web analytics vendor by contacting us as specified below.
Geo-Location Information
When you use an Outer Boro application on your mobile device, you may choose not to share your geo-location details with us by adjusting the device’s location services settings. For instructions on changing the relevant settings please contact your service provider or device manufacturer.
Most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to be notified when you receive a new cookie, and how to disable existing cookies. Please note, however, that without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of all of our sites’ features. In addition, disabling cookies may cancel opt-outs that rely on cookies, such as web analytics or targeted advertising opt-outs.
Our websites may contain links to other sites for your convenience and information. These sites may be operated by companies not affiliated with Outer Boro. Linked sites may have their own privacy notices, which you should review if you visit those websites. We are not responsible for the content of any websites not affiliated with Outer Boro, any use of those sites, or those sites’ privacy practices.
We maintain reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to assist us in protecting the personal information we collect. Please note that no electronic transmission of information can be entirely secure. We cannot guarantee that the security measures we have in place to safeguard personal information will never be defeated or fail, or that those measures will always be sufficient or effective.
Outer Boro does not direct its websites to children under the age of thirteen. We require registered users of the site to be at least eighteen years old. If we learn that a user is under eighteen years of age, we will promptly delete any personal information that the individual has provided to us.
This Privacy Notice may be updated periodically and without prior notice to you to reflect changes in our personal information practices. We will post a prominent notice on our websites to notify you of any significant changes to our Privacy Notice and indicate at the bottom of the notice when it was most recently updated.
If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Notice, or if you would like us to update information we have about you or your preferences, please contact us by e-mail at [email protected] or write to us at:
Outer Boro Media
45-06 Queens Blvd. #160
Sunnyside, NY 11104
Greenpoint and Williamsburg to Get New Protected Bike Lanes This Year
Jan. 29, 2020 By Allie Griffin
Greenpoint and Williamsburg will get new new protected bike lanes this year — including a long-called-for lane to the Kosciuszko Bridge, the mayor announced today.
Tickets to Valentine’s Day Digester Egg Tours Sell Out in 20 Minutes
Jan. 28, 2020 By Kristen Torres
A wildly popular Valentine’s Day tour of a wastewater plant in Greenpoint sold out within 20 minutes, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection said Tuesday.
Police Looking for Man who Robbed Multiple Banks Across Boroughs
Police are looking for a suspect who allegedly robbed multiple banks across three precincts and two boroughs.
MTA Launches Ad Campaign to Combat Uptick in Hate Crimes on City Transit
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) launched a new ad campaign today to combat an uptick in hate crimes on the New York City transit system.
Mayor Launches New Program to Combat Anti-Semitism in Brooklyn
The mayor has launched a new program in Brooklyn to help prevent anti-Semitic attacks that have been taking place across the area at an alarming rate.
Park Deli, a Greenpoint Institution, Temporarily Closed by Health Department
A popular Polish deli has closed after a recent health inspection found evidence of mice and contaminated foods, among other violations.
Trendy New Salon Opens in Greenpoint
The owner of a Long Island hair salon has expanded into New York–opening a venue in Greenpoint.
Man Desecrates Greenpoint Church During Sunday Service
A 33-year-old man desecrated a Catholic church in Greenpoint Sunday when he poured juice over the altar and then threw some at the priest.
Signal Problems Caused Subway Delays Most Mornings in 2019: Report
Signal problems affected nearly four out of every five weekday morning commutes on city subways last year, according to a new report.
AG Launches Investigation to See Whether NYPD Has Been Targeting Minorities on Subways
The New York Attorney General announced today that she has launched an investigation to see whether the NYPD has been targeting communities of color when it comes to fare evasion.
Other Neighborhoods
C-Town Fresh Coming to 24th Avenue Next Month
Meng Introduces Resolution to Recognize Lunar New Year
8-Story Mixed Use Building to Go Up on Queens Boulevard in Rego Park
MTA Announces That it is Taking Precautions Against Coronavirus
Residents Provide Input on Art Space and Schools as 28-Acre LIC Development Site is Discussed
Holden to Host Additional Meeting on Queens Bus Redesign Plan in Middle Village Next Month
At Least Nine Residential Burglaries In Sunnyside This Year, With Six in Sunnyside Gardens: NYPD
In Brooklyn
Enter your email for updates and deals:
© 2020 Queens Post
CDPAP Department of Edison HHC
Edison Home Health Care
Homecare Planning Solutions
website developed by Sitebreed
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1368
|
__label__wiki
| 0.944043
| 0.944043
|
Of Councils, Love and Elephant Ears
~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~
Avery is sitting on a bench close to the fountain. She is in quiet conversation with Haft, pointing to some flowers beside the bench.
Megren walks alongside Linor and a cart that is chockful of treats.
Haft glances at the flowers. “Alacanthas, I believe.”
Linor stops the tray near the benches and goes over to Lady Avery and gives a small bow. “Good afternoon My Lady. Would you like some tea or wine?”
Avery hmms thoughtfully, nodding. When she hears the other voice, she turns slightly and smiles. “Ah, Linor, hello. I would love some wine, thank you.”
Linor goes over to the cart and pours a glass and hands it to Avery. “You’re Welcome, M’lady.”
Megren sits on the adjacent bench. “Alacanthas is the flower?”
Haft says, “Yes. Grows mostly here along the coast, I believe. Never saw any round Barfield.”
Avery takes the wine and sips it. “It’s very beautiful.”
Megren nods. “It is.”
Linor goes over and smells it. “I’ve seen it on the beaches before, but I never knew it had a name.
Haft says, “Yes.”
Avery tips her head. “Do we have that flower in Archenland? I don’t think I’ve seen it…”
Megren says, “Me either, though I know the forest flowers better than the beaches.”
Haft shakes his head. “It’s uniquely Narnian, so far as I know.
Linor pulls a candied fig from her pouch and eats it.
Linor exclaims, “There are a lot of things that are uniquely Narnian!”
Megren laughs. “I don’t think anyone can contradict you there.”
Avery laughs lightly. “Yes, that’s true.”
Haft quirks a brow.
Linor looks at Haft. “Well aren’t there things that are uniqualy Archenlandish that I would have never heard of?”
Haft says, “No doubt.”
Megren says, “Not like here, though. No other place has Intelligent Beasts and trees that move and people who look human until you see they’ve got the bodies of horses.”
Linor laughs “I always find it so funny when human say that centars look mostly human. From my point of view they look rather horselike! Though they are rather wiser than man or horse generally speaking.”
Avery hides a smile behind her goblet of wine as she listens.
Megren wrinkles her nose, grinning. “That’s fair.”
Haft says, “And rather larger than men, in any event.”
Linor exclaims, “And much much larger than mink!”
Megren says, “So you can see why it might seem like rather a lot then.”
Avery finishes off her wine and stands. She sets the empty goblet on the cart and says, “Thank you for the wine, Linor. And Dame Megren, too.”
Megren says, “Oh,” she nods, standing to bow. “Yes, of course.”
Linor gives a little bow as well. “You’re welcome!”
Avery dips her head. “If you all will excuse me, there are a few things I’d like to see to before dinner.”
Haft glances at the lady, but taking note of the term “all”, does not inquire whether he should follow.
Megren says, “We’ll see you at dinner.”
Linor exclaims, “Have a good evening, M’lady!””
Avery smiles. “Have a good afternoon.” She steps away from the group and walks down the path.
Megren sits again, pulling her legs up under her on the bench. She releases a breath, glancing sidelong at Haft.
Linor bows to Megren and Haft. “I’ll leave the tea out if you want some, but I’d best be back to the kitchen myself.
Haft takes a seat on an adjacent bench once Avery departs. “That was one of the least interesting council meetings I’ve ever had the misfortune to sit through. I didn’t think Narnians could make any topic that dull.”
Megren says, “Oh — yes, thank you. I’ll bring it back to the kitchen when we’re done.”
Haft says, “Thank you Linor.”
Megren pulls in her lower lip and stays the course, despite the topic having, by nature, little to be said about it. “Maybe the next one will be better.”
Haft answers, “Maybe. I don’t hold out much hope for it.”
Megren rubs her knee.
Haft says, “Seems to me that the choosing of a new king…or queen…or kings and queens…oughta be more’n combing through records and debating policies. It’s all very…”
Megren says, “You’d almost like to hunt for one. Form some kind of perfect contest or something.”
Haft says, “Almost. I mean…it’s not my lookout. What do I know of choosing kings? I’ve served two fine ones who were born to the role with no debate, but…Narnia is such a storied land. It seems like there ought to be a story in the finding of its next king, not just…consensus.”
Megren nods quietly. “Even Prince Cor has a story, and he’s born to it, too.”
Haft asks, “Aye. Something like that. I guess that’s what I’m thinking of. But then, maybe that’s not what the Lion wants. He wants them to choose, doesn’t he?”
Megren says, “That’s what he said. He didn’t say how. Maybe someone’s got the story and we don’t know because we aren’t looking for it.”
Haft looks interested. “Got the story?”
Megren asks, “I mean, maybe there’s someone going through all the right trials right now, learning all the things they’ve got to know to be a good ruler, only, they don’t know it, and we don’t know it, because neither of us is looking in quite the right direction to see. What would have made our king look to a fisherman’s son?”
Haft says, “If King Lune had been passing by?” He grins. “Probably the fact that Cor looks just like his brother.””
Megren’s lips curve and she cants her head. “Well,” she concedes.
Haft says, “Also by the fact that Prince Corin would have boxed the fisherman’s ears before mending a net.”
Megren says, “As a toddler.”
Haft says, “Well, possibly. Since neither of us knew Prince Corin as a toddler, we cannot confirm that.”
Megren says, “Fair.”
Haft says, “I wonder how he’s doing.”
Megren says, “His majesty said a little in the last correspondence. Still outstripping most of the castle at fencing. I think Prince Corin still misses Queen Susan; it seems like he’s gotten quieter than he was, and it sounds like he still is.”
Haft says, “It was Prince Corin I was referring to. I was worried about him before we left.”
Megren says, “Oh.” She nods.
Haft says, “Not that I’m not pleased to hear that Cor is doing well at fencing, of course.”
Megren’s lips curve a little again and she says, “You’re usually asking about Prince Cor.”
Haft’s mouth tightens slightly. “I won’t apologize for that.”
Megren says, “Nor is anyone asking you to.”
Haft thinks on this a moment, then nods. “I spent a good fourteen years asking after Prince Corin. I’m not sure I ever told you.”
Megren says, “No. But it sounds like you.”
Haft says, “I suppose. Was about the only thing could get me out of Barfield. I’d go to Sted Cair for word of him. They get word soonest of Archen affairs. Once he was made squire to King Edmund I went more often. Saw him sometimes.”
Megren nods quietly.
Haft starts, “It was–” but he cuts the thought short. “Anyway, it’s been hard on him.”
Megren says, “I think he’s — I think he’s doing better, some. That’s how I read it, anyway. But I don’t imagine it won’t have changed him.”
Haft says, “No…” He takes a deep breath and releases it. “What else did His Majesty say?””
Megren says, “Deonyc’s on gardening duty.”
Haft makes an effort to hide a smile, but after a brief struggle drops his head and gives in to ill-stifled guffaws.
Megren’s lips curve despite herself.
Haft gasps for air. “I’m-I’m not rejoicing in his punishment. It’s the thought of what old Sadie’s probably putting him through. That’s where the Captain usually sends the folks who need straightening out.”
Megren nods. “That’s how Reina started there, I think.”
Haft says, “Right. So is Deonyc coming back eventually, do you think? To full duty, I mean.”
Megren says, “Depends on whether he demonstrates an understanding of what it means to be a guard, I suppose.”
Haft asks, “Like demonstrating appropriate humility and not insulting one’s hosts?”
Megren says, “That’s definitely a part of being a guard, yes.”
Haft says, “I mean, it’s not the essence, but…well, pertinent in this case.” He makes a face.”
Megren says, “Yes. I’d hoped — well. Captain Garian will sort it, I imagine.”
Haft asks, “What did you hope?”
Megren says, “I don’t know. None of this has quite worked out as I’d hoped.”
Haft says, “We’ve done what we set out to do. Shown our support. The Duke doesn’t seem to have done anything untoward. As for Deonyc, no one could foresee that he would refuse to apologize once an offense was made. And we’re not exactly wanting without him.””
Megren says, “I suppose.”
Haft says, “If you think we need more guards, I’m sure His Majesty would be willing to send another. One or two more would not raise brows if they came. For my part, keeping an eye on Lady Avery is no challenge.”
Megren says, “I don’t think we need more guards. Lady Avery doesn’t really need guarding — it was a reason to give the Narnians a larger contingent of support without bringing in a whole pile of knights.”
Haft says, “You may say she doesn’t need guarding. I’m still waiting for a letter from her mother to Sir Darrin insisting she be chaperoned by armed guards at all times. I’m just getting ahead of the request.”
Megren makes a noncomittal noise.
Haft grins. “In all seriousness, she’s a good excuse, and a good sport about it.
Megren says, “She is a good sport about most things, I think.”
Haft says, “True enough. I expect she’ll be a good match for Commander Peridan.”
Megren says, “I don’t know him so well, but I imagine so.”
Haft says, “He can be…” he considers “…a bit stiff. I don’t think he means to be, but he takes his duties seriously.””
Megren says, “I can respect that. His duties are serious.”
Haft says, “Aye, but I occasionally think he forgets to exhale. She’ll be good for that. Not that I know him so very well myself. Just my perception.”
Megren rubs one thumb with the other. “It makes sense. She seems very happy.”
Haft smiles fondly. “She does.”
Megren says, “I think she likes Narnia, too.”
Haft says, “Seems to. And she’s the sort that can make friends wherever she goes.”
Megren says, “She can, yeah.”
Haft says, “I confess, I don’t much like leaving her here when everything’s still uncertain. Suppose that’s the worrier in me.”
Megren says, “I don’t imagine we’ll be leaving for a while yet. At least until they’ve chosen someone. Maybe longer. She can handle herself, though, if she wanted to stay with the rest of us gone.”
Haft asks, “‘Handle herself’?”
Megren says, “I don’t think she’d choose to stay if she couldn’t find a way to be happy and useful in it.”
Haft says, “Ah. I suppose.”
Megren rubs her knee and reaches for the wine to pour a glass.
Haft sighs.
Megren looks up.
Haft says, “Just thinkin’. If we’re gonna be here till the next monarch is chosen, odds are we’ll miss Christmas.”
Megren says, “Oh.” She takes a breath and nods. “It’s starting to look that way.”
Haft says, “Well, can’t be helped.”
Megren takes a drink of the wine.
Haft asks, “Any good?”
Megren pours him a glass and hands it over.
Haft takes a sip. “Not bad.”
Megren asks, “Are you angry with me over Sir Darrin?”
Haft stiffens. He lowers the glass. “Not nearly so angry as I am with him.”
Megren releases a breath and pushes her mouth to the side, cupping her glass with both hands.
Haft asks, “He had a duty to protect your reputation. Haft says he didn’t…fancy you when he first asked you to squire?”
Megren says, “No.”
Haft says, “Good, because there’s no rules in place that allow a guardsman to call out a knight.”
Megren presses her lips together regretfully and tilts her head. “Neither of us pursued the other while I was his squire,” she informs him.
Haft says, “Yet you still managed to figure out you were both drawn to each other. I assume you discussed it.”
Megren says, “I would have been more uncomfortable had we not.”
Haft asks, “It didn’t occur to him that if he had to go and…it didn’t occur to him that perhaps it would be more appropriate to turn your training over to someone else?”
Megren says, “We talked about it. We didn’t think anything was going to come of it, and it seemed just as likely to make gossip, for what might be nothing.”
Haft looks incredulous. “You don’t think it’s going to cause gossip now?”
Megren presses her lips together and pushes her mouth to the side.
Haft asks, “So you just kept quiet and hoped that you’d…grow apart?”
Megren squints an eye. “That’s… not how I would describe it, no.”
Haft says, “But you thought nothing was going to come of it.”
Megren says, “He told me he was interested and I said no, and he said that was fine and he would work through it, and I could choose another knight if I wanted, and I said I didn’t think that was necessary.”
Haft raises a brow. “You said no?”
Megren says, “I was… not…um, in, in love. At the time.””
Haft says, “Oh? /Oh/.” He reaches to flatten down his hair where it’s starting to grow longer than usual at the nape of his neck. “That sounds unconfortable.””
Megren pushes her mouth to the side and lifts a shoulder. “It’s — there’s been worse.”
Haft asks, “With Sir Darrin? Or with me and Lanisen and other people unfortunate enough to enjoy your company?”
Megren looks a little taken aback. “What? — not, not you.”
Haft says, “We’ve had one or two awkward moments, but thank you for that.”
Megren starts, “I meant–” she pauses, and then shuts her mouth and readjusts her hands over her cup.
Haft leans forward. “What did you mean?”
Megren takes a breath and releases it. “I don’t… know if it’s right to say.”
Haft asks, “Then don’t say it. When did you change your mind?”
Megren says, “Last autumn, I guess.”
Haft asks, “How long had you been living with his admission?”
Megren says, “…About a year, I guess.”
Haft presses his lips together and shakes his head.
Megren says, “I was the one who said I didn’t need another knight.”
Haft lets out derisive huff through his nostrils. “It wasn’t your responsibility. He could have insisted. He could have transferred you and not said a word about why till you’d won your spurs. He should have done.”
Megren allows, “Maybe.”
Haft leans back and folds his arms. “Do you actually understand what’s bothering me Meg?”
Megren purses her lips a little. “If it’s what bothered me for the last two and a half years, it’s probably something along the lines of, would I ever have gotten half so far with anyone else as my knight, or would I have been better dedicated and better qualified, or any number of questions as to the legitimacy of my skills or work.”
Haft says, “That’s about the measure of it. Would you have been a knight at all, or still a guard, if he hadn’t /noticed/ you? There’ll be people as say that.”
Megren inclines her head.
Haft asks, “How will you answer?”
Megren says, “By serving his majesty and the people of Archenland as well as I can, for whatever length my life may have.”
Haft considers this a moment, then nods mutely.
Megren says, “However other people may think of them, I took my oaths very seriously. His majesty and the other knights assessed me before I was allowed to take them. It was not only Sir Darrin who spoke toward my character when asked.” She pauses and frowns. “I — those are the things I tell myself. Regardless, it does not change the fact that I am a knight, and I hold the responsibilities of a knight, and whatever the past may be, that is the future I have to live up to.””
Haft replies, “It’s you who’ll have to live with it Meg.” Concern is evident in his voice.
Megren says solemnly, “I know.”
Megren pauses, and then says, “I have shown a pattern of taking on responsibilities that were not mine to take on, to the disservice of myself and my friends, and I have to learn to change that. This is only the most public example.”
Haft says, “That’s what worries me.”
Megren says, “Which part.”
Haft looks at her out of the side of his eye. “Your penchant for adopting causes ought to be the more concerning, but I’m worried about the public nature of the revelation. You two mean to wed?”
Megren says, “Eventually, I think so. Not soon. Not until I’m really a knight in my own right.”
Haft asks, “In what sense are you not a knight?”
Megren says, “I haven’t settled into having authority, or established myself as having earned the role.”
Haft presses his lips together.
Megren says, “We decided to talk to his majesty and our parents, and Lanisen already knew because I told him when it first started but otherwise we were meaning to keep it quiet until it was reasonable to really think about.”
Haft’s eyes widen. “His Majesty knows?”
Megren rubs her upper lip and nods. “We were planning to tell him and then we got sent here, so it was, we didn’t want to keep secrets from him so we had to… say right before we left.”
Haft asks, “…and?”
Megren takes a breath and releases it. “He said it didn’t change his estimation of me, but he wished Sir Darrin would have come to him right away.”
Haft nods slowly.
Megren shakes her head a little and watches the glass in her hand.
Haft asks, “And Sir Darrin’s family?”
Megren says, “They… were glad for him.”
Haft asks, “Glad for him? Were they glad for you?”
Megren says, “Um, yes, I think so. He went to talk to them alone, so they could feel open to talk about it if they were upset.”
Haft asks, “But they treated you decently?”
Megren says, “I haven’t seen them since he told them.”
Haft says, “Oh. Well…if it doesn’t go well, you can talk to me, if you need to.”
Megren says, “Thank you.”
Haft asks, “And your father?”
Megren presses her lips together and tilts her head, lips turning downward. “Um–”
Dalia pages, “I’d offer to help but …” to you.
Haft asks, “He didn’t approve?”
Dalia pages, “I don’t know if you’d feel about me reading the logs uncleaned” to you.
Megren says, “He doesn’t… know. We — they needed us here, and there wasn’t time, and we… had to choose the King or my father.”
Haft says, “Oh.”
Megren tucks her hair behind her ear.
Megren says, “I don’t… know when I’ll get the chance to tell him.”
Haft lets out another puff of air. “You worrying what he’ll say?”
Megren says, “He’s my /father/ and I want him to /know/.”
Haft says, “And it’s not the kind of thing you can say in a letter. I’m sorry.”
Megren snorts softly. “He doesn’t read.”
Haft looks chagrined. “I forgot.”
Megren pushes her lips upward regretfully. “It’s easy to do.”
Haft asks, “Do you think he ever wishes he could, since you’ve learned?”
Megren says, “He likes it when I read to him.”
Haft asks, “What do you read?”
Megren squints an eye and grins a little, despite herself. “My own letters, sometimes.”
Haft says, “Oh, nothing intelligible then.”
Megren screws up her face at him.
Haft’s lips twitch.
Megren says, “I think he doesn’t figure there’s much use in learning when it gives him an excuse to call me over any time he needs something read.”
Haft says, “Louder than I imagined, yer pa.”
Megren rolls her eyes.
Haft says, “Or you have the hearing of a hound. An advantage to having ears that stick out.”
Megren feels her ears.
Haft says, “Like an Elephant’s.”
Megren says, “They’re normal ears.”
Haft relents. “They’re very nice ears.”
Megren asks, “…What constitutes a nice ear?”
Haft asks, “Well having a poor ear means you’re tone deaf, doesn’t it?”
Haft says, “There, you see? It’s common knowledge you’re deaf as a post.”
Megren says, “Wait I thought you said I had nice ears.”
Haft says, “And you’re hearing things too yet.”
Megren screws up her face.
Haft emphasizes every word. “Do you need me to speak up?”
Megren says, “Hilarious.”
Haft says, “I confess, I do not know what makes a fine ear.”
Megren says, “Probably being like mine is a good start.”
Haft says, “Probably. Unless one is an Elephant. In which case ears like yours might be rather a blight.”
Megren says, “That’s a fair caveat.”
Haft says, “I try to be fair.”
Megren twists her mouth into a smile.
Haft asks, “What are you on to next?”
Megren says, “I… suppose I have to write Lanisen.”
Haft asks, “Have to?”
Megren takes a breath and releases it.
Haft says, “Has he written to you yet? Seems he only just left.”
Megren says, “He asked me to write.”
Haft says, “Well. I don’t reckon you’re required to do everything a person asks of you.
But if you want to keep the friendship, I guess you’d better have a go at it.”
Megren takes a breath. “Yeah.”
Haft asks, “Should I leave you to it then?”
Megren asks, “Yeah, I suppose.” She rises and begins to clean up the cart to bring it back to the kitchen. “Don’t be angry at Sir Darrin too long, if you can help it?”
Haft’s jaw tenses and he rises from the bench. “That might take a while.”
Megren pushes her mouth to the side regretfully and keeps her eyes on the cart. “All right,” she concedes. She takes a breath and looks up at him. “It’s still — we told the people we thought needed to know, but it’s not meant to be out yet.”
Haft asks, “I won’t discuss the matter with anyone else. Sir Darrin is aware you’ve told me?”
Megren nods.
Haft says, “Right.” He indicates the cart. “I can take that.”
Megren hesitates, and then nods. “All right.”
Haft says, “It’s not exactly a hardship. Can’t go to the kitchens without them offering you a cookie or better. I’ll bring you back one if offered.”
Megren says, “Thanks.”
Haft claps her on the shoulder, squeezes once, and wheels the cart toward the kitchen.
Megren pushes her mouth to the side and watches him go.
Posted on September 6, 2017 September 9, 2017 Author _Categories LogsTags Avery, Linor, Megren
Previous Previous post: On Needlework
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1371
|
__label__cc
| 0.603136
| 0.396864
|
DTR 6
View DTR 6 as PDF
View DTR as PDF
DTR 6.1.1 R 20/01/2007 RP
1Subject to the exemptions set out in DTR 6.1.16 R - DTR 6.1.19 R this section applies in relation to an issuer whose Home State is the United Kingdom.
References to transferable securities, shares and debt securities are to such instruments as are admitted to trading.
Amendments to constitution
DTR 6.1.2 R 26/11/2015
Equality of treatment
An issuer of shares must ensure equal treatment for all holders of shares who are in the same position. [Note: article 17(1) of the TD]
An issuer of debt securities must ensure that all holders of debt securities ranking pari passu are given equal treatment in respect of all the rights attaching to those debt securities. [Note: article 18(1) of the TD]
Exercise of rights by holders
An issuer of shares or debt securities must ensure that all the facilities and information necessary to enable holders of shares or debt securities to exercise their rights are available in the Home State and that the integrity of data is preserved. [Note: articles 17(2) and 18(2) of the TD]
Exercise of rights by proxy
Shareholders and debt securities holders must not be prevented from exercising their rights by proxy, subject to the law of the country in which the issuer is incorporated. [Note: articles 17(2) and 18(2) of the TD]
An issuer of shares or debt securities must make available a proxy form, on paper or, where applicable, by electronic means to each person entitled to vote at a meeting of shareholders or a meeting of debt securities holders. [Note: articles 17(2)(b) and 18(2)(b) of the TD]
The proxy form must be made available either:
together with the notice concerning the meeting; or
after the announcement of the meeting.
[Note: articles 17(2)(b) and 18(2)(b) of the TD]
Appointment of a financial agent
An issuer of shares or debt securities must designate, as its agent, a financial institution through which shareholders or debt securities holders may exercise their financial rights. [Note: articles 17(2)(c) and 18(2)(c) of the TD]
DTR 6.1.7 G 20/01/2007 RP
An issuer of shares or debt securities may use electronic means to convey information to shareholders or debt securities holders. [Note: articles 17(3) and 18(4) of the TD]
To use electronic means to convey information to holders, an issuer must comply with the following:
a decision to use electronic means to convey information to shareholders or debt securities holders must be taken in a general meeting;
the use of electronic means must not depend upon the location of the seat or residence of:
the shareholder; or
persons referred to in rows (a) to (h) of the table set out in DTR 5.2.1 R; or
the debt security holder; or
a proxy representing a debt security holder.
identification arrangements must be put in place so that the shareholders, debt security holders or other persons entitled to exercise or to direct the exercise of voting rights are effectively informed;
shareholders, debt security holders or persons referred to in rows (a) to (e) of the table set out in DTR 5.2.1 R who are entitled to acquire, dispose of or exercise voting rights must be:
contacted in writing to request their consent for the use of electronic means for conveying information and if they do not object within a reasonable period of time, their consent can be considered to have been given; and
able to request at any time in the future that information be conveyed in writing; and
any apportionment of the costs entailed in the conveyance of information by electronic means must be determined by the issuer in compliance with the principle of equal treatment set out in DTR 6.1.3 R.
But paragraph (4) above does not apply in any case where schedule 5 to the Companies Act 2006 applies.
[Note: articles 17(3) and 18(4) of the TD ]
Information about changes in rights attaching to securities
An issuer of shares must without delay disclose to the public any change in the rights attaching to its various classes of shares, including changes in the rights attaching to derivativesecurities issued by the issuer giving access to the shares of that issuer. [Note: article 16(1) of the TD]
DTR 6.1.10 R 20/01/2007 RP
An issuer of securities other than shares admitted to trading on a regulated market must disclose to the public without delay any changes in the rights of holders of securities other than shares, including changes in the terms and conditions of such securities which could indirectly affect those rights, resulting in particular from a change in loan terms or in interest rates.[Note article 16(2) of the TD]
DTR 6.1.11 R 26/11/2015
Information about meetings, issue of new shares and payment of dividends share issuers
An issuer of shares must provide information to holders on:
the place, time and agenda of meetings;
the total number of shares and voting rights; and
the rights of holders to participate in meetings. [Note: article 17(2)(a) of the TD]
An issuer of shares must publish notices or distribute circulars concerning the allocation and payment of dividends and the issue of new shares, including information on any arrangements for allotment, subscription, cancellation or conversion. [Note: article 17(2)(d) of the TD]
Information about meetings and payment of interest – debt security issuers
An issuer of debt securities must publish notices or distribute circulars concerning:
the place, time and agenda of meetings of debt securities holders;
the payment of interest;
the exercise of any conversion, exchange, subscription or cancellation rights and repayment; and
the rights of holders to exercise their rights in relation to paragraphs (1) – (3).
[Note: article 18(2)(a) of the TD ]
If only holders of debt securities whose denomination per unit amounts to at least 100,000 euros2 (or an equivalent amount) are to be invited to a meeting, the issuer may choose as a venue any EEA State, provided that all the facilities and information necessary to enable such holders to exercise their rights are made available in that EEA State. [Note: article 18(3) of the TD]
Non-EEA State exemption
An issuer whose registered office is in a non-EEA State3 is exempted from DTR 6.1.3 R to DTR 6.1.15 R if:3
the law of the non-EEA State in question lays down equivalent requirements; or3
the issuer complies with requirements of the law of a non-EEA State that the FCA considers as equivalent.3
[Note: article 23(1) of the TD]3
DTR 6.1.17 G 26/11/2015 RP
The FCA maintains a published list of non-EEA States,3 for the purpose of article 23.1 of the TD, whose laws3 lay down requirements equivalent to those imposed upon issuers by this chapter, or where the requirements of the law of that non-EEA State are considered to be equivalent by the FCA3. Such issuers remain subject to the following requirements of DTR 6:
the filing of information with the FCA;
the language provisions; and
the dissemination of information provisions.
Regional and local authority exemption
A regional or local authority with securities admitted to trading is not required to comply with the following:
DTR 6.1.4 R to DTR 6.1.8 R; and
DTR 6.1.14 R to DTR 6.1.15 R.
[Note: article 1(3) of the TD ]
Exemption for issuers of convertible securities, preference shares and depository receipts
DTR 6.1.3 R to DTR 6.1.8 R and DTR 6.1.12 R to DTR 6.1.15 R do not apply to:
an issuer of transferable securities convertible into shares;
an issuer of preference shares; and
an issuer of depository receipts.
This section applies to:
an issuer:
whose transferable securities are admitted to trading; and
whose Home State is the United Kingdom; and
a person who has requested, without the issuer's consent, the admission of its transferable securities to trading on a regulated market.
Filing of information with the FCA
An issuer or person that discloses regulated information must, at the same time, file that information with the FCA. [Note: article 19(1) of the TD]
DTR 6.2.2A R 01/10/2017 RP
3Where an issuer or person is required to file regulated information under DTR 6.2.2R, the issuer or person must, at the same time, notify the following to the FCA:
the legal entity identifier (LEI) of the issuer concerned; and
the classifications relevant to the regulated information using the classes and sub-classes in DTR 6 Annex 1R.
DTR 6.2.2B R 01/10/2017 RP
3If more than one classification is relevant to the regulated information, the issuer or person must notify all relevant classes and sub-classes to the FCA.
An issuer or person that discloses regulated information may comply with DTR 6.2.2 R by using a primary information provider2 to disseminate the information in accordance with DTR 6.3.
If transferable securities are admitted to trading only in the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom is the Home State, regulated information must be disclosed in English. [Note: article 20(1) of the TD]
If transferable securities are admitted to trading in more than one EEA State including the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom is the Home State, regulated information must be disclosed:
in English; and
either in a language accepted by the competent authorities of each Host State or in a language customary in the sphere of international finance, at the choice of the issuer.
[Note: article 20(2) of the TD]
If transferable securities are admitted to trading in one or more EEA States excluding the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom is the Home State, regulated information must be disclosed either:
in a language accepted by the competent authorities of those Host States; or
in a language customary in the sphere of international finance,
at the choice of the issuer.
Where the United Kingdom is the Home State, regulated information must be disclosed either in English or in another language customary in the sphere of international finance, at the choice of the issuer.
[Note: article 20(3) of the TD ]
If transferable securities are admitted to trading without the issuer's consent:
DTR 6.2.4 R to DTR 6.2.6 R do not apply to the issuer; and
DTR 6.2.4 R to DTR 6.2.6 R apply to the person who has requested such admission without the issuer's consent.
If transferable securities whose denomination per unit amounts to at least 100,000 euros1 (or an equivalent amount) are admitted to trading in the United Kingdom or in one or more EEA States, regulated information must be disclosed to the public in either a language accepted by the competent authorities of the Home State and Host States or in a language customary in the sphere of international finance, at the choice of the issuer or of the person who, without the issuer's consent, has requested such admission.
[Note: article 20(6)of the TD ]
English is a language accepted by the FCA where the United Kingdom is a Home State or Host State.
whose Home State is the United Kingdom; [Note: article 21(1) of the TD]
a person who has applied, without the issuer's consent, for the admission of its transferable securities to trading on a regulated market; and [Note: article 21(1) of the TD]
transferable securities that are admitted to trading only in the United Kingdom which is the Host State and not in the Home State. [Note: article 21(3) of the TD]
An issuer or person must disclose regulated information in the manner set out in DTR 6.3.3 R to DTR 6.3.8 R. [Note: article 21(1) of the TD]
When disseminating regulated information an issuer or other person must ensure that the minimum standards contained in DTR 6.3.4 R to DTR 6.3.8 R are met.
An issuer or person must entrust a RIS with the disclosure of regulated information to the public and must ensure that the RIS complies with the minimum standards contained in DTR 6.3.4 R to DTR 6.3.8 R.
[Note: article 12(1) of the TD implementing directive]1
4Where an issuer or person uses an RIS other than an RIS which is a:
a primary information provider; or
an EEA approved incoming information society service; or
a person to whom DTR TP 1.22 applies, for as long as DTR TP 1.22 remains in force;
the issuer or person must comply with .DTR 6.3.3B R
4An issuer or person to which this rule applies must provide an annual written confirmation to the FCA that all regulated information disseminated by an RIS not specified in DTR 6.3.3A R (1) to DTR 6.3.3A R (3) in the previous financial year was disseminated in accordance with the minimum standards contained in DTR 6.3.4 R to DTR 6.3.8 R.
The confirmation required by DTR 6.3.3B R (1) must:
be provided by:
in the case of an issuer, the audit committee or the body referred to in DTR 7.1.1 R; or
in the case of a person which is not an issuer but is a body corporate, the audit committee or the board of directors; or
in the case of an person which is not an issuer or a body corporate, a person with corresponding powers to a director;
set out the basis for making the confirmation, including the steps taken to determine its accuracy; and
be supported by records which are:
sufficient to reasonably demonstrate the basis for making the confirmation; and
capable of timely retrieval.
Address for correspondence
Note: The FCA’s address for correspondence in relation to DTR 6.3 is:
Primary Market Monitoring
Markets Division
The Financial Conduct Authority
12 Endeavour Square5
E20 1JN5
DTR 6.3.3C G 31/01/2014 RP
4In addition to the annual confirmation referred to in DTR 6.3.3B R, the FCA may request information from an issuer or person under section 89H of the Act on an ad hoc basis to verify that regulated information disseminated by an RIS not specified in DTR 6.3.3 R (1) to (3) has been disseminated in accordance with DTR 6.3.4 R to DTR 6.3.8 R.
Regulated information must be disseminated in a manner ensuring that it is capable of being disseminated to as wide a public as possible, and as close to simultaneously as possible in the Home Member State and in other EEA States.
Regulated information, other than regulated information described in paragraph (2), must be communicated to the media in unedited full text.
[Note: article 12(3) of theTD implementing directive]1
An annual financial report that is required by DTR 4.1 to be made public is not required to be communicated to the media in unedited full text except for the information described in paragraph (b).
If information is of a type that would be required to be disseminated in a half-yearly financial report then information of such a type that is contained in an annual financial report must be communicated to the media in unedited full text.
The announcement relating to the publication of the following regulated information must include an indication of the website on which2 the relevant documents are available:
an annual financial report that is required by DTR 4.1 to be made public;
a half-yearly financial report that is required by DTR 4.2 to be made public; and3
a report on payments to governments that is required by DTR 4.3A to be made public.3
[Note: article 12(3) of the TD implementing directive ]
Regulated information must be communicated to the media in a manner which ensures the security of the communication, minimises the risk of data corruption and unauthorised access, and provides certainty as to the source of the regulated information. Security of receipt must be ensured by remedying as soon as possible any failure or disruption in the communication of regulated information. An issuer or person is not responsible for systemic errors or shortcomings at the media to which the regulated information has been communicated.[Note: article 12(4) of the TD implementing directive]
Regulated information must be communicated to a RIS in a way which:
makes clear that the information is regulated information;
identifies clearly:
the issuer concerned;
the subject matter of the regulated information; and
the time and date of the communication of the regulated information by the issuer or the person.
Upon request, an issuer or other person must be able to communicate to the FCA, in relation to any disclosure of regulated information:
the name of the person who communicated the regulated information to the RIS;
the security validation details;
the time and date on which the regulated information was communicated to the RIS;
the medium in which the regulated information was communicated; and
details of any embargo placed by the issuer on the regulated information, if applicable.
An issuer or person must not charge investors any specific cost for providing regulated information. [Note: article 21(1) of the TD]
Disclosure of information in a non-EEA State
Information that is disclosed in a non-EEA State which may be of importance to the public in the EEA must be disclosed in accordance with the provisions set out in DTR 6.2 and DTR 6.3.
Paragraph (1) applies additionally to information that is not regulated information.
In respect of transferable securities which are admitted to trading on a regulated market, this section applies to:
an issuer whose Home State is the United Kingdom in accordance with the first indent of1 article 2.1(i)(i) of the TD; and
an issuer who chooses the United Kingdom as its Home State in accordance with:1
the second indent of article 2.1(i)(i) of the TD; or1
article 2.1(i)(ii) of the TD; or1
article 2.1(i)(iii) of the TD.1
Disclosure of Home State1
An issuer1 must disclose that its Home State is the United Kingdom1 in accordance with DTR 6.2 and1DTR 6.3.
[Note: article 2.1(i) of the TD1]
1An issuer must disclose its Home State to the competent authority of:
where applicable, the EEA State where it has its registered office;
the Home State; and
each Host State.
[Note: article 2.1(i) of the TD]
1Where an issuer has not disclosed its Home State as defined by the second indent of article 2.1(i)(i) of the TD or article 2.1(i)(ii) of the TD in accordance with DTR 6.4.2R and DTR 6.4.3R within a period of three months from the date the issuer’s securities are first admitted to trading on a regulated market, the Home State shall be:
the EEA State where the issuer’s securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market; or
where the issuer’s securities are admitted to trading on regulated markets situated or operating within more than one EEA State, those EEA States shall be the issuer’sHome State until a subsequent choice of a single Home State has been made and disclosed by the issuer in accordance with DTR 6.4.2R and DTR 6.4.3R.
DTR 6 Annex 1 R 01/10/2017
Classification of regulated information
Periodic regulated information
Annual financial and audit reports
all information disclosed under article 4 of the Transparency Directive
Half yearly financial reports and audit reports/limited reviews
Payments to governments
Ongoing regulated information
all information disclosed under article 2(1)(i) of the Transparency Directive
all information disclosed under article 17 or article 19 of the Market Abuse Regulation
Major shareholding notifications
all information disclosed under article 12 of the Transparency Directive
Acquisition or disposal of the issuer’s own shares
Total number of voting rights and capital
Changes in the rights attaching to the classes of shares or securities
Additional regulated information required to be disclosed under the laws of a Member State
all information not falling within the sub-classes set out in points 1.1 to 1.3 and in points 2.1 to 2.6, but which the issuer, or any other person who has applied for the admission of securities to trading on a regulated market without the issuer’s consent, has disclosed under LR or DTR
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1375
|
__label__wiki
| 0.802509
| 0.802509
|
Hanna Shacham
Please See Below Hanna's Sold Featured Listings:
Tell A Friend / /
Over the past 26 years, Hanna has successfully represented home sellers and home buyers in real estate transactions throughout the premier of community of Atherton.
Hanna's Sales in Atherton:
28 Selby Lane, Atherton
HANNA REPRESENTED BUYER
SOLD JANUARY 2017
96 Isabella Ave, Atherton
Larry Ellison´s Atherton estate
Offered at $16,000,000
~HANNA REPRESENTED BUYER~
70 Barry Lane, Atherton (Circus Club area)
New French Estate - 17,000sf of living space
~HANNA REPRESENTED SELLER~
1 Ridgeview Drive, Atherton
Stunning New Construction
90 Stevenson Lane, Atherton
EXCLUSIVE IN WEST ATHERTON, NOT ON MLS
HANNA REPRESENTED SELLER
SOLD 2012
168 ISABELLA AVE, ATHERTON
69 Santiago Avenue, Atherton
52 Monte Vista Ave, Atherton
Atherton estate on approx. 1 acre - Main house 6,357 sq ft
1 Kilroy Way, Atherton
44 Tuscaloosa, Atherton
377 AUSTIN AVE, ATHERTON
New Mediterranean with over 8600sqft!
50 Elena Avenue, Atherton
Listed for $5,500,000
87 Almendral, Atherton
70 Barry Lane, Atherton
52 Monte Vista Avenue, Atherton
58 Linda Vista Ave, Atherton
45 Valley Ct, Atherton
41 McCormick Lane, Atherton
341 Austin Avenue, Atherton
1 Belbrook Way, Atherton
EXCLUSIVE IN WEST ATHERON, NOT ON MLS
About Atherton:
Atherton is located on the peninsula nestled between the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The Town of Atherton begins in the flatlands then moves westward to the hills, until it reaches Highway 280. Beautiful foliage, elegant gardens and heritage trees dominate this quiet small community.
The Town of Atherton desires, insofar as possible, to preserve its character as a scenic, rural, thickly-wooded, residential area, with abundant open space with streets designed primarily as scenic routes rather than for speed of travel.
Atherton is still a "plain of oaks". Native live oaks, white oaks, bay trees, redwood trees, cedars, pines and other ornamental trees cover the six square miles of land. The Town is bordered by areas of Menlo Park, Redwood City, Woodside, and unincorporated San Mateo County. There are 49 miles of roads in Atherton and approximately 2502 households with no industry or business establishment within the town limits.
In 1866, Fair Oaks (Atherton) was a flag stop on the San Francisco-San Jose Railroad line for the convenience of the owners of the large estates who lived north of Menlo Park. The entire area was called Menlo Park. It had been part of the Rancho de las Pulgas that had covered most of the area, which is now southern San Mateo County. There were several attempts to incorporate Fair Oaks, one in 1874 and another in 1911.
In 1923, Menlo Park wished to incorporate its lands to include the Fair Oaks lands. During a meeting of the representatives of the two communities, it became clear to the Fair Oaks property owners that in order to maintain their community as a strictly residential area; they would have to incorporate separately. Both groups rushed to Sacramento but the Fair Oaks committee arrived first. It was at that time they realized that they could not keep the name Fair Oaks that was already the name of a Town by Sacramento. It was decided to honor Faxton Dean Atherton who had been one of the first property owners in the south peninsula and name the Town for him. Atherton was incorporated on September 12, 1923.
Faxon D Atherton, a native of Massachusetts had spent several years in Chile and Hawaii as a trader in tallow, hides and merchandise. His friend and business associate, Thomas Lark had written to him "there is education available for your children and a dignity of living on landed estates down the San Francisco peninsula (that is) convenient and accessible." Atherton purchased 640 acres for ten dollars an acre in 1860. His home, "Valparaiso Park", was built several years later. It was simple in design and ample for his family of seven children.
Because of the development of the railroad, other San Franciscans traveled south and established summer homes. Because the dirt roads were usually impassable in the winter, the families were only in residence from May through September.
Thomas H. Selby purchased 420 acres. A successful businessman, he served as mayor of San Francisco. His country estate was called "Almendral". John T. Doyle, an attorney, built a home off Middlefield Road, "Ringwood". James C. Flood purchased successive parcels and built an extravagant mansion, "Linden Towers". This is now Lindenwood. The Joseph A Donohoe estate was "Holmgrove" and is now the site of Menlo Atherton High School. James Thomas Watkins' home was "Fair Oaks" and after two moves, stands restored today on Alajandra Avenue.
The government of our Town was established with Edward E. Eyre as the first mayor. In 1928, the residents voted to build a Town Hall, which stands today. The early residents wanted a Town that would be divided into large parcels and would not contain businesses. The author Gertrude H. Atherton, daughter-in-law to Faxon D. Atherton wrote in "The Californians", "Menlo Park (Atherton) has been cut up into country places for what might be termed the 'old families of San Francisco', the eight or ten families who owned the haughty precinct were as exclusive, as conservative, as any group of ancient country families in Europe".
A few of the large land holdings were subdivided during the 1920's and 1930's, James Flood estate in 1938. In the 1940's and 1950's over eighty subdivisions were recorded. With the minimum size of one acre, the era of the large estates was over. Atherton is still a "plain of oaks". Native live oaks, white oaks, bays, redwoods, cedars, pines and other ornamental trees cover the six square miles of Town. There are approximately 50 miles of roads. The population is around 7500 with approximately 2500 households.
There are a number of active community organizations; the Atherton Heritage Association, the Atherton Arts Committee, the Atherton Tree Committee, the Friends of the Atherton Community Library, the Holbrook-Palmer Park Foundation, the Atherton Dames, the Police Task force, and the Atherton Civic Interest League. There are also Home Owner's Associations. The Menlo Circus Club is a private club with stables and a riding ring located within the Town of Atherton.
Olive Holbrook-Palmer left Holbrook-Palmer Park, a 22-acre park, to the Town of Atherton in 1958. It is an open, tree-covered park, which offers recreational programs and has facilities for functions.
There are eleven schools within Atherton's boundaries, both private and public.
The beginning statement of the Town's General Plan says "the Town of Atherton desires, insofar as possible, to preserve its character as a scenic, rural, thickly-wooded, residential area with abundant open space and with streets designed primarily as scenic routes rather than for speed of travel."
Copyright© 2002 The Town of Atherton. All Rights Reserved.
Hanna has been involved in the Atherton real estate market for the past 18 years, selling many Atherton properties and Atherton homes. Hanna has represented buyers, sellers, and developers in the purchase of Atherton properties and Atherton homes.
Home Page | Contact Me | Site Map | Agent Login | Client Login
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1377
|
__label__cc
| 0.589085
| 0.410915
|
Category: Reader Q&A
Reader Q&A: volatile (again)
Sarmad Asgher asked a variant of a perennial question:
I am implementing multi producer single consumer problem. I have shared variables like m_currentRecordsetSize which tells the current size of the buffer. I am using m_currentRecordsetSize in a critical section do i need to declare it as volatile.
If you’re in C or C++, and the variable is not already being protected by a mutex or similar, then you need to declare it atomic (e.g., if it’s an int, then atomic_int in C or atomic<int> in C++. Not volatile.
Also is there any article by you on this topic. Please do reply.
There is! See my article “volatile vs. volatile” for the difference and why C/C++ volatile has nothing to do with inter-thread communication.
Herb Sutter C++, Effective Concurrency, Reader Q&A 7 Comments 2012-10-16 2012-10-16 1 Minute
Reader Q&A: Why don’t modern smart pointers implicitly convert to *?
Today a reader asked a common question:
Why doesn’t unique_ptr (and the ilk) appear to have an operator overload somewhat as follows:
operator T*() { return get(); };
The reason I ask is because we have reams of old code wanting raw pointers (as function parms), and I would like to replace the outer layers of the code which deal with the allocation and deallocation with unique_ptrs without having to either ripple unique_ptrs through the entire system or explicitly call .get() every time the unique_ptr is a parm to a function which wants a raw pointer.
What my programmers are doing is creating a unique_ptr and immediately using get() to put it into a local raw pointer which is used from then on. Somehow that doesn’t feel right, but I don’t know what would be the best alternative.
In the olden days, smart pointers often did provide the convenience of implicit conversion to *. It was by using those smart pointers that we learned it caused more problems than it solves, and that requiring people to write .get() was actually not a big deal.
For an example of the problems of implicit conversions, consider:
unique_ptr p( new widget );
use( p + 42 ); // error (maybe he meant "*p + 42"?)
// but if implicit conversion to * were allowed, would silently compile -- urk
delete p; // error
// but if implicit conversion to * were allowed, would silently compile -- double urk
For more, see also Andrei’s Modern C++ Design section 7.7, “Implicit Conversion to Raw Pointer Types.”
However, this really isn’t as bad as most people fear for several reasons, including but not limited to:
The large majority of uses of the smart pointer, such as calling member functions on the object (e.g., p->foo()) just work naturally and effortlessly because we do have operator->.
You rarely if ever need to say unique_ptr on a local variable, because C++11’s auto is your friend – and “rarely” becomes “never” if you use make_unique which is described here and should become standard in the future.
Parameters (which you mention) themselves should almost never be smart pointers, but should be normal pointers and references. So if you’re managing an object’s lifetime by smart pointer, you do write .get() – but only once at the top of each call tree. More on this in the current GotW #105 – solution coming soon, watch this space.
Herb Sutter C++, Reader Q&A 3 Comments 2012-06-21 2012-06-21 2 Minutes
Reader Q&A: What about VC++ and C99?
I occasionally get asked about whether, or how well, Visual C++ supports C99.
This week, I just posted two replies to this questions on UserVoice (merged below).
Last fall, I also answered it in an interview with Dr. Dobb’s (recommended for some rationale discussion).
The short answer is that Visual C++’s focus is to support ISO C code that is supported by ISO C90 or ISO C++ (98 or 11). For the longer answer, I’m combining my UserVoice answers below, plus an additional comment about restrict in particular.
Our focus in Visual C++ is on making a world-class C++ compiler, and we’re heads-down on C++11 conformance. For C programmers, the good news is twofold:
1. Our primary goal is to support "most of C99/C11 that is a subset of ISO C++98/C++11."
VC++ 2010 already fully supports the C subset of C++98, including things like <stdint.h> and declarations in the middle of a block.[*] The C subset of C++98 is approximately C95 (with very few incompatibilities with C95; i.e., there are very few cases where legal C95 code has a different meaning or is invalid in C++98) plus a few C99 features like declaring variables in the middle of blocks).
VC++11 now in beta already adds partial support for the C11 subset of C++11 (e.g., it supports the new C11 atomic_int types for concurrency and parallelism).
Soon after VC++11 ships we have announced we will do out-of-band releases for additional C++11 conformance which will naturally also include more C11 features that are in the C subset of C++11. We intend to implement all of the C++11 standard, which includes much of C99 — roughly, it includes the C99 preprocessor and library extensions but not the language extensions like restrict.
So we already support large subsets of C99 and some-and-soon-more of C11. Our immediate and long-term goal is to fully support the C subsets of ISO C++.
2. We also for historical reasons ship a C90 compiler which accepts (only) C90 and not C++.
For the (hopefully rare) cases where legal C90 code has a different meaning in C++98 and this matters to C developers, for backward compatibility with older C90 code we also continue to ship a C compiler that implements Standard C90 exactly (using /TC or naming files as something.c).
Granted, however, there is also bad news for C programmers:
3. We do not plan to support ISO C features that are not part of either C90 or ISO C++.
I understand C programmers may be disappointed or angry with this answer and I’m sorry to have to say no here. It’s true, and very quotable, that "focus means saying no," but that doesn’t make it easy to say — it is hard to say no to you, and I’m sorry to say it. But we have to choose a focus, and our focus is to implement (the standard) and innovate (with extensions like everyone but which we also contribute for potential standardization) in C++.
We recommend that C developers use the C++ compiler to compile C code (using /TP if the file is named something.c). This is the best choice for using Visual C++ to compile C code.
Alternatively, we recommend that C developers use the C90 compiler (using /TC or naming files as something.c) if you need to write C90 conforming code that exercises some of the rarer cases that in C++98 are illegal or have changed meaning. This is a fallback primarily intended to support historical C code.
If you really need either of the following:
features in C95/C99/C11 that are not part of ISO C++; or
features in C that are in the C++ subset but without also enabling the writing of C++ code;
then we recommend that you consider using a different compiler such as Intel or gcc (short-term) and/or pressure your standards committee representatives to have ISO C++ include more of the C standard (longer-term).
[*] Visual C++ also partly supports some C99 language features under a slightly different syntax and possibly with slightly different semantics. Notably, we support __restrict – we did (and could again) consider allowing the standard C99 spelling restrict here for this feature, but please understand that this is not as simple as it looks. Not only the VC++ team, but also the ISO C++ standards committee, considered adding restrict to VC++ and ISO C++, respectively. Although it was specifically suggested for ISO C++11, it was rejected, in part because it’s not always obvious how it extends to C++ code because C++ is a larger language with more options and we would want to make sure the feature works correctly across the entire language.
Herb Sutter C++, Reader Q&A 52 Comments 2012-05-03 2012-05-03 3 Minutes
Reader Q&A: Flash Redux
David Braun asked:
@Tom @Herb: What’s so wrong with flash that it should be boycotted? Have I been being abused by it in some way I’m not aware of? Also,does HTML5 have any bearing on the subject?
I’m not saying it should be boycotted, only that I avoid it. Here’s what I wrote two years ago: “Flash In the Pan”. Besides security issues and crashing a lot, Flash is a headache for servicing and seems to be architecturally unsuited for lower-power environments.
Since then, two more major developments:
1. Even Adobe has given ground (if not given up).
Adobe subsequently abandoned Flash for mobile browsers and started shipping straight-to-HTML5 tools.
Granted, Adobe says it’s abandoning Flash ‘only for new mobile device browsers while still supporting it for PC browsers.’ This is still a painful statement because:
it’s obvious that ceding such high-profile and hard-fought ground sends a message about overall direction; and
the distinction between mobile devices and PCs is quickly disappearing as of this year as PCs are becoming fully mobilized (more on this in my next blog post).
2. We’re moving toward plugin-avoiding browsing.
Browsers are increasingly moving to reduce plugins, or eliminate them outright, for security/reliability/servicing reasons. Moving in that direction crease pressure or necessity to either:
ban Flash (Mobile Safari, and Metro style Internet Explorer 10); or
deliver Flash built into the browser itself (even for plugin-allowing browsers like Chrome).
I’m not saying Flash will die off immediately or necessarily even die off entirely at all; there’s a lot of inertia, it’s still useful in many kinds of devices, and it may well hang on for some time. But its architectural problems and current trajectory are fairly clear, and it’s been months since I’ve heard someone complain that certain people were just being unfair – Jobs’ technical points are on the right side of history.
Herb Sutter Apple, Microsoft, Opinion & Editorial, Reader Q&A, Software Development, Web 5 Comments 2012-04-24 2012-04-24 1 Minute
Reader Q&A: What does it mean for [[attributes]] to affect language semantics?
Followup on this earlier question, @bilbothegravatar asked:
@Alf, @Herb – I don’t quite get the [[noreturn]] example. While it may (not) compile on VC++, (as far as I understand) it does not carry any semantic meaning, and, what’s more, it is *perfectly* safe for any compiler that sees [[noreturn]] to just ignore it — the runtime behaviour vs. VC++ shouldn’t be changed at all.
So how is [[noreturn]] in the same camp as “restrict” ??? (I agree it may(?) be in the same camp as final and override.)
I will quote Bjarne: (http://www2.research.att.com/~bs/C++0xFAQ.html#attributes)
> There is a reasonable fear that attributes will be used to create language dialects.
> The recommendation is to use attributes to only control things that do not affect the meaning
> of a program but might help detect errors (e.g. [[noreturn]])
> or help optimizers (e.g. [[carries_dependency]]).
Yes, this argument was used. I’m (even) more conservative than Bjarne on this one.
People spoke up for two main different views on the question, “what does it mean to say [[attributes]] should not affect language semantics?” For convenience I’ll label these as the “weak” and “strong” views. Both views agree that if a program is valid both with and without the attribute, it should have exactly the same meaning both ways. Where the two views/camps differ is on whether it counts as “changing the meaning of the program” if a program that is valid if the attribute is ignored is rejected (fails to compile) if the attribute is observed:
The “weak” view says that’s okay because it didn’t really change the meaning of code that could ever execute, it just caused it to fail to compile. (I know, [[noreturn]] seems like it’s doing that… but it actually doesn’t quite meet this definition in my opinion, see below.)
The “strong” view, which I strongly support, says that calling a program illegal not only is the most dramatic semantic change possible, but also should be considered a nonconforming extension because it rejects code that is legal in the standard. (I know, [[noreturn]] in particular is standard… but it’s still problematic for this reason, see below.)
On principle, I do not like opening the door to let compiler writers use [[attributes]] as an excuse to not respect legal ISO C++ programs. And I say that as someone who works on a C++ compiler team and actively does C++ language extension design, and having the excuse of disabling part of ISO C++ that I don’t like by throwing in an [[attribute]] could be useful. Don’t get me wrong, there are corner cases of C++ I would like to turn off, but I try hard (and so far successfully) to refrain from doing such a thing without ISO C++’s blessing because it would break source code portability. Encouraging the view that nonstandard [[attributes]] can be a legitimate excuse to reject conforming C++ programs strikes me as putting a live grenade in a public square with a “pull me” tag on the pin. The whole point and primary benefit of having an ISO standard for C++ is to guarantee source portability; this weakens that, and for that reason I view it as a dangerous position to take.
However, in general the “weak” interpretation prevailed, and on those grounds [[noreturn]] and [[carries_dependency]] remained an attribute. I didn’t fight it because at least we got to remove [[final]], [[override]] and [[base_check]] as attributes, which was my primary concern since those would see far more use, and as long as we fixed those I was happy to say I could live with the others in order to get a consensus standard.
Post-Mortem: Assessing [[noreturn]]
Disclaimer: The following is an informational analytical exercise, not a public lobbying for a change. I support where we ended up as a whole to get C++11, it is probably too late to tweak [[noreturn]], and I consciously didn’t pursue making the following arguments at the time because [[noreturn]] (and [[carries_dependency]] are so rarely used that I can live with them, and you have to be willing to give some ground to get a consensus standard – the important thing was to get [[final]], [[override]], and [[base_check]] out and then stop while you’re ahead.
With that disclaimer in place, let me present counterarguments to show why I believe that in an ideal world [[noreturn]] shouldn’t be an attribute because it really is a keyword in [[attributes]] clothing and doesn’t actually meet either the weak or the strong view:
I don’t think that [[noreturn]] meets the bar set by the weak view, because it does more than just cause programs to fail to compile. In my opinion, adding [[noreturn]] does change the meaning of a conforming program, because the C++11 standard says in 7.6.3/2: “If a function f is called where f was previously declared with the noreturn attribute and f eventually returns, the behavior is undefined. … [Note: Implementations are encouraged to issue a warning if a function marked [[noreturn]] might return. —end note ]” – Even if respecting a [[noreturn]] did cause a compiler to reject some code (which is not required by the standard, and is not even mentioned even in the non-normative note which just talks about maybe issuing a warning), that means that void f(); and [[noreturn]] void f(); do not have the same semantics – returning from the first is always defined behavior (if you do it), and returning from the second is undefined behavior. This isn’t just a language-lawyerly argument either – the reason the standard says “undefined behavior” here is because that’s how the standard explicitly gives latitude to optimizers – it’s saying that “a compiler optimizer may assume the function doesn’t return, and optimize the code in ways that could cause different execution (even catch-fire semantics) if f ever actually does return.” Telling the compiler it may rely on this attribute to have meaning is, to me, clearly giving the attribute a language meaning and so changes the program’s semantics if it is present. So I don’t think it’s actually true that the presence of [[noreturn]] doesn’t affect language semantics.
It also doesn’t meet the strong view and discourages portability, by opening the door for using nonstandard attributes as a reason to reject conforming code. Now, it’s true that [[noreturn]] is in the standard itself, and so we might be tempted to say it’s not like a nonstandard attribute in this way that reduces portability, but it is – you cannot reliably write portable C++11 code under the assumption that [[noreturn]] has no semantic meaning and can be ignored. That’s because adding [[noreturn]] really does change the meaning of a function declaration (by adding guarantees that the optimizer can use, as described above) and so you really need to treat it as though it were a language keyword – because it is, just dressed in [[attributes]] clothing.
So in my view [[noreturn]] is a keyword dressed in [[attributes]] clothing.
Having said all that, experts do disagree, and the two camps have simply had to agree to disagree on this question – we got unanimous consensus on the standard, even though [[noreturn]] and [[carries_dependency]] are a bit of a sore point, because everyone was satisfied enough that we at least averted having [[final]], [[override]] and [[base_check]].
Reader Q&A: auto and expression templates
Motti asked:
While you’re dealing with reader’s Qs….
In your keynote in “Going Native” you mentioned that type inference should almost always be used, except for some obscure cases with expression templates.
Yes. To give people context, the idea is when declaring local variables, prefer to use auto to deduce the type. For example:
auto x = begin(v);
This seems like a rather serious wart on the language,
It’s a wart, but I don’t know about “serious” – it doesn’t come up that often. Still, your question is quite apropos:
part of the power of expression templates (to my understanding) is that they can be dropped in by a library implementer and thus improve the clients’ code without their knowledge.
Was there any discussion to allow type authors to opt-out of type inference? (e.g. by allowing an “operator auto()”). If this wasn’t discussed for C++11 is it being discussed for C++1y?
Yes, and even exactly that spelling has been suggested. I’ll take that as a +1 for discoverability if we name it that!
(For people reading this comment, if it doesn’t make any sense I wrote about it last year in my blog http://lanzkron.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/inferring-too-much/)
Herb Sutter C++, Reader Q&A 10 Comments 2012-04-03 2012-04-03 1 Minute
Reader Q&A: When will better JITs save managed code?
In the comments on last week’s interview, MichaelTK asked:
@Herb: You mentioned two things I don’t fully understand in your talk.
1) Why would C++ be a better choice for very large scale applications than NET/Java? I mean the zero abstraction penalty (which is more a JIT compiler issue and not intrinsically hardwired into C#) , okay, but besides that?
2) C++ really only has a few language features which actually let you write faster code in theory. In practice, JIT compilers are just not good enough, yet, to fully optimize on C++ pace and that’s one of the main reasons why C++ excels at efficiency.
No, the reasons go deeper than that. I’m actually giving a talk at Lang.NEXT on Wednesday which focuses exactly on the managed/native divide. I’ll post a link next week.
In the meantime, short answer: C++ and managed languages make different fundamental tradeoffs that opt for either performance or productivity when they are in tension.
Why does Microsoft not put effort into a static C++ like compiler for C#/NET, say in manner of NGen, so that C# actually has even the slightest chance of being competitive with C++?
Actually, Microsoft has been actively investing in that for over a decade. So have Java vendors. I expect those efforts to continue.
Otherwise, saying C++ is more efficient than C# is not a theoretical issue, but caused by bad JIT compilers.
This is a 199x/200x meme that’s hard to kill – “just wait for the next generation of (JIT or static) compilers and then managed languages will be as efficient.” Yes, I fully expect C# and Java compilers to keep improving – both JIT and NGEN-like static compilers. But no, they won’t erase the efficiency difference with native code, for two reasons.
First, JIT compilation isn’t the main issue. The root cause is much more fundamental: Managed languages made deliberate design tradeoffs to optimize for programmer productivity even when that was fundamentally in tension with, and at the expense of, performance efficiency. (This is the opposite of C++, which has added a lot of productivity-oriented features like auto and lambdas in the latest standard, but never at the expense of performance efficiency.) In particular, managed languages chose to incur costs even for programs that don’t need or use a given feature; the major examples are assumption/reliance on always-on or default-on garbage collection, a virtual machine runtime, and metadata. But there are other examples; for instance, managed apps are built around virtual functions as the default, whereas C++ apps are built around inlined functions as the default, and an ounce of inlining prevention is worth a pound of devirtualization optimization cure.
Second, even if JIT were the only big issue, a JIT can never be as good as a regular optimizing compiler because a JIT compiler is in the business of being fast, not in the business of generating optimal code. Yes, JITters can target the user’s actual hardware and theoretically take advantage of a specific instruction set and such, but at best that’s a theoretical advantage of NGEN approaches (specifically, installation-time compilation), not JIT, because a JIT has no time to take much advantage of that knowledge, or do much of anything besides translation and code gen.
More in the talk on Wednesday (for those who are at the conference) which will go live online next week… I’ll blog about it when it’s up.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1394
|
__label__cc
| 0.732297
| 0.267703
|
Mike Ilitch
What is the state of organized labor today?
President Grover Cleveland declared Labor Day a federal holiday more than 100 years. What is the state of organized labor today? WWJ asked Marick Masters, professor of management for Wayne State University’s School of Business Administration and director of Labor@Wayne. "Organized labor is in a difficult position," commented Masters. 'I think it’s very important to have strong labor institutions to protect the interests of workers and to extract a fair share of the wealth that is produced in society."
WWJ-Radio
View all news stories
Mike Ilitch School of Business
2771 Woodward Ave.
Detroit, Michigan 48201 (map)
313-577-4501 | Directory
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1401
|
__label__cc
| 0.657985
| 0.342015
|
Mase Drops Savage Cam'ron Diss Record In Response To "The Program" Digs
November 24, 2017 | 9:56 AM
by Riley Wallace
Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images
It was all good back in 2013, when 40-year-old rapper Mase tweeted a definite “no” in response to the purported beef between him and fellow Children Of The Corn alumnus Cam’ron. “We don’t have any beefs … I can only comment on what is factually correct!”
That was then and this now, November 24, when the former Puff Daddy protégé dropped an incredibly savage diss record aimed squarely at the Harlem Diplomat.
After Cam mentioned Mase on his new mixtape (most notably here), Mase is now firing back with very little chill on “The Oracle,” recorded over JAY-Z’s “Blueprint 2” instrumental.
VA Beach thank you??, Dallas tonite…I'm on the way. Thx @lsrco for #TheProgram hoodie. Available soon. @sugadugga15 #TheProgramTour #FleeBarcelona
A post shared by @mr_camron on Nov 19, 2017 at 8:57am PST
“Tax know you as the nigga that snitched on the Roc, D.C. Crips only know you that nigga they shot,” he raps before adding an accusation of incest: “Since age 10 you been a thirsty nigga, I ain’t gonna talk about the time you fucked your sister.”
In the second verse, he attacks his Harlem status. “Diplomat only means you ain’t from here … you had a run here, but y’all niggas is done here,” he spits. Among the more personal jabs, Mase seems to suggest that Cam’ron was in some way responsible for the death of a mutual friend, Harlem World rapper) Huddy 6, with the line “don’t blame me for the past and I won’t blame you for the crash.”
He also alludes to Cam holding Juelz under a bum deal (“You robbed Juelz on some Diddy shit”) and also straight out refers to the Dipset as snitches. “Any nigga say he got diplomat immunity, are niggas who ratted or want to snitch on their community.”
Before the references on The Program, the last public semblance of beef came earlier this year when Cam suggested on Instagram Live that Mase became a pastor to escape escalating violence following his massive early success.
“You know what? N****s ain’t gonna motherf**king harass me if I’m in church,” Cam wrote. “That’s what Ma$e did. He said, ‘Yo, they can’t beef with me, they can’t ask me for nothing. I’m gonna throw on the Rev. Run collar and get the f**k out of here. F**k that.”
What do you think of “The Oracle?” Let us know in the comments.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1406
|
__label__cc
| 0.631291
| 0.368709
|
Hi’s Eye
Iris News
Hi's Eye
CINNAHOLIC: Your next new addiction coming soon to Westfield
Cinnaholic baby buns
Photo by cinnaholic.com
Kayla Butera
Imagine a Saturday afternoon, shopping and hanging out with friends in downtown Westfield on a sunny day. You stop by a store and pick up a warm, delicious treat: cinnamon rolls. You bite into the pillowy soft and delightfully spiced cinnamon rolls as frosting drips down your fingers. But these aren’t your typical cinnamon rolls. Welcome to Cinnaholic, a gourmet cinnamon roll bakery that is expected to open at the end of April at 18 Elm Street right here in Westfield.
Vikas Mittal, the owner of the Westfield location, said in an interview with the Hi’s Eye, “[The mission of our store is] to tickle our customers’ taste buds with our variety of delicious flavors of cinnamon rolls, which, in addition to being 100% vegan, are all made with the highest quality ingredients which are dairy and lactose-free, egg-free and cholesterol-free.”
Customers are encouraged to personalize their cinnamon rolls to their favorite flavor combinations. To coat their rolls are 18 mouthwatering frosting options ranging from a classic maple to more unconventional flavors like cake batter and banana cream.
When it comes tot toppings, you can choose from a list of 23 options, including bananas, caramel sauce and chocolate chips. All of which are, once again, (surprisingly!) vegan. If a customer is overwhelmed by the number of combinations, they can choose a specialty roll–like “Rocky Road.”
The “Old Skool Roll”– a cinnamon roll with vanilla frosting–is typically 480-500 calories, which is about half the calories of a Cinnabon classic roll. For special occasions, Cinnaholic caters cinnacakes, which are 6-12 rolls baked together and glazed in your chosen frosting. Cinnaholic also offers mini cinnamon rolls, along with other treats like brownies, cookies and cookie dough. The “old skool” cinnamon rolls are priced at $5.25, and customers can upgrade to premium frosting flavors for an additional $0.25 and $0.50 per topping. The mini cinnamon rolls are $1.25 and require a minimum purchase order of 12 of the same flavor. The cinnacakes range from $40-$60 depending on the size.
According to the company’s website, the founders, Shannon and Florian Radke, are committed vegans looking to make a positive change for animals, people and the world. The website boasts that the buns are “a craft of love, passion and dedication.”
In 2010, the first Cinnaholic opened in Berkeley, California, and now there are 35 locations in the U.S. and Canada, which consistently rack up positive Google reviews. Mittal believes “the brand will continue to grow rapidly as more people become aware of the vegan lifestyle and try our cinnamon rolls.”
Cinnaholic has long been praised by media outlets like The Huffington Post and Fortune. In 2014, the company was on the ABC show “Shark Tank”–where the investors devoured the cinnamon rolls–and the creators accepted a deal with Robert Herjavec with the focus on nationwide shipping. However, Cinnaholic later declined his offer to concentrate on expanding storefronts. Nonetheless, Cinnaholic was featured as one of Forbes’ “10 Best Franchises to Buy from ‘Shark Tank’” in 2018.
In a couple of weeks, these delicious, gooey cinnamon rolls will be coming to Westfield. Be sure to check out Cinnaholic’s impressive list of frosting flavors and toppings on cinnaholic.com and go to vimeo.com to see them on “Shark Tank.”
What is the best flavor of Doritos?
Nacho Cheese (Red)
Cool Ranch (Blue)
Sweet Chili (Purple)
Meet the queen of @newjerseymemes
One last chance before Iowa
Cruel Attention: How irresponsible media coverage fuels mass shootings
Hungry Hungry Hank
POV: Ciabatta days at WHS
Town council approves deer management program
Westfield Fun Club assists refugees
Seniors lead basketball program to recent success
Social media ‘passive-ism’
Feed Frenzy: Body image issues on social media
This is Folio
Jagged Little Pill takes on Broadway
Stephen Park is in the swing of jazz
Be quiet! The commercials are on
‘Until the day we have to meet again’
The Student News Site of Westfield High School
© 2020 Header Courtesy of Morgan Eng • Privacy Policy • FLEX WordPress Theme by SNO • Log in
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1407
|
__label__cc
| 0.66868
| 0.33132
|
History Graduate Program
HIS 503: His of Roman Empire
MWF 9:00-9:50
Daniel J Gargola
A study of the foundation of the Roman Empire, the development of Imperial institutions, social and intellectual developments of the Graeco-Roman world. The decline of Rome and the barbarian invasions of the fourth century.
HIS 510: Medieval Law
TR 2:00-3:15
Abigail Firey
This course examines the development of the various legal systems to which people in western Europe had recourse between the fourth century and the fourteenth century. Topics to be covered include the shift from oral to written law, the problems small communities faced in dealing with transgressors, the competition between various authorities for jurisdiction, the ways in which Judaeo-Christian values and beliefs affected the orientation of medieval law, the use of procedures such as ordeals and inquisitions, the evolution of ideas about natural rights, and how law reflects the massive social and political reorganization of the west that occurred after the Roman Empire.
HIS 554: British History 1815-1901
TR 12:30-1:45
Tammy Whitlock
A detailed study of Britain's political, social, diplomatic and industrial development in the 19th century.
HIS 564: History of Brazil
MWF 12:00-12:50
Erik L. Myrup
Study of Brazilian history from 1500 to the present, stressing the multiethnic dynamics of colonial society, the political transformations of independence, and the contemporary legacies of race, slavery, abolition, and gender.
HIS 577: Frontier America, 1869-Present
Mark W. Summers
A survey of the many Westerners, women as well as men, Native Americans, Chinese, and Hispanics as well as whites, sodbusters as well as six-shooters, and of the many Wests, wild and not-so-wild, from the prairie homesteaders to the Sagebrush Rebellion; and how they made, inherited, and were imprisoned by the frontier heritage.
HIS 584: Health and Disease in U.S.
E.H. Christianson
A survey of the emergence of modern professional medicine in America, from colonial time to the present. Emphasis will be placed on the social and scientific context of medical thought, education, organization, and regulation.
HIS 595: Studies in History
W 3:00-5:30
George Carlton Wright
Professors will offer lecture and discussion courses in areas in which they have special teaching interest. May be repeated to a maximum of six credits.
HIS 606: Historical Criticism
Required of every entering graduate student in history. For history graduate students only.
HIS 641: Readings in American History since 1877
T 4:30-7:00
Instructor TBD
HIS 654: Readings in Modern African-American History
Anastasia Curwood
The scholarly field of African-American History is distinguished by its rendering of black historical actors as full participants, and by centering the perspectives of those historical actors, along with blunt analysis of power relationships within the United States and investigation into the workings of other aspects of identity (gender, class, sexuality) as they mediate the experiences of black Americans. This course takes up those topics in the period since the Civil War.
HIS 700-001
War and Memory
Instructor: Akiko Takenaka
Time: Tuesdays 2-4:30 pm
Location: 1745 POT
This course explores how war is remembered both by the individuals who lived through them and those who have come after them. Central to our inquiry are representation and transmission of memory, and how memory is shaped and reshaped over time. The forms of memorialization we investigate include: testimonies, oral history narratives, memoirs, popular media, visual and material culture, museum exhibits, and daily life. We will study various categories of memory such as collective memory, official memory, counter memory, and postmemory. We will investigate the impact of trauma on memory. We will discuss the relationship between memory and history. The course focuses on wars and catastrophes in the modern period drawing case studies from around the world.
Atlantic World
Instructor: Scott Taylor
Time: Monday 5:00-7:30
Location: Kastle Hall 210
“The Atlantic World” is a colloquium intended to introduce students to the burgeoning field of the Atlantic World, in the era approximately 1600-1850. The course aims to familiarize specialists in US history with broader trends in the world during the period of colonial and early national American history and to decenter the United States and Britain in familiar stories such as slavery and revolution. The course aims to offer students in other specializations like Europe or Latin America with an introduction to the content and most current analytical tools of Atlantic World history.
Empires: The US and the Rest
Instructor: Phill Harling
Time: R 4:30-7:00
Location: Whitehall Classroom Bldg 203
One important way to try to understand the period between 1815 and 1945 (or indeed, perhaps in some ways even 1815 to the present) is to think of it as an “age of empires.” This was an age in which the industrializing nations of the West exercised unprecedented power over vast stretches of the globe – not only military power, but economic and cultural power, as well. What did empires look like and feel like – to colonized as well as colonizing peoples? What forms did imperial power take, and how were they negotiated and contested? How were empires not merely “strong” but also “weak”? What accounts for the waxing and waning of empires? How “imperial” was the United States, in comparison with nations that we more typically associate with imperialism (pre-eminently Britain, but also France, Germany, Russia, and even Belgium)? These are some of the broader thematic questions we’ll explore.
We’ll focus on conceptually broad and comparative readings for roughly the first half of the semester. (The readings assigned will depend on the stated interests of enrolled students, and will likely focus most closely on American and British experience). The second half of the semester will be largely devoted to a mini-research paper (15-20 pages) on a pertinent topic of your choice. That topic needs to be related to imperialism/colonialism in some discernible way – but in a way that enhances your own broader course of study.
Appalachian Understories: New Directions in Mountain South and Global Commons History
Instructor: Kathy Newfont
Time: F 12:00-2:30
In this course we use the Appalachian Studies Association 2020 conference, to be held at UK March 12-15, as a point of entree into Mountain South and global commons history. Students will engage recent scholarship in these fields through a number of means. We read works by key conference presenters and architects, and by other leading scholars in our core fields. Conference presenters and collaborators visit our course. We attend and reflect on the conference itself. And we pursue independent projects related to the Mountain South and/or global commons. The course offers students a unique opportunity to engage deeply with a large on-site professional conference and the scholarship beneath it.
Instructor: Amy Murrell Taylor
Location: Patterson Hall 221
This class is a research seminar—designed to assist students in the creation of an original piece of scholarship—but also a writing seminar. It is built on the assumption that good writing is a learned skill, rather than an inherent trait possessed only by some people. We will tackle subjects ranging from the organization and structure of effective historical narratives, to the importance of finding one’s “voice,” the characteristics of good prose, and the daily habits of productive writers. The class will be collaborative, with peer review as an essential building block, since writing is a more of a collective enterprise than often assumed. In the end, each student will aim to leave the class not only with sharpened writing skills, but also with a 25-page, article-length paper that should be on its way toward publication in a historical journal. The class is open to all graduate students, regardless of time and geographic specialty.
‹ Courses up Fall 2019 Courses ›
HGSA Officers
Gender and Race Faculty
Imperial Encounters Faculty
Practices in History Faculty
War and Memory Faculty
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1408
|
__label__wiki
| 0.841828
| 0.841828
|
Jonathan Toews stepped up after jake Muzzin leveled Brandon Saad with huge hit in a 5-4 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs
Jonathan Toews Steps Up After Jake Muzzin Levels Brandon Saad With Huge Hit
The refs broke it up quickly but Jonathan Toews was ready to go toe-to-toe with Jake Muzzin after the Maple Leafs defenceman leveled Brandon Saad with a hit against the boards.
Lehner makes 53 saves for Blackhawks in win against Maple Leafs
Robin Lehner made 53 saves, and the Chicago Blackhawks scored twice in 10 seconds during a four-goal first period in a 5-4 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at United Center on Sunday.
Patrick Kane had two goals and an assist, and Kirby Dach, Jonathan Toews and Brandon Saad also scored for Chicago (6-7-4), which is 3-1-2 in its past six games after going 1-4-1 in the previous six. Alex DeBrincat had three assists.
The Blackhawks were outshot 26-7 in the third period.
“It was a tough one, but way to battle together and get the two points,” Lehner said.
William Nylander had two goals and Auston Matthews had four assists for Toronto (9-6-4), which saw its five-game point streak end (3-0-2).
Michael Hutchinson made 29 saves.
“Well, we didn’t start very good obviously,” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. “They shot it in our net. We thought we competed way earlier than the third, but in the end we didn’t compete good enough to win. We had a lot of chances. Their goalie was real solid, he made lots of saves. In saying that though, the first 10 minutes of the game wasn’t good enough, so you spend the whole night battling.”
NHL Highlights | Maple Leafs vs. Blackhawks – Nov. 10, 2019
The Maple Leafs announced during the game that forward Mitchell Marner, who injured his ankle in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, will be out at least four weeks. …
Matthews had 10 shots on goal, and Toronto defensemen Morgan Rielly and Jake Muzzin each had six. …
It was the fifth time since 1989-90 the Blackhawks scored twice in 10 seconds or fewer, and the first since Nov. 23, 2013 at the Vancouver Canucks, when Andrew Shaw and Marcus Kruger scored nine seconds apart. …
Lehner’s 53 saves matched his NHL career high on Nov. 1, 2013, against the New York Islanders. …
Kane has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in a six-game point streak after having one assist in his previous five games.
An errant shot hits Drake Caggiula in the head.
He was in pain and needed assistance to get to the dressing room.
Sources & Credits: Scott King / NHL.com, CHI Blackhawks, TOR Maple Leafs
And exhale!#Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/WmlsGIcnYR
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) November 11, 2019
Jonathan Toews stepped up after jake Muzzin leveled Brandon Saad with huge hit in a 5-4 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs2019-11-112019-11-11https://hockeytroll.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/hockey-fix-gris.pngHockey Trollhttps://hockeytroll.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/jonathan-toews-stepped-up-after-jake-muzzin-leveled-brandon-saad-with-huge-hit-in-a-5-4-win-against-the-toronto-maple-leafs.jpg200px200px
Vincent Trocheck scored the deciding goal in the shootout and the Florida Panthers defeated the New York RangersGeneral, News
Connor McDavid does it again as he scored his 5th career hat trick for the Edmonton Oilers in a 6-2 win against the Anaheim DucksGeneral, News
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1410
|
__label__cc
| 0.655269
| 0.344731
|
4524 MacArthur Drive | North Little Rock | AR 72118
New Non-Current
2020 Honda Pioneer 1000-5 Deluxe
New Utility Vehicles • SxS: Pioneer 1000
SxS: Pioneer 1000
SXS10M5DLL
Honda Phantom Camo
2020 Honda Pioneer 1000-5 Deluxe • $18,999
Pioneering Performance.
When it comes to side-by-sides, Honda’s Pioneers are the machines you can count on for work or play. What sets our top-of-the-line Pioneer 1000 family apart? Smart technology. Superior materials. Refined engineering. And something nobody else can match: Honda’s well-earned and world-famous reputation for reliability and overall quality.
3-PERSON CONTOURED BENCH SEAT: Tough, durable and built to enhance every driving experience — yes, we’re talking about the seat. Contoured for three passengers, the center seat is positioned up and forward to maximize space and comfort, and the covering is designed to resist both the elements and heavy use.
LCD DISPLAY: The multi-function LCD dash display is large enough to host loads of information, in an easy-to-read way, like speed and fuel level. RPM and transmission mode. Fuel gauge, water temperature, trip information and more. It even includes a clock, so you’ll always know when it’s time for some fun.
TILT WHEEL: With a tilt steering wheel, you’re ensured an even more comfortable driving experience. We’ve given the wheel a wide range of adjustments for optimum customization, and it even moves very far forward to allow for easy entry and exit.
SOPHISTICATED CHASSIS: Some of the most impressive Pioneer 1000 features are those you’ll never see. In addition to the suspension and ground clearance, we rubber-mounted the engine and exhaust system to insulate the cabin against excessive vibration. So while you may not see this feature, it’s one you will definitely notice.
SELF-LOAD LEVELING REAR SUSPENSION: Even when you push your Pioneer 1000-5 to the limits, you compromise nothing. Just take the load-leveling suspension with cargo, passengers or both piled into the back — the rear suspension automatically adjusts to the weight change. So you maintain ground clearance, comfort and handling, without compromises.
Handling and Control
CHASSIS AND SUSPENSION: Prepare to go further than ever before. Our refined chassis enables you to tackle terrain others would shy away from, with larger tires, long-travel independent front and rear suspension and huge ground clearance. The rubber mounted engine and exhaust system insulates against excessive vibration, and on the 1000-5 model, self-leveling rear suspension compensates for changing loads. Plus, the Pioneer 1000-5 Limited Edition gets premium, quick-adjust FOX QS-3 shocks on all four corners.
PADDLE SHIFTING: Steering column-mounted paddle shifters add a serious dose of performance in every drive. In Manual mode, they let you shift without ever taking your hands off the wheel, and in Automatic mode, they let you override the current gear with a quick up or downshift, holding that gear for several seconds before returning to Automatic mode. For 2020, the whole Pioneer 1000 lineup offers this feature.
INDEPENDENT FRONT AND REAR SUSPENSION: Dual A-arm suspension gives you 10.5 inches of travel in the front, and 10-inches of travel in the rear. Pair that with stellar ground clearance, and you maximize available traction and superior comfort maneuvering over terrain other side-by-sides would shy away from.
TURF/2WD/4WD/DIFF LOCK: Don’t tear up sensitive surfaces. Select Turf Mode. Want to access as much traction as possible? Put it in 4WD. Need maximum power at all four wheels? Lock the front and rear differentials. And the best part is, you can do it all with a shift of a single lever.
ELECTRIC POWER STEERING: Our Electric Power Steering system helps eliminate bump steer through rocky and rutted terrain, which reduces fatigue. What makes it even better is the added assist you get when you need it most, like when you’re in 4WD, driving at lower speeds, or maneuvering over rough conditions.
BIGGER TIRES: Practically speaking, the 27-inch tires on 12-inch rims help increase ground clearance, improve ride comfort, and deliver better traction. Realistically speaking, they just look great. And on Deluxe and Limited Edition models, you get Maxxis Bighorn 2.0 tires with radial construction and premium style.
ADVANCED TRANSMISSION LOGIC: The brain of the DCT, Advanced Transmission Logic, senses how you drive and adapts. Relaxed drivers get earlier shifts for a quieter ride at lower engine speeds. Sportier drivers will hold each gear longer for higher RPM shifts. And when going downhill, you get true engine braking. Now that’s a smart transmission.
POWERFUL 999 CC TWIN-CYLINDER ENGINE: When you know the power you need is always at the ready, every drive is an enjoyable experience. And that’s precisely what you get out of the class-leading 999cc liquid-cooled inline twin. Using the same Unicam® cylinder head design found in our motocross bikes, it’s more compact in size, and it still delivers the kind of horsepower and torque you’d expect from a flagship model.
FULLY-AUTOMATIC SIX-SPEED DCT TRANSMISSION: Drive the way you want, with the industry’s first and only 6-speed Dual Clutch Transmission. Choose between manual mode or fully automatic. Plus, the addition of Sport Mode increases the fun, shifting at higher RPMs for a spirited, full-performance driving experience.
HIGH / LOW SUBTRANSMISSION: With a full 42-percent gear reduction between High and Low, you get the torque you need in all 6 gears. It comes in handy when driving over difficult terrain, scaling steep hills or towing heavy loads.
BUILT IN THE U.S.A.: The Pioneer 1000 is purpose-built for the American market, right in America. Domestically and globally sourced parts are all assembled at our plant in Timmonsville, South Carolina, and once these side-by-sides roll off the line, they’re ready to explore every corner of the country.
2000-POUND TOWING CAPACITY: Call it 2000 pounds, or call it one ton. Either way, the towing capacity of the Pioneer 1000 is unsurpassed by any competitor. So instead of hopping on the tractor or taking out the truck, you can stay right in your side-by-side and tackle those bigger jobs with relative ease.
FOUR-WHEEL DISC BRAKES: The Pioneer’s uncompromising power helps take you further than ever before. The reliable disc brakes help you stop on a dime. Built to the same standard as you’d find in our autos, the four-wheel disc brakes minimize debris from building up, ensuring consistent performance, and giving you confidence on the trail.
DRIVER / PASSENGER PROTECTION: The Occupant Protection Structure uses large-diameter tubing, and meets OSHA’s rollover protection standard. The hard doors and roll-up side nets help keep debris from entering the cabin, and auto-style three-point seatbelts are equipped with an emergency locking retractor mechanism, to help optimize passenger security. When you put this much safety first, fun is sure to follow.
QUICKFLIP® SEATING: Want to bring an extra one or two passengers along for the ride? Two QuickFlip® seats pop up from the cargo bed on Pioneer 1000-5 models, giving you the extra seating you need, when you need it. Exclusive to Honda, it’s a smarter system than fixed seat, multi-row models, giving you better maneuverability on the trails.
ENGINE AIR INTAKE: To get the most out of your engine, you need the best air going into it. That’s why we positioned the air intake up high under the hood. It helps ensure a clean air supply, even at deeper fording depths, and with a new viscous air filter element, you get increased performance and longer service intervals.
1000-POUND-CAPACITY TILT BED: There are a ton of reasons to buy a Pioneer 1000. Among them: the half-ton hauling capacity*. No side-by-side can haul more, and when it comes to dumping, we’ve made it easier than ever, with a hydraulic assist tilt bed lever that can be accessed from outside the vehicle, or right from the driver’s seat.
COLOR-MATCH DOOR AND BEDSIDE PANELS: Want to change the color of your Pioneer when hunting season rolls around? No problem. Our door and bedside panels can be easily swapped out for a different color scheme if and when you need it. This feature comes in particularly handy in case a panel sustains any damage on the job or trail.
Pioneer 1000-5 Deluxe
Front / Rear - Dual 210 mm hydraulic discs
Front - 27 x 9 x 12; 27 x 9x 14
Rear - 27 x 9 x 12; 27 x 11-14
Curb - 1,709 lb. - Includes all standard equipment, required fluids and full tank of fuel.
13.8 ft.
Fully Automatic Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) with six forward gears and Reverse. Four drive modes include 2WD, 4WD, Turf and Differential lock. Paddle Shifters with three shift modes (standard, sport, and manual)
Direct front and rear driveshafts
Twin-cylinder, Unicam® four-stroke
92.0 x 75.15 mm
Fuel Injection (PGM-FI), 44 mm throttle body
Full-transistorized with electronic advance
7.9 gal. including (1.7 gal. reserve)
Independent double-wishbone; 10.6 in. travel
Independent double-wishbone; 10 in. travel
Reactor Blue
Recommended for drivers 16 years of age and older.
One Year, Transferable limited warranty; extended coverage available with a Honda Protection Plan
PIONEER 1000 IS ONLY FOR DRIVERS 16 YEARS AND OLDER. MULTI-PURPOSE UTILITY VEHICLES (SIDE-BY-SIDES) CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO OPERATE. FOR YOUR SAFETY, DRIVE RESPONSIBLY. ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET, EYE PROTECTION AND APPROPRIATE CLOTHING. ALWAYS WEAR YOUR SEAT BELT, AND KEEP THE SIDE NETS AND DOORS CLOSED. AVOID EXCESSIVE SPEEDS AND BE CAREFUL ON DIFFICULT TERRAIN. WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU COMPLETE THE RECREATIONAL OFF HIGHWAY VEHICLE (ROV) E-COURSE. THE FREE COURSE IS AVAILABLE AT WWW.ROHVA.ORG. READ THE OWNER’S MANUAL BEFORE OPERATING THE VEHICLE. NEVER DRIVE AFTER CONSUMING DRUGS OR ALCOHOL, OR ON PUBLIC ROADS. DRIVER AND PASSENGERS MUST BE TALL ENOUGH FOR SEAT BELT TO FIT PROPERLY AND TO BRACE THEMSELVES WITH BOTH FEET FIRMLY ON THE FLOOR. PASSENGER MUST BE ABLE TO GRASP THE HAND HOLD WITH THE SEAT BELT ON AND BOTH FEET ON THE FLOOR. RESPECT THE ENVIRONMENT WHEN DRIVING. Pioneer® is a registered trademark of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. ©2019 American Honda Motor Co., Inc. (05/19) powersports.honda.com
Honda of North Little Rock/Arkansas Yamaha
4524 MacArthur Drive
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1420
|
__label__wiki
| 0.798758
| 0.798758
|
Latest Dustin Brown News
Konecny leads Flyers past Kings 4-1
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — After a lackluster home effort the last time out, Flyers coach Alain Vigneault shifted his top line and it paid huge dividends. Travis Konecny scored a pair of goals and James van Riemsdyk added a goal and two assists to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles...
Stamkos' shootout goal lifts Lightning over Kings 4-3
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — With a blistering shot that glanced off the goalie's shoulder and into the net, Nikita Kucherov saved the night for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The reigning NHL MVP and scoring champion scored with a little over a minute left in regulation and Steven Stamkos delivered the game-deciding goal...
Frk scores 2 in debut for Kings in 3-2 OT win over Sharks
Dec. 28, 2019 1:55 AM EST
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Martin Frk hasn’t been in Los Angeles long, yet he’s already made quite an impression. Frk scored two third-period goals in his debut with the Kings, and Jeff Carter scored the winner in overtime and also had an assist as Los Angeles rallied to beat the San Jose Sharks...
Silfverberg lifts Ducks past Islanders 6-5 in shootout
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) — Jakob Silfverberg scored in regulation and added the shootout winner in the Anaheim Ducks’ 6-5 win against the New York Islanders. Adam Henrique had a goal and an assist, John Gibson made 28 saves as the Ducks snapped a two-game skid. Max Comtois, Sam Carrick and Cam Fowler...
Sabres end 3-game losing streak with 3-2 win over Kings
Dec. 21, 2019 6:02 PM EST
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Linus Ullmark is taking control in goal for the Buffalo Sabres. He’s got the Los Angeles Kings’ number, too. Ullmark made 25 saves to lead the Sabres to a 3-2 win over the Kings on Saturday. It was yet another commanding performance for the 26-year-old netminder, who has...
Toffoli, Kings stop losing streak with 3-1 win over Rangers
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kings forward Tyler Toffoli has heard the chatter about his lackluster play in a contract season. A change of position helped get Toffoli on the scoresheet, which pushed his struggling team back into the win column. Toffoli had a goal and an assist, and Los Angeles ended a four-game...
Kings cool Jets’ November roll with 2-1 win
Dec. 1, 2019 2:27 AM EST
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Kings made themselves at home in November. Even the Winnipeg Jets, who have been road warriors over the last month to set their own records, couldn’t find a way to disrupt the Kings’ flow on home ice. Joakim Ryan and Nikolai Prokhorkin each scored and the...
LOADING MORE STORIES
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1422
|
__label__cc
| 0.547907
| 0.452093
|
A limestone spike rising dramatically from the emerald waters of Phang Nga Bay, James Bond Island (Koh Tapu — Nail Island in Thai) earned its moniker from appearing in two 007 movies: The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Excursions depart from the popular resort areas of Phuket, Khao Lak and Krabi on photogenic longtail boats. On the tour, explore secret lagoons, craggy sea caves and a floating village.
These days, travelers will tell you that Tahiti is no longer a dream. True, it has an international airport, and smart hotels rise within sight of the coral reef. I have seen the changes over the years, yet the island is still beautiful and still rises suddenly green to the cloud-touched mountaintops. At least from the sea, before you come too close, you can still see Tahiti as Paul Gauguin saw it— in all its extravagance and romance—when he voyaged there from France to paint.
El Cortez Hotel and Casino $38+ the D Las Vegas $41+ Oasis at Gold Spike $46+ Plaza Hotel & Casino $48+ Palace Station Hotel And Casino $50+ Circus Circus Hotel & Casino $55+ Hooters Casino Hotel $59+ Downtown Grand Las Vegas $59+ Stratosphere Hotel, Casino & Tower, BW Premier Collection $60+ Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino $62+ Tuscany Suites & Casino $66+ Alexis Park All Suite Resort $67+ Excalibur Hotel and Casino $71+ Lucky Dragon Las Vegas $74+ Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino $74+ Luxor Hotel and Casino $79+ The LINQ Hotel & Casino $79+ Golden Nugget Las Vegas Hotel & Casino $79+ Harrah's Las Vegas Hotel & Casino $79+ Flamingo Las Vegas - Hotel & Casino $80+ Tropicana Las Vegas a DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel and Resort $83+ The Orleans Hotel & Casino $83+ SLS Las Vegas $84+ TI - Treasure Island Hotel and Casino $87+ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino $91+ Bally's Las Vegas - Hotel & Casino $95+ South Point Hotel, Casino, And Spa $95+ New York-New York Hotel & Casino $105+ Palms Casino Resort $113+ Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino $120+
Nantucket was once one of the richest places in America, built on the profits of the whale oil industry. Even today in the delectable old town there are fine brick houses with silver mailboxes.Old-time sailors used to call Nantucket “The Little Grey Lady of the Sea.” On the misty morning I first arrived there, I could understand why. A woman was riding a horse along the beach to the utter delight of her family aboard my ferry, and she bore a banner that said “Crazy Aunt Rides Again.” It is a unique place.
Flight Houston - Fort Lauderdale (HOU - FLL) $85+ Flight Houston - Fort Lauderdale (IAH - FLL) $85+ Flight Atlantic City - Fort Lauderdale (ACY - FLL) $89+ Flight Atlanta - Fort Lauderdale (ATL - FLL) $99+ Flight Denver - Fort Lauderdale (DEN - FLL) $107+ Flight Philadelphia - Fort Lauderdale (PHL - FLL) $107+ Flight Cleveland - Fort Lauderdale (CLE - FLL) $112+
Search cheap hotels with KAYAK. Use the hotel finder to search for the cheapest hotel deal for all major destinations around the world. KAYAK searches hundreds of hotel booking sites to help you find hotels and book hotels that suit you best. Since KAYAK searches many hotel sites at once, you can find discount hotels quickly. Discover hotel discounts now and make your hotel reservation today.
The joy is to watch how these islands are transformed by changing distances, by sunlight, by clouds. On some, there is a sliver of beach, just enough from which to swim; others are edged with little villages built on boards, the houses tied together. All are tropical paradises: Koh Phi Phi, Koh He, Koh Racha, Koh Surin, Koh Dok Mai, to name some of the favorites. Koh Phuket serves as a good jumping-off point. After being devastated by the 2004 tsunami, these islands have made a comeback.
As I had a boat, my next design was to make a cruise round the island; for as I had been on the other side in one place, crossing, as I have already described it, over the land, so the discoveries I made in that little journey made me very eager to see other parts of the coast; and now I had a boat, I thought of nothing but sailing round the island.
With a history dating to the Stone Age, Hvar is as fascinating as it is beautiful. Thirteenth-century walls surround Hvar Town, with its red-tiled roofs, and the ancient stone ruins of Stari Grad Plain became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008. A jaunt to the interior reveals rugged mountains, lush vineyards and fragrant lavender fields. Embark on a boat trip on the Adriatic to snorkel, swim in sea caves, and wander secret beaches and seaside hamlets.
Flight Dallas - Las Vegas (DFW - LAS) $57+ Flight Oakland - Las Vegas (OAK - LAS) $57+ Flight Denver - Las Vegas (DEN - LAS) $71+ Flight Houston - Las Vegas (HOU - LAS) $72+ Flight Houston - Las Vegas (IAH - LAS) $72+ Flight Los Angeles - Las Vegas (LAX - LAS) $79+ Flight Seattle - Las Vegas (SEA - LAS) $86+ Flight San Francisco - Las Vegas (SFO - LAS) $87+ Flight San José - Las Vegas (SJC - LAS) $97+ Flight Philadelphia - Las Vegas (PHL - LAS) $123+ Flight Chicago - Las Vegas (ORD - LAS) $125+ Flight Minneapolis - Las Vegas (MSP - LAS) $127+ Flight Cleveland - Las Vegas (CLE - LAS) $134+ Flight Atlanta - Las Vegas (ATL - LAS) $155+ Flight Washington - Las Vegas (BWI - LAS) $156+ Flight Orlando - Las Vegas (MCO - LAS) $158+ Flight Newark - Las Vegas (EWR - LAS) $163+ Flight Fort Lauderdale - Las Vegas (FLL - LAS) $165+ Flight Boston - Las Vegas (BOS - LAS) $167+ Flight Washington - Las Vegas (DCA - LAS) $176+ Flight Detroit - Las Vegas (DTW - LAS) $183+ Flight New York - Las Vegas (LGA - LAS) $183+ Flight Chicago - Las Vegas (MDW - LAS) $205+ Flight New York - Las Vegas (JFK - LAS) $219+
Known as the Cradle of Polynesia, Samoa is notable for its Fa’a Samoa way of life — a 3,000-year-old social code that prizes family, tradition and the environment. Happily, the landscape is as lovely as the local culture. On the main island of Upolu, a plunge into the To Sua Ocean Trench swimming grotto is a must. On Savaii, Samoa’s largest island, visit caves, waterfalls, blowholes and the Saleaula lava field, formed by a 1905 volcanic eruption that buried five villages.
Today Hawaii is a bold showcase for farm-to-table fusion cuisine, culturally conscious fashion and innovation. Visitors will find themselves spoiled for options between romantic boutique getaways and family friendly five star resorts. High-end retailers have put Hawaii on the map of world-class shopping destinations, and Hawaii’s passionate chefs have created a foodie frenzy here. As far forward as Hawaii has evolved, those looking for a walk back in time can still find Old Hawaii tucked away off the beaten paths. And the ancient stories still exist in the lovely hula hands of dancers who have given themselves as keepers of the culture.
Capri is the only island I have ever visited that is just as I imagined it would be. The lyrical songs are only too true. The town square itself takes some believing. It’s like a stage, and not much bigger either. There are colored balconies all around and a lovely campanile, where the clock divertingly chimes not to mark the time but whenever it feels like it. From the highest point on the island, you can look across to the volcano of Vesuvius with the Italian coast stretched out over a shining sea.
Possibly the location of the storied island of Atlantis, Santorini is the stuff of screensavers and wall calendars. Red-, black- and white-sand beaches rim its caldera lake — one of the largest in the world — while iconic whitewashed buildings stair-step up the hillside overlooking the Aegean Sea. Photo ops abound, from centuries-old windmills and ancient ruins to blue-domed churches and colorful wooden fishing boats. Stay in a boutique cave hotel for the full experience.
Lord Howe is way out in the middle of the Tasman Sea, a two-and-a-half-hour plane ride from Sydney. It takes days by boat. However you get there, the journey is worth it.Named after a British admiral, Lord Howe is the world’s most southerly coral island. About 350 people call it home, many descended from families who settled there in the 18th century.
These are the outriders of England, a clutch of tiny islands off Land's End, Cornwall, awash in the Atlantic and in a world of their own. Five are sparsely inhabited, and hundreds more islets, skerries, and rocks stretch out to the Bishop Rock Lighthouse. The next stop is America.Balmy Atlantic air supports the spring flower industry. Part of the Duchy of Cornwall, the isles are owned by Prince Charles.
The Seychelles’ towering beach boulders are a mainstay on computer desktops, but they’re more than merely aesthetic — they also fascinate geologists, who have identified the Seychelles as the only mid-ocean islands formed of granite. Other superlatives: The archipelago is the oldest on the planet, and it has the cleanest air. Naturally, celebrities flock here; if you want to vacation a la British royalty, stay on North Island, where Prince William and Kate Middleton spent their 2011 honeymoon.
The Hawaiian Islands are one of the most geographically isolated places on earth, over 2,400 miles and nearly 4,000 km to the closest landmass, which is California, USA. Born of a volcanic hotspot rising from the sea floor of the Pacific Ocean, the Hawaiian archipelago formed nearly 75 million years ago, with the eldest islands of the chain long since eroded and submerged beneath the sea’s surface to the northwest and the youngest of the islands still forming beneath the sea’s surface to the south east.
If you're sightseeing, you may only be after a basic hotel, but its location will be crucial to you. Hotels.com gives you detailed maps of the Newark area and each landmark and transportation option to allow you to book the cheapest hotel in Newark nearest the attractions you actually care about. You can even search outside the city and find budget hotels across New Jersey.
A group of 27 coral islands that form two atolls in the Indian Ocean, the Cocos Keeling Islands were virtually unheard of until beach activists Brad Farmer and Andrew Short named Cocos Keeling’s Cossies Beach as the best in Australia for 2017. Called the continent’s last unspoiled paradise, the remote destination is as special for what’s not there (high-rise resorts, chain restaurants, crowds, traffic) as what is — pristine white sand and a turquoise lagoon that’s home to 30,000 sea turtles.
Found Places Boston Fenway Inn $28+ The Farrington Inn $50+ Hi Boston $52+ Ramada by Wyndham Boston $79+ Comfort Inn Boston $96+ DoubleTree by Hilton Boston Bayside $100+ Best Western Plus Boston Hotel $102+ Boston Lodge and Suites $107+ Hampton Inn & Suites Boston Crosstown Center $122+ Boston Omni Parker House Hotel $125+ Boston Hotel Buckminster $126+ Yotel Boston $136+ The Boxer $138+ Aloft Boston Seaport District $141+
Holding the largest number of overwater bungalow resorts in the world (more than 75 and counting), the Maldives understands its best asset is the gin-clear, abundant waters of the Indian Ocean. When you’re not snorkeling, diving, or gazing at the rich marine life through the floor windows of your water-top villa, continue enjoying the underwater display while dining at 5.8 Undersea Restaurant, or even while getting pampered in Huvafen Fushi’s submerged spa.
Flight New York - London (JFK - LGW) $334+ Flight Newark - London (EWR - LHR) $340+ Flight Boston - London (BOS - LHR) $341+ Flight New York - London (JFK - LHR) $351+ Flight Dallas - London (DFW - LHR) $358+ Flight New York - London (LGA - LHR) $366+ Flight Chicago - London (ORD - LHR) $390+ Flight San Francisco - London (SFO - LHR) $399+ Flight San Francisco - London (SFO - LGW) $400+ Flight New York - London (JFK - LCY) $401+ Flight San José - London (SJC - LHR) $405+ Flight Newark - London (EWR - LCY) $407+ Flight Washington - London (IAD - LHR) $410+ Flight Newark - London (EWR - LGW) $419+
The delicate Great Barrier Reef is the earth’s most extensive coral-reef system, supporting more than 1,600 species of fish, along with whales, rays, octopuses, dolphins and more. Nestled in the heart of this world wonder are the 74 Whitsunday Islands, all but four of which are protected national parklands. Bask in luxury at a high-end resort like Hamilton Island, and book a seaplane or helicopter flight to admire sights like Heart Reef and the swirling silica sands of Whitehaven Beach’s Hill Inlet.
Take everything you want Greece to be — olive groves and tavernas, fishermen and bakers leading quiet village lives, stone villas and cypress trees and brilliant bougainvillea — and put it on a tiny, Ionian island only reachable by boat: That’s Paxos. On the western coast, sheer cliffs, rock arches and 40 sea caves put on a stunning show. Daytrip to the neighboring island of Antipaxos for powder sand and water so aqua, it rivals the Caribbean Sea.
Every imaginable shade of blue manifests in the lagoon of Bora Bora, aka, the Jewel of the South Seas. Coral motus ring the main island like a sandy sash, and beneath the surface, dolphins, rays, sharks, turtles and colorful fish throng. Presiding over it all is the moss-green volcanic peak of Mount Otemanu, where god descended to the island on a rainbow, according to local lore. Timeless grass-skirted dancers and exotic overwater bungalows round out the sublime scene.
Flight Chicago - New York (ORD - LGA) $57+ Flight Atlanta - Newark (ATL - EWR) $99+ Flight Orlando - Newark (MCO - EWR) $105+ Flight Fort Lauderdale - Newark (FLL - EWR) $114+ Flight Fort Lauderdale - New York (FLL - LGA) $127+ Flight Atlanta - New York (ATL - LGA) $137+ Flight Houston - Newark (HOU - EWR) $138+ Flight Houston - Newark (IAH - EWR) $138+ Flight Chicago - New York (ORD - JFK) $140+ Flight Los Angeles - New York (LAX - LGA) $144+ Flight Dallas - New York (DFW - LGA) $147+ Flight Fort Lauderdale - New York (FLL - JFK) $157+ Flight Atlanta - New York (ATL - JFK) $182+ Flight Los Angeles - Newark (LAX - EWR) $183+ Flight Detroit - Newark (DTW - EWR) $197+ Flight Houston - New York (HOU - LGA) $201+ Flight San Francisco - New York (SFO - LGA) $210+ Flight Seattle - New York (SEA - JFK) $217+ Flight Dallas - Newark (DFW - EWR) $222+ Flight Los Angeles - New York (LAX - JFK) $231+ Flight San Francisco - New York (SFO - JFK) $231+ Flight San Francisco - Newark (SFO - EWR) $231+ Flight Ontario - New York (ONT - JFK) $237+ Flight San José - New York (SJC - JFK) $237+
The so-called pearl of the French Caribbean, Guadeloupe is a butterfly-shaped archipelago of five main islands where volcanoes tower and 200-plus beaches come in shades from black and white to red and pink. Basse-Terre’s tropical forest and the bay of Grand-Cul-de-Sac Marin were declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1993. From there, island-hop to discover Grande-Anse beach on Les Saintes; Marie-Galante’s rum estates (and old-fashioned oxcarts); and La Desirade’s 900-foot plateau.
The Quisby $50+ Wyndham Garden Hotel Baronne Plaza $93+ The Whitney Hotel $99+ B on Canal $106+ Pelham Hotel New Orleans, La $116+ International House Hotel $118+ Royal St. Charles French Quarter/Downtown $119+ Royal Crescent Hotel $120+ Holiday Inn New Orleans-Downtown Superdome $122+ Chateau Hotel $122+ Holiday Inn Express New Orleans - St Charles $122+ Wyndham New Orleans - French Quarter $126+ French Market Inn $136+ Bienville House $141+
Flight Detroit - Orlando (DTW - MCO) $61+ Flight Denver - Orlando (DEN - MCO) $68+ Flight Houston - Orlando (HOU - MCO) $77+ Flight Houston - Orlando (IAH - MCO) $77+ Flight Washington - Orlando (BWI - MCO) $78+ Flight Philadelphia - Orlando (PHL - MCO) $83+ Flight Chicago - Orlando (ORD - MCO) $85+ Flight Providence - Orlando (PVD - MCO) $97+ Flight Washington - Orlando (DCA - MCO) $97+
Compare prices on 500+ airlines and travel sites, including Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline and more.Fly.com is your one stop shop to find discount flights, airline tickets and hotels. If you want cheap airfare for business travel or vacation to your favorite destination Fly.com has the best deals. Join the millions that use Fly.com to find cheap plane tickets and cheap hotels.
Flight New York - Washington (JFK - DCA) $117+ Flight Orlando - Washington (MCO - DCA) $117+ Flight Minneapolis - Washington (MSP - DCA) $123+ Flight New York - Washington (LGA - DCA) $137+ Flight Boston - Washington (BOS - DCA) $155+ Flight Boston - Washington (BOS - IAD) $161+ Flight Fort Lauderdale - Washington (FLL - DCA) $168+ Flight Chicago - Washington (ORD - DCA) $174+ Flight San José - Washington (SJC - IAD) $175+ Flight Denver - Washington (DEN - DCA) $179+ Flight Atlanta - Washington (ATL - DCA) $187+ Flight Miami - Washington (MIA - DCA) $191+ Flight Dallas - Washington (DFW - DCA) $196+ Flight Houston - Washington (HOU - IAD) $200+
Flight New York - Chicago (LGA - ORD) $57+ Flight Tampa - Chicago (TPA - ORD) $71+ Flight Denver - Chicago (DEN - ORD) $81+ Flight Houston - Chicago (HOU - ORD) $85+ Flight Houston - Chicago (IAH - ORD) $85+ Flight Boston - Chicago (BOS - ORD) $96+ Flight Dallas - Chicago (DFW - ORD) $97+ Flight Minneapolis - Chicago (MSP - ORD) $97+ Flight Washington - Chicago (BWI - ORD) $101+
Orlando Continental Plaza Hotel $39+ Clarion Inn & Suites At International Drive $58+ Monumental Hotel Orlando $60+ Red Lion Hotel Orlando - Kissimmee Maingate $63+ Clarion Hotel Orlando International Airport $64+ Rosen Inn International $65+ Rodeway Inn International Drive $66+ Rosen Inn at Pointe Orlando $68+ Rosen Inn, Closest To Universal $69+ Baymont by Wyndham Orlando Universal Blvd $72+ Best Western Orlando Gateway Hotel $85+ Westgate Town Center Resort $87+ Avanti International Resort $88+ Rosen Plaza on International Drive $89+ DoubleTree by Hilton at the Entrance to Universal Orlando $94+ Grande Villas Resort By Diamond Resorts $98+ Holiday Inn & Suites Across From Universal Orlando $98+ Sheraton Vistana Villages Resort Villas, I-Drive/Orlando $100+ Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Orlando Lake Buena Vista in The Marriott Village $100+ Coco Key Hotel & Water Park Resort $101+ Rosen Centre Hotel $104+ DoubleTree by Hilton Orlando at SeaWorld $104+ Sheraton Vistana Resort Villas, Lake Buena Vista/Orlando $107+ Wyndham Orlando Resort $110+
Nicknamed “The Helen of the West” (an allusion to the beauty of Helen of Troy), St. Lucia stuns with its signature feature: the UNESCO-listed twin Pitons. Reaching heights of about 2,500 feet, the voluptuous volcanic spires complement the island’s other attractions, including verdant jungles, sparkling silver-sand beaches, haunting sugar-estate ruins, and a mineral-rich natural mud bath. Meanwhile, the island’s most famous resort, Jade Mountain, is an architectural gem in its own right.
Word History: It may seem hard to believe, but Latin aqua, "water," is related to island, which originally meant "watery land." Aqua comes almost unchanged from Indo-European *akwā-, "water." *Akwā- became *ahwō- in Germanic by Grimm's Law and other sound changes. To this was built the adjective *ahwjō-, "watery." This then became *awwjō- or *auwi-, which in pre-English became *ēaj-, and finally ēg or īeg in Old English. Island, spelled iland, first appears in Old English in King Alfred's translation of Boethius about ad 888; the spellings igland and ealond appear in contemporary documents. The s in island is due to a mistaken etymology, confusing the etymologically correct English iland with French isle. Isle comes ultimately from Latin īnsula "island," a component of paenīnsula, "almost-island," whence our peninsula.
Search cheap flights with KAYAK. Search for the cheapest airline tickets for all the top airlines around the world and the top international flight routes. KAYAK searches hundreds of travel sites to help you find cheap airfare and book a flight that suits you best. Since KAYAK searches many plane tickets sites at once, you can find cheap tickets from cheap airlines quickly.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1423
|
__label__cc
| 0.749882
| 0.250118
|
Home > Announcements > IRP fellow Jason Paladino wins SPJ – NorCal 2016 James Madison Freedom of Information Award Student Award
IRP fellow Jason Paladino wins SPJ – NorCal 2016 James Madison Freedom of Information Award Student Award
IRP fellow Jason Paladino wins the Society of Professional Journalists – NorCal 2016 James Madison Freedom of Information Award Student Award for his investigation into the Navy’s Sea Dragon program.
Paladino’s investigative work, which he began as a student, resulted in an NBC Nightly News story entitled “Sea Dragon Down, The Human Cost of the Navy’s Most Crash-prone Chopper.” Beginning with Navy data, Paladino found that the Navy used the Cold War-era Sea Dragon helicopter for years, despite lacking proper maintenance and replacement parts. Records showed the Sea Dragon was frequently involved in crashes and fires, costing sailors their lives.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1430
|
__label__cc
| 0.56144
| 0.43856
|
Trailer Frenzy
Summer Is Over in the Overwhelming Final Stranger Things 3 Trailer
Filed to:stranger things
This is an emergency.
Photo: Netflix
Trailer FrenzyA special place to find the newest trailers for movies and TV shows you're craving.
The third season of Netflix’s Stranger Things has been teasing us with a summer of good times and tasty treats. But as we learn in the fantastic, terrifying, and action-packed final trailer, playtime is over.
The previous trailers for Stranger Things 3, which takes place in the summer of 1985, promised a cool and exciting summer adventure for our favorite gang of young heroes. But of course, the threat isn’t over. As we see in this trailer, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) may have closed the gate to the Upside Down, but it means the Mind Flayer got trapped inside. Perhaps... not by accident.
The Mind Flayer is now looking for a new host to carry out its evil plans, and the trailer indicates that it’s Max’s abusive older brother, Billy (Dacre Montgomery). But I’m not convinced Billy is the final target. After all, Stranger Things always has ways of surprising us. Rest in peace, Bob.
It’s clear we’re getting ready for a huge showdown for the future of Hawkins, Indiana, as the Mind Flayer reveals that it has no intentions of leaving our reality, instead planning to make our world its own. We get some tense action sequences, including a Jurassic Park-style fight-or-flight sequence set inside the now-destroyed Starcourt Mall. The stage is set for what could be the biggest and most powerful season yet. Hope you’ve stocked up on Eggos.
In the First Stranger Things Season 3 Trailer, It's All Fun and Games Until the Monsters Show
When last we caught up with Stranger Things’ heroes of Hawkins, they’d successfully managed to fend
Stranger Things 3 returns on July 4. Here’s the new synopsis:
It’s 1985 in Hawkins, Indiana, and summer’s heating up. School’s out, there’s a brand new mall in town, and the Hawkins crew are on the cusp of adulthood. Romance blossoms and complicates the group’s dynamic, and they’ll have to figure out how to grow up without growing apart. Meanwhile, danger looms. When the town’s threatened by enemies old and new, Eleven and her friends are reminded that evil never ends; it evolves. Now they’ll have to band together to survive, and remember that friendship is always stronger than fear.
Stranger Things' David Harbour Uncovers His Family's Version of Frankenstein in a New Netflix Mockumentary
Stranger Things Now Has Its Own '80s-Style Coca Cola Ad
Stranger Things' Natalia Dyer Subverts the 'Lost Girl' Trope in a New Sci-Fi Short Film
Your Local Baskin Robbins Is Getting a Stranger Things Makeover
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1432
|
__label__cc
| 0.592482
| 0.407518
|
Software Quality Insights
« Pulling compliance audits, procedures and practice together
First takes on Boston SPIN with Damon Poole and STPCon »
Oct 20 2009 6:40AM GMT
Boston SPIN: A small group’s big ideas about agile development
Daniel Mondello Profile: Daniel Mondello
I was invited to attend a SPIN (Software Process Improvement) meeting near Boston. SPIN has been in running for 17+ years and has over 1,100 registered members.
At the meeting, I joined a group gathered around a circular table to finish off my pizza slice and drink my apple juice. The group was already deep in conversation over the topic of our assembly: What exactly is agile software development, and where and how can it be practiced?
For Tru Hong, a QA engineer and analyst, “agile describes the process of telling small stories, small stories that would help in the telling of larger stories.” “Stories” are used commonly in requirements-based in agile, and storytelling is defining long-term goals and then setting shorter goals in which to accomplish the final vision.
Everyone seated at the table had a reasonable working knowledge of agile and its derivatives. While all agreed that agile is their preferred methodology, they also admitted that it’s difficult to define and sometimes to implement.
Two testers from Pembroke, Mass., discussed their experience with agile, which seemed to be similar to that or others at the table. Their company, which will remain anonymous in this post, was recently bought by a rival vendor that uses agile. As a result, the company had begun a restructuring process which included a move to agile. Outside a general knowledge of the term “agile,” his company’s management had only a vague estimation of what the buzzword referenced. So, management didn’t really understand the scope of the move, and it was left to the development team to implement.
Keith Willett, software product director for American Science and Engineering, Inc. (AS&E) located in neighboring Billerica, Mass., spoke highly of his company’s success with Scrum. His team was an early adopter of the methodology, and he’s Scrum-certified. well. Willett’s background, much like the others at the table, was in traditional waterfall approaches. He called waterfall the “the most medieval of software development methodologies,” and others agreed.
Complete adoption of agile is AS&E’s goal, Willett said. His team is making everything agile, everything from approaching a software project to tool usage to the way in which revenue is gathered and distributed amongst the project.
Matt Heusser — a test pro, agile advocate and frequent SearchSoftwareQuality.com contributor — joined the discussion and shared his work experiences with agile. Company-enforced agile had led to his development teams turning out iterations bi-weekly. Sometimes achieving that goal meant “a modest amount of overtime,” Heusser said. Though the deadlines are challenging, he said, he’s found the work completed in agile is more rewarding, because it leaves you with a sense of ownership over a project.
Commentary for IT professionals involved in the software development life cycle.
Managing Software Development and QC/QA
Service Endpoint: SOA blog
Mike Kelly's Blog
J.D. Meier's Blog
All About Agile
Google Testing Blog
Jeremiah Grossman's Blog
Information Technology Dark Side
Scott Barber's Blog
James Bach's Blog
James Shore Successful Software
JW on Test
SoftwareTestTT
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1441
|
__label__cc
| 0.66673
| 0.33327
|
Archive for category Youtube Jazz Videos
Brad Williams Interview
Posted by DJ in Jazz Gtr Interviews, Youtube Jazz Videos on July 14, 2015
I was contacted via Twitter by Brad and had a listen to his Youtube channel and loved what I heard; tasteful, in the tradition but not in anyway painting by numbers if that makes sense- check it out. I was glad he agreed to an interview. Thanks Brad!
What/who were your initial influences?
My very earliest influences were stacks of 45 RPM records my parents owned. Scotty Moore with Elvis Presley was a big one, Steve Cropper with Otis Redding was another. At 12 I was exposed to Hendrix, and at 15 to Wes Montgomery and Grant Green. Then I started going out as a teenager in my hometown of Memphis to hear Calvin Newborn at least one night per week— this was in the late 1990s. But my single biggest guitarist-influence, to this day, is Charlie Christian— such an incredible sound and conception, and true, deep feeling in every note. His influence exploded out in every direction— through Wes and Benson obviously, but also through T-Bone Walker into the blues, then Junior Barnard on the country side of things, and Chuck Berry and beyond into rock. Charlie Christian is truly the electric guitar’s ‘big bang.’ More than guitarists, though, I’m most influenced by any musician who delivers real depth of feeling and real, honest individuality. There are too many to list, and fortunately there’s no reason to narrow it down.
Are you gigging much at the moment and any projects in the pipeline?
I’m doing a lot of writing and producing these days, in all sorts of idioms, and a fair amount of performing. Not all of it is improvisation-centered. Last year I worked and toured quite extensively with vocalist José James, and currently I’m playing and writing a bit with artists like Kris Bowers, Cory Henry, Samora Pinderhughes, and Sly5thAve, as well as some more song-oriented projects with lots of great artists like Adesuwa, Kimberly Nichole, and more. Really just staying busy and keeping my vision very broad. My organ trio record, which features Pat Bianchi on B3 and Tyshawn Sorey on drums, comes out 4 September. I’m very excited to see the public’s reaction to Tyshawn’s organ trio drumming, which is fantastic. So many music lovers know his work in contexts very different from this, so I think a lot of people are going to really get a thrill from hearing him like this.
It was an interesting project in that we decided to do an entirely analogue capture the whole way through— we tracked and mixed to tape, and Scott Hull cut a great-sounding lacquer master from razor-blade sequenced quarter-inch reels. The LP edition will have never touched a computer at all, and I chose this way of working with a very clear musical result in mind. Rather than having the temptation to fix and edit, I wanted to enforce being true to the feeling of the moment. What was most interesting to me were all of the little things that bothered me initially. Most of those came to be some of my favorite parts of the record once it aged a bit— there’s real humanity there, and with modern recording workflows, a lot of this humanity gets eroded through little fixes, edits, and punches. I think this is because humanity and vulnerability, while engaging to audiences, can be uncomfortable when it’s your humanity and vulnerability!
What’s your ‘desert island’ guitar or have you got it!?
I have always liked guitars— I have 20 currently. I’ve always, from the very beginning, liked to have a lot of guitars around. Amps, too! So it would be hard to pick one. At any rate, things like makes, models, and vintages are purely academic to me— I have to play a particular guitar before I know if it speaks to me or not. Another of the exact same make, model, year might not strike me the same way. There are some I own that were particularly obvious to me the first time I picked them up. I have this 1953 Epiphone Triumph Regent that someone added a pickup to in 1954. It’s a carved-top guitar—it was an acoustic originally—and the pickup was bought out of a catalog, made by Carvin in the mid-1950s. I also have a blue 1962 Fender Jazzmaster that I’d never sell, and a 1944 Gibson Southern Jumbo flat top.
Most of my guitars are old; I tend to like the ones that have been played a lot. Sometimes I feel that as with any other tool that’s worked with in the hand a lot, like they can somehow accumulate personality. That probably sounds weird. But in the end, there’s music in any guitar— it’s up to the player to find out what the guitar does and how it can be worked-with, creatively. I’m a big fan of old inexpensive guitars, for instance— there’s almost always something they do that is unique and characterful. I’d be happy with almost any guitar on a desert island, I think!
Best guitar gig you’ve ever seen?
There’s one that comes to mind for me that I’ve talked about a few times since. I was about 18 years old and went to see B.B. King in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; the hall held about 8,000 people. I was young, deep into jazz guitar studies, trying to get my hands around all the technique and my ears around all the harmony. Mr. King had a second guitarist with him— a young kid playing a big archtop— and he gave this kid the first solo of the show. The kid played great; lots of notes, some bebop-inspired language, and I remember thinking “wow, I’ve heard the B.B. King records; I know he’s not going to play more stuff than this guy!” After the younger player’s solo, which finished to polite applause, B.B. King played a single note— one of those stinging upper register notes he’s so famous for. The energy in the hall immediately elevated to this transcendent place— you could feel the electricity of the whole crowd’s emotions being stirred simultaneously. It was a transformative moment for me, because it caused me in one instant to completely re-evaluate what was important to me in music. From that point on, the question was always “is this idea in service of some kind of feeling?” Because it’s not enough, to me, to just be a clever idea or an impressive thing to demonstrate. If it’s not working toward making me feel what B.B. King made that whole hall feel that day, then it’s not what I’m after.
Which guitarist(s) would you recommend for other people to check out?
Well, there are all the usual ones— the legends. Charlie Christian gets a shout-out, again. Freddie Green was always another big hero of mine, due to his deep concept as a rhythm section player. For me, there’s a whole school of Memphis session guitarists that are just my favorite lately. The late Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, Skip Pitts, Michael Toles, Bobby Manuel, Steve Cropper, and— above them all, to me— the great Reggie Young. Most of your readers have heard these players somewhere or other; as session players they were all incredibly prolific, and on some important records. There are some others that are so worth checking out that don’t get as much talk these days— Oscar Moore, George Van Eps, Gene Bertoncini… As for current players, my friend Charlie Hunter has a fabulous new record out with Curtis Fowlkes and Bobby Previte. Isaiah Sharkey is another player I’m really impressed by, as is Tony Scherr… his slide work is so full of real feeling. There are really too many great ones to name.
B.B. King, charlie christian, Charlie Hunter, gene bertoncini, George Benson, George Van Eps, Grant Green, oscar moore, Wes Montgomery
ATTYA
Posted by DJ in Youtube Jazz Videos on April 23, 2014
Just having a jam over a couple of play-alongs over the long weekend as I was dying to try out my new Alumitone pickups which have just been installed in my Ibanez AS153. They immediately gave more thump to the bass and a clearer treble- I’ve installed them in both my gigging guitars.
Anyway see what you think..
alumitone, Ibanez
Syberen van Munster
It’s really great when as a consequence of this blog people contact me and I come across new, interesting and lesser known players. I had correspondence from Syberen van Munster and I love his interpretation of “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face”. Enjoy!
Paco de Lucia (1947–2014)
Posted by DJ in Jazz Gtr News, Youtube Jazz Videos on February 27, 2014
Although himself not a jazz guitarist, I feel his passing deserves recognition as his music had such passion, soul and other worldly skill to it. I first came into contact with his music through a woodwind repairer at our shop who gave me a tape of “Friday Night in San Francisco” years ago and it flipped my head as I’d never heard guitar playing like it! Subsequently in 1996 I went out to buy “Antologia” which at the time was only available on import (£30 and I was skint!) but it proved to be an outstandingly good purchase as it still gets listened to on a regular basis. At that time I didn’t really understand how his career had moved flamenco forward into world music and into the ears and hearts of people around the world but now understanding a bit more about that really brings the music a whole new edge.
My favourite Paco tracks are ‘Zyrab’, the truly incredible ‘Guijaras de Lucia’, Rio Ancho, ‘Monasterio de Sal’, and his contributions to the 3 Guitar Trio albums.
I’ll leave you with a track from John McLaughlin’s mid 90’s album which saw a reprise of the guitar trio for the track that John wrote with Paco in mind ‘El Ciego’
John Mclaughlin, paco de lucia
Sheryl Bailey & Phil Robson
Posted by DJ in Jazz Gtr News, Youtube Jazz Videos on June 14, 2013
A couple of days ago Sheryl Bailey and Phil Robson had a play at the workshop that Sheryl was hosting thanks to the great work that the folks at the London Jazz Guitar Society are doing. Wish I had been able to make it down but at least there was a bit of video to watch!
Smokin’!
Phil Robson, sheryl bailey
Johnny Smith (1922-2013)
Just heard the sad news of the passing of a true legend of jazz guitar. Johnny’s music meant a lot to me personally as a friend Ed Kettlewell years ago turned me onto him and immediately I was amazed (like every guitarist hearing it for the first time!) at the deftly crafted chord concepts he was playing, I’d not heard anyone do that at that time. It turned out that that whole album “Moonlight in Vermont” was amazing and it still has a special place in my life. I can’t play every note of that album but I know every note!
I was so inspired by Johnny’s original tune “Wally’s Waltz” that I learned it and performed it on a YT vid:
I couldn’t get close to his version of course, the man was something else.
Years ago I was sent a cassette tape of a rare live gig he played in 1981, I uploaded the tape to YT for all to enjoy so sit back and enjoy, Johnny we salute you!
Jazz, jazz guitar, Johnny Smith
Mark Elf Transcription
Posted by DJ in Youtube Jazz Videos on December 3, 2012
I transcribed this ages ago when I had more time (and patience!) and finally got round to making it into a video, hope you check out more stuff starting with “Live at Smalls” – great album.
Jazz, jazz guitar, mark elf
You are currently browsing the archives for the Youtube Jazz Videos category.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1446
|
__label__wiki
| 0.59797
| 0.59797
|
GENETICS AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
GcpE Is Involved in the 2-C-Methyl-d-Erythritol 4-Phosphate Pathway of Isoprenoid Biosynthesis in Escherichia coli
Boran Altincicek, Ann-Kristin Kollas, Silke Sanderbrand, Jochen Wiesner, Martin Hintz, Ewald Beck, Hassan Jomaa
Boran Altincicek
Institute of Biochemistry, Academic Hospital Centre, Justus Liebig University, D-35392 Giessen, Germany
Ann-Kristin Kollas
Silke Sanderbrand
Jochen Wiesner
Martin Hintz
Ewald Beck
Hassan Jomaa
In a variety of organisms, including plants and several eubacteria, isoprenoids are synthesized by the mevalonate-independent 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway. Although different enzymes of this pathway have been described, the terminal biosynthetic steps of the MEP pathway have not been fully elucidated. In this work, we demonstrate that thegcpE gene of Escherichia coli is involved in this pathway. E. coli cells were genetically engineered to utilize exogenously provided mevalonate for isoprenoid biosynthesis by the mevalonate pathway. These cells were then deleted for the essential gcpE gene and were viable only if the medium was supplemented with mevalonate or the cells were complemented with an episomal copy of gcpE.
In all organisms studied so far, isoprenoids derive from the common isoprene units, isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP) and its isomer dimethylallyl pyrophosphate (DMAPP). In mammals and in fungi, IPP and DMAPP are formed exclusively by the mevalonate pathway (11). In contrast, many eubacteria (including Escherichia coli), algae, and the plastids of higher plants synthesize IPP and DMAPP by the 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway (9, 34). The MEP pathway was also identified in a plastid-like organelle of malaria parasites (15). Since the MEP pathway is absent in humans, it has been validated as a drug target for the treatment of both bacterial and parasitic infections (15, 29).
The pathway initiates with the formation of 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate (DOXP) by condensation of pyruvate and d-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate catalyzed by the DOXP synthase (Dxs) (1, 6, 20, 22, 24, 25, 35, 38). DOXP is then converted by the DOXP reductoisomerase (Dxr) into MEP (Fig.1) (1, 12, 21, 28, 30, 36,40). According to recent findings, the enzymes encoded by the genes ygbP, ychB, and ygbB are able to catalyze the formation of 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate, with 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methyl-d-erythritol as an intermediate (14, 18, 19, 26, 33, 39). The subsequent biochemical steps of the MEP pathway are still unknown.
The MEP pathway of IPP and DMAPP biosynthesis inE. coli and genetically engineered synthesis of IPP from exogenously supplied mevalonate. Interrupted lines indicate not fully elucidated steps. Mvk, mevalonate kinase; Pmk, phosphomevalonate kinase; Mpd, mevalonate pyrophosphate decarboxylase; Dxs, DOXP synthase; Dxr, DOXP reductoisomerase; Ipi, IPP isomerase; GAP,d-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate; P, phosphate; PP, pyrophosphate.
Recent evidence (2, 7, 27, 32) indicates that the MEP pathway produces IPP and DMAPP separately after a branching point downstream from MEP. In addition, IPP and DMAPP can be interconverted in E. coli by the IPP isomerase (Ipi); however, this enzyme is not essential for survival and consequently absent in various other bacteria using the MEP pathway, as shown for Synechocystis(10, 13).
In a search for other genes involved in the MEP pathway, it was demonstrated that an enzyme encoded by the lytB gene catalyzes an essential step at, or subsequent to, the point at which the MEP pathway branches to form IPP and DMAPP (8). Using genomic databases, a pattern of occurrence identical to that of the described genes of the MEP pathway was identified for the geneslytB and gcpE (8). Therefore,gcpE must be considered a candidate for another gene of the MEP pathway. In former work, gcpE was shown to be essential for the growth of bacteria, but no clear function could be attributed to it (4).
In this work, we demonstrate that gcpE is essentially involved in the MEP pathway. In a first step, E. coli cells were genetically engineered to utilize exogenously provided mevalonate for isoprenoid biosynthesis by introduction of three genes of the yeast mevalonate pathway (Fig. 1). In a second step, the chromosomalgcpE gene of the engineered cells was deleted. The resulting mutants were viable only when the culture medium was supplemented with mevalonate, similar to dxr-deficient bacteria serving as controls. The ability to grow in the absence of mevalonate could be restored by transformation with a plasmid containing thegcpE gene.
Strains and media.All plasmids were constructed in E. coli TOP10 (Invitrogen). For gene replacement experiments, the recombination-proficient wild-type E. coli K-12 strain DSM 498 (ATCC 23716) was used. Bacteria were grown in Standard 1 medium (Merck) at 37°C with aeration. Saccharomyces cerevisiaestrain BJ1991 (16) was grown in YPD medium (3) at 30°C with aeration. For solid medium, agar (Difco Bacto Agar) was added to 1.5% (wt/vol). Media were supplemented with 150 μg of ampicillin/ml, 25 μg of chloramphenicol/ml, or 100 μM mevalonate, where appropriate. Mevalonate was prepared as described elsewhere (32). For selection against sacB, salt-free Luria-Bertani medium (5) was supplemented with sucrose to a final concentration of 6% (wt/vol).
Recombinant DNA techniques.Plasmid isolation, agarose gel electrophoresis, ligation, and transformation of plasmid DNA were carried out according to standard protocols (3). For analytical plasmid preparation, a GFX Micro Plasmid Prep kit (Amersham Pharmacia) was used. DNA fragments were gel purified using an Easy Pure kit (Biozym Diagnostik). Restriction endonuclease digestions were carried out as specified by the manufacturer (Promega). Genomic DNA from S. cerevisiae was prepared as described elsewhere (3).
PCR.All PCRs were performed in a total volume of 20 μl using a Stratagene Robocycler with a heated lid and the Expand high-fidelity PCR system (Roche Diagnostics). An initial denaturation at 94°C for 1 min was followed by 30 cycles of denaturation at 94°C for 30 s, annealing at 50°C for 30 s, and extension at 72°C for 30 s to 90 s, dependent on the expected size of the products. A final 7-min 72°C step was added to allow complete extension of the products.
Construction of the synthetic mevalonate operon pSC-MVA.To generate an E. coli strain capable of using exogenously provided mevalonate to synthesize IPP, a synthetic operon was constructed by a PCR-based method (Fig.2). In the first step, genomic DNA ofS. cerevisiae was used as template to amplify the genes for mevalonate kinase (Mvk; EC 2.7.1.36), phosphomevalonate kinase (Pmk; EC2.7.4.2), and mevalonate pyrophosphate decarboxylase (Mpd; EC 4.1.1.33) in three asymmetric PCRs, using primer pairs in a 10:1 molar ratio (500 and 50 nM). In the second step, the three fragments were annealed at their overlapping regions including synthetic ribosome binding sites (5′-AGGAGG-3′) eight nucleotides upstream of the start codon of the relevant genes and amplified to a single fragment, using 500 nM outer primers. The final fragment was cloned into a pBAD vector using the pBAD-TOPO-TA cloning kit (Invitrogen) and verified by restriction analysis and sequencing.
Construction of the synthetic operon conferring the ability to utilize mevalonate for IPP synthesis. The genes coding for Mvk, Pmk, and Mpd were amplified from genomic yeast DNA, thereby introducing ribosome binding sites (indicated by gray lines) with the various primers (A, Mev-kin-Sc-for; B, Mev-kin-Sc-rev; C, Pmev-kin-Sc-for; D, Pmev-kin-Sc-rev; E, Decarb-Sc-for; F, Decarb-Sc-rev). The three PCR products were annealed at their overlapping regions defined by the specific primers and assembled in a second round of amplification using the outer primers. The synthetic operon was cloned into the pBAD vector.
The following set of oligonucleotide primers was used: Mev-kin-Sc-for, 5′-TAGGAGGAATTAACCATGTCATTACCGTTCTTAACT-3′; Mev-kin-Sc-rev, 5′-TTGATCTGCCTCCTATGAAGTCCATGGTAAATT-3′; Pmev-kin-Sc-for, 5′-ACTTCATAGGAGGCAGATCAAATGTCAGAGTTGAGAGCCTTC-3′; Pmev-kin-Sc-rev, 5′-GAGTATTACCTCCTATTTATCAAGATAAGTTTC-3′; Decarb-Sc-for, 5′-GATAAATAGGAGGTAATACTCATGACCGTTTACACAGCATCC-3′; and Decarb-Sc-rev, 5′-TTATTCCTTTGGTAGACCAGT-3′. Overlapping sequences are in boldface, and sequences defining ribosome binding sites are in italics. To test the functionality of the synthetic operon, bacteria transformed with pSC-MVA were tested for fosmidomycin resistance in a diffusion assay. The bacteria were spread on plates with and without mevalonate, and filter paper disks soaked with 2 μl of 100 mM fosmidomycin in water were placed in the middle of the plates.
Construction of the gene replacement plasmids pKO3-Δdxr and pKO3-ΔgcpE.For generation of precise in-frame deletion mutants of E. coli, the pKO3 vector was used (23). Crossover PCR deletion products were constructed basically as described previously (23). First, two different asymmetric PCRs were used to generate fragments upstream (525 bp) and downstream (558 bp) of the sequences targeted for deletion. The primer pairs were in a 10:1 molar ratio (500 nM outer primer and 50 nM inner primer). Then both fragments were annealed at their overlapping region and amplified to a single fragment, using 500 nM outer primers. The resulting fragment was cloned using the pCR-TOPO-TA cloning kit (Invitrogen) and verified by restriction analysis and sequencing. The fragment was released from the pCR-TA vector by BamHI and SalI digestion, gel purified, ligated into the BamHI andSalI-digested pKO3 vector, and transformed into wild-typeE. coli. Colonies growing on chloramphenicol plates at 30°C were screened for inserts by analytical plasmid preparation and restriction analysis.
To construct the gene replacement plasmid pKO3-Δdxr for deletion of dxr, the following set of oligonucleotide primers was used for crossover PCR: Dxr-N-out, 5′-TAGGATCCCATTGTCGTGGAATATTACGG-3′; Dxr-N-in, 5′-CCCATCCACTAAACTTAAACACTTCATGAAACATCCAGAGTT-3′; Dxr-C-in, 5′-TGTTTAAGTTTAGTGGATGGGGAAGTCGCCAGAAAAGAGGT-3′; and Dxr-C-out, 5′-TAGTCGACCCCACACAAACAGTTCCATTA-3′; To construct the gene replacement plasmid pKO3-ΔgcpE for deletion of gcpE, the following set of oligonucleotide primers was used for crossover PCR: Gcpe-N-out, 5′-TAGGATCCCCAGCGTCTGTGGATACTAC-3′; Gcpe-N-in, 5′-CCCATCCACTAAACTTAAACATTGAATTGGAGCCTGGTTATG-3′; Gcpe-C-in, 5′-TGTTTAAGTTTAGTGGATGGGTAATAACGTGATGGGAAGCGC-3′; and Gcpe-C-out, 5′-TAGTCGACAGTGAGCATAATCAGTTCAGC-3′. The restriction sites for BamHI and SalI are underlined; overlapping sequences defining the 21-bp in-frame insertion are in boldface.
Construction of the deletion mutant strains wtΔdxrand wtΔgcpE.Gene replacement experiments were carried out as described previously except for supplementing the plates with 100 μM mevalonate (23). The gene replacement plasmids pKO3-Δdxr and pKO3-ΔgcpE were transformed into wild-type E. coli cells harboring pSC-MVA and allowed to recover for 1 h at 30°C. Bacteria with the plasmid integrated into the chromosome were selected by a temperature shift to 43°C. By screening for sucrose resistance and chloramphenicol sensitivity, bacteria with lost vector sequences were selected and tested for the desired genotype by PCR. The dxrdeletion was confirmed using two different primer pairs: Dxr-con-N (5′-TTCTCAGGACGATGTACAGAA-3′) plus Dxr-con-C (5′-AGCAGACAACATCACGCGTTT-3′) and ecolyaemfor (5′-GCGGATCCATGAAGCAACTCACCATTCTG-3′) plus ecolyaemrev (5′-CCGGAAGCTTTCAGCTTGCGAGACGCATCA-3′). The gcpEdeletion was confirmed using two primer pairs: Gcpe-con-N (5′-CTGGAGGTCACTGATGCTAC-3′) plus Gcpe-con-C (5′-ATTTCACTGTAACCGTAGCTG-3′) and ecolgcpefor (5′-GGATCCATGCATAACCAGGCTCCAATTCAA-3′) plus ecolgcpcrev (5′-AAGCTTTTTTTCAACCTGCTGAACGTCAAT-3′). Bacteria with the desired deletion as verified by PCR were tested for growth with and without mevalonate.
Complementation experiments.The mutant strains wtΔdxr and wtΔgcpE were complemented by transformation with plasmids pQE-dxr and pQE-gcpE, respectively. Plasmid pQE-dxr was constructed as described above but using the primers ecolyaemfor and ecolyaemrev (40). In a similar way, pQE-gcpe was constructed using the primers ecolgcpefor and ecolgcperev.
gcpE represents a highly conserved gene identified in a variety of organisms including eubacteria, plants, and the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, all of them known to possess the MEP pathway (Fig. 3). In organisms using the mevalonate pathway, including animals, fungi, archaebacteria and some eubacteria (41), no homologues of GcpE can be found in genome databases. An overview of the occurrence of GcpE homologues is displayed in Table 1.
Alignment of the deduced amino acid sequence ofgcpE from E. coli and other organisms using the MEP pathway. Ecol, E. coli (Swiss-Prot accession no.P27433); Bsub, Bacillus subtilis (Swiss-Prot accession no.P54482); Pfal, Plasmodium falciparum (assembled from different sequences from The Institute for Genomic Research and Sanger databases and deposited in GenBank with accession no. AF323928); Syne,Synechocystis sp. strain PCC6803 (Protein Identification Resource accession no. S77159); Atha, Arabidopsis thaliana(GenBank accession no. BAB09833). Three dots indicate sequence insertion of 258 amino acids in the sequence of A. thalianaand of 304 amino acids in the sequence of P. falciparum with weak similarities to each other. Black and gray outlines indicate identical and similar amino acid residues, respectively.
Accession numbers of GcpE homologues in various organisms
To demonstrate a role for gcpE in the MEP pathway, in a genetic approach E. coli cells with a disruptedgcpE gene were constructed and analyzed for loss of the ability to synthesize isoprenoids via the MEP pathway. SinceE. coli mutants blocked in isoprenoid biosynthesis are not viable under normal growth conditions (7, 40), E. coli transformants capable of utilizing mevalonate for IPP synthesis were generated. For this purpose, a synthetic operon containing the yeast genes for Mvk, Pmk, and Mpd was constructed (Fig.2). The single genes were obtained by PCR amplification, thereby introducing a ribosome binding site in the 5′ region of each gene. The three genes were assembled in a second round of amplification and cloned into the pBAD expression vector.
To demonstrate functionality of the artificial mevalonate operon, the sensitivity to fosmidomycin of E. coli cells harboring this construct was tested. Fosmidomycin is a strong and specific inhibitor of the DOXP reductoisomerase and known to inhibit the growth of wild-type E. coli (17). As expected, bacteria containing the synthetic operon survived in the presence of fosmidomycin when the medium was supplemented with mevalonate. Optimal growth rates were observed in the presence of 100 to 200 μM mevalonate (data not shown). Without mevalonate, the bacteria could not grow in the presence of fosmidomycin.
To inactivate the gcpE gene, the coding sequence was completely removed from the bacterial genome by homologous recombination and replaced by a synthetic 21-bp sequence (Fig.4A). This was accomplished by using the pKO3 gene replacement vector that allows the generation of precise in-frame deletion mutants in E. coli wild-type strains (23). The gene replacement procedure was performed in a wild-type E. coli K-12 strain harboring the synthetic mevalonate operon, using mevalonate-supplemented medium. Bacteria containing the desired gcpE deletion were identified by PCR analysis (Fig. 4B). Finally, it was demonstrated thatgcpE deletion mutants depend on exogenously provided mevalonate (Fig. 5). In a control experiment, the dxr gene was deleted in E. coliby the same technique. The resulting Δdxr strain was dependent on mevalonate in the same way as the gcpE deletion mutant (Fig. 5). These data provide clear evidence that gcpEis functionally involved in the MEP pathway.
Replacement of the gcpE gene with a precisely engineered deletion. (A) Diagram of the gcpE region of the wild-type strain and the gcpE deletion mutant. Small arrows indicate the primer sites used for PCR analysis. Primers: A, Gcpe-con-N; B, Gcpe-con-C; C, ecolgcpefor; D, ecolgcperev. (B) Verification of the deletion of the gcpE gene by PCR. After selection for integrates of the gene replacement vector pKO3-ΔgcpE into the chromosome at 43°C, bacteria were plated at 30°C on sucrose medium and replica plated onto chloramphenicol plates. The chloramphenicol-sensitive, sucrose-resistant colonies were screened by PCR. The PCR product of 530 bp obtained using the primer pair A plus B of the gcpEmutant strain is the expected 1,070 bp smaller than the wild-type product of 1,600 bp. Using the primer pair C plus D, thegcpE gene (1,116 bp) was amplified in the wild-type strain, and no product was obtained in the gcpE mutant strain.
Growth of the E. coli strains indicated in panel A (wt, wild type; wtΔdxr, dxr deletion mutant; wtΔgcpE, gcpE deletion mutant) on medium without (B) and with (C) mevalonate and after complementation of the mutant strains with episomal dxr and gcpE genes, respectively, without mevalonate (D).
To further confirm this result, the generated E. coliΔgcpE strain was complemented by transformation with a plasmid containing an intact gcpE gene under the control of the tac promoter. The complemented cells regained the ability to grow on medium without mevalonate (Fig. 5C). Similarly, Δdxr bacteria could be successfully complemented with the respective episomal copy of the intact dxr gene (Fig. 5C).
The genomic distribution of GcpE homologues is a strong indication that this gene is involved in the MEP pathway. Sequence extensions at the NH2 terminus of the GcpE homologues of the plantArabidopsis thaliana and the parasite P. falciparum are likely to represent signal sequences targeting the polypeptides into the plastids of plants and the apicoplast (a plastid-like organelle) of malaria parasites, respectively. This provides further evidence for a role of GcpE in the MEP pathway as all enzymes of this pathway described so far in plants are localized in the plastids.
In addition, the gcpE gene of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) is located directly upstream of thedxs gene for the DOXP synthase, indicating that both genes may be transcribed as one cistron, thus implying a functional relationship between GcpE and the MEP pathway (EMBL accession no.AL049485). Interestingly, S. coelicolor A3(2) possesses an additional copy of the gcpE gene with 94.8% identity of the predicted proteins located downstream of the dxr gene for the DOXP reductoisomerase separated by a gene for a putative metalloprotease with similarity to the YaeL protein of E. coli (Swiss-Prot accession no. P37764; EMBL accession no.AL355913). In E. coli, a yet uncharacterized open reading frame, yfgA, may be cotranscribed with gcpE. YfgA (Swiss-Prot accession no. P27434) is supposed to be a transcriptional regulator in E. coli because a helix-turn-helix motif can be found.
In earlier work, the gcpE homologue of Providencia stuartii was described as aarC and identified as a negative regulator of the 2′-N-acetyltransferase [Aac(2′)-Ia] involved in the acetylation of peptidoglycan and certain aminoglycosides in P. stuartii (31). However, as gcpE homologues are highly conserved in bacteria lackingaac(2′)-Ia such as E. coli and Haemophilus influenzae, the authors concluded that GcpE must additionally carry out essential housekeeping functions. A single point mutation in the aarC gene of P. stuartii resulted in a slow-growth phenotype and altered cell morphology, with the formation of very short rods, many of which were spherical (31). This observation is consistent with the fact that inhibition of the MEP pathway impaires cell wall biosynthesis (37).
The gene disruption experiments performed in the present study demonstrate unambiguously an essential role of GcpE in the MEP pathway. Similar approaches introducing the partial mevalonate pathway for IPP biosynthesis from mevalonate in E. coli have been successfully applied in previous work to demonstrate the involvement of YgbP, YchB, and YgbB in the MEP pathway (18, 19, 39) and to provide evidence for its branching to form IPP and DMAPP (32).
The amino acid sequence predicted from the gcpE gene provides no obvious evidence for the function of the polypeptide since no significant sequence motifs or similarities to polypeptides of known function were identified. Consequently, the exact function of GcpE within the MEP pathway requires further investigation.
We thank the Academic Hospital Centre of the University of Giessen for generous support.
We are grateful to G. M. Church, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., for providing the gene replacement vector pKO3. We thank Matthias Eberl for critical reading of the manuscript and D. Henschker, I. Steinbrecher, and U. Jost for technical assistance.
Accepted 16 January 2001.
Altincicek B.,
Hintz M.,
Sanderbrand S.,
Wiesner J.,
Beck E.,
Jomaa H.
(2000) Tools for discovery of inhibitors of the 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate (DXP) synthase and DXP reductoisomerase: an approach with enzymes from the pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 190:329–333.
Arigoni D.,
Eisenreich W.,
Latzel C.,
Sagner S.,
Radykewicz T.,
Zenk M. H.,
Bacher A.
(1999) Dimethylallyl pyrophosphate is not the committed precursor of isopentenyl pyrophosphate during terpenoid biosynthesis from 1-deoxyxylulose in higher plants. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96:1309–1314.
Ausubel F. M.,
Brent R.,
Kingston R. E.,
Moore D. D.,
Seidman J. G.,
Smith J. A.,
Struhl K.
, eds (1987) Current protocols in molecular biology. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, N.Y).
Baker J.,
Franklin D. B.,
(1992) Sequence and characterization of the gcpE gene of Escherichia coli. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 73:175–180.
Blomfield I. C.,
Vaughn V.,
Rest R. F.,
Eisenstein B. I.
(1991) Allelic exchange in Escherichia coli using the Bacillus subtilis sacB gene and a temperature-sensitive pSC101 replicon. Mol. Microbiol. 5:1447–1457.
Bouvier F.,
d'Harlingue A.,
Suire C.,
Backhaus R. A.,
Camara B.
(1998) Dedicated roles of plastid transketolases during the early onset of isoprenoid biogenesis in pepper fruits. Plant Physiol. 117:1423–1431.
Charon L.,
Hoeffler J. F.,
Pale-Grosdemange C.,
Lois L. M.,
Campos N.,
Boronat A.,
Rohmer M.
(2000) Deuterium-labelled isotopomers of 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol as tools for the elucidation of the 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol 4-phosphate pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis. Biochem. J. 346:737–742.
Cunningham F. X. Jr.,
Lafond T. P.,
Gantt E.
(2000) Evidence of a role for LytB in the nonmevalonate pathway of isoprenoid biosynthesis. J. Bacteriol. 182:5841–5848.
Schwarz M.,
Cartayrade A.,
(1998) The deoxyxylulose phosphate pathway of terpenoid biosynthesis in plants and microorganisms. Chem. Biol. 5:R221–R233.
Ershov Y.,
Gantt R. R.,
Cunningham F. X.,
(2000) Isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase deficiency in Synechocystis sp. strain PCC6803. FEBS Lett. 473:337–340.
Goldstein J. L.,
Brown M. S.
(1990) Regulation of the mevalonate pathway. Nature 343:425–430.
Grolle S.,
Bringer-Meyer S.,
Sahm H.
(2000) Isolation of the dxr gene of Zymomonas mobilis and characterization of the 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 191:131–137.
Hahn F. M.,
Hurlburt A. P.,
Poulter C. D.
(1999) Escherichia coli open reading frame 696 is idi, a nonessential gene encoding isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase. J. Bacteriol. 181:4499–4504.
Herz S.,
Wungsintaweekul J.,
Schuhr C. A.,
Hecht S.,
Luttgen H.,
Fellermeier M.,
Bacher A.,
Rohdich F.
(2000) Biosynthesis of terpenoids: YgbB protein converts 4-diphosphocytidyl-2C-methyl-d-erythritol 2-phosphate to 2C-methyl-d-erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97:2486–2490.
Jomaa H.,
Weidemeyer C.,
Turbachova I.,
Eberl M.,
Zeidler J.,
Lichtenthaler H. K.,
Soldati D.,
Beck E.
(1999) Inhibitors of the nonmevalonate pathway of isoprenoid biosynthesis as antimalarial drugs. Science 285:1573–1576.
Korec E.,
Korcova J.,
Palkova Z.,
Vondrejs V.,
Korinek V.,
Reinis M.,
Bichko V. V.,
Hlozanek I.
(1989) Expression of hepatitis B virus large envelope protein in Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Folia Biol. 35:315–327.
Kuzuyama T.,
Shimizu T.,
Takahashi S.,
Seto H.
(1998) Fosmidomycin, a specific inhibitor of 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase in the nonmevalonate pathway for terpenoid biosynthesis. Tetrahedron Lett. 39:7913–7916.
Takagi M.,
Kaneda K.,
Dairi T.,
(2000) Formation of 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-2-C-methyl-d-erythritol from 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol 4-phosphate by 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol 4-phosphate cytidylyltransferase, a new enzyme in the nonmevalonate pathway. Tetrahedron Lett. 41:703–706.
Watanabe H.,
(2000) Studies on the nonmevalonate pathway: conversion of 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-2-C-methyl-d-erythritol to its 2-phospho derivative by 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-2-C-methyl-d-erythritol kinase. Tetrahedron Lett. 41:2925–2928.
(2000) Cloning and characterization of 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase from Streptomyces sp. strain CL190, which uses both the mevalonate and nonmevalonate pathways for isopentenyl diphosphate biosynthesis. J. Bacteriol. 182:891–897.
(2000) Characterization of 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase, an enzyme involved in isopentenyl diphosphate biosynthesis, and identification of its catalytic amino acid residues. J. Biol. Chem. 275:19928–19932.
Lange B. M.,
Wildung M. R.,
McCaskill D.,
Croteau R.
(1998) A family of transketolases that directs isoprenoid biosynthesis via a mevalonate-independent pathway. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95:2100–2104.
Link A. J.,
Phillips D.,
Church G. M.
(1997) Methods for generating precise deletions and insertions in the genome of wild-type Escherichia coli: application to open reading frame characterization. J. Bacteriol. 179:6228–6237.
Putra S. R.,
Danielsen K.,
Rohmer M.,
Boronat A.
(1998) Cloning and characterization of a gene from Escherichia coli encoding a transketolase-like enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of d-1-deoxyxylulose 5-phosphate, a common precursor for isoprenoid, thiamin, and pyridoxol biosynthesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95:2105–2110.
Rodrı́guez-Concepción M.,
Gallego F.,
(2000) Carotenoid biosynthesis during tomato fruit development: regulatory role of 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase. Plant J. 22:503–513.
Rohdich F.,
Eisenreich W.
(2000) Biosynthesis of terpenoids: YchB protein of Escherichia coli phosphorylates the 2-hydroxy group of 4-diphosphocytidyl-2C-methyl-d-erythritol. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97:1062–1067.
(1999) Isopentenyl diphosphate is the terminal product of the deoxyxylulose-5-phosphate pathway for terpenoid biosynthesis in plants. Tetrahedron Lett. 40:653–656.
Miller B.,
Heuser T.,
Zimmer W.
(2000) Functional involvement of a deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase gene harboring locus of Synechococcus leopoliensis in isoprenoid biosynthesis. FEBS Lett. 481:221–226.
Neu H. C.,
Kamimura T.
(1981) In vitro and in vivo antibacterial activity of FR-31564, a phosphonic acid antimicrobial agent. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 19:1013–1023.
Kis K.,
Arigoni D.
(2000) Biosynthesis of terpenoids: 1-deoxy-d-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase from Escherichia coli is a class B dehydrogenase. FEBS Lett. 465:157–160.
Rather P. N.,
Solinsky K. A.,
Paradise M. R.,
Parojcic M. M.
(1997) aarC, an essential gene involved in density-dependent regulation of the 2′-N-acetyltransferase in Providencia stuartii. J. Bacteriol. 179:2267–2273.
Maria Lois L.,
Maldonado C.,
Grosdemange-Billiard C.,
(2000) Genetic evidence of branching in the isoprenoid pathway, for the production of isopentenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate in Escherichia coli. FEBS Lett. 473:328–332.
Zenk M. H.
(1999) Cytidine 5′-triphosphate-dependent biosynthesis of isoprenoids: YgbP protein of Escherichia coli catalyzes the formation of 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methylcrythritol. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96:11758–11763.
(1999) The discovery of a mevalonate-independent pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis in bacteria, algae and higher plants. Nat. Prod. Rep. 16:565–574.
Seemann M.,
Horbach S.,
(1996) Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate and pyruvate as precursors of isoprenic units in an alternative non-mevalonate pathway for terpenoid biosynthesis. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 118:2564–2566.
Schwender J.,
Muller C.,
Lichtenthaler H. K.
(1999) Cloning and heterologous expression of a cDNA encoding 1-deoxy-d-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase of Arabidopsis thaliana. FEBS Lett. 455:140–144.
Shigi Y.
(1989) Inhibition of bacterial isoprenoid synthesis by fosmidomycin, a phosphonic acid-containing antibiotic. J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 24:131–145.
Sprenger G. A.,
Schorken U.,
Wiegert T.,
de Graaf A. A.,
Taylor S. V.,
Begley T. P.,
(1997) Identification of a thiamin-dependent synthase in Escherichia coli required for the formation of the 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate precursor to isoprenoids, thiamin, and pyridoxol. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94:12857–12862.
(2000) Studies on the nonmevalonate pathway: formation of 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate from 2-phospho-4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-2-C-methyl-d-erythritol. Tetrahedron Lett. 41:3395–3398.
(1998) A 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase catalyzing the formation of 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol 4-phosphate in an alternative nonmevalonate pathway for terpenoid biosynthesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95:9879–9884.
Wilding E. I.,
Brown J. R.,
Bryant A. P.,
Chalker A. F.,
Holmes D. J.,
Ingraham K. A.,
Iordanescu S.,
So C. Y.,
Rosenberg M.,
Gwynn M. N.
(2000) Identification, evolution, and essentiality of the mevalonate pathway for isopentenyl diphosphate biosynthesis in gram-positive cocci. J. Bacteriol. 182:4319–4327.
Journal of Bacteriology Apr 2001, 183 (8) 2411-2416; DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.8.2411-2416.2001
You are going to email the following GcpE Is Involved in the 2-C-Methyl-d-Erythritol 4-Phosphate Pathway of Isoprenoid Biosynthesis in Escherichia coli
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1447
|
__label__wiki
| 0.559732
| 0.559732
|
Molecular Characterization of Porcine Rotaviruses from the Southern Region of Brazil: Characterization of an Atypical Genotype G[9] Strain
Maria Lucia Rácz, Suzana S. Kroeff, Veridiana Munford, Thabata A. R. Caruzo, Edison L. Durigon, Yasuyoshi Hayashi, Vera Gouvea, Enzo A. Palombo
Maria Lucia Rácz
Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, 05508-900, 1
Suzana S. Kroeff
Veridiana Munford
Thabata A. R. Caruzo
Edison L. Durigon
Yasuyoshi Hayashi
Departamento de Patologia Básica, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, 81531-990, 2 and
Vera Gouvea
Departamento de Virologia, Instituto de Microbiologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21941-590 3 , Brazil, and
Enzo A. Palombo
Department of Gastroenterology and Clinical Nutrition, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia 4
The G (VP7) and P (VP4) serotype distribution of Brazilian porcine rotaviruses was determined using reverse transcription-PCR genotyping methods. Common porcine G types G3, G4, and G5 were detected in combination with P types [6] and [7]. The detection of nonporcine G types and unusual G-P combinations and the characterization of an atypical virus indicated that interspecies transmission may contribute to the genetic diversity of porcine rotaviruses.
Rotaviruses are a major cause of acute viral diarrhea in both humans and animals (13). Group A rotaviruses have two outer capsid proteins, VP7 and VP4, that are considered independent neutralization antigens and are encoded by different genomic RNA segments. The serotype specificity of VP7 is designated by the prefix G, and 14 G serotypes are recognized. These correlate with all known G genotypes, determined from sequence analysis of VP7 genes. The serotype specificity of VP4 is designated by the prefix P, and there are 10 P serotypes described. However, because of the difficulties with characterization of P serotypes, P genotypes have been determined from genetic analysis of VP4 genes, and 20 genetically distinct P types have been described for rotaviruses of humans and animals. These are indicated by including the genotype number in brackets (7). Serotypic and genotypic characterization of rotavirus strains is important to define the extent of diversity in circulating strains. Comparisons of strains from human and animal origins may provide insights into the interspecies evolution of this virus.
Studies in several countries have identified at least four main G serotypes of porcine rotavirus, G3 (Po/CRW-8 type), G4 (Po/Gottfried type), G5 (Po/OSU type), and G11 (Po/YM type) (10), and two main P serotypes [genotypes], P2B[6,Gott] and P9[7]. In Brazil, G5 rotaviruses have recently been found as common human pathogens, but only a limited number of porcine samples have been studied for their G and P type specificities (18). In this report, we determined the serotype distribution of porcine rotavirus strains obtained in three states of the southern region of Brazil. In addition, an atypical strain was characterized to determine its relatedness to a human rotavirus strain.
One hundred sixty-seven porcine stool specimens were collected from 52 small individually owned farms in the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul. Samples were obtained from pigs 1 to 60 days old, with or without diarrhea, between June 1995 and October 1997. The piglets were raised in confinement without any contact with animals from other species. Fecal material was collected in plastic bags, directly from the rectum; maintained on ice during transport to the lab; and kept frozen at −20°C until analysis. Samples were subjected to enzyme immunoassay (EIARA-FIOCRUZ) and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with standard silver staining for rotavirus identification (17). Fifty-nine samples (35.3%) were positive for rotavirus by one or both techniques. Positive samples were subjected to G and P genotyping by reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR), with primers specific for porcine, bovine, and human rotavirus genotypes (8, 10, 11, 12). The complete geographic and epidemiologic information on these samples will be presented in a separate paper. Since G and P types were determined by genotyping methods, these are indicated by numbers enclosed in brackets.
PCR results showed a high diversity of G and P types (Table1). Samples were classified into common porcine G genotypes G[3], G[4], and G[5], with the majority of samples (37.2%) belonging to genotype G[5]. Genotype G[11], commonly found in porcine samples in other countries (2), was not found in this survey. G[5] strains are common human pathogens in Brazil, usually in combination with human P1A[8] specificity (9, 18). As expected, P1A[8] strains were not detected; instead, for G[5] samples, six had P[6,Gott] specificity, one had P[6,M37] specificity, six belonged to the P[7] genotype, and six belonged to mixed P genotypes. P[6] genotypes were designated P[6,Gott] (porcine specific) or P[6,M37] (human specific). They represent distinct subtypes P2A and P2B, respectively (11,18). Therefore, our RT-PCR assay is capable of differentiating subtypes, which might also be important in assessing interspecies transmission. Our results suggests the possibility of exchange of VP4 genes between animal and human rotaviruses. Twelve samples showed mixed P[6] and P[7] genotypes (Table 1). These results support the suggestion that Brazilian G[5] porcine samples with human P types could be the result of reassortment between human and porcine rotaviruses. Genotyping results highlighted some unusual samples: two samples with G[10] specificity, three G[9] samples, and two samples with mixed genotypes, one of G[4][9] and one of G[5][10]. G[10] rotaviruses have not been previously isolated from pigs in Brazil, despite the fact that they are common bovine pathogens in Brazil (3). Although P[6,Gott] rotaviruses have been reported previously in Brazil (18), the combination P[6,Gott]G[9] has not been observed. The three G[9] samples displayed different P specificities: P[6,Gott], P[7], and mixed P[6,Gott][M37]. This mixed P type was also observed with the sample showing G[4][9] specificity.
Distribution of rotavirus G and P types among porcine samples in the southern region of Brazila
The atypical porcine rotavirus displaying P[6,Gott][M37]G[9] specificity, ICB2185, was further characterized by sequencing of its VP7 gene. This unusual combination of G and P types raised the possibility of interspecies transmission from humans. This sample was identified in a piglet with diarrhea, belonged to group A, displayed a “long” electropherotype, and was classified into subgroup I by enzyme immunoassay. This strain was nontypeable by RT-PCR using animal G-type-specific primers (10), although genotyping with human G-type-specific primers (12) resulted in a 306-bp product, suggesting a G[9]-like VP7. However, when tested in a nested PCR with a second set of primers, including a G9-specific primer derived from the human rotavirus 116E, isolated in India (6), the sample failed to generate a G[9] product. Therefore, both strands of the full-length VP7 PCR product were sequenced with the BigDye Terminator Cycle Sequencing Ready reaction kit (Applied Biosystems) in an ABI-Prism 377 DNA sequencer. The VP7 gene was found to be 1,062 bp in length and to encode a polypeptide of 326 amino acids (aa).
The deduced amino acid sequence of ICB2185 was compared with those from standard viruses, representing all 14 G types (Table2). The VP7 of ICB2185 exhibited over 89% amino acid identity with the porcine G4 strain Gottfried, the human G4 strain ST3, and the atypical human rotavirus strain M3014, identified in Australia, whose G type remains undefined (15). Identity with other G types was between 60.0 and 78.6%. Strains of the same G serotype generally share >91% VP7 amino acid identity (13, 15). Despite the high VP7 identity with G4 strains and the positive G[9] genotyping result, ICB2185 did not react with a G4-specific primer in nested PCR or with G4-specific (Serotec-Rota-MA [20, 23] and ST3:1 [5]) or G9-specific (F45:1 and F45:8 [14]) monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) in a serotyping enzyme immunoassay, indicating that this strain did not belong to serotype G4 or G9. Amino acid identity of only 76.8 to 78.3% was found between ICB2185 and human G9 strains, 116E, F45, and WI61. The latter strain was used to derive the sequence of the G9-specific primer used in the work of Gouvea et al. (12). Nucleotide sequence analysis of ICB2185 showed that, at the G9-specific primer binding position (757 to 776), only two mismatches were present (positions 769 and 775) while, at the G4-specific primer binding position, nine mismatches were found. At the site where the 116E-specific G9 primer binds (147 to 131), there are six mismatches, including the four nucleotides at the 5′ end (data not shown). This may explain the contradictory results of the two G-typing PCR methods above. In summary, sequence analysis indicated that the VP7 gene of ICB2185 was G4-like but contained a G9-specific primer binding site. Sequence variation at VP7 typing primer binding sites has been documented previously (1), leading to incorrect typing results. Improvement in RT-PCR-based typing methods may require the incorporation of degenerate primers that take into account the extent of natural sequence variation. Alternatively, hybridization using G-type-specific probes may be used to validate typing results.
Amino acid identity of VP7 deduced sequence of strain ICB2185 with rotaviruses of different G serotypes
Amino acid sequences of the antigenic epitope regions A (aa 87 to 101), B (aa 142 to 152), C (aa 208 to 221), and F (aa 238 to 242) of VP7 are highly conserved between strains of the same serotype (14). Comparison of the amino acid sequences of these regions between ICB2185 and strains belonging to other serotypes showed that ICB2185 exhibited only 86.7% identity to region A of Gottfried (G4) (data not shown). Region B showed a maximum identity of only 63.6% with the two G4 strains, Gottfried and ST3, and with M3014. Region C showed 85.7% identity with M3014, and region F was identical to Gottfried. These data could explain why ICB2185 did not react with G4- and G9-specific MAbs. ST3:1 selects variants in, and presumably binds to, region A (4), while F45:1 and F45:8 map to region C and region A, respectively (14). Since these regions are divergent between ICB2185 and the prototype G4 and G9 strains (data not shown), it may explain the nonreactivity of the MAbs tested.
As ICB2185 showed high VP7 identity to the human strain M3014, it is possible that ICB2185 was derived from interspecies reassortment between human and porcine rotaviruses. To investigate this possibility, Northern hybridization was carried out using a whole-genome probe of ICB2185. The probe was prepared by labeling purified RNA with digoxigenin (DIG) by chemical linking of DIG to RNA using the DIG Chem-Link reagent (Roche Biochemicals, Mannheim, Germany). Northern hybridization under stringent conditions (50°C, 50% formamide, 5× SSC [1× SSC is 0.15 M NaCl plus 0.015 M sodium citrate]) and detection of bound probe using anti-DIG antibody conjugated to alkaline phosphatase (Roche Biochemicals) and the chemiluminescent substrate CDP-Star (Roche Biochemicals) were carried out as previously described (16). Figure 1 shows that minimal homology existed between both viruses, as expected for viruses from different species. Homology between ICB2185 and M3014 in gene 7, 8, or 9 is probably due to the VP7 gene, as they share 84.8% identity in nucleotide sequence. However, the limited overall homology suggests that, if they are related, these viruses may not share a recent common ancestor. This is also seen in the comparatively low VP7 nucleotide sequence identity compared to higher amino acid sequence identity.
Northern hybridization analysis of ICB2185 and M3014 RNA using ICB2185-derived DIG-labeled total-genome probe.
Although not exhibiting significant overall genome relatedness, the VP7 proteins of ICB2185 and M3014 shared several characteristics: both viruses exhibited the G[9] genotype by RT-PCR, these proteins were similar to but distinct from those from prototype G4 viruses, and they did not react with G4- or G9-specific MAbs. In a recent study of the phylogenetic relationships of VP7 sequences from 207 rotavirus strains, M3014 was placed in a distinct branch closely related to G4 viruses (19). Phylogenetic analysis shows that ICB2185 belongs to the same branch as M3014 (Fig. 2). Further studies using conventional seroneutralization techniques are needed to show if ICB2185 and M3014 constitute a subtype of G4 rotaviruses or a new G serotype.
Phylogenetic analysis of the VP7 gene sequences of porcine (ICB2185, Gottfried, OSU, and YM) and human (M3014, ST3, 116E, F45, and WI61) rotavirus strains. The dendrogram was constructed by the Clustal method using the Lasergene sequence analysis software. The length of each pair of branches represents the distance between sequence pairs, while the units at the bottom of the tree indicate the number of substitution events.
The results presented in this study demonstrate that serotypic and genotypic characterization of porcine rotavirus strains is important to define the extent of diversity in circulating strains. Such characterization could be facilitated by the use of appropriate MAbs in enzyme immunoassay in the first instance, followed by genetic methods (RT-PCR and hybridization) for samples not typed by enzyme immunoassay. Comparisons with human viruses may provide insights into the interspecies evolution of this virus. This is especially important in Brazil, where a high proportion of serotypes previously thought to be restricted to animal populations (e.g., G5) have been identified in children (2, 9, 21, 22).
Nucleotide sequence accession number.The sequence of the ICB2185 VP7 gene has been deposited in GenBank under the accession no.AF192267.
This study was supported by FAPESP, São Paulo, Brazil, and the Royal Children's Hospital Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia.
Received 11 October 1999.
Returned for modification 13 December 1999.
Accepted 27 March 2000.
Adah M. I.,
Rohwedder A.,
Olayede O. D.,
Werchau H.
(1997) Nigerian rotavirus serotype G8 could not be typed by PCR due to nucleotide mutation at the 3′ end of the primer binding site. Arch. Virol. 142:1881–1887.
Bohl E. H.,
Theil K. W.,
Saif L. J.
(1984) Isolation and serotyping of porcine rotaviruses and antigenic comparison with other rotaviruses. J. Clin. Microbiol. 19:105–111.
Brito W. M. E. D.,
Munford V.,
Rácz M. L.
(1998) Antigenic and molecular characterization of bovine rotavirus from State of Goiás. Virus Rev. Res. 3:57–58.
Coulson B. S.,
Kirkwood C. D.,
Masendycz P. J.,
Bishop R. F.,
Gerna G.
(1996) Amino acids involved in distinguishing between monotypes of rotavirus G serotypes 2 and 4. J. Gen. Virol. 77:239–245.
Unicomb L. E.,
Pitson G. E.,
Bishop R. F.
(1987) Simple and specific enzyme immunoassay using monoclonal antibodies for serotyping human rotaviruses. J. Clin. Microbiol. 25:509–515.
Das B. K.,
Gentsch J. R.,
Cicirello H. G.,
Woods P. A.,
Gupta A.,
Ramachandran M.,
Kumar R.,
Bhan M. K.,
Glass R. I.
(1994) Characterization of rotavirus strain from newborns in New Delhi, India. J. Clin. Microbiol. 32:1820–1822.
Estes M. K.
(1996) Rotaviruses and their replication. in Fields virology, eds Fields B. N., Knipe D. M., Howley P. M. (Lippincott-Raven Publishers, Philadelphia, Pa), 3rd ed. 2:1625–1655.
Glass R. I.,
Woods P.,
Gouvea V.,
Gorziglia M.,
Flores J.,
Bimal K. D.,
Bhan M. K.
(1992) Identification of group A rotavirus gene 4 types by polymerase chain reaction. J. Clin. Microbiol. 30:1365–1373.
Castro L.,
Timenetsky M. C.,
Greenberg H. B.,
Santos N.
(1994) Rotavirus serotype G5 associated with diarrhea in Brazilian children. J. Clin. Microbiol. 32:1408–1409.
Santos N.,
Timenetsky M. C.
(1994) Identification of bovine and porcine rotavirus G types by PCR. J. Clin. Microbiol. 32:1338–1340.
(1994) VP4 typing of bovine and porcine group A rotaviruses by PCR. J. Clin. Microbiol. 32:1333–1337.
Taniguchi K.,
Clark H. F.,
Forrester B.,
Fang Z.
(1990) Polymerase chain reaction amplification and typing of rotavirus nucleic acid from stool specimens. J. Clin. Microbiol. 28:276–282.
Kapikian A. Z.,
Chanock R. M.
(1996) Rotaviruses. in Fields virology, eds Fields B. N., Knipe D. M., Howley P. M. (Lippincott-Raven Publishers, Philadelphia, Pa), 3rd ed. 2:1657–1708.
Kirkwood C.,
Masendycz P.,
Coulson B. S.
(1993) Characteristics and location of cross-reactive and serotype-specific neutralization sites on VP7 of human G type 9 rotaviruses. Virology 196:79–88.
Palombo E. A.,
Bugg H. C.,
(1997) Sequence of the VP7 gene of an atypical human rotavirus: evidence for genetic and antigenic drift. DNA Seq. 7:307–311.
Barnes G. L.,
(1996) Multiple-gene rotavirus reassortants responsible for an outbreak of gastroenteritis in central and northern Australia. J. Gen. Virol. 77:1223–1227.
Pereira H. G.,
Azeredo R. S.,
Leite J. P. G.,
Candeias J. A. N.,
Rácz M. L.,
Linhares A. C.,
Gabbay Y. B.,
Trabulsi L. R.
(1983) Electrophoretic study of the genome of human rotaviruses from Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Pará, Brazil. J. Hyg. 90:117–125.
Lima R. C. C.,
Nosawa C. M.,
Linhares R. E.,
Gouvea V.
(1999) Detection of porcine rotavirus type G9 and of a mixture of types G1 and G5 associated with Wa-like VP4 specificity: evidence for natural human-porcine genetic reassortment. J. Clin. Microbiol. 37:2734–2736.
Suzuki Y.,
Gojobori T.,
Nakagomi O.
(1998) Intragenic recombination in rotaviruses. FEBS Lett. 427:183–187.
Urasawa T.,
Morita Y.,
Grenberg H. B.,
Urasawa S.
(1987) Direct serotyping of human rotavirus in stools by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using serotype 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-specific monoclonal antibodies to VP7. J. Infect. Dis. 155:1159–1166.
Theil K. W.
(1990) Group A rotaviruses. in Viral diarrheas of man and animals. eds Saif L. J., Theil K. W. (CRC Press, Inc. Boca Raton, Fla), pp 279–367.
(1994) Survey of rotavirus G and P types associated with human gastroenteritis in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 1986 to 1992. J. Clin. Microbiol. 32:2622–2624.
Urasawa S. A.,
Wakasugi F.,
Kobayashi N.,
Chiba S.,
Sakurada N.,
Morita M.,
Tokieda M.,
Kawamoto H.,
Minekawa Y.,
Ohseto M.
(1989) Survey of human rotavirus serotypes in different locales in Japan by using by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with monoclonal antibodies. J. Infect. Dis. 160:44–51.
Journal of Clinical Microbiology Jun 2000, 38 (6) 2443-2446; DOI:
You are going to email the following Molecular Characterization of Porcine Rotaviruses from the Southern Region of Brazil: Characterization of an Atypical Genotype G[9] Strain
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1448
|
__label__cc
| 0.731065
| 0.268935
|
Georgia's Trusted Healthcare
& Medical Provider Attorneys
Georgia's Trusted Healthcare & Estate Planning Attorneys
Experienced Legal Team
DJ Jeyaram
Harrison Kohler
Ashley Shattles
Christy Calbos
Les Heyward
Charlotte – Our Mascot
Healthcare Fraud Defense
Special Needs Legal Services
Katie Beckett Appeals
Advance Medical Directive
Wills, Trusts & Estate Planning
Why We Offer Wills, Trusts & Estate Plans
Why Online Wills Don’t Protect You
Five Ways To Protect What You Love Most
Jeyaram & Associates and Parker, Hudson, Rainer & Dobbs File Class Action Law Suit Against the State
August 9, 2013 By cassandra
Jeyaram & Associates and Parker, Hudson, Rainer & Dobbs have filed suit against the state for withholding millions of tax funds earmarked for severely disabled individuals.
Family members representing people with severe disabilities and a group of their health care providers today filed a class action law suit against the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities and the Georgia Department of Community Health for withholding funds that were designated for the care of those individuals contrary to controlling law.
United Cerebral Palsy of Georgia, Inc., Coastal Center for Developmental Services, Inc., Hope Haven of Northeast Georgia and Creative Community Services, Inc. as well as four families representing nearly 12,000 individuals in the State seek the return of hundreds of millions of dollars that should have been used to care for those individuals since 2008. The exact amount will be determined at trial.
The families filing suit represent clients who depend on vital services from these healthcare providers every single day. These clients are some of the most vulnerable members of our communities. Their daily lives have been negatively impacted in real and tangible ways, as have those of their families and caregivers.
“My daughter Tammy wants and needs activity. Sitting in front of a TV set is counterproductive for her,” says Angela Tulloh of Kennesaw.
Marilyn Harvill worries about the ongoing and future care of her son, 53 year old Matt Windham. “Matt has severe brain damage and needs 24 hour one-on-one care. I am worried about the services Matt will receive in the future because I wasn’t given any notice of the cuts.”
None of the families affected was notified by the state of the pending cuts and none was given any recourse.
Additionally, an undetermined number of other individuals requiring new services have been turned away due to the improper budget cuts.
Those organizations filing suit are designated Medicaid providers. The two state agencies being sued have failed to reimburse the plaintiffs for services provided under contract to clients with profound intellectual and developmental disabilities. That has led to severe financial harm to these providers. The state has very specific rules and procedures it must follow before reducing already agreed upon payments to providers and families. None of those procedures has been followed.
These cuts in Medicaid funds were not tied to the recent economic downturn; rather the funds were allocated by the state legislature and simply not paid in full to the providers and clients who depend on them.
“We have gone through our financial resources to keep serving our existing clients, but we have had to turn away other people with severe developmental, medical and behavioral needs. I don’t know what happens to those people,” says Sally Buchanan, CEO of Creative Community Services of Norcross.
Curt Harrison, Associate Executive Director of United Cerebral Palsy Georgia and South Carolina, says
“So many people rely on us and we’re doing the best we can. But development of new services and additional employee training have really suffered. However, we don’t think it’s morally appropriate to cut services.”
To view this story on Channel 46: http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/23086886/exclusive-lawsuit-filed-against-state-of-georgia-alleges-funds-withheld-for-disabled
Filed Under: Department of Behaviors Health and Developmental Disabilities, Department of Community Health, Fraud, Georgia, healthcare, Managed Care, Medicaid, Special needs, Taxes Tagged With: 2013, Class Action, DCH, department of community health, disabled, Georgia, Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, Georgia Department of Community Health, healthcare, Hudson, medicaid, Parker, Rainer & Dobbs, tax, United Cerebral Palsy
We provide legal services in Atlanta, Albany, Alpharetta, Athens, Augusta, Brookhaven, Buford, Calhoun, Chamblee, Columbus, Conyers, Cumming, Decatur, Duluth, Dunwoody, Gainesville, Johns Creek, Kennesaw, Lawrenceville, Macon, Marietta, Milton, Norcross, Peachtree City, Peachtree Corners, Roswell, Sandy Springs, Savannah, Smyrna, Snellville, Stonecrest, Suwanee, Tucker, Valdosta, and Warner Robins.
Jeyaram & Associates
Main Office & Mailing Address | 3675 Crestwood Parkway | Suite 400 | Duluth, GA 30096
Satellite Office | 11175 Cicero Drive | Suite 100 | Alpharetta, GA 30022
Office: 678.325.3872 | Fax: 678.708.4701 dj@jeylaw.com
The information on this site should not be construed as formal legal advice and is not intended to create or constitute a lawyer-client relationship.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1455
|
__label__cc
| 0.721455
| 0.278545
|
China-Backed Banana Plantations Linked to Undocumented Labor, Kachin State Govt Says
Chinese tissue culture banana plantation in Waingmaw township, Kachin State, northern Burma
Kachin State authorities say they are having difficulty keeping track of migrant workers coming from China to work in agribusiness initiatives such as tissue culture banana plantations.
The state’s immigration minister, Zaw Win, said that he believes people are using the temporary border passes granted by Burma at the Kambaiti and Loije border gates to then come and work in the country. The documents are valid for 14 days but do not allow the holder to work legally in Burma.
“With the border pass, they are allowed to visit Burma. I have heard that some people are working on banana plantations but they only have border pass documents. For immigration officers, it is very difficult to monitor people on those farms,” he told KNG.
Kachin State has seen many China-backed development initiatives, including mass agriculture projects, the construction of roads and bridges, and hydropower dams in Chipwi and Ta Hkaw Hka (Taping or Dapein) river, in Bhamo. Many of the projects employ laborers from China.
There are currently an estimated 4,000 people in Kachin State holding border passes, and some 2,000 people with temporary labor cards, which are valid for three months.
If workers are found to be working without the necessary documentation, immigration officers can charge them with violating Burma’s immigration act. If convicted, they can be imprisoned for up to six months, fined 500,000 kyats (US$334), and deported.
Many of the foreign investment initiatives approved by the Burmese government have been objected to by Kachin State locals for their negative environmental impacts, violations of land rights, and inappropriate timing due to the ongoing civil war in northern Burma.
The state’s focus continues to be on taking legal measures against the workers in these projects, with Zaw Win saying that the government is planning to form a committee to “take effective action” against undocumented laborers.
Tags: China Kachin State migrant workers tissue culture banana plantation
Kachin Locals Stand to Lose Land to Namjim Industrial Zone
Returned Kachin IDPs Prepare to Flee Again
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1456
|
__label__wiki
| 0.571554
| 0.571554
|
Reviews & Photos
Home » REWS
Joiners presents...
Age restriction 14+
Fri 27 Mar 2020 19:30
Rews is the high energy alt-rock/pop band and alter-ego of N. Irish songwriter Shauna Tohill. Beginning as a duo in 2014, Rews is evolving into a stronger, formidable force ready to claim more stage time across the world and are creating a genuine buzz on the UK/Irish music scene.
The act's first single, ‘Miss You In The Dark’ was released on 23rd June 2017 to coincide with the band’s performance on the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury Festival, with BBC 6 Music and BBC’s TV coverage highlighting them as one of the acts of the weekend. Following singles have been featured on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, Radio X and Planet Rock Radio with ‘Your Tears’ being the BBC Introducing Track of the Week on BBC Radio 1 and debut album ‘Pyro’ was featured across the UK press.
After a successful album cycle which lead them to supporting Halestorm in September 2018 aswell as various successful headline tours, Shauna is now working on highly anticipated album number 2. You can catch REWS playing a number of selected Festivals around the UK this summer!
Rews' aim is to inspire people to be who they are, dance, sing, have fun yet address those deep issues that people face in every day life. It might just be your medicine!
Help Restore The Joiners
The Joiners is an historic building for Southampton’s music scene and is over 100 years old, some parts of the building are in constant need of ...
LAURAN HIBBERD
+ ABBIE OZARD + SPYRES
MILLIE MANDERS & THE SHUT UP
“High-octane, fierce, bursting with attitude and almost obnoxiouslyaddictive" - Fortitude Magazine"If Kate Nash was actually a...
The Outcasts : Martin Cowan and Colin Getgood (better known as Getty) on guitar, Colin Cowan on drums and Greg Cowan on bass and vocals formed in Belf...
vTicket ©2018 The Joiners Telephone: 02381 782021
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1464
|
__label__wiki
| 0.889809
| 0.889809
|
SCREENSHOTS: Jared Leto Sinks His Teeth Into 'Spider-Man' Spinoff 'Morbius'
lizzy-buczak
From Joker to Morbius, Jared Leto continues to show off his acting range, this time tapping into the undead for Sony’s latest Marvel Cinematic Universe offering.
The trailer for “Morbius” introduces Leto as the living vampire and new 'Spider-Man' villain following 2018’s 'Venom.'
Based on the 1971 comic book character of the same name, the film follows Michael Morbius, a scientist who turns himself into a vampire in an attempt to cure himself of a rare blood disease.
“I should have died years ago, why am I here if not to fix this?” Leto’s character says in the trailer.
As the transition from frail, sick man to powerful, immortal beast occurs, Leto admits that “he went from dying to feeling more alive than ever.”
Some of his newfound abilities include “increased speed, the ability to use echolocation, and an overpowering urge to consume blood.”
However, his mentor, played by Jared Harris of "The Crown," informs him that sometimes “the remedy is worse than the disease” as audiences get the first glimpse of Morbius as a bloodthirsty creature.
While some might not be impressed with Leto’s heavy makeup, the star-studded cast is undeniable.
Adria Arjona plays Morbius’ fiancee, Martine Bancroft, who is concerned with how far he’ll go to cure himself, Matt Smith ventures into his first superhero film as Morbius’ friend suffering from the same blood disease, Loxias Crown, and Tyrese Gibson stars as FBI agent Simon Stroud.
According to CNET, the trailer hints at a connection to the "Spider-Man" universe.
Around the 2:10 mark, Morbius walks by a painting of Spider-Man with “murderer” spray-painted over it. The publication believes the moment confirms that the film will follow “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” in which the superhero is blamed for Mysterio’s death.
The second clue is slightly more obvious as Michael Keaton appears towards the end of the trailer as his “Spider-Man: Homecoming” character, Vulture, who was last seen in prison.
"Morbius" hits theaters on July 31 in the US and the UK.
jared-leto
Trish's Dishes
RECIPE: Trish's Little Party Pizza's on Rye
Recipe: How to Turn White Castle's Into Stuffing for Thanksgiving
WATCH: Making a Meal For Hope Lodge with Schnucks
WATCH: Celebrating Christmas in July with Schnucks Delivers
Trish's Dishes: All About the Burger and Dad
Trish's Dishes: Pesto Veggie Dip
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1467
|
__label__cc
| 0.514256
| 0.485744
|
Friday, Sep 29 2017
Search Warrants Filed As Police Investigation Progresses In Deaths At Florida Nursing Home
Eleven residents eventually died after Hurricane Irma knocked out the air conditioning at the nursing home. Also, a look at the disruption hurricanes can cause to critical dialysis treatments and a look at the tough conditions for hospitals in Puerto Rico.
Miami Herald: Hurricane Irma: First Search Warrants In Hollywood Nursing Home Case
In the days after several residents died in sweltering heat at a Hollywood nursing home after Hurricane Irma, questions abounded – as did blame. Two search warrants filed by the Hollywood Police Department with the Broward Clerk of Court’s office the week after the tragedy suggest detectives are casting a wide net for the answers: demanding visitor and patient logs, medical documentation and servers and hard drives from the Rehabilitation Center of Hollywood Hills, which tried and failed to control rising temperatures with spot coolers and fans before it finally called 911 days after Irma hit. (Koh and Ostroff, 9/28)
Health News Florida: For Dialysis Patients, Hurricanes Are A Race Against The Clock For Survival
When Hurricane Irma slammed into the U.S. Virgin Islands, Alvin Joseph was home in St. Thomas with his wife, his oldest granddaughter and four of his great-grandkids. ... People like Joseph, whose lives depend on dialysis, are especially vulnerable during a hurricane. The machines that act as their artificial kidneys need reliable electricity and water to operate. (Mack, 9/28)
NPR: In Puerto Rico, Relying On Luck And Enough Gas To Get Medical Care
A week after Maria, many hospitals are still shut down and the few that are open are operating with just emergency generator power. With a scarcity of fuel, dwindling supplies and disruptions to their employees' lives, hospitals say they are in crisis, laboring to provide care at a time when it's needed most. (Allen and Peñaloza, 9/28)
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1468
|
__label__cc
| 0.559469
| 0.440531
|
The Ink Factor
Posted December 11, 2009 in kinetics.
In an earlier blog, I discussed the influence that Wallace Wood as an inker might have had on Kirby’s artwork. I suggested that Wood’s powerful style could have caused Kirby to rethink his approach to drawing and influence him in subtle ways that might have been more harmonious to the pairing. While it is interesting to speculate on these matters, it is certainly a revelation to study the different qualities of various inkers on Kirby’s pencils through his career.
Kirby inked his own pencils frequently early on, and throughout his career.
He generally preferred to use a brush, and his line quality varied from a precise fine stroke to bolder swatches of black. Here in the 1953 unpublished cover of “Strange World of Your Dreams,” we can see that Kirby was arguably his own best inker.
When he began working for Marvel, Kirby’s page output was too great to spare the time for his personal inking touch. As a result, we have a wide variety of stylistic interpretations of Kirby’s line by other inkers over time. Fortunately, we also have many samples of his pencils, so we can determine who was more or less faithful in their rendering and who weakened or perhaps in some cases reinforced the King’s artistic intention.
One of the most notable examples of an inker interpreting Kirby’s pencils to their detriment is that of Vince Colletta. The series that Colletta inked most successfully was Thor, a book that had a mythological quality that was enhanced by the inker’s style, which relied heavily on feathering lines drawn with a crow quill pen. Such lines gave the artwork a sort of archaic feeling which complimented the subject matter. However, many of Kirby’s own lines tend to be bold slashes of black that are often weakened by this kind of feathering. If you look at the penciled version of the creature, Mangog to the left, you will see the boldness of Kirby’s lines in the forearms.
Colletta’s feathered pen lines are effective for shading purposes, but because he ignores Kirby’s lines, the resulting shapes appear thicker and blunter. Colletta also removes the knob on the creature’s elbow and for some reason, obscures the characteristic horns on Mangog’s forehead with falling stones.
The inker then proceeds to remove the definition strokes from the right arm of the warrior on the left, blacking it in and making it appear more bulbous.
If we next study the panels below, containing the two versions of the Mangog figure holding the pillar, you’ll notice that Colletta has softened Kirby’s powerful jagged pencil lines in the arms and legs to near impotency. You may also notice that Colletta has completely left out the figure in the far lower left as well as the figure second to the right of the panel. Both of these figures function as signposts pointing to Mangog, and their removal weakens the composition.
The adornment of the tower on the left has also been simplified.
Colletta has been justly criticized for this sort of thing and there are numerous examples of it to be found if one is given the opportunity to compare pencils to inks. What is evident is that even the slightest variation in line quality can alter the composition is subtle ways. Let us move on.
If we acknowledge the fact that it is virtually impossible to accurately trace another person’s line without affecting it, we can see that in most cases the inker willfully changes and reinterprets what he or she feels requires embellishment. In the case of Jack Kirby, this approach is usually completely unnecessary and often questionable.
An interesting case study is a portion of a Fantastic Four page containing a drawing of the Thing. When Kirby originated this character in 1961, the Thing was drawn very much as a lump of clay, but gradually became more defined as the series progressed. At the time that this page was published, it appeared that Kirby was still drawing the Thing in a more or less lumpy manner, but the existing pencils of this page reveal something entirely different.
The inked panel to the left shows the Thing as we were accustomed to seeing him. The pencils to the right show the Thing as Kirby had apparently been drawing him for some time, but that we would not see until another inker took over the series. This means that Dick Ayers, one of Kirby’s strongest and most dynamic inkers had been reinterpreting the three dimensional brick- like, shaded character that Kirby was drawing, by softening the squared off edges and changing the lighting and black spotting of the original pencils.
One cannot help but wonder why.
At any rate, Kirby claimed that he seldom ever looked at the completed artwork and did not see the changes that inkers were making.
The inker to follow Ayers on the Fantastic Four in issue #21, was George Roussos, who had been inking Kirby beautifully on and off since the days of the Simon and Kirby studio. Roussos’ inking of Kirby from the 1960’s often leaves much to be desired. Although he is a strong black spotter, his pen line is thin and brittle. What is significant about Roussos is that he is the first to render the Thing as Kirby has actually drawn him, as shown in the first panel below of the Thing holding the bundle of phones.
Perhaps this task is too laborious and time consuming, because after a few issues, Roussos backs off and inks the Thing with less precision. By issue #28, Chic Stone takes over as inker, and despite the beauty of much of his work, his embellishment of the Thing tends to lose even more shaded detail, as shown in the middle panel. Stone tended to take a good deal of care on rendering faces, but his outline is sometimes overly heavy and similar in quality to that of a wood block print.
Say then what you will about Colletta, but when he takes over the inking chores in FF#40, the Thing is shown with laboriously rendered brickwork intact as seen in the panel on the right. The issue prior to Colletta’s run on the FF was #39, the one that contained the Daredevil figures inked by Wallace Wood. The remainder of this issue is inked by Frank Giacoia, who attempts to match Wood’s solid line and strongly spotted blacks. Perhaps Colletta continued to ink the Thing in this way for the sake of continuity.
As the Marvel line attained greater success, the company’s management decided that they could afford to hire inkers that could do justice to Kirby’s art on their flagship title, and the long reign of Joe Sinnott on the Fantastic Four began. The new inker brought polish, prestige and a majestic quality to the series, but although Sinnott’s work is wonderful, it was still far from faithful to Kirby. Sinnott was encouraged to beautify Kirby’s raw power, giving it an illustrative quality suitable to the awesome cosmic subject matter that the Fantastic Four was embracing.
If we compare inks to pencils in this panel, we see that Sinnott has completely altered the faces of Reed and Sue, changing their expressions. In doing so, he has softened the angularity of Reed’s jaw line and sculpted the shape of his hair, as well as changing the shape of Sue’s eyes and mouth. Sinnott admitted that his favorite artist as a youth was Alex Raymond, and consequently he gave his characters Alex Raymond-like ears.
Over time, Sinnott began to believe that he was doing an injustice to Kirby with so much re working of his art, and the inker would attempt to be more faithful to the King’s pencils. Sinnott also believed that Kirby was influenced by the way the inker rendered his pencils, particularly in details such as surface texture and the complexity of backgrounds. Sinnott feels that Kirby gave greater emphasis to these elements when he noticed the care that the inker was taking with them. It does seem to be the case that the beauty and complexity of Kirby’s backgrounds and the attention to the detail of surfaces such as wood, metal and stone has increased markedly. It is unlikely that this is merely as a result of the inking. Kirby seemed to be putting more work into his pages and Sinnott feels that his approach to rendering had a major impact in this case.
Shortly after Kirby left Marvel to work at DC Comics, he found an inker that would strive to be as accurate as possible in his interpretation.
Mike Royer would often profess astonishment at the unwillingness of inkers to simply ink the lines that Kirby had drawn and not attempt to reinterpret them.
Royer was committed to the idea that it was his job to ink what was there, and nothing more. As a result, we have, with Royer’s hand, the closest approximation of what Kirby’s pencils intended. Nearly all of the examples that we have of Kirby inking his own pencils date back to a period in which the King was working in a fairly realistic style. Royer is inking Kirby during his wildest and most successfully expressionistic period, the height of which was arguably the New Gods.
In these panels, Kirby is drawing explosions of naked energy, something that he excelled at and exulted in. No camera or team of special visual effects has ever been able to match Kirby in the depiction of this kind of force, despite the fact that film has the advantage of motion. Kirby is depicting a multi dimensional display of breakneck speed and carnage with only the benefit of two dimensional lines on paper, and Royer’s brush and pen are completely supportive. Matching line for line and black for spotted black, Royer stays as close as humanly possible to the source. This is as good as it gets.
Opinions vary as to whose rendering of Kirby’s pencils was the best. Some prefer the adjustments and embellishments that Wood and Sinnott made. Some love the archaic quality of Colletta’s etched quill line, despite the omissions that the inker was guilty of. Regardless of your preference, one may conclude that the power of the King shone through, no matter who was inking him.
1 – Kirby, Jack
unpublished cover Strange World of Your Dreams
2 – Kirby, Jack- Lee, Stan – Colletta, Vince
Thor #157- pencils from Jack Kirby Collector#3. Color panel from Thor Marvel Treasury Edition Vol-1 no-10
3 – Ibid
4 – Kirby, Jack – Lee, Stan – Ayers, Dick
Fantastic Four #15, Jack Kirby Collector #33
5 – Kirby, Jack – Lee, Stan – Roussos, George – Stone, Chic – Colletta, Vince
panel from Fantastic Four #22 – Fantastic Four Omnibus, panel from Fantastic Four #28 – Fantastic Four Omnibus, panel from Fantastic Four#41 – Marvel Masterworks #25
6 – Kirby, Jack – Lee, Stan
Fantastic Four #49 pencils – Marvel Visionaries, Jack Kirby, Color panel from Marvel Treasury Edition, The Fabulous Fantastic Four
New Gods#6- pencils Jack Kirby Collector #24
← Twilight of the King? Cosmic Kirby →
2 thoughts on “The Ink Factor”
Fantastic article!!! I’ve been waiting for an introspection on Kirby’s inkers. This is a great look at the various embellishers and their effects on Mr. Kirby’s work.
Vince Argondezzi
Nathan Corpuscollosumkellerman May 27, 2017 at 2:57 pm
This comes up when you request Kriby inks his own. Gracias. I highly recommend going to a pencil of you early drawings from your mother’s collection. Inking that, and xerox . The differences are distantly related to the original, in order to bring the thing into focus, you include objects, things. Ultimately Joe Sinnot makes my day every time I spring for a beat up seven dollar FF. ANd remember, that Kriby’s daughter gets to retire after all was said and done on the money from the settlement. Inking is generative and musical according to my logic, showing the colorists where to go. And thank god for Marie Severin ya know ? Perfections is a lost cause, Kirby made Swamp ‘Thing” possible, but where is what he admired most about his art work, the group of five fellows, their presence maintained on the page, honestly it was in the Secret wars cross overs, the company’s attempt to screw the Kirby family, and where ? Ranxerox is two people, where is the ensemble cast / I want to know. That will answer this question, I think it is in the Romita jR’s Eternals, and he saw the ink jobs that we all did, right ?
Leave a Reply to Nathan Corpuscollosumkellerman Cancel reply
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1469
|
__label__wiki
| 0.503096
| 0.503096
|
Sistar’s Over Exposure During Performance
Sistar are beginning to receive some critism from fans over their performance of “So Cool”…
Jeremy December 31, 2011
Super Junior on the SBS Gayo Daejun 2011 Red Carpet
Super Junior on the SBS Gayo Daejun 2011 Red Carpet collected from various sources [ad#GA…
CNBLUE at SBS Gayo Daejun 2011 Red Carpet
See some of the photo’s from CNBlue from the SBS Gayo Daejun 2011 Red Carpet…
Girls’ Generation’s account on Kakao Talk added by more than 200,000
Only a day after Girls’ Generation launched their “Girls’ Generation Plus Friend” service on Kakao…
Happy New Year wishes from SNSD Jessica and f(x) Krystal
SNSD’s Jessica and f(x)’s Krystal wished their fans a Happy New Year by releasing a…
2NE1 on SBS Gayo Daejun Red Carpet
See 2NE1 on the red carpet at the SBS Gayo Daejun.
‘Song of the Year Award’ for BEAST
Cube Entertainment’s Beast have ended 2011 on a real high at the KBS Music Festival…
Performances from KBS Gayo Daechukje
[ad#GA-468-Tx-Runa] This year’s annual KBS end of year music festival, which aired on the 30th…
T-ara zombie concept for Lovey Dovey MV
Zombie photo’s of T-ara for their “Lovey Dovey” zombie version music video has been released.…
TS Entertainment debut new B.A.P teaser as a TV commercial
TS Entertainment’s new boy group for 2012, B.A.P, released their debut teaser through terrestrial channels…
Upcoming Brian Joo & Jay Park collaboration
Earlier this month Brian tweeted Jay saying that they should do a collab together. Brian…
Sujin December 30, 2011
EXO-K & EXO-M Pre Debut Gallery
Take a look at the latest photos of SM Entertainments two new boy bands EXO-K and EXO-M
SM Release a one take EXO teaser of KAI
SM’s two new boy bands EXO-K and EXO-M’s 4th teaser was shown today, with new…
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1473
|
__label__cc
| 0.502262
| 0.497738
|
This website uses javascript. Please activate javascript in order to experience the website properly.
Facing Kremlin / Gute Aussichten
a special joint project for the 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, curated by Peter Weibel and Simon Mraz, 2011
With its unchanging dark-gray walls and breathtaking views, the House on the Embankment—the exhibition’s venue—is simultaneously a symbol of mighty dreams and of powerful fears. The House on the Embankment (Dom na Naberezhnoi) was built as a residence for the Soviet elite, housing hundreds of generals and politicians, but also famous Soviet writers, musicians, and actors. Built as a modern, exceptional project, it was a prototype of a new way of life. However, the fate of many of its inhabitants was tragic. In the »Great Terror,« almost one third of the house’s residents suffered repression, disappearing into jails and concentration camps. Today, the house is an elegant apartment building, famous for its outstanding views of the Kremlin. Austrian and Russian artists will create works in the tradition of apartment exhibitions, which aim to reflect both the house’s specific aura and the IV Biennale’s subject, »rewriting the worlds.«
excerpt from the press-release
4th.moscowbiennale.ru
HAPPY ENDS (GO WEST), 2011
IF ARCHITECTURE COULD TALK, 2-channel HDV video, 30min, Österreich / Mongolei, 2011
detail, HAPPY ENDS (GO WEST), 2011
Katrin Hornek dt.
Katrin Hornek’s work playfully engages with the strange paradoxes and convergences of living in the age of the Anthropocene, that is, the new geologic epoch where the effects of capitalism, colonialism, and extractivism are written into the body of the earth. Both her artistic and her curatorial practice assert an understanding of the entwinement of nature and culture, implicitly arguing for more complex formulations, ones that reflect the ways in which our bodies, cultures, materials, and thoughts are all composed of the other creatures and rocks and air and water that make up our world. What Hornek highlights are the often uncomfortable juxtapositions between these things, and the ways in which we are both constituted and restrained by contemporary politics and materiality.
To be made up of the Earth is not necessarily easy, as the body stones of LÍTHOS (and especially the thought of passing them) demonstrate. Or to try to encourage the remains of long dead organisms in a séance, now morphed into oil and plastic, to speak to us in our present. What can we learn from those dead voices? And what might they tell us?
As an artistic strategy, Hornek follows the stories and traces of the material world, following the flow of discourse on plastic or the transformation of the environment. She explores this relation by tracing the development of the Colorado River system, highlighting the ways in which the river was used as a colonial and nation-building project through the »All-American« waterway. IF ARCHITECTURE COULD TALK shows the beautiful and unsettling ways in which the yurt figures as a cultural domain across Mongolia, juxtaposed with the often uncritical appropriation of this former nomadic architectural form by people in Austria. Tellingly, the documentary ends with one of the Mongolian speakers saying that “things go where the free market prevails.”
Hornek artfully, and with a critical eye, displays the many contradictions and failings in our conceptualizations of our place in the world, among this vast, proliferating network of other-than-humans and their demands. Throughout, Hornek insightfully engages with these sometimes difficult realities that work to engage the viewer and make us think again, while combatting naiveté and political depression.
Text: Heather Davis
Wattgasse 56-60/4/3
CV Hornek deutsch
CV Hornek english
DESIGN: dontcry.work
CODE: reisenbauer & balcinovic - diagnosticdigitalism.net
all content and work © Katrin Hornek, 2017
translations: Brían Hanrahan, Katrin Hornek
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1478
|
__label__wiki
| 0.527017
| 0.527017
|
Electrochemical preparation of cobalt nano-particles in an ionic liquid
Yasushi Katayama, Ryuta Fukui, Takashi Miura
Department of Applied Chemistry
Cobalt nano-particles have been prepared by reducing divalent cobalt species in an ionic liquid, 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide at room-temperature. Potentiostatic cathodic reduction of divalent cobalt species was conducted on a platinum mesh electrode at -2.0 V vs. Ag/Ag(I) in the ionic liquid, resulting in the change of color of the ionic liquid from purple to black. The transmission electron microscope observation of the ionic liquid after the potentiostatic cathodic reduction showed formation of cobalt nano-particles with the diameters from 2 to 10 nm.
https://doi.org/10.5796/electrochemistry.81.532
Published - 2013 Jul
Ionic Liquid
Nano-particle
Katayama, Y., Fukui, R., & Miura, T. (2013). Electrochemical preparation of cobalt nano-particles in an ionic liquid. Electrochemistry, 81(7), 532-534. https://doi.org/10.5796/electrochemistry.81.532
Electrochemical preparation of cobalt nano-particles in an ionic liquid. / Katayama, Yasushi; Fukui, Ryuta; Miura, Takashi.
In: Electrochemistry, Vol. 81, No. 7, 07.2013, p. 532-534.
Katayama, Y, Fukui, R & Miura, T 2013, 'Electrochemical preparation of cobalt nano-particles in an ionic liquid', Electrochemistry, vol. 81, no. 7, pp. 532-534. https://doi.org/10.5796/electrochemistry.81.532
Katayama Y, Fukui R, Miura T. Electrochemical preparation of cobalt nano-particles in an ionic liquid. Electrochemistry. 2013 Jul;81(7):532-534. https://doi.org/10.5796/electrochemistry.81.532
Katayama, Yasushi ; Fukui, Ryuta ; Miura, Takashi. / Electrochemical preparation of cobalt nano-particles in an ionic liquid. In: Electrochemistry. 2013 ; Vol. 81, No. 7. pp. 532-534.
@article{b0334b7b13ec44b0bfe7188b866051e3,
title = "Electrochemical preparation of cobalt nano-particles in an ionic liquid",
abstract = "Cobalt nano-particles have been prepared by reducing divalent cobalt species in an ionic liquid, 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide at room-temperature. Potentiostatic cathodic reduction of divalent cobalt species was conducted on a platinum mesh electrode at -2.0 V vs. Ag/Ag(I) in the ionic liquid, resulting in the change of color of the ionic liquid from purple to black. The transmission electron microscope observation of the ionic liquid after the potentiostatic cathodic reduction showed formation of cobalt nano-particles with the diameters from 2 to 10 nm.",
keywords = "Cobalt, Ionic Liquid, Nano-particle",
author = "Yasushi Katayama and Ryuta Fukui and Takashi Miura",
doi = "10.5796/electrochemistry.81.532",
journal = "Electrochemistry",
publisher = "Electrochemical Society of Japan",
T1 - Electrochemical preparation of cobalt nano-particles in an ionic liquid
AU - Katayama, Yasushi
AU - Fukui, Ryuta
AU - Miura, Takashi
N2 - Cobalt nano-particles have been prepared by reducing divalent cobalt species in an ionic liquid, 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide at room-temperature. Potentiostatic cathodic reduction of divalent cobalt species was conducted on a platinum mesh electrode at -2.0 V vs. Ag/Ag(I) in the ionic liquid, resulting in the change of color of the ionic liquid from purple to black. The transmission electron microscope observation of the ionic liquid after the potentiostatic cathodic reduction showed formation of cobalt nano-particles with the diameters from 2 to 10 nm.
AB - Cobalt nano-particles have been prepared by reducing divalent cobalt species in an ionic liquid, 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide at room-temperature. Potentiostatic cathodic reduction of divalent cobalt species was conducted on a platinum mesh electrode at -2.0 V vs. Ag/Ag(I) in the ionic liquid, resulting in the change of color of the ionic liquid from purple to black. The transmission electron microscope observation of the ionic liquid after the potentiostatic cathodic reduction showed formation of cobalt nano-particles with the diameters from 2 to 10 nm.
KW - Cobalt
KW - Ionic Liquid
KW - Nano-particle
U2 - 10.5796/electrochemistry.81.532
DO - 10.5796/electrochemistry.81.532
JO - Electrochemistry
JF - Electrochemistry
10.5796/electrochemistry.81.532
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1483
|
__label__wiki
| 0.776024
| 0.776024
|
Kirby – The Fifth Turtle
Home » ENTERTAINMENT » MOVIES » Kirby – The Fifth Turtle
Kevin Eastman, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), has auctioned off several sketchy looking rough drafts for a proposed but never produced fourth film in the series. Among the new characters was a fifth turtle. Like his brethren, he was named after a famous artist, comic book legend Jack Kirby.
“The fourth live-action TMNT film was pitched and originally scripted as a grittier, less kid-friendly adventure, and to that end Kevin Eastman designed a more brutish, hardcore fifth Turtle, named for the legendary King of Comics (Jack Kirby),” reads the description by Heritage Auctions.
The movie, tentatively titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, eventually mutated into the 90s live-action TV series with the equally ill-conceived female turtle, Venus de Milo.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1488
|
__label__wiki
| 0.624257
| 0.624257
|
Fandom by Josiah Go
Josiah Go May 2, 2016
I encountered the term “fandom” when an Aldub fan from the noon time TV variety show Eat Bulaga warned me that they are not just fans but a fandom and they can easily destroy me. It was a reaction to an article I wrote in January 2016 pointing the deteriorating number of TV viewers of Eat Bulaga from 2.5 million households in July 2015 to 6.2 million in October 2015 back to only 2.6 million by the end of December 2015. The fandom, short for ‘fan kingdom’, were ready to defend and even bash people who have opinion contrary to them or gave statistics and comments of their idols not to their liking. Never mind if I wrote two previous articles praising Eat Bulaga for reinventing themselves with a new fusion of entertainment and values after three decades in television.
In one instance, I showed my business features editor in Inquirer that an Adlub fan cursed me with the ‘P’ word, a Tagalog equivalent of ‘son of a bitch’. I was simply asking the Aldub Nation (how they call themselves) if there exists a code of conduct or a code of ethics that they have to agree to before being admitted to the fandom (they don’t). Some members of the Aldub fandom would not want to receive any constructive criticism as I gave eight recommendations on how Eat Bulaga can turnaround their numbers based on my two earlier articles on market-driving strategy. As if on cue, many would remind me of the record-breaking tweets, the number of new advertisements of Aldub, the three decades of existence and all past achievements to counter the data I shared.
Lately, I am bothered with bashings happening among followers of the May 9, 2016 elections as I was reminded of what the Aldub fandom did to people they don’t agree with — using mob rule and bully tactics to silence their critics, even if Aldub themselves seem not capable of killing a mosquito. Among the presidential candidates, it is Mayor Rody Duterte who appears to have more die-hard fans while BongBong Marcos seems to have a bigger fandom among vice presidential candidates. Among the characteristics of a fandom is the high level of emotional connection the followers associate themselves with their idol. This does not mean that the other candidates have fewer fans, as they are likely more logic-driven or engage people in rational discussions.
I was shocked to know that while many of BongBong Marcos’ followers could identify the achievements of his father, more specifically the infrastructure projects, not many can identify his own achievements. Many could not share a single achievement of the younger Marcos as a senator for six years and simply pointing out to me of the possibility that he can do miracles for the next six years. A few shared the achievement of BongBong’s elder sister, Ilocos Governor Imee Marcos, praising her for her competency. It seems fandoms can be inherited, like characters in a storybook.
I was more stunned when at the height of the clamor for Mayor Duterte, to apologize for joking about an Australian missionary whose throat was slit after she was gang raped in 1989, a follower of Mayor Duterte brushed aside his rape joke and even posted in social media that ‘It would be an honor for my daughter to be raped by Mister Duterte’, oblivious of the consequences of rape and ignoring the need to protect his own daughter, a case of co-dependency, an excessive emotional or psychological reliance on a partner (in this case, the fandom). I have high respect for Mayor Duterte for his achievements in Davao and for his anti-crime passion albeit his foul mouth, but for his fandom, Mister Duterte could do no wrong, never mind if to his non-followers, he could sometimes be obnoxious as his fandom readily acts as his apologist, immediately re-interpreting the meaning of each of his controversial statements, each time, feeding the same cycle of behavior. A friend shared in Facebook of his nightmare that Mister Duterte won the presidential election and the first department created was the Department of Apology, good thing it was not shared publicly.
By now, you know that a fandom is a subset of fans that show greater feeling of connectedness to their idol or object, as well as other people like them. They are typically interested in all the details of their fandom and spend a greater part of their time, energy and resources to be involved in their special interest network. They show tribal behavior and have a need for social recognition, socialization and symbolism of what they represent.
However, fandom members can lose objectivity as they can easily be swayed by the decision of the majority. For instance, election voters who support Duterte will do all means to rationalize his acts, even justifying his verbal blunders in social media. Some will have firm decision to support and do whatever the fandom decides.
A fandom is not limited for TV or movie stars and politicians, the subculture can also be for characters in science fictions, anime and even books, sports teams, objects, fashion bloggers, among many options. Members of a fandom interact with one another and create and share their own content. In Harley-Davidson’s Harley’s Owners Group (HOG) more involved members even have the tattoo of the Harley logo, indicating a greater level of commitment.
Fandoms also have their own activities. Remember the charitable projects of Aldub nation’s raising funds for school library, for the elderly or even bloodletting activities? They are good sides of a fandom worth mentioning and should be emulated by others.
Posted in ArticlesTagged #aldub #BongBong Marcos #Duterte #Fandom
+ two = nine
Q&A with Cebu Pacific Air VP Marketing Candice Alabanza - Iyog on Ad & Sales Promotions
Fri May 6 , 2016
Market leader Cebu Pacific Air is not only known for having low fare services, but also very agile with their marketing communications and sales promotions. VP Marketing Candice Alabanza-Iyog selflessly shares her insights on how they do a campaign internally. Q1: When Leonardo de Caprio won his first Oscar, Cebu Pacific Air immediately launched a promo free trip to Guam […]
Duterte’s New Logic by Josiah Go
Strategy and Execution by Josiah Go
Why Businesses Fail by Josiah Go
Innovation? Do the Law of the Opposite
10 Reasons Why Market Leaders Have Difficulty Innovating by Josiah Go
6 Tips to Innovation Culture by Josiah Go
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1493
|
__label__cc
| 0.589012
| 0.410988
|
Posted on September 21, 2019 September 21, 2019 by live
Notre Dame vs Georgia
Watch Notre Dame vs Georgia: Live Stream will once again host college football On Friday at the season for 2019. The 2019 college football season is lastly here, and I guess it will look like the past few.e a terrible lot.A few days to go your favorite NCAA College Football will start. You have not enough time to get ready to enjoy your favorite game. In the 4th week of NCAA College Football Notre Dame vs Georgia Match will air on. If you are willing to enjoy Notre Dame vs Georgia Live Stream you need much information about that. You will get the information from the official page.
Click Here To Watch NCAA Football Live Stream
Time: 8:00 PM ET
Vanue: Sanford Stadium
Broadcast: CBS
Live Stream: Watch Now
Live Access With FuboTV
FuboTV is another way of digging cables, but it adds its own twist to the base package with more sports products than any competing streaming service — and even more accessible through add-ons. Sports centered streaming service FuboTV adds channels for entertainment and lifestyle.Live TV streaming is all about selection, Notre Dame vs Georgia so there are so many services accessible, it’s a nice thing.Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, Hulu with Live TV, and others all offer comparable packages as cable alternatives, but they each have their own specialties.
Live Access With Sling TV
Sling TV again raises prices, and if you’re a sports enthusiast, you won’t be excited.Sling TV allows you to dig out cable TV and still watch ESPN, CNN, Fox and more live channels. It’s our favorite budget cord cutter live television service at $25 a month.New Sling Orange package clients now Notre Dame vs Georgia have to pay $10 a month instead of the prior $5 for the Sports Extra channel bundle.The rate hike will take impact from 1 August inwards from existing clients.That’s the same price Sling Blue clients already paid for Sports Extra, but it also implies that when you combine the sports pack with any base plan, you’re looking at a minimum of $25 per month
Live Access With PlayStation Vue
PlayStation Vue is one of many alternatives accessible to the ever-growing cord-cutter tribe that hate cable but need live TV. Vue started life on PlayStation gaming consoles,Notre Dame vs Georgia but there have been a number of modifications in the service since then.Channels have come and gone, pricing has shifted, and while Notre Dame vs Georgia the service hasn’t attracted as many customers as Sony wants, the list of characteristics and endorsed streaming equipment keeps growing.
Live Access With DirecTV Now
DIRECTV NOW might be able to deliver better promotions and more channels, but instead it will be selected to raise prices while diluting its content.It used to be one of the greatest Notre Dame vs Georgia streaming service suppliers for live TV, but we’re left to scratch our heads after the latest modification NOW has a straightforward pricing structure where the more expensive a plan is, the more channels you will get along the way, and all without sacrificing the channels included in the lower level packages. DIRECTV is an online streaming service that allows you to watch live television with no cable subscription.
Live Access With Hulu with Live TV
Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins announced the launch of the company’s new live streaming beta service called Hulu with Live TV, with monthly service subscribers capable of enjoying and recording plenty of live sports.The greatest modifications to the programming lineup were on the local front a year after Hulu introduced its live-streaming pay-TV service.Moreover,Notre Dame vs Georgia Comcast, NBC Sports and Fox Sports regional sports networks are accessible in many fields, as is NBCU’s regional news network Ethernet you’re at home or on the go, your favorite professional and college sports leagues can access and record live matches, like Notre Dame vs Georgia . Live TV Hulu involves ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC content, as well as channels such as CBS Sports, ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports and TNT.
Live Access With YouTube TV
YouTube TV is the favorite live TV streaming service of money specialist Clark Howard for sports fans who want to save cash by cutting the cord without abandoning their favorite channels.With sports channels such as ESPN, Fox Sports 1 & 2, Big Ten Network, CBS Sports Network, MLB Network, NBCSN, SEC Network, NBA TV and regional sports networks, the power in the Notre Dame vs Georgia of YouTube TV is.Thanks to a agreement reached between the platform and the telecom, YouTube TV will quickly be purchased through Verizon Wireless and Bios accounts.My bases are covered by Netflix, HBO Now, and Amazon Prime Video when it comes to streaming content, except for one glaring exception — sports.
Live Access With Live Online With APPS
Free Live Sports streaming android apps to watch free sports live on television to enjoy football, cricket, racing, badminton, tennis, golf, baseball, basketball and more.The capacity to install 3rd party Apps without any Notre Dame vs Georgia credential problems is one of the best things about getting an open source operating system.With OS, which has limited access, installing a 3rd party app without jailbreak is not an simple job.But just giving the people for ‘ Unknown Sources ‘ on the Android platform is enough to side load any app on the OS.This strong characteristic resulted to the growth of many different genres of 3rd party autonomous apps.And Streaming Apps is one of the most popularly challenging classes of apps.
Live Access With Sports App
Sports are one of the best experiences of entertainment out there.It’s almost always fun to go to live activities because anything can occur. These days it’s quite simple to follow Notre Dame vs Georgia .On social media and YouTube there are loads of characters along with a host of sport news applications.For this list, we wanted to concentrate on applications covering various sports.An evident pick is the first app on the list. Just as ESPN is a go-to channel for many sport fans, its related app is a excellent way to keep your favorite teams up-to-date. By logging in, you can customize the app experience to show your favorite teams and leagues.
Live Access With Roku
The CBS Sports app allows consumers to view CBS Sports content streams of video on demand and live video.Users can browse through various classifications like Football, Baseball, Basketball Fantasy, Viral Videos, etc.It’s easy to get started – just open the app and start watching your favorite content for sports.Sports Illustrated is one of the most respected media brands in the world and part of the brand portfolio of Time Inc. NBC Sports is your live coverage destination for Notre Dame vs Georgia and more. Never miss an action moment, comprehensive highlights, complete event replays, exclusive characteristics and interviews with the sports world’s greatest names. Sign in to watch your favorite NBC Sports sports with your TV supplier.
Previous PostPrevious Liberty vs Hampton Live
Next PostNext Georgia vs Notre Dame Live
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1516
|
__label__cc
| 0.707553
| 0.292447
|
Home Electric Vehicles EV Charging California focusing on workplace and apartment/condo charging, ignoring public fast charging infrastructure
California focusing on workplace and apartment/condo charging, ignoring public fast charging infrastructure
David Herron December 4, 2014 April 13, 2015 EV Charging
There are big dreams and goals for electric car adoption in California, around the U.S. and around the world. California’s goals are something like 1 million plug-in EV’s by 2025 which seems to me to be achievable, unless this dalliance with fuel cell vehicles causes the state to undermine battery EV’s, or unless the falling price for gasoline causes a big exodus away from electric vehicles. Hopefully neither of those EV’s-will-fail fears will pan out, and electric vehicle adoption will continue growing purely on their own merits – fuel cost savings, lower environmental footprint, and a host of other benefits. The question then is – what should the electric vehicle recharging infrastructure look like?
Going by a conference call held today, sponsored by the Antelope Valley Clean Cities group, it might unfortunately be focused on workplace charging and home-based charging, with short shrift given to public charging.
EV Charging Infrastructure Priorities
Source: Mark Duvall, EPRI
The conference call gave several presenters the chance to discuss the challenges in electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Each talked of how two areas are the top priority :- Workplace Charging, and charging for Multi-Unit-Dwelling residents. And of those two it was Workplace Charging deployment that garnered the bulk of the attention.
In my mind these priorities are screwed up. Yes those two areas are important, but so too is public charging.
I imagine their reasoning hits on these points:
Single family home dwellers can easily get a charging station at home. Therefore those people don’t need any government help other than streamlining permitting procedures, and maybe a tax break.
Employers need serious convincing to offer charging stations to employees.
Multi-Unit-Dwelling residents have a huge barrier to charging at home – reluctant landlords.
The current crop of electric cars are just city cars with paltry 100ish mile ranges, so therefore nobody in their right mind will take one on a long trip, and therefore public charging isn’t all that interesting.
Most of this I wholly agree with, but I hugely disagree with that last point.
I currently live in an apartment complex where the landlord firmly says “no charging infrastructure”. It’s not even feasible to charge the car guerrilla style – running an extension cord out to the car, because the place immediately in front of the apartment is a fire lane, and the extension cord therefore would run across the parking lot.
There are lots of apartment and condo and townhouse dwellers who cannot charge at home. Let me tell you from personal experience that the inability to charge at home is inconvenient but not an insurmountable challenge to electric vehicle ownership.
The key solution in today’s context is public FAST CHARGING. Public level 2 charging is nearly useless for someone in my situation because of the many hours required for level 2 recharging. But, it’s easy to sit at a fast charging station for a half hour and blop through emails on my iPad while doing so.
In other words, as an apartment dwelling electric car owner, I want more public charging, and I want the user experience to be as close to gasoline station speed as possible.
I also want to do another thing with my electric car – take long trips. I don’t care about the 100ish mile range, I still want to take longer trips, and to do so purely on electricity. Why should those Model S owners have all the fun?
With that in mind, consider the above pair of maps. To the left is the current infrastructure as of some time in 2013. The current infrastructure as of late 2014 is a little better than that, fortunately, but there are still huge gaps. Also, note those green dots up in Oregon? That’s the southern-most end of the West Coast Electric Highway which is a string of FAST CHARGING stations along highways in Oregon and Washington. Originally the WCEH was going to cover the WHOLE WEST COAST but California wimped out and didn’t fulfill their end of the bargain.
On the right is obviously an idealized what-would-be-perfect map of charging infrastructure. I’ve spent time browsing PlugShare looking at places to drive to and certainly hoping there would be as many DC Fast Charging stations on the map as are shown here.
I want to go to Mt. Shasta or Yosemite or to Arcata or a number of other wonderfully remote places in California, but to do so on Electricity. I’ve heard that Medicine Lake (East of Mt. Shasta) is a wonderful place, and I want to experience it. How would I get there?
Right now it’s easy to get to the Davis/Sacramento area on fast charging, and reach Redding on level 2 charging. But beyond that you have mountains and very few official charging stations. Reaching Arcata is even more difficult because there’s a long stretch of extremely underpopulated territory with very few resources of any kind. Yosemite is a little easier, with Fast Charging stations able to get a driver to the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and then several level 2 charging stations on the way to Yosemite National Park.
What we need is implementation of those red dots shown on the right-hand map. Our friends in Washington and Oregon can (and do) go nearly anywhere because of the extensive Fast Charging infrastructure on the WCEH.
But let’s return to the conference call. As I said it focused on encouraging charging infrastructure at Workplaces and Multi-Unit-Dwellings.
The California Energy Commission is putting limited funds into charging station infrastructure deployment. The next solicitation is in Q1 2015, and the focus is on – you guessed it – Workplaces and Multi-Unit-Dwellings.
Therefore the CEC funding won’t help build out more public fast charging infrastructure.
One might get the impression that I’m negative on workplace and multi-unit-dwelling charging infrastructure. But that’s not true, both of those are necessary. I’d love to have even just a 120 volt outlet here at my apartment, and if I had a workplace access to charging at the office would make up for some of the inconvenience of no charging at home.
What I’m talking about is the absolute necessity of public fast charging.
Those guys at Tesla Motors are demonstrating the necessity in spades.
Highway design could decrease death and injury risk, if “we” chose smarter designs - March 28, 2015
GM really did trademark “range anxiety”, only later to abandon that mark - March 25, 2015
US Government releases new regulations on hydraulic fracturing, that some call “toothless” - March 20, 2015
Tesla Motors magic pill to solve range anxiety doesn’t quite instill range confidence - March 19, 2015
Update on Galena IL oil train – 21 cars involved, which were the supposedly safer CP1232 design - March 7, 2015
Another oil bomb train – why are they shipping crude oil by train? – Symptoms of fossil fuel addiction - March 6, 2015
Chevron relinquishes fracking in Romania, as part of broader pull-out from Eastern European fracking operations - February 22, 2015
Answer anti- electric car articles with truth and pride – truth outshines all distortions - February 19, 2015
Apple taking big risk on developing a car? Please, Apple, don’t go there! - February 16, 2015
Toyota, Nissan, Honda working on Japanese fuel cell infrastructure for Japanese government - February 12, 2015
EV Charging, Fast Charging, Government Policies. Bookmark.
NY Times’ circumstantial evidence Romanian anti-frackers on Russian payroll
US failed policies in Iraq War created today’s Islamic State – making the anti-IS “war” a phase of the global Oil War
Pingback: Solar carports at apartment complexes to allow EV charging at multi-unit-dwellings | The Long Tail Pipe
Tesla to bring Supercharging to urban areas,…
Fuel Cell car owners stuck in SF Bay Area after…
Chevy Bolt owner to NY Times: LA to Las Vegas takes…
EV charging station costs can be reduced, says Rocky…
Every plug-in vehicle has the right to access…
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1524
|
__label__wiki
| 0.616332
| 0.616332
|
Amarna Therapeutics Raises €10 Million to Progress Lead Development Candidate into Clinical Trials and Appoints a New Supervisory Board
Amarna Therapeutics, a privately held biotechnology company developing a next-generation SV40-based gene delivery vector platform named SVac that promises to transform gene-replacement and immunotherapy across many disease areas, announced that it has raised €10 million. The round was led by Flerie Invest AB, a Swedish investment company with another substantial contribution coming from an innovation credit from the “Netherlands Enterprise Agency” (RVO.nl) and existing shareholder Pim Berger.
The Company plans to use this funding to progress development of its SVac platform towards a first-in-man clinical study to commence in two to three years from now.
In addition to raising new funds, Amarna has recruited a new Supervisory Board to help underpin this new ‘clinical’ phase of its growth and development. Thomas Eldered has been appointed as Supervisory Board Chairman. Bernhard Kirschbaum, Maarten de Chateau, Ted Fjällman, Pim Berger and Guillaume Jetten have also joined the Supervisory Board (see biographies at the end of the release).
Ben van Leent, CEO of Amarna said: “We are very happy to have attracted such strong investors. This significant new funding allows Amarna to accelerate the development of SVac and our lead product AMA001, and to help us achieve our ultimate goal: to become a leading global gene therapy player”.
“We would like to extend a warm welcome to all of the members of our new Supervisory Board, led by the outstanding healthcare and biotech pioneer Thomas Eldered. They bring many years of in-depth life science knowledge and entrepreneurship to Amarna”.
Thomas Eldered, new Chairman of Amarna’s Supervisory Board, commented: “I’m very much looking forward to working at Amarna. Its viral gene delivery vector platform has the potential to make major medical breakthroughs possible, so that patients can be actually cured of “significant” diseases for which, to date, effective treatment have not become available. Together with my highly qualified and experienced colleagues in our new Supervisory Board, I’m fully committed to help progress Amarna into the next important clinical stages of development of its groundbreaking technology”.
SV40 Vectors are non-immunogenic in humans
Viral gene delivery vectors that are currently used for in vivo gene therapy are ineffective because the particles are instable upon injection (in the case of lentiviral vectors) or because the particles are immunogenic in humans (in the case of AAV vectors). Gene delivery vectors derived from the macaque polyomavirus Simian Virus 40 (SV40) are an attractive alternative to lentiviral and AAV vectors for clinical gene therapy. Humans can be considered naïve to SV40 since the virus only replicates in macaques, where it causes symptomless infections. Replication-defective SV40 vectors are non-immunogenic in humans and moreover, have the capacity to induce immune tolerance to the transgene products. SV40 vectors therefore hold a great potential for clinical applications treating genetic disorders, cancer, allergies and degenerative/inflammatory conditions such as neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and many more.
Amarna’s SVac platform: the benefits
Amarna has genetically engineered the SV40 genome used for the production of vector particles and in parallel generated a novel Vero-based packaging cell line named SuperVero that produces similar numbers of vector particles to the currently used packaging cell lines but without contaminating wild type SV40 particles. Since SVac is safe, highly efficient, non-immunogenic in humans and vector particles can be cost effectively produced in SuperVero cells, Amarna’s vector platform paves the way to clinically evaluate a whole new generation of SVac-based therapeutics for today’s major diseases.
Nieuwe subsidieregeling ter ondersteuning LSH startups
Janssen Biologics en mboRijnland verbeteren samen arbeidsmarktpositie mbo-ers
Prospect Awards 2020
Where to find companies and their profiles? You will find them in our directory.
To the map
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1529
|
__label__cc
| 0.505957
| 0.494043
|
Leslie Ford
True Horizon
window WALL
shiny object
Climbing Fiber and Xylem
cyanotype dream
iPhone Home
archival blog
Paintings in this series explore layers with pigmented beeswax and paper collage. Layers of medium using tints of color to build up the final hue allow glimpses of process. Edges and shadows below show through pools of transparency created by the color saturated layers above. The series expands exponentially with members that are as interesting as individuals as they are in groups.
This work speaks to isolation as well as engulfment and is inspired by vintage hatch covers found on wood ships such as the brigantine Albatross, which was in a film White Squall directed by Ridley Scott in 1996. A white squall is a violent windstorm at sea which manifests as a sudden increase in wind velocity, similar to a microburst. The film featured a scene in which the Skipper swims down to a hatch cover and sees his wife trapped below as the ship goes down. She was below deck when the white squall hits, falls and is unconscious as the ship founders in the waves. He sees her wake up as she looks up through the hatch, but he cannot open the hatch. Most of the crew live by abandoning the vessel, but the Skipper’s wife is drowned
All images copyright Leslie Ford. All rights reserved. An icompendium Site
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1531
|
__label__wiki
| 0.675549
| 0.675549
|
Laritz
FOREVERMORE TELESERYE OCTOBER 28 EPISODE
admin July 27, 2019 July 27, 2019 No Comments on FOREVERMORE TELESERYE OCTOBER 28 EPISODE
Lists of Philippine drama television series episodes. However, eventually, Xander, with the help of Agnes and their community, will transform from a brash, broken boy to a very charming man loved by everyone. Enrique Gil Liza Soberano. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. She lives under the shadow of her domineering mother in law and a first wife. Retrieved from ” https: But she warms up to Agnes and recognizes her positive influence on her son.
Mentally unstable and emotionally dependent on Xander, she returns to break up Agnes and Xander’s relationship and does everything to win him back. Retrieved from ” https: Retrieved from ” https: LizQuen taping in Benguet for Forevermore”. The strict father due to his contradicting deeds towards Xander, but later becomes a good father. Forevermore is a Philippine romantic drama television series directed by Cathy Garcia-Molina , starring Enrique Gil and Liza Soberano , together with an ensemble cast. She lives under the shadow of her domineering mother in law and a first wife. After the incident, his parents forced him to pay for the damages and his recklessness by having him work in the strawberry farm without any comfortable amenities under the guidance of Agnes, alongside her strawberry farm community.
Forevermore (TV series) – Wikipedia
Views Read Edit View history. Aside from this, Xander and Agnes’ love is further challenged when they get entangled episoce the strawberry farm land dispute between their families.
Forevermore The official title card for Forevermore. Forevermore was a Philippine romantic drama television series directed by Cathy Garcia-Molinastarring Enrique Gil and Liza Soberanotogether with an ensemble cast. But she warms up to Agnes and recognizes her positive influence on her son.
Ocyober Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
After the incident, his firevermore forced him to pay for the damages and his recklessness by having him work in the strawberry farm without any comfortable amenities under the guidance of Agnes, alongside her strawberry forevdrmore community. Ang Bagong Yugto Angelito: Retrieved October 22, She lives under the shadow of her domineering mother in law and a first wife.
56 EPISODE OF NISHA AUR USKE COUSINS
Enrique Gil, Liza Soberano in ‘Forevermore ‘ “. Realizing what is important, Xander makes the greatest sacrifice for Agnes, the woman he loves the most, and that it’s best for them to part ways. List of Forevermore episodes. The strict father due to his contradicting deeds towards Xander, but later becomes a good father. She dislikes Agnes because of their socio economic background and tries to break them up.
However, eventually, Xander, with the help of Agnes and their community, will transform from a brash, broken boy to a very charming man loved by everyone.
Retrieved May 25, This is the story of Xander Enrique Gilthe rebellious and broken unica hijo of a hotel magnate; and Agnes Liza Soberanothe humble and hardworking daughter of a strawberry farmer in Benguet. The journey towards Xander’s immersion in a totally different world was not easy for both.
The official title card for Forevermore. Mentally unstable and emotionally dependent on Xander, she returns to break up Agnes and Xander’s relationship and does everything to win him back. Views Read Edit View history.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil. Both cross paths when Forecermore crashes into Agnes’s strawberry truck while base jumping. The journey towards Xander’s immersion within a totally different world was not easy for both, however, due to Agnes and the La Presa community, he transforms from a broken boy into a very charming, understanding, and caring man loved by everyone.
Xander’s ex girl friend and first love, who refuses to move on from their relationship. Retrieved from ” https: Retrieved Episofe 22, This page was last edited on 15 Februaryat Pages using infobox television with editor parameter. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Second wife of Alex Grande Sr.
FILM TAYNOE VLECENIYE
She is directly involved in sabotaging the main water supply in the forest. Retrieved from ” https: She is directly involved in the destruction of La Presa and injuring the strawberry farmers.
The rebellious son of Alexander forevermote Bettina.
‘+relatedpoststitle+’
Cathy Garcia-Molina Richard I. LizQuen taping in Benguet for Forevermore”. Forevermore is a Philippine romantic drama television series directed by Cathy Garcia-Molinastarring Enrique Gil and Liza Soberanotogether with an ensemble cast. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Enrique Gil, Liza Soberano in ‘Forevermore ‘ “.
Enrique Gil Liza Soberano. Xander and Agnes soon fall deeply in love with each other, but unknown to Agnes, Xander has unfinished business with his first love, Kate Saavedra Sofia Andres.
This page forevermorw last edited on 19 Februaryat As fate would have it, after two years of separation, they meet again. After the incident, ocrober parents make him pay for the damages and his recklessness by having him work in the strawberry farm without any comfortable amenities, under the guidance of Agnes and her strawberry farm community. Hiwaga sa Bahay na Bato. Lists of Philippine drama television series episodes.
Related 10
BUUR GUEWEL AVEC SANEKH EPISODE 3
MOVIE MARIMAR TV3
PARASPARAM EPISODE 459
HUM TERE GUNAHGAR DRAMA EPISODE 8
WATCH YANKEE-KUN TO MEGANE-CHAN EPISODE 1 ENGLISH SUB
BEDNAJA LIZA FILM
PARVARISH EPISODE 57
SINOPSIS FILM ICHI RITORU NO NAMIDA
RAKSHAKUDU MOVIE BGMS
COLCHON FOUR SEASONS SPRING AIR
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1533
|
__label__wiki
| 0.503405
| 0.503405
|
Visiting the NCGA
North Carolina has 100 counties. Our state has single-member representation so representatives or senators may represent part of a county or multiple counties depending upon the population.
Legislators gather at the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) to represent their constituents. The NCGA is a public building, where visitors are welcome. The building contains offices where legislators work and there is seating available in 3rd floor galleries, where the public is invited to observe both House and Senate chambers. The NCGA website contains a wealth of information to help citizens learn history, navigate correspondence with legislators, track their work, and navigate visits to the building. Take a minute to explore the North Carolina State Legislative Building in this short video (with permission from Visit Raleigh).
If you plan to observe during a legislative session, this visit guide and legislative vocabulary list are helpful resources.
These two chambers of our state government determine state spending and propose bills that can become law through the legislative process. The North Carolina General Assembly is The People’s House and your NC House and Senate representatives are elected to work for you. Voting in elections is the best way to impact who represents your county in the NCGA. Between elections there are a number of ways you can continue to speak up and influence actions taken by your representatives.
Who Represents Me
Communication is an important part of civic engagement. You can contact elected officials to express your opinion about issues you care about and to support or oppose ongoing legislation. It is common for citizens to contact the governor and members of the council of state, NC House and Senate leaders, and representatives from their own home districts.
How to Use Your Power As a Constituent
Make an appointment to speak with NC House and Senate representatives from your district.
Contact representatives by phone or e-mail.
Interact with representatives on social media (find links on their websites).
Write Letters to the Editor of North Carolina newspapers (follow these letter writing tips).
Attend Town Hall Meetings, Forums and Debates to ask questions of potential candidates and elected officials. Stay connected with your local League for updates about upcoming events like these in your area.
State Legislative Action
Contact NC State Senators
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/members/reports/countyRepresentation.pl?Chamber=Senate
Contact NC State Representatives
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/members/reports/countyRepresentation.pl?Chamber=House
Congressional Action
Contact your U.S. Senators
https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/senators_cfm.cfm?State=NC
Contact your U.S. Representative
http://www.house.gov/representatives/
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1543
|
__label__wiki
| 0.582036
| 0.582036
|
Feature request #12348
add "shape://slash" geoserver like symbology
Added by Oskar Karlin almost 5 years ago. Updated almost 3 years ago.
Is it possible to create a line with a line pattern in a fixed angle? See attached map image.
In Geoserver it's apparently called "shape://slash"?
I have managed to create a marker line with a line at 45° but that one is always 45° from the lines angle at that point (see second attachment). I want it to be fixed.
If it's not possible, I'd like to make a feature request!
slash-line.png - this is what i want (90.6 KB) Oskar Karlin, 2015-03-10 07:07 AM
markerline.png - marker line (21.6 KB) Oskar Karlin, 2015-03-10 07:07 AM
#1 Updated by Giovanni Manghi almost 5 years ago
Category set to Symbology
#2 Updated by Jukka Rahkonen almost 5 years ago
The shape://slash feature belongs to GeoServer specific extensions which are documented in http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/styling/sld-extensions/pointsymbols.html. Probably such symbology can't be translated into standard SLD. If something similar will be implemented into QGIS it might be worth considering to use the same names as GeoServer already does for making it easier to transfer styles between those two.
Subject changed from shape://slash line to add "shape://slash" geoserver like symbology
Easy fix? set to No
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1546
|
__label__wiki
| 0.817167
| 0.817167
|
Undoing Culture Globalization
greconp
Mike Featherstone
SalvaSalva Undoing Culture Globalization per dopo
Law and Justice Globalized World Topics 2018
Unit 1 - Quiz Solution
Introduction to International Business and Globalization
Culture, Globalization and the World-system - Anthony D King (Ed.).pdf
How to Judge Globalism
Featherstone, Mike - Lifestyle and Consumer Culture
[Dipesh_Chakrabarty]_Habitations_of_Modernity_Ess(BookFi).pdf
Social Discipline, Democracy, and Modernity: Are They All Uniquely ‘European’?
Final Contemporary World
TCW Report
Theory From the South
5. Industrialización-Mcdonaldlization
Abellana, Modernism, Locality-PicCompressed
Ha Berm As
Mcdonald Ization
MODERNIST AND POST-MODERN PERSPECTIVES ON RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ZAMBIA AND PERU
baylis 7th editon
UNDOING CULTURE
Theory, Culture & Society caters for the resurgence of interest in culture
within contemporary social science and the humanities. Building on the
heritage of classical social theory, the book series examines ways in which
this tradition has been reshaped by a new generation of theorists. It will
also publish theoretically informed analyses of everyday life, popular
culture, and new intellectual movements.
EDITOR: Mike Featherstone, University of
SERIES EDITORIAL BOARD
Roy Boyne, University of Teesside
Mike Hepworth, University of Aberdeen
Scott Lash, University of Lancaster
Roland Robertson, University of Pittsburgh
Bryan S. Turner, Deakin
Recent volumes
Baroque Reason
The Aesthetics of Modernity
Buci-Glucksmann
The Consuming Body
Past Falk
Cultural Identity and Global Process
The Established and the Outsiders
Norbert Elias and John L. Scotson
The Cinematic Society
The Voyeur's Gaze
Norman K. Denzin
Decentring Leisure
Rethinking Leisure Theory
Chris Rojek
Global Modernities
Mike Featherstone, Scott Lash and Roland
The Masque of Femininity
T h e Presentation of W o m a n in Everyday Life
Efrat Tsee'lon
The Arena of Racism
Wieviorka
Globalization, Postmodernism and Identity
London Thousand Oaks New Delhi
O Mike Featherstone 1995
First published 1995. Reprinted 1997, 2000
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without permission in writing from the Publishers.
6 BonhiU Street
London EC2A 4PU
SAGE Publications Inc
2455 Teller Road
SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd
32, M-Block Market
Greater Kailash - I
New Delhi 110 048
Published in association with Theory, Culture Society,
School of Human Studies, University of Teesside
British Library Cataloguing In Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-8039-7606-2 pbk
Library of Congreaa catalog record available
Typeset by Mayhew Typesetting, Rhayader, Powys
Dedicated to the memory
my mother and father
Introduction: Globalizing Cultural Complexity
The Autonomization of the Cultural Sphere
Personality, Unity and the Ordered Life
The Heroic Life and Everyday Life
Globalizing the Postmodern
Global and Local Cultures
Localism, Globalism and Cultural Identity
Travel, Migration and Images of Social Life
The various chapters of this book have been written over the last five or
six years. Most of them started their lives as conference papers or essays
written for edited collections. They have been selected from the range of
papers written in this period because they have a certain coherence in
terms of the themes they seek to address. In many ways they represent a
deepening and extension of some of the issues developed in Consumer
Culture and Postmodernism
(1991a). Yet, rather than directly addressing
postmodernism, they seek to explore the grounds for postmodernism via
two main concerns. The first is the formation and deformation of the
cultural sphere which addresses the question of the autonomization of
culture and the type of a u t o n o m o u s person (the artist and intellectual as
hero) associated with this process. The second concerns the process of
globalization which I argue provides the wider intellectual context for
many of the themes associated with postmodernism.
My work in both areas has been sustained through the support and
numerous discussions of these issues with many friends and colleagues. I
have a special debt to my friends on the editorial board of the journal
Theory, Culture & Society. Josef Bleicher, Roy Boyne, Mike Hepworth,
Scott Lash, Roland Robertson and Bryan S. Turner, who will recognize
many of the concerns addressed here. In particular Bryan Turner, Scott
Lash and Roland Robertson have in their own ways worked across the
same territory I've been seeking to traverse (Roland Robertson's pioneer
ing work in developing the theory of globalization needs a special
mention). I would also like to acknowledge the contribution of Mike
Hepworth and Roger Burrows, who both read the whole manuscript,
made many helpful editing suggestions and persuaded me to take my own
medicine and follow the editor's maxim: the more you cut the better it
gets. In addition I must acknowledge the support of my colleagues in the
Sociology, Criminology and Social Policy subject group in the School of
H u m a n Studies at the University of Teesside for both their encouragement
and tolerance for some of my wilder ventures. My immediate colleagues in
the Centre for the Study of Adult Life, especially Robin Bunton and
Roger Burrows, who have worked together with Bryan Turner and me to
found the new associate journal to TCS, Body & Society have been
particularly supportive. I also have a special debt to Barbara Cox, who has
worked on Theory, Culture & Society for a n u m b e r of years now and has
found ways of channelling all our postmodern styles of work into a
miraculous kind of order which has enabled us to hit publication deadlines
on schedule. I also much appreciate the patience and support of friends
at Sage Publications who have encouraged and helped us in all the
various schemes which TCS has developed over the years: Stephen Barr,
Ian Eastment, Krysia Domaszewicz, David Hill, Jane Makoff, Robert
Rojek and Janey Walker.
In the last few years I have had the good fortune to be able to enjoy a
taste of the nomadic academic life as a visiting professor in Brazil, Japan
and C a n a d a . I would like to thank colleagues and students at Campinas
University in So Paulo, Doshisha University in Kyoto, Simon Fraser
University in Vancouver, for making my stay so rewarding and hospitable.
I would also like to mention the support of a number of colleagues and
friends at these and other institutions in the above three countries with
w h o m I discussed many of the ideas which developed into this book:
Antonio A. Arantes, Ana Zahira Bassit, Guita Debert, Arnaldo Augusto
de Siguera, Gisela Taschner, Makio Morikawa, Yasuhiro Aoki, Katsu
H a r a d a , Ken'nichi Kawasaki, Chris King, Toyoie Kitagawa, John Mher,
Hideichiro N a k a n o , Y o k o Ogawa, Kazuhiko O k u d a , Sab Omote, Shuichi
W a d a , Sharon Fuller, Rick Gruneau, Stephen Kline, Martin Laba, David
Ley, Richard Pinet, Caroline Newton.
I would like to thank the following friends and colleagues who helped in
various ways in developing the ideas which emerged into this book:
Zygmunt Bauman, Laura Bovone, Massimo Canevacci, David Chaney,
Klaus Eder, David Frisby, Christian Lalive d'Epinay, Stephen Mennell,
Brian Moeran, H a n s M o m m a a s , Justin O'Connor, John O'Neill, Oswaldo
Panaccione, Britt Robillard, John Rex, Chris Rojek, Hermann Schwengel,
Lisa Skov, Sam Whimster, Cas Wouters, Derek and Jenny Wynne. I must
also acknowledge the help and encouragement I received from friends,
who are sadly no longer with us: Norbert Elias, H a n s Haferkamp and
Friedrich Tenbrock. Finally, thanks are due to my family, especially Edna,
Claire and John, for their tolerance and understanding for the person
working in the room upstairs.
INTRODUCTION: GLOBALIZING
CULTURAL COMPLEXITY
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.
(W.B. Yeats, 'The Second Coming')
Those who write, travel.
The art of being there is to go there.
(Joseph de Maistre)
Undoing cultural unities
The above quotation from Yeats has been used numerous times, both
directly and indirectly, to highlight the current sense of cultural fragmen
tation and dislocation. It is assumed that culture has become decentred,
that there is an absence of coherence and unity; culture can no longer
provide an adequate account of the world with which to construct or order
our lives. The lines which directly precede the above quotation at the start
of Yeats poem run: 'Turning and turning in the widening gyre/The falcon
cannot hear the falconer*. This inability to find the way home, to return to
the lost point of coherence and order, was of course a well-worked theme
in the events surrounding the end of the First World W a r and its
immediate aftermath, the time when Yeats wrote the poem.
O u r current sense of cultural fragmentation which is indicated in titles
of books such as Off Center (Miyoshi, 1991), Dislocating
(Cornwall and Lindisfarne, 1994), Relocating Cultural Studies (Blundell et
al., 1993), Border Dialogues (Chambers, 1990), Disrupted Borders (Gupta,
1993), The Nation and its Fragments (Chatterjee, 1993), Decentring Leisure
(Rojek, 1995), then is not new. Indeed people have long been Undoing
Culture, to add the title of this book to the rapidly growing list. Yet what
is noticeable is that late twentieth-century analysts of culture rarely seek to
examine other potentially parallel phases of history, such as the time in
which Yeats wrote 'The Second Coming' just after the First World W a r
a phase in which there was a marked sense of cultural relativism and crisis,
as the writings of Spengler, Scheler, Weber and others demonstrate. If
we wanted to cast further afield the culture of the baroque in the seven
teenth century which fascinated Walter Benjamin (1977) and others (BuciGlucksmann, 1994; Maravall, 1986) also comes to mind. Yet ours would
not be the first generation to be accused of harbouring 'men [or today we
should say people] without memories', to play off A d o r n o ' s phrase.
It can be argued that the sense that there is a cultural crisis, that we
need a 'diagnosis of our times', has long been the meat and drink of
cultural specialists (artists, intellectuals and various types of cultural
intermediaries). In effect they have a professional interest in undoing and
reworking the knots of culture. This is not to suggest that cultural
specialists are arbitrarily, or capriciously, inventing cultural crises. They
are clearly responding to perceptions and images of events happening in
the world. Yet it is the relationship between their immediate world, the
conditions of intellectual and cultural production and consumption within
which they work, and this larger world O u t there' which needs investi
gation. Noticeable in the post-war era have been the specific shifts within
intellectual practices which occurred as tightly controlled establishments,
able to monopolize the supply of intellectual goods, gave way to a phase
of demonopolization, which has provided a range of opportunities for
outsider groups.
This was one of the arguments of my previous book, Consumer Culture
and Postmodernism
(1991a), that postmodernism should not merely be
understood as an epochal shift, or new stage of capitalism. Rather, atten
tion should be given to the mediations between the economy and culture by
focusing on the activities of cultural specialists and intermediaries and the
expanding audiences (the postwar baby boom generation) for a new range
of cultural goods. Contra some strands of postmodern theory which
proclaim the triumph of culture and along with it the end of the social, it
argued that we have not so readily moved towards a stage in the develop
ment of social life which has broken down completely the power balances
and interdependencies which bind together groups of people. At the same
time it must be conceded that concepts such as 'the social' and 'society' are
no longer able to deliver the theoretical benefits they once promised. As we
shall see in some of the later chapters in the book, the process of
globalization has been helping to undermine the alleged integrity and unity
of nation-state societies. Yet we should be aware of assuming that this is
the whole story, because the notion of 'society' has long been as much a
projected image of what social life should be like as a reality. It glossed
many social processes which were never domesticated, regulated and
integrated. One of these processes, the shifting role of travel and mobility
in constructing images of social life, is the subject of the final chapter.
A central aim of this book is to explore some of the processes which are
alleged to have uncoupled culture from the social and some of the ways in
which this particular image itself has been formed. It has, therefore, been
argued that culture has gained a more significant role within social life and
that today everything is cultural (e.g. Baudrillard, 1993). In effect culture is
now beyond the social and has become released from its traditional
determinisms in economic life, social class, gender, ethnicity and region. In
terms of our reference to the decentring of culture, this could be taken to
be a counter-argument: in effect culture has not been decentred, rather, it
has become recentred. Certainly, if we take into account the rise in
significance accorded to the study of culture within academic life this could
well be the case. Culture, long o n the periphery of the social science field,
has now been moved towards the centre. T o take an example: my book
Consumer Culture and Postmodernism (Featherstone, 1991a) was reviewed
by the British Journal of Industrial Relations in the early 1990s. F o r a book
on culture and theory to be reviewed by an industrial relations journal
would hardly have seemed possible in the 1970s. Today a number of
new journals have appeared in the fields of business, management and
organizational studies which address many of the theoretical and cultural
issues which were taken on board in Theory, Culture & Society and other
places in the early 1980s. It can be argued that this is part of a wider
tendency within' academic life which has seen the weakening of the
divisions between subject areas alongside a much stronger approval for
inter- and trans-disciplinary studies. F r o m this perspective, then, the more
general decentring and fragmentation of culture has been accompanied by
a recentring of culture within academic life.
A n aim, then, of this book, is to investigate the processes both inside
and outside the academy and wider field of cultural producers, which form
our sense of culture as something unified or fragmented. In one sense we
are all cultural producers in that we engage in practices which not only
reproduce the cultural repertoires we are provided with and need as we
move through social life, but are to some extent able to modify and shape
them as they are passed down the unbroken chain of generations which
constitutes h u m a n life. Yet the extent to which we can all participate in
cultural production and consumption clearly varies historically and
between societies. It also varies between groups within societies, as almost
all societies and social entities possess groups of specialists who engage in
the production and dissemination of culture (priests, artists, intellectuals,
educators, teachers, academics, cultural intermediaries, etc.). This power
potential they possess through their ability to produce and mobilize
culture is, of course, not unimpeded, but is itself dependent upon the
interdependencies and power balances these groups enjoy with other,
usually more powerful, groups such as economic and military specialists. It
is possible, then, that our overall sense of the value, meaning and potential
unity or crisis-ridden nature of a culture will depend not only on the
conditions of social life we find ourselves in, but on the conditions of those
who specialize in cultural production as well. Under certain circumstances
the power potential of certain groups of cultural specialists may increase to
the extent that particular cultural forms gain greatly in a u t o n o m y and
prestige. This is the subject of Chapter 2, which explores the processes that
lead to the formation and autonomization of the cultural sphere. T h e
relatively a u t o n o m o u s cultural sphere which developed alongside the
public sphere (Habermas, 1989) since the eighteenth century, was
accompanied by a rise in the prestige of artists and intellectuals, to the
U N D O I N G CULTURE
extent that for some groups in the middle classes art became a heroic way
of life, which was seen as more important than life itself.
This subject is taken u p in Chapters 3 and 4, which address the ways in
which the ordered heroic life has been formed as part of the processes
which led to the autonomization of the culture sphere. Max Weber's
respect for the sense of unity generated by the ordered life of the Puritan is
well known, as is his assumption that it is impossible to reproduce this in
modern times. F o r Weber the artistic, intellectual or erotic lives are
necessarily incomplete and lack fundamental coherence, something which
became the fate of the individual in modernity. Yet the topic is given an
intriguing twist when we consider those accounts of Weber's life which
sought to present it as a form of heroic stoicism, perhaps the only viable
'noble' response to the meaninglessness generated by the rationalization of
life and the confusion resulting from the clashing of incompatible values in
the modern world. Against the possibility of striving for an ordered life we
have to place the sacrifice and isolation demanded by this masculine form
of heroic self-formation. This theme is taken u p in the next chapter, in
which everyday life, the world of sociability, maintenance and women is
contrasted against the masculine heroic ideal. Yet this ideal, which became
such a powerful force in the arts and intellectual life in the late nineteenth
century, has since been weakened with the deformation of the cultural
sphere and the rise of consumer culture. This should not be taken as
merely entailing a tragic loss, but as allowing new forms of identity
development to take place amongst previously excluded outsider groups.
It is assumed, then, that in the twentieth century the process of the
formation and autonomization of the cultural sphere has given way to
deformation. One of the strands associated with postmodernism in the late
twentieth century has been that we are witnessing the 'end of art', and the
end of the artist as a heroic figure concerned to carve out a distinctive
form of life. The extension of consumer culture particularly through the
mass production and proliferation of commodity-signs and images is seen
to have spelled the end of a separate cultural sphere.
Yeats's 'Second Coming' can again be used to illustrate this process.
While the poem has regularly been taught in schools and universities as
part of the specialist canon of high culture, it has recently been popu
larized and packaged for a mass audience. The poem has been used as
lyrics for a song recorded by Joni Mitchell on a recent C D . W.B. Yeats
might well have approved this popularization of the poem and its capacity
to reach wider audiences, yet the problem is complicated because the
binary opposition high culture/mass culture no longer seems appropriate.
Joni Mitchell writes for intermediate audiences which cannot easily be
designated as belonging to popular culture or mass culture - not that
they are high culture either. This, then, is an example of a 'cross-over',
where previously sealed-off cultural forms more easily flow over what were
once strictly policed boundaries, to produce unusual combinations and
syncretisms.
This question of the difficulty of categorizing culture which flows across
boundaries is a central issue in Chapters 5, 6 and 7. It can be argued that
the intensification of the flow of cultural goods and images within
consumer culture makes it more difficult to read culture, to attribute a
fixed meaning and relationship between a cultural sign or image and the
social attributes of the person who uses or consumes the item. As is argued
in Chapter 2, on the autonomization of the cultural sphere, there is the
assumption, derived from anthropological studies of tightly bounded
societies, that the logic of the system of cultural classification is somehow
homologous to the distinctions, differences and divisions between social
groups who unconsciously use culture as relatively fixed markers in status
games. Yet it can be argued that the difficulty in controlling the flow of
new goods, images and information, which is generated by the modernist
and market impulses within consumer societies, leads to problems of
misreading the signs. The problems we encounter in everyday practice
because culture fails to provide us with a single taken-for-granted recipe
for action introduces difficulties, mistakes and complexity. Culture which
once seemed invisible, as it was habitually inculcated into people over time
and became sedimented into well-worn social routines, now surfaces as a
problem. Taken-for-granted tacit knowledge about what to d o , how to
respond to particular groups of people and what judgement of taste to
make, now becomes more problematic. Within consumer culture news
papers, magazines, television and the radio all offer advice on how to cope
with a range of new situations, risks and opportunities - yet this only adds
to rather than reduces complexity.
While some would see this as essentially a postmodern problem, we
should be aware that Simmel (1968), writing around the turn of the
century, identified this as a characteristic feature of modernity, or perhaps
we should say 'the modern condition': the difficulties of coping with, and
meaningfully assimilating, the overproduction of objective culture. Nearly
a century later what we refer to as postmodernism can be associated with
a further tightening and intensification of this process. As will be argued in
Chapters 6, 7 and 8, the global dimension plays a crucially important part
in our attempt to understand this process. It is not sufficient to regard the
intensification of the flows of commodities, money, images, information
and technology as globalizing the postmodern by exporting its cultural
forms and complexity problematic from the Western centres t o the rest of
the world. This is to assume a neat sequence of social change based upon
West European experience via its assumed master concepts of tradition,
modernity and postmodernity, largely propelled by economic changes.
It is also important to examine the ways in which globalization has
produced both the modern and the postmodern, in the sense that the
power struggles between nation-states, blocs and other collectivities
gradually became globalized as more and more parts of the world were
drawn into the competing figuration of interdependencies and power
balances. As is argued in the final chapter, there is an important spatial
and relational dimension to modernity which is lost when we conceive it as
coming out of one particular time and place with all others necessarily
condemned to traverse the same route. Hence it is possible now to see the
beginnings of differential reactions to modernity, through the production
of a series of different cultural frames, of which the rise in the power
potential of non-Western nation-states (in particular the rise of East Asia)
is making us in the West increasingly aware. It might, then, be advisable
to speak of global modernities, with the emphasis given to the plural
Global modernities and cultural complexity
The process of globalization suggests simultaneously two images of
culture. The first image entails the extension outwards of a particular
culture to its limit, the globe. Heterogeneous cultures become incorporated
and integrated into a dominant culture which eventually covers the whole
world. The second image points to the compression of cultures. Things
formerly held apart are now brought into contact and juxtaposition.
Cultures pile on top of each other in heaps without obvious organizing
principles. There is too much culture to handle and organize into coherent
belief systems, means of orientation and practical knowledge. The first
image suggests a process of conquest and unification of the global space.
The world becomes a singular domesticated space, a place where everyone
becomes assimilated into a common culture. In one version this dream of a
secular ecumene (Tenbrock, 1990) as the endpoint of historical develop
ment, represents a global culture as the culture of the nation-state writ
large. Few today would adhere to this faith in the unfolding of a historical
logic to deliver us into a world state with an integrated culture. While
there are processes of cultural integration, homogenization and unification
at work, it is clear that they are by no means uncontested.
It may well be better to consider a global culture in the first sense to be
a form, a space or field, made possible through improved means of
communication in which different cultures meet and clash. This points
directly towards the second aspect of the globalization of culture and at
the same time suggests greater cultural movement and complexity. Yet
once the spiral of relativization of culture through increased contact,
juxtaposition and clashing has begun, many questions start to surface
about long-held formulations of culture in the social sciences and the
humanities. W e need to consider the question of the perception of
complexity: which groups of people represent cultures as more complex
and why? W h a t does this assertion of complexity suggest about our image
of cultures as more simple and integrated in the past? H o w were such
images possible and sustainable? H o w far does this point towards the need
to develop a new set of cultural concepts with which to reconceptualize the
role of culture in social life?
F o r those who like to detect the play of logics in the historical process,
globalization could be seen as entailing a social integration process which
runs from tribal groups to nation-state societies, superstate blocs and
eventually a world state-society. While many would hesitate to go so far as
to see the emergence of a world state-society based upon the global
monopolization of violence and taxation, we already find references to a
'global society' (Giddens, 1994: 9 6 - 7 ) , suggesting that various modes of
global integration and forms of organization are well under way. Such an
emergent global society is clearly far from being comparable to the
conventional sociological notion of society which is grounded in the
nation-state, and as in the case of the influential Durkheimian tradition,
emphasizes normative integration and c o m m o n cultural values.
If there is an emergent global society, the impetus would seem to be
coming from technological developments and the economy (and it is
important to conceive both in relation to social and cultural frameworks
and the activities of specific groups of people and other collective agents
such as nation-states, which further these developments in terms of their
potential as forms of empowerment). Technological developments such as
means of transportation (motor cars, railways and aeroplanes) enable the
binding together of larger expanses of time-space not only on an intrasocietal level, but increasingly on an inter-societal and global level. T h e
same can be said for the mass media (radio, terrestrial and satellite TV)
and new communications technology (telephones, fax, and the emergent
computer network, the 'internet'). Unlike the first set of devices, which
have generally been designed for monological, or one-way communication,
the latter range of devices have a dialogical and interactive capacity which
enables distant others across the world t o pursue us a n d m a k e d e m a n d s on
us to hit deadlines, as we strive to manage wider networks with more
intense information interchanges. The development of weaponry also
provides a further dramatic means of binding people together in conflict
over vast areas of time and space.
In a similar way global integration can be conceived as being furthered
through the expansion of economic activity to the extent that c o m m o n
forms of industrial production, commodities, market behaviour, trade and
consumption also become generalized around the world. The expansion of
the modern world system can be conceived in this way, which points to the
ways in which particular nation-states and groups within nation-states
have sought to expand markets and production systems (Wallerstein, 1974,
1980). T o take the parallel case of global consumption, it is clear that
certain retailing forms of business, techniques, sites and modes of
marketing have rapidly proliferated a r o u n d the world.
One noticeable example is the tremendous success of fast-food franchises
such as M c D o n a l d ' s . George Ritzer (1993) has analysed this process which
he refers to as 'McDonaldization', namely 'the process by which the
principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and
more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world'.
Ritzer argues that we are witnessing the McDonaldization of society and
the world - something which is to be found not only in food but in car
maintenance, education, child care, supermarkets, video rental outlets,
cinemas, theme parks and sex. It is part of a massive bureaucratization of
everyday life which leads to a progressive standardization, and this, as we
shall see, cannot easily be integrated into definitions of the postmodern.
There is a further aspect to McDonaldization which Ritzer does not go
into: it not only entails economic (in the form of time/money) 'efficiency'
gains through standardization of the product and delivery, but also
represents a cultural message. The burger is not only consumed physically
as material substance, but is consumed culturally as an image and an icon
of a particular way of life. Even though McDonald's do not go in for
elaborate imagistic advertising, the burger is clearly American and it
stands for the American way of life. It is a product from a superior global
centre, which has long represented itself as the centre. F o r those on the
periphery it offers the possibility of the psychological benefits of identi
fying with the powerful. Along with the M a r l b o r o M a n , Coca-Cola,
Hollywood, Sesame Street, rock music and American football insignia,
M c D o n a l d ' s is one of a series of icons of the American way of life.
They have become associated with transposable themes which are central
to consumer culture, such as youth, fitness, beauty, luxury, romance,
freedom. American dreams have become intertwined with those of the
good life. T h e extent to which these images and artefacts are exported
a r o u n d the world has been seen by some to point to the global
homogenization of culture in which tradition gives way to American mass
consumer culture. In this model of cultural imperialism (Mattelart, 1979;
Schiller, 1976) the weight of economic power possessed by US corpor
ations backed by the world's most powerful nation-state is sufficient to
provide points of entry into national markets around the globe. In effect
culture follows the economy.
This is well documented by travel writers who venture to the world's
far-flung and wild places only to discover that the paraphernalia of
American culture has got there first. Hence Pico Iyer in his Video Nights in
Kathmandu subtitled Reports from the Not-So-Far East, remarks how he
found that 'Everywhere, in fact, dreams of pleasure and profit were
stamped " M a d e in America*" (1989: 2 3 - 4 ) . T h e book's back-cover blurb
says: ' M o h a w k haircuts in Bali. In Gungzhou - in the new China - a
Buffeteria serving dishes called "Yes, Sir Cheese M y Baby," and "Ike and
T u n a T u r n e r . ' " Noticeable here too is the fact that the language of global
mass consumer culture is English.
Yet even if one believes that cultures flow like water and easily dissolve
the differences they encounter, there is a problem with the assumption that
the United States is the centre from which everything flows out towards
the periphery. This m a y have been relatively true u p until the 1970s, but it
is hard to sustain today. The United States still dominates the culture and
information industries which transmit globally, but there is a growing
sense of multipolarity and the emergence of competing centres. Certainly
Japan and East Asia are of growing global significance, currently largely in
terms of the flow of consumer goods and finance rather than images and
information. T h e celebration of Japanese national identity, or Nihonjinron,
has been m u t e d or directed inwards in the postwar era, but this m a y not
always be the case. Japanese consumer goods d o not seek to sell on the
back of a Japanese way of life. Indeed it can be argued that if the term
Japanization of the world means anything it is in terms of a market
strategy built a r o u n d the notion of dockaku, or glocalism. T h e term refers
to a global strategy which does not seek to impose a standard product or
image, but instead is tailored to the demands of the local market. This has
become a popular strategy for multinationals in other parts of the world
who seek to join the rhetoric of localism.
In addition to global processes of Americanization and Japanization, or
Westernization and Orientalization, it is possible also to speak of 'the
Brazilianization of the world: the dual processes of zoning and cultural
syncretism. A number of commentators have pointed to the emergence of
'dual cities' (Mollenkopf and Castells, 1991) which provide new juxta
positions of the new rich and the new poor. In his analysis of the
development of Los Angeles, Mike Davis (1992: 20) draws attention to the
way in which it is a highly segregated zoned city with its fortified core and
middle- and upper-class apartment complexes in close proximity, yet
separated and protected from contact with lower- and underclass ethnic
ghettos and the zones of crime and disorder. Despite being an 'infor
mational city' (Castells, 1994), Davis argues, Los Angeles more closely
approximates the urban sprawl described in William Gibson's science
fiction novels: a trajectory which means that it has begun to resemble So
Paulo more than postmodern T o k y o - Y o k o h a m a . This form of Brazilianiz
ation based on the model of fortified zoned, divided, dangerous cities (see
Banck, 1994 for a discussion of the invasions of the exclusive beach culture
by faveia people), provides an interesting alternative to the Carmen
Miranda or samba/beach culture image of Brazil (see Enloe, 1989 for a
discussion of the globalization of Carmen
Miranda).
The ease with which people can slip in and out of ethnic identities has
been remarked on by a number of commentators (Abu-Lughod, 1991). In
contrast to the assimilation, or melting pot, models which worked off
strong insider/outsider divisions in which identity was seen as fixed, today
there is a greater acknowledgement that people can live happily with
multiple identities. Hence both the evaluative stance and the terminology
for those people who move around the world as migrants and are caught
between culture shifts. Here we think of groups such as third-generation
Brazilian Japanese living in So Paulo, who go to Japan to seek employ
ment as migrant workers - the so-called 'Nickeys'. It is no longer
adequate to seek to understand such groups through categories such as
'the marginal m a n ' , or 'halfies'. Rather, their situation is given a positive
impetus in the use of the term 'doubles'.
W h a t this suggests is that an important part of the processes which are
leading to intensified globalization has to be understood in terms of the
movement of people around the world. More people are living between
cultures, or on the borderlines, and European and other nation-states,
which formerly sought to construct a strong exclusive sense of national
identity, more recently have had to deal with the fact that they are
multicultural societies as 'the rest' have returned to the West in the post
1945 era.
In this context we should endeavour to draw lessons from postcolonial
theory, which shares a number of the assumptions found in the post
modern critique of identity. F r o m the point of view of postmodernism,
modernity has been seen as entailing a quest to impose notions of unity
and universality on thought and the world. In effect its mission is to
impose order on disorder, to tame the frontier. Yet with the shifting global
balance of power away from the West, with more voices talking back to
the West, there is a strong sense that modernity will not be universalized.
This is because modernity is seen as both a Western project and as the
West's projection of its values on to the world. In effect modernity has
allowed Europeans to project their civilization, history and knowledge as
civilization, history and knowledge in general.
Instead of the confident sense that one is able to construct theory and
m a p the world from the secure place of the centre, which is usually seen as
higher and more advanced in symbolic and actual terms, postmodernism
and postcolonialism present theory as mobile, or as constructed from an
eccentric site, somewhere on the boundary. The movement of people from
the global boundaries to the centre is coupled with a displacement of
theory to the boundary, with a weakening of its authority. There is a
lowering of theory's capacity to speak for people in general, to a greater
acknowledgement of the limited and local nature of its assertions.
The very notion that we can undertake a comparative analysis based
upon homogeneous national cultures, consensual traditions or Organic*
ethnic communities is being challenged and redefined. As Homi Bhabha
(1994: 5) argues
there is overwhelming evidence of a more transnational and translational sense
of the hybridity of imagined communities. Contemporary Sri Lankan theatre
represents the deadly conflict between the Tamils and the Sinhalese through
allegorical references to state brutality in South Africa and Latin America; the
Anglo-Celtic canon of Australian literature and cinema is being rewritten from
the perspective of Aboriginal political and cultural imperatives; the South
African novels of Richard Rive, Bessie Head, Nadine Gordimer, John Coetzee
are documents of a society divided by apartheid that enjoin the international
intellectual community to mediate on the unequal, asymmetric worlds that
exist elsewhere; Salman Rushdie writes the fabulist historiography of postindependence India and Pakistan in Midnight's Children and Shame, only to
remind us in The Satanic Verses that the truest eye may now belong to the
migrant's double vision; Toni Morrison's Beloved revives the past of slavery and
its murderous rituals of possession and self-possession, in order to project a
contemporary fable of a woman's history that is at the same time the narrative
of an affective, historic memory of an emergent public sphere of men and
women alike.
This conscious mixing of traditions and crossing of boundaries highlights
the ways in which the rest, now so obviously visible in the West, have
always been a part of the West. This destroys the unitary clean and
coherent images of modernity that have been projected out of the Western
centres. Postcoloniality, as Bhabha (1994: 6) remarks, points to the hybrid
and syncretic perspectives of those w h o were confined to the borders, half
inside and half outside of modernity. This for Bhabha suggests a
postcolonial contra-modernity,
visible not only in the South but in the
N o r t h , not only in the countryside but in the world cities.
This position resonates with Paul Gilroy's (1993: 36) depiction of black
culture and music as a distinctive counterculture of modernity in its refusal
of 'the modern occidental separation of ethics and aesthetics, culture and
polities'. F o r Gilroy, discussions of modernity rarely mention slavery and
the African diaspora; nor, we might add, does colonialism manage to enter
the largely intra-societally inspired sociological accounts of modernity of
eminent theorists such as Giddens and Habermas. It is not only that
modernity is coupled with barbarism through the degradation of shipping
African slaves across the Atlantic. It is not that the figure of Columbus
does not appear alongside the standard pairing of Luther and Copernicus
as key figures of modernity, or that Las Casas's (1992) accounts of the
genocide in Latin America are rarely spoken of alongside Auschwitz,
which they dwarf. N o r that accounts of slavery are somehow confined to
black history and not the intellectual history of the West as a whole. O r
that slavery is often viewed sociologically as a part of a plantation
economy regarded as a premodern residue fundamentally incompatible
with capitalism and modern rationality.
All these factors should be grounds for rethinking the category; yet it is
the fact that blacks are both inside and outside the development of
Western culture within modernity which is the biggest problem. Gilroy
(1993: 54) argues that slavery is the premise of modernity, something
which exposes the foundational ethnocentricism of the Enlightenment
project with its idea of universality, fixity of meaning and coherence of the
subject. The problem is that it has produced members of society who are
living denials of the validity of the project, whose existence within society,
or capacity to be seen as persons or citizens was long denied. Yet black
people are both Americans and black, or Europeans and black, and
participate in a culture and set of collective memories which cannot be
integrated with or limited to the cultures of the nation-states in which they
reside. Their culture is African and Western and their identity lived
through a form of 'double consciousness', formed from experiences which
are both inside a n d outside the West, inside and outside modernity.
This clearly demands a concept of culture which can account for such
displacements, which have been at the heart of the formation of modernity
and which postcolonial theory will increasingly bring to the surface. It
demands a conception of culture which not only discovers increasing
complexity in the current phase of globalization, but also looks at previous
phases of globalization and its relationship to modernity. Here we can
think of the need to investigate the ways in which particular European
notions of culture were generated within modernity which presented its
culture as unified and integrated, which neglected the spatial relationships
to the rest of the world that developed with colonialism, in effect the dark
side of modernity that m a d e this sense of unity possible.
Sociology has long taken as its subject matter society, a notion which, as
is argued in Chapter 8, was developed at a particular point in the late
nineteenth century when nations were preoccupied with integration as part
of a nation-state formation process. It can also be argued that the focus
on intra-societal mechanisms of integration was perceived as especially
relevant at a point in time when nation-states were increasingly drawn into
a tighter competing figuration, which encouraged the strong assertion of
national identity. T o d a y the level of global interdependencies and conflict
across and through the boundaries of the nation-state make the heritage of
this artificial division of labour harder to justify.
Postmodernism and postcolonialism have pointed to the problem of
cultural complexity and the increasing salience of culture in social life
through the greater production, mixing and syncretism of cultures which
were formerly held separate and firmly attached to social relationships.
T h e radical implications of postmodernism and postcolonial theory are
to question the very idea of the social, the unity of modernity and the
metanarratives of the Western Enlightenment tradition with its belief in
universalism and progress. This suggests a spatial relativization of the
West in a world which ceases to be its own projection or mirror image (c.f.
Said on Orientalism). W o r k s such as Said's (1978) emerged from the fact
that: (a) more people are crossing boundaries and have multiple affiliations
which question taken-for-granted stereotypes; and (b) there has been a
shift in the global balance of power away from the West to the extent that
it cannot now avoid listening to the Other', or assume that the latter is at
an earlier stage of development.
The Western self-image and that of the passive other, are under in
creasing contestation, so it is not surprising that one of the forces
associated with postmodernism has been postcolonialism (Spivak, Trin T.
Minh-ha, Bhabha, Gilroy, Hall, et ai). The changing global circumstance
as a result of the process of globalization has provoked a particular
Western reaction to this situation in the form of postmodernism, which has
engaged in a far-reaching questioning of its own tradition, albeit generally
conceived in internal terms and not addressed to the spatial relations of the
West to the rest of the world.
It is no longer possible to conceive global processes in terms of the
dominance of a single centre over the peripheries. Rather there are a
number of competing centres which are bringing about shifts in the global
balance of power between nation-states and blocs and forging new sets of
interdependencies. This is not to suggest a condition of equality between
participants but a process which is seeing more players admitted to the
game who are demanding access to means of communication and the right
to be heard. T h e expansion and speed of forms of communication means
that it is more difficult for governments to police and control the volume
of information and image flows that cross their frontiers.
O u r image of culture has become more complex. This leads to a number
of important questions a b o u t the image of culture we have long operated
with in the social sciences. This image may have presented an over
simplified view of a culture as something integrated, unified, settled and
static; something relatively well-behaved which performed the task of
oiling the wheels of social life in an ordered society. If this image is now
seen as inadequate to capture the current phase of globalization with its
nation-state deformation processes, how did it arise and become so
influential? If it was associated with the construction of national cultures
alongside state formation, was it always m o r e of a n ideal, an intention
rather than an actuality? Something which suppressed the various levels of
complexity and difference already inherent within modern societies?
Rather than the emergence of a unified global culture there is a strong
tendency for the process of globalization to provide a stage for global
differences not only to open u p a 'world showcase of cultures' in which the
examples of the distant exotic are brought directly into the home, but to
provide a field for a more discordant clashing of cultures. While cultural
integration processes are taking place on a global level the situation is
becoming increasingly pluralistic, or polytheistic, a world with many
competing gods, along the lines Weber (1948b) discusses in his 'Science as
a vocation' essay. This has been referred to as the global babble. It has
meant that 'the rest are increasingly speaking back to the West' and along
with the relative decline of Western power it has required that the West
has increasingly been forced to listen. It is no longer as easy for Western
nations to maintain the superiority of adopting a 'civilizational mission'
towards the rest of the world, in which the others are depicted as
occupying the lower rungs of a symbolic hierarchy, which they are
gradually being educated to climb up to follow their betters. Rather, this
modernist image, at the heart of modernization theory, is being disputed
and challenged. As we shall see, the term 'postmodernism' can be
understood as pointing to this process of cultural fragmentation and
collapse of symbolic hierarchies which, I would argue, gains much of its
impetus from the awareness of a shift in the value of the symbolic power
and cultural capital of the West, rather than a move to a new stage of
history, 'postmodernity,' itself premised upon a developmental model of
tradition and modernity constructed from Western experience. This, then,
is one important sense in which postmodernism points to the decentring of
culture and the introduction of cultural complexity.
The process of globalization, then, does not seem to be producing
cultural uniformity; rather it makes us aware of new levels of diversity. If
there is a global culture it would be better to conceive of it not as a
c o m m o n culture, but as a field in which differences, power struggles and
cultural prestige contests are played out. Something akin to an underlying
form which permits the recognition and playing out of differences along
the lines of Durkheim's non-contractual aspects of contract, or SimmePs
analysis of the taken-for-granted common ground underpinning social
conflict. Hence globalization makes us aware of the sheer volume, diversity
and many-sidedness of culture. Syncretisms and hybridizations are more
the rule than the exception - which makes us raise the question of the
origins and maintenance of the particular image of culture we have long
operated with in the social sciences, to which we will now turn.
THE AUTONOMIZATION OF THE
CULTURAL SPHERE
Max Weber's theory of cultural rationalization and differentiation is well
known. F o r Weber the development of modernity not only involved a long
process of differentiation of the capitalist economy a n d the modern state
but also entailed a cultural rationalization with the emergence of separate
scientific, aesthetic and moral value spheres. Weber's (1948c) discussion of
the differentiation of the cultural sphere from a more rudimentary, holistic,
religious cultural core is conducted at a high level of abstraction. Although
Weber provides brief glimpses of the way in which each aspect of the
cultural sphere is relentlessly driven by its own logic, the way in which
values relate to lifestyle and conduct, and the tensions experienced by
intellectuals, the 'cultivated m a n ' and the cultural specialists, his prime
purpose was to sketch out a typology (Weber, 1948c: 3 2 3 - 4 ; this aspect of
Weber's work will be discussed more fully in the next chapter). While we
do find fuller discussions of the cultural sphere in the writings of Bell
(1976) and H a b e r m a s (1984a), we need to build on these sources if we seek
to understand the particular conjunction of culture in contemporary
Western societies. In effect we need to investigate the conditions for the
development of the cultural sphere by focusing on particular historical
sequences and locations. First, we need to understand the emergence of
relatively a u t o n o m o u s culture (knowledge and other symbolic media) in
relation to the growth in the autonomy and power potential of specialists
in symbolic production. W e therefore need to focus on the carriers of
culture and the contradictory pressures that are generated by changing
interdependencies and power struggles of the growing fraction within the
middle class towards dual processes of (a) the monopolization and separ
ation of a cultural enclave, and (b) the demonopolization and diffusion of
culture to wider publics. Second, we need to focus on the development of
separate institutions and lifestyles for cultural specialists and examine the
relation between value complexes and conduct in the various life orders,
not only in terms of a cultural sphere conceived as the arts and the
academy ('high culture') but also in terms of the generation of opposi
tional countercultures (bohemias, artistic avant-gardes and other cultural
movements). Third, we need to comprehend the relational dynamic of a
parallel development to that of the cultural sphere: the general expansion
of cultural production via 'culture industries' and the generation of a wider
market for cultural and other symbolic goods to produce what has been
termed a mass culture or a consumer culture. Both tendencies have con
tributed to the increasing prominence of culture within modern societies
tendencies that threaten to erode and domesticate everyday culture, the
taken-for-granted stock of memories, traditions and myths.
This suggests that cultural specialists are often caught in an ambivalent
relationship toward the market that may lead to strategies of separation
and distancing to sustain and promote the autonomy of the cultural
sphere. At the same time, in terms of their interdependencies and power
struggles with the other groups (notably economic specialists), this may
dispose them to use the marketplace to reach wider audiences to bolster
their general societal power a n d increase the prestige a n d public value of
their specialist cultural goods. Conditions that favour the autonomization
of the cultural sphere will better allow cultural specialists to monopolize,
regulate and control cultural production, to seek to place cultural
production above economic production, and to place art and intellectual
pursuits above everyday life, popular uneducated tastes and mass culture.
Alternatively, conditions that threaten the autonomy of the cultural sphere,
the demonopolization processes that discredit the 'sacred* intellectual and
artistic symbolic hierarchies, will tend to allow outsider groups of cultural
specialists, or encourage new alliances of particular groups of cultural
specialists with other powerful groups of economic specialists, to endorse
alternative tastes and seek to legitimize an expanded repertoire that may
include the formerly excluded popular traditions and mass cultural goods.
Without an attempt to comprehend the rising and declining fortunes of
particular groups of cultural specialists and their shifting relation to other
groups of power-holders such as economic specialists, it may be difficult to
make sense of those who m o u r n or applaud present-day assertions, such as
'the end of art', 'the end of the avant-garde', 'the end of the intellectuals',
and 'the end of culture' (Featherstone, 1991a).
In this chapter we will look at various approaches that have addressed
these issues. This will be done via an examination of three major con
ceptions of the development of an enlarged field of cultural production,
which entails analysing the interrelationship of the development of
the cultural sphere and a mass consumer culture. First, we examine the
production of culture perspective in which a mass culture that is
presented as threatening to engulf and debase the culture sphere is seen as
the logical outcome of the process of capitalist commodity production.
Second, we examine a m o d e of consumption approach, which draws on
anthropological perspectives to argue that there are similarities in the
consumption of symbolic goods in all societies and that we should refrain
from evaluating mass-produced culture in a negative way. Rather, the
classification of cultural goods and tastes (be they everyday consumer
durables, lifestyle practices, or high cultural pursuits), must be understood
as operating relationally within the same social space. This sociogenetic
perspective focuses on how the symbolic aspects of goods and activities
are used practically to draw the boundaries of social relationships. Third,
AUTONOMIZATION OF THE CULTURAL SPHERE
we explore a psychogenetic perspective on cultural consumption that
examines the genesis of the propensity and desire to consume new goods
and experiences. Such a perspective, which focuses upon the middle class
and draws upon Weber's notion of ideal interests, also raises the issue of
the long-term process of the generation of habitus, dispositions and
means of orientation in different interdependent and competing groups of
people. Finally, we return to a discussion of the cultural sphere and
suggest some of the conditions that favour its formation and deformation
and the generation of particular evaluations of mass culture by a set of
cultural specialists. This attempt to identify how such issues should be
addressed can help us to better understand the process of cultural
development and to move beyond statically conceived notions of the
cultural sphere, market culture, mass culture, consumer culture, everyday
culture, a n d deeply ingrained cultural traditions and codes.
Producing commodified consumption
The study of consumption has long been regarded as the province of
economics, a n d , although A d a m Smith argued that 'consumption is the
sole end purpose of all production' (Minchinton, 1982: 219), the analysis
of consumption has been largely neglected in favour of production and
distribution. This neglect m a y have resulted from the assumption that
consumption was unproblematic because it was based u p o n the concept of
rational individuals buying goods to maximize their satisfaction. T h a t
rational choice might be modified by social pressures such as the customs
and habits of the people was given only minor acknowledgement. In the
late nineteenth century we find some interest in external effects on utility,
such as conspicuous consumption, the snob effect, and the bandwagon
effect as found in particular in the writings of Veblen (1953) (see also
Minchinton, 1982: 221). In general, sociological interest in the move to
mass consumption in the second half of the nineteenth century was
restricted to indicating the limitations of strictly economic or market
explanations of h u m a n behaviour. This sociological critique of economics
has sometimes been coupled with a concern that mass consumption
brought a b o u t social deregulation and a threat to the social bond. T h e
move to intensified mass production, mass consumption, and the extension
of the market into more areas of life is thus generally seen as harmful
to culture. The new culture produced for mass consumption, then, was
often viewed negatively, especially by neo-Marxist critics, who regarded
advertising, the mass media and the entertainment industries as logical
extensions of commodity production in which markets were monopolized
to produce mass deception and a debased consumer culture. T h e tendency
has been to deduce the effects o n consumption of culture from the
production of culture and, within the neo-Marxist framework, to follow
variants of tl
base-superstructure model. F r o m this perspective it is
possible to regard the logic of capitalist mass production as leading to a
more extensive mass society.
One of the clearest statements on the power of the productive forces in
society to harness consumption to fit with its designs is the Frankfurt
School's theory of the culture industry. Non-work activities in general
become subsumed under the same instrumental rationality and commodity
logic of the workplace, and artistic and cultural goods become subjected
to the same standardization and pseudo-individualization used in the
production of other goods. Hence Horkheimer and A d o r n o (1972: 137)
state that 'Amusement under late capitalism is the prolongation of work.'
Art, which formerly supplied the promesse de bonheur, the yearning for the
otherness that transcends the existing reality, now openly becomes a
commodity. As Horkheimer and Adorno remark, ' W h a t is new is not that
it is a commodity, but that today it deliberately admits it is one; that art
renounces its own autonomy and proudly takes its place among con
sumption goods constitutes the charm of novelty' (1972: 157). The culture
industry offered the prospect of a manufactured culture in which discrimi
nation and knowledge of culture (the high culture of the literati) was
swamped and replaced by a mass culture (the prestige seeker replacing the
connoisseur) in which reception was dictated by exchange value. F o r
A d o r n o the increasing dominance of exchange value obliterated the
original use value (in the case of art, the promesse de bonheur, the enjoy
ment, pleasure, o r 'purposiveness without purpose' with which the object
was to be approached) and replaced it with exchange value (its instru
mental market value or 'currency'). This freed the commodity to take on a
wide range of secondary or artificial associations, and advertising, in
particular, took advantage of this capacity.
F r o m this perspective advertising not only used, transformed or
replaced traditional high culture to promote the consumption of com
modities a n d further mass deception but also drew attention to the
symbolic aspect of commodities. The triumph of economic exchange need
not just entail the eclipse of traditional culture and high culture, but a new
'artificial' culture was generated from 'below', via the logic of commodity
production, to replace them. Hence, a number of commentators have
focused upon the centrality of advertising in the genesis of a consumer
culture (Ewen, 1976; Ewen and Ewen, 1982; Leiss et al., 1986).
Another example of the interpretation of the culture of consumption in
terms of the commodification of everyday life is found in the work of
Fredric Jameson. Following the capital logic approach, which points to the
profusion of a new artificial culture with the extension of commodity
production, Jameson (1979: 139) emphasizes that 'culture is the very
element of consumer society itself; no society has ever been saturated with
signs and messages like this one . . . the omnipresence of the image in
consumer capitalism [means that} the priorities of the real become reversed,
and everything is mediated by culture'. This perspective is central to his
influential paper 'Postmodernism or the cultural logic of late capitalism',
AUTONOMIZATION O F THE CULTURAL SPHERE
in which he outlines the contours of postmodern culture (Jameson,
1984a: 87).
A similar emphasis u p o n cultural profusion a n d disorder, which
threatens to obliterate the last vestiges of traditional popular culture or
high culture, is found in the work of Jean Baudrillard, on which Jameson
draws. Baudrillard (1970) builds on the commodification theory of Lukcs
and Lefebvre, arguing that consumption involves the active manipulation
of signs and that what is consumed is not objects but the system of
objects, the sign system that makes u p the code. Baudrillard draws on
semiology to develop the cultural implications of commodity analysis
and argues that in late capitalist society sign a n d commodity have fused
to produce the commodity-sign. The logic of political economy for
Baudrillard has therefore involved a semiological revolution entailing not
just the replacement of use value by exchange value, but eventually the
replacement of b o t h by sign value. This leads to the autonomization of
the signifier, which can be manipulated (for example through advertising)
to float free from a stable relationship to objects and establish its own
associative chains of meaning.
In Baudrillard's later writings (1983a, 1983b), reference to economics,
class and m o d e of production disappear. Indeed at one point in Symbolic
Exchange and Death Baudrillard (1993) tilts at Bourdieu when he argues
that social analysis in terms of normativity or class is doomed to failure
because it belongs to a stage of the system that we have now superseded.
The new stage of the system is the postmodern simulational world in
which television, the machine of simulation par excellence, endlessly
reduplicates the world. This switch to the production and reproduction of
copies for which there is n o original, the simulacrum, effaces the distinc
tion between the real a n d the imaginary. According to Baudrillard (1993:
148), we now live 'in an "aesthetic" hallucination of reality'. T h e ultimate
terminus of the expansion of the commodity production system is the
triumph of signifying culture and the death of the social: a 'post-society'
configuration that escapes sociological classification and explanation, a n
endless cycle of the reduplication and overproduction of signs, images and
simulations that leads to an implosion of meaning. W e are now in the
increasingly familiar territory of the alleged transformation of reality into
images in the postmodern, schizoid, depthless culture. All that remains on
the h u m a n level is the masses, the silent majority, which acts as a 'black
hole' (Baudrillard, 1983b: 9), absorbing the overproduction of energy and
information from the media and cynically watching the fascinating endless
play of signs. Baudrillard's conception of mass has taken us a long way
from mass culture theory, in which the manipulation of the masses
through the popular media plays a central role. F o r him the logic of
commodity development has seen the triumph of culture, a new post
modern phase of cultural disorder in which the distinctions between levels
of culture - high, folk, popular, or class - give way to a glutinous mass
that simulates and plays with the overproduction of signs.
Today the high culture/mass culture debate arouses little passion in
academic life. Since the mid-1970s the attacks on the distinction between
high culture and mass culture have proceeded apace. Particularly
influential in the British context has been the work of the Birmingham
Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (see Hall et al., 1980) and the
Open University (see Bennett et al., 1977; Bennett et al, 1981). One finds a
wide range of criticisms revolving around the alleged elitism of the
Frankfurt School's pro-high-culture distinction between individuality and
pseudo-individuality, which condemns the masses to manipulation (Bennett
et al., 1977; Swingewood, 1977). Other criticisms include the outmoded
puritanism a n d prudery of those arguments that favour notions of creative
production against the right of the masses to enjoy its consumption and
pleasures (Leiss, 1983; New Formations,
1983); the invalidity of the
distinction between true and false needs found in the critiques of consumer
society and its culture in the work of Marcuse (1964), Debord (1970) and
Ewen (1976) (see Sahlins, 1976; Leiss, 1983; Springborg, 1981); and the
neglect of the egalitarian and democratic currents in mass culture, the
process of levelling u p and not down, that finds one of its strongest
statements in Shils (1960) (see also Swingewood, 1977; Kellner, 1983).
There have also been criticisms that the foundation of the critique of mass
culture is to be found in an essentially nostalgic Kulturpressimismus
spective on the part of intellectuals who were entrapped in a myth of
p r e m o d e m stability, coherence and community (Stauth and Turner,
1988a), or a nostalgia for a presimulationa! social world such as we find in
Baudrillard's work. The critics of mass culture theories have also neglected
complex social differentiations (Wilensky, 1964), the ways in which massproduced commodities can be customized, or signs can be reversed with
their meanings renegotiated critically or oppositionally (see the work on
youth subcultures by the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural
Studies, especially Hebdige, 1979 on punk; also de Certeau, 1981). In
addition there is R a y m o n d Williams's (1961) pronouncement that 'there
are n o masses, only other people'. Such critiques point to the importance
of transcending the view that uniformity of consumption is dictated by
production and emphasize the need to investigate the actual use and
reception of goods in various practices. Such critiques also entail a
revaluation of popular practices, which are n o longer to be seen as debased
and vulgar. Rather, the integrity of the culture of the c o m m o n people is
defended and suspicion is cast upon the whole enterprise of the
construction of an a u t o n o m o u s cultural sphere with its rigid symbolic
hierarchies, exclusive canons, and classifications.
Symbolic goods and social order
Focusing on the consumption of culture rather than on production points
us toward the differential reception and use of mass-produced cultural
goods and experiences and the ways in which popular culture has failed to
be eclipsed by mass culture. Indeed, if we take a long-term process
approach to cultural formation it is clear that cultural objects are
continually redesignated and move from popular to high to mass, a n d vice
versa. In this sense, popular a n d folk culture cannot provide a pristine
baseline for culture because they have a long history of being packaged
and commodified. Hence, the emphasis should switch from more abstract
views of cultural production to the actual practices of cultural production
on the part of particular groups of cultural specialists and the ways in
which they relate to the actual practices of consumption on the part of
different groups.
Considerable insight into this process is gained by analysing anthro
pological research on consumption that focuses on the symbolic aspect of
goods and their role as communicators. F r o m this perspective, goods are
used to m a r k boundaries between groups, to create and demarcate
differences or communality between figurations of people (see Douglas and
Isherwood, 1980; Sahlins, 1976; Leiss, 1983; Appadurai, 1986). Leiss (1978:
19), for example, argues that, while utilities in all cultures are symbolic,
goods are in effect doubly symbolic in contemporary Western societies:
symbolism is consciously employed in the design and imagery attached to
goods in the production and marketing process, and symbolic associations
are used by consumers in using goods to construct differentiated lifestyle
models.
The work of Douglas and Isherwood (1980) is particularly important in
this respect because of their emphasis on how goods are used to draw the
lines of social relationships. O u r enjoyment of goods, they argue, is only
partly related to physical consumption. It is also crucially linked to their
role as markers; we enjoy, for example, sharing the names of goods with
others (the sports fan or the wine connoisseur). In addition, the mastery
of the cultural person entails a seemingly 'natural' mastery, n o t only of
information (the autodidact 'memory m a n ' ) but also of how to use and
consume appropriately and with natural ease in every situation. In this
sense the consumption of high cultural goods (art, novels, opera, philos
ophy) must be related to the ways in which other, more m u n d a n e ,
cultural goods (clothing, food, drink, leisure pursuits) are handled and
consumed, and high culture must be inscribed into the same social space
as everyday cultural consumption. In Douglas and Isherwood's (1980:
176ff.) discussion, consumption classes are defined in relation to the
consumption of three sets of goods: a staple set (for example food), a
technology set (travel and capital equipment), and a n information set
(information goods, education, arts, and cultural and leisure pursuits). At
the lower end of the social structure the poor are restricted to the staple
set and have more time on their hands, but those in the top consumption
class require not only a higher level of earnings but also a competence in
judging information goods and services. This entails a considerable
investment in time, both as a lifelong investment in cultural and symbolic
capital and as an investment in maintaining consumption activities (it is in
this sense that we refer to the title of Linder's [1970] book, The Harried
Leisure Class, another play on the work of Veblen [1953] on conspicuous
consumption). Hence the competition to acquire goods in the information
class generates high admission barriers and effective techniques of
exclusion.
The phasing, duration and intensity of time invested in acquiring
competences for handling information, goods and services, as well as the
day-to-day practice, conservation and maintenance of these competences,
are, as Halbwachs reminds us, useful criteria of social class. O u r use of
time in consumption practices conforms to our class habitus and, there
fore, conveys an accurate idea of our class status (see the discussion of
Halbwachs in Preteceille and Terrail, 1985: 23). This points us towards the
importance of research on the different long-term investments in infor
mational acquisition and cultural capital of particular groups. Such
research has been carried out in detail by Bourdieu and his associates
(Bourdieu et al., 1965; Bourdieu and Darbel, 1966; Bourdieu and
Passeron, 1971; Bourdieu, 1984). F o r Bourdieu (1984) particular constel
lations of taste, consumption preferences and lifestyle practices are associ
ated with specific occupation and class fractions, making it possible to
m a p the universe of taste and lifestyles with all its structured oppositions
and finely graded distinctions that operate at a particular point in history.
Yet within capitalist societies the volume of production of new goods
results in an endless struggle to obtain what Hirsch (1976) calls 'positional
goods', goods that define social status. The constant supply of new,
fashionably desirable goods, or the usurpation of existing marker goods by
lower groups, produces a paperchase effect in which those above have to
invest in new (informational) goods to re-establish the original social
It is therefore possible to refer both to societies in which the tendency is
for the progressive breakdown of the barriers that restrict the production
of new goods and the capacity of commodities to travel, and to societies
with the counter-tendency to restrict, control and channel exchange in
order to establish enclaved commodities. In some societies, status systems
are guarded and reproduced by restricting equivalences and exchange in a
stable universe of commodities. In other societies with a fashion system,
taste in an ever-changing universe of commodities is restricted and
controlled, and at the same time there is the illusion of individual choice
and unrestricted access. Sumptuary laws are an intermediate consumptionregulating device for societies with stable status displays which face the
deregulation of the flow of commodities, for example premodern Europe
(Appadurai, 1986: 25). T h e tendencies noted by Jameson, Baudrillard and
others towards the overproduction of symbolic goods in contemporary
societies suggest that the bewildering flow of signs, images, information,
fashions a n d styles would be impossible to subject to a final or coherent
reading (see Featherstone, 1991a).
Examples of this alleged cultural disorder are often taken from the
media (Baudrillard, for example, does this), yet apart from grand state
ments such as 'television is the world', we are given little understanding of
how this disorder affects the everyday practices of different figurations of
people. It can be argued that as long as face-to-face encounters continue
between embodied persons, attempts will be m a d e to read a person's
demeanour for clues as to his or her social standing. The different styles
and labels of fashionable clothing and goods, however much subject to
change, imitation and copying, are one such set of clues. Yet as Bourdieu
(1984) reminds us with his concept of symbolic capital, the signs of the
dispositions and classificatory schemes that betray a person's origins and
trajectory through life are manifest in body shape, size, weight, stance,
walk, demeanour, tone of voice, style of speaking, sense of bodily ease or
discomfort, and so on. Hence culture is incorporated, and it is not just a
question of what clothes are worn but of how they are worn. Advice
books on manners, taste and etiquette - from Erasmus to Nancy
Mitford's ' U ' and ' N o n - U ' - impress on their subjects the need to
naturalize dispositions and manners, to be completely at h o m e with them.
At the same time the newly arrived may display signs of the burden of
attainment and the incompleteness of their cultural competence. Hence
the new rich, who often adopt conspicuous consumption strategies, are
recognizable and assigned their place in the social space. Their cultural
practices are always in danger of being dismissed as vulgar a n d tasteless by
the established upper class, the aristocracy, and those 'rich in cultural
goods' - the intellectuals and artists.
F r o m one perspective, artistic and intellectual goods are enclaved
commodities whose capacity to move a r o u n d in the social space is limited
by their ascribed sacred qualities. In this sense the specialists in symbolic
production will seek to increase the a u t o n o m y of the cultural sphere and
to restrict the supply and access to such goods, in effect creating and
preserving an enclosure of high culture. This can take the form of rejecting
the market and any economic use of the goods and adopting a lifestyle
that is the opposite of the successful economic specialist (disorder versus
order, the cultivation of transgressions strategies, the veneration of natural
talent and genius against systematic achievement and work, and so on).
Yet as Bourdieu (1979, 1984) indicates, there is an interest in disinterested
ness, and it is possible to chart the hidden and misrecognized economy in
cultural goods with its own forms of currency, rates of conversion to
economic capital, and so on. T h e problem of the intellectuals in market
situations is that they must achieve and retain this degree of closure and
control that enables artistic and intellectual goods to remain enclaved
commodities. Indeed, as many commentators have pointed out, this is the
paradox of intellectuals and artists: their necessary dependence on, yet
distaste for and desire for independence from, the market. Within situ
ations of an overproduction of symbolic goods, there may be intensified
competition from new cultural intermediaries (the expanding design,
advertising, marketing, commercial art, graphics, journalistic, media, and
fashion occupations) and other 'outsider* intellectuals that have emerged
from the postwar expansion of higher education in Western societies. This
competition may lead to the inability of established intellectuals to
maintain the stability of symbolic hierarchies, and the resultant phase of
cultural declassification opens a space for the generation of interest in
popular culture on what is proclaimed to be a more egalitarian and
democratic basis.
We have therefore moved from considering the production of culture
from a mode of production perspective to one that, following Preteceille
and Terrail's (1985: 36) depiction of Bourdieu's work, we can call a mode
of consumption approach. F r o m this point of view, demand and cultural
consumption are not merely dictated by supply, but they must be
understood within a social framework, that is, as sociogenetically induced:
a perspective which emphasizes that 'consumption is eminently social,
relational, and active rather than private, atomic, or passive' (Appadurai,
1986: 31).
Romanticism, desire and middle-class consumption
The m o d e of consumption perspective emphasizes the continuities in the
socially structured handling and use of goods between contemporary
capitalist and other types of societies. The 'psychogenetic' perspective,
like the production of consumption approach, focuses on explaining the
proliferation of new goods. In contrast to the latter's emphasis on supply,
the psychogenetic approach concentrates on the problem of the demand
for new goods. This entails a move from economic-centred analysis to
questions of desire - to the puzzle of the genesis of the propensity to
consume anew, the motivational complex that develops a thirst for
pleasure, poverty, self-expression and self-realization through goods. In a
manner reminiscent of Weber's Protestant Ethic, Campbell (1987) argues
that the rise of consumption, like that of capitalist production, requires
an ethic, and in this case it is romanticism, with its focus on imagination,
fantasy, mysticism, creativity and emotional exploration, and not Prot
estantism, that supplies the impetus. He writes: "The essential activity of
consumption is thus not actual selection, purchase or use of products,
but the imaginative pleasure-seeking to which the product image lends
itself, "real" consumption being largely a result of this "mentalistic"
hedonism' (Campbell, 1987: 89). From this perspective, the pleasure
derived from novels, paintings, plays, records, films, radio, television and
fashion is not the result of manipulation by the advertisers or an
'obsession with social status', but it is the illusory enjoyment stimulated
by daydreaming. T h e disposition to live out desires, fantasies and
daydreams, or the capacity to spend a good deal of time in pursuit of
them, may vary a m o n g different social groups. Campbell locates its
origins in relation to consumerism within the eighteenth-century English
middle class. G r o u p s that have achieved a high degree of literacy are
likely to be more disposed to take ideas and character ideals seriously
and, as Weber pointed out, to seek to achieve consistency in conduct.
Yet how far can we understand mass consumption by focusing solely
upon the development of a romantic ethic in the middle class? T o
understand the consumption habits of the middle class in the eighteenth
century we need to locate the habits of this group in relation to those of
the lower and the upper classes.
W e have already referred to the contrast between societies that restrict
the exchange of commodities in order to reproduce a stable status system
and societies that have an ever-changing universe of commodities and a
fashion system with the appearance of complete interchangeability, which
actually can be considered in terms of socially structured taste. Con
sumption in the upper class or aristocracy tends more towards the
reproduction of a stable status system, which also includes phases of
liminal excess and transgression (carnivals, fairs, and so on). Mennell
(1987) reminds us that the aristocracy in court society became 'specialists
in the arts of consumption entrapped in a system of fine distinctions,
status battles, and competitive expenditure from which they could not
escape because their whole society depended u p o n it'. Here the fashion
code was restricted rather than elaborated and the courtier had to conform
to strict rules of dress, manners a n d deportment (Elias, 1983: 232). In
court societies such as Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV, con
sumption was highly structured in terms of the regulation of etiquette,
ceremony, taste, dress, manners a n d conversation. Every detail was
perceived as an instrument in the struggle for prestige. The ability to read
appearance and gestures for slight giveaway clues and the time spent in
decoding the demeanour and conversation of others indicate how a
courtier's very existence depended on calculation.
These tight restrictions on behaviour in court society produced a
number of countermovements that sought to compensate for the
suppression of feeling and court rationality by the emancipation of feeling.
We are generally inclined to perceive these contrasting positions as
involving class differences between the aristocracy (the dissimulating,
artful, false courtier) and the middle class (the virtuous, sincere, honest
citizen) and to formulate them in terms of other-directed and innerdirected qualities. Elias (1978: 19), in the early part of The Civilizing
Process, shows how the G e r m a n middle class venerated Kultur with
romantic ideals of love of nature, solitude, and surrender to the excitement
of one's own heart. Here the middle-class outsiders, spatially dispersed and
isolated, can be contrasted to the established court with its ideals drawn
from French civilisation. F r o m this a further series of contrasts can be
made between the middle-class intelligentsia a n d the aristocratic courtier:
inwardness and depth of feeling versus superficiality and ceremony;
immersion in books and education and the development of personal
identity versus formal conversation and courtly manners; and virtue versus
h o n o u r (see Vowinckel, 1987).
Yet there are also links between the middle-class romantic emphasis
upon sincerity and the development of romantic tendencies within the
aristocracy. Elias (1983: 214ff.), in "The sociogenesis of aristocratic
romanticism', argues that one of the influential forerunners of bourgeois
romanticism, Rousseau, owed some of his success to the ways in which his
ideas were perceived as a reaction to court rationality and the suppression
of 'feeling' in court life. T h e idealization of nature and the melancholic
longing of country life is found in the early eighteenth-century nobility at
the court of Louis XIV. The sharp contrast between court and country,
the complexity of court life, and the incessant self-control and necessary
calculation contributed to a nostalgia for the idealized rural existence
described in the romantic utopias filled with shepherds and shepherdesses
in novels such as L'Astre by Honor d'Urf. Elias can detect both clear
discontinuities and similar processes in the sociogenesis of bourgeois and
aristocratic romanticism. He refers (1983: 262) to the middle classes as
'dual-front classes' that are exposed to social pressures from groups above
who possess greater power, authority and prestige and from groups below
w h o are inferior in these qualities. The pressures for self-control in relation
to the codes of professional life, coupled with pressures of being in a dualfront class, may help to generate an ambivalence towards the system of
rules and self-constraints that nourish a dream-image of a more direct,
spontaneous expression of emotion.
The implications of the role of the romantic ethic in the genesis of
consumerism should now be clearer. Romanticism cannot be assumed just
to work as a set of ideas that induced more direct emotional expression
through fantasies and daydreaming and that translated into the desire for
new commodities t o nourish this longing. Rather, we need to understand
the sociogenesis of romantic tendencies that were generated in the rivalries
and interdependencies of the aristocracy and the middle classes. These
pressures m a y have nourished a romantic longing for the unconstrained,
expressive and spontaneous life that was projected on to commodities and
manifest in fashion, novel reading, and other popular entertainments
catered for in the burgeoning public sphere. Yet the practicalities of
everyday life, the social demands of sustaining one's acceptability, were
also important forces. Social constraints demanded from middle-class
professionals careful attention to etiquette, dress, demeanour, and an
ordered, measured consumption. Unlike the courtier class, the middle
classes enjoyed a private life in which they could be 'off stage'. Yet it is
easy to overestimate the freedom and independence of the private sphere.
T h e pressures to maintain a style of social life concomitant with one's
status led to increasing pressures to codify and regulate domestic con
sumption, artistic taste, food and festivities (see Elias, 1983: 116).
When we look more specifically at the middle class, we need to consider
the different situations in particular nations in the eighteenth century. The
situation of the English middle class was very different from that of the
French and the G e r m a n . England provided a middling case in which closer
links existed between court life and country life and between a more
differentiated aristocracy, the gentry, and the middle class (Elias and
Dunning, 1987: 35; Mennell, 1985: 119). In the eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries, landed London society was a reference group for
those in the rising middle-class strata who emulated its tastes, manners and
fashions (Mennell, 1985: 212). Davidoff (1973: 13) has noted how, in early
nineteenth-century housekeeping manuals, etiquette books and magazines,
increased expenditures on ceremonial displays to maintain an expected
lifestyle became requisite (and see Mennell, 1985: 209).
Evidence suggests that the middle class in eighteenth-century England
encountered increasing pressure for consumption from below. W h a t has
been referred to as the 'consumer revolution' in the eighteenth century
involved increased consumption of luxury goods, fashion, household
goods, popular novels, magazines, newspapers and entertainment and the
means of marketing them through advertising to an enlarged buying
public (sec McKendrick et al., 1982). T h e lower classes were d r a w n into
this expansion of consumption by adopting fashions that emulated the
upper classes, and fashion diffused down the social scale much more
widely in England than in other European countries (McKendrick et ai,
34ff.).
One important reason why emulation was possible and new fashion was
transmitted so rapidly was that they took place within an u r b a n milieu.
London was the largest city in Europe in the eighteenth century and it
exercised a considerable dominance over other European countries.
Changing fashions, the display of new goods in shops, and conspicuous
consumption were clearly visible and were topics of everyday conversation.
The narrowing of social distances and the swing towards informal relations
between the classes also became manifest in a new use of public space
within L o n d o n , which has come to be called the public sphere. The public
sphere was comprised of social institutions: periodicals, journals, clubs,
and coffee-houses in which individuals could gather for unconstrained
discussion (see Habermas, 1974; Eagleton, 1984; Stallybrass and White,
1986: 80ff.). The emergence of the public sphere is closely tied to the
development of the cultural sphere. T h e profession of literary criticism and
the independent specialists in cultural production w h o wrote for news
papers and magazines and produced novels for their newly enlarged
audiences developed dramatically by mid-eighteenth century (Williams,
1961; H o h e n d a h l , 1982). The city coffee-houses became centres where
people gathered to read or to hear newspapers and magazines read aloud
and to discuss them (Lowenthal, 1961: 56). N o t only were the coffee
houses democratic domains for free cultural discussion (cf. Mannheim,
1956), they were also spaces of civility, a cleansed discursive environment
freed from the low-others, the 'grotesque bodies', of the alehouse
(Stallybrass and White, 1986: 95). The coffee-houses replaced 'idle' and
festive consumption with productive leisure. They were decent, ordered
places that demanded a withdrawal from popular culture, which was
increasingly viewed from a negative perspective.
While there was therefore a movement towards a democratization of
cultural interchange and a differentiation of culture between the respec
table, decent a n d civil and the ill-controlled lower orders in the eighteenth
century, this was a part of a long-term process. Burke (1978: 24) argues
that in the sixteenth century there were two traditions in culture: the
classical tradition of philosophy and theology learned in schools and
universities and the popular tradition contained in folksongs, folktales,
devotional images, mystery plays, chapbooks, fairs and festivals. Yet the
upper levels directly participated in popular culture, and even in the early
eighteenth century not all were disengaged from the culture of the
c o m m o n people. Burke (1978: 286) suggests that in 1500 the educated
strata despised the c o m m o n people although they shared their culture. Yet
by 1800 their descendants had ceased to join spontaneously in popular
culture a n d were rediscovering it as something exotic and interesting. The
culture of the lower orders remained a source of fascination, and the
symbolism of this tradition remained important as a strand within the high
culture of the middle classes (Stailybrass and White, 1986: 107). The
carnivalesque, with its hybridization, mixing of codes, grotesque bodies
and transgressions, remained a fascinating spectacle for eighteenth-century
writers, including P o p e , Rousseau and Wordsworth. While one part of this
tradition emerged in the artistic bohemias of the mid-nineteenth century,
with their deliberate transgressions of bourgeois culture and invocation of
liminoid grotesque body symbolism associated with the carnivalesque,
another developed into romanticism. When Frederick the Great published
his De la lilt era ture allemande in 1780, he protested against the social
mixing and transgression and manifest lack of taste in 'the abominable
works of Shakespeare' over which 'the whole audience goes into raptures
when it listens to these ridiculous farces worthy of the savages in C a n a d a '
(quoted in Elias, 1978: 14). F o r the bourgeois intellectuals and their public
against whom Frederick directed his remarks, the actual savages of N o r t h
America (Voltaire's L'Ingnu) and of Tahiti (Bougainville's Voyage) held a
growing fascination as 'exotic otherness'.
At the same time, then, that traditional popular culture was beginning
to disappear, European intellectuals were discovering, recording and
formulating the culture of the people (see Burke, 1978). In part this was a
reaction against the enlightened gentility of the 'civilized' classical culture
of the court and the aristocracy (Lunn, 1986) and the uniform rationalism
and universalism of the Enlightenment. Herder, for example, was sensitive
to cultural diversity, the particularity of each cultural community, and
wanted the different cultures to be considered on an equal basis. This
strand developed into a critique of the French sociocentric identification of
their own culture, designated as 'civilization' and 'high culture', as the
universal metaculture of mankind (Dumont, 1986).
Concluding remarks: the development of the cultural sphere
The development of the cultural sphere must be seen as part of a long-term
process that involved the growth in the power potential of the specialists in
symbolic production which produced two contradictory consequences.
There was a greater a u t o n o m y in the nature of the knowledge produced
and the monopolization of production and consumption in specialist
enclaves with the development of strong ritual classifications to exclude
outsiders. There was also a greater expansion of knowledge and cultural
goods produced for new audiences and markets in which existing hier
archical classifications were dismantled and specialist cultural goods were
sold in similar ways to other 'symbolic' commodities. It is these processes
that point to the a u t o n o m y and heteronomy of the cultural sphere.
It would be useful to take Norbert Elias's observations (1971: 15) and
examine the process of formation of the 'autonomization' of particular
spheres, which should be understood in terms of the changing power
balances and the functional interdependencies of different social groups. T o
understand, therefore, the development of the economic sphere, we need to
link the term economic to the rise of particular social strata and the
theorization of the growing a u t o n o m o u s nexus of the relations generated by
this group and other groups. Elias (1984) focuses on Quesney and the
Physiocrats (who were soon followed by A d a m Smith and others) as the
first groups to synthesize empirical data in the belief that they could detect
the effects of the laws of nature in society that would serve the welfare and
prosperity of humankind. The ideas of the Physiocrats, according to Elias
(1984: 22), were positioned halfway between a social religion and a scientific
hypothesis. They were able to fuse two, until then largely independent,
streams of tradition: the large-scale philosophical concepts of book writers
and the practical knowledge accumulated by administrators and merchants.
As the power of middle-class groups of economic specialists in com
merce, trade, and industry increased, the object of enquiry changed in
structure and formed the basis for a more a u t o n o m o u s scientific approach.
Therefore the growing a u t o n o m y of social phenomena such as markets
found expression in the gradual and growing autonomy of theory about
these phenomena and in the formation of the science of economics that
carved out a separate sphere with immanent, a u t o n o m o u s laws of its own.
The claim of middle-class entrepreneurs that the economy ought to be
a u t o n o m o u s and free from state intervention became actualized. ( F o r an
interesting account of the attempts to create a 'market culture' and to
persuade people that the theory was in line with actuality, see Reddy,
1984.) T h e idea developed that the economy was a separate sphere and
was, in fact, a u t o n o m o u s within society. Elias (1984: 29) suggests this
claim for autonomy had at least three strands:
It was a claim asserting the autonomy of the nexus of functions which formed
the subject-matter of the science of economics - of the autonomy in relation to
other functions, the subject-matter of other disciplines. It was a claim to
autonomy of the science whose subject-matter this nexus was - of its theories
and methods in relation to those of other disciplines. And it was also a claim to
autonomy of the class of people who were specialists in the performance of these
functions in relation to other social groups and particularly in relation to
governments.
We can therefore attempt to understand the processes whereby the
economy became posited as an independent social sphere and the relative
a u t o n o m o u s science of economics was developed. We have already noted
some ways in which the cultural sphere may also have moved in the
direction of autonomy, and this trend of course merits a much fuller
treatment. There are, however, important differences between the spheres,
not only in the level of autonomy achieved but also in the deficit in the
power potential of the specialists in symbolic production (artists,
intellectuals, academics) compared with economic specialists and other
groups and in the nature of the form, content and social effectivity of the
symbols and cultural goods produced. As Bendix (1970) points out,
following Weber's reasoning, the religious specialists who monopolized
magical-mythical knowledge supplied beliefs that had a m u n d a n e meaning
and a practical usefulness as a means of orientation for ordinary people.
The knowledge of artists and intellectuals did not offer similar practical
benefits, despite the convictions of their advocates. Although artists, by
virtue of their skills, possessed mysteries that made them formidable, these
skills did not provide power in the religious sense, and arcane knowledge
without apparent purpose may even have made the cultural elites suspect
to the populace (Bendix, 1970: 145). Nevertheless, the demand for such
goods m a y increase with the shift toward a consumer and credential based
society, with its wider market for cultural goods and associated expansion
of higher education.
The endeavour to establish an a u t o n o m o u s sphere of high culture may
conceal a series of tensions and interdependencies within the production
of culture in general. Pierre Bourdieu (1984, 1985), for example, has
suggested that the major organizing principle in cultural production is
whether symbolic considerations (which generate what he calls the 'field of
restricted cultural production') or economic considerations (the 'field of
large-scale cultural production') come first. As mentioned, artists and
intellectuals tend to emphasize their autonomy from the market and
economic life. F o r Bourdieu, however, a relational dynamic operates here,
because the denial of the market and the relevance of economic capital is
based on 'interests in disinterestedness', an interest in the enhancement of
the prestige and relevance of their cultural goods - of cultural capital over
economic capital. The picture is further complicated by the fact that the
subfield of artistic and intellectual production itself can be seen as part of
a continuum. This continuum consists of four parts: (1) the tiny mutual
admiration societies of avant-gardes and bohemians who follow myths of
charismatic creation and distinction and who are highly a u t o n o m o u s from
the market; (2) cultural institutions such as academies and museums that
are relatively a u t o n o m o u s from the market and that establish and main
tain their own symbolic hierarchies and canons; (3) the cultural producers
who achieve 'high-society' and upper-class endorsement and success and
whose cultural success is closely tied to economic profit a n d market
success; and (4) the cultural producers who achieve mass audience or
'popular' success a n d whose production is closely tied to the dictates of the
market (see Bourdieu, 1983a: 329).
A number of points can be m a d e about the interrelationships of the
subfields and the notion of Cultural production as a whole.
First, such a model, which emphasizes the relative heteronomy and
a u t o n o m y of the various subfields from the market, points to the
relational determinism of the various parts of the cultural sphere as a
whole. It suggests that the valuation of high culture, and the devaluation
of popular culture, will vary with the extent to which cultural avant-gardes
and cultural institutions develop and maintain a u t o n o m y and legitimacy.
We therefore need to examine the interdependencies and shifting power
balances between symbolic specialists and economic specialists in a manner
that accounts for the differentiation of the various subfields of the cultural
sphere.
Second, we should not focus exclusively on these groups. The processes
that gave rise to the cultural sphere and mass market culture took place
within different state formation processes and national traditions.
Maravall (1986), for example, disputes that the development of a mass
culture in seventeenth century Spain should be understood solely in terms
of economic factors. Rather, he conceives of the development of baroque
culture as a conservative cultural reaction to the crisis faced by the
Spanish state (in particular the monarchical and seignorial sectors), which
manipulated culture production to generate a new culture of spectacles for
the growing urban masses.
Another example is directly relevant to the potential autonomy of
culture. T h e peculiarities of the French state formation process, which
attained a high degree of centralization and integration, also promoted the
view that French culture represented universal civilization a n d the meta
culture of humankind. This view not only facilitated a serious attitude
towards culture through the development of cultural institutions but also
favoured the development of culture as a prestigious specialism and
lifestyle. This was particularly true for those fractions within the middle
class that were attracted to the cultural ideals of the Enlightenment and
the lifestyle of the independent writer in the eighteenth century ( D a r n t o n ,
1983). It also provided the basis for the development of a u t o n o m o u s
artistic and literary bohemians and avant-gardes in Paris from the 1830s
onward (Seigel, 1986). Hence, to understand different societal evaluations
of 'high culture' or the transcultural applicability of Bourdieu's notion of
'cultural capital', we need to be aware that the acceptance and the social
efficacy of recognizable forms of cultural capital vary in relation to the
society's degree of social and cultural integration. Outside specific
metropolitan centres in the United States, cultural capital, that is,
knowledge of high culture and acquired dispositions and tastes that
manifest such knowledge, is accorded less legitimacy and investment
potential than in France (Lamont and Lareau, 1988).
Third, although certain subfields of the cultural sphere attain relative
autonomy, their cultural practices may still affect everyday culture and the
formation of habitus and dispositions within broader groups outside the
cultural sphere, as our French example indicates. It would be useful to
investigate the place of cultural ideals such as 'the artist as hero' and the
veneration of the artist's and intellectual's lifestyle within different groups,
education processes and mass cultural media (some tentative steps in this
direction are provided in the following two chapters). F o r some com
mentators the cultural sphere is credited with a considerable influence on
everyday culture. Bell (1976) asserts that artistic modernism, with its
transgressive strategies, has strongly influenced consumer culture and
threatens the basis of the social bond. Martin (1981) has also considered
the effects of cultural modernism and the counterculture on mainstream
British culture. We also need more systematic studies on the role of the
cultural sphere in the formation of dispositions, habitus and means of
orientation for different groups. Such studies would help to explore the
connections between sociogenetic and psychogenetic perspectives in that
the formation of the cultured or cultivated person entails tendencies that
parallel the way civilizing processes ensure the control of affects and the
internalization of external controls. In addition we need to focus on the
long-term processes that form larger audiences and publics for the
particular types of cultural goods produced within the various subfields of
the cultural sphere.
O u r discussion of the cultural sphere therefore suggests the need for a
more differentiated notion of the cultural sphere in which the relative
autonomy of the various subfields is investigated. This would better enable
us to understand the relationship between those sectors that seek to
achieve greater autonomy (high culture) and those sectors that are more
directly tied to production for the popular markets in cultural goods (mass
consumer culture). As we have emphasized, the relationship between these
sectors is not fixed or static but is best conceived of as a process. It is
important to consider various phases that entail spurts toward a u t o n o m y
(which, as mentioned, was particularly marked in nineteenth-century
France) and towards heteronomy (phases of cultural declassification in
which cultural enclaves are pulled into wider economic markets for
cultural goods such as postmodernism). We need to focus upon certain
phases in the history of particular societies to understand the processes
that lead to the formation and deformation of the cultural sphere. This
entails examining the particular intergroup and class fractional power
struggles and interdependencies that increase or diminish the power
potential of cultural specialists a n d the societal valuation of their cultural
goods and theories.
Here it would be useful to investigate the relationship between particular
theoretical conceptions of the nature, scope a n d purpose of culture pro
duced by cultural specialists and the differential pulls towards a u t o n o m y
and heteronomy. T h e intention is this chapter has been to argue for a
long-term process perspective on culture in which the focus is on neither
cultural production nor cultural consumption per se. Rather, we need to
examine b o t h their necessary interrelationship and the swings towards
theorizations that emphasize the exclusivity of the explanatory value of
either approach given the rise and fall of particular figurations of people
involved in interdependencies and power struggles. In effect we need to
focus on the long-term process of cultural production within Western
societies that has enabled the development of a massive capacity for
producing, circulating and consuming symbolic goods.
An earlier version of this chapter was presented at the German-American Theory Group
Conference held in Bremen in July 1988 and was printed in R. Munch and N. Smelser (eds)
Theory of Culture (California University Press, 1992). I would like to thank Peter Bailey, Josef
Bleicher, David Chancy, Mike Hepworth, Stephen Kelberg and Stephen Mennell for
commenting on this earlier version.
1. The relationship between values and action is complex, as the secondary literature on
Weber's Protestant Ethic thesis attests (see Marshall, 1982: 64flf.). Bendix's (1970: 146ff.)
discussion of the Protestant Ethic is a useful clarification of the different ways in which
cultural values are transmitted to the populace under contrasting conditions of intense
religiosity and secularization. Campbell's study does not direct sufficient attention to the
interpersonal nexus of conduct and the key role that cultural specialists play in attempting to
promote, transmit and sustain beliefs under conditions of increased secularization in which
one can presume a greater hiatus between high culture and everyday experience. Although we
do know that the middle classes have a greater capacity to take beliefs seriously, we need
more evidence of the effects of beliefs on actual conduct.
PERSONALITY, UNITY A N D THE
ORDERED LIFE
"The painter takes his body with him,' remarks Valry (quoted in MerleauPonty, 1964a: 162). So too does the sociologist, not only in the sense that
he wrestles with the problem of the imposition of his embodied and
situated gaze on the social relationships he seeks to decipher, but also in
the communication of the results of his efforts to others. Yet in theorizing
it is quite easy to lose sight of the body: the act of reading or writing
all too easily occludes the fact that these are embodied practices which
depend on a complex set of social relationships and interdependencies to
sustain the necessary solitude (Bourdieu, 1983b). It is evident when we
g o to a lecture that we not only have the text but the embodied perform
ance, the inflections of the spoken words, the tone of voice, gestures,
body language, stance, and so on, which provide additional resources
which serve to clarify and give intelligibility and persuasiveness to the
I can still vividly recall attending John Rex's first series of lectures after
he was appointed professor at D u r h a m University. He opened the lecture
on Durkheim's Elementary Forms of the Religious Life with the striking
biographical remark that he first read the book while studying divinity in
South Africa and that the impact of the book was so momentous that he
took out his bicycle and pedalled down to the ministry to hand in his
resignation. Statements like this have an impact not only through the
dramatic nature of the event recounted, but through the way they are told.
T h e mode and style of communication are assumed not only to throw light
on the veracity of the statement, but also to provide an indication of the
character of the speaker.
There is, then, a sense in which a lecture has the quality of an exhibition
or show (Bourdieu, 1992). Hence those who enjoy intellectual or academic
success are in demand to speak a r o u n d the world.' We go along to see
them not only to attain the clarification and immediacy of understanding
that co-presence seems to deliver, but also to observe the person. Here, we
are influenced by the assumption that seeing the person, capturing a
fragment of his life, will somehow enable us to gain some significant angle
not only on his writings, but also on his more fundamental basic
problematic or life-purpose. It is not only the working out of the possible
traces of rhetoric and charisma, the potential for identification and
heroicization that is of interest, but the assumption that there is a unity to
PERSONALITY, UNITY A N D THE ORDERED LIFE
a life and work, some style, motif or underlying structure which gives them
coherence.
It is in this sense that Elias (1987a) disputed Hildersheimer's assertion
that although M o z a r t was a brilliant musician he was a failure as a person.
F o r Elias the life and the work form an integrated whole. Elias is, of
course, far from being alone in making this assumption. Peter G a y (1973:
439), for example, tells us that 'Cassirer's The Question of Jean-Jacques
Rousseau seeks to m a k e sense of the whole m a n and to relate him to his
writings - to discover, as Cassirer usually tried to d o , an inner unity
behind superficial contradictions.' Ray M o n k (1990), in discussing his
book on Ludwig Wittgenstein remarks, 'When one considers his life and
work as a unity - which is, above all, what I tried to d o - this striving for
Anstndigkeit
[decency, honesty] is central, for he considered it a
prerequisite, not only to be a good person, but also to be a good
philosopher.' Yet the assumption that we should see a person's life and
work as framed from the outside by the commentator, or constructed from
within by the subject through the lens of unity, is by no means undisputed.
David Frisby (1981) focuses u p o n the alleged fragmented nature of
Simmel's oeuvre, only to be taken to task by Roland Robertson (1982: 97)
who argues that we should endeavour to seek the unity in Simmel's
lifework. But within sociology it is perhaps M a x Weber's life and work
which provides the most vivid example of the struggles over whether his
work should be conceptualized through the frame of unity. Such struggles
have been heightened by the current wave of postmodern theorizing with
its emphasis upon discontinuity, fragmentation, syncretism and otherness.
Before examining such theories it would first be useful, however, to turn to
a discussion of M a x Weber.
Personality and the Ufe orders
A good deal has been written in recent years a b o u t the 'thematic unity'
(Tenbruck, 1980) and 'central question' (Hennis, 1988) of Weber's life and
work. Arguing against the 'fragmented appreciation* of M a x Weber, which
has m a d e Weber appear for some as the archetypal 'post-modern writer',
Albrow (1990: 3) has argued that Weber's work has a n inner logic a n d
coherence. He quotes with approval the task which Ralf D a h r e n d o r f
(1987: 580) has identified as the prime requirement for Weber scholars: 'to
weld his works and times together in the best tradition of Verstehen'. This
echoes a long tradition of Weber scholarship in which K a r l Jaspers's
(1989: 145) assumption that ' M a x Weber's life and thought were insolubly
entwined' is characteristic. Jaspers's admiration for M a x Weber was of
course unrestrained and he made the life and personality of Weber the
model for his existential philosophy. F o r Jaspers Weber showed a
remarkable consistency, which revealed itself not only in actions, but in his
lack of artifice which became effectively written into his b o d y :
Physiognomy and gestures were original with him. No affectation and pretence
surrounded him, he merely took his stand without the protection of conventions
and masks. He placed no importance on himself. His naturalness automatically
put aside all illusion and surrendered itself to every possible attack. He was the
phenomenon of a human being who was entirely a human being, who thought
what was, and became experiential. (Jaspers, 1989: 154)
This lack of guile, artifice and stylization was for Jaspers manifest in the
uniformity of the form within which Weber lived his life, a form in which
we could say the ethic of responsibility (Verantwortungsethik)
was lived
with the relentless commitment of an ethic of ultimate ends (Gesinnungs
ethik). To become a personality one could not pursue a myriad of new
sensations and value commitments, rather one had to impose one's stamp
on life, to form it and subject it to a specific p u r p o s e . This entailed
commitment, consistency and a sense of duty, the patience and strength,
'the strong slow boring of hard boards' which takes both 'passion and
perspective' (Weber, 1948a: 128). At the same time, the sense of duty
should not be understood as dull and cautious; it was animated by a
demonic intellectual passion to surpass and surmount all fixity in pursuit of
the end he has grasped. F o r Weber we could all meet the demands of the
day in our vocation and interpersonal relations if each of us 'finds and
obeys the d e m o n who holds the fibers of his very life' (Weber, 1948b: 156).
This type of commitment and consistency is not to be confused with an
attempt to manufacture charisma. As Manasse (1957: 384) remarks, 'The
demonic person does not attract but repel others who desire to devote and
to subject their individualism to his own. Instead of passing out the slogans
to a flock of idolisers he is suspicious of every fixed formula.' While an
irrational commitment to ultimate values is given its affective charge by
some demonic emotional impulse which drives the person and can give life
a fatefulness, the means to realize the given end entail the suppression of
desires and emotions through systematic devotion to the task.
It is this tension which has led Weber's life to be understood via the
concepts of heroic ethics, heroic stoicism and heroic defiance: this feeds
interpretations such as Jaspers's, which claims that Weber's life formed a
new type of personality which could be the inspirational model for the
modern a g e . Individuals who organized their lives around an ultimate
value to follow 'hero ethics' or 'genuine idealism' were the only ones who
could be regarded as establishing distinctive personalities according to
Weber (Portis, 1973: 118). Weber, like Simmel, considered the selection
of ultimate values to entail a wager, a commitment which could not be
substantiated amid the plurality of conflicting values a n d the differentiation
of the value spheres which was characteristic of the modern age. Yet despite
this uncertainty and the suspicion it cast on all manifestations of totality
and an ethics of ultimate ends, as cultural beings it was our responsibility to
pursue our ideals relentlessly. As Portis (1973: 116) remarks:
An individual who devotes himself to the realization of his ideals not only has a
greater sense of personal identity and a higher degree of self-esteem than one
whose direct goal is to establish an identity, he actually is a more substantial
'person' because he 'is more than his mere appearances.'
Hence for Weber while we may encourage others to develop the desire for
self-clarification and a sense of responsibility, we should avoid the desire
to impose our own standards upon others and accept that for those who
follow science as a vocation there is no answer to the vital question
Tolstoy posed, ' W h a t shall we do? H o w shall we arrange our lives?'
(Weber, 1948b: 152-3).
Yet there is a sense in which this commitment to an ethic of responsi
bility can itself become a n ultimate end, especially if we take into account
the heroic and vital language in which it was expressed - the language
which so captivated the audience which first heard 'Science as a vocation',
and continues to captivate subsequent generations of readers. Hence
Lassman and Velody (1989: 172) argue that 'what we are presented with is
the construction of an "epical" denial of the possibility of an "epical"
theory for the modern age'. While, as they point out, this anti-foun
dational stance of Weber has meant that he has been rediscovered in the
debates over postmodernism - in that Weber's account of the modern
world is not dissimilar to that of Lyotard (1984) and others who point to
the delegitimation of 'grand narratives' - it is important to stress that this
is not the whole story. Where Weber differs from Lyotard is that for him
science is a vocation, a will to truth based on 'an inner need for truth
which makes science a form of faith' (C. Turner, 1990: 114).
As mentioned earlier, to become a personality requires a firm commit
ment to one's convictions within a context of value pluralism and
uncertainty. It involves a 'Here I stand and can d o no other* wager, which
by its very commitment and steadfastness implies an ethical judgement of
the lack of worth of other standpoints. As Charles Turner (1990: 115)
remarks: "This Weberian move away from an (ironic) "totalizing perspec
tive" refuses to substitute for an ethical "totality" a series of postmodern
partial standpoints.' T w o points can be made here which direct the
discussion towards postmodernism: first, the centrality of aesthetics within
postmodern theories and the scepticism with which Weber addressed
aesthetics as a m o d e of theorizing a n d a way of life suggests that the
relationship between ethics and aesthetics needs to be explored; and,
second, related to this, we need to discuss the relationship between 'hero
ethics' and 'average ethics' which Weber formulated, and which can also
be formulated in terms of masculinity and femininity (Bologh, 1990: 102).
This chapter will focus on the first question; the second, though equally
deserving of attention, we will leave to a future occasion.
Ethics and aesthetics
In the final chapter of The Religion of China Weber (1951) contrasts
Confucianism with Puritanism. The Puritan viewed the world as material
to be fashioned ethically whereas Confucianism asked for adjustment to
the world. There was n o attempt in the latter to order conduct into a
systematic unity. The Confucian ideal was that the 'cultivated m a n '
showed propriety, he was 'harmoniously attuned and poised in all social
situations' (Weber, 1951: 156), he displayed a 'watchful self-control, selfobservation and reserve', and an 'aesthetically cool temper' which caused
all duties to be 'frozen into a symbolic ceremonial' (Weber, 1951: 234).
His life was therefore a 'complex of useful and particular traits', it did not
constitute a 'systematic unity'. As Weber comments:
Such a way of life could not allow a man an inward aspiration towards a
'unified personality', a striving which we associate with the idea of personality.
Life remained a series of recurrences. It did not become a whole placed
methodically under a transcendental goal. (Weber, 1951: 235)
F o r Weber, this wholeness or systematic unity had emerged most
successfully in the Puritan, who was dedicated to a cause through ethical
imperatives not through tradition. Yet, as Hennis (1988: 93) argues, the
spiritual bond between dedication to one's vocation and the 'innermost
ethical core of personality' became broken with the establishment of
capitalism in the West, leaving problematic the 'human type' which would
replace the Puritan. In the modern world the loss of an ethical totality
proved difficult to repair. The problems of grafting a comprehensive ethic
for the totality of life-conduct on to the separate aesthetic, erotic and
intellectual life-orders within a differentiated cultural sphere proved
demanding. The prospect of this being achieved via an ethic of responsi
bility, or its alleged twentieth-century existentialist replacement which
Jaspers had formulated, which was so clearly based upon the hero ethics
of the life and work of Max Weber, was also problematic as it needed
social conditions which would support independent rentiers - a solution
which along with other intellectual and mystical attempts at salvation 'was
not accessible to everybody' and hence entailed some form of aristocracy
(Weber, 1948c: 357). Yet why were not the aesthetic, erotic and intellectual
spheres viable alternatives to the Puritan ethic and its paler vocational
twentieth-century shadow, the ethic of responsibility? Why could one not
speak of an ethic of aesthetics, or even an ethic of eroticism as viable lifeorders which could produce unified personalities?
The simplest answer would be to presume a prejudice on Weber's part
against aesthetics and eroticism arising from his Protestant and Kantian
background. In effect, both the preoccupation with forms and the
immersion in 'the greatest irrational force of life: sexual love' (Weber,
1948c: 343) drew attention away from the ethic of brotherhood and
responsible commitment to a lifelong cause; ethics could be reduced to a
matter of taste and style. Furthermore, for Weber these inner-worldly,
anti-rational life forces were in his time not merely content to remain
confined within their respective spheres, but through their opposition to
the 'iron cage' routinization, rationalization and meaninglessness of
modern life were being offered u p as solutions, as effective ways of life
which were surrogate forms of salvation (Scaff, 1989: 104).
There is evidence that Weber softened his attitude towards the erotic
and aesthetic spheres in the last decade of his life, and this is manifest in
his increased sympathy to these modalities of experience in each
progressive revision of the 'Zwischenbetrachtung* (Green, 1976: 171). This
may have derived from Weber's encounter with the particular blend of
eroticism, psychoanalysis, romanticism, bohemianism and
Lebensphiloso
phie which was manifest in O t t o Gross and his followers. It is true that
Weber was very critical of Gross's beliefs, and this was apparent in his
unsympathetic response to Gross's article submitted to the Archiv and his
use of the dismissive label 'psychiatric ethic' (Bologh, 1990: 102), yet this is
by no means the whole story. Weber's affection for Else J a n e , who had
been closely involved with Gross, and his subsequent passionate love affair
with her certainly altered his view of the status of eroticism, and by
association aestheticism. Weber's increased contact with Gross a n d his
followers and the visits he made in 1913 and 1914 to the 'alternative
lifestyle' communes they set u p at Ascona, also helped to give Weber a
more nuanced appreciation of eroticism. According to M a r i a n n e Weber
this led to a more differentiated view of the contrast Weber had developed
between 'hero ethics' and 'average ethics'. N o w the idealist 'hero ethics'
was accompanied by a new insight which allowed the followers of an
erotic-emotional lifestyle to be admitted:
There is a gradation of the ethical. If the ethically highest step is unattainable in
a concrete case, one must try to achieve the second or third best. What that is
cannot be derived from a theory, only from the concrete situation. (Weber, 1975:
388; translation adapted and quoted in Schwentker, 1987: 490)
The sexual life, for Weber (1948c: 3 4 6 - 7 ) , represented the only tie linking
man to animality and with its 'boundless giving of o n e s e l f provided an
'inner worldly salvation from rationalization', especially for 'the vocational
specialist type of m a n ' . While eroticism represented an escape from both
the supra-personal ethical values and the routines of everyday life, with its
'indifference to everything sacred and good', its very worth could be said
to 'derive just from this hostility and indifference' (Weber, 1949: 17; see
Green, 1976: 171). Hence what was an irrational passion could become a
With regard to the aesthetic sphere, Weber (1948c: 342) tells us that
modern men tend to transform moral judgements into judgements of taste,
and that 'this shift from the moral to the aesthetic evaluation of conduct is
a c o m m o n characteristic of intellectualist epochs'. Yet while Weber sought
to m a p out the problems with which this confronted the individual - an
individual who sought to order his life and develop his personality in a
critical manner, while leaving room for ethical consistency and responsi
bility - he also shared a good deal with Simmel. As Scaff (1989: 127) tells
us, for Weber 'Simmel was above all the modern Kulturmensch, or cultural
being, who figures so prominently in key passages of Weber's writings, the
essentially new h u m a n self fully absorbed into the life-order of aesthetic
modernism, the ahistorical self actualized in a world of limitless possi
bilities.' F o r Simmel h u m a n beings tear themselves away from the natural
world through a process of 'cultivation', and the formation of life through
the development of personality offers the prospect of a solution to the
subject-object dualism (Scaff, 1989: 196). Simmel states that we cannot
become cultivated into a unified person 'by having developed this or that
individual bit of knowledge or skill; we become cultivated only when all of
them serve a psychic unity which depends on but does not coincide with
them.' He adds:
The development of every human being, which is examined in terms of
identifiable items, appears as a bundle of developmental lines which expand on
different directions and quite different lengths. But man does not cultivate
himself through their isolated perfections, but only insofar as they help to
develop his indefinable personal unity. In other words: Culture is the way that
leads from the closed unity through the unfolded multiplicity to the unfolded
unity. (Simmel, 1968: 29)
F o r Simmel (1971c: 230, 232), then, 'culture is a perfection of m a n '
and 'the development of o u r inner totality'. The tragedy is that for this
development to take place (subjective culture) m a n depends upon
externally created objects (objective culture) which are capable of
possessing a conceptual unity, an ideal structure which lives only in the
work itself and which cannot be replicated in a person's life. Hence, as
Weingartner (1962: 168) remarks, for Simmel 'the personality of the
individual understood t o be a unified, integrated whole' is in Simmel's
(1986: 14) words
always a goal of development that is attained only imperfectly. Every great
philosophy, however, is an anticipation of this unity of form which is
unattainable in any real psyche. The image of the world has the roundness of the
ideal of personality.
The great works of culture (art, religion, and so on) are so measured by
their own criteria that they resist harmonious assimilation with other
elements necessary for the development of a spiritual wholeness. The
consequent hiatus between objective and subjective culture in which things
become more a u t o n o m o u s leads to an impoverishment and fragmentation
of subjective culture, which becomes particularly marked in modern life
(Simmel, 1971c: 232, 234).
Weber (1948c: 336) also captures this in his 'Zwischenbetrachtung' essay
where he tells us that 'the "cultivated" m a n who strives for self perfection'
m a y become '"weary of life" but cannot become "satiated with life" in the
sense of completing a cycle*. This is because the perfectibility of the cultural
m a n can in principle progress indefinitely, hence the a m o u n t the indi
vidual, as recipient o r 'builder of cultural values', can handle in the course
of his life 'becomes the more trifling the more differentiated and multiplied
the cultural values and goals of self-perfection become'. It becomes
impossible for us to conceive of absorbing the 'whole' of culture or
defining the criteria on which we could make an 'essential' selection. He
continues:
The 'culture' of the individual certainly does not consist of the quantity of
'cultural values' which he amasses; it consists of an articulated selection
of culture values. But there is no guarantee that this selection has reached an
end that would be meaningful to him precisely at the 'accidental' time of his
This passage resonates strongly with Simmel's diagnosis of the problems of
modern culture in a world in which the delusion of unitary meaning had
been lost while 'a longing for synthesis and wholeness' remained (Scaff,
1990: 289).
Simmel did, however, discuss a number of responses to the contra
dictions of modern culture (see Scaff, 1989: 1991.). First, he refers to the
various organizations, interactions and modes of sociability, which
attempt to provide a meaningful order for life. Yet such attempts as
joining a political party or social movement cannot provide an over
arching sense of certainty and cultural unity in the differentiated m o d e r n
world. Second, there is the aesthetic response which seeks to provide
salvation through art, or the living of one's life as a work of art. Art can
provide particular momentary glimpses of unity in which the world
is viewed as a delimited whole, the mystical unity in which the world is
viewed sub specie aeternitatis.
Third, there is the 'cool reflection' of
intellectual detachment. Here there is the tragic acceptance that conflicts
and problems c a n n o t all be solved and that 'the present is too full of
contradictions to stand still' and while we 'gaze into an abyss of unformed
life beneath o u r feet' we have to recognize that 'perhaps this very form
lessness is itself the appropriate form for contemporary life' (Simmel,
1968: 25; Scaff, 1989: 201). T h e uncertainty in the face of the conflicting
and competing forms of the world may then lead to the affirmation of life
itself as the only surety (Whimster, 1987: 276); an acceptance of 'the
paradoxical idea of form's absence as itself a form' (Scaff, 1990: 293). It
might be possible to conceive of some fusion of the second and the third
perspectives, as for example in the work of specific artists who sought not
to flee from life into another totality of objective culture, but to capture
the sense of the formlessness of life itself in a form. In his last essay on
Rodin, Simmel concluded that the goal of art should not be merely
salvation from 'the confusion and turmoil of life' but could entail a
movement in the opposite direction via 'the most perfect stylization and
enhanced refinements of life's own contents'; hence Rodin 'redeems us
from just that which we experience in the sphere of actuality, because he
allows us to experience o u r deepest sense of life once again in the sphere
of art' (Simmel, 1983: 153; Scaff, 1989: 103).
Simmel's depiction of Rodin's project can also be used to point to the
way in which he too sought to develop forms of expression capable of
doing justice to the fleeting impressions, the fragmentation and formless
ness which m a d e u p the experience of modern life and the various ways in
which this experience itself was subjected to rapid formation and
deformation. It is in this sense that Simmel's contribution to the under
standing of the cultural dimension of modernity, particularly in the large
cities which were the heart of modern culture, has been highlighted to the
extent that he has been proclaimed as 'the first sociologist of modernity'
(Frisby, 1985a, 1985b). Simmel sought to explore the experience of the
everyday world of modernity in the sense which Baudelaire had invoked in
his depiction of the essence of the experience of modernit as being the
problem of how to live amidst the endless parading of the new. Here the
focus was o n the new experiences of life in the big cities, the constant
parade of new fashions and styles, the generation of defences against
overstimulation and neurasthenia in the
attitude and playful modes
of sociability. The emphasis is upon the overwhelming flow of life, the
genesis of new forms, some of which celebrated and prolonged the tension
between life and form by their temporary and transitory nature - what
Maffesoli (1988) has referred to as formism,
the playful development of
temporary effectual identifications (Einfhlung) and modes of sociability
which in the modern city offer new forms of individuation and collec
tivities. T o refer to processes of formation and deformation, swings
between immersion in, and distantiation from, experiences and sensations
is to draw attention not only to the salience of culture, but to a more
general aestheticization of everyday life. Here the emphasis is not just
upon the massive increase in the production of aestheticized objects as part
of the development of a mass consumer culture, which changes the nature
of the urban landscape, but also to point to the changes in the m o d e of
perceiving, living a n d acting within this new consumer culture which
heighten aesthetic sensibilities (see Featherstone, 1991a). Some of these
tendencies have been labelled postmodernism, which raises the question of
whether they are genuinely new and distinctive to the late twentieth
century, or whether there are continuities with the modes of experience
which Simmel sought to comprehend in the turn-of-the-century modernity.
In addition we need to enquire into their implication for the development
of personality and a unified or ordered life-course. D o they point to the
viability of an 'ethics of aesthetics' as an alternative mode of ordering life
within the contemporary world? O r does this represent a further
attenuation and dissipation of the elements of personality formation we
have spoken of?
The centrality of aesthetics within Simmel's whole work has often been
remarked on. Goldscheid (1904: 4 1 1 - 1 2 ; quoted in Frisby, 1981: 86) for
example writes that
l se
behind Simmel's whole work there stands not the ethical but the aesthetic ideal.
And it is this aesthetic ideal which determines his whole interpretation of life and
thus his whole scientific activity. What holds him back from all democracy is the
feeling . . . that he denotes with the category of distinction [Vornehmheit]...
him this distinction is always only expressed as aesthetics and not as an ethical
Frisby (1981: 85) tells us that Simmel substituted an aesthetic for an
ethical stance on reality which K u r t Lamprecht referred to as ' a n aesthetic
ethics*. T h e question is not whether this m o d e of orientation is a legitimate
or illegitimate frame of reference with which to understand the social
world in some timeless categorical sense, but whether Simmel's specific
m o d e of perception was b o t h formed by and a response t o particular sets
of changes which were restructuring the nature of everyday experience. If
this is the case then his choice can in n o way be dismissed as capricious;
rather it needs to be fully investigated, not least because what we refer to
as 'postmodernism' may either be understood as continuous with these
developments, o r as representing a new and distinctive set of breaks with it
- which points to the need to investigate these alleged linkages and
'conditions of possibility' within a new historical context.
A good deal of confusion and justified scepticism exists a b o u t the terms
'postmodern', 'postmodernism', 'postmodernity' and 'postmodernization'
and their relationship to the family of terms associated with the m o d e r n
(for a discussion of these terms see Featherstone, 1991a). T h e history of
the terms suggests that postmodernism was first used to point to a
movement beyond artistic modernism centred in New Y o r k in the 1960s. It
was then picked u p by philosophers and literary critics who detected
homologies between the artworks and practices of postmodern artists and
poststructuralism and deconstructionism. The rapid transmission of
information between Europe (particularly France) and N o r t h America
helped to draw in other critics, intellectuals and social scientists, which
resulted in the stretching of the concept towards an epochal shift: postmodernity understood as something we are on the threshold of detecting,
which points to the decay and dissolution of modernity. It may well be
that the concept has little lasting utility for the social sciences (at least if
the emphasis is placed on the term 'science'), being itself a product of demonopolization processes in academic life which are breaking down some
of the barriers between subjects and subject-based establishments
tendencies which are themselves inimical to the maintenance of science.
Where the term may, however, have some utility is in the way it directs
our attention to cultural change.
The main features associated with postmodernism can be briefly
summarized. First, a movement away from the universalistic ambitions of
master-narratives where the emphasis is u p o n totality, system and unity
towards an emphasis u p o n local knowledge, fragmentation, syncretism,
Otherness' and 'difference'. Second, a dissolution of symbolic hierarchies
which entail canonical judgements of taste and value, towards a populist
collapse of the distinction between high and popular culture. Third, a
tendency towards the aestheticization of everyday life which gained
m o m e n t u m both from efforts within the arts to collapse the boundary
between art and life (pop art, D a d a , surrealism, and so on) and the alleged
movement towards a simuiational consumer culture in which an endlessly
reduplicated hallucinatory veil of images effaces the distinction between
appearance and reality. F o u r t h , a decentring of the subject, whose sense of
identity and biographical continuity give way to fragmentation and
superficial play with images, sensations and 'multi-phrenic intensities'.
Of particular interest here are the third and fourth features. Let us take
as an example one of the most influential writers on postmodernism,
Fredric Jameson. The phrase 'multi-phrenic intensities' is his and is used to
indicate what he regards as an effect of the postmodern tendencies which
have emerged in the postwar culture of the consumer society (Jameson,
1984a, 1984b; see also Featherstone, 1991a). It refers to a breakdown of
individuals' sense of identity through the bombardment of fragmented
signs and images which erode all sense of continuity between past, present
and future, all teleological belief that life is a meaningful project. In
opposition to the notion that life is a meaningful project, here we have the
view that the individual's primary m o d e of orientation is an aesthetic one,
a n d like the schizophrenic she/he is unable to chain together the signifiers
and instead must focus on particular disconnected experiences or images
which provide a sense of intense immersion and immediacy to the
exclusion of all wider teleological concerns. Jameson's views have been
influenced by the writings of Baudrillard, although in contrast to the
latter's nihilistic conclusions, he has sought to retain a Marxist framework
to conceptualize these postmodern tendencies as the cultural logic of late
capitalism. F o r Baudrillard (1983a, 1993) we live in a depthless culture of
floating signs and images in which 'TV is the world', and all we can d o is
watch the endless flow of images with an aestheticized fascination and
without possible recourse to moral judgements. Some have argued that
evidence of these tendencies is to be found within everyday life and modes
of signification: in the sign-play of youth cultures, the styles and fashions
of the flaneurs w h o move through the new postmodern urban spaces, and
in the particular fusions of art and rock which produced contemporary
popular music (Hebdige, 1988; Chambers, 1987; Frith and H o m e , 1987;
Harvey, 1989).
The implications for the theory of personality, character formation, and
the project of a unified and ordered life which we discussed in terms of the
writings and lives of Weber and Simmel in the previous section, would
seem to be clear. A new version of the ethic of aesthetics seems to be in the
offing, one which lacks the underpinning sense of the unified life-order
which is to be found in Weber and Simmel's deliberations. Yet troubling
questions remain: how far are the formulations referred to as postmodern
genuinely new - are there, for example, clear historical antecedents which
would suggest that they should be reconceived as ransmoderrl H o w far
are such decentred identities actually possible a n d is it possible to conceive
them not as actually disordered lives, but as lives which still retain some
sense of teleology and life-order, albeit within a more flexible generative
structure which allows for a greater play of differences?
It would be useful to approach these questions via a discussion of
Rorty's work. Rorty follows the postmodern emphasis upon a decentred
self by arguing that there is n o underlying coherent h u m a n essence behind
our various social roles. R a t h e r than being something unified and
consistent, the self should be conceived as a bundle of conflicting 'quasi
selves', a r a n d o m and contingent assemblage of experiences (Rorty, 1986;
Shusterman, 1988: 3 4 1 - 2 ) . Once the old essentialist self has been discarded
as impossible to found, the thirst for new experiences and constant selfenlargement can become the ethical justification for life: aesthetics
becomes the ethical criterion for the good life. F o r Shusterman, Rorty's
position represents a rehash offin-de-sicle aestheticism. G . E . M o o r e , who
was influential in the Bloomsbury G r o u p , argued for an aesthetic life
structured a r o u n d the search for, a n d appreciation of, beautiful things,
people and experiences.
Wilde a n d Pater shared a similar ethic, with the latter anticipating
Rorty's Freudian-Faustian aesthetic life by advocating a 'quickened,
multiplied consciousness' and thirst for enriching o u r experience via the
intense excitement of novelty (Shusterman, 1988: 354). Wilde's advocacy
of an aesthetic life entailed: (1) a life of pleasure in aesthetic consumption;
(2) the need for life to form an aesthetically pleasing whole; a n d (3)
occasionally, the assumption that such unity could be found in constant
change (Shusterman, 1988: 354). But in contrast to Rorty's denial of any
coherent structuring to the bundle of quasi-selves, in Wilde's case we have
the injunction to turn life into a work of art; and here 'the idea is not so
much a life of aesthetic consumption, but a life which is itself a product
worthy of aesthetic appreciation for its structure and design as organic
unity' (Shusterman, 1988: 347). Hence while Wilde maintained a sub
versive and critical attitude towards culture, and saw the artist as the true
revolutionary figure because 'he expresses everything', he saw the great
artist as inventing a type 'which life tries to copy' (Rieff, 1990: 2 7 6 - 7 ) .
There are clear parallels here with the life of Stefan George, whose
aestheticism and blurring of the boundaries between life and art was one
of the modern secular ethics with which Weber was concerned. In
addition, there are echoes of the Ancient Greeks' reluctance to separate
the good and the beautiful. In this context it is evident that one source of
the current preoccupation of theorists of postmodernism with repairing the
relationship between ethics a n d aesthetics, which were so long held
separate in the Western tradition, has been the later writings of Michel
Foucault.
Foucault argues that Baudelaire's description of the new sense of the
fleeting, ephemeral nature of time, which comes into being with modernity,
emphasizes that to be modern is not merely to lose oneself in 'prcsentness',
the flux of the passing moments (cf. Simmel's notion of the formless flow
of experienced life); it also entails an ascetic attitude in taking oneself as
an object of formation and elaboration. Dandyism entailed the art of
inventing oneself, of making life into a work of art (Foucault, 1986: 4 0 - 2 ) .
There would seem to be a strong Nietzschean element here in the
assumption that the aim of life is to give style to one's character via some
form of self-fashioning. It also raises again the question of the
reconciliation of the goal of character formation with a modernist
cultivation of a protean, dispersed, transgressive self, which we shall
shortly return to. In his final writings Foucault examined the Greek ethic
that we have to aspire to be the type of person who builds his or her
existence into a beautiful life, an aesthetic ideal of self-nobility. This did
not entail conformity to a moral code, whether religious or juridical;
rather, Foucault wished to shift the focus to the analysis of the ways in
which the individual is meant to constitute him- or herself as an ethical
subject. This notion of ethics emphasized both asceticism and teleology in
the subjection of the self through the obligation to 'give your existence the
most beautiful form possible' (Foucault, 1986: 353). This stylization of life
and aesthetics of existence did not entail a restless hermeneutics of desire,
but a moderate and prudent ordering of the conduct of life in terms of
formal principles in the use of pleasures (Foucault, 1987: 8 9 - 9 0 ) , a
conception of the achievement of a structured and unified life which, like
dandyism, entailed the pursuit of the goal of distinction which was not
open to a l l . '
Given that both the Greek aesthetics of existence and nineteenth-century
dandyism were exclusive ethics not open to all, how far can we assume
that a similar ethics of aesthetics is possible outside the realms of
postmodern theory and should be understood as a sign of an epochal shift,
a movement towards postmodernity? Foucault (1987: 362), for his part, is
keen to distinguish the Greek ethic from 'the Californian cult of the self
and indeed regards them as 'diametrically opposed'. Neither new con
sciousness movements nor consumer culture would therefore seem to offer
a basis for an ethics of aesthetics. Yet there are clear tendencies within
consumer culture and youth movements which emphasize the stylization of
life, albeit on a less grand scale, and it would only be through the analysis
of self-help books, manners books and how-to-live manuals and their
companions in newspapers, magazines and television - a contemporary
effort to follow the methodology devised by Norbert Elias (1978, 1982)
that a preliminary answer could be arrived at. There also remains the
question of how unified and life extensive such postmodern attempts to
create an ethics of aesthetics are.
Maffesoli (1988, 1991, 1995), for example, emphasizes the emergence of
new forms of collective solidarity which are found especially in the
metropolis. These transitory affective collectivities, which Maffesoli refers
to as 'neo-tribalism', emerge within complex societies which have given
way to a polytheistic 'swarming multiplicity of heterogeneous values'. This
draws attention to features of the contemporary world which more
rationalistically orientated sociologists are apt to neglect: the persistence of
strong affectual bonds through which people come together in
constellations with fluid boundaries to experience the multiple attrac
tions, sensations, sensibilities and vitalism of an extra-logical community,
the embodied sense of being together, the c o m m o n feeling generated by a
c o m m o n emotional adherence to a sign which is recognizable by others.
The whole post-1960s movement of rock festivals and the 1980s 'Feed the
World' and Band-Aid-style concerts provide good examples. Emphasizing
the temporary, transitory and fickle nature of these 'neo-tribes', Bauman
(1990: 434) has argued that they fit well the Kantian concept of 'aesthetic
community'. Such communities hold out the promise of unanimity,
temporary republics of united taste in which each fragile consensus is
constantly doing and undoing itself. It would seem that such temporary
communities draw on neo-Durkheimian notions of the emotional charge
and sense of the sacred which the group immersion and excitement
generates. It is argued that this is clearly a collective sense of the ethic of
the aesthetic in which the mass, which was formerly so negatively evalu
ated in terms of the efforts which the individual was required to m a k e to
distinguish himself through the Greek or dandyist 'aristocratic' indi
vidualistic modes, now becomes positively evaluated. T h e individual does
not seek Apollonian distinction but immerses himself in the Dionysian
collective. Maffesoli's (1991: 16) particular definition of the ethic of
aesthetics, unlike Foucault's, is one with 'neither obligation n o r sanction':
there is 'no obligation other than coming together and being a member of
the collective body'. T h e movement from considerations of personality,
character, individuation and identity towards collective identification
leaves behind notions of duty, obligation, asceticism, unity and teleology
which are central to the theories of the aesthetic life-order as formulated
by Foucault, Weber and Simmel.
This movement could also be understood in terms of the more general
shift in the attitude of some academics, artists and intellectuals towards a
positive evaluation of the mass, in terms of embracing the 'tactility' and
embodied presence of groups in 'lower' social orders whose proximity,
manners and lifestyles were once held to be so threatening and enervating
- the fear of engulfment by the 'herd' which is a dominant motif in mass
culture theory from Nietzsche to Eliot a n d A d o r n o . On a global level it
also means an increased interaction and visibility of images and infor
mation a b o u t other cultures and traditions which could formerly be placed
in a strict hierarchical and evolutionary order (for example the extent to
which they are civilized within the Western mode) which are now accepted
not as inferior, but as having the right to be different (see Featherstone,
The acceptance of syncretism, polytheism and tolerance of difference
and otherness - which is a feature highlighted in postmodern theories,
undermining the particular conjunction of a politics and aesthetics which
attempts to sustain universal judgements, which we find, for example, in
critical theory - is itself both advocated on a theoretical level and a
response to changes in the relative situation of cultural specialists, on both
an inter- and intra-societal level. Postmodernism has been associated with
both the end of the avant-garde (Burger, 1984; Crane, 1987) and the end
of the intellectuals (Jacoby, 1987). This is largely to be conceived in terms
of the cohesiveness of their project, which entailed explicit and implicit
judgements about the worth of art and intellectual knowledge for
humankind. It is in this sense that Bauman (1988b) has detected a post
modern shift in intellectuals from the acceptance of their self-proclaimed
Enlightenment role as legislators to the lesser role of interpreters. The
loss of confidence in their ability to manufacture plausible, coherent or
rational world-views which offered the prospect of some form of innerworldly salvation, has meant that we should not just speak of the
secularization of religion, but of the secularization of science, art and
intellectual knowledge too. Along with a decline in the charismatic
authority of the artist and intellectual, manifest in notions such as the
artist or intellectual as hero or genius, we have had a decline in the
specialist countercultural communities and lifestyles, such as bohemias,
which helped to sustain them.
Postmodernism, with its emphasis on the repetitive nature of all art, its
already-seen quality, which makes it at best only a copy (to the extent that
the artist should only simulate what is already there in everyday life and
consumer culture), manifests a distance from any attempt to conceive these
changes in terms of any tragic reduction of subjective culture, such as we
find in Simmel, or alternative Weberian conceptions of heroic stoicism.
This also a m o u n t s to the denial of creativity, the capacity of h u m a n beings
to create their culture ever anew in many varied ways, which was so
central to the G e r m a n cultural science tradition especially as found in the
works of Weber, Simmel and Dilthey. Instead of the possibility of living
out the life of an active Kulturmensch, all that remains is the attraction of
the aesthetic play with fragments of already-formed culture, which we
survey with passive fascination in a manner akin to the player of Herman
Hesse's glass-bead game. Yet we should beware of taking at face value the
claim that this fragmentation is absolute. While deconstruction and, by
association, postmodernism manifest a hostility to what de M a n refers to
as 'the organic unity' and 'the intent at totality of the interpretive process'
of works of art in favour of a celebration of heterogeneity, multivocality
and intertextuality - the variety of incompatible arguments which inhabit
a text - unity cannot be dispensed with altogether (see Culler, 1983: 199
200). Rather, deconstruction and postmodernism problematize unity in
favour of more complex notions of syncretic unity and unicity. T o banish
the frame altogether is to move from culture into life, and this surrender to
formlessness is not a viable option for cultural specialists, in terms of
either their works or their lives.
So we have a wide range of positions on the question of whether it is
possible to develop a unified personality in the contemporary world.
Before we summarize the various positions in terms of a typology, it
would be useful to briefly recap M a x Weber's view. G o l d m a n (1988: 165)
provides a useful assemblage of w h a t he takes to be the four fundamental
conditions for the generation of personality which are scattered
t h r o u g h o u t Weber's work
First, there must be the creation or existence of a transcendental-like ultimate
goal or value that gives leverage over the world through the tension it creates
between the believer and the world. Second, there must be a 'witness' to action
that is not social, seeing the 'outer' person, but transcendent, regarding the
'inner'. Third, there must be the possibility of salvation or redemption from
death or from the meaning! essness of the world and the attainment of a sense of
certainty about it. And fourth, there must be no ritual, magic or external means
for relieving one's burden of guilt, or despair. Together these four conditions
anchor the sense of meaning and may later provide possibilities that life in an
age without religion has otherwise lost.
It may be possible, following Weber's invocation of a gradation in his
discussion of hero ethics, to conceive of a similar gradation of personality
formation, with the above set of characteristics taken as summarizing the
conditions of possibility for the full development of personality. T h e
Puritan and Old Testament prophet clearly falls at this end of the
continuum. Next we might place the aesthetics of existence of the Greeks.
T h e artist, cultural specialist, intellectual or scientist in the modern world
might come next, bearing in mind that, with whatever heroic stoicism they
might attempt to order their lives, for Weber modern culture could not
provide a viable replacement for the solutions proposed by religious
theodicy. F o r Weber these secular ethics merely fuelled desire and inflated
the sense of the possible without providing a n ordered cosmology which
would fulfil the psychic need for a meaningfully ordered life (Whimster,
1987: 289). It can be suggested that the plea Weber made for the
maintenance of the separation of the various life-orders in the modern
world has gone unheeded and we have seen not only partial signs of the
collision of the spheres he referred to in 'Politics as a vocation', but a
heightened dedifferentiation, the changes which some want to label as the
end of art, the end of the avant-garde a n d the end of the intellectuals,
which some would place under the sign of postmodernism. In effect the
deformation of the cultural sphere has collapsed the authority and prestige
which maintained the distance between the cultural specialist and the
ordinary person. While we are currently entering a more exacerbated
phase of the demonopolization of the power of cultural establishments
vis-a-vis outsider groups, there is no reason to believe that in the future
new global conditions might come into being which would reverse this
If, however, we consider some of the cultural tendencies which are
associated with the term postmodernism, it is clear that we would have to
move further along the continuum, with the possibility of a unified ordered
life in terms of some ethic of aesthetics as conceived by, for example Rorty
or Maffesoli, giving way to a looser agglomeration of experiences and
sensations which m a y become syncretized into a less coherent form of
unity, or unicity. Something which may provide the excitement of role
change and mask-wearing, as Hennis (1988) reminds us, cannot provide
the ordered life. Weber, too, had his misgivings about the possible
emergence in the West of similar tendencies to that found in the Confucian
ethic, being scathing about this Eastern case of utilitarianism, the
Mandarin blend of the cautious, calculating pursuit of earthly pleasures
and pragmatic, bureaucratic conformism (see Liebersohn, 1988). As we
move further along the gradation we encounter some of the intensities,
immersions and immediacies of the vivid disconnected experiences that
some associate with the shift towards a postmodern culture. Jameson's
'multi-phrenic' intensities point to the complete breakdown of form into
life. Yet however frightening this prospect may be for those whom this is
thrust u p o n (and it is hard to conceive of schizophrenia as otherwise), for
those who plunge into the stream of life in a controlled way, the artists,
intellectuals, critics and the cultural intermediaries and audiences who
empathize with them, there is the comforting possibility of a different
return, this time a return from life to form. However attractive and
transgressive the dissolution of established forms, the collaging and
reordering of existing ones and the immersion into life may seem, this
process gives rise to new objectifications. These are not only the new forms
of art and intellectual life, but also the piling-up of forms with which to
interpret this process, some of which are pedagogies to help the uninitiated
learn how to m a k e sense of the new experiences and modes of formisme. In
effect, how to decontrol their emotions, to play with a variety of new and
potentially threatening images and sensations without the fear of a total
loss of control must also be considered. The process of formation and
deformation of culture continues apace.
In this sense the fears expressed by Daniel Bell (1980) about the trans
gressive and antinomian characteristics of modernism and postmodernism
need not be so strong, nor his nostalgia for the Puritan so marked, for the
modern artist and intellectual necessarily plays with and shapes life in
ways which, however much they may seem to stretch our intellects and
sensibilities, necessarily aim at some eventual, albeit more complex, multireadable, recovery of form into life - but a form more flexible and less
elevated: a form on the side of life and against form itself. The turn-of-the
century publics a n d audiences may have found the transgressions of the
followers of the artist and erotic life-orders threatening, disturbing and
troubling, yet today we have larger audiences who can attune themselves
to a wider range of more complex sensations and forms, who can rapidly
switch between aesthetic distantiation and the heady immediacy of
temporary immersion. Rather than this being interpreted nostalgically as
signalling the end of morality, perhaps it points to a m o r e complex range
of unities, syncretic blends and differentiations between both the ethical
and the aesthetic, and an involvement and detachment which entail
varying degrees of mutual respect, restraint a n d tolerance within a new
cultural context. This could be a context in which some of the old
communalities (the ' c o m m o n culture' as a goal of both the state's national
self-formation process and oppositional countercultural movements of
artists a n d intellectuals) will wither away, or find themselves uncom
fortably juxtaposed alongside other traditions and value-complexes, which
are difficult to discredit or ignore within a wider, more complex cultural
form of global compression.
It may seem a massive and unwarranted step to speak about personality
formation in the same sentence as the global cultural order, especially in
today's specialized world; yet the tradition of sociology associated with
Weber, Simmel and those such as Elias and Rex who have sought to carry
on the scope of their efforts is one which had little time for the boundary
maintainers w h o kept to their own territories and identified sociology with
the narrowly conceived study of society - society which was generally
regarded as the leftover bits after the economy, the nation-state, inter
national and transnational relations, cultural values and personality
formation h a d been taken out. It is this more widely conceived transdisciplinary sociology which would seem to be best suited to attempt to
answer the vital questions of our time, questions which d e m a n d perspec
tive and detachment, the capacity to range far away to understand
something which is very near to our hearts.
The original version of this chapter was written for a collection of essays in honour of John
Rex (Knowledge and Passion: Essays In Sociology and Social Theory in Hnow of John Rex,
ed. H. Martins, I.B. Tauris, 1993). John Rex was my first teacher in sociology when he was
appointed to the chair at the University of Durham in 196S. Incidentally the patronizing
myopia, and even contempt and hostility towards the 'non-subject' of sociology found in
much of British academic life was still evident in the unwillingness to accept the subject's
name (a bastard mixture of Latin and Greek) as a valid title for either courses or a
department in the university. Rex's department was therefore called Social Theory and
Institutions (something which remains inscribed on my BA certificate). Needless to say he
managed to reverse the title and change the name to sociology some years later.
1. Georg Simmel's capacity to attract a varied audience to his lectures, which became
public events, is well known. His mode of delivery was remarkable, as a contemporary noted:
One could observe how the process of thought took possession of the whole man, how the
haggard figure on the lecture platform became the medium of an intellectual process the passion
of which was expressed not in words only, but also in gestures, movements, actions. When
Simmel wanted to convey to the audience the core of an idea, he not only formulated it, he so
to-speak picked it up with his hands, bis fingers opening and dosing; bis whole body turned and
vibrated under the raised hand. . . . His intensity of speech indicated a supreme tension of
thought; he talked abstractly, but this abstract thought sprang from live concern, so that it came
to life in the listener. (Fechter, 1948: 52-6, quoted in Coser, 1977: 211)
Yet in Tact Simmel's lectures were also a show in the sense that he gave the same lecture on
several occasions with virtually no changes, and his ability to give the impression that he was
struggling to work out his ideas in front of the audience shows that he was a master of
impression management (see Staude, 1990).
2. Apart from such descriptions by Weber's contemporaries, we can only see the embodied
Weber in photographs. It is worth recording that in John Rex's study at Durham University a
framed photograph of Max Weber was prominently displayed on the mantelpiece. This was
the steadfast leonine portrait of Weber which is the frontispiece of Gerth and Mills's From
Max Wtber (1948).
3. This should not be taken to mean that Weber strove to become a personality; far from it
- see his attack on the idols of 'personality' and 'personal experience' in 'Science as a
vocation' (Weber, 1948b: 137). He despised the cult of personality, and the romantic search
for experience and emotional fulfilment. This was manifest in his attitude towards the idols of
the cult of youth such as Stefan George. Only the person who showed inner devotion to a
specialist task could become a genuine personality (Albrow, 1990: 44).
4. For a discussion of the derivation of Weber's sense of the demonic from Goethe, as well
as the Protestant and Kantian sources of Weber's commitment, to the ordering and unifying
of life via the free action of the person, see Albrow (1990).
5. Jaspers was not alone in his admiration for Weber. Theodor Heuss, the future President
of West Germany, began his obituary of Weber
For us young people meeting him meant the experience of a daemonic personality. He had
power over men, the power of destructive anger, of objective clarity, attractive grace; all his
utterances were suggestive, endowed with 'charisma', with the grace of inborn leadership.
(Green, 1976: 278)
6. Weber (1951: 131-2) tells us that the 'gentleman ideal' was 'the man who had attained
all-around self-perfection, who had become a "work of art" in the sense of a classical canon
of psychical beauty, which literary tradition implemented in the souls of disciples'. This was
accumulated through education in the classics, which was subjected to certified examinations
so that 'canonical and beautiful achievements' could be displayed in a 'salon' culture.
7. The main account of the relationship is in Green (1976). It is also referred to in Roth's
(1988: xlii) new introduction to Marianne Weber's biography of Max and Whimster's (1989:
463) review article. The love letters from Max Weber to Else as yet remain unpublished and
there is considerable controversy as to their actual contents. In the German edition of
Marianne Weber's (1988) Lebensbild Roth adds to the controversy by arguing that Marianne
knew about the affair and hence there was never a time when Max fell short of his obligation
to be totally honest with his wife about the situation (see Liebersohn, 1988-9: 126). It is
worth adding that the discovery came as a tremendous blow to Karl Jaspers, for here was the
person he had built up to be a paragon of consistency, honesty and responsibility, who had
gone to great lengths to conceal his affair from his wife (see Whimster, 1989; Henrich, 1987).
8. Well before the 'Ethical neutrality' essay (1917) was written, Weber is reported as having
asked Else Jaffe in 1908: 'But wouldn't you say that any value could be embodied in
eroticism?' To which she replied 'But certainly - beauty!' (Green, 1976: 171).
9. See, for example, his discussion in The Philosophy of Money (Simmel, 1978) and the
essay 'On the concept of the tragedy of culture' (Simmel, 1968) where he tells us that the
'voracious accumulation' of objective culture is 'deeply incompatible with the forms of
personal life'. He adds:
The receptive capacity of the self is limited not only by the force and length of life, but also
through a certain unity and relative compactness of its form. The individual might pass by what
his self-development cannot assimilate, but this does not always succeed so easily. The infinite
growing supply of objectified spirit places demands before the subject, creates desires in him, hits
him with a feeling of individual inadequacy and helplessness, throws him into total relationships
from whose impact he cannot withdraw, although he cannot master their particular contents.
Thus, the typically problematic situation of modern man comes into being: his sense of being
surrounded by an innumerable number of cultural elements which are neither meaningless to
him, nor in the final analysis, meaningful. In their mass, they depress him, since he is not capable
of assimilating them all, nor can he simply reject them, since after all, they do belong potentially
within the sphere of his cultural development. (Simmel, 1968: 44)
10. Foucault (1987: 341) writes:
it was reserved for a few people of the population, it was not a question of giving a pattern of
behaviour for everybody. It was a personal choice for a small elite. The reason for making this
choice was the will to live a beautiful life, and to leave to others memories of a beautiful
existence. I don't think that we can say that this kind of ethics was an attempt to normalize the
THE HEROIC LIFE A N D EVERYDAY LIFE
The modern hero is no hero; he acts heroes.
(Benjamin, 1973: 97)
Perhaps it is precisely the petit-bourgeois who has the presentiment of
the dawn of a new heroism, a heroism both enormous and collective, on
the model of arts.
(Musil, The Man without Qualities, quoted in de Certeau, 1984: 1)
I do not like heroes, they make too much noise in the world.
(Voltaire, quoted in Gouldner, 1975: 420)
T o speak of the heroic life is to risk sounding a little dated. Intellectual
and academic life have long sustained strong countercultural traditions
which have favoured an anti-heroic ethos. Periodically these traditions
have gained greater prominence, for example in the 1960s. The most
recent manifestation of this antinomian spirit, postmodernism, has little
time for elevating artistic, intellectual and other cultural pursuits to the
status of coherent lifestyles capable of making grand statements which
will be generally illuminating and instructive. Conceptions such as the
artist as hero with their associated notions of genius and a life-ordering
sense of calling and mission have given way to a less elevated valuation
of the popular and the detritus of everyday mass and consumer cultures.
Postmodernism has also been associated with the positive evaluation of
local and popular cultures, the minor traditions and the Otherness'
excluded by the universalistic pretension of the modern. This suggests an
increasing sensitivity to the more complex levels of unity, to the
syncretism, heterogeneity, and the c o m m o n taken-for-granted, 'seen but
unnoticed' aspects of everyday life. Of course, the sociology of everyday
life cannot be reduced to an effect of postmodernism. Rather we should
regard postmodernism as enhancing tendencies to transform the cultural
sphere which gained a strong impetus from the 1960s. The rise of new
social movements, feminism, ecology and the increasing significance of
leisure and the quest for self-expression and self-realization not only
pointed to the capacity to transform the institutions of public life,
but also raised the profile of the life left behind. Everyday life, with its
focus upon reproduction, maintenance, c o m m o n routines, the sphere of
women, receptivity and sociability has gained impetus with the
problematization of the dominant legitimacy of the world of production
with its emphasis upon instrumental rationality, transformation and
If everyday life is usually associated with the m u n d a n e , taken-for
granted, commonsense routines which sustain and maintain the fabric of
our daily lives, then the heroic life points to the opposite qualities. Here we
think of extraordinary deeds, virtuosity, courage, endurance and the
capacity to attain distinction. If the very taken-for-grantedness of everyday
life means the necessity of subjecting one's activities to practical knowledge
and routines whose heterogeneity and lack of systemicity is rarely
theorized, then the heroic life cuts a swathe through this dense facticity. It
points to an ordered life fashioned by fate or will, in which the everyday is
viewed as something to be tamed, resisted or denied, something to be
subjugated in the pursuit of a higher purpose.
More than most sociological concepts 'everyday life' has proved
exceedingly difficult to define. This would seem to be because everyday life
is the life-world which provides the ultimate ground from which spring all
our conceptualizations, definitions and narratives. At the same time, from
the perspective of constituted specialist forms of knowledge which have
forgotten this, it appears to be a residual category into which can be
jettisoned all the irritating bits and pieces which d o not fit into orderly
thought. Indeed, as commentators are quick to point out, to venture into
this field is to explore an aspect of life whose central features apparently
lack methodicalness and are particularly resistant to rational categoriz
ation (see Geertz, 1983; Heller, 1984; Sharrock and Anderson, 1986;
Bovone, 1989; Maffesoli, 1989). Bearing in mind this inherent ambiguity
and lack of consensus, we can outline the characteristics most frequently
associated with everyday life. First, there is an emphasis u p o n what
happens every day, the routine, repetitive taken-for-granted experiences,
beliefs and practices; the m u n d a n e ordinary world, untouched by great
events and the extraordinary. Second, the everyday is regarded as the
sphere of reproduction and maintenance, a pre-institutional zone in which
the basic activities which sustain other worlds are performed, largely by
women. Third, there is an emphasis upon the present which provides a
non-reflexive sense of immersion in the immediacy of current experiences
and activities. F o u r t h , there is a focus on the non-individual embodied
sense of being together in spontaneous c o m m o n activities outside, or in the
interstices, of the institutional domains; an emphasis upon c o m m o n
sensuality, being with others in frivolous, playful sociability. Fifth, there is
an emphasis upon heterogeneous knowledge, the disorderly babble of
many tongues; speech and 'the magic world of voices' are valued over the
linearity of writing.
This aspect can be developed by referring to Agnes Heller's discussion
of Plato's contrast between doxa (general opinion grounded in daily
routines) and episteme (scientific knowledge which aims to provide more
lasting truths). This can lead us to a relational view of everyday thought
with its meaning defined in terms of its opposite modes of thought.
Whereas everyday thought is heterogeneous and syncretic, scientific,
philosophical and other formalized modes of thought are more systemic,
reflexive and de-anthropomorphizing (Heller, 1984: 49ff.). Such more
formalized modes of thought themselves can be seen as striving for
systemicity, which increasingly separates them from their dependence on
the prime symbolic media in which they are grounded.
Alfred Schutz (1962) has referred to the everyday commonsense world
as the ' p a r a m o u n t reality' which can be distinguished from a series of
'multiple realities' or 'finite provinces of meaning'. There are the 'worlds'
of dreams, fantasies, daydreams, play, fiction and the theatre as well as the
more formalized worlds of science, philosophy and art. Each demands a
different 'natural attitude', time sense and structure of relevance, and there
are problems for individuals who d o not observe them. Here it is possible
to recall Schutz's (1964) description of the difficulties encountered by
Cervantes's D o n Quixote in mixing together fantasy and everyday life.
There are, of course, some socially sanctioned occasions in which such
intermixing is encouraged, where the world of fantasy becomes lived out in
the midst of everyday life, such as festivals and the carnivalesque. Such
liminal moments are usually well circumscribed, yet it can be argued that
the syncretic and heterogeneous nature of everyday life means that the
perceptions of the doubly-coded, the playful, desires and fantasies lurk
within the interstices of everyday life and threaten to irrupt into it.
As Schutz, Garfinkel and the ethnomethodologists remind us, it takes
considerable taken-for-granted practical skill to negotiate these various
worlds and the transitions between them. It can be added that the capacity
to mobilize such a flexible generative structure capable of handling a wide
variety and high degree of complexity of finite provinces of meaning
cannot be understood as a historical constant. Indeed the nature and
number of finite provinces of meaning and their relative separation or
embeddedness in everyday life will vary historically. Hence it can be
argued that a precise definition of everyday life cannot be given, rather we
should seek to understand it as a process - and, as Nietzsche reminds us,
that which has a history cannot be defined.
A number of theorists have sought to comprehend the historical
processes which have led to the increasing differentiation and colonization
of everyday life. The Frankfurt School (Held, 1980) and Lefebvre (1971)
have, for example, focused on the commodification and instrumental
rationalization of everyday life. Habermas (1981) has elaborated a
distinction between system and life-world in which the instrumental
rational action employed by the political-administrative and economic
systems are seen to invade and erode the emancipatory communicative
potential of the everyday life-world. Heller (1984), following Lukcs, has
drawn attention to the ways in which the heterogeneity of everyday life has
been subjected to processes of homogenization. It is therefore possible to
refer to an initial process of differentiation in which science, art,
philosophy and other forms of theoretical knowledge originally embedded
within everyday life become progressively separated and subjected to
specialist development, followed by a further phase whereby this knowl
edge is fed back in order to rationalize, colonize and homogenize everyday
The danger is to assume that this process has a self-propelling momen
tum and universalizing force which turns it into a logic of history beyond
human intervention. Rather, it might be more useful to conceive of it in
terms of the changing struggles and interdependencies between figurations
of people b o u n d together in particular historical situations in which they
seek to mobilize various power resources, than to refer to a logic of
history. Elias (1987a) has discussed the process of differentiation whereby
specialist functions previously carried out by the group as a whole become
separated. Hence there is the emergence of specialists in violence control
(warriors), knowledge specialists (priests) and eventually economic and
political specialists. It is also possible to trace the emergence of other
groups of specialists, such as cultural specialists who participate in the
formation of a relatively a u t o n o m o u s cultural sphere in which scientific,
philosophical and artistic symbolic media are developed. In addition in
modern societies there is the whole array of experts such as those in the
helping professions and mass media occupations which supply a variety of
means of orientation and practical knowledge for everyday life. This
should not be understood as an automatic and orderly process: the
particular conditions of a society's state formation, and its relation to
the other nation-states in which it is bound in a figuration, determine the
actual type and degree of differentiation which may propel and maintain
certain groups of specialists in positions of power. U n d e r certain con
ditions priests may attain a dominant position within society and in other
circumstances warriors may become dominant. The nature, extent and
duration of their dominance will clearly have an impact u p o n everyday
With the rise of Western modernity cultural specialists such as scientists,
artists, intellectuals and academics have gained in relative power a n d have
sought in various ways to advocate the transformation, domestication,
civilization, repair and healing of what are considered the shortcomings of
everyday life. Yet other cultural specialists have sought to promote and
defend the intrinsic qualities of everyday life through the celebration of the
integrity of popular cultures and traditions. F o r them everyday life is less
regarded as raw material and Otherness' ripe for formation and culti
vation; rather they can be seen to advocate a reversal of the process of
differentiation and a greater awareness of the equal validity, and in some
cases even superior wisdom, of everyday knowledge and practices. Hence
under certain conditions popular cultures are celebrated a n d the ordinary
person's m u n d a n e life, the life of 'the m a n without qualities' heroicized.
Such processes of de-differentiation, of re-heterogenization and re-immer
sion into the everyday have featured prominently in countercultural
movements such as romanticism and postmodernism. This is also evident
in the critique of the heroic image of the cultural specialist, the scientist,
artist or intellectual as hero, in favour of an emphasis upon everyday
m u n d a n e practices which are regarded as equally capable of producing
what some want to regard as extraordinary or elevated insights or
objectifications.
In this sense the positive or negative evaluation of everyday life can be
seen to relate to the way in which its counterconcept is evaluated. For
H a b e r m a s (1981) the system is the danger to the life-world and its
intrusions must be controlled if the capacity for everyday life to open u p
its communicative potential is to be realized. Lefebvre (1971) also
emphasizes the need to go beyond the commodification of contemporary
everyday life in the 'bureaucratic society of controlled consumption' and
release the festive aspects of everyday life. The positive evaluation of the
qualities of everyday life are highlighted in Maffesoli's (1989) work in
which he draws attention to the capacity of everyday life to resist the
process of rationalization and preserve and foster sociality, a concern for
the present, the frivolous, imaginative and Dionysiac forms of life which
provide a sense of collective immersion, of giving u p one's own individual
being (Einfhlung). In a similar way de Certeau (1984) affirms the ordinary
practices of everyday life and its capacity to utilize modes of syncretism,
the 'non-logical logics' of everyday life to oppose, transgress and subvert
official dominant cultures and technical rationality. Likewise Gouldner
(1975: 421) seeks to draw attention to the critical potential of everyday life
and the way in which it can function as a counterconcept:
I have suggested repeatedly that EDL [everyday life] is a counterconcept, that it
gives expression to a critique of a certain kind of life, specifically, the heroic,
achieving, performance-centred existence. The EDL established itself as real by
contrasting itself with the heroic life and by reason of the crisis of the heroic life.
As we have suggested, there are a range of counterconcepts against which
everyday life can be defined; we will now turn to what can be considered
the major one, the heroic life and the ways in which it becomes
transformed and transfigured in other modes of life in the cultural sphere.
The heroic life
If everyday life revolves around the mundane, taken for granted and
ordinary, then the heroic life points to its rejection of this order for the
extraordinary life which not only threatens the possibility of returning to
everyday routines, but entails the deliberate risking of life itself. The
emphasis in the heroic life is on the courage to struggle and achieve
extraordinary goals, the quest for virtue, glory and fame, which contrasts
with the lesser everyday pursuit of wealth, property and earthly love. The
everyday world is the one which the hero departs from, leaving behind the
sphere of care and maintenance (women, children and the old), only to
return to its acclaim should his tasks be completed successfully. A basic
contrast, then, is that the heroic life is the sphere of danger, violence and
the courting of risk whereas everyday life is the sphere of women,
reproduction and care. The heroic life is one in which the hero seeks to
prove himself by displaying courage. Warriors were amongst the first
heroes, and as specialists in violence they experienced the intense excite
ment of combat, an emotional force which needed to be controlled and
subjected to the cunning of instrumental reason to ensure survival. To
achieve great deeds requires both luck, a sense of destiny, that one's
particular quest and life are driven by forces outside oneself which offer
extraordinary protection, and an inner sense of certainty that with cir
cumspection, craft and compulsion one can overcome the greatest dangers
and misfortunes: in effect that one can make one's own fate.
In many ways the heroic life shares the quality of an adventure, or series
of adventures. G e o r g Simmel (1971a) in his essay on the adventure tells us
that the adventure falls outside the usual continuity of everyday existence
which is disregarded on principle. The adventurer has a different time
sense which entails a strong sense of the present and disregard for the
future. Simmel captures well the mixture of abandoning oneself to fate and
making one's own fate we have spoken of. In the adventure we a b a n d o n
ourselves to the 'powers and accidents of the world, which can delight us,
but in the same breath can also destroy u s ' (Simmel, 1971a: 193). At the
same time we forsake the careful calculation and accumulation of the
world of work, for the capacity to act decisively in the world. Hence the
adventurer 'has the gesture of the conqueror' who is quick to seize the
opportunity and also 'treats the incalculable elements in life in the way we
ordinarily treat only what we think by definition calculable' (Simmel,
1971a: 193). Furthermore the adventurer is capable of creating a sense of
unity, a synthesis of activity and passivity, of chance and necessity. T h e
adventurer makes a system out of his life's lack of system. It is this
capacity to form life that points to the affinity between the adventurer a n d
the artist, as well as the attraction of adventure for the artist. As Simmel
(1971a: 189) remarks:
the essence of the work of art is, after all, that it cuts out a piece of the endless
continuous sequences of perceived experience, detaching it from all connections
with one side o r the other, giving it a self-sufficient form as though defined and
held together by an inner core. A part of existence, interwoven with the
uninterruptedness of that existence, yet nevertheless felt as a whole, as an
integrated unit - that is the form c o m m o n to both the work of art and the
In some cases life as a whole may be perceived as an adventure and for
this to happen O n e must sense above its totality a higher unity, a superlife, as it were' (Simmel, 1971a: 192). This capacity to order and unify life,
to form it from within in terms of some higher purpose which gives life a
sense of destiny, it can be argued, is central to the heroic life, especially
those who are in Simmel's words 'adventurers of the spirit': intellectuals
and artists. The way in which the adventure is lived from within like a
narrative which has a beginning, middle and end points to the way life
may seem to be like a work of a r t .
In retrospect the adventure may appear to have a particularly
compelling dreamlike quality in which accidental elements and inspired
acts are woven together to give a strong sense of coherence. This capacity
to retrospectively impose a narrative structure on the adventure should not
be taken to imply that the original life 'beneath' the narrative was itself
formless. Rather it is important to emphasize the potential to deliberately
seek to live life as a unity from within and control and shape chance
elements into a structure which seemingly serves some higher purpose, be
it one's own glory, G o d ' s will, the survival of a nation or people.
Maclntyre (1981: 19Iff.) emphasizes this point when he argues against the
existentialism of Sartre and the sociological theories of Goffman and
Dahrendorf who present the enactments of an individual life as a series of
unconnected episodes. We find, for example, that Sartre's character
Antoine Roquentin in Nausea argues that to present h u m a n life in the
form of a narrative is always to falsify it (Maclntyre, 1981: 199). This
approach is also evident in Merleau-Ponty's (1964b) statement in the
introduction to Sense and Non-Sense that at each stage of our lives we are
for all intents and purposes separate persons which have happened
'accidentally' to inhabit the same body and whose various distinct selves
become retrospectively woven together through a 'false' narrative which
gives biographical unity. Indeed this 'liquidation of the s e l f into a set of
separate situational role players also resonates with the emphasis in
postmodern theories on the decentring of the self and the presentation of
the person as a bundle of loosely connected quasi-selves (see the discussion
in the previous chapter).
For Maclntyre (1981: 197) this misses the point that h u m a n actions are
enacted narratives; narratives are not imposed upon events which have no
narrative order by novelists and dramatists. He quotes Barbara H a r d y ,
who remarks that 'we dream in narrative, day-dream in narrative,
remember, anticipate, hope, despair, believe, doubt, plan, revise, criticize,
construct, gossip, learn, hate and love by narrative'. Yet the extent to
which a larger narrative is employed and sustained to structure and unify a
person's life as a whole can vary a great deal. We describe a person as
displaying character or personality who achieves a high degree of
consistency of conduct; in effect he seeks to impose a form on his life by
seeking to follow some higher purpose rather than merely letting his life
drift capriciously.
At this stage it might be useful to clarify the distinction between the
hero, the heroic life a n d the heroic society. It is of course possible for
anyone to become a hero, to perform a heroic deed without being a
member of a heroic society or having a commitment to the heroic life.
Hence in the popular media there is a constant celebration of ordinary
heroes, those individuals w h o are thrust into a situation of extreme
physical danger in which they show extraordinary courage such as risking
or sacrificing their lives to save other people. It is this chance element
that fate might intervene and shatter the everyday order of the happy life
and thrust any individual into a situation beyond his or her control
which d e m a n d s a response, which is fascinating to the public, w h o c a n n o t
but help wonder, ' H o w would we respond to the test?' This can also be
related to hero worship: the ways in which heroes are used as role models
for people to identify with (see K l a p p , 1969). In this case it is usually some
strong person, politician, sportsman, explorer, adventurer, or those who
increasingly represent these ways of life, the celebrities and stars of film,
television and popular music, who becomes the object of various blends of
fantasy and realistic identification.
This can be contrasted with heroic societies such as those described in
the Homeric epics or the Icelandic and Irish sagas. Whatever the actual
conditions of production of these heroic narratives and their relationship
to particular social realities, they provide a picture of social orders in
which a person's role and status and associated duties and privileges were
well defined within kinship and household structures. Such societies d o not
admit the possibility of a disjunction between motive and action, as
Maclntyre comments (1981: 115): man in heroic society is what he
does.' Courage was a central quality necessary to sustain a household and
a community, for the courageous person was one who could be relied
upon, something which was an important element in friendship. F o r the
Greeks the hero not only displayed courage, but sought to live u p to the
ideal of arete, a term which is often mistakenly translated as 'virtue*, but
is better rendered as 'excellence' (Kitto, 1951: 171ff.). The heroic ideal was
to attain excellence in all the ways in which a man can be excellent
physically, morally, intellectually, practically - without any privileging of
the mind over the body. The individual who excelled in battle or contest
was accorded the recognition of kudos, or glory, by his community
(Maclntyre, 1981: 115). Yet while the hero is one who lives within a fragile
world in which he is vulnerable to fate a n d death a n d can display courage
in face of his destiny, he is effectively seeking to live u p to an ideal of
excellence which is a social role. Hence in heroic societies, the heroic
person is one w h o excels at the performance of a necessary social role.
W h a t is interesting is the way in which the image of the hero is taken
out of its context, and woven into a heroic life in which the social context
becomes played down, or becomes one in which the hero distinguishes
himself from and rises above the social. The influential reading of the
Greek past in which a particular late nineteenth-century vision of
distinction and individuality is blended together with elements from Greek
heroic society became a compelling image in the writings of Nietzsche, an
image which Maclntyre (1981: 122) finds particularly misleading:
What Nietzsche portrays is aristocratic se7/-assertion: what Homer and the
sagas show are forms of assertion proper to and required by a certain role.
The self becomes what it is in heroic societies only in and through its role; it is
a social creation, not an individual one. Hence when Nietzsche projects back
on to the archaic past his own nineteenth-century individualism, he reveals that
what looked like an historical enquiry was actually an inventive literary
construction. Nietzsche replaces the fictions of the Enlightenment individual
ism, of which he is so contemptuous, with a set of individualist fictions of his
own.
Maclntyrc's assertion that Nietzsche's version of the heroic life was a
projection of nineteenth-century individualism might be more precisely
formulated to highlight the tension between the higher person who
displays genuine individuality and distinction {Vornehmheit)
narrow ressentiment of the mass man. Furthermore Nietzsche's version of
the heroic life did not merely remain as a set of individualist fictions: his
particular fiction resonated strongly with notions of artistic and intel
lectual distinction which gained impetus from the life of Goethe and the
R o m a n t i c Movement, to develop into a powerful cultural image, one
which became influential in certain circles of turn of the century Germany
and was subjected to sociological investigation and theoretical formulation
by M a x Weber and Georg Simmel.
Hero ethics, distinction and the cultural sphere
Max Weber's life and work have often been characterized as heroic.
Manasse (1957: 287), for example, remarks that he was a 'type of m a n
who was born in the world of Homer and of the Jewish prophets and has
not yet disappeared with Nietzsche. Thus far he had his last great rep
resentative in Max Weber.' Manasse's statement was made in the context
of a discussion of the impact of Weber on Karl Jaspers. For Jaspers,
Weber represented an extraordinary man, driven by a restless demonic
force animated by a strong ethic of responsibility. This was manifest in
Weber's honesty and consistency of purpose which was expressed in his
work, the directness and lack of pretence in his life activities and dealings
with other people and in his bodily gestures, bearing and demeanour.
Jaspers regarded Weber as a representative of a new type of m a n and
made him the model for his existential philosophy. This modern form of
heroism is captured not only in the courage, consistency and unity of
purpose Weber attained, but in a quality frequently associated with the
heroic life: sacrifice. Without seeking immediate death this type of person
'lived as though they were dead' (Manasse, 1957: 389).
Such questions were, of course, addressed by Weber in his writings. In
his discussion of charisma he refers to the capacity for sacrifice displayed
by the charismatic leader and demanded of his followers. The charismatic
hero's power does not lie in a legitimized social role, but in his extra
ordinary qualities as a person, the 'gift of grace' and the capacity to
constantly subject it to demonstration and test. As Weber (1948d: 249)
remarks, 'If he wants to be a prophet, he must perform miracles; if he
wants to be a war lord, he must perform heroic d e e d s . ' Such individuals
intentionally organized their lives a r o u n d an ultimate value and were
therefore less dependent upon conventional modes of social approval and
institutional authority. The injunction to follow some ideal or ultimate
value, to form life into a deliberate unity whatever the personal cost, is
also central to Weber's discussion of 'hero ethics'. He states:
One can divide all 'ethics', regardless of their material content into two major
groups according to whether they make basic demands on a person to which he
can generally not live up except for the great high points of his life, which point
the way as guideposts in his striving in infinity ('hero ethics'), or whether they
are modest enough to accept his everyday 'nature' as a maximal requirement
('average ethics'). It seems to me that only the first category, the 'hero ethics',
can be called 'idealism'. (Weber's comments on an essay by Otto Gross, quoted
in Marianne Weber, 1975: 378)
Weber was later to qualify this strict dichotomy between 'hero ethics' and
'average ethics' to admit a more nuanced gradation. As Marianne Weber
(1975: 388) tells us, his new insight was that 'there is a scale of the ethical.
If the ethically highest is unattainable in a concrete case, an attempt must
be made to attain the second or third best.' This can be related to the
discussion of the various modern life-orders that had replaced the
possibility of an ethical totality and unified personality which were
associated with Puritanism. The process of differentiation has resulted in
separate economic, political, aesthetic, erotic, intellectual and academic
life-orders (Weber, 1948c). Yet despite his heroic defence of science as a
vocation and the ethic of responsibility as valid ways of living in the
modern world, there is no sense for Weber that, in a cultural context of
value pluralism, they could provide a sense of certainty and solutions to the
problems of coherent meaning. The same could be said of the ways of
life offered by the other life-orders in the cultural sphere: the aesthetic,
intellectual and erotic. F o r Weber the general process of rationalization
signified the decline in the possibility of developing into a genuine person,
a unified personality who displays consistency of conduct and who can
attain distinction which is captured in the Protestant idea of Persn
lichkeit, an ideal which Weber sought to uphold throughout his life.
Weber gives qualified acknowledgement to the idea that the artist,
intellectual and erotic life-orders could develop personalities, albeit 'lesser'
ones, and with progressive difficulty. In this sense it would be legitimate to
investigate the artist as hero and examine, for example, the extent to which
particular artists in specific social figurations (figures such as Goethe,
Beethoven, Berlioz, Flaubert, van Gogh) were sustained by lifestyles and
prestige economies which favoured the development of 'hero ethics*. In a
similar way one could investigate the notion of the intellectual as hero and
examine, for example, figures such as Marx, Zola or Sartre. Further
categories suggest themselves in terms of the erotic life in social forms such
as bohemias and countercultures (Otto Gross), and the turning of life
itself into a work of art in dandyism and other modes (Beau Brummell,
Huysmans's des Esseintes, Oscar Wilde, Stefan George, Salvador Dali,
etc.).
F r o m Weber's perspective all these various manifestations of the heroic
life within the cultural sphere tended to create an 'unbrotherly aristocracy'
independent of personal ethical qualities, yet such a cultural aristocracy
would best be sustained within a relatively independent cultural sphere. At
one point Weber speaks of an intellectual aristocracy of independent
rentiers, yet the specific conditions which had developed to favour this
with the formation of the cultural sphere could be equally threatened by
the deformation of the cultural sphere and the loss of the relative
autonomy of cultural producers. On the one hand, this process could
be related to the processes of rationalization, bureaucratization and
commodification which changed the conditions of production and relation
to their various publics of artists, intellectuals, academics and other
cultural vocations. On the other hand, it could be described in terms of a
perceived process of engulfment from below, the rise of the masses and
their culture (Theweleit, 1987).
The latter viewpoint finds one of its clearest expressions in the writings
of M a x Scheler, who fretted about the ressentiment of the c o m m o n man,
who is poisoned by the repressed emotions of envy, spite, hatred and
revenge and seeks to dismantle the social hierarchy between him and his
betters and destroy those noble values that he does not possess (see
Staude, 1967). Scheler sought a return to aristocratic values, some new
'spiritual aristocracy' for the modern age to re-establish noble and heroic
models of life through the youth movements. Like Weber, Simmel and
many of the generation which dominated G e r m a n academic life a r o u n d
the turn of the century, Scheler was strongly influenced by Nietzsche's
work. Yet of the three, Simmel was the only one who did not take up
some form of nostalgic reaction to modernity and the prospective eclipse
of the heroic life. Simmel's sociology of modernity pointed to the opposite
outcome: it provided a completely new modern ideal of distinction
(Vornehmheit) which for o u r purposes deserves examination for it suggests
the persistence of a form of the heroic life.
It has often been remarked that whereas Simmel favoured the aesthetic
way of being, Weber favoured the ethical (see for example Green, 1988).
Both pointed to the differentiation and fragmentation of modern life, yet
Simmel (1978) developed a more positive appreciation of the possibilities
for an aestheticization of life released by the very capitalist money
economy which many held was destructive of art and culture. While it is
possible to point to a general aestheticization of everyday life in the large
cities of the late nineteenth century (see Featherstone, 1991a: Ch. 5), the
effects of the money economy on the development of personality have
usually been regarded as negative. Simmel refers to the capacity of money
to turn everything which has a specific quality into quantity, prostitution
being a good example of this process of commodification, which points to
the deformation of the person.
It is, however, one of the merits of his Wechselwirkung
approach, which points to the dense network of reciprocal interactions
that m a k e u p the social world, that it provides unusual insights into how
things usually held apart influence each other (e.g. culture o n the economy,
not just the economy on culture). Hence the processes of the levelling of
distinct differences and the quantification of everyday life through the
expansion of the money economy is presented as capable of provoking an
opposite reaction: the determination to preserve and develop one's
essential quality as a person which Simmel (1978: 389ff.) referred to as
Vornehmheitsideal, the ideal of distinction. Liebersohn (1988: 141) remarks
that 'Simmel argued that the modern ideal of distinction was an absolutely
new value brought into existence by the challenge to personal values of the
money economy.' According to Liebersohn, Simmel took the ideal of
distinction from Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil. Here Nietzsche argues
that the distinctive type of m a n has developed in aristocratic societies with
their rigid social hierarchy and well-defined differences which can supply
the 'pathos of distance' whereby the ruling caste can look down on, and
keep its distance from the r e s t . F o r Simmel (1986: 168-9) this 'social
aristocraticism' and 'morality of nobility' advocated by Nietzsche meant
the employment of discipline and a sense of duty, a severity and
'selfishness in the preservation of the highest personal values*. Yet selfresponsibility should not be confused with egoism and hedonism, for in
the ideal of distinction or personalism: 'Egoism aspires to have something,
personalism to be something.'
Liebersohn (1988: 143) captures well the characteristics of the modern
form of distinction when he states that
The person of distinction was possessed by a sense of the absolute worth of his
soul without regard for the world and was ready to sacrifice everything to
remain true to himself. His distinction supposedly asserts his independence from
society. Yet paradoxically it shared modern society's impersonality. If
impersonality signified the shifting effects or institutions and conventions on
individual idiosyncrasies, Vornehmheit's inner law, too, eradicated every spon
taneous impulse in the name of an artificial order. Absolute personal autonomy
offset the social order only by internalizing its logic, creating, to be sure, a style
setting the bearer apart, but doing so only through a pattern or radical
repression. This was the price one paid for turning the modern fate into a
personal destiny.
There are clear resemblances here with Weber's Protestant and K a n t i a n
ideal of Persnlichkeit, which suggest that the ethical and aesthetic ideals
are not so easily separated as some would like. Yet Weber held that
Persnlichkeit,
which had its origins in traditional Christianity, was
increasingly becoming less tenable in the modern age, whereas Simmel's
concept of Vornehmheit, which depended upon social differentiation, could
never have existed in a traditional c o m m u n i t y . "
Women, consumer culture and the critique of the heroic life
The critique of everyday life is not a new phenomenon. As Gouldner
(1975: 419) informs us, the critique of everyday life was evident in the
literature of the Ancient Greeks. Euripides, for example, stood on the side
of the c o m m o n people, the world of women, children, old people and
slaves. He called for the rejection of power, fame, ambition, physical
courage and virtue, the essential features of the heroic life. The growth in
the power potential of outsider groups such as women, the young, the
elderly a n d ethnic and regional minorities has been part of a long-term
process within Western modernity - something which some want to refer
to as postmodernism and characterize as a significant cultural shift - and
has led to an assault on the heroic life.
A key element in the current critique of the viability of the heroic life in
the modern age has been provided by feminism, which regards the heroic
life as extolling the essentially masculine virtues of sacrifice, distinction,
discipline, dignity, self-denial, self-restraint and commitment to a cause. In
her extensive critique of Max Weber's commitment to the heroic life,
Roslyn Bologh (1990: 17) remarks:
If I had to encapsulate all of these ideas into an image it would be that of the
strong, stoic, resolutely independent, self-disciplined individual who holds
himself erect with self-control, proud of his capacity to distance himself from his
body, from personal longings, personal possessions and personal relationships,
to resist and renounce the temptations of pleasure in order to serve some
impersonal cause - a masculine, ascetic image. The image of devotion to some
impersonal cause can be interpreted as rationalizing and justifying self-repression
while channeling the aggressive, competitive, jealous, angry feelings that
accompany such repression.
Against this masculine ideal of manliness and aggressive will to power,
Bologh presents a feminine image of passivity a n d the acceptance of
powerlessness. This lack of power is accompanied by a sense of vulner
ability and desire for attachment, to be loved by others. The masculine
heroic image requires the suppression of vanity: in effect, recognition and
glory should only be expected with the ultimate resolution of the quest.
Hence the individual who follows the heroic life should be indifferent to
hero worship, recognition and the love of others. The feminine ethic
operates on the basis of a more prosaic desire for reciprocity in the love of
the other, it accepts the emotional bonding with the other, identification
and empathy. It assumes that erotic love can be maintained within
everyday life, that it is possible to move to and fro from attachment to
separation, from communion to differentiation within the same rela
tionship. Bologh (1990: 213ff.) therefore advocates an ethic of sociability
against hero ethics which is less elevated, and more open to an egalitarian
exploration of playfulness and pleasure with the other, to the immersion
and loss of the self rather than the preservation and elevation of the self.
Sociability was, of course, one of the characteristic features of everyday
life which we discussed earlier. T o speak of sociability is immediately to
recall the work of G e o r g Simmel and his influential essay on the topic.
Sociability - 'the play-form of association' (Simmel, 1971b: 130) - entailed
the setting aside of the normal status a n d objective qualities of the
personality and is essentially a form of interaction between equals, without
any obvious purpose or set content, in which talk and light playfulness
becomes an end in itself. It is a further example of Simmel's Wechsel
wirkung approach, with its capacity to tease out unusual insights from
seemingly contradictory perceptions, that in discussing the responses to the
contradictions of modern culture, he not only pointed to the possibility of
Vornehmheit, aesthetic responses and the detachment of turning life into a
work of art, but pointed to an opposite response through the immersion in
playful sociability. A further response which Simmel developed in the face
of the tremendous expansion of objective culture and the oppressive
weight of cultural forms was the affirmation of life itself. Life, the formless
form, provided a sense of immersion and loss of self in the immediacy of
experiences; it also proved to be a central preoccupation within cultural
modernism with its fascination with the prosaic, the ordinary and the
everyday (e.g. surrealism) which favoured an anti-heroic ethos and
heroization of the m u n d a n e which sharply contrasts with the heroic life
(Featherstone, 1991b).
T h e twentieth-century consumer cultures which developed in Western
societies, with their expanded means of technical production of goods and
reproduction of images and information, constantly play back these
possibilities. Consumer culture does not put forward a unitary message.
The heroic life is still an important image in this culture, and as long as
there still exists interpersonal violence and warfare between states there is
a firm basis for the preservation of this image, as the risking of life, selfsacrifice and commitment to a cause are still important themes sustained
within male culture. Here one thinks of the discussion of the heroic
military culture of extraordinary men who became involved in the
development of the space p r o g r a m m e of the United States described by
T o m Wolfe in The Right Stuff (1989). At the same time consumer culture
puts out mythical hero images of the Superman and R a m b o type, as well
as pastiches and parodies of the whole heroic tradition such as the film,
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and various blends of both such
as are found in the Indiana Jones films.
T h e twentieth century, however, has also seen the development of a
strong anti-heroic ethos fostered by cultural modernism's antinomian
movement away from notions of artistic and intellectual g e n i u s and the
retreat from life into art, to favour a blurring of the boundaries between
art and everyday life which has been enhanced by surrealism, D a d a and
p o s t m o d e r n i s m . Consumer culture has enhanced this aestheticization of
everyday life through the development of advertising, imagery and
publicity which saturate the fabric of the lived environment and everyday
encounters.
The decline of hero ethics also suggests a feminization of culture. N o t
that patriarchy and male supremacy have been eclipsed - far from it. But
there has been a long-term swing of the balance of power between the
sexes (Elias, 1987b) which has become more marked over the last century
and has seen a rise in the power potential of women, one symptom of
which has been their increased prominence and ability to raise questions in
the public sphere a b o u t male domination, domestic violence and child
abuse, issues which formerly could not be admitted.
In the cultural sphere one manifestation of this relative shift in the
balance of power has been the movement to accord greater legitimacy to
everyday culture, the cultural pursuits of women such as popular romance
and soap operas. These areas of popular and mass culture and the whole
area of women's everyday culture which revolves a r o u n d the production
and management of consumption, areas which were previously seen as
peripheral in contrast to the perceived centrality of production and
stratification, are being subjected to more intense study by social scientists
and students of the humanities, and hence are gaining in legitimacy. Yet if
this provides an alternative set of mass cultural images to those of the
heroic life, to what extent does it suggest possibilities for new heroes and
heroines? H o w far d o Hollywood and media stars and celebrities provide
extensions of Simmel's model of distinction or Weber's notions of
Persnlichkeit and charisma? Is it possible to discuss these issues in a
relatively detached way without making the judgement that they can only
achieve the status of regressions, pale imitations of the heroic life?
It has been remarked that mass culture has often been associated with
women and real authentic culture with men (Huyssen, 1986: 47). Certainly
in Nietzsche's view the masses, the herd, are perceived as feminine, in
contrast to the artist or philosopher as hero who displays masculine char
acteristics. As Huyssen (1986: 52) remarks, an examination of European
magazines a n d newspapers of the late nineteenth century would show that
the proletarian and petit-bourgeois were persistently described in terms of a
feminine threat. Images of the raving mob as hysterical, of the engulfing floods
of revolt and revolution, of the swamp of big city life, of the spreading ooze of
massification, of the figure of the red whore at the barricades - all of these
pervade the writings of the mainstream of the media.
Nietzsche provides a further indication of the association of femininity and
mass culture in his hostility towards theatricality, shown, for example, in
his writings on the Wagner cult. In The Gay Science he also writes that 'It
is impossible to dissociate the questions of art, style and truth from the
question of women' (quoted in Sayre, 1989: 145). F o r Nietzsche and,
following him, for Weber and Simmel the genuine heroic person was
characterized not by what they d o , but by what they are - the qualities are
within the person and hence genuine personality is a matter of fate.
Weber, for example, held in contempt the development of the modern
notion of personality which is associated with mask-wearing and celebrity.
Yet within the consumer culture which developed in the twentieth
century, the new popular heroes were less likely to be warriors, statesmen,
explorers, inventors or scientists and more likely to be celebrities, albeit
that some of the celebrities would be film stars w h o would play the role of
these former heroes. Lowenthal (1961: 116) reminds us that whereas in the
past heroes were 'idols of production', n o w they are 'idols of consump
tion'. T h e characteristic demanded of celebrities is t o have personality, to
possess the actor's skills of presenting a colourful self, to maintain allure,
fascination and mystery. These are seen to replace the more traditional
virtues of character, which emphasized moral consistency, sincerity a n d
unity of purpose. Kasson (1990) has detected a shift in etiquette books in
late nineteenth-century America from proclaiming the virtues of moral
character to acting as guides for individuals w h o must learn to read and
portray techniques of self-presentation in a complex u r b a n environment
with the ever present possibility of deception. The perception of the self as
a series of dramatic effects, of learned techniques as opposed to inherent
good moral characteristics, leads to a problematization a n d fragmentation
of the self.
Today's stars in the motion picture, television and popular music
industries (Dyer, 1979; Frith and H o m e , 1987; Gledhill, 1991) would
therefore appear to be a long way from the heroic life. But need this be the
whole story? Does not this judgement show a nostalgia for a particular
formulation of the heroic life, one which penalizes women a n d mass
culture in allowing men to achieve heroism through high cultural pursuits?
T o answer this question we would need to investigate more closely the
formation of consumer culture stars a n d celebrities in particular contexts.
It might be, for example, that the position of monopolization achieved by
the Hollywood studio system in the 1930s was able to support lifestyles
akin to those of the artist as hero, or artists of life. Moreover, the major
contemporary 'superstar' M a d o n n a has been instrumental in developing a
different type of femininity which is more self-confident and assertive as
well as attempting to redefine her performances as art rather than popular
music. Such crossovers (Walker, 1987) m a y suggest that while the end of
art, the end of the intellectuals and the avant-garde have been proclaimed
interesting new possibilities could have been developing in the twentieth
century which present new variations on the heroic life - that is, if one still
accepts that we d o not yet live in a postmodern 'retro' or playback culture
and that the long-term processes of cultural formation, deformation and
reformation can still be sustained.
Earlier versions of this chapter were presented at the Nordplan Conference on Everyday Life,
Stockholm, January 1991 and the Center for Twentieth Century Studies, University of
Wisconsin at Milwaukee in November 1991. I would like to thank all who attended for their
helpful comments. I have also benefited from discussions and suggestions for revision from
Zygmunt Bauman, Eric Corijn, Mike Hepworth, Harry McL. Currie, Hans Mommaas,
Roland Robertson, John Staude, Bryan S. Turner, Kathleen Woodward and Cas Wouters.
An earlier version of the chapter appeared in Theory, Culture Society, 9(1), 1992.
1. Here we think for example of Heller's (1978) study of the ways in which art, philosophy
and science were separated from everyday life and used to criticize it. At the same time she
points to the ways in which science percolated down into everybody's daily life and the way in
which there were moves to humanize and aestheticize everyday life. Elias's (1978, 1982)
investigation of the 'civilizing process' in Western Europe points to the complex interplay
between the production of expert knowledge (e.g. manners books) and its utilization and
dissemination by various groups of people bound together through the dynamic of state
formation processes, to alter the nature of everyday practices.
2. For discussion of the everyday routines of science and the way they operate to produce
various notions of 'truth' and 'results' see Knorr-Cetina (1981) and Latour (1987).
3. Traces of this positive evaluation of everyday life by Maflesoli and de Certeau can be
found in the writings of Baudrillard. In particular there is his affirmation of the cynical and
'mirror-like' capacity of the masses to resist absorption and manipulation by the mass media
(see Baudrillard, 1983b).
4. See on this Horkheimer and Adorno's (1972) discussion of the development of
enlightened reason in Homer's Odysseus, the Greek hero who risks his life in the pursuit of
glory and who eventually survives to return home to the little pleasures of the settled and
ordered everyday life. Odysseus is presented as the prototype of the bourgeois individual.
5. Those individuals who deliberately seek to make of their own life and persona a work of
art and aestheticize life (e.g. the dandy) will be discussed below.
6. The assumption that arel was a quality of the body and bodily activities as well as
those of the mind implied a unity of the aesthetic, the moral and the practical. For the Greeks
arete entailed an aesthetic dimension: activities or lives which displayed excellence were
assumed to be beautiful and as a corollary those which were base or disgraceful were ugly
(Kitto, 1951: 170; see also Bauman, 1973: 10-17, for an illuminating discussion of the Greek
notion of culture). Despite the much remarked upon Western mind-body dualism, the sense
of the way they are practically conjoined and the beautiful body goes along with a beautiful
soul is an important aspect of our tradition as well. Wittgenstein for example, remarks: T h e
human body is the best picture of the human soul', an assumption of unity which has a
dynamic life-course aspect as Orwell's statement that 'At SO everyone has the face he deserves'
reminds us (quoted in Maclntyre, 1981: 176).
7. The impact of the First World War is particularly interesting in this context with the
interplay of technology, traditional military heroics and various artistic impulses and
movements. In addition there was the overall tension between the heroic public imagery and
the 'everyday' experience of trench warfare as filth, degradation and terror (see Wohl, 1980;
Fussell, 1982; Eckstein, 1990). The various shifts in Simmel's attitude towards the war are
discussed in Watier (1991).
8. There is not the space here to go into the relationship between the emotional basis of
charisma and the heroic life. For discussions see Wacielewski (198S) and Lindholm (1990).
Needless to say there has been a good deal of controversy about the extent to which Weber
himself admired the charismatic hero (in some cases with the qualifier 'despite himself).
Hence Lindholm's (1990: 27) statement that "Thus Weber, the most sophisticated and
disenchanted of rational thinkers, fell prey in the last analysis, and very much despite himself,
to a desperate worship of the charismatic hero' is hardly uncontentious.
9. Weber's pessimism about the fate of Persnlichkeit in the modern age and concern about
the newly emerging human type to replace the Protestant type was by no means unqualified.
This is apparent in his discussions of the working class. At some points he argues that with
the decline of religion, non-elites will find meaning through identification with their
communities, through the multiplicity of communal groups with bonds of varying intensity,
the most important of which is the nation. Hence 'ethnic honour' with its exclusivity and
egalitarianism could provide a sense of identity for the masses, while elites strive adequately
to follow a professional vocation or some diluted notion of Persnlichkeil (see Portis, 1973:
117). On the other hand he was intrigued by the results of Gohre's study of the working class
which suggested that they had discovered a primitive Persnlichkeil manifest in a longing for
freedom from residual feudal bonds. This provided a motivation for Weber's proposed study
of the press and the question of the effect of the mass media on habitus formation (see
Liebersohn, 1988).
10. This is not of course the only ideal Nietzsche presents and in recent years, under the
influence of poststructuralism and postmodernism, the Dionysian loss of self and immersion
in life as mentioned in The Birth of Tragedy has gained favour (see Stauth and Turner,
1988b).
11. For Simmel, Stefan George embodied the modern ideal of attaining distinction. Max
Weber, on the other hand, was concerned about the folly of trying to reintroduce charisma in
modern societies. Liebersohn (1988: 151) tells us that George was one of the first cultural
heroes of the twentieth century and was accorded the adulation later to be experienced by film
stars and politicians.
12. Postmodern theory has little time for notions such as genius and originality. Rosalind
Krauss (1984), for example, argues that modernism and the avant-garde work within a
'discourse of originality' which wrongly suppresses the right of the copy and repetition. For a
critique arguing that she herself inadvertently reiterates the discourse of originality see
Gooding-Williams (1987). SchefT (1990) has developed an acute sociological theory of the
development of genius. For a discussion of the various historical forms of the idea of genius
see P. Moore (1989) and Battersby (1989). The latter provides an important discussion of the
ways in which women have been excluded from the idea of genius.
13. This is not to say that the anti-hero cannot himself be sustained by and develop within
a form of the heroic life which is particularly compelling and exemplary for a wide following.
Jean-Paul Sartre's life is a major example of this (see Brombert, 1960; Bourdieu, 1980).
14. Huyssen (1986: 59) regards the positive evaluation of the masses and the popular and
everyday life by postmodernism as associated with the emergence of feminism and women as
a major power in the arts which has led to the admittance and re-evaluation of formerly
excluded genres (soap operas, popular romance, the decorative arts and crafts, etc.).
In the Enlightenment vision which developed within Western modernity
the assumption was that the structures of the natural and social worlds
could be discovered by reason and science. This would yield techno
logically useful knowledge with which to tame nature, but it would also
lead to a parallel social technology designed to improve social life and
usher in 'the good society.' Along with the development of science and
technology, the expansion of industrial capitalism, state administration,
and the development of citizenship rights were seen as convincing evidence
of the fundamental superiority and universal applicability of the project of
modernity. It was assumed that the Western nations which had first
developed and applied this knowledge were well ahead in the process of
social development and could confidently maintain their lead as people in
other parts of the world eagerly sought, or if need be were instructed, to
follow and reap the benefits of modernization. It was assumed that the
project had an inherent and demonstrable superiority, in terms of the
potential means of empowerment it provided for various types of social
groupings, collectivities, institutions and ultimately nascent, or p r o t o
nation-states. In the last analysis this meant that everyone throughout the
world would have to acknowledge the superiority and universality of the
project of modernity. Such was the dream of (Western) reason.
In the cultural sphere reason provided the grounds for a thoroughgoing
critique of tradition. Guided by reason and science the Enlightenment
sought to order, m a p and classify the world; the commitment to this
fundamental ideal meant the rejection of all previous bodies of knowledge
as dogmatic and irrational. Modernity was held to entail a relentless
detraditionalism in which collective orientations would give way to indi
vidualism, religious belief to secularization and the accumulated sediment
of mores and everyday practices would surrender to progressive rationaliz
ation and the quest for 'the new'. This comforting narrative in which
culture necessarily follows the unfolding 'logic' of scientific, technological
and economic change is however complicated by the development of
countercultural artistic and intellectual movements, as well as the per
sistence, transformation and renewal of religion and the sacred in many
aspects of life (not least being nationalism) which will be discussed below.
Let us take the cultural movements which became known as modernism.
If the culture of modernity entailed the development of regimes of
knowledge which sought the progressive ordering, control and unification
of nature and social life, through capitalist enterprises and state admin
istration, then modernism worked off the principles of disorder and
ambivalence (Bradbury and McFarlane, 1976; Berman, 1982). Baudelaire,
who is often credited with the foundation of modernism, rejected roman
ticism and traditionalism in favour of a celebration of the new which
refused scientific and technological U t o p i a n visions of the good life, and
focused instead on the detritus of modern life (Benjamin, 1973). T h e
modern city in particular threw u p a series of new social types (e.g. the
flaneur), new sites (bohemias, arcades, department stores) and imagery
(consumer culture goods and advertising) which pointed to fragmentation,
boredom and the vitality and resilience of the dark side of modernity.
Modernism, which also drew upon the Nietzschean transvaluation of
values, sought a reversal of the optimistic official culture of modernity with
its ordering unifying and integrative ambitions. It drew upon antinomian
and transgressive impulses and sought to dissemble the established
symbolic hierarchies of order and progress. It sympathized with 'the
other': the gypsy, the bohemian, the m a d , the homosexual, the native and
other minority positions which were to be cured, reconstituted and
eliminated by modern institutions in the name of social order and
progress. These became particularly powerful themes within the countercultural bohemias and avant-gardes which engaged in a critical dialogue
with the culture of modernity as well as relentlessly exploring the formal
logic of the various artistic genres (Burger, 1984).
Daniel Bell (1976, 1980) has explored a version of this thesis, arguing
that modernism's celebration of transgression and the erosion of all values
has worked its way into the mainstream of contemporary culture through
its alliance with consumerism. In contrast to the value placed upon the
ordered life, productivity and frugality, which were regarded as essential
elements of the Protestant ethic which laid the foundations for capitalist
modernity, Bell argues for a shift in the twentieth century towards con
sumption, play and hedonism. In effect the work ethic became replaced by
a consumption ethic. Modernism's iconoclastic and critical impulses not
only threatened traditional values, religious morality and the sacred, but
filtered through to endanger the economic and political spheres. F o r Bell
postmodernism represents a further heightening of the destructive elements
in modernism with the instincts and inchoate life now turned against art,
or merged with art to produce an aestheticization of everyday life which he
depicts as a further triumph of the irrational.
F o r some theorists, then, the project of modernity has become threatened
or exhausted by developments within the cultural sphere which have seen
an alliance develop between consumer culture and modernism. The
confident belief in an ordered social life, coupled with ever-extending
progress, has been seen to have reached its limits and a reversal has set in.
Hence postmodern theorists have emphasized fragmentation against unity,
disorder against order, particularism against universalism, syncretism
again holism, popular culture against high culture and localism against
globalism. It is in this context that we find references to Nietzsche's Mast
men', as well as 'the end of history' (Vattimo, 1988). Postmodernism and
consumer culture are both often taken as signs that we are going through
dramatic changes which are altering the nature of the social fabric as a
result of a double relativization: of both tradition, and the 'tradition of the
new' (modernism), with the latter resulting in a questioning of all modes of
fundamental values - a transvaluation of values which has not only
moved h u m a n k i n d beyond the possibility of constructing a moral
consensus and the good society, but which has caused some to see the only
solution as being the rejection of all forms of subjective identity
construction in favour of immersion in the libidinal flows of the 'body
without organs' (Deleuze and Guattari, 1983). Yet when faced by such
sweeping generalizations and speculative assertions, we need to ask the
question of how widespread these changes are, and whether the alleged
crises extend beyond the crises of artists and intellectuals into the everyday
culture of ordinary people. In short we need to raise the question of the
relationship of the carriers of values (fundamental or critical) to their
respective audiences and publics and the various means of transmission
and media which are used in this process.
It is difficult to disentangle such discussions of the nature of the social
changes which postmodernism points to, from the recognition of the
changes. F r o m this perspective could it not be the case that the emergence
of new terms, such as postmodernism, actually provides a new concept
which not only directs our gaze to hitherto seen but unnoticed aspects of
reality, but helps to form that reality at the same time? Here we can refer
to form in a double sense. First, in terms of directing o u r gaze to the
reformation and discrediting of the existing conceptual apparatus which is
dominant within a discipline and the substitution of a new concept, model
or image, which will allegedly more accurately grasp or form reality.
Second, by drawing to attention the fact that the academic or intellectual
observer participates in the society which he or she researches, and that
social science and other types of academic knowledge are rapidly
circulated and fed back through the media to wider audiences and publics,
especially in the sectors of the middles classes which have received higher
education. Hence there is the possibility of a bandwagon effect, a thirst for
new and fashionable concepts with which to make sense of experience,
which may actually be used to re-form and reinterpret existing experiences
and develop new sensibilities.
So it is important when we seek to examine the quest for fundamental
values not to err too much on the side of abstraction and assume a
plurality of different value positions as coexisting in some ideal value
sphere which confronts the individual with an agonizing choice between
potentially meaningful (or meaningless) alternatives. Values only effectively
exist if they are used practically and mobilized by various groups of
people. Rather than talk about the individual and his or her crisis of belief
we need to ask how particular discourses, theories and images are used by
specific groups and in particular the means of transmission of beliefs and
practical knowledge between people. Without an understanding of the
production of culture by academics, intellectuals and artists and the way
cultural goods are packaged and transmitted by cultural intermediaries to
various audiences and publics, we cannot assume that the crises detected
by cultural specialists necessarily are the general social and cultural crises
claimed.
It is in this sense that postmodernism cannot be successfully understood
if it is detached from the analysis of the practices, interdependencies and
interests of cultural specialists, intellectuals, academics, artists, critics and
cultural intermediaries, who struggle to provide interpretations and expla
nations of the social world. This is not to suggest that they are the cynical
and self-seeking peddlers of inflated and dubious ideas that some claim;
rather it is to acknowledge their dual role. They are sensitized interpreters
of the social world who are professionally involved in detecting changes in
that world and in theorizing them. At the same time they are involved in all
sorts of power struggles and interdependencies which can be regarded as
being, on the one h a n d , of an internal nature - they can restrict or increase
the d e m a n d for new theories; and, on the other hand, of an external
nature, in that they govern the relations to wider audiences and publics
which may, under certain circumstances, seek to translate these ideas into
reality. I would argue that a sociology of postmodernism should be
sensitive to both these aspects.
Postmodernism and consumer culture
A number of commentators have linked the rise of postmodernism to
consumer culture (Bell, 1976; Jameson, 1984b; Featherstone, 1991a). Both
terms give a central emphasis to culture. Here there seems to have been
two displacements. The term consumer society marked a shift from con
sidering consumption as a mere reflex of production, to conceiving
consumption as central to social reproduction. The term consumer culture
points n o t only to the increasing production and salience of cultural goods
as commodities, but also to the way in which the majority of cultural
activities and signifying practices become mediated through consumption,
and consumption progressively involves the consumption of signs and
images. Hence the term consumer culture points to the ways in which
consumption ceases to be a simple appropriation of utilities, or use values,
to become a consumption of signs and images in which the emphasis u p o n
the capacity to endlessly reshape the cultural or symbolic aspect of the
commodity makes it more appropriate to speak of commodity-signs.
culture of the consumer society is therefore held to be a vast floating
complex of fragmentary signs and images, which produces an endless signplay which destabilize long-held symbolic meanings a n d cultural order
(Baudrillard, 1983a, 1993; and Jameson, 1984a, develop this argument).
This key feature of consumer culture - the fragmentation and over
production of culture - is often regarded as the central feature of
postmodernism, something which was taken u p by artists, intellectuals and
academics in various ways as a problem to be expressed and theorized.
Hence we often get references to the fragmentation of time into a series of
perpetual presents and the loss or end of a sense of history (Vattimo,
1988). T h e inability to order the fragmented culture is also held to lead to
an aestheticization of everyday life through the inability to chain together
signs and images into a meaningful narrative. Instead, the constant flow
and bizarre juxtapositions of images and signs, as found for example in
M T V , is regarded as producing isolated, intense affect-charged experiences
(Jameson, 1984a). The thematization of this fragmented, depthless culture
in the 1960s within art a n d intellectual life underwent a further shift away
from the high cultural stance of distanced moral indignation and con
demnation of the impoverished mass culture towards embracing and
celebrating the popular and mass culture aesthetic. N o t only d o we And
that the mass cultural techniques of advertising and the media were copied
and celebrated, as in p o p art, but that the long-held doctrines of artistic
originality and genius were rejected. In addition, this artistic movement
criticized the high modernism system of artistic production and reproduc
tion in which key artefacts and texts were canonized and institutionalized
in the gallery, museum and the academy. N o w art was seen and
proclaimed to be everywhere: in the city street, in the detritus of mass
culture. Art was in advertising, advertising was in art.
We can make a number of points about the relationship between
postmodernism and consumer culture which suggest that many of the
modes of signification and experiences labelled as postmodern cannot
simply be regarded as the product of a new epoch: 'postmodernity', or the
cultural changes accompanying the postwar shift to a 'late capitalist'
It is c o m m o n in depictions of postmodern experiences to find references
to: the disorientating melee of signs and images, stylistic eclecticism, signplay, the mixing of codes, depthlessness, pastiche, simulations, hyperreality, immediacy, a melange of fiction and strange values, intense affectcharged experiences, the collapse of the boundaries between art and
everyday life, an emphasis upon images over words, the playful immersion
in unconscious processes as opposed to detached conscious appreciation,
the loss of a sense of the reality of history and tradition; the decentring of
the subject (see Jameson, 1984a; Chambers, 1987; Lash, 1988; Baudrillard,
1983a, 1993; Hebdige, 1988). The first point to note is that these
experiences are generally held to take place within the context of consumer
culture leisure. The locations most frequently mentioned are theme parks
and tourist sites (Disneyland being the exemplar), shopping centres, out
of-town malls, contemporary museums, gentrified inner city areas and
docklands. Television is often referred to, with the emphasis given to the
fragmented distracted m o d e of viewing with the channel-hopper or M T V
viewer being the paradigmatic form. T h e most influential figure cited here
is Baudrillard (1983a, 1993) w h o suggests that television has produced
the end of the social to the extent that social encounters become
simulations with an 'as if it has already happened' hyperrreal quality; at
the same time television provides an overload of information which leads
to an implosion of meaning (for examples of those w h o have sought to
build o n Baudrillard's work see K r o k e r and Cook, 1988; K a p l a n , 1987;
Mellencamp, 1990).
T h e first thing we can note is that, with the exception of television, these
experiences seem confined to specific locations and practices which are
themselves not new in the sense that there is a long history within
consumer culture of shopping centres, department stores, tourist sites
which have produced simulations, sign-play and amazing spaces which
encourage a childlike sense of wonder and controlled decontrol of the
emotions. W e find references to this in the depictions of the nineteenthcentury m o d e r n city in the writings of Benjamin (1973) and Simmel (1990,
1991). Indeed it can be argued that this experience can be traced back to
the carnivals and fairs of the Middle Ages (see Featherstone, 1991a: C h . 5).
Yet the techniques for producing consumer culture illusion and spectacles
have become more refined. There is a good deal of difference in technical
capacity between the simulation of a trans-Siberian railway journey in
which one sits in a carriage and looks through the window at a canvas of
the landscape unfolding at the 1990 Paris Exposition and the latest Disney
World simulator 'rides' in the sophistication of the detail achieved (through
animatronics, sound, film, holograms, smell, etc.) and the capacity to
achieve a complete sense of immersion in the experience. Virtual reality is
the latest stage in this process (see Featherstone, 1995; Featherstone and
Burrows, 1995). Yet it is h a r d to argue that for the respective audiences we
can necessarily assume that there is a greater suspension of disbelief today
when one considers the sense of wonder on the faces of participants at
earlier spectacles. W h a t there may be is a greater capacity within consumer
culture to be able rapidly to switch codes and participate in an 'as i f
manner, to participate in the experience and then to switch to the exami
nation of the techniques whereby the illusion is achieved, with little sense
of nostalgic loss. T h e 'as i f world is of course heightened by the experience
of television and the ways in which it can collapse time a n d space. T h e
experiences, people, places a n d emotional tone captured o n television and
film give a particularly strong sense of instanciation a n d immediacy which
can help to de-realize reality. Yet it is all too easy to assume that there is a
complete socio-semantic loss through these postmodern tendencies in
television. The meaning of television programmes a n d advertisements is
neither a p r o g r a m m e d manipulated one in Une with the intentions of the
programme-makers, nor is it completely an open postmodern sign-play.
At the same time Disney World is not yet the world and the postmodern
experiences usually take place in carefully circumscribed settings within
consumer culture and leisure activities. When people leave these enclaved
moments they have to return to the routinized everyday and work worlds
in which they are enmeshed in a dense network of interdependencies and
power balances. Here the dominant practical orientation makes it
necessary to read other people's appearance and presentation of self with
care, for clues of intentionality, albeit in commonsense taken-for-granted
ways. It may be possible to switch codes to forms of play and parody, yet
the imperatives of adhering to practical routines and getting the business
done obviates too much sign-play, emotional decontrol and swings
between aesthetic detachment and immersion.
The collapse of the distinction between high and mass culture, the
breaking down of academic categories, chimes closely with the perceived
breaking down of the categories in everyday consumer culture. The
various blends of poststructuralism, deconstructionism and anti-foun
dationalism evident in the writings of Baudrillard, Lyotard, Derrida and
Foucault were often lumped together (not without resistance from those so
labelled) as postmodern theory. In their different ways they criticized the
universalist claims of the metanarratives of the Western Enlightenment
and argued for a greater appreciation of local knowledge, 'otherness', and
the syncretism and multicoding of culture. In particular these theories
offered a sharp critique of attempts to provide a unitary general
explanation of society and history, be they founded on sociological,
economic or Marxist premises. Yet it is a paradox that some of those who
have been most centrally concerned in the popularization of the term
postmodernism in the academic sphere have attempted to d o just this: to
neutralize the anti-foundational critical potential of postmodern theories
by explaining them from the security of a meta-site.
Explaining the postmodern
Fredric Jameson (1984a) has perhaps done more than any other academic
to popularize the term postmodernism, yet he has remained one of its
sharpest critics. F o r Jameson postmodernism is to be regarded as the
cultural logic of late, or consumer, capitalism. Here Jameson builds on the
Marxist scheme of Mandel (1975) in regarding postmodernism as the new
cultural formation which has accompanied the transition to late or multi
national capitalism in the post-Second World W a r era, which has replaced
the earlier phase of monopoly capitalism with its cultural modernism.
Jameson's (1984b) depiction of postmodern consumer culture draws
a good deal from Baudrillard in highlighting the surfeit of signs and
images, the oversaturation of culture which has given rise to a depthless
hallucinatory simulational world which has effaced the distinction between
the real and the imaginary. Yet while Baudrillard is content to pursue this
nihilistic logic at the heart of the commodity-sign to its extreme, Jameson
draws back to the safe house of neo-Marxism from which to explain and
criticize it.
We also find a similar reductionism in seeking to explain cultural
changes as derivative of economic changes in David Harvey's influential
The Condition of Postmodernity
(1989), in which he presents post
modernism as the set of cultural changes which have accompanied the
move from Fordism to flexible accumulation. Like Jameson, Harvey sees
postmodernism as a negative cultural development with its fragmentation
and replacement of ethics by aesthetics leading to a loss of the critical edge
and political involvement which he regards as characteristic of the works
of artistic modernism.
Yet from the point of view of those who take the implications of
postmodernism seriously, analyses such as those by Jameson and Harvey
rely on a totalizing logic which assumes that the universal structural
principles of h u m a n development have been discovered and that culture is
still caused by, a n d is a reflection of, economic changes (for a critique of
Jameson in this respect see Featherstone, 1991a: Ch. 4). They rely upon a
neo-Marxist metanarrative and metatheory which insufficiently analyses its
own conditions and status as a discourse and practice. As one critic
remarks, Harvey's metatheory is 'a fantasy projected by a subject who
imagines his own discourse position can be external to historical and
geographical truths' (Morris, 1992). This leads to an inability to see culture
and aesthetic forms as practices in which their meanings are negotiated by
users. It also displays an inability to see that economics should itself be
regarded as practices which depend upon representations and need to be
seen as constituted in and through culture t o o . In addition, while Harvey
pays lip-service to the attention postmodernism draws to various modes of
'otherness' and localisms (such as women, gays, blacks, ecologists, regional
autonomists) he is worried that by acknowledging the pluralism a n d
a u t o n o m y of other voices we lose the capacity to grasp the whole, a n d that
without such a representation or explanatory model, we will lose the
capacity to act to change the world. The consequence of this indifference
to the particularity and difference of various modes of otherness is that
they are lumped together and dismissed as place-bound traditionalisms. As
Morris (1992) remarks: 'Harvey can only understand postmodernism by
first rewriting as "the s a m e " all the differences that constitute it for him as
a topic for debate in the first place.'
Hence there is the danger that many of those who wish to explain the
rise of postmodernism will d o so in a way which suggests that the old
master explanatory models still function unproblematically, that post
modernism is merely a cultural reflection of a new phase of capitalism. F o r
Jameson and Harvey it is still the logic of capitalism which inexorably
grinds away in the b a c k g r o u n d . Neither Jameson nor Harvey is willing to
treat seriously the import of postmodern theory: that models of such a
high level of generality, which label vast expanses of time and space as
capitalism or modernity, themselves may be flawed, or of limited value. O n
the one h a n d there is a tendency to take postmodernism too seriously, to
assume it can be equated with the whole of contemporary culture or that it
is even a sign that we are entering a new age. Yet, on the other hand, there
is a tendency not to treat the implications of postmodernism seriously
enough, to dismiss it as merely a surface cultural phenomenon which
leaves the old mechanisms of social reproduction untouched, which by
implication assumes that culture is a bounded entity which continues to
remain passively in its own domain.
Globalization and postmodern theory
It cannot be denied that it is essential for social theory to develop theories
which have both an analytical and synthetic thrust. Yet the confidence in
the old synthetic master models such as Marxism is on the decline and the
current m o o d is to favour middle-range models and smaller-scale
generalizations on the one hand, and the analytical dcconstruction of
large-scale theories on the other, such as we find in postmodern theory. It
is therefore interesting to enquire into why the current postmodern m o o d
in theory argues for the a b a n d o n m e n t of the longstanding ambitions
within modernity to develop foundations for knowledge: in effect the
a b a n d o n m e n t of the quest for unity, generality and synthesis. T h e first
thing we can note a b o u t postmodernism is that it assumes it has
discovered a greater degree of cultural complexity than can be accounted
for by other modes of theorizing. Hence we find an emphasis upon the
way in which master narratives occlude more complex combinations of
differences, local diversities a n d otherness, the voices which were ignored
or suppressed in the unified models. This would account for the demands
for deconstruction and deconceptualization, for a greater appreciation of
detail, of the multicoded nature of cultural texts and images.
At its most excessive it seems to ask for rejection of all attempts at
generalization and the construction of unities as misguided and false. A
stance which challenges the attempt to give form to life as ill-conceived.
This would seem to be part of a process, which has been manifest since the
rise of artistic modernism, of putting into question established cultural
forms and focusing on the raw material of unformed life and experience,
raising the question of the nature and justification for the forming process.
Yet, unless we are prepared to jettison the concept of form altogether and
sink back into the flux of life, any attempt at theorizing entails the
construction of forms and modes of representation.
The problem arises when it is assumed that the repertoire of forms used
in everyday life, the commonsense routines and typifications, become
destabilized and more fluid. Hence it is often assumed that there became
established new modes of time-space compression which altered the nature
of everyday experience in the large cities of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries (see Kern, 1983; Frisby, 1985b). Artistic modernism
can be regarded as series of attempts to represent this in art, music,
theatre, literature (James Joyce's Ulysses is often quoted in this context:
see Bradbury a n d M c F a r l a n e , 1976). At the same time various countercultural movements followed the emphasis on life over form which one
finds in Lebensphilosophie
such as that developed by O t t o Gross and his
followers (see Green, 1976, a n d the discussion in C h a p t e r 3 in this book,
'Personality, Unity a n d the Ordered Life'), which attempted t o practically
live out the return to the immediacy a n d vitality of life. The problem was
to give the impression of a return to life in reaction to m o r e rigid classical
forms. Hence artistic modernism and such countercultural movements
represented a n attempt to discover some m o r e flexible temporary formal
m o d e of representing the alleged formlessness of life. This is a conceptual
problem which we find addressed in the work of G e o r g Simmel a n d which
has led to him being regarded as not only the first sociologist of
modernity, but as the first sociologist of postmodernity t o o , by those such
as the Weinsteins (1991) who wish to blur the boundaries between these
two concepts (see Featherstone, 1991b: l l ) .
F u r t h e r m o r e , it is not just the problem of experience, of rediscovering
life beneath form, which renders the notion of cultural unity problematic,
but also the nature of the everyday practical cultural forms a n d the modes
of articulating, representing and shaping them both within popular culture
and by cultural specialists which is important. Within certain phases of
nation-state formation processes, such as occurred within Europe in the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the primacy of creating a national
culture led to the formation of unitary conceptions of culture in which
integration became the expressed aim. Yet it is possible to find counter
examples of m o r e syncretic and polyglot cultures which lacked a
centralizing unifying impulse. Ancient R o m e , for example, according to
Serres (1991), remained syncretic and open to multiplicity and was
therefore able to resist the strong insider/outsider divisions which are often
used to create social and cultural unity. A number of historical examples
suggest that the conceptualization of ordered disorder and complex
syncretisms in which wholes are seen as looser agglomerations and
polymers of parts, which we find celebrated in postmodernism, are by n o
means unique.
Globalization and the postmodern
The international and trans-societal processes which are taking place in the
late twentieth century are speeding u p the process of globalization (see
Robertson, 1990a, 1992b as well as the following chapters in this book).
This term refers to the sense of global compression in which the world is
increasingly regarded as 'one place' and it becomes much more difficult for
nation-states to opt out of, or avoid the consequences of being drawn
together into a progressively tighter figuration through the increasing
volume and rapidity of the flows of money, goods, people, information,
technology a n d images. Part of the problem of conceptualization which is
highlighted by postmodernism may well have something to d o with the
attempts to comprehend this resultant rise in global complexity. A global
condition in which we in the West find it more difficult to view 'the other'
through the long-distance lens implicit in terms such as 'the savage', 'the
native' and 'the oriental'. These images are becoming challenged as fantasy
projections and illusions, as 'the other' seeks to speak back to us and to
challenge our particular depiction of his or her world (Said, 1978). 'The
other', via the global flows we have spoken of, is now an interlocutor and
part of o u r figuration. T h e resultant move to a higher level of complexity
in terms of dealing with a multiplicity of images of others, and the need to
modify and change our own identifying apparatus and repertoire of selfimages, produces difficulties. It would seem to be easier to interact with
others who share o u r own taken-for-granted stock of knowledge at hand,
with whom we can slide into familiar typifications and routinized prac
tices. This might be cited as just one of the reasons whereby the process of
globalization does not merely produce new varieties of cosmopolitanism,
but sets off a series of deglobalizing reactions, the retreat to various
localisms, regionalisms a n d nationalisms.
Part of the perception of fragmentation within the nation-state, the
fragmented image of culture we have referred to as the postmodern
tendencies within consumer culture, then, may be a result of broader
global processes. This suggests that the concept 'society', so closely
associated with the nation-state, can no longer be considered as the sole
subject-matter for sociology (see the more elaborate discussion in the final
chapter of this book 'Travel, Migration and Images of Social Life').
T w o observations are in order here. T h e first relates t o a point we have
already mentioned: the walls which separate nation-states are increasingly
becoming regarded as permeable as a consequence of some of the transsocietal and global processes. Consumer culture's fragmented sign-play is
made more complex still by the ease of introduction of images, goods and
signs extracted from other cultures, which, as the flows of interchange
intensify, c a n n o t merely be regarded as distant, strange and exotic. W e
have, therefore, to get used to increasing our own flexibility and generative
capacity to switch codes, to try different frames and models if we are to
m a k e sense of the images, experiences and practices we encounter. In
addition new transnational third cultures are emerging which are less
directly concerned with the interests of particular nation-states, and
represent a level of social life n o t easily incorporated into the old models.
The second point relates to a more general and longstanding need for
the relativization of society as the referent for sociology. T h e focus upon
society necessarily directs attention to social change conceived as internal
social development to the neglect of inter- and trans-societal processes
such as war, conquest and colonialism (Tenbrock, 1994). Yet nation-states
did not just have internal histories; the state-formation process emerged as
they were drawn into a figuration which brought them together in power
struggles and interdependencies, and the influence of these aspects of social
life on the formation of the social relations within state-societies has
largely been neglected by sociology, with a n u m b e r of notable exceptions
(e.g. Weber, Elias, Wallerstein, Nelson, Robertson). The various historical
trajectories of nation-states, as they become more or less powerful on a
regional and then global level, may also influence the status and long-term
viability of the types of knowledge they develop.
Theories of modernity strongly reflect the particular experience of
successful Western nation-state societies. Rather than regarding globaliz
ation as a n outcome of modernity (Giddens, 1990, 1991), it m a y be equally
plausible to see modernity as an outcome of globalization (Robertson,
1992a). T h e West has enjoyed a period of dominance linked to the
development of modernity, which now seems to be drawing to a close with
the rise of East Asia. Theories which were developed to a large extent in
an intra-civilizational dialogue, now become subjected to a global in
terrogation. W h a t were assumed to be universal theories m a y well now be
regarded as merely those of a dominant particular. The shifting global
balance of power which has resulted in the West having to listen t o 'the
rest' is producing a relativization in which other foundational values and
fundamentalism emerge to clash u p o n the global stage. M o r e players are
involved in the game, who not only demand to be heard, but possess the
economic and technological power resources to ensure that they are. A
good deal has been written about the 'peculiarities of the English' route
into modernity as the first industrial nation and we are increasingly aware
of the plurality of entry gates into modernity (Therborn, 1995). It m a y well
be that what we consider to be the substantive cultural responses and
experiences of modernity likewise can be relativized to the Western
particularity. Other nation-states and blocs may discover the particularities
of their state-formation process and civilizational traditions which enable
them to w r a p u p and code in different ways economic, technological and
administrative institutions. The concept of the 'disembedding' of tradition
may be less than adequate here to explain the resilience of tradition and
religion, the invention and reinvention of the sacred a n d the various
syncretisms which are emerging a r o u n d the world. In the humanities and
social sciences, theories and models based u p o n these particular cultural
experiences are increasingly being brought on to the global stage as
counter-histories to contest those of the West. W h a t was a monologue
based upon the authority of an instruction mode with a hierarchical
inequality between participants, now becomes turned into a dialogue. M a x
Weber's (1948c) concept of the clashing of the value spheres in his essay
'Religious rejections of the world and their directions', which ushers in a
new polytheistic era, may be nearer the mark.
F r o m this perspective postmodernism can be related to the various ways
in which Western intellectuals have detected the symptoms of this shift in
the global balance of power, although of course some of them may have
read the shift as an internal process taking place within (Western)
modernity. T h e end of modernity, then, would be better referred t o as the
end of Western modernity. Or, put less dramatically, the end of Western
modernity is in sight; the West has 'peaked' with an accompanying sense
of exhaustion. But there is n o sense of exhaustion in East Asia and other
parts of the world which are pursuing their own national and civilizational
blend of modernity. Hence it may be more propitious to speak of
modernities rather than modernity.
In this context it is germane to mention that very little attention has
been given to considering J a p a n in terms of the postmodernism debates.
Here it should now be clear that I d o not mean how we place J a p a n on
our continuum of tradition, modernity and postmodernity, but how the
Japanese conceptualize Japan in terms of these divisions. Whether they
would prefer some other m o d e of categorization with which to describe
their own experience a n d explain world history is a question we need to
address, a n d we should be aware that there have been a number of
affirmative answers. If this is accepted, then the notion of a single univocal
world history, so long dominant within the West, may have to give way to
the acknowledgement of multifocal world histories.
T o m a k e sense of postmodernism, then, it is insufficient to remain at the
level of the nation-state society. This is not merely to suggest that nationstates are plugged into an international financial system, or world system
from which they cannot opt out. While this is clearly the case, the
continuing political struggles between nations, blocs and civilizations, as
well as the cultural aspect of this process, has often been neglected. The
resultant problems of intercultural communication, of dealing with others
in everyday practices, and in deciphering others' images of us and con
structing adequate self-images in a complex figuration, are merely
symptoms which increasingly surface in everyday life a n d become
theorized in terms of the difficulties of handling multiplicity and cultural
disorder. It is this problem of theorizing complexity within a more
complex global figuration with its shifting power balances, which is central
to the emergence of postmodernism and the increasing relativization of
b o t h the foundations and the value complex of Western modernity.
This a substantially revised version of earlier papers presented at the American Association of
Consumer Research Conference in Chicago in October 1991 and the UNESCO Conference
on T h e Search for Fundamentals', Zeist, the Netherlands in November 1991. A version has
appeared in L. van Vucht Tyssen (ed.) Modernization and the Search for Fundamentals,
Kluwer, 1995.
1. The danger of labelling feminism as 'local' is to underestimate the efforts feminists
themselves are making to grapple with the problem of universalism and particularism. The
notion of 'global feminism' captures this conceptual tension and points to the complexity of
the problem (see Enloe, 1989).
2. In a similar way Giddens (1990, 1991), who is also critical of postmodernism, denies its
significance and treats it wholly in terms of the assumed claim that we have moved into a new
epoch and have left behind modernity. Giddens has no time for a conception of something
beyond modernity, postmodernity, and insists we are still in high modernity (for criticisms of
Giddens see Robertson, 1992b; Swanson, 1992). He is abo unwilling to consider that
postmodernism could exist as an influential movement in artistic, intellectual and academic
life which resonates with wider changes taking place in cultural life. This cultural dimension
of postmodernism as both a cultural movement and a mode of critique which points to the
exhaustion of modes of theorizing associated with 'the modern' is for many the key aspect of
the postmodern.
3. On the current passion for detail see Schor, 1987; Liu, 1990.
4. From the perspective of deconstruction the answer to the problem of the dominance of
the immediacy of life over form, which we find in artistic modernism, is the reassertion of
form. But here it is not the directed form seeking to centre itself within the construction of a
metaphysical or logocentric scheme, but the endorsement of the primacy of writing culture, of
opting for play against the discipline imposed within formal cultural practices. For Derrida
(1973: 135) play entails 'the unity of chance and necessity in an endless calculus'. Life
becomes the free play of forms void of any ulterior purpose. Within play-forms the flux of life
persists, gathered together into the play of form for its own sake. For Deena and Michael
Weinstein (1990), who make this argument from an interesting synthesis of the ideas of
Simmel and Derrida, postmodern culture entails this type of deconstructionist play, a
privileging of 'deauthorized play', something which occurs when we are watching television
(submitting to the flow rather than watching a specific programme). This is, they argue, a
general tendency which is to be found within contemporary consumer culture (e.g. the
shopping mall, theme park, etc. discussed above).
5. Here it is assumed that entities such as nation-states and empires are themselves
involved in a figuration of interdependencies and power balances with the significant others
they are drawn into contact with. The density of the figuration and resultant intensity and
necessity of contacts will of course vary historically and we can assume there is a great
difference between an empire dominating its surrounding area (such as Rome) and nationstates involved in tightly structured bipolar and multi-player elimination contests, as occurred
in modern Europe.
6. On Japan and postmodernism see Miyoshi and Harootunian (1989b). An important
impetus for arguing that Japanese culture should be understood as having developed within a
different culture-society nexus from that which we commonly operate with in the West came
from Barthes's (1982) Empire of Signs. It is also worth adding that Japan has not relinquished
its ambitions to complete some of the grander scientific and technological visions of
modernity. Here some of the dreams of reason of the Enlightenment resurface, to be
repackaged within the context of a nation-state project which still seeks to maintain its
coherence and identity in the face of the recurrent tendencies of globalization to produce a
'borderless economy' - and a borderless culture and society too. This combination of an
ultra-modern foundational value project along with the particularities of a resilient national
tradition, may well make Japan postmodern in terms of some definitions. But what it does
show is that the original coding up of the distinctions which were assumed to be the key
differentials necessary in order to make a coherent model, could be suspect and it may be
necessary to go back to the drawing-board to reformulate the models and typologies.
GLOBAL A N D LOCAL CULTURES
Contextualism is heretofore spelled with a capital C; the living world
appears only in the plural; ethics has taken the place of morality, the
everyday that of theory, the particular that of the general.
(Habermas, 1984b, quoted in Schor, 1987: 3)
The man who finds his country sweet is only a raw beginner; the man for
whom each country is as his own is already strong; but only the man
for whom the whole world is as a foreign country is perfect.
(Eric Auerbach, quoted in McGrane, 1989: 129)
er lasst sich nicht lesen - 'it does not permit itself to be read'.
(Edgar Allen Poe, "The Man of the Crowd', 1840)
It has become a clich that we live in one world. Here we think of a
variety of images: the photographs of the planet earth taken in space by
the returning Apollo astronauts after setting foot on the m o o n ; the sense
of impending global disaster through the greenhouse effect or some other
m a n - m a d e catastrophe; the ecumenical visions of various traditional and
new religious movements to unite humanity; or the commercial use of this
ecumenical sentiment which we find in the Coca-Cola advertisement which
featured images of legions of bright-eyed young people drawn from the
various nations of the world singing together 'We are the world'. Such
images heighten the sense that we are interdependent; that the flows of
information, knowledge, money, commodities, people and images have
intensified to the extent that the sense of spatial distance which separated
and insulated people from the need to take into account all the other
people which make u p what has become known as humanity has become
eroded. In effect, we are all in each other's backyard. Hence one
paradoxical consequence of the process of globalization, the awareness of
the finitude and boundedness of the planet and humanity, is not to
produce homogeneity but to familiarize us with greater diversity, the
extensive range of local cultures.
The globalization of culture
T h a t the process of globalization leads to an increasing sensitivity to
differences is by n o means preordained. The possibility that we view the
world through this particular lens, or form, must be placed alongside other
historical possibilities. One perspective on the process of globalization
which was accorded a good deal of credibility until recently is that of
Americanization. Here a global culture was seen as being formed through
the economic a n d political domination of the United States which thrust
its hegemonic culture into all parts of the world. F r o m this perspective the
American way of life with its rapacious individualism and confident belief
in progress, whether manifest in Hollywood film characters such as
Donald Duck, Superman and R a m b o or embodied in the lives of stars
such as J o h n Wayne, was regarded as a corrosive homogenizing force, as a
threat to the integrity of all particularities.' The assumption that all
particularities, local cultures, would eventually give way under the
relentless modernizing force of American cultural imperialism implied that
all particularities were linked together in a symbolic hierarchy. Moderniz
ation theory set the model into motion, with the assumption that as each
non-Western nation eventually became modernized it would move u p the
hierarchy and duplicate or absorb American culture, to the extent that
ultimately every locality would display the cultural ideals, images and
material artefacts of the American way of life. T h a t people in a wide range
of countries around the world were watching Dallas or Sesame Street and
that Coca-Cola cans a n d ring-pulls were to be found all a r o u n d the world,
was taken as evidence of this process.
The separation of cultures in space was seen as reducible to a more
fundamental separation in time. T h e prioritization of time over space has
been a central feature of theories of modernity. A central concern of the
major figures in social theory from the Enlightenment onwards such as
Vico, Condorcet, Saint-Simon, Comte, Spencer, Hegel, Marx, Weber
and Drkheim was to seek to understand social relationships and statesociety units in developmental terms. The move from traditional to
modern societies was seen as accountable in terms of a range of specific
processes: industrialization, urbanization, commodification, rationaliz
ation, differentiation, bureaucratization, the expansion of the division of
labour, the growth of individualism and state formation processes. It was
generally assumed that these processes, which arose within what has
increasingly been dubbed Western modernity, had a universalizing force.
In effect Western history was universal world history. Incorporated within
these theories in varying degrees of explicitness was the assumption that
history had an inner logic, or directional impetus, which was understood
as progress. T h e idea of progress implies some direction to history and
suggests the finitude of history, the eventual deliverance into, or arrival at,
a better or ideal social life or 'good society'.
It is this assumption of a destination for history which has been most
strongly challenged by what have become known as postmodern theories.
Vattimo (1988), for example, argues that we are taking leave of modernity
in a b a n d o n i n g the notion of development. Postmodernity is not to be
regarded as a new epoch, a new stage of development on from modernity,
but as the awareness of the latter's flawed assumptions. The key assump
tion of modernity's account of Western history is progress. In fact, this is
the secularization of Judaic-Christian notions of salvation and redemption
which become transformed into the belief in progress through the
development of science and technology to bring about the perfectibility of
m a n and h u m a n society. Postmodernism is to be regarded as 'the end of
history' in the sense of the end of the belief in the overcoming of the
present in pursuit of the 'new*. It does not, of course, refer to the end of
the objective process of history, only the end of our awareness of history
as a unitary process. This secularization of the notions of progress and the
perfectibility of the world entails a greater awareness of the constructed
nature of history, of the use of rhetorical devices and the capacity to
deconstruct narratives (something that was discussed at great length by
Simmel, 1977 over a century ago; for a more recent account see Bann,
1984). It also points to a greater awareness of the plurality of history, the
suppressed narratives within history that suggest that there is no unitary
privileged history, only different historie.!. From this perspective, there
clearly are global developments and processes that increasingly bind
together the individual histories of particular nation states and blocs, yet
the confidence with which they could be incorporated into a single,
explanatory, global historical narrative has been lost. In this sense, the
attempts to construct a global history become immeasurably complicated
as the value perspective from which such a construction takes place
becomes contested and effectively relegates theories with universalistic
pretensions to the status of local histories.
If one of the characteristics associated with postmodernism is the loss of
a sense of a c o m m o n historical past and the flattening out and spatializ
ation of long-established symbolic hierarchies (see Featherstone, 1991a),
then the process of globalization, the emergence of the sense that the
world is a single place, may have directly contributed to this perspective
through bringing about a greater interchange and clashing of different
images of global order and historical narratives. The perception of history
as an unending linear process of the unification of the world, with Europe
at the centre in the nineteenth century and the United States at the centre
in the twentieth century, has become harder to sustain with the beginnings
of a shift in the global balance of power away from the West. In the late
twentieth century, there is a growing recognition that the peoples of the
non-Western world have histories of their own. Particularly important in
this process in the post-Second World W a r era has been the rise of Japan,
not only because its economic success seemed to present it as
outmodernizing the West, but because the Japanese began to articulate
theories of world history that disputed the placing of Japan on the
Western-formulated continuum of premodern, modern and postmodern
societies (see Miyoshi and Harootunian, 1989a). There has been a growing
awareness that history is not only 'temporal or chronological but also
spatial and relational' (Sakai, 1989: 106), that our history is generated in
relation to other spatially distinct, coexisting temporalities. If nations can
maintain isolation from other nations, or possess as a bloc of nations the
economic and political power to be able to ignore the challenges of others,
there is every possibility that they will be able to sustain fantasy images of
their own superiority. This may take a n u m b e r of forms. One of the best
known is the image of the Orient as housing all the exotic differences and
otherness which have been repressed and cast out by the West as it sought
to construct a coherent identity (Said, 1978). Alternatively, there is the
assumption that in the last analysis 'they are just like us', and that the
West is consequently granted the moral right and duty to guide and
educate the others because of the necessity to civilize the totality. In either
case, the West understands itself as the guardian of universal values on
behalf of a world formed in its own image. It is only when other nations
acquire the power to speak back, to m a k e the West have to listen and
notice their resistance, that constructions such as 'the Orient' - which is
given some vague sense of unity in terms of it being the construct which
objectifies all that is left outside the West when it seeks to constitute its
identity as progressive - becomes problematic (Sakai, 1989: 117). It is only
then that we begin to discover the complexity and range of oriental and
other civilizations' images of the West as the 'other'.
The sense that there are plural histories to the world, that there are
diverse cultures and particularities which were excluded from Western
modernity's universalistic project, but now surface to the extent that they
cast d o u b t s on the viability of the project, is one particular outcome of the
current phase of the process of globalization. It points to the more positive
evaluation by the West of otherness and differences resulting from the
shift in the balance of power between nations which find themselves
progressively bound together in a global figuration from which it is
increasingly difficult to opt out. This entails the sense that the world is one
place, that the globe has been compressed into a locality, that others are
neighbours with which we must necessarily interact, relate and listen. Here
the assumption is that the density of contacts between nations will itself
lead to a global culture. In this case the notion of a global culture must be
distinguished from one which is modelled on that of the nation-state.
National cultures have usually emerged alongside state formation
processes in which cultural specialists have reinvented traditions and
reshaped and refurbished the ethnic core of the people. As nation-states
became increasingly drawn together in a tighter figuration of competing
nations, they faced strong pressures to develop a coherent cultural identity.
The process of the homogenization of culture, the project of creating a
c o m m o n culture, must be understood as a process in the unification of
culture of the need to ignore, or at best refine, synthesize and blend, local
differences. It is the image of the completion of this process, to the extent
that culture oils the wheels of the social relationships and institutions that
make u p society, which became dominant within sociology: culture
regarded as an unproblematic, integrated pattern of c o m m o n values. Yet
the process of formation of such a culture cannot be understood merely as
a response to forces within the nation-state, but must also be seen in
relation to forces outside of it: the potential for the development of
national identity and cultural coherence as relationally determined by the
structure of the shifting disequilibriums of power and interdependencies of
the figuration of nation-states within which a particular country was
embedded.
It is clearly hard to stretch this conception of culture to the global level
and in no way can a global culture be conceived as the culture of the
nation-state writ large. N o t that this is a historical possibility which could
automatically be ruled out. It is possible to conceive that one result of the
elimination contest of power struggles between nations could have been
the dominance of a single nation, which would be in a position to seek to
develop a global c o m m o n culture alongside its extended state formation
process. This process of cultural formation would be much easier in the
face of some external threat; here one would have to conceive the globe as
subjected to some extraterrestrial or intergalactic threat. A further
possibility would be the response to a perceived threat to the continued
viability of life on the planet through some ecological disaster. In either
case, the process of cultural formation and development of a c o m m o n
identity for the world as an 'in-group' is in response to the development of
a mission to meet the challenge of an 'out-group*. There is clearly a range
of other possibilities (such as a federation of nations, or the triumph of a
particular religion or trading company) which could in theory have led to
the formation of a global culture (see Robertson, 1990a, 1991).
The ways in which different nations have been drawn together into a
tighter figuration through closer financial and trade ties, through the
increasing development of technology to produce more efficient and rapid
means of communication (mass media, transport, telephone, fax, etc.), and
through warfare has produced a higher density of interchanges. There has
been a rise in the intensity of a wide variety of cultural flows which make
transnational encounters more frequent. Appadurai (1990), for example,
refers to the increasing flows of people (immigrants, workers, refugees,
tourists, exiles), technology (machinery, plant, electronics), financial infor
mation (money, shares), media images and information (from television,
film, radio, newspapers, magazines) and ideologies and world-views. While
some might wish to see the m o t o r force for these changes as the relentless
progress of the capitalist economy towards a world system (Wallerstein,
1974, 1980), or the movement towards a new, disorganized or 'postFordist' stage of capitalism (Lash and Urry, 1987), for Appadurai there is
a disjunction between the cultural flows. On the practical level, the
intensification of flows results in the need to handle problems of inter
cultural communication. In some cases this leads to the development of
'third cultures' which have a mediating function, as in the case of legal
disputes between persons from different national cultures (Gessner and
Schade, 1990). In addition, there is the further new category of
professionals (lawyers, accountants, management consultants, financial
advisers, etc.) w h o have come into prominence with the deregulation and
globalization of financial markets with the 24-hour stock m a r k e t trading,
plus the expanding numbers of 'design professionals' (specialists w h o work
in the film, video, television, music, fashion, advertising and consumer
culture industries [King, 1990a]). All these specialists have to become
familiar with a number of national cultures as well as developing, and in
some cases living in, third cultures. T h e majority of these third cultures
will draw u p o n the culture of the parent country from which the
organization originated. It is therefore evident that the cultures which are
developing in many of the global financial firms have been dominated by
American practices. T h e same situation applies with regard to many
cultural industries, such as television, film and advertising. Yet these third
cultures d o not simply reflect American values; their relative a u t o n o m y
and global frame of reference necessitates that they take into account the
particularities of local cultures and a d o p t organizational cultural practices
and modes of orientation which are flexible enough to facilitate this.
Hence the practical problems of dealing with intensified cultural flows
between nations leads to the formation of a variety of third cultures which
operate with relative independence of nation-states.
Furthermore, this is not to imply that the increased cultural flows will
necessarily produce a greater tolerance and cosmopolitanism. An increas
ing familiarity with 'the other', be it in face-to-face relations or through
images or the representation of the other's world-view or ideology, may
equally lead to a disturbing sense of engulfment and immersion. This may
result in a retreat from the threat of cultural disorder into the security of
ethnicity, traditionalism or fundamentalism, or the active assertion of the
integrity of the national culture in global cultural prestige contests (e.g. the
Olympic games). T o talk a b o u t a global culture is equally to include these
forms of cultural contestation. The current phase of globalization is one in
which nation-states in the West have h a d to learn t o tolerate a greater
diversity within their boundaries which manifest themsleves in greater
multiculturalism and polyethnicity. This is also in part a consequence of
their inability to channel and manipulate global cultural flows successfully,
especially those of people, information and images, which increases the
demand of equal participation, citizenship rights and greater a u t o n o m y on
the part of regional, ethnic and other minorities. Those w h o talk about
such issues within nation-states are also more aware that they are talking
to others outside the nation-state. T h a t there is something akin to the
formation of global public opinion was evident in the unfolding of the
independence struggles of Lithuania and other nations within the Soviet
Union, as well as in the Kuwait Gulf crisis a n d war in the early 1990s.
Such incidents make us aware of the process of the formation and
deformation of appropriate norms of behaviour within and between states,
which while contested makes people more aware that there is a world stage
and that the world is becoming one place. F r o m the point of view of social
science, and sociology in particular, this should make us aware as
Robertson (1992a) argues that the idea of a global culture is in the process
of becoming as meaningful as the idea of national-societal, or local
It is striking that one of the effects of the process of globalization has been
to make us aware that the world itself is a locality, a singular place. This is
apparent not only in the images of the world as an isolated entity in space,
which photographs of the earth from the moon provided, but also in the
sense of its fragility, its finitude and openness to irreparable damage and
destruction. While, as Drkheim argued, the sense of our c o m m o n
humanity might be expected to grow alongside o u r awareness of the
sacredness of the h u m a n person as the only thing we all have in c o m m o n
in an increasingly differentiated world in which particularities become
more evident, it is also possible to extend this argument to life, and the
home of our life, the earth. Of course, this perspective is nothing if not
limited and contested, but it does point to the localization of globality, the
perception of the finite and limited nature of our world.
Usually, a local culture is perceived as being a particularity which is the
opposite of the global. It is often taken to refer to the culture of a
relatively small, bounded space in which the individuals who live there
engage in daily, face-to-face relationships. Here the emphasis is upon the
taken-for-granted, habitual and repetitive nature of the everyday culture of
which individuals have a practical mastery (Bourdieu, 1977). The c o m m o n
stock of knowledge at hand with respect to the group of people who are
the inhabitants and the physical environment (organization of space,
buildings, nature, etc.) is assumed to be relatively fixed; that is, it has
persisted over time and may incorporate rituals, symbols and ceremonies
that link people to a place and a c o m m o n sense of the past. This sense of
belonging, the common sedimented experiences and cultural forms which
are associated with a place, is crucial to the concept of a local culture. Yet,
as o u r example of 'planet earth' as a locality shows, the concept of local
culture is a relational concept. T h e drawing of a boundary a r o u n d a
particular space is a relational act which depends upon the figuration of
significant other localities within which one seeks to situate it.
F o r example, if I meet another European in China after spending a
number of years there, it would be expected that we would find sufficient
cultural forms in c o m m o n from our experience of being European to
revive collective memories which can constitute a temporary sense of
c o m m o n identity, or community, which demarcates 'us' from the 'them' of
the host people. Alternatively, a similar sense of membership and
belonging may be revived by meeting another Englishman while residing in
France, or a northern Englishman while spending a period of exile in
London (a person w h o , incidentally, may come from a neighbouring town
to mine and with w h o m I might normally have an intense rivalry). This
symbolic aspect of community boundaries (Cohen, 1985) is also evident
when one considers relationships within a village in which those who
define their localness in terms of length of residence may refuse member
ship to outsiders. Hence the 'we-images' and 'they-images', which are
generated within local struggles to form an identity and exclude outsiders,
cannot be detached from the density of the web of interdependencies
between people. Such struggles between established and outsider groups
(Elias and Scotson, 1994) will therefore become more c o m m o n with the
extent of contact with others, which brings groups of outsiders more
frequently into the province of local establishments.
In addition t o this face-to-face dimension of direct contact with
outsiders, which may under certain circumstances reinforce local cultural
identity, there is the perceived threat to this through the integration of the
locality into wider regional, national and transnational networks via the
development of a variety of media of communication. Here it is possible to
point to the development of the various transcultural media of interchange
of money, people, goods, information and images of which we have
already spoken which have the capacity to compress the time-space
geography of the world. This provides contact with other parts of the
world, which renders different local cultures more immediate and the need
to m a k e them practically intelligible more pressing. F o r example, given the
spatial dispersal of corporations with the flexible specialization of postFordist industrial production, local people in Brazil, the north-east of
England or Malaysia will have to interpret the strategies of Japanese or
American management, and vice versa. It also integrates localities into
more impersonal structures in which the dictates of market or admin
istrative rationalities maintained by national elites or transcultural
professionals and experts have the capacity to override local decision
making processes and decide the fate of the locality. It is in this sense that
the boundaries of local cultures are seen to have become more permeable
and difficult to maintain, to the extent that some proclaim that 'every
where is the same as everywhere else'. It is also often assumed that we live
in localities where the flows of information and images have obliterated
the sense of collective memory and tradition of the locality to the extent
that there is ' n o sense of place' (Meyrowitz, 1985).
In terms of our earlier remarks about the deglobalizing reactions to
global compression and the intensity of global flows, it would be expected
that the generation of such nationalistic, ethnic and fundamentalist
reactions to globalization could also entail a strong assertion of local
cultures. This might take the form of reviving or simulating local
traditions a n d ceremonies, or inventing new ones. Before proceeding t o a
discussion of these strategies, it would be useful to focus on the notion of
a loss of a sense of place, or homelessness, in more detail. T h e condition of
nostalgia is usually taken to refer to this loss of home in the sense of
physical locale (Davis, 1974). But in addition to this 'homesickness', it has
also been used to point to a more general loss of a sense of wholeness,
moral certainty, genuine social relationship, spontaneity and expressiveness
(Turner, 1987). While this sense of loss can motivate some to formulate
romantic schemes or art forms to recreate some golden age or deliver some
future utopia, it is worth enquiring into how a sense of home is generated.
A sense of home is sustained by collective memory, which itself depends
upon ritual performances, bodily practices and commemorative ceremonies
(Connerton, 1989). T h e important point here is that our sense of the past
does not primarily depend upon written sources, but rather on enacted
ritual performances and the formalism of ritual language. This may entail
commemorative rituals such as weddings, funerals, Christmas, New Year,
and participation or involved spectatorship at local, regional and national
rituals (e.g. royal weddings, nation days, etc.). These can be seen as the
batteries which charge u p the emotional bonds between people and renew
the sense of the sacred. A sacred can only rarely be regarded as operating
as an integrating canopy for a nation-state, yet this should not be taken to
imply that the sacred has evaporated completely under the assault of the
globalizing forces we have mentioned; it would be better to speak of the
dissipation of the sacred, that it operates in a variety of ways amongst a
wide range of groups of people (see Featherstone, 1991a; Ch. 8;
Alexander, 1988).
One of the ways it operates in localities is in the countless little rituals,
rites and ceremonies which take place in the embodied practices between
friends, neighbours and associates. The little rituals entailed in buying a
round of drinks in a particular way, or turning u p to occupy the same
seats in a p u b each week, help formalize relationships which cement the
social bonds between people. It is when we leave that place for some time
and return that we seek out habits of home in which our body responds
with ease as it falls into comforting, taken-for-granted routines - like a
dog eager to perform its tricks for a returning master. It is the co
ordination of bodily gestures and movements which have never been
verbalized or subject to reflection; the familiar smells and sounds; the
ability to touch and look at things which have become charged with
symbolism and affect. It is the apparent absence of such affective and
symbolic sedimentation into the material fabric of the buildings and
environment and the embodied practices of social life which prompts
remarks such as Gertrude Stein made with reference to Oakland,
California: 'There's n o there there.' Of course, for the inhabitants of the
town, there may have been a strong sense of place and local culture; what
Stein was referring to was recognizable cultural capital.
One of the dangers of the 'no sense of place' type of arguments is that
they seem to point to processes that are assumed to be universal in their
impact and which d o not vary historically. It may, for example, be
possible to detect particular phases induced by changes in the process of
globalization and relations between states which intensify or decrease the
sense of homelessness and nostalgia. It has been argued that the phase of
intense globalization which took place between 1880 and 1920, and which
drew more nations into a tightly structured, global figuration of
interdependencies and power balances, produced an intense nationalism
and 'wilful nostalgia' (Robertson, 1990b: 45ff.). The efforts of nation-states
to produce homogeneous, integrated c o m m o n cultures and standardized
citizens loyal to the national ideal led to attempts to eliminate local ethnic
and regional differences. This was a phase of the establishment of national
symbols and ceremonies and the reinvention of traditions which were
manifest in royal jubilees, Bastille D a y , the Olympic games, the cup final,
the T o u r de France, etc. Within societies that were rapidly modernizing
and eliminating tradition, these rites created a desire to celebrate the past;
they instituted forms of imitation a n d mythical identification which have
persisted (Connerton, 1989).
The fact that such rites and ceremonies were invented should not be
taken to mean they were invented ex nihilo: they drew upon traditions and
ethnic cultures which possessed plausibility. The fact that they were
spectacles which have become commodified and promoted to wider
audiences need not be taken to imply that they have induced passivity
amongst citizens w h o are essentially manipulated. As they became part of
the popular culture of modern societies, they were often used by particular
groups in ways different from that intended by their originators, groups
who effectively renegotiated meanings of symbols and the sacred. Here
spectatorship should not be understood as passive, or remote from the
bodily enacting of rituals. F o r those who watch on television major events
such as the cup final or a royal wedding, the place of viewing m a y borrow
some of the festive aura of the actual event, with people dressing up,
singing, dancing, etc. as they watch together either at home or in public
places like bars or hotels.
A second phase of nostalgia can be related to the phase of globalization
which has taken place since the 1960s and is associated by m a n y com
mentators with postmodernism (Robertson, 1990b; see also Heller, 1990).
This second phase is in response to some of the globalizing processes we
spoke of earlier, which in the current phase can be related to pressures
(which for the large part are being successfully met in the West) for
nation-states to reconstitute their collective identities along pluralistic and
multicultural lines which take into account regional and ethnic differences
and diversity. In this present phase, the response to nostalgia in the
recreation and invention of local, regional and subnational cultures (in
Europe we think of the cultural assertiveness of the Welsh, Scots, Bretons,
Basques, etc.) has also to be placed alongside the perceived destruction of
locality through the globalization of the world economy, expansion of the
mass media and consumer culture, but also can be understood as using
these means to reconstitute a sense of locality. Hence the qualities of
populism, syncretism, fragmentation and multicoding, the collapse of
symbolic hierarchies, the end of the sense of progress and historical 'new',
and the positive attitude towards the excluded 'other' which are usually
associated with postmodernism, can also be traced back to the emphasis
u p o n these qualities that we find within the development of consumer
culture (Featherstone, 1991a). In particular, those developments in
architecture and the organization of space which are often referred to as
postmodern represent a movement beyond the abstract characterization of
space with its emphasis upon pure form which we find in architectural
modernism (Cooke, 1990a). With postmodernism, there is a re-emergence
of the vernacular, of representational forms, with the use of pastiche and
playful collaging of styles and traditions. In short, there is a return to local
cultures, and the emphasis should be placed upon local cultures in the
plural, the fact that they can be placed alongside each other without
hierarchical distinction. T h e reconstruction of inner city areas and dock
lands in the wake of the 1980s global financial boom produced a spate of
such building in the form of new shopping centres, malls, museums,
marinas and theme parks. Localization is clearly evident in the processes
of gentrification as the new middle class moved back into the city to
restore old neighbourhoods or live within purpose-built simulations
designed to recreate a certain ambience, whether it be a Mediterranean
village in the docklands, or artistic bohemias in a warehouse district.
One characteristic frequently used to describe this type of architecture is
'playful'. Certainly, many of the spaces and facades have been designed to
produce a sense of disorientation, wonder and amazement as one steps
inside locations which simulate aspects of past traditions and futuristic and
childhood fantasies. Theme parks, contemporary museums and the whole
heritage industry play to this sense of recreating a home which takes one
back to a past experienced in fictional form. Disney World is one of the
best examples: there one can ride on T o m Sawyer's riverboat or climb u p
into the Swiss Family Robinson's tree house in which the combination of
realistic film-set scenery, animatronics, sounds and smells are often
sufficient to persuade adults to suspend disbelief and relive the fiction. If
one is able to journey ' h o m e ' to childhood fantasies, then one is also
persuaded to relive one's own and others' childhood memories through
'factions' (mixtures of fact and fiction). We find examples in the growing
number of open-air a n d indoor industrial or everyday life museums, such
as Beamish in the north-east of England (Urry, 1990). Here the recon
struction of working coal-mines, trams, corner shops and trains can
actually take people into the physical reconstruction of past localities
where preservation of the real merges with simulations. F o r old people,
this must provide an uncanny sense of the local cultures they lived in,
when effectively they can step inside a typical room and handle the tin
b a t h t u b or mangle for wringing clothes. Such postmodern spaces could
be regarded as commemorative ritual devices which reinforce, or help
people regain, a lost sense of place. At the same time, they encourage
the performance of rites, the watching of simulated performance or the
participation in bodily practices which revive many aspects of the past
cultural forms. They encourage a 'controlled decontrol of the emotions', a
receptivity to, and experimentation with, emotional experiences and
collective memories previously closed off from experience. They encourage
the adult to be childlike again, and allow the child to play with simulated
ranges of adult experiences. Of course, not everyone experiences these
sites in the same ways. It is the new middle class, especially those who
have had higher education or who work in the culture industries or the
professions, who are most well disposed to experiment with the
reconstitution of locality, the controlled decontrol of the emotions, and the
construction of t e m p o r a r y . aesthetic communities of the type to which
Maffesoli (1995) refers. We therefore have a very uneven picture, the
possibility of misreadings and misunderstandings as different class
fractions, age and regional groupings mingle together in the same urban
sites, consume the same television programmes and symbolic goods. Such
groups possess different senses of affiliation to localities and the propriety
of engaging in the construction of imagined communities. They utilize
goods and experiences in a range of different ways, and a careful analysis
of their everyday work and liminal practices is necessary if we are to
discover the range of affiliations to locality which operate.
It should by now be apparent that the notions of global and local cultures
are relational. It is possible to refer to a range of different responses to the
process of globalism, which could be heightened or diminished depending
upon specific historical phases within the globalization process.
First, we can point to the attitude of immersion in a local culture. This
could take the form of remaining in a long-established locality by resisting
being drawn into wider collectivities and erecting barriers to cultural flows.
This, however, is difficult to achieve without military a n d economic power,
which are essential if one is to avoid being drawn into broader regional
interdependencies and conflicts. Hence there is the problem of being left
alone, of remaining undiscovered, or of controlling and regulating the flow
of interchanges even when geographical reasons (e.g. the case of J a p a n )
facilitate isolation. On a more m u n d a n e level, from the point of view of
some tribes, this may come down to the question of the best strategies
which can be used to resist or ignore those tourists w h o quest after some
last authentic, untouched remnant of 'real culture' such as those who go to
N e w Guinea on cannibal tours. This can be related to the problems faced
by those in the West who in this context develop a sense of protective
responsibility and seek to devise strategies to conserve what they take to
be a genuine local culture without placing it in a protective reservation in
which it becomes a simulation of itself.
Second, such communities, which are increasingly becoming drawn into
the global figuration, will also have to cope periodically with the refugees
from modernization, those members of ethnic groups who are romantically
attracted to the perceived authenticity of a simpler life and sense of
'home'. Here we think of the disparaging descriptions of them by their
host groups which display doubts about these people's capacity to acquire
permanent membership with depictions such as 'red apples' (returning first
nation N o r t h Americans, who are held to be red on the outside and white
on the inside), a n d 'coconuts' (returning Hawaiians seen as brown on the
outside a n d white inside) (Friedman, 1990). While such groups can be seen
as searching to live out their version of an 'imagined community', the
caution o n the part of the locals shows that a crucial dimension of the
relationship between them can be understood in terms of established
outsider struggles.
Third, variants of the refurbished imagined community also exist in the
rediscovery of ethnicity and regional cultures within the current phase of a
number of Western nation-states which seek to allow a greater recognition
of regional and local diversity and multiculturalism. Within certain con
texts it may be appropriate to wear the mask of local affiliation, as when
dealing with tourists or confronting local rivals (Scotsmen on meeting
Englishmen). This can entail varying degrees of seriousness and play
fulness. This capacity to move backwards and forwards between various
elements of national cultures, which are manifest in everyday public and
work situations and the local affiliation, may take the form of regular
ritual re-enactments of the imagined community. This is clearly the case in
societies which have been settled by Europeans, such as the United States,
C a n a d a , Australia and New Zealand, in which various indigenous local
affiliations as well the maintenance of imagined communities on the part
of immigrant groups, has pushed the questions of multiculturalism and
respect for local cultures firmly o n t o the agenda.
F o u r t h , those locals who travel, such as expatriates, usually take their
local cultures with them (Hannerz, 1990). This is also the case with m a n y
tourists (especially those from the working class) whose expectation from
the encounter with another culture is to remain on the level of sun, sea,
sand plus 'Viva Espaa' style stereotypes. In effect they seek 'home plus'
and will d o all they can to take comforting aspects of their local culture
with them and limit the dangers of intercultural encounters to 'reservationstyle' experiences (Bauman, 1990).
Fifth, there are those whose local affiliation is limited, whose geo
graphical mobility and professional culture is such that they display a
cosmopolitan orientation. Here we have those who work a n d live in 'third
cultures' who are happy to move between a variety of local cultures with
which they develop a practical, working acquaintance and the bridging
third culture which enables them to communicate with like persons from
a r o u n d the world.
Sixth, there are cosmopolitan intellectuals a n d cultural intermediaries,
especially those from the post-Second World W a r generation, who d o not
seek to judge local cultures in terms of their progress towards some ideal
derived from modernity, but are content to interpret them for growing
audiences of those who have been through higher education within the
new middle class and wider audiences within consumer culture. They are
skilled at packaging and re-presenting the exotica of other cultures and
'amazing places' and different traditions to audiences eager for experience.
They are able to work and live within third cultures, as well as seemingly
able to present other local cultures from within, and 'tell it from the
native's point of view'. This group can be regarded as post-nostalgic, and
can relate to growing audiences in the middle classes who wish to
experiment with cultural play, who have forgone the pursuit of the
ultimate authentic and real, who are content to be 'post-tourists' a n d enjoy
both the reproduction of the effect of the real, the immersion in it in
controlled or playful ways, and the examination of the backstage areas on
which it draws (Fiefer, 1985).
It should be emphasized that this list of the range of possible affiliations
to various forms of local and global cultures should not be understood as
exhaustive. One of the tendencies often associated with postmodern
theories is to assume that our present stage of development, or particular
set of theoretical aporias, is somehow final and eternal. The current
fascination with local cultures and the 'other', and the tendency for these
to be broken down in a relentless search to discover yet more complex
formulations of otherness, may not be sustained. Although this perception
may be driven by the populist a n d egalitarian tendencies associated with
postmodernism, the increasing quest to discover particularity and detail,
the drive towards deconstruction and deconceptualization, m a y itself
represent a phase in which a partial shift in the balance of power away
from the Western nations may be represented as an indication of some
present or future final levelling. Hence the discovery of the different voices
of a wider and more complex range of localities and modes of otherness
may occur at particular phases of a process in which powerful establish
ments are forced to recognize and acknowledge the claims of outsider
groups. This need not mean that a dramatic levelling has taken place; it
may point more to a struggle to reconfigure the conceptual a p p a r a t u s to
take account of the implications of this shift: a reconfiguration in which
notions of detail, particularity and otherness are used to point to the
difficulty of conceptually handling a greater degree of cultural complexity.
These struggles, which are often driven by outsider groups within Western
cultural establishments, may themselves be regarded as limited and
patronizing by those they seek to represent under the blanket concept of
otherness. F o r some others who are denied or granted a very limited
access to the global means of communication, there would seem little
possibility of compelling those within the d o m i n a n t cultural centres to take
account of their views, in their own terms. In this situation a characteristic
response to their self-appointed guardians in the West might be: ' D o n ' t
other me!'
This would suggest that our present, so-called postmodern condition is
best understood not as a condition, but as a process. The global balance of
power may well shift further away from the Western bloc in the future
without profoundly benefiting those Third World others who may be the
current cause for concern. Certainly, if the rise in the power potential of
J a p a n and other East Asian nations continues, these Third World nations
may be confronted by a further source of globalizing and universalizing
images which provoke a new range of problems and defensive strategies.
Needless to say, such tendencies would also provoke further problems in
the reconceptualization of a confident self-image in the West. In addition,
if past world history is any guide to the future, while a benevolent world
state which tolerates diversity is one possible outcome of the present
process, there are alternatives. The intensification of competition between
nation-states and blocs cannot be ruled out: this could take the form of
elimination contests involving trade wars and various forms of warfare.
Under such conditions, one would expect a series of defensive reactions in
the form of mobilization of nationalisms and c o m m o n cultures, with
strongly defined stereotyping 'we-images* and 'they-images' which have
little time for more nuanced notions of otherness. It is evident that the
current global circumstance already incorporates these and other possi
bilities and we must be careful to avoid perpetuating our own particular
conceptions of global and local cultures, however compelling they may
seem.
An earlier version of this chapter was presented at the Netherlands Leisure Studies
Association meeting, Utrecht, January 1991. I would like to thank those who attended for
their comments. I would also like to thank Hans Mommaas and Donald Levine for helpful
suggestions for revising earlier versions of this paper. A further version appeared in J. Bird
and G. Robertson (eds) Mapping the Future, Routledge, 1993.
1. See the work of Dorfman and Mattelart (1975), especially their How to Read Donald
Duck, and Schiller (1985). (For critical discussions of cultural imperialist theories see Smith,
1990; Tomlinson, 1991.) Although the notion of Americanization became most explicit in the
writings of critics of cultural imperialism, it was also an implicit assumption which could be
detected in modernization theories. It is also worth noting that while Americanization was
seldom made explicit in the modernization theories which became influential from the 1960s
onwards, it was certainly an assumption of a good many American citizens that moderniz
ation entailed cultural Americanization.
2. The term 'the end of history' was first used by Cournot in 1861 to refer to the end of the
historical dynamic with the perfection of civil society (see Kemper, 1990). Arnold Gehlen
adopted it in 1952 and it has been taken up more recently by Heidegger and Vattimo.
3. As we shall shortly see, the impetus for this does not only come from the West in terms
of an inward-looking loss of confidence, but arises practically through the encounters with
'the other' who refuses to accept the Western version of history. One example of the
construction of global culture is therefore the attempt to construct world histories. For a
discussion of the difficulties involved in participating in the UNESCO project to bring
together historians from various nations to construct a world history and the resultant
conflicts and power struggles, see Burke (1989).
4. Needless to say, this is very different from the assumption that 'we are just like them',
which lacks the assumption that they are subordinates who will eventually become educated
to be like us. Rather, to assume that 'we are just like them' is to assume that we can leam
from them and are willing to identify with them.
5. It is important to stress that the process of the homogenization of culture is an image
which the nation-state represents to itself, which may take numerous forms such as rituals
and ceremonies. It is not the actual elimination of differences, the vestiges of regional, ethnic
and local affiliations which is crucial, but the perception of the right of the state to do so, that
such ties are backward and deviant and must be neutralized through education and civilizing
6. For an interesting discussion of the spatial elasticity of the concept 'homeland' (agar)
which in Ethiopian culture can mean anything from a local hamlet to the national state, see
Levine (1965).
7. That the collective conscience and society-encompassing sense of the sacred might still
be generated in modern societies was a preoccupation of Drkheim. Yet little did he and his
'heir', Marcel Mauss, realize that their conception of society would be actualized in the
Nuremberg rallies of the Nazis. As Mauss commented, 'We ought to have expected this
verification for evil rather than for good' (quoted in Moscovici, 1990: 5).
8. It should also be mentioned that for some of the young people, the newer urban spaces
of large cities (such as the Les Halles area of Paris) offer the opportunity to experiment with
types of affiliation hitherto often denied. Hence Maffesoli (1995) refers to the emergence of
postmodern 'affective tribes' in which young people momentarily come together to generate
spontaneously a temporary sense of Einfhlung, emotional oneness and intensity. These tribes
are not attached to particular locales nor do they have the exclusivity of membership
normally associated with tribes, yet they do suggest the capacity to generate collective
emotional experiences in terms of the dissipation of the sacred we have spoken of. The same
could be said of contemporary rock concerts, which can generate an intense emotional sense
of togetherness and an ethical concern for nature, the Third World, etc. This would suggest
that the dangers to 'ontological security' which Giddens (1990) associates with our present
phase of what he calls 'high modernity' may have been overestimated.
LOCALISM, GLOBALISM A N D
To live in one land, is captivitie.
(John Donne, 'Change', 1593-8)
There is a third world in every first world and vice-versa.
(Trinh T. Minh-ha, 1989)
To know who you are means to know where you are.
(James Clifford, 1989)
One of the problems in attempting to formulate a theory of globalization
is of adopting a totalizing logic and assuming some master process of
global integration is under way which is making the world more unified
and homogeneous. F r o m this perspective the intensification of global timespace compression through the universalizing processes of the new
communications technology, the power of the flows of information,
finance and commodities, means that local cultures inevitably give way.
Our experiences and means of orientation necessarily become divorced
from the physical locations in which we live and work. The fate of our
places of residence and work is seen as in the hands of unknown agencies
in other parts of the world. Localism and a sense of place gives way to the
anonymity of 'no place spaces', or simulated environments in which we are
unable to feel a n adequate sense of being at home.
There is also the sense that such monological accounts, which equate the
success of the globalization process with the extension of modernity,
that 'globalization is basically modernity writ large', miss not only the
cultural variability of non-Western nation-states and civilizations, but the
specificity of the cultural complex of Western modernity. It is insufficient
to assume that other non-Western cultures will simply give way to the
logic of modernity and adopt Western forms, or to regard their formu
lations of national particularity as merely reactions to Western modernity.
Rather, the globalization process should be regarded as opening u p the
sense that now the world is a single place with increased contact becoming
unavoidable, we necessarily have greater dialogue between various nationstates, blocs and civilizations: a dialogical space in which we can expect a
good deal of disagreement, clashing of perspectives and conflict, not just
working together and consensus. N o t that participating nation-states and
LOCALISM, CLOBALISM A N D CULTURAL IDENTITY
other agents should be regarded as equal partners to the dialogue. They
are b o u n d together in increasing webs of interdependencies and power
balances, which partly through their complexity and sensitivity to change,
and capacity to transmit information a b o u t shifts in fortune, means that it
is more difficult to retain lasting and oversimplified images of others. The
difficulty of handling increasing levels of cultural complexity, and the
doubts and anxieties these often engender, are reasons why 'localism', or
the desire to remain in a bounded locality or return to some notion of
'home', becomes an important theme. It can also be ventured that this is
regardless of whether the home is real or imaginary, or whether it is
temporary and syncretized or a simulation, or whether it is manifest in a
fascination with the sense of belonging, affiliation and community which
are attributed to the homes of others, such as tribal people. W h a t does
seem clear is that it is not helpful to regard the global and local as
dichotomies separated in space or time; it would seem that the processes of
globalization and localization are inextricably b o u n d together in the
current phase.
Localism and symbolic communities
Within the sociological tradition the term local and its derivatives locality,
and localism, have generally been associated with a the notion of a
particular bounded space with its set of close-knit social relationships
based upon strong kinship ties and length of residence. There is usually
the assumption of a stable homogeneous and integrated cultural identity
which is both enduring and unique. In this sense it was often assumed that
members of a locality formed a distinctive community with its own unique
culture - something which turns the location of their day-to-day inter
actions from a physical space into a 'place'. M u c h of the research on
localities which developed within urban sociology and community studies
was influenced by two main assumptions.
The first derived from nineteenth-century models of social change in
which the past was regarded as entailing simpler, m o r e direct, strongly
bonded social relationships, as we find in the paired oppositions: status
and contract (Maine), mechanical and organic solidarity (Drkheim), and
community and association (Tnnies). The latter terms, drawn from the
ideal types delineated in Tnnies's (1955) influential Gemeinschaft
Gesellschaft,
have been used to emphasize the historical and spatial
continuum between small relatively isolated integrated communities based
upon primary relationships and strong emotional bonding and the more
a n o n y m o u s and instrumental secondary associations of the modern
metropolis. T h e work of Tnnies and other G e r m a n theorists has helped
sanction over-romantic and nostalgic depictions of 'the world we have lost'
to the relentless march of modernization.
The second, deriving from anthropology, emphasized the need to
provide ethnographically rich descriptions of the particularity of relatively
isolated small towns or villages. We have, for example, studies of small
rural communities in the west of Ireland (Arensberg, 1968; Arensberg and
Kimball, 1940) or N o r t h Wales (Frankenberg, 1966). Yet here and in other
community studies researchers soon became preoccupied with the problems
of delineating the boundaries of the locality. It soon became clear that the
most isolated community in Britain or the United States was firmly
plugged into national societies. The illusion of spatial isolation which drew
researchers into focusing upon the rich particularity of local traditions
soon gave way to an acceptance that the 'small town was in mass society',
to paraphrase the title of one of the American studies of the 1950s (Vidich
and Bensman, 1958). The intention here, and in earlier influential studies
such as those of Middletown (Lynd and Lynd, 1929, 1937) and Yankee
City (Warner and Lunt, 1941), was to examine the ways in which local
communities were being transformed by industrialization, urbanization and
bureaucratization. These modernizing processes were perceived to be allpervasive and heralded 'the eclipse of community', to use the title of a
book by Maurice Stein (1960) which discussed this literature.
In Britain there were also a number of studies of localities, some
of which provided rich descriptions of the particularities of working-class
life. In studies such as Coal u Our Life (Dennis et al., 1956), Working
Class Community
(Jackson, 1968) and Class, Culture and
(Williamson, 1982) we get a strong sense of a distinctive working-class way
of life with its occupational homogeneity and strictly segregated gender
roles, with male group ties and the 'mateship' code of loyalty predominant
in both work and leisure (drinking, gambling, sport) - women were largely
confined to the separate home sphere. The classic account of this culture
which captures the fullness of everyday working-class life was provided by
Richard Hoggart's account of his Leeds childhood in The Uses of Literacy
(1957). Hoggart (1957: esp. Ch. 5 'The Full Rich Life') documented the
sayings, songs, the sentimentality and generous indulgences of workingclass life (the Sunday afternoon big meat tea, the Saturday night 'knees
u p ' and singing in the pub, the charabanc seaside outings at which all the
saved-up money had to be squandered, the belly-laugh survival h u m o u r
and vulgarity, the larger-than-life characters and general emotional
w a r m t h and group support, the gossip and knowledge of family histories
and local institutions).
As has been pointed out, there is a danger of taking this picture of
working-class life as the definitive one, the real working-class community,
and missing its particular location in time and space - the northern
working-class towns of the 1930s (Critcher, 1979). The same era produced
working-class film star heroes, G r a d e Fields and George F o r m b y , who
epitomized the working-class sense of fun and capacity to mock and
deflate pretentiousness. They had a strong sense of community and loyalty
to place, and the retention of a local accent showed their unwillingness to
lose their roots, and reinforced their apparent 'naturalness', which made
LOCALISM, GLOBALISM A N D CULTURAL IDENTITY
them forever seem a Lancashire lad and lass at heart. Here we think of
Gracie Fields in films such as Looking on the Bright Side (1932), Sing
as We Go (1934), Keep Smiling (1938) and The Show Goes On (1937)
(see Richards, 1984: Ch. 10). George F o r m b y likewise maintained an
irrepressible cheerfulness: the 'cheeky chappie', the little m a n forever
playing the fool, yet possessing local knowledge with which to outsmart the
upper-class 'toffs' in films such as Off the Dole (1935), Keep Fit (1938) and
No Limit (1935) (see Richards, 1984: Ch. 11). The films of both Fields and
F o r m b y showed Britain very much as a class-divided society, and b o t h
achieved fame through their ability to p o k e fun at middle- and upper-class
decorum and the respectability, formality and reserve which the BBC
typified.
The films were important in their attempt to present society from the
bottom u p , a n d their capacity to install a sense of pride in working-class
localism. They presented a contrast to the accounts of working-class life
provided by the middle and upper classes. F o r some in the upper echelons
of society the working class was akin to an exotic tribe. Frances Donald
son, for example, remarks that the upper and middle classes regarded the
working class as quasi-foreign, and when they moved amongst them with
view to improving their lot 'they did so as anthropologists . . . or
missionaries visiting a tribe more primitive than themselves' (Donaldson,
1975, quoted in Fussell, 1980: 74). George Orwell's famous The Road to
Wigan Pier (1937) was written in this style: he had received an upper-class
public school education at Eton which provided him with a keen sense of
social distinctions.
O n e memorable passage that sticks in the mind, and that epitomized
Orwell's frequent discomfort with aspects of working-class life, was the
uneasiness with which he received his daily breakfast slice of bread and
dripping. Each time it was put on his plate it contained a black t h u m b
print, left by the coal miner he was lodging with who always cut the bread
after lighting the coal fire and slopping out the chamber-pots. Here we
have a n example of what Elias (1978) refers to as the 'disgust function',
the feeling of revulsion which those w h o have developed more refined taste
and bodily controls can experience when they encounter the habits of
c o m m o n people (see also Bourdieu, 1984; Featherstone, 1991a: Ch. 9). In
this type of writing, in which all is revealed about 'darkest England', we
frequently get swings from emotional identification, the desire for the
immersion in the directness, warmth and spontaneity of the local
community, to revulsion, disgust and the desire for distance.
The audience for accounts of working-class life has a long history,
going back to Engels and Charles Booth in the nineteenth century. It is
still evident in the dramatic expos style of many of the accounts written
by 'one of us' a b o u t 'the people of the abyss', to mention the title of one
of Jack L o n d o n ' s books. This sense of an anthropologist parachuted into
the alien depths of deepest working-class England was still to be found in
the 1950s in the publicity for Richard Hoggart's The Uses of Literacy:
the inside cover of the first Penguin edition suggested that the book
sought 'to remedy our ignorance' a b o u t 'how the other half lives' (Laing,
Hoggart's book, as has been suggested, is noticeable for its sympathetic
descriptions of traditional working-class life; but it also presents this life as
threatened by modernization in the form of the mass media and com
mercialization. M a n y of these negative influences were seen as originating
in the United States. Hoggart has little time for television, milk bars,
jukebox boys and other elements of the 'candy-floss world' of mass
culture. The tensions which developed within working-class culture as it
encountered the forces of the affluent society, consumerism a n d mass
culture were captured in a series of novels of the late 1950s and 1960s
many of which were made into films. Here we think of Alan Sillitoe's
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958), Stan Barstow's A Kind of
Loving (I960), David Storey's This Sporting Life (1960) and Ken Loach's
films of Neil D u n n ' s Up the Junction (1965), Poor Cow (1967), and Barry
Hine's Kes (1967) which explored the earthiness and richness of life within
the closed working-class community with occasional glimpses of the
modernizing processes (see Laing, 1986; Stead, 1989). Notable here is the
central character in the much-acclaimed film version of Saturday Night and
Sunday Morning, A r t h u r Seaton, a working-class hero if there ever was
one, played by Albert Finney, who although he finally is entrapped into
marriage, in the last moments of the film defiantly casts a stone at the
newly built modern suburban housing estate which is to be his future.
As Bernice Martin (1981: 71) reminds us, many of the accounts of
working-class life focus upon its directness and simplicity of emotional
expression. T o the middle-class observer it is too often the 'immediate
gratification', the ritual swearing and the aggression, sexuality, drinking
and violence which attract attention. Yet these features are actually liminal
moments of working-class life, a part which is too often mistaken for a
whole. The moments of brotherhood and 'communitas' are necessarily
limited m o m e n t s of 'framed liminality', moments of 'anti-structure'
(Turner, 1969) in which celebration and taboo-breaking are planned for, in
stark contrast to the careful budgeting, time management and concern for
reputation and respectability in routine everyday life. It is the represen
tations of these liminal moments which provide a rich repertoire of images.
Here one thinks of, for example, Ridley Scott's 'Hovis Bread' commercial
which is packed with nostalgic images of a nineteenth-century northern
English working-class town set to a mournful refrain from Dvofk's New
World Symphony played by a brass band. Or the former British Prime
Minister Harold Macmillan reminiscing about the people in his northern
working-class constituency of Stockton-on-Tees: 'Wonderful people, the
finest people in the world', he remarked in a television interview, in a voice
heavy with emotion and a tear in the corner of his eye, which almost had
us convinced he regarded the Stockton working class as his only true
organic community.
M a n y of these images of working-class community help to foster myths
of belonging, warmth and togetherness which suggest the mythical security
of a childhood long relinquished. There is nothing so powerful as the
image of an integrated organic community in the childhood one has left
behind (Hall, 1991: 46). Geoffrey Pearson (1985) has provided an
important account of the ways in which successive generations always have
recourse to the myth of 'the good old days', the existence of a less violent,
more law-abiding and harmonious community in the past of their
childhood or parents' times. As one goes further and further back into
history one finds successive displacements of this golden age back to the
1950s, 1930s, 1900s, 1870s and so on. Successive generations have invested
in a form of nostalgia in which the past is viewed as the epitome of
coherence and order, something which was more simple and emotionally
fulfilling, with more direct and integrated relationships. T h e assumption,
here, is that one's identity and those of one's significant others are
anchored in a specific locale, a physical space which becomes emotionally
invested and sedimented with symbolic associations so that it becomes a
place. As Bryan T u r n e r (1987) remarks, nostalgia, or the loss of a sense of
home, is a potent sentiment in the modern world, particularly so for those
groups who are ambivalent a b o u t modernity and retain the strong image
of the alleged greater integration and simplicity of a more integrated
culture in the past.
When we speak of a locality, then, we should be careful not to presume
an integrated community. There are problems with establishing the extent
to which localities were integrated in the past. W e have to be aware of the
location in time-space and social space of those who m a k e such
pronouncements and that they might be painting a nostalgic a n d overunified picture. It is also important that we d o not operate with the view
that localities are able to change only through the working out of a one
way modernization process entailing the eclipse of community and the
local culture.
Usually when we think of a locality we have in mind a relatively small
place in which everyone can know everyone else; that is, social life is based
upon face-to-face relations. It is assumed that the intensity of the day-to
day contacts will generate a c o m m o n stock of knowledge at hand which
makes misunderstandings less frequent. It is the regularity and frequency
of contacts with a group of significant others which are held to sustain a
c o m m o n culture. While the existence of such an integrated set of 'core
values' or c o m m o n assumptions rooted in everyday practices may be
overstated at b o t h local and national levels (see Featherstone, 1991a: Ch.
9) there is a further dimension of cultural integration which must be
referred to. This is the generation of powerful emotionally sustaining
rituals, ceremonies and collective memories.
Drkheim (1961), in his The Elementary Forms of the Religious
placed particular emphasis u p o n the way in which a sense of the sacred
was generated in emotionally bonding periods of 'collective effervescence'.
Over time the intense sense of involvement and excitement which bound
people together tends to diminish; the use of commemorative rituals and
ceremonies can be understood as acting like batteries which store and
recharge the sense of communality. Outside the regular calendar of cere
monies which reinforce our family, local and national sense of collective
identity, it is also possible to d r a w on collective memories. As Halbwachs
(1992) reminds us, collective memories refer to group contexts in the past
which are periodically reinforced through contact with others who shared
the initial experience (see also Middleton and Edwards, 1990).
Nations as communities
Yet are there limits to the size of the group and place to be considered a
local community? Could a nation be considered a local community? If we
examine the origins of the term it refers not only to the modern nationstate, but also draws o n the meaning of nado, a local community, domicile
family condition of belonging (Brennan, 1990: 45). There is often a clear
reluctance to accept that the nation could ever embody the type of
bonding typically attributed to the local community, especially from
Marxists with internationalist sympathies. Hence R a y m o n d Williams
'Nation' as a term is radically connected with 'native.' We are bom into
relationships which are typically settled in a place. This form of primary and
'placeable' bonding is of quite fundamental human and natural importance. Yet
the jump from that to anything like the modem nation-state is entirely artificial.
(Williams, 1983: 180, quoted in Brennan, 1990: 45)
This contrasts with the position of Benedict Anderson (1991: 6), who
argues that 'all communities larger than the primordial village of face-to
face contact (and perhaps even these are imagined). Communities are to be
distinguished not by their falseness/genuineness, but by the style in which
they are imagined.' In this sense a nation may be considered as an
imagined community because it provides a quasi-religious sense of
belonging and fellowship which is attached to those w h o are taken to
share a particular symbolic place. The place is symbolic in that it can be a
geographically bounded space which is sedimented with symbolic senti
ments; the configuration of the landscape, buildings and people have been
invested with collective memories which have sufficient emotional power to
generate a sense of communality. Certain places may be enshrined with a
particular emblematic status as national monuments and used to represent
a form of symbolic bonding which overrides and embodies the various
local affiliations people possess.
Indeed, this is an essential part of the nation-building process in which
the nation-state actively encourages the cultivation a n d elaboration of the
ethnie, or ethnic core (Smith, 1990). In this sense the creation of a national
community is invented, but it is not invented out of nothing. Anthony
LOCALISM, CLOBALISM AND CULTURAL IDENTITY
Smith emphasizes the need for a c o m m o n repository of myths, heroes,
events, landscapes and memories which are organized and m a d e to assume
a primordial quality. In the eighteenth century with the birth of
nationalism in Europe there was a deliberate attempt by cultural specialists
(or proto-intellectuals) to discover and record the vernacular customs and
practices, legends and myths, the culture of the people, which it was
assumed was fast disappearing (see Burke, 1978). In effect, the expanding
strata of the indigenous intelligentsia sought to pull together a n d weave
into a coherent form this body of popular cultural sources which could
be used to give the past a sense of direction and construct a national
This can be linked to what Gellner (1983), Anderson (1991) and others
regard as a crucial factor in the construction of nationalism: the avail
ability of a print culture which can interconnect people over time and
space. The possibility of the nation therefore depends u p o n the devel
opment of the book a n d the newspaper alongside a literate reading public
capable of using these sources throughout the territorial area a n d thus
able to imagine themselves as a community. The development of the film
industry facilitates this process even better, as film provides a sense
of instanciation and immediacy which is relatively independent of the
long learning process and institutional a n d other supports necessary to be
able to assimilate knowledge through books (S.F. M o o r e , 1989; Higson,
The nation, therefore, becomes represented through a set of more or less
coherent images and memories which deal with the crucial questions of the
origins, difference a n d distinctiveness of a people. In this sense it has a
quasi-religious basis, as it is able to answer some of the questions of
theodicy in a world which is subject to processes of secularization. T h e
sacrifice and suffering people are willing to undergo for the nation must in
part be understood with respect to the capacity of the discourses, images
and practices which sustain the nation to provide a sense of overarching
significance which transcends death, or renders death meaningful through
subsuming the individual under a sacred totality. Yet the fact that a
national culture is constituted as a unique particularity points to the
situation of the rise of the European nation-states which were locked into
power struggles and elimination contests in which the mobilization of the
population by the idea of the distinctiveness of the nation through its
difference from its neighbours attained significance.
The external pressures of the figuration of significant others to which the
nation-state belongs and the escalating power struggles can m a k e the
construction of an identity for the nation m o r e important. It has been
argued that conflicts heighten the sense of the b o u n d a r y between the
'in-group' a n d the 'out-group'. Hence G e o r g Simmel, w h o h a d written
at length about the capacity of external conflicts to unify the internal
structure of a group, remarked on the way in which the G e r m a n
reaction to the First World W a r resulted in a strong wave of social
ecstasy and intensification of social bonds which unified the nation
(Watier, 1991).
Simmel's writings are important because he gives us a sense of the
multidimensional and relational nature of social life. A local culture may
have a c o m m o n set of work and kinship relationships that reinforce the
practical everyday lived culture which is sedimented into taken-for-granted
knowledge and beliefs. Yet the articulation of these beliefs and sense of the
particularity of the local place will tend to become sharpened and more
well defined when the locality becomes locked into power struggles and
elimination contests with its neighbours. In such situations we can see the
formation of a local culture in which the particularity of its own identity is
emphasized. In this case the locality presents an oversimplified unified
image of itself to outsiders. This image, to use a metaphor of Cohen (198S),
can be likened to the local community's face, or mask. This does not mean
that inside the locality social differentiation has been eliminated and
relationships are necessarily more egalitarian, simple and homogeneous;
rather, its internal differences and discourses may very well be complex.
Internally we may be able to consider the community as incorporating all
sorts of independencies, rivalries, power struggles and conflicts. Many
community studies document these conflicts: here one thinks of Elias a n d
Scotson's (1994) account of the struggles between the established and the
outsiders. Yet under certain circumstances such struggles may be forgotten,
as, for example, when the locality is brought into conflict with another
locality, or the region is involved in inter-regional disputes. In such
situations one's own particularity is subsumed into some larger collectivity
and appropriate cultural work is undertaken to develop an acceptable
public face for it. This process entails the mobilization of the repertoire of
c o m m u n a l symbols, sentiments and collective memories.
The shifts in the interdependences and power balances increase the local
people's consciousness of the symbolic boundary between themselves and
others which is aided by the mobilization and reConstitution of symbolic
repertoires with which the community can think and formulate a unified
image of its difference from the opposite party (Cohen, 1985). It is the
capacity to shift the frame, and move between varying range of foci, the
capacity to handle a range of symbolic material out of which various
identities can be formed and reformed in different situations, which is
relevant in the contemporary global situation. Here we have the sense that
the contemporary world has not seen a cultural impoverishment, an
attenuation of cultural resources. Rather there has been an extension of
cultural repertoires and an enhancement of the resourcefulness of various
groups to create new symbolic modes of affiliation and belonging, as well
as struggling to rework and reshape the meaning of existing signs, to
undermine existing symbolic hierarchies, for their own particular purposes
in ways that become difficult for those in the dominant cultural centres to
ignore. This shift has been aided and abetted by various sets of cultural
specialists and intermediaries with sympathies for the local.
The sense of the strength of the sentiments which become embodied in
the nation and their resilience over time, it has been argued, have been
underestimated by some theorists who miss the role of the nation in the
nation-state and assume that the national sentiments were merely a by
product of the modernization process devised to facilitate the integration
of the nation-state. These sentiments have subsequently been proved
redundant and undermined by the modernizing process (Arnason, 1990).
In addition, there are often tendencies to underestimate the ways in
which the formation of the nation and nationalism draw u p o n cultural
resources which have yet to be modernized, such as the cultural
memories, symbols, myths and sentiment surrounding the ethnic core
(Smith, 1990). This suggests that the stock sociological contrast between
tradition and modernity m a y not be that useful. This is noticeable in the
case of nation-states such as Japan which, it is argued, cannot easily be
fitted into the assumed developmental logic of modernization (Sakai,
1989; Mitsuhiro, 1989). In effect Japan managed to impose a restrictive
and particularistic project of modernity and was able to protect it against
universalistic challenges ( M a r u y a m a , 1969; Arnason, 1987a, 1987b). This
would point to the continuing importance of cultural factors in the
development of nation-states and in their relations with other nationstates.
The bilateral interactions that occur between nation-states, especially
those which involve increasing competition and conflict, can have the
effect of unifying the self-image of the nation: the image or national face
which is presented to the other. A growth in the regularity and intensity of
contacts as nation-states become bound u p in regional figurations (their
reference group of significant others), can intensify the pressures t o form a
distinctive and coherent identity. It is important to emphasize that this is a
process which, in addition to the external presentation of the national face,
also has an internal dimension and depends upon the power resources
particular groups possess to mobilize the ethnic core. They will endeavour
to mobilize different aspects of the ethnic core to suit their own particular
interests and aspirations; in effect the process of cultural formation of a
national identity always entails a part being represented as a whole: a
particular representation of the nation is presented as unanimous and
consensual.
Here one thinks of Margaret Thatcher's Downing Street statement on
news of victory in the Falklands W a r in 1982: 'We are one nation tonight.'
Such statements also point to the fragility of particular formulations of
national identity: while to be legitimate they have to draw u p o n a finite
and recognizable repository of the ethnic core, they are also subjected to a
continuous process of struggle to develop and impose alternative formu
lations. The fragility and volatility of the emotional sentiments embodied
in the nation, and the struggle over the legitimacy of the representation,
therefore suggest that we should consider national cultures in processual
terms. When we consider processes of the formation and deformation of
national identity we should also be clear that it is easier to identify a
c o m m o n ethnic core where there has been a long-term process of national
formation in European nations, as is the case in Britain and France. T h a t
we should be wary of taking their individual cases as the model for nation
formation is evident when we consider newer nations, especially those
endeavouring to construct a multicultural sense of identity. The case of
Australia is interesting in this context and there are now a number of
studies about the attempts to generate a unified national identity: to
'invent Australia', through the cultivation of representations of particular
places such as Ayers Rock or Bondi Beach, and historical events such as
Gallipoli (see White, 1981; Fiske et al., 1987; G a m e , 1990).
The images that are constructed through television and the cinema are a
necessary part in the process of the formation of a nation, especially in
their capacity to bridge the public and the private. A nation is an abstract
collectivity which is far too big to be directly experienced by people. Hence
it is not only the existence of civic rituals such as Remembrance Day that
provide the sense of the sacred which binds the nation together;
increasingly it is the representation of these events which is crucial
(Chaney, 1986). F o r people whose knowledge of these events is restricted
to viewing television in their living room, television does not merely
represent such events, but also constructs them. Yet it is not just a
question of a passive audience taking in the event, as Dyan and K a t z
(1988) have argued; it is also possible for individuals and families to
reconstitute the ceremonial space in the home by observing rituals,
dressing u p and 'participating', in the knowledge that countless others are
doing the very same thing. Hence an 'atomized' audience can occasionally
be united via television media events.
Yet it is insufficient to see the process of imagining the nation as purely
the product of internal factors. In the Second World W a r the British film
industry played an important part in mobilizing a nation identity through
the production of representations of the common foe (Higson, 1989). We
should not consider cultures in isolation, but endeavour to locate them in
the relational matrix of their significant others (c.f. G u p t a and Ferguson,
1992). It is not the isolation of the nation which is the crucial factor in
developing an image of itself as a unique and integrated national culture.
Rather, it is the need t o mobilize a particular representation of national
identity, as part of the series of unavoidable contacts, interdependencies
and power struggles which nation-states become locked into with their
significant others.
This means we should not just focus on bilateral relations between
nation-states. Nation-states d o not just interact; they form a world. T h a t
is, increasingly their interactions take place within a global context: a
context which has seen the development of its own body of formal and
taken-for-granted procedures based upon processes and modes of
integration which cannot simply be reduced to the interests and control of
individual nation-states (see Arnason, 1990). The gradual development of
diplomatic conventions and procedures, such as international law which
emerged alongside and independent from nation-states to form a nexus
of underpinning ground-rules for international conflicts, are one set of
examples (Bergesen, 1990). Another would be the independent power
of multinational corporations to act independently to weaken the integrity
of national culture through their capacity to direct a range of flows of
cultural goods a n d information from the d o m i n a n t economic centres to the
peripheries - the cultural imperialism thesis would be a strong case of this
type of argument. The perception and extent of these processes can
increase nation-states' sensitivity to the need to preserve the integrity of
their own national traditions and can be used to p r o m o t e counter- or
deglobalizing and fundamentalist reactions.
One effect, then, of the globalization process - the increasing contact
and sense of the finitude of the world, the consciousness that the world is
one place - is to lead to a clashing of a plurality of different interpret
ations of the meaning of the world formulated from the perspective of
different national and civilizational traditions. The density and multidirectionality of the talk which takes place on the global stage necessarily
demands that nation-states take u p a position as they increasingly find it
impossible to silence the other voices or consider opting out. Hence we
have a plurality of national responses to the process of globalization which
cannot be conceived as reducible to the ideas generated by Western
modernity. O n e of the problems entailed in mapping the contemporary
global condition is this range of different national cultural responses which
continue to deform and reform, blend, syncretize and transform, in
various ways, the alleged master processes of modernity.
With respect to theories of modernity there is often the assumption that
modernization necessarily entails the eclipse of the national tradition a n d
cultural identity. Yet theories of modernity that emphasize a relentless
process of instrumental rationalization which effectively 'empties o u t ' a
society's repository of cultural traditions a n d meanings are misconceived.
Weber's notion of the imposition of a n 'iron cage', a new bureaucratized
serfdom or 'Egyptification' of life, and the related arguments a b o u t the
progressive commodification, rationalization and disenchantment of the
world by critical theorists such as H a b e r m a s , would seem to be difficult to
substantiate (see Haferkamp, 1987; Knorr-Cetina, 1994).
Knorr-Cetina (1994), for example, argues that if we examine everyday
practices closely we find that they 'testify to the presence of "meaning",
and "tradition", of "the body", of "intimacy", "local knowledge" and
everything else that is often thought to have been bred out of "abstract
systems."' In effect the everyday practices of participants, even if they
work within highly technicized organizations, operate with and by means
of fictions. Hence if we observe the practices in local environments we find
that the shared, deeply cherished classifications people use are a form of
the sacred. Modernity has not meant a loss of magic a n d enchantment, or
the fictional use of symbolic classifications in local institutions.
Globalization and cultural identity
If globalization refers to the process whereby the world increasingly
becomes seen as O n e place' and the ways in which we are made conscious
of this process (Robertson, 1992a) then the cultural changes which are
thematized under the banner of the postmodern seem to point in the
opposite direction by directing us to consider the local. Yet this is to
misunderstand the nature of the process of globalization. It should not be
taken to imply that there is, or will be, a unified world society or culture
something akin to the social structure of a nation-state and its national
culture, only writ large. Such an outcome may have been the ambition of
particular nation-states at various points of their history, and the
possibility of a renewed world state formation process cannot be dis
counted in the future. In the present phase it is possible to refer to the
development of a global culture in a less totalistic sense by referring to two
aspects of the process of globalization.
First, we can point to the existence of a global culture in the restricted
sense of 'third cultures': sets of practices, bodies of knowledge, con
ventions and lifestyles that have developed in ways which have become
increasingly independent of nation-states. In effect there are a number of
trans-societal institutions, cultures and cultural producers who cannot be
understood as merely agents and representatives of their nation-states.
Second, we can talk a b o u t a global culture in the Simmelian sense of a
cultural form: the sense that the globe is a finite, knowable bounded space,
a field into which all nation-states and collectivities will inevitably be
drawn. Here the globe, the planet earth, acts both as a limit and as the
c o m m o n bounded space on which our encounters and practices are
inevitably grounded. In this second sense the result of the growing
intensity of contact and communication between nation-states and other
agencies is to produce a clashing of cultures, which can lead to heightened
attempts to draw the boundaries between the self and others. F r o m this
perspective the changes which are taking place as a result of the current
phase of intensified globalization can be understood as provoking
reactions that seek to rediscover particularity, localism and difference
which generate a sense of the limits of the culturally unifying, ordering and
integrating projects associated with Western modernity. So in one sense it
can be argued that globalization produces postmodernism.
If we examine the first aspect of the globalization process, it is evident
that the problems of intercultural communication in fields such as law
have led to the development of mediating 'third cultures* (Gessner and
Schade, 1990). These were initially designed to deal with the practical
problems of intercultural legal disputes, but as with the development of the
European C o u r t of Justice and other institutions and protocols in
international law, they can achieve autonomy and function beyond the
manipulation of individual nation-states. In addition we can point to the
further integrating effects of the internationalization of the world financial
markets following the move to 24-hour trading after the 'Big Bang' of
October 1986 (Dezalay, 1990). The process of deregulation encouraged the
demonopolization of national legal systems and a m o r e meritocratic
market ethos in which international lawyers became part of a group of
new professionals, which includes corporate tax accountants, financial
advisers, management consultants and 'design professionals'.
The deregulation of markets and capital flows can be seen to produce a
degree of homogenization in procedures, working practices and organiz
ational cultures. In addition there are some convergences in the lifestyle,
habitus and d e m e a n o u r of these various sets of professionals. There are
also similarities in the quarters of the cities they live and work in. Yet it
should be emphasized that such groups are not to be found in every city, or
even national capital. They are concentrated in various world cities such as
New York, T o k y o , L o n d o n , Paris, Los Angeles, So Paulo (King, 1990b;
Sassen, 1991; Zukin, 1991). It is the integration of the particular services
located in particular quarters of these world cities which produces
transnational sets of social relations, practices and cultures. The process of
globalization is therefore uneven, and if one aspect of it is the con
sciousness of the world as a single place, then it is in these select quarters of
world cities that we find people working in environments which rely upon
advanced means of communications which overcome time-space separ
ation. Here we find the most striking examples of the effects of time-space
compression, as new means of communication effectively m a k e possible
simultaneous transactions which sustain 'deterritorialized cultures'.
It is when we take the next step and assume that such areas are the
prototypes for the future and that the international economy a n d com
munications networks will produce similar homogenizing effects in other
areas of national societies that we run into problems. Here some would
make the mistake of assuming that the extension of various social and
cultural forms to different parts of the world is necessarily producing a
homogenization of content. T h a t is, the globalization process is seen as
producing a unified and integrated c o m m o n culture. Hence we find that
theories of cultural imperialism and media imperialism assume that local
cultures are necessarily battered out of existence by the proliferation of
consumer goods, advertising and media programmes stemming from the
West (largely the United States).
Such theories share with theories of mass culture a strong view of the
manipulability of mass audiences by a monolithic system and an assump
tion of the negative cultural effects of the media as self-evident, with little
empirical evidence about h o w goods and information are adapted and
used in everyday practices (Tomlinson, 1991). Of course it is possible to
point to the availability of Western consumer goods, especially major
brands of food, drink, cigarettes and clothing, following the business and
tourist trails to the remotest part of the world. It is also clear that certain
images - the tough guy hero fighting against innumerable odds - have a
strong appeal in many cultures. Hence we find R a m b o movies played
throughout southern and eastern Asia so that 'remote villagers in rural
Burma could now applaud R a m b o ' s larger-than-life heroics only days
after they hit the screens of Wisconsin' (Iyer, 1989: 12). T o take a
second example, one of the major contemporary travel writers, Paul
Theroux (1992: 178), in his book The Happy Islands of Oceania recounts
how in the remotest parts of the Pacific Islands he found men coming u p
to him to tell him about the latest developments in the Gulf W a r they
had heard on the radio. In addition he found that in the tiny island of
Savo in the Solomons Islands group, R a m b o was a big folk hero. The
one generator on the island had n o use except as a source of power for
showing videos. One can surmise that it may not be too long before
Savo has its satellite TV receiver or personal computers which link it
into the worldwide 'net'. Such accounts are by now legion - yet how are
we to read them?
One possibility is to attempt to outline some of the absorption/
assimilation/resistance strategies which peripheral cultures can adopt
towards the mass and consumer culture images and goods originating
from metropolitan centres (Hannerz, 1991). In the first place it is apparent
that once we investigate actual cases the situation is exceedingly complex.
It is not just a question of the everyday practical culture of local
inhabitants giving way to globally marketed products. Such market
culture/local culture interactions are usually mediated by the nation-state,
which in the process of creating a national identity will educate and
employ its own range of cultural specialists and intermediaries. Some of
these may well have been educated in world cities and have retained strong
networks and lifestyle identifications with other transnational 'design
professionals', managers and intellectuals and para-intellectuals. Some of
these may even be official 'cultural animateurs' employed by the ministry
of culture, in some cases perhaps with one eye on national cultural
integration and one eye on the international tourist trade.
Hence, depending on the priority it gives to the nation-forming project
and the power resources that the nation-state possesses, it can reinvent
memories, traditions and practices with which to resist, channel or control
market penetration. Some nation-states, for example, will invest in locally
produced film a n d television programmes. Yet as we have previously
mentioned, such experiments in cultural engineering are by no means
certain to succeed unless they can find a base to ground themselves in local
forms of life and practices. Hence the scenario of 'cultural dumping' of
obsolete American television programmes on a powerless nation-state on
the periphery is only one possibility from a range of responses. It has to be
set alongside the activities of cultural gatekeepers, brokers and entre
preneurs within the major cities of the nation-state in conjunction with
colleagues abroad in the world cities collaborating in deciding what
aspects of the local popular culture - music, food, dress, crafts, etc. - can
be packaged and marketed in the metropolitan centres and elsewhere. In
many cases it may be that various forms of hybridization and creolization
emerge in which the meanings of externally originating goods, information
and images are reworked, syncretized and blended with existing cultural
traditions a n d forms of life.
In the case of the effects of global television it is important to move
beyond oversimplified oppositionally conceived formulations which stress
either the manipulation, or the resistance, of audiences. In recent years the
pendulum has swung towards the latter populist direction and it is claimed
that a new cultural studies orthodoxy has emerged a r o u n d the assumption
of the creativity a n d skilfulness of active audiences and consumers
(Morris, 1990). Television and the new communications technology are
frequently presented as producing both manipulation and resistance, and
the homogenization and fragmentation of contemporary culture (Morley,
The new communications technology is presented as producing a global
Gemeinschaft which transcends physical place through bringing together
disparate groups who unite around the c o m m o n experience of television
to form new communities (Meyrowitz, 1985). This means that the
locality is no longer the prime referent of our experiences. Rather, we can
be immediately united with distant others with whom we can form a
'psychological neighbourhood' or 'personal community* through telephone
or the shared experience of the news of the 'generalized elsewhere' we get
from watching television. Hence as Morley (1991: 8) remarks, ' T h u s , it
seems, locality is not simply subsumed in a national or global sphere:
rather, it is increasingly bypassed in both directions; experience is b o t h
unified beyond localities and fragmented within them.' Yet this is not to
suggest that the fragmentation of experience within localities is r a n d o m or
unstructured. Access to power resources creates important differentials.
Just as there are 'information rich' nations on a global level there are also
'information p o o r ' ones. Within localities there are clear differentials, with
the wealthy and well-educated most likely to have access t o the new forms
of information and communications technology through possession of the
necessary economic and cultural capital (Morley, 1991: 10). Here we can
also point to M a r y Douglas a n d Baron Isherwood's (1980) concept of
'informational goods', goods which require a good deal of background
knowledge to m a k e their consumption meaningful and strategically useful,
as is the case with personal computers.
On the other hand it is the sense of instanciation and immediacy that
television presents which appears to make its messages unproblematically
accessible. American soap operas, Italian football or the Olympic games
all have an apparent immediacy and intelligibility which could be mis
understood as producing a homogeneous response. Yet these global
resources are often indigenized and syncretized to produce particular
blends and identifications which sustain the sense of the local (see
Canevacci, 1992).
A further problem with the homogenization thesis is that it misses the
ways in which transnational corporations increasingly direct advertising
towards various parts of the globe which is increasingly tailored to specific
differentiated audiences and markets. Hence the global and the local
cannot be neatly separated, as we find in the statement by Coca-Cola: 'We
are not a multi-national, we are a multi-local' (quoted in Morley, 1991:
15). Here we can usefully refer to the term 'glocal', the fusion of the terms
global and local to make a blend. Apparently the term is modelled on the
Japanese dochaku, which derives from the agricultural principle of
adapting one's farming techniques to local conditions, and which was
taken up by Japanese business interests in the 1980s (Robertson, 1995; see
also Luke, 1995).
The various combinations, blends and fusions of seemingly opposed
and incompatible processes such as homogenization a n d fragmentation,
globalization and localization, universalism and particularism, indicate the
problems entailed in attempts to conceive the global in terms of a singular
integrated and unified conceptual scheme. Appadurai (1990) has rejected
such attempts at theoretical integration to argue that the global order
must be understood as 'a complex, overlapping, disjunctive order'. It can
be best conceived as involving sets of non-isomorphic flows of people,
technology, finance, media images and information, and ideas. Individual
nation-states may attempt to promote, channel or block flows with
varying degrees of success depending upon the power resources they
possess a n d the constraints of the configuration of interdependencies they
are locked into.
It is, of course, important that we examine the evidence from
systematic studies which focus upon specific localities to examine the
effects of these flows on groups of people. O n e important site where the
various flows of people, goods, technology, information and images cross
and intermingle is the world city. World cities are the sites in which we
find the juxtaposition of the rich and the poor, the new middle-class
professionals a n d the homeless, and a variety of other ethnic, class and
traditional identifications, as people from the centre and periphery are
brought together to face each other within the same spatial location
(Berner and Korff, 1992). The socio-spatial redevelopment of the inner
areas and docklands of some large Western cities in the 1980s have been
regarded by some as examples of 'postmodernization' (Cooke, 1988;
Zukin, 1988).
Yet, many of the cultural factors associated with this process - the
postmodern emphasis upon the mixing of codes, pastiche, fragmentation,
incoherence, disjunction and syncretism - were characteristics of cities in
colonial societies decades or even centuries before they appeared in the
West (King, 1995). F r o m this perspective the first multi-cultural city was
not London or Los Angeles but probably Rio de Janeiro or Calcutta, or
Singapore. At the very least this points to some of the problems involved
in defining the modern and the postmodern and their family of associated
terms. A more nuanced and elaborated notion of cultural modernity
which goes beyond Eurocentric notions of the homogenizing effects of
industrialization, urbanization and bureaucratization is needed. A global
conception of the modern is required, which rather than being pre
occupied with the historical sequences of transitions from tradition to
modernity a n d postmodernity, instead focuses upon the spatial dimension,
the geographical relationship between the centre and the periphery in
which the first multiracial and multi-cultural societies were on the
periphery not the core. Cultural diversity, syncretism and dislocation
occurred there first. The interdependencies and power balances which
developed between Western nation-states such as England and France and
colonial societies clearly form an important, yet neglected aspect of
modernity; an aspect which is noticeably absent from those accounts
which derive from those working in the classic tradition deriving from
French and G e r m a n theorists (see also Bhabha, 1991). These themes will
be discussed more fully in the next chapter (see also Featherstone and
Lash, 1995).
It is the very process of intensified flows of people from the ex-colonial
countries to the Western metropolitan centres in the postwar era that has
made us increasingly conscious of this colonial aspect of the development
of modernity a n d the question of cultural identity. T h e inward movement
of people, as well as images and information, from places which for many
in the West were constructed through oversimplified racist and exotic
stereotypes of 'the Other', means that new levels of complexity are
introduced to the formulation of notions of identity, cultural tradition,
community and nation. This challenges the notion of one-way flows from
the centre to the peripheries, as the d o m i n a n t centres in the West become
not only importers of raw materials and goods, but of people t o o . The
visibility and vociferousness of 'the rest in the West' (Hall, 1992c) means
that cultural differences once maintained between societies now exist
within them. T h e unwillingness of migrants to passively absorb the
dominant cultural mythology of the nation or locality raises issues of
multiculturalism and the fragmentation of identity.
In some cases this has provoked intensified and extremist nationalist
reactions, as has occurred in France (the racist campaigns of Le Pen) and
Britain (the 1980s Falklands W a r and its associated 'little Englanderism').
This can lead to a complex series of reactions on the part of immigrants.
F o r some ethnic groups this entails a retreat into the culture of origin (in
Britain a re-identification with the Caribbean, Pakistan, India or Bangla
desh); or a retreat into fundamentalist religions from the home country.
F o r others this may entail the construction of complex counter-ethnicities
as with young second generation Afro-Caribbeans w h o have developed
identities a r o u n d the symbols and mythologies of Rastafarianism (Hall,
1992b: 308). F o r yet others the prospect of a unified single identity may be
impossible and illusory as they move between various identities. Some
third-generation young blacks in Britain constantly shift between British,
Caribbean, black, subcultural and various gender identifications. F o r
example, the film My Beautiful Laundrette (1981), by Stephen Frears and
Hanif Kureishi, has central characters who are two gay men, one white,
one brown, with the latter's Pakistani landlord uncle throwing black
people out on to the street: characters who d o not present positive unified
identity images and who are consequently not easy to identify with (Hall,
The problems involved in trying to live with multiple identities helps to
generate endless discourses about the process of finding or constructing a
coherent identity (see Marcus, 1992a, on multiple and dispersed identities;
also G u p t a and Ferguson, 1992, on cultural dislocation). Yet in contrast
to those arguments which assume that the logic of modernity is to produce
an increasingly narrow individualism, a narcissistic preoccupation with
individual identity which was c o m m o n in the 1970s, today we find argu
ments which emphasize the search for a strong collective identity, some
new form of community, within modern societies.
Maffesoli (1995), for example, sees the process of development from
modernity to postmodernity as entailing a movement from individualism to
collectivism, from rationality to emotionality. In this sense postmodernity
is seen as sharing with its premodern antecedents an emphasis on
emotionality, the cultivation of intense feelings and sensory experiences
such as were found in the spectacles of the baroque. Here Maffesoli speaks
of postmodernity as bringing about a new tribalism, the emergence of
ephemeral postmodern tribes, which are to be found especially amongst
young people in large cities such as Paris. These groupings provide a strong
sense of localism and emotional identification (Einfhlung) through the
tactile embodied sense of being together. They are regarded as neo-tribes
because they exist in an urban world where relationships are transitory,
hence their identifications are temporary as people will necessarily move on
and through the endless flow of sociality to make new attachments (see
also discussions in B a u m a n , 1991, 1992). The subject of tribalism, both in
its traditional sense of exclusive membership of a group based upon kinties and strong identification with a locality or region, and in the sense of
the emergence of more transitory neo-tribes, has recently attracted a good
deal of public interest (see Maybury-Lewis, 1992a, 1992b).
This interest too has been subjected to the process of global marketing
by various arms of the tourist industry, which it has been predicted will
become the world's leading industry by 1996 (Urry, 1992). Of course for
many tourists the ease with which they can now travel to the more exotic
and remote parts of the world amounts to a step into a tourist reservation
in which they enjoy 'home plus'. In effect, they are locals whose contact
with another set of locals in the tourist location is highly regulated and
ritualized. It has been argued that this particular set of tourists is being
replaced by more sophisticated post-tourists who seek a whole range of
experiences and direct encounters with locals. Some of those post-tourists
are not at all worried that what they are presented with is a simulation of
a local culture; they are interested in the whole paraphernalia of the
'behind the scenes' and the construction of the performance and set (Urry,
1990). Such staged simulations of localities can vary from reassuring clear
cartoon-style parodies (the Jungle Cruise in the Magic Kingdom), to
small-scale 'walk-in, see and touch' simulations of the key buildings and
icons which in the popular imagination are taken to represent a national
culture (the World Showcase at E P C O T [the Experimental Prototype
Community of Tomorrow]), t o the whole heritage industry efforts to
preserve and restore full-scale living and working examples of 'the past'
(for discussion of Walt Disney World see Fjellman, 1992). Some would see
this as p a r t of a wider shi away from the imposition of abstraction and
uniformity through modernist architecture to a postmodern struggle for
place, to reinvent place and rehumanize urban space (Ley, 1989).
In yet other situations it is the locals themselves who are asked to take
part in staged authenticity for tourists. Here the tourists are granted the
privilege of moving a r o u n d the living working locality in which the real
inhabitants perform for them. Hence McCannell (1992: Ch. 8) discusses
the case of Locke, California, a company town, the home of the last
surviving Chinese farm labourers. T h e whole town was sold to tourist
developers in 1977 who marketed it as 'the only intact rural Chinatown in
the United States'. Here the inhabitants along with the town became
museumified, presented as the last living examples of 'a way of life which
no longer exists*.
McCannell (1992: 18) also discusses examples of 'enacted or staged
savagery', such as the deal struck between M C I Incorporated and the
Masai of Kenya covering wage rates, admission fees, television and movie
rights, etc. which could allow the Masai to earn a living by perpetually
acting Masai. Also interesting in this context is Dennis O ' R o u r k e ' s film
Cannibal Tours (1987) which follows a group of wealthy European and
N o r t h American tourists u p the Sepik River in P a p u a N e w Guinea a b r o a d
a luxury cruise ship (see the interview with O ' R o u r k e by Lutkehaus, 1989;
the review by Bruner, 1989; and discussion in McCannell, 1992). Such
situations vary a great deal in b o t h the objectives of the tourists a n d the
relative power of the parties involved. In the case of N e w Guinea the
tribespeople were well aware of the unequal exchange and of the hard
bargains which the wealthy tourists invariably strike, and that the middle
men and local representatives of the tourist agencies had creamed off the
money. T h e tribespeople here did not have sufficient power resources to
manipulate the degree of openness and closure of the boundary of the
locality in their own terms. In other cases this can lead to what
MacCannell (1992: 31) refers to as 'the hostile Indian act', in which exprimitives typically engage in hatred, sullen silence and freezing out. F o r
their part, the cannibal tourists can achieve a safe package version replete
with vicarious thrills of the 'heart of darkness', while fulfilling a theme in
the popular imagination: a visit to the place of 'the Other' - with the
proviso that at the end of each day they can return to their h o m e comforts
and familiar Western surroundings of the cruise ship.
There are cases, however, where it is possible for tourists, to take part in
tribal life on a more complete basis, as is the case with some communities
of Inuit in Alaska. Here the tourist lives with the tribe and takes part in a
wide range of activities - there is no tour ship to retreat to and only
individuals or small groups are admitted to the tribe on a strictly regulated
basis under the supervision of government agencies. The Inuit use the
money they get to buy essential supplies and equipment (bullets for
hunting rifles, etc.) in order to maintain a partly modernized, yet
independent version of their traditional way of life. They are in a situation
in which they possess sufficient power resources to be able to manipulate
the boundary of their community to their own advantage and maintain
their sense of cultural identity. A further example would be of the Ainu. A
'hunter and gatherer' people, they largely inhabit the northern Japanese
island of H o k k a i d o , which only became officially integrated into J a p a n
after the Meiji Restoration (1868). During the 1970s an Ainu cultural
movement developed which not only established schools for the teaching
of their language and traditions, but also in certain areas established
traditional village structures to produce handicraft goods, so that tourists
could come to witness their traditional lifestyle (Friedman, 1990: 320).
Tourism, then, has been consciously manipulated for the purposes of the
reconstitution of Ainu cultural identity.
For other cultural movements tourism may cease to be seen as a
resource, but may be identified as a major element in the process which is
destroying localism and ethnic identities. The Hawaiian cultural movement
which has developed since the 1970s has reacted against the long-term
process that has incorporated Hawaii into the US economy. This has seen
the development of a multi-ethnic Hawaii in which Hawaiians became a
minority in their own land, with their numbers reduced from 600,000 to
40,000 during the first century of contact, along with the stigmatization
and disintegration of the Hawaiian language and customs. T h e tourist
industry, the dominant force since the decline of the plantation economy,
became identified with the taking of land and the commodification and
trivialization of Hawaiian culture as exotica. Instead of the old system
with its homogeneous model of Western modernist identity at the top and
backward a n d quaint Hawaiians at the bottom, and with those at the
b o t t o m threatened with assimilation, it is argued that in its place a
polycentric system has emerged (Friedman, 1992). The new model revolves
a r o u n d the Hawaiian cultural movement's opposition to tourist develop
ment and attempts to establish and defend their authentic sense of the
past, and the newer m o r e upmarket tourism which seeks both to
modernize and develop a n d define those who stand in its way as lazy and
backward, and to recreate a nostalgic vision of the former plantation
Hawaii. A vision that has little acceptance from the Hawaiian movement,
which wishes to develop a particular identity and way of life which resists
the whole enterprise of being an object for someone else's gaze (for a
further account of the complexity of localized identities in Hawaii see
Kirkpatrick, 1989).
Anthony King (1995) has remarked that all 'globalizing theories are selfrepresentations of the dominant particular', acutely pointing to the
problem of the location of the theorist w h o necessarily writes from a
particular place a n d within a particular tradition of discourse which endow
him or her with differential power resources n o t only to be able to speak,
but also to be listened t o . M a n y of our Western taken-for-granted
assumptions a b o u t the world have immense power because their very selfevident quality does not encourage the possibility of dialogue. Hence we
have a number of theories a b o u t the ways in which the West was able to
impose its particular vision of the 'exotic Other' on distant parts of the
world. Yet this should not allow us to remain bound to the view that o u r
representations must remain trapped within the particularism of o u r
fantasy-laden projections, for the question of evidence cannot be com
pletely dispensed with.
It took an American anthropologist of Sri L a n k a n origins to raise
doubts a b o u t one of the powerful Western myths about the Pacific: that
Captain C o o k was deified by the Hawaiians. Obeyeskere (1992) demon
strates through careful research that it wasn't the Hawaiians w h o deified
Captain Cook, but the Europeans w h o projected the myth of native
deification on to the Hawaiians to bolster their own civilizing myths. T h e
discovery of this reversal was made possible in part through Obeyeskere's
knowledge of Asian societies - he could find n o local evidence t o support
assumptions of the deifications of Westerners by over-credulous natives
and in part by his attribution of commonsense practical rationality to the
Hawaiians; the latter is in contrast to those w h o emphasize the enduring
strength of their culture through the inflexibility of their cosmological
categories. As members of 'the rest' come increasingly t o reside in the
West a n d are able to make their voices heard, we can expect many more
accounts which challenge the 'self-representations of the dominant
particular'. At the same time, important as the drive for deconcep
tualization is, there remains the problem of reconceptualization, the
possibility of the construction of higher-level, m o r e abstract general
models of the globe. Here we can make a n u m b e r of points.
T h e first is to d o with h o w we conceptualize the globe. T o identify it as
a single place is perhaps to give it a sense of false concreteness a n d unity
(see Tagg, 1991). F o r many of the people in the world the consciousness of
the process of globalization, that they inhabit the same place, m a y be
absent or limited, o r occur only spasmodically. T o some extent an
appropriate model to represent this might be a heap, a congeries or
aggregate (see Elias, 1987c; S.F. M o o r e , 1989). Clearly, this is one way of
understanding the notion of a global culture: the sense of heaps, congeries
and aggregates of cultural particularities juxtaposed together on the same
field, the same bounded space, in which the fact that they are different a n d
d o not fit together, o r want t o fit together, becomes noticeable and a
source of practical problems. The study of culture, our interest in doing
justice to the description of particularities and differences, necessarily
directs us towards an ideographic mode in which we are acutely aware of
the danger of hypostatizations and over-generalizations.
At the same time there are clearly systemic tendencies in social life
which derive from the expansive and integrating power of economic
processes and the hegemonizing efforts of particular nation-states or blocs.
From this perspective there is a need for practical knowledge which is
modelled in systematic form and which yields technically useful infor
mation and rational planning; for models in which differences have to
become domesticated, turned into variables to further integration. In this
sense certain aspects of the world are becoming more amenable to systems
analysis as the world becomes more integrated through systemic practices
and takes on systemic properties. Yet when we consider the relationship
between the system and culture, a shift away from the powerful hegemonic
control over the system could be accompanied by a concomitant shift in
cultural categories. Friedman (1988), for example, has argued that while
all cultures are plural and crele in terms of their origins, whether or not
they identify themselves as such depends upon further processes. Hence
our capacity to notice, look for or advocate pluralism and the defence of
particularity may not depend upon the actual extent of these charac
teristics, but be a function of relative changes in our situation which now
gives us 'permission' to see them:
In fact it might well be argued that the pluralist conception of the world is a
distinctly western mode of apprehending the current fragmentation of the
system, a confusion of our own identity space. When hegemony is strong or
increasing cultural space is similarly homogenized, spaghetti becomes Italian, a
plural set of dialects become a national language in which cultural differences
are translated into a continuum of correct to incorrect, or standard to non
standard. (Friedman, 1988: 458)
In some ways this conception is similar to that developed by Elias in which
he argues that in situations in which established groups are firmly in
control relationships with outsider groups are more hierarchical and the
dominant group is able to colonize the weaker with its own pattern of
conduct. The established are able to develop a collective 'we-image' based
upon a sense of superiority and 'group charisma', an image which is
inseparable from the imposition and internalization of a sense of 'group
disgrace', a stigmatized sense of unworthiness and inferiority by the
outsider group. The outsiders are invariably characterized as 'dirty,
morally unreliable and lazy' (Mennell, 1989: 122). This colonization phase
of the relationship between the established and the outsiders can give way
with a shift in interdependencies and the relative power balance to a
second phase, that of 'functional democratization'. In this second phase of
differentiation and emancipation, people become enmeshed in longer and
denser webs of interdependencies, which the established group finds
difficulty in controlling. Outsider groups gain in social power and
confidence and the contrasts and tensions in society increase. It can be
added that in this second phase it is possible that many of the unified
models which are seen as doing an injustice to particularity and
complexity, become subjected to critique a n d rejection. Interest develops in
constructing models and theories which allow for notions of syncretism,
complexity a n d seemingly r a n d o m and arbitrary patterns (Serres, 1991).
These concluding remarks are, of course, speculative, and there are many
difficulties in trying to use established-outsider models in situations where
there are increasing numbers of participants in the global 'game' and the
boundaries between collectivities can be breached or ignored, yet at the
very least it perhaps does suggest that we should not be too hasty in
dispensing with theories of social relations altogether.
1. For discussions of localism and locality see Cooke (1990b), Bell and Newby (1971) and
Cohen (1985).
2. It is interesting to note that the term 'Wigan Pier' was coined by George Formby Sr,
who ironically confounded the grime of a mining town with the delights of a seaside resort
(Richards, 1984: 191).
3. Some of these criticisms apply to the recent work of Giddens (1990, 1991) on modernity.
For a critique of his neglect of the cultural dimension and assumption that globalization is
merely modernity writ large, see Robertson (1992b).
4. Canevacd (1992), for example, mentions how the Brasilien Indios at Iguacu Falls not
only were fans of Italian football and identified with Rud Guillot of Milan, but also used
video cameras both to communicate amongst themselves and to produce images for the
outside world.
5. This is not just a question of the flow between the West as the centre and 'the rest' as
the periphery. As Abu-Lughod (1991) has indicated, we have to consider the proliferation of
multiple cores, and especially how the cultures of the rising cores in Asia are diffusing within
their own circuits. This also means raising the question of the relations between the hosts and
migrants into these new cores - e.g. Japan.
TRAVEL, MIGRATION A N D IMAGES
OF SOCIAL LIFE
Robert Park once remarked that human beings, like the higher types of
animals - 'everything above the oyster, in fact' - are made for loco
motion and action*.
(1923: 157, quoted in Suttles, 1991: xi)
All I ask is heaven above and the road before me.
(The Vagabond in Vaughan Williams, Songs of Travel, 1904)
History is always written from a sedentary point of view and in the name
of a unitary State apparatus, at least a possible one, even when the topic
is nomads. What is lacking is a Nomadology, the opposite of a history.
(Deleuze and Guattari, 1987: 23)
I hate travelling and explorers.
(Lvi-Strauss, 1976: 15)
In the literature on postmodernism there is a tendency to criticize notions
of fixed identity a n d celebrate disorder, syncretism and hybridity. F o r
some, the latter qualities are assumed to be in the nature of social life
somehow, despite the 'anti-foundational' rhetoric, a more basic and
fundamental aspect of culture which became occluded. Alternatively, there
is a hidden historical narrative in which the present phase is assumed to be
distinct from the past - something which in its most inflated form
is presented as a new age, postmodernity. In both cases there is the
assumption that many of our existing models can no longer adequately
handle the increasing complexity and fluidity of contemporary life. They
are criticized for relying on, or seeking to establish, universal categories,
unified identities and systemic models. In contrast to this perceived rigidity
and inflexibility, in which theory seeks to speak for and a b o u t everyone
everywhere, postmodern theories emphasize our limited horizons and the
integrity of all the varieties of local knowledge.
Of particular interest in this context is the frequent use of metaphors of
movement and marginality. There are references to travel, nomadism,
migrancy, border-crossings, living on the borders. Nomadism and migrancy
are seen not only as characteristics of the contemporary global condition,
but as central to language. Chambers (1990, 1994), for example, refers to
the nomadic experience of language which ceases to be an instrument of
precision and clarity. Rather, thought wanders and migrates: instead of
having a fixed base or home, it dwells in a mobile habitat which produces
discontinuities and fragmented experiences. The n o m a d has become an
important category in this type of cultural studies literature. Gabriel (1990:
396) reminds us that the nomadic way of life a n d art forms have two main
aspects. First, 'the fundamental ideal that all life, experience a n d existence
is without frontiers a n d boundaries'. Second, 'the foundational idea of not
glorying fulfilment in terms of territory and resources'. The temporary
existence of the n o m a d involves a rejection of the state apparatus and its
laws. It is also assumed that a wandering life produces a wandering
aesthetics, with a constant shift of form and content.
The theorists w h o have been particularly influential in this context are
Deleuze a n d G u a t t a r i (1983, 1987), not only through their discussions of
'nomadic thought' and 'nomadic art', but through their general critique of
fixed categories and identities. Deleuze and Guattari's celebration of a
return to pre-cognitive forms of experience a n d their concept of 'flows'
have been especially influential on a younger generation of theorists in
cultural studies. This is found in some of the literature o n cyberspace and
'the internet' (the computer information network) which has been
influenced by their notions of dispersed power, rhizomes and flows (see
Featherstone, 1995; Featherstone a n d Burrows, 1995). F r o m one perspec
tive Deleuze a n d G u a t t a r i can be seen as the latest writers in a tradition of
intellectual and artistic thought which, while influenced by the philos
ophies of Bergson and Nietzsche with their valuation of immediate
experience over form, draws u p o n the transgressive avant-garde and
bohemian impulses that can be found in the tradition of artistic modern
ism since the nineteenth century. This tradition has often sought to
provide a critique of the achievements and lifestyles of modernity and has
strong sympathies for the outsider. The bohemian, for example, identified
strongly with the wandering life of the gypsies, Murger's novel and Bizet's
opera Carmen being key influences in the formation of the bohemian
mythology in the mid-nineteenth century (Pels and Crebas, 1988). Yet
there are clearly antecedents which can be traced back a long way. T h e
increasing valuation of travel as experience, as in the case of educative selfformative projects (Bildungsprozesse)
can be found, for example, in the
G r a n d T o u r in the Western tradition which rose to prominence in the
eighteenth century. This notion of travel as experience can be traced back
at least as far as the Renaissance and Middle Ages with the valuation of
the life of the travelling scholar, artist and vagabond. This can also be
linked into older notions of the heroic quest and life as a spiritual/creative
journey (religious and secular forms of pilgrimage). N o m a d i c themes and
experiences, then, have often been valued by artists and intellectuals, as
well as by the growing legions of bohemians and other camp-followers
who since the nineteenth century have sought to imitate their lifestyles and
have developed an interest in the aestheticization of life.
The linkage between mobility and the regenerative powers of travel is a
powerful theme in Western culture, especially in art and literature. Travel
has often been regarded as aiding the decentring of habitual categories, a
form of playing with cultural disorder, something which can also be found
in postmodern theory. While postmodernism can be seen to be a con
tinuation of these neo-Romantic themes, there are further aspects of
mobility in contemporary life to which it, along with postcolonial theory,
draws attention. The first relates to the increasing flows of people a r o u n d
the world: the numbers of sojourners, refugees and migrant workers means
that 'the other' is no longer something to be searched out in exotic
locations in the distant parts of the world by adventurers, literary travellers
and tourists; the others work and live alongside us in the metropolitan
areas. T h e second relates to the flows of information and images which
also further the process of global compression. We n o longer need to travel
to see and understand the other, the images flow into o u r living rooms and
the problem ceases to become one of access to limited information about
the other; rather it becomes a problem of selection, of managing and
ordering the overload of information. The development of the new
information technology in the direction of virtual reality and cyberspace
have added to this problem through the potential which will soon be
available, to access all the information and images in h u m a n history. In
addition to images and information about the other, the technology also
has the potential to increase the dialogue with the other: the various others
a r o u n d the world can now speak back to the West and dispute its various
accounts, symbolic hierarchies a n d universalist claims. Ultimately, it is
argued, we face a world of not just mobile subjects, but mobile objects; or
rather a world in which the distinction between subjects and objects
becomes narrowed and eclipsed as they both become joined and dispersed
in an increasingly fluid informational field (Lash and Urry, 1993).
We therefore have a certain a m o u n t of category turmoil, as notions of
mobility, movement and border-crossing are used to confront and decentre
relatively established taxonomies, canons and symbolic hierarchies. In
its most heightened form this can be found in the discipline cluster of
cultural studies (see Grossberg et al., 1992), but it is also to be found in
anthropology (Clifford and Marcus, 1986; Clifford, 1988), political theory
(Connolly, 1994), sociology (Game, 1991), psychology (Shotter, 1993),
geography (Soja, 1989), women's studies (Nicholson, 1990) and in business
studies (Ciegg, 1989), as the implications of questions of cultural
complexity, which are gathered under the catch-all term postmodernism,
continue to be explored.
If we seek to investigate the place of mobility in social life we therefore
cannot ignore the ways in which it has been represented culturally a n d the
ways in which metaphors of travel and movement form an important part
of the cultural tradition of modernism (van den Abbeele, 1992). This
suggests we need to investigate the framing capacity of these metaphors
and their ability not only to direct our gaze, but to form particular images
of the world. In effect we not only need to investigate the process of
theory-building in terms of the current phase, but also need to consider the
formation of images of social life in the past. Why, for example, does
sociology pay so little attention to mobility and migration? W h y did it for
so long, and still today in some quarters, perpetuate a n image of sedentary
Europe a n d the notion that traditional societies were m a d e u p of bounded,
settled Gemeinschaf ten! T h e danger of confining sociology to the study of
modernity, as some would advocate, is that it confines the premodern to
the status of an inchoate traditional society. In effect it confirms all the
limitations of what Elias (1987a) has referred to as 'the retreat of
sociologists into the present'.
Society and the settled image of social life
One of the key terms in sociology is 'society'. Yet it is a term that has
not always been subject to close scrutiny. In Nisbet's influential The
Tradition (1967), while community, authority, status, the
sacred a n d alienation m a k e it into the list of the key unit-ideas of
sociology, there is no place for society. This is because, Nisbet (1967: 5)
informs us, such ideas must be distinctive, they must help to differentiate
one discipline from another and ideas 'like "individual", "society", "order"
are useless here . . . for these are elements of all the disciplines of social
thought'. Yet perhaps Nisbet exaggerates the universal validity of these
ideas in his assumption that they are so essential and fundamental that
they can be taken for granted and need not be subjected to analysis. Such
ideas have a history: they come into being and may very well fade away.
Such at least would seem to be the implications of the recent arguments
that we are now witnessing 'the end of the social' (Touraine, 1986;
Baudrillard, 1993): arguments which are often m a d e without specific
reference to globalization. In Baudrillard's case, for example, it is the
development of the commodity-form which has led to a superabundance
of commodity-signs in today's consumer cultures, allied with technological
developments, in particular the mass media, which has increased the
capacity to produce simulations. The 'derealization of the real' is seen as
producing social fragmentation, threatening normativity a n d social
structures. In effect the solid base of the social bond in norm-reinforcing
face-to-face social interactions has been removed in a general attenuation
of social life. F o r Touraine (1986) the process of movement into the
postindustrial society need not be seen as a totally negative one for it leads
to a greater capacity for action. In effect politics, long suppressed in the
sociological world-view to a derivative of the social, is resurrected with
the fragmentation of long-existing social structures and by the increasing
opportunity and capacity for individuals, collectivities and social move
ments to act.
While Nisbet, as mentioned above, is reluctant to explore the history of
the concept 'society', he does m a k e the telling point that 'the referent of
"social" was almost invariably the communal. Communitas, not societas
with its more impersonal connotations, is the real etymological source of
the sociologist's use of the word "social" in his studies of personality,
kinship, economy and polity* (Nisbet, 1967: 56). This is evident in the
writings of one of the key figures in the establishment of sociology,
Auguste Comte, whose view of social life was very much dominated by the
goal of devising new institutional forms which would replace traditional
modes of communal order. His views should be seen in the context of the
conservative reaction to the French Revolution, out of which sociology
was born. This also entailed a reaction to the optimism of the Enlighten
ment with its commitment to action and progress, which led to a revival of
interest in traditional forms of order such as the medieval m a n o r and the
village. Drkheim followed Comte in regarding society as community writ
large. Drkheim, is, of course, the sociologist par excellence, who stressed
the power of society and the reality of the social. His concepts of the
collective conscience, the sacred and the social bond stress the c o m m o n
beliefs and sentiments which are held to further social integration. Society
was conceived as a bounded entity which was usually analysed at a high
level of abstraction. If a broader understanding of the particularities of a
given society was needed then it could be compared with another society.
Societies were conceived as the basic units of social life and to understand
social life entailed the use of a repertoire of societal concepts.
The social was seen as more fundamental to social life than the polity;
indeed in the social science division of labour that was emerging, there was
a marked hostility to political science with its emphasis upon power and
action, nationalism and internationalism. As we will see below, while the
focus of sociology has been predominantly on the internal relations of
(nation-state) societies, the value position of sociologists has often been
anti-nationalist - coupled in some cases with an internationalist attach
ment to the notion of humanity. F o r some sociologists nationalism and
warfare belonged to an earlier stage of development now rapidly becoming
surpassed (e.g. Spencer's sequence of movement from military to industrial
societies); that is until the cataclysmic events of the First World W a r
caused some to rethink their categories. Society, then, became regarded as
the generic and fundamental unit of social life and in this sense did not
need a history because history was in effect conceived as the development
of society.
At the same time, we need also to focus upon the relation of society to
space as well as time. In short where is 'the where' of society? Part of the
answer may come from the implicit assumption of Comte and Drkheim
that society is community writ large. It could be added that if society is
not integrated and prey to the social disorganization of modernity, then it
should be integrated and whether the mode of integration is to come from
corporate groupings (Drkheim) or socialism (Tnnies), such integration is
imperative. Society, then, should occupy a single bounded space with an
integrated social structure and culture. Important in this context is
TRAVEL, MIGRATION A N D IMAGES OF SOCIAL LIFE
in which we
Tnnies's (1955) influential Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft,
are nominally presented with two fundamental ideal types of social life.
Yet it is clear that Tnnies regarded community and association as
forming a developmental sequence a n d that his sympathies lie with
Gemeinschaft. Tnnies's depiction of Gesellschaft as atomized secondary
relationships, social disintegration and cultural fragmentation is largely a
negative one, constructed from the perspective of community. His views
here were influenced by the late nineteenth-century Nietzsche revival in
G e r m a n y , a n d especially by The Birth of Tragedy with its argument for a
new Dionysian age (Liebersohn, 1988). His image of Gemeinschaft drew
upon an idealized picture of medieval G e r m a n y in which the family
household was the basic unit, with the strength of blood and kinship ties
drawing people together into larger village and regional units. As we will
see this is very much an image of a settled place with a c o m m o n culture.
This image of the traditional community with its high level of normative
integration and order, which has been so influential in constructing the
image of society, is of course highly nostalgic. Its vision of prior h a r m o n y
and simplicity presents a picture of a fall from grace which resonated with
the popularity of depictions of childhood as a phase of lost innocence that
became popular in the wake of the R o m a n t i c Movement of the nineteenth
century. It reduced premodern societies to flatness and immobility. T h a t
social units might be able to exist adequately without a high level of
normative integration and c o m m o n values is hardly considered.
Tnnies (1955: 261) emphasizes that Gemeinschaft,
based u p o n a
consensus of wills a n d concord provided by c o m m o n folkways, mores and
religion, clearly has little room for power struggles, violence and war.
These are features which are central to the investigations of preindustrial
social life provided by N o r b e r t Elias, Le Goff, R a y m o n d Williams a n d
others. Elias (1978, 1982), for example, emphasizes the slow process of the
taming of violent impulses as warriors were gradually induced to become
courtiers as part of the state formation process. His account of everyday
life is one in which those with smaller, weaker, less trained bodies (women
and children) were prey to the less constrained violent impulses of the
more powerful (adults and men, especially specialists in violence such as
warriors). A further non-nostalgic account which dissolves the h a r m o n i o u s
depiction of 'traditional society' is provided by R a y m o n d Williams (1975),
who is scathing a b o u t the constant series of references to the 'organic
communities' of Old England which successive generations see as
imperilled and dying out (see also Pearson's [1985] critique of depictions of
a golden age of family values which are constructed to make a sharp
contrast to the alleged disorderly and violent present).
In addition to neglecting violence, conflict and war this harmonious
communal image of social life gives little attention to mobility: not just the
displacements of people through warfare, but the more routine movements
of wayfarers, migrant workers, pilgrims, travellers, beggars and others
(Jusserand, 1973). In contrast to the harmonious village in the mind where
everyone lived and died within the confines of a settled place, Moch
(1992: 1) argues that
Our image of a sedentary Europe . . . is seriously flawed. People were on the
move; and where and why they traveled tells us a good bit about the past and
about the pressures and processes that produced the world with which we are
familiar. Human movement is connected to every level of life in western Europe
- from the intimacy of family decisions about how cash will be earned to the
global scale, where it reflects Europe's place in the world economy. Migration, in
short, connects the changes in European history with the lives of men and
women in the past.
Western Europe is, of course, not the world and we should be aware that
the peculiarities of the migration pattern were linked to the family
structure which not only encouraged partner-centred marriage and the
setting u p of separate households, but encouraged a phase of independent
youth in which young people (especially men) travelled over long distances
to work. This contrasted with the pattern in southern and south-eastern
Europe, and in many other parts of the world, where the young men
remained in the family of origin before and after marriage (see Mitterauer,
1992: 22). The main point to emphasize, however, is that the model of
society developed by sociologists which drew largely upon West European
experience ignored mobility in its depiction of society as over-integrated
and settled, an image which drew upon a nostalgic construction of
community-based preindustrial society depicted as the polar opposite of
modernity, with the latter perceived as entailing relentless change and
social disorder.
This model assumes that societies reproduce themselves through a
c o m m o n set of values which induce a normative consensus. It has been
heavily criticized in both its Parsonian and neo-Marxist variants by
Abercrombie, Hill and Turner in their book The Dominant ideology Thesis
(1980). They find little evidence of a shared value system or a dominant
ideology in either feudalism, market capitalism, or late capitalism. T h e
assumption that a c o m m o n culture is the social cement which makes social
life possible has also been influential in anthropology, with the myth of
isolated integrated tribal society which will be discussed shortly (see
Featherstone, 1991a: 131ff.). In both cases the image of social life is of a
bounded entity with a high level of social and cultural integration, models
which assume that society has a high degree of functional interdependence
of its various parts, as well as a high degree of unity and independence vis
a-vis other societies. There is little sense of power relations, conflicts and
hybridity. There is little sense of leakages of people and culture: in effect
all the elements of social and cultural life hang together to the extent that
there are few cultural ambiguities or problems of conflicting or double
identities. Sociology in its pursuit of the typical, average or normal has
generally had little interest in the idiosyncratic and the exceptional. If there
are inequalities, then the problem becomes how they are reproduced and
transmitted across the generations, something which leads to a more
general concern with behaviour as opposed to action. This has been
emphasized by Lasch (1991: 135), who in a discussion of nostalgia argues
literary representations of small-town life often fall into a kind of sociological
style of thought, concerning themselves with the repetitive cycle of births,
marriages and deaths. In other words, they concern themselves with behaviour
as opposed to action. As Arendt has shown, the concept of behaviour is closely
linked, in turn, to the concept of society, since the social realm is distinguished
from the political by the absence of conscious determination, the tenacity of
customs and rituals the original significance of which has been lost to memory,
and the accumulated weight of habits highly resistant to change. In the reaction
against eighteenth century liberalism, 'society' became a rallying cry for those
who condemned revolution on the grounds that deep-seated habits and
prejudices could not be altered over-night, at least not without causing
irreparable harm. For conservatives and socialists alike the discovery of society
implied a devaluation of politics.
It has also been argued that the academic division of labour, which
became established in the social sciences in the nineteenth century, resulted
in sociology ceding the analysis not only of action and the state to politics,
but of international relations as well (Wallerstein, 1987). With regard to
the international field perhaps this view is a little oversimplified; it would
seem to apply best to international politics, for it ignores the tradition
which developed in European sociology (largely French influenced) which
focused u p o n humanity. Saint-Simon, C o m t e and Drkheim, in addition
to their focus upon society, were in their various ways aware of the
linkages between industrialization and what we now call globalization
(Turner, 1990a). In effect they were concerned a b o u t the ways in which the
social disorganization a n d individualism which accompanied industrializa
tion could be curbed by the development of a new set of m o r a l bonds
which would have universal validity. The tension between the societal and
global focus of analysis emerged most noticeably in Durkheim's sociology.
On the one hand he explored the possibility of new modes of moral
individualism, which could become in effect a new religion which would be
the sole c o m m o n denominator for a highly differentiated humanity
(Drkheim, 1969). On the other hand his concern with social order and
solidarity, it has been argued, was influenced by the nationalist sentiments
that increased after the 1870 French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War; in
this context it has been suggested that the potential of nationalism,
regarded as a source for the conscience collective, and the nation, as a
source for the sacred in the modern world, became important themes
running throughout his m a t u r e work (Turner, 1990a: 347).
Indeed, his discussion of the powerful emotional bonding between
people and the resilience of the sacred in the modern world, would seem to
have continuing relevance for the understanding of the contemporary
resurgence of nationalism, new religious movements a n d even aspects of
consumer culture (Featherstone, 1991a: Ch. 8; Alexander, 1988). At the
same time Drkheim took seriously the moral and cultural mission of
intellectuals to find some new means of ordering social life and regulating
the relations between societies, hence his focus on humanity. Yet this
emphasis upon humanity and the global dimension was not accompanied
by a sociology of the emergent post- or supra-societal entities: this does
not seem to have been a concern of Durkheim's. Rather, the focus was on
the moral and cultural level, with the emphasis given to the cultivation
of new forms of solidarity which would enable modes of common
identification between different people and lessen xenophobia as well as
egoism and selfish individualism. Hence there is a tension within the work
of Drkheim between the focus upon society as the basic unit of social life
and the delineation of its mechanisms for normative and moral regulation,
and the focus upon humanity driven by the need to discover new types of
moral integration which will supersede the loyalties generated by nationstate societies in the phase of intensified globalization and national
rivalries which occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries.
It has been argued that this tension which was evident within the major
classical sociologists has ceased to operate amongst their successors.
M o o r e (1966), for example, in making a plea for the revival of this
broader focus, criticizes the Americanization of sociology for its narrow
focus upon society, the unstated subtext of which, as we have argued, is
the bounded nation-state. The critique of this focus upon society as the
final unit of social life in which it is regarded as the basic generic category
of sociology has been elaborated by Tenbruck (1994). He argues that
Sociology tends to suggest the idea of societies as entities, requiring their study
as sui generis objects and conceives of their structure as merely internal. In this
way it establishes an artificial object that only admits of a one-sided selection,
consideration and explanation of fact. (Tenbruck, 1994: 78)
Concepts like 'subsystem', 'subcultures', 'levels' and 'dimensions' remain
within this perspective of the dominance of society as an integrated holistic
entity. Likewise the general categories frequently used within sociology
such as 'structure', 'differentiation' and 'complexity' are assumed to be
general variables which operate in all time and places.
This focus upon the intra-societal dimension leads to a neglect of interand trans-societal processes such as: the reciprocal influences of societies
on each other; the religious, political, economic and cultural processes
which occur across boundaries; the flows of migrants, exiles and refugees;
military, cultural and economic expansion. Where aspects of the above
phenomena are studied, the tendency within sociology is to see them from
the perspective of their intra-societal linkages and effects - e.g. migrants
are examined from the perspective of assimilation and integration into the
host society. When social change is considered the tendency is to focus
upon the internal constitution of societies which are assumed to parallel
each other in terms of their major structural mechanisms which produce
change. Hence theories of modernization are based upon the assumptions
that societies change along c o m m o n lines of internal development. F r o m
this perspective differences between countries are just different states of a
process which is seen everywhere as directed and straining towards some
notion of normal development (for a critique of the notion of development
see Tenbruck, 1990). Yet this misses the way in which European
modernization arose in unique conditions of a network, or figuration, of
interrelated nation-state societies which from their early stages of
formation were b o u n d together in interdependencies and power struggles.
Needless to say, the particularities of this historically unique reference
group can hardly be assumed to be replicable in other times and places.
Following Weber, Tenbruck emphasises that societies are always shaped
by the external situation. I m p o r t a n t here is the permanent preparedness
for war and defence of borders. Even those societies which have sought to
maintain isolation, such as T o k a g a w a J a p a n , have h a d to go t o great
efforts in terms of military preparedness and surveillance to regulate their
inhabitants and to manipulate the 'valve' through which interchanges with
outsiders through trade, warfare, migration, etc. could occur. Indeed it is
not possible to understand the development of Japanese society without
paying attention to the long-term relationship with China as its major
significant other. T h e cultural borrowings and syncretisms which have
resulted from this process, as we shall see shortly in o u r discussion of
culture, c a n n o t but put a big question mark against the long-held notions
of culture within sociology and anthropology which emphasize organic or
aesthetic unity.
This suggests that sociology needs to adopt not only a relational
understanding of the shifting place of w h a t have come t o be k n o w n as
'societies' within their particular reference group, but also a long-term
processual perspective which considers 'societies' as temporary phenom
ena. Societies then as processual entities should be considered as always in
the process of formation and deformation: they d o not always have to
exist for social relations to take place, they come into being and fade away
- perspectives which one can glean from the writings not only of Weber,
but of Simmel and Elias. But it is not just societies which are in the
process of formation a n d deformation; the larger reference g r o u p within
which they are born, grow and change is also significant. This is a process
of which Weber and Elias were clearly aware through their focus u p o n the
state and the power balances between nation-states. Indeed they can
hardly be considered sociological imperialists given their capacity to shift
from a sociological frame of reference to discuss what some would wish to
separate out as political, economic (and in Elias's case) psychological d a t a
from a perspective which was always sensitive to historical particularities.
Hence their m o d e of analysis was always pointing towards the global, the
sense that all the nation-states and other forms of association in the world
would become increasingly bound together in power struggles and
interdependencies. As Elias indicates in his synopsis to The Civilizing
Process (1982) the creation of larger nation-states and blocs and the nature
of the power balances, interdependencies and linkages between and across
them will influence the types of identity formation and personality
structure which develop in various parts of the world.
It is only relatively recently and in response to the current phase of
intensified global competition and interdependencies that we have started
to think that there might be a sociological problem here: how to develop a
series of concepts which are adequate to understand this process. Concepts
which in the first place are not based upon the assumptions of the set
gathered together under the master concept 'society', so that the perspec
tive of those who talk about 'world society' as some form of emergent
'great unifier', modelled on the nation-state, is rejected. Second, concepts
which are sensitive to the cultural and social dimensions of these processes
and d o not reduce them to derivations from, or reactions to, the economic.
The process of globalization, then, can be understood as the increasing
extension of the reference group of societies which are established in a
process of contact which necessarily form a world, however inchoate and
limited that world might be when compared to the sense of the finite
known world we inhabit. This larger trans- and supra-societal process
forms the context within which societies are able to develop. The process
of state formation in Europe, for example, produced a series of power
struggles, rivalries, alliances and elimination contests. The competition for
additional power resources to draw upon and use in these struggles
increasingly became widened to take in the whole world. It should be
added that the development of modernity cannot be understood in
isolation from this process, despite the tendencies to conceive it in terms of
the unfolding of an inner logic which is immanent to society. We will
return to a discussion of modernity shortly, after considering the images of
culture and society that have been developed within anthropology.
Cultural integration and rootedness
Anthropology since its inception has always sought to talk about the
characteristics of ' m a n ' in general (or 'humanity', as this remaining
connection to philosophical anthropology is depicted today). At the same
time it has sought to be sensitive to the particularities of the tribal
collectivity addressed. An assumption, influenced by G e r m a n Romanticism
and late nineteenth-century hermeneutics (for example Dilthey, who
influenced Boas), has been that tribes possess distinctive cultures that form
a unique complex which needs to be interpreted in their own terms. The
assumed isolation of the tribal societies, which were scattered around the
distant parts of the world before they were 'discovered' by Europeans and
N o r t h Americans, is assumed to lessen the problem of 'contamination',
and preserve in a purer form the unique features which can be assumed to
cohere into an integrated whole. The term 'culture' is often used to apply
to the totality encompassing social and cultural life; in this sense culture
has often been used to refer to 'the whole way of life' of a people. The
distinctiveness of the cultural practices of different peoples has been linked
to the construction of the other culture as 'strange' a n d the anthropologist
represented as a 'merchant of astonishment' w h o dips into the world
showcase of cultures to titillate o u r sensibilities (Friedman, 1987).
This notion of a culture as a unique separate totality in which all the
various intricate and bizarre parts fit together to m a k e a unified whole is,
for example, found in the work of R u t h Benedict. Benedict (1934) was
influenced by the work of Boas with his assumptions that the main
creative force of culture is the tendency towards consistency, which in t u m
derives from the drive for emotional consistency (Hatch, 1973: 81). T h e
difference between cultures is conceived as similar to the difference
between people. A culture is a combination of elements within a n overall
distinguishing pattern of organization which effectively makes each
cultural configuration singular and incommensurable. This orientation to
culture is captured in the following remarks from The Chrysanthemum
the Sword:
As a cultural anthropologist also I started from the premise that the most
isolated bits of behaviour have some systematic relation to each other. I took
seriously the way hundreds of details fall into over-all patterns. A human society
must make for itself some design for living. It approves certain ways of meeting
situations, certain ways of sizing them up. People in that society regard these
solutions as foundations of the universe. They integrate them, no matter what
the difficulties. Men who have accepted a system of values by which to live
cannot without courting inefficiency and chaos keep for long a fenced-off
portion of their lives where they think and behave according to a contrary set of
values. They try to bring about more conformity. They provide themselves with
some common rationale and some common motivations. Some degree of
consistency is necessary or the whole scheme falls to pieces. (Benedict, 1946: 12)
Benedict's assumptions a b o u t the unity and separateness of cultures meet
with little sympathy from many contemporary anthropologists, w h o are
more sensitive to disunities, fragmentation, contestation, pluralism a n d the
processual nature of culture. As Eric Wolff (1990: 110) informs us:
'Anthropology has treated signification mainly in terms of encompassing
cultural unities such as patterns, configurations, ethos, eidos, epistemes,
paradigms, cultural structures'. T h e tendency has been for these unities to
be conceived as the outcomes of processes of logico-aesthetic integration.
Here the assumption is that there is some underlying logical or aesthetic
force at work in the drive towards integration and reintegration; it is as
if these cognitive processes were guided by a telos all their own. This
perspective, which assumes the replication of uniformity, misses the
problem of 'the organization of diversity'. The assumption that there is
some inherent patterning to culture, then, is not only difficult to apply to
open as opposed to closed societies, or pluralistic and differentiated as
opposed to unified societies.
There is an important sense, Wolff (1990) reminds us, in referring to the
work of Wallace (1970), in which all societies are, in a radical sense, plural
societies. They are comprised of the diverse cognitive perspectives of men,
women and children, males and females, masters and slaves, warriors and
priests, all of which will have different models of social life. This echoes
the view of feminist anthropologists that men and women d o not share the
same cultural understandings. It is wrong to assume that such divergent
perspectives will somehow be harmoniously integrated within some
overarching framework driven by a cultural logic. Rather we need to ask
the questions, 'Which groups will want to represent the social world as
coherent and consistent?' and, 'Why and how do they seek to develop and
proliferate their particular representations of the world?' We need to
investigate the reasons why cultural specialists (priests, artists, intellectuals,
academics and cultural intermediaries) seek at various times to produce
models of social life which emphasize consistency and at other times (e.g
the current wave of interest in postmodernism) develop theories which
stress disunity and disorder (see Featherstone, 1991a). The shift from a
perception of the social world as relatively integrated and centred to one in
which the foundations are cracked and 'the centre cannot hold' may well
be related to shifts in the power balances and interdependencies of various
groups of cultural specialists both in terms of their internal o u t s i d e r established struggles and their more general relations to other more
powerful and less powerful groups who offer them employment,
protection, admiration, endorsement and even indifference and contempt,
as masters and publics. When establishments become destabilized the
selectivity of the particular view of the world and their conceptual
apparatus becomes apparent as its particularity as opposed to universality
emerges when it is ranged alongside the alternative schemata which are
busy surfacing and being resurrected. Hence as Wolff (1990) reminds us,
power should never be conceived as external to signification, as something
which only comes in afterwards, for power essentially inhabits meaning.
Here we should also mention the approach of Norbert Elias (1987a) who
argues for a process-sociology which through focusing upon changes over
time becomes sensitive to the formation and deformation of bodies of
knowledge in the shifting interdependencies and balances of power
between various social groups.
A further problem with the unified vision of culture is highlighted by
Renato Rosaldo (1993: 9Iff.). This is the tendency to present culture at
one pole of a stark Manichaean choice between order and chaos. Culture,
then, is often presented as a necessary corrective normative regulation to
underlying violence and selfish egoism. Influential contemporary a n t h r o
pologists such as Geertz and Turner, he argues, inherit this position from
Drkheim. F o r Rosaldo, the basic problem with Durkheim's sociology is
that it is built u p o n the twin imperatives of integration and regulation
which keep at bay a 'what-would-happen-if vision of chaos, which is
rarely articulated. In effect Drkheim leaves little room between order and
chaos, and has little sense that people can live with ambiguity, uncertainty,
spontaneity and improvisation. It is possible to regard Durkheim's concern
to develop a univocal theory of society as part of a more general
movement within modernity to produce a systematic and ordered vision of
the world which eliminates ambiguity (Levine, 1985). Foucault's work
points to the development of the h u m a n sciences as part of a project to
order, dissect and regulate h u m a n social life.
Yet however suspicious we should be about the concept of postmodernity read as an epochal break, we should be aware that both the
theories a n d models it develops and the features of the contemporary
world it constructs as evidence of new tendencies in social life, direct our
attention towards the question of the extent to which disorder has always
been a feature of social life, and the degree to which order/disorder varies
in different parts of history and places in the world. It would seem hard to
dispute that h u m a n social life depends u p o n the use of symbols with which
the world is not only structured, but demarcated and classified in taken
for-granted evaluative ways. Classification entails the use of boundaries,
which although taken for granted as we move through the everyday world,
vary in their degree of absoluteness, rigidity and tolerance of ambiguity
(see Zerubavel, 1991). W h a t would seem to fit with the arguments of those
who suggest that we are moving into a new era of postmodernity is the
assumption that we are seeing the generation of global conditions in which
certain groups of people are becoming involved in situations demanding
more flexible classifications, situations in which it is n o t possible t o refer t o
one set of overriding cultural rules which can arbitrate without ambiguity.
This is not to suggest that we live in societies with an open public sphere
with equal access for participants; far from it. Rather, it is to argue that
more people are seeking access to public platforms and demanding citizen
rights for minorities a n d outsider groups. T h e politics of multiculturalism
demands a certain degree of respect and tolerance, not without its own
aporias (Taylor, 1992), but it leads to a questioning of the modes of
classification and categorization devices of other groups.
The argument for a greater reflexivity in the construction of tribal life,
as societies and cultures, has developed a r o u n d the close scrutiny of the
practice of ethnography. Here the ethnographer ceases to be permitted to
remain invisible, but the whole process of interpretation a n d construction
of categories is subjected to a critique which emphasizes that ethnography
is essentially a mode of 'writing culture': this is constrained by literary
devices, tropes and metaphors which act in the text to produce the effect
of unity and a closed narrative. This 'postmodern turn' in anthropology
can be found in the writings of Clifford (1988), Clifford and M a r c u s
(1986), Marcus a n d Fischer (1986), Marcus (1992b), C r a p a n z o (1980,
1992), Taussig (1980, 1987) and others. M a r c u s and Fischer (1986) for
example identify their project as driven by the 'crisis of representation',
which highlights the problem of adequately depicting cultural differences.
In this they have sought to build on the writings of Said (1978), White
(1973) a n d others who question the possibility of the adequate recovery
of another culture - the 'salvage paradigm' so long influential in
anthropology. The model of culture which has operated since . B.
Tylor's famous definition of culture as 'that complex whole' (quoted in
Kroeber, 1948: 60), n o t only suggests a n organic or mechanical image of
culture, it is also premised upon the assumption of 'the existence of an
initially unperceived coherence, a surprising meaningfulness, a covert
rationality' (Thornton, 1992: 22). The aim here is to bring to the surface
the rhetorical devices used to construct this idealized image of society and
culture which gives the anthropologist the sense of a coherent reality
which he o r she has the authority to capture and distil (this can apply
equally to history, and in addition to White, 1973 we should point to the
work of Bann, 1984).
Instead of the genre convention of realism with its intention to totalize
and represent the reality of a whole world or form of life, Marcus and
Fischer (1986: 23) favour a more experimental approach in which a
number of rhetorical devices are used to create a text which is intentionally
and openly incomplete. Such texts lay bare their own processes of con
struction and reveal the various elements which were brought into and
excluded from the final frame. C r a p a n z o (1980), for example, in his
Tuhami: Portrait of a Moroccan refuses to produce a unified narrative and
sense of cultural coherence. The book departs from the traditional lifehistory framework by self-consciously using modernist techniques to
present the edited transcripts of interview as a puzzle requiring the reader's
interpretation. He holds back the authority of the ethnographer by
deliberately manipulating form to capture m o o d , fantasy and emotion to
produce a fragmented almost surrealist text (see discussion in Marcus a n d
Fischer, 1986: 7Iff.).
The use of such devices is hardly new, and they clearly have a modernist
rather than postmodernist origin. This is emphasized by Clifford (1988)
w h o discusses surrealism's impact on anthropology, with its valuation of
an aesthetics of fragments, unexpected juxtapositions and the mixing of
the unconscious, dream images and extraordinary experiences with
m u n d a n e everyday life. Of particular interest in this context are those
French ethnographers who were influenced by the College de Sociologie, a
loose informal grouping of intellectuals which developed in Paris in the
1930s a r o u n d the work of Bataille (see Richardson, 1992). They developed
a neo-Durkheimian interest in the sacred combined with ritual expressions
of transgression, excess and sacrifice. In effect, it was argued, cultures
should n o t be seen as unified, but are deeply ambivalent in structure.
Cultures include instructions on both the rule and the transgression.
Marcel Griaule, one of this group, argued that the ethnographic surrealist
should delight in cultural impurities and disturbing syncretisms (Clifford,
1988: 131). Michel Leiris, another member of the group, became pre
occupied with the problem of the appropriate narrative form for the
material he was collecting which eventually led to L'Afrique fantme, an
open-ended 'anti-book' which was a series of entries comprised of facts
and images which he refused to unify by letting his imagination work over
them. His advice to the reader ran: 'Warning this book is unreadable'
(cited in Clifford, 1988: 167).
Surrealism, then, used techniques of collage, cutting and assemblage
with the cuts left visible and not blended into a unified representation. It
sought to destabilize the authority of the artist/scientist/narrator and the
myth of the gifted special person w h o could bring back for us more
fundamental knowledge of reality. T h e confident monologue of the
singular voice gives way to an inchoate polyphony. It is also interesting to
note that Walter Benjamin (1982) w h o laboured on his massive Passagen
werk, a surrealist-inspired fragmentary account of the rise of mass culture
and consumer dreamworlds in mid-nineteenth-century Paris, frequented
the College de Sociologie in the late 1930s. Benjamin's writings have been
particularly influential amongst postmodern theorists, a n d have also been
used in ethnography (e.g. Taussig, 1980, 1987). We might add wryly, that
the opposition to strong conceptual unities and preference for weaker
frames, which are somehow held to be nearer t o unmediated life itself, has
long been a tradition within artistic and intellectual movements (such as
Lebensphilosophie a r o u n d the turn of the century; see the discussion of its
relevance to G e o r g Simmel's writings in Featherstone, 1991b). It
reappeared in the postmodernism of the 1960s, where one only has to
think of the 'non-action' films of A n d y W a r h o l such as Sleep (1963; a sixh o u r film of a m a n sleeping) and Mario Banana (1964; a male transvestite
eating a b a n a n a [for a discussion of the films see O'Pray, 1989]). Its
reverence for the unmediated particularity of life, or the re-presenting of
cultural representations without commentary, points towards an inherent
tension within the social sciences. T h a t is, on the one hand the pressure to
generalize, to construct general theories which have as universal relevance
as possible, and on the other hand the tendency to particularize, to d o
justice to the assumed unique singularity of people, institutions and culture
and to break down even further the alleged identities of these particu
larities to reveal the multiple voices and conflicting perspectives which
inhabit them.
Before we leave the discussion of the assumption of cultural integration
in anthropology it is worth raising the question: ' W h a t does the notion of
an integral tribal society with a separate culture d o for usT O n e answer is
given by Baudrillard (1993), who comments on the tremendous fuss m a d e
of the discovery of an u n k n o w n tribe in the Philippines. His argument is
that the reason why every effort was m a d e to keep them isolated from
contact in a sort of reservation (unknown to the tribe) is that as we
become increasingly sucked into a simulational culture and m o u r n the loss
of the real, the existence of a set of 'real' h u m a n beings somewhere on
earth makes us feel more h u m a n (again).
It has been suggested that after Malinowski anthropology tended to
focus upon the village as a b o u n d e d site of residence, effectively using the
rhetorical device of synecdoche in which a p a r t (the village) could be taken
to represent the whole (the culture) (Clifford, 1992). T h e focus is on the
village as a place of local dwelling. Any notion of movement or mobility
tends to be restricted to the village and surrounding area constructed as
'the field'. Yet according t o Clifford (1992: 100) this misses a number of
factors, which slip out of the account constructed. In the first place there
are the means of transport and communication: the boat, the car, the
telephone which links the village to the outside world. Second, there is the
relationship with the capital city and the national context - the places the
ethnographer has to visit in order to get permission to visit the village.
Third, there is the university home of the researcher and all the sorts of
comings and goings in and out of the field by both natives and researchers
that take place with relative ease in the contemporary world. In addition
the centra! role of 'the informant', which has often been occluded and
undertheorized in the past, needs to be made more central. In doing so the
informant should not be thought of as a passive writer/inscriber who
resides in the field, but as a traveller too. It is therefore far from adequate
to localize non-Western people as 'natives' by freezing part of their lives
and using it to represent the whole. This static depiction of native peoples
confined to their local areas is very much a fiction. Indeed Appadurai
(1988: 37) uses the stronger term 'incarcerated' and goes on to remind us:
'Natives, people confined to and by the places to which they belong,
groups unsullied by contact with a larger world have probably never
existed' (Appadurai, 1988: 39).
Yet if it is a fiction, it is a very powerful one which has become deeply
entrenched in social life and we need to enquire into the process of its
formation. Here it should be understood as related to two parallel
processes. The first is the 'discovery' of native peoples with the opening u p
of the New World from the sixteenth century onwards and the problems
this made for existing systems of classification. If this process of
colonialism and the development of mercantile capitalism opened u p a
phase of greater travel, mobility and mixing of peoples, goods a n d
categories, then it should also be placed alongside a second process, the
development of the nation. The formulation of the people in a territorial
area into a nation was a part of the state-formation process, which
gathered impetus with the intensification of rivalries as states became
drawn together into a tighter figuration through war, colonial expansion
and economic competition. In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
artists and intellectuals rediscovered and invented ethnic histories and
national traditions which helped to develop a national identity (see Burke,
1978). This may well have helped to formulate the organic metaphor of
culture as something integrated, bounded and distinct. National identities
have emphasized blood and soil. They have also drawn upon arborescent
metaphors of rootedness. Keith T h o m a s (1983: 220) has traced the history
of the oak tree as an emblem of the British people (see Malkki, 1992: 27).
National identities by their emphasis upon natural metaphors of roots,
soil, motherland and fatherland have provided a sense not only of
rootedness, but also of exclusivity - it is only possible to belong to one
national genealogical t r e e . These brief remarks would suggest that it is
possible to reconstruct the formation of sedentary metaphors in the
territorialization of our identities alongside the growth of the nation-state
and the development of assumptions a b o u t the rights and obligations of
citizens and subjects. T h e notion of the nation as 'homeland', of the h o m e
as a place of residence from which one ventures out but always seeks to
return, is a powerful related metaphor, as is the opposite notion that
modernity induces an u n h a p p y state of 'homelessness', which will be
discussed below.
There is not the space to consider here the important question of the
relationship between the process of the generation of strong national
identities in the phase of intensified competition between nation-states
after 1870 which produced strong images of nations as 'imagined com
munities', each with its own homeland and heritage, and migration. T h e
'great swarmings', the intensified migration of the period 1880-1920, was
also a phase in which nation-states developed panics a b o u t 'immigration
crises', and the need to construct strong boundaries and identities (see
Zolberg, 199S). Heated debates took place within the United States in the
late nineteenth century a b o u t the merits of the assimilation model versus
more plural models of tolerance to ethnic diversity (Lasch, 1991). The
phase of intensified mobility was therefore also a phase of concern a b o u t
' h o m e ' and identity; yet it is difficult to encounter positive images
of mobility and migration, although they doubtless exist. T h e various
countercultural currents of modernity, such as artistic modernism,
bohemias, etc. with their interest in travel and the outsider, and the tales
of migrants, slaves and refugees would provide some sources.
T h e relationship between travel and home is a complex relational one.
Certain peoples have also developed, alongside the formation of the
nation-state, various positive and negative depictions of travel and the
degree of boundedness a n d closure of the nation-state. T h e Portuguese, for
example, since the exploratory voyages of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, developed a much greater sense of the world, as opposed to the
nation-state, as their spatial unit. The term saudade, roughly translated as
longing or nostalgia, has for the Portuguese long been associated with
unending wanderlust (Feldman-Bianco, 1992). It points to the double
sense of a concern with travel and wandering and the collective memory of
Portugal as an imagined community. Other parts of the world m a y well
share this sense of national identity as movement and mobility, as W a n g
G u n g w u (1993) has argued is the case with South East Asia. This is in
marked contrast to East Asia, where mobility and migration are seen as
limited and marginal in the context of a static agrarian society reinforced
by Confucian pietism and bureaucratic structures. It would be interesting
to reconstruct aspects of the national identities of various Western nations
in the light of these remarks. F o r a preliminary contrast between the
United States and Sweden in terms of their attitude towards the lure of
'the r o a d ' based upon road movies see Eyerman and Lofgren (1995).
A further point needs to be made before we turn to modernity. This is
the assumption that communities (tribal or preindustrial), societies, or
nations are spatially separated entities. This, as we mentioned earlier,
misses the grounds within which these entities are situated. In effect their
identities are formed in a figuration of communities or societies. Yet the
danger with this approach is that it assumes a fixed level of coherence and
identity formation of the basic units. Likewise when nation-states are
conceived as actors on the international stage, with one state engaging
another. As Bergesen (1990) has pointed out in a critique of Wallerstein's
work, there is a methodological individualist assumption evident in his
assumption that nation-states acquire their properties prior to their
participation in the world-system. In effect they seem 'born whole'.
Yet nation-states only developed within a figuration which acted as a
ground and constraint to their actions. All sorts of contacts were occurring
between nascent proto-nation-states through the Church, dynastic ties and
other forms of association, which helped to develop a cultural complex of
interchanges and transactions; this acted as a developing field or ground
within which nation-states could begin to form their identities. F o r the
vast majority of nation-states which emerged in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries this international cultural complex, or transnational
field, formed a gradually extending world whose significance became
increasingly salient with the intensification of contact. The space within
which local communities, societies and nation-states developed has always
been hierarchically interconnected through the power balances and
interdependencies which were unavoidably developing alongside the very
formation of these entities. In the same way as we cautioned to be
suspicious of the use of the term 'tradition', it should be apparent that we
should also be cautious a b o u t the positing of a primeval state of a u t o n o m y
of peoples, communities or societies which was violated by the develop
ment of modernity, capitalism or colonialism. As G u p t a and Ferguson
(1992: 8) remark: 'Instead of assuming the autonomy of the primeval
community, we need to examine how it was formed as a community in the
first place'.
T o be aware of the construction of local communities, societies and
nation-states as sedentary homelands does not mean that we should switch
to the opposite assumption that the normal condition of h u m a n beings is,
or should be, one in which everyone is a ' n o m a d ' or a 'traveller'. Rather,
we need to develop theories of culture which do justice to its processual
and relational aspects. We need to enquire into the grounds for the
formation of images of the world as a hybrid motion of displaced n o m a d s
as well as the persistence of images of localities as integrated and settled
communities. The challenge to theorizing today is how to construct
theories of communal living in localities which d o not merely represent
sedentariness as the norm, but seek to consider its various modalities,
including displacements into images of imaginary homes/homelands. Such
theories also need to take into account the ways in which those inhabitants
who engage in various modes of travel manage to construct a n d live out
their various affiliations and identities.
Today the term 'modernity' is widely used in the social sciences. There are
many reasons for this: the dissatisfaction with the ability of other terms
such as 'capitalism' to cover all the aspects of contemporary social life that
have accompanied the decline of interest in the various forms of Marxism
and neo-Marxism since the 1980s; the growth of interest in post
modernism, which tends to circumscribe modernity by pointing t o its
limits a n d directs o u r attention back to the question of what it was; the
upsurge of interest in culture a n d the nature of contemporary a n d modern
experience. F r o m a sociological perspective modernity is usually defined as
'a post-traditional order' (Giddens, 1991: 2). Its main features include:
industrialism based upon machine production; capitalism based u p o n
commodity production a n d the commodification of labour power; a
massive increase in organizational power based upon the surveillance of
populations; the control of the means of violence and the industrialization
of war; the development of the nation-state, the basic referent for what we
call 'society' (Giddens, 1990: 15ff.; 1991: 10ff.; for a slightly different list
see S. Hall, 1992a; B. Turner, 1990b). F o r Giddens these factors help to
generate the characteristic sense of dynamism in modern institutions, the
sense that the modern world is a runaway world. This is based upon: the
separation of time a n d space, which means that activities are n o longer
confined to place a n d that simultaneous communication can take place
over distance; the disembedding of social institutions from tradition
through the use of abstract systems and media such as money; the
increasing use of reflexive knowledge.
Giddens concentrates on the institutional dimension of modernity a n d
gives little attention to the cultural dimension. H e does (1991: 137ff.),
however, suggest that two images of modernity have dominated socio
logical literature: the first, taken from Weber, is that of 'the iron cage'
bureaucratization of life a n d the second, taken from M a r x , is that of
modernity as a monster, which while irrational in the form of capitalism,
can in principle be tamed. Against these Giddens proposes his own image
of the 'juggernaut - a runaway engine of enormous power which
collectively as h u m a n beings, we can drive to some extent but which also
threatens to rush o u t of o u r control and which could rend itself asunder'.
C o m m o n to all three images is the assumption that there is a singular
modernity which detraditionalizes the world. In effect the basic mech
anisms that bring a b o u t modernity will produce more or less similar effects
throughout the world. Culture will follow a n d a d a p t to these m o r e basic
economic, political a n d institutional processes.
T h e relationship between the various aspects of modernity is very
complex. On the one hand there is the question of the validity of
delineating modernity in terms of a number of key dimensions (social,
economic, political and cultural) which are analysed separately and then
shown to interlink (see, for example, S. Hall, 1992a). As Elias (1984)
reminds us, we cannot assume this division of social life into separate
spheres each with its separate discipline to be in the nature of things;
rather they should be seen as emergent categories which depend upon a
process of formation. Elias examines the growth of economics in the
eighteenth century as the first science of society which was premised upon
the emergence of a distinctive economic sphere, which in turn depended
upon the accumulation of both the numbers and the power potential of
economic specialists. I have made some tentative steps towards examining
the development of the cultural sphere in the same way in Chapter 2 in the
present book: 'The Autonomization of the Cultural Sphere'.
The second point relates to the relationship between the institutional
and cultural dimensions of modernity. While the distinctions between the
two aspects are not always easy to make, Tibi (1995) for example would
see the institutional dimension in terms of the characteristics outlined by
Giddens (1990, 1991) which we have already discussed, and the cultural
complex as the unfinished project of modernity as described by Habermas
(1988). Giddens assumes the former to be eminently globalizable, indeed
he assumes that modernity produces globalization in a manner which does
not take into account the independent force of cultural factors in this
process, and does not see that in important respects the imputed causality
could be reversed and globalization could be seen to produce modernity
(see Robertson, 1992a, 1992b for this argument). Habermas's project of
modernity entails the realization of the Enlightenment vision of a good
society in which not only have traditional dogmatic authority structures
been criticized and abolished, but the negative aspects of modern science,
technology and instrumental rationality (the domination of nature and the
domination of m a n by m a n , which are in effect the 'dark side' of the
Enlightenment) have been curbed and held in check by an active public of
reflexive and responsible people.
While Tibi (1995) and many others have detected the 'Eurocentric'
nature of Habermas's depiction, the same could also be said for Giddens
in terms of his assumptions about the experiential, cultural and subjective
changes in modern life which allegedly follow from the accelerated insti
tutional changes as we move into 'high modernity'. In addition Giddens
shows little sensitivity to the culture/power complex, the ways in which the
various images of 'the other' and the West, which were generated through
the process of colonialism led to a range of selective appropriations of
modernity. N o t only can we see a series of different entry-points into
modernity (Therborn, 1995), but a series of different projects were also
developed as well as demands for selective appropriation of the insti
tutional parameters. Tibi (1995), for example, has referred to the
contemporary Muslim dilemma as the 'Islamic dream of semi-modernity'.
Speaking a b o u t J a p a n , Miyoshi a n d H a r o o t u n i a n (1989a: 146) has
suggested that 'the signier " m o d e r n " should be regarded as a regional
term peculiar to the West'.
F o r all Giddens's discussions of time-space, the spatial dimension of
modernity is underplayed. W e need to ask the question of the spatial
dimension of modernity, or 'where is modernity?', not just in terms of
some superior logic emanating from the Western centre (versions of
Weber's rationalization thesis) but in terms of the spatial relationship of
the non-West to the West. Modernity, then should not be seen exclusively
in temporal terms, as ari epoch, but in spatial and relational terms too:
terms that entail power relationships in the very construction and
implementation of the set of categories which are now only beginning to
surface as the non-West accumulates the power resources to speak back
and be listened to in the West. Postmodern and postcolonial theories are
symptoms of this process which point to this shift in power balances. T o
dismiss them as hypostatized temporal or epochal categories (e.g.
postmodernity) is to miss this important cultural dimension of the process.
This is very much a view from the Western centre which discounts the
possibility that, despite the integrating and unifying tendencies, there could
be the development of global modernities in the plural and that there
could also be m a n y projects of modernity (to play off a phrase of
Habermas's) which are yet to be completed. In short we need to attend to
the spatial dimension of modernity and its particular cultural embedding
in the West. The process of separation of the West from the rest of the
world and its subsequent attempted imposition of its version of the project
of modernity on to the rest of the world, suggests a movement from the
belief in its capacity to hierarchize a n d order flows of communication and
people, to one in which mixing, movement and dislocation become the
norm as the interchange between the rest and the West can n o longer be
regulated. But perhaps it is wrong to conceive these two aspects as merely
sequential stages: perhaps they should be understood as long co-present
within the development of Western modernity.
T h e first image of modernity is one of order and entails the progressive
control, domination and regulation of the natural and social worlds
through the application of rational knowledge. In this image the En
lightenment faith in science and technology is seen as flawed, for instead of
delivering the good society and h u m a n happiness, the secret inner logic of
history is a narrative of the fall, one which points to the realization of a
dystopia rather than a utopia. This has been a particularly strong theme in
G e r m a n social thought and those influenced by Nietzsche's writings.
Weber's vision of the refeudalization of social relationships a n d the
bureaucratization of the world, in which machine-like routines govern
h u m a n beings and drive out all creativity, is echoed in Horkheimer and
A d o r n o ' s image of 'a totally administered world'. This also resonates with
Foucault's emphasis on the application of knowledge from the h u m a n
sciences to produce increasing surveillance, panopticism a n d discipline.
Zygmunt Bauman (1991) has likewise emphasized that a central feature
of modernity is the production of order, yet he points to the limits of this
process and our inability to complete the project. Modernity is a time
when the ordering of nature, the social world and the self, and the
connections between all three, is reflected upon. Yet the quest for order
needs to feed off the notion of the opposite of order: chaos. This is the
sense that we are threatened by incoherence, incongruity, irrationality,
ambiguity, contingency, polysemy, confusion and ambivalence; in effect
modern existence is saturated by a 'without us the deluge' feeling as we
strive for control (Bauman, 1991: 7). Modern consciousness is governed by
the urge to extend outwards, to m a p and classify, which means it has to
discover or reveal ever new layers of chaos beneath its constructed order
to feed its Sisyphean restlessness. In effect Bauman is reading modernity
from the point of view of postmodern theory in teasing out its inherent
limits and contradictions. Bauman's reflections are helpful here in drawing
attention to the way which our two images of modernity as order and
chaos are linked.
If the first image emphasizes the dark side of Enlightenment and reason
to present an image of modernity as fixed, static and closed, the second
image emphasizes modernity as continual change driven by the need to
deal with the disorder which it both seeks out and generates. This second
image is of modernity producing endless disruption and social disorganiz
ation as it pacifies and controls nature for h u m a n purposes and tears down
the old structures of social life to make way for the new. It is an heroic
Promethean image of h u m a n life captured by Goethe in Faust Part 2,
where the social a n d physical landscape is transformed in the n a m e of
progress (see Berman, 1982). This image became particularly influential in
social thought in Germany and the United States in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries as both countries experienced rapid
industrialization and the expansion of cities such as Berlin and Chicago
into metropolises. The picture presented of Chicago by Robert Park and
his g r o u p of associates, w h o became known as the Chicago School of
Sociology, was one of a constant inflow of immigrants which had to be
processed by the city. The model of the city was based upon h u m a n
ecology and stressed competition for territory and constant movement as
the city expanded and pulled in more migrants whose assimilation process
entailed spatial movement through the city's natural areas to accompany
their movement through life time. Hence social disorganization (the slum,
crime, delinquency, the hobo) was seen as a necessary part of the dynamics
of modern urban life. Park's notion of modern urban life was influenced
by the time he spent working with Georg Simmel in the last decade of the
nineteenth century in Berlin, a city which experienced a parallel phase of
rapid growth.
It is with Simmel that we can start to build a picture of the experiential
and cultural dimensions of modernity. Simmel's writings on money and
the metropolis are well known and it has been argued that he developed a
non-nostalgic approach to modern life which made him 'the first sociol
ogist of modernity' (Frisby, 1985a, 1985b). Simmel emphasized the
fragmentary dynamic nature of modern life as people in large cities were
bombarded by a range of impressions and sensations which threatened to
overwhelm them. This could lead to neurasthenia, a defence against which
was the blase attitude of the urbanite, which Simmel (1971d) speaks of in
his famous essay o n the metropolis and mental life. It is this battle with
the dissolution of fixed contents, to discover some capacity t o adequately
unify, frame or form the excess of fluidity and motion which is central to
modern life. As Simmel (1923, quoted in Frisby, 1985b: 46) remarks
The essence of modernity as such is psychologism, the experiencing [das Erleben]
and interpretation of the world in terms of the reaction of our inner life and
indeed as an inner world, the dissolution of fixed contents in the fluid element of
the soul, from which all that is substantive is filtered and whose forms are
merely forms of motion.
While the linkage of fluidity and motion with modernity is something we
will return to shortly, it is worth emphasizing that there is a further aspect
of modern culture which can be drawn from Simmel's work: this is the
tragic accumulation of culture. The accumulation of objective culture, the
production of knowledge in various media, has expanded tremendously in
modern times and is beyond the capacity of individuals to assimilate into
their subjective cultures. In Goethe's time perhaps there was a better
balance between subjective and objective culture, but Simmel holds that
this is something we have lost. In modernity, therefore, we are left with a
sense of cultural fragmentation and an over-optioned life in which there is
an absence of certainty and guidelines. Hence any selection becomes
a wager on a particular body of culture which we hope will provide the
ultimate meaningful framework for our lives. T h e fragmentation of
experience in our everyday lives in the streets of the metropolis is mirrored
by the fragmentation of the knowledge base which we endlessly traverse, in
an effort to find some lasting and justifiable perspective, t o give a more
than fleeting coherence to o u r lives. This specifically modern experience of
temporality was particularly evident in the p h e n o m e n o n of fashion. T h e
constant parade of new fashions provided a permanent sense of change in
which the new styles provided shocks and an accelerated sense of the
tempo of life (see Simmel, 1995; Lichtblau, 1995).
Simmel was not of course the first person to attempt to chart the
aportas of modern culture and it would seem that his interest in charting
the sense of the transitory experience of modernity and 'the aestheticiz
ation of everyday life' (see Featherstone, 1991a: Ch. 5) builds upon some
of the motifs which are to be found in the writings of Baudelaire, w h o is
generally credited with introducing the concept of modemit.
Baudelaire (1972) the key feature of the experience of modern life was the
sense of 'newness'. The fact that modern societies produced an endless
parade of commodities, buildings, fashions, social types and cultural
movements, and that they were all destined to be rapidly replaced by
others, reinforced the sense of the transitoriness of the present moment (see
Benjamin, 1973; Frisby, 1985b; Osborne, 1992). The flaneur, or stroller, in
the public spaces of the large cities was able to experience these kaleido
scopic images and fragments whose novelty, immediacy and vividness,
coupled with their fleeting nature and often strange juxtaposition, provided
a range of aesthetic sensations and experiences (see Mazlish, 1994 for a
discussion). Baudelaire is sometimes regarded as the founder of artistic
modernism, which emerged in reaction to classicism and Romanticism.
Modernism not only sought to capture the fragmentary quality of modern
life in all its everyday banality and ugliness; it also became associated with
the countercultural and transgressive impulses which developed the
bohemian critique of the bourgeois lifestyle. It was associated too with
formal innovations and strong avant-gardist impulses. We have already
mentioned how the sensitivity to the problem of representation and more
complex notions of unity found in modernism have been taken u p in the
various adaptations of postmodernism in sociology, anthropology and
cultural studies. Walter Benjamin (1973) not only devoted considerable
space to the analysis of the Paris of Baudelaire and the birth of mass
consumer culture, but also showed a methodological sensitivity in the use
of modernist as opposed to realist modes of representation (e.g. montage,
juxtaposition) in his writings (see Buck-Morss, 1989).'
If we wish to understand the culture of modernity, then we need to
consider both the impulse to generate a culture of order through the
colonization and domestication of the world defined as disorder, and
the critique of this ordering impulse through the celebration of the ability
to live with disorder, fragmentation and mixing which is to be found
in modernism. The first approach not only seeks to oppose chaos with
order (Bauman, 1991) it also seeks to oppose mixing and hybridization
with separation and purification with a view to the creation of strict
classifications (Latour, 1993). The second approach develops an interest in
the types of experience and ways of life which develop in the modern city
and seeks to grapple with the problem of representation, to enable such
experience to be adequately expressed in artistic terms, or made
intelligible through a theoretical discourse. Hence the growth of artistic
modernism and the culture of modernity are (unsurprisingly) inextricably
linked.
Yet the sense of cultural disorder, the overload of sensory impressions
and sign-play cannot be confined to modernity - they have forerunners in
the upside-down world and sign-play of the carnivals and fairs of the
Middle Ages (Featherstone, 1991a: Ch. 5 ) . " The consumer culture of signplay and spectacles can also be traced back to the designs of the
seventeenth-century European absolutist state (most notably Spain) to
produce the aestheticization and spectacles which became known as the
culture of the baroque (Maravall, 1986). It may well be possible to
discover a similar sensitivity to sign-play, the mixing of codes, fleeting
impressions and a concern with aestheticization, style and fashion in the
'floating worlds' of cities such as E d o and K y o t o which developed in
T o k o g a w a J a p a n between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries. If,
then, we attempt to break down some of the elements of the experience of
modernity which were associated with the problematic of cultural
modernism, we m a y well find that they existed, albeit in different forms, in
other times and places.
The nascent consumer cultures which developed in the modern E u r o
pean cities, such as eighteenth-century L o n d o n and nineteenth-century
Paris and Berlin, were places into which commodities, new exotic goods,
information a n d people from various parts of the world flowed. They were
places of social a n d cultural mixing generated as much by their capacity t o
take in things from the outside, be it their own national hinterlands or the
world at large, as through the working out of an internal dynamic of
restless modernity. Yet most accounts of modernity have focused upon its
chronological unfolding and particular experiential and cultural qualities,
either without reference to spatial location other than a vague or unstated
assumption that it took place in the West (understandable when one
considers the writers and audiences), or in European cities or nation-states.
There is little sense of the relational basis of this process in the sense of the
formation of relationships between the West and other parts of the world.
F o r example, the collection of essays entitled The Culture of Capital: Art,
Power and the Nineteenth Century Middle Class (Seed and Wolff, 1988)
focuses largely on the city of Manchester's art and class structure with
little reference to the countries whence the cotton came and the colonial
and trade relations that tied Manchester, the place we are taught in history
was the first industrial capitalist city, into a w o r l d . It is therefore
important to consider the spatial dimension of modernity in terms of the
process of globalization which developed in parallel to it. But first we must
return briefly to consider the experience of modernity.
The flaneur, the stroller or idler in the big cities described by Baudelaire,
Benjamin a n d Simmel, enjoyed the immersion in the crowd, the variety of
faces, body types and fashions as well as a flood of images on the
advertising hoardings and billboards, in window displays, department
stores, exhibitions and world fairs which m a d e u p the u r b a n landscape. He
or she experienced a sense of mixing and sign-play as formerly sealed apart
categories of people and culture were juxtaposed, setting off halfremembered memories a n d allegories. T h e flaneur usually moved a r o u n d a
known urban world, yet one in which the shock of new encounters was
potentially present, as the dynamic of modernity brought in new things,
people a n d places as the old and present were torn down t o m a k e way for
the new. The flaneur experienced swings between immersion in the
immediacy of life and the distanced voyeuristic contemplation of it from a
seemingly invisible perspective as people moved a r o u n d amongst others
who also adopted the 'distanced' blase attitude which acted as a defence
against overstimulation (neurasthenia). The flaneur was a traveller, albeit
of a limited sort, who played with the idea of genuine experience and its
aesthetic recovery.
Travel can be understood as paradigmatic of experience and we should
remember that the root of the word 'experience' is per, which means to try,
to test, to risk. Travel, of course, can be routine and m u n d a n e , or
something to be endured as an impediment until one is settled back at
home. Seneca, for example, saw Roman travel as distracted wandering and
held that it was better to stay at home. It has been argued that it was not
until modern times that travel was celebrated as a voyage of self-discovery
(Leed, 1991: 7). Yet it is too simple to see the experiential side of travel
and the pleasures of discovery and new sensations as a product of
modernity, for it is possible to reverse the relationship and argue that what
we regard as the specific experience of modernity was experienced in
premodern times by travellers. This is the argument of Leed (1991: 6 - 7 ) ,
who addresses the question ' H o w d o the transformations of travel produce
the mind of the traveler, a certain mentality that has often been termed
"modern", post-Renaissance, but that is as old as civilized travel?' Travel,
then thrusts the new into the middle of life, it opens u p life to contingency
and creates 'exotica' (matter out of place).
Travel is closely bound to the notion of modernity. The Renaissance
voyages which took place since the sixteenth century enabled Europeans to
encounter people of different ethnicities and encouraged them to make
comparisons between themselves and others. T h e encounters and com
parisons helped to change Europeans' self-image of Europe from being a
periphery to ancient centres, to being a centre in its own right which was
at the cutting edge of the 'modern' (Leed, 1991: 21). This increasing
contact helped to generate the production and exchange of differences. As
T o d o r o v (1984: 49) reminds us, the discovery of the New World saw the
production of two apparently contradictory myths, one whereby the
'other' is a 'noble savage', and one whereby he is a 'dirty dog', a potential
s l a v e . Columbus effectively imposed his own values upon alterity and did
not seek to know the other on its own terms. Yet the treasures and
specimens, the plants, animals and people Columbus sent back to Spain
and the various accounts of the voyages had a profound impact upon the
existing bodies of knowledge and modes of classification. It has been
argued by Grafton (1992) that between 1550 and 1650 Western thinkers
moved away from assuming that they could find all-important truths in
ancient books towards empirical knowledge. The Ancient view of a
coherent and ordered universe now ran u p against countless inconvenient
facts. Francis Bacon's Great Instauration
(1620) sought to produce
knowledge that no longer relied upon the Ancient authorities. He used a
wealth of information from the various voyages to argue that we should
test out theories and establish knowledge o n the basis of experiment and
observation. T h e title page of the book shows a ship sailing past classical
columns which represent the Pillars of Hercules, the ancient limits of
navigation and knowledge. Against those w h o would caution not to go too
far, Bacon urged his readers: 'too far is not enough' (Grafton, 1992:
A consequence of this process was that differences in space became
associated with differences in time. This temporalization of difference was
used to produce an evolutionary hierarchy. This in turn allowed Euro
peans to produce a moral justification of the exploitation, now seen as a
necessary Bildungsprozess,
which it was imperative for those designated
children or 'minors' to go through if they were ever to develop and attain
enlightenment. It was this confinement of other cultures to past history, to
lower stages o n the same ladder of history, which enhanced the sense of
the threshold-advancing presentness of the European nations, a sense of
modernity which in actuality developed out of the occluded spatial
encounters with non-Western others.
It is of course this sense of a unified h u m a n k i n d converging on the
c o m m o n p a t h beaten by the advancing Western modernity which was
heavily criticized by elements of artistic modernism whose sympathies were
for those w h o were the victims of this process. W e have already discussed
the ways in which anthropological and other theories adopted some of the
techniques of artistic modernism such as collage and montage to produce a
sense of a more complex multivocal process in which the boundedness of
the locality is deconstructed. Yet it is a more significant move when not
only are the others' perspectives and voices considered alongside those of
the anthropologist/writer to problematize the process of cultural forma
tion, but theories of modernity are produced from different parts of the
world which dispute the Western account. When it is a part of the world
such as J a p a n and East Asia which is rapidly gaining power potential in
the shifting global balance of power, then we can assume that in the future
this could lead to a revision of the long-established conceptual set: tradi
tion and modernity, to which we can add p o s t m o d e r n i t y .
colonialism therefore played an important role in the spatial totalization of
Western modernity,
which resulted in modernity providing the stand
point for historical totalization, the standpoint from which all other
cultures were to be judged and hierarchically ordered (see Osborne, 1992).
Modernization theory merely represents a continuation of this logic,
with progress now defined as Americanization to replace Europeanization,
in tune with the shifting global balance of power in the second half of the
twentieth century. But this post-Second World W a r era also began a phase
of decolonialism, and the growth in the global power of the non-West
ushered in a process of the relativization of the modern world. T h a t is, the
modern world was revealed to be the Western world, and to be only a
world a m o n g many worlds, which began a process of re-forming the
various 'we-images', and 'they-images' of Western and other nations. As
Sakai (1989: 106) remarks:
What this simple but undeniable recognition pointed to was that history was not
only temporal or chronological but also spatial and relational. The condition for
the possibility of conceiving of history as a linear and evolutionary series of
incidents lay in its not as yet thematized relation to other histories, other
coexisting temporalities. Whereas monistic history . . . did not know its implicit
reliance on other histories and thought itself autonomous and total, 'world*
history conceived of itself as the spatial relations of histories. In world history,
therefore, one could not think of history exclusively in those terms which
referred back only to that same history; monistic history could not deal with the
world as it was apprehended in world history since the world is primarily a
sphere of heterogeneity and others.
It is the series of challenges in the various dimensions of international and
transnational contact between nation-states, not a benevolent gesture on
the p a r t of the more powerful Western nations, which results in a shift in
the fantasy base of the 'we- and they-images*. This inaugurates a process
of enforced listening for the Western nations. Modernity, then, began as
a process of the self-recognition of Europe in which the Orient and
other parts of the world became confined to an image of premodern
traditionalism. The spatial expansion of Europe through colonialism, with
the resultant inflow of goods, people and information, helped to produce
various modes of mixing and disorder within a range of social and cultural
life forms and practices which helped to generate an enhanced sense of 'the
new', 'presentness' and the transitory nature of time. This disorder and
mixing in one area of cultural life became reconstituted as a new symbolic
hierarchy in which the various peoples of the world were rank-ordered as
part of an assumed universal evolutionary history. This aspect of the
project of modernity becomes relativized through two main factors: the
shifts in the global balance of power away from the West in the second
half of the twentieth century; a n d the increased intensity of transnational
flows of commodities, people, images and information which are bypassing
the boundaries of the nation-states (Lash and Urry, 1993). It is this latter
aspect, in particular the extent of global migration, that is producing
intensified contact which is undermining the once secure fantasy-based
'we- and they-images', and changing the nature of identity formation to
the extent that categories of people are emerging who live more mobile
lives and are at ease with more fluid identities. It is this process of mobility
a n d migrancy, n o w labelled postmodern by some, which is held to be both
the methodological key and the actuality of the contemporary world.
1. This is, of course, largely a male ideal. As Janet Wolff (1993) reminds us, it is men who
have predominantly travelled and women who have remained at home.
2. The first edition of the book appeared in 1887. Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft has been
referred to as 'the founding charter of modern sociology' (Lasch, 1991: 139). It has been
important in structuring the contrasts between tradition and modernity, community and
urban life which have been influential in the development of sociology in the United States
(especially the Chicago School). In addition it has been regarded as one major source of
Talcott Parsons's 'pattern variables'.
3. Tenbruck's perspective has also been influenced by Simmel who, like Weber, argued
against those who sought to understand social life from idealized comprehensive concepts
such as society, seeing the latter as having the role of a preliminary 'emergency-shelter', which
should soon be discarded. For Simmel our focus of attention should be on the forms of as
sociation and interactions between individuals (see Frisby and Sayer, 1986: 54ft*.). For a
discussion of Tenbruck's ideas in the context of a critique of the comparative method see
Axtman (1993).
4. For a discussion of the different uses of the term 'culture' in anthropology see Boon
(1973). The notion of culture as 'the whole way of life' of a people was formulated by
Raymond Williams (1981) and has been influential in the field of cultural studies (see O.
Turner, 1990).
5. Benedict's (1946) book has been subjected to a strong critique by the current generation
of Japanese Studies scholars. Not only do many of these follow some of the assumptions
about fragmentation and pluralism associated with postmodernism we have discussed, they
also refuse to see these changes as just a product of a post-1960s consumer culture. Hence the
supposed ethnic and cultural homogeneity of Japan is now being challenged as social
movements and scholars alike rediscover, and are able to voice their views on, the outsiders
allegedly incorporated and blended into Japaneseness. This is not to say that Nihonjlnron
(Japanese exclusiveness) has ceased to be the most powerful national image in Japan - far
from it. Rather it is to suggest that groups like the Okinawans and the Ainu, as well as longresident groups such as the Koreans are now discovering their public voice, suggesting a slight
shift in the established/outsiders power balance.
6. Deleuze and Guattari (1987: 18) remark: 'It is odd how the tree has dominated Western
reality and all of Western thought, from botany to biology and anatomy, but also gnosiology,
theology, ontology, all of philosophy . . .: the root-foundation, Grund, racine, fondemenl. The
West has a special relation to the forest and deforestation' (cited in Malkki, 1992: 28). The
place of the forest in German intellectual thought and popular culture is particularly
7. The problems of multiple identifications in the contemporary world, which are to be
found in the remotest areas, are captured in the film Black Harrest (Robin Anderson/Bob
Connolly, 1992) which follows the initial success and eventual failure of a half-Australian
businessman/half-New Guinea tribesman to organize a tribe to raise a crop of coffee.
8. In Foucault's case it is the increase in population pressure which encourages the state to
regulate and control the excess of bodies. It is interesting to note that in hi* earlier Madness
and Civilisation (1971) he romantically draws a positive picture of the pre-modern madman
who is free to wander and intervene in social life without the threat of incarceration or
treatment, both of which emerge with modernity. Influenced by Nietzsche, his image of the
pre-modern is one of individuality, difference and mobility with the modern life being
engulfed by an increasingly homogenized mass of narrowly individuated people whose real
differences are minimal. Weber and Adorno's writings show similar traces of the influence of
Nietzsche.
9. As we have already mentioned, the loss of Gemeinschaft was an important theme not
only in the writings of Tnnies and other German sociologists, but in literature and the
humanities as well. Yet Tnnies was not only harking back to a traditional Gemeinschaft, his
image of modern society, Gesellschaft, emphasizes that its very transitoriness and newness
meant that it could not be considered as a fixed end state. In effect Gesellschaft itself should
be considered as only a transitional and superficial phenomenon (Frisby, 1985b: 13). Tnnies
did not use the term postmodern, although like other German theorists influenced by the
Hegelian and Marxist traditions he could envisage something beyond the modern. This
something typically entailed an Aufhebung of capitalist modernity, which sought to utilize
technological developments to create some form of communal living that would provide social
and moral integration and realization of freedom and individuality.
10. The use of the term 'modern' can be traced back, much further than nineteenth-century
metropolises, or the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, or the early eighteenth-century 'battle
of the books', the quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns. The term 'modem',
Habermas (1981) reminds us, derives from the late fifth-century Latin term modernus, which
was used to demarcate a Christian present from a pagan past (Smart, 1990: 17). In this
context it points to a break in continuity, to the emergence of something new. Here we find
that the modern seems to suggest the destabilization of old categories and the sense of a new
start or new era. Vattimo (1988) suggests that modernity's key notion of progress was a
secularization of the Judaic-Christian notions of salvation and redemption. Postmodernity
entails the abandonment of this belief in development and perfectibility through scientific and
technological progress.
11. It has been argued that the sign-play and cultural fragmentation which some want to
see as a central feature of postmodernism is very much evident in the depictions of modemlt,
that we find in the accounts of the experience of the modern city in the writings of Benjamin,
Baudelaire and Simmel (Featherstone, 1991a: Ch. 5). From this perspective there are strong
continuities between modernism and postmodernism, as Lyotard has argued. See the oftquoted remark of Lyotard (1984: 79) that postmodernism 'is not modernism at its end but in
the nascent state, and this state is constant', which points to the transitoriness of the new and
the avant-garde impulses that are characteristic of artistic modernism (see also Frisby, 1985b;
Lichtblau, 1995). This stance, however, give* insufficient emphasis to the 'end of history'
arguments in postmodern theory in which while there is an endless parade of styles and
images these are merely replays of images taken from the imaginary museum of cultures and
histories (for a version of this perspective see Vattimo, 1988).
12. This is not to belittle the book, which is a work of careful scholarship. Rather it is to
suggest that it represents perhaps the end point of a particular approach to history which
would conceive social, cultural or local history in strictly local terms with the cut-off
boundary being the locality or nation-state. What does seem to be apparent is that the
movement towards postcolonial theory, world-systems theory and postmodernism which
gathered pace during the 1980s, has expanded the frame of reference towards the global and
encouraged a more relational focus. A book published only four years later by Catherine
Hall, While, Male and Middle Class (1992), not only focuses on gender relations like the Seed
and Wolff collection, but also considers the way in which English identities have been rooted
in imperial power. In this context one could also mention that an essay from the founder of
world-systems theory, Immanuel Wallerstein (1990) who has attacked the narrow focus upon
the nation-state, begins with a citation from Sidney Mintz's writings on sugar. The Power of
Sweetness and the Sweetness of Power (1988). One could envisage a similar book on cotton,
which would focus on the relations between Manchester capitalism and imperialist presence in
the Indian subcontinent and other colonies. Or, rather, we should add that this and similar
topics (chocolate, tea, etc.) are being addressed as student projects on cultural studies and
communications courses. We could also mention Said's Culture and Imperialism (1993) with
its relational interpretation of Jane Austen's novels to highlight the rare occluded references
she makes to the colonial source of the wealth on which the eighteenth-century English
country house society was based. In effect the premises and categories of taken-for-granted
worlds are challenged by these types of analysis.
13. For an account of the implications of the slave trade and the shipping of millions of
blacks across the Atlantic which emphasizes the hybrid nature of cultural identity and argues
that the enforced black migrations developed a counterculture to modernity see Gilroy, 1993.
This is intrinsic to modernity but is invariably left out of conventional accounts, which readily
take modernity's self-image as a starting point and have little conception of the integral rather
than aberrant nature of slavery, the 'dark side of modernity.'
14. Bacon is presented as one of the key figures in the development of modern science in
Horkheimer and Adomo's Dialectic of Enlightenment (1972). He is seen as obsessed by the
scientistic vision of dominating nature and controlling the world through scientific knowledge.
In common with other members of the Frankfurt School, Horkheimer and Adorno largely
concentrate on the 'internal' (i.e. capitalist modernity) narrative of the domination of
instrumental reason and do not focus on the place in this process of the West's relationship to
15. Here we should attempt to think through a set of categories which includes the various
possible meanings of the 'Japanization of the West', and not just the 'modernization of Japan'
(Miyoshi and Harootunian, 1989a).
16. Sociology has long neglected the analysis of the colonies. There is little sense of the
relational dependence of Western societies on colonies in accounts of the formation of
modernity (among the exceptions are King, 1990b, 1995; Hall, 1992c). In The Sociology of the
Colonies Maunier (1949: xi) takes a typically top-down, nation-state-inspired perspective when
he argues: T h e contact of groups or of peoples becomes a contact of civilizations, or of
cultural spheres, when it occurs between communities which have not the same form, the
same constitution, the same laws: which are therefore not on the same rung of the social
ladder. If they are obliged to live together, their problem is how best to pass from diversity to
uniformity, to reconcile difference and resemblance, to start from isolation and arrive at
fusion. Assimilation or adaption marks the path to unification'.
Abercrombie, ., Hill, S. and Turner, B. S. (1980) 77K Dominant ideology Thesis. London:
Allen & Unwin.
Abu-Lughod, J. (1991) 'Going beyond the global babble', in A. D. King (ed.) Culture,
Globalization and the World-system. London: Macmillan.
Albrow, M. (1990) Max Weber's Construction of Social Theory. London: Macmillan.
Alexander, J. (ed.) (1988) Durkhelmlan Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Anderson, B. (1991) Imagined Communities, revised edn, London: Verso.
Appadurai, A. (1986) 'Introduction: commodities and the politics of value', in A. Appadurai
(ed.) The Social Life of Things. Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres.
Appadurai, A. (1988) 'Putting hierarchy in its place', Cultural Anthropology, 3 (1).
Appadurai, A. (1990) 'Disjunction and difference in the global cultural economy', Theory,
Culture Society, 7 (2-3).
Arensberg, C. M. (1968) 77te Irish Countrymen. Garden City, NY: Natural History Press,
orig. publ. 1937.
Arensberg, C. M. and Kimball, S.T. (1940) Family and Community in Ireland. London: Peter
Arnason, J. (1987a) 'The modern constellation and the Japanese enigma', Part I, Thesis
Eleven, 17.
Arnason, J. (1987b) T h e modern constellation and the Japanese enigma'. Part II, Thesis
Arnason, J. (1990) 'Nationalism, globalization and modernity', in M. Featherstone (ed.)
Global Culture. London: Sage.
Axtman, R. (1993) 'Society, globalization and the comparative method', History of the
Human Sciences, 6 (2).
Banck, G. A. (1994) 'Mass consumption and urban contest in Brazil: some reflections on
lifestyle and class', Bulletin of Latin American Research, 13 (1): 45-60.
Bann, S. (1984) The Clothing of Clio: A Study of Representations of History In Nineteenth
Century Britain and France. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Barthes, R. (1982) Empire of Signs. London: Cape.
Battersby, C. (1989) Gender and Genius. London: Women's Press.
Baudelaire, C. (1972) T h e painter of modern life', in Selected Writings on Art and Literature.
Translated with an introduction by P. E. Charvet. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Baudrillard, J. (1970) La socliti de consummation, Paris: Gallimard.
Baudrillard, J. (1983a) Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e).
Baudrillard, J. (1983b) In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities. New York: Semiotext(e).
Baudrillard, J. (1993) Symbolic Exchange and Death. London: Sage.
Bauman, Z. (1973) Culture as Praxis. London: RouHedge.
Bauman, Z. (1988a) 'Is there a postmodern sociology?', Theory, Culture Society, 5 (2-3).
Bauman, Z. (1988b) Legislators and Interpreters. Cambridge: Polity.
Bauman, Z. (1990) 'Philosophical affinities of postmodern sociology', Sociological Review, 38
(3).
Bauman, Z. (1991} Modernity and Ambivalence. Cambridge: Polity.
Bauman, Z. (1992) Intimations of Postmodernity. London: Routledge.
Bell, D. (1976) Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. London: Heinemann.
Bell, D. (1980) 'Beyond modernism, beyond self, in SociologicalJoumeys: Essays 1960-1980.
London: Routledge.
Bell, C. and Newby, H. (1971) Community Studies. London: Allen St Unwin.
Bendix, R. (1970) 'Culture, social structure and change', in Embattled Reason: Essays on
Social Knowledge. New York: Oxford University Press.
Benedict, R. (1934) Patterns of Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Benedict, R. (1946) 77ie Chrysanthemum and the Sword. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Benjamin, W. (1973) Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism. London:
New Left Books.
Benjamin, W. (1977) The Origin of German Tragic Drama. London: New Left Books.
Benjamin, W. (1982) Das Passagenwerk, 2 vols, ed. R. Tiedennann, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
Bennett, T. et al. (1977) 77ie Study of Culture. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Bennett, T., Martin, G., Mercer, C. and Woollacott, T. (eds) (1981) Culture, Ideology and
Social Process. London: Batsford.
Bergesen, A. (1990) Turning world-system theory on its head', in M. Featherstone (ed.)
Berman, M. (1982) All That Is Solid Melts into Air. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Berner, . and Korff, R. (1992) 'Strategies and counterstrategies: globalization and
localization from the perspective of the sociology of group conflict', University of Bielefeld,
mimeo.
Bhabha, . K. (1991) '"Race", time and the revision of modernity', Oxford Literary Review,
Bhabha, . K. (1994) The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.
Blundell, V., Shepherd, J. and Taylor, I. (eds) (1993) Relocating Cultural Studies. London:
Routledge.
Bologh, R. W. (1990) Love or Greatness. Max Weber and Masculine Thinking - a Feminist
Inquiry. London: Unwin Hyman.
Boon, i. (1973) 'Further operations of culture in anthropology*, in L. Schneider and C.
Bonjean (eds) The Idea of Culture in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Bourdieu, P. (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice, trans. Richard Nice. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1979) T h e production of belief: contribution to an economy of symbolic
goods'. Media, Culture Society, 2: 261-93.
Bourdieu, P. (1980) 'Sartre, or the invention of the total intellectual', London Review of
Books, 2 (22), 20 Nov-3 Dec.
Bourdieu, P. (1983a) T h e field of cultural production', Poetics, 12: 311-56.
Bourdieu, P. (1983b) T h e philosophical institution', in A. Montefiore (ed.) Philosophy in
France. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, trans. R. Nice.
Bourdieu, P. (1985) "The market of symbolic goods', Poetics, 14: 13-44.
Bourdieu, P. (1992) 'Thinking about limits', in M. Featherstone (ed.) Cultural Theory and
Cultural Change. London: Sage.
Bourdieu, P. and Darbel, A. (1966) L'Amour de l'art. Paris: Minuit.
Bourdieu, P. and Passe ron, J. C. (1971) La Reproduction. Paris: Minuit.
Bourdieu, P., Boltanski, L., Castel, R. and Chamboredon, J. C. (1965) Un Art moyen. Paris:
Minuit.
Bovone, L. (1989) "Theories of everyday life: a search for meaning or a negation of meaning',
Current Sociology, 37 (1).
Bradbury, M. and McFarlane, J. (eds) (1976) Modernism 1890-1930. Harmondsworth:
Penguin.
Brennen, T. (1990) 'The national longing for form', in H. Bhabha (ed.) Nation and Narration.
Brombert, V. (1960) The Intellectual Hero: Studies In the French Novel 1880-1955. London:
Faber & Faber.
Bruner, . M. (1989) O f cannibals, tourist* and ethnographers', Cultural Anthropology, 4 (4).
Buci-Glucksmann, C. (1994) Baroque Reason. London: Sage.
Buclc-Morss, S. (1989) Dialectic of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Burger, P. (1984) Theory of the Avant-Garde. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Burke, P. (1978) Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe. London: Temple Smith.
Burke, P. (1989) 'New reflections on world history', Culture and History, 5.
Campbell, C. (1987) 77ie Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Canevacci, M. (1992) 'Image accumulation and cultural syncretism'. Theory, Culture
Society, 9 (3).
Castells, M. (1994) 'European cities, the informational society and the global economy', New
Left Review, Issue 204: 19-32.
Chambers, I. (1987) 'Maps for the metropolis: a possible guide for the postmodern', Cultural
Studies, 1 (1).
Chambers, I. (1990) Border Dialogues: Journeys in Postmodernity. London: Routledge.
Chambers, I. (1994) Migrancy, Culture and Identity. London: Routledge.
Chancy, D. (1986) "The symbolic form of ritual in mass communication', in P. Golding (ed.)
Communicating Politics. Leicester Leicester University Press.
Chatterjee, P. (1993) The Nation and its Fragments. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Clarke, J., Critcher, C. and Johnson, R. (eds) (1979) Working Class Culture. London:
Hutchinson.
Clegg, S. (1989) Frameworks of Power. London: Sage.
Clifford, J. (1988) The Predicament of Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Clifford, J. (1989) 'Notes on travel and theory', Inscriptions, 5: 177-88.
Clifford, J. (1992) 'Traveling cultures', in L. Grossberg, C. Nelson and P. Triechler (eds)
Cultural Studies. London: Routledge.
Clifford, J. and Marcus, G. (eds) (1986) Writing Culture. Berkeley: California University
Cohen, A. (1985) The Symbolic Construction of Community. London: Tavistock.
Connerton, P. (1989) How Society Remembers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Connolly, W. (1994) 'Tocqueville, territory and violence', 77ieory, Culture Society, 11 (1).
Cooke, P. (1988) 'Modernity, postmodernity and the city', Theory, Culture Society, 5 (2-3).
Cooke, P. (1990a) Back to the Future: Modernity, Postmodernity and Locality. London:
Unwin Hyman.
Cooke, P. (1990b) 'Locality, structure and agency: a theoretical analysis'. Cultural
Anthropology, 5 (1).
Cornwall, A. and Lindisfame, N. (eds) (1994) Dislocating Masculinity. London: Routledge.
Coser, L. (1977) 'George Simmel', in Masters of Sociological Thought, 2nd edn. New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovkh.
Crane, D. (1987) The Transformation of the Avant-Garde. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Crapanzo, V. (1980) Tuhami: Portrait of a Moroccan. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Crapanzo, V. (1992) Hermes' Dilemma and Hamlet's Desire. On the Eplstemology of
Interpretation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Critcher, C. (1979) 'Sociology, cultural studies and the postwar working class', in J. Clarke,
C. Critcher and R. Johnson (eds) Working Class Culture. London: Hutchinson.
Culler, J. (1983) On Deconstruction. London: Routledge.
Dahrendorf, R. (1987) 'Max Weber and modern social science', in W. J. Mommsen and J.
Osterhammel (eds) Max Weber and his Contemporaries. London: Allen & Unwin.
Darnton, R. (1983) The Literary Underground of the Old Regime. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Davidoff, L. (1973) The Best Circles: Society, Etiquette and Season. London: Croom Helm.
Davis, F. (1974) Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia. New York: Free Press.
Davis, . (1992) 'Beyond Blade Runner, urban control and the ecology of fear', Westfield,
NJ: Open Magazine Pamphlet Series,
de Certeau, M. (1981) T h e discovery of everyday life, a sample', Tabloid, 3: 24-30.
de Certeau, M. (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: California University Press.
Debord, G. (1970) Society of the Spectacle. Detroit: Red & Black.
Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1983) Anti-Oedipus. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press.
Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1987) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia.
Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press.
Dennis, N., Henrique*, F. and Slaughter, C. (1956) Coal is Our Life. London: Tavistock.
Derrida, J. (1973) Speech and Phenomena (and Other Essays) on Husserl's Theory of Signs.
Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Dezalay, Y. (1990) T h e big bang and the law', in M. Featherstone (ed.) Global Culture.
London: Sage.
Donaldson, P. (1975) Edward VIII. Philadelphia.
Dorfman, A. and Mattelart, A. (1975) How to Read Donald Duck. New York: International
General Editions.
Douglas, M. and Isherwood, B. (1980) 77K World of Goods. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Dumont, L. (1986) 'Collective identities and universalist ideology, the actual interplay',
77ieory, Culture Society, 3 (3): 25-34.
Drkheim, . (1961) 77te Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. New York: Collier.
Drkheim, . (1969) 'Individualism and the intellectuals', Political Studies, 17.
Dyan, D. and Katz, E. (1988) 'Articulating consensus: the ritual and rhetoric of media
events', in J. C. Alexander (ed.) Durkheimlan Sociology: Cultural Studies. Cambridge:
Dyer, R. (1979) Stars. London: British Film Institute.
Eagleton, T. (1984) The Function of Criticism. London: Verso.
Eckstein, M. (1990) The Rites of Spring. The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age.
New York: Doubleday.
Elias, . (1971) 'Sociology of knowledge: new perspectives, part , Sociology, 5.
Elias, . (1978) 77ie Civilizing Process, Volume I: the History of Manners. Oxford: Blackwell.
Elias, . (1982) 77ie Civilizing Process Volume 2: State Formation and Civilization. Oxford:
Elias, . (1983) 77i Court Society. Oxford: Blackwell.
Elias, . (1984) 'On the sociogenesis of sociology', Sociologist Tljdschrift, 11 (1).
Elias, . (1987a) T h e retreat of sociologists into the present', Theory, Culture Society, 4
(2-3).
Elias, . (1987b) 'The changing balance of power between the sexes'. Theory, Culture <t
Society, 4 (2-3).
Elias, . (1987c) Involvement and Detachment. Oxford: Blackwell.
Elias, . (1987d) Interview with M. Featherstone et al.. University of Teesside, mimeo.
Elias, . and . Dunning (1987) Quest for Excitement: Sport and Leisure In the Civilizing
Process. Oxford: Blackwell.
Elias, . and Scotson, J. L. (1994) The Established and the Outsiders, revised edn. London:
Sage.
Enloe, C. (1989) Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Feminism and International Politics. Berkeley:
California University Press.
Ewen, S. (1976) Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer
Culture. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Ewen, S. and Ewen, E. (1982) Channels of Desire. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Eyerman, R. and Lofgren, O. (1995) 'Road movies'. Theory, Culture Society, 12 (1).
Featherstone, M. (1990) 'Global culture: an introduction', in M. Featherstone (ed.) Global
Culture. London: Sage.
Featherstone, M. (1991a) Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. London: Sage.
Featherstone, M. (1991b) 'Georg Simmel: an introduction', Theory, Culture Society, 8 (3):
1-16.
Featherstone, M. (1995) in M. Featherstone and A. Wernick (cds) Images of Ageing. London:
Featherstone, M. and Burrows, R. (eds) (1995) Cyberbodies, Cyberspace and Cyberpunk.
London: Sage. (Also special issue of Body & Society 1 (3), 1995.
Featherstone, M. and Lash, S. (1995) 'Globalization, modernity and the spatialization of
social theory', in M. Featherstone, S. Lash and R. Robertson (eds) Global Modernities.
Fechter, . (1948) Menschen und Zeiten. Gtersloh: Berdelsmann.
Feldman-Bianco, Bella (1992) 'Multiple layers of time and space: the construction of class,
ethnicity and nationalism among Portuguese immigrants', in N. G. Schiller, L. Bsch and
C. Blanc-Szanton (eds.) Towards a Transnational Perspective on Migration: Race, Class,
Ethnicity and Nationalism Reconsidered. Annals of the New York Academy of Science,
Vol. 645. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.
Fiefer, . (1985) Going Places. London: MacmiUan.
Fiske, J. and Hartley, J. (1978) Reading Television. London: Methuen.
Fiske, J., Hodge, B. and Turner, G. (eds) (1987) Myths of Oz. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Fjellman, S. J. (1992) Vinyl Leaves: Walt Disney World and America. Boulder, CO: Westview
Foucault, M. (1971) Madness and Civilization. London: Tavistock.
Foucault, M. (1986) 'What is enlightenment?*, in P. Rabinow (ed.) The Foucault Reader.
Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Foucault, M. (1987) 77te Use of Pleasure. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Frankenberg, R. (1966) Communities in Britain. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Friedman, J. (1987) 'Prolegomena to the adventures of Phallus in Blunderland: an anti-anti
discourse', Culture A History, 1 (1).
Friedman, J. (1988) 'Cultural logics of the global system', Theory, Culture A Society, 5 (2-3),
special issue on postmodernism.
Friedman, J. (1990) 'Being in the world: globalization and localization', in M. Featherstone
(ed.) Global Culture. London: Sage.
Friedman, J. (1992) 'Narcissism, roots and postmodernity: the constitution of selfhood in the
global crisis', in S. Lash and J. Friedman (eds) Modernity and identity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Frisby, D. (1981) Sociological Impressionism: A Reassessment of Georg Simmel's Social
Theory. London: Heinemann.
Frisby, D. (1985a) 'Georg Simmel, first sociologist of modernity'. Theory, Culture A Society, 2
Frisby, D. (1985b) Fragments of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity.
Frisby, D. and Saver, D. (1986) Society. London: Tavistock.
Frith, S. (1983) Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure and the Politics of Rock '' Roll. London:
Constable.
Frith, S. and Home, H. (1987) Art into Pop. London: Methuen.
Fussell, P. (1980) Abroad. British Literary Travelling between the Wars. Oxford: Oxford
Fussell, P. (1982) 77i Great War and Modern Memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gabriel, . H. (1990) Thoughts on nomadic aesthetics and the black independent cinema:
traces of a journey', in R. Ferguson, M. Gever, . T. Minh-ha and C. West (eds) Out
There: Marginalization and Contemporary Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Game, A. (1990) 'Nation and identity: Bondi', New Formations, 11.
Game, A. (1991) Undoing the Social. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Gay, P. (1973) The Enlightenment, vol. 1. London: Wildwood House.
Geertz, C. (1983) Local Knowledge. New York: Harper.
Gellner, E. (1983) Nations and Nationalism. Oxford: Blackwell.
Gerth, . H. and Mills, C. W. (1948) From Max Weber. London: Routledge.
Gessner, V. and Schade, A. (1990) 'Conflicts of culture in cross-border legal relations',
TTwory, Culture A Society, 7 (2-3).
Giddens, A. (1990) 77ie Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Giddens, . (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Giddens, A. (1994) 'Living in a post-traditional society', in U. Beck, A. Giddens and S. Lash
(eds) Reflexive Modernization. Cambridge: Polity.
Gilroy, P. (1993) The Black Atlantic. London: Verso.
Gledhill, C. (1991) Stardom: Industry of Desire. London: Routledge.
Goldman, H. (1988) Max Weber and Thomas Mann. Berkeley. California University Press.
Goldman, R. and Wilson, J. (1983) 'Appearance and essence: the commodity form revealed in
perfume advertisements', Current Perspectives in Social Theory, 4.
Goldscheid, R. (1904) 'Review of Philosophie des Geldes', Archiv fr systematische Philosophie,
Gooding-Williams, R. (1987) 'Nietzsche's pursuit of modernism', New German Critique, 41.
Gouldner, A. (1975) 'Sociology and the everyday life', in L. Coser (ed.) 77ie Idea of Social
Science. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.
Grafton, A. (1992) New Worlds, Ancient Texts: the Power and Shock of Discovery.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Green, B. S. (1988) Literary Methods and Sociological Theory: Case Studies of Simmel and
Weber. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Green, M. (1976) 77ie von Richthoven Sisters. New York: Basic Books.
Grossberg, L., Nelson, C. and Triechler, P. (eds) (1992) Cultural Studies. London: Routledge.
Gungwu, Wang (1993) 'Migration and its enemies', in B. Mazlish and R. Builtjens (eds)
Conceptualizing Global History. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Gupta, S. (ed.) (1993) Disrupted Borders. London: Rivers Oram Press.
Gupta, A. and Ferguson, J. (1992) 'Beyond "culture": space, identity, and the politics of
difference'. Cultural Anthropology, 7 (1): 6-23.
Habermas, J. (1974) T h e public sphere'. New German Critique, 3.
Habermas, J. (1981) Theorie des Kommunikativen Handelns, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Habermas, J. (1984a) The Theory of Communicative Action Volume 1. London: Heinemann.
Habermas, J. (1984b) 'Remettre le mobile en mouvement', Le monde d'aujowd'hui, 6 August.
Habermas, J. (1988) The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity.
Habermas, J. (1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Cambridge: Polity.
Haferkamp, . (1987) 'Beyond the iron cage of modernity', Theory, Culture Society, 4 (1).
Halb wachs, . (1992) On Collective Memory. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Hall, C. (1992) White, Male and Middle Class. Cambridge: Polity.
Hall, S. (1991) O l d and new identities', in A. King (ed.) Culture. London: Sage.
Hall, S. (1992a) 'Introduction', to S. Hall and B. Gieben (eds) Formation of Modernity.
Cambridge: Polity.
Hall, S. (1992b) T h e question of cultural identity', in S. Hall, D. Held and T. McGrew (eds)
Modernity and its Futures. Cambridge: Polity.
Hall, S. (1992c) T h e rest and the West: discourse and power', in S. Hall and B. Gieben (eds)
Formation of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity.
Hall, S., Hobson, D., Lowe, D. and Willis, P. (eds) (1980) Culture, Media and Language.
London: Hutchinson.
Hannerz, U. (1990) 'Cosmopolitans and locals in world culture'. Theory, Culture Society, 7
Hannerz, U. (1991) 'Scenarios for peripheral cultures', in A. King (ed.) Culture, Globalization
and the World-System. London: Macmillan.
Harvey, D. (1989) 77 Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hatch, E. (1973) Theories of Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
Hebdige, D. (1979) Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Methuen.
Hebdige, D. (1982) T h e cultural politics of pop', Block.
Hebdige, D. (1988) Hiding in the Light. London: Routledge.
Held, D. (1980) Introduction to Critical Theory. London: Hutchinson.
Heller, A. (1978) Renaissance Man. London: Routledge.
Heller, A. (1984) Everyday Life. London: Routledge.
Heller, A. (1990) Can Modernity Survive? Cambridge: Polity.
Hennis, W. (1988) Max Weber: Essays in Reconstruction. London: Allen & Unwin.
Henrich, D. (1987) 'Karl Jaspers: thinking with Max Weber in mind', in W. J. Mommsen and
J. Osterhammel (eds) Max Weber and his Contemporaries. London: Allen & Unwin.
Higson, A. (1989) "The concept of national cinema', Screen, 30 (4).
Hirsch, F. (1976) The Social Limits to Growth. London: Routledge.
Hoggart, R. (1957) The Uses of Literacy. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Hohendahl, P. U. (1982) 77w Institution of Criticism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Horkheimer, . and Adorno, . (1972) Dialectic of Enlightenment. New York: Herder &
Herder.
Huyssen, A. (1986) 'Mass culture as women: modernism's other', in After the Great Divide.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Iyer, P. (1989) Video Nights In Kathmandu: Reports from the Not-So-Far East. London: Black
Swan.
Jackson, B. (1968) Working Class Community. London: Routledge.
Jacoby, R. (1987) The Last Intellectuals. New York: Basic Books.
Jameson, F. (1979) 'Relocation and Utopia in mass culture', Social Text, 1 (1).
Jameson, F. (1984a) 'Postmodernism or the cultural logic of late capitalism'. New Left
Review, 146: 52-92.
Jameson, F. (1984b) 'Postmodernism and the consumer society', in H. Foster (ed.)
Postmodern Culture. London: Pluto.
Jaspers, K. (1989) Karl Jaspers on Max Weber. New York: Paragon House.
Jusserand, J. J. (1973) English Wayfaring Life In the Middle Ages. Boston: Milford House.
Kamper, D. (1990) 'After modernism: outline of an aesthetics of posthistory'. Theory, Culture
A Society, 7 (1).
Kaplan, E. A. (1987) Rocking around the Clock. London: Methuen.
Kasson, J. F. (1990) Rudeness and Civility. New York: Hill A Wang.
Kellner, D. (1983) 'Critical theory, commodities and the consumer society', Theory, Culture A
Society, 3 (3): 66-83.
Kern, S. (1983) 77i Culture of Time and Space 1880-1918. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
King, A. D. (1990a) 'Architecture, capital and the globalization of culture', in M.
Featherstone (ed.) Global Culture. London: Macmillan.
King, A. D. (1990b) Global Cities. London: Routledge.
King, A. D. (1995) T h e times and spaces of modernity (or who needs postmodernism?)' in
M. Featherstone, S. Lash and R. Robertson (eds) Global Modernities. London: Sage.
Kirkpatrick, John (1989) Trials of identity in America', Cultural Anthropology, 4 (3): 301-11.
Kitto, H. D. F. (1951) The Greeks. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Klapp, . . (1969) The Collective Search for Identity. New York: Holt, Rinehart A Winston.
Knorr-Cetina, K. (1981) The Manufacture of Knowledge. An Essay on the Constructivist and
Contextual Nature of Science. Oxford: Pergamon.
Knorr-Cetina, K. (1994) 'Primitive classification and postmodernity: towards a sociological
notion of fiction', Theory, Culture A Society, 11 (3).
Krauss, R. (1984) T h e originality of the avant-garde: a postmodern repetition', in B. Wallis
(ed.) Art after Modernism. New York: Museum of Contemporary Art.
Kroeber, A. L. (1948) T h e nature of culture', in Cultural Patterns and Processes. New York:
Harcourt, Brace and World.
Kroker, A. and Cook, D. (1988) The Postmodern Scene. New York: St Martin's Press.
Laing, S. (1986) Representations of Working Class Life 1957-1964. London: Macmillan.
Lamont, M. and Lareau, A. (1988) 'Cultural capital: elisons, gaps and glissandos in recent
theoretical developments', Sociological Theory, 6 (2): 153-68.
Las Casas, . de (1992) A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. Harmondsworth:
Lasch, C. (1991) 77ie True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics. New York: Norton.
Lash, S. (1988) 'Discourse or figure'. Theory, Culture A Society, 5 (2-3).
Lash, S. and Urry, J. (1987) 77ie End of Organized Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity.
Lash, S. and Urry, J. (1993) Economies of Signs and Spaces. London: Sage.
Lassman, P. and Velody, I. with Martins, H. (eds) (1989) Max Weber's Science as a Vocation.
London: Unwin Hyman.
Latour, . (1987) Science In Action. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Latour, . (1993) We Have Never Been Modern. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Leed, . J. (1991) The Mind of the Traveler. New York: Basic Books.
Lefebvre, H. (1971) Everyday Life in the Modern World. Harmondsworth: Penguin, orig. publ.
Leiss, W. (1978) 77ie Limits to Satisfaction. London: Marion Boyars.
Leise, W. (1983) T h e icons of the marketplace', Theory. Culture A Society, 1 (3).
Leiss, W., Kline, S. and Jhally, S. (1986) Social Communication In Advertising. London:
Methuen.
Levine, D. (1965) Wax and Gold: Tradition and Innovation In Ethiopian Culture. Chicago:
Chicago University Press.
Levine, D. (1985) 77i* Flight from Ambiguity. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Levi-Strauss, C. (1976) Tristes Tropiques. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Ley, D. (1989) 'Modernism, post-modernism and the struggle for place', in J. A. Agnew and
J. A. Duncan (eds) The Power of Place. London: Unwin Hyman.
Lichtblau, . (1995) 'Sociology and the diagnosis of the times: or the reflexivity of
modernity", jf7ieory. Culture A Society, 12 (1).
Liebersohn, . (1988) Fate and Utopia In German Sociology 1870-1923. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.
Liebersohn, . (1989-90) "Review of Marianne Weber Max Weber: A Biography, with a new
Introduction by Guenther Roth', Telos, 78.
Liu, A. (1990) 'Local transcendence: cultural criticism, postmodernism and the romanticism
of detail', Representations, 32.
Linder, . S. (1970) The Harried Leisure Class. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lindholm, C. (1990) Charisma. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lowenthal, L. (1961) Literature. Popular Culture and Society. Palo Alto: Pacific Books.
Luke, T. (1995) 'New world order or new world orders? Power, politics and ideology in the
informationalizing glocal order', in M. Featherstone, S. Lash and R. Robertson (eds)
Global Modernities. London: Sage.
Lunn, E. (1986) 'Cultural populism and egalitarian democracy'. Theory and Society, 15: 479
Lutkehaus, N. C. (1989) '"Excuse me, everything is not all right": an interview with film
maker Dennis O'Rourke", Cultural Anthropology, 4 (4).
Lynd, D. and Lynd, H. (1929) Middktown. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Lynd, D. and Lynd, H. (1937) Middletown In Transition. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Lyotard, J.-F. (1984) The Postmodern Condition. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
MacCannell D. (1992) Empty Meeting Grounds. The Tourist Papers. London: Routledge.
McGrane, B. (1989) Beyond Anthropology: Society and the Other. New York: Columbia
McKendrick, N., Brewer, J. and Plumb, J. H. (1982) 77ie Birth of a Consumer Society.
London: Europa.
Maclntyre, A. (1981) After Virtue. London: Duckworth.
Maffesoli, M. (1988) Le Temps des tribus. Paris: Meridiens Klincksiek.
Maffesoli, M. (1989) 'The sociology of everyday life (epistemolgica! elements)', Current
Sociology, 37 (1).
Maffesoli, M. (1991) 'The ethic of aesthetics', Theory. Culture A Society, 8 (1).
Maffesoli, M. (1995) 77K Time of the Tribes. London: Sage.
Malkki, Liisa (1992) 'National Geographic, the rooting of peoples and the territorialization of
national identity among scholars and refugees', Cultural Anthropology, 7: 24-44.
Manasse, E.M. (1957) 'Jaspers' relation to Weber', in P. A. Schlipp (ed.) The Philosophy of
Karl Jaspers. New York: Tudor Publishing.
Mandel, . (1975) Late Capitalism. London: New Left Books.
Mannheim, K. (1956) T h e problem of the intelligentsia', in E, Mannheim and P.
Kecskennseti (eds) Essays on the Sociology of Culture. London: Routledge.
Maravall, J. A. (1986) Culture of the Baroque. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Marcus, G. (1992a) 'Past, present and emergent identities: requirements for ethnography in
late twentieth century modernity', in S. Lash and J. Friedman (eds) Modernity and Identity.
Oxford: Blackwell.
Marcus, G. (ed.) (1992b) Rereading Cultural Anthropology. Durham, NC: Duke University
Marcus, G. and Fischer, . M. J. (1986) Anthropology as Cultural Critique. Chicago: Chicago
Marcuse, H. (1964) One-dimensional Man. London: Routledge.
Marshall, G. (1982) In Search of the Spirit of Capitalism. London: Hutchinson.
Martin, B. (1981) A Sociology of Contemporary Cultural Change. Oxford: Blackwell.
Maruyama, M. (1969) Thought and Behaviour In Japanese Politics. London: Oxford
Mattelart, A. (1979) Multinational Corporations and the Control of Culture. Brighton:
Harvester.
Maunier, J. (1949) 77ie Sociology of the Colonies. London: Routledge.
Maybury-Lewis, D. (1992a) 'On the importance of being tribal', Utney Reader, 52 (JulyAugust).
Maybury-Lewis, D. (1992b) Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World. New York:
Viking Penguin.
Mazlish, B. (1994) T h e flaneur, from spectator to representation', in K. Tester (ed.) 77ie
Flaneur. London: Routledge.
Mellencamp, P. (ed.) (1990) The Logics of Television. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Mennell, S. (1985) All Manners of Food. Oxford: Blackwell.
Mennell, S. (1987) 'On the civilizing of appetite', Theory, Culture Society, 4 (2-3): 373-403.
Mennell, S. (1989) Norbert Ellas. Oxford: Blackwell.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964a) T h e eye and the mind', in The Primacy of Perception. Evanston:
Northwestern University Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964b) Sense and Non-Sense. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Meyrowitz, J. (1985) No Sense of Place. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Middleton, D. and Edwards, D. (eds) (1990) Collective Remembering. London: Sage.
Minh-ha, Trinh T. (1989) Woman. Native, Other. Writing Postcolonlaltty and Feminism.
Minchinton, W. (1982) 'Convention, fashion and consumption: aspects of British experience
since 1750', in H. Baudel and H. van der Meulen (eds) Consumer Behaviour and Economic
Growth. London: Croom Helm.
Mintz, S. (1988) The Power of Sweetness and the Sweetness of Power (8th Duiker Lecture).
Deventen Van Loghum Slaterus.
Mitsuhiro, Y. (1989) 'Postmodernism and mass images in Japan', Public Culture, 1 (2).
Mitterauer, . (1992) A History of Youth. Oxford: Blackwell.
Miyoshi, M. (1991) Off Center: Power and Culture Relations between Japan and the United
Slates. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Miyoshi, M. and Harootunian, H. (1989a) 'Introduction', in H. Harootunian and M. Myoshi
(eds) Postmodernism and Japan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Miyoshi, M. and Harootunian, H. (eds) (1989b) Postmodernism and Japan. Durham, NC:
Duke University Press.
Moch, L. P. (1992) Moving Europeans. Migrations in Western Europe Since 1650.
Mollenkopf, J. and Castells, M. (eds) (1991) Dual City: Restructuring New York. New York:
Russell Sage Foundation.
Monk, R. (1990) Ludwig Wittgenstein. London: Cape.
Moore, P. (ed.) (1989) Genius: The History of an Idea. Oxford: Blackwell.
Moore, S. F. (1989) "The production of cultural pluralism as a process'. Public Culture, 1 (2).
Moore, W. . (1966) 'Global sociology: the world as a singular system', American Journal of
Sociology, 71.
Morley, D. (1991) 'Where the global meets the local: notes from the sitting room', Screen, 32
Morris, M. (1990) 'Banality in cultural studies', in P. Mellencamp (ed.) Logics of Television.
Morris, M. (1992) T h e man in the mirror. David Harvey's Condition of Postmodemity', in M.
Featherstone (ed.) Cultural Theory and Cultural Change. London: Sage.
Moscovici, S. (1990) 'Questions for the twenty-first century', Theory. Culture A Society, 7 (4).
New Formations (1983) Formations of Pleasure. London: Routledge.
Nicholson, L. J. (ed.) (1990) Feminism)Postmodernism. London: Routledge.
Nisbet, R. (1967) The Sociological Tradition. London: Heinemann.
Obeyeskere, G. (1992) The Apotheosis of Captain Cook. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
O'Pray, M. (ed.) (1989) Andy Warhol Film Factory. London: British Film Institute.
Osborne, P. (1992) 'Modernity is a qualitative, not a chronological category', in F. Barker, P.
Hulme and M. Iverson (eds) Postmodernism and the Re-reading of Modernity. Manchester:
Manchester University Press.
Pearson, G. (1985) 'Lawlessness, Modernity and Social Change', Theory, Culture A Society, 2
Pels, D. and Crebas, A. (1988) 'Carmen or the invention of a new feminine myth', Theory,
Culture A Society, 5 (4). Reprinted in M. Featherstone, M. Hepworth and B. S. Turner
(eds) The Body: Social Process and Cultural Theory. London: Sage (1991].
Portis, . B. (1973) 'Max Weber's theory of personality', Sociological Inquiry, 48 (2).
Preteceille, E. and Terrail, J. P. (1985) Capitalism, Consumption and Needs. Oxford: Blackwell.
Reddy, W. M. (1984) The Rise of Market Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richards, J. (1984) The Age of the Dream Palace: Cinema and Society in Britain 1930-1939.
Richardson, M. (1992) 'The sacred and the College de Sociologie', Theory, Culture A Society,
9(3).
Rieff, P. (1990) 'The impossible culture: Wilde as a modern prophet', in The Feeling Intellect.
Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Ritzer, G. (1993) The McDonaldization of Society. London: Sage.
Robertson, R. (1982) 'Review of D. Frisby Sociological Impressionism', Theory, Culture A
Society, 1 (I).
Robertson, R. (1990a) 'Mapping the global condition', in M. Featherstone (ed.) Global
Robertson, R. (1990b) 'After nostalgia? Wilful nostalgia and the phase of globalization', in
B. S. Turner (ed.) Theories of Modernity and Postmodemity. London: Sage.
Robertson, R. (1991) 'Social, theory, cultural relativity and the problem of globality', in
A. D. King (ed.) Culture, Globalization and the World System. New York: Macmillan.
Robertson, R. (1992a) Globalization. London: Sage.
Robertson, R. (1992b) 'Globality and modernity', Theory, Culture A Society, 9 (2).
Robertson, R. (1995) 'Globalization: time-space and homogeneity-heterogeneity', in M.
Featherstone, S. Lash and R. Robertson (eds) Global Modernities. London: Sage.
Rojek, C. (1995) Decentring Leisure. London: Sage.
Roth, G. (1988) 'Introduction to Marianne Weber', Max Weber: A Biography. 2nd edn. New
York: Wiley.
Rorty, R. (1986) 'Freud and moral reflection', in J. H. Smith and W. Kerrigan (eds)
Pragmatism's Freud. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Rosaldo, R. (1993) Culture and Truth: the Remaking of Social Analysis. London: Routledge.
Sahlins, M. (1976) Culture and Practical Reason. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Said, E. W. (1978) Orientalism. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Said, E. W. (1993) Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage.
Sakai, N. (1989) 'Modernity and its critique: the problem of universalism and particularism',
in M. Miyoshi and H. D. Harootunian (eds) Postmodernism and Japan. Durham, NC:
Sassen, S. (1991) Global Cities: New York, London. Tokyo. Princeton: Princeton University
Sayre, . M. (1989) The Object of Performance: The American Avant-Garde since 1970.
ScafT, L. A. (1989) Fleeing the Iron Cage: Culture, Politics and Modernity in the Thought of
Max Weber. Berkeley: California University Press.
Scaff, L. A. (1990) 'Georg Simmel's theory of culture*, in M. Kaern, B. S. Phillips and R. S.
Cohen (eds) Georg Simmel and Contemporary Sociology. Dordrecht: KJuwer.
Sehe ff, . J. (1990) 'Language acquisition versus formal education: a theory of genius', in
Microsoctology: Discourse, Emotion and Social Structure. Chicago: Chicago University
Schiller, . I. (1976) Communications and Cultural Domination. New York: Sharpe.
Schiller, . I. (1983) 'Electronic information flows: new basis for global domination?', in P.
Drummond and R. Patterson (eds) Television In Transition. London: British Film Institute.
Schor, N. (1987) Reading In Detail: Aesthetics and the Feminine. London: Methuen.
Schutz, A. (1962) 'On multiple realities', in Collected Papers Volume 1. The Hague: Nijhoflf.
Schutz, A. (1964) 'Don Quixote and the problem of reality', in Collected Papers Volume 3.
The Hague: Nijhoff.
Schwentker, W. (1987) 'Passion as a mode of life: Max Weber, the Otto Gross Circle and
eroticism', in W. J. Mommsen and J. Osterhammel (eds) Max Weber and his
Contemporaries. London: Allen & Unwin.
Seed, J. and Wolff, J. (eds) (1988) 77ie Culture of Capital: Art, Power and the NineteenthCentury Middle Class. Manchester Manchester University Press.
Seigel, J. (1986) Bohemian Paris. New York: Viking.
Serres, . (1991) Rome: the Book of Foundations. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Sharrock. W. and Anderson, B. (1986) The Ethnomethodologists. London: Tavistock.
Shils, E. (1960) 'Mass society and its culture', Daedalus, 89 (. 288-314.
Shotter, J. (1993) Cultural Politics of Everyday Life. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Shusterman, R. (1988) 'Postmodern aesthetidsm: a new moral philosophy?', Theory, Culture
A Society, 5 (2-3).
Simmel, G. (1923) 'Rodin', in Philosophische Kultur, 3rd edn. Potsdam.
Simmel, G. (1968) O n the concept of the tragedy of culture', in 77ie Conflict in Modern
Culture and Other Essays. New York: Teachers College Press.
Simmel, G. (1971a) T h e adventurer' in D. L. Levine (ed.) Georg Simmel on Individuality and
Social Forms. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Simmel, G. (1971b) 'Sociability', in D. L. Levine (ed.) Georg Simmel on Individuality and
Simmel, G. (1971c) 'Subjective culture', in D. L. Levine (ed.) Georg Simmel on Individuality
and Social Forms. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Simmel, G. (1971d) T h e metropolis and mental life', in D. Levine (ed.) Georg Simmel on
Individuality and Social Forms. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Simmel, G. (1977) The Problem of a Philosophy of History, trans, and ed. G. Oakes, New
York: Free Press.
Simmel, G. (1978) 77I Philosophy of Money, trans. T. Bottomore and D. Frisby. London:
Simmel, G. (1983) Philosophische Kultur. Berlin: Wagenbach.
Simmel, G. (1986) Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Amherst: Massachusetts University Press.
Simmel, G. (1990) 77i Philosophy of Money, 2nd edn, trans. D Frisby. London: Routledge
Simmel, G. (1991) T h e Berlin Trade Exhibition', 77ieory, Culture Society, 8 (3).
Simmel, G. (1995) 'Fashion', in D. Frisby and M. Featherstone (eds) Simmel on Culture.
Smart, B. (1990) 'Modernity, postmodemity and the present', in B. S. Turner (ed.) Theories of
Modernity and Postmodemity. London: Sage.
Smith, A. D. (1990) Towards a global culture?' Theory, Culture A Society, 5 (2-3).
Soja, . (1989) Postmodern Geographies. London: Verso.
Springborg, P. (1981) 77K Problem of Human Needs and the Critique of Civilisation. London:
Allen &, Unwin.
Stallybrass, P. and White, A. (1986) The Politics and Poetics of Transgression. London:
Staude, J. R. (1967) Max Scheler: An intellectual Portrait 1874-1928. New York: Free Press.
Staude, J. R. (1990) 'George Simmel and Max Scheler', University of Teesside, mi meo.
Stauth, G. and Turner, B. S. (1988a) Nietzsche's Dance. Oxford: Blackwell.
Stauth, G. and Turner, B. S. (1988b) 'Nostalgia, postmodernism and the critique of mass
culture', 77iory, Culture Society, 5 (2-3): 509-26.
Stead, P. (1989) Film and the Working Class. London: Routledge.
Stein, M. (1960) Eclipse of Community. New York: Harper.
Suttles, G. (1991) 'Preface', to Kamikaze Biker. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Swanson, G. E. (1992) 'Modernity and the postmodern', Theory, Culture A Society, 9 (2).
Swingewood, A. (1977) The Myth of Mass Culture. London: Methuen.
Tagg, J. (1991) 'Globalization, totalization and the discursive field', in A. King (ed.) Culture,
Taussig, M. (1980) The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America. Chapel Hill: North
Carolina University Press.
Taussig, M. (1987) Shamanism, Colonialism and the Wild Man: A Study of Terror and
Healing. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Taylor, C. (1992) The Politics of Multicultwalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Tenbruck, F. (1980) T h e problem of thematic unity in the work of Max Weber*. British
Journal of Sociology, 31.
Tenbruck, F. (1990) T h e dream of a secular ecumene: the meaning and politics of
development', in M. Featherstone (ed.) Global Culture. London: Sage.
Tenbruck, F. (1994) 'History of society or universal history', Theory, Culture A Society, 11
Therbom, G. (1995) 'Routes to/through modernity', in M. Featherstone, S. Lash and R.
Robertson (eds) Global Modernities. London: Sage
Theroux, P. (1992) The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific. New York: Putnam.
Theweleit, K. (1987) Male Fantasies Volume I: Women, Floods, Bodies. History. Cambridge:
Polity.
Thomas, K. (1983) Man and the Natural World. Harmondsworth: Allen Lane.
Thornton, R. I. (1992) T h e rhetoric of ethnographic holism', in G. Marcus (ed.) Rereading
Cultural Anthropology. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Tibi, . (1995) 'Culture and knowledge: the politics of Islamisation of knowledge as a
postmodern project? The fundamentalist claim to de-Westernisation', Theory. Culture A
Society, 12 (1).
Todorov, T. (1984) 77ie Conquest of America. New York: Harper.
Tomlinson, J. (1991) Cultural Imperialism. London: Pinter.
Tnnies, F. (1955) Community and Association. London: Routledge.
Touraine, A. (1986) Le Retour de l'acteur. Paris. Traus. 77ie Return of the Actor. Minneapolis:
Minnesota University Press, 1988.
Turner, B. S. (1987) note on nostalgia', Theory. Culture A Society, 4 (1).
Turner, B. S. (1990a) T w o faces of sociology: global or national', in M. Featherstone (ed.)
Turner, B. S. (ed.) (1990b) 'Introduction', to B. S. Turner (ed.) Theories of Modernity and
Postmodernity. London: Sage.
Turner, C. (1990) 'Lyotard and Weber postmodern rules and neo-Kantian values', in B. S.
Turner (ed.) Theories of Modernity and Postmodernity. London: Sage.
Turner, G. (1990) British Cultural Studies. London: Unwin Hyman.
Turner, V. (1969) The Ritual Process: Structure and AntlStructure. Harmondsworth: Allen
Lane.
Tyssen, L. van Vucht (ed.) (1995) Modernization and the Search for Fundamentah. Dordrecht:
Kluwer.
Urry, J. (1990) The Tourist Gaze. London: Sage.
Urry, J. (1992) T h e tourist gaze and the "environment"', Theory, Culture A Society, 9 (3).
Van den Abbeele, O. (1992) Travel as Metaphor. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press.
Vattimo, G. (1988) The End of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity.
Vaughan, M. (1984) 'Intellectuals, nationalism and modernity', unpublished paper, University
of Lancaster.
Vehlen, T. (1953) The Leisure Class. New York: New American Library, orig. publ. 1891.
Viddich, A. and Bensman, J. (1958) Small Town In Mass Society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
Vowinckel, G. (1987) 'Command or refine? Culture patterns of cognitively organizing
emotions', Theory, Culture A Society, 4 (2-3): 489-514.
Walker, J. A. (1987) Crossovers: Art Into Pop/Pop Into Art. London: Methuen.
Wallace, A. F. C. (1970) Culture and Personality. New York.
Wallerstein, I. (1974) The Modem World-System I. London: Academic Press.
Walterstein, I. (1980) The Modern World-System II. London: Academic Press.
Wallerstein, I. (1987) 'World-systems analysis', in A. Giddens and J. Turner (eds) Social
Theory Today. Cambridge: Polity.
Wallerstein, I. (1990) 'Culture as the ideological battleground of the modern world-system', in
M. Featherstone (ed.) Global Culture. London: Sage.
Warner, W. L. and Lunt, P. S. (1941) 77I Social Life of a Modern Community. New Haven:
Yale University Press.
Wasielewski, P. L. (1985) T h e emotional basis of charisma', Symbolic Interaction, 8 (2).
Watier, P. (1991) T h e war writings of Georg Simmel', 77teory, Culture A Society, 8 (3),
special issue on Georg Simmel.
Weber, Marianne (1975) Max Weber: A Biography. New York: Wiley. (2nd revised edition
edited by G. Roth, 1989.)
Weber, Max (1948a) 'Politics as a vocation', in . H. Gerth and C. W. Mills (eds) From Max
Weber. London: Routledge.
Weber, Max (1948b) 'Science as a vocation', in . H. Gerth and C. W. Mills (eds) From Max
Weber, Max (1948c) 'Religious rejections of the world and their directions', in . H. Gerth
and C. W. Mills (eds) From Max Weber. London: Routledge.
Weber, Max (1948d) T h e sociology of charismatic authority', in . H. Gerth and C. Wright
Mills (eds) From Max Weber. London: Routledge.
Weber, Max (1949) T h e meaning of "ethical neutrality" in sociology and economies', in The
Methodology of the Social Sciences. New York: Free Press.
Weber, Max (1951) The Religion of China. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
Weingartner, R. H. (1962) Experience and Culture: The Philosophy of Georg Simmel.
Middletown, CT. Wesleyan University Press.
Weinstein, D. and Weinstein, . (1990) 'Georg Simmel: sociological flineur/bricoleur',
77ift>ry, Culture A Society, 8 (3).
Weinstein, D. and Weinstein, . (1991) 'Georg Simmel', Canadian Journal of Political and
Social Theory.
Whimster, S. (1987) 'The secular ethic and the culture of modernism', in S. Whimster and S.
Lash (eds) Max Weber, Rationality and Modernity. London: Allen &. Unwin.
Whimster, S. (1989) 'Heidelberg man: recent literature on Max Weber', Theory, Culture A
White, H. (1973) Metahistory. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
White, R. (1981) Inventing Australia. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
White, R. (1983) backwater awash: the Australian experience of Americanization', Theory,
Culture A Society, 1 (3).
Wilensky, H. L. (1964) 'Mass society and mass culture: interdpendencies or dependencies',
American Sociological Review, 29 (2): 173-97.
Williams, R. (1961) Culture and Society 1780-1950. Harmondsworth: Penguin, publ. orig.
Williams, R. (1975) The Country and the City. London: Chatto & Windus.
Williams, R. (1981) Culture. London: Fontana.
Williams, R. (1983) Towards 2000. London: Chatto & Windus.
Williamson, B. (1982) Class. Culture and Community. London: Routledge.
Wohl, R. (1980) The Generation of 914. London: Weidenfeld 8c Nicholson.
Wolfe, T. (1989) The Right Stuff. London: Black Swan.
Wolff, Eric R. (1990) 'Distinguished lecture: facing power - old insights, new questions',
American Anthropologist, 92 (3).
Wolff, J. (1993) 'On the road again: metaphors of travel in cultural criticism', Cultural
Yeats, W. B. (1991) Selected Poetry. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Zerubavel, E. (1991) The Fine Line: Making Distinctions in Everyday Life. Chicago: Chicago
Zolberg, A. (1995) T h e Great Wall against China: responses to the first immigration crisis,
1885-1925', in Wang Gungwu (ed.) Global History and Migrations. Boulder, CO:
Westview Press.
Zukin, S. (1988) T h e postmodern debate over urban form', Theory, Culture A Society, 5 ( 2
3).
Zukin, S. (1991) Landscapes of Power. From Detroit to Disney World. Berkeley: California
advertising, 17, 18, 27, 76, 117-18
aesthetic communities, 47
aesthetics, 64
ethics of, 37-43, 46, 47, 50
and postmodernism, 44, 45
Ainu, 122
Albrow, M., 35
Americanization, 8, 9, 87, 91, lOOn, 153
Anderson, Benedict, 108
anthropology, 136, 137, 139-42
anti-heroic ethos, 54, 67, 71
Appadurai, ., 24, 90, 118, 142
architecture, postmodern, 96
aristocracy, 64, 65
consumption in, 25
and popular culture, 28
romanticism in, 26
art, 4, 18, 41, 76, 80
artistic modernism, 8 0 - 1 , 150, 153
artists, 30, 45
as adventurers, 59, 60
as heroes, 54, 63
Australia, 112
autonomous culture, 15, 16, 29, 30
Bacon, Francis, 152-3, 156
Baudelaire, Charles, 42, 45, 73, 149-50
Baudrillard, Jean, 19, 44, 77, 78, 129, 141
Baumen, ., 47, 48, 148
behaviour, 133
Bell. D., 32, 50, 73
Bendix, R., 30, 33n
Benedict, Ruth, 137
Benjamin, Walter, 141, 150
Bergesen, ., 144
Bhabha, Homi, 10, 11
Birmingham Centre for Contemporary
Cultural Studies, 20
black culture, 11
Bologh, R., 66
Bourdieu, P., 22, 23, 30
Brazilianization, 9
Burke, P., 28
Campbell, C , 24-5, 33n
Cannibal Tours (film), 121
capitalism, 79. 90, 144, 145
celebrities, personality of, 69
Chambers, I., 126
character, 69
charisma, 62
Chicago School of Sociology, 148
cities, 73, 148, 149, 151
world, 115, 118
classifications, 5, 139, 150
Clifford, J., 140, 142
coffee houses, 27-8
collective memory, 93, 94, 108
College de Sociologie, 140, 141
colonialism, 11, 153, 154
Columbus, Christopher, 152
commodification, 18-20, 64, 65
commodity signs, 19, 75
see also sign-play
common culture, 131, 132
intercultural, 9 0 - 1 , 114
technology of, 7, 90. 102, 117
communities, 144
nations as, 108-13
studies of, 104
symbolic, 103-8, 110
community, society and, 130-1
competences, 21-2
competing centres, 12-13
competition, 23-4, 100
Comte, Auguste, 130, 133
Confucianism, 38, 50
consumer culture, 4, 5, 8, 42, 46, 151
feminism and, 68-9
modernism and, 73-4
postmodernism and, 74, 75-8, 96
consumption, 17-20, 73, 75
global, 7-8
romanticism and, 24-8
symbolic goods and, 21, 22, 23-4
cosmopolitanism, 91, 98-9
counter-ethnicities, 119
court society, 25, 26
Crapanzo, V., 140
creolization, 116-17
cultural capital, 22, 31-2
cultural complexity, 103
and global modernities, 6-14
postmodernism and, 5, 12, 13, 80
cultural disorder, 23. 91, 128, 138, 154
cultural engineering, 115-16
cultural fragmentation, 1, 149
consumer culture and, 76, 82
postmodernism and, 13, 43, 44, 48,
cultural identity, 103, 110, 114-22
cultural imperialism, 8, 87, 113, 115-16
cultural integration, 6, 12, 13, 136-45
cultural production, 3, 21, 3 0 - 1 , 75-6
consumption and, 17
cultural spheres, 3-4, 15, 64
autonomization of, 29-33
deformation of, 49
cultural specialists, 15, 16, 57-8, 75, 138
and cultural crisis, 2
power potential of, 3, 30, 31
see also artists; intellectuals
academic study of, 3
accumulation of, 149
decentring of, 13
deformation of, 4, 136-7
feminization of, 68
formation of, 21, 89-90
globalization of, 86-92
homogenization of, 89, 101, 115,
packaging of, 99, 116
Simmel and, 40, 41, 42, 149
and social life, 2, 12
Weber and, 4 0 - 1 , 49
see also local culture; national cultures
culture industry, 18
disinterestedness, 23
Disney World, 77, 96
disorder, 73, 148
cultural, 23, 91, 150, 154
distinction, 65
Donaldson, Frances, 105
Douglas, Mary, 21, 117
dual cities, 9
Drkheim, ., 101, 107, 130, 133-4, 138
East Asia, 84, 143
economic sphere, 29-30, 79, 146
economy, 19
culture and, 23, 79
and development of personality, 64-5
and global integration, 7, 8
egoism, 65
Elias, ., 35, 46, 57, 70, 131, 135, 138
and autonomous spheres, 29, 146
and court society, 25, 26
and outsider groups, 110, 124
emulation, 27
enclaved commodities, 22, 23, 29
England, middle class in eighteenth century,
English, as language of mass consumer
culture, 8
Enlightenment, 11, 72, 146, 147, 148
entertainment industry, 17
eroticism, Weber and, 38-9
ethic of responsibility, 36, 37, 38, 63
ethic of ultimate ends, 36
ethnicity, 9, 98
ethnography, 136, 137, 139-42
everyday life, 54-8
aestheucization of, 44, 64-5, 67, 76
exchange of commodities, 22, 25
exchange value, 18
experience, travel as, 127, 152
Dahrendorf, R., 35
dandyism, 46, 64
DavidofT, L., 27
Davis, M., 9
De Certeau, M., 58
deconstruction, 48, 80
Deleuze, G., 127
demonopolization, 2, 15, 16, 49, 115
deregulation, 89, 115
Derrida, J., 85
desire, 24, 26
deterritorialized cultures, 115
development, modernity and, 87, 135
differences, 110, 152, 153
differentiation, 28, 57, 63, 89
fashion, 23, 25, 27
feminism, 84
heroic life and, 66-9
postmodernism and, 71
Ferguson, J., 144
Fields, Gracie, 104-5
film industry, 109, 112
heroes of, 69
films, presenting working class culture, 105,
Fisher, M.M.J.. 139, 140
flaneur, 150, 151-2
of culture, 5, 82, 9 0 - 1 , 102, 118, 154
of people, 119, 128
Formby, George, 104-5
Foucault, Michel, 45-6, 139, 155
Frankfurt School, 18, 20, 56
Frederick the Great, 28
French culture, 31
Friedman, J., 124
Frisby, D., 35, 43
Gabriel, T.H., 127
Gay, Peter, 35
Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft, 103, 131,
George, Stefan, 45, 71
Giddens, ., 84, 101, 145, 146
Gilroy, Paul, 11
global balance of power, 83, 99-100, 103,
global modernities, 145-54
cultural complexity and, 6-14
global society, 7
globalism, different responses to, 97-9
globalization, 6-7, 13-14, 113, 136
and cultural identity, 114-22
of culture, 86-92
postmodernism and, 80-4, 114
glocalism, 9, 118
Goethe, J.W. von, 148
Goldman, H., 49
Goldscheid, R., 42
goods, symbolic aspects of, 21-4
Gouldner, ., 58. 66
Grafton, ., 152
Greek ethic, 46, 47
Greek heroic society, 61, 70
Griaule, Marcel, 140
Gross. Otto, 39
Guattari, F., 127
Gungwu, Wang, 143
Gupta, ., 144
Habermas, J., 56, 58, 146
Halbwachs, ., 22, 108
Hardy, ., 60
Harvey, David, 79
Hawaii, 123
tourism and cultural identity in, 122
Heller, ., 55, 56, 70
Hennis, W., 38, 50
Herder. J.G., 28
heritage industry, 96, 121
heroes, 61, 69
heroic ethics, Weber and, 36. 38, 39, 62-3,
heroic life, 4, 58-62, 64-5
critique of, 66-9
high culture, 15, 18, 21, 23
autonomous sphere of, 30-1
and mass culture, 4, 18, 20, 76
Hirsch, F., 22
history, 147
postmodernism and, 87, 88
spatial and relational, 88-9
Hoggart, Richard, 104, 106
homeland, 143, 144
homogenization, 6, 8, 57
of culture, 89, 101, 115, 117-18
Horkheimer, ., 18, 156
Huyssen, ., 68, 71
collective, 47, 108, 120
decentring of, 44, 45
multiple, 9-10
see abo cultural identity; national
illusion, 77
images, 76, 82, 112, 128-9
imagined community, 98, 108, 143
individualism, 62
industrialization, 133, 145
information, 21-2, 117, 128
intellectuals, 23-4, 30
as heroes, 63
and postmodernism, 47, 48, 49, 83
interchanges, 90, 93, 97
interdependencies, 12, 110, 119, 124, 135
between specialists, 31, 32
Inuit, 122
'iron cage', 113, 145
Isherwood, B., 21, 117
Iyer, P.. 8, 116
Jaffe, Else, 39
Jameson, Frederic, 18, 19. 44, 50, 78, 79
Japan, 135, 155
modernity in, 84, 85, 88, 111
Japanization, 9
Jaspers, K., 35-6, 52, 62
Kasson, J.F., 69
King, Anthony, 123
Knorr Cetina, ., 113
knowledge, 29, 30, 57, 124. 147, 149
academic, 74
transmission of, 75
Krause, R., 71
Lasch, C , 133
Lassman, P., 37
lectures, 34
Leed, E.J., 152
Lefebvre, ., 58
Leiris, Michel, 140
Leiss, W., 21
leisure, 76-7
Liebersohn, ., 65, 71
life, 46, 56, 67, 85
life-orders, 63
personality and, 35-7, 38, 44
lifestyle, 26, 27, 46
literary criticism, 27
local culture, 92-7, 98, 102
identity and, 110
immersion in, 97
localism, 9, 73, 102, 103-8, 114, 120
locality, 107, 117
tourists and, 120-2
Lowenthal, L., 69
Lyotard, J-R, 37, 156
McCannell, D., 121
McDonaldization, 7-8
Maclntyre. ., 60, 61-2
Maftesoli, M., 42, 46-7, 58, 101, 120
Manasse, E.M., 36, 62
Manchester, 151
Mandel, ., 78
Maravall, J.A., 31
Marcus, G., 139, 140
markers, goods as, 21, 22
markets, 16, 23, 29, 31
Martin, B., 32, 106
masculinity, 66
mass consumption, 17
mass culture, 16, 18, 19, 31, 32, 64
and high culture, 4, 20, 76
women and, 68, 69
and working-class culture, 106
mass media, 17, 106, 115
Maunier, J., 157
Mauss, M., 101
Mennell, S., 25
Merleau-Ponty, M., 60
middle class, 99
consumption habits of, 25-8
migrants, dominant culture and,
migration, 132, 143, 154
Miyoshi, M., 147
mobility, 10, 127-9, 131-2, 143, 154
Moch, L.P., 132
mode of consumption perspective, 16,
modernism, 46, 72-3
and consumer culture, 73-4
cultural, 32, 118-19
modernity, 5, 10, 11, 72, 153-4
culture and, 41, 42, 149-50
globalization and, 83-4, 102, 119,
postmodernism and, 10, 145, 147
spatial dimension of, 147, 151
tradition and, 83, 113
modernization theory, Americanization and,
Monk, Ray, 35
monopolization, 16, 29
Moore, G.E., 45
Moore, W.E., 134
Morley, D., 117
Morris, M., 79
multiculturalism, 91, 98, 139
multinational corporations, 113, 117
multi-phrenic intensities, 44
museums, 96
My Beautiful Launarette (film), 119-20
myths, 109
narratives, 60, 61
nation-states, 12, 81, 82-3, 84
culture of, 89-90, 95
identity and, I I I , 116, 144
interactions of, 112-13, 135-6
national cultures, 13, 90, 91, 95, 109,
and state formation, 89, 91
national identities, 109, 111-12, 142-3
nationalism, 109, 111, 133
as communities, 108-13
formation of, 111-12
neo-tribalism, 46-7, 120
new goods, 22, 24
new social movements, 54
Nietzsche, F., 61-2, 65, 68
Nisbet. R., 129
nomadism, 126-7
nostalgia, 93-4, 95, 107
novels, 27, 109
Obeyeskere, G., 123
objective and subjective culture, 40, 149
Open University, 20
order, 147, 148, 150
global, 118
Orient, 82, 89, 154
originality, 71
Orwell, George, 105
Other', 28, 73, 91
exotic, 28, 119
Orient and, 82, 89
postmodernism and, 79, 96, 99, 128
West and, 12, 13, 89, 123, 146, 147
outsiders, 93, 98, 127
relationships with, 110, 124
Park, Robert, 148
particularism, 73
Pearson, Geoffrey, 107
personality, 34-5, 40, 69
and lire-orders, 35-7, 38, 44
Weber and, 49, 52, 63
Persnlichkeit, 65, 70-1
Physiocrats, 29
play, 85, 96
pluralism, 124
popular culture, 24, 73
mass culture and, 21
nationalism, 109
upper classes and, 28
Portis, E.B., 36
Portuguese, 143
postcolonialism, 10, 11, 12, 147
postmodernism, 2, 43-8, 50, 54, 73-4
consumer culture and, 74, 75-8, 96
cultural complexity and, 5, 12, 13, 80
explanations of, 78-80
globalization and, 12, 80-4, 114
history and, 87, 88
local cultures and, 96, 99
modernity and, 10, 145, 147
neo-tribalism and, 120
Weber and, 37, 49
post-tourists, 99, 120
power, 3, 145
power potential, 5, 6, 29
of cultural specialists, 3, 30, 31
of East Asia, 100
of outsider groups, 66
of women, 68
power struggles, 16
identity and, 109, 110
print culture, and construction of
progress, 88
public opinion, 91
public sphere, 27, 139
Puritanism, 37-8, 63
Rambo, 115-16
rationalization, 56, 63, 64, 113
reality, 19, 56, 140
reason, 72
reproduction, 54, 55
resistance to global culture, 116-17
'rest in the West', 11, 13, 119, 123
Rex, John, 34, 51n
rituals, 94, 95, 112
Ritzer, George, 7-8
Robertson, Roland, 35
rock festivals, 47, 101
Rodin, Auguste, 41
romanticism, consumption and, 24-8
Rorty. R., 45
Rosaldo, R., 138
Roth, G., 52
sacred, 73, 94, 101, 107-8, 112, 133
Said, E 12, 82, 156
Saint-Simon, L., 133
Sakai, N.. 88, 153
Sartre, J-P., 60
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (film),
Scaff, L.A., 39
Scheff, T.J., 71
Scheler, Max, 64
Schutz, ., 56
Scotson, J.L., 110
Seed, J., 151
decentred, 45, 46, 60
fragmentation of, 69
sense of place, 93, 94, 96
Serres, ., 81
shopping centres, 76
Shusterman, R., 45
sign-play, 75, 77, 82, 150-1. 156
Simmel, G., 5, 31-2, 81, 135
on adventure, 59-60
end aesthetics, 42-3, 64
and culture, 39-42, 149
and distinction, 65
and modernity, 42, 148-9
and social life, 67, 109-10, 154n
simulation, 48, 77. 120-1, 129
slavery, 11, 156
Smith, Adam, 17
Smith, Anthony, 108-9
sociability, 42, 66-7
social changes, 74, 82, 103, 134-5
social class, consumption practices and, 22,
social fragmentation, 129
culture and, 2, 12
Simmel and, 67. 109-10, 154n
society and, 129, 130, 132, 134, 139
social pressures, 17
social relationships, 34, 89
goods and, 21
localism and, 103, 110
rituals and, 94
transnational, 115
social status, 22, 23, 24
society, 12, 82
culture and, 2, 3
social life and, 129-36
sociology, 129-35
specialists, 57
see also cultural specialists
spectacles, 77, 95, 150-1
staple set of consumption, 21
state formation, 82, 135, 136, 142, 144
and national cultures, 89, 91
Stein, Gertrude, 94
sumptuary laws, 22
surrealism, 141
symbolic capital, 22, 23
symbolic communities, 103-8, 110
symbolic hierarchy, 24, 87, 88, 95, 110
symbolism, 21
syncretism, 9, 11, 12, 47, 73, 81, 95
technological developments, and
globalization of culture, 7
technology set of consumption, 21
television, 19, 76-7, 112, 117
Tenbrock, F., 134, 135
Thatcher, Margaret, 111
theme parks, 76, 96
Theroux, Paul, 116
third cultures, 9 0 - 1 , 99, 114
Thomas, Keith, 142
thought, 56, 127
Tibi, ., 146
Todorov, ., 152
Tnnies, F., 103, 131, 155
Touraine, ., 129
tourist industry, 120-2
tourists, 98
tradition, 93, 95
disembedding of, 83
and modernity, 83, 113
traditional community, 131, 132
travel, 126, 127
home and, 143
modernity and, 152-3
tribal culture, 136, 139, 141, 142
Turner, B., 107
Turner, Charles, 37
United States of America, as centre, 8-9
unity. 4, 40, 41, 109-110
cultural, 6, 81, 137, 138, 139, 140
of life and work, 35
postmodernism and, 47, 48, 50
systematic, 38
values, 36, 74, 131, 132
Vattimo, G., 87
Velody, I., 37
virtual reality, 77, 128
Vornehmheitsideal, 65
Wallerstein, I., 156
Warhol. Andy, 141
Weber, Marianne, 39, 52, 63
Weber, Max, 13, 35, 50, S2n, 83, 113
and cultural sphere, 15
and ethics of aesthetics, 37-41, 65
and heroic ethics, 49, 62-4, 68
and ordered life, 4, 36
and working class, 70-1
Weingartner, R.H., 40
dominance of, 83-4
and Other', 12, 13, 89, 123, 146, 147, 152
Wilde, O., 45
Williams, Raymond, 20, 108, 131
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 35
Wolfe, Tom, 67
Wolff. Eric, 137-8
Wolff, J.. 151
women, and mass culture, 68, 69
working-class life, studies of, 104-7
World War I, and heroic life, 70
Yeats, W.B., 1. 4
young people, 44, 101
zoning, 9
Printed in the United States
122296LV00001B/4-21/A
postcolonialismo
Documenti simili a Undoing Culture Globalization
Abhijeet Aaryan
Erika Piggee
alanvictor.personal2697
Daniel Fernandez
Bezdomnii
Bach Achacoso
Mariana Mesquita
Salvador Santino F. Regilme Jr
Jho Ven
Blue Stacks
Iracema Dulley
Carlos De Peña Evertsz
Meaghan Skahan
r.wing0707
gerardo castillo
Karine Eldan
hemalathagirish
Avni
van der voort unit plan
Globalization, Risk, and Transformation of Intimacy: Investigating Mark Ravenhill’s Some Explicit Polaroids and Faust Is Dead
Contemporary Literary and Cultural Studies
375nadiminti
Roberto Cruz Arzabal
Questioning the Precolonial, Colonial and Post Colonial in the Context of the Brao of Southern Laos and Northeastern Cambodia
elizabu8453
Module 1- IB
Rejoy John
tmabani1990
Geopolitics Assignment 1
shahnwaz
asess 1
Nguyen T Phuong
table of courses
Kuthubudeen T M
Altro di greconp
2013 Conference Schedule - Popular Culture Association of Canada
“a Swaying and Fluttering Form”: Foucault’s Heterotopias in Eco’s the Name of the Rose
Bob Dylan Musician - Keith Negus
Cross Border Visualities and the Canadian Image
Vessels of Transfer: Allegories of Afrofuturism in Jeff Mills and Janelle Monáe
tobias c. van Veen
Testimony (94-3, March 2013) p13
Cj Film Studies62 Mackenzie Mythology
Lady Gaga Lording It
Dialogue V40N02 13
2006 Gilmour
Adorno Culture Industry
Tarif Oliveira Kanafani
1987 Marvin
Popolare in Politics
Planning and Designing Data Centres
hbitho
Rom Nd June Art1 Scene and 5
Clement Ad
Guidelines for Internship
Ammara Qazi
UK Home Office: ntltoc form
UK_HomeOffice
Foucault and Freemasonry
Malgrin2012
Amalendu Guha - Nationalism - Pan-Indian and Regional in a Historical Perspective
El Biswajit
ethnographic study of family origin
Indian Polity Quick Guide
niranjan preddy
MIGRACIJE SKRIPTA
Dzenanahh
01_AF1b_PurchSub_FG
Shelvy Silvia
Apollo Operations Handbook Extravehicular Mobility Unit Volume II
Bob Andrepont
Crim Pro Collins 2007
Mphil in Buet
Munira Sultana
05. Architectural Record - May 2005.pdf
Cris Teean
Who Is Satan_ - Biblical Archaeology Society.pdf
Eusebiu Borca
Intro to Rti for Beginners
classical argument
GENERAL POWER OF ATTERNEY FORMAT.docx
Arul Thangam Kirupagaran
Planning of Lutyens Delhi
naveenarora298040
Completed Assignment
JulianaJamil
Material Reconciliation 2011
Sam Roger
4.04 - Pneumatic Fracturing
Michael Huffman
Activities grammar 1.docx
Jorge Quizhpilema
Cornelius the Centurion.pdf
romulo
MHG English
tbrackman99
TodaroSmith_EconDev_ch03
Syed Huzaifa Ali Abidi
Evidence Flash Cards
koreanman
Setting Up IPCop - Manjaro Linux
Anonymous CPQKqCVPP1
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1547
|
__label__cc
| 0.661262
| 0.338738
|
Due to a popular request, this “Talk-Back” page has been included. We encourage anyone with a desire to learn more, a piece of information to share, or an idea to pose to the group to please share here.
Together, we can learn more and solve this mystery!
hunt@lostclipper.com
carl Peltzer says:
As a longtime 60 plus year combination pilot/owner and sar guy went looking for the lost clipper on the net and came across yours. I have been in the aviation lore business since a young man with interest in the whereabouts of Earhart, the clipper and Nungesser and Coli during which hav read many articles and books regarding them all.
Hi there Carl and thanks for your message. 2018 was probably one of the most successful years in all things Hawaii Clipper as we made a 4th trek to Micronesia and found some very interesting details never before revealed. Right now we are keeping them under wraps but hope to do a huge release of information this late fall or early winter. Stay Tuned!
Les Kinney says:
Guy, the young Truk native told Gervais, the 15 remains were below the concrete foundation of a “small” Japanese hospital that was bombed by U.S. warplanes. Since there was several medical clinics on Dublin and one large hospital – are you positive you found the right site?
Hi Les, I am 100% certain and if we get back there I am sure we will find some fractured remains. 🙂
William H. Trail says:
Gentlemen,
What’s going on? Haven’t heard anything new since late January. Hope all is well and you are not up to your necks in sewage, snakes, and alligators, or in need of lawyers, guns, and money.
I have a one of a kind watercolor of the Hawaiian Clipper.. it has a signature top right corner and bottom left it reads Glenn Martin China clipper.. the wing has X14714 on it ..there us not another like it anywhere.. from my research.. anyone interested ?
Hi Dan, Do you have a photo of it? What is its size and would the be a donation or sale? Thanks for reaching out. — Guy
Hi Dan – yes indeed. How large is it and how did you come to posses it?
HUGE apologies for letting this slip by. We are doing fantastic and excited to announce some new findings. We plan on cross verifying and digging a bit deeper to ensure what we reveal is 100% solid. Stay Tuned!
A New Zealand filmmaker has teamed up with a former US Navy intelligence officer in a bid to solve one of aviation’s most intriguing mysteries.
Aucklander Ollie Dale is joining Guy Noffsinger to investigate how Pan Am flight 229 inexplicably vanished over the Pacific in 1938 – and how the plane’s disappearance may be linked to that of Amelia Earhart.
On July 29 1938, trans-Pacific flying boat the Hawaii Clipper was on its last leg to the Philippines, carrying 15 people, when it disappeared.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/100867485/New-Zealand-filmmaker-hopes-to-solve-aviation-mystery-linked-to-Amelia-Earhart
Ollie represented New Zealand well and did a phenomenal job under very challenging circumstances. We are already speaking with him about a return to Truk Lagoon in 2019.
As a long time aviation person are you aware of the long time magazine Airpower and Wings from 1972 thru 2005? I have almost all of them and of interest is july 1995 vol 25 no 4page 8 and more regarding several sabotages?
Chris O'Keefe says:
I tried to access the password protected ” Lost Clipper Photos ” but what is the password ?? I am subscribed to your newsletter and did not see a password in the latest email. Please help ?? Thank you
Jeff Riegel, Editor says:
HiYa Chris– sorry for the confusion. With intermittent internet, we needed to get some photos sent to a newspaper quickly and this was our only way. Thanks for tuning in. Our crew starts arriving today and we’ll have more news on our findings early next week (fingers crossed, of course!)
May I suggest you take a metal detector along with the GRP unit. I personally use a Garrett AT Pro with an NES Storm search coil for forensics use. You may find it helpful in locating coins, belt buckles, shoe eyelets etc.
Hi Garrett and thanks for your note. On trip #1 we used a GSSI StructureScan™ Mini for the concrete inspections. This hand held system locates rebar, conduits, post-tension cables, voids and can be used to determine concrete slab thickness in real-time. We found that the unit was fantastic and worked well however the slab we are now looking for is buried deep under 6 feet of soil and trees (StructureScan Mini safely locates metallic and non-metallic targets within concrete structures up to a depth of 20 inches) so we have a different approach now. GSSI StructureScan™ Mini
Trevor Nichols says:
Great grandson of Dr. Earl McKinley here – I’m wondering if you, or others have FOIA’d this recently?
Hi Trevor and thanks for your message and apologies for the delay. We have done multiple FOIA’s and have not been given anything of real value but we keep digging. I would like to know though if you have any personal stories, information, photos or memorabilia you may have from your Great Grandfather Earl?
authorjamiedodson says:
Sure. The documents are reproduced in Peter Lesley’s book about his father
“Pan Am Engineer John Lesley” by Peter Lesley. See link below. I met Peter in 2010 at the China Clipper 75th Anniversary Celebration. We discussed the likely fate of the Hawaii Clipper. I will scan them but how do I upload?
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjPwZzhxYjRAhUE74MKHXsBA38QFgghMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.panam.org%2Fimages%2FBooks%2FFlyingHoneymoon%2FPan-Am-Leslie-Miami-And-The-Flying-Honeymoon.pdf&usg=AFQjCNH6SncIlbSzUhag5U60q36ZWMuKPw&sig2=NIX79-on7z116UqGlZIUtA
Thanks for the comment Jamie. The image is indeed the M-156 but was placed there by an automated system – we will change. As for the statement of Martin citing “poor maintenance,” do you have copies or imagery corroborating these statements? Would love to host here on the forum as it contradicts both the CAA and PAA Chief Engineer Andre Priester’s reports. The two independently conducted investigations both exhaustively indicated with verified data and interviews that the M-130 Hawaii Clipper was maintained with “exceedingly high standards of maintenance” and showed that the ultimate demise of the flying boat was not due to any mechanical failure.
May I suggest that you change the Hawaii Clipper Forum Image? The aircraft pictured is a Martin M-156. The Martin submission for the next gen clipper request for bid. Glenn Martin sold the M-156 sometimes called the “Soviet Clipper” to the USSR after Pan Am, Juan Trippe, rejected the design in favor of the Boeing B-314. The Martin M-130 upgrade was an inferior aircraft in many ways but Tripp had other reasons. After the tragic loss NC14714 Martin took to the press and issued statements that the loss was do to poor maintenance. The ensuing row took place in the press and soured the Martin-Trippe relationship forever.
Thanks for your keen eye, Jamie. I’ve updated the page to reflect the proper M-130 image we have on file. We appreciate your participation and have a great 2017!
I’ve got some pix I can share if you’ve got a way.
Hi Jamie, that would be super. Thank you! I also have the weather report that I mentioned above if you would like to look it over – it’s very interesting. Do you use drop box or google drive?
My sources are (or were – as many have passed on) Pan Am flying boat crew interviews and their publications. I’m not surprised that the Alameda Pan Am Ops weather map displayed a clear sky as reports were scattered and often incorrect. The Guam US Army Air Corps weather reports were based on local observations and shipping reports. It’s big ocean and big and small storms slipped through undetected – repeatedly.
What are your thoughts on John Leslie’s trail of correspondence with Martin over the M-130 sea-wing to wing struts? They continued to fail mostly during rough landings. However, Leslie was on record saying the results could be catastrophic if they separated during flight.
Clearly, there is much we do not know.
I will keep an open mind and hard evidence will convince me of the likely fate of NC14714. If you succeed in locating the graves and the DNA data supports your theories will “hold more water”.
Enjoyed the discussion and wish you and your team good luck in your endeavors to solve one of aviation’s most enigmatic mysteries
Cheers! Jamie
http://www.jamiedodsonbooks.com
http://www.nickgrantadventures.com
Thoughts on the Disappearance of the Pan American Airways Flight 229
Hawaiian Clipper
By Jamie Dodson
Bottom line: The M-130 was flying into bad weather and …
1. Flew into a super cell – Captain Teletsky lost control and crashed. There is documentation about structural weakness of the M-130 that may have contributed to the loss. And the fierce fight between Glenn Martin and Juan Trippe after the loss of NC 14714 – each blaming the other’s organization.
2. Av gas explosion – like TWA 800, or the loss of the SAMOAN CLIPPER off Samoa in January 1938. Note the Hawaii Clipper-color image practicing fuel dumping over SF bay, below.
3. Lighting strike. A B-52H suffered a strike 40 years ago that ignited a wing tank removing 18 feet of the left wing. Crew made it home safe.
I am unconvinced about the theories of hijacking from Charlie Hill’ or the theories of http://www.lostclipper.com. They are the stuff of great fiction – not fact.
On a MH 370 note. I agree with a Hypoxia theory. It is the best reason yet – if you discount space aliens or the Bermuda Triangle.
Hawaii Clipper departed Guam on the last leg of the westbound journey at 11:39 local time. The last radio contact was 3 hours 27 minutes later, when the aircraft reported flying through layers of clouds and moderately rough air 565 miles from the Philippine coast.
CREW: Incident Details
1. Capitan: Leo Terletsky, Disappearance: July 28, 1938
2. First Officer: Mark (Tex) A. Walker, Summary: Disappeared over water between Manila and Guam
3. Second Officer: George M. Davis, Site: Western Pacific Ocean
4. Third Officer: Jose M. Sauceda, Passengers: 6
5. Fourth Officer: John W. Jewett, Crew: 9
6. Engineer: Howard L. Cox, Injuries (non-fatal): 0
7. Assistant to Engineer: T. B. Tatum, Fatalities: 15 (all)
8. Radio-navigator: William McCarty. Survivors: 0
Aircraft type: Martin M-130
Operator: Pan American World Airways
Registration: NC14714
Flight origin: San Francisco
Stopover: Hawaii, Midway, Wake and Guam
Destination: Manila
Discussion on the Hawaiian Clipper:
The Hawaiian Clipper maintained Radio communication (Manual Morse) in a normal manner up to 0411 G. C. T. At that time the Clipper sent a routine report giving their position at 0400 G. C. T. (12 Noon Manila Time).
The message was as follows (a13 communications are in code and message quoted are interpretations):
“Flying in rough air at 9100 feet. Temperature 13 degree centigrade. Wind 19 knots per hour from 247 degree. Position Latitude 12 degree 27′ N. Longitude 130 degree 40′ E dead reckoning. Ground speed made good 112 knots. Desired track 282 degree, Rain. During past hour cloud conditions have varied. 10/10ths of sky above covered by stratocumulus clouds, base 9200 feet. Clouds below, 10/10ths of sky covered by cumulus clouds whose tops were 9200 feet. 5/10ths of the hour on instruments. Last direction finder bearing from Manila 101 degree .”
The radio operator at Panay, Philippines acknowledged this message and indicated that he wished to transmit weather sequence reports based on observations compiled at 0400 G. C. T. by the Philippine Stations and relayed to him in accordance with Company procedure.
William McCarty, the Clipper radio operator, replied as follows: “Stand by for one minute before sending as I am having trouble with rain static.”
Nothing more was ever heard from the flight.
The radio operator in Panay again called the Clipper at 0412 G. C. T., giving him the weather sequences. This message was not acknowledge – nor were any others over the next five hours.
40-odd years ago a B52H just N of Battle Mountain NV was involved in an incident. The pilot wrote, “We were out of 18,000 and descending IFR through cumulus clouds to a low-level route when I became aware of static in the UHF radios. That was very unusual–indeed, it’s the only time I remember hearing UHF static. Then I noticed St Elmos fire on the windshield wipers. I had seen it before at night of course, but never in daylight, and it was mid-morning. A very loud, sharp “bang” immediately followed, and we lost electrical power and the radome depressurized.
“We got the electrical system patched up and flew back to MI. On leaving the aircraft, we marveled at the fiberglass nose radome, which had a 30-50mm hole blasted clean through it and de-lamination cracks running away from the hole to the edges of the fiberglass in all directions.
“While in debriefing, the crew chief came running into the room, distraught, asking “What did you guys do to my airplane!?!” On returning to the aircraft, we found the outer 18 feet of the left wing missing its fiberglass skin. (Total wingspan was 185ft.)
“The lightning apparently entered the nose and left at the wingtip, taking 18 feet of fiberglass, which covered the ECM gear in the wingtip, with it when it left.”
What is the connection?
Terletsky’s tanks were 1/2 full of Avgas 100+ degrees warmer. Per the TWA 800 investigation, Jet a spark ignites at 96F at 13,800. What do you want to bet Avgas spark ignites at 13C at 9,000?”
From the book Skygods: The Fall of Pan Am, by Robert Gandt 1995, publisher William Morrow and Company, Chapter 3, page 20.
“Captain Leo Terletsky was a different sort. Terletsky was a European, a White Russian of considerable charm – on the ground. In the air he was insufferable. Unlike Sullivan, he was scared to death of flying. His anxiety caused him to shout at co-pilots, issue orders and immediately countermand them. He infected his crews with his own anxiety. A number of co-pilots refused to fly with him.”
In late July, 1938, Terletsky was flying the Martin M-130 Hawaii Clipper (NC14714) from Guam to Manila. Somewhere in mid-Pacific, in an area of towering cumulus buildups and torrential squalls, the flying boat vanished from the sky. No trace has ever been found.
Horace Brock penned Flying the Oceans: A Pilot’s Story of Pan Am, 1935-1955. In his book he recalls being in Manila that day in July, 1938 scheduled to be the first officer on the return flight. He’d flown with Terletsky before and was considering refusing to fly with him. Terletsky had almost crashed an S-42 they were piloting in the Caribbean. According to Brock, Chief Pan Am Engineer, Andre Preister wanted to ground Terletsky.
However, President Juan Trippe refused based on a request from Igor Sikorsky. Sikorsky, also an Ex-Pat White Russian, was a great friend of both Trippe and Terletsky. Sikorsky pressured Trippe to give Terletsky another chance. Trippe agreed but insisted that Terletsky pass a competency test with the new Chief Pilot Harold Gray. (Gray later became Pan Am President after Trippe retired.) The test was scheduled for after the Hawaii Clipper returned to Alameda -and of course never took place.
Brock also recalls that a typhoon or intense tropical storm had just rolled over the Philippines headed east for Guam and the Hawaii Clipper’s flight path.
The disappearance of Terletsky and the Hawaii Clipper came only a year after Amelia Earhart vanished in the same part of the globe. And six months after the SAMOAN CLIPPER (S-42B) crash January 9, 1938, in the Pacific off Western Samoa – with the loss of Captain Edwin C. Musick, Pan Am Chief pilot, the remainder of the crew and all the passengers. The Hawaii Clipper disappearance made for an appealing mystery and the press speculated about Japanese sabotage.
The Pan Am flying boat pilots I spoke with said they believed that the Hawaii Clipper went down after entering a storm. Those that had flown the M-130 uniformly hated it. Then Chief Pan Am Pilot, Ed Musick, is quoted as saying, “The M-130 is unstable on every axis and a pig to fly.”
Figure 1 Captain Musick on the left – 1st Officer on the right is unknown.
To the Pan American pilots the real villain wasn’t the Japanese. It was the Pacific and its vast, brooding, hidden storms. The Hawaii Clipper crew had reported seeing anvil-topped cumulonimbus clouds rising to above sixty thousand feet – higher than anything they had previously thought possible. To blunder into such a storm with a flying boat would be catastrophic. And it would be just like Leo Terletsky to do it.”
Flying the Oceans: A Pilot’s Story of Pan Am, 1935-1955 Hardcover– May, 1983
by Horace Brock
“As we droned across those limitless wastes of water, always tense to hear the slightest break in the 112 spark plugs firing 56 cylinders 15 times a second, we were a little north of Magellan’s track but we thought of him and Captain Cook who sailed waters right under us and found the Hawaiian Islands… All of us had a pretty good idea of how Cook’s sailors felt and, had one of our engines ever failed and had we gone down, in our little rubber boats we would have seen the ghost of the Victoria or the Endeavor.”
Aviation’s Quiet Pioneer, by Peter Leslie (2012)
Contains a copy of a Pan Am memo from John Leslie (author’s father) to Glenn Martin prior to the Hawaii Clipper’s disappearance. In it Leslie states his concerns about the M-130 wing struts. All three aircraft had suffered bend or shear struts during flight or landings (splash-down). This was a serious air frame fault that might have contributed to the disappearance.
Skygods: The Fall of Pan Am, by Robert Gandt 1995, publisher William Morrow and Company,
http://www.gandt.com
Great book! Gandt was a Pan Am pilot for almost 30 years, and had contact with some of the old “boat captains”. Anyone interested in how a great American company can be power-dived into the ground should read it.
Fix on the Rising Sun: the Clipper Hi-jacking of 1938—and the Ultimate M.I.A.’s. by Charles Hill
Hill’s book is a fun potboiler with details of conspiracies and reverse-engineering of airplane engines. Hill–is deceased but his story is full of holes, wild speculation and few hard facts.
The State of Hawaii has a gallery of images of the Hawaii Clipper, but little mention of the mysterious event.
Not at all a primary source, a site called Historic Mysteries has an article called “The Hawaii Clipper Disappearance” that is interesting only because it wraps up everything in a few short paragraphs and has a newspaper link.
Gone but not forgotten – The Pan Am Historical Foundation Website http://www.panam.org.
http://www.panam.org/explorations/401-mystery-still-with-us-2
Very interesting Jamie and I sincerely appreciate your thoughts, however, you missed one very critical component that blows your theory out of the water.
Upon hearing of the disappearance of the Hawaii Clipper, the sister of pilot Mark Walker immediately went to confront the Pan Am officials at the operations facility and remarked to her family how the company representative said there was severe weather in the area (a cover up) in the vicinity of the clippers last transmission. She noted that he appeared to be stalling and not convinced of what he was actually saying. She also noticed that the weather forecast board directly behind this man showed clear weather. Taking this bit of information, I compared it to the US Air Force 557th Weather Wing (previously US Army Air Corps) own weather data from Guam for the entire week ending on Sunday the 31st. The results were an average of light scattered showers and average to good flying conditions. So no, it is very doubtful the demise of the Hawaii Clipper was due to a super cell. That fact is not even the critical point you missed – which is the two eye witness accounts of Mori and Naruun stating they both helped cover 15 American people (13 Caucasians, one oriental and one “dark” man face down in concrete. My team is the only one that I am aware of that has made three trips over six years and determined the most likely spot where these fifteen people are located. Incidentally, the description both men gave 100% matches the crew and passenger manifest of trip #229 of 13 Caucasians, one Chinese American and a Latin American (Jose Sauceda). The passenger and crew makeup where also noted by a third party , a young Korean American US sailor in 1946 who had infiltrated the Dublon island slave population just prior to repatriation, and confirmed 15 Americans of unknown origin had been murdered prior to the war in 1938. It is my firm belief that all suggestions or allegations other than a hijacking will quickly vaporize IF the remains are recovered and the DNA matched to relatives.
Pingback: Here’s Where You Come In (Part 2)… – The Lost Clipper
Bob Wheeler says:
I have been corresponding with Phil Van Zandt and Woody Rogers about Amelia Earhart and the Hawaii Clipper mysteries. I have done quite a bit of research on both and come up with some observations.
Without getting really detailed (we can do that if you want to) according to the CAA investigation the Clipper had 9.3 hours of fuel remaining when it disappeared. With the information given by the aircrew about the wind speed and direction 19 knots @ 247 degrees it would have taken them 11.2 hours to cover the 1496 SM to Truk Island. Unless they refueled somewhere along the way the would have run out of fuel 1.9 hours short of Truk.
Because the headquarters for the IJN Pacific was at Saipan it would make sense that they would have been taken there. It is 1040 miles to Tinian Island (A nice out of the way place for the Martin M-130 to land) and the flight time would have been 7.6 hours. Seems to make a bit more sense. Also I haven’t seen any one mention the implications of the two scientists on board and the relation to Unit 731 and Operation Fugo and the “hooks” on board both the Clipper and AE’s Electra.
I would genuinely enjoy communicating with you and lending any help I can. I have been working closely with POW/MIA families from Vietnam and have an extensive aviation background.
I hope to hear from you in the future and please keep up the good work.
Bob Wheeler
Diane Wyman Barrett says:
Your work sounds most interesting-
Do keep me posted.
Lawrence Heidlebaugh says:
I BELIEVE THAT THE JAPS USED THE CLIPPER TO REVEARSE ENGINEER THEIR “EMILY” FLYING BOAT. IT IS NO COINCIDENCE THAT THE EMILY IS IDENTICLE —INTERRIOR LAYOUT IS THE SAME.
Hi there Les,
Thanks for the note and yes, I’m 100% sure because we found the very unique post marking the hospital, some locals confirmed that there was a medical “building” there and we found elements like medical vials, tiles and other related items. So, I think we nailed it.
Guy, I haven’t talked to you in awhile. Are you aware their were five medical facilities on Truk? There was the big Navy hospital on the bluff which I believe was built after 1938. There were also four smaller clinics in Dublon town. How do you know you dug up the right one?
Dave Wilma says:
I did some searches in digitized newspapers and came across a story in The Seattle Times, September 5, 1947, p. 2, col. 3, “Japanese Doctor Sentenced to Die.” He was convicted of brutally murdering 10 P.O.W.s in 1944 at the medical facility on Truk. Could these be the bodies buried under the old medical clinic reported by locals?
If Guy can get some confirmation of human remains there the Department of Defense can take over analysis and recovery.
Hi there Dave,
Thanks for your message and to answer you, no. There were many more murders on the island that not only involved Americans, but other allies, indentured workers and the local Chuukese. I have a map that shows over twenty unique facilities (from hospitals to medical storage) and examined each and everyone. I and the folks with me on the last visit pretty much came to an agreement that the spot identified was indeed the location Amelia Earhart researcher Joe Gervias said was the final resting place of the passengers and crew of the Hawaii Clipper.
James T. Lee MD says:
You wrote in a recent post here, “On a side note, I did confirm the story of Mark Walker’s sister about the aircraft was said to be lost in a storm however none was present at the time of loss.”
That’s interesting since Mark had two sisters, one was my mom, now dead, and the other was her older sister Lenora, also now dead. I NEVER heard either of them say that the plane “was said to be lost in a storm. . .”
Where did you get this notion ?
Hi there James,
Thanks for the note. This story I heard twice from Charlie Hill and from Charlie Hills son. It was indeed from Mary Ann Walker Lee and the account was given to him on Memorial Day, May 29th, 1995. The story was that within days of the loss of the clipper, a Pan Am weatherman was standing in front of a large blackboard with two weeks worth of weather stats and readings. He said to her that the ship was presumed lost in a typhoon but she saw nothing behind him other than clear weather. This story is also written of in Charlie Hills book “Fix On The Rising Sun” page 25.
Tari Bernard says:
Hello. My husband and I came across a framed copy ( a souvenir sheet we think) in an antique store recently. We bought it because we are autograph collectors and because we thought it was a great item.The photo is a sketch dated 1935 by H. McCallister. It has a clipper (sailing) ship, and the Hawaiian clipper. Also on the bottom it has the autographs of the apparent crew of the Hawaiian Clipper. But, when I did research on the information, I found that the crew signatures are completely different form what the photograph shows. I do not know very much about aviation, (we collect mostly celebrity autographs) and I am confused as to this information. Perhaps some one of you can help me. The photograph lists Captain A.E. LaPorte, First officer H.G. Gulbransen, Navigation officer Fred S. Ralph, Flight engineer Theron E. Griffin, and Radio officer W.T. Jarboe Jr. According to the information I have found on the internet, The Captain was Leo Terletsky, and his crew. Did the airline have a change of crew at the last moment, and these souvenir sheets were already printed???? Thank you ahead of time if anyone can help me with this information.
Ms. Nakashima says:
I am completely new to this topic, but I found this site while searching for “Theron E. Griffin.” I have several letters that he wrote to a family friend that we cared for up. The letters are in the original envelopes, and are mailed from Midway Island Pan American Airways system to Maui, Hawaii. I suspect if I read through these, I may gain some insight. The one in my hand at the moment is dated 7-5-40.
Jamie Dodson says:
You may enjoy this 75th China Clipper Anniversary Video on Vimeo. It has some details about the mysteries loss of NC14714
Hyatt Barnes says:
Mein bubu Guy!
HERE is the URL!
Getting older does take its toll, what?
Hello again Guy;
Here is the URL for a Pan Am B-314 sitting at Clear Lake.
A beautiful shot, what?
Hello Guy;
I bought a copy of “Fix on the Rising Sun” and have been fascinated
by it as an aviation mystery story ever since.
Although I’m a (former) private pilot with a little over 300 hours in a
Cessna 172, I have to confess that I’m still trying to get my brain
around the navigation trick of burying the true positions in the falsified
radio’ed position sent by Flight 229’s radio operator at the behest of the
Japanese captors.
Anyway, I seem to love when a “nefarious” conspiracy is uncovered and
the bad guys exposed to the light of truth.
As a result, I’ve been ready to fully accept the theory put forth by the
book’s author concerning the crew’s murder and entombment at Dublon.
However, page 56 of the book refers to China Lake as being
“PAA’s alternate landing area”.
The fly in the buttermilk here is that there is no lake (at least with
water in it) at China Lake.
It’s actually a dry lake bed about 150 miles north of Los Angeles
in the vicinity of the Mojave Desert..
The Navy established it in the forties as a Naval Air Station for
testing naval air weapons.
I was stationed at an AF radar site in the early 60’s located at Boron, CA
which was roughly between China Lake and Edwards Air Force Base.
There is Lake Isabella 60 miles West of China Lake, but even that
didn’t exist until created by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1953.
As far as I’ve been able to determine, Pan Am’s alternate landing area when
San Francisco Bay was socked in was Clear Lake, North of San Francisco
and East of Ukiah, CA.
That vicinity is in fact where the Philippine Clipper flew into a mountain
in January of 1942.
I know it’s probably “wet blanketish” in light of the tremendous research
conducted by the late Charles Hill, but an error of fact that significant can
cause uncertainty about the rest of the work.
That aside, I’ll still be trying to dope out the navigational trick with the
Clipper’s true vs false positions.
Hello Hyatt and thanks for your post. I too saw that and scratched my head and wondered if it was some sort of typo or something I had not found in my own research. I have seen the photos of China Lake in 1942 and at other times and you are right, it is indeed a dry lake bed.. the perfect place to land wheeled aircraft and conduct bombing tests. I personally doubt that PAA would have any landing area and have no idea what was meant by the statement on page 56 however, there Is a China Beach just south of the Golden Gate Bridge above Lincoln Park. Now there are some serious rocky points there close to shore however if you needed to land outside the fog area within the bay, it just might work but I have not seen any documents that show this to be the location. I will look into it thought and appreciate your question. Thanks again for checking in and stay tuned, there is a lot more info coming very soon. Best, Guy
Charles Hill says:
Mr. Barnes,
I’m Charlie Hill, son of the author of “Fix on the Rising Sun.” Your comment showed up in my inbox, as I am subscribed to this blog, and I was VERY intrigued by what you had to say, and it has inspired me to write this comment.
First let me say that my father spent my entire childhood writing this book. We lived in motels, hotels, and other people’s apartments while he slaved away, constructing his case against the Japanese Navy and the United States gov’t. As a kid, I was CONSTANTLY debriefed on his conspiracy theories, which included his belief that Jesus was an alien, the red spot on Jupiter is a spaceship, and that Amelia Earhart was a double agent who helped the Japanese military create the Zero. He also believed he was on a government black list, unable to hold a job (hence living in motels), because of his research into Amelia Earhart, who, according to my late father, died in the early 2000s in Virginia.
That is NOT to say that his book on the Hawaii Clipper is completely false. However, after finding holes of logic and evidence in just about every conspiracy theory he exposed me to, I have long since given up on uncovering the “truth” to any of his stories. This is because my father, while a genius in intellect, was a very paranoid man. He was so smart that he could argue just about anything and bring you to his side, especially if you had a soft spot for rebellious, anti-establishmentarian type voices. He was VERY persuasive and knew how to make an argument. But the fact is, he was deeply disturbed, and everyone around him suffered for it.
I’d also like to point out that my father had an uncle who starved to death in a Japanese POW camp during WW2. He never forgave the Japanese for this. I suggest taking a look at his foreword with this in mind. My father was a strong man, but one who too easily held grudges. Unfortunately, that makes it hard (for me at least) to take anything he has written at face value.
Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the thought behind trying to continue his work, that maybe there could be some truth to it. But in my experience, my father’s theories end up being nothing but paranoid fantasies. He spent so long writing that book because he already knew the conclusion he wanted to make before he started writing it. He already knew who he was going to blame. It was just a matter of constructing a detailed argument to support his foregone conclusions, which only experienced aviators or those with deep knowledge on military matters could readily refute.
Anyway, thank you for your interest in my father’s work, and God bless,
Charles D. Hill
In the spirit of conducting a thorough investigation, have you been able to locate in the National Archives recon photos (rather than combat photos) of Truk? These might identify the suspect medical facility. There are archivists and professional researchers who love finding these lost records. I have no idea how the photos would be files, e.g., by carrier, air group, operation, but these things are still surfacing. For example, photos from the 15th Air Force taken of the Birkenau death camp surfaced with victims and the gas chambers.
Absolutely David. A thorough effort was put into NARA just last week and hundred of new documents have been discovered including new photos!
Has the theory of Japanese intervention come up with how or who would redirect the flight?
I don’t find the motive of looking at the engines to be particularly convincing. These were civilian products and Japanese agents could have simply purchased an airplane with the engines and flown it anywhere they chose.
The idea that Wah Sun Choy’s money would be used to pay for Curtis airplanes is cinematic, but why would not the money have simply be paid to Curtis in the U.S. instead of being taken to China first? $3 million U.S. was a lot of money then, but I need to be directed to the evidence that Wah had that much. Given the presence of U.S. and European banks in China and East Asia would not a conventional transfer have been safer?
I think that Ameila and Fred crashed into the Pacific near Howland Island. No Japanese kidnapping, no ransom, no conspiracy.
As for connections with the Japanese aggression in China, that was an army campaign without much involvement by the civilian government or the navy. And the army and the navy did not talk to each other.
I will follow this investigation just because I am always interested in new thinking and new evidence as well as anything about World War II. At this writing I will lean on the theory that Terletsky found himself in the clouds and spun in ala John F. Kennedy, Jr.
Herb Fischer says:
I was a Pan Am Pilot for 20 years (1966-1986) before being “sold” to United. As with any organization, we had our stronger and weaker members, but the idea that an experienced Pilot could get in the clouds and “spin in aka JFK Jr”, while not absolutely impossible, has less plausibility than being struck by a meteorite. Remember- the 130 had an autopilot and, more importantly, a competent F/O. Actually, I would think that getting a M-130 into a spin would be more difficult than getting it out of one! Comparing JFK Jr. to a Professional Pilot is more ludicrous than picking a driver at random off a freeway and putting him in the Indy 500!
I seem to remember reading somewhere else that the Japanese did attempt to buy the Engines on the 130 but were prevented from doing so by the Government- also read/heard that the engines were virtually nut and bolt the same as the ones on the Zero Fighter. Can anyone confirm/deny this?
Hi there Herb,
Thanks for your post. I too have found frustration in the casual remarks by early investigators and journalists saying that “they got lost in a cloud and crashed into the sea”. No wreckage, no debris, no nothing. I have found documents that say debris once thought to be from the clipper recovered from the shores of various Philippine islands has been proven not to be from a flying boat. So where does that leave us? To me, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is what some folks will point to as saying even in modern times a huge passenger airliner can still go missing. I respectfully disagree. On 29 July 2015 (note the coincidental date), a 2m-long (6ft) piece of the 777 debris was found by volunteers cleaning a beach in St Andre, on the north-eastern coast of Reunion. On 5 August, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that investigators had “conclusively confirmed” the debris was from the missing plane, a finding confirmed by French officials. However, officials said this did not affect their search plans, as the debris had been carried to Reunion by ocean currents. It was the first of more than 20 pieces of possible debris found by members of the public, on the African coast and islands in the Indian Ocean. In November 2016, a report found the recovered wing flaps from the plane were not in the landing position when the plane went down in the Indian Ocean. So to me it goes to show that debris will most often find a way to shore – and yet nothing of the Hawaii Clipper until TWO eye-witnesses gave testimony to a trained aerial observer – Joe Gervias – of the clipper landing in Truk Lagoon and that the 15 American passengers and crew (with the specific knowledge of the make up of people were 13 Caucasians, one Asian and a “dark guy” indeed arrive at the Imperial Japanese Navy seaplane base. Interesting yes?
David Wilma says:
Is there more information on the banknotes “allegedly” recovered on Saipan in 1944?
Nothing yet has been found however we did find a treasure trove of images of Truk Lagoon that will help isolate the location for the big dig this summer. :-). Thanks for checking in!
Have you looked at the mystery of Pan Am 7, “Romance of the Skies.” A mystery if there ever was one.
Guy Noffsinger says:
Thanks for both your interest and email. I have heard of this particular Boeing 377 Clipper, but since bodies were recovered including identified debris from the Romance of the Skies, I pressed on with the mysterious disappearance of the Hawaii Clipper where ZERO trace was found.
lee sherman says:
I was thrilled to see my contributed photo on your website today. It has been over 20 years since it was given to me from a co-worker. Your work and dedication in regard to the disappearance of the Clipper is most admirable. I am most glad I was able to provide the image of the Clipper at Alameda Cal. Good luck and good hunting for the whereabouts of the passengers and crew.
Many thanks Lee, much obliged for your help!
Tony Gochar says:
Wondeful site! We have a mutual interest. Please send me an email so that we might discuss some things we have researched. I think there could be a great synergy in our efforts. Tony
Hello, Mr. Noffsinger,
I’m Charles Hill, son of Charles N. Hill, author of Fix on the Rising Sun. I am fascinated by your project, Mr. Noffsinger, and happy to see that someone is working to build upon my father’s work in such a visceral way. I do wish you would give my father more credit for his tireless research. My family suffered a great deal so that he could finish his book, which took him around a decade to consolidate and publish.
I spoke recently with Anne O’Sullivan (sp?), the daughter of one of the ultimate M.I.A.s. She called us at the Hill residence, telling me of your trips to Truk, and that you had still been unable to locate the concrete slabs of legend. She told me that you required a document that my father had acquired for his research on the Clipper in order to locate the slabs. She called it the Priester (sp?) report. I have not yet located this document (I know my father had backups and hardcopies of most all of his documents), but if you would like to correspond with me, I would love to hear from you about this. It would be very satisfying if I could help bring my father’s work further into the light and bring some solace to the families of the Clipper’s crew and passengers.
Charles Hill
Thanks so much Charles,
Yes indeed, your father was a wonderful resource and in fact, my fellow researcher Steve Testa was invited and visited your dad in Ohio. I’m very sorry for your loss and I have a huge amount of respect for Charlie. Anne did reach out to you at my request because I had actually spoken to your mom and brother twice about finishing the work Charlie had picked up from Joe Gervias but was never sent any of the files I requested. It’s ironic that the very last thing Charlie ever said to me was that (as far as he knew) I was the last one to seriously carry the torch and to not let it fall after he was gone, I could not image it would be so soon.
It is true I have not given Charlie more credit for his work, but that is only here on this blog. The book and documentary project actually intrenches him in a much more pivotal role, one I am sure you will be enthused and proud to see. I will make an effort to speak of his significant research here now too, and I hope you could also continue your search thru his documents as well for some of those files. I will send you the list Anne had spoken about to maybe finish this patchwork of research and data.
Charles, I had rarely spoken to such a driven man as your father and I know you all paid a heavy price for his passion. I will make you a promise to give it my best as well and hope that it will in some way, it will at least write the last chapter of his unfinished work.
I just became aware of your site, and your passion. I’ve been fond of the M-130 Clippers since childhood, learning of them from my father.
My interest inspired me to learn about the M-130s and later allowed me to help build a Clipper model, for a hollywood feature film “The Phantom”. For this work I took no money, preferring to be “paid” with the components for a copy of my my own. [which I still possess – unfinished]
When asked “which one will you build it to be… China, Philippine or Hawaii?” my answer was simple… “Hawaii… it’s the only one that could still exist.”
It will be with a twinge of sadness that I receive the news that you have finally located her or her crew, because it will take me one step further from the fantasy that someone will one day open a hangar door to find her, a strange plane sitting – an artifact out of time. All the same, I wish you success in your endeavor and thank you for keeping her in the minds of the living.
Perhaps as your next project you will consider discovering the fate and location of the M-156 “Russian Clipper”? With the fall of the USSR, I had hoped more details would emerge, but so far none have.
Hi there Chris,
Yes, finding the remains of the M-156 (Martin Ocean Transport) would be very cool indeed however I understand it was scrapped after serving a very long time flying people and cargo for Aeroflot. Apparently, they didn’t like the “Russian / Soviet Clipper” name.
Jim Linder says:
Guy: You seem to have some pretty good info but I’m not finding the evidence to support the hypothesis that the pax and crew of the Hawaii Clipper ended up buried somewhere at Truk. I’ve heard it before, from Charles Hill, etc., but haven’t seen anything that seemed to be compelling. Did you conduct a GPR search at Truk and if so what was the result?
I have seen various contradictory information over the years about the fate of the Hawaii Clipper, some of it pretty convincing of the the theory that that somehow the Japanese ended up with the aircraft. Some of this information has not been published elsewhere, as far as I know. But at the same time, if this story were true, there should be further evidence still extant. I believe study of pre-war Sakae engines may hold the key – if there are still any to be found.
Hi there Jim, thanks so much for your interest. I will be honest with you and all the other readers of this blog that I have intentionally withheld about 70% of my evidence because I am writing a book and producing a concurrent documentary. I will however share some information here that may perhaps sway the argument.
I have found six maps from the Japanese, British and Americans that indicate all the areas of the island that would possibly be the burial location. I then overlaid them and created a candidate list that was shown to local residents of the island (two years ago and then again in February). Taking testimony from two children of the actual Chuukese labor work party that entombed the bodies in concrete (they not only verified the story but added to it and did so without being asked), that I started to believe the myth could be factual. I then went further to pour over the notes made by Gervais, Hill and a few others and believe that (due to the remoteness of the islands, lack of communication capabilities and desire to lie), that the local islanders were honest, forthright and sincere in their belief that the happenings were true. The main problem is that the story had not been handed down from generation to generation and almost all the older folks that would know the story first hand have passed on.
I did bring a GPR unit and conducted some scans but the three locations I covered came up negative. A good thing was that it ruled out some consistencies that were not obvious.
All in all, I am still convinced the story is true, but as most will say, the proof is in the pudding. I’m headed back sometime soon and hope to secure the correct location once and for all. On a side note, I did confirm the story of Mark Walker’s sister about the aircraft was said to be lost in a storm however none was present at the time of loss. The weather reports for the entire flight area for the week of the disappearance were pulled and the show clear and near perfect flying weather. This and a few other facts show a trend of a cover up. The reason? I believe to not scare off the Postal Service contract that the mail could be falling into the hands of the Japanese Navy. The public was alarmed at the loss of another Pan Am Clipper, but if it were at the hands of saboteurs, then Pan am might have lost all their contracts and eventually, the flying route. More to come!
Guy, please don’t feel unsuccessful, you are not, in fact, you are doing a great work and any information you uncover no matter how small it may seem to be, is success. Remember, “line upon line, precept upon precept”. You have and know much more today then you did ten years ago. Keep up the great work and know that you are appreciated. I truly believe they know you are searching for them and after all these years they can only help but be a bit more patient. Thanks for all you do.
Thanks Elisa, your are the most kind of kind. I’m only going to push harder now. I am sure I was within earshot of the slab.
Mr. Guy Noffsinger, I just want to thank you for all your efforts put forth into what reallly happen to the Clipper and my Great Uncle Jose Maria…I do pray and hope this will be the year to finally bring closure to our family members and especially my Aunt Ester and bring my uncle home……I will be greatly looking foward to your findings….. God Bless and Good Luck….And please keep intouch…..Alice Mae……
InDepthSCUBA says:
I am very excited about your upcoming trip to Truk. Congratulations on getting your funding. I lived in Truk for two years and have longed to get back there with the ability to scan the concrete foundation/slab at the Hospital on Dublon. I just stumbled upon your site today. I am looking forward to your findings. All the best.
Hi Larry. Thanks for logging in and for your interest on my research. As always, any information is very helpful. I would be no where without the help and resources many like you have willinginly provided. I look forward to your participation and thoughts on the effort.
Hey Guy,
I think you’re doing a great thing by uncovering the truth. I can’t believe I’d never heard about this tragedy until I stumbled across your kickstarter page. I wish you luck. I’d also like to offer my help if you need someone to do any of the foot work for you. I work for an airline and I get around. I look forward to seeing what you discover in your quest.
Safe Travels,
Thanks Jonathon, much appreciated. It’s one of those stories that have fallen between the crack of time and luckily, some of the puzzle pieces still remain. I am hopeful enough of them can be put together to get a clear picture as to the who, what and where. Next month will be THE month we get this thing into high speed.
You betchah and thanks so much for the warm wishes Diana. I have a researcher in Japan that is pulling together information from his side of the Pacific. I think we are in great shape for a return to the island in early 2012. 🙂 Stay in touch!!
I just want my grandfather back on U.S. soil where he belongs and Esther Sauceda Camarillo will have some closure to this murderous act done to her father. I’m sure family members of the passengers who were on the Hawaii clipper would like that too. Thank you Guy for all your hard work that you are putting in to this project.
Mary Skribanowitz says:
I agree with you Diana Balderrama. My mother, Mary Helen Sauceda, Jose Sauceda’s youngest daughter has always wanted just that…her father to be brought back to US soil and have closure before they themselves depart this world of ours. I extend my graditude for all the hard work Guy Noffslinger has put into this project. God bless and pray all this will finally be resolved!
Thanks Mary, I think this may be an exciting year in revelations as a few folks have come forward with new and interesting news that support our hijacking premiss. Stay tuned!!
Espionage? Is there any truth or proof to the notion that this Pan Am clipper flight was going to rescue Amelia Earhart? This is my biggest question about the disapperance of the Hawaii Clipper and her crew? I use the term disappearance because I don’t think it crashed. I do believe it landed and not having Amelia, the renegade Japanese sailors took the money and killed the crew and passengers burying them in 6 foot of concrete. Still what happened to the clipper? Did they have Amelia? Had they already killed her and burried her in the concrete as well or did they just use her disappearance as a ruse to steal money and the clipper? I am so curious and so glad for your blog and investigation for your book and documentary. This is all bound to uncover some interesting information. Thanks.
Hello Elisa, I thought I had responded to this but it must have fallen off. No worries, I will answer this again. There is a theory that the three million dollars in gold back notes carried by passenger Wah Sun Choy might have actually been mostly made up of funds moved from the department of treasury (via a Chase Manhatten Bank account used by the government for such efforts) as ransom money for Earhart and Noonan. Although this sounds like a really great story, I personally doubt it. In speaking with two expert Earhart Hunters, there are allleged stories that she was captured near Mili Atol, transferred to Saipan, interrogated and put up for ransom. From the conspiracy angle, she and her navigator were to be used as bait. The Japanese (the rogue Fleet Faction society that perpetrated the hijacking) were more interested in obtaining the clippers two week old Pratt & Whitney 950 horsepower engines rather than the money. If this is indeed what happened, then the discovery of the supposed same three million doller certificates by US Marines in a Siapan bank vault may give credence to the story.I alternatively believe the money was indeed intended for the defacto Chinese government to help battle the Japanese in China. The money amount surly was not solely raised from donations in New York as the country was still in a severe depression but as previously mentioned, with additional funds from the US government. The interesting “coincidence” is that the three million was the exact amount the cost of 50 new Curtis pursuit planes were to cost Chang Kai Shek… and the sales person for those very aircraft was aboard the clipper as well. I think the lipped prize was just too much to pass up for the rouge group of Japanese Navy officers.
After DNA confermation, this part of the mystery will be solved and will perhaps open the door to finally understand the who, what and why of the Hawaii Clipper mystery.
Thanks, Guy. Every time you share your knowledge and experience you heighten my interest that much furthur. Keep up the great work.
I just learned the Mike Campbell has a new book due out this spring. The book is titled “The Truth at Last” and builds on his work revealing a long list of eyewitness counts that put AE and Noonan on Saipan.
July 3rd 2012 marks the 75th anniversary of the disappearance of Fred Noonan and AE. This could be a great year for truth to come out on both of these aircraft disappearances.
Thanks Larry, you are very kind and I’m glad to have you abourd. I too eagerly await Mike Campbells new book and hope I can somehow contribute to the legend of AE and perhaps, 2012 will indeed bring an end to both mysteries. Stay in touch and feel free to email me as I will be in Chuuk next month!
Introducing myself: Melanie Tatum (Wife) to Bryan Tatum (Grandson of “Assistant Engineer Officer T.B. Tatum). My father in law Tom is his son (who was 1 1/2 years old at the time of the disappearance).
Hi Melanie, can you kindly forward your email address?
wendy626 says:
Hello. I love this blog!! I’ve been looking into the Hawaii Clipper for decades, it’s great that info is so much easier to share on the internet now as opposed to then. With so few passengers, this seemed like a special flight arranged through Juan Tripp. I’ve always wondered what the true missions of Dr. McKinley and Dr. Meier really were and if you’ve run across anything about that in your research. When the films came out of Nanking, there must have been more intelligence that came with them regarding the activities of the Japaneses in Manchuria. McKinley was a retired Colonel in the Army, Dean of Medicine at GW Univ and a world renowned immunologist. Meier was the co-inventor with Lindbergh of the air scoop and a plant pathologist from the Dept of Agriculture. My gut tells me they were part of this group because they were going on to China to see what kind of chemical warfare was being tested on civilians in Manchuria by Unit 731. Anyone have any information to prove or disprove this theory of mine?
Thanks so very much Wendy, your interest is certainly appreciated. Wow, there is so much to say about some of your thoughts. Tell you what; let me do some digging in my files and I’ll post some responses and we’ll go from there.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1549
|
__label__cc
| 0.744798
| 0.255202
|
AMERICAN FLAME RESISTANCE STANDARD FOR PERSONAL FIRE-RESISTANT PROTECTIVE GARMENTS
The NFPA 2112 standard specifies the basic minimum requirements and test methods for flame resistance for personal fire-resistant protective garments.
REQUIREMENTS FOR NFPA 2112 STANDARD CERTIFICATION
MINIMUM COMPLIANCE VALUES
Each individual layer of the outfit must be tested separately. Fabrics with a tag that specifies that they must be washed must be tested before and after 100 wash and dry cycles. The time of exposure to flame is 12 seconds. After exposing the garment to flame and allowing the fabric to cool, the appropriate weight must be hung in order to give the tearing enough force, in accordance with the Table:
Tear force for determining charred length
g/m² Fabric weight
oz/yd² Total tear
68 to 203 2.0 to 6.0 100 4.0
203 to 508 6.0 to 15.0 200 8.0
508 to 780 15.0 to 23.0 300 12.0
More than 780 More than 23.0 475 16.0
Both the fabric and the reflective tapes used in flame resistant garments must have a charred length of less than or equal to 100 mm (4 inches) as well as a post-glow of no more than 2 seconds. The fabric cannot drip or melt. The gas used must be methane.
The garment is mounted on a manikin with 100 sensors in stationary conditions and must be tested against exposure to a flash fire for 3 seconds, with a heat flux of 84 kW/m² to provide predictions of skin burns.
The result of the mean burn protection cannot be greater than 50%.
Number of tests: 3.
Pre-treatment: 1 wash cycle according to manufacturer specifications.
Exposure time: 3 seconds. Undergarments: briefs, 170 g/m² ± 5% made of 100% cotton and a short-sleeve t-shirt, 140 g/m² ± 5% made of 100% cotton.
Requirements: total burn prediction ≤ 50%.
Manikin test. Garments must be tested against exposure to a flash fire. The result of the mean burn prediction cannot be greater than 50.
The flow of convective heat must consist of two Meker-Fisher burners secured under the stand supporting the sample and placed at a 45º angle with respect to the vertical axis so that the flames meet at a point just under the sample. The radiant heat source must consist of some T-150 quartz infrared tubes and be centred between the burners. Once the total heat flow reaches 83 kW/m² ± 4 kW/m², a copper calorimeter should be used to measure the total heat flow. Prior to the test, the copper calorimeter must be used to measure the heat flow by placing it upside down and directly exposing it to the total heat source. The reading on the calorimeter must register for at least 10 seconds. The lowest temperature on the curve must be chosen and the temperature increment determined for 10 seconds (detected by a sensor). The start point for the exposure should be registered at time t = 0 seconds. Exposure must continue for 30 seconds (exposure time t = 30 seconds). For each TPP test, the final thermic point must be determined by comparing a few graphs that show the thermic energy measured versus the response time on the Stoll curve (a prediction model for second-degree burns on the human body, expressed in J/cm²).
Heat transfer (TPP): The result with space must be greater than or equal to 25 J/cm² (6.0 cal/cm²) and with contact must be greater than or equal to 12.6 J/cm² (3.0 cal/cm²).
AATCC135
Test method to determine colour-fastness upon home washing.
AATCC61
Test method to determine colour-fastness upon industrial washing.
Test method to determine sturdiness under light.
Test method to determine sturdiness upon dry cleaning.
AATCC8
Test method to determine sturdiness upon washing by scrubbing.
Sectors where the NFPA 2112 standard is applicable
ZINC FOUNDRY
CATENARIES
UTILITIES AND SUBCONTRACTORS
Some of the Marina Texil fabrics that comply with the NFPA 2112 standard
Inherently fire resistant fabric that surpasses international standards upon electric arc, large fire deflagrations (flash fire), electrostatic risks and small acid splash risks.
If you have any questions, please contact our technical department experts.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1557
|
__label__cc
| 0.690008
| 0.309992
|
Mario Sundar's Speakeasy
Twitter's 1st evangelism comms guy, Linkedin's 2nd PR guy. These are my thoughts on tech, public relations, and life.
About Mario Sundar
HOW-TO Use Social Media
Business Blogging
Social Media ROI
Latest at LinkedIn
LinkedIn Colleagues
LinkedIn Features
LinkedIn in the News
Leadership Communication
What's New in Social Media
Knowledge Networks
The Secret to Effective Communication: Being Heard is not Enough
Communication is underrated and vastly misunderstood.
The larger the audience, the more cliched and tiresome our communication becomes. Worse still, we seem less wary of the impact of our words when we write for larger groups.
Corporations tend to be the worst offenders in this category especially when they get tied down in their inane press releases and top-down missives. The problem is even more acute during trying times, when a CEO needs to rally his troops behind a common cause.
I give you, Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella’s recent missive around the organization’s future direction.
The amount of meaningless jargon in this useless, rambling letter is extremely impressive. http://t.co/Ic9o22iZO2 I worry for Microsoft.
— dustin curtis (@dcurtis) July 11, 2014
Rather than poke holes in Nadella’s tired cliches, I’d like to share the secret sauce on how anyone can communicate efficiently to large groups of people.
And there’s no better story to illustrate this than Steve Jobs’ trial-by-fire return to Apple at Macworld 1997 when this had happened.
There was something dramatic, almost Shakespearean, about Steve Jobs’ return to Apple. A humbler, self-deprecating leader, whose second act was laser focused on first getting Apple out of the red. To do that Jobs would have to rally his troops, inspire them, yet give them a dose of real talk; a delicate balance he pulled off with style at Macworld 1997. Here’s the secret sauce to doing that.
1. Be Upfront
Always, be honest with your troops – both internally and externally. This doesn’t mean you have to share all but you’ve to find ways to address the elephant in the room. And once you do, the ultimate segue would be to find a way to inspire confidence and hope amidst the burning embers.
Jobs gets into it right away, highlighting the three complaints leveled against Apple and how he sees it:
“Apple’s not as relevant as it used to be everywhere, but in some incredibly important market segments, it’s extraordinarily relevant.”
“Apple’s executing wonderfully on many of the wrong things!”
“Rather than anarchy, people can’t wait to fall in line behind a good strategy. There just hasn’t been one.”
He agrees with the accusation, does not gloss over the facts, but spins it in a way that inspires confidence. It’s his own way of saying “It’s not you, it’s us” which goes down well with the audience. A lot of executives seem to forget they are talking to a bunch of rational, smart folks and try to ignore the obvious sword hanging in the air. They avoid the elephant in the room, and lose their trust. Lose their trust and you lose your audience.
Every time you write, visualize a skeptic you’re trying to persuade. Convert her and you’ve won them all. Instead I’m loathe to find myself reading press releases and corporate missives that sound like this:
We live in a mobile-first and cloud-first world. Computing is ubiquitous and experiences span devices and exhibit ambient intelligence. Billions of sensors, screens and devices – in conference rooms, living rooms, cities, cars, phones, PCs – are forming a vast network and streams of data that simply disappear into the background of our lives. This computing power will digitize nearly everything around us and will derive insights from all of the data being generated by interactions among people and between people and machines. We are moving from a world where computing power was scarce to a place where it now is almost limitless, and where the true scarce commodity is increasingly human attention.
You lost me at “mobile-first, cloud-first world.” Most people don’t know what the heck the cloud is; just ask Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz.
Nobody understands the cloud. It’s a fuckin’ mystery!
So get to the heart of the matter with simple words. Think like a blogger, not like a novelist.
2. Talk Normal, Write Simple
Certainly @satyanadella (and @fxshaw) are capable of writing like normal people; It'd be worthwhile to do so for memos that are made public.
— Anil Dash (@anildash) July 17, 2014
Corporations sure think they are people, but turn on a press release or a camera and they sure as hell sound like corporations. As Anil Dash suggests, I’m sure Nadella and team write normal when they email each other but turn on the spotlight and it turns weird; like this scene from Talladega Nights:
I’ve seen this Deer-in-Spotlight phenomenon in many an executive, but I’ve also seen some of them overcoming it over time. Writing makes it worse, since there’s no immediate feedback to your original missive. But if Nadella and his PR team are seeing the tweets or posts since, they should know this could have gone better.
Maybe the new Microsoft CEO could try writing letters and emails without using bullshit terminology for one week just to see how it feels?
— Garrett Murray (@garrettmurray) July 17, 2014
Sure, most of Nadella’s speech might have avoided the obvious hard truths but worse still, there was no letting up on the esoteric:
A few months ago on a call with investors I quoted Nietzsche and said that we must have “courage in the face of reality.” Even more important, we must have courage in the face of opportunity.
Rainer Maria Rilke’s words say it best: “The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.”
Even True Detective makes more sense now:
Someone once told me time is a flat circle; where everything we’ve ever done, we’ll do over and over again.
The reason I insist on simplicity, is comprehension – the ultimate goal of all communication. In our attention-deficit world, the disparity between being heard and listened to is huge. The importance of your words lies solely in its ability to drive action and that cannot happen with the incomprehensible. This ain’t about you, the writer.
It is always about the reader.
3. Be Precise
Now to the heart of the matter. Rhetoric teaches us that in order to drive action, you need to persuade. And that happens with clarity of vision. Flashback to our 97 Macworld and here’s how Jobs set the stage for the future; inspirational, and on hindsight, prescient:
“We have the makings of a really healthy company, with some really talented people that need to come together and execute on a great plan.”
“What’s the fundamental problem? Declining sales.”
He then dives straight into how they are gonna overcome that in 5 concrete steps:
Board of Directors (calls out people but does it in a very subtle manner)
Focus on relevance
Invest in core assets
Forge meaningful partnerships
New product paradigms
Actions speak louder than words. And to back up those words, he clearly spells out actions like installing a new board of directors, one which includes the legendary Bill Campbell (who just today retired, after 17 years on Apple’s board), Steve Jobs’ close friend, Larry Ellison, among others.
”The confidence starts with a really clear vision. Then you take that vision down to strategy. People have to look at it and say “Yes”, they can do that. The past has been failure. The new board inspires hope.” – Bill Campbell
It’s just that Jobs makes what seems impossible for any CEO to do, seem easy: calling out past mistakes honestly and focusing on what needs to change, boldly and precisely.
One more thing: Bolt of Lightning
Towards the end of the presentation Steve Jobs says something that kinda gave away the mainstay of rhetoricians:
“Sometimes points of view can really make you really look at things differently.”
“For me when I was looking at the statistic and it hit me that Apple is the largest education company in the world, that was like a bolt of lightning. That’s huge.
“What an incredible base to build off of.”
“Another bolt of lightning is that Apple and Microsoft equal 100% of the desktop market.
And so, whatever Apple and Microsoft agree to do, it’s a standard (laughter). I think you’ll see us work more with Microsoft because they’re the only player in the desktop industry. And I think you’ll see Apple work more with Microsoft more because they’re the only other player in the desktop industry.
I hope we have more cooperation in the future because the industry wants it.”
Art of Manliness points out the third rule of persuasion – Appeal to Reason:
Finally, we come to logos, or the appeal to reason. Aristotle believed logos to be the superior persuasive appeal and that all arguments should be won or lost on reason alone. However, he recognized that at times an audience would not be sophisticated enough to follow arguments based solely on scientific and logical principles and so the other appeals needed to be used as well.
In The Art of Rhetoric, Aristotle states that appealing to reason means allowing “the words of the speech itself” to do the persuading. This was accomplished through making inferences using deductive reasoning, usually in the form of a formal syllogism. You’ve seen these before. You start with two premises and end with a conclusion that naturally follows the premises.
Jobs had to conclude that speech with a convincing call to arms. The troops were still skeptical but his conclusion hits at logic, while earlier in the speech, he tackled emotion:
Microsoft + Apple = 100%
What we do together = the desktop standard
The industry wants it.
The conclusion of Nadella’s letter reads:
We must each have the courage to transform as individuals. We must ask ourselves, what idea can I bring to life? What insight can I illuminate? What individual life could I change? What customer can I delight? What new skill could I learn? What team could I help build? What orthodoxy should I question?
With the courage to transform individually, we will collectively transform this company and seize the great opportunity ahead.
Confusing quote, followed by rambling ideas (“What orthodoxy should I question?” Uh?) ending with more meaningless blah.
Let me clarify, this is not a dig on the writing style of one CEO over the other. It’s a reminder that most of us, myself included, sometime gets sucked into the “more is better” mentality, as a writer. And that’s just a bad place to be in, if the goal of your writing is to communicate effectively.
Every leader should be writing for the audience’s collective cynic, not to their internal sycophants. And I notice CEOs oftentimes do the latter. And don’t get me wrong, any decent PR effort can help broadcast this mindless jargon across the airwaves and social media, but then all you get out of that is awareness.
Communications, in my opinion, is far bigger than PR-as-Marketing and it involves converting people over to your line of thinking and this happens only with strong beliefs and convincing rhetoric. And to do that just follow the rules I outline above.
Filed under: Crisis Communications, Public Relations, Public Speaking, Steve Jobs
January 26, 2013 • 2:25 am 0
Handling a personal crisis like Letterman
We’ve seen this before. An executive’s fall from grace over a workplace dalliance. The world loves stories like this and the media just can’t have enough of it.
The tech world, which is usually insulated from such drama, just saw earlier today the second of such stories in recent times. Keith Rabois, second in command at Jack Dorsey’s Square stepped down in his role as COO because of sexual harassment claims.
There’s definitely gonna be a lot of “He Said, He Said” over the next few weeks but Keith’s response to these allegations both on his blog as well as on his Twitter page, is a textbook case immediate response in crisis communication. It reminded me a lot of David Letterman’s handling of a blackmail over dalliances he had with his employees. Here’s Letterman addressing those allegations:
The key is authenticity. Letterman address was precise:
“The creepy stuff was that I’ve had sex with women who work for me on the show. My response to that is ‘Yes, I have.'”
“And would it be embarrassing if it were made public. Yes, it would. Especially for the women!”
Keith’s response has been somewhat along similar lines, though a tad more nebulous:
“In May 2010, I met someone via mutual friends. With increasing frequency, we hung out, drank wine, and I helped prepare him for interviews with tech startups. As our friendship deepened, we spent more time together, and our relationship became physical. We regularly worked out at the gym, occasionally hung out at my home, and exchanged intimate, personal information, as people in similar relationships often do.
Several months after our relationship began, I recommended that he interview at Square. He went through the interview process and was ultimately hired. I had no impact on his potential success at the company. At no point did he ever report directly to me, and I have seen his work product less than a handful of times.”
This may not be as cut-and-dry as the Letterman example, but the immediate response in all such cases is the same: an honest appraisal (see above) and a sincere apology (see below).
I deeply regret that I let my personal and professional lives to become intertwined, and I apologize to my colleagues and friends (at Square and elsewhere) who I’ve let down, and who will bear the brunt of some of the unnecessary, negative attention this situation will likely bring.
You may think it’s easy but very few people have been able to handle these situations right (Just ask Bill Clinton) and it takes a lot of courage to watch your dirty linen washed in public.
But at the end of the day, people are willing to forgive and forget as long as your work counts for something.
Just ask Bill Clinton of the Clinton Foundation, or David Letterman who was recently honored at the Kennedy Center for his contribution to pop-culture.
Filed under: Crisis Communications, Leadership Communication, Public Relations, celebrities, current-events
Write like the President’s Speechwriter
Remember, President Obama’s triumphant “Yes, We Can” speech, or the hopeful New Hampshire concession speech or most recently the comforting Newton tragedy speech…
Words matter and a President’s words carry meaning to hundreds of millions of people; it helps sooth, comfort, and uplift a nation.
So there’s a lot we can learn about writing from the President’s young speechwriter Jon Favreau (not the guy who brought you Iron Man). This past week Favreau crafted one of his penultimate speeches for the President and shared some of his secrets gleaned while writing for the President.
First, nail the theme
One of the biggest mistakes you can make while writing an essay or a blog post is to blah, blah, ramble on relentlessly towards an unspecified goal in the far distance. Smart writers always get the theme right first, which helps with Act 1 and 3 of the piece, and then work around it to get Act 2 right – usually the toughest part.
The President’s working style with Favreau is no different.
“We wanted to make sure that we were going to pick one theme and not go all over the place. And the president said, “Look there’s the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence and for 200 years the American story has been about making those promises real,'” recalled Favreau. For an underlying theme, they settled on the notion that “alongside our rugged individualism, there’s another strand of American belief which is that we’re all in this together e pluribus unum, out of many, one.”
Keep it short, keep it real
For cryin out loud, please keep it short. Everybody’s got ADD (thank you, Twitter!) these days, so holding their attention is gonna be your biggest challenge.
As Ted Sorenson, Kennedy’s speechwriter, said about JFK’s speeches:
No speech was more than 20 to 30 minutes in duration. They were all too short and too crowded with facts to permit any excess of generalities and sentimentalities. His texts wasted no words and his delivery wasted no time.
And, boy did Kennedy’s speeches work because of that very fact:
For he disliked verbosity and pomposity in his own remarks as much as he disliked them in others. He wanted both his message and his language to be plain and unpretentious, but never patronizing. He wanted his major policy statements to be positive, specific and definite, avoiding the use of “suggest,” “perhaps” and “possible alternatives for consideration.”
Yes. Always be specific.
“Write drunk; edit sober.”
Nah, I wouldn’t recommend that rule because not all things that work for Hemingway work for mere mortals. But, Hemingway was right about one thing – relentlessly edit your work till its worthy of public consumption.
Editing is an art form with the structure depending on how you choose to approach it. In some cases, logic will be the guide:
“He’s known for his rhetoric, right?” said Favreau. “But he’s also got a very lawyerly, logical mind. And so the thing he always does best is putting every argument in order.”
The night before the inauguration, Obama was done editing. All that was left were words to underline so that they’d get proper emphasis in the delivery. The president did a read through in the map room of the White House that night.
And, in other cases, reason will dictate the contents of a speech as Ted Sorenson describes JFK’s goal with his speeches:
At the same time, his emphasis on a course of reason –rejecting the extremes of either side –helped produce the parallel construction and use of contrasts with which he later became identified. He had a weakness for one unnecessary phrase: “The harsh facts of the matter are . . .”–but with few other exceptions his sentences were lean and crisp. . . .
But regardless, if there’s one thing I’d like you to takeaway from this post, it’d be edit, edit, and edit until your post is worthy of being seen by people. Or as Hemingway said to F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1934:
“I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit,” Hemingway confided to F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1934. “I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.”
Put it in the wastebasket, not on your blog.
Filed under: Best-of, Leadership Communication, Public Speaking, Writing, blogging, current-events, how-to, literature, politics, quotes
Bad Communication, according to Larry Page
I’ve written about great communicators like Steve Jobs, I’ve called out lame attempts by Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos who tried copying the master and failed, and I now gotta write about bad communication, courtesy of Google CEO Larry Page.
Scott Edinger’s recap of Aristotle’s three rules of rhetoric helped me pull together the three elements of Larry Page’s bad communication skills.
1. Lack emotion and logic
Aristotle’s rules of rhetoric are credibility, emotion and logic. While credibility is a given with folks like Page and Zuckerberg, it’s emotion and logic (!) that these CEOs stumble upon.
Let’s take Page’s comments on Google+, an area that’s obviously not Google’s brightest spot today. In Dec 2012, this is how Page addressed its “success“:
Fortune: It is a big bet. What’s most important to you? Is competitive with Facebook (FB)? Is it about weaving identity across all of Google’s products? You’ve talked about adoption being higher than you expected. What’s the measure of success going forward?
Page: I think it’s gone pretty well. I’m very happy if users of Plus are happy and the numbers are growing because that means that we’re on to something. We’ve got a huge team actually in this building. If you walk around, you see everyone’s excited and running around and working hard on it. I think that they’re doing great stuff. They’re making it better and better every day. That’s how I’m measuring it.
That made no sense. After months of touting meaningless numbers to showcase Google+’s “success”, the past couple of months have seen Page just bullshitting us with nada.
Take a another example just a few days ago, in Wired Magazine:
Wired: What’s your evaluation of Google+?
Page: I’m very happy with how it has gone. We’re working on a lot of really cool stuff. A lot of it has been copied by our competitors, so I think we’re doing a good job.
Now, obviously there’s no way in hell this is how Google (one of the smartest companies on the planet) measures success for a key product, ranging from “excited employees, running around, working hard, doing great stuff” to “lot of is copied” so we’re doing good.
Now who does this kind of talk remind me of: Dubya!
He answers questions like an 8 year old does when they didn’t read the book.
He just describes facts.
People always say: “President Bush. I think he’s stupid.” He’s not stupid. When you listen to him you realize, he talks like he’s talking to someone stupid.
And that in essence is how Larry Page sounds most of the time. Especially when he’s talking about Google+.
Wanna know how it’s done right? I can give you so many examples of Jobs’ masterful answer to tough questions.
Jobs was one of those rare leaders who was able to combine both emotion and logic in his answers, much like he presented Apple at the intersection of Art and Technology. Even when heckled, Jobs knew how to respond to it with a unique blend of emotion and logic.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, the key here is to earn the respect of your audience.
2. Badmouth your competition
An unwritten law of communication is to not badmouth the competition, but somehow Larry Page sounds either condescending, like a douche (more on that in just a second) or plain clueless.
Wired: One area where people say that Google is indeed motivated by competition is the social realm, where in the past two years you have been working hard in a field dominated by a single rival, Facebook. That’s not the case?
Page: It’s not the way I think about it. We had real issues with how our users shared information, how they expressed their identity, and so on. And, yeah, they’re a company that’s strong in that space. But they’re also doing a really bad job on their products.
The part that really gets to me, is you can’t just throw stuff out like that without getting examples! It’s a whole other problem that the interviewer didn’t ask the obvious question: which Facebook products are you referring to? Wouldn’t that have made for a fascinating follow-up.
And it ain’t just Page; others in his “L Team” (yuck!) have done it earlier to which Jobs responded:
Just because you’re a competitor, doesn’t mean you have to be rude.
3. Sound like a douche
Finally, as I said earlier, you don’t wanna come off as condescending to your competition (or worse still) sound like a dick about your users.
Fortune: While the company has touted the success of Google+, its answer to Facebook, many analysts say they see little activity on the social network.
What you should want us to do is to really build amazing products and to really do that with a long-term focus. Just like I mentioned we have to understand apps and we have to understand things you could buy, and we have to understand airline tickets. We have to understand anything you might search for. And people are a big thing you might search for.
And so we think about it somewhat differently. We’re going to have people as a first class object in search. We need that to work, and we need to get started on it. If you look at a product, and you say the day it launched, “It’s not doing what I think it should do.” We say, “Well, yeah. It just launched today.” Part of this is you have to interact with it and you have to claim your name and make it work for you. And so I think for me I didn’t have any issues around that. I think that people weren’t focused on the long-term. And I think again it’s important if we’re going to do a good job meeting your information needs, we actually need to understand things and we need to understand things pretty deeply. People are a component of that.
As you can see in both instances people always seem to be “a component of” Google’s “need to understand things pretty deeply.” People are a necessary cog in Google’s need to “understand apps and things you could buy and they have to understand airline tickets.”!!!
Jobs on the other hand always began with the user in mind. Even in the example I gave above, he says:
One of the things I’ve always found is that you’ve gotta start with the customer experience and work backwards the technology. You can’t start with the technology and try to figure out where you’re gonna try to sell it.
And as recently as with his last interview at the D Conference, this is a word cloud of his responses and as you can see “People” figures quite prominently.
So if I can leave you with two last words, two more lessons from Jobs, it’d be transparency and consistency. Transparency because every word you say on stage has to be backed up by your product actions not the other way around. Consistency because what you say today should match with what you say in your last interview.
And that’s something we can all learn from Steve Jobs. Especially if you are a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company.
Filed under: Best-of, Larry Page, Leadership Communication, Public Relations, Public Speaking, blogging, Jeff Bezos, technology
October 1, 2011 • 3:12 pm 1
Zuck & Bezos: LEAVE JOBS ALONE!
Problem with the game now, there ain’t no innovation
I see my shit all in your shit, we call that imitation
And they say that’s flattering, but I ain’t flattered at all
Matter fact y’all need to practice that more
– J. Cole, Cole World
I’ve been planning to write a post ever since I watched Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote (where he launched Timeline – more on that later). But, then just last week I saw this and it creeped me out. So, Jobs, steps down as CEO and every Zuck, Bezos and Harry decide to literally rip off the presentation style of Steve Jobs. That’s just not cool.
But, I digress. Let’s catch some make-believe as CEOs try to play Steve Jobs.
Zuckerberg as Jobs
WTF! 7 minutes of Andy Samberg introducing a tech conference. You know that even in SNL segments we can’t take Samberg in more than 3 minute bytes. And, what’s with all the awful “humor” (I’m Zuckerberg, he’s Andy Samberg, and we couldn’t have Eisenberg here, so I’ll mimic Eisenberg). C’mon, guys. This ain’t high-school no more.
What’s worse is that this is a bit that Jobs introduced in his keynotes. First, in 1999 when Noah Wyle (who played Jobs in “Pirates of the Silicon Valley“) played Jobs on stage before Jobs’ adoring fans. Noah’s intro was less than a minute long. That was it. Well timed humor about the movie and a joke or two about Jobs temperament – for another minute. And, he’s gone. That’s how it’s done.
And, Jobs himself has overplayed that shtick. More recently, PC guy (played by the ever-adorable “The Daily Show” “reporter” John Hodgman) did a “I’m Steve Jobs” shtick and it was funny, short, and poked fun at Microsoft. Who doesn’t like an anti-PC ad, eh?
Bezos as Jobs
So, in short. The Samberg shtick was pure Jobs imitation. And, more importantly, it wasn’t funny and was way too long.
Things got a lil’ creepy when Bezos, whose maniacal laughter I fear, decided to jump on the “I’ll present as Jobs” world. This is him introducing the new Kindle at Amazon World or whatever it’s called. What’s with the deliberate stilted pacing that’ll make any viewer go nuts. C’mon, be yourself. Smile a little during your presentation. Don’t take yourself so seriously. And quit ripping off Jobs’ style. Trust me, it ain’t flattery.
One of the comments on the above Youtube video nailed it.
I love how dramatically he reveals things a la Steve Jobs to none of the cheers typical of an Apple presentation.
mgaums 1 day ago
This one’s even better…
and not a single fuck was given that day.
That crowd seemed so unimpressed it was almost sad.
TADA KINDLE FIRE!!!!!
yeah and?
MegatronSmurf 1 day ago
Please leave Jobs alone
As Jon Stewart would say: Zuck, meet me at Camera 3 (y’know, for a 1:1) – you’re a smart guy and developers love you. I know that for a fact cos they hate to see you embarrassed. I remember what a hard time they gave Sarah Lacy when you did a terrible job answering simple questions at SXSW.
They idolize you, the same way Mac fanatics adore Steve Jobs. There are very few folks in our tech world, who commands that adulation. You’re finally creating products that restore a sense of childlike wonder (more on Timeline later).
That doesn’t mean you can replace a black turtleneck sweater with a North Face jacket, sneakers with Adidas flip flops, Noah Wyle with Andy Samberg and turn into tech world’s great Houdini.
So, stick with creating great products, figuring out what works best for you on stage in your own unique way (it takes a while) and don’t let your handlers play you around.
And, I’ll let Jobs himself describe why a f8 or Amazon presentation will never be a Jobs presentation.
The problem with Microsoft is that they just have no taste. Absolutely no taste.
In a sense that they don’t think of original ideas.
So, I guess, I’m saddened not by their success. I’ve no problem with their success.
They’ve earned their success.
I have a problem that they make really third-rate products (replace with presentation).
There’ll never be another Jobs. You know that. So, quit trying.
Filed under: Best-of, Jeff Bezos, Leadership Communication, Mark Zuckerberg, Public Relations, Public Speaking, Steve Jobs, Amazon Kindle Fire, Jeff Bezos, Kindle Fire launch, Mark Zuckerberg
The Larry Summers Show: Straight Talk. Served Angry.
Yesterday, Larry Summers, whose words have landed him into trouble on more than one occasion was interviewed by Walter Isaacson (Aspen Institute President and Steve Jobs biographer) at a Fortune conference. Of course, the blogosphere was abuzz, but I felt the interview was interesting on a couple other areas on CEO communications that I’ve spent quite some time talking about here.
Three more tips on being interviewed in public ensues… right after the pic.
BTW, I couldn’t embed the video here because WordPress sucks at embedding flash files (they cite security but what’s good for Tumblr’s good for me) on their posts and don’t give any other option either. Thank you very much! But, I digress.
1. Speak your mind. Don’t mince words. Not Angry.
Love him or hate him. You’ve got to give it to Larry Summers for speaking his mind — no matter, how controversial it is — and no matter how he is perceived at the end of the interview. Of course, he seems to get away with lecturing the audience in his professorial tone given his past history.
The very first question was about a scene from the Social Network that portrayed him being dismissive of the Winklevii twins (I’m not gonna get into the details, but if you’re reading this blog, I guess you’ve watched the movie). Here was his no-nonsense answer to it.
I’ve heard it said that I can be arrogant.
If that’s true, I surely was on that occasion. One of the things you learn as a college president is that if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o’clock, there are two possibilities. One is that they’re looking for a job and have an interview; the other is that they are an a**hole.
This was the latter case. Rarely, have I encountered such swagger, and I tried to respond in kind.
Of course, not everyone can pull this off, but for someone with Larry’s notoriety this was a great start to an entertaining interview.
2. The power of simple metaphors
I’ve said it before (while describing Steve Jobs’ style) and I’m gonna start collecting more examples of leaders who are effective at using simple metaphors to get across a point during interviews. In my opinion, this is the only way to communicate effectively to your audience. For instance, I thought Larry Summers probably made the simplest description of the debt ceiling debate in this interview:
Look, if we default on August 2nd, it’s going to be what happened after Lehman collapsed on steroids. It’s going to be financial Armageddon.
The idea that adults who have some agenda, whatever the merits of their agenda, are really prepared to threaten sending the United States into default, to pursue their agenda, is beyond belief.
You know, I have had arguments with my college-aged children about spending, and sometimes we discuss whether they should spend less, whether they should pay, whether I should pay. We don’t entertain the option that because we can’t resolve our argument, Visa should get stiffed
3. Got Stories? Share it.
I think one of the key reasons people watch keynote interviews is to learn something new but more importantly, to just hear some “exclusive” stories they’d normally not hear elsewhere. It’s kinda like one of the key reasons people read blogs instead of press releases.
My favorite moments from this interview were surely an answer on the different leadership styles of the two Presidents Summers has worked with: Presidents Obama and Clinton.
You’re working for Barack Obama. If you have a meeting scheduled at ten o’clock, there’s a 25 percent chance that the meeting will begin before ten o’clock, and there’s a — you know what’s coming, and there’s a 70 percent chance that the meeting will have begun by 10:15.
If you wrote Barack Obama a memo before the meeting, it is a virtual certainty that he will have read it. If you seek to explain the memo you wrote to him during the meeting, he will cut you off, and he will be irritated. If he, as the leader of the meeting, will ask one or two questions to kick the tires, but will basically focus on how whatever subject you’re talking about fits with the broad vision and approaches of his presidency.
He will basically take the attitude if you’re his financial advisor, that if you can’t — it’s up to you to figure out whether preferred stock or subordinated debt is the appropriate financial instrument for your bailout, and that if he doesn’t trust you to figure it out, he’ll get a new financial adviser, but that is not the question on which he is going to spend time.
So it’s a very focused executive, big picture guidance, disciplined approach. At the appointed time, his secretary will come in and will bring a card that says it’s time for his next meeting, and you will be out of that office within five minutes. It is a certainty. That’s working for Barack Obama, and it is a wonderful experience.
Working for Bill Clinton is also a wonderful experience. It is a different experience.
(Laughter.)
And, here’s his experience working with President Clinton:
The probability that there is compensation for the fact that your meeting will begin late, it is virtually certain to end late. Bill Clinton has a 30 percent chance of having read your memo before the memo. Bill Clinton will, however, with near certainty, have some set of quite detailed and thoughtful perspectives to offer on your topic.
He will say things like “I was in the White House library reading the Journal of Finance, and there’s some really interesting thinking about the role of dividends in the system.” “I went to a conference at the Brookings Institution 11 years ago, and do you know that there’s a really interesting experiment with providing credit access in Tennessee?”
“Did you read the latest issue of — the Asian edition of The Economist? It had a perspective on Thailand that you might want to think about.” There was a stunning, I mean you know, while he wasn’t reading your memo, it wasn’t that he wasn’t doing anything about it.
I’ve a couple more interesting themes on corporate social media I’ll start covering shortly as I continue my fluency of writing posts on here. In the meanwhile, follow me on Twitter.
Filed under: Leadership Communication, Public Relations, Public Speaking
Steve Jobs as Luke Skywalker. Circa 1987.
Rockstars are made, not born. They practice tirelessly; honing their craft at every given opportunity, and with the help of Jobs’ 1987 Playboy interview, I’d like to shed some light on the early stages of Jobs’ communication savvy and the communication consistency that he has now perfected into an art form.
Jobs In 1987. p.s. What’s up with the bow-tie.
Fine tuning the metaphors:
Nobody hits a home run on Day One. Some have an in-born talent but it’s always a work in progress. Steve Jobs’ D8 presentation, his keynotes, his Stanford commencement speech — is the culmination of years of assiduous practice. I’m gonna walk you through three examples of Steve coming up with metaphors to describe nascent technology that most people (at the time of the interview) didn’t grok.
Let’s see how his thinking and his metaphors are fine-tuned over time.
Let’s take his earliest interviews, the Playboy one in 1987 is a great example, and look at his response to what is a computer. I know. Bear with me here. The year is 1987 and people still don’t get the PC revolution that’s gonna hit them. It’s amazing how hard it is to impress upon the reporter what a game changer the Mac is gonna be.
His first attempt to describe computers is kinda rambling:
Computers are actually pretty simple. We’re sitting here on a bench in this café. Let’s assume that you understood only the most rudimentary of directions and you asked how to find the rest room. I would have to describe it to you in very specific and precise instruction. I might say, “Scoot sideways two meters off the bench. Stand erect. Lift left foot. Bend left knee until it is horizontal. Extend left foot and shift weight 300 centimeters forward…” and on and on. If you could interpret all those instructions 100 times faster than any other person in this café, you would appear to be a magician: You could run over and grab a milk shake and bring it back and set it on the table and snap your fingers, and I’d think you made the milk shake appear, because it was so fast relative to my perception. THat’s exactly what a computer does. It takes these very simple-minded instructions––”Go fetch a number, add it to this number, put the result there, perceive if it’s greater than this other number”––but executes them at a rate of , let’s say, 1,000,000 per second. At 1,000,000 per second, the results appear to be magic.
That’s a simple explanation, and the point is that people really don’t need to understand how computers work. Most people have no concept of how an automatic transmission works, yet they know how to drive a car. You don’t have to study physics to understand the laws of motion to drive a car. You don’t have to understand any of this stuff to use Macintosh––but you asked [laughs]
Wow! Quite verbose. It’s got the early stages of his story-telling but it’s definitely too technical for a reporter and not impressive since he asks him again the same question. Steve takes a second shot at it, which goes…
A computer is the most incredible tool we’ve ever seen. It can be a writing tool, a communications center, a supercalculator, a planner, a filer and an artistic instrument all in one, just by being given new instructions, or software, to work from. There are no other tools that have the power and versatility of a computer. We have no idea how far it’s going to go. Right now, computers make our lives easier. They do work for us in fractions of a second that would take us hours. They increase the quality of life, some of that by simply automating drudgery and some of that by broadening our possibilities. As things progress, they’ll be doing more and more for us.
Meh. Kinda there, but he’s hinting at the potential it possesses as a revolutionary, incredible utility. Still not convinced, the journalist asks him a pointed question on computers for business and Steve ends with:
There are different answers for different people. In business, that question is easy to answer: You really can prepare documents much faster and at a higher quality level, and you can do many things to increase office productivity. A computer frees people from much of the menial work. Besides that, you are giving them a tool that encourages them to be creative. Remember, computers are tools. Tools help us do our work better.
Still not there, and as you can see, reporters are always going for the pithy answers that even a 12 year old will understand. But, then in a later interview (video after quote), Jobs gives a far more succinct metaphor to evoke the possibilities of a computer.
One of the things that separates us from primates is that we’re tool builders. I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. And, humans came in a third of the way down the list. But, Scientific American tested the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle.
And, a man on the bicycle blew the condor away; it was completely off the top of the charts. And, that’s what a computer is to me. It is the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with and it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.
To me this is one of the early stages where you can see the power of the evocative metaphor being used by Jobs. Fast forward to 2008 where Jobs, yet again, takes a stab at explaining a new product that Apple’s betting on big – the iPad.
I’m trying to think of a good analogy. When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks cos that’s what you needed on the farm. But, as vehicles started to be used in the urban centers, and America started to move towards them. Cars got more popular and innovations like power steering, etc. happened.
And, now, maybe 1 in every 25 vehicles is a truck where it used to be like 100%.
PCs are gonna be like trucks.
As you can see, no technicalities on what an iPad does well, no reference to a study by Scientific American, nothing. Just a nuanced metaphor on trucks and cars that everyone in America and the world will understand.
Hope you’re having a great Sunday. Say Hi on Twitter!
I’ll leave you behind with a behind the scenes video of a young 23 year old Steve Jobs prepping for a TV interview. Young Luke Skywalker.
Filed under: Best-of, Public Relations, Public Speaking, Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs
So, you’re on Live TV! Now what?
I’ve written a couple of posts (just in recent memory) on tips for you to glean some presentation secrets from Steve Jobs. Thought I’d rewire my blog timing with a simple post along similar lines that didn’t garner too many votes on Quora.
I’m sure at some point of time in your lives, you’re probably gonna face a camera to talk about your work. At those times many of us fail to impress, cos it’s not something we practice regularly. So, I thought I’d jot down 3 key tips to really excel in those situations. Hope you find this helpful. And, feel free to share your personal experience either in the comments or @mariosundar.
Live TV interviews can sometimes be like this…
Here’s a couple more thoughts to ponder — this is true for most interviews — but with live TV the challenge is exacerbated since you’ve got to perform flawlessly (in one take; if you will).
1. Take your time to answer: The biggest problem I notice with individuals being interviewed is their urgency to respond to the question and get it over with. So, they blurt out a quick PR planned response only to regret it later.
Steve Jobs is the best at giving a thoughtful, well articulated response that’s both thought provoking and (frankly) entertaining. Here’s how he’d answer difficult (really tough one here) question in front of thousands.
2. Build a rapport with the interviewer beforehand: Establish a camaraderie with journalists and media personalities, way before you have to be interviewed by them.
One of traditional PRs biggest shortcomings is treating journalists as a carefully “managed” entity while keeping CEOs and executives away from them.
Welcome to the new world of social media.
Proactively, find journalists and media personalities and follow them (on Twitter and Quora). And, most importantly engage with them. You’d be surprised to find you share a lot with them in common. And, should an opportunity arise to be interviewed by them — you won’t be tongue tied — because you understand each other well.
3. Practice makes perfect: It’s tough to perform on command. That’s why actors get paid the big bucks. If you don’t wanna suck at interviews, start practicing at events and panel sessions.
Start with panel sessions (easiest) but go with a plan (in terms of what you’d like to communicate). A good way to prep would be to write a blog post about your panel session (before or after) the event. You’ll find that writing a blog post on your upcoming session clears your mind and helps you organize your thoughts. Follow that up with a tweet linking to the post and chances are the journalists you follow or connect to on LinkedIn may read that as well.
Graduate to solo presentations (to audiences of increasing size), and before you know it, you’d have internalized your responses to a degree that will make you sound fluent and sharp when in front of a camera.
And, just practice.
Filed under: Best-of, Leadership Communication, Public Relations, Public Speaking
Zuckerberg ain’t Jobs. 3 Ways to Try.
This post has been a long time coming. As someone who earns a living in the PR space and one who obsessively follows the unique craft of tech CEO presentations, I had to concur with CNN’s recent piece on Mark Zuckerberg’s recent product announcement and why it was a giant FAIL compared to a Jobs presentation!
C’mon. Comparing Zuckerberg to Jobs is like expecting Shia LaBeouf to act like Marlon Brando. While Transformers may sell $750 million in box-office receipts — that doesn’t a Brando make. This seems like a perfect time to finally share my thoughts on Steve Jobs’ virtuoso D8 interview – yet another instance of Jobs’ public speaking savvy.
Here are three of the Jobs’ unique speaking skills that you can glean from his presentations — seemingly simple but tough to emulate:
Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field can be emulated. 3 Simple tricks below.
If you’re telling a story, make it gripping:
There are a million boring ways to tell a story. Just ask Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer (don’t even get me started), but Jobs has a penchant for telling an elegant story that hooks you from the get go.
Juxtaposing Jobs’ d8 presentation with Zuckerberg’s presentation would be interesting, but if you ran a word cloud through Jobs’ presentation, here’s what you’d have seen. It’s all about people.
His very first anecdote about Apple’s resurgence (overtaking the market cap of Microsoft) recounts the bygone days when Apple was down in the dumps to highlight what a glorious triumph this is:
Well, Apple was about 90 days from going bankrupt… (Boom!) in the early days. It was much worse than I thought when I went back.
But there were people there (I’d expected all the good people would have left), and I found these miraculous people, great people and I asked them as tactfully as I could: Why are you still here? And, I’ll never forget. A lot of them had this phrase: because I bleed in six colors. (Note: I remember having a “Apple bleeds six colors” poster on my cubicle wall a few years back)
You know what this reminds me of:
Don Draper, Season 4, Episode 1 (Public Relations). After learning the craft of telling stories to reporters, Don is asked if he’s the definitive entity in his newly formed ad agency. Here’s the story he relates:
Last year, our agency was being swallowed whole. I realized I had two choices: I could die of boredom or holster up my guns. So, I walked into Lane Pryce’s office and I said: Fire us! (Boom!) — Cue Background Music.
Two days later we were up and running at the Pier Hotel, within a year we had taken over two floors of the Time Life Building.
Again, start with the nadir of the story to pique the viewer’s curiosity and build up to the finale. The cadence of story-telling between the two quotes is uncanny but good story-telling always remains the same.
Use evocative metaphors that ring true and wise:
Throughout history, all the great teachers have spoken in parables. More importantly, when asked questions use plain speak metaphors from every day life that each and every one of us can relate to. Before you frame your answer, ask yourself: would a 12 year old understand what I’m about to say? And, go…
Here are a couple of examples from Jobs (from just this interview):
On why they ditched Adobe: Apple is a company that doesn’t have unlimited resources (Reality Distortion Field in effect). They way we do that is by looking at technical vectors that have a future. Different pieces of technology kinda go in cycles: they have their springs and summers and autumns, then they go to the graveyard of technology.
We try to pick things that are in their springs. And, if you choose wisely you can save yourself an enormous amount of work rather than trying to do everything. (true and wise)
To a question on whether the tablet will eventually replace the laptop:
Such a nuanced answer that yet again, aims to simplify and would communicate effectively to any 12 year old in the audience.
Here’s one more from the past on how computers are like a bicycle for your mind. Watch the video.
Clarity and consistency in thought and messaging
I recently read an essay on “Politics and the English language” by George Orwell, 1946, that I’d recommend to anyone with a fleeting desire to revisit their usage of the spoken and the written word. The essay culminates in 6 simple rules for clear writing and I think that can be extended to clear speaking as well.
These rules sound elementary, and so they are, but they demand a deep change of attitude in anyone who has grown used to writing in the style now fashionable. One could keep all of them and still write bad English, but one could not write the kind of stuff that I quoted in those five specimens at the beginning of this article.
If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy.
I think Jobs best defines this in every single interview he’s done. I could go on. But, let me pick an example from D8’s interview for his thoughts on privacy – an area where every company from Google to Facebook have had their fair share of stumbles but I think the clarity and simplicity of Jobs’ definition of privacy is startling.
We’ve had a very different view of privacy. We take it very seriously.
Privacy means people know what they’re signing up for… in plain english, and repeatedly.
I’m an optimist and I believe people are smart. Some people want to share more data. Some people more than others do. Ask em. Ask em every time. Make them tell you to stop asking them.
Let them know precisely what you’re gonna do with their data.
And, finally speaking of consistency of values that shines through every single interview Jobs has done, was this quote:
You know (long pause). When this whole Gizmodo incident happened, I got a lot of advice, that said: you’ve got to let it slide. You shouldn’t go after a journalist because they bought stolen property and they tried to extort you.You should let it slide.
And, I thought deeply about this. And, I ended up concluding.
That the worst thing that could possibly happen as we get big and gain a little more influence in this world, is if we change our core values and if we started letting it slide.
I can’t do that. I’d rather quit.
We have the same values now as we had then.
And, that consistency is true of Jobs impeccable communication skills. Watch the entire D8 Jobs interview here.
Filed under: Best-of, Facebook, Leadership Communication, Mark Zuckerberg, Public Relations, Public Speaking, Steve Jobs, CNN, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs
June 27, 2011 • 5:58 pm 3
5 ways leaders win tough arguments in public
Being a leader is a tough job (just ask these guys).Often you are facing some really tough questions from a lot of folks — your shareholders, developers, etc. — sometimes that happens in the public limelight. Now, you’ve got three options – fight the good argument and earn respect, spin, or just evade said question.
This past week, a video of Jobs at the 1997 Worldwide Developer conference (h/t: Quora) parrying questions from a mostly receptive developer audience began circulating. Most questions were curious developers as to the direction of Apple, except for one really combative question from a developer (obviously pissed off at what happened to a business division that was likely to be closed).
Mr. Jobs. You’re bright.(Jobs: smiles – here it comes…)
It’s clear you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’d like you (for e.g.) to express in clear terms how (say) Java, in all its incarnations, addresses the ideas embodied in OpenDoc.
And, when you’re finished with that, perhaps you could tell us what you’ve personally been doing for the last 7 years.
(audible gasps from the audience. I’m almost sure I heard someone say: “ouch”)
How do you answer this? Right after the jump.
Viewers: You may wanna skip to the 50:23 mark in the video below for the tough question I’m referring to.
This has got to be one of the toughest questions a CEO could face (see how Carol Bartz handled a similar question). BTW, Jobs was an advisor to Apple when he faced the dev community here but subsequently became CEO.
Lessons from Jobs: 5 ways CEOs can win tough arguments in public
1. Have a sense of humor:
While the questioner was setting up Jobs for the tough question, Jobs senses the tension and starts off by saying: “here it comes” and holding up his chair to playfully indicate he’s deflecting the tough question. Either way, his demeanor changes after he hears the question as he composes his thoughts.
2. Breathe. Take your time to answer:
Aight, so now you’ve been asked a really tough question. What next? Yes, a lot of people are waiting for you to answer and the press may pore over your remarks – so there is a lot riding on this – so take time to answer as you collect your thoughts.
How many times have we been in an argument with folks when we’re asked something that could potentially make us look silly. Worse still, if that’s in front of other folks. So, magnify that a thousand times in this situation. A lot of folks come right outta the gates with a quick quip or retort, and then they may try to move past it as quickly as possible. But, if you do brush it aside you don’t earn the respect of the audience.
Jobs (as always) is finely tuned into both the psychological intent of the question and is very empathetic with his answer both of which are essential when you’re responding to someone combative.
But remember to breathe. Or, like Jobs, take a swig off that bottle of water while you compose your thoughts.
3. Frame your answer before you begin:
This is a corollary to the take time to answer suggestion. While you take your time, not only do you build viewer interest, but it also gives you time to frame your answer. It’s the same with writing a blog post. I always remember Jeremiah‘s recommendation to frame your post before you start writing it (since it helps nail the key points as succinctly as possible).
4. Every answer is a story waiting to be told:
Jobs is such a master story-teller. Even with his tough questions he takes the audience on a journey. Not everyone is good at it and frankly, no one comes close to what Jobs does here, while answering (tough) questions.
For e.g. in the above clip (starts at 50:23), Jobs starts off with:
“You can please some of the people, some of the time”, right off the bat setting the stage for context, perspective and drama. But then, he pauses and continues setting the context for his answer.
[LONG PAUSE] but… [PAUSE] One of the hardest things when you’re trying to effect change is that… people like this gentleman…
… are RIGHT! [PAUSE. Bam! Storytelling, baby!]… in some areas.
5. Appeal to reason in a smart way:
Let’s not forget, the end result of this speech or any CEO or congressman or public figure is an appeal to a common sense of purpose. Everybody wants a sense of assurance minus-evading, spinning, or flat-out ignoring the questions – since it won’t earn you any respect.
I think the key to the answer was how Jobs not only tried to assuage the gentleman’s concerns (“that there are probably things that OpenDoc does that’s better than anything in the market and stuff that even I don’t get”) but he goes on to explain how critical it is to focus, think big and to realize how every product fits into a cohesive larger vision that allows you to go big ($8 Billion Big).
Also, he explains how when prioritizing a million great products – always start with the customer experience and work backward with the technology
“I’ve made this mistake more than anybody in this room, I’ve got the scar tissue to prove it and I know it’s the case… And, I think that’s the right path to take”.
The Laser printer example narration is priceless. After elaborating on it. He once again says:
“I’m sorry that OpenDoc is a casualty along the way. And, there are many things I don’t have the faintest idea what I’m talking about…”
But, then insists, why it’s important to rally the troops, support them and support Apple in the market. He gives examples of other engineers who are working their butt off on executing around the priorities that have been set by the company.
At the end of the day, the gentleman may not have bought Jobs’ answer no matter how convincing it was, which goes back to the very first thing Jobs began with his answer.
“You can please some of the people, some of the time”.
Coda: HOW-TO take tough questions without flinching and earn the audience’s respect.
What Jobs is a master of, is the ability to tell you (in as reasonable a manner as possible) what he think, why he thinks so, and why that’s a great idea. And, he’s been doing that consistently through his career (both when Apple was down right up to this very day). The above video is a perfect example of that mastery.
But still this is a template for answering negative questions, esp. when you’re a CEO or a leader in the spotlight to summarize the above. Here goes…
Acknowledge the negativity / elephant in the room.
Assuage the naysayer’s concerns
Restate it in the right context (user experience first, not tech first)
Be humble (accepts his own failings in that regard, humbly suggests this is just his idea, gives an example “laser printer story” of why user experience matters and show-not-tell)
Straight talk: Mistakes have been made and will be fixed.
So, that’s a quick summary of how I see Jobs deal with questions: good, bad or ugly. Lot of lessons in there. Plus, the most important thing is that — throughout that interview, Jobs kept stressing on focus and this answer too fit within that overarching holistic theme.
And, in the long run Jobs was proven right as he took Apple to unprecedented hights surpassing even Microsoft.
Feel free to share this on your favorite social network. Thanks!
Filed under: Best-of, Crisis Communications, Public Relations, Public Speaking, Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs
Five Reasons I ditched Writing App “iA Writer” for “Ulysses!”
Microsoft’s Office Space under Attack!
The Secret about Secrets
Hacking Time and To dos
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1558
|
__label__cc
| 0.744702
| 0.255298
|
Switch to account...
The ‘Switch to account’ functionality of Mailplane 3 allows you to switch between a set of accounts. Simply go to Mailplane 3 > Switch to account… or press Control-Command-A.
This function is useful for customers using many accounts by reducing the amount of tabs open at once. Having less tabs open saves memory and screen-estate.
We have three cases in the example below:
1) Dettel Inc., Hunch & Son and Fries Bros. are single tabs in a separate workspace. Switching between them is fast and feels like switching back in Mailplane 2.
2) Ruben (Email), Ruben (Calendar) and Lars are three tabs in the same workspace. Switching to one of them might take a bit longer because it loads the two other tabs as well. But afterwards it’s very quick to switch between those tabs. That’s what we’ve been using in Mailplane 3 so far.
3) Girs Inc. is colored in gray and represents an account which hasn’t been loaded so far. Switching to such an account opens Gmail in a separate workspace and performs a sign-in.
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1568
|
__label__cc
| 0.574116
| 0.425884
|
FacebookTwitterYouTubeLinkedinInstagramTelegram Telegram
BOOKING CLOSED
ITAAP
Industry:IT
Information Technology Association of Andhra Pradesh (iTAAP) is the industry association for the IT, BPM and Electronics sectors in Andhra Pradesh. A not-for-profit organization funded by the industry, its objective is to foster growth and sustainable development of Information Technology (IT), IT Enabled Services and Electronics Industry in the state of Andhra Pradesh by working closely with the industry and the government.
By World Blockchain Summit - Mauritius| 2017-10-10T12:17:31+00:00 October 10th, 2017|Exhibitors|0 Comments
Emagia Corporation
throughbit
PENNYBASE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS PRIVATE LIMITED
WORLD AI SHOW MADE ITS MARK AS THE BIGGEST AI SHOW SERIES FOR ITS FIRST TIME IN MAURITIUS
FALLING IN LOVE WITH MAURITIUS! A TROPICAL PARADISE
An interview with Richard Kastelein, Founder, Blockchain News
Interview with Mirza Ashraf Beg, Head of Treasury & Investment Ops and Islamic Operation, Commercial Bank of Dubai, UAE
An exclusive interview with Jake Vartenian, Founder of Cryptodex
No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Trescon Global Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
© 2018 Trescon Global Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. theme-tf
Book your ticket now!
EARLY BIRD ENDS IN
MARCO ROBINSON
FOUNDER OF NAKED TECHNOLOGIES LTD
Marco Robinson is a number one best selling author, award winning entrepreneur & the co-founder of Naked Dollars (NAKED Technologies: www.naked.technology) and has had ten years experience in building successful businesses, which have successfully sold $500 Million worth of investment products, these products have included properties, travel, education and more…
NAKED DOLLARS (NKD$) WAS 97% was sold at PRE-ICO stage and has reached its hardcap of USD$ 100 MILLION after the ICO finished on December 5th, 2017. NKD$ will be listed on most exchanges including Bittrex on the 30th of January
Because of the success of these businesses and the fantastic returns the customers enjoyed, it was extremely easy to progress these businesses to an asset backed token, and naked dollars was embraced and adopted seamlessly, with investors overjoyed to be involved.
This is a testament to the founders success and track record, indeed no other cryptocurrency in the marketplace has such a rich pedigree of success and innovation.
Marco Robinson, now even has his own Prime Time TV Show on Channel 4 in the UK “get a house for free” where he has been able to give houses away to the homeless and underprivileged and is using naked technologies to make homelessness obsolete!
Please check out Marco’s prime HIT TV show excerpt here;
https://youtu.be/ukpim8INIxg
Please see his story live on the BBC Breakfast Show;
https://youtu.be/IYpndqG0t8Y
Please see the founders profile here
www.naked.technology
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1575
|
__label__cc
| 0.680507
| 0.319493
|
Posts Tagged ‘bullying’
Porn before first kiss: MTR on ABC 7:30 Report
MTR in the Media, News 1 Comment »
Porn’s distortions need addressing in schools say educators
The ABC filmed me addressing students at Healthdale Christian College in Melbourne last Wednesday. Some of the students were interviewed – hear how well they articulate the issues! (click on image below for link to video)
MELINDA TANKARD REIST, AUTHOR, ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS: Our boys are looking at porn not only before they’ve had sex, before they’ve even had their first kiss and they think what they’re seeing is normal. …
… Girls tell us that boys expect them to provide what’s known as PSE, the porn star experience. Boys expect that girls will provide for them everything they’ve seen in pornography and that the girls want that.
‘I am more than my body, don’t treat me like a piece of meat’: one young woman’s response to naked selfie ask
Received this Facebook message from Tiffany. Tiffany, hearing from girls like you makes this work all worthwhile. Thank you.
Hi Melinda. I was really touched by what you had to say and you opened my eyes to what sort of world we live in and as a 16 I’m disgusted and amazed and what girls my age have to go through. You said something about being asked for nudes and that and personally I didn’t know what you meant by that as I haven’t been asked to do that… Until today. To tell you the truth I wouldn’t of known what to do about it if you didn’t speak about it and I’m very grateful to you. The boy asked me for a photo or video and I said no that’s when he called me lame but I immediately told him I am more than just my body and you shouldn’t treat me like a piece of meat and instantly blocked him. Thank you for telling me that and I hope I have done the right thing and myself and other girls are taking part in taking action on this case and we want to make a difference. I want to help girls feel like they are worth something. So thanks again you are an inspiration to us all and I hope to join your cause.
Thank you, Tiffany
See also: 13 year old girls as ‘Boner Garage’ click bait: the latest trend in the pornified world of teen girls’, MTR
Tags: ABC 7.30 Report, body image, boner garage, bullying, child welfare, click bait, cyber safety, Daily Mail, facebook, Generation Z, Instagram, MTR, nudes, objectification, online dating, P*rnography, pornification, relationships, schools, selfies, sex, sex education, sexual harassment, Sexualisation, sexuality, sexy selfies, Social media, teen girls, The Australian, You Tube
13 year old girls as ‘Boner Garage’ click bait: the latest trend in the pornified worlds of teen girls
Melinda Tankard Reist 2 Comments »
How sexualised behaviour has become the new normal
While the content was disturbing, it was encouraging to wake up to the front page of The Australian on the weekend and see the issues myself and my colleagues write and speak about most days, reflected on the front page.
Source: The Australian
A news piece titled ‘Click bait: kids at risk as sexualised behaviour becomes “new normal”‘ by National Education Correspondent Natasha Bita, described how unsupervised internet access was spawning a generation of hypersexualised children who mimicked the adult porn they saw online. It cited warnings from psychiatrists, police and child welfare expects that the scourge of ‘sexting’, ‘selfies’ and social media was endangering children’s physical and mental health.
My colleagues, Melbourne child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg, managing director of the Young and Well Co-operative Research Centre, and federal government cyber safety adviser Susan McLean, expressed their concerns about the impacts on children of early porn exposure. “There is overt and covert pressure on children to behave in a sexualised way,” Ms McLean says. “This shouldn’t be the new normal. The No. 1 issue I deal with in high schools is the enormous pressure from boys to girls to put out sexually through images. ”
Michael Carr-Gregg said online pornography was skewing the way teenagers viewed sex, love and intimacy. “Boys see girls as sexual service stations for their pleasure…I’m seeing it virtually every single time I have a clinic. Their idea of sex is porn sex — it’s a terrible distortion of one of the most precious and important parts of their lives, which is love and intimacy.’’
Central to the piece was the example of a selfie of a 13-year-old girl posed on Instagram last week, with the words ‘Boner Garage’ scrawled on her bare tummy. Australian author and columnist Nikki Gemmell wrote a profound and incisive response, directly to the teen girl. She has kindly given permission for me to re-print her commentary in full here.
‘Boner Garage’ girls, my heart breaks for you
Nikki Gemmell
Dear 13-year-old Instagrammer,
“Boner Garage.” Oh, right. So that’s what you’ve just written on your bare tummy, in your child’s scrawl, in black marking pen. You’ve helpfully added an arrow pointing downwards so we get exactly what you’re referring to. That’s what you’ve artfully photographed in your child’s bedroom as your celebratory birthday selfie. You’ve deliberately, proudly, made those two dispiriting words the focus of your shot.
Your glossy blonde hair is across your face so no one can see your features. The room behind you looks utterly normal, middle class; just like any teen’s cherished and girlie private space. I don’t know you, but you have hundreds of followers, boys and girls, and you’ve not locked your account to strangers. Happy 13th birthday. My heart breaks for you.
That you define turning 13 — that wonderful, releasing cusp in a woman’s life — by those two bleak little words. Boner garage. That you somehow get pride out of them. It’s an age marinated in symbolism, a fulcrum into growing up; a time where everything should seem celebratory and wondrous, with the world deepening around you. Symbolically, in many cultures, you become morally responsible for your actions around this age — but I just want to protect you right now.
That reducing term was made famous by the 2013 American comedy We’re the Millers. It sounds like the ugliest of porn slang — and porn is dramatically morphing the world of our teens.
It’s readily available on a ¬mobile phone and most teenage boys have one. They look at what their mates are looking at. That can mean anal sex, group sex, oral sex — women servicing men in the ugliest, most disempowering of ways.
Porn, of course, is sex with no light in it and the best sex is bursting with light and life. Teens need to be told this bleak and reductive world is not what normal, loving relationships are about; sex should never be violent or degrading and woman are not just sexual objects.
Doctors are seeing teenage girls presenting to them — highly embarrassed — with bowel problems because of traumatic anal sex. Because it’s what they’re ¬assuming they’re meant to do.
As for you, my birthday girl, I just wish there’d been an adult or responsible friend around to stop you posting that Insta pic. Because your electronic footprint lasts, and can be disseminated. People may well be seeing what your 13-year-old self wrote, so proudly and stupidly, in years to come. Parents see the accounts of their children’s mates; as well as friends of friends you have no idea about; teachers and principals trawl; and so, of course, does the dark side of the net, those dubious adults beyond your world.
By scrawling those ugly words on your midriff you’ve already flipped yourself into the dark side of femininity and I don’t think you even realise it. Boys won’t admire you for doing this. They’ll disrespect you, disparage you.
But that won’t stop them using you as their so-called Boner ¬Garage. And I guarantee the ¬experience will be bleak, and ¬lonely. You will not feel empowered afterwards, or cherished. You will not feel what you want more than anything in this world — loved. You will feel cheap, and used, and ugly, and alone.
And at the end of that reducing little ¬experience you will ask yourself, is that it? Is that how I’m meant to feel? And that’s why my heart breaks for you. Because I’ve been there. And I can tell you, it’s not what empowering, exhilarating and tender sex is about. Often you have to wait a long, long time to discover that. With someone you love. Where respect is mutual. Where you’re having sex on your terms; talking, laughing, working things out together; saying what you like — and what you don’t. And being listened to.
“Boner Garage” implies none of those things. How passive and inert you make a woman’s wondrous sexual organs sound. Do you think so little of your body that you view it mainly as a receptacle for males to be in? The most common web definition of Boner Garage: “A vagina that has been pounded so much by erect penises that it has become a resting place for said penises.” Pretty ugly, eh?
I wish you courage, whoever you are. Not to dim your light among men; because that light is about so much more than the garage, as you call it, between your legs. It’s about your mind, your spirit, your vividness, your strength and your voice. There are only two ways to live in this world: as a victim or a courageous fighter, and you’re coming across as a victim right now. Of this rampantly sexualised world we live in. Of its female objectification and trivialisation. And of the voracious demands of teenage social media; the craving to be popular, known, that rampant desire to get more and more precious “likes”.
This isn’t the way to go about it. You’re advocating in the most dispiriting of ways a female sexual experience that’s stripped of mystery, of reverence and transcendence and, most of all, tenderness. As Iris Murdoch said: “There is nothing like early promiscuous sex for dispelling life’s bright mysterious expectations.”
‘Hard core porn, violent You Tube Videos, online dating: Devastating new book reveals terrifying truth about what teens really get up to online’, Daily Mail.
Teenage girls and boys no longer seek sex education from textbooks with anatomical diagrams, giggling friends or flustered parents; they can get it from films with titles like Teen Ass 2, which they can access on the smartphones that they carry with them at all times. This week new figures revealed that sexualised images of women on social media have led to an increase in emotional problems among young girls. Researchers from University College London believe the rise in girls aged between 11 and 13 suffering from emotional problems such as anxiety may be linked to stress brought on by seeing images of women portrayed as sex objects on Facebook, Twitter and other websites. Teenagers rarely measure self-esteem or self-worth against personal and scholastic achievements, however brilliant they are, but increasingly by how many people tell them they are ‘hot’ on the photo-sharing website, Instagram, or other forms of social media…
‘What no one wants to talk about: How girls bodies are injured by porn using boys’, MTR
‘Sexual pressure, coercion, degradation: This is what porn has done to every woman I know‘- Rosie Redstockings, MTR
‘Wolfwhistling is not a compliment. Stop pressuring us for nude pics. Don’t joke about our bodies. What girls want boys to know: personal appeals from the heart.’ MTR
Tags: body image, boner garage, bullying, child welfare, click bait, cyber safety, Daily Mail, facebook, Generation Z, Instagram, MTR, nudes, objectification, online dating, P*rnography, pornification, relationships, selfies, sex, sexual harassment, Sexualisation, sexuality, sexy selfies, Social media, teen girls, The Australian, You Tube
Teen girl takes life after boys share image of her graffitied and defaced body
Sexting, Shame and Suicide: a shocking story of sexual assault in the digital age
This essay was published last September but I’ve only just come across it. I keep thinking of Audrie and her body defaced and graffitied, the images shared and consumed. Her waking in horror to discover the markings all over her body and trying frantically to scrub them off. And the ultimate horror outcome, where she can no longer face the mocking, bullying and shaming. But I must say, it’s not only in the U.S that boys take the view that if a girl is under the influence of alcohol, she deserves whatever happens (some girls take this attitude also).
I have asked boys in the schools I address: “If a girl is drunk how many of you think she’s asking for it?” In many classes, the majority of boys would raise their hands. It is a common view. There is a terrible lack of understanding about consent and the face that if she is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, she can’t exercise it and a crime has been committed if she is taken advantage of. Audrie’s tragic story shows us where that view can lead. My sympathy to her devastated family.
Rape stats may be no higher than in years past, but the numbers are as shocking as ever. Every two minutes, a sexual assault happens in the U.S., and nearly 50 percent of the victims are under the age of 18, according to Katherine Hull, a spokeswoman for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network: “The demographic of high school- and college-age women is at highest risk for sexual assault.” More than half of the incidents go unreported, advocates say. The ability to record and communicate gang-sex assaults has added a new enhancement to an old and ugly crime against women. From Instagram to Snapchat to texting, young people with raging hormones and low impulse control are passing around what amounts to child pornography. And the bodies most frequently watched and passed around are female.
“It’s a perfect storm of technology and hormones,” says lawyer Lori Andrews, director of the Institute for Science, Law and Technology in Chicago. “Teen sexting is all a way of magnifying girls’ fantasies of being a star of their own movies, and boys locked in a room bragging about sexual conquest.”
But as of yet the law provides little protection to the rights of those violated. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act effectively means that no Internet provider can be forced to take down content for invading a person’s privacy or even defaming them. “I could sue The New York Times for invading my privacy or Rolling Stone for defaming me,” Andrews says. “But I couldn’t sue and get my picture off a website called sluttyseventhgraders.com.” Read full article here
Boys Men and Violence
Dr Michael Flood March 5, 2014
Sexual violence is a serious social problem in Australia. According to a recent national survey, about one in six women in Australia – just under 1.5 million – has experienced sexual assault. In the past year alone, 87,800 women experienced sexual assault. Younger women are at greater risk. These are the victims, but what about perpetrators? Various studies show anywhere from 15 to 25 per cent of males have forced or pressured a girl or woman into sex or tried to do so…
Boys and young men are more likely to force or pressure a girl into sex if they have sexist and sexually hostile attitudes – they see girls as sexual objects, as less important or less valuable than males, and they feel entitled to see how far they can push things. The 2001 Australian National Crime Prevention Survey of young people aged 12 to 20 found about one in seven guys agreed that, “it’s okay for a boy to make a girl have sex with him if she has flirted with him or led him on.”
Some of the media consumed by boys and men is implicated in violence. TV, movies, music and computer games often portray women as sexual objects only, put men’s voices and lives at centre stage, and condone or even celebrate violence as entertaining and legitimate. Pornography use is increasingly common among young men, and here callous and hostile images of women are routine. In a wide range of media, boys learn that real men are tough, dominant, and aggressive. Read full article here
Tags: alcohol, Audrie Potts, boys, bullying, men, objectification, P*rnography, rape, Rolling Stone, Sexting, sexual assault, sexual harassment, status of women, suicide, teens, violence, violence against women
Dolly commended for highlighting the life of young carers
Gen Next Comments Off on Dolly commended for highlighting the life of young carers
In 147 pages of beauty and fashion shopping, advice and advertising , along with tips on catching your “crush” this summer, there are, fortunately, a few articles that will actually help girls.
As you know, I always search for the personal stories which convey the reality of girls’ lives as well as inspiring resilience and hope. Not all girls are as carefree as the slim, sun-kissed, smooth bum-cheeked, glowing girls in the full page Rip Curl ads (as noted in the past, the re-touch free zone and claims to want to represent a diversity of bodies in young girl mag pages, has never incorporated advertising).
I commend Dolly’s editors for the piece ‘Life as a young carer’. Most of us have no idea of the reality of so many young people who care for physically and mentally ill parents or siblings. There are 347,700 young carers in Australia – about two teen carers in every classroom. 56% of young primary carers are not employed or at school. Jazelle, 18, has been primary carer for her mum since she was 10. Her mother broke her back in a motorbike accident as a teen however needed more help when she was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease five years ago. She is in and out of hospital and because she requires so much care, Jazelle does distance education. A timeline of an average day for Jazelle shows the extent of her caring role. Carers have the lowest level of wellbeing of any Australian group, with over half reporting some level of depression and need more support. Support can be found through your local Commonwealth Carer Resource Centre on 1800 242 636 or youngcarers.net.au for services in your local area. Dolly has initiated Young Carers Week (November 25 – December 1) – not much time for readers to act given this is the December issue, however hopefully the week will be more developed for next year. Readers are encouraged to reach out to any young carers at school, offer help and to send messages through Dolly to young carers. I really hope they do. Read more here.
As published in Generation Next Blog
Tags: Advertising, beauty, body image, bullying, carers, Dolly, drugs, fashion, Generation Next, Girlfriend, ice, marijuana, mental health, teen girls mags, teens, young carers
Dolly’s Oral Sex Advice
Gen Next 7 Comments »
Dolly Doctor and Oral Sex: is advice to girls clear?
Dolly Doctor this issue deals with oral sex. Parents with younger Dolly readers in the family may want to be aware of that and be prepared to talk about it with them (Dolly has featured’ Readers of the month’ who are 11). Also, although the age of consent is 16, the article opens with 15-year-old Sarah who is considering it. Consent and possible legal considerations are not mentioned.
Dolly says “even though you’re not having penetrative sex, there are still serious consequences when it comes to oral sex.” Now I’m no sexologist, but I’m not sure Dolly has got this right. Perhaps the writer means you’re not having sexual intercourse as typically understood? In the practice of fellatio, I’m pretty sure something goes into a mouth. And in male to female oral sex, a vagina can be penetrated also. I checked with Susan McLean, former policewoman of over 20 years standing and specialist on cybersafety, young people and legal issues. She responded:
Oral Sex is sex just the same as vaginal (penis/vagina) and digital (finger/vagina) and ALL are covered by age of consent laws. You can be charged with rape for example in any of the above cases. Sexual penetration laws also cover all the above plus more, anal sex and use of implements to penetrate. Consent needs to be explained as you cannot give consent under age, cannot give consent when under the influence of drugs/alcohol, cannot give consent if fearful, coerced etc
Girls are warned that they can still contract STI’s from oral sex. Emotional issues are raised. Tegan, 16, felt vulnerable even though it was with her boyfriend. “Even though I knew he cared about me, I started feeling resentment towards him. It made me realise I hadn’t done it for me and I wasn’t ready,” she said. Psychologist Gemma Cribb says: “Becoming sexual before one person is ready can damage the bond in your relationship. This is why you need to keep up communication.” Girls are told they can be comfortable with saying no. “You’ll know it’s too early if you find yourself getting anxious about the prospect of sexual intimacy, or you try avoiding one-on-one time together,” says Cribb. Readers are also reminded they can change their mind at any time.
Girls are offered 5 points to help them consider if they are ‘ready’ to “transition from kissing”. The assumption, given the subject of the piece, could be that this means from kissing to oral. Aren’t there lots of other things in between kissing and oral? In another section ‘Your Biggest Questions Answered’, given the level of pressure girls are under to provide sexual acts, (as mentioned in my previous review of Girlfriend ) the last is significant: “What if I don’t want to do it and he doesn’t want to be with me?” The response is: “It’s your body so NEVER do anything you’re not totally comfortable with. Lots of girls rush into things because they want to please their partner or think they’ll be called a prude if they wait,” says Cribb. “Linking your self-worth to sexual acts is not OK. If they’re not willing to go at your pace, they’re not worthy of you!” Read full review here
As published on Generation Next blog
Tags: body image, bullying, Dolly, Generation Next, Girlfriend, Girls mags, mental health, oral sex, self-esteem, sex, sexuality
Stamping out bullies, stress and child labour: Dolly May issue gets a tick (mostly)
Gen Next Comments Off on Stamping out bullies, stress and child labour: Dolly May issue gets a tick (mostly)
‘Operation 1 less Bully’ is a four-page case against bullying, featuring personal stories of celebrities who have joined the movement to stop it. Some were bullied, others stood up to bullies, and one recognised she was a bully in the past – Dolly’s own editorial coordinator Kelsey. With 63% of teens admitting they’re being bullied now or have been in the past, magazines have a significant role to play in efforts to address it. Dolly has teamed with the Stride Foundation, which runs workshops about bullying in schools, to “stamp out bullying one bully at a time.” The magazine will feature a ‘workshop’ on bulling each month. The first provides advice from Stride about how to respond: Be Assertive, Practice positive self-talk, Don’t be a bystander – stand up for others and Don’t blame yourself.
Another stand-out piece is Dolly’s Anti-Panic Plan’. In my view, there can’t be too many articles on this subject in girl’s mags. Stress rates in girls are through the roof. Psychologist Paula Robinson says: “Stress occurs when the perceived pressure exceeds your perceived ability to cope.” Different ways of expressing stress are explored: the hothead, silent sufferer and emotional wreck, and advice given tailored to each. Readers are also encouraged to find three things a day they can be grateful for. “When good things happen, really be present in that moment and notice what’s happening. Experience the emotion fully,” advises Robinson.
’10 How-to’s that will change your life’ include how to give a real compliment, let someone down gently, make school your happy place, have a better relationship with your mum (“Give her a little RESPECT, listen to her advice, even if you don’t agree with it at first…Listening and respectfully replying is key to making any relationship better”), remember someone’s name and keep calm when rushed. Not quite fitting into this line up is ‘Share a sweet-as kiss’ and ‘Look good in a photo’. Another ‘how-to themed’ piece is ‘How to turn a new friend into a best friend’. Read more here
Tags: body image, bullying, child labour, Dolly, Generation Next, teen girl magazines
Revenge Porn: Women stalked, bullied, lost jobs, forced to relocate, change their name and died
News 4 Comments »
Legal moves to hold perpetrators to account
A revenge porn website can be described as a platform for scorned lovers to post non-consensual nude photographs of their exes online, and get away with it. A more accurate description is that it is a hidey hole for spineless trolls who get a thrill out of actively exploiting the vulnerable.
The consequences of revenge porn have been catastrophic for the victims who, predictably, are mostly female. Women have been stalked, bullied, humiliated, isolated, lost their jobs, forced to relocate and change their surname. Some have even committed suicide. A group of women in the US have decided to file a class action lawsuit against one of the many revenge porn websites, Texxxan.com, and web hosting company GoDaddy. According to Jezebel, the suit “seeks to prosecute for invasion of privacy and mental anguish, claiming the site shared intimate photos of them submitted without their consent.”
It is almost unsurprising that misogynists have found yet another one-click-ego-fix to exact vengeance. However, if the act of revenge isn’t bad enough, the sites rake in profits from advertisers and demand money from women who ask to have their images removed. Hollie Toups, one of the 23 women who have signed onto the legal suit, has told BetaBeat that after discovering photos of herself online, she emailed the website’s owner to request they be taken down. Toups says, “They replied and said they would be happy to remove the pictures for me if I would enter my credit card information. I went from being depressed and embarrassed to being really pissed off.”
There is a deep-rooted inability to acknowledge that those posting these pictures need to be held accountable. It’s just too easy to blame the woman.
For example, one commentator states in regards to taking nude pictures, “If you do it, assume it will get out there. You are consenting by posing for the photo in the first place. That’s beyond obvious and it makes no difference if you’re posing in a bar, in a park or in a bedroom. That is the consent, period.”
Another says, “Don’t want to show your bits to the world? Keep your clothes on. It’s that simple.”
And: “Any woman stupid enough to allow anyone to take nude pics deserves to have them online. I dated a woman a while back who was the revenge type. I talked her into letting me take some pics of her in the nude. When I broke up with her and she went all crazy and would not leave me alone I had to post them on the internet to force her to leave me alone. It worked.”
This is the same twisted logic that claims a woman wearing a low-cut top “has it coming.” It echoes the sentiment that if a woman is intoxicated or goes home with a man – or heaven forbid, both – she “deserves it” or is “a prick tease.” XOjane.com writer S. E. Smith says:
In the case of private material turned public, the issue should be…cut-and-dried; someone sent data with the expectation that it would be private. And when that information is made public for purposes of humiliation, shaming, or anything else, we should be able to agree that’s not okay. Yet, a lot of people want to blame the people who send the data in the first place, arguing that they should be more careful. Because clearly the responsibility here should lie with people who think they are in a trusting relationship, not with their partners or friends. I don’t buy this argument. It falls in line with all the other things women are told to do in order to prevent assault, abuse and harassment, putting the responsibility on victims rather than the perpetrators of crimes and abuses. As long as the focus is on telling women how to ‘avoid’ becoming victims, rather than on telling people how to avoid abusing women, this is going to be a losing battle.
How have they not been shut down yet? Surely there exists a law to protect people from having their intimate photos posted online? Apparently not. It goes without saying that the victim-blaming attitude expressed above is not helping the cause. But the few women who have braved the legal system have encountered barrier after barrier:
– After reporting it to police, women are frequently told it is “on the internet and therefore out of their jurisdiction.”
– The legal fees can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars which most cannot afford. One woman whose ex-partner uploaded photographs of the two having sex told Nerve.com, “It would cost me no less than $10,000 just to have the search result moved to page three of Google.” Not even removed; just shifted a few pages.
– Victims have been told that since they were 18 when the photographs were taken, it is “technically legal.” They are also informed that because the images have been sent to someone else, they are “technically” the property of the person in possession of them.
– According to Jezebel, site owners claim they are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, “which states that websites are not liable for content submitted by users, [meaning] they feel free to continue to publish photos even after the women themselves ask for removal.”
– Many revenge porn victims are forced into remaining anonymous due to cyber bullying, humiliation and the possibility of exes posting even more pictures online. This makes it harder for victims to sue.
The lawsuit shows change is brewing. Another victim (who has chosen to remain anonymous) has started an online petition to make revenge porn illegal. The same woman has also created a website for victims, Women Against Revenge Porn, an information hub for those affected to share their experience and seek justice. As well, lawyers are coming forward to offer their services to revenge porn victims – for free.
Lawyer for Toups, John S. Morgan, intends to not only sue the revenge porn site and host GoDaddy, but every single one of Texxxan.com’s paid subscription members. Morgan told the Houston Chronicle, “I’m going after the revenge porn industry. Those sickos who post private information of women without their knowledge. The only way to destroy this industry is to go after the people who fund it.” In a later interview he says, “The reality of it is at some level this issue of revenge porn has to become a public discussion and a legislative discussion and it raises issues of corporate responsibility.”
Revenge porn is a gross invasion of privacy, a breach of trust, and profits from the anguish and humiliation of others. It’s time these cowards were held accountable.
Jane Hollier is a freelance writer.
See also: ‘Bed of Shame: what kind of men do this to women?’ Melinda Tankard Reist, MTR blog
‘The Upskirting of Anne Hathaway’, Nicole Jameson, MTR blog
Tags: bullying, cyber stalking, GoDaddy, Revenge porn, sexual harassment, Texxxan.com
12 y.o ‘slut’ Facebook pages and the death of Amanda Todd: MTR Feminist Current interview
News Comments Off on 12 y.o ‘slut’ Facebook pages and the death of Amanda Todd: MTR Feminist Current interview
‘There was no discussion of the pressure girls like Amanda experience to measure their worth through their sexual desirability’
By Meghan Murphy
The tragic story of Amanda Todd has been covered widely by the media and has impacted people across the continent. Todd was only fifteen years old when she killed herself last Wednesday after having been subjected to three years of sexual harassment and abuse both online and at school. After a man convinced her to show her breasts to him on a webcam, images of her were circulated online, which led to her being tormented, stalked, harassed, and beat up at school. Her story got both the public and the media talking about the issue of bullying, but does ‘bullying’ really describe what happened to Todd? In a culture that places an inordinate amount of value on women’s bodies and appearances, wherein younger and younger girls are being taught that they should aspire to be ‘sexy’, when pornographic imagery is mainstreamed and easily accessible, there is more to this story than simple ‘bullying’ or ‘cyberbullying’. It’s been noted that the connected issues of sexualization, misogyny and violence against women have been left out of much of the media coverage.
In the first half of the show I speak with Melinda Tankard Reist about the sexualization of young girls, the 12 year old slut meme Facebook page, and the Amanda Todd tragedy. Melinda is a Canberra author, speaker, media commentator, and advocate for women and girls. She is known for her work on the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls and her work to address violence against women. Melinda has published several books, including: Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls.
In the second half of the show I speak with Fazeela Jiwa, a South Asian woman who grew up in Vancouver, B.C. She has an MA in literature and is trained as a teacher. Fazeela has done work with Vancouver Rape Relief and many alternative education organizations. You can read her article: “’Bullying’ is too vague when we’re dealing with sexism and misogyny” in The Georgia Straight.
Listen to the podcast below
See also: ‘As long as there are sluts we will put them in their place: QUT students behind 12 y.o sluts FB pages’
‘Unmasking Reddits Violentacrez, The Biggest Troll on the Web’, Gawker, October 12, 2012
‘Internet troll sacked from job after identity revealed’, SMH ,October 16, 2012
Tags: bullying, facebook, Feminist Currents, harassment, Meghan Murphy, online predators, P*rnography, Queensland University of Technology, rabble.co, sexism, Sexualisation, shaming, stalking, suicide, teens, vilification
Girl mag watch: Dolly where are the girls who don’t fit the mould?
Melinda Tankard Reist, News Comments Off on Girl mag watch: Dolly where are the girls who don’t fit the mould?
While there appeared to be more ‘retouch free zones’ in this issue of Dolly (you may recall I said I’d like to see more of these), there also seemed to be even less body diversity. I couldn’t see one girl who didn’t fit the mould.
Dolly has so many pages of fashion and shopping I stopped counting. It’s the bulk of the magazine.
There’s a feature interview with Jennifer Lawrence, (also Dolly’s cover girl), Hollywood’s “latest It girl” who is Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games trilogy. She’s “freaking awesome”, apparently.
“Crush Crib Notes” tells girls how to “get” the boy they like. Stealth ways (i.e lying) include: ”Tell him you’ve lost your phone and ask if he wouldn’t mind calling it so you can find it”, “If you’re friends on Facebook, private message him saying, “I’ve lost the homework question and my laptop charger is broken…can you text it to me? My number is 1800AWESOME”. (Nothing like a bit of modesty to get the man of your dreams).
You can also “Text him: ‘you were in my dream last night.’ It’s sure to get him curious”. It may get him more than curious. Surely this will be read as a come-on? (bear in mind 11 and 12-year-olds read Dolly). There’s also 5 tips for how to make eye contact.
Justin Bieber’s new perfume Someday (“NEVER LET GO with the new fragrance for her that gives back” huh?) is scattered through the magazine. Yep, a 16-year- old boy with his own perfume line. Perhaps it’s the lingerie line next?
More useful is a two page feature on not comparing yourself to others and how to stop procrastinating. Even more timely is a feature called “Bullied to Death” about Sheniz Erkan who tragically took her life just short of her 15th birthday as a response to extreme cyberbullying. The piece cites a recent Australian report revealing that 52 percent of 13-14 year olds and 29 percent of 15-16 year-olds are victims of cyberbullying.
Joanna, 17, shares a personal account of two years with The Esther Foundations’ development program which helps out troubled young women, following bullying induced depression and self- harm. The piece also provides helpful advice on what to do if you are the target of bullies.
Another important piece is about the harms of marijuana ‘The Real Deal on Marijuana’ . According to the article, 21.5 percent of teens aged 14-19 have tried cannabis. Sandra, 16, shares how she saw the life of her best friend destroyed through marijuana. “…losing your friend to pot is the scariest thing – it’s a way more dangerous drug than you might think.” There’s a breakout box on ‘How to say No to marijuana’.
There’s a few pages on boys ‘extreme hotness’, ‘model of the month’, ‘homegrown hottie’, ‘hot factor’ (‘Did someone say T.A.S.T.Y?’)…You get the picture.
First person accounts from Dolly readers include a 17-year-old Speedway driver, a teen mum, an 18-year-old fighting to protect sharks from poachers, a 14-year-old athlete with an artificial leg, an 18- year-old ballerina, a girl with a “mystery illness”, another who survived an earthquake and a 14-year- old who stars in Nine’s ‘Tricky Business’.
Last month I wrote critically about the revival of Dolly’s Model search. This issue we meet past Dolly model search winners. Even a quick glance at the cover images from the 80’s and 90’s show just how much airbrushing and photo-shopping have changed the images we would see now.
Next issue we’re going to meet the state finalists of the Dolly Model Search. Guess I’ll have more to say then.
Published by Generation Next
Tags: beauty, body image, bullying, Dolly, fashion, Generation Next, modelling, teen magazines
Austereo: Vilifying and threatening women fine with us
Kyle Sandilands to stay on
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph today, Southern Cross Austereo has no plans to move Kyle Sandilands on from his slot with Jackie O on 2DAYFM.
This is despite widespread condemnation of his recent on-air abuse of a female News Ltd journalist in which he threatened to hunt her down and 26 advertisers pulling out of the show resulting in an estimated loss of $8million.
If the report is true, it means Southern Cross Austereo has no issue with Sandiland’s public vilification, insults, threats and bullying of a woman who disagrees with him. He can call a woman a ‘fat slag’, a ‘piece of shit’ who doesn’t have ‘enough titty’ and who he will hunt down if she doesn’t ‘watch her mouth’ and continue to be enabled to do so by his employers. I wonder what more does Sandilands have to do to warrant dismissal? Reports that Sandilands was secure came after earlier reports that Austereo was surveying listeners seeking their views on whether Sandilands should be fired.
A spokesperson said they survey was being conducted out of ‘due diligence’. Asking die-hard Sandilands fans their opinion is hardly ‘due diligence’. Due diligence would be taking a zero tolerance approach to the misogynist and bullying behaviour of an employee. Austereo has essentially broadcast a message to its listeners that it’s acceptable to verbally abuse women and that you won’t be punished for engaging in it.
One positive in all this is the extraordinary response to a petition targeted to sponsors, launched on Change.org.
Here’s an update from Change. Note the sponsors who have not resumed advertising for 2012. Especially note those for whom it appears to be business as usual.
More than 26,000 people have signed Emily Hehir’s petition calling for 2Day FM advertisers to withdraw their support of Kyle Sandilands. Your support has sent them a clear message that it’s unacceptable to financially support a radio host who uses phrases like “fat slag”, “you’re a piece of sh*t” and “I will hunt you down” to attack a journalist.
The media storm and consumer backlash has resulted in up to 60% of advertisers on the Kyle and Jackie O show withdrawing, at a cost to Austereo of $8 million. Despite this, Sandilands and his employers are breathing a sigh of relief — Sandilands is off air for summer and they’re hoping attention on Sandilands will fade away and allow advertisers to return next year. But Vodafone, Blackmores, and McDonalds have committed to not advertising on any radio show hosted by Kyle Sandilands in 2012 — can you help other petition signers build pressure on other major advertisers to follow Vodafone and rule out advertising on Sandilands’ shows in 2012? There’s also a group just started by one Change.org member for people to take regular and ongoing action on this issue — you can join by signing a pledge here.
Here are the brands that haven’t ruled out a return to Sandilands in 2012, and their facebook details in case you want to leave them a message:
Blackberry: http://on.fb.me/taEhjY
Harvey Norman: http://on.fb.me/t5yWvQ
Woolworths: http://on.fb.me/sM4khe
Car History.com.au: http://on.fb.me/rt66Mi
Dick Smith: http://on.fb.me/rA86nc
Piazza D’Oro: http://on.fb.me/uvObh7
Westfield http://on.fb.me/umSTVE
Samsung: http://on.fb.me/umSTVE
Goldmark: http://on.fb.me/u728bZ
Pepsi: http://on.fb.me/u5zpPV
Holiday Inn: http://on.fb.me/vz8VeY
Olympus: http://on.fb.me/unOvpD
TPG: http://on.fb.me/vIa32i
Clean and Clear: http://on.fb.me/rB64ZZ
Toys R Us: http://on.fb.me/tvetSZ
Commonwealth Bank Australia: http://on.fb.me/rM64CO
iSelect: http://on.fb.me/vCEIfd
Fitness First: http://on.fb.me/rDnb7J
Big W: http://on.fb.me/ukPs0U
ING: http://on.fb.me/tWYjUH
Kia Motors: http://on.fb.me/ukatkU
Here are the brands that have committed to not advertising on shows hosted by Kyle Sandilands in 2012. Find out exactly what the companies had to say in the petition updates here.
Holden ✓
Vodafone ✓
Myer ✓
Blackmores ✓
Coles ✓
McDonalds ✓
Ford ✓
Bunnings ✓
GIO ✓
Beaurepairs ✓
Amex ✓
Tourism New Zealand ✓
CUA ✓
NIDA ✓
Libra ✓
University of Western Sydney ✓
Lexus ✓
Mazda ✓
Mitsubishi ✓
The Good Guys ✓
Volkswagen ✓
Virgin Mobile ✓
Spotlight ✓
Macquarie University ✓
Nissan ✓
Crazy Johns ✓
Telstra ✓
While brands were quick to withdraw ads supporting Kyle Sandilands a few weeks ago, Austereo will be hoping that they can talk them around to returning in 2012. If you’re interested in taking regular and ongoing action on this campaign, one Change.org member has started a select group for people to organise together — you can join by signing a pledge here.
Tags: #vilekyle, 2DAYFM, Austereo, bullying, Change.org, collective shout, Kyle Sandilands, sexism, violence against women
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1577
|
__label__cc
| 0.716452
| 0.283548
|
This website or its third-party tools use cookies which are necessary to its functioning and required to improve your experience. By clicking the consent button, you agree to allow the site to use, collect and/or store cookies.
Living A Creative Life with Melissa Dinwiddie
Happiness, Self-fulfillment, Creativity, Productivity, Practical Inspiration, Mentoring, Life Design for Creatives and Multi-Passionate People
Art Shop >>
Artwork in Progress
Music Shop >>
Music Loops
MelissaSings.com >>
Consultancy >>
Retreat With Me
Art in Progress
Music Loop Tracks
Project 3x5x365
Don’t show this message again.
Would You Like Some Cookies?
We use cookies to customize your experience, to improve the content we deliver to you, and sometimes to show you relevant advertising on social networking sites like Facebook or Instagram. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you give your consent to our cookie use. (Click the X in the upper right corner to close this notice.)
LCN 103: Embarrassing Confessions (or How Not to Become a Prolific Creator)
LCN 103: Embarrassing Confessions (or How Not to Become a Prolific Creator)Melissa Dinwiddie
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lacl/lcn/LCN+103_+Embarrassing+Confessions+(or+How+Not+to+Become+a+Prolific+Creator).mp3
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts | Subscribe via Stitcher
© 2015-2019 Melissa Dinwiddie.
On Saturday, I drove with my husband (affectionately known on the podcast as Miracle Man, or MM for short) up to Sonoma to the Sonoma International Film Festival, because a friend of ours, who is a professional screenwriter and director, wrote and directed a film that was showing in the festival.
His name is Joel Souza, the film is called Veracruz, and he crowdfunded the money to produce the film a few years ago in an Indiegogo campaign, which we had supported, and this was our first opportunity to see the final product, so of course we couldn’t miss it.
We stayed overnight with a friend of mine from the calligraphy world, then we had drove home on Sunday and promptly took a nap after lunch.
That afternoon, after waking up for our nap, I played in the Creative Sandbox and made some art. Then I photographed it, and shared this picture on Instagram.
Then I shared this photo, along with a spontaneous post (below) in my Creative Sandbox Community, that touched on something that I’ve long thought about, and have long wanted to write about on the blog, but I don’t think I’ve ever managed to do so in any meaningful way, so I thought I’d talk about it today on the podcast.
Because this is something that I struggled with for a long time.
It led to a lot of pain and suffering, and I know I’m not alone.
So let’s shine a little light on it!
Especially the part that I’m embarrassed to share.
Here’s what I posted in the Creative Sandbox Community (listen to the podcast for a longer riff):
We spent the night a couple of hours away, drove home and promptly took a nap after lunch–so tired after a restless night. So my Creative Sandbox time was late in the afternoon today, Sunday.
I spent a half hour doodling on a tiny canvas, then photographed it and shared it in this grid.
The photography is as much a part of the play and fun, I think, as the art-making–I really enjoy it! And the sharing to Instagram.
This has become part of my (almost) daily practice, something that pleases me very much. 🙂
The particulars change–what, exactly, I’m creating–but the FACT that I create something, and share it, just about every day, is kind of a miracle to me.
I have become the prolific artist that I longed to be 20 years ago!
All through the power of imperfectionism and small, daily acts.
All through the power of the Creative Sandbox Way and the Guideposts and my Golden Formula.
20 years ago I had none of those tools. I had none of the *vocabulary*, even. I didn’t understand why I was so stuck.
I thought it was simply that I wasn’t good enough.
Or that I didn’t have time.
All I knew was that I was miserable, and I wanted to be creating, but I couldn’t figure out how.
My friends who *were* creating prolifically, I actually kind of hated–it was easier to wish they would stop, than to look at ME and try to change ME.
It was easier to blame external forces (I.e., all the things keeping me from having the TIME) than to look at my FEAR and SELF DOUBT and PERFECTIONISM.
Wow. What numbers we play on ourselves…
I’m so grateful I finally climbed my way out of that pit. Took me long enough!
That’s why I’m so passionate about what I’m doing now. About spreading the word, so others don’t have to stay stuck down there.
I’ve got a ladder, and I’m so so happy to share it!
And right now, in April 2017 I am making teeny tiny abstract canvas doodle paintings, which will be for sale at my open studio in May.
How things have changed from 20 years ago.
Winsor & Newton watercolor markers
Yes, just what they sound like — watercolor, in marker form! I bought the 12-marker set (these are Amazon affiliate links, fyi), and I’m having a ton of fun with them. I find I like them best two different ways:
Lay down just a little color with the pen, then spread the color out with a waterbrush — the handle holds water, so you never need to dip it; you just squeeze the handle to get more water into the bristles (I use this set of three Derwent waterbrushes, with three different brush tips)
Put some color down on a scratch sheet, which then acts as a “palette.” I then pick up the color from that palette with my waterbrush.
Thanks so much for joining me this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!
If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.
Also, please leave an honest review for Live Creative Now on Tunes!
If you’d also like your voice to be heard on the show, leave your question as a voice message right here.
And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates.
Subscribe in iTunes | Subscribe via Stitcher
Now go get creating!
PS — Pssst! Know someone who might benefit from seeing this today? Pass it on!
· Categorized: The Creative Sandbox Way™ · Tagged: prolific, watercolor markers
Lynde says
Looks like a little abstract dog panting. Made me giggle.
Melissa Dinwiddie says
I love it! 🙂
Check this box to allow the collection and storage of your data related to submitting a comment or a forum post. All data will be handled as outlined in this site's Privacy Policy.
© 2020 Melissa Dinwiddie · Rainmaker Platform · · · · · Terms of Service · Privacy Policy
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1578
|
__label__wiki
| 0.697607
| 0.697607
|
Food Mike Rampton November 29, 2019
Five Lies You’ve Been Told About Leftovers
Are you doing aluminum foil wrong? Will worms eat your leftover flesh sack when you die? Let’s find out the truth.
The world is full of lies, and it’s hard to get through life without taking a few on board. Luckily, we’re here to sort the fact from the fiction, and find the plankton of truth in the ocean of bullshit. This week: Leftovers. Are you a cheap bastard if you ask for a doggy bag? Will what’s left of you after you die get eaten? Onwards to honesty…
Lie #1: Asking for a Doggy Bag Is Kinda Rude
It’s a bit, well, common, isn’t it, asking a restaurant for a bag to take home your unfinished meal? It’s hard to picture James Bond doing it, for instance — asking a waiter if he can take the last bit of a big pie home to reheat for lunch tomorrow.
One theory of why they’re known as “doggy bags” is that it allowed people to bring food home under the pretense that it was to give their hound a treat, rather than to finish it off themselves. But is it really something to be ashamed of? You’ve paid for the stuff, after all, and food waste is a massive problem — sending a bunch of perfectly good food to the trash is arguably a lot worse than risking looking cheap. If your options are tossing it, taking a doggy bag or shoving so much food down your throat that you’re a sweaty, vile mess, bag that shit up.
A 2014 survey in France — a country that takes fine dining pretty seriously — found that while 75 percent of the public were theoretically up for taking leftovers home from restaurants, only 30 percent of them had ever done it. In 2016, the country introduced a law that made it obligatory for restaurants serving over 180 people a day to offer up containers for patrons to take leftovers home. While in some circles it’s still seen as a slightly gauche American habit, campaigns like Gourmet Bag – C’est si bon je finis à la maison! are changing classy Gallic minds.
Lie #2: Aluminum Foil Has a Right and a Wrong Way Round
Aluminum foil, the best friend of yesterday’s meat, has a shiny side and a matte side. There’s the glamorous, smooth, Hollywood side, and the more rough-and-ready, indie one. Turns out they’re the friggin’ same though — the difference just comes from how foil is manufactured. It’s thin enough that the milling process (which heats and stretches it) would break it if done in single layers, so it’s done two sheets at a time. The outside ends up shiny, and the inside dull, but the difference between the two is eff-all. In other words, you’re doing your sandwiches no harm at all wrapping them up wrong.
Lie #3: Leftover Weaponry Is Always Dealt With Responsibly
Um, no. Since World War II, huge amounts of unwanted munitions have been dumped in the sea, in a sort of “screw it, what’s the worst that can happen?” approach to safety. Generally, the weaponry is loaded onto boats, which are then sunk in the middle of the ocean and never thought about again.
The U.S. and U.K.’s cheerily-named Operation Davy Jones’ Locker ran from 1946 to 1948 and involved sinking 11 ships containing up to 40,000 tons of captured German munitions and chemical weapons in the sea around Scandinavia. Operation Geranium, in 1948, dumped 3,000 tons of lewisite, an incredibly unpleasant chemical weapon that causes burns, liver necrosis, blindness and pulmonary edemas, into the sea off Florida. Operation Sandcastle, in 1955 and 1956, involved sinking 16,000 bombs filled with the nerve agent tabun (or, to use its catchier name, Ethyl dimethylphosphoramidocyanidate) off the coast of Ireland.
Shall I go on? Okay. Operation CHASE (short for “cut holes and sink ’em” — no, really) ran in 12 stages from 1964 to 1970 and involved sinking boats filled with everything from terrifying nerve agents like VX gas to excess bombs.
On multiple occasions, this led to unexpected underwater explosions. Great! The sea is really big, but we still probably shouldn’t be filling it with so much deadly shit. After all, fisherman keep dredging it up and dying.
It’s fucked up. And we’ve kind of fucked it up.
Lie #4: Expired Eggs Will Destroy Your Innards
If you leave an egg (making it a “left ova,” no YOU shut up) beyond its expiration date, it’s a salmonella guarantee, right? Not necessarily. Expiration dates are a bit overzealous, especially with eggs. If in doubt about the quality of an egg, float it in a tall glass of water. If it sinks, it’s good. If it floats, it’s a baaaaaaaad egg.
Lie #5: When You’re Dead, You’re Worm Food
Oh, if only. The way people are traditionally buried, they’re filled with embalming fluid, which is highly toxic. It’s a combination of formaldehyde, phenol, methanol and glycerin, all of which adds up to a deeply unpleasant and potentially carcinogenic combo, and about two tons of crap being placed in the ground per corpse. No discerning worm wants to eat that shit. 800,000 gallons of formaldehyde entering the water table every year isn’t exactly ideal either — we’ve somehow found a way to keep making the world shittier even after we die.
Biodegradable caskets, low-fi natural woodland burials and “green cremation” using alkaline hydrolysis are all lower-impact ways of having your body disposed of, but still not as good as just being devoured. Annoyingly, while the Shark Trust takes donations, it only takes them in the form of money — i.e., you can’t sign up to have your dead body torn apart by Great Whites, which frankly seems like bullshit.
Mike Rampton
Mike Rampton is a freelance writer who lives in London. He enjoys making aggressively difficult puns, drinking on trains and pretending to be smarter than he is. He would like to own a boat one day but accepts that he probably won't.
Eat Your Heart Out: Old-School Lau Lau and Poi
The Best Comfort Foods for Every Situation
Who Gets to Eat Pizza Before Gay Sex?
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1579
|
__label__cc
| 0.583776
| 0.416224
|
Kylie Jenner’s Tone-Deaf ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Party Draws Strong Reactions From Twitter
Jon Kopaloff, Getty Images
Kylie Jenner is facing a ton of backlash for her Handmaid's Tale-themed party.
Over the weekend, the Kylie Cosmetics mogul threw her best friend Stassie Karanikolaou a 22nd birthday party, which saw her guests all dressed up in the Hulu series' signature Handmaid red dress and bonnet costumes. According to Jenner, she chose this theme because The Handmaid's Tale is her "favorite show ever."
The reality star documented the whole thing on her Instagram Stories—and let's just say she saw the theme all the way through. Not only was her house decked out in Gilead flags, but she had servers dressed as Marthas and "Praise Be Vodka" cocktails.
Scott Disick's girlfriend, Sofia Richie, was also there and snapped this pic with Jenner.
Unfortunately, not everyone was as excited about the party like she and her friends were. Soon after Jenner started sharing the videos, Twitter had a lot to say about why she thought it was OK to throw a party based on a show that depicts violence towards women.
Many also called Jenner out for being completely tone-deaf, while others questioned if she even understood what The Handmaid's Tale is even about.
Celebs With the Most Drama So Far in 2019
Source: Kylie Jenner’s Tone-Deaf ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Party Draws Strong Reactions From Twitter
Filed Under: Kylie Jenner
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1590
|
__label__wiki
| 0.626895
| 0.626895
|
By Craig CalcaterraAug 2, 2018, 6:57 AM EDT
Nationals 5, Mets 3: Jose Reyes hit two homers a day after giving up two homers, but the Mets are still the Mets and they still lost thanks to Tommy Milone allowing one run over seven and striking out nine. Anthony Rendon homered and Bryce Harper drove in a run early as the Nats beat Noah Syndergaard and climbed above .500. No word if they released or traded any relievers as punitive measures, but you never know with this team.
Orioles 7, Yankees 5: Sonny Gray coughed up seven runs on eight hits in two and two-thirds and the Yankees continued their inexplicable struggles against the Orioles in 2018. Trey Mancini and Renato Nunez each drove in a couple and Alex Cobb, who entered the game leading the league in losses, allowed only one run over six. Because it’s after the trade deadline and because the Yankees are supposed to be good and the Orioles are terrible, however, every single gamer I’ve read about this one focuses on the Yankees messing up, Gray grinning at getting booed and the team getting yelled at by third base coach Phil Nevin and all of that but maybe, somewhere, someone has written about how the Orioles actually won the game as opposed to the Yankees losing it.
Tigers 7, Reds 4: Mike Fiers left early after getting hit in the shin with a comebacker, but Drew VerHagen and five other relievers handled things over the final six innings. Jose Iglesias hit a two-run double in the second, and Jim Adduci had a solo homer in the fourth. Afterward Adduci filmed a commercial for some regional beer company that doesn’t exist anymore — I dunno, let’s call it Olde Windsor Beer — that has a jaunty jingle and a forgettable tagline, but the print ads for it in Look Magazine will look great cut out and framed in a sports bar sometime in the 1970s. Adduci will be off today (flulike symptoms) and Chuck Dressen gave him permission to take the train on ahead to the series against the Senators.
Indians 2, Twins 0: Carlos Carrasco pitched shutout ball into the eighth, striking out 10, and Brad Hand completed the deal. Rajai Davis scored on a double steal. I’ve never understood why catchers throw to second base in a double steal situation, especially with a fast guy on third, but they still do it. Yan Gomes drove in an insurance run in the ninth.
Athletics 8, Blue Jays 3: Jonathan Lucroy had three hits and drove in four runs and Franklin Barreto homered and had three RBI of his own. The A’s and Jays were scheduled to play each other seven times this season. The A’s won all seven of those games. In winning this one they moved into a tie with the Mariners for second place in the AL West and at the top of the Wild Card standings.
Astros 8, Mariners 3: Dallas Keuchel allowed three over seven and the Astros beat up on Wade LeBlanc for seven runs in the first five innings, with Marwin Gonzalez homering twice, Jake Marisnick going deep and Max Stassi [insert home run slang here; it’s August and I’m running out of creative ways to say “four-bagger” or whatever]. The M’s once had an 11 game lead over the A’s but thanks to their middling-at-best play of late and Oakland’s surge, they’re all tied up. The Astros have a five-game lead over both of ’em.
Rays 7, Angels 2: Willy Adames homered and drove in two in his first game after being named the Official Starting Shortstop of the Tampa Bay Rays following Adeiny Hechavarria‘s DFA. Jake Bauers added a two-run homer in the ninth. New acquisition Tyler Glasnow pitched three innings of one run ball, striking out five to begin the game. I’d say the Rays are trying to stretch out Glasnow by starting him here despite his having been a reliever all year, but he’s 6’8″ tall so I’d say he’s already stretched out enough, thank you very much. Heh, bet you thought I was gonna make a “the Rays don’t have starters” joke. Nope. Too obvious. You think I’m gonna zig but I zag. That’s why I’ve had this gig for ten years. Well, that and the fact that literally no one else wants to wake up early to do this for what they pay me, but I’d like to think my inventiveness plays into it too.
Dodgers 6, Brewers 4: Mike Moustakas and Manny Pina each drove in a run in the eighth to tie this one at four and send it to extras, but Yasmani Grandal put on his hero cape and hit a two-run walkoff homer in the bottom of the tenth to send everyone home smiling. Well, not everyone. And not “home” really. The Brewers themselves were probably pissed off and the went to a hotel somewhere in Los Angeles.
Cardinals 6, Rockies 3: Luke Weaver struggled early and left early, but the Cards bullpen put together a nice scoreless stretch for most of the rest of the game. Tyler O’Neill hit a tiebreaking pinch single in the sixth inning and Yadi Molina and Marcell Ozuna added RBIs in the eighth to give the Cards a nice late cushion.
Royals 10, White Sox 5: Alex Gordon hit a two-run homer and a two-run double. He also walked and scored. Big night for Gordon, but he played it off afterwards saying, “I’m old. I don’t have power anymore.” I hear ya, Alex. I hear ya. The White Sox have lost six of seven.
Cubs 9, Pirates 2: Cole Hamels allowed one run, unearned, in five innings in his Cubs debut. Chicago built up a 6-1 lead in the first two innings despite getting only one RBI hit in that time. It was an infield single by Kyle Schwarber. The other runs scored via a groundout, two errors and two bases-loaded walks. They’d score one more run on a groundout later before Willson Contreras restored some semblance of offensive order with a two-run homer. Gonna guess that the Pirates weren’t too happy with the effort and execution in this one.
Marlins vs. Braves — POSTPONED:
I’ve been loving you a long time
Down all the years, down all the days
And I’ve cried for all your troubles
Smiled at your funny little ways
We watched our friends grow up together
And we saw them as they fell
Some of them fell into Heaven
Some of them fell into Hell
I took shelter from a shower
And I stepped into your arms
On a rainy night in Soho
The wind was whistling all its charms
Tags: Adeiny Hechavarria, Alex Cobb, Alex Gordon, Anthony Rendon, Brad Hand, Bryce Harper, Carlos Carrasco, Cole Hamels, Dallas Keuchel, Drew VerHagen, Jake Bauers, Jim Adduci, Jonathan Lucroy, Jose Iglesias, Jose Reyes, Kyle Schwarber, Manny Pina, Marcell Ozuna, Marwin Gonzalez, Max Stassi, Mike Fiers, Mike Moustakas, Noah Syndergaard, Rajai Davis, Renato Nunez, Sonny Gray, Tommy Milone, Trey Mancini, Tyler Glasnow, Wade LeBlanc, Willson Contreras, Willy Adames, Yan Gomes, Yasmani Grandal
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1592
|
__label__wiki
| 0.894997
| 0.894997
|
q&as with the pros
the table bay hotel
website partners
Cape to Rio Rowing Expedition Done & Dusted
Braam Malherbe & Wayne Robertson
Sponsor Oude Molen Feeling Proud
The team at Oude Molen Cape Brandy, one of South Africa’s oldest brandy distilleries, who sponsored adventurer Braam Malherbe’s epic 8000 KM Cape to Rio Rowing DOTChallenge expedition, are feeling proud of the achievement of the adventurer and his team mate Wayne Robertson, who arrived safely back in Cape Town on Monday last week after setting a new world record.
Malherbe, one of SA’s most respected conservationists, and yachtsman Wayne Robertson set off in their row boat that was just 6,8 metre long and 1,8 metre wide, with no assistance or support; to row from Cape to Rio in a bid to highlight the importance of sustainable living and to inspire everyone to do ‘Do One Thing’ (#DOTChallenge) for the planet to ensure a sustainable future.
Oude Molen Distillery
The trip involved some hair-raising moments according to Malherbe, who says that it was his toughest challenge to date.
The team rowed in a Southern Atlantic Crossing, which took them 92 days to complete during which time Malherbe says they were faced with challenging rain squalls and storms and dangers such as ships at night – including a near miss with a 600 feet long and 105 feet wide vessel that almost didn’t see them.
“Additional challenges included capsizing several times, losing one of our two seats in a storm, which capsized our vessel, problems with the hi-tech satellite phone system and a damaged daggerboard,” he says.
But inspite of this, they soldiered through. And, in Malherbe’s words, “We proved that ordinary people can do extra ordinary things.”
Oude Molen Barrel Cellar
“However,” he adds: “Without our sponsors, including Oude Molen, this epic adventure would not have been possible and we are really grateful for their financial support.”
Malherbe quips: “As an added bonus, after every milestone we achieved in our journey we celebrated with a little toast of the Oude Molen XO, a very special brandy. It was something to look forward to and warm us up after our close encounters with the hectic storms and near collisions.”
Commenting on the achievement, brand manager at Edward Snell & Co Jacques van der Merwe says: “We are very proud of our heroes Braam and Wayne on their amazing accomplishment where they challenged the ordinary to hit their mark for a healthier planet earth through the #DOTChallenge.”
Wayne & Braam on their boat
He continues: “Similar to avid adventurer and explorer René Santhagens our founding pioneer, who is acknowledged as the father of South African brandy, and who explored new waters in his pursuit of excellence, they will leave a living legacy for generations to come to appreciate. We salute you on your epic journey and accomplishment.”
Malherbe says that he is encouraged that the Oude Molen distillery is incorporating the DOT Challenge into its operations with its focus on re-using treated effluent water, and refining it to be used as boiler feed water for steam generation.
In addition, energy saving LED lights have replaced incandescent lighting and Oude Molen is in the final stages of replacing coal, being burned in our boilers, with biomass briquettes.
For more information visit www.oudemolen.co.za
Those wanting to get involved can download the app by going to www.dotchallenge.org
Information from Tin Can
May 22nd, 2017|Categories: Michael's Writings|Tags: Braam Malherbe, Cape to Rio, Oude Molen Brandy, South African Fine Brandy, Wayne Robertson|
michael’s writings
As a young aspiring chef, Michael laid a solid foundation for his career at the Cordon Bleu Cooking School in London. Over the next 30 years he had a series of high profile hospitality management posts, was the Public Relations Manager for Boschendal and ran three successful restaurants in the Cape, one of which, Parks, featured in the national top 10 restaurants.
Michael is a family man, author and broadcaster.
A lifetime devoted to the promotion and appreciation of the South African wine and food industry has earned him many accolades, including the Lannice Snyman Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2013 Eat Out Awards.
Michael continues to be prolific, informative and entertaining on his wine and food website, michaelolivier.co.za
Copyright 2016 Michael Olivier | All Rights Reserved
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1595
|
__label__wiki
| 0.774544
| 0.774544
|
Markets & Policy
Critical Services
Solar Plus Storage
Nanogrid
Virtual Power Plant
Non-wires Alternatives
Industry Perspectives
About Microgrids
Microgrid Case Studies
Post Irma: Will the Southeast become the New Northeast for Microgrids?
September 15, 2017 By Elisa Wood 1 Comment
Microgrids are on the rise in the U.S., but not quickly enough for the millions in the Southeast who lost power this week – and continue to have none days later — following Hurricane Irma.
Perhaps most poignant, Irma underscores what loss of electricity means to senior citizens, a potentially life-threatening situation when air conditioning fails in a tropical climate.
Investigation is underway into the possible heat-related deaths of eight patients in a nursing home in the City of Hollywood where the temperature rose to dangerous levels. Other seniors are describing an inability to refrigerate insulin, recharge wheel chairs, plug in oxygen machines, or navigate flights of stairs without elevators – until the power is restored.
A microgrid, which typically has multiple power sources, keeps the electricity flowing during an outage by disconnecting from the damaged grid and using its own on-site generators, and possibly batteries, to serve nearby customers.
“Microgrids aren’t just convenient for extreme weather events, they’re critical,” said Justin Day, senior marketing program manager for Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL).
For those who weathered Superstorm Sandy five years ago, Irma brings a sense of déjà vu with the vulnerable in jeopardy as simple back-up generators fail at critical facilities. A Pasco County, Florida hospital had to evacuate patients on ventilators this week, when back-up generators failed. Similarly during Sandy, when back-up generators failed at a New York hospital, critical newborns had to be evacuated down a dark flight of stairs, with medical personnel manually pumping air into their lungs.
Editor’s Note: A back-up generator should not be confused with a microgrid. A more complex, automated technology, a microgrid typically offers multiple kinds of power, such as solar, batteries and combined heat and power. In addition, the microgrid typically runs all the time. Back-up generators, on the other hand, are used on occasion, so if they are not working, the discovery may not be made until the power goes out.
Hard Lessons from the North
After more than 8 million lost power during Sandy, some for more than two weeks, the Northeast began perhaps the most aggressive pursuit of microgrids in the nation. The Northeast’s wake-up call led to the creation of “community microgrids,” projects that focus on energy security for nursing homes, hospitals, emergency shelters, and other critical facilities. New York and Connecticut, alone, have committed over $100 million to developing community microgrids.
It’s too soon to say how the microgrid discussion will evolve in the Southeast following Irma – the power industry is busy now with the mammoth task of power restoration. More than half of utility accounts were out in Florida after the storm passed through on September 11, according to the Department of Energy. In Georgia, more than a quarter lost power. On its website Florida Power & Light has set September 22 as the date it expects to complete restoration “with the possible exception of areas impacted by tornadoes, severe flooding and other pockets of severe damage.”
It is safe to say that urgency to develop microgrids will likely heighten in the Southeast, a region that has been slow to adopt the technology compared with the Northeast and West Coast.
“The most important learned from this is: What’s our plan?” said Clark Wiedetz, microgrid director for Siemens Energy Management. “We’ve got to have plans with the utilities and plans with the cities.”
“The most important learned from this is: What’s our plan?” — Clark Wiedetz, Siemens
Free Resource from Microgrid Knowledge White Paper Library
How Microgrids Enable Optimal Cooperation Among Distributed Energy Resources
Many facility operators need increased resiliency, efficiently, and sustainability. Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) like wind, PV and energy storage can address these needs. Yet also introduce many other challenges. To learn how microgrids can help you optimize the integration of these assets, download this white paper.
Wiedetz envisions key stakeholders in the Southeast coming together to determine what distributed energy resources are needed – and where — to keep various groups of people safe. Microgrids may become part of broader strategies. For example, in some vulnerable regions it might make sense to transport groups of people to safer places, and create microgrids for those safe havens.
Configuring distributed energy projects into microgrids will help maximize electric reliability and make the most of the investment, he said. By way of example, Wiedetz pointed to Blue Lake Rancheria project, a microgrid developed by Siemens, which is centered around a Red Cross shelter-in-place in Humboldt, California.
Two regions, two paths to microgrids
“I do believe there will be an increased interest in microgrids as an improver for special locations,” said Troy Miller, S&C Electric’s director of grid solutions.
At the same time, the Southeast’s path to microgrids is apt to be different, he said. This is largely because of the way utilities are regulated in the two regions. Many of the Northeast states limit the role of utilities to distribution of energy – not production – because of industry restructuring rules set two decades ago. As a result, competitive power markets have formed, which are orchestrated by independent system operators. In the Northeast microgrid development tends to be led by technology and energy infrastructure companies, unregulated utility affiliates, energy customers and government entities, like cities and towns.
The Southeast, on the other hand, did not restructure its power markets. Electric utilities have a more dominant role, not only delivering but also owning generators and producing power. So in the Southeast, utilities are likely to play a larger role governing the path of microgrid development.
“I do believe it will be led by the big utilities, primarily Florida Power & Light and Duke,” Miller said.
“…it will be led by the big utilities” Troy Miller, S&C
Duke Energy will be particularly worth watching, given that the company already has made a vanguard play into the microgrid market. Through its regulated arm, Duke is developing microgrids within its service territory. And through its unregulated affiliate, Duke Energy Renewables, it is installing microgrids in other states.
“The recent hurricanes may serve as a catalyst for many states to rethink their power supply. This includes the ones that weren’t in the storms’ paths this time, but may not be so fortunate next time,” said SEL’s Day. “Some may take a reactive approach while others could adopt a proactive strategy. They may chose to follow a precedent set by states in the Northeast or chart their own path. Will it be top down or more of a grass roots movement? A lot will depend on local conditions and stakeholders. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.”
Grid modernizing pays off
Credit Duke Energy
The southern utilities also are likely to come out of Irma facing less criticism than their northern counterparts did following Sandy. Customers and government officials had faulted some of the Northeast utilities for not properly modernizing their infrastructure in anticipation of a storm like Sandy. FP&L, however, which serves most of Florida, has invested $3 billion improving lines, upgrading systems, installing smart meters, and making other improvements.
The utility’s efforts appear to be paying off. FP&L is restoring power at a pace roughly four times faster than it did after Wilma in 2005, according to the Department of Energy. The DOE also attributes the faster response to what it described as “unparalleled mutual assistance.” About 60,000 workers from nearly 250 utilities throughout the U.S. are helping.
“The work FP&L has done made a big difference. I shudder to think what it would have been like if they had not invested that money over the course of the last three to five years,” Miller said. “They’ve done quite a bit with distributed automation, they’ve done quite a bit with moving from wooden poles to concrete poles. They’ve got single-phase reclosers, the TripSaver II.”
Of course, all of the modernizing in the world does little when transmission and distribution lines go down. As the storms keep coming, microgrids offer a way to keep the lights on, the AC running, emergency services electrified, and people safe.
So may the lights come on soon in the Southeast, and may the microgrid planning begin.
What are the prospects for microgrids in the Southeast post Hurricane Irma? Post your thoughts on our LinkedIn Group, Microgrid Knowledge.
Microgrid Benefits: Eight Ways a Microgrid Will Improve Your Operation…and the World
Hurricane Harvey Creates New Abnormal for the Electric Grid
Meet the Microgrid Project Winners Selected in Stage 2 of the NY Prize
New Jersey Doubles Funding for Town Center Microgrids. Okays 13 Proposals
Coming Soon: Next $26.5M in Microgrid Incentives from Connecticut
Sign up for our newsletter and get the latest microgrid news and analysis.
Filed Under: Community, Editor's Choice, Google News Feed, Microgrids, Players, Policy, Reliability, S and C Electric, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL), Siemens, x ~ Main Features, x ~ Sub Features Tagged With: S&C, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Siemens
About Elisa Wood
Elisa Wood is the chief editor of MicrogridKnowledge.com. She has been writing about energy for more than two decades for top industry publications. Her work also has been picked up by CNN, the New York Times, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal Online and the Washington Post.
Grid Resiliency, Irma, and the Downside of Waiting until Disaster Strikes says:
[…] Power & Light (FP&L) has put $3 billion into grid modernization – an effort that many say softened the blow from Irma. Still the state has few microgrids to keep the power flowing while the restoration […]
CPUC Should Adopt an Ambitious 2030 Carbon Emissions Target
A California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) proposal may not the most efficient way for the state to attain a zero-carbon electric sector by 2045, which is required by state law, say NRDC’s Mohit Chhabra and Sergio Sanchez Lopez.
California’s Critical Facility Challenge: The Case for Energy-as-a-Service Municipal Microgrids
If California does not modernize its grid and power delivery infrastructure via sustainable premium power provided by microgrids, the state will be thwarted in its efforts to meet not only its economic and public safety needs, but aggressive carbon reduction and renewable energy goals. Download the new white paper commissioned by Schneider Electric that answers one of the most commonly asked questions: How can today’s governments pay for the vital energy infrastructure upgrades they need? Enter Energy-as-a-Service municipal microgrids.
See More White Papers »
About Microgrid Knowledge and Staff
Contact Microgrid Knowledge
Partner With Microgrid Knowledge
Terms of Service & Copyright
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1599
|
__label__cc
| 0.58729
| 0.41271
|
Silicone series swings into Kericho
Elgeyo Marakwet County Assembly Speaker Philemon Sabulei of Eldoret Golf Club follows his tee during the Nation Classic Golf Series held at Eldoret Golf Club on September 07, 2019. PHOTO |JARED NYATAYA |
By LARRY NGALA
At Nanyuki Sports Club, it will be the turn of the popular Njuri Ncheke golf tournament which comes after the successful Mountain Classic.
A field of over 100 players drawn from Nanyuki, Nyeri, Nyahururu as well as other parts of the country were listed to play in the event sponsored by Associated Motors in conjunction with Isuzu East Africa.
The countrywide Silicone Stableford Challenge golf series sponsored by Crown Paints goes to the tea growing county of Kericho for a back-to-back event following last weekend’s tournament at Royal Nairobi Golf Club.
A field of 89 players are drawn to tackle the ever green Kericho Golf Club course which is likely to be playing long because of the rains in the region.
The event which comes after others held at Nakuru, Kiambu, Nanyuki, Vet Lab, Railway, Sigona and Royal, will be used by the company’s directors to showcase their products.
Over 181 golfers participated in last weekend’s tournament which is a proof of the series’ popularity. From the Kericho, the series will move to Njoro, Muthaiga, Nyanza, before winding up in Kitale.
At the Thika Greens Golf Resort, which has become a popular golfing destination, over 150 players were drawn for the Kenya Army Commanders Cup sponsored by Gaps Constructions and Engineering Limited.
The event is among the three major tournaments in a series organised by the Kenya Defence Forces Golfing Association (KDFGA).
NEXT IN Golf
On-form Snow wins another leg of Safari Tour
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1615
|
__label__cc
| 0.616559
| 0.383441
|
Structure and magnetic properties of Co-W clusters produced by inert gas condensation
Farhad Golkar, M. J. Kramer, Y. Zhang, R. W. McCallum, R. Skomski, D. J. Sellmyer, J. E. Shield
In this article, inert-gas condensation was used to synthesize Co-W clusters. The formation, structure, and magnetic properties of the clusters were investigated. Sub-10-nm clusters were obtained, and the structures and average sizes were strongly dependent on sputtering power. At low sputtering powers, the clusters were predominantly amorphous, while, at high sputtering power, the clusters were crystalline. X ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy revealed clusters with hcp structure at high sputtering power. The magnetic properties were dependent on the sputtering power and temperature, with the highest coercivity of 810 Oe at 10 K for high sputtering power.
rare gases
magnetic properties
coercivity
Golkar, F., Kramer, M. J., Zhang, Y., McCallum, R. W., Skomski, R., Sellmyer, D. J., & Shield, J. E. (2012). Structure and magnetic properties of Co-W clusters produced by inert gas condensation. Journal of Applied Physics, 111(7), [07B524]. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3676425
Structure and magnetic properties of Co-W clusters produced by inert gas condensation. / Golkar, Farhad; Kramer, M. J.; Zhang, Y.; McCallum, R. W.; Skomski, R.; Sellmyer, D. J.; Shield, J. E.
In: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 111, No. 7, 07B524, 01.04.2012.
Golkar, F, Kramer, MJ, Zhang, Y, McCallum, RW, Skomski, R, Sellmyer, DJ & Shield, JE 2012, 'Structure and magnetic properties of Co-W clusters produced by inert gas condensation', Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 111, no. 7, 07B524. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3676425
Golkar F, Kramer MJ, Zhang Y, McCallum RW, Skomski R, Sellmyer DJ et al. Structure and magnetic properties of Co-W clusters produced by inert gas condensation. Journal of Applied Physics. 2012 Apr 1;111(7). 07B524. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3676425
Golkar, Farhad ; Kramer, M. J. ; Zhang, Y. ; McCallum, R. W. ; Skomski, R. ; Sellmyer, D. J. ; Shield, J. E. / Structure and magnetic properties of Co-W clusters produced by inert gas condensation. In: Journal of Applied Physics. 2012 ; Vol. 111, No. 7.
@article{16dbffc921ae470ca470af2e24f6f90d,
title = "Structure and magnetic properties of Co-W clusters produced by inert gas condensation",
abstract = "In this article, inert-gas condensation was used to synthesize Co-W clusters. The formation, structure, and magnetic properties of the clusters were investigated. Sub-10-nm clusters were obtained, and the structures and average sizes were strongly dependent on sputtering power. At low sputtering powers, the clusters were predominantly amorphous, while, at high sputtering power, the clusters were crystalline. X ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy revealed clusters with hcp structure at high sputtering power. The magnetic properties were dependent on the sputtering power and temperature, with the highest coercivity of 810 Oe at 10 K for high sputtering power.",
author = "Farhad Golkar and Kramer, {M. J.} and Y. Zhang and McCallum, {R. W.} and R. Skomski and Sellmyer, {D. J.} and Shield, {J. E.}",
journal = "Journal of Applied Physics",
T1 - Structure and magnetic properties of Co-W clusters produced by inert gas condensation
AU - Golkar, Farhad
AU - Kramer, M. J.
AU - Zhang, Y.
AU - McCallum, R. W.
AU - Skomski, R.
AU - Sellmyer, D. J.
AU - Shield, J. E.
N2 - In this article, inert-gas condensation was used to synthesize Co-W clusters. The formation, structure, and magnetic properties of the clusters were investigated. Sub-10-nm clusters were obtained, and the structures and average sizes were strongly dependent on sputtering power. At low sputtering powers, the clusters were predominantly amorphous, while, at high sputtering power, the clusters were crystalline. X ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy revealed clusters with hcp structure at high sputtering power. The magnetic properties were dependent on the sputtering power and temperature, with the highest coercivity of 810 Oe at 10 K for high sputtering power.
AB - In this article, inert-gas condensation was used to synthesize Co-W clusters. The formation, structure, and magnetic properties of the clusters were investigated. Sub-10-nm clusters were obtained, and the structures and average sizes were strongly dependent on sputtering power. At low sputtering powers, the clusters were predominantly amorphous, while, at high sputtering power, the clusters were crystalline. X ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy revealed clusters with hcp structure at high sputtering power. The magnetic properties were dependent on the sputtering power and temperature, with the highest coercivity of 810 Oe at 10 K for high sputtering power.
JO - Journal of Applied Physics
JF - Journal of Applied Physics
M1 - 07B524
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1620
|
__label__wiki
| 0.589423
| 0.589423
|
FM16: “The Academics” – part XVIII – Developing for Barcelona
May 15, 2016 May 15, 2016 ~ Ondrej Rensie
If you think I’m crazy because of the title of this new part of my Akademisk Boldklub save you will find I’m not. I knew it was coming but it hurts very much. I build very young squad during previous months and many of my players were wanted around the Europe. And during winter transfer window in the 2025/2026 season many of them left the club for bigger clubs.
Transfers 2025/2026
I’ll start with income transfers because it will be shorter. We brought back striker Henrik Michaelsen from Bournemouth for a fee around £1.9M meanwhile we sold him to this English club a year ago for £4M.
Another new player was central midfielder Lasse Jensen from Idtjylland and young Asle Runar from IK Start. The most important between these transfers were French Full back Florian Tissot from Stade Rennais and right wide playmkaer Frederik Kristensen. He is originaly from Randers but he was in Leverkusen and Düsseldorf in previous two seasons. We signed him for a free! One of the key players for us now.
And there are outgoing players…
Expect some free transfers there were two big transfers in the summer. Central defender Kevin Sandberg left for Nottingham Forest for £3.5M and midfielder Marco Ramkilde moved to VfL Wolfsburg for £8.5M what is our record transfer income in history. With Ramkilde departure we lost around 15 goals and 20 assists per season…
The most depressive time during this save so far was in winter 2026. There were around 30 clubs interested in five or six players and we were absolutely unable to compete with them. Every time I declined some offer players were unhappy because they wanted to go to bigger clubs.
Midfielder Ole Rasmussen, the perfect wide playmaker, left for £1.5M to Barcelona. Central Defender Rasmus Koch who made great progress during last six months moved to Real Sporting Gijón. Young left defender Jakob Kirk to Lazio, central defender Mikel Nielsen to Wolfsburg and Jakob Tonnesen to AIK Solna.
There was an interest to our regen strike Michael Hansen as well. I declined some offers but he wanted to go. Firstly he was willing to wait until the summer but when Barcelona offered £3M+2M in next 12 months+30% from next transfer and his loan until the end of the season our chairman accepted it.
The financial profit is great but it was sad to see some of these players went…
If this is not crazy, what is? Barcelona buying players from Akademisk Boldklub………..
Champions League 2025/2026
Very good season from us in Europe this term. We progressed to the Group Stage because we beat ÍBV, Lech Poznan and Astra Giurgiu.
We met three european giants in the main stage when we played against AC Milan, Benfica and Manchester City. We won against Benfica at home thanks to goal by Aakjaer but then we lost three matches in a row against Milan and both with Manchester City.
We were still in the race for second place in the group before last two matches but I was not too optimistic about that because of some injuries and very hard schedule. But we had Henrik Michaelsen!
We won at Benfica stadium 4-2 thanks to four goals by Michaelsen and this guy was in form during last match with AC Milan as well. We were last in the table despite win with Benfica but we beat AC Milan thanks to Michaelsen hattrick and one goal by Ole Rasmussen. With Benfica dres with City we moved to the second place!
That means we for the 1st time in AB save we’ve qualified from UCL Group Stage!
In the first knock-out round we met Real Madrid and it we were a massive outsiders but we achieved great results. We beat this Spanish giant 1-0 at home thanks to a goal by Michael Hansen fifteen minutes before the end.
The second leg was very one-sided because Real was more active and more dangerous and they scored just after the half-time. But the match ended with a 1-1 draw after the 90 minutes and we scored thanks to Frederik Kristensen just before the extra time half-time. And this results stand after the final whistle and we were through to Quarter Final.
There we met another big european giant – Juventus. A 0-0 draw at home in the 1st leg was good but we had to score away. The second leg was tight, Juventus had 20 shots but only 6 on target and only one clear cut chance. Same as we had. Both team played with a variation of 4-4-2 formation.
When everyone thought there will be extra-time we made the last attack and our regen striker Michael Hansen scored the winner in the 91st minute and we could celebrate the Semi Final of Champions League.
Bayern? If you think matches with Real and Juventus were difficult, Bayern was a different level. Much much better than previous two teams. We drew with them 1-1 at home and I thought it’s the end of our journey before the second leg in Munich. And I was right.
Wilhelm Rousseau opened the score in 65th minute but we equalised just three minutes later thanks to Kenni Aakjaer. Home side took the lead at the start of the 2nd half of the extra time when Oxlade-Chamberlain and Hernández scored within four minutes. And we had no more power to come back.
Great season in the Champions League and proud moment for the whole club. Biggest achievement in the history of this Danish club. Especially when the best players left the club during winter transfer window and we played with the much weaker side.
Domestic competitions 2025/2026
Domestic cup was sacrificed. We won DBU Pokalen five times in the previous five years but this year we had no power to compete in it. After the players departures in winter we played the Quarter Final against Brondby (away) with the average of 17-years-old and mainly with players without experiences and they are good only for Under 19 level. Despite that we lost to Brondby after penalties…
The Superliga was different. The main goal of the Board is to win the league so I could ignore it despite the players exodus in winter. We only lost two matches during the first half of the season and we made some advantage in the table ahead of FC Kobenhavn so we could play with any stress.
Paradoxically, we lost only one match (the last one of the season) during the second half of the season after the players departure. I gave chances to many younsters in the league and they did very well. I was very pleasantly surprised with performances of young goalkeeper William Thorhauge who wanted to play more competitive matches (he is 19-years-old) so I gave him twenty apperances this season and he is progressing very well.
In case of big interest in our number one goalkeepere Ondřej Březina, Thorhauge will be probably our number one next season.
We secured fourth title in a row just seven or eight matches before the end. Our midfielder Sergei Eremenko had 8.10 average rating, the best from the whole league and Ondřej Březina kept 13 clean sheets.
It was very interesting season mainly thanks to Champions League adventure. I think we can not count with similar success every year so it’s special for our club.
The main negative of the season is the player exodus because we can not play with this squad at the highest level for many years. We have to buy some new players during summer transfer window and we have to try to get the best from our own players.
Senior squad 2025/2026 stats
There will be training and youth facilities improvements during the 2026 and I signed also new Head of Youth Development Maurizio Lanzaro so I hope the youth intake will be beter next year and I hope he could bring some young players to youth squad.
This year we have very good financial balance at the end of the season thanks to Champions League results. UCL prize money were around £30M.
Another great news at the end of the season was that club cleared debts so there are no loans.
We had 9,837 average attendance in the domestic league which is great in case we have 10K stadium capacity.
Denmark have moved up 5 places to 11th position in the European nation coefficients table so Denmark will receive an extra Champions League place for the 2027/2028 season so there will be league champion in the Group Stage which is great!
There is again interest in our players from around the whole Europe so it will be very difficult to keep them all in the club. We had not too good youth intake this year so I will probably have to invest some money to young players from other Danish clubs.
Thanks for reading, @KeysiRensie
Posted in Football Manager 2016, The Academics save ABCareerChampions LeagueChampionshipDenmarkDevelopmentFM16FM2016FootballFootball ManagerFootball Manager 2016GladsaxePlayerSaveSave story
‹ PreviousFM16: “The Academics” – part XVII – Tactics change
Next ›FM16: “The Academics” – part XIX – 5th League title
5 thoughts on “FM16: “The Academics” – part XVIII – Developing for Barcelona”
can I ask you what skin do you use?
Keysi Rensie says:
It’s “g2 skin” – http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/448231-FM16-SKIN-g2-fmskin
fmotter says:
Another fantastic read, thank you
hunfmaddict says:
Wow what a season mate!
Firstly, I’m very sad about the outgoing players… but it’s sadly the part of the game. I think you will got the green light now, as your club had cleaned the debts, perhaps your chairman won’t accept those low prices for your awesome young players…
Grats on winning the championship, the cup is not the important at this stage I think.
And what an awesome season for you in the champions league. And what an awesome season for you in financial terms…
Reaching the group stage by winning the league is a very good achievement, you don’t have to play those one-sided qualification matches throughout the summer.
Awesome post as usual! Keep up the good work! Have a nice week! :)
Thank you mate ;) New season just started and some other players left the club again and I had to buy and will play with many youngsters but I’m happy with that. It’s a big fun :)
Leave a Reply to Keysi Rensie Cancel reply
|
cc/2020-05/en_middle_0128.json.gz/line1623
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.