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Arturo Sandoval, Latin and Classic jazz Artist
Arturo Sandoval is a renowned classical musician, composer and jazz trumpeter, who in his early career was influenced by jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown and Charlie Parker. He is also a dynamic performer who is admired by millions of fans around the world.
Born in Artemisa, Cuba
Genre: Jazz, Afro-Cuban Jazz, Latin Jazz
A protégé of the legendary jazz master Dizzy Gillespie, Sandoval was born in Artemisa, a small town in the outskirts of Havana, Cuba, on November 6, 1949, just two years after Gillespie became the first musician to bring Latin influences into American Jazz. Sandoval began studying classical trumpet at the age of twelve, but it didn’t take him long to catch the excitement of the jazz world. He has since evolved into one of the world’s most acknowledged guardians of jazz trumpet and flugelhorn, as well as a renowned classical artist, pianist and composer.
He is one of the most dynamic and vivacious live performers of our time, and has been seen by millions at the Oscars, at the Grammy Awards, and the Billboard Awards.
Sandoval has been awarded 10 Grammy Awards, and nominated 19 times; he has also received 6 Billboard Awards and an Emmy Award. The latter for his composing work on the entire underscore of the HBO movie based on his life, “For Love or Country” that starred Andy Garcia as Arturo.
Biographical information courtesy of Arturo Sandoval; for more reading see link below
http://arturosandoval.com/home/artist/
http://thejazzvnu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/10-3A-Candela-Medley-Yo-Si-Como-Candela-Quimbombo.mp3 http://thejazzvnu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/10-2A-Tee-Pee-Time.mp3 http://thejazzvnu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/06-1A-Danzon.mp3 http://thejazzvnu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/02-Tunisias-Blues.mp3 http://thejazzvnu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/01-Funky-Cha-Cha.mp3 http://thejazzvnu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/03-Speak-Low1.mp3
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It’s a Date (1940)
Georgia (Kay Francis) and her daughter, Pamela (Deanna Durbin), are both performers. Georgia is an aging actress who is losing her popularity, while young and peppy Pamela is just getting started in her stage career.
Kay Francis and Deanna Durbin are mother and daughter in this musical. (Image via kayfrancisfilms.com)
Desperate to find success as an actress, Pamela gets a hold of director Sidney Simpson (Samuel S. Hinds) and writer Carl Ober (S. Z. Sakall) at the closing party of her mother’s latest play. She convinces them to watch her perform, in hopes that they’ll cast her in something.
Impressed with Pam’s skill as an actress and her determination to succeed, Georgia’s colleagues decide to offer Pam the title role in their new play, St. Anne.
(Image via Wikimedia Commons)
Little does Pam know, she’s stealing this role from her mother. And without that knowledge, Pam travels to Honolulu to be coached by her mother, who is spending six weeks there in preparation for the role of St. Anne.
On her way to Honolulu via ocean liner, Pamela catches the eye of John Arlen, the pineapple king (Walter Pidgeon), and the two become fast friends. But when John begins to fall for Georgia upon arrival in Hawaii, Pamela and her mother will be fighting over stage roles and men.
William A. Seiter directs 1940’s It’s a Date. The film was distributed by Universal Pictures and was written by Norman Krasna. Nancy Goes to Rio, released in 1950, is a remake of this film starring Ann Sothern and Jane Powell.
I’ve seen shamefully few of Deanna Durbin’s films but have always liked her in the films I have watched from her filmography, so I jumped at the chance to see this when it popped up on TCM’s streamig service in January.
Her performance here is very good. She’s spunky and has fantastic screen presence. It’s a bit difficult to buy her and Kay Francis and daughter and mother, but both actresses are fun to watch in It’s a Date.
(Image via fanpix.net)
As charismatic as Durbin is, something I always notice when I watch her films is that her songs me incredibly sleepy. Her voice is undeniably beautiful, but something about it just makes me want to tumble down into snoozetown. Perhaps it’s too pretty, too relaxing to listen to compared to what I usually assault my ears with. I came close to nodding off a few times during the musical numbers. (Mind you, I did watch the film after a long day of coursework, so perhaps Durbin’s voice can’t take all of the blame.) The film is peppered with quite a few songs and they’re all nice to listen to, despite my own tendency to doze.
I expected more dramatic flair and sass from the story here, since Pamela and her mother are facing off both in their careers and in their personal lives. Still, It’s a Date is a decent watch. The cast is full of talented folks and they make the film worth watching for the purpose of light entertainment. The score: 3.5/5
April 29, 2014 Lindsey"New to Me" Reviews1940, 1940s, 3 to 3.9 rating, classic film, deanna durbin, film, it's a date, musical, old hollywood, review
3 thoughts on “It’s a Date (1940)”
I’ve seen a handful of Deanna Durbin films, and have liked her all of them, but I can’t remember if ‘It’s a Date’ was one of those few I’ve seen (if it is, I saw it years ago, back when AMC was cool, and remember nothing about it). I did like ‘Lady on a Train’, though…less music, more noir!
I haven’t seen that one, I’ll have to add it to my watch list!
Nancy Goes to Rio (1950) | the motion pictures
[…] the end of April I reviewed It’s a Date, a 1940 film about a mother and daughter (Kay Francis and Deanna Durbin) fighting for the same […]
Previous Post Mill Creek Musings: Sunny (1941)
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Nintendo’s Switch just outsold the GameCube
by Rachel Kaser — in Gaming
The growth of the Nintendo Switch has been nothing short of meteoric, easily surpassing those of the disappointing Wii U within months. Now, according to a new report from Nintendo, the Switch’s lifetime sales just surpassed those of the GameCube.
The Switch’s lifetime sales, as of this writing, have reached over 22 million units, which surpasses not only the Wii U’s 13.6 million units, but the GameCube’s 21.7 million units. For reference, the next most successful Nintendo console was the Nintendo 64 at 33 million units and the most successful (in non-handhelds) is the Wii at 101 million units.
This is significant not so much just because sales keep climbing — I could have told you that would eventually happen — but because of the differences between the Switch and the GameCube that highlight how Nintendo has changed and adapted to the changing market.
We’ve pointed it out before, but the Switch hasn’t exactly put a lot of work into exclusive games. Yeah, it’s got a few killer titles — Super Mario Odyssey, Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart. But for the most part, when you hear news about Switch games, it’s a port of another game, such as Dark Souls, LIMBO, or most recently ARK: Survival Evolved. And every time, the unspoken implication is that Nintendo is to be commended for allowing outside games into its library, as that hasn’t always been the case.
With the GameCube, for example, the games I remember the most from that console are the likes of Twilight Princess, or Mario Sunshine, or Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Of course there were popular non-Nintendo titles made for the GameCube — hello, Resident Evil franchise — but the most popular games for the console were almost invariably first-party.
So it’s a bit of a surprise to see Nintendo put such an emphasis porting third-party games — and even more so because that appears to be working for them. The Switch’s sales figures don’t appear to be plateauing at the moment, though admittedly the console will have to do some pretty frantic holiday sales if it wants to meet its projected yearly goal.
In the meantime, Nintendo is holding a Direct later this week to show off new details about the upcoming Super Smash Bros Ultimate. If any first-party Nintendo title in the world were to boost the Switch into Wii-like numbers, I think it’d be that one.
Nintendo Switch sales top 22.86 million, overtaking the GameCube on VG247
Read next: Social media mobs are worse for society than the people they shame
DistractNintendo
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Avoiding Violent Images for an Anti-Poaching Campaign
February 21, 2013 · by Areva
DISTURBING online videos document the illegal killing and trade of wildlife, including film of poachers who shoot elephants with AK-47 assault rifles to take only their tusks, and poachers who shoot rhinoceroses with tranquilizer guns and remove their horns with chain saws.
But the World Wildlife Fund, whose causes include fighting the illicit killing and trade of wild animals, does not dwell on such imagery. A new public service campaign by the group, for example, features a print ad that shows a majestic elephant in profile, its trunk curled into an ampersand above its tusks. “I am not a trinket,” says the headline.
“Tens of thousands of elephants are killed every year for their ivory tusks, which are made into everything from knickknacks to souvenirs,” the ad continues. “Find out what you can do to stop wildlife crime.”
Another print ad features a photo of a healthy rhinoceros over the headline, “I am not medicine.” It continues, “At least one rhino is killed every day due to the mistaken belief that rhino horn can cure cancer and hangovers.”
An ad featuring a tiger declares, “I am not a rug.” Another, with a marine turtle: “I am not a souvenir.”
The tagline on all of the ads reads, “Stop wildlife crime — it’s dead serious.”
The campaign, which includes ads for areas like airports, buses and bus shelters, was produced internally. Distribution is by the PlowShare Group.
Terry Macko, the senior vice president for communications and marketing for the World Wildlife Fund in the United States, said the latest campaign followed the organization’s tradition of showing “charismatic megafauna” in peak form rather than imperiled.
“Individuals are really turned off by graphic images and we don’t need to show gratuitous violence to really show what is happening to species around the world,” Mr. Macko said.
“We look for our advertising and marketing to be inspirational, and we think that is best done when we show the promise of the future and what we aim to protect.”
The campaign was introduced on a limited basis in September online and in Washington, with the ads on buses, in bus shelters and at both Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan National Airport. While the effort aims to raise awareness with the public, in Washington it also was directed at policy makers in Congress and the State Department.
The ads, which rely on donated placement from media outlets and outdoor advertising companies, also began to appear in October in cities including St. Louis, Los Angeles and Tampa, but the advocacy group said that its biggest effort to get ads placed was under way now.
The World Wildlife Fund is particularly eager to promote the campaign in advance of theConvention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary in March in Bangkok.
That same month, the campaign will begin appearing in airports in eight cities, including Las Vegas and Atlanta, and on about 1,500 billboards across the country. When Major League Baseball season opens in the spring, five teams will include the public service announcements in their programs, including the New York Mets, Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers.
The organization reports receiving about $50 million in free advertising each year.
The fund estimates the value of illegal wildlife trade to be about $10 billion annually, and it reports that rhino poaching in South Africa increased 3,000 percent between 2007 and 2011.
In 2011, 26.4 tons of ivory was seized around the world — the equivalent of tusks from about 2,760 elephants — the highest since an international ban on commercial ivory trading was instituted in 1989, according to Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network.
In July, owners of two jewelry stores in Manhattan pleaded guilty to selling illegal ivory goods valued at more than $2 million. And in September, a father and son in Los Angeles pleaded guilty to the illegal trafficking of rhino horns from the United States to Asia, horns that were antiques, often removed from old, mounted trophies, which are not illegal unless they are transported across state lines or out of the country.
The World Wildlife Fund began in Morges, Switzerland, in 1961, and the second national office formed in the United States that same year. Its familiar panda logo was introduced at the time, modeled after a popular panda at the London Zoo, Chi Chi.
Today the group operates in more than 100 countries; the American group alone claims 1.25 million members.
Its spending on lobbying, which surged to $1.6 million in 2009, has dropped steadily since, totaling $162,465 in 2012, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
While the anti-poaching campaign will stretch over the next year, a weeklong publicity initiative promoted by Leonardo DiCaprio, a World Wildlife Fund board member, began on Monday.
Supporters are being encouraged to share posters of a tiger, rhino and elephant with the words “Hands off my parts” on Facebook and Google Plus, and to send Twitter messages about illicit wildlife trade using the hashtag #HandsOffMyParts.
The broader anti-poaching campaign has also been promoted on Facebook, where the group has more than 651,000 followers.
The World Wildlife Fund has posted the ad with the elephant and the headline, “I am not a trinket,” on its Facebook page twice, and it was shared more than 2,200 times by users on their own Facebook pages.
This entry was posted in News and tagged Poaching, wildlife, World Wildlife Fund. Bookmark the permalink.
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Home / Art / Art Reference, History & Theory / What it Means to Write About Art
What it Means to Write About Art
Interviews with Art Critics
ISBN: 9781941701898 Category: Art Reference, History & Theory
The most comprehensive portrait of art criticism ever assembled, as told by the leading writers of our time.
In the last fifty years, art criticism has flourished as never before. Moving from niche to mainstream, it is now widely taught at universities, practiced in newspapers, magazines, and online, and has become the subject of debate by readers, writers, and artists worldwide. Equal parts oral history and analysis of craft, What it Means to Write About Art
offers an unprecedented overview of American art writing. These thirty in-depth conversations chart the role of the critic as it has evolved from the 1960s to today, providing an invaluable resource for aspiring artists and writers alike.
Jarrett Earnest’s wide-ranging conversations with critics, historians, journalists, novelists, poets, and theorists-each of whom approach the subject from unique positions-illustrate different ways of writing, thinking, and looking at art.
Interviews with: Hilton Als, John Ashbery, Bill Berkson, Yve-Alain Bois, Huey Copeland, Holland Cotter, Douglas Crimp, Darby English, Hal Foster, Michael Fried, Thyrza Nichols Goodeve, Dave Hickey, Siri Hustvedt, Kellie Jones, Chris Kraus, Rosalind Krauss, Lucy Lippard, Fred Moten, Eileen Myles, Molly Nesbit, Jed Perl, Barbara Rose, Jerry Saltz, Peter Schjeldahl, Barry Schwabsky, Paul Chaat Smith, Roberta Smith, Lynne Tillman, Michele Wallace, and John Yau
Edited by Jarrett Earnest
Art of the Northern Renaissance
Kuniyoshi X Kunisada
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India's WhatsApp? WeChat? Snapchat?
Venkat Ananth, 2 Dec 2016
Hike, the messenger app, is India’s latest unicorn, valued at $1.4 billion after their latest round of funding in August ’16. The company, which began operations in 2011, currently boasts a registered user base of 100 million, making it the second largest messenger app after WhatsApp in India.
Hike Ltd
Name as per MCA records
Kevin Bharti Mittal
Bharti Softbank
What has Hike been up to, the last year?
It’s been a rather eventful year. In January, Hike announced that it had crossed the 100 million registered users mark. But one that needs to be tempered with a generous pinch of scepticism in that the company hasn’t released its monthly active users metric which is a more meaningful way to track user engagement for a messaging app. For instance, WhatsApp recently announced that it had 160 million monthly active users in India, making the country the biggest market for the Facebook-owned entity. Competing with a behemoth like WhatsApp which is almost omnipresent in India is indeed a formidable challenge for any startup but it is a battle worth fighting. According to a recent report by eMarketer, India is the second-largest market for messaging apps and is the fastest growing market for mobile messaging apps globally, with the chat app user base expected to grow by more than 24% this year and top 133 million.
Aided by a marquee set of global investors who aren’t chary of opening their purse strings and the formidable bulwark of India’s largest telco in its corner, Hike seems to be making the right moves to take on WhatsApp. Rather than fight head-on, Hike has been targeting millennials by pushing features such as India-specific stickers and animations (borrowing a leaf from WeChat) and more granular privacy controls (“chat without letting your parents or other busybodies know”).
In keeping with this hip, edgy brand positioning, Hike moved to a swanky new office in Aerocity, New Delhi last year – a place Hike executives refer to as the ‘Temple of Excellence’. Following its latest round, Hike seeks to build a messenger-driven service ecosystem (also known as the Swiss Army knife) on the lines of Tencent’s WeChat and Facebook’s Messenger app. It also recently released a product makeover bringing in features “borrowed” from Snapchat – stories and live filters. Presumably, somewhere within this motley mix of WhatsApp, WeChat and Snapchat, lies Hike’s eventual destiny.
Rs 42.3 lakh – Hike has never made money from operations. That, however, changed this year. It earned Rs 42.3 lakh from operations as of March 2016 — income from gaming and coupons. The discount coupons it introduced in November ‘15 (around Diwali) turned out to somewhat of a hit, taking in Rs 42.2 lakh. It is moot whether this is a good or bad thing as future prospective investors might now demand to see performance rather than promise/potential.
Rs 217 crore – Hike’s losses as of March 2016, up from Rs 122.3 crore in the previous year.
Rs 129.9 crore – The amount Hike spent on marketing as of March 2016. The company’s marketing spend is nearly twice as what it did in the previous year, Rs 66.7 crore.
Rs 18.2 crore – Hike Managing Director and CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal’s annual remuneration as of March 2016. *
16 – Number of Hike employees who earned an annual salary of more than Rs 1 crore. Think about it like this. Even if Hike’s operating revenue grows 100X, from Rs 42 lakhs today, it will not be enough to cover the salaries of the number of people drawing more than Rs 1 crore per annum at Hike.
Rs 94.6 crore – Accumulated losses (as of March 2016) of two companies – Mobinteco Ltd and Y2CF Digital Media Limited. Both were merged into Hike earlier this year
Rs 34 crore – This is the profit the company earned from sale of investment as of March 2016. This income has been shown as part of total revenue.
Rs 1.93 crore – The cost incurred by Hike for SMS and Activation. Also, related party transaction between Hike and Bharti Airtel.
In partnership with Tofler
* Correction: This copy has been changed at 5:30 PM on 2 December to correct an error. The copy earlier stated that Anuj Jain is the second highest paid executive at Hike with a salary of Rs 10 crore. That is incorrect. Anuj Jain’s remuneration is Rs 1 crore. The error is regretted.
Venkat is currently in his tenth year in journalism. Prior to The Ken, he was Deputy Content Editor at Mint as part of the newspaper’s digital team. He also wrote in-depth features on the business of sport for the newspaper. His earlier assignments include Yahoo! (as a columnist) and the Hindustan Times, where he began his career. Born in Mumbai, Venkat holds a Bachelor of Mass Media (Journalism) degree from SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mumbai and a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from Goldsmiths, University of London. He currently resides in New Delhi, where he moved nearly five years ago.
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Bruno Massel from Garage Squad: Wiki, Wife, Age, Net Worth, Crash, Family, Height
By gerrardhayley April 11, 2020 Sportsperson, TV Personality 0 Comments
When it comes to automobiles, our needs are forever changing. Everyone has their ideal vision when it comes to a perfect car. For some speed takes precedence, for some it’s the design, and not everyone agrees with what the other wants. But one thing is certain, everyone wants an upgrade to the car they have. And while many times these upgrades just stay as wants, there are times when they are realized. The cast of Garage squad focuses on turning your project cars into reality. Centered around Chicago, the custom car garage is more than equipped to turn common cars into the kind of beast you want. The garage also has a reality series centered around it entitled, Garage Squad. In this article, we take a closer look at the host of Garage Squad, Bruno Massel.
Bruno Massel was born on the 23rd of May 1974 in Elmhurst, Illinois. The only male child of the family, Bruno was raised by his parents, Bruno Massel Senior and Roz C. Massel, alongside his three sisters, Debi, Jackie, and Suzy. Bruno senior was a drag racer who won several competitions during his time in the sport. From a young age, Bruno was fascinated by cars and wanted to be a professional race driver. Growing up, he attended the York High School in Elmhurst before moving onto the University of Iowa. He graduated in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing.
Garage Squad cast, Bruno Massel
Professional Career and Net Worth:
After graduating from University, Bruno tried to study law but quit shortly after. He then started working as a model for the Ford Company. During his time at Ford, Bruno traveled all-around the world. After his dad had to undergo surgery, Bruno decided to take his place in Drag Racing. His first race was in the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) national tour. He drove his father’s Top Dragster car for the race. For the next 10 years, Bruno continued to drive but switched from the IHRA to the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA). He also managed to win NHRA World Championship two times.
When Bruno was first starting as a racer, he also tried his hands on TV. His first appearance was as a TV commentator for the “TNN” and “SPEED” racing shows. Since then, he was regularly invited to shows on the ESPN and Discovery Channel.
Racer Bruno Massel’s winning moment
Bruno never hanged up the steering and is heavily involved in drag racing, even today. He is also a regular part of the reality series, Garage Squad. He has been hosting the series ever since the first episode. From his endeavors, Bruno makes quite a lot. His total net worth is estimated to be around 6 million dollars.
Car crash:
In 2010, Bruno was involved in a car crash shortly after winning a race. As the race was already over, he was driving slow. And even though his car received heavy damage, Bruno was lucky to escape with a concussion.
Bruno is currently married to his high-school sweetheart, Dayna Purgatorio Massel. The pair met in high-school and dated for around 10 years before tying the knot. They got married in a private ceremony on the 28th of December 2002. The pair are parents to two boys and are enjoying happy family life.
Bruno Massel with his wife(Dayna Purgatorio Massel) and Children
Jonathan Coachman (WWE) net worth, wife, kids, career facts, bio.
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Parker Schnabel breakup with his girlfriend Ashley Youle. What happened between the couple.
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LVMH’s Ian Rogers on viewing ‘digital’ as oxygen, focusing on ‘internet’ as culture
The Business of Fashion’s Imran Amed interviewing LVMH’s Ian Rogers during #BoFVoices (Image: BoF)
The fashion industry has to get rid of digital as a silo and integrate it throughout its organisations, said Ian Rogers, chief digital officer at LVMH, during the Business of Fashion’s Voices conference this weekend.
“When you make sure [digital] is a part of communications, a part of retail… that’s when companies do well,” he explained. But more than that, he urged for everyone to actually stop calling it digital.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” he continued. Hailing from the music world where he was senior director at Apple Music and before that CEO of Beats Music, he added: “We didn’t talk about digital when we were at Apple, that’s like talking about oxygen; it’s everywhere.”
Instead, he suggested we use the word “internet” instead. “A lot of what’s happening right now… there’s a technological part that people are really scared of. This is not a technological revolution, it’s a cultural one. It’s about the internet, which is much more specific.”
The internet, he explained, has fundamentally changed culture, and changed humans in the process. “If you replace digital with the word internet, then you start talking about this thing that connects people. So you’re contextualising it properly. Or use the word innovation where you would have used digital. So how is the internet changing culture and how do we innovate to get to the next place?”
What’s great about that, is that fashion is, at its core, also a culture business, he noted. “We sell culture as a prerequisite to selling product. If you don’t buy into the culture of a brand, you’re not going to buy a €3,000 handbag.”
Since arriving at LVMH, Rogers said the main bulk of his work has been around “untangling knots” – presumably tied to the silos the group works in across its brands including Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Loewe, Céline, Givenchy and others. But he also spoke positively about the future of the industry based on this idea of digital or the internet, as a shift in culture. “The great thing for me, is that underneath [the knots at LVMH], there are still the same lessons that we learnt in music about how culture has changed.”
The positive side for the luxury business, he added, is that the disruption music felt when consumers shifted to digital, will be less impactful.
“[Luxury] doesn’t suffer from the same fundamental value loss as music, because you can’t put that product on a thumb drive and hand it to a friend. You have these products that are made traditionally and I think there is more value to handmade and craftsmanship than ever in a digital world.”
His shift to working for a luxury business lies in the fact he believes the industry is in a great position in terms of the way the world is going. “This is a super smart industry that understands culture better than any other,” he added.
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February 28, 2019 July 21, 2020 ~ Jessica Barratt
An interview with the Resident Medical Officer was requested and he willingly obliged. Dr Lancelot Hungerford’s response was printed in the newspaper on 19 February 1906. He reassured the reporter that the deaths were not connected to plague; one person had died from convulsions while the other had died from cervical cellulitis.
In his opinion, typhoid was considered to be a greater problem as Geraldton was not only dealing with its own cases but was also receiving cases from the goldfields. Nevertheless, Dr Hungerford stated that, “The public may rest well assured that when Geraldton is visited by plague they will at once know of it…“
Despite Dr Hungerford’s assurances, on the following day it was reported that Dr Alexander Thom had sent an urgent telegram at 1:30 am to Dr Ernest Black, President of the Central Board of Health in Perth. He declared that bubonic plague in Geraldton was “absolutely certain“. As there was no provision in the town for patients he requested that a “bacteriological [expert], prophylactic, nurses, special inspector, tent, disinfecting material and appliances” be sent up urgently via the next train.
Dr Thom’s telegram. Courtesy of the State Records Office of Western Australia (AU WA S268- cons1003; 1906/0473A; Geraldton – plague).
Several hours later Dr Black telegraphed back. It was “absolutely impossible” to send everything on that morning’s train but he promised that he would “arrange everything for next train…” In the meantime he recommended that they take action to isolate the premises and capture rats for examination.
The outbreak had occurred “in quick succession” at the boarding house (the home of the Kruger family) located behind Messrs. Gray & Co.’s shop on Marine Terrace as well as in the shop itself. There were three definite cases of bubonic plague: 22 year old Lily Getty (servant to Mrs Kruger), eight year old Marjory Bennett (Mrs Kruger’s daughter) and 58 year old Charles Gray (the owner).
Messrs. Gray & Co.’s shop circa 1893.
The revelation caused people to question the aforementioned deaths. John Butcher was well on 20 January 1906 and competed in a cricket match that day. Symptoms showed on the 21st and on the 24th he passed away at age 34.
Ernest Cream was 14 years old and worked at Messrs. Gray & Co.’s shop as a messenger boy. He too was in good health before suddenly falling ill on 15 February. He never recovered and three days later he passed away.
The first priority of Geraldton’s Local Board of Health was to warn the public. By 4 am on 20 February all the business people located on Marine Terrace received a circular advising that there was an outbreak of bubonic plague. It requested that they use “all possible means” to kill the rats on their premises as well as remove all rubbish. As an extra incentive, the Geraldton Council offered a six pence reward for every rat destroyed.
Following Dr Black’s advice, at 8 am the premises of Messrs. Gray & Co. was quarantined. Anyone who was inside was forbidden to leave. Yellow notices were then placed around the building warning that it was plague infested.
The warning posted on Messrs. Gray & Co.’s building.
Special constables were sworn in and placed on quarantine duty at the property. One was stationed by the front door and another stationed at the back. Along with preventing anyone from leaving the premises, they also warned pedestrians from going within 20 feet of the building line, a task that was apparently never ending.
Complaints were also made to the effect that street pedestrians frequently stopped on the footpath and leaned over the gate to Gray’s yard conversing with contacts.
Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919); 23 February 1906; Page 3.
A decision was made to set aside several areas to treat patients. Anyone who was in an infected area (referred to as contacts) was to be sent to the Quarantine Station near Point Moore. Those who were diagnosed with bubonic plague were to be placed in a specially constructed tent hospital on the Northern Cricketing Association’s cricket ground.
A map of Geraldton showing quarantined lots 69, 70 and 73 (top right). The Quarantine Station (Isolation Hospital) is visible bottom left. Courtesy of the State Records Office of Western Australia (AU WA S2168- cons5698 0666).
Having taken necessary action, the doctors and the Local Board of Health in Geraldton waited for their requests to be answered by the Central Board of Health. In the afternoon they received a telegram advising that Dr George Blackburne (the bacteriological expert) and Inspector Stevens would leave Perth on the following day via the morning train.
Telegrams and urgent requests (especially for nurses) continued. They remained unanswered. Clearly frustrated, Dr Thom sent another message just after 5:30 am on 21 February. He declared that Geraldton was “reeking with plague” and asked Dr Black what exactly he was doing to help them. When he eventually received a reply it was to state that he had not provided enough detail and that no action would be taken until word was received from Dr Blackburne and Inspector Stevens.
Geraldton meanwhile was in a state of panic. Residents approached the Geraldton Express to air their opinion that the Mayor should hold a public meeting for the express purpose of telling them all that he knew. They also wanted an answer to an important question: why had it taken so long to diagnose the illness as bubonic plague.
Those who had the option to leave began packing their bags. Hundreds of people from the Murchison goldfields (including a group of children from the Fresh Air League) were in Geraldton enjoying a summer holiday. Upon hearing about the outbreak they immediately cut it short and returned home.
The utmost uneasiness prevails among the residents of Geraldton, and a large number of visitors from the fields and elsewhere have left the town. The children from the Murchison, who have been here for a change of air, returned this morning.
Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919); 21 February 1906; Page 2; Bubonic Plague in Geraldton
Adding to the fear, in the afternoon of the 21st it was confirmed that 22 year old Thomas Allen (an employee of baker, John Cantelo) was diagnosed with bubonic plague. Thomas remained in his home on Marine Terrace (opposite Messrs. Gray & Co.) and both his home and the bakery were quarantined. While it was reported in the press as being the fourth case in town, it was in fact the fifth.
Donald Hume was left out of early newspaper reports and even official documents. He too was 22 years old and had arrived in Geraldton on 8 February after having left New South Wales to join his family. The first symptoms of the disease showed up on the 18th but weren’t obvious enough to warrant concern. Thus, he wasn’t confirmed as having bubonic plague until much later.
Initially the four patients (not including Donald) were reported as having “mild attacks” and while there were moments where their conditions improved, over time they worsened considerably. Charles Gray was one of the worst and such was the despair for his health that the local authorities began constructing a funeral pyre in the cemetery before he had even passed away. Not everyone agreed with taking such preparatory action.
It seems nothing less than a supremely callous act to prepare beforehand the revolting paraphernalia incident to such a shocking death, hours before a corpse is available; and, further, to assume, offhand, long before dissolution, that hope is dead, medical skill a mockery, and Heaven itself powerless to interfere, even at the eleventh hour, between the bubonic fiend and his prey.
Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919); 2 March 1906; Page 2; Capricious Carpings
At 1:15 am on Thursday, 22 February Dr Blackburne and Inspector Stevens finally arrived at Geraldton Train Station. They were met by two local Councillors and the Town Clerk. It was arranged that Dr Blackburne would see Dr Thom at 8:30 that morning. Inspector Stevens would carry out a preliminary examination of the plague premises between 6 am and 8 am and then meet with the Local Board of Health at 8:30 am.
When Inspector Stevens examined the premises he found all the patients within their homes. Lily Getty and Marjory Bennett were in separate rooms upstairs in the boarding house and were being cared for by Mr and Mrs Kruger, both of whom had no nursing experience. Charles Gray was in a room upstairs above his shop. He was being cared for by his manager, William Moore, who also had no experience. Thomas Allen was at home and had no one to attend to him. He was eventually moved to a shed on Gray’s property and Charles Fairbeard (who had experience as a nursing orderly in India) was employed to attend to them both.
As part of his duties, Inspector Stevens also looked into the possibility of relocating the patients. He found that the tent hospital was still in the process of being organised and there were no other suitable premises in town to use as a temporary hospital. With the patients far too sick to be moved, a decision was made to keep them where they were. The original plan for the contacts however went ahead. Repairs had been made to the Quarantine Station and, upon completion, all the contacts were removed from their homes and isolated at Point Moore.
Telegraphing to the Central Board of Health on the morning of his arrival, Inspector Stevens ended with a rather grim assessment of the situation.
Gray’s case serious. Dr Blackburne not yet completed diagnosis, will post full particulars tonight. Nurses unobtainable, temporary hospital accommodation, unprocurable, quarantine premises unsuitable for patients.
Central Board of Health; S268 – Files – General; AU WA S268- cons1003; 1906/0473A; Geraldton – plague.
In a letter written on the same day he stated:
There is no mistake about the intensity of the scare…
While earlier telegrams sent by Geraldton’s Local Board of Health to Dr Black were deemed “hysterical” and lacking in detail, those sent by Inspector Stevens were immediately believed. The words punctured through Dr Black’s bias and the enormity of the situation finally sunk in. He took decisive action and hired Nurses Kenny and Lawrence who were sent on the express train to Geraldton. He also sent two serum syringes and ordered a supply of Yersin’s Serum (used to treat bubonic plague) from Brisbane. It was all a little too late. A writer for the Geraldton Express was understandably angry at both Dr Black’s response (or lack thereof) and the fact that the Local Board had to wait for instructions from Perth.
The arrival of Dr Blackburne sadly did nothing to help those who were already sick. At about 9:30 pm on the 22nd Marjory Bennett passed away. Preventing the spread of the disease was high priority. Her body was removed from the premises at midnight and taken to the Roman Catholic section of Geraldton’s new cemetery. Using york gum and kerosene, she was cremated at about 2:30 am on the 23rd. It was noted in the Geraldton Express to have been “the first, though alas, not the last, cremation in Geraldton“.
Not long after Marjory’s cremation, Charles Gray passed away at 3 am. As he was in a room that was not easily accessible, his body was placed in a coffin and the old tackle and pulley system located outside his shop (once used to haul produce) was utilised to remove him from the premises.
I never saw the door open, nor the tackle used until I was about 20, when I worked nearby in the stationers shop. One day I saw the door open, and gazing horror-stricken, a coffin lowered down. The last time the tackle was used was to bring down Henry [Charles] Gray when he died of bubonic plague.
Memories of Champion Bay or Old Geraldton; Constance Norris; 1950; Page 9.
Despite the deaths of two of the four patients, plans continued with the erection of the tent hospital on the cricket ground. The nurses from Perth also arrived at 9 am on 23 February and they started work that evening.
To help protect the rest of the town, Dr Blackburne set himself up at the Geraldton Council Chambers and twice daily inoculated residents with prophylactic serum. He took special care to inoculate contacts and people who were living or working on the ocean side of Marine Terrace, which he considered to be the “infected or dangerous” area. He also distributed notices to residents advising that they could voluntarily receive the injection. Eager to take any possible precaution, people anxiously besieged the Chambers and men had to be positioned by the doors to “check the rush of persons desirous of being inoculated.” In two days Dr Blackburne and Dr Thom inoculated 555 people. That figure would later rise to 1,500 people – half the town’s population.
Valerie Eaton was a child at the time and in 1981 she recalled how children of all ages (every class at her school) went down to the Chambers in batches of 20 to receive the inoculation.
When I was at school here, the bubonic plague, and we all…the different classes, when it reached plague proportion, every class had to go down to the Council Chambers to have this needle…
Transcript of the interview with Valerie Cook [sound recording]; Interviewed by Ronda Jamieson; 1981; Call Number: OH433.
The afternoon of the 23rd saw some positive news when the Central Board of Health gave the all clear for the Local Board to release the contacts quarantined at Point Moore. Any hope of the disease abating was later abandoned. 29 year old Walter Bradley was working as a baker’s carter for John Cantelo when he developed a “sudden severe illness“. His home on Augustus Street was quarantined and he remained there to be cared for by his wife and the nurses. After observation Dr Blackburne diagnosed him with septicemic plague.
Two days later Lily Getty and Thomas Allen succumbed to the disease. Thomas died at about 12 am on the 25th and Lily died an hour afterwards. Their bodies were removed from the property mid-morning and were cremated in the cemetery at around the same time.
If we saw a piled lorry of wood with a case of kerosene on top come out of the council yard we knew another patient had died.
Memories of Champion Bay or Old Geraldton; Constance Norris; 1950; Page 47.
From the moment he arrived Inspector Stevens took on the task of cleaning and disinfecting the premises where plague had occurred. He began with Cantelo’s bakery (which was later condemned) and after the deaths of Thomas and Lily, he moved on to Gray’s buildings. Every room and wall was thoroughly cleaned from top to bottom. The shop proved to be the most difficult due to all the products on display. Each item was nevertheless wiped over with a cloth soaked in disinfectant.
Every household was further encouraged to do their own cleaning and disinfecting. The Local Board of Health received a supply of chloride of lime from the Central Board and they offered quantities of the disinfectant free of charge to people who wished to use it.
By the 26 February Donald Hume had been sick for eight days and had only just started to show obvious symptoms of bubonic plague. When Dr Blackburne visited him it was much too late. Donald died at his home on Fitzgerald Street at 1:30 am. His remains were cremated an hour later.
The condition was not typical and the case did not show suspicious symptoms till he had been ill 8 days so that it was not till then that he came under my observation (26.2) and he died the same day.
Walter Bradley was the only surviving plague patient. Over the course of a week his condition worsened and improved several times. Unlike the others, he had professional care for the duration of his illness which meant there was a higher chance of recovery.
In early March signs were positive and he was noted as looking cheerful and well and declaring, “plague isn’t going to kill him.” Hopes that he would recover were shattered at 4:30 am on 5 March. Walter’s death was the sixth official death from plague and the Geraldton Express reported somberly that the town held “the lamentable record of the whole world, as regards plague – 100 per cent, of deaths.“
To add to the depressing news, another diagnosis was confirmed. 53 year old Elizabeth Connery was the wife of one of the special constables who was employed on quarantine duty. Due to her husband’s proximity to the disease, she was inoculated on 26 February. While she still caught bubonic plague, it may have been the serum which resulted in the illness only being considered mild. She was the first patient to be removed to the tent hospital on the cricket ground.
By 8 March it was noted that the conditions in relation to the plague outbreak in Geraldton had “changed for the better.” Elizabeth’s health had greatly improved and there was no fear that she would succumb to the illness. Any contacts who were quarantined were released and the special constables were officially discharged from their duties. In Dr Blackburne’s opinion the town was, “…freed from the presence of the disease.“
As hope grew, thoughts of prevention were at the forefront of people’s minds. The Local Board of Health was hard at work and they put in place new measures to deal with sanitary conditions in town. From that point on there would be:
a bi-weekly rubbish service.
the provision of standard rubbish bins.
regular removal of house-slops from hotels, restaurants and noxious trade premises, and
a systematic supervision of the whole health area with regular reports from inspectors.
Geraldton once made clean, should always remain so, and become an attractive marine resort.
Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919); 9 March 1906; Page 2; Bubonic Plague
Although the town was believed to be free of plague, one more case was to arise. Mrs Ellen Morris (aged 27) was diagnosed on 10 March and was removed to the tent hospital that night. She had not been inoculated and though the illness was severe, Dr Blackburne was confident she would make a full recovery.
Elizabeth and Ellen were the last two people diagnosed with bubonic plague and, by mid-March, both women had recovered. The plague scare in Geraldton had finally ended.
While I’m sure there was a palpable sense of relief at being given the all-clear, the aftermath of the bubonic plague continued to be felt in other areas. Businesses had stagnated and tradespeople were suffering because of it. Hotels had a high vacancy rate and many bedrooms were shut up and locked. No one was eating meals at restaurants and the proprietors had noticed the obvious reduction in patrons. The whole town had become “partially paralysed“. The only thing that was noted to have seen an increase in activity was the amount of people making their Wills.
School attendance was also affected. Rather than sending their children to school and possibly risking exposure to the disease, parents decided to keep them home. The State School recorded a 33% drop in attendance.
Dr Blackburne (who was praised for his tireless work) returned to Perth on 23 March 1906, having spent over a month in Geraldton. At around the same time he wrote his report. In his opinion the outbreak started in the buildings belonging to Messrs. Gray & Co as well as in John Cantelo’s bakery. He could only speculate as to where the disease had originally come from.
It is of course impossible to say where the infection in this town came from originally, though most likely in some goods or unintentionally imported rats from Fremantle where the infection evidently constantly exists though only becoming obvious at intervals.
As the months went by relief gave way to indignation. On 23 June 1906 an illuminated address was presented to the Local Board of Health thanking them for all that they did during the outbreak. During the presentation, criticism was levelled at the Central Board of Health and in particular, Dr Black.
It was regrettable that, when the local board had taken the prompt step to wire to the Central Board at midnight, asking for the necessary requirements to cope with the disease, the Central Board did not respond to the call for assistance.
Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919); 25 June 1906; Page 3; The Late Plague.
The Illuminated Address. Courtesy of the State Library of Western Australia.
Four days later the Legislative Council sat in Parliament and John Drew added his voice to the criticism. He stated that he was going to move for the appointment of a Select Committee to look into the Central Board’s conduct. He believed the patients had died from neglect and, due to the Board’s inaction, had “…practically rotted to death.” That move was eventually made in sittings held on 8 August and was carried.
The inquiry was conducted and the report was presented before the Legislative Council on 25 September 1906. The first finding of the report was: “That the Central Board of Health failed to act with that promptitude which might have been reasonably expected when the Geraldton Local Board of Health reported the outbreak of plague, and sought succour.“
It was a bittersweet finding. The Local Board received vindication that the Central Board had failed to act in a prompt manner, however, by the time the report was presented, Dr Black had already been removed from his position and faced no other consequences.
No great change arose from the report itself but there is no doubt that the arrival of the bubonic plague in Geraldton played its own part in changing the town. Ten people contracted the disease; eight people died. The mortality rate was an extraordinarily high 80% and, as one newspaper noted, “Geraldton has had to bear the brunt of the storm.” In such a small town, when someone was sure to have known someone else affected, it was devastating.
The return to “normality” was slow. By October 1906 approximately 400 people who had left during the outbreak returned; an estimated 14% increase that only continued to rise as time went on and fear subsided.
In early 1907 nine year old Gladys Baston arrived in “very, very quiet” Geraldton with her family. They moved into an old two story house and opposite them were a row of shops, still shut up and abandoned because of the plague. She reflected on how it had affected the town in an interview conducted in 1977.
…people were scared you see. They had been closed because of the plague. They had left. Shut up. There was quite a scare for a while. There was one very big shop there it belonged to Mr Gray, Gray’s Store, and Mr Gray died of the plague at the store and I remember that was shut up for a quite awhile.
Interview with Gladys Griffin [sound recording]; Interviewed by Chris Jeffery; 1977; Call Number: OH200. Courtesy of the State Library of Western Australia.
Perhaps most importantly, the way the Local Board approached future health issues changed and became more definitive. Almost a year after the Geraldton plague, two vessels (originally from plague-stricken Sydney) arrived and were immediately ordered to “stand off“. Only upon inspection and receiving a tick of approval from Dr Hungerford were they permitted to enter the port. That action was taken independent of the Central Board of Health. Geraldton authorities had learnt a harsh lesson from that of 1906 and were no longer prepared to put the town or its people at risk again.
Courtesy of the State Records Office of Western Australia (AU WA A 34 Central Board of Health; S268 – Files – General; AU WA S268- cons1003; 1906/0473A; Geraldton – plague).
Interview with Valerie Cook [sound recording]; Interviewed by Ronda Jamieson; 1981; Call Number: OH433. Courtesy of the State Library of Western Australia.
Department of Lands & Surveys; Townsite Plans; Item 0666 – Geraldton Sheet 6 [Tally No. 504269]; AU WA S2168- cons5698 0666.
Courtesy of the State Records Office of Western Australia.
1906 ‘Advertising’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 19 February, p. 3. , viewed 06 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210728925
1906 ‘A SCARE AT GERALDTON.’, The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 – 1950), 20 February, p. 3. (THIRD EDITION), viewed 06 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article82678754
1906 ‘LATER NEWS.’, The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 – 1950), 20 February, p. 3. (THIRD EDITION), viewed 06 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article82678753
Views of Geraldton, West Australia, 1893; Courtesy of the State Library of Western Australia; Call Number: 2949B/2.
Memories of Champion Bay or Old Geraldton; Constance Norris; 1950; Pages 9 and 47. Courtesy of the State Library of Western Australia.
Public Health and Sanitation, Geraldton 1906: The Bubonic Plague; Philomena Wendt; 1970s; Call Number: PR8679/GER-HIS/11 – 0/s. Courtesy of the State Library of Western Australia.
1906 ‘BUBONIC PLAGUE IN GERALDTON.’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 21 February, p. 2. , viewed 07 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210725762
The State Records Offuce of Western Australia; Freemantle Outports Inwards Jul 1902 – 1915; Accession: 457; Item: 29; Roll: 170. Accessed via Ancestry.
1906 ‘DR. BLACK’S CALLOUSNESS.’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 23 February, p. 3. , viewed 17 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210727055
1906 ‘CAPRICIOUS CARPINGS’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 23 February, p. 3. , viewed 19 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210727078
1906 ‘BUBONIC PLAGUE.’, The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), 23 February, p. 5. , viewed 24 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25633128
1906 ‘CALLOCUS CONDUCT OF THE CENTRAL BOARD OF HEALTH.’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 23 February, p. 2. , viewed 24 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210727042
1906 ‘BUBONIC PLAGUE.’, The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), 24 February, p. 11. , viewed 27 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25633255
1906 ‘LOCAL BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING.’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 23 February, p. 3. , viewed 31 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210727070
1906 ‘PLAGUE ITEMS.’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 26 February, p. 3. , viewed 31 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210727193
1906 ‘THE PLAGUE OUTBREAK.’, The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), 1 March, p. 5. , viewed 31 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25633567
1906 ‘PLAGUE ITEMS.’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 5 March, p. 3. , viewed 31 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210726147
1906 ‘The Plague Outbreak.’, The Murchison Times and Day Dawn Gazette (Cue, WA : 1894 – 1925), 6 March, p. 2. , viewed 31 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article233409253
1906 ‘BUBONIC PLAGUE.’, The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), 6 March, p. 5. , viewed 31 Jan 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25633967
1906 ‘THE PLAGUE OUTBREAK.’, The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), 9 March, p. 5. , viewed 07 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25634244
1906 ‘BUBONIC PLAGUE.’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 9 March, p. 2. , viewed 07 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210728298
1906 ‘BUBONIC PLAGUE.’, The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), 13 March, p. 9. , viewed 07 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25634566
1906 ‘LOCAL AND GENERAL’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 23 March, p. 2. , viewed 07 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210731779
1906 ‘CAPRICIOUS CARPINGS’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 19 March, p. 3. , viewed 07 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210734418
1906 ‘LOCAL AND GENERAL.’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 19 March, p. 2. , viewed 07 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210734431
1906 ‘The Late Plague.’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 25 June, p. 3. , viewed 14 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210727753
1906 ‘NEWS AND NOTES.’, The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), 28 June, p. 6. , viewed 14 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25643214
1906 ‘PLAGUE AT GERALDTON.’, The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), 26 September, p. 2. , viewed 14 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25689485
1906 ‘Local News.’, Geraldton Guardian (WA : 1906 – 1928), 9 October, p. 4. , viewed 15 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66223347
1906 ‘No Title’, The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), 7 March, p. 6. , viewed 17 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25634110
1907 ‘BUBONIC PLAGUE.’, The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), 6 February, p. 7. , viewed 17 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25695606
Records, 1906-1908 [manuscript]; Geraldton (W.A.) Council; Call Number: ACC 2701A; Courtesy of the State Library of Western Australia.
1906 ‘SELECT COMMITTEE ON BUBONIC PLAGUE AT GERALDTON.’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 3 October, p. 4. , viewed 21 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210729218
1906 ‘SPRAINS AND BRUISES.’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 24 October, p. 4. , viewed 21 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210730552
1906 ‘SELECT COMMITTEE ON BUBONIC PLAGUE AT GERALDTON.’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 24 October, p. 4. , viewed 21 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210730558
1906 ‘SELECT COMMTEEIT ON BUBONIC PLAQUE AT GERALDTON.’, Geraldton Express (WA : 1906 – 1919), 26 October, p. 4. , viewed 21 Feb 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210726665
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4 thoughts on “Bubonic Plague in Geraldton”
flissie says:
I really enjoyed reading this very well researched story. Something I didn’t know about before. I can imagine how scared the townsfolk would be and how upset later when they realized their friends in the community had died due to lack of immediate response. Well done.
Thank you Flissie. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
https://thatmomentintime-crissouli.blogspot.com/2019/03/friday-fossicking-1st-march-2019.html
What a terrifying time… one I hadn’t heard about before either..
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Planning Climate Resilient Stormwater Infrastructure for a Growing Region
The northern Virginia region is among the most diverse regions in the United States and serves as a global gateway for the state of Virginia. As part of the National Capital Area, Northern Virginia is growing faster than 37 other states. The Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC) serves as a council of governments for 13 local governments and 2.4 million people across northern Virginia. There is a need in the region for actionable and comprehensive plans to advance climate, energy, and sustainability priorities.
The NVRC and its 13 members, in partnership with the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program, is working towards the development of a “Resiliency Roadmap” to help the region absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse events emanating from extreme weather events and climate-related hazards. Since November 2016, an NVRC-convened team comprised of technical and policy experts from the region’s governmental, commercial, academic and civil society sectors has met five times to assess place-based effects of climate change stressors on the natural and built environment. Among the core environmental stressors confronting the region, heavy precipitation events and the effects on stormwater infrastructure (especially within the context of capital improvement infrastructure planning) was identified as a key priority. Northern Virginia, however, lies between two regions (the northeast and southeast) highlighted the in the National Climate Assessment, each with its own climate projections.
NVRC seeks to partner with a local scientist to better understand regional vulnerability scenarios to flooding and runoff based on a comprehensive look at precipitation, population and land use/land change projections for the region. Data for past, current, and future projected rainfall patterns in the northern Virginia region will be integrated with population projections (and development plans, where available) to produce probability statements, scenarios, or GIS layers that can be used by city and county-level planners to help inform future needs for and demands on stormwater infrastructure while considering climate change and regional growth.
Corey Miles, Coastal Resources Program Manager, Northern Virginia Regional Commission
(Photo and biography coming soon!)
Dale Medearis, PhD is a senior environmental planner for the Northern Virginia Regional Commission. In that capacity, he co-leads the NVRC’s regional climate mitigation, energy and resiliency programs and manages NVRC’s international environmental partnerships. He helped co-launch the first formal climate and energy partnership between the 40 largest U.S. and European metropolitan regional councils, co-initiate the Transatlantic Climate Bridge, co-launch the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s “Cities and Climate” Network and co-develop the Transatlantic Urban Climate Dialogue with the Freie Universitaet of Berlin (Germany). Prior to working for NVRC, Dale spent approximately 20 years at the Office of International Affairs, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, as the program manager for western Europe and urban environmental programs. Dale has a Ph.D. in environmental design and planning from Virginia Tech University, an M.S. in Cartographic and Geographic Science from George Mason University, an M.G.A. in Government from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Redlands. He is a member of the board of the American Friends of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Gustavo Coelho is a PhD student in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering at George Mason University, specializing in water resources engineering. His research interests are associated to water resources management, mainly related to flooding mitigation strategies in urban and coastal areas aiming to improve resilience and adaptation. He has more than 8 years of experience in consulting projects related water resources and environmental engineering in Brazil and France.
Ishrat Jahan Dollan is a PhD student in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering at George Mason University, specializing in Water Resources Engineering. Her current research focuses on climate change impact on hydrological processes and developing tools to enhance community resilience to climate change and application of GIS and Remote Sensing to water resources. She has more than 2 years of experience in the field of sustainable management of surface water and groundwater resources at Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) in Bangladesh.
Celso Ferreira is an Assistant Professor in the Civil, Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering Department of George Mason University, specializing in water resources engineering. He is also an Associate Researcher at the USGS National Research Program. His current research interests are associated to water related extreme weather hazards and its impacts to civil engineering infrastructure. He has more than 10 years of experience working in consulting projects related to water resources, environmental and coastal engineering in the US and Brazil.
Paul Houser is a Professor in Geography and Geoinformation Science at George Mason University. He is an internationally recognized expert in local to global land surface-atmospheric remote sensing, in-situ observation and numerical simulation, development and application of hydrologic data assimilation methods, scientific integrity and policy, and global water and energy cycling. His current research focuses on integrating water cycle research across traditional disciplines in an end-to-end program that transitions theoretical research to academic/public education and real-world application, through partnerships with universities, government, and international agencies.
James Kinter is Director of the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA) at George Mason University where he directs basic and applied climate research conducted by the Center. Jim’s research includes studies of climate predictability on sub-seasonal and longer time scales, focusing on phenomena such as monsoons, El Niño and the Southern Oscillation, and modes of extratropical variability. He is also Professor and Chair in the department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences of the College of Science.
Viviana Maggioni is an Assistant Professor of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering. She is also a Visiting Research Associate at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center at the University of Maryland. Her research interests lie at the intersection of hydrometeorology and remote sensing. In particular, she is interested in the application of remote sensing techniques to estimate and monitor hydrological variables. She studies how to improve those retrieval techniques and to enhance estimates of their associated uncertainties. This work has direct applications in water resources management, weather and climate prediction, as well as agriculture and irrigation practices.
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About Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is a group of nine islands in the Caribbean with Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre being the two main islands, and an overseas department of the country-France. The first European to land in Guadeloupe was Christopher Columbus, in 1493. He named it Santa Maria de Guadalupe de Extremadura, after the Virgin Mary's image in a monastery in Guadalupe, Extremadura.
Guadeloupe covers a total area of 687 square miles, with 659 square miles being land. The capital city of Guadeloupe is Basse-Terre with a population of approximately 12,750, while its largest city Pointe-a-Pitre has a population of approximately 133,000.
Slavery was abolished in Guadeloupe in 1848. The currency used is the Euro, because the country is an overseas department of France. Guadeloupe's official language is French, but Creole is also common and is considered to be the second language of Guadeloupe.
There is an active volcano in Guadeloupe called La Soufriere, on the island Basse-Terre. Guadeloupe is susceptible to hurricanes because of its location. Hurricanes may occur any time from June through November and the most likely time is during September. Average air temperatures in coastal areas range from 22º to 30º C (72º to 86º F) and in inland areas, from 19º to 27º C (66º to 81º F).
Christopher Columbus discovered pineapples when he visited Guadeloupe and named it 'pina de Indias' which translates as 'pine cone of the Indies'. Guadeloupe’s agricultural industry produces eggplant, bananas, cocoa, gourds, sugar cane, pomegranates, and jackfruit.
There are several fun places to visit in Guadeloupe but the top rated ones include:
Guadeloupe National Park, Basse-Terre: It was designated a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, the park records more than one million visitors annually. It has about 100 species of orchids. There are other species such as the black woodpecker, pearly-eyed thrasher, and Lesser Antillean pewee. Another popular things to do in the park is the hike up the volcano
La Soufrière Hike, Basse-Terre: La Grande Soufrière is an active volcano, which has erupted eight times since 1660. Hikers can climb up the volcano. It is an approximately two-hour climb as long as the weather is clear.
La Pointe des Châteaux, Grande-Terre: A botanical path leads from the village to a vantage point among great black rocks, which gives a clear view to the islands of La Désirade, Petite-Terre, and Marie-Galante.
Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin Natural Reserve Boat Tour: Birders can spot species such as kingfishers, herons, pelicans, and frigate birds. You can visit the reserve on a guided boat tour, usually called the Blue Lagoon tour, which includes exploring the mangroves and the Moustique River.
Guadeloupe's famous dance 'biguine' is a Creole dance still performed in colorful costume. All Guadeloupe's islands has excellent opportunities for birding, photography, hiking, and water sports such as swimming, and scuba diving. Guadeloupe also hosts many colorful carnivals and festivals, including the five-day Mardi-Gras Carnival ending on Ash Wednesday.
School is compulsory from ages two to sixteen. Education is highly valued as a means of social mobility. The Université des Antilles-Guyane operates a campus in Guadeloupe.
Christianity is the dominant religion in the country, with Catholics being the majority. Protestant such as Evangelists, Adventists, and Baptists have competed with the Catholic Church for congregations. Many people still believe in the forces of good and evil, spirits and supernatural creatures with powers.
There are over 100 hotels in Guadeloupe to provide you with comfort when you come visiting.
Facts about Guadeloupe
Guadeloupian
Mobile network operators & Internet service providers in Guadeloupe
How do I travel out of Guadeloupe?
Get Visa from Guadeloupe
For Guadeloupians looking to travel out of the country. You can check out the list of destinations, how to Get Guadeloupe visa to those countries, Embassies in Guadeloupe and Visa Free Countries for Guadeloupian passport holders
Switzerland Visa
Croatia Visa
Common Questions Travellers Ask About Guadeloupe
What do Guadeloupeans eat?
Normal foods include manioc flour, root crops, breadfruit, avocado, green bananas, peas and beans, okra, curried meats, salted codfish, fish, and tropical fruits. The national dish of the country is Christophine: a very popular vegetable that is eaten as a salad or dish.
Colombo: curried chicken, goat or pork, with sauce made of coriander, cumin, black pepper, mustard, turmeric, ginger and chili.
What is the best time to visit Guadeloupe?
The best time to visit Guadeloupe is from December to May, when the weather is warm and dry. Although, pleasant temperatures last throughout the year, August and September's hurricane season can threaten your travel plans.
Do people in Guadeloupe speak English?
Guadeloupe's official language is French, but many Guadeloupeans speak Creole as well. There are some English-speakers at the resorts and other popular tourist areas.
Do you need a passport to travel to Guadeloupe?
For US citizens, If your stay is under 90 days, you do not need a visa to travel to Guadeloupe. Although, proof of onward or return travel may be required. While for other citizens, you will need a Visa to visit the country.
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PM Modi says 2014-29 period 'very important' for India
India's active caseload remains below 5% of total cases
Pak summons senior Indian diplomat over 'ceasefire violations'
NEW DELHI: Asserting that the 2014-29 period between the 16th to 18th Lok Sabha is "very important" for a young democracy like India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the last six years have been "historic" for the country's development and a lot remains to be done in the remaining period.
As the age of 16, 17 and 18 years is very important for the youth, so is the time between the 16th and the 18th Lok Sabha for a young nation like India, he said while digitally inaugurating 76 multi-storeyed flats in the national capital for Members of Parliament.
The 16th Lok Sabha (2014-19) has been historic for the country's progress, and the 17th Lok Sabha has already become a part of history due to a number of decisions it has taken, he said, referring to the passage of landmark legislations aimed at reforming farm and labour sectors besides abrogation of Article 370 and the citizenship law.
"I am confident the next Lok Sabha (2024-29) will also play a very important role in taking the country ahead in this new decade... There is so much for the country that we have to achieve. Be it 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' campaign, or economic targets or many other pledges like these, we have to achieve them during this period," he said to an audience of parliamentarians, including ministers and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
People of Jammu and Kashmir have also joined the mainstream of development, with many new laws coming into effect in the union territory for the first time, he said in a reference to the abrogation of Article 370, which had granted the erstwhile state a special status.
"It is our responsibility that when history evaluates different terms of Lok Sabha, this period is remembered as a golden chapter in the nation's development," Modi stated.
The second term of the Modi government is scheduled to end in 2024 when the next general election will be held.
The ruling BJP has already set its sight on the next Lok Sabha polls with its president J P Nadda set to undertake a 120-day nationwide tour to tone up the saffron party's organisational machinery with a focus on regions and seats where it had not done well in 2019.
In his speech, Modi referred to the GST rollout, enactment of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and a law proposing death sentence for those convicted of raping children as among the major achievements of his government's first term between 2014-19.
India now has resources and a strong resolve to fulfil the dreams of its 130 crore citizens and attain the goal of self-reliance, he said.
Asserting that the country's "new mindset and mood" is reflected in the composition of the 16th Lok Sabha, which had over 300 first-time MPs, and the current lower house, which has 260 MPs elected for the first time, the prime minister noted it has over 400 parliamentarians who are in their first or second terms.
The current Lok Sabha also has a record number of woman MPs, he said.
This is a reason why Parliament has been taking decisions quickly while also having more debate, he added, observing that the 16th Lok Sabha passed 15 per cent more bills and while the productivity of the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha was 135 per cent. Rajya Sabha's productivity was also 100 per cent, he added.
Parliament's performance is at its best in two decades, Modi said.
MPs have focussed on "product and process" as well be passing more bills and also debating more, he added, noting that they engaged in two-three hours of debates in passing more than 60 per cent of bills in the last Lok Sabha.
On this occasion, he also greeted Birla on his 58th birthday and lauded him for his focus on quality while also saving time in running the House.
This was also reflected in the building of these 76 flats for the MPs, the prime minister said, noting that the three residential towers have adhered to green technology.
The government said the construction of the flats has cost 14 per cent less than the projected expenditure and it was completed well in time despite the adverse circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These towers, which have come in place of eight 80-year-old bungalows, have been named after rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati.
Modi said the new flats for parliamentarians, who often had to wait long for getting a house in the national capital, is among the series of projects completed under his government after being kept pending for years and decades.
He referred to the completion of the Ambedkar International Centre, Central Information Commission building and War Memorial in this regard.
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English CurriculumAndrea Cooper2020-10-06T11:42:37+00:00
The English Curriculum
Subject aim
Our aim is develop an appreciation of and a love for language and literature amongst students. Students will be able to use both the spoken and written word accurately and influentially. In reading, they will be fluent and expressive; they will be able to appreciate the nuances and subtleties in language which influence us all. As well as reading for pleasure, their development of a critical approach to texts will be the foundation for forming their opinion of issues within the wider world. They will be able to engage with others empathetically and also use their skills for self-expression. Ultimately, their knowledge will empower them to shape their experience of the world, enabling you to articulate your views with accuracy, precision and conviction.
Details about the curriculum structure
Across all Key stages, development of the fundamental skills of Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, is integral to our teaching. The curriculum in Key Stage 3 is designed to prepare the students fully for the Language and Literature courses they will undertake in Key Stage 4 and 5. All lessons commence with 10 minutes of reading.
Students will develop coherence, fluency and accuracy through a range of writing tasks. They will read fiction and non-fiction texts and are encouraged to explore the craft of the writer. Our topics provide regular opportunities for spoken language activities and students are given the opportunity to communicate in a variety of styles, developing their literacy skills whilst being creative and imaginative. Key Stage 3 English is taught in Years 7-9, with students receiving 6 hours per fortnight in Year 7 and 8, and 7 hours per fortnight in Year 9.
Throughout Key Stage 4, students are taught GCSE Language and GCSE Literature as discrete courses. Each subject is taught over 5 hours per fortnight. Students continue to develop coherence, fluency and accuracy through a range of writing tasks. Students focus on producing writing for impact, and hone skills of drafting and editing. Both creative and non-fiction writing are equally valued and students practice writing in a range of forms, for different audiences and purposes. Students read a variety of texts and excerpts. Additionally, students study, in depth, the set texts for their Literature GCSE. Our units of work continue to provide regular opportunities for spoken language and communication in a variety of styles.
Students can opt to study A-levels in English Language and English Literature over 8 hours per fortnight. In English Language, students work to become independent analysts who are confident in both exploring the meaning created by others’ language choices and in manipulating language for their own purposes. Students engage with global language discourses and the emphasis is on critically exploring texts, learning about and challenging theorists’ viewpoints and reaching independent conclusions. In English Literature, students work to become independent and critical scholars. We believe that English Literature has been a powerful weapon for hundreds of years and throughout Years 12 and 13, students explore some of the voices it has created. This enables them to gain a different and deeper perspective of the world, write in an academic register and examine the debates surrounding texts and critical approaches.
What will students study?
Students begin with a unit on Greek Mythology designed to both develop their understanding of narrative and characterisation and their own storytelling skills. They will then explore Victorian fiction and non-fiction, including the work by Charles Dickens. The study of Oliver Twist acts a stimulus for creative and descriptive writing and the study of non-fiction texts enables students to develop their ability to write from different perspectives. Students explore the gothic genre with a focus on developing their own descriptive writing skills: the focus is on characterisation and setting, inspired by the writing of gothic masters such as Shelley, Stevenson and Stoker. Year 7 concludes with Shakespeare and students have the opportunity to take part in a production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Students will have regular class readers such as ‘The Graveyard Book’ by Neil Gaiman and ‘I Have No Secrets’ by Penny Joelson.
Students begin with an exploration of protest poetry from a diverse range of poets. All students have the opportunity to craft and perform their poetry. Students build on the concepts of diversity and protest through their study of protest prose. The study of legend and writing from different times allows students to deepen their understanding of language and ‘stories’ as a craft before they produce their own descriptive pieces and monologues. Students study ‘Blood Brothers’ and have the opportunity to think like a director before concluding the year with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Students will have regular class readers such as ‘Divergent’ by Veronica Roth and ‘Stone Cold’ by Robert Swindells.
Students begin by reading prose and poetry from around the world. This unit is designed to develop their analytical skills in exploring writers’ craft, but also to help them strengthen their understanding of Literature as a vehicle for understanding different experiences and perspectives. Students will also be introduced to the texts which will underpin their Literature GCSE: ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens, ‘DNA’ by Dennis Kelly, ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare and ‘Power and Conflict’ poetry which includes work by both pre and post 1914 poets. In Year 9 the emphasis is on plot, character and context, key knowledge which underpins the learning in subsequent years. Students will have regular class readers such as ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck, ‘Noughts and Crosses’ by Malorie Blackman and also increasingly read excerpts of thought provoking non-fiction texts.
English Language: Across Year 10 and Year 11, students engage with ideas which allow them access to historical, social and cultural discourses. In Year 10 we examine the craft of the writer by exploration of texts linked to mental health, natural disaster and science fiction. We use texts from different times including excerpts of novels, articles and tweets to examine and compare attitudes in these fields. Students create their own descriptive writing, including speeches, articles and essays.
English Literature: Throughout Years 10 and 11, the focus is on exploring, analysing and evaluating set texts. Language, form, structure, context and writer’s choices are integral to our approach. Each text is explored in context and students consider different audiences’ responses. Students begin Year 10 with a focus on poetry, we explore the ‘Power and Conflict’ cluster before moving on to unseen poetry and comparison skills. We then study ‘DNA’ by Dennis Kelly and ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare.
English Language: In Year 11 we continue to practice, refine and rehearse the structures the skills necessary to become an excellent reader and writer. We examine texts of different types, linked by the themes of travel, heroes & villains and social justice. Students continue to develop as writers of creative pieces using these texts as inspiration.
English Literature: Year 11 commences with ‘A Christmas Carol’ before returning to poetry and DNA.
Students begin the course with a detailed exploration of the ‘building blocks’ of language; they cement their linguistic knowledge and skills whilst exploring how language is used to represent themselves and others. Students go on to explore language diversity, with a focus on gender, social groups and occupation, as well as geographical diversity (accent & dialect). Students engage with academic research in these areas as well as articles from wider media sources which allow discussion of concepts such as ‘accentism’.
We begin the Year 12 English Literature course with an immersion in the tragic genre, examining its history and major proponents from Ancient Greece to the present day, through both drama and poetry. With the knowledge we acquire, we then examine Shakespeare’s play, King Lear, John Keats’ Selected Poems, and Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, through the lens of tragedy, using these texts as the source of our further interrogation of this ever-evolving genre.
English Language: Students focus on Child Language Acquisition and Language Change- both in the UK and globally. Throughout the course, students engage with wider discourses and deepen their appreciation of the power of language in society. The Non-examined assessment offers an opportunity for students to conduct their own language investigations and produce creative texts.
English Literature: The texts are examined as expressions of social and political protest. The Non-examined assessment essays provide students with the opportunity to examine a novel and a collection of poetry of their choosing from a number of critical perspectives, including from a feminist, Marxist, and eco-critical perspective.
Qualifications which we offer at KS4 and KS5 (including links)
GCSE English Language (AQA): All students
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/gcse/english-language-8700
GCSE English Literature (AQA): All students
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/gcse/english-literature-8702
A level English Language (AQA): A Key Stage 5 Option
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/as-and-a-level/english-language-7701-7702
A Level English Literature (AQA B): A Key Stage 5 Option
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/as-and-a-level/english-literature-b-7716-7717
Enrichment and extra-curricular opportunities in the subject
The English faculty provide a diverse range of enrichment opportunities for students to help contextualise and bring the curriculum to life. Periodically, students undertake Bronte lectures at KS4, which enables literature texts to be presented, discussed and collectively analysed. Opportunities for writing are fostered through a writing club and creative writing trips e.g. to York Dungeon. The faculty also undertake theatre trips, and invite guest speakers in e.g. Huddersfield University.
Where could English ultimately take you?
The study of English is excellent preparation for the workplace and Higher Education. It provides a skills base which will support you in a wide field of career options. In a fast paced society, the skills developed through the study of English are widely appreciated. A high proportion of students who choose English at a Higher level, will follow careers in law, marketing and public relations, education, event management, leisure, hospitality, tourism and administration.
Links to other sites which support study in this subject
www.gcsepod.com
www.mrbruff.com
Contact details to find out more about our curriculum
Leader of English: Mrs V Byrne: byrnev@tmhs.rklt.co.uk
Associate Subject Leader: Mr M Storey: storeym@tmhs.rklt.co.uk
Assistant Subject Leader: Mr A Rowley: rowleya@tmhs.rklt.co.uk
We expect excellent levels of attendance
and stress the importance of students
School Calendar (school events currently suspended due to COVID-19)
Remote Learning: Resources & Guides
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Doom Eternal – Review
Doom is powerful. It’s powerful because it’s all in large quantities. Tons of ammunition, demons everywhere, high decibels and an adrenaline rush always crossing the red line. Doom Eternal is as intense as I expected. In fact, the game has exceeded my expectations on several fronts. Let’s talk a little bit about them.
As far as the story is concerned, we know that’s not the strong point of the series. In Doom Eternal, we returned to Earth and found that it was once again the target of a demonic invasion. Yeah, again those guys… More of the same, but that doesn’t really matter.
Something that stands out from the start is the emphasis on the platform system. Now we can cling to some walls and cross large areas through structures suitable for this in the scenarios. In most cases, this type of situation appears in between the various combat arenas. These are moments of pure exploration where, many times, there are several types of items to catch with which we can improve Slayer, weapons, among other things. In fact, this system of platforms can often be used in combat, because the arenas are prepared for this. This gives a great dynamism when in battle, because it is mandatory to be always on the move.
Let’s talk about guns. Doom’s arsenal has always been robust and able to satisfy anyone. From the famous shotgun and classic BFG, through machine gun, rocket launcher, chainsaw, among many others, there’s a bit of everything. The arsenal becomes slowly available with the progress of the game, as well as various features of each weapon. Besides the normal way of acting, most of them still have two specific modes, where only one can be active at a time. It’s up to the player to figure out the best way to invest the points and make the most of his abilities. The offer is varied and if you explore all the places on the maps, you should have no problem getting most of the improvements.
With regards to Slayer’s improvements, these can have an impact on combat and exploration. It is possible to improve the speed and effectiveness of the melee attacks, the different grenades, the flamethrower present in the suit, among other aspects. Obviously it is also possible to increase our life, shield and amount of ammunition possible to carry. As a matter of fact, this last aspect was clearly noted in the first hours of the game, where I got the impression that I was almost always out of ammunition.
There isn’t much ammunition scattered around the map and the game almost forces us to kill enemies with the chainsaw for that purpose. Killing enemies with the chainsaw, makes them drop ammunition and armor. However, the game doesn’t let us use the chainsaw all the time, because fuel is also needed for it to work. Basically, the game forces us to be intelligent and effective when it comes to ammunition consumption and approach to combat.
Doom’s enemies are not exactly scary, but it is his way of acting in combat that caused me some panic at first. Each of them has a weakness, just like a weapon to which they are more vulnerable. With regards to that, the game gives some hints, but only when you defeat the enemy for the first time.
Although I played Doom Eternal in what is the weakest version in terms of visuals and performance, I couldn’t help but be amazed by the final result. The game always performed well and without major frame rate problems. In fact, I don’t really remember a moment when I felt the game giving in to the big amount of enemies on screen. As for the level design, there is a good variety. To be honest, some of them reminded me a little bit of Gears of War or The Outer Worlds sets, for their structures and colors. And who doesn’t remember the excellent soundtrack of Doom’s reboot? Yes, the same sound quality is present in Eternal and the intensity of it, injects us with the adrenaline necessary to annihilate everything that moves.
