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Jane Eldridge Miller
Jane Eldridge Miller whose Rebel Women: Feminism, Modernism and the Edwardian Novel was reviewed here earlier this year, teaches English at Princeton University.
Pig Cupid’s Rosy Snout
Jane Eldridge Miller, 19 June 1997
In the memoirs, autobiographies and biographies of those who were central to the development of Modernism, Mina Loy turns up with a Zelig-like ubiquity. She studied art in Munich at the same time as Kandinsky and Klee. Her paintings were exhibited in the 1905 Salon d’Automne in which the first Fauvist works were shown. While living in Florence, she became friends with Gertrude Stein and Mabel Dodge, and had affairs with Marinetti and Papini. She spent the First World War in New York as part of Walter Arensberg’s circle, which included Duchamp, Picabia, Varèse, Man Ray and William Carlos Williams. She sketched Freud in Vienna and lived among the avant garde in postwar Berlin. In the Twenties, when American expatriates flocked to Paris, Loy was there too.
Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy
by Carolyn Burke.
The Lost Lunar Baedeker: Poems
by Mina Loy, selected and edited by Roger Conover.
In the memoirs, autobiographies and biographies of those who were central to the development of Modernism, Mina Loy turns up with a Zelig-like ubiquity. She studied art in Munich at the same time...
No Sense of an Ending
Jane Eldridge Miller, 21 September 1995
To read the letters of Dorothy Richardson is to become exhausted, vicariously, by the ‘non-stop housewifery’ which consumed her days. From 1918 until 1939, Richardson and her husband moved three times a year. Every autumn, they settled in a primitive rented cottage in Cornwall, where Richardson was responsible for shopping, cooking and cleaning, as well as for her own and her husband’s sizeable correspondence. In the spring, Richardson would pack up their belongings and they would move to nearby lodgings for a few months, only to pack up again, this time to live in London for the summer, where Richardson’s domestic duties lessened but her social ones increased, as she and her husband met friends and associates they were unable to see the rest of the year. Then in the autumn, Richardson prepared their London rooms for winter tenants, and they returned to Cornwall.
Windows on Modernism: Selected Letters of Dorothy Richardson
edited by Gloria Fromm.
To read the letters of Dorothy Richardson is to become exhausted, vicariously, by the ‘non-stop housewifery’ which consumed her days. From 1918 until 1939, Richardson and her husband...
Pieces about Jane Eldridge Miller in the LRB
Costume Codes
David Trotter, 12 January 1995
Towards the end of Radclyffe Hall’s The Unlit Lamp (1924), the heroine, Joan Ogden, who has grown miserably old in a small provincial town, overhears two young women discussing her. She...
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Egypt Pyramids Facts
The first step in building a pyramid was to choose a suitable site. This had to be on the west side of the Nile because the west was where the sun set and where the dead were thought to enter the underworld. The pyramids also needed to be situated on the high ground, away from the danger of flooding at the time of the Nile's inundation.
However, it could not be too far away from the bank because the river would be used to transport blocks of fine quality limestone for the outer casing from Tura, on the other side of the Nile. The site chosen would be at a point on the desert plateau that would prove a firm rock base capable of supporting the great weigh of the pyramid without any risk of cracking. It would also need to be within easy reach of the capital, so that the king could go to inspect the building work whenever he wished.
The Ancient City of Memphis:
Some of the oldest structures in Cairo date back to almost two centuries BC during the Greco-Roman period; however, the Giza Pyramids are considered as the most famous and the oldest structures among all other pyramids in Egypt. Despite being close to Cairo city, the gap in the date between building the pyramids and the city itself proves that they have distinct histories.
Before Cairo city ever existed, the pyramids at Giza were part of an older city legacy and civilization. The ancient city of Memphis was the source of authority of the Old Kingdom (2686—2181 BC) of Ancient Egypt, and it was the hometown of Egyptians who built the pyramids.
One of the interesting Egypt pyramids facts is that, during that period, Memphis was the most powerful and well known city not only in Egypt, but also in the whole world. What made it really famous was that, during that time, almost 100 pyramids were built near Cairo alone.
Cairo’s location, being near to Memphis city, proves how important was Memphis throughout the ancient Egyptian history. Moreover, both Cairo and Memphis were and still located at the top part of the Nile Delta.
Giza Necropolis:
The Giza Pyramids are attached to the name of Egypt itself. The huge sizes of the pyramids, especially the Giza ones, are and will always be an awe factor for millions of tourists who visit Egypt all year long. The amazement factor comes from the question that everyone who visits Egypt asks, how the three kings, Khafre, Khufu, and Menkaure, managed to build such huge structures?
Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops Pyramid):
Egypt pyramids facts are plenty and one amazing fact is that Khufu pyramid is considered as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and is known as the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Khafre, the son of Khufu, and king Menkaure, also known for their impressive pyramids in Giza, but none of the two pyramids are as huge as the great pyramid of King Khufu. The Great Pyramid was constructed during 2560 BC and it is 481 feet tall, and now it reached 455 feet because of the removal of its remarkable capstone.
Today’s Archeologists consider the ancient Egyptian structures like the pyramids as great indicators of Egypt’s economic and political stability during the Old and Middle Kingdoms of ancient history. It consumed so many resources to build a pyramid, and also a lot of effort to get the right and qualified labor force for the construction process. The huge size and quality of structure of the construction of pyramids at different periods during that time of Ancient Egyptian history shows that there were more advanced building resources available during the 4th dynasty than at any other time.
Khafre Pyramid (Pyramid of Chefren):
Khafre pyramid is considered as the second largest pyramid in Giza. It was built for king Khafre, the third pharaoh who belongs to the 4th Dynasty during the Period of Ancient Egypt’s Old Kingdom (2540 BC). The king was also known by the name Chephren, which was a Greek name. He was the son of King Khufu, who built the Great Pyramid of Giza and was the grandson of King Sneferu.
The pyramids built by king Khafre and his family are considered as the greatest in Egypt’s history and human history, during the ‘golden age’ of the Old Kingdom.
The statue of the Great Sphinx is also one of the most famous structures of the ancient Egyptian history. It was built for the purpose of protecting the burial site of the kings in Giza.
The Great Sphinx statue is located next to the Valley Temple which is near the pyramid of Khafre. During excavation, a large statue of the king was found next to the Great Sphinx statue.
Pyramid of Menkaure (Mykerinus Pyramid):
Pyramid of Menkaure is the third pyramid and the smallest one among the great pyramids of Giza. It belongs to King Menkaure (Mycerinus in Greek). Archaeologists believe that it has been finished at the end of the 26th century BC. King Menkaure, just like the other kings who own pyramids at Giza, ruled Egypt during the 4th Dynasty at the time of the Old Kingdom Period of Ancient Egyptian history.
Some archeological evidence suggests that Menkaure is the successor of King Khafre, the owner of the second pyramid and the statue of the Great Sphinx, but some historical accounts denied that fact.
The pyramid of Menkaure used to be originally 215 feet high, but now the height of the pyramid is 204 feet high due to the removal of the pyramid’s outer casing and capstone. Just like the other pyramids in Giza, the lower section of the pyramid of Menkaure was encased in pink granite and the top parts of it in white Tura limestone.
The Great Sphinx of Giza:
With a body of a lion and a head of a human, statues like the great Sphinx appeared for the first time ever in Egypt as a kind of representation of a two sided story behind each structure of a statue during the beginning of the dynastic period. The first representation of a king in the form of the statue of the great sphinx was in the Middle of the 4th dynasty.
King Djetef Ra was the first king to have a Sphinx statue, as he was the successor of King Cheops, and that was considered as the first royal representation of its kind in the form of a Sphinx. The statue was discovered nearby the pyramid at Abu-Rawash in Giza and it is now displayed in Louvre Museum.
So, what is the meaning of the "Sphinx"?
The word "Sphinx" is originally a Greek word of the Ancient Egyptian name "Ssp Ankh" which means the living image or representation of something. The Sphinx statue mainly represents the king and his living image and it also represents the combination between the mental power and the Physical power. The mental power of the king is represented in the human head of the statue, while the physical power is represented in the body of a lion. Egyptology scientists believe that if the sphinx was a representation of an ancient Egyptian God, so it is said that they managed to tame the wild nature of the lion with the human intelligence and turning it into a divine peaceful character.
Dahshur Pyramids:
The village of Dahshur is located about 40 kilometers southwest of Cairo and famous for its impressive ancient structures. Excavation missions at Dahshur site have revealed the remains of total of seven pyramids till now, in addition to extensive tomb complexes that were built for queens and nobles from Memphis city up until the 13th Dynasty during the time of the Middle Kingdom.
Built during the era of King Sneferu (2613-2589 BC), the founder of the 4th Dynasty, both the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid at Dahshur are great evidences of the impressive structural development found in the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza and other ancient Egyptian pyramids.
The Red Pyramid at Dahshur:
The Red Pyramid is another fancy example of a great construction project during the 4th Dynasty as it was built for the pharaoh Sneferu. Another example is the Bent Pyramid which is located at the same site, nearby the Necropolis at Dahshur city, Sneferu decided to correct the flaws that were made during the construction of the bent pyramid and the one at Meidum that went down during its construction.
The Red Pyramid got finished at the beginning of the 26th century BC, it was considered as the first successful attempt to build a complete pyramid, which made it the most inspirational type of construction for the later 4th Dynasty pyramids of Giza.
The Bent Pyramid at Dahshur:
The Bent Pyramid at Dahshur site was built during the end of the 27th century BC by King Sneferu, the father of King Khufu, the owner of the Great Pyramid of Giza. The Bent Pyramid was the first to be built by King Sneferu, it got that name as it was unfinished and it had to get reconstructed, but the King decided to leave it like that.
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The Nile Valley
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Fixtures Living Opens 4th Experiential Showroom At Glendale Galleria.
Fixtures Living, a unique and innovative retail concept specializing in premium lifestyle products for the home, has announced Glendale Galleria, a 1.5-million-square-foot super-regional shopping center noted for its consistently new and cutting-edge retail concepts, will be the site of its fourth store and first mall location. Opening fall 2013, the move — which unveils the company’s blueprint for all future expansion — marks the first time a luxury centre will feature a store with best-in-class kitchen, bath and outdoor products.
“This move is especially significant because it is a culmination of the learnings from our San Diego, Rancho Mirage and Costa Mesa locations,” said Jeffery R. Sears, the company’s CEO. “Our customers’ guidance and feedback has prepared us to enter one of the most progressive markets in the world, the greater Los Angeles area. This location provides us with an opportunity to expose hand-culled, international brands to hundreds of thousands of homeowners and industry professionals each year.”
“We’re always looking for new, unique retail concepts for our shoppers. The opening of Fixtures Living will complement our existing retail line-up quite well,” said Shoshana Puccia, senior marketing manager, Glendale Galleria. “Glendale Galleria continually strives to secure tenants that go above and beyond our customers’ shopping expectations.”
Following in the footsteps of its award-winning Costa Mesa showroom, the store will enable visitors to shop in an entirely new way, by dreaming of, playing with, and choosing products that lead to better living.
“We’re filling a void in the marketplace,” said Mr. Sears. “There’s simply no other store in our industry that provides an opportunity to ‘test drive’ products — to learn about them, to try them out right in the showroom, and to feel confident that we’ll always be there to answer questions, to aid in the selection, delivery, installation and long-term care of a purchase.”
Like its predecessor in Orange County, the new 24,000 square foot space — located directly beneath Bloomingdale’s — will be designed by FITCH, the world’s preeminent source for inspired retail design. Specifically configured for shoppers to “try before they buy,” the store will feature bath, shower and kitchen vignettes with running water, live ovens, ranges and stoves, as well as fully-functional outdoor kitchen products such as gas grills and under-counter refrigeration systems.
“Where is it written that shopping for products like these has to be boring, or dull, or depressing?” asked Mr. Sears. “Changing that experience into something memorable, exciting and joyful is our whole reason for being.”
Currently celebrating its third anniversary, Fixtures Living has already garnered several coveted industry accolades. The Costa Mesa showroom has collected no fewer than seven international awards for design and in-store communications, delivering on its promise to bring “JOY” into its customers’ lives.
D-Type Jaguar Racer Becomes Automotive Art With Limited Edition Clock
First Copy of The Who’s 1965 My Generation Album Sells for £11,000
Creative Lab is the Shortcut to Becoming an Interior Design Maestro
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Senators Markey, Bennet, Schatz, and Colleagues Push to Ensure All Students Can Remotely Continue Education During Coronavirus Emergency
Current pandemic likely to exacerbate a longstanding “homework gap” without immediate action
Washington (March 16, 2020) – Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) today led thirteen of their colleagues in calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to temporarily allow schools to utilize E-Rate program funding to provide Wi-Fi hotspots or devices with Wi-Fi capability to students who lack internet access at home. This action would help ensure that all students can remotely continue their education during the current public health emergency. The coronavirus pandemic is shining a bright light on the so-called “homework gap” experienced by 12 million students in this country. The gap refers to those students who do not have internet access at home and are unable to complete their homework – at a time when more than 70 percent of educators assign schoolwork that requires the internet.
The E-rate program is capped at $4 billion each year, with the FCC having already allocated about $2 billion this year, leaving approximately half of the funding available for potential emergency action. In their letter, the Senators call on the FCC to determine how much of this funding can be spent on one-time discounts for schools seeking to loan Wi-Fi hotspots to students who do not have internet at home, as well as those trying to equip school-distributed devices with Wi-Fi capability that can be lent out while physical classes are on hold. The Senators also request the Commission make clear to state and local institutions that undertaking any similar measures during this crisis will not affect their future E-rate eligibility.
“The E-Rate program is, and has been for over two decades, an essential source of funding to connect the nation’s schools and libraries to the internet,” wrote the lawmakers in their letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “We believe that the FCC can use its emergency powers to temporarily waive relevant E-rate program rules and allow its beneficiaries to utilize universal service funding to provide home wireless service to existing school devices and hotspots for students who lack internet access at home. This swift, immediate action would help ensure that all students can remotely continue their education during the current public health emergency.”
The letter is also signed by Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Angus S. King, Jr. (I-Maine), Margaret Wood Hassan (D-N.H.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
Without FCC action, the existing inequity of the “homework gap” is likely to be exacerbated by the increasing number of schools that are suspending in-person classes and have transitioned to remote learning over the internet to protect the health of students, faculty, and staff. Temporarily changing E-rate rules to allow financial support for home internet access would be of immense help to schools, students, and families at this time.
Senator Markey is the author of the original E-Rate program, which was created as a part of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The program, having to date provided nearly $52 billion nationwide, is designed to connect schools and libraries to the internet, as well as ensure access for low-income students and families. Prior to E-Rate, only 14 percent of K-12 classrooms had Internet access. Today, Americans benefit from near ubiquitous deployment in schools and libraries.
A copy of the text of the letter can be found below.
Chairman Ajit Pai
Dear Chairman Pai:
We write to urge the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take immediate action to ensure all K-12 students have adequate home internet connectivity if their schools close due to the coronavirus pandemic. We believe that the FCC can use its emergency powers to temporarily waive relevant E-rate program rules and allow its beneficiaries to utilize universal service funding to provide home wireless service to existing school devices and hotspots for students who lack internet access at home. This swift, immediate action would help ensure that all students can remotely continue their education during the current public health emergency.
The coronavirus pandemic has shone a bright light on the “homework gap” experienced by 12 million students in this country who do not have internet access at home and are unable to complete their homework – at a time when more than 70% of educators assign schoolwork that requires the internet. Without FCC action, this existing inequity is likely to be exacerbated by the increasing number of schools that are suspending in-person classes and have transitioned to remote learning over the internet to protect the health of students, faculty, and staff. Temporarily changing E-rate rules to allow financial support for home internet access would be of immense help to schools, students, and families at this time.
The E-rate program is capped at $4 billion each year. We understand that the FCC has already allocated about $2 billion this year, leaving approximately half of the funding available for potential emergency action. We strongly urge you to consider how much of this funding can be spent on one-time discounts for schools seeking to loan Wi-Fi hotspots to students who do not have internet at home, as well as those trying to equip school-distributed devices with Wi-Fi capability that can be lent out while physical classes are on hold. We also request that you make it clear to state and local institutions that undertaking any similar measures during this crisis will not affect their future E-rate eligibility.
The E-Rate program is, and has been for over two decades, an essential source of funding to connect the nation’s schools and libraries to the internet. These institutions are vital outlets to help connect all Americans, including millions of students and Americans in both rural and urban parts of the country. As the coronavirus pandemic develops, this program offers a solution that may help mitigate the impact on our most vulnerable families. We call on you to use the FCC’s emergency powers to narrow the homework gap during this crisis, and we look forward to finding a long-term solution when the coronavirus subsides.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Due to the closure of many Senate offices during the coronavirus outbreak, physical signatures are unavailable. The listed senators have asked to be signatories to this letter.
Senators:
Angus S. King, Jr.
Richard Blumenthal
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Trumpeter Swans Hatch at the Maryland Zoo
BALTIMORE, MD – Happy hatchdays to three new trumpeter swans at the Maryland Zoo! The hatchlings, called cygnets, hatched after more than 30 days of incubating.
“This is our fifth clutch laid by the trumpeter swan pair here at the Zoo. These cygnets have a very important role to play in the conservation of their species,” said Jen Kottyan, avian collection and conservation manager. “If all goes well, the cygnets will be part of the Trumpeter Swan Restoration Program in Iowa. Over the next few months at the Zoo, we will monitor them, watching them develop into juvenile swans. We’ll be very hands off to keep them as wild as possible to give them the best chance at survival in the wild once they are released.” The juvenile swans will be transported to Iowa to winter with other young swans also hatched at AZA-accredited zoos.
Trumpeter swans are the largest waterfowl species native to North America and the largest swan in the world. They can weigh up to 30 pounds, and are known for their bright white feathers, black beaks, very large webbed feet and a six-foot wingspan. In the early 1900s, trumpeter swans were nearly hunted to extinction for their skin, feathers, meat and eggs. The passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 gave protection to trumpeter swans and other birds which helped curb illegal killing, however the population continued to decline and in 1932 it was believed that there were fewer than 70 trumpeter swans remaining. In 1935, the U.S. government established Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Montana’s Centennial Valley to protect the remaining trumpeters.
Trumpeter swans disappeared from Iowa by the late 1880s. For the last two decades, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) has worked to reestablish trumpeter swan populations in the state. To date, the Zoo has sent four swans, all offspring of the current pair, to the release program.
“It is a great conservation program that we are thrilled to be a part of,” said Kottyan. “Thanks to conservation work such as IDNR’s, the trumpeter swan population has reached over 60,000 individuals. While our adults are not suitable for release, it is great to be able watch them rear their cygnets and contribute to the swan population in the wild.”
The swans are viewable from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily on the Zoo’s Swan Nest Live Cam. The cam runs on a 30-minute delay due to the hands-off process, the risk for predation and other environmental factors such as extreme weather events.
Watch the Swan Live Cam
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Case Study # 2 | Walden 7
© Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura
Case Study #2 | Walden 7
Architect: Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura
Location: Sant Just Desvern, Barcelona, Spain
Program: 446 dwellings, public spaces, meeting rooms, games rooms, bars and shops on the ground floor, and two swimming pools on the flat roof.
Client: Ceex. 3
Size: 31,140 sm
The project, built in 1974 by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura, is located in Sant Just Desvern, a town west of Barcelona, in a plot formerly occupied by a cement factory. Designed as a series of buildings, only one was finally built.
The building, called “City in Space”, is composed of 18 towers which are displaced from their base, forming a curve and coming into contact with the neighboring towers. The result is a vertical labyrinth with seven interconnecting interior courtyards, as far removed as possible from the model of the uniform, repetitive housing block.
The 31,140 m2 complex includes 446 dwellings, public spaces, meeting rooms, games rooms, bars and shops on the ground floor, and two swimming pools on the roof.
The dwellings are formed on the basis of one or more 30 m2 square modules creating, on different levels, dwellings that range from a studio consisting of a single module to a large, four-module apartment.
© Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura.
Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura accomplishes a collective and elaborate system for project design, establishing a technical collaboration in all countries where it undertakes projects. It is a practice composed of a structure which endeavours for the highest quality, capable of conceiving and carrying out projects anywhere in the world. With this aim the ‘Taller’ uses all of its means available: modern techniques, human resources, the professional expertise of each individual and the efficient organization of its structure.
www.ricardobofill.com
Tags: 2009, BARCELONA, CASE STUDY, ISSUE 4, LIVING, RICARDO BOFILL, SPAIN, WALDEN 7, WINTER 09
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52-Year-Old Road Construction Worker Awarded Workers’ Compensation Benefits Over Disabling Back Injury
When reviewing a workers’ compensation case, an administrative law judge (“ALJ”) may adopt the opinion of any medical expert. In Tracy v. City of Pittsfield, Board No. 031069-09, a 52-year-old man was employed as a laborer and heavy equipment operator for the City of Pittsfield. The man apparently injured his back while operating a piece of road construction equipment in 2008. About one year later, the employee was again hurt at work. In September 2012, the injured worker underwent back fusion surgery.
About one month after his surgery, a neutral physician examined the man pursuant to the provisions included in § 11A of the Massachusetts workers’ compensation law. The ALJ, however, ruled that the case was medically complex and the neutral doctor’s report was inadequate. After that, the man’s employer admitted to liability for the 2009 workplace injury but refused to accept liability for the laborer’s surgery and other related medical issues. The employer also claimed that the worker’s harm resulted from a pre-existing condition.
Following a hearing, the ALJ adopted the surgeon’s view that all of the laborer’s back injuries were causally related to his workplace accident. As a result, the ALJ ordered the man’s employer to pay the laborer § 34A temporary total incapacity workers’ compensation benefits. The employer then appealed the ALJ’s decision to the Department of Industrial Accidents Reviewing Board.
According to the employer, the ALJ failed to properly consider all of the medical evidence submitted in the case. The Board disagreed and stated it was appropriate to presume that the ALJ considered the medical evidence offered to him because he listed each as an exhibit at the workers’ compensation hearing. In addition, the ALJ stated in his opinion that he reviewed all of the medical evidence provided before rendering his decision. The Board added that the ALJ was not required to explain why he adopted the view of one medical expert over that of another.
Next, the Board dismissed the employer’s assertion that the ALJ failed to consider its § 1 (7A) pre-existing condition claims. It also disagreed with the employer’s claim that the surgeon improperly determined the workplace incident was the cause of the laborer’s harm. Although the physician initially misstated the date of the man’s injury in his report, the Board found that the date had no factual relevance because the surgeon determined that the type of harm sustained by the worker was consistent with the workplace accident in which he was injured. The Board next said that the ALJ was free to infer the surgeon was describing the industrial accident at issue in the case.
Finally, the Board affirmed the ALJ’s decision awarding the laborer § 34A benefits and ordered the insurer to pay the injured employee’s legal expenses.
If you or someone you love was seriously hurt in a Massachusetts workplace accident, you may be eligible to receive workers’ compensation benefits. To speak with a knowledgeable Boston workers’ compensation lawyer about your situation today, contact the skillful workers’ compensation attorneys at Kantrovitz & Associates, P.C. through our website or give us a call at 800-367-0871.
Tracy v. City of Pittsfield, Department of Industrial Accidents Reviewing Board No. 031069-09, January 15, 2015
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Category: Big Beautiful Boobs
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Tylor Williams Private Webcam Show
Kateryne Clermont Private Webcam Show
Licking Nipples and Fingers
Sarah Garette
Wet White T-shirt
Scarlett Samm Private Webcam Show
Scarlett Samm
Lolo Mercier in a Webcam Show Featuring Perfect Breasts and Nipples
Erika Tatum Private Webcam Show
Erika Tatum
Kendal Woods Has Enormous Tatas That Need to Breathe
Sexy Lexy Palmer Strips and Reveals Hugh Pendulous Tatas
Lexy Palmer
Ambar Shell Private Webcam Show
Ambar Shell
Amalya Sweet Private Webcam Show Big Boobs Play
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Warren T. Allen, II, Nicole L. Grimm, & Luke A. Meisner, of Skadden to Receive Klepper Prize for Volunteer Excellence
Warren T. Allen, Associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Nicole Grimm, Counsel at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Luke Meisner, Associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
This Thursday, April 18, Legal Aid will be hosting our 24th annual Servant of Justice Awards Dinner. That evening, Warren T. Allen II, Nicole L. Grimm, and Luke A. Meisner, of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, will be receiving the Klepper Prize for Volunteer Excellence. The Klepper Prize was created through the generosity of Martin and Arlene Klepper in order to recognize attorneys who have made a significant volunteer contribution to Legal Aid while still early in their career.
Mr. Allen, Ms. Grimm, and Mr. Meisner are being honored for their extraordinary contributions in implementing the “Impact Project,” designed to provide desperately needed pro bono legal assistance on a broad scale to help low-income children and families in the District. The Impact Project focuses Skadden’s resources on three areas of specific need: domestic violence, guardians ad litem for children, and housing. These three attorneys have generously taken the lead in implementing the domestic violence portion of the project in conjunction with Legal Aid, while under the expert guidance of Skadden partner Michele Roberts and recently retired Skadden partner Saul Pilchen.
Warren T. Allen, II, is an associate in Skadden’s Litigation Section, where he represents companies and individuals in civil matters and government investigations. He received his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2006 and clerked for the Honorable Gladys Kessler of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Prior to attending law school, Mr. Allen served six years as a police officer, including assignment to the detective bureau. Mr. Allen currently serves on the board of directors for the Washington Literacy Center and as an associate trustee for the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.
Nicole Grimm is a counsel in Skadden’s Litigation Section, where she represents companies and individuals in connection with government investigations and related matters. Ms. Grimm received her law degree from the American University Washington College of Law in 1999. Prior to joining Skadden, Ms. Grimm – who is fluent in Spanish – worked at a law firm in Santiago, Chile, where she focused on foreign investment and international transactional matters.
Luke Meisner is an associate in Skadden’s International Trade Section, where he represents U.S. manufacturers in a variety of trade remedy proceedings and policy matters. He received his law degree from the University of North Carolina in 2003 and clerked for the Honorable Eduardo C. Robreno of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Please consider joining us for our Servant of Justice Awards Dinner, this Thursday at 7:30 PM, at the JW Marriott Hotel (1331 Pennsylvania Ave NW). In addition to Mr. Allen, Ms. Grimm, and Mr. Meisner, we will also be recognizing John Payton, posthumously, and Paul M. Smith, of Jenner & Block LLP, with Legal Aid’s highest honor, the Servant of Justice Award.
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Hotels in Estepona - Cheap Estepona Hotels.
22 hotels in Estepona
Isdabe Hotel
The complex has a large area of 40,000 m2 filled with ponds, fountains, gardens and extensive green woodlands. It has a beach club restaurant, cafeteria, TV room, mini club and a large terrace with a.....
Built in 1996 and renovated in 2003, the hotel features a two buildings, each with 1 floor and a total of 90 double rooms. It offers guests a foyer with a 24-hour reception, a safe, a currency.....
Piedra Paloma
This is a family-run business which has been operating since 1992, providing accommodation services. This family-friendly beach hotel has a total of 27 rooms. In addition to a lobby area with 24-hour.....
Miguel Angel 1 KEY
The apartments include 1, 2, 3 or 4 bedrooms with capacity for up to 7 people. It offers lounge / dining room with TV, 2 bathrooms, fully equipped kitchen with all appliances: dishwasher, toaster,.....
Estepona Spain
Hotel in Estepona are very popular due to its location on the southwest of Malaga province and belonging to the denominated Costa del Sol. The whole municipality covers around 137 km2 that extends along 23 kms of coast and goes into the interior hosting a fertile valley with meandering streams and a mountainous area dominated by the Sierra Bermeja, reaching 1.449 metres at Los Reales peak. It has a population of over 65.000 registered inhabitants and is characterised by its multicultural composition.
Estepona is a very demanded tourist destination, specially during the summer, due to its Mediterranean climate, beautiful beaches, impressive Estepona hotels, beach and rural, and many activities to choose from such as golf, tennis, cycling, fishing, scuba-diving, water-skiing and parascending.
The city centre is packed with great bars and restaurants to suit all tastes. From backstreet tapas bars to top class, elegant restaurants. It may not rival its coastal neighbour Puerto Banus when it comes to a glitzy nightlife but there's plenty of partying here. You'll find everything from karaoke and all night clubs to Celtic music and flamenco dancing. It’s almost all concentrated in the port area and within the back streets of the old quarter but before you hit the clubs, try some of the music bars and restaurants which stay open until the small hours.
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Tobacco Brands Slip Into Myanmar Without Fanfare
As some of the world's biggest companies trumpet their arrival in Asia's hottest frontier market, the tobacco industry has a different strategy: It's slipping into Myanmar without fanfare.
Aye Aye Win, Associated Press
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- As some of the world's biggest companies trumpet their arrival in Asia's hottest frontier market, the tobacco industry has a different strategy: It's slipping into Myanmar without fanfare.
The impoverished nation of 60 million people emerged from a half-century of isolation and brutal military rule two years ago. With most international sanctions against the country lifted or suspended, foreign businesses from Coca-Cola and Unilever to Suzuki Motors have scrambled to get in.
So too has Big Tobacco but without the ribbon cuttings or grandly worded press announcements.
British American Tobacco, the world's second largest cigarette manufacturer, shepherded a select audience of government officials to a low key ceremony last month where it formalized a $50 million investment over five years to produce, market and sell its brands in Myanmar. Its factory, to be built on the outskirts of Yangon, will create about 400 jobs.
Japan Tobacco, No. 3 globally, quietly inked a deal nearly a year ago with local partner tycoon Kyaw Win. Company spokesman Royhei Sugata said a factory was being built, but refused to discuss details, from the project's scale or brand name to the plant's location.
China's largest tobacco producer is also setting up a multi-million dollar joint venture.
"They seem to think by entering the market stealthily, they can avoid public scrutiny," said Tin Maung, a retired army major and Myanmar's top anti-smoking campaigner.
In a country where roads in many places are almost unnavigable and power outages constant, the nominally civilian government is hopeful that foreign investment will create new jobs and help speed development. But other priorities such as health, the environment and public welfare are sometimes swept aside.
Nang Naing Naing Shane, who heads the Ministry of Health's National Tobacco Control Program, said the Health Ministry's strong opposition to BAT, JT and others was overridden by the Myanmar Investment Commission. The commission's director quit under a cloud of suspicions about graft, but tobacco investment approvals were not overturned.
For international tobacco companies, facing declining smoking rates in their former strongholds, Myanmar is an enticing prospect.
Awareness about the health hazards is low, tobacco controls are weakly enforced, and the anti-smoking lobby is effectively a one man act.
Over the last six decades, 89-year-old Tin Maung has written hundreds of articles in magazines and state-run newspapers, travelled to symposiums inside the country and out, and visited schools to warn youth about the dangers of smoking — funding all of his endeavors on his own.
Like many Myanmar youth, he was only 10 when he took his first drag, so he knows how easy it is to be drawn in. It wasn't until two decades later, when he picked up a Reader's Digest and read an article spelling out the dangers posed by smoking that he stopped.
A large proportion of the population smoke but only a fraction of them reach for filtered cigarettes.
According to a 2007 World Health Organization survey, 45 percent of all men smoke or chew tobacco. The rates for women and teenage boys are 8 percent and 13 percent respectively.
BAT's chief executive Nicandro Durante, said on the company's website that BAT, returning 10 years after it was forced to leave because of controversial links to the abusive military, was "truly excited" to be back. It was also "keen to play an active part in the country's economic and social advancement," he wrote.
The tradition of smoking cigar-like "cheroots" — made from finely chopped up tobacco leaves, stems and wood chips, tamarin and other flavors — starts young in Myanmar, often a boy helping his father light up.
While many people know smoking is bad for health, few fully understand just how bad.
"I heard that smoking can be harmful, but not everyone who smokes gets cancer," said Khin Cho, a 37-year-old housewife, who smokes cheroot at home and cigarettes in public. "I am okay now and I don't want to worry about something that hasn't happened yet."
Even at the over-crowded cancer ward in Yangon's main hospital few patients who landed there because of tobacco understood the links to the deadly disease until it was too late.
"I had no idea," said 60-year-old Hla Soe, a chronic smoker for more than half a century, a drip dangling from his right arm. "I'm from a village. I didn't quit until a year ago when I found out I had lung cancer."
Myanmar ratified the WHO tobacco treaty a few years ago, but laws and controls regulating the sale, marketing and use of tobacco products are poorly enforced.
Selling to minors is illegal, but boys 12 or younger can regularly be seen buying loose cigarettes from street side vendors.
Local companies use gimmicks to get around bans on advertising. Tay Za, one of the country's richest tycoons who is famous for his stable of luxury cars, places $5 or $10 bills lottery-style inside some of the packs of his brand.
Tobacco giants who bring with them decades of marketing experience and skills honed at capturing smokers for a lifetime are also in a strong position to exploit legal loopholes.
Under existing regulations, for instance, tobacco companies can promote their name by offering scholarships to children, sponsor community projects or using social networking sites such as Facebook.
"It's also the only country in the region that still does not require pictorial warnings on cigarette packs," said Tara Singh Bam, a technical adviser on tobacco control at the International Union against Tuberculosis and Disease after wrapping up his second visit to the country since it opened up.
At the moment, only around 5 percent of the smoking population uses filtered cigarettes, according to WHO.
But Mary Assunta, senior policy adviser with the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance, expects habits to change as reforms energize the economy.
"We expect the economy to boom and a growing middle class to emerge with more disposable incomes," she said. Together with the existing pervasiveness of smoking, "this gives plenty of room for tobacco companies to focus on targeting the middle class and teenagers with cheap cigarettes."
"We can expect to see walls of cigarette packs at check-out counters and more prominent display panels of new brands the companies will introduce with attractive packaging."
This all terrifies Tin Maung, the 89-year-old anti-smoking campaigner, who considers Big Tobacco the biggest fight of his life.
"Money can shut the mouth of many and I anticipate a very steep uphill battle with my anti-smoking campaign."
Hyundai Labor Union To Strike For 4 Hours
Creditors File Objections To Detroit Bankruptcy
Smithfield Sets Sept. Shareholder Vote On Takeover
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Bridging the Gap: Maxwell School awarded $1 million grant to develop programs connecting academics and policymakers
The Carnegie Corporation of New York has named Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs as one of five institutional recipients of $1 million, two-year grants through its initiative “Rigor and Relevance: Bridging the Academic-Policy Gap.” With this funding, the Maxwell School will create the “Carnegie International Policy Scholars Consortium and Network,” which will bring together faculty from a number of top international relations graduate programs to teach and mentor students, scholars, and policymakers about ways to prepare graduate students for successful careers in both policymaking and academia – and thus to foster enhanced interaction between the two communities.
"We are excited and honored to receive this Carnegie Corporation grant that will support efforts to prepare a new generation of thought leaders to be successful and influential both in the academic world and in the world of practice, bridging the gap between the two," says Maxwell School Dean James Steinberg. "With this funding, we will develop educational materials and innovative instructional approaches that combine intellectual rigor with the ability to adapt that thinking to the constraints of real-world decision making. Through the Carnegie International Policy Scholars Consortium and Network, we seek to bring an interdisciplinary approach to complex international affairs and to build a network of faculty and students across multiple institutions to pursue these goals." Initial consortium members include faculty from Duke University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Indiana University, the University of Virginia, as well as scholars from CSIS and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The grant will support curriculum-building, opportunities for mentorship, conferences and workshops, and the creation of a synchronous, distance-learning environment based at Syracuse University -- the “Distance Learning Collaboratory" -- that will allow students in international relations and security studies to interact with faculty members and other students in the consortium schools in real time. The goal of the project is to improve the communication between academics and policymakers and thereby produce better policymaking and more policy-relevant research and teaching.
The five grant awardees had responded to the Corporation's competition challenging the 22 American-based members of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) to present proposals outlining novel, feasible ways to bridge the gap between academics working on complex foreign policy issues and policymakers dealing with the same concerns. All proposals were reviewed by experts in the international relations field who were chosen for their understanding of the policymaking process in Washington, D.C.; knowledge of APSIA; and awareness of the administrative challenges of universities.
Dean Steinberg observes that, "Carnegie's Rigor and Relevance initiative is a reflection of the Corporation’s long term commitment to supporting the strengthening of ties between universities and policymaking." This new grant builds on an existing project at the Maxwell School, funded by both the Carnegie Corporation and the Smith Richardson Foundation, "Toward a New Approach to the Advanced Study of Security and International Affairs."
This new grant will be managed through the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at the Maxwell School, and will be co-led by Steinberg; Margaret Hermann, Gerald and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs and Director of the Moynihan Institute; and Francis J. Gavin, Frank Stanton Chair in Nuclear Security Policy Studies and Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Carnegie Corporation of New York was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 "to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding." In keeping with this mandate, the Corporation's work focuses on the issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance: international peace, the advancement of education and knowledge, and the strength of our democracy. 09/23/14
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There will be widescale rioting after Zimmerman verdict. Debunk, please
Thread starter Joe Newman
There will definitely be rioting, the verdict notwithstanding. It is not going to be spontaneous, or a series of unrelated "isolated incidents." Batshit crazy, perhaps, but looking at the data I just pulled up and placing into context, I can't find an alternative outcome in the tealeaves. Here's my data from a simple search:
facebook removes 'Kill Zimmerman' page
facebook removes riot for Trayvon Facebook page
About 13,100,000 results (0.98 seconds)
That's about 19 million hits, yes, but it's doesn't account for repeats and out of context stuff. Put it in quotes, and the results scream a different story:
No results found for "facebook removes riot for Trayvon Facebook page."
No results found for "Facebook removes 'Kill Zimmerman' page"
It's not scientific, it's unorthodox, but it's a handy way to see what is being put out for consumption. Just set to 100 links a page and scroll a few. It's quite a site. Meme-making in real time. See twitter for more of the same.
Get ready for the American Summer or whatever goofy knock off tag they come up with. The pump is being primed and the riot pimping is in full-flower. That's my story and it's sticking to me. I won't scurry away from my claim or try to walk it back in any way. No wiggle room. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, and you can all play whack-a-mole till your hammers break.
Joe Newman said:
facebook removes 'Kill Joe' page
So would you care to wager on your predictions? What are you sure of enough to put money on?
And what exactly are you asking to be debunked? Lots of people are saying riots are possible.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/03/george-zimmerman-verdict_n_3540499.html
After an all-white jury acquitted a Miami cop in the death of Arthur McDuffie in 1980, the city exploded in a burning, three-mile-wide riot that lasted three days, caused $100 million in damage, resulted in 18 deaths, and inspired curfews and gunpoint checks by the National Guard.
In the coming weeks, a mostly white jurywill decide whether to acquit George Zimmerman of second degree murder charges in the controversial shooting death of Miami Gardens teen Trayvon Martin.
Local police and community leaders are already cautioning against any actions that could escalate to violence or destruction, even turning to social media and Miami Heat stars for help.
Heh. If I had any money to bet, I'd bet half the FarmVille that there will be widespread riots.
Then I'd bet the other half that when there are, you will maintain that it was not the result of any premeditated plan, but a series of isolated incidents and that no extrapolation can be made from them.
mynym
It is interesting what Facebook Inc. will apparently censor and what they resist censoring. (Where does the NSA and the military industrial complex fit into what Facebook censors, one might be forgiven for wondering.)
Compare, contrast:
A Breitbart News contributor reached out to Facebook today asking the company to review "RIOT for Trayvon." The page, which had 152 "likes," included this paragraph (warning -- explicit language):
They don't think we will tear this mutha fucka up! LIKE IF YOU READY TO RIDE! LETS FLEX OUR MUSCLE! WHAT,YOU SCARED?
A picture accompanying the page featured a person lying unconscious. The social media company responded that it reviewed the page in question and did not feel the need to block it. [Accurate?]
I got banned from Facebook.
They blocked me for 12 hours and removed a message I had posted invoking the National Rifle Association, Jesus and Paula Deen.
“I’m about as politically incorrect as you can get. I’m wearing an NRA ball cap, eating a Chick-fil-A sandwich, reading a Paula Deen cookbook and sipping a 20-ounce sweet tea while sitting in my Cracker Barrel rocking chair with the Gaither Vocal Band singing ‘Jesus Saves’ on the stereo and a Gideon’s Bible in my pocket. Yes sir, I’m politically incorrect and happy as a June bug.”
The folks over at Facebook took great offense to that message. [Accurate?] RedState
Interesting analysis of the trends and the tribalism involved:
*A satire of the apparent NSA/CIA/Facebook/corporate/government hive mind: "Talking about murderous riots? That's probably fine." vs. "A legally armed populous that takes responsibility for their own security? That's probably dangerous. Safety first!"
Another contrast:
Facebook bans Gandhi quote as part of revisionist history purge
What is the advantage of riots that someone would premeditate them? Does that mean the killing of Trayvon was premeditated by the riot premeditators too?
Has anyone tracked the Trayvon case to see exactly where and how it entered the corporate media and became a mainstream story?
I'm assuming that some civil rights activists were alerted to the case originally, in order to make it into a trial in a court of law as it should have been. (Side note, if Trayvon had been a 16 year old Muslim kid and the military industrial complex said it was ok, then couldn't he have been assassinated without trial?) However, that wouldn't necessarily mean that it would eventually be made into a big corporate media event. People get shot all the time, etc. There was a recent home invasion in NJ in which a white woman was repeatedly beaten by a black man and so forth. That wasn't made into a big corporate media event. It's not exactly clear how some of these stories (like the woman who stabbed her boyfriend to death recently) actually become big corporate media events. I'm assuming it's how the stories can be sold. Yet that wouldn't seem to be it, in some cases. Because that story about the black man beating a white woman would actually sell well in some demographics. So there's more going on that just: "If it bleeds, it leads." or "If it sells, then we'll sell it."
Does that mean the killing of Trayvon was premeditated by the riot premeditators too?
No. But there might be manipulation within the corporate media based on game theory among those intelligent enough to see the herds or it might amount to the herd instinct among those that are not and so forth.
But in the end, how do you suppose that we wind up with 16 year old Muslim kids being assassinated abroad almost without comment* in main streams of media (something that should be a national story) but when a 17 year old is killed by a vigilante (a local story) then it's almost as if it's made into a national story by an almost totally corrupted military industrial/corporate media... that's actually hardly covering national stories?
How is it that a "shaping of information" and perceptions that actually creates information and perceptions takes place within corporations and the government? Maybe I should study it. But the fact is that however it's taking shape and "mainstream" information/media is being created... it winds up taking shape with endpoints. And a satiric summary of the endpoints for now would seem to be this: "16 year old Muslim kid that might be a terrorist assassinated without trial by the CIA in the most professional way possible? No comment. Nothing to see here, more official reports... the investigation is ongoing... move along." vs. "17 year old kid that might be a street thug killed by bumbling vigilante? How unprofessional. It's going to be national news every night!! Did you hear the latest on that???"
Is that even a satire? Sometimes it's hard to tell anymore.
*Ask Gibbs... Drone program? What drone program? No comment. Etc.
Heh. If I had any money to bet, I'd bet the half the FarmVille that there will be widespread riots.
What do you mean by widespread? Town, City, State, or Country?
Who is doing the premeditating?
moderateGOP
When this first happened, I was in Florida 20 mins from where this thing took place. I was in college and if you said anything negative about black people within earshot of Trayvon supporters, then you would get in trouble. There are some cases that the nation gets captivated by. Zimmerman will most likely walk, yet these people who support Trayvon are acting like it is the worst thing to happen where in Chicago Blacks are shooting blacks like crazy and in lots of other cases White people are the victims of worse black attacks!!!
The racists would have an intellectual case if Zimmerman was actually white, but alas he is Hispanic!!!!
solrey
mynym said:
Trayvon's family hired a lawyer and PR firm to whip up a media frenzy.
It’s likely that Martin’s death, which resulted in the arrest and indictment Wednesday of confessed shooter George Zimmerman, would never have crowded into the national consciousness had it not been for Martin’s family, its lawyers and an enterprising PR man.
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/...artin-story-george-zimmerman-unarmed-teenager
What is the advantage of riots that someone would premeditate them?
It's a good question. I don't know, either. There's those tweeting they are going off the hook and recruiting others, calling them out if they don't, in fact. That's premeditated right there, so let's ask them.
Facebook is/was/whatever refusing to take down the Kill Z page, saying it's not against terms of service?!, and the press is all over the place letting folks know about the TZ circus and the chances of riots, fanning the flames on both sides. That's premeditated right there, so let's ask them.
I haven't followed it at all because I'm not the court tv type, but it sure as shit is following me. If it weren't for this riot pimping, it would be wallpaper. Yet here I am talking about widespread riots across the land because of a trial I haven't even been following, from a place I've never even heard of. Wtf is with that? I didn't get here by myself by a long stretch, Pete.
That seems pretty premeditated to me, but it's hardly the start. The official side of de fence is a whole other story, but you knew that. Lots of benefit to go around here, Pete. Not for folks like you or me, but SSDD, right?
If you want a quick and neat answer to start any query about where the advantage might lie, it's easy. Just look at the folks that ain't worrying about it.
Always a great first step to put you right on the trail.
There was a recent home invasion in NJ in which a white woman was repeatedly beaten by a black man and so forth. That wasn't made into a big corporate media event.
No, and it won't, along with anything like it. It's a very thorny subject and gets immediately tangled up in identity politics and lost in the multicult maze. It's been an alt press buzzlet for a while, but it's a no-go zone for msm. I am guessing we'll be hearing more about it soon, though, since it definitely has a place in the narrative.
It's not exactly clear how some of these stories (like the woman who stabbed her boyfriend to death recently) actually become big corporate media events. I'm assuming it's how the stories can be sold. Yet that wouldn't seem to be it, in some cases.
Kinda funny to see you say it's unclear when you nailed it in your statement right before it. "That wasn't made into a big corporate media event."
Bigcorp events are not born; they are made.
Because that story about the black man beating a white woman would actually sell well in some demographics.
I think I can guess where you are going with that, but I disagree. Not because I don't think it would have those who buy it, but because it lacks those who want to sell it. It's a powderkeg.
So there's more going on that just: "If it bleeds, it leads." or "If it sells, then we'll sell it."
Yup. A lot more. Let's go with a new version, "if it shapes, it's shown." If the matter runs counter to the message, the matter is either dropped asap or never picked up. The under reporting of black on white crime appears to fit squarely in this category. Google "knockout game" or "white girl bleed a lot" and you will see plenty about it.
JRBids
And if there are no riots?
JRBids said:
I'd say the chances of no riots at all is nil. After so many have promised to do so, somebody is going to jump off. That's a done deal.
That's why I hate the riot pimping. At this point, it's a matter of how many and how bad they are. I've seen one story about Broward County and their psa about it.
http://hinterlandgazette.com/2013/0...icipation-verdict-george-zimmerman-trial.html
It's supposed to be a cool cool out, but you watch it and tell me it doesn't have "please riot" written all over
Isn't that what you're doing though? Riot pimping?
solrey said:
This is only half of it. I don't care how good your pr firm is, nothing crowds in that isn't invited in. People hire pr firms all the time. Regardless of how slick they are, they only deliver the goods. Somebody else picks them up and decides to put them into the dispenser for consumption. Or not.
Anything that lasts for more than a news cycle or two is being artificially supported for other reasons. This has legs because it was it was designed to have legs all along the way. I'm not talking about the incident itself, just those pimping it for their own purposes.
No. I'm not fear mongering either, if that's the next card in your deck. I'm looking at a situation develop in real time and saying here's what is developing, so heads up. Whether you like it or I like it isn't part of the equation.
Do you think there will be riots?
I searched Kill Zimmerman on FB and found one open group with 20 members and no posts and a closed group with 95 people. I think if there is a not guilty verdict there is a potential for violence but I haven't see any evidence of it not being spontaneous.
There may be. There may not be. We'll see.
Trigger Hippie
I'm looking at a situation develop in real time and saying here's what is developing, so heads up.
No. You are looking at a situation develop in real time and saying here's what is going to happen.
There will definitely be rioting, the verdict notwithstanding.
Trigger Hippie said:
Right. It's a prediction. I'm fairly certain I put that in the first thread. I'm watching the riot pimping sowing the seeds and predicting what will sprout. I'm not fanning flames. I'm saying the flames are being flamed and it's not an accident, so it's premeditated. That's riot pimping.
This one isn't hiding in the shadows, and it's not a vague possibility. It's playing on Center Court. Bright lights and the ratings have been excellent. The national gestalt is glued to it, and that's not possible without the glue, is it? Well, just wait.
The moment the jury goes into deliberation, twitters's going to hit a different gear and thrum with whatever it thrums with. That's the two-minute drill right there. The verdict is football and the jury foreman is the kicker with no time on the clock.
"We find the defendant [TWEET].
Nobody knows whether the ball will split the uprights or not, and in a real way, the verdict doesn't matter much in the long run. There is just as much damage done in celebration as there is in defeat, as anyone who has been through a championship riot can attest.
People are going to do what they will after an extremely long build up. At that point, the people who have adopted the "let's just wait and see" stance will get to watch those who have already planned out their approach. Many have on both sides of the ball, and it has certainly not escaped the attention of the officials, who assuredly haven't taken a "let's wait and see" approach.
Forget the evidence for there being riots, what can you guys possibly point to that suggests there won't be? What can you show me that would indicate that there won't be rioting? Someone, anyone?
Usually, it's don't kill the messenger because you don't like the message, but with you guys, you won't even read the message because you don't like the messenger.
No that would be MSNBC and Rev Al . I personally dont think their will be riots especially in Florida too many gun loving Crackers . Most of those Twiiter feeds and facebook pages have been infiltrated by the opposition . Remember the Koreans Apr26th 1992 ?
Landru said:
Then all I can say is you must be aggressively trying not to see it, because it's sure not hiding.
I hope you are not basing your "lack of evidence" on that single group. Nobody's paying any attention to the group anymore. It was a great play, sure, but the game's moved on, the ball's down the field. And sadly, it really it is a game. I don't care for it, others do.
The fb group's job was to generate the Facebook WON'T Take Down KILL ZIMMERMAN group header that flashed across the wires. That was for the folks who feel he will be convicted because of the fear of riots, along with the bonus of adding the lame non-violation of terms excuse. That wasn't an accident. It was a fanning of the See, there really is a double standard flames. It's playbook stuff. They got their battle cry and motivation without even having to open it.
On the other side of the ball, there's twitter. There was a raft of flat out death threats and riot threats. The ones I saw were straight up inciting of riots, which is a felony and in this case a hate crime on top. Why aren't they giving it a skate so blatantly?
Worse, there is the one's like the "You riot motherfucker or I'm gonna kick your ass when I get back to Orlando." That call-out dynamic is no small thing, and if you understand the rules it operates from, you would understand why that psa that seemed like a chill out on the surface had another message along for the ride. Just because you don't hear it, doesn't mean they don't.
Again, given all this shit being pumped into the situation, what can any of you point to that indicates that there won't be riots?
.... Remember the Koreans Apr26th 1992 ?
No. Summary of the facts?
So the people that are calling for riots - you think they're not actually the people calling for riots? But are being paid to spread it?
Is it impossible their are people who just want an excuse to riot because they're full of resentment for various reasons and want a chance to show it, and this is their chance?
How would you prove that the push for anti-social behaviour comes from a 'master controller'?
Al's in it up to his neck, as this is his wheelhouse. I saw something where he's already being sued by Z's camp for the stuff he's doing. It get's hazy, yet I remember a time not far back when convicting on national networks was frowned upon. I don't know for sure, maybe it was a movie.
The crackcers with guns gambit doesn't hold. That act doesn't even hit the stage until after the first round is over. Right now, the point is to whip them all up for the gun grap they fear after the reason to do it plays though. Any widespread stuff will be urban because of density, and that's when the gun control folks get to see what the fuss was about in the dense urban areas. Maybe they will be all "USA!" when the big toys roll out, like they did during the Boston beta, maybe they won't. We'll just have to wait and see.
One thing's for sure, though. Once it's over, it will again be clear that no price is too much to pay for Keeping Us Safe, and the obvious answer is to go get the guns out of the cracker barrel so that this kind of thing can't happen again. Then, take those guns and melt them down and use them to make more cctv cameras, because we just didn't see this one coming.
Because once again, it's clear that no matter what precautions we take, it's an increasingly dangerous world. All the prep, all the drills, all the surveillance, all the hardware, and fuck it all if the shit didn't squeeze through yet again.
If all this shit is supposed to Keep Us Safe, how come it never does?
Well post a link to the FB Kill Zimmerman group that is not being deleted because I can't find it (other than the ones I mentioned).
I'm not sure how the corporate media came to allow for tribalism* for pretty much everyone but those they tend to think of as "whites," even corrupted as they are. Worth noting that "whites" aren't even really much of a tribe, so when "white girl bleed a lot," that could actually mean anything from a Jewish girl to a recent French immigrant bleeding in reality. The gang and the gangsters of the tribe don't have much of an eye for minor details like who is actually being brutalized in reality and so forth. So it's not always the right tribe that gets targeted in such matters in order to "pay" the debts of (largely) imaginary tribes in the past.
*A note on the apparent rules of media owned by the chosen tribe:
Emma Lazarus, the person who wrote that poem and shaped the media of her day:
...is an important forerunner of the Zionist movement. She argued for the creation of a Jewish homeland thirteen years before Theodor Herzl began to use the term Zionism. –Wikipedia
Wretched refuse over there, tribal homeland over here? What's the thinking here?
Apparently poor Palestinians never yearned to breathe free in their own homeland and so forth. And wretched refuse? Maybe she and her tribe were and are the wretched refuse. Just kidding. But you see how that works, if you allow yourself a tribe and the visceral narrowing of vision that comes with a tribal mentality or identifying with a supposed group of people. (That probably have little to nothing to do with you, unless you think that Darwinism is true.) A satire: "We all have a similar skin color, let's form a tribe!"
"Uh, but I have a third nipple too."
"Kick him out!!! Beat him up!"
"Great, now I have to form the National Association for the Advancement of Nipple People in order to protect myself."
Etc. People never seem to tire of this.
Ironically, the main thing that would actually keep people safe is the rule of law and its equal application to all tribes. And that's still the American ideal, even as it bends under the strain of apparent media manipulation and/or degeneracy (e.g. Time, MSNBC, NBC) and so forth. Time, for example: Rachel Jeantel Explained, Linguistically
Seriously. There are general rules of language and therefore civilization that apply to all who wish to participate in it, equally. If there aren't then people might as well get on with the business of separating into tribes.
There is a public service announcement.
The Korean business owners armed with Assault rifles kept most of the looters away during the LA RIOTS knew the police couldnt help them .
Soulfly said:
Has anyone actually watched this thing. It's short, sure, only 30 seconds, but boy does it pack a punch. Oddly arresting, given the context and who it is aimed at.
Has anyone actually watched this thing.
It is supposedly being played on TV in the Broward county area.
Isnt saying much for the county when you have to coax your residents not to riot ?
The possibility of provoked riots reminds me of when the Chinese were apparently provoked by their State run media into burning the cars of their neighbors and so forth. They were provoked to hate the Japanese even more than they already did, so they burned the cars of their neighbors and destroyed their own neighborhoods. Smart, huh? It seems to me like that has to be looked at as an intentional provocation, given that the media is run by the State. (Made it happen on purpose, let it happen on purpose. Too dumb to even know what the hell is going on because the agents of the state have been provoked too. Take your pick, because there's not a big difference between these options sometimes.)
But in this case, the media is owned by six large corporations.* (I.e. the business partners of the NSA, the military industrial complex (inc.) and so forth.) So why would the corporate media ultimately allow or be interested in actively pushing a story if they knew that it could possibly create riots in the "homeland"? The NSA and the whole corporate/government/media structure can't datamine twitter quickly enough to see some trends there? Or do they supposedly not know what may happen, until it happens and they get to report on that too? (Edit... ok, I guess local officials apparently made a video telling people not to riot. Still waiting on the military/industrial corporate media or NBC types to do that or report on the possibility, so far as I know.)
Maybe if one imagined a corporate/government/media hive mind as being intelligent, then even if it was governed by abject stupidity and unfathomable ignorance one might still know where it was headed. Nature calls, excrement happens... and you can imagine whatever happens as natural selection and happenstance later too, if you're into official stories. "Nothing to see here but our excrement, move along." Etc.
But I can still imagine that elements in the NBC type of media/government complex are more intelligent than the incompetent and bumbling fools they often make themselves out to be though. Call me naive. A satire of the navel gazing in the corporate media that's sure to follow if there are riots: "It's almost as if we were pushing the story and editing tapes in order to provoke people or somethin'. We'll discuss the topic with Al Sharpton at 9pm. So be sure to watch."
Anyway, looks like I'm with Joe on this one.
This infographic created by Jason at Frugal Dad shows that almost all media comes from the same six sources.
That's consolidated from 50 companies back in 1983. Business Insider
Versus the Chinese media:
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and until the 1980s, almost all media in China were state-run. Independent media only began to emerge at the onset of economic reforms, although state-run media outlets such as Xinhua, CCTV, and People's Daily continue to hold significant market share. Independent media that operate within the PRC (excluding Hong Kong and Macao, which have separate media regulatory bodies) are no longer required to strictly follow journalistic guidelines set by the government. Wikipedia
You can't really judge a county by a tiny minority of its residents. The vast majority need no coaxing not to riot.
And what is it you think Cable TV is doing 24/7 nationwide?
Well, now that I've brought up three times and you have now posted it again, can you or anyone take a stab at why it's a classic mixed message. Whether it's intentional or not is up for discussion, but that it's there at all is not. It's staring you in the face in black and white.
It's a 30 second clip of actual evidence. C'mon folks, this is what you guys are all about, isn't it? This one's right in your wheelhouse.
Trayvon Hoax
The corporate media's representation of the Zimmerman case, debunked General Discussion 12 Jul 25, 2013
Zimmerman Trial Conspiracies..... Conspiracy Theories 12 Jun 26, 2013
The corporate media's representation of the Zimmerman case, debunked
Zimmerman Trial Conspiracies.....
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Saint Faraday
"When we consider the magnitude and extent of his discoveries and their influence on the progress of science and of industry, there is no honour too great to pay to the memory of Faraday, one of the greatest scientific discoverers of all time."
— Physicist Ernest Rutherford on Michael Faraday
No honor too great? None? How about sainthood?
One bright saffron California morning when I was a college freshman, sitting through a chemistry lecture, Professor F. Koenig got off on a bit of a tangent about Michael Faraday and his contributions to electro-magnetism and electro-chemistry. Amongst chemists and physicists, Koenig informed the class, Faraday was seen as practically a saint.
The venue for Koenig’s lecture was an amphitheater in a large red brick Romanesque building set off to one side of the campus. The room contained tiers of wooden desks that fanned up from an arena backed by two green chalkboards on trollies.
Directly on the heels of Koenig’s remark, from high up in the back of the room, there came a sudden, impulsive guffaw.
“Ha, ha! Saint Faraday!”
Half annoyed, half nonplused, Professor K. glanced up in the direction of the outburst, then wordlessly wheeled about and began to scribble chemical formulas on the chalkboards.
I’d pretty much forgotten about this incident until an article in the New Yorker, The Mistrust of Science by Atul Gawande, somehow brought it to mind and got me to wondering if Michael Faraday might actually be a saint. For, to say the least, he apparently inspire trust.
According to Gawande, people are prone to resist scientific claims when the latter clash with their intuitive beliefs. What’s more, folks today – especially the educated, it seems – are becoming increasingly distrustful of establishment science, placing their confidence instead in fake experts and pseudoscience (e.g., creation science, climate change denial, alternative medicine).
The solution to this problem, says Gawande, is to assert “the true facts of good science” and expose the “bad science tactics that are being used to mislead people.” Clean up the muddled peer review process for scientific journals while you’re at it, he goes on, and good science will prevail, advancing “knowledge in almost every realm of existence – even the humanities, where neuroscience and computerization are shaping understanding of everything from free will to how art and literature have evolved over time.”
Well, its certainly good to be optimistic, but I suspect mistrust of science may be a bit more complicated than Gawande lets on. If the public has lost faith, it’s not just on account of lax communication by scientists or lazy journal editors. It’s because so much mainstream research is proving to be counterfeit, spurious, and in some cases downright ridiculous.
Indeed, the edifice of science today is afflicted by a litany of woes. In October, 2011, the journal Nature reported that published retractions of science articles had increased tenfold over the previous decade. According to a May, 2015, piece in the New York Times, a scientific paper is retracted because of misconduct on average every single day. Two percent of scientists – out of 2 million published articles per year, so the 2 percent figure is quite substantial – admit to improperly fudging data.
But why would this be? Isn’t professional integrity a sine qua non for the conduct of science?
Perhaps it was in the past, but these days scientists seem to have more pressing concerns. In order to secure funding and safeguard their academic jobs, they feel compelled to publish regularly in high-profile journals at any cost. So sometimes they “massage” (see P-hacking) or even fabricate experimental results in order to keep up the pace, especially in the area of biomedical research where an ever-larger share of government spending is being allocated. Thus it’s perhaps not surprising that attempts to replicate the findings of several recent studies in psychology, genetics, nutrition, and oncology have failed.
fMRI scanner. By means of complex
computer algorithms, this device can
render the human brain as lucent as an
elementary particle, revealing charge,
spin, and even emergent thought during
collapse of the quantum wave function.
The presence of an attractive X-ray tech-
nician, however, can be a confounding
Yet even in the absence of malfeasance, credibility issues in some areas of research remain. For example, many neuroscience investigators nowadays employ a technology known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at brain function as it applies to the humanities, philosophy, art, literature, aesthetics, religion, hypnosis, etc. Indeed, such use of fMRI has practically become a fad that at times can strain common sense to the point of hilarity, especially if you include neuropornography (1, 2) (which is probably the kissing cousin of MRI coital imaging).
A single “cut” from an fMRI scan
showing “lit up” regions of the brain. A
dim or completely dark image portends
lackluster results.
fMRI measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow to the brain’s various regions. When an area of the brain is in use, flow to that region increases, and it “lights up” on the scan. (Standard MRI simply produces anatomical images without reference to blood flow.) So, for example, a researcher might image a subject’s cerebral blood flow before and after the subject looks at da Vinci’s Mona Lisa or Playboy magazine, and then draw inferences based on changes in patterns of brain perfusion.
This, however, seems a bit like observing the lighted windows of an office building after dark in hopes of determining what’s going on inside. Even if the corner office is brightly lit, you still don’t know whether it’s the CEO or the cleaning lady who’s at work in there. By the same token, the presumption that simple fluxes in cerebral blood flow can yield specific insights into the inner workings of consciousness seems quite a stretch. What’s coming next? Neuroastrology? Neuro-oneiromancy?
In addition, there’re assorted definitional pitfalls. If philosophers can’t agree on the meaning of free will, what can cerebral blood flow tell you about it? Similarly, for compulsive sexual behavior disorder (addiction to pornography), another focus of fMRI study, even the investigators concede there’s no precise definition.
And finally there’s the startling technical glitch brought to light by a UCSB study, an anomaly that may have affected most fMRI neuroscience research to date. Bennett and colleagues did fMRI scans of a dead (d-e-a-d) salmon (f-i-s-h) and found neural activity in its brain when it was “shown” photographs of humans in social situations. This was because the computer software failed to carry out “multiple comparison correction,” a shortcoming that could call into question the findings of much of the work in the field.
No wonder fMRI neuroscience smells fishy!
If all of the foregoing isn’t barrier enough to trust in science, a 1995 analysis of standard statistical methodologies used for the majority of scientific research came as a real shocker. Simulations done by John Ioannidis, now at Stanford, showed that for most study designs and settings, it was more likely for a research claim to be false than true. Moreover, claimed research findings were likely to be little more than accurate measures of prevailing bias.
Well, land sakes alive! Don’t even try to pass Go, you rascals, or collect that $200. Forfeit those NIH grants forthwith and hie thee to the Federal Scientist Protection Program. They’re coming for you with torches and pitchforks – or at least a fraud-o-meter and a research misconduct review board.
Which brings me back to Michael Faraday and sainthood. Halleluiah for Faraday, for physics, and for their guardian angel, mathematics!
M-Theory – the big tent theory of everything –
comprised of five string theories (Type I, Type IIA,
Type IIB, SO(32) Heterotopic, E8 X E8 Herotopic)
plus 11-Dimentional Supergravity (Supersymmetry).
But where’s Waldo? The construct has yet to result
in a tested hypothesis.
From Newton to Einstein to contemporary quantum mechanics, physics, underpinned by the elegance and legitimacy of mathematics, has been pretty much free of the stickiness of biology and fuzziness of the social sciences. NASA engineers used Newtonian mechanics to land vehicles on the moon and Mars. The predictions of Einstein’s theory of relativity and the Standard Model of quantum mechanics have proven amazingly accurate – and for better or worse, gave us atomic energy. Today, M-Theory, which resolves seemingly intractable issues with string theory, shows promise of settling one of physics’ central conundrums, the reconciliation of Einsteinian spacetime (gravity) with the forces of quantum mechanics.
String theory comes in five different flavors,
all of which can be reconciled under M-theory.
What the “M” in M-theory stands for remains
unspecified, but some see it a stealthy
upside-down “W” for Edward Witten,
M-theory’s inventor.
Of course, like all science, physics has its problems. M-theory, thus far only a mathematical construct, has yet to result in a tested hypothesis. And some discoveries in physics have had to be qualified or retracted.
But fraud and deception have been remarkably rare. When retractions come – and they do – they’re typically the result of honest mistakes that are part and parcel of the scientific process, and they follow soon after the original announcements. In other words, they’re not due to whistle-blowers or the findings of a research misconduct investigation.
For example, following reports in March and June, 2014, of the possible discovery of primordial gravity waves left over from the Big Bang, a more thorough analysis of data from the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite and the ground-based BICEP2 and Keck Array experiments found that the data were inconclusive. And by December, 2015, a correction had been issued. The primary investigators may have been in too big a hurry to announce their initial findings, but no one believes they were guilty of fraud. Moreover, the existence of gravity waves (though not from the Big Bang) was subsequently confirmed.
Premature claims that neutrinos might have broken the cosmic speed barrier, the speed of light, played out in a similar fashion – from the initial announcement in September, 2011, to the retraction in February, 2012. To date, neutrinos continue to observe the cosmic speed limit.
In the mid-2000s, several physics experiments claimed to reveal so-called pentaquark states of elementary particles. By 2008, however, the journal Review of Particle Physics cited overwhelming evidence that pentaquarks did not exist and stated that the whole story – the discoveries themselves, the tidal wave of publications that followed, and the eventual "undiscovery” – was a “curious episode in the history of science.” Yet, in 2015 during matter-antimatter experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, researchers “stumbled across” pentaquarks quite by “accident." So perhaps these ephemeral subatomic particles exist after all, and in a backhanded way, all those wrong publications were actually right.
So it goes in science. Even when you haven't loaded the dice, today’s heresy may turn out to be tomorrow’s gospel.
Michael Faraday, 1791 – 1867
And what about Michael Faraday? Was he really a saint?
Faraday was a man of humble origins with very little formal education. Apprenticed to a bookseller, however, he gained the opportunity of reading widely. Later in life, when offered a knighthood in recognition for his services to science, he demurred, stating that he preferred to remain "plain Mr. Faraday to the end." Twice he declined the presidency of the Royal Society of London and also turned down an offer of burial at Westminster Abbey upon his death. When the British government requested that he advise on the production of chemical weapons for the Crimean War, he refused on ethical grounds.
Try finding a scientist that saintly today.
Posted by Steve H Dougherty at Thursday, September 08, 2016
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Family man and cop, Sgt. Jeff Pelo was also a calculating serial rapist
Fri Dec 22, 2017 at 3:51pm ET Sat Jul 04, 2020 at 3:51 pm EDT
Sgt. Jeff Pelo had a double life as a ruthless rapist
This week Married with Secrets spotlights the case of police officer Sgt. Jeff Pelo, a police officer who was a seemingly good cop and family man.
Bloomington, Ill., and Sgt. Pelo has a great life with a good job and a wife plus three teenage kids. But this cop has a secret life and was eventually caught and charged with raping four women and stalking another between 2002 and 2005.
He was arrested in 2006 and at the trial the prosecution said that he was driven to rape by fantasies partly taken from pornography he viewed featuring women being forced to have sex. He was also accused of believing that they might even like him and become his lover or girlfriend.
He was also very careful when he committed the rapes and made his victims take a bath before removing all the sheets and any items that might leave DNA evidence. As a result there was no DNA or other forensic evidence tying him to the crimes.
However, in 2008 a jury found him guilty of various charges including 25 counts of aggravated sexual assault and he was given 440 years in prison. The judge told him: “You literally went from being a protector of our community to a plague on our community.”
Married with Secrets airs at 9:00 PM on Investigation Discovery.
ID Nine at 9 exclusive interview: Brittany Murphy’s death completely incomprehensible says Dr. Cyril Wecht
Tags Married with Secrets, True Crime
Death of Jean-Claude Dominique revealed double life and attempted murder of Eliette...
ID Nine at 9 exclusive interview: Brittany Murphy’s death completely incomprehensible says...
Dark Side Of The Ring season two opens with shocking Chris Benoit...
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Holt Street Memorial Baptist Church celebrates 110 years on Sunday
Sara MacNeil
There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said on Dec. 5, 1955, inside Holt Street Baptist Church.
His historic speech inside the church, which celebrates its 110th anniversary Sunday, capped the first day of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Rosa Parks was burnt out on abuse Dec. 1, 1955, when an officer towered over her, badgering her to get out of the seat she found on a bus. Instead of physically rising to her feet like the officer demanded, she stood up for her rights by remaining seated. A few days later, the city buses went empty.
About 5,000 people came to listen to the Rev. King inside Holt Street Baptist Church, unanimously voting to continue the boycott until their demands for better treatment were met. Mary Caldwell, a Holt Street Memorial Baptist member, was 22 when she listened to King that December with a crowd that overflowed into the street.
“I could not see him talking because they didn’t have the pictures outside like they do now. We had only just the loudspeakers so we could hear him speaking but not see him,” Caldwell said.
After 64 years, Caldwell, who volunteers at the day care at the new location of Holt Street Memorial Baptist Church, described the event with clarity as if the memory hadn’t faded.
“I was a waitress down at H.L. Green. It was a five-and-ten-cent store that had a restaurant in it,” Caldwell said. “It was on the corner of Dexter Avenue.”
Caldwell didn’t ride the bus for the entire year the protest lasted, until the Supreme Court ordered Montgomery’s buses be desegregated in 1956.
Abandoned houses and overgrown lots now confine the old Holt Street Baptist Church where that important meeting took place kicking off the boycott's extension beyond one day. Once enclosed by lived-in homes and black-owned businesses the church had little room to expand before Interstate 85 was built. The church organization, now called Holt Street Memorial Baptist Church, survived the construction of the highway tearing through its neighborhood.
Cleaved by concrete:The legacy of Montgomery's interstates & the neighborhoods they destroyed
“When you come off of 85 and make your turn going to Mobile, you’re wrapping yourself around Holt Street’s neck,” said the Rev. Willie D. McClung who has served as pastor of Holt Street Baptist Church for nearly 28 years.
A front-page story in the Advertiser from March 1968 described the situation of a 78-year-old woman forced to vacate her Holt Street home of 42 years.
"Mrs. Kinney lives alone in a five-room house," the article reads. "She pieces quilts, listens to religious music and loves to watch daytime stories on television."
Mrs. Kinney lived at 717 South Holt St. Today her house, if it still stands, is on the opposite side of I-85 from the Holt Street Baptist Church. Her home was about two blocks north of the old building.
The time-honored church with a current membership of 700 moved to a new complex in the late 90s. The sanctuary has at least 1,000 seats. The complex includes a theater, an education wing with 22 classrooms and a child development center.
The church built the complex on land that previously served as a dumping ground for run-off water coming from Court Street. The owner sold the empty lot filled with weeds at a decent price.
“They thought nobody could build on this,” McClung said in the conference room of the church’s new complex at 1890 S. Court St. “You can build anything; it just depends on the foundation you put it on.”
The church is memorializing its foundation of a rich history by renovating the old building on Holt Street and turning it into a museum. McClung said renovations are on hold, but hopes the old building will open within the next year.
More:Bus boycott epicenter Holt St. Baptist Church rising again after years of decay
The church will honor its 110th year Sunday with a baptism.
Sara MacNeil can be reached at smacneil@montgome.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter.
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Home / News / SUVs
Low dollar forces Audi to cancel U.S. Q7 hybrid plans
The low U.S. dollar has caused a number of carmakers to readjust their strategies, including canceling models and moving production. The latest vehicle to fall victim to the falling dollar is Audi’s upcoming Q7 hybrid, which will no longer be offered in the U.S.
The green SUV was originally meant to reach the U.S. early next year but its launch in the world’s biggest car market has been ruled out indefinitely because there was no business case for it given the state of the dollar. The information comes from Audi’s U.S. chief Johan de Nysschen, who told Automotive News it will be “very hard to make the numbers work.”
"We will not do the hybrid Q7 as a conventional product offering," de Nysschen said. However, he added that a limited number of cars will be available for the commercial market.
Audi will instead focus on a hybrid version of its all-new Q5 crossover, which makes its debut at the upcoming Beijing Motor Show and goes on sale in the U.S. next year. "That hybrid has always been in planning. The question is, again, volume potential," de Nysschen said. "We in the U.S. are more enthusiastic about diesels. Hybrids have a niche in this market. We are a small company and ask ourselves if we need to be in every niche."
Pictured below is Audi's latest Q7 variant, the all-new V12 TDI model that made its debut earlier this month in Geneva.
Audi Q7 V12 TDI
High-Res Gallery: audi q7 v12 01
Audi News Hybrids News SUVs
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Posted by DJM | Apr 26, 2010 | Thrillers | 0 |
Anthony Perkins scared us in 1960 when he dressed up as his mother in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho. In 1992, Jaye Davidson shocked us when we discovered he was a man dressed up like a lady in the sleeper hit The Crying Game. Now, the newest member of the cross-dressing group is Irish actor Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins) in the Direct-to-DVD thriller Peacock.
It is the 1950’s and in a little town in Nebraska called Peacock, there is a dark secret that no one knows about. John Skillpa (Murphy) lives his life by a very strict routine. He eats the same breakfast every morning at 8:15 and rides his bike to work. John is a bank clerk.
He enters the bank through the backdoor and quickly goes downstairs to a small, windowless office. His supervisor Edmund French (Bill Pullman) gladly gives him piles of work to do every morning.
John eats his lunch by the same lake every afternoon and when the work day is over. He goes home. John keeps to himself and no one bothers him.
Everything changes for John when one morning a train crashes into his backyard. Now, John is the center of attention in the town. This is when people discover that John has a woman living with him, his wife Emma. There is just one thing that the townspeople do not see, Emma looks an awful lot like John, and he’ll do whatever it takes to keep it that way.
Due to being raised by a cruel mother, there is a deep, dark battle taking place inside John’s mind. Will he remain John Skillpa or will he give in and become his wife Emma?
Also staring in Peacock is Keith Carradine as the mayor of Peacock. His wife Fanny is played by Oscar winning actress Susan Sarandon. Ellen Page (Juno) plays Maggie, a waitress, who has her own secret about John.
In his debut as a director and writer Michael Lander, along with first-time writer Ryan Roy, create a story that completely sucks you in and keeps you entertained all the way through.
Their next film, Kite, has already been picked up by Warner Brothers and Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company, Appian Way, for development. If Kite is half as good as Peacock, then you’ll definitely want to be on the lookout for these two up and coming filmmakers.
Cillian Murphy gives a remarkable performance in his dual-roles. John is about ready to crack under the pressure to keep his secret and Murphy wonderfully captures John’s intensity.
At first reluctant to be a part of society, after Emma strikes up a friendship with Fanny and then Maggie too, she seems quite comfortable in her new surroundings. Cillian easily shows he is equally talented enough to transform himself into a woman.
Ellen Page is very effective as a young woman who is desperate to get out of her small hometown and start a new life elsewhere. Susan Sarandon is a true professional. Her performance is as polished as a brand new car.
It would have been nice if accomplished actors, Keith Carradine and Bill Pullman, would have had larger roles. These are two people that can always enhance a movie with a bigger presence.
Even though some people may think that Peacock is a cheap ripoff of Psycho, I found John Skillpa to be an eerie and bizarre character that is without question worthy of your attention.
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Movie Review of ‘Sin City’ (2005)
Movie Review of ‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’ (2014)
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More Water Infrastructure Funding Needed
By Radhika Fox and Kevin Shafer
Federal spending for water pipelines, sewage systems, etc. is just one-eighth of what it was in the 1970s.
Stump speeches. Catchy slogans. Balloons. Confetti. Funny hats. Last week, hundreds of thousands of Americans from across the nation would have descended on Milwaukee for the Democratic National Convention. Delegates would have voted for the next Democratic presidential candidate, restaurants, and hotels would be overflowing, and streets would be abuzz with the electric energy of summer in the Great Lakes.
As with so many things these days, the coronavirus pandemic delayed, and made virtual, the Democratic National Convention that Milwaukee painstakingly planned over the last year. Like much of America, our Convention Center remains shuttered, our beloved Summerfest canceled, sports arenas are closed, and restaurants and bars are deserted.
Milwaukee is known as the Fresh Coast—set on the shores of Lake Michigan and located at the confluence of three rivers. Unfortunately, even these precious natural resources are not immune to the impacts of the pandemic. Milwaukee’s drinking water and wastewater utilities are experiencing sudden drops in revenue as economic activity precipitously declines. Water utilities know they provide an essential service, which is why Milwaukee has a moratorium on water shutoffs. Local water utilities are also incurring new, additional costs to staff critical operations during the pandemic. This isn’t unique to Milwaukee, but a national trend—in fact, water and wastewater utilities are projecting $30 billion in lost revenue by 2021.
The coronavirus pandemic is a compounding crisis on top of a long-standing water infrastructure crisis. In 2019, the gap between actual spending on water infrastructure versus the total need was $81 billion. For too long, the federal government has been an absent partner to local communities who are most impacted by failing roads, bridges, and water systems. The federal share of water infrastructure investment has shrunk to one-eighth of what it was in the 1970s, covering only 4% of total water infrastructure spending.
It’s time to renew the local-state-federal partnership on water infrastructure. We need a federal plan to ensure clean, safe drinking water in all communities—rural to urban, rich and poor—by investing in the repair of water pipelines and sewer systems, replacing lead service pipes, upgrading treatment plants, and integrating efficiency and water quality monitoring technologies. Milwaukee is leading this charge by upgrading its wastewater facilities to use renewable energy sources such as solar, landfill gas, and biogas as energy sources.
We need a federal partner that is committed to protecting our watersheds and clean water infrastructure from man-made and natural disasters by conserving and restoring wetlands and developing green infrastructure and natural solutions. This is something Milwaukee has been working on for over twenty years through the naturalization of the three rivers—replacing concrete with vegetation to form naturalized streams, while providing flood protection for residents. Milwaukee has also been restoring neighborhoods using green infrastructure to provide natural habitat, recreation, and water quality improvements and responding to climate change with a single infrastructure investment.
Lead service lines replaced by the Milwaukee Water Works with corrosion control visible in pipe. Image from Milwaukee Water Works.
We need a federal partner who is going to help cities like Milwaukee improve water quality in a comprehensive way. PFAS, a group of over 5,000 man-made chemical compounds, are associated with potential human health and ecological concerns, including cancer. These compounds have been found in all of the Great Lakes which are the source of drinking water for approximately 40 million people, and water from other surface waters and groundwater in the Great Lakes States. Milwaukee is working with the State of Wisconsin to monitor and report on PFAS in drinking water, wastewater, and other environmental metrics, providing valuable information that will help with removal of this pollutant from our environment. An important aspect of that is the education of industry, government agencies, and the public so that these pollutants don’t enter our water supply in the first place.
We also need a federal partner that is committed to utilizing infrastructure investments to address racial and environmental justice disparities. Milwaukee is a city that has long struggled with racial inequality—African Americans make half the median income of white residents, and a recent report from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee showed the disproportionate spread of coronavirus among African Americans as a result of racial segregation and other factors. That’s why Milwaukee has been part of the US Water Alliance’s Water Equity Taskforce—which is focused on opening up job and contracting opportunities in the water sector to low-income people and communities of color.
While there were no lofty speeches in the Milwaukee Convention Center last week, former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Candidate, announced an ambitious plan that would tackle many of these challenges and restore the local-state-federal partnership. As we enter the general election season, we call on all candidates to do the same. From Presidential down to town council, share your plans to invest in America’s water systems, roads, bridges, schools, and broadband.
Investing in infrastructure puts people to work, helps our economy, and strengthens communities. America can do great things when we set our minds to it. Let’s get to work on rebuilding a better America—together.
Radhika Fox, CEO, US Water Alliance and Kevin Shafer, Executive Director, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.
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Posted on December 1, 2015 by Gallipolis Daily Tribune
Rio men take down Buffaloes
KINGSPORT, Tenn. — Corey Cruse’s layup with 21 seconds snapped the seventh tie of the contest and helped the University of Rio Grande upend Milligan (Tenn.) College, 69-66, in the final round of the NAIA DII Men’s Basketball Showcase, Sunday night, at the MeadowView Conference Resort and Convention Center.
The RedStorm, who had lost three of their previous four outings, improved to 6-4 with the victory.
Milligan suffered its second loss in as many days after opening the season with seven consecutive wins.
Late-game heroics didn’t appear necessary after Rio Grande grabbed its largest lead of the game, 41-29, following a three-pointer by junior Matt Rhodes (Westerville, OH) with 15:48 left to play, but the Buffaloes began a methodical comeback effort and eventually took a 58-57 advantage on a short jumper in the lane by Julian Bailey with 5:31 remaining.
The RedStorm regained the lead on its ensuing possession thanks to a bucket by senior D.D. Joiner (Columbus, OH) and never trailed again, although Milligan did forge a quartet of ties inside the final 4:15, including a 66-66 deadlock following a left wing jumper by Alex Biggerstaff with 51 seconds left.
That’s how things stayed until Cruse, a junior forward from Fort Mitchell, Ky., just beat a shot clock violation on Rio’s next possession with his go-ahead layup off of a pass by Joiner with 21 seconds remaining.
Senior Kevonta Black (Nashville, TN) hit one of two free throws 15 seconds later to push the lead to 69-66 and a would-be game-tying three-pointer by Milligan’s Kurt Brooks as time expired was off the mark.
Joiner scored a game-high 17 points to lead Rio, while Cruse had 14 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Senior Dwayne Bazemore (Columbus, OH) also had 14 points for the RedStorm, while Black finished with 12 points.
Brooks had 17 points in a losing cause for Milligan, while Bailey had 16 points and a team-high 11 rebounds. Will Buckner added 10 points off the bench for the Buffaloes.
Rio Grande returns to action on Wednesday night when rival Shawnee State University visits the Newt Oliver Arena for a non-conference matchup. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m.
Randy Payton is the Sports Information Director for the University of Rio Grande.
Hi! A visitor to our site felt the following article might be of interest to you: Rio men take down Buffaloes. Here is a link to that story: http://www.mydailytribune.com/sports/3331/rio-men-take-down-buffaloes
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Siegfried Fischbacher of 'Siegfried and Roy' fame dies in Las Vegas
Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images
Siegried Fischbacher and Roy Horn in their private apartment at the Mirage Hotel on the Vegas Strip, along with one of their performing white lions.
SOURCE: Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images
Siegfried Fischbacher, member of the magic duo Siegfried & Roy who entertained millions with illusions using rare animals, has died in Las Vegas, his publicist tells The Associated Press. He was 81.Fischbacher died Wednesday at his home from pancreatic cancer, Dave Kirvin of Kirvin Doak Communications said Thursday. The news was first reported by German news agency dpa.Fischbacher’s long-time show business partner, Roy Horn, died last year of complications from COVID-19 at a Las Vegas hospital. He was 75.The duo astonished millions with their extraordinary magic tricks until Horn was critically injured in 2003 by one of the act’s famed white tigers.In a statement announcing Horn's death in May, Fischbacher said, “From the moment we met, I knew Roy and I, together, would change the world. There could be no Siegfried without Roy, and no Roy without Siegfried.”He later told Germany's weekly Bild am Sonntag newspaper his best friend would always stay by his side.“For dinner, I will continue to have the table set for him, too. Like it always was the case. I’m not alone,” dpa quoted Fischbacher as telling the newspaper.For years, Siegfried & Roy was an institution in Las Vegas, where Fischbacher and Horn's magic and artistry consistently attracted sellout crowds. The pair performed six shows a week, 44 weeks per year.Horn and Fischbacher, both natives of Germany, first teamed up in 1957 and made their Las Vegas debut a decade later. Siegfried & Roy began performing at the Mirage in 1990.The pair gained international recognition for helping to save rare white tigers and white lions from extinction. Their $10 million compound was home to dozens of rare animals over the years. The white lions and white tigers were the result of a preservation program that began in the 1980s.The Siegfried & Roy show incorporated animal antics and magic tricks, featuring 20 white tigers and lions, the number varying depending on the night. The show also had other exotic animals, including an elephant.Born on June 13, 1939 in Rosenheim in Bavaria, Fischbacher learned his first magic tricks as a young boy, dpa reported.Horn and Fischbacher met on a cruise ship in 1957. Fischbacher performed the magic tricks, while Horn became his assistant, eventually suggesting using the cheetah in the act.They honed their animal-magic show in small clubs in Germany and Switzerland in the mid-1960s. Their break came in a Monte Carlo casino when an agent in the audience invited them to Las Vegas. The pair made their debut at the Tropicana hotel-casino in the late 1960s.The illusionists became popular in the 1970s, receiving their first star billing in 1978 as headliners of the Stardust’s “Lido de Paris.” Their show “Beyond Belief” opened in 1981 at the Frontier and played to thousands over seven years.When they signed a lifetime contract with the Mirage in 2001, it was estimated they had performed 5,000 shows at the casino for 10 million fans since 1990 and had grossed more than $1 billion.“Throughout the history of Las Vegas, no artists have meant more to the development of Las Vegas’ global reputation as the entertainment capital of the world than Siegfried and Roy,” Terry Lanni, chairman of MGM Mirage, the casino’s parent company, said after the 2003 attack that injured Horn.Funeral services will be private with plans for a public memorial in the future.___Davenport reported from Phoenix. Associated Press reporter Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.
Siegfried Fischbacher, member of the magic duo Siegfried & Roy who entertained millions with illusions using rare animals, has died in Las Vegas, his publicist tells The Associated Press. He was 81.
Fischbacher died Wednesday at his home from pancreatic cancer, Dave Kirvin of Kirvin Doak Communications said Thursday. The news was first reported by German news agency dpa.
Fischbacher’s long-time show business partner, Roy Horn, died last year of complications from COVID-19 at a Las Vegas hospital. He was 75.
Legendary ‘Siegfried and Roy’ magician Roy Horn dies at 75
The duo astonished millions with their extraordinary magic tricks until Horn was critically injured in 2003 by one of the act’s famed white tigers.
In a statement announcing Horn's death in May, Fischbacher said, “From the moment we met, I knew Roy and I, together, would change the world. There could be no Siegfried without Roy, and no Roy without Siegfried.”
He later told Germany's weekly Bild am Sonntag newspaper his best friend would always stay by his side.
“For dinner, I will continue to have the table set for him, too. Like it always was the case. I’m not alone,” dpa quoted Fischbacher as telling the newspaper.
For years, Siegfried & Roy was an institution in Las Vegas, where Fischbacher and Horn's magic and artistry consistently attracted sellout crowds. The pair performed six shows a week, 44 weeks per year.
Horn and Fischbacher, both natives of Germany, first teamed up in 1957 and made their Las Vegas debut a decade later. Siegfried & Roy began performing at the Mirage in 1990.
The pair gained international recognition for helping to save rare white tigers and white lions from extinction. Their $10 million compound was home to dozens of rare animals over the years. The white lions and white tigers were the result of a preservation program that began in the 1980s.
The Siegfried & Roy show incorporated animal antics and magic tricks, featuring 20 white tigers and lions, the number varying depending on the night. The show also had other exotic animals, including an elephant.
Born on June 13, 1939 in Rosenheim in Bavaria, Fischbacher learned his first magic tricks as a young boy, dpa reported.
Horn and Fischbacher met on a cruise ship in 1957. Fischbacher performed the magic tricks, while Horn became his assistant, eventually suggesting using the cheetah in the act.
They honed their animal-magic show in small clubs in Germany and Switzerland in the mid-1960s. Their break came in a Monte Carlo casino when an agent in the audience invited them to Las Vegas. The pair made their debut at the Tropicana hotel-casino in the late 1960s.
The illusionists became popular in the 1970s, receiving their first star billing in 1978 as headliners of the Stardust’s “Lido de Paris.” Their show “Beyond Belief” opened in 1981 at the Frontier and played to thousands over seven years.
When they signed a lifetime contract with the Mirage in 2001, it was estimated they had performed 5,000 shows at the casino for 10 million fans since 1990 and had grossed more than $1 billion.
“Throughout the history of Las Vegas, no artists have meant more to the development of Las Vegas’ global reputation as the entertainment capital of the world than Siegfried and Roy,” Terry Lanni, chairman of MGM Mirage, the casino’s parent company, said after the 2003 attack that injured Horn.
Funeral services will be private with plans for a public memorial in the future.
Davenport reported from Phoenix. Associated Press reporter Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.
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About Malaysian Sikh Union
Malaysian Sikh Union (MSU) occupies a special place in the history of Sikhs in Malaysia, it was known as the Pan – Malayan Sikh organization which attempted to unite all the Sikhs into a single whole and promote their political, economic and social interest.
The date February 2nd, 1947, is dear to MSU, as it was on this day MSU was established at No.3, Club Road, Kuala Lumpur under the auspices of the Selangor Sikh Union. The Convention was attended by representatives from several states such as Selangor, Johor, Perak, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan.The first President of MSU was the late Sar. Bhagwan Singh and Secretary was Master Ganga Singh.
The main objectives of MSU were as follows:
a) To promote the unity amongst the Malaysian Sikh Community and to further religious, educational, economic, physical and political advancement.
b) To represent and express the view of the Sikhs on matters affecting their religious, political, public and economic welfare.
c) To do everything possible to raise the status of Sikhs and to develop and maintain healthy social and cultural, between the Sikhs and other communities.
d) To do everything possible in helping not only the children of Sikh’s but of all races in excelling in education.
Over the years like everything else MSU has evolved and grown, today MSU boasts branches in 11 states.
The Sikhs in Malaysia have also the independent of thought, the resilience and the creativity to tackle their problems and challenges in an intelligent and supremely innovative matter.
It is this faith and confidence that motivates the resurgent Malaysian Sikh Union to unite the young and old, the traditional and modern, the entire society in a programme for clear objectives and goals within the framework of national growth and development.
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2014 Napier Fellows
Karen Castro-Ayala - Scripps College
Karen is troubled by food insecurity, high levels of poverty, and low high-school graduation rates in heavily Latino/Hispanic Pasco, WA, an area she often visited with her family as a child. She sees these problems as justice issues and hopes to bring about positive change through her project there. Drawing on experience working in a summer day camp in LA and gardening with high-school students in Pomona and with Crossroads residents in Claremont, she plans to partner with a church that is deeply embedded in the Pasco community to develop a community garden and summer day camp called “Roots of Change” for middle and high school students. The program will include gardening, cooking, food-justice discussions, environmental-justice workshops, art and music projects, along with an academic-enrichment component. Karen envisions this program as the starting point for an after-school tutoring program and a potential organization through which community members can come together to demand change and transform their neighborhoods.
Katherine Garcia - Pomona College
Studying in Cape Town, South Africa, Katherine learned how the high crime rate is rooted in the legacies of apartheid. Tutoring disadvantaged township youth helped her discover the value of student participation in discussions surrounding community concerns and the insight and creativity of these young people. Building on this experience, she proposed to return to Cape Town to work in partnership with the Masiphumelele Public Library. There she would train a group of high-school students to research topics such as drug use, alcohol availability, and lack of access to life outside the township. She would then work together with them to identify root causes of problems and possible strategies for change. She aimed to empower youth by involving them in conversations about the obstacles facing their communities and also in the search for community-based responses.
Marcela Jones - Pitzer College
While working with Huerta del Valle Community Garden in Ontario, CA, a non-profit organization promoting a healthy lifestyle and food justice in the community, Marcela became concerned about the unjust situation of the predominantly low-income and low-resource minority families of color in the area surrounding the Garden. The children are severely disadvantaged educationally. Overcrowded classrooms and insufficient funding for schools leave children whose first language is not English struggling to keep up with the curriculum. Marcela will start a reading initiative with the children of the Garden and the surrounding community. By focusing on reading, she believes the children can be empowered to increase their vocabularies and master the English language so that they will communicate more effectively, have greater confidence, and find encouragement to strive for better futures. She will also involve local youth as a means of training them to carry on the program.
Minji Lee - Pitzer College
Minji's project focused on the role of art in the management of diabetes, seeing art as a medium for emotional healing that medical treatment alone cannot provide. She proposed as her project to share this perspective with people living with diabetes in two different contexts. In Bangalore, India, she would partner with the Jnana Sanjeevini Clinic and Sucre Blue to lead group art therapy sessions for diabetic children and their families, as well as to implement one-on-one art therapy sessions with these children in their rural village homes. In Boston, MA she would partner with the Foundation for Art and Healing to co-facilitate a storytelling intervention program entitled “Diabetes: Breaking the Silence with Creativity.” She believed that as her healing arts project promoted social justice through humanistic, holistic healing processes and encouraged sustainable self-care practices, it would serve as a creative catalyst for individual and community transformation in the context of diabetes advocacy and awareness.
Jenn Livermore - Scripps College
During a semester in Australia focused on Sustainability and Environmental Action, Jenn undertook as her independent project researching, writing, and producing a book to be distributed free for community outreach. It was written from the perspective of a fictional character transitioning to a simple and sustainable lifestyle in Melbourne. The book was intended to be an attractive educational device and is designed to be easily converted into a reusable bag. Jenn now hoped to replicate and expand this project in San Francisco. She had interned in San Francisco with The Presidio Trust, The Nature Conservancy, and the Greenbelt Alliance. With established local contacts with these environmental organizations, and with more time and more resources than she had in Australia, Jenn planned to prepare a new book on simple and sustainable living in San Francisco, work with local groups to distribute it, and try to maximize its educational impact. A blog would be created to engage local people in conversation, to trace and evaluate the reach of the book, and to get feedback.
Romarilyn Ralston - Pitzer College
Volunteering to help take third graders to the zoo introduced Romarilyn to the Miles Davis Kindergarten Center in the East Saint Louis Public School system, located in a seriously disadvantaged neighborhood. Reflecting on what she had learned about the relation of poverty and poor education to mass incarceration through her academic study and through volunteer work with juvenile delinquents and residents of Crossroads, she determined to focus her work on making children's first educational experience a positive one. In partnership with teachers at Miles Davis Kindergarten Center, she shaped plans for “Good Start” to empower the community to improve educational achievement. The “Good Start” program would introduce parents to ways to encourage and cultivate academic success for their children, such as possibly GED classes for parents, a financial savings plan for field trips and school supplies, healthy eating plans, and basic parenting skills, if needed. Romarilyn proposed to enlist community members such as teachers, law enforcement officers, parents, church members, businessmen and women to help provide and support these services.
Bianca Shiu & Sharon Jan - Pomona College
Sharon and Bianca have had the opportunity to work with several educational nonprofits where they saw a need for improvement in student writing. Bianca volunteered with Pomona Hope and Uncommon Good and interned with 826LA and Breakthrough Collaborative to develop her teaching and leadership skills. Sharon worked with Pomona Hope Kids as an Outreach Coordinator and tutor and interned with the Los Angeles Urban Project and Adventures Ahead in South LA as a volunteer teacher. Both share excitement about educational equity and believe in the importance of writing in college and career readiness, which led them to create the Weekly Writing Workshop (3W) at Pomona College. The mission of 3W is to empower underprivileged public school students by strengthening their technical writing skills and creative expression through individualized feedback and engaging creative writing lessons. College mentors play a large role in the 3W program, working with the same 2-3 students through the entire semester. 3W is partnering locally with Uncommon Good and CLASP and is also expanding to four more college campuses this year. The Napier project to be carried out by Bianca and Sharon will expand the program to other campuses by providing motivated college students with writing curriculum and guidance in setting up their own sustainable 3W chapters. In addition, they will plan two national training conferences where there will be practice-teaching with feedback, training for 3W mentor management, and vision setting to create a cohesive program that will benefit local communities across the United States.
Christian Stevens - Harvey Mudd College
Christian has been working on HIV gene therapy research in the lab for nearly two years but has also become engaged as a volunteer in the community concerned with the social impact of HIV. He is aware of the many social problems that prevent patients from fully accessing the available medical treatment. He proposed to go to Lilongwe, Malawi for nine months to work with Partners in Hope. Malawi is a poor African nation with a very high incidence of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, all infections which require strict levels of adherence to medication programs if treatment is to be successful. He proposed to spend time with physicians and other health-care professionals as well as their patients and other members of the community in order to gain a better understanding of the factors that affect medication adherence. He hoped to create an organization that includes both citizens and health-care professionals that focuses on improving health-care outcomes for patients in Lilongwe by improving medication adherence.
Margaret Thompson - Harvey Mudd College
Margaret's project addressed issues surrounding transnational relationships where immigrants in the United States maintain romantic relationships with partners living in their sending countries. Persons in these relationships face a host of barriers that have the potential to undermine the stability of the relationship and the co-parenting dynamics of couples with children. She believes that where immigrants make up a large fraction of our local community, that community has a responsibility to care about how community structures, such as immigration laws, are affecting the lives of its people. Margaret has been part of a research team studying these transnational relationships from a relationship psychology perspective. She proposed to supplement that research by traveling to Guadalajara, Mexico for one semester to converse with individuals whose partners have migrated to the U.S. in order to understand their experience. In the second semester she would work with the research team at HMC to integrate the data collected and possibly prepare a paper for publication.
Wendalyn Tran - Claremont McKenna College
Wendalyn partnered with a Vietnamese program, Be Change Agents, that works in three regions of the country, gathering 30 university students at a time to teach them leadership skills over seven days. Many students want to have a positive impact in their community, but they feel that the existing leadership workshops are more theoretical than practical and not effective. Wendalyn expanded and improved these leadership programs by incorporating: 1) a greater focus on skills application, using interactive activities and 2) a curriculum by which students can teach this material to other students. Both should be customized to meet the students' needs by drawing on the knowledge and opinions of both students and experienced practitioners in social change. She proposed to spend ten months in Vietnam, consulting with student alumni of the Be Change Agents program, developing curricula, teaching, implementing a project with the students, surveying feedback from participants, and assisting the students who would then become the instructors as they would teach a new group of students.
Mitsuko Alexandra Yabe - Pomona College
Mitsuko has been doing genomic research on snow leopards, an endangered species, to discover how climate change would affect their adaptation to high-altitude environments in the Himalayas. She became aware of the gap in knowledge and communication between American lab research groups and the local communities that are directly affected by snow leopard conservation in Ladakh, on the Himalayan border of India. She placed the scientific issues in the larger context of social ecology. Mitsuko planned to go to Ladakh to work with the Main Education Coordinator of the Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust, Tsering Angmo, to develop and include a Climate Change section in their Environmental Education Program. She would hold training workshops for educators and teach students in 14 schools. Furthermore she would like to help make a Himalayan home-stay program available to environmental-studies and veterinary students from the US by creating an informational pamphlet available via web, so they can go and work with SLC-IT. The home-stay program would facilitate partnerships and cultural exchanges and also benefit the local communities economically.
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The art of diagnosis
20th May 2016 by Judith Harvey
Diagnosis, as we know, depends on history and examination. A work of art lacks the former, but it’s interesting to consider what artists notice.
In the ancient civilizations of Greece and India the sculptor’s purpose was to portray human perfection. Representations of real, imperfect human beings are also rare in Egyptian art. There is a man with a withered leg, propping himself up on a staff – polio? Perhaps not coincidentally he features on a stele from the reign of the apostate pharaoh Akhenaten, who allowed himself to be depicted with a pot belly.
"I am delighted by the way the NASGP has grown and become such a good support group for locums and other non-principals. I have really appreciated the mailings and enjoyed attending one conference. Please keep up the good work!"
Dr Sarah Steed
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Newcastle University > Newcastle Law School > Pathways to Law Programme
Newcastle Law School is proud to have partnered with the Sutton Trust to deliver the first ‘Pathways to Law’ programme based in the North East of England. The programme runs over the full two years of A-Level study, and is aimed at students who are interested in studying law at university, or who would like to work in the legal profession upon graduating.
Students will be exposed to a variety of opportunities designed to try and given them all the information they need to make an informed choice as to whether or not they wish to pursue a degree, or career, in law. As well as a range of academic sessions and skills development workshops based in and around Newcastle, all participants will also benefit from the following opportunities:
A period of work experience in the legal sector;
A residential conference at the University of Warwick where you will meet Pathways students from all UK partner universities;
E-mentoring from current LLB students at Newcastle; and
A visit to ‘Legal London’, centred around a visit to Inner Temple – one of the four Inns of Court.
Is there any cost?
No! The programme is provided free of charge to all participants and transport will be provided to all events located away from the North East. Any transport costs incurred by travelling to/from Newcastle Law School will also be reimbursed.
We will recruit 35 students to participate in the programme. In order to be eligible, students must meet the following criteria:
You must attend, and have always attended, a state funded, non fee-paying school and/or college;
You must be in Year 12 at the start of the programme; and
Live within a reasonable commuting distance of Newcastle Law School.
In addition, we are particularly interested in students who meet one or more of the following criteria:
Have achieved five GCSEs at grades 9-6, including English and Mathematics. A minimum of two of these qualifications should be at grades 9 – 7. This is equivalent to five GCSEs at A* - B in the old system, with two grades at A* - A;
Would be the first generation in their family to attend university;
Have been in receipt of Free School Meals whilst at secondary school;
Have attended schools with a lower than average progression to higher education, or a higher than average proportion of students who qualify for Free School Meals; and/or
Have been looked after or are in care
For more information on the Sutton Trust, general eligibility queries or to apply to the programme, please follow this link. Applications for the 2019-2021 programme are now closed. Applications for the 2020-2022 programme will open early in the next school year.
For more information on the specifics of our offerings at Newcastle, please e-mail pathlaw@newcastle.ac.uk
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Building Forensic Technology Capacity
NCSL Resources on Criminal Justice
Advancements in forensic science are revolutionizing America’s criminal justice system. From collection of evidence at crime scenes to presentation of analyzed results in courtrooms, forensic technology has improved the quality and accuracy of criminal investigations. Forensic techniques include latent fingerprint examination, controlled substance identification and DNA analysis. Investigators who use these tools to evaluate evidence can solve cases that otherwise would have remained mysteries.
The success of forensic analysis has prompted lawmakers to expand existing state policies. Examples of emerging forensic applications include expansion of DNA databases, dynamic property crimes investigation and creation of cold case units.
Forensics’ potential benefits for the criminal justice system currently are hampered by practical concerns about lab capacity, insufficient funding and a scarcity of appropriately trained personnel. According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), 2.7 million cases sent evidence through America’s forensic labs in 2005. At year end, a backlog of 359,000 samples existed. A sample is backlogged if it has not been completed within 30 days of receipt. DOJ data suggests that the problem is worsening; average backlogged requests nationwide increased from 86 to 152 between 2004 and 2005.
Two main components are at the heart of the backlog issue for crime laboratories. The first, casework sample backlog, consists of samples collected from crime scenes, victims and suspects in criminal cases. Backlogged casework samples delay analysis for all kinds of forensic evidence. In 2005, controlled substance identification accounted for 51 percent of all laboratory backlogs; DNA samples were 9 percent. Latent fingerprint examination, firearm and tool mark examination, toxicology analysis, and biology screenings also account for significant portions of the backlogged requests.
The second major source of backlog results from under-funded efforts to expand DNA databases. According to the National Institute of Justice, the convicted offender backlog includes as many as 300,000 unanalyzed DNA samples, with more than 500,000 samples yet to be taken. The convicted offender backlog consists of samples from those arrested and incarcerated for qualifying crimes. As the number of DNA samples submitted has increased, the ability of crime labs to analyze those samples has not kept pace. Backlogs of forensic samples increase when labs are unable to meet the demand created by expansive policies for forensic testing. Supplemental funding from sources such as the National Institute of Justice has helped many states reduce—and, in Vermont, eliminate—backlog. As forensic collection policies continue to expand, it is important for state legislatures to become active partners in the intergovernmental effort to provide adequate funding for the effective application of forensic science in criminal justice.
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NJ Artists
The Sculptors
The Garden State has been a source of inspiration for famous artists for centuries. Wax sculpture, landscape painting, watercolor, and modern art are among the many styles that artists with New Jersey roots have used through the years.
In fact, the first American sculptor was from New Jersey. Born in 1725, Patience Lovell Wright of Bordentown began wax sculpting as a child. As she got older, Wright put her work together in an exhibit. Her sculptures of famous public figures were amazing in their likenesses.
Wright moved to England in 1772. There she created new wax models of famous people, including the king and queen. People loved her work. Her sculpture of British political leader William Pitt was displayed in Westminster Abbey.
In addition to her artwork, Wright was an American patriot. During the Revolutionary War, she welcomed American war prisoners in her London home. Legend says she sent British military secrets back to America hidden in wax figures, but there is no proof of this.
Patience wasn’t the only one in the Wright family with artistic talent. Her son Joseph was a wax sculptor, too. He was also a painter and a die maker. Her son-in-law John Hoppner was a painter.
A few decades later, another New Jersey sculptor became well known. In 1824 John Frazee of Rahway became the first Native American marble sculptor. Frazee was never formally taught art. He learned to sculpt marble on his own, starting out as a tombstone cutter. You can view some of Frazee’s work online. Check out his busts of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Marshall, and Nathaniel Bowditch, a famous navigator.
Landscape Artists
In colonial times artists in New Jersey mostly painted portraits, following the artistic trends of the time. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, a New Jerseyan found himself at the forefront of a new style of painting.
Asher Brown Durand of Maplewood was considered a leader of the Hudson River School of artists. These artists focused on landscape painting. Their goal was to paint nature the way it really looks.
Durand was one of the first American artists to leave the studio and work outdoors. He went to the Adirondack, Catskill, and White Mountains in the summer to sketch his landscapes and then did his oil paintings in the studio, basing them on his sketches.
After working as an engraver for a Newark firm, Durand began painting portraits in the late 1820s. His love of nature and his friendship with Thomas Cole, the original leader of the Hudson River School, soon caused him to switch his focus to landscape art. Durand closely studied the rocks, trees, and plants that he would later use in his paintings. In addition to his artwork, he served as president of the National Academy of Design from 1845 to 1861.
The year before Durand became president, a young Newark resident exhibited his work for the first time at the National Academy of Design. George Inness would become the next prominent landscape painter with New Jersey ties.
Inness was born in Newburgh, New York, but his family moved to Newark when he was four. Like Durand, George started out as an engraver. He had a couple of months instruction in painting and then started producing his own works. Inness studied the works of Durand and Thomas Cole. His early work is detailed and realistic, like the Hudson River School art.
In 1853, Inness traveled to France. There he was influenced by the Barbizon painters. A decade later he returned live in Eagleswood. Reflecting the French influence, his work strayed from the Hudson River School. Inness now portrayed nature in a larger sense, with less focus on detail. He wanted to show the spirituality of nature.
After some time in New York City and Italy, Inness settled in Montclair, which provided the setting for many of his paintings throughout the rest of his life. Take a look at some of Inness’ paintings, including some pictures of Montclair.
Although he never called New Jersey home, world-renowned artist Winslow Homer saw the Jersey shore as an inspiration for his work. Homer, a master of watercolor, added the human element to landscape painting, showing humans interacting with nature.
Homer began painting in watercolor in the 1870s. Before that, he had worked as an illustrator, gaining fame for his paintings of Civil War soldiers. Homer shifted his focus to man in nature and saw the seashore as an excellent subject. From 1883 to 1892, Homer made frequent stops in Atlantic City and other shore destinations. Homer’s works are considered among the greatest watercolors of all time.
While Homer is often considered the first great watercolorist, John Marin was the leader of his generation. Born in Rutherford and raised by his grandparents in Weehawken, Marin sketched from the time he was a child. He first began using watercolor as a teenager. Marin’s work resembled Impressionist paintings because it was not clearly delineated, but he was never labeled an Impressionist. The coast of Maine served as the primary subject for his work, but he did some early work inspired by New York City.
In 1950, Marin was honored with an exhibition at the State Museum in Trenton. He was called a “recognized master in his own time” in a scroll signed by the governor. Here are some more of Marin’s paintings.
Today's Art
Roy Lichtenstein is one of the most famous modern artists. His distinct, comic book style makes his work amongst the most recognizable in pop art. In 1960, Lichtenstein became an assistant professor at Douglas College at Rutgers University. It was at this time that he began his work in pop art.
Living close to New York City, Lichtenstein had many opportunities to meet with the top pop artists. However, it was a challenge from his son that so drastically focused his career. Roy’s son showed him a Mickey Mouse comic book and told him, “I bet you can’t paint as good as that.” In 1961, Lichtenstein painted six works featuring comic book characters, lettering, and speech balloons that would become the hallmark of his style. Take a look at some of Lichtenstein’s paintings.
Wendell Brooks, a professor at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, is one of New Jersey’s great artists. Brooks works in printmaking. His work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian, the National Museum of Art, and the African-American Fine Arts Collection. "Return the Buffalo" is one of his famous prints.
In addition to these artists who have gained international recognition, thousands of other talented artists also call New Jersey home. It’s just a matter of time before another New Jersey artist revolutionizes the American art scene once more. To keep in touch with today’s art scene, visit the NJ Arts Council and Discover Jersey Arts.
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DPRK planting trees for fruit oil
North Korea is intensively planting trees across the country to provide badly needed oil from their berries.
The North, which suffers from a chronic oil shortage, has created Tetradium tree forests covering tens of thousands of hectares in several regions near the western and eastern coasts during the national tree-planting season, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Some provincial administrations have set up offices to help residents properly understand the economic value of the trees and how to grow them, it added.
Fully mature Tetradium trees, also known as Evodia or Bee Bee trees, can each produce 7-10 kilograms of small berries composed of 38 percent oil. North Koreans use the oil, traditionally used as lamp oil, to make cooking oil, drugs and soaps, according to the KCNA.
N. Korea planting trees for fruit oil
Posted in Forestry, Oil | Comments Closed
China seeking to outsource animation to DPRK…
The article is badly translated, but [seemingly] according to the People’s Daily (h/t Go East) China is looking to outsource programming/animation services to North Korean workers in Dandong:
The main reason to select Dandong city as the China-North Korea animation game service outsourcing base is aimed to draw North Korea’s animation game talents to Dandong. Xu Aiqiao, chairwoman of the Hangzhou national animation game public service platform limited, said that North Korea has become the global animation industry processing “plant”.
With a total staff of 2,500, the base will not only reduce at least 5,000 yuan per minute for the production costs of animation companies, but inject more energy into the creative plans, original scripts, and other areas of China’s high-end animation talents of the animation game.
Hangzhou game service outsourcing base to make up 80 pct of domestic animation production
Posted in Animation, Computing/IT | Comments Closed
South Korea cuts Kaesong subsidies with predictable results
The Daily NK reports that South Korean businesses have delayed moving into the zone, or canceled their plans outright:
78.5 percent of those firms which received lots at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the second round of the first stage of distribution in June last year have not begun construction of their facilities. 62.4 percent of them have not even hired a firm for construction,” said the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business (KFSB) in a report released on April 27. For the report, the KFSB selected 85 firms out of all those firms which received lots and conducted a survey on how these firms are preparing their move into the Complex.
Companies distributed with lots in June last year are required to begin construction of their facilities within two years after the initial distribution contract. It is true that these firms have enough time to build their facilities. However, a number of firms have expressed that they would not move into the Complex.
The report says, “13 out of a total of 167 firms have already told the KFSB that they would not move into the Complex, and five of them have canceled the contract.”
59 percent of the firms including those 13 said that they would relinquish their rights to move into the complex because they are unable to raise enough money. 64 percent of these firms said that the reduced government funding has contributed to their financial difficulties.
South Korean Firms Postpone Their Move into the Kaesong Industrial Complex
Posted in Construction, Economic reform, Foreign direct investment, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), South Korea, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013) | 2 Comments »
North Korea and Sex…
Why is this topic being discussed on North Korean Economy Watch?
Well, economics is often accused of being an “imperial” science by other disciplines because, broadly defined, economics looks at human choice and the constraints, trade-offs, and incentives under which these choices are made. This broad definition irritates sociologists, anthropologists, and political scientists because economists are always moving in to explain social phenomenon on their “turf.” In this light, though, economics does have something to say about sexual social norms because they play a significant role in a significant number of every-day choices that people make, particularly in what are traditionally considered “economic choices”…even in North Korea.
On to the topic…
One would think that in North Korea—where personal associations and loyalties are particularly important and highly regulated—that non-marital sexual encounters would be highly suspicious and discouraged, but a recent article in Radio Free Asia makes the opposite claim:
[W]hen it comes to the privacy of the bedroom, even the all-powerful North Korean Workers’ Party is largely hands-off, according to North Korean defectors.
Intellectuals and artists in the Workers’ Paradise have long espoused a fairly open and liberal set of views around sexual relationships, according to former North Korean artist and defector Lee Yoon Jeong, despite a widespread lack of sex education for young people.
Apparently, pre-, extra-, and post- marital sex is so common that even the Workers Party doesn’t ban it:
Lee said high divorce rates, and the tendency for Party officials to have mistresses and extra-marital affairs, meant that the Party was reticent about dictating to the people about their love lives.
“The Workers’ Party is truly in no position to regulate relationships between men and women,” she told reporter Jinhee Bonny. “The authorities may control everything, but they could never dictate matters of love between North Korean men and women.”
The artcle also makes the claim that prostitution is fairly common now and that illegal abortions are taking place. If this is the case, then North Korea is only the second communist country I am aware of where abortion is/was technically illegal (the other being Ceauceascu’s Romania). Does anyone know any differently?
Love and Sex in North Korea
Jinhee Bonny
Posted in Civil society, Dating/Courting | 2 Comments »
NKIDP Document in focus: North Korea in 1956
Summary by James Person, North Korea International Documentation Project:
This Document (full journal article including documents here) consists of a memorandum of a conversation between DPRK Ambassador Li Sangjo to Moscow and Soviet Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs N.T. Fedorenko, as well as a letter addressed to N.S. Khrushchev. Li sought a meeting with either Khrushchev or A.I. Mikoyan to press upon the Soviet leadership the gravity of the situation inside the DPRK and KWP CC following the historic 1956 August Plenum.
In the letter, Li described in detail the actions of the party leadership after being criticized both before and during the August Plenum by opponents to Kim Il Sung’s development strategies. Although the existing historiography, as well as North Korean propaganda characterizes the events of August 1956 as an attempted coup, Li suggested that the challenge was a democratic one aimed at eliminating the serious consequences of the personality cult and ensuring intra-party democracy and collective leadership, completely in accordance with the statutes of the KWP accepted at the Third Party Congress in April 1956. However, sycophantic and hostile elements in the party leadership “took revenge” on those who “courageously” criticized them. Li, who had long been a proponent of outside intervention, encouraged fraternal assistance. Despite the failure of earlier attempts to press upon Kim Il Sung the need to reform through comradely criticism by fraternal leaders, Li asked that a senior Soviet official be sent to Pyongyang to call a new plenum with all present, including the purged members of what became known as the “consumer goods group.” Li also indicated that he had sent a similar request to Mao Zedong.
Read the documents from the Soviet archives, including historical context here.
Posted in Kim il Sung 1956, North Korea International Documentation Project (NKIDP) | Comments Closed
Pak Do ik first to carry Olympic flame in Pyongyang
UPDATE: You Tube has video footage of the Pyongyang leg of the Olympic torch relay taken from foreign news sources. Judging from the videos, it looks like the ceremony kicked off at the Tower of the Juche Idea, and Pak Do ik was the first relay runner.
Here is coverage on CNN (the announcers make at least two mistakes. They identify the paper flowers people are waiving as Kimjongilia, and they call Kim Jong Il North Korea’s “President”– let’s get with the program people).
Here is coverage on Russian Television.
Here is more extensive print coverage from the AP.
I still have not managed to find the entire olympic torch route in Pyongyang or official DPRK coverage of the event. If you find this information, please let me know.
North Korea’s most famous footballer (domestically), Pak Do ik, will be carrying the Olympic torch (for the first time ever) through Pyongyang:
Pak was introduced to modern western audiences through his appearance in the documentary The Game of Their Lives, released in 2002. He scored the winning goal against Italy in the 1966 World Cup allowing the DPRK to enter the quarter finals (where the the DPRK lost to Portugal after being up 3-0 early on).
80 individuals were selected for the torch relay, and most are DPRK citizens with significant athletic accomplishments under their belts–such as Jong Song-ok, who won the 1999 World Athletics Championship. The remainder of the runners are officials with the International Olympic Committee, the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang, representatives of Chinese residents in North Korea and major sponsors of the torch relay.
It also looks like the torch might cross the DMZ:
The torch is set to pass from South Korea to North Korea in the early hours of April 28 before heading to Vietnam that evening aboard a flight.
The 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) section linking Juche Tower to Kim Il Sung Stadium, both major landmarks in Pyongyang, was chosen for the event, it said.
It indicated Pyongyang citizens will be mobilized to stand along the street while the torch passes, by saying, “A large welcoming crowd will cheer for the torch runners.” (Joong Ang Daily)
UPDATE: According to Yohnap, the torch will be flown from Seoul to Pyongyang.
Athletes selected to carry the torch in North Korea
N.K. preparations for torch relay almost complete: KCNA
Yohnap
Posted in Civil society, Football (soccer), Sports | 1 Comment »
Is South Korea’s engagement hindering the growth of North Korea’s markets?
On April 23, the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)hosted, “The Lee Myung-Bak Administration’s Policy toward North Korea: Denuclearization or Disengagement.” In this seminar they essentially answered this question with a ‘yes’.
According to the Daily NK coverage of the event:
[Dong Yong Seung, the Chief of the Security and Economics Department of the Samsung Economic Research Institute stated,] “While economic exchange between North Korea and China has been business-to-business, in the case of Kaesong, the exchange has been controlled from a single control tower, the North Korean regime. That is, the condition has been set up for government-to-government economic exchange to facilitate North Korean government’s planned economy. Economic cooperation in the style of South Korea’s has been obstructing North Korea’s rational transformation.”
In a sense, he is arguing that South Korea’s support for the Kaesong Zone yields results more similar to foreign aid than private economic exchange. If this is the case, South Korea, and just about everyone else, could learn from China’s strategy for investing in North Korea.
As Judge Posner put it:
All the problems that foreign aid seeks to alleviate are within the power of the recipient countries to solve if they adopt sensible policies. If they do not adopt such policies, then foreign aid is likely to be stolen by the ruling elite, strengthening its hold over the country, or otherwise squandered. What we can do for poor countries is reduce tariff barriers to their exports. With money saved from eliminating foreign aid, we could compensate our industries that would be hurt by import competition from poor countries and thus reduce political opposition to tariff reform.
Posted in Economic reform, Foreign direct investment, International Aid, International trade, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), KIEP-Korea Institute for International Economic Policy | Comments Closed
Food situation in Ryanggang Province
According to the Daily NK, many mid-level civil servants who used to receive enough rations to live on have now resorted to trading in the markets with the civilians.
“Since April, the government has only been giving out provisions to the head of each department of the People’s Safety Agency in Hyesan, Yangkang Province. As for the remaining staff, only 15-days worth of one-serving provisions have been supplied. The discontent among the agents of the People’s Safety Agency over the discrimination is quite significant.”
“With conditions worstening, those who have not been engaging in sales until now—the Provincial People’s Committee or the Municipal Committee leaders and average schoolteachers, doctors and their families—have been coming out to the alleyway markets. They do not even have a street-stand in a jangmadang, so they sit illegally in the alleyways, but the People’s Safety agents in charge of regulating the jangmadang have been reluctant to take action against them because they know who these people are.”
Is anyone starving? Thankfully, it seems not yet..
In response to the question as to whether people have begun to starve to death as a result of the food shortage, the sources confirmed, “We have not reached that point yet.”
Our contact in Yangkang Province said, “During the ‘March of Starvation’, we did not even have brewers’ grains to eat, but now, people feed that to the pigs. It is true that living conditions have become a bit more difficult with the rise in food prices, but it has not reached the point of starvation.”
The Hoiryeong source also said, “With the significant rise in food price, the quality and the amount of rice have fallen quite a bit, but people have not been starving for days at a time. People who previously consumed only rice are now mixing rice and corn 50/50, and those in more dire situations eat 30/70 or 20/80.”
The food situation in Ryanggang is probably better then most of the country on average due to its proximity to the Chinese border.
The Price of Rice Has Risen, But Not to the Point of Starvation
Posted in Civil society, Food, General markets (FMR: Farmers Market), Price liberalization | Comments Closed
Syria-DPRK nuclear cooperation
Pictured above (Google Earth): Syria’s Dair Alzour/Al Kibar nuclear facility before it was destroyed in an Israeli raid. The Wikipedia page for the operation is here.
UPDATE 11 (2011-5-24): ISIS issued this commentary on the IAEA report below.
UPDATE 10 (2011-5-24): This report of the Director General to the Board of Governors [of the IAEA] is on the implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria). The report (PDF) includes the Agency’s assessment of the nature of the destroyed building at the Dair Alzour site.
UPDATE 9 (2011-2-25): The Director General reported to the Board of Governors of the IAEA on the implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement with Syria. The report (PDF) focuses on the destroyed Syrian Facility.
UPDATE 8(2011-2-11): ISIS publishes information on a possible uranium enrichment facility in Syria (HTML, PDF). The report does not specifically mention the DPRK, which also recently made public its uranium enrichment capabilities.
UPDATE 7 (2008-5-12): ISIS published this report (PDF) featuring satellite analysis of the Syrian reactor.
UPDATE 6 (2008-4-25): The CIA briefed Congress on Syria’s nuclear reactor. Here is the video they produced (YouTube).
The video was covered in the Washington Post:
A video taken inside a secret Syrian facility last summer convinced the Israeli government and the Bush administration that North Korea was helping to construct a reactor similar to one that produces plutonium for North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, according to senior U.S. officials who said it would be shared with lawmakers today.
The officials said the video of the remote site, code-named Al Kibar by the Syrians, shows North Koreans inside. It played a pivotal role in Israel’s decision to bomb the facility late at night last Sept. 6, a move that was publicly denounced by Damascus but not by Washington.
Sources familiar with the video say it also shows that the Syrian reactor core’s design is the same as that of the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, including a virtually identical configuration and number of holes for fuel rods. It shows “remarkable resemblances inside and out to Yongbyon,” a U.S. intelligence official said. A nuclear weapons specialist called the video “very, very damning.” (Washington Post)
What has been the level of cooperation between Syria and the DPRK?
But beginning today, intelligence officials will tell members of the House and Senate intelligence, armed services and foreign relations committees that the Syrian facility was not yet fully operational and that there was no uranium for the reactor and no indication of fuel capability, according to U.S. officials and intelligence sources.
David Albright, president of Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) and a former U.N. weapons inspector, said the absence of such evidence warrants skepticism that the reactor was part of an active weapons program.
“The United States and Israel have not identified any Syrian plutonium separation facilities or nuclear weaponization facilities,” he said. “The lack of any such facilities gives little confidence that the reactor is part of an active nuclear weapons program. The apparent lack of fuel, either imported or indigenously produced, also is curious and lowers confidence that Syria has a nuclear weapons program.”
U.S. intelligence officials will also tell the lawmakers that Syria is not rebuilding a reactor at the Al Kibar site. “The successful engagement of North Korea in the six-party talks means that it was unlikely to have supplied Syria with such facilities or nuclear materials after the reactor site was destroyed,” Albright said. “Indeed, there is little, if any, evidence that cooperation between Syria and North Korea extended beyond the date of the destruction of the reactor.”
Syria denies it was building nuclear facilities.
UPDATE 5 (2007-10-26): ISIS reports that the Syrians have already hauled off and buried the remains of the facility:
A further examination of the DigitalGlobe imagery featuring the suspected Syrian reactor construction site on October 24, 2007 reveals that in addition to dismantling and removing the building, Syria appears to have buried the foundation (Figures 1 and 2). Syria bulldozed a section of a hill adjacent to the suspected reactor building and used the excavated dirt to cover over the site. Furthermore, if Syria intended to conceal an underground portion to this building that had been subsequently exposed by bombing, burying it would have been easier than removing it. The excavated hill was brought to ISIS’s attention by two close readers of the imagery who noticed it.
Click image below to see before and after pictures:
UPDATE 4 (2007-10-14): Analysts claim Israel struck nuclear site. According to the New York Times:
Israel’s air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and American intelligence analysts judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea has used to create its stockpile of nuclear weapons fuel, according to American and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports.
The description of the target addresses one of the central mysteries surrounding the Sept. 6 attack, and suggests that Israel carried out the raid to demonstrate its determination to snuff out even a nascent nuclear project in a neighboring state. The Bush administration was divided at the time about the wisdom of Israel’s strike, American officials said, and some senior policy makers still regard the attack as premature.
The attack on the reactor project has echoes of an Israeli raid more than a quarter century ago, in 1981, when Israel destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq shortly before it was to have begun operating. That attack was officially condemned by the Reagan administration, though Israelis consider it among their military’s finest moments. In the weeks before the Iraq war, Bush administration officials said they believed that the attack set back Iraq’s nuclear ambitions by many years.
By contrast, the facility that the Israelis struck in Syria appears to have been much further from completion, the American and foreign officials said. They said it would have been years before the Syrians could have used the reactor to produce the spent nuclear fuel that could, through a series of additional steps, be reprocessed into bomb-grade plutonium.
Many details remain unclear, most notably how much progress the Syrians had made in construction before the Israelis struck, the role of any assistance provided by North Korea, and whether the Syrians could make a plausible case that the reactor was intended to produce electricity. In Washington and Israel, information about the raid has been wrapped in extraordinary secrecy and restricted to just a handful of officials, while the Israeli press has been prohibited from publishing information about the attack.
The New York Times reported this week that a debate had begun within the Bush administration about whether the information secretly cited by Israel to justify its attack should be interpreted by the United States as reason to toughen its approach to Syria and North Korea. In later interviews, officials made clear that the disagreements within the administration began this summer, as a debate about whether an Israeli attack on the incomplete reactor was warranted then.
The officials did not say that the administration had ultimately opposed the Israeli strike, but that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates were particularly concerned about the ramifications of a pre-emptive strike in the absence of an urgent threat.
“There wasn’t a lot of debate about the evidence,” said one American official familiar with the intense discussions over the summer between Washington and the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel. “There was a lot of debate about how to respond to it.”
Even though it has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Syria would not have been obligated to declare the existence of a reactor during the early phases of construction. It would have also had the legal right to complete construction of the reactor, as long as its purpose was to generate electricity.
In his only public comment on the raid, Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, acknowledged this month that Israeli jets dropped bombs on a building that he said was “related to the military” but which he insisted was “not used.”
A senior Israeli official, while declining to speak about the specific nature of the target, said the strike was intended to “re-establish the credibility of our deterrent power,” signaling that Israel meant to send a message to the Syrians that even the potential for a nuclear weapons program would not be permitted. But several American officials said the strike may also have been intended by Israel as a signal to Iran and its nuclear aspirations. Neither Iran nor any Arab government except for Syria has criticized the Israeli raid, suggesting that Israel is not the only country that would be disturbed by a nuclear Syria. North Korea did issue a protest.
The target of the Israeli raid and the American debate about the Syrian project were described by government officials and nongovernment experts interviewed in recent weeks in the United States and the Middle East. All insisted on anonymity because of rules that prohibit discussing classified information. The officials who described the target of the attack included some on each side of the debate about whether a partly constructed Syrian nuclear reactor should be seen as an urgent concern, as well as some who described themselves as neutral on the question.
The White House press secretary, Dana Perino, said Saturday that the administration would have no comment on the intelligence issues surrounding the Israeli strike. Israel has also refused to comment.
Nuclear reactors can be used for both peaceful and non-peaceful purposes. A reactor’s spent fuel can be reprocessed to extract plutonium, one of two paths to building a nuclear weapon. The other path — enriching uranium in centrifuges — is the method that Iran is accused of pursuing with an intent to build a weapon of its own.
Syria is known to have only one nuclear reactor, a small one built for research purposes. But in the past decade, Syria has several times sought unsuccessfully to buy one, first from Argentina, then from Russia. On those occasions, Israel reacted strongly but did not threaten military action. Earlier this year, Mr. Assad spoke publicly in general terms about Syria’s desire to develop nuclear power, but his government did not announce a plan to build a new reactor.
The Gulf Cooperation Council, a group of Persian Gulf states, has also called for an expansion of nuclear power in the Middle East for energy purposes, but many experts have interpreted that statement as a response to Iran’s nuclear program. They have warned that the region may be poised for a wave of proliferation. Israel is believed to be the only nuclear-armed nation in the region.
The partly constructed Syrian reactor was detected earlier this year by satellite photographs, according to American officials. They suggested that the facility had been brought to American attention by the Israelis, but would not discuss why American spy agencies seemed to have missed the early phases of construction.
North Korea has long provided assistance to Syria on a ballistic missile program, but any assistance toward the construction of the reactor would have been the first clear evidence of ties between the two countries on a nuclear program. North Korea has successfully used its five-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex to reprocess nuclear fuel into bomb-grade material, a model that some American and Israeli officials believe Syria may have been trying to replicate.
The North conducted a partly successful test of a nuclear device a year ago, prompting renewed fears that the desperately poor country might seek to sell its nuclear technology. President Bush issued a specific warning to the North on Oct. 9, 2006, just hours after the test, noting that it was “leading proliferator of missile technology, including transfers to Iran and Syria.” He went on to warn that “the transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States, and we would hold North Korea fully accountable.”
While Bush administration officials have made clear in recent weeks that the target of the Israeli raid was linked to North Korea in some way, Mr. Bush has not repeated his warning since the attack. In fact, the administration has said very little about the country’s suspected role in the Syria case, apparently for fear of upending negotiations now under way in which North Korea has pledged to begin disabling its nuclear facilities.
While the partly constructed Syrian reactor appears to be based on North Korea’s design, the American and foreign officials would not say whether they believed the North Koreans sold or gave the plans to the Syrians, or whether the North’s own experts were there at the time of the attack. It is possible, some officials said, that the transfer of the technology occurred several years ago.
According to two senior administration officials, the subject was raised when the United States, North Korea and four other nations met in Beijing earlier this month.
Behind closed doors, however, Vice President Dick Cheney and other hawkish members of the administration have made the case that the same intelligence that prompted Israel to attack should lead the United States to reconsider delicate negotiations with North Korea over ending its nuclear program, as well as America’s diplomatic strategy toward Syria, which has been invited to join Middle East peace talks in Annapolis, Md., next month.
Mr. Cheney in particular, officials say, has also cited the indications that North Korea aided Syria to question the Bush administration’s agreement to supply the North with large amounts of fuel oil. During Mr. Bush’s first term, Mr. Cheney was among the advocates of a strategy to squeeze the North Korean government in hopes that it would collapse, and the administration cut off oil shipments set up under an agreement between North Korea and the Clinton administration, saying the North had cheated on that accord.
The new shipments, agreed to last February, are linked to North Korea’s carrying through on its pledge to disable its nuclear facilities by the end of the year. Nonetheless, Mr. Bush has approved going ahead with that agreement, even after he was aware of the Syrian program.
Nuclear experts say that North Korea’s main reactor, while small by international standards, is big enough to produce roughly one bomb’s worth of plutonium a year.
In an interview, Dr. Siegfried S. Hecker of Stanford University, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said building a reactor based on North Korea’s design might take from three to six years.
UPDATE 3 (2007-9-23): Israelis seized nuclear material in Syrian raid. According to the Times of London:
Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem.
The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say.
They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean. This raised fears that Syria might have joined North Korea and Iran in seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.
Israeli special forces had been gathering intelligence for several months in Syria, according to Israeli sources. They located the nuclear material at a compound near Dayr az-Zwar in the north.
Evidence that North Korean personnel were at the site is said to have been shared with President George W Bush over the summer. A senior American source said the administration sought proof of nuclear-related activities before giving the attack its blessing.
Diplomats in North Korea and China believe a number of North Koreans were killed in the strike, based on reports reaching Asian governments about conversations between Chinese and North Korean officials.
Syrian officials flew to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, last week, reinforcing the view that the two nations were coordinating their response.
UPDATE 2 (2007-9-18): DPRK calls Syria nuclear ties report “conspiracy”. According to Reuters:
North Korea said on Tuesday recent media reports that it may be providing help to Syria’s nuclear activities were groundless conspiracy fabricated by those who oppose the North’s improving ties with Washington.
The Washington Post reported last week that intelligence had led some U.S. officials to believe Syria was receiving help from North Korea on some sort of nuclear facility. The New York Times ran a similar report.
“This is sheer misinformation,” the North’s official KCNA news agency quoted an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying, referring to the reports.
The North made a pledge in October 2006 not to engage in nuclear proliferation and it still stood, the spokesman said.
North Korea last week hosted a team of nuclear officials and experts who made a rare road trip to Pyongyang and to the country’s main nuclear complex at Yongbyon north of the capital in what was seen as a gesture to improve ties with the United States.
North Korea has suspended operation of the Yongbyon complex under a February deal in return for 50,000 tones of heavy fuel oil from South Korea. It is set to receive additional 950,000 tones by taking further disarmament steps this year.
“The DPRK never makes an empty talk but always tells truth,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said, using the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“The above-said story is nothing but a clumsy plot hatched by the dishonest forces who do not like to see any progress at the six-party talks and in the DPRK-U.S. relations.”
U.S. President George W. bush, who once lumped North Korea with Iran and pre-war Iraq as members of an “axis of evil,” has offered a peace treaty with the North if Pyongyang completes nuclear disarmament.
South Korea said on Monday a new round of the six-way talks would not be held on September 19 as widely expected.
South Korean officials have declined to confirm speculation that Pyongyang was upset by reports about its ties to Syrian nuclear activities or failure by China to begin shipping heavy fuel oil under the February pact.
Israel has refused to comment on what U.S. officials and diplomatic sources have described in news reports as an air raid inside Syria this month that may have targeted weapons headed for Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon or a suspected nuclear site.
Syria said it could retaliate for the September 6 violation of its territory and has denied reports that Damascus may have received North Korean nuclear aid.
UPDATE 1 (2007-9-16): The Times of London offers some more details of the operation:
IT was just after midnight when the 69th Squadron of Israeli F15Is crossed the Syrian coast-line. On the ground, Syria’s formidable air defences went dead. An audacious raid on a Syrian target 50 miles from the Iraqi border was under way.
At a rendezvous point on the ground, a Shaldag air force commando team was waiting to direct their laser beams at the target for the approaching jets. The team had arrived a day earlier, taking up position near a large underground depot. Soon the bunkers were in flames.
Ten days after the jets reached home, their mission was the focus of intense speculation this weekend amid claims that Israel believed it had destroyed a cache of nuclear materials from North Korea.
The Israeli government was not saying. “The security sources and IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] soldiers are demonstrating unusual courage,” said Ehud Olmert, the prime minister. “We naturally cannot always show the public our cards.”
The Syrians were also keeping mum. “I cannot reveal the details,” said Farouk al-Sharaa, the vice-president. “All I can say is the military and political echelon is looking into a series of responses as we speak. Results are forthcoming.” The official story that the target comprised weapons destined for Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi’ite group, appeared to be crumbling in the face of widespread scepticism.
Andrew Semmel, a senior US State Department official, said Syria might have obtained nuclear equipment from “secret suppliers”, and added that there were a “number of foreign technicians” in the country.
Asked if they could be North Korean, he replied: “There are North Korean people there. There’s no question about that.” He said a network run by AQ Khan, the disgraced creator of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, could be involved.
But why would nuclear material be in Syria? Known to have chemical weapons, was it seeking to bolster its arsenal with something even more deadly?
Alternatively, could it be hiding equipment for North Korea, enabling Kim Jong-il to pretend to be giving up his nuclear programme in exchange for economic aid? Or was the material bound for Iran, as some authorities in America suggest?
According to Israeli sources, preparations for the attack had been going on since late spring, when Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, presented Olmert with evidence that Syria was seeking to buy a nuclear device from North Korea.
The Israeli spy chief apparently feared such a device could eventually be installed on North-Korean-made Scud-C missiles.
“This was supposed to be a devastating Syrian surprise for Israel,” said an Israeli source. “We’ve known for a long time that Syria has deadly chemical warheads on its Scuds, but Israel can’t live with a nuclear warhead.”
An expert on the Middle East, who has spoken to Israeli participants in the raid, told yesterday’s Washington Post that the timing of the raid on September 6 appeared to be linked to the arrival three days earlier of a ship carrying North Korean material labelled as cement but suspected of concealing nuclear equipment.
The target was identified as a northern Syrian facility that purported to be an agricultural research centre on the Euphrates river. Israel had been monitoring it for some time, concerned that it was being used to extract uranium from phosphates.
According to an Israeli air force source, the Israeli satellite Ofek 7, launched in June, was diverted from Iran to Syria. It sent out high-quality images of a northeastern area every 90 minutes, making it easy for air force specialists to spot the facility.
Early in the summer Ehud Barak, the defence minister, had given the order to double Israeli forces on its Golan Heights border with Syria in anticipation of possible retaliation by Damascus in the event of air strikes.
Sergei Kirpichenko, the Russian ambassador to Syria, warned President Bashar al-Assad last month that Israel was planning an attack, but suggested the target was the Golan Heights.
Israeli military intelligence sources claim Syrian special forces moved towards the Israeli outpost of Mount Hermon on the Golan Heights. Tension rose, but nobody knew why.
At this point, Barak feared events could spiral out of control. The decision was taken to reduce the number of Israeli troops on the Golan Heights and tell Damascus the tension was over. Syria relaxed its guard shortly before the Israeli Defence Forces struck.
Only three Israeli cabinet ministers are said to have been in the know – Olmert, Barak and Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister. America was also consulted. According to Israeli sources, American air force codes were given to the Israeli air force attaché in Washington to ensure Israel’s F15Is would not mistakenly attack their US counterparts.
Once the mission was under way, Israel imposed draconian military censorship and no news of the operation emerged until Syria complained that Israeli aircraft had violated its airspace. Syria claimed its air defences had engaged the planes, forcing them to drop fuel tanks to lighten their loads as they fled.
But intelligence sources suggested it was a highly successful Israeli raid on nuclear material supplied by North Korea.
Washington was rife with speculation last week about the precise nature of the operation. One source said the air strikes were a diversion for a daring Israeli commando raid, in which nuclear materials were intercepted en route to Iran and hauled to Israel. Others claimed they were destroyed in the attack.
There is no doubt, however, that North Korea is accused of nuclear cooperation with Syria, helped by AQ Khan’s network. John Bolton, who was undersecretary for arms control at the State Department, told the United Nations in 2004 the Pakistani nuclear scientist had “several other” customers besides Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Some of his evidence came from the CIA, which had reported to Congress that it viewed “Syrian nuclear intentions with growing concern”.
“I’ve been worried for some time about North Korea and Iran outsourcing their nuclear programmes,” Bolton said last week. Syria, he added, was a member of a “junior axis of evil”, with a well-established ambition to develop weapons of mass destruction.
The links between Syria and North Korea date back to the rule of Kim Il-sung and President Hafez al-Assad in the last century. In recent months, their sons have quietly ordered an increase in military and technical cooperation.
Foreign diplomats who follow North Korean affairs are taking note. There were reports of Syrian passengers on flights from Beijing to Pyongyang and sightings of Middle Eastern businessmen from sources who watch the trains from North Korea to China.
On August 14, Rim Kyong Man, the North Korean foreign trade minister, was in Syria to sign a protocol on “cooperation in trade and science and technology”. No details were released, but it caught Israel’s attention.
Syria possesses between 60 and 120 Scud-C missiles, which it has bought from North Korea over the past 15 years. Diplomats believe North Korean engineers have been working on extending their 300-mile range. It means they can be used in the deserts of northeastern Syria – the area of the Israeli strike.
The triangular relationship between North Korea, Syria and Iran continues to perplex intelligence analysts. Syria served as a conduit for the transport to Iran of an estimated £50m of missile components and technology sent by sea from North Korea. The same route may be in use for nuclear equipment.
But North Korea is at a sensitive stage of negotiations to end its nuclear programme in exchange for security guarantees and aid, leading some diplomats to cast doubt on the likelihood that Kim would cross America’s “red line” forbidding the proliferation of nuclear materials.
Christopher Hill, the State Department official representing America in the talks, said on Friday he could not confirm “intelligence-type things”, but the reports underscored the need “to make sure the North Koreans get out of the nuclear business”.
By its actions, Israel showed it is not interested in waiting for diplomacy to work where nuclear weapons are at stake.
As a bonus, the Israelis proved they could penetrate the Syrian air defence system, which is stronger than the one protecting Iranian nuclear sites.
This weekend President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran sent Ali Akbar Mehrabian, his nephew, to Syria to assess the damage. The new “axis of evil” may have lost one of its spokes.
ORIGINAL POST (2007-9-13): DPRK and Syria may be building nuclear facility. Glenn Kessler writes in the Washington Post:
North Korea may be cooperating with Syria on some sort of nuclear facility in Syria, according to new intelligence the United States has gathered over the past six months, sources said. The evidence, said to come primarily from Israel, includes dramatic satellite imagery that led some U.S. officials to believe that the facility could be used to produce material for nuclear weapons.
The new information, particularly images received in the past 30 days, has been restricted to a few senior officials under the instructions of national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, leaving many in the intelligence community unaware of it or uncertain of its significance, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Some cautioned that initial reports of suspicious activity are frequently reevaluated over time and were skeptical that North Korea and Syria, which have cooperated on missile technology, would have a joint venture in the nuclear arena.
A White House spokesman and the Israeli Embassy declined to comment yesterday after several days of inquiries. A Syrian Embassy spokesman said he could not immediately provide a statement.
The new intelligence comes at an awkward moment for the Bush administration, which since the beginning of the year has pursued an agreement with North Korea on ending its nuclear weapons programs. U.S. and North Korean officials held talks last week in Geneva on the steps needed to normalize relations, and this week a delegation of U.S., Russian and Chinese experts visited North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear facility to consider ways to disable it. The New York Times first reported on the intelligence linking North Korea and Syria yesterday.
At the Geneva talks, North Korea indicated a willingness to satisfy U.S. questions about an alleged uranium-enrichment program that started the crisis over its nuclear ambitions, the sources said. U.S. officials have said that North Korean officials acknowledged the program in 2002, but Pyongyang subsequently denied doing so. In the meantime, it restarted a plutonium facility at Yongbyon and harvested enough weapons-grade material for as many as 10 nuclear weapons. In October, it tested a nuclear device.
In talks in Beijing in March 2003, a North Korean official pulled aside his American counterpart and threatened to “transfer” nuclear material to other countries. President Bush has said that passing North Korean nuclear technology to other parties would cross the line.
Israel conducted a mysterious raid last week against targets in Syria. The Israeli government has refused to divulge any details, but a former Israeli official said he had been told that it was an attack against a facility capable of making unconventional weapons.
Others have speculated that Israel was testing Syria’s air defenses in preparation for a raid on Iran or that Israel was targeting weapons destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Bashar Jaafari, the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters that the idea of a Hezbollah connection was ridiculous.
Syria has signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty but has not agreed to an additional protocol that would allow for enhanced inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. GlobalSecurity.org, which offers information on weapons of mass destruction, said that “although Syria has long been cited as posing a nuclear proliferation risk, the country seems to have been too strapped for cash to get far.”
Syria has a Chinese-supplied “miniature” research reactor at Dayr al-Hajar, but has been unable to obtain larger reactors because of international pressure on potential sellers.
John R. Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a critic of the administration’s dealings with North Korea, said that given North Korea’s trade in missiles with Syria, it is “legitimate to ask questions about whether that cooperation extends on the nuclear side as well.”
Posted in Energy, Nuclear, Syria | 2 Comments »
Pyongyang’s newest market…
As North Korean Economy Watch readers are aware, this site hosts the most authoritative mapping of North Korea on Google Earth (click here to download). Google Earth recently updated its North Korea imagery requiring me to update a colossal amount of information. This update (version 10) will be released by the end of May.
Growing influence of entrepreneurs
While updating information on Google Earth, one has a chance to compare how things have changed over the course of a few years. One of the interesting changes in Pyongyang is the emergence of a new market about 5 blocks east of the Tower of the Juche Idea (pictured below). It seems to have replaced an older market formerly located on the city’s outskirts at the end of the trolley line. In the past, street markets (or “jangmadang”) like this have been held on the outskirts of the city. This new, more convenient location (near peoples’ homes) is a testament to the growing importance of these markets, and their budding entrepreneurs, in meeting the needs of the North Korean people.
Click on the image to view full size.
Posted in Economic reform, General markets (FMR: Farmers Market), Google Earth, Price liberalization, Private property | 3 Comments »
You are currently browsing the North Korean Economy Watch blog archives for April, 2008.
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« No-Cost Health Coverage Coming for… | Hospital says state is wrong, decli… »
Redundant Broadband Fiber Complete
Posted By Ryan Burns @RyanBurnsy on Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 2:16 PM
That's right, folks. Just in time for Christmas, Humboldt County now has a back-up umbilical for all of our technology babies, including credit and debit card machines and Internet-based communications, which have become virtually indispensable for everything from medical care to law enforcement, education and business. Plus, high-speed Internet will now be available in such rural communities as Bridgeville, Mad River and Wildwood.
Read the press release from IP Networks below:
It was announced today that IP Networks has completed the installation of 131 miles of high-speed internet fiber through Humboldt and Trinity County along the Highway 36 corridor. The project provides long-needed redundant broadband fiber for much of Humboldt County, while also enabling service to a number of previously un-served and under-served communities in Eastern Humboldt and Southern Trinity counties.
"This has been a top-priority project for our two counties" said Mark Lovelace, Chair of both the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors and the Redwood Region Economic Development Corporation (RREDC). "Reliable, redundant broadband is critical to economic and community development here on the Redwood Coast."
Judy Morris, Chair of the Trinity County Board of Supervisors, said "The lack of broadband service has put our remote, rural communities at a severe economic disadvantage. This project provides essential communications infrastructure for some of these remote, rural areas."
IP Networks worked with Pacific Gas and Electric Company to install fiber-optic cable on PG&E's poles and towers. The route follows PG&E's existing right-of-way from the Cottonwood sub-station near Redding, through both the Six Rivers and Shasta-Trinity National Forests, to Eureka and the Humboldt Bay area.
"PG&E feels very fortunate to be a partner on a project with such far reaching benefits for the community" said Brandi Ehlers of PG&E. "It took a strong team to complete this crucial piece of the line and we're very pleased it's done."
With the fiber-optic cable installed, local internet service providers including Suddenlink will now be able to provide their customers with the security and reliability of a redundant broadband connection to protect against outages and interruptions.
"Last-mile" service to residents and businesses along the route will be provided by 101 Netlink, a North Coast wireless high speed internet provider. 101 Netlink will now be able to connect several un-served and under-served communities along the way including Wildwood, Mad River, Ruth and Bridgeville, offering service to 527 rural households over a 218 square-mile area with speeds up to 4Mbps download and 1.5Mbps upload.
101 Netlink's Seth Johannesen said "We're pleased to be able to offer true high-speed service to some of the most rural communities in Humboldt and Trinity counties."
Mary-Lou Smulders, Vice President of Strategies and Implementation for IP Networks, thanked the many partners that helped make the project happen. "We couldn't have done this without strong support from all of our fabulous partners in Humboldt and Trinity counties. The counties, PG&E, 101 Netlink, RREDC, the California Center for Rural Policy, Redwood Coast Connect, our customers and vendors and so many others have been there every step of the way to help with project design, planning, funding, permits and implementation."
Connie Stewart, Executive Director of the California Center for Rural Policy, said "The Redwood Coast region is sparsely populated and has lots of rugged terrain, which makes installing fiber optics challenging and expensive. There are more rural communities out there that still need high speed internet and we all look forward to getting them served too."
Significant internet disruptions in December 2006 and January 2007 carried serious impacts to businesses, retailers and education, as well as potentially life-threatening impacts to healthcare, law enforcement and aviation. Those outages focused attention on the need for broadband redundancy and prompted a series of studies and route concepts.
Gregg Foster, Executive Director of RREDC, thanked the many partners who worked early on to move this issue forward, including Tina Nerat, Susan Estrada, Patrick Cleary and the Redwood Technology Consortium. "This has been a team effort from the start, and couldn't have been done without the support of so many dedicated individuals over so many years" he said.
The total cost for the project is $14,383,101, of which $5,753,240 was provided by the California Advance Services Fund (CASF) as a 40% match.
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August 19, 2010 Life + Outdoors » Field Notes
Fig. 1. Coriolis effect at North Pole
Despite popular belief, you really can't predict which way your bath water will swirl when you pull the plug by knowing which hemisphere you're in. Because the Earth is spinning counterclockwise (as seen from above the North Pole), it's reasonable to assume that your bath water spirals counterclockwise when you're north of the equator, and vice versa. After all, winds in the northern hemisphere veer to the right, as do artillery shells and intercontinental ballistic missiles. They are all at the mercy of the Coriolis effect, which can be understood by imagining what would happen to a big tub of water sitting right over the North Pole (see Figure 1).
The water at the edge of the tub is moving with the Earth counterclockwise around the pole. Pull the central plug, and the momentum of water moving from the outside to the center makes it to drift to the right, resulting in a counterclockwise spin. If you move the tub away from the pole toward the equator, water on the side farthest from the pole is always going to be moving a little faster than water on the side closest to the pole, so you'll end up with a net counterclockwise rotation anywhere in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, the reverse is true.
The trouble with relating this to your bathwater is that you're dealing with a minuscule difference in velocity across the width of your bath, and the tiny Coriolis effect is going to be swamped by your body, your breathing, the shape of the drain pipe, previous motion of the water, air blowing over the tub and so on. It takes carefully controlled conditions to confirm that water going down a drain really does obey Coriolis. In the mid-’60s, experimenters at the University of Sydney, Australia, allowed water in a six-foot diameter circular tub to settle for several days in a vibration-free room. When the plug was pulled (from below, to minimize turbulence), sure enough, the Aussie researchers, to quote their slightly tongue-in-cheek paper, "...acquired confidence in the hypothesis that carefully performed experiments on liquid drainage from a tank will show clockwise rotation, if done in the Southern Hemisphere."
Winds (moving air molecules) are also subject to Coriolis forces. If the Earth didn't spin, prevailing winds would be from the north or south, depending on latitude -- starting with warm air rising at the equator (left side of Figure 2). However, the Coriolis effect deflects wind to the right in the Northern hemisphere and vice versa, producing the surface winds (right side of Figure 2). This results in the demographic phenomenon, in temperate climates, of the poorer sections of many cities being located east of downtown, where (smelly) industry is, or was, to be located. Other factors being equal, people who could afford it built west of the downtown area. Check out London, Paris and Dallas, for instance, and you'll see what I mean.
Barry Evans (barryevans9@yahoo.com) wonders why clocks in the southern hemisphere don't go counterclockwise. The collection of his first 80 Field Notes columns is available directly from him or from Eureka Books.
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Barry Evans lives in Old Town Eureka with his girlfriend (and wife) Louisa Rogers, several kayaks and bikes, and a stuffed gorilla named “Nameless.” A recovering civil engineer, he is the author of two McGraw-Hill popular science books and has taught science and history. His Field Notes anthologies are available... Barry Evans lives in Old Town Eureka with his girlfriend (and wife) Louisa Rogers, several kayaks and bikes, and a stuffed gorilla named “Nameless.” A recovering civil engineer, he is the author of two McGraw-Hill popular science books and has taught science and history. His Field Notes anthologies are available at local bookstores. more
Charon's Obol and Other Coins
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Whence 'Britain'?
Blame Evolution
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Caitlin R. • Administrative Assistant
Caitlin is a passionate artist, actor and supporter of music education. She is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin - Madison where she studied Journalism (Reporting) and Theatre and Drama, and formerly Vocal Performance. Over the past 15 years, she has made her mark on the Theatre and Music communities of Oshkosh and Madison, WI and is incredibly excited to bring that passion for the arts to Northside. She learned the incredible value of an arts education at a young age and credits her experience in voice and acting lessons with building her confidence.
Before working at Northside, Caitlin worked as a publicist for the UW-Madison Department of Theatre and Drama where she also acted in several productions! She also has nearly 10 years experience working with young people in the arts, working on over 60 theatrical productions in all. She brings an artistic flare into everything she does and is thrilled to bring that energy to Northside Music Academy.
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From Norway to Canada
A Canadian skier and storyteller looks back on the history of cross-country skiing</STRONG
Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB scanpix
Skis have been in parts of Siberia Northern Europe for 5,000–6,000 years, and today, cross-country skiing is a Norwegian national sport. It had even been said that Norwegians are “born with skis on their feet.”
KAARE ASKILDT
Preeceville, Saskatchewan, Canada
The word “ski” comes from Old Norse “skid,” meaning a board or a piece of split wood. Archaeological finds show that skis have been used in large parts of Siberia and Northern Europe for 5,000–6,000 years.
A Viking rune stone carving discovered in 1930 in a cave at Rødøy in northern Norway depicts a skier and has been dated back to 5, 000 B.C. Skis found in peat bogs in both Norway and Sweden are believed to be from the year 400. The Vikings were avid skiers; they had to be, as it was one of the main modes of transportation in Scandinavia in the wintertime.
The Vikings used a long ski for gliding and a short ski for pushing (somewhat like our modern freestyle technique). They used animal pelts or beeswax for gliding and grip. Skiers only had one pole, which was used to push with. The pole was a multiuse tool, as it could also be used as a lance, and the flared end was detachable and used as a drinking vessel.
Very little has been written in the Old Norse sagas about skiing. Snorri Sturluson writes in his saga about the Norse god Ull being the best skier and archer. In the skaldic poem Ragnarsdrápa from the ninth century, the bard Bragi Boddason writes about the Norse goddess Skade, who could use a bow and arrow while skiing.
The kings of Norway
Norway’s King Olav I (better known as Olav Tryggvason), who ruled Norway from 995 to 1000, was described as a fine sportsman, both on land and sea. According to the kings’ sagas, “He skies faster than any other man.” The sagas tell us that skiing was also mastered by King Harald Hardrada, who ruled Norway from 1045 to 1066. The sagas go on to describe a famous competition in which a young man named Heming challenged King Harald. The king found himself matched stride for stride by young Heming, who won the race.
In 1206, the sagas describe how the Birkebeiners saved the 2-year-old Prince Håkon Håkonsson from certain death by the Baglers. Two of the Birkebeiners’ best skiers, Torstein Skjevla and Skjervald Skrukka, skied with the little Prince Håkon from Lillehammer across two mountain ranges to safety in Rena. Håkon Håkonsson, who ruled Norway from 1217 to 1263 is to date the longest reigning Norwegian monarch in the history of Norway. King Magnus Lagabøte then ruled Norway from 1263 to 1280. His land laws forbade skiers to hunt moose.
Skiing and national identity
Some Norwegian history is necessary to put modern skiing in the proper perspective. Norway came under Danish rule after the collapse of the Kalmar Union (1397–1523). During the Seven Years’ War in 1564, the Swedish army skied to Trondheim and occupied the area until the Norwegian army arrived on foot. This is the first recorded history of skis being used by any army. It should be noted that the Norwegians sent the Swedes packing!
In the 19th century, the literary elite of Norway wanted independence and wrote the Norwegian Constitution in 1814, which was proclaimed at Eidsvoll on May 17 the same year. The Constitution was based in part on both the French and American constitutions, but it called for a monarch as the supreme head of state. The Norwegians were negotiating their independence from Denmark, and after the defeat of Napoleon, Norway was ceded to Sweden.
King Karl II of Sweden wanted a Norwegian troop as his king’s guard, alongside his Swedish troop. The Norwegian troop brought along their skis, something that the Swedish troop was not using. The Swedish troop equipped themselves with skis as well, to be equal to the Norwegians. The very first recorded international skiing competition was held in Stockholm, in 1816, as a result of a challenge by the Swedish troop.
The Norwegians accepted the challenge on the condition that sharpshooting would be part of the competition. Thus, the very first international skiing competition was indeed a biathlon event, which, of course, was won by the Norwegian, or so the legend goes. The first officially recorded cross-country skiing competition was held in 1843 in the city of Tromsø in northern Norway.
The army skis were totally flat with an even width from tip to tail. The bindings were sort of a big loop to fit the toes of the boots. It was easy to get in and out of the bindings, but the boots also tended to slip out of the bindings while skiing. The skis were pine tarred to make them waterproof, and animal pelts were usually used for both kick and glide.
The Norwegian elite still wanted independence and searched all over Norway to find a Norwegian of royal heritage but had no luck. Their research showed that Danish Prince Carl was a descendant of King Olav Tryggvason, and explorer Fridtjof Nansen (1862 – 1930) was sent to Copenhagen to ask Prince Carl to accept the Norwegian throne. The union with Sweden was dissolved in 1905, and Prince Carl took the name King Håkon VII of Norway.
Pioneers of modern skiing
Nansen increased awareness of skiing by publishing his book describing his 500-kilometer ski trek crossing the south of Greenland. Nansen was quoted in 1930, saying, “Skiing is the most national of all our Norwegian sports.”
The first official Nordic Combined (cross-country skiing and ski jumping) competition was held at the Holmenkollen ski arena near the capital, Christiania (today’s Oslo), in 1893. It was to become the first of the annual Holmenkollen Ski Festival.
Sondre Norheim (1825 – 1897) from the province of Telemark is recognized as the pioneer of modern skiing. He had developed a new type of ski with a new binding of a toe loop and heel strap. The skis were equally wide at the tip and tail but with a side cut making them narrower at the waist (middle) where the binding was mounted. The skis were cambered, so as to glide only on the shovel at the tip and the tail behind the waist. The skis were much more maneuverable on the downhill than the skis were in use. From then on, all skies would be made with camber and side cut.
Norheim wanted to show the rest of Norway his new skis and his new skiing technique. The Swedish King Oscar I, who ruled Norway from 1844 to 1859, was visiting Christiania in January 1845. Sondre requested and got permission to make a public skiing demonstration with the king present.
Norheim dazzled everyone with his new skis and skiing technique. He made many turns down the hill, and these turns are still being used by today’s skiers. The Telemark Turn is named after his home province, and the Stem Christie is named after the capital, Christiania. Norheim also pioneered skiing in the United States. He emigrated to North Dakota in 1884, where he lived on a small farm. Today, he is called the “father of Telemark skiing.”
Scandinavia, especially Norway, led in all cross-country skiing competitions up until the late 1960s, when the Austrian ski manufacturer Fischer developed a wood ski with a synthetic base. All the ski manufacturers in Norway rejected the synthetic base, and the Norwegians had a small victory when skier Pål Tyldum won the prestigious Holmenkollen 50-kilometer race on wooden skis in 1969, beating out the other Europeans and North American skiers on synthetic base skis.
Fischer and other German, Austrian, and French ski manufacturers continued to improve on their synthetic bases, and the Norwegians soon were “outskied” by competitors from the central Europe. The manufacturers continued to develop lighter skis and have now developed lightweight totally synthetic skis. The cost of switching from wood to synthetic materials caused many of the traditional Norwegian ski manufacturers to close their plants. Today, there is only one Norwegian ski manufacturer left in Norway, Madshus in Gjøvik.
In Canada, cross-country skiing took off in the 1950s and ’60s, when the “father of Canadian cross-country skiing,” Herman Smith-Johannsen, also known as “Jackrabbit Johannsen,” started promoting skiing wherever he traveled in Canada. Johannsen was an engineer by trade, and he emigrated from Horten, Norway, to Canada in 1928.
Cross-country skiing for people who are blind or visually impaired was introduced in British Columbia by Annar Jacobsen in 1979, and in Alberta the same year by Lillian Ofstad in Calgary and Kaare Askildt in Edmonton. Ski for Light Canada, Inc., a Sons of Norway outreach program dedicated to making cross-country skiing available people with visual impairments, was incorporated in 1981, with Kaare Askildt serving as the first president.
Controversy at Solheim Cup
by The Norwegian American · Published October 5, 2015
Norway's king likes Loudmouth pants, as long as others are wearing them
by The Norwegian American · Published February 25, 2010
Svindal and Vonn say farewell with medals
by The Norwegian American · Published March 6, 2019 · Last modified December 31, 2020
Next Find out what’s true in children’s songs
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Pandemic Seems To Be Driving School Enrollment Down, NPR Investigation Shows In many states, this week marks fall count day, when schools must submit enrollment numbers to determine state funding for the next year. But the pandemic seems to be driving down those enrollments.
Pandemic Seems To Be Driving School Enrollment Down, NPR Investigation Shows
Pandemic Seems To Be Driving School Enrollment Down, NPR Investigation Shows 4:04
In many states, this week marks fall count day, when schools must submit enrollment numbers to determine state funding for the next year. But the pandemic seems to be driving down those enrollments.
Fall count day is this week in many states. That is the day when schools have to submit enrollment numbers to determine state funding for the next year. And this year, the pandemic seems to be driving down enrollment. NPR has documented drops in dozens of districts across the country. NPR's Anya Kamenetz was part of that investigation, and she joins us now.
Hey, Anya.
ANYA KAMENETZ, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: Hey. So tell us more about what you found. Like, what are some of the trends in school enrollment that you're seeing right now?
KAMENETZ: So we should say there's almost 14,000 school districts in the country, and we're not going to get national numbers until the spring. But with the help of our member stations and Marco Trevino (ph), our intern, we collected information on 60 districts, including some of the largest districts in the country. Miami-Dade County Public Schools is missing 16,000 students. Los Angeles Unified is missing 11,000. Charlotte-Mecklenburg in North Carolina has 5,000. Utah, Virginia and Washington states are all reporting statewide drops. And that is all in contrast with general trends over the last 15 years of steadily rising enrollment.
CHANG: Wow. Those drops sound staggering. What do we know about why districts are seeing these drops in enrollment?
KAMENETZ: So in lots of places, Ailsa, they're seemingly concentrated in elementary school, especially kindergarten. On average, we saw a 16% drop in kindergarten enrollment. And, you know, a lot of parents and also educators are kind of skeptical about Zoom kindergarten as an option. On the other hand, families may be fearful about sending kids to school in person. They may simply be confused and fed up. You know, reportedly, Miami-Dade Public Schools in Florida lost many hundreds of students even after the start of the school year when they experienced days of cyberattacks in the first days of remote learning.
CHANG: So where are all these thousands and thousands of students going instead?
KAMENETZ: You know, kindergarten in particular is not compulsory in most states. So families do have the option of simply sitting out that year, and they can start kindergarten a year late. That's sometimes called redshirting. Home school groups say interest is up. And in many places, you know, private schools are open where the public schools are closed. For example, I talked to Megan Olszewski (ph), who made this decision in Austin with her kindergarten-aged son Jonah (ph).
MEGAN OLSZEWSKI: We had, you know, signed him up to start in Austin ISD at the beginning of the year. And then, you know, in the late spring and the summer, we kind of realized that school wasn't going to look normal.
KAMENETZ: So Jonah is going to stay at his private Montessori preschool for another year. It's licensed as a day care, so the children don't have to wear masks. They're full time, in person. And meanwhile, Austin Public Schools started the year 5,000 students down...
CHANG: Wow.
KAMENETZ: ...And remotely. Yeah.
CHANG: What do you think? I mean, what kind of impact do you think this will have on public schools if these drops in enrollment get even more widespread?
KAMENETZ: You know, in public schools, generally, state funding follows the students. So it can be thousands of dollars gone for every student out the door. And, you know, unfortunately, who's going to be especially hard-hit are districts that are already serving low-income students...
KAMENETZ: ...Because most of their funding comes directly from the state, whereas more affluent districts - they're funded more by property taxes. They're not as dependent on the state enrollment-based money. Of course, there are so many financial pressures on schools right now - PPE, additional custodial services, digital services. And as we've been hearing, it's not clear that there's any more federal aid coming before 2021.
CHANG: Exactly. OK. So clearly, this could be really detrimental for public schools, but what about for the kids? What are the concerns for them?
KAMENETZ: So, you know, again, inequality is exacerbated. Here are children who go to in-person private school or home schooling with a full-time parent. They might be ahead. But then there's kids who are spending the year, as one mom told me, with Elmo from "Sesame Street" as their teacher. And the research shows they're going to have potentially long-lasting setbacks from this.
CHANG: That is NPR's Anya Kamenetz.
Thank you, Anya.
KAMENETZ: Thanks, Ailsa.
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Gregor Paul: How Sonny Bill Williams could still make a significant difference to New Zealand Rugby
9 Nov, 2019 02:00 AM 5 minutes to read
By: Gregor Paul
gregor.paul@nzherald.co.nz
Seeing as New Zealand Rugby are quite happy to hold jobs open for high profile sorts while they line their pockets elsewhere, they should be trying to lock Sonny Bill Williams into a role of some kind when he finishes up in Canada.
Exactly what sort of role can be left a little vague at the moment, but NZR would be mad if they couldn't see that Williams could become an instrumental figure in helping them sort the perennial problem that is Auckland.
One man couldn't fix everything. That would be ridiculous to think that. Auckland has numerous problems that range from general participation numbers at junior level, to disproportionately high drop out rates amongst teens, to poor talent identification in elite programmes and a low conversion rate in taking the best school talent and developing them into good professionals.
It's the last stage of the process where Williams could be deployed and potentially make a difference. A significant difference.
There's a gaping hole in the system at the moment that results in the majority of Auckland's best players reaching the professional ranks with serious shortcomings.
Standards that are reached elsewhere in terms of general conditioning, skill development, game understanding and attention to detail, aren't met in Auckland.
And what no one apparently wants to say is that the reason for that is the development system spits out athletes who lack personal responsibility.
Sonny Bill Williams. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
That's the nub of it right there: many of the youngsters who graduate through the Auckland schools system and academy programme never quite get a handle on what it takes to crack the big time. They don't get that they have to drive their own performance and not hope someone else will do it for them.
Not really. Not properly. They don't see the full extent of the sacrifice that is required to be better than the next guy.
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Eventually that lack of understanding or intrinsic desire to push the margins on preparation comes to the surface and becomes a problem.
In eight years as head coach of the All Blacks, Steve Hansen was rarely publicly critical of his players or aired dirty laundry as it were.
But he did on three memorable occasions. He cited both Steven Luatua and Charlie Faumuina as lacking the fitness required to play test football.
He called them both out – said they had been dropped for the simple reason neither had the conditioning they needed.
These two were senior figures at the Blues – hugely talented and full of potential but they were both failing to reach a basic professional expectation.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern talks to Sonny Bill Williams of the All Blacks following a New Zealand All Blacks Rugby World Cup Captain's Run. Photo / Getty Images.
It was the same with Akira Ioane this year. The All Blacks had tracked him incessantly since 2015 and could see the value he'd bring to their game if he could get himself fitter, more dynamic and more aware of what his role actually was.
Hansen tried and tried, but failed to connect with Ioane. The Blues No 8 just couldn't make the improvements required and Hansen's exasperation showed when he named the first All Blacks squad of this year and gave a withering assessment of Ioane.
And this is where Williams comes on. He's now on track to still be playing top flight football at 36 and yet he has a degenerative knee condition which has plagued him since his late teens.
He's survived at this level on the back of his work ethic and continual drive to find the minuscule gains.
He's set the highest standards in terms of preparation. He's forged new territory in what he's been prepared to do and how hard he's been willing to work to get his body right.
Williams gets what it takes to be a professional athlete. He has an incredible sense of his responsibility to himself and it's this that needs to be instilled in others.
Auckland and the Blues can't keep seeing supremely talented athletes fall into these black holes where they don't achieve because they don't know what it takes to achieve.
Super Rugby is too late in the piece to try to fix people. The Blues need athletes coming into their system with personal responsibility.
They can't learn it there and so there is an obvious job for Williams mentoring, inspiring, teaching and guiding Auckland's best players when they are still at school or just out of it.
The man knows what is required to conquer the sporting world and he knows how to do it from a tough starting place.
He grew up in Auckland with not much behind him and he battled the hard way, much as many of the aspiring players in the city do today.
NZR has banged its head against the wall in relation to Auckland. Nothing has really worked so far and while Williams can't be seen as the panacea, he is at least worth tying into a contract now so that there is certainty he'll be returning to Auckland once his time in Canada is finished.
He's all about giving back and Auckland rugby has its hand out.
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Spotlight: 3rd Generation Chiropractor, Dr. Tiffany Huggins
Posted in Chiropractic, Oakville Chiropractic News
February 27/2014 By Dr. Tiffany Huggins
Dr. Tiffany Huggins is originally from the scenic city of Stratford, Ontario, home to quaint restaurants shops, a rich theatre culture, and both her grandfather’s followed by her father’s bustling Chiropractic clinics. It was there that she would be instilled with the passions that would ignite her future careers, seeded in both theatre and Chiropractic.
Early on, the Huggins family relocated to Oakville, Ontario where Dr. Brian Huggins would help pave the way for the current practice of Oakville Chiropractic Centre, while mentoring other Chiropractors in business and more importantly, philosophy. Dr. Brian Huggins believed in the earliest doctrines of the profession including the root principle that a healthy nervous system is integral to a healthy human being. He thought the story of Chiropractic was not just to be shared with his community and patients, but continually with his family as well whom took the opportunities to work at the clinic and travel to a number of conferences to hear great speakers that shared the art, science, and philosophy of the profession, along with many life lessons that could be applied to many aspects of everyday practice.
Parker Seminars took the family from Dallas to Vegas, Toronto to Atlanta, and even the sunny paradise of Bahamas. Tiffany, at 15 years old, understood the value that Chiropractic added not only to her own life, but to each individual and family it touched. She loved seeing the difference it made in patients that came into her father’s practice suffering and left smiling. She watched letters pour in from patients thanking her father for giving them a second lease on life, restoring ambulation to a husband previously bedridden, ceasing bedwetting in a mortified pre-teen who could finally attend slumber parties with confidence, and most notably the low-functioning autistic child that started her course of care under her parents duress and continued it running down the hall with a smile saying she was ready for her adjustment. There were everyday miracles happening in the clinic and one day Tiffany decided the path of her future as Dr. Brian Huggins rehashed some of these stories at a Parker seminar in Toronto with his staff and some speakers, including Dr. James Sigafoose. Dr. Sigafoose shared in turn that all of his kids had followed in his footsteps to continue on in the family business and said he could see Tiffany doing the same (Albeit he mentioned she looked like she would fit best on the Life West Campus in California—a prophecy a little warmer that the one that would later be!)
Tiffany took to heart the messages from her father, seminars, and Sig too—and later applied to the prestigious Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, but that was still further down the road as she decided first to follow some of her own dreams in the arts sphere.
A passion for reading, writing, and language took Tiffany to her mother Conny’s Alma Mater, the University of Western Ontario where she completed an Honours BA in Language and Literature. While at Western, she also took additional courses off-campus at McMaster and York University to continue fostering her love for Theatre Arts, ensuring enough of a course load to serve as a minor for graduate school applications. Through her undergraduate career she balanced school life with involvement in Kappa Alpha Theta, an organization dedicated to academics, philanthropy, social networking, and team building. She served as Vice President of Education, Vice President of both Internal and External Social Affairs, and partook in the planning and execution of several charitable events that gave back to the community, including the Boys and Girls Club of London.
After completing her degree at UWO, along with her thesis based on Shakespeare’s King Lear, she decided to pursue theatre in an academic fashion and applied at Western’s teaching college, Althouse. One year later, with a B.Ed in senior level English and Dramatic Arts, she decided to foster her passion in the place that started it all, London, England—birthplace of the bard himself! The following September, she moved to London with only a suitcase and a dream, and arrived in the city with hopes to find a home and a teaching job. She soon began teaching both English and Theatre Arts while traveling to more than ten countries that year! Her tank was soon full of culture, worldly experience, and independence, but something was still missing—a dream yet fulfilled from years ago still lingered on the backburner in her mind.
It was long before she applied to CMCC back in Canada, and completed her entrance essay in a bustling internet café and her interview in the confined space of an English phone booth. Her acceptance was granted and she made the move back to Canada to start another new journey—a degree in more science than her arts degrees prepared her for and a battle of philosophies she didn’t know existed!
CMCC boasted the best in academics, lab sessions, and compared with great likeness to most medical school programs attempting to gain recognition and pedigree in the academic world. Tiffany completed the program but found holes in areas of business, philosophy, and mostly Chiropractic as a whole. The teachings were quite different than those of her father and the seminar speakers and the students she encountered often had opposing views on the nature of their future field, but Tiffany along with a group of like-minded individuals studied hard and graduated with their initial ideals intact.
Tiffany went on to join her father in practice at Oakville Chiropractic Centre in the fall of 2010 where she continues to bring light to the big picture of Chiropractic. She loves working with patients and community members to explain the root of the nervous system, the overall function of the body and its amazing ability to heal itself with a little help from Chiropractic and the power of the adjustment!
Her future projects include bringing anti-ageing wellness and increased bone fitness to seniors, getting involved with her new community and their athletes; and continuing to increase her education of pre and post natal care along with paediatrics. She also continues to play volleyball and work on her works of creative fiction.
Her love of theatre brought the fascination with anatomy, movement, and body mechanics, her love of sports and involvement with the Oakville Soccer Club, Oakville Hornets Girls hockey, and continuous participation in beach volleyball brought about her need to help athletes reach their game day potential, and her belief in her family and its roots in Chiropractic brought her the passion to help people experience everyday miracles!
To book your appointment with Dr. Tiffany Huggins, please contact 905-845-2291 or email info@oakvillechiropractic.com.
Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @Chiropractalk
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West Coast kittiwakes facing extinction
Sandy Neil Updated: 04/01/18, 2:38 pm
The black-legged kittiwake, a small species of gull found in Scotland, has been added to the list of birds considered to be facing a high risk of global extinction.
The latest annual revision of birds on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species brings the total number of UK bird species considered to be facing the risk of extinction to nine.
Globally, the species is thought to have declined by around 40 per cent since the 1970s, justifying its upgrading from Least Concern to Vulnerable.
The RSPB argues climate change and fishing that sets aside too little for the birds are pushing the kittiwake closer to extinction by affecting the availability and quality of sand eels, a crucial food source, during the breeding season.
Kittiwake pair displaying at their nest.
Over 70 per cent of the British breeding kittiwake population is found in Scotland. The RSPB reported ‘alarming’ trends in their numbers here, particularly in Orkney and Shetland where breeding birds have declined by 87 per cent since 2000, and on St Kilda in the Western Isles where as much as 96 per cent of the breeding population has been lost.
Laura Bambini, RSPB Scotland’s seabird recovery officer, said: ‘Some efforts are under way to protect important seabird foraging areas in international waters, but there is still much more to be done around Scotland and the rest of the UK to protect our internationally important and increasingly threatened seabird populations.’
In the North Sea, sand eels provide a vital food source for many species of seabird and are crucial to the breeding success of kittiwakes. However, sand eels are threatened by rising sea temperatures and are the target of an industrial fishery. As a result, kittiwake food supplies could be affected by both local and large-scale processes.
Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla in flight.
Alex Kinninmonth, RSPB Scotland’s head of marine policy, said: ‘Frequent and widespread breeding failure is now being observed in several of Scotland’s breeding seabird species, particularly those reliant on sand eels. Kittiwakes are among the worst hit and are clearly struggling to cope with the effects of a changing food supply.
‘If they are to have any hope, it’s critically important that we act on climate change, and make sure added pressure from fisheries, pollution and marine development don’t make an already bad situation far worse.’
The other regularly occurring birds in the UK classed as ‘vulnerable’ to global extinction on the IUCN Red List are the Atlantic puffin, European turtle dove, pochard, Slavonian grebe, long-tailed duck, velvet scoter and aquatic warbler. The Balearic shearwater, a regularly-occurring migrant in the UK waters, is ‘critically endangered’.
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Arlene R. Keizer
Arlene R. Keizer, Ph.D.
Sketch Model Creative-in-Reference and Visiting Professor
akeizer@olin.edu
PhD, UC-Berkeley
MA, Stanford University
BA, Princeton University
Weaving the Future: New Ideologies of Making
re-imagining the humanities, critical theory, feminist theory, critical race and ethnic studies, speculative histories, literature and material culture in diaspora.
Taconic Fellowship, Pratt Center for Community Development, for “Migration Stories in Multiple Media.” Workshops co-created with an artist/architect and offered through the Brooklyn Public Library, to assist students in writing, illustrating, and representing through objects and photos their narratives of immigration, 2019-20
Postdoctoral Fellow with the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis (MIP), 2006-07
Edith Goldthwaite Miller Faculty Fellow at the Pembroke Center for Research and Teaching on Women (Pembroke Seminar), Brown University, 2005-06
Stephen and Mary Meadow Faculty Award (research funding), University of Michigan, 2002-2007
A. Bartlett Giamatti Faculty Fellow, Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan, 2000-2001 (year-long research fellowship)
Seed Grant from the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG), University of Michigan, 1999-2000
Career Development Award for Women Faculty, University of Michigan, 1999
American Association of University Women (AAUW) Dissertation Fellowship, American Fellowships Program, 1995-96
Residence at Cottages at Hedgebrook (a retreat for women writers), Fall 1993
Princeton University Page Prize for Creative Theses, 1986
Academy of American Poets Prize, Princeton University, 1986
Arlene Keizer is a scholar, writer, and teacher whose work focuses primarily on African Diaspora literature and culture, engaging critical theory, feminist theory—especially black feminist theory—and psychoanalysis. The author of the monograph Black Subjects: Identity Formation in the Contemporary Narrative of Slavery, she has also published articles and essays in a range of professional and popular journals. Keizer holds a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree in English and Creative Writing from Stanford University. Her publications also include poetry, film reviews, and experimental criticism. Most recently, she served as Chairperson of the Department of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute from 2017-2020.
Through 25 years of university teaching, mentoring, and administrative work, Keizer has developed courses and programs focused on literature, visual and material culture, and social justice. She has created and taught undergraduate and graduate classes on global narratives of liberation, on African American writers’ use of the personal essay as a practice of freedom, and on the intersections between critical race theory, literature, and visual culture.
As a faculty member at Brown University, Keizer served on the Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, whose report on Brown’s historical complicity with American slavery won the Community and Justice Award from Rhode Island for Community & Justice (RICJ). Her other extracurricular labor for the universities where she has worked includes serving as an equity advisor to the School of the Humanities at the University of California, Irvine. There she also co-created, with colleagues in the UCI Law School, a year-long series of events on the long aftermath of the Scottsboro case in literature, visual culture, global activism, and the law. At Olin, she’ll teach and create programs around the theme of “Weaving the Future: New Ideologies of Making.”
Black Gallery: Poems—forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press
The Body of This Life: Kara Walker’s Art and the Black Postmodern—monograph, under contract with Northwestern University Press
New Black Feminist Criticism, 1985-2000, Barbara Christian. Co-edited with Gloria Bowles and M. Giulia Fabi. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2007.
Black Subjects: Identity Formation in the Contemporary Narrative of Slavery. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004.
“What Will the Art of Freedom Look Like?: Casey Ruble’s ‘Deformation of Mastery’.” Essay for Red Summer, Artist’s Book by Casey Ruble [Edition of 100], Conveyor Editions, 2019.
“Collateral Survivorship.” Radical Teacher 114—Radical Teaching Then and Now (Summer 2019): 48-50.
“The Bone Alphabet: A ‘First Reading’ of M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong! #6.” Jacket2 (February 2014). http://jacket2.org/commentary/first-reading-m-nourbese-philips-zong-6-2
“‘Obsidian Mine’: The Psychic Aftermath of Slavery.” Samuel R. Delany special issue of American Literary History 24.4 (October 2012): 686-701.
“Incidents in the Lives of Two Postmodern Black Feminists: An Interview with Harryette Mullen.” Postmodern Culture 22.1: n.p.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/postmodern_culture/v022/22.1.mullen.html
“‘Our Posteriors, Our Posterity’: The Problem of Embodiment in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Venus and Kara Walker’s Camptown Ladies.” ‘Scripted Bodies’ special issue of Social Dynamics: A Journal of African Studies 37.2 (October 2011): 200-212.
“Gone Astray in the Flesh: Kara Walker, Black Women Writers, and African American Postmemory.” PMLA 123.5 (October 2008): 1649-72.
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The man whose ‘real Chagall’ could now be burnt as a fake
Leeds man hoped a BBC art show would verify his painting, but now France plans to destroy it
The painting, Nude 1909-10, attributed to Marc Chagall, on Fake or Fortune with (l-r) Philip Mould, Bendor Grosvenor and Fiona Bruce. Photograph: BBC/Glenn Dearing
When a Yorkshire businessman bought a reclining nude attributed to Marc Chagall for £100,000, he hoped the painting would provide a tidy nest-egg for his family. Instead, 20 years later, he faces the prospect of watching his sizeable investment being burnt in front of a French magistrate.
Martin Lang, 63, from Leeds, bought Nude 1909-10, which was “attributed to Chagall” in 1992, on the advice of a Russian art dealer who also worked for a major auction house. Chagall, who died in 1985, was a Russian-French pioneer of modern art, revered by collectors worldwide. One of his paintings recently sold for $10m.
After watching last year’s series of the BBC art programme Fake or Fortune?, Lang volunteered his “Chagall” to the programme’s producers for scrutiny, citing its reproduction in an art book by a Soviet art expert and friend of Chagall.
It turned out to be a bad move. As research began to cast doubt on the provenance of Lang’s painting, complex paint analysis showed that the blue and green pigments were too modern, having been developed only in the 1930s. Moreover, a later edition of the Soviet-era publication showed that the reference to Nude 1909-10 had been removed. The work was submitted to the Chagall Committee in Paris, the only authority with the power to declare conclusively whether a work said to be by Chagall is genuine or a forgery. The committee is headed by Chagall’s two granddaughters.
Handing over his painting for examination, Lang signed a contract stating that “Marc Chagall’s heirs could demand the seizure of the work, and/or any other measures stipulated by law”. But it now appears that the committee, which was expressly set up to defend Chagall’s legacy, is determined to destroy the work. An archaic French law provides for the destruction of fakes in front of a magistrate. A proposal that the back of the painting be marked as fake was rejected.
Philip Mould, the art expert used by Fake or Fortune?, condemned such an extreme measure as “barbaric”. “I can’t believe it, actually,” he old the Observer.
He added that the Chagall Committee seems “hell-bent” on destroying the painting, even though fakes have their uses in training the eye to what is genuine: “They are getting back to Mr Lang this week. But, as it stands, this picture will be burned in front of a magistrate.”
Mould said that, although £100,000 is “a big loss” – the original price reflected the fact that the painting had not been formally verified – it would have been worth perhaps £500,000 if it had turned out to be genuine.
The BBC programme reflects a Russian art market in which 90% of works are fakes. Chagall is a particular target for forgers. The committee believes that Lang’s painting is an imitation of the 1911 reclining nude.
Pierre Valentin, a specialist art lawyer, told the programme’s makers that two works purportedly by Joan Miró had been similarly destroyed as fakes. Their owners lost a legal fight and he does not believe that Lang can save the painting, even though he and his family have become attached to the forgery.
Lang said he has no plans to seek a refund on his original purchase: “I lack confidence in the system to give me the results I would be seeking.” He has, however, asked the committee to guarantee that he will be compensated if evidence ever surfaces to prove the picture’s authenticity. He told the Observer: “There’s nothing definite in life. There’s always room for error.”
By Dalya Alberge
Source: http://www.theguardian.com
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Orlando advocates call out affordable housing crisis in Central Florida
Posted By Monivette Cordeiro on Fri, Oct 12, 2018 at 6:55 PM
Advocates for affordable housing stood in front of the Orlando Housing Authority Friday to call attention to the crisis that Central Florida families face when it comes to finding a place to live.
The city of Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area ranks second worst among the country's major metropolitan areas for available affordable housing, with only 17 rental units available for every 100 extremely low-income renters, according to a 2018 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
About one out of every three households in Orlando is considered "cost-burdened," which means people are spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent or mortgage rather than food, transportation, health care and other necessities. Renters in the Orlando metro area need to earn at least $16.33 per hour ($33,960 a year) just to afford a studio apartment and not be rent burdened, the NLIHC found in a 2018 report. People who earned Florida's minimum wage of $8.25 per hour would have to work 84 hours a week just to rent a modest one-bedroom at fair-market rates.
"Florida is facing an affordable housing crisis," says state Sen. Victor Torres, D-Orlando. "Rick Scott and the Florida GOP have taken from the Sadowski fund over a billion dollars from the working poor during his administration. We need to change Tallahassee, and the only way we can change Tallahassee is by electing a new governor – and that governor has to be Andrew Gillum."
Gov. Rick Scott and Republican lawmakers have also been criticized for raiding the state's Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust Fund to plug money into other areas of the budget. In the past 18 years, Florida has swept about $2.2 billion from the fund to balance the budget, WKMG 6 reports. Scott is currently running for U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.
Gillum, the Democratic Tallahassee mayor vying to become Florida's next governor, has stated that the Sunshine State has "an affordable housing crisis" and vowed to invest in housing to "make sure Floridians can afford to live in the Sunshine State." His Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, hasn't yet publicly addressed Florida's affordable housing crisis.
"Rick Scott likes to talk about Florida's economy when he's on the campaign trail," says Orange County Commissioner Emily Bonilla. "But the reality is that nearly half of Floridians qualify as working poor. … Instead of doing something to help low-income families find safe, clean and affordable housing, Rick Scott and the Republican leadership in Tallahassee have taken the money and swept it into the general budget to cover for their own poor accounting skills."
Kaydra Bonamy, a certified nursing assistant who lives in Orlando, says she has to work more than 70 hours a week earning $11 per hour to afford her $1,000 apartment – and sometimes, she still struggles to pay all her bills. Her co-workers earn anywhere from an $8.25 hourly wage to $10, and many are living in hotels because they can't find affordable housing.
"I don't think that working people should have to work two and three jobs to make ends meet," she says. "I myself with health conditions cannot afford health insurance and my $1,000 rent. I've seen how most of my colleagues aren't able to afford insurance. We're taking care of sick people on a day-to-day basis, and we cannot afford health care for ourselves."
Tiffany Kelly, a community activist and circles coach at St. Luke's United Methodist Church, says she has been a recipient of both public housing and Section 8 housing. Without affordable housing, Kelly says she wouldn't have been able to go to school – instead, she would have been stuck working two jobs just to keep a roof over her family.
"I have achieved very much," she says. "I have a master's degree. I work in this community, but I would not have been able to be a contributing member to this society had I not had affordable housing some point. It allowed me to work toward my goals. It has allowed me to work on my children's needs. It is a must for economic stability."
At St. Luke's, Kelly works to transform the lives of people experiencing poverty, and in the process, she also helps people who are wealthier understand the actual struggles of someone who doesn't have resources.
"A lot of people don't realize how hard people in poverty work," she says. "One of my clients didn't have a car, so she spent six hours a day to go to work an eight-hour job because she had to rely on public transportation. That's 14 hours a day, six of it for no pay."
Kelly adds that most funding has gone toward poverty relief and management – not poverty elimination. Lawmakers, she reasons, feel like they're dumping money into a problem with no return on investment.
"If we can demonstrate that there are programs that actually work to get people out of poverty, perhaps they would not be so reserved in contributing to those programs," she says. "Toxic charity and poverty management are not working. Do not come to my community and give me another turkey. Do not give me a bicycle and take your picture and feel that you've done well. Give me a tool that's going to serve me and my children for the rest of our lives to get us out of this situation. I don't want your turkey."
Tags: orlando affordable housing, orlando housing, florida affordable housing, rick scott, bill nelson, andrew gillum, ron desantis, Image
« Key members of Central Florida GOP… | Trixie Mattel comes to House of Blu… »
Florida officials, business groups target Miami Beach's minimum wage law
Florida's childhood obesity problem is the 13th worst nationwide
Florida's minimum wage will go up a whole 21 cents in 2019
$15 an hour is great, but it's still not enough to live in Orlando
Orlando's lower-income renters are spending nearly 64 percent of their wages on housing
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Okinawanderer Okinawa News travel › CURRENT ISSUE › Politics › U.S. voices displeasure over China Senkaku’s stance
U.S. voices displeasure over China Senkaku’s stance
The United States is criticizing China’s territorial claim around the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, over which tensions between the two Asian nations remain elevated.
“In September, 2012, China began using improperly drawn straight baseline claims around the Senkaku Islands,” the Defense Department says, “adding to its network of maritime claims inconsistent with international law.” The baselines are drawn to define territorial waters. China has set the baseline around the Senkaku Islands, called Diaoyu in China, so that it can claim the islet chain is part of its territory.
China has submitted its claim to the United Nations without discussions with Japan. Tokyo says it cannot tolerate even the drawing of such a line around the islets. In an annual report on military and security developments involving China, the department referred to Japan’s purchase of three out of the five Senkaku islands in September last year.
“China protested the move and since that time has regularly sent maritime law enforcement ships –and, less often, aircraft– to patrol near the Senkakus to protect its claims; the report says this has included regular Chinese maritime operations within 12 nautical miles of the islands”. The Defense Department also mentioned China’s increased reference in official materials, including passports, to the so-called nine-dash line used to claim that China’s maritime rights extend virtually to the entire South China Sea. The practice “is a source of concern to its neighbors,” the report said.
Predicting a rise in China’s patrol capability in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, the U.S. department said China’s State Oceanic Administration will boost its such capability by 50% by 2020 and the Chinese Agriculture Ministry’s Bureau of Fisheries by 25%.
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Apple has LVMH on the Run as they Unofficially Announced they'll be entering the Smartwatch Race
Video: Jonathan Ive Describes the Magical Process of Design at Apple and his Love of Prototypes
Apple's Federighi Drops the Guillotine on the iMac Touch
Yesterday Apple introduced the "Insanely Great 27" iMac with 5K Retina Display." It will certainly be great for professionals of every stripe but less of a draw for consumers being that content in the form of movies, games or commercial apps won't be available for some time. While Apple was able to justify that major leap, they've officially decided to kill off any hope of ever seeing an iMac Touch. It's just not going to happen according to Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi. That goes for any kind of MacBook Pro with a touch screen as well.
Unless Apple introduces the iPad Pro in 2015 with an optional keyboard to make it a hybrid of sorts, there's no plan on Apple's table for a hybrid (or 2-in-1), the kind of computer that is challenging the iPad today.
As for the iMac Touch, Federighi said that they don't think it's the right interface, adding that the Mac is sort of a sit-down experience. He added that it's awkward and uncomfortable to sit at a desk and continuously reach forward to touch a computer screen. It's not like an iPad or iPhone that you hold in your hands and use in a very relaxed position.
Federighi further added that they've really focused on building the best track pads they could, something where your posture is relaxed. Of course, over the years he acknowledged that they experimented with all the technology for a hybrid desktop but felt that it just wasn't good. While Apple had filed for a number of patents on this front, it had fallen off the grid years ago.
Although you could argue that there's some limited value for a touchscreen on a desktop computer, you'd be stretching it pretty thin. On the flipside, the hybrid concept has found some success on the notebook front and with the new Surface Pro 3 which I'm seeing more and more of in cafes and in malls of late.
Whether the hybrid trend and momentum that Best Buy's CEO testified to recently remains intact is unknown at this time. It's a trend that many analysts and industry watchers will be keeping a sharp eye on during the all-important holiday quarter.
I personally like the 2-in-1 notebook with a detatchable display and HP's design specifically. It's one of the best that I've seen to date. The detached screen with beats audio is really very nice. If your family enjoys both Macs and Windows, it's a real option to consider.
In the end, for Apple fans hoping for a mobile hybrid design, there's only one more opportunity of it happening. That's when Apple introduces their new iPad Pro that will come with a nice notebook-sized display. Apple could at that time introduce an Apple-class keyboard accessory either in the form of smart cover that incorporates a keyboad or an aluminum keyboard base. We'll know in Q1 if this all comes together or not.
Yet as far as an iMac Touch goes, if you were ever hoping for one, it's just not going to happen, period. Federighi has officially put in file 13 and we all know what that means. Then again, most Apple fans were never really all that crazy about that idea to begin with.
About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 7pm PST and sporadically over the weekend. Source
Screenshot of the HP 2-in-1 design
Posted by Jack Purcher on October 17, 2014 at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Your calendar of upcoming events
• Thursday Night Dances, 4-7 p.m. Thursdays, The Gathering Place, 501 Nation Ave., Eaton. Country and bluegrass music provided by Don Pease and the Country Ramblers. $3 per person or $5 per couple. Door prizes, a 50/50 drawing, a dollar food menu, and Ron and Joyce King offer dancing instructions during intermission. Adults of all ages are welcome to attend. Organized by Preble County Senior Center.
• Open Mic, 7 p.m. to midnight Thursdays, Taffy’s, 123 E. Main St., Eaton, Ohio. Those who would like to perform or be in the lineup can call (937) 456-1381.
• Live music, 7:30 to 11 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, Taffy’s, 123 E. Main St., Eaton, Ohio. Go to http://taffysofeaton.com/Upcoming_Gigs_and_Events_2.htm to check the concert calendar. Featuring Grammy Award winners, national and international artists, regional and local artists. Most concerts do not require a door cover. (937) 456-1381
• Interaction Singles Dance, 8-11 p.m. Fridays, Eagles Lodge, 75 S. 12th St., Richmond. Must be 21 or older and single. Social hour from 6-7 p.m., discussion from 7-8 p.m. and dance from 8-11 p.m. Eagles membership not required. $6. (765) 966-8893
• Running Wayne County, 7:30 a.m., Saturdays, free group runs around the county. Contact runningwaynecounty@gmail.com for more information or check our Facebook page.
• Train Rides and Model Train Display, Noon-5 p.m., Saturdays-Sundays, Richmond Furniture Gallery, 180 Fort Wayne Ave, Richmond. Free vintage kiddie train rides. (765) 939-3325
• Free adult and teen painting sessions, 2-6 p.m., Saturdays, Hagerstown Museum, 96 1/2 E. Main St., Hagerstown, Ind. Materials and classes provided for first three sessions. (765) 489-4005 or find updates on Facebook.
• Karaoke, 8 p.m.-1 a.m., Jan. 31, Jus 1 More Bar & Grill, 743 S. Fifth St., Richmond. DJ Smooth. No cover.
• Shakespeare Sundays, 3 p.m. Sundays, The Two Sisters: Books and More, 193 Ft. Wayne Avenue, Richmond. The Richmond Shakespeare Festival will be reading through all of Shakespeare’s plays, one Sunday at a time. Bring a laptop or tablet or smart phone if possible. Free.
• Goofy Games, 4-5 p.m., Jan. 29, library, 126 E. Main St., Centerville, Ind. For ages 10+.
• Super Reading Bowl Wrap-Up Party, 4:30 p.m., Jan. 29, library, 150 N Main St, Eldorado. Snacks.
• Winter Farmers’ Market, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Jan. 31, Elizabeth Starr Academy, 301 N. 19th St., Richmond. Local foods, arts, and crafts.
• Micro Foosball Tween Craft, 4:30 p.m., Feb. 2, library, 212 S. High St., West Manchester. Create your own tiny foosball game using ordinary office supplies! For ages 8-12
• Story time and craft, 4:30 p.m., Feb. 2, library, 115 N. Washington St., New Paris, Ohio. For ages 11 and younger.
• Art Is ... China, starting Feb. 3, Richmond Art Museum, 350 Hub Etchison Pkwy, Richmond. For students in grades K-3. See arts and crafts and other objects and participate in creative activities. Free. Groups will be scheduled at 9 and 10 a.m. and noon and 1 p.m. To schedule a class, call (765) 966-0256 or email lancec@rcs.k12.in.us.
• Storytime for Wigglers, 10:30-11 a.m., Tuesdays, Morrisson-Reeves Library, 80 N. Sixth St., Richmond. Ages 0-24 months. Free. No registration required. (765) 966-8291.
• Teen Anime Club, 3:30 p.m., Feb. 3, library, 301 N. Barron St., Eaton, Ohio. Teens in grades 6-12 can watch Anime and eat snacks.
• Storytime for Explorers, 10:30 a.m.-11 a.m., Wednesdays, Morrisson-Reeves Library, 80 N. Sixth St., Richmond. For ages 2-4. Free. No registration required. (765) 966-8291
• ACA and Medicaid Information Sessions and Sign-up, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Feb. 4, Morrisson-Reeves Library, 80 N. Sixth St., Richmond.
• Storytime, 11:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m., Feb. 4, library, 126 E. Main St., Centerville. Stories, songs and more every Wednesday from Feb. 4-March 25 for ages 0-5. Light snack provided. Free.
• Free cooking class, 5-6 p.m. Feb. 4, Reid Hospital, 1100 Reid Parkway. Learn Béchamel, Hollandaise and Roux “Mother Sauces.” Space limited. RSVP: (765) 983-3423
• Teen D.I.Y., 4-5 p.m., Feb. 4, library, 126 E. Main St., Centerville, Ind. A cool D.I.Y. project. for ages 12+. Free.
• Micro Foosball Tween Craft, 4:45 p.m., Feb. 4, Preble County District Library, 104 S. Main St., Camden.
• Fruit Ninja + Candy Crush Challenge: Teens, 5:30 p.m., Feb. 5, library, 104 S. Main St., Camden. Show off your Fruit Ninja and Candy Crush skills on our iPad and craft Ninja Thai String Dolls. Win prizes and eat snacks.
• Sashiko Stitching: Adult Craft, 6:30 p.m., Feb. 5, library, 301 N. Barron St., Eaton, Ohio. Sashiko (literally “little stabs”) is a form of decorative reinforcement stitching (or functional embroidery) from Japan.
• “The Great Gatsby,” Feb. 6-8 and 13-14, Richmond Civic Theatre, 1003 E. Main St., Richmond. www.goRCT.org or by calling the box office, (765) 962-1816.
• Board Game Saturdays, Noon-4 p.m., Feb. 7, Morrisson-Reeves Library, 80 N. Sixth St., Richmond. A board gaming event open to the community for ages 14 to adult. Board games and refreshments provided.
• Make & Take Valentines, 1 p.m.-2 p.m., Feb. 7, library, 301 N. Barron St., Eaton. Ages 12 and younger can make Valentine’s Day cards. All supplies provided.
• OIPA Winter Guard and Percussion competition, 11:55 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 8, Tiernan Center, Richmond High School, 380 Hub Etchison Parkway, Richmond. RHS Devilettes and drumline among competitors. $8.
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Paris Fisher Auto Sales Inc. Website Terms and Conditions of Use
Thank you for visiting the website of Paris Fisher Auto Sales Inc., www.parisfisherautosales.com (the "Website").The terms “we” “our” and “us” refer to Paris Fisher Auto Sales Inc., its subsidiaries and its affiliates, and the terms “you” or “your” refer to any individuals who access this Website. By accessing or using this Website, you agree and consent to be legally bound by these Terms and Conditions of Use (the “Terms”) without limitation or qualification.
Information processed via www.parisfisherautosales.com and its systems may be stored and used for various purposes. If required by applicable law, use of this Website will also be governed by this Website's Privacy Policy, which outlines what information is collected on the Website and how that information is used. Please review the Website Privacy Policy, if applicable, for more information on the collection, use, and sharing of information through the Website.
Violating the trademark or copyright rights of others is a violation of these Terms. Nothing on this Website shall be construed as conferring any license under any intellectual property right, including any right in the nature of trademark or copyright, of Carsforsale.com®, Paris Fisher Auto Sales Inc., or any third party, whether by estoppel, implication, or otherwise. All trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. Except as otherwise noted, Carsforsale.com® or Paris Fisher Auto Sales Inc. is the owner of all trademarks and service marks on this Website, whether registered or not.
For the purpose of this liability and indemnity provision, the terms “we,” “our,” and “us” refer to Carsforsale.com® and Paris Fisher Auto Sales Inc., their subsidiaries, and their affiliates, and the owners, shareholders, members, directors, managers, officers, employees, agents, licensors or licensees, service or content providers, and suppliers of Carsforsale.com®, Paris Fisher Auto Sales Inc., or of their subsidiaries and affiliates. The terms “you” or “your” refer to any individuals who use or access this Website.
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Painting the past in the present
Destruction meets creation in Philip Buller’s paintings, where faces and echoes of faces weave in and out of squeegeed paint.
On one hand, he spends hours with a brush, crafting realistic portraits of visages old and new some are the familiar features of his family; others he borrows from centuries-old masters, like17th century Spanish artist Diego Velazquez.
On the other, the hours he spends are on a screen he will press against the canvas and remove like a giant homemade stamp, leaving the image brushstroke-less and blurred. At times he reuses his homemade print, and the same face pops up again, but more faintly, haunting the other faces like a ghost.
The result of his printmaking-type process is a body of work that composed of smooth, often faint faces, four, five, six juxtaposed, repeated and overlapping each other like a projected image from a kaleidoscope.
Atop the faces and between, he practices the art of demolition, swiping lightly over the images and in-between with a squeegee full of paint, in a palate that resembles the gray mineral-based paints the old master’s used. The technique creates a patina that mimics the fabric of aging, chipped hundred-year-old frescos that have been painted and repainted.
Buller, who lives on Galiano Island near Vancouver, visited Park City to kickoff his latest show titled "Looking In," which opened Friday night at Julie Nester Gallery.
Much of his aesthetic naturally emerges from the summers he’s spent since 1995 teaching painting workshops in Tuscany, Italy. "It comes unconsciously from looking at murals," he says.
But his interest in past painters is intentional and inspired by his desire to revive the craft of painting.
"The trick is to use the skill, but not have it be an anchor," he explains. "I look at the great masters and they remained contemporary, but at the same time, they were dedicated, committed craftsmen they needed to be chemists to mix their paint and scientists to know anatomy, just to paint."
But often he finds his wish to perfect his craft at odds with the creation of something new, which is in part why he chooses to smear the pristine figures he has spent a full day painting.
He says the tension between creating and destroying in his paintings "highlights the central issue of letting go it’s the skill that’s hard to let go of, so I risk obliterating it."
Buller says the best way of accessing the unconscious is to paint intuitively, and these days, to help him tap into his intuition, he begins with the color left over on his painting palate. He challenges himself to use up all of the paint every last drop of cobalt blue and burnt sienna to start his paintings.
"I start out with just shapes, totally intuitive, big areas of color," Buller explains. "It almost doesn’t matter big shapes of color."
A part of Buller finds that he is compelled by the composition in his paintings, and that it might not even matter what he decided to paint, so long as the relationships between the images pleases him.
"I’m working with the face, but using it as a formal element," he explained. "What gives a painting its power, is its composition."
That’s not to say that the faces he chooses are incidental. Buller’s images are of specific paintings and often have common characteristics. The faces tend to have quiet expressions with eyes askance or eyes closed. And there are specific sources he uses more than others. He especially likes the expressions of Velazquez’s "Las Lanzas (The Surrender of Breda)" (1634).
But he finds the heart of what moves him to paint is "ineffable." If he knew how to articulate the reason he chooses those faces he paints, he would be a writer, not a painter, he says.
Robert L. Pincus, art critic for The San Diego Union-Tribune was the closest anyone has come to spelling out his affinity for the figure, he said.
What Buller captures about Velazquez are figures that "don’t exist simply as props for the public moment depicted, but as individuals who look as if they are following their own stream of thought," Pincus wrote.
Philip Buller’s paintings will be on display through March 27 in the Julie Nester Gallery, located at 1755 B Bonanza Drive in Park City. The gallery is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call the gallery at 649-7855 or e-mail info@julienestergallery.com . The gallery also has a Web site at http://www.julienestergallery.com.
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‘I came on and I was in this ruthless place’ - Simeon Jackson on his promotion heroics
A typical Simeon Jackson goal celebration - thsi was during the game against Scunthorpe Picture: James Bass - Credit: Eastern Daily Press © 2011
It was a simple nod and a knowing look by Ian Culverhouse in the Norwich City dressing room. No words were necessary, but Simeon Jackson knew his time had come.
Norwich players enjoy the moment after Simeon Jackson gets goal number three at Ipswich Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd - Credit: Focus Images
Jackson hadn’t managed to hold down a regular starting place in Paul Lambert’s Championship squad of 2010-11. But even during the difficult times, he knew something special was on the horizon.
“I just remember I had this feeling – I am supposed to do something really big here. I don’t know what it is but I just feel like my time is going to come at the right time,” he says.
When City’s assistant manager gave him the almost imperceptible signal, at half-time of a home game against Scunthorpe. Jackson’s time had arrived.
With City cruising at 3-0 up and Scunthorpe down to 10 men, Jackson came on for Dani Pacheco – 20 minutes later he walked off with the match ball after scoring a sensational hat-trick.
Simeon Jackson celebrating one of his hat-trick goals against Derby Picture: Archant - Credit: EDP pics © 2011(01603) 772434
A couple more appearances off the bench followed, but it was hard not to start the Canadian. He scored in the 5-1 win at Ipswich and then plundered another hat-trick as City beat Derby 3-2 at Carrow Road, a late, late goal clinching there vital points.
Then came the trip to Portsmouth, when Jackson headed home David Fox’s cross - and City were back in the Premier League.
Simeon Jackson was speaking to The Athletic’s Going Up, Going Down podcast
Simeon Jackson heads in the goal at Portsmouth that sealed City's place in the Premier League Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd - Credit: Focus Images
City were ruthless, and Jackson was the final cutting edge.
“I am just so grateful because it didn’t have to go that way,” explained Jackson, 33, who now plays for Stevenage. “I remember I went on a trip with Canada. It was an emotional time for me because I lost my uncle just before I got the move and it was coming up to around that time and it was a weird time. I remember clarity came into me of what I needed to do, clearly in my mind, just scoring and giving everything. The first game back was against Scunthorpe and I remember going in at half-time and I remember Cully looked at me and I was just in a zone. I know I am coming on and I know I need to score. I looked at Cully and he looked at me and he just gave me the nod. He didn’t say anything, just the nod to say ‘you know what you need to do’.
“I came on and I was in this ruthless place and around that time that is what stood out for me. I was just ruthless and there was momentum there, and with the team as well. It was perfect. We were just in form, we knew everything about each other and what we needed to do and how we won games - and we just had this thing of always going to the last minute.
“It was just an amazing time.”
What Culverhouse did may have been somewhat subliminal. What Grant Holt did at Portman Road was far from it.
“I was on the bench and Holty went flying in for a tackle in the first minute and I was thinking, ‘dude, you could have got sent off, that is high risk’. You set the tone and from there you just know you were going to win. Holty absolutely lifted him! And I remember watching and thinking, ‘yeh, we will win now’ and we did, we ended up going on to comfortable win.”
Jackson had gone from relegation to League Two with Gillingham to promotion to the Premier League in 12 months – it was a big change, but perhaps not completely unexpected given Lambert’s ultimatum to his team before the season started.
“I have gone from going into pre-season for Gills in League Two where the emotions are different, coming off the back of relegation, to going into a pre-season camp in Germany where the first meeting I have is Paul Lambert saying, ‘if you don’t believe we are going to get promoted, there is the door, you can leave now’.
“You don’t have a choice in that, you just make a decision. I’m on board, we’re doing it and you just get this excitement straight away.
“The boys were buzzing because they had just got promoted and it was just an amazing atmosphere, and group. I got welcomed in straight away. There was this amazing team spirit. It was so good and a relief just to be part of something like that and just knowing from day one, this is where we are going.”
Where they were going was the Premier League.
“As a kid watching your idols on TV, watching Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, looking at Old Trafford, it is just a dream, you don’t actually think you will ever get there. I remember when I was at Rushden – you toy with the idea, you’d love to do it, it would be amazing, but when you actually think about it, it’s like, how? Is that actually going to happen?
“You don’t think you are going to do it and when it does happen and you are looking at the fixture list and you come off the bench for your first game, it was ‘wow, thank you so much’. “
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BCEGI lined up for £80m Liverpool tower
Beijing Construction & Engineering Group International is set to be named main contractor on Moda Living’s 35-storey The Lexington PRS development in Liverpool, Place North West understands.
BCEGI is understood to have had a pre-construction arrangement with Moda since October 2017 and is close to being formally appointed as main contractor on the scheme.
The Lexington, at 35 storeys, is the tallest of three major towers planned for the £5bn Liverpool Waters development. It will deliver 325 apartments for private rent, alongside 15,000 sq ft of amenity space, a roof terrace, and a gym.
It is being funded by Moda in a joint venture with Apache Capital Partners, and has been designed by architect Falconer Chester Hall.
Plans were approved for the project in September 2016, and a planning amendment was lodged in July last year to add an extra storey to the building and to increase the number of apartments from the originally planned 304 to 325.
Carillion was rumoured to be in negotiations on the project in early 2017 but talks never progressed beyond this stage.
A start date has yet to be confirmed by either Moda or BCEGI but it is understood work will get under way in the first half of the year.
Two other projects are planned in the immediate vicinity: the 15-storey, £21m Plaza 1821, which is being built by Forrest for clients Peel Land & Property and Regenda Group; and Hive City Docks, a 31-storey tower for Your Housing Group, which is yet to start on site.
The Lexington signals a major potential win for the company in what would be its first project in Liverpool and its first outside Manchester. The contractor is already working on the first two phases of the £700m Middlewood Locks PRS development for Scarborough Group and Fairbriar International, and is main contractor for Gary Neville’s St Michael’s development in the city.
It is also a construction partner on Manchester Airport Group’s Airport City development.
BCEGI is understood to be hiring more staff to work in a new Liverpool office to help deliver the scheme.
Alongside The Lexington, the contractor has also been shortlisted in partnership with Scarborough Group for a £1bn waterfront regeneration plan for Wirral Council. It is competing with Muse in partnership with Morgan Sindall; a joint venture between Ion and Keepmoat were also previously on the list but dropped out.
Moda and BCEGI declined to comment.
I like this building, perhaps the Lantern at the top could be sligthly taller to enhance the overall appearance, never the less a fine addition to the skyline.
January 23, 2018 at 1:14 pm By Liverpolitis
The Plaza building contractors are on site, since before Christmas…
January 23, 2018 at 2:17 pm By Just saying
It’s a box, it looks like something from the 60s, the flats are rabbit hutches etc etc.
January 23, 2018 at 3:38 pm By Misery
It’s a nice development this, a real skyline changer too.
January 23, 2018 at 3:48 pm By John
Whatever funder has underwritten this scheme needs their head examined. Questions also need to asked of the quasi public sector involvement of housing associations on the adjacent developments and to what extent their investments have been stressed tested. if the private sector can’t make it stack, how can they?
January 23, 2018 at 11:16 pm By Query
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Home » USGS Graphically Illustrates Urban Growth in America 5.5.04
USGS Graphically Illustrates Urban Growth in America 5.5.04
A new publication from the USGS provides a measured, scientific view of urbanization in 16 metropolitan areas by describing spatial changes in landscape characteristics, the driving forces of urbanization and the potential consequences and challenges of continued growth.
Farmlands, wetlands, forests and deserts that composed the American landscape in the early 20th century have frequently been transformed during the past 30 years into mushrooming metropolitan areas as urbanization spreads across the country. Many metropolitan areas in the United States are growing at extraordinary rates. A new publication from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), "Urban Growth in American Cities," provides a measured, scientific view of urbanization in 16 metropolitan areas by describing spatial changes in landscape characteristics, the driving forces of urbanization and the potential consequences and challenges of continued growth.
The 52-page booklet features contrasting image pairs from the early 1970's and 1990's that colorfully illustrate the extent of urban development in the selected metropolitan areas. Supporting data were derived from archived satellite images that are available through The National Map. An accompanying overview of historical factors in American urban growth helps explain the transformation that these areas have undergone over two decades. "Urban growth is a vital issue that requires our careful attention from local to global scales," said Barbara Ryan, USGS Associate Director for Geography. "It is not until we begin to take a broad census of the land itself--tracking landscapes from a spatial perspective in a time scale of decades--that we can grasp the scale of the changes that have already occurred and predict the impact of changes to come."
The 16 metropolitan areas included in the study were Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Memphis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Orlando, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Raleigh-Durham, Reno-Sparks, Sacramento, Seattle-Tacoma and Tampa-St.Petersburg. On average, between 1973 and 1992, these metropolitan regions averaged 173 square miles of additional urban land over the two decades with Houston, Orlando and Atlanta as the top three regions by area. The growth leaders by percentage change were Las Vegas (193%), Orlando (157%), and Phoenix (103%).
USGS scientists continue to assess the status of the Nation's land surface and to analyze trends in land use. These assessments aid decision makers in considering such critical issues as ecology of urban environments, ecosystem health, water quality and quantity, resource availability and vulnerability to natural hazards.
Copies of "Urban Growth in American Cities" are available by calling 1-888-ASK-USGS and requesting USGS Circular 1252.
Source: USGS, April 26, 2004
RMSI Incorporates Legal Entity in North America and Plans Aggressive Growth 08.12.2003
Denver Mayor to Address GIS in the Rockies Conference 5.5.04
Tripod Data Systems Offers $400 Trade-in on HP 48 Survey Cards 5.5.04
Leica Geosystems Hosts National Sales Meeting to Launch System 1200 in Americas 5.5.04
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LiceDoctors
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With Summer Around the Corner, LiceDoctors Gives Westchester and Rockland County Parents Advice on What to do if You Find Lice on Your Children
With 20 years experience in the lice treatment field, Wendy Beck, owner of LiceDoctors Lice Treatment and Nit Removal Service, knows when to anticipate big jumps in the incidence of head lice. June marks the beginning of lice season, which extends through September, and causes aggravation for many families. LiceDoctors offers parents advice on how to identify, treat, and even prevent lice.
White Plains, NY, June 03, 2015 --(PR.com)-- With summer just around the corner and the school year coming to an end , many parents in Westchester and Rockland Counties may think that they have escaped the scourge of lice for the year. Unfortunately, no true, says Wendy Beck of LiceDoctors, the nation's largest head lice treatment service with technicians who make house calls all over the New York area.
According to Beck, who is known nationally for her expertise on head lice, "The reality is June marks the beginning of what we refer to as 'head lice' season. Some parents assume that because head lice are often identified in the school setting that once the school year ends they are home free until the fall. This is not at all accurate."
Beck identifies some of the reasons why the incidence of head lice climbs in the summer, after school ends. One reason is that children hang around together in an informal way that contributes to head-to-head contact, which is the primary way that head lice are transmitted. In addition, the more free-form schedule of summer allows more downtime for parents and children. It is during this downtime that parents often first observe head lice infestations that may have been percolating on the head for a couple of months without being identified. Third, many children attend summer camp which is a contributor to head lice cases with contact sports and close socializing.
Jodi S. whose White Plains family includes four children between the ages of 2 and 11, says that, "I am smarter this year than last year. June came and I was so relieved that we had made it through the school year with no signs of lice. At a July 4th picnic, my two oldest children were scratching their heads. There was no denying that they had lice. I would not wish this on anyone. I tried for weeks to get rid of them. Since then, I have learned of services that come to the house and do the hard work. I will go that route if we have those bugs again!"
Beck strongly suggests that parents check their children's heads as summer begins. "Give them a clean start for camp if they will be attending one. Summer is the time when the pace is less hectic and parents usually have more time to check their children and to address a problem that will not go away by itself."
Beck suggests that parents take advantage of the warm weather and bright sunlight and check their children outside which will provide them with the best visibility for finding and lice and nits (eggs) in the hair. She also advises parents who attempt to treat cases on their own to be sure to use a good quality lice comb and to comb out eggs when the hair is wet. Beck further emphasizes the importance of hand picking all nits from the hair. If this does not work, it may be time to call in a professional service that will guarantee efficient and complete removal of nits and lice from the hair. Just remember summer is the time to become extra vigilant when it comes to regular head checks of your children.
About LiceDoctors: LiceDoctors uses an all natural, safe protocol that was developed 20 years ago and has been used to eradicate lice and nits on 150,000 clients. LiceDoctors in New York's only lice treatment service with a medical doctor on staff and it has an "A" rating with the BBB. LiceDoctors makes house calls 7 days and nights a week. For an appointment in Westchester and Rockland, call 914-730-6821 or go online to www.licedoctors.com. LiceDoctor also makes house calls in New York in NYC, Long Island, Mid-Hudson Valley, Albany, Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse. Call 800-224-2537 for an appointment in these areas.
Wendy Beck
www.licedoctors.com
Click here to view the list of recent Press Releases from LiceDoctors
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Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel,...
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Panitch Schwarze Partner Named Among Delaware’s "Top Lawyers 2015"
Patricia S. Rogowski recognized as one of Delaware’s top IP attorneys.
Wilmington, DE, December 09, 2015 --(PR.com)-- The intellectual property law firm Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP is pleased to announce that partner Patricia S. Rogowski has been named one of Delaware’s top intellectual property attorneys by DelawareToday.
A leading IP attorney based in Wilmington, Delaware, Rogowski is joined by several other attorneys in a wide range of practice areas recognized as among the tops in their areas of expertise. The 2015 list of Top Lawyers is published in the November edition of DelawareToday.
In practice since 1987, Rogowski possesses deep experience in all areas of intellectual property law, including copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. She counsels clients on protecting and making effective use of their valuable IP assets.
Rogowski has been recognized as a leading patent and trademark lawyer in Delaware for many years by Chambers USA, Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers, as well as being named a 2015 IP Star by Managing Intellectual Property, a leading source of news and analysis on intellectual property issues worldwide. An early trailblazer for women in the intellectual property arena, Rogowski has been named one of the Top 250 Women in IP in the United States.
She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Lehigh University with highest honors before going on to earn her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She joined Panitch Schwarze as a partner in 2014 as part of the Philadelphia-based firm’s expansion into Delaware.
Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel, LLP
Click here to view the list of recent Press Releases from Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel, LLP
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Z-Licious Games, LLC
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High-Schooler Sells Title Rights to Game, Re-Releases App Under New Name
Zach DeStefano, senior at Malvern Prep and Founder of Z-Licious Games, LLC sold the title rights to his mobile game, Tiny Miner, to Serbian design and development studio, Qube 3D, in a combination cash and advertising partnership deal. Tiny Miner, originally released by Z-Licious Games in 2014, has been downloaded over 50,000 times worldwide across Android and iOS platforms. It has now been re-released as Retro Miner and is available in the Apple and Google app stores.
Exton, PA, August 21, 2016 --(PR.com)-- Zach DeStefano, a senior at Malvern Prep in Malvern, Pennsylvania and Founder of Z-Licious Games, LLC recently sold the title rights to his mobile game, Tiny Miner, to Serbian design and development studio, Qube 3D. The deal is a combination cash and advertising partnership and is the first of its kind for Z-Licious Games. Tiny Miner was originally created and released by DeStefano in 2014 and was his first experience incorporating in-app purchases and advertising into mobile games. Since its release, Tiny Miner has been downloaded over 50,000 times in more than 100 countries across Android and iOS platforms.
The game has now been re-released as Retro Miner and is available in the Apple and Google app stores. Retro Miner is a scrolling, ore-mining game with touch controls featuring multiple modes of play and an in-game currency system of Miner Dollars for purchasing ship upgrades including shields, turbo boosts, and mining magnets. The iOS version also features Leaderboards and Game Center achievements to compete against friends. Current users of Tiny Miner who upgrade their app to Retro Miner will keep their in-game currency, ship upgrades, high scores and unlocked achievements.
"I am surprised that Tiny Miner is still receiving so many downloads after 2 years, and I never imagined an established company like Qube 3D would be interested in buying the title rights. It has been both a technical and entrepreneurial learning experience, and I hope that Retro Miner and my future games continue this trend," said DeStefano.
Retro Miner is available as a free download in the App Store for iOS and on Google Play for Android devices and is approved for all ages. In-app purchases to quickly obtain Miner Dollars are available for prices of $0.99, $4.99, $9.99, and $19.99.
Dan DeStefano
Http://www.z-liciousgames.com
Click here to view the list of recent Press Releases from Z-Licious Games, LLC
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Here is your short essay on Dandi March
Dandi March:
Manufacture of salt was a monopoly of the British government. According to the prevalent law it was illegal for anyone else to manufacture salt. Considering this to be unjust Gandhiji decided to violate the salt laws.
On 12th March, 1930 Gandhiji along with his 78 chosen followers started march on foot from the Sabarmati Ashram of Dandi, a village on the Gujarat sea-coast This is famous in history by the name” Dandi March’. The distance that Gandhiji had to cover on foot was about 320 kilometers.
Gandhiji’s march created unprecedented enthusiasm among the people and soon the Civil Disobedience Movement spread all over the country Gandhiji reached Dandi on 6th April and there he violated the existing salt laws by personally manufacturing salt from the sea- water.
The news spread like bonfire all over India.
b. Background of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact:
The British government of India became very much concerned about the growing intensity of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Ultimately the British opened negotiations with Gandhiji and the result was the signing of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. Lord Irwin was the then Governor-General and Viceroy of India.
c. Provisions of the Pact:
Concerned at the growing intensity of the Civil Disobedience Movement Lord Irwin, the then Viceroy of India, opened negotiations with Gandhiji.
The negotiation eventually led to the signing of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact in 1931.
The main provisions, among many others, were as follows:
(a) The Civil Disobedience Movement was to be withdrawn,
(b) Peaceful picketing was allowed, but picketing for the boycott of foreign goods was not to be allowed beyond a limit permissible by law.
(c) The National Congress was to participate in the Second Round Table Conference,
(d) Notifications declaring associations unlawful were to be withdrawn. Such were the principal provisions of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact.
Short essay on Civil Disobedience Movement started by Gandhiji
What were the provisions of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact?
Lahore Congress and the Civil Disobedience Movement
Short note on the Dandi March
Write a paragraph on Dandi March
What was Gandhiji’s argument in favour of the suspension of the Civil Disobedience Movement?
Essay on the Lahore session of the Indian National Congress
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Cebra gives no explanation for exiting Naples Selectboard
Rich Cebra resigned with two years left in his three-year term.
By Jane VaughanLakes Region Weekly
Rich Cebra has resigned from the Naples Selectboard, effective immediately. Courtesy photo
NAPLES — After four years on the Selectboard, Rich Cebra has resigned from his position without giving a reason.
“I’m not going to comment on it,” he told Lakes Region Weekly.
In a June 24 email to Selectboard members and the town manager in which he tendered his immediate resignation, Cebra said he has served on various town committees for 17 years, including the Budget Committee, the Causeway Revitalization Committee and the Comprehensive Plan Committee.
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“My hope is that I have done some good over the last 17 years on the various committees on which I served the people of the Town of Naples,” he wrote. “I wish you all continued success as you continue to serve the people of Naples.”
He was reelected to the Selectboard in May 2018 and there are two years remaining in his term. Naples will fill the vacant seat at a special election in November. Nomination papers for that position will become available on July 26.
Town Manager John Hawley said Cebra’s resignation was unexpected, although he said Cebra had discussed not running for the Legislature again. He was reelected last November as a state representative for District 68 in his sixth nonconsecutive term.
“Prior to his election with the state, he had talked about thinking that he and his wife were kind of ready to retire or semi-retire to Florida in the winters. He had discussed the potential of not running for the Legislature again. But I didn’t see the resignation from my board,” Hawley said.
Hawley said that as a selectman, Cebra’s looked out for local businesses and taxpayers.
“He was a proponent for finding ways to do things efficiently and cost effectively, but it was important to him that the jobs got done right. Not doing things on the cheap just to say we did it,” he said.
Cebra is a resident of Naples and the owner and CEO of The Steamboat Landing Corporation.
While Hawley said he does not know why Cebra resigned, he has noticed an increase in the “lack of civility” in local politics, and fewer and fewer people are volunteering for town positions.
Local elected officials “are volunteers looking to do the best thing that they can for the community, and there’s no way to make everybody happy. There’s a vocal minority out there that create a lot of hostility for public officials, and they tend to drive these people away,” he said. ” People are afraid of going out there and doing good for their community in fear of being chastised for it.”
Chairman of the Selectboard James Grattelo could not be reached for comment.
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SOUTH MIDDLETON TOWNSHIP - An 18-year-old Mount Holly Springs man is accused of intentionally activating a fire alarm at Boiling Springs High School for no reason, causing the Mount Holly Springs Fire Department to be dispatched to the high school, at about 2:40 p.m. on Feb. 29, according to Pennsylvania State Police, Carlisle.
Antrim Township
CRASH: A Greencastle man suffered possible minor injuries after his vehicle rolled the afternoon of March 1, according to Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg. At about 4:55 p.m., Caleb D. Lanehart, 22, Waynesboro, was stopped on the Interstate 81 exit 5 ramp in a 2014 Ford ST, when Nevin J. Plank Jr., 47, Waynesboro was driving south on I-81 in a 2003 Chrysler Voyager and turned on the exit 5 ramp and struck the Ford ST's driver's side rear panel, according to the report. Plank then struck a 2012 Kia Soul, driven by Brandon C. Tresler, 28, Greencastle, in the passenger's side front panel, causing Tresler to drive into the median and roll twice. Plank was cited with traffic violations. All the vehicles were towed from the scene.
HARASSMENT: At about 1 p.m. on Feb. 24, authorities investigated a report of harassment at South Mountain Restoration Center, 10056 S. Mountain Road, between a 16-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man, according to Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg. Charges will be filed through the district court, according to the report.
RETAIL THEFT: An unidentified man is accused of attempting to leave Wal-Mart, 1730 Lincoln Way East, with an electric razor he had not paid for at about 4:27 p.m. on Feb. 19, according to Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg. The man was confronted by an employee, and the man then threw away the razor and fled the scene in a silver Saturn Vue, according to the report. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg at 717-264-5161.
BURGLARY: Someone broke into a man's shed in the 10000 block of Reeder Road at about 7:22 p.m. on Feb. 29, according to Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg. Nothing was taken, according to the report.
RETAIL THEFT: Todd Pfeiffer, 23, Hellertown, was arrested at about 2:20 a.m. on Feb. 21 after taking a bag of chips off a shelf at Sheetz, 359 E. King St., eating the chips and returning the empty bag, according to Shippensburg Police Department. He then ate another bag of chips and tried to leave the store without paying for the items, according to the report.
(Incident SP-2016-1099)
BURGLARY/CRIMINAL MISCHIEF: Someone attempted to enter a home in the 300 block of Walnut Street by pushing a screen and locked window up, causing damage to the siding, while the owners were home at about 1:45 p.m. on Feb. 22, according to Shippensburg Police Department. Neighbors in the area said they saw a vehicle sitting in front of the house with its headlights on and the engine running for approximately 10 minutes, but could not describe the vehicle, according to the report.
HARASSMENT: Kayla Bard, no address given, is accused of harassing a woman who works with her ex-boyfriend via unwanted texts and Facebook posts since December 2014, according to Shippensburg Police Department. The woman told Bard not to contact her and that she is not involved with Bard's ex-boyfriend, according to the report.
CRIMINAL MISCHIEF: Someone damaged a driver's side mirror on a silver Ford sedan parked in the 300 block of East Burd Street by removing it from the vehicle between 10 p.m. on Feb. 19 and 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 21, according to Shippensburg Police Department. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Shippensburg Police Department at 717-532-7361.
THEFT: Someone took a package from the front porch of a home in the 300 block of East King Street between 2:40 p.m. on Feb. 20 and 11 p.m. on Feb. 21, according to Shippensburg Police Department. The package contained a kitchen knife, a purse, a phone case and a cake dish, according to the report. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Shipppensburg Police Department at 717-532-7361.
THEFT: Someone cut a padlock off of a trailer at Schreiber Foods, 208 E. Dykeman Road, and stole about eight spools of stranded copper wire at about 10 a.m. on Feb. 23, according to Shippensburg Police Department. The wire is described as being 10- and 12-gauge in the colors red, black, orange, yellow, brown and blue. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Shippensburg Police Department at 717-532-7361.
UNDERAGE CONSUMPTION/PUBLIC DRUNKENNESS: Dalton Schultz, 20, is charged with underage drinking and public drunkenness, while celebrating his birthday, after authorities responded to a report of an intoxicated man vomiting in a urinal in a bathroom at Sheetz, 359 E. King St., at about 1:35 a.m. on Feb. 28, according to Shippensburg Police Department. Schultz was found by police to be visibly intoxicated, and was taken into custody and transported to a booking center, according to the report.
(SP-2016-1227)
CRASH: Two properties sustained damage after a vehicle drove into their yards the evening of Feb. 24, according to Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg. At about 7:44 p.m., an unidentified person was driving a 2010 Hyundai Sonata north on Thornwood Road, when they drove off the west side of the road into the back yards of two properties, according to the report. The driver was cited with traffic violations.
St. Thomas Township
RETAIL THEFT: Molly J. Hollinshead, 29, Chambersburg, and Brittany M. Wells, 27, are accused of taking two items from Family Dollar, 3865 Lincoln Way West, worth approximately $12.50 each, at about 9:03 p.m. on Feb. 19, according to Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg. A review of the store's surveillance camera showed the two women's actions, according to the report.
CRASH: A Carlisle man is unharmed after his vehicle hit a utility pole and a tree the evening of Feb. 29, according to Pennsylvania State Police, Carlsile. At about 9:10 p.m., Mitchell W. Herman, 26, was driving a Subaru Outback south on Interstate 81, when he drove off the road down a grassy embankment and struck a metal chain link fence, a utility pole and a tree, according to the report. Herman fled the scene on foot and was cited with traffic violations. The vehicle was towed from the scene.
DUI: Obed Reyes-Vargas, 26, Carlisle, is charged after he was found by authorities to be under the influence of alcohol, after driving off the road and becoming stuck in the snow on Interstate 81 near mile marker 49 at about 2:48 a.m. on Feb. 13, according to Pennsylvania State Police, Carlisle. Charges were filed through the district court, according to the report.
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Joe Lansdale Pulps Up the Volume In His Latest
In 'More Better Deals', the lauded and prolific Joe Lansdale goes pulp
In a room on the top floor of a large house in the middle of 10 swampy acres in East Texas, Joe Lansdale sits at a small desk, surrounded by his success. Talking over the phone, he explains how one wall holds foreign editions of his many novels, novellas, and story collections, which have been translated into the Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and so on. (Not on display are some of the awards he’s won over the years, which include an Edgar, a Raymond Chandler Lifetime Achievement Award, and 10 Bram Stokers. Only Stephen King has more of the latter, with 13.) With north of a hundred books published, Lansdale uses the remaining three walls of the room to house his English-language editions. Down the hall, a closet in another room holds graphic novels and comic books he’s had a hand in writing—some with his son, Keith.
Lansdale, 68, makes his living defying expectations. He’s genre dextrous, moving fleetly between westerns, mysteries, thrillers, horror, sci-fi, literary fiction, and nonfiction, and doing it all extremely well. The idea for his latest novel, More Better Deals (Mulholland, July), came to him in the early 1980s, when his career was in its infancy. “Used cars salesman, bad guy”: that was all he wrote down.
That Lansdale was able to work off of so little is unsurprising. He’s not one to spend much time sitting in silent contemplation—of his own character or of the characters in his books. “I don’t slice and dice what I’m doing,” he says in a laid-back, high-low Texas drawl that turns single syllables into feasts. “But my subconscious does. All things come from the subconscious. If you learn to let the subconscious rule, it will answer your questions 98% of the time.”
When nothing more came to Lansdale about More Better Deals, aside from the outline of his central character, he ceded responsibility for the story to the ceaseless simmer of the mind beneath the mind. Then, when he was about 100 pages into two other novels last year, More Better Deals emerged from the soup like Swamp Thing, demanding to take the helm.
Although the standalone thriller embraces the classic pulp tropes of the James M. Cain era, at its core lies a personal and uniquely American conflict: the protagonist, Ed Edwards, is half black but passes for white.
Lansdale grew up in East Texas in the 1950s and ’60s and remembers Jim Crow well. “I saw an absolute disenfranchisement of an entire group of people—an inability for them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, because they weren’t given any boots,” he says. “I remember when having, say, just a drop of black blood meant that you were ostracized, that you were ‘Negro,’ that you were an outsider. I’d read about people who had ‘passed,’ as they used to say. I’m sure my subconscious was playing with all that.”
So, even before Ed tumbles for the beguiling (and married) Nancy Craig, he has a secret that could get him killed. While Nancy’s husband drinks, gambles, and abuses other women (when he’s not abusing her), she runs the family empire—a pair of businesses only Lansdale would dream of conjoining: a drive-in movie theater and a pet cemetery.
Conflict emerges immediately. Nancy’s husband has stopped paying for his Cadillac, and Ed’s boss sends him to get it back. But Nancy has been cut from classic pulp cloth: she knows what she wants and how to manipulate men into getting it for her. Recognizing a sucker in Ed, she offers him something he’d like even more than the Caddy: “Want to come up to the house for a nightcap, and maybe we could roll around on the bed and screw?”
“Do we have to have the nightcap?” Ed asks.
Ed begins to dream of a life with Nancy. They could make improvements to the drive-in and add a used car lot. The problem is the husband: what to do about him? Turns out, Nancy has an idea. Whatever reluctance Ed might have about getting rid of the man is quickly smothered by moral relativism. After all, Ed reasons, he’s killed before, in the Korean War. Sure, killing a man in cold blood would be “a somewhat more violent and bloodier version of the American dream,” but with Nancy’s encouragement, he convinces himself that it’s just the thing that would solve every problem he has.
Of course, the elaborate plan veers wildly off course. When it does—in a long, visceral, gripping sequence—Lansdale drags his characters into a lurid phantasm of realistically awkward, grotesque violence that is more akin to Gran Guignol than James M. Cain.
For this story, Lansdale says he was less interested in people who wanted to rob, say, Fort Knox, than in “the small-time, neighborhood people who just want to be able to make life good for themselves.” He compares Ed and Nancy to his two most famous characters, Hap and Leonard, who’ve featured in dozens of books and a TV show. “In the early novels,” he notes, all Hap and Leonard wanted “was to take their little dreams and make them better, but they’d make bad choices that caused them to have to deal with bad people.” Ed wants the same things, makes the same bad choices, and has to deal with some very bad people, including one who learns the secret of his racial identity and threatens to make it public.
It wasn’t always the case, but Lansdale is now a one-draft guy. He writes every day of the year, for about three hours, unless something stops him, and revises as he goes. When he was new to the writing life he’d write what he calls “the vomit draft,” requiring major revision. “I thought that was how a real writer worked,” he says. “But I was just fucking miserable.” So he tried polishing along the way and found that his mood—and his writing—improved.
When Lansdale finishes work for the day, he likes to walk away. He doesn’t want to talk about it. He doesn’t want to even think about it, at least not with his conscious mind. To ask him what he’s working on, as I did, is to get shut down with a polite, adamantine resolve. “I could tell you what I’ve written,” he says, “but I don’t want to, because I might undo it.”
The fact that the intricate and truly surprising narrative of More Better Deals snapped so snugly into place in the course of a single draft points to a rare talent. When asked the old chestnut of questions, “How do you do it?” Lansdale is quick with a response: “You’ve got to remember that I’ve read all my life, so I understand plot mechanics. My subconscious is already saying, ‘You gotta do this as you go because you’re gonna need it later.’ And that fascinates me, because I don’t understand it.”
Lansdale’s been practicing karate since he was 11, and when the writer of more than 100 books also wears a black belt around his waist, analogies between his two practices will be as close at hand as the tsuka of his favorite katana. “The samurai thought of themselves as dead before they engaged in combat,” he says. “If you go into battle thinking it doesn’t matter, you engage in such a way that you aren’t aware of what could happen, only of the moment.” If there’s a philosophy behind Lansdale’s writing practice, here it is: “It’s called ‘the mind of no mind,’ a subconscious approach that’s more like Zen.”
Lansdale says goodbye and heads out to the big L-shaped porch that wraps his secluded house to spend some time with a good book. He reads every day, often both before and after writing, and today’s choice is Thom Jones’s The Pugilist at Rest, which seems rather fitting.
Mike Harvkey is the author of 'In the Course of Human Events' and was the researcher/reporter for the bestselling true crime book 'All-American Murder'.
A version of this article appeared in the 05/25/2020 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Pulp Up the Volume
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More than two-thirds will see same or increased budget for 2021; 42% plan to hire next year
Portland, Ore. − December 1, 2020 – Despite economic uncertainty, Portland’s Silicon Forest is lifting the local economy and remains insulated from the worst of the pandemic-driven downturn. Budgets are increasing, companies are hiring, and salaries are rising. These findings and other key sentiments from ProFocus Technology’s “Portland Tech in Focus: 2021 Trends Report” point to near-term economic recovery and upbeat forecasts for technology development and teams throughout the Portland area.
According to the survey of more than 260 local technology professionals, more than a third of respondents say their 2021 budget will increase (36%) and another third say it will stay the same (33%), compared to just 20% who expect a decrease. Companies are hiring, too, with 42% expecting an increase in full-time employees and 27% anticipating more contractors next year. Portland’s technology community is positioned for growth and opportunity, with 68% reporting they can personally innovate in their jobs and 62% saying their firms are effectively using technology to disrupt their industry.
Plans and direction for next year are taking shape, with Portland’s number one technology priority for 2021 being to improve the customer experience (62%). This takes the top spot among all levels of respondents: c-suite, managers, and individual contributors. Driving revenue growth ranks second at 53%, and increasing efficiencies and streamlining processes lands in third place at 50%.
At the same time we are seeing growth, technology teams report significant challenges resulting from their new working environments. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of tech teams at enterprise firms and 45% of teams in smaller firms feel overworked. More than half (54%) of all survey respondents say budget uncertainty is impacting their effectiveness, and nearly half (49%) believe that remotely managing, training, and developing employees will be one of their biggest challenges in 2021.
Survey reveals a disconnect between executives and employees
The survey findings sound a cautionary alarm to executive teams heading into 2021, revealing a disconnect among levels of the organization in terms of alignment. Only 14% of managers and 27% of producers feel strongly they are aligned on top priorities with leadership, compared to 52% of c-suite executives who feel the same way. While many feel overworked, only 11% of the c-suite feels strongly their teams are overworked, compared to 24% of managers and 26% of contributors. Increased communication and collaboration at all levels of the organization will be needed heading into next year to close these gaps and improve alignment company-wide.
“Portland, like most other communities, has faced many challenges this year. Despite these struggles, our 2021 Trends Report gives the local tech community much to celebrate − particularly when it comes to job growth and security, innovation, culture, and inclusion,” said John Boone, ProFocus Technology Founder and President. “This report paints a clear picture of a strong technology sector, with tons of innovation and positive company cultures. At the same time, tech leaders should also take note of the organizational disconnects that the report presents and increase their efforts to collaborate and better align with their teams. We are in a time of rapid change, and Portland’s technology community is stepping up to help shape this change for the better.”
Employers need to prepare for the likelihood of a fully remote employee base
Eighty-five percent (85%) believe their company is adapting well to remote work. A full 75% of executives say their firm will be mostly remote after the pandemic, compared to 52% of managers and 48% of individual contributors. Nearly a third of executives (31%) suggest their company will convert physical workplaces to community space for team building and collaboration. Not surprisingly, the move to remote work has unintended consequences. One third (33%) of respondents indicate they would keep their jobs but work outside of Portland if their firm goes permanently remote.
Other key findings from the 2021 Trends Report include:
Portland tech firms are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, despite the challenges. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) continue to be in the spotlight, and almost three-quarters of respondents (74%) say their companies are committing to DEI principles. This number is even higher for enterprise firms, at 85%.
Tech talent is needed now. Overall, 45% of employees agree that a tech skills shortage is keeping their teams from meeting key goals. Portland is building a reputation as a vibrant hub for start-ups and small companies, driving headcount growth in the area. More than twice as many small firms say they will increase hires for internal staff than enterprise firms, 51% vs. 23%.
Compensation edges higher. Sixty-three percent (63%) agree that their teams face upward wage pressure for talent. Employers stay locked in on securing high quality tech talent—and they’re willing to pay to get it. More smaller firms anticipate wage increases in 2021 (48%), followed by 45% of large firms and 43% of mid-size firms. Only 28% of enterprise firms say wages will increase.
Building a positive remote workplace environment is a demanding priority. Portland tech firms have been working hard to maintain a positive workplace environment. While a strong majority of firms (75%) say they are effective in this regard, the same number agrees that team building and maintaining a strong culture will be one of their biggest challenges in 2021.
Portland’s status as an innovation hotbed for start-ups and smaller firms buoys pandemic recovery. The survey underscores the area’s growing recognition as a center for start-ups and small companies. Portland’s smaller firms are placing a higher priority on developing new products and services than their larger counterparts: 48% rank that as a top tech driver, compared to 31% of enterprise firms. Their agile methodology and cloud maturity are also on par with enterprise firms, although they lag behind in CI/CD, AI/machine learning, microservices, infrastructure automation, and cybersecurity.
ProFocus Technology’s “Portland Tech in Focus: 2021 Trends Report” is based on 267 responses via an online survey of Portland technology professionals, including executives, managers, directors, and individual contributors in companies from small enterprises with less than 100 employees to large enterprises with greater than 5,000 employees. The survey was conducted from September 16 to October 9, 2020. Click here for the full survey report.
About ProFocus Technology
Built on decades of experience in both the staffing and technology industries, ProFocus Technology is a technology staffing and consulting company that has a deep team of technology professionals who customize business applications, develop software, manage data, and engineer technology products. With a fill ratio nearly double the industry average, ProFocus carefully places talent for technology and non-technology companies ranging from small businesses to large enterprise organizations.
ProFocus Technology has landed on Inc.’s 500 Fastest Growing Companies list and for the last four years has secured a spot on the Portland Business Journal’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies. The company has repeatedly earned ClearlyRated’s Best of Staffing award for both Client and Talent satisfaction. ProFocus is a community partner, making connections to fuel Portlands’ local economy and support local businesses.
Ann Warren
awarren@clearedgemarketing.com
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The Sun launches training scheme to increase diversity
The Sun newspaper has launched a trainee scheme to increase the diversity of its talent.
For its first intake, the London-based daily tabloid said it is looking for budding journalists from all walks of life, with or without training or degrees.
The group will join a journalism bootcamp at News Associates, the UK’s top journalism school, followed by a 40-week part-time NCTJ training course in February.
During the course, the trainees will also be working in The Sun newsroom for three days a week.
Each place on the programme is fully funded and trainees will be paid a competitive salary.
"The Sun is Britain's biggest newsbrand and it is vital we create opportunities for aspiring journalists from every part of society”, Tony Gallagher, Editor-in-Chief of The Sun, said.
“Increasing diversity in our newsrooms is a challenge for the entire industry, and, as the people's paper, The Sun should reflect the people.
“If you are a keen and curious aspiring journalist, this trainee scheme will pay a competitive salary while you get the hands-on experience, on-the job mentoring and coaching you need to be newsroom-ready.
“We’re proud to lead the way with this initiative. Good jobs in journalism should be available to all with talent, no matter what their background. It will be tough, it will be full-on, but it will be fun.”
The Sun is also looking for several NCTJ or similar trained students for its first intake.
They will be coached to be newsroom-ready with an intensive journalism bootcamp at News Associates followed by a placement with SWNS news agency at one of its offices in London, Bristol, Leeds, Birmingham, Cambridge or Glasgow.
The trainees, who will receive a competitive salary, will then get 12 months of on-the-job training in The Sun.
Today’s launch is the start of a rolling programme of training by The Sun which will hire more trainees during 2020.
It follows The Sun partnering with City University earlier this year, offering a paid placement for a student on its Widening Media Diversity Scholarship for a post-grad student interested in the under-representation of Muslims in the media.
News Associates managing editor James Toney said: “We are delighted to be working with The Sun on this important training scheme to help encourage diversity in journalism and excited about discovering new talent from all walks of life.”
Radiocentre names new Head of Public Affairs
Kevin the Carrot is back in Aldi Peaky Blinders Christmas ad
Free The Birds creates brand and launch campaign for Roam
Media Agency Group
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Filtered to: Contemporary History Erotica Social & Industrial History
History of art from 1900-1960
Political control human rights
Social groups & classes
Double-Barrelled Books
Pen & Sword
Edwardian Ladies' Hat Fashions
'Where Did You Get That Hat?'
Peter Kimpton
Based on the historian Peter Kimpton’s collection of fashion postcards from Edwardian times, this well-illustrated guide documents the hat (and hatpin) fashions that defined that era and the designers – including Coco Chanel – who created them. The author also explores the darker side of the millinery industry, from the wholesale slaughter of exotic birds for their ornate feathers to the appalling conditions in the hat-making sweatshops of New York.
Posters of the Cold War
No sooner had the Second World War ended than the governments of the victorious powers were promoting their ideology (and the folly of the alternative) to their peoples and beyond. This collection of posters, many by leading artists, ranges from propaganda regarding the reshaping of Europe on either side of the Iron Curtain, and responses to the nuclear threat, to a selection of cinema posters for films encouraging a partisan reading of the political situation.
Vintage Posters from RoSPA's Archive
Paul Rennie
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has been helping people recognize risk since the increase in road traffic and traffic accidents during the First World War. Drawing on a recently discovered archive of artwork, this book looks back at how public information posters – dealing with safety at work and at home as well as on the roads – used slogans and colourful graphics to keep people safe in the period between the 1920s and the 1960s.
The Secret History of the Propaganda Poster
Alfred Leete’s iconic image of Lord Kitchener pointing over the slogan ‘Your Country Needs You’ is a design classic which was widely imitated, for instance in the American designer James Montgomery Flagg’s Uncle Sam poster. James Taylor explores its influence on the propaganda posters of Allied countries in the First World War and beyond, while arguing that, since it originated as a magazine cover and postcard, its direct effect on enlistment was smaller than is commonly believed.
The Secret History of the Handbag
Meredith Etherington-Smith;Caroline Clifton-Mogg
The status bag existed long before Louis Vuitton put his initials on his Speedy 25. This illustrated history starts with medieval pouches embellished with gold and silver thread and semi-precious stones, and traces changing fashions up to the modern celebrity bag, with chapters on luggage, evening bags, jewel-encrusted and art bags, and current trends re-inventing handbags as ‘private objects of desire, their secret charms known only to those who carry them close’.
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Mythili Kumar is the artistic director of Abinhaya Dance Company of San Jose. The upcoming performance, “I Have A Dream: Stories of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.,” depicts the non-violent resistance strategies of MLK and seeks to demonstrate that the fight for social justice is ongoing and that past struggles provide lessons that enable us to confront our current problems.
Aileen Cassinetto is the poet laureate of San Mateo County, the first Asian American to hold that position. Her role is to elevate poetry among county residents and to celebrate the literary arts by making poetry more accessible to people in their everyday lives. Malathi Iyengar is a professor in the Ethnic Studies department at the College of San Mateo, which is presenting the Asian Pacific American Film Festival at CSM. The 42nd annual Nikkei Matsuri is an opportunity to embrace the local community’s love of Japanese American food, art and culture at one of the nation’s last remaining Japantowns. Public relations coordinators Mitchell Beutler and June Yasuhara tell viewers what they can expect to see at the festival on Sunday, May 5. San Jose Taiko performs on “Asian Pacific America.” The group’s performances this year feature a number of new compositions as part of an initiative called Composition Bonanza, which includes the piece they will perform on the show.
Airs at 5:30 a.m. on NBC Bay Area; 6 p.m. on NBC’s COZI TV (Comcast 186).
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Apple pays lower corporate tax rate than Wal-Mart: report
Computer giant Apple isn't just a pioneer of merging art and technology -- the most profitable tech company in the world is also a tax innovator, having created some of its own accounting tricks to get around paying billions to the U.S. Treasury, according to a report from The New York Times that has Apple on the defensive this week.
In a statement this weekend, Apple insisted that it pays "an enormous amount of taxes which help our local, state and federal governments."
"In the first half of fiscal year 2012 our U.S. operations have generated almost $5 billion in federal and state income taxes, including income taxes withheld on employee stock gains, making us among the top payers of U.S. income tax," Apple's statement added. "Apple has conducted all of its business with the highest of ethical standards, complying with applicable laws and accounting rules. We are incredibly proud of all of Apple’s contributions."
But that's not the impression you might get reading the Times report that triggered Apple's response.
Former Treasury Department economist Martin A. Sullivan recently produced a report, cited by the Times, which concludes that Apple skipped out on more than $2.4 billion in taxes (PDF) in 2011 by moving nearly 70 percent of its profits through overseas tax havens and using other tax avoidance strategies. The California-based firm even opened a subsidiary in Nevada just so it can avoid California's corporate tax rate, and has helped to invent new tax dodging strategies that dozens of other firms now emulate.
Sullivan's report found that Apple paid an effective tax rate of 9.8 percent last year, on profits of more than $34 billion. The Times noted that Apple's rate was actually lower than big box retailer Wal-Mart's, which paid 24 percent on profits of $24.4 billion.
One of those tricks Apple is credited with helping pioneer is called the "double Irish with a Dutch sandwich," which today sees dozens of companies sending their profits through Ireland and the Netherlands to take advantage of holes and exceptions in both countries' tax laws.
The Times was, of course, careful to note that none of Apple's strategies are illegal.
The company's response citing almost $5 billion in federal and state income taxes also appears to include money owed by their employees. The firm reportedly has an offshore savings of more than $74 billion.
Photo: Northfoto / Shutterstock.com
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Hundreds of plants and animals added to 'threatened' list
HYDERABAD, India — An island-dwelling cockroach and a tiny snail were declared extinct Wednesday while 400 plants and animals were added to a threatened "Red List" as global environment ministers met in India.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) updated its authoritative study on the state of biodiversity on Earth, saying 20,219 species were at risk of dying out.
It added 402 species such as the Egyptian dab lizard and the Sichuan Taimen, a fresh water fish from China, to the "Red List", which puts them in the threatened category.
Two invertebrates, a cockroach from the Seychelles last seen in 1905 and a freshwater snail called Little Flat-Top from the US state of Alabama, have moved into the extinct category since the last update of the bi-annual survey in June.
"These are species that do not occur anywhere else in the world," the IUCN's director of biodiversity conservation Jane Smart said at a UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conference in Hyderabad, southern India.
The report also showed that 83 percent of Madagascar's 192 palm species, which the poor rely on heavily for food and housing, are at risk of extinction.
They include the "Suicide Palm", which grows up to 18 metres (60 feet) in height and dies a few months after flowering and producing seeds. Only 30 mature specimens are known to exist in the wild today.
A quarter of the world's mammals, 13 percent of birds, 41 percent of amphibians and 33 percent of reef-building corals are at risk of extinction, according to the IUCN.
There was also some happy news, however, with the IUCN saying eight species had moved out of the extinct category due to new sightings.
They include a Tanzanian tree, Erythrina schliebenii, five types of mollusc, a dwarf toad from Sri Lanka, and Holdridge's Toad, a species from Costa Rica.
The gathering comes two years after UN countries approved a 20-point plan at a conference in Japan for reversing the worrying decline in plant and animal species that humans depend on for food, shelter and livelihoods.
Execution of the plan has been hamstrung by a lack of funding and the Hyderabad talks are being closely watched for new financial commitments.
Environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev said Wednesday that an expert panel had concluded that between $150-440 billion (115 to 330 billion euros) would be needed annually to meet the Japan goals, dubbed the Aichi biodiversity targets.
Current conservation spending is estimated at about $10 billion per year.
With a 2020 deadline, the targets include halving the rate of habitat loss, expanding conservation areas, preventing the extinction of species on the threatened list, and restoring at least 15 percent of degraded ecosystems.
"The cost of inaction is something that people have only just begun to appreciate," UN Environment Programme executive director Achim Steiner warned.
"When you run out of water, when you run out of arable land... and your rivers run dry, when your lakes silt up, when your fisheries collapse, then it is often too late to start talking about the value of biodiversity ecosystems."
The three-day ministers' meeting comes at the end of two weeks of talks by senior officials from 184 parties to the conference -- negotiations that delegates say have become stuck on the question of financing in a time of economic austerity.
The convention, to which 193 countries are signatories, marks its 20th anniversary this year.
It has already missed one key deadline when it failed to meet the target set to halt biodiversity loss by 2010.
The updated Red list, assessing 65,518 known species of animals and plants, lists 795 as extinct and 63 as surviving only in captivity.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): http://www.iucnredlist.org/
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The Glorious History of Annuities
Annuities have a long history dating back to the Roman Era when they were used as a form of gratification for loyal soldiers. These early annuities were given to soldiers as a thank you for military service. The first mention of annuities is recorded before the birth of Christ.
In the United States annuities were first used by The Presbyterian Ministers Association as a retirement income for older ministers and their families. These annuities were funded by the church and were allowed to pass from the head of the household to a surviving spouse. These early vehicles were the foundation for future widows and orphans benefits.
Benjamin Franklin was an early supporter of the concept of annuities and in his will left two annuities to the cities of Philadelphia and Boston. The Boston annuity lasted until 1993 when the city officials voted to end the annuity and use the lump sum that remained.
Early trade between the colonies and England also involved annuities. Many annuity contracts were issued in England to benefit family members still residing there in return for raw goods shipped from the colonies. The annuity contracts were known as annunimums and were very popular as a method of trade and safety. King Charles II even used an annuity to reward development of the Island of Martinique and Grenada prior to the concept of a fixed money standard.
During the Civil War, many annuities were awarded by the United States to military members in lieu of land ownership. The idea was supported by President Lincoln prior to his death as a method of assisting injured or disabled military personnel. After the Civil War, then President Grant rescinded many of these annuities on the grounds that the benefits far outweighed the contribution. A legal battle ensued and the Supreme Court heard the case a few years later and restored the benefits.
In early 1900s annuities were used in partnership with the sale of bonds because of the New York Stock Exchange collapse of 1903. The reason being the safeties of the bond issuers were often in question and an insurance company was a third party to help guarantee and provide future benefits. This stability allowed the country to help restore confidence in the financial sector.
At one time banks were also allowed to sell annuities and often times issued their own annuity products. During the financial turmoil of 1919 individual states set up rules making to illegal for banks to enter into annuity contracts unless the product was issued by an insurance company. This set the guidelines today for the absolute safety an annuity provides.
During the Great Depression annuity companies maintained their standards of safety and security. Many people’s financial lives were kept intact because of the solid security an annuity provided.
One of the more famous stories is of the baseball legend Babe Ruth who invested 100% of his funds in annuities. His famous quote still resonates today… he said “ I may takes risks in life, but I will never risk my money, I use annuities and I never have to worry about my money.”
Annuities provide today exactly what they provided nearly 300 years ago, safety, security and freedom from risk. If your money is important to you and it must provide an important benefit consider what many famous people have done, rely on annuities.
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27.7 mln doses of COVID-19 vaccines distributed, 9.3 mln administered: U.S. CDC
Jan 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered 9,327,138 first doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Tuesday morning and distributed 27,696,150 doses.
The tally of vaccine doses distributed and the number of people who received the first dose are for both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, vaccines as of 9:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday, the agency said.
According to the tally posted on Jan 11, the agency had administered 8,987,322 first doses of the vaccines and distributed 25,480,725 doses.
A total of 4,385,175 vaccine doses were distributed for use in long-term care facilities and 951,774 people in the facilities got their first dose, the agency said. (Reporting by Trisha Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)
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Obama backs placing student loans under government
By Kevin Drawbaugh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. Barack Obama, a U.S. presidential candidate, said on Tuesday he backs centralizing federal loans for college students under the government and ending federally guaranteed bank loans for them.
The bank loans program is a lucrative business for many financial institutions including Sallie Mae, or SLM Corp. as it is now known, Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp..
Obama, an Illinois Democrat, said a conflicts-of-interest scandal rocking the $85 billion U.S. student loan business underscores the need for such a major reform, which he endorsed originally in 2004.
“It is long past time to put an end to the rampant abuse by lenders of our student loan programs,” Obama said in a statement. He would eliminate the Federal Family Education Loan program that provides subsidies to banks and mandate that all federal student loans be provided through the direct loan program.
He said using direct loans to handle this year’s volume of federally guaranteed loans would have saved almost $6 billion.
Obama’s remarks came amid daily revelations of scandal in the student loan industry and maneuvering in Congress by Democrats trying to put reforms on a fast-track for approval.
Government investigators are accusing student lenders of giving colleges and financial aid officers kickbacks and bribes to curry favor and drum up business among student borrowers.
Bills have been introduced in the Senate and the House of Representatives that would reward universities for channeling more student borrowers into an existing program for direct government loans and away from guaranteed bank loans.
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, another top Democratic presidential contender, supports the direct loan incentives proposal.
Lending institutions oppose the measure. They argue that the federally guaranteed loans they make are cost-efficient, promote competition in the industry and come with needed services for universities and the students who attend them.
Kevin Bruns, spokesman for America’s Student Loan Providers, a group representing the lenders, questioned Obama’s position and his cost-savings estimate.
“The amount of money he thinks they will save is really over-stated ... He’s misreading the voters,” Bruns said, citing a poll his group commissioned in mid-April.
It showed more than two-thirds of 800 voters surveyed preferred having a choice of private lenders who compete to offer student loans, while less than a quarter of respondents said they would prefer borrowing directly from the government.
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NY Fed's Williams says it's hard to know what shape U.S. economic recovery will take
By Jonnelle Marte
FILE PHOTO: John Williams, Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, speaks at an event in New York, U.S., November 6, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. economic data is likely to become grimmer as the effects of the coronavirus pandemic become clearer, and it is difficult to know what the recovery could look like, New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams said Thursday.
The most recent economic figures do not fully capture the pain American families are going through, since some people who stopped working for health reasons or to care for a family member may not be counted, Williams said in remarks during a webinar organized by business groups based in upstate New York.
The unemployment rate, which surged to 14.7% in April, “is sure to get worse before it gets better,” Williams said.
As businesses reopen, there will be more information on the economic toll on various industries and how long it could take the economy to rebound, he said.
“What we don’t know is what the shape or timescale of the recovery will be,” he said. “It’s going to be some time before we have a clearer view of the effects on other industries, including autos, higher education, manufacturing, and professional services.”
The Fed acted quickly to shore up the U.S. economy in March as the coronavirus spread. Policymakers cut rates to near zero and rolled out emergency lending facilities intended to keep credit flowing to businesses and households. It also launched open-ended asset purchases, including Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities, to improve market functioning.
Williams said he was not worried the Fed’s actions would lead to inflation, and he said rates will stay low until policymakers are “confident” that the economy is stable and on track to reach the Fed’s maximum employment and price stability goals.
He also said negative interest rates would have adverse consequences and does not consider them as something the central bank should be using now.
“We’ve looked at this very carefully at the Federal Reserve,” he said. “The view is that negative interest rates are not the right tool to be used right now.”
Reporting by Jonnelle Marte; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama
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In Spain with Milladoiro
Nearly ten years ago while on tour with the Paul Winter Consort we met and collaborated with an amazing group of musicians from Galicia, Spain who played celtic music indigenous to this region. The group’s name is Milladoiro, and I instantly fell in love with their music. For several years after that, I had begun writing some of my music with the idea of future collaboration with them in mind, should the opportunity ever present itself.
Milladoiro consists of eight musicians: Moncho on percussion; Anton on keyboards, accordion, and guitar; Pep� on pipes and oboe; Xos� on flute; Nando on pipes and whistles; and new members Man� on Guitar and Bouzouki; Roi on harp, and Harry on violin. These are superb musicians who play their music with flair and vivacity, borrowing from the ancient celtic music of their region and transforming it into modern renditions while maintaining the original authenticity. They are a pioneering group responsible for bringing celtic music of the Galicia region back into the current culture some 25 years ago, and they remain the premiere group in the region today.
The long-awaited idea of another collaboration with them began January 2005, when I was asked by the group if I would record with them on their upcoming CD. Of course the answer was an easy yes, and thanks to modern technology I received a CD mixdown of two pieces they wanted me to play flutes on. They didn’t say anything about what they were specifically looking for from me on these tracks, so I had the freedom to invent whatever flute lines I thought added to the music. I recorded all this in my studio here in Michigan straight into my computer, and then sent them my finished tracks on a CD for them to “fly in” to their larger mix and do as they pleased with them.
Months went by and Milladoiro’s manager Quique—a beautiful soul who speaks at least four languages fluently— contacted me again to ask if I would perform with them in Spain for the release of this new recording, entitled “Milladoiro: 25” (25th anniversary recording). Another easy yes, we would finally get to re-unite in person after all these years! In June, 2005, I flew to Santiago de Compostela, Spain and we had a great reunion both personally and musically. Strengthening of previous relationships and happy new friendships with Roi, Harry, and Man� ensued.
The concert was held in an exquisite old theater (seats approx. 3000) in Vigo. Three more soloists besides myself joined Milladoiro in this concert, as they also had done for the recording: the wonderful celtic fiddle player Eileen Ivers (violinist from the original Riverdance show), Italian singer Claudia Ferronato, and Galician piper Susana Seivane. All-women soloists joined with an all-male group— perfect chemistry for everyone!
Besides the tunes that we each recorded with Milladoiro, we all performed en masse at the finale which brought the house down. It was like one vast community celebration, with music as the feast we all shared. In addition to the great music, Milladoiro puts on a stellar visual show with state-of-the-art lighting. This concert was so much fun that during the reception, we four soloists were asked if we would like to return again at the end of July to play two more shows with Milladoiro.
In July, we had the good fortune of playing outdoors, which is definitely one of my favorite venues due to being so much part of the natural world while making music from the depths of your soul. The first concert was held in La Coruna in an ancient plaza walled-in by luxurious apartment buildings on three sides, and an ancient, ornate government Hall directly behind the newly-raised stage. For this production, they had a six-camera shoot for a future DVD release, and two large video screens for the audience to enjoy close-ups of the band during performance. It was another magical evening, ensconced in music of pure beauty, and looking up from the plaza walls while playing and seeing the sparkling stars in the night sky. The finale ‘en masse’ collaboration ended with fireworks, true to Milladoiro’s flair for the spectacular.
After this show, we all went out and experienced a little night life in Santiago, getting to bed around 5 a.m.! I am told that this is the typical hour of “turning in” from the night life in Spain�.thank goodness we had the next day off!
Our second show was in Moana, also an outdoor concert with an ocean bay directly behind the stage, so the audience faced the water while facing the stage. They had tents set up for the band “green room” right next to the stage. Quique humorously said, “step into my office, please”, as we entered the tents to see an enormous spread of fresh seafood and tortillas. This night was very different than the La Coruna show, as the weather had turned unseasonably cold. And I do mean cold. Unfortunately, I had only brought hot-weather clothing, so I nearly froze except when I was on stage under the hot lights.
The Moana concert was different in that Eileen Ivers’ group of four, Immigrant Soul, opened for Milladoiro. Eileen is one of the most talented musicians I know, iconoclastic just as a great musician ought to be. Their show started at 10 p.m., and the Milladoiro show began at midnight. Typical Spanish hours, but definitely not easy if you aren’t used to it. It was great getting to hang out with all of these folks in the tent chatting about music, touring, life, instruments, etc. We were one large group of people with completely kindred spirits, getting to know one another in English (the Americans), Spanish and Galician (Milladoiro group, though both Roi and Harry speak English very well), and also Italian, which worked well if you couldn’t remember the Spanish words (thanks to my husband Lee’s fluent Italian). I spoke a short bit of Spanish to the audiences on both of these shows, but on this show the members of Milladoiro taught me how to say what I wanted to say in Galician instead of Spanish. The only thing I got wrong was the name of the town, as I forgot where we were, so I just made something up�with an “Americana” accent like mine, they probably didn’t know the difference.
After this show we went to a pub nearby where many fans were waiting with their instruments for a jam session with Eileen and her group. This was priceless, people playing music they were hearing for the first time, including Eileen. No one there wanted to leave despite repeated pleadings from the establishment (it was about 3 a.m. already), until finally the owners turned out the outside lights (where we all were seated), and we were forced to say good-bye to one another: a great day, fantastic music, wonderful friends, and a memorable mini-tour.
After leaving Spain, Lee and I returned to Italy where I performed a solo concert a few days later, and was treated to an entirely different cultural experience in Casperia, Italy. This was also an outdoor concert in a piazza in front of a church, which began at 10 p.m. It was a beautiful, memorable time hearing the flute echo off the stone buildings, and basking in the sultry temperature and moon-lit night. I don’t speak Italian very well, but I say what I can in Italian, and then switch to English and Lee translates for the audience. After one of my more involved and metaphorical stories that went on for a bit, it occurred to me as I was speaking that the significance of my words might be difficult to translate. When it was finally Lee’s turn to translate, he simply responded, “oh, Dio!” (oh, God!). After a hearty round of laughter, we just left it at that, letting the music work its magic of speaking universally as it pleased to each individual soul, while participating together as one body.
I can’t think of anything finer than to live this traveling-minstrel music life, visiting other cultures and meeting new family members, as it were, all over the world. A day never goes by that I don’t thank God for the privilege of what I get to do!
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Mid-Morning’s
Amanda Knox sparks backlash by joking about her prison time in Italy
Amanda Knox has been criticised after making a joke about the US election.
The 33-year-old American spent almost four years behind bars after being convicted of murdering Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British student, in 2007.
Knox was famously acquitted of the crime in 2011 and completely exonerated in 2015.
US election 2020 live: Follow the latest updates
Image: Amanda Knox’s tweet has caused a backlash
As votes continue to be counted in the US, she tweeted: “Whatever happens, the next four years can’t be as bad as that four-year study abroad I did in Italy, right?”
The post to her 70,000 followers caused a backlash.
One user replied: “There’s something wrong with you.”
Another wrote: “I can think of another student studying abroad in Italy that had it a lot f****** worse.”
And someone else asked: “Amanda, are you not ashamed of yourself?”
Rudy Guede was eventually convicted for the murder and is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence.
As well as receiving negative comments, there was also some support for Knox.
Zoey Kennedy Tweeted: “Right! Wrongfully convicted spending four years in a foreign prison and others commenting need to understand her experience doesn’t take away from somebody else’s experiences. Not a competition! She has the right to talk about hers.”
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Knox – who describes herself as an “exoneree” and “journalist” on her Twitter account – has since gone on to become a criminal justice activist and hosts a podcast with her partner Christopher Robinson.
Through The Late Morning!
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Pakistani PM convinces protesters to bury bombing victims (VIDEO)
Pakistani Shiite Muslims demonstrate against recent bombings in Quetta.(AFP Photo / Banaras Khan) © AFP
Pakistani Shia Muslims protesting against sectarian violence have agreed to stop their sit-in and bury the bodies of their relatives killed in Thursday’s twin bombings in Baluchistan Province, after PM Raja Pervez Asharaf sacked local officials.
The prime minister met leaders of the Shia Hazara community in a mosque in the provincial capital of Quetta, near the site where the explosions killed 96 people on January 10. Ashraf voiced his deep sorrow over the killings and said he would impose “governor rule,” which allows him to replace local authorities, Reuters reports. The visit comes after thousands of protesters who were holding holding vigils at the site of the deadliest of Thursday bombings refused to talk with a delegation led by the minister for religious affairs, who arrived Saturday.The protesters come from the community of the Hazara people and other Shiites, who were the prime target of the bombings at a local billiard hall. They are taking part in a sit-in beside the shrouded bodies of 96 people, who were killed by the terrorist attack.Muslim tradition requires that a funeral takes place as quickly after the death as possible. Protesters’ willingness to go against it and keep their perished family and friends unburied for more than two days after their deaths shows the degree of their anxiety.
The leaders of the community demand that the provincial government be dismissed and that the army be deployed in Quetta to guarantee their safety. They also want the people behind the bombings to be brought to justice.As the protest continues, a new bombing attack in the city killed a six-year-old boy, when an explosive device went off on Saturday night outside of an internet café.
The militant Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the twin blasts at the billiard hall, which killed patrons and later those who rushed for rescue after the first explosion was set off. A total of 125 people died in those blasts and two others that happened in Quetta on Thursday.
The Hazara are an ethnic group including more than 5 million people, mostly living in neighboring Afghanistan. But over the decades of persecution many of them moved to other places, with major communities living in Iran, Pakistan and Europe.They have been living in Pakistan since the 19th century, with most settling in Quetta. Hazara are the largest group of Shiites living in the predominantly Sunni province and many of the victims of sectarian violence there targeting Shiites are Hazara.Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is determined to expel Hazara along with other Shiites from Pakistan.
Pakistan militants kill at least 19 in bomb attack on Shiites
India and Pakistan trade accusations as cross-border raid kills 1 soldier
Series of bombings kill 115 in Pakistan
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Home › News › Kikkan Randall: From 'never-heard-of' to Olympic Champion
Kikkan Randall: From 'never-heard-of' to Olympic Champion
This article originally appeared on innervoice.life
If you took a triathlon and put it into one sport, that’s what cross-country skiing feels like. It’s like running a 5k or a 10k where you start off with good speed, find a steady pace, you’re breathing rapidly and you can definitely feel your muscles. Then, because of the up and down nature of our courses, you can glide on the downhill, a little bit like riding a bike. You have a blend of trying to be as efficient as possible with your oxygen capacity while also needing power to get over the hills. It’s that fine line between efficiency and power. You’re using your arms and your legs, so you have a strong muscular component, which is where the lactic acid comes from. As the race goes on, your muscles fatigue first, so you have to keep mental focus and keep your technique strong. That’d be most comparable to swimming, where pure effort can keep you burning for a while, but as you get towards the end of the race it’s a loss of technique that makes things really fall apart.
Photo by FlyingPointRoad.com
On the mental side, the times I did it best were when I was able to focus on the moment I was in and piece together those moments to get through the remainder of the race. There were three parts to that: firstly, an internal cue, which would often be a word - Power. Tempo. Quick. - these would keep my mind focused on that sharper impulse. Then I would use external checkpoints, like Get to that tree or Get over that hill. The third part would be that inner cheerleader, which includes reminding myself how far I’d already made it in the race, or that my training had prepared me to get stronger while my opponents would wilt.
I’ve always been a big ‘team person’. From the early days of running around with my siblings to cousins and neighborhood friends to very tight-knit teams in cross-country running, skiing and track in high school. I love being able to share the process and the highs and lows with those who are working towards the same goals. It makes the highs higher and the lows not as low. I also love helping others get better, it really lifts my spirits to be able to inspire and encourage my teammates and see them improve. I also learned early on that when everyone improves and gets better, it helps me reach new levels of performance that I wouldn’t be able to reach on my own.
For my first few years racing on the World Cup circuit I was the only American woman. I really missed having teammates around and I pushed to get our national team to build a women’s team. It started with getting some of our talented young athletes together at camps, but it became much more. Thanks to the leadership of our coach, Matt Whitcomb, we developed into a team that was not only successful on the course but also an extension of my family.
I’ve also been incredibly fortunate to have worked with some amazing coaches. They’ve taught me to be a good person and a leader, above and beyond just the technique, training and strategy of my sport.
AN OLYMPIC DREAM
I grew up in an active family; my Dad put me on skis for the first time when I was one. He built a small hill for me in the front yard and he said I had the biggest smile on my face. We moved to Alaska when I was three and I have so many memories of playing outside with siblings, cousins and friends. When I was five, I vividly remember watching my first Olympics on TV (the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary) and deciding right then that I wanted to be an Olympian someday. My Aunt Betsy and Uncle Chris had both competed in the Olympics in cross-country skiing, so it felt like an achievable goal. Initially, however, I never considered going to the Olympics as a cross-country skier, that sport was too hard!
As a kid, I loved sports and wanted to try everything. My Olympic aspirations changed many times depending on what sport I was into at the time - soccer, running and alpine skiing all fascinated me at points. In high school, I started getting pretty serious about running. At the end of my sophomore year, at age 16, my running coach moved out of town and I needed a new training group. I was introduced to a coach that was starting a new ski program called Gold 2002, and after speaking with him I decided to give the program a try. We looked over my training logs to-date and it became apparent that I had some serious potential in cross-country skiing. Within a few weeks, I switched my goal from making it to the Foot Locker Nationals to trying to qualify for the World Junior team in cross-country skiing. Over those first few months, I started to think about how XC skiing was a nice combination of all the other sports I loved, and I was intrigued that no American woman had ever been close to an Olympic medal in the sport. I had this little flicker of belief deep down that thought, “Well, maybe I can be the first!”
From then on, my focus was on cross-country skiing. I ended up making the World Junior team that season, and the next year I made the World Championships, and the next year I made my first Olympic team. It was a pretty fast trajectory of success early on, and I think that really helped me get so hooked. I think what ultimately made me want to pursue my sport was curiosity and optimism, combined with some naivety and self-confidence, around the idea that I could be a successful international ski racer. I also loved how strong and fit it made me feel.
“When you focus on what you can control right in front of you, you can go from a never-heard-of to an Olympic Champion.”
I would like to be seen as an athlete that helped open the door to possibility in American skiing, especially on the female side. I took a risk in trying to become the first US woman to race successfully on the international stage when there was no path and no confidence that it was actually possible. But I decided it was worth a try! I had to battle through a lot of lacklustre results, be patient through the long process and be really good at seeing the small successes that could keep me motivated and on track. Through it all, I tried to be positive, upbeat and optimistic all while encouraging others to tackle this challenge with me. I hope I’m seen as a leader and a good teammate. The team we were able to create, and the depth of success we now have is what I’m most proud of through my career.
As an athlete, I would like to be as respected for the three overall sprint globes I won as much I am for the Olympic gold medal. Winning those globes required consistent success across the whole season, which I am proud to have been able to put together three seasons in a row.
Photo courtesy of Reese Brown / SIA Nordic
I am lucky that early in my career I got introduced to the concepts of sports psychology. In high school, our track coach challenged us to think about the physical training as well as our mental approach: how to be mentally strong, prepared and operate as a team. Sometimes that helps you take the focus off your own pain and contribute to a goal that’s bigger than yourself. He had us read books as diverse as Dr Seuss’ All The Places You’ll Go, and The Alchemist. I was so young and impressionable, and it was given to us in such a cool way that I think it helped me cultivate my mental skills without even realizing I was doing it.
Then, in my first couple of years on the US ski team, we had a grad assistant who was doing her Master’s in Sports Psychology. We covered the main categories, which were things like goal setting, imagery, relaxation, and dealing with adversity. I think there were 8 concepts in total. We got exposed to every different component, and would regularly grade ourselves on each. What was great about that was I got introduced to every concept and from there I got to pick and choose what worked for me. Some things I naturally did well and others took effort. On top of that, different concepts worked for me at different points. When things were going really well I’d feed off my self-confidence and focus on the process. When I’d be injured it’d be a lot of imagery and visualization to take the place of what I wasn’t able to do physically. And then when my performance wasn’t very good I got to focus on my self-talk. By the end, I had developed a pretty natural skill set that worked for me. Over time I kept refining it, but it became a sub-conscious activity.
After spending my whole life dedicated to my sporting goals, the last few months have been really interesting. I’ve had to transition and think about what to do with my time, what my goals are, how to keep myself fit and healthy. I didn’t realize how much structure I had in my life. On one hand, it’s fun to think that I can now go out and do anything, but as soon as I get out there I get debilitated by the freedom of choice. That caught me by surprise a little bit. I’ve gained a lot more skills and experiences than I give myself credit for, so now it’s about reinventing those skills in different ways. For instance, being a parent, time management is important. To spend time with your kids and give them everything they need, and still get everything you need so you can be the best parent, you have to be diligent about planning. Or, when things get hectic and crazy, focus on what you can do right now and get through it. The physical training I’ve done will serve me well, no doubt, but more so the mental training through my athletic career will serve me well as I transition.
Sports have been such an important part of my life. The benefits are too numerous to name. I am passionate about helping others experience all these benefits through their participation in sport, especially for girls who are much more likely to drop out of sports in their teen years.
For the last 9 years, I have led the US side of Fast and Female, a non-profit organization with the mission to keep girls in sports. We have a small organization in the USA thus far but a ton of potential to expand our mission and our programming across the country and across sports. I am looking forward to being able to spend more time expanding our program.
I have always been a big supporter of the Olympics and the Olympic Movement and this past winter I was honored to be elected by my fellow Olympic athletes to the IOC Athletes’ Commission. This is a volunteer position for the next eight years where I get to represent the voice of the athletes within the Olympic Movement. I look forward to helping strengthen the Olympic Movement for future generations as well as making the experience of the athletes during and after their careers smoother and more thoroughly supported.
And finally, I would love to stay involved with the US ski community to encourage our young skiers coming up and hopefully pass along some of the experience I have gained over my 20-year career. I would love to come to some training camps and international competitions to help out where I can!
Words by Kikkan Randall, edited and produced by innervoice.life in collaboration with Rudy Project North America.
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Meet Kate Holland, Winner of the Shillington Design Safari at The School of St Jude in Tanzania
Here at Shillington, we’re strong believers that design can change the world, which is why we are so proud to partner with top design studio Seesaw to sponsor our graduates for a paid work and travel opportunity in support of The School of St Jude in Arusha, Tanzania. Read on to meet our winner! London graduate Kate Holland, who is settling into her new design role and life in Africa.
Exclusively for our graduates, we help The School of St Jude recruit and support top creative talent to best communicate their important mission—providing high-quality education to 1800 of the brightest and poorest students in Tanzania. Selected from families living on less than $2 a day, St Jude’s students receive an education that consistently ranks in the top 10% nationally. Andy Shillington, Founder and CEO of Shillington is a long-time donor and loves connecting our design graduates to the school’s important work.
In 2016, New York graduate Connie Leung spent one year designing for good at St Jude’s, and now—in 2018, London graduate Kate Holland takes the reins. “A talented, enthusiastic graphic designer helps us find new and exciting ways to share our story,” says Gemma Sisia, Founder of St Jude’s. “Good design connects with our supporters from all over the world who help us do an amazing job fighting poverty through education here in Tanzania.”
Here’s our full interview with Kate. Find out why she’s pumped to work with such a beautiful brand for a good cause, what life is like so far in Arusha and why she’s passionate about this important work.
Congratulations on being selected for the Shillington Design Safari at St Jude’s in Arusha, Tanzania! How does it feel?
Seriously incredible and totally surreal at the same time! I had such build up of anticipation before coming here and now that I’m actually standing on Tanzanian soil I can’t believe it. What they’re doing here at St Jude’s is beyond words. It’s very moving to see the students gorgeous, cheery smiles around the campus every day, it’s a constant reminder of why I’m here.
Since arriving, I’ve been blown away by the kindness and contentment of the people, their humble approach to life, the way people greet each other and just the everyday on-goings of life in Arusha. I’ve never been to Tanzania before so it’s all extremely eye opening but I feel like I’m meant to be here, I’m ready to call this place home.
You actually saw Gemma Sisia, founder of St Jude’s speak while studying at All Saints Anglican School and it “shifted and heightened [your] interest to aid others”. Tell us more about what her talk meant to you.
Having grown up on the Gold Coast and then seen others parts of the world, I think we have no idea just how lucky we are to have access to privileges that many people do not experience. Listening to this inspiring woman talk about the unimaginable extremes of poverty and lack of education in Tanzania, it really put a lot of things in perspective for me.
It was about 10 years ago so the school was still in its early stages, but you could tell that St Jude’s was no ordinary organisation. Even then, what Gemma had done was incredible – to think that she started with $10 in a bank account and not much knowledge of building schools is probably the most inspiring story I’ve ever heard. A few of my closest friends went over to visit St Jude’s on a school trip and seeing their pictures made me realise that one day I just had to go over, experience it for myself and help in whatever way possible.
Before coming here I read Gemma’s book about St Jude’s—an absolute must read! It gives such an insight into her background and shows how one person with enough good-will, motivation, love and selflessness can actually change lives and have huge positive impacts on a community. Her story is incredibly moving and really prompted me to think about the way I live my life.
Besides being inspired by Gemma, why else did you decide to apply for the opportunity?
I love seeing the world, I love new challenges, I love immersing myself in other cultures and also, why not? I think it was a sign when I received the email from Shillington advertising the design safari and I wasn’t going to ignore it. It was a great opportunity to not only continue working in design but also produce work that is fulfilling and for a fantastic cause. Sometimes you can get caught up in all the materialism and mundanity of design so it’ll be nice to feel like my work is making a difference, even if it’s ever so small!
Why are you excited to work with Seesaw’s branding?
St Jude’s has taken such a massive leap in the right direction with this rebrand. I’m only two weeks in and I can already see how imperative this new brand is for St Jude’s.
It’s energetic and fun, it’s colourful, it’s the kids on the playground at lunchtime, it’s positive, it’s impactful, it’s the atmosphere of the campus and it’s also so much more!
Seesaw Studio and Connie have done an incredible job and I hope I can fill their shoes as I continue to roll out the branding across bigger and better things!
What else are you most looking forward to during your time at St Jude’s?
Making life-long friends and memories with like-minded people who are here for a great cause. Trying to understand and immerse myself as much as I can in the Tanzanian way of life and maybe becoming fluent in Swahili! I also can’t wait to interact with and get to know some of the students a bit more, we have some interns in our team who are completing a Community Service Year internship through our graduate program, Beyond St Jude’s. Many graduates choose to participate in the program as a way to give back to the school that gave them so much, and when they’re working right beside you, you realise just how far they’ve come, thanks to an education at St Jude’s.
I’m also really looking forward to going on Safari, I’ve heard so many great things about the safaris in Tanzania and can’t wait to see it for myself!
What were you up to before studying at Shillington? Why did you want to study design?
I’ve always been quite creative but also very methodical and logical so design seemed like the perfect avenue for me. I went to a Shillington Info Session in Brisbane while I was still at school and something about it definitely felt right, so it was always in the back of my mind.
Then I finished high school in 2011, turned 18 the following year and jetted off to Europe for a gap year. I fell in love with London and made the decision to stay as I was having the time of my life. After a year, I decided (with the help of my lovely parents!) that I would enrol to study at Shillington in London, and the rest is history!
Where has life taken you since graduating?
Since graduating I moved back to Australia as no one would marry me for a UK visa! I worked on the Gold Coast for a year and then moved to Brisbane for two years working for a boutique hospitality group and then back to the Gold Coast to work on the 2018 Commonwealth Games and now to Tanzania! I think studying at Shillington was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It was exactly what I needed and look where it has taken me—I couldn’t ask for anything more!
ASANTE SANA (‘thank you’ in Swahili) to Shillington for giving me this opportunity and supporting such a great cause!
Huge thanks to Kate for sharing her Shillington Design Safari story! Be sure to check out her website.
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Science Education & Teacher Training
Our mission: The Science United Project (SUP) aims to responsibly deliver science education to displaced students in informal educational settings.
About Us: Founded in 2017 by Erika Gillette, the Science United Project began in Greece and aims to support science education for displaced children by teaching basic science principles using small, easily-sourced kits. Our sciences kits are designed to be utilized in any kind of educational setting and to be sourced locally for a low cost. Over 5,000 of our science kits have been distributed to 15 NGOs working in camps and community centers around the world. This scalable concept is supported by online video resources that can quickly educate teachers and community leaders how to deliver science lessons in just a few minutes. SUP also provides free teacher trainings for educators and volunteers who wish to teach science to displaced students in informal settings.
SUP is supported by the Blossom Hill Foundation and has partnered with several NGOs and non-profits in Europe.
Our goals: Our project aims to provide displaced students and their teachers with kits and instructional materials to support science in their classrooms. Science education supports socio-scientific decision making and problem-solving, and is important to support genuine scientific literacy for global citizenship. Children around the world who come from conflict-affected areas have experienced an interruption to their education cannot, and very often have not had the opportunities to, engage in meaningful and systematic instruction. Many of these children have recently arrived in refugee camps and community centers that provide them with significant venues to reengage and continue with their education, and for still many others, they provide these children with their very first experiences with education.
"I think the greatest moments have been to see the teachers get excited about the children being excited. At the end of the activities, teachers always echo the importance of science and how the children need more of it. They say that it is interdisciplinary, supports the children socially and emotionally, and that it allows them to discover a love of learning." - Dr. Erika Gillette, Founder & Director
"My favorite success story was from a teacher in Athens, Greece who said that after the activities were completed, the children worked together to use their magnets to develop a device for cleaning up the trash around the camp. This demonstrates that the learning continues outside the classroom and they are also engaging in social entrepreneurship to make their own community better." - Dr. Erika Gillette, Founder & Director
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January 13, 2020 – San Diego, CA – The San Diego Foundation today announced the San Diego COVID-19 Community Response Fund has granted an additional $300,000 to uplift Black, Latinx and Asian businesses amid continued stay-at-home orders.
The grants were announced at a virtual press conference hosted by The San Diego Foundation in partnership with the Central San Diego Black Chamber of Commerce, Local Initiatives Support Corporation and Asian Business Association of San Diego.
The pandemic has not affected all San Diegans evenly. Under-resourced communities in San Diego County have been disproportionally afflicted by COVID-19 and today’s grantmaking will help provide much-needed support for Black, Latinx and Asian businesses which are vital to the region’s economy. To help distribute the funds into the community where they can make the most impact, The San Diego Foundation has provided $100,000 each to the Central San Diego Black Chamber of Commerce, Local Initiatives Support Corporation and Asian Business Association of San Diego. Each organization will have application information available later this week on their respective websites where Black, Latinx and Asian business owners can learn more and apply.
The three organizations were selected by the Leadership Council for the COVID-19 Community Response Fund because of their deep roots and relationships among San Diego’s business community.
“From the very beginning of the pandemic, addressing inequity has been a central focus for the COVID-19 Community Response Fund,” shared Mark Stuart, President & CEO of The San Diego Foundation. “This grant funding will infuse our Black, Latinx and Asian small business community with much-needed financial support at a critical moment.”
“San Diego’s underrepresented businesses were already challenged by cash flow on a good day, and now during the pandemic they are facing mounting obstacles to stay afloat,” shared Donna DeBerry, President and CEO of the Central San Diego Black Chamber of Commerce during the virtual press conference. “This charitable support will get money into the hands of our historically-disadvantaged businesses to help them keep the lights on, pay rent and remain in operation.”
Ricardo Flores, Executive Director of Local Initiatives Support Corporation, continued, “The great promise of the United States has always been entrepreneurship and many of our Latinx small businesses are at risk as the pandemic continues. This grant funding provides us with an opportunity to rally around these businesses that have given so much to our region economically and culturally.”
“By prioritizing equity with these grant dollars, we can ensure that many of our Black, Latinx and Asian mom and pop businesses stay open, keep employees on payroll, and have access to critical resources,” shared Jason Paguio, President and CEO of the Asian Business Association of San Diego.
To date, the COVID-19 Community Response Fund has granted more than $55 million through over 244 grants to 200 nonprofit partners. These nonprofits provided computers, internet access, childcare, food security, financial assistance, medical support, workforce training and other vital needs to our region’s most vulnerable communities. Grantmaking is made possible thanks to more than $64 million that has been raised for the San Diego COVID-19 Community Response Fund through 3,500 individuals, businesses, foundations, government partnerships and donor-advised funds.
Businesses, individuals and organizations can donate and find additional information about the San Diego COVID-19 Community Response Fund at SDFoundation.org/COVID19.
The San Diego Foundation is part of a national movement of more than 600 community foundations that have mobilized more than $1 billion to aid in the COVID-19 public health and economic crisis through response funds. Individual donations are bolstered by San Diego corporations and numerous donor-advised funds at The San Diego Foundation.
About the San Diego COVID-19 Community Response Fund
The San Diego COVID-19 Community Response Fund at The San Diego Foundation was created in partnership with San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, San Diego Gas & Electric, United Way of San Diego County, San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, NEWS 8 and Alliance Healthcare Foundation to receive donations and make rolling rapid response grants to nonprofit organizations supporting impacted communities, particularly those that are disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic and its economic consequences. Thousands of individuals, businesses and foundations have contributed to the Fund, and 100 percent of donations are provided to nonprofits. Learn more at SDFoundation.org/COVID19.
The San Diego Foundation inspires enduring philanthropy and enables community solutions to improve quality of life in our region. For more than 45 years, The Foundation and our donors have granted more than $1.3 billion to support nonprofit organizations and strengthen our San Diego community. Learn more at SDFoundation.org and consider a donation to the San Diego COVID-19 Community Response Fund, helping nonprofits and San Diegans affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The Foundation also provides helpful COVID-19 resources to support nonprofit organizations through this public health and economic crisis.
Tagged: COVID-19, San Diego COVID-19 Community Response Fund
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Seychelles Proposes a Ban on Plastic Straws
The WTO has circulated a notification from the Seychelles announcing a draft regulation to prohibit plastic straws and requiring biodegradable forms of these products to conform to prescribed standards. The proposed date of entry into force is January 1, 2019.
SAFEGUARDS | Hardlines NO. 145/18
On October 25, 2018, the World Trade Organization (WTO) circulated a notification announcing a proposal from the Seychelles to amend its Environmental Protection Act, 2016 (Act 18 of 2016). The draft regulation, attached to WTO document number 18-6702 and notified under G/TBT/N/SYC/4 [1], would ban plastic straws unless they are biodegradable, or form part of pre-packaged beverages or any other pre-packaged product. This prohibition would effectively include straws used in cocktails and other drinks but will exempt plastic straws attached to cartons of juice.
The latest proposal by the Seychelles is an ongoing effort by the island nation to reduce plastic waste. In June 2017, the Seychelles published two Statutory Instruments (SI) to prohibit plastic bags, plastic utensils and polystyrene boxes. These SI require the biodegradable form of these products to conform to prescribed international standards and direct the Bureau of Standards to validate Certificates of Conformity (CoCs) accompanying these goods (Safeguard 145/17 [2]). These became effective in July 2017.
Highlights of the proposal on plastic straws are summarized in Table 1.
WTO Document Number 18-6702, 25 October 2018
Environmental Protection (Restriction on the Manufacturing, Importation, Distribution and Sale of Plastic Straws) Regulations 2018
Proposed Date of Entry into force
Plastic straws*
*Exemption: Plastic straw which forms part of pre-packaged beverages or part of any other pre-packaged product
SGS technical experts have extensive knowledge and testing experience in materials and articles in contact with food. They work to ensure that your products meet the appropriate regulations for food contact materials and pave the way for compliance. From overall migration test to expert advices on emerging regulations and compliance issues and documentation review, SGS is the partner to trust. Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information or visit our website.
Hingwo Tsang
Global Information and Innovation Manager
SGS Renews PROGEC – Gabon’s Conformity Assessment Program
SGS has renewed the PROGEC conformity assessment program with AGANOR for a three-year period.
SGS Approved to Test and Certify Food Products Exported to GCC Countries
SGS is approved to test and certify food destined for GCC countries for pesticide residues and contaminants.
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Podcasts from Book Review
Juliette Foster (25)
Programme: Book Review
Book Review: Shares Made Simple by Rodney Hobson
For those contemplating investing in the stock market or who want to increase their knowledge, Rodney Hobson's primer Shares Made Simple is out in a heavily-revised third edition. Talking to Simon Rose, Rodney explains why cash is actually riskier than the stock market over the long term. He emphasises the importance of dividends, points out that stock market investing has never been simpler than it is now and explains why he prefers investing directly rather than through funds.
Book Review: Redeeming Capitalism by Kenneth Barnes
Capitalism has rarely been less popular. In his new book, Redeeming Capitalism, Kenneth Barnes discusses the moral failings that need to be tackled if the system - which has been a force for much good - is to survive. In a conversation with Share Radio's Simon Rose touching on debt, conspicuous consumption and the changed nature of work, Kenneth Barnes suggests how capitalism can once more become our servant, not our master.
Published: Thu 12 Jul 2018
Book Review: Bean Counters by Richard Brooks
In the financial crash and subsequent financial scandals, The Big Four accountancy firms have largely escaped censure. In a fascinating new book, Bean Counters: The Triumph of the Accountants and How They Broke Capitalism, investigative journalist Richard Brooks highlights how far the global giants have moved from traditional auditing and exposes their conflicts of interests and inadequacies which, he says, pose a considerable threat to financial stability.
Book Review: Jim Duffy's book "Create Special"
Entrepreneurial champion Jim Duffy discusses his book "Create Special: Think And Act Like An Entrepreneur To Change Your Life". Jim argues you can train your mind for success not only in entrepreneurship, but your life as a whole.
Book Review: Wild Knowledge
Anders Indset discusses his wide-ranging book Wild Knowledge: Outthink the Revolution, examining the future of work, social media and AI and why business needs more philosophers.
Anders Indset
The Book Review: What actually is money?
Nearly a decade ago the world's biggest banks were brought to their knees. And with each new victim of the financial crisis, it quickly became clear how ignorant regulators had been about the activities of those in the City. But, whilst we have pulled back from the brink, the financial system hasn't become any less mystifying. For those not in the monetary policy bubble, the idea that central bankers can conjure funds for quantitative easing seemingly out of thin air is purely mindboggling. So, money still makes the world go round - but what actually is it? Where does it come from - and who's in charge of creating it? I'm now joined by Ann Pettifor, director of Policy Research in Macroeconomics and author of 'The Production of Money: How to Break the Power of Bankers', which is published by Verso Books and retails for £12.99.
Published: Tue 31 Jan 2017
The Book Review: 'What is Populism?' by Professor Jan-Werner Müller
The world holds its breath as American voters hit the ballot box today for the 2016 US presidential election. Not only could the international community be dealing with a populist President in the shape of Donald Trump - his victory will heighten wariness of populism stirring elsewhere in the world. So, how should we understand the movement that propelled Mr. Trump? Is it something to welcome or to fear? Jan-Werner Muller is Professor of Politics at Princeton University and author of 'What is Populism?', a book that attempts to extract the core of the populist ideology. Share Radio's Alex Clark spoke to Professor Muller. 'What is Populism?' is published by Penn Press and retails for £13.00.
Published: Tue 08 Nov 2016
The Book Review: 'The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan' by Sebastian Mallaby
When does the irrational exuberance of markets lead to asset price bubbles? A question pondered by Dr. Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, in December 1996. But the phrase "irrational exuberance" - a polite way of warning that the markets were in danger of overheating - turned out to rather be prescient. This was after all the dotcom era when anything with dotcom behind its name - no matter how flawed the business plan - was a licence to print money. When the tech bubble eventually burst investors took heavy losses while Greenspan looked for a way through the morass. The markets gradually picked up, money flowed in and the public felt rich: Alan Greenspan had worked his magic and restored America's Feel Good factor. When he retired in 2006 he was lauded as a genius, a tough act to follow...yet when the global financial crisis erupted, the fault lines were traced back to him. The hero was now a villain! So why did it go wrong? Sebastian Mallaby is a journalist and author of the book 'The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan'. He joined Share Radio's Juliette Foster in the studio.
Published: Tue 25 Oct 2016
The Book Review: Harold James, author of "The Euro and the Battle of Ideas"
Debt crises, high unemployment and now BREXIT...it hasn't been a great year for the European Union as it fights to hold together what's left of the bloc whilst retaining and building the credibility of the single currency. Can the Euro survive or is it hamstrung by Europe's competing visions of what the future is supposed to be? It all points to a philosophical difference between the founding countries of the single currency bloc, France and Germany. Can the differences be resolved or have events reached a point from which there is no turning back. Professor Harold James, is one of three authors of the new book, The Euro and the Battle of Ideas. Harold James now joined Juliette Foster in the studio.
Published: Tue 20 Sep 2016
The Book Review: 'The Pursuit of Power: Europe, 1815-1914' by Sir Richard J. Evans
Joining Steve Clarke in the studio is distinguished historian, Sir Richard J. Evans, to discuss his new book 'The Pursuit of Power: Europe, 1815-1914', out now and published by Allen Lane. There's been a flood of literature in the past couple of years associated with the anniversary of the first World War - but what was happening in Europe in the 100 years that led up to that? Themes explored within Sir Richard's new book and in the studio include rationalistic excess, scientific revolution, the inevitability of WW1 and the dramatic diplomatic ruptures that have permeated our past and present.
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Home Exclusives It’s Colin Firth’s Turn for the Oscar as “King’s Speech” Triumphs
It’s Colin Firth’s Turn for the Oscar as “King’s Speech” Triumphs
by Roger Friedman - September 8, 2010 12:22 am
I wish I could be in Toronto on Friday night when “The King’s Speech” is met with thunderous applause and standing ovations. (I don’t arrive until late Friday night.)
Tom Hooper‘s movie about King George VI, father of the current Queen of England, and his speech therapist, is going to rock the festival, just as it has Telluride It’s one of those Best Picture nominees that is just perfect in every way. Stars Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, and Geoffrey Rush–not to mention Timothy Spall, Jennifer Ehle, and Guy Pearce–just take your breath away individually and as an ensemble.
Hooper is well known for his Emmy award winning work directing mini series for HBO. He was behind “John Adams” and “Elizabeth I” with Helen Mirren. Last year Hooper made his first feature, “The Damned United.” It was a good film but it didn’t foreshadow at all what Hooper had in mind. “The King’s Speech” is a fascinating hybrid of old fashioned film making done on the cutting edge. And the nice part is, you won’t have to see it three times to figure out what happened.
The story is simple: King George (Michael Gambon)– that’s Elizabeth’s grandfather–is dying. He will be succeeded by his son, Edward (known in the family as David.) But Edward is in love with an American divorcee, Mrs. Wallis Simpson. When the king dies, Edward takes the crown. But in short time he abdicates to be with her. Next in line is Edward’s brother, “Bertie,” Elizabeth’s father. Bertie is married to another Elizabeth, whom we came to know as the Queen Mother.
Helena Bonham Carter has made so many movies with Tim Burton that you kind of forget how good she is not being crazy, evil, or possessed. She is sublime as the Queen Mum, almost a revelation. She is there to support and guide her husband, who stammers ferociously and has deep seated fears about communicating with his public. That’s where Geoffrey Rush comes in, as the real life speech therapist Lionel Logue. The scenes with three of these actors in them–Firth, Rush, and Bonham-Carter–are the actors’ scenes to beat in this awards season.
So it’s a relief to report on “The King’s Speech.” There’s none of that usual last minute gasping and wondering that has accompanied Oscar level films in the last few years. It’s the first week of September, and there’s some great to look forward to for holiday release. For the Weinstein Company, “The King’s Speech” is the much needed hit–commercially and artistically– to lift them back into the winners’ circle.
And for Colin Firth, who came close last season with “A Single Man,” it looks like 2010 is really his year.
geoffrey-rush
Is Oprah As Big as the Beatles Now? Kennedy Center Will Honor McCartney, Winfrey
Madonna's Movie May Suffer from "King's Speech" Comparison
hicalcium
September 30, 2010 12:23 am at 12:23 AM
Hi, It’s excellent to see sites with bing and thanks for the share that you’ve given. Commonly, I’m really amazed, but etc.
clobird
September 12, 2010 2:26 pm at 2:26 PM
Elizabeth II is The Queen of THE UNITED KINGDOM of Great Britain(England,Scotland,Wales),Commonwealth and other Territories.
It would be great if the media were able to properly use correct titles.There hasn’t been a monarch of England for over 300 years!
The movie sounds magnificent,further exploring the King’s speech therapy which was touched on in the made for television movie “Bertie and Elizabeth.”
OSCAR TRACKER: What Telluride and Venice Have Told Us | Film Misery
September 8, 2010 12:30 pm at 12:30 PM
[…] Actor (Firth), Supporting Actor (Rush), and Supporting Actress (Bonhan-Carter). Roger Friedman of Showbiz 411 hails the film’s acting by singling out Colin Firth saying “it looks like 2010 is […]
September 8, 2010 10:03 am at 10:03 AM
I could not agree more with Mr. Friedman’s opinion that it’s Colin Firth’s “turn” for the Oscar! And high time, too!
Anyone who has really watched his performances–over the past TWENTY-FIVE YEARS!!!–knows that he shares the “rarified air” very, very few in his field can when it comes to facial expressionism. Colin Firth speaks volumes without the need for words! Then, secondarily, to watch him breathe life into his characters with words is such a GIFT and a delight!
May the Force be with you–again–this year, Colin Firth, and may you add the Oscar to the mantle bedside your BAFTA and Volpa!
Mary Maude Henry
September 8, 2010 5:54 am at 5:54 AM
Roger, A simply wonderful article, how I have suffered sitting through films that I just didn’t GET!!!!! Colin Firth is a dreamboat, can’t wait to see the film, you have me chomping at the bit!
It’s Colin Firth’s Turn for the Oscar as “King’s Speech” Triumphs | Showbizspy
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NHS battling against transplant centre closures during pandemic
A number of facilities across the country have had to close while beds are taken up by Covid-19 patients.
The NHS logo
The NHS says it is striving to ensure as many organ transplants as possible can go ahead despite the forced closure of several transplant centres amid the Covid crisis.
A report in The Independent says patients are missing out on potentially life-saving transplants because hospital intensive care beds are currently taken up by coronavirus patients.
According to a list provided to the PA news agency by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), 13 out of 68 facilities where various organ transplants are usually carried out are currently fully closed.
A small number of others are either paused for up to 14 days, open for selected patients only, open for “super urgent and urgent cases only”, or partially closed – meaning closed to either deceased or to living donations.
Facilities affected include Guy’s Hospital, the West London Renal & Transplant Centre, and the Royal Free Hospital in the capital, as well as Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and Belfast City Hospital.
Daily confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the UK (PA Graphics)
The Independent reported there had been a 21% year-to-year drop in the number of transplants carried out within the NHS in 2020 due to first two waves of the pandemic.
This comes after reports hundreds of cancer surgeries had been delayed, also due to beds being taken up by Covid patients.
Citing NHSBT figures, The Independent said more than 350 people died in the UK last year while awaiting a transplant, and that some 6,000 people were currently on the UK’s transplant waiting list.
Teacher Shona McFadyen, who has waited 22 months for a transplant after being diagnosed with liver cancer, said the situation amid the pandemic had made those on the waiting list feel forgotten.
“It’s not the hospital’s fault. I get that. But it just adds to the feeling of hopelessness and it feels like as patients we have been forgotten about. It is life and death for us,” she told the paper.
NHSBT said in a statement every effort was being made to carry out as many transplants as possible, with each organ donation considered on a case-by-case basis.
Transplant units were constantly reassessing their situations amid fluctuations in Covid cases across the country, the statement said, and “doing their best to stay open”.
“Organ donation and transplantation is a highly sensitive, challenging and intense area of NHS work, where time is critical,” said John Forsythe, Medical Director of Organ Donation and Transplantation for NHSBT.
“The current pandemic has brought additional, unprecedented challenges to the donation and transplantation community, as it has for the whole of the NHS.
“However with a great team effort across medical teams, deceased organ donation and transplant activity continued for the most urgent patients during the first wave of Covid-19 and returned to pre-Covid levels in the summer.”
Mr Forsyth said NHS teams were working together “with the shared aim that no opportunity for transplant is missed”.
“While Covid-19 cases continue to rise, especially in areas of the UK with high variant Covid-19 numbers, we have plans in place to continue with deceased organ donation and transplant activity as much as possible and to ensure adequate capacity and resilience within all the teams involved,” he said.
“We have learnt a lot from the first and second waves of the virus and transplants continue to be a priority across the NHS, with safety remaining paramount.”
Mr Forsyth said if a centre reports it is unable to transplant an available organ, the key was to ensure there were other centres that could.
“If an organ is declined by one centre due to capacity, we have systems and procedures in place to identify a suitable alternative centre to ensure that the organ can still go to a patient in need,” he said.
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USWNT’s Megan Rapinoe kneels for national anthem before Thailand match
Midfielder Megan Rapinoe chose to kneel during the national anthem ahead of the U.S. women’s national team match against Thailand on Thursday night.
Midfielder Megan Rapinoe chose to kneel during the national anthem ahead of the U.S. women’s national team’s match against Thailand on Thursday night.
Rapinoe recently knelt ahead of an NWSL match two weeks ago in solidarity with 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his stance against racial inequality and police treatment toward blacks in America. She did so again before the U.S.’s match in Columbus, Ohio.
Rapinoe told ESPN Wednesday that she was still unsure what she would do ahead of the Thailand friendly, after telling SI last week that she intended to kneel.
After the game, Rapinoe told ESPN that she planned to keep kneeling going forward, doing “what she knew was right all along.” She was the only player who chose not to stand during the anthem.
“As of now I plan to keep kneeling," she said. "I'm trying to kind of formulate a better plan and an action step moving forward. But until then this is how I can help, this how I can use my voice going forward and this is how I can be an ally in this space.”
U.S. Soccer released a statement during the game, expressing that it did not agree with Rapinoe’s choice:
“Representing your country is a privilege and honor for any player or coach that is associated with U.S. Soccer's National Teams. Therefore, our national anthem has particular significance for U.S. Soccer In front of national and often global audiences, the playing of our national anthem is an opportunity for our Men's and Women's National Team players and coaches to reflect upon the liberties and freedom we all appreciate in this country. As part of the privilege to represent your country, we have an expectation that our players and coaches will stand and honor our flag while the national anthem is played.”
Rapinoe told ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap ahead of the game that it would be “more meaningful” to do something during a national team game than a club game, but she indicated that it might not involve taking a knee. Per SI’s Grant Wahl, U.S. Soccer communicated to Rapinoe ahead of the game that it would find taking a knee would be disrespectful and that doing so would take attention away from Heather O’Reilly’s final game with the national team.
The U.S. defeated Thailand 9–0.
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Apple and Oracle reveal OpenJDK project for Mac OS X
Oracle and Apple today revealed the OpenJDK project for Mac OS X. OpenJDK will make Apple’s Java technology available to open source developers so they can access and contribute to the effort.
Apple will provide most of the tools for a Java SE 7 implementation on Mac OS X.
The tools, technologies and components will include a 32-bit and 64-bit HotSpot-based Java virtual machine, class libraries, a networking stack and the foundation for a new graphical client.
“We are excited to welcome Apple as a significant contributor in the growing OpenJDK community,” said Hasan Rizvi, Oracle’s senior vice-president of Development.
“The availability of Java on Mac OS X plays a key role in the cross-platform promise of the Java platform.
“The Java developer community can rest assured that the leading-edge Java environment will continue to be available on Mac OS X in the future. Combined with last month’s announcement of IBM joining the OpenJDK, the project now has the backing of three of the biggest names in software.”
Mac OS X Lion
Apple also confirmed that Java SE 6 will continue to be available from Apple for Mac OS X Snow Leopard and the upcoming release of Mac OS X Lion. Java SE 7 and future versions of Java for Mac OS X will be available from Oracle.
Java is a general purpose software development platform that is specifically designed to be open and enable application developers to “write once, run anywhere.” The Java platform is most widely used in business software, web and mobile applications.
“We’re delighted to be working with Oracle to insure that there continues to be a great version of Java on the Mac,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice-president of Software Engineering.
“The best way for our users to always have the most up to date and secure version of Java will be to get it directly from Oracle,” Serlet said.
Related: programming, Apple, Open Source, software development, software, Oracle
Leaving Cert grading meltdown shows why open source is top of the class
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Bing and Yahoo! both decide to make image search more visual
Earlier this week, Yahoo! introduced changes to its image and video search facilities following a partnership with Getty Images, while yesterday, Bing announced a new look for its own image search services, which will be rolled out soon.
Bing’s search layout recently underwent a makeover, and this is now being applied to its image search, too, which makes up 7pc of all Bing searches.
Small thumbnails have been scrapped in favour of bigger images presented in a neatly tiled layout that minimises white space. When hovering over an image, you’ll see an enlarged pop-up with details of size, title and source information, all of which was previously included on the main page.
Bing has also added a filter bar across the top of image search pages, to filter images by size, colour, type (ie, photograph or graphic), layout (landscape, portrait, etc) and faces (whether you want people, faces or head and shoulders shots). So, if you’re specifically looking for large, wide photographs of purple flowers, Bing has found a way of making the search for them easier.
Search suggestions have also been revamped to help refine a query and a right-hand sidebar of related search topics and trending searches provides a means of endless discovery.
Yahoo! partners with Getty
While Bing’s changes don’t seem to have taken effect in Europe yet, Yahoo!’s update is in full swing.
Yahoo!’s attitude is that searching for images and video on the web “should be the most visually stunning experience possible”, according to a blog post on the changes.
To help search facilities reach an eye-catching new level, Yahoo! has partnered with Getty Images to provide access to some of the best digital images you can find on the web. More than 25,000 new images are added to Getty’s award-winning catalogue every day, some of which come from current events within minutes of being taken.
With access to such high-quality content, it was fitting of Yahoo! to make the decision to revamp its image and video search to suit.
Also opting for a tiled format, every image on the Yahoo! image search results page takes the same square shape, enlarging when you hover.
To help users find high-quality and recent images with ease, HQ badges are used to denote images of at least 2MP in size at an aspect ratio of 1,024 x 768, while the ‘Latest’ filter lets users know exactly when the most recent images were uploaded. A large image on the left of the results page will let you know how many of these recent or HQ images there are, and lets you jump straight to them.
Updates to Yahoo! video search
The video search page now includes continuous scroll and sports the same tiled layout, while videos become larger and play a preview when you hover. With higher-quality videos, streams will be optimised to suit your network capabilities.
Building on the power of HTML 5, Yahoo! has now enabled full-screen video viewing, as well as cross-device support. You can also continue to search videos while viewing on Yahoo!’s in-line player, as well as view recommended and trending topics, without a need to return to the search page.
Related: video, Bing, Microsoft, media, search, Yahoo
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Operation Aurora: Clues in the Code
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 By: Joe Stewart
With the recently disclosed hacking incident inside Google and other major companies, much of the world has begun to wake up to what the infosec community has known for some time there is a persistent campaign of "espionage-by-malware" emanating from the People's Republic of China (PRC). Corporate and state secrets both have been shanghaied over a period of five or more years, and the activity becomes bolder over time with little public acknowledgement or response from the U.S. government.
"Operation Aurora" is the latest in a series of attacks originating out of Mainland China. Previous attacks have been known as "GhostNet" and "Titan Rain." Operation Aurora takes its name directly from the hackers this time the name was coined after virus analysts found unique strings in some of the malware involved in the attack. These strings are debug symbol file paths in source code that has apparently been custom-written for these attacks. The paths were left behind in the compiled binaries as shown below:
Although the code behind Operation Aurora has only recently been discovered, and the known samples of the main backdoor trojan (called Hydraq by antivirus companies) appear to be no older than 2009. It appears that development of Aurora has been in the works for quite some time some of the custom modules in the Aurora codebase have compiler time stamps dating back to May 2006. This date is only a year or so after the Titan Rain attacks, which largely used widely-available trojans that were already known to antivirus companies. As a result of using completely original code and then only in highly-targeted attacks, the Aurora code seems to have escaped detection for quite some time.
The compiler often offers other clues to a malware sample's origin. For instance, if the binary uses a PE resource section, the resource's headers will often provide a language code. The Hydraq component does use a resource section, but in this case, the author was careful to either compile the code on an English-language system, or they edited the language code in the binary after-the-fact. So outside of the fact that PRC IP addresses have been used as control servers in the attacks, there is no "hard evidence" of involvement of the PRC or any agents thereof.
There is one interesting clue in the Hydraq binary that points back to mainland China, however. While analyzing the samples, I noticed a CRC (cyclic redundancy check) algorithm that seemed somewhat unusual. CRCs are used to check for errors that might have been introduced into stored or transferred data. There are many different CRC algorithms and implementations of those algorithms, but this is one I had not previously seen in any of my reverse-engineering efforts. Below is the raw assembly code for the CRC algorithm in Hydraq:
The first thing that is unusual about this CRC algorithm is the size of the table of constants (the incrementing values in the left pane of the assembly listing). Most 16 or 32-bit CRC algorithms use a hard-coded table of 256 constants. The CRC algorithm used in Hydraq uses a table of only 16 constants; basically a truncated version of the typical 256-value table. By decompiling the algorithm and searching the Internet for source code with similar constants, operations and a 16-value CRC table size, I was able to locate one instance of source code that fully matched the structural code implementation in Hydraq and also produced the same output when given the same input:
This source code was created to implement a 16-bit CRC algorithm compatible with the implementation known as "CRC-16 XMODEM", while requiring only a 16-value CRC table. It is actually a clever optimization of the standard CRC-16 reference code that allows the CRC-16 algorithm to be used in applications where memory is at a premium, such as hobby microcontrollers. Because the author used the C "int" type to store the CRC value, the number of bits in the output is dependent on the platform on which the code is compiled. In the case of Hydraq, which is a 32-bit Windows DLL, this CRC-16 implementation actually outputs a 32-bit value, which makes it compatible with neither existing CRC-16 nor CRC-32 implementations.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this source code sample is that it is of Chinese origin, released as part of a Chinese-language paper on optimizing CRC algorithms for use in microcontrollers. The full paper was published in simplified Chinese characters, and all existing references and publications of the sample source code seem to be exclusively on Chinese websites. This CRC-16 implementation seems to be virtually unknown outside of China, as shown by a Google search for one of the key variables, "crc_ta[16]". At the time of this writing, almost every page with meaningful content concerning the algorithm is Chinese:
This information strongly indicates the Aurora codebase originated with someone who is comfortable reading simplified Chinese. Although source code itself is not restrained by any particular human language or nationality, most programmers reuse code documented in their native language. To do otherwise is to invite bugs and other unexpected problems that might arise from misunderstanding of the source code's purpose and implementation as given by the code comments or documentation.
In my opinion, the use of this unique CRC implementation in Hydraq is evidence that someone from within the PRC authored the Aurora codebase. And certainly, considering the scope, choice of targets and the overwhelming boldness of the attacks (in light of the harsh penalties we have seen handed out in communist China for other computer intrusion offenses), this creates speculation around whether the attacks could be state-sponsored.
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¡TravelSickness!
Travel is a sickness. There is no cure.
Category > Oregon
Northern California & Oregon (Summer Road Trip Part 5)
20 September 2010 By Jason 6 In California, Oregon, United States
Sausalito, CA – Humboldt Redwoods State Park, CA – Redwood National Park, CA – Portland, OR
Avenue of the Giants, Humboldt Redwoods State Park
Trees, trees, and more trees. That’s the story of Northern California. We visited the ‘Avenue of the Giants’ in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, home to some of the world’s tallest trees- California Coastal Redwoods. We also visited the Redwood National Forest, where recently the new World’s Tallest Tree has been found. The redwoods were incredible, and walking under them really made you feel so insignificant and tiny. They were inspiring and beautiful… This was definitely a highlight of the trip for me. Then we continued north to Portland, where we visited Travis and checked out his new house, and visited Portland’s Japanese Gardens.
California, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Northern California, Oregon, Portland, Redwood National Forest, Redwoods, Road Trip, Summer, United States
Blessing a Large Camion
Album: Copacabana
Central Andes
Los Uros
All Photos and Text Copyright © 2010 - 2010 ¡TravelSickness! | Translation by Transposh | Powered by WordPress
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swiftsummit
So, whilst this is today, I'm going to start by rolling back a year when I was lucky enough to present at Swift Summit last year. So a year ago we had just released Swift 3, which was the first official release of Swift, which had any support for Linux. Up to that point, Linux support had only been available in the development chain. So it was the first release where Linux support was actually there. We already had a number of web frameworks. We had Zewo that was at 0.7. We had Kitura, which had just released 1.0. We had Vapor, which had also just released 1.0. And we had Perfect that was already on 2.0, although they went to 2.0 from 0.8 so they kind of just bypassed 1. We also had IBM Cloud as the Cloud that was declaring that it had done the integration work to allow you to run Swift in a Cloud on Linux machines.
So, whilst it was the first release, we had already achieved a huge amount. But at that point, Swift 3 and Linux support were still very new. We had literally just finished getting dispatch into Linux and we had just finished getting a very early version of URLSession into Linux. Now, since then, of those four frameworks unfortunately Zewo has kind of fallen by the wayside, it's not actually made it's 1.0. But we still have three frameworks left. Of those, Vapor is now just in beta for Vapor 3 and Perfect is on version 3 as well.
So we have three major frameworks, all of which are actually really quite successful now. Kitura itself has doubled the number of downloads in just the last three months and the three of them are kind of duking it out for supremacy, playing something that looks like an advanced game of rock, paper, scissors. Where we have; Kitura drinks water, water soaks paper, paper covers bird- and the competition is actually very good. It's encouraging all of the frameworks to be more innovative. And if, for anybody that watches Big Bang Theory, there is room in this game for a lizard and a Spock.
In addition to the frameworks, we have IBM Cloud still, which now has hundreds of deployments of Swift servers. And we have a second Cloud which just went 1.0 a few days ago from Vapor. And Vapor themselves tell us that they have around about fifty customers running in Vapor Cloud today. We also have the server API Workgroup, so whilst those frameworks are competing on framework capabilities, there's a general understanding that there's low level API's around HTTP networking and security, which are fairly standardized and would really benefit from a lot of collaboration. So we started this effort over the last year and around about a month ago we produced 0.1.0 of the HTTP Server API. This provides a relatively straightforward way of creating Hello World. It doesn't compete with the server frameworks which provide a lot of extra function on top of it, but it's about standardizing those low levels and helping us bring more frameworks into the competition.
Just a few days ago, we raised a pull request to add TLS support, so that's HTTPS, into that server, and that pull request is still open and being discussed actively at the moment. So lots of work has happened in the last year, where we now have three large frameworks, which are being increasingly successful. We're trying to standardize the lower level and we have new frameworks arriving every day. And Brandon's gonna talk about one of those tomorrow.
But not everything's rosy, and that means yes, we need to talk about Foundation on Linux. So Foundation is a collection of around about 1700 APIs. Now, interestingly if you do some searches over GitHub, you will find that of the Objective-C files on GitHub that import any framework or any library, almost 40 percent of those actually import Foundation. So Foundation is used widely throughout the Objective-C ecosystem. And if you do the same analysis for Swift, you find that 90 percent of Swift files that import anything, import Foundation.
Having Foundation support was always considered to be a critical item for Swift on the Server and Swift on Linux. Because without good support for Foundation, being able to port and reuse code that's being used on iOS clients, to the server, just isn't possible. So of those 1700 APIs, on the day that Swift was announced as an open source project, around about 75 percent of those were unimplemented. So a huge amount of unimplemented code, at the point that Swift went open source. Now this was way before Swift 3. At the point that we reached Swift 3 GA a year ago, something like 42-43 percent of those APIs were unimplemented. As I said, we had delivered dispatch, we'd added in URLSession and a lot of critical APIs were there, but we still had over 40 percent of the APIs unimplemented.
Now, in the last year we've had some fairly stellar superstars working on Foundation on Linux, so the open source Foundation project. And these are the top 10 contributors. Now, one of the interesting things is, Philippe and Alex- those two work for Apple. The rest of the work is being done by community members, people outside of Apple. And there's been a huge drive and a huge amount of focus and effort from a range of people.
So if we go through some of them, we have Sho, he has done a huge amount of work, right the way across the codebase doing improvements in several different areas, mostly around improving code hygiene and code quality. We have Simon and John, both of whom are based in London, as indeed is Al Blewitt. And we have kind of like a growing group of people in London that are actually starting to work on these open source projects.
Simon in particular, got involved having met Ian Partridge, one of the IBM team based where I am- in the south of England, at a conference and they started talking and Simon started to get involved in working on the Foundation libraries on Linux. We have Bartek, he's been doing a huge amount of work on JSON encoding and decoding in Codable. We've got Sergey, who's been doing a lot work around URLProtocol and URL work. And we have three people from the IBM team who have been focused on implementing APIs, which are used for server work cases. And a lot of that's been around URLSession, URLProtocol, cookie storage, and so on, allowing you to take libraries which make network connections and use those same libraries on the server.
Just a couple of other people for notable mentions, they aren't in the top 10 committers but they have delivered just as many lines of code as the rest. So, Mamatha and Nethra, they've been working on URLProtocol, amongst other things, and those both also work for the IBM team.
So, in the last year, we started with about 43 percent of the APIs not implemented and we are now today down to about 22 percent. Now, if you think about what's left, a number of the APIs which aren't implemented, there's an argument that they're not that interesting or that they will never be implemented. So there's a lot of stuff around NSCoder, which has just been replaced with Codable. There is EnergyFormatter, which has not been done because it's really not that interesting on a server where it's plugged into the mains. There are stuff around measurement formatting which hasn't been done yet, but it's not difficult work and it can closed out when someone actually needs to do that.
So the big question is, is Foundation on Linux ready? Can I actually rely on it? And the answer is this: today IBM is announcing commercial support for Swift on Linux. That covers Swift, Foundation, and Dispatch. Now, that support is regardless of which server framework you're using, if you want to use Vapor, or Kitura, or Perfect, or another framework, or no framework at all. It also applies regardless of which cloud you happen to be deploying on.
Now, in addition to support for Linux, obviously there's support for the Kitura ecosystem as well. So there's commercial support for Kitura, all of the libraries on the IBM Swift repository, as well as some of the monitoring capabilities that we provide. And again, that's regardless of the cloud in which you choose to deploy it. Whether it is a cloud, whether you're running it on your own hardware.
Okay, so, also if we roll back to last year and the presentation I did here, one of the things that I really talked about was how software interop is hard. And how it's too easy when you have two ends of a connection, with a protocol in between, to do parsing and serialization and decoding the other end that gets things wrong. But what I said was, because we're using Swift, and we have Swift on the client, and Swift on the server, we can share code on both sides and we end up with a much safer solution. And I talked about being able to have a project that you deploy components to the client, components to the server and we kind of work out how to do the protocol in between. But because you're using the same code in both places, you have an inherently type-safe secure system.
So that's what I was saying, but in around April this year there was a conversation between Max and Soroush on Twitter where the question was asked, "You've been doing some server-side work, how much code are we sharing between client and server?" And you could imagine that I expected the answer to be, "Well, lots." But no. Soroush is a very clever guy, so this kind of makes me worried. It makes me think, "If he can't do it, then maybe a year ago that statement that I made was just wrong." So Max asked, "Well, why not? That sounds surprising." And Soroush said, "Well, it's difficult to share because you'd use stuff on the client and then you'd have to have a JSON representation and things change." And he said, "I would love to get to the point that I can share models, and maybe there's some codegen or some protocols that would enable me to do that."
So, this is really why that problem occurs. You start off on your client and you have Swift code and you declare a struct for something like a user profile, and that might have a name, which is a string. It might have a photo that I've stored as data and it might have a date of birth, which is a date. So I start off with strongly typed Swift structures. Then I need to transmit it, and the way to do that over networks, by standard today, is JSON, the JavaScript Object Notation.
Now, JSON doesn't really have types. You can have strings, you can have numbers, you can have booleans, and you can have arrays. But that's it, there's only four. So it's nowhere near as rich a set of capabilities as you get from Swift.
Now, another problem that you get is, so I've got a date of birth, which I've encoded as a date. But there are several different ways of storing dates as strings. It could be year-month-day, it could be day-month-year, it could be month-day-year, depending on which country you're in as to which is the standard.
So, because I'm transferring it as JSON and it's difficult to know how the string might be laid out, it's probably best if I convert that into three separate values. Then I can store them as numbers, and then there's no ambiguity as to which order they are in the string. Then, when it arrives at my Swift server, and I do my JSON decoding, I end up with a dictionary of string Any pairs. And that looks nothing like what I started with. So this is why Soroush was saying it's very difficult to share code.
And the good news is, as you’ve just heard from Priya, Codable is actually changing that and for me it's very much a game changer in the ability to share code between client and server. So, lets look at what you had to do before. So I would get some data and a would use a JSON parser to parse that data and I would end with my JSON type, which is actually a dictionary. The first thing I have to do is start working my way through that dictionary to make sure that the fields I expect actually exist, and if they don't return, an error. So I do that for name, I check to see whether it exists, if it does exist, I have to check it's type, I have to make sure that name is actually a string. And once I've done that I can move onto my next value, which is photo, which I said is data.
So I can check for the photo, and then I can check to see that it's a string. Because JSON doesn't actually implement data, when I take data and I send it to JSON, I have to make it a base64 encoded string. So first I have to check that it's actually a string, then I have to make sure that that string can be base64 encoded back to data. And once I've done that, if I ignore the date of birth case, I can actually create a new profile object from it.
So, I've written a huge amount of boilerplate code in order to take a JSON object and reconstruct the thing I started with on the client. Now, as you've just seen from Priya, when you use Codable with JSON encoders and decoders, this becomes radically simplified. So what I have in here, is reading in some data from my request and I'm requesting it's decoded to a profile type and then, assuming that works, I have success, if it doesn't, I have to take an error and I have to encode that to JSON to send it back down the wire.
Now, I can make this slightly better, I can mean that you don't have to read the data from my request, I can actually do that directly and just request a type comes back from the data. And I can do the same thing the other end, I can send a type and run the JSON encoder under the covers. And that simplifies it again.
So using Codable drastically simplifies what a developer has to do on the server. But this is actually only a small part of what you have to do if you're writing a web API on a server. You actually have to wrap it in all of this. So at the top I have to register my handler with the server, which is called storeProfile. Then, inside storeProfile I have to deal with a web request, so that's an incoming router request. I also get a web response, so I have web requests and web responses that I have to deal with.
And then I have this thing called next, which is kind of like a pseudo-completion handler. And the first thing I have to do, I actually have to check an HTTP header to make sure that the thing coming over the wire says that it's JSON before I can start doing the parsing. And then I have to take that and convert it into my type.
Now, if you're a web programmer, this might make sense. If you're a Swift programmer, it absolutely doesn't. No one writes Swift functions like this, unless you're doing web programming. So in terms of being Swift code, I would probably give this about a 3 out of 10.
So if I was to write an async function in Swift it would look a lot more like this: I would create a store function that takes a profile. So that's a Swift type. And I would have a completion handler that returns, with say another profile and an error, depending on whether it errors. And this is what an async function in Swift should actually look like.
So why can't I write a Swift server and web APIs that just looks like a Swift function? Well, maybe you can. So, Codable Routing is a new set of APIs which we're introducing. This is a Codable route: So I've created a store function that takes a profile parameter, and I have a completion handler where I respond with an optional profile for success and an optional error for failure. So, I've just written a Swift function, and that's gonna be my web API.
So, Swift types, which must implement Codable, that's the only requirement, hence the term Codable Routing, and my error happens to be of type request error, and that's because I need to encode things like HTTP errors into it. But essentially, I'm just writing, what looks like, declaring a Swift function.
Now, that's fine for storing data. Let's say I wanna get some data from a server, so it's the same thing except that what I'm gonna request is an identifier. So, we've extended Int and string to conform to identifier. You can create your own custom identifiers. And that identifier is a particular object that you might have stored on a server.
And I can do delete the same way so I can delete an identified item. And the one bit of web programming you actually have to do is then just register that with your server router. But I've declared functions that I want to be able to call from the client.
So, that takes us back to what we wanted to do, where I have a project and I can declare it, deploy it to the server and I have Swift types that I'm using. So, hopefully I can use that to the client using something that's called a client/server contract. I declare a contract of how the client and the server talk to each other.
Now, for this to work, really where I've declared functions on the server, I wanna also be able to call those functions from the client, using the same form.
So we're also releasing KituraKit. KituraKit is a bespoke client for working with our server. So, you create a client like you might with Alamofire or any other kind of client request. I just instantiate and pointed out where my server is. And then what I do is I make a request that sends those Swift types that implements Codable, so I send a profile and I get a completion handler that has a profile and an error.
So it's a mirror image of what I'm doing on the server. And I can do that for create and I can do it for delete and so on. And all of this is available right now in Kitura 2.
So, that's what you have today, but what could come next? So, now that we're talking about APIs on the client, that talk APIs on the server, and I haven't made you deal with a web request and I haven't made you deal with responses and you haven't had to deal with JSON, JSON doesn't need to be the transport anymore. We can actually convert it to something that maintains those Swift types between the client and the server. So no more having to take data and convert it to base64 encoded strings and back again.
The other advantage of Optimized Transports is JSON contains the name of the field and then the payload. There are transports like Protobuf, and Thrift, which are binary, strongly typed, highly compressed and use about a quarter of the data that you used when you're using JSON. And Tim's gonna talk about this I think later this afternoon, so that's well worth taking a look at.
So, now that you don't have to deal with JSON, I can optimize the transport. I can also do Implicit Security. You don't need to worry about certificate handling and how that data is encoded. We can do it for you, we can do it under the covers because we own both ends of the connection and you just deal with writing a call to a Swift function and receiving that Swift function on the server.
We can also deal with things like User Domains. So, when you're writing an iOS app, there's only one user. That's the user that owns the device that's logging into the app. On the server, you’re in a multi-user domain. You have multiple devices attached to that server. And we can simplify that picture for you by implicitly converting a device into a specific user when it's connected to the server.
And finally, we can do API Protocols. So, wouldn't it be nice if you could, as well as declaring types, which are used on the client and the server, so we currently talked about types that implement Codable and types that implement identifier and an error that's a request error. But those are just the data. Wouldn't it be good if we could actually declare a protocol, which is your API, in the same way that you would when you're doing Swift programming.
So, here's an idea of what that might look like. So, under what we have in Kitura 2 today with Codable handling, I can declare, let's say, a to-do item that implements Codable and it's got some fields. And I can share that on the client and the server and I kind of agree that my client's gonna call the same things that my server can respond to. If I wanted to define that, maybe it would be nice if I could declare a protocol and I'm gonna call that protocol todoStoreAPI and that's going to implement a bunch of functions.
So it will have a Store, it will have a Get, it will have an Update, and it will have an Index and a Delete, because I want to be able to store and get back to-do items. And once I've deployed that, on the server I'm going to be forced to implement them because when you create an instance of a protocol you are forced to implement the functions that the protocol declares.
So on the server I have to implement this. So I provide my user provided implementation. And then I also deploy it onto the client. On the client, I don't need to implement anything because KituraKit can provide a default implementation of each of those functions which makes a remote call to the server.
So I've declared a protocol, which defines my API. I've shared that between the client and the server, and the server's made me implement it, and the client's implicitly gonna call the server when those APIs are called. And then I can just create that connection and I can write my code.
And the other thing that we can do is, because those APIs are identical, if I wanted to I could run them in the same process. So for testing I don't need two processors and I don't need a network connection. I can just get my client to call those APIs directly.
So, all of this is possible and all of this is stuff that we are starting to do and starting to prototype and that we're discussing publicly on the Kitura evolution process. So, that was a taste of what we have today and what could be there in the future. Thank you.
If you enjoyed this talk, you can find more info:
Kitura 2.0 - Blog post
Chris Bailey - Twitter
Swift Summit - Website | Twitter
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First Listen: LW makes us "Happy" about new single
(August 3, 2017) LW’s neo-soul cut “Happy” is the definition of a song that is topical and timely. The track finds the LA based crooner contrasting himself to the man in a woman’s past who was the source of sadness and pain. He plans to be a source of happiness and joy.
This is a track that, if not inspired by recent headlines and accounts of boorish and borderline illegal behavior towards women by men, comes with an understanding that women have good reason to worry that some of their fellow citizens who happen to be men do not have their best interest at heart.
LW tells us, “Happy was created for all of the women who have been physically and mentally abused. I wanted to write a song that let them know there are men who know how to appreciate and accept their brilliance.”
Check out LW below, and get happy!
LW – “Happy”
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Pension Benefits Among the Aged: Conflicting Measures, Unequal Distributions
by John R. Woods
Estimates of total benefits paid by employer sponsored pension plans seem to vary widely between different data sources and measures. Such discrepancies have been used to support differing conclusions about the effectiveness of the pension system. This article examines several measures of aggregate pension benefits in 1990, a year particularly rich in available data. Exploratory analysis suggests that the greatest source of discrepancy lies in differing treatments of lump-sum distributions, although the study also identifies several other types of payments that are variously, and erroneously, counted as pension income. Age of recipients is an important factor in analyzing different measures of aggregate pension benefits; discrepancies are much smaller among the aged than in the population as a whole, The analysis also provides new evidence about the unequal distribution of pension benefits among the aged, confirming from two data sources that benefits are heavily concentrated among higher income groups.
Poverty Among Single Elderly Women Under Different Systems of Old-Age Security: A Comparative Review
by Jürg K. Siegenthaler
This study takes stock of available comparative research on the economic status of elderly single women in six industrialized countries: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. A systematic comparison of income has become easier due to such standardized data bases as the Luxembourg Income Study.
But an explanation for different poverty rates among older women who are on their own requires a further, differentiated assessment of the countries' retirement benefit structures. This article attempts such a review. It makes use of a variety of single-country sources and takes into account the institutional heterogeneity of old-age security systems. The study concludes with a view of the effectiveness of different old-age security systems in preventing poverty among older single women.
Privatizing Social Security: The Chilean Experience
by Barbara E. Kritzer
In 1981, Chile introduced a new approach to social insurance, a system of individual capitalization accounts financed solely by the employee. This new privatized system was an improvement over Chile's failing pay-as-you-go arrangement. As many countries worldwide are facing financial problems with their social security system, they are now looking to the Chilean model in trying to find solutions. This article describes the conditions that led to the new system, the transition, and details of the new privatized system.
Major Welfare Reforms Enacted in 1996
by Rita L. DiSimone
SSA Programs That Benefit Children
by Lenna D. Kennedy
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Guest Author 29th September 2020 29th September 2020
First things first. There will be mentions of violence, rape, and crimes against children in this piece. If you’re someone who can get easily affected/ triggered by reading about such incidents, please do not read further.
If you need help, please call the numbers below:
Women police helpline: 1091, 1291
Domestic abuse national helpline: 181
Childline: 1098
We as a country were shook to the core by the incidents of 16th of December, 2012. Rape as a crime was not uncommon in the country, especially not the national capital. It was the sheer violence and hatred, the lack of humanity in the Nirbhaya case that caused such hue and cry. The details of this crime were chilling, and the cruelty previously unheard of.
Almost a decade later, things are seemingly stuck in the same place, if not deteriorating rapidly. The sheer volume of rape cases has resulted in most newspapers dedicating a whole section to these articles. The news channels have made a circus out of the cases (nothing new there), broadcasting the most devastating details in an insensitive and sensational manner. While the erstwhile journalists have taken on the job of soap opera actors, the situation of women has taken turn after turn for the worse.
This year has been a hailstorm of sickness, death, and desolation. The hope in a majority of us has hit an all time low. A lot of life-changing decisions and plans were trashed, a lot of jobs put on the guillotine, and a lot of salaries took cut after cut. The lockdown meant the people usually going out regularly for jobs, were staying home for an extended period of time. All of this meant things got bad for the victims of domestic abuse and marital rape (still not a crime in this country, btw). Data released by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), and NGOs across the country showed shocking levels of increase in cases of domestic abuse reported (look it up online, the stats are chilling).
This also would mean a general increase in the population increase, but that’s a topic for another day.
This week, another case was added to the long list of violent gangrapes. This time, it was a young Dalit girl who was trending on Indian twitter. She was violated in a gruesome manner, and after the expected police apathy, and covering for the perpetrators, she was flown over to Delhi for treatment, where she breathed her last. Beti bachao indeed.
The media has been calling this 19-year-old a woman. She was a legal adult, but please, dear reader, think back to when you were 19. She was a girl. A young teen.
People seem to think rape is about sex. That is where the “culture” police come up with their arguments. “chhote kapde pehne honge”, “dair raat ko baahar kyun gayi?”, “ladke ke saath thi?”, “daaru pi rakhi thi ladki ne?”, and the rest of the barrage of justifications for the crime. I just have this to say to you: rape is not about sex. Rape is about power. Like a tweet that went viral a few years ago said, “Rape is about violence, not sex. If a person hits you with a spade, you wouldn’t call it gardening.”.
Rapists cause rape. Not the victims. It doesn’t matter what the victim was wearing. It doesn’t matter what the victim was doing, or where the victim was. It doesn’t matter what age the victim was. Rape is wrong. Rapists are the ones who should be ostracised, not the victims. Uncles and family friends, teachers and coaches, bosses and jilted lovers. The threat is constant. The fear is constant.
The “good guy” argument has gained traction in the recent years. And to them I say, nobody says all men are molesters or rapists or cat-callers or eve-teasers. But all women have faced these things time and time again, day after day. Not all men, but DEFINITELY all women.
If you’re an ally, it’s starts with things as simple as raising your voice at something like this happening around you. If you’re an ally, I beg for you to be aware of your surroundings. If you’re an ally, maybe together we can get this country to be a safer place, a better society. If not in our lifetimes, then for the next. Or for the one after that. Change will bring hope, and right now, we as a country are in dire need of hope.
“Ramya describes herself as an Extrovert max (not Geet level though, not even close), weird as a certain Ms. Lovegood, and helluo libroRUM (geddit?). If there’s a book fandom, she’s probably neck-deep in it… Wannabe polyglot.”
You can follow Ramya on twitter: @good_old_rum
Also From the Author: We’re Living Through Rather Strange Times
Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 Source Code Leaked Online
The conundrum of 7 Sisters and Little Brother for Rest of India
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HomeSchaefer School of Engineering & Science Departments Computer ScienceGraduate Programs
Computer Science Master's Program
Cybersecurity Master's Program
Machine Learning Master's Program
Media & Broadcast Engineering Master's Degree
Computer Science Doctoral Program
Data Science Doctoral Program
Graduate students in computer science join a world-class faculty that provides both breadth and depth of instruction and research opportunities within security, programming languages, graphics and vision, software engineering, and computer networks. Faculty publish in top journals, receive funding from the most competitive agencies, and collaborate regularly with colleagues throughout the greater New York City area. The university's researchers consult with companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Google, Bell Labs, AT&T Labs, and other top industry labs. The M.S. degree with optional concentrations provides elite training for both professional careers and further study or research within academia. The Stevens Ph.D. prepares students for careers conducting research at the head of the field. Ph.D. students are fully funded.
Admission into the graduate certificate or master's degree programs requires an undergraduate degree in engineering, or in a related discipline, with a grade point average of "B" or better from an accredited college or university.
*Starting Fall 2014 GRE scores required for all applicants applying into a full-time graduate program in the School of Engineering and Sciences. (Code #2819) All scores are only valid for five years prior to the application term. GRE required for all PhD applicants.
TOEFL/IELTS - International students (Code #2819). For English language proficiency requirements please click here.
Approximately two weeks following receipt of the above material, you will receive a decision letter from the Office of Graduate Admissions. If accepted you will receive an acceptance letter outlining the program to which you were accepted, as well as your assigned academic advisor's contact information.
Effective October 2015, the M.S. in Service Oriented Computing is no longer accepting new students. Current students may access the curriculum in the course catalog.
More Information in Academic CATALOG (.pdf)
A master's degree provides students the opportunity to "drill down" into a specific subject area within a discipline. With information technology extending its reach into more and more application domains, students are increasingly interested in focused education that may draw from several areas. A flexible MS/CS program provides an in-depth education in several aspects of IT. It is this flexibility, and this combination of focus areas, that distinguishes the MS/CS program.
Computer Science Master's Programs
Engineer Program
The degree of Engineer in Computer Science is for students who already have a Master's degree in computer science or a closely related field and wish to continue to study computer science deeply at an advanced level, but do not wish to seek a Ph.D. degree.
The Ph.D. program allows outstanding students who want to change the face of computer science to work with world-class faculty in cutting-edge research. The major research interests of the faculty in the department are: Computer Security, Visualization and Graphics, and Software Engineering.
Computer Science Ph.D. Program
The department offers Graduate Certificate programs which are tailored for those who wish to improve their current skill-set and knowledge or wish to take a different path in their career without committing to a full Master's Degree program.
Computer Science Graduate Certificates
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Food of the Week
Dining Listings
White Spot shuts down its West Georgia location after 40 years in Vancouver
by Craig Takeuchi on November 30th, 2020 at 12:00 PM
A local landmark restaurant on the way to and from Downtown Vancouver and the North Shore is now set to vanish.
After 40 years in operation, the White Spot location at 1616 West Georgia (at Cardero Street), straddling the West End and Coal Harbour in the area of Stanley Park, closed its doors to customers for the last time on November 28.
The location was among the first few locations for the locally founded restaurant chain, which originated from Nat Bailey’s traveling lunch counter set up at Vancouver's Lookout Point in 1928.
Vancouver-based White Spot owner Shato Holdings sold the site and an adjacent parking lot to Carnival Group Holdings for $245 million in December 2017.
Although the restaurant had continued to lease the location from the new owners, White Spot hospitality president Warren Erhart told Global News that taking increased costs and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic into consideration, the company decided not to renew the lease.
In April 2019, the City of Vancouver received a rezoning application for the development of two 38-storey strata residential towers, including a four-storey podium connecting the towers and six-level underground parking.
White Spot has over 50 locations across B.C., as well as three locations in Alberta. Meanwhile, White Spot’s sibling operation, the quick-service burger chain Triple O’s, has locations in B.C. and has also expanded to Hong Kong.
Artist's rendering of 1608-1616 West Georgia
Hong Kong company pays $245 million for downtown Vancouver White Spot site
Is B.C.'s economy on the mend? Perhaps so, judging from today's visits to London Drugs, IKEA, and White Spot
White Spot goes above and Beyond to add a 100-percent plant-based burger to its menu
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Biden says 'more people may die' if Trump refuses to cooperate on Covid-19
"More people may die if we don't coordinate," US President-elect Joe Biden said in his first remarks on the economy since being elected.PHOTO: AFP
https://str.sg/JLtb
WILMINGTON, Delaware (BLOOMBERG) - US President-elect Joe Biden Monday (Nov 16) said containing the coronavirus pandemic is key to the nation's economic recovery, calling for cooperation between business and government in his first remarks on the economy since being elected.
Biden met with the chief executives of General Motors and Microsoft, as well as key labour leaders, as he begins to outline how to contain the coronavirus pandemic and revive the economy during his administration.
"We're ready to come together. The unity was outstanding," Biden said of the meeting in Wilmington, Delaware. "It was really encouraging, quite frankly, to get people, business and labour, agreeing on the way forward."
Biden lamented the lack of coordination with the outgoing administration as President Donald Trump's refusal to accept the results of the election has blocked an official transition, including classified briefings.
"More people may die if we don't coordinate," he said. He noted that recent positive news about vaccine effectiveness needs to be paired with the "huge undertaking" of getting a vaccine distributed.
"If we have to wait until January 20 to start that planning, it puts us behind," he said. The Biden administration's economic plan is based on the "Build Back Better" proposals offered during the campaign. He said no government contract will be given to companies that don't build their products in the US.
"We can make sure our future is made here in America and that's good for business and that's good for American workers," Biden said.
Mary Barra of GM and Satya Nadella of Microsoft were among the business leaders who joined him for a video meeting on how business and labour can work together.
Labour officials participating in the conversation include Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO and Rory Gamble of the United Auto Workers, as well as a number of other labor leaders.
Trumka said in a statement he raised safety issues for workers during the meeting, telling the group that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been "totally absent during this pandemic" under the Trump administration, according to prepared remarks.
He called on OSHA to develop an "emergency temporary standard" to protect workers from contracting the virus when they return to their workplaces.
Tune in as I deliver remarks on our economic recovery and how my administration plans to build back better in the long term. https://t.co/JOoK9xBRm1
Brian Cornell of Target and Sonia Syngal of Gap participated in the meeting with Biden and Harris. Others included Mary Kay Henry, president of Service Employees International Union; Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers and Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Cecilia Munoz, a former top policy adviser to President Barack Obama who is now on Biden's transition team, also joined. The campaign proposal included US$2 trillion in spending on clean energy and infrastructure. The goal is to create millions of jobs building the wind turbines, sustainable homes and electric vehicles needed to rapidly throttle US greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change.
Biden also laid out a US$700 billion "Buy American" manufacturing plan that would include $400 billion in additional federal purchases of products made by American workers over the course of his first term as well as $300 billion for federally funded research and development.
In all, the Biden campaign estimates that its proposals on manufacturing and buying American will create 5 million jobs. He has also said it is a moral and economic necessity for the government to better support those who care for children and the elderly, proposing spending $775 billion over 10 years that would add jobs and boost pay for caregivers, eliminate the waiting list for home and community care under Medicaid and provide preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds.
Moody's estimated the total cost of Biden's campaign proposals - including additions to the health care system - at $7.27 trillion over a decade and projected that the package would create 18.6 million jobs, seven million more than President Donald Trump's economic plans.
Much of Biden's plan would be funded through increased taxes on corporations and the rich, but his team also expects that a few trillion dollars would be characterized as stimulus spending and wouldn't be offset by new tax revenue.
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Steely Dan Tickets
Looking for Steely Dan outside the UK?
Steely Dan tour venues
Arkansas Music Pavilion - Walmart AMP
Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre Tinley Park
Cadence Bank Amphitheatre
Filene Center at Wolf Trap
Saratoga Springs Performing Arts Center
Veterans Memorial Coliseum Portland
About Steely DanSell tickets
Steely Dan: Donald Fagen set to continue after death of Walter Becker
Steely Dan marries jazz with social consciousness: crime, drugs, gambling - the band blends big issues with even bigger licks. Punctuated with soothing saxophones and gentle guitar riffs, the group's albums have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, and they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2001.
After the sad death of co-founder Walter Becker in 2017, the group's future was thrown into some doubt. However, Donald Fagen will be joined by special guest Steve Winwood for five UK and Ireland dates in 2018, kicking off at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro on 20 February and wrapping up with a set at Dublin's 3Arena. Buy Steely Dan tickets now at StubHub UK, assured under our industry-first FanProtect Guarantee.
Steely Dan: jazz rock pioneers
Founded by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen in 1972, several other musicians have featured in the Steely Dan line-up over the years, including Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Denny Dias, Jim Hodder and Royce Jones. Overall, the group released six studio albums throughout the 1970s, and were one of the most popular and biggest-selling acts of the decade. At the height of glam rock, when musicians wore flamboyant costumes and experimented with bold aesthetics, Steely Dan kept things simple, and their brand of mellow jazz proved a popular alternative to more out-there musical trends. Cited as a major influence by modern jazz acts, Steely Dan is credited with bringing jazz-rock to the mainstream.
Steely Dan released their first album, Can't Buy a Thrill, in 1972. With its jazz-rock stylings, the album introduced the group's signature sound: soaring sax solos, tender guitar strums and Latin-infused beats. Including the tracks "Reelin in the Years," "Fire in the Hole," "Do It Again" and "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again", Can't Buy a Thrill reached number 38 on the UK Albums Chart and number 17 on the US Billboard Top 200.
Countdown to Ecstasy, the group's sophomore effort, continued in a similar vein, with Fagen's tranquil vocals layered over meaty jazz flourishes. The eight-song collection, which was released in 1973, features tracks like "Show Biz Kids," "My Old School" and "Pearl of the Quarter". Follow up records Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied and The Royal Scam all certified platinum in the United States, before the group's biggest hit, came in 1977. Even by Steely Dan's lofty standards, sixth album Aja was a major success, with critics often citing it as one of the best albums of all time. It was also a commercial smash, catapulting to number five on the UK Albums Chart and number three on the Billboard Top 200 - the group's highest chart positions yet. Aja was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003 and features songs such as "Deacon Blues," "Jose" and "Home at Last."
The group disbanded in 1981, but Baxter and Fagen reunited in 1993; touring regularly and releasing two albums of new material - including 2000's Two Against Nature which earned the duo a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Today, only Fagen (vocals, piano, synthesiser and sax) remains, after Becker died in 2017. Despite the loss of Becker, Steely Dan will go on in 2018, with Fagen drafting in Steve Winwood as a special guest.
Similar to Steely Dan
Once you've sorted your Steely Dan tickets, take a look at some of the other artists listed at StubHub UK. Elton John says he will 'go out with a bang' on his farewell tour, while Jethro Tull always put on a fantastic show.
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Bendle
Last name: Bendle
This is an English surname. Recorded as Bendell, Bendle, Bendel, Benthall and others, it has two possible origins. The first is locational from the village of Bendell in the county of Derbyshire, or just possibly for some nameholders from the village of Benthall in the county of Shropshire. Bendell means the place (halh) of the bean field, whilst Benthall describes a place of 'bent grass'. Locational surnames are usually 'from' names. That is to say names given to people as easy identification when they left their former homes to move somewhere else. Spelling being at best indifferent and local accents very thick, often lead to the development of 'sounds like' spellings. The second possible origin is from the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic personal name 'Bendel'. This derives from the Roman word 'bene', meaning well or good, with the diminutive 'del' denoting the 'son of'. The name is well recorded in Germany, the earliest being the marriage of Paulus Bendel and Barbara Strickerin, on September 29th 1524 at Bayern. The earliest recording of this name in England relates to a family who still live on the ancestral estate of Benthall, to this day. The first recorded spelling of the family name may be that of Anfrid de Benthall. This was dated 1120, in the Shropshire Charters, during the reign of King Henry 1st, known as 'The Lion of Justice', 1100-1135. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
Surname scroll for: Bendle
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A portion of the Hubble Deep Field. Credit: R. Williams (STScI), the Hubble Deep Field Team and NASA/ESA
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Looking up into the night sky, it seems like you can see forever. If you use binoculars or a telescope that feeling is, literally, magnified - you can see thousands, millions of stars.
But what you're seeing is barely scratching the depths of the Universe. You're looking out a few thousand light years into a galaxy a hundred thousand light years across, in a Universe where we can see distant galaxies over 10 billion light years away.
We build bigger telescopes so we can see those far-flung objects, and we even put them in space so our bothersome atmosphere doesn't interfere with the view. The most famous is of course the Hubble Space Telescope. It's hard to describe just how much of an impact this Grande Dame of astronomy has had on our perception of the Universe... though looking into the Hubble Deep Fields, you get a glimmer of it. In 1995, Hubble stared at one spot in space for over 140 hours, creating the first Deep Field. It revealed thousands of galaxies at tremendous distance, showing us that the sky is filled with galaxies.
The region of the sky for the first Deep Field was chosen because it was nearly devoid of stars and known galaxies, objects that would interfere with their more distant brethren. But what does that field look like from the ground? Astronomer Detlef Hartmann decided to tackle this question, and has done us all a favor by showing us. Using a 44 cm (17") telescope he built himself, he took an incredible 247 five-minute images to create this extraordinary picture with a total of 20 hours of exposure... and then lets it morph into the actual Hubble Deep Field to compare them:
Video of Detlef Hartmann observation of the Hubble Deep Field
Holy. Wow.
Let me be clear: Detlef's image is amazing. It's a tremendous effort by an "amateur"*, and shows dozens of the galaxies (and the same scattered handful of stars) in the Hubble image. It's an amazing achievement. A bigger telescope would show more galaxies, of course, and resolve them more clearly, but even the biggest telescope located on the surface of our planet needs to peer through the soup of air above it, which dims the faintest galaxies into obscurity. You need to get above our atmosphere to see the cosmos as clearly as possible.
And when you do, look at what Hubble shows us. That tiny region of the sky - easily blocked by a grain of sand held at arm's length - contains thousands of galaxies, each a sprawling city of billions of stars. It represents a relatively random part of the sky, so you can expect to see something like it no matter where you point a telescope... and that picture shows just one 24-millionth of the entire sky. The implication is clear: there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in our Universe. That in turn means there are sextillions of stars, each a Sun, and many, if not most, circled by a retinue of planets.
It's the most ironic aspect of any science I know: it crushes my sense of scale and ego into dust, but also fills me with wonder and amazement that we can know such things, and be a part of it.
As is so often the case in science, you don't know what you'll get when you build a new instrument. You build it for one reason or for many, but later on new applications arise, new ways to use it. And sometimes, years down the road, it's utilized in a just such a new way which profoundly changes how you see the Universe, how you see yourself and your place in it, and in a way you had may have only had an inkling of when you started out. The Hubble Deep Fields are perfect examples of this.
We knew intellectually the Universe was deep, and our place in it infinitesimal yet rare and beautiful. But Hubble showed that to us.
Image credits: R. Williams (STScI), the Hubble Deep Field Team and NASA; Detlef Hartmann. My deep thanks to Salvatore Iovene (who hosts AstroBin where Detlef's image is displayed) for letting me know about this amazing work.
* Oh, that word. Detlef built his own 'scope, took hundreds of these images, then combined them in a painstaking and difficult process that probably took him many, many hours. The word "amateur" has many connotations, but as usual here when I use it, I simply mean someone who is not a career astronomer. Detlef clearly has it going on.
- Revealing the Universe: the Hubble Extreme Deep Field
- BAFact Math: The Sun is mind-crushingly brighter than the faintest object ever seen. Seriously.
- Another record breaker: ultra-deep image reveals ultra-distant galaxy
- What does a half million galaxies look like?
- Hubble digs deep to see baby galaxies
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You are here: Home / News / Scarlett Xbox to get big CPU improvements, general manager confirms
Scarlett Xbox to get big CPU improvements, general manager confirms
Gradually, more information about the next generation of consoles has been released. This time, the news is related to the Xbox Scarlett. Microsoft’s upcoming video game is expected to have major CPU improvements.
According to Xbox division general manager Aaron Greenberg, the improvements will be relative to the more powerful current model: the Xbox One X. The key to evolution is the shift from low-power Jaguar-based mobile technology to the new architecture. AMD Zen 2.
The executive explained that the biggest advances for the current generation were in the GPU, such as the ability to produce games in 4K. Already with an enhanced processor, it will be possible to have images at 120 fps.
“What we are seeing today is a major GPU upgrade – you can produce in 4K, many other benefits, memory structure and so on. For the next generation, I think you’ll see a big CPU upgrade, as we want to make sure you have no compromise on frame rate. Yes, we can do 4K, but we can also do frame rates of up to 120. I think that kind of capacity will be something that people don’t see today. And then high-speed instant play using solid-state drives to enable instant resume, play games and play by removing the loading times and loading screens that exist today. This is going to be a big change. ”
Xbox general manager
Although not yet confirmed the date for release, but is expected by mid-next year.
Meanwhile, it is worth remembering that the future competitor has also appeared in recent rumors. One of them indicates that the PlayStation 5 will be as powerful as an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080.
Recommended: Supposed leaking Apple Watch Series 5 shows design identical to predecessor
What are your expectations for the Xbox Scarlett? Leave your opinion in the comments below.
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Two million households 'do not realise they are living on flood plains'
Tens of thousands of houses are still being built on floodplains, increasing reliance on flood defences which are not being properly maintained due to Government budget cuts, Committee on Climate Change warns
By Emily Gosden 09 July 2014 • 06:00 am
Floods such as those seen last winter, when 7,000 homes were deluged, have now become more likely as a result of rising greenhouse gas emissions, the Committee on Climate Change says. Credit: Photo: GETTY
Two million households do not realise they are living on flood plains - while chronic underinvestment and climate change are increasing the risks of serious flooding, Government advisers have warned.
Floods such as those seen last winter, when 7,000 homes were deluged, have now become more likely as a result of rising greenhouse gas emissions, the Committee on Climate Change says.
“Increased flood risk is the greatest threat to the UK from climate change,” it warns.
Yet tens of thousands of houses are still being built on floodplains, increasing reliance on flood defences - while 75pc of those defences are not being adequately maintained due to “underinvestment”, and hundreds of projects are on hold, the CCC says.
About five million properties – almost one in 6 of all in England - are on flood plains, of which four million are residential properties. Yet more than half of flood plain residents believed they were “not at all at risk” of flooding, according to surveys conducted by the Environment Agency over the past three years. Flood plains are defined as having at least a 1-in-1,000 risk of floods.
The CCC warned earlier this year that the number of existing homes at “significant” flood risk – a 1-in-75 annual chance or greater – would almost double by 2035, from 300,000 to 550,000, due to a combination of climate change and a lack of maintenance of ageing flood defences.
Wednesday's report makes clear that the true number at risk is likely to be much higher because many new homes are also being built on flood plains with inadequate scrutiny.
“We are putting up buildings at a faster rate in areas of high flood risk than elsewhere,”
Lord Krebs, the report's chairman, says.
About 12,000 planning applications to build up to nine properties each on flood plains did not receive specific advice from the EA in 2013 due to staffing cuts, the report finds.
As a result, more than 100,000 homes could have been built without proper oversight to ensure that they are safe, resilient and do not increase the risk of flooding elsewhere.
More than 800 jobs – 20 per cent of staff - have been lost in the Environment Agