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Immortals Fenyx Rising is a competently made video game. The world is colourful, the combat is simple and functional, and I encountered only a few bugs in the 25 hours it took for me to complete it. At the very least, it works properly. That is faint praise, but it is the only praise I can give to a game that is as joyless as this. Immortals is devoid of life and imagination, content to take elements from better games, including games that Ubisoft itself designed, and turn them into worse imitations.
The Greek mythology inspired Immortals follows Fenyx, a young customizable character who is stranded on the mythical Golden Isle due to an accident. There, they must rescue several Greek gods from the hand of the titan Typhon, who has escaped his prison and who looks like a generic demon that could be found in any number of video games. The story is narrated by Prometheus and Zeus, the former acting as the straight man to the latter’s petulant and humorous tangents.
Immortals Fenyx Rising – Ubisoft
I say humorous, but I found the game’s attempt at lightheartedness to be grating instead. Each and every conversation between the narrators will feature a joke, and they occur with such frequency that they become tiresome. As an example, here is a line of dialogue between the two that occurs as Fenyx is climbing a statue of Athena that is only slightly paraphrased:
Prometheus: Athena’s wisdom inspired mortals to create beautiful clothing and garb to wear.
Zeus: She should have inspired them to create an elevator!
That is a particularly bad example, but that tone is consistent throughout the events of the story. I found each and every character, from Fenyx themselves to Hermes and beyond, to be annoying and unlikeable because a line rarely goes by without someone setting up a joke or pun. It’s as if everyone in Immortals is a second or two away from turning towards the camera and winking. After only a few hours, it becomes exhausting.
At least the world is pretty to look at. The Golden Isle is vibrantly coloured, with seven different colour coded biomes to traverse and climb. Yet despite the art style, the world may as well be painted in greyscale because that colour does not make up for how overstuffed it. Dozens upon dozens of treasure chests, collectibles, puzzles, dungeons, and the occasional quest dot the landscape, but there is no space on the island for anything to breathe or merely exist. It’s as if there was a fear that any empty space would cause players to become bored. In practice, the opposite becomes true. Every activity becomes tedious because it repeats so frequently. And when you see the same things repeat albeit with minor variations, the Golden Isle becomes suffocating, feeling far smaller than its actual size.
The tedium of the activities on the island is exacerbated by the pitiful nature of the rewards received for completing them. Take a Fresco challenge as an example. These require you to arrange four stone blocks to form an image. The layout for each of these puzzles is exactly the same each time, with no real variation. The reward is always the same – a couple of coins that can be used to purchase abilities and upgrades. No matter what activity you take part in, the reward is identical to previous versions of the same activity.
In isolation, that isn’t a bad thing. But what you purchase and upgrade using those rewards is practically meaningless. Health, stamina, and equipment improvements merely add another bar to their overall capacity or increase the flat numbers a weapon or piece of armor has. And the skills you unlock with the aforementioned coins are uninspiring; there are a small selection of combat abilities to unlock, along with a number of skills that are neat, but don’t add a lot to your gameplay capabilities. Not once did I unlock something and experience a sense of growth, because the most important thing I ever received was additional health bars so that I wouldn’t die in a single hit from powerful monsters.
The combat in Immortals is boring. It is similar to the combat found in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, except it is completely lacking in impact. It is as if the weapons are toys, lacking any weight behind them no matter their appearance. When I hit anything with a sword or axe, there is no sense that I have dealt damage to an enemy beyond the health bar going down. The bow may as well be a tool exclusively used for solving puzzles, because it does not feel good to use in battle. At least when I shoot something with a bow in Assassin’s Creed, it staggers or otherwise shows a reaction to being hit. The previously mentioned abilities that are used in combat similarly don’t feel good to use. They look cool, but because they aren’t as effective as merely mashing a light or heavy attack, there is little reason to make use of them. There is no reason to not repeatedly mash enemies with basic combos, because everything else merely causes the damage sponge enemies to live longer.
Special mention must be made of the boss fights, which are unexciting and simplistic to a depressing degree. Humanoid bosses feature the three to four attack patterns that are used in the exact same order repeatedly. Monstrous bosses don’t feel dangerous, and often go down at the same pace as their normal counterparts. The final boss, in particular, is disappointing – I merely grappled it, which was enough to avoid all of its attacks, and spammed a light attack again and again in order to defeat it. It took 10 minutes.
Much has been made of Immortals’ similarities to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You can climb almost anything in both games, and both feature a glider you can use to slowly travel through the air or catch wind currents with. Their implementation in Immortals is inoffensive, in that neither improves or worsens the already bland exploration that is present in the game.
The more interesting comparison lies in Immortals’ use of Vaults. In lieu of the shrines found in Breath of the Wild, Immortals has Vaults that serve a similar purpose. Each is either a combat test or an environmental puzzle, takes place in an area separate from the world map, has a stat upgrading item at the end, and a hidden chest or two with minor rewards. I enjoy completing shrines in Breath of the Wild, but Vaults are among the most tedious activities in Immortals for one major reason: They take far too long. Shrines in Breath of the Wild take, on average, a few minutes to complete and usually feature a single puzzle to solve or a single enemy to defeat. Vaults, on the other hand, almost always feature multiple puzzles or multiple waves of enemies to fight against. Some of the mandatory Vaults take upwards of half an hour to complete. Yet because the reward for completing a shrine and a Vault is the same, the latter feels much more tiresome.
One Vault in particular has stayed in my mind. It featured a pinball minigame, where you pressed two switches to control the flippers as you aimed to light the ball on fire and send it tumbling down a hole. It was a neat, one-off physics experience. Except upon completion, I discovered there was a second pinball game with an entirely different course that needed to be beaten before I could leave the Vault. It was there the ball got stuck repeatedly, requiring several restarts in order to complete due to the layout of the ‘pinball machine’ itself. What was a single fun experiment became a flat, grueling series of puzzles that took far too long to complete. And that, in turn, makes me dread what should be exciting challenges.
When I first began to play Immortals, I was not expecting much beyond a by the book open world adventure. Similar to an average Assassin’s Creed, in that respect. But Immortals is far worse off, as there is little here that hasn’t been done better elsewhere. What would otherwise be its unique qualities — a colourful world and lighthearted story — are undermined by a bland world with tiresome environmental puzzles and a grating cast of characters. For those looking for a better game in a similar mould, try Assassin’s Creed Valhalla; despite being the twenty-second release in that franchise, it is far more inventive than Immortals Fenyx Rising.
Cool Gizmos From CES 2021 That You Might See in Your Next Car – Motor Trend
The Daily Grind: Which MMO studio had the best communication in 2020?
A Top Gaming Trend For 2021 – PvP Platform That Enhances Your Gaming Experience!
[Full Guide] How to Use Shortcuts on Apple watch
HK1 RBOX R1 5G WiFi Android 10 TV Box
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Rebecca Leber/ February 17, 2016
Antonin Scalia’s Successor Could Determine the Fate of the Planet
Why it's okay to scrutinize the climate positions of the candidates on President Obama's Supreme Court short list.
Sri Srinivasan is one of the names being floated to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Antonin Scalia. But the aspects of Srinivasan’s record that make him a favorite to eke out an improbable confirmation from the GOP-controlled Senate are precisely those that are considered flaws by progressives.
Before his appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2013—confirmed 97-0 by the Senate—Srinivasan built a career at a firm that defended ExxonMobil and the mining company Rio Tinto from allegations of human rights abuses in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. This is why Jamie Henn, co-founder of the climate group 350.org, is already describing Srinivasan’s record as “mixed” and referring to the defense of ExxonMobil as “deeply disturbing,” according to Politico.
It may seem like an academic exercise to preemptively criticize Srinivasan, since the chances of him being confirmed, at this point, appear close to zero. But Obama’s short list deserves scrutiny, since one person on that list may eventually be confirmed, if not under Obama, then under a Democratic successor. Climate activists, in particular, will be watching closely. For better or worse, the next Supreme Court has the power to alter the fate of the world.
As long as Congress remains divided, it will be the Supreme Court that defines the limits of what the Environmental Protection Agency can do to combat climate change for years to come. To understand how important the Supreme Court is to shaping the U.S.’s climate change policy, it helps to look back. The EPA’s powers to fight climate change have been mostly defined, even bolstered, by a number of key cases.
The Clean Air Act, passed by Congress in 1970 and strengthened in 1990 when the climate denial movement was nascent, forms the basis of President Barack Obama’s response to climate change. But the act did not include greenhouse gases on the list of pollutants the EPA was compelled to regulate. Over the years, the court has empowered the agency to regulate such pollutants, through the way it has interpreted the Clean Air Act and the EPA’s authorities (Scalia, it’s worth noting, was often antagonistic toward the EPA).
The landmark 1984 case Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council gave federal agencies a wide latitude to reasonably interpret statutes that were left vague by Congress. That precedent has long worked in the EPA’s favor—and its track record of winning a majority of court challenges since 2010 proves it. When President George W. Bush was still in office, the court decided for the first time in Massachusetts v. EPA that greenhouse gases qualify as an “air pollutant” under the act, if the EPA found it was a danger to public health. That decision was reinforced in 2011, when the court in American Electric Power v. Connecticut upheld a similar power for the EPA to regulate carbon pollution from new power plants. Obama would not have had the legal power to issue sweeping carbon pollution regulations for cars and power plants if the Supreme Court had decided differently.
The Court’s steps in the next few years could arguably be even more critical, and we got a frightening reminder last week, just days before Scalia’s death, that decisions could also swing the other way. The Court on a 5-4 vote issued an order last Tuesday to halt the EPA’s plan to curb carbon pollution from power plants, in what was the earliest stay of a federal regulation in the history of the Court. It was a worrying sign that a majority of the Court was preparing to eventually strike it down. If the EPA’s plan is thrown out, then a hard-won international climate change agreement reached in Paris last December could quickly go with it. After all, if the Supreme Court undercuts the centerpiece of the U.S.’s promise to tackle climate change, then U.S. allies have little incentive to follow through with their own pledges.
Scalia’s death, of course, robs the current Court of a conservative vote, which gives the EPA the advantage in this particular dispute. But that also means his replacement could be the deciding vote to protect the limited federal progress we’ve seen on climate change.
The next justice will be critical in determining the fate of Obama’s climate plan. Beyond that, the next justice will help the Court decide how far the next president can go it alone on climate change.
Experts think the Clean Air Act has more room in it to tackle pollution beyond power plants, indeed across the entire economy, but whether the Supreme Court will agree is another question. According to a report by legal experts at Columbia, New York University, and University of California, Los Angeles, there is an unused “International Air Pollution” provision in Section 115 of the Clean Air Act. This could mean a revolutionary approach to regulating pollution:
The language of Section 115 does not limit the agency to regulating a particular source-type, or a given industrial or economic sector. Rather, it grants EPA and the states broad latitude to address international air pollution comprehensively through the Clean Air Act’s State Implementation Plan process, increasing administrative efficiency and reducing burdens on regulated companies. EPA and the states could use the provision to establish an economy-wide, market-based approach for reducing [greenhouse gas] emissions.
The Paris deal may have opened the door to this interpretation, these experts argue, because Section 115 states the EPA or the secretary of state can act on air pollution that “may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare in a foreign country.”
While the occupant of the Oval Office is of immense importance to climate change, the effectiveness of the president partly resides in the person he or she will appoint to the Supreme Court. Scalia’s replacement will help determine the Clean Power Plan’s legacy, and could dramatically redefine how the U.S. responds to climate change. A little extra scrutiny of Obama’s favored candidates wouldn’t hurt.
Rebecca Leber @rebleber
Rebecca Leber is a reporter at Mother Jones.
Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia, Climate, Climate Change
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Why Australians need to get off the couch
Darren Walton
Former Wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock says “enough’s enough” and something must be done to arrest the alarming decline of Australian sport.
Mortlock is not just talking rugby – and he’s not alone with his concerns.
The new year marks the 20th anniversary of arguably Australia’s greatest year in sport, when the Wallabies won the Rugby World Cup, our cricketers also won the World Cup and rode a record 16-Test winning streak and Australia were Davis Cup tennis champions for a 28th time.
Australia’s Olympians, backed by seemingly endless funding, were preparing for the country’s most successful Games ever in Sydney.
In that golden year of 1999, Australia were also netball world champions, Tri Nations rugby league winners, the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos both won the Champions Trophy and Mark Occhilupo and Layne Beachley were the men’s and women’s surfing world champions.
Australia was indeed the envy of the sporting world, a country of less than 20 million people punching above its weight with athletic heroes everywhere you looked.
Two decades on and the beleaguered national cricket team has won just one of its past nine one-day internationals and the Wallabies can barely beat an egg.
Samantha Stosur has been the country’s only grand slam singles champion in 15 years and Australia’s men’s tennis stars are no longer even in the Davis Cup World Group.
From the peak of 58 medals amassed at the 2000 Olympics, Australia’s overall tally has steadily declined to the point that we brought home just 29 – precisely half – from Rio two years ago.
The eight gold accrued in London in 2008 – again exactly half the amount from Sydney – was considered a blip.
In reality, sports chiefs and the government should have seen the crash coming.
Like squash centres a generation ago, tennis courts across the country have been wiped out, or left to grow weeds instead of producing champions.
Greedy councils have discouraged exercise, let alone promoted sports participation, by sending in over-zealous rangers to book motorists for having the nerve to park near recreational facilities.
Play stations, I-pads and other demon screens have turned children into zombies and adults into couch potatoes.
It’s easier to order home delivery than walk 150 metres to pick up your takeaway these sad days.
Australia has become one of the most obese countries in the world, reducing our “Bronzed Aussie” image to a myth and prompting Sport Australia’s “Move it or Lose it” campaign in a bid to shake the 80 per cent of inactive Australian children and 50 per cent of inactive adults into action.
It’s not all doom and gloom, with Australia still boasting a sprinkling of world beaters, enjoying a revolution in women’s sport and finishing 10th on the 2016 Olympic medal table.
But that’s still down from fourth in Sydney and Athens and the country’s worst showing since 1992.
There is no escaping the inconvenient truth: Australia is a fading force in international sports performance.
Sporting bodies – and elite athletes – have been begging for more money for years, with government funding to Australia’s Olympic sports dropping 20 per cent since 2008.
While the AOC has called for an extra $60 million in funding for Olympic endeavours, the AIS in November announced a new model that freezes funding levels for some sports and drops financial support altogether for others.
“It’s very difficult to plan and produce high performance in this environment,” said AOC chief executive Matt Carroll.
“There is simply not enough money in the system.”
Mortlock agrees.
“I was very lucky to come through at a time when I did. Got access to the AIS when the AIS was world leading,” he told AAP.
“You look at England prior to them hosting the Olympics and how much resources – aka time and money – they invested in all sports and they were very successful over that period of time.
“There’s a lot of other things that go into having quality outcomes across all sports.
“You look at the landscape of most sports now and a lot of the good coaches aren’t actually in Australia.”
No, they aren’t.
In cricket, Jason Gillespie, Michael Di Venuto and Stuart Law will coach English county teams in 2019 as Trevor Bayliss again plots Australia’s Ashes downfall as England coach.
After qualifying the Socceroos for the 2018 World Cup, Ange Postecoglou walked and wound up working in the J-League.
Tennis super-coach Darren Cahill has spent years in the US winning slams with Andre Agassi and taking Romanian Simona Halep to the top of the women’s game.
Golf superstar Jordan Spieth credits Victorian Cameron McCormick for much of his success, while heavyweights Eddie Jones, David Nucifora, Andy Friend and Scott Johnson all left the Australian rugby ranks to coach enemy outfits as the Wallabies wallow in their lowest ever world ranking.
The list goes on. Name a sport and you can generally find an Aussie coaching in or for another country.
The bottom line is Australia no longer is prepared to pump the resources into sport – and the results are damning.
In November, Prime Minister Scott Morrison refused to address calls to reverse the funding crisis even after almost 200 current and retired Olympians including Cathy Freeman, Dawn Fraser and Herb Elliott signed a petition demanding a meeting.
“The more effort and resources you put into something – be it our sport or a system – the better the outcome will be eventually,” Mortlock said.
“That’s just been a bit of a state for our country for a period of time and sometimes it takes enough’s enough.
“Back to my sport – rugby – and I’d argue that enough’s enough and the ‘oh Jesus’ moment should have happened many years ago.
“And you could probably say that across all sports if you want to stop that negative spiral.”
Categories: Entertainment, Lifestyle, Sport
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Microsoft Welcomes Decision by the Japan Fair Trade Commission
REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 19, 1998 — Microsoft Corp. today welcomed the decision by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) to close its investigation of the company and to reject allegations relating to Web browsing technology that are being pursued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the United States.
After a twelve-month investigation involving a review of more than 250,000 pages of documents, the Japanese antitrust agency has decided not to pursue allegations relating to Microsoft’s competition with Netscape Computer Corp. or Microsoft’s contracts with Internet service providers (ISPs), both of which are central to the current DOJ antitrust trial in Washington, D.C. The agency issued a warning with respect to older Microsoft contracts with ISPs that have now been superceded, but expressed no concerns whatsoever with respect to the company’s current ISP contracts.
“This ruling represents a significant legal victory for Microsoft in Japan,”
said Masaru Kitamura, a lawyer and former Japanese Foreign Ministry official who represented the JFTC in its dispute with the United States before the World Trade Organization concerning practices in the film market.
“A warning simply means that the JFTC started an investigation with suspicion about an allegation, but found no substantial evidence of improper conduct. After an extensive investigation, the JFTC has concluded there is no credible evidence that Microsoft is engaging in any anti-competitive practices with respect to browsers.”
“We are gratified that, after careful review under competition laws that are much stricter than those in the United States, the Japanese government has closed the investigation of allegations that are being pursued by the DOJ in Washington, D.C.,”
said Brad Smith, general counsel, international at Microsoft.
This case has shown that Microsoft’s products and practices benefit consumers, and the proper role of antitrust law is to focus on consumers, not the narrow interests of a few competitors.
“It’s certainly ironic that the Japanese government has dropped all of the browser allegations, but our own government is continuing its attack on one of America’s leading exporters,”
Smith said.
“This decision is further evidence that the DOJ’s attacks against Microsoft are fundamentally misguided.”
The JFTC reviewed and will not pursue allegations that have been advanced by Netscape in the DOJ’s antitrust trial that Microsoft took improper action to discourage computer manufacturers from installing Netscape Navigator. The JFTC informed Microsoft that it had determined that Microsoft’s practices
“cannot be immediately found to have tended to impede fair competition in Japan’s distribution market for Web browsers.”
The agency pointed, in particular, to the fact that browsing software is easily distributed to consumers in many different ways, a key point that Microsoft has advanced in federal court in Washington.
“Although Netscape has been lobbying governments around the world for over three years to adopt this claim, the result in this case shows, once again, that the allegation is without merit,”
The JFTC also rejected the DOJ’s allegation that the company’s current contracts with Internet service providers are unlawful. The JFTC raised no concerns with respect to Microsoft’s current contracts with ISPs, which are identical to the contracts that are the subject of the DOJ’s trial in Washington. Even with respect to Microsoft’s older ISP contracts, the JFTC concluded that there was no basis to take any legal action against the company.
The JFTC recommended that Microsoft continue to make Microsoft® Excel available on a standalone basis for preinstallation by PC manufacturers in Japan. Microsoft announced that it will do so, thereby resolving all issues raised by the JFTC in the case first opened last year and bringing the case to a close. In recent years the company has marketed in Japan an increasingly popular bundle of Microsoft Word and Excel, in competition with a similar bundle of word-processing, spreadsheet and other software distributed by a leading Japanese software publisher, JUSTSYSTEM Corp.
“Earlier this year, after the JFTC first raised these issues, we changed our internal ordering procedures to make it even easier for Japanese computer manufacturers to obtain Excel on a standalone basis from us if they want,”
“To date, only one Japanese PC company has contacted us and, after it assessed market interest, concluded that there was no consumer demand for the product and therefore decided not to offer it. Nonetheless, we will continue to make it easy for PC manufacturers to order this product if they want, and we’re gratified that, with this step, we’re able to bring this case to a close.”
Although the JFTC objected to Microsoft’s product, it is taking no action with respect to the company’s leading Japanese competitor, even though its product configuration is virtually identical.
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and
personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
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Retro rules in 8-bit remix and interactive experience for ‘Go!’ from French electro-pop band M83
By Deborah Bach 7 February, 2017
When the idea arose to remix a song by French electro-pop band M83 and create an interactive experience to go along with it, one approach quickly became the obvious choice.
M83’s frontman, Anthony Gonzalez, has been an avid gamer since he was a child, with an enduring fondness for retro video games. So Microsoft collaborated with Gonzalez to create an 8-bit remix of the band’s song “Go!,” then engaged a team of developers to build an accompanying web-based car chase game.
“As we were thinking about how to remix this track, we knew that Anthony was very much inspired by retro video games and thought that would be a fun way to go about it,” says Steve Milton, co-founder of New York City-based agency Listen and the creative lead on the project.
“Once we went the 8-bit route, it only made sense to develop a game to bring that to life.”
The result, titled “Meet Me at Go!” takes fans on a chase through a retro-futuristic cityscape as two cars dodge obstacles and collect objects in pursuit of a lost love. As the game starts, lyrics from the song move across the screen (“I loved, I fell, I ran away,”), then the cars are off on a chase through dark streets flanked with skyscrapers, into a tunnel strewn with hazards and along an open roadway lined with fuchsia palm trees and pyramids under a starry sky.
The game and remix draw from the 8-bit aesthetic popularized by early video games — characterized by simple images with straight lines and bold colors and an unadorned, unfiltered sound. The game was built with the Unity game-development platform, then exported to Universal Windows Platform. It’s optimized for touch-screen computers like Microsoft Surface and is available on the Windows Store and across desktop browsers, with a video and other bonus content available through Microsoft Edge.
The collaboration is part of Microsoft’s Music x Technology initiative, launched in 2015 with the goal of using the company’s technology to present music in new and innovative ways. Projects to date have involved a virtual reality experience of a live performance, interactive music installations and integrating an artist’s fitness-tracker data into real-time visuals. For the “Meet Me at Go!” project, Microsoft wanted to create an interactive experience available to fans worldwide, says Amy Sorokas, director of Brand Studios for Microsoft.
“We wanted to make this truly accessible for people,” Sorokas says. “M83’s fans are all around the world and will be accessing this song and this game through different kinds of technology, so we wanted to make sure we brought a web experience to life that would allow people to play the game in various ways.”
Game developers Connor Bell, left, Mason Palos and J.K. during a work session
“Go!” is the third release from M83’s seventh studio album, “Junk,” and the 8-bit version is available on the “Go! Remixes” EP available through Mute. The remix was created by using software to emulate the pared-down sound of old-school video games like “Donkey Kong” and “Super Mario Bros.”
Each sound on the original track was recreated with an 8-bit representation, then effects were layered over to blend with the vocals. A team of developers then built the game to match the remix, with the cars traveling more slowly during verses and speeding up for the more energetic chorus.
“We wanted to marry the graphics to the sound of the remix but keep it a little more modern and 3-D,” says Kurt Feldman, a sound and audio designer for Listen who worked with Gonzalez to make the remix. “So it has that 8-bit feel, but it’s also a little more updated.”
Connor Bell, the lead developer on the project, says the game’s look and colors draw from seminal cyberpunk films of the ‘80s and ‘90s such as “Robocop” and “Total Recall.”
“We created the aesthetic with a color palette to match those defined in pioneering cyberpunk films,” he says. “The models and the environments, like cityspaces, purple palm trees and abstract tetrahedrons, all represent aspects of a cyberpunk environment, in my mind.”
As bands such as M83 seek to engage audiences in new ways, gaming offers a creative space to explore new approaches, Sorokas says.
“We are not the first to integrate a game with a song, but we’re trying to take that idea a little further and extend the story in the song into the game and have fans feel part of the experience as they’re playing and listening,” she says. “We’re always trying to push a bit further with technology.”
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Campaign kick off event celebrates ideas, inspires gifts
Campaign kick-off event celebrates ideas, inspires gifts
Sarah H. Wright
Email: shwright@mit.edu
The MIT faculty presented research, ideas and demonstrations in a day-long event on Saturday to celebrate the launch of MIT's $1.5 billion campaign.
The campaign theme, "Calculated Risks, Creative Revolutions," also served as the theme for the presentations. The day culminated in a black-tie gala in Rockwell Cage and a spontaneous gift of $100 million to the Institute by alumnus and former faculty member, Kenan Sahin.
Mr. Sahin, who announced his gift at the dinner, characterized the series of presentations as a "wonderful day. MIT showed its intellectual prowess, deep thinking and caring."
MIT President Charles M. Vest opened "Calculated Risks, Creative Revolutions" by saying: "The world needs a new kind of leadership that we may be uniquely poised to provide. We have a distinctive culture, extraordinary faculty and students, the power to bring people and ideas and organizations together, and the ability, imagination and courage to take on the big challenges.
"The result? MIT and its graduates are a driving force for insight and innovation in fields ranging from mathematics to manufacturing, from medicine to music, from economics to architecture, from high technology to high finance. We never rest," he said.
"Calculated Risks, Creative Revolutions" was comprised of presentations by distinguished MIT faculty including, among others, Nobel prize winners Mario Molina, Phillip Sharp and Samuel Ting. The morning's keynote speech by Professor Ting was followed by two major panel discussions and concurrent sessions on topics ranging from the biological revolution to a Balinese Gamelan Workshop to the Bionic Person.
Concurrent session titles included, "A View of the Future of Our World," "The Oxygen System: Doing More by Doing Less," "Theater: What is It Doing at MIT?," "Tag Team Techies: Collective Crew Creation" and "Will the Digital Age make the Campus Obsolete?"
Professor Ting's speech, "In Search of the Origins of the Universe," summarized research resulting from collaboration among 200 scientists and 12 nations aboard the international space station. Professor Ting, who leads the collaborative effort, raised questions such as, where are the antistars and antigalaxies that prove the existence of antimatter? And, what is the universe made of?
The day's first panel, "Will the 21st Century Be Free of Major Economic Crises?" was moderated by Olivier Blanchard, Class of 1941 Professor of Economics and head of the Department of Economics. Panelists were Stanley Fischer, First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF; Paul Krugman, Ford International Professor of Economics; and Stephen Ross, the Franco Modigliani Professor of Finance and Economics. They addressed the impact of global financial and economic integration on markets, the ripple effects of crises such as the one in Asia, and whether to strengthen the IMF.
The day's final panel, moderated by Professor William Mitchell, dean of the School of Architecture and Planning and architectural advisor to President Vest, flowed easily from the afternoon panel on the 21st century. "What Is the Future of the MIT Campus?" featured comments by Laurie Olin, award-winning landscape architect, and Frank O. Gehry, the world-renowned architect who is currently designing the new Ray and Maria Stata Center.
Mr. Gehry's model for the Center, on view in the Stratton Student Center, attracted a steady stream of visitors. The Stata Center, named in honor of Ray and Maria Stata, is comprised of a complex of buildings for the computer, information and intelligence sciences. Ray Stata of the Class of 1957 is chair of MIT's Campaign. One of the buildings will be named in honor of Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr., in recognition of his generous support, and will house the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy and some portions of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Another building, to house the Laboratory for Computer Science, is to be named for William H. Gates in recognition of the generous support of the Gates Foundation toward its construction.
The concurrent presentations of faculty research kept "Calculated Risks, Creative Revolutions" moving at a brisk intellectual pace.
Mr. Sahin attended some of the concurrent sessions at the event before proceeding to the dinner at which he announced his generous gift.
He especially noted "How the Mind Works," with Professor Steven Pinker, associate professors Nancy Kanwisher and Earl Miller and assistant professor Elly Nedivi, all of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and "Towards Tricorders and the Bionic Person," with Professor Rodney Brooks, director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; Ian Hunter, professor of mechanical engineering; Gill Pratt, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science; and John Wyatt Jr., professor of electrical engineering and computer science.
Alumnus Sahin makes gift
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Northrop Grumman's New Town, N.D., Manufacturing Center Earns Significant U.S. Department of Labor Health and Safety Designation
Facility Joins Elite Group Providing Employees 'Exemplary' Protection
NEW TOWN, N.D., Oct. 3, 2012 -- Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) New Town, N.D., manufacturing center has earned a coveted U.S. Department of Labor designation honoring the facility's exemplary health and safety practices and record.
In a ceremony at the facility today, dignitaries representing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recognized Northrop Grumman's participation in the Merit Voluntary Protection Program (VPP), placing the site among an elite group of organizations providing exemplary occupational safety and health protection and serving as models for others.
"Northrop Grumman's qualification for OSHA's premier recognition program is a testament to the efforts you and your employees have made to develop and implement VPP quality safety and health management program," said David Michaels, assistant secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, U.S. Department of Labor, in notifying the company of the honor. "OSHA has learned that this approach to worker protection can save lives, reduce injuries and illnesses, and promote cooperation and communication in the workplace."
OSHA's voluntary protection programs recognize employers and workers in private industry and federal agencies who have implemented effective safety and health management systems, and maintain injury and illness rates below national Bureau of Labor Statistics averages for their respective industries.
"Northrop Grumman has been part of New Town and Mountrail County for more than 40 years, and in that time we've worked hard to create an environment where our employees feel safe and valued," said Bryan Fluhrer, site manager of the New Town manufacturing center. "We are grateful that the culture of safety we've established here has earned OSHA's recognition. This honor validates what we do and who we are, every day, and reinforces the fact that Northrop Grumman rises above the standard others may not even reach."
Located on the Fort Berthold Reservation, Northrop Grumman's New Town facility began operation in 1970 and is one of the largest employers in Mountrail County, N.D. Its 125 employees produce radio frequency and fiber-optic cables, and wire harnesses essential to key Northrop Grumman aircraft programs.
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“Da iawn” for schools in Welsh language awards
An award ceremony was held at Linden House, Mold, on Monday to celebrate the successes of two Welsh-medium primary schools in Flintshire and Wrexham in Siarter Iaith (Language Charter) – a set of goals set out by the Welsh Government aimed at encouraging more social use of Welsh among young people.
Both of the schools involved have taken part in a number of activities to get pupils using the Welsh language more frequently during the past year, with a focus on the use of the language in less formal situations.
The schools awarded on the day were Ysgol Gwenffrwd, Holywell and Ysgol Bro Alun, Gwersyllt.
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Ysgol Gwenffrwd received the gold award which shows the effect of the charter on the school and local community.
Ysgol Bro Alun received the silver award which reflects the implementation stage of the charter. The school will be continuing on its journey towards the gold award this year.
As well as working with parents and their neighbouring communities, the schools involved have also worked with other schools in their counties in order to promote the aims of Siarter Iaith and increase use of the Welsh language among pupils.
Cllr Phil Wynn, Lead Member for Education at Wrexham Council, said: “Congratulations to all those schools involved – their efforts have been very impressive and I’m glad to see them all being commended for their efforts.
“Welsh medium education is incredibly important, and it’s good to note that the participating schools are being recognised in this way for all the work they’ve put in to ensure children are encouraged to speak Welsh not just in school, but outside of the school setting as well.”
Cllr Ian Roberts, Flintshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Education and Youth, said: “Flintshire has a strong commitment to the Welsh language and we want to increase the number of Welsh speakers within our county.
“We support people of all ages to improve their Welsh language skills and to give them the confidence to use the language in their daily lives – at work, at home, at school and in their communities.
“Congratulations to all schools in achieving the Siarter Iaith awards.”
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Transportation Funding Bills Advance in North Carolina, Texas & Georgia
March 16, 2015 | State Spotlight
A bill to lower the amount of a scheduled state gas tax decrease passed the North Carolina House with amendments March 5 with a vote of 72-42. The state gas tax reduction, scheduled due to the terms of the state’s variable-rate gas tax component which ties the tax to the price of wholesale gasoline, would have likely dropped the amount collected by the tax to below 30 cents-per-gallon. Senate Bill 20 as passed by the House would decrease the tax by only 1.5 cents-per-gallon and remain at 36 cents-per-gallon amount for the remainder of the year.
SB 20 passed the Senate Feb. 12 with a vote of 35-15. The version passed by the Senate included a 2.5 cents-per-gallon decrease, and a new permanent floor to prevent the tax from ever collecting less than 35 cents-per-gallon or 9.9 percent of the average price of fuel, whichever is greater.
SB 20 now goes back to the Senate for legislators to review the House amendments.
Meanwhile, the Texas Senate March 4 voted 28-2 to approve legislation, which would dedicate a portion of the state’s motor vehicle sales tax revenue to the transportation fund. Under Sen. Robert Nichols’ (R-Jacksonville) plan, the first $2.5 billion generated from this tax would continue to be deposited into the General Fund. The next $2.5 billion would go towards funding roads. Any amount generated by the motor vehicle sales tax over $5 billion would be split between the transportation fund, school fund and general fund. The plan now goes to the House for review, and, if passed by the legislature, would be put before voters for approval.
Georgia: Update on House Bill 170
Georgia’s House Bill 170 was approved by the House March 5 with a vote of 123-46. The bill would replace the state’s existing four percent sales tax on gasoline with a 21.7 cents-per-gallon state gas tax increase, and index the newly increased flat excise tax to both the Corporate Average Fuel Economy and the Consumer Price Index. The bill would also provide a large bond package for transportation, increase vehicle registration fees, and create an infrastructure bank. HB 170 will now move on to the Senate for consideration.
Transportation Investment Advocacy Center staff is currently tracking 26 states and over 90 bills pending legislative action, with more anticipated as the year progresses. The State Transportation Funding Initiatives Report is updated on a monthly basis to reflect the most comprehensive information. View the most current report.
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Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman will attend G20 summit in Buenos Aires
Tuesday, November 20th 2018 – 06:13 UTC
Saudi media outlets quoted Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih as saying that the crown prince’s stop in Argentina will be part of a foreign tour
World leaders, many expected at the summit, strongly condemned Khashoggi’s slaying and urged Saudi Arabia to hold everyone involved accountable
U.S. intelligence has concluded that the crown prince personally ordered the killing; experts say such an operation is unlikely to have occurred without his knowledge
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will attend the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires later this month, Saudi media reported Monday, potentially bringing him face-to-face with world leaders from the United States, Turkey, Canada and European countries for the first time since the slaying of Jamal Khashoggi.
The journalist was killed Oct. 2 in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.
The two-day summit begins Nov. 30. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has kept international pressure mounting on the kingdom, is expected to attend.
Saudi media outlets, including Al Arabiya, quoted Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih as saying that the crown prince’s stop in Argentina will be part of a foreign tour, but no further details were immediately released.
World leaders, many of whom are expected at the G20 summit, have strongly condemned Khashoggi’s slaying and have urged Saudi Arabia to hold everyone involved in the killing accountable.
U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that the crown prince personally ordered the killing, and experts say such an operation is unlikely to have occurred without the knowledge of the crown prince, who controls all major levers of power in the kingdom.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said his administration will get a very full report, including who was responsible for Khashoggi’s death, today or tomorrow. Trump has criticized the Saudi response to the killing, but has been reluctant to say definitively if he thinks the crown prince ordered it.
Saudi authorities, who have offered a series of conflicting accounts since Khashoggi first went missing, deny the crown prince was involved in the killing. Saudi investigators say a 15-man team sent to Istanbul exceeded their authority when the lead negotiator decided to kill Khashoggi for refusing orders to return to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi prosecutors said last week they’re seeking the death penalty against five men suspected of killing Khashoggi, who had written critically of the crown prince in columns for the Washington Post.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia say that after the agents killed Khashoggi, they then dismembered his body, which has not been found.
On Monday, the crown prince’s father King Salman gave his first major speech since Khashoggi’s death, expressing support for his son, but making no mention of allegations that the young royal ordered the killing.
The annual policy speech by the king instead highlighted Saudi Arabia’s priorities for the coming year, focusing on issues such as the war in Yemen, security for Palestinians, stability in the oil market, countering rival Iran and job creation for Saudis.
The king’s speech made no reference to that, but he did commend Saudi Arabia’s judiciary and public prosecution for their work in seeking justice in accordance with Islamic law. He said the kingdom takes pride in the blessed efforts of the judiciary and public prosecution, adding that Saudi Arabia affirms its commitment to the application of Islamic law.
Also on Monday, Germany banned 18 Saudis suspected of involvement in the Khashoggi killing from much of Europe and moved to halt all arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Mexican president elect will hold a national consultation on ten key policy proposals
G20 summit in Buenos Aires City: Security minister suggests residents leave the city over the long weekend
Carlos Vives Tells the Story of His Musical Roots Through New Album, Cumbiana
Street Closures In, Cafe Umbrellas Out for Miami Beach Restaurants?
After Coronavirus, Livestreamed Music Shows Might Be Here to Stay
March 31, 2020 miami news
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Home Local Santa Maria nurse places second on “Jeopardy!”
Santa Maria nurse places second on “Jeopardy!”
by Annelise Hanshaw November 25, 2020 0 comment
Emily Brogren, a registered nurse from Santa Maria, was a contestant on Nov. 19’s episode of “Jeopardy!”
Emily Brogren, a registered nurse from Santa Maria, competed on Thursday night’s episode of “Jeopardy!” and placed second.
Andy Wood, the reigning winner, placed first again. His total going into the Final Jeopardy was $19,000, and Ms. Brogren’s was $13,600.
She had 15 correct answers and one incorrect.
The episode was filmed prior to the death of iconic “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek. He hosted the show for 37 years, since its debut on syndicated television.
Mr. Trebek died Nov. 8 after a battle with Stage Four pancreatic cancer. The last episode he hosted will air Dec. 25.
“Jeopardy!” announced the show’s first interim host Monday: Ken Jennings. He won $4,522,700 over the course of 75 games (which means he won 74 games consecutively), four tournaments and a challenge.
During Jeopardy’s IBM Challenge in 2011, he beat Brad Rutter but lost to a computer named Watson.
There was a recent push by fans to make LeVar Burton, “Reading Rainbow” host and engineer Geordi La Forge on “Star Trek: the Next Generation.” A Change.org petition has gathered over 105,000 signatures.
Mr. Burton shared a link to the petition in a tweet saying, “Even if nothing comes from it, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all y’alls love and support!”
“Jeopardy!” has a weekly audience of 24 million viewers and is the top-rated quiz show on television. It is produced by Sony Pictures Television and distributed by CBS.
It holds the Guinness World Record for receiving the most Emmy Awards presented to a TV game show, and it was honored with a Peabody Award for “celebrating and rewarding knowledge.”
For more information, visit Jeopardy.com.
email: ahanshaw@newspress.com
Annelise Hanshaw
Community Health Centers of the Central Coast awarded
Amberger stepped up to the head of the class for San Marcos water polo
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Landmarks Gives Go-Ahead for New Two-Unit House at 39 South Elliott Place, Fort Greene
8:00 am on August 11, 2016 By Evan Bindelglass
A new two-unit house is on its way to a vacant Brooklyn lot. On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the proposal to build such a structure at 39 South Elliott Place. That’s in the Fort Greene Historic District.
Permits Filed for Flushing School at 45-57 Union Street
7:30 am on August 11, 2016 By Rebecca Baird-Remba
As the Asian and Latino immigrant communities in Flushing grow, the sprawling neighborhood needs more schools and daycares to accommodate thousands of families with young children. The city has started to recognize that and filed plans for a new building on the current campus of P.S. 24 Andrew Jackson School, in East Flushing.
New Rendering Revealed of Two-Building Office Complex Planned at 270 Richards Street, Red Hook
An overhead rendering has been revealed of the planned two-building, four-story (plus penthouse) office complex, dubbed Red Hoek Point and located at 270 Richards Street, the former site of the Revere Sugar Refinery in Red Hook. The rendering, published by Curbed NY, shows off the project’s outdoor spaces, which will include a central plaza, waterfront esplanade, and landscaped rooftop terraces. YIMBY reported on the project’s new building applications in June. The filings described an office complex encompassing 1,135,610 square feet, of which 645,103 square feet will be commercial space for offices and retail. Thor Equities, the developer, is planning a 1,112-car parking garage in the cellar, although a variance must first be obtained to build it. Ground-floor retail and restaurant space will measure 23,000 square feet. Sir Norman Foster’s London-based Foster + Partners is the design architect, while Adamson Associates Architects is serving as the executive architect. Groundbreaking is expected this fall.
Financing Secured for 50-Story, 539-Unit Residential Tower at 90 Christopher Columbus Drive, Jersey City
Ironstate Development and Panepinto Properties have landed $155.83 million in construction financing for their planned 50-story, 539-unit residential tower at 90 Christopher Columbus Drive (dubbed 90 Columbus), in downtown Jersey City. The tower will host rental apartments ranging from studio to three-bedroom configurations, averaging 789 square feet apiece, Real Estate Weekly reported. Amenities will include a swimming pool, children’s play areas, sports and entertainment rooms, residential lounges, and a library. The tower is the last phase of a multi-building complex, which includes the recently completed 50-story residential tower 70 Columbus and the 12-story, 152-key Marriott Residence Inn at 80 Columbus. Gwathmey, Siegel, Kaufman and Associates is behind the architecture. Foundation work is currently underway and completion is expected in 2018.
Partial Medical Office Conversion Planned at Two-Story, 57,000-Square-Foot Property, 99-01 Queens Boulevard, Rego Park
The Blumenfeld Development Group has purchased, for $31.2 million, the two-story, 56,916-square-foot mixed-use commercial building at 99-01 Queens Boulevard, in Rego Park, from Vornado Realty. The new owner plans to convert the property’s vacant portions into a medical facility for Mount Sinai Hospital, according to Real Estate Weekly. The hospital has already signed a lease with Blumenfeld. The property currently features retail space on the ground and cellar levels, followed by commercial-office space on the second floor. Existing tenants, which will remain in the building, include Bank of America, New York Sports Club, and DeVry College of New York. Completion of the conversion is expected in early 2017.
New Renderings Show Latest Revisions to BIG-Designed 76 11th Avenue
4:00 pm on August 10, 2016 By Nikolai Fedak
While the far West Side has its fair share of mega-projects, the scale of development in lower West Chelsea and the Meatpacking District is generally more subdued. The one major exception to that rule is at 76 11th Avenue, where a development team led by HFZ has an assemblage with 800,000 square feet of air rights, with plans by Bjarke Ingels Group previously revealed by YIMBY last year. Now, thanks to a tipster, we have a fresh set of images showing the fine-tuning occurring across several aspects of the design, including the retail podium and crown.
Excavation Underway for Seven-Story Apartment Building at 70-09 45th Avenue, Elmhurst
A string of mid-rise developments is transforming a long-neglected stretch of Queens Boulevard at the border of Elmhurst, Woodside, and Maspeth. One of the dozen-odd projects rising there is the apartment building at 70-09 45th Avenue, where excavation is currently underway. The seven-story structure will stand on a roughly 7,850-square-foot, mid-block lot, facing the irregular intersection where 45th Avenue meets Queens Boulevard at an acute angle. Permits place the height of the future building at 73 feet. Its 30 residences will be spread across 24,299 square feet, giving an average of 810 square feet per unit. The ground floor will feature 5,12 square feet of retail. The project is being developed by Choi Yui Chan, designed by Angelo Ng & Anthony Ng of Architects Studio PC, and built by First Class Management Contracting Corp.
New Developer Acquires Site of Planned 18-Story, 41-Unit Residential Project, 134 West 58th Street, Midtown
2:00 pm on August 10, 2016 By Reid Wilson
S.W. Management has acquired, for $61.5 million, the 15-story, 121-unit residential building at 134 West 58th Street, in Midtown, Commercial Observer reported. The developer purchased the property from Extell Development, who previously filed applications at the site for a new 18-story, 41-unit residential building, as YIMBY reported late last year. It’s not known if the new owner will follow through with those plans. Building permits were granted in April to develop a 60,324-square-foot project. The residential units would have averaged 1,283 square feet apiece and amenities would have included storage for 21 bikes, private residential storage, a ‘recreation room” on the ground floor, and a rooftop recreational area. Issac & Stern Architects was the architect of record. Demolition permits haven’t been filed for the existing apartment building.
Six-Story, Five-Unit Mixed-Use Building Planned at 888 Lorimer Street, Greenpoint
Property owner Philipp Haemmerle, doing business as an anonymous Financial District-based LLC, has filed applications for a six-story, five-unit mixed-use building at 888 Lorimer Street, in southern Greenpoint. The project will measure 12,488 square feet. It will contain 776 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, followed by full-floor residential units above. The top floor unit will feature space on an upper mezzanine level, as well as a roof deck. Across the building, the units should average 1,541 square feet apiece, indicative of condominiums. The ground floor will also contain space for a single automobile. Sanford M. Berger’s Great Neck, N.Y.-based S.M. Berger Architecture is the architect of record. The 25-foot-wide, 3,900-square-foot property is currently vacant. The Nassau Avenue stop on the G train is around the corner.
Five-Story, 40,000-Square-Foot Yeshiva Filed at 30 Village Road North, Gravesend
11:00 am on August 10, 2016 By Reid Wilson
Yeshiva Lev Torah, a K-8 school, has filed applications for a five-story, 39,830-square-foot facility at 30 Village Road North, in the heart of Gravesend. The new 75-foot-tall structure will contain a lobby, administrative offices, and classrooms on the ground floor, a cafeteria in the cellar, classrooms and a teachers’ lounge on the second floor, classrooms on the third and fourth floors, followed by a gymnasium, a library, and a Midrash (probably a Beit Midrash, or study hall) on the fifth floor. Thomas Scibilia’s Brooklyn-based NA Design Studio is the architect of record. The Yeshiva is seeking a variance for bulk from the Board of Standards and Appeals, according to the applications. The 62-foot-wide, 11,075-square-foot assemblage consists of two two-story houses. Demolition permits haven’t been yet filed. The Avenue U stop on the F train is located around the corner.
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Semi-Revealed: 323 10th Avenue, 35-Story Chelsea Rental Tower
6:00 am on November 25, 2014 By Nikolai Fedak
A project with multiple components has been in the works for the site on the southwest side of 10th Avenue and 29th Street for several years, and with the amount of new construction nearby, redevelopment has…
Permits Filed: 39-08 29th Street, Long Island City Hotel
3:15 pm on November 24, 2014 By Stephen Smith
New York City hotel watchers have been warning of a glut since back when the New York Sun was still publishing, but so far, builders have not been deterred. The latest front in hotel construction is industrial…
YIMBY Today: 443 Greenwich Street Unveils Exterior, More
1:30 pm on November 24, 2014 By Reid Wilson
443 Greenwich Street [Curbed]: The seven-story, 200,000 square-foot former factory building at 443 Greenwich Street, in Tribeca, is being converted into 53 condo units, and the above model offers a peek at the exterior, sans scaffolding….
DOB Digest: Excavation to Begin for 28 Units at 1045 Fulton Street in Clinton Hill, More
11:30 am on November 24, 2014 By Reid Wilson
BROOKLYN: 1045 Fulton Street: Fulton Street Gardens LLC has filed applications to begin excavation for their planned six-story, 28-unit residential building of 21,048 square feet at 1045 Fulton Street, in Clinton Hill. Karl Fischer is designing,…
Revealed: 781 Metropolitan Avenue, 81 Units Coming to East Williamsburg
This past September, Gothamist reported on the razing of the White Castle at 781 Metropolitan Avenue, and back in 2013, the Brooklyn Paper covered the site’s sale for $6.72 million. Now, YIMBY has the reveal…
What Could Have Been: Harlem Renaissance Ballroom, 2351 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard
6:30 am on November 24, 2014 By Stephen Smith
Last month, YIMBY brought you the first look at a new residential building coming to Harlem, planned for the site of the famous Harlem Renaissance Ballroom, an African-American cultural icon in its heyday. Today, the Wall…
Permits Filed: 406 Prospect Place, Crown Heights
The triangle of land bounded by Grand Avenue, Washington Avenue, and Prospect Place, on the border between Prospect Heights and Crown Heights, is zoned for residential use, but you wouldn’t know that by just looking…
The New York Area Is Missing As Many As 200,000 Construction Jobs
Earlier this year, YIMBY was invited to speak on a panel at the Solving Urban Land Use Problems in the 21st Century summit, organized by the city’s three graduate planning schools. Before the panel, organizers sent…
YIMBY Today: Howard Hughes Seaport Tower Shrinks, Bronx Waterfront Potential, More
320 West Fordham Road [New York Daily]: Massey Knakal is marketing a $30 million development site at 320 West Fordham Road, in University Heights, which has one million square feet in building potential. 1508 Bushwick Avenue [Brownstoner]: Metro Industrial Realty…
DOB Digest: Six Units Coming to Vacant Lot at 323 20th Street in South Slope, More
BROOKLYN: 323 20th Street: Balanced Living Development has filed applications for a five-story, six-unit residential building of nearly 6,000 square feet at the vacant lot of 323 20th Street, in South Slope; Vikatos Architect is designing….
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Amy Grant: This Advice From a 95-Year-Old WWII Veteran Changed My Life
"Amy, I'm gonna give you five phrases, and I want you to say these phrases as often as possible to your child." 2:00PM EST 11/21/2019
Why This Painful Step Is Necessary to Reap God's Harvest for Your Life
Don't give up! 1:00PM EST 11/21/2019
Dolly Parton Shares the Prophecy That Triggered Her Faith
She also talks about her experience being raised in the Pentecostal church. 6:00PM EST 11/20/2019
3 Things You Should Know About This 'Charlie's Angels' Actress' Bold Faith
Naomi Scott, a pastor's daughter, is open about her Christian faith. Here's how. 2:00PM EST 11/20/2019
How This One Supernatural Key Can Unlock Your Food Addiction
Our plans have to go out the window for His to take over. 1:00PM EST 11/20/2019
When Your Marriage Brings Pain and Problems, Try Scripture's Surprising Solution
Hint: You can find it in Proverbs 17:22. 6:00PM EST 11/19/2019
How You Can Find the Perfect Fit for Your Soul
Fear, anxiety and doubt no longer fit a new life in Christ. 2:00PM EST 11/19/2019
3 Supernatural Ways You Can Thrive in Every Season
Just as there are different seasons climate-wise, there are different seasons in our lives. 6:00PM EST 11/18/2019
Don't Listen to This Damaging Lie
Well-meaning people will try to convince you of it too. 6:00PM EST 11/15/2019
Marilyn Hickey: God's Name and Power of the Cross Manifest to Heal, Cast Out Demons
"When we take the provision of the cross into our needs, there is healing power." 2:00PM EST 11/15/2019
How a Weed Echoed Elisabeth Elliot's Teaching on Strongholds—and More
"Action repeated becomes a habit, and a habit establishes a 'power base for the enemy,' that is, a stronghold." 1:00PM EST 11/15/2019
God Still Heals Cancer Today—And Here's Proof
Perhaps you have received a hopeless report from your doctor. What should you do? 6:00PM EST 11/14/2019
Wounded in Afghanistan, Marine Sergeant Finds Healing Through Wife's Spirit-Filled Words
Go ahead and get your tissues ready now. 2:00PM EST 11/14/2019
4 Vital Truths You Need to Know About God's Vision for Your Family
Even if you're surprised by parenthood, or even if you can't see right now how it's all going to turn out, God has a vision and a plan. 1:00PM EST 11/14/2019
Jarrid Wilson's Widow Holds First Event Since Her Husband's Suicide
"What better place to start than the last place Jarrid looked to for hope, and that's what we're gonna do." 6:00PM EST 11/13/2019
How Dolly Parton's Faith Impacted Her Latest Project
"I have a lot of faith, and that's what gets me through my life; it always has." 2:00PM EST 11/13/2019
Why Your Times of Spiritual Darkness May Be Part of God's Perfect Plan
When things are bright, we only look at and see what is right here, right now. 1:00PM EST 11/13/2019
Addicted to Food? This One Spiritual Secret Can Help
The devil didn't make you do it after all. 6:00PM EST 11/12/2019
3 Power Tips to Help You Strengthen Your Spiritual Core
Here's the thing: Whatever you're consumed with becomes your core. 2:00PM EST 11/12/2019
Telltale Signs a Spirit of Death May Be Attacking You
The spirit of death has a vicious appetite for the vulnerable and unsuspecting people of this world. 1:00PM EST 11/12/2019
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Kindle highlights)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to...
The reason why it was published in the form of a micro sub meson electronic component is that if it were printed in normal book form, an interstellar hitchhiker would require several inconveniently large buildings to carry it around in. (loc. 608-610)
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s a sort of electronic book. It tells you everything you need to know about anything. That’s its job.” (loc. 927-928)
“Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.” (loc. 1038-1040)
“Space,” it says, “is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space. (loc. 1238-1239)
Marvin regarded it with cold loathing while his logic circuits chattered with disgust and tinkered with the concept of directing physical violence against it. Further circuits cut in saying, Why bother? What’s the point? Nothing is worth getting involved in. Further circuits amused themselves by analyzing the molecular components of the door, and of the humanoids’ brain cells. For a quick encore they measured the level of hydrogen emissions in the surrounding cubic parsec of space and then shut down again in boredom. A spasm of despair shook the robot’s body as he turned. (loc. 1455-1459)
It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons. (loc. 2185-2188)
The chamber into which the aircar emerged was anything but infinite, it was just very very very big, so big that it gave the impression of infinity far better than infinity itself. (loc. 2226-2227)
“O Deep Thought computer,” he said, “the task we have designed you to perform is this. We want you to tell us …” he paused, “the Answer!” “The Answer?” said Deep Thought. “The Answer to what?” “Life!” urged Fook. “The Universe!” said Lunkwill. “Everything!” they said in chorus. (loc. 2337-2340)
“You’re really not going to like it,” observed Deep Thought. “Tell us!” “All right,” said Deep Thought. “The Answer to the Great Question …” “Yes …!” “Of Life, the Universe and Everything …” said Deep Thought. “Yes …!” “Is …” said Deep Thought, and paused. “Yes …!” “Is …” “Yes …!!! …?” “Forty-two,” said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm. (loc. 2458-2463)
Here,” he said, hoicking out a lump of evil-smelling meat from a bowl, “have some Vegan Rhino’s cutlet. It’s delicious if you happen to like that sort of thing.” (loc. 2632-2634)
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OWN Welcomes New Executive Director
SEATTLE, WA. – OneWorld Now! (OWN) today announced the appointment of Jordan Goldwarg as its new Executive Director, effective immediately.
“It’s an honor to be part of OneWorld Now!, an organization whose mission I have admired and supported for many years,” said Jordan. “I am excited and proud to be part of OWN and look forward to contributing to its lasting success in the years to come.”
“On behalf of the students we serve, OWN’s dedicated staff, and the Board of Directors, I am very pleased to welcome Jordan as our new Executive Director,” announced Herman Uscategui, OWN’s Board Chair. “His outstanding career in education, youth development, and social change will be instrumental in continuing OWN’s impact in the years to come.”
The community can learn more about Jordan in his introductory letter, included below.
“I’m thrilled to have Jordan join OneWorld Now! as my successor,” said former Executive Director Jennifer Tanaka. “His track record developing youth leadership and advancing intercultural understanding bring great value to the organization and to our students. I also love Jordan’s commitment to civic activism and am excited to see how he shares that with young people in our community.”
OneWorld Now! envisions a world where all young people have access to transformative international education. Since its inception in Seattle in 2002, OWN’s mission has been to develop the next generation of global leaders. OWN is a nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization accredited as a supplementary school by Cognia and the Northwest Accreditation Commission. OWN has served 1,800 youth directly in our yearlong program, while engaging over 3,500 youth through various program elements. Over 98% of our graduates have enrolled in college, with most being the first generation in their family to attend college.
A letter of introduction from Jordan Goldwarg, our new Executive Director:
Dear OneWorld Now! Community,
I am thrilled to be joining OneWorld Now! as Executive Director! Our mission remains as critical today as it was when OWN was founded in 2002. In an era when the United States is becoming more isolated from its international partners, and when democratic ideals of acceptance and inclusion are being challenged around the globe, we need to invest in the next generation of global leaders who can bridge divides and foster understanding.
In many ways, I feel like my life story has been a microcosm of the OWN story. Born in Montreal, I grew up in a rich, bilingual culture, switching back and forth between English and French on a daily basis. Seeing language as a key to unlocking foreign cultures — and also knowing it can be a tool for welcoming immigrants to our own country — I studied Spanish intensively in college after moving to the US, and I subsequently spent a summer working for an LGBTQ rights organization in Lima, Peru. (While I do not currently speak Arabic, Mandarin, Korean, or Russian, I look forward to learning from OWN’s wonderful teachers!)
In addition to my work in Peru, I have studied and worked abroad in South Africa, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, and I continue to feel that international travel is one of my favourite modes of learning. Also, as someone who is a white male, international travel has been essential in teaching me to recognize my privilege, listen to the lived experience of others, and center those voices in decision making.
Much of my professional career has been spent helping youth unlock the leadership potential that they innately possess. After beginning my career as a high school history teacher, I eventually became the Seattle Chapter Director of a non-profit organization that brings together Muslim, Jewish, and Christian youth from the United States and Israel/Palestine for leadership development, civic engagement, and social change projects. Over the years, as I have seen youth use their power to create change, I have become convinced that they are not just the leaders of tomorrow; they are already the leaders of today.
I look forward to working with our whole community — youth, parents, staff, board members, partners, and supporters — to continue the tradition of excellence that OWN has developed over the past 18 years. And I remain committed to OWN’s vision of equity, ensuring that students of colour and low-income students are centered in our programs and have access to the kind of life-changing experiences we offer.
Finally, I want to thank Jennifer Tanaka for her excellent stewardship of the organization during her tenure, and Sarah Standish for guiding the organization through this leadership transition as Interim Executive Director.
And I look forward to the opportunity to meet all the members of our community in the weeks to come! We have two great events coming up in April: an international trivia night at Optimism Brewing on the evening of Tuesday, April 7, and an intimate dinner at Cook | Weaver on the evening of Wednesday, April 29 (save the date for now; registration will be available soon!).
Jordan Goldwarg
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10 Similar Movies Like The Nice Guys
This is a list of movie recommendations of movies similar to The Nice Guys. Bear in mind that this list is in no particular order.
Popstar(2016)
Childhood friends Conner (Andy Samberg), Owen (Jorma Taccone) and Lawrence (Akiva Schaffer) found fame and fortune after forming the hip-hop group the Style Boyz. Owen and Lawrence faded into the background when frontman Conner left the band to launch a successful solo career. Now, the egotistical singer decides to film a documentary about his life while he’s still on top. When his second album flops, the camera is there to capture his world come crashing down.
Everybody Wants Some(2016)
In 1980 Texas, a college freshman (Blake Jenner) meets his new baseball teammates (Will Brittain, Ryan Guzman), an unruly group of disco-dancing, skirt-chasing partyers.
Don’t Think Twice(2016)
Turmoil strikes a New York improv troupe when one member leaves to star in a television show and the others realise they might not make it big after all.
Hell Or High Water(2016)
Toby is a divorced father who’s trying to make a better life for his son. His brother Tanner is an ex-convict with a short temper and a loose trigger finger. Together, they plan a series of heists against the bank that’s about to foreclose on their family ranch. Standing in their way is Marcus, a Texas Ranger who’s only weeks away from retirement. As the siblings plot their final robbery, they must also prepare for a showdown with a crafty lawman who’s not ready to ride off into the sunset.
Demolition(2015)
Grieving investment banker Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal) returns to work after losing his beloved wife in a tragic car accident. After writing a letter to complain about a vending machine, Mitchell receives a phone call from Karen (Naomi Watts), a customer service rep from the company. Karen becomes moved by his complete honesty, while Davis finds someone to lend a sympathetic ear. As his new friendship with Karen and her son grows, Mitchell finds the strength he needs to rebuild his life.
Midnight Special(2016)
The government and a group of religious extremists pursue a man (Michael Shannon) and his son (Jaeden Lieberher), a young boy who possesses special powers.
War Dogs(2016)
With the war in Iraq raging on, a young man (Jonah Hill) offers his childhood friend a chance to make big bucks by becoming an international arms dealer. Together, they exploit a government initiative that allows businesses to bid on U.S. military contracts. Starting small allows the duo to rake in money and live the high life. They soon find themselves in over their heads after landing a $300 million deal to supply Afghan forces, a deal that puts them in business with some very shady people.
Green Room(2015)
A punk rock band becomes trapped in a secluded venue after finding a scene of violence. For what they saw, the band themselves become targets of violence from a gang of white power skinheads, who want to eliminate all evidence of the crime.
Keanu(2016)
Recently dumped by his girlfriend, slacker Rell (Jordan Peele) finds some happiness when a cute kitten winds up on his doorstep. After a heartless thief steals the cat, Rell recruits his cousin Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key) to help him retrieve it. They soon learn that a thug named Cheddar (Method Man) has the animal, and he’ll only give it back if the two men agree to work for him. Armed with guns and a gangster attitude, it doesn’t take long for the hapless duo to land in big trouble.
Eddie The Eagle(2016)
Cut from the Olympic ski team, British athlete Michael “Eddie” Edwards travels to Germany to test his skills at ski jumping. Fate leads him to Bronson Peary, a former ski jumper who now works as a snowplow driver. Impressed by Edwards’ spirit and determination, Peary agrees to train the young underdog. Despite an entire nation counting him out, Eddie’s never-say-die attitude takes him all the way to a historic and improbable showing at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta.
7 Movies Like Coraline [Recommendations]
10 Movies Like The Last House On The Left
10 Movies Like Stomp the Yard
Would You Rather Questions for Everyone[ULTIMATE List]
8 Movies Like Mr. Turner [Recommendations]
10 Movies like Love Don’t Cost a Thing [Recommendations
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The Difference between a Drug Dealer and a Farmer by Tom Black
Times are changing here in Ontario. I have been proud to call myself a farmer, though some would say, not a good one, but in any event, happy to be involved in an occupation that has always been held in great reverence by the citizens of this country. For the most part, people still trust farmers and look up to them as “the salt of the earth” for their work ethic and the quality food that they produce for their neighbours to put on their tables. Now I know if you ask some students in town where food comes from, they may answer “from the store”, because society is becoming more and more removed from the earth where all of our subsistence is derived from.
The pride of all farmers took quite a hit a couple of weeks ago in an Ottawa courtroom when MNR officer Ridley testified in a case concerning a farmer who had been charged for operating a ‘slaughter plant’ and not having animals government inspected before and after slaughter. In this case, the farmer sold lambs to people who then asked if they could slaughter the animals on-site, ‘in the yard’. This was not something new since this group of people has bought lambs from this farmer for more than 25 years without incident. This is a practise that takes place all over the world, every year, since time began, as it has in Canada, and continues here today on small farms, where friends help out and take home some of the spoils of their labour, as payment. I myself, have been selling rabbits, chickens and lambs to people from all walks of life and ethnicities for more than 40 years. These people want to inspect the animal before it is slaughtered and then do the job themselves, to make sure that it is done right for their families’ sake. Looking ahead to some future day when stores don’t have food, people want to pass on that survival skill to their children and our society is stronger and safer when we have people keeping these heritage skills alive.
Getting back to the court case. So the MNR officer did not charge the folks that bought the lambs and did the slaughter, but charged the farmer. When asked why they charged him even though he did not participate, the officer said it was the same as with ‘drug raids’, they charge the drug dealer not the customer. So you see, he has equated a farmer who has sold a legal product to a drug dealer. If the farmer had sold him that lamb and they put that ‘live lamb’ in a box in the back of their van, there would be no problem, since it is a legal product. Or if the farmer gave permission for a hunter to kill a deer, a turkey, a goose or a rabbit on his farm, there would be no problem and no pre-slaughter inspection, no post-mortem inspection and no sanitary inspections of the facilities (that of course, being the ground where the animal fell) which is sort of equivalent to the ground in a farmer’s yard where they killed the lamb.
This equating of a farmer to a drug dealer has far reaching consequences for the future of all rural activities whether it is raising your own food animals or hunting and fishing for the ‘table’. If any of these activities are allowed to be depreciated, it will not take long before some ‘turkey’ with a newly revised rule book, removes the right for all people to source their own food.
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The greatest footballer of his generation suffered a cardiac arrest at a home in Tigre, Argentina.
Maradona underwent surgery earlier this month to remove a blood clot from his brain. He had been recuperating from the removal of a blood clot on the brain.
Maradona, regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, helped Argentina win the World Cup in 1986, the pinnacle of an illustrious career.
He played club football for Boca Juniors, Napoli and Barcelona among others and was adored by millions for his brilliant skills. Maradona was responsible for the infamous ‘Hand of God’ that eliminated England from the 1986 tournament.
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Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.375 and 19.x through 23.x before 23.0.0.162 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.635 on Linux allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-4274, CVE-2016-4275, CVE-2016-4276, CVE-2016-4280, CVE-2016-4281, CVE-2016-4282, CVE-2016-4283, CVE-2016-4284, CVE-2016-6922, and CVE-2016-6924.
Published: September 14, 2016; 2:59:15 PM -0400 V3.0: 9.8 CRITICAL
Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.375 and 19.x through 23.x before 23.0.0.162 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.635 on Linux allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-4272, CVE-2016-6921, CVE-2016-6923, CVE-2016-6925, CVE-2016-6926, CVE-2016-6927, CVE-2016-6929, CVE-2016-6930, CVE-2016-6931, and CVE-2016-6932.
Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.375 and 19.x through 23.x before 23.0.0.162 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.635 on Linux allows attackers to bypass intended access restrictions and obtain sensitive information via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-4271 and CVE-2016-4277.
Published: September 14, 2016; 2:59:07 PM -0400 V3.0: 7.5 HIGH
Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.375 and 19.x through 23.x before 23.0.0.162 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.635 on Linux allows attackers to bypass intended access restrictions and obtain sensitive information via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-4277 and CVE-2016-4278, aka a "local-with-filesystem Flash sandbox bypass" issue.
Heap-based buffer overflow in Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.366 and 19.x through 22.x before 22.0.0.209 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.632 on Linux allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors.
Published: July 12, 2016; 10:00:55 PM -0400 V3.0: 9.8 CRITICAL
Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.366 and 19.x through 22.x before 22.0.0.209 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.632 on Linux allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-4173, CVE-2016-4174, CVE-2016-4222, CVE-2016-4226, CVE-2016-4227, CVE-2016-4228, CVE-2016-4229, CVE-2016-4230, and CVE-2016-4231.
Race condition in Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.366 and 19.x through 22.x before 22.0.0.209 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.632 on Linux allows attackers to obtain sensitive information via unspecified vectors.
Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.366 and 19.x through 22.x before 22.0.0.209 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.632 on Linux allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-4172, CVE-2016-4175, CVE-2016-4179, CVE-2016-4180, CVE-2016-4181, CVE-2016-4182, CVE-2016-4183, CVE-2016-4184, CVE-2016-4185, CVE-2016-4186, CVE-2016-4187, CVE-2016-4188, CVE-2016-4189, CVE-2016-4190, CVE-2016-4217, CVE-2016-4218, CVE-2016-4219, CVE-2016-4220, CVE-2016-4221, CVE-2016-4233, CVE-2016-4234, CVE-2016-4235, CVE-2016-4236, CVE-2016-4237, CVE-2016-4238, CVE-2016-4239, CVE-2016-4240, CVE-2016-4241, CVE-2016-4242, CVE-2016-4243, CVE-2016-4244, and CVE-2016-4245.
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Entrepreneur to attempt marathon, three-day fasting, hour-long rope skipping, four-hour water submersion and, oh, he's just getting started
Alex Dorward, , COO and co-owner of Simple Story, has launched a new initiative, called 12beCAUSE, to complete 12 feats for 12 local, national and global charities over the next year. Photo by Caroline Phillips
Alex Dorward
OBJ.social is supported by the generous patronage of Mark Motors, Marilyn Wilson Dream Properties and Sparks Dental. Read their stories here.
With each new year often comes new personal goals to be more physically active, whether it’s running long distances, tackling a triathlon or even just walking, jumping and moving more.
On New Year’s Eve, Ottawa entrepreneur Alex Dorward, 31, announced to the world his ambitious plans to complete one physically challenging feat each month, for 12 months, while raising money for local, national and global charities. It's called 12beCAUSE.
They say resolutions are made to be broken but Dorward is committed to seeing his daunting dares to the very end.
“In my mind, if I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it,” Dorward said in an interview. “I’m not going to think, ‘OK, yeah, I’ll plan to do this.’ Nah-nah-nah, I just got to do it.”
Dorward is the chief operating officer and co-owner of Simple Story, an Ottawa-based video marketing agency. He co-founded and was co-CEO of AdmissionsConsulting.ca, a leading undergraduate admissions consulting firm, as well as CampusRankings – both of which were acquired. In 2019, he was the youngest recipient of a Forty Under 40 business award.
As well, he's coached high school basketball and has been a mentor and guest lecturer for university business students. As a child, he spent weeks at a time visiting remote parts of the world with his mother, a telecom consultant.
“There’s no better education than travel,” he opined. “I think it provides an additional layer of understanding and perspective.”
Dorward plans to spend the next year completing a full marathon and Olympic triathlon, three-day fast, one-hour rope skipping, paddling and portaging a historic river route, sleeping outdoors for two winter nights, and submerging himself underwater for hours, to list but a handful of examples.
His top concern: getting injured.
Ottawa entrepreneur Alex Dorward plans to complete 12 exhausting challenges, including one continuous hour of rope skipping, to raise money for 12 charities over the next year. Photo by Caroline Phillips
First up for Dorward is a 50-kilometre walk on March 1 in support of the Breast Cancer Society of Canada. He’ll be walking along the Ottawa River, from the west corner of Ottawa to the east, passing by such landmarks as Parliament Hill, 24 Sussex and Rideau Hall.
Dorward predicts it will take up to 10 hours to complete the feat. Throughout the day, he will be live streaming and recording video to document the experience and to raise awareness for breast cancer.
While his challenges are currently all very physical, Dorward said it’s his mental health that stands to benefit the most through exercise and goal setting.
“I’ve been kind of dreading how I’m going to stay mentally sane through the winter,” Dorward explained.
The coronavirus pandemic has been a catalyst for 12beCAUSE by motivating him to be more active and more charitable.
“I’ve been overwhelmingly pretty privileged and lucky,” said the graduate of South Carleton High School and St. Francis Xavier University. “There have been some setbacks and challenges but, overall, I haven’t faced too much adversity. For that reason, I do want to help out and give back.”
Dorward said the past 10 months of the pandemic have been “challenging” on his physical and mental health and on his productivity.
“The problem with working from home is that you can procrastinate a lot more easily. With the pandemic, I have found myself starting to go down a spiral of laziness and not achieving what I want to achieve.
“This is a good excuse for me to actually do something.”
Dorward said he selected charities that make the biggest impact on the most amount of people and that do so in a cost-effective way. He’s created a website that allows the public and businesses to donate to any of the charities at any time during the 12-month fundraiser.
He’s hoping to raise at least $30,000 in total.
Dorward has created a corporate sponsorship package and has so far recruited GS5, Admissions Ally and Performance Sports Therapy. His company, Simple Story, is also a sponsor.
"The support of business is crucial in helping me to meet my goal," he noted.
His inspiration: British comic Eddie Izzard, who ran 29 marathons in 29 days, while raising money for charity. Dorward decided to space out his challenges, with the goal of raising funds over a greater period of time and giving his body a chance to recuperate.
“The idea was kind of a collection or union of various ideas I had and, ultimately, I just woke up one day and said, ‘Okay, this is what I’m going to do.’ ”
Alex Dorward's list of 12 charities and feats
50 km walk for the Breast Cancer Society of Canada.
Traditional long-distance paddle and portage in support of Minwaashin Lodge, an Ottawa support centre for Indigenous women and children who are survivors of domestic violence.
One hour of continuous jump rope skipping as part of Jump Rope for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. This one is guaranteed to make his arms feel like noodles.
Remain continuously underwater for four hours in support of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and its protection of our oceans. Dorward is a certified master diver, so he will be using equipment, not holding his breath.
An Olympic Triathlon for War Child (1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run). He completed his first one in 2018, also in support of the Canadian-based global humanitarian organization.
Run a marathon for Terry Fox Foundation as part of the Terry Fox Run. He’s already got one of these under his belt, but it was 12 years ago and he suffered severe heatstroke.
Sleeping outside for two nights in support of the Youth Services Bureau’s SleepOut.
A 72-hour famine in support of Action Against Hunger.
Dorward is also raising money for CHEO Foundation, Movember Foundation and CKNW Kids’ Fund but has yet to nail down his gruelling task. As well, he’s left the month of April open for the public to choose the charity and the feat for that month.
Dorward has tricks for passing the time, so as not to get bored or discouraged while he’s training or participating in the challenges. It involves splitting his larger goal into a series of easier goals.
“It becomes a mental game,” said Dorward of his system. “I try to put everything into smaller bite sizes and, eventually, the distances are going to start accumulating. You can’t look at it as, ‘I’ve done one hour, I’ve got three more to go’. You have to break that down into something that sounds better; you’ve got to convince yourself that you’re further along than you are.
“I occupy my time trying to figure out smaller fractions. I might be three-quarters of one-eighths done a race.”
Said Dorward of his overall goal: “I really do want to feel like this was an accomplishment, a worthwhile endeavour. I also hope that it will inspire others to have some unique experience that they’re doing every month, whether or not it’s for charity.”
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A Biography of BeMy
Jun 8, 2017 | Časopis
BeMy is a French-Polish duo. It was formed by two brothers Mattia and Elie Rosinski. They were born in Bordeaux, France.
They started their musical career at a very young age. After school in France they moved to England and up-graded their musical knowledge at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, Surrey. After the graduation at the Academy they moved to Warsaw. There they took part at many musical contests and received many prestigious awards. The contests were TOPtrendy, Woodstock and many others. In June 2013 BeMy auditioned in the show called Must Be the Music, they were really good, so they made it to the finals and won second place. They also took part in the project SOFAR Sounds and in the project TOPtrendy and in 2014 they won the main award. Their breakthrough was with the song called ‘’Angel Romance’’ in 2014. The song is still very popular. In the spring of 2015 they signed a contract with Universal Music Poland and started recording their first album called Grizzlin’. It was released in April 2016. In March 2017 the duo was nominated in the category for the single of the year with the song Oxygen.
Their musical style is Indie-Pop-Rock-Electric. Their famous songs are also Time, Playard, Getaway and Quand la musique est bonne. Their music videos are very interesting. They often work with directors from other countries. For the video-spot Oxygen they worked with a Slovenian director and Slovenian actress.
Lara Ferjančič, 8. a
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How to Get Rid of a Boyfriend Who Uses You for Money
By: Scott Thompson
Why Is Family More Important Than Money?
How to Live With a Man Who Is a Miser
How to Tell Your Mom That She Owes You Money
How to Ask Someone If They Are Cheating on You
Signs That Your Boyfriend Needs Space
Breaking up really isn't that complicated -- you just tell the person you're breaking up with that you don't want to see him anymore, and it's done. The hard part is convincing yourself you really need to do it and getting up the courage to have what is likely to be a very unpleasant conversation. When your boyfriend is using you for money, thinking about what that really means can help you make up your mind.
One-Way Streets
Almost everybody runs into a financial problem at some point in life, and some people are always going to make more money than others. If you have a good job and a steady paycheck and your boyfriend is struggling financially, that doesn't mean he doesn't contribute his fair share to the relationship in other ways. However, some guys don't just need a little extra help but a constant stream of financial support. For them, living off of a girlfriend's money is not a temporary embarrassment but a long-term survival strategy. If you're putting a lot more into the relationship than you're getting out of it, the problem isn't just money. The whole relationship goes one way.
It's Not Always Just Money
You might tell yourself that if your boyfriend is financially dependent on you he's not going to mess it up by cheating on you. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case. According to a 2010 article on CNN, a Cornell University study found that men who were financially dependent on their romantic partners were actually five times more likely to be unfaithful. That certainly doesn't constitute evidence that your boyfriend is cheating, but it's worth giving some serious thought. If you really feel that he's just using you for money, it might not be the only way in which he's taking advantage.
The Quick Way
The fact that you feel taken advantage of doesn't necessarily mean that your boyfriend is deliberately trying to use you for money. He might just not have all of his life skills figured out to the same extent you do. In the end, though, it doesn't really matter -- if you've made up your mind that you need to end it, the only question is how. You'll never regret being kind and respectful of his feelings if you can manage it, but there are two ways to go about it. If you've only been involved with him for a short time, you don't need to explain anything. Just tell him the relationship isn't working out for you and that you'd like to end it. If you're more seriously involved, you'll need to talk.
Explain to your boyfriend that you need to be with someone who can contribute as much to the relationship as you do in every way, not just financially. Tell him that you felt taken advantage of by his requests for financial support, but avoid any personal criticism or insulting language. He's not going to like what you have to say, but if he takes it seriously he might be able to avoid making the same mistakes with his next girlfriend.
CNN: Men More Likely to Cheat on Women With Bigger Paychecks, Study Says
Psychology Today: Exit Strategies
Huffington Post: For the Love of God, Just Break Up With Him Already!
Scott Thompson has been writing professionally since 1990, beginning with the "Pequawket Valley News." He is the author of nine published books on topics such as history, martial arts, poetry and fantasy fiction. His work has also appeared in "Talebones" magazine and the "Strange Pleasures" anthology.
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Interesting Facts About Tubas
By: Paul Cartmell Updated September 15, 2017
Facts About the Oboe
The roots of the tuba can be traced back to Medieval times when an instrument similar to the tuba was made from leather and wood. The modern tuba is the newest member of the brass family used in the Western orchestra.
Prussian Wilhelm Wieprecht and German Johann Gottfried patented the tuba in the key of F in Prussia in 1835.
Tubas come in different keys for use in different situations. For example, tubas in the keys of F and C are most commonly used in orchestras, while those in E flat and B flat are usually used in marching and brass bands.
The tuba is made of around 16 feet of tubing and commonly has three or four valves.
To play the tuba, a player holds his lips against the cupped mouthpiece and blows air into the instrument. The pitch of the instrument is altered by opening and closing the lips as they vibrate.
One of the champions of the tuba was German composer Richard Wagner, who wanted to use the unique sound of the instrument. Wagner championed a number of early versions of the tuba, including the serpent.
International Tuba Day
The first Friday in May is International Tuba Day, which celebrates tubists around the world.
The History Of The Tuba
Paul Cartmell began his career as a writer for documentaries and fictional films in the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s. Working in documentary journalism, Cartmell wrote about a wide variety of subjects including racism in professional sports. Cartmell attended the University of Lincoln and London Metropolitan University, gaining degrees in journalism and film studies.
Difference Between Clavichords and Harpsichords
The History of Wind Instruments
Who Invented the Trombone?
Facts About Trombones
What Are Clarinets Made Of?
Instruments in a Baroque Orchestra
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CHAPTER the process by stimulating surrounding platelets. The
REVIEW OF RELATED LTERATURE
Platelets are critical in haemostasis and the development of arterial thrombi. Damaged endothelium activates platelets which respond by adhering and aggregating. Their release of thromboxane A2 and adenosine diphosphate (ADP) amplifies and propagates the process by stimulating surrounding platelets. The production of thrombin via the coagulation cascade is also accelerated, stabilising the thrombus by the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin. (Gurvinder, 2014) Platelets play a central role in cardiovascular thrombosis. Platelet aggregation caused due to a ruptured artherosclerotic plaque could eventually lead to vascular occlusion. (Philipose et al., 2010) According to Paolo Gresele, inhibition of platelet aggregation has shown great benefit for the treatment and prevention of ischaemic cardiovascular disease. Platelet inhibition can be achieved either by blockade of membrane receptors or by interaction with intracellular signalling pathways like cyclooxygenase and adenosine -5′-diphosphate pathway. While receptor antagonism may provide high specificity, the inhibition of platelet signal transduction may display broader effects, suppressing platelet activation regardless of the initial stimulus. Platelet-mediated thrombosis is a major pathophysiologic
mechanism underlying coronary thrombosis. Platelets adhere to ruptured or eroded plaques, are activated, aggregate, and release secondary messengers, which produce further thrombosis and vasoconstriction and serve as a surface for activation of the clotting cascade. Therefore,
inhibition of platelet activation or aggregation is a very effective method of preventing coronary thrombosis. The various existing antiplatelet agents, which will be explain later on, can act at different points in the platelet to inhibit the cascade of platelet activation, amplification, and aggregation. (Ducrocq et al., 2017)
Grapefruit is an hybrid between the orange and the pomelo, but no one discovered when it was first grown. It was first documented in 1750 by a Welshman in Barbados who described it as a “forbidden fruit,” according to the Purdue University horticulture department. Until the 19th century, it was also called the shaddock, named after a sea captain who is said to have brought the seeds of a pomelo to Jamaica. It has also been called paradise fruit thus giving its scientific name, Citrus paradisi. (Szalay, 2016) According to Organic facts, Citrus paradisi or in simple term, grapefruit has many health benefits because of its high fiber and low calories, also they contain bioflavonoids and other plant chemicals that protect against serious diseases like cancer, heart disease, and the formation of tumors. On the other hand, according to Top Tropicals, Psidium guajava or guava is well known throughout the tropics, many people are familiar with it because of the large number of products made from this aromatic fruit. The plant is well distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics. This is a low growing tree up to 25 feet high and about the same spread. It has been hailed as one of the super fruits due to the numerous health benefits it offers. It indeed is a powerhouse of nutrients since it can act as anti-inflammatory and even in anti platelet activity. This humble fruit is extraordinarily rich in vitamin C, lycopene and antioxidants that are beneficial for skin. (Ahuja, 2018) According to Total Health, grapefruit and guava has a high salicylate content. It was stated by different articles that guava and grapefruit has both acetylsalicylic acid or salicylates, lycopene, and flavonoids which can help to act in platelet aggregation.
Bioflavonoids or flavonoids are widely dispersed group of chemical compounds with health-related characteristics that are based on their antioxidant activity like inhibition of platelet aggregation, anticancer, anti-inflammatory and antiviral activities. (Mallick et al., 2016) There are three kinds of flavonoids present in citrus fruits particularly in Citrus paradise and these are flavanones, flavones and anthocyanins. The four main flavanones are naringenin, isosakuranetin, eriodictyol and hesperetin. Flavanones are very numerous thus making a major contribution to taste properties of citrus fruits but as in the case of all flavonoids, some are desirable and some are undesirable. (Adeel et al., 2015) The role of flavonoids has been studied to prevent and treat cardiovascular diseases due to several reasons including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, as increase dietary intake of antioxidants may prevent atherosclerosis, since increased cholesterol and occlusion is correlated. (Mallick et al., 2016) Citrus flavonoids may also exert neuroprotective effects since they are involved in the modulation of neuronal activities and mental health including brain plasticity, behaviour, mood, depression, and cognition. In this regard, it has been demonstrated that hesperidin can protect neurons against various types of insults associated with many neurodegenerative diseases. Also, naringin has proven to exert neuroprotective effects through anti-inflammatory activity on the survival of dopaminergic neurons and on the integrity of the nigrostriatal pathway in animal models of Parkinson’s disease. Natural flavonoids would therefore seem to have important potential as medicaments in the field of mental health, although their use in clinical practice is still a long way off. (Vazquez et al., 2016)
Lycopene, a red plant pigment, is found in number of fruits such as tomatoes, watermelon, papaya, and guava. Of these, tomatoes contribute the largest to the dietary intake of lycopene. Several studies have demonstrated the antiplatelet activity of tomato in vitro as well as the ability of tomato extracts to reduce ex vivo platelet aggregation.The antiplatelet activity of lycopene has not been compared to any of the clinically used antiplatelet agents until now. Moreover, the influence of lycopene on the action of routinely used antiplatelet agents has not been studied. (Sawardekar et al., 2016) Lycopene has demonstrated hypotensive activity in humans (Engelhard 2006), and several human trials indicate a cholesterol-lowering effect (Ried 2011). One mechanism by which lycopene may limit platelet aggregation is by activating cyclic-GMP, a signaling molecule involved in vessel dilation and involvement in inhibition of phosphodiesterase pathway. Two studies examined the effects on platelet function in healthy human volunteers: High dose and low dose and the results show that both exhibited significant reductions in platelet aggregation up to 6 hours after ingestion. Standardized bioactives suppress platelet adhesion and aggregation by reversibly inhibiting P-selectin and GPIIb/IIIa, two receptors necessary for clot formation. (Kennedy, 2006)
Aspirin belongs to a class of medications called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Aspirin and other NSAIDs, for example, ibuprofen and naproxen are widely used to treat fever, pain, and inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, tendonitis, and bursitis. Aspirin is known chemically as acetyl salicylic acid and often abbreviated as ASA. Aspirin also has an important inhibitory effect on platelets in the blood. This antiplatelet effect is used to prevent blood clot that promote the clotting of blood inside arteries, particularly in individuals who have atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries) or are otherwise prone to develop blood clots in their arteries. (Ogbru et al., 2016) It is the most widely use analgesic, antipyretic, and anti-inflammatory agent in the world and remains the standard for which all other NSAIDs are compared. Aspirin is comprised of the active compounds acetic acid and salicylic acid, forming acetylsalicylic acid. Aspirin inhibits the biosynthesis of prostaglandins by means of an irreversible acetylation and consequent inactivation of COX; thus, aspirin inactivates COX permanently. This is an important distinction among the NSAIDs because aspirin’s duration action is related to the turnover rate of cyclooxygenases in various target tissues. The duration of action of other NSAIDs, which competitively inhibit the active sites of the COX enzymes, relates more directly to the time course of drug disposition. Because platelets are devoid of the ability to produce additional cyclooxygenase, thromboxane synthesis is arrested. (Williams et al., 2011) Aspirin impairs platelet aggregation usually attributed to inhibition of cyclooxygenase-1(COX-1) and subsequent reduction in thromboxane A2 production, although other mechanisms have been implicated. A dose of 81 mg of aspirin daily can permanently affect platelets in circulation, such that the length of drug effect is related to platelet lifespan, not drug half life. Other NSAIDs impair thromboxane A2 production as well but the effects are related to drug half life. (Lanzkowsky, 2011) Hence, aspirin is the cornerstone of antiplatelet therapy and is the most commonly used antiplatelet agent for prophylaxis of thrombotic vascular disorders. (Sawardekar et al., 2016)
Platelet adhesion, activation and aggregation to the injured vessel wall are crucially involved in the pathogenesis of thrombus formation. (Jing et al., 2013) The antiplatelet agents in current clinical use include the cyclooxygenase inhibitors (e.g., aspirin), phosphodiesterase inhibitors (e.g., dipyridamole), adenosine-5′-diphosphate (ADP) receptor pathway inhibitors (e.g., ticlopidine and clopidogrel), and platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor antagonists (e.g., abciximab, tirofiban, and eptifibatide). (Sawardekar et al., 2016) Cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) catalyses the transformation of arachidonic acid to the unstable intermediate prostaglandin PGH2. Arachidonic acid is essential for the brain, liver, and organs, according to the National institutes of Health. A study published in 2013 in the American Journal of Cell Physiology reports that arachidonic acid appears to help increase muscle mass, and a study published in 2012 in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology found that arachidonic acid supplementation, when combined with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), helps improve social interaction in people with autism spectrum disorders. Subsequently, thromboxane synthase acts on PGH2 to form TXA2, a transient biological product that induces platelet aggregation and is a powerful vasoconstrictor. As stated, aspirin acts primarily by interfering with the biosynthesis of cyclic prostanoids: TXA2, prostacyclin, and other prostaglandins. It irreversibly inhibits COX-1 by acetylation of serine-530 and induces a long-lasting functional defect in the platelets. The resultant decrease in production of prostaglandins and TXA2 probably accounts for much of aspirin’s antithrombotic effect.The plasma half-life of aspirin is only 20 minutes in circulating blood. Salicylate does not affect COX-1 or COX-2 activity. (Altman et al., 2004) Phosphodiesterases (PDEs), by catalysing the hydrolysis of cAMP and cGMP to inactive 5?-AMP and 5?-GMP, limit intracellular levels of cyclic nucleotides and thus regulate the amplitude, duration and compartmentation of cyclic nucleotide signalling. Functionally, phosphodiesterases can be classified in terms of their affinity and rates of degradation for cAMP and cGMP. To date, more than 60 different isoforms of PDE have been described in mammalian tissues, grouped into 11 broad families (PDE1–PDE11) based on differences in their structure, kinetics, regulatory properties and sensitivity to chemical inhibitors. Alternative splicing and transcription start sites also contribute to the multiplicity of the different isoforms, many of which possess species-specific tissue and/or cellular distribution. Current data suggest that individual isozymes modulate distinct regulatory pathways in cells. Dipyridamole was synthesized more than 50 years ago and initially used as a coronary vasodilator.The antithrombotic effects of dipyridamole were evaluated in several animal models. Thrombus formation on air-injured carotid arteries of rabbits was reduced by dipyridamole, while salicylate increased it. In rabbits, the accumulation of radioactive fibrinogen at balloon angioplasty-treated carotid arteries was significantly reduced by dipyridamole in comparison to heparin. (Gresele et al., 2011) Two researchers from Journal of Clinical and Medical Genomics, Fang Jing and Wei Zhang stated that platelet aggregation is basically involved in pathogenesis of thrombus formation and the formation of a hemostatic thrombus during blood vessel injury is a highly regulated event which ensures that a blood clot is sufficiently stable but not overly robust to cause thrombus propagation and vessel occlusion. (Owaynat et al., 2013) Adenosine diphosphate (ADP) is one of the main platelet-activating factors. Platelet ADP signaling pathways are mediated by the P2Y1 and P2Y12 receptors, which play a key role in platelet activation and aggregation processes. The P2Y1 and P2Y12 are G-coupled receptors and are both required for platelet aggregation. However, ADP-stimulated effects are mediated mainly by P2Y12receptor activation, which leads to sustained platelet aggregation and stabilization of the platelet aggregate. The P2Y1 receptor is responsible for an initial weak and transient phase of platelet aggregation and change in platelet shape. Also, the cytochrome P450 enzymes are responsible for the conversion of clopidogrel into its active metabolite and the metabolism of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), which may also inhibit CYP enzymes. (Przespolewski et al., 2018). Clopidogrel is currently the most commonly used P2Y12 receptor inhibitor. It has a more favorable safety profile compared with ticlopidine, as first shown in the CLASSICS (The Clopidogrel Aspirin Stent International Cooperative Study trial). However, its main limitation is the broad interindividual variability in its antiplatelet effects. (Angiolillo et al.) According to NHS inform, clopidogrel is an antiplatelet medicine. This means it reduces the risk of blood clots forming. Normally, when there is a cut or break in a small blood vessel, a blood clot forms to plug the hole until the blood vessel heals. Small cells in the blood called platelets cause the blood to clot. When a platelet detects a damaged area of a blood vessel, it produces a chemical that attracts other platelets and makes them stick together to form a blood clot. It reduces the ability of the platelets to stick together and reduces the risk of clots forming. This protects you from having a stroke or heart attack. Influencing factors for clopidogrel-mediated platelet inhibition have only been evaluated by one or two different test systems in the same population so far. Since previous studies revealed poor correlations between the various platelet function tests, the identification of influencing variables for clopidogrel response may vary from one test system to the next. We therefore investigated whether the influencing factors for clopidogrel-mediated platelet inhibition depend on the used assay. (Gremmel et al., 2011) Glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa antagonists are a new class of potent drugs that profoundly inhibit platelet function by blocking the key receptor involved in platelet aggregation. (Ferguson et al., 2012) The glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa receptor mediates the final common pathway of platelet aggregation. In particular, the GP IIb/IIIa receptor is a heterodimer consisting of the alpha IIb and beta3-subunits. By competing with fibrinogen and von Willebrand factor (vWF) for GP IIb/IIIa binding, GP IIb/IIIa antagonists interfere with platelet cross-linking and platelet-derived thrombus formation. Therefore agents blocking the GP IIb/IIIa receptor are very potent platelet inhibitors.
Numerous clinical trials have been conducted to define the optimal use of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors. The number of GPIIb/IIIa receptors occupied by the drugs was assayed by flow cytometry using two CD61 surface fluorescein antibodies. (Zaragosa et al., 2016) Currently, GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors are mostly indicated for patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) in the setting of acute coronary syndrome. (Angiolillo et al.) It is a member of the ?3 subfamily of integrins, which also includes ?V?3. GPIIb/IIIa functions as a receptor for fibrinogen and several adhesion proteins sharing an arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) sequence. GPIIb/IIIa antagonists, through blockade of the receptor, prevent platelet aggregation. Among the three GPIIb/IIIa antagonists used in therapy, abciximab is an anti-?3 monoclonal antibody, while tirofiban and eptifibatide mimic the binding sequence of the fibrinogen ligand. The use of inhibitors of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa (GPIIb/IIIa) has provided dramatic results in terms of the prevention of acute stent thrombosis and a reduction in major adverse coronary events in patients subjected to percutaneous coronary intervention. (Giordano et al., 2015) Platelets have a central role in thrombus formation. At the cellular level, thrombosis is initiated by platelets tethering to subendothelial von Willebrand factor (vWF) via the glycoproteinIb. GPIb?- vWF interactions mediates the initial adhesion step of platelets to the extracellular matrix (ECM) at high shear rates (;500). GPIb? may also contribute to platelet adhesion to the intact vessel wall by interacting with P-selectin exposed on activated endothelial cells. (Jing et al., 2013).
Now that inhibitors of anti platelet agents were fully understood and the components of Citrus paradisi and Psidium guajava that can affect the anti platelet activity were already explained, the researchers aim to compare the effect of both fruit, guava and grapefruit, as platelet inhibitors since it was stated that they contain the same composition like the presence of flavonoids or lycopene. Since aspirin is the major antiplatelet drug, everyone should know that there’s an adverse effect of taking too much aspirin to human body can cause severe pain in the stomach, fatigue, fever, rapid breathing, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, cloudy mind, seizures, hyperactivity, inability to hear and it worst cases it can lead to coma.. According to John Horn and Philip Hansten which are both Doctor of Pharmacy, aspirin must be taken in low-dose because it can prevent and help for myocardial infarction and other cardiovascular diseases, but there is evidence that concurrent use of NSAIDs may inhibit the antiplatelet effect of aspirin. It stated that antiplatelet drugs like aspirin has both advantages and disadvanatges thus, having an alternative to antiplatelet like using natural products instead of those chemicals can be beneficial for the people who are highly need of it. Today, there is increasing demand for natural bioactive compounds as people express more concern about their health, especially in connection with health-giving diets.(Vazquez et al., 2016) Many intake of drugs in the body may cause disease or deficiency since human body cannot process all those drugs thus using fruits or leaves particularly guava and grapefruit may help or contribute to the inhibition of platelet. Antiplatelet drugs should be of proven efficacy in the secondary prevention of ischemic events without incurring an unacceptable increase in the risk of bleeding. (Gachet, 2015)
Mallick, N., Khan, R.A., Riaz, A. and Afroz, S. (2016). Anticoagulant, Antiplatelet and Antianemic Effects of Citrus paradisi (Grape Fruit) Juice in Rabbits. Pharmacology & Pharmacy, 7, 397-406. Retrieved March 7, 2018 from http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/pp.2016.71047
Organic facts. (2018). 13 Wonderful Benefits of Grapefruit. Retrieved March 7, 2018 from https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/fruit/health-benefits-of-grapefruit.html
Szalay J. (2016). Grapefruit: Health Benefits & Nutrition Facts. Retrieved March 7, 2018 from https://www.livescience.com/54746-grapefruit-nutrition.html
Life Extension. (2018). Blood Clot Prevention. Retrieved March 7, 2018 from http://www.lifeextension.com/protocols/heart-circulatory/blood-clot/page-02
Williams, B., Buvanendran, A. (2011). Nonopioid analgesics: NSAIDs, COX-2 inhibitors, and acetaminophen. Retrieved March 8, 2018 from https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-4377-2242-0.00026-2
Lanzkowsky, P. (2011). Disorders of Platelets. Retrieved March 8, 2018 from https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-375154-6.00012-4
Ogbru, O., Kulick, D., Marks, J. Aspirin Therapy Guidelines. Retrieved March 8, 2018 from https://www.medicinenet.com/aspirin_and_antiplatelet_medications/article.htm#what_is_aspirin?
Ahuja A. (2018). 15 Amazing Guava Benefits: Heart Healthy, Weight Loss Friendly and More. Retrieved March 8, 2018 from https://food.ndtv.com/health/15-amazing-guava-benefits-heart-healthy-weight-loss-friendly-and-more-1244242
Total Health. (n.d). Salicylate Content of Foods. Retrieved March 8, 2018 from https://cdn.vortala.com/childsites/uploads/1340/files/Salicylate-content-of-foods.pdf
Sawardekar, S. B., Patel, T. C., & Uchil, D. (2016). Comparative evaluation of antiplatelet effect of lycopene with aspirin and the effect of their combination on platelet aggregation: An in vitro study. Indian Journal of Pharmacology, 48(1), 26–31. http://doi.org/10.4103/0253-7613.174428
Altman, R., Luciardi, H., Muntaner, J., Herrera, R. (2004). The Antithrombotic Profile of Aspirin. Aspirin Resistance or Simply Failure. Thrombosis Journal 20042:1.Retrieved March 8, 2018 from https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-9560-2-1
Coleman, E. (n.d). What is Arachidonic Acid. Retrieved March 8, 2018 from https://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/what-is-arachidonic-acid.html
Gresele, P., Momi, S. and Falcinelli, E. (2011), Anti-platelet therapy: phosphodiesterase inhibitors. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 72: 634–646. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2125.2011.04034.x
Angiolillo, D., Tello-Montoliu, A. (n.d.). Antiplatelet Therapy: Adenosine Diphosphate Receptor Antagonists.The Cardiology Advisor. Retrieved March 8, 2018 from https://www.thecardiologyadvisor.com/cardiology/antiplatelet-therapy-adenosine-diphosphate-receptor-antagonists/article/584403/
NHS inform. (2018). Antiplatelets, Clopidogrel. Retrieved March 8, 2018 from https://www.nhsinform.scot/tests-and-treatments/medicines-and-medical-aids/types-of-medicine/antiplatelets-clopidogrel#introduction
Ferguson, J., Zaqqa, M. (2012). Platelet Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa Receptor Antagonists. Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://link.springer.com/article/10.2165/00003495-199958060-00002
Vazquez, L., Alañón, M., Robledo, Coello, M., Gutierrez, I., Maroto, M., Jordán, J., Galindo, M., Jiménez, M. (2016). Bioactive Flavonoids, Antioxidant Behaviour, and Cytoprotective Effects of Dried Grapefruit Peels (Citrus paradisi Macf.) Retrieved from March 9, 2018 from https://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2016/8915729/
Gremmel, T., Sabine, S., Daniela, S., Renate, K., Simon, P., Koppa, C. (2011) The influencing factors for clopidogrel-mediated platelet inhibition are assay-dependent. Thrombosis Research. Volume 128, Issue 4, October 2011, Pages 352-357. Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.thromres.2011.05.008
Ducrocq, G., Steg, P. (2018). Antiplatelet and Anticoagulant Drugs. Chronic Coronary Artery Disease
2018, Pages 303–320. Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-42880-4.00021-2
Rull, G. (2014). Antiplatelet Drugs. Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://patient.info/doctor/antiplatelet-drugs
Giordano, A., D’Angelillo, A., Musumeci, G., Romano, M. (2015). Effects of Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa Antagonists: Anti Platelet Aggregation and Beyond. Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286971615_Effects_of_Glycoprotein_IIbIIIa_Antagonists_Anti_Platelet_Aggregation_and_Beyond
Jing, F., Zhang, W. (2013). Thrombosis Therapy: Focus on Antiplatelet Agents. Int J Genomic Med 1:103. Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://doi: 10.4172/2332-0672.1000103
Owaynat, H., Lishko, V., Faust, J., Ugarova, T. (2013). The Dual Role Of Platelets In Thrombus Formation. Blood Journal Volume 122 Issue 21 p.1098. Retrieved March 9, 2018 from http://www.bloodjournal.org/content/122/21/1098?sso-checked=true
Zaragosa, C., Monserrat, J., Mantecon, C., Villaescusa, L., Zaragosa, F., Alvarez-Mon, M. (2016). Antiplatelet activity of flavonoid and coumarin drugs. Vascular Pharmacology
Volume 87 p.139-149. Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vph.2016.09.002
Philipose, S., Ofner, M., Heinemann, A., Schuligoi, R. (2010). A biological target for antiplatelet therapy: the prostaglandin E2 receptor EP4. BMC Pharmacology201010(Suppl 1):A17. Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2210-10-S1-A17
Przespolewski, E., Westphal, E., Rainka, M., Smith, N., Bates, V., Gengo, F. (2018). Evaluating the Effect of Six Proton Pump Inhibitors on the Antiplatelet Effects of Clopidogrel. Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases. Retrieved March 10, 2018 from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2018.01.011
Top Tropicals. (n.d.). Psidium guajava. Retrieved March 10, 2018 from https://toptropicals.com/catalog/uid/psidium_guajava.htm
Gachet, C. (2015). Antiplatelet drugs: which targets for which treatments? J Thromb Haemost 2015; 13 (Suppl. 1): S313–S22. Retrieved March 10, 2018 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/jth.12947/asset/jth12947.pdf?v=1;t=jek5zm7y;s=193fd501da840dba7430b15fdc584ae33ca34c6e
Horn, J., Hansten, P. (2013). Antiplatelet Effects of Aspirin: Which NSAIDs Interact. Retrieved March 10, 2018 from http://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2013/may2013/antiplatelet-effects-of-aspirin-which-nsaids-interact
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Anti-Aswang Architecture
Designation: Permanent Collection
Parallel Historian: Ben Tumbling.
Residential Entryway with Anti-Aswang Architecture
Carter Family (est. 1960, Brooklyn, New York, USA), 2016
Cement, steel, lead, acrylic paint.
Brooklyn adjusted quickly to aswangs, which can be noted in the anti-aswang features around this modern day murder door. The invasive species was unwittingly introduced to the New York City borough by a real estate developer who had illegally imported a breeding pair in 2015. They were caged in the atrium of a new condominium in the trendy neighborhood of Williamsburg to entice wealthy Filipino buyers.
The pair, of course, could not be contained. Today, an estimated 8,000 call Brooklyn home, making hostile architecture like this more common. Ironically, older buildings in less gentrified neighborhoods still had the bars, spikes, and multiple locks that protected them in the city’s more violent past. So making them aswang-proof was easy. But the new luxury developments, with open floor plans and massive unobstructed windows, are prime targets for roosting by aswangs. The recent drop in leasing numbers in the once gentrifying area is a sobering warning about the consequences of flouting community concerns and environmental laws.
Note the amount of space available for outdoor gatherings, such as barbecues, during daylight hours.
The Carter family home on Lorimer Street, reconstructed in the museum’s East Wing, is an excellent example of this architectural phenomenon. Most of the features, like the cement barrier and the spiked lead pipe railing, are originally from the 1960’s. The rest were added after the aswangs moved into the neighborhood. The entryway was painted red, not just a warning color to aswangs, it also hides blood stains. The window bars on the first floor are painted white, which makes it easier to notice damage or tampering. There’s also a particularly narrow grate covering the vent on the floor and a security camera on the awning pointed towards the sky.
February 22, 2018 by Ben Tumbling architecture, aswang, brooklyn, family, folklore, gentrification, monster, New York, permanent collection, security
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Work, domesticity and localism: Women's public identity in nineteenth-century Hartford, Connecticut
Melissa Ladd Teed, University of Connecticut
History, United States|Women's Studies|Education, History of
This dissertation examines the development of women's public identity in nineteenth-century Hartford, Connecticut. To build a framework through which to understand the negotiated boundaries of women's public lives, this study isolates three broad categories available to Hartford women when they fashioned their roles. Benevolent womanhood, learned womanhood, and wartime womanhood represent three types that had the greatest currency in the city. Yet all three identities were outgrowths of a persistent focus on localism, an attachment to domesticity, and a reliance on the labor of organized women. ^ Benevolence allowed women to access Hartford's public spaces without explicitly challenging traditional gender norms. Despite their own suggestions that they were simply offering charity to widows and orphans, benevolent women engaged in a complex assortment of work the drew them into the city's commercial economy. The most successful benevolent endeavors adapted traditional forms of domestic labor for the market. By the 1840s, however, the proliferation of formal educational opportunities served as the foundation for a substantial revision of the model of the benevolent matron. Some of Hartford's learned women translated education into new careers in the city's schools, while others constructed identities as authors. Lydia Sigourney, the city's most famous public woman, built a national literary reputation by applying the lessons learned in local benevolence. She called on personal contacts, not an impersonal publishing company, to market her work. ^ Abolition, war relief, and women's suffrage—the traditional agents of progress in women's historiography—never defined female activism in Hartford. The absence of a female antislavery society reveals a rejection of the direct challenges to social convention, gender roles and racial hierarchies that abolition embodied. While the Civil War called upon women to recast fifty years of local benevolent work and retool their labor for the good of the nation, Hartford's benevolent activists refused to abandon their local control over their labor to an impersonal central organization. When the war ended, a small group of the city's women formed a state suffrage association, but the majority simply recast benevolence to reflect new realities of the postbellum city. ^
Teed, Melissa Ladd, "Work, domesticity and localism: Women's public identity in nineteenth-century Hartford, Connecticut" (1999). Doctoral Dissertations. AAI9949129.
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Jazz Pioneer Cecil Taylor Awarded $500,000 Kyoto Prize
The cover of Cecil Taylor’s classic Unit Structures released by Blue Note in 1966. Other albums released that year include the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, Simon and Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence, and Revolver by the Beatles.
Maybe you have never heard of Cecil Taylor, but clearly someone has—he was just awarded a half-million dollars for his art.
If you are curious, a good place to start is his Unit Structures from 1966, but play it on a stereo or through good speakers—this is really great music, and you will never really hear it if all you do is YouTube it. Trust me on this.
For those who listen deeply to music and approach jazz the way wine experts approach fine wine, Taylor is an American treasure, a supreme master of what he might call the jazz piano language.
At eighty-four, he is a living bridge connecting the tumultuous world of the 1960s jazz scene to our present day. He works in so many musical idioms it’s often difficult to pinpoint what he is doing or where he is going. The short answer, of course, is that he is leading.
So it’s in this capacity as a leader of the avant-garde free-jazz movement that his work has been studied and celebrated all over the world, even though he is relatively unknown outside of the jazz community in his own country.
Still, his work is hard to describe. One could say he uses beautiful classical flourishes right next to tight minimalist structures and that he brings to mind John Cage, Debussy, Charles Ives, Bela Bartok, and other piano legends like Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. That hearing him play is like being with someone who can speak ten languages, someone who is in an effortless dialogue with practically everyone.
Yet, not only has Taylor been one of the country’s most complex and original musician/composers, he is also a poet. And he is a gay man. Unfortunately that fact was only made public when, in 1982, the hostile critic Stanley Crouch outed him. Years later in 1991, Taylor told Peter Watrous of the New York Times that “[s]omeone once asked me if I was gay. I said, ‘Do you think a three-letter word defines the complexity of my humanity?’ I avoid the trap of easy definition.”
Taylor is at home in a creative space that few musicians can get to; it’s a place where music is no longer about style or genre but just about language. Fortunately this prize means that somebody out there still values good work and understands that great art is not always popular art.
Description of Taylor by the Inamori Foundation: One of the most original pianists in the history of free jazz, Mr. Cecil Taylor has developed his innovative improvisation departing from conventional idioms through distinctive musical constructions and percussive renditions, thereby opening new possibilities in jazz. His unsurpassed virtuosity and strong will inject an intense, vital force into his music, which has exerted a profound influence on a broad range of musical genres.
From jazzcorner.com: Jazz pianist Cecil Taylor has won the Kyoto Prize awarded by the Inamori Foundation in Japan. Laureated in the category of arts and philosophy, Taylor will receive a diploma, a 20K gold Kyoto Prize medal and half a million dollars ($500,000). Well deserved prize for a jazz icon coming from a scene where it’s not infrequent to see world-class musicians vehemently rivaling for the privilege of playing pass-the-hat gig.
Chris Cobb is now on Twitter at @Brooklynonian
Tags: Cecil Taylor, Free Jazz, Inamori Foundation, poetry
Tom Brody says:
I was glad to see this news about the Kyoto Prize being awarded to Mr. Cecil Taylor. I saw Cecil Taylor perform at Keystone Korner in San Francisco. In the 1960s, I saw Gary Burton, Yusaf Latif, and Mongo Santamaria at Fillmore Auditorium. During the 1970s, I went to several jazz concerts at Keystone Korner, and the performing artists that I saw included seeing Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, Sam Rivers, Dave Holland, Airto, Anthony Braxton, Ted Curson, Julian Priester, Billy Harper, Dizzy Gillespie, and Odean Pope. After that, in the 1980s, I attended jazz concerts in Madison, WI, where I saw Art Ensemble of Chicago, Arthur Blythe, Art Blakey, Winton Marsalis, Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, Dave Brubeck, Johnny Griffin, and Randy Weston. After that, in the 1990s, I saw Max Roach, Anthony Braxton, Dave Holland, Ivan Lins, McCoy Tyner, and more, at Yoshi’s in Oakland. I would be more proud of America, if Americans would do a better job at paying attention to their own music.
Well at least he’s gotten some kind of recognition again and much-needed money while he’s still here.
John Gill says:
Hi Chris Cobb, I’m not sure about Cecil Taylor’s current domestic situation, but he also won a half-million-dollar MacArthur Genius Award in 1991.
And there are whole lot of people outside San Francisco that feel being gay matters – some of them jazz musicians!
Chris Cobb says:
Hi Mood-Indigo, I find that all too often record collectors and jazz afficianados spout-out long lists of records and songs complete with recording dates, members of the band, and relative values of each album – but what does that tell about the person? I don’t care about all that. This column was meant to be an introduction to him because most people have never heard of him. Also – there are a whole lot of people in San Francisco that feel being gay matters. In a perfect world, it wouldn’t matter.
Mood_Indigo says:
And it took the Japanese to award a lifetime award to Mr. Taylor?!
He has been living in semi-poverty in a rundown condo building with peeling paint in Brooklyn. Why is being gay is considered to be so important that it deserves almost as much space as the passing description of his music in this column beats me — political correctness, I presume.
Rather than Unit Structures, I’d recommend his best work from the 70s: the solo masterpiece “Silent Tongues” and the landmark “Cecil Taylor Unit” of 1978 with the incomparable Jimmy Lyons on saxophone and Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums, and his 80s work with European musicians in “Winged Serpent” and “Alms/ Tiergarten” which are the ones that drew me to his music.
Enjoy his music while he’s still alive.
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IS THERE A NEED FOR FLAT OYSTER (Ostrea edulis) RESTORATION IN DENMARK?
Nielsen, P. (Speaker), Saurel, C. (Guest lecturer), Freitas, P. S. (Guest lecturer), Barreau, P. D. A. (Guest lecturer), Lene Friis Møller (Guest lecturer), Petersen, J. K. (Guest lecturer)
Historically, the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) population in Denmark has been mainly located in sheltered areas on the West coast, i.e. Wadden Sea, Ringkøbing Fjord and in the Limfjorden, and less so in the Kattegat. The current flat oyster population is located in the Limfjorden, where it has survived for more than 165 years after it re-colonized the Limfjorden again, as the resumed salt water inflow increased the salinity in the Limfjorden when the North Sea broke through at Agger Tange in 1825. Although the population has been fluctuating, the wild flat oyster population is currently thriving and is supporting a sustainable regulated dredge fishery with landings up to 320t in 2018/19. For the last three years, the population has increased substantially from 1,500t to 6,000t and a similar trend is observed in 2019. Although, Bonamia disease was registered in 2014 in the Limfjorden and it lost its status as being declared Bonamia free. However, no mass mortality has been observed neither in aquaculture facilities nor in the wild population. The reasons for such increase are mainly due to successive successful natural recruitments and the establishment of flat oysters in new areas. Thus, unlike most other European flat oyster populations, which have reduced and sometimes disappeared from overfishing and disease, the flat oyster population in the Limfjorden is flourishing despite external pressure. A natural question could then be if there is a need for a flat oyster restoration program in the Limfjorden?
The recent discovery of Bonamia, the irregularity in successful recruitment of flat oysters and the recent massive expansion of the invasive Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) in the Limfjorden have raised some concerns regarding the future of the wild flat oyster population in the Limfjorden and aquaculture development. Spat collectors for flat oysters are colonized by Pacific oysters and mixed bottom oyster populations are now emerging in some areas of the Limfjorden. Despite the positive development in the flat oyster population in the Limfjorden, research efforts at DTU Aqua are focusing on: i) developing and securing a hatchery production from a potentially genetically diverse wild population of flat oyster to supply both restoration and aquaculture activities, ii) monitoring the possible development of Bonamia in the Limfjorden, iii) mapping the development, dynamic and interactions of both native and invasive oyster beds in the Limfjorden and iv) investigating potential areas for flat oyster restoration in the Limfjorden but primarily elsewhere in Denmark.
The presentation will give a short status of the development of both hatchery production and the wild population of flat oysters in the Limfjorden. It will also describe the various challenges facing the industry regarding: i) recent observations of the parasite, Bonamia ostrea, ii) competition from non-native species, iii) natural fluctuations in population size and recruitment but also new possibilities for marked development regarding i) breeding programs, ii) restoration and aquaculture production. Furthermore, an outline of perspectives for initiating flat oyster restoration programs in Denmark will be presented.
European Aquaculture Society Meeting 2019
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The Leveller Issue 11 May 2012
Levellermonthlyissue11Download
After May 10th Where Now? General Strike!
Striking workers say no to pensions robbery and working ‘til they drop. We will not pay more and work longer for less!
Thousands of public service workers in Northern Ireland joined 400,000 strikers across the UK in a one day strike on Thursday 10th May. Members of NIPSA, the Public and Commercial Services Unions (PCS) and the University College Union (UCU) took the action against pension cuts and the raising of the retirement age. The largest health service union, Unison, did not take part in the action.
Hundreds attended lunchtime rallies in Belfast and Derry. Speaking after the Belfast rally NIPSA General Secretary, Brian Campfield said union members had shown their “determination to protect their hard-fought entitlement to decent pensions”.
“NIPSA, in conjunction with other trade unions both public and private sector, is determined to protect the interests of ordinary people against the onslaught from the coalition government on their pay, terms and conditions, job security and the vicious assault on the welfare state”.
NIPSA members in the health and social care sector were also taking part in the strike action between 12pm and 2pm. Not all of the NIPSA members balloted were able to get out on strike on the day. Many workers in smaller, contracted out, departments, felt they were forced to go to work. NIPSA had not given their employers the legal minimum notice for strike action so workers were threatened that going out would be illegal.
It is being reported that another strike date has been set for June. In taking action we are showing that we won’t sit back and see this capitalist ‘crisis’ used as yet another excuse to rob us. It is not enough that we are robbed day in and day out as a result of capitalist exploitation – the bosses and their lackeys in government are tightening the screws while their profits soar and they spend billions on privatisation and war.
Only the working class can defeat the ‘austerity’ measures that are crushing us all, in both the public and private sector, in and out of work. We have the power together to grind their economy to a standstill – hitting the bosses and politicians in the pockets for a change.
The most effective means of defeating this onslaught is through a general strike. Nothing less will succeed – to do it we need to organise all working class people, public and private sector, in the unions and outside them, employed and unemployed, women and men, students, and migrant workers.
We need to link up with those general strikes that have occurred in other parts of Europe and across the world. Capitalism is a global system and must be opposed on a global scale.
Women Reclaim May Day
On Tuesday 1st of May Belfast women organised a protest and sit-in at a city centre dole office proclaiming “empty Cameron and Clegg’s purse – not ours!”.
Women and men from Organise! joined the protest organised by women:
who are (and whose families are): Community Workers, Civil Servants, we work in the Private Sector, and for the NHS, we work as volunteers, we are unemployed, lone parents, immigrant workers, we are pensioners and teenagers. We are from the communities of, North, South, East and West Belfast. We are individuals and we are in organisations. BUT unlike the 23 Ministers who help to make up the British Government, we are not millionaires.
The protest was held in opposition to the governments Welfare Reform Bill and ongoing attacks on social services and jobs. In a statement calling on people to join the protest Anne McVicker, of WOMEN’STEC, said:
It is not just the “reforms” in benefits that we are concerned about, but the whole dismantling of the National Health Service…
This should mark the start of a campaign based on direct action against cuts and ‘austerity’ measures. It is a welcome step in the reclaiming of the true heritage of May Day. A heritage based on the resistance of working class people to capitalism.
Vita Cortex Victory
After 139 days of occupation the occupiers of Vita Cortex have accepted a settlement. The dispute began when receivers KPMG went in and told the workers they would have to apply for minimum statutory redundancy to a government fund.
The slogan outside the factory summed it up:
€2.5 million for three company directors. No redundancy pay for 32 workers with 847 years service.
Vita Cortex was asset stripped by its owner Jack Ronan as he attempted to move production to Athlone to boost his profits.
The workers who had been occupying the factory since the start of the dispute, staying in over Christmas, built up huge public support.
Their occupation forced the company to agree a settlement they are happy with and provides an example for other workers in struggle.
Belfast May Day Parade: A View From The Rear.
Although it didn’t rain, the annual Trade Union May Day parade turned out this year to be a dictionary definition damp squib.
Assemble at Writers Square, few pointless speeches from bureaucrats, quick walk round the town, be on your way, thanks. At least the walk seems to be getting shorter. On the march itself, Trade Unions get to go first, everyone else shoved in together behind the last band, as an afterthought, seemingly tolerated rather than welcomed on the parade.
Being in the mix at the tail end means walking with some people you’d rather not. Who wants to be in the same universe as the dregs of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement (who are not even a ‘left wing’ group; what were they doing there?), never mind walking a few steps ahead of them?
None of this is any different to previous years, but at least up until this year the parade has returned to Writers Square (or previously St Georges Market) where there were stalls, giving the opportunity to distribute papers and pamphlets, sell a few books, have people come up and show some interest. This year, due to ICTU being unwilling or unable to pay Belfast City Councils (ridiculous) stallholder levy, there were no stalls at the parades end.
Being at the back means getting there last, by which time everyone in front has left already, leaving the unappealing option of walking about trying to pimp papers in the best leftist style to the few stragglers who remain (we didn’t).
Whether this is a one-off for this year or the new format for the day, we don’t know. From the ICTU bureaucracy’s point of view it’s probably for the best; it means that in effect the only viewpoints heard on the day are their own, at the start. Organise! will admit to getting there too late to catch the start of said speeches, and to not listening anyway, though we can guess that they were grand statements about resisting ‘The Tory Cuts’ that will not be backed up with any real action.
Overall, valuable pinting time was lost, and if its going to be like this from now on the question has to be asked: Is it really worth it?
End Unpaid Work.
Meanwhile our comrades in the Solidarity Federation took part in action against workfare on 1st May.
Dressed in prison garb Bristol Solidarity joined the 1st of May Group on their Workfare flashmob. The first action took place inside Primark, stunned shoppers were given leaflets as the Workfare Prisoners helped to stock shelves. Surprisingly security quickly bundled the workfare volunteers out of the store. It would appear that having free-labour is only acceptable to them if the victims of this modern day slavery are hidden from the public eye. Further pickets were held at the Holland and Barrett store in Cabot Circus and Wilkinson’s on Union Street.
Both London SF branches called an anti-Workfare roving picket through central London, as well as attending an electricians’ picket and, least interestingly, the official, Trade Union Congress (TUC) march. Various branches of McDonalds, Greggs, Holland and Barrett and Pizza Hut – amongst others – were forced to lock their doors and race to their shutters to chants of “IF YOU EXPLOIT US, WE’LL SHUT YOU DOWN!” and “YOU SAY WORKFARE, WE SAY WARFARE!”
Saturday 5 May saw joint action against workfare by Liverpool Solidarity Federation and UK Uncut Liverpool. They held pickets at both Holland and Barrett stores as well as at WH Smith and distributed over 1,000 leaflets to the public.
In the lead up to the National Conference on Workfare due to be held in Brighton on 26 May, Brighton SolFed have organised two weekends of pickets against workfare beneficiary Holland & Barrett in Brighton and Hove on the 12th and 19th of May. Organise! will be taking part in action against Holland and Barrett on the 19th of May in Belfast. Contact us for details.
IWA-AIT First of May 2012:
Against Capitalist Austerity Measures, Exploitation and Oppression – for Workers Self- Emancipation!
This year’s May Day has special significance as it marks the 125 Anniversary of the murder of the Haymarket Martyrs by the government of the United States in 1887. In 1886 an international campaign was launched in support of the 8 hour day. As part of that campaign a strike was called in Chicago on May 1st 1886. On May 4th during a demonstration called in support of the strike, a provocateur bomb exploded. The state sought to blame the anarchist who had been at the forefront of the campaign.
The government arrested 8 Anarchists, Parsons, Fischer, Engel, Spies, Lingg, Schwab, Neebe and Fielden. Though clearly innocent, Parsons, Fischer, Engel and Spies were hanged November 11 1887 and Lingg died in prison. The murder of the four men, who become known as the Haymarket Martyrs, sparked a massive international protest and lead to May 1st being declared International Workers Day. A day born out of the brutality of the state and the heroic struggle of the workers and one that belongs to the international proletariat.
On this May Day we are yet again seeing capitalism and the forces of the state attacking the working class. The world is in the grip of an economic crisis resulting from the inherent instability of capitalism. Globalization has set capitalism free from the constraints of national boarders and the oppression of the state is increasing and is being used by governments to attack working class resistance in the interest of international capitalism.
But though today we face remarkably similar conditions to those faced by workers at the time of the first May Day, thus so far there has been a different response by the international working class. The early workers movement turned its back of reformism and sought to build revolutionary unions and launched a powerful fight back against capitalism. Today workers are mainly organized in reformist trade unions that are unable and incapable of coming to terms and resisting the changing nature of globalised capitalism.
To succeed workers must reject reformism and electoral politics and once again turn to internationalism, solidarity and direct action as a means of organizing as a class to directly confront the capitalist economic dictatorship. A dictatorship that is now being clearly revealed across Europe and especially in Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain where vicious austerity measures are being imposed on workers.
That these Southern European economies are under attack is not surprising. A powerful group of Anglo-American financiers agreed in November 2009 that a diversionary attack on the euro, centred on the weaker Mediterranean economies, would be an ideal means of relieving pressure on the battered US dollar, then at a record low. This was followed by media attacks and coordinated financial speculation targeting the so-called PIGS countries: Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain.
These attacks have been met with growing workers resistance which the IWA has fully supported. There was lately a General Strike on March 22 in Portugal as reported by AIT –Portugal and the USI-AIT is active in the protests against the hard austerity measures in Italy. The protests have been, and are going on in Greece, and the workers at the Kilkis hospital showed the path by occupying the hospital. It was a General Strike on March 29 in Spain, and further mobilizations are initiated by the very active CNT-AIT against the government massive onslaught on workers conditions and rights!
Over the last year the IWA has also been involved in countless, international campaigns and solidarity actions in support of workers worldwide. On March 29, 30 and 31 the IWA also organized a successful Action Days against Capitalist Austerity Measures, Exploitation and Oppression. It is through such campaigns and solidarity actions rather than just words that the IWA is expanding.
The IWA consist of older and newer Sections which the commemorations this year show: The USI-AIT is 100 years, the NSF-IWA is 95 years, the young and vital IWA Section, ZSP-IWA is 5 years. Besides this, in the end of this year, it is 90 years commemoration of the IWA and it`s (re)founding in Berlin!
On this May Day 2012 our message to the workers of the world remains the same as at the time of the Haymarket Martyrs: Capitalism has and always will remain a system based on exploitation and oppression. It is a barbaric system that results in human misery, ecological disaster, unemployment, fascism and wars.
As such capitalism cannot be reformed. Reformism is used by capitalism to undermine and weaken workers self-organization, struggle and emancipation. The only path to emancipation for us as workers is to take control of our own struggle: A struggle that is directed against and outside of class collaborationist structures and that through Direct Action and Solidarity confronts and defeats the Capitalism and establishes Libertarian Communism!
For Workers Self -Emancipation!
Long live the IWA and Anarcho-syndicalism!
Oslo, April 28 2012
IWA- Secretariat
Time to get Their Religion Out of Our Schools
Only those who have been living in a cave, or wearing theocratic blinkers, could be unaware (or in denial) of the latest sick turn in the saga of abuse that is the history of the catholic church in Ireland. It has been revealed that the actions of now Cardinal Brady facilitated the continued abuse of children by notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth after 1975. He had the names and addresses of those being abused by Father Brendan Smyth but chose to keep them within the church. Parents were not even informed.
It is certainly true, if appallingly understated, that, in his own words, Cardinal Brady was part of:
an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church
In 1984 an ineffectual ‘children ban’ imposed on Brady by the Church was actually overturned. The Bishop of Kilmore, at the time Bishop McKiernan, permitted Smyth to return to the role of hearing confessions, celebrating Mass and allowed him contact with more children that he went on to abuse up until 1993. Secure in the knowledge that he, and others like him, would be protected by the cloth.
So the faithful do a three monkeys act and reassure us that all priests are not paedophiles. This misses the point – the Church is rotten to its very core, at every level.
Brady’s actions are not unusual. In terms of the behaviour demanded of him by his Church he can actually claim he did nothing wrong. Of course this is akin to the defence of Nazis that they were ‘just following orders’. Rome rule knows no other authority and acts in the manner of an independent empire defending its own.
The facts are that the Brendan Smyth case is not a one off. In Belgium the bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, resigned in April 2010 after admitting that he had sexually abused a boy for years when he was a priest and after being made a bishop. The former head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, had advised the victim not to go public with his story until Vangheluwe had retired in 2011. Following this an enquiry found abuse in nearly every diocese. Thirteen victims had committed suicide.
In the United States the Church has paid out millions to the victims of sexual abuse. Abuse that was covered up by the Church as they hid abusers and ignored complaints. A report commissioned by the Church itself found that over 4,000 US Roman Catholic priests had faced sexual abuse allegations in the last 50 years, in cases involving more than 10,000 children – mostly boys.
While the Pope spoke of “the pain and the harm inflicted by the sexual abuse of minors” in his 2008 US tour he had previously ignored complaints. Archbishops had complained about a Fr Lawrence Murphy in 1996 to a Vatican office led by the future Pope. They received no response.
Fr Murphy, who died in 1998, is suspected of having abused some 200 boys at St John’s School for the Deaf in St Francis, Wisconsin, between 1950 and 1974. The Pope had known for years about the accusations and did nothing.
This tragedy goes far beyond Ireland and the US. The church has covered up thousands of cases of abuse in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Malta, Spain – all over the world.
Isn’t it time these bastards and other pious abusers like them were kicked out of our schools?
Religion, with its systematic abuse and attempts at closing young minds has no place in the education of our children.
Welfare ‘Reform’ Attacks Limbless
Half a million are set to lose their Disability Living Allowance across the UK in the latest attack on the most vulnerable. This attack goes by the misnomer of welfare reform in an attempt to disguise sick cuts of £2.24bn from the welfare budget. Not even those who have lost limbs will necessarily be eligible for the new personal independence payment that replaces DLA.
Anarchists For Choice
The second discussion at this year’s Belfast Anarchist Bookfair saw the formation of Anarchists for Choice, a group that aims, in the short-term, to build opposition to the ‘All Ireland Pro-Life Walk’. This report was written by Conrad Lennon, who took part in the meeting.
The North American-based anti-abortion group, Crossroads, are marching around Ireland to ‘convert the hearts and minds of others at the grass-roots level’ with ‘prayerful, peaceful protests and sidewalk counselling.’ 1 This includes several stops in the North of Ireland, including Belfast, where a meeting was held on Saturday 28th April to discuss how the pro-choice voice can make itself heard.
Crossroads are driven by fundamentalist Christian theology, having come into existence ‘in 1995 as a response to [pope] John Paul II’s call to the youth of the world to take an active role in the pro-life movement in order to establish a Culture of Life.’ The group’s tactic is ‘to spread the message of life and love through the means that the modern world provides… radio, television and newspaper… as well as religious media outlets.’ Last year saw the group’s first large scale activity in Ireland – a country which has no legal provision for abortion whatsoever. This year they aim to increase their activities, against what they see as a liberalisation of the country’s attitude to free choice, with a series of marches and rallies from the 18th June to the 14th July.
The argument Crossroads put across is based on biblical babble – ‘we strive always to join our efforts, prayers and small sacrifices with the sufferings of Christ’ – and on highly emotive imagery and language. Crossroads are not out to engage in debate, they are out to proselytise, and to polarise people’s attitudes to abortion in an attempt to preclude rational discussion. From the experiences of other countries, they can see that where rational consideration and the right to choose are held above religious doctrine and the profferings of holy-men, their fanatical hardline anti-abortion/anti-choice position is unsustainable. Here, the influence of the church means that abortion remains illegal, forcing women to use unregulated and potentially unsafe abortion methods, or travel overseas for the procedure, creating unwanted stress and expense.
The main focus of activity for the pro-choice movement in Ireland is in providing support for women who want or require an abortion and campaigning for the right to choose to be legalised. However, it is also necessary to oppose groups like Crossroads, and to present an alternative to their aggressive anti-choice position. This means opposing their marches and prayer-protests at ground level. It is the aim of pro-choice campaigners to have a presence at every event of their all Ireland march, to ensure that their right-wing Christian position is not presented without challenge, and that there is a demand for the right to choose to be legalised in Ireland.
At the meeting in Belfast it was decided that people would organise to oppose Crossroads, in cooperation with those organising elsewhere. If you would like to be involved in these activities, please get in touch – anarchistsforchoice@gmail.com.
1 From http://crossroadswalk.ie/about-us/
Gay Blood Still Banned
Ongoing archaic nonsense in Northern Ireland, as Edwin Poots continues to dodge the question on the lifetime ban on gay men giving blood. Health Minister Edwin Poots claimed, “Safety must be my primary concern and I want to ensure public confidence in our blood supply”.
We know your real reasoning though, Poots. Because homosexuality of course is an abomination! The earth is a few thousand years old and Samaritans are bad, except that one who was good that time.
The risk with a gay man’s blood in the donation system is similar of that of any other man’s blood. Lifetime bans were lifted by Health Ministers for England, Scotland and Wales in September 2011.
The group Bloodban who were part of campaigning for the lifelong ban on gay men to be lifted; have pointed out just how ludicrous the ban is:
A straight man who has unprotected sex with a different girl every weekend can give blood; a straight man who has had unprotected sex with a prostitute can give blood after just 1 year; those who have had unprotected sex with an intravenous drug user can give blood after 1 year; those who have had unprotected sex abroad in a high risk HIV country can give blood after 1 year. While in Northern Ireland gay men continue to be banned for life, even if they’ve only ever had sex with one partner – and even if they use protection.
Even with no limits on who can give blood the risk of infection is 1 in 3.48 million. You’re 4 times as likely to get hit by lightning!
Blood donor selection criteria and a wide range of other blood safety measures, including stringent testing, mean there has been no documented transmission of a blood-borne virus in the UK since 2005, with no HIV transmission since 2002.
Despite all of these facts, backed up by the latest scientific research from around the globe. Despite the criteria being unfair & prejudicial. Despite the need for more blood donors. Despite all this, Health Minister Poots still insists that the lifetime ban on gay men giving blood is in the interest and safety of the public.
4th Belfast Anarchisy Bookfair
The fourth Belfast Anarchist Bookfair took place on Saturday 28th April at the Centre in Little Victoria Street. Opening the doors at 12 noon over 150 people came along throughout the day to browse, chat, buy books, pick up info and participate in discussion.
The first discussion of the day was on co-ops, collectives and ‘free’ space. Different speakers gave brief introductions to their projects/activities. Jason Brannigan talked about both the Just Books Collective, a worker’s co-operative with a history stretching back to 1978, and the North Belfast Housing Co-operative, which is in the process of getting its first property. Hugh, from na Crosbhealai cafe in King Street gave a run down of the activities and vision of that workers co-op and Clem described the setting up of the Creative Workers’ Co-op. Tiziana outlined the work of the Northern Ireland Co-operative Forum in supporting the establishment of co-operatives and working with many different types of co-ops on the basis of agreement with the co-operative principles.
Koldo from the occupied Peoples’ Bank in Belfast described their activity and the plans they have for the building as a cultural and social space.
Discussion about the nature of different co-operatives, how co-ops could, or indeed in some cases could not, be part of a movement for a better world.
This discussion was followed by a meeting that saw the launch of Anarchists for Choice (see report on page 7).
Organise! and the Just Books Collective would like to thank everyone who made this event a success.
Post Category:Leveller Archive
Tags: Abortion Rights, Abuse, Anarchists For Choice, Belfast, Belfast Anarchist Bookfair, general strike, IWA-AIT, May Day, Pro-Choice, Rally For Choice, The Leveller, Women, Workfare
Previous PostThe Leveller Issue 10 April 2012
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The Leveller Issue 7 Coming Soon to the Archive
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Hedgehog and Fox Series
History, Political Science
This book by Shekhar Pathak, says Ramachandra Guha in his Introduction, “is the definitive history of the Chipko Movement”.
In India, modern environmentalism was inaugurated by the Chipko Movement, which began in 1973. Because it was led by Gandhians, included women participants, occurred in “spiritual” Himalayan regions, and used innovatively non-violent techniques of protest, the Chipko attracted international attention.
It also led to a major debate on Indian forest policy and the destructive consequences of commercialisation. Because of Chipko, clear-felling was stopped and India began to pay attention to the needs of an ecological balance which sustained forests and the communities within them. In academic and policy-making circles it fuelled a wider debate on sustainable development – on whether India could afford to imitate the West’s resource-intensive and capital-intensive ways of life.
Chipko’s historians have hitherto focused on its two major leaders, Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Sunderlal Bahuguna. The voices of “subalterns” – ordinary men and women such as Gaura Devi who made Chipko what it was – have not been recorded. Pathak places Chipko in its grassroots contexts. He shows that in leadership and ideology Chipko was diverse and never a singular Gandhian movement.
Every scholar and serious student of Indian environmentalism will need to engage with the empirical richness and analytic solidity of this book.
Shekhar Pathak is the quintessential historian-as-fieldworker: he has lived in the many valleys where the Chipko protests took place, studied their landscapes, and talked at length to protesters and communities. He has trawled through local newspapers of the 1970s and 1980s and conducted oral interviews with the movement’s leaders and foot soldiers.
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Pensacola Discussion Forum » Politics » Well...
1 Well... on 1/7/2021, 10:58 am
(courtesy of the trailer for Satan's Sadists)
Anybody really surprised by yesterday?
What really makes me sick is watching the people who did everything they could to cause this now thinking they can backpedal by going on Twitter and saying, "Violence is bad, mm-kay?" They're like kids who were playing with matches and burned down the barn and are now going, "What? Not me, I hate matches, I've never liked fire!" Too bad, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Marsha Blackburn, Rudy Guiliani, Cindy Shitface-Smith, Kevin McCarthy, Ivanka Trump and her ugly-ass mouth, Don Jr., Jim Jordan, Ronna McDaniel, Kellyanne Conway, and all the other hypocritical scum who spent four years throwing gasoline around and feeding idiots lies and conspiracies to make them exploitably stupid and frightened, and then wanna cry about it. You plant and tend and water seeds, motherfucker, and you DO NOT get to cry when a crop comes up. Nope... you sit down and EAT. Eat 'til you're sick, eat 'til you BUST, because it's YOUR crop.
Ted Cruz, especially... I really, really can't put into words how disgusting I find Ted Cruz. What a spineless ratbag. Who in the HELL allows anyone to call their wife ugly and their father an assassin... and not only does nothing, but ends up fighting to be that guy's chief bootlicker? Imagine how that schumck's wife feels, watching that. It's hard to find anyone on this planet less worthy of respect than Ted Cruz. I would say Trump, but Trump at least has the excuse of being pathetically mentally ill. Trump's a worse person, but he's sick. Cruz isn't crazy... he's just a coward and completely without principles. I've never been a big fan of Texas, having spent a lot of time there, but, shit, dude, I gotta wonder about a state that keeps electing someone like that. Can't have much pride, letting that leaky sack of dungliquor represent ya. But I know that's not all Texans. He's hanging on by a thread, and I hope that thread snaps the next chance they get. Fuckin' hell, that guy.
Anyway, I know it's less than two weeks left, but Trump still should be impeached and removed for psychological reasons and criminal behavior and sedition. He oughtta be out of there by sundown, for reasons of national security AND because he needs to be disgraced. This cult of his is poison and needs to be made pariah. Never was funny, far less so now.
Floridatexan, Telstar and RealLindaL like this post
2 Re: Well... on 1/7/2021, 2:54 pm
When it comes to shithole states like Texas, don't forget Florida, with Gaetz and monkey it up DeSantis. Meanwhile the only thing this thing proved is the only good Trump Terrorist is a dead Trump Terrorist. May she be the first of many.
3 Re: Well... on 1/8/2021, 10:16 am
Trump: “If You Don’t Fight Like Hell, You’re Not Going To Have A Country Anymore”
https://www.newsandguts.com/trump-if-you-dont-fight-like-hell-youre-not-going-to-have-a-country-anymore/?fbclid=IwAR0YqHzLAYgzKvzZSI8K8NDbZoDf88pu_Svx5dwEW5kBGRVWFWOHRNCaYCM
Also Trump: "I'll go with you". Liar.
Rudy: "Let's have trial by combat."
The Trump Administration Officials Who Resigned Over Capitol Violence
Several officials announced that they were stepping down after a mob of the president’s supporters disrupted the process of certifying the election results on Wednesday.
https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-resignations.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20210108&instance_id=25780&nl=the-morning®i_id=57249491&segment_id=48723&te=1&user_id=003b223a2f944c5ae2f41b9b0936a70e
What's amusing to me about this is... well, nothing, really, there's not much amusing about a coup attempt, but this comes closest: the Trump cultists have been yammering nonstop since the election of "we're gonna start a Civil War, we're gonna storm the Capitol and drench the Tree of Liberty" and yadda-yadda-yadda-look-how-big-my-dick-is here's-a-picture-of-me-with-guns-that-anybody-can-buy-but-they're-special-when-I'm-holding-them-cuz-I-play-a-lot-of-Call Of Duty. Whatever. You go to Gab, you go to Parler, you look in the YouTube comments under Tim Pool or one of his endless wannabe's, and it's ALL THEY GODDAMN TALK ABOUT.
Then when some of 'em actually DO some of that shit, what's their first reaction?
"Couldn't have been us, Antifa did it, it was Antifa posing as us, that crafty Antifa!"
Ya gotta laugh. Really, ya gotta.
Y'know, it really is true: the Nazi playbook and the GOP playbook overlap.
Over a period of months I have been documenting in this thread - https://pensacoladiscussion.forumotion.com/t30796-a-really-short-diary-re-white-supremacist-infiltration-of-minneapolis-protests -- so many concrete examples of right-wingers posing as "Antifa" that I call the post my "ammo dump."
And the second the right-wingers actually DO some of the violent stupid Q-bert shit that they cannot flippin' shut up about, and they see that the nation doesn't view them as the heroes they were sure they'd be greeted as... they go to a tactic straight out of a Family Circus comic.
I mean, okay, I can kind of understand. Gaze upon these wond'rous examples of humanity:
I know y'all are desperate not to have to claim Buffalo Boy (aka "The QAnon Shaman" -- that's what he calls himself, there's YouTube Video of him and whooooo-baby just back the psych-meds truck up to his house and somebody get the funnel 'cuz boy is gaaaawwwwn on the cult-crazy, whacked right outta his skull, dad, he ain't never comin' back) or that whatever-that-is holding the orange flag, that "What If Baby Huey was a dwarf" or whatsit. I can understand why that fella joined up. He's got a lot to compensate for. He's one of those fellas you look at and think, "Jesus, THAT'S the product of the strongest-swimming sperm in the load?! What kind of babies would the also-rans have made? Balloon animals? A marine sponge? A squash? Would they have even been viable?" I know someplace that boy's got a mama and every time she looks at her offspring and sighs to god, "C'mon, lord, ya gotta be kiddin' me." And not even pictured is "Big O" (who's 60 and still thinks people wanna see his chest) and "Elizabeth from Knoxville" (I'd pay a quarter and duck into a tent to get a look at her parents... and I'd probably have to).
I mean, nobody's eager to admit that those folks are who they're in bed with. But most of those folks are long-time Trump cultists who have been on the radar forever. It was like right-winger-celebrity-day in the Capitol. Hell, even Tim "Baked Alaska" Gionet was there, and that Nazi sonofabitch has been a star in the Trump scene since Charlottesville. That crowd was full of known Proud Boys, Groypers, Kek dimwits, etc. They're all Pro-fa, not Antifa. The "it was the BOOGEYMAN, the BOOGEYMAN did it!" shit ain't gonna work this time, kids, sorry. You shit the bed and you were sleeping alone.
Oh, and in case anyone (like our resident Nazi apologist, who's probably the brother of that dude with the orange flag) doubts that Trump's base overlaps pretty widely with neo-Nazis, witness a lot of the gear on display.
I know, I know, somewhere the Oak Ridge Boys are missing a roadie, but... look at the tee-shirt. "CAMP AUSCHWITZ." On the back it reads "STAFF." Real edgelord shit. They think that's funny.
Then this guy:
That shirt is sold by the Proud Boys, in their colors. "6MWE" is a popular phrase among 'em, and they also wave it on flags. Know what it means?
"SIX MILLION WASN'T ENOUGH."
Y'all are pretty smart folks, I don't think I have to explain what that refers to.
That's what was in our Capitol a few days ago. Invited in by The Don himself, and encouraged by a whole lot of people who, hilariously, are on Twitter trying to decry it all as an outrage when they spent a lot of time and energy encouraging it, just thinking it wouldn't really happen.
Like I've said a few times already, we're gonna have dozens of Tim McVeighs in the next few years, and it'll be because of Donald Trump and the right-wing media who decided that lying to idiots to keep them angry and afraid was profitable. And it's still profitable so I doubt they're gonna stop. They don't care who gets hurt -- that's all over there, among the rabble, while the money, that's right heeeere and will help ensure we never have to mix with that rabble.
Already the right-wingers are all over Parler thinking what they did in the Capitol was cool and planning to do it all again on the 19th and 20th, but with their nifty guns this time. I hope that doesn't happen, but if it does, I hope the National Guard that's there to meet 'em uses live rounds, because some of these people just gotta go. If they're hell-bent on killing their fellow Americans, and they're not gonna have it any other way, then I'd rather they were the ones who went, instead. Hopefully it won't come to that, but these people are drunk out of their minds on a bunch of absolute bullshit... and you can never disprove anything to a cultist who wants to believe it. So... we'll see what happens. Hopefully it's bluster that'll blow out. But I know it all won't, and for the next decade or so we're going to have domestic terror cells of right-wingers, causing mayhem. Maybe longer if Republicans get elected again, because now that the GOP has figured out that their base will accept a dictatorship, that's going to be what they aim for. Settling for less is never the way of sociopaths... and the Republican party has become the sociopath party at this point. They've been getting radicalized since Limbaugh started his career, and it's only snowballed and gotten worse. It'll be up to them to stop doing it... but as long as it makes money, I wouldn't bet on 'em doing that.
At least the Trumpet is skipping the inauguration (but who knows, he might be lying about that too). I don't have any expectations for Biden to do anything but stomp on his crank if his staff ever lets him off his leash but at least he's not Trump; it's a crying shame the election came down to two zero-choices like Biden or Trump. Hopefully at least some of the rioters will be caught and prosecuted, that was the most disgusting display of stupidity I've ever seen.
gatorfan wrote: At least the Trumpet is skipping the inauguration (but who knows, he might be lying about that too). I don't have any expectations for Biden to do anything but stomp on his crank if his staff ever lets him off his leash but at least he's not Trump; it's a crying shame the election came down to two zero-choices like Biden or Trump. Hopefully at least some of the rioters will be caught and prosecuted, that was the most disgusting display of stupidity I've ever seen.
I think Biden's being underestimated. He's sharper and got a lot more on the ball than people think. But, we shall see. The image problem will plague him, regardless... this is a very image-based country. People make up their mind what a person is and then they stick to it, and it can't be disproven for 'em, most of the time. If it wasn't, Trump wouldn't have survived as long as he did, because what he is is far more pathetic than what a lot of people thought he was. Anyway, yeah, he won't go to the inauguration. It'd be too hard for him, like a toddler watching somebody else get presents at a birthday party. Trump can't stand anyone else getting attention... and that's all he sees things like inaugurations as being, just celebrations. Trump really doesn't understand much beyond "celebrity," I think.
Anyway, here's some more stuff on the mob that invaded the Capitol. They're a classy bunch...
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rioters-stormed-nations-capitol-132405951.html
“We wanted to show these politicians that it’s us who’s in charge, not them,” said a construction worker from Indianapolis, who is 40 and identified himself only as Aaron. He declined to give his last name, saying, “I’m not that dumb.”
Yeah, there's no way Feds won't be able to figure out who he is if he doesn't give his last name! Oh, Aaron, you're like a new puppy.
Really, all Feds are gonna have to do is call up cellphone location stats for that location during that time, and they'll have most of those people's info automatically. Just eliminate the people who were authorized to be there fom the list, round up the rest. These folks ain't ready to go against the Feds, they don't know half the tricks.
“Yeah look at all this fancy furniture they have,” said a man in a winter parka and red hat, standing on the west side of the Capitol and peering through the glass at empty desks, computer screens and ergonomic chairs. Several people banged on the windows with their fists, including one man who shouted, “Put the coffee on!” One man hit his head, not seeing the outer layer of glass was there, it was so clean.
Afterwards he began licking the window because he could see an apple on the other side of it...
Aaron, the construction worker from Indianapolis, and his two friends had heard people talking about going to Pelosi’s office. So once inside they decided to instead find Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office. Both are Democrats.
“We wanted to have a few words” with Schumer, he said. “He’s probably the most corrupt guy up here. You don’t hear too much about him. But he’s slimy. You can just see it.”
But they could not find Schumer’s office. He said they asked a Capitol Police officer, who tried to direct them. But they appeared to have gotten nowhere near the minority’s leader’s office. They ended up smoking a few cigarettes inside the building — “We can smoke in our house,” Aaron said — and one of his friends, who would not give his name, joked that he had gone to the bathroom and not flushed.
Just like he does at home.
A woman in a coat sat on the couch in a small room with a blue carpet and watched as a man ripped a scroll with Chinese lettering hanging on the wall.
“We don’t want Chinese bullshit,” the woman said.
I don't think I'm gonna even bother saying anything else about a troglodyte who can't appreciate Chinese culture.
Nearby, six men sat at a large wooden desk. A lamp with a white shade was knocked over and broken. Someone was smoking pot. “This is the pot room!” a young man said.
Like rock 'n' roll and sex and all the other things they've fought hard against, some conservatives have started liking pot, apparently. Once they're defeated they start loving the stuff their mamas and daddies tried to squash.
In the Crypt, people walked around taking photographs of the statues and themselves with their phones. One man had a selfie stick, like a tourist in a foreign land. A woman in baggy jeans and a blue puffer jacket was shouting chants into a megaphone, while a man in a black T-shirt that read “Not Today Liberal” ran around the central columns in what looked like a frenetic victory lap.
The mind of a puppy.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Thursday that the FBI and the Transportation Security Administration should add the names of anyone who had entered the Capitol building during the mob attack to the federal no-fly list.
“We already saw reports of ‘unruly mobs’ in air on the way to Washington, D.C.,” Thompson said in a statement. “It does not take much imagination to envision how they might act out on their way out of D.C. if allowed to fly unfettered.”
I'm all for it. Make their lives as difficult as can be from here on out. They earned it.
As authorities try to identify those in the mob, some will be less hard to pin down than others. The group included some well-known figures from the conspiratorial right, including Jake Angeli, who has pushed the false QAnon claims that Trump was elected to save the U.S. from deep-state bureaucrats and prominent Democrats who worship Satan and abuse children. He was pictured sitting in Congress in a viking helmet and furs. Angeli, who is known as the “Q Shaman,” has been a fixture in the pro-Trump protests in Arizona since the election, and there are indications that he and other right-wing activists had planned to spark a confrontation with authorities before Wednesday’s rally.
There were also leaders from the Proud Boys, a far-right group whose participants have espoused misogynistic and anti-immigrant views, such as Nick Ochs, a failed Hawaii state legislature candidate and member of a collective called “Murder the Media.” Chris Hood and members of his National Socialist Club, a neo-Nazi group, posted photos on Telegram from outside the Capitol on Wednesday. And the Three Percenters, a far-right armed group, were seen gathered in Washington’s Freedom Plaza on Tuesday night, most wearing helmets and Kevlar vests adorned with the group’s symbol, a Roman numeral three.
“Yeah, we stopped the vote!” screamed a man in a navy-blue zippered jacket, as he emerged, hands held high, from a tall yellow wooden door, as people outside whooped and cheered. “Murder the media” was scrawled in black marker across the other part of the double door.
But you didn't stop the vote after all...
Many said they would not have tried to go in, but they sympathized with those who had.
“I’m not going in there, but, yeah, I’m kind of OK with it,” said Lisa Todd, 56, a high school teacher from Raleigh, North Carolina. She was standing with three friends, all fellow teachers.
Well, smart enough to have a sense of self-preservation, at least.
Others expressed some regret.
Storming the Capitol was “probably not the best thing to do,” said Eric Dark, 43, a truck driver from Braman, Oklahoma, who was tear-gassed when he got to the top of the steps to the building but never made it inside.
That tear-gas did him a favor. What amazes me is how many of these people are in their 40's and 50's. How does anybody reach that age and not be cynical enough to not see through the bullshit these folks are buying? That's sad.
He had been standing with Brian Hobbs, mayor of Newkirk, Oklahoma, near the top of the steps on the western side of the building around 4:30 p.m. when officers in riot gear started moving to clear out the thousands of people who had gathered.
It could have been a lot worse, he said.
“We had enough people; we could have tore that building down brick by brick,” he said.
And may be on the 19th and 20th, if Parler's not just the usual bullshit, because they're planning to hit DC and local state capitols, bringing weapons. I predict a lot of really stupid ugliness. I really hope I'm wrong.
Okay, this KILLED me!
9 Re: Well... on 1/9/2021, 1:35 am
The funniest was the dude with a taser hidden in his pants, who in an effort to remove a portrait of Tip O’Neil from a wall, discharged the taser into his nuts, giving himself a heart attack and dropping dead.
Heee-fucking-larious!
You couldn’t make that shit up if you tried.
10 Re: Well... on 1/9/2021, 12:50 pm
REPUBLICAN ATTORNEYS GENERAL DARK MONEY GROUP ORGANIZED PROTEST PRECEDING CAPITOL MOB ATTACK
JAMIE COREY
jamie@documented.net
The Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a 501(c)(4) arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), helped organize the protest preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6, 2021.
As a 501(c)(4), RLDF is not required to reveal its donors. RLDF has received at least $175,000 from the Koch-backed Freedom Partners. Other RLDF donors include Judicial Crisis Network, the Rule of Law Project, and the Edison Electric Institute.
RAGA is a 527 political organization that helps elect Republican attorneys general and can accept unlimited contributions from wealthy individuals and corporations. As previously reported by Documented, RAGA received significant funding from numerous corporations in 2020, including Koch Industries ($375k), Comcast Corporation ($200k), Walmart ($140k), Home Depot ($125k), Amazon ($100k), TikTok ($75k), 1-800 Contacts ($51k), Chevron ($50k), The National Rifle Association ($50k), Monsanto ($50k), Facebook ($50k), Fox Corporation ($50k), Uber ($50k), Coca Cola ($50k), Exxon ($50k), and Google ($25k).
RLDF appeared in a list of groups “Participating in the March to Save America” alongside entities including Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action, Tea Party Patriots and others.
RLDF also sent out a robocall detailing where and when the protest would take place.
Documented · Rule Of Law Defense Fund Robocall
“I’m calling for the Rule of Law Defense Fund with an important message,” the robocall stated. “The march to save America is tomorrow in Washington D.C. at the Ellipse in President’s Park between E St. and Constitution Avenue on the south side of the White House, with doors opening at 7:00 a.m. At 1:00 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on congress to stop the steal. We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our elections. For more information, visit MarchtoSaveAmerica.com. This call is paid for and authorized by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, 202-796-5838.”
RLDF’s role in organizing the protests, which turned into a violent mob attack inside the Capitol, is ironic given its 2020 election campaign warning of “lawless liberal mobs” burning down buildings and committing violence. The campaign, dubbed “Lawless Liberals”, came in the aftermath of the largely peaceful protests following the murder of George Floyd by police and the shooting of Jacob Blake.
“The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA)’s five-month Lawless Liberals video campaign repeatedly warned Americans about the dangerous reality of lawless liberals run amok in cities across the country,” RAGA said in a statement.
Republican attorneys general have been heavily involved in efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election. Shortly after Joe Biden was declared the winner, Republican attorneys general filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to reject some mailed ballots in the state of Pennsylvania. Republican attorney general Ken Paxton–who has been embroiled in bribery, abuse of office and other criminal allegations–filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court regarding four battleground states and alleging unconstitutional changes to their voting laws before the 2020 election. Prior to the protests, Paxton appeared on Fox News and said he hoped to be at both rallies.
RAGA and Republican attorneys general issued statements denouncing the violence. “The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) and the Republican attorneys general (AGs) stand together to condemn the violence, destruction, and rampant lawlessness occurring at the U.S. Capitol today. These actions are an affront to the rule of law, our Constitution, and our American political discourse.”
RLDF, which helped organize the protest, has not made a statement at the time this report was published.
Note: A previous version of this report stated the MarchtoSaveAmerica.com website had been down. The website is now live again.
https://documented.net/2021/01/republican-attorneys-general-dark-money-group-organized-protest-preceding-capitol-mob-attack/?fbclid=IwAR0dleFAoWzk-12k57oLONTnaAtu5JpNOjk5RbQ3agmITcVLH1DrXI9kYUw
11 Re: Well... on 1/9/2021, 1:07 pm
Eric Alterman on Holding Trump Enablers Accountable
BY ERIC ALTERMAN | JANUARY 8, 2021
Sen. Josh Hawley greeting protesters in the east side of the Capitol before riots began. (Photo by Francis Chung, E&E Daily, Twitter)
I’ve been forced to write about Donald Trump an awful lot during the past five years and the problem I always face when writing in a limited space, like this one, is which of his countless horrific qualities to focus on. The same thing happens when I need to address the consequences of the policies of his administration. There are so many terrible ones, so many victims and so many enablers. I always found myself asking, “Who deserves a thousand words today?”
Not today. I don’t dispute the genuine horror, outrage and sadness genuinely patriotic people feel at seeing the desecration of one of the most potent symbols of American democracy. I share those feelings. But another part of me is glad about it. Finally, Trumpism has clarified itself. It’s not about “economic insecurity.” It’s not about globalization. It’s not about being “forgotten,” “disdained by elites,” or “fear of the future.” It’s just about hatred: hatred of anyone and anything who is not a white, Christian, right-wing, American-born American. Any other attempt to defend or explain Trump’s appeal is a lie and a dangerous one at that because it’s a lie that perpetuates all the other lies that have allowed him and his minions to conduct a rampage against America and all that it stands for; the same rampage that finally found its physical manifestation in the insurrectional riot we saw on Wednesday.
What made all this possible? Obviously, there is Trump himself. His entire life, beginning with his real estate career, his TV celebrity, his presidential campaign and then of course, his presidency, had been built on a foundation of easily disprovable falsehood. And somehow, it worked. Trump apparently told the right kind of lies; the kinds of lies that were in the interests of the powerful people allied with him to pretend to believe. As for his victims, who cared? If they had any power in the first place, they would not have been victims. As far as Trump was concerned, lying worked. It pumped up his ego and got him what he wanted. After all, he got elected president of the United States without having any appreciable qualifications. It’s not much of a mystery as to why he kept it up.
The more compelling question for our future is who were the people who bought into his lies, pretended to believe (or at least excuse) them and benefitted as a result? These, after all, are the people who betrayed their country and will still be around when Trump is either serving time or living in exile. Second, of course, was the structure of enablement his lies enjoyed. The Trump administration was one big bribe. The rich got their massive tax cuts and extremely relaxed enforcement of financial crimes. Evangelicals got their Federalist Society–appointed judges and extreme Zionism put into practice. Racists, Nazis and nationalists got their attacks on everyone who did not look and “think” like them. (These people came cheap.) Cops got to beat up and sometimes murder people with impunity. Corporations were free to pollute their communities and disempower their workers. The right-wing press got to give their “middle finger” as National Review editor Rich Lowry named it, at the rest of us and the mainstream media got ratings, subscriptions and stock prices they could not have imagined five years earlier. Remember CBS CEO Les Moonves speaking about Trump’s candidacy, before Moonves lost his job following numerous claims of sexual misconduct? He may have been speaking for the entire industry when he said: “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS,”
All this added up to an irresistible bargain for all of them to embrace Trump’s lies and pass them along to the voters, viewers, stockholders, churchgoers, whomever. The net result was the creation of an entire world of unreality in which nearly half the country lived and most of the rest of it agreed to indulge. Trump-supporting Kentucky Republican, Thomas Massie, sounds like he’s making complete sense when he says, “Trump has a 94 percent approval rating among my Republican electorate—I’ve actually polled it twice,” Massie said. “Those are people that vote in the primaries in Kentucky’s Fourth District … I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do.” The poor fellow…
Almost all the mainstream media commentators expressed profound shock at the sight of Trump’s most devoted followers attacking Congress on Wednesday. It played out as a “Drunk History” parody version of the Bolsheviks’ 1917 storming of the Tsar’s winter palace. Didn’t these people know a wink when they saw one? Didn’t they understand, as Selena Zito lectured the rest of us back in September, 2016 (in the Atlantic, no less,) that while, “the press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally?” Apparently, not. These people have been fed a diet of literally nothing but political lies for decades now in the fantasy “propaganda loop” that right-wing billionaires like Rupert Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson, the Koch brothers and Rebekah Mercer have created for them. Donald Trump was just the Frankenstein monster that (we now see) pushed things a little too far. But give credit where it’s due. Trump’s 30,000 or so presidential lies were built on a mountain of lies that came before him, thanks to Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, both George Bushes (but especially the second one) and all of the politicians and pundits who embraced and enabled them.
Viewed from a certain perspective, one is almost tempted to feel sorry for these clowns — or “very special” people as Trump called them — in the Viking hats and the “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirts. They had become, what Hannah Arendt called, “the ideal subject of a totalitarian state”; that is, the person “for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (that is, the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (that is, the standards of thought) no longer exist.” Too bad, however, that — just like with Covid deniers — their purposeful ignorance combined with their maniacal aggressiveness is endangering the rest of us to the point of that (My God!) even Mitch McConnell recognized as a potential “death spiral” for democracy and said enough was finally enough.
The obvious question for which there is just as obviously no clear answer yet is, “Are we too far gone to save ourselves?” As posed by the punditocracy, it takes some form of, “How much of the Republican Party will remain in thrall to this guy that we now all suddenly discovered is a dangerous lunatic?” This question is always followed by references to rhetorical flamethrowers, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and the total of 179 lawmakers who, even after what they saw on Wednesday, still refused to recognize the rightful president-elect of the United States. (This is coupled with a running count of which rats are jumping from their sinking ship. ) But the Congressional Republican Party is just the head of an extremely pugnacious and poisonous snake. The reptilian structure it grows out of has strangled so many of institutions that make democracy possible and infected so many of the people who shape and influence it, one has a hard time imagining where we will find the resources to nurse the body politic back even to a semblance of good health.
One thing is for certain, however: we have no choice but to try. There is no “moving on” or “looking to the future” without first facing the truth. And that means legally holding responsible everyone who helped to create the criminal syndicate that took over our government and morally, everyone who supported it. They were not just “playing politics,” this time around. They were toying with treason. And that’s just how they need to be treated if we are to restore a semblance of functional democracy to our system and personal honor to our politics.
https://billmoyers.com/story/hold-all-trump-allies-accountable/
13 Re: Well... on 1/10/2021, 12:52 pm
Michael Moore:
THE 7 CRITICAL TRUTHS:
1. This attack on the Capitol was an Inside Job in which some Republican members of Congress and their staffs assisted the mob in getting into and through the Capitol building.
2. Various elements of law enforcement also assisted in the attack, as did rogue cops and current and ex-military from around the country. Current members of the NYPD and the Seattle police force have been identified in footage as part of the mob. Reports say they’ve also identified active duty troops partipating in the attack - plus a police chief and a sheriff - as members of the mob. The guy inside the House chamber carrying the large number of police-grade handcuff zip-ties is a retired Lt. Colonel.
3. Trump was the ringleader and the inciter - and when cries of help were made to him to send in the National Guard to protect the Capitol and our elected representatives, Trump refused.
4. This attack was a dry run for more violent attacks the terrorists are planning to launch before the Inauguration.
5. Why did members of Congress tell their staffs to stay home on Wednesday “for their own safety?” Everyone knew there would be trouble. Yet, stunningly, 1,900 Capitol Police were told to stay home on Wednesday. Only 400 reported to work. It was designed for them to be overrun.
6. Of the very few terrorists who have now been arrested, not one of them has been charged with domestic terrorism. “Trespassing” is the most common charge.
7. White supremacists were everywhere in the mob. Some wore T-shirts proclaiming, “6 Million Was Not Enough.” Our military and police departments across the country have been infiltrated by white supremacists and hard-core racists. Defunding them will defang them. Everyone knows had that mob been Black, they’d all be dead. We need to start over with a whole new concept of criminal justice, and new anti-racist peacekeeping officers.
14 Re: Well... on 1/10/2021, 4:54 pm
The horror of the Confederate flag in the US Capitol
Historians have noted that not even during the Civil War did this violent symbol of white power and oppression penetrate the halls of our Capitol.
By Josh DelaneyUpdated January 7, 2021, 4:56 p.m.
A member of the mob of Trump supporters who rampaged throughout the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., Wednesday carried the Confederate flag inside the building.
As white supremacists stormed our nation’s Capitol on Wednesday, the text messages and e-mails were coming so quickly that it was just easier to copy and paste a form response to nervous friends, family, and loved ones: “I’m home safe. Thank you for checking on me. This is horrifying.”
Like the rest of America, I watched the chaos unfold on TV. Although I was about a mile away from the Capitol building, I feared for the safety of my colleagues and friends who were in the complex, as well as the thousands of staff — especially the Black and brown support workers — who dutifully keep the sprawling Capitol complex humming every day.
We never pass without a smile and sometimes a gentle nod that signals, “I see you, brother, I see you, sister.” This exchange is spiritually familiar to every Black Hill staffer who is accustomed to going long stretches without seeing another Black face in their workday. I feared for them on Wednesday.
I’ve had the honor of working in the Senate for Senator Elizabeth Warren for over six years. I’m proud to be on her team. I’m proud to be Black in this space and in these halls of power. It carries a profound sense of duty and responsibility to my community. One that I carry close to my chest, because that’s how we work.
One of the core philosophies of being a Hill staffer is to do the work quietly, in the wings of history. We are not in the spotlight. We support our bosses, whom the people elected, and help advance their priorities for the country and, in my case, for Massachusetts.
The action is on the House and Senate floor. We are the supporting players, and most of us prefer it that way. But seeing staff fleeing a violent mob, hiding in barricaded offices, calling and texting loved ones to say “I love you,” just in case — the tragedy had moved to the wings. It was almost too much to watch.
The image that shook me was the Confederate flag being carried confidently and brazenly through the halls of Congress. Historians have noted that not even during the Civil War did this violent symbol of white power and oppression penetrate the halls of our Capitol. And yet, a white mob had successfully and violently ushered this hate into the bowels of Congress. The chilling contrast between these images and the images of violence used against mostly peaceful protesters for Black lives last summer was profound.
Growing up in Georgia, I saw that flag several times a week in front of homes, restaurants, and stores as a symbol of hate that carried a simple message: You are not welcomed here.
But this was the first time I’d seen that message on display at my place of work. I’ve walked the halls of Congress so often that I probably take for granted how my very presence in the building is a miracle — the result of years of hard-fought civil rights victories and justice work. And consequently, a threat to racists and white nationalists who wish to take us back to whenever they perceived America was “great.”
I spent most of the afternoon letting friends know I was OK and safe, but this photo made me realize, no, I’m not. And the rioters in that mob did not intend for me or my colleagues to feel safe.
My native state of Georgia proved this week what our civil rights giants, including fellow Georgians the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Representative John Lewis, told us: Progress is not inevitable, but it’s possible with lots of hard work. And this week’s historic and momentous elections of the Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to represent Georgia in the Senate allow me to carry a well of hope that it’s darkest before dawn.
But Jan. 6 was an ugly day for our democracy and for our nation. It was also traumatic for the countless public servants who proudly serve without recognition or glory to keep our country moving forward.
We are resilient. We will heal from this trauma together. We will get back to the quiet, important work of the nation. We will keep marching forward. But for now, it’s OK to acknowledge that no, we are not OK.
Josh Delaney is deputy legislative director for Senator Elizabeth Warren.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/07/opinion/horror-confederate-flag-us-capitol/?fbclid=IwAR0U_uZjFEcUKwozZWU1_han9UD18EcrqOty59pBBFyLMy5EZ5pHfJMqBR8
This is what the inside of my head feels like lately...
18 Re: Well... Today at 10:27 am
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9149861/amp/Left-wing-activist-arrested-relation-siege-Capitol-Building.html
https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/utah-man-charged-federal-court-following-events-united-states-capitol
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Thirsty 5-Year-Old Drunk on Mouthwash Leads to Arrests for Child Abuse: Police
A 5-year-old New Mexico boy's claim that thirst led him to down mouthwash contributed to the arrest of his dad and the dad's girlfriend on abuse charges
By Jeff Truesdell
A 5-year-old New Mexico boy’s claim that thirst led him to down mouthwash that made him drunk contributed to the arrest of his father and the father’s girlfriend on abuse charges, PEOPLE confirms.
Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, say the child and a 6-year-old sister had been the target of physical abuse allegedly carried out by Tyriese Howard, 25, and 23-year-old Breya Allen, Howard’s live-in girlfriend, whom the children called “mom,” according to an arrest warrant obtained by PEOPLE.
The kids — in addition to the 5- and 6-year-olds, the household included a 3-year-old boy — told Dr. Shalon Nienow, a physician with the New Mexico Hospital Child Abuse Response Team, that they would receive “whoopins” and were choked, punched in the face and struck with hangers, belts, cords, shoes and spatulas, according to the warrant.
Police and medical staff at the hospital noticed evidence of multiple injuries on the 5- and 6-year-old, with scars that indicated “repeated physical child abuse,” according to Albuquerque police.
“Tyriese and Breya both maintained they did not know how” the 5-year-old “sustained his multiple injuries,” Officer Joann Lopez wrote in the warrant. “Breya claimed the cuts and scars on [the 5-year-old’s] neck were caused from eczema.”
The children said they kept quiet because they were told “snitches get switches.”
During a forensic interview, the 5-year-old told investigators that his father “tells him he hates him over and over and [the boy] feels like he wants to kill him.”
Police began investigating after the 5-year-old arrived at Presbyterian Hospital via ambulance with a blood-alcohol content of .20 — nearly three times the state’s legal driving limit of 0.08 percent, according to KRQE.
“I feel bad, like I feel like I should have heard something,” Diana Yesville, a neighbor who lives downstairs from the family, told KOB. “I mean, there’s a lot of music; maybe that’s it. But it’s not like I’m completely oblivious. I thought I would have hard something.”
“I didn’t see the children very often,” she said. “I saw them occasionally, but I didn’t really hear any screaming, nothing like that.”
Another, unnamed neighbor alleged in an interview with KRQE that “whenever the ‘mom’ would get upset, she would grab the kids from one arm and like drag them.”
Police said the children spoke openly about the abuse they’d allegedly received, and the 5-year-old told Dr. Nienow that he drank the alcoholic mouthwash because he was thirsty.
The youngest child told investigators he also had seen the 5-year-old drink from the toilet “and it is their dad’s idea to do this,” according to the arrest warrant.
Police said that over the past three years, they had responded to seven calls at the family’s apartment involving noise, disturbances and a custody dispute. They described two of the calls as welfare checks.
Neither Allen nor Howard have prior criminal histories. Both appeared in court Friday on allegations of child abuse involving at least two of the the children.
It was not immediately clear if they had attorneys or had entered pleas. The judge set a cash or surety bond of $50,000 for each.
The 5-year-old and a sibling were placed by the state’s Children, Youth and Families Department with a foster family, reports KRQE.
The location of the third child was not immediately available.
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Doctors Explain How Fecal Transplant Patient Died from Contaminated Stool
"This is a cautionary tale about the risks of cutting edge projects," one doctor said of the patient's death
By Claudia Harmata
Credit: Thierry Zoccolan/AFP/Getty
A procedure that was hailed for its revolutionary approach left one person dead and another severely ill last Spring. The doctors involved have now come forward to explain what happened.
In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, a group of doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital detail their mistakes in the fatal fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), and hope to eliminate some fears about the still-new technology.
“It’s been professionally very challenging,”Dr. Elizabeth L. Hohmann, the lead author of the article, told The New York Times. “But this is a cautionary tale about the risks of cutting edge projects.”
RELATED: Patient Dies After Fecal Transplant, the FDA Warns
Clinical trials are still ongoing for FMT procedures, which transfer feces from a healthy donor to the intestinal tract of sick patients in an effort to restore healthy bacteria to the gut. The new field has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, according to the Times, but the treatment has been successful in treating Clostridium difficile, which is a life-threatening bacterial infection.
The man who died last year was a 73-year-old cancer patient. He and the other patient who fell ill, 69, were reportedly being treated with the same stool in two different experimental trials of FMT — leukemia and liver disease, respectively.
According to the Times, the doctors say that the stool used to treat the two patients had been contaminated with a strand of E. coli bacteria. Hohmann explained to the outlet that no one had thought to test the material before it was used on the patients.
RELATED: Former Employee Claims Juul Knowingly Shipped Over 1 Million Contaminated Vaping Pods
“It wasn’t obvious to a lot of smart people here,” she told the outlet. “We didn’t think to go back in time.”
After the contaminated stool was transferred to the two men, they both fell ill. The liver patient was treated with powerful antibiotics and was able to recover, but the cancer patient had recently taken drugs to suppress his immune system as part of a bone marrow transplant. He died within 10 days of his last FMT treatment.
RELATED VIDEO: Four Brothers with Same Fatal Bone Marrow Disease Fight for Their Lives: ‘We Might Not Live Past 30’
Following the incidents, the FDA issued a nationwide warning, and now doctors are testing stool donations for several infectious and emerging diseases.
Next week, the agency plans to hold a public hearing in Washington D.C. to discuss the risks and benefits of the procedure.
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Nicki Minaj on Being Single for the First Time in 20 Years: It's 'Okay to Keep Your Legs Closed'
“Becoming single was one of the things that made me feel strong and powerful," the rapper told Elle
By Jeff Nelson
Nicki Minaj is single and not ready to mingle.
In Elle‘s July cover story, the “Chun-Li” rapper, 35, opens up about living the single life for the first time in 20 years.
“It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever been single,” Minaj — who has been in serious relationships since she was 15 — told the women’s glossy.
“I remember feeling like I could do anything at one time in my life, and somewhere along the line, I just started second guessing myself, for whatever reason,” she added. “As soon as I realized that I could actually live and breathe, and eat and sleep, and walk and talk without having a boyfriend, something clicked in me.”
| Credit: Karl Lagerfeld
That epiphany fuels much of her upcoming fourth studio album, Queen, due Aug. 10.
“Becoming single was one of the things that made me feel strong and powerful,” she said. “The fact that I am a young woman who doesn’t need a man for money. I don’t need a man for a job. I’ve never had to f— for beats. I’ve never had to f— for a record deal. I don’t have those pressures. I get up when I want, shop when I want.”
Nicki Minaj with Karl Lagerfeld
The Grammy-nominated performer said the album — which includes new single “Rich Sex” — is about “it being okay to keep your legs closed.”
RELATED VIDEO: It’s #NickiDay! Nicki Minaj Drops Singles ‘Chun-Li’ and ‘Barbie Tingz’ – and Twitter Explodes!
Minaj was last romantically linked to Nas. She also famously dated Meek Mill and Safaree Samuels.
Watch the full season of Search History on PeopleTV.com or download the PeopleTV app on your favorite device.
The rapper opened up about her plans to remain chaste last year when she appeared on The Elle DeGeneres Show.
“I’m just chillin’ right now,” Minaj told the talk show host. “I’m celibate. I wanted to go a year without dating any man. I hate men.”
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Home → Sports
TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY. IT’S ONLY PLACE YOU HAVE TO LIVE IN - JIM ROHN
P. E. S. College of Engineering, Mandya, under the guidance of Late Sri. K V Shankara Gowda, Founder, Former Education Minister, Dr. H D Chowdaiah Ex. MLA & MLC and under the current chairmanship of Sri. K S Vijay Anand, caters to the educational needs of youth by running well-established technical institution.
The P.E.S College of Engineering, Mandya has also taken up the responsibility of promoting sports in an extensive manner. It has impressive state-of-the-art infrastructure for sports, comprising of most advanced, sophisticated and modern sports facilities.
As a first attempt, the Indoor Stadium was constructed at the cost of Rs.1.0 crore in the year 1998 consisting of four Badminton Wooden Courts, Multi Gymnasium for boys and girls (separate and 45 members at a time), Chess, Carom, and Weight Lifting.
A cement Basket Ball Court was constructed in the year 1998 at an expense of Rs.10 lakhs.
In the year 1999, Swimming Pool with eight tracks (25 Mts. In Length) was constructed at a cost of Rs.71.5 lakhs. The swimming pool is complete with all modern facilities like filter mechanism and chlorine-oxygen control system.
PESCE Cricket Stadium with turf cricket Ground was built in the year 2002 at a cost of Rs.1 Crore 60 lakhs.
In the year 2003, three synthetic Tennis courts of International Standard at the cost of Rs. 25 Lakhs and Clay Tennis court (ITF Tournament in Dec. 2010, June 2012) was made.
Table Tennis Indoor stadium was started in the year 2002 and in the year 2004, Multi-Purpose Stadium was renovated at the cost of Rs. 25 lakhs. This stadium is for Athletics (Eg: 200 meters track) and also for Football and Hockey.
In the 2005, a Mini Outdoor stadium was constructed for the purpose of Ball badminton and hand ball.
Along with the above said games, Volleyball, Kho-Kho and Kabbaddi have also been provided with independent courts.
The PESCE has not confined itself to provide mere physical infrastructure but has also been able to attract good coaches from SAI/SAK and Private Coaches to impart training in Badminton, Gym, Swimming, Weight lifting, Table Tennis, Tennis Cricket etc., to name few, PET Tennis Association, PET Cricket Academy, PET Swimming Academy, PET Badminton Academy etc.
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Brett Solomon
Brett Solomon is the executive director of Access Now, an organization that defends and extends the digital rights of users at risk around the world. By combining direct technical support, comprehensive policy engagement, global advocacy, grassroots grantmaking, and multi-stakeholder convenings, Access Now fights for human rights in the digital age.
He is also the founder of RightsCon, Access Now’s annual conference summit series on technology, society, and human rights. Before Access Now, he honed his skills at Avaaz, GetUp, Oxfam Australia, and Amnesty International Australia.
Solomon has a bachelor’s degree in Arts and Law and a master’s degree in International Law. He also serves on the board of AllOut.
Democracy & Governance Human Rights Innovation & Technology
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J. Michael Walton: The Greek Sense of Theatre: Tragedy Reviewed. Pp. 177; 4 plates. London and New York: Methuen, 1984. £10.50 (paper, £4.95) [Book Review]
The Classical Review 36 (01):140- (1986)
Greek Tragedy for the Modern Stage Frederic Raphael, Kenneth McLeish (Trs.): Aeschylus, Plays, Vols. 1 and 2. Introduced by J. Michael Walton. Pp. Xxxiv + 153; Xxix + 130. London: Methuen, 1991. Paper. Don Taylor (Tr.): Sophocles, The Theban Plays. Pp. Lii + 200. London: Methuen, 1986. Paper, £2.99. Robert Cannon, J. Michael Walton, Kenneth McLeish (Trs.): Sophocles, Plays, Two: Ajax, Women of Trachis, Electra, Philoctetes. Introduced by J. Michael Walton. Pp. Xxvii + 227. London: Methuen, 1990. Paper. Jeremy Brooks, David Thompson, J. Michael Walton (Trs.): Euripides, Plays, One: Medea, The Phoenician Women, The Bacchae. Introduced by J. Michael Walton. Pp. Xxxv + 149. London: Methuen, 1988. Paper, £3.99. P. D. Arnott, Don Taylor, J. Michael Walton (Trs.): Euripides, Plays, Two: Hecuba, The Women of Troy, Iphigeneia at Aulis, Cyclops. Introduced by J. Michael Walton. Pp. Xxxi + 207. London: Methuen, 1991. Paper. Don Taylor (Tr.): Euripides, The War Plays: Iphigenia at Aulis, The Women. [REVIEW]Everard Flintoff - 1993 - The Classical Review 43 (1):13-15.
Greek Theatre T. B. L. Webster: Greek Theatre Production. Pp. Xv + 206, 24 Plates. London: Methuen, 25s. Net.Hugh Lloyd-Jones - 1957 - The Classical Review 7 (02):111-113.
The Greek Theatre Peter D. Arnott: Public and Performance in the Greek Theatre. Pp. Viii + 203. London and New York: Routledge, 1989. £25. [REVIEW]David Bain - 1990 - The Classical Review 40 (02):298-300.
(E.) Hall and (F.) Macintosh Greek Tragedy and the British Theatre 1660–1914. Oxford UP, 2005. Pp. Xxxvi + 723, Illus. £60. 0198150873. [REVIEW]J. Michael Walton - 2006 - Journal of Hellenic Studies 126:223-224.
A Literary Study of Greek Tragedy H. D. F. Kitto: Greek Tragedy: A Literary Study. Pp. X+410. London: Methuen, 1939. Cloth, 15s. [REVIEW]R. P. Winnington-Ingram - 1940 - The Classical Review 54 (02):79-80.
Rush Rehm: Greek Tragic Theatre. (Theatre Production Studies.) Pp. X +168; 2 Illustrations. London and New York: Routledge, 1992. £35. [REVIEW]Everard Flintoff - 1993 - The Classical Review 43 (02):434-435.
Greek Tragedy Greek Tragedy. By Gilbert Norwood, M.A. 1 Vol. Pp. Vi + 394. 8½″ × 5½″. Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1920.H. J. Rose - 1921 - The Classical Review 35 (1-2):33-34.
The Greek Modes K. Schlesinger: The Greek Aulos. Pp. 1+577; 18 Plates. London: Methuen, 1939. Cloth, 42s.R. P. Winnington-Ingram - 1939 - The Classical Review 53 (5-6):185-186.
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MARCH 2018 SUMMIT SPOTLIGHT: RODGER REDDISH
During the infant stages of Achilles Pikes Peak, our organization thrived within a decentralized structure. Now, four years later, the benefits of this environment still ring true to this day. Rather than a concrete hierarchy of decision making, the varied ideas and talents of our many of our members, mixed with just the right amount of chaos, has allowed us to grow in ways we couldn’t have anticipated in the beginning. In The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom refer to this model as a starfish organization. Whereas a spider organization has a head with a clear hierarchy of neural control, a starfish model contains neural pathways that are distributed throughout it’s limbs. Within groups, this unconventional model allows for diversified contributions, dispersed responsibilities, and a shared ownership in growth. If we follow this metaphor and consider Achilles Pikes Peak as a starfish, Rodger Reddish constitutes one of our arms. He is the arm, or leg, that is, of course, pedaling a trike.
Rodger initially joined Achilles Pikes Peak to walk, but it didn’t take long before he began sharing his passion for cycling. He now serves on our board, heads the recumbent trike program, and remains a tremendous advocate in helping others find accessible ways to experience the joys of pedaling.
One final analogy: Achilles Pikes Peak is a tire wheel whose structure and strength come from the many spokes that reach out in different directions. One of those spokes happens to go by the name, “Rodger.” You can’t miss it. It’s the one adorned with the glowing monkey lights. We hope you enjoy Rodger’s story, in his words.
Rodger instructs Achilles Pikes Peak athlete, Jim, on the basics of handcycles.
How It Feels To Ride A Recumbent Trike
“I don’t know what it feels like, to put it in words. But when I am on the trike, I AM Rodger. It’s something that everybody should experience.”
Earliest Memory of Riding a Bicycle
“3rd grade. Because I rode it to school. From my house it was a 3 mile trip, but for an elementary kid to do that when they’re supposed to be riding the bus, it kind of equaled, shall we say, parental punishment. I took it on my own. I’m going to ride [a bicycle] to school and I was supposed to ride the bus, like everybody else.”
“When I was in the 8th grade, we moved to a location in the San Joaquin Valley, north of Bakersfield but south of Fresno. The moving van unloaded our bicycles. We went for a ride and pushed them home. Goatheads, thorns. And when the guy came to install the telephone, Homer Wilson, he said, “No problem, I own the only bicycle shop in the area.” We took the bikes in and got to his place on a Saturday and there was a line of people from his doorknob to the street waiting for service. And my mom turned to me and said, ‘You know what, if you can take apart your bicycle, you can take apart theirs and get paid for it.’ So starting in the beginning of 8th grade, I worked for Homer Wilson. I made $5 a weekend. Not bad for an 8th grader in that era. Mr. Wilson showed me a couple things… how to take things apart or put them back together, stuff like that. I was welding by Christmastime of 8th grade.”
“I don’t know where I got it from. The mechanical sense is part mathematical ’cause you can’t do it if you don’t have math. It’s innate engineering. As you know, not everybody can strum a guitar. Not everybody can true a wheel with spokes and whatnot.”
On Surgery to Repair a Congenital Heart Defect.
“I had heart surgery when I was in the 8th grade and never had a PE class until I was in the 9th grade. Patent Ductus Arteriosus is the formal name, PDA. I didn’t know how to do team sports because other children started doing team sports when they were in the 3rd, 4th, 5th grades.”
“It was like a new life. Before [surgery] I couldn’t swim a swimming pool length without being wheezed and out of breath or whatever. I couldn’t run the length of a football field. You have no idea what it’s like to go from the kid that was not permitted to have PE to having the door opened. When you’ve never had PE and then all of the sudden you go, ‘Wow, there’s the world!’ I was unleashed.”
“I wasn’t allowed to play team sports so it was a new world. It was like, ‘I can fly.’ Like a bird out of a nest.”
“No high school sports, period. Correction. I wrestled. I could break your neck. But I couldn’t run. I didn’t have the ability to be on a track team.”
On His Military Career
“I was drafted into the Army Air Defense, that means Missile Radar. When you’re Air Defense, that means sometimes you’re only in town 18 months. So in other words, you go to Korea and you run into somebody and you go, ‘Wow, weren’t I stationed with you before?’ or you go to Germany and you go, ‘I know you, where have you been?!’ There’s a camaraderie. Back to the bicycling, people would say, “didn’t you ride the Alps at one time?’ ‘Yea I’ve ridden the Alps.’ ‘What was it like?’ ‘I couldn’t stop wheezing!'”
“I served from 1968-1988 in California, Texas, Germany, Korea, Louisiana. Each one of those places, I purchased a bicycle when I arrived, and most of the time, I gave it away when I left. In Germany, I went through four bicycles. Texas, four bicycles. Louisiana, one bicycle. State of Colorado, three bicycles.”
“In Germany I used to make a point to ride a bicycle three days a week. A Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And each day I would set the trip meter to zero. And if it didn’t go to 80 [miles], I didn’t go far enough. Monday I would start at zero and by Friday at supper, I was up to 240 [miles].”
On His First Encounter with Recumbent Trikes in 1977
“I rode my first recumbent in Nijmegan, Holland when I went there to be part of the American Department of Defense entry into the Nijmegan Marches. If you’ve never been to Europe and you know nothing about the Nijmegan Marches, it’s hard to explain.The year that I went there were 26 nations. It is an international event and it opens up very similar like the Summer Olympics with people toting their flags. There’s a lot of people.”
“I was a tourist in the town of Nijmegan at that moment and was walking down the cobblestone streets. And here comes a guy riding a recumbent. I had never seen one in person, I had seen pictures. And I don’t know if he let me ride it because of my enthusiasm or because he was letting an American ride it, or a combination of both.”
On His Bike Accident in Germany August of 1986
“A negative experience with a bicycle? That’s called a car running over you.”
“Heinz Gerhard was just a German citizen. I’ll never forget him, or the fact that he drove a blue Toyota. He ran into me and I told him not to do that. I broke his windshield with my head. He ran an intersection on purpose.”
“Nobody knew what a helmet was at that time. When they took me to the hospital, they were like chickens on a porch. They wheel me in and they knew that a bicyclist had been hit. They x-rayed me and did all the things they did. Put a couple of stitches in that scar right there. Gave me a mayonnaise jar full of aspirin and said, ‘Go home.’ For the next 5 months, every day I was in physical therapy. I was in a neck brace. I was in dual wrist braces and things like that. A knee brace. I felt like I wrestled a polar bear and didn’t do too good.”
“I got back on a bike in a month and rode a century in the Alps again with the same club that I mentioned a while ago. I rode it with dual braces, a neck brace, the whole nine yards. And they made fun of me because I rode a Peugeot, which is a French bicycle, in Germany. It’s like the old cowboy story. If you fall off the horse, get back on it. It was hard to do a century in one day in that condition. But I was hard headed.”
On His Stroke in 2005
“My stroke, by the way, was caused by that [bicycle accident], fourteen years later.”
“[I was] trying to walk through that door right there. I came in and walked into the door frame. Gabby said, ‘What’s that noise?’ I said, ‘I dunno.’ I had no clue I had walked into it. By 9:00 I went to bed and woke up later in the night. I had to use the bathroom and I couldn’t walk. Like a drunk getting out of bed, I crawled on my hands and knees to the bathroom and I’ll never forget it. I remember looking at my right arm and saying ‘I’ve got arms like Popeye, I can do one arm push ups,’ but I couldn’t get off that wall and I couldn’t walk. Gabby told me to get back in bed. I thought that I was talking pretty good English but in truth it was [gibberish]. I thought I was saying, ‘I think I’m having a stroke.'”
“I wasn’t allowed to drive. A little white bus would come here to pick me up and take me to therapy. The stroke people didn’t say it openly, but they heavily insinuated… ‘You’re talking, you can understand most of what I’m saying, you know where the bathroom is. Go watch TV. Enjoy life.’ In other words, they put me out to pasture. After a while, I said. ‘No, I’m not out to pasture!’ And I’m back pedaling.”
“To have a stroke is like to have lighting strike your house. Fuse box don’t work right. You think all the lights are on, and then you find out some lights don’t work. Or you find out that the telephone line don’t work anymore. Or if you’ve got wired in TV from the satellite and some channels don’t work. To have a stroke is the same thing. You are a brain injury person.”
“I lost my balance, I have aphasia, If I’m on my own, I don’t think about things. If we stop talking about something, I don’t remember it anymore until someone else brings it up. My long term memory is pretty good. My short term memory is poo poo. If I tilt my head back and look off to one side, I have double vision. The aphasia part of it is I mispronounce words or twix words or meanings.”
“If people overtalk themselves, it becomes sensory overload. If somebody asks me a pinpoint question, I can’t always answer it right there. I’m gonna have to go away a little bit and come back tomorrow and be able to answer it.”
“I have whats referred to as no social filters. So if you come near me and you smell offensively, I’m like a three year old. ‘What’s that smell?’ Or if you ask me, ‘How do I look in this?’ I’m gonna tell you you look funky or I’m going to tell you you look OK. So if you have something around me that’s how I react sometimes. And I know it but I can’t control it.”
“I have vertigo, so if I get up, I might fall back down.”
Rodger giving Melissa a ride at the 2017 Chasing Santa 5K Walk and Run/Cycling Santa 15K.
Rediscovering Recumbents After His Stroke
“Through the Memorial Hospital Stroke people, they brought in Kelvin [from Cycle Different]. I realized, ‘Hey wait a minute, I’ve known about recumbents for several decades! There are recumbents right here in town!’ I went there the next day and said tell me about it.”
His Wife, Gabby
“Without her mentoring me and becoming a caregiver, I don’t know which bush I’d be under. It helps to have somebody who’s with you.”
“I think I chose wisely. It’s not her fault though!”
On Achilles Pikes Peak
“I got an email from the Therapeutic Recreation Program saying, ‘Hey, check this out, Achilles.’ When I first started doing Achilles, the focus to me was to walk. ‘Come on, walk to right here. No, no no, you did this last week, walk to right there. No no no, walk to over there!’ And somewhere along the line I saw on the Achilles logo spokes and pedals. I can’t walk. It’s an issue where it takes me an hour to go from here to there and back and more if I try to walk and talk at the same time. Out of that came, ‘You ride?’ and I said, ‘You’d be surprised at how good I can ride!'”
“I believe what goes around comes around. Somebody helped me, so why can’t I help somebody else? Another person. It can’t be all me because it took somebody to help me. Why can’t Rodger help somebody else?”
“Within our [cycling] group, there was me and Larry. And we realize, ‘OK, we both have issues.’ But we realize we’re not out to pasture. And then came along David and Skip. Larry and I talked about it and we feel like there’s something in them. They’ve got a will. Through Achilles they’re learning that their life is not finished. They’re continuing on. We’re becoming a stronger team.”
Rodger rides into the sunset beside an Achilles Pikes Peak athlete. He guides her while riding a recumbent trike while she pedals a hand cycle.
On Discovering Yoga For All, Courtesy of UpRise Yoga
“You might say that I grew up ‘old school.’ Of my era, nobody did yoga. Period. Some people didn’t even know what it was. ‘How do you spell that word? Where’d it come from?’ So that’s instilled in me. Though the Achilles group here [and Uprise Yoga] I thought, ‘Well, I can’t lose. And if I don’t try it, I can’t win.’ It took the proverbial 39 seconds to realize that I’m learning something.”
“I think that everybody in Achilles should have some doings of yoga. You don’t realize what you’re missing out on.”
“I’m still in the learning process. I know that I can’t do some things. I fall down. No need to get angry about it. I know that that’s me. It’s like eating water with a fork, you’re gonna spill some. You keep trying. But if you don’t try it, you don’t know.”
Rodger and Brandon get serious before the monthly Yoga For All class. This adaptive yoga class is led by instructors from UpRise Yoga and held at The Colorado Running Company on the 2nd Tuesday of each month.
Favorite Life Lessons
“Be humble. you are not the only one. There’s somebody else that has issues too. They may not be identical to yours, but they’ve got issues.”
“That’s why sometimes I put the trike over the fence and ride those dirt piles. And people go ‘I’ve never seen an old guy on a trike out here before!’ It’s not easy but you can do it. It’s like the bird out of the nest. You’re either gonna fly or hit the ground once or twice. And most of them fly.”
Rodger riding his recumbent trike over dirt jumps in the Goose Gossage Bike Park.
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Moldova Transnistria: Sunday
Ivan X June 2, 2018 June 9, 2018 1 Comment on Moldova Transnistria: Sunday
Moldova’s eastern border is Ukraine. But down a strip of that border exists the “State of Transnistria” (or Pridnestrovia, as its Russian-speaking population calls it), population 500,000. I know this sounds like something I made up, and that’s because, officially, every UN country considers it to be part of Moldova. Moldova begrudgingly desribes Transnistria to be an “autonomous region” within Moldova.
Being that I had never heard of Transnistria until a couple of weeks ago, you’ll forgive me if I get the history wrong. Most of what I’ve gleaned comes from Wikipedia and WikiTravel and Lonely Planet and what people have told us in their biased opinions.
What appears to have happened is that, in the waning days of the USSR, Moldova (or Moldavia, as it was called when still Soviet) fought for and won its independence. But Transnistria had a majority Russian culture and population, and they felt marginalized in the new country, so they fought their own war of independence with Moldova.
Transnistria won, to a point: the Transnistrian army holds Transnistria, and its government established a truce with Moldova, in which Moldova (and the rest of the world) won’t officially recognize Transnistria as separate from Moldova, but lets it operate as its own de facto nation, with its own military, flag, anthem, currency, and even passport (which can only be used to go to Moldova; to go elsewhere, a resident needs to get a Moldovan or Ukranian or Russian passport, if they’re able).
The surreal part is that by the time Transnistria achieved its truce with Moldova, in 1992, the USSR, to which they wanted to belong, was no more. But, rather than adapt as other post-Soviet states have, Transnistria’s outward presentation is still full-on USSR flavored, right here in 2018, giving it the feeling of a land lost in time. Their flag has a hammer and sickle. There are statues of Lenin in front of monolithic state buildings.
Needless to say, considering that while in Chisinau, I was only an hour away or so from somewhere this odd and isolated and unknown, I HAD TO FUCKING GO TO THERE.
I don’t have a dog in this fight, so I’m just gonna call Transnistria a country, not as a political opinion, but for convenience. It looks and feels like a country, so fuck it. For touring purposes, it’s a country, recognized or otherwise. I’ll tell you about what it was actually like there in the next post.
Moldova: Saturday
Moldova/Transnistria: Final Day
1 thought on “Moldova Transnistria: Sunday”
Malka Drucker June 3, 2018 at 2:02 pm
Say more! California could be the next Transnistria!
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Do You Even Need a Style Guide? Not Necessarily
What’s the proper way to make an apple pie? Are they shredded, diced, or sliced apples? Do you make your own crust or buy pre-made crusts? Do you have a fancy lattice top or the Dutch apple crumble top?
And whose recipe do you follow? Is it the first one you Googled, or is it Memaw’s secret family recipe handed down from generation to generation?
Ask this question on Facebook, and you’ll have plenty of strong opinions from plenty of people, and about 12 back-and-forth arguments before someone is calling someone else a Nazi.
Style Guides Are Like Apple Pies
This is how people, especially writers, feel about their style guides.
To them, their style guide is the One True Guide, their Bible about how issues and misunderstandings about language, punctuation, and even grammar are to be handled.
There are a few dozen style guides, including ones from the Associated Press, Chicago Manual of Style, American Psychological Association, Modern Language Association, Turabian, Council of Science Editors, and even The Elements of Style.
And you’ll find outspoken proponents of every one of them.
Each person will insist that their style guide is the right one and will argue with those heathens who don’t agree to worship The One True Guide.
Except there’s no One True Guide.
No one is able to lay claim that their guide is the definitive way to punctuate sentences, abbreviate states, or denote time (a.m./p.m. versus AM/PM).
(But you can have my Oxford comma when you pry it from my cold, stiff, and dead fingers, Associated Press!)
Each guide is assembled by learned editors who have heated discussions about each new entry and change in their guide.
They’ve discussed and debated new issues as they come up, they look at how language is being used and written in society, and they update the guides to reflect those changes when necessary.
In May 2012, the Associated Press said they would no longer object to using the word ‘hopefully’ at the beginning of a sentence, rather than making people say ‘I am hopeful’ or ‘It is hoped that.’
People went nuts. They howled in protest, they screamed and tore their garments, and the Internet burned for three days. People said they were going to die on this hill and they weren’t going to let any stupid Associated Press tell them how to use English when Mrs. Kugelschreiber had drummed this rule into them so many years ago. They were going to stick with the “right” way to do it, despite what these so-called experts said.
Ahh, innocent times.
Of course, the angry mob missed two important points:
It was a made-up rule to begin, having been created in the 1960s. Before then, it was acceptable to start sentences with “hopefully.” Besides, there’s no rule about starting sentences with other floating sentence adverbs like “sadly,” “unfortunately,” and “surprisingly,” so this one was just something people latched onto without understanding why.
The rule only applied to writers and editors who worked for the Associated Press. It had nothing to do with general language usage. People were free to start or not start sentences with “hopefully” to their heart’s content.
This is the important thing to remember about style guides: While these are prescriptive guides, they are by no means the official rules for The Way English Is Done. These guides are only for a particular job, field, or organization.
The Associated Press Stylebook tells writers about the rules they must follow when writing for the Associated Press, although many non-AP journalists use it. The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage is only meant for writers and editors at the New York Times. The APA Publication Manual from the American Psychological Association is written for academics in social sciences, like psychology, speech communication, linguistics, and sociology.
And if you’re not part of those organizations, you are not bound by those rules.
Which Style Guide Should I Use?
Bloggers and content marketers can argue about which style guide is the best, but there’s no right answer. I always recommend bloggers use the AP Stylebook, because it’s small, inexpensive, and addresses 95% of our issues.
I also like the AP Stylebook because many bloggers act as citizen journalists, which means we should follow the guide that most other journalists use.
However, there’s no real guide for bloggers to use. We’re free to pick and choose, but we do so voluntarily, not because there’s an official Way English Is Done.
Bottom line: As long as you spell words right and put them in the right order, the rest is up to you. The benefit of a style guide is that it helps you be consistent throughout your writing. It means you always know where to put punctuation, whether you’re going to follow the postal abbreviations for U.S. states, and how to capitalize headlines.
And whether you should use the Oxford Comma or if you’re a filthy, godless monster.
This means you can pick one you like the best and are most familiar with, or you can even create your own style guide. Just make sure you follow it consistently and apply it to all of your business writing — blog articles, web copy, brochures, emails, letters, and even internal communications.
Photo credit: FixedAndFrailing (Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0)
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Filed Under: Blog Writing, Blogging, Ghost Writing, Grammar, Language, Tools, Writing Tagged With: blog writing, book writing, style guides, writing, writing rules
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The Lanesborough to open new Club & Spa in 2017
London’s five-star The Lanesborough hotel has announced that it will open a new spa, The Lanesborough Club & Spa, next year.
The opening of the Club & Spa, which follows the reopening of the hotel itself last year, is set to take place in the spring of 2017. The spa, which has been designed with the ambiance of a private members’ club in mind and will span 1672sq m, will have a luxurious feel.
The Club & Spa has been designed by 1508 London and inspired both by Roman baths and the classic architecture of The Lanesborough.
In addition to the four single and one double treatment rooms, the spa will feature a fitness area, a manicure/pedicure space, a restaurant and separate changing areas and thermal suites for men and women.
The spa will also have a central area with a treatment lounge and hydropool, which can be accessed by both men and women. The Club & Spa, which will offer private membership, will also have fitness and nutrition programmes and will partner with leading wellness brands.
The spa will work with Swiss skincare brand La Prairie and natural British brand Ila. It will also be partnering with activewear and wellbeing brand Bodysim on fitness and nutrition classes and services.
The Lanesborough which features 93 rooms and suites, is part of the OEtker Collection of luxury hotels. The Oetker Collection also includes Le Bristol Paris, Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa in Germany and Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in France – among other properties.
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Home > Market Trends > Market Health > Why the Presidential Election Will Lead to a Brighter Year
Why the Presidential Election Will Lead to a Brighter Year
Matthew Carr | November 3, 2020
Ire and unease have gripped the nation.
Americans have been wrestling with anxiety and unrest related to the pandemic. And to throw kerosene on that dumpster fire, we have mounting anxiety over today’s U.S. presidential election…
At least one of those will soon be in the rearview mirror… hopefully.
Over the past month, I’ve covered the “October Effect” during election years in-depth and how the markets collapse in the month leading up to the election as uncertainty reaches a crescendo.
That’s exactly what we’ve watched play out this year…
The Dow tumbled 4.6% last month.
That’s the largest pullback we’ve seen in October during an election year since 2008. And it’s also the fifth consecutive October before a U.S. presidential election that the Dow has ended the month with a big drop.
That’s why I’ve been preaching for weeks that, despite everything 2020 is throwing at us, this move down is normal.
And that should provide a little cushion of comfort if nothing else does.
But now that the election is here, what’s next?
Well, the data is optimistic, no matter who wins the White House.
The U.S. Presidential Cycle
For investors feeling anxious about what will happen in the market over the next 12 months, there’s a trend that they can turn to for guidance: the U.S. presidential cycle.
I’ve successfully followed this trend in times of crisis and in times of plenty. And I’m always surprised by how accurate it is.
This is what I used to predict that in 2017, no matter who won, the S&P 500 would increase 19%… which it did.
It’s what I used to predict the “Great Correction of 2018” and what I used to predict at least a 17% return in 2019… both of which we got.
And it’s what I used to warn investors that 2020 was going to be a turbulent year for the markets… which it was in a variety of ways.
Now, I’ve been able to do that because I’ve created a modern version of the U.S. presidential cycle.
It’s a four-year cycle that has two monster years and two years of caution. Traditionally, the view posed by trend trading icons, like Yale Hirsch, is that the third year of a presidential term is the strongest, followed by the fourth, second and then first.
Well, I’ll show you why that’s wrong…
As we’ve seen over the last eight presidential terms, the Dow’s best years – by far – have been the first and third years of the cycle.
During the first year of a new term, the Dow averages a 15.7% return. And in the third year, the blue chip index’s average gain is even better at 16.7%.
The first years that underperformed this mark were 2001 and 2005. Third years that underperformed that average gain were 2007, 2011 and 2015.
But is one party in the White House better for the markets than the other?
The data here is also counterintuitive…
Blue vs. Red Market Returns
The threat occurs every election cycle: “If so-and-so wins, the stock market will crash!”
For the most part, that’s not true.
But I’ve watched plenty of investors liquidate their holdings or refuse to invest in the market because their party didn’t win the election. They claim it’s all going to come crumbling down any minute because their policies are destructive to investors.
It’s silly.
As I’ve stated here numerous times throughout the years, “There will be down days, down weeks, down months and even down years. But the market ultimately moves in only one direction: up.”
Since 1952, the annualized return of the S&P 500 when a Democrat sits in the Oval Office is 10.6%. The annualized return for a Republican president is 4.8%.
Neither is negative.
And the variance is largely due to the last two Democratic presidents overseeing massive economic expansions that led to the stock market skyrocketing.
The two presidents who oversaw the largest stock market gains ever were Democrats – Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. The two presidents who saw the worst S&P 500 returns were Republicans – Richard Nixon and George W. Bush.
Prior to COVID-19, the biggest stressor for Americans was the 2020 election. And we’ve seen that stress continue to ramp up as the election has grown closer and the rhetoric has grown more divisive.
But history has shown us that regardless of who wins the White House, 2021 should be a strong year for the markets. The stock market largely heads higher during the first year of the cycle – even if there are bumps along the way.
Too many investors cause irreparable damage to their portfolios by fleeing to the sidelines when their party doesn’t win the election. This is one of the most destructive biases investors can practice.
As history has shown, the markets love certainty. And that’s what we get in the four-year presidential cycle.
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Home Dispatches Ashes of ACT
Ashes of ACT
by Mark Leon Goldberg
In the summer of 2005, the director of the largest voter-mobilization organization that progressives have ever seen, sent e-mails out to most of its 30 staffers warning them that their paychecks would be cut off by the end of August. America Coming Together (ACT), the flagship progressive “527” organization, headed by former ALF-CIO political director Steve Rosenthal, was running out of cash. Its major backers, George Soros and Peter Lewis, who together put $38.5 million into ACT (and a partner organization, the Media Fund), declined to sustain their commitment following the 2004 election. State offices closed down, and the get-out-the-vote behemoth that at its peak boasted 6,000 employees and 78 field offices now had but a tiny number of staffers.
It wasn't supposed to end this way. Born a year before the presidential election over a dinner conversation among longtime Democratic operative Harold Ickes, EMILY's List founder Ellen Malcolm, and Rosenthal, ACT sought to identify progressive voters in key states and lead them to polls. By Election Day, ACT had raised some $140 million, registering hundreds of thousands of voters -- mostly in swing states -- and turning them out to vote in record numbers. In Ohio alone, ACT registered 85,000 new voters.
ACT was a member of a larger coalition called America Votes -- an assortment of 32 progressive and labor organizations like the ALF-CIO and the League of Conservation Voters -- that registered an additional 215,000 voters in Ohio. On November 2, ACT's field operation delivered a good chunk of these voters to the polls.
It turned out, of course, that the right delivered a few million more. But even in defeat, ACT held out the promise of installing on the political landscape a permanent progressive get-out-the-vote infrastructure. A little more than a year later, though, ACT is all but history.
Looking forward to 2006, this narrative would seem to suggest a return to the usual state of liberal disarray. After all, if ACT couldn't succeed with all that money -- and with the heat that a presidential race stirs -- then how could this year be any better?
Dejection, however, is not the prevalent mood among liberal-organizing groups. A perception of Republican vulnerability has inspired many organizations to expand their operations this November. The ALF-CIO is enlarging its voter-mobilization campaign from 16 states in 2004 to 20 in 2006. And officials at EMILY's List, the premier fund-raising organ for Democratic pro-choice women, tell the Prospect that compared to this point in 2004, they have two times as many candidates who have raised four times as much money as their counterparts in 2004. Can the 527s repeat their 2004 efforts -- but to a more positive effect?
First, they have to continue to exist. Ever since the 527s (so-named for the section of tax code to which they owe their existence) distinguished themselves as a Democratic tour de force in 2004, the Republican Congress has attempted to legislate them into the ether. The first assault was launched in April 2005 when Republican members of the Senate Rules Committee passed a series of resolutions that would at once kill 527s while increasing the monetary amounts individuals and corporations can give to political-action committees and individual candidates.
That effort failed. But late last year, House Speaker Dennis Hastert announced that “527 reform” was a top legislative priority in 2006. Since then, the Republican House leadership has expressed an interest in inserting 527 reform into a larger package of “must pass” lobbying-reform measures. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid consider this a non-starter. John McCain, the Senate's lead Republican on lobbying reform, has so far hesitated to include such a poison pill in his proposal.
McCain's withdrawal from lumping 527s with lobbying reform was only a tactical retreat. He and other lawmakers remain committed to doing away with 527s in their present form, with the bipartisan quartet of McCain and Russ Feingold in the Senate and Chris Shays and Marty Meehan in the House offering legislation that would limit the soft money flowing to 527 groups and further regulate their advertising.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, four out of the top five 527s most active in the 2006 election cycle thus far are labor or progressive groups focused on voter turnout in November. And though some Democratic legislators like Barack Obama have offered to pursue 527 reform along a “parallel track” to lobbying reform, it is doubtful that a sufficient number of his colleagues are willing to bite the hand that feeds them. And to the extent that 527s also offer bipartisan support (the third most active 527 at the time of publication was the right-wing Progress for America), movement on the quartet's reform plan will likely be limited.
Assuming the 527s survive Capitol Hill, a successful get-out-the-vote strategy for the 2006 mid-terms will depend on identifying and mobilizing the right kinds of voters. To that end, ACT's swan song was a novel experiment in the 2005 Virginia gubernatorial race to test strategies for better reaching so-called drop-off or infrequent voters -- those who cast ballots in presidential years, but stay home otherwise (results of the experiment were not yet available).
When the numbers are crunched, they will be shared with America Votes' 32 member groups -- who, since 2004, are growing accustomed to working together. “The partner organizations of America Votes felt that coming together at a common table, talking about our plans, and jointly figuring out how to work together was immensely successful,” says Kathy Duvall, who left America Votes to become the national political director of the Sierra Club, one of America Votes' largest members.
This increased contact has weaned progressive organizations away from their traditional hostility to sharing voter lists and other proprietary information with one another. Even more so than in 2004, America Votes is poised to match the right's messengers with the voters who want to hear from them. “We are trying to avoid what historically has happened on the progressive side,” says Cecile Richards, who led America Votes until February when she became the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “Which is, the same ten voters get bombarded by mail and phone calls from every progressive organization in America and meanwhile we leave tons of people that have no contact.”
The Cook Political Report lists 21 Republican House seats as most vulnerable, with some 23 others in play. There are also hotly contested statewide races in Ohio, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania -- places where America Votes has state directors, some who are alumni from the 2004 election. “In 2004 dropping someone like me into the state and getting them to coordinate all these folks' campaign activities was reliant on a fair degree of trust and familiarity that took a while to build,” says Scott Nunnery, America Votes' Ohio director. “This time around, we don't have to get to know each other. We are actually trying to get on the front end and are building programs that make sense in the context of this year.”
So the laborers in the post-ACT field have a more positive story to tell -- so far -- than one might have thought. Of course, they sounded like this in the early part of 2004, too. The moral of 2004 is that there are certain problems no amount of organization can solve -- the quality of candidate(s) the ground operation is supporting, and the ageless problem of the lack of a coherent Democratic message.
Finally, there's always the other side: In October 2004, there was boundless enthusiasm on the liberal side about the extent of the mobilization; then came November 2, and people realized that the right had out-mobilized them by a few million voters. It will be interesting to see, this fall, whether previous victory or previous defeat turns out to be the bigger motivator.
Issue: Santorum's Jackpot Dispatches
Mark Leon Goldberg
Mark Leon Goldberg is the executive editor of UN Dispatch and host of the Global Dispatches podcast.
Read more by Mark Leon Goldberg
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Consumer Discretionary : Specialty Retail | Small Cap Value
Genesco Inc. is a retailer and wholesaler of footwear, apparel and accessories. The Company operates in four segments: Journeys Group, Schuh Group, Johnston & Murphy Group and Licensed Brands. It relies on independent third-party manufacturers for production of its footwear products sold at wholesale. It sources footwear and accessory products from foreign manufacturers located in Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Peru, Romania, Taiwan and Vietnam. As of January 28, 2017, it operated 2,794 retail footwear, headwear and sports apparel and accessory stores and leased departments located primarily throughout the United States and in Puerto Rico, including 147 headwear and sports apparel and accessory stores and 87 footwear stores in Canada and 128 footwear stores in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Germany.
Today's volume of 28,252 shares is on pace to be much lighter than GCO's 10-day average volume of 261,247 shares.
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The Best & Worst of Windows 2000
The AD Revolution
By Greg Neilson
How can I isolate just one feature? That’s like trying to pick my favorite toy after Santa has left me with a roomful. I’m sure most people agree that the addition of Active Directory will completely revolutionize the way that medium to large enterprises work with Microsoft networking technology. But I think the power of Windows Script Host (WSH) combined with the AD Services Interface (ADSI) will make a major change in the way that many of us administer the network environment. Using GUIs for configuration changes and user maintenance is incredibly time-consuming, so being able to create and run scripts that can do this will make huge differences in productivity.
Therefore, I think we’ll see more and more MCSEs venture into system programming the same way that our Unix brethren do now. Since ADSI includes providers for NetWare NDS, NetWare bindery, and NT 4.0 domains, this could mean that heterogeneous network administration can be done from the same place using the same scripts. I don’t think it’s an accident that this technology has been available for download for the past couple years—I think Microsoft wanted as many as possible to be familiar with it before Win2K was released.
And don’t forget to check out the new CD Player program—it looks great and can optionally download the names of each song on the CD.
More Trouble than it’s Worth
I know Microsoft has a reputation for innovation in user interface design and for extensive usability testing, but I think the Personalized Menu feature is more trouble than it’s worth. Thank goodness it’s easily turned off without requiring us to go directly to the Registry.
Also, I hate to sound like an old fogy, but I’m not a fan of the “Windows 2000” name. I still prefer “Windows NT,” but I guess Microsoft didn’t have me in mind when it made that decision.
And finally, a feature I wish Microsoft would implement now. The more I work with Linux, the more I like it. No, I’m not predicting that Linux will soon take over the known world, but it can have a place. In particular, it can make use of older server hardware that doesn’t meet Win2K’s minimum (recommended) requirements. So, I wish that Microsoft would work to reduce the hardware required for Win2K and not automatically assume that IT managers want to keep buying newer and bigger PC servers just because their NOS of choice requires it.
Greg Neilson is a manager at a large IT services firm in Australia and has been a frequent contributor to MCPmag.com and CertCities.com.
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Posts Tagged ‘Ronald C. White Jr.’
In Search Of Letters & Artifacts On Abraham Lincoln
Posted in Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Death, Dreams, Life, Life In Letters, Photography, Place, Poetry, Politics, Reading, Relationships, Secrets, tagged Abraham Lincoln, American history, bearing witness, black & white photography, books about Abe Lincoln, bookstores, excavating memories, history, Lincoln historians, Lincoln's birthday, Noah Andre Trudeau, photographs of the Civil War, Presidents Day, R, Ronald C. White Jr., support Independent bookstores, the Civil War, the last week of Lincoln's life, The North, the power of words, The South, the value of history, the value of old letters, what's left behind on February 12, 2012| 1 Comment »
Lincoln’s Birthday, Indie bookstore window photographed with Canon Powershot & edited with PhotoShop Elements, Wayzata, Minnesota, February 16th, 2009, photo © 2009-2012 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
A few years ago, Liz and I went to see Ronald C. White, Jr. at the Bookcase of Wayzata, an independent bookstore on Lake Minnetonka. He was there to discuss his new book, A. Lincoln: A Biography. I had heard him interviewed earlier in the morning on MPR; Liz and I decided to be spontaneous and go hear him speak. The little Indie bookstore was packed.
White talked about how Lincoln loved words. And because of that, his words were like poetry. White wrote his book for those who might be reading a Lincoln biography for the first time, or to introduce Lincoln to a younger generation. He also spoke about how Obama started to shine a light on Lincoln, and how he (White) was booked for speaking engagements in Mississippi and Alabama, and also in Europe where many think Abe Lincoln personifies the American Dream.
More than 16,000 books have been written about Abraham Lincoln. Yet not all of his story has been told. At the end of the Civil War, between March and April 1865, Lincoln went to Northern Virginia to meet with his generals. He shook hands with thousands of Union soldiers and visited the former Confederate capital in Richmond, Virginia. But little is known about the last week of his life before his assassination on April 14, 1865.
Historian Noah Andre Trudeau thinks that in their rush to get to Ford’s Theater, historians have overlooked this important part of Lincoln’s life. After the Civil War, the President of the United States met Generals Grant and Sherman in Virginia to talk about the surrender of the South and its impact on our country. Lincoln visited Richmond, then considered enemy territory, as an observer. He was looking for ways a torn nation could begin to heal.
Having spent my childhood in the South, and most of my adult years in the North, I am compelled to follow literature about the Civil War. One of my ancestors was a courier for Robert E. Lee. When we moved to the North, one of the first places we visited was the Gettysburg battlefield. I am fascinated by the work of photographer Timothy H. O’Sullivan who took this photo, one half of a stereo view of Alfred R. Waud, artist of Harper’s Weekly, while he sketched on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in July of 1863. (See links below for the rest of the Atlantic series on photographs of the Civil War.)
Last year marked the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War. Trudeau is known for uncovering its secrets. His previous books, Bloody Roads South and Gettysburg, have unveiled information about General William Tecumseh Sherman’s march to the sea in 1864, and the legacy of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Now, in preparation for the book about a largely unexamined period of President Abraham Lincoln’s life, Trudeau is in search of witnesses.
He is seeking diary entries, letters or stories of people who encountered Lincoln at the time. During the NPR story, I was surprised to hear several people call in with leads to family scrapbooks and letters relating to Lincoln. (To share information, contact him at lincoln65@earthlink.net.) About his quest for truth, Trudeau states: “My one nightmare is that I’m going to do a very good job of discrediting all the good stories.” I think it’s quite the contrary. The more stories revealed, the closer we are to weaving together the textured layers of the past, and unraveling the sometimes painful chapters in American history.
Historian Seeks Artifacts From Lincoln’s Last Days : NPR Talk Of The Nation (LINK)
A. Lincoln: A Biography by Ronald C. White, Jr. at his Official Website (LINK)
Abraham Lincoln and Slavery | Minnesota Public Radio News (LINK) – historian Eric Foner examines Abraham Lincoln’s complex ideas about slavery and African Americans, casting fresh light on an American icon.
The Civil War, Part 1: The Places, the Atlantic – February 8th, 2012 (LINK) – First installment of amazing b&w photographs of important places in the Civil War. (Some images in the three Series are graphic.)
The Civil War, Part 2: The People, the Atlantic – February 9th, 2012 (LINK) – Second installment of b&w photographs of the Civil War. Includes a photo portrait of Abraham Lincoln taken by photographer Alexander Gardner on February 5, 1865.
Traditionally called “last photograph of Lincoln from life”, this final photo in Lincoln’s last photo session was long thought to have been made on April 10, 1865, but more recent research has indicated the earlier date in February. The crack comes from the original negative, which was broken and discarded back in 1865. The entirety of the American Civil War took place while Lincoln was in office, starting a month after he was elected, and ending just days before his assassination in April of 1865.
The Civil War, Part 3: The Stereographs, the Atlantic – February 10th, 2012 (LINK) – Third installment of the Stereographs of the Civil War with the work of photographer Timothy H. O’Sullivan
-posted on red Ravine, Sunday, February 12th, 2012, birthday of Abraham Lincoln. Related to posts: Abraham Lincoln & Nikki Giovanni (On Poets & Presidents), Presidential Poetics — Elizabeth Alexander, President Barack Obama, Book Talk — Do You Let Yourself Read?
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If Eric Ciaramella is the 'Whistleblower', Then He, IG Michael Atkinson and Adam Schiff Must Be Questioned Under Oath Right Away
By Elizabeth Vaughn | Jan 25, 2020 6:15 AM ET
The name of the man many believe to be the “whistleblower,” Eric Ciaramella (EC), whose complaint triggered the circus we’ve been forced to endure, continues to pop up in the most unexpected of places. As these incidents multiply, it’s becoming clearer by the day that EC, the Intelligence Community Inspector General, Michael Atkinson, who received his “urgent” complaint, bloviator Adam Schiff and Sean Misko, EC’s former colleague at the National Security Council with whom he has a “bro-like” relationship, must all be questioned under oath immediately. If EC is the individual who filed the complaint, then this is the greatest “hit and run” in American political history.
In the last week alone, we learned from Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that EC was one of the principals in a January 2016 meeting between a group of Ukrainian government and embassy officials and their U.S. counterparts at the White House. Contrary to Democratic talking points, the meeting was set up because Obama Administration officials were quite concerned about Hunter Biden’s lucrative position with Burisma Holdings, a company which was under investigation at the time by the Ukrainian government. In addition to his key role in the meeting, EC’s name shows up on the White House visitor log as the person who checked the Ukrainians into the building. (I posted on this story here.)
We also learned from Real Clear Investigations’ Paul Sperry that two weeks after President Trump’s inauguration, EC and his colleague/friend, Sean Misko, were allegedly overheard by two former National Security Council officials discussing ways to remove him from office. These two individuals spoke to Sperry on the condition of anonymity. (I posted on this story here.) They also told him that, as we all suspected, Lt. Col. Vindman, who was in on the call, allegedly leaked the contents of the call to EC the next day. You may remember this pompous *ss was a witness during the impeachment inquiry. He asked Rep. Devin Nunes to please call him Lt. Col. Vindman.
The credit for most of what we know about EC goes to Sperry, whose report published on October 30th put his name out there for the first time. Washington insiders, including the mainstream media, have known his identity almost from the get go, yet no one will utter it.
Here’s what we know about Eric Ciaramella (EC) via Sperry:
He submitted a whistleblower complaint on August 12th.
He is a registered Democrat.
He is a CIA analyst who specializes in Russia and Ukraine. He ran the Ukraine desk at the National Security Council (NSC) in 2016. EC is said to be fluent in Russian, Ukrainian and Arabic, and was a favorite among Obama Administration officials.
He was detailed over to the NSC in the summer of 2015 and worked for then-National Security Adviser Susan Rice.
He worked for former Vice President Joe Biden when he served as the Obama administration’s “point man” for Ukraine. He may have flown over to Ukraine with Biden on Air Force Two.
He worked for former CIA Director John Brennan and appeared to have been a highly valued employee.
In June 2017, then-National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster appointed EC to be his personal aide.
EC did not have direct knowledge of the July 25th conversation between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. It is very possible he learned about the call from NSC Director for European Affairs Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified last fall before Adam Schiff’s House Intelligence Committee.
EC contacted at least one of Schiff’s staff members prior to filing his complaint. Sources told Sperry this staffer was Sean Misko. Misko, EC’s colleague/friend was hired by Adam Schiff at around the same time the whistleblower complaint was filed. Additionally, Schiff hired one of EC and Misko’s former colleagues, Abigail Grace, in February 2019.
He was posted to the NSC in the White House’s West Wing in mid-2017 and “left amid concerns about negative leaks to the media. He has since returned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.”
EC worked with hyper-partisan Ukrainian-American lawyer and activist Alexandra Chalupa in 2016 to dig up dirt on Trump. (Chalupa’s name will become very familiar as this scandal unravels.) The pro-Hillary Chalupa, a former DNC contractor, has worked in the Clinton administration and has held various staff positions for Democratic lawmakers. Sperry wrote: “Documents confirm the DNC opposition researcher attended at least one White House meeting with Ciaramella in November 2015. She visited the White House with a number of Ukrainian officials lobbying the Obama administration for aid for Ukraine.”
Sperry reported (in his October 2019 piece) that “federal records show Biden’s office invited Ciaramella to an October 2016 state luncheon the vice president hosted for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Other invited guests included Brennan, as well as then-FBI Director James Comey and then-National Intelligence Director James Clapper. (Sperry: Several U.S. officials told RCI that the invitation that was extended to Ciaramella, a relatively low-level GS-13 federal employee, was unusual and signaled he was politically connected inside the Obama White House.)”
If EC is the individual who filed the whistleblower complaint which launched the impeachment of a U.S. President, then he is not a whistleblower, but a political activist at best, and possibly a criminal. And Adam Schiff and Michael Atkinson, who facilitated this farce, have just become fact witnesses.
Writer at RedState
MBA, former financial consultant, options trader
Mom of three grown children, grandmother
Email Elizabeth at [email protected]
Read more by Elizabeth Vaughn
Tags: ADAM SCHIFF ALEXANDER VINDMAN ALEXANDRA CHALUPA BURISMA HOLDINGS ERIC CIARAMELLA HUNTER BIDEN
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Ulay, pioneer of Performance Art
Frank Uwe Laysiepen (Solingen, Germany, 1943), famous as Ulay, photographer and performer and professor at the University of Karlsruhe, was the undisputed pioneer of performance art, an avant-garde discipline of the seventies to which he dedicated intensely.
He passed away in Ljubljana, the city where he had lived for years and where he treated his illness.
Son of a Nazi hierarch, in the late 1960s he left his country. He renounced his German nationality to move to Amsterdam. Here he begins to approach photography, embarking on his artistic research through the use of Polaroid.
Ulay’s Seventies of performance art
Renais Sense
It is in 1974 that Ulay presents “Renais Sense” exhibition, revived by the Boers-Li Gallery in New York, in 2018. In this, through the use of polaroid and disguise. In particular, he analyzed the concept of limit, through the androgyny, such as deterritorialization of the genus.
Through “Renais Sense“, Ulay identified the process of building multiple identities in the unhinging of stereotypes. Dressed up eccentrically as a woman, he showed what he called “that feminine sensitivity that is part of my soul“, pursuing its axiom: “Aesthetics without ethics is cosmetic“.
There is a Criminal Touch to Art
“There is a Criminal Touch to Art“, in 1976, was a performance on view at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
Ulay stole the nineteenth-century painting particularly admired by the wealthy bourgeoisie and by Adolf Hitler. “Der arme Poet” by the romantic painter Carl Spitzweg. Ulay brought it to a Turkish family in the Kreuzberg district, shifting the attention to otherness and ethnic minorities.
Ulay and Marina Abramović
In Amsterdam, he meets Marina Abramović and with her begins a creative and personal partnership that will last 12 years. The fruits of their collaboration were works such as “Imponderabilia” and “Relation in Space“.
«I went to Amsterdam, with Ulay we bought an old French police car and we traveled for five years. We lived with nothing, of performance, and for performance, in the car, turning, without having to pay rent or light, stopping in the middle of nature, taking a shower in the service stations “
Even the separation was a reason for performing. “The Lovers” is a 2500 km walk for the last look at the center of the Chinese Wall. Starting from the two extremes, Ulay from the Gobi Desert, Marina from the Yellow Sea.
The couple’s performances have always been certainly original and outside the box. Extreme forms of body art that led them to explore the limits of resistance not only physically but also psychically.
Ulay from 2010 to his death
In 2010 the great meeting of the artists after many years happened at MoMA. On the occasion of the performance “The Artist Is Present“, citing their previous very similar work, “Nightsea Crossing“, during which the two sat on the opposite sides of a table, remaining motionless.
Now Ulay is gone. But even the disease has become an opportunity for him to make art. In 2011 he left for a whole year and went from Ljubljana to New York and Amsterdam to meet his lifelong companions and friends. From this journey, which traces the most important moments of his career, was created the 2013 documentary “Project Cancer” directed by Damjan Kozole.
Ulay still remains one of the most interesting and least classifiable artists on the international art scene. He was an eclectic artist whose work deals with the intersection of photography and conceptual approaches to art in the performance and through the body.
Discovering Contemporary Sculptors
Artist we love: Scott Kahn
Art & Market: a guide to art prices
The three most violent and brutal paintings in art history
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Are The Four Gospels Legends?
The four gospels were written during a time when most of the eyewitnesses to the miracles of Jesus Christ were still alive. They would have naturally disputed fabricated details.
Men such as Peter and John were Jewish. That point bears significance because lying was forbidden in Jewish culture (Exodus 20:16; Leviticus 19:11; Proverbs 19:5).
The Jewish leaders were not recorded as disputing the miracles performed by Jesus (John 11:45-48).
The literary form of the gospels is not that of legend. The authors intended to convey points rooted in history, reflecting knowledge of geography and recording what took place in Galilee and Judea. The gospels flow in a style similar to Greco-Roman biographies, but are indebted to the Old Testament as regards what they are composed of.
The Uniqueness Of The Judeo-Christian Scriptures
"There are no other "sacred" books that anywhere nearly come up to the Scriptures in the character of their contents and the unity of their plan. Speaking of the Mohammedan, Zoroastrian, and Buddhist Scriptures, James Orr says, they are "destitute of beginning, middle, or end. They are, for the most part, collections of heterogeneous materials, loosely placed together. How different everyone must acknowledge it to be with the Bible! From Genesis to Revelation we feel that this book is in a real sense a unity. It is not a collection of fragments, but has, as we say, an organic character...There is nothing exactly resembling it, or even approaching it, in all literature."4
The Uniqueness Of The Biblical Answer To Human Sin And Suffering
"We naturally turn to the so-called "sacred" books of the world for an answer to our problems. But we cannot find any logical or adequate solution of the sin-question in the five Classics of Confucianism, the Vedas of Hinduism, or the Koran of Mohammedanism. When Joseph Cook, many years ago at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, challenged the priests of the ancient religions to answer Lady Macbeth's question: "How cleanse this red right hand?" all the priests were dumb. They had no answer to this question. But when we turn to the Bible, particularly to the New Testament, we get an answer that satisfies both the mind and the heart. In substance it is this: Christ "bare our sins in his body upon the tree; by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Pet. 2:24). God has found a way by means of which He can remain just and justify the sinner that believes in Jesus (Rom. 3:26)."
Examining The Tresury Of Merit In Light Of Scripture
“We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints ‘the Church’s treasury’, which is not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary the ‘treasury of the Church’ is the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ’s merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In Christ, the Redeemer himself, the satisfactions and merits of his Redemption exist and find their efficacy." (CCC # 1476)
"This treasury includes, as well, the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord…In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body.” (CCC # 1477)
First of all, there is no mention in Scripture of us making atonement for the sins of other brethren in Christ. There is no way in which we can satisfy the consequences for sin on behalf of other people. The shed blood of Jesus Christ is our propitiation (Isaiah 53:4-6; 1 John 2:1-2; 4:10). His atonement is the only thing which has any value.
The Apostle Paul stated that if it were possible, he would suffer to bring about the redemption of Israel (Romans 9-10). We can clearly see here a complete contrast between his inadequate work as a moral substitute and the complete sufficiency of Christ's work.
If the merits of Jesus Christ are infinitely valuable and inexhaustible, then it should atone for both sin and its guilt. This treasury of merit should cover both the temporary and eternal consequences of sin. Yet, the Roman Catholic Church requires its followers to make amends for the temporal punishments of sin through good works and purgatory. The benefits of the treasury of merit are not extended to eternal punishment. This seems inconsistent, given the treasury is spoken of so highly but it cannot cover the guilt of our sin. We might as well say that the treasury of merit cannot fully set one free from sin.
The treasury of merit implies that the merit of Jesus Christ is insufficient because the merits of Mary and saints are also deemed sufficient. The Roman Catholic hierarchy would certainly deny the implications of its theology, but for what other reason would one still need the merit of another if Christ's is not already sufficient? Nobody is righteous enough to accumulate merit for themselves and other people (Romans 3:9-23). So, this treasury of merit teaching is both absurd and unscriptural.
Manuscript Variants In The New Testament Text
Perhaps you have heard that there are 150,000 to 200,000 variant readings in the New Testament, so how can anyone trust anything it says? This is true but misleading, as the phrase variant reading is a technical term. Each time a manuscript of an ancient work is discovered, its text is compared with some standard printed edition. At each place it differs from the standard, a "variant reading" is recorded. If ten manuscripts differ at the same place from the standard,ten variant readings are recorded. Thus, the more readings which survive for a particular work, the more variant readings it will usually have. Thus our only real concern then is what fraction of the text is debatable.
Professor F.J.A. Hort of Cambridge, in his classic work on New Testament text, notes that seven-eights of the text is accepted by all as preserved just as penned by its original authors. The remaining one-eighth consists largely of matters of spelling and word order, both relatively trivial in ancient Greek. If scholars are correct in their consensus that the Alexandrian family of manuscripts preserves the best text, this area of doubt is reduced to about one-sixtieth of the text, from which Hort estimates that substantial variants make up only about one-one thousandth of the text.16 Other estimates have been made; for instance, Professor Abbot of Harvard suggests that only one-four hundredth of the text is doubtful.17
Detailed statistics on the classical texts are hard to come by. Remember that three of our ten secular histories have not even been preserved over substantial portions of their text. For Homer's Iliad, 750 to 1000 lines are in dispute out of a total of 15,600.18 This makes for about 6 percent disputed material. By contrast, Hort's estimate of "substantial variation" for the New Testament is one-tenth of 1 percent; Abbot's estimate is one-fourth of one percent; and even Hort's figure including trivial variation is less than 2 percent. Sir Frederick Kenyon well summarizes the situation:
"The number of manuscripts of the New Testament...is so large that it is practically certain that the true reading of every doubtful passage is preserved in some one or other of these ancient authorities. This can be said of no other ancient book in the world.
Scholars are satisfied that they possess substantially the true text of the principal Greek and Roman writers whose works have come down to us, of Sophocles, of Thucydides, of Cicero, of Virgil; yet our knowledge depends on a mere handful of manuscripts, whereas the manuscripts of the New Testament are counted by hundreds or even thousands."19
Evidence for Faith: Deciding the God Question, contributor Robert C. Newman, p. 283-284
A Reason Appealing To Church Infallibility Does Not Help Catholic Apologists
Roman Catholic apologists routinely object to Sola Scriptura on the grounds that it results in doctrinal anarchy. It has been asserted that an infallible Magisterium is a requirement in order to obtain unity in the church. That may sound like a good proposal on a surface level, but the suggestion itself is also a subtle problem for Catholics.
The claim of the Roman Catholic Church being infallible puts its apologists at a huge disadvantage. If just one of its dogmas is refuted by Scripture or logic, then it follows that the entire system falls apart. If the Roman Catholic Church can be shown to not be infallible in teaching, then its claims to authority are not binding on us at all. In that scenario, faithful Catholics would have no choice but to give up Christianity altogether.
In Protestantism, one has to use Scripture and logic to discern truth from error. The ability to make independent decisions exists, with there being options to choose from. That comes with the advantage of a person being able to change his or her viewpoint in accordance with reason and available evidence.
If, however, one wishes to defend the Roman Catholic Church's claim to infallibility, then he or she must be entirely consistent. The idea must be defended at all costs. That would place an excessive burden on one to believe ideas that are potentially absurd beyond all measure. This framework would make any thinking person susceptible to apostasy from the faith.
The Old Testament And Doctrine Of Hell
God gradually makes known Himself and His truth throughout history. He has slowly unveiled who He is to us. So, hints of the doctrine of hell can be found in the Old Testament.
The term Sheol in Hebrew has a number of ways in which it can be used. It oftentimes refers to the grave. Sheol can have much more of a negative connotation in terms of the wicked going to that place (Psalm 49:9, Isaiah 38:17).
Moreover, the motif of divine judgement can clearly be seen in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ Himself elaborated on the reality of hell or Gehenna. For example, He quoted Isaiah 66:24 in His teaching on this subject in Mark 9:47-48.
"There are three categories of men; the wholly pious and the arch-sinners are not purified, but only those between these two classes (Ab. R. N. 41). A similar view is expressed in the Babylonian Talmud, which adds that those who have sinned themselves but have not led others into sin remain for twelve months in Gehenna; "after twelve months their bodies are destroyed, their souls are burned, and the wind strews the ashes under the feet of the pious. But as regards the heretics, etc., and Jeroboam, Nebat's son, hell shall pass away, but they shall not pass away" (R. H. 17a; comp. Shab. 33b). All that descend into Gehenna shall come up again, with the exception of three classes of men: those who have committed adultery, or shamed their neighbors, or vilified them (B. M. 58b). The felicity of the pious in paradise excites the wrath of the sinners who behold it when they come from hell (Lev. R. xxxii.). The Book of Enoch (xxvii. 3, xlviii. 9, lxii. 12) paraphrases this thought by saying that the pious rejoice in the pains of hell suffered by the sinners. Abraham takes the damned to his bosom ('Er. 19a; comp. Luke xvi. 19-31). The fire of Gehenna does not touch the Jewish sinners because they confess their sins before the gates of hell and return to God ('Er. 19a)." (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6558-gehenna)
General Revelation And Special Revelation
"Special revelation is God's disclosure to mankind of Himself, His world, His plans for mankind, etc., by means of direct (or supernatural) information, usually in verbal form. This information was conveyed to His prophets and subsequently written down in the Bible. General revelation is God's disclosure to mankind of Himself, His world, and the nature of mankind itself by means of indirect (i.e. providential or nonsupernatural), nonverbal information. This information is conveyed to all mankind, both externally through the universe and internally through human conscience."
Evidence for Faith: Deciding the God Question, contributor Robert C. Newman, p. 95
Evidence Against An Eternal Universe
"...the apparent brightness of a light diminishes as the square of our distance from its source. If we divide up the universe into spherical shells of equal thickness centered on ourselves, each shell increases in volume as the square of the distance from us, exactly canceling the diminishing of the light. Therefore if each shell has the same density of stars, it will provide us with the same amount of light no matter how far away it is! For an infinite universe, the sky should be infinitely bright, or, allowing stars to block the light from stars behind them, as bright as the surface of an average star! Even residents of such bright-sky cities as New York can see that this is not the case."
Fingerprints Of God's Providentially Guiding His People In Recognizing The Old Testament Canon
"Many of the prophets did not speak as recognized leaders of the nation. When we read their strong criticism of many of the leaders of the people, we find it hard to imagine how any nation would accept such books as part of its national treasure. It is a phenomenon that can hardly be paralleled in any other nation. Nor was there any lack of attempts to dispute the authority of the prophets during their lifetime."
Evidence for Faith: Deciding the God Question, contributor Allan A. MacRae, p. 223
Corroborations Between The Gospels And Non-Christian Sources
"The pagan and Jewish sources agree with the Gospels and Paul on the date of Jesus' activities, their controversial nature, His miracles, His Messianic claims, and His death at the hands of both Roman and Jewish authorities. This is especially important in view of the fact that many today seek to deny that Jesus worked miracles, made a Messianic claim, or was put to death by Roman-Jewish cooperation. The historical sources which touch on the subject are all against them.
At first sight, the Talmud's charges against Jesus seem to differ from those of the Gospel accounts. Yet the Gospels mention an attempt at Jesus' trial to convict Him of offering to build the temple in three days, which could easily be understood as sorcery. According to the Gospels, Jesus was actually condemned for blasphemy, because He claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God. This may indeed be the "apostasy" to which Jesus "enticed Israel," according to the Talmud. In Jewish usage, a phrase like "Son of God" would be a claim to deity, a blasphemous apostasy in the eyes of most Jews. Pliny's note that Jesus' followers worshiped Him as God, though written by a polytheist, is in line with this suggestion.
There is no non-Christian corroboration for Jesus' resurrection having actually occurred, but this is hardly surprising, as any believer in Jesus' resurrection would be considered a Christian. Of course, any source could report belief in Jesus' resurrection, and Josephus does. For a Roman, such as belief would mere be another Christian "superstition" (Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny). A Stoic like Mara would also reject bodily resurrection, and the Talmud has chosen to ignore it. In any case, we know from Justin's debate with Trypho (in the 130s),62 from the anti-Christian polemic of Celsus (ca. 180)63 and from the Talmud64 that the Jews were aware of the Christian Gospels, and from Matthew and Justin65 that they sought to explain away the Resurrection as a case of body-snatching by the disciples.
The one significant divergence of the non-Christian materials from the Gospels involves the manner of Jesus's death. The Talmud says Jesus was "hanged" and "stoned and hanged." The Gospels speak of crucifixion, along with Paul and all Christian literature. This is supported by Josephus (both versions) and less directly by Tacitus, who has Jesus put to death by a Roman method. Since the term "hanged" is used by the rabbis for crucifixion as well as for the traditional hanging up of the body after stoning to death,66 it is not unreasonable to suppose the Talmud gives a somewhat garbled account, perhaps based on the facts that Jesus had a religious trial and was "hanged," but supplying other details from traditional practices."
On The Reliability Of Oral Tradition And The New Testament Text
Our earliest Christian literature, the letters of Paul, gives us glimpses of the form in which the story of Jesus and his teaching first circulated. That form was evidently an oral tradition, not fluid but fixed, and evidently learned by all Christians when they entered the church. This is why Paul can say, "I myself received from the Lord the account that I passed on to you," I Cor. 11:23. The words "received, passed on" [1] reflect the practice of tradition—the handing-down from one to another of a fixed form of words. How congenial this would be to the Jewish mind a moment's reflection on the Tradition of the Elders will show. The Jews at this very time possessed in Hebrew, unwritten, the scribal interpretation of the Law and in Aramaic a Targum or translation of most or all of their Scriptures. It was a point of pride with them not to commit these to writing but to preserve them
[1] paradidonai = tradere, traditio
unwritten but unaltered.[1] In such circles it would be entirely natural to treat the earliest account of Jesus' deeds and words in just this way. It is to this practice that Paul unmistakably refers, quoting from the Christian tradition our oldest account of the institution of the Lord's Supper, I Cor. 11:24, 25. It will be noted that he speaks of having previously passed this account on to the Corinthians. He speaks in a similar way in I Cor. 15:3-7 of the resurrection accounts which he had communicated to them: "I passed onto you as of first importance, the account I had received."
Acts similarly speaks of "remembering the words of the Lord Jesus," 20:35, and quotes words of Jesus that have never been found in any written gospel. Clement of Rome, in writing to the Corinthians about A.D.95, in two places—13:1 and 46:7, 8—quotes sayings of Jesus not quite like any in our gospels, admonishing his readers in both passages to "remember the words of the Lord Jesus." Polycarp of Smyrna in his letter to the Philippians, about A.D. 107-17, does the same, introducing the quotation with the words, "Remembering what the Lord said," Phil. 2:3. It seems clear that all four are quoting an Oral Gospel.[2]
This is internal evidence. Is there any external evidence,
[1] This attitude is clearly reflected in the story that Gamaliel the First, about A.D. 50, seeing a written copy of an Aramaic translation of Job, immediately had it destroyed. The Targum was not to be written but remembered; cf. Meyer Waxman, History of Jewish Literature (New York, 1930), II, p. 113.
[2] All these writers quote written documents in quite another way: I Cor 7:1; Gal. 3:13; Acts 1:20; I Clem. 47:1, 2; Pol. Phil. 3:2.
any possible reference to such a work, in out earliest Christian writings? It was, of course, the Jewish practice to preserve in oral form the sayings of the great rabbis, as the Pirqe Aboth ("The Sayings of the Fathers") shows. Conditions among the earliest Christians, who thought of Jesus as among other things a "rabbi"—Mark 9:5; 10:51; 11:21; 14:45, etc.—or a "teacher" (twelve times in Mark), favor such a way of preserving his teaching; it would, in fact, have been inevitable; and subsequent quotations seem to show its use, as we have seen. But is there anything that looks like an actual ancient mention of it by name?
In the early years of the second century there lived in Hierapolis, in Asia, a Christian bishop named Papias, who made it his business to interview any Christian of the previous generation who came near and to record these memorabilia in a book, which he called Interpretations of the Lord's Sayings. Though the book existed in convent libraries in Europe until the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, [1] it seems now to have disappeared, except for a few fragments of it quoted by ancient or medieval writers. One of these was Eusebius, who in his famous Church History, finished in A.D. 326, quoted this sentence from Papias:
"So then Matthew composed the Sayings in the Aramaic language and each one translated them as [best] he could."[2]
[1] A. Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur: Die Ueberlieferung, und der Bestand (Leipzig, 1893), p. 69.
[2] Church History iii. 39, 15.
Edgar J. Goodspeed, An Introduction to the New Testament, p. 126-128
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/goodspeed/ch10.html
Mary Is Not The Queen Of Heaven
If the Roman Catholic Church is correct in proclaiming that Mary is the queen of heaven, then how come Scripture never mentions her as being exalted at the right hand of God as it does with Jesus Christ on multiple occasions (Luke 22:69; Acts 5:31; 7:55-56; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3; 8:1; 10:10-13; 12:2)? How come Mary is nowhere mentioned as reigning next to God?
Roman Catholic Religious Iconography Is Irreverent Toward The Biblical God
The Roman Catholic Church contends that its followers are not actually guilty of idolatry as they are simply giving appropriate honor to Jesus Christ, Mary, and various saints. Religious iconography is said to have no power in itself and that only the person whom a particular image represents is the subject of veneration (CCC # 2132). One problem with such provisions is that Scripture does not approve of us making images of God:
"To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? The workman molds an image, The goldsmith overspreads it with gold, And the silversmith casts silver chains. Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution chooses a tree that will not rot; He seeks for himself a skillful workman To prepare a carved image that will not totter. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing; he makes the judges of the earth useless. Scarcely shall they be planted, scarcely shall they be sown, Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, When He will also blow on them, And they will wither, And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble. “To whom then will you liken Me, or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One." (Isaiah 40:17-25)
The Prophet Isaiah articulates a sharp contrast between the living God and powerless idols carved by the hands of men. It is irreverent to the utmost for us to even compare His unfathomable glory to relics which are the product of our fragile and fallen minds. These works are the antithesis of God's majesty. So it is not proper at all for Roman Catholics to use religious iconography to worship Jesus Christ. He is God in the flesh (Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 1:3). Trying to represent God by physical means degrades His glory and honor. To bow before a statue of Christ with the intent of offering up prayer in His name is to make a mockery of Him.
One argument made to justify the use of images to worship Jesus Christ is His incarnation (CCC # 2129-2131), although it is difficult to see how or why such validates this practice. Saints are human beings, and the Law emphatically condemned making statues of them for the purpose of religious devotion. Moreover, we cannot even determine exactly what Christ looked like. The Lord became angry with the Israelites who had urged Aaron to make a golden calf as a result of their desire to have a visible manifestation of God (Exodus 32:8). We are not to worship Him in the same way that the pagans do with their idols:
"And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place.” You shall not worship the LORD your God with such things." (Deuteronomy 12:3-4).
Ironically, these ancient peoples believed that the statues they so venerated were not deities themselves but were mere portrayals of the gods who they worshiped. For example, the prophets of Baal were obviously not calling on their statues to come to life and compete against the God of Elijah (1 Kings 18:20-40). This in a very real sense sounds like Roman Catholic teaching concerning the veneration of images.
The promised Jewish Messiah was said to have the ability to perform miraculous deeds by the power of the Holy Spirit:
"Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams in the Arabah." (Isaiah 35:5-6).
The Pharisees attributed the power of Jesus Christ to demons:
"But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.” (Matthew 12:24)
"because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit." (Mark 3:30).
The Jewish leaders had persistently and deliberately rejected verifiable evidence that He was sent by God. That is precisely the identity of what has been termed the unpardonable sin.
This scenario is not one that can be replicated today because nobody has seen Christ publicly performing miracles. He is presently sitting at the right hand of the Father. Thus, nobody can actually commit this form of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Continual unbelief does not receive forgiveness from God. In other words, a person who dies in a state of voluntary opposition to the conviction of heart brought about by the Holy Spirit will be eternally condemned. That sin in a sense is unforgivable. We must repent and place our trust in Christ's work alone for salvation (John 3:16).
Can Astronomy Explain The Biblical Star Of Bethlehem?
"To understand the Star of Bethlehem, we need to think like the three wise men. Motivated by this “star in the east,” they first traveled to Jerusalem and told King Herod the prophecy that a new ruler of the people of Israel would be born. We also need to think like King Herod, who asked the wise men when the star had appeared, because he and his court, apparently, were unaware of any such star in the sky.
These events present us with our first astronomy puzzle of the first Christmas: How could King Herod’s own advisors have been unaware of a star so bright and obvious that it could have led the wise men to Jerusalem?
Next, in order to reach Bethlehem, the wise men had to travel directly south from Jerusalem; somehow that “star in the east” “went before them, ‘til it came and stood over where the young child was.” Now we have our second first-Christmas astronomy puzzle: how can a star “in the east” guide our wise men to the south? The north star guides lost hikers to the north, so shouldn’t a star in the east have led the wise men to the east?
And we have yet a third first-Christmas astronomy puzzle: how does Matthew’s star move “before them,” like the taillights on the snowplow you might follow during a blizzard, and then stop and stand over the manger in Bethlehem, inside of which supposedly lies the infant Jesus?The adoration of the Magi, after they followed that ‘star in the east’ to Jesus.
What could the 'star in the east’ be?
The astronomer in me knows that no star can do these things, nor can a comet, or Jupiter, or a supernova, or a conjunction of planets or any other actual bright object in the nighttime sky. One can claim that Matthew’s words describe a miracle, something beyond the laws of physics. But Matthew chose his words carefully and wrote “star in the east” twice, which suggests that these words hold a specific importance for his readers.
Can we find any other explanation, consistent with Matthew’s words, that doesn’t require that the laws of physics be violated and that has something to do with astronomy? The answer, amazingly, is yes.
Astronomer Michael Molnar points out that “in the east” is a literal translation of the Greek phrase en te anatole, which was a technical term used in Greek mathematical astrology 2,000 years ago. It described, very specifically, a planet that would rise above the eastern horizon just before the sun would appear. Then, just moments after the planet rises, it disappears in the bright glare of the sun in the morning sky. Except for a brief moment, no one can see this “star in the east.”
We need a little bit of astronomy background here. In a human lifetime, virtually all the stars remain fixed in their places; the stars rise and set every night, but they do not move relative to each other. The stars in the Big Dipper appear year after year always in the same place. But the planets, the sun and the moon wander through the fixed stars; in fact, the word “planet” comes from the Greek word for wandering star. Though the planets, sun and moon move along approximately the same path through the background stars, they travel at different speeds, so they often lap each other. When the sun catches up with a planet, we can’t see the planet, but when the sun passes far enough beyond it, the planet reappears.
And now we need a little bit of astrology background. When the planet reappears again for the first time and rises in the morning sky just moments before the sun, for the first time in many months after having been hidden in the sun’s glare for those many months, that moment is known to astrologers as a heliacal rising. A heliacal rising, that special first reappearance of a planet, is what en te anatole referred to in ancient Greek astrology. In particular, the reappearance of a planet like Jupiter was thought by Greek astrologers to be symbolically significant for anyone born on that day.
Thus, the “star in the east” refers to an astronomical event with supposed astrological significance in the context of ancient Greek astrology.Was the star visible just briefly before dawn?
What about the star parked directly above the first crèche? The word usually translated as “stood over” comes from the Greek word epano, which also had an important meaning in ancient astrology. It refers to a particular moment when a planet stops moving and changes apparent direction from westward to eastward motion. This occurs when the Earth, which orbits the sun more quickly than Mars or Jupiter or Saturn, catches up with, or laps, the other planet.
Together, a rare combination of astrological events (the right planet rising before the sun; the sun being in the right constellation of the zodiac; plus a number of other combinations of planetary positions considered important by astrologers) would have suggested to ancient Greek astrologers a regal horoscope and a royal birth.
Molnar believes that the wise men were, in fact, very wise and mathematically adept astrologers. They also knew about the Old Testament prophecy that a new king would be born of the family of David. Most likely, they had been watching the heavens for years, waiting for alignments that would foretell the birth of this king. When they identified a powerful set of astrological portents, they decided the time was right to set out to find the prophesied leader.
If Matthew’s wise men actually undertook a journey to search for a newborn king, the bright star didn’t guide them; it only told them when to set out. And they wouldn’t have found an infant swaddled in a manger. After all, the baby was already eight months old by the time they decoded the astrological message they believed predicted the birth of a future king. The portent began on April 17 of 6 BC (with the heliacal rising of Jupiter that morning, followed, at noon, by its lunar occultation in the constellation Aries) and lasted until December 19 of 6 BC (when Jupiter stopped moving to the west, stood still briefly, and began moving to the east, as compared with the fixed background stars)...
Matthew wrote to convince his readers that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah. Given the astrological clues embedded in his gospel, he must have believed the story of the Star of Bethlehem would be convincing evidence for many in his audience."
https://theconversation.com/can-astronomy-explain-the-biblical-star-of-bethlehem-35126
Two Biblical Proofs For The Deity Of The Holy Spirit
"Compare, for example, Isaiah 6:8–10 with Acts 28:25–27. Isaiah presents a statement by Yahweh in his prophecy. In Acts, Paul attributes the statement to the Holy Spirit. In other words, what Yahweh said is what the Holy Spirit said. We see something similar by comparing Psalm 95:7–11 with Hebrews 3:7–11. What Yahweh says in Psalm 95, the author of Hebrews attributes to the Holy Spirit."
https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article/2019/12/is-the-trinity-biblical/
A Rebuttal To Catholic Nick On The Meaning Of Justify
-A blogger who goes by the name of Catholic Nick published an article where he explains his understanding of what it means for God to justify sinners and how that supposedly undermines the doctrine of Sola Fide. Following are his remarks alongside with a critique:
"To begin, the Greek word "justify" appears in about 36 verses in the New Testament. Of all these occurrences, the only time it is used in an explicitly forensic (legal, courtroom) context is in four verses: Mt 12:37; Rom 3:4; 8:33; 1 Cor 4:4. So how do Protestants come to the conclusion that it must mean "declare legally righteous by a judge"? Certainly not from the New Testament evidence, especially since 'forensic terms' don't really appear in places like Romans 3-4 and Galatians 2-3. Turning to the 40 verses of the Old Testament that use the term "justify," there were more occurrences in a legal context than in the New Testament, but still not enough to form any concrete conclusion: Ex 23:7; Deut 25:1; 2 Sam 15:4; 1 Kings 8:32 (same as 2 Chron 6:23); Ps 19:9; 51:4 (quoted in Rom 4:3); Ps 143:2; Prov 17:15."
First of all, the meaning of the word justify is to be determined by the context in which that word is used. This source says the following:
"When we turn to the New Testament we must be clear that the righteousness and justification terminology is to be understood in the light of its Hebrew background, not in terms of contemporary Greek ideas. We see this, for example, in the words of Jesus who speaks of people giving account on the day of judgment: "by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned" (Matt 12:37; the word NIV translates "acquitted" is the one Paul normally uses for"justified"). Those acquitted on the day of judgment are spoken of as "the righteous" (Matt 25:37; they go into "eternal life," v. 46).
The verb translated "to justify" clearly means "to declare righteous." Any theological word dictionary such as Kittel's Theological Dictionary for example clearly demonstrates this. It is used of God in a quotation, which the New International Version renders "So that you may be proved right when you speak" (Rom 3:4; the NRSV has more exactly, "So that you may be justified in your words"). Now God cannot be "made righteous"; the expression obviously means "shown to be righteous" and this helps us see that when the word is applied to believers it does not mean "made righteous"; it signifies "declared righteous," "shown to be in the right," or the like."
"So for a Protestant to say that "justify," especially as Paul uses it in Romans 3-4 and Galatians 2-3, means "declared to be a perfect law keeper by a judge" is by no means an established fact at all."
When the term "justify" is used in Galatians, Paul contrasts faith and the works of the Law in chapters two and three. The apostle speaks of both Jews and Gentiles being justified by faith. He refers to God's covenant with Israel and its nature as a relation of promise. But in the process, Paul pits an attempt to be justified by the Law against hearing with faith. Both sides of the contrast have life versus death as the two potential ends of that relationship. Paul discusses these themes also in chapters three and four of Galatians.
Moreover, the Law convicting mankind is the central theme in Romans 1-3 that builds to his use of justification in the subsequent chapters. See especially Romans 1:18, 1:24-26; 28; 2:1-3; 5-8; 12; 16; 3:9-13; 19-20. This context clearly has forensic or judicial overtones.
"Matthew 12:37, 1 Corinthians 4:4, and (arguably) Romans 8:33, are speaking of the final judgement, not something that takes place at the moment of conversion.Romans 3:4 (Psalm 51:4) and (arguably) Psalm 19:9 are speaking of God being justified, thus it cannot mean "declare righteous by a judge," for no judge is above God. So despite being in a forensic context, "justify" here can really only mean vindicate."
Justify can mean to vindicate, but that does nothing to weaken or undermine the traditional meaning of that word. To be vindicated means to be shown as right, innocent, or without sin in a set of circumstances. Vindication is related to a courtroom scene and the question of innocence and just actions. Romans 8:33 is a clear case of forensic categories because it comes alongside with the idea of charge, accusation, and advocating.
"Ex 23:7, Deut 25:1, Rom 8:33, 1 Cor 4:4, (and likely) Prov 17:5; Mt 12:37 are not speaking of "declaring righteous" - as in declaring that someone has done his duty like keeping the commandments perfectly - but rather of "acquittal," meaning being found not guilty, i.e. innocent. For example, if I'm on trial for speeding, the Judge can either find me guilty (condemn), or he can acquit me (find innocent), but he cannot declare me to be a perfect driver and worthy of a reward."
We agree that justification means acquittal, the verdict of "not guilty." Nonetheless, it is difficult to see how the Roman Catholic Church could even affirm that given concepts like purgatory and the treasury of merit. The imputation of Jesus Christ's righteousness takes place through us being united with Him (1 Corinthians 1:30). That would be the "perfect driver" part.
"I made a distinction between vindicating and acquitting because it seems acquitting fits best in situations where a person is being found 'innocent' of a charge, where as vindicating means more to show someone is in the right. But that said, I would argue that acquitting is a form or subset of vindicating, so the terms are conceptually not that different. With that in mind, all vindication/acquittal framework, meaning this is how we should most probably view it as well, especially in the key texts of Romans and Galatians. This approach to rendering the term term "justify" as vindicate/acquit has the devastating effect of rendering the Protestant definition not only dubious, but completely without precedent."
This seems to be quite a leap of logic, as Nick makes hairsplitting distinctions and fails to explain how his points are "devastating" to the "Protestant" argument. The author actually seems to contradict himself, since he says that the term "justify" as meaning "declare righteous" is "completely without precedence" while earlier acknowledging and citing certain passages of Scripture that definitely are to be understood in that same forensic sense.
An Effective Refutation Of Sola Fide Or Just Another Case Of Roman Catholic Sophistry?
-A blogger who goes by the name of Catholic Nick wrote an article where he attempts to stump Protestants by using texts such as Galatians 5:6. Following are excerpts from the author alongside with a critique:
"(1) Faith prior to justification lacks love, and thus this faith must start off 'dead'. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, just an incomplete thing, which is why justification is still needed."
There is no passage of time between faith and justification. Both occur simultaneously. There is also no such thing as a faith which starts off as dead. That is not what Sola Fide means. Therefore, this conclusion is built on a straw man.
"(2) Justification must be what bestows love, and this seems confirmed by Scripture (e.g. Romans 5:5), and thus the Protestant can no longer say justification is purely forensic, but rather infuses divine gifts into the soul.
The Holy Spirit pours the love of God into our hearts, which is related to our justification. But this act of the Spirit is not to be equated or conflated with the instance of justification. Grace and faith do have an effect on our love.
Forensic justification causes things which are not forensic in nature to happen. We obtain peace with God by faith, which includes assurance of salvation and the freedom to pursue holiness in gratitude for what God has done for us. These blessings have a consequential relationship to justification by faith alone. The relationship of God to the unbelieving world is that of a judge to a convict, whereas our relationship to Him is that of a father to a son.
"(3) Dead faith prior to justification becomes living faith after justification by the addition of love to faith, and herein is the essence of a justified believer. This would mean it isn't Christ's Imputed Righteousness that makes all the difference, but rather the presence/absence of love, and thus suggests your justification (salvation) hinges upon what you do with that love. This is why texts like Revelation 21:8 list "unbelief" as one of the many sins that can damn a person, because it's possible to have faith and be damned by other grave sins."
The presence of love serves as evidence of a regenerate heart. In addition, the reason that "unbelief" is listed as one of several damnable sins in Revelation 21:8 is that it is the opposite of belief. Faith is the instrument by which God justifies us. Thus, that passage is perfectly consistent with the doctrine of Sola Fide.
"Given the above, when Paul says we are "justified by faith," he isn't saying we are "eternally saved by faith," rather he's saying that we receive God's love within us by believing in the Gospel, and that this is just the beginning of our salvation (Rom 13:8-14; Gal 5:13-14)."
We would agree with the above comments. The moment of conversion is simply the beginning of our salvation. Justification is an aspect, but not the entirety of the process. What we would argue against is the idea of man earning the grace of God on the basis of good works.
Examining Catholic Mortal And Venial Sin In Light Of Scripture
The Roman Catholic Church maintains a sharp distinction between venial and mortal sins. The former category is said to be a less serious offense in the sight of God and does not result in loss of salvation. The latter category is said to be a grave violation of God's Law (CCC #1855) and results in a loss of all sanctifying grace (CCC # 1861). In Roman Catholic theology, mortal sins are instantaneously fatal to one's relationship with God.
While Scripture does speak of different degrees of sin, the payment for all is the same, spiritual death (Genesis 2:16-17; Ezekiel 18:4; 20; Romans 6:23). Even our smallest violations of God's Law are acts of treason against Him (Matthew 5:21-22; James 2:10-11). He is perfect and holy. He is true to Himself. We have all fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and so have incurred the sentence of spiritual death. In judging us, God literally takes into account every spec of our lives (Matthew 12:36).
All sin is paid for by the same shed blood of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:10-14; 1 Peter 3:18). Sin does have both spiritual and earthly consequences. One may suffer a loss of rewards in eternity, but remains saved. A murderer suffers capital punishment. A thief receives a jail sentence. An adulterer will lose his or her spouse and potentially the entire family. But the Roman Catholic distinction between mortal and venial sins is decidedly unscriptural.
Once a man has placed his trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, he is justified before God and forgiven of all sins. This is not intended to communicate that a Christian stumbling into sin is permissible, when in reality it is not. The Lord does chasten those whom He loves (Hebrews 12:6-8). Moreover, the grace of God instructs us to resist evil (Titus 2:11-14). However, there are no venial and mortal sins. Sin as a category separates man from God. Sin by its very nature is fatal to us.
Another problem for the Roman Catholic concept of mortal and venial sins is that if we view most of our sin as being "venial" in nature, then we will essentially minimize or overlook the seriousness of our sin nature the need for God's continual providing of grace.
Scientific Investigation Does Not Rule Out God
"Is is, of course, entirely possible to study organisms scientifically on the premise that they were all created by God, just as scientists study airplanes and even works of art without denying that these objects are intelligently designed. The problem with allowing God a role in the history of life is not that science would cease but rather that scientists would have to acknowledge the existence of something important that is outside the boundaries of natural science. For scientists who want to be able to explain everything-and "theories of everything" are now openly anticipated in the scientific literature-this is an intolerable possibility."
Why Did The Watchtower Society Become An Associate Member Of The United Nations In 1992 Until 2001?
"Before posing this question as an attack on the organisation it is best to prepare the way otherwise the effect can be lost. Start by asking why JWs are not allowed to participate in political affairs. Then move on to asking them why they hate the UN so much. Getting them to confirm first how the UN is so opposed to Jehovah’s kingdom before dropping the bombshell that that the Watchtower Society joined it increases the effect. They may well deny that this actually happened but just ask them to speak with their elders to confirm it or research it themselves. Leave the question to simmer in their minds."
https://www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/10-questions-to-ask-a-Jehovah-s-Witness
Comments On The Jehovah's Witnesses New World Translation Rendering Of Hebrews 1:6
Hebrews 1:6 was translated in the following manner in the 1961 edition of the Jehovah's Witnesses New World Translation:
"Let all God's angels worship him."
How the passage from Hebrews is rendered in modern editions of the New World Translation:
"And let all of God’s angels do obeisance to him.”
The Greek word translated into English as "worship" is proskyneo. It goes beyond giving somebody honor, especially when employed in a religious context. That is indeed the case with Hebrews 1:6.
Consequently, the rendering of proskyneo as "do obeisance" (instead of worship) in the New World Translation is wholly inappropriate. This is a clear example of the Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower Society taking liberties with the text.
A Major Problem For The Jehovah's Witness Belief That Jesus Is Michael The Archangel
-The Jehovah's Witnesses Kingdom Interlinear Translation renders Hebrews 1:3 as follows:
"[Jesus] is the reflection of [God’s] glory and the exact representation of his very being."
If Jesus Christ is Michael the Archangel as the Jehovah's Witnesses believe, then, according to the logic of the above quoted Scripture passage, that would mean the essence or nature of God must be that of an angel.
Do Occurrences Of Brain Damage Refute The Immateriality Of The Soul?
Critics of mind-body dualism (the position that the mind is immaterial, body is physical, and both are separable) argue that changes in brain function rule out the existence of a soul. It is claimed that instances of the brain influencing our behavior prove consciousness to be illusory. A common assertion made in neuroscience is that the mind and the brain are one in the same.
There is a relationship between the mind and brain, but that does not mean both are the same. The brain is the instrument by which we access our consciousness. Thus, the mind is dependent in a sense on the brain. Organic brain damage may hinder our overall performance. Just as a broken computer which is unable to access the internet does not prove such to be nonexistent, so a damaged brain does not disprove the immateriality of the soul. Following are a few excerpts from secular sources that expressly reject mind-body dualism but argue the mind transcends the brain:
"...neuroimaging studies may not be as objective as some would like to think. There are still large gaps between observation and interpretation – gaps that are ‘filled’ by theoretical or methodological assumptions. It is then no surprise that researchers have difficulty replicating experimental findings, and that one lab may often find results that contradict those found in another lab where researchers have slightly different biases and make different methodological assumptions (Miller, 2010). This is not to dismiss neuroimaging studies altogether, but rather to suggest that there needs to be more skepticism about what grandiose conclusions we draw from them." (http://modernpsychologist.ca/the-mind-does-not-reduce-to-the-brain/)
"...The brain plays an incredibly important role. But our mind cannot be confined to what’s inside our skull, or even our body, according to a definition first put forward by Dan Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA School of Medicine and the author of a recently published book, Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human." (https://qz.com/866352/scientists-say-your-mind-isnt-confined-to-your-brain-or-even-your-body/)
"...the mind is not just a product of brain activity. If it were, it would be impossible for changes in psychological functioning to bring about changes in the brain, in the same way that it would be impossible for changes in the images on a computer screen to bring about changes to the circuitry of a computer. This highlights the fact that the psyche is a phenomenon in its own right, with its own features, its own structures and patterns. It can’t be entirely reduced to neurology. It has to be studied in its own terms."(https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/out-the-darkness/201701/why-the-mind-is-more-the-brain)
Following is an excerpt from a source that does argue for mind-body dualism:
"Penfield’s observations bring to light a perplexing aspect of epilepsy — or at least an aspect of epilepsy that should be perplexing to materialists. Seizures always involve either complete unconsciousness or specific activation of a non-abstract neurological function — flashes of light, smells, jerking of muscles, specific memories, strong emotions — but seizures never evoke discrete abstract thought. This is odd, given that the bulk of brain tissue from which seizures arise is classified as association areas that are thought to sub-serve abstract thought. Why don’t epilepsy patients have “calculus seizures” or “moral ethics” seizures, in which they involuntarily take second derivatives or contemplate mercy? The answer is obvious — the brain does not generate abstract thought. The brain is normally necessary for abstract thought, but not sufficient for it." (https://evolutionnews.org/2016/04/wilder_penfield/)
Do The Incorruptible Bodies Of The Saints Prove Roman Catholicism?
"The most commonly used example of an incorruptible body to argue for Catholicism is the example of St. Silvan who was martyred in the fourth century. It is claimed that his body has not decayed in over 1,700 years and you can still see the gash on his neck where he was killed.
But this “incorruptible body” is actually a wax sculpture. His real remains are located below this wax figure...
In the vast majority of these incorruptible bodies, there is a wax mask placed over the face to hide the signs of decay. If their bodies are truly incorruptible, then why is the wax mask necessary? One of the most common examples of an incorrupt body is that of John Vianney. But what those websites who use his body to argue for Catholicism won’t tell you is that his face is actually a wax mask.
But for those bodies that are not wearing a wax mask, their faces have been preserved by a miraculous process called embalming. If the process of embalming proves that Catholicism is true, then Communism is also true because the body of Vladimir Lenin is incorrupt as well."
https://jamesattebury.wordpress.com/2018/02/03/do-the-incorruptible-bodies-of-the-saints-prove-roman-catholicism/
Commentary On John 1:16
"...what does the phrase "grace for grace" actually mean? The preposition translated "for" in Greek is anti, which could readily be translated "in place of." The idea is that when one supply of grace is used, there will be another to take its place. There is constant and uninterrupted replenishment of the grace of God for the believer. Thus his sins are never exposed; they are under the blood of Christ all the time. Let us not hesitate, therefore, to invoke God's grace constantly. God never wants us to be lacking in His grace. We must have His fullness. Let us not be afraid that we shall ever exhaust the grace of God. In Him there is an inexhaustible supply."
Spiros Zodhiates, Was Christ God?, p. 309
"The verb translated "gave he" in this verse, edooken in Greek, comes from the same root as the words dosis and dooron, meaning "gift." Therefore edooken in this context has the implied notion of giving freely. There is no restriction to God's giving. Divine authority can become ours freely, without restriction in its outflow and without the necessity of our having to pay for it. And this exactly describes the attitude of God toward us in our sinful state. It is sin which has made us the children of the devil. No matter how great our sin, God's giving of grace is sufficient to meet it."
Why The Author Of The Fourth Gospel De-Emphasizes John The Baptist (In Upholding Christ's Deity)
"At the time when John was writing his Gospel, in the latter years of the first century in Ephesus, the sect emerged whose followers called themselves Hemerobaptists, a Greek word meaning "daily bathers" or those who were baptized daily. Between the time when Paul preached the gospel in Ephesus and the time of the writing of John's Gospel, the person of John the Baptist, who had died as a martyr for the faith, had assumed proportions which threatened the supremacy of Jesus Christ. Some people believed that he was not merely the forerunner of the Messiah, but that he himself was the Messiah. As J. B. Lightfoot says, "His baptism was no more a single rite, once performed and initiating an amendment of life; it was a daily recurrence atoning for sin and sanctifying the person." (St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, p. 403). And then he goes on to say, "In the latter half of the first century, it would seem, there was a great movement among large numbers of the Jews in favor of frequent baptism, as the one purificatory rite essential to salvation" (p. 404)."
Spiros Zodhiates, Was Christ God?, p. 166-167
Commentary On John 1:3
"...there are those who teach that Jesus Christ is the first creature of God the Father and also the Creator of the world. But this teaching contains both a logical and Scriptural inconsistency. One cannot be both a creature and the Creator. The second part of John 1:3 excludes the possibly that Jesus Christ was both a creature and a creator in His pre-incarnate state. After stating that "all things through him came into being," John goes on to say, "and without him was not any thing made that was made." The "him" refers to Jesus Christ. The "all" of the first part of the verse and the "not any thing" of the second part are all-inclusive, i.e., they cover the entire creation and have no exception anywhere in the created universe."
The Human Mind, Robots, And Self-Awareness
If the sophistication of artificial intelligence continues to develop, then would that not mean robots would eventually have the ability to feel self-awareness?
Not exactly. Every question or statement that a robot can process had the answers programmed into it beforehand by a human being.
Moreover, a computer system does not grasp the meaning of concepts as does a brain. We have subjective elements that simply cannot be possessed by machinery. We actually have feelings and intentions.
"Thinking is not computation. In fact, thinking is the anthesis of computation. Thought always has meaning, and computation inherently lacks meaning. That is what makes computation so versatile—it imparts no meaning of its own to the tasks to which we apply it." (https://mindmatters.ai/2018/08/the-brain-is-not-a-meat-computer/)
There is much more to consciousness than having high intelligence and memory storage. At best, a computer can be a simulation of a mind that is conscious. Cognitive neuroscientist Bobby Azarian gives the following observations:
"...How physical phenomena, like biochemical and electrical processes, create sensation and unified experience is known as the “Hard Problem of Consciousness”, and is widely recognized by neuroscientists and philosophers. Even neuroscientist and popular author Sam Harris—who shares Musk’s robot-rebellion concerns—acknowledges the hard problem when stating that whether a machine could be conscious is “an open question”.
There is a theological overlapping to all this. A Christian would maintain that consciousness is not possible for a robot because such a condition would require an immaterial soul. That is how God created man. The consciousness of metal and wires assumes that humans are simply material matter.
Does The Baptism With The Holy Spirit Take Place After Conversion?
There is a false teaching present amongst charismatics that Holy Spirit baptism is a separate event from conversion that not every Christian necessarily experiences. In other words, it is believed by some that we must strive for a second blessing from God after receiving His unmerited gift of justification. The problem with this doctrine is that it does not accord with Scripture. No distinction is made between believers who have received the Holy Spirit and others who lack Him.
Christians are identified as being equally and completely (in the past tense) members of God's church (1 Corinthians 12:13). Everybody who receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior possesses the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9; Ephesians 1:13-14). Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:16-19). Thus, we are to walk continually in Him. The example of Cornelius serves as a perfect illustration of believers simultaneously receiving salvation and the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:43-48). There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism (Ephesians 4:4-6). The Holy Spirit fully indwells every believer at the moment of conversion. The baptism of the Spirit is not separated from conversion in Scripture.
The handful of episodes of the Holy Spirit falling on people who were already followers of God that we encounter in the Book of Acts are a unique historical event. They took place during an important transition of salvation history. Christ had ascended into heaven and was glorified by the Father. The scope of redemption was expanded to the Gentiles. What we see described in biblical history is not to be treated as a prescriptive standard for doctrine. Moreover, what happened at Pentecost was a fulfillment of Joel 2:28-32. This event is not to be repeated or ongoing.
Confessions Of A Former Charismatic
I believe God can do the miraculous. He can grant someone the ability to speak a foreign language. He can heal the sick without the intervention of medicine. But I don’t believe God guarantees that He will always do this. Instead, the Word indicates we can expect persecution, tribulation, distress, and famine (Romans 8:35). Indeed, God ordains sickness and trials in order to glorify Himself (Genesis 50:20; John 9:3). And there are harsh words in the New Testament regarding those who seek signs and wonders (Luke 11:29; John 2:23-25; John 4:48).
One of our problems is that we have become so used to God’s grace in our lives, we fail to recognize the miracles He is working in our midst every day. The fact that our propensity for sin is restrained, the fact that hard-hearted sinners become lovers of God and servants of Christ, the fact that the penalty for my sin has been paid by Another—these are all miracles, no less remarkable than the raising of Lazarus from the dead. And what was the raising of Lazarus other than a sign pointing to that greater wonder: the resurrection of dead souls to new life in Christ?
My study into the gifts of the Spirit have lead me to the conclusion that the sign gifts displayed and described in the New Testament were given at that time for a specific purpose. Nothing in the Scriptures convinces me that those gifts were intended to be permanent. They served the purpose of establishing the church and validating the message of the Apostles. We have that message in Scripture, and we have the confirmation of that message in the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, testifying to us of the truth of the gospel. First Corinthians 12-14 is not a manual on how to use spiritual gifts, but was written to correct the abuse of those gifts within the church at Corinth. While those gifts are no longer functioning within the church, the truths Paul preaches regarding the supremacy of love and the necessity for order within the church are certainly applicable to us today."
https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/2014/02/04/confessions-of-a-former-charismatic-part-2-why-im-no-longer-a-charismatic/
A Dilemma For The Jehovah's Witnesses And Their New World Translation
In the Jehovah's Witnesses New World Translation, the word "Lord" (Greek: kurios) is oftentimes rendered as Jehovah. However, that term was not used by biblical writers (nor has any support from known Greek manuscripts). Moreover, the Greek term is not translated as Jehovah in texts such as Romans 10:9-10, 1 Corinthians 12:3, Philippians 2:11, 1 Peter 3:15, and Revelation 22:21.
That point highlights the inconsistency in translation and the fact that the Watchtower Society's emphasis on the unbiblical word Jehovah as the divine name is misguided. If the Greek word kurios was translated in a consistent fashion, then Jesus Christ would be called Jehovah.
Ehrman's Equivocation And The Inerrancy Of The Original Text
By Peter J. Williams
The idea of an inerrant or even an infallible original text of Scripture has been a matter of wide controversy. In part such controversy has merely reflected fundamental divisions over the nature of Scripture, its historical reliability, and the extent and essence of its authority. However, it is the contention here that the controversy has partly been complicated by the multivalence of key terms being used by advocates of inerrancy. This means that, while advocates of inerrancy are carefully presenting nuanced arguments that are exegetically well grounded and logically compelling, there are stumbling blocks to their message other than the sheer offensiveness of a doctrine of inerrancy. Advocates of inerrancy need to adopt clearer terminology to ensure that the doctrine is correctly understood at the popular level. In addition, this essay argues that the burden of proof should be on those who distrust the basic integrity of the New Testament text. The work of Bart D. Ehrman is used to illustrate the problems that can arise through terminological confusion and when the burden of proof is wrongly shifted onto those who maintain the basic integrity of the New Testament text.
Bart Ehrman and the Inerrancy of the Originals
The story of Bart Ehrman has become well known through his autobiographical Introduction to his best-selling book Misquoting Jesus.1 After a conversion experience in his teens, Ehrman studied at two well-known institutions committed to biblical inerrancy: Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton College. Through his studies, especially subsequently at Princeton Theological Seminary, Ehrman abandoned belief in biblical inerrancy and developed a prominent and successful career as a textual critic. As a leading textual critic and ex-inerrantist he has critiqued the idea of biblical inspiration on many occasions, not least on the ground that it is meaningless to attribute the property of having being inspired to a document (the original) that is now lost.2
From observing the reception of Ehrman's writing and speaking it is clear that in mounting this critique he is touching what for many people is a raw nerve. His message can be summarized as follows: many Christians hold to the absolute authority of the original text of the Bible, but this is lost and they are therefore left with no absolute authority. Or to put it more succinctly: Christians follow something they do not have. This message is clearly attractive to many skeptical of Christianity, and worrying to many adherents of the faith. It appears that not only does Ehrman think that he has correctly represented Christian belief, but also that many Christians believe he has done so too.
I will maintain that in several ways Ehrman's case gains force through the logical fallacy of equivocation, namely the confusing of two separate meanings of the same terms. The key problem seems to be that central terms used in discussing a doctrine of Scripture - terms such as "Bible," "text," and "original" - can have both physical and non-physical meanings.3 The focus of Ehrman's critique can often shift indiscriminately between valid but doctrinally irrelevant assertions that we do not have certain physical documents and doctrinally relevant but historically questionable assertions that we do not have the wording of the New Testament, which is of course non-physical. We consider key terms that may facilitate this confusion.
In addition, Ehrman's case gains force by unwarranted shifting of the burden of proof onto those who wish to maintain the integrity of an ancient text and by focusing on small areas of uncertainty while ignoring large and increasing areas of certainty.4
Equivocations Examined
The Term "Bible"
"Bible" is a multivalent term and a relative newcomer among theological terminology, arguably existing for only about half of church history, and in one of its senses for just over a third. There have been considerable shifts over time in the terms Christians have used for their sacred writings. In English only a few centuries ago "holy writ" and "holy Scripture," or "the Scriptures,"5 were more common. However, the English term "Bible" (variously spelled) has also been used for the best part of a millennium and since at least the fourteenth century has carried two different meanings: the one referring to the collection of books that constitute holy Scripture, the other referring to a physical copy of these books. It is in this latter sense that the secondary plural developed, so that one may talk of a collection of Bibles. The Oxford English Dictionary (s.v.) thus gives the first definition as "The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament" and the second as "A copy of the Scriptures." The term is, of course, derived ultimately from Greek mediated via the Latin plural biblia, which changed into a singular in various Western European languages, facilitated by the fact that Latin biblia could be reanalyzed as a feminine singular and there was no corresponding singular *biblium to prevent this.6 It was only after it had been a singular for some time that a secondary plural developed.
The importance of this is that proponents of biblical inerrancy believe in the inerrancy of the Bible in only one of the two senses of the word "Bible," namely when it refers to the collection of books or Scriptures, not to a physical document containing those books.
Consider the following hypothetical exchange:
Enquirer: Do you believe the Bible is without error?
Inerrantist: Yes.
Enquirer (holds up a particular Bible translation): Is this the Bible?
Enquirer: So you believe that there are no errors in this Bible . . .
Inerrantist: Well, actually there may be errors because it is only a translation of the Bible.
This highlights the awkwardness with which at the popular level it may seem necessary to qualify an initial statement of the inerrancy of Scripture. The exchange has, however, only been possible because of a level of multivalence in the word "Bible." If the exchange were adapted with the word "Scriptures" substituted for "Bible" it is likely that less awkwardness would be felt because the term more obviously puts the focus of discussion on the books as writings rather than on any particular copy or translation, and the enquirer would have had to ask "Is this a copy of the Scriptures?" It would be obvious therefore that one could not dismiss the inerrancy of the Scriptures simply by reference to a physical copy of them. Some people may be put off by the term "inerrancy" through what they perceive as backtracking: the proponent of inerrancy initially makes a bold statement - "the Bible is inerrant" - and then proceeds to list numerous qualifications. This procedure may be necessary, but we should at least consider whether there are alternatives.
There seems to have been a shift over time toward use of the term "Bible," particularly in popular parlance, and this results in a mismatch between the terms used in doctrinal definition and those used in common Christian parlance. As an example of technical discourse we may take the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.7 This statement uses the term "Scripture" fifty-seven times and the term "Scriptures" fourteen times (four times each qualified as "holy"). By contrast it uses the term "Bible" a mere sixteen times, "biblical" seven times, and "biblically" once. However, in the culture at large the proportions are rather different, and when large corpora of English are searched we see that the term "Bible" clearly now predominates over "Scripture" or "Scriptures":8
Occurrences in large corpora
American English British English
sg. pl. sg. pl.
Bible 11009 572 1941 106
Scripture 2399 1005 390 290
To illustrate the growth of the term "Bible" through time we may note that articles of faith dealing with Scripture in historic Reformed confessions entirely lack the word "Bible."9 However, more recent evangelical statements of faith show a tendency to include this word. An example of this shift can be seen in the widely used doctrinal basis of the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF; formerly Inter-Varsity Fellowship) in the UK. The article on Scripture had originally read:
The divine inspiration and infallibility of Holy Scripture as originally given, and its supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.10
But when the article was revised for the sake of modernization it was replaced with the following:
The Bible, as originally given, is the inspired and infallible Word of God. It is the supreme authority in all matters of belief and behaviour.11
"Scripture" was replaced by "Bible," which is obviously intended in the sense of the OED's first meaning - the "Scriptures of the Old and New Testament." The change of wording therefore involves no shift in primary referent, but it does at least facilitate a shift of focus, since the new term introduced, namely "Bible," is multivalent and allows a focus on the physical object rather than on the words of the books themselves.
Although this shift does not by itself cause Ehrman's arguments to work, it does allow them to gain rhetorical force. After all, his contention appears to be that Christians adhere to a holy book they do not have, and the proof that they do not have it is the lack of a physical copy of the book. If Christians more widely spoke of the "inerrancy of the Scriptures" or the "inerrancy of Scripture" I imagine that Ehrman might find the target at least a little harder to hit.
The Term "Original"
A further term that provides ammunition for Ehrman is the word "original."12 Of course, in the time of John Owen or Matthew Henry, "original" could mean simply "origin," especially in the phrase "divine original," but it is no longer used in this way. However, when the word "original" is used in an unqualified way adjectivally we must ask what noun is implied. Are we to understand it as original language (or tongue), original text, or original manuscript? Whatever noun we supply it is clear that earlier writers wrote about the original as something they possessed. For instance, commenting on 1 Corinthians 16:11 Matthew Henry says
Conduct him forth in peace, that he may come to me, for I look for him with the brethren (v. 11); or I with the brethren look for him (the original will bear either), ἐκδέχομαι γὰρ αὐτὸν μετὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν.13
Clearly Henry knew that he did not have the original manuscript (autograph), so we can eliminate that as a possible meaning for what he said. It seems that for him, as for many earlier writers, "original" was defined by contrast with what was translated. "Original" was not an absolute term; it could be made absolute by speaking of the first original.14
By contrast with Henry who saw the original as something he possessed, we have Ehrman who takes it to be something lost. In writing of his own struggle with inerrancy he says:
I kept reverting to my basic question: how does it help us to say that the Bible is the inerrant word of God if in fact we don't have the words that God inerrantly inspired, but only the words copied by the scribes - sometimes correctly but sometimes (many times!) incorrectly? What good is it to say that the autographs (i.e., the originals) were inspired? We don't have the originals! We have only error-ridden copies, and the vast majority of these are centuries removed from the originals and different from them, evidently, in thousands of ways.15
This is a fairly confused section. Ehrman claims that we do not have the words God inspired, but he has not demonstrated that to be the case. If John the Evangelist or his amanuensis wrote the letter sequence εναρχηηνολογος (John 1:1) then we have the words he wrote, whether we have the words in our minds or in a modern printed edition. One thing that Ehrman never seems to do is to attempt to show that we do not have (either in our minds or in manuscripts) all of the words that the authors wrote. In fact, the situation for the New Testament text is that there are no words that are known or even widely believed by textual critics to be missing from the New Testament text.16
Though Ehrman does show what is widely known, namely that there are variants in the manuscripts, this does not amount to a demonstration that we do not have the words God inspired. To do this he would have at least to demonstrate that some words that were alleged to be inspired have been lost, and at most to demonstrate that all words that were alleged to be inspired have been lost.
Then when he glosses the word "autographs" with the explanation "originals" it is clear that he is using the word "original" in a different sense from Henry. Clearly he means a physical entity - an actual manuscript. The problem here is that it is to misrepresent Christian belief to suggest that a physical manuscript was somehow inspired by God. Rather it was the words on the manuscript that, according to Christian belief, were inspired. Most importantly, when the sequence of words found on the autograph is copied onto another manuscript it does not become less inspired through being copied or written out a second time (Exod. 34:1; Jer. 36:28) and Scripture even allows for Scripture to be lost for a time (2 Kgs. 22:8). In other words, Ehrman has simply mistaken what a Christian doctrine implies.17
A further difference between Henry and Ehrman is probably one of the burden of proof. Given that Ehrman does not distinguish clearly between the first manuscript and the wording on the first manuscript, we have to reconstruct his view. However, he frequently states that we have only "copies of the copies of the copies of the originals."18 This implies a contrast between "original" and "copy," which probably would not make sense of what Henry says. Moreover, it seems that whereas Henry assumes that the words transmitted to him are those of the autograph unless shown otherwise, Ehrman takes the view that the words of a copy cannot be supposed to be those of the autograph under any circumstance. We will return to this below.
The Term "Text"
Aside from its recently acquired meaning of "text message," the word "text" is used in popular parlance both of a physical entity, an artifact with writing on it, and of the non-physical entity of writing abstracted from its physical context. In strict technical parlance it normally means the non-physical entity alone.19
Ehrman uses Galatians as a prime example of the problem of the idea of an original text. He says:
Even at the point of the original penning of the letter, we have numerous difficulties to consider, which may well make us sympathetic with those who want to give up on the notion of knowing what the "original" text was. Galatia was not a single town with a single church; it was a region in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) in which Paul had established churches. When he writes to the Galatians, is he writing to one of the churches or to all of them? Presumably, since he doesn't single out any particular town, he means for the letter to go to all of them. Does that mean that he made multiple copies of the same letter, or that he wanted the letter to circulate to all the churches of the region? We don't know.20
Ehrman's example may not be well chosen, since Paul's call to recognize his extra-large handwriting (Gal. 6:11) most likely points to a single physical document being taken round the churches. But Ehrman's point is this: for some works it is likely that there was more than one "original text" and that in any case we cannot now have the original text or know what it was. Since Ehrman connects any conception of inerrancy with the idea of an original text (as he understands it) the non-existence of the original text makes inerrancy untenable.
From a rather different angle A. T. B. McGowan complains about the emphasis on the autographa, which we do not possess, in Warfield's doctrine of Scripture. He says,
The second argument against inerrancy concerns the emphasis placed on the autographa by those in the Warfield tradition. If textual inerrancy is so vital to the doctrine of Scripture, why did God not preserve the autographa or precise copies of the same? Indeed, if inerrancy only applies to the autographa (which we do not possess), then surely it is a somewhat pointless affirmation? Everyone accepts that there are errors in the extant manuscripts and translations. What is the point of insisting that there once existed (very briefly) perfect versions of these texts, if we no longer possess them? Those who emphasize the inerrancy of the autographa are thus faced with a difficult question: "What was the point of God acting supernaturally to provide an inerrant text providentially if it ceased to be inerrant as soon as the first or second copy was made?"21
Though Ehrman and McGowan have very different perspectives on the scriptures they have in common a perception that supporters of inerrancy attribute inerrancy to something we do not have, namely the original text or autograph. Since Ehrman never engages with formal statements of evangelical doctrine, we may surmise that he is responding to evangelical doctrine as he perceived it during his youthful days as an evangelical. In the case of McGowan he is specifically responding to "those in the Warfield tradition." In this latter case it might at least be worth raising an initial query as to whether the question of the autographs is really so prominent within the Warfield tradition. At least in the case of Warfield himself the core ideas to which he returns are revelation and inspiration, not the original text, and it would be quite wrong to say that he holds, in McGowan's words, that "inerrancy only applies to the autographa."
When Warfield did come to define a text in his Textual Criticism of the New Testament it is clear that he held to the immaterial definition of text. In fact he chose to open his book, remarkable for its lack of explicit theology, with a definition of "text" that runs for more or less four pages. The book begins:
The word "text" properly denotes a literary work, conceived of as a mere thing, as a texture woven of words instead of threads. It designates neither, on the one side, the book which contains the text, nor, on the other side, the sense which the text conveys. It is not the matter of the discourse, nor the manner of it, whether logical, rhetorical, or grammatical. It is simply the web of words itself. It is with this understanding that the text of any work is concisely defined as the ipsissima verba of that work.22
After explaining the origins of the word "text" Warfield goes on to say:
There is an important distinction, however, which we should grasp at the outset, between the text of a document and the text of a work.23
The text of a document is the words on that document; the text of a work is "what ought to be the ipsissima verba of all the documents or copies that profess to represent it, - it is the original, or, better still, the intended ipsissima verba of the author. It may not lie in the document before us, or in any document. All existing documents, taken collectively, may fail to contain it. It may never have lain, perfect and pure, in any document. But if an element of ideality thus attaches to it, it is none the less a very real thing and a very legitimate object of search.24
Shortly later he says:
Such are the limitations of human powers in reproducing writings, that apparently no lengthy writing can be duplicated without error. Nay, such are the limitations of human powers of attention, that probably few manuscripts of any extent are written exactly correctly at first hand. The author himself fails to put correctly on paper the words that lie in his mind.25
What is striking here is that Warfield shows full awareness of all of the arguments that over a century later Ehrman would use as objections to inerrancy. However, it is important not to mistake what Warfield believes. In the penultimate quotation he uses the word "original" and then states his preference for the synonymous phrase "the intended ipsissima verba of the author." Warfield makes it clear that this phrase was "better still" than "original." Thus it would hardly go against the flow of Warfield's thought to dispense with the word "original" entirely. Moreover, since Warfield states so clearly that these intended ipsissima verba of a work may never have existed in a physical copy, this opens the question as to whether a follower of Warfield would need to believe that the intended words of divine Scripture ever needed to have existed in their perfect and exact form in an actual document at the time of the human author in order for the necessary conditions of the making of Scripture to have been fulfilled.
If so, then McGowan's suggestion that followers of Warfield put emphasis on the autographa is not relevant for Warfield himself. An autograph is a physical entity. The text of an autograph is not only immaterial, but is also the text of a document. By Warfield's definition, the text of a document should not necessarily be equated with the text of a work of literature.
Here Warfield, though not mentioning the doctrine of Scripture, or even the text of the New Testament, shows full awareness of the view that to speak thus of the text of an author may seem idealistic. Yet his emphasis on the text as an immaterial entity that need not have a physical manifestation is hardly just an example of Platonism in theology (not that having echoes of Plato necessarily means that a view is wrong!). There are a number of biblical texts suggesting the primacy of the immaterial word over its physical copy. The Ten Words (Ten Commandments) were given orally first, and then in written form. When the only physical copy of the Ten Words was destroyed by Moses (Exod. 32:19), this did not make the words cease to exist or become uninspired; they were simply given again (Exod. 34:27-28). When Joshua spoke (to others or himself) the text of the book of the law, then the book was said to be in his mouth (Josh. 1:8). The book was wherever it was spoken, even though a physical copy might be absent. Similarly God's words to Jeremiah were clearly inspired before being written down (Jer. 36:18), and could not be destroyed even if one eliminated all physical copies of them (Jer. 36:28). In a rather different way John 1:1 and 1:14 stress the existence of word prior to physical form. In other words, Ehrman's insistence that inspiration is not a meaningful belief unless one can produce to him a perfect physical copy of a text not only fails to recognize that Christian doctrines are not focused on physical copies, but also makes a rather arbitrary insistence on the necessity of a physical copy of God's words in Ehrman's own vicinity.
The focus on the immaterial nature of God's words also accords with modern studies of orality in the ancient world including the Old Testament. Ancient reading was generally out loud,26 and our tendency to see the written in opposition to the oral is not therefore appropriate. Oral communication may exist without writing, but written communication did not generally exist without oral communication. So while writing is important to spread and transmit God's words, there is no sense in which God's words become more inspired by virtue of being written down.
All this means that Warfield with his stress on the significance of the intended wording of the author is a very long way from stressing the significance of a physical lost document as he has sometimes been understood to have emphasized.
Resultant Ambiguity
We have seen so far that three of the key terms used in discussion of the inerrancy of Scripture, namely "Bible," "original," and "text," suffer from multivalence, and that there is a danger in each case that friend or foe of inerrancy alike may understand inerrancy to apply to one of these terms in a meaning that is not appropriate. One of the results of this discussion is that we can see that any emphasis that attributes inerrancy to a document (physical entity), rather than to the text of a document, is misguided. However, even the text on a document needs to be distinguished from the text of a work. It is to the text of the work, not of the document, that inerrancy applies. Therefore it is wrong to see inerrancy as having an emphasis on a physical entity that we no longer have.
The Burden of Proof: Do We Have the Wording or Not?
Having established that it is the wording, not the physical autographa, that matters, we need to consider whether or not we can have confidence that we have the wording of Scripture. This is partly a question of epistemology and of the burden of proof. Between the time of Matthew Henry and Bart Ehrman there clearly has been a significant shift from emphasizing what we have to what we do not have. For Ehrman it appears that one does not have the authorial wording until a proof is produced that one does have it. One also wonders whether there could ever be a proof that would demonstrate to Ehrman's satisfaction that we had the authorial wording. On the other hand, Henry seems to hold to the position that what is brought to him by the testimony of manuscript witnesses is the authoritative wording. To dissuade Henry of this position we may imagine it would be necessary to adduce actual manuscript testimony.
Although the position of believing that what you have received is the intended wording of the author may appear more credulous than not believing it to be so, we may at least notice one difference between these approaches. Those who actively refuse to believe the wording to be that of the author and prefer to remain agnostic, are in an epistemically invulnerable position. This may seem to be its strength, but it is also a weakness since it means that no amount of textual evidence could ever move one from agnosticism to active belief. Their approach thus allows little room for falsification.
A further disadvantage with the skeptical position is that it has no (or little) forfeit if it is wrong. In most areas of life, such as investments or medicine, there are consequences both to right and wrong beliefs. However, in the discipline of history as now conceived skepticism is not penalized, but actively encouraged. Thus whereas there is a potential benefit or loss for an investor involved with adopting both the belief that the market will go up and the belief that it will go down,27 for the historian there is a quite disproportionate loss of reputation for affirming something to be true when some doubt remains and no loss of reputation for disbelieving something when there is some limited evidence for its truth.
In addition we may note that Ehrman is unreasonably demanding proof concerning a negative if he asks others to demonstrate that the text has not changed, and in this case the negative is not possible to prove. When we work from the manuscript evidence we actually have, we observe the point made by both Warfield and Ehrman (among many others) that when a document of any significant length is made by copying, it is likely that errors are introduced. However, when we take the history of transmission we also see that the rate of introduction of errors, even in the earliest centuries, is not such that it creates a situation in which any part of the wording of the work is more likely to have been changed through transmission than preserved. Whether we work from late-fifteenth-century manuscripts of the New Testament and measure the rate of change from earlier documents, or consider the range of difference among the very earliest papyri and versions, we see that change in the wording through transmission is generally rarer than stasis.
In general, then, the presumption that we have the authorial wording until evidence arises to the contrary seems a more reasonable position than to refuse to believe that we have the authorial wording until an impossibly high level of proof be obtained that we do. The rational status of belief in the correctness of the text is that of a disprovable presumption.
However, one can put the case for textual reliability much more strongly than this. Here we simply outline a number of different lines of argumentation that can be used to establish a high degree of confidence in our knowledge of the authorial wording of the New Testament.
It is possible to use many forms of a fortiori argumentation based on high levels of scholarly confidence of the wording of other ancient or classical works. In an overwhelming number of cases witnesses for the books of the New Testament outstrip other ancient works in number, geographical diversity, and age. The New Testament text also shows up in a great variety of material forms: papyrus, parchment, paper, stone, pottery; codex and scroll; majuscule and minuscule; continuous text, lectionary, and extract.
The New Testament writings are also almost invariably attested in a greater variety of languages than other ancient writings. For instance, John's Gospel existed in eight different dialectal versions of Coptic,28 and in two pre-Jerome Latin versions,29 the Vulgate, and in the Old Syriac and Peshitta versions, to mention early versions in just three languages. In the case of other ancient writings any one of these versions would, on its own, be taken to give scholars a reasonable level of confidence as to the content of a work.
In addition to manuscripts and translations (versions) we have extensive quotation of the New Testament by church fathers.
Any one of the three main categories of witness (Greek manuscript, versions, church fathers) on its own would be sufficient to be able to have detailed discussions of matters such as the grammatical style of the authors. Taken together these provide a mass of data allowing us to reach rational conclusions about how texts were transmitted. When we consider how we know texts were transmitted based on actual evidence, and extrapolate the same processes back into the short period before our earliest witnesses, we do not reach radical uncertainty about the wording of the books of the New Testament.
We are able to make a number of genealogical observations about the interrelationship of witnesses and thereby trace the occurrence of errors in manuscripts and discount them from the editions that we make.
The existence of manuscripts such as P52 and P90, containing parts of John 18 dating from the second century and coming from Egypt, suggests that large numbers of copies of parts of the New Testament were made in a short time. It would be logistically almost impossible for anyone to enter systematic changes into the text of any book once a significant multiplicity of copies was spread over a wide area.
For those who express confidence in their ability to reconstruct sources of the Old or New Testaments (e.g., Q as a Gospel source), an a fortiori case can be made for confidence in our knowledge of the text of the New Testament.
The history of the study of the wording of the New Testament gives us a high degree of confidence in that wording. The printed wording of the first Greek New Testament of Erasmus, based on seven manuscripts from the twelfth century or later, and on no more than four in any one instance, is relatively speaking reasonably close to the wording of modern critical editions. This means that the text that would be produced if we disposed of nearly five centuries of discovery would still be relatively similar to the modern text. In broad terms, if one were to dispose of our earliest 5,000 or so witnesses and then to make a critical text based on what remains, the difference between the text thus produced and critical editions such as the Nestle-Aland 28th edition would probably be less than the difference between the Textus Receptus of Erasmus and the Nestle-Aland edition.
The text of the New Testament does not depend on any single witness. We could ignore a favorite witness such as Codex Sinaiticus from the fourth century. How much would this change our text? The answer can be found by considering the edition that Tregelles made of Matthew and Mark, which differs relatively little from the Nestle-Aland edition. In fact, the editions of Tregelles, Tischendorf, and Eberhard Nestle were made without knowledge of the papyri that are now important for the text of the New Testament. Nevertheless, their editions do not differ greatly from those in the later twentieth century (Nestle-Aland 26th edition), which are made using knowledge of such papyri. Thus we can say that even the discovery of quite important witnesses makes only a small impact on the shape of the New Testament text in contemporary editions.
If one had grounds for rational confidence in the text in the sixteenth century, when the gap between the earliest available manuscripts and the time of composition of the New Testament was over one millennium, a fortiori one may have confidence now that the gap is a mere 250 years at most for any part of the New Testament and usually much less.
The history of textual criticism also gives us confidence because the discovery of significantly earlier evidence has not added new large points of uncertainty in the New Testament text. This being the case, the assumption that yet further evidence would not reveal new uncertainties about the New Testament is justified. Doubts about Mark 16:9-20 and John 7:53–8:11 have been known in parts of the church since patristic times. The same applies to many smaller disputed passages. The vast increase in number and age of manuscripts over the last four centuries has not added more passages of uncertainty.30 This leads naturally to the prediction that, based on the evidence we have already collected, we do not anticipate that new discoveries are likely to throw up previously unknown uncertainties about passages of significant length.
Ehrman's own text-critical and exegetical work often depends on his being able to establish one form of the text as prior to the others. In fact the text that Ehrman affirms differs relatively little from that found in modern editions of the Greek New Testament.
Although Ehrman's soundbite the "Orthodox Corruption of Scripture" has been widely received, he has in fact demonstrated how little deliberate corruption went on. The number of examples of deliberate corruption that he alleges is rather limited, and we must remember that Ehrman brings these examples together from all manuscripts. Without even allowing for the fact that many of his examples may in fact be wrong,31 it is amazing to find so few cases even of possible deliberate corruption when searching across so many manuscripts. Thus Ehrman's own research shows how overwhelmingly scribes did not seek deliberately to change the text.
When we are dealing with our uncertainties as to the identity of the original text, we are dealing with known unknowns.
The Possibility of Translation
It is often suggested that the need for translation is a significant objection to any doctrine of the inspiration of the original wording. As Ehrman says,
If he [God] wanted his people to have his words, surely he would have given them to them (and possibly even given them the words in a language they could understand, rather than Greek and Hebrew).32
Behind this seems to be the suggestion that something significant is lost in translation, but even Christians may wonder what is the use of believing in an inerrant autographic wording if most believers are not able to read that wording. Are advocates of inerrancy putting undue emphasis on a purely theoretical entity that has no bearing on most believers?
The strange thing behind Ehrman's suggestion above is that Christians believe that God has given people words in languages they can understand because God has allowed his word to be translated. God's word (singular) does not cease to be his word in translation, though one cannot speak of his words (plural) in translation in the same way. As for the suggestion that God might give words in multiple modern languages so that people would understand them, this would run foul of Ehrman's objection that a doctrine of inspiration is meaningless unless there's a single fixed wording. Thus Ehrman's objections do not appear to be internally consistent.
In response to this contemporary Angst about the possibility of translating the scriptures we may say the following:
Since at least the third century b.c.e., there has been belief in the value of translating Old Testament scripture. New Testament authors quote in Greek Old Testament scriptures originally written in Hebrew as having direct application to their Greek-speaking hearers (e.g., 1 Cor. 9:9-10).
Many translations such as the kaige revision of parts of the Old Testament, Aquila, the Targumim, the Harclean Syriac have involved both the conviction of the value of translation and simultaneously a strong affirmation of the value of the wording of the original language. Thus affirming translation does not involve denying the authority of the original.
There seems to be no comparable contemporary Angst about the value of translating other texts, as if books and films lose their purpose or effect in translation.
Uncertainty in one area of translation does not spill over into all areas of translation. We regularly appreciate films or literature or follow instructions even though, for whatever reason, we have missed part of the information given. We recognize that the significance of what we have missed is limited.
When we are dealing with unresolved questions of translation we are dealing with known unknowns.
The sorts of criticisms that Ehrman has made of inspiration are significant and require response. However, the fact that the critique has resulted in part from misunderstanding should also goad inerrantists to check that their own formulations have been as clear as they can be. The contention here is that they have not, and that we need to engage in debate as to what terms might serve well at both the popular and the scholarly level in the future. These are my initial proposals:
Where possible we should seek to make the older terms "Scripture" and "Scriptures" more current rather than the term "Bible" when speaking of the doctrines of inspiration and revelation since Scripture and Scriptures have a narrower focus and avoid physical associations.
We should avoid the term "text." This can be replaced by "wording" since, again, "wording" avoids the physical focus. It is easier for someone to deny that we have the original text (which might mean original document) than it is for them to deny that we have the original wording.
However, even the word "original" has its ambiguities, having earlier been used in opposition to a translation. In some instances it may be possible to replace this by the word "authorial," so that we might speak of "authorial wording" rather than "original text."
We should not speak of text of the autographa, but of wording on the autographa, or use other similar formulations that distinguish clearly between the message and the physical carrier of the message.
The purpose of all of these proposals is not merely to use precise language for doctrinal formulation among theologians, but also to introduce a shift of emphasis in common Christian parlance away from formulae that suggest or emphasize that we believe in the inerrancy of something nonexistent. The Word of God does not die or age when it is copied, nor is it less powerful when it is spoken without reference to a physical copy. It is not made less certain by our uncertainty as to its identity, nor is there a compelling reason why our own uncertainty as to the identity of one part of it should make us uncertain as to the identity of another part.
1 Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), 1-15; UK edition: Whose Word Is It? The Story Behind Who Changed the New Testament and Why (London: Continuum, 2006). Ehrman also puts a personal testimony of his deconversion at the beginning of his other popular titles: God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer (New York: HarperOne, 2008), 1-15; Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know about Them) (New York: HarperOne, 2009), ix-xi, 15-18; and Forged: Writing in the Name of God - Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are (New York: HarperOne, 2011), 1-5. There is at least as much tension between these different narratives as there is between the different synoptic portrayals of Jesus.
2 Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus, 211.
3 The seeds of some of these thoughts are expressed in an online review of Misquoting Jesus located at http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/2005/12/review-of-bart-ehrman-misquoting-jesus_31.htm and in various postings on http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com.
4 Evidently during Ehrman's evangelical days he believed that "objective proofs" for the faith must exist, and he seems to have understood the term "proof" in a hard sense (Ehrman, Forged, 4). Thus Ehrman has probably ascribed an unwarranted burden of proof to Christianity since before his deconversion. There is no evidence in Ehrman's writings that while being an adherent he ever properly understood either (a) evangelical doctrines of Scripture, or (b) classic evangelical epistemologies.
5 Capitalization, though there have been some significant shifts in usage over the centuries, is ignored here.
6 Max Pfister, Lessico Etimologico Italiano (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 1984-), 5:1467-68, knows of just one occurrence of the singular biblium.
7 The problem with the name of this statement and of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy is not one of content, but of branding. If "Bible" has two meanings then "biblical" is capable of relating to both of these meanings and as said earlier it is only in one of these two meanings that "Bible" may properly be said to be inerrant. A related issue is the definite article: "the Bible" is more generally used synonymously with "the Scriptures" whereas "a Bible" almost always designates a copy of the scriptures, which may contain some errors. Of course, we may defend the use of the term "biblical" by claiming that it generally relates to the Bible as a work, not to a Bible as a document.
8 Based on searches on 7 May 2010 of the British National Corpus, www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk, containing about 100 million words, and the Corpus of Contemporary American English, www.americancorpus.org, containing over 400 million words. I discuss the term "Bible" further in "The Bible, the Septuagint, and the Apocrypha: A Consideration of Their Singularity," in Studies on the Text and Versions of the Hebrew Bible, ed. G. A. Khan and Diana Lipton (Leiden: Brill, 2012).
9 Joel R. Beeke and Sinclair B. Ferguson, eds., Reformed Confessions Harmonized: With an Annotated Bibliography of Reformed Doctrinal Works (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), 10-19.
10 http://www.ciccu.org.uk/docbasis.php, accessed 15 June 2010. The Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union preserves the earlier form and calls it the doctrinal basis of the UCCF, without showing awareness that UCCF has officially adopted revised wording.
11 http://www.uccf.org.uk/about-us/doctrinal-basis.htm, accessed 15 June 2010.
12 The field of textual criticism has been widely influenced by Eldon J. Epp's article "The Multivalence of the Term ‘Original Text' in New Testament Textual Criticism," HTR 92 (1999): 245-81, so that the term "original text" is now generally avoided. Many of Epp's objections to the term, based on the works of Helmut Koester, Bart D. Ehrman, and William L. Petersen, are unconvincing if one is not already convinced of the models of early Christianity proposed by those scholars. For instance, part of the evidence cited from Koester (Epp, "Multivalence," 256) is that his comparisons of the Secret Gospel of Mark and canonical Mark help him to discern an earlier form of Mark behind canonical Mark. But if the Secret Gospel of Mark is in some way inauthentic then this is hardly a firm foundation on which to question the notion that there was an original text. My objection to the term "original text" is not the conviction that there was no original text, but that the expression itself is unclear.
13 Matthew Henry, An Exposition of the New Testament, vol. 8 (London: William MacKenzie, n.d.), 156. Cf. also the statement in the KJV preface: "The translation of the Seuentie dissenteth from the Originall in many places."
14 For instance, Matthew Poole, Annotations on the Holy Bible (1685; repr. as Commentary on the Holy Bible [Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1962]), commenting on Genesis 6:15 and arguing that all the creatures would have been able to fit on Noah's ark, says "That the differing kinds of beasts and birds, which unlearned men fancy to be innumerable, are observed by the learned, who have particularly searched into them, and written of them, to be little above three hundred, whereof the far greatest part are but small; and many of these which now are thought to differ in kind, in their first original were but of one sort, though now they be so greatly altered in their shape and qualities, which might easily arise from the diversity of their climate and food, and other circumstances, and from the promiscuous conjunctions of those lawless creatures" (emphasis added).
15 Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus, 7.
16 The situation for the New Testament is somewhat different than for the Old, where it is widely held that wording is missing from a text such as 1 Samuel 13:1. For those who want to argue that some wording has been lost from the New Testament, the suggestion that an earlier ending of Mark's Gospel was once located after 16:8 surely provides a showcase. However, even in this case many scholars are convinced that the Gospel ended at 16:8 and there are no patristic sources that are clearly quoting lost wording. So while one cannot prove that nothing has been lost, equally one cannot prove that something has been.
17 In addition to the problems noted here the word "original" has seemed to some less appropriate for the Old Testament, where it has not appeared adequately to allow for even minor editorial activity after composition (see Michael A. Grisanti, "Inspiration, Inerrancy, and the OT Canon: The Place of Textual Updating in an Inerrant View of Scripture," JETS 44 [2001]: 577-98). The problem can in part be reduced by remembering that original earlier was used in opposition to a translation and by recognizing that both final and original can refer to the same stage of a text.
18 Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus, 10.
19 Dictionaries, e.g. OED, Collins Dictionary of the English Language (2nd edition) appear understandably reluctant to admit this physical meaning. However, one can find numerous examples on the Internet where text is used to denote a physical object, e.g., "he held a text in his hand" (Catherine McGregor, "Bring It to Life: Youth Performing Socio-Politically in a Northern Urban Environment" [Ph.D. dissertation, Simon Fraser University, 2007], 358 [http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/bitstream/1892/4202/1/etd2800.pdf, accessed 18 June 2010]), or "the text weighed over ten pounds" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Christian_Andersen; accessed 18 June 2010).
21 A. T. B. McGowan, The Divine Spiration of Scripture: Challenging Evangelical Perspectives (Nottingham: Apollos, 2007), 109.
22 B. B. Warfield, Textual Criticism of the New Testament (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1889), 1.
23 Warfield, Textual Criticism, 2.
24 Warfield, Textual Criticism, 3-4. Similarly, John M. Frame, The Doctrine of the Word of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2010), 243, says "what is at issue is not primarily the autographic document, but the autographic text. The text is a linguistic object that can be found in any number of physical media."
26 For classical references see Annette Weissenrieder and Robert B. Coote, The Interface of Orality and Writing: Speaking, Seeing, Writing in the Shaping of New Genres, WUNT 260 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010), x.
27 I am aware that for hedge fund managers the forfeits do not depend on the rises or falls in the market, but the point still holds that there are consequences, including forfeits, for unwise choices.
28 C. H. Askeland, John's Gospel: The Coptic Translations of Its Greek Text (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2012).
29 Philip Burton, The Old Latin Gospels: A Study of Their Texts and Language (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 74.
30 Gesa Schenke, "Das Erscheinen Jesu vor den Jüngern und der Ungläubige Thomas: Johannes 20,19-31," in Coptica - Gnostica - Manichaica: Mélanges offerts à Wolf-Peter Funk, ed. Louis Painchaud and Paul-Hubert Poirier (Louvain: Peeters, 2006), esp. 902, argues that a Coptic manuscript (Ms Copt e150p from the Bodleian Library in Oxford) might possibly be a witness to a Greek text of John's Gospel without John chapter 21. However, an unpublished critical analysis of the manuscript has suggested that this is most unlikely: Christian Askeland, "Was There a Coptic Translation of John's Gospel without Chapter 21?," paper presented at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting, Christianity in Egypt: Scripture, Tradition, and Reception section (21 November 2009).
31 For instance, I argue that his claim that orgistheis was deliberately corrupted into splanchnistheis in Mark 1:41 is unwarranted in "An Examination of Ehrman's Case for orgistheis in Mark 1:41," NovT 54 (2012): 1-12.
http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2019/11/ehrmans-equivocation-and-inerrancy-of.html
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A Biblical Dilemma For The Catholic Eucharist
The Roman Catholic Church maintains that the communion elements at the liturgical service are transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ by the priest to be consumed by those who are present. Rome teaches that the Eucharist is the means by which Christians maintain spiritual life. It is viewed as the summit of communion with God. The Apostle Paul, however, says that the kingdom of God does not comprise of food and drink (Romans 14:17). The blessings that He provides are a result of His grace. If Paul believed that the repeated consumption of Christ's body as the Eucharist was a requirement for salvation, then this would have been a place for him to affirm such and not categorically reject matters of food and drink as relating to the kingdom of God.
Are Acts 15 And Galatians 2 Different Accounts Of The Same Incident?
There is debate as to whether the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2 was recounting the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15. Points of resemblance would include incidents happening at Jerusalem with the same individuals and the same themes being objects of discussion. Both texts center on the question of Gentiles and Law observance. There are, however, a number of recognizable differences between Acts 15 and Galatians 2.
The discussion of Acts 15 is a public meeting and Paul's confrontation of Peter in Galatians 2 is personal in nature. Moreover, nowhere is a public decision or letter sent by attendees of the Jerusalem Council mentioned in Galatians. We read in Paul's epistle that he made two visits to Jerusalem. James advocates for Gentiles in Acts 15 and it is Paul who plays a similar role in Galatians 2. How are we to settle this matter?
One theory advanced to resolve this difficulty is that Paul in Galatians 2 was not so much referring to Acts 15 but to the incident of famine relief in Acts 11:27-30. Paul having been prompted by a revelation to make a second journey is consistent a prophecy uttered by Agabus (Galatians 2:2). He also speaks of keeping the needy in mind (Galatians 2:10). The Apostle Peter's hypocrisy relating to eating with Gentiles fits the context of Acts 10-11. The Reformation Study Bible has this footnote on Galatians 2:1:
"again to Jerusalem" This may refer to a second visit following his conversion, or to a third visit, recorded in Acts 15:2. The purpose of the visit mentioned here corresponds well with the purpose of the visit in Acts 15, but it is difficult, on this theory, to explain why Paul leaves the second visit (Acts 11:27–30) out of his narrative. If, as some scholars believe, Galatians was written after Paul’s first missionary journey (Acts 13; 14) but before the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15), then the journey spoken of here is the Acts 11 journey, and the Acts 15 journey has not yet occurred."
Duke University New Testament scholar Mark Goodacre takes a different approach to this question, noting the style of Greco-Roman biographies. Another writer outlines his perspective as follows:
"Goodacre describes Acts 9 as a type of “flash forward” of the events described in Acts 11. But it might be better to think of Acts 11 as a “flashback” to the events of Acts 9, which might fit in well with the use of such compositional devices found in other Greco-Roman biographies. It would be reasonable to suggest that Luke effectively repeats the story of Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem, between Acts 9 and Acts 11, to tie those passages together. In the interim, Luke in Acts 9:32 to Acts 11:18 picks up the story of Peter, specifically focusing on the story of Cornelius, the Gentile Roman military officer, and his conversion to Christ. Once done with the story of Peter and Cornelius, Luke recalls where he earlier stopped off with telling Paul’s story, and to bring things back to Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem. Why does Luke do this? We can not be completely certain. It is quite possible that Luke’s objective in Acts is to narrate how the church grew from being a Jewish-only movement to becoming a Jewish-Gentile movement, centered around the mission of Paul, a converted Jew to Christ, to share the Gospel with the Gentiles. In other words, Luke selects material from the history of the early church, to focus first on Peter, and then to transition to the character of the apostle Paul. It would only be fitting for Luke to build up the story of how the church overcame the problems between Jew and Gentile, by temporarily highlighting the background and story of Peter’s interactions with Cornelius, before returning to his main narrative, following the apostle Paul."
Comments On The Jehovah's Witnesses New World Translation Rendering Of 2 Peter 1:1
"Simon Peter, a slave and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have acquired a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and the Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:1, New World Translation, emphasis added)
"Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:1, New American Standard Bible, emphasis added)
The Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower Society has rendered 2 Peter 1:1 in a way to evade its support for the deity of Christ. Theological bias in this translation is made glaringly conspicuous as examples of the same type of Greek constructions are rendered correctly elsewhere in the same epistle:
"In fact, in this way you will be richly granted entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:11, New World Translation, emphasis added)
"Certainly if after escaping from the defilements of the world by an accurate knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they get involved again with these very things and are overcome, their final state has become worse for them than the first." (2 Peter 2:20, New World Translation, emphasis added)
"No, but go on growing in the undeserved kindness and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." (2 Peter 3:18, New World Translation, emphasis added)
Comments On The Jehovah's Witnesses New World Translation Rendering Of Acts 20:28
“Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the holy spirit has appointed you overseers, to shepherd the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own Son.” (Acts 20:28, New World Translation, emphasis added)
"Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." (Acts 20:28, New American Standard Bible, emphasis added)
The Watchtower Society's rendering of Acts 20:28 is a clear example of bias to circumvent the text's implicit support for the deity of Jesus Christ. This passage has been intentionally altered by the translators to get around the fact that He is the God-man.
Following is an excerpt on Acts 20:28 from the New English Translation:
"tc The reading “of God” (τοῦ θεοῦ, tou theou) is found in א B 614 1175 1505 al vg sy; other witnesses have “of the Lord” (τοῦ κυρίου, tou kuriou) here (so P A C* D E Ψ 33 1739 al co), while the majority of the later minuscule mss conflate these two into “of the Lord and God” (τοῦ κυρίου καὶ [τοῦ] θεοῦ, tou kuriou kai [tou] theou). Although the evidence is evenly balanced between the first two readings, τοῦ θεοῦ is decidedly superior on internal grounds. The final prepositional phrase of this verse, διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου (dia tou haimatos tou idiou), could be rendered “through his own blood” or “through the blood of his own.” In the latter translation, the object that “own” modifies must be supplied (see tn below for discussion). But this would not be entirely clear to scribes; those who supposed that ἰδίου modified αἵματος would be prone to alter “God” to “Lord” to avoid the inference that God had blood. In a similar way, later scribes would be prone to conflate the two titles, thereby affirming the deity (with the construction τοῦ κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ following the Granville Sharp rule and referring to a single person [see ExSyn 272, 276-77, 290]) and substitutionary atonement of Christ. For these reasons, τοῦ θεοῦ best explains the rise of the other readings and should be considered authentic. sn That he obtained with the blood of his own Son. This is one of only two explicit statements in Luke-Acts highlighting the substitutionary nature of Christ’s death (the other is in Luke 22:19)."
Comparing Spiritual Things With Spiritual Things
"The subject of verses 12 and 13 is the doctrine of inspiration. In verse 12 Paul talks about the content of inspiration. That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. In verse 13 his concern is with the communication of inspiration which things (the things freely given) also we speak. Paul's message was not of human contrivance. He was a channel, simply communicating God's truth. The faithful minister of the gospel today does the same thing. He takes of that truth, God's Word, and communicates it to man. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. The term comparing (Gr synekrino) occurs only here and in II Corinthians 10:12 where the meaning is clearly "compare." However, in classical Greek, the term was always used in a sense of "to compound" or "to interpret" (cf. LXX Gen 40:8). Probably the most satisfactory interpretation is "combining spiritual things with spiritual words," or "doing spiritual things by spiritual means." After speaking of spiritual things (11-13), Paul now speaks of the forms in which they are conveyed. In other words, spiritual truth is conveyed in language that is given by God's Spirit. This would not be the case if he uttered the revelations of the Spirit in the speech of human wisdom (cf. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, Vol. II, p. 197). Having established the principle by which God's truth is made known, the apostle contrasts to kinds of men to whom the truth comes, i.e., the natural and the spiritual man."
King James Version Bible Commentary, 1 Corinthians 2:12-13, p. 1462
Born Of Incorruptible Seed
"Note the ideas of the "sprouting seed" and "new life" which recur in verse 1 Pe 1:23 where this same word is used. The results of the new birth for which Christians are obligated to praise God are indicated by three words in the original each preceded by the same Greek preposition: observe the words lively hope in verse 1 Pe 1:3, inheritance in verse 1 Pe 1:4, and salvation in verse 1 Pe 1:5. Because of the new birth we have a lively hope, which should probably be understood as the hope of the resurrection. We should note that the word hope is used in the Bible with the distinctive meaning "confident expectation." Today, of course, hope means merely to "want" something to happen, without having any real assurance that it will happen, as in the sentence, “I hope tomorrow will be a sunny day." The resurrection is the central hope of Christianity; it is not merely something that we want to happen, but an assurance we have. We know we shall rise!"
King James Version Bible Commentary, p. 1729
The Passover Cup And Our Redemption
"The cup. Three cups were passed around by the Jewish householder during the Passover meal; the third, which is probably that referred to here, being known as "the cup of blessing." My blood of the new testament taken from the LXX of Exodus 24:8 with allusions to Jeremiah 31 and Zechariah 9:11. The covenant in Exodus 24:8 was sealed with blood. The word testament (Gr diathe ke) did not mean a covenant, which is an agreement between equals, but a settlement by a great or rich man for the benefit of another. As the most common form of settlement was, and still is, by testament or will, the word came to have this meaning almost exclusively. Shed for many for the remission of sins. Here is a clear statement that the death of Jesus was necessary to enable God to forgive sins. It, in fact, made it right or morally justifiable for Him to do so. That day, i.e., when He comes again in glory."
King James Version Bible Commentary, Matthew 26:27-30, p. 1227
The Superiority Of The New Covenant To The Old
[2 Corinthians] 3:7 the ministry of death. Refers to the law and particularly to the Ten Commandments, which were engraved on stone (Deut. 9:10). Since the law showed man his sinfulness and gave him no power to break out of it, it ministered death. Note that the law "fades away" (v. 11). When Moses descended from Mount Sinai with the law, his face shown so that the people were afraid to approach him (Ex. 34:29-30). But just as his radiance so also the Mosaic Law was temporary.
[2 Corinthians] 3:8 The dispensation of the Spirit comes with even more glory than the old order.
[2 Corinthians] 3:11 There is no question that the law was glorious for its time and purpose, but its temporary nature and limited purpose caused that glory to fade in the light of the grace of Christ, which has as its eternal purpose the bringing of many sons into glory (John 1:17; Heb. 2:10).
[2 Corinthians] 3:13 Paul means here that Moses veiled his face that the Israelites might not see the fading away of the transitory glory reflected in his countenance.
[2 Corinthians] 3:15 a veil lies over their heart. I.e., as long as they consider the law as permanent and do not turn to Christ, who takes away the veil (v. 14).
[2 Corinthians] 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit. A strong statement that Christ and the Holy Spirit are one in essence, though Paul also recognized the distinctions between them (13:14).
[2 Corinthians] 3:18 with unveiled face, beholding. Paul builds on the experience of Moses in Ex. 34:29-35. We Christians, he says, behold Christ's divine glory., and this beholding changes or transforms us us from glory to glory; i.e., from one degree of glory to another.
The Ryrie Study Bible [New American Standard Bible], p. 1437
The Beginning Of The Gospel Of Jesus Christ
"The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." (Mark 1:1)
The gospel, or good news, is the message of salvation from sin by Jesus Christ. It consists of His death, burial, and resurrection. The gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). Christ is both the object and the source of the gospel.
Mark may have been alluding to the introductory words of Genesis ("In the beginning...") as he began writing his account ("The beginning of the gospel..."). This language points to Christ as the New Adam who presides over a new heaven and a new earth. There are two different narratives of events in a single glorious story of redemption.
To be called the "Son of God" entailed deity from a Jewish point of view and thus the usage of that title would be blasphemous if given to a mere man. Moreover, the Roman Emperor would be called the son of a god. The Kingship of Jesus Christ would have presented a dilemma to both worldviews. Following is an excerpt from Dr. Thomas Constable's expository notes:
"Mark further identified Jesus Christ as the "Son of God." This title does not appear is some important early manuscripts of Mark, but it is probably legitimate. [Note: See Carson and Moo, p187.] It expresses Jesus" unique relationship to God and identifies an important theme in the second Gospel (cf. Mark 1:11; Mark 3:11; Mark 5:7; Mark 9:7; Mark 12:6; Mark 13:32; Mark 14:36; Mark 14:61; Mark 15:39). The title is messianic, but it connotes a subordinate relationship to God. Mark presented Jesus as the Servant of God particularly in this book. Rather than recording a nativity narrative that showed that Jesus was the Son of God, Mark simply stated that fact with this title. [Note: See Herbert W. Bateman IV, "Defining the Titles "Christ" and "Son of God" in Mark"s Narrative Presentation of Jesus," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society50:3 (September2007):537-59.]"
The Roman Catholic Church Gets John 6 Wrong
In the Old Testament, eating bread was considered the equivalent of obedience to God (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4). This kind of reasoning in regard to the Book of the Law is also echoed in the Jewish Apocrypha:
"He who eats of me will hunger still, he who drinks of me will thirst for more; he who obeys me will not be put to shame, he who serves me will never fail.' All this is true of the book of Most High’s covenant, the law which Moses commanded us as an inheritance for the community of Jacob." (Sirach 24:20-22)
Just as God had provided manna to the Israelites in the desert as deliverance from starvation, so He had sent Jesus Christ into this world as a sacrificial provision to deliver us from eternal condemnation. That is the meaning of Christ being "bread from heaven."
Unlike the Torah, Christ can completely satisfy our spiritual huger and thirst (John 6:49-51). "Eating flesh" and "drinking blood" is to be understood as trusting in Christ for salvation. We consume Him by faith and He sustains us spiritually by that same means (John 6:35-40).
It is the words of Christ that impart life to those who believe (John 5:24; 6:63). This perspective of eating finds its basis in the Old Testament (Jeremiah 15:16; Ezekiel 2:8-3:3). To interpret John 6:50-58 as referring to Catholic transubstantiation misses the entire point.
Does Luke 2:34-35 Support Mary As Co-Mediator Or Co-Redemptrix?
Roman Catholic apologists sometimes make reference to Luke 2:34-35 in defending the idea of Mary being co-mediator or co-redemptrix. Following is an article excerpt to illustrate how the argument has been made:
"Who can measure the sorrows of Our Lady? The fullness of grace abiding in her, infused her with a love that completely transcended our human limitations. Because of this, her sorrow likewise knew no bounds. The two realities in her have been linked at various times to other titles, most notably "Our Lady of Compassion" and "Our Lady of Hope," both beautiful because they speak to this union of love and sorrow. Simeon’s prophecy, as Mary and Joseph present the infant Jesus in the Temple, is the first public pronouncement to Mary of where her relationship with the God-Man, her child, will take her (Luke 2:34-35)."
The Reformation Study Bible has this footnote: "2:35 sword. The sword imagery means that all this will not be without cost to Mary as she sees her Son rejected and crucified. The sword does not refer to any atoning work, but of the deep anguish it will cost her."
The Roman Catholic New American Bible Revised Edition has this footnote on Luke 2:35: "[2:35] (And you yourself a sword will pierce): Mary herself will not be untouched by the various reactions to the role of Jesus (Lk 2:34). Her blessedness as mother of the Lord will be challenged by her son who describes true blessedness as “hearing the word of God and observing it” (Lk 11:27–28 and Lk 8:20–21)."
As the above two cited commentaries make evident, there is nothing in Luke 2:34-35 about Mary participating in the atonement of Jesus Christ. That is a foreign concept which has to be read into the text of Scripture.
There is nothing in this passage about Mary "taking on a universal motherhood for all of us." Such a presupposition is driven by a wild desire to turn Mary into some sort of a goddess.
For the beauty of the earth, For the beauty of the skies, For the Love which from our birth Over and around us lies: Christ, our God, to Thee we raise This our Sacrifice of Praise.
For the beauty of each hour Of the day and of the night, Hill and vale, and tree and flower, Sun and moon and stars of light: Christ, our God, to Thee we raise This our Sacrifice of Praise.
For the joy of ear and eye, For the heart and brain's delight, For the mystic harmony Linking sense to sound and sight: Christ, our God, to Thee we raise This our Sacrifice of Praise.
For the joy of human love, Brother, sister, parent, child, Friends on earth, and friends above; For all gentle thoughts and mild: Christ, our God, to Thee we raise This our Sacrifice of Praise.
For each perfect Gift of Thine To our race so freely given, Graces human and Divine, Flowers of earth, and buds of Heaven: Christ, our God, to Thee we raise This our Sacrifice of Praise.
For Thy Bride that evermore Lifteth holy hands above, Offering up on every shore This Pure Sacrifice of Love: Christ, our God, to Thee we raise This our Sacrifice of Praise.
For Thy Martyrs' crown of light, For Thy Prophets' eagle eye, For Thy bold Confessors' might, For the lips of Infancy: Christ, our God, to Thee we raise This our Sacrifice of Praise.
For Thy Virgins' robes of snow, For Thy Maiden Mother mild, For Thyself, with hearts aglow, Jesu, Victim undefiled, Offer we at Thine own Shrine Thyself, sweet Sacrament Divine.
Hymn published by Folliot S. Pierpoint
Jesus Christ Is The Word That Became Flesh
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)
The Apostle John places an emphasis on flesh as polemic against the Gnostic idea that everything pertaining to the physical or material world is inherently corrupt. Docetists maintained that the the body of Jesus Christ was not real but illusionary. The suffering that He underwent on the cross was only apparent. In contrast, John expresses the true humanity of Christ. Consider also these statements from other writings by the same apostle:
"By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world." (1 John 4:2-3, emphasis added)
"For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist." (2 John 7, emphasis added)
During the Old Testament, God dwelt in the tabernacle and the temple (Exodus 25:8-9; 40:34-38; 1 Kings 8:10-11, 27). In the New Testament, this concept finds its place in Christ taking on human flesh. The Ryrie Study Bible has this footnote:
"In the OT, glory expressed the splendor of divine manifestation and attested the divine presence. Here it means the visible manifestation of God in Christ."
Concerning the phrase "dwelt among us," the New American Bible Revised Edition has this excerpt:
"The Greek verb has the same consonants as the Aramaic word for God’s presence (Shekinah)."
Just as God the Father is not a father to Christ in the same sense of a parent to child relationship, the Son is not a son of God in the same sense as we are sons of God. There exists a unique relationship between God the Father and God the Son. Our special status as sons of God is given to us by adoption, and we cannot become divine.
The phrase "full of grace and truth" should be understood in light of its Old Testament backdrop of God's relationship with Israel (Exodus 34:6-7). Christ has the same characteristics. He is loving, merciful, and just.
Christ took on human flesh so that He can experience suffering and death. His divinity enabled Him to pay an infinite debt of sin. That is something which we could never do.
Christians And Debt
Romans [13:8] Some debt may be permitted because of Matt. 5:42, but the command is, literally, not to continue in debt. Love is a debt one can never fully discharge.
John 1:1 And The Deity Of Christ
[John] 1:1 In the beginning. Before time began, Christ was already in existence with God. That is what is meant by the term "the pre-existent Christ." See Gen. 1:1 and 1 John 1:1. Word (Gr. logos). Logos means "word, thought, concept, and the expressions thereof." In the OT the concept conveyed activity and revelation, and the word or wisdom of God is often personified (Ps. 33:6; Prov. 8). In the Targums (Aramaic expressions of the OT) it was a designation of God. To the Greek mind it expressed ideas of reason and control. Reason is the keynote in the logos concept. Here it is applied to Jesus, who is all that God is and the expression of Him (1:1; 14). In this verse the Word (Christ) is said to be with God (i.e., in communion with and yet distinct from God).
Forgeries And The New Testament Canon
First, there are examples of forgeries coming to light in the ancient church, and the church's response to them is illuminating. For example, 3 Corinthians, a document that circulated both by itself and as part of the Acts of Paul, was discovered to be a forgery. The author, an elder who wrote the work because of his love for Paul, was defrocked by Tertullian for this fabrication. In about 200, when Serapion, bishop of Antioch, learned that the Gospel of Peter was not written by the apostle, he declared, “For our part, brethren, we receive both Peter and the other apostles as Christ, but the writings which falsely bear their names we reject, as men of experience, knowing that such were not handed down to us.”20
In the second century, the Muratorian Canon condemned both the letter to the Laodiceans and the letter to the Alexandrians because both were “forged in Paul's name."21 One of the proofs of forgery was a lack of early attestation. In fact, if a work was found to be of recent origin, even if its authorship was not in doubt, it was not considered to be canonical. For example, the Muratorian Canon rejected the Shepherd of Hermas because, though it was edifying literature, it was composed “very recently, in our times, in the city of Rome." Lack of antiquity was the sole reason for its rejection, for this document was written after the time of the apostles.22
Eusebius echoes this sentiment. In the first quarter of the fourth century, he spoke about the New Testament canon at length....at least twenty of the twenty-seven New Testament books were already accepted by his time and that the rest were tentatively accepted. It is worthwhile to see all of his reasoning and why some books were to be rejected outright:
At this point it seems reasonable to summarize the writings of the New Testament which have been quoted. In the first place should be put the holy tetrad of the Gospels. To them follows the writing of the Acts of the Apostles. After this should be reckoned the Epistles of Paul. Following them the Epistle of John called the first, and in the same way should be recognized the Epistle of Peter. In addition to these should be put, if it seem desirable, the Revelation of John, the arguments concerning which we will expound at the proper time. These belong to the Recognized Books (homolegoumena). Of the Disputed Books (antilegomena which are nevertheless known to most are the Epistle called of James, that of Jude, the second Epistle of Peter, and the so-called second and third Epistles of John which may be the work of the evangelist or of some other with the same name. Among the books which are not genuine must be reckoned the Acts of Paul, the work entitled the Shepherd, the Apocalypse of Peter, and in addition to them the letter called Barnabas and the so-called Teachings of the Apostles. And in addition, as I said, the Revelation of John, if this view prevail. For, as I said, some reject it, but others count it among the Recognized Books. Some have also counted the Gospel according to the Hebrews in which those of the Hebrews who have accepted Christ take a special pleasure. These would all belong to the disputed books, but we have nevertheless been obliged to make a list of them, distinguishing between those writings which, according to the tradition of the Church, are true, genuine, and recognized, and those which differ from them in that they are not canonical but disputed, yet nevertheless are known to most of the writers of the Church, in order that we might know them and the writings which are put forward by heretics under the name of the apostles containing gospels such as those of Peter, and Thomas, and Matthias, and some others besides, or Acts such as those of Andrew and John and the other apostles. To none of these has any who belonged to the succession of the orthodox ever thought it right to refer in his writings. Moreover, the type of phraseology differs from apostolic style, and the opinion and tendency of their contents is widely dissonant from true orthodoxy and clearly shows that they are the forgeries of heretics. They ought, therefore, to be reckoned not even among spurious books but shunned as altogether wicked and impious.23
Beyond the twenty or more books Eusebius considered undisputed, some books were disputed because of doubts about authorship or antiquity. But if they were sufficiently early and widely read, they were considered as possible candidates for the canon. Finally, other books were rejected outright because they were of recent vintage or plainly taught error. Thus, forty years before the first definitive canon list of twenty-seven books was composed by Athanasius in 367, the church already had been wrestling seriously with the criteria of canonicity: apostolicity, catholicity, and orthodoxy. The heretical books failed all three tests.
Second, the heretical gospels were products of the second and later centuries....One piece of evidence that supports this is found in the very first canon list, produced by the heretic Marcion in about 140. Marcion lists only Luke and ten of Paul's letters in his canon. As noted previously, Marcion was a Docetist, whose views would be largely compatible with Gnostic teaching. Why then did he include parts of only our New Testament in his list? Why didn't he include such Gnostic works as the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Mary or the Acts of Peter? The most likely inference is that these books did not yet exist, or they were too new to be regarded as authentic.
Third, as Carson and Moo note, “So far as the evidence of the Fathers goes, when they explicitly evaluated a work for its authenticity, canonicity and pseudonymity proved mutually exclusive.”24 Even though scholars today often argue that the ancient church was soft on issues of authorship, if these Christians were convinced that a book was bogus, it got the boot.
J. Ed Komoszewski, M. James Sawyer, Daniel B. Wallace, Reinventing Jesus: What the Da Vinci Code and Other Novel Speculations Don't Tell You, p. 145-148
A Fatal Flaw Of Jehovah's Witnesses Christology
Jesus Christ stated that the greatest demonstration of love is giving up one's own life on behalf of others (John 15:13). That is precisely what He did for us when He made atonement for our sin on the cross. Now, the Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe that Jesus is God. In order to remain consistent with their theology, they must accept the idea of a creature doing a greater act of love than the Creator Himself because it was the former who laid down His own life in our place. The Trinity is the solution to this dilemma. If Jesus Christ is the second Person of the Godhead, then it is God who has made the greatest possible demonstration of love.
Comments On The Jehovah's Witnesses New World Translation Rendering Of Matthew 25:46
“And these will depart into everlasting cutting-off, but the righteous ones into everlasting life.” (Matthew 25:46, New World Translation, emphasis added)
"These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matthew 25:46, New American Standard Bible, emphasis added)
"Cutting-off" as a word choice in Matthew 25:46 by the Watchtower Society is a clear example of them taking liberties with the text of Scripture to support their false doctrine of annihilation.
The text actually proves injurious to the Jehovah's Witnesses position because heaven and hell are paired side by side and described as eternal.
Moreover, the Greek kolasis is better translated as "punishment" than "cutting-off" because that word is consistent with the overall context of Scripture.
Jude says that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah suffer "eternal fire" (Jude 7) which lasts "forever" (Jude 13) as an object lesson for the ungodly. That language has very specific implications. It does not sit well with annihilationism.
The Watchtower Society Makes False Prophetic Statements (A Shocking Admission)
Jehovah’s Witnesses have had wrong expectations about when the end would come. Like Jesus’ first-century disciples, we have sometimes looked forward to the fulfillment of prophecy ahead of God’s timetable. (Luke 19:11; Acts 1:6; 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 2) We agree with the sentiment of longtime
Witness A. H. Macmillan, who said: “I learned that we should admit our mistakes and continue searching God’s Word for more enlightenment.”
Why, then, do we continue to highlight the nearness of the end? Because we take seriously Jesus’ words: “Keep looking, keep awake.” The alternative, to be found “sleeping” by Jesus, would prevent us from gaining his favor. (Mark 13:33, 36) Why?
Consider this example: A lookout in a fire tower might see what he thinks is a wisp of smoke on the horizon and sound what proves to be a false alarm. Later, though, his alertness could save lives.
Likewise, we have had some wrong expectations about the end. But we are more concerned with obeying Jesus and saving lives than with avoiding criticism. Jesus’ command to “give a thorough witness” compels us to warn others about the end.—Acts 10:42.
We believe that even more important than focusing on when the end will come, we must be confident that it will come, and we must act accordingly. We take seriously the words of Habakkuk 2:3, which says: “Even if [the end] should delay [compared to what you thought], keep in expectation of it; for it will without fail come true. It will not be late.
January 1, 2013 issue of the Watchtower magazine, p. 8
Early Church Evidence Against Transubstantiation
“Elsewhere the Lord, in the Gospel according to John, brought this out by symbols, when He said: “Eat ye my flesh, and drink my blood;” describing distinctly by metaphor the drinkable properties of faith and the promise, by means of which the Church, like a human being consisting of many members, is refreshed and grows, is welded together and compacted of both,-of faith, which is the body, and of hope, which is the soul; as also the Lord of flesh and blood. For in reality the blood of faith is hope, in which faith is held as by a vital principle...Thus in many ways the Word is figuratively described, as meat, and flesh, and food, and bread, and blood, and milk. The Lord is all these, to give enjoyment to us who have believed on Him. Let no one then think it strange, when we say that the Lord's blood is figuratively represented as milk. For is it not figuratively represented as wine? “Who washes,” it is said, “His garment in wine, His robe in the blood of the grape.” In His Own Spirit He says He will deck the body of the Word; as certainly by His own Spirit He will nourish those who hunger for the Word.”
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 1.6
A Discourse Against The Catholic Dogma Of Purgatory
-Quite simply, the purpose of this article is to rebut a few arguments and rebuttals in defense of the Roman Catholic dogma of purgatory. Following are a few excerpts from the author alongside with a critique:
"...the sacrifice of Christ is no longer there for one "who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified"; such a one can "throw away [one's] confidence" and "shrink back" and be "destroyed" (Hebrews 10:28-39). The only thing such a sinner looks forward to is judgment, for "the Lord will judge his people" (cf. Romans 2:5-10). We are to keep faith and endure to the end to be saved, "so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised" (cf. Matthew 24:13; 2 Peter 1:10f)."
The text from Hebrews addresses people who knowingly and willingly reject the atonement for sin that God provides. It is about persevering in the faith, not purification of souls after death. The author of Hebrews addresses an audience who professes Christ and does not provide commentary on how things work in the afterlife.
The text from Matthew is descriptive, not prescriptive, in nature. The text from 2 Peter simply gives us a picture of what takes place in sanctification and does not concern the instance of justification itself.
"...the final step into heaven would require us to be perfectly purified and made completely holy through Christ’s grace, since the church in heaven, where "nothing unclean can enter" contains holy and perfected people (cf. Matthew 5:48; Hebrews 12:14, 23; 1 Thess 5:23; Eph 5:26f; Rev 21:27). So we DO "need to be purified" according to Scripture (cf. Mal 3:2-3; 1 Peter 1:6-9; 1 Cor 3:12-15; Hebrews 12:29), and Christ's one sacrifice is the application of that final purification and sanctification necessary for heaven -- which Catholics call "purgatory."
Certainly, we must persevere in faith and nothing unclean can enter heaven. The point of contention is whether good works are meritorious. If a person is interested in further discussion on whether Purgatory is an integral part of being purified in order to enter the kingdom of God, then he or she can view articles here, here, and here.
"There is no evidence in Scripture of the infamous mantra “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (some say it is implied in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 which actually reads: "we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord" -- RSV). There is often desire to be away from the body and be with Christ, but what believer wouldn’t desire this?"
In order to respond to the above objection, the surrounding context of 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 has been presented:
"For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight—we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him." (2 Corinthians 5:1-9, emphasis added)
The Apostle Paul clearly sets up a twofold division between absence and presence. So it is erroneous to assert that the "famous mantra" has "no evidence" in Scripture.
There are a number of passages in Scripture that mention the intermediate state and nowhere is the idea of purgatory even hinted at (John 14:1-4; Revelation 7:14-17; 20:11-15). All these texts point to the souls of believers going directly to be with God in heaven after death. Nowhere is a temporary abode that exists to purify our souls of venial sin spoken of. The repentant thief on the cross was promised eternal bliss that same day by Jesus Christ Himself (Luke 23:39-43).
The view of purgatory that has been a tradition of Roman Catholicism for a very long time is that it is a place of intense suffering to satisfy divine justice. This experience is anything but pleasant. In Catholic theology, purgatory exists for people to make atonement for the remaining guilt of venial sin committed during their earthly lives. Purgatory has been described as a sin purifying fire. Therefore, Roman Catholic apologists who describe purgatory in terms of peace, bliss, and excitement are not at all representing historic belief.
Primitive writers such as Clement of Rome and Polycarp refer to Christians as being in heaven without any mention of purgatory. This Roman Catholic dogma is a product of Greek speculation, discussed in more detail in this article. One Eastern Orthodox blogger makes the following point regarding the consensus of belief in purgatory in the early church:
"...if the doctrine of Purgatory was well-established Jewish belief that was carried into Christianity since Apostolic times, why was the doctrine doubtful even in the fifth century? Augustine himself vacillated on the issue. In the Handbook of Faith, Hope, and Love his comment on the doctrine’s doubtfulness reveal that it was surely not universally accepted in his own time: “It is a matter that may be inquired into, and either ascertained or left doubtful, whether some believers shall pass through a kind of purgatorial fire” (Chap 69). In City of God he speaks to the same effect: “But if it be said that in the interval of time between the death of this body and that last day of judgment and retribution which shall follow the resurrection, the bodies of the dead shall be exposed to a fire of such a nature that it shall not affect those who have not in this life indulged in such pleasures and pursuits as shall be consumed like wood, hay, stubble…this I do not contradict, because possibly it is true” (Book 21, Chap 26)."
Posted by Jesse at 5:27 PM 10 comments:
Of Inequality
Plutarch somewhere says that he finds no such great difference between beast and beast as between man and man. He speaks of the mind and internal qualities. I could find in my heart to say there is more difference between one man and another than between such a man and such a beast; and that there are as many degrees of spirits as steps between earth and heaven.
But concerning the estimation of men, it is marvellous that we ourselves are the only things not esteemed for their proper qualities. We commend a horse for his strength and speed, not for his trappings; a greyhound for his swiftness, not his collar; a hawk for her wing, not for her bells. Why do we not likewise esteem a man for that which is his own? He has a goodly train of followers, a stately palace, so much rent coming in, so much credit among men. Alas, all that is about him, not in him. If you buy a horse you see him bare of saddle and cloths. When you judge of a man, why consider his wrappings only? In a sword it is the quality of the blade, not the value of the scabbard, to which you give heed. A man should be judged by what he is himself, not by his appurtenances.
Let him lay aside his riches and external honours and show himself in his shirt. Has he a sound body? What mind has he? Is it fair, capable, and unpolluted, and happily equipped in all its parts? Is it a mind to be settled, equable, contented, and courageous in any circumstances? Is he-
A wise man, of himself commander high, Whom want, nor death, nor bands can terrify, Resolved t'affront desires, honours to scorn, All in himself, close, round, and neatly borne, Against whose front externals idly play, And even fortune makes a lame essay?
Such a man is five hundred degrees beyond kingdoms and principalities; himself is a kingdom unto himself. Compare with him the vulgar troop--stupid, base, servile, warring, floating on the sea of passions, depending wholly on others. There is more difference than between heaven and earth, yet in a blindness of custom we take little or no account of it. Whereas, if we consider a cottage and a king, a noble and a workman, a rich man and a poor, we at once recognise disparity, although, as one might say, they differ in nothing but their clothes.
An emperor, whose pomp so dazzles us in public, view him behind the curtain is but an ordinary man, and peradventure viler and sillier than the least of his subjects! Cowardice, irresolution, ambition, spite, anger, envy, move and work in him as in another man. Fear, care, and suspicion haunt him even in the midst of his armed troops. Does the ague, the headache, or the gout spare him more than us? When age seizes on his shoulders, can the tall yeoman of his guard rid him of it? His bedstead encased with gold and pearls cannot allay the pinching pangs of colic!
The flatterers of Alexander the Great assured him he was the son of Jupiter, but being hurt one day, and the blood gushing from the wound, "What think you of this?" said he to them. "Is not this blood of a lively red hue, and merely human?" If a king have the ague or the gout what avail his titles of majesty? But if he be a man of worth, royalty and glorious titles will add but little to good fortune.
Truly, to see our princes all alone, sitting at their meat, though beleaguered with talkers, whisperers, and gazing beholders, I have often rather pitied than envied them. The honour we receive from those who fear and stand in awe of us is no true honour.
"Service holds few, though many hold service." Every man's manners and his mind His fortune for him frame and find.
The Superiority Of The Gift Of Love
"Love."
The word rendered "charity" in the Old Version, and "love" in the Revised Version of our New Testament, is not a classical substantive. It is emphatically a Christian term. And this need not be wondered at; for as the virtue itself is one, if not created, yet developed by Christianity, it is what might have been expected to find that the thing gave rise to the name. This chapter has been called a psalm of love, and is admired both for its elevated thinking and its melodious diction, whilst to such as are imbued with the true Christian spirit it is especially congenial and delightful.
I. MISCONCEPTIONS HAVE TO BE REMOVED. E.g.:
1. The use of the word "charity" is ambiguous. It is often used as equivalent to tolerance, as in the phrase, "the judgment of charity;" and often as synonymous with "almsgiving," as in the sad proverb, "Cold as charity." Neither of these uses meets the requirements of the text.
2. "Love" is also an ambiguous word, being commonly applied to the feeling of attraction and attachment between young people of opposite sexes—a usage which evidently has no applicability here.
II. THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE HAS TO BE EXPLAINED.
1. It is between one human being and another. The question is not of reverent love to God, but of the mutual feelings of those endowed with the same spiritual nature.
2. It is a sentiment, and there is no love where there is simply a principle of action, cold and unimpassioned.
3. It is a sentiment which governs conduct, restraining men from injuring or slandering one another, and impelling them to mutual assistance.
III. THE SOURCE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE HAS TO BE TRACED.
1. Its true and ultimate origin is in the nature of God, who is love.
2. Its introduction among men is chiefly owing to the Lord Jesus, who was the gift of the Father's love, whose whole ministry to earth was a revelation of love, and whose benevolent conduct and sacrificial death were the fruit of love.
3. Its individual power and social efficacy are owing to the presence and operation of the Spirit of God. Not without significance is love mentioned first in the inventory of the fruits of the Spirit, which are these: love, joy, peace, etc.
IV. THE EXCELLENCY OF CHRISTIAN LOVE HAS TO BE EXHIBITED. This is done in this chapter, systematically, in several ways.
1. It is superior to the supernatural gifts generously bestowed upon the Church in the first age.
2. It is the motive to dispositions and actions of the highest degree of moral beauty.
3. It will survive all that is most prized by man as intellectually precious and desirable.
4. It is superior even to gifts, or rather graces, so lovely and admirable as are faith and hope.—T.
Love and language.
It would seem that, of all gifts, the gift of speech, and especially that variety of it known as the gift of tongues, was most prized by the Christians of Corinth. Probably for this reason the apostle puts this in the forefront, when he compares other possessions and virtues with the grace of love.
I. IN WHAT THE SUPERIORITY OF LOVE OVER SPEECH CONSISTS.
1. In the fact that the gift of tongues draws attention to the possessor himself, whilst charity goes forth from him who cultivates it to others. The gift in question was one splendid and dazzling. Whether it consisted in a power to speak intelligibly in foreign languages, or in the pouring forth of sounds—articulate, indeed, but not corresponding with any language known to the auditors—in either case it was a brilliant faculty, drawing all eyes to the speaker and all ears to his voice. On the other hand, the affectionate ministrant to the wants of his poor or afflicted neighbours would usually go his way unnoticed and unadmired. It is better that a man should be drawn out, as it were, from himself, than that his attention should be, because the attention of others is, concentrated upon himself.
2. In the fact that the grace of love is far more serviceable to the Church and to the world than the gift of tongues. There was a purpose subserved by this gift—it impressed carnal listeners, it was a proof to the Church itself of a special Divine presence. But love led men and women to sympathize with one another, to minister to the wants of the needy, to raise the fallen, to strengthen the weak, to nurse the sick, to comfort the bereaved, to rear the orphan. Thus its fruits vindicated its supremacy.
3. In the fact that the Lord Jesus loved, but never spake with tongues.
4. In the fact that the gift of tongues is but for a season, whilst love is indestructible and eternal.
II. BY WHAT COMPARISON THE SUPERIORITY OF LOVE IS ILLUSTRATED. The gift without the grace is likened to the sounding of brass, to the clashing of a cymbal of bronze. There is noise, but it is vex et proeterea nihil; there is no melody and no meaning. On the other hand, love is like a strain of exquisite music vibrating from the strings, warbling from a flute, or pealing from the pipes of an organ; or, better still, it is like the clear bell-like voice of a boy in some cathedral choir, rendering an immortal passage of sacred poetry to an air sounding like an echo from the minstrelsy of Paradise. The former arrests attention; the gong when struck produces a shock; but the latter sweetly satisfies the soul, then soothing and refreshing the spirit's longings for a heaven bern strain, and leaving behind the precious memory of a melting cadence.—T.
Love and knowledge.
Different gifts have attractions for different minds. To the Corinthians the charisms of language seem to have had an especial charm and value. It might be supposed that those possessions here mentioned—prophecy, unravelling of mysteries, and knowledge, especially of spiritual things—would have a deeper interest for such a one as Paul. And that he did prize these is not to be questioned. Yet such was his appreciation of love, that in this eulogium of it he sets it above those half intellectual, half spiritual gifts.
I. THESE GIFTS ARE IN THEMSELVES VALUABLE. There is nothing here said to disparage the gifts. On the contrary, they are introduced in a way which witnesses to their excellence. Prophecy is the speaking forth of the mind of God—a function the most honourable the mind can conceive. To understand and reveal mysteries would universally be acknowledged to be a high distinction. Knowledge ranks high in connection with a religion which addresses man's intelligence. All these are, so to speak, aspects of religion peculiarly congenial to a thoughtful Christian, and peculiarly advantageous to a Christian community.
II. BUT IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THESE GIFTS MAY BE OF NO VALUE TO THE POSSESSOR. That is, in case they be unaccompanied by love. The purely intellectual character is the unlovely character. The man may be the vehicle of truth, and yet the truth may pass through him without affecting his character, his spiritual position. Who does not know such men—men of Biblical scholarship, sound theology, great teaching power, yet loveless, and because loveless unlovely? To themselves they may be great men, and in the view of the Church; but in reality, and before God, they are nothing!
III. IT IS LOVE WHICH MAKES THESE GIFTS VALUABLE TO THEIR POSSESSOR. How needful love is to impart a spiritual flavour and quality to these great endowments, is clear enough, i.e. to every enlightened mind.
1. Love infuses the spirit in which they are to be used. How differently the man of intellect or of learning uses his powers when his soul is pervaded by the spirit of brotherly love, every observer must have noticed. "Let all your things be done in charity" is an admonition appropriate to all, but especially so to the man of genius or of ability.
2. Love controls the purpose to which they are to be applied. Not for self exaltation, not for the advancement of a great cause, but for the general welfare, will love inspire the great to consecrate their talents, according to the mind and method of the great Master himself.—T.
Love and faith.
St. Paul was so emphatically the apostle of faith, that it is hard to believe that he wrote anything approaching to disparagement of that great and efficacious virtue. If he devoted a great part of his chief Epistle—that to the Romans—to an exhibition of the power of faith, it is not likely that here or anywhere he should write one word which could cast faith into the shade. And, in fact, the reference of the apostle in this passage is not to faith in Christ as a Saviour, but to that special faith m a special promise which was the means of enabling the possessor to perform great marvels—in the figurative language of Scripture, to remove mountains.
I. THIS LANGUAGE IS NOT IN DISPARAGEMENT OF THE FAITH WHICH WORKS BY LOVE. It is always taught in Scripture that faith precedes love; the heart must find Christ and rest in him and live from him, in order that it may love him. Confidence in a personal Saviour revealed in his words and life, in his sacrifice and triumph, will certainly awaken affection, more or less ardent according to the temperament and history of the individual believer. Strong faith is fitted to enkindle warm love.
II. WE ARE TAUGHT THAT "GIFTS" ARE NOT ALWAYS A SIGN OF PIETY. The faith which was so much admired and coveted in the primitive Church was confidence in a certain definite promise of the Lord of supernatural aid to those whose position rendered such aid expedient. The removal of mountains is, of course, a figure for the vanquishing of difficulties, and probably for the performance of miracles. It would seem that there were in the early Churches some who possessed this gift who had not the spiritual qualifications which were far more to be desired. And it is not to be denied that even now there are in all Christian communities men largely endowed with gifts of administration, learning, and eloquence, who yet are lacking in those first qualities of Christian character which are a sign of the Spirit's indwelling. Far more to be desired is simple faith in the Saviour than the faith which removes mountains and dazzles multitudes.
III. THESE LESSONS ARE ENFORCED BY THE CONSIDERATION THAT PAUL POSSESSED BOTH SUPERNATURAL GIFTS AND FERVENT CHARITY, AND WAS WELL ABLE TO COMPARE THE TWO. Never were wonders, miracles of moral power, wrought more manifestly, more repeatedly, than in the ministry of the great apostle of the Gentiles. If any had reason to boast, he had more. Yet to him his love to the Saviour, and his devotion to those for whom that Saviour died, were of far more consequence and value than all his supernatural gifts.
"Love is the brightest of the train,
And strengthens all the rest."
Love and almsgiving.
Of all the comparisons between love and other qualities, gifts, or practices, this is the one which sounds most strange to our ears. For in our minds charity and almsgiving are so closely associated that it scarcely seems possible that they should be placed in contrast one with the other. Yet so it is; and every observer of human nature and society can recognize both the insight and the foresight of the apostle in this striking, almost startling comparison.
I. ALMSGIVING MAY ORIGINATE IN INFERIOR AND UNWORTHY MOTIVES. The apostle supposes an extreme case, viz. that one should give away all his substance in doles to the poor; and he gives his judgment that such a course of action may be loveless, and, if loveless, then worthless. For it may proceed from:
1. Ostentation. That this is the explanation of many of the handsome and even munificent gifts of the wealthy, we are obliged to believe. A rich man sometimes likes his name to figure in a subscription list for an amount which no man of moderate means can afford. The publication of such a gift gratifies his vanity and self importance. His name may figure side by side with that of a well known millionaire.
2. Custom. A commentator has illustrated this passage by reference to the crowds of beggars who gather in the court of a great bishop's palace in Spain or Sicily, to each of whom a coin is given, in so-called charity. Such pernicious and indiscriminate almsgiving is expected of those in a high position in the Church, and they give from custom. The same principle explains probably much of our eleemosynary bestowment.
3. Love of power. As in the feudal days a great lord had his retinue and his retainers, multitudes depending upon his bounty, so there can be no question that individuals and Churches often give generously for the sake of the hold they thus gain upon the dependent, who become in turn in many ways their adherents and supporters.
II. ALMSGIVING MAY IN SOME CASES BE INJURIOUS. In fact, it often is so.
1. To the recipient. The wretch who lives in idleness on rich men's doles is degraded in the process, and becomes lost to all self respect, and habituated to an ignominious and base contentedness with his position.
2. To society generally. When it is known that the man who begs is as well supported as the man who works, how can it be otherwise than that demoralization should ensue? The system of indiscriminate almsgiving is a wrong to the industrious poor.
3. To the giver. For such gifts as are supposed, instead of calling forth the finer qualities of the nature, awaken in the breast of the bestower a cynical contempt of mankind.
III. NEVERTHELESS, TRUE CHARITY MAY EXPRESS ITSELF IN GIFTS. The man who doles away his substance in almsgiving, and has all the while no charity, is nothing; but if there be love, that love sanctifieth both the giver and the gift. For he who loves and gives resembles that Divine Being whose heart is ever filled with love, whose hands are ever filled with gifts.—T.
Love and self immolation.
It would seem that Paul had some anticipation of the approaching developments of Christian society. There is no ground for believing that, at the time when he wrote, any member of the Church of Christ had suffered at the stake for fidelity to principle and to faith. Such martyrdoms had occurred in Palestine, when the enemies of Jehovah had been triumphant and had wreaked their vengeance upon the faithful Jews. And even before Paul's decease, in Rome itself, Christians came to be the victims of the infamous Nero's brutality, and perished in the flames. Stronger language could not be used to set forth the superiority of love to zeal, fidelity, and devotion than this of St. Paul: "Though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing!"
I. THE READINESS TO DIE, AT THE STAKE OR OTHERWISE, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, IS GOOD. As the three Hebrew children were content to be cast into the burning, fiery furnace, as the faithful Jews died at the stake under the persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes, as Polycarp at over four score years of age gave his body to be burned, as the holy Perpetua suffered this martyrdom with willing mind, as in our own country at the Reformation many suffered in the fires of Oxford and Smithfield, so have multitudes counted their lives as not dear to them for the blessed Saviour's sake. It cannot but be that such sacrifice of self, such holy martyrdom, ever has been and is acceptable to Christ, who gave himself for us. For he himself has said, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
II. THE ABSENCE OF LOVE TAKES AWAY EVEN FROM THE VIRTUE OF MARTYRDOM. There is a story of a Christian of Antioch who, on his way to martyrdom, refused to forgive and be reconciled to a brother Christian. Such a case is an exact example of the zeal without love which the apostle here pronounces worthless. If Christian charity be absent where zeal is present, there seems reason to fear that the motives which induce to self immolation are pride, self glorification, and an inflexible obstinacy. If there be not love to Christ's people, there is no real love to Christ: "He that loveth God loves his brother also." It is strange to think that self delusion may go so far that men may suffer martyrdom without being truly Christ's. Yet so it is. And we may be reminded, from the possibility of this extreme case, how readily men deceive themselves and suppose that they are influenced by truly religious and distinctly Christian motives, when all the while self is the pivot upon which their whole conduct revolves. And it may be suggested to us how inexpressibly essential, in the judgment of our Lord and his Spirit, is that grace of love, the absence of which cannot be atoned for even by a passage through the fiery flames of martyrdom.—T.
1 Corinthians 13:4, 1 Corinthians 13:5
Love and our fellow men.
In this panegyric of charity, we find,
I. LOVE IS LONG SUFFERING AS OPPOSED TO IMPATIENCE. There is no possibility of mixing with human society without encountering many occasions of irritation. Human nature is such that conflicts of disposition and of habits will and must occur. It is so in the family, in civil life, and even in the Church. Hence impatience and irritability are among the most common of infirmities. And there is no more sure sign of a disciplined and morally cultured mind than a habit of forbearance, tolerance, and patience. But Christianity supplies a motive and power of long suffering which can act in the case of persons of every variety of temperament and of every position of life. "Love suffereth long."
II. LOVE IS GRACIOUS AND KIND AS OPPOSED TO MALICE AND ILL WILL. There is no disposition known to human nature which is a more awful proof of the enormity of sin than malevolence. And the religion of the Lord Christ in nothing more signally proves its divinity than in its power to expel this demoniacal spirit from the breast of humanity. In fact, benevolence is the admitted "note" of this religion. The sterner virtues, as fortitude and justice, were admired and practised among the heathen, and celebrated by the moralists of antiquity. These and others were assumed by Christianity, which added to them the softer grace of love—love which justifies itself in deeds of benignity and loving kindness.
III. LOVE IS OPPOSED TO ENVY AID JEALOUSY. These are vices which arise from discontent with one's own condition as compared with that of others, and are justly deemed among the meanest and basest of which man is capable. Christianity proves its power of spiritual transformation by suppressing, and indeed in many cases by extirpating, these evil passions from the heart, and by teaching and enabling men to rejoice in their neighbours' prosperity.
IV. LOVE, AS OPPOSED TO ANGER, IS NOT PROVOKED WITH THE CONDUCT OF OTHERS. This must not be pressed too far, as though anger in itself were an evil, as though there were no such thing as righteous indignation. Christ himself was angry with hypocrites and deceivers; his indignation and wrath were aroused again and again. But the moral distinction lies here: to be provoked with those who injure us or pass a slight upon our dignity and self importance, is unchristian, but it is not so to cherish indignation with the conduct of God's wilful enemies.
V. LOVE KEEPS NO ACCOUNT OF EVIL RENDERED. This trait in the character of the Christian is very beautiful. It is customary with sinful men to cherish the memory of wrongs done to them, against a day of retribution. Love wipes out the record of wrong doing from the memory, and knows nothing of vindictiveness or ill will.—T.
Love and self abnegation.
Where there is sincere Christian love, that grace will not only affect for good the intercourse of human society, it will exercise a most powerful and beneficial influence over the nature of which it takes possession; changing pride into humility, and selfishness into self denial. And this is not to be wondered at by him who considers that for the Christian the spiritual centre of gravity is changed—is no longer self, but Christ.
I. LOVE DESTROYS BOASTFULNESS. It "vaunteth not itself." In some characters more than in others there is observable a disposition towards display. There may be real ability, and yet there may be the vanity which obtrudes the proofs of that ability; or there may, on the other hand, be an absence of ability, and yet the fool may not be able to conceal his folly, but must needs make himself the laughing stock of all. Love delights not in the display of real power or the assumption of what does not exist. How can it? When love seeks the good of others, how can it seek their admiration?
II. LOVE IS OPPOSED TO PRIDE. It "is not puffed up." The expression is a strong one; it has been rendered, "does not swell and swagger," "is not inflated with vanity." The explanation of this is clear enough. The pretentious and arrogant man has a mind full of himself, of thoughts of his own greatness and importance, Now, love is the outflowing of the heart's affection in kindliness and benevolence towards others. He who is always thinking of the welfare of his fellow men has no time and no inclination for thoughts of self exaltation, aggrandizement, and ambition. It is plain, then, how wholesome, purifying, and sweetening an influence Christianity introduces into human society; and how much it tends to the happiness of individuals, cooling the fever of restless rivalry and ambition.
III. LOVE IS INCONSISTENT WITH ALL UNSEEMLINESS OF DEPORTMENT. There is an indefiniteness about the language: "Doth not behave itself unseemly." Possibly there is a special reference to the discreditable scenes which were to be witnessed in the Corinthian congregation, in consequence of their party spirit, rivalry, and discord. But there is always in every community room for the inculcation of considerateness, courtesy, self restraint, and dignity. And the apostle points out, with evident justice, that what no rules or custom can produce is the spontaneous and natural result of the operation of Christian love.
IV. LOVE IS, IN A WORD, UNSELFISH; i.e. "seeketh not her own." Here is the broadest basis of the new life of humanity. Love gives, and does not grasp; has an eye for others' wants and sorrows, but turns not her glance towards herself; moves among men with gracious mien and open hands.—T.
The joy of love.
There is, perhaps, no test of character more decisive than this: in what is the chief pleasure of life placed? Where is satisfaction of the soul? Whence does joy proceed? If Christianity is indeed a revolutionary religion, it will effect a change here—in this vital respect. Even in St. Paul's time, it appeared that with Christianity a new force—the force of love—had been introduced into humanity, a force able to direct human delight into another and purer and nobler channel than that in which it had been wont to flow.
I. JOY NO LONGER FLOWS FROM THE PRESENCE AND PREVALENCE OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. It seems to attribute a fiendish spirit to human beings to suppose that they can anywhere and at any time be found to rejoice in wrong doing and unrighteousness. Yet it is, alas! possible for sinful men to take a malignant pleasure in the prevalence of sin; for it is the proof of the power of the moral forces with which they have allied themselves, of the victory of their own party. The iniquity of others serves to support and justify their own iniquity. And it must be borne in mind that there are cases in which designing men profit by deeds of unrighteousness, take the very wages of iniquity. Against such dispositions Christian love must needs set itself; for when iniquities prevail, happiness and hope take wings and fly away.
II. JOY FLOWS TO THE CHRISTIAN HEART FROM THE PROGRESS OF TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS. Truth is the intellectual side of righteousness, and righteousness the moral side of truth. There is, accordingly, a real antithesis between the two clauses of the text.
1. This joy is akin to the joy of God. The Father rejoices over the repenting and recovered child, the Shepherd over the restored, once wandering, sheep. "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." And they who themselves are enjoying peace and fellowship with a reconciled God cannot but participate in the satisfaction with which that holy Being views the progress of truth and religion among men.
2. It is sympathetic with the gladness of the Saviour in the accomplishment of his gracious purposes. As Christ sees of the travail of his soul, he is satisfied; for the joy set before him, i.e. in the salvation of men, he endured the cross. And all who owe salvation to what Jesus did and suffered for man must needs experience a thrill of gratification when a rebel is changed into a subject by the grace of God.
3. It springs from the triumph of that cause which of all on earth is the greatest and most glorious. Every noble soul finds satisfaction in witnessing the advance of truth from the dim dawn towards the full meridian day for which he, in common with all God's people in every age, is ever toiling, hoping, and praying.—T.
Love and the conduct of life.
We are born into, and we live in the midst of, a system, vast and incomprehensible. Man is related to a thousand circumstances, and his moral life depends upon the principles which govern these relationships. It is by a sublime and spiritual intuition, itself an evidence of a Divine commission and apostolate, that St. Paul discerns the truth that love, when it takes possession of the Christian's nature, relates him anew and aright to "all things," i.e. to the whole system in which he finds himself, and of which indeed he forms a part.
I. Love "CONCEALETH ALL THINGS." The word is one which, perhaps, cannot be confidently interpreted. But it may and probably does mean "conceal "or "cover." And so rendered, how appropriate is it in this place! What so characteristic of true charity as the habit of covering up and concealing the faults and infirmities of our brethren? It is a difficult exercise, especially to an acute and candid mind; but because we see an error it is not necessary to publish it. There may be good done and harm avoided by hiding good men's infirmities and the human defects which are to be found even in an excellent cause.
II. Love "BELIEVETH ALL THINGS." There is no point at which the wisdom of this world and the wisdom which is of God come more violently into conflict than here. To worldly men it seems the height of folly to proceed in human life upon the principle of believing all things. This is, in their view, credulity which will make a man the prey of knaves and impostors. Now, the words of the text must not be taken literally. They commend a disposition opposed to suspicion. A suspicious man is wretched himself, and he is universally distrusted and disliked. Where there is reason to distrust a person, even charity will distrust. But, on the other hand, charity cultivates that strain of nobleness in character which prefers to think well of others, and to give credit rather than to question and disbelieve.
III. LOVE "HOPETH ALL THINGS." Here again we have portrayed a feature of Christian character which it needs some spiritual discipline and culture to appreciate. A sanguine disposition is often distrusted, and not unjustly. But we may understand that temper of mind which leads us to hope good things of our fellow men, and to view with confident expectation the progress of the truth over their nature.
IV. LOVE "ENDURETH ALL THINGS." This is to most men the hardest lesson of all. Many will cheerfully work from love, who find it no easy matter to suffer calumny, coldness, hatred, persecution, in a loving spirit and for Christ's sake. But we need the spirit of Divine charity to overlook all the assaults of men, and to pray for those who despitefully use us. This can and may be done when the whole nature is inspired with love to God and love to man.—T.
Exell, Joseph S; Spence-Jones, Henry Donald Maurice. "Commentary on 1 Corinthians 13:4". The Pulpit Commentary. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tpc/1-corinthians-13.html. 1897.
Acts 19:2 And Justification By Faith Alone
"He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” (Acts 19:2)
Paul's question presupposes that one receives the Holy Spirit at the same time he or she believes the gospel. It should also be noted that a person receives the Spirit upon getting saved (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 1:13-14; Galatians 3:2). The two are not separated in Scripture.
Scripture distinguishes between faith and baptism (Acts 18:8). Moreover, Acts 19:1-7 does not make mention of any works that can get us right with God. Faith is the object of emphasis. Thus, baptism cannot be a requirement in order to be justified before God.
Early Greek Philosophers
Thales, who was born at Miletus, in Asia Minor, and flourished in 585 B.C., is justly considered the father of Greek speculation. The step he took was small but decisive. He opened the physiological inquiry into the constitution of the universe. Seeing around him constant transformations--birth and death, change of shape, of size, and of mode of being, he could not regard any one of these variable states of existence as existence itself. He therefore asked, What is the beginning of things? Finding that all things were nourished by moisture, he declared that moisture was the principle of everything. He was mistaken, of course, but he was the first man to furnish a formula from which to reason deductively.
Anaximenes (550 B.C.) pursued the method of Thales, but he was not convinced of the truth of his master's doctrine. He thought that the air was the prime, universal element, from which all things were produced and into which all things were resolved. Diogenes of Apollonia adopted the idea of Anaximenes, but gave a deeper significance to it. The older thinker conceived the vital air as a kind of soul; the younger man conceived the soul as a kind of air--an invisible force, permeating and actuating everything. This attribution of intelligence to the primal power or matter was certainly a progress in speculation; but another line of thought was struck out by Anaximander of Miletus, who had been a friend of Thales. He was passionately addicted to mathematics, and a great many inventions are ascribed to him; among others, the sun-dial and the geographical map.
In his view, any one single thing could not be all things, and in his famous saying, "The infinite is the origin of all things," he introduced into metaphysics an abstract conception in place of the inadequate concrete principles of Thales and his disciples. Pythagoras was a contemporary of Anaximander, and, like him, one of the great founders of mathematics. He held that the only permanent reality in the cosmos was the principle of order and harmony, which prevented the universe from becoming a blank, unintelligible chaos; and he expressed this idea in his mystic doctrine: "Numbers are the cause of the material existence of things." The movement which he spread by means of a vast, secret confraternity ended, however, in a barren symbolism, and it is impossible to trace what relation his strange theories of the transmigration of souls and the music of the spheres have to his general system of thought.
Far more influence on the progress of speculation was exercised by Xenophanes of Colophon. Driven by the Persian invasion of 546 B.C. to earn his living as a wandering minstrel, he developed the ideas of Anaximander, and founded the school of great philosophic poets, to which Parmenides, Empedocles and Lucretius belong. He is the grand monotheist, and he has published his doctrines in his verses:
There is one God alone, the greatest of spirits and mortals, Neither in body to mankind resembling, neither in ideas.
Shelley's line: "The One remains, the Many change and pass," sums up the teaching of the line of thinkers which culminated in Plato. In their view, knowledge derived from the senses was fallacious because it touched only the diverse and changing appearances of things; absolute knowledge of the one abiding spiritual reality could, they held, only be obtained by the exercise of spiritual faculty of reason, which, unlike the animal power of sense, is the same in all men. One of the philosophers of this school, Zeno of Elea, was the inventor of the dialectic method of logic, which Socrates and Plato used with so tremendous an effect.
Anaxagoras, however, attempted to reconcile the evidence of the sense with the dictates of the reason. He was the first philosopher to settle in Athens, and Pericles, Euripides, and Socrates were among his pupils. He was extraordinarily modern in many of his ideas. He held that the matter of knowledge was derived through the senses, but that reason regulated and verified it, and he carried this dualism into his conception of the universe, which he represented as a manifestation of a Divine intelligence, acting through invariable laws, but in no way confused with the matter acted on.
His successor, Democritus, adopted his theory of the origin of knowledge, and by applying it to the problem of the One and the Many, produced the most striking of ancient anticipations of modern science. He regarded the world as something made up of invisible particles, each absolutely similar to the other; these formed the essential unity which could be grasped only by the reason, but by their various combinations and arrangements they brought about the apparent multiplicity of objects which the senses perceived. Such was the foundation of the atomic theory of Democritus. He conceived the atom as a centre of force, and not as a particle having weight and material qualities. As, however, his hypothesis was purely a metaphysical one, it did not lead to any of the discoveries which have followed on the establishment of the modern scientific theory, which was arrived at in a different way, and has a different signification. Democritus also threw out in vague outline the idea of gravitation. But this was not science: it was guess-work; it afforded no ground on which the fabric of verified knowledge could be erected, and no sure method of obtaining this knowledge.
Easter And The King James Version
"And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people." (Acts 12:4)
The Passover, rendered as "Easter" in Acts 12:4 of the King James Version, was designated for the Jewish people to bring into mind and regard as sacred the time God had rescued them from Egypt by parting the Red Sea. It was during this festival that Herod had ordered the execution of James and the arrest of Peter for preaching the gospel.
Easter is a Germanic word for "resurrection," which was in common use in the era that this translation of the Bible was brought into completion. That is why the translators of the Authorized Version used it, most likely viewing the Passover as a Jewish observance whereas the resurrection of Christ was celebrated by Christians.
The Greek Pascha is a transliteration of the Hebrew Pesach. Interestingly, this term is translated as "Passover" every other instance that it occurs in the King James Version. Easter is a later tradition taken up by Christians. Consequently, "Passover" is a better choice of words than is "Easter" in Acts 12:4.
Joshua's Conquest Of Canaan And Evidence
“(1) Usually less than about 5 or 10 percent of any given mound is ever dug down to Late Bronze (or any other) levels; hence between 85 to 95 percent of our potential source of evidence is never seen.(2)The principal Hebrew policy under Joshua was to kill leaders and inhabitants, not to destroy the cities, but eventually to occupy them (cf. Deut 6:10-11), destroying only the alien cult places (Deut 12:2-3). (3) Conquests, even historically well-known examples, often do not leave behind the sorts of traces that modern scholars overconfidently expect...” (p. 189-190)
“See B.S. J. Isserlin…quoting the Norman Conquest, the Anglo-Saxon settlement in England, and the Muslim Arab invasion of Syria-Palestine. One may also cite the innumerable campaigns of Egyptian, Hittite, Assyrian, and Neo-Babylonian armies in the Levant, of whose encampments and battlefields almost no traces are ever found...” (p. 545, note 84)
“No total conquest and occupation. The book of Joshua does not describe a total Hebrew conquest and occupation of Canaan, real or imaginary. Read straight, its narratives describe an entry (from over the Jordan), full destruction of two minor centers (Jericho, Ai; burned), then defeat of local kings and raids through south Canaan. Towns are attacked, taken, and damaged (“destroyed”), kings and subjects killed and then left behind, not held on to. The same in north Canaan; strategic Hazor is fully destroyed (burned), but no others. The rest are treated like the southern towns, and again left, not held...” (p. 234-235)
“...external data for Joshua and Numbers. We have no direct exter nal textual references to the Israelite entry or raids or initial settlement from Gilgal to Shechem. In the later thirteenth century, Mesopotamia - in the guise of Assyria - never penetrated beyond the Euphrates into Syria proper; Hittite power at Carchemish stood against them. So no data can come on south Palestinian events (especially in the inner highlands) from that quarter. Egypt officially was overlord of Canaan, but her main interest was in the productive coastal plains, lowland hills, and Jezreel, not in the economically poorer highland, and in keeping hold on the main routes north into Phoenicia (to Tyre, Sidon, Babylos, &c) and to Damascus in Upe...” (p. 235)
Excerpts taken from K.A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
The Exodus And Evidence
The setting presented in Exod. 1-14 is indubitably that of Egypt’s East Delta, whence the Hebrews are shown going directly into the Sinai Peninsula first of all. Background data may well be drawn from Egypt overall, but for locating the biblical Hebrews and their movements “on the ground” in Egypt we are restricted to the East Delta zone geographically.
This fact imposes further severe limitations upon all inquiry into the subject. The Delta is an alluvial fan of mud deposited through many millenia by the annual flooding of the Nile; it has no source of stone within it. Mud, mud and wattle, and mud-brick structures were of limited duration and use, and were repeatedly leveled and replaced, and very largely merged once more with the mud of the fields. So those who squawk intermittently, “No trace of the Hebrews has ever been found” (so, of course, no exodus!), are wasting their breath. The mud hovels of brickfield slaves and humble cultivators have long since gone back to their mud origins, never to be seen again. Even stone structures (such as temples) hardly survive, in striking contrast to sites in the cliff-enclosed valley of Upper Egypt to the south. All stone was anciently shipped in from the south, and repeatedly recycled from one period to another. Thus Eighteenth Dynasty blocks were reused in Ramesside temples; Ramesside temples were replaced under later dynasties largely by reuse of existing stones again; and periods through Saite, Ptolemaic, Romano-Byzantine, and Islamic times repeated the process. In more recent centuries, limestone has been largely burned for lime, and harder stones often reused for millstones or whatever.
Scarce wonder that practically no written records of any extent have been retrieved from Delta sites reduced to brick mounds (whose very bricks are despoiled for fertilizer, sebakh), with even great temples reduced to heaps of tumbled stones. And in the mud, 99 percent of discarded papyri have perished forever; a tiny fraction (of late date) have been found carbonized (burned) — like some at Pompeii — but can only be opened or read with immense difficulty. A tiny fraction of reports from the East Delta occur in papyri recovered from the desert near Memphis. Otherwise, the entirety of Egypt’s administrative records at all periods in the Delta is lost (fig. 32B); and monumental texts are also nearly nil. And, as pharaohs never monumentalize defeats on temple walls, no record of the successful exit of a large bunch of foreign slaves (with loss of a full chariot squadron) would ever have been memorialized by any king, in temples in the Delta or anywhere else. On these matters, once and for all, biblicists must shed their naive attitudes and cease demanding “evidence” that cannot exist. Only radically different approaches can yield anything whatsoever. “Archaeology” that limits its blinkered evidence solely to what comes out of modest holes dug in the ground can have no final say in the matter.
K.A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, p. 245-246
The Transfiguration Of Jesus Christ
The Transfiguration directs our attention to the suffering that Jesus Christ underwent on the Cross (Luke 9:31). He communicated with Moses who had already been dead for thousands of years (Deuteronomy 34:5-7). He also spoke with Elijah who was long before translated into heaven (2 Kings 2:11). The New English Translation has this footnote:
"sn In 1st century Judaism and in the NT, it was believed that the righteous would be given new, glorified bodies in order to enter heaven (cf. 1 Cor 15:42-49; 2 Cor 5:1-10). This transformation meant that the righteous will share the glory of God. The account of Jesus’ transfiguration here recalls the way Moses shared the Lord’s glory after his visit to the mountain in Exod 34:28-35. So the disciples saw Jesus transfigured, and they were getting a private preview of the great glory that Jesus would have following his exaltation."
But how could Peter, James, and John see Moses? How did the three disciples know that the two were Moses and Elijah? One idea put forward is that they had appeared with Christ in a manner that the three could recognize. Consequently, the disciples correctly identified Moses and Elijah apart from never seeing them previously.
The Scripture is not clear on whether or not we are able to see human souls. Luke 16:19-31 seems to indicate that human souls remain conscious after death and are recognizable to each other. We do need to remember that there are hidden things which God, in His unsearchable wisdom, has chosen not to make known to us (Deuteronomy 29:29).
The point of the Transfiguration is to show the preeminence of Jesus Christ. He does not depend on creation. Christ was speaking with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration in His glory. The appearance of these two men signifies Him being the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets.
God voiced His approval of Jesus Christ from heaven (Matthew 17:5-6). He is the perfect and acceptable sacrifice for sin. The heavenly kingdom was formally instated during the earthly ministry of Christ, but will not be brought to fulfillment until His second coming. He will reign for eternity as the supreme King. Professor Stephen N. Williams gives the following commentary on the Transfiguration:
"There may be reminders or echoes of the scene of transfiguration elsewhere in the NT, of course; the stories of Paul’s own conversion, in the Book of Acts that combine Jesus, light and a voice from heaven; the very rare (NT) word ‘transfigure’ is the one used by Paul when he tells the Corinthians that we ‘are being transformed [‘transfigured’] into his likeness with ever-increasing glory’ (2 Cor. 3:18); the first chapter of Revelation, with its dramatic portrayal of Jesus, has resonances. John’s Gospel is intriguing on this score. It contains no reference to the transfiguration, but it is a Gospel all about ‘glory’ and a voice from heaven thunders that God has glorified his name ‘and will glorify it again’ (12:28). The question about why John does not specifically mention transfiguration belongs to the wider discussion of its relationship to the Synoptics. We must bear in mind that John does not refer directly to the Last Supper either or directly report the actual baptism of Jesus, where the Synoptics do. John can be concerned with the surrounding interpretation of events that he does not report as do the Synoptists."
Sabbath Keepers Obliterated
"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet," and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." (Romans 13:8-10)
Notice how the Apostle Paul states that love is the fulfillment of the entire Law. He clearly did not make Sabbath observance his priority, as do the Seventh-day Adventists. Moreover, Paul in this text is referencing the Decalogue. Yet, he nowhere even alludes to the Sabbath. This is ironic, given how Seventh-day Adventists view the Sabbath as a seal of God and even claim Sunday worship is the mark of the beast. "Whatever other command there may be" would include Sabbath observance. Paul sums up every possible commandment with love of God and love of neighbor.
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Rick Neal
Ten Promises for Ohio’s 15th Congressional District
Rick Neal, humanitarian activist from Columbus, challenges Steve Stivers in a bid for U.S. Congress
Rick Neal, a former international aid worker, is launching a campaign today for Congress in Ohio’s 15th District against incumbent Steve Stivers.
“It’s time we had a Congress that works for all of us,” said Neal. “This district deserves a representative who will work hard for better-paying jobs, an end to the opioid epidemic and affordable healthcare for everyone. Steve Stivers left us behind last year when he took a new job raising money for his fellow Republicans in Congress—and then voted to kick thousands of his constituents off their health insurance.”
Neal has dedicated his life to service and advocacy. He is not a politician and this is his first run for elected office. He joined the Peace Corps after college, working in Morocco for five years as a teacher and health educator. After earning a master’s degree in public health, he went back overseas, going wherever the need was greatest. He launched a hospital reconstruction project in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban and made sure refugees fleeing ethnic massacres in Congo had access to clean water.
In 2014, following the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, he went to Liberia to join a team setting up a 100-bed field hospital that could treat patients in a safe and humane setting. “The most important lesson I learned,” Neal offered, “was to not be afraid to stand up and take action when called, no matter the obstacles.”
Neal lives in the German Village neighborhood of Columbus with his husband, Tom Grote, and their two adopted daughters. He grew up in the suburbs of Milwaukee and Chicago; his mother was a housewife and community volunteer and his father was a road machinery salesman who hails from a southern Illinois coal town.
“I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and work with everyone interested in what’s going to benefit the diverse communities of our district,” Neal said. “It’s time to do better for Ohio.”
For more information, visit rickneal.com.
I want to do better for Ohio.
Add your support!
Paid for by Rick Neal for Congress
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It is possible to believe one or more of these things and not be a conservative. And it is possible to be a conservative and not believe all three (though I believe all three myself). I certainly don’t presume to speak for all conservatives or aim to replace the other good explanations of conservatism that are out there.
1. We believe that any kind of an island theory of human nature is mistaken. We think the Apostle Paul and Breakfast At Tiffany’s are right: People do belong to each other–husbands and wives, parents and children, friends, etc.
People do belong to each other. And that’s why smoking isn’t just an individual choice, Audrey.
One consequence of this is that there is no such thing as a real but victimless crime. Every sin has a network of victims: starting with the sinner himself (as my homeboy Plato, a great enemy of island theories of human nature, understood), then moving outward to include the people close to him who hurt when he hurts, the people the sinner didn’t do good for as a result of his hurting himself, and moving further outward to include the people who had to help the sinner recover from the effects of his sin, and the other people they couldn’t help while they were busy helping him.
Now I’m not advocating anti-smoking laws with the caption in the clip above. Writing on Ricochet when kids need to be put to bed isn’t just a personal matter either, and I sure don’t want the government regulating my Ricochet!
There is a whole lot of room for common ground with libertarians even if you reject island theories (and I imagine some genuine libertarians do agree with us on this point). And I want Ricochet to succeed, just as I want the right-of-center coalition to continue, to grow, and to succeed.
Whether or not anti-smoking laws or marijuana bans are proper, conservatives will not (typically) oppose them on the grounds that smoking something is a personal choice for the individual. It’s not, and practically nothing is. (By the way, I myself don’t understand how — assuming originalism is correct — federal marijuana bans can be constitutional if federal alcohol bans aren’t.)
This is also one reason we tend not to like the “get government out of the marriage business” or the “same-sex marriage doesn’t hurt you” idea. If we happen to think that one idea of marriage is less accurate, less beneficial, or less just than another, we fear that its enactment in society will eventually affect everyone. Notably, we tend to think of marriage as an institution that involves everyone: the marriage partners themselves, any children they have, their friends, their family, their neighbors and local church, and even the government.
A few brief clarifications. We also – enthusiastically – reject the tendency (more popular on the Left) to reduce the individual to the community. And we tend to think that it’s an actual village that raises a child, not the federal government. And when we reject island theories of human nature, we’re usually not talking about economics. (But some of us might be up for combining a non-island theory of human nature with a liberty-based idea of economic cooperation; think Von Mises and the book I, Pencil. And, to be candid, many of us are comfortable with a degree of regulation and some sort of a scaled-down welfare system).
2. We believe that things have natures. And when I say “natures,” I mean the sort of “nature” in sentences like “It is the nature of the heart to pump blood” or “The natural function of the kidneys is to clean out the blood.” I don’t mean “the natural world” or “the laws of physics” or “the way things usually are.” (In the dictionary, I mean numbers 8, 10, and 18.)
In general, “the nature of X” refers to the kind of thing X is. And natures have implications for how a thing should be; it should be used in accordance with its nature, and not contrary to it. (This is the sort of ethics you get in Alasdair MacIntyre and others in the Aristotelian tradition.)
The fact that things have natures is the reason they have proper functions. The proper function of a heart is to pump blood, because its nature is that of a blood-pumping thing. The function of an eye is to see, because it is a seeing thing. The function of a leg is to walk, because it is a walking thing.
In really big stuff, the function of a human being is to do such-and-such, because the human being is a such-and-such-doing kind of thing. Such-and-such might be having reason govern bodily appetites (Plato, Aristotle, C. S. Lewis), or loving God and neighbor (various confessions of faith and, again, Lewis), or living according to moral law (Stoic philosophers or, perhaps, Kant; and maybe Confucius and, again, Lewis).
Lewis is awesome.
In really controversial stuff, the function of marriage – if marriage also has a nature — might be sexual companionship and reproduction, which can perhaps be reducible to one term: heterosexual companionship). And the function of sex might be the same. With that in context, we can ask:
Are things contrary to nature sinful, or merely unhealthy?
Should anything contrary to nature be subject to government restriction? And which things?
Is occasional use of birth control to delay pregnancy an act against nature, or just a refusal to live up to the full ideal of nature (just as I – quite innocently – refuse to live up the full ideal of my body’s nature when I don’t keep constantly in fit condition for running marathons)?
Now, here is one sort of thing that is sometimes said in opposition to the idea that things have natures: “How can natures exist if all is matter, and hasn’t science proved that all is matter?” This is really two questions; the first one is a good one, and probably the best answer is they can’t. But the answer to the second question is no, and for at least two reasons. One reason is that science — while it does a good job studying things made of matter — doesn’t show that there is nothing that isn’t made of matter: that is not the business of science, but of metaphysics.
The other reason is that, as Thomas Nagel says, “the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False” (more on this topic here and here on Ricochet). Another challenge is: “Explain these natures! What are they, and where are they? Why should anyone believe in such mysterious entities?” There are two ways to respond to this challenge.
One is the direct response, and that is to explain natures. I won’t attempt that here! (I’m not entirely sure I can, but maybe I can; at any rate, if I can I would need a new post to do it in.) A second response would challenge the premise behind the challenge: that you can’t rationally believe in something you can’t explain. This premise is false: We all rationally believe in the existence of time and believe that we are in it and moving through it, but few if any of us can explain time.
Note that sentences SoCon Ricochetti sometimes use such as “heterosexual sex is by nature fertile” entail the reality of natures, which we might as well admit are a bit hard to explain. However, sentences like “It’s 6:35 AM” entail the existence of time, which is just as hard to explain!
Everyday reality is almost infinitely mysterious. It’s best if we learn to live with the mysteries, or learn to explain them. But let us not explain them away or ignore them. And let us not accept some mysteries we like while rejecting others on the grounds that they are mysterious!
3. We think that religion can be a source of knowledge. This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned this topic. We conservatives commonly think it is possible to know something from God, or from the Bible – or perhaps another sacred text — or from the Church or even from the (uncapitalized) church.
Every item of knowledge, as philosophers have known at least since Plato, is a true belief, and also has some other characteristic: it is justified, or warranted, or believed on good evidence, or believed due to the operation of cognitive faculties aimed at truth and functioning properly in the right environment, or whatever.
Naturally, the beliefs we’re talking about include the material of our own internal theological and ethical squabbles. And, of course, the big controversial political ones often include beliefs like “Marriage is a man-woman thing” and “All human beings, being made in the image of God, have human rights.”
Now, since we think it is possible to have knowledge from religious sources, we think that such a belief is true. And since it is true it is not just a matter of personal opinion. So we can’t go along with the popular postmodern ideas that relegate all truth-claims to mere personal perspectives. And, since we think it is possible to have knowledge from religious sources, we don’t generally think that such a belief is something we are just lucky enough to have. We may be lucky (or, more properly, blessed or graced) to have such a belief, but such a belief will also stand to reason. So we aren’t obligated to just keep it to ourselves and pretend that our knowledge is a private matter.
Whether — and in what manner — to require others to act like they have the same knowledge is a separate question, and again, there is considerable room for agreement here with our libertarian friends. In fact, a lot of us think we have knowledge from religious sources that religious liberty is best! (See here, for example; scroll down to section XVII on religious liberty and note that the principles are justified by appeal to theology and Scripture.)
And since we think it is possible to have knowledge from religious sources, we are unusually invulnerable to fallacies of the appeal to the people variety – at least when it’s not our own people that are being appealed to! God overrules any popular view that history is heading in this way or that way. We prefer not to betray God just to side with history. If history really is going that way, we’d rather be with God on what looks, for the short term, like the losing side. And we know that history won’t go that way forever because God is never on the losing side.
Tags: Conservatism, Island Theory, Libertarianism, Metaphysics, Natural Law, Nature, Philosophy, Political Theory, Religion
Oh well done. I will have to think on you wrote a bit more to add to or pick a bone with it but I wanted to say thank you for such a thought provoking post. It was joy to read.
https://ricochet.com/259173/archives/three-things-conservatives-believe/#comment-2886916
Brian Wolf:Oh well done. I will have to think on you wrote a bit more to add to or pick a bone with it but I wanted to say thank you for such a thought provoking post. It was joy to read.
Thanks, Brian!
As an extension of the OP, I would add that I think we Cons agree with our libertarian friends that government coercion should be limited to prevention of harm.
But because of the strong rejection of any island theory of human nature, we think a lot more behaviors (e.g. gambling and illegal drug use) cause harm.
But because we tend to like so many institutions that aren’t government (also, in part, because of the strong rejection of island theories), we think government is not the only–or even the most useful–preventer of harm.
One question I would like you to take up is this: Is Religion a necessary part of a Conservative’s world view?
The conservative need not be a member of a religion or even a believer of any sort but they can’t help but see the need for religious institutions. One thing I have always wondered about when I meant a strong atheist libertarian is what they expect to replace religion with? I mean what kind of civil society stands against Government over reach if that society is anchored by bowling leagues?
Do we think perhaps organizations like the Federalist Society or some such would step in?
Another way of asking this is I suppose is according to your post here can you be a real conservative without religion or at least being someone that sees religious belief as a virtue?
Brian Wolf:One question I would like you to take up is this: Is Religion a necessary part of a Conservative’s world view?
I don’t think so. But it sure is easier to be a Conservative if you’re religious!
The conservative need not be a member of a religion or even a believer of any sort but they can’t help but see the need for religious institutions.
I concur! Cicero, William James, and Eisenhower come to mind as folk who saw a social value in religion independent of whether the religion’s doctrines are correct.
One thing I have always wondered about when I meant a strong atheist libertarian is what they expect to replace religion with? I mean what kind of civil society stands against Government over reach if that society is anchored by bowling leagues?
Indeed. The term is “Burkean platoons,” isn’t it? And I think Tocqueville talked about this too
I do think it is possible. But I think it’s harder, which might be why it’s so rare.
What about Krauthammer? He’s not religious, is he?
Augustine:What about Krauthammer? He’s not religious, is he?
No, but like Jonah Goldberg, as another example and Charles C.W. Cooke they see the value in religion and recognize it as an important part of civil society. They don’t want anything to do with Religion personally but see the value in it for the many believers.
Some libertarians just want to dismiss all “Bible thumpers” to the dust bin of history and live free and clear of religious types. I have always wondered what bedrock they think society will base itself on to secure their future. Even given Ayn Rand fiction as soon as the chosen, talented few have rebuilt society for the masses I am pretty sure they will start voting themselves bigger government again.
Thank you for your thoughts and the shout out to Alvin Plantinga who I really enjoy reading in your original post.
Krauthammer on religion: Jewish, not religious, thinks atheism is highly improbable.
I seriously doubt most libertarians (regardless of religious affiliation) even entertain the thought of religion being replaceable. We have to realize that ceteris paribus is an apparent guiding principle of libertarianism, which is heavy on the assumption that nearly all of society will stay as close to same as possible, regardless of changes that happen.
Most conservatives ought to know that Ceteris is never Paribus.
Brian Wolf:
I have two published articles dealing with Plantinga. One is online here, but it deals directly w/ Plantinga a bit less than the other.
Oh my, I’m on the Main Feed. My gratitude goes out to the Editors. Or at least to one of them.
IOW, conservatives very much should know that, when comparing a current action to what happened previously, there are ALWAYS other, mitigating, circumstances. Too many conservatives tend to skirt past this.
I only had time for the first two pages and one foot note but I am hooked. Later tonight I am going to really enjoy your article. Thank again.
Enjoyed this a lot. I disagreed with a lot of it, but that’s a different matter.
To me, this seems to get things very backward, arguing function from purpose, rather than the other way around. Put differently, it seems to treat the definition of things as more important — and fundamental — than their physical reality. I’m not saying this kind of thinking is categorically wrong, but that it seems like the wrong default.
Moreover, I’m less skeptical of the existence of natures than I am of people’s ability to accurately identify them, either in part or in the whole. Many — if not most — things have multiple functions and uses, and the most apparent are not always the best or most important. Heck, oftentimes they’re in opposition to the intent of their creator.
To take an obvious example, open water swimming is pretty clearly contrary to human nature: we’re physically ill-equipped for it and cannot do it without training and practice. Now I’m by no means accusing conservatives of opposing swimming, but the kind of mentality you’re describing — inferring “nature” from natural function — would seem to proscribe the kind of thinking that would lead to swimming’s discovery and oppose its adoption.
1. I too enjoy CS Lewis
2. I too believe that there is such a thing as human “nature” and that, like everything else it can be ignored or abused or denied
3. I too believe in sin; and would note that people who have come back from hitting bottom are told to find those they have hurt and give them an apology. This from Alcoholics Anonymous and the Big Book
4. We are once again seeing the splintering of religion, in part in the old way of schisms and breaks, but in part in a new way. Some parts of Christianity are now subject to a moral break from the old norms of moral behavior. We once shared a nearly monolithic moral position but that is no longer true and it works against the Author of truth and against us
5. Smoking was mentioned so it seems wise to note that tobacco is not illegal and what is not illegal is permitted even if it is harmful; and tobacco is not alone in the category of what is permitted even should it be harmful
Once we get to this point, we are trying to strip away freedoms in favor of control or coercion. (Of note, I am not a smoker, other than an occasional cigar should a father have a child. I welcome that cigar and even more, that child.)
6. We are free to be wrong
Augustine:1. We believe that any kind of an island theory of human nature is mistaken…
One consequence of this is that there is no such thing as a real but victimless crime. Every sin has a network of victims: starting with the sinner himself (as my homeboy Plato, a great enemy of island theories of human nature, understood) then moving outward to include the people close to him who hurt when he hurts, the people the sinner didn’t do good for as a result of his hurting himself, and moving further outward to include the people who had to help the sinner recover from the effects of his sin, and the other people they couldn’t help while they were busy helping him.
For the record, I think there’s a lot to this that’s correct. One real eye-opening thing for me a few years ago was when a friend’s car was stolen (though later recovered). The details aren’t important, but the incredible ripple effects that one evil act had on dozens of people was remarkable.
Augustine:There is a whole lot of room for common ground with Libertarians even if you reject island theories (and I imagine some genuine Libertarians do agree with us on this point).
…But some of us might be up for combining a non-island theory of human nature with a liberty-based idea of economic cooperation; think Von Mises and the book I, Pencil. And, to be candid, many of us are comfortable with a degree of regulation and some sort of a scaled-down welfare system.
Thank you. There’s a style of libertarianism — “radical communitariansm,” as I believe Midge has described it — that fits this very well.
Shawn Buell, Jeopardy Champ!
Human beings attempt (and succeed) at defying nature all the time.
Gravity seeks to draw airplanes towards the Earth’s center of gravity – we defy this by putting wings on giant Tylenols so that they soar gracefully through the air.
Airplanes do not have a “form” of “airplane-ness” – they have a function that we design them to fulfill which by and large isn’t found in nature. We similarly do that with any rotary machine. There is no “Form” of “Wheel-ness” which gives wheels their utility. They come in all shapes and flavors. So, using nature in this fashion isn’t “sinful” any more than using a fly-rod to spur a horse is. This whole argument about form is preposterous.
Cancer is an entirely natural phenomenon based upon replication errors and genetic drift. We poison ourselves just a little bit in the hope that it kills the cancer before it kills us.
Examples like this abound. Because human beings are capable of using things in a fashion which the religious don’t approve of doesn’t make that use inherently sinful any more than people harming themselves (and no others) is sinful.
We should insist that people shoulder the burden of their individual choices rather than collectivizing guilt.
Barkha Herman
Repeatedly I hear that just because libertarians don’t want the government to govern something – that they don’t believe it exists. This is a ridiculous assertion. Smoking is bad for you. But unless the Government says it’s bad for you and does something about it, it has no meaning?
Augustine – let me ask you – if the Government tells you that your God does not exist – will God disappear for you?
Suggestion: When pondering writing on Conservatism, do that. Comparison to libertarian thoughts are tangents that add nothing.
On religion being source of knowledge, only the Austrian theory of economics believes that economics is a subset of Praxeology.
Tom Meyer, Ed.:
I don’t think the comparison is apropos – clearly, your friend had his property stolen and this is a harm under any definition of his natural rights. I don’t think it compares to “sins” such as onanism or intoxication.
Majestyk:
We agree, and I should have made it clear that I was agreeing to the principle, rather than the particular.
Tom Meyer, Ed.:Enjoyed this a lot. I disagreed with a lot of it, but that’s a different matter.
I wasn’t trying to argue function from purpose rather than vice versa. Broadly speaking, I’m an Aristotelian where these matters are concerned, and it’s pretty safe to say that Aristotelianism can avoid these objectionable defaults.
Moreover, I’m less skeptical of the existence of natures than I am of people’s ability to accurately identify them, either in part or in the whole. . . . .
I’m very sympathetic to that sort of concern.
To take an obvious example, open water swimming is pretty clearly contrary to human nature: we’re physically ill-equipped for it and cannot do it without training and practice. . . . the kind of mentality you’re describing — inferring “nature” from natural function — would seem to proscribe the kind of thinking that would lead to swimming’s discovery and oppose its adoption.
That contrariness doesn’t seem clear to me at all. But it might look like that, and I’ll grant that carelessly dogmatic thinking about human nature could lead to hasty proscriptions.
Augustine: . . . But some of us might be up for combining a non-island theory of human nature with a liberty-based idea of economic cooperation; think Von Mises and the book I, Pencil. And, to be candid, many of us are comfortable with a degree of regulation and some sort of a scaled-down welfare system.
To which I say: Woo hoo!
Sounds like a good name.
Oh, dear. Comments are already well out of the range where I can easily read and reply. My apologies in advance to all relevant commenters whose remarks I may ignore in whole or in part!
Majestyk:Human beings attempt (and succeed) at defying nature all the time.
That’s a different definition of nature.
This whole argument about form is preposterous.
No, it’s just Aristotelian.
Barkha Herman:Repeatedly I hear that just because libertarians don’t want the government to govern something – that they don’t believe it exists. This is a ridiculous assertion. Smoking is bad for you.
I’m confused. I didn’t say anything like that, did I?
No. I don’t in fact understand why you area asking this question.
(This may be unimportant for this conversation, but I’m very uncomfortable with the “for you” appended to the “disappear.” If my God exists, he exists for me and for all, whether they know it or not. If he doesn’t exist, he doesn’t exist for me, whether I know it or not.)
You and Aristotle. Aristotle was wrong about… well, almost everything.
Why do you bother wheeling out Aristotle as if he’s dispositive? Few people have been more wrong on a variety of topics (and proud of it) than him.
His ideas about physics and astronomy (which Mr. Leroi mostly, and conveniently, ignores) were wrong in every important respect. Aristotle thought celestial bodies moved in perfect circles, failed to recognize inertia, asserted that velocity—not acceleration— was proportional to applied force, rejected atoms, and argued that the Earth and the heavens were made of totally different substances. As Bertrand Russell observed: “Throughout modern times, practically every advance in science, in logic, or in philosophy has had to be made in the teeth of opposition from Aristotle’s disciples.”
Augustine:We believe that things have natures. And when I say “natures,” I mean the sort of “nature” in sentences like “It is the nature of the heart to pump blood” or “The natural function of the kidneys is to clean out the blood.”…
In general, “the nature of X” refers to the kind of thing X is.
It is the nature of asthmatics to have asthma attacks?
It would seem to be, since the kind of thing an asthmatic is is someone who has asthma attacks.
And natures have implications for how a thing should be; it should be used in accordance with its nature, and not contrary to it…
The fact that things have natures is the reason they have proper functions. The proper function of a heart is to pump blood, because its nature is that of a blood-pumping thing…
It is the proper function of asthmatics to have asthma attacks?
If so, on what grounds do we prevent these attacks?
Why is treating asthma legal?
Mike Hubbard Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
1) No man is an island. Agreed, though this is so broad that even Hillary “It Takes a Government to Raise your Children” Clinton would agree.
2) Going with “nature” as an explanation is a cop out. Cooking food is unnatural, as is most of modern agriculture. There’s a long strain of primitivism in Western Civilization, of getting rid of all that’s modern and unnecessary to get back to basics (primitivism is one of the big themes in Barzun’s From Dawn to Decadence). You can explain many bad things with nature—war, rape, murder, theft, cuckoldry—which makes it suspect.
A better view of nature is to think of it as a pet to be mastered. Our dog is gentle and can do many things, but we’ll never get her to eat salad, and if we abuse her, she has teeth to remind us that she’s descended from wolves. Broadly speaking, civilization owes nature the same respect.
3) Respect for religion is conservative, but it’s not sufficient to make one a conservative. The religious left is out there, and they grate on me almost as much as the religious right does. For that matter, there’s a fair number of people on the right who think religion is well meaning but dangerously misguides people, like Heather MacDonald.
Does marriage only exist if the Government sanctions it?
Government sanctioned marriage is merely a contract that allows legal privileges to another. The rest is really a social contract (family, kids, etc.)
A close relative married his long term partner so they would get a better deal on health insurance. Both are conservative, one served in the military, one served in state government, both are baby boomers and do not plan on adopting kids. How does their marriage hurt the family? The community? Friends?
What has hurt Marriage as an institution is not what people do but how they do it – by making it a function of Government. Had it not been, it would not be corruptible, at least not at the level / rate it is now.
So there’s a book showing what I’ve always known, that Aristotle was wrong about science. From this you presumably infer that he is wrong about metaphysics. It’s a poor inference.
If we stick to the same sense of the word “nature,” the answer is no. Asthma is a defect in the body, a failure of it to live up to its nature.
Thank you for the opportunity to clarify!
Mike Hubbard:1) No man is an island. Agreed, though this is so broad that even Hillary “It Takes a Government to Raise your Children” Clinton would agree.
Indeed. See the opening post’s “few brief clarifications.”
2) Going with “nature” as an explanation is a cop out. Cooking food is unnatural, as is most of modern agriculture.
A different sense of the word “nature.” See the opening post’s reference to the different definitions of that word.
3) Respect for religion is conservative, but it’s not sufficient to make one a conservative. The religious left is out there, . . . .
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Promoted from the Ricochet Member Feed by Editors Created with Sketch. Why The Facebook Scandal is a Big Deal
Stephen P. Bennet
“It’s not like the quiz shows are a public utility, sir. It’s entertainment. We’re not hardened criminals – we’re in show business.” — Albert Freedman from Quiz Show (1994)
In the 1950s, a scandal rocked the popular quiz show Twenty One when it was revealed that contestants were being provided, in advance, with the answers to the questions. Congressional hearings followed, and all of the major players avoided serious legal repercussions. By misleading the audience, the quiz show producers didn’t do anything illegal, but they eroded public trust in television by deceiving their audience. I find the current scandal going on with the Facebook trending newsfeed to be very similar.
In case you’re unaware, Facebook’s “Trending” section lives at the top right corner of your desktop when you access the popular social network. At various times during the day, three or more news stories appear as “trending,” meaning they are being discussed by a large group of people online at the moment. The stories vary for each user, depending on your interests, location, and history, but Facebook has always purported to be giving an unbiased snapshot of the day’s most popular topics, selected by its sophisticated algorithm.
Last week, however, we learned that — in addition to the algorithm — there is a human element that ultimately selects which stories grace the Trending newsfeed. Not surprisingly, we also learned that the bias of those who choose those stories has suppressed conservative-leaning stories, unless they’re also picked up by major news sources like The New York Times.
Since the story broke, many people have argued that this is no big deal. Facebook has no requirement to be neutral and, as a private company, it is afforded its own freedom of speech. These points are unarguably true, but are a very big deal, regardless.
Last week, David Plotz of the Slate Political Gabfest Slate Political Gabfest podcast called this story a “tempest in a teapot.” He claimed that we live in an age where there is so much choice that it shouldn’t matter if Facebook has a liberal bias. Besides, conservatives have many avenues they can take to find the news that fits their political leanings.
This misses the point entirely. It is precisely because we are drowning in choice and content that people rely on a tool like Facebook’s newsfeed to winnow the selections and give us the straight news. In an era where so many online news websites have clear and obvious bias, it is refreshing to find a list of straight headlines that can be trusted to be fair. We’ve just lost our ability to trust Facebook to do this.
This is not a trivial complaint. According to a 2015 poll by Pew Research, 63 percent of the 1.65 billion Facebook users use Facebook as a news source. It stands to reason that number is even higher today.
Not only are Facebook users getting their news from the social network, they’re having it active put in front of them when they’re busy sharing pictures with friends, catching-up with relatives, or playing silly online games. These are passive news consumers who may not be visiting one of the several political echo chambers on the Internet, which makes Facebook’s (previously undisclosed) bias so harmful.
Plotz whines that if conservatives are angry that Facebook is biased, they have many options to go find a conservative viewpoint. That is true, but only if one is motivated enough to look. Plotz is calling for a self-ghettoization of conservative news consumers. That viewpoint is not too far off from arguing that someone who is denied service at a restaurant due to their race, religion, or sexual or gender identity has plenty of other choices down the road. It’s dismissive and arrogant.
Like the quiz shows of the 1950s, Facebook is not a public utility and shouldn’t be judged as one. As Plotz argues, it is a private company and can do what it wants with its service. But it can no longer be trusted as a fair snapshot of the world around us. It has a bias and, possibly, an agenda. If one doesn’t use Facebook or thinks this is a silly story, bear in mind that two billion people spend hours on this site every day, and many then wonder why the country and the world lean left-of-center.
While it’s true that there are some outlets on the Internet where conservatives can get a right-leaning viewpoint — including this one where we gladly pay a monthly fee just to find a small corner of the world that is ours — there’s no shortage of places where we can find a liberal bias in our news.
Facebook should t be one of them.
Tags: Facebook, Liberal Bias, Slate
And people decry when the public chooses to be uninformed.
https://ricochet.com/336410/archives/the-facebook-scandal-is-a-big-deal/#comment-3323646
blank generation member
When exactly does a company become a public utility?
Jamie Ellis: This is not a trivial complaint.
Yes it is, just like the quiz shows.
Yes, it is a big deal. No, nothing will be done about it.
I have no issue with FB being biased as long as they are not claiming to be unbiased, which they seem to be.
Songwriter Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
Freeven:I have no issue with FB being biased as long as they are not claiming to be unbiased, which they seem to be.
Exactly. If Congress wanted to pass a law that was, like, actually useful – they should require every media outlet, regardless of size, to prominently display its own political leanings.
As for George Stephanopoulis (sp?), every time he appears on camera a caption should appear that reads: “Mouthpiece for the most corrupt Presidential Administration in modern history.”
Guruforhire
I would think its more of a consumer fraud issue. They could be misrepresenting the nature of their product.
But most likely its just myopia due to a lack of diversity.
The Dixie Chicks had no “right” to be played on country western stations, and conservatives have no “right” to be treated fairly on Facebook.
Calling for Facebook to be treated like a public utility is an extremely leftist, anti-First Amendment solution.
Lazy_Millennial
Update: the plurality of folks under 44 who have heard about this story, heard about it from surfing Facebook:
It’s not a big deal.
Here’s my current Facebook homepage.
Three conservative articles*, and one article about cats. The “Trending” box, which I’ve circled, is a tiny proportion of the screen when I’ve never, ever, bothered to look at. Until this “scandal”, I didn’t even notice that the “Trending” box existed at all.
Teapot, meet tempest.
(*The HuffPo one is about a Conservative Party MP, so I’ve counted it as a “conservative” article.)
Misthiocracy:Three conservative articles, and one article about cats. The “Trending” box, which I’ve circled, is a tiny proportion of the screen when I’ve never, ever, bothered to look at. Until this “scandal”, I didn’t even notice that the “Trending” box existed at all.
Nobody is more vigilant than a guard immediately after a break in.
What kind of backwoods hilly billy Luddite would tolerate a globally curated news feed, from a TECH company.
Seriously, why isn’t there an individually tailored newsfeed based upon my preferences and profile?
That’s the real scandal here.
Guruforhire: They could be misrepresenting the nature of their product.
How, exactly? Has some consumer protection bureaucrat codified a legal definition of the word “trending”?
Misthiocracy:
Depends on if they were positioning it as an empirical thing. But that is why I used “could.”
It would seem to me that trending is “this is what is hot right now” and not this is what is hot and what a collection of underemployed hipsters thinks is important.
At some point Mayo really is oil and eggs whipped into an emulsion, and no your eggless product is not mayo.
At some point a distinction really does becomes a difference. Or we lose all ability to communicate.
Guruforhire: Seriously, why isn’t there an individually tailored newsfeed based upon my preferences and profile?
You mean, like Google News?
Jamie Ellis: This is not a trivial complaint. According to a 2015 poll by Pew Research, 63 percent of the 1.65 billion Facebook users use Facebook as a news source. It stands to reason that number is even higher today.
That poll might be misleading. When participants were asked if they get news from Facebook, was a distinction made between the site’s Trending feed and articles/videos posted to users’ timelines (“walls”) by family and friends?
So long as Facebook does not deny users the freedom to post whatever they want to their own profile pages or those of associates, it does not control the spread of news.
It’s only a guess, but I’d bet that most “news” consumed via Facebook is accessed on profile pages rather than by the Trending feed.
This does bring up an interesting question. How much of the “gay agenda” or lefty causes are only successful because of the covert actions of the social media companies? SSM really took off in the era of Facebook. The transgender bathroom thing is going to happen overnight before anybody knew there was an issue because of it. When SSM was an issue I knew very few people that thought it should be done and the few that were ok with it seemed to be more resigned or did not care. On Facebook it seemed everybody was for it and was on the verge of burning down the country if the SSM thing did not go through NOW. If FaceBook is just your people why was there such a big difference?
In the IT industry there is a joke that there is actually more government workers working in the FaceBook building than FaceBook employees. I do not know if this is true or not but it does make one wonder if there is something going on.
I agree with you that the Facebook scandal is big news. However, there are multiple levels to this issue so let’s get deeper into it.
First, Facebook has 1.6 billion users so if the elephant in the room has hangnail it is a major problem. We need to remember what Facebook is. It is a utility that Facebook provides in basic form for free. Anyone can simply sign on and have their own page. They can post personal information, keep in contact with relatives & friends, post a business page and keep in contact with customers. It is ideal for small organizations churches, political campaigns etc.. to keep in contact with members & volunteers etc. By simply following the path of “friends” of other users one can go door to door leafleting without leaflets or leaving the house.
Facebook is more than this. The largest corporations and government agencies on down have Facebook pages. These are informational and two-way communicational. The end result is that Facebook can be used as a search engine for information. Facebook being used as a search engine makes it the second largest search engine ranked behind only Google.
cont. from #18
The entire Facebook approach is content created bottom up. Facebook users create content. Facebook itself is just there to provide the utility. Trending on Facebook is not like other Newsfeeds. The implied meaning is that current users of Facebook are clicking on these stories in particular.
The fact that Facebook is using an editorial policy to bias the content of the trending stories is important as this means that at this one level Facebook is being deceptive to its users. Facebook could choose to rename the trending stories to “current news” and simply admit that the facebook editors are choosing the stories. This would solve the deceptive advertising complaint. Of course, Facebook doesn’t want to do this. Its success rests on maintaining the trust of its users.
This brings us beyond the initial not very exciting problem with “trending stories”. The larger problem is a realistic community standard for political discourse. This is considerably more insidious and something that should be brought out into the light. When there is a complaint that a page violates “community standards” on facebook a human not an algorithm checks into it. How that problem is judged and whether the page is removed by Facebook is a very important question. If ordinary right of center opinion is classified as outside of community standards this is a much more serious bias. If obviously dangerous messaging of fanatic groups such as terrorist recruiters is allowed to stay this is another extremely dangerous bias.
These are very real concerns. As there are 1.6 billion users of Facebook I would say that inquiry is justified. Properly, in a free society, it is coming from the Commerce Committee and not FCC. We want to maintain free speech, not restrict it. Zuckerberg knows that his business is built on a free and open use of his product by an ordinary user that trusts Facebook. We’ll see how far he will go to maintain that.
I really look forward to Democrats using this precedent to regulate talk radio the next time they control Congress.
BD:I really look forward to Democrats using this precedent to regulate talk radio the next time they control Congress.
That could never happen in the USA. Get real.
MLH:
It was the law from 1949-1987
Lazy_Millennial:
I forgot my sarcasm quote marks.
Aaron Miller: So long as Facebook does not deny users the freedom to post whatever they want to their own profile pages or those of associates, it does not control the spread of news.
Well, it depends on how you define “control”. Facebook makes quite a bit of revenue by selling preferential access to people’s newsfeeds. Companies pay to have their articles bumped ahead of your friends and family.
I think this is the Louder with Crowder issue. I gather that FaceBook took money from them for this access but instead did not give the access, removed content for various undefined reasons, etc. When Crowder documented the issue and point it out, Facebook has been unresponsive to the point of claiming they did not take Crowders money even with paper trails proving they did. Crowder is filing some sort of legal procedure to get more info at the moment.
Bartholomew Xerxes Ogilvie, Jr.
This is no bigger (or smaller) a deal than any other media company showing its bias, intentionally or unintentionally, through its editorial decisions. If Facebook does indeed have an anticonservative bias, I don’t see how that’s any different from Fox News (“Fair and Balanced”) having a conservative bias.
It seems to me that what people are realizing here is not that Facebook has a bias, but rather that Facebook has editorial control over what you see. Anyone who didn’t know that already hasn’t been paying attention.
Bartholomew Xerxes Ogilvie, Jr.:It seems to me that what people are realizing here is not that Facebook has a bias, but rather that Facebook has editorial control over what you see. Anyone who didn’t know that already hasn’t been paying attention.
The control over what you see is Facebook exercising its bias. It’s much worse than other media companies with biased coverage. The reason is because up until last week, we assumed an algorithm was blindly giving us the day’s biggest stories. When the human element willfully suppresses some stories, the millions of people who are exposed to the trending topics (and not the other stories) will begin to think that those stories they haven’t seen aren’t a big deal. It’s how you get attitudes about the IRS or Benghazi where liberals can say “that’s only a story on Fox News”. They’re right, that only Fox talks about certain stories, and then those stories stay in a black hole thanks to Facebook and similar news aggragators ignoring them.
Jamie Ellis:
The control over what you see is Facebook exercising its bias.
My point is that this controversy suggests that most people thought that Facebook programmatically showed you all content without any intervention. That has never been the case. Facebook has always actively controlled what you see, based on all kinds of algorithms.
They have never pretended to be a common carrier. And they have never been particularly transparent about how they choose what to share. The fact that their own ideological biases would color their editorial choices strikes me as obvious. Any edited or curated content will reflect the biases of the humans who control it.
Al Sparks
Jamie Ellis: In the 1950s, a scandal rocked the popular quiz show Twenty One when it was revealed that contestants were being provided, in advance, with the answers to the questions. Congressional hearings followed, and all of the major players avoided serious legal repercussions.
I read about the scandal. My sense was that people at the time paid more attention to it than people today are to the Facebook scandal. I just visited the Drudge Report page, and searched for ‘face’. No hits. I went to the cnn.com homepage, and did the same thing. No joy.
I do see something on the Fox News homepage.
Twenty One was a very popular show precisely because they were falsely staging it during a less cynical era with respect to television, and before that radio. And Facebook, while ubiquitous, isn’t a shared experience the way television was from the 1950’s to the 1990’s.
Nor is Facebook mostly about politics. My sense is that people are getting tired of talking politics on Facebook. I stopped about a year ago. Not enough people care.
I see, from the Fox News headline, that Facebook is taking the allegations seriously, probably because they realize how fragile their popularity is (think myspace.com). I predict that in another 1-2 months, this incident will be mostly forgotten.
As for me, I use Twitter as my news aggregator. I never saw Facebook as very suited for that purpose.
One other thing. The Twenty One scandal was not about politics, and while politicians did get involved, it was in a bipartisan way, another sign of those times.
Charles Van Doren, who was the contestant at the center of the scandal, was ashamed about the whole thing, and didn’t publicly talk about it for decades (he’s still alive at age 90).
Today, we allow our politicians to blatantly lie. While politicians engaged in deceptions were fairly common, up until the Bill Clinton era, they would actually act ashamed if they were caught lying. We have mainstream politicians that no longer seem to care, and are no longer held accountable.
So Facebook has been dishonest about being a neutral arbiter? I care in one sense, but in another I’m just numb and I can’t get excited. I certainly don’t think that there will be a massive sea change over this.
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Estate Planning Definitions - River Valley Law Firm
For current Estate and Gift tax figures, click here.
Annual Gift Tax Exclusion:
Technique to allow gifts without the imposition of estate or gift taxes and without using lifetime exclusion.
Children’s or Grandchildren’s Irrevocable Education Trust:
A Trust used by parents and grandparents for a child’s or grandchild’s education.
Charitable Remainder Interest Trust:
A trust whereby donors transfer property to a charitable Trust and retain an income stream from the property transferred. The donor receives a charitable contribution income tax deduction, and avoids a capital gains tax on transferred property.
Family Limited Partnership:
An entity used to:
Provide asset protection for partnership property from the creditors of a partner
Provide protection for limited partners from creditors
Enable gifts to children and parents maintaining management control
Reduce transfer tax value of property
Federal Estate Tax:
A tax levied by the federal government upon the estate of a deceased person. The federal government gives certain exclusions and deductions and then taxes everything above a set level.
Fractional Interest Gift:
Allows a donor to transfer partial interests in real property to donees and obtain fractional interest discounts for estate and gift tax purposes.
Is the process that entails transferring assets you own as an individual into the name of your Trust.
Generation Skipping Tax:
This is a tax levied on assets that are given to individuals who are more than one generation away from the donor. An example would be a grandparent giving an asset to a grandchild either during the grandparent’s life or at death. Effective use of generation-skipping exemption allows the assets to avoid estate tax inclusion in the child’s taxable estate.
Guardianship/Conservatorship:
Is a court-supervised proceeding which names an individual or entity to manage the affairs of an incapacitated person. A guardianship may also include the duty to care for the incapacitated person.
Instrument used to allow a person you name to make health care decisions for you should you become incapacitated.
Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust:
A Trust used to prevent estate taxes on insurance proceeds received at the death of an insured.
Joint Tenancy:
When property is held in joint tenancy with rights of survivorship by two or more people, upon the death of one of the owners, all of his or her interest in the property is transferred immediately to the surviving owners.
Living Will:
Sometimes called a physician’s directive, is a document in which you give directions for life sustaining treatment should you become unable to communicate your wishes. Some states have combined this into the advanced health care directive.
Pour Over Will:
Is used first to name a guardian for minor children. Second, it protects against intestacy in the event any assets have not been transferred into the Trust at the death of the Trustor/Owner. Its function is to “pour” any assets left out of the Trust into it so they are ultimately distributed according to the terms of the Trust.
Private Foundation:
An entity used by higher-wealth families to receive charitable income, gift, or estate tax deduction while allowing the family to retain some control over the assets in the foundation.
Is the court procedure used to change title to assets from the name of an individual who has passed away into the name of the beneficiaries. It is also where all creditors of a decedent file claims to collect their debts and where interested parties can “contest” the Will. An individual who passes away with a Will or no estate plan will go through this process.
Property Power of Attorney:
Instrument used to allow an agent you name to manage your property.
Revocable Living Trust:
A device used to avoid probate and provide management of your property, both during life and after death.
State Estate or Inheritance Tax
A state estate tax is a tax levied by a state government upon the estate of a deceased person. It is levied in much the same way as the federal estate tax. A state inheritance tax is a tax levied by a state government that varies depending upon the relationship of the inheritor to the deceased person. Nearly half the states have a separate state estate or inheritance tax which kicks in at a lower level than that of the federal government.
Step-up in Basis:
A step-up — or step-down — in basis is an adjustment for income tax purposes to an asset’s fair market value at the date of the death of the owner of the asset. For example, if you bought a share of stock for $100 that increased in value to $500 at the time of your death, your tax basis was $100 but increases to $500 at the time of death.
The person or entity in charge of the assets in a Trust. While you are alive, you may act as Trustee. For married couples, either one or both spouses may act as Trustee or co-Trustees. The successor Trustee is an individual or corporation fiduciary whom you designate to be in charge of your Trust in the event of disability or upon death.
A legally enforceable declaration of how a person wishes his or her property to be distributed after death. In a Will, a person can also recommend a guardian for his or her children.
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How Robert F. Smith Employs Relationships to Coordinate a Philanthropic Response to COVID-19
July 14, 2020 October 22, 2020 / By Writer
As the global health crisis gripped the country, Robert F. Smith recognized his unique ability to help coordinate a philanthropic response, at scale.
“In times like this you have to think about the assets that you can truly leverage,” Smith said. “I have the great fortune of having relationships with very smart people. I’ve been on calls since five this morning.”
Smith worked with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to ensure that the local “capillary banking system” of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) were included in the government’s Payment Protection Program (PPP), helping Black-owned small businesses gain access to these critical small business loans.
As Chairman of Carnegie Hall, he’s been working to organize online concerts to help people “stay connected and alive and excited about who we are.”
Read more about Smith’s philanthropic efforts in Town & County.
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Tumelo Mosenye is a professional Role Player and has worked with PRPT for many years now. He has been a solid, consistent and reliable member of the team, and is our go-to person for his skill on managing and organising teams, particularly on our National tours. Tumelo has a great understanding of developing characters, and was critical to the success of PRPT’s Ethics Roadshow for Walmart across South Africa, where he toured for 4 months. Tumelo has been especially successful with his Real Play work in Africa for PRPT, and travelled to Mozambique, Tanzania and the DRC on several occasions.
His steadfast and committed relationship with PRPT resulted in Tumelo, also affectionately known as Don, being asked to join as a Non-Executive but active Board member of PRPT, and is a Shareholder in the company.
Aside from his work with Performance Role Play Training, he started acting as a young teenager at a cultural institution called Mmabana Arts Council. After his matric he enrolled for a Diploma in Drama at Pretoria Technikon. Since then he’s been working as a professional actor and has been on TV shows like Scandal, Generations, Society, Easy Money, and Melodi(film). He has also acted in theatre productions like King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Coolie Odyssey, and Rhetorical, amongst others. When it comes to Industrial Theatre the credits are endless: Sasol, Transnet, Coca Cola, Standard Bank, Murray & Roberts, Massmart to name a few. Tumelo Don Mosenye was born in Mafikeng(North West) and speaks several African languages.
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/ Главная / Russkiy Mir Foundation / Foundation
ABOUT RUSSKIY MIR FOUNDATION
The phenomenon of the Russian world has come to the center of attention in both academic circles and the public arena. The stability achieved only recently in Russia itself has allowed for a refocusing of attention on the importance and value of the Russian world, and not only to those who consider themselves participants of this world but also to modern civilization at large. It has become clear that serious steps need to be taking to both preserve and promote Russian language and culture in today’s world. These discussions came to a culmination in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Address to the Federal Assembly in April 2007:
“The Russian language not only preserves an entire layer of truly global achievements but is also the living space for the many millions of people in the Russian-speaking world, a community that goes far beyond Russia itself. As the common heritage of many peoples, the Russian language will never become the language of hatred or enmity, xenophobia or isolationism.”
“In my view, we need to support the initiative put forward by Russian linguists to create a National Russian Language Foundation, the main aim of which will be to develop the Russian language at home, support Russian language study programmes abroad and generally promote Russian language and literature around the world.”
– Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation
In June 2007 President Putin signed a decree establishing the Russkiy Mir Foundation, for the purpose of “promoting the Russian language, as Russia's national heritage and a significant aspect of Russian and world culture, and supporting Russian language teaching programs abroad.”
The Foundation is a joint project of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Science and supported by both public and private funds. The Russkiy Mir Foundation is headed by Vyacheslav Nikonov, Dean of History and Political Science at the International University in Moscow and founder of the Polity Foundation. The Foundation’s Board of Trustees consists of prominent Russian academics, cultural figures, and distinguished civil servants, and is chaired by Lyudmila Verbitskaya, Rector of St. Petersburg State University and Chair of the International Association of Russian Language and Literature Teachers (MAPRYAL).
Decree of the President of the Russian Federation on the Establishment of the Russkiy Mir Foundation
Mir means Community. Peace. World
The three meanings of this small but eloquent word inspire and define Russkiy Mir’s mission – to promote understanding and peace in the world by supporting, enhancing and encouraging the appreciation of Russian language, heritage and culture.
Russkiy Mir promotes the teaching of the Russian language within Russia and abroad – both to new learners of the language and to those who already know and love Russian and wish to recapture or maintain their fluency.
Russkiy Mir brings Russia’s rich history to life, and showcases vibrant examples of Russian art and culture around the world.
Russkiy Mir reconnects the Russian community abroad with their homeland, forging new and stronger links through cultural and social programs, exchanges and assistance in relocation.
And we will preserve you, Russian speech,
The great Russian word.
We will keep you free and pure,
And pass you on to our grandchildren,
free from bondage forever!
– Anna Akhmatova
Russian language is at the heart of Russian culture and society and has, for centuries, served as the language of diplomacy and commerce in many European and Asian countries. Russkiy Mir supports the study of Russian language among native and non-native speakers both domestically and abroad. This includes funding scholarship on its linguistic origins, mechanics and application; creating new standards for language instruction; producing educational materials; and sponsoring language courses, competitions and other educational programs.
Russian Culture and Heritage
Russia’s vibrant, multicultural society has made many artistic, musical, literary, and scientific contributions to global culture. Throughout its rich and varied history, Russia has been home to great artists, authors, composers and musicians – such as Rublev and Kandinskiy, Tchaikovskiy and Shostakovich, Puskhin and Solzhenitsyn. And today these rich traditions continue with a new generation of talented writers, artists and academics spreading and uniting Russian language and culture across the globe. The Russkiy Mir Foundation promotes Russian culture by sponsoring cultural programs and supporting living examples of Russian arts and culture around the world.
The Russian People
The Russian world is much more than the territory of the Russian Federation and the 143 million people living within its borders. Millions of ethnic Russians, native Russian speakers, their families and descendants scattered across the globe make up the largest diaspora population the world has ever known. Russkiy Mir reconnects the Russian diaspora with its homeland through cultural and social programs, exchanges and assistance in relocation. The Russian world also includes the millions of people worldwide who have chosen the Russian language as their subject of study, those who have developed an appreciation for Russia and its rich cultural heritage.
The Russkiy Mir Foundation accepts donations from organizations, businesses and private individuals. All funds received are exclusively dedicated to the realization of noncommercial projects whose objectives coincide with the Foundations mandate. More Information on how to donate to the Russkiy Mir Foundation
Happy Orthodox Christmas Day! 07.01.2021
Vyacheslav Nikonov presented his books published during pandemic 13.12.2020
The author released several historical books at once.
Russian world center opens in Leipzig 13.03.2020
The opening of the center was attended by Russian Consul General Andrei Dronov and representatives of the city authorities.
Press about Foundation
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said on Monday the Russian world and its values unite different peoples of historical Rus regardless political preferences and state borders. “The Russian culture is one of the foundations that unite the peoples of historical Rus,” Patriarch
/ TASS /, 04.11.2014
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Negro league, any of the associations of African American baseball teams active largely between 1920 and the late 1940s when black players were at last contracted to play major and minor league baseball. The principal Negro leagues were the Negro National League (1920–31, 1933–48), the Eastern Colored League (1923–28), and the Negro American League (1937–60). A “gentleman’s agreement” among the leaders of what was then called “Organized Baseball” (the major and minor leagues) erected a colour bar against black players from the last years of the 19th century until 1946, although these leaders rarely admitted its existence.
There were two attempts to establish leagues for black teams in the early years of the 20th century. The first was in 1906 when the International League of Independent Base Ball Clubs was formed in the Philadelphia area. It had two white teams and four black. The championship game pitted two black teams against each other and attracted 10,000 fans to the stadium of the Philadelphia (now Oakland) Athletics. (This was the first time black clubs performed in a major league park, though later most of the top black clubs played in stadiums of major league or top minor league teams.) The league folded after its first season.Four years later there was an attempt to start a black major league with teams in Chicago; Louisville, Kentucky; New Orleans, Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama; St. Louis, Missouri; Columbus, Ohio; Kansas City, Missouri; and Kansas City, Kansas. The league died aborning without sanctioning a game.
The first viable black league was formed in 1920 under the leadership of Rube Foster, manager of the Chicago American Giants. Foster had been Negro baseball’s best pitcher in the early years of the 20th century and then its best-known manager and promoter. His barnstorming American Giants were known all over the country through their winter tours to California and Florida and traveled big-league style in private railroad cars.
Foster was a visionary who dreamed that the champion of his black major league would play the best of the white league clubs in an interracial world series. His original plan called for a black major league in the Midwest with teams in Chicago; Indianapolis, Indiana; Detroit, Michigan; Cincinnati, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri. It also called for another league in the East with clubs in New York City; Philadelphia; Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Cleveland, Ohio. Only one eastern owner showed up for the organizational meeting in Kansas City in February 1920, so the eastern league did not materialize. Nevertheless, the Negro National League (NNL) was established during the two-day meeting. Its teams were Foster’s Chicago American Giants, the Indianapolis ABCs, Chicago Giants, Kansas City (Missouri) Monarchs, Detroit Stars, St. Louis Giants, Dayton (Ohio) Marcos, and the Cuban Stars, who had no home city. A few weeks later the Negro Southern League was organized with clubs in the large cities of the South; however, it was regarded as a minor circuit during its on-again, off-again life over the next 30 years.
In December 1923 another black major league with six teams was established in eastern cities. Officially named the Mutual Association of Eastern Colored Baseball Clubs, it was known more familiarly as the Eastern Colored League (ECL). Members were the Brooklyn (New York) Royal Giants, Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, New Jersey, Baltimore Black Sox, Hilldale Club of Philadelphia, and the Cuban Stars (no relation to the Cuban Stars of the NNL) and Lincoln Giants of New York City.All these early leagues were financially shaky. They also had difficulty making up a schedule because few of the clubs owned ballparks or had contracts giving them exclusive use. Many were tenants of teams in the major and minor leagues and were obligated to use the parks when the owners were playing out of town and to vacate them when their hosts returned.
Another debilitating factor was that sometimes a league team would refuse to play a scheduled game if a nonleague opponent promised a bigger payday. Umpiring of league games was sometimes erratic because umpires were hired by the home team. Another handicap was the wide disparity in the quality of the teams; two or three clubs would dominate and earn far more money than their weaker brethren.
From 1924 through 1927, the NNL and ECL champions met in a Negro World Series. The NNL’s Chicago American Giants won two championships and the Kansas City Monarchs won one, as did the Hilldale Club, representing the ECL. The ECL succumbed to financial weakness in the spring of 1928. The NNL, bereft of the management acumen and foresight of Foster, who was hospitalized for mental illness in 1926, stumbled on until 1931 before disbanding as the Great Depression deepened and left most fans with empty pockets. Two of its solvent franchises, Chicago and Indianapolis, joined the Negro Southern League for 1932. That year another black circuit, called the East-West League, was started for eastern teams by Cumberland W. Posey, veteran manager of the Homestead Grays, a ball club based in Pittsburgh. The new league barely made it off the ground. By early June its Detroit team had dropped out, the schedule was curtailed, and salaries were slashed. The league did not last the summer.
The following year the NNL was reborn. Its moving spirit was another Pittsburgher, W.A. (Gus) Greenlee, a numbers-game owner and tavern operator who had entered baseball in 1931 as organizer of the Pittsburgh Crawfords. The new NNL had teams in both the East and the Midwest but became an eastern league in 1937 when the Negro American League (NAL) was formed with teams in Chicago, Kansas City (Missouri), Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis (Tennessee), St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Birmingham (Alabama).
Although the new leagues had fairly frequent franchise shifts, they were somewhat more stable than the circuits of the 1920s. During World War II, which brought prosperity to most blacks as well as whites, Negro baseball became a $2 million-a-year business, probably the most lucrative black-dominated enterprise in the United States at that time. Salaries for journeymen players, which had been about $150 a month during the 1920s, soared to $400 or more during the war. Stars could earn $1,000 a month. Satchel Paige, the most famous player, pitcher, and showman of the Negro leagues, earned $30,000 to $40,000 a year through special deals calling for him to pitch one to three innings for scores of independent teams, both black and white, each season.
Satchel Paige, 1942
To earn such wages, black players competed in up to 150 games a season—half to two-thirds of them against black as well as white nonleague teams. Many of their opponents were local teams within easy reach of their home cities, but others were small-town teams far out on the barnstorming trail. Most teams traveled by bus, ranging from the best that era could offer to aging rattletraps that were prone to break down. In the winter, black stars went to Mexico, Cuba, and other Latin American nations where baseball was popular.
The Negro World Series was resumed in 1942 between champions of the Negro National and Negro American leagues and continued until the NNL disbanded in 1948. Among the most noted Negro league teams was the Homestead Grays, based in both Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., which won nine pennants during 1937–45 and included the great hitters Josh Gibson (catcher), James (“Cool Papa”) Bell (outfielder), and Buck Leonard (first baseman). In the mid-1930s another legendary team, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, included five future Baseball Hall of Fame members: Gibson, Bell, Paige, manager Oscar Charleston, and clutch-hitting third baseman William Julius (“Judy”) Johnson.
The World Series, however, was far overshadowed by the East-West All-Star Game, pitting the best players of the NNL against those of the NAL, from 1933 to 1950. It annually attracted as many as 50,000 spectators to Comiskey Park in Chicago and became the biggest social event as well as the chief sport’s attraction for African Americans. Only heavyweight boxing matches featuring the black champion Joe Louis held the attention of more African Americans.
Baseball’s colour line was rarely discussed by influential white sportswriters until the early 1930s, but times were changing. The triumphs of Louis during the decade and of sprinter Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the improving living standards and educational attainments of African Americans, the social and economic changes brought by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs in the 1930s and especially by World War II—all of these helped to alter the attitudes of most Americans toward race. With African American men fighting alongside whites overseas, it was no longer so easy for whites at home to ignore or harass their black compatriots.
The black weekly press, particularly sports columnists Wendell Smith of the Pittsburgh Courier and Sam Lacy of the Baltimore Afro-American, kept up a steady drumbeat against the colour line during the late 1930s and World War II. The American Communist Party also urged an end to the colour line, although Smith denigrated the communists’ efforts as more hurtful than helpful. The minor furor in the press over the continued exclusion of blacks from Organized Baseball led to sham tryouts of black players by the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox and expressions of interest in African Americans by other major league clubs.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn Dodger president Branch Rickey, a one-time big-league catcher, and the manager had put into motion a secret plan to find and sign an African American player. It culminated on October 23, 1945, when Jackie Robinson, a first-year shortstop for the black Kansas City Monarchs, officially signed a contract with the Dodgers. He spent the 1946 season with the minor league Montreal Royals. In 1947 Robinson was promoted to the Dodgers, becoming the first black player in the major leagues in 63 years. The Cleveland Indians soon after signed Larry Doby, a fleet, hard-hitting infielder from the black Newark Eagles, making him the first African American in the American League. Several other African Americans joined minor league teams, beginning a trend of growing acceptance of blacks in baseball. The Negro leagues suffered as a result of these developments. Black fans fixed their attention on Robinson, Doby, and the other black players in Organized Baseball and increasingly ignored the black leagues. The talent pool was also shrinking as young stars such as Willie Mays (Birmingham Black Barons) and Hank Aaron (Indianapolis Clowns) and old stars such as Satchel Paige left to play in the major leagues. A few teams tried the integration route by signing a handful of white players, and during the 1950s two teams, the Indianapolis Clowns and Kansas City Monarchs had female players as gate attractions. The first female player signed was second baseman Toni Stone, who reportedly earned $12,000 a year, well above the pay of true stars.
The NNL died of financial malnutrition in 1948. The NAL lasted until 1960 before disbanding. A few teams continued barnstorming, most notably the Indianapolis Clowns, who mixed comedy and baseball in equal measure. The Clowns were the lineal descendants of the Ethiopian Clowns of the 1940s, who had outraged many fans by wearing grass skirts and painting their bodies in a cartoonish version of cannibals. But the latter-day Clowns played serious baseball, as evidenced by the fact that major league home run king Aaron made his professional debut with them in 1952. The Clowns continued barnstorming until 1973 (with a few whites on the roster) before giving up and ending the saga of the Negro Leagues.
In 1990 the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum opened in Kansas City, Missouri.
Anita DeFrantz
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Behind the Criminal Immigration Law: Eugenics and White Supremacy
June 22, 2018 by Source
The xenophobic and racist mindset of many Americans of the late nineteenth century is graphically illustrated by this political cartoon. Credit: Library of Congress
The history of the statute that can make it a felony to illegally enter the country involves some dark corners of U.S. history.
By Ian MacDougall / ProPublica
Amid a bipartisan backlash, President Trump has tried repeatedly to shift blame to Democrats for his own administration’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy, which has resulted in more than 2,300 migrant children being taken from their families along the U.S.–Mexico border. “The Democrats have to change their law — that’s their law,” Trump told reporters on Friday.
The president didn’t specify which law he was talking about. But the statute at the center of his administration’s policy is the work of Republicans — with origins dating back all the way to World War I — albeit with substantial Democratic support along the way. Known originally as the “Undesirable Aliens Act,” the statute would not exist without support from, respectively, a eugenicist and a white supremacist.
The law in question was the foundation of a memo Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued in early April that laid out the administration’s new, zero-tolerance policy. In the memo, Sessions instructed federal prosecutors in the southwestern United States to file criminal charges against any adults caught entering the country illegally. His order stripped officials of discretion over whether to place migrant families seeking asylum into civil proceedings, which allow families to stay together. (Court rulings limit how long the government can detain migrants in civil proceedings. There’s also no guarantee they’ll return for future hearing dates once they’re let out, a phenomenon that has prompted the president’s complaints about “catch and release.”)
On Monday, ProPublica published audio recorded at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection detention facility in which a Border Patrol agent mocks the wails of migrant children as young as 4. Liberals and conservatives alike have condemned the policy, calling it “cruel,” an “atrocity,” and “inconsistent with our American values.”
Top Trump administration officials have held their ground. “We are enforcing the laws passed by Congress,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen asserted Monday. Her message echoed one Sessions had delivered to law enforcement officers in Indiana last week. “If you violate the law, you subject yourself to prosecution,” he said.
The federal law they say they are enforcing makes it a crime for foreign citizens to cross (or attempt to cross) the border into the U.S. anywhere other than an official port of entry. A first offense is a misdemeanor; a second unlawful entry is a felony.
The law’s ancestry dates back to World War I. Till that point, U.S. immigration laws had tended to be all or nothing: either no limits at all — or blanket bans for certain groups, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act. Others were free to enter provided they weren’t “lunatics,” polygamists, prostitutes, “suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease,” or so on.
The result was floods of immigrants: Between 1901 and 1910, for example, close to 9 million came to the U.S. As that happened, anti-immigrant attitudes mounted, with mass influxes from parts of Europe associated in the popular imagination with a litany of social problems, like urban poverty and squalor.
In May 1918, after the U.S. had entered World War I, Congress passed a statute called the Passport Act that gave the president the power to restrict the comings and goings of foreign citizens during wartime. A few months later, however, the war ended — and with it, the restrictions on border crossings.
Federal officials saw potential in the criminal provisions of the Passport Act — a maximum 20-year sentence — as a tool for deterring immigration. So prosecutors ignored the expiration of the law and continued to indict migrants under the Passport Act for unlawful entry into the U.S.
Anti-immigration sentiment continued to climb and the rhetoric of the era has resonance today. One anti-immigration group at the time claimed that immigrants tended to be “vicious and criminal” — the “bootleggers, gangsters, and racketeers of large cities.” The war, Columbia University historian Mae Ngai has written, “raised nationalism and anti-foreign sentiment to a high pitch.”
In response, Congress began clamping down. With the Immigration Act of 1924, it capped the flow at about 165,000 people a year, a small fraction of previous levels The statute’s quotas curtailed migration from southern and eastern Europe severely. Another 1924 law — the Oriental Exclusion Act — banned most immigration from Asia. At the same time, Congress made it easier to deport non-citizens for immigration violations.
In 1925, a federal appeals court put a halt to the practice of indicting migrants under the Passport Act outside wartime. But immigration officials liked what they’d seen, and by 1927, they were working on a replacement.
Two men spearheaded the effort that would lead Congress to criminalize unlawful entry into the United States. They were motivated by eugenics and white supremacy.
The first was James Davis, who was Secretary of Labor from 1921 to 1930. A Republican originally appointed by President Warren Harding, Davis was himself an immigrant from Wales who went by “Puddler Jim,” a reference to his job as a youthful worker in the steel mills of western Pennsylvania. At the time, the Department of Labor oversaw immigration, and Davis had grown disturbed by what he’d seen.
Davis was a committed eugenicist, and he believed principles of eugenics should guide immigration policy, according to The Bully Pulpit and the Melting Pot by the historian Hans Vought. It was necessary to draw a distinction, Davis had written in 1923, between “bad stock and good stock, weak blood and strong blood, sound heredity and sickly human stuff.”
James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor from 1921 to 1930
In November 1927, Davis proposed a set of immigration reforms in the pages of The New York Times. Among his goals: “the definite lessening and possibly, in time, the complete checking of the degenerate and the bearer of degenerates.” One “phase of the immigration problem,” Davis wrote, was the “surreptitious entry of aliens” into the United States in numbers that “cannot even be approximately estimated.”
Deportation alone wasn’t enough to deter illegal immigration, Davis wrote. There was nothing disincentivizing the migrant from turning around and trying again. “Endeavoring to stop this law violation” by deportation only, he wrote, “is like trying to prevent burglary with a penalty no severer than opening the front door of the burglarized residence, should the burglar be found within, escorting him to it, and saying ‘You have no right here; see that you don’t come in again.’”
An immigrant who enters the country unlawfully, he concluded, “should be treated as a law violator and punished effectively.”
To bring his vision to fruition, Davis teamed up with a senator from South Carolina. Coleman Livingston Blease, a Democrat, was “a proud and unreconstructed white supremacist,” UCLA history professor Kelly Lytle Hernández wrote in her 2017 book City of Inmates.
Migrants from Mexico were one group whose numbers the increasingly powerful nativist elements in Congress hadn’t managed to restrict. Mexican workers were key to the booming economy of the southwest. Regional employers, particularly in the agricultural sector, had successfully lobbied Congress to block any bill that would choke off their primary source of inexpensive labor. As a result, migration from Mexico soared, with many Mexicans making illegal border crossings to avoid the cost and inconvenience of customs stations.
Blease saw in Davis’s proposal for criminal penalties a way to advance his vision of a white America, and he believed it would bridge the gap between the nativists clamoring for quotas and southwestern congressmen resisting them. Large-scale farmers didn’t mind criminal penalties, Hernández writes, so long as the law was enforced once the harvest was over.
The legislation wasn’t without its opponents, as the UCLA law professor Ingrid Eagly documented in a 2010 study of immigration prosecutions. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union opposed the bill. The ACLU felt it was unfair and unlikely to deter migration. An immigrant “may be quite ignorant of this law before he starts on his journey,” the group told Congress.
Coleman Livingston Blease
Despite the ACLU’s objections, a Republican-controlled Congress passed Davis and Blease’s bill in 1929. A Republican president, Herbert Hoover, signed it into law.
The law made it a crime to enter the United States unlawfully and, in so doing, “created the criminalization of the border,” Eagly said.
The statute was swiftly put to use. Between July 1929 and June 1930, according to a Department of Labor report, prosecutors brought more than 6,000 unlawful entry cases. “It is believed that it will prove an effective deterrent,” the report’s author wrote. (In his recent memo, Sessions made similar claims about the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy.)
But the law didn’t reduce migration. By 1933, the Labor Department concluded that its rosy outlook had been wrong. The 1929 law “does not seem to have the deterrent effect expected,” noted a Labor Department report published that year.
It blamed budget limitations and judges wary of meting out serious sentences if a defendant was going to be deported anyway.
In the 1930s, the Great Depression achieved what prosecutions and deportations had not. Immigration plunged as the labor market in the United States dried up. Prosecutions for unlawful entry dropped to about 5,000 a year, according to a 2012 examination of the law by Doug Keller in the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal.
A shortage of labor during World War II prompted the U.S. to reverse course and encourage migration of temporary workers from Mexico through what it called the Bracero program. (The word refers to manual laborers in Spanish.)
Despite the earlier lessons, federal prosecutors began to focus their attention on bringing unlawful entry cases against Mexican migrants to deter workers from going around the Bracero program. By 1951, there were 15,000 illegal entry and re-entry prosecutions a year.
At the same time, Congress was working to overhaul American immigration law. The effort was spearheaded by two Democrats: Sen. Patrick McCarran and Rep. Francis Walter. Both were staunch anti-Communists who saw immigration — particularly from Eastern Europe and Asia — as posing a risk that Soviet or Maoist agents would infiltrate the country.
Their law is best known for preserving a quota system that meant about 85 percent of immigration visas annually went to people from northern and western Europe. But it also made a crucial change in the unlawful entry law. In a counterintuitive move, Congress decided to reduce the penalties for unlawful entry — to a maximum of six months in prison. (It also added a felony provision for any additional illegal entry convictions.)
The change wasn’t driven by compassion or a shift away from criminalizing unlawful immigration. Rather, it anticipated the creation of federal magistrate courts that would handle the cases, according to Eagly, the UCLA law professor. A defendant facing a misdemeanor charge punishable by six months or less generally doesn’t have a right to a grand jury indictment or a jury trial. Once Congress established federal magistrate courts, prosecutors could bring criminal charges against far larger numbers of defendants.
A Democratic-controlled Congress passed the law in 1952, but it was vetoed by President Harry Truman. His veto message decried “carrying over into this year of 1952 the isolationist limitations of our 1924 law.” Congress was unmoved and overrode his veto. (In this sense, Trump is correct that Democrats bear some responsibility for the unlawful entry law that underlies his administration’s new immigration policy.)
The unlawful entry statute has remained largely unchanged since 1952. In 1968, however, Congress finally passed a law establishing federal magistrate courts, allowing for a major expansion of charges under the unlawful entry law. Without the need to go through the grand jury process or deal with potential jury trials, immigration prosecutions — almost all for unlawful entry — shot up, Eagly found in her 2010 study: from 2,536 cases nationwide in 1968 to 17,858 in 1974.
The trend culminated in programs like Operation Streamline during the George W. Bush administration, in which magistrate judges along the border took simultaneous mass guilty pleas for unlawful entry. (An appeals court ended the practice in 2009.)
The use of the law hasn’t been a partisan matter. The number of such cases spiked to nearly 50,000 in the last year of the Bush administration, and it stayed in that range for most of the Obama administration, according to federal government data maintained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. By 2016, the number had fallen to about 35,000 — still higher than all but the last year of the Bush administration.
But the number of unlawful entry cases fell, the TRAC data shows, during Trump’s first year in office, to 27,000. (It had begun to rise again in recent months, however, even before Sessions announced the administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy.) Convictions for immigration crimes now account for more than half of all federal criminal convictions.
Ian MacDougall is a senior reporting fellow at ProPublica.
Filed Under: History, Immigration
« Syntagma Square | Geo-Poetic Spaces
Immigration Protests: The Whole World is Watching | Progressive Activist Calendar June 22-July 2, 2018 »
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Designing a school in 15 minutes
Seismic, a collaborative construction project funded via Innovate UK, looks to speed up the process and reduce the costs of school building.
#schoolbuiding #design #3D #stuctural #architecture
A collaborative project funded by Innovate UK has resulted in an app that can help stakeholders design schools “in minutes, not weeks”.
The Seismic Consortium is comprised of construction consultants Blacc, the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), technology-led design practice Bryden Wood and offsite manufacturers, Elliott and The McAvoy Group.
The group was set up to address the “structural failings in the construction marketplace” which negatively impact the speed and cost of building schools in the UK. One of the outcomes of the £1 million grant-funded project is a set of “spatial design clusters” which have been embedded into a design accelerator app, in a bid to avoid these failings.
“The need to build schools efficiently is not going away”
Around 100 new and replacement primary schools are required every year in the UK, according to Bryden Wood director and head of global systems Jaimie Johnston.
“The need to build schools efficiently is not going away,” says Johnston in a blog for Innovate UK, who adds that investment in education is a main focus of the government’s current “build, build, build” strategy.
But while the need is ever-present, the price tag of building this number of new schools each year is significant – around £5 billion, according to Bryden Wood. For this reason, the Seismic consortium was set up to bring “digital and manufacturing innovation together” to transform the design and delivery of schools in the UK.
“From weeks to minutes”
Working with the Department for Education (DfE), Seismic identified school space standards and best practice design rules and translated these into a set of “spatial design clusters” – that is to say a kind of modular set of blocks which can be configured into a school “that immediately complies with DfE standards”.
These were then embedded into a dedicated school design accelerator app, which has been devised by Bryden Woods. Prism is a web-based, open-source, free-to-use app, with built-in building blocks which Johnston explains can be used in a similar way to how one might use Lego or play Minecraft.
“This automation of the application of design standards reduces the time and cost of initial feasibility and design phases from weeks to minutes,” says Johnston.
As well as for use construction schools, a separate but related app has been developed to bring this quick process to the construction of housing developments.
“Not just architects and planners”
The UX of the web app has been developed to “democratise” the design process and therefore be usable by all involved in a school construction project. Johnston explains it allows “not just architects and planners, but also teaching professionals, school governors, parents and even pupils” to get involved. Indeed, Johnston explains in his blog post that the app was tested on a group of schoolchildren in Hackney, who were challenged to design their own school.
First users choose their site and then the kind of building they want – including the number of floors and rooms and how many pupils. Once the parameters of the space have been set, users can then go about building something using Seismic’s digital kit of parts.
A design guide has been developed to help in this journey. For a 630-capacity primary school, for example, blocks have been categories for the likes of infants, juniors, storage, entrances and staff and admin facilities.
These are then made up of different elements – the staff and admin category for example contains blocks for a head’s office, meeting room, staff room and staff work room. As already mentioned, all of these blocks conform to DfE standards.
“Simplifies the solution while creating economies of scale”
By allowing collaboration within the school construction process, Johnston says the work has created a common solution where “secrecy and distrust are the norm”. Additionally, such a method would decrease the footprint of the building work.
“By reducing the number of components, it simplifies the solution while creating economies of scale,” he says. “The solution is suitable for 3D volumetric frames, and 2D panelised designs, allowing a range of potential solutions for specific sites [and] the redesigned frame could be erected more quickly, with a 52% reduction in assembly time.
“Our results show that collaboration among industry partners and specialists from parallel sectors, via The Manufacturing Technology Centre, connects expertise to produce innovation that can transform the sector,” he explains.
By Molly Long
Source: Design Week
September 22, 2020 /0 Comments/by Lyn
https://schoolbuilding.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/SB-22.09.20.jpg 300 800 Lyn https://schoolbuilding.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Screenshot-2019-06-10-at-11.25.53.png Lyn2020-09-22 13:29:482020-09-22 13:29:48Designing a school in 15 minutes
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Review of primary source: drawing-sac-mr-generic-station-building-no-2-medium-na-rail-491-629-4
The document takes the form of a single sheet with a slightly eroded left-hand edge and it appears to have been mounted onto art board or similar (perhaps as part of a conservation process).[1] The sheet contains a partly colour-washed set of scale drawings that depict the brick version of the standard Midland Railway Company design for the 'Number 2' or 'Medium' main station buildings (booking offices) on its Settle and Carlisle Railway.
Tip: To open a larger version of this image (4,000 x 2,490 pixels, 1.6Mb), click / tap on the thumbnail above.
The image above has been uploaded to the SCRCA Project database under licence, courtesy of The National Archives. It must NOT be reproduced in any form for personal gain or commercIal purposes. It must NOT be uploaded to the internet and it must NOT be shared via social media. (Please create / share a link to this webpage instead.) However, it MAY be downloaded and used for personal reference purposes and it MAY be shared directly with personal contacts by e-mail or other direct means (although we'd prefer you to share a link to this webpage).
The larger version will repay close examination and the following are especially worthy of note:
The title on the drawing (top-centre) is "M.R. SETTLE TO CARLISLE. DRAWING FOR STATION BUILDINGS No2.".
To the right of the title (and in the same font style and size) is the text "SKETCH.".
The drawing is undated, but it almost certainly formed part of the contract documentation and / or the working documentation associated with the construction of the Settle and Carlisle Railway between 1869 and 1876.
The drawing does not include any mention of the engineer or architect.
The scale is given as "6 FEET IN AN INCH" (indicated by original text) and it is clear that the original was drawn to scale.
The sheet includes five separate but related drawings. They are labelled "ELEVATION NEXT RAILS", "ELEVATION NEXT APPROACH", "GROUND PLAN", "SECTION" and "END ELEVATION".
With the exception of the "WAITING SHED" frontage, the elevation views do not indicate the nature of the materials to be used for the exterior walls. Stone sills, lintels wall angle quoins are clearly depicted and the "WAITING SHED" is depicted with decorative columns, bracketry, glazing and timber pannelling.
All elevation views depict the pitched roofs as being covered with slates. The "ELEVATION NEXT RAILS" view depicts the roof as being topped with plain ridge tiles. The "ELEVATION NEXT APPROACH" view depicts the roof as being topped with decorative (pierced) ridge tiles.
The "ELEVATION NEXT RAILS" and "END ELEVATION" views depict plain timber bargeboards on all gable ends, whereas the "ELEVATION NEXT APPROACH" view depicts pierced decorative timber bargeboards on all gable ends.
Five fireplaces and three decorative chimney stacks are depicted, but chimney pots are not depicted.
The "GROUND PLAN" and "SECTION" views depict the exterior walls as follows:
double-skinned for the main part of the building (brick for both the outside and inside skins)[2] and
single-skinned (brick) for the utility block.
The elevation views depict a trefoil oculus in each of the platform-facing upper gables and a vertical recess in the upper gable facing the approach road.
The plan view shows the interior divided into eleven rooms (twelve if you count the W.C.s and their lobbies separately).
The dimensions are given in feet & inches and the focus is placed firmly on the room interiors. Wall thicknesses are not specified anywhere on this sheet.
The key dimensions (indicated on the plan view by text and accompanying arrows) are slightly different to the stone version and are as follows:
"LAMP ROOM" (12' 10" wide x 8' 1" deep) with a corner fireplace, a window facing the approach road and an external doorway to the left side.
"PORTERS ROOM" (12' 10" wide x 8' 1½" deep) with a corner fireplace, a window facing the platform and an external doorway to the left side.
"LADIES WAITING ROOM" (14' 0" wide x 15' 8½" deep) with a central fireplace, a window facing the platform, an internal doorway leading to the waiting shed and an internal doorway leading to...
"LOBBY" (5' 6" wide) with wash basin and an internal doorway leading to "W.C." (8' 0" wide x 4' 3" deep), each with a window facing the approach road.
"WAITING SHED" (18' 3" wide x 11' 9" deep) with a pair of windows facing the platform either side of an external doorway to the platform and an internal doorway leading to...
"WAITING HALL" (18' 3" wide x 19' 2" deep) with a central fireplace, windows in two sides (facing the approach road and looking along rear) an external doorway to the right side and a ticket window (unlabelled) linking to...
"STATN MASTERS OFFICE" (13' 11" wide x 20' 8½" deep) with a central fireplace, a window facing the approach road, a window facing the platform and an internal doorway leading to the "WAITING SHED".
Utility block:
"URINALS" (8' 9" wide) - without wash basin but with a window facing the approach road and an internal doorway leading to....
"W.C." (4' 0" wide) with a window facing the approach road.
"DUST" (5' 3" wide x 9' 0" deep) with a hatch to the right side (but no doorway, either internal or external).
"COALS" (14' 9" wide x 5' 3" deep) with a window facing the platform and an external door to the right side.
External dimensions are not provided and they cannot be calculated accurately due to the absence of wall thicknesses measurements. However, they can be estimated with a reasonable degree of accuracy by totalling-up the dimensions that are provided on the plan, then adding estimated dimensions for the wall thicknesses. Reasonable estimates for the latter can be derived from the depiction of the walls on the plan view and an assumption that the external walls consist of three layers of 4" wide bricks with a ½" cavity and that the internal walls consist of two layers of 4" wide bricks.
The "GROUND PLAN" view also shows bench seating along the three sides of the "WAITING HALL" and two sides of the "WAITING SHED".
[1]: This review was created from the digital image file supplied by the National Archives. The reviewer has not seen the original document, so cannot be certain of its physical nature.
[2]: A thick black line is depicted within the thickness of the external walls of the main building. This almost certainly indicates the specification of a ½" cavity between the outside and inside skins, to be filled with hot pitch (see the review of drawing-sac-mr-generic-station-building-no-2-medium-na-rail-491-629-5). It is interesting to speculate if this was added in reality. If not, or if it was done poorly, or if was done but has since deteriorated, it would explain the water ingress problems that have affected several of the main station buildings.
This drawing forms part of a large set of records of "the privately owned railway companies (and their predecessors) taken over by the British Transport Commission under the Transport Act 1947". This digitised version of the drawing was uploaded to the SCRCA Project database under licence, courtesy of The National Archives. (Catalogue Reference RAIL 491/629, Harbour Contract drawings: Station buildings on Settle - Carlisle line.) The license was purchased by - and is held by - Mark R. Harvey.
Review and text by Mark R. Harvey (© Mark R. Harvey, 2020).
Section menu for primary source reviews
-- Select a page -- Review of primary source material at the National Archives (Kew): SCR Construction - Contract 1 Review of primary source material at the National Archives (Kew): SCR Construction - Contract 2 Review of primary source material at the National Archives (Kew): SCR Construction - Contract 3 Review of primary source material at the National Archives (Kew): SCR Construction - Contract 4 Review of primary source: 1871 census for the New Parish of Ingleton Fells Review of primary source: drawing-sac-mr-generic-station-building-no-1-large-na-rail-491-629-3 Review of primary source: drawing-sac-mr-generic-station-building-no-2-medium-na-rail-491-629-4 Review of primary source: drawing-sac-mr-generic-station-building-no-2-medium-na-rail-491-629-5 Review of primary source: drawing-sac-mr-generic-waiting-room-v01-na-rail-491-629-2 Review of primary source: List of Network Rail bridges supplied on 19th February 2015
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The Promise – Love in a Time of Genocide
April 17, 2017 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment
“Our revenge will be to survive.”
The modern concept of genocide did not begin with the Holocaust; it started with the attempted extermination of the Armenians during the early years of World War I. The Promise tells the horrifying tale through the story of a love triangle (or perhaps quadrangle). It is a story of heroism, but also of flawed people who are face dire circumstances. They must not only seek to save themselves, but to try to save the identity of their community.
In 1914, at the dawn of World War I, Michael Boghosian (Oscar Isaac) leaves his village in Southern Turkey to study medicine in Constantinople. Turks and Armenians live and study side by side. Michael is staying with his well-to-do merchant uncle. There he meets the beautiful Ana (Charlotte Le Bon), who is from a village near his, but she has been traveling the world for many years. She is with an American journalist, Chris Myers (Christian Bale) who has come to cover the Ottoman Empire’s place within the war. Although Ana and Chris have a life together, there are certainly sparks between Ana and Michael. But Michael, too, has someone in his life. In his village awaits his fiancée Maral (Angela Sarafyan), whose dowry he is using to study medicine.
When the Ottoman Empire allies itself with Germany, they begin trying to destroy the Christian Armenian population. Many are jailed and slaughtered. Whole villages are destroyed. Michael is arrested and used for slave labor, but in time escapes, returns to his village and marries Maral before going into hiding. Meanwhile Chris and Ana are trying to help an American pastor smuggle orphans out of the country. Later Chris runs afoul of the authorities, is imprisoned, and expelled from the country. The dynamics of the Michael/Ana/Chris relationship shift throughout the story.
The love story serves to humanize this story of an atrocity. The promises that are made between them (some spoken, others not) sustain them in difficult times. But sometimes those promises are not kept. And sometimes those promises are ripped away by the circumstances.
Even though the story is set over a century ago, it is extremely timely. There continue to be those who flee persecutions and genocides. Director Terry George has previously dealt with genocide as the writer and director of Hotel Rwanda. Many of the scenes in the current film ominously reflect what we have seen on the news the last few years: swimmers in the Mediterranean seeking to escape to freedom, piles of dead bodies—even a dead baby beside the water.
This film serves to teach us history (because the Armenian Genocide really gets little attention outside the Armenian community. (The US and UK have never officially recognized the genocide because Turkey is such a strategic ally. Turkey refuses to acknowledge it at all.) But it also speaks to events happening in the world today. European and American politics struggle to respond to the refugee crises, especially dealing with people from the Middle East—the same region that this film is set in. This film reminds us that saving others is a courageous act. It may not always be safe, but it demands to be done.
Photos courtesy of Open Road
Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Angela Sarafyan, Armenian Genocide, Charlotte Le Bon, Christian Bale, genocide, Oscar Isaac, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Terry George, Turkey, World War I
Septembers of Shiraz – Revolutionary Backlash
June 24, 2016 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” (Jalal ad-Din Rumi)
Revolutions can bring great advancement, but they often bring pain and chaos in their wake. Septembers of Shiraz is the story of an Iranian Jewish family that must cope with the uproar of the Iranian Revolution. The film opens with a wonderful celebration of family and friends shortly before the Revolution. Isaac (Adrien Brody), the patriarch, is a prosperous jeweler. They are preparing to send their son to America to boarding school. Soon, however, the situation deteriorates. One day Isaac is arrested and taken to prison where he is questioned, tortured, and held without trial. His family has no idea if he is alive or not. His wife Farnez (Salma Hayek) must protect herself and her daughter. In time the family must sacrifice all they have to escape from Iran. (So, of course, there is a tense mad dash to get to the border.)
While we often think of the cruelty of these events as tied in some way to Islam, what we see is not based in religion. Rather it is class warfare. That plays out a bit in the relationship between Farnez and her housekeeper (Shohreh Aghdashloo). Farnez has considered their relationship to be one of friendship, but we see that the role of servant is not the same as a friend. The persecution Isaac faces is not because he is a Jew, but because he has prospered in the system under the Shah that has been done away with.
I think it needs to be noted that this is not an Iranian film. This is a film made by American filmmakers about a country with which we have a history of trouble. That is not to say I think the film sets Iran in a bad light. What struck me in the film is not how barbarous the Iranian Revolution was, but how similar it was to so many other revolutions. The ones that especially came to mind were the Russian and French Revolutions. In both, after deposing the ruler, it soon devolved into a kind of mob rule which took on the trappings of equality. In France, everyone was “Citizen”; in Russia, “Comrade”. Here everyone is addressed as “Brother” whether they are oppressor or victim. The goal here (and I think this is true of the French and Russian Revolutions as well) isn’t some ideological standard, but vengeance for past inequality—punishing those who profited from past oppression, even if they were not an active participant.
Always these kinds of revolutions claim to be acting in the name of justice. Yet often the new order, as it tries to right past wrongs, ends up creating its own injustices. Perhaps that is why the filmmakers open the film with the quotation from Rumi above. It is calling up to look beyond those things we believe are right or wrong (or even of righting wrongs) and meet not in a battle, but as community.
Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Adrien Brody, Based on novel, based on true events, Iranian Revoulution, Revolution, Rumi, Salma Hayek, Shohreh Aghdashloo
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Sensitive-The Untold Story was produced by the Emmy award-winning GlobalTouch Group, Inc. (GTG). GTG’s productions include Oprah’s Daytime Show, Clint Eastwood’s 40 Years of Monterey Jazz Festival, VH-1’s Behind The Music featuring Lenny Kravitz, fundraising films for the National Museum of U.S. Army, 2006/2007 Trumpet Awards on TBS (featuring Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Beyonce, Usher, Stevie Wonder etc.) and development deals with Disney, Universal/MCA and CBS. GTG’s original film Pinot Noir: The Holy Grail of Wine on National PBS was featured in the International Wine Film Festival in France. The GlobalTouch Group, Inc. (GTG) is currently producing the sequel to Sensitive-The Untold Story – Sensitive And In Love . Sensitive-The Untold Story was first released in 2015 at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco at a sold out premiere that livestreamed in 64 countries. It is now available in 9 languages on DVD, VHX, Amazon, and on Kanopy to colleges worldwide.
Sensitive-The Untold Story Team:
Producer: Diana Sinelnikova Harper
Producer/Director/Director of Photography: Will Harper
Writer: Dr. Elaine Aron
Executive Producers: Spencer Koffman, Adriana & Mark Shuman, John Hughes, Lori Nimmer, Mike Evans, Magdalena Smrdelj, Diane & Dani Korsh
Featuring: 7-time Grammy winner singer-songwriter-activist Alanis Morissette
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New Singapore Dispute Protocol Launched to Minimise Time and Cost Overruns in Infrastructure Projects
Posted in News October 23, 2018
SINGAPORE (October 23, 2018) — The Ministry of Law (MinLaw) today launched a new Singapore Infrastructure Dispute-Management Protocol to help parties involved in mega infrastructure projects manage disputes and minimise the risks of time and cost overruns. Minister for Finance Mr Heng Swee Keat announced the launch of the new protocol today at the Asia Singapore Infrastructure Roundtable as part of efforts to establish Singapore as the infrastructure hub of Asia.
Based on an Asian Development Bank report, Asia will need more than US$1.7 trillion (S$2.3 trillion) of infrastructure per year from 2016 to 2030. As infrastructure projects are typically complex and involve multiple parties, differences and disputes are sometimes unavoidable and can result in delays and higher costs, if not managed well. It was found that infrastructure, mining and oil and gas projects have on average cost 80% more than budgeted and run 20 months late.
The new Singapore Infrastructure Dispute-Management Protocol will help parties proactively manage differences to prevent them from escalating into disputes, and minimise the risks of time and cost overruns. Under the new protocol, parties will from the start of the project appoint a Dispute Board comprising up to three neutral professionals who are experts in relevant fields such as engineering, quantity surveying and law. The Dispute Board will follow the project from start to finish and proactively help to manage issues that may arise, through a range of customised dispute avoidance and resolution processes.
This new protocol builds on international best practices and introduces a few novel features to address the challenges complex infrastructure projects face currently:
a. First, it takes a proactive dispute prevention approach. The Dispute Board is appointed from the start of the project, rather than only after disputes have arisen. It helps anticipate issues and prevent differences from snowballing and escalating into full-blown disputes which become difficult and expensive to resolve.
b. Second, should disputes arise, it provides a wider range of methods which can help address the disputes at hand. These include mediation, opinion and determination.
c. Third, it provides full professional and administrative support through the Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC) and the Singapore Mediation Centre (SMC) which can help with identifying and appointing Dispute Board members as well as with meeting, escrow and other administrative services.
The new protocol is developed by a Working Group comprising eminent private sector infrastructure and dispute resolution specialists, the SIMC and the SMC. The Working Group was convened by MinLaw in January 2018, to see how Singapore could leverage its current strength in dispute resolution to innovate and better serve the needs of complex infrastructure projects in the region.
The new protocol has attracted interest from parties who are keen to incorporate it into their projects. These projects are estimated to be worth S$500 million or more. Further details will be announced in due course.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Finance & Education Ms Indranee Rajah said “Singapore is a leading international dispute resolution hub. We have recently also moved to be an infrastructure Hub for Asia. We realised that there is a critical gap in the infrastructure space – the need for more cost and time efficient resolution of infrastructure disputes, facilitated by experts. In a unique collaboration between the private and public sector, we have developed the Singapore Infrastructure Dispute-Management Protocol specifically to address this need. The SIDP builds on processes which are familiar to infrastructure stakeholders but has unique features for more effective dispute resolution. Though new, we are confident that infrastructure stakeholders will quickly see the value of the SIDP and adopt it once they do.”
Senior Minister of State for Law and Health Mr Edwin Tong said: “Singapore is well-placed to help parties navigate the challenges of large-scale infrastructure projects. We are a trusted and neutral venue, and have over the years built up deep expertise, institutions, and human capital in dispute resolution. The new protocol builds on this strong foundation and leverages the suite of services that Singapore offers as a dispute resolution hub.”
Mr Chow Kok Fong, Chairman of the Working Group and Board Member of SIMC and SMC, said: “The new protocol has been carefully crafted to ensure successful project delivery is not compromised by disputes that may arise during the course of the project. As infrastructure needs in Asia grow, parties will find the protocol to be a helpful tool for dispute management in mega infrastructure projects, by virtue of its flexibility, customisability, and institutional support.”
Mustaffa Bin Ehsan Sa’aid
Email: mustaffa_ehsan@mlaw.gov.sg
DID: 6332 8708
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Reading: Estimation of Technical Efficiency and It's Determinants in the Tea Small Holding Sector in ...
BMJK Basnayake ,
University of Peradeniya., LK
LHP Gunaratne
Sri Lanka is the world leader in made tea production and the small holding sector dominates national production by accounting for 60% of the island's tea production. However, given the high cost of production, there is a belief that it is very difficult to increase profitability without increasing costly inputs such as labour. With this background, in this study technical efficiency of the tea small holdings sector in the Mid Country Wet Zone of Sri Lanka was estimated in order to identify the potential to increase production without incurring any additional costs for inputs. The sources of inefficiency and the robustness of measured technical efficiency in various functional specifications was also investigated.
The primary data collected during the period September - January 2001 relevant to sixty small holder tea producers in the Mid-country Wet Zone was used for the study. Maximum likelihood estimates of the stochastic frontier model were estimated for green leaf yield as a function of land extent, family labour, hired labour, fertilizer, chemicals, and dolomite, using Cobb- Douglas and translog models. The determinants of technical efficiency such as age of farmer, experience, education, occupation type of crop (VP/Seedling) and type of clone were investigated, following the Battese and Coelli (1995) specification.
According to the Cobb-Douglas specification, extent of land, family labour, hired labour, fertilizer and dolomite showed significant effects on yield. The coefficients for land, family labour, hired labour and fertilizer had positive values of 1.11, 0.027, 0.067 0.029 and 0.004 respectively. The mean technical efficiency of the tea small holdings sector in the Mid Country Wet Zone was found to be 64.60 per cent. The result for the inefficiency model indicates that age of farmer, education, occupation, type of crop (VP or seedling) and type of clone have significant effects on efficiency. The coefficients for age, education, occupation and type of crop showed negative values. However contrary to expectations, type of clone and experience showed positive values. The estimation with the translog model yielded different technical efficiencies, which indicates the fact that technical efficiency estimations are highly sensitive to the functional form specified.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sjae.v4i0.3488
SJAE 2002; 4(1): 137-150
Keywords: Estimation, Technical Efficiency, Determinants, Tea Small Holding Sector, Mid Country Wet Zone, Sri Lanka
How to Cite: Basnayake, B. and Gunaratne, L., 2011. Estimation of Technical Efficiency and It's Determinants in the Tea Small Holding Sector in the Mid Country Wet Zone of Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics, 4, pp.137–150. DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/sjae.v4i0.3488
Basnayake, B. and Gunaratne, L., 2011. Estimation of Technical Efficiency and It's Determinants in the Tea Small Holding Sector in the Mid Country Wet Zone of Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics, 4, pp.137–150. DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/sjae.v4i0.3488
Basnayake B, Gunaratne L. Estimation of Technical Efficiency and It's Determinants in the Tea Small Holding Sector in the Mid Country Wet Zone of Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics. 2011;4:137–50. DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/sjae.v4i0.3488
Basnayake, B., & Gunaratne, L. (2011). Estimation of Technical Efficiency and It's Determinants in the Tea Small Holding Sector in the Mid Country Wet Zone of Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics, 4, 137–150. DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/sjae.v4i0.3488
Basnayake B and Gunaratne L, ‘Estimation of Technical Efficiency and It's Determinants in the Tea Small Holding Sector in the Mid Country Wet Zone of Sri Lanka’ (2011) 4 Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics 137 DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/sjae.v4i0.3488
Basnayake, BMJK, and LHP Gunaratne. 2011. “Estimation of Technical Efficiency and It's Determinants in the Tea Small Holding Sector in the Mid Country Wet Zone of Sri Lanka”. Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics 4: 137–50. DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/sjae.v4i0.3488
Basnayake, BMJK, and LHP Gunaratne. “Estimation of Technical Efficiency and It's Determinants in the Tea Small Holding Sector in the Mid Country Wet Zone of Sri Lanka”. Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics 4 (2011): 137–50. DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/sjae.v4i0.3488
Basnayake, B.and L. Gunaratne. “Estimation of Technical Efficiency and It's Determinants in the Tea Small Holding Sector in the Mid Country Wet Zone of Sri Lanka”. Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 4, 2011, pp. 137–50. DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/sjae.v4i0.3488
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Governor Bentley to Address State’s Largest Synagogue
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley will be the guest speaker for Shabbat services at Birmingham’s Temple Emanu-El on April 15. Elected to the Alabama House of Representatives from the Tuscaloosa area in 2002, Bentley was elected governor last year.
Hours after his inauguration, he made waves during a speech at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Church when he spoke about “brothers and sisters in Christ,” saying those who had not accepted Jesus were not his brothers and sisters.
Emanu-El Rabbi Jonathan Miller was among the participants in an interfaith group that sat down with Bentley two days later, where he apologized to those who were offended by the remarks.
The April 15 service will begin at 5:40 p.m., followed by a Shabbat dinner. Advance reservations are required for the dinner, which is $10 for adults and $5.50 for children ages 5 to 11.
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Why Diabetes is Riskier for Women
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, American Indian and Alaska Native adults are 2.3 times as likely as white adults to be diagnosed with diabetes. The disease is the fourth leading cause of death for American Indians and Alaska Natives, affecting about 16% of the population. Information about diabetes from Tanka friend Lifescript runs occasionally in our blog, Walking the Way of Wellness.
One out of every 10 American women is living with diabetes, which causes more deaths each year than breast cancer and AIDS combined. Still, most Americans don't see it as a serious disease, according to a recent survey. Here's why women should worry:
Are you overweight and hate working out? Were you diagnosed with gestational diabetes during a past pregnancy?
If you answered yes to either of these questions, you're at risk for developing diabetes, a chronic, incurable disease that raises the risk of heart disease, kidney failure and more.
Diabetes poses special problems for women. It increases your chances of having complications during pregnancy, such as birth defects, miscarriage and large babies. And women with the disease are also more likely to die younger.
"If you see a 40-year-old woman with chest pain, she's [not] likely to have a heart attack," says Andrew Drexler, M.D., an endocrinologist and director of UCLA's Gonda Diabetes Center. "But if she's diabetic, that's not true."
The federal government spends billions each year conducting diabetes research, with scientists searching for more efficient ways to manage the disease.
What are the latest advances and how are women affected by the disease? For answers, we sat down with Drexler, who heads one of the nation's leading diabetes treatment centers. Read on for his recommendations.
What's the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes?
Type 1 is an autoimmune disease that destroys islet cells [which produce insulin] in the pancreas. Insulin controls [blood sugar levels] in the body.
For more about diabetes: LifeScript
To follow LifeScript on Twitter: @LifeScript
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« Andrew Brown fails to understand the rules of secular debate | Main | Incorrectly Calling Logical Fallacies »
It’s the new year, and so time for the fourth annual* Golden Woo Awards for outstanding work in the promotion of Woo in the previous year. Here are the winners for 2012:
* Except for years when I didn’t publish one.
The Egnorance Prize for the scientist or academic who said or did the silliest thing to support Woo
The 2012 Egnorance prize goes to theologian Alvin Plantinga, as justified by two articles by Jerry Coyne, The sophistry of Alvin Plantinga and especially Plantinga: Why God is a necessary being. As far as I can tell, Plantinga’s “why god is necessary” is just a rehashing of the Ontological Argument which I debunked over three years ago. Or as one of Jerry’s commenters remarked, the argument is:
God is defined as that which must exist.
That which must exist exists.
Therefore, God exists!
And no, you cannot define anything else as that which must exist. You just can’t, that’s why not.
As Coyne notes, this is what passes for “sophisticated theology,” a term I believe he has trademarked. Just think, Plantinga gets paid to write this drivel.
The most useless or misleading Woo study
The award goes to The John Templeton Foundation funded $5 Million Grant to Study Immortality. Yes, $5 Million to study something that no one can know exists, and if it does, no one has ever been there (and come back). So it’s $5 Million to study what people have made up about what they think the afterlife is. It’s hard to imagine anything much more useless.
The Larry King Prize for the media outlet that reported as fact the most ridiculous Woo claim
A crowded field, as usual. Nominees included the various websites reporting that Richard Dawkins’s family fortune came from the slave trade, and especially the Newsweek’s article headlined Heaven Is Real – an absurd thing to claim you know for certain, if there ever was one. Both worthy contenders. But I have to award the Larry this year to Dr Phil for his ‘psychics are real’ show featuring John Edward and CharMargolis. It’s not just that he reported this drivel credulously as fact. Many others have done the same (Dr Oz, I’m looking at you). The award is given to Dr Phil since he is supposed to be some sort of psychologist, and yet he couldn’t spot the obvious psychological tricks employed by these cold readers, nor could he recognize the psychological need of the victims to make hits out of wrong guesses.
The Chopra Award for the most drivel containing the most logical fallacies
Named for Deepak Chopra, whose support of woo with nothing but logical fallacies, is above and beyond what can reasonably be expected of any human being.
This year’s Chopra goes to Zack Kaldveer of the “Yes on 37” campaign (the 2012 California ballot initiative to require labeling of genetically modified foods). The title of Kaldveer’s article gives you a hint of the fallacy he is mostly relying on: Labeling Genetically Engineered Foods: Whose Side Are You On? “Whose side are you on?” It’s right there in the headline, followed by 1,300 words, the majority of which were nothing but (numerous) Ad Hominem attacks – smearing opponents of the initiative instead of rebutting their arguments. Add a dose of Appeal to Popularity, and Argument by Assertion and you have it all. There may be some good reasons why GM food should be labeled, but you don’t see any of them in this article. And just to be clear, a good argument in favor of labeling GMO foods would not include an argument in the form of ‘Safeway eliminated health insurance for its workers.’
I was a little reluctant to give this award to Zack since he is a friend of mine. In fact, I only learned of the article when he emailed me the link back in July. Since he is a friend, I didn’t do my usual paragraph by paragraph rebuttal. However, looking back at the year, I can’t think of another article that is made up almost entirely of logical fallacies and no actual content. I did try to look for one, but couldn’t find one that competed. I’m sure Zack doesn’t read this site, but if someone tells you about it Zack and you find this page – congratulations, you have won the 2012 Deepak Chopra Award. I imagine that would make you quite pleased.
The Blown Irony Meter Award, for being completely oblivious to the hypocrisy of their own actions or words in defense of Woo
The award goes to Lenoir City High School for denying a student the right to publish an article in its student newspaper. What was the article about? It was about how atheists don’t have the same rights as Christians in her school. The lack of self awareness shown by the school authorities is quite outstanding, and deserving of the 2012 Irony Award. As is the subsequent Streisand Effect, as her article was published elsewhere, gaining more publicity than it ever would have if it hadn’t been refused by the school.
The most ridiculous or bigoted act using religion as its justification
Always a crowded field – the examples too numerous to mention. This year I’m giving the award to the government of India and the Roman Catholic Church. The situation is that an Indian skeptic called Sanal Edamaruku debunked a “miracle” of holy water trickling as tears from a statue of Jesus (it was just faulty plumbing). The Indian government immediately accused Edamaruku of blasphemy, and he only escaped jail by leaving the country.
The Indian government should be ashamed that it has blasphemy laws on its books. But the real reason I am giving this award is the reaction of the Roman Catholic church. According to Edamaruku:
The Catholic archbishop of Bombay, Oswald, Cardinal Gracias, has said that if I apologise for the 'offence' I have caused he will see to it that the charges are dropped.
And there you see quite clearly what religion looks like when it gets everything it wants – it demands obedience and obsequiousness or it has no compunction about sending you to jail. Remember this when people talk about moderate religion, and when they say it’s only religious extremism that is the problem. What you see very clearly here is that when they are not restricted by secular reasoning and secular laws, religions’ natural state is extremism.
Miscellaneous Idiocy
This year I’m combining the most persistent refusal to face reality and Occam awards into one general award for miscellaneous idiocy. Agreed, all of these awards are for idiocy in one way or another. This is just a category for anything that would otherwise be missed.
The 2012 award goes to Andrew Wakefield. His ‘vaccines cause autism’ has been shown to be the result of fraudulent research and he has been struck off the register of UK doctors. Having failed with the science, he now tries his hand in the courts by suing Brian Deer – the journalist who exposed Wakefield’s faulty research. Of course, the absurd suit was dismissed, but I trust that this Golden Woo will be of some consolation.
in Golden Woos | Permalink
Good to see some activity on the old blog again. Thanks Skeptico.
Posted by: AndyD | January 07, 2013 at 07:38 AM
yay!! You're still around! :D
Posted by: cyghost | January 07, 2013 at 09:18 PM
Thanks Skeptico. I understand how difficult it must be, for each prize, to choose the real winner.
Posted by: Woody | January 08, 2013 at 11:14 PM
Nice to see you writing again!
An added point: The original (unpublished) accusation was, according to Dawkins, that he "could have inherited a gene for supporting slavery".
http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/645002-the-sins-of-the-fathers
Posted by: Yakaru | January 31, 2013 at 02:39 PM
What else would you define as that which must exist?
Posted by: Alastair F. Paisley | September 25, 2013 at 08:18 AM
Alastair:
Offhand, I can't think of anything.
@ Skeptico
Posted by: Alastair Paisley | September 25, 2013 at 10:09 AM
Well, something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent.
Posted by: Yojimbo | September 25, 2013 at 11:30 AM
@ Yojimbo
Because if everything were contingent, then it would imply an infinite regress.
Hmmm! I'm not getting it - that sounds like a purely semantic argument.
If you want to know what exists you go look and see what's there. Determining that something that exists is "necessary" seems arbitrary, and fundimentally unprovable. While saying that something exists because it is necessary and for no other reason seems pretty meaningless - and also fundimentally unprovable.
Your argument seems akin to debating dancing angels on pinheads.
Everything that you see is contingent (dependent on something else that is contingent). There must be something that is necessary (not contingent) in order to explain a world of contingencies. (By the way, this is the "argument from contingency," not the "ontological argument.")
Posted by: Alastair Paisley | September 25, 2013 at 12:13 PM
@Alastair
I get the point. My problem is with "There must be something that is necessary (not contingent) in order to explain a world of contingencies." I asked why? So far you seem to be saying "because!" - which I gather was also Aquinas' argument.
Posted by: Yojimbo | September 25, 2013 at 12:29 PM
Everything that you see is contingent (dependent on something else that is contingent).
There's your mistake - you're just assuming that. (Everything can't be contingent or by definition there wouldn't be anything.)
If something is contingent, then its existence is not necessary (by definition). Therefore, its existence needs to be explain by something that is not contingent, by something that is necessary. So, this is why I asked the question: "What else would you define as that which must exist?"
@Alistair
Again I ask why? Why does the existence of something that is not necessary require an explanation? I can see wanting an explanation of whether something exists, but if it does, it does. Why is its contingency even a question?
This reminds me of the argument of the Prime Mover. That never made sense to me either.
> There's your mistake - you're just assuming that. <
No, I am not assuming that. That's why I asked the question: "What else would you define as that which must exist?"
Ye you did. You said "Everything that you see is contingent."
You're playing semantics. I'm going to ask you this just one time:
What else would YOU define as that which must exist? And please tell us why.
You first argued that my mistake was to assume that everything was contingent. Now, you're arguing that my mistake is to assume that something necessary is required to explain something contingent. Which one is it?
@Alistair, are you confusing me with Skeptico? I'm honored, but honestly, I am not his Clark Kent :)
I first asked you: "What else would you define as that which must exist?"
To which you replied: "Offhand, I can't think of anything."
To which I replied: "Well, something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent."
That's the assumption (actually argument) that I made. "Something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent."
And based on your most recent post, it would appear that you now agree with me...that something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent. So, I ask the question again: "What else would you define as that which must exist?"
Of course, we could take another tack with this and say everything that exists is necessary, because otherwise it would be a different universe. But really, the argument about contingency strikes me as (to repeat myself) semantics. And not very interesting semantics, at that.
I'll side with Skeptico on this one and ask you to answer your own question - just to see if this goes where I suspect it will.
Your different tack implies an infinite regress of causes. (That is, your argument now implies that the present state of the universe was caused by the previous state of the universe, which was caused by the previous state of the universe, which was caused by...ad infinitum.)
So? What's the problem?
Either the universe is infinite, in which case ad infinitum is not a problem, or it is finite and its initial conditions are inherently unknowable.
Anyway - what is YOUR answer?
An infinite regress is a logical fallacy.
An infinite regress in a series of propositions... is a logical falacy. The universe is not a logical argument.
Yes, you did just assume that. Thanks for admitting it. Although you denied it before. But it’s an assumption – you have no reason to suppose it is necessarily true.
And based on your most recent post, it would appear that you now agree with me...that something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent.
I agreed no such thing.
Don’t make up straw man positions that you think I must have and then get me to defend these made up positions.
So, I ask the question again: "What else would you define as that which must exist?"
And I repeat, I can’t think of anything. If you prefer, I don’t know the answer.
You, however, do think that something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent, because you wrote above, and I quote: "Something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent." So I am going to ask you for a second (and believe me this will be the last) time, What else would you define as that which must exist? This is your argument, stop playing games and answer the question.
You're proposing an infinite series of temporal causes. That's clearly an infinite regress.
> You, however, do think that something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent, because you wrote above, and I quote: "Something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent." <
Yes, that was my counterargument. Are you disagreeing with that? Yes or no? (If you can't give me a clear response, then there is no point to continue this discussion.)
Counterargument to what? What point are you trying to make?
"You're proposing an infinite series of temporal causes. That's clearly an infinite regress."
No, it is not. That is an infinite process, which is entirely possible in an infinite universe. There is no regression unless you are positing some beginning to regress to. If there is a beginning then it is not an infinite universe, but we can't know anything about the initial condtions so we can't possibly know what was "necessary" - so why ask the question?
In any case, talk about not giving "a clear response" - you have been asked a number of times what your idea of an answer is, and you ignore the requests. As far as I can tell this is a pointless exercise in semantics.
The point that I am making is a point that I have already made - namely, that "something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent."
Either you believe that everything is contingent or you do not. If you do not, then you believe that something must be necessary (by default). So, what do you believe? (I have already stated what I believe. Nevertheless, for the sake of clarity, I will reiterate it. I believe that something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent. I believe that it is a logical impossibility that everything can be contingent.)
> No, it is not. That is an infinite process, which is entirely possible in an infinite universe. <
An infinite process requires an infinite amount of time to process. So, it is a logically impossibility that an infinite amount of time has elapsed to reach the present moment. (You either grasp this or you don't. If you don't, then we cannot continue this discussion.)
> If there is a beginning then it is not an infinite universe, but we can't know anything about the initial condtions so we can't possibly know what was "necessary" - so why ask the question? <
We can ask logical questions and make logical deductions or inferences.
Question: Is it logically possible that everything can be contingent?
Question: If it is logically impossible that everything can be contingent, does this imply that something is necessary?
> So what? <
You asked me what was my point. I explicitly stated it. Do you agree with it? Yes or no?
I keep asking you to come to the point but you refuse, instead preferring to play games. So at this point I’m just going to explain why the point I think you are really trying to get me to agree to, is wrong.
1) Just because there may need to be something that is not caused by something else, that does not mean that that thing must be “god.” To insist that would be an argument from ignorance fallacy.
2) If you read the work of any modern physicists (Victor Stenger has some good writing on this) you would know that things do pop into existence all the time without being caused by anything else (look up “quantum vacuum fluctuation”). So “god” is still not required.
Unless you can now tell me what you think is the first cause (which is what you really mean by “necessary”) with evidence to support it, we are done.
> I keep asking you to come to the point but you refuse, instead preferring to play games. <
The only one playing games here is you. You continue to evade the question - a simple "yes or no" question.
> Just because there may need to be something that is not caused by something else, that does not mean that that thing must be “god.” <
There's really only one answer here: an "uncaused cause."
> If you read the work of any modern physicists (Victor Stenger has some good writing on this) you would know that things do pop into existence all the time without being caused by anything else (look up “quantum vacuum fluctuation”). So “god” is still not required <
I know I have won the argument whenever a skeptic has to resort to employing the term "uncaused" to explain observed phenomena. (By the way, everything (not some things) reduces to uncaused events - a.k.a. quantum events.)
"Since the Universe could, under different circumstances, conceivably not exist (contingency), its existence must have a cause – not merely another contingent thing, but something that exists by necessity (something that must exist in order for anything else to exist).[8] In other words, even if the Universe has always existed, it still owes its existence to an Uncaused Cause,[9] Aquinas further said: "...and this we understand to be God."[10]
(source: Wikipedia: Cosmological argument)
"The only one playing games here is you."
Au contraire Mr Paisley, it is you and you alone who play games; this is transparent which is why no one is playing along. Your game specifically being to - out of the blue - present a scripted play and have your interlocutor dutifully follow along the path you set, so as you may then present what you believe to be some kind of unassailable 'gotcha.' Of course when your interlocutors don't follow the imaginary script you laid out for them you obfuscate and evade, you keep trying to make them follow the script, demand they do so because your ultimate "victory" hinges on the other doing exactly what you imagined for them. If they still won't co-operate, well there's eventually some bafflegab and then...
"I know I have won the argument..."
Yes, yes of course you won, after all you said you won and that's unimpeachable stuff right there.
Arguments rest on their own merits and not pointless cheer-leading by the person making those arguments. Resorting to this self-backslapping routine is suggestive that the individual is not really so convinced by their own press. So they have to tell themselves they won, convince themselves that yes, their argument won, they're right because they said so.
Here's the problem with that gussied up argument from ignorance you have there, if your interlocutor doesn't accept the self-serving premises you utilise to go from A to B, then you don't have much of a leg to stand on. In light of our hazy knowledge on what came prior to the Big Bang or what caused it to occur, an "I don't know" or "so what" is a perfectly reasonable answer. No one is obliged to enter into your either / or scenarios so you can pounce with god and think yourself a stunning intellect. Furthermore, if the universe must have had a cause one is entitled to ask from whence that first cause came, why that has a special exemption to always have existed but nothing else does, or why unknown = god?
It really is telling how desperate you folks get to somehow finagle your creator lordship in somewhere. Absent in every tangible way you resort to handwaving sophistry to stick it in somewhere, anywhere, just so long as you can reassure yourself that yes, there's the creator. It is obscure, ultimately meaningless and of no consequence to anyone or anything but importantly for you, it is there. Except that's not enough is it? You have to shore up the stark flimsiness of this position, the niggling doubt by randomly shoving it into gladiatorial combat because winning is taken to equal true. Of course that all falls apart when others won't respond correctly to the plays and you're left declaring victory by personal fiat for the god you think you managed to weasel into some unassailable, obscure nook.
Posted by: Darth Cynic | September 26, 2013 at 10:12 AM
@ Darth Cynic
My argument was clearly stated in the beginning of this thread: "Something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent."
I see nothing in your bloviated response that even begins to address it, let alone refutes it Until then, this debate is over.
There was a debate? Damn! I missed it.
"My argument was clearly stated..."
Oh come now, that's not an argument that was merely a lead in for the rest of the script your interlocutor was to follow to ha, HA! God!
"I see nothing..."
But of course you do not, that's why you pop up here trying so hard to convince yourself that He's there somewhere, very obscure but somewhere. Unfortunately the Cosmological argument is not new and not the coup-de-grâce you take it for. As I said, "if the universe must have had a cause one is entitled to ask from whence that first cause came, why that has a special exemption to always have existed but nothing else does, or why unknown = god?"
"Until then, this debate is over."
I'd imagine so, after all as you so proudly announced you did win.
Posted by: Darth Cynic | September 26, 2013 at 04:09 PM
> Oh come now, that's not an argument that was merely a lead in for the rest of the script your interlocutor was to follow to ha, HA! God! <
Translation: "I can't refute your argument."
"Translation: "I can't refute your argument.""
Yes..., ahh whatever.
Oh but then there's this, for the second time, "unfortunately the Cosmological argument is not new and not the coup-de-grâce you take it for. As I said, "if the universe must have had a cause one is entitled to ask from whence that first cause came, why that has a special exemption to always have existed but nothing else does, or why unknown = god?""
But you ignore that, handwave some and then declare you have won again. I'm sure that will soother everything over.
Alistair:
Well, Darth Cynic certainly has your number.
Let me try to explain the mistakes in your reasoning. Not that I expect you to listen – you dismissed Darth’s detailed post without considering it – but more of a summary for anyone else reading. Your first error is in what you say is a simple question – yes or no. Except it’s not as simple as your false dilemma would imply, because there is a third option you are not considering, namely “I don’t know.” You ignore this option despite my telling it to you at least twice. But “I don’t know” is a valid option. I don’t know, and the thing is, neither do you. I know you think you do, but you don’t; you’ve just decided you “know” something based on what seems correct logically. But you’re expecting too much from logic alone – for this kind of thing you need actual evidence, and you don’t have any.
The second mistake you make, is the argument from ignorance, which is to assume that the thing you are talking about must be “god.” This is just such a hilariously basic error I find it hard to believe that people still rely on it. Even if you are correct and something is “necessary” you still don’t know what it is and you don’t get to say, ‘and it’s god.’ If we don’t know then we just don’t know and that is true even if you quote Thomas Aquinas, which is an appeal to authority (that’s three logical fallacies now – you’re really racking them up).
So your argument fails spectacularly. Then I pointed out that modern physicists are saying that there is no “necessary” (as you insist on calling it) thing anyway. Now, I don’t know if that is true, and I’m not really qualified to evaluate the idea, but if you are going to ridicule what most current experts are saying on this subject, you had better have some good arguments to rebut their ideas, and (again) quoting Thomas Aquinas is not it. Also I did not “resort” to talking about uncaused anything, since (as you can see above) I had already refuted your arguments by exposing the three logical fallacies you are relying on. The modern physics contribution was just an additional reason you might like to consider that you could be wrong and can’t say for sure what is true, although please continue to tell your self you “won” the argument, if it makes you feel better. Yes, you “won” the argument when your opponent referenced what modern scientists are saying as opposed to what Thomas Aquinas thought. Very convincing victory. Anyway, you ignored my actual arguments and distorted one point (didn’t try to understand it but claimed I had “resorted” to it) and declared victory based on the distortion – so that would be a straw man argument – four logical fallacies now.
So you’re done. One more thing. Do you want to know what really translates to "I can't refute your argument”? It would be this:
I see nothing in your bloviated response that even begins to address it, let alone refutes it.
…in response to Darth Cynic’s detailed 500 word deconstruction of your fallacious and dishonest debating style. No actual reasons why any of what Darth wrote was wrong, just pompous hand waving.
Let's step through this one last time.
That's my argument: "Something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent."
Responding "I don't know" is ONLY a valid option if you truly don't know whether my argument is logically valid. So, is that what you're saying...that you truly don't know whether my argument is logically valid? (Please note that I haven't even broached the topic of "God" at this point. So, don't attempt to evade the question by going on one of your antitheistic tantrums.)
1) Once again, I don't know. Neither do you. Logic cannot give definitive answers to questions like this, especially when modern scientists disagree with you.
2) You already admitted you think this thing is god, from your Aquinas quote "...and this we understand to be God" so who do you think you are kidding?
@ Skeptics
> Once again, I don't know. <
Well, if you don't truly know whether my argument is logically valid, then you obviously can't refute it. And if you can't refute it, then this debate is over. That's how it works. Duh!
> Neither do you. <
Speak for yourself. I'm not logically challenged like you. I do know. I know that my argument is logically valid in the same way I know that the mathematical statement "2 + 2 = 4" is logically valid. It's based on pure rationality, not empiricism.
I know that something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent. Everything can't be contingent because that would imply an infinite regress - a logical fallacy.
No, that’s not how it works. You haven’t offered any evidence that what you say is true, so your saying that this means therefore you are correct, is an argument from ignorance fallacy. Duh yourself.
It may be logically valid but that doesn’t mean it is correct. You don’t know how the universe came into being and you can’t determine the universe came into being using logic alone. That is what you are missing.
This is getting tiresome so (against my better judgment) I am going to throw you a bone. For the sake of the discussion, let’s say you are correct and something must be “necessary” as you put it.
Last chance to make clear what your point is with respect to Plantinga’s argument, which is the topic in hand. Get to the point.
"then you obviously can't refute it. And if you can't refute it, then this debate is over. That's how it works."
You do make an awful lot of noise over proclaiming your own victory, methinks thou doth protest too much.
"Speak for yourself. I'm not logically challenged like you."
My, apparently refusing to stay on script makes you quite touchy. Say, you do realise that something can be internally logical, as in "logically valid" and yet still be objectively wrong yes? You know, if the initial premises are off.
As has been indicated, you're getting all hung up on 'logically valid' as though therein and only therein lies absolute truth as opposed to just being one of many tools. Of course you want it to be paramount, I get that because that's what you need to squirrel in a god; even if that last bit is arrived at through no logic at all.
Your "argument" is alas merely a question, a starting point, a step that means nothing in and of itself without going further; the further being god for you (as per the undisputed Aquinas quote). Which is odd for one who lionises logic so much, because leaping from an unknown to god is a logical fallacy, the argument from ignorance as has been mentioned more than once. But it gets worse, for if the answer is a 'yes' we end up with, for the fourth time, "if the universe must have had a cause one is entitled to ask, well from whence did that first cause come?" Or why this mooted 'necessary something' has a special exemption to always have just existed merely so as to make your argument be internally consistent. Wahey, back to the infinite regression you abhor. Then the thorny problem of why the universe itself or whatever it may be in cannot be this 'necessary something.' Or lastly how an unknown 'necessary something' is, by mere assertion, taken to mean god?
However, sans objective evidence, it is nought but unknowable navel gazing and given that painful lack of evidence, 'I don't know' is a perfectly viable position; possibly the only reasonable one. You cannot manifest your god here by mere force of will, you cannot win for you lack the required evidence to push beyond the insufficient abstractions which are already somewhat ambiguous.
> It may be logically valid but that doesn’t mean it is correct. <
There is no "may be" about it. It's correct because it's logically valid.
> This is getting tiresome so (against my better judgment) I am going to throw you a bone. <
You're not throwing me a bone; you're vainly attempting to "save face" because you KNOW that my argument is logically valid and therefore correct.
So, every contingent thing that comes into being owes its existence to something that causes it to come into being. But this cannot be merely another contingent thing. Ultimately it must be something that is necessary, something that is uncaused which causes all other contingent things to come into being.
Boy, you are full of yourself. And also wrong. First, you need to stop telling me what I am thinking. I have stated clearly that just because your argument may be logically valid, that does not mean it is correct. The intellectually honest person tries to understand and respond to the other person's actual argument, not the made up one that you respond to. Second, I am trying to get you to state the point (assuming you have one) of all this verbiage.
> The intellectually honest person tries to understand and respond to the other person's actual argument <
Well, it would appear that you're not an intellectually honest person because you are still not responding to my argument.
My argument is: "Something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent."
If you really don't believe it is a logically valid argument, then please state the logical flaw. Either state the logical flaw or acknowledge that it is logically valid. If you can't do that, then this debate is over.
Yes I have. Numerous times. You keep ignoring what I say.
And what I keep saying is, so what? And you keep ignoring the question. OK, something must be necessary. So what does that have to do with my post? What does it have to do with Plantinga's argument? What is your point?
This is absolutely your last chance. What does "Something must be necessary" have to do with my post? What is your point? Answer the fucking question.
And, to be crystal clear, if you reply by repeating again "Something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent" I will delete your comment and ban you.
'Over'
You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means. Anyhoo, moving along.
"It's correct because it's logically valid."
Ahhh, I see you're a close student of the School of Repetition where you hold 'if I say often enough it must therefore be true' to be a central tenet. The other being ignore everything anyone else says, cleave to the path and all that. Problem of course is, you are wrong, the false premise illustrates that merely being logically valid is no indicator on whether a statement is correct or not. But you studiously avoid this no matter who puts it to you, just another invocation of the hallowed mantra as though that stands as answer to everything. But who needs those other pesky addendums or ramifications to logic eh? Good folks only need the convenient bits, the ones that open that little crack to place the effigy in.
"Either state the logical flaw or acknowledge that it is logically valid."
Seen as this is nought but a step* in the Cosmological Argument to which you have inserted god, then circular reasoning and probably also false premise apply; never minding that 'logically valid' does not equate to objectively true. But feel free to repeat yourself..., well don't because that shtick has worn thin by now. You could declare everything is over again and victory etc., you've been nothing but disingenuous so far so why stop now. However, if it is to be more pablum, well I don't need to respond to those clearly piling up the sandbags.
* - the statement standing alone is meaningless in and of itself.
> OK, something must be necessary. <
You: "SO WHAT?"
Me: "So, every contingent thing that comes into being owes its existence to something that causes it to come into being. But this cannot be merely another contingent thing. Ultimately it must be something that is necessary, something that is uncaused which causes all other contingent things to come into being."
You: "So what? What's your point"
So what do you call something that is necessary, something that is uncaused, something which causes all other contingent things to come into being?
No idea. What do you call it? (Although I think we all know what Alastair is going to call it.)
Of course we do - and we know that everything that is logically true is also objectively true, because the universe is completely logical.
> No idea. What do you call it? (Although I think we all know what Alastair is going to call it.) <
Believers like myself understand the necessary, uncaused cause to be God. But skeptics like yourself now know that they owe their existence to a necessary, uncaused cause because it can be logically demonstrated to them.
Alastair, HOW do you know this alleged necessary uncaused cause is this thing you call a god?
To me, this is like saying it's "narf," by the way. I don't exactly see a consensus on what a "god" is or demonstrable examples on which to base a definition. It's ivory tower nonsense to me. Actually, it's more like one very specific echo chamber in the ivory tower.
It's really not that hard to make arguments that are logically valid and/or self-consistent. Good authors essentially do that for the sake of building fictional worlds that make sense to readers, even if they use magic or weird science that doesn't exist in real life. The author's definitions only carry weight because he's the one doing the worldbuilding. Readers will typically suspend disbelief for the sake of being entertained and accept strange premises. To keep that suspension of disbelief, the author tries to maintain a narrative with logical consequences based on those premises.
The tough issue in arguing about real life is cogency. Validity means that if your premises are true, your conclusion will be true. Cogency/soundness means that your premises are true. If any one of your premises is false, your logic fails to be compelling because it's effectively changing the venue to a fictional world where those premises are true. We'd rather argue about the real world.
Definitions are also a problem because the universe won't change to match our language. It's more realistic to observe the universe and sculpt our language to describe what we see. We can't discover or understand anything new by throwing around definitions as if they were inherently authoritative. Words are not magic.
Believers like myself understand the necessary, uncaused cause to be God.
Sorry to tell you this Mr. not-at-all-logically-challenged, but you understand nothing. You say you ‘understand’ it is god, but this is just a semantic diversion to cover up the reality, which is that you just choose to believe it is god. (Calling it an ‘understanding’ rather than just a belief does not make it any more credible and doesn’t make it true.) You believe it’s god because you started off believing it was god. But you have no facts evidence or logic to show it is god.
As I’ve explained at least twice, if we don’t know the explanation for something, you don’t get to say ‘it’s god’ – that is just the basic argument from ignorance fallacy. If we don’t know the explanation for something, then we just don’t know the explanation yet. But I note that you do now at least accept that this is just a belief, not based on anything more solid (such as facts, evidence or even logic). What a lot of unnecessary effort to get to that conclusion.
But skeptics like yourself now know that they owe their existence to a necessary, uncaused cause because it can be logically demonstrated to them.
Vacuous drivel.
All you are saying, all you have ever said, is that something must have caused all the things we observe because the universe couldn’t have just popped into existence by itself. All the tortured posts (26 by my rough count) where you were determined to steer the discussion towards the specific words “necessary,” “uncaused” and “causes all other contingent things” that you have learned somewhere will suit your conclusion, as though these words were magic talismans. And yet all it boils down to is ‘something must have caused all the things we observe.’ Doesn’t sound so convincing without the magic words now though does it? It sounds even less convincing when you realize you are just talking about the thing that made the things for which there is no known maker.
Your conclusion is mere sophistry, just like Alvin Plantinga’s articles that you came here to defend, (unsuccessfully). In fact, you have just confirmed that all you have is:
Which is where we started. But thanks for your interest.
All that insistence on 'logic' only to turf it aside when it no longer suits purposes. Well done.
AP: "But skeptics like yourself now know that they owe their existence to a necessary, uncaused cause because it can be logically demonstrated to them."
Oh this is just heroic, as I initially said above:
"Except that's not enough is it? You have to shore up the stark flimsiness of this position, the niggling doubt...."
You're so unconvinced in your own press that you can only make it seem real vicariously through unbelievers!? "Ahh you guys have to accept this because..., 'logic,' therefore god..., yes there is a god..., there is a god, there really is because skeptics had to acknowledge the logic, didn't they?"
And there is this pesky set of assumptions:
Everything has to have a direct, immediately preceding cause: The radioactive decay of an individual atom doesn't.
Except one: Except lots. See above.
So that uncaused cause has to be a supernatural, omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, personal being: Even assuming the necessity of an uncaused cause (not proven) why should it not be Buddha? Why not Ahura Mazda? Why not Mithra? Why not Jove? Why not Odin? Why not Atem? Not all supernatural world-creation myths are monotheistic or involve omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, personal beings. Why are their staunch believers (just as smart and sincere as their Christian/Muslim/Judaic brethren) so absolutely and demonstrably wrong? Show your working.
That personal, omni-everything maker spends all his (its) time obsessing with the sexual and dietetic habits of a bunch of upright primates on one small planet, orbiting an average star, in a largish but otherwise unremarkable galaxy in a universe full of billions of galaxies and quadrillions of stars and trillions of planets, and very possibly quintillions of other universes in a multiverse: Enough said.
Posted by: Big Al | October 01, 2013 at 03:23 AM
@ Bronze Dog
> Alastair, HOW do you know this alleged necessary uncaused cause is this thing you call a god? <
I don't believe I have ever employed the term "know" in this regards.
> The tough issue in arguing about real life is cogency. Validity means that if your premises are true, your conclusion will be true. Cogency/soundness means that your premises are true. If any one of your premises is false, your logic fails to be compelling because it's effectively changing the venue to a fictional world where those premises are true. <
Posted by: Alastair Paisley | October 01, 2013 at 03:11 PM
don't believe I have ever employed the term "know" in this regards.
Care to explain yourself and what your claims actually are, then?
Posted by: Bronze Dog | October 01, 2013 at 03:40 PM
> Sorry to tell you this Mr. not-at-all-logically-challenged, but you understand nothing. You say you ‘understand’ it is god, but this is just a semantic diversion to cover up the reality, which is that you just choose to believe it is god. (Calling it an ‘understanding’ rather than just a belief does not make it any more credible and doesn’t make it true.) You believe it’s god because you started off believing it was god. But you have no facts evidence or logic to show it is god. <
You will recall that I stated: "BELIEVERS like myself understand the necessary, uncaused cause to be God." The term "believer" means one who believes. (This doesn't reveal a cover up. It simply reveals that your reading comprehension skills leave something to be desired.)
> All you are saying, all you have ever said, is that something must have caused all the things we observe because the universe couldn’t have just popped into existence by itself. <
Correction! I argued that that is was an "UNCAUSED cause," not merely a "cause." (And I will remind you, that you agreed my argument was valid.)
> All you are saying, all you have ever said, is that something must have caused all the things we observe because the universe couldn’t have just popped into existence by itself. All the tortured posts (26 by my rough count) where you were determined to steer the discussion towards the specific words “necessary,” “uncaused” and “causes all other contingent things” that you have learned somewhere will suit your conclusion, as though these words were magic talismans. <
The explanation that "everything is popping into existence uncaused" does sound like a magical explanation to me. I don't know how else you would characterize that. Mystical, maybe?
@ Big Al
> Everything has to have a direct, immediately preceding cause: The radioactive decay of an individual atom doesn't. <
Sounds like you have evidence for an "uncaused cause" to me.
"The idea that an electron...by its own free decision chooses the moment and direction in which it wants to eject is intolerable to me. If that is so, I'd rather be a cobbler or a clerk in a gambling casino than a physicist." - Albert Einstein (source: pg. 574, "Albert Einstein" by Albrecht Fölsing, translated by Ewald Osers)
Merriam-Webster defines "indeterminism" as "a theory that the will is free and that deliberate choice and actions are not determined by or predictable from antecedent causes" or "a theory that holds that not every event has a cause."
> So that uncaused cause has to be a supernatural, omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, personal being: <
Well, an "uncaused cause" is certainly not a physical explanation. So, unless your "naturalism" involves something nonphysical, then I guess an uncaused cause would qualify as supernaturalistic explanation. The uncaused cause would also qualify as omnipotent because it is the source of all potency.
You will recall that I stated: "BELIEVERS like myself understand the necessary, uncaused cause to be God." The term "believer" means one who believes.
Yes, believes – without evidence, yet you believe it anyway. I understood perfectly.
The other thing I understood is that you cover up this unjustified belief with the word “understand.” Now “understand” has several definitions:
1.To perceive and comprehend the nature and significance of; grasp.
2. To know thoroughly by close contact or long experience with: That teacher understands children.
7. To accept (something) as an agreed fact: It is understood that the fee will be 50 dollars.
To know, to accept as an agreed fact. These are the subtle meanings you are trying to sneak in and get accepted, without of course directly stating them (because then it would be clear what you are doing). You are trying to cover up the fact that this is just an unjustified belief, with your use of the word “understand.” This seems to be a favorite trick of yours. But it’s just sophistry. And quite transparent.
(This doesn't reveal a cover up. It simply reveals that your reading comprehension skills leave something to be desired.)
On the contrary, I have just shown that my reading comprehension is fine. I comprehended exactly what you were doing. Nice try.
On the contrary, I agreed “for the sake of the discussion, let’s say you are correct…” You see, I had grown tired of your continued refusal to get to the point and was agreeing to your point for the sake of argument, to see where you would go with it (although I already knew in reality, I wanted you to present your argument). That’s what “for the sake of the discussion” means. It seems you are the one with reading comprehension difficulties.
Or just something we don’t understand yet. And won’t make up explanations the way you do.
Argument from authority now? For someone who thinks he is not logically challenged you sure do rely on logical fallacies a lot.
Posted by: Skeptico | October 01, 2013 at 07:24 PM
> Yes, believes – without evidence, yet you believe it anyway. I understood perfectly. <
Yes, the term "believer" means one who BELIEVES.
> The other thing I understood is that you cover up this unjustified belief with the word “understand.” Now “understand” has several definitions: <
Yes, the term "understand" does have several meanings.
Merriam-Webster's second definition of "understand" defines the term as "to accept as a fact or truth or regard as plausible without utter certainty."
I "accept as truth" that the uncaused cause is God.
I "regard as plausible without utter certainty" that the uncaused cause is God.
"Believers like myself understand the necessary, uncaused cause to be God."
(This is only difficult for someone who lacks reading comprehension skills and/or critical thinking skills.)
> On the contrary, I agreed “for the sake of the discussion, let’s say you are correct…” <
Me: "My argument is: "Something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent."
If you really don't believe it is a logically valid argument, then please state the logical flaw. Either state the logical flaw or acknowledge that it is logically valid. If you can't do that, then this debate is over."
You: "And what I keep saying is, so what? And you keep ignoring the question. OK, something must be necessary."
Now, you are backtracking and denying that you have acknowledged that "something must be necessary." And since you have also failed to identify any logical flaw with my argument, this debate is over.
Of course there are other definitions. But the one you want people to think of is "know" and and an "agreed fact." It's sneaky, but fortunately so transparent that anyone can see what you're doing.
The rest of your comment was the usual sophistry that we've dealt with before. You still can't prove the existence of god using logic alone and so yes the debate is over.
Posted by: Skeptico | October 02, 2013 at 06:44 AM
Something I feel I should note: We're not asking for "utter certainty," either. We're just asking for a reasonable level of confidence and plausibility, like we would for any science question under debate. Certainty is rarely possible outside of pure mathematics.
Posted by: Bronze Dog | October 02, 2013 at 09:21 AM
Edit to my above comment: I mean probability, not plausibility.
> Something I feel I should note: We're not asking for "utter certainty," either. We're just asking for a reasonable level of confidence and plausibility, like we would for any science question under debate. Certainty is rarely possible outside of pure mathematics. <
My original argument on this thread that "something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent" is most certainly true in the same sense that the mathematical statement "2 + 2 = 4" is most certainly true.
Posted by: Alastair Paisley | October 02, 2013 at 10:22 AM
Even if we granted that, so what?
> Even if we granted that, so what? <
I'm not doing any "for sake of argument" here.
Either you agree that my argument is logically valid and sound or you do not. If you do not, them please identify the flaw.
"I'm not doing any "for sake of argument" here."
Oh enough already with your petulant attitude.
"Either you agree that my argument is logically valid and sound or you do not. If you do not, them please identify the flaw."
Just to be clear, 'logically valid' is not a synonym for true, an argument can be logically valid and still wrong as this example indicates.
If the streets are wet, it has rained recently.
The streets are wet.
Therefore it has rained recently.
Thus 'logically valid' cannot speak to the objective truth of an argument only its internal consistency.
You want a flaw so lets start with the very first premise, that whatever begins to exist had a cause for that. To demonstrate the applicability of this claim you must resort to looking at causal relationships within the universe, that one thing begets another and that seems to be the only source of proof for this. The error appears in progressing to the next steps of the argument when taking these causal relationships within the universe and applying the rule to that which contains those things, the universe itself; based on no supporting evidence what-so-ever I might add.
Those within a team may work together but that does not mean that the thing they are within, teams, work together.
The rules of causation might apply to the universe itself but then again they might not, we don't know. You, however, don't know either and without any proper evidence - sorry but your assertions otherwise don't count - on your part we are not obliged to grant you your convenient presuppositions and so it falls at the first premise.
There's one flaw.
Now a question for you, the position that everything begins to exist suggests that there are things that begin to exist and things that do not. The latter as per you own insistences cannot be void so what does 'things that do not begin to exist' encompass, what are these things specifically?
Posted by: Darth Cynic | October 02, 2013 at 08:06 PM
Alastair, are you being evasive because you know we know your game and won't play along?
Oh, and one thing that comes to mind, though I can't quite recall how it went: It's possible to think of causes and effects as dependent (contingent?) on each other, and it's our temporal bias that makes us privilege causes.
You want a flaw so lets start with the very first premise, that whatever begins to exist had a cause for that.
I just remembered a point that I think is worth bringing up: Most things we think about in everyday life don't "begin to exist" in the way that phrase tends to imply. All that matter and energy has been around since at least the Big Bang, and it's only changed forms. We just apply labels to certain forms when they are "created," though those changes do typically involve causes.
Of course, it's still highly questionable to assert that everything has a cause just because we're familiar with caused events, since, as has been mentioned, the radioactive decay of an individual atom and particle pairs that arise in a vacuum appear to be causeless events. I don't see any problem with the idea that the Big Bang was uncaused.
> Alastair, are you being evasive because you know we know your game and won't play along? <
I'm not being evasive; you are.
Me: "My original argument on this thread that "something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent" is most certainly true in the same sense that the mathematical statement "2 + 2 = 4" is most certainly true."
You: "Even if we granted that, so what?"
You're NOT granting me anything. Either you acknowledge that "something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent" or you don't. If you don't, then you are obligated to identify the logical flaw in my argument. Failure to do so ends this debate. That's how it works.
I make an argument. You either accept the
argument or furnish me with a counterargument. That's how the 'game' is played. (I'm not about to go through the same exercise in futility with you that I had to go through with Skeptico.)
Currently, I do not see a reason to accept your premise that everything can't be contingent.
Some additional clarification on the terms "necessary" and "contingent" as you're using them would also be nice. In my experience, the specialized definitions are most typically (mis)used to distort or manufacture meaning, rather than express ideas.
As for why I haven't been focusing on this point, well, why is it that important? It's the common leap from the idea of a first/necessary/whatever cause to anthropomorphic entities called "gods" that I'm most interested in. I generally don't see much point in breaking a chain of terminological nuance when I'm aware of weaker links.
I'm probably stating the same thing in different words, so forgive me.
Alistair, my problem with your argument is that you replace the correct term - "logically consistent" - with the subjective "most certainly true."
I have no problem at all with " "something must be necessary because everything can't be contingent" is most certainly true [logically consistent] in the same sense that the mathematical statement "2 + 2 = 4" is most certainly true [logically consistent]." "
The problem I have is with the leap of faith that "most certainly true" is equivalent to "objectively real". 2+2=4 may be simple and self evidently true (within is set of axioms) but, as Gödel shows, even within the real numbers there must either be logical inonsistency or incompleteness. The physics of Aristotle was logically derrived and is logically consistent, and much of it has nothing at all to do with how things actually work.
Proving a god (or its equivalent) through a logical argument says nothing about whether one actually exists - it only shows that the argument is internally consistent.
When I initially asked "what is the problem with everything being contingent?" you said it could not be because of infinite regress. I agree that would be illogical (at least in a finite universe - as I said, there is no logical difficulty with it if you accept an infinite universe). You need to show why the real world must obey logic. It is purely an assumption on your part that it does. Or a belief - in which case your agrument reduces to you believing what you believe because you believe it.
Posted by: Yojimbo | October 03, 2013 at 12:01 PM
Sorry - that should say within its set of axioms
With the response made to Bronze Dog I think enough time has elapsed to consider that certainly what I put is being conveniently ignored. Especially as no mention was made of it what-so-ever, not even in passing.
Of course a lot more seems to be left unremarked on now.
AP "I'm not being evasive..."
Falsehood. Your complete failure to address what I put to you starkly gives the lie to your words, or are you really that oblivious to what has gone before? After all, you did erroneously accuse Skeptico of backtracking despite the fact he had clearly stated on the 27th that he only allowed the claim for the sake of moving your by the numbers sing-song along:
"This is getting tiresome so [...] I am going to throw you a bone. For the sake of the discussion, let’s say you are correct and something must be “necessary” as you put it."
Rather than deal with anything substantive, like the flaw you keep asking for, you seize on ephemeral minutiae for the express purpose of evasion. All whilst huffing and puffing about logic, debate and 'how the game is played' as though any of that breezy tripe adds validity to your position.
So enough of your willful obtuseness and petulant scrawk, counter the given flaw in the first premise and answer the damn question put to you. Or you might well be written off as just another god-bot imbecile, parroting a script.
> Currently, I do not see a reason to accept your premise that everything can't be contingent. <
You have to furnish me with a reason to reject it by specifically identifying where it is flawed.
> Some additional clarification on the terms "necessary" and "contingent" as you're using them would also be nice. In my experience, the specialized definitions are most typically (mis)used to distort or manufacture meaning, rather than express ideas. <
Merriam-Webster defines "necessary" as "logically unavoidable...that cannot be denied without contradiction."
Merriam-Webster defines "contingent" as "dependent on or conditioned by something else."
> As for why I haven't been focusing on this point, well, why is it that important? <
I have already stated why in a previous post.
> You need to show why the real world must obey logic. It is purely an assumption on your part that it does. Or a belief - in which case your agrument reduces to you believing what you believe because you believe it. <
I don't believe everything has to have a logical explanation. (I believe some things may be irreducibly mysterious...what pseudoskeptics seem to refer to as "woo.") But we can't have a rational debate unless we agree to adhere to some kind of logical standards.
Now I think we're getting into burden of proof or something like it. I need an explanation of why it's impossible. The way I'm looking at it right now, a cause "needs" its effect to happen in order to be a cause, to be what it is, so a cause-effect relationship looks like a two-way contingency to me.
Link, please? You can copy it from the post's timestamp.
> I need an explanation of why it's impossible. <
If you understood the meanings of the terms "necessary" and "contingent" (which apparently you did not), then you should have immediately grasped why it is impossible. That you're asking me to explain why it is impossible is tantamount to asking me to explain why 2 + 2 = 4. You either get it or you don't. If you don't, then we cannot continue. You clearly do not have intellectual capacity to engage in a rational debate.
> The way I'm looking at it right now, a cause "needs" its effect to happen in order to be a cause, to be what it is, so a cause-effect relationship looks like a two-way contingency to me. <
If a cause NEEDS its effect to happen in order to be a cause, then something must be necessary. <= See...I can play your sophistry game too.
Alastair, the burden of proof falls to you. You must provide evidence that this unknown cause is not only necessary but that it is also god/a god.
Your argument valid but not sound because your premise is an assertion. Until you can prove that a cause is necessary we have no reason to accept the truth of your argument. Two plus Two may equal Four but unless you know what real world value those twos are representing the four is meaningless. Furthermore without proof that those values should be two and not some other number (ie the difference between a cause being necessary or not) then the truth of your argument cannot be known.
The nature of our universe is not understood well enough at this point in time to come to a conclusion about the need for god or a cause. Since we can neither prove nor disprove your argument it becomes unfounded belief not empirical truth. In answer to your original question "What else would you define as that which must exist?", I don't know. You believe you have the answer but without proof you cannot convince anyone.
I believe it has been asked of you before, but I will ask again. Why must there be a cause? Why must the unknown cause be god? How are you defining god?
If you cannot answer those questions beyond saying that you "understand" that it must be true then your argument has nothing. Given how you've evaded so far I am not hopeful.
Posted by: Osenefous | October 04, 2013 at 02:15 AM
I think it clear that Alastair is nought but a god-bot with a script he demands everyone else follow to the letter as he alone prescribes it. Logic isn't a tool for him, it's a mere rhetorical device to be picked up or put down as and where suits; picked up for the uncaused cause, put down for the leap to god. It's all just a routine to lead doubters / unbelievers to the conclusion he wants to believe in because for some reason, our acknowledgment bolsters his faith. Which is why he cannot stand the otherwise trivial 'for the sake of argument' and sunk to lies when he was reminded a precious acknowledgment was merely for the sake of argument, "now, you are backtracking and denying that you have acknowledged...." Our failure to give his claim our blessing apparently discomfits him something terrible.
We have all put to him in one fashion or another this flaw he keeps asking for and he keeps studiously pretending nothing was said, instead choosing to vigorously handwave over irrelevant minutiae and mistaking dreary repetition for cogent argument. He simply won't acknowledge the existence of a flaw nor answer the simplest of question because in doing so he will undermine his seemingly gossamer thin faith. Hence the constant repetition of his demands, the ignorance and sundry hot air about debate, intellectual capacity etc. is a coping mechanism, a proxy for an actual rebuttal he apparently cannot render.
So at this juncture I reckon Alastair's paucity of reason in his position to be now manifestly obvious, his highly disingenuous discourse well exposed and is really all he has to offer. Thus he can now be easily ignored.
Posted by: Darth Cynic | October 04, 2013 at 06:30 AM
@ Osenefous
> Since we can neither prove nor disprove your argument it becomes unfounded belief not empirical truth. <
My argument is based on rationalism, not empiricism. Your argument that the only valid truth is empirical truth is itself not based on empiricism. As such, it is inherently self-refuting.
Okay, so does this mean absolutely everything's necessary, now? If so, it kind of trivializes the use of the word.
And what's sophistry about describing the nature of causality?
Just to note: The only times I can recall anyone ever using words like "necessary" and "contingent" to describe causes were when religious apologetics were involved. They were much more direct about where they were taking it, though, since they weren't interested in giving lessons on the meaning of the jargon or used to being asked questions about it.
Their arguments that followed from their talk about the necessary first cause or whatever were complete non-sequiturs, so I never really had the need to look into this part of the argument. Since the dead field of religious apologetics was the only thing I knew of that used that language, I wasn't exactly motivated to learn the nuance when the rest of the package had more obvious flaws.
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DFA Media, the publisher of Smart Machines and Factories and its sister magazines Drives & Controls and Plant & Works Engineering, has launched Talking Industry, a new series of live digitally broadcast panel discussions with leading experts from the industrial, automation and manufacturing sectors.
These digitally broadcast panel discussions present a unique opportunity to discuss strategies, technologies and issues within both the industrial digitalisation sphere and the wider engineering community.
The first in the series, Talking Industry – Manufacturing, will take place at 10am on Tuesday 14th July and will focus on three broad areas: increasing productivity and efficiency; reducing downtime and costs; and future technologies. Our panel of experts will explore a wide range of subjects and topics, and viewers will benefit from hearing their opinions on strategies, technologies and other aspects of the topic.
Each topic will be discussed for about 30 minutes, and will be followed by an interactive Q&A session with input from the viewers. Attendees can tune in for all or part of the broadcast.
The event is 100% free to attend. For those who are unable to attend the live event, it will be made available afterwards for download from our websites.
A full list of the panellists and their biographies can be found below.
Anthony Pickering, President, Control Techniques
With more than 25 years’ experience working at a senior level for some of the biggest names in the industry – including Schneider, Danfoss and Lenze – Anthony takes great pride in being a true drives specialist. Now, as President of Control Techniques – part of the Nidec group – he is responsible for growing one of the industry’s best-known and most innovative brands. Control Techniques, founded in Newtown, Wales in 1973, prides itself on its rich history of firsts, from the industry’s first digital DC drive, to the Commander range of general-purpose drives and the flagship Unidrive M platform. Control Techniques drives empower innovative engineers to change the world, one revolution at a time.
Andrew Jones, End-Use Sales Manager, HP 3D Multi Jet Fusion
Andrew has more than 10 years of experience in the additive manufacturing industry, including experience with most major polymer technologies, as well as metal printing. He has dealt with end-use projects in the aerospace, automotive and the consumer industries, and guided companies along their additive journeys. He believes that meaningful applications using additive manufacturing can transform how we design, purchase and use everyday things.
Nikesh Mistry, Sector Head of Industrial Automation, GAMBICA, the UK trade association for Instrumentation, Control, Automation and Laboratory Technology
While relatively new to the trade association world, Nikesh has developed an extensive understanding of both the technical and commercial areas of the manufacturing and automation industry. His previous role as a technical sales engineer for Keyence UK allowed him to gain on-site industry experience. His ability to build sustained client relationships has been refined in industries including automotive, food, pharmaceuticals, raw materials, chemical testing, defence and aerospace, and even financial services. Nikesh has an honours degree in Electronic Engineering from The University of Birmingham and believes that, with the right mind-set anduse of innovation, the UK will excel throughout the fourth industrial revolution.
Job Euwes, Commercial Manager, IXON
Job has a track record in building up successful sales teams in technical environments. At IXON, he started the International Core Sales Team which is now responsible for almost 70% of sales. His background in innovative technology and IT have shaped his view on the world of engineering. His vision that the world can – and will – be connected and contact with decision-makers all over the world have led Job to a strong belief that innovation in industrial IoT should be kept simple and small. His notion is that the key to understanding the possibilities that today’s technology offer is simply taking that small first step.
Sean Robinson, Manager, Software Solutions, Novotek UK and Ireland
With nearly three decades’ experience in the automation and controls sector, Sean has delivered projects across North America and Europe and is the “go to” person for software solutions at the industrial IT and automation specialist, Novotek UK and Ireland. Sean began his career in Canada where he helped manufacturers leverage digital technology – particularly manufacturing execution systems. He later joined GE and became its global industry manager for food and beverage. He joined Novotek UK & Ireland (formerly Kerrco Automation) in 2012 and has been instrumental in helping to establish the company as a leading provider for automation, industrial and IoT solutions in the country.
Andy Pye, Webinar Chair and Consulting Editor, DFA Media
Andy will be known to many in the engineering and automation industry in the UK, and has edited many leading design and manufacturing titles over the past four decades. Andy was a founder and shareholder in the start-up e-publishing business Pro-Talk, which launched in 1999 and was bought by Centaur Publishing in 2006. Andy is a graduate material engineer and spent five years in engineering consultancy prior to joining the technical publishing industry in 1980.
Inaugural Talking Industry digital broadcast tackles key manufacturing issues
Automotive: The pioneers of additive manufacturing
Industry 4.0, 5G and AI: delivering a digital future
Smartening existing processes
Industry 4.0: The future is AI
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Aris Antoniades
Praised for the “spiritual heights, the drama, the tension” of his music “immersing the listener into a world of sound” (The National Herald, NYC), composer Aris Antoniades creates works for everything from Symphony Orchestras to Jazz Big Bands. He has written/arranged for eight-times Grammy nominee Bobby Sanabria, the National Radio Symphony Orchestra of Greece (ERT), and X-Factor (Greece) judge George Theofanous. His latest symphonic work, Chiaroscuro, was recorded and broadcast by the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, and his Afro-Cuban Jazz arrangement of Lalo Schifrin’s famous Mission Impossible Theme was performed at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in New York (Jazz at the Lincoln Center). Aris’ Nostos for saxophone and piano, co-commissioned by the University of Sydney and the Australian ensemble HD Duo, was featured by the group in their 2018 World Tour. More recently, his Toccata & Fugue for organ was performed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC. Aside from concert works, Aris has written extensively for film and theater, having scored seven short-films, including the film Bizone whose soundtrack has been released on all major streaming platforms. His theater credits include collaborations with Broadway veterans, such as composer/pianist Andrew Gerle, and director Joe Locarro - Aris provided orchestrations for their show Tony Awards: The Early Years. Recently, Aris arranged and music directed a very successful run of the show The Impossible Dream in his homeland, Cyprus. He is currently orchestrating the off-Broadway revival of The Medium by G.C. Menotti. A recipient of the Fulbright award, Aris completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Classical Composition at Manhattan School of Music in NYC, where he studied with Mark Stambaugh, receiving the Provost’s Award for Academic Excellence upon graduation. He is honored to have been the recipient of the Manhattan School of Music International Advisory Board and the A. G. Leventis Foundation scholarship awards.
Aris Antoniades’s tracks
Toccata & Fugue for Organ (Live) by Aris Antoniades
Main Theme from "BIZONE" by Aris Antoniades
I'll Know- From Guys And Dolls; Orchestrated by Aris Antoniades by Aris Antoniades
Don Jose Of Far Rockaway- From Wish You Were Here; Orchestrated by Aris Antoniades by Aris Antoniades
You're Just In Love- From Call Me Madam; Orchestrated by Aris Antoniades by Aris Antoniades
Somebody Somewhere / And This Is My Beloved / I Met A Girl; Orchestrated by Aris Antoniades by Aris Antoniades
Aris Antoniades's likes
Aris Antoniades's playlists
Aris Antoniades's tracks
Aris Antoniades's comments
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BREAKING BAD PREQUEL THEORY
Source Google Image
Let’s take a brief second to think what Jesse’s life was like before Mr. White. We got a little glimpse of this in the show (and without giving out any spoilers) we know that Jesse’s home life was not that great. But what was his life during school? What was it about Jesse that his teacher Mr. White thought he was a waste of skin. He obviously was dealing with issues at home. And during this time Mr. White was a family man who had a son of his own. Don’t you think that Mr. White would have noticed some kind of problem? The only way he wouldn’t have noticed Jesse, was if he wasn’t worth noticing. The dude just went about his business. Seen as a loner he would be constantly bullied and picked on. Floating just under the radar for the teachers to notice, but just weird enough for every asshole to pick on.
“I AM THE ONE WHO KNOCKS…THE BOOKS OUT OF YOU HANDS” – Everyone who picks on High School Jesse
So, this seems like a pretty cool back story, and then, as I was casually perusing some old music videos – BOOM – THERE HE IS. HIGH SCHOOL PINKMAN! Aaron Paul was actually the lead actor in Korn’s music video for the song “Thoughtless.” The cool thing is, “Thoughtless” was released in 2002 and going off of Jesse Pinkman’s character age (born 1984), it means Pinkman would’ve been in High School during this year! To get even more crazy, the video portrays Aaron Paul getting picked on and bullied by everyone. Not to mention the greatest way to enter a room (see below)…
WHO WANTS AN EXORCIST FOOD FIGHT?!?!?
Check out the video and let’s agree that this should serve as Jesse Pinkman’s prequel to Breaking Bad!
Nerdom, Originals
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Can't believe I clocked below-49, says Asian Games silver medallist Dharun
Dharun Ayyasamy is still in awe of his silver medal-winning run of 48.96 sec in the men’s 400m hurdles silver medal at the 2018 Asian Games.
S. Prasanna Venkatesan
Dharun Ayyasamy clinched two silver medals at the 2018 Asian Games -- in the men's 400m hurdles and men’s 4x400m relay. - R. Ragu
Dharun Ayyasamy, who clinched the men’s 400m hurdles silver medal at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta said on Friday that he still finds it unbelievable he was able to clock a timing of below 49 seconds, referring to his medal-winning performance (48.96 sec).
“Clocking 50, 51 (sec) is quite easy. It’s hard to clock below-50. I still can’t believe it (having clocked 48.96s),” he said.
Dharun, along with Arokia Rajiv, spoke on the sidelines of a function organised by the Tamil Nadu Athletic Association (TNAA) to felicitate them for their Asian Games performances. Rajiv won a silver in the 400m mixed relay, while both won silver in the men’s 4x400m relay.
RELATED| Dharun clinches silver in men’s 400m hurdles
Dharun had won the men’s 400m hurdles gold in the inter-state athletics meet in Guwahati in June with a new meet record of 49.68s, after setting the then National record (49.45s) in the Federation Cup in May.
“That I was hitting the 49-mark was in itself hard to believe. I thought I’ll try to maintain it. I was actually expecting a 49.1 or 49.2. I don’t know how I’ve managed to clock below that. I’m very happy, of course. The aim now is to hit 48.2-48.3, performances that’ll help one reach the final in the Olympics. According to me, in the Olympic track & field events, reaching the final is in itself a big achievement. So, the aim should be to improve the timing. Not to go for the medals; that will take care of itself,” he said.
Dharun and Arokia Rajiv pose with their Asian Games medals at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Friday. - R. Ragu
He had bettered Joseph Abraham’s timing for the National record in the Federation Cup. Incidentally, it was Joseph Abraham who had last won an Asian Games medal (gold) for India in the men’s 400m hurdles in 2010.
Joseph had in fact called Dharun and congratulated him on his Asian Games medal. “He (Joseph) called me. He shared his experiences, said I’ll do well for seven or eight more years,” said Dharun.
Dharun had beaten his statemate, “good friend”, and “training partner” Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan for the gold in Guwahati. Tamilarasan finished fifth in the Asian Games.
RELATED| Dharun Ayyasamy - Kho-kho's loss is athletics' gain
“He’s been a very good training partner. It’s actually because of him that I’ve improved a lot. We’ve been training together for around a year now. We fiercely compete with each other. Either of us try emulate the timing the other sets,” he said.
“Actually, he (Tamilarasan) had been running 50m hurdles for a long time. For around a year or a year and a half. He had been struggling and working hard to clock below-50. He clocked 49.66 (in the Games). So, he’s very happy,” he added.
Dharun had trained under the 72-year-old American Garina P. Bukharina in the Czech Republic as preparation for the Games. On training abroad, he said: “We go to the European countries for the technology and climate. Climate, because, it’s easy for the body to recover there especially after a lot of repetitions (training sessions). The body gets ready easily and quickly for the next session. That’s the main thing. Plus, you have a lot of competitions there. In India, there’ll be, say, three competitions in a year. Whereas, in a European country, there’ll be four-five competitions in a month."
On the coach, he said: "He doesn’t insist on training 'heavy'. For instance, we had a Ukrainian coach for the 2016 Olympics. He used to believe in training heavy. Whereas, with this coach, the training will not be that heavy. By heavy, I mean overload. There’ll not be a lot of repetitions (training sessions), but the intensity (of training) will be high. Even if you run three races, you have to run within a set time.”
RELATED| Rajiv, Ayyasamy get Rs 30 lakh each for second silver
Both Dharun and Rajiv said they’re focussing on the Asian and the World athletics championships before the Olympics. It is doubtful if Dharun’s funding from the TOP (Target Olympic Podium) scheme will extend beyond the Asian Games. He said: “It’s been renewed. From what I know, my name is on the list (for funding under the TOP scheme). But I don’t know the term.”
Joseph Abraham
Arokia Rajiv
Dharun Ayyasamy
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Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) (Exemption from Prohibition against Dealing) (No. 2) Order 2010
(Suppression of Financing) Act
In exercise of the powers conferred by section 7(1) of the Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act, the Minister for Home Affairs hereby makes the following Order:
1. This Order may be cited as the Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) (Exemption from Prohibition against Dealing) (No. 2) Order 2010 and shall come into operation on 26th March 2010.
2.—(1) Mohamed Hussain Bin Saynudin (NRIC No. S7340736B) and Rahamah Binte Abdul Karim (NRIC No. S0231348J) are hereby exempted from the application of section 6 of the Act in respect of the sale of the leasehold interest in the flat known as Apartment Block 842, Woodlands Street 82, #12-49, Singapore 730842, on the condition that the balance of the proceeds of the sale, less the repayment of —
(a) the amount outstanding under any housing loan in respect of the purchase of the leasehold interest in the flat (including interest); and
(b) any money withdrawn from the Central Provident Fund for the purchase of the leasehold interest in the flat (including interest),
is deposited in the bank account as designated in the letter of exemption dated 26th March 2010.
(2) Rahamah Binte Abdul Karim is further exempted from the application of section 6 of the Act in respect of —
(a) any withdrawal from the bank account referred to in sub-paragraph (1); and
(b) the use of the sum withdrawn therefrom.
(3) The exemption in respect of the activity referred to in sub-paragraph (2)(b) is subject to the conditions stated in the letter of exemption referred to in sub-paragraph (1).
[MHA112/2/0106; AG/LLRD/SL/325/2010/1 Vol. 1]
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Terms of use for marks owned by the Association for Finnish Work
These terms of use (”Terms of Use”) apply to the use of the registered marks owned by the Association for Finnish Work (”Association”), business ID: 0201524-9, Address: PO BOX 429, 00101 Helsinki, Finland, which have been itemised below, by member organisations of the Association.
Organisation mark ”Key Flag” [Reg. nos. 68193 and 109654]
Organisation mark ”Design from Finland” [Reg. no. 260428]
Organisation mark ”Social Enterprise” [Reg. no. 254995]
The Key Flag mark, the Design from Finland mark and the Social Enterprise mark shall later be referred to as ”Mark” and collectively as ”Marks”.
The use of the Marks requires that the organisation is a member of the Association and has authorisation from the Association to use the Mark. The right to use the Marks is usually awarded for three years, however, the Mark committees may also award the right for a shorter period. The rules and conditions of the individual Marks shall be followed when awarding the usage rights.
The Key Flag symbol rules
The Design from Finland mark´s rules
The Finnish Social Enterprise mark´s rules
When implementing the use of the Marks, the organisation which has been awarded usage rights shall accept these Terms of Use and commit to following them.
3. Use of the Marks
The member organisation which has been awarded the usage rights to the Mark shall comply with Finnish law, any official regulations, the code of good practice and these Terms of Use.
The Marks shall be only implemented in the visual formats stipulated in the Association’s guidelines. The Association defines the accepted usage forms of the Marks and maintains these Terms of Use, according to which the Marks shall be used. The Association may update the visual formats of the Marks and the organisation mark registrations, if necessary. The up-to-date visual formats of the Marks can be found in the visual guidelines given on the Association’s web site.
The Marks shall only be used within the awarded usage rights and in accordance with the Terms of Use and the visual guidelines of the Association.
If the usage rights, in accordance with the rules of the Mark, have only been awarded to certain products or services, the Mark shall only be used in the marketing of said products or services. If the same product name or label is used for products or services of which only some fulfil the conditions of the Mark, the Mark shall only be used on the products which fulfil said conditions.
The organisation which has been awarded the usage right to the Key Flag mark or the Design from Finland mark may also use the Mark in its corporate image communications, such as image or brand advertising, when over 75 percent of the company’s turnover is generated by the products or services for which the Marks were awarded and when the organisation has notified the Association of this in its annual notification. When used in corporate image communications, the Marks shall clearly refer to the name or brand of the organisation. The corporate image communication shall however never be misleading.
4. The Correctness and Timeliness of Information
The validity of the usage right for the awarded time requires that the qualification criteria and conditions stated in each Mark’s rules are continuously met and that these Terms of Use are followed. If there are changes in the qualifications or conditions affecting the usage right, it is the Association’s member organisation’s duty to report them in writing to the Association.
The information about the member organisation’s turnover, which affects the Association membership fee and the usage rights of the Marks, shall be based on the information given in the organisation’s financial report and in their bookkeeping. The Association shall have the right to require that the member organisation provide a statement by an accountant or subcontractor or other external party on the organisation’s turnover information and other factors affecting the awarding of the usage rights. The member organisation shall be responsible for providing up-to-date and correct information for the application process.
All information related to the usage right application shall be treated in confidence and kept secret. The member organisation of the Association shall be responsible for ensuring that the usernames and passwords provided for the Association’s web service are only in the use of authorised persons.
5. Consequences of Not Using the Marks in Accordance with the Mark Rules or Terms of Use
The member organisation’s right to use the Marks shall end automatically if the organisation no longer fulfils the qualifications or conditions stipulated in the Mark’s rules. The Association shall have the right to cancel the right to use the mark if the member organisation has given false information or has in any other way misled the Association or if the Association sees that the Mark is not used in accordance with these Terms of Use or the Mark’s rules.
The Association may, in accordance with the situation, give the member organisation a reasonable period of no longer than one (1) month for the rectification of their activities pertaining to the Terms of Use or the Mark’s rules. If the member organisation has not rectified the situation within the time given by the Association, the usage right of the Mark shall end at the end of the rectification period given by the Association.
Once the usage right of the Mark ends, the member organisation’s right to use the Mark in marketing shall end immediately. The Mark shall also not be used on any products manufactured after the usage right ends or any of their packaging. In general, the Mark may be used on the products and their packaging which have been manufactured before the usage right ended for a maximum of six (6) months, after which the Mark shall be removed from any products and their packaging which remain in the possession of the member association after the usage right has ended.
In the event that the Mark has not been used in accordance with the Terms of Use or the Mark’s rules, the organisation shall pay the Association a compensation which is 2 x the Association’s membership fee based on the organisations turnover from the entire time of non-compliance, the sum always being at least 1,000 Euros per annum.
If the Mark has not been used in accordance with the Terms of Use or the Mark’s rules for more than twelve (12) months, the organisation shall pay the Association a compensation which is 2 x the Association’s membership fee based on the organisations turnover for each beginning period of twelve (12) months, regardless of how long the non-compliance continues.
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The Three Loneliest Times of Life, According to Research
Photo: INC
Happy holidays! It’s loneliest of the year. And depending on your age, it might be even lonelier than usual.
The Most Wonderful Time of The Year…?
People most frequently experience peak loneliness at three key periods of their lives, according to new research. Researchers found that people reported moderate or severe loneliness most often in their late 20s, their mid-50s, and their late 80s.
The general sense of isolation was also more prevalent than the researchers expected. Three-quarters of all study participants reported moderate to high levels of loneliness, said Dr. Dilip Jeste, senior author of the study and a professor of psychiatry and neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego.
“One thing to remember is that loneliness is subjective. Loneliness does not mean being alone; loneliness does not mean not having friends,” said Jeste. “Loneliness is defined as ‘subjective distress.’ ” It is the discrepancy between the social relationships you want and the social relationships you have, he said.
Within the dark clouds, Jeste also found a silver lining: An inverse relationship exists between loneliness and wisdom. “In other words, people who have high levels of wisdom didn’t feel lonely, and vice versa,” he said.
Helpful Traits To Combat Loneliness
This inverse association between loneliness and wisdom is “suggestive of the role of personality in the development and persistence of loneliness over time,” said Anthony Ong, a professor of human development at Cornell University and a professor of gerontology in medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.
The focus on wisdom as a protective factor is “novel, but more research is needed to clarify the mechanisms underlying the reported association between wisdom and loneliness,” Ong. A “full understanding” of the phenomenon of loneliness is far from complete, Ong said. “Questions remain about whether the associations between loneliness and health reflect the effects of loneliness.” Research has found that loneliness is a known risk factor cognitive decline, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, disability, and depression.
Ong added that more studies “addressing the direct, indirect, and moderated effects of social isolation and loneliness on health are urgently needed.”
Researching the Reasons
“More research is also needed to clarify the brain mechanisms underlying the association between loneliness and cognitive decline in old age and the extent to which such decline is reversible through intervention,” he said. He believes that combating loneliness “may play an important role in improving well-being and prolonging life.”
Jeste agrees that more research is needed and that answering the question, “How do you reduce loneliness?” is the “main goal.” With suicide, opioid abuse, and now loneliness all at “epidemic” levels, Jeste believes there is “increasing stress in general society over the last few decades.”
“People need to realize that [loneliness] is a common problem. It is a serious problem,” said Jeste, who suggested that the six component traits of wisdom might be cultivated. “Loneliness is sad; nobody disagrees with that,” he said. “But it is a little bit more under our control than some people think.”
Kitchen Upgrades that are Sure to Wow in the New Year
8 “Healthy” Snacks That Aren’t As Healthy As They Seem
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A Little Life: The Best Book, or the Worst?
instead of slavoj zizek and jordan peterson debating marxism they should have me and @frankie_jay_tho debate if a little life is good
— Peyton Thomas (@silkspectres) March 2, 2019
Illustration by Fiona Ostby.
This debate contains spoilers for “A Little Life,” as well as discussion of suicide, sexual abuse, pedophilia, domestic violence, disordered eating, and self-harm, which may be triggering to some readers. The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity, and to get rid of all our little verbal tics, because we uh, um, like, I think, used a lot of them, you know what I mean?
Frankie: Hello, Niche readers. My name is Frankie Thomas. I am a writer currently in my second year at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. I will graduate in a few months, and I actually just wrote extensively about A Little Life in my MFA thesis essay exam, so it’s fresh in my memory. My critical credentials are that I am a regular contributor to the Paris Review Daily, and most recently, I have been writing a monthly column for them where I critique YA fiction of the 90s.
Peyton: My name is Peyton Thomas, not to be confused with Frankie Thomas —
Frankie: Oh, yeah, no relation.
Peyton: — who is also a slacker andro waif with brown hair and glasses who writes things and gets passionate about gay shit. You can see why people would mix us up. But anyway, I am a young adult novelist, and I write scripts for video games, and I’ve contributed writing to Vanity Fair, Billboard, Pitchfork, and The Atavist. My credentials for reviewing A Little Life are not that I’ve written an academic paper about it, or that I write columns about books. I just love it a whole lot. I re-read it annually. I’ve given it away as a gift to multiple people. I’m as passionate about loving this book as Frankie is about hating it.
So we are here today to debate a simple question, in the tradition of Jordan Peterson versus Slavoj… Ziz…
Frankie Thomas: Slavoj Zizek.
Peyton: There you go. You pronounced it.
Frankie: I object to your casting of me as Jordan Peterson. Really, it should be you, because you’re Canadian, right?
Peyton: Don’t you ever compare me to…
Frankie: But I’m not eager to be Zizek or Peterson, so, whichever you need me to be.
Peyton: Capitalism versus Marxism is one of the most contentious debates of our age, as is, “Is A Little Life good or bad? Is it the best book, or the worst book?”
Frankie: It actually does feel like those are the only two options. One reason I am so excited to have this debate with you is that this novel is so polarizing. I’m not sure anyone has ever had a really spirited critical discussion about it before.
Peyton: No, because everyone who’s ever written about it is either really hardcore in one camp or the other. No one’s ambivalent about it.
Frankie: And if you hate it, it’s so easy to make fun of it. I’m not sure anyone’s ever seriously discussed their problems with it, because you can just lapse into parody so quickly.
Oh, wait, one more thing, before we start this debate. I only remembered after agreeing to do this debate that you were a debate champion in high school. I went to a Quaker school where we didn’t believe in competition or being adversarial, so I’ve never done a debate before and I’m gonna get fucking creamed by you, I’m sure. So, this is not to say, “Go easy on me,” but, uh… be warned that I’m soft. I’m very soft.
Peyton: Well, I am out of practice. That’s the one thing. I was a debate champion in high school, which was… a minute ago.
Frankie: It wasn’t that long ago.
Peyton: It was a few years. Now, do you want to give us your opening statement?
Frankie: I should open by saying what I do love about A Little Life, because I am coming to this in good faith. I can see why someone might love this book, even though I hate it. I read it in 2016 and hated every minute of it and literally have not stopped thinking about it since. Not a day has gone by since then that I have not thought about it.
What I admire about it is that it has this incredibly immersive quality. Even if you hate it, it’s very difficult to put it down. Its universe, even though it bears very little resemblance to our universe, is quite self-contained and feels like a real place, though not one that you could visit. It makes such bold choices. It is so bonkers. And whether you like that or not, it’s hard to deny just how much Hanya Yanagihara goes there. She does nothing halfway. She will never do something slightly if she can do it maximally. That’s a large part of what makes it so memorable to people.
And then, finally, it is shockingly well-attuned to a certain fantasy that a lot of us have, including me. When I want to see this fantasy gratified in fiction, I usually turn to fanfiction. A Little Life is very unusual in its similarity to fanfiction, in terms of the pleasures that it offers and the fantasies that it gratifies. That said, I do not think that it transcends fanfiction in its use of fanfic tropes. Its critical success is largely due to the mainstream publishing world’s utter ignorance of fanfiction as a genre. If you are as well-versed in fanfiction as many of us are, A Little Life will seem very familiar, and even cliché, instead of groundbreaking. But I’m excited to discuss this with you, because I know that you, too, are a connoisseur of fanfiction, and you clearly don’t experience it the same way.
Peyton: Yeah, that’s another thing we have in common: we’ve read just an absurd amount of fanfiction, and that informs the way we approach literature in general. I mean, you’ve written for the Paris Review about the Sirius/Remus fanfiction phenomenon. This is very much in your wheelhouse.
Now, my opening statement. I should begin, in good faith, by listing the things I don’t like about A Little Life. Here we go!
So, clearly, the one caveat I have is that this isn’t a book I can universally recommend to anyone. There are books that I can unreservedly recommend to any reader — The Idiot by Elif Batuman is one example, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay — but A Little Life covers really difficult subject matter, and it does so in a really graphic and uncompromising way, and it doesn’t end happily. It could be massively triggering, and it’s not an easy read or a lighthearted read by any means.
The one thing I always say to people is, “You’ll either love it or hate it, but whatever you do, just don’t look up the Wikipedia plot summary.” Because if you do, it just looks like a litany of terrible, terrible things happening, and a person getting worse and worse and worse, until it all ends miserably. Which is not inaccurate. But it misses what, for me, is just this transcendent experience: seeing a lifelong history of trauma met every step of the way with love and care and tenderness.
Now, my next point: what Frankie said is right. It borrows a lot from fanfiction. We’ve speculated that it may have originated as fanfiction. We don’t know what fandom, but Hanya, at one point, was writing some serious AO3 hurt/comfort fic. The fanfic aesthetic, for me, is something that has been missing from contemporary fiction. A Little Life is not alone in heaping terrible things upon its protagonist, but it is unique in that every low is met with a high of equal strength. This awful, traumatic childhood that Jude undergoes is matched with so many blessings and committed relationships and connections in adulthood. And these good things don’t magically resolve his childhood trauma, which I think is a very honest way to approach the subject matter.
Hanya has spoken a lot about how she wrote it like a fairy tale. I know, Frankie, you said you didn’t really understand that.
Frankie: Yeah, we’ll talk about this, I’m sure.
Peyton: A lot of foundational stories for children, fairy tales, are grounded in really traumatic things happening, and then being completely resolved and swept away. Every Disney movie begins with the death of a parent, which is an awful, horrible, traumatic, life-altering thing. And inevitably, by the end, the character has gone on a journey and completely healed, and the trauma’s been forgotten and all is well.
In A Little Life, the character begins with an awful, traumatic childhood, this horrible origin myth, and is delivered into this kind of salvation. But the residue of the trauma is still lingering, and he still has to figure out what to do with it, day by day by day. That’s an interesting combination of the tropes of fairy tales and the style and diction of contemporary fiction. So, that’s my opening statement.
Frankie: Oh my gosh, that’s a hell of an opening statement. Okay! You brought up a lot of interesting defenses of the novel. I’d actually like to frame many of my complaints in the form of questions to you, because I’d like to hear your defense of these things before I go to town on them.
Peyton: Sure!
Frankie: So, we could begin so many places, but let’s just begin with Jude’s trauma, because you brought that up a lot.
I would never judge a novel for being triggering. Like, that we will just set aside. But it is worth pointing out that what makes the novel triggering to many readers is not just the fact that it contains such trauma, but the way it revels in the excess of the description of the trauma. You and I can both agree that, aesthetically, A Little Life is defined by its excess. It is approximately 90,000 pages long. It is 800 pages long. It is really, really long. And even to read the Wikipedia plot summary — which, uh, don’t do, I suppose, if you want to read it for yourself — which does look like a litany of horror, does not even begin to capture the amount of horror and violence that is visited upon Jude. It’s not even that he cuts himself, it’s that we get the suppuration and the sick, fishy scent of his rotting flesh and the, oh, God, “looks like a side of fatted bacon,” and, what is it, “a crusty cap of pus forms…” There’s a lot.
And to me, this can feel exploitative at best, and at worst — and I’m only talking about the cutting here, but this is also true of the sexual violence and the relationship violence and getting run over by a car, lots of violence occurs in this novel, all of it visited upon Jude — at worst, to me, it seems pornographic. I use the word “pornographic” only in the sense that the violence seems to have no purpose except as an end in itself. I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember when Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ was released?
Peyton: Oh, yeah.
Frankie: I remember the word “pornographic” getting thrown around a lot in discussion of The Passion, too, in the sense of, “Is this just violence for violence’s sake?”, as pornography is sex for sex’s sake. So I’m very curious to hear your defense of the unbelievable amount of graphic violence that is described in A Little Life.
Peyton: Well, Hanya is graphic about everything. She is so descriptive of every tiny little detail. You know the colour of every surface in Jude’s apartment. She’ll spend pages describing the texture of a fabric or the smell of sandalwood that lingers on an old shirt. She doesn’t blink or look away or ignore any kind of sensory detail. And that is what makes the scenes of trauma so, so difficult to read.
Like you, I would never judge a novel for depicting triggering content. There are sensitive ways to do it and insensitive ways to do it, good taste and bad taste. I can also understand someone choosing not to read a novel because it contains subject matter that is a no-go for them.
But while A Little Life is graphically violent, we’re also given these very in-depth looks at how Jude thinks, and how he feels, and how he responds to the world around him. The violence in the book is never separated from emotional impact. We not only get descriptions of the violence, but we deeply feel how the violence is affecting Jude, how it affects every thought pattern, how he sees himself, how he sees his connections to others. The difference between this and something like “The Passion” — because, you know, I was raised in a very hardline Anglican denomination and I watched it a lot —
Frankie: Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.
Peyton: You don’t get to see the interior life of Christ. Mel Gibson is not concerned with Jesus’s spiritual journey, which is, ironically, what the movie should be about. His aim there was to depict this horrifying thing that happened to Jesus, put it in three dimensions, make the smell of blood radiate from the screen. This is a story that we know, but maybe haven’t conceived in material, bloody terms. We haven’t had that viscera before.
But in A Little Life, the graphic detail is not just there to shock. It’s not just there to illustrate the extent of Jude’s suffering, although that is one function of it. It is deeply connected to his mental illness and to his history of trauma. It really is bringing readers into this world and making them understand that mindset.
As much as this is a book that, spoiler alert, ends in the main character’s suicide, it is ultimately one of the strongest cases against suicide that I’ve ever seen in literature. When we reach the end of the book, we have been given every single excuse for why Jude’s life is miserable and unbearable. And it still ends with his adoptive father saying, “I wish he hadn’t ended his life, I wish he’d died believing that he was loved and connected.” That’s my overall takeaway from it, but you might feel differently, Frankie.
Frankie: Wow, thank you for that detailed answer. I want to begin by agreeing with something you said, and move from that into a larger critique.
I definitely agree with you that the book really skillfully gets into Jude’s psychology and, by extension, the psychology of someone who has been a victim of abuse and trauma. The novel is really, really well-attuned to how someone in Jude’s position would manipulate himself, and this would affect his self-esteem and his ability to form bonds with others. Hanya Yanagihara is very sophisticated on that psychological front.
But what I find disturbing about A Little Life is that even though it has a very large cast of characters and even though it’s narrated from the point of view of multiple characters, somehow, the entire universe, the entire fictional universe of the novel, is structured around Jude. Jude is literally the centre of his universe. All the violence that occurs in the novel is visited upon Jude. The emotional arc of every single chapter is that something terrible happens to Jude, and then everybody else tells Jude how wonderful he is. The reassurance of Jude, and the adulation of Jude, and the celebration of Jude, is pretty much the emotional rhythm of the entire thing from beginning to end. Even after his suicide, we just get constant celebration of Jude and lifting up of Jude.
I do believe in building up and praising people who are going through a hard time, but there’s something very disturbing to me about the moral narcissism of the novel. Everything is so much about Jude that none of the other characters, none of the other people in the novel’s universe, seem as important as Jude.
This sort of goes to the fairy tale thing, and we can talk about it more later. But a major choice that Hanya Yanagihara made is to set the novel unstuck in time. One critic described it as “a perpetual 2007.” It spans twenty or thirty years, and the technology never changes, and there’s no sense of historical progress. The effect of this is both claustrophobic and self-indulgent, because Jude is the only person who seems to matter in the universe of this novel. I find that, as I said, narcissistic, and a kind of unexamined fantasy. I’m curious what your response is to that.
Peyton: I would strongly disagree that Jude is only ever told how perfect he is. That’s certainly not true in his childhood, ever.
Frankie: This is true.
Peyton: Right, he begins abandoned in garbage, and then is raised in a monastery where the monks abuse him in every way possibly — verbally, physically, sexually. He’s taken on the road by the one monk who ever showed him kindness, who turns out to be a pedophile who is exploiting and warping Jude’s conception of what love can be and introducing Jude to the concept of self-harm, putting Jude through hell.
Then he’s sent to a foster home, where he is abused within that system. At one point in his childhood, he has a weekend preview with a potential adoptive family, and he gets all excited about the possibility of finally having a family, and they ultimately decide not to adopt him. And that’s just a huge blow to his spirit. Then he’s kidnapped and locked in a basement by another psychopath.
And it’s only when he’s finally on the cusp of adulthood that he winds up in the care of a capable social worker who is willing to put in the work and tell him he’s not broken, and he’s not dirty, and he’s not diseased. In his early life, no one is in his corner. No one is telling him that he’s good. He has no reason to think well of himself. It’s just this one social worker who is the first glimpse of genuine kindness that he has. And then she passes away because, again, lots of difficult things happen to Jude here.
When he becomes an adult, he has friends, for the first time, who don’t know anything of his past. He really puts up a wall around his entire childhood and does not give away anything. He’s constantly in service to these people, trying to go above and beyond for them, never inconvenience them in any way. He just wants to be told he’s perfect all the time. That much is true.
But as his relationships deepen, and they become more complex, there are moments of real cruelty, moments where people who love him fail him, or don’t anticipate his needs, or grow frustrated with just how entrenched his psychological trauma is, and how difficult it is for him to trust anybody. I’m thinking of the moment where JB — one of their friends from college, and one of the core four at the beginning of the book — he’s dealing with a crystal meth addiction, and he’s going through withdrawal. Jude attends an intervention for him, and JB mocks Jude’s disability by speaking in a slurred voice and imitating his limp. And that is just crushing to Jude. It destroys their friendship for several years.
And there’s another incident where Jude self-harms by burning himself. When Willem, — his life partner, at this point — finds out about it, it sparks a major, major fight between them that ends in Willem self-harming, almost out of sheer frustration with Jude. And that is almost a breaking point for their relationship. It really is a depiction of Willem pushed to the brink. Jude is someone he loves very deeply, and wants to continue caring for, but the duty of caring for Jude is very intense. The emotional impact of the sheer difficult of caring for Jude is never more present than in that moment.
Fundamentally, I wouldn’t agree that Jude is only ever surrounded by yes-men who cater to his every whim. The ways in which his loved ones interact with him and respond to his psychology and his trauma are very realistic. Hanya shows these people being tested and frustrated and baffled by Jude’s choices, upset by his inability to move on. But their love for him is just unconditional, and these incidents makes that stand out all the more. We do see the extent to which those relationships and connections are tested, and the extent to which these people are just unwilling to let go because they love Jude so much. There may be something fantastical about it, but it’s also a huge comfort to anyone who’s ever been through trauma and thinks they’re too much or too needy.
Frankie: That’s a good response. I’m very glad that you brought up that scene where JB mocks Jude with an ableist voice, which is a fascinating scene. I keep returning to it when I read the novel, because it seems indicative of a double standard that exists within the narrative. A Little Life holds JB extremely accountable for being cruel to Jude in that moment, and certainly I am not disputing that JB is terribly cruel to Jude in that moment. But the novel never stops punishing JB for it. We are shown over and over again how hurt Jude is by JB’s actions and how appalled the other characters are when they find out what JB did. It takes Jude a very long time to even consider forgiving JB. And JB himself is very, very sorry.
Contrast this with one thing that I find sort of fascinating about Jude: he works an evil job. And the novel is actually very open about this. He hurts people with his work. He’s a lawyer for a pharmaceutical company, is that it?
Peyton: Yeah, for a pharmaceutical company and a banking company.
Frankie: She occasionally highlights the fact that Jude works an evil job and his work actively harms defenseless people and causes them to suffer greatly so he can line his pockets. But the novel never does anything more with this than jokingly refer to it and then swiftly move on. It’s related to the fact that the novel is unstuck in time. I wonder, too, if this is anything more than an excuse to make the character of Jude phenomenally wealthy so he can have such nice stuff and a nice apartment. It doesn’t sit well with me that when someone hurts Jude, the characters call in the cavalry, but when Jude hurts others, this is just hand-waved away with, “Oh, well, he had such a terrible childhood, and he is really little more than a poor victimized child.” That’s how I experience Jude, reading the novel, as a poor, victimized child who can’t be held responsible for what he does.
Peyton: I’ll respond to that point first, about Jude being a “poor, victimized child.” The ending of the novel — the good ending, before the epilogue — it hinges on Jude having this moment of actually being treated like a child. He’s tried to kill himself by starving himself to death, and now he’s in the care of his adoptive parents, and they’re trying to bring him food. And he’s being incredibly rude to his parents. He’s saying, “This food is disgusting, it tastes like dog food, it’s inedible, I’m not eating this.” And his adoptive mother makes him a sandwich instead, and when she brings him the sandwich, he flings it at the wall. And he has this monologue, where he says, “Maybe this will finally be the last straw, they’ll realize that I’m a terrible person, they’ll kick me out of their lives, they’ll leave me to die.” He really wants to be kicked out in that moment.
And instead, they just envelop him in a hug and they say, “Poor Jude, my sweetheart, my baby.” And something breaks in him, and he just starts crying, and he has this vision of what it might have been like if he’d been raised by them as a child, scampering through the grass in Cambridge. And that epiphany is what leads him to choose therapy and decide that he wants to stay for a little bit longer.
As much as you may object to that, it is a really important moment for Jude — that he can see himself as an innocent child who is deserving of love even when he behaves like a brat, even when he throws his plate, even when he’s unspeakably rude and he breaks his parents’ china. That’s an important point.
Now, moving on to your point about Jude’s evil job. Early in the book, some chapters are narrated by Jude’s adoptive father, who’s a law school professor, and he’s saying, “I wish I had been more intentional about pushing Jude toward creative fields, instead of him becoming a litigator, because I really brought him into a dark, bleak space there, by not encouraging him to expand his horizons more.” For Jude, that evil job becomes a point of control in a life where he feels he doesn’t have much control.
You said his evil job is never really acknowledged beyond the occasional joke, but there’s a really potent illustration of what the job means to Jude after Willem is killed by the driver of a semi-trailer. It’s mentioned that Jude sues everyone who could possibly be implicated in the accident. He sues the truck’s manufacturer. He sues the trucking company. He sues the truck driver, who fell asleep at the wheel at the end of a long shift, who has a sick little daughter. He wants to ruin these people’s lives. He’s using every arm of the law to go after anyone. He’s out for retribution. He does not want to forgive. He is not letting go. He has no sympathy for the truck driver, who’s been out on the road for 20 hours with a sick little kid at home. He’s like, “You are going down, I am going to take you for everything you have.”
There’s this facet of Jude’s personality where he feels really powerless against the things that harm him. Being a litigator gives him the power to control other people and seize retribution, in that one instance. It allows him to become part of a hierarchy of power, which he’s never had before. If there are other aspects of Jude’s life that are about him opening himself up to love and connection, the professional element of it is absolutely about keeping those walls up and making sure that no one can ever hurt him. I don’t think he realizes that going ham on the truck driver after the accident is not going to repair the harm in any way that matters. It’s just the one thing that he has access to.
Frankie: Man, I want to say, I’m really enjoying your description of this plotline where he sues everybody in sight. I have to admit, despite having re-read the book twice recently, I had zero memory of that. You’re making me wish it were a bigger part of the novel. I’m thinking now about how even though there are multiple points of view in the narration, we only ever inhabit the point of view of someone who adores Jude, or Jude himself. You’re making me wish we had the point of view of the truck driver —
Peyton: Oh, wouldn’t that have been great?
Frankie: — Or that he’d had a name! I wish that we could see Jude through the eyes of someone who feels something other than pure admiration for him. I wish we could see him through the eyes of someone who was harmed by him. That’s the kind of complexity that I feel is not only missing from the novel, but also, it seems to me, that Hanya Yanagihara is intentionally avoiding.
Peyton: Maybe. But we also don’t see Jude through the eyes of anyone who hates him. We never get narration from Brother Luke or Caleb, for instance.
Frankie: Who are such cartoon villains that it’s hard to imagine they could even have points of view.
Peyton: You can call them cartoon villains, but everything that happens to Jude in this book is also something that has happened to a real human being. Maybe not all of those things at once.
Frankie: Probably not all of those things at once. I’m not certain anyone has ever been so unlucky.
Peyton: Being abandoned at birth. Being abused by members of the priesthood. Sex trafficking.
Frankie: Being run over by a car on purpose.
Peyton: Being hidden in a basement is probably somewhat rarer, but it happens.
Frankie: Being abused in a relationship.
Peyton: Being disabled and dealing with chronic pain and dealing with mental illness.
Frankie: And cutting.
Peyton: And cutting. Everything that happens to Jude is something that happens to real people. And the cartoon villains of Jude’s life exist in real life, too. There are real people who really do abuse children and who really do beat their partners. Now, Hanya’s not especially concerned with making Brother Luke sympathetic, but we do see that Jude has genuine affection for Brother Luke and is devastated when he dies, despite having been ritually abused by him. And with Caleb, Jude takes Caleb’s treatment of him as a referendum on him. He can’t see why Caleb is the one who has done the wrong thing, which is a mindset common to abuse victims. So it’s not as simple as these people being cartoon villains, I don’t think. There is some shading in the way Jude perceives them, even if the people who love Jude see them as cartoon villains. And that’s their job!
Frankie: You’re bringing this back to the subject of excess, and maybe we should return to that. I do agree with you that Jude’s relationship to his first abuser, Brother Luke, is pretty finely shaded, and a pretty good portrayal of the complicated love that a child might have for his abuser. But what I don’t understand is what justifies not just the pedophilic abuse, but also everything you just listed. The cutting and the basement entrapment and the run over by a car and the amputation and the Caleb and the everything. This is the major thing that haters of A Little Life run up against. They can accept one thing, but so many things start to feel artificial and, well, excessive, to use that word again. How do you respond to that very common critique?
Peyton: There is a tremendous amount of very difficult things that happen to Jude. But something you just said there was, “You can maybe justify one thing, like the pedophilia, but what about the cutting?” And to that, I’d say: how many survivors of childhood sexual abuse do grow up with cutting as a coping mechanism? One thing does follow from the other. How many victims of childhood sexual abuse fall into similar patterns when they’re older, and they’re in adult relationships, and they’re abused by their partners? There are threads between those things. They’re not completely disconnected.
If a person’s been through severe bodily trauma as a child, they’re going to have chronic illness later in life. And even if we are trying to bring the novel back into realism, it’s not at all outlandish to think that there could be a real person out there who was a victim of childhood sexual abuse and fell into abusive patterns later in their adulthood and took up cutting to deal with it, and also, in their youth, got into a car accident which left them with chronic pain. That sounds like a reasonable portrait of a real person. When I say that everything that happens to Jude in this book could happen to a real person, it includes the intersection of a lot of those different traumas, and a lot of the ways the residue of that trauma manifests later in life. Even though the novel is so excessive and over the top in its description, I don’t think it’s that far off from something that could be a real event.
Frankie: Yeah, and you used the word “realism.” This is actually a good transition to talk about the fairy tale question, because the defense that you’re making, of the excess of what happens to Jude, would be more compelling if it were clear from genre terms that this entire novel is built to be excessive and over-the-top. The writer Garth Greenwell is the one who argued that A Little Life engaged with queer-coded modes of expression, like grand opera and the melodrama. And if you read a description of the plot, this is a compelling argument. But re-reading the novel today to prepare for this debate, I was so struck by how the early chapters signal forcefully that this is going to be a realist novel set in very real contemporary New York. Not just New York, not just a fairy tale version of New York, but literally Lispenard Street, literally SoHo. Another thing that many haters of this novel take issue with is the way it sort of careens from realism to something very, very not realism —
Peyton: But that’s by design!
Frankie: — without any warning, really. I mean, we start out on Lispenard Street and suddenly we are in a rape monastery in, where is it, Montana? The evil monastery? Do we know what state it’s in, the evil monastery where Jude is found in the trash and raised?
Peyton: The foster home was in Montana. I don’t know if we know where the monastery is.
Frankie: It’s such a fairy tale idea, this evil monastery where Jude is raised as an orphan. And I personally cannot reconcile the evil monastery with Lispenard Street, do you know what I mean?
Peyton: No, yeah. Yeah. But again, that’s by design. She is setting readers up for one thing and pulling a twist on them and giving them another. You’re bringing up another important point, which is that the novel becomes more and more disconnected from realism as it goes on. But as much as the descriptions of Jude’s abuse and his childhood are excessive, the descriptions of the positive plot elements are excessive and outlandish in the opposite direction, too. Like, Jude and every single person he knows becomes absurdly, world-historically wealthy and successful over the course of the novel. He becomes the top litigator in New York. Willem wins an Oscar — well, it doesn’t say an Oscar, it just says “a major award,” but —
Frankie: But it’s clearly an Oscar, I agree.
Peyton: Malcolm becomes the world’s pre-eminent architect and JB has a four-floor retrospective at MOMA. You could argue that it’s unrealistic for one person to suffer that much abuse, but it’s much more unrealistic for all of that to happen to a single group of friends.
Frankie: I definitely agree with that, too.
Peyton: But I don’t hear that complained about as much.
Frankie: Really? It’s been complained about, too. It’s just not as flashy as the other problems.
Peyton: As I said, every abuse visited upon Jude is something that has happened to a real person. But not that many people are millionaire litigators who live in fancy apartments or win Oscars or take over the MOMA.
Frankie: They’re two sides of the same coin. What you’re describing is yet another manifestation of Jude being the centre of the universe. All the bad things happen to him, but all the good things happen to him and his friends. There’s nobody else in the world who is working in the film industry or architecture.
Peyton: I mean, Jude is the protagonist. So, naturally, we are going to have the greatest sense of the tragedies unfolding around him. But I don’t think it’s true that he’s the only character to whom bad things happen.
Early on in the novel, there’s a gorgeous chapter where Willem is talking about growing up with his intellectually disabled little brother, and the bond that they have, and the lack of regard that his parents have for his little brother, and how crushing it is when his little brother passes away when he’s at college and he’s not there to go home to him.
There’s JB’s meth addiction. There’s the death of Harold’s first son, from wasting disease, when he’s still just a baby. All of these other characters have their own suffering, and that affects how they respond to Jude. That’s an important point. It’s not like he’s surrounded by trauma-free blank slates who can’t understand what he’s going through at all. Although his experiences are pretty far removed from anything they’ve dealt with, they do have points of connection with him. They can relate to him and understand him. They suffer in realistic ways as well.
Frankie: It’s interesting that you argue that his friends are not trauma-free blank slates, because that is actually the phrase I would use to describe them. Maybe “blank slate” is going too far, but the scale of the misfortune that is heaped upon Jude kind of just by necessity makes everyone else seem incredible fortunate. You and I can agree to disagree on this particular point.
Peyton: But you could write a novel just about Willem and his little brother that would be wrenching and devastating. You could write a novel just about Harold losing his first child and it would be horrifying. You could write a novel about JB’s meth addiction and it would be harrowing. Any of these characters could carry a book all on their own.
Frankie: That actually brings up another question I wanted to ask you about the novel. You just illustrated for yourself that so much happens in this book. It’s an enormous book. And that’s part of its charm, for people who love it. But, to me, there’s a first draft quality to it.
It’s one of the many ways in which this novel reminds me of fanfiction — this really long, juicy, delicious fanfiction that gets updated one chapter at a time for years and years and ends up being hundreds of thousands of words long. I find this much more forgivable when I am reading something self-published and written for free, and I’m following along in real-time.
There are structural elements of clumsiness in A Little Life that really take me out of it in a published work, and I’m curious if you think some of them are a feature rather than a bug. It has many characters and storylines that are just briefly touched on and dropped. You can agree that Malcolm is a character who initially seems like a major character and then kind of disappears from the narrative.
Peyton: Oh, yeah, she’s setting it up to make it seem like it’s going to be narrated by all four of them.
Frankie: Do you think that’s an intentional choice, that she introduces it as a story of four people and then just forgets about half of them?
Peyton: I don’t think she’s forgetting. It’s very deliberate. I don’t think she set out to write a book about four friends and then, along the way, was like, “Oh, wait, this one friend is so much more fascinating to me, fuck everybody else.” It was very deliberately always about Jude.
I don’t think Jude actually starts narrating until a little later in the story. The beginning of the book consists of his friends’ chapters, talking about their lives and their backgrounds, and Jude is on the periphery. His friends might be confused by his behaviour, and they might wonder about his history, but those early chapters don’t probe too deeply on that. And when Jude begins to come to the fore, you don’t really realize what’s happening just yet. I do think that’s by design. It’s unusual, so I can see why people are pissed off by it. But for me, that’s a feature, not a bug. I can see not liking it, because it’s unconventional, but it works for me.
Frankie: That is a compelling defense of that aspect of the novel, and that’s a good response. One other thing that I would be much more forgiving of in a self-published fanfic, which seems very amateur hour to me in a published novel — this is kind of petty, but it is important to me: the verb tenses are all over the place. It is, in terms of verb tenses, perhaps one of the strangest novels I’ve ever read.
Someone in my workshop the other day asked, because we were talking about verb tenses in novels, “What tense is A Little Life in?” And everyone at the table who had read this book said, at the same time, “All of them.” The frame narrative of each chapter is in the present tense, but then it will flash back into a scene that will be narrated in the past tense, and then they’ll have a flashback within the flashback so that an entire scene will be narrated in the past perfect, like, “Jude had done this, Willem had said this, and then Jude had cut himself again.” Which I find terribly distracting to read. I believe it was Garth Greenwell who defended this by saying that it structurally mimics the way Jude is constantly besieged by intrusive memories of his trauma. That sounds really impressive when you say it, but it doesn’t make the past perfect scenes any more fun for me to read.
Peyton: I’m so glad you brought up the verb tenses, because that is a highlight of the novel for me, the effortless way she slips in and out. There’s one passage, one passage and one passage alone, which I bookmarked and wanted to read at some point, and it is this one, right after or while Jude is disclosing his trauma to Willem. So, it goes:
They are quiet once more, and this time, their quiet turns to sleep, and the two of them fit into each other and sleep and sleep until Willem hears Jude’s voice speaking to him, and then he wakes and listens to Jude talk.
So that’s all present tense.
Frankie: Yeah.
Peyton: And then she goes:
It will take hours, because Jude is sometimes unable to continue, and Willem will wait and hold him so tightly that Jude won’t be able to breathe. Twice, he will try to wrench himself away, and Willem will pin him to the ground and hold him there until he calms himself. Because they’re in the closet, they won’t know what time it is, only that there has been a day that has arrived and departed, because they will have seen flat carpets of sun unroll themselves into the closet’s doorway from the bedroom, from the bathroom. He will listen to stories that are unimaginable, that are abominable. He will excuse himself three times to go to the bathroom and study his face in the mirror and remind himself that he has only to find the courage to listen, although he will want to cover his ears and cover Jude’s mouth to make the stories cease. He will study the back of Jude’s head, because Jude can’t face him, and imagine the person he knows collapsing into rubble, clouds of dust gusting around him, as nearby, teams of artisans try to rebuild him in another material and another shape, as a different person from the person who has stood for years and years. On and on the stories will go, and in their path will lie squalor, blood and bones and dirt and disease and misery. They will sleep again, and this time the dreams will be terrible. He will dream he is one of the men in the motel rooms. He will realize he has behaved like one of them. He will wake with nightmares and it will be Jude who has to calm him. Finally, they will heave themselves from the floor. It will be Saturday afternoon and they will have been lying in the closet since Thursday night. They will shower, and eat something, something hot and comforting, and then they will go directly from the kitchen into the study, where he will listen as Jude leaves a message for Dr. Loehmann, whose card Willem has kept in his wallet all these years and produces, magician-like, within seconds, and from there to bed, and they will lie there, looking at each other, each afraid to ask the other: he to ask Jude to finish his story, Jude to ask him when he’s leaving, because his leaving now seems an inevitability, a matter of logistics.
And then it’s back to present tense.
Frankie: So that was all in future tense.
Peyton: That was all in future tense.
Frankie: Which is bananas!
Peyton: It’s bananas in a good way! There’s just this sense of propulsion that pushes it forward, and it feels like this breathless race through this day and a half of lying on the floor of the closet, going through this unbelievably traumatic thing. And it’s “he will, they will,” but it’s —
Frankie: It’s incantatory, I agree. That’s the word I would use.
Peyton: It’s such a brilliant technique, because it grabs you by the hand and pulls you along for the ride. This is one of the roughest patches in the novel, because it’s the one place where Jude and Willem’s relationship is really tested. At the end of that passage, Jude thinks Willem must be leaving now, because it seems inevitable. But using the future tense indicates that there’s a future coming after this dark moment.
I love that she is not hardbound to any one tense or any one point of view, that she is just painting with all the colours, and that’s the most effective passage where that’s illustrated.
Frankie: It is an effective passage. It’s also a really good example of the type of passage in the novel that reminds me of fanfic. And I will explain why. It’s the wallowing. The quality of wallowing in emotion is one of the greatest pleasure of fanfic for me, and I rarely get it from literary fiction. And the love between fictional men — it’s always between fictional men for me. Usually, sex is secondary to what is really just a sustained exploration of every possible facet of these two men’s love for each other.
The feeling that you clearly have, reading that passage, is a feeling I get all the time reading my favourite fanfiction. So this returns us to the question of — I guess it’s a two-part question: does A Little Life transcend fanfiction, and if so, why, and if not, does it matter? Is the lesson of A Little Life just that the tropes of fanfiction are so wonderful that maybe they should just be treated with literary seriousness?
Peyton: I would agree that fanfiction does deserve literary consideration. It’s not a lesser form. Yes, there’s silly, amateur hour fanfiction, but there’s also silly, amateur hour literature. At some point in the future, there will be canonical fanfiction. There will be a canon of excellent fanfiction.
But anyway, there are specific tropes and words and genres that were created in fanfiction and that belong to fanfiction, and I agree that, structurally, A Little Life has a lot in common with something that updates over the course of years and goes into excruciating depths on the progression of the characters’ life and selfhood.
Frankie: And suffering.
Peyton: And suffering. And for me, it succeeds.
Frankie: I just want to cut in briefly and say that if I had to categorize what kind of fanfiction A Little Life would be, we can all agree it’s whump, right?
Peyton: Right.
Frankie: Whump is that genre where horrors are visited upon the main male character over and over and over.
Peyton: Hurt/comfort fic.
Frankie: Yes, that too.
Peyton: We’ve talked a little bit about fairy tales, and I’ve mentioned that trauma is foundational to fairy tales. An important characteristic of fanfiction is the opportunity to actually take that trauma seriously and go deep on it.
I was thinking about “Star Wars,” for whatever reason, when I was preparing for this. The first “Star Wars” movie is about a little boy whose mother dies in childbirth. He’s ripped away from his sister by bureaucrats. He’s sent to live with uncaring relatives who belittle and abuse him. His country is invaded, and foreign soldiers burn his home to the ground and murder his relatives, the only parents he’s ever known. He befriends a man who once knew his parents, and then he has to watch as that man is murdered. He decides to risk his life and join a terrorist insurgency for a suicide mission to attack a government facility. Like, that plot could belong to a very serious realist contemporary novel.
Frankie: That’s an interesting idea.
Peyton: There are really traumatic things happening to Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars,” but the narrative is a sci-fi fairy tale, so it’s not going to give Luke PTSD nightmares and really go into the psychological residue of his trauma. But fanfiction is an opportunity to do that. Fans can seize on aspects of characters’ traumatic pasts and go, “How would this realistically affect them?” and blow it up and expand it and add detail and shade. Ideally, pair them up with another character who can help them heal from that trauma.
Frankie: That’s actually a really good definition of what fanfiction often is. So, well done. It’s the in-depth exploration of what is only the emotional subtext or implication of canonical work.
Peyton: Where A Little Life breaks from fanfiction in an important way, though, is that it doesn’t give Jude and Willem a happy ending. If this were fanfiction, Jude and Willem would walk off into the sunset together as silver-haired old men.
Frankie: Or they would at least have good sex.
Peyton: You’re right, that is another thing. If this were fanfiction, no matter what amount of trauma Jude has suffered, he and Willem would hop in the sack and just like —
Frankie: Yes, have healing, delicious, meaningful, intense, passionate sex.
Peyton: Yeah, sex is not a healing thing for Jude, and he’s adamant about that, and uncompromising. It takes him a while to understand that, but when he does get there, it’s an important moment.
Again, where it breaks from fanfiction, he doesn’t end up having successful sexual relationships. He suffers the loss of his partner. And ultimately, he commits suicide.
I’ve definitely seen arguments in fandom along the lines of, “Did this fic go too far in abusing a character?” That’s an interesting debate in fandom. Fanfiction, a lot of the time, is about remedying homophobic media. So there’s an expectation that you’re going to make these characters canonically gay and give them the happy ending that the narrative won’t give them. In certain corners of fandom, it’s considered unethical to give these characters negative endings at all.
Frankie: That’s true, yeah. That’s very true.
Peyton: So, that’s where it breaks from fanfiction. There’s certainly a lot that A Little Life has in common with fanfiction, but the conclusion and everything that happens in the end, the tropes of fanfiction aren’t present there.
Frankie: It’s interesting, though, because I do feel that I’ve encountered fanfic that is as dark and as unhappy in the end as A Little Life, and when I see fanfic like that, I find it just as self-indulgent as the really happy, fluffy stuff. I guess you and I differ on this point, but there comes a point where heaping so much trauma onto one character is, in a way, singling them out as your favourite, just as much as if you only heaped good things on them.
Peyton: Yeah, yeah. I know what you mean. That’s another thing about self-identification. You brought that up, how you think there’s a self-indulgent fantasy in so much abuse being visited upon one character and, at the same time, so much love and connection and unconditional acceptance. That is pure fantasy, as you said. But it’s an important fantasy to have. It’s tempered by the fact that Jude’s mental illness doesn’t leave him, that he deals with this until the day he dies. And, also, that he is actively engaging with his mental illness, and in conflict with it, every step of the way. It’s treated with a lot of seriousness, in my view.
Frankie: I really like what you said about how it’s an important fantasy to have, ’cause that’s something you and I definitely agree on. The fantasy we see in A Little Life is echoed in a lot of other books that I love.
The one last question I want to ask you is: be honest, do you find the cover as hard to look at as I do?
Peyton: I think the cover is so clever.
Frankie: I can’t look at it! It’s his nut face! It’s so embarrassing!
Peyton: That’s the point! It’s so great! I mean, I’m not gonna stare at it and just look at it all day.
Frankie: I’m staring at it right now.
Peyton: Me too.
Frankie: I have it on my kitchen table and I’m just looking at this nutting guy just, like, jizzing all over me in my kitchen.
Peyton: It looks like, is he crying? Is he nutting?
Frankie: It is a sublime troll move of Hanya Yanagihara to demand this photo as her cover.
Peyton: The UK cover is just, like, a cityscape. They were not having it.
Actually, there’s one more thing I want to say in closing.
Frankie: Oh, yes, please! Go on.
Peyton: I alluded to it earlier, which is that, for all its depiction of abuse, and despite the fact that it does end in suicide, I think it is an important argument against suicide, and one of the strongest arguments I’ve ever seen in literature.
It’s ultimately because, as I said, we understand Jude’s psychology so thoroughly. We know everything that has happened to him. We know exactly how much it’s affected him. On one level, the book is laying out the case for Jude to commit suicide, and saying, “Look at everything that has happened to this poor person, look at how difficult life is for him, surely it would be a mercy, it would be the right thing to do.” But ultimately, the last glimpse we have of Jude himself on the page, in his own narration, in his own voice, is him going to the therapist and saying, “I’ve decided to stay.”
Time and again, whether his friends are pulling him back or he himself is choosing to stay, he fights, and the people who love him fight, to keep him alive. And ultimately, when he does commit suicide, there’s an acknowledgement from the story that even him surviving this far was a real accomplishment, and he did important things and touched people in important ways, and that his internal belief system was a flawed one, and that his parents wish he was still with them, that he hadn’t ended his life.
Frankie: I’m genuinely curious, based on what you’re saying: would you prefer a version of the novel where Jude does not commit suicide at the end? Is this maybe one issue you take with it?
Peyton: I gave it to a friend once, and I included a note with it, and I said, “This is one of my favourite books, but you might hate it, and that’s completely understandable, and also, if you just want to stop reading on, like, this page number, before the epilogue, that’s perfectly fine.”
Frankie: The necessary disclaimer.
Peyton: I would accept a version of the novel where it ends without the epilogue. That would be fine by me. But that epilogue, narrated by Harold looking back on his time with Jude, talking how much he wishes Jude was still with him, that is an important piece of the novel. The spectre of suicide has been hanging over the book from its very beginning. And to actually have it happen and engage seriously with it, and to have this one character, Harold, who’s seen firsthand and knows probably better than anybody else just how much Jude has suffered, really engage with the question of, “Was that the right thing to do? Was he releasing himself from his suffering when he committed suicide?” And his answer is no. There’s one quote, he says, “It’s not that he died, it’s what he died believing, and so I try to be kind to everything I see, and in everything I see, I see him.” Which is just such a powerful statement of rejecting the attitude that suicide is a mercy, or a remedy to Jude’s problems, or that the world would be a better place without Jude in it.
Frankie: One of the most interesting readings of A Little Life I’ve ever encountered was from an anonymous person on an anonymous forum. They said, I’m just going to paraphrase from memory, that when they first read A Little Life, they were in a deep depressive episode. They were very mentally ill at the time. And they loved A Little Life when they read it, because they found it to be such a tempting fantasy for a mentally ill person. They said, “I wish that my pain were so justified, and so visible to others, and so clearly linked to external forces, that no one could possibly blame me for wanting to die. I wish that my reasons for wanting to die were so fully justified that even though people will miss me and want me to not do it, at least they won’t wonder why I wanted to do it.” And this person said this is not something they feel anymore, but they felt that A Little Life really played into that wish of the depressed person to have their pain written on their body so that people wouldn’t think that they were lazy or feeling sorry for themselves, or any of those stereotypes about depressed people.
Peyton: That’s a very insightful comment. And that’s, again, one of the reasons why this isn’t a book I would universally recommend to everybody. I don’t know how helpful it would be if you’re in a certain mindset. But, by the same token, there was a word you used there, which was, “No one could blame me for it.”
And what A Little Life does is it just removes the issue of blame. It treats Jude’s suicide as the product of a lifelong chronic illness, much like the infection of his legs or his chronic pain. It is just something he deals with every single day. And every day that passes is a victory. I don’t think A Little Life is championing suicide; it’s reframing the way we look at it. It’s not saying this was an individual failure of Jude, that he was weak and bad.
Frankie: Wow, this is so intellectually rigorous! I hope I’ve been putting up a good fight against you.
Peyton: You have.
Frankie: Even though you are a champion debater and I cannot possibly win against you.
Peyton: Is there anything you want to say in the way of a closing statement?
Frankie: I really enjoy hearing such an intelligent defense of A Little Life, because even though I hate it, I hate it in a very obsessive way.
Peyton: I know you do.
Frankie: And it’s hard to find criticism of A Little Life that, as I said earlier, doesn’t just lapse into parody and jokes, which are a lot of fun, because even you can agree this book is so parody-able, right?
Peyton: It is.
Frankie: It’s just so very much itself.
Peyton: I parodied it for The Niche. I did.
Frankie: You did. There you go. I remember that. I had just started reading your work at the time.
I do think that it’s such a fascinating book. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s worth this kind of critical discussion.
I guess my final thought is that the public critical discussion of A Little Life has been dominated by men, and by gay men who instinctively see it as something of theirs and something for them, in a way that, I think, really erases a lot of what makes the novel so interesting, whether you love it or hate it. A Little Life owes such a debt to this very female tradition of writing. I’ve never seen it talked about deeply, and I’m glad that you and I got to touch on it here, and I hope that more people do, going forward.
Peyton: I’m familiar with the Garth Greenwell essay that you mentioned a few times, for example.
Frankie: Do you agree with it, by the way?
Peyton: Mostly, yeah, for the most part. And I’ve read Antoni’s interview, going deep on A Little Life. But my favourite piece of writing about it is actually by Elif Batuman, who wrote The Idiot, which I plugged at the beginning of this call.
I don’t know if this is universally true of modern literature, but certainly in the young adult community, which is where I operate, the trend now is “own voices,” which essentially means marginalized people writing about their own marginalized identities. And Hanya is writing about a marginalized identity to which she doesn’t belong, that of a queer man — I mean, I assume.
Frankie: I love how un-forthcoming she is about her personal life, just as a side note.
Peyton: I know. I love it. I love that her entire bio is just, “Hanya lives in New York City.” You don’t get anything more than that.
Frankie: I sense people really wanting to critique it by saying, “Oh, a straight woman shouldn’t write about gay men,” but as far as I know, she’s never spoken about her personal life. And some of the haters wish that they could call her straight, because it would bolster their argument, but she won’t let us do that. And I do admire that about her.
Peyton: I was on her Instagram a little while ago, and she was saying how, when she was growing up, she was really pleased to discover whenever she learned that one of the authors of her favourite books were queer. And she commissioned a feature about it for T Magazine, which she edits, about queer authors of children’s literature and how their worldviews shaped young children’s worldviews.
One of the best things about being an editor is coming up with half-baked theories that can then be assigned to real journalists to prove. A few years ago, I realized that the authors of many of my favorite children's books were either gay or, by today's definition, queer, including Arnold Lobel (FROG AND TOAD); James Marshall (GEORGE AND MARTHA); Maurice Sendak (WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE); Louise Fitzhugh (HARRIET THE SPY); Tomie dePaola (OLIVER BUTTON IS A SISSY); Margaret Wise Brown (THE RUNAWAY BUNNY); and Edward Gorey (THE GASHLYCRUMB TINIES). If you were raised in America from the 1960s onward and were lucky enough to have family or teachers who read to you, then it's likely you got some of your earliest lessons about how to be a friend, how to be an adult, how to be independent, how to be lonely—how to be a person, in other words—from men and women who were often denied full rights of personhood themselves. This is certainly true for me: anyone who's read my fiction knows how much I absorbed from FROG AND TOAD; GEORGE AND MARTHA (the art above are some of Marshall's rarely seen sketches from the 80s) taught me about the right kind of male friends to choose (sweet and forgiving); and Fitzhugh's THE LONG SECRET remains one of the best satires of the Hamptons (well, Water Mill) ever published, as well as one of the few books in which the female protagonist—admirable and lovable, though also spiky and gloriously unlikable—is unapologetic about her disdain for marriage and family. In his beautiful essay in @tmagazine's upcoming Women's Fashion issue, the Times' co-theater critic #JesseGreen discusses how these authors (only dePaola is still living) offered generations of children solace and taught them self-expression: lessons of humanity offered, sometimes, from deep within the closet. His story is online now, and in the February 17 edition of #tmagazine, inside your @nytimes. #jamesmarshall #arnoldlobel #tomiedepaola #louisefitzhugh #mauricesendak #edwardgorey #margaretwisebrown #TWomensIssue
A post shared by Hanya Yanagihara (@hanyayanagihara) on Feb 7, 2019 at 4:42am PST
Frankie: The way I would put it, this just came to me: I would never guess that A Little Life was written by a cis gay man, but I would also never guess it was written by a cis straight person.
Peyton: Yeah, exactly. I love that she does not give any of her identity away. I love that her entire Instagram is just gorgeous, exotic world travel and delicious food and her sumptuous ridiculous apartment with the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and the ladder that slides along on a rail. I just — I want your life.
Frankie: That’s her real sexuality: beautiful apartments.
Peyton: It really might be. She might be, what is it called — object-sexual? Like that woman who married the Eiffel Tower.
Posted in: gay love, LGBT, Literature, mental illness but pretend jay z or nas is saying ill so it sounds cool instead of pitiable
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13 thoughts on “A Little Life: The Best Book, or the Worst?”
Thank you so much for sharing this!!! My work is not very intellectually stimulating and while I appreciate that in general the mundanity of office conversations really got to me today. It was so refreshing to come home and read a really insightful debate about A Little Life. It has reassured me that people think about things as much as I do and just. Really satisfying. Thank you!!
despite being slightly afraid of reading this, as I have been with so much of The Discourse surrounding this book, I found this debate really enjoyable and enlightening. as seems to be the case with so many, I read a little life in 3 days on a holiday that was probably far too sunny to sully with, as you aptly described, ‘whump’. even as you say that its very much a love/hate kinda deal, for a long time i’ve been sitting with a muddy ambivalence, that is less ambivalence that very very quick oscillation between the two extremes. i’m still not sure where i sit with it, but so many of my feelings are expressed here, i find myself agreeing with two completely contradictory points. if nothing else, i can’t see a point where ALL isn’t going to cause debate a controversy, which is a rather exciting thing to have in such a contemporary text. if nothing else, it’ll stick.
the debate club kid within is adoring this format btw, bringing me great fulfillment on that front!!
opisaheretic says:
Very interesting! I feel like this conversation could only exist at The Niche, and I mean that in a good way.
jborenin says:
One of my very favorite books. This from a poet whose life would read as a soap opera. Some of us are just born into it. Going against the flow gets very tiresome.
Little Lives Judith Borenin
The eyes in the dark – the hands
that cling to steering wheels
like scarves wound around
throats caught in the spokes
of speeding tires.
Each little life passing –
cumulous – snug as a tourniquet.
Multitudes of voices – a choir
of laments sung in secret.
The groaning globe strains
to stay afloat on its axis.
It’s for the wounded I weep –
the cuts – the bruises running deep –
the pain that won’t relent – the cruel
voices that won’t
still or repent –
the lies that were invented to keep us
all afloat while we watch the honeycombed
procession of holes buzzing
in the bottom of the boat.
Every expectation slices
knife like within – the blood let
rejoices singing hymns with such
sweet acceptance as it blooms –
luminous and resigned
across our howling skins.
We were spewed into this world –
clawed out way out of pits a spade
could never comprehend. Paced
empty rooms – reclined and rose
up again – turned in twisted sheets
waiting for long and ravenous nights
With grifter hands the wind rakes by –
its stiff fingers slapping tree trunks –
an old jazz man strumming on fence posts.
What it shakes falls – what it takes crawls
the tattered skies – shuffles down like blue
notes on all the little lives.
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nnn says:
Thank you for having published this, this is exactly the content I was looking for. I’ve just finished reading the book and I can’t make up my mind about it. It really made me feel all kinds of way and it resonated unpleasantly with my life at times, as someone with a friend who used to be severely depressed. I found it quite infuriating at some times – I was angry at the characters, and also at the author for having written it, but I could not stop reading it. I found your reference to fanfic particularly enlightening – I knew that this type of writing felt familiar to me without managing to pinpoint where the feeling came from. Thank you again.
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trazel says:
This debate was enlightening, but I have a question. When I read it for the first time, I completely understood Jude and what he did and how he felt, but I couldn’t help but feel bad and uncontrollably sad for the ones that worked hard to keep him alive and safe, and very briefly, happy. I wondered if those Happy Years, the unconditional love and support weren’t redemptive enough. The book definitely DOES NOT champion suicide, and you say that it makes a statement against it, but I am having trouble understanding how it is making a statement against it? I know when Harold writes in the end it seems like a statement against it saying that Jude mattered deeply. It made me completely understand Jude’s actions on one hand, but I am having trouble with one concept I learned in psychology: you cannot save someone that doesn’t want to be saved and it is deeply, utterly disturbing.
When I read it for the first time, I completely understood Jude and what he did and how he felt, but I couldn’t help but feel bad and uncontrollably sad for the ones that worked hard to keep him alive and safe, and very briefly, happy. I wondered if those Happy Years weren’t redemptive enough. The book definitely DOES NOT champion suicide, and many have said that it makes a statement against it, but I am having trouble understanding how it is making a statement against it? I know when Harold writes in the end it seems like a statement against it saying that Jude mattered deeply, but it also makes me feel bad that it made Harold wonder if Jude was ever happy. It made me completely understand Jude’s actions on one hand, but I am having trouble with one concept I learned in psychology: you cannot save someone that doesn’t want to be saved and it is deeply, utterly disturbing.
tysm says:
i havent read the whole debate yet but i just wanted to share that i couldnt sleep two nights ago and as i lay awake in my bed i started to google random shit, including “i hate a little life”. i do this once in a while, same with “i hate the circle” by eggers. hate is a strong word so i guess i am simply looking for community. and as i scanned the search results i began wondering if “a little life” started out as fanfiction because i recently started writing my own and yeah once you know the tropes you cant unsee them. imagine the author pulling that shit straight from her ao3 account and then ctrl+fing all the names hahaha this is so hilarous to me. for some reason i think it could have been a kpop fanfic. and then you discussing this idea makes me feel seen and heard so thank you very much for that. brb reading the whole debate
Superpana says:
I’m late to this conversation, but I just finished the book and was finally able to google “a little life fan fiction” because I was POSITIVE it started as fan fiction – good fanfic! – and read so familiar because of that (well, to me). I was actually hoping to find what fandom it came from. This conversation made me feel very seen, haha.
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Goodbye Felix Dennis
Last week, someone very special to me died. I could have sworn I posted here about his passing, but the week was a bit of a blur and I clearly hadn't.
Last year's post about him (Poetry in Motion) will give a flavour of my feelings about Felix.
Read his 'company poem' The Bearded Dwarf to get a sense of what life was like aboard the good ship Dennis Publishing, or Bunch Books as it was when I worked there. (I understand Rolls Royce was none too happy about the logo. I knew life there would be a blast as soon as I saw it engraved in the glass above the entrance door.)
Felix took me on to help create a personal computer magazine. This swiftly turned into the relaunch, in September 1979, of Personal Computer World.
Here are some posts I made in Facebook last week - the only place I semi-publicly shared my thoughts and feelings.
23/6 RIP Felix Dennis, wonderful man, good friend. We're gonna miss you so much.
23/6 Me, Sylvie, Felix and mystery person in foliage. March 1st this year. Didn't know it was our 'goodbye' to Felix. Lots of great memories of the man.
24/6 When I met Felix Dennis, he took me to the art room where they were laying out John Wayne's obituary. I said, "I didn't know he'd died." Felix said, "He hasn't yet, but he's very ill." Eye opener for me.
What has amazed me this week is that papers and online sources have had years to get the facts right about Felix, yet they still manage to screw up his biographical basics.
It makes me wonder how much of what we read is similarly incorrect.
25/6 I go to sleep thinking about Felix Dennis and I wake up thinking about him. It's like an infection of the brain. He's never far from my thoughts because he had such a profound impact on my life. I'm probably going to shut up about him for a while but, before I do, I'd like to share a couple of his insights with you.
One is a scan of an interview I did with him years ago for the now defunct "Sustainable Solutions" magazine. It was so completely against the sustainability grain that the publisher loved it.
The other is the pdf of his excellent lecture (Journalism or Churnalism) on why the reader is king.
Enjoy. And take heed.
Goodbye Felix. Thank goodness you've left such a huge written and recorded legacy.
29/6 If you think you've got a great story about Felix Dennis, check these out first. They are utterly brilliant. (They're tributes from people who've worked for him.)
You don't have to agree with everything Felix did, few people would, but he was a man of utter conviction, he was honest, he was an inspirational publisher and he made a massive difference to tens of thousands of people's lives. (Maybe more than that.) Including mine.
1 Jul 2014 08:30:31 | Bottom line, Corporate culture, Environment, Influencers, Life, Sustainability, Your readers
What Tebbo did next
Looking back at the past five years, it's been a lot of fun and I've worked exceedingly hard on three major projects: Freeform Dynamics where, as an analyst, I became deeply involved in social, cloud and environmental aspects of ICT. Then Blue & Green Tomorrow, where I launched, edited and wrote all the news and many features in the print edition. Then 6Connex EMEA where I consulted (and still do) on all manner of things - mainly writing stuff but also getting roped into the technical side of things as well. As a virtual event company, 6Connex also has a strong environmental angle.
Following a particularly large project which almost gobbled me up, I find that I can rebalance my life somewhat. So I'm back to doing more writing - monthly in cio.co.uk, about individual CIOs and their sustainability efforts, and private commercial writing (B2B). I even run the odd writing skills workshop.
I'm also training in media skills either solo, with PR partners, or with Martin Banks, depending on what's required. Clients are usually blue chip ICT clients but I've also worked with a chemical company, a charity, some engineering firms and a university.
No doubt things will unfold in interesting and unexpected ways. They usually do. If anything changes radically, I'll let you know. You still won't see many blog posts here in the short term, but I wouldn't rule it out long term. At the moment, my editing and blogging urges are more than satisfied with The Right Thing To Do?.
So there we are, just in case you were wondering. If you're not, I guess you wouldn't have read this far.
13 Nov 2012 19:36:22 | Environment, Life, PR, Social stuff, Sustainability, Weblogs
The right thing to do?
Recent events have drawn me away from Teblog and I think they're likely to keep me away. But I am involved in something much better.
First a bit of background: editing and writing much of the original paper version of Blue & Green Tomorrow gave me massive opportunities to write about the environment up to May last year; on the communication front, media skills training hit an unexpected peak in January; and, since June, I've spent at least half of my time with a company which hits every Tebbo hot button: communication, environment and IT.
The people I work with are great and we've created a neat website, demo and knowledgebase plus various social media presences. The company itself, 6Connex EMEA, is all about online events, content and collaboration, thus accelerating work and cutting the costs (financial, social and environmental) associated with travel.
But it gets better. Tracey (the boss) and I wanted to do something extra but non-commercial. Inspired by the work of the Lunar Society at the dawn of the industrial age, we wanted to get right-minded people to share their practical insights with each other and with anyone who cares about making the world a better place. (The motivation is similar to Blue & Green Tomorrow's. The difference is that it goes way beyond environmental issues.)
We've had direct contributions from people like publishing mogul, poet and forest builder, Felix Dennis and green investment wizard Ben Goldsmith. We've covered some interesting TED videos - one on Gross National Happiness and another on why things will get better. We've also had people who are at the heart of change in educational systems and one who argues that growth and sustainability are incompatible.
Some pioneering contributors and featured presenters in The Right Thing To Do?
Top row: Euan Semple; Clive Longbottom; Ben Goldsmith; Ray Maguire.
Bottom row: Matt Ridley; Chip Conley; Felix Dennis; Salman Khan.
Just this week, social networking guru, Euan Semple, contributed a great post entitled "Bloggers are the rag and bone men of the information world."
Everyone is giving their time and ideas for nothing. No-one puffs their business directly, although they can all share their credentials in their mini-bios. TRTTD exists for knowledge sharing and discussion which will provide a bedrock of thoughtful considerations for our collective future. Depending on individual circumstances, posts are either contributed, the product of an interview or are written up around an online video.
Curating TRTTD seems to me to be a much better cause than continuing with Teblog. I'll keep it open for now, but expect most of my energies to be spent elsewhere. And, if you like the sound of "The Right Thing To Do?" why not come on over. It would be great to see you there. Here are the Website and Twitter links.
9 Mar 2012 07:09:23 | Blogging, Bottom line, Corporate culture, eLearning, Environment, Making contact, Proof, Social stuff
An evening with PR/Marketing Guru, Larry Weber
Back in May, I trotted off to meet with marketing/PR guru, Larry Weber and a bunch of other interesting people, including Jack Schofield (IT man at the Guardian for donkey's years and erstwhile competitor - we both edited PC magazines in the early eighties) and Bill Nichols an academic and marcomms/reputation consultant who, when Jack and I were competing, was Clive Sinclair's PR man. They were both on the speaker panel with Larry. The other notable people were in the lively audience.
The occasion was the UK launch of Larry's (then) most recent book: Everywhere. It's about social networking being at the heart of the future of business. He calls this 'anytime, anywhere' access the the fourth wave of computing. (I ought to know what the three earlier waves were, but I've forgotten. Maybe it was brains, internal networking and internet, or something.)
No surprises so far then. But I don't think Larry set out to surprise us particularly. More that he wants to share his familiarity with the subject matter in a non-frightening manner. After all, the people who really need his insights are those who are probably the most fearful of openness, transparency and genuine dialogue. You might think of them as the 'command and contol' brigade. While this has its place, it's probably not where the rubber of the corporation hits the road of the marketplace.
Sorry, I should be talking about Larry's evening. (And, if you're wondering why it's taken me so long, it's because I was suddenly pitchforked into a new company and I've been more than a tad busy. My conscience was pricked by a Facebook post about his recent presentation to the Public Relations Student Society of America. The headline of the post was "Social media’s impact bigger than television’s.")
At his book launch, he predicted that, by 2015, "you'll be hard pressed to find any newspapers or nightly news on TV." He says, "TV ads have got to die sometime." He may not always provide answers but he knows how to provoke fresh thinking. Let's hope the revenue replacement doesn't put the TV companies even deeper in hock to corporate sponsors.
With regard to the Fourth Generation thing, he told the story of how he sent off for brochures from all the prospective colleges for his daughter. She didn't look at one of them. She'd already done her research online. Except she didn't refer to it as online. When Larry once said to her, "I'm going online", she replied "Oh Dad, we don't go online any more. We just are." Online, that is. And a lot of people reading this will know what she means. If you're not one of them, then it's likely that his book will interest you.
Another thing he talked about was Innocentive. Companies give it problems and money and it gets its community of 'solvers' to apply their brains. Larry gave examples of $100,000 here and $25,000 there. It's all online (of course). And the winning contributor exchanges their IP for the cash. That's a great commercial application of crowdsourcing. Related to this were his comments on how social networking allows for the intense, focused, sharing of knowledge. I think his book goes further and talks of micro-segmentation of the internet so that you can find a community and go deep into just about any subject that interests you.
He is very clear that successful companies (especially consumer-facing) will have to become radically transparent, be willing to share and also to stand for something that will resonate with customers and prospects. Core values that permeate the company's business. Larry doesn't claim it will be easy, but he sprinkles his conversation with stories old and new of how companies have turned on the proverbial dime. Dell, of course. BP to a certain extent. And so on.
I was quite taken with the idea that, "big sites will die under their own weight." He said this because he believes that all the power is now in the network. Not sure that a behemoth like IBM would totally agree with this sentiment, despite its strong advocacy of social networking values. With statements like this, the evangelist in Larry seems to pop out of the closet. (My views of evangelists are here.)
Let's turn to one of the other speakers, Bill Nichols. He scored a hole in one for me with his observation that "People respond to emotion and fairness."
I have the sense that the former has been faked and the latter missing for a long time.
If Larry and Bill are right, we would seem to be heading towards a better and much more harmonious world.
31 Oct 2011 18:34:08 | Blogging, Bottom line, Content, Control, Corporate culture, Emotions, Environment, Influencers, Life, Making contact, New media, PR, Social stuff, Web service, Your readers
On June 21 1973, Peter Lewis - the Daily Mail's Literary Editor - wrote a review of a book that was to change the direction of my life: Small is Beautiful: a study of economics as if people mattered by E.F.Schumacher.
I rushed out and bought a copy and, among other things, was taught the wisdom of a focus on need rather than greed. It led me to the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG), now called Practical Action, and many other environmental and sustainability initiatives.
I mention it today because, clearing out the garage the other evening, it fluttered to the floor. I thought you might like to read it. Click on the image to see it in a new window (zoom to suit).
Apologies for its general dishevelment. (And, to those who are sensitive to such things, for the fact it was in the Daily Mail.)
26 May 2011 13:31:08 | Bottom line, Environment, Life, Sustainability
I finished reading Tim Flannery's Here on Earth a couple of days ago.
It lays out a fascinating history of our planet, the flora and fauna and their effects on it (including mankind, of course) and what we need to do to ensure our own species survives. We're the only ones with the intelligence and understanding to change our ways.
His recipe for global cooperation - a shared 'mneme' which acknowledges the harm we're doing and how to reverse it - is plausible in the abstract. But the book contains all the seeds (no pun intended) of why this is a tall order.
As a provocation, the book is excellent. If you're of a defeatist mind-set, you could end up very depressed by it. Especially if you have children and grandchildren. On the other hand, if you have a grain of imagination, it could start you thinking very seriously about how we get from an unacceptable 'here' to a desirable 'there'.
It will mean change, and that's the threat to religions, nations, different strata in society, business, politics, and so on. All have to find ways to put our common interest ahead of their own.
The book is very readable for the most part - at its best when describing our world and its mechanisms and, understandably, at its weakest when suggesting a way forward.
But, unlike the alarmist books which simply annoy, it gets you thinking. And, for that reason alone, I think it's worth a read.
24 May 2011 13:01:28 | Bottom line, Control, Environment, Evidence, Life, Proof, Social stuff, Sustainability
Eggs and baskets
Being away from here has given me a chance to focus intensely on launching a new magazine without too many distractions. We now have five issues under our belt and I have reaquainted myself with the rhythms of conventional publishing. I know where the peaks and troughs of effort lie and I can get back to a more normal and less distorted life in the troughs.
Creating, editing and writing for Blue & Green Tomorrow has been a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. And it couldn't have happened without Simon, Lori and Dominic (publisher, sub-editor and designer respectively) and, of course, our marvellous contributors. Other people take care of 'webifying' the magazine at blueandgreentomorrow.com. You can register (free) which gives you an account tab and access to digital copies of the magazine. Otherwise much of the content is publicly available under the various themed tabs.
Even through the mayhem of the launch, I've continued to do the occasional course on how to handle the media, often with my long-time partner in crime, Martin Banks. We used to call ourselves 'Press Here' but, when we both deviated out into analysis work, we sold the domain and renamed ourselves greybeards. One look at our photos will tell you why. I also run the odd writing skills workshop for business people.
And, now, here I am blogging again. Given the nature of the magazine, I suspect that I'll be blogging more about sustainability (could a word possibly sound more boring?) than about IT. But it's hard to keep me away from software. Talking of which, I now have an HTC Desire smartphone running Android, and jolly pleased I am too. That could be another running theme.
We'll see. But, as you can see from the title, I think that a deliberate spread of activities, providing I can do all of them well, will makes for a more balanced and fulfilling life than having all my eggs in one basket.
So, the last post turned out not to be The Last Post after all, just a pause while I gathered my wits.
See you again soon.
26 Apr 2011 14:45:03 | Blogging, Environment, Influencers, Making contact, Not4ITA, PR, Software, Sustainability, Web/Tech, Weblogs
Funny how things work out. No sooner had I reorganised my life (see this blog post) than I got an irresistible offer to help create and edit a new magazine. Since July, we've been working on the creation of Blue & Green Tomorrow which hit thousands of carefully-selected doormats two days ago.
We've called it Blue & Green Tomorrow because we want our planet to be as blue and green tomorrow as it was yesterday. And we believe that the way to do this is for our readers to start making more informed choices about their domestic, business and financial lives.
We're not interested in stale debate or slanging matches between vested interests which lead to the deferment of decisions, we believe that all of our readers can take positive actions right now, if only they could easily lay their hands on the right information.
That's where the magazine comes in with its news from around the world and features on subjects such as shopping, travel, energy and investment. It is relentlessly focused on positive, practical and pragmatic choices that readers can make to leave the world better than they found it.
We expect their influence to spread and affect others, whether it's by setting an example or by helping to finance the right kinds of business.
We aim to give them an informative and enjoyable read. We want the magazine and its website to become a lively forum for the readers and the publication team. The buzz has already started as we get feedback on the first issue of the magazine. The website is live, but you can expect much more very soon. A twice-monthly email newsletter will follow for those who choose to opt in.
That's probably as much as I can tell you at the moment. One or two people have questioned our use of paper for the magazine but it comes from sustainable forests, is bleach-free and can be easily recycled. You could add other benefits such as it being possible to read it anywhere and it keeping postal workers in business.
When I helped relaunch Personal Computer World in 1979, I just knew we were at the start of a fantastic era in which computer power was going to be put into everyone's hands. Right now, I have similar feelings about the opportunities that face us with clean energy, ethical purchasing, wise investment and sensible travel. And that's just for starters.
As someone whose environmental awareness was awakened in 1974, when I read E F Schumacher's Small is Beautiful, I'm just thrilled to be associated with such a forward-looking and optimistic publication. While I've been involved in many sustainability initiatives over the past seven years, none has felt as 'right' as this one.
I'll keep you posted on progress.
7 Nov 2010 07:39:37 | Bottom line, Environment, Influencers, Life
Track what's important with paper.li
To my (slight) shame, I periodically purge the list of people I follow on Twitter. I simply don't have the time to read the minutiae of some of their lives, despite the fact they occasionally come up with worthwhile gems.
Now, I've discovered a way of getting the best of both worlds: I can keep up with the more interesting/useful Tweets from whoever I like while keeping down the number of people I follow in Twitter itself.
So, three cheers for paper.li - a free service that builds online daily newspapers: from a Twitter user and the people they follow; from a twitter list; or from a hashtag. It looks for Tweets that contain links and publishes an extract from the destination, crediting the Tweeter at the foot of the piece. You can click the headline to go to the original article/site
Paper.li earns its money from small display ads dropped into your newspaper.
'envirolist' is my Twitter list of people who specialise in environmental and ethical stuff.
You probably can't see the detail in the above picture, but it has a 'trending topics' cloud and a live Tweet stream from the people in the list over on the right.
I currently have two papers running and I can create a further eight. My two are paper.li/tebbo and the one above, paper.li/tebbo/envirolist.
As a quick way to catch up on what's going on, paper.li is a corker. It requires minimal effort to set up a paper and it will even announce each new edition to your Twitter followers if you want, complete with the inclusion of some contributors' names.
[Update Sept 7: I switched the notification off two days ago. While no-one had complained to me, paper.li updates were beginning to annoy some Twitter users. This could only get worse as the service became more popular. Today, the company has changed the notification to top story only and it has dropped name plugs. It helps, but if anyone wants to follow my papers, the links are in my Twitter bio. I'm not switching notification back on.]
With paper.li's simplicity comes a lack of flexibility but, once you start complicating things, you have to start learning stuff. This turns (some) people off.
As it stands, paper.li reminds me of my first encounter with Google - it was a shock to just see a text box and a search button. And look what that led to...
2 Sep 2010 08:59:27 | Content, Environment, Influencers, Making contact, New media, Social stuff, Software, Web service, Web/Tech, Weblogs, Your readers
Felix Dennis on Nuclear and Sustainability
Felix Dennis has started a Facebook discussion urging the use of nuclear power.
It brought to mind one of the most enjoyable interviews of my life when I was writing for Sustainable Solutions magazine in 2007. Almost everything he said flew in the face of the sustainability ethic, yet the magazine loved publishing such an articulate, but alternative, point of view.
I'm putting it in this blog, a) to be able to put a link into Felix's Facebook discussion and b) to share it with a wider audience.
(Disclosure: Felix was the publisher who took a gamble on me, an IT professional, to help create a personal computer magazine in 1979. I ended up as editor of Personal Computer World following its acquisition by Felix's company, Bunch Books.)
Eco-fascists, dinosaurs and bonfires
Not one to mince his words, publisher and millionaire Felix Dennis tells David Tebbutt why he has no time for Sitka Spruces, climate change and people he refers to as 'ecoNazis'
Felix Dennis is a rich man. He has no idea how rich but The Sunday Times Rich List suggests £75O million.
He earned it through hard work, a love of publishing, a talent for writing, an eye for an opportunity and great skill at making deals.
His riches have bought him five houses, three estates and, most importantly, the time to do exactly as he pleases. And that includes a plan to create the country's largest broadleaf forest.
He's quietly buying up parcels of land and finger planting woodland on either side. (Splay the fingers of each hand and point them towards each other to get the general idea.) Between the woodland clusters are from ten to forty acres of pasture
To ensure that the forest is kept for the nation, he has created a trust called the 'Forest of Dennis'. It will provide, in his words, "amenity for humans and living space for thousands upon thousands of life forms."
Mr Dennis considers the extreme elements in the environmental world dangerous and he's happy to spell out the likely consequences. He's also happy to spell out what he would do if he were in charge of the world.
Let's meet the man
What would you say to someone who asked what your forest was all about'?
"None of your bloody business."
He follows this with a gleeful barking laugh, the first of many which punctuated the interview.
Typically, he buys his land from farmers who are giving up.
He says, "Our farming policies are utterly bonkers and I speak as a farmer with 4,000 acres."
Mr Dennis calls the Common Agricultural Policy, "a daft system of agriculture. In decades and centuries to come people will he awestruck at the self-serving, self-dealing and delusional nature of these arrangements."
And the paperwork that has to be submitted is overwhelming many farmers.
"If you make a single mistake you don't get the grant money. The weight of the bureaucracy causes mass despair. And they give up."
Which is handy for Mr Dennis.
"I get the chance to plant trees all over this unwanted farmland. You can come across cows, sheep, and my lovely rare breed pigs living inside these woodland pastures. They're very comfortable and protected from the wind.
"We are creating the charity so the trees are safe from the predations of the government. Because it was the government who chopped down the last lot of all our forests.
"And the only thing they've ever planted is worthless Sitka Spruces which now deface Scotland. Our wildlife hates them. They can't live on them. An oak tree supports a thousand types of life. I think a Sitka Spruce manages six. Totally pitiful."
His motivation seems to be simply to create something beautiful that everyone can enjoy. He says it has nothing to do with the environment, leaving a legacy, tax advantages or soaking up CO2.
Mr Dennis admits to being at odds with every organisation that flies under the conservation, ecology or sustainability banners.
On climate change he says: "I think human beings are totally deluding themselves that they are in charge of the planet. So why do they load themselves up with guilt?
"Humans are animals and we do what animals are programmed to do which is breed and create change by so doing. Elephants, for example, can turn a forested area into savannah within three generations. That's what they do."
He notes that nature appears to have very few requirements of animal life: live, breed, migrate.
Hunger creates migration. Fear too.
"Our wretched Puritans went to America because they weren't allowed to worship the superstitious dogma that they chose. They were only allowed to engage in the superstition which was the dogma of the government of the day. And if they didn't then I'm afraid they had to be chucked on bonfires.”
He believes that many, but certainly not all, conservationists and ecologists, "are rapidly evolving into eco-fascists and eco-Nazis."
The businessman draws parallels with what he calls superstitious fascism.
"I'm sorry to take the Catholic Church, it just happens to be handy. The Jesuits, when they renewed the faith of the Catholic Church, went to people and said certain truths had been brought to us by God. We understand these truths.
"You, on the other hand, are a worthless, stinking peasant and a useless excrescence and a guilty one to boot. Unless you listen very closely to what we say and you do everything that we say, even if you don't understand why, then with the greatest regret we are going to have to chuck you on bonfires after we have tortured you. We're not doing this because we're nasty; we're doing this because we're trying to save your immortal soul."
Here's the parallel, he goes on to say.
"The eco-Nazis say: "l have looked at the planet. Gaia has spoken to me, I understand hundreds of truths that you do not understand. It's all too complex for a person like you. And I'm afraid that, unless you do everything that I say, the entire world is doomed. It's all going to he your fault."
Mr Dennis reckons the bonfires are coming
"What the eco-Nazis don't seem to understand is that the planet doesn't care. We are not in charge. We are just a minor life form and, with a couple of shrugs of its shoulders, the planet will bring humans' so-called domination to an end.
"And we only have one way out.”
He whispers: "We must migrate."
His preferred option is to leave the planet.
"We've reached the limit of our ability to migrate unless we live under the sea. Which, may I remind you, is two thirds of the face of the planet."
"Because I'm 60 years old. I couldn't give a monkey's. Stop thinking 'let's all go back to the stone age, let's only have one billion people on the planet, let's hang on to the edge of the precipice for another one or two hundred years.' This is what's being offered to me by eco-Fascists.
"They offer no solution. There can be no solution to what nature put in motion. Sustainability. What does that mean'? I can show you the bones of dinosaurs, hippopotami, alligators and many other types of creatures that were found by the banks of the Thames
"Was that sustainable when sheets of ice went right up on top of them'? There were no human beings, I believe, who caused the sheets of ice to come down after these animals had been basking on sunny riverbanks for millennia."
How about the sun as the power source?
"If you made me tyrant of the world, the first thing I would have is a thousand atomic desalination plants.
"I'd turn Australia into a garden. It will be green from one end to the other. The icecaps will melt and lots of water will come into the seas. Sea levels will go up and we'll use the water, pump it all out.
"Do it. Now. Why not? Because the eco- fascists say 'you can't do that'
"Why? Because you won't know what to do with the waste. So they think that our kids won't be clever enough to figure out what to do with it? Millions of my people have to die now because of their little fear? No sir. We have the technology. We could do it now. We could turn Saudi Arabia into a Garden of Eden. Why aren't we doing it'? Eco-Fascists
"I'm sorry, but solar power cannot possibly compete with modern atomic technology. I can produce hundreds of millions of gallons of desalinated water using atomic technology. And I can pump it whenever you would like it. I can give jobs to people because they will build the aqueducts.
"And then you will have more room than you ever have thought was possible on the planet. I could see this planet supporting at least a hundred billion people. We're crazy not to be creating far more usable earth than we've ever done before.
"The conservationists want to restrict your life. Using the guise of the death of the Earth, they want you to do everything they say. They wish to become the new priesthood. And they're going about it in exactly the same way that every priesthood always has.
"Most people accept that there is some sort of global warming going on. Whether humans have had anything to do with it is not a matter that anybody is competent to speak upon.
"No benefit ever came from people pointing fingers at other people and blaming them, except to a small number of people who are in charge of allocating the blame.
"I don't despise the people involved, but I do despise the scare tactics which are so redolent of those used by proselytising religions in the past."
"Sustainable Solutions is laughable. The whole idea is laughable
"Sustainable for whom, over what time period'?
"If it wasn't sustainable for dinosaurs, mate, it won't be sustainable for you."
This article was first published in the July/August 2007 issue of 'Sustainable Solutions' magazine. Reproduced with permission of the Mark Allen Group
1 Jul 2010 08:34:54 | Environment, Life
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Confluent raises $50M to continue growing commercial arm of Apache Kafka
Confluent, the commercial company built on top of the open source Apache Kafka streaming database project, announced today that it has closed a $50 million investment.
The round was led by Sequoia with Benchmark and Index Ventures also participating. Sequoia’s Matt Miller will be joining the Confluent board as part of the deal. Today’s round brings the total investment into the company to $80 million.
At its core, Kafka is simply a messaging system, created originally at LinkedIn, that’s been designed from the ground up to move massive amounts of data smoothly around the enterprise from application to application, system to system or on-prem to cloud — and deal with extremely high message volume.
Confluent CEO Jay Kreps said the LinkedIn team built Kafka to treat all data across the enterprise, wherever it lived, as a real-time stream of data and to allow anything to tap into and react to it. “It could process a trillion messages every day in real time and we released it as open source and it spread in Silicon Valley, and a number of the biggest tech companies are built around Kafka,” Kreps told TechCrunch.
Organizations using Kafka as a core part of their internal systems include Netflix, Uber, Cisco and Goldman Sachs. Matt Miller from lead investor Sequoia said his company talked to people using the open source product, and he was convinced that there will be a huge market for Confluent. “Our view is that Confluent has the potential to be one of the most impactful tech companies of the next decade,” he said.
While the community edition is available for free, many companies are still willing to pay Confluent for its auxiliary tools that make Kafka easier to use. These include the ability to manage and monitor data flows in a complex organization, for example, or to trace data flows across an organization and to optimize and balance data running on Kafka clusters more efficiently. In addition, Confluent offers customers various support plans.
While it was possible to connect these systems before Kafka, Miller says it was much less efficient and much more costly. “Most enterprises have used ad hoc integrations or batch processing that takes a lot of time. Kafka makes it a lot less expensive to share large amounts of information and to wean off of [older systems] and move to micro services,” he explained.
Kafka is particularly well suited to Internet of Things because of its ability to deal with large amounts of data and communicate quickly across various systems that need access to that data. Internet of Things devices are expected to generate massive volumes of data in the coming years and businesses will need a way to access this data and move it around the enterprise to make use of it.
As for what he intends to do with that $50 million, Kreps says he plans to continue building the company in a fast-growing market. “If you are at the head of a pack of a fast moving area, you want to stay ahead. You want to make the tech to define this category and take it to market all over the world,” he said.
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Gaming accessories firm Razer to raise up to $550M in Hong Kong IPO
Razer, the U.S.-Singapore firm that produces PCs and peripherals for gamers, is set to raise as much as $550 million from its Hong Kong IPO after it revealed its price range.
The company first filed to go public in July, and today it confirmed that it plans to offer 1,063,600,000 shares at a range of HK$2.93-HK$4.00, that’s around $0.38-$0.51. If the full allocation sells at that top price then the listing would raise $550 million, at mid-range that’s HK$3.5 billion or $450 million.
12-year-old Razer plans to spend the proceeds on developing new product verticals — it is expected to announce its first mobile device before the end of this year — funding acquisitions and R&D, and also growing its brand via increased marketing initiatives.
It already has an impressive following — its most devoted fans sport tattoos of the Razer logo — thanks to a mantra of selling products that are “For Gamers, By Gamers.”
@Razer @minliangtan thanks for my first tattoo!! pic.twitter.com/w90dNtLdX0
— Sam (@ZXXXIO) August 9, 2015
Three-quarters of revenue comes from the sales of PC accessories like gaming mice, souped up keyboards, specialist headphones and more, but the firm branched into PC devices with the Razer Blade, a high-performance laptop dedicated to portable gaming that costs more than $2,000, and it bought audio visual brand THX in 2016. Despite the price, margins on the Blade are low at under three percent.
Razer said in its prospectus that it isn’t likely to be profitable for some time as it is focused on expanding its business. Beyond hardware it is betting that a digital services play can leverage its brand to pay dividends, with its payments platform — funded by another acquisition — representing a critical part of that strategy. It aims to grow its presence in key markets like China, where it claims to be the top gaming accessories brand, and North America, which already accounts for 50 percent of sales.
That’s yet to come and Razer can point to being profitable in 2014 — to the tune of $20.3 million — before losses in 2015 and 2016, $20 million and $59.6 million, respectively. The former, it said, was largely down to the cost of an aborted U.S. listing, while its most recent financial year saw an increase in stock options and more R&D. Excluding that compensation, Razer’s loss for 2016 was a more modest $20.6 million.
Revenue-wise, Razer is in a tricky spot. Total sales growth hasn’t been amazing, instead the company’s real opportunity is that the global games industry itself will expand to give it more customers to sell to.
There’s precious little analysis on the peripherals space but a report commissioned by Razer itself concluded that gaming peripherals were a $2 billion market in 2016. With the base of global gamers predicted to jump from two billion in 2016 to 2.7 billion in 2021, Razer is pitching investors on that opportunity coupled with its forays into mobile, AV, services and payments.
Existing backers who have already bought into the vision include Foxconn, Intel, IDC-Accel and Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, who invested via his Redmount Ventures fund.
The SCMP reports that they’ll be joined by committed IPO investors Singapore fund GIC, real estate firms Kingkey (China) and Singhaiyi (Singapore), cigarette group Djarum from Indonesia, and Macau-based casino owner Loi Keong Kuong. A tranche of shares for the public will be offered up this week.
Alongside Razer, Tencent’s China Publishing Group — an Amazon Kindle-like ebooks business — is also going public in Hong Kong. The HKSE has increased its appetite for tech firms after selfie app make Meitu raised $629 million in a December listing.
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US Marshals says prisoners’ personal information taken in data breach
A data breach at the U.S. Marshals Service exposed the personal information of current and former prisoners, TechCrunch has learned.
A letter sent to those affected, and obtained by TechCrunch, said the Justice Department notified the U.S. Marshals on December 30, 2019 of a data breach affecting a public-facing server storing personal information on current and former prisoners in its custody. The letter said the breach may have included their name, address, date of birth and Social Security number, which can be used for identity fraud.
As the law enforcement arm of the federal courts, U.S. Marshals are tasked with capturing fugitives and serving federal arrest warrants. Last year, U.S. Marshals arrested more than 90,000 fugitives and served over 105,000 warrants.
U.S. Marshals spokesperson Drew Wade told TechCrunch that some 387,000 individuals are affected by the breach.
“A new cyber security monitoring tool alerted the Justice Security Operations Center to an attempted attack on a USMS system called DSNet, a system designed to facilitate the movement and housing of USMS prisoners with the federal courts, Bureau of Prisons, and within the agency,” said Wade. “DSNet was built in 2005 by the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee and was brought into USMS when the two organizations merged in 2012.”
It’s the latest federal government security lapse in recent weeks.
The Defense Information Systems Agency, a Dept. of Defense division charged with providing technology and communications support to the U.S. government — including the president and other senior officials — said a data breach between May and July 2019 resulted in the theft of employees’ personal information.
Last month, the Small Business Administration admitted that 8,000 applicants, who applied for an emergency loan after facing financial difficulties because of the coronavirus pandemic, had their data exposed.
Updated with statement from the U.S. Marshals.
US defense agency says personal data ‘compromised’ in 2019 data breach
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Battle of Britain London Monument – P/O A G DONAHUE
Battle of Britain London Monument – P/O A G DONAHUE THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN LONDON MONUMENT "Never in the field of human
Privacy Statement The Airmen’s Stories – P/O A G Donahue
Arthur Gerald Donahue was born in St Charles, Minnesota, America in 1913. He learned to fly privately and had his private and commercial pilot’s licenses before he was 19 and for several years he instructed trainee pilots, gave pleasure flights and did some barnstorming. In June 1940 he heard that pilots were being enlisted in Canada for the RAF. He travelled to Canada and, claiming to be Canadian, was accepted and ten days later sailed for the UK. Six days after landing he was at 7 OTU Hawarden.
He joined No 64 Squadron at Kenley on the 3rd of August 1940. On the 5th of August 1940 he landed at Hawkinge with serious damage following a combat with Me109’s off the French coast.
He was wounded on the 12th of August 1940 at 17:40hrs over the South Coast when he baled out of his burning Spitfire I (X4018) with injuries to the right leg and burns. After some time in hospital he rejoined No 64 Squadron in mid-September.
On the 29th of September 1940 he was posted to No 71 Squadron, newly-reformed at Church Fenton from American volunteers. With no operations being flown Donahue was posted away on October the 23rd at his own request and he rejoined No 64 Squadron. Donahue was then posted to Singapore in late 1941. He was awarded the DFC on the 27th of March 1942.
After being wounded fighting the Japanese he returned to England and after recuperating was posted to 91 Squadron as a flight commander. Back in action on 11th September 1942 he intercepted a Ju88 off Ostend in Spitfire Vb BL511 and shot it down but return fire caused his engine to overheat and he was forced to ditch in the Channel off Gravelines.
Despite extensive searching he was not found and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial (panel 65 below, photograph courtesy of Dean Sumner).
The American volunteers that flew with the RAF in the Battle are the subject of a book "The Few" by Alex Kershaw ISBN 978-0-718-14746-4
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what happened to tanya roberts on that 70s show
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1.what happened to tanya roberts on that 70s show
Snap/Shutterstock Tanya Roberts with Roger Moore, who played James Bond in “A View To A Kill.” Between 1998 and 2004, Roberts appeared in the sitcom “That ’70s Show” in the supporting role of Midge Pinciotti, sharing the screen with Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tanya-roberts-dies_n_5ff30055c5b61817a5380d81
Bond Girl & ‘That ’70s Show’ Star Tanya Roberts Dead at 65 Bond Girl & ‘That ’70s Show’ Star Tanya Roberts Dead at 65. 102.4K; 1/4/2021 10:27 AM PT
https://www.tmz.com/2021/01/03/tanya-roberts-dead-dies-sheena-that-70s-show-bond-girl/
Tanya Roberts, who captivated James Bond in “A View to a Kill” and later played Midge Pinciotti in the sitcom “That ’70s Show,” has been hospitalized after falling at her home.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tanya-roberts-alive-hospitalized-bond-girl-that-70s-show-star/
Tanya Roberts, star of ‘That ‘70s Show’ and the Bond Girl in ‘A View to a Kill,’ was reported to have died at the age of 65. However, it’s reportedly not the case anymore.
https://www.vulture.com/2021/01/tanya-roberts-bond-girl-and-that-70s-show-star-dead-at-65.html
That 70s Show actress Tanya Roberts has died at the age of 65. Tanya Roberts’ cause of death has yet to be revealed, but her rep says she collapsed suddenly on Christmas Eve.
https://decider.com/2021/01/04/tanya-roberts-dead-bond-girl-that-70s-show/
Actress Tanya Roberts, who is best known for her role as a Bond girl in “A View to a Kill” and Midge Pinciotti on “That ’70s Show,” has died. She was 65.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/04/entertainment/tanya-roberts-death-trnd/index.html
Actress and model Tanya Roberts, known for her role as Midge in “That ’70s Show,” reportedly died on Sunday. She was 65. Roberts had been hospitalized since she collapsed in her California ho…
https://pagesix.com/2021/01/04/actress-tanya-roberts-that-70s-show-star-dead-at-65/
Roberts, who captivated James Bond in “A View to a Kill” and had roles on “Charlie’s Angels” and “That ’70s Show,” died Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021. She was 65. Her death was announced by …
https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/entertainment-news/tanya-roberts-bond-girl-and-that-70s-show-star-dies/
1.Tanya Roberts, Bond girl and “That 70s Show” star, hospitalized
Tanya Roberts, who captivated James Bond in “A View to a Kill” and later played Midge Pinciotti in the sitcom “That ’70s Show,” has been hospitalized after falling at her home. The actor had mistakenly been reported dead by her publicist earlier Monday.
2.Tanya Roberts, Bond Girl and ‘That ’70s Show’ star, is alive despite reports of her death
A spokesman for the actor Tanya Roberts, known for her roles in the 1985 “A View to a Kill” and “That ’70s Show,” put out a false report of her death on Sunday, leading NBC News, Variety and several other publications to publish her obituary in error.
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/tanya-roberts-bond-girl-70s-show-star-dies-65-n1252706
1 Midge Pinciotti – Stacy’s Mom
Been working on this for a while, took a break, then came back and finished it. Hope you like it. I own nothing.
Watch Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BPzBbW57YI
1.That ’70s Show
That ‘70s Show is an American television period sitcom that originally aired on Fox from August 23, 1998, to May 18, 2006. The series focuses on the lives…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That ’70s Show
2.That ’70s Show (season 1)
That ‘70s Show, an American television series, began August 23, 1998, and ended on July 26, 1999. It aired on Fox. The region 1 DVD was released on October…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That ’70s Show (season 1)
3.Rellik (TV series)
Castelow as DS Jenny Roberts Joseph Macnab as DC Sam Myers Mimi Ndiweni as DC Andrea Reed Michael Wildman as DI Martin Brook Tanya Reynolds as Sally Annabel…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rellik (TV series)
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Climate sceptics unite
News National Climate sceptics unite
7:10am, Jun 10, 2014 Updated: 3:13pm, Oct 1
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper have condemned carbon taxes during their first bilateral talks in Ottawa.
Both conservative leaders have campaigned against carbon pricing, and in the face of US president Barack Obama’s push to get power producers to cut emissions, the prime ministers said the taxes are “job-killing” measures that would hurt their economies.
Under cloudless skies in the Canadian capital, Mr Abbott was given the warmest possible welcome as he arrived to meet Mr Harper at Parliament Hill.
A marching band played as a guard of honour assembled and fired a 19-gun salute.
Inside the pair sat down for what the bilingual Canadians call a tête-à-tête or head-to-head meeting.
Mr Abbott did not even try to hide his admiration for the more senior conservative statesman.
“I’m happy to call you an exemplar of centre-right leadership,” Mr Abbott said.
It is well known the prime ministers sing from the same song-sheet, so many of Mr Harper’s phrases had a familiar feel.
“Throughout your time as chair of the G20, you’ve used this international platform to encourage our counterparts in the major economies and beyond to boost economic growth, to lower taxes when possible and to eliminate harmful ones – most notably, the job-killing carbon tax,” Mr Harper said.
Unity ticket against carbon pricing
They are a unity ticket against carbon pricing, but both men say they are doing more to cut emissions than Mr Obama, who is currently pushing for global action.
Mr Abbott acknowledged that climate change is “a significant problem”. But he added: “it’s not the only or even the most important problem that the world faces.”
“We should do what we reasonably can to limit emissions and avoid climate change, man-made climate change, but we shouldn’t clobber the economy,” Mr Abbott said.
Mr Obama’s plan is to cut emissions from US coal plants 30 per cent by 2030, pushing the US closer to an emissions reduction target pledged at UN climate talks in 2010. Canada will miss its target.
Both countries have committed to reducing emissions by 17 per cent below their 2005 levels by 2020. But Canada produces less than 2 per cent of global emissions, while the US produces nearly 20 per cent.
“It’s not that we don’t seek to deal with climate change, but we seek to deal with it in a way that will protect and enhance our ability to create jobs and growth and not destroy jobs and growth in our country,” Mr Harper said.
“And, frankly, every single country in the world, this is their position: no country is going to undertake actions on climate change, no matter what they say, no country is going to take actions that are going to deliberately destroy jobs and growth in their country.
“We are just a little more frank about that, but that is the approach that every country is seeking.”
Russia ‘behaved very badly indeed’, Abbott says
Mr Abbott and Mr Harper are also firm G20 allies, and denounced Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday, though they are not ready to boot him out of the economic grouping just yet.
“Plainly Russia has behaved badly, very badly indeed, over Ukraine, but the G20 is still some five months away and let’s hope Russia behaves better,” Mr Abbott said.
The leaders also agreed on the importance of sharing spy material, pursuing global growth and smaller government.
“Prime Minister, you and I both know that budgets do not balance themselves,” Mr Harper said.
But later today the meetings of mutual admiration end. After a dinner in Mr Abbott’s honour, the Prime Minister jets off to the United States for the pointy end of his international tour.
Expensive dinner: Fairfax’s $600k food review
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AFL Crows mentor Bailey has cancer
Sport AFL AFL Crows mentor Bailey has cancer
The former Melbourne coach has taken time off from the Crows for an indefinite period as he fights a form of chest cancer.
“Following a recent acute illness, Dean was admitted to hospital where he was found to have fluid in his left lung,” the Crows said in a statement on Wednesday.
“This has been treated but the underlying cause is unfortunately cancer within the chest.
“Dean is undergoing extensive tests to determine the exact type of cancer but this has yet to be determined.
“He will shortly start appropriate therapy to treat the cancer and is expected to require some time away from work.
“Dean has a typically positive outlook and hopes to be returning to work as soon as possible.”
Bailey joined Adelaide for the 2012 season as the club’s strategy and innovation coach and a mentor to senior coach Brenton Sanderson.
The 46-year-old was Melbourne’s head coach from 2008 until he was sacked during the 2011 season.
Bailey was suspended by the AFL last season for six months for bringing the game into disrepute, after a league investigation into alleged tanking while he was Melbourne coach.
The Crows said they were uncertain how long Bailey would be on leave.
“The club will cover his absence internally until we get a clearer picture about the length of his absence and treatment,” the club statement said.
Blues, Tigers add to lists in AFL rookie draft
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Sam Allardyce – by his greatest signings
July 26, 2016 / ThePanenka
The Panenka profiles the new England boss through the words of some of his greatest signings.
Ivan Campo
The combative midfielder had already won a domestic double and the Champions league twice with Real Madrid before moving to the Reebok. After an initial season on loan with the trotters in 2002/2003 the Spaniard was sold an Big Sam and stayed in Lancashire for a further five seasons, making over 170 appearances for the club.
“Sam taught me everything I know when I made the move from Spain to England,” he told The Evening Chronicle.
“He taught me how to adjust to life in the Premier League. Sam is a great coach and I have great memories of him. His man-management was the reason that he was able to attract the top talent such as Fernando Hierro to Bolton.”
The played dubbed ‘so good they named him twice’ arrived at the Reebok in the summer of 2002 on a free-transfer and quickly endeared himself to the fans with a string of man of the match performances which saved the club from relegation in his debut season, eventually becoming club captain.
Okocha played under Allardyce at Bolton during a four-year spell and he is convinced the former-Sunderland boss will impress at international level now that he has been confirmed as Roy Hodgson’s replacement.
“He is a very ambitious manager who wants to succeed at any club he has been and he knows how to get the best out of players,” Okocha told Sky Sports News HQ days before the appointment was made official.
“He is very specific in his details, there is nowhere for you to hide. He will show you everything in terms of stats and I think he prepares his players in the best possible way.
“Some people might criticize him for being a bit direct but you also have to think of the players he has got to work with. It is all about knowing the quality he has got to try and bring the best out of them.
“I never thought I would be able to play for him because he is too direct but he managed to find a way to accommodate me. The great thing about it is it his dream job and he has the desire to succeed, so I think he will definitely do well.”
The former Galactico made over 250 appearances at Real Madrid before joining Big Sam at Ewood Park in 2009. Having won four La Liga titles and two European Cups the Spaniard was a major coup for Allardyce with a struggling Blackburn Rovers, he stayed for three seasons before retiring from the game.
“He did a great job with Bolton. He is doing a great job with Blackburn Rovers. He hasn’t had the money to sign the big players,” he told The Independent in November 2010.
“You know the talent of the manager when he has a small batch of players and you are a competitive team. The job he’s done over the last few years has been magnificent. He is one of the reasons I came here to England. I spoke with Ivan Campo and he said to me: ‘Go, because he likes to work with experienced players’.”
“Sam was great. He told me, ‘OK, don’t hurry, take your time, get used to the British way of life and the club and the style of play because it is so different to Spain’.”
The defender spent over a decade in the Spanish capital with Los Blancos making over 400 appearances and even scoring over 100 goals. Hierro can also boast three European Cups and five La Liga winners medals.
The Real Madrid stalwart only spent one season at the Reebok after retiring in 2005 but the Spain international could see the talents of his English coach having played under the likes of Vicente del Bosque, Fabio Capello and Jupp Heynckes at the Bernabeu.
“One of the reasons I came to England was to experience life under a manager who runs the club from top to bottom. I don’t know how Sam does it,” he told The Guardian months after joining in 2004.
“He’s got the strength to deal with the coaching, the team, but also the signings and sales off the pitch. If there’s no tea in the dressing room, it’ll be Sam who gets it sorted.”
A world cup winner in 1998 and the European Championships in 2000, the former PSG and Inter Milan playmaker arrived in Lancashire with a reputation as big as his talent.
When Djorkaeff signed with the club the Frenchman told the Bolton Wanderers official website that it was the club’s boss had persuaded him to sign for the Trotters with the promise of first-team football after a unsuccessful spell with Kaiserslautern.
“I decided to sign for Bolton because the club really want me.”
“Sam Allardyce visited me in Germany, he told me he relied on me, and told me I would be in the first-team.
“I want to score goals and I’ve never felt as fit. I am really eager to discover this new challenge, help Bolton stay in the Premier League and regain my place in the international set-up for the World Cup.”
English Premier League, English Premier League Allardyce, EPL, Fernando Hierro Bolton, Ivan Campo Bolton, Jay Jay Okocha Bolton, Michel Salgado Blackburn Rovers, Sam Allardyce, Sam Allardyce Blackburn Rovers, Sam Allardyce Blackburn Rovers signings, Sam Allardyce Bolton, Sam Allardyce Bolton signings, Sam Allardyce England, Sam Allardyce Fernando Hierro, Sam Allardyce Ivan Campo, Sam Allardyce Jay Jay Okocha, Sam Allardyce Michel Salgado, Sam Allardyce Real Madrid, Sam Allardyce Youri Djorkaeff, Youri Djorkaeff Bolton
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One thought on “Sam Allardyce – by his greatest signings”
Genaro Sabatini
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You are at:Home » Automotive » Historic Low Return On Capital Dogging Autos
Historic Low Return On Capital Dogging Autos
DETROIT — Automakers and suppliers are in a bind these days with declining auto sales, and feeling the need to invest big in technology that won’t payoff in profits for years.
That’s the position of Mark Wakefield, co-leader of the global automotive and industrial practice at AlixPartners. The industry needs to invest in the “profit deserts” of autonomy and electrification while coping with the sliding health of the industry.
Automakers and suppliers will invest more than $300 billion in the areas of EVs and self-driving in the next four to six years, according to the consulting firm’s projections, while sales and profits from ongoing operations are under tremendous pressure and return on investment is years off.
“You have to be able to invest through this valley to get to the other side, and be capable of weathering a cycle,” Wakefield said Tuesday at a meeting of the Automotive Press Association. “We talk about investments and returns through a cycle with OEMs, and they need to map that through a cycle. The industry hasn’t done a great job of that.”
Investments in automated-driving technology are on pace to reach $85 billion through 2025, while $225 billion will be pumped into electrification over the next four years. Meantime, electric vehicles still represent 2-percent or less in the U.S. Overseas, the penetration is greater and growing faster than in the U.S. In Sweden, it is approaching 10% of sales. In China, it is around 5%.
“It’s rare that companies or an industry makes such big bets on volume this low,” Wakefield said. “So even as you see this increase in battery-electric penetration, basically that line doesn’t move. There’s this pile-up of investment going into EVs and the actual returns not being there for this first and second generation. It’s a real challenge.”
Returns on capital employed is crushingly low. AlixPartners says levels of return have “dropped to near-Great Recession levels,” falling to 1.5 percent in the Americas and tumbling into negative territory in China.
The auto industry will still encounter normal cyclical headwinds as they pour money into these technology buckets. Sales are expected to shrink to 15.1 million units in the United States in 2021 before rebounding, returning to today’s levels around 2025. Meantime, the break-even point will continue a rise from 10 million units in 2010 to 15 million units this year. That’s because companies that trimmed work forces after the economic meltdown a decade ago have hired up and been spending on research and development beyond what the industry sales are supporting.
Both GM and Ford have been cutting work forces. FCA is looking for a merger partner or global alliance partner to lower its costs.
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The Adjustment Bureau. 3/4 stars.
Yesterday I got dolled up and went to the picture show!
Well, strike that. I actually rolled into the movie theatre in Manchester, CT, still sweaty from my morning workout. I also snuck an iced coffee into the theater. Sorry, Rave Cinema. I understand you need to make your coffee more expensive. So you must understand my need to sneak in a venti decaf Americano in my purse. Yes, I hid a giant iced coffee in my purse.
I went to see the aforementioned film, The Adjustment Bureau, not only because I have a thing for Matt Damon (which I do and have one even more so after seeing the film) but also in the hopes that it would be as thought provoking as Inception. It was, but in a totally different way.
David Norris is a politician of the people. He’s got youth and good looks, he’s running against a professed ‘tool’, he’s all about the grassroots, a passionate community organizer, charisma out the yingyang. Unfortunately, thanks to some party boy antics in his younger days, he loses his first major election. He accidentally runs into contemporary ballet dancer Elise (Emily Blunt) while prepping his concession speech. They spark an instant connection. He ends up seeing her again a few months later and she gives him her phone number, but after witnessing a strange event in his office he is visited by The Adjustment Bureau-whose job is to make sure your life goes according ‘to the plan’. The head of his team of Adjusters, played by John Slattery, warns him that if he doesn’t stick to his set plan and forget about Elise, he have his memory wiped away, or ‘reset’. “Your family will think you’ve gone crazy. You won’t think anything at all.” But love finds a way, as it always does.
The rest of the movie propels forward the way you would think it does; David returns strong to politics, and Elise skyrockets in the dance world. But all they can think about is each other. The Bureau tries to keep them apart because they are on different ‘life paths’ but one Adjuster (Anthony Mackie) has a change of heart and attempts to help David after seeing his dogged determination to see Elise again.
This movie’s romance is what makes it special. From the moment they meet, you completely buy the romance between David and Elise and root for them to be together. Their first meeting in a men’s bathroom (a scene less convoluted than it sounds) ricochets with chemistry, and Matt Damon and Emily Blunt are totally credible as two strangers who meet and fall in love at first sight. It’s not a white-hot heat that generates between them, but more of a slow burn which grows as the film progresses. Elise, as a passionate, eccentric and ballsy dancer, represents boundless freedom from the stagnant life David has recently found himself in, and David represents safety and comfort to Elise. There’s a moment where one member of the Bureau says “If he sees her dance, it’s over.” Contemporary dance is one of the ultimate forms of pure freedom of movement in the arts. When David spies Elise practicing her solo, he can’t help but be entranced. Neither can we.
This is a great piece for Matt Damon, who is perennially underrated. What’s not to like about him? He won a screenplay Academy Award for a film he was also up for Best Actor in, and he’s only gotten better since. His appearance on Inside The Actor’s Studio is one of my favorites, considering he said the best piece of advice he ever got about acting was from the Farrelly Brothers (“Suck less”). He’s proven he can be in intellectual fare such as The Rainmaker, funny films like Stuck On You, Oscar bait like Invictus, and also high octane action thrillers. This is Jason Bourne, after all. Here, he plays a very good guy, perhaps a great guy, who’s thrown into a situation he can’t understand and can’t follow. It’s not an ‘aw shucks’ role (David has a lot of strength and agency, despite the movie’s attempts to tell us otherwise) and he will stop at nothing to get Elise back. He’s also able to display some humor…unlike Inception, David is completely aware of the insanity going on around him and he uses a ‘WTF’ face to great effect throughout the film.
As for Emily Blunt…I wish she were a bigger star than she is. Although now that she’s Mrs. John Krasinski her stock will go up, but hopefully people will go see this movie based on her acting abilities, which are very big. The last time I saw her in a contemporary piece it was back when she was in The Devil Wears Prada, and she stole the movie right out from under Anne Hathaway’s Blahniks. In this film, she soars. From her first entrance, you immediately know this chick is a dancer. Natalie Portman gave a phenomenal performance in Black Swan but Emily Blunt’s version of things is more realistic and with less paranoia or desire to be ‘perfect’ (and, honestly, much less lesbian sex and stabbing). She had wonderful lines, great technique, and pure emotion. One scene which nearly made me stand up and cheer was a moment where Elise, on the brink of a major decision, goes to her dance studio in warmup clothes. The front desk asks why she’s there. She shrugs and says “I just needed to be on the floor.” That feeling of finding peace in art is something any artist can relate to.
The members of the Bureau themselves are all good, but they aren’t given a whole heck of a lot to do other than run around and look menacing in fedoras. Sometimes John Slattery’s role merely requires him to stand still, look at David and Elise together in the middle distance, and mumble “Son of a bitch” or “That bastard!” Which was hilarious, but it lacked character development. The standout of the team is Anthony Mackie, whose performance as an Adjuster with a conscience is quiet, reserved, and well-calibrated. The film also gets a big boost with the introduction of Terrence Stamp into the proceedings as the Bureau’s most dangerous worker. He doesn’t look like it, but you quickly find out why his nickname is “The Hammer.”
If I had any problems with the film it would be the ending, which lacks direction and feels very rushed. It’s as if the editors realized they only had ten minutes to wrap up the storyline so they introduced a deux ex machina to get the plot squared away. It’s an excuse for Matt Damon and Emily Blunt to run around New York City and throw open as many doors as he can. This is where the special effects department really outdid themselves. The Bureau travel through doorways and shortcuts (the secret to their success is hilarious but you kind of buy that as the movie goes along) and once David is taught the secrets, he utilizes them to full effect.
All in all, however, the romance is what sold me. The question of defying your fate was an interesting one, and one I did ponder over on the drive home.
I must confess, though, that the entire movie, I may have been thinking about this.
Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright, In The Forests Of The Night.
Beware the Ides of March.
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Home Music Stories
Declaring Big Sean’s ‘Dark Sky Paradise’ A Modern Day Hip-Hop Classic
I’ve been plotting on saying this for a while. As we’ve passed the two-year mark since Big Sean released Dark Sky Paradise in February of 2015, enough time has transpired to objectively look at the Detroit native’s third studio album as a modern classic in rap.
Sean knew he had to perform, as his social status and impact was larger than ever. The 26-year-old saw his name with the likes of his contemporaries such as Wale, J Cole, and Kendrick who blemished his last album Hall Of Fame, with his controversial and viral verse on “Control,” which dominated headlines leading to the song being taken off of the project for “sampling” reasons.
Anderson took it upon himself to produce the best product with no label heads in his ear. This was to be executed through Sean’s vision playing the role of artist and A&R. To maximize creativity, the G.O.O.D Music artist built a state-of-the-art studio inside his Detroit mansion, where he handpicked the beats organically that filled inspirational voids that would develop into reference tracks.
Sean Don orchestrated his masterpiece enlisting an ensemble of superstar collaborators from some of the top artists and producers in the game today. This list is seriously crazy: Kanye West (executive producer), Drake, E-40, Travis Scott, Ty Dolla $ign, Chris Brown, Jhene Aiko, Lil Wayne, John Legend, PartyNextDoor, Ariana Grande. On the production side: Mike WiLL Made-It, Boi-1da, Mike Dean, Key Wane, DJ Mustard, DJ Dahi, Vinylz and more.
This list of features and genius minds having their hand in a project is eerily reminiscent of Kanye West’s masterpiece My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, as you can see the similar title even setting off the energy in Dark Sky Paradise. In an interview with Hot97 Big Sean admitted to listening to Dark Twisted Fantasy and using it as inspiration in his own project, “Before I made any songs for this album I was with ‘Ye and we played Dark Twisted Fantasy. It’s not that the title had anything to do with it, but soon as I heard that I knew that was the feeling I wanted to go for. Not necessarily the feeling but the vibe of being a little darker than the usual me and that definitely sparked the idea that I’m going to go in.”
Sean definitely climbed out of a creative hole after the nasty break-up with Naya Rivera and the recent passing of his grandma on December 20th, 2014 whom he was very close with and was one of the first female black captains in WWII. Track 11, “One Man Can Change The World” was made in her honor as the Detroit native called on John Legend and Kanye for the assist on the tuneful piano-laden song.
Before the February 2015 release the Roc Nation artist rolled out three singles, two which will be culture flaring bangers for the rest of the decade. “I Don’t Fuck With You” was actually supposed to be a Justin Bieber song, but DJ Mustard decided to give it to Big Sean who then got Bay area legend E-40 to complete the track and roll the tune out on September 19th, 2014. The anthem caught on with mainstream radio, peaking at number 11 on Billboard Hot 100 charts and currently boasts a cool 233 million views on YouTube.
The Kanye West and Drizzy assisted “Blessings” followed up as the final single prior to the release of the project, and Sean went toe-to-toe with his hip-hop Hall-of-Fame compadres. The collaboration king did it again, setting hype for the project at an all-time high for him personally on the Vinylz produced record. Somehow Yeezy was cut off the album version of the track but still made an appearance for the video, which has 202 million YouTube hits and is certified double platinum by the RIAA.
In the Hot 97 listening session/interview referenced above Sean admitted he recorded the 2088 (group name for Big Sean and Jhene) “I Know”, “IDFWY” and “Deep” which calls on Lil Wayne all in the same studio session. That bugs me out that artists can record multiple huge records in the same night. “Deep” definitely has a special meaning to Sean as Weezy big ups him on the track rapping, “I feel like Sean don’t get enough shine. Is it because he ain’t got the tattoos? He ain’t throwing up signs? Well, let me throw up mine.” The 29-year-old actually posted a photo together with Wayne this week to Instagram showing his appreciation for Wayne captioned, “Man I’ll never forget what u said bout me on my song “Deep” bro on some real shit. U changed rap 4ever, God bless you! #C5″
Fast forward to the night before the album drops, Sean gifts the fans with his own cover of Beyonce’s “Me, Myself and I” and this had me wide-eyed with the bars he was spitting on a night where he should be celebrating or resting after being in three cities within 24 hours. The grind doesn’t stop. Please listen to this track, and I’m including it as a bonus track on the project, whether you like it or not.
Even though Dark Sky Paradise leaked days in advance of release, which I admittedly listened to, Anderson notched his first number one album, while racking up a combined 173,000 sales in the first week. The 50-minute project has since gone platinum, and is still my favorite work of his to date.
All I ask if you listen to the 15-track album one more time through and come back to me. I hear the argument that it’s tough to call something a classic with as many features as Sean employed but the quality of music doesn’t lie, in addition to aging very well two years since the February 24th, 2015 release day.
Big Sean doesn’t get the credit he deserves, with every passing year his rapping ability improves in addition to his tricky word play and ad-libs. Sean’s decorated discography can go against almost any other modern hip-hop artist’s first four albums.
What inspired me even more to pen this article was the end of the year lists for 2015 from outlets like SPIN and Stereogum, as they somehow disrespectfully ranked Dark Sky Paradise #35 and #37 for albums of the year. Blasphemy.
Dark Sky Paradise joins 2014 Forest Hills Drive, Good Kid Maad City, Yeezus and To Pimp A Butterfly on my classic list within the last 4 years.
Did I lose you?
The homie @BigSean comin to Cortland tho!!! 🔥🔥 #DarkSkyParadise 🌾👀🌾
— Michael $ap (@LordTreeSap) February 25, 2015
TagsBig Sean • Dark Sky Paradise • Hip-Hop
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What a time to be alive: Five reasons to love Future
Future is coming to New Zealand! Futurehive member Miriama Aoake breaks down why you should be as excited as she is.
A few weeks ago, my aging but reliable MacBook Pro crashed and burned in spectacular, day-before-assignment-is-due fashion; taking a vast majority of my music collection with it. Work and uni required an immediate replacement and lacking cloud back-up, I found my iTunes completely barren. Thankfully, Future has released a prolific quantity of free and accessible mixtapes which propagated growth in my sonic garden once more.
This isn’t the first occasion when Future has come to my aid. Dirty Sprite 2 was my only companion during my first semester in tertiary education. Monster nourished my boredom working at a minimum-wage job serving ice cream for an entire summer. Beast Mode became the soundtrack of domestic labour, house-sitting in Dunedin.
Future is such a formidable aspect of my day-to-day routine I have seriously contemplated him as a topic for postgraduate study. I relish any and every opportunity to engage in extensive discussions on my love of Future. For the purposes of your attention span, I’ll keep it concise.
1. He’s consistent
Future has emerged as one of, if not the most prolific artists of our time. Since 2010 he’s released 25 solo and collaborative projects, with at least 14 singles reaching gold or platinum status. Surprisingly he received his first platinum record with Stick Talk as late as 2015, but would go on to reach double platinum status with ‘Where Ya At’ from Dirty Sprite 2. Drake was lucky to nab the only feature on the album, prompting the platinum-certified, collaborative mixtape What a Time to Be Alive. From April 2014 to February of this year, he has delivered five albums and five mixtapes. The work ethic that defined his early success has spurred his relentless commitment to surpass his every achievement, with no plans to retire anytime soon.
2. He’s tenacious
Future’s performances have enamoured the reputation of his live shows. Thoroughly modern and unpredictable, he has an energy that emanates from within, bouncing from the DJ (usually Esco), to his dancers and the audience. It is a complete anomaly that everyone present avoids spontaneous combustion. His Summer Sixteen tour alongside Drake eclipsed Jay-Z and Kanye’s Watch the Throne tour for the highest grossing hip-hop tour of all time, earning over $70 million in revenue. After the release of back-to-back albums FUTURE and HNDRXX, he announced the Nobody Safe tour, enlisting Migos, Tory Lanez, Young Thug and A$AP Ferg.
3. He’s collaborated with everyone
It’s easier to compile a list of artists who he hasn’t worked with. He has secured credits for, and this is by no means an exhaustive list; Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Kendrick Lamar, Usher, Calvin Harris, Maroon 5 , Ariana Grande, Gucci Mane, Andre 3000, Migos, Rae Sremmurd, Pharrell, Kanye West, Pusha T, Lil Wayne, DJ Khaled, Kelly Rowland, Nelly, The Weeknd, Drake, Young Thug, Travis Scott, 2Chainz, Ty Dolla Sign, Dej Loaf, ASAP Ferg, Jay Z, Jeremih, Ciara, Rick Ross, Meek Mill, Ludacris, M.I.A., Trina, Diddy, and Chance the Rapper. His versatility lends him to blend and defy categorisation, though he has developed a penchant for writing in-in-incredible pop hooks. ‘Drunk in Love’ ring any bells?
4. He’s compared to the greatest
Future is constantly negotiating a transitional space between genre, giving him a lot of flexibility in subject matter. Though the Atlanta native’s work confronts and maintains his relationship to a specific, localised culture that is unable to be replicated, his music is accessible to the masses because of the scope of his melody and flow, and his reliance on syncopated, ATLien beats from producers like Esco. To sustain the ability to harness and channel the energy of Atlanta while also taking a unique musical approach, requires an unnatural excess of talent.
With the release of FUTURE/HNDRXX, comparisons were drawn with Prince. Having played the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Famer in the 2014 biopic, Andre 3000 affirmed Future as the second coming of Jimi Hendrix. Stylistically, Future is considerably different to both Prince and Jimi, but his evolution suggests he is progressing along a similar trajectory.
5. He’s got a song for every occasion
Future’s discography is like a risk management plan that anticipates any possible combination of moods a listener could inhabit. Codeine prescription and buried feelings towards an ex bubbling at the surface? ‘Codeine Crazy’. About to compete for a gold medal at the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics, and on the cusp of becoming a meme? ‘Stick Talk’. A disgruntled employee at Subway dealing with an irrational customer, with a warranted desire to ruin their lunch? ‘Too Much Sauce’. Just had a baby and want to celebrate? ‘Lil One’. Future has accounted for all possible variants to ensure total consumer satisfaction.
To coexist at the same time Future is in his prime seems like a cosmic aberration. Prolific, tenacious and fluid, Future has cemented himself a legacy as one the greatest artists of all time. Being present to witness his ascension to heights most artists can only dream of is indisputable proof of his status as a legend.
Future plays Spark Arena in Auckland on 28 September 2017. Spark Thanks have an exclusive pre-sale for Spark customers, available from 12pm on Tuesday 23 May until 12pm Thursday 25 May.
The technology that’s saving businesses millions of dollars
Ben Fahy
How data sharing is actually making your life better
Ouch. This guy just got Vodaf-owned
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How to Watch the 2020 UEFA Champions League Finals Live Online
21 ago 2020, 17:18 CEST – Stephanie Sengwe
Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich are the last two teams left standing in what has been an unorthodox UEFA Champions League season. The two will go head-to-head for the championship on Sunday, August 23. The game air on CBS Sports Network and will also stream live on CBS All Access beginning at 3 p.m. ET.
How to Watch the 2020 UEFA Champions League Finals
When: Sunday, Aug. 23 at 3 p.m. ET
Stream: Watch with 7-Day Free Trial on CBS All Access7 giorni di prova gratuita
5,99 USD / mese cbs.com
With 2020 being the 50th anniversary of their foundation, walking away with the championship trophy would sweeten the deal for Paris and they have the right team to do it. Currently at the helm of the team is coach Thomas Tuchel, joined the club in 2018. Since his tenure began, the team has won two Ligue 1 titles and added the French Cup and League Cup this season, according to UEFA.com. The team has also won the Trophée des Champions and if they manage to pull off a W on Sunday, Tuchel walks away with a historic sweep of five trophies.
Paris also boasts the talents of Neymar Jr., who comes into the finals injury-free since he joined the team back in 2017. Neymar’s presence has been evidently influential on the field, pushing the team “with his dribbling, passing, energy and hunger.”
Bayer comes into the finals with a 19-match winning streak. Though they have always been fan favorites the team lost some big players last summer and switched coaches in November. However, ever since Hans-Dieter Flick took over from Niko Kovač, the team has excelled, winning ten out of ten matches with 42 goals scored in the process.
Bayer is fueled by the talents of Robert Lewandowski, who has come away with a season’s best of 15 goals and is only two away from catching Cristiano Ronaldo’s UEFA Champions League record of 17.
You can stream UEFA Champions League coverage on a wide variety of streaming players, smart TVs, gaming consoles, mobile devices and tablets.
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Trump to join Giuliani at Pennsylvania GOP meeting on election irregularities, source says
Chris Hedges: The ruling elite’s war on truth
President Trump will travel to Gettysburg, Pa., on Wednesday, Fox News has confirmed, where his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani will appear before the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee for a “hearing” on election issues in the state.
The event is not a formal hearing in the traditional sense of the word, in that it is not being conducted officially by the Pennsylvania legislature but by a group of Republican lawmakers.
TRUMP CAMPAIGN SAYS PENNSYLVANIA, ARIZONA, MICHIGAN TO HOLD PUBLIC HEARINGS ON ELECTION, STATES PUSH BACK
“Elections are a fundamental principle of our democracy – unfortunately, Pennsylvanians have lost faith in the electoral system,” state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who called the meeting, said in a statement. “Over the past few weeks, I have heard from thousands of Pennsylvanians regarding issues experienced at the polls, irregularities with the mail-in voting system and concerns whether their vote was counted.”
The event is set to start at 12:30 p.m., although it is not clear what time the president will arrive. It is also not clear exactly what role the president will play in the hearing. Giuliani is expected to actively participate. The Pennsylvania Senate GOP website says that “[t]he hearing will feature former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.”
The White House declined to provide an update to the president’s public schedule Wednesday.
It is unlikely the event Wednesday will result in tangible change to the state of the presidential race. The president’s legal team, despite making broad and sweeping claims of voter fraud, has yet to provide evidence of irregularities that are widespread enough to significantly narrow the lead held by President-elect Biden in Pennsylvania and other critical states.
Pennsylvania has already certified a victory for Biden and state legislators have maintained for months that they will not step in to override the result of the election.
Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, a Republican from Centre County, told Fox News as far back as September that he had no intention of having the legislature step into the electoral process. As recently as last week he told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he still has no plans to do that.
“The electors are selected by the winner of the popular vote. That is in our state statute,” Corman told The Inquirer. “The law states that when the secretary of state certifies the election, the governor appoints the electors. That’s the law. And we will follow the law.”
Fox News’ David Spunt contributed to this report.
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It will probably go down as the most obvious example of prematurely spiking the football since George W. Bush’s “mission accomplished” speech. On June 16, Vice President Pence wrote an essay for the Wall Street Journal in which he dismissed…
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U.S. Soldier Claims To Have Shot & Killed A 12 Foot Giant In Afghanistan
In 2002 a U. S. patrol had gone missing in a very remote area of Afghanistan. Another patrol was dispatched on a search and rescue mission, and one soldier on that patrol described what he saw after coming around the side of a mountain:
As we bent around this corner you could see the opening of the cave. And then I see a lot of rocks which is another oddity. And then bone matter. I’m not close enough to identify what kind of bones but I did see what I knew to be a piece of our communications equipment. So instantly we’re thinking ‘ambush,’ maybe animal, you know, could be anything. There was enough room in front of the cave, but it had a sheer drop-off; but there was enough room that we got into a decent dispersal in case of ambush.
Not long after they had gotten into that dispersal formation, they saw something emerge from the cave that, despite their preparedness, caught them fully off guard.
It was a man at least 12 to 15 feet in height. This is a MONSTER. Red beard, with his hair–was longish, past his shoulders, a scarlet red. And Dan runs at him and starts shooting, which broke all of us into the reality–because it was surreal.
While Dan is moving at him, another bro of mine is laying down fire and I start firing. He skewers Dan–he’s now got him on this ‘pike.’ It went through him. He’s got him and he’s coming after more.
We all just clicked in. I don’t know what it was, but I remember we were all like, ‘Shoot him in the face, shoot him in the face!’ He’s taking multiple hits, and he’s still moving.
Eventually, the giant was killed. Dan had been killed as well. And the patrol unit was soon visited by a helicopter that dropped some cargo netting. They were told they had to bundle up the giant in the netting, and soon after they were done, a larger helicopter came by, dropped a hook, and the giant was carried off.
The soldier confirmed that the red-haired, fair-skinned giant had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. After they had submitted their after-action report, the soldier recounts that they were told by their top brass to re-write it in a particular fashion, presumably to remove any mention of a giant being.
Corroborating Testimony
Although not an eyewitness, another special ops soldier in Afghanistan provides the following corroborating testimony:
We would come back to the base and started hearing this rumor about a unit that killed this, what they started calling this really tall person. At first I didn’t think anything of it, then come to find out that the person they killed was actually three times the size of a man, had extra digits on their hands, and extra digits on their feet, and had red hair, and a special unit had come in and wanted this target.
Well we’d heard that they killed this thing inside a cave, or the mouth of a cave, and there was common knowledge among the military to hear this. When you first hear, you’re thinking like, this has got to be a joke. This has got to be a hoax. Then after things go down a certain way, and you keep hearing it, you start to realize it’s not a joke.
They kept telling us to keep our weapons high, which normally means it’s two to the chest, one to the head, but they kept telling us to put it towards a man’s head, and put it higher. So we would question, why would they want us to shoot higher than a man’s head?
Recorded Interviews
These testimonies are found in the compilation video below, from interviews conducted by L. A. Marzulli with the two soldiers who wanted to remain anonymous. In addition, there is some footage from Coast to Coast with host George Noory featuring a pilot who saw and actually transported the giant.
https://youtu.be/15WMbKE-FNs
Pilot’s Testimony
This pilot had landed at a base in Afghanistan and was told that they had to pick up special cargo and that there were absolutely no cameras allowed. The pilot describes the ‘cargo’:
It was basically a dead ‘guy,’ and this guy was extremely large, and when I say large, our pallets are basically, if I remember correctly, about 9 by 12 feet, or so, and this guy was laying in a fetal position, on the pallet, and he filled the pallet. He was around an 1100 pound guy.
The pilot corroborated much more of the details given by the other two witnesses, including the fact that this giant was fair-skinned, red-haired, and had extra digits on his hands and feet.
Widespread Corroboration
As impressive as the consistency of these three separate testimonies is, there is actually much more widespread corroboration about the existence of fair-skinned, red-haired giants with six fingers and toes, and double rows of teeth. Certainly, in Afghanistan, the stories among the natives were rampant about the existence of cannibalistic giants living in caves. The soldiers who could understand the natives’ language tended to refer to these stories as ‘legends’, although a few noted that the presence of bones near cave entrances suggested that humans were killed and eaten by something living in the cave, either by ambush or, according to the natives, by sacrifices they offered the giant.
There is plenty of evidence that a cannibalistic, red-haired race of giants once inhabited North America, and menaced several native tribes whose folklore and legends (or for the tribes, history) tell stories similar to the one recounted in this article .
After years of strife and numerous casualties on both sides of the fence, the natives decided to end this giant threat for good-by uniting under a single flag. It wasn’t long until the red-haired giants were crippled and forced out of their homes.
The giants retreated inside a cave, but were tracked down by the natives, and with a will to avenge their fallen brethren, they set up a considerable fire that had them all burnt or intoxicated. Those who ventured outside to try to escape the putsch were met with retribution to the last one.
In reference to red-haired giants, there is a discussion between David Wilcock and Corey Goode where it is said that these giants have been found in stasis, which means in suspended animation, until such a time that they are supposed to return. More than one person within the UFO community has borne witness to these red-haired giants being found in stasis chambers, in full battle regalia and other adornments, seemingly in preparation to resume their role on Earth at the appointed time.
Reasons For Non-Disclosure
In asking one of the U. S. army witnesses why this information was being kept secret from the world, he said,
My personal opinion is, if it points to the Bible’s accurate, they don’t want it. If it goes against Darwinian Evolution, it’s not to be spoken of.
This is very much in keeping with my previous article on Giants in North America, where it seems that those in power are trying their best to keep everybody from finding out that human history is very different from the neo-Darwinian model in which human evolution has been a slow, unbroken, random pattern without intervention from any other sentient species. It’s likely that just learning of the existence of one different species here on Earth would completely break the spell and have a majority of us ready to demand the truth about our history and our place in this universe alongside other intelligent species.
Snopes Weighs In
Of course mainstream attempts to dampen the credibility of this type of story starts at the top–the top of a Google search, I mean. A search on ‘Kandahar Giant,’ predictably, has this Snopes article first on the list, to tell us of course that the whole story is false. The proof?
A Department of Defense spokesman told us they have no record of such an incident: “We do not have any record or information about a special forces member killed by a giant in Kandahar.”
If you’ve made it this far in the article, I rather doubt that this ‘proof’ is very compelling to you.
Our role as awakened and awakening citizens in the truth-seeking community is to continue to do our best to bring to light all the evidence of information that has been suppressed, hidden and denied. As more and more eyewitnesses and other whistleblowers gain the courage to come out and talk about what they have experienced, it is becoming easier to start building a bigger picture about our true history and what’s really going on in our world.
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Underseen Movie: Michael Haneke’s Shot-For-Shot Remake of ‘Funny Games’
Posted on July 7 by The Ultimate Rabbit
There is no in between with a film like this. You will either like or hate it with a fervent passion. Reviews for “Funny Games” have gone all over the place from praise to vicious hatred. Some will describe it as a completely immoral piece of work which revels in what it despises. Others will look at as very strong suspense film which does not hide from the ugly reality of violence. After seeing this film, I can’t help but think this is what director Michael Haneke wanted. Alfred Hitchcock was once quoted as saying, “I love playing the audience like a piano.” So does Haneke.
Truth be told, Haneke must be reveling in getting us into such an emotional state as he did the same exact thing in the past. “Funny Games” is a shot-for-shot remake of his original suspense thriller of the same name from 1997. I actually did not realize it was a remake until around the time it arrived in theaters. But since this is a virtual duplication of another film, I’m not sure how necessary it will be to see the original.
Haneke wanted to remake “Funny Games” for an American audience because he felt it was in essence an American story in which he sees its citizens being giddily in love with violence onscreen and in the media. While there is something rather condescending about him thinking this, he does have a point. Every once in a while, we need a film which reminds us of the brutality of violence. While we may fiend for gun battles on the big screen, violence in real life is scary and something we should be eager to avoid. “Funny Games” was the first ironically titled and truly polarizing movie of 2008. It is anything but entertaining, and in the end, it is not meant to be. Some movies are made to be experienced, and this is one of them.
“Funny Games” revolves around the married couple of Ann and George Farber (Naomi Watts and Tim Roth) whom we first see driving down the highway with their son Georgie (Devon Gearhart) and their sailboat in tow. When they finally arrive at their destination, they are met by two young men, Paul (William Pitt) and Peter (Brady Corbet), both of whom look like well-bred preppies equipped with very nice manners. Brady’s character comes to borrow eggs to give which Watts gives him kindly. But on the way out, he accidentally drops them and won’t leave until he gets some more. Soon, both husband and wife are trying to throw these two guys out, and then the two show their true intentions when they take a golf club and smash one of George’s kneecaps.
With the family held hostage, Paul and Peter reveal their heinous plan; they bet that in 12 hours, the whole family will be dead. From there, it becomes a game of survival for the family as the games these two force them to play get increasingly dangerous. One of the major criticisms I have heard leveled at the killers is they have no motive. Sometimes not knowing why people do the things they do makes things much scarier. When “Silence of The Lambs” was first released in theaters, we were never told why Hannibal Lecter was a cannibal. But here, these two evil schmucks do have a motive which is senseless and viciously cold: they are torturing this family for the thrill of it and for what one of them calls “the importance of entertainment.” The director has given us two psychos whose motives, as he puts it are not “easily explained by societal factors.” They look to enjoy the power they have over this helpless family.
This phenomenon of people getting a high off of violence and torture feels like it is growing at a horrifying rate. There have been movies like “Henry – Portrait of A Serial Killer” and “Menace 2 Society” that have moments where the characters commit violent acts which have been intentionally or unintentionally videotaped. We later see these same characters watching their hideous acts over and over. There was an episode of “Homicide: Life on The Street” which featured a scene with one man filming his friend as he goes over to a nearby bus stop and shoots an old lady to death. No reason is given, other than the fact they find the visual so incredibly entertaining.
Like those characters, Paul and Peter are utterly repellent individuals. But the thing is, you should be repelled at what these guys are doing. They are without morals, and the rules of society are nonexistent to them which makes them all the more threatening and dangerous. The comfortable conventions of the normal suspense thriller are thrown out here. If they are employed here, then it is only for us to see them overturned when we least expect them to be. Unlike other Hollywood thrillers, the violence here feels much more real than you would expect it to be.
Another interesting thing is while this is technically an ultra-violent movie, there is actually not a lot of violence shown onscreen. Most of the violence is committed offscreen, making it all the more terrifying. There’s another moment where Ann is forced to disrobe completely, but you never see her from below the neck. It’s a moment where Haneke dares you to wonder why the camera isn’t showing us more here. You may end up hating him for that, but you cannot deny your mind went down to that dark and dirty place.
Like “Cache,” Haneke likes to film shots in long takes. This succeeds in trapping the viewer in with this family as we wait to see if they can escape their fate. One shot lasts a good five minutes or so as Ann desperately tries to break free of the tape which binds her hands behind her back. There are a lot of static shots here which are free of overly clever camera moves, and they suck us in to the action while generating strong suspense. There are points where we are not sure when these two psychos threaten to strike next.
Haneke goes even further by having Paul break the fourth wall between the characters and the audience watching this movie. Many found this device to be annoying, but I wasn’t bothered by it because it made the movie seem even creepier than it already was. It probably would have been an unnecessary device had it been overused, but the director uses it sparingly and to a powerful effect.
There is also a moment a rewind of events is employed. It is as brilliant a move as it is done to completely frustrate the viewer as it completely eschews the formula of movies like these. Haneke doesn’t hesitate to subvert our expectations, and trap us into a reaction we cannot hide.
Whatever you think of the movie, there is no denying the superb work done by the cast here. Tim Roth does strong work, and I can’t remember the last actor who made the pain of broken bones feel so vivid. I also don’t want to forget Devon Gearhart who plays Georgie Jr. as he has a very unenviable role as a child caught up in the worst of situations. He is asked to do things we would rather not see a child actor do, and he makes his sheer terror seem all the more horrifyingly real.
Michael Pitt makes Paul into such a cleverly cold character to where some have compared Paul to Alex in “A Clockwork Orange.” This is a young actor who has made a strong impression in movies like “The Dreamers” and “Bully” among others. He excels in roles like this which play on his charm to an incredibly unsympathetic effect. Brady Corbett plays the seemingly Peter, and he also has done memorable work in “Thirteen” and “Mysterious Skin.”
But in the end, this movie really belongs to Naomi Watts who has long since proven to be one of the bravest actresses working today. She has portrayed characters so naked in their vulnerabilities onscreen to where I constantly wonder how she gets through these roles without having a nervous breakdown. Her performance in “Funny Games” is no exception as she puts herself in situations so difficult to make seem real, but she succeeds here in making us believe just how terrifying her ordeal is.
“Funny Games” is one of those movies which make me want to ready everyone’s reaction to it. Like I said, this is without a doubt a very polarizing motion picture which people will either admire or despise. The again, if many did not have a negative reaction, then Haneke would have failed in his mission to completely unnerve us. No, it is not an enjoyable movie, but it is an experience which cannot easily be ignored as you walk out of the theater. It is a thought-provoking as it in no way allows for a neutral opinion. For my money, it is a very strong exercise in suspense which never lets up throughout its two-hour running time.
While it is not the most disturbing movie I have ever watched in a theater (“Requiem for A Dream” takes the cake there), it sure does come close. The violence presented here is of a real kind, and it does not offer the typical feeling of escapist entertainment. The best advice I can give you is if you don’t want to subject yourself to a very disturbing cinematic experience, then don’t see “Funny Games.” You have been warned, so take the R-rating seriously.
Naomi Watts on Portraying a Tsunami Survivor in ‘The Impossible’
WRITER’S NOTE: This article was written back in 2012.
Australian actress Naomi Watts gives an emotionally pulverizing performance in J.A. Bayona’s “The Impossible,” a film which chronicles one family’s struggle for survival in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. In it, Watts plays Maria, a doctor who is staying with her husband and children in a beautiful resort in Thailand for the Christmas holiday. This vacation comes to a horrific end when the tsunami decimates the country’s coastal zone and separates Maria and her son Lucas from the rest of her family. The role has Watts dealing with her fear of water, playing a character based on a real-life person, and the immense difficulty of shooting in not one, but two giant water tanks.
While at the movie’s press conference which was held at The Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Watts described playing Maria as being “the most physically, emotionally draining role” she has ever taken on since “King Kong.” Considering she has played such equally draining roles in “21 Grams” and “Mulholland Drive,” that’s saying a lot. After doing “King Kong” she said she would never take on a role like that again, but even she couldn’t say no this script or working with Bayona who made the acclaimed horror movie “The Orphanage.”
Unlike the tsunami sequence in Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter,” the one in “The Impossible” was done with real effects and no CGI. This makes the sequence all the more harrowing to watch, and seeing Watts hang onto a tree for dear life while water keeps rushing furiously by here makes for one of the most emotionally intense sequences in any 2012 movie. In an interview with Steven Rea which was featured on the Philly.com website, Watts talked about what it was like shooting the sequence which itself took four weeks to complete.
“I didn’t know it was going to be so difficult,” Watts told Rea. “They had it all very well prepared – we had allegedly the second largest water tank in the world, and they had these giant cups that we were anchored into . . . so you were just above water level, you could use your head, and you can use your arms so you looked like you were swimming. . . . And you’re on this track, and then a giant wave was coming towards you . . . and then side pumps were shooting more water, and all the garbage and debris. . ..”
“So, it got increasingly difficult, and then we noticed that we couldn’t actually act, or speak,” Watts continued. “We were lucky if we could get one word out, and that word would be ‘LU-CAS!’ It was tough, and then the underwater stuff was even more difficult. That was very scary.”
You have to give Watts a lot of credit not just for the brave performance she gives, but also for how making this movie made her deal with her fear of water. This was not the result of watching “Jaws” several dozen times, but of a near drowning accident she had when a teenager. She related this story to NPR’s Melissa Block.
“When I was about 14, my family emigrated from England to Australia, and we decided to stop in Bali on the way through. And having grown up in England, we were not great swimmers and knew nothing about riptides,” Watts told Block. “Anyway, we got caught in a riptide, and I didn’t know what to do other than swim against it, and got to the point of exhaustion, and then just about gave up. But then my mother, somehow, miraculously found sand beneath her feet and just managed to pull me in. And so, as a result of that experience, I’ve always been afraid of the waves and strong currents, so it’s quite interesting that I ended up doing this.”
It’s very interesting indeed, and it makes you admire Watts all the more for playing this character. After learning about her near-death experience, it becomes clear the fear which crosses the actress’ face onscreen was not at all faked.
Another big challenge for Watts in playing this role was it was based on a real-life person, Maria Belon, who, along with her family, amazingly survived the tsunami which claimed thousands of lives, and she herself suffered some serious injuries which had her at death’s door a few times. It’s always intimidating to portray a person from real life, especially one who’s still alive and has been through an experience we are grateful not to have gone through ourselves. While at “The Impossible” press conference, Watts talked about what it was like to meet Belon.
“Originally when I met Maria, I was incredibly nervous and I didn’t know where to begin. I felt like, I’m just an actor and you have lived through this extraordinary horrendous thing, and I just don’t know where to start,” Watts said of their first meeting. “But we sat there in front of each other for five minutes, she didn’t feel the need to speak and I couldn’t, and then she started just welling up and the story was told just through a look. I started welling up and then we just thought okay, let’s get on with this, and she continued to speak for three and a half hours and time just went by like that.”
“She stayed with me the whole time,” Watts continued. “I don’t just mean physically, but we were connected. We sent emails back and forth, and she would write endless letters about all the details that took place. The thing that she talked about was her instinct and her ability to trust herself which I think we lose so often. I feel like I am full of self-doubt and second guessing which is why this story becomes an interesting one because you wonder how you would deal with this.”
Naomi Watt’s performance in “The Impossible” deserves a Purple Heart as much as it does an Oscar. As an actress, she appears to be plumbing the depths of her soul to pull off roles like this one, and I think she’s one of the bravest actresses working today. While she may be yearning to stay away from roles like this in the future, it’s hard to think of many other actresses who can go to the places she goes to portray raw emotion so honestly.
Ben Kenber, “Interview with Naomi Watts On The Impossible,” We Got This Covered, December 19, 2012.
Steven Rea, “Naomi Watts endured physically harrowing work for ‘The Impossible,’” Philly.com, December 20, 2012.
Melissa Block, “Naomi Watts, Mulling ‘The Impossible,’” NPR, December 12, 2012.
Tsunami Survivor Maria Belon Reflects on ‘The Impossible’
Posted on May 25, 2019 by The Ultimate Rabbit
WRITER’S NOTE: This interview was conducted back in 2012.
I can’t begin to tell you what an honor and a privilege it was to be sitting across from Maria Belon, a Spanish doctor who, along with her husband and three sons, miraculously survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Her story of survival is the focus of “The Impossible,” and she participated in a roundtable interview which I attended with several others. Belon may not see herself as a hero, but seeing her so lively and upbeat even after the horrific ordeal she endured is nothing short of inspiring.
In “The Impossible,” Belon is portrayed by Naomi Watts in a performance full of strength and raw emotion. We watch as Watts struggles to make her way to safety in the aftermath of the tsunami which decimated the coastal zone of Thailand, and it’s unnerving to see the injuries her character received which include a nasty gaping wound on one of her legs. Despite this, Belon said “nothing happened to us” (her and her family) because they survived. So, when J.A. Bayona, director of “The Orphanage,” came to her wanting to make a movie about the tsunami, she had to ask why.
Maria Belon: Why our story if we survived? Why in a story full of pain and full of loss pick up our story in which nothing happened? But then we understood that it was the only way of explaining the others’ pain was picking up a story of a family which nothing happened to.
For Bayona, the story of Belon’s family’s survival helped shed a light on the devastation left in the tsunami’s wake. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives, and “The Impossible” never ever loses sight of this. But more importantly, it is a story about many people and what they suffered. It is not just about this one family. Belon made this clear when asked if it bothered her how her family was being portrayed by English actors instead of those of Spanish descent.
MB: I am fed up with this question all the time. This movie is not about nationalities, not about races, not about colors. It’s about human beings. One of the conditions we put is that there should be no nationality for the family. I don’t care if they would be black, brown or green skin. I wouldn’t care about anything.
Belon said she was involved in the making of “The Impossible” for several years and did have a say in the film’s casting. When Bayona asked Belon who her favorite actress was, she replied Naomi Watts because of her performance in “21 Grams.”
MB: When I saw her in “21 Grams” I thought (gasp) what is this woman about? When he (Bayona) told me that Naomi is going to portray Maria, I was like okay, then I’ll go around the world to the other end and I hide. I don’t want to meet her; I don’t want to disturb her.
But despite her fear she might jinx Watts, Belon did eventually meet the Oscar-nominated actress, and the two spent a lot of time together on the set. Belon said they talked a lot about life, being moms, being lucky, death, loss and just about everything else as well. Clearly, these two women developed a very strong bond with one another that is unbreakable.
One of the most powerful moments from the interview was when Belon talked about what she called the gifts the tsunami gave her. A natural disaster like this seems to take away much more than it could ever possibly give, but you have to admire her for finding any upside in the midst of such immense tragedy.
MB: This is one of the gifts the wave gave me: I don’t care about myself anymore. I only appreciate the moment. I don’t think about the past anymore, I don’t take photos of any memories, and I don’t plan anything for the future. I only have now.
But although Belon survived the tsunami, she said she “almost died three times.” Once while hanging on the branch of a tree with her son Lucas, and two other times in the hospital. She admitted to being tired of struggling to stay alive, but it was the appearance of her husband which kept her going.
MB: When I saw my husband, I was like ‘good! Now I can rest. He was so nice when he said, I didn’t come here for that!
As for her three boys, Belon did give us an enthusiastic update on where they are in their lives. Lucas is now 18 years old and training to be a doctor, and she described him as being “immensely brave.” She said what he took from the experience of the tsunami is how there is never enough of what you can do for others. Thomas, now 16, is at a school where he studies half the time and does community service for the other half, and he is also working as a lifeguard in Wales. As for Samuel, 13, she said he is wondering whether being a firefighter or a policeman would be the best way to help people. Overall, they have all come out of this experience wanting to help others.
I myself asked Belon if she has been back to Thailand since the tsunami, and if work still needs to be done to repair the damage left in its wake. She replied there is still a lot of work which needs to be done especially with the orphanages and the widows. Many of the buildings have been repaired, but the souls of those who were left without parents and loved ones still need a lot of mending.
Watching “The Impossible,” you come out of it feeling like you survived the tsunami along with these characters. I shared this thought with Belon who said of course as this was part of the movie’s overall design.
MB: When we had discussions with the director and we spent hours and hours talking about the film, I said’it’s unfair to come back from one of those experiences with so much presence you get that you don’t give back. I told Bayona that it’s a bit difficult, but you have to make people go under the wave, and they said, “WHAT?!” I said sorry, that’s the only way. You go under the water, you drown and you almost die and you come out of the cinema and say (gasp), I’m alive!
“The Impossible” is one of biggest box office hits in Spain’s history, and Belon is thrilled with the response it has received as she is with the film itself. She is not sure what she’s going to do next, but she did express interest in returning to work as a doctor. Even after all she has been through, she made it clear she’s not afraid of the water and said “it wasn’t the ocean’s fault” for what happened. She has also come out of this horrific situation with a no-nonsense attitude.
MB: I only do what I enjoy. If there’s something I don’t enjoy, I quit. I did this (the movie) because I enjoy it. If somebody would like to do something that I don’t like then I will just go, “Sorry, I don’t like it (laughs).”
Maria Belon may not be a hero, but considering what she has been through, you cannot help but see her as a tremendously inspiring person. We’re all glad she’s still with us to tell her story, and it is a story which will hold you tightly within its grasp.
“The Impossible” is available to own and rent on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital.
‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ Director J.A. Bayona Talks About Making ‘The Impossible’
Spanish film director Juan Antonio Bayona, or J.A. Bayona for short, made a name for himself in 2007 with the horror movie “The Orphanage.” It earned him the respect of his fellow Spaniard Guillermo Del Toro who helped produce the film, and it became a big box office hit worldwide. These days he is known for directing “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” which is expected to be one of the biggest hits of the 2018 summer movie season.
Following “The Orphanage,” Bayona was offered a number of movies to direct including “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” but he was really interested in doing something far more challenging to take on. Bayona found the challenge he was looking for with “The Impossible,” a movie based on the true story of a family that survived the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Thailand. What Bayona accomplished showed him to have great skill in getting strong performances out of an incredibly gifted cast, and he staged a tsunami scene so horrific, it puts the one in Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter” to utter shame. The movie proves to be a cinematic experience as brilliant as it is gut wrenching to watch, and you won’t be able to ignore Bayona’s talent after you have seen it.
Bayona was at the Los Angeles press conference for “The Impossible” which was held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, California back in 2012, and I was fortunate enough to attend his roundtable interview. We all thanked him for making this film which we agreed was one of the very best of the year.
Question: This is a great movie. Did you realize the scope of it when you got involved? Did you realize how inspiring it would be to moviegoers in general?
J.A. Bayona: Well it was getting bigger and bigger as much as we were getting into it. The first impact we had when we heard Maria (Belon’s) story was very emotional, and we wanted to figure out where that emotion was coming from. Even though it is a tough story and we’re talking about a tragedy, the emotion was coming not from a dark place. It was something that was coming from the way these people gave to the other ones in the worst moment. So, I thought that was very powerful and it was a very beautiful idea of approaching that. But then you talk to Maria and you realize how much suffering there is still nowadays. They call it “survivor’s guilt” even though she doesn’t like to call it that. She will talk about survival suffering because she doesn’t feel guilty for anything she did, but it’s really that there is a lot of suffering. I thought that would be interesting to tell the story of this family going there and then going back home and not talking about a disaster in a compassionate way and where you only talk about whether you live or you die. There’s a lot of gray space in the middle. From the very first meeting that we had we agreed that this was not just the family story. It was the story of many people, but the whole ending talks about that; how do you go home to the real world when your real world disappears? I like to see the film tell the story about the end of innocence. They don’t feel the same anymore, they lose the sense of security and their life is not the same anymore.
Q: How big of a challenge was this movie for you?
JAB: Well of course there was a huge challenge in the technical aspects of the film, but for me that was exciting and I was not worried about that. The real challenge was how to portray the story of the people who were there and how to give the big picture of what went on there and being respectful of the time.
Q: How much the movie was real and how much what was done with CGI? The movie looks very real even though some of those effects were probably done digitally.
JAB: Well it had to be like that because the story was very simple in reality so it could look like a visual effects movie. It had to feel real all the time. We did a lot of things for real like practical shooting and practical effects, and we also used a lot of CGI for greeneries and digital composition. But the great thing is to always mix several techniques so there’s a moment where everything gets lost so the audience doesn’t know what they are watching.
Q: Was anything done to reduce the carbon footprint of the movie or in trying to conserve resources?
JAB: Everything these days is now very regulated, so you have to be very respectful. For example, in shooting the water sequences in Spain the waters had to be darkened with a coloring used for food because that water had to be sent back again to the sea. Everything had to be natural. The water had to be decidedly desalinated before it got sent back to the sea.
Q: Did you think about shooting the movie in another country other than Spain, or was it always your intention to shoot there?
JAB: We did it in Spain because we found this huge water tank which is the second biggest in the world I think. So it was the perfect place to shoot all of the water sequences and once we finished with that we went to Thailand and we shot in the same places the tsunami took place in.
Q: The sound design in this movie is incredible, especially in the opening sequence. The screen is black but you already feel like you’re underwater. Can you tell us more about the sound design for this movie?
JAB: One of the things that I soon realized is that the characters didn’t have time to stop and think about what was happening. Everything was so fast that we had to deal more with emotions and sensory details. I was intellectualizing the sequence a lot with the actors, but in the end in front of the camera everything had to be sensorial and about the emotions. Sound has a great role in the film, and I talked a lot with Maria about the sounds and she was telling me for example that the sounds of the wave reminded her of the engine of the plane. This is the moment where I had the idea of starting with the sound of the engine because the movie was already starting and finishing on a plane. The way the plane sounds at the beginning and at the end is completely different, and that sets the behavior of the characters of how they go to Thailand and how they came back from Thailand. The sound of the way was very interesting. It sounds wilder underwater than on the surface because that’s where the danger was with all the debris and all the things which were dangerous for the people who were in the water were underwater. Maria was telling the also about the bloody birds, and I said, “What do you mean by the bloody birds?” She told me, “Once the water receded and we were completely alone in the debris and the devastation I started listening to the birds singing like nothing had happened, and I hated them at that moment because nothing happened to them.” This gave me the idea of how nature goes back to normal and that puts the characters very close to reality at the time, so of course we played a lot with this sound and with the music. It’s very interesting to see how music plays a lot with things that the characters can find the words to explain. I remember the moment when Maria was being dragged by this old man, and she sent me a message that was four pages of all these things that she felt in that moment. And in that sequence you only have a man dragging a woman so I focused only on Naomi’s eyes and I put some small music in their going up slowly, and only with that Naomi’s performance and only with their eyes and seeing the connection between this woman and this man. Using some notes of music, I was able to try to create a thought provoking experience in the audience, and that deals a lot with the four pages that Maria sent me.
Q: When this project began it was intended to be a Spanish production with Spanish actors, but then it became this huge thing. When did you decide to make this change?
JAB: Well we wrote the script in Spanish and we soon realized that 80% of the dialogue was already in English because people had to talk in English to be understandable to each other. Also I didn’t want to put the accent on nationalities because I wanted to portray all the people on the same level. I wanted to portray all the people like people, no nationalities. So it felt natural to go to English-speaking actors because first of all to finance a movie like this you need important names, but most of all I never wanted to put an accent on nationalities. If you see the film, they never say where they are from. All the time they talk about going back home. I wanted them to be very universal like a wide canvas so you can project yourself in there.
“The Impossible” is now available to own and rent on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital, and “Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom” arrives in theaters on June 22, 2018.
The Performances Make ‘3 Generations’ Worth a Look
Posted on May 6, 2017 by The Ultimate Rabbit
I prefer to review movies for what they are as opposed to what I wanted them to be, but with “3 Generations,” this proves to be a bit of a challenge. For the most part, I think it is a sweet and thoughtful movie about transgender issues. But yes, it could have dug deeper into an issue many struggle with in life as this one touches on the family dynamics at play when one member decides to transition to another gender. For many, this is a volatile issue with many psychological scars being inflicted on those who do not deserve to be misunderstood, but director Gaby Dellal and her co-writer Nikole Beckwith at times take this story in a comical direction to where it borders on becoming a sitcom. Still, I can’t help but like this movie for what it is as deals with its subject matter in a sympathetic way and features three terrific performances which alone make it worth the price of admission.
Elle Fanning stars as Ramona who is now going by the name Ray because she sees herself as “a boy with tits.” Ray sees herself (excuse me, himself) as a boy trapped in a girl’s body, and he is determined to undergo gender reassignment to correct this. The main obstacle, however, is getting the consent of her parents to go through with it. His mother, Maggie (Naomi Watts), is willing to sign off on the procedure even though her anxiety and concerns over Ray’s decision make her smoke close to a full pack of cigarettes a day. His father, Craig (Tate Donovan), has been out of the picture for so long that Maggie would rather everyone believe he is dead. As for Ray’s grandmother, Dolly (Susan Sarandon), she wonders why he can’t simply be a lesbian like her.
At the center of “3 Generations” is Fanning who gives an excellent and heartwarming performance as Ray, and she fully invests in her character’s commitment to changing his identity into something far more acceptable to himself. Watching her is also a strong reminder of how teenagers are brilliant at seeing straight through their parents’ hypocrisy and bullshit to where they threaten to be more mature than those raising them. Whereas the other characters around him face an intense level of worry and anxiety, Ray knows exactly what he wants and shows zero doubt over what he feels he needs to do, and it represents the bravery I wish I had as a teenager.
You can never go wrong with Watts in anything she appears in, and she inhabits Maggie as your average mother; always wanting the best for her child while constantly worrying about the future. Maggie is almost convinced Ray will come to her one day with a beard on his face saying he made a mistake, but she is also the one closest to him willing to grant his wish to become a boy. Watts makes Maggie’s suffering all the more relatable as she reminds us all of how life is all about suffering, but through it all, we can find a happiness which a lot of times feels out of reach.
Sarandon is a wonderful presence here as Dolly who lives with her lover Frances (Linda Elmond), Maggie and Ray all under the same roof in a big apartment in New York’s West Village. This Oscar-winning actress is always great at playing the veteran mother who has seen it all and approaches her daughter’s problems like the pro she is. At the same time, her scenes tend to get overwhelmed by sitcom-like humor which threatens to take away from this movie more often than not. Still, Sarandon won me over as she always does, and the moments with Elmond remind us of the constant struggles couples go through. And by this, I mean any couple.
“3 Generations” works best when it focuses on Ray and his struggle become the boy he was always meant to be. We see him working out trying to build muscle, and he is determined to switch schools in order to get a fresh start in life once his transition is complete. At times, it focuses a little too much on the adults in this situation, and this is even though their concerns deserve our attention as well. While humor does come in handy in stories like these as they can become painfully too real, the filmmakers go a little overboard especially in a scene where Watts and Sarandon try different ways to treat Ray’s black eye.
Yes, this is a flawed movie that should have been better, but I still found myself liking “3 Generations” quite a bit as the performances are strong, and it has some surprises up its sleeve as it heads towards the finish line where we are reminded of how parents are never, ever perfect human beings. It all leads up to a final scene between a mother and her child which brought a real smile to my face as the constant struggles we face in life can lead to moments of true happiness.
Perhaps the transgender community deserves a strong movie than “3 Generations,” or maybe there are several out there we haven’t bothered to watch yet. All the same, I enjoyed this movie for what it was, and for me, that was enough. Still, it is a little hard to believe a family like this can afford such a big apartment in New York. You know the rents out there are ridiculously expensive, right?
“3 Generations” was originally given an R rating, but The Weinstein Company managed to succeed in getting the MPAA to give it a PG-13 which makes a lot more sense. This movie is certainly appropriate for teenagers, and this subject matter really shouldn’t be off limits to them. Then again, the MPAA has made many mistakes throughout the years, and it is unlikely this will be their last.
Will there be a more perfectly executed movie in 2014 than “Birdman?” It’s hard to believe there will as director Alejandro González Iñárritu succeeds in giving us a truly brilliant movie going experience which combines amazing technical aspects with a strong story and actors who give some of the best performances of their career. Your eyes will remain glued to the screen from start to finish as “Birdman” takes you on a cinematic journey we seldom go on, and you will leave the theater feeling mesmerized and in awe of what everyone managed to accomplish with a budget which is a mere fraction of today’s average blockbuster.
I’m always happy to see Michael Keaton in any movie he appears in, and he is crazy brilliant as Riggan Thomson, an actor who became a star after playing the superhero Birdman in a movie trilogy. As we catch up with him, he is now a washed-up actor whose glory days have long since passed him by. In an effort to restart his career and achieve true greatness as an actor, he decides to mount his own production of “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” a play which is based on the short stories of Raymond Carver. Riggan has put everything he has into this project and has even mortgaged his home to put up the capital for it. It’s hard not to sense his desperation as this play which he adapted to the stage, produced, directed and stars in threatens to become a total disaster.
Suffice to say, things are not going well as one of the cast members gets seriously injured before previews are set to begin, Riggan is trying to repair his relationship with his family while having an affair with one of the actresses, his daughter has just gotten out of rehab and is working as his assistant, and he has just cast a new actor whose ego is every bit as big as his talent. As his stress level increases, he begins to lose touch with reality and soon finds himself haunted by his most famous character who constantly urges him to take matters into his own hands.
Now many are calling “Birdman” Keaton’s comeback movie, but this is not entirely fair. Keaton never disappeared from the limelight, and while his career may not be as hot as it once was when he appeared in Tim Burton’s “Batman” movies, he remains a standout in each film he appears in whether it’s “The Other Guys” or “Toy Story 3.” But with “Birdman,” Keaton gets a role which is more than worthy of his talents, and he makes the most of this opportunity and then some. As unlikable as Riggan may be when it comes to how he treats others, Keaton makes you empathize with him as he tries to do right by himself as the play’s premiere comes at him sooner than he thinks. It’s a tour de force performance, and hopefully it will bring Keaton the Oscar nomination he should have gotten years ago for “Clean & Sober.”
But the real stars of “Birdman” are Iñárritu and his cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki who brilliantly succeed in making this movie look as if it was all shot in one take. They make us feel like we are floating along into these characters’ lives as they struggle to make this play the best anyone in New York has ever seen. Even if you think you can spot where and when Iñárritu cuts from one scene to another, the movie still feels remarkably seamless from start to finish. Some filmmakers value the visual aspects of a movie over the acting or vice versa, but Iñárritu manages to balance out both to brilliant effect, and it makes for one heck of a cinematic experience. Heck, you can’t even help but wonder about what the cast and crew went through while making “Birdman” because there’s no way this could have been a walk in the park for anybody.
It’s impossible to think of an actor other than Edward Norton who could play the infinitely egotistical actor Mike Shiner so perfectly. Director Brett Ratner once described Norton as being someone whose mission it was to save a movie and of how this can be your best asset or your worst nightmare. I couldn’t help but think about what Ratner said as I watched Norton burst onto the scene and insinuate his character into a play about to be previewed to an audience. When it comes to method actors, they can take things too literally and Norton shows just how ridiculously far one can go. It’s one of his best performances to date.
I also loved watching Emma Stone who plays Riggan’s daughter, Sam. Stone has been a fiery actress ever since we first saw her, and you can’t take your eyes off of her whenever she’s onscreen. Stone makes Sam into a wonderfully realized character who is trying to stay one step ahead of what has brought her down in the past, and she gives a riveting performance which shows just how far her range as an actress can stretch. While she may not have been able to save “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” (in all fairness, no one could), she is a truly unforgettable presence here.
Other great performances in “Birdman” come from Naomi Watts who plays the amazingly insecure actress Lesley, and I have yet to see her suck in any movie she appears in. Andrea Riseborough, who stole a number of scenes from Tom Cruise in “Oblivion,” is wonderful as Laura, the actress Riggan may or may not have gotten pregnant. Zach Galifianakis takes on an unusual role for him as Riggan’s best friend and producer, Jake, who goes through hell in order to get this play off the ground. And then there’s Amy Ryan who plays Riggan’s ex-wife Sylvia who still has feelings for him even as he continues to do her wrong. Ryan never disappoints, and I love how she finds the good in Riggan when no one else can.
“Birdman” is the kind of movie which makes seeing movies on the big screen a sheer necessity. It challenges the realm of cinema to show what can be accomplished, and it gives us quite the kind of ride movies should be taking us on in a much more frequent way. In a year overwhelmed with tent pole franchises and a barrage of superhero franchises, this movie stands out as brilliantly unique and impossible to dismiss or forget.
Leave it to “Saturday Night Live” alum Bill Murray to play the ultimate sad sack loser whom you manage to find some empathy for. Other great actors have played this kind of role to great effect like Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, and Billy Bob Thornton, but I am convinced after watching the movie “St. Vincent” that no one does it better than Murray. Even if the character he plays appears to be an irredeemable jerk, Murray still makes you see there is at least one redemptive quality in this infinitely cynical soul.
Murray plays the Vincent of the movie’s title, but he doesn’t look anything like a saint when we first meet him. We see him getting liquored up frequently and betting on the horses, and he clearly he has more luck getting drunk than he does at gambling. Then he comes to discover he is beyond flat broke (there is such a thing) as he borrowed money against his house to an alarming degree, and a local bookie named Zucko (Terrence Howard) informs him he has a serious debt to pay.
We watch Vincent dance all by himself to Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love,” and we can’t help but wonder if he cares if anyone loves him in the slightest. In case you haven’t noticed, Vincent is not the nicest person to be around.
As his troubled times ramble on, Vincent suddenly discovers he has some new neighbors which include the recently divorced Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) and her 12-year-old son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher). They don’t get off to a good start as their moving van accidentally hits a tree and damages Vincent’s fence and his “antique” car. Vincent doesn’t seem the slightest bit interested in giving them a warm welcome as he is in getting reimbursed for the damage done, but when Maggie finds herself forced to work long hours, she has no choice but to let Vincent babysit Oliver while she’s away.
Vincent’s idea of taking care of Oliver includes going to the racetrack where his luck with the horses changes dramatically, and he teaches Oliver to defend himself which comes in handy when he has to get back at the school bully. Now these are not the kind of things you teach a child, but it helps break the ice between them to where they come to enjoy each other’s company.
Murray does not need to win an Oscar to show us all what a great actor he is because we have known this for years now. His performances in “Rushmore,” “Lost in Translation” and “Groundhog Day” show just how far his range stretches, and he does wonders with a character we would be quick to hate in real life. Even when “St. Vincent” becomes a little too sentimental for its own good, Murray never fakes an emotion and we feel for him regardless of how he treats others. The sad look in his eyes speaks volumes and tells us what we need to know about Vincent without him having to spell it out for everyone.
It’s also nice to see Melissa McCarthy in a good movie for a change. Ever since her brilliant supporting turn in “Bridesmaids,” she has been stuck doing solid work in bad movies like “Identity Thief” and “Tammy,” but here she is served by a good script and a role which allows her to take a more serious turn. She’s wonderful here as Maggie, a single mom who’s doing the best she can under difficult circumstances, and she scores some funny moments as well, especially when it comes to a certain plant.
Seeing Chris O’Dowd play Catholic school teacher Brother Geraghty is amusingly ironic as we last saw him as a very anti-Catholic character in “Calvary,” and he is wonderful to watch here. As for Terrence Howard, he has this brilliant ability to take stock characters like the angry bookie and make them seem not the least bit cliché, and his performance as Zucko is yet another example of that. And then there’s Naomi Watts who knocks it out of the park as pregnant Russian stripper Daka, and she gets the accent down perfectly.
But seriously, the performance I was most impressed with in “St. Vincent” was Jaeden Lieberher’s as Oliver as he gives us the perfect example of a child who can see right through adult hypocrisy. It’s such a genuine and unforced performance to where Lieberher inhabits Oliver more than plays him, and he makes this young man come across as smarter and far more mature than the adults around him.
“St. Vincent” was written and directed by Theodore Melfi, and he travels through the familiar “Scent of a Woman” territory to where you have a good idea of where this movie is heading. As I said earlier, it does get a little too sentimental at times, but Melfi throws some interesting twists into the mix I didn’t see coming. I also like how Oliver fights off the school bully and then becomes really good friends with him. It’s not often in movies that you see something like that happen.
When it comes down to it, “St. Vincent” doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it is very well made and features some truly memorable performances. Will Murray get an Oscar nomination for his work here? Probably not, but that’s because he gives a subtle performance the Academy never appreciates enough. Regardless, he continues to turn in one great performance after another, and his work in this movie is just the latest example.
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Archivi tag: propublica
Second Pulitzer Prize for Propublica
Paul Steiger, chief editor of Propublica.org, writes on his site:
“ProPublica reporters Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein have been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for their stories on how some Wall Street bankers, seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of their clients and sometimes even their own firms, at first delayed but then worsened the financial crisis. We at ProPublica are delighted by this award, and deeply honored.
This is ProPublica’s second Pulitzer Prize in as many years. Last year, ProPublica reporter Sheri Fink won a Pulitzer for Investigative Reporting for her article “The Deadly Choices at Memorial,” on euthanasia at a New Orleans hospital in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, published in partnership with The New York Times Magazine. This was the first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded to an online news organization. This year’s Prize is the first for a group of stories not published in print.”
Indeed a good job.
In 2010 Paul Steiger was in Italy to attend the International Journalism Festival of Perugia, and that’s where I had the chance to meet and interview him for a few minutes. During our short conversation I asked Mr Steiger about Propublica and its business model as well as about his view on journalism and its future.
Watch his answers – still very up-to-date – in the following video.
Questo articolo è stato pubblicato in English, internet, NewMedia, Video interviews e taggato come interview, paul steiger, propublica, pulitzer price il 19 aprile 2011 da Alessio Jacona
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Why It’s Worth a Watch Wednesday – Clash of the Monday Titans
Our television sets and DVRs are about to kick into overdrive as fall TV arrives in just a few weeks. Many of our favorite programs are returning, so Amber West and I decided to share a few more Why It’s Worth a Watch reviews to check out two of the dueling Monday night titans coming back to us September 19th – ABC’s Castle and CBS’s Hawaii Five-0.
In 2008, TV viewers learned that CBS planned to remake the popular television series Hawaii Five-O, a hit that remained on the air from 1968-1980 starring Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett and James MacArthur as Danny Williams.
Mixed emotions spread like wildfire – some of the older generations were furious that the networks would once again ruin a classic by attempting a remake, while others jumped in joy at the thought of their favorite television show in the ‘70s returning. Not all that familiar with the original, the younger generations, particularly the women, marked their calendars for the series premiere and the return of some Australian sexiness to the small screen.
Forty-two years to the day from the debut of the original Hawaii Five-O in 1968, the new Hawaii Five-0 aired. Continuing the tribute to the original series, the 2010 opening credits remained exactly the same (except for the actors and a tad bit of our new technology today, of course). The 2010 series also plays the original theme song composed by Morton Stevens during the opening credits.
Don’t believe me? Check these out!
What did you think? Okay, now on to the characters!
Steve McGarrett played by Alex O’Laughlin (Moonlight, The Back-up Plan)
The series opens when McGarrett, a former Navy SEAL, hears his father murdered over the telephone. He returns to Hawaii for the funeral and decides to stay when the governor (Jean Smart from Designing Women) appointments him the lead of the Five-O special task force, a unit with the ability to do whatever they deem necessary to close the case at hand – perfect for McGarrett’s way of acting & thinking.
McGarrett takes down the bad guys for his “day job” while searching for the evidence to bring down Wo Fat (Mark Dacascos, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven), the man he believes is responsible for his mother’s death years ago and for his father’s recent murder.
Viewers get to see a tad bit of McGarrett’s personal life when his sister visits (Mary Ann McGarrett, played by Taryn Manning, 8 Mile) and his recurring love interest’s carrier docks in Hawaii (Lt. Catherine Rollins played by Michelle Borth, The Forgotten).
Danny Williams played by Scott Caan (Varsity Blues, Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen)
McGarrett’s partner, Danny, moved to Hawaii to be closer to his daughter, Grace, and he misses the mainland and Jersey food tremendously.
Remember the popular phrase, Book ‘em Danno? Well, the younger generations, not as familiar with the original series, learned that the term “Danno” is actually a term of endearment that Grace uses instead of “daddy” or “father” for Danny. When McGarrett overhears an adorable exchange between Danny and his daughter, he takes a mental note and busts out with, “Book ‘em Danno” at the scene of their first arrest, much to Danny’s dismay.
Danny operates more like a police officer should (the term “by the book” comes to mind), therefore he disagrees with McGarrett’s way of doing things. The banter between the two partners adds a humorous element to the show, although many original Hawaii Five-O fans believe that the Danny of the ‘70s would never have talked to the McGarrett of the’70s the way our current day Danny does.
The third and fourth members of the team, Chin-Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim from Lost) and Kono Kalakaua (Grace Park from Battlestar Galactica), are native Hawaiians with a history of their own.
Chin-Ho was excused from the Hawaii Police Department for allegedly stealing money and his cousin Grace is the only family member who hasn’t disowned him over the supposed crime. This matter is cleared up towards the end of season one, but we’re not offering up any SPOILER alerts today.
Grace, a former professional surfer and recent graduate from the Police Academy, anxiously joins the Five-O task force to work with her cousin, even if it means she’ll never get to wear the HPD uniform that she worked so very hard to earn.
Other recurring characters include: Kamekona (Taylor Wiley, Forgetting Sarah Marshall), a confidential informant and shaved-ice vendor who sometimes babysits Grace for McGarrett and Danny; Max Bergman (Masi Oka, Heroes), the medical examiner/coroner; Victor Hesse (James Marsters, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), murderer and Wo Fat associate; and Jenna Kaye (Larisa Oleynik, The Baby-Sitters Club and 3rd Rock from the Sun), a former CIA agent and consultant/assistant to the Five-0 team.
The creators and CBS have brought back a classic in style, and they have glorified the beauties of the islands of Hawaii for the rest of the world to see. Regardless of all the nay-sayers out there, I give Hawaii Five-0 a MacTV rating. There aren’t many television programs that both my guy and I like to watch simultaneously, and this happens to be one of them.
I really wanted to give McGarrett and Danno a GTV rating, but I just don’t quite think Beef Wellington and an expensive bottle of Cabernet when I think of Hawaii Five-0; instead, I think meatloaf covered in chili sauce served with shells-n-cheese and an ice-cold beer. Every Monday night we sit curled up with our dinner plates in our laps enthralled in the action and mystery while shoveling the yummy food into our mouths without paying the least bit of attention to the mess we’re making. Guilty pleasure, agree?
What do you think? Do you like the new Hawaii Five-0 or prefer the original? Are you like me and would watch Alex O’Laughlin in anything that guarantees the occasional shirtless scene (Navy SEALS swim a lot!)? What do you think of Scott Caan – does he remind you of his father, James Caan (you knew that, right?)? I’d love to hear from you!
Now click over to Amber’s blog and check out her review of Nathan Fillion….I mean, the crime and mystery drama Castle on CBS! What happens when a mystery writer tags along with a detective? Said writer gathers tons of writing material!
Come back next week when Amber and I continue to review a few more of our favorite programs on CBS returning this fall – the Thursday night hit, The Mentalist, and the Friday night sophomore, Blue Bloods.
Remember to stop by the #watchwed hashtag in Twitter to discuss any of today’s reviews, or to mention any television programs that you’d like to see on Why It’s Worth a Watch Wednesday in the future. We’re currently working on our September schedule and would love to chat with you!
Why It’s Worth a Watch Wednesday – Bones & Squints
Fall television is right around the corner, and many of our favorite programs are returning. Amber West and I decided to change things up this week, and we’re sharing Why It’s Worth a Watch to check out a few of the FOX hit TV shows coming back in a few weeks – House and Bones.
First up, Bones!
Based on the book series of the same name by Kathy Reichs, Bones follows forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan and FBI Special Agent Seely Booth as they solve some of the toughest cases surrounding the Washington D.C. area. Each week’s episode begins with the discovery of human remains and showcases the unique personalities of partners Booth and Brennan as they work alongside each other and the team of expert scientists (also known as “squints”) at the Jeffersonian Institute to solve crimes.
Note – I don’t recommend watching Bones during the dinner hour. The human remains are sometimes a bit graphic and very realistic.
Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel, Rose Red)
In addition to being quite possibly one of the most intelligent, and one of the best forensic anthropologists in the world, Temperance “Bones” Brennan is also a bestselling author. Saying she’s socially awkward is an understatement, she completely lacks what most of us consider common sense and she’s void of any pop culture knowledge making her jokes fail miserably with the rest of the team. Her education clashes with her friend’s cultures and beliefs (particularly religious affiliations), but she makes an honest attempt to better understand those that she loves. The Jeffersonian team and Booth are her family.
FBI Special Agent Seely Booth (David Boreanaz, from Buffy and Angel)
A former Ranger Sniper, Booth’s sharp shooting skills have come in handy during his tenure with the FBI. Of course, those same skills and his record number of kills have also haunted him over the years, especially considering his moral code, Catholic beliefs, and interpersonal relationships. Booth struggles constantly with his past: his father was an abusive alcoholic and his brother is following the same path, minus the abusive side. Booth focuses his life on being the best man and father he can be, and he’ll do anything to protect Brennan and her team. Talk about a man of honor….
Forensic Artist Angela Montenegro (Michaela Conlin, The Lincoln Lawyer)
Angela is Brennan’s best friend, daughter of ZZ Top band member Billy Gibbons, wife to Jack Hodgins, and proud mother to new-born Michael Staccato Vincent (after Nigel-Murray) Hodgins. Her role with the team is to help with facial reconstruction, and she uses some really cool 3-D graphics programs that help generate holograms from even the smallest portion of a skeleton. Angela is responsible for most of the social improvements seen through Brennan’s character growth season to season.
Entomologist Dr. Jack Hodgins (T.J.Thyne, How High)
Hodgins is the teams’ expert on all things spores, soil, and bugs, and he often times refers to himself as “King of the Lab“. Hodgins is a bit of a conspiracy theorist, a fact not at all helped by his massive education. His family has considerable wealth and is actually one of the main endowment donors supporting the Jeffersonian. He loves Angela, while comically fearing her father (he has a huge tattoo of Angela’s face on his shoulder courtesy of a night out drinking with her dad).
Pathologist Dr. Camille Saroyan (Tamara Taylor, Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman)
The head of the Jeffersonian team, Cam, is Booth’s ex-girlfriend and is responsible for Booth asking Brennan to assist him on FBI cases. She is the newly adopted mother of her deceased ex-boyfriend’s daughter, Michelle, and she struggles daily with trying to not control Michelle’s teenage years and collegiate future.
Psychologist Dr. Lance Sweets (John Francis Daley, Freaks and Geeks and Waiting)
Introduced in Season 3 to help Booth and Brennan with their partnership, well, really the sexual tension affecting their partnership, Sweets has grown to be a favorite character on Bones. He’s very young to have earned his Ph.D, and oftentimes encounters negative and rude comments from others about his age. Sweets is brilliant, but not as secure with romantic relationships (he has an on again/off again love affair with one of the squints, Daisy). Sweets is essential to the team and helps them solve many cases using his criminal profiling expertise in interrogations.
Booth and Brennan have solved many crimes, the most dangerous and popular being the serial killers Gormogon (a cannibal) and The Grave Digger, who actually buried Brennan and Hodgins alive during season two. Their partnership and relationship has survived brain tumors, gun-shot wounds, girlfriends and boyfriends, Booth’s return to the Army to train soldiers, and Brennan’s archeological digs around the world.
Each week, the Jeffersonian squints change. This is explained in the storyline by Brennan’s inability to decide on an official intern replacement after Dr. Zach Addy (Eric Millegan) is taken away (I don’t want to give away any SPOILER alerts – you’ll have to watch the series). The cast of other squints include: Wendell Bray (Michael Grant Terry), Colin Fisher (Joel Moore), Vincent Nigel-Murray (Ryan Cartwright), Arastoo Vaziri (Pej Vahdat), Clark Edison (Eugene Byrd) and Daisy Wick (Carla Gallo).
Ryan O’Neal reprises his role of Max Keenan, Brennan’s criminal father, throughout the series. Other recurring characters include: Brennan’s brother, Russ Brennan (Loren Dean); Booth’s girlfriend, Hannah Burley (Katheryn Winnick); U.S. Prosecutor, Caroline Julian (Patricia Belcher); Booth’s ex-girlfriend and mother to his son, Rebecca Stinson (Jessica Capshaw); and, Booth’s brother, Jared (Brendan Fehr).
Bones happens to be one of the rare television programs that has me sitting in anticipation the first twenty minutes of the hour so that I can press play on the DVR and watch without commercial interruption. I know, you’re thinking that I’m a TV addict and I feel this way about a lot of programs, but that’s not true. Bones is an absolute favorite and therefore I must award the GTV rating.
The sexual tension between Booth and Bones; the love affair between Angela and Hodgins; the quirky relationship shared between Sweets and Daisy; the comedic oddities of each and every character; all of this is TV at its finest: yummy Gourmet Television. Compare it to the best cut of meat, red wine, and flaming dessert available.
Are you a Bones fan? Without spoiling it for anyone who isn’t current with the series, do you feel the surprise announcement at the end of season six will ruin the show or take it in a new, fun direction? Did you feel the Zach storyline jumped the shark? Who’s your favorite Bones squint and why? I’d love to hear from you!
Now click over to Amber’s blog and check out her review of the hit Fox medical drama, House!
Come back next week when Amber and I review a few more of our favorite programs returning this fall – the opposing 10pm EST/9pm CST Monday night hit series Castle & Hawaii 5-0.
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Toronto’s soulmate secret revealed
Local school proves love lives on the dance floor
TORONTO – Some say the path to love is through the eyes. For many Torontonians, it’s proving to be through their two left feet.
Toronto Dance Salsa (TDS) is Canada’s largest salsa dance school, churning out many of the country’s top performers. But that’s not why it’s been making waves lately. TDS has also been churning out more love stories than its owner can count.
“From bachelor parties to weddings to baby showers, I think I’ve seen more of my students off the dance floor than on,” says TDS owner and instructor Evan Carmichael, “and the best part is that it’s all because of us. We’ve introduced so many couples who wind up not only sharing a love of salsa, but also a love for each other.”
Just ask Aleks Saiyan who enrolled in beginner salsa classes at TDS.
“I used to be that creepy guy who would stare at girls for way too long,” he says. “I wasn’t actually creepy. I was just so terrified of making a mistake on the dance floor that I would forget to blink.”
Fast forward six years later and Saiyan has not only become a salsa instructor who performs at salsa congresses across the country, but he’s also engaged to a fellow dancer whom he met at TDS.
“If it wasn’t for TDS, I would probably still be that awkward shy guy sitting at the bar in clubs,” says Saiyan. “Instead, today, I’m living out my passion with the woman that I love. And it’s all because I decided to sign up for that one class.”
Saiyan is just one of the many who have found their soulmate at TDS. So what is it about salsa that seems to create couples?
Carmichael, who also met his wife at TDS, says it’s a combination of factors.
“First, it’s spending time together doing something that you both enjoy,” he says, “and since you’re both learning, there’s definitely a lot of laughs along the way. No awkward silences here.”
Second is the sexy factor, says Carmichael.
“It’s not like going for dinner with someone and just talking, or going to a movie and just staring straight ahead. You’re getting close to each other, breaking down barriers and getting comfortable with each other much more quickly,” he says. “Salsa is a sexy dance and when two people dance it, even if they’re just beginners, you can feel a spark.”
Finally, the salsa community is close-knit, and sharing the same friends always helps in a relationship, says Carmichael.
“We’re a family at TDS. We celebrate birthdays on the dance floor. We organize outings to play laser tag and plant trees together,” he says. “When you have a common social circle and support network, it really helps build trust and open communication.”
As people live busier lives and find less time to socialize, Toronto Dance Salsa just may be the city’s new secret weapon in the search for soul mates.
About Toronto Dance Salsa
Toronto Dance Salsa is Canada’s largest salsa dance school. It specializes in turning absolute beginners into dancers. It introduces students to the fundamentals of salsa, bachata, merengue, kizomba, and tango, and also offers workout classes like Zumba. Its new semester of classes is beginning now.
Toronto entrepreneur challenges businesses to raise $1 million for Fort McMurray
Dance school raises $1,000, says Toronto should be doing more.
TORONTO – Some say the path to love is through the eyes. For many Torontonians, it’s proving to ... Read More
The Tricky Business of Finding a New Dance Partner
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Things to Do in Da Nang, Vietnam
What Natural Landforms Are in China?
Attractions in Da Nang, Vietnam
Tammy Dray, Leaf Group
Da Nang (Photo: )
Things to Do in Ulan Bator, Mongolia
Museums in Rome, Italy
Da Nang sits over the South China Sea in central Vietnam and probably is best known for its role in the Vietnam War, when it was home to a major American air base. Today, Da Nang attracts plenty of tourists, both local and international. Many come for the pristine beaches and the scuba diving opportunities, while others want to explore the history and legacy of the area.
Visitors to Da Nang usually make their way to Hoi An (hoian-tourism.com) for a day trip. Hoi An is less than 20 miles from Da Nang and easily accessible by taxi or by joining a tour. Hoi An is one of the oldest cities in Vietnam, with early signs of occupation dating as far back as A.D. 200. In fact, the whole town was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its many ancient buildings and structures. Most of the visitors just spend their day walking around the city and admiring the architecture, which includes things like houses dating back hundreds of years, Buddhist temples and remarkable museums, including the Museum of Trade Ceramics and Hoi An Folklore Museum.
Da Nang attracts divers from all over the world between February and September, the diving season. The main diving center is headed by the Furama Resort (furamavietnam.com), which sits on its own private stretch of sand off the coast of Da Nang. The Son Tra Peninsula, home to Monkey Mountain, is the favorite diving location because of its clear waters and colossal coral barriers. For those who can't scuba dive, the hotel offers certification courses, or you can choose to go snorkeling instead.
The Museum of the Fifth Military Zone Danang
If you're going to visit only one museum when in Da Nang, this is the right one. With a large collection that covers national revolutions, the Vietnam War and newer military equipment, this museum won't disappoint. The collection starts outside with a number of vehicle exhibits that include tanks, cannons, armored vehicles and aircraft. Inside, the collection is more eclectic. Besides the obvious weapons collection, you can find unexpected items, such as slippers or baskets belonging to famous figures of the revolution. Historical documents and photos bring authenticity to the collection.
Marble Mountain is actually a group of five hills, most famous for its abundance of limestone and marble. Visitors come here primarily to explore the many caves that line up the sides of the hills, many of which contain miles of interconnecting tunnels. On the way up all five hills, you'll find small Buddhist temples. Non Nuoc Arts Village, at the bottom of the mountains, still produces handcrafted statues and stone work.
"Lonely Planet Vietnam (Country Travel Guide)"; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow; Lonely Planet; 2009
"Insight Guide Vietnam"; Insight Guides; 2009
Furama Vietnam: Diving
Mountains in East Africa
Famous Buildings in Jerusalem
Peru Archaeological Vacations
Diving in Da Nang, Vietnam
Famous Villages in Bali
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