Before I talk a bit about the online, I just want to mention that now we have a hub in single-player mode. In between the campaign missions, we can walk around our house and unlock some improvements available there, as well as activate soundtracks of some of the company’s games. Of course, this needs to be unlocked during the missions, so it can be used later on back home. It’s a small addition, but it ends up providing that comfort zone that some games are already starting to offer.
Doom Eternal’s multiplayer has not been forgotten and the focus goes to Battlemode. It consists of a battle of 1 x 2 – Slayer x Demons. We can play with either side, where in the case of the demons, we have several at our disposal. The multiplayer has a tutorial to help you understand some of the mechanics, especially on the demon side. There are several details to take into account and it ends up explaining the various skills we can use, among which is the possibility of creating “smaller” enemies to serve as cannon fodder against Slayer.
The rounds are the best of five and in between each one, the game allows you to choose a skill to strengthen yourself and try to turn the rhythm of the game. If we play as Slayer, we have the whole arsenal at our disposal. However, in order to win a round, we have to eliminate both demons within a certain amount of time. This means that if you eliminate one of them, you have x seconds to try to eliminate the second one, otherwise he’ll spawn. In short, it’s a game mode that can last a long time. When it comes to server connections, I didn’t have any problems in the various matches I’ve played. Battlemode turns out to be a good surprise and can easily offer dozens of hours of fun.
I don’t have much to complain about Doom Eternal, but I want to mention one aspect I didn’t like. For the first two hours or so, the game was constantly introducing new mechanics. At one point, I felt a little lost with so many mechanics available at first, to the point where I began to question which button combinations did what and which would be the best time to use them. I’m not complaining about having too many functions, quite the contrary. I’m complaining about them being introduced one after the other and not giving you time to assimilate their features. I understand Doom means full-time action and the studio wanted to make everything available to the player as quickly as possible, but I also think it could have been done more gradually.
Doom Eternal is much more than just a sequel. The platform system has been improved, we have new weapons and a wide range of customization, as well as excellent combat arenas.The game is quite demanding but, at the same time, it pays off for the player who plays cleverly and doesn’t just press the trigger recklessly. With all this, I believe Doom Eternal is easily one of the best FPS of this generation. Excuse me, let me rectify this. Doom Eternal is easily one of the best FPS ever.
An arsenal for all tastes
Unstoppable and intense action
Visuals and level design
Battlemode is fun
Too many mechanics introduced in a short space of time
Genre: Action, FPS
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Xbox One and Google Stadia
Review copy provided by Ecoplay (Xbox One)
Publicado em EnglishMarcado Bethesda, Doom Eternal, id Software, review
Anterior Doom Eternal – Análise
Seguinte For The Warp – Mil e Uma Perguntas
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40 American Thigh-Shaking Facts About AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black’
AC/DC released one of the greatest albums in the history of rock on July 25, 1980.
Back in Black was not only a dynamic LP filled with such iconic hits as “Hells Bells,” “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution.” It was also an album of defiance: Many had expected the band to call it quits following the tragic death of former lead singer Bon Scott. Instead, the band rallied around their new voice, Brian Johnson, and crafted a masterpiece of guitar rock glory.
Of course, there were many steps that led AC/DC to releasing the defining album of their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame career. The effort required long nights in the studio, with the band hunkering down in the Bahamas to write and record.
“It was kind of a ‘go for broke’ for us,” Angus Young explained of the album during a 2014 interview with UCR. “Because we didn’t really know, would the people who knew AC/DC, would they love it? Would they accept Brian? Would they hate it?”
Of course, we all know now that Back in Black would go on to be celebrated by fans all over the world, becoming one of the best-selling LPs of all time. “It was a force of nature, that thing,” Johnson added. “It really was.”
Don’t believe him? Check out these 40 facts about the classic Back in Black.
You Think You Know AC/DC?
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“The arrow flies while you breathe,” Geddy Lee sings on “The Garden,” the tear-jerking orchestral-rock finale from Rush‘s 19th studio album, Clockwork Angels. “The hours tick away,” he adds. “The cells tick away.“
Back in 2012, that cinematic track closed only one story: the dystopian narrative that flows through the LP. Listening now, one year after Neil Peart‘s death from brain cancer, the words inevitably carry more weight — an almost prescient sense of finality, both for Rush and the drummer and lyricist himself.
“The Garden,” like the rest of Clockwork Angels, arose from Peart’s desire to create a “fictional world” with his words. The prog-rock trio had gone conceptual before on specific songs, including “2112” and the two-part “Cygnus X1,” but never across an entire album. And inspired by the futuristic “steampunk” style of his sci-fi novelist friend Kevin J. Anderson (who would later co-author a book expanding on this very project), he created a story set in a “world lit only by fire.”
“This ‘one of many possible worlds’ is driven by steam, intricate clockworks and alchemy,” Peart wrote in a Rush press biography. “That last element occurred to me because I was intrigued by Diane Ackerman’s use of a few alchemical symbols as chapter heads in [2004’s] An Alchemy of Mind. They seemed elegant, mysterious and powerful. Soon I learned about an entire set of runic hieroglyphs for elements and processes, and as with the tarot cards for Vapor Trails and the Hindu game of Leela for Snakes and Arrows, I became fascinated with an ancient tradition.”
Peart developed lyrical “chapters,” with symbols marking each character or mood. The hieroglyph for “Earth” represents “The Garden,” appearing at “11 o’clock” on the final album cover.
Although Clockwork Angels, like many Rush albums, thrives on rich, philosophical themes, the music is some of their most melodic and accessible. “The Garden” perfectly balances the band’s heady and hummable sides, stripping away virtuosity and bombast to showcase Peart’s lyric, Lee’s tender vocal and Alex Lifeson‘s restrained guitar work.
Listen to Rush’s ‘The Garden’
As Lifeson told Metal Express Radio, the song originally featured sampled strings. But he and Lee were the “catalysts” in recruiting veteran string arranger David Campbell, who added another layer of warmth to the finished piece.
The string session, which took place at Hollywood’s Ocean Way Recording in January 2012, was a sentimental high point for the band.
“I stood in the control room listening while the strings were being recorded,” Peart recalled in the bio. “It occurred to me that all songwriters should experience the sensual delight of hearing their songs performed by an accomplished string section. For example, when these virtuoso artists on violin, viola, cello and double-bass executed David’s plangent orchestration for ‘The Garden,’ there was not a dry eye in the studio.”
But the orchestrations — and every other instrument on “The Garden” — feel like a platform for Lee’s vocal, one of the most nakedly emotional of his career.
“For me, ‘The Garden’ was a major step forward as a songwriter and as a singer,” he reportedly recalled in a promotional interview from 2012. “I’ve always wanted to do that kind of song where the melody was the thing that made it connect with you, that gave it resonance, where the voice kind of comes out of the soundscape and delivers the story to you in a heartfelt way. To achieve that without it being schmaltzy or feeling forced, and with the music around the voice to be very relaxed, I think can only come from years of playing and from confidence.”
And Peart’s meditative poetry sparks that performance. He was always one of rock’s wisest lyricists, dwelling on Big Themes like adolescent angst (“Subdivisions”) and alienation brought from fame (“Limelight”). And “The Garden” ranks among his most direct and primal work — one final reflection on mortality and maximizing every moment.
“The measure of a life is a measure of love,” Lee sings. “So hard to earn, so easily burned / In the fullness of time / A garden to nurture and protect / It’s a measure of a life.”
Before his death, Peart quietly battled brain cancer for three and a half years — given that timeline, he clearly didn’t conceive “The Garden” as a literal goodbye. But for his fans, still searching for meaning amid the sadly meaningless, it serves as a symbolic one.
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Clint Worthington May 29, 2020 Interviews, More of a Comment Really, Podcasts, TV
Phil Rosenthal spreads joy with joyful spreads in “Somebody Feed Phil”
Welcome back to the Spool’s weekly interview podcast, More of a Comment, Really…, where editor-in-chief Clint Worthington talks to actors, filmmakers, composers and other figures from the realm of film and television.
You’ll hardly meet a more ebullient man than Phil Rosenthal. He’s got good reason to be happy: he’s a multiple Emmy winner for creating, writing, and producing Everybody Loves Raymond, he’s got a lovely family, and a Netflix show where he gets to run around the world trying new dishes and meeting new people.
Somebody Feed Phil returns for its third season this weekend, featuring another five stops on his never-ending tour to eat everything on the planet. From Seoul, South Korea to Marrakesh to Chicago, it’s a consistent delight to watch Rosenthal greet each new destination with a combination of wit, whimsy, and trepidation. Part of the joy of watching Phil go about his travels isn’t just experiencing the sights and bites he does, but watching Phil throw himself into these new experiences with a trepidatious enthusiasm. “I’m like Anthony Bourdain,” he told me once, describing his initial pitch of the show to Netflix, “but I’m afraid of everything.”
Granted, the world has changed quite a bit since the last time we saw Phil scarfing down exotic treats in far-flung locations. The COVID-19 pandemic has closed down much of the world, and the same restaurants and chefs he showcases are particularly hard-hit right now. (Click here to find places where you can donate to funds and tip jars helping Chicago restaurants and food workers in need.)
And yet, as Phil explains in our interview, that might be the best reason of all to watch: in a time when we can’t eat or go places, Phil can do it for us, and show us the world we can come back to once all the dust settles and we can return to some semblance of normal.
Together, Phil and I talk about his relationship with food, how the pandemic is affecting the way we eat and order meals, and what his trip to Chicago revealed about The Spool’s hometown.
(More of a Comment, Really… is a proud member of the Chicago Podcast Coop. Thanks to Overcast for sponsoring this episode!)
It’s a very weird time for this show to be coming out a food travel show in a time when we can’t eat out and we can’t travel. What have you been thinking about in terms of the timing of the season premiere?
PHIL ROSENTHAL: At first, I thought, “Oh, no.” Then I thought, I get a lot of DMs and very nice connections with people out there. It’s my favorite part, you know, of the whole thing, hearing from the people and then telling me — and showing me, even — that they go to the places we go on the show. That it even inspired them to go.
So I was getting these messages: “We can’t wait. We’re gonna travel vicariously through the show.” And I thought, “That’s nice.” But beyond that, I thought, why shouldn’t you keep planning for the future? Why not use the show, as you always have, to plan your next trip when this is over? Because it’s going to be over. We all know it’s going to be over. They’re already working on vaccines, you know, and as soon as they’re tested and available, and we know that they work, I think I’m gonna start traveling again, aren’t you?
We all can’t wait to live life. We just want to be nice and safe before we go out there. So I’m telling people, “Don’t watch the show with a melancholy attitude — ‘oh, look how the world used to be’.” By the way, the world used to be what I’m showing you in this past year. We finished filming season three and four in mid-January. So we got in just under the wire. Now these shows are there for you. And they’ll always be there. And you can always use them as a resource.
One of the concerns I have is obviously we’ll be able to travel again, restaurants and businesses and chefs, they’re really struggling right now. You had an interview somewhere where you were talking about the ways that you were supporting local businesses and restaurants and your philosophy for dealing with takeout and delivery during all this. What’s your approach?
ROSENTHAL: Well, this is a subject near and dear to me, obviously — the show wouldn’t be anything without these people. But also, my life wouldn’t be anything without these people. I don’t know about you, but I live in restaurants. That’s my social life. It’s where we go with friends. It’s where we go with family, where I go on my own. And when I get to the local coffee shop on our little Main Street Art town, it’s where I see the neighborhood. It’s where community is. Same with the diner. Same with the local Italian place. Same with the look. So these are the things I miss actually the most.
People are asking you, “Where will you go as soon as you can get out?” It’s actually the coffee shop and the diner, the thing that is part of our daily life. That’s what I want the most. Short of that, I know restaurants are struggling. So it’s my pleasure — and I mean this selfishly, even — to support them wholeheartedly. We’re living in a terrible time. But at the same time, it’s a golden age of takeout. Isn’t it? Where do you live?
I’m in Chicago, actually, so moving ahead to that episode, thank you for picking Pequod’s as the deep-dish pizza place to highlight, because that is the correct answer.
ROSENTHAL: I knew it had a certain artisanal quality, right? You know, the way the cheese crusts on the side and gets crispy like that. On my own, I visited Lou Malnati’s and I thought that was excellent, too. I like a lot of it. I love Pequod’s. I really did. But I can’t say that I didn’t love the others. I’ve had ’em all. I don’t subscribe to picking one.
You’re Switzerland on this.
ROSENTHAL: I’m more than Switzerland. I love them all. Here’s my one requirement: does it taste good? Why are we fighting? One is thin, one is thick! Would you rate, like, best sandwich? What exactly are we judging — a BLT? Are we judging a meatball here? These are different animals.
Another thing I loved and appreciated about the Chicago episode was that, in a lot of food travel shows that talk about Chicago, the North Side tends to be more represented. I love that you went down to the West and South sides. Chicago is a very segregated city, and you were able to open up the culinary eye to a lot of places that (white) people in Chicago don’t visit very often.
ROSENTHAL: I was thrilled to do that. I believe in doing that. I want as much diversity in the show as I can have, because that’s what makes life worth living. I celebrate it. I love it. It’s the good parts. Look at these people over here; I never met them. Maybe, you know, I was stupidly naive or afraid even to go. “Oh, well, you don’t go to that neighborhood.”
And then, of course, you go. I’m not saying go 2 in the morning. And I’m talking about LA and anywhere in the world. I don’t go in my very, very safe neighborhood at two in the morning. But in the middle of the day or dinnertime, everybody’s out, everybody’s having a good time. And I love the people that I meet. You could tell from the show how beautiful they were. How about Shawn Michelle’s, the ice cream place? Have you been there yet?
I haven’t, but I’m planning on making it one of my next stops once civilization reopens.
ROSENTHAL: It’s so good, and it’s so easy, and it’s so — it’s beyond. I just loved it. I loved everywhere we went. I think Chicago is the most handsome American city. I really do.
One of the lynchpins of why this show is so endearing is your infectious enthusiasm for food. I’ve always been interested in your history and background with food. Have you always been this enthusiastic about it? Have you always been able to try new things like your whole life? Or is this something you picked up?
ROSENTHAL: Well, where I grew up and in my house, and you know, my parents work, they both worked, and we didn’t have a lot of money and food just wasn’t the priority. The cuisine in the house was cheap; [we got] whatever piece of meat was the cheapest, and it was not cared for. My joke in the first series was in our house, meat was a punishment. Because it was gray and tough and, if you’re six years old, and you get a piece of meat like that, and you’re told you can’t leave the table until you finish, it really truly feels like you’re being punished in some way. Because it hurts! I would store it in my cheeks, excuse myself, and then go spit it out.
But to answer your question, because I didn’t have a lot of delicious food, the moment I did, my head exploded. The moment I had garlic — I think I was 18 in college before I had that flavor in my life.
Really? Not even in powder form?
ROSENTHAL: Wasn’t in the house. So I was having this well, kinda crappy pasta looking back on it, very cheap also. But I said, what are these little white bits chopped up? What is this flavor that is so fantastic? And they were like, “What, garlic?” I said “Yes!” Garlic. I never had garlic. I was living like an animal. Okay? It’s like in The Wizard of Oz when she opens the door and now the movie’s in color. That’s what flavor is! Exactly. Like in Ratatouille, when you see the colors expressed as he’s eating something — which is I go on record saying that’s the best food movie ever made.
One of the things that has always been very, very endearing about the first two seasons and this season, especially, are the Skype convos that you would have with your parents. Obviously, the dynamic is different this season because your mother was ailing at the time and has now since passed and my condolences to you…
ROSENTHAL: Thank you.
How different did that feel this time around, having that slice of home change a little bit?
ROSENTHAL: Well, obviously, when you lose a parent, it’s not easy for anybody, but I do accept life. You know, it’s not a tragedy when an 86-year-old person passes. It’s kind of okay, I guess, that’s what life is. You don’t like it, of course, but it’s not like now where people are dying before their time. This is a real tragedy, what’s happening now, because it could have been a little bit prevented. I’m not going to sit here and say that, you know, my mom’s passing away was a tragedy: of course it affected me, but it affects every human being on the earth. We all lose someone.
But I think what you’re getting at is, how different is it Skyping home with only Dad there? I’m very proud of him. I’m proud of all of us for adjusting. And I think if you since you’ve seen all the episodes, you see that he enjoys doing it. He’s got a joke. Every episode that’s a new thing. My wife is usually with him because she was actually there, helping take care of them while I was, you know, the happy idiot running around the world eating. So my wife is a saint. She’s in a couple of episodes also with me, but she is I think in every other episode with my dad, and that’s very sweet. And and they have a great relationship.
And my dad’s doing good. He’s since gone to a retirement village where he has friends. So that’s wonderful for him. Of course, it was like a month before the virus hit, so he has to stay in his room.
In addition to the Chicago episode, I really loved your London episode because it reunited you with perhaps the closest thing you have to nemeses on the show: the Happy Pear guys. They’re these beautiful foils for you, just this bundle of energy.
ROSENTHAL: You know why, you know? They tell you, it’s their whole lifestyle, it’s the exercise. Right? It’s really annoying. They say God gives with both hands, he gave with four hands on those two. My wife sees them in the show and says, “I don’t know why they’re not the poster for the show.”
I did see the poster for the show that has your head skewered on a sandwich.
ROSENTHAL: Yes, I think that was my wife’s idea. You know? “I’ve always wanted to put a pike through his head.”
“Can you do that for me, Netflix, can you please?”
ROSENTHAL: And Netflix was happy to oblige.
Speaking of spouses, my wife is obsessed with your new dog Murray on your Instagram.
ROSENTHAL: Murray is now the star. Murray has taken over. He’s not only the star on Instagram, but he’s also the star in our lives. We got him the day — literally the day — we went into lockdown. But I advise people during this time to not only watch my show and make your plans: rescue a puppy. Rescue a kitten. You’re never going to have this time again to bond with them. We’re already worried that, when this is over, the dog is going to be like “Wait a minute — you’re with me every minute, where are you going?”
How else have you been keeping busy during quarantine?
ROSENTHAL: I write things, I do some videos. Some are political, some are not. I try not to be overly political. I think the majority knows how I feel. And I feel like I’m in the majority. I don’t need to push it. The show is for everybody — the show is not taken as a political statement. Even though I embrace other cultures — why should that be a political statement?
It’s funny how in this time, something as simple as that has to become a charged thing.
ROSENTHAL: Yeah, who knew that caring for others would be like, “I’m sorry, that’s not right. I don’t do that.”
If you could give people one dish from season three to be able to try, what would it be?
ROSENTHAL: Have you been to Monteverde in Chicago? Did you see that dish that was the centerpiece? The lamb shank surrounded by sausage surrounded by pasta. I mean, it would feed eight people. I think I ate the whole thing. One of the most delicious dishes I’ve had anywhere. And I’ve been everywhere. I’m telling you, you have it in your backyard. I’m telling you.
Somebody Feed Phil Season 3 Trailer:
Posted in Interviews, More of a Comment Really, Podcasts, TV and tagged 2020, chef, chicago, cuisine, food, interview, netflix, phil rosenthal, podcast, reality, restaurant, travel, tv. Bookmark the permalink.
“Love Life” is light fluff that doesn’t offer enough new material
“Quiz” asks who wants to be a millionaire, and who will lie to get the prize
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Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda,Warner Bros. may be facing lawsuit for movie- Monster in Law
March 13, 2009 TheAuthor All Hottest & Latest Topics, In the NEWS, News 0
It has been reported that JLo, Jane Fonda, Warner Bros, and anyone else that were involved in making the movie, Monster in Law is being sued by a woman that claims that she wrote a screen play on a monstrous mother in law. Sheri Gilbert, the self proclaimed screenwriter believes that she is entitled to a piece of the $154 million dollars the movie made at box office back in 2005.
Who here actually believes that this woman wrote a screenplay and warner bros. stole it or who believes that this economy has her believing that this was her original idea because I don’t know if she just rented this movie on DVD because this is something that should have been handled back in 2005.
Let us know what you think…..
Idaho man is charged again for trying to spread HIV virus
Quick week wrap up in entertainment- Rihanna and Chris records a duet, Mandy Moore gets married, Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer break up and Bristol and her Levi go their seperate ways
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5 Things Do in Stockholm in Winter
From the narrow streets of Old Town to the trendy Södermalm District, visiting Stockholm in the winter was more than I could have ever hoped for. Stockholm is colorful, charming, green and clean. Since I was only in town for the weekend, I decided to make the most of my short trip by finding the most scenic spots around the city. Mind you, it wasn’t very hard. If you’re looking for things to do in Stockholm in winter, head over to these five Stockholm attractions.
Fun Things to Do in Stockholm in Winter
Things to do in Södermalm
Have 30 minutes to spare? Visit SkyView to see Stockholm from way up high.
Aboard a glass gondola, climb 425 feet (130 meters) to the top of the Ericsson Globe. The Ericsson Globe is the largest spherical building in the world. At the top, take in panoramic views of Stockholm’s suburbs. This is absolutely worth the visit if you’re in this part of town.
Something I’d never seen before!
A few minutes away from my hotel, Motel L, I discovered Hammarby sjö while looking for a bite to eat. Hammarby sjö is a canal that separates the city center from South Stockholm. Along the water, there’s a walkway that offers gorgeous skyline views of the nearby semi-urban neighborhoods. There are also lots of boats on the canal.
If you’re hungry, there are a ton of restaurants, bars, and cafes on this strip.
There’s even a brewery and brewpub called New Carnegie Brewery.
Hammarby sjö is a great place for an afternoon stroll.
Things to do in Gamla Stan
Walking Tour of Old Town
Gamla Stan is a must-see while sightseeing Stockholm. Founded in the 1200s, the Old Town is Stockholm’s original city center. One of the best ways to discover Gamla Stan is to go on a walking tour. With many important historical sights to see at nearly every corner, you won’t miss a thing on this walking tour.
I toured Gamla Stan with Free Tour Stockholm. No need for reservations. All you have to do is show up. I recommend touring with Connie. She was funny and down to earth.
The “Old Town Tour” was a great introduction to the city because it provided context. In a short amount of time, I learned so much about the city’s history including the city’s darkest hours and some of its brightest moments.
One of my favorite stories was about the ghost that haunts Stockholm Palace. I wouldn’t want to meet the “White Lady” in the middle of the night! I also enjoyed learning about how the narrowest street in Stockholm got its name from a wealthy German merchant.
The gates of the House of Parliament in Gamla Stan!
Don’t forget to bring cash to tip your guide. You can tip in any currency you like.
It’s the little things about a destination that will stick with you.
St. George and the Dragon depicts a young knight. St. George is raising his sword and he is about to deliver the final blow to kill the dragon. A few feet away, the princess waits in her bridal veil. This represents the epic fight between good and evil. Some say that this scene also marks the victory over the Danes in 1471. The princess represents Stockholm. The dragon represents Denmark.
I thought this was a very interesting statue because it had two scenes. Even though St. George and the Dragon can technically stand on its own, the princess added another element to the piece. St. George had someone to fight for. He had someone special that he wanted to come home to. His princess waits patiently for his triumphant victory.
This makes for a great photo spot because the statue is ornate. I would even say that it’s dramatic – there’s a lot going on.
You can see the bronze replica of the original wooden statue for free at Köpmanbrinken in Gamla Stan. The original statue inside Stockholm’s Cathedral, Storkyrkan is from 1489. Admission to the cathedral costs 40 SEK or $4 USD.
Lastly, visit Stortorget. This was one of my favorite stops on the Old Town walking tour. I loved it so much that I returned the next day at dusk.
Stortorget is the oldest public square in Stockholm. There are lots of notable buildings bordering the square but my favorite were the colorful patrician houses. They reminded me of Amsterdam.
Here’s another fun fact.
Stortorget no. 20 commemorates the Stockholm Bloodbath. In 1520, the Danish King Kristian II promised a truce with Swedish nobility. He organized a large banquet and at the end, he flipped. He decided he didn’t trust the Swedes after all.
On Stortorget no. 20’s façade, there are 92 white stones. They represent those executed during the Stockholm Bloodbath.
Read Next: Cheap Flights from the East Coast
What are favorite things to do in Stockholm?
March 19, 2017 /1 Comment/by Danielle Desir
https://thoughtcard.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Things-to-Do-in-Stockholm-in-Winter-2-1.jpg 3264 3264 Danielle Desir https://thoughtcard.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/FinalLogoHighTransparent-01.png Danielle Desir2017-03-19 22:09:412020-09-09 23:04:435 Things Do in Stockholm in Winter
I love those colourful houses in Stortget! Will have to go there. Thank you !
Bangerz & Mash: 8 New Plays Made For NYC Millennials Classic British Cocktails To Try with Lots of Gin
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Home / Discover / Bohemian Vibes at Kimpton Key West’s New Fitch Lodge
Bohemian Vibes at Kimpton Key West’s New Fitch Lodge
Fitch Lodge is conveniently located just minutes from the Historic Seaport offering 44 unique guest rooms which are graciously updated with a bohemian, tropical vibe which reflects the feel of the region.
Moonlit walks along the beach, lunch near a historic lighthouse, snorkeling in the crystal-clear blue waters, enjoying dinner and drinks at the local pub, and then walking hand-in-hand down small side streets lined with quaint, historic homes. If this is your idea of a great holiday, then Key West, Florida is the place to go (once the border re-opens and it is safe to travel again). Boasting an illustrious history that includes pirates, smugglers, artists, and famous writers, including Ernest Hemingway, this town oozes with charm. Key West is a bucket-list destination which now includes several new Kimpton boutique hotels that are as unique as the city itself.
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, situated on the southernmost end of U.S. Route 1. The city is only 6.4 km long and 1.5 km wide with a total land area of just 11 km, located on the Florida Keys, a series of islands which begin about 24 k south of Miami. Key West is a haven for sports fishing, deep-sea diving, sailing, snorkeling, and bar hopping! While this quaint seaside town seems quiet by day as visitors hop on the Conch Train and tour the historic sites such as the Ernest Hemingway House and Museum and Harry S. Truman’s “Little White House” (the President’s summer residence), by night, the town is hopping, as locals and visitors alike head to the many bars, pubs and restaurants along Duval Street. (And of course be sure to visit Jimmy Buffett’s original Margaritaville in Key West!)
Conch Fritters are a popular Key West tradition
The Kimpton Key West hotel collection has perfectly captured the laid-back, bohemian-South Florida vibe with their newest boutique hotel called Fitch Lodge which opens on September 3rd. Fitch Lodge is the third of five hotels to open in the highly-anticipated collection of boutique properties made up of a small group of authentic, turn-of-the-19th century Conch houses. The new property joins Winslow’s Bungalows and the Lighthouse Hotel. The company will soon open Ridley’s House and Ella’s Cottages, all in Key West.
Fitch Lodge which opens on September 3rd is the third of Kimpton Key West’s five hotels to open in a collection of boutique properties made up of a small group of authentic, turn-of-the-19th century Conch houses.
Kimpton Key West is a distinctive collection of one-of-a-kind properties. No two hotels in the group are alike and believe it or not, no two hotel rooms are alike!
“As each of our hotels in our collection offers something unique, we chose to further expand upon the ways in which guests can explore the Keys,” says Cheryl Martin, Kimpton Key West’s General Manager. “At Fitch Lodge, we provide our guests with all the tools they need to make the most of their stay including snorkel kits, boating towels, afternoon poolside refreshers, a welcome cocktail upon arrival, among other amenities.”
Flagler Station in Historic Seaport
Fitch Lodge is conveniently located just minutes from the Historic Seaport offering 44 unique guest rooms which are graciously updated with a bohemian, tropical vibe which reflects the feel of the region. The Lodge is the most value-driven of the Kimpton Key West Collection featuring a neighbourhood setting, a refreshing pool and easy access to the Key West Ferry, charter boats and more.
The largest property in the collection is Winslow, with 85 guest rooms, three private pools, and lush, expansive grounds in the center of Key West, just two blocks from Duval Street. Lighthouse Hotel is a historic property adjacent to the iconic Key West Lighthouse (Cuba is only 90 miles away) and the Ernest Hemingway House, boasting a pool and poolside bar.
Kimpton is a San Francisco based company founded in 1981 and operates more than 60 hotels and 80 restaurants and bars and lounges, renowned for their distinctive, design-forward boutique hotels. In 2015 they became part of the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) family of hotel brands. For more information visit kimptonkeywest.com, keywestchamber.org, hemingwayhome.com
story by Laurie Wallace-Lynch
Find more travel stories at TOTimes.ca and MTLTimes.ca…
Fitch Lodge, Key West boutique hotel, Kimpton Key West, Kimpton Key West Hotel collection
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Justice Committee Inquiry finds government reforms have reduced safety and performance of prisons
15 Apr 2015, by Philip Hadley in Public services
The Justice Committee recently concluded their first major inquiry on prisons planning and policies in this last parliament, focusing on measures the Ministry of Justice has used to reduce the ‘operational costs’ of the system. The inquiry report reveals the huge strain that the system is under, as well as the disastrous impact of government reforms on performance and safety:
“In our view it is not possible to avoid the conclusion that the confluence of estate modernisation and re-configuration, efficiency savings, staffing shortages, and changes in operational policy, including to the Incentives and Earned Privileges scheme, have made a significant contribution to the deterioration in safety.”
Overcrowding pushing system to its limits
One of the first issues the report confronts is the well-reported problem of overcrowding. The inquiry found that “a growing number and proportion of prisons are operating well over their baseline.” At the end of March 2014, the report notes, 77 of the 119 prisons in England and Wales were classified as overcrowded; by December 2014 this had risen to 83 of the 117 prisons.
The Secretary of State for Justice Chris Grayling MP however seemed quite untroubled by this significant rise in the prison population. Grayling told the committee, “It means prisoners sharing a cell…if prisoners have to share a cell in order to make sure they can go to prison, this is not a great problem.” However, the outgoing Chief Inspector of Prisons Nick Hardwick said in his evidence to the committee that overcrowding is a “real problem…In some places, two men are in what is essentially a large toilet designed for one, and often in very squalid conditions.”
In his annual report into the state of prisons for 2013-14, Nick Hardwick produced a damning assessment of government policy, concluding, “it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the conjunction of resource, population and policy pressures…was a very significant factor in the rapid deterioration in safety and other outcomes we found as the year progressed.”
What are the key implications of overcrowding? The inquiry found that overcrowding is starting to have “effects on the ability to maintain constructive regimes.” As well as a marked deterioration in the physical conditions in which prisoners are held, overcrowding has led to increased strain on the availability of training, rehabilitation and other activities to prisoners, which has happened at the same time as a huge fall in the number of prison staff.
The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) expressed their serious concern to the committee that the government has no plans to decrease levels of crowding, concerns which were also expressed by the Prison Governors’ Association (PGA). The inquiry report concluded that overcrowding is “a more significant issue than the way it was described to us by the Secretary of State.”
A final note of concern in the committee’s examination of overcrowding related to the building of new prisons by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS): “It deeply concerns us that as a result of a shortage of prison places in London, NOMS is building prisons fully intending to hold more prisoners in them than they have capacity for.” The National Audit Office (NAO) found that this was the case with the building of HMP Thameside. Both the PGA and Nick Hardwick characterised the issue to the committee as “institutional overcrowding”.
Efficiency savings and staff losses
The inquiry noted that in 2012 the government replaced a planned prison privatisation programme with public sector benchmarking and contracting out of ancillary services. NOMS developed a set of ‘benchmarks’, with the intention of introducing “more efficient ways of working”, including changes to prison regimes as well as to staffing levels.
Staffing represents the bulk of ongoing prison costs, with NOMS having estimated that the savings required as a result of the controversial benchmarking process would mean 5 per cent of prison staff taking voluntary redundancy in 2013/14. While the inquiry found that benchmarking was not the sole reason for staffing reductions, the prison service has seen a huge loss of staff while this government has been in power.
As a result of redundancies and increased turnover, the number of full-time equivalent staff in public sector prisons fell by 28 per cent between 31 March 2010 and 30 June 2014, a reduction of 12,530 people. The prisoner to staff ratio rose from 3.8 in September 2010 to 4.9 in September 2014. Confirming the severity of the findings of the recent independent survey of the wellbeing of prison staff for the POA, a quarter of the staff who left the prison service in the year up to 2014 had resigned.
The inquiry concluded that “NOMS ought to have foreseen that major reductions in staffing, less favourable pay and conditions of employment, and significant changes to prison regimes, would lead to a rise in people opting to leave the Prison Service.” The committee then went on to note that they “do not believe that making further detrimental changes to terms and conditions of staff is sustainable as a means of controlling costs if the prison population continues to rise.”
One further issue is the contacting out of ancillary services in prisons. We have blogged previously about the hugely delayed competition process to award contracts for the provision of prison services across public sector prisons (including maintenance and facilities). This competition involved just two bidders, both large multinationals with very little experience in the criminal justice system. The inquiry found that “there is a risk that the proliferation of partner organisations providing services to prisons could distract prison management teams from their core role.”
Declining standards and safety
But what has been the impact of staff reductions and other changes? The report concludes that all evidence, from the HM Inspectorate of Prisons, from the government’s own performance data, from the independent monitoring boards and from the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, “indicate a deterioration in standards of safety and performance across the prison estate over the last two years, with fewer opportunities for prisoners to undertake purposeful work or educational activities.”
Nigel Newcomen, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, reported to the Justice Committee that his office received a 25 per cent increase in complaints from prisoners between 2013-14, including a 50 per cent increase in complaints about regimes. “Where, for example, statutory entitlements have been lost – access to fresh air, the library, the statutory gym – as part of a poorly implemented benchmarking process, clearly the real-life experience for prisoners on wings is suffering quite considerably, and that is percolating through to my office in terms of complaints.”
The committee observed, “the Ministry remains optimistic that the benchmarking policy will prove a safe and effective means of reducing costs, but the current difficulties in many prisons highlight the hazards of seeking to run an estate operating at 98% capacity with staffing levels which afford too little flexibility.”
The key explanatory factor in the “obvious” deterioration in standards over the last year, the inquiry found, is that a “significant number of prisons have been operating at staffing levels below what is necessary to maintain reasonable, safe and rehabilitative regimes.”
Rise in assaults and suicides
Further indications of the chaos enveloping the prison system is the rise in assaults and suicides among prisoners. NOMS’ figures report a worrying increase of 10 per cent in assaults in prisons in the year to end June 2014, and a parallel rise in the number of assaults per 1,000 prisoners, the latter showing that the increase in assaults is not simply the result of there being more prisoners. Since 2012, the inquiry noted, there has been a 7 per cent rise in assaults, a 100 per cent rise in incidents of concerted indiscipline, a 9 per cent rise in self-harm among prisoners, as well as a 38 per cent rise in self-inflicted deaths.
Very worryingly, the Justice Committee conclude that the government has “downplayed” the significance of the sudden rise in suicides, and the potential role that changes in prison policy might be playing, which, the report points out “is ill-advised as it could be construed as complacency and a lack of urgency”. As serious, for the inquiry, was that the government had not arrived at a hypothesis as to why the rise had taken place.
The POA gave evidence to the committee noting that the day-to-day communication between prisoner and officer was “rapidly diminishing, with an inevitably deterimental impact upon security and safety.” The inquiry concluded that it is important that the prison service acts rapidly on the evidence of recent surveys to “ensure that staff feel valued and are given appropriate support to work in circumstances which are challenging at the best of times, but currently particularly pressured.”
Rehabilitation may become ‘inoperable’
The inquiry noted that some immediate issues that must be rectified as a matter of priority are “resolving staffing shortages and clearing the backlog of risk assessments.” These, the report argues, are essential “if support for offenders moving from custody into the community is to work to best effect.”
The huge backlog in risk assessments coupled with a shortage of staff to conduct them and properly manage rehabilitation is extremely worrying and represents a serious risk to public safety. Indeed, the committee observed that they will seriously impact probation services: “both issues are likely to hamper considerably the efforts of the new providers of Community Rehabilitation Companies as they seek to implement their through-the-gate services.”
On top of the decline of educational and rehabilitative activities within prisons, the process of risk assessments and moving offenders into communities has also been seriously affected. “There is a risk”, the report argues, “that such services could be rendered inoperable as a result of failures in the system that are the responsibility of NOMS.”
Government complacency
The inquiry report arrives at the inescapable conclusion that the government has failed to acknowledge the seriousness of the level of the crisis affecting our prison services: “The Government has been reluctant to acknowledge the serious nature of the operational and safety challenges facing prisons, and the role of its own policy decisions in creating them.” Further, “it is clear to us that the Ministry had not planned adequately for the risk of staffing shortages, and failed to act sufficiently quickly to mitigate them. This unsatisfactory outcome and sluggish response has risked jeopardising the safety of prisoners and prison staff.”
The Justice Committee’s report of their inquiry contains a series of recommendations.
The TUC and justice union-led Speak up For Justice campaign calls for an integrated, publicly owned, accessible and accountable justice system. We call for all prisons and prison services to be in the public sector, and for a review looking at overcrowding, closures and the impacts of privatisation on services and workers.
For more details and to sign our petition, please go to http://speakupforjustice.org/
Written by Philip Hadley
Philip is a Policy & Campaigns Support Officer in the TUC's Organisation and Services Department, where he works on public services campaigns including Action for Rail and Speak Up For Justice.
One Response to Justice Committee Inquiry finds government reforms have reduced safety and performance of prisons
Rise in assaults and self-harm in prisons, new Ministry of Justice statistics reveal – ToUChstone blog
[…] been a huge and unsustainable increase in the prison population in recent years, such that in their inquiry into prisons planning and policy, the parliamentary Justice Committee found that at the end of March 2014 77 of the 119 prisons in […]
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Muslims for Loyalty
Nationwide initiative to promote loyalty to our nation.
Islam requires every Muslim to be loyal to his country, regardless of the ruler’s faith. The Holy Qur’an states, “O ye who believe, obey Allah and obey the Prophet and obey those in authority from among you” (4:60). In Islam, therefore, loyalty first belongs to God, obedience to others’ authority being derived from Him. In Islam, since a sovereign can demand obedience from his constituency because he is responsible for their safety, obedience to such a one becomes obedience to God. The Holy Prophet Muhammad declared: “Whoso obeys the ruler obeys me, and whoso disobeys the ruler disobeys me” (Muslim); “Listen to and obey your ruler, even if you [despise him]” (Bukhari).
Since its founding, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has championed the principle of loyalty to one’s country. The Community’s founder, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, declared: “Obedience to governmental authority is one of [Islam’s] imperatives” (Works and Speeches, Vol. I, p. 261); “To entertain ill-will against a government under whom life is lived in freedom and there is complete security and religious obligations can be discharged to the full is a criminal step and not jihad… Thus, God Almighty had established me on the principle that sincere obedience and gratitude should be rendered to a benign government such as the British Government. My Community and I are bound by this principle.” (Tohfah Qaisariyya (“A Gift to the Queen”), 1897, pp. 9-10).
Expressing loyalty to America, however, does not prevent peaceful dissent. Both the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and the Holy Quran guarantee this very right. Dissent, however, must be expressed within the confines of the law—no Muslim can or should take the law into one’s own hands. The Holy Qur’an states that creating disorder can lead to damnation, not salvation (2:2-16).
Islam requires Muslims to not only obey their government, but actively love their country. Prophet Muhammad instructed: “Love of one’s country is a part of faith” (Sakhavi; Safinat al-Bihar, vol. 8, pg. 525; Mizan al-Hikmah, Hadith #21928). The Community’s founder, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, emphasized: “It should be the duty of every Muslim to render true and sincere obedience … and offer heartfelt gratitude to such an authority and pray for their welfare.”
The “Muslims for Loyalty” campaign is a grassroots effort to show gratitude to America for conferring fundamental freedoms that all Americans, including Muslims, cherish and protect. Each year since 2010 on the Fourth of July, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community participates in hundreds of parades across the country to demonstrate to ourselves and our fellow Americans that love of one’s country is an essential manifestation of one’s faith.
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Michel Bloomberg (Born February 14, 1942 )
Michael Bloomberg is a CEO, Philanthropist, and a politician. In 1981 he launched Bloomberg L.P. He was born on 14th February 1942. He was a candidate in 2020 democratic presidential primaries and was a mayor if New York City. Bloomberg graduated from Johns university and grew up in Medford Massachusetts. Before forming his own company in 1981, he begins his career at securities brokerage Salomon Brothers. The Bloomberg L.P is financial information, software, and media firm that is known for its Bloomberg Terminal. HE spent his next 20 years as a chairman and CEO. Forbes ranked Bloomberg as the 9yh richest man in the world in 2019 with the net worth of 55.5 billion dollars. He also has given away 8.2 billion dollars.
In 2001, he held the office for three consecutive terms and won reelection in 2005 and 2009. Was elected the 108th mayor of New York City. Bloomberg developed a technocratic managerial style pursing the socially liberal and fiscally moderate policies. He later reassumed as a CEO at Bloomberg L.P after a brief stint as a philanthropist.
Bloomberg built an urban infrastructure, public health initiatives, and protection for the environment.
Things you didn’t know about Michel Bloomberg:
Michel has an MBA from Harvard and a BA from John Hopkins. He wanted to study the best universities possible in the country at that time. He majored in electronic engineering at John Hopkins University and also joined Phi kappa c fraternity. After this study, he went to Harvard business school and graduated in 1966. There came many difficulties during his study as he was also working as a parking lot attendant to pay his school fee. He is a self-made billion from the bottom and a smart man.
While he was a mayor of New York, he used the subway to go to work. He stated he used to go from 76 Street to the city hall every day. That is probably a great way to see the real-life, but being the mayor you would see him the fancy cars.
He has the net worth of $50,800,000,000 which makes him the 7th richest man in the USA and 10th richest man in the world. He has two children with his wife.
He is a supporter of women’s rights. He is quite progressive in the matter of thinking and doesn’t care about what party he is a part of when he believes and stands for something he believes in. He tried to make New York City better and he did that also. There were a lot of people who tried hard to bring down his legacy, but he was a pioneer in a lot of ways. He supports legal abortion, sex education, plan B availability in schools, and access to education for all women. He often said that if he were a woman, he would wear high hills and walk in front of people.
Some rules to become successful from Bloomberg:
Share the credit
He goes on saying if something good happens, sharing the credit makes you a better person. For example if I say Loyd did that and he made me involved with that and you are also giving credit to yourself and as well you have just made another friend just by doing a simple act of kindness.
Word Hard
The only thing you can control is the amount of work you put in, how honest you are, and how you deal with other people. There is no role in how God made you or your luck. He thinks there is a price for everything you do. And you cannot walk away from your family to make your career. You should find a balance between two which may not be the perfect answer but is a practical answer. It is a part of an experience.
Don’t jump too quickly
He says, not to jump at anything too quickly. That does not mean that you waste your life and never realize when something not going to happen or when the opportunity is not going be presented. The main thing is to learn.
For him, the engineering background was a transformative thing in his life, because in science you need to be able to look in the mirror and answer the question. You can’t just say something and believe it; you have to be able to show people. That you can independently verify what you claim you saw. It has forced him to say why and ask questions every time which allowed him to target more effectively.
Focus on people
The important thing is that people want respect. Whether you do it by giving free food or giving nice offices, whether you do it by always giving them credit. He would always make a point as he goes into his building and shakes hands with his security people. He thinks they are just as important as the other people in the office. As the head of the company, there are too many distinctions between people inside the office too.
You never know when the opportunity is going to be presented. The careers that you wind are invariably going to be very different. So you should focus to interact with people and how you approach problems.
Be honest with your self
As you work harder the luckier you get. If it doesn’t work out then it’s not the end of the world. He says, he doesn’t have anything common with people that say” oh my god it was terrible”. Just say why it worked out didn’t. That is the whole point. All you have to do is be honest with yourself all the time throughout the process. What bloom used to do is drawing a line on the paper and right the pros and cons of a particular action that he was going to take. And be honest with yourself during this whole process.
On this date, Bloomberg is 78 years old and is living a life of billionaire and one of the most successful men.
Stephen King Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, the largest city of the mostly rural state that serves…
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The Crown has been accused of inaccuracy – not least by those who were there
When Margaret Thatcher spent the weekend in Balmoral, she found the whole experience deeply humiliating. She and her husband Denis were invited to the Scottish castle by Queen Elizabeth II; it was an initiation of sorts for the new leader. In one embarrassing incident, Thatcher, dressed in a cobalt blue suit, joined the Queen stalking, only to be met by sniggers. At least, this is how the weekend is presented in the new series of The Crown. “I’m struggling to find any redeeming features in these people at all,” Gillian Anderson's Thatcher says to Denis. “They aren’t sophisticated or cultured or elegant or anything close to an ideal.”
For royal commentators, this scene is one of the most offensive in the series, and there are plenty more. Across the country, those that remember the 1980s have been left either appalled or wistful, sometimes in equal measure, by the latest re-enactment of the Queen’s relationship with Thatcher. These are faces and events that are still controversial in the UK. Our unresolved national traumas; the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the austerity of Thatcherism and the Royal Family’s treatment of Princess Diana, make it a tantalising, if not difficult, watch.
[see also: Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher reinvigorate The Crown]
It is unsurprising that this season, the fourth and the closest yet to the world of today, has received a special kind of backlash. The show’s writer Peter Morgan told the Sunday Times he tried his “very, very best to get it right”, adding: “You sometimes have to forsake accuracy ... you must never forsake truth.” Rarely has our recent history been dramatised with such an emphasis on “truth”, and yet it seems hard to agree on exactly what that is.
Some of the complaints have been niche. Michael Fagan, the man who broke into Buckingham Palace in 1982, disputes many of the show's depictions: not least that he is much “better looking” than the actor who plays him. A Telegraph reader complained: “Two things caused concern. First, the Queen never, ever delivered a cocked-wrist salute. Second, why on earth is her headdress adorned with what appears to be the Welsh Guards’ plume?” One viewer told Slate: “The fishing scene: for anybody who has ever been fishing, frankly, it’s ridiculous. They literally just get everything wrong.” Horse and Hound readers were equally outraged. Why wasn’t Princess Anne warming up her horse before her equestrian event?
But for members of Thatcher’s government, the way The Crown dramatised the political events of the 1980s was anything but funny. After watching three episodes of the series, former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party Jeffrey Archer told me: “In the case of Margaret, in particular, it is nothing less than farcical to suggest she didn't hold the Queen in high regard. My wife and I used to see her regularly after she resigned, usually in the evening or Sunday. I can tell you, there was a picture in a silver frame of the Queen Mother in her drawing room. It doesn't add up. There’s been a lot written about Margaret Thatcher’s relationship with the Queen over the years and of course, I had no idea what it was, as I wasn't in the room for those weekly meetings. She never talked about them: that wasn’t her style. But if the Queen's name arose, complete respect immediately followed.
“Ironically, it was after her death that the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh paid Margaret the great compliment of being present at her funeral,” Archer adds, “an honour no one had received since the death of Winston Churchill.”
Royal biographer Penny Junor thinks the latest series is the least accurate so far and believes the blame falls on the show’s limited access to sources. “The reason this one is so much more inaccurate is because we only have Diana’s side of the story from her various interviews, but it was very subjective,” Junor says. “There are no other records of this marriage. Charles has never spoken about it, Camilla has never spoken about it. The only voice is Diana's.”
[see also: Forget The Crown, ITV’s Endeavour is the period drama for our time]
Others have also disputed the show’s version of events. After watching an episode, the former Conservative MP Nicholas Soames, also a former equerry to Prince Charles, tweeted that he was “truly appalled at the deliberate mischief making, lies and meanness,” of the show, which was “clearly intended to be a vile misrepresentation of the royal family”. The journalist and broadcaster Andrew Neil says there was no evidence that in 1986 the royal press secretary Michael Shea “leaked at Her Majesty’s behest”. Neil says he was approached by producers of The Crown, and asked to give his account of the rift between Thatcher and the Queen, as Sunday Times editor, but Neil laments that he did not get a more prominent showing in the series. “Perhaps Morgan was worried the facts might get in the way of his ‘dramatic licence,” he writes in the Sunday Times, “which sometimes turns out to be a fancy phrase for ‘making things up'."
Britain is a country obsessed with its postwar history: The Crown is simply another symptom of our national brooding. But what purpose does it serve? For Archer, the answer is simple: “I suppose they consider it makes good television.” To those that weren’t around in the Eighties, The Crown is a seductive retelling of history. But for those directly involved, the show can’t compete with the accuracy, or the truth, of personal memories.
Source https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv-radio/2020/11/crown-has-been-accused-inaccuracy-not-least-those-who-were-there
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Will ‘Carol’ or ‘Bridge of Spies’ prosper at the BAFTAs?
BAFTA winners announced this week
Valentine’s Day treat in store as the film industry’s awards season continues at Britain’s big night in Covent Garden.
Valentine’s Day looks set to provide a treat for fans of the Film industry, as this year’s British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) ceremony takes place at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. The 69th edition of the biggest film awards event held in Britain looks certain to be filled with intriguing sub plots, as the nominees go head to head for the prestigious prizes on offer.
“Carol” and “Bridge of Spies” feature strongly
“Carol” and “Bridge of Spies” lead in terms of the number of nominations (nine apiece) but will either film prosper at the others expense or will the gongs be spread out evenly between the celebrity contenders?
The sci-fi blockbuster “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is also in the running with a healthy four nominations, including the highly specialist categories of ‘Best Special Visual Effects’ and ‘Best Sound’.
Heavyweight match-ups feature across the board as one might expect:
Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott battle against Alejandro G. Inarritu in the ‘Best Director’ space.
Idris Elba will hope to repeat his recent awards success from “Beasts of No Nation”, but faces stern competition in the ‘Supporting Actor’ category from noted thespian Mark Rylance, Christian Bale and Mark Ruffalo.
The ‘Supporting Actress’ nominees feature the undoubted talents of Julie Walters, Kate Winslet and Rooney Mara.
Cate Blanchett to reign supreme?
Can Dame Maggie Smith (“The Lady in the Van”) repeat her success at the recent Evening Standard Awards to overcome the indomitable force represented by Cate Blanchett (“Carol”) in the ‘Leading Actress’ category?
Maybe the female star of “The Danish Girl” Alicia Vikander could surprise them both and walk away with the top prize.
DiCaprio favourite for top male prize
When it comes to their male counterparts, the competition looks extremely fierce as Leonardo DiCaprio’s challenging role in “The Revenant” bears comparison with Britain’s own Eddie Redmayne in “The Danish Girl”.
With Michael Fassbender, Matt Damon and “Trumbo” lead Bryan Cranston also in the running, whoever comes out on top will have certainly earned their victory.
‘Best Film’ category as strong as ever
The highly coveted ‘Best Film’ prize will be as hotly contested as ever. Widely contrasting entries make the choice of a winner extremely difficult. Yet the judges will need to somehow decide between the virtues of a gritty western (“The Revenant”), investigative drama (“Spotlight”), Cold War thriller (“Bridge of Spies”), high finance comedy-drama (“The Big Short”) and romantic drama (“Carol”).
‘Fellowship’ to Poitier
The distinguished 88-year-old actor Sir Sidney Poitier is set to be honoured by receiving the BAFTA ‘Fellowship’ this year. The six-time BAFTA nominee (winning once) was recognised by the organisation as far back as 1957 and became an iconic and ground-breaking actor during a lengthy career.
His Best Actor Oscar in 1964 marked Poitier out as the first African-American to win the award. He became the top-box office star of 1967 with three critically acclaimed films with a race or race relations theme (“To Sir, with Love”, “In the Heat of the Night” and “Guess Who's Coming to Dinner”).
Fry hosts yet again
Hosting the night’s top quality viewing from London for the 11th time will be the outgoing ‘QI’ star Stephen Fry. His sharp wit and accuracy should ensure that the pace is maintained throughout the ceremony, an essential commodity given that more than twenty awards are scheduled to be presented at the red carpet event.
Blasting News recommends Sonam Kapoor’s Neerja banned in Pakistan Katrina Kaif gets a truck full of roses from Aditya Roy Kapoor Star Sports live cricket streaming India vs NZ 1st T20 at Hotstar.com Video
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John Jacob Charles William Smith is an American actor. He began his career as a young child, making several guest appearances on popular TV shows before being cast as Owen Salinger on Party of Five, a role he held for two years. After the series' end, Smith went on to appear in Phantom of the Megaplex, a Disney Channel Original Movie, in 2000 and then in Cheaper by the Dozen and its sequel, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, in 2003 and 2005, respectively.
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Day 13 – Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada and onward to Skagway, Alaska
Whitehorse was only about an hour away from the campsite so a relaxing morning sleeping in an extra half hour and a leisurely breakfast awaited.
After packing up we talked to a wonderful couple from Whitehorse who come here to camp, boat and fish on their days off. After talking for probably an hour and a half and getting recommendations for Whitehorse and the afternoon trip it was on to Whitehorse.
Whitehorse, Yukon has been the capitol city of the Yukon since 1953 and is the northern terminus of the White Pass & Yukon RR from Skagway, Alaska which ferried prospectors to the riverboats plying the Yukon River to the northern goldfields surrounding Dawson in 1900.
Whitehorse’s second boom time was during the construction of the AL-Can Highway in 1942 when many workers converged on this small town. Construction worker population grew form 2,500 to 3,800 with 1,800 tons of materials and equipment being shipped by rail from Skagway each week in 1943.
This, the only city of the Yukon Territories, has a population was 33,897 people per the 20111 census. A pleasant place to visit as it provides all the services of any town or city. Many attractions and good food establishments are here for the visitor to enjoy.
Parking at the Visitor Center downtown it was off to a recommended spot for lunch, Klondike Rib and Salmon BBQ. Such a fun atmosphere to enjoy as was the wonderful meal. I will definitely go back there for another meal to try out a different menu item, mine was fantastic and very filling.
Heading back to the Visitor Center to gather some information on the area it was time to visit a real Sternwheeler, the S.S. Klondike that sailed the Yukon River between Whitehorse and Dawson City.
The S.S. Klondike National Historic Site is an old stern-wheeler that once plied the Yukon River carrying passengers, mail and supplies to Dawson City. With only a four and half month shipping season the boats were hauled out of the water on skids in the Whitehorse Ship Yards for the winter months of a frozen Yukon River. This interesting attraction lets you board the ship and on a self guided tour to explore the many areas of its interior at your pace.
Built in 1929 this boat was the largest on the Yukon. Sternwheelers were less vulnerable to paddle damage than the side-wheelers. Built in 1929 an accident sunk her in 1936. Refitted that winter the Klondike went from an ore hauler to carrying passengers and cargo. She carried 300 tons (270 tonnes) of cargo with a draft of only 40 inches (1 meter) and 32 – 1st class passengers.
Crews Sleeping Quarters
Meat Locker
Crews Dinning
The lower deck just above water line was for the crews quarters, the cargo, engine room, boilers and with bunks lashed to the sanctions at the aft sleeping accommodations for 2nd class passengers. The next deck held the 1st class cabins, Dining Room for the passengers and a separate one for the crew, Kitchen, Observation Lounge at the front of the ship and the Sun Deck at the stern. Above that was the Boat Deck housing the Officers Cabins. Finally at the very top was the Wheelhouse or “Monkey Island”. Situated well forward and high it gave an unobstructed view for the Master and Pilot to navigate the ship though the dangerous waters.
Next up it was a drive to the outskirts of town to visit Miles Canyon. The canyon is a cross section of volcanic rocks where the Yukon River cuts through a succession of flows south of Whitehorse. The White Horse Rapids in Miles Canyon provided a significant challenge to the prospectors heading to theDawson City and the gold rush providing the upstream terminus of the Paddle wheelers. The rapids are now tamed by dams along the river.
Finally it was off the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Center that explains the Yukon’s history during the Ice Age. Being largely ice-free during this timea local cave provided the oldest evidence of human habitation in North America has been found.
Getting a late start the following attractions were missed but sound fun and interesting making for another visit an enjoyable adventure.
The MacBride Museum houses artifacts and stories of the events and people who settled and built the Yukon.
Waterfront Walkway provides a walking path along the Yukon River connecting several parks along its path.
Yukon transportation Museum is home to the world’s largest weathervane, an old DC-3 and provides exhibits on the transportation used in the far north.
Old Log Church Museum is one of the oldest buildings in the city completed in 1900 and hides stories of the older pioneers of the region.
Yukon’s oldest brewery north of the 60th parallel, the Yukon Brewing Company.
Leaving Whitehorse late in the afternoon the route turned south on the South Klondike Highway to its terminus in Skagway, Alaska. This relatively short 2.5 hour drive of 105 miles (169 k) was a breathtaking day of travel. This 2-lane road of spectacular scenery had many turnouts for viewing vast landscapes and intimate waterfalls. Before the highest point of the road at 3,292 feet (1,003 m) at Whitehorse Pass there is an 11. 5 mile (18.5 k) 11 percent grade of roadway.
Turning west right before entering Skagway along the Dyea Road, Dyea Campsite was the location for the next 3 nights of the journey for 2 full days to explore Skagway, Old Town Dyea and the Chilkoot Trail.
February 7, 2018 / Terry / Leave a comment
We take a day to rest, clean and organize our things from the adventure at Tillamook State Forest then decide to head north from Vancouver, WA for a day trip to Battleground Lake to enjoy the nature surrounding it. Being winter it is raining off-and-on today, so we go down to the lakeshore so my grandson can have some fun trying to fill the lake with rocks he finds on the shoreline. This is something he really enjoys, he has thrown rocks at Mt Adams, into the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park and now here. Kids are so funny how they entertain themselves. We discussed hiking the trail that goes around the lake but decided that with the rain it would just be a slick mess.
Cedar Creek Grist MIll and Cedar Creek
Cedar Creek Grist Mill and bi-pass overflow falls.
After our short stay at the lake we head to The Cedar Creek Grist Mill just outside Etna south of the Lewis River along scenic Cedar Creek. A gristmill grinds grain into flour using nature’s forces, usually water being run by a water wheel. The first water-powered mill was reported around 71 BC in Asia Minor. Grain mills in England were counted in the 1086 Domesday Survey In England, which stated there were 5,624, or about one for every 300 inhabitants that year, peaking to 17,000 by 1300.
Cedar Creek Grist Mill is a working museum allowing visitors inside to observe the workings of the mill built in 1876. Samples are given to visitors after the tour of the facility. This is a totally nature driven mill using the water flowing through a plumb to a Leffel turbine installed with its flume (water canal) around 1888. Pulleys, and belts turn the milling stone producing flour, corn meal and sometimes apple cider.
Flume and Cedar Creek
Leffel turbine
Resting on a steep and rocky slope in the narrow gorge of Cedar Creek, it is the only gristmill in Washington that still maintains its original structure, mills with stones, and is water powered, this is also the oldest building in Washington State still producing its original product.
Debri along the creek
some of the lush ferns along the creek
Tossing rocks into Cedar Creek
The last owner died in the late 1950’s and the property was bought by The State Fisheries Department in 1961 that removed the old dam and built a fish ladder. The Fort Vancouver Historical Society leased the mill in 1961 and had it registered as a National Historical Place.
Time, weather and vandals took its toll by 1980. “The Friends of the Cedar Creek Grist Mill”, a non-profit corporation, was formed to save the old mill. Using period tools consisting of axes and adzes they replaced the damaged posts and beams. Due to a dam removal in 1961 they had to now get water into the mill, extending the flume 650 feet where the water from the creek could flow into the intake without the dam.
Next to the mill is a covered bridge across Cedar Creek. There is no history on the first bridge although it was completely replaced by a truss bridge in 1935. The 1935 bridge could not support heavy loads, so in 1994 a new covered bridge spanning Cedar Creek was built.
1994 covered truss bridge
Standing on the covered bridge
Sadly it was closed on this weekday right after the holiday but peeking in the windows demands a return visit when it is open.
Orange Empire Railraod Museum
April 4, 2017 / Terry / 8 Comments
A few weeks ago my grandson and I visited the Orange Empire Railway Museum (LINK) when the annual Steampunk fair was being held. This non-profit museum opened in 1956 to preserve Southern California’s railway history that dates from the 1870’s. With over 200 historic railway locomotives, passenger cars, freight cars, streetcars, interurban electric cars, buildings, and other artifacts from Los Angeles and the West, the 90-acre site in Perris, California is open to the public every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas (check site for current opening days, times and special events).
Chesters Fort and Hadrian’s Wall
March 11, 2017 March 11, 2017 / Terry / 2 Comments
Chesters Fort Rendering from the south
After the morning wandering and exploring Beamish we drove approximately 30 miles to visit Chesters Fort (LINK) a part of Hadrian’s Wall (LINK). Driving along beautiful countryside we had to have the car disinfected for Foot and Mouth. Arriving at the fort we visited the museum to learn the history of the wall and fort, then walked through disinfecting mats for our short walk to the fort.
Welcome to Beamish – A Living Museum of Northeastern English Life
March 7, 2017 March 7, 2017 / Terry / 4 Comments
Back in 2001 it was decided to visit England, Scotland and Wales and to delve into the history, architecture and culture of the country. What we discovered was an excellent way to do this, Living Outdoor Museums. This was the first Living Open-Air museum that I had ever visited and it started a search for additional ones during all future travels in the USA and Europe. Visiting one gives you the experience and a real sense of the past as you discover what life was like. Within the different buildings there usually are actors in period dress demonstrating the daily life of the time being depicted, while answering questions you might have and explaining what it was like living in those times.
Pompeii – The death of a city
February 21, 2017 / Terry / 1 Comment
On a fateful August morning in 79 AD Pompeii (LINK), a Roman town-city near modern Naples, was totally destroyed and buried under a volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius (LINK) killing around 3,000 people as the rest of the population had already fled before the eruption. A flood of ash and protoplasmic heated air rained down on the town for approximately 6 hours completely burying the town and its inhabitants in up to twelve layers of ash and debris up to 82 feet (25 meters) deep.
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8 Tips on How to Move On (and Find Your True Love)
Kwentong Jollibee is a series of heartwarming, moving online videos that are inspired by real-life events, highlighting life and love’s challenges, victories and joys. Watch the Valentine Series 2020 with the theme #TrueLoveConquersAll here if you haven’t yet or if you want to rewatch them. This year’s Valentine Series has yet again stirred the online […]
The post 8 Tips on How to Move On (and Find Your True Love) appeared first on When In Manila.
Kwentong Jollibee is a series of heartwarming, moving online videos that are inspired by real-life events, highlighting life and love’s challenges, victories and joys. Watch the Valentine Series 2020 with the theme #TrueLoveConquersAll here if you haven’t yet or if you want to rewatch them. This year’s Valentine Series has yet again stirred the online community with a record-breaking 100+ million reach and 70+ million views and counting!
We got to sit down with some of the cast members and directors of #CoupleGoals, Space, and Apart to ask them for their tips on how to move on from heartbreak (and eventually finding their true love), and here’s what they had to say:
8 Tips on How to Move On from the Kwentong Jollibee Valentine Series 2020 Cast and Directors
1. Get proper closure.
Director Sigrid Bernardo, who directed ‘Space’, says the most important part of any breakup, first and foremost, is to make it very clear from both parties that the relationship is over, no matter how painful it might be. “In order to move on, you have to close that chapter first,” she clarifies. “You can never move on if you’re still hanging onto each other, so the technicalities are very important.”
2. Give yourself time to cry and grieve.
“It’s also important to grieve,” points out Direk Sig. “You grieve and then you accept it.” Some people say not to grieve and just move on, but Direk Sig firmly believes in the grieving period because it’ll be superficial and harder to accept a breakup if you don’t let yourself grieve.
“You can tell yourself that you can move on, but it will just be superficial,” she says. “No matter what you want to show people, it’s still better to be honest with your feelings until you get sick of crying.” She adds, “It’s okay to be drunk and to cry, too.”
3. Hang out with your friends.
Argel Saycon, who plays Ron in ‘Apart’, shares that his friends helped him a lot when he was getting over his worst breakup back in high school. “I always went out with them,” he shares. “We’d play basketball and just hang out.”
4. Keep yourself busy.
On that note, Argel adds that “It helps to keep yourself busy. When you’re doing something, you’ll stay distracted. If you don’t, you’ll keep thinking about it and just hurt yourself in the process.”
5. Immerse yourself in a hobby.
James Marco, who plays Dan in ‘Space’ shares that hobbies helped him a lot. “I collect toys. And I play the drums,” he shares. He explains that he releases his stress and anger by playing the drums, so it would help to find a productive and fun way to release and forget your pain.
Besides, improving yourself will make you feel better as a whole. As you learn new things, you’ll see yourself grow and realize how much of a better person you can be, even without a significant other. Also, this may sound like a cliche, but it is true that you cannot love someone else fully unless you love yourself fully first. So work on yourself and focus on yourself; the rest will follow.
6. Set your priorities straight.
“No matter how much it hurts, keep your priorities in mind and focus on that in order to move on,” says Argel. Although your significant other may have been the world to you once upon a time, it’s time to realize that your chapter is over and you need to start focusing on something else from now on. Focus on your studies, your job, your family, your friends, and most importantly, yourself.
7. Keep your eyes open.
After a breakup, you might think no one will love you again, especially if you loved your ex a whole lot. That’s why you got hurt, after all. But according to Direk Sig, if you wait, it will come. “One day, you will wake up and realize how big the world is and how many fish there really are in the sea,” she promises.
There’s no such thing as being choosy. It is only right to hold high standards for yourself if you feel and know you can also give the same kind of standards to a future partner. As different as Ron and Myles may have seemed in the beginning of ‘Apart’, understanding and accepting their differences helped them gain new appreciation and love for each other. Ron realized that Myles’ independence is something to admire, while Myles learned to compromise and start to think about Ron more.
8. Do not be afraid to love again.
Above all things, do not be afraid to love again. James shares that he had actually been in a similar situation as his character in ‘Space’. After getting into a new relationship, his ex came knocking at his door once again. However, he didn’t fall back into her arms because he had already found a better love. “Find someone who will appreciate you wholeheartedly and who will accept you wholly as you are,” says James.
In ‘Space’, Dan runs into an old friend, Mitch, in Jollibee, and they get along almost off the bat. Although he wasn’t looking for someone, he found someone who made him smile, and appreciated all of his love and support in the way that his ex, Mae, didn’t. So, despite his ex wanting to him back, Dan knew that Mitch was the person for him because she accepted him wholeheartedly despite all of his imperfections.
“It may be hard to give your trust, your best, and your love to another person,” says Direk Sig, “When you’re there, it’s terrifying. But what’s important isn’t who was there first, but who is there last.” “It’s scary to love,” she adds. “If you’re not nervous or scared, it’s not love.”
Do you have any tips on moving on? Share them with us!
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Home/News/Liz Beebe, Front-Woman of Dustbowl Revival, To Release Hush Now: Lullabies for Sleepy People
Liz Beebe, Front-Woman of Dustbowl Revival, To Release Hush Now: Lullabies for Sleepy People
Liz Beebe is best known as the female powerhouse of the critically acclaimed band Dustbowl Revival. With an international touring schedule that spans over continents, and months on the road, Beebe found herself becoming an aunt in the midst of the madness. A desire to be present and contribute to the lives of her family and loved ones became what is her first lullaby album, Hush Now, Lullabies for Sleepy People.
The idea of a children’s album focused on lullabies was something that had been brewing for a year or so before Liz started creating the demos. Inspiration came from her friends and family who sent her lists of songs they loved and sang to their own children. From there, she put her own unique twist on each song. Liz recalls, “I wanted to challenge myself and make something of my own. I work with seven talented musicians who, mostly, came up in the industry knowing that working and touring would be part of their career. As someone who fell in sideways, unexpectedly, I have been known to treat myself, with more doubt and skepticism. Making this album was an exercise in creativity and joy.”
While on the road with Dustbowl Revival, Liz could be found in her makeshift recording booth, a hotel closet stuffed full of winter sweaters, jackets, pillows, comforters- anything she could find to create soundproofing material. Back at home and demos in hand, Liz set out to lay down the album – with the same ingenuity she learned from the road, turning her home closet into a booth. Her bandmate, Connor Vance, lent her a hand in tracking the album’s gorgeous natural guitar, violin and viola. Daniel Gordon (Phoenix Asteroid, Sun Domingo) and Brahm Bourque (Echoes De Luxe, and Liz’s husband) produced the album and brought the playfulness and dreamy sweetness of the tracks to life.
From Liz, “I took care of children from the age of 11 until about a year after moving to Los Angeles as an adult. I used to sing those children to sleep for every nap and bedtime. I hope this album is a way of continuing that tradition, with songs people know and love.”
The standout tracks include a cover of James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James”, Liz’s favorite “I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon” a song she first heard when sung by Shawn Colvin on “Elmopalooza” when her baby brother was born. Alongside classics like “Baby Beluga”, “Blackbird”, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “ You are My Sunshine”. Hush Now: Lullabies for Sleepy People proves itself a soundtrack for all ages and generations and their loved ones. The album is due out July 27th on Mensch House Records. Make sure to click here (https://fanlink.to/lullabies) to reserve your copy.
1. “Baby Beluga”
3. “I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon”
4. “Edelweiss”
5. “Baby Mine”
7. “Sweet Baby James”
9. “Stay Awake”
10. “Dream of Powder Blue”
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Soaps and detergents can destroy bird flu and novel coronaviruses
Image source: CDC
Commercially available soaps and detergents can destroy the bird flu virus, and possibly the COVID-19 causing novel coronavirus as well.
Previous research in Pakistan has reported that commonly used soap (Lifebuoy) and detergent (Surf Excel) can kill the bird flu virus (H5N1). In this study, published in the 28th March 2009 issue of the Virology Journal, these soaps and detergents were used in different concentrations to determine their ability to kill the bird flu virus. This study found that common soap and detergent brands could destroy the virus at a minimum soap/detergent concentration of 0.1 percent in 5 minutes, and almost immediately at higher concentrations.
“Both bird flu virus and COVID-19 causing novel coronaviruses are enveloped viruses, and belong to the othromyxoviridae and coronaviridae family of viruses, respectively. Therefore, the mechanism by which bird flu virus is killed by soaps and detergents may equally apply to the coronaviruses, including the recent novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV,” microbiologist Dr. Muhammad Akbar Shahid said.
Therefore simple washing, with soaps and detergents, of the poultry shed floors, equipment, transport vehicles, and workers’ clothes can help in containing the bird flu virus. Similarly, washing of hands with soaps and washing of clothes with detergents can also prevent the spread of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
The researchers had claimed that their study was the first published peer-reviewed study on the use of commercially available soaps and detergents to kill the bird flu-causing H5N1 virus; however, this practice was suggested as early as 2005. A similar study on the effect of soaps and detergents to destroy the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) can also be performed; however, the results would not be very different from this study on the H5N1 virus.
Along with testing soap brands such as Lifebuoy and detergents such as Surf Excel, other factors including heat, ultraviolet light, and pH were also studied to determine their effect on the bird flu virus. Here is the full article to read.
Disinfectants such as formalin, iodine, and phenol could kill the bird flu virus in 15 minutes at 0.2 to 0.4 % concentrations. Heating the virus-infected samples or treating them with ultraviolet light — previously recommended by some virologists and agricultural agencies — took a longer time.
For example, the virus was killed after 30 minutes at 56°C and after one day at 28 °C. The virus remained viable even after an hour of exposure to ultraviolet light exposure.
Dr. Muhammad Akbar Shahid, the leading author of the study, and now a microbiologist at the Bahauddin Zakariya University, Pakistan, said that frequent washing of hands and face with soap can destroy the virus and prevent the spread of any respiratory virus including H5N1 (bird flu virus) and novel coronavirus; however, use of other measures including wearing of face masks, observing a safe distance from the infected carriers (either birds or humans) still need to be practiced.
How simple soaps and detergents can be so lethal against the bird flu and SARS-CoV-2 viruses?
According to experts, washing hands, for at least twenty seconds, is the most-effective method to save us from novel coronavirus.
So, the question arises as to how simple soaps and detergents can be so lethal against the bird flu and SARS-CoV-2 viruses?
The short answer is that a virus is a nanoparticle which is an assembly of ribonucleic acid (RNA), proteins and lipids. In this assembly, the weakest link is the lipid or fatty bilayer. Soap just dissolves this fat layer, and the virus is broken apart — and we call it as if the virus is dead which is actually inactive as viruses are not really ‘alive’.
To understand how soaps and detergents kill viruses including bird flu and SARS-CoV-2, we have to understand a little bit of science. The molecules of soaps are known as “amphiphiles” and the amphiphiles are made of two words: “amphis” (which means “both”) and “philia” (kind of “love”).
The molecule of soap, and possibly detergent, has two ends with very unique properties. One end is called polar (water-loving or hydrophilic) which is fat-resistant, while the other end is called nonpolar which is fat-loving (lipophilic) and water-resistant.
One end of the amphiphile molecule is attracted to the water but is repelled by proteins and fats. The other end is attracted to fats and proteins but is repelled by water. If we pour fat-containing olive oil into water, the fats don’t mix with water. But if we add some soap to oil-and-water, the soap molecules form a ring around the oil. This ring is called a ‘micelle’.
In micelle, soap is attracted to the oil due to its nonpolar side. Then it starts to tear it up and pull it into the water due to its polar or water-loving side.
Watch this video to understand how it works:
How can we relate this knowledge with the destruction of the coronavirus or bird flu virus by soaps and detergents? We can compare the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, bird flu virus or any other enveloped virus, to the drops of olive oil in water. The virus contains genetic information, encoded by either RNA or DNA (some viruses), encased in a coating of fat and protein. To understand the nature of this tiny virus, we can call it nano-size grease balls.
The way soap destroys the grease ball, similarly, soap meets a COVID-19-causing virus. The soap molecules enter the virus’ lipid bilayer (double layer) envelope or coating. The nonpolar side of a soap molecule attacks the virus by inserting it into its fat-and-protein layer. Because the chemical bonds which hold this particular virus together are fairly weak, the molecular invasion is sufficient to break the virus’s coating. Once the virus’s coating is broken, the virus gets pulled apart. When the virus is broken apart, it becomes water-soluble. A water-soluble virus is a decaying virus.
That’s how soap can destroy the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But — it takes time, approximately 20 seconds.
Why soaps and detergents take so much time?
Here the question arises: Why so much time is taken by soaps and detergents to kill the virus? If we look at our fingertips, we see small folds and wrinkles. Our fingertips aren’t flat. These folds and wrinkles may provide hiding places for the viruses.
To ensure soap interacts with and destroys the virus particles, we should not apply soap and rinse quickly, rather we should give at least 20 seconds for the soap to interact with the virus so that it has been distorted into harmless remains and then washed with water into the drain.
Importance of handwashing with soaps and detergents
Our hands are attraction points for various types of viruses and bacteria. Even if soap cannot kill every single type of invisible germ, hiding within the folds on our fingertips — like soap kills the bird flu and coronavirus — the habit of properly washing our hands and faces with soap will at least keep those viruses and bacteria away from our us and cause serious diseases.
We touch our faces (eyes, mouth, nostrils) with our hands approximately 23 times per hour. That’s the way viruses — like the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 — or any other deadly virus or bacteria enter our bodies and cause a dreadful disease. Therefore, it is very important to keep our hands clean by using soap.
Further reading: Shahid, M.A., Abubakar, M., Hameed, S. et al. Avian influenza virus (H5N1); effects of physico-chemical factors on its survival. Virol J 6, 38 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-422X-6-38
Filed Under: Birds, Emerging Diseases, Human Diseases, Public Health, Vetomni News, Zoonotic Diseases
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Trump claims he is ‘winning’ in key states not yet called for him, blasts attempts to ‘disenfranchise’ his supporters
President Donald Trump said he is winning the presidential race in several key states, despite the fact they have not yet been declared for him. He also threatened legal action against “fraud” on election night.
Trump claimed that he has “clearly won” in Georgia and North Carolina, and is also “winning” in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
When Trump was delivering the speech, major US news outlets reported that he was indeed leading over Joe Biden in these states, but said the races there were still too close to call for either candidate. After Trump made his comments, AP said that Biden was up by 0.3 percent over Trump in Wisconsin with 95 percent of the votes counted.
Over 90 percent of the votes have been counted in North Carolina and Georgia, and over 70 percent have been counted in Pennsylvania and Michigan, according to CNN.
“We were up 1.4 percent or 77,000 votes with only approximately five percent left – they can’t catch us,” Trump said about his North Carolina lead.
“So we won by 107,000 votes with 81 percent of the vote, that’s Michigan. So when you take those three states in particular and you take all of the others, I mean we have so many,” the president added, complaining that the states he mentioned have not been declared for him.
Trump also expressed doubt about Biden’s projected win in Arizona, saying “we have a lot of life in that,” and the state has many “friendly Trump voters.” Since then, AP has called Arizona for Biden.
The president spoke out against alleged attempts to “disenfranchise” millions of his supporters in what he called “a major fraud on our nation.”
We won states and all of a sudden I said what happened to the election? It’s off. And we have all these announcers saying what happened, and then they said: oooh. Because you know what happened? They knew they couldn’t win so they said let’s go to court.
“We want the law to be used in a proper manner, so we’ll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop,” Trump told his supporters.
Biden currently has a narrow lead over Trump in the Electoral College vote tally, according to AP.
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'These Trump supporters are going to go to your house!': Schumer press event derailed by screaming critic
'These Trump supporters are going to go to your house!' Schumer press event derailed by screaming critic
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The X-Files Season 4
1990's, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Laurie Holden, Mitch Pileggi, Nicholas Lea, The X-Files, The X-Files Season 4, William B. Davis
The last season of The X-Files was my favourite of the show so far, so I was wondering how Season 4 would turn out. Thankfully, I can happily report that Season 4 is just as good as Season 3 and is full of emotion, horror and mystery that continues to grow. Be warned readers, spoilers will follow in my overview of the fourth season.
We begin where Season 3 left off as Mulder(David Duchovny) is trying to protect the healer Jeremiah Smith from the Alien Bounty Hunter. Jeremiah manages to get some information to Mulder about the Syndicate’s motives, which somehow links to the idea of alien colonization. Mulder is also shown various clones of his sister rekindles his determination and is also relieved when his mother begins to recover from her stroke. Jeremiah eventually runs away and escapes from the bounty hunter, but his bits of information have made an impact on Mulder in a big way. Meanwhile Scully(Gillian Anderson) has her own difficulties to contend with. She is diagnosed with terminal cancer, which Mulder comes to believe is due to her abduction in Season 2. With her health in the balance and her future uncertain, Scully continues with her work not knowing how long she will be able to. The Syndicate becomes aware of X’s betrayal and he is subsequently killed, but not before managing to point Mulder in the direction of a new informant. The new informant is Marita Covarrubias(Laurie Holden), who supplies Mulder with necessary information but keeps a distance. The Cigarette Smoking Man(William B. Davis) is still looming large with his own plans, as well as the slimy Krycek(Nicholas Lea) who pulls Mulder into one of his dangerous schemes. With more avenues of answers beginning to open regarding the alien conspiracy and many twists that get very personal for all of those involved, it’s up to Mulder and Scully to continue the search for the elusive truth, aided by the helpful Skinner(Mitch Pileggi) that could be closer than any of them think and will lead to a whole lot of danger.
Like with the visuals of Season 3, Season 4 is amazing in capturing a real sense of atmosphere and emotion that is closely tied to the stories told. There is real sharpness to the cinematography that generates some striking images and haunting ambience. Creepiness and dangerous events abound in this season, and the ante is upped to a higher level which is always good for a show like this. The scripts are top-notch. Aside from the paranoia and science fiction, there is welcome drama that is handled well and elicits strong emotions. Mordant humour can also be found in many episodes, showing how the writers, producers and directors know how to blend all these elements together to create quality television. And I can’t forget the continuing brilliance of composer Mark Snow, whose music is spellbinding and spine chilling.
One of the central highlight episodes from this season is the extremely disturbing ‘Home’. No discussion of Season 4 would be complete without covering this episode. It truly is one of the best episodes of the show so far and really lingers long in the memory. In the episode, Mulder and Scully are called into a quiet small town in Pennsylvania to investigate the unearthing of a baby that was buried alive and sported multitudes of birth defects. T he trace for answers leads to the Peacock family; three brothers who live in a house without modern amenities and are shut ins. The episode gets a whole lot more disturbing as it is revealed that the brothers are the products of incest and inbreeding. And to make matters even more horrifying, their amputee mother is the one who has been impregnated many times by her sons. Violent imagery like the booby-trapped residence of the brothers, unnerving contrasts between light and dark and a lot of themes, chief among them the startling dismantlement of the American Dream, ‘Home’ is a brutal hour of television that once seen will never leave you. ‘Home’ may be the main highlight but there are a whole lot of other episodes that are of excellent quality. The haunting and gory ‘Sanguinarium’ examines the horrors of cosmetic surgery tinged with sorcery and magic. A dark mordant humour and unreliable narrator is effectively used in ‘Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man’ as the past of the villain is revealed, or is it? The tense two parts of ‘Tunguska’ and ‘Terma’ boast striking visuals and intriguing stories about the reappearance of Black Oil, along with Krycek dragging Mulder into his own revenge plan. A lot of credit must go to the chilling ‘Paper Hearts’ in which Mulder confronts an imprisoned serial killer who claims that his sister was one of his victims many years before. We watch as Mulder is drawn into the mind games of this man and how he is left to figure out what exactly did happen to his sister. It’s a spooky and atmospheric episode that does well at tapping into the psyche of Mulder and how haunting the disappearance of his sister is for him. There is the emotional ‘Memento Mori’ when Scully is diagnosed and we watch her process this information, try to remain strong but in the end be devastated and then inspired to fight it, with Mulder doing everything he can to draw lines between her abduction and her cancer. On the other end of the spectrum of emotions is humour found in ‘Small Potatoes’ in which a shape shifting man causes havoc by impersonating different men, including Mulder. This episode really shows how funny the show can be.
David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are really allowed to strut their emotional stuff this season and they do it excellently. Duchovny excels at projecting the torments of Mulder and how his desire for the truth puts him in danger that he often doesn’t stop to think about. We relate to Mulder’s quest because he is so dedicated to it, yet we like Scully, can see that it can cloud his judgement. Mulder can be a flawed character who won’t listen to reason, but Duchovny makes him an excellent character to watch as he unfolds and is put through an emotional tailspin. Gillian Anderson is no less impressive as Scully, who goes through the wringer of feelings here. We sympathise with Scully and her devastating news and get to see her let her guard down and be human. Scully always prides herself on always having the answers, but when something is this close to her, Anderson reveals Scully’s fears and insecurities and makes them palpable. Mulder and Scully have continued to grow as a pair over the past three seasons, and it is here in Season 4 when we see how really close they are. The chemistry is there but there is a deep connection formed that compliments the other and reveals how each would do anything for the other, even in the most dire circumstances. It’s wonderful to see Skinner develop more as he becomes more involved. Mitch Pileggi excellently exudes authority and graveness as he is forced to make many deals with the devil to ensure the safety of Mulder and Scully. He has truly become a very valuable ally to the duo’s quest. I enjoyed the expansion on Cigarette Smoking Man, who is played with evil relish by William B. Davis. He just has that wicked presence that you can’t help but feel unnerved by. You couldn’t have asked for a better person to portray the character because no one could come close to Davis. Nicholas Lea is back as the slithering Krycek, out for himself and no one else as he plots his own revenge against The Syndicate. New to the cast is Laurie Holden as the new contact for Mulder. While she is quite good at playing Marita as mysterious, helpful and a little distant, she doesn’t quite have the snap of Deep Throat or X. It’s not that she’s bad, she just can’t measure up to the stature of Mulder’s past informants.
Herrenvolk – A
Home – A+
Teliko – B-
Unruhe – B+
The Field Where I Died – D-
Sanguinarium – A
Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man – A+
Tunguska – A
Terma – B+
Paper Hearts – A+
El Mundo Gira – D
Leonard Betts – A
Never Again – B
Memento Mori – A
Kaddish – C+
Unrequited – C
Tempus Fugit – B+
Max – B+
Synchrony – C
Small Potatoes – A+
Zero Sum – B+
Elegy – A
Demons – B+
Gethsemane – A
Season 4 is an emotional and excellent season of The X-Files that is very much on par with Season 3 in terms of quality, mystery and depth.
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Alexandra Maria Lara is a Romanian-German film and television actress, best known for her performances in films such as ‘Downfall,’ ‘Youth Without Youth,’ ‘Control,’ and ‘Rush.’
Alexandra Maria Lara was born Alexandra Maria Plătăreanu on November 12, 1978, in Bucharest, Socialist Republic of Romania.
Family & Early life
She was born to Valentin Plătăreanu and Doina. In 1983, when she was four and a half years old, her family resolved to immigrate to West Germany to avoid living in the reign of Romanian communist politician and dictator, Nicolae Ceauşescu. Her family initially planned to move to Canada, however they relocated and settled in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau in Baden-Württemberg and later shifted to Berlin.
She graduated from the Französisches Gymnasium Berlin in 1997. Thereafter from 1997 to 2000, she attended the Theaterwerkstatt Charlottenburg under tutelage of her father, co-founder of the drama school with Henner Oft. Meanwhile she started appearing in several television dramas like the 1994 miniseries ‘Stella Stellaris.’
Alexandra was romantically associated with Florian Unger for nine years before parting ways in 2006. She met English actor and singer Sam Riley on the sets of ‘Control.’ They dated for a while and then married on August 8, 2009. Together they have a son called Ben born in January 2014.
Alexandra bagged her breakthrough role Pia Mangold in the 1996 German television series ‘Mensch, Pia!.’ She earned critical acclaim starring as Charlotte 'Lotte' Lohmann in the 2001 released made-for-television German film ‘Der Tunnel.’
This was followed by varied roles in national and international television and film productions. Some of them include playing Annette in the German comedy film ‘Naked’ (2002), Countess Marie Walewska in the French historical miniseries ‘Napoleon’ (2002), and Tonya Gromyko Zhivago in the British television miniseries ‘Doctor Zhivago’ (2002).
One of her early notable performances include starring as Adolf Hitler's last private secretary Traudl Junge in the Oliver Hirschbiegel directed historical war drama film ‘Downfall.’ The critically acclaimed film that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 14, 2004 became a huge commercial success and fetched Best Foreign Language Film award nomination at the 77th Academy Awards.
In 2005, she served as a jury member at the 4th Transylvania International Film Festival.
Her performance in ‘Downfall’ led American film director Francis Ford Coppola to write a letter to her and give her the starring role of Laura, Veronica in the 2007 released fantasy drama film ‘Youth Without Youth’ written and directed by him.
In the meantime, she starred in different other productions including as Lili in the three-part TNT aired serial ‘The Company’ (2007); as Suzie in the British comedy film ‘I Really Hate My Job’ (2007); and most notably as Belgian journalist Annik Honore in the October 5, 2007 released critically and commercially successful British biographical film ‘Control,’ based on the life of Ian Curtis.
Her next notable film was the Uli Edel directed 2008 German flick ‘Der Baader Meinhof Komplex‘, where she essayed the role of German revolutionary and urban guerrilla Petra Schelm.
This was followed by the 2008 German-American romantic drama film ‘The Reader’ featuring her as a former victim of a concentration camp, Ilana Mather. Both the films bagged Oscar nominations at the 81st Academy Awards.
In 2008, she also appeared in the Theodoros Angelopoulos written and directed Greek drama film ‘The Dust of Time’ that starred Willem Dafoe and Irène Jacob among others. That year she served as a jury member of the Cannes Film Festival as well.
The Anthony Hopkins starrer and James Ivory directed 2009 American drama film ‘The City of Your Final Destination’ featured her as Deirdre Rothemund. That year she also starred in the French espionage thriller film ‘L'affaire Farewell’ and in the multilingual Emirati film ‘City of Life.’
The internationally co-produced fantasy film ‘A Distant Neighborhood’ directed by Sam Garbarski and released on May 20, 2010 starred Alexandra as Anna Verniaz (née Zorn). It received generally positive reviews from critics. That year she also appeared in the Franco-German drama film ‘Small World.’
She furthered her fame with the role of Marlene Lauda starring along with Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl in the biographical sports film ‘Rush.’ The Ron Howard directed film that screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival prior to its theatrical release in the UK, the US and Germany emerged as a sensational hit and earned kudos from the critics circle.
The Saul Dibb directed 2015 British-French-Belgian Second World War romantic drama film ‘Suite Française’ that starred her husband Sam Riley among others featured her in the character of Leah.
She played space station commander and DLR Astronaut Ute Fassbinder in the October 20, 2017 released American sci-fi disaster film ‘Geostorm.’ It marked feature film directorial debut of Dean Devlin.
Her next feature with her husband was in the Ben Wheatley directed 2018 British comedy drama film ‘Happy New Year, Colin Burstead.’ She played Hannah, German girlfriend of her husband’s character David in it. The film screened at the 62nd BFI London Film Festival in competition on October 11, 2018, aired on December 30 that year on BBC2 and was later shown at the 2019 Palm Springs International Film Festival. It received generally positive critical reviews.
The Matthew Vaughn directed and produced period action spy film ‘The King’s Man’ by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures will feature Alexandra in the role of Polly.
In 2020, she starred in Asphalt Burning film Robyn.
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Variety Read Next: Golden Globes Predictions: Best TV Supporting Actress – Gillian Anderson’s Iron Lady May Mine for Gold
Dec 1, 2020 10:00am PT
Melissa McCarthy, Ben Falcone Set Netflix Comedy Series ‘God’s Favorite Idiot’
Chelsea Lauren/Variety/REX/Shutterstock
Netflix has ordered a comedy series called “God’s Favorite Idiot” from Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone, Variety has learned.
The streamer has commissioned 16 episodes of the series, in which both McCarthy and Falcone will star. Falcone wrote the series, with both he and McCarthy also serving as executive producers via their company On the Day. Michael McDonald, who has frequently collaborated with the pair, will direct and executive produce.
In “God’s Favorite Idiot,” Mid level Tech support employee Clark Thompson (Falcone) finds love with co- worker Amily Luck (McCarthy) at exactly the same time he becomes the unwitting messenger of God. Also, there’s roller skating, a lake of fire and an impending apocalypse.
McCarthy and Falcone, who are married in real life, have collaborated numerous times in the past. Their past work together includes the films “Bridesmaids” (for which McCarthy received an Oscar nomination), “Tammy,” “The Boss,” “Life of the Party,” and “Superintelligence.” They most recently completed production on the Netflix film “Thunder Force.” They also executive produced and appeared in the TV Land series “Nobodies,” on which McDonald appeared and directed nearly every episode. They also executive produced the competition series “Little Big Shots,” on which McCarthy is the host.
They are repped by CAA and MGMT Entertainment.
McDonald has directed episodes of shows like “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Cougar Town,” “Scrubs,” and “MADtv.” He was also a cast member on “MADtv” from the time the show began and appeared in many of the shows he also directed.
He is repped by ICM.
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A Week In Review: The U.S. Senate Tackles Immigration Reform…But There's A Flag On The Field, Folks
This past week I saw hard work, healthy debate, concerted effort and lots of progress…everywhere in the world save for the United States Senate.
I have said it before: If more people watched C-SPAN instead of QVC, every member of Congress would be unemployed by Christmas in what I imagine would look something like a nuclear election holocaust.
BB Side Note: Except for Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Hilary Clinton (D-NY).
Chambliss and Sessions (cutie pies) would survive because unlike their colleagues, they appear neither retarded nor confused about the country for which they work. As for the other two, see: Cockroaches and Nuclear Holocaust.
As it stands, the Senate bill (S.2611) looks something like this:
Illegal immigrants who have been in the U.S. for more than five years can stay and eventually become permanent legal residents and/or citizens—they have to pay a fine, learn English and pay back taxes.
Illegal immigrants who have been here between two and five years have to leave (only to a port of entry) and apply for legal entry, which DHS must grant them unless it can prove that they do not qualify.
Illegal immigrants who have been here less than two years have to leave.
(Good luck with that one.)
Provides for roughly 200,000 new temporary guest worker visas per year...every year. These "temporary guest workers" are entitled to apply for permanent legal residence after working here for four years, and they don't count against the legal immigration caps.
Provides guest worker visas for 1.5 million people in the field of agriculture—these recipients are also eligible for legal permanent residency.
Builds a 370-mile fence along the Mexican border with another 500 miles of vehicle barriers.
Illegal immigrants who have been convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors would be deported immediately, unless their crime was immigration-related.
Authorizes the hiring of 1,000 additional border patrol agents (for a total of 3,000) and adds 14,000 agents by the year 2011 which more than doubles the current number of agents. (Currently 10,000 for the whole country.)
Creates more detention facilities and requires employers to verify employment eligibility of new hires via an electronic monitoring system.
Establishes a penalty of $20,000 and possible jail time for employers who hire illegal immigrants.
From what I have seen, there are a few (innumerable) problems with the existing legislation.
Illegal immigrants convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors are not allowed to stay in the U.S. but there is a giant loophole in that provision. There are exceptions for "hardship cases" and those who were unaware that a deportation order had been issued in their case.
Hardship is not clearly defined and everybody will claim ignorance of prior deportation notices—this is a worthless amendment (or " compromise" as the Senators called it).
Those who have been in the country more than five years could be somewhat motivated to apply for residency although I doubt they will—it is probably in their best interest to not apply.
They don't pay taxes, they receive free medical care and a free education for their children without consequence—why should they fix what isn't broke?
Those who have been here more than two but less than five years have absolutely no reason to leave the country and apply for legal entry—they will see it as too great a risk and again, they haven't had any consequences so far so why rock the boat?
Those here less than two years aren't going anywhere and everybody knows it.
But these are by far the biggest flaws:
There is nothing in this bill that requires illegal immigrants to exercise any of these options.
There is nothing in this bill that establishes a consequence for those who do not.
Seriously, what is the point of all this?
Can it really be called immigration reform if the only reform is to increase the number of visas extended to foreign nationals?
Can it really be called immigration reform if it only increases the benefits for which illegal aliens are eligible?
And what are the illegal immigrants, their lobbyists and Mexican politicians saying about all of this?
According to Kathleen Walker Vice President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, there isn't any incentive for illegal immigrants to follow the proposed schedule.
"For those who feel they have nothing in their home country and have lived underground for years, how is that an incentive for them to come forward?" [ Some Immigrants Fear Guest Worker Program by Juan A. Lozano and Anabelle Garay, Associated Press, May 21, 2006]
My favorite statement (so far) was made by Hector Flores, President of League of United Latin American Citizens ( LULAC). Mr. Flores opposes the Sessions amendment which provides funding for a fence on the border. ( Press Release)
"We are calling upon the Senate to revisit this amendment which is an affront to immigrant communities and will create a permanent scar in the relationship between the United States and our southern neighbors. Building a 'Berlin' style wall between ourselves and our neighbor is un-American, undemocratic, and unacceptable in a free society."
That's a good one! Our fence will scar the relationship between our nations—not the arrogant, criminal behavior exhibited by illegal immigrants—but our border fence.
The fact remains, nobody outside of the Senate is pleased with this bill as written. Personally, I haven't found anything worthwhile except for the deportation of illegal aliens who have resided here less than two years.[Vdare.com note: Of course, given the massive fake documents industry, it may be that no such persons will be found to exist.]
Now if they could just extend that group to include all illegal aliens…
On Monday the Senate debate will resume and Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has pledged to pass a bill by Memorial Day.
If the political discourse continues the present track, a bill may find its way out of the Senate—but immigration reform will not.
VDARE.com will continue our live blogging of the Senate all week so tune in for updates…if you can stomach it.
Bryanna Bevens [email her] is a political consultant and former chief of staff for a member of the California State Assembly.
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The Déformation Professionnelle Of Jewish Organizations On Immigration
This 2010 article from The Jewish Week isn't new, but it's important.
Curve Ball For Jewish Leaders On Immigration
In recent AJC poll, 52 percent of Jews favored Arizona’s tough immigration law, which focuses on an enforcement-only policy.
Some wonder if American Jewry’s traditional empathy for all newcomers could be waning.
Doug Chandler Special To The Jewish Week
One of the rare issues on which nearly all mainstream Jewish organizations agree — and on which they’ve always believed they had the backing of most American Jews — involves how the United States should treat immigrants, including those who are undocumented.
More than a dozen national agencies, including the congregational arms of all four major branches of Judaism, have publicly announced their support for comprehensive immigration reform, which would go beyond an enforcement-only policy to offer unauthorized residents “a path to citizenship.”
But this week some Jewish leaders are beginning to wonder if American Jewry’s traditional empathy for all newcomers is now waning.
Their concern follows the Oct. 12 release of a survey by the American Jewish Committee that asked respondents if they supported or opposed Arizona’s controversial new law on illegal immigration. Fifty-two percent of the 800 respondents said they supported the law, while 46 percent opposed the measure and 2 percent said they weren’t sure.
“It’s a reminder that Jews are part of America and are influenced by some of the same currents that influence other Americans,” said Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University. At the same time, he noted that the 52-percent figure remains lower than the 65 percent of Americans, overall, who’ve told pollsters they favor the law.
The query was among 29 questions in a survey that focused largely on the Obama administration, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the upcoming midterm elections. But it touched on a subject that has a special resonance for American Jews, confusing and dismaying some Jewish leaders because of the result.
“That one took us by surprise,” said David Harris, AJC’s executive director.
Noting that the result seems “to defy conventional wisdom” about the Jewish commitment to progressive social policy, Harris said he couldn’t explain, but could only guess, why respondents answered as they did.
“When Americans, including Jews, see the words ‘illegal immigration,’ that helps define their answer,” he said, referring to a term used in the question. “But we don’t have enough data to tease that out, and we didn’t expect it.”
Another AJC leader close to the issue also seemed taken aback by the result.
“When I first heard about this, my first thought was, ‘Why this question?’” said Ann Schaffer, director of the organization’s Belfer Center for American Pluralism, who wasn’t alone among her colleagues in wondering why the question was asked.
“I don’t know if we know what to make of this,” Schaffer said.
As Harris suggested, one explanation for the result may rest with how the question is worded: “A new law in Arizona gives police the power to ask people they’ve stopped to verify their residency status,” it begins, simply enough. “Supporters say this will help crack down on illegal immigration. Opponents say it could violate civil rights and lead to racial profiling. On balance, do you support or oppose this law?”
“‘Racial profiling’ is not a term that people understand, but they do know that something illegal is wrong,” said Sammie Moshenberg, director of Washington operations for the National Council of Jewish Women.
In other words, according to professional Jewish Leaders, the people they claim to lead are complete morons who can't understand simple questions and are manipulated by wily media experts who use inflammatory terms like "illegal immigration." (Of course, the rest of the question is loaded with the hot button phrases "racial profiling" and the holy of holies of righteous indignation-generation: "violate civil rights.")
Are American Jews as dumb as their paid leaders insist they must be for engaging in crimethink on immigration? Razib recently went through the General Social Survey's 10 question vocabulary quiz for various groups. On most graphs, you get most groups having bell curves centering around getting six out of ten words right, with rapid falloffs above that. The religion graph, however, really stood out:
Granted, the Jewish advantage wouldn't be quite as huge if the other religions were restricted to just their white members, but still ...
So, the data suggests that average American Jews are relatively good at reading the newspaper.
And their views on immigration are closer to those of their fellow citizens than to the groupthink of their self-proclaimed leaders.
All that is nonsense to Stephen Steinlight, the lone figure who has advocated an anti-immigration stance in talks to Jewish groups and in the op-ed pages of Jewish newspapers.
“What we’ve found is a gigantic gulf between the pulpit and the pew [on the issue], and this is true of every religion in America, including Jews,” said Steinlight, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies and a former staff member at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and AJC. “Not only is it a slam dunk that Americans don’t support illegal immigration or amnesty, but Jews are no different.”
Steinlight’s contention is that illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans during tough economic times, and their presence only benefits large companies looking for cheap labor.
“When Jews talk about tikkun olam [repairing the world], they have to ask themselves a question: Tikkun olam for whom? The illegal immigrant who entered the country last night or their struggling neighbor?”
Ken Jacobson of the Anti-Defamation League responds:
“If you want to talk in terms of being overwhelmed demographically, Jews are already overwhelmed demographically,” Jacobson continued. “We’re something like 2 percent of the population.”
Obviously, Ken Jacobson makes his living by goading Jews to feel "overwhelmed demographically" by white gentiles. But the reality is that typical American Jews don't feel all that overwhelmed. Their view tends to be that America has been very, very good to them and that they've been good to America. They tend to identify with their neighbors, their fellow American citizens, their fellow whites, their fellow "historic Americans," white and black (e.g., Willie Mays is a hero to a lot of older Jewish guys), and so forth and so on. But, this healthy state of affairs is bad for the balance sheets of a few powerful organizations.
All this suggests that that fundamentalist frenzy of Ellis Island kitsch ethnocentrism that currently dominates acceptable thought about immigration has less to do with average Jewish-American citizens than it has to do with the déformation professionnelle of the leaders of explicitly Jewish organizations, of organizations such as the SPLC that are implicitly Jewish because, as Willie Sutton said about why he robbed banks, that's where the money is; and the media types who interact with them.
Hence, the key to understanding many of the reigning irrationalities in American thought is to understand that déformation professionnelle. Since those interest groups have declared themselves off-limits to critical analysis (literally, in the very name of the ADL), however, don't expect anybody to learn anything.
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Idaho Gold Production Summary
Gold placers were discovered in Idaho in 1852 along the Pend Oreille River (Ross, 1930b, p. 2); however, Staley (1946, p. 5) considered the placer discovery at Pierce City in 1860 as the earliest discovery of consequence in the State. Other placers were discovered in Elk City, Orofino, and along the Salmon River in 1860 and 1861, and a year later discoveries were made at Florence, Warren, and Boise Basin.
Placers were the major source of gold in Idaho before 1900 (fig. 12); however, most of them were exhausted after the period of feverish exploitation from 1860 to 1870. Ross (1930b, p. 3) estimated that the value of placer gold produced to 1864 was about $20 million (about 1 million ounces).
With a slight decline of placer mining after 1870, lode deposits, which had been known and worked on a small scale since 1861, became more important, though placering was rejuvenated in 1897 by cheaper dredging operations and it continued to furnish most of the gold. After a lull in mining from 1870 to 1880, the industry revived, but after 1900 gold declined in importance among the mineral commodities mined in Idaho (Ross, 1930b, p. 3).
From 1863 to 1965 Idaho produced 8,322,930 ounces of gold. If the 1 million ounces that was produced before 1864 is added to this amount, the total gold production was about 9,300,000 ounces (fig. 13).
The lode gold deposits of Idaho are related to the huge Idaho batholith, a mass of granitic intrusive rocks that occupies much of the central part of the State. Most of the deposits are near the contact of the batholith, either in the granitic rocks or in intruded rocks which consist of sedimentary, meta-sedimentary, and volcanic rocks.
It is almost impossible to ascertain accurately the gold production of individual counties in Idaho. Much of Idaho's gold was produced before 1864, when the area became a territory and was politically subdivided. Counties were formed gradually, and many of the younger counties were formed from parts of older ones; consequently, some mining districts were originally in one county but later in another, and part of their production was reported by both counties.
Further complicating the issue is the lack of any county production data before 1880, except for Boise and Idaho Counties. Total recorded production for all counties accordingly is less than that for the State.
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Luke Evans Gives An Update On Upcoming “Gaston & LeFou” Disney+ Series
What's On Disney Plus > Blog > Brands > Disney > Luke Evans Gives An Update On Upcoming “Gaston & LeFou” Disney+ Series
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Disney was producing a new prequel live-action series featuring Gaston and LeFou, from “Beauty and the Beast”, with both Josh Gad and Luke Evans returning in their roles.
In an interview with Collider, Luke Evans spoke about the upcoming Disney+ series and how it came about:
“Josh and I, even when we were working on Beauty and the Beast, I recall, as two human beings, we liked each other a lot. We made each other laugh, we respected each other’s talent, and we had a great time. Even then, we were talking about what we could do and wanting to find another project. We’ve been searching, for the last several years, projects and scripts and ideas and concepts.
In the back of our minds, we definitely had thoughts about revisiting Gaston and LeFou in a different story, obviously. So, when the idea really came to fruition and we got on board some incredible writers, Josh, especially, had an incredible idea that, once it was born, it just flew itself. And when we pitched the idea to Disney+, they were very excited about it.
Now, we’re in fully-fledged development. The second and third episodes have been written and we’ve heard some of the music by Alan Menken. We’re just so honored to have him on board, writing the music, which is extraordinary, in itself. We feel so lucky to have this talented group of people creating a story about two much loved and much-hated characters, but that’s the excitement. There are a lot of questions about, where we will start? What we will tell? Who are these people? When you visit them, where will they be? So, it’s going to be a really fun experience. Me and Josh are literally vibrating with excitement to shoot it.”
This new series does sound rather interesting and hopefully it won’t be too much longer until we find out more details. No release date for the new series has yet been announced, but for fans wanting to watch the 2017 live-action version, it’s coming to Disney+ in the United States next month.
Are you excited to see the new Gaston and LeFou Disney+ series?
Tags: Beauty and the Beast, Gaston, lafou
“Beauty And The Beast” Prequel Disney+ Series Title Revealed
“Beauty And The Beast” Coming To Disney+ Early (US)
June 7, 2020 / 0 Comment
“Beauty & The Beast” Disney+ Prequel Series To Feature New Songs From Alan Menken
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Home > > September 16, 2019 > Protecting the Right to Write
Students in Pittsburg, Kansas, landed a scoop that made the principal resign.
From The Kansas City Star. 2017/McClatchy/PARS International Corp
Protecting the Right to Write
More states are acting to shield school newspapers from censorship. What’s fueling the movement?
By Chrisanne Grisé
The student journalists at Pittsburg High School in Pittsburg, Kansas, were suspicious. They had set out to profile a recently hired principal, Amy Robertson, for the school paper—but the details of her background, including where she earned her degrees, didn’t add up.
The reporters met with superintendent Destry Brown about their concerns. He was supportive—so on a Friday night in March 2017, the paper published a story calling attention to the discrepancies. By Tuesday, Robertson had resigned “in the best interest of the district.”
Many praised the students. “I believe strongly in our kids questioning things and not believing things just because an adult told them,” Brown says.
The student journalists at Pittsburg High School in Pittsburg, Kansas, were suspicious. They had set out to profile a recently hired principal, Amy Robertson, for the school paper. But when they dug into her background, things didn’t add up. Even details like where she earned her degrees seemed questionable.
The reporters met with Superintendent Destry Brown about their concerns. He was supportive. So on a Friday night in March 2017, the paper published a story calling attention to the discrepancies. By Tuesday, Robertson had resigned “in the best interest of the district.”
The shocking report might never have made it to print if it weren’t for the Kansas Student Publications Act, which grants students independent control over their editorial content, including material that paints an unflattering picture of a school. Similar laws now exist in 13 other states (see map, below).
In most areas of the country, though, the story might not have seen the light of day. But that could change. This year, 11 more states—including New York and Missouri—are debating or have already debated so-called New Voices laws that would guard school news publications against censorship.
“This movement has been growing,” says Hadar Harris, executive director at the Student Press Law Center, “because of committed teachers and students who recognize the need to protect student journalists.”
The shocking report might never have made it to print if it weren’t for the Kansas Student Publications Act. The law grants student journalists independent control over their editorial content. It even lets students publish things that paint an unflattering picture of a school. Similar laws now exist in 13 other states. (see map, below).
In most areas of the country, though, the story might not have seen the light of day. But that could change. This year, 11 more states are debating or have already debated so-called New Voices laws. New York and Missouri are two of them. If these laws get passed, they would guard school news publications against censorship.
The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press—but with school publications, it’s more complicated.
In 1969, the Supreme Court ruled in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District that students have the right to express opinions as long as they don’t disturb the learning environment. But in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier in 1988, the Court decided that a Missouri school district had acted lawfully in removing a spread on divorce and teenage pregnancy from a student newspaper. (Student newspapers are more of an educational tool than a public forum, the ruling said.) Because of that, administrators are able to censor work that they consider controversial or poorly written in school publications.
“Since the Hazelwood decision was handed down, student journalists have had lesser protections under the First Amendment than other high school students do,” Harris says.
Young journalists in states with protection laws, however, are essentially covered by the Tinker standard instead. The laws give independent control back to students—although administrators can still remove material that is obscene or defamatory or poses a danger.
The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press. But with school publications, it’s more complicated.
In 1969, the Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District case reached the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that students have the right to express opinions as long as they don’t disturb the learning environment. But things changed in 1988, with the Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier case. A school district in Missouri had removed a spread on divorce and teenage pregnancy from a student newspaper. The Court decided that the school district had acted lawfully. Student newspapers are more of an educational tool than a public forum, the ruling said. Because of that, administrators can censor work that they consider controversial or poorly written in school publications.
Things are a little different for young journalists in states with protection laws. They are essentially covered by the Tinker standard instead. The laws give independent control back to students. Administrators are still allowed to remove material that is obscene or defamatory or poses a danger.
Critics argue that sometimes censorship is still necessary.
“It’s not saying you can publish whatever you want to publish—there has to be good judgment used,” Harris says.
Some critics, however, believe that’s still too much freedom.
“These are publications . . . that are seen as communications coming from the school,” Stacy Haney of the Virginia School Boards Association told the Virginia House Education Committee in January. Taking away the school’s authority, she said, “is absolutely the wrong way to go.”
Despite concerns, half a dozen states passed laws protecting student reporters by the mid-1990s. But it wasn’t until 2015 that New Voices laws began taking off, after a passionate group of students and adults rallied to help pass one in North Dakota. Six more states have since followed suit.
But some critics believe that’s still too much freedom.
Despite concerns, half a dozen states passed laws protecting student reporters by the mid-1990s. But it wasn’t until 2015 that New Voices laws began taking off. A group of students and adults rallied to help pass one in North Dakota. That sparked action across the nation. Six more states have since followed suit.
Fueled by Social Media
Allison V. Smith/The New York Times/Redux
Neha Madhira wrote an opinion piece in Prosper, Texas, that was barred from publication at her school.
Experts say social media has helped fuel the movement, as stories of censored students spread online. And in the current political climate—with some media outlets being dismissed as fake news—many lawmakers want to ensure that young journalists can think critically and report responsibly, Harris says.
Not everyone is on board, however. Lawmakers in Virginia and Hawaii tabled New Voices bills this year. And even with growing public support for student journalists, administrators across the country have pushed back against reporting on sensitive topics, like gun violence and teen relationships. Last year, for example, the principal of Prosper High School in Prosper, Texas, clashed with the school’s news site after he censored three articles that were critical of the school.
“To say we felt belittled was an understatement,” editor Neha Madhira, now 18, says. The principal didn’t respond to requests for comment, but he eventually agreed to let students publish future stories without his approval.
Now Madhira is leading the charge for a New Voices law in Texas.* And plenty of other teens around the country are also speaking out as a record number of states consider these bills in 2019.
As the failed attempts in Virginia and Hawaii demonstrate, however, New Voices laws can face steep opposition. But that hasn’t stopped teens from trying to protect what they believe is their constitutional right to free speech.
“Kids have to know that their voices are vital,” Madhira says. “The last thing we need is to have young people’s voices silenced.”
Experts say social media has fueled the movement. More and more stories of censored students have spread online. In the current political climate, some media outlets are being dismissed as fake news. That’s why many lawmakers want to ensure that young journalists can think critically and report responsibly, Harris says.
Public support for student journalists continues to grow. But not everyone is on board. Lawmakers in Virginia and Hawaii tabled New Voices bills this year. Administrators across the country have pushed back against reporting on sensitive topics, like gun violence and teen relationships. Last year, for example, the principal of Prosper High School in Prosper, Texas, clashed with the school’s news site. Things got heated after he censored three articles that were critical of the school.
“To say we felt belittled was an understatement,” editor Neha Madhira, now 18, says. The principal didn’t respond to requests for comment. But he eventually agreed to let students publish future stories without his approval.
Now Madhira is leading the charge for a New Voices law in Texas. And plenty of other teens around the country are also joining the fight. They’re speaking out at a time where a record number of states are considering these bills.
The failed attempts in Virginia and Hawaii show that New Voices laws can face steep opposition. But that hasn’t stopped teens from trying to protect what they believe is their constitutional right to free speech.
*The bill timed out without a vote this year but supporters plan to reintroduce it next session.
With reporting by Christopher Mele of The Times.
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The Rolling Stones’ ‘Exhibitionism’ Comes to Navy Pier
Music News Feb 16, 2017 by Courtney Rios 560Views 0Likes
A stunning display of exhibitionism in the Windy City
Photo Credit: Exhibitionism
Mayor Rahm Emanuel was joined by other city officials this morning at Navy Pier to announce the latest attraction to take place at the landmark.
“Exhibitionism,” an in-depth and experiential story of influential rock band The Rolling Stones, will be held at Navy Pier from April 15 through July 30. The exhibit explores all facets of the legendary band, including a style and fashion gallery, vintage instruments, photography, letters, and paraphernalia, interactive displays, and a 3D concert finale. Visitors can even create their own remixes of the Stones’ music.
This celebration of a phenomenal segment of pop culture will occupy 18,000 square feet in Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, and elements of the exhibit will be incorporated throughout other features of the Pier, such as the summer fireworks shows.
The traveling exhibit was a massive hit in London and New York City, and it’s slated to make its way to Sydney, Australia in November 2018. Tickets for the Chicago exhibit go on sale February 24 and prices will range from $25 – $35.
In this morning’s conference, the Mayor touched on the British band’s special connection to Chicago, as the city’s blues roots are major influences in their music. He mentioned how the Stones’ have helped “spread Chicago’s cultural vibrancy around the world.”
As Navy Pier is a major tourist attraction, the exhibit will not only draw in thousands of locals, it’ll also welcome visitors from all over the world, creating opportunities for people to interact from all corners of the world with a common love for music.
Tags: exhibitmusicnavy pierthe rolling stones
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NBA free agency: Day four recap
Jamal Crawford Clippers at Wizards 12/14/13 by author Keith Allison via Flickr
The Sacramento Kings pick up two veterans and a major three-way sign and trade takes place around Danilo Gallinari.
The fourth day of NBA free agency had a lot more action taking place then a passive day three did. It has seen marquee free agent Gordon Hayward finally announce what team he will be playing for and the Sacramento Kings nab two veterans. There was also an important three-team trade centered around small forward Danilo Gallinari.
Kings get Hill and Randolph
The Sacramento Kings added veterans George Hill and Zach Randolph. Hill's deal is for three-years, $57 million, and Randolph's is for two-years, $24 million. Last season, Hill was plagued by injuries, but when he did play he had one of his best seasons as the Utah Jazz's starting point guard.
The 31-year-old put up 16.9 points, 4.2 assists, 3.4 rebounds, and 1 steal. He also shot 47.7% from the field and 40.3% on three-pointers.
Randolph, who turns 36 on July 16th, has been the heart and soul of the Memphis Grizzlies for the last eight seasons. He helped lead the team to seven straight playoff appearances while making two All-Star appearances. Last year, Randolph transitioned to a sixth-man role and was one of the best in the league. He averaged 14.1 points, 8.2 rebounds, 1.7 assists in 24.5 minutes played.
Mike Scott signs with the Wizards
The Washington Wizards have signed veteran power forward Mike Scott to a one-year, $1.7 million deal. Scott has spent all five NBA seasons with the Atlanta Hawks. Last season he only played in 18 games due to D-League assignments and a left knee injury before being traded to and then waived by the Phoenix Suns.
Patrick Patterson fills OKC's gap at power forward
The Oklahoma City Thunder and Patrick Patterson have agreed to a three-year, $16.4 million deal, filling the gap at the position after the team lost Taj Gibson to Minnesota. His deal includes a player option for the third season. Last season for the Raptors, Patterson averaged 6.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.2 assists.
He also shot 40.1% from the field and 37.2% on three-pointers.
Omir Casspi signs with the Warriors
The Golden State Warriors have signed small forward Omir Casspi to a one-year deal at the veteran's minimum of $2.1 million. Last season, Casspi bounced around the league, playing in 36 games for the Kings, Timberwolves, and Pelicans. Over his eight-year NBA career, he averages 8.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.2 assists.
He also shoots 44.3% from the field and 36.7% on three-pointers.
A major three-team sign and trade
The Los Angeles Clippers have acquired Denver Nuggets small forward Danilo Gallinari has part of a three-team sign and trade also involving the Atlanta Hawks. The Clippers acquired Gallinari on a three-year, $65 million deal. In return, the Nuggets received Washington's 2019 second-round pick from the Hawks. Gallinari was going to join the Clippers as a free agent, so the Nuggets wanted to at least get something instead of nothing.
For helping make the deal happen, the Hawks received Jamal Crawford, Diamond Stone, Houston's 2018 first-round pick and cash from the Clippers. Crawford will now ask Atlanta for a contract buyout so he can become a free agent.
Sources have told Marc Spears of The Undefeated that Crawford wants to play for the Lakers. The Warriors are also interested in his services.
Blasting News recommends Leonard Fournette praises Tom Brady’s leadership, laser focus and grace under pressure Ohio State Buckeyes: McCord, Stroud, Wade and Miller expected to leave in this year’s NFL draft Tom Brady has funny take on matchup with Brees: ‘He’s 18 months younger than me’ Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians: ‘Players listen to Tom Brady more than me’ Gordon Hayward is joining the Boston Celtics Clippers set to meet with Derrick Rose and Javale McGee '90 Day Fiance: The Other Way': Kenneth says his relationship is not acted Video '90 Day Fiance: The Other Way:' Sumit is facing backlash for choosing Jenny Video
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(CNN) — An Australian food company has officially renamed a snack brand after years of complaints that its name is a racial slur.
Coon Cheese, which has been sold in Australia for more than 80 years, will now be known as Cheer Cheese, its manufacturer said Wednesday. The new brand will roll out to Australian supermarkets in July.
Owner Saputo Dairy Australia, which bills itself as the country’s largest dairy processor, had long resisted calls for change, saying the name paid homage to Edward William Coon, who invented a cheesemaking method. But the word is also a deeply insulting slur directed at people of color.
The company said in the statement Wednesday that the new name aims to align “with current attitudes and perspectives.”
“Cheer Cheese is a cheese for everyone, and we trust our valued consumers and those who are new to our products will embrace this new name,” Cam Bruce, the company’s commercial director, said in the statement.
Several big brands, such as Quaker Oats’ Aunt Jemima and Mars-owned Uncle Ben’s, also announced last year they would change or retire branding that was considered racially offensive.
In Australia, Nestlé has rebranded its Red Skins and Chicos sweets, saying that their names were out of step with the company’s values. The candy is now sold under the names Red Ripper and Cheekies.
& © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
49ers’ to-do list: Fortify trenches, boost offensive depth, address special teams, sign cornerbacks galore Two extra teams made this season’s playoffs, and that still wasn’t enough runway for the defending NFC champion 49ers to land there. “I hope it…
JetBlue just unveiled the ultra-modern cabin of its latest plane — take a look inside its brand-new Airbus A220 jets Summary List PlacementJetBlue Airways on Tuesday unveiled the cabin of its newest arrival, the long-awaited Airbus A220-300. The first model arrived in New York on…
Athleta's head of merchandising shares why the company's first-ever sleepwear collection cements its place as a 'true lifestyle brand' Summary List PlacementAthleta is capitalizing on its success selling comfortable clothes to homebound Americans during the pandemic with its first sleepwear collection. The launch of…
Happy 50th birthday to the name “Silicon Valley” Fifty years ago — on Jan. 11, 1971 — journalist Don Hoefler started a three-part series in Electronic News about the Bay Area semiconductor industry…
Anne Hathaway goes by ‘Annie,’ Anne is the name her mom uses to yell at her Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor star in a new HBO Max film, Locked Down, that I really want to see. They’re a couple whose relationship…
The Brand Investment in Esports Report Summary List PlacementEsports viewership is on the rise. Thanks in part to streaming services such as Twitch, the number of esports fans globally is anticipated…
Dollar Shave Club CEO Michael Dubin is stepping down a decade after founding the upstart razor brand Summary List PlacementDollar Shave Club CEO Michael Dubin will step down later this month after roughly a decade after he founded it, the company confirmed…
How the 49ers’ season-finale loss impacts their shot at a 2021 rebound
Defensive lineman Arik Armstead aptly summed up the 49ers’ 2020 season and 2021 plans after Sunday’s finale, a 26-23 loss to Seattle. “It didn’t go the way we wanted it to go but it’s been a long trying year. Seems like the longest year ever,” Armstead said. “There’s some relief to get back next year […]
By Lindsey Bahr | Associated Press Just before the outbreak of the World War II, a small-time archeologist was hired by a local woman to excavate her land. The thought was that it possibly contained some Viking remnants. But what was unearthed in the mounds out in the fields was far more significant than they […]
Raiders’ defensive coordinator search — think Seattle, Tampa Bay
The Raiders are remaining tight-lipped about their search for a defensive coordinator, but the latest name is a fit with the first three who surfaced since the end of the regular-season. Kris Richard, a former defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks, has reportedly spoken with the Raiders, along with Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Gus […]
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Jay-Z Takes Phone Out of Man’s Hand for Trying to Record Around Him and Beyonce: Watch
In The Spotlight via YouTube
Jay-Z wasn't trying to let anyone ruin his wife Beyonce's fun.
On Saturday night (Dec. 14), Jay-Z, Beyonce and a slew of other esteemed celebrities congregated to celebrate Diddy's 50th birthday party at the Bad Boy founder's Holmby Hills mansion in Los Angeles. During the star-studded shindig, Beyonce hit the dance floor with Saweetie and others when a man attempted to record the moment with his phone. Before the man could aim his camera at the famed singer, Hov abruptly ended the man's mission by grabbing the phone out of the man's hands.
Hov appears to tell the man to back off, but the camera pans away before we can see the end of their conversation. In another angle caught on video, the unidentified man had appeared to be in the background as Hov and Bey met with Saweetie and Quavo.
Although the cameras were out and about throughout Sean Combs' birthday festivities, Jay-Z has never been one to allow strangers to record him or his family. The billionaire has always tried to live a private life despite The Carters' lengthy, respective careers in the spotlight.
Before Hov had to regulate at Diddy's party, the Watch the Throne rapper reunited with his old friend Kanye West. Jay and 'Ye were seen dapping each other up with huge smiles on their faces. They later posed for photos and were seen briefly chopping it up.
Source: Jay-Z Takes Phone Out of Man’s Hand for Trying to Record Around Him and Beyonce: Watch
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Autism Research at the NICHD
Cochrane Neonatal Reviews
Media-Smart Youth
Women's Health Research at the NICHD
The NICHD maintains and is involved in a number of health communication campaigns and programs. For more information on each project, please visit its Web site.
Autism Research at the NICHD is a Web site that offers easy access to the most current information about NICHD-supported research projects, publications, news, resources, and other activities related to autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).
The Back to Sleep campaign seeks to educate parents and caregivers about the importance of placing healthy babies on their backs to sleep, for naps and at night, to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The campaign also describes other ways to reduce the risk of SIDS.
Cochrane Neonatal Reviews are an effort to relay technical and research information to health care providers, researchers, and interested publics. These reviews provide efficient access to current evidence in neonatology and help to reduce the gap between the time when a treatment's effectiveness and safety is established in research and its routine use by health care providers. Please note that this information is highly technical and is intended to help neonatologists, researchers designing clinical trials, funding agencies, and individuals making decisions about the allocation of resources for neonatal care make more informed decisions specific to medical practices in neonatology.
The Milk Matters campaign strives to educate parents, teachers, children, and health care providers about the importance of getting enough calcium during the childhood and teen years to build strong bones and teeth that will last a lifetime.
The Media-Smart Youth: Eat, Think, and Be Active program is an interactive after-school education program for young people ages 11 to 13 that teaches them to analyze, evaluate, and create media messages-skills that can help them make smart, positive choices about nutrition and physical activity every day.
In 2001, the NICHD, the National Institute for Literacy, and the U.S. Department of Education formed the Partnership for Reading, a collaborative effort to distribute evidence-based reading research information, including the findings of the National Reading Panel, to those who can benefit the most from it. The Partnership provides the needed information to ensure that the methods of reading instruction used in the classroom rely on evidence, like that put forth by NICHD-supported researchers.
We Can!--a national education program to help prevent overweight and obesity among youth ages 8 to 13, provides resources and community-based programs for parents, caregivers, and youth that focus on behaviors to encourage healthy eating, increase physical activity, and reduce sedentary time. The program was developed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and is conducted in collaboration with the NICHD, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the National Cancer Institute, and several national private sector organizations.
Women's Health Research at the NICHD is a portal into research related to women's health that is conducted and supported by the NICHD. The site describes Institute research areas and findings, links to health publications and news releases, provides contacts for researchers and health care providers, and links to relevant resources in the area of women's health.
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Small State Great Beer is Back and Greater than Ever
August 9, 2018 by Emma B. No Comments
Warning: “THIS ISN’T YOUR TYPICAL BEER FESTIVAL”
Small State Great Beer, now in its third year, prides itself on being a beer tasting party with a music festival vibe. On Saturday, September 15th, 2018, SSGB will be taking over Constitution Plaza in downtown Hartford, bringing Connecticut exclusive craft beer, food trucks, live music, and most of all… the best crowd around.
But, to get a better sense of what this year will bring and how the festival came about, we wanted to meet up the masterminds behind CT’s fastest booming festival – the SSGB crew themselves.
How did the idea come about to create a craft beer festival right in the middle of downtown Hartford?
At the time, a few years back, there weren’t too many things in Connecticut that people were excited about. However, all these breweries in Connecticut were booming into existence, and it was the first positive thing that really got people talking.
We wanted to guide people to come see all that the city of Hartford has to offer, while also supporting local breweries.
When it came to choosing the exact location, we know that people respond to the environment that they’re in. Constitution Plaza was mentioned as a possible space and we thought it was a great idea. Nothing has happened annually at the plaza since Taste of Hartford and the Festival of Lights, so they were excited about the possibility of something happening there.
On an elevated plaza some of the load in logistics can be difficult (such as building a full stage), so there were definitely some hurdles. But on the night of the festival when you cross that bridge and the sun is about to set and you’re having a beer with friends, you really feel like you’re in this cool, dynamic downtown … and that’s what we were trying to create with the space.
Win 2 VIP tickets to Small State Great Beer by entering a giveaway contest on our Instagram page here!
SSGB isn’t like other craft beer festivals, how would you describe the event to someone who has not been?
It’s a music festival vibe at a beer tasting party.
At other beer festivals, you’re usually out in the middle of a field somewhere or cramped in an arena… there’s not a lot of site activation… beer vendors with their tents, and that’s about it. Small State Great Beer is different. We’re always looking for where we can do things to catch people’s attention and get them to ask “wait, what?”
The festival this year will have two sessions. The first from 1-4PM and second from 6:30-9:30PM [with a VIP session from 5:30-6:30!].
Most festivals are not at night, or in a beautiful downtown urban area. We spend a lot of time and resources lighting up the whole plaza so that when the sun starts to set, there’s an incredible evening experience.
We’re approaching the festivals’ third year now, what do you feel like you learned from the previous two years that you’re (or not!) bringing this year?
People can expect this year to be similar to our second year (but better of course). We learned from the first year that we needed to offer two different sessions and cap each one. This allows long lines for beer tastings to disappear.
How did you choose the lineup of music?
We always strive to have a national level line up that wouldn’t normally play in Hartford. Bands that aren’t quite Xfinity Center but are bigger than Infinity Hall. This year we’re very excited because we’re staying true to that but doubling down on pro-CT and pro-Hartford with the band Bronze Radio Return.
The band brings a lot of fans both locally and from all over the place. You hear their music (which you should listen to here) and you’re instantly feeling a party-like atmosphere. They fit the Small State Great Beer vibe super well and their music is dope.
How do you choose which beer vendors you want to participate?
Our goal is to be an all CT beer festival. We’ve had some vendors reach out to us before they even officially open and it’s always interesting to see what their story is, and why they’re willing to throw away their stable jobs to start up their own brewery.
What can people expect this year that will be different?
A ‘VIP’ hour from 5:30-6:30PM that we’re bringing back from the first year. This hour is solely for people with VIP tickets, where they’ll get a full hour of talking to each one of the breweries, bigger tasting glasses, and no lines.
The food truck area will now be closed off and only available to SSGB participants so 1) there will be less wait time, and 2) you can now bring your beverages down to the ‘food truck district.’
More and new beer vendors, some distilleries and cider houses, and even a non-alcoholic athletic beer company.
The biggest band from Connecticut, Bronze Radio Return will be giving fans an unforgettable experience.
Do you see this turning into an even larger event down the road? Where do you see this festival in years to come?
Our goal is to be in Hartford for as long as possible. Each year we’re going to continue to make this an even bigger cultural experience. Whether it’s extending the music or adding more family-friendly parts to the afternoon, we’re always looking to evolve SSGB in exciting new ways.
If SSGB were a person, who would it be?
Chris Pratt – the man knows how to have a good time and doesn’t take himself too seriously. Think, Parks and Rec. Chris Pratt, mixed in with some Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 1 Chris Pratt. We should email this interview to him and see if he’ll come. The Avengers cast looks like they are always down for a good party.
Don’t forget to purchase your tickets for Small State Great Beer here!
Tags: beer craft beer downtown hartford festivals hartford title
Local Band POSSM Creates An All-Day Music Festival in Hartford
Where to Eat | Taste of Hartford Restaurant Week Summer 2018
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Minneapolis: December 5, 2016
Here are some shows taking place in the Minneapolis/St Paul area on December 5, 2016.
12/05/16 The annual KDWB Jingle Ball is happening at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul. This year’s acts includes: Backstreet Boys, Fifth Harmony, G-Eazy, Diplo, Lukas Graham, Alessia Cara, Tove Lo, Hailee Steinfeld, and Gnash.
12/05/16 The King Khan & BBQ Show and The Gartrells will be at Turf Club.
I saw this trio Dragonette last year and was rather impressed with this Canadian female-fronted electro-pop band. It would seem that the Juno-award-winning band is co-headlining a tour .…
Monday, 12/05/16, 7pm ($15)
We’ve seen the Canadian band Dragonette a couple of times and can tell you that they are a really fun dance electropop trio. At the height of their popularity when they released Bodyparts, they were performing on Good Morning America and collaborated with such acts like Kaskade, Galantis, Big Data, Martin Solveig, etc.
Now the trio is back with their fourth studio album Royal Blues.
New York’s Gibbz (aka Mike Gibney and was last seen in Minneapolis on February 2016) will open the show. He has an upcoming EP called Oh My God, due out on December 16th. This may be a great way of checking him out before he tackle his first headlining tour in 2017.
P.S., My favorite all-time Dragonette song is called ‘Hello’, which is actually a collaboration with French DJ Martin Solveig.
12/2: Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Bar ^
12/3: Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater ^
12/5: Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry ^
12/6: Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall ^
12/8: Columbus, OH @ A&R Music Bar ^
12/10: Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw ^
12/11: Boston, MA @ Royale Boston ^
^ = w/ Gibbz
Australia rockers Hands Like Houses return to North America as main support for Enter Shikari on “The Mindsweep Tour”. Hands Like Houses’ third LP Dissonants is out now via Rise Records. …
OUR LAST NIGHT / HANDS LIKE HOUSES
The Our Last Night and Australia’s Hands Like Houses co-headlining show (“Face to Face” Tour) is taking place at the Garage in Burnsville on Monday, December 5th.
We previously mentioned the Australian band in April 2016 when they were out touring in support of their third studio album Dissonants (Rise Records). The record was produced and mixed by James Paul Wisner (Paramore, Dashboard Confessional) and marked the band’s highest charting to date worldwide (#7 ARIA Albums, Top 10 Billboard Independent Albums, Hard Music Albums, Alternative Albums, and Rock Albums) and was well received globally, with positive reviews from Kerrang!, All Music, Tone Deaf, Alternative Press, Outburn and Rock Sound, etc.
Please note start time of this all-ages show: 5pm. Show up early to check out The Color Morale and Out Came The Wolves.
12/01 @ Crofoot Ballroom in Detroit, MI
12/02 @ Park Street Saloon in Columbus, OH
12/03 @ Fubar in St. Louis, MO
12/04 @ The Bottom Lounge in Chicago, IL
12/05 @ The Garage in Burnsville, MN
12/07 @ Marquis Theater in Denver, CO
12/08 @ In The Venue in Salt Lake City, UT
12/10 @ El Corazon in Seattle, WA
12/11 @ Analog Theater in Portland, OR
12/13 @ The Boardwalk in Orangevale, CA
Posted at 06:16 AM in Alessia Cara, Backstreet Boys, Diplo, Dragonette, Fifth Harmony, G-Eazy, Gibbz, Gnash, Hailee Steinfeld, Hands Like Houses, KDWB, KDWB Jingle Ball, King Khan, Lukas Graham, Minneapolis, Minneapolis Music Guide, Our Last Night, Out Came The Wolves, The Color Morale, The Gartrells, Tove Lo, Vu | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Template:Infobox Nerve Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
3 Role in disease
The optic nerve is the second of twelve paired cranial nerves but is considered to be part of the central nervous system as it is derived from an outpouching of the diencephalon during embryonic development. Consequently, the fibers are covered with myelin produced by oligodendrocytes rather than the Schwann cells of the peripheral nervous system. Similarly, the optic nerve is ensheathed in all three meningeal layers (dura, arachnoid, and pia mater) rather than the epineurium, perineurium, and endoneurium found in peripheral nerves. This is an important issue, as fiber tracks of the mammalian central nervous system (as opposed to the peripheral nervous system) are incapable of regeneration and hence optic nerve damage produces irreversible blindness. The fibers from the retina run along the optic nerve to nine primary visual nuclei in the brain, from whence a major relay inputs into the primary visual cortex.
The optic nerve is composed of retinal ganglion cell axons and support cells. It leaves the orbit (eye) via the optic canal, running postero-medially towards the optic chiasm where there is a partial decussation (crossing) of fibers from the temporal visual fields of both eyes. Most of the axons of the optic nerve terminate in the lateral geniculate nucleus from where information is relayed to the visual cortex. Its diameter increases from about 1.6 mm within the eye, to 3.5 mm in the orbit to 4.5 mm within the cranial space. The optic nerve component lengths are 1 mm in the globe, 25 mm in the orbit, 9 mm in the optic canal and 16 mm in the cranial space before joining the optic chiasm. There, partial decussation occurs and about 53% of the fibers cross to form the optic tracts. Most of these fibers terminate in the lateral geniculate body.
From the lateral geniculate body, fibers of the optic radiation pass to the visual cortex in the occipital lobe of the brain. More specifically, fibers carrying information from the contralateral superior visual field traverse Meyer's loop to terminate in the lingual gyrus below the calcarine fissure in the occipital lobe, and fibers carrying information from the contralateral inferior visual field terminate more superiorly.
The optic nerve contains 1.2 million nerve fibers. This number is low compared to the roughly 100 million photoreceptors in the retina,[1] and implies that substantial pre-processing takes place in the retina before the signals are sent to the brain through the optic nerve.
The eye's blind spot is a result of the absence of retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye. This is because there are no photoreceptors in this area.
Role in disease
Main article: List of eye diseases and disorders
Damage to the optic nerve typically causes permanent and potentially severe loss of vision, as well as an abnormal pupillary reflex, which is diagnostically important. The type of visual field loss will depend on which portions of the optic nerve were damaged. Generally speaking:
Damage before the optic chiasm causes loss of vision in the visual field of the same side only.
Damage in the chiasm causes loss of vision laterally in both visual fields (bitemporal hemianopia). It may occur in large pituitary adenomata.
Damage after the chiasm causes loss of vision on one side but affecting both visual fields: the visual field affected is located on the opposite side of the lesion.
Injury to the optic nerve can be the result of congenital or inheritable problems like Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, glaucoma, trauma, toxicity, inflammation, ischemia, infection (very rarely), or compression from tumors or aneurysms. By far, the three most common injuries to the optic nerve are from glaucoma, optic neuritis (especially in those younger than 50 years of age) and anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (usually in those older than 50).
Glaucoma is a group of diseases involving loss of retinal ganglion cells causing optic neuropathy in a pattern of peripheral vision loss, initially sparing central vision.
Optic neuritis is inflammation of the optic nerve. It is associated with a number of diseases, most notably multiple sclerosis.
Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy is a particular type of infarct that affects patients with an anatomical predisposition and cardiovascular risk factors.
Ophthalmologists, particularly those sub specialists who are neuro-ophthalmologists, are often best suited to diagnose and treat diseases of the optic nerve.
The International Foundation for Optic Nerve Diseases IFOND sponsors research and information on a variety of optic nerve disorders and may provide general direction.
MRI scan of human eye showing optic nerve.
The ophthalmic artery and its branches. (optic nerve is yellow)
Dura mater and its processes exposed by removing part of the right half of the skull, and the brain.
Tentorium cerebelli from above.
Superficial dissection of brain-stem. Lateral view.
Dissection of brain-stem. Lateral view.
Mesal aspect of a brain sectioned in the median sagittal plane.
Scheme showing central connections of the optic nerves and optic tracts.
The fornix and corpus callosum from below.
Nerves of the orbit. Seen from above.
Nerves of the orbit, and the ciliary ganglion. Side view.
The arteries of the choroid and iris. The greater part of the sclera has been removed.
The veins of the choroid.
The terminal portion of the optic nerve and its entrance into the eyeball, in horizontal section.
↑ Jonas JB, Schneider U, Naumann GOH (1992) Count and density of human retinal photoreceptors. Graefe's Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 230:505-510.
The optic nerve on MRI
Template:BrainMaps
IFOND
online case history - Optic nerve analysis with both scanning laser polarimetry with variable corneal compensation (GDx VCC) and confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (HRT II - Heidelberg Retina Tomograph). Also includes actual fundus photos.
Template:NormanAnatomy (Template:NormanAnatomyFig)
Template:Cranial nerves Template:Visual system
ca:Nervi òptic da:Synsnerve de:Sehnerv eu:Nerbio optiko it:Nervo ottico lt:Regos nervas nl:Nervus opticus no:Nervus opticus fi:Näköhermo sv:Synnerv
Retrieved from "https://www.wikidoc.org/index.php?title=Optic_nerve&oldid=686481"
This page was last edited 14:32, 20 August 2012 by wikidoc user WikiBot.
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What HR Can Do About Racism and Microaggressions at Work
You can learn more about microaggressions by subscribing to our Workology Podcast so you can hear about our upcoming podcast episode with Kim Crowder. Subscribe to us on Stitcher | PocketCast | iTunes | Podcast RSS | Google Play | YouTube | TuneIn.
In an upcoming Workology podcast interview soon to be published with Kim Crowder, a diversity and inclusion expert that has recently been listed by Forbes as one of the top seven anti racism educators you need to know, Kim talked about microaggressions. I wanted to talk about this term in more details BEFORE the podcast aired because I was unfamiliar with the term. In preparation for the podcast interview, I realized the lack of informaiton and resources on the topic of microaggression in the D&I and human resources spaces. Thus, this was the inspiration for putting together this post.
What is Microaggression?
The term microaggression was new to me, but once Kim explained what they are it made sense and summed up some of the things I have experienced in my work career as a female, whether it was in the corporate HR folds climbing up the business ranks or as an entrepreneur who some felt I didn’t belong or deserve to be here because I was a woman.
Microaggressions are defined as “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial, gender, sexual orientation, and religious slights and insults to the target person or group.”
Microaggressions are insidious in our culture, and in the context of what’s happening in the US right now with Black Lives Matter, it’s important that companies and HR leaders understand the impact they can have on a workplace. Our underrepresented employees might not be blatantly being discriminated against or treated unfairly, but these small and underhanded comments, remarks, and being looked over for assignments add up. In short, they are another layer of covert discrimination and inequalities that managers don’t often receive training for.
What makes microaggressions so damaging is that they don’t necessarily look like something that is covered under EEOC guidelines. “The way that people expect to see racism is in such overt ways, but for those of us who are part of underrepresented groups, it doesn’t look like that,” said Kim. “We call them small, but to the person it happens to it feels very big because it’s triggering. It’s an ‘all of a sudden’ moment.”
When we as HR leaders are so focused on diversity and inclusion, we don’t always think about what we’re leaving out. “People talk about unconscious bias, which is a pretty common workplace training topic. The terms that should be discussed aren’t being discussed and microaggressions are a good example,” said Kim. If it’s hurting your employees, it’s hurting your business. Ignoring these issues is causing companies to lose great employees. Consider this: 57 percent of employees say they leave their jobs because of bad bosses and three out of five U.S. employees have witnessed or experienced discrimination.
What Does Microaggression at Work Look Like and How Do We Address and Change It?
So how do we, as HR leaders, address and work to eliminate racism and microaggressions in our workplaces?
This level of systemic oppression doesn’t stem from a single thing, and there isn’t a single solution to the problem. Kim recommends a series of actions that companies can take to create positive systemic change.
– Acknowledge that this is a process and that one webinar or one training won’t get you there. Start thinking long term. It’s going to be uncomfortable and it might feel overwhelming, but if you have defined the core values of your organization, this is what is necessary to stand by them.
– Have difficult conversations about racism at the leadership level, and consider if leadership is able to have conversations in a helpful way or if they need education or outside assistance. A note: Do not expect your underrepresented employees to take on the role of educators. You must give these employees a voice, but that is not the same thing as expecting People of Color to teach the leadership at your company how to be anti racist.
– Bring someone in who can see your organization with fresh eyes. Sometimes organizations have people within the company that point out areas in which we can do better, but tend to listen to outside experts when it comes to action. There are outside experts who do this for a living and Kim is one of them.
– Which brings us to the next item: Listen to your underrepresented employees. Listen actively and compassionately. Create safe spaces for employees to share their experiences and report issues in confidence. This can also be done through affinity groups or employee resource groups.
– Don’t try to tackle everything at once. This is a journey. Work with upper level leadership to define one or two things that you can commit to that will make real change. Agree to revisit and evaluate on an ongoing basis with no fixed end date.
– Be clear that this is not a response to the media. If we only see diversity and inclusion as a response to media, we lose out on the long term benefits of it. This is a conversation about humanity, about whether or not your employees trust you, whether or not your leadership reflects your public statements. Determine what you want your legacy to be and commit to that vision instead of being reactionary to what’s trending.
Kim shared her experience as a consultant for organizations on anti racism education. “When we talk about the different burden on different groups, particularly with black employees that have had to watch someone that looks like them murdered on camera, and then have to go into work and be normal and professional. It really creates an unfair and inequitable situation for your black employees,” said Kim. “I have organizations coming to me and saying ‘we don’t know how to talk about this.’ Here’s what people respect: saying ‘I don’t know. True leadership is vulnerability. The more that you’re willing to say that you don’t know but you are committed to finding out. Be comfortable sitting in and honoring what you don’t know.”
← Ep 238 – Why HR Needs an Executive Coach
Why “REAL LIFE” Support For Your Employees Is A Great ROI →
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Australia evacuates coastal cities over big cyclone
Australia evacuated thousands of people from its northeast coast on Tuesday.
Australia evacuated thousands of people from its northeast coast on Tuesday as a cyclone rivalling Hurricane Katrina bore down on tourism towns and rural communities, with officials saying it could even threaten areas deep inland that were ruined by floods last month.
Mines, rail lines and coal ports were closed in Queensland state as Cyclone Yasi headed towards the coastline. Up to a third of Australia's sugar crop was also under threat, officials said.
"This storm is huge and life threatening," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said, warning the system was still intensifying and picking up speed on its path from the Coral Sea, with destructive winds expected on Wednesday morning.
Cyclone Yasi is expected to generate winds of up to 280 kph (175 mph) when it hits the northern coast of tropical Queensland state early on Thursday, matching the strength of Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.
With a strong monsoon feeding Yasi's 650 km-wide front, the storm was also expected to maintain its intensity long after smashing into the coast and could sweep inland as far as the outback mining city of Mt Isa, some 900 km (600 miles) inland.
More than 400,000 people live in the cyclone's expected path, including the cities of Cairns, Townsville and Mackay, which are also key tourist areas and take in Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
Queensland, which accounts for about a fifth of Australia's economy and 90 percent of steelmaking coal exports worth about $20 billion a year, has had a cruel summer, with floods having swept the eastern seaboard over the past month, killing 35 people.
"There's no time for complacency," said Mike Brunker, mayor of the Whitsunday area near the Great Barrier Reef. "People in low-lying areas are evacuating to friends and family or, if they have to, leave town."
Satellite radar images showed Yasi as a massive storm covering almost the entire Coral Sea and moving towards Australia from near Vanuatu.
Among the areas in its path is the small tourist area of Mission Beach, which was flattened by Cyclone Larry in 2006.
"It's a beautiful day today, but all of the tourists have now gone and we're just preparing everything for the cyclone," Mission Beach resident Elvira Montgomery told Reuters.
"They are warning of a four metre tidal surge, so everything might all end up under water."
Authorities said Cyclone Yasi could be the most destructive cyclone to hit the area. A sugar industry official said it could threaten around a third of the state's sugar cane crop.
Island resorts in the Whitsundays and parts of the tourism hub of Cairns and military town of Townsville were being evacuated along with other areas in the danger zone, between Cooktown in the north and near Mackay, a port, further south.
Military C-130 transport aircraft also evacuated the main hospital in Cairns. Extra commercial flights were scheduled to cope with an expected exodus of holidaymakers and residents.
Police were also empowered to forcibly move people from danger zones.
"This is not a system that's going to cross the coast and rapidly weaken out," Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Gordon Banks said, warning winds could reach up to 280 kph and the storm could reach Mt Isa, 900 km inland.
"We could see this system pushing well in across northern Queensland as a significant tropical cyclone with damaging winds and very heavy rainfall," Banks said.
Coal industry on alert again
Queensland's coal industry, only just recovering from recent record floods, went back on alert on Tuesday, with at least one major mine closing down temporarily and rail operations suspended as the industry braced for the cyclone.
The country's largest coal freight company, QR National , temporarily closed two rail networks: the major Goonyella network, feeding into the export terminals of Dalrymple Bay and Hay Point, and its smaller Newlands line taking coal to Abbot Point, a company spokesman said
Global miner Rio Tinto shut its Hail Creek coal mine with the approach of the cyclone.
Queensland's coal mines are mostly inland and are still struggling to pump water out of their pits after flooding.
The Queensland Resources Council, an industry body, estimated coal miners would take until March to return to normal, even without the impact of cyclones.
Bligh said Yasi had the potential to cause powerful and deadly flash flooding in coastal areas. Most of the state's major coal ports were temporarily closed to shipping.
But she said the storm track had shifted slightly north, meaning flood devastated and coal mining areas of central Queensland may escape the worst of cyclonic rains.
"If there is any silver lining here, the movement of the cyclone slightly north has meant that when it travels west and moves inland, it is less likely to drop all of that massive rainfall into the central Queensland catchment areas that have already experienced flooding," Bligh said.
Last month's floods swamped around 30,000 homes, destroyed roads and rail lines and crippled Queensland's coal industry, with up to 15 million tonnes of exports estimated to have been delayed into the second half of this year.
Cyclone Yasi is expected to classified a "category 4" by the time it reaches the coast, similar to Cyclone Larry which hit the town of Innisfail in 2006, levelling sugar crops and causing A$1.5 billion worth of damage.
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Tag: International Extreme Medicine Expo
Home Tag: International Extreme Medicine Expo
CBS news features EWM Disaster Medicine workshop in Boston
2nd December 2013 William MealyeaExpedition & Wilderness MedicineExpedition & Wilderness Medicine, Greg Ciottone, harvard, International Extreme Medicine Expo, mark hannaford, medical training, trauma
As a pre conference workshop to the main Extreme Medicine Conference, hosted at Harvard Medical School, Expedition & Wilderness Medicine organised along with our partners at Harvard a really very realistic workshop to focus on the challenges of mass casualties in disaster area – more from CBS….
Terror simulation draws lessons from Boston Marathon, past disasters
OTIS AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Mass. — First responders need to be ready for anything, whether it’s a massive natural disaster or a terrorist attack.
Few know that like the emergency physicians training in Harvard’s Disaster Medicine/Emergency Management Fellowship. Two weeks ago, five of the Harvard fellows were dispatched to the Philippines to respond to Typhoon Haiyan. Just a few weeks earlier, the Harvard fellows were hosting a major terror simulation that drew lessons from the Boston Marathon bombing and other past, man-made disasters.
“The unique thing about disaster response that makes it different from almost everything else is the fact that you’re responding to a unique event — every disaster is unique, in nature and both modality and scenario and environment in which it happens,” Greg Ciottone, the director of the Harvard program, told CBSNews.com.
Ciottone was a commander of one of the first federal disaster teams on the scene at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. While no one can predict the scenarios where first responders will be needed, disaster simulations are still crucial, he said.
“We’re forced to respond using a multitude of agencies and personnel that don’t normally work together,” he said, “so what you don’t want to have happen is have all these different agencies come together for the first time in a real live disaster event, and that’s why we conduct these drills as often as we can.”
Disaster simulations are common in the post 9/11 era, but the one that Ciottone and his team conducted at the Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts was unique in its size and scope. The Harvard event brought together the National Guard, the Cambridge Police, the Massachusetts Reserve Corps, paramedics, ER physicians and others. It was coordinated to coincide with the Second Annual International Extreme Medicine Expo — hosted this year in Boston — so the participants and observers came from around the world.
The event started by applying makeup — in this case, called moulage — to 92 volunteers pretending to be victims. Kathy Cardeiro, a retired nurse from Bourne, Mass., joined the Massachusetts Reserve Corps (MRC) a couple of years ago, but the volunteer work has meant more to her since the Marathon bombing.
“I think we’ve probably learned a lot from that, how to cope and also learned a lot that people in general all want to help, whether they’re MRC, there are a lot of people that step out, and step up,” she said.
Ciottone and his team created a scenario that started with a lone shooter — a scene now all too common in the U.S. Police arrived to find more than a dozen injured. Paramedics started to arrive, but the scene was complicated by a second incident — a bomb exploding.
This kind of second attack — typically designed to target first responders — has become a common tactic around the world. It may have been what the Boston bombers intended to do with their second device.
After the explosion, there were dozens of more victims to treat, and seven of the first responders were “killed.” The remaining responders — who were not told ahead of time what the scenario would be — suddenly had to reassess the situation and shift their priorities.
“It started off almost textbookish in terms of the initial wave of responders doing their job appropriately, then it broke down a little bit when we lost that first group of responders,” said Jonathan Siegel, a paramedic and supervisor with Cataldo Ambulance Service who participated in the simulation. “The next group of responders came in and were not able to recognize that the command and control roles needed to be backfilled in order for the rest of this to run smoothly.”
After the event, Ciottone explained that the first responders spent too much time triaging and assessing each potential victim — typically the right move — except in a case like this, where quick, immediate action like applying a tourniquet can save lives. In fact, tourniquets were only recently added as standard equipment for Boston EMS, but they proved crucial on April 15.
“The amputations — we saw them the Boston Marathon,” Ciottone explained to the event participants. “The reason that only people two or three killed at the Boston Marathon were from the bombing itself and nobody else was killed, despite the fact there were 30 to 40 life threatening injuries… people jumped quickly with those tourniquets.”
Knowing when to stop to triage a victim is stressful enough, but first responders also have to think about logistics. With dozens of victims down, several ambulances were called to the scene. Ciottone explained after the fact that the scene was inspired by the 1990 Avianca plane crash, when ambulances approached the Long Island, New York crash scene on a narrow road. Once they were there, the ambulances were stuck in a bottleneck.
“We did put a couple obstacles there, they were the blasted out ambulances from the first responders,” he said. “But what we were hoping was you would actually complete that circle, realize that someone needs to get out and help maneuver and move around those obstacles. Instead, what was done, the ambulances came up and made their own route a different way, which had some pluses and minuses to it.”
In many ways, the drill went nothing like it was planned, said Mike Rubin, one of the Harvard fellows who helped organize the event — but that, in a sense, made it more realistic.
“There’s no definite protocol to follow, so you have to reinvent the wheel with every disaster to accommodate the factors,” Rubin said. “It requires some snap decisions and there’s no time to question whether you’re doing the right thing or not.”
Next Extreme Medicine Conference
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In the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” everybody knows what “fishing” is, and many people are also familiar with “phishing” scams. “Phishing” occurs when a criminal sends an email impersonating a financial institution, government agency, or reputable company and asks the recipient to verify his or her personal or financial information. Today’s scam artists have now turned to a more sophisticated, targeted, and profitable version of the scam, known as “spear phishing.”
History of “Spear Phishing”
Phishing scams have existed in one form or another since the late 1980s. Decades after the scam first appeared, people are more suspicious of questionable emails from unknown senders. Spam filters often help prevent these emails from ever reaching the intended recipient’s inbox. As a result, scammers are increasingly targeting people and businesses with spear phishing scams. While “phishing” emails may be sent to thousands of people, “spear phishing” emails are much more selective.
It Happens Like This
“Chris” received an email that appeared to come from his company’s human resources department. The representative asked Chris to send information from his W-2 form to her for tax purposes. Chris noticed that the tone of the email was different from other emails he had received from the human resources department and thought it was strange that the representative did not already have his W-2 information. He called the representative directly to ask about the email. When she told him she did not send the email, Chris looked more closely at the sender’s email address and realized that it differed slightly from his company’s email format. Chris reported the email to the company’s computer specialist and the criminal authorities.
Spear phishing occurs when a scammer poses as a company representative, often an executive or human resources representative. The scammer sends an email to an employee at the company, often from a hacked or “spoofed” email address or an address that closely resembles the company’s email format. For example, if a company’s email format is user@321company.com, a scammer might use user@321company.net, or user@321compny.com.
Sometimes the scam artist asks employees to provide personal information, such as Social Security numbers, tax documents, or account passwords. Other times, the scam artist asks the employee to send a wire transfer to another person or deposit a certain amount of money into an outside bank account. The scammer often creates a sense of urgency so that the employee will send the requested information or money before he or she has time to verify the legitimacy of the request.
Spear phishing is often more profitable than a basic phishing scam. First, scammers research a company to convincingly impersonate the target’s boss or co-worker. People are more likely to be victimized because the email appears to come from a trusted source. Second, spear phishers may use the information they obtain to steal the identities of every employee at a business and file thousands of fake tax returns. By filing fake tax returns or selling private information to other criminals, spear phishers can make a lot of money very quickly, even if only one person falls for the scam.
Protect Yourself from Spear Phishing Attacks
The use of spear phishing attacks to steal personal information and money remains a widespread problem. There are several steps you can take to help protect yourself—and your co-workers—from spear phishing attacks, including:
Verify the email with the sender. Call the sender directly and ask about the email. Scammers prey on people’s desire to respond quickly to requests from their boss or supervisor. Taking the time to verify the email could save you and others much more time and money down the road.
Read suspicious emails carefully. People often recognize that an email is a scam when words are spelled incorrectly or there are grammatical mistakes. Sometimes a scam email is written in a tone that is different from the one the sender usually uses, or the sender might use a different version of your name—for example, an email is addressed to “Thomas,” but everyone calls you “Tom.” If something seems off, verify that the email is legitimate before responding.
Check the “from” email address. Make sure that the “from” email address matches your company’s email address format. Many email programs automatically display only the name of the person sending the email, rather than the full email address. Before you send sensitive information in an email, make sure you are not sending the information to an outside email account where it is no longer secure. If the address matches your company’s email format—or even the sender’s real email address—you should still verify suspicious emails directly with the sender. Some scam artists hack email accounts or use technology to “spoof” their email address to make the emails look like they are coming from a legitimate source
Guard personal information carefully. There are often safer ways to relay sensitive information than in an email. Check with your company about its security policies
Contact your company’s technology department. Many companies have security protocols that protect the information in their systems from attack. It can be best to refrain from “clicking” on a link or downloading an attachment in suspicious emails, as doing so could jeopardize your company’s computer system. Many email programs allow users to forward emails without opening them. You may wish to ask your computer’s technology department about how to safely forward any suspicious emails you receive to a specialist
Be vigilant on the go. Company-issued laptops and smart phones may also be vulnerable to attack. Smart phones in particular may be subject to spear phishing text messages, which can cause as much damage as an email can. Don’t feel rushed by strange requests that come while you are out of the office.
Reporting Spear Phishing Attacks
You may report Internet fraud to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center online at www.ic3.gov or to the following agencies:
1501 Freeway Boulevard
The Federal Trade Commission estimates that over eight million Americans become victims of identity theft each year, resulting in billions of dollars in losses. The problem has significantly increased over the last decade, with complaints about identity theft rising by more than 578% in the last ten years. Don't let this happen to you!
Voice Phishing - or "Vishing" - Calls
In voice phishing - or "vishing" scams, callers impersonate legitimate companies to steal money and personal and financial information. And these scams are on the rise.
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Category: Cowboy Heroes
John Ellison Carroll — Champion Steer Roper
by Jim Olson
In the early days of rodeo, steer roping competitions were how cowboys competed at roping. Calf (tie-down) roping came along later, then team roping. Around the turn of the last century, as roping competitions started taking hold, three men were known as the “ones to beat.” Joe Gardner, Clay McGonagill and J. Ellison Carroll were the “Trevor, Cody and Fred” of their day. Carroll wore a gold-colored badge with a steer’s head on it.… Read the rest
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West — Rodeo’s Roots
Chris Ledoux, a World Champion rodeo cowboy turned singer, sang a line that went, “You pull in off the highway to another rodeo. To another crowd of people think it’s just a Wild West show.”
You may not realize but today’s rodeo, does in fact, have roots deep inside the Wild West show arena. None other than Buffalo Bill Cody was the most famous Wild West show producer.
Volumes have been written about William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody (February 26, 1846 – January 10, 1917).… Read the rest
Bonnie McCarroll – End of an Era
Bonnie McCarroll died as the result of a bronc riding accident at the Pendleton (Oregon) Roundup in 1929. This tragic event was the “straw the broke the camel’s back” as far as women’s bronc riding was concerned. (The first recorded competition for ladies bronc riding happened back in 1904.) During 1929, the Rodeo Association of America (RAA) was formed to help organize rodeo. They did not sanction any women’s events (citing Bonnie’s death as one of the main reasons).… Read the rest
Col. W.T. Johnson Villain or Victim?
He is mostly remembered as being the recipient of rodeo cowboy’s disdain once they finally stood up for themselves against unfair practices from the early-day rodeo promoters and producers back in 1936. Col. W. T. Johnson was on the opposite side from the cowboys, according to history, at the famous walk-out during the Boston Garden show in the fall of that year. This event was the catalyst that formed the Cowboy Turtles Association (CTA), which eventually morphed into the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) that we have today.… Read the rest
Foghorn Clancy – Rodeos First Announcer
“When I was a teen-age kid on ranches in Texas and Oklahoma, Foghorn Clancy had already made quite a name for himself in rodeos. Neither of us knew then that we were later to meet and work together in such rodeos as the Fort Worth Stock Show, Houston Stock Show, Madison Square Garden and practically every major rodeo throughout the country, and to become warm personal friends.” Gene Autry, 1952.
Ever wonder how they announced a Rodeo or Wild West Show before the advent of the public address (speaker) system?… Read the rest
Paddy Ryan: Pioneer Bronc Rider
The Paddy Ryan bronc spur made by Oscar Crockett originally sold for $6.50 silver mounted on one side, $5.50 plain nickel finish or $4.50 plain steel. Some say the spur was actually designed by Ryan, others say Mr. Crockett simply had Ryan endorse this particular model. Either way, spur collectors and western enthusiast everywhere have most likely heard of the Paddy Ryan spur. But just who was Paddy Ryan?
John F. “Paddy” Ryan was a Minnesota native.… Read the rest
Johnnie Mullins – Cowboy!
Spur collectors everywhere will surely recognize the name of Johnnie Mullins (sometimes incorrectly spelled Johnny Mullens). Several well-known spur makers from the first half of the 1900s made a “Johnnie Mullins” spur. The Crockett version is probably the most recognized, but perhaps that is because they produced so many. Other well-known spur makers making this pattern included Kelly Bros. and McChesney (Nacona).
Just who was Johnnie Mullins?… Read the rest
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gov44. Letter from Trevor Huddleston to Margaret Thatcher
Letter asking Prime Minister Thatcher to intervene directly with South African President Botha urging him to reconsider his rejection of an appeal for clemency for the Sharpeville Six. The Six were condemned to death for taking part in a demonstration at which a black deputy mayor was killed. They were reprieved in July 1988 after a huge international campaign and released in 1991 and 1992.
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Kentucky to Breezewood and back (KY/WV/MD/PA)
Author Topic: Kentucky to Breezewood and back (KY/WV/MD/PA) (Read 1103 times)
God's providence allowed me to attend Sunday's abandoned PA Turnpike meet, so I made the trip up to America's least favorite interstate anomaly and back. The meet was interesting and the trip was uneventful.
I took my usual route northeast by connecting with I-64 at Grayson, leaving home shortly after 8 a.m. Filled my tank at the Love's at KY 1/KY 7 and I-64 interchange for $2.299 and then set out for a long haul along the interstates.
There's a pavement rehab project on I-64 between Hurricane and Teays Valley. Westbound traffic is split, with one lane using the westbound carriageway and the other lane using part of the eastbound side. An interesting metal divider is used to split the directions of travel instead of the usual concrete jersey barrier. This appears to be just a pavement rehab with no widening; it seems to me that WVDOT is wasting an opportunity here because they'll have to pave it all again when they finally do get around to adding the third lane.
Several annoying work zones along I-79 where the speed limit was still posted at 55 mph even though no lanes were closed.
Signage has been replaced since the last time I was along I-79 between the WV 36 Wallback/Clay and US 19/WV 15 Flatwoods exits. Lettering is done in FHWA instead of Clearview; I don't know if this is an indication that West Virginia won't be going back to Clearview, or if the contract was let before the approval was reinstated. It's mostly a "replace-in-kind" project, except the northbound Flatwoods exit is now signed as "North 19/To 15." Previously, it was just signed for WV 15 with no "To." Southbound is still just WV 15 (no "To") with no mention of US 19.
Traffic was fairly light along the southernmost part of I-79, but a lane closure on the southbound side north of Flatwoods had resulted in a fairly long backup. This was around noon. I don't know where all the traffic was headed at that time on Saturday.
The button copy exit sign for WV 58 is still mounted on the overhead gantry; it's the only surviving button copy along I-79 of which I'm aware.
I hopped off at the WV 131 exit to get pics of a sign that was an obvious patch job from when the parallel route was still WV 73 and WV 131 was still a county route, then back on. Traffic picked up around Clarksburg and was fairly heavy all the way to Morgantown.
Filled up at the truck stop at the CR 77 exit for $2.599 to avoid having to get gas in Taxsylvania, then it was onto I-68.
For most of the trip, I'd been alternating between drizzle, very light rain, and no precipitation, with temperatures ranging from about 44 to 50. The farther east I got on I-68, the lower the temperature got. I also started seeing some snow on the ground. I made my first-ever stop at the Maryland welcome center; the tourist center there has a nice view.
One of my goals for this trip was to drive the new US 219 routing between Meyersdale and Somerset. I didn't know if I would do it on my trip up or my trip back, but I was running pretty well on or ahead of schedule so I decided to do it on Saturday. By the time I exited I-68, the temperature was hovering around 32/33 and there was some light drizzle. That, plus getting behind a tractor-trailer on the old part of 219 between I-68 and Meyersdale, slowed me down a bit, but I still got to the bypass in about 15 minutes. It took me 27 minutes total to get from I-68 to the PA 218 exit at Somerset, and that included getting caught at the red light at Alt. US 40. The speed limit on new 219 is 65 mph, and I stuck to that or lower because of the weather. There had already been a pretty significant snow removal effort on the new road, judging from the snow piled up on the shoulders.
At Somerset, I took PA 218 back to PA 31 to take that east to Bedford. There was quite a bit of snow on the ground between Somerset and Bedford, and much of the route was shrouded in thick fog. Still, it was a fairly easy drive over to US 30 at Bedford, and then on to Breezewood, where I spend two nights at the Days Inn.
Speaking of Breezewood, it's definitely not the thriving tourist trap/roadside service business village it once was. Lots of businesses were closed and buildings either torn down or vacant. It's hard for me to believe that the business community there, dwindling as it is, really has enough clout to keep a direct connection for I-70 from being build.
Since I approached from the west on US 30, and the Days Inn is just west of where I-70 comes in, I was able to avoid all the traffic that was already getting heavy on Saturday when I arrived around 5 p.m. My motel was right next door to Sheetz, so it was a simple matter to just walk over and get food and settle in to watch UK pound Louisville in football.
I made plans to join the meet tour after they ate and before they departed Bedford, so I was able to sleep in a bit and then drive around Breezewood a bit, getting pictures of some of the old signage. The ancient button copy on I-70 is still there, along with a bunch of state-name interstate route markers. I drove back to Bedford on US 30, met the tour group, and enjoyed the meet and my opportunity to ride on the abandoned turnpike (well, as much as is drivable now, as several parts are blocked off). When we got back to Bedford, I decided to forego the post-meet dinner and headed back to Breezewood for the night. That turned out to be a wise move. When I checked in at home, I found out that one of the dogs had taken sick and I needed to be home today so we can lug her to the vet tomorrow. My original plans were to take a leisurely, meandering route home with no set stopping point for tonight. That, plus a weather forecast that mentioned the "S" word, meant a change of plans. I ended up going to bed at 9 Sunday night. After waking up a couple of times during the night and then not being able to get back to sleep the last time, i just went ahead and got up and left Breezwood around 5:15 a.m.
I took US 30 back to Bedford, then US 220 to Cumberland. It alternated between drizzle and rain, but by the time I hit I-68, it was pouring. There's some sort of work zone set up just east of downtown, with a posted 55 mph speed limit and all sorts of advisories about speed cameras in use. I slowed to about 50, but a couple of vehicles blew right by me. I never saw any flashes, and my V1 never went off, so I wonder if those signs are just bluffs.
I continued on 220, filling up at a Sheetz along the way at $2.659 ($2.629 with my Sheetz card; in retrospect, I think I could have made it quite a bit farther and found even cheaper gas).
The conversion of WV 972 to WV 93 is now signed, and WV 93 is fully signed in both directions, complete with "To US 48" trailblazers where WV 93 now begins at US 220. It was still raining on and off and I was keeping an eye on the temperature, which was in the mid-40s until I got up to the top of the mountain on US 50 at Mt. Storm, where it plunged into the 30s.
Took US 50, WV 90 and US 219 (picking up US 48) to Elkins. The Sheetz in Parsons is closed. I stopped at the McDonald's next door to use the restroom and get a bite of breakfast, and the lady at the counter told me it closed back in September, supposed due to lack of profitability. I was hoping the store had been replaced by a newer one, like was done in Berkeley Springs, but nope. It's closed with no replacement.
You can see evidence of construction for Corridor H at the northern end of the project, but no evidence where the existing four-lane ends at Kerens except for a whole lot of construction vehicles parked on the other side of the bridge. They must be using that as a staging area and working from north to south. Looked like some work was ongoing, so I guess Kokosing's dispute with the WV natural resources department has been settled.
There's still button copy in Elkins, and west of town along Corridor H approaching the US 250/WV 92 split and the intersection with CR 151. Also still some remaining in Buckhannon. I should have waited and got my gas in Elkins, as several places had it for $2.499. I'm noticing in a number of places that Sheetz is no longer the low-price leader as it is in most places. Gas was more expensive at Sheetz in Elkins and Weston than at Walmart or a couple of other places.
Nothing really to report for the rest of the trip home. Traffic was flowing smoothly in the one-lane section north of Flatwoods, and the annoying 55-mph-work-zones-with-no-work were still there. State police had a very visible presence in the I-64 work zone, but none were running radar or laser.
Gas at Love's in Grayson had dropped 4 cents between Saturday and today, to $2.259. I got gas at the Speedway across the road, which had a posted price of $2.289 but was the same price as Love's with my Speedy Rewards card. That Speedway has installed the Speedy Cafe with the touch screens for ordering, and the menu looked like a very poor man's version of Sheetz (a few burgers and fried items, plus subs and pizza).
Rolled into the vet's office shortly before 4 to pick up medicine for the dog in advance of her trip there tomorrow. By the time I got home, the temp had dropped to around 32 and the drizzle had turned to snow flurries, but no issues on the road.
« Last Edit: November 26, 2018, 08:21:35 PM by hbelkins »
seicer
Re: Kentucky to Breezewood and back (KY/WV/MD/PA)
Quote from: hbelkins on November 26, 2018, 08:17:16 PM
While a long-term goal, it's not yet needed. There are parts of I-64 that are still four-lanes closer to Charleston that are in the 60,000 AADT range that have yet to be widened, with traffic counts dropping to below 40,000 AADT west of Teays Valley and below 30,000 AADT west of Hurricane. At the least, it completely replaces original circa 1961 concrete.
I wonder what the growth rate is? The GIS doesn't show trends.
Sherman Cahal | http://bridgestunnels.com http://americanbyways.com https://abandonedonline.net
SP Cook
The only part of I-64 closer to Charleston that is still 4-lane is from the "new" US 35 interchange, MP 40 to the Nitro exit, MP 45, which includes a twin bridge between MP 44 and 45. This has some environmental issues, but is scheduled for completion in 2021. Traffic comes to a stop at rush hour every day, this project was needed decades ago. While traffic volumes west of MP 39 do drop with every exit, a 6 lane is needed all the way to the Kentucky line, ASAP.
Could be they didn't have the environmental documentation for widening. Pavement and bridge replacement-in-kind requires much less rigorous paperwork than a widening, even if that widening doesn't involve new right-of-way.
As I understand it, the project involves building a new westbound bridge and the accompanying road to reach it (about a third of a mile on the westbound side) and repurposing the current four lane bridge to single direction travel. The issue is that the land where the accompanying road would be built is the old Artel Chemical dump site. Artel was this kind of rogue chemical company back in the day that would buy worn out equipment and do and make stuff the big boys would not touch.
They have been back and forth with it. The last thing I heard was the EPA was signing off on some construction method designed to leave the stuff undisturbed by adding new soil on top. Not my field.
Quote from: SP Cook on November 27, 2018, 09:53:59 AM
It's been my experience that a significant amount of traffic exits at the mall, and then most of the rest of it peels off at 29th Street (US 60). Of course, the stretch between US 60 and WV 10 has already been widened. I've never run into significant traffic between US 60 and the state line, so I think they could get by with leaving the remainder of the road from WV 10 to the state line as four lanes. At least one of the bridges is badly in need of a new deck, but they've made significant strides in the westernmost 15 miles of I-64 in the last 20 years.
epzik8
Alive Since Ninety-Five
Awesome! That’s awesome.
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wriddle082
Give 'em the BIDNESS!
Location: Anymetro, Carolinas
They need to widen it from US 52 (Exit 6) to WV 10, since a lot of traffic leaves 64 en route to Ohio (and it’s a shortcut to Ashland). Then east of US 60 it needs to be widened to Mall Road. Between Mall Road and the Hurricane/Teays Valley area seems to have the lower traffic volumes.
Quote from: SP Cook on November 27, 2018, 01:12:28 PM
They'll probably have to rebuild the interchanges on either side of the bridge as well, particularly the WV 25 interchange since it involves the lane add-drop for the existing six-lane segment.
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Brain Health & Wellness
Global Council on Brain Health
Women's Brain Health
It's Time to Act: The Challenges of Alzheimer's and Dementia for Women
Webinar with AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins and Maria Shriver, founder of the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement
AARP, May 22, 2020 | Comments: 0
On Thursday, May 21 AARP presented an in-depth virtual conversation to release the report “It’s Time to Act: The Challenges of Alzheimer’s and Dementia for Women.” The report is a collaborative effort between AARP and the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement, along with leading brain health researchers and policy advocates from around the world, with support from AARP Foundation’s A. Barry Rand Fund for Brain Health Research. Watch the replay above.
Following opening remarks, a distinguished panel of experts discussed the state of research and challenges that women face in the battle against Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Gender-based disparities as well as larger social and economic factors make clear the urgent need for action. The new report presents a five-point strategic plan to drive progress in women’s brain health and realize meaningful change over the next decade.
Brainstorm Survey Highlights
We surveyed our brain health collaborators and wider community asking them to evaluate which of the five action steps were most likely to achieve the outcomes we hoped to accomplish. The results differed based upon the desired outcome. Our respondents said that the action likely to make the greatest impact for vulnerable and underserved women is to invest in inclusive brain health research that explores sex-based differences. This was closely followed by other actions of empowering women and eliminating the stigma of dementia. Almost half of the respondents voted that empowering women to promote their own brain health is the step that could be achieved the quickest. And finally, when asked what would yield the greatest improvement for women living with the challenges of dementia by 2030, there was a tie between empowering women and investing in inclusive research.
Read the full report. Also available in Spanish translation.
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The Wombat · January 13, 2021 · Blog Entries, Musings · deodorant, Funny, grooming, health, man grooming, shaving · One Comment
Despite being a lifelong suburbanite, my wife has a few granola-crunchy tendencies. Her uncle isn’t quite aware the 1960s ever ended and splits his time between espousing the benefits of a government-based economy and deriding said government for controlling our minds through chemtrails or flouride or blah, blah, blah, because by this time I’m on my seventh glass of wine at Thanksgiving dinner (Thank you, 2020!). He also thinks cats are spying on us and reporting back to aliens keeping tabs on us. And I’m dead serious on that last one.
Wife doesn’t go that far. She’s way too consumerist. But for somebody who thinks camping is an abomination, you can certainly grab her attention by calling your product all-natural or organic or hormone free. So if you want her to buy your bacon, you might put on the packaging that it comes from pigs not treated with vaginal testosterone. Even though there’s no such thing, so technically every pig in existence. But if you wanna get sold at Whole Foods, you gotta say every madeup bullshit thing isn’t in it.
I’m looking in your direction, rBST.
Occasionally, Wife gets stuck on conference calls at work and orders me some all-natural self-grooming shit. It’ll show up on our doorstep one day and she’ll kinda, sorta remember seeing something, like a Vietnam Vet trying to recall the fogs of war. Amazon told her that people who ordered Tom’s Toothpaste might also like toilet paper with the consistency of poison oak.
But whatever. As long as she isn’t going paleo or anything, I guess I can splash some essential oils on my nether regions. It turns out I actually like some of them. Others are nothing more than snake oil.
So here are my reviews of products you might be pondering at the next Ren Faire.
Dr. Squatch Soap.
Of the three products she bought me, this is the only one I’d heard of beforehand. It would seem to be a product custom made for me. Its name alludes to Bigfoot and they cuss in the commercials that my robot overlords at Google and Facebook show me.
Maybe you’ve seen the ads. They tell guys that the soap you’ve been washing with is bullshit. Okay, you’ve got my attention. The commercials also imply that our junk, which smells horrific, yet is dainty, ain’t never gonna be cleaned by some industrial soap that’s half comprised of something pussy like, I don’t know, lotion or aloe or smurf handjobs.
Personally, my soap of choice is Irish Spring. The dude in the Dr. Squatch commercial calls it mass-produced and docile and bovine excrementy. But I’m assured by its mid-1980s advertisements that Irish Spring is made beside a bucolic river outside of Kilkenny, and if I use it, I’ll be whistled at by the comely lass also seen dancing in that Men Without Hats music video.
“Manly, yes, but I like it, too!”
But Dr. Squatch Dude has a well-groomed beard, ergo I must pay attention. And they sell such manly flavors of soap, like Grapefruit IPA and Pine Tar and… Aloe. I guess ya can’t make a rub-over-skin product without the base aloe model.
Come to think of it, pine tar? Isn’t that the stuff they put on baseball bats to make them sticky? I don’t know if I want that on my giblets. Is the ghost of Billy Martin going to come measure my cock to make sure I didn’t add too much pine tar? The last thing I need is a scruffy looking, powder-blue wearing George Brett screaming out of the dugout like a whirling dervish.
The first one I tried was the aloe bar. Baby steps, people. I’ve been trained by years of consumer culture and if it ain’t green, it shouldn’t even call itself soap. The Dr. Squatch was fine, I guess. Nothing really to write home about. Other than its clunky square shape, the clarion call of all “natural” products, it pretty much felt like soap. It didn’t quite get the lather up that I like. Wouldn’t want to shave with it, that’s for sure.
That square shape also makes it hard to get into some of my nooks and crannies. In fact, it feels a little like being bludgeoned. I didn’t know I was supposed to be in pain while showering. And that was before I tried their second “flavor,” Chinese Water Torture.
No, it’s not named Chinese Water Torture soap, but it might as well be. It’s called Cold Brew Coffee soap. Should be perfect for me. I already smell like coffee all day. Or at least until 2:00, after which I smell like a distillery.
What’s that? Dr. Squatch has a rum soap, too? Maybe I’ll have to investigate.
Or I can just have some rum. Because if the rum is anything like the cold brew, I’ll pass.
Sure, the coffee bar smelled nice, even if I had to adjust to the unnatural brownness of it.
The problem came in its consistency. I’m not sure if Bigfoot’s ever had coffee, but when I get an iced coffee from Starbucks, I don’t have to take the coffee grounds out of my mouth. At home, I occasionally have a filter catastrophe that results in a crunchy cup o’ joe, but that’s not supposed to be the norm. And I know the hipster in the commercials doesn’t brew his own.
The coffee soap, however, is inundated with scratchy coffee grounds. And not the Folgers or Maxwell House ground coffee variety. More like whole beans thrown for ten seconds into a hand grinder cranked by an arthritic octogenarian.
The first time I used it, I thought maybe it was just an outer layer authenticity thing that would go away as I used it. I once splurged on an Irish Spring “Sport” bar that had little bubble things on the bottom, but they only lasted a couple of washes. Surely, once I got past the outer layer of this cold brew, it would work like normal soap. Or like fancy, all-natural, doesn’t-really-wash-you soap.
But no! That shit stayed through the whole bar. I get the whole “exfoliating” concept, but this wasn’t some John Cougar “Hurt So Good.” It was just straight-up jagged-ass scratching. I suppose I could’ve used a wash cloth, but c’mon, Bigfoot. Your commercials talk about being a manly-man and now you want me to use a wash cloth?
Eventually, I found that it worked best if I lathered up in my hand, then went to the body.
That felt more like a little bit of gritty exfoliating, similar to the little grains inside some of those soft soaps. Speaking of which, did you know that Bath & Body Works has “manly man” soaps, too? They’re usually hidden amongst the cinnamons and lilacs and Lakeside Estrogens. You can usually tell which ones they are because they’re blue. My favorite also had a fox wearing a blue sweater on the front and had a smell named “musk.” That’s the manly triumvirate right there.
But the blocky coffee soap wasn’t the same as a granulated soft soap. Like its aloe brethren, the cold brew block couldn’t lather worth a shit. So lots and lots and of scrubbing the hands meant the bar didn’t last longer than a week or so. At seven bucks a pop, I feel like the soap should last, I don’t know, a year or so. It’s kinda like paying for a single beer at the ballgame that costs more than a 12-pack of that same beer at home.
And for seven bucks, you get the added benefit of doing a twice over before exiting the shower to make sure you don’t look like a damned leper when you step out. The soap’s supposed to clean me, not leave me looking like I missed the trash can when dumping the coffee filter. Took me so long to shower, I was late to work. Good thing we live in a patriarchy and I can just ask for a raise to make up for the time lost.
Ha ha, just kidding. I’m a teacher. We don’t get raises.
Still, maybe I should stick with the rum bar. Although maybe not on the day I ask my principal for a raise.
Somerset English Shaving Oil.
What the hell is an essential oil anyway? Are there non-essential oils? Do the essential oils tease them? Like the Catholics who say Protestants go to Purgatory, which they think is heaven, but isn’t really heaven. I assume the Catholics spend all of eternity mocking those Protestants in their fake heaven. Something to look forward to.
Although if this is English shaving oil, it probably isn’t Catholic. They leave that for the Irish Spring next door.
Come to think of it, I don’t know if English is really the operative adjective for olde tyme rituals. Sure, compared to us young pups in America, England’s been around forever. But if I really want to be shaving like I’m some grizzly middle ager, how about some Saxon Shaving Oil. Or Mercian. Although that’s too close to ‘Merican. And we all know ‘Merican shaving oil would be buffalo chicken sauce with ranch.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Or behind myself. Where the fuck was I? Oh right, shaving.
I’m fortunate enough to not have much facial hair. It takes me a month to go from clean-shaven to something approximating a goatee or beard.
It’s the perfect amount of hair growth, because I don’t have to shave every day. If I shave Monday and Wednesday mornings, nobody will be any the wiser. If I then let it go the rest of the week, I might get some comments around closing time Friday afternoon that I’ve got a couple gristles. Not a five o’clock shadow yet, just some noticeable follicles. Actually, I never get a five o’clock shadow. Even if I let it go a week, it comes in scraggly and splotchy like I sent my cheek through chemotherapy.
So when it comes to the best options for shaving, I never really established a consistent ritual. Through most of my thirties, I gravitated toward the gel that magically turns into foam on your skin. Unfortunately, anything that defies the laws of nature that much wreaks havoc on your pipes.
And no, that’s not a reference to either my penis or my asshole. There’s a first time for everything.
It was literally my pipes. That gel ends up sticking to everything and clogging the shit out of my drain. It certainly wasn’t the millimetres of follicles going down there. So I switched to shaving in the shower, but the gel doesn’t do well in the wet steam.
Enter Somerset’s Essential Whatnot and So-forth. You massage it into your skin at the beginning of the shower, then let it work its way in. It starts tingling, feels like a zesty aftershave, except it’s a slick pre-shave. When the time comes, you lather up a little soap, just not the Dr. Squatch type. I said lather, not leather.
What can I say? The shit works. It’s a weird feeling for someone who thought shaving required a force-field of white goop. It also helps that soap lather is more see through. Who woulda thunk that it would be beneficial to actually see the face while shaving?
Again, your mileage may vary, especially if you actually grow hair between your neck and ear. But the Somerset’s worked even after No-Shave November when I had an unruly weed-patch growing there, so long as I trim it first.
It doesn’t seem to help after No-Nut November. Although if I needed help with that, I’d feel safer using this than Dr. Squatch’s pine tar. Plus, it tingles!
Lume Deodorant.
Before even trying this product, I was predisposed to hate it.
First of all, it’s named Lume with a fancy little accent on the e. That means it’s either made by a French person or someone who thinks adding random accents to a product make it sound fancier. Like whatever asshole threw that “olde tyme” into his description of shaving oil.
Even worse than its name, this deodorant is goopy, a viscosity reminiscent of snot. When it smudges through three little slivers on top like vomit through your fingers as that last-second dash toward the toilet comes up woefully short. And they expect me to put that on my underarms? Gross. I’m trying to make that area LESS moist, why the fuck would I rub a used handkerchief there.
Handkerchiefs don’t seem to exist anymore, and that’s a good thing. My grandpa always used one. I’ve never understood why we should want to deposit our snots into our pocket for removal later. I’m sure it’s better for the environment than Kleenex, but if I promise to recycle my beer bottles, can I keep the Kleenex? Do earth-hugging communes allow tissue paper? What about toilet paper? I know way too much of our modern society is disposable, but I hope we never have to debate the trade-offs of those two paper products.
Anyway, for ninety percent of my life, I’ve liked precisely one style of substance under my arms: Bone-ass dry. Don’t give me those sprays. Don’t give me those roll-ons. If the process of applying deodorant doesn’t remove some hairs and skin, it’s probably not doing its work.
I also can’t abide by deodorants with smells. I don’t want fresh scent or forest morning or scorched earth. Not even “evergreen musk,” which was the magical manly smell that Bath and Body Works put into my sweater-wearing fox soap. Again, the purpose of deodorant is to remove smell. Replacing it with a different smell doesn’t make sense to me. I’m not fooled by the taxicab air freshener, either.
In fact, most of those scented ones give me a rash before long. Maybe I’ve got sensitive skin. Maybe I’m allergic. For a good portion of my teens and twenties, I used Ladies’ Speed Stick. It’s okay, you can judge. But maybe that’s where my hatred of smells come from, because trust me, the types of scents assigned to most of the Ladies’ Speed Stick varietals aren’t smells a nineteen-year-old dude wants wafting out of his pores. What the fuck is a Pampered Lilac, anyway? Does that mean the flower’s living a cush life? Or is it wearing diapers?
In my adult years, I settled on Arm n’ Hammer. It fits my desire for both lack of smell and dryness. If I could rub actual baking soda on my armpits and be done with it, I would. Preferably with a sweater-clad fox on the front.
Then along came Lume.
“It’s organic,” my wife told me. “It’s hypoallergenically designed by medical professionals.”
“Did they design it to have all the comfort of the Sahara desert?”
“No, but it’s professional OB-GYNs.”
Ummm…. What?
Look, I’m not the manliest man ever. The closest I ever come to standard toxic masculinity is when we’re drafting fantasy football. I prefer mini golf to real golf. When I visited Minneapolis, I took my picture throwing my hat into the air right next to the Mary Tyler Moore statue. I like my beer more nutty than hoppy. I can’t figure out whose ass was more impressive in Demolition Man– Sandra Bullock’s or Sylvester Stallone’s.
Seriously, in those tight-fitting pants, that movie is a monument to two of the best-sculpted asses on the planet.
With all those facts in her corner, maybe Wife didn’t think I’d blink an eye at a deodorant developed by a gynecologist. The left side of my brain gets it. There are a lot of similarities between the armpit and the crotch. Dank. Moist. Hair for no damned reason. A man’s taint is the only body part that smells worse than his armpit.
There’s a reason things it’s called feminine hygiene. I don’t think I need to give my armpit a morning-after pill.
Although, in all honesty, I’m only showering three times a week during the quarantine. So maybe my armpit DOES need a morning-after pill.
Let’s see, goopy substance with the consistency of snot, designed for vaginas, in my armpits? Sorry, Wife. I tried your all-natural soap with poor results. I tried your olde tyme shaving oil with mixed results. But I think I have to draw the line at…
Whoa, what’s that comfortable tingle? And that pleasant smell? Why are my pits feeling so fresh? And… dry?
Holy crap, y’all. This Lume shit is as pleasant as… okay, maybe not pie, because that wouldn’t really be appetizing. But the goop rubs in as simply as my Arm n’ Hammer, especially if I’ve just gotten out of the shower. Even on day two, it rubs in seamlessly. Sure, in these COVID times, you also might wonder what happens on showerless days three and four? Truthfully, I hit a limit around day three, when I switch back to the baking soda. Lume works great at preventing the funk from happening. When it’s already there, it’s not quite as effective. Sure, I could shower more often, but this is Quarantine Time, baby!
So I guess I stand corrected. The KY works great on my manly-man armpits. But the manly-man soap was unfulfilling. Meanwhile the nonessential but quintessentially British oils are workable and don’t clog my drains.
Snotty lube is a good deodorant, but coffee grounds should keep their asses in the kitchen. Bare foot and pregnant, yo!
While I’m at it, I’d like to admit one other earlier mistake.
Sly’s ass is far better than Sandra Bullock’s.
The Wombat · January 5, 2021 · Blog Entries, Musings · 2020, concert review, concerts, live music, music, Nathaniel Rateliff, New Orleans, Red Rocks, technology · One Comment
Last week I wrote about the two aborted concerts that I hoped to attend in 2020. One was from Billy Joel, a tried-and-true entertainer I saw once before when I was in college. The other was Vampire Weekend, a band I wasn’t even aware of a year ago. For obvious reasons, neither concert happened.
But 2020 wasn’t completely devoid of live music. As long as you were willing to watch it on a screen.
So although I didn’t see the two concerts I intended to see, I did manage to watch two concerts in their entirety. Again, one featured old performers that I’ve already been throwing money at for decades, while the other came from a newish band that I’ve always been curious about seeing live.
Preservation Hall.
I couldn’t make it to New Orleans to watch Vampire Weekend, but at least I could watch a streamed version of a concert for the New Orleans Jazz Preservation Hall. Or maybe it was on PBS. I can’t remember.
Seeing as New Orleans is one of my favorite cities to visit, I’ve watched a few concerts at Preservation Hall. It’s fun to stop in on an afternoon jaunt down Bourbon Street to hear jazz combos similar to my high school jazz band That’s not knock. My high school jazz band was pretty kick-ass. I love me some saxophone, trumpet, and trombone combos. Play me a simplified arrangement of a Count Basie tune, and I’ll happily put off my next hand grenade for twenty minutes or so.
At least I thought it was Preservation Hall I’d frequented on those trips down Bourbon. But now that I looked it up on Google Maps, it might actually be Maison Bourbon, a half-block away from the actual Preservation Hall. Oops.
Regardless, I was happy when they had a benefit concert online, with some really big names. I’m talking Dave Matthews, Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney. Unfortunately, it was in typical telethon fashion, where they wasted twenty minutes in between each song with interviews and “call in now” and shit. At least I could pause and skip ahead, something my grandparents could’ve only dreamed of back in the Jerry Lewis Labor Day snoozefests.
Those big-name benefit songs had a very, very pre-recorded feel to them. There were a few, like Dave Grohl and Nathaniel Rateliff, who seemed to take it more seriously, picking their jazzier numbers and talking about the importance of either live music or of preserving olde tyme music. Others seemed to send in whatever promo song they had recorded for charity write-offs. I was looking forward to Elvis Costello and was disappointed when he just played some “songs off his newest album,” aka the part of the concert containing the Great Restroom Exodus.
Everybody on the comment box was pining away for McCartney. Where’s Paul? When will Paul be here? Clearly they haven’t sat through proper telethons. It was obvious he was going to be last, and it was obvious to be as non-specifically for Preservation Hall as it gets. He might’ve done “Hey, Jude.” I don’t remember. And he might or might not have looked two decades younger. At least Elvis had the decency to half-ass a newer song so we knew it was recorded this decade.
I ended up liking the actual jazz band, who played an occasional song in between the big acts, better than the names that brought me there in the first place. Even so, I didn’t donate.
I’ll drop some money at Maison Bourbon next time I’m in NOLA and we’ll call it good.
Nathaniel Rateliff.
Later in the pandemic, Red Rocks in Colorado did an online fundraising concert, as well. Again, a place I’ve been to and enjoyed. And a band I like, as well. Tune me in.
And this was legitimately live. They were literally playing on the stage in front of an empty Red Rocks Amphitheater. You could switch cameras to watch the rocks instead, something I found myself doing when I went there, too. Although I didn’t have to switch cams then, I only had to pivot my neck.
Nathaniel Rateliff has been on my short list for some time. He wasn’t some unknown to top ten skyrocket like those Vampire Weekend upstarts.
Of course, my first introduction to him was “S.O.B.,” the best drinking song this side of “Tubthumping.” Although neither of those songs should be considered happy drinking song. Maybe thinking enough about booze to want to write a song about it predicates a certain bipolar dependency. But then just when you’re about to commiserate with the artist, right there on the precipice of singing the blues, they bang the door down with a grandiose “fuck it, let’s get blotto.”
With a first song like that, one could understand my hesitation against full-throated bandwagon-jumping. If your initial hit is reminiscent of “Tubthumping,” you’ve gotta worry about being the next Chumbawumba. And how many other Chumbawumba songs have you ever heard? Unfortunately, I’ve heard others, and they need a drink. Holy crap, that’s a bad album.
At least Rateliff seemed to have some musical talent going for him, which was always missing from even the acceptable Chumbawumba song. Something similar could be said about Fun., which you must properly pronounce as “Fun period,” another band with a song that, at first, sounds like a fun (period) song about hanging out with your friends at the bar, something I did the majority of my twenties (and thirties). But on closer listen, it’s closer to a creepy “Every Breath You Take,” with the dude hoping to swoop in on an ex (whom he beat) when she’s drunk at the end of the night. At least Fun. had some good musical talent, but it was all based on something approaching ten-part harmony. Rateliff gets there by himself. With apologies to the Night Sweats.
But still, if you take one look at him, you don’t think rockstar. Or at least not young, eager, carpe-diem rock star. In his first music video, he looked like someone who’s been touring for forty years. Tore up from the floor up. Rode hard and put away wet. Whatever phrase you wanna use, he was no Justin Timberlake.
So somewhat gimmicky song about drinking and looking like he might be dead by the end of the week. I spent most of the last decade on the fringes of fandom. Perhaps appreciation would be the best descriptor. I heard some of his other songs and they all showed promise. What I was waiting for was the staying power. It’s so much easier when the band already has four full albums before I discover them.
Similar to Vampire Weekend, Nathaniel Rateliff’s most recent album (actually his third album, not his second as I originally believed) came out shortly before the pandemic, so I was able to hear the songs as they received copious amounts of radio play. I enjoyed “Baby It’s Alright.” Very bluesy. A ballad. Some vibrato in the voice. Polar opposite of “SOB,” although not really, because you’ve still got the mournful voice, the hurt. There’s a lot lying there underneath the surface. This was no Chumbawumba. This wasn’t even a repeat of Fun. (Am I supposed to put another period if Fun. is at the end of a sentence?).
The final hurdle I needed to pass (aside from buying his albums because that’s what YouTube is for) was to see him live. He definitely seemed to have the vibe of a good live act. I tend to like the acts whose songs are equal parts emotion and talent. Those tend to make the best shows as opposed to, say, a band that’s more concerned with choreography or pyrotechnics. In all honesty, I’m a little worried my current fascination with Vampire Weekend might wane after seeing them live. They seem a wee bit aloof, a sconce “we wrote good songs, so we don’t need to put any emphasis into it. Sing along if you must.”
So the last thing I needed to become a proper Nathaniel Rateliff fan, to finally determine if he’s talent or hack, was to see him live. And if I can see him for free, all the better.
Oops, was I supposed to donate to Red Rocks while watching the free concert?
And yeah, the dude is solid. He feels every song. He emotes. And he’s no slouch on the guitar, either. I could see him being the kind of guy who would play for three or four hours if the crowd and venue allowed it. With “S.O.B.” it’s clear he’s got some inner demons. It feels like the stage is where he exorcizes them, and he’s all too aware of it.
One oddity was that he appeared to be playing through his entire new album, track by track. I tuned in late, so I don’t know if this was explained or if the first half of the concert was some old stuff. So he never played “S.O.B.”
I bet a lot of artists wish they could do that. After all, the new songs are the ones that mean the most to them. It’s our fault that they keep having to bust out “Freebird.” If we aren’t in the crowd then we can go fuck ourselves if we’re only tuning in for his one hit six years ago.
The weirdest part of the whole concert was that he DIDN’T come out for an encore. What the fuck? Were we not cheering loudly enough at our homes thousands of miles away? What do you want us to do? Pay to get you to…
Oh, I think I get it now.
The Wombat · December 29, 2020 · Blog Entries, Musings · 2020, Billy Joel, concert review, concerts, music, Vampire Weekend · One Comment
This is the time of year I usually review the concerts I attended over the past twelve months. I don’t see why this year should be any different.
Except for the fact that every concert on the face of the earth was canceled in 2020. Along with the movies and holidays and amusement parks. We literally had Disneyland booked for about five days after it shit down. You didn’t get that post, so I might as well tell you about a couple of great concerts that almost happened.
Billy Joel. This one wasn’t as imminent as Disneyland, but tickets were bought, timeshare was booked, and flights were very seriously vetted.
My daughter’s favorite musician is Billy Joel. Her favorite days of the year, in no particular order, are 1) her birthday, 2) Christmas, and 3) the day Billy Joel Radio returns to SiriusXM. It makes her so much fun to hang out with amongst all her other first-grade companions.
The temporary SiriusXM station was the first one we could play in the car to break the monotony of those Fisher Price CDs that formed the soundtrack to her third year on the planet. Which was far more exciting for Mom and Dad than it was for Daughter. Compared to “Wheels on the Bus” for the hundredth time, even “When in Rome” shines.
I don’t have anything against “When in Rome.” It’s Billy Joel who hates it. He claims he throws a couple shitty songs on each album because he’s tapped out after ten or eleven new songs, but the record labels require thirteen. If you wanna have a hit, you gotta make it fit.
Then again, Billy Joel also thinks “Piano Man” is just a silly limerick, so what does he know? (Even if he’s right)
Daughter’s favorite song is “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song),” but not for any nascent desire to warp forward twelve years so she can leave her own Mama Leoni peace-out note for her parents. Nope, she likes the motorcycle sound in the final chorus. Right after one of the final “I’m movin’ outs,” there’s a few revs and then a squeal for emphasis. So maybe she hasn’t made it far from “Wheels on the Bus,” after all.
I think it was the variety that her young ears and mind enjoyed the most. Billy Joel’s got a great catalog if you aren’t in the mood to listen to one style. If we tell Alexa to play Mumford and Sons or Jimmy Buffett or even the Beatles, artists she knows plenty of songs from, it starts to get redundant a lot sooner than if we tell her to play some Billy.
Yes, she knows a few modern songs, too, but with no school this year, she’s still stuck in 2019. Aren’t we all? Still, the songs that really get the “Ooo, I know this one” going are “Piano Man” and “You May Be Right” and “Only the Good Die Young.” Good thing I’m not raising her Catholic.
So we figured what better first concert for her than Billy Joel? If we wait too long, we might be waiting too long, if you know what I mean. The same could be said for Jimmy Buffett, but a) it doesn’t look like Jimmy Buffett’s going to stop touring anytime soon, and b) we might get arrested when half of her blood is second-hand ganja. Maybe when she’s a teenager I’ll make her my designated driver to a Mumford concert. Is sixteen too young to have the super important “British and Aussies don’t consider cunt offensive” talk? Because last time I saw Mumford, that word came out a lot. So it’s either when she listens to Mumford or watches “The Boys.”
The added benefit of taking her to see Billy Joel was the locale. He doesn’t really tour anymore, maxing out at one big stadiums every month or so. This year, the plan was Notre Dame, Detroit, and Fenway Park, none of which are within a couple time zones of us West Coasters. I know he had a really lousy experience when he lived in LA, but c’mon Billy, that was fifty years ago.
Other than that, he has a “residency” at Madison Square Gardens. I put that word in quotes because most of the residencies I know of are in Vegas, where you play every fucking night and twice on Saturday. His residency at MSG is one show a month. Sounds more like a “recurring guest star” than anything involving the word “reside.”
When we came back from New York a couple years ago, Daughter was enamored with New York, commenting every time it popped up on anything. That’s waned a bit, but she’s still fascinated by the Statue of Liberty, something we intentionally avoided when it was just the two of us. We opted for the 9/11 museum instead, since I wouldn’t call it the most kid friendly spot in New York.
So let’s see, daughter’s “favorite” musician (one I haven’t seen live since 1993, and who Wife has never seen) playing in New York. Add in some timeshare points that were going to expire and our Summer Vacation was set. We had tickets right behind the stage which, if nothing’s changed since 1993, is a great place to see Billy Joel, as he puts synthesizers on the back and plays a few songs to the nosebleeds.
Of course, assuming everything works the same as it did in 1993 isn’t always a sure bet. Just ask my back.
I still don’t know what’s happening with those expiring timeshare points. Back in April or May, they sent us a notice about extending all deadlines by three months to account for that “short” shutdown. Haven’t heard anything since said shutdown is at LEAST into “medium” length, right?
So yeah, in some alternate universe, that July 25 concert was great! Daughter loved “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Theme)” and sang along heartily to “Piano Man” when he magically returned to the stage AFTER the concert was over ONLY because our raucous applause convinced his stone-cold, New York heart that he just couldn’t finish yet.
When she’s a teenager, I’ll explain the whole pre-planned encore thing.
Vampire Weekend.
Earlier this year I made a list of my ten definitive albums. Not necessarily the best albums, not the dreaded desert island discs, but the albums that best defined my musical development. In the “also deserving recognition” addendum, I mentioned my newest find, Vampire Weekend. They were kinda disqualified from the album list based on the fact that I didn’t actually own any of their albums. Hard to call it one of my definitive records, or even one of my favorite bands, if I’ve never given them a penny of my money. Unless they get ad money from YouTube.
Note: Wife bought me some of their CDs for Christmas, so I suppose I can call myself a fan now.
Regardless, bands don’t make shit off of albums anymore, which makes 2020 a particularly brutal year for recording artists. The father of my daughter’s best friend is in a band and they are reeling this year. Their European tour was canceled. He went to Nashville for two months where the band could quarantine and record a new album. I commented that at least they would have some income. He only laughed, and it wasn’t a funny kind of laugh.
What did elicit a funny laugh, at least from me, was when Daughter was on Zoom with her bestie. They play Roblox and Animal Crossing and other various games while talking on a computer screen to each other. It’s the 2020 equivalent of that quaint, outdated “going over to a friend’s house.” During one of their conversations, Daughter referenced holding a guitar, then said, in that six-year-old way, “You might not know how to hold a guitar, but my Daddy has one.”
That’s right. Explaining to the daughter of the bass player in a band with multiple top-20 hits and a Grammy that HER Daddy owns an acoustic guitar he hasn’t played regularly since college. Maybe I can talk to her daddy about the complexities of the A-chord.
Anyway, Vampire Weekend is one of my new faves. It turns out they’ve been around for more than a decade, with four albums, but I’m in my mid-forties and can’t be bothered with this newfangled shit. Like Douglas Adams said about technology, any music that comes out after you’re thirty years old is devil-spawned racket that wouldn’t know talent if it bit them in the ass. But when it’s a pandemic year and I can listen to music for the eight hours a day I’m usually in front of and amongst students, I might discover some music this side of the Foo Fighters.
I actually heard Vampire Weekend before everything shut down. After hearing “This Life” on the radio a few times, I had to track down who they were and the name of the song so I could play it for Wife. Better to frontload the spouse with the fact that the song currently stuck in my head has the refrain “You’ve been cheating on, cheating on me; I’ve been cheating on, cheating on you.” That’s not a phrase you want to absentmindedly be muttering to yourself without forewarning.
And of course, once I’ve played that song on YouTube, I get suggested toward their back catalog. Uplifting, catchy guitar riffs, bouncy tempo. Pretty sure I remember hearing some of those early songs a decade ago, most prominently “A-Punk,” but they didn’t distinguish themselves from a bevvy of bands like the Lumineers or Of Mice and Men.
Their lyrics are great, too. Intellectual, extended metaphors, not the normal rhyming riff-raff. One would thing I’d be predisposed to disapprove of them, starting off one of their hits with the line, “Who gives a fuck about the oxford comma?” How dare they! You know who gives a fuck about the oxford comma? Me! You know who else? Adolf Hitler, my grandfather and the man who invented internet pornography.
“This Life” wasn’t actually the first single off of their newest album. First came “Harmony Hall,” which, despite being released in 2019, contains quite possibly the definitive lyric for 2020 – “I don’t wanna live like this, but I don’t wanna die.” I hear ya, Ezra.
So once I find a new band, and knowing that I gotta see them live to support them, I checked out their tour schedule. And what’s this? They’re going to be in one of my favorite cities, New Orleans? During my school district’s Fall Break? People with a fancy vocabulary like Vampire Weekend might call that serendipity.
Doubt I would’ve taken Wife to this one, seeing as October is the start of her busy season at work and New Orleans isn’t as high on her list as it is on mine. Definitely not taking Daughter to NOLA until I’ve practiced that whole “cunt” speech more. In April, when we were told “three weeks to flatten the curve,” I broached the subject with a couple fellow teachers, since they’d also be off that week. Their responses ranged from “Who the fuck are Vampire Weekend?” to… “Who the fuck are Vampire Weekend?”
So I countered with hand grenades, the wondrous grain alcohol & melon concoction from the Tropical Isle on Bourbon Street. They grew intrigued. So maybe I would’ve had two people accompany me on the trip but still gone to the concert alone.
The band canceled their May and June dates. Then July and August. I stopped checking. For all I know, Vampire Weekend ended up playing a wonderful show to a sold-out crowd, tens of thousands of fans crooning about oxford commas and cheating on, cheating on you.
Although Vampire Weekend are younger than me. Do kids still sing along at concerts? I’ve been told I can use my cellphone instead of a lighter on ballads these days.
While I’m at it, can we do something about that 8:00 p.m. start time? That’s usually my bed time.
But it wasn’t all cancellations and catshit. I actually managed to see some concerts in 2020! If you can’t get both “live and in person,” you might as well settle for one. Again, one featured artists I saw when I was a much younger man, and another from a band I’m new to. Check out my virtual concert reviews.
The Wombat · December 17, 2020 · Blog Entries, Musings · aging, anniversaries, beatles, Berlin Wall, George Harrison, history, John Lennon · No Comments
A couple of recent anniversaries really have me feeling my age.
You’d think, as a high-school history teacher, I’d be immune to the “Holy crap, that happened HOW MANY years ago?” Teaching teenagers, you’re quickly dispelled of the notion that things you remember quite clearly are still in the zeitgeist. deemed “might as well have been George Washington.” Hell, I had to explain to a FELLOW HISTORY teacher who Geraldine Ferraro was after she showed up on a standardized test. Somehow losing vice-presidential candidates from before you were born don’t come up in casual conversation often.
Did I mention a former student now teaches in my department? I had him as a sophomore.
Sometimes it’s hard to “make things relevant” to students unaware the world existed before 2015 or so. In another couple years, President Obama might as well be George Washington to them. When teaching imperialism, I used to start with a great introduction comparing it to the Iraq War. That stopped working a decade ago. Fortunately, Trump then got butt-hurt because he couldn’t buy Greenland. Why Greenland? Same reasons we invaded Iraq: natural resources, popularity, and to give a giant middle finger to our rivals. Now that he’s soon gone, that reference has maybe three years of legs before new students are only vaguely aware of our foreign policy being run by the Fool on the Hill.
At least I’ll have the pandemic. I’ve done the math. I’m set to retire right around the time this year’s kindergartners graduate high school. So I SHOULD still be able to reference this societal moment for quite some time. Even better than 9/11, it doesn’t matter how young you are, you’ll remember how fucked up 2020 was.
So next year, when all y’all are shocked at the TWENTIETH anniversary of 9/11, I’ll shrug.
But there are still some things that sneak up and smack me in the ass. For instance:
The Berlin Wall. This one shouldn’t have hit me this year. After all, last year was the big 3-0 since the fall. But that was back in the happy times of 2019, when we had outside lives and friends to visit and restaurants to dine at. Who’s going to take a solemn moment to memorialize thirty years since a bunch of Euros with lousy haircuts and even worse fashion senses decided to answer the Scorpions open-call for video extras?
Although the thirtieth isn’t the one that’s bothering me, either. My discomfort goes all the way back to 2018.
After all, 1989 does seem like an awfully long time ago. I too had a lousy haircut and even worse fashion sense. Remember Day-glo? For my entire teaching career, I’ve explained to my students that I was their age when the Berlin Wall came down and my German teacher was hungover for a week.
The reason the 29th anniversary is more earth-shattering for me is because the Wall was built in 1961. Eighty-nine minus sixtyone equals twenty-eight. So sometime in 2018, the Wall had been down longer than it had ever been up. Maybe that feels weird to me because I never knew a world without a Berlin Wall. It was only thirteen years old when I was born, but in my mind it had always been there. And always would. Now it’s a footnote, like the Stuart Restoration.
Last week marked the fortieth anniversary of John Lennon’s death. December 8, 1980, although it was only a little after midnight on the east coast, so it was still 12/7 here on the west coast. “A date that shall live in infamy,” indeed!
But John’s not the one that bothered me.
George died in November. 2001. Only two months after the Twin Towers, so maybe that’s why I don’t remember it being such a big deal.
I remember it, to be sure. Kinda shocking. I think I knew he was sick, but not that sick. Kinda like Chadwick Boseman. Although nothing like Chadwick Boseman because George Harrison was never, in his wildest dreams, fit enough to play either the Black Panther or Jackie Robinson, let alone both.
Plus nobody wants to see Jackie Robinson swing like he’s playing cricket.
But still, one day he was here, the next day he was gone. All things must pass. Too soon?
The Beatles channel on SiriusXM did a nice tribute to him on the nineteenth anniversary of his passing. Meaning its been almost two decades since you’ve heard the tacky “three more bullets” joke.
(For those too young to remember it, the question was what it would take to get a Beatles reunion. “One more bullet and one more cancer” doesn’t have the same ring, I guess)
But lets do some math: 1980 to 2001 is 21 years. 2001 to 2020 is 19. So we’re two years (and two healthy musicians) away from living longer with two Beatles than we did with three. How crazy is that?
I think we’ll get there. The remaining Beatles don’t appear to be going anywhere. Sure, McCartney’s aged a bit based on the photo shoot for that quarantine album he recorded. Then again, he just recorded a solo album while in quarantine! And some of us have grey hair by the time we’re half his age. Although, in our defense, at least we’re wise enough to know that nobody wants to hear creepy old dudes singing, “If you come on to me, then I’ll come onto you.” Really, septuagenarian? Aren’t you ejaculating dust these days?
As for the other surviving Beatle, holy hell. I know there’s really good hair dye, but Ringo looks the same now as he did in 1990. Did Barbara Bach steal some MI-6 de-aging formula when she teamed up with James Bond in Egypt?
Seriously, what demon did Ringo make a deal with? I’m not opposed to a diet of fresh baby blood if it’ll thicken up my hair a little. But I’ve listened to “Yellow Submarine” forward, backward, and on super slow speed, and I’ve never found instructions to life everlasting.
So yeah, despite the fact that Paul is 78 and Ringo is 80, I think they’re both destined to outlive George longer than George outlived John.
All in all, it’s just another Beatle in the Wall.
(No Pink Floyd anniversary this month, but that’s never stopped Floyd fans from lighting one up.)
I’m trying to figure out why the Berlin Wall and George Harrison are freaking me out. The Quiet Beatle being dead for nineteen years shouldn’t trump the fortieth anniversary for the… the… shit, I only know the cute one and the quiet one. Which one was John? The full-of-himself one? Probably the serious one, even though that’s pretty much the same thing. What was Ringo, the deal-with-the-devil one? The drummer one? The pahrump-pah-pum-pum one?
Regardless, 9/11 being twenty years ago is fine with me, but George Harrison two months later is bothersome. We just passed the fortieth anniversary of Lennon’s death. Big whoop. But the wall came tumbling down nine years later, and that bugs the shit out of me.
Although again, it isn’t the fact that the Wall fell, it’s that it really wasn’t up for very long. Twenty-eight years? I have t-shirts that old.
(That wasn’t a joke – My Eric Clapton/Elton John concert is from 1992. I don’t think I’ve worn it in twenty years, but ya gotta keep the concert tee from your favorite concert.)
Growing up, the Berlin Wall was deemed as permanent as the Great Wall of China. East and West Germany seemed destined to outlast North and South Korea. After all, East Germany was backed up by the everlasting Soviet Union, while North Korea was only propped up by that upstart China.
By extension, Lennon died when I was six years old, which pretty much means he’s been dead my entire life. Allegedly my mom told me when he died, and I responded by asking who he was. “One of the Beatles,” she answered. “What are the Beatles?” I asked. I didn’t have the good sense to ask her if Stu Sutcliffe might rejoin the club now. If it was two years later, she might’ve told me he used to be in a band with the “Ebony and Ivory” guy. But not Stevie Wonder.
So Lennon being dead for forty years is the same as Teddy Roosevelt being gone a hundred. Their deaths were equally as impactful to my life. Okay, maybe not Teddy Roosevelt, since they’re in different arenas. But Lennon might as well have been Richie Valens or Buddy Holly. Or Louis Armstrong or Elvis Presley. Artists that made good music, but who were dead before I knew what good music was.
So in my estimation, Lennon’s always been dead, but Harrison is recent. When the remaining three Beatles recorded “Free as a Bird,” it felt like a time machine, stretching back to the beforetimes. If Ringo and Paul recorded an unreleased George demo tomorrow, I’d shrug. Sure, I know “Free as a Bird” was different because of the vitriol they shared after the breakup. The key number wasn’t the fifteen years since Lennon recorded it, but the twenty-five years since the breakup. But even that’s a big nothing burger these days. Bands are always getting back together to record one more song after twenty years off. Guns n’ Roses figures if they never finish a tour (or a concert, for that matter), then they each tour can be billed as the reunion tour.
The technology of “Free as a Bird” seems ho-hum now, too. It came on SirusXM the other day, and man, it’s not a good song. John’s demo was seriously shitty sound quality. I know he has some unfinished songs on “Milk and Honey.” You can always tell “Grow Old with Me” wasn’t intended to be the final recording for that song, but “Free as a Bird” sounds like a few bars on a tape recorder. Then the other guys come in, each singing the same crappy lyrics (thanks, Paul). It’s not even verse then chorus, it’s chorus then one line from John at the other end of a 1999 cell phone, followed by a repeat of the chorus.
If Princess Leia can appear in “Rise of Skywalker” (and you know Chadwick Boseman will show up in “Black Panther 2”), then singing with a dead guy isn’t all that impressive. Natalie Cole did it better. And with all the deepfakes these days, isn’t there enough recording of John Lennon singing to make a legitimate “new” song with his voice? A clip from here, a snippet from there, and maybe we can hear him roll his eyes performing, “If you come on to me, then I’ll come onto you.”
Maybe I need to ask some Baby Boomers if the Berlin Wall being so long ago is weird to them. After all, they had a point in their life where there was no Wall, then it was there, and then it was gone. They had a time when there were four Beatles, then there were three, and now there are two. There were two Vietnams. Now there are two Sudans.
Holy shit, WHEN did “Jurassic Park” come out?
The Wombat · November 30, 2020 · Blog Entries, Musings · #amediting, #amwriting, NaNoWriMo, writing community, writing update · No Comments
I just won NaNoWriMo! Woo-hoo!
Unfortunately, it was NaNoWriMo 2018. Do they still have badges for that?
Whatever. For only the second time in my life, I finished a novel last week.
Writing, that is. If I only finished reading the second novel of my life at the age of 46, I doubt I’d be trumpeting quite so loudly.
Although sometimes, when looking at the drivel I put onto a page, one might presume I’ve never actually learned how to comprehend the English language anywhere beyond “See Jane barf. See Dick dick.”
I could barely contain my giggling in the background while listening to Daughter’s first grade class work on their vocab. “Don’t let the cat <Blank> you.” “Theo and Jana <Blanked> the sandwich.” And my personal favorite, “I decided to <Blank> to the finish line.”
(The answers were scratch, split, and sprint, you sicko!)
In my mind, Book Number One took five years to write, but I never bothered looking at the stats. It turns out I was overshooting. Or undershooting, depending on what one defines as “writing.”
According to Microsoft Word, I began Book Number One on April 1, 2014. I thought it was a NaNoWriMo novel, but that start date implies it was Camp, not NaNo proper. Not that it makes a difference. I’ve never won any NaNo, whether April or July or November. While I could probably shit out 50,000 words in a month, I wouldn’t consider it “Novel Writing.” Nor would it be be a complete novel.
My daughter, by the way, was born one month later, in May of 2014. If I couldn’t finish a book in a month with no child and Wife mostly immobile, it’s safe to say it ain’t ever happening. One November, I had a student teacher, which necessitated me to vacate my classroom and sit in the staff room with my laptop every day. It also gave me two fewer class periods to prep and grade. I still didn’t “Win” that NaNo.
To be fair, Book One wasn’t really my first attempt. I started a hot pile of puke for NaNoWriMo in 2013, a “semi-autobiographical” retelling of my trip to Mardi Gras as a wee lad. I say “semi” because said trip happened in 2000, thirteen years earlier, and I can barely remember what I taught yesterday. I was also rip-roaring drunk a substantial portion of Mardi Gras, so even if I’d woken up every morning and written down what happened the night before, it would’ve been half-accurate at best. One morning I awoke with my jaw hurting like hell. A day or two later I remembered taking a punch to the chin while trying to break up a fight. Whether or not I broke up said fight remains a mystery twenty years later.
So yeah, that “book” made it to somewhere in the 30-40,000 word and shall grow no more. NaNoWriMo might consider that 80% of a full book, but it ain’t. Not that any of my books are likely to see the light of day, but that one shouldn’t even grace my computer screen. There’s a reason weed journals aren’t on the New York Times bestseller lists, because none of our lives are quite so hilarious as we are led to believe.
Still, it was probably a good first attempt. Write what you know, they say. If I was ever going to push anything beyond 5,000 words or so, it probably helped that I didn’t need to plot things out, or get to know my characters. Who knows, maybe I’ll salvage some of it for blog posts some February. After all, “embellished life stories” might as well be the subtitle here.
According to Microsoft, I “finished” Book One on June 8, 2017. So not five years. More like three and some change. But it still isn’t really finished, and it’s now been six-and-a-half years. If I split the difference on those two, it’s five years, give or take.
I remember writing the last line of that book. It was a “planned” book, as opposed to a “pantsed” book, but in reality it ended up being very little like the plan. The character that was supposed to die at the end of Act II lived until the end of Act III, while at least two characters who were supposed to survive the book didn’t make it that far. One because he swapped places with the “planned” Act II death, and another because I got tired of typing all the apostrophes in his accent.
But I knew the tentpoles of the plot. I always knew what major plot point I had to get to, and the next one after that. As such, that final line was pre-ordained for three years. I might not have enunciated it in the planning stage, but by the time I was 10K words in or so, I knew precisely how it would end. The month leading up to it was both exciting and scary. I remember the feeling that June afternoon, sitting in a pub while waiting for Wife and Daughter to meet me at a baseball game, as I wrote paragraphs leading up to it.
One more paragraph.
Nah, make him go around the bend, and then…
Holy shit, I just finished a book.
I guess I’ll start Book Two.
To be clear, Book Two isn’t a sequel to Book One. I’ve heard that’s a big-time no-no. Because when the editor tells me not to kill off Character One, make it Character Two instead, that’ll make Character Two’s super-important arc in Book Four super awkward. Not saying you can’t teach an old zombie new tricks, but it requires a fair amount of backtracking. During a NaNo write-in, I once met somebody who was writing the SEVENTH book in an unpublished series. Man, I hope he never has to go back and edit book one. I’m guessing some character motivations have changed in the interceding six tomes. At least I hope so.
One of my characters changed quite a bit during this book. I know that because I wanted the last chapter to mirror an earlier chapter, so I did a bit of side-by-side writing. Wow, did I really start out the character that way? He’s always been crass, but by the end of the book he’s more crude jokester. On the re-read, he’s kind of a dick early on. He also seemed to have a son in Chapter Four, but it’s a daughter by the end. I’m not sure what her name is. I kept writing [Daughter] in the final chapters, certain that I named her at some point, and when I find said name, I’ll fill it back in. This might be the problem with taking six month breaks from writing throughout the course of the book.
Sorry, let’s double back to the statistics. Book Number Two’s file was created on October 10, 2018, but I don’t think I actually started writing it then. That sounds like prime “NaNo Prep” range. The first page still has a little preview blurb, again only covering the start of the book. So I can safely assume I didn’t start the novel proper until November 1, 2018. Oh, maybe October 31, because I’ve been known to fudge a little. If it’s past 9:00 PM in California, it’s already the next day on the east coast. Heck, 4:00 PM nets me midnight GMT. It’s not like I use the extra couple hours to push me across the finish line. I promise, if I ever start at 4:00 on 10/31, I will not accept a win after 4:00 on 11/30.
Regardless of whether I started on 10/10 or 10/31 or 11/1, the fact that I finished it in November of 2020 puts it at just about a two-year novel. Not quite half of my first one, but in that range. Maybe by the time I get to book five, I can cut it to a year. I’ll still never figure out how Michael Connelly and Lee Child (pre-retirement) can churn out 17 or so books per year. It takes me longer to read their books than it takes them to write them.
Writing the ending of Book Two was a lot less cathartic than Book One. I’m sure part of it is the law of diminishing returns. After all, Book One wasn’t only a 3.5-year journey, it was a 40+ year one. Finishing any book would’ve fired off endorphins. With Book Two, it’s a matter of been there, done that. And considering that Book One is still in the editing process, experience tells me that getting to the end is little more than a checkpoint. I feel sorry for Stephen King. Does he get any joy out of finishing a book?
On the other hand, he’s a multi-millionaire who gets a movie deal every time he has a bowel movement, so maybe I should hold off on my pity. It’s like when Billy Joel says he would’ve liked to have been a history teacher. I’m a history teacher, Billy. Wanna switch?
I also wonder if my lackluster finish stems from the fact that this book was “pantsed,” not planned. I had a couple characters and an opening scene in mind when I started. Instead of wasting another six months creating a plot I wouldn’t follow anyway, I decided to just write that opening scene and see where it ended up. Turns out it ended up at a whorehouse.
As such, the final scene has probably only been in my head for a couple months. I had a vague idea of how the characters were going to get out of their final snafu, but I wasn’t entirely sure how they would get into it. And I sure as shit had no idea of what to do afterward. Y’know, you gotta have the requisite cool-down, level-up scene after the big blowout. I know we all think in terms of “Hans Gruber falls from Nakatomi Plaza, fade to black,” but the consumer wants to see some bullshit hug-it-out scene between John McClain and Al Powell.
The final line? I thought it up a week or so ago. Not convinced it’ll make it past the first rewrite. Instead of that bronze ring I’m getting closer to each time the 500-words-a-day carousel comes back around, it felt more like the decision point after my second beer. Do I add a little bit more or call it a night here? In the end, I decided to avoid the headache waiting for me tomorrow morning if I dragged the scene out any more.
Unlike with Book One, where I let it sit for a year, I think I’m going to do the second pass soon. Make the drapes match the carpet. No wait, sorry. Wrong euphemism. What I meant was “check the pubes for hair dye.” Nope. Still not it.
Make the ass match the face! That’s it! Turn that son into a daughter, maybe finally discover her name. Decide whether I want to keep the character an asshole to make his growth more astute or maybe take a little off the edge at the beginning so readers don’t hate him before they find out his daughter’s name. I also remember some stuff I wanted to switch around at the beginning. I killed off one character earlier than I should have (again, unplanned, but I found myself liking her way better than the main characters, and I thought my readers might, too, so off with her head!). Turns out her death ended up having a major effect on the main characters. Who woulda thunk that when it popped in my head one day?
Then I’ll wait. It seems like the third draft is where the magic happens. Book One started at 127,000 words. After pass two, I got it down to just over 100,000. I was doing a small amount of ass-fitting-the-face, but also cutting large swaths of inner dialogue that, while necessary for my writing process, added little to the reading process. Then I found a couple of beta readers. Well, I found 7-10 people who said beta reading sounded fun, but only two ever responded to the opening 10K I gave them. So yeah, we’ll call that a couple beta readers. I’m hoping the others didn’t get around to it. If they read it and it was too horrible to enunciate, then I might be progressing on faulty logic.
Originally, I didn’t consider this pass a third draft. I was just cleaning up those first 10K words for the beta readers. I was planning to dump the extra 90,000 words on them all at once, with caveats that I would “clean it up” later. So if I used nicer verbs in the first batch, assume they’ll make it into draft three. Or, hell, if y’all like the shitty words, then maybe next time I’ll query the diarrhea first draft and pretend it’s stream of consciousness.
Besides, I logicked, I’m going to make changes after their feedback anyway, right?
Except the first beta reader to get back to me said he’d be fine getting it in more 10,000-word dribs and drabs. Less daunting for him that way. So then I figured I’d “clean up” batch two. Less daunting for me that way, too.
I also wanted to play around with a way to freshen up the book that I was bored with after 227,000 words over six years. Right before sending it off, I threw in a couple of changes I’d been thinking about, some tongue-in-cheek references to add levity and to make it substantially less derivative. Both respondents liked it, so I’ve continued adding them to the new batches.
I’m now starting my sixth “batch,” finishing up Act II. I originally named this file “2.2,” it’s pretty obvious that it’s destined for “3.0” status once I put all the batches back together.
Draft one is putting shit down on a piece of paper. Draft two, I’ve been told, is making those words less shitty. At least for my first book, I’m finding the third draft is where I’m actually focusing on writing some good words. It’s on pace to be around 80,000 words, which seems like a good spot for a novel with a little bit of world-building. Even better that the net -20,000 words is more like -25,000 less crap plus an extra 10,000 words of those added accoutrements.
Who woulda guessed, after cutting close to 30K from first to second, I still had more than 20K to cut. First pass, I focused on cutting full paragraphs. Second pass is taking “He decided it was time to go around the corner” to “He rounded the corner.” Can that reduce the manuscript by 20%? Turns out it can.
Book Two stands “complete” at 110K. I’m a little worried that if it goes through a similar culling process, it’ll be down to 60K or so, which ain’t much of nothin’. But I feel like I need to add some to the first half while chopping the second half. When I was still figuring everything out, I didn’t have as much to say. Once I figured out what made the characters tick, I had to explain what made the characters tick.
So I’m a little in between right now. Finishing the last few beta batches of Book One while working on the reorganization, large swath cuts of Book Two. It won’t be easy since they’re drastically different. I occasionally ran into this problem over the past month. Book One is a fantasy/historical fiction, a hero’s journey with a studious main character. Book Two is set in modern-day Vegas with one main character obsessed with sports while the asshole is likely to bust out a Golden Girls reference at any given time. Did I mention Book Two took a detour to a whorehouse? Not an easy transition from that to a heroic stand of cavaliers in chainmail.
I wrote Book Two in the present tense. Not sure why, but it seemed to fit. One goes to a whorehouse, one has not gone to a whorehouse.
So yeah, maybe I spend the next couple weeks finishing the beta batches, then do the ass-and-face pass?
More importantly, when do I start Book Three? And which book shall that be? I’ve had a few ideas bumping around, one of which started out before Book Two was even a thought. Since I went serious then funny, maybe I’ll head back to a “Very Special Episode” again.
It would also send me back on the “Planned” road. I haven’t written word #1, but I’ve known where and how the final scene will go. I might even have the final line picked out. It’s the first line that’s proven to be a right asshole.
And I could totally fuck future me up by starting Book Three this week. When I post about finishing it in 2024 or so, watch how confused I am – December 1? WTF? Did I finish a NaNoWriMo and decide to keep the mojo going?
Never mind. I’ll KNOW that wasn’t the case.
The Wombat · November 10, 2020 · Blog Entries, Musings · celebrities, cheryl tiegs, chrissy teigen, Funny, harry styles, Pop Culture, ryan stiles, selena gomez · No Comments
From what I hear, Chrissy Teigen has struggled with her pregnancy. In fact, I think she miscarried. A number of media types and people I know were super chagrined.
Me, I kinda shrugged my shoulders.
I mean, any time a pregnant woman loses her baby is a tragedy. But on the flip side, what are we to expect when a woman her age tries to have a child? I think she’s in her fifties, at least. The very fact they could conceive, I assume through some in vitro test tube, is a miracle of science. Am I supposed to be shocked that it didn’t take?
Her husband, John Legend, we are told, sat by her hospital bed as complications took hold. A harrowing experience, to be sure.
Wait, John Legend? The guy that butchered a John Lennon Christmas song? He’s married Chrissy Teigen? Cougar much, Chrissy?
But then I saw a picture of John Legend standing next to some young African American woman in a hospital bed. Is this a stock pohoto? Because that woman looks nothing likethe actress/model I remember from my youth.
After weeks of hearing the story, I finally realized that Chrissy Teigen is NOT Cheryl Tiegs. Two ENTIRELY different people.
Chrissy Teigen is only 34 years old, which makes a lost pregnancy all the more ghastly.
Cheryl Tiegs, it turns out, is actually 73 years old. So yeah, medical science or no, she ain’t getting knocked up by a wanna-Beatle any time soon.
I’m really bad at the whole “spot the celebrity” game. It bothers Wife incessantly. I can identify a Phil Collins drumfill in a random one-hit wonder from 1987, but ask me to find the similarities in pictures of Jane Foster and Queen Amidala and I’m at a loss. There’s no way it’s the same actress in each role. I mean, the one next to Hayden Christensen is the second coming of Katherine Hepburn, while the one in the MCU is being out-acted by Kat Dennings.
At least Natalie Portman kept the same hair style in those two movies. Nobody will ever convince me that the Laura Prepon who starred in “That 70’s Show” is the same Laura Prepon who has starred in… well, pretty much everything since “That 70’s Show.” After all, the former was a redhead, while the latter has been, predominantly, a blonde. East is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet. It’s not like L’Oreal makes a compass.
But obviously visuals weren’t my main issue with Chrissy Teigen and Cheryl Tiegs. Their names are way too close together. If this was a book, it would be the mark of a bad author. For instance, I made it 80,000 words into a WIP before realizing that two of the main characters are named Richard and Robbie. It wasn’t until they were in the same scene together that I realized how annoying it will be to read sentences in which they both appear. But unlike Chrissy and Cheryl, I’ll fix that in the second draft, where I’m pretty sure Robbie will become a Willie or a Billy. What are Chrissy Teigen and Cheryl Tiegs’ excuse for not fixing that shit in post-write?
I had a similar problem the first thousand or so times Daughter watched various installments of the “Hotel Transylvania” franchise. Selena Gomez voices the daughter, Mavis, which initially made no sense to me. She seems too professional an actress to be doing cartoon voiceovers, to say nothing of slumming around with Adam Sandler and his ilk. Aside from the fact that Mavis sounds like a legitimate twenty-something. And cartoons have done a good job of making the characters have similar visual characteristics as the actors that play them. Drac’s facial expressions totally match Adam Sandler, and Johnny has Andy Samberg’s weird sideways mouth.
Speaking of which, Andy Samberg and Adam Sandler in the same movie? Was Adam Goldberg unavailable? Fortunately, I’ve watched enough “Brooklyn 99” (and “The Goldbergs”) to know the difference between them, but only because Adam Sandler is about as distinctive as it gets for a guy who went to college in the early 1990s. Bob Barker once called when I was working in the state Capitol to ask my boss to vote for a spay/neuter bill and my first response was that I loved him in “Happy Gilmore.” He said he expected “Price is Right,” because, I guess, he he figured grandmas were the primary demographic for legislative aides. Who did he think I was, Chrissy Teigen?
I’m sure it shouldn’t shock you to know that, whoever I was thinking played the voice of Mavis, it sure as hell wasn’t Selena Gomez. I finally saw a behind-the-scenes video showing the actors do the voicework and Selena Gomez, would you believe it, is actually a twenty-something who looks a bit like Mavis, her character.
The problem is that I have no idea who I thought “Selena Gomez” was referring to. I’m pretty sure this was the first time I realized Selena Gomez existed as a human being. I never explicitly thought of anyone in particular, but had the general sense of a middle-aged Latina. Perhaps Salma Hayek, because their first names have a lot of the same letters, but I kinda got a Jennifer Lopez visual in my head, which of course looks nothing like Mavis. Or Selena Gomez.
Obviously I know who J-Lo is, and her name is nowhere close to Selena Gomez. But hear me out. She played the original Selena in her biopic.
Okay, maybe you didn’t need to hear me out, cause that’s all I’ve got.
Obviously Selena Gomez isn’t that Selena, because she died long before “Hotel Transylvania.” But that at least gets me over the “Jennifer Lopez is Selena” hurdle. Add in the fact that Selena Gomez dated Justin Bieber, while J-Lo dated Alex Rodriguez, and I hate both of them. Incidentally, I thought it was Tom Brady that J-Lo dated, but a Google search told me it was the other overrated sports figure in the northeast that I stopped watching ESPN because of. And no, Salma Hayek never dated Tom Brady, either.
To be fair, unlike C. Teigen and C. Tiegs, I never explicitly thought Selena Gomez was Jennifer Lopez. I just had a general idea in my head that Selena Gomez was a fifty-something singer/actress who had been around since the mid-1990s. So maybe I really did just think she was the dead Selena.
Finally, let me head off the potential woke response of me being a typical white male who can’t distinguish between individual members of other ethnicities. Because I can’t tell white dudes apart, either.
Harry Styles is, allegedly, yet another singer and actor. Does anybody do one or the other anymore? I guess most actors stay in their lane, at least since the glory that was Eddie Murphy’s “Party All the Time,” but singers, it appears, must now become actors. I blame it on Justin Timberlake. Or Frank Sinatra. They might as well be the same person.
Not that I get them confused.
For some reason, Harry Styles pops up in my news feed from time to time. Maybe he’s dating someone? Or has some political view that he needs to inform everybody about? I’m not sure and I don’t want to google it lest I get MORE headlines about Harry Styles – I’m already suffering from a slew of Selena Gomez info since I wrote the first part of this blog post yesterday.
If I had to guess, though, I think Harry Styles is some sort of fashionista. I don’t know if that’s a gendered word. A fashionister? Or maybe fashionisto? fashionistx? As an aside, I heard someone refer to a number of major league baseball players as Latinx, which confused me because I thought we were only supposed to use Latinx to refer to a group with both Latinos and Latinas. Is Latino offensive even if it’s a group of males of Latin American origin? Of course, I’m only asking the white people this, because no person of Latin American origin uses the phrase Latinx because it makes absolutely no fucking sense in Spanish.
Sorry, where was I? Right. Harry Styles. I couldn’t figure out why Harry Styles was making headlines for things like who he was dating or his new hairstyle. I mean, even when the dude was relevant, what, twenty years ago, I would never have called him hip. Hilarious, sure, but he’s tall and lanky, a goofy body frame perfect for physical comedy and not much else.
Have you spotted my train track yet? I was thinking of Ryan Stiles, the improv actor most notable for being on every single episode of “Whose Line is it, Anyway?”, both the English (good) and Drew Carey (bad) iterations. From this mid-40s perspective, he’s the far more important and influential of the Stileses, but I’m slowly coming to realize that he isn’t the ONLY of the Stileses.
It’s tough being me sometimes. Probably even tougher being my wife.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to research the subtle distinction between Jimmy Dean and James Dean.
The Wombat · October 29, 2020 · Blog Entries, Musings · 1970s, 1980s, child rearing, nostalgia, parenting, roller skating, skating rink · No Comments
A week or two before the shutdown, I found myself at the local skating rink.
In fact, it was literally days before society ended. Maybe the Friday before the Friday when the toilet paper ran out. I remember it clearly because the skating rink had hand sanitizer out and one of the local parents kept doing shots of that alcohol-based substance like we were experiencing a Friday night in our twenties, not our forties. How silly she’s going to feel, I remember thinking, when this whole thing blows over in a week or two.
And our kids still haven’t returned to school.
Sorry, I might’ve buried the lede on that story. Did I forget to mention that my town has a skating rink?
No, I don’t mean a skate park. I’m also not talking about some tennis court that’s been turned into a roller hockey court or a running track that’s been turned into a roller derby course. Nor is it ice skating.
I’m talking about an honest-to-goodness, slick wooden oval roller rink. Like with roller skates and shit. Straight out of 1978!
And let me tell ya, the decor is straight outta 1978, too. Check this out:
Can it be called retro if it’s the same it’s always been? You gotta give props to a company that keeps the same decor so long that it comes back into style again as a chic throwback. Imagine how much I’ll be crowing when those jean shorts in the back of my dresser come back around. Of course, it’ll all be moot if my 32-inch waist doesn’t come back at the same time.
My COVID hairstyle is looking suspiciously close to what all the hip dudes were sporting on MTV in the mid-1990s. Or how Keanu Reeves has looked his entire career.
Keanu: the Jorts of Hollywood!
I actually went to the skating rink five times in the twelve months before lockdown. She became a kindergartner and all of a sudden we had to engage in spirit nights. And if skate nights worked to pass some cash the elementary school’s direction four decades ago, then they still serve that function now. The more things change, the more they stay the same. My daughter informs me on a regular basis that the floor is still hot lava! You’d think somebody would’ve done something about that since I was five years old. But nope. I’m sure the next politician running for office will promise to fix it during Infrastructure Week.
It’s not just for school, though. Only two of those five visits were supporting the school. One was for the girl scouts, the other two birthday parties. But I tie it all back to the elementary school, because without them leading the way with three or four fundraising nights a year there, I don’t think the girl scouts would’ve organically thought up a pastime from the early 1980s. Neither the six-year-old nor the seven-year-old could explain to me the finer points of trickle-down Reaganomics.
The first time we went, Wife told me we were taking Daughter to her school’s skate night.
“Ice skating?”
“No, roller skating.”
Eyes narrowed, looking for TV cameras from a prank show.
“At the school?”
“No, this town has a roller rink.”
Blink. Blink.
“Do we have to buy…”
And before you ask, yep, they’re the same rentals you remember. Literally the same ones. Remember that one pair with the frayed shoelaces? I think I was wearing that exact pair in March.
Daughter had a great time and ended up asking Santa for a pair of skates for Christmas. Santa gave her what she wanted, which kept alive the streak of new wheels for every birthday and Christmas. I’m not kidding. Since she was two, every gift exchange has had some sort of wheeled travel item. It went from tricycle to balance bike to bike with training wheels to scooter to taking the training wheels of the bike. Last Christmas came the roller skates, which she promptly took out to skate on the street Christmas morning. She got a big-girl bike for her birthday this year, so I guess we’re up to car this Christmas? Is something else supposed to bridge the wheeled gap from six to sixteen?
I tweeted out a joke that it was also my fifth time at the skating rink in the past year, and also the fifth time at a skating rink since the Reagan administration. I was going for hyperbole, trying to be funny, but the more I thought about it, it might’ve been spot on. I remember roller blading a few times in college and beyond, but that was always done around the college campus, or on one of those aforementioned basketball-court-turned-hockey-rinks. Never did we go to a private entity designed exclusively for skating round and round in an oval.
So maybe in high school? But I don’t remember any skating rinks being open during high school. And my four years in high school matched the four years of the first Bush presidency. So yeah, snar-casm (snarky sarcasm) aside, I think it’s legitimately been since the Reagan administration since I’ve been to a skating rink. If I had to pinpoint a precise year for my last trip, I’d maybe say 1985. “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” seems like a good final song to red-light/green-light to.
Sorry, not “final” song, since I’ve now red-light/green-lighted to “High Hopes,” or maybe it was “Old Town Road” or “The Middle.” Or maybe “Don’t You (Forget About Me).” The DJ has to still have it.
In addition to red-light/green-light, they still play four corners. The DJ also referred to something as “bitchin’,” a word I haven’t heard since the last time I was at a skating rink. Now I know where it’s been hidden all this time. Jesus, this place really is like Goonies and Ghostbusters trapped in amber.
Speaking of retro, the roller rink had an advertisement (on one of their 12-inch box TVs) for an upcoming “Retro Night.” I didn’t check at the fine print, but I imagine the date was listed as January 1-December 31. I don’t know what they could do to make themselves more retro. Except maybe clean up some of the dust. And put out lines of cocaine.
Unfortunately, my skating skills aren’t what they were in 1985. Gotta admit it’s a little wobbly. Plus I’ve gotten used to ice skating, where you can more or less stop on a dime by turning your feet sideways. If you turn your feet sideways while the wheels are still moving forward, you’re in for a crash course in Newton’s Laws of Motion. I’ve also become more used to rollerblades, where they’re smart enough to put the brake in the back. Roller skates still have the rubber brake knob on the front. This makes no fucking sense. If you’re moving forward and you have to lean farther forward to slow yourself down, you’re just going ass over teakettle. Back brakes slow you down. Front brakes work like a pole vault.
One thing that’s different is the tweens out on the rink. Not the concept of tweens, because skating rinks have always been the haven for “too young to drive, but old enough to be dropped off by parents for two hours.” But the big difference between tweens now and tweens then (aside from Day Glo) is that nowadays they have phones. And they’re on said phones while they’re skating, which is an action they don’t perform all that often. Do you see where I’m going with this? They crash because they’re looking at their phones. It’s fucking hilarious. Plus, I don’t have to feel guilty about laughing at them as I speed past. I can justify that they’re learning valuable lessons before they have a car around them.
The birthday party was scheduled to wrap up at 8:00. I figured that was just a suggestion, but around 7:40, they mentioned that we only had twenty minutes left. They were kicking us all out. Ah, I figured. The place closes down at 8:00. Kinda makes sense if you cater to kids and birthday parties. Then let the teenaged employees out before its too late. Maybe they need to head home to start up their weekend homework. I’m sure that’s what all my students do with their Friday night.
Just kidding, they don’t start their homework Friday night. That’s what third period on Monday is for.
My assumption about closing time at the roller rink was just as off-base. They told us we needed to get all the rentals and crutches (they’ve fashioned PVC pipe into triangular “walkers” for beginning skaters, of which there are quite a few at a sixth birthday party) back to the front to be ready for their next session. Next session? You mean the skate rink is open past 8:00 on a Friday?
And boy howdy, they are. When we left, we walked past the line waiting to get in. There had to be at least fifty people. Maybe closer to one hundred. Many were those very same teenagers who were supposed to be home working on school work. But there were also twenty-somethings and parents. Some people even looked to be my age. Just like 1978, if the skating rink is ROCKIN’, y’all better come knockin’!
Makes me wonder why there aren’t more roller rinks around. Sure, they can’t pull like they did in their heyday. I remember at one point my little town of 20,000 or so had its own roller rink and there was another one in the town of 30,000 a few miles away. That’s a level of glut that golf courses are now trying to draw back from. When Tiger was big, every municipality wanted five new golf courses. Now they need to figure out what to do with acres and acres of manicured land. One of the ones nearby turned into a soccer golf course.
But most towns have room and demand for one golf course. And they probably could stomach a skating rink, too. The problem, of course, was that most of them didn’t make it through the 80s and 90s to the point where they became retro chic. I imagine if you found yourself at a roller rink in, say, 1990, it was skeevy as hell. Cocaine in the bathrooms is groovy, but hypodermics are just a drag, man. I imagine the one in my town must own the land it’s built on. There’s no way it made it through the Clinton administration if it was paying monthly rent.
But now the few remaining rinks have come full circle to wholesome family entertainment again. The type of place where they have elementary school nights and children’s birthday parties. In 1990, the only children having birthday parties at roller rinks were probably giving freebase spoons away in their goodie bags.
The range of “cool in the 1970s, later a joke” runs the gamut. On one end, you have bowling alleys. Somehow they’ve survived in spades. Not that bowlers are hip these days. Were they ever? But if I started this blog by saying I went bowling last weekend, you wouldn’t be all that surprised. Nobody’s ever looked at me with an odd expression, asking, “Did you just say there’s a bowling alley opened near you? Like, with pins and shit?”
On the other end of the spectrum is the old drive-in theater. Those used to be in abundance and now they’re only remembered as shrines to date rape.
Actually, Sacramento still has a drive-in theater. Not sure how, cause I’ve gone a few times and, unlike the roller rink, I wasn’t pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t curious as to why they never made it to Y2K.
The only reason drive-ins have value (aside from the fact that blow jobs in crowded movie theaters are frowned upon) is for families with kids. The kid can fall asleep in the back seat and the parents are finally able to see adult entertainment without taking out a second mortgage to get three hours of babysitting.
But movies have gotten too good to be wasted on the shitty screen quality of drive-ins. Our TV screens are better. Our phones are better. And the only movies that we even bother to see in the theater anymore are the ones that are visually stunning enough to be wasted on our home screens. If my TV can’t do it justice, then the drive-in is straight-up insulting the director. Especially when some jackwagon drives up late to the movie, or leaves early, shining their headlights on the screen right when the boobs pop out CGI space-battle explosions reach their climax.
I guess that sentence was going to end with a climax, either way.
Actually, the drive-ins managed to reopen long before the indoor theaters. It turns out the Sacramento drive-in is owned by a company that has seven or eight of them throughout the western U.S. I remember when they reopened in mid-May, making me ponder why a business where I stay in my car the entire time was closed to begin with.
Of course, when they reopened, there were no new movies coming out. That’s been a problem for other movie theaters as they’ve reopened. Wasn’t “The Empire Strikes Back” the top grossing movie of April? I think when the drive-in reopened, it had a double-feature of two Spiderman movies – Tobey McGuire’s and Andrew Garfield’s. Or maybe it was “Goonies” and “Ghostbusters” trapped in amber.
But skating rinks should have gone the way of the bowling alley, not the drive-in theater. It’s a shame, because as I rediscovered over my daughter’s first year of public schooling, there’s still a place for zipping around in circles in this app-laden world.
Maybe I should do something about that.
Right after I finish this petition to bring back lawn darts.
The Wombat · October 21, 2020 · Blog Entries, Musings · Charlie Brown, Christmas, Christmas movies, Halloween, Holidays, movie trilogies, peanuts, Star Wars, Thanksgiving · No Comments
Trilogies come in all shapes and sizes.
Scratch that. They all come in the same shape and size, that being “three.”
What I meant to say was they have a variety of styles.
You’ve got “Back to the Future,” which has the same basic plotline, but in three different genres. Time is broken because someone’s driving the 1980s version of a Tesla, and Alex P. Keaton needs to fix it before midnight, when he turns into a Teen Wolf. But they tell it as a teen comedy, then dystopian sci-fi, then a western so we wont notice.
There’s “Superman,” where they also played with time travel. No, I’m not talking about Superman spinning the world backward to save Lois Lane. I’m talking about how “Superman III” was so bad that it went back in time and made “Superman” and “Superman II” worse. As in, you would never set out to rewatch them as a complete saga, so as to avoid needing to watch the third movie. It also went forward in time, making sure “Superman IV” flopped so hard that I often need to remind myself that the original “Superman” trilogy was not, in fact, a trilogy.
Don’t forget “Indiana Jones,” which was three entirely unrelated movies. I’m pretty sure “Temple of Doom” takes place a decade before “Raiders” and nobody noticed. Yet still they stopped at three (not counting the geriatric sequel and newly-announced “Indiana Jones and the Artificial Hip.”).
More recently, there were three Iron Mans, three Captain Americas, there’s about to be three Spiderman movies for the third time. Except the second Spiderman 2 was so bad, they didn’t make the third. But you know they were planning to. Thor is filming its fourth, which feels wrong. Ironically, the MCU killed off all the characters who could have aged along with their actors, but is keeping the one who’s supposed to be immortal.
Three is the magic number. A trilogy is a great way to space out a story, making each entity distinct while still fitting an overall narrative and theme. If you go beyond three, you’re getting into James Bond territory. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Bond franchise. But prior to Daniel Craig, there wasn’t much cohesiveness from one movie to the next. We never questioned how the character went from a suave Scot in the 1960s to a pull-my-finger prat for most of the 1970s and 1980s. Come on, Roger Moore NEVER would’ve landed Ursula Andress. And I don’t think Sean Connery would’ve fucked Grace Jones.
Despite some lousy writing (and some pretty poor acting, to be honest), Star Wars is probably the definitive trilogy. Sure, sure, Fellowship of the Ring, blah, blah, blah. Let’s talk about Star Wars.
The first movie is a standalone. It’s a complete story of a terrorist whose home is destroyed by an uncaring empire, so he finds solace in an ancient religion. Han Solo redeems himself. Nary a midi-chlorian in sight. Nobody gives a second thought to Alderaan appearing to be both a democracy and a monarchy. If “Empire Strikes Back” never existed, we wouldn’t have given two shits about balance in the Force or chosen ones. Luke Skywalker was just an orphan farmboy, not a hugely-important lost son of a world-famous… orphan farmboy.
The second movie is the darkest one. It expands upon the worldbuilding, throws in some twists and turns, delves into the lure of evil. Han Solo being frozen in carbonite was quite possibly the cliffhangeriest of endings in cinematic history until “Avengers: Infinity War” came along. Of course, we all knew Harrison Ford would be back for the finale. What we really didn’t know was whether or not Darth Vader was lying when he said Luke was his son. I know this might shock anyone under the age of 40, or anybody involved with any of the subsequent movies except “Last Jedi,” but for three solid years, grade schoolers debated that question endlessly. It was never a forgone conclusion that two families, the Skywalkers and the Palpatines. were the only ones who mattered and everybody else should go fuck themselves.
“Return of the Jedi” gets maligned for being cheesy, campy, featuring too many characters chosen for their cute cuddliness moreso than their ability to add to the storyline. I speak, of course, of Jabba the Hutt. But seriously, the third part of a trilogy is supposed to be happy. It’s resolution. It’s catharsis. The heroes are fulfilling their journeys while the villains receive their comeuppance, at least until Episode IX. If that doesn’t call for some walking, talking teddy bears, then I don’t know what does.
So while I might nitpick some of George Lucas’s character beats, for the most part he nails the proper emotional beats of a trilogy.
I don’t know why it was so tough for Charles Schultz.
What’s that? You didn’t know there was a Charles Schultz trilogy? Sure you did. You watch the three holiday episodes in the same order every year.
Much like Star Wars, the Peanuts holiday specials feature a cast of characters each moving through their own arcs. Charlie Borwn and Lucy go through their Han Solo and Princess Leia “will they or won’t they” tete-a-tete. Peppermint Patty and Marcy go through their… scratch that. The lesbians are the blossoming, unrequited love story. Charlie Brown and Lucy are C-3PO and R2-D2, incessantly bickering while having little impact on the plot.
But the true focus of this trilogy, the unassuming hero, is Linus. A little dab of Frodo and a vast heaping of Luke Skywalker, all rolled into one. He even has his own lightsaber-esque weapon nobody else comprehends in his blanket. And, again like Luke, he struggles with the meaning of purity, of life, against a myriad of ancient philosophies preaching right and wrong.
Except the order makes no fucking sense. Schultz starts with “Empire Strikes Back.”
We all know the plot of the Peanuts Halloween special. It’s even in the title. “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” Linus is a pagan who believes in plant gods, despite everybody around him arguing against it. He even drags Sally into his heresy, hoping to start his own Jim Jones-esque sex cult. Fortunately, she doesn’t drink the Flavor-Aid, and in the end, he’s the only one clinging to his pagan gods, staying in the pumpkin patch all night. Even after his sister rescues him, with a force-connection similar to Leia at the end of “Empire Strikes Back,” he’s unconvinced. As C-3POS whines about the Halloween Party, implying that getting rocks instead of candy is every part as bad as Linus’s near hypothermia and shaken faith, Linus still believes, shouting about the true meaning of Halloween. As he tests his new robotic hand and looks out the window to see the imposing phantom of Darth Vader.
See what I mean? Totally should be the second story in the trilogy. Especially when you consider where his story arc is going.
In “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Linus again takes center stage (literally) for his deep-rooted faith. Only this time, he’s quoting Christian scripture. “For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” He goes a little overboard, requesting a spotlight. Clearly his conversion never got around to the whole Sermon on the Mount shit. You know, “do not [pray] like the hypocrites; for they love to stand… at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others.”
Then again, it’s been less than two months since he was a full-on pagan, so give him some time. I assume his Christian sponsor hasn’t made it to the Gospel of Mark yet. We’ll never know how his conversion happened, because the Jan Brady of the Peanuts holiday trilogy doesn’t give us shit for answers.
I’m talking, of course, about “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.” Our hero doesn’t appear too much in this one. Maybe he’s off on Dagobah learning about the Easter Bunny. However, his brief appearance is profound, providing the plot linchpin. Peppermint Patty invited herself and others over to Charlie Brown’s for Thanksgiving, but he’s supposed to be at his grandmother’s house. In a Solomonic decision, Linus suggests he cut his Thanksgiving in half, giving the first half to his friends and the latter to grandma.
Is that why he can only quote parts of the New Testament come Christmas? Was he wasting his two-month crash course on the Old Testament? C’mon, man, the Ten Commandments are sooooo 4,000 BC.
He still has some fallacious understandings of the social sciences. Instead of whatever religious studies class he’d failed or sociopathic breakdown he was having at Halloween, this time he only exhibits a minor misunderstanding of history. Not surprising, considering he was likely a product of a jingoistic post-WWII education system with a tendency to hire teachers incapable of enunciation.
What he espouses is the typical Thanksgiving bullshit. That the Pilgrims were kicked out of England because evil Anglicans didn’t allow Puritans, even though there were Puritan members of Parliament. Hell, twenty years after the Pilgrims, one of those Puritans raised a damned army and captured and killed the fucking king. Yeah, that sounds like a society where poor Puritans just couldn’t exercise any rights. In reality, the Pilgrims were seditious rabblerousers. Not only were they kicked out of England, but the Netherlands, too. Can you imagine being kicked out of Amsterdam? That’s like being banned from Vegas. And they weren’t even card counting! Oh, and the Dutch? They were Calvinists, too. So the “religious freedom” the Pilgrims sought was freedom from their own fucking religion. Or at least the people in their religion who felt it was okay to live among other religions.
But whatever. Linus wasn’t spouting anything that the average American doesn’t still believe today. Like that the Pilgrims were the first British colonists, despite the fact that they’d been down in Jamestown for thirteen years already. Blame that one on old “Honest” Abe, who made Thanksgiving up during the Civil War. He couldn’t have the country originating from Virginia for obvious reasons. So he glorified the Pilgrims and pretended they came to America for freedom, something the North claimed to be fighting for. In reality, Jamestown was founded for money, that TRUE American ideal. While I may quibble with some of the claims of the 1619 Project, one thing I’m grateful for is that there is finally an official acknowledgement that there were non-natives in British America before the Pilgrims, who didn’t show up until a year later, in 1620.
Linus also chose to ignore the whole genocide thing. Y’know, the natives gave the Pilgrims a shit-ton of food and in return… well, there aren’t a lot of Native Americans left in the Boston area. They must’ve been so full of love, appreciation, and turkey that they all… they all…
Hey, don’t forget! The Pilgrims killed all the witches in Salem, too. Who loves baseball and apple pie and racial co-mingling?
But like I said, I don’t understand the character progression.
Because much like Luke Skywalker’s conversion to the force, the Peanuts holiday trilogy is the story of Linus’s personal journey from paganism to the righteous might of Christ. It makes sense, given Schultz’s uber-evangelical Christianity, right? I mean, Schultz doesn’t even think Marcie and Peppermint Patty are lesbians. How d’ya like that? Wrote the best star-crossed lovers since the Capulets and the Montagues, but didn’t even realize it because they were both Juliets.
It’s only the order of the stories that’s missing. How does Abraham Lincoln’s errant, white-washed version of Thanksgiving serve as the middle chapter. Does it begin the transition? Like the Native Americans themselves, they once had pagan beliefs of Great Pumpkins, but after they shared some turkey (with a side of smallpox), their pagan beliefs magically disappeared.
Along with their lives.
But let’s focus on the gravy.
If Schultz wanted to tell a proper, and literal, come-to-Jesus trilogy, I feel like he shoulda put Halloween in the middle. Sure, it might be tough with that whole “calendar” thing, but hear me out.
Linus starts with some vague misconceptions about Thanksgiving. It shows he’s not a bad guy, maybe a little bit gullible, too trusting of dubious stories. Then in the second story, he follows those personal foibles down a deep path, finding himself outside, alone, praying to a pagan deity of autumnal squash. Doesn’t that make his “Return of the Jedi” conversion more triumphant? And the lord said, I give unto thee a jedi, like my father was before me.
Then he signs Marcie up for conversion therapy.
I know what you’re saying. It’s not supposed to be a trilogy. They weren’t written in the same order we watch them in.
But ready for me to blow your mind?
The Christmas special came first!
That’s right, Charles Schulz wrote Linus’s beautiful Christian soliloquy first. A year later, he decided that the only member of the Peanuts gang who could properly quote scripture should become a druid of the Great Sky Gourd. Is there some hidden message there that Chuckles was secretly tired of going to church every Sunday and would rather be home watching the Vikings game?
The Thanksgiving special didn’t come till a decade later. More “The Phantom Menace” than “Return of the Jedi.” And I suppose that makes sense. Less redemption, more Jar Jar Binks.
What a picture perfect portrayal of modern America. Both halves of the country think they’re speaking the True Word of Wisdom while the other half spouts gobbledygook that’s going to get them hurt.
But they can all agree on one thing.
A complete misunderstanding of history.
The Wombat · October 8, 2020 · Blog Entries, Musings · 2020, aging, Big Pharm, cholesterol, coronavirus, COVID-19, getting older, health care, prescription · One Comment
Earlier this week, I wrote about my wife’s summer-long ordeal with her bored general practictioner, who spent his COVID Vacation searching through her medical file to find shit to tamper with. I also touched on tipping your servers and hookers. Well, not tipping your hooker, but the economics of prostitution. Although you should probably tip your hooker. And no, not “just the tip.”
Regardless, after living through Wife’s own medical-solution-in-search-or-a-problem, I probably should’ve been more on guard when my own doctor asked to set up a phone call. To be fair, although I’d like to be a writer, a chronicler of the human condition, I’ve never claimed to be all that observant.
Doc wanted to talk to me about cholesterol medicine. Doc’s been wanting to talk to me about cholesterol medicine for quite some time. A few years ago, I went in for something, probably gout, and he pulled a “Hey, I don’t give a flying fuck about what you came to me for, your cholesterol’s a smidge high, so let’s randomly prescribe you some statins.”
Sure. Why not? He sent me over to the pharmacy and I left with the drugs that very day. On the way home, Wife told me I miiiiight want to look up some of the side effects of statins. Umm, okay. I’m sure I’m not the only person who approaches the medical profession with confused acquiescence.
Okay, here’s what my robot overlord, Google, tells me are some statin side effects:
They might spike blood sugar. Hmm, I’ve been prediabetic for five years.
Liver damage. Hmm, I’m a borderline alcoholic.
Kidney problems. Well, at least it won’t make my gout worse.
At least I’m at Kaiser. One of the reasons I chose the Kaiser, aside from my love of old-tyme handlebar mustaches and pickelhaube helmets, is that you can see your test results online. Back when I was on a different plan, my doctor would tell me something in my blood was “a little elevated,” which could mean just about anything.
“So it turns out there’s some extra lead in your system.”
“Yeah, Doc, I came to you for a gunshot wound.”
But at Kaiser, I can see precisely where I am and, even better, what the standard range. When I got home from the “quick, take these drugs before you ask your wife about it” appointment, I looked more closely at my last blood test. The standard range for cholesterol is listed as anything under 239. My horrible, sky-high cholesterol that needed drugs right the fuck now was a whopping… 219.
Except, you see, it’s not just a matter of overall cholesterol. You’ve got to look at the good cholesterol versus the bad. Your HDL, or good cholesterol has to be over 40 or else you’re unhealthy, and mine was only at a measly 52. Oh, and that LDL, it’s the bad cholesterol and we should really look for a way to get it under 159. So maybe some drugs will improve my reading of… 150.
I’m not saying I’m the picture of health. But if all of my cholesterol readings are within the range that’s deemed “normal,” it doesn’t seem to be something I should be pumping my body full of side effects for. Sorry, Kaiser Wilhelm, if you don’t want me making uninformed decisions, then maybe you need to not let me see the information.
Why are they giving me pills to fix something that ain’t broke, especially if there’s a good chance it’ll break something else? I mean, if I take these pills to drop my cholesterol from an “on the high end” 219 down to an, I don’t know, 200? While at the same time spiking my blood sugar and losing both my vision and my feet to diabetes, I wouldn’t necessarily call that a “win-win.”
So I came home with the prescription but never used it. That worked for a while. Doctor got his kickback from the pharmaceutical company and I kept my liver. Actually, the next two times I got tested, my cholesterol went down, first to 199 then to 189, despite never touching the statins. Maybe I’m so magical that just convincing myself I needed to lower my cholesterol was enough to do it. It’s some Jedi magic.
Or else maybe my cholesterol fluctuates inside the normal range. There’s a reason it’s called a range, right?
But eventually they caught onto my duplicity. Not because my cholesterol changed, but because I never refilled the prescription for something I’m supposed to be taking every day. Or maybe they were onto me because my blood sugar didn’t spike enough. “People who take our drugs can’t be as healthy as you are.”
After a year or so, doctor sent me a nastigram that I better take my fucking medicine like a good fucking boy. I ignored him, so he referred me to the big boss. I started getting emails from some random dude, inside Kaiser, listed as “Pharm.” That might stand for pharmacist, but I assume he works for Big Pharm, which is where this entire push must be coming from. My doctor needs to get a new Porsche or something, and the gout medicine people just ain’t willing to cup his balls the way he likes on the reach-around. I mean, if there ain’t kickback going all the way up the wazoo, then why the hell are we not only prescribing cholesterol medicine to people who don’t need it, but actually following up to ensure that said individual is taking said unnecessary drugs.
By contrast, I also have asthma (hurray, mid-forties!) but I’m really bad about using my inhaler. Not the emergency inhaler. I use that one often. But there’s an inhaler I’m supposed to use every day that will prevent the need for the emergency inhaler. Problem is that when I’m breathing fine, I forget. So that’s another prescription I’m supposed to fill every six months or so but regularly go two years between refills. And not a single email from doctor nor pharmacist nor Pfizer lobbyist. Because if you can’t breathe, meh. But if your cholesterol is normal, well then that’s a problem we need to solve!
So there I was, foolishly accepting the call from a doctor with way too much time on his hands, knowing full well that he had some drug kingpin breathing down his neck to make sure he gets all his little cretins hooked, and wouldn’t you know it, he doesn’t want to ask me how my breathing’s going with all of the fires going on, like the snazzy new “Glass Fire,” proving that I’m a fucking Nostradamus who nobody heeds. Nope, what he really wants to talk to me about is how important it is that I get my normal cholesterol under control.
This time, however, I was prepared for the statin conversation. I asked for clarification, like why the fuck am I supposed to risk making some of my medical conditions worse in order to fix a problem I don’t have. It turns out that cholesterol medicine ain’t got shit to do with controlling cholesterol. Studies have shown that prescribing statins to people who don’t need them severely lessens the likelihood of, I don’t know, heart attacks and stroke and scurvy or something.
Honestly! Why, the drug company who has the patent for this drug has run bazillions of tests and, wouldn’t you know it, they all came back proving that their product rivals only the flush toilet and electricity in the advancement of the human race. And the proof is that, when they prescribed it to people who didn’t need it, those people ended up STILL not needing it. It’s kind of like saying that stitches help people who’ve been stabbed by a sword, but our tests show that unstabbed people who were given stitches ALSO didn’t exhibit signs of sword punctures. Stitches greatly reduce your chances of bleeding out in a medieval dungeon.
My doctor assures me that the DHS has signed off on this whole cholesterol-medicine-for-non-cholesterol-purposes thing. And boy howdy, if COVID has taught us anything, it’s that government agencies devoted to our health always know what they’re talking about. Like when the virus was airborne for, like, an hour before the CDC took it off their website because the president complained. A week later, it was airborne again. Hopefully you weren’t breathing in deeply for that week that the virus was noncommittal.
And yeah, I know that the Department of Health Services ain’t the same as the Center for Disease Control, but the only reason we’re focused on the latter is because they’ve kept us hostage all year and we’re suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Even if the DHS whims can’t keep me chained to my refrigerator for the next fortnight, my eyebrow’s still rising over them suggesting what we really need in this world is more random, never-ending prescriptions. Those bacteria ain’t gonna develop antibiotic immunity by themselves, y’all! For all I know, the Orange One has a bunch of stock in the statin company and that’s why they’re now suggested for everything from hemorrhoids to gunshot wounds.
Then again, I’m just now realizing that the DHS is the British single-payer system. Shit, is my doctor running my blood tests in metric? Maybe that’s why my numbers don’t match what he’s saying.
Or maybe he’s talking about the other DHS, the American one that likes to look at your browser history. In which case I better get me some statins, because unlike some mamby-pamby doctors and pharmacists, you DEFINITELY don’t want to ignore the suggestions of the water-boarders.
Then again, if it’s the Department of Homeland Security, then they need to update their sales pitch.
Lower your cholesterol! Avoid heart attacks! Now with fewer anal probes at the airport!!!
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Main Street Bethlehem a Transformative Experience
Main Street Bethlehem recounts the story of Jesus’s birth through more than the standard live nativity scene. The event involves people portraying the residents of Bethlehem set at the time of Jesus’s birth. Main Street Bethlehem is 6-9 p.m. Friday-Sunday, Dec. 1-3 and and 8-10, at 300 E. Washington St. in Burnet. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated. Staff photo by Daniel Clifton
BURNET — Norman Leftwich borrowed the idea behind Main Street Bethlehem, and he readily admits to it.
“My son, Steve (Leftwich), was serving a church in El Paso, and they were looking for something to, you know, hold the congregation together — something they could all do,” Norman said. “So he came up with a living nativity. They tossed around names, and came up with Main Street Bethlehem.”
The elder Leftwich, who never saw the El Paso production, thought a nativity like that one would be good for Burnet. In the spring of 1993, he proposed the idea to the First Baptist Church of Burnet, of which he is a member, and they gave him the thumbs-up.
Admittedly, it sounded a bit crazy at the time for a small-town church to tackle a project that would draw between 22,000 and 25,000 people a year.
“I didn’t think it would be this big,” Leftwich said.
Main Street Bethlehem, which celebrates its 25th year this year, has grown beyond what Leftwich thought it would become. Those early years featured a Bethlehem fashioned from 6-foot-by-8-foot wooden flats, or panels, with sheets hung on them. Volunteers painted scenes on the sheets.
The first year, in 1993, about 3,000 people attended Main Street Bethlehem.
Over the years, the project grew. Leftwich sketched out a design on a piece of paper that would eventually become the current Main Street Bethlehem, featuring full-size buildings created to resemble what a Middle Eastern town might look like more than 2,000 years ago around the time of Jesus’s birth. Volunteers put in countless hours to build the facility, and even trustees from the Burnet County Jail pitched in.
As visitors make their way through Main Street Bethlehem, sponsored by First Baptist Church of Burnet, they’ll mingle with a Bethlehem residents, merchants, a tax collector or two, and families. Staff photo by Daniel Clifton
Now, when people walk through the gates of Main Street Bethlehem at 300 E. Washington St., they are transported back to a much earlier Jewish community filled with merchants, families, tradesmen and women, Roman soldiers, and tax collectors.
The 91-year-old Leftwich explained it’s not just about the look of the village that brings the story of Jesus’s birth to life; it's all the different aspects.
“You have to target all the senses,” he said. “The more you do that, it can reach people’s emotions.”
As people make their way through Bethlehem, they’ll encounter an array of residents and others. If you stop and ask one about baby Jesus, they’ll likely give you a bemused expression and ask what you’re talking about. Or, if you ask how this all came to be, referring to Main Street Bethlehem, you might get an answer such as, “This is how it’s always been. This is where we live, where we sell and trade. It’s the time of the census.”
This, Leftwich pointed out, is one of the “secrets” of Main Street Bethlehem, or one that makes it so remarkable and memorable. The cast members study the time of Bethlehem during Jesus’s birth and act as if they are in that time. Responses, Leftwich said, will come from the cast in the character they are portraying related to the historic timeframe.
“They don’t memorize lines. They just act as if they’re in Bethlehem,” he said.
Whether Main Street Bethlehem featured wooden panels and scenery-painted sheets or historically accurate structures, the objective was (and is) the same.
“The sole purpose is to present the story of Christ’s birth so that many people can come to know him,” Leftwich said.
Each year, people make the journey the first two weekends in December to experience the story. For some, it’s the first time they really get to see and hear the story, which could (and does) begin a relationship with Jesus for them. For others, it’s a reaffirming journey for their faith.
“It’s our gift to everyone so that they can come to know Jesus,” Leftwich said.
The 2017 Main Street Bethlehem is 6-9 p.m. Friday-Sunday, Dec. 1-3 and 8-10.
This year, as part of the 25th anniversary, First Baptist Church of Burnet is offering a special showing for Burnet residents Thursday, Nov. 30.
Go to fbcburnet.org for more information.
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The Vancouver Sun - UBC's O'Connor gets invite to Lions training camp
METRO VANCOUVER - B.C. Lions have six quarterbacks at their three-day mini-camp camp this week, all of them, whether veteran or rookie, united in one respect: All are American citizens.
But training camp in Kamloops, starting May 31, will get a dash of Canadian flavour when University of B.C. quarterback Michael O’Connor is added to the mix.
The 19-year-old Penn State transfer has accepted a Lions’ invitation to become part of the Canadian Football League’s Canadian Quarterback Development Program, begun in 2012 to partly address the elusive nature of nationals at football’s most key position.
“Yes, it’s very exciting,” said O’Connor, an Ottawa native who spent his final two seasons of high school eligibility playing at elite football schools in the U.S. He was coached by Chris Weinke, now the quarterbacks coach of St. Louis Rams, in his grade 12 year at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
“It was a pleasant surprise to find out I’d have this opportunity,” added O’Connor, who is not eligible to practise with the Thunderbirds until August, because of transfer rules.
University of Manitoba QB Jordan Yantz, then with the junior Vancouver Island Raiders, was the first homebred talent to attend a Lions’ camp under the CQDP, a mentorship arrangement that has been greeted with mixed opinions. Some believe it could contribute to putting Canadian quarterbacks on CFL fields one day. Others view it as mostly window dressing.
“It’s still my No. 1 goal,” O’Connor said. “I won’t say I have given up on the dream of being a professional quarterback (by transferring from an NCAA to a CIS school). I’ve just chosen a different route.”
O’Connor, who has returned to UBC for an offseason conditioning program, also gets a chance to throw at a Lions’ free agent tryout camp in Surrey next Monday.
mbeamish@vancouversun.com
Twitter.com/sixbeamers
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Connor+gets+invite+Lions+training+camp/11011900/story.html
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Nurturing young minds and bodies: school lunch in Indonesia
School lunches may make you think of less than appetizing fare. But times are changing. Today schools may offer enticing menus designed by professional nutritionists, with servings of fruits, vegetables or salad alongside protein and carbohydrates. However, even in industrialized countries like Japan and the US, children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds often rely on school-provided meals to get the nutrition they need. When schools are closed, like over the summer holidays, families may struggle to fill the gap.
This issue is more acute in developing countries like Indonesia. According to research data from 2009 and 2013, nearly half of children there were undernourished and about one in four were anemic, conditions linked to poor physical and mental development. A 2016 study showed that roughly one in three children age 5–19 were underweight, with consumption of meat, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes well below average for the rest of Asia and the world. Diabetes is also a growing concern, with saturated fat and sugar intakes on a par with the high levels seen in the West, and about one in four boys and one in five girls either overweight or obese, according to the same study.
The challenge of child nutrition is even greater in the country’s 13,000 pesantren, an indigenous form of private education dating back to the sixteenth century where students live, eat and study together. Today pesantren serve some three million students, mainly from mid-to-low-income rural backgrounds. Dr. Rimbawan Rimbawan, a nutritionist at IPB University in Bogor, notes that pesantren “have received lower attention compared to public school in terms of health and nutrition programs” even though pesantren students are “highly susceptible to malnutrition.”
To tackle malnutrition, PT Ajinomoto Indonesia took a holistic approach. Partnering with IPB, the company initiated the School Lunch Program to provide well-balanced school lunches to students at two local pesantren on a trial basis, and to teach students and staff about proper nutrition, hygiene, and exercise. Indra Nurcahyo, in charge of PR for Ajinomoto in Indonesia, hopes the program will change eating behaviors and serve as a national model: “Our primarily goal is to show our achievement to other schools and involve the government so we can contribute to solving health issues.”
Before the first 13-month trial, the anemia rate among students in the program was 42.6%, 1.6 times the national average, and the typical lunch consisted of just rice and a side dish, with no fruit and little animal protein. The program featured nutritious meals prepared with seasonings provided by Ajinomoto Indonesia, such as “Masako®” and “Sajiku®” brand seasonings, using menus designed to appeal to local tastes. It succeeded in doubling students’ intake of energy, fat, protein, carbohydrates, iron and vitamin C, and in cutting anemia in half. During the second trial, school officials noted that students’ appetites increased, and children reported feeling healthier, less sleepy, and more energetic. “I learned a lot about the benefit of various foods, the consequences of under- and over-nourishment, and what recommended diets are,” reported one female student.
The School Lunch Program is an example of Ajinomoto Shared Value, an initiative helping to solve social issues and create economic value by contributing to the health and well-being of families in the region and around the world.
School Lunch Program in Indonesia
Find out more of our efforts:
Efforts to resolve double burden of malnutrition | Nutrition and Wellness
A Japanese-style school lunch program tackles childhood nutrition in Vietnam
Nearly half a century on from the end of the Vietnam War, life for ordinary Vietnamese has arguably never been better. The economy is booming, ...
How to eat for success: program for athletes benefits everyone
“I won’t be able to jump if I put on weight.” For years, this false belief caused one top female figure skater to severely restrict ...
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UAlbany Printing Prices May Be Changing
By Jackie Orchard
Photo Credit - Jackie Orchard / ASP
Students waiting in line to print in the University Library
Printing services in the campus library could be heading for improvement this year, officials say. At UAlbany, it costs a student 10 cents per page to print in black and white, and 50 cents per page to print in color. Officials say the cost analysis may be ready for a re-visit.
“The pricing structure was developed several years ago,” says Brian Heaton, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at UAlbany. “So it’s not something that has been reviewed in the near-recent past.”
When the prices were originally decided, the intent was not for the school to profit, just to cover the cost of maintenance. But, things have changed.
“The usage patterns of printing has changed over the years,” Heaton says. “I’d say it’s probably not a perfect break-even amount at this time.”
At every school, printing is paid for in one way or another, whether it be built into the tuition cost or into a “technology” fee. But some SUNY schools seem to have lower rates than others.
SUNY Geneseo also charges 10 cents for black and white, but only 30 cents per colored page, compared to UAlbany’s 50 cents per colored page. Students at SUNY Geneseo also receive a 25 percent discount for opting to print their job double-sided, according to the school’s website.
SUNY University at Buffalo charges only 4 cents for black and white, compared to UAlbany’s 10 cents, and like Geneseo charges 30 cents per colored page, compared to UAlbany’s 50c per colored page.
SUNY Fredonia has even lower pricing, charging only 3 cents for black and white and 10 cents for color. In addition to this, students start each semester with $20 of printing money on their card.
It is difficult to truly compare without breaking down each school’s tuition fees, activity fees, and technology fees. Meaning, their printing prices may just look low because students are actually supplementing printing costs in another fee.
Heaton says at UAlbany, the printing service is completely paid for by the printing cost. In other words, the 10 cents you pay is what keeps the machines running, there is no other budget.
“There are servers involved,” says Heaton. “Licensing fees, printers, PCs for the print stations, the swiper devices, paper, toner, and all of that was taken into account.”
The several components also create multiple points of failure. If, for example, just the card swiper is down, the whole station is unuseable. Same for just the PC or just the printer. This can lead to longer lines and longer wait times to print.
Heaton says that part of the problem could be that students don’t know where all the print stations are. If there is a long line, he encourages you to ask the library staff where another station is.
Is it time for UAlbany to re-evaluate its whole printing system?
UAlbany communications officers say talks are underway.
“Internally we need to do an assessment of what it would cost,” Heaton says. “What are the current expenses of the printing service? And what options do we have from a technical perspective on offering a different type of service?”
Heaton says nothing is off the table and they are considering all options. Even the possibility of a completely new system.
“It could mean that we have to replace the software and infrastructure behind the printing service,” Heaton says.
ITS is still in the research phase, but hopes to move forward with a plan soon.
“I would think that it would be during the fall semester,” Heaton says. “It’s time for a 2019 price, and that’s why we made the internal commitment to go ahead and report on options for reducing that cost.”
Heaton says ITS is seeking the lowest cost while still maintaining quality service.
“We’re looking to provide an efficient service for the students to get in, submit their job, pickup their printout, and be satisfied with that utility service,” Heaton says.
If you have feedback to offer on the library printing system, or want to learn more, you can send an e-mail to CIO@albany.edu.
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My shoe suddenly comes loose in the hallway. I leave it – turning back would only slow me down. I swerve right to avoid an oncoming tape cart but trip over my now-exposed loose sock and fall face-first into an opening door. I gather myself and amidst calls of, “Are you okay?” and “Oh my Lord!”, and scramble to pick up the dropped tapes. I hobble like the wind up a metal staircase, round two corners and burst into the “tape pit” (a.k.a control room).
Twenty seconds later those tapes played live on air. I had done my job; I had delivered the b-roll on time, and my work that day was done. I pulled up my sock and picked up my rogue shoe as I made my way back to my edit suite. This was just one episode in one day among many similar days, when I regretted not wearing running shoes. Hush Puppies do not breathe well.
For two months in the summer of 2006 I worked as a tape producer for the now-defunct CBC News: Tonight, which ran on Newsworld as a summer replacement for The Hour.
I will always have affection for my time at Tonight. It was a small show with a small staff and a small budget. It was there that I was introduced to the art of producing b-roll, which I soon learned was more of a physical test of endurance than a skill-craft. Most of my days were spent trolling the hallways between the tape library, the satellite feed room, and my edit suite in search of footage that could be cobbled together as b-roll.
From the time the show’s lineup is more or less finalized and b-roll requests are made to tape producers, to the time when the b-roll finally goes to air, it is a mad dash to find tapes, pick shots, cut together b-roll, output the b-roll to a tape, fill out information in a computer database and deliver the tape to the control room. Each of these steps must be followed for every piece of b-roll that’s produced, whether it is fifteen seconds of visuals for a quick voice-over or multiple tapes worth of b-roll for a long interview that covers many topics.
JAYSON GO is in the final year of his Masters of Journalism degree at the University of British Columbia. Originally from Cebu City, the Philippines, Go has worked for CBC as an associate producer and has also interned as a researcher for Global National with Kevin Newman. In 2006 he was one of eight student journalists chosen from across Canada for the Joan Donaldson Newsworld Scholarship. He holds a BA in Anthropology and Political Science from UBC. His academic papers have been published in the UBC Journal of Political Studies and the Southern Maine Review.
While many may dismiss the production of b-roll as straightforward busywork, there’s more to it. Production of b-roll and the choices tape producers are forced to make can get dicey when time runs out.
(Full disclosure: my work with CBC Newsworld inspired the argument that I present. However, it should in no way reflect on any of CBC Newsworld’s programs or employees.)
Defining B-Roll
For the uninitiated, b-roll, or cover footage, refers to secondary images that appear onscreen during interviews, voice-over segments, “coming-up” bumpers, and the like. When Larry King interviews Bill Clinton, and footage appears of Clinton playing the saxophone on Asenio Hall in 1992, that is b-roll. When Peter Mansbridge says that “Stephen Harper met with George Bush at the Whitehouse today,” and footage of the event is played over the voice track, that is b-roll. When a news anchor says, “After the break we’ll take a look at Toronto’s new smoking ban,” while smokers appear on your screen – you got it, b-roll.
B-roll is all about making what’s being presented visually interesting.
I like to think that there are two types of b-roll that news networks use for live television: let’s call one “objective b-roll” and the other “subjective b-roll.” The difference between the two boils down to whether the tape producer has a choice over the footage sought.
Objective b-roll is time-sensitive, specific footage. When the story is, “Hugo Chavez visits an ailing Fidel Castro,” the b-roll shows the specific event. No other encounter between the two can be shown. Objective b-roll is often quite critical in telling the story. It isn’t enough to simply say that, “John Mark Carr arrived in Boulder, Colorado today.” News shows have to show him walking down the jetway, escorted by guards and surrounded by photographers.
Objective b-roll is harder to procure. Usually sent in through satellite feeds, it can often only be found on one tape and is highly sought after within a network. This is especially the case at a place like CBC Newsworld, where the network is divided up into separate and distinct “fiefdoms.” When footage for a leading story comes in, it’s first-come-first-served.
Subjective b-roll is different. It isn’t tied to any specific footage, so the tape producer has a choice in what to edit together as b-roll. For example, a story about the oppression of women in Iran could have footage of Iranian women hanging laundry, or being arrested for having her face exposed, or even young girls covered from head-to-toe in black. With this type of b-roll, the tape producer must be subjective and, to an extent, make ethical judgments about how particular images fit within a story.
Objective b-roll isn’t always new footage. In August when former hockey agent David Frost was charged with sexual exploitation, almost every CBC News show scrambled for the one tape with footage of Frost: a mere 15-second clip and a mug shot. But it was a necessary accompaniment to the story.
That August day I ran around the CBC building chasing the tape until I finally tracked it down. As soon as I had it, calls started coming in from people asking whether they could have it once I was done.
This happened a lot when I worked at Newsworld, due in large measure to the fact that three major programs – CBC News: Tonight, CBC News: The National, and CBC News Morning, which produced their b-roll at night – all needed b-roll at about the same time. I suspect that any network that has a stable of news programs faces similar problems.
Poorly produced or poorly chosen b-roll is almost always an indication that the tape producer was rushed.
Two types of malfeasance can occur as a result of rushing b-roll, the first done unwittingly due to oversight, and the second done deliberately and ethically irresponsibly.
An example of oversight is misinterpreting a b-roll request or interview question. When discussing “the comeback of nuclear industry” you might run b-roll of Kim Jong Il or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, when in fact you should have found stock footage of nuclear power plants. These accidental mistakes are the most noticeable but also the most forgivable.
Because objective b-roll is often tied to lead stories, (1) footage is highly sought after within a network, and (2) it must be finished on time at the risk of ruining, postponing, or worst, dropping, a top story.
It is precisely because subjective b-roll is given a lower priority that it is subject to error. With objective b-roll there’s an iron-clad understanding of what’s needed, so rushing it isn’t much of a concern. Subjective b-roll, on the other hand, requires judgments and reasoning, so logically it shouldn’t be done last or at the last-minute. Rushing subjective b-roll can create problems due to human discretion.
In these situations, viewers may be seeing inaccurate b-roll. Locations, for example, are not often distinguishable. Streets in one city look like other street in other cities. Mountains in one country look like mountains in other countries. When time runs out and there needs to be b-roll for “Summer fun on the West Coast,” a producer might be tempted to use footage of a beach in Toronto, if the tape is handy and there’s little chance he’ll be found out. If he decides to do this, when that tape is archived, it will forever bear the tag “Vancouver beach,” and anyone who uses it to produce b-roll in the future will have no reason to assume it isn’t.
The process of producing b-roll is not amenable to deep, contemplative thought or sober, deliberative reasoning. There are no codes of conduct or principled guidelines to follow, because thinking on your feet means thinking with your gut. The problem with b-roll, as it relates to live news programming, is that it can so easily lead to breaches of ethical conduct and ethical principles of truth-telling, accurate representation and honesty.
In an environment where b-roll is thought to be absolutely essential to a live news broadcast, tape producers must deliver (often literally; a la Joan Cusack in Broadcast News) their orders on time every time. Faced with this pressure, tape producers are often forced to make snap ethical decisions that hedge the line between doing the job “right” and getting the job done. “Getting the job done” is often intimately tied to how one is perceived as a worker or even whether one stays as worker. In the end, it’s much more impressive to look like a miracle worker.
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John Travolta Defends Scientology: The Church Has Been “So Beautiful for Me” /
John Travolta Defends Scientology: The Church Has Been “So Beautiful for Me”
Anna Silman
John Travolta, who features prominently in “Going Clear,” Alex Gibney’s incendiary HBO documentary about the Church of Scientology, addressed the controversy around his church in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times on Monday. The film details numerous abuses committed by the church, including compiling damaging personal data about Travolta to use against him should he threaten to defect.
“I haven’t experienced anything that the hearsay has (claimed), so why would I communicate something that wasn’t true for me?” said Travolta, who says he has not seen the film and does not care to. “It wouldn’t make sense, nor would it for Tom [Cruise], I imagine.”
Calling “Going Clear” a product of “people who were disgruntled with their experiences” in the church, Travolta said that he has been happy with his 40 years in Scientology, and has nothing to say that would “shed light on (a documentary) so decidedly negative.”
“I’ve been brought through storms that were insurmountable, and (Scientology has) been so beautiful for me, that I can’t even imagine attacking it,” continued Travolta, who credits Scientology with helping him get through his son, Jett’s, death in 2009.
He also referenced his experiences using Scientology to help others, saying:
“I’ve helped so many people through hard times. Loss of children, loved ones, physical illnesses. Through many tough, tough life situations I’ve used the technology to support them and help them. It’s always worked. So, why would I even approach a negative perspective? That would be a crime to me, personally, to do that.”
Tom Cruise, arguably Scientology’s most high-profile adherent, has yet to weigh in.
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Oversight committee session with Michael Cohen looks like an illegitimate show hearing /
Oversight committee session with Michael Cohen looks like an illegitimate show hearing
Stanley M. Brand
Convicted perjurer Michael Cohen’s testimony next week at a congressional hearing promises to be a political spectacle.
But Cohen’s appearance may not actually be legitimate under congressional rules.
In Cohen’s case, the Government Oversight and Reform Committee’s description of the issues it will explore in his hearing include “the President’s debts and payments relating to efforts to influence the 2016 election … the President’s compliance with campaign finance laws…the President’s business practices …” even the “accuracy of the President’s public statements.”
These subjects have nothing to do with the committee’s jurisdiction. The committee’s role is to investigate the “overall economy and efficiency and management of government operations and activities.”
While Congress does have authority to pursue any “subject on which legislation can be had” as well as inquiries into “fraud, waste and abuse” in government programs, that power is not unlimited.
As a former counsel for the House of Representatives from 1976 to 1983, I believe the Cohen hearing’s broad range of subjects go far beyond the jurisdiction of the committee.
In my view, that makes this a show hearing, not a legitimate exercise of the committee’s duties.
Power of the state
Cohen is appearing willingly, almost enthusiastically, before the Government Oversight and Reform Committee.
But for many witnesses subpoenaed by congressional committees, their appearance is a fraught and frightening experience full of legal jeopardy, where they face interrogation by a committee of some of the most powerful men and women in the nation.
The seemingly all-encompassing power of Congress to investigate has been the subject of numerous Supreme Court and lower federal court rulings that attempt to limit the power of these government committees against individual witnesses. The rulings ensure that witnesses facing such awesome government power are protected by the Constitution’s guarantee of due process.
The means the courts have insisted on strict adherence by members of Congress to the rules that circumscribe committee jurisdictions.
Maintaining this balance – of the need for investigations versus protection of individual rights – is the legal challenge facing the now Democratically controlled House as it embarks on an array of investigations into the Trump administration.
But is it legitimate for Congress to hold such show hearings? Serious questions are raised by Supreme Court precedents issued during the Red Scare era about the authority of Congress to pursue investigations that may have a political point, but which they do not have the actual authority to conduct.
Grandstanding or public interest?
According to Republicans on the committee, Cohen’s lawyer told them he “picked this committee” to tell his “story” which would include “anecdotes about his time with the President.”
The power granted to Congress in Article I of the Constitution – “all legislative powers therein shall be vested in Congress” – means that its inquiries must aid in the achievement of a legislative purpose.
But the president’s business practices or his campaign finance activities simply are outside the scope – government operations and activities – of the committee that will hear Cohen’s testimony. The House rules give jurisdiction over federal elections and campaign finance to the Committee on House Administration. Other committees could have jurisdiction to hear testimony on the president’s business practices.
In addition, the courts have ruled that questions asked in a committee hearing must be “pertinent” to the subject under investigation. They shouldn’t be fishing expeditions for tangential, unrelated matters. And because the stakes are so high – a witness can go to jail for up to one year for contempt of Congress or potentially longer for perjury or false statements – that pertinence must be shown with a “degree of explicitness and clarity.”
Numerous cases from the 1950s and 1960s show how tough the court’s limits are about who can be compelled to testify in front of Congress and on which subjects.
In one case, a Senate committee whose jurisdiction was the “economy and efficiency of those doing government work” (a jurisdiction almost identical the House Committee in the Cohen case) summoned a defense contractor in connection with its hearings into communist infiltration of the defense industry.
The contractor refused to testify. He was convicted of contempt. But on appeal, the court ruled that the Senate committee’s charge to study the “economy and efficiency of doing government work” did not extend to independent defense contractors.
The court said that “private operation of private industry is not activity performed by the government” and reversed the conviction.
In another case, a Cornell professor was subpoenaed to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington. He refused to name people with whom he had engaged in communist party activities at Cornell and in Ithaca. He was convicted of contempt of Congress.
The professor appealed, and the Supreme Court ruled that he was not guilty. Why? Because the questions he had refused to answer from the committee were not “pertinent to the subject under inquiry,” which was communist infiltration in Albany – not Ithaca, which is 140 miles away.
This is the strict level of specificity imposed by the courts in enforcing congressional subpoenas, where 140 miles can make the difference between jail and freedom.
No inquiry an end in itself
In Cohen’s case, just how does his testimony to the Government Oversight and Reform Committee on his experience working for Donald Trump relate to government activities?
There’s one more problem that argues against Cohen’s testimony.
In a 1957 case, the Supreme Court held that Congress has “no general authority to expose the private affairs of individuals without justification in terms of the functions of Congress. … Nor is Congress a law enforcement or trial agency.”
The 1957 opinion continues: “No inquiry is an end in itself; it must be related to and in furtherance of a legitimate task of Congress.”
As the House moved forward to investigate legitimate areas of oversight, it needs to carefully frame its pursuit of these subjects in a way that satisfies the requirements laid down by the courts.
That’s something it does not appear to have done in the Cohen case.
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426. US May Adjust Joint Military Training With Philippines
A top U.S. Army general says his forces “may have to make some adjustments” to upcoming joint exercises in the Philippines if the new government no longer wants to conduct military combat readiness exercises. In an interview with VOA, Lt. General Stephen Lanza, the commander of the Army's I Corps who leads several international military exercises in the Pacific, said the U.S. military was prepared to change next year's joint exercises with the Philippines to humanitarian and... ... (read more)
427. Country Star Garth Brooks in Talks for Trump Inaugural Celebrations
Country star Garth Brooks is in discussions to perform at the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, the singer's representative said on Friday, as organizers of the event denied media reports that they were struggling to find A-list stars to take part. Brooks, 54, one of the world's best-selling solo artists, performed for Democrat Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009, along with a line-up that included Bruce Springsteen, U2, Beyonce, and Stevie... ... (read more)
428. Democrats Retreat on Miners’ Health Care, Avert Government Shutdown
The Senate headed to a vote averting a government shutdown at midnight Friday as coal-state Democrats beat a tactical retreat and promised to continue their fight next year for months-long health care benefits for retired miners. “We had no intention of shutting down the government,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., adding that Democrats would provide enough votes to pass a stopgap spending bill to keep the government operating through April 28. The extended fight over the miners'... (read more)
429. EU Takes Step Toward Bosnia's Membership But Warns on Rhetoric
The European Union's senior official for new memberships on Friday expressed concern about rising nationalist rhetoric and divisions in the Balkans as countries seek to join the bloc. EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn urged regional leaders to focus on promised reforms. Hahn was speaking in Sarajevo, where he handed the Bosnian government an EU questionnaire on its readiness to join the bloc. The EU's 28-member states accepted Bosnia's membership... ... (read more)
430. Gambian President Rejects Election Outcome
Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh says he rejects the outcome of last week's elections, after previously conceding defeat and vowing to step down. The president, who has ruled Gambia for more than 22 years, said on state television Friday night that he wants to see new elections. The announcement throws the political future of the West African country into question, and is a dramatic turnaround from last week when Jammeh called opposition candidate Adama Barrow to concede defeat... ... (read more)
431. Taylor Swift, Zayn Malik Surprise Fans with 'Fifty Shades Darker' Duet
American pop star Taylor Swift and former One Direction member Zayn Malik released a surprise duet on Friday after joining forces for the upcoming "Fifty Shades Darker" movie soundtrack. "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" will feature in the sequel to the "Fifty Shades of Grey" film, based on the hugely successful erotic trilogy by E.L. James. Grammy Award-winning Swift told her fans of the collaboration on Instagram, posting a picture of what appeared to be... ... (read more)
432. Motherhood is Biggest Challenge for 'Woman of the Year' Madonna
Madonna was presented on Friday with Billboard magazine's Woman of the Year award, but the seven-time Grammy Award winner said one of her biggest challenges was being a good mother. "The biggest accomplishment I think was finishing my tour, doing my shows every night. And dealing with the challenges of being a mother. That's always the challenge for me. Being a good mother, being an artist, getting through it all," the "Material Girl" singer told reporters on... ... (read more)
433. Cairo Blast Kills 6 Police Officers
An explosion near a security checkpoint on a main road in Cairo killed six police officers and wounded three others Friday. ... (read more)
434. Trump, House Speaker Ryan Discuss Transition Plans
The leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, said Friday he is excited about "getting to work and hitting the ground running in 2017" after he held talks with President-elect Donald Trump in New York. Ryan had at times distanced himself from Trump during the election campaign after some of the president-elect's more controversial statements; but Ryan has said their relationship has improved and he now speaks almost daily with the incoming... ... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (Wayne Lee)
435. Peace Deal Will Help Colombia Battle Cocaine, President Says
Colombia's peace deal with Marxist rebels will help the country battle the cocaine trade, President Juan Manuel Santos said on the eve of collecting a Nobel Peace Prize that he called a "gift from heaven.” In Oslo for Saturday's award ceremony, Santos said the end of a five-decade-long guerrilla conflict in which 220,000 people died could have widespread economic and environmental benefits. "It came like a gift from heaven because it gave us a tremendous push,"... ... (read more)
We’re coming to grips with the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending December 10, 2016. It’s been an active week, with two of our Top Five positions seeing newcomers…that’s a 40 percent turnover! Number 5: Zay Hilfigerrr & Zayion McCall "Juju On That Beat" Zay Hilfigerrr and Zayion McCall jump three slots to fifth place with their viral video hit “Juju On That Beat (TZ Anthem).” These two teenage rappers from... ... (read more)
437. US Markets Close Higher Five Days Running
It was another string of record-breaking trading days for U.S. markets as the major averages hit all-time highs, having tracked the best week since the presidential election. The S&P 500, Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq each closed higher every day this week. The Dow is closing in on 20,000. Investors continue to be banking on President-elect Donald Trump's plans to boost infrastructure spending, help revive the fossil fuel industry and cut regulations. The mood can be... ... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (Jill Malandrino)
438. USAID Initiative Empowers Youth Through Vocational Training
According to the World Bank, 80 percent of Kenyan youth are unemployed. But an initiative by USAID is ensuring that youth who don't complete secondary school are trained in a vocation. The program, now in its second year, is having marked results. For VOA, Lenny Ruvaga reports from Bungom, Kenya. ... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (Lenny Ruvaga)
439. Strong Earthquake Hits Solomon Islands for 2nd Day in a Row
An earthquake of 6.9 magnitude struck early Saturday off the coast of the Solomon Islands, one day after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit the same area. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no major tsunami threat, but cautioned that waves up to 3 meters were possible along the coast of the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. There were no immediate reports of widespread damage or injuries. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers... ... (read more)
440. Turkish Troops, Syrian Rebels Attack Key Town Held by Islamic State
Turkish troops and Ankara-backed Free Syrian Army rebel fighters launched an assault Friday on al-Bab, a strategic Syrian town northeast of Aleppo which rival Kurdish militias aligned with the U.S. also want to seize from the Islamic State terror group. Syrian opposition sources on the ground told VOA that 20 civilians were killed in the town Friday by airstrikes, which they believe were carried out by both Turkish and Russian military jets. Such a joint action, if true, would be a major... (read more)
441. December 9, 2016
442. Ukrainians Want to Make a Deal with Trump
Ukrainians trying to figure out what to expect from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump may be having trouble. His praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin during the recent political campaign received a lot of media attention. On the other hand, Trump also criticized President Barack Obama for "not doing what he should be doing for Ukraine," tweeting that "Russia took Crimea during the so-called Obama years." What will Trump actually do regarding Ukraine? Taras... ... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (Oleksiy Kuzmenko)
443. US Air Force Has Too Few Fighter Squadrons to Meet Needs
When Iraqi troops began the operation to retake Mosul last month, it was America’s F-22 Raptor jets that struck the first Islamic State targets there. But as American pilots keep flying missions abroad, there’s been a quiet crisis brewing at home. Some of the Air Force’s top generals tell our Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb that, if left unchecked, the crisis could degrade the Air Force’s frontline capabilities in the coming year. ... (read more)
444. US Space Command Chief: China Eyeing Space War Dominance
A top U.S. military official says the U.S. is actively pursuing abilities to deter Russia and China from waging a conflict in space. Speaking at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in Arlington on Friday, General Jay Raymond, Commander of U.S. Air Force Space Command, said some of China's military modernization is aimed at weakening the U.S. advantage in space and other domains. "China's military modernization has the potential to reduce core U.S. military... ... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (Li Bao)
445. In Surprise Attack, IS Fights to Retake Ancient Palmyra
Fierce clashes erupted Friday between Islamic State (IS) fighters and Syrian government troops around the ancient city of Palmyra in central Homs province, local reports and a monitoring group said. The intensification of fighting between the two sides came after IS fighters captured at least a dozen government-held positions in eastern Homs, including strategic areas around Palmyra. "IS took complete control of al-Mohur [oil] field in northwest of Palmyra," the pro-rebel... ... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (Sirwan Kajjo)
446. Iranian-Turkish Tensions Escalate Over Syria, Iraq
Tensions between neighbors Turkey and Iran are on the rise, with the countries jostling for influence in war-torn Syria and Iraq. But there are concerns that the rivalry is fueling sectarian divisions in the region. The tensions could also open the door to cooperation with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Officially Ankara says it enjoys good neighborly relations with Tehran. But an escalating war of words in Turkey's pro-government media tells a different story, according to... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (Dorian Jones)
447. US Official: North Korea's Nuclear Capabilities Growing
North Korea now has the capability to launch a nuclear weapon, but it may not be able to hit its intended target, according to a senior U.S. military official. The Pentagon believes Pyongyang can mount a warhead on a missile, but North Korea has not developed the capabilities needed for the warhead to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and strike a specific area, the official told reporters Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It is the threat that keeps me awake at night,” the... (read more)
448. Diplomats Urge Myanmar to Allow Aid in Rakhine State
Fourteen diplomatic missions including the United States urged Myanmar to allow humanitarian aid into troubled Rakhine state, where tens of thousands of people in need have not had access to medicine or other assistance since a military operation began two months ago. "The assistance is desperately needed to address serious humanitarian needs but also to begin to restore the confidence and hope that are essential to a restoration of peace and stability," the joint statement... ... (read more)
449. Suicide Bombing Kills 30 in Nigerian Market
At least 30 people are dead in northeast Nigeria after a pair of female suicide bombers struck the busy market Friday morning, Nigeria's army said. The army blamed the attack on the Boko Haram Islamist group, which has been known to use women and young girls to launch suicide attacks, though the group did not immediately claim responsibility for the bombing. "The two bombers, who [were] disguised as customers, detonated their suicide belts at the section of the market selling... ... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (Joshua Fatzick)
450. Violence Hits Cameroon Over English vs. French
Several people were killed and hundreds more were arrested or are missing Thursday in northwest Cameroon in violence that followed rallies by the country's English-speaking minority. They were protesting what they call the overbearing influence of French in the bilingual country. Some are demanding a return to federalism while others are asking for secession from the Republic of Cameroon. Protesters in Bamenda, the capital of the northwest region of Cameroon, came out to stop the... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (Moki Edwin Kindzeka)
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Who does not pay for news
Slightly less than half of Americans in the survey say they do not pay for news from a newspaper, magazine, news app, news site, or donation to nonprofit journalism. Nonetheless, many of those who do not pay for these sources still follow a great deal of news, just less than subscribers do.
For instance, many of those who don’t pay for news are heavy news consumers. Among people who mention a specific news source they regularly use but don’t pay for, 56 percent see news multiple times a day, another 23 percent say they follow news daily, and just 21 percent see news less than daily.
Rather than strictly a question of behavior, a more subtle but decisive factor in who pays is how important people feel it is to keep up with the news in the first place. For many of those who do not pay for news, keeping up with news is important, but they do not view it as critical in the way payers do.
In all, 37 percent of nonpayers say following news is very or extremely important (compared with 60 percent of those who do pay) while about half (47 percent) say it is moderately important (compared with 33 percent of news subscribers who rate it as only moderately important). And 16 percent of nonpayers say it is not very or not all important to keep up with news. (That number is 6 percent among payers.)
Nonpayers
Watch, read, hear, or see news multiple times a day 77% 56%
Say very/extremely important to keep up with news 60% 37%
Actively seek out news 73% 51%
Data Source: Questions: How often do you watch, read, or hear news? Several times an hour, several times a day, once a day, several times a week, weekly, less often, or never?
How important is it to you personally to keep up with news and information? Not at all important, not very important, moderately important, very important, or extremely important
Choose the statement that best describes you, even if it is not exactly right. In general, I actively seek out news and information or I mostly bump into news and information as I do other things or hear about it from others.
As noted above, many people who do not subscribe to news often still actively seek it out, which may make them an interesting group for publishers to identify. About half of people who do not pay for a news-specific source still say they actively seek out news (51 percent) while the other half say they mostly bump into news (48 percent).
Payers and nonpayers tend to use different types of sources, and payers are more likely to identify a print source as the one they use most frequently. Among those who pay for a source, 61 percent identify a print source as the one they use most frequently, while among those who use a free source, 21 percent identify a print source.
Still, cell phones and television are the top devices for getting news for everyone—those who pay for news and those who do not.
Television 86% 77%
Cell phone 85% 85%
Computer 70% 59%
Tablet 66% 59%
Radio 65% 53%
Print publication 61% 21%
E-reader 10% 6%
Data Source: Question: Here are some different devices or technology that you might or might not use to get news and information. Did you use each device or technology to get news and information in the last week, or did you not?
Those who do not pay for a specific news source receive news from a mix of both traditional news platforms and newer digital platforms. About 3 in 4 nonpayers receive news from AM/FM radio, and a similar portion get news via cable or satellite television.
Three-quarters of nonpayers also get news from social media.1.” In this format, 54 percent say they have used social media sites for news. About 5 percent of respondents, 134 people, say yes to the general question about getting news on social media, but did not identify a specific platform in the earlier section.] (It is the same for payers). About a third of nonpayers also get news and information from a news app, go to online-only news sources, and get news from broadcast television or newspapers.
Percent of nonpayers
Social media sites 76%
AM/FM radio 76%
Cable or satellite television 71%
News apps for your smartphone or tablet 37%
Digital news site such as Yahoo News or MSN News 36%
Any newspaper format 32%
Basic or broadcast television 31%
Any magazine format 28%
Print or digital newsletter 19%
Data Source: Questions: For each of the following types of media, please indicate whether you have used it for free in the last year, or not.
These days many people get their news and information from social media. Do you ever get any news from...?
Interestingly, those who do not pay for news follow similar topics to those who do pay. In the survey, we asked people to choose the three topics they most closely follow.
As you can see from the chart below, the rank order of topics for people who pay for news and those who don’t pay is nearly identical. For those who subscribe to a specific news source, the numbers for each topic merely tend to be higher.
There are only a few differences: News subscribers are more likely to follow news about the economy and business. They are somewhat less likely than nonsubscribers to follow news about both traffic and weather and crime and public safety.
National politics or government 63% 51%
Traffic and weather 52% 59%
Sports 26% 21%
Crime and public safety 23% 33%
My particular town or neighborhood 17% 17%
Local politics or government 16% 11%
Science and technology 12% 15%
Business and the economy 12% 6%
Health care and medical information 11% 9%
Foreign or international news 11% 8%
My hobbies 9% 11%
Entertainment and celebrities 8% 11%
Social issues 8% 7%
Lifestyle topics 7% 7%
Schools and education 7% 6%
The environment and natural disasters 6% 6%
Art and culture 2% 2%
Data Source: Question: Here are some common news and information topics. Which of these news topics do you follow most often or closely?
Payers and nonpayers tend to use their top sources differently, partly due to the fact that payers are more likely to use print. Payers are more likely to share their paid source’s content with others and use its coupons compared to nonpayers. On the other hand, nonpayers are more likely to use their free source’s app (35 percent vs. 25 percent). There is little difference between payers and nonpayers, however, when it comes to visiting the source’s website or following it on social media.
Regularly share content with others 49% 27%
Visit its website 46% 48%
Save print copies 41% 12%
Use coupons 37% 11%
Use its app 25% 35%
Follow on social media 24% 25%
Subscribe to alerts/notifications 18% 12%
Subscribe to email newsletter 16% 6%
Data Source: Questions: In which of the following ways do you interact with... ? Do you ...?
Those who pay for news tend to have more positive views about the paid source they use than those who do not pay for their regular source. In particular, those who pay for news are more likely than those who do not to say it is easy to find information they care about from their source (72 percent vs. 63 percent). Similarly, 61 percent of those who pay for news say the news and information from their source is very or completely reliable compared with 43 percent of those who do not pay for the source. These findings suggest there is clearly a link between trust and paying for news. But the differences are not so large as to suggest trust is all there is to it.
Interestingly, there is not a significant difference between people who pay for a source and people who use a free source when it comes to beliefs about how easy it is to get similar content from other sources. Even a majority of people who pay for a news source say it is easy to get similar news from other sources. We think this finding is interesting. It suggests the presence of alternative sources, while important, does not determine why some people pay and others don’t. Other more subtle factors are at play as well.
Easy to find information you care about 72% 63%
News and information very/completely reliable 61% 43%
Easy to get similar news from other sources 54% 59%
Data Source: Questions: How easy or difficult is it for you to find the news and information you care about from… ? Would you say very easy, somewhat easy, neither easy nor difficult, somewhat difficult, or very difficult?
Thinking of the types of news information you care most about from… , how easy or difficult is it to get similar news and information from other sources? Would you say very easy, somewhat easy, neither easy nor difficult, somewhat difficult, or very difficult?
How reliable is the news and information you get from... ? Completely reliable, very reliable, moderately reliable, a little reliable, or not at all reliable?
Why people don’t pay for news
In the same way that we asked those who subscribe to news sources why they did so, we also asked those who did not pay for news the reasons they chose not to do so. People were asked about six potential factors.
Here, the reasons people give for not paying tend to vary based on people’s age, education, gender, and race.
Overall, the biggest reason people say they don’t pay for news, which over half cite as one of the main reasons, is they can find plenty of free content.
‘I’m a cheapskate,’ said Sara, a 40-year-old from Phoenix. ‘I don’t want to pay for news when I feel like it’s everywhere.’
In addition to being able to see free content, 17 percent also say they can get access to paid content in other ways. Some of these non-payers are even quite sophisticated about it. For instance, Michael, a 69-year-old newspaper reader from Phoenix, noted in our in-depth interviews that there are ways to get paid content for free, like articles from The Wall Street Journal, “if you know how to do it.”
In addition to these people who are navigating carefully around pay meters, another 41 percent of nonpayers admit that they are not interested enough in news to pay for it.
About a quarter of those who don’t pay for news say it is too expensive.
Yet trust in media seems to be a smaller factor here. Despite the recent debates over trust and the media, just 15 percent say they don’t trust the media enough to pay for it. And 13 percent say they are too busy.
I can find plenty of free content so I don’t need to pay 54%
I’m not interested enough in the content to pay for it 41%
It’s too expensive 24%
I can get access to the paid content in other ways 17%
I do not trust news and information from the media 15%
I’m too busy to use it 13%
Data Source: Question: What are the main reasons why you haven’t paid for a news or information subscription in the past year? Please select all that apply.
Men tend to see more alternatives to paying for news sources than do women. They’re more likely than women to say they do not pay because there is plenty of free content (60 percent vs. 48 percent) and because they can get access to the paid content in other ways (20 percent vs. 14 percent).
Beyond being able to get news for free, however, there are no significant differences between men and women when it comes to citing other reasons for not paying for news.
One potentially challenging finding for publishers is that people with more education are also more likely than those with less education to say they can find alternatives to paid sources.
Fully 71 percent of college graduates who don’t pay for news cite the broad availability of free content, as do 61 percent of those with some college education and 42 percent of high school graduates.
But as with men and women, there are no significant differences related to education when it comes to other reasons people say they do not pay for news.
There are also racial and ethnic differences related to believing there is plenty of free content available. Sixty-one percent of whites say there is plenty of free content available compared with 40 percent of Hispanics and 39 percent of African Americans.
But there are not racial or ethnic differences tied to citing any of the other reasons for not paying for news. In past research, we have found that both African Americans and Hispanics believe that while it is easier to get news about the world in general than it used to be, it is not easier now to get information about their own ethnic communities. This could help explain why these two ethnic groups are so much less likely than whites to cite the abundance of free content on the web as a reason not to pay for news.
The young who don’t pay for news
There are also some differences by generation in the reasons people say they do not pay for news. To begin with, younger adults tend to cite more reasons for not paying for news than older adults.
Among them, younger adults are more likely than their elders to say they do not pay because they are not interested enough in the content; they’re also more likely to say they’re too busy.
As Alicia, a 30-year-old new mother from Phoenix, put it, she used to read ‘Cosmo and that kind of thing, but I think I just had kids and I didn’t have the time to sit there and go through my magazines.’
Indeed, about half of 18-34 year olds say they are not interested in the content compared with just 1 in 4 of those age 65 and older. And younger adults are about three times as likely as those 65 and older to say they are too busy.
The traditional view once was that these younger Americans will age into news with time. But given the rise of news organizations aimed at younger adults, and the relatively high news consumption rates of young adults on social media and elsewhere, the reality may be more challenging for news organizations than that. Traditional publications may be failing to present the news in ways that engage younger generations, and they may not entirely be covering the right topics.
65 years old and older
Not interested enough in the content 49% 39% 33% 27%
Too busy 16% 15% 11% 3%
Data Source: Questions: What are the main reasons why you haven’t paid for a news or information subscription in the past year? How about..?
Respondents were asked if they got news from seven specific social media sites with the following question, “These days many people get their news and information from social media. Do you ever get any news from… ?” Seventy-five percent report getting news from at least one of the sites. In a separate section, the survey asked, “For each of the following types of media, please indicate whether you have used it for free in the last year, or not. [Social media sites ↩
Paying for news
Who pays for news
Newspaper subscribers vs. other types of subscribers
“Seekers” vs. “bumpers”
Print vs. digital subscribers
Younger news payers vs. older news payers
Price and paying for news
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Deploy U.S. Energy Resources for Regional Growth
By Andrés Gluski | July 6, 2016
Latin America stands to benefit from importing U.S. natural gas.
Photo: Farah Nosh
In the new issue of Americas Quarterly, we asked people, “What would you tell the next U.S. president about Latin America?” To see other authors’ responses, click here.
Dear Mister / Madam President,
It is often said that you can’t have your cake and eat it too. However, with respect to energy policy and Latin America, you can have both. Here’s how: Thanks to the abundance of cheap domestic natural gas flowing from the shale revolution, the U.S. can become a major energy exporter to Latin America and the Caribbean. By opening up new markets for its enormous gas reserves, the U.S. can forge closer commercial relationships throughout the Americas and enhance regional economic and political stability — while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality.
Currently a substantial portion of electric power in Latin America is generated by oil-fired power plants. Even with the recent drop in oil prices, the cost of electricity in much of Latin America remains significantly higher than in the U.S. Oil-fired plants emit approximately 44 percent more carbon dioxide than gas plants, and they also emit more nitrogen oxide, particulate matter and sulfur oxide than natural gas. At a modest cost, these plants can be converted to burn cheaper and cleaner natural gas.
With U.S. domestic gas prices expected to remain in the range of $2 to $4 per MMBTU for the foreseeable future, an increase in gas imports from the U.S. can significantly lower electricity bills for Latin American consumers—as they have done in the U.S., where roughly 33 percent of electric power generation now comes from gas-fired plants. A 2015 report prepared for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on deploying natural gas in the Caribbean estimated that replacing fuel oil with natural gas could reduce electricity costs by over 20 percent in some countries. Just as importantly, there would be reductions in greenhouse gas emissions as power plants convert to less carbon-intensive natural gas and, as manufacturing facilities expand or relocate due to low fuel and electricity costs, more high-quality jobs would become available. Finally, government finances, particularly in poorer countries in Central America and the Caribbean, will benefit from reduced petroleum imports.
The challenge of transporting low-cost U.S. gas to Latin America can be met by liquefying the gas and shipping it. The costs of liquefied natural gas (LNG) delivery to Latin America and the Caribbean, including liquefaction, shipping, storage and regasification, are likely to be in the range of $6 to $9 per MMBTU. At these prices — and even with a modest rebound in oil prices, as projected in most forecasts — natural gas offers a compelling long-term alternative to fuel oil to fire the region’s power plants. But continued support for U.S. domestic production is crucial.
Any major impediments to domestic production of shale gas would erode the competitive cost of U.S. gas on global markets. You should make streamlining the process of approving LNG export facilities a priority. The current permit process is too costly, time- consuming and uncertain. The new administration should also work closely with Latin American governments to foster the infrastructure required for increased LNG imports, including more receiving terminals, storage tanks and related pipelines.
This LNG infrastructure requires sizable funding. The private sector should lead the way, but public-private partnerships can play an important role in facilitating the necessary investments. The U.S government should work with multilateral institutions such as the IDB and the World Bank to identify opportunities and provide financial incentives for both creating LNG infrastructure and converting individual power plants from oil-fired to natural gas.
Beyond the mutual advantages of a cheap and relatively cleaner energy source, there are longer-term benefits to increasing U.S. gas exports to the region. South and Central America have been a major market for the export of U.S. goods, with the U.S. running an annual trade surplus of over $37 billion in 2015. As natural gas becomes widely embraced in Latin America, and individuals have greater purchasing power due to cheaper electricity, U.S. companies will encounter an even more receptive market for additional exports. The strong existing economic, cultural, social and family ties between the U.S. and Latin America will continue to solidify and U.S. influence in the Americas will grow. Madam or Mr. President, enjoy your cake and eat it too.
Gluski is president and CEO of The AES Corporation. Gluski has served as an expert witness at U.S. congressional hearings on the subject of energy policy and Latin America and he currently serves on President Barack Obama’s Export Council, the U.S.-Brazil CEO Forum, and the U.S.- India CEO Forum. He is chairman of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas.
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'Farcical' that Russian blogger faces five years in jail for playing Pokémon Go in a church
Ruslan Sokolovsky has been arrested under ‘blasphemy law’ introduced after the Pussy Riot case
‘States should not be jailing people simply for offending religious sensibilities’ - John Dalhuisen
The detention of Ruslan Sokolovsky - a Russian blogger from Yekaterinburg who has been sentenced to administrative arrest for two months after posting a video of himself playing Pokémon Go in a church - is a farcical attack on freedom of expression, said Amnesty International.
Sokolovsky was arrested on Saturday on charges of “preventing the realisation of the right to freedom of conscience and religion and incitement of hatred” under Russia’s so-called “blasphemy law”. This was adopted in 2013 as a response to the political performance by members of the Pussy Riot group in the central cathedral in Moscow. The law criminalised actions that offend believers’ feelings and represented a significant encroachment on freedom of expression in Russia.
Sokolovsky deliberately went to play Pokémon Go in the church on 11 August following a warning made earlier on Russian state television that people shouldn’t catch “pokémon” at religious sites or in proximity to the state border - as they might face criminal charges form doing so.
If convicted under the “blasphemy law” Sokolovsky could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Director John Dalhuisen said:
“Even if Sokolovsky’s behaviour may have been regarded as disrespectful by some, states should not be jailing people simply for offending religious sensibilities.”
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The Catholic Monarchs…
The Catholic Monarchs in the Alhambra (1492-1500)
The historian Juan Antonio Vilar makes in his book “Los Reyes Católicos en la Alhambra” (The Catholic Monarchs in the Alhambra) a comprehensive study on the conservation works and the transformations undertaken in the Monumental Complex, during the period between the Reconquest of Granada (on January 2, 1942) and the death of Isabella the Catholic and her funeral in the Alhambra at the end of 1504.
The collection is made up by documents forgotten for centuries and which contribute with basic information to understand what occurred in the Alhambra during the first years after the Reconquest. Furthermore, a CD comes enclosed containing around 1,800 pages including copies of the original documents from the General Archive of Simancas.
“The Catholic Monarchs in the Alhambra” has been recently awarded with the first Premio Internacional de Ensayo Histórico Duquesa de Medina Sidonia (International “Duquesa de Medina Sidonia” Award for Historical Essays).
El Patronato de la Alhambra y el Generalife and the publishing house Comares have published the book, which opened in 2008 the bibliographic collection Fuentes de Investigación (Research Sources) belonging to the library of the Alhambra.
Juan Antonio Vilar Sánchez (1954) studied Medieval History at the University of Cologne (Germany) and modern History at the University of Granada. He earned his doctorate in History from the University of Nijmegen (Netherlands) and he is the author of several monographs focused on the stays and works accomplished by the Catholic Monarchs and Charles V in Granada and the Alhambra.
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Russia holds Politkovskaya suspects
Ten people to be charged over journalist’s murder, prosector-general says.
Politkovskaya was a vocal critic of the Russian president and his government [File: AFP]
Prosecutors said her killing was probably linked to her work.
Chechnya report
Former colleagues of Politkovskaya’s at the Novaya Gazeta newspaper have said they suspect the murder was linked to a report she was preparing into allegations of torture in Chechnya.
She made regular trips to report on the Kremlin’s operations against Chechen fighters and her reporting attracted the attention of officials and the security forces.
On one trip to Chechnya, she said she was arrested and held in a pit in Chechnya for three days.
She also received numerous death threats.
Anna Usachyova, a spokeswoman for Moscow City Court, said a judge had approved the detention of eight people “on the basis of suspicion that they are connected to the murder”.
Russia criticised
She did not give details on the other two suspects.
Politkovskaya was shot dead at her apartment
building in Moscow last October [File: AP]
The killing drew a wave of international condemnation and prompted concerns about media freedoms in Russia.
More than 80 journalists in Russia have been murdered because of their jobs since 1993, according to the International Federation of Journalists.
Jonah Hull, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Moscow, said: “She was a massively admired figure here in Russia and internationally.
“Among independent media groups her death caused uproar … her writings were well known in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States.”
‘Certain results’
Putin said last December that everything possible was being done to find and punish her killers.
“The best professionals in Russia’s law enforcement are investigating this crime and we already have certain results,” he said.
A prominent campaigner for press freedom expressed scepticism that prosecutors were any closer to convicting Politkovskaya’s killers.
“The murders of journalists in the past 14 years have been so poorly investigated that it’s hard to have any faith in this,” Oleg Panfilov, head of the Centre for Journalism in Extreme Situations, told Reuters news agency.
“I suspect it’s connected with the fact that the one-year anniversary of [her] death is coming up.
“People will ask ‘Where are the killers?’, and this way they can say that the case is closed and suspects have been detained.”
Russians remember dead journalists
The Russian Union of Journalists says 211 journalists have been killed since 1992.
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Photo by Ray Spears
What places are left on your bucket list? What trips did you have to put on hold in light of Covid-19? With unwavering advancements in technology and 5G, we are curious where the travel industry is headed next. Take, for example, the greater implications in VR and AR; for those hard to visit places, how might you explore without ever leaving your home? Watch this webinar and deep dive as we sightsee into the future of travel.
Realities Website & Blog
The Realities VR experience on Steam
Puzzling Places Prototype, the Oculus Quest puzzling game
The Museum of other Realities
Daniel Sproll
realities.io
Alia Lamborghini
Welcome to our Future of Travel Panel today. Thank you all so much for joining us this Wednesday afternoon and for sharing an hour of your afternoon with us. And a special thanks to really all of our panelists today, we're so excited to hear from you guys about future of travel and talk a little bit more about this subject in-depth. For those of you tuning in, if you don't know me, my name is Noelle Tassey, and I'm the CEO of Alley. Alley is a community-driven innovation agency and our focus is to unite rich, diverse communities around the country with our corporate partners to drive their innovation programs, and also bring about positive social impact. A special thank you to our partners at Verizon 5G Labs, one of those clients that we work with. And for those of you who don't know 5G Labs, they work with startups, academia, and enterprise teams to dream up the future of our 5G-powered world. So we work on 5G trials, hackathons, industry partnerships, prototyping challenges, and more. And you can check out our upcoming events as well as our work with them on our website at alley.com. So without further ado, I'm going to have our incredible panelists all introduce themselves, we've got some really, really unique points of view to bring to today's panel. So Swapnil, we'll kick it off with you, if you want to just give us a little bit of background on yourself. Current role— and I know in your previous role, at Mezi, as the founder of Mezi, as well, just a little bit about that.
Swapnil Shinde 1:40
Sure. Hey, guys. Nice to meet everyone. And thanks again for inviting me on this panel. I am Swapnil. I'm the CEO and co-founder of Zeni. And Zeni is an AI-powered CFO as a service platform that manages all the finance functions for technology startups today. So it includes accounting, bookkeeping, temporary CFO services, (inaudible) invoicing, everything under one roof on one platform. But interestingly, before Zeni, my last startup was Mezi, where we built an AI-powered travel as a service platform that was acquired by American Express at the start of 2018. The interesting thing that we've built at Mezi was our travel assistant that could sit in your pocket and travel with you, 24 by seven, and you could chat with that travel assistant over a very simple messaging interface to plan and book your entire travel and 70% of those messages in that interaction was actually powered by AI and 30% by real travel experts, so we ended up creating a very realistic AI travel assistant for business travelers.
Awesome, love that, and really, really excited to kind of hear more about that experience as well. Daniel, over to you.
Daniel Sproll 2:54
Sure. My name is Daniel Sproll. I'm one of the co-founders of realities.io and what we do is we bring the real world into virtual reality. So we scan real-world places and turn them into fully explorable 3D models. We scan places like Cologne Cathedral, so you can enter there. And we are especially excited about places that are out of reach for people. And, yeah, I came into VR through my work as a cognitive scientist, so I've done research in that area, and then ended up in VR founding— co-founding realities.
Very cool. And digital travel's obviously gonna be a real headline topic for us today given (inaudible). Last but not least, Alia.
Alia Lamborghini 3:46
Hey, well, thank you. My name is Alia Lamborghini, I run the Client Sales and Strategy Team at Verizon Media. We connect with about 900 million users and really try to transform how people stay informed and entertained across about 30 different media properties, some of them are HuffPost and Yahoo Sports, TechCrunch, and Bakers. Prior to this role, I actually ran the Travel Vertical for Verizon Media, too. So I'm a personal travel enthusiast as well as have been involved with lots of different partners in our Travel Vertical at Verizon Media.
Awesome. Like you, I'm also a personal travel enthusiast, so I'm really excited, you know like I think a lot of the people tuning in today, I love to travel, I also love to stay home and socially distance right now, and I love technology. So really excited to kind of explore what the future of travel means. But before we kick off and really dig into that, I'm curious what everybody's, you know, first post-COVID trip would be. You know, what you guys are thinking as people who love to travel. I was gonna say Southeast Asia because I really want to go back to Cambodia, but honestly, I'd be happy just like, traveling to my office at this point. Yeah, that's kind of where I'm at.
Yeah, I'm kind of in your boat, I might need a little ease back into a long flight. I— at this point, I've gone six months without flying, and I think I'm going to need a domestic hop first. So I would love to take my family to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I'm aiming at this point for next summer for sort of a true family vacation, but we'll see how that works out.
Yeah, I think— I mean, I'm fortunate that we're based in Berlin, so there is travel possible so— at least around here, and within Germany and to a degree within Europe. But yeah, I mean, I'd love to like, hit up the mountains as soon as possible again, but because I'm not taking flights for just traveling anymore for environmental reasons, but there's so much to see. I'd love to hop over to Georgia, go hiking there, stuff like that, once it's possible to stay in a small house with a lot of people again.
Daniel, you don't need to brag about the way that Europe has handled the Coronavirus crisis like that, we're all really jealous. Good job.
Yeah. Good job.
I'll pass it on.
Having a passport that's actually usable, oh, my God.
I would probably maybe go to Hawaii, go somewhere a bit exotic locally before I maybe consider going to a place like maybe Africa— African safari— still be within the mix of nature and probably with lesser humans around so it's a bit safer than usual.
Yeah, definitely. I mean, that's certainly— yeah, that's certainly pretty distance. So, awesome. So now we're going to jump into the future of travel which is a really kind of new topic to these panels that we've been doing. You know, we've been talking a lot about kind of evolution of you know, the collision of technology and culture across a wide range of topics, and travel's actually only really come up once. We had a call where we were talking about VR/AR and somebody said they actually take their VR/AR headset on flights when they're flying economy. And they just like, put it on and it's like, they're not in the middle seat in row like, you know, 46, next to the toilet. So I thought that was— you know, that was a great tip on the— certainly the future of how I hope to travel. Which is definitely budget airline, in the back, pretending I'm not. But yeah, I'd love to know what the future of travel means more generally to all three of you. So that's for the whole panel. Whoever wants to jump in and just, yeah, take it away.
I think a really general perspective, we will probably expect more personalization. There might be more of a private experience, you know, bent on travel, and then certainly in the short-term, there will be less crowding. Because that's what we'll have to do, at least domestically in the US to try to make sure that we can earn the right to travel again. On the negative aspects, I worry a little bit about travel becoming more expensive and potentially less accessible.
Yeah, I think so too. I think travel is about to massively change. I mean, we have to with the challenges that we're facing in the short-term, is— that will be COVID, and then with long term, that's like the climate crisis that we're facing. So travel will massively change, will have to massively change. And I think yeah, one of the aspects that we, of course, are super excited about to find alternatives for some of these places, to keep places accessible, is VR and virtual travel. I don't think that will work for everything and maybe we can dive into that later. But I think there's certainly use cases and travel cases where this is a really interesting alternative that is not only on par, but maybe even a better experience than without— well, like being there in person with a lot of other people.
Yeah, definitely. And that's something we'll explore a lot today, is sort of that, you know, when, we're returning to normal, and I think— you know, we've seen this on a lot of our panels actually is kind of like less but better, you know, as Coronavirus is a forcing mechanism for us to change behaviors and hopefully change certain things long-term for environmental preservation, you know, like exploring where do you— where's the role of VR and AR in travel versus the benefits of going somewhere in person. Last but not least, future travel to you Swapnil?
Yeah, I think, for me, the future of travel is going to be super personalized, because I think, as you rightly said, that less is going to be more in the world of travel. Looking forward, people are going to think twice before they consider going somewhere. So I think the seriousness that comes into planning a travel is going to be higher in the future. And safety is going to be the number one feature, I think when it comes to planning and booking your travel. So that entire experience, I think making the customer feel extremely safe, knowledgeable about where they're going, and then the different aspects of that particular location are going to be very important. So safety first and extremely personalized because if I'm not going to travel as often, I would rather have something that is very tuned to my requirements.
Alia Lamborghini 10:36
You know, we're seeing actually— we've taken some rising media data lately that's shown that our consumers are looking for travel companies to actually speak very directly with them about safety. The number, I think, is about 87% of consumers expect travel companies to talk with them very directly about safety, and what they're doing, and why it's safe to actually visit their hotel or fly on their airplane. So that's definitely top of mind for folks.
Swapnil Shinde 11:06
I expect a lot of travel companies to even change and fine-tune their marketing efforts to put safety front and center in their messaging and positioning.
Yeah, and truly the other interesting thing about that is if you are going to take precautionary safety measures that cost more money. So the balance between what the consumer is willing to absorb in order to have a safe travel experience is going to get pretty interesting too.
Yeah, I think what we're seeing we're definitely seeing like a lot of areas where the economics just aren't adding up. You know, you've been— reopening a hotel at 25% occupancy with much higher operating costs, you know, how does that really work? Does that work? Can you do it? And if you're actually charging the correct price for that, all of a sudden, people will be taking fewer trips, for sure. We all— I think everyone touched on personalization. I'd love to hear from you guys how you see technology driving the personalization aspects of what people are looking for.
Perfect, maybe I can start there because personalization was very key and central to the way we built Mezi. One of the things that we really did well was for each of the traveler we actually ended up building what we called as a DNA— but a traveler DNA used to record their preferences as they used to chat with us. And those preferences might include stuff like that, hey, I like to travel economic when I'm going for my personal travel versus business when I'm going for my business travel. I like to stay in boutique hotels versus I like to stay in big chain hotels. I like to see locations which are closer to bars or sightseeing, etc. So I think there might be things that you really enjoy doing when you're traveling, especially for personal preferences, etc. and finding a hotel location which are closer to those activities might be far more advantageous to me as a traveler versus going to someplace just because it's a cheaper hotel option but then traveling locally and spending more time to go into places around where I would really enjoy my travels. I think building technology that can really help personalize the travel preferences for me every time I want to use that particular product to plan and book my travel is going to be more and more important moving forward. And for example, today if you go to Kayak, Expedia, Priceline you always are welcomed with the same form, right? You punch in the "to", the "from", and you basically customize every single filter, they don't really understand you as a traveler. So I think understanding you as a traveler, connecting to your personal preferences is going to be key. And every time I'm looking at options, again, if you put safety as your number one feature, if you can tell me that hey, this is rated as the safest place, this is rated as the safest airline, etc. is going to be key. Given these changes, I do feel that travel is going to become a bit more premium than it was ever before. Even traveling by economy might become more expensive than it was ever before. So your ability to explore locally is going to be higher than in the past time. So if you are a travel product, or you're building a travel experience, I think that focus on localization, in addition to personalization, can really help you explore more around you versus taking a flight and flying long distance.
Yeah. Daniel, Alia, do either of you want to kind of jump in on personalization and anything there?
I think one of the biggest things about personalization is having the technology to be able to understand what level of personalization each consumer expects and not, you know, not painting that with a particularly broad brush, right? So I love, Swapnil, what you said about, you know, the idea that when I'm traveling for business, I have this expectation versus when traveling personally. And I do think that you know, some of this better, faster edge computing-type technology will allow us to, you know, drive toward that more very specific and minute personalization. I think we get some level of personalization today. But how can we continue to adjust that and have that algorithm for each of us, that means that we're really getting the experience we want every time and not just a large hotel chain's view of personalization, like really consumer-specific.
Daniel Sproll 15:38
Yeah, and I think in probably Ireland, what we've seen early on in terms of VR travel, was like, okay, people have been like, you know, producing 360 videos, which is pretty much like a— you're on rails, you can turn your head a bit, that's not at all the travel experience. That's an immersive film, maybe, if it's done well, or it just makes you sick if it's done worse than that. So what we— I think what we're seeing now in VR is just like this massive push towards interactive content. And that is also this kind of like, you know, your user wants to have like, a personal experience, and they want to create their experience on their own, and for that, you need this kind of like deep, rich, interactive content that is offered that allows you to, you know, live your own story and not just like, follow on rails, and go exploring, and I think there's this huge move from 360 to like, fully volumetric content that is there. But even in the 360 this past year, that's just like, things like offering you huge libraries of like, checking out different places. And maybe also using that to really plan your own travels then down the road.
That's really interesting. And a great segue, because I want to talk about VR travel next, and the idea— so interested in the idea of VR, something that comes up a lot I think, when we talk about VR is you often like, on these panels, we'll talk about it, and people kind of come into it with this idea of like, virtual reality is going to be a replacement for this physical experience and a lot of times it's either it's additive, it's a step before, like, to your point planning a trip you know, maybe you experienced it in VR, figure out what you want that way. I, for one, like, could have made some— could have avoided some major Airbnb mistakes if I could have fully seen what was on the other side, Really, really rough stuff there. Anyways, for another time, but so— yeah, I'd love to talk about that. And also, you touched on briefly the difference between you know, it's just like, AR/VR, like, video experience versus like what really makes it travel. So I'd love to like, hone in on that first and yeah, let's talk about—
Yeah, I think there's this element to VR that— or it's funny like, if you ask a lot of people, especially people that are not coming so much from a gaming background, are not gamers like "hey, there's VR, there's this new technology, what would you like to do with it?" And they were like. "Oh yeah, virtual travel, that sounds great." And that does sound great because you, like, what people imagine, it's like they put on a headset and they get a travel experience like that. But that's not what technology is at the moment to provide you this travel experience of you going to the beach hanging out, you know, you will not feel the sand between your feet, you will not feel the water, you will not feel the sun. So that's gonna be like a— you know, that experience will lack a lot for like, a long time to go. I mean there is— there's people working on that with more intricate setups, but until that comes to your home, that's going to take a long time. But as I touched upon earlier, I think there is the— there are like, use cases where you can have like a really, really cool experience. So one of the things that we've done, as I said before, is like, you know, we scanned the Cologne Cathedral, and you can like, suddenly go into areas and explore areas freely that I— that you're not allowed to go to even during the tour, even during the guided tour, you're not allowed to enter these places as a tourist. So you can explore these places freely without anyone around you obscuring your view. We can take you, you know, we've scanned like, Germany's last coal mine before they closed it down last year, so— two years ago, actually, and like, that's places that you cannot go to normally as a tourist. Like, you can never explore these places. And suddenly, like for these kind of exploration-type things and like, sightseeing-type of things like, VR becomes very interesting because you then can also augment these experiences with like, you know, like a top-notch tour guide, not just like, the person who has time on that day. Like, you can have the best person, you can have the person who has been working there for 20 years or something to guide you around. You can add like all this additional content to make this tour really, really amazing. And you can you know, have like a tour with multiple people, everybody hearing their own language, getting their own content, diving deeper into the pieces that they find interesting because it can also be interactive for everybody. You don't have to have like, this shared experience where you know, maybe that person is asking those all these questions that are super boring for you. So it's again, it's like a personalized thing. It's— you can freely explore, you can learn about the place in the way, at the pace you want. And I think that is super powerful for these kind of like, cultural heritage applications. And then I think there's this one thing that goes even beyond that, which is— the Guardian sent out headsets to like random readers of theirs and got feedback from that. And this one dude from Scotland said— this middle-aged man's like, "VR is not like something you do, it's like a place you go." So any kind of like, interactive VR feels like a traveling experience. And that's the funny thing, like, you don't find that many travel experiences on the stores. Because often these are kind of like, the boring ones. Like— but every game, every like, social app that is there in VR like, creates a virtual space, and you travel to that space and you know, you can have like crazy user-generated worlds and VR chat where you never know what you will find, or who you will find, or how they will even look like. Or you can go like, to a classical museum, like the museum of other realities, that is like a super well-curated Museum of virtual art that you cannot access anywhere in like, a real gallery. So there's like, all these like, crazy new opportunities, like, there's these new spaces opened up for traveling there, just in VR.
I think that accessibility portion gets really important too, as things will become more expensive, more exclusive. There will probably be a different cutoff for what is accessible. So this type of travel could really make a difference in terms of the experiences that everyone is able to have versus having to actually you know, save up for years to be able to experience.
Yeah, and I think a lot of these places you know, like, they should be accessible to everybody because they are world cultural heritage sites, you know, like they should be— you should be able to see these wonders without having to fly around all over and going through all these— and also like, a lot of these places they— visiting like, the Sistine Chapel, it's not a good experience.
I was literally just about to say that. If anyone who's been there, it's— yeah. I would so much— I would love to do that again in VR.
And there's a VR experience of that. Like you can sit like, right under the ceiling and look up close on the paintings. It's amazing.
I've been so struck by all these photos, you know, as Europe was in lockdown, all the photos coming out of like, you know, Florence, like the Duomo without tourists all over it, and like, how countries— a lot of countries in Europe that almost feel like— in the peak tourism months, it almost feels like you're at like, Disneyland, cultural Disneyland for Americans. You're like, "what? This isn't what I wanted." You know, how they've kind of returned to more of their normal state and like VR is such an interesting and compelling way to experience that in a more authentic way, weirdly. Also, I always learn something kind of unrelated to the topic on these panels. And today, I learned that Germany apparently has shut down all of its coal mines, which is super cool. And really interesting. So love that.
We still have to shut down the open coal mines, the open-pit mines, but the underground mines are shut.
Wow. I don't think we can say that here, something tells me. So, awesome. I think like, on that note, we were just talking about accessibility, you know, how accessible— how much, I guess, demand do you guys think there will be for these virtual trips? And I'd love to hear everyone's perspective on this because I think like, from outside the VR space, there's a— it's a very different perspective if you're not in that industry.
Yeah, I'll let you guys go first.
I think our access to a device that allows you to enjoy VR in a very meaningful way, is going to really define how accessible it's going to be for normal people. Today, a lot of— I think— like if you look at Oculus, etc., there are very high-end devices that you can actually buy and enjoy the best of VR you ever can. And then there are certain ways in which you can enjoy it using, say, an Android or an iPhone. So I think the more powerful we are, experience can be achieved via your mobile phone, I think is really going to define how much adoption it's going to get. And as these mobile operating systems become more and more powerful, I think that is actually going to happen.
Yeah, I would agree on that. And obviously, 5G will be a massive driver in the quality of that imagery. I would also say maybe we, as a consumer, reclassify it a little bit, and we don't call it travel if it's a VR experience, but instead, it's more education or an experience. So perhaps travel becomes what we have the capability to do in a slightly smaller radius. And then— yet we can still experience you know, all these incredible worldwide sites at a different level, but our expectation changes a little bit. And we shift gears, you know, particularly maybe for our young kids and families, more exposure to places like the Sistine Chapel versus the overcrowded, you know, July summertime scenario version of it. So I like, kind of the idea of reclassifying it a little bit, too.
Yeah, I think also, there's a huge chance for, you know, local places around you to offer very special experiences through VR. Like, we've just collaborated on a project where we scan— or like, we got a scan of like, an old 16th-century warship that is on the bottom of the Baltic Sea that marine archaeologists scanned. And so we worked on this experience to bring that to museums so you can explore that place actually like, you can like, virtually dive down in the museum. So that's a great way for like, also local destinations to I think drive tourists to their halls again, and to present these kind of like, content in a more meaningful way. And I think these kind of like, location-based entertainment systems are going to be like, a great bridge also once you can open them again, and you know, you're not afraid to put on a headset that somebody else had on their face. So that's, of course, like, a big challenge right now, but is a great way to democratize that without having to, you know, buy like, a €450 headset which— but I mean, also there, the price is coming down, like, the Oculus Quest is a super exciting tool now— or like, a headset now, where you have all-in-one for like €450. Whereas before, you had to like, buy like, €1000, you know, PC and like, a €500 headset on top. And then I think the next thing is really like, the VR space is learning how to create compelling experiences and like, finding these languages and like, also rethinking what exploring means. So for us, like, for example, there was this interesting thing that we were, you know, creating these experiences in which you were like, one-to-one exploring these places. So you could go into, and you can look at the place, and you can learn something about the place. And that's really cool, but funny enough, turns out, like, you know, attention span of people is not that great these days, and you have to, like, present a little bit more. And you have to make it more interactive. And so something that we're working on right now is like, using the datasets that we have of these, like great sites, you know, and turning them into a 3D jigsaw puzzles and you have these miniature 3D jigsaw puzzles, and you're like, puzzling that together interactively in VR. And the great thing is that what we see is you create such a wonderful, like spatial representation and spatial understanding of this place, and of its architecture, of its intricacies, like the, you know, like what is inside, what is outside, where does this tunnel lead to. It's a very different form of exploration but also there you feel like you traveled to this place because you spent, you know, 90 minutes puzzling this thing together and you start— you have this free time, it's like walking through a city to imagine all these, you know, like little stories that happen there. So it's a very different form of travel, but it also feels like travel to me, definitely.
Yeah, I feel like we could do an entire follow-up panel just on like the definition— like, truly the definition of travel and like, what that means now versus what it means the future, and we might have time to touch on it today a little bit more. I do want to make sure we also talk about— so somebody actually typed in the chat a question that I wanted us to cover anyways, which is how do you see brands developing innovative travel experiences or integrating into them. And we've touched on this a little bit, you know, Daniel, I think a lot of what you were saying really touches on this— the personalization trend, the safety trend, but I mean, honestly, if we were having this conversation eight months ago, I think we'd all be talking about you know, how Instagram has changed travel and like, has all these people taking photos on like, the Troll Peninsula in Norway. Like, you know, we'd be talking about that, which is— whatever, it's a thing if you're into it. But, you know— so curious, like, thinking about where the industry is headed, where we are now, and then in the future like, what's kind of that next wave of innovative experiences?
I think collaboration in VR is going to change a lot of things because the more you can— let's say if I want to travel somewhere with three of my friends, and if they are already bought into the VR world, they can easily pull me in, too. Like, the network effects of a group of people doing VR together can actually increase adoption of VR big time over a period of time. So if those collaborative features can be built sooner than later, it will just encourage more and more people to kind of adopt it. And also, I think there is an opportunity— like today we are talking about using VR to explore the existing world. But we might soon start exploring places which are completely created virtually, which don't exist. Imagine a castle on a cliff overlooking an ocean which doesn't exist in the world today. But just like in Minecraft, you end up creating all these different scenarios and all these different places. You can create such extremely realistic places in VR and just expand the world and add different dimensions to it in a way that it feels extremely real and authentic. Maybe even a bit scarier than ever before.
Yeah. You know, and also— I mean, I think it's cool, like, the idea of also visiting you know, other time periods. Like I was doing— there was— I think the Getty Museum recently had like a, you know, explore like ancient Palmyra and they'd kind of reconstructed it from etchings and illustrations that dated back to like antiquity, which was super cool, and would have been awesome in VR. So that's another cool thing. But yeah, and kind of getting to the back to the brand topic and like, how brands are going to be thinking about the future of travel.
To us, it's funny, like, we've been approached several times by, you know, from the travel industry. And for some reason, like, the only thing that they can always think of is like, hey, let's scan hotel rooms, so you can check out hotel rooms. And I think while that makes sense, like. I'm always surprised because that just seems to me like the most unimaginative thing to do. Like I'm personally— maybe it's just me, but like, I'm not traveling like, to stay in the hotel room, but like I'm traveling to, you know, like, explore places around it. So I think like, a great way to tie in VR there would be just to scan some like VDP special places and get you hooked on seeing that in person and, you know, some attractions, something that you might not have access to something very exclusive. And then get people fascinated about that place instead of the hotel room and get them to travel there.
Yeah, we have a minimum standard for the hotel room, right? Like, I need to be sure that there's a level of cleanliness and amenity that works for me as a business traveler, or for my family when we're traveling for family, but beyond that, I would like to get out past that. One of the things I think that might be interesting to kind of insert in this discussion, too, is from a business perspective. If the, you know, future technology can allow, you know, a larger hotel chain or an airline to operate, you know, to improve their bottom line in terms of, can that help these companies stay in business in order to service the modern traveler, right? Because if we've got companies who are struggling on an individual basis or a broader basis, that will just contribute to the fact that travel will become less and less accessible. So, is there a technological solution that can sort of eliminate human cost or staffing cost? You know, what can we do with computing power that we couldn't do before? Can there be instead of a human actually delivering the toothpaste you forgot, can we take the compute power off a robot and move it into the edge or the cloud and allow something that would have cost you know— a robot that delivers toothpaste might have cost $100,000 before, but moving the compute power ups the edge, you know, can that now be $1,000 robot and can that investment in that mean that you know, the bottom line improvement to that hotel just— can also improve service levels and personalization levels, too? So I'm interested in that idea of efficiency that you can gain from some of the technology that comes along with 5G in the future.
Yeah, we talk sometimes about convergence on these panels. And I think that the three of you and like, the perspectives we're getting, it's a really, like, relevant concept here. Like, I wonder what it'll look like when we've got kind of a convergence between the, like, data-driven AI personalization versus, you know, integrating VR/AR into that and then how all of that's driven by like 5G adoption and, you know, some of these additional safety concerns and like, what all of that creates. Again, I just— I find it crazy that like, really, we can have a conversation about travel without even mentioning Instagram anymore. It's great, don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled. I really am. So, super interesting. I'm curious, just— kind of on a slightly personal note what kind of traveler— so you guys have kind of talked about what kinds of travelers you are like what do you really travel for each of you? Like, what's the draw because it's deeply like personal and different. I know Daniel's not traveling for the experience
Well, I'm traveling, I'm just not flying at the moment for personal travel. No, but I just love to get out of the city, you know, go into the nature, get in the mountains, things like that. Really move through the countryside and meet people and have like these you know— Yeah, just a very different life from what you're living, where your you know, daily rhythm is given by the sun and where you sleep tonight and where you're going to get your next meal. That's a very exciting thing where you don't have to plan for like, two weeks in the head, This one deadline that you have coming up, but it's very immediate.
I would echo that too, I think, particularly with shelter in place for— across much of the world over the past six months, although obviously, Europe is coming out of that faster. The idea of escapism and reconnection, that doesn't happen in the four walls of the place you live and work and eat and socialize every day, becomes even more important. So just having a consistent, something to look forward to. Whether it be you know— I have three small kids, we went on an epic road trip, we drove from Atlanta to Maine. We spent three weeks, we worked part of each week, and then we took a couple of days off each of those three weeks, but just getting out of the place where we had all been together for six months prior was a massive improvement in our connectivity as a family I think. So, we're not looking to stay at the Amangani anymore, right? We're really excited about a road trip. It's a different version of what's become important to us now, I think, from my perspective.
I think you learn like, a different way of traveling. Like, you know, like, I can pack my stuff on my bike, like on Friday night, and like, ride out and like, sleep by the lake. Like, that's fine.
Yeah, yep.
Yeah. For me, I think taking these shortcuts is a great opportunity to unwind and unconnect yourself from all this digital world, right? Which is constantly kind of keeping you busy, even when you don't want to be. So I think that, for me, is the biggest straw just unwinding, staying close to nature and taking a breather, that really charges you inside out and you can basically get back to your normal state or extremely productive state right after that.
Yep. So then the reason that I kind of want to like, take a second and like, level set on whatever everybody's traveling for like, why and what that motivation is, is because as we think about, like, where will travel be disrupted by VR, where will you know people stop wanting to go? Like, what experiences do you need to have in person? It's all driven, of course, by what you're trying to take away from it. So it's kind of interesting to hear everybody answer that. And again, you know, have what you're taking away from it be something other than some really great photos, you know, for your ex-boyfriend to like on social media or whatever. So, super interesting. We had somebody write in with a question that I really like, find interesting. So how do you think interactive VR travel is affected by technologies such as full-body tracking? Traveling with friends from across the globe while seeing their body language while they speak? That's cool. I love a group trip.
I think there's— as I said, I think we will first see that kind of technology in like location-based entertainment systems so there's you know, places like the Void or like, other places that pop up everywhere where you just can't have more technology because that stuff's expensive to buy and it works for like a small business there, or like a bigger attraction. But till we get that home, it's probably going to take a while, although it's coming. Like, there's just some really interesting things happening there. And I'd absolutely do agree these kind of like body tracking things like even if you just like you see, you know, three, four points on like your hands, the head, and maybe the feet tracked, like, you can identify your friends from your gait— from their gait. Like it's— we're super, super fine-tuned as humans to that, like, to just from these kind of like movements, get that familiarity. And also like this— there's been like a lot of work on like, how we can, you know, transport facial expressions there. And while we've been like talking a lot about recreational travel, I think the other travel is the one that I would actually personally love to see much more in VR, which is business travel and virtual conferences. And right now I mean, you know, it's not that good of an experience, but there is interesting things being worked on. And I think once we can get more fidelity, especially into virtual, like VR travel, I would love to just have you know, not have to, like sit in like, in like, a tin box for like, nine hours to fly to the States, which is always like, a super stressful experience— be jet-lagged, you hang out at the conference, like it's just not, it's not good. But like, if we can have like, really authentic meetings and conferences in virtual reality, I think that will be super amazing and it would also be great for, you know, like a bunch of reasons like resources and environmental impacts, and all these kinds of things.
Yeah, I'm in full appreciation of some of the technology that's come about there, too. I'm really excited to be able to have sort of closer to realistic experiences, some of the things that are coming out of BlueJeans and Cisco and other similar companies. And even three to five years ago, we weren't even capable of really this level of technology. So I can't imagine trying to conduct business during a pandemic five years ago and being as successful as we have been today and then I really look forward to you know, getting even closer to a realistic life experience.
Yeah, it's a lot of like, tiny things. My— one of my favorite stories is from the Museum of Art and Reality is like, they have— it's a social space, so whenever you log into the museum, like, if there's other people there at the same time, you can meet them, you can talk. They also have openings whenever they have like, new artworks coming to the museums, they have like, you know, like these openings and people together, and so one of the things that the designer found out is like okay, normally you have like a, you know, like, a drink in your hand, too, and you can cheers, but you couldn't do that in VR. So they have these, these vive controllers, which have this little hole. And so he made this thing where you can just like, flop that over the bottle, and you can hold it in your hand and so you can virtually cheers. And that like, made a huge difference. Like, that's like, a little design change, but it makes the space so much more social. And we have to like, find like, a zillion of these things like, to make it really good because right now, it's just not good, to be honest. Like, but I think we can get there and we're getting a little better every day, finding solutions like that.
A lot of experimentation with haptics and like a haptic suit and can it feel, like, a hug? Or I mean, those types of things are— it's never quite a replacement for the real thing, but the closer you can get, the better the experience is for sure.
Yes, like little social cues.
Yeah, wonder if VR will also have like an economic experience or business class experience and a first-class experience, right? In economy, you can only see facial expressions, in first— in maybe business class upper bodies, is— well— in the first class, you can basically experience the entire body. So I think those— there might be segments or segmentation in the VR experience as well where certain aspects can be unlocked, you know, by a premium channel and stuff like that. And maybe there are some opportunities too for brands to enable certain experiences by buying into their own marketing efforts, etc.
Yeah, that's actually really interesting. Huh.
It definitely was like that during the early days, during the VR chat phase where there were headsets without hand-tracking or without controllers and then like some people came in and suddenly had full body tracking and everybody's like, "wow! You got like, full-body tracking, crazy! Like, what headset do you have?" So it definitely was a status symbol in the early days.
Oh, nice.
Yeah, I can't wait to see how that kind of continues to evolve. So I'm curious— I— one thing that we definitely wanted to touch on today, we've all talked about it a little bit, but, you know, travel is an industry that actually will, surprisingly, I think, to a lot of people, will be quite disrupted by 5G. And as, you know, you have widespread 5G availability. So whether that's 5G enabling the work that Daniel is doing, and like really like, boosting VR/AR, whether it's personalization or some of the actual, like, on-site experience that Alia was alluding to, so I'd love to hear from you guys how you see that. The deployment of 5G really like, accelerating changes in the travel experience.
Alia, do you want to— you want to kick it off?
Yeah, I think I said a lot of it, but just this sort of the hyper-personalization is critically important. And then the compute capabilities. You know, one of the things I feel like in pockets, we're seeing pieces of this being deployed now like, lots of cruise lines when you go on, you know, there's touchless payment for drinks or ordering of drinks. The embarkment process is touchless and easier. Your payment is enabled on various things. You know, it unlocks your doors, things like that. So just as we think about safety and the importance of contactless travel, I think 5G has a big place to play there, too.
Yep, for sure.
Yeah, if I— if I'm like, dreaming, like, I mean, the kind of scanning that we do right now, like taking lots and lots of photos and you know, uploading that onto like, a workstation and running that and computing that, I mean, that of course, is something if you have like, much higher bandwidth and lower latency, there will be interesting things that become possible suddenly where you can you know, maybe do a real-time scan while you're on— you know, at your vacation home or like at some cool place that you want to share, and you can like, have people join you real-time there and they can have some representation of that place. Of course, that's all stuff right now that's impossible because of the data— the volume of data is just too high, and like the compute that is needed is taking too long. But that, of course, will be super interesting to have and to, you know, virtually join someone in like, a real space.
And then from an advertising perspective, you know, can the cost of creating that type of content come down significantly, so you can run a, you know, a 30-second digital video spot with a really beautiful stitch-together 360 experience, too. So that's interesting.
For sure. So one of the— I want to make sure we get to one more audience question before we wrap and I know we're kind of coming up on time. So here we have a question from Katherine: I recently read about how we've been entering into a new low-touch economy, fundamentally changing how I behave and what we expect from our environments. I'm assuming that this means a low-touch literally in the sense of like, low person contact, although I guess it could just be like lighter lift. Can you speak to how you see this impacting travel and the development of technologies to enable lower touch experiences? We've already touched on this a little bit, but just digging in a little bit more on the low touch side, whether— I don't know if there's a big data perspective on this? Swapnil, you might have—
I think that there are many ways that this can be achieved and will gradually move towards a low touch experience. And to me, low touch experience is low involvement of other humans who might be responsible for enabling the travel experience for you. And artificial intelligence is obviously going to play a big role, Atmos Robotics is going to play a pretty big role. As Alia had mentioned before about hotels improving their bottom lines by including a lot of automation into their day-to-day operation is going to be important. So I actually invested in a robotics startup here in Silicon Valley. And what they're building is actually the next generation robots who can actually do vacuum cleaning for carpets, hardwood floors, so they don't, not only vacuum the floor, but they will also clean it for a few minutes, etc. And the way you can interact with them is that you can call it that, "Hey, can you come over here and clean this area?" So they understand human language in an extremely natural way. It's as if you're calling a hotel staff that hey, can you come here and clean this area of the room, Right? So I think we can see a future pretty soon where a robot just comes and knocks on your door, comes in and just cleans the room, etc. So I think there might be these low-touch experiences impacting in several different facets of our day-to-day travel, and Atmos Robotics is going to play a pretty big role. And this is not something that has been planned, They have their beta launching sometime this year, or, sorry, early next year. So it' just a few months off.
— bringing that to my house, too if we can (inaudible).
And this is a theme that actually came out of Nest which was acquired by Google, and they know exactly how to build the app or hardware solution. So it's pretty exciting. So it's all happening.
Well, I mean, to bring in like, a more personal perspective. I mean, I— to me, like low-touch economy, that already kind of like, sounds scary, but I think, you know, maybe we can just like, take away from this like, to reevaluate the way we travel and like, what we expect from travel. And, I don't know, like, I've— even before COVID like, the— over the last years, like, you know, sitting in an airplane, like, crowded it's just not a good experience. It never really was. I mean, yeah, when you're a kid and like the first time you hop on an airplane, you're excited but I was dreading these flights and I'm super happy that it becomes more normalized to not take these flights and to not have to do these kinds of travel experiences that are not good and like, to really, instead, you know, opt for travel experiences that are just more human and are less like cattle. And that will also— that will, on one side include you know, VR travel to places that you only can get that way, but maybe also just yeah, bring you back to explore your surroundings again and meet the people there and not just like, yeah, run through like, huge, unpersonalized airports and shopping hell.
Yeah, that's— I'm you on that, I think, you know, and maybe it shifts a little bit. It kind of coincides with the future of work. So perhaps instead of working on you're— and saving up for a 10-day vacation to the Amalfi Coast, perhaps we're doing more localized travel closer to where we live, you know, within a drive market. But we're taking multiple Friday's off over the course of the year because we're able to be more efficient in other places. We're not spending so much time in the air for business travel so we can be more efficient on the ground doing our job. And that probably changes a little bit of the dynamic of how we do these things in the future.
Yeah, I love that point. The— you know, we talk about travel sometimes in a vacuum when really you know, it's the counterpoint to most people's like nine-to-five the rest of the time. And as one shifts, obviously, the other will shift to complement it. And it's also expanding on a lot of these panels. We've had people bring up, you know, wanting to switch to a four-day workweek, so it feels like that might be in the cards for a lot of people.
That's next week's panel for sure. I'm excited about that one.
We'll make sure not to have it on a Friday. Swapnil, did you want to jump in on that one, or—
Yeah, I mean— one part, I would say whether related or unrelated, is the fact that I mean, I do believe that VR is going to bring a lot of convenience to our world of I would say, we will coin it as virtual travel. And I mean, during your day, even if you have a 30-minute break between two meetings, you can quickly use VR and maybe visit (inaudible). So any anything is possible, and the convenience and small bite-sized travel aspect of VR can also be pretty powerful over a period of time. And as— I think the key is how do you encourage people to adopt and enjoy VR sooner than later? But if it does pick up, then it will also mean that the actual travel becomes a bit more premium as an activity, not in terms of costs, but just in terms of taking the physical effort of moving to a different place, going through the pain of taking a flight, etc. So I think maybe less and less people will go through that if VR really delivers on its promise, just because it's— it can be so accessible and so easy to enjoy.
Yeah, definitely. I know we're running up on time. I want to make sure we close by three so I'm going to do one last question for all the panelists. I'm just curious what your last trip was before the lockdown started. Mine was to London and Paris. Actually, business travel to DC, but my last vacation was London and Paris before the lockdown.
I sort of squeezed in one more trip that I'm not so sure we should have taken, but we went skiing in Park City, Utah. And the day that we got there, they— the resorts shut down all the lifts and said, go home. I think we were a little off in our timing there.
I went up to the Baltic Sea, to the wonderful little island of Gotland, and had a few nice days there.
That sounds really wonderful.
I was in Cabo, Mexico.
In Mexico.
Oh, excellent. Where apparently you can— you could still be— I know people who like, just went to Mexico at the beginning of this, still there and loving life. It looks beautiful. And they've got the virus more under control. So, cool. Go figure. Well, I know that we are almost up on time. So I want to take this last second to just thank all of our audience members for sharing your afternoon with us and a special thanks to our incredible panelists for sharing your expertise, your thoughts, your hopes and dreams for post-COVID travel. So thank you, guys. This conversation has been recorded and it will be available tomorrow if you'd like to share this content with your community. And for more information and to join our next panel about the four-day work week, I'm only half-kidding about, please visit us at alley.com. Thanks again everybody and we'll see you soon.
Thank you, Noelle. Bye, Daniel and Swapnil.
Thank you for having us. Bye.
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: Breathing Music. Signing Metallica. Beating Death.
Michael Alago, Laura Davis-Chanin
Backbeat Books;
Breathing Music. Signing Metallica. Beating Death.
Record label executive, photographer, and author, Michael Alago takes readers through this amazing journey that is his life.
Alago grew up in Brooklyn, New York, in a large, spirited, and devoted Puerto Rican family. Through his early passion for music, art, theater, and photography, he soon found himself rubbing elbows with many downtown NYC scene makers, from Stiv Bators to Jean Michel Basquiat, Cherry Vanilla and Wayne County to Deborah Harry and Robert Mapplethorpe. As an underage teenager going to Max's Kansas City, CBGB, and various art galleries, Alago also began running The Dead Boys fan club.
A few years later, he became the assistant music director for legendary nightclubs the Ritz and the Red Parrot. At age twenty-four, he began a storied career as an A&R executive at Elektra Records that started with signing Metallica in the summer of 1984, changing the entire landscape of rock 'n' roll and heavy metal. Alago continued to work in A&R for both Palm Pictures and Geffen Records. He was thrilled to executive-produce albums by Cyndi Lauper, Public Image Ltd, White Zombie, and Nina Simone.
In the late 1980s, he was diagnosed with HIV, which manifested into full-blown AIDS ten years later. He survived to continue his music career, but in 2005, he left music to pursue his other love: photography. Alago went on to publish three bestselling books: Rough Gods, Brutal Truth, and Beautiful Imperfections with German-based publisher Bruno Gmünder. He has since overcome his longtime addiction to drugs and alcohol.
In his clean and sober life, he has reconnected with his family, continues to be a working photographer as well as record producer, and only through the grace of his 12-Step program is he able to live this big, beautiful life. In 2017, a documentary directed by Drew Stone and produced by Michael Alex on Alago's wildly successful career in music was released in theaters and on Netflix, entitled Who the Fuck Is That Guy? The Fabulous Journey of Michael Alago.
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Star: Vincent Price
1984's Frankenweenie ran thirty minutes and cost a cool million bucks. Two years earlier, having only worked on less personal projects, like The Fox and the Hound, as an animator or conceptual artist, Walt Disney Animations only trusted Burton with $60,000 for a six minute short, adapted from a poem he'd written with the original idea of turning it into a children's book. While I happily talked down Disney in my Frankenweenie review, I should redress the balance by talking them up here, because this Dr Seuss inspired poem is the weakest part of the film. Julie Hickson, a Disney executive, and Tom Wilhite, the company's head of creative development, saw potential in Burton and his 'rather unique talent' as the book Burton on Burton puts it. Maybe they saw the potential of the poem too, once animated and well recited, maybe they just wanted a stop motion test or to see what Burton could do with creative freedom, but that shot deserves credit.
Burton seized the opportunity and his four man crew knocked the film out in two months. There was a fifth player, of course, one as inextricably linked to the piece as Burton himself, who wrote seven year old Vincent Malloy autobiographically so deeply that the character even looks like him. It's Vincent Price, who reads Burton's poem with his unmistakeable voice. Given that we learn in verse one that Vincent Malloy dearly wants to be Vincent Price, there's a self referential charm to the piece, aided by frequent references to his career, from House of Wax to the Edgar Allan Poe pictures. Malloy plunges headlong into the world of the macabre in a heartfelt attempt to emulate his hero and Price has a blast bringing him to life. The text is basic AABB rhyme without too much care given to the meter but, as Price could clearly wring charm out of reading an instruction manual, it's no trouble for him whatsoever to elevate this material.
The excellent animation helps too. That crew of four included animator Rick Heinrichs; Steven Chiodo, a stop motion animator; and cameraman Victor Abdalov, in addition to Burton himself. Ignoring the American influences of most of Burton's films, like the Universal horrors, Corman pictures and fifties monster movies, they surely sourced this from the silent expressionist films made in Germany in the twenties. That this is silent, but for the narration, aids that, as does the choice to shoot in black and white and the psychological sweep of the poem that surpasses its language. Burton claims that he hadn't seen The Cabinet of Dr Caligari before making this and if that's true, its angles must have filtered through to him by cultural osmosis. It's good spooky fun, and Price deserves the last word. He described Vincent as 'the most gratifying thing that ever happened. It was immortality: better than a star on Hollywood Boulevard.'
Bombs Over Monte Carlo (1931)
The Pleasure Garden (1925)
The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914)
Star Quest: The Odyssey (2009)
Thunder Over Hawaii (1957)
Cyborg 2087 (1966)
Doctor of Doom (1979)
Luau (1982)
Beyond the Grave (2010)
The Guy Knows Everything (2012)
Mansion of the Doomed (1976)
Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost (1901)
The Memory Ride (2012)
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Streaming Suggestions is a month-by-month series of recommendations for film lovers and those interested in expanding their horizons.
While I assume most readers will have at least one of the popular streaming services, I understand that some don’t, so I have also included excellent free services such as Kanopy (UNSW) and SBS on Demand.
Raging Bull - available as of 30 May 2020
One of the greatest films of all time, Raging Bull represents the second masterpiece collaboration between Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas), Paul Schrader (First Reformed) and Robert De Niro (Meet the Fockers). This is prime Scorsese; boundless creative vision combined with slick, effective storytelling. Just how Scorsese filmed the boxing scenes is ingenious, creating a physically larger ring in order to allow more fluid camera takes from the perspective of the boxer; because Scorsese had disliked previous boxing fights in films always being from the spectator’s perspective rather than the fighters’. The fight scenes are some of the best ever made, with an extremely theatrical sensibility, and bring an intimacy to LaMotta’s battles. The narrative of the film follows Jake LaMotta’s rise to fame and tragic, self-destructive downfall, to becoming a pathetic, down-beat comedian. Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese’s long-time editor really shows that she’s one of the greats with this film, it’s a great film to see even just for its masterful editing. This is a film you need to see more than once, and when you do, you’ll find that each frame becomes imbued with a beautiful brutality and profoundness.
“You didn't get me down, Ray.”
Persona - available as of 30 May 2020
At once Ingmar Bergman’s most accessible film, but also his most impenetrable. Persona is a demonstration of Truffaut’s idea that film is indeed “a ribbon of dreams”. Bergman creates an impossible jigsaw puzzle of a film, film historians have tried to come up with coherent interpretations of the narrative and themes, but none have seemed to realise the full picture. Maybe there isn’t one. It’s this air of mystery and ambiguity that haunts the very frames of the film. The narrative of the film follows a young nurse entrusted with the care of a well-known actress who is seemingly mute. They move into a cottage, and a strange feeling overcomes the nurse: that she is almost becoming the actress. It’s a wonderful idea, but the narrative never really concludes, there’s no ‘true’ climax, and the film doesn’t care about being narratively satisfying. I think Pauline Kael is correct in her comments on the film, in that ‘it is not so much what the film is about but the quality and intensity of the image’. The film is replete with Freudian and Jungian ideas that can be psychoanalysed any which way but there’s no true answer (this may be why psychoanalysis seems to have more clout in the realm of literary and filmic criticism than it does in real psychology). Films are a highly constructed medium, but I find a yearning to find the absolute meaning of them, a futile venture; mystery, ambiguity, and meaninglessness is what allows feeling and emotion to thrive in pieces like Persona. It’s very first scene begins with puzzling, striking images; a nail struck into a hand, with obvious religious connotations, a boy trying to sleep but his bedsheets are too short, and a hand touching the screen of the film. What do these images mean? Is Bergman the boy? Is the boy a substitute for the audience? Who knows, there is no answer. That is the beauty of the film.
“You know what I thought after I saw a film of yours one night? When I got home and looked in the mirror, I thought, "We look alike." Don't get me wrong. You're much more beautiful. But we're alike somehow. I think I could turn into you if I really tried.”
Bay of Angels - available as of 30 May 2020
Jacques Demy was one of the main directors associated with the French New Wave, however I don’t think his heart was in the same place as Jean-Luc Godard or François Truffaut. Demy’s films are deceptively simplistic, their subject matters never quite as intellectual, but the emotion, style and storytelling was where Demy excelled. Bay of Angels represents a solid early picture for Demy before he really went ham and made The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort (two of the greatest musicals ever made). Bay of Angels follows a young man’s spiral into gambling addiction as he falls in love with a mysterious woman, played by the fantastic Jeanne Moreau. Michel Legrand’s thumping score is at times intrusive, but propels the film forward and helps with the pacing. Not exactly a masterwork, but an excellent introductory film to Demy’s canon and a good entry point for French New Wave cinema.
“One chip is enough to make me happy. As for the rest…”
Fitzcarraldo - available as of 30 May 2020
One of the most dangerous film productions ever undergone, Fitzcarraldo is Werner Herzog at his maddest and most brilliant. Klaus Kinski stars as Fitzcarraldo, a dreamer, someone who is the placeholder for Herzog’s own dreams. Fitzcarraldo wishes to create an opera in the jungle, and to have Enrico Caruso be in it. In order for this to happen, he reasons he must become a rubber baron and believes it is his destiny to drag a steamboat up a steep hill to an inaccessible area of unexploited rubber trees. Why not disassemble the boat and reassemble it on the other side? Why not have lots of small boats? Why not just build a canal?
Because the central conceit, image, and metaphor of the film would be destroyed, dreams are beautiful and worth fighting for, in spite of reality. The very image of that steamboat being pulled up the hill is one of the most powerful in cinema. The production of the film is as fascinating as the film itself, spawning an incredible documentary about the making of the film, aptly named, Burden of Dreams; yes, they did pull an actual steamboat up a steep hill, and yes, they had it crashing into cliffs down some rapids in the Amazon. Further anecdotes include natives offering to kill Kinski for Herzog because he had become such a tyrant during the filming, and a man sawing his own foot off after being bitten by a snake. And that was just what happened behind the camera. The story itself works as an excellent parable and an astonishing accomplishment. Werner Herzog is a madman and a true soldier of cinema, willing to risk everything for a stupid dream, but what would the world be like if we didn’t have people like him?
“To Fitzcarraldo, the Conquistador of the Useless!”
La Dolce Vita - available as of 30 May 2020
Federico Fellini’s sister masterpiece to 8 1/2, La Dolce is an unusual kind of film. On surface level, the structure of the film seems quite basic, taking place in chronological order, but there is no connective tissue, and it plays out almost in an episodic fashion. Then you take a look at the Wikipedia and find out that the structure is even weirder than you anticipated.
7 episodes with sub-episodes, an intermezzo, prologue, and epilogue. And that’s just some of what film critics have come up with from the film. Like a lot of films on this month’s list, it will probably take two viewings of the film to really cut into what it’s all about. Perhaps it’s prudent to talk about the ideas of the film rather than the plotting, most of it is incidental anyway. The film is rife with symbolism (Marcello Mastroianni flies a helicopter with a Jesus statue attached to it), ideas about celebrity and bourgeois culture, and the paparazzi. In fact, the very use of the word "paparazzi" in contemporary culture derives from this very film – "paparazzi" suggesting an annoying buzzing insect. The themes surround the idea of the Italian café society, a self-contained world of privilege, ego, and indulgence.
A big hurdle of the film is asking yourself why you should care about any of this, about the characters, about the protagonist’s journey and his relationships. This is something I had to face, and there’s no hard-and-fast way to address it. Maybe everyone’s first watch of the film ends with perplexment and apathy, but coming in with a new mindset, not so much looking into the plotting or narrative, but the connections and emotions of the characters who represent us is a good place to start. This is a film you should come back to every couple of years, with new experiences in life, you’ll have new interpretations, new understandings, and new perceptions of the film that you never could have had before. I think with this film, as well as 8 ½, Fellini above anything else articulated what nobody else could. The ‘good’ life.
“Stay free, available, like me. Never get married. Never choose. Even in love, it's better to be chosen.”
Once Upon a Time in America - available as of 30 May 2020
Sergio Leone’s final masterpiece, Once Upon a Time in America stands as a testament to ambitious filmmaking. Ennio Morricone provides a score that is unrivalled, perhaps one of the greatest soundtracks ever created, and it does a lot of the emotional heavy-lifting. Leone in this film creates a nostalgia for a time we never lived, maybe one that never really existed. He presents the Prohibition through a lens in which there is a great beauty and sadness to the friendships between the main characters - a great romanticism of the time, until he hits you with the reality of the world in which the characters inhabit. Leone’s film is certainly heightened and dramatised, but it’s not a simple film. He challenges the viewer’s perception of the characters, especially through the protagonist’s treatment of women throughout the film; perpetrating irredeemable acts so that we as the audience understand the nature of the people that we root for in these types of films. The gangster Robert De Niro plays isn’t the kind of flawed anti-hero of older mob flicks, but instead, he plays very similarly to James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano, a perpetual liar, and a hypocritical sociopath with a joke of a code.
A key scene in the film is when a young man, Dominic, buys a small cake for a woman, but as he waits for her, he cannot help himself; at first, licking bits of the frosting, hesitating to take the candy cherry, then relinquishing to his weak will, and eating the whole thing. It stands as a good thesis statement for the film.
It’s an epic story, chronicling the friendship of a group of young men during the Prohibition era, and the world of crime.
The run-time of almost four hours may be prohibitive to some, but fear not, the pacing is great, and you won’t feel it at all. The current cut of the film presented on Prime Video is essentially the best version currently available, and any shorter cut is a compromise on the piece of art that Leone has created (I’m still holding out for the six-hour cut). The craftmanship of this film is outstanding. Made in the 1980’s this film has the best, most fully-realised Prohibition recreation you’ll ever see. The cinematography is iconic, and Leone has such a mastery of the zoom, it’s really quite something to behold how he does it, and the gamut of emotions he can convey in such a simple technique. When you’ve finished the film, you’ll remember the very opening act as a fond, distant memory; Leone somehow has a hold of you the entire way through, and when you’ve come out at the end of the epic story, you realise, only one word can encapsulate the film. Saudade.
“I like the stink of the streets. It makes me feel good. And I like the smell of it, it opens up my lungs.”
Walkabout - available as of 30 May 2020
Nicolas Roeg’s masterful journey through the Australian Outback is, along with Wake in Fright, among the greatest of Australian films made during the 1970’s. Roeg’s exploration of adolescence and juxtaposition of city-dweller life against a harsh life in the desert allows for him to create images of striking beauty.
This is a very heightened kind of a film, appealing more in a visceral sense than in an intellectual or narrative sense; there’s a poetic intensity that inhabits the frames. Jenny Agutter brilliantly plays the naive protagonist of the film, and along with Roeg’s own son, portray two children stranded in the desert, fending for themselves (rather poorly), until they meet a young, friendly Aboriginal man. Relationships develop, a sense of intimacy is always ever-present in the background, and it builds up until the final scenes of the film, with a heartbreaking epiphany of what the Aboriginal boy has done. The score by John Barry (of James Bond fame) is a rich orchestral piece that works excellently with the film, and in the final scene, the song ‘Back to Nature’ works brilliantly set against the poetry of A. E. Houseman.
Walkabout was a hugely controversial film when it was released for two reasons; its on-screen killing of animals and its filming of naked, underage children. Firstly, the killing of animals throughout the film is not on a massive scale, it’s a couple of kangaroos and realistically depicts a traditional Aboriginal practice of hunting. The nudity is perfectly acceptable in this film because it works as an excellent idea about the innocence of the children when in connection with nature, it's not sexual at all, and the film wouldn’t work without it. Roeg is ambitious, takes chances, and doesn’t compromise with this film, that’s why it’s a masterpiece, and that’s why we’re still talking about it 50 years later.
“Into my heart an air that kills, From yon far country blows: What are those blue remembered hills, What spires, what farms are those? That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went, And cannot come again.”
Spartacus - available as of 30 May 2020
Stanley Kubrick famously disowned this film, its creation was mired with competing egos, an extremely long production period, and a fired director, yet somehow Spartacus works amazingly well. Kubrick’s directorial style seems mostly absent in this film, instead, being taken over by the ‘Hollywood Epic’ style of the period (as seen in Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments).
What makes this film stand along-side the great epics of all time is its writing. Dalton Trumbo’s dialogue is precise, grand, and delivers a plethora of memorable quotes. The structure and the plotting of the film are incredibly strong; I tend to find that a lot of older ‘epics’ don’t age very well in this regard, but Trumbo’s deft ability to weave such a compelling web of a narrative is brilliant. The narrative is quite subversive in its plot threads, and its ending is something completely unexpected for a film of its time. Kirk Douglas stars as the titular Spartacus, a slave from birth who is recruited as a gladiator and then leads a slave rebellion against the patricians of Rome: an excellent premise, with good, although only ever cursory explorations of themes of slavery and civil unrest. The acting is really just excellent in this film, full of (as Joey Tribbiani would say) ‘smell-the-fart’ acting; completely overdramatised, and scenes with Laurence Oliver teeter on the edge of the ridiculous. An interesting bit to look out for is during Tony Curtis and Laurence Oliver’s bath scene, the restoration of this controversial scene came without any audio, so Curtis had to record his lines again, and in the place of Oliver, who had since passed, Anthony Hopkins recorded a great Olivier impression! I absolutely adored each actor’s performances in this film, most of all Peter Ustinov, who plays the wonderfully meek and droll Batiatus. Although this is more of a Trumbo/Douglas effort rather than a Kubrick work, the film is one of the great epics of all time, and a must-watch.
“Who wants to fight? An animal can learn to fight. But to say beautiful things, and to make people believe them...”
Kanopy (UNSW)
Mamma Roma - available as of 30 May 2020
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s second feature, Mamma Roma is an Italian neo-realist classic. Anna Magnani plays one of the most iconic characters in cinema, and the film is in fact a dedication to Roberto Rosselini’s Rome, Open City, which also features Magnani in a similar role.
Magnani is Mamma Roma, a boisterous, overbearing mother who tries to begin a new life with her son, meanwhile, the son begins to fall in love with a local girl (who Mamma Roma disapproves of). The film is a study of Magnani’s character, her internal strength that she feels when tied to her son, and how it crumbles with her son’s love of someone else. Even being such an early film in Pasolini’s catalogue, his preoccupations with sexual taboos, and thematic crudeness is evident. This film is full of prostitutes, pimps, thieves and ‘hicks’. Instead of what had become in the neorealist movement as the ‘noble’ poor person, only temporarily embarrassed of their riches, Pasolini provides a revealing and touching look at these flawed, characters. A great neorealist piece and a solid work in Pasolini’s canon.
“I know why you wanted it. Fool. At your age, the only woman you need is your mother. Forget about women. You don't have the brains to understand them. They're all tramps! Each worse than the one before. Is that clear?”
Playtime - expires July 2020
Jacque’s Tati is like Werner Herzog and his Fitzcarraldo, an insane dreamer whose efforts are mostly unappreciated because of their absurdity, and in Playtime, it’s as if you are revelling in the true dream of a dreamer. Tati constructed (quite literally) a small city as the setting of this film, precise in its architecture of windows and boxes, as if it were really Paris. The failure of the film placed him in debt for the rest of his life, and he would only make one more widely released film after it. There isn’t a narrative in sight with this film, no thread to pull you through it, no protagonists or antagonists, just a setting and a place in time. The city is more a character than any of the recurring people, its vectors and neon signals a source of the ridiculous and the absurd in life. The film is genre-less, as if an alien had made it, only ever making you smile in amusement rather than guffaw from its visual gags. There are so many sight gags and subtle moments in the backgrounds of the picture that the film becomes incredibly dense, and requires multiple viewings to see most of what is going on; maybe on first watch you will become impatient and turn it off, but keep returning to it, and it will definitely become a rewarding experience.
“How do they say ‘drugstore’ in French?”
Brief Encounter - expires February 2021
One of David Lean’s earliest films, Brief Encounter is a study of style and damned good storytelling. Lean would go on to make the greatest film epic of all time, Lawrence of Arabia, and it’s incredibly interesting to see how Lean could tell such a stripped back story with Brief Encounter, essentially with only three characters and about five sets.
The narrative of the film follows a married woman, Laura Jesson, played exquisitely by Celia Johnson who one day meets a charming man, and falls in love. I’ll concede that although yes, this is a pretty tired cliché at this point, the performances, dialogue, and style of the film are simply wonderful and allow you to overlook the simple premise. The cinematography of the film is flawless, there is a stunning black and white visual style with incredibly lighting, and it has one of the most iconic uses of the canted/Dutch angle cinema history. The scenes between the seemingly platonic lovers are incredibly romantic and touching, and its influence on modern cinema is undeniable, with films such as Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love and Todd Haynes’ Carol liberally borrowing from this film. It’s really no wonder this is seen as one of the great British classics. Don’t let the age of it sway you, this is a lovely film.
“Whatever your dream was, it wasn’t a very happy one, was it?”
Streaming Suggestions: What You Should Be Watching in May
'Saving Private Ryan' is finally up on Netflix. Nina examines its legacy some 20 years later.
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Home world mining gold cities
world mining gold cities
Northern cities and First Nations celebrate green-lit gold
Jul 23, 2020· TIMMINS -- Communities in northern Ontario continue to celebrate the recent announcement that IAMGOLD’s Côté Gold mining project near Gogama finally has the go-ahead to begin construction. In...
Author: Sergio Arangio
Jul 09, 2020 · Top 10 Biggest Gold Mining Companies in the World 2020Barrick Gold CorporationAbout Barrick. Our vision is to be the world’s most valued gold mining business by finding developing and owning the best assets with the best people to deliver sustainaNewmont Mining CorporationGraduate Development Program. Newmont offers university students and recent graduates opportunities to gain real-world experience with a global leader in responsiAngloGold AshantiAngloGold Ashanti is the third-largest gold mining company in the world measured by productionSee a full list on preciousmetalinfo
4 Gold-Mining Stocks to Watch Stock Market News US News
Jul 01, 2020· Graf says Newmont is a standout among large-cap gold companies. Its huge gold production base of more than 6 million ounces per year makes it the world's largest gold company by production. What's...
The Top Ten Historic Mining Towns You Should Visit Today
Butte, MontanaButte, Montana is the clear winner when considering historical significance. Settled in the 1860s as a gold placerVirginia City, NevadaJust as the placer deposits of the California Gold Rush were starting to decline in the late 1850s, major silverDeadwood, South DakotaGold was discovered in 1876 at Deadwood Gulch, sparking a new rush to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Deadwood becameSee full list on westernmininghistory
The 10 Biggest Gold Mining Stocks The Motley Fool
Author: Dan Caplinger
Top 10 biggest gold mining companies in the world
Jul 04, 2019· Top 10 biggest gold mining companies in the world Frik Els July 4, 2019 1:54 pm Global gold production hit another record just shy of 109m troy ounces in
The Top 5 Largest Mining Operations in the World CoinCentral
Below are 5 of the largest cryptocurrency mining operations in the world. Bitmain Ordos, Mongolia. Deep in the countryside of inner-Mongolia lives giants giant BTC mines that is. The Bitmain SanShangLiang industrial park mining complex is the largest mining facility in the world.
List of countries by gold production Wikipedia
18 rows· This is a list of countries by gold production in 2018.. Until 2006 South Africa was the
GOLD PRODUCTION (TONNES)
RESERVES (TONNES)
1China4042,0002Australia3199,8003Russia2975,3004United States2223,000See all 18 rows on en.wikipedia
Top 10 Biggest Gold Mines In The World World Blaze
Grasberg, IndonesiaWith a whopping production of 106231000 oz of gold, the Grasberg mine in Papua, Indonesia tops the list of biggest goldSouth Deep, South AfricaThe gold mine of South Deep near Johannesburg in South Africa is regarded as one of the largest in the world. It isLihir, Papua New GuineaFeaturing next on the list of top 10 biggest gold mines in the world is at the island of Lihir, also known as Niolam,See full list on worldblaze
World's 10 Largest Gold Mines by Production INN
Grasberg. Production: 75.1 tonnes. The Grasberg mining district is located in Indonesia and is the
Gold Is Rallying. The Mining Stocks Are the Best Way to
Gold prices have rallied to new highs, helped by renewed weakness in the dollar, and the metal could soon be poised to hit $2,000 an ounce. Gold gained $33.70, to $1,931.00 an ounce Monday. The
Jul 01, 2020· SSR Mining ().For a smaller company, Graf likes SSR Mining. The company is in the midst of completing a merger with Alacer Gold Corp. (ASR), and Graf says the combined entity will have strong cash
'There's a lot of money down there': the deadly cities of
Oct 24, 2019· The rise of the burgeoning illicit gold trade, which is estimated to cost South African coffers more than £753m a year, is largely a product of the formal mining industry’s collapse. Gold was
Oct 12, 2019· Barrick Gold, which expects to produce between 5.1 million and 5.6 million ounces in 2019, is among the world's top gold miners by volume. It
Global gold mine reserves by country 2019 Statista
Feb 10, 2020· Direct & indirect GVA of the gold mining industry 2013, by world region U.S. refinery gold production 2008-2019 Agnico-Eagle Mines' average gold price realized 2008-2019
Top 10 Largest Gold Producing Countries In The World
The mine also has the world’s largest gold reserves. 6- Peru (162.3 tons) Gold output in Peru has declined for two consecutive years due to a crackdown on illegal mining operations. Illegal gold mining remains a major concern for the country. It has led to the devastation of vast lands including in the Amazon rain forests.
Inside La Pampa: the illegal mining city Peru is trying to
Mar 25, 2019· Illegal gold mining has destroyed nearly 960 sq km of rainforest in Madre de Dios since 1985, more than two-thirds of it between 2009 and 2017, according to the centre’s research.
The world's biggest gold mines: Top ten
Jan 30, 2020· Mining Technology lists the top ten biggest gold mines in the world based on contained gold reserves. The Goldfields-operated South Deep mine in South Africa is the largest gold mine in the world. Grasberg gold mine is located in Papua province, Indonesia.
Top 10 Gold Producing Countries U.S. Global Investors
Jun 26, 2019· Mining is a significant portion of Peru’s economy and accounts for over 28 percent of the region’s total output. 8. South Africa 123.5 tonnes. Once the top gold-producer in the world by a wide margin, South Africa’s gold mines have been slowing every year since 2008, with the exception of 2013 when production rose by a few tonnes.
Lihir Gold Mine -- This mine, which is in Papua New Guineau, produced 790,974 ounces of gold in the 12 months ended June 30. It is owned by Newcrest Mining Ltd., Australia's largest gold producer.
Sinking cities around the world CNN
Aug 27, 2019· Indonesia announced that the country will relocate their capital city, because Jakarta is sinking into the Java Sea. But it's not the only city at risk. Here are others that are sinking as well.
5 California Gold Rush Towns to Visit
Northern California has a rich history of gold mining, one that dates back to 1848 when gold was first discovered along the American River. Over 300,000 people came into the state over the next few years. Several towns still have active gold mining even today, and are fun places to explore and visit.
The World's 20 Largest Copper Mines ThoughtCo
Nov 25, 2019· The Grasberg mine, located in the highlands of Indonesia's Papua province, boasts the world's largest gold reserve and second-largest copper reserve. The mine is operated by PT Freeport Indonesia Co., and the mine is a joint venture between regional and national government authorities in Indonesia (51.2%) and Freeport-McMoRan (48.8%).
The Leading Mining Companies In The World By Revenue
Apr 25, 2017· China Shenhua Energy whose headquarters are based in China is the world's fourth-largest mining company in the world by revenue with an estimated $40.0 billion. 5. Vale. Vale is a multinational corporation in Brazil involved in mining and the extraction of metals. The company is the largest producer of nickel and iron ore in the world.
Seven Cities of Gold Wikipedia
The Seven Cities of Gold, also known as the Seven Cities of Cibola (/ ˈ s iː b ə l ə /), is a myth that was popular in the 16th century.It is also featured in several works of popular culture. According to legend, the seven cities of gold could be found throughout the pueblos of the New Mexico Territory. The cities were Hawikuh, Halona, Matsaki, Kiakima, Cíbola, and Kwakina.
Mining Wowpedia Your wiki guide to the World of Warcraft
Feb 15, 2020· Mining allows you to find and mine ores, stones, and raw gems from resource nodes and certain mobs (see Ore skinning) scattered throughout the world. It is one of the primary professions. Materials from mining and the items miners can create from them are reagents needed for recipes within other professions.
Top 60 Mining Websites And Blogs For Mining Industry Pros
Jul 23, 2020· Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada About Blog Mining news and commentary from around the globe. Daily updates on gold and commodity prices, exploration, mine development and mining company activities. Frequency 7 posts / day Blog mining Facebook fans 24.5K ⋅ Twitter followers 56.8K ⋅ Social Engagement 39 ⓘ ⋅ Domain Authority 72 ⓘ ⋅ Alexa Rank 51.6K ⓘ View
5 Huge Gold Mines in the United States
Opened in 1986, the Goldstrike Mine is run by the world's largest gold mining company in Barrick Gold, and it is located on the Carlin Trend. Goldstrike is considered to have the largest gold deposit in the world and is the largest gold mine in North America. This mine has produced 35,000,000 ounces of gold which adds up to 1,100 tons.
Ancient Mines Ancient Trenches
A date of about 43 000 BC or 41 000 BC was obtained, making this the oldest known mining operation in the world. It is thought these ores were mined until at least 23 000 BC. At Lion Cavern it is estimated that at least 1 200 tons of soft haematite ore, rich in specularite, had been removed in ancient times ."
Apr 25, 2017· The leakage of chemicals from mining sites can also have detrimental effects on the health of the population living at or around the mining site. In some countries, mining companies are expected to adhere to rehabilitation and environmental codes to ensure that the area mined is eventually transformed back into its original state.
Minerals: Sodium carbonate or natron, gold, wolframite, bauxite, uranium, silver and alluvial diamonds. Independence: 11 August 1960 Area: 1,284,000 km2 Mining fact: Most of the mining activities in Chad are conducted by small-scale artisanal miners. Although there are several national and international mining companies actively exploring the potential for gold and uranium mining in Chad
Amazing Metropolis Discovered in Africa is 200,000 years old!
South Africa is known as the largest gold producing country of the world. The largest gold producing area of the world is Witwatersrand, the same region where the ancient metropolis is found. In fact nearby Johannesburg, one of the best known cities of South Africa, is also named "Egoli" which means the city of gold.
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The Coffee Table Books To Spice Up Your Home
Is your coffee table looking a bit bland? Are you looking to add some visual interest to your home décor? If you are, you might want to consider some of these coffee table books, which vary from a range of topics including fashion, lifestyle and design.
“In Vogue: An Illustrated History of the World’s Most Famous Magazine”
By Alberto Oliva and Norberto Angeletti
With commentaries from the Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour herself, “In Vogue” gives you a look inside the history of the world’s most well-known fashion magazine and how it came to become what it is today. With hundreds of past covers and illustrations from old editions, “In Vogue” shows work from many famous photographers who have collaborated with Vogue and explores how the publication has taken on subjects such as art, culture, and fashion amongst the media
The Beauty Chef Cookbook
By Carla Oates
Available at Indigo
Many people seem to think that beauty is all about being skinny and going on diets in order to achieve the perfect body, but that’s not the case. Carla Oates, the founder of organic beauty brand The Beauty Chef, is a firm believer that beauty begins from within, starting with your belly. In “The Beauty Chef Cookbook,” the founder shares more than 150 healthy recipes that promote a healthy gut for a better lifestyle. Ranging from healthy meals to simple snacks, all of the recipes are gluten and dairy-free, and aim to provide nourishment to the body. This cookbook is a must-have for your journey to radiant skin and good digestion.
“The Coveteur: Private Spaces, Personal Style”
By Stephanie Mark and Jake Rosenberg
If you’ve ever been curious on where some of your favourite celebrities pick their clothes from each morning, The Coveteur has you covered. The popular online fashion website recently launched their own book, which showcases celebrities and gives you an inside look on their closets. With never-before-seen photographs of their private spaces, celebrities such as Karlie Kloss and Miranda Kerr are able to show off a more intimate and genuine character in how their interior design and fashion pieces come to define their own personal style.
by Blake Wood & Nancy Jo Sales
Available at Urban Outfitters
Always missed and never forgotten, you can find never-before-seen photos of Amy Winehouse in this book by photographer Blake Woods, who became good friends with Winehouse during the peak of her career. This volume features a collection of intimate photos of Winehouse during her time travelling and performing in places including London and Paris, along with text from pop culture critic Nancy Jo Sales. In 150 unseen colour and black-and-white photographs tells an emotional story of the carefree woman she was who was living life to the fullest during her time as one of the best soul singers in the world.
Vogue x Music by Vogue Magazine
While mainly known for fashion, Vogue has also always been big on culture during its run in the past 126 years. In this edition, works from photographers such as Steven Klein and Annie Leibovitz are shown. Famous music icons including Madonna, Debbie Harry, and David Bowie are featured in breathtaking portraits along with excerpts from past interviews, which highlights star power and shows off exactly why each artist is forever timeless.
This dainty coffee table book from fashion brand Kate Spade is simplistic yet charming in regards to femininity. From paying homage to fashion icons like Marilyn Monroe to fictional characters like Carrie Bradshaw, “She” celebrates women of all kinds and delivers some of the most joyful messages ever. A main one? You’re the heroine, so live your life to the fullest every single day.
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Regular readers will know that the United Kingdom has a number of parks that are off limits to adults without children in tow. Bendalls Leisure Ltd is a family-run business that operates three such parks: Twinlakes Park, Wheelgate Adventure Park, and Woodlands Family Theme Park. George was able to arrange escorted access to the two with roller coasters, and I decided that I'd travel to England for the day to knock them off my list.
The morning began with an early morning flight to East Midlands Airport, followed by a twenty-five mile drive east to Twinlakes Park. We were met at the entrance by a very friendly member of staff who was more than willing to spend an hour with us. I asked if we were his first group of coaster enthusiasts, and learned that our request was not even remotely unusual; a group from Thrill Nation had visited only a few days before. He presented us a few park souvenirs and a free coffee, the latter being particularly welcome a few hours after a 5:30am start.
Our primary target was Rum Runner (#2843), the third permanently installed SBF compact spinning coaster in the United Kingdom, coming three years after the version at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach and four years after the original at Cannon Hill Park. The ride is located outdoors as of this writing, though our contact told us that there are plans to extend the adjacent building to cover it so that can be operated in all weather conditions. We enjoyed two cycles.
We also took a ride on Buffalo Stampede, a Zamperla powered coaster that once operated at the now-defunct American Adventure. The thirty-one year old hardware was given a comprehensive overhaul for this season to allow it to continue to operate for a few more years, and while the speed felt a little slower than I'd have expected one has to remember that the park is geared primarily at children. I particularly liked the way that the track routes through trees on both sides; the average visitor would never know that the hardware wasn't specially designed for the space.
Our third and final hit of the morning was Excalibur, a twelve metre high Swing Tower from SBF Visa. The on board experience was surprisingly thrilling given the ride's diminuitive height, especially once the rotation reached full speed. We'd happily have gone back for a second round, but decided that it would be better not to overstay our welcome.
Wheelgate Adventure Park
Wheelgate Adventure Park, formerly Wonderland Pleasure Park, is a family park located roughly ten miles north of Nottingham. In its first years it was home to a tiny children's coaster called Bug Run, though that ride was disassembled and repurposed as theming at some point in the early noughties. Its replacement was High Hazel Mini Mine Coaster (#2844), a curiosity from L&T Systems that was acquired from the defunct Funland Park in Folkestone. (I saw it there back in 2002, though it was closed for maintenance at the time; I never dreamed that I'd get another shot at the proverbial tick seventeen years later.)
Once again we were met at the park entrance and brought directly to our target ride. From a distance the design looked like any other single helix machine, though up close I noticed that the track at the apex of the lift hill had been augmented with a series of undulations similar to those found on a Big Apple. There was also a gentle double-up moment adding further interest to the experience. We enjoyed a pleasant three lap cycle, took a few photographs, then made our way to the exit.
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| ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.barrons.com/articles/modi-win-bodes-well-for-indian-stocks-1489814526\nModi Win Bodes Well for Indian Stocks\nUpdated March 18, 2017 1:22 am ET / Original March 18, 2017 1:21 am ET\nChip Somodevilla/Getty Images)\nIndia is breaking out. Last week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party scored a surprise majority win in the key battleground state of Uttar Pradesh, propelling the Indian rupee to a 16-month high and the benchmark NSE Nifty 50 index to a record, even as the U.S. Federal Reserve raised rates. Indian stocks can march higher.\nUttar Pradesh is the most populous state in India, accounting for about 15% of India voters and seats in the Parliament. After this win, Modi’s BJP will govern over half of India’s population and almost 60% of its gross domestic product.\nApple: It’s No Longer About the iPhone\nExclusive: Disney’s Iger On Movies, Parks, ESPN\nDon’t Go on a Wild Canada Goose Chase\nBut this election doesn’t change India’s political landscape overnight. Modi’s coalition will control some 80 of 245 seats in the upper house of the Parliament, so he will not get a simple majority there before the 2019 general elections. India’s Parliament is structured in a way that a party can’t quickly dominate, and Modi’s economic reforms are not moving fast in part because of a bottleneck in the upper house.\nWHAT THE UTTAR PRADESH win does say is that Modi has a good chance of being re-elected in 2019, which means he could serve until 2024. This kind of political stability is rare in this world of populists and suggests that Indian stocks’ political-risk premium should decline, says Macquarie Research’s Inderjeetsingh Bhartia. A lower risk premium means higher valuations. Currently, the benchmark MSCI India Index trades at over 17 times forward earnings, a good 15% above its long-term average of 15 times.\nStock markets are often driven by portfolio flows. Historically, India has been dominated by foreign institutional investors, which still own over 20% of Indian stocks. But since May 2014, domestic mutual funds have been buying. This year, they have already invested over $1.6 billion in Indian stocks, now owning over 12% of the market.\nJefferies’ Nilesh Jasani has an interesting thesis. He argues counterintuitively that Modi’s ban of large rupee notes in early November helped propel this rally. In the past, there was a significant amount of savings in the black market, with holders of cash giving undocumented, insecure loans to businesses, friends, or even acquaintances. But because of the rupee ban, these loans had to be called in and deposited in banks, and a portion of that money found its way into the stock market. Jefferies estimates that as much as $10 billion of that black money could end up in stocks, at least twice what has been invested so far.\nForeigners continue to invest in India, to the tune of over $2.3 billion so far this year, in part because they feel that the rupee, which has gained 3.7% this year, will be stable in a rising U.S. interest-rate environment. The Reserve Bank of India has already shifted its stance from accommodative to neutral in early February, while Modi aims to narrow fiscal deficits.\nIndian companies are expected to grow earnings by 12% this year, then 15% in 2018, versus only 4% in 2016. With corporate earnings on an uptrend, the current 17 times forward earnings puts Indian stocks at only midcycle. CLSA recommends financials such as ICICI Bank (ticker: 532174.India) and IndusInd Bank (532187.India), and materials stocks such as Vedanta (500295.India).\nEmail: shuli.ren@barrons.com\nWhy Modi’s surprise win is bullish for Indian stocks.\nIndia is breaking out."
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Home Uncategorized In her new book, Chef Carla Hall reclaims soul food: “It’s part...
In her new book, Chef Carla Hall reclaims soul food: “It’s part of my DNA.”
Hall speaks at the Atlanta History Center on October 26
Kelundra Smith
Chef Carla Hall, shown here cooking with her mother and sister, will speak at the Atlanta History Center on October 26.
Photograph by Gabriele Stabile
For many years, chef Carla Hall resisted being called a soul food cook. However, when the model-turned-chef (who studied cooking in Europe) competed on Bravo’s Top Chef, the recipes she recalled from her grandmothers’ kitchens made her stand out among the competition. Now, the Nashville native who spent seven seasons co-hosting ABC’s The Chew and serves as the culinary ambassador for the Sweet Home Café at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture has fully embraced her Southern roots. Her latest book, Carla Hall’s Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration, comes out on October 23, and Atlanta is one of the first stops on her book tour. Hall will be at the Atlanta History Center on October 26 in conversation with culture writer Gail O’Neill and, perhaps, serving up some nibbles for attendees.
Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers
When most people think of Southern cooking, they think of fried, gravy slathered dishes that have more butter than anything else. However, Hall wanted to provide an alternative approach. What most people know as soul food started as the food that slaves and sharecroppers made using what was available on the land. This means to her that true soul food consists of a plant-based diet, so she combined the recipes we all love with lots of vegetables and fruits to create a lighter version of classic dishes. The book consists of twists on simple snacks like ants on a log (swap out raisins and peanut butter for creamy cheddar cheese and pecans); simple recipes for the novice cook such as red cabbage and beet slaw with horseradish-ginger dressing and molasses baked chicken wings; and oxtails and sea island shrimp and grits for the home chef.
To write the book, Hall teamed up with Genevieve Ko and went on a 10-day road trip across the South, visiting Birmingham, Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, and Nashville and gathering recipes that represent each city’s culinary culture. Two years and hundreds of recipes later, she’s ready to share them with the world.
Here’s what Hall had to day about the book-writing process, her go-to comfort food, and soul food as a cuisine, not a trend.
Green bean salad from Hall’s new book
On writing the book
The book came as an idea [after I had] my DNA done by African Ancestry and found out that my ancestors came from West Africa. I started thinking, If my ancestors came from West Africa today, how would they be eating? The food has changed because we’ve become so migrant, but I wanted to go back in time and sort of recreate this food and think about foods that came over with them. Maybe it was fufu in Nigeria, and it became hot water cornbread in the South because you had corn mill, not cassava, and you had to cook it.
On revisiting the South
I had already set out knowing that I love soul food, and I wanted to say that I love it unapologetically because it’s a part of my history. The food is a part of my DNA. I was seeking stories to confirm why I’ve fallen in love with it again. Going to some of these restaurants where they serve celebration foods and seeing the business owners and how they cooked, I knew I wanted some of those recipes as well, but also to talk to older people about what kinds of foods they ate growing up. I started thinking about stripping away all of the additional fat that we’ve been putting on dishes.
Blackberry and peach pie
On reclaiming soul food
There are all of these ingredients that you see now like sorghum and millet and some of these wonderful grains like hill rice and watermelon and coconut—all of these things that come out of the African diaspora, but we aren’t given credit for it. When it becomes healthy it [leaps] out of soul food into something else, so I wanted to make that connection again in a very deliberate way.
On comfort food
If I’m in New York and I’m feeling homesick, I make a big pot of pinto beans, greens, and cornbread. I have several beans in the book—green beans and white beans with coconut oil.
Ox tails
On soul food as a trend
I want to show soul food as a cuisine and not as a trend. The benefit of a trend is that it shines a spotlight on a thing, but trends come and go. This is a cuisine that other people are learning versus something that will be in this year and out the next year. If you think about it, black people are in—look at all the black shows and movies. As a culture, when you realize certain things will make money and sell, people who have power will take advantage. So maybe everyone else is catching up. While they’re catching up, I’m taking the opportunity to educate and say what soul food is and what it isn’t. It is the food of black people. I’m not saying you have to be black to make it, but let’s call it what it is. Italian food is the food from Italian people; Irish food comes from Irish people; Korean food is made by Korean people. This book is about saying where it came from and that it deserves a place next to all these other cuisines.
Carla Hall
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Behuli By Sanyukta Shrestha announced as the winner of London Wedding Boutique Of The Year at The Britain’s Asian Wedding Awards 2020
Fulham's Behuli Boutique, by multi-award-winning designer Sanyukta Shrestha, has been announced as the winner of Wedding Boutique of the Year 2020 by Britain's Asian Wedding Awards.
Held on the 11th of February at the glamorous Sheraton Grand London Park Lane Hotel, the extravagant awards ceremony boasted 27 categories and had more than 200 nominees. It was a night to celebrate those who service Britain's ever-growing Asian wedding industry, estimated to be worth in excess of £3 billion according to a 2017 research report.
"I have been lucky enough to be part of many cross-cultural weddings of couples who have mutual respect and love for each other's traditions and customs," says Sanyukta. "As a designer with a diverse background, I feel gifted to be able to understand both cultural needs and fulfil a bride's dreams by weaving her heritage and family values without compromising her unique vision and personality. I am humbled and grateful for all our brides who trusted us and became the integral part of our brand identity and success."
Leading luxury bridal designer brand with a conscience, the epitome of Sanyukta Shrestha's collections is luxurious organic fair-trade fabrics fused with flattering shapes, elegance and individuality. Honoured with several national and international awards for graceful creations and innovative approach of empowering women in developing countries, one of the designer's bridal creations is preserved in The Fashion Museum, Bath.
For more of the latest news has it happens, make sure you subscribe for FREE to Attire Bridal.
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Paul McCartney live at Estádio Mané Garrincha, Brasília, Brazil
Sunday 23 November 2014 Live, Paul McCartney No Comments
The 63rd concert of Paul McCartney’s Out There tour took place at the Estádio Mané Garrincha in Brasília, Brazil.
‘Magical Mystery Tour’
‘Everybody Out There’
12 August 2013: Investors Group Field, Winnipeg, Canada
14 August 2013: Mosaic Stadium, Regina, Canada
11 November 2013: Kyocera Dome, Osaka, Japan
15 November 2013: Fukuoka Dome, Fukuoka, Japan
18 November 2013: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
19 April 2014: Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay
22 April 2014: Movistar Arena, Santiago, Chile
25 April 2014: Estadio Nacional, Lima, Peru
28 April 2014: Estadio de Liga, Quito, Ecuador
1 May 2014: Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
5 July 2014: Times Union Center, Albany, New York
7 July 2014: Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
9 July 2014: United Center, Chicago, Illinois
12 July 2014: Fargodome, Fargo, North Dakota
14 July 2014: Pinnacle Bank Arena, Lincoln, Nebraska
16 July 2014: Sprint Center, Kansas City, Missouri
2 August 2014: Target Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota
5 August 2014: Washington-Grizzly Stadium, Missoula, Montana
7 August 2014: EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City
10 August 2014: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
12 August 2014: US Airways Center, Phoenix, Arizona
14 August 2014: Candlestick Park, San Francisco
28 September 2014: Petco Park, San Diego, California
1 October 2014: Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, San Antonio, Texas
2 October 2014: United Spirit Arena, Lubbock, Texas
11 October 2014: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans
13 October 2014: American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas
15 October 2014: Philips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia
16 October 2014: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee
25 October 2014: Veterans Memorial Arena, Jacksonville, Florida
28 October 2014: KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, Kentucky
30 October 2014: Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina
10 November 2014: Estádio Kléber Andrade, Cariacica, Brazil
12 November 2014: HSBC Arena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Paul McCartney live at HSBC Arena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Paul McCartney live at Allianz Parque, São Paulo, Brazil
1967: Tape copying: Yellow Submarine soundtrack songs
1965: Filming: promos for We Can Work It Out, Day Tripper, Help!, Ticket To Ride, I Feel Fine
1964: Television: Ready, Steady, Go!
1964: US album release: The Beatles’ Story
1964: US single release: I Feel Fine
1963: Live: City Hall, Newcastle
1962: Live: Tower Ballroom, New Brighton, Wallasey
1962: Television audition: St James’s Church Hall, London
1957: Live: New Clubmoor Hall, Liverpool
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Canada’s gender pay gap could close by 2035: study
The gender pay gap in Canada could close by 2035, according to new research published by consulting firm Accenture to coincide with International Women’s Day.
Of course, that’s if employers and policy-makers provide support, and if women are encouraged to make informed career choices, manage their careers proactively, use digital technology to learn and work, and improve their technological skills.
“The gender pay gap is an economic and competitive imperative, and closing it requires collaboration from business, government and academia,” the report notes. “At the same time, women must embrace lifelong learning, taking full advantage of digital and tech opportunities at their universities and work.”
Read: Mental health in women linked to gender pay gap
The study determined that in 2015, Canadian men earned 52 per cent more than Canadian women, but this doesn’t take into account participation in the workforce, hours worked, industries or roles.
“The future workforce must be an equal workforce,” said Bill Morris, Canada president and senior managing director at Accenture. “. . . and we must all take action to create significant opportunities for women and close the gap more quickly.”
Read: Employers integral to closing gender wage gap
The report also found the roots of the pay gap can begin as early as university. Canadian female undergraduate students are less likely than their male classmates to choose a major they think will lead to high pay (27 per cent versus 51 per cent). Similarly, they’re less likely to have a mentor (33 per cent versus 61 per cent) and hope to work in senior leadership positions (30 per cent versus 47 per cent).
The researchers calculated that if the current employment trends continue, the average Canadian woman will earn $32,350 in 2030. If, on the other hand, major strides are made in terms of technological immersion, digital fluency and career strategy, that average would jump to $43,201.
Read: It’s time to offer female-only retirement education
A Royal Bank of Canada report, also published on International Women’s Day, found Canada had the highest female workforce participation rate of all G7 countries over the past decade, well above the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average of 51.6 per cent in 2015.
But despite gains by women in the workforce, there still exists a gender pay gap in Canada. “A further narrowing of the wage gap could yield knock-on benefits for the economy,” notes the report. “If females aged 25 to 54 and working full-time had earned the same hourly wage as their male counterparts, this cohort’s aggregate earnings would have been a whopping 17 per cent higher in 2015.”
Despite accounting for close to half of the labour force, the share of women heading incorporated businesses is well below that of males (2.6 per cent versus 6.5 per cent), according to the report. That said, relative to other G7 countries, Canada performs well in this regard, coming next to Italy.
Read: Benefits of gender diverse leadership include better returns on equity
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Call of the Reed Warbler (Revised Edition)
Author(s): Charles Massy
Call of the Reed Warbler will change the way we farm, eat and think about food. In this groundbreaking book Charles Massy explores regenerative agriculture and the vital connection between our soil and our health.
Using his personal farming experience as a touchstone, he tells the real story behind industrial agriculture and the global profit-obsessed corporations driving it. He shows how innovative farmers are finding a new way, regenerating their land and witnessing astounding transformations. Evocatively, he captures what it truly means to live in connection with the land.
For farmer, backyard gardener, food buyer, health worker, policy maker and public leader alike, Call of the Reed Warbler offers a clear vision of a sustainable future for our food supply, our landscape, our health and our Earth. It offers hope and a powerful affirmation of our potential for change. Now is the time for a grassroots revolution.
Fully updated and featuring a new author's note addressing recent, major progress in regenerative agriculture.
Charles Massy gained a Bachelor of Science at ANU in 1976 before going farming for 35 years and developing the prominent Merino sheep stud 'Severn Park'. Concern at ongoing land degradation and humanity's sustainability challenge led him to return to ANU in 2009 to undertake a PhD in Human Ecology. Charles was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his service as Chair and Director of a number of research organisations and statutory wool boards. He has also served on national and international review panels in sheep and wool research and development and genomics. Charles has authored several books on the Australian sheep industry, including the widely acclaimed Breaking the Sheep's Back (UQP, 2011), which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards. Call of the Reed Warbler is Charles's fourth book. It won Scholarly Non-Fiction Book of the Year in the Educational Publishing Awards and has been shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards, the Waverley Library Award, the Australian Book Industry Awards and the Adelaide Festival Awards.
Author : Charles Massy
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Bruce Linton-Backed Gage Cannabis Offers Reg A+ Equity Financing
DETROIT, Nov. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Gage Cannabis is one of the leading vertically integrated operators in the cannabis industry
Its current focus is the Michigan market, which is valued at an estimated $3 billion and recorded $109 million in cannabis sales in August 2020
The company currently has five dispensaries across Michigan, with the potential to have 90% of the state's population within a one-hour drive as it continues to expand its dispensary network, offering a wide range of products and even home delivery options
Gage has experienced 157% sales growth from January to September 2020, with $30M+ in sales year-to-date
Gage has posted an average basket size of $175+ for the past six months. For comparison, the state of Michigan average basket size is $85 – Gage is almost $100 higher!
Gage is planning to expand its cultivation site in Monitor Township and open up to an additional 2-3 provisioning centers (dispensaries) in Michigan by the end of Q1 2021. It has detailed plans to open 10+ other locations in 2021, with a goal of operating 20+ locations by year-end 2021
The company intends to go public during Q1 2021 through a Canadian listing
Gage Cannabis Co. is a leading vertically integrated operator in the cannabis industry led by the former CEO and Chairman of Canopy Growth Corp., Bruce Linton. The company is currently focused exclusively on the Michigan market, working with the declared goal of building the fastest growing cannabis brand in the state.
One of the reasons Gage targeted Michigan as its location of choice is due to the state's fast-growing legal cannabis market and consumption habits amongst consumers. In 2018, Michigan became the 10th state to legalize the recreational use of cannabis. In light of such favorable market dynamics, Gage opened its first medical provisioning center (dispensary) shortly after, in 2019. The company now has 8-10 medical or adult-use locations open or in the works, with an additional 10+ planned to open during 2021. Gage's current portfolio features 19 Class C cultivation licenses across four cultivation assets and three processing licenses.
Current Asset and Brand Portfolio
Gage's current brand portfolio consists of five unique product classes: flower products, edibles, hardware, concentrates and vape pens/disposables.
The company has already created relationships with a wealth of exclusive brand partners, including some of the most illustrious brands in the country. Notably, Gage's exclusive partnership with Cookies, one of the most well-respected cannabis lifestyle brands in the United States, illustrates Gage's operational prowess in cultivating quality flower and operating its branded retail stores. Today, Gage operates the 8 Mile Cookies location in Detroit, Michigan, which is one of the top performing dispensaries in the state despite being a medical-only dispensary.
Committed to providing only products of the highest quality, Gage cultivates small-batch, indoor-grown, high-quality cannabis that is hand-trimmed and hung to dry. Gage ensures that every gram of cannabis sold is consistently of the highest quality and offers a superb customer experience.
The company currently has four cultivation assets, located at Monitor Township (expansion planned), Harrison Township, Warren and Lenox Township, and it operates one processing facility located in Harrison Township, with plans to operate another two processing facilities in Monitor Township and Lenox.
In Q1 2020, the company recorded sales of $5.8 million. This number grew substantially in Q2, reaching $11.9 million. Management estimates Q3 sales at roughly $13.1 million, marking a 157% growth in sales from January to September 2020, within a year of operations.
This increase reflects the company's significant expansion efforts since the beginning of 2020. Starting with only 200 pounds per month, Gage now estimates its monthly cultivation capacity at approximately 1,000 pounds of product.
This increase in cultivation capacity has helped Gage promote rapid growth through its retail locations. Average basket size, which refers to the retail value of each consumer transaction, is estimated at $85 for the Michigan cannabis industry. As of September 2020, Gage has an average basket size of approximately $180 at its locations, more than double the state average.
Plans to Go Public in Q1 2021
Gage Cannabis is currently planning a Canadian listing for the first quarter of 2021 (https://nnw.fm/JGq4y). Additionally, Gage launched a Regulation A, Tier 2, equity financing, also called a mini-IPO, which allows companies to raise capital without actually listing shares on a stock exchange.
Gage is offering up to 28,571,400 shares of Subordinate Voting Shares ("Shares"), for US$1.75 per Share. The Shares are being offered pursuant to Regulation A of Section 3(b) of the Securities, as amended, for Tier 2 offerings, by management on a "best-efforts" basis directly to purchasers who satisfy the requirements set forth in Regulation A.
The Company encourages all interested investors to visit GageInvestors.com for a link to the Offering Circular and to learn how to invest in the Offering. Financing information is also available by calling toll free at 1-844-606-0809 or locally at 1-616-504-6060.
Gage Cannabis Co. is innovating and curating the highest quality cannabis experiences possible for cannabis consumers in the state of Michigan and bringing internationally renowned brands to market. Through years of progressive industry experience, the firm's founding partners have successfully built and grown operations with federal and state licenses, including cultivation, processing and retail locations. Gage's portfolio includes city and state approvals for 19 "Class C" cultivation licenses, three processing licenses and 13 provisioning centers (dispensaries). To learn more, please visit GageInvestors.com.
Investors should note that there are significant legal restrictions and regulations that govern the cannabis industry in the United States. While legal in certain states, cannabis remains a Schedule I drug under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, making it illegal under federal law in the United States to, among other things, cultivate, distribute or possess cannabis. Financial transactions involving proceeds generated by, or intended to promote, cannabis-related business activities in the United States may form the basis for prosecution under applicable U.S. federal money laundering legislation. Investors should carefully read the risk factors and disclosures contained in our offering circular before making any decision to invest in our company.
This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as, "may", "would", "could", "will", "likely", "expect", "anticipate", "believe, "intend", "plan", "forecast", "project", "estimate", "outlook" and other similar expressions, and include statements with respect to future revenue and profits. Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and is based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management in light of management's experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors relevant in the circumstances, including assumptions in respect of current and future market conditions, the current and future regulatory environment; and the availability of licenses, approvals and permits.
Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this release. The Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws.
This press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer or sale of the securities referenced herein. Any such offer will only be made in compliance with applicable state and federal securities laws pursuant to Regulation A, Tier 2 of the Securities Act of 1933. A link to the qualified offering circular and related offering documents is attached hereto and all prospective investors should carefully review these materials, which includes important disclosures and risk factors associated with an investment in Gage Cannabis Co. These securities have not been recommended by the Securities and Exchange Commission or any state securities commission or regulatory authority, nor has any commission or regulatory confirmed the accuracy of the information contained the offering materials.
The information is provided for convenience only, is not investment advice and may not be relied upon in considering an investment in Gage Cannabis Co. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained herein, and any investment decision should be based solely on the information contained in the offering circular and related materials, and the investors independent research. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to the future performance of any investment in Gage Cannabis Co., or that investors will or are likely to achieve favorable results, will make any profit at all or will be able to avoid incurring a loss on their investment. In addition, prospective investors are encouraged to consult with their financial, tax, accounting or other advisors to determine whether an investment in Gage Cannabis Co. is suitable for them.
View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bruce-linton-backed-gage-cannabis-offers-reg-a-equity-financing-301180869.html
SOURCE Gage
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Big Dairy Wants You to Know Vegan ‘Butter’ Isn’t Actual Butter
Deena Shanker
Lydia Mulvany
Jun 17 2019, 1:30 PM Jun 20 2019, 12:41 AM June 17 2019, 1:30 PM June 20 2019, 12:41 AM
(Bloomberg) -- Miyoko Schinner is a perfect illustration of the American dream. To the U.S. dairy industry, however, she is something altogether different.
A Japanese immigrant, Schinner started a small company that blossomed into a wildly successful vegan cheese maker, one with the potential to do for dairy alternatives what Beyond Meat is doing for beef substitutes. Her business, Miyoko’s Kitchen, began in 2014 as an e-commerce platform, trading on the popularity of her vegan cheese cookbook. After one weekend in which she received $50,000 worth of orders, Schinner knew her 40-pound batches wouldn’t be enough to satisfy demand.
So she figured out how to make 1,500 pounds an hour, raised $25 million and built a 30,000 square-foot facility in Petaluma, California. “It was very difficult to scale,” said Schinner, now 61. Making dairy alternatives out of ingredients like cashews and rice miso doesn’t always work as planned.
Today, her products are sold in 12,000 stores across the U.S. Sales are booming, Schinner said, citing growth of 168% last year. Her company now makes a whole line of dairy-free products, including versions of chèvre, cream cheese, mozzarella, roadhouse cheese—and Schinner’s number one product: butter.
Until recently, the U.S. dairy industry had been relatively quiet about the proliferation of non-dairy products that use words like “milk” or “cheese.” But lately it’s been pushing back. Wisconsin, which calls itself America’s Dairyland, is one of the biggest dairy producers in the country. It’s also America’s biggest maker of actual butter.
So when it came to the kind of “butter” Schinner makes, Wisconsin and its powerful dairy lobby decided to draw the line.
Entrepreneurs such as Schinner have been riding a wave of popularity for plant-based products, especially dairy alternatives. Plant-based milk retail sales totaled $1.8 billion for the year ending May 25, a 6.5% increase, according to data from Nielsen. Cheese substitute sales totaled $117 million, showing 17.4% growth. Cashew butters were up to $12.6 million, representing an uptick of 4.9%.
Milk sales, meanwhile, have been suffering a multi-decade decline. In Wisconsin, the pain has been particularly acute. The state’s dairy farmers are exiting the industry at a rate of three a day as low milk prices persist and bankruptcies accumulate.
Adam Spierings is one of those former farmers. He asked 27 different banks to reconsolidate his debt, but none would consider it. He just took a job as a crop insurance adjuster while his wife teaches at a technical college. They recently sold their cows but are still trying to sell their other assets, including their farm and home in Weyauwega.
“It’s sad to think about what we had and what we were building and what we lost,” Spierings said. “But in the grand scheme, we’re not living in poverty like we were the last few years.”
Such dire circumstances have led some in the dairy industry, most notably lobbying groups like the National Milk Producers Federation, to campaign against alternative dairy products—specifically their use of dairy terms on labels. Changing consumer tastes are regularly cited as a chief cause of dairy’s slow demise, but vegan products using labels such as “milk”—or in this case, “butter”—are seen by the milk lobby as misleading consumers to unfairly steal market share.
In September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it was “considering approaches to modernize standards of identity” of dairy foods and would be collecting comment from the public. (A review of the those comments, commissioned by the Plant Based Foods Association [PBFA], contends that 76% were fine with the status quo.)
Senators Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, a Democrat, and Jim Risch of Idaho, a Republican, are pushing the Dairy Pride Act, which would require the FDA to create a system of stricter nationwide enforcement for product labeling and the use of certain words. Under the proposal, labeling something “milk,” for example, must mean the product comes from a “hooved mammal.” A bipartisan House version has also been introduced by Representative Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, and has 33 cosponsors.
States have been considering legislation of their own. The PBFA counts 10 that have tried or are trying to limit sales of dairy alternative products. Wisconsin, however, has tried taking a slightly different tack—at least when it comes to butter imitators. It ordered supermarkets to take any non-dairy product labeled “butter” off of its shelves.
For 75 years, until the 1960s, margarine was banned in Wisconsin. Serving margarine instead of butter to students, patients or inmates at state-run institutions is still prohibited, unless requested by a doctor. Irish brand Kerrygold—one of the most popular butter brands in the U.S.—was also pulled from shelves in recent years due to a state regulation that requires all butter sold in Wisconsin to have a federal or state grade mark, effectively shutting out foreign butters. Ornua, which owns Kerrygold, made a deal with the state in 2017 to submit to its grading.
On April 15, Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (Datcp) instructed retail food establishments to remove products that aren’t complying with the statutory definition for butter, which requires that it be made from milk or cream. “By definition, a ‘vegan’ product ... cannot be legally labeled and sold as butter,” the state said. Products can be labeled as imitation butter, imitation margarine, or vegetable oil spread—but not the real thing, according to the memo.
The memo, which cited other non-dairy products, including one from Upfield brands, came in response to industry complaints about Miyoko’s Kitchen, according to copies of emails to state regulators.
Bob Bradley, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, Madison Department of Food Science and author of two books on the topic of butter, said in an interview that such products are mislabeled. “It is not butter,” he said flatly.
This is not the first time Miyoko’s butter has been challenged. Her company faced a proposed class action lawsuit last October in New York, but it was settled. Steve Ingham, administrator of Datcp’s Division of Food and Recreational Safety, said June 12 that the directive banning products such as Miyoko’s has since been suspended in favor of a public comment period.
“We make a significant proportion of the nation’s butter, and that’s a part of the dairy industry that has been doing well,” he said in an interview. “So we take it seriously, and when I get complaints about this—these imitation butter products—we do follow up.”
During the almost two months the removal order was in effect, Miyoko’s Kitchen said its products were pulled from at least one Whole Foods store in Madison and from the retail chain Skogen’s Festival Foods. Whole Foods declined to comment. While Festival Foods confirmed Schinner’s products had been removed from its stores, no other products were singled out, said Kayla Paul, quality assurance and regulatory affairs specialist for the chain.
A health inspector arrived at one of Skogen’s locations in mid-April, she explained. The auditor said the store couldn’t have Miyoko’s vegan butter on its shelves because of its use of the term “butter.”
“There was a lot of back and forth—‘Whose regulation is this?’” she said. “We thought, if it’s a Wisconsin regulation, why aren’t other stores doing it, too?”
Schinner said she offered the state a solution: Her company would have stores affix stickers that say “vegetable spread,” if the state would approve it. But the Datcp didn’t respond for more than a month, her company said. The Datcp approved the label on June 12.
Ingham, the Wisconsin official, said his agency isn’t planning to enforce labeling laws on other dairy products, such as fluid “milk,” but will follow the FDA’s lead.
“It’s always good to check on the legality of the label,” Ingham said, adding that Wisconsin produces more than a third of the nation’s butter. “It’s been an important product.”
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Are the Patriots Falling Apart?
In a time where the Patriots number one receiver is suspended for the first 4 games, their quarterback isn't at "voluntary" offseason workouts, and their star tight-end is more focused on a horse than on football; it's easy to assume the Patriots aren't in good shape. Are the Patriots falling apart? My one word answer would be no. It seems like in every year there is drama in New England. While people will say the Patriots nucleus included Gronk, Edelman, Amendola, Patricia, and McDaniels; the real nucleus is Robert Kraft, Tom Brady, and Bill Belichick. Every year we see one team in the AFC East who "will be able to dethrone the Patriots", it sounds like we've been saying that for the past 9 years, but no team has done it. This year the AFC East consists with a team who is led by a quarterback coming off a torn ACL, a quarterback who was the back-up to Andy Dalton, and a quarterback who has never played a full-16 game season in his 15-year career. No disrespect, but I just can't see AJ McCaron or Ryan Tannehill or Josh McCown dethroning Tom Brady.
While I don't see a team beating the Patriots in their division, there may be some teams in the AFC East that can defeat the Patriots. I think there are 5 teams in the AFC that can outplay New England: The Steelers, Texans, Jaguars, Chargers, and Chiefs. Let's be real, the Steelers were defeated by the refs and themselves. The Jesse James play was a terrible call by the refs, but the game was not over after that. The Steelers shot themselves in the foot, if Ben Roethlisberger threw the ball away, they would have gone to over time. Neither of these teams got better this offseason, but the Steelers are too talented to not be in the discussion. I really like the Texans chances this year, the Patriots tend to struggle against mobile quarterbacks, Colin Kaepernick and Cam Newton, and there is great energy in Houston. Watson is a great player and they have a healthy JJ Watt, Tyrann Mathieu, and Jadeveon Clowney. The Texans could be the team. Staying in the division, I also think the Jaguars are a viable threat to New England. They were very close to beating them in the playoffs and got much better in the offseason. If Blake Bortles gets better in the offseason, the Jaguars will be in good shape. Then finally, I have two sleeper teams; the Chargers and the Chiefs. This season the Chiefs are boom or bust. It all depends on Patrick Mahomes and if he's a boom, they can definitely beat the Patriots. The Chargers don't play the Patriots this year, but if they see them in the playoffs; they have a good chance. Rivers is really good in the playoffs and with one of the best defensive lines Brady will be scared. So the 5 teams in the AFC East that I see defeating the Patriots are the Steelers, Texans, Jaguars, Chargers, and Chiefs.
No team is ever perfect, but the Patriots are pretty darn close. I think the Patriots will be back in the playoffs this year, and despite the distractions; they will be very good. To the Patriots, all this drama is just noise. If I have learned anything from watching football, it is to never doubt the Patriots.
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Roselyn Sanchez, Raul Gonzalez and Laura Flores to Host the Billboard Latin Music Awards
By Justino Aguila
Manny Hernandez/WireImage/Getty Images
MIAMI, FL - FEBRUARY 05: Laura Flores attends 2014 Billboard Latin Music Awards Press Conference to announce nominations at Gibson Miami Showroom on February 5, 2014 in Miami, Florida.
TV personality Raul Gonzalez, actress Roselyn Sanchez and singer/TV host Laura Flores have been tapped to host the 2014 Billboard Latin Music Awards on April 24 live from Miami on Telemundo.
Register today for Billboard's 2014 Latin Music Conference & Awards Use promo code 'BIZ14' to get a special discount.
Presented by State Farm, the awards show will air at 7 pm/6c and will feature some of the biggest names in Latin music.
Sanchez, also a singer/songwriter/producer/model who hails from Puerto Rico, returns as host for a second time after co-hosting the show in 2003. On TV she has appeared as a regular on "Without a Trace” and most recently she has starred in the Lifetime comedy/drama "Devious Maids”. In 2003 she was nominated for a Latin Grammy for "Amor, Amor," the first single from her debut album.
'Music Does Not Die': David Bisbal Talks New Music, Billboard Latin Music Awards 25th Anniversary Concert
Chayanne to Debut New Single at 2014 Billboard Latin Music Awards
Marc Anthony, Prince Royce, Franco de Vita To Perform at 2014 Billboard Latin Music Awards
Gonzalez, who recently joined Telemundo to develop and host a new variety series, is making his debut on the network as co-host of the awards show, which this year is celebrating its 25th anniversary. A career that spans more than 30 years, the Caracas-born host spent 13 years as one of the hosts of Univision's "Despierta America" in addition to writing, producing and starring in several award-winning plays such as "Visa por un Sueño”.
After appearing on the Mexican soap opera "En Otra Piel”, Flores joined "Reina de Corazones”. The Mexican actress has worked in TV, theater and cinema and has hosted several television shows. Musically, the entertainer has recorded 16 albums and the most recent project, "Desde mi Corazon”, celebrates her musical career.
Prior to the awards show, stars will walk the red carpet and will be seen on the special "La Alfombra de los Premios Billboard”, which will be hosted by Telemundo personalities Monica Noguera and Rashel Diaz with Jorge Bernal of "La Voz Kids" and "Suelta la Sopa”. Guadalupe Venegas of Telemundo and Karim Mendiburu, Christian Ramirez and Kika Rocha will also be featured on the special.
Premios Billboard culminates the Billboard Latin Music Conference April 21-24, at the JW Marriot Marquis in Miami. The televised program will also feature some of the biggest names in music such as Chayanne, Marc Anthony, Prince Royce, Franco de Vita, Andrea Bocelli, David Bisbal, Juanes, Luis Fonsi, La Arrolladora Banda El Limon De Rene Camacho and Banda El Recodo De Cruz Lizárraga.
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Protest in Hong Kong over China’s move to pass security law
Protesters gesture with five fingers, signifying the “Five demands – not one less” in a shopping mall during a protest against China’s national security legislation for the city, in Hong Kong, Friday, May 29, 2020. The British government says t it will grant hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents greater visa rights if China doesn’t scrap a planned new security law for the semi-autonomous territory. U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said about 300,000 people in Hong Kong who hold British National (Overseas) passports will be able to stay in Britain for 12 months rather than the current six. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
HONG KONG (AP) — Dozens of people protested in a mall in Hong Kong on Friday following a vote by China’s ceremonial parliament to approve legislation that could severely restrict opposition political activity and civil society in the Asian financial center.
The protesters chanted slogans in the main atrium of the mall in the high-end Central district, some draping banners over the balconies with slogans such as “Independence for Hong Kong.”
Police waited in vans parked prominently outside the mall but did not attempt to break up the gathering. Hundreds of people have been arrested during recent demonstrations that seek to revive the momentum of protests that shut down large parts of the city during the second half of last year.
China’s National People’s Congress on Thursday voted to approve the bill that will now be sent to its standing committee for final approval. Details of the final version of the law aren’t known, but China says it will prohibit separatist activities and actions that might threaten the Communist Party’s monopoly on political power in mainland China.
Beijing and its supporters in Hong Kong are defending the legislative move against criticism from foreign countries, including the U.S., which has threatened to revoke special trade privileges granted to the former British colony when it was handed over to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” framework in which it was guaranteed its own political, legal, social and legal institutions for 50 years.
In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said China would not tolerate any interference in what it considers a strictly internal matter.
“We advise the U.S. side to have a correct understanding of the situation and stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs. If the U.S. insists on jeopardizing China’s interests, China will definitely take all necessary measures to fight back.”
Tensions between the administration of President Donald Trump and China are already high over trade, human rights, China’s threats against Taiwan and the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump says he intends to make an announcement about China on Friday and officials say he is considering a proposal to revoke the visas of Chinese students affiliated with educational institutions in China that are linked to the People’s Liberation Army or Chinese intelligence.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday visited a Hong Kong bookstore that re-opened in Taipei after its part-owner was abducted to the Chinese mainland, in a show of support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and opposition to the national security law.
Tsai told the bookstore owner, Lam Wing-kee, that her administration will “provide whatever help it could to our Hong Kong friends.” Taiwan this week said it will extend residency rights for Hong Kong residents who have moved to the self-governing island democracy in increasing numbers over the past year.
Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang said the national security legislation is a clear sign that China is not sincere in carrying out the “one country, two systems” policy it promised to Hong Kong and which it has proposed as a framework for unification with Taiwan.
“They are entirely not making good on their promise. China’s commitment to ‘one country, two systems’ is nothing but empty talk,” Su said.
China claims Taiwan as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary. The two sides separated during a civil war in 1949.
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Edgbaston MP Gisela Stuart made £63,000 profit on her second home
A BIRMINGHAM MP has found herself at the centre of an expenses storm – after it emerged she made £63,000 profit on a second home bought with taxpayer help.
Neil Elkes
Labour’s Gisela Stuart is among a number of MPs recently named as making profits due to rises in the housing market after selling taxpayer-subsidised second homes in the last few years.
The Edgbaston MP sold her constituency home in War Lane, Harborne for £168,000 in September 2008.
She paid just £105,000 for the terraced property seven years earlier and claimed £24,328 in mortgage interest payments for the home.
Other MPs named include Winchester Lib Dem Mark Oaten, who made £82,000 on his London home, and Tory Sir Peter Viggers, who not only claimed for a duck house but made £350,000 on his Hampshire pad.
Ms Stuart has not broken any rules. But it is expected that tough new guidelines to be introduced following the general election will prevent MPs making profits on taxpayer-supported homes.
Ms Stuart, who was elected to Parliament in 1997, has switched to a rented second home, which is in line with the latest House of Commons guidelines.
She said: “I sold my home in September 2008, at the bottom of the housing market, and switched to rented accommodation.
“This is what Sir Christopher Kelly has since recommended in his report into MPs expenses. I sold up as soon as it became clear that the public view was that MPs should rent.
“If I had wanted to maximise the profit, I would not have sold at the bottom of the housing market.”
The MP, who is editor of House of Commons Magazine, added that she paid capital gains tax on the profit.
Although she will no longer benefit from a taxpayer-subsidised mortgage, the MP claims the cost to the public actually increased because she was claiming £470 per month for the mortgage, while rent on her new home is £750.
The latest revelations will come as a blow to the popular MP whose Edgbaston seat is a top target for David Cameron’s Conservative Party at the forthcoming general election.
Her seat is the one in Birmingham most likely to fall to the Conservatives .
Her rival, Deirdre Alden, a Birmingham City Councillor, was quick to accuse her of playing the system.
Coun Alden said: “Gisela Stuart initially made it sound as if she was doing the public a favour by selling her house early and changing to rented accommodation.
“But in fact it seems that by doing so, she was able to walk away with a £63,000 profit which, if she had waited, she would probably have had to forfeit.
“This is because the rules are changing so that in future MPs will not be able to keep the profit on the sale of any property purchased with the assistance of public money.
“I am sure many Edgbaston residents will feel aggrieved that their MP has enjoyed such a windfall on the back of their taxes.”
It has also emerged that MPs rejected explicit warnings that their second homes allowance needed overhauling long before the expenses scandal erupted during the summer, according to their former chief pay adviser.
Sir John Baker, chairman of the Senior Salaries Review Body between 2002 and 2008, said they had been ‘warned off’ dealing with the issue, and that his requests for a formal review of allowances were rejected by Parliament.
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Jeremy Tomlinson is an antiaging expert and his research has been focused on the role of steroid hormones and their metabolism in the development, assessment and treatment of metabolic diseases including NAFLD, obesity and type 2 diabetes. His qualifications are MB BCh, PhD. Checkout his profile on Keble College.
Dr. Aleksandar Grbovic
Dr. Aleksandar Grbovic is a medical doctor, with extensive experience in and specialized in CVS and diabetes drugs. He has been a faculty of medicine for 8 years at Belgrade University. He has been associated with Institute of Occupational medicine “Serbian Railways”. This Institute was founded by Serbian Railways Company 130 years ago. Although they still provide specific medical services to rail personnel, Institute is nowadays a primary care medical facility responsible for more than 100.000 patients all over Serbia (approximately 50.000 patients in Belgrade branch). Also he attended attending Radiology residency and working on a project of preparing educational materials for the Internal Medicine board exams in the US as well as for the USMLE step 1 and 2. For more than a year, he is also working as a freelance medical writer. Most of his articles are for lay people (by September 2018 he wrote 250 articles). Also as a medical writer, he has only one goal in his mind – to bridge the gap between doctors and patients point of view by breaking down complex medical topics and presenting them in lay people language. Also knowing that his writing might help someone out there connect the dots is what gives him motivation.
Jared Rhoads
Jared Rhoads writes about healthcare, with a focus on issues involving markets, choice, and innovation and with the goals of improving the patient-doctor relationship and creating a more effective healthcare delivery system. He believes the role of medical ethics within its world of practice and study deserves due recognition. He is an advocate of the principle that morals in medicine should be a subject consistently extolled in the corridors and halls, drummed into the minds of health care practitioners of all status and levels.
Ali Cudby
Ali Cudby writes on breast health to address the general needs of all who have been touched by breast cancer, including newly diagnosed patients and long time survivors, as well as their friends, family members and coworkers. She focuses on providing useful information to women aiming for better breast health, finding the perfect fit for their lingerie, corsetry, bras and to breast cancer survivors with accurate information about everything from post-surgery options, breast care and intimacy issues. She is also a strong advocate of feeling positive about your own body image. She has also been associated with Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization.
Kyle Vic
Kyle is a project manager and engineer by training. He is passionate about writing, editing, and conducting researches (academic & market). His interests also range from eBooks creation to article writing, ghostwriting and general content creation for individuals and companies as required. With adequate knowledge and skills in these contexts, he demonstrates optimum professionalism to deliver an incredible and next-to-none expertise.
GroundnPound
GroundnPound.org is a specialized one stop shop for all libido enhancers, male and female supplements, toys and wearable and sensational items for both men and women. We have a wide range of products offered with discrete shipping service and integrity at very competitive and reasonable prices. Despite being a small start-up retail store. Our commitment in providing best services has maintained our customer satisfaction at highest, thus we have a high ratio of returning and regular customers.
James Pomonis
Dr. James Pomonis has been actively involved with Algos, a drug discovery and R&D firm. Responsible for Algos’ scientific oversight, Dr. James Pomonis, PhD has been conducting research in pain and behavioral pharmacology for 17 years. Most recently, Dr. Pomonis directed clinical research activities for multiple pain management programs for Empi, Inc. Prior to that, he worked as a senior research investigator and program leader at Purdue Pharma in Cranbury, NJ. His extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry allows us to empower our website readers with the information they need for critical decision making.
Madison Young founded Femina Potens in 2000 at the age of 20. The organization quickly started providing art exhibits, workshops, film screenings and poetry readings in venues that ranged from laundry mats to large warehouse spaces. She has authored books and articles on women sexuality.
Monica Canilao
Monica Canilao lives in Oakland and is a textile artist, painter and printmaker. The subject and material her work explores is the refuse that dominates our time and place. Moving across media, sometimes with friends and sometimes alone, Canilao makes a delicate visual record of the personal and communal. She received a BFA from California College of Arts and has shown in galleries, community spaces, abandoned places and worldwide. Canilao will collaboratively create work for the Picket Fences exhibition/installation with her partner Harrison Bartlett. Recently, they collaborated on the renovation of a dilapidated house in Detroit where they created a monumental multi-room art installation as part of the Power House Project, which was documented by Juxtapose Magazine. Monica has been an active participant in Femina Potens gallery. Femina Potens, which means “powerful woman” in Latin, is a community-building multidisciplinary arts organization conducting programs that authentically explore the experiences of queer women, transgender people and others living outside the female-male gender binary. Femina Potens originated in the Do-It-Yourself arts movement that first appeared at Cell Space around the Millennium. Madison Young first founded Femina Potens in 2000 at the age of 20. The organization quickly started providing art exhibits, workshops, film screenings and poetry readings in venues that ranged from laundry mats to large warehouse spaces.
David Sautter
David is a NASM certified personal trainer, NASM certified fitness nutrition specialist, fitness workshop leader, and health and fitness writer featured in No Time Wheysted, Workout Labs, Body Vision, and Amino Z. David brings to Brightfuturesforfamilies.org, over 12 years of experience in the fitness industry along with a vast knowledge of exercise science, human bio-mechanics, proper nutrition, and motivational techniques.
Hormonal Causes of ED: The Story Begins in the Brain
Back in the day an insufficiency of the male hormone testosterone was considered the main physical cause of impotence. These days it is clear that it plays a bigger role with libido than with performance. Other conditions involving hormonal imbalances such as diabetes, thyroid disease, adrenal disease, or pituitary (the master gland) disorders are also related to impotence. The intricate saga of testosterone begins in the brain. The tiny pituitary gland is located at the base of the brain in the sella turcica, a little bony fortress named after the Turkish saddle it resembles. Being considered the most protected single
SS Cream for premature ejaculation review
Lets face it premature ejaculation sucks big time. As men It makes us feel like crap and pretty soon the thought of having sex will stress you out and if it is really bad you may even start to avoid sex altogether. This can lead to many different problems and may even cost you a relationship. In order to solve this condition a lot of guys think of turning to one of the many premature ejaculation cream products on the market hoping it will give them the ability to last longer in bed. But are these premature ejaculation creams really
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What is AndroGel? AndroGel is a popular testosterone gel. It basically works by replacing or supplementing the testosterone level of the human body and helps in alleviating several physical and mental issues in men caused due to low levels of testosterone. It is widely used in anti aging hormone therapy and for poor testosterone production related health issues. Generic Name: Testosterone topical (patches and gel) Brand Names: Androderm, AndroGel, FIRST-Testosterone, Testim, Testoderm Some Important Information About AndroGel That You Must Know AndroGel must not be used by a woman, it is strictly for men, the main reason – testosterone can
How can Eurycoma longifolia(Longjack) help you sexually?
Eurycoma longifolia is commonly known as – tongkat ali or pasak bumi. It is a traditional herb widely used in different parts of Asia like – China, India and Malaysia due to its remedial benefits. It is mainly used as a libido enhancer. Now a day, due to its therapeutic features, it is now cultivated worldwide and widely used in health supplements to overcome the sexual problems. Protects Against Cancer Tongkat ali is also known for its cancer protecting abilities. It has the agents that can prevent lung and breast cancer. In recent research, the health care specialists included it
Stiff nights pills review
Most guys searching to improve on their sexual stamina, strength and perseverance use a formula known as Stiff Nights. From the name, it can be deduced that stiff nights is swallowed as a dietary supplement to give very firm erections and also provide you with a thorough improved experience during sexual intercourse. The issue is “is this formula good for consumption”? not until lately, we stumbled on some FDA warnings concerning this formula that we think you should be in the know-how. Scan through our independent review of this product before concluding whether or not to test it. What is
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Many of the Local 9-535 players interviewed had two different sets of memories – those before the 1960s, and those after. This is especially true for those who worked in the General Business field. The union hall was essentially a meeting place for players and contractors. Many of the members interviewed had vivid memories of times spent at the union building on St. Botolph Street.
Al Natale
They [the union] built it… They bought this land [on St. Botolph Street] and they built this beautiful building. You go by there – they couldn’t change the facade of the building because they made it a historical park [landmark], thank God. All the composers named, beautiful, beautiful. When we were going through this upheaval of changes, I’d try to tell them, I was on the building committee, let’s go into a joint venture and make it condos. No, they had to sell it. We don’t want to be in the real estate business, which was a lot of baloney. Now the thing’s worth about $15 million… [When was it built?] In the 20s. This is all before WWII. When I joined, which was what, a few years before WWII, you walk in there on a Monday. You ever watch CNBC, the stock market show, where they’re running back and forth? That’s what it was like on Monday. Most of your members were down there, the non-classical members, the miscellaneous work, the casual work, were down there with a book that we used to print, like a calendar of pages – Monday to Sunday. You go in there and you talk with the contractor…You’d get Friday and Saturday with no problem. The others were gravy – Thursday, Wednesday and all that. Everything was live music.
Dave Fagin
I remember my first experience with the union… my dad was a local member since maybe 1923, ’24. He played trumpet. And maybe I was four or five years old, he used to take me to the union on Mondays. It was a mad house I mean, it was really a mad house. That’s my memory. I liked it, I enjoyed it. People running around – are you working this night, are you busy this night, is it OK? I’ll write it down right now. They they’d run to a phone. I don’t know who they were calling, but they were calling somebody. The pay phones, the pay phones were jammed. They were waiting in line four or five deep. Paul Broadnax Mine was a different experience. I was an engineer. So mine was an avocation. It eventually became full time… I remember the first time I went [to Local 535]. I saw this little guy, a fat little guy with a cigar hanging out of his mouth, glasses on. (Fred Walker – “It was Clem, right?”) And he’d scare you to death. You know, look you up and down and make a judgement. He’d scare you to death. But like Fred said, it was a very competitive scene musically.
Sil D’Urbano
I had an audition right at St. Botolph Street in the union building… He was an oboe player that did my audition. He took out a piece of music and I read it right off, you know, I had no trouble. He says, “You pass. Go ahead.” It was very short… his name escapes me, who he was. He was an active player himself. He was a professional oboist… so they asked him to audition the reed players. Dave Chapman … when I came up to Boston I went to the New England Conservatory. And the tricky part was not to have too many classes on Monday… Monday you had to get down to the union. Back then you’d have to keep your calendar clear for Monday. So you’d go down there, try to book some jobs, network – didn’t use that term then, but you networked – and that’s what kept 56 St. Botolph alive. We didn’t have cars. That was also the meeting place to go out on jobs, if you had to go out of town. I didn’t have a car until the 1950s. And most of my contemporaries didn’t.
Arthur Lazarus
You know I have boxes of playing cards in my house from playing down the union hall and my wife says to me, she said, “Get rid of these things.” So I called up the V. A. and I said “Listen, I got 85 decks of cards.” I put ‘em in a couple of bags… Anyway, I got a letter from the VA and it says Thank you very much for the cards… Fred Williams 535 was strictly musical, OK? When you came to Boston that’s where you got your audition. We had musicians like Sam Rivers, G.G. Grice, Quincy Jones, Jackie Byard. When you came in that door, they had a piano down there. If you were a new saxophone and playing in town, you played some tunes. And they’d walk out and evaluate you .. Does he really know what he’s doin’? He sounds like he’s way out, but he’s doin’… that was our evaluation. Very short. No pool tables, no conversations. Strictly music. And we worked around the corner. We’d go in town Boston and go from one club to another carrying a Hammond organ. And I worked around the clock, seven nights a week.
When you walked in the door it was scary. The entrance was packed. The wise guys stayed at the entrance and nailed the contractors coming in. You had a lot of guys that stayed around all week. They played cards. It was their second home – maybe even their first home… and when you walked in the door they’d look you over – up and down like you were a piece of meat. Like, who the hell is this guy? What does he know? You know. And it was kind of intimidating. If it was that way for me, I can imagine how it was for a woman.
Maggie Scott
Oh it was an eye opener. And again, it was so different because temperaments would flare, the swearing would flare, and the cigar smoking and the pipe smoking was all there and I sat in this room. The meetings ran so late, like ‘til 3 or 3:30 in the afternoon. It would just be a lot of time arguing. They got into personalities. You said this, no I didn’t, yes you did, that kind of thing… and then one would get up and bang on the table… I didn’t expect it to be like that. And I didn’t dare say anything at the time. I really kept quiet during those meetings, because I thought, forget it, they’re not even going to listen or they won’t even hear me. And I just kind of took it all in and was frankly kind of happy to get out at the end of the meeting, because I smelled like a smokestack… for one thing. And just the yelling… really I didn’t expect that at all. Little by little… when the swearing got to be too much I put up my hand and said “I want 25 cents for every swear word I hear.” And they looked at me like, are you kidding? They thought I was totally out to lunch. And I said, “I’m serious.” So one of them jokingly, gave me a quarter. And it got to be sort of a joke. But every time someone said something, I got a quarter… Well I got up to $11 in quarters, and by that time I think they realized, let’s cut this out or at least cut it down… we don’t have the yelling and the screaming and the swearing anymore. These people [current officers] are intelligent. I know I sound like I’m really knocking the old regime, and maybe I am in a way, but I’m so glad that it’s not like that today… There’s been a huge improvement.
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Breaking Bad Fans: Male, Plentiful and Good at Keeping Secrets
We have been very careful to make this post *SPOILER FREE*!
To put this post into context for those of you who don’t watch the series, Breaking Bad is the intense story of a chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with incurable lung cancer.
In order to secure financial stability for his family after his death, he starts producing and selling methamphetamine, otherwise known as crystal meth. The series follows his descent into a life of crime and treachery.
Last night the eagerly anticipated fifth and final series of Breaking Bad premiered.
After the first half was broadcasted in July 2012, Breaking Bad fans have been waiting patiently for over a year to find out what fate awaits their favourite good guy gone bad, Walter White.
Now, if you’re already a Breaking Bad fan, it is likely that you have seen this teaser trailer released by AMC, but for those who haven’t:
As the trailer leaves the outcome of the final series shrouded with mystery, it is no surprise that fans were particularly excited about its premiere.
As of this lunchtime (BST) there have been over 100,000 mentions in the past 24 hours about the final series of Breaking Bad.
Interestingly, 68% of this conversation took place on Twitter, with the three top hashtags including #breakingbad, #getglue and #walterwhite – with #getglue really showing how fans are embracing the dual-screen revolution and more specific social networks.
Get Glue is an app where you can check-in, in a similar way to Foursquare, to signify which programme you’re watching, in order to discuss it with other users, and it proved to be a popular platform for Breaking Bad fans last night.
The Walter White (the character’s name) hashtag was used along with quotes from scenes and comments about the show, as figures confirmed that people were tweeting most whilst watching the programme.
Being an American series, the programme aired in the United States first. This was reflected in the discussion, as 88% of the mentions originated from the US.
The most frequently-discussed topics included character names, AMC (the network that airs the programme in the US) and key themes such as ‘meth lab’. People also discussed Breaking Bad in reference to other shows that aired on the same evening.
The conversation in the UK, however, takes a different turn, as Netflix released the first episode to viewers this morning; fans were more concerned about spoilers on Twitter than anything else:
Fortunately, fans of Breaking Bad seem to respect the no-spoiler rule, as there was hardly any trace of give-away tweets.
The top emoticon used in mentions is the ‘smiley face :)’, reinforcing that sentiment towards the new series of Breaking Bad is receiving a warm reception so far, and as the day continues the amount of mentions in the UK continues to rise.
It also appears that males are taking a lot more interest in the new series than females, making up 70% of the conversation.
So far the online conversation surrounding the new series of Breaking Bad is setting the internet alight, trending on Twitter and elsewhere, as excitement around the new series mounts and audiences share their thoughts about the show.
The overall reaction is overwhelmingly positive too, though thus far the novelty of the start of the new series is outweighing the discussion of what is actually happening in the episode. We’ll keep an eye out later in the series (and the presumably epic finale) to see what people make of what they watch.
Gina Horton
Breaking Bad Dual Screening Dual Screens Marketing Monitoring Social Media Analysis Tv Twitter
Just For Fun Marketing Monitoring
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/ Backing Young Bury
Backing Young Bury
Backing Young Bury is our campaign to help improve learning and working opportunities for young people in the borough. The campaign also helps to ensure that Bury Council has a skilled future workforce. Backing Young Bury has already led to a significant increase in the number of young people accessing apprenticeships and work experience opportunities. We are committed to providing more opportunities for young people, including extended work experience placements, pre-employment training and an increased number of a varied range of apprenticeships.
Opportunities for young people at Bury Council
We regularly offer apprenticeship opportunities within Bury Council and have expanded our apprenticeship offer over recent years. All Bury Council apprenticeship vacancies are advertised within the Bury section of the greater.jobs website..
About our apprenticeship programme
Towards the end of 2017 Bury Council recruited 26 new apprentices to help give young people a flying start to their working lives.They are employed in a wide range of services including legal, accounting, workforce, registrars, leisure centres, recruitment team, art gallery, occupational health, ICT and grounds maintenance. This was the first large cohort of apprentices taken on by the council since the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy, and it supports the council's aim to comply with the Public Sector Recruitment Target.
Councillor Rishi Shori, leader of Bury Council at the time, said: "I am delighted to welcome so many new apprentices to the council. It is absolutely vital that we give our young people a chance to fulfil their potential, learn new skills and be ready for the world of work, and we are proud to play our part in ensuring they get a foot on the employment ladder. I wish them the very best in their time with us and onwards in their careers."
Since then we have continued to recruit apprentices across the organisation and in September 2018 recruited another large cohort of 22 apprentices.
What some of our apprentices have to say
Tim Drummond (age 24) - Accounting
"I grew up in Oldham until I was 14, when my mum decided to move to the Isle of Lewis in Scotland where I studied accountancy for the first time. I spent nearly 4 months up there before moving back down to live in Oldham again where I wanted to continue my studies in accountancy but was unable to until I went to college and studied towards my Level 2 and 3 AAT qualifications, which I obtained.
"I moved to Bury after finishing college with the hope of finding a job in accounts. But I struggled to find a job, and I spent a number of years bouncing from job to job in retail and call centres before a family member pointed out they were doing apprenticeships at the council and one of them was an accounts job. After hearing about this I went through the application process and was surprised to be notified on the same day of my interview that I had been successful. Completing the apprenticeship is a way for me to obtain much-needed experience working in accounts while completing a qualification provided by a professional body.
James Turrell (age 22) - Social Development Team
James lives in Bury and went to St Gabriel's High School and Bury College, where he completed a public services B-Tec course with D*D*D*.
"I heard about the Bury Council apprenticeship scheme through the 'indeed' jobs site," he said. "I was motivated to apply because I had worked for a mobile phone company in Bury for 4 years and I felt I wasn't pushing myself anymore and there weren't many chances to progress.
"This is offering me a new challenge, a qualification, good working hours and hopefully at the end of it the skills they require to keep me on - but, if not, I will have a qualification and a wealth of knowledge to take to a new employer.
"I wasn't sure entirely what the job would entail but after speaking to my cousin who completed the same course my mind was made up. Over my apprenticeship I hope to improve my people skills and gain a good understanding of the role as well as of the council as a whole. So far I have enjoyed the admin role as I am getting involved with everything."
Lois Gartland (age 17) - Business Support / Secretaries
Lois studied at St Monica's RC High School in Prestwich and then Bury College, and heard about the apprenticeship scheme on the 'greater jobs' website.
"I was motivated to apply because at Bury College I studied B-Tec Level 2 business and within that finance and marketing, and ultimately gained an overall grade of DM (Distinction/Merit). I then had to decide whether to do an apprenticeship or carry on through college and go for the B-Tec Level 3 business course.
"However, after finding this great opportunity, I decided to choose the Bury Council apprenticeship. During my time I want to learn new skills and improve my knowledge and understanding of the business environment. I've yet to decide what my long-term job will be, but this will definitely be good for my career."
Shawna Gittens (age 18) - Children's Admin Team
From Bowker Vale, Shawna went to Phillips High School in Whitefield, followed by Bury College.
"I found Bury Council's apprenticeship vacancies on the apprenticeships.gov website and decided to apply. I was unsure what I wanted to do as a career in this transitional period of my life, so I thought by getting an apprenticeship in an area I'm interested in I would be able to acquire some transitional skills which would aid me in any career I should choose. I have already learned a lot but I would specifically like to learn more about the role of social workers and family support workers. Ultimately, I would like to be a family support worker or social worker and am considering going to university after I have achieved my apprentice qualification."
Shannon Wood (age 21) - Social Development Team
From Radcliffe, Shannon attended St Monica's High School and completed her A-Levels at Holy Cross College.
"I heard about Bury Council's apprenticeship scheme from my auntie, who started out as an apprentice in HR at the council. She told me how the scheme is part of the 'Backing Young Bury' campaign and how well it works for young apprentices."
Shannon had worked in a restaurant, but decided it was time for a new challenge.
"Throughout my apprenticeship I would like to get involved in as much as I can, throughout my department and the council as a whole. As I am doing a Business Administration course I wish to learn as many skills as I can in this field, and to complete both my Level 2 and Level 2 NVQs.
"I am really enjoying how varied my role is and I would like a career that gives me a wide variety of duties. Within Bury Council there is a multitude of opportunities and I look forward to coming into work each morning as there are always new tasks and projects I can get involved in. For anyone who is thinking about working for Bury Council or doing an apprenticeship here I would recommend you go for it as it's a great place to work!"
Work experience is paramount in providing young people with the opportunity to experience the working world, which can initiate growth of their future aspirations, knowledge and skills.
Our work experience scheme champions opportunities for young people and helps to establish work experience placements within the council. This ensure that the young person and Bury Council get the most out of the placement.
We offer work experience placement for various time periods to students aged 14 to 24. If you would be interested in undertaking work experience at Bury Council then contact your work experience co-ordinator in your school or college, or alternatively you can contact us direct.
Public sector recruitment target
The government has set a target for public sector organisations to have 2.3% of their workforce made up of apprentices. Our progress towards this target can be found here: Apprenticeships - Public sector recruitment target.
Education and careers for 14 to 19 year olds
Offer to Schools Menu
Become Charity
Apprenticeships.gov
Gov.uk - Education
Gov.uk - Apply for an apprenticeship
Gov.uk - Become an apprentice
Gov.uk - Further education courses - if you're 16 or 17
Gov.uk - Finding a job
Greater Jobs - Job vacancies at Bury Council
The Apprenticeship Hub - See things differently
Contact for Backing Young Bury
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AFCCA Affirms Air Force Servicemember’s Sexual Assault Conviction -- U.S. v. Leach
The U.S. Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Military Judge Jimenez’s finding that Brandon Leach had violated Article 120 of the Uniform Code of Military Judge, 120 U.S.C. § 920. Appellant Leach raised nine (9) issues on appeal, however the Court found that the Appellant was not prejudiced and that the Military Judge had correctly decided the case.
Brandon Leach dated L.E., an Air Force reservist from May 2016 to May 2017, before the couple broke up and Leach asked L.E. to move out of their apartment. While Leach and L.E. had lived together, Leach had engaged in recreational use of marijuana and anabolic steroids.
On July 14, 2017, L.E. reported Leach’s drug use to Security Forces and disclosed that Leach had sexually assaulted her. Security Forces referred the case to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), who began to investigate the complaints before referring Leach to a court-martial in April 2018.
Procedural History:
Military Judge Christina Jimenez had previously found servicemember Brandon Leach guilty of one count of sexual assault, in violation of Article 120 of the Uniform Code of Military Judge (UCMJ), 120 U.S.C. § 920. Appellant Leach had also previously been found guilty of wrongful use of marijuana and wrongful use of anabolic steroids, in violation of Article 112(a) of UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 912a. Appellant Leach was sentenced to three year imprisonment, forfeiture of pay, was lowered to an E-1 pay-grade and received a reprimand. Appellant appeals his sexual assault conviction on nine (9) different grounds, however the Court declined to address the constitutionality of the sexual assault statute he was charged under.
Appellant alleged that the court martial lacked subject matter jurisdiction over him, as the government pursued an “unlawful use of force” theory of sexual assault against him and Appellant claimed he could not defend himself against a legal theory that he was not specifically charged with.
The Court dismissed this claim, as the Government has jurisdiction to charge any member of the armed forces who has allegedly violated a provision of the UCMJ.
Legal and Factual Sufficiency
Appellant alleged that the evidence was insufficient to support the guilty finding, as he believed that L.E. was not a credible witness. Appellant alleges that L.E. was inconsistent in her testimony, as she had falsely told Security Forces and AFOSI that she had sex with Appellant every day.
The Court looked at the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution and found that a rational finder of fact could find the Appellant guilty of sexual assault. Although L.E. had minor inconsistencies in her testimony, she was consistent about material facts that Appellant had penetrated her without consent, and despite her physical and verbal resistance. Despite the fact that a year had passed since the initial interviews by Security Forces and AFOSI, L.E.’s testimony only varied from her interviews in minor ways.
Admission of Prior Statements
Appellant alleged that the court had erred when it had admitted recordings from the interviews with L.E. and that his counsel was ineffective. The Court found that Appellant had waived his right to raise this issue, as he did not challenge the admission of the recordings during trial.
Consent Instructions
Appellant argued that Judge Jimenez provided an erroneous instruction for the definition of consent under the UCMJ. The Court found that Judge Jimenez’s instruction reflected the statute and noted that defense counsel never raised an objection to her instructions. Given that Appellant had not raised the issue during trial, the Court found that Appellant forfeited his right to raise it on appeal.
Trial Counsel’s Closing Argument
Appellant argued that that the prosecutor had engaged in misconduct when he referred to the Appellant as “a monster, a liar, and a terrible human being,” mentioned an uncharged offense (rape) several times, misstated the judge’s instructions and personally vouched for evidence.
The Court found that the prosecutor did not directly disparage the Appellant, but commented that women who are sexually assaulted by a partner may view their assailants as monsters, liars and as terrible human beings. Still, the Court believed that it’s a fair inference to make that victims will view their attackers negatively, however agreed that prosecutors should not use such rhetoric.
The Court also found that the prosecutor had unintentionally claimed that the Appellant was accused of rape twice, but that the other four (4) times the prosecutor had used the term to discuss how victims feel, rebut attacks from the defense and boost the witness’s credibility. The Court believed that the prosecutor should not have mentioned an uncharged offense, but believed there was no prejudice to the Appellant.
The Court found that the prosecutor was right when he told the court that if they believed L.E., they should vote to convict him.
Finally, the Court acknowledged that the prosecutor had improperly vouched for the evidence when he asserted that he believed that the evidence demonstrated that Appellant had sexually assaulted L.E. However, Judge Jimenez instructed the jury that her instructions controlled and to disregard any other improper instructions.
Overall, the Court believed that these errors were isolated incidents and had minimal impact on the outcome of the trial, as the Defense Counsel could not successfully impeach L.E.’s credibility.
Disclosure of Evidence
Appellant argued that the government failed to disclose exculpatory evidence from its pre-trial interview of L.E.
The Court found that the defense made an overly broad discovery request and never had specific discovery requests. The government failed to disclose two key facts that L.E. told trial counsel that Appellant wore sweatpants, despite telling investigators that he wore shorts, and that she told appellant “Ow, that hurts” during the assault, which she had not previously disclosed.
However, the Court believed that the outcome would not have changed as L.E. was consistent about all the material facts and her overall testimony did not cause doubts.
Appellant argues that his counsel was ineffective for not asking for the prosecutor’s disparaging comments about the Appellant to be suppressed. The Court found that a reasonable attorney might not have objected to this comment, and defense counsel did admit that he did not want to challenge “unpersuasive rhetoric.” Furthermore, the court did not believe that suppression of this statement would have led to a different outcome in the trial.
Post Trial Delay
Appellant contends that his due process right to a speedy trial was violated as he was not sentenced and issued an opinion in his case in a timely manner. The Court found that Appellant was sentenced eighteen (18) days later than required, due to the complexities of the case. Furthermore, the opinion was issued two (2) months late, as the Appellant took one year to file his assignment of error motion and asked for eleven extensions. The Court found that the delay was caused by the Appellant, thus the delay was not unreasonable.
The Court held that there was no undue delay that would lead an average person to question the fairness of the military justice system.
U.S. Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Military Judge Jimenez’s guilty finding and sentencing of Appellant, finding that there was no prejudicial error.
Brenner M. Fissell
Re: our discussion last week--note the Brady violation.
Don Rehkopf
1) If the Court were at all interested in stopping/preventing Brady violations, they could have and respectfully should have taken corrective action and done what needs to be done - indicate that such on-going issues will not be tolerated, period;
2) Blaming the Defense Counsel for the Brady violation for not having the crystal ball of precisely knowing what the complainant told the government, is even more problematic, if not downright disingenuous. If indeed the Court wanted to remedy Brady violations, then here was proof-positive (by the Court's own findings), of IAC; and,
3) Once again, this Court gives a "pass" to outrageous, improper arguments by the TC [cf. Voorhees], which brings to mind the words of federal judge Jerome Frank:
"If we continue to do nothing practical to prevent such [prosecutorial] conduct, we should cease to disapprove it. For otherwise it will be as if we declared in effect, Government attorneys, without fear of reversal, may say just about what they please in addressing juries, for our rules on the subject are pretend-rules. If prosecutors win verdicts as a result of ‘disapproved’ remarks, we will not deprive them of their victories; we will merely go through the form of expressing displeasure. The deprecatory words we use in our opinions on such occasions are purely ceremonial.' Government counsel, employing such tactics, are the kind who, eager to win victories, will gladly pay the small price of a ritualistic verbal spanking. The practice of this court- recalling the bitter tear shed by the Walrus as he ate the oysters-breeds a deplorably cynical attitude towards the judiciary." United States v. Antonelli Fireworks Co., 155 F.2d 631, 661 (2nd Cir. 1946) (Frank, J., dissenting).
So what language does the defense have to use in a discovery request to be specific enough to trigger the “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt standard” of the Hart test?
“The defense requests disclosure of any pant-related inconsistent statements?”
“The defense requests disclosure of any newly disclosed statements regarding expressions of discomfort during the charged acts?”
These examples are somewhat flippant, obviously that degree of specificity would be silly, but the question is a serious one: what language does the defense have to use?
What about “disclosure of any new or inconsistent statements made by the alleged victim to the trial counsel during pretrial interviews?”
Tami a/k/a Princess Leia
One would think that a request for "statements made by the alleged victim to the prosecution regarding the facts and disposition of this case" would suffice as a "specific" discovery request.
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Dr. Michael Colterjohn
Builder Inductee, 2016
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and raised in Lindsay, Ont., where his father Duncan was a family physician, Michael Colterjohn grew up around horses, fostering an equestrian passion which after his graduation in 1985 from the Ontario Veterinary College, inspired a career as one of Canada’s top equine reproductive veterinarians. His early apprenticeship was with Standardbreds in Kemptville, Trois Rivieres, Ottawa and Montreal Hippodrome before moving to Ontario and opening his own veterinary practice, working with horses on the OJC circuit.
He was hired by Gardiner Farms in 1987. In 1990 owner George Gardiner asked his vet to run the Thoroughbred racing and breeding farm. A unique ownership deal in the operation of Gardiner Farms was made and Dr. Colterjohn, who earlier was involved in the acquisition of the stallion Bold Executive, slowly added to the small broodmare band. Under his management, and with farm manager Sherry McLean, the Caledon East farm became one of the country’s most respected breeding operations, prompting the demand for yearlings bred, raised and sold by Gardiner Farms. Stakes winners included Kitty’s Got Class, Legal Move, London Snow, Midnight Shadow, Rare Friends and Top Ten List. Gardiner Farms won a Sovereign Award as Outstanding Breeder of the year in 2012.
Following the pending sale of Gardiner Farms in 2008, Colterjohn along with his wife, veterinarian Dr. Moira Gunn, purchased the Gardiner-owned livestock he had spent so much time and effort amassing and they continued breeding under Paradox Farm Inc. The list of Paradox-bred horses include 2014 Queen’s Plate winner Lexie Lou along with Sovereign Award winner Pender Harbour.
Dr. Gunn summed up her late husband’s philosophy and dedication to the horse racing industry, saying “He felt strongly that breeding horses was as much about helping other broodmare owners succeed as it was about Gardiner Farms or Paradox’s success. Mike wanted to make stallions accessible to the smaller breeders. He helped many people select mares, select crosses, and develop better yearlings for the market. His focus was to help the Ontario-sired product reach the highest level of success. He succeeded for Gardiner, Paradox and himself, and along the way he also helped elevate many other breeders, the OSS program, and the sales.” Dr. Colterjohn died in 2012.
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Indonesia 6:55 am - 63 views
Parts of black box found
Quarantine centre built
China 6:48 am - 135 views
Business 6:57 am - 7 views
Overdose deaths in B.C. and Interior on track to hit record high this year
ODs on track to record high
Nicholas Johansen - Nov 25, 2020 / 10:51 am | Story: 317392
In the first 10 months of this year, 216 people in B.C.'s Interior have died from illicit drug overdoses, putting 2020 on track to be the worst year ever for overdose deaths in the region.
Of the 162 illicit drug overdose deaths across B.C. in October, 33 came from the Interior Health region. There have been 1,386 overdose deaths province-wide this year.
“This is the fifth month this year with more than 160 suspected illicit drug deaths reported to the BC Coroners Service and more than double the number of people who died as a result of a toxic drug supply in October 2019," said Lisa Lapointe, chief coroner.
“Challenges during COVID-19, such as access to key harm-reduction services and the toxic drug supply, including the extreme concentration of illicit fentanyl, are resulting in continuing significant and tragic loss of life across the province.”
Locally, the number of overdose deaths are increasing. Seven more people in Kelowna died from overdose in October, accounting for 15 per cent of the 45 total deaths this year.
Vernon had five more deaths last month, making up 24 per cent of the city's 21 deaths this year, while Kamloops saw seven new deaths, 14 per cent of its 50 overdose deaths in 2020.
Overdose deaths across the entire Interior Health region peaked in 2017, when 246 people died from illicit drugs. If similar numbers of deaths continue in the region this year, total deaths could exceed 260 by the end of 2020. Province-wide, overdose deaths are also on track to reach a record high by the end of 2020.
"The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a devastating effect on the overdose crisis in B.C.," said Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer. "Exacerbating this is the highly toxic drug supply that exists in our communities right now. This latest report shows the tragic impact this crisis is having on British Columbians, and this is a problem for all of us. Now more than ever, we must remove the stigma of drug use and remove the shame people feel, which keeps them from seeking help or telling friends and family."
In the past three years, 87 per cent of all overdose deaths in the province have involved fentanyl or fentanyl analogues, while 49.5 per cent have involved cocaine.
This year, 55.2 per cent of all overdose deaths have occurred inside a home, while another 25.8 per cent have occurred inside some other residence. Just 14.9 per cent of overdose deaths occurred outside. To date, no deaths have occurred at any supervised consumption site or overdose prevention site in B.C.
Men have accounted for 80 per cent of the deaths in 2020, while 70 per cent were between the ages of 30 and 59.
Parts of black box foundIndonesia - 6:51 am
Quarantine centre builtChina - 6:48 am
'Hero' officer stays silentWashington, DC - 6:46 am
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Volume 1, Issue 3 December 2018, pp. 100–109
Sofia A. Koutlaki 1, Zohreh R. Eslami 2
1 Independent Researcher, Qatar
2 Texas A&M University - College Station, USA / Texas A&M University - Qatar, Qatar
With continuous advances in communication, technology, and increased mobility, intercultural communication competence has become an essential element to address in foreign and second language education (Kramsch, 2013, Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013). This paper proposes a pedagogical approach to intercultural language education that utilizes the students' L1 (i.e., Persian) to facilitate cultural awareness and successful intercultural communication. A cultural analysis model is used to show how L1 cultural values contribute to politeness and speech act realization patterns and how that knowledge can be used when making sense of the pragmatics of other languages. Specifically, we place emphasis on learners' critical awareness and appreciation of their own cultural values and language in order to be able to develop heightened sensitivity to the potential influence of cultural assumptions on communication. Our approach aligns well with the current shift towards critical pedagogy which encourages learners to be critically reflective (Kumaravadivelu, 2008) with awareness and appreciation of their own local cultural values and critical awareness of other cultures. After discussing how cultural conceptualisations of face and politeness influence the use of pragmatics and speech act realization patterns in Persian, we suggest a number of pedagogical activities to raise students' meta-pragmatic awareness and capacity for reflecting on relationships between language use and culture.
© Sofia A. Koutlaki, Zohreh R. Eslami
Koutlaki, S.A., & Eslami, Z.R. (2018). Critical intercultural communication education: cultural analysis and pedagogical applications. Intercultural Communication Education, 1(3), 100–109. https://doi.org/10.29140/ice.v1n3.110
Adam Poole
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 11 August, 2018, Volume 1(1), 4–11.
Strategy use, self-efficacy beliefs, and self-regulatedness in adult foreign language learning
Akihiro Saito
Australian Journal of Applied Linguistics Published: 26 August, 2020, Volume 3(2), 152–167.
Technology in Language Teaching & Learning Published: 21 December, 2019, Volume 1(2), 52–67.
In pursuit of intercultural competence: Exploring self-awareness of EFL pupils in a lower-secondary school in Norway
Anastasia Khanukaeva
Language, diversity and culturally responsive education
Ann E. Lopez
Migration and Language Education Published: 30 April, 2020, Volume 1(1), 3–13.
Aser Nazzal K. Altalib
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Pope Francis: The Catholic Church belongs to Christ
Vatican City, Jun 29, 2019 / 07:35 am (CNA).- The Catholic Church is Christ’s beloved bride, Pope Francis said Saturday on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.
“To the Lord we are not a group of believers or a religious organization, we are His bride. He looks at His Church with tenderness, He loves it with absolute fidelity, despite our mistakes and betrayals,” Pope Francis said June 29.
In his Angelus address for the feast of the patron saints of Rome, Pope Francis reflected on Christ’s words to St. Peter, “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.”
“Like that day to Peter, today He says to all of us: ‘my Church, you are my Church,’” the pope said. “And we too can repeat it: my Church.”
“Today, through the intercession of the Apostles, we ask for the grace to love our Church,” Pope Francis said.
“We ask for the strength to pray for those who do not think like us,” he added.
Saints Peter and Paul were very different, Pope Francis explained: “a fisherman and a Pharisee with different life experiences, characters, ways of doing things, and very different sensibilities.”
“But what united them was infinitely greater: Jesus was the Lord of both. Together they said ‘my Lord’ to Him who says ‘my Church,’” the pope said.
“Brothers in faith, they invite us to rediscover the joy of being brothers and sisters in the Church,” he said. “How nice it is to know that we belong to each other, because we share the same faith, the same love, the same hope, the same Lord.”
Pope Francis said that the feast of Saints Peter and Paul invites each Catholic to say, “Thank you, Lord, for that person who is different than me: it is a gift for my Church.”
“It is good to appreciate the qualities of others, to recognize the gifts of others without malice and without envy,” he said. “Envy causes bitterness inside, it is vinegar on the heart.”
The pope recommended praying for the intercession of the two saints for “a heart that knows how to welcome others with the tender love that Jesus has for us.”
As early as the year 258, there is evidence of an already lengthy tradition of celebrating the solemnities of both Saint Peter and Saint Paul on the same day. Together, the two saints are the founders of the See of Rome, through their preaching, ministry and martyrdom.
In a sermon in the year 395, St. Augustine of Hippo said of Sts. Peter and Paul: “Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles’ blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith.”
“I ask you, please, say a prayer for me through the intercession of Saints Peter and Paul,” Pope Francis said.
Saints Peter and Paul witness to the power of God’s forgiveness, pope says
The mission of the prophets, the resolution of the Messiah
Pope Francis gives thousands of rosaries to Christians in Syria
August 15, 2019 CNA Daily News 0
Vatican City, Aug 15, 2019 / 05:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis announced Thursday that he is giving 6,000 blessed rosaries to Catholic communities in Syria as a sign of his closeness on the Marian Feast of the Assumption.
“Prayer made with faith is … […]
Abuse allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick ‘credible’
Vatican City, Jun 20, 2018 / 07:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Archdiocese of New York announced Wednesday that an investigation they conducted into allegations of sexual abuse against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who oversaw multiple major U.S. dioceses, has found the accusations to be “credible and substantiated.”
In the June 20 statement, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, said the alleged abuse happened nearly 50 years ago while McCarrick was a priest of the New York archdiocese. It is the only such accusation against the McCarrick that the archdiocese is aware of, Dolan said.
Once the archdiocese received the allegation, they turned it over to local law enforcement, and it was “thoroughly investigated” by an independent forensics team, Dolan said, noting that McCarrick has maintained his innocence, but is cooperating in the investigation.
The Vatican has been informed of the accusation, and as a result, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, by order of Pope Francis, has prohibited McCarrick from public ministry. No official statement from the Vatican has been released.
McCarrick, 87, is a native of New York and served as the Bishop of Metuchen from 1982-1986, Archbishop of Newark from 1986-2000 and Archbishop of Washington from 2000-2006.
In his own statement on the alleged abuse, McCarrick said he was informed by Dolan about the allegation of abusing a teenager several months ago.
“While shocked by the report, and while maintaining my innocence,” he said, “I considered it essential that the charges be reported to the police, thoroughly investigated by an independent agency, and given to the Review Board of the Archdiocese of New York. I fully cooperated in the process.”
The cardinal said he was sad to hear that the allegations had been deemed “credible and substantiated” by law enforcement officials.
He said that he accepts the Holy See’s decision to remove him from public ministry, and has pledged obedience to the decision.
“I realize this painful development will shock my many friends, family members, and people I have been honored to serve in my sixty-years as a priest,” he said, adding that while he has “absolutely no recollection of this reported abuse, and believe in my innocence, I am sorry for the pain the person who brought the charges has gone through, as well as for the scandal such charges cause our people.”
In his statement, Dolan said the Archdiocese of New York is “saddened and shocked” by the accusations, and asked for prayers for everyone involved.
Dolan also issued a renewed apology to all victims abused by priests, and thanked McCarrick’s accuser for having the courage to come forward. He voiced hope that this case “can bring a sense of resolution and fairness.”
In a separate statement from the Archdiocese of Newark, Cardinal Joseph Tobin said news of the accusations against McCarrick were met with “a range of emotions,” and offered his apology to victims of abuse.
“I am thinking particularly of those who have experienced the trauma of sexual abuse by clergy – whose lives have been impacted tragically by abuse,” he said. “To those survivors, their families and loved ones, I offer my sincere apologies and my commitment of prayer and action to support you in your healing.”
Tobin said the Archdiocese of Newark has never received any report or accusation against McCarrick.
He noted that many people in Newark likely know McCarrick well from his time leading the archdiocese, and that while the accusations might be hard to comprehend, “we must put first the serious nature of this matter with respect and support for the process aimed at hearing victims and finding truth.”
“The abuse crisis in our Church has been devastating. We cannot undo the actions of the past, but we must continue to act with vigilance today,” Tobin said, and renewed his commitment to seek forgiveness and healing, and to creating a safe environment for children in Newark.
Tobin pledged to continue reporting “immediately to civil authorities any accusation of sexual abuse of a minor by clergy and [I] will cooperate fully in the investigation and adjudication.”
He encouraged anyone abused by a priest to come forward “as brave survivors before you have done,” and urged priests, religious and faithful of the archdiocese to keep the situation in their prayers.
Details of the canonical process of McCarrick’s trial have not been released, however, Bishop James F. Checchio, current Bishop of Metuchen, said McCarrick “is appealing this matter through the canonical process.”
After hearing about the “very disturbing” from New York, Checchio said he had Metuchen’s records re-examined, and no accusations of sexual abuse had ever been raised against McCarrick. However, in the past, allegations of “sexual behavior with adults” had been brought forward.
Both the Diocese of Metuchen and the Archdiocese of Newark, he said, decades ago received three allegations of “sexual misconduct with adults,” and that two of these allegations have resulted in settlements.
Pope Francis: Latin America needs a new Catholic presence in politics
Vatican City, Mar 4, 2019 / 10:56 am (CNA).- Pope Francis called Monday for a new approach to politics in Latin America that incorporates the principles of Catholic social teaching.
“A new presence of Catholics in politics is necessary in Latin … […]
Christ is the Alpha and the Omega in the Catholic Church.
Foggy Controversies, Empty Protests, and Faux Freedom
Carl E. Olson October 13, 2011 0
“But we make a distinction between health care and killing…” — Cardinal Justin Rigali, November 20, 2009. “This is not about left versus right … It’s about hierarchy versus autonomy.” — A 25-year-old “Occupy Wall […]
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CHINA-US: CHINA'S PEOPLE'S DAILY ATTACKS US SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO
On August 25, the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece People’s Daily, in three full pages out of a total of 20, published an extremely lengthy opinion that runs through a barrage of criticisms against U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as a response to his speech on July 23, 2020, at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in California. The first two paragraphs read: “A few days ago, U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo delivered a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in California. He totally negated China-U.S. relations, maliciously attacked the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and China’s political system, drove a wedge between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people, and made groundless accusations on China’s domestic and foreign policies. Pompeo spread the ‘China Threat Theory’ in an attempt to provoke and piece together an international anti-China alliance and contain China’s development.” “Pompeo’s remarks, ignoring history and reality, are full of strong ideological prejudice and a Cold War mentality. Not only did the Chinese people condemn Pompeo’s remarks, but also rational people in the United States and the international community criticized and opposed them.” It then dug out 26 statements from Pompeo’s speech and ran a point-by-point rebuttal. The 34,000-Chinese-character-long article, if put into Word with a font size of 12 and normal margins, would be 30 pages long. The English-language China Daily (August 28 - September 3, 2020) reproduced a Xinhua report captioned 'Fact check on Pompeo's speech' as a full 5-page criticism of Pompeo.
Of interest is that the first two points in the People's Daily article were: 1. Pompeo: The Chinese people are not the same as the Chinese Communist Party. The biggest lie of the Chinese Communist Party is to speak for the 1.4 billion Chinese people. The Chinese Communist Party fears the honest opinions of the Chinese people more than any enemy. Wrong!
◆The Communist Party of China does not have any special interests of its own. It always regards the happiness of the Chinese people and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation as its original intention and mission. It always represents the fundamental interests of most people in China, serves the people wholeheartedly, and insists on relying on the people in everything. Everything is for the people, the people are supreme in everything, and the people's interests are regarded as the starting point and end of all work. The Communist Party of China has led the Chinese people to win independence, freedom and liberation, and has continuously made great achievements in the process of national construction and development.
◆The foundation of the Chinese Communist Party lies in the people, and the blood lies in the people. The leadership of the Chinese Communist Party is the choice of history and the people. In the 99 years since its founding, the Communist Party of China has grown from a small party with more than 50 party members to a large party with nearly 100 million members. The Communist Party of China is deeply rooted in the Chinese people. It is deeply connected with the Chinese people and has always maintained vigor and vitality. As of the end of 2019, the Communist Party of China had a total of 91.914 million party members and 18.992 million applicants. It is the world's largest party that has long been in power in the world's most populous country. No one can turn a blind eye to the fact that the Chinese Communist Party is endorsed and supported by the Chinese people. Palmer, the senior editor of the US "Foreign Policy" magazine, pointed out that the Communist Party of China has deeply integrated into the lives of ordinary Chinese people. "Without the Communist Party, there would be no new China" is the common belief of the Chinese people. Trusting the Communist Party of China is the mainstream public opinion in China.
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Publications Fund Administrators in Malta
Fund Administrators in Malta
Dr Anton John Mifsud | Published on 05 Nov 2012 | Updated on 26 Sep 2018
The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) is responsible for the recognition, regulation and supervision of Fund Administrators and it also licenses, regulates and supervises investment services, insurance principals and intermediaries, collective investment schemes and recognized investment exchanges. The MFSA requires the highest standards of probity and honesty and every license and recognition is issued subject to standard conditions which may be adapted to suit certain circumstances so long as standards are not compromised.
The Investment Services Act (CAP. 370 of the Laws of Malta) provides that any person who in Malta or from Malta provides to license holders in Malta, or to equivalent authorised persons and schemes overseas, administrative services which do not themselves constitute licensable activity under this Act, shall be required to apply for recognition by the MFSA.
Fund administration services typically include:
Preparation of Net Asset Value;
Reconciliations;
Pricing the Investment Portfolio;
Fund Accounting;
Preparation of Contract Notes;
Transfer Agency;
Payment of Bills;
Preparation of Financial Statements;
Performance Reporting;
Compliance Reporting;
The above is not an exhaustive list of services which may be provided by a Fund Administrator. The first six line items are generally regarded as the core services ordinarily performed by Fund Administrators for which recognition in terms of the Investment Services Act is required. On the other hand, the provision of one or a limited number of the other ancillary services does not necessarily trigger the recognition requirement under the Investment Services Act, although this is an issue that is determined by the MFSA.
Exemption from the registration requirement
The Investment Services Act (Exemption) Regulations provides that a person resident outside Malta, providing administrative services to a collective investment scheme licensed in Malta, is exempt from the requirement of obtaining a recognition when providing such services to:
a collective investment scheme licensed under the Investment Services Act and qualifying as a Professional Investor Fund, where the MFSA is satisfied that such person is of sufficient standing and repute; or
a collective investment scheme licensed under the Investment Services Act and which does not qualify as a Professional Investor Fund provided that such person is adequately regulated in its country of residence to the satisfaction of the MFSA and is considered by the same authority to be of sufficient standing and repute.
Recognition requirements
A Fund Administrator is required to be effectively directed or managed by at least two individuals in satisfaction of the “dual control” principle. Any person proposing to occupy the post of Director and all of the officers of an applicant Fund Administrator are required to be fit and proper persons to carry out the functions required of them. This entails appointing persons who are of sufficiently good repute and sufficiently experienced so as to ensure the sound and prudent management of the Fund Administrator.
A request for recognition as an Administrator of a Collective Investment Scheme in terms of the Investment Services Act should be supported by the following documents:
a duly completed Application for recognition as an Administrator of a Collective Investment Scheme;
a business plan, including a description of the Fund Administration Services to be provided and details as to whom such services will be provided;
Memorandum & Articles of Association, deed of partnership or equivalent constitutive document depending on the legal structure of the Applicant;
a copy of the most recent audited accounts of the Applicant or in the case of a new entity, three year financial projections;
a duly completed Personal Questionnaire by each Director and qualifying shareholder of the Fund Administrator as well as by the proposed Compliance Officer and Money Laundering Reporting Officer.
resolution of the Directors/ General Partners of the Fund Administrator confirming their intention to apply for a Recognition as an Administrator of a Collective Investment Scheme in terms of the Investment Services Act;
address of the premises in Malta from where the Fund Administration Services will be rendered including the relevant contact details;
Memorandum and Articles of Association and most recent audited accounts of any Qualifying corporate shareholders of the Fund Administrator;
a chart which illustrates the internal operational structure of the Applicant with respect to its proposed fund administration business (this should show names, reporting lines and roles);
a diagram showing the relationships between the Fund Administrator and other members (if any) of the group. The “family tree” submitted should give details up to the ultimate beneficial owner(s), showing percentage sizes of holdings in each entity; unless:
the entity has one ultimate beneficial owner with a holding of over 50% of the voting rights; or
the entity has no less than fifty ultimate beneficial owners who between them account for over 50% of the voting rights.
an application fee of EUR3,000 and an annual supervisory fee of EUR 1,200.
The above is an indicative list of the documentation that is required, given that the MFSA retains the discretion to require applicant Fund Administrator to submit whatever additional information it deems appropriate for the purposes of determining whether it should grant recognition or otherwise.
In the case that a License Holder under the Investment Services Act, the Financial Institutions Act or under the Banking Act is desirous of applying for a recognition to act as a Fund Administrator, the documentation to be submitted is less voluminous. This in view of the fact that such entities would already be known to the MFSA.
Continuing requirements
A Fund Administrator is required to commence the provision of its services within twelve months of the date of issue of the Recognition Certificate by MFSA. If, for any reason this does not happen, a notification should be sent to the MFSA in writing setting out the reason for such a delay together with an updated business plan indicating the proposed date of commencement of business. On the basis of the information provided and the circumstances of the case, the MFSA may decide to suspend or cancel the Recognition Certificate.
A Fund Administrator is expected to take reasonable steps to ensure on an ongoing basis a degree of continuity and regularity in the performance of its services. In this respect, it is expected to employ appropriate and proportionate systems, resources and procedures.
A Fund Administrator is obliged to maintain decision-making procedures and an organizational structure which clearly specifies reporting lines and allocates functions and responsibilities. There should also be established adequate internal control mechanisms and internal reporting lines in order to secure compliance with decisions and procedures at all levels of the Fund Administrator. This apart from the obligation to maintain adequate and orderly records of the business activities. In so doing, a Fund Administrator needs to consider the nature, scale, range and complexity of its business. On the client-facing side, a Fund Administrator is required to establish procedures in order to safeguard the security, integrity and confidentiality of information as well as to ensure an adequate business continuity process in the case of an interruption to its systems and procedures. The systems, process and mechanisms listed above need to be reviewed from time to time in order to take appropriate measures to address any deficiencies that might arise.
On the conduct-of-business side, a Fund Administrator is expected to conduct its business relating to a scheme by means of a written agreement. Such an agreement should set out the basis on which any services are to be provided, and it may be entered into either with the scheme or alternatively with the Manager of such scheme. Nothing precludes the provision of fund administration services by a Fund Administrator acting as a delegate of another Fund Administrator, pursuant to an outsourcing agreement entered into between the parties.
The Fund Administrator is required to determine the Net Asset Value of a scheme in respect of which it acts as Fund Administrator in accordance with the Constitutional Documents or Prospectus of such scheme. A Fund Administrator is bound to notify the MFSA of any material valuation errors (>0.5% of Net Asset Value) relating to a scheme in respect of which it acts as Fund Administrator on becoming aware of such error.
Any subscription or redemption instructions received by a Fund Administrator in respect of a scheme in relation to which it acts as Fund Administrator are to be addressed directly to the scheme and under no circumstances shall such instructions be addressed directly to the Fund Administrator.
As is the case with every other regulated entity, a Fund Administrator is required to appoint an auditor to audit its annual financial statements. The Fund Administrator is then required to submit its annual audited financial statements to the MFSA and such other information, returns and reports as the MFSA may from time to time request. The Annual Report is to be accompanied by:
a letter from the Board of Directors of the Fund Administrator listing the names and domiciles of the schemes it provided Fund Administration Services to (either by appointment by the schemes directly or by the schemes` Manager) during the relevant financial period; and
a report from the auditor to the MFSA, confirming whether in its opinion and further to the information available to it during the course of its audit, the activities of the Fund Administrator were, during the relevant accounting period, restricted to fund administration and did not involve licensable activity in terms of the Investment Services Act.
In principle, a Fund Administrator is permitted to outsource certain of its functions. In so doing, a Fund Administrator is required to exercise due skill, care and diligence when entering into, managing or terminating any such arrangement. In particular, it must ensure that the service provider is able and has the capacity and any authorisation required by law to perform the outsourced functions, reliably and professionally. This should be accompanied by regular supervision and risk-management processes in order to ensure proper performance of duties and business continuity.
In this respect, when relying on a third party for the performance of operational functions which are critical for the provision and quality of its service, the Fund Administrator should take reasonable steps to avoid undue additional operational risk. An operational function is regarded as critical or important if a defect or failure in its performance would materially impair the continuing compliance of a Fund Administrator with the conditions and obligations of its recognition or its other obligations under the law, or its financial performance, or the soundness or the continuity of its Fund Administration business. The MFSA has issued guidance over this point, highlighting certain activities which are deemed not to be critical or important:
the provision to the Fund Administrator of advisory services, and other services which do not form part of the core fund administration services provided by the Fund Administrator, including the provision of legal advice to the Fund Administrator, the training of the Fund Administrator’s personnel, billing services and the security of the Fund Administrator’s premises and personnel;
the purchase of standardised services, including market information services.
Outsourcing cannot be conducted in a way as to impair materially the quality of the Fund Administrator’s internal control. Such should also not restrict the ability of the MFSA to monitor the Fund Administrator’s compliance with all its obligations. In any case, whenever there is the outsourcing of any function, whether critical or important or otherwise, the Fund Administrator remains fully responsible for discharging all of its obligations under the law and towards clients.
Compliance and AML Function
Every Fund Administrator is required to have at all times a Compliance Officer. The Compliance Officer’s responsibility extends to all aspects of compliance and for acting as the main point of contact with the MFSA. Nonetheless, responsibility for the compliance obligations of the Fund Administrator rests with the Board of Directors of the same Fund Administrator, and the same applies for the Fund Administrator’s obligations with respect to prevention of money laundering obligations.
Crowdfunding Regulatory Framework
The MSE: a gateway to regulated markets
2012 - Malta classified again as an Attractive Financial Servic
Post-Brexit: Why relocate your Business to Malta?
Malta Custodian Services
Investment Service Providers
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Condolences following the passing away of Mr. Abdellah Boussouf's brother
Belgium: Two belgian female ministers from Moroccan origin appointed to the new government
Condolences: Mr Hamid Bichri’s mother passes away
The Royal Speech on 67th Anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People
A delegation of Moroccan party representatives in Europe visits the Council of the Moroccan community abroad
"The CCME, a body that has been able to bring migration to the heart of the public debate" (Mr.Boussouf)
CCME: "the polisario Security and Terrorist Threats: From International Law to Geopolitical Challenges"
CCME:" Which policies to ensure the protection of migrants' rights? »
Multilingualism, the traditional form of cultural exchange
CCME organizes a round-table on “Migration, an opportunity for Humanity?”
The CCME organizes a giant dictation and a broadcast to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity
"The Moroccans living abroad need to be furnished with the scientific knowledge to ensure effective advocacy on the Sahara issue” (Mr Abdellah Boussouf)
The CCME launches a training project for advocacy on the Moroccan Sahara
Moroccan Culture beyond borders by Mr Abdellah Boussouf
Souad Elmallem, a success story in aeronautics
Souad Elmallem is one of those women who succeeded in what was once a field strictly reserved for men: aeronautics. Chief Representative of Bombardier Aerospace and of Strategy and International Business Development, Africa, Originally from Casablanca, Souad Elmallem has moved to Canada where she settled and started a family.
COP22 : Interview with Mr. Abdellah Boussouf
Many questions come to mind regarding the correlation between climate change, migration and the Moroccan community abroad. In light of the waves of migration, what could be the link between COP22 and migratory matters? M. Boussouf : As the organizer of the COP22, Morocco claims to be at the same level as other countries, which have the capability to host large-scale events and naturally contribute to resolving international issues. The mission of our nation during this COP will mainly be of executive nature as this conference was preceded by the COP21 during which all parties committed to adhere a process designed to protect the environment and to mitigate climate change impacts. Consequently, the Kingdom’s mission during this summit is to define the execution mechanisms to take up the climate challenge. His Majesty wants to position this event as an African summit. Indeed, Africa is the continent most impacted by global warming and these effects will determine its future.
A delegation of collective actors and representatives of a Group of Moroccan parties in Europe visited the Council of the Moroccan Community...
Mr. Abdellah Boussouf, Secretary General of the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME), was the special guest of the direct broadcast...
" The polisario, security and terrorist threats: from international law to geopolitical challenges "is the subject of the fourth direct broadcast organized...
"Moroccans living abroad: which policies to ensure the migrants rights? "is the issue of the broadcast organized, Saturday, December 19, 2020, by...
Nour Festival : The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
There was a time when the world was truly vast and people were very much apart. A time when everyone relied on scarce forms of obtaining news, a time when one wrote a letter to a loved one, and waited days if not weeks to have news back.
Today’s technology, has shrunk the world into a minute entity; With the abundance of news providers, social media and fast and instant messaging, we have come to learn about events as they occur, good, bad or ugly.
Technology has also meant opening a free for all channel to those whose intentions are not always conducive to the greater good.
Mr. Boussouf guest star on Al Oula TV Show (arabic)
Paris: Tribute to his Majesty at the "One Planet Summit"
Zoom on...
The Movement PEGIDA
"The CCME, a body that has been able to bring migration to the head of the public debate"
Study : "The legal status of Moroccans living abroad"
The Council of the Moroccan Community Living Abroad (CCME) has recently released a research in two volumes on » the legal status of Moroccans living abroad » conducted by the researcher Mohamed Benyahya.
Study: « Islam of Spain and the legal status of religious leaders »
Entitled "Islam of Spain: legal status, the question of the training of religious leaders", a collective work, recently published by the Council of the Moroccan Community living Abroad (CCME), has been realized by experts, academics and specialists who took part...
Culture : "This is not a suitcase"by Taha Adnan
Taha Adnan, the writer and Moroccan poet living in Brussels has published :"This is not a suitcase" with the support of the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME) and the Ministry of Culture.
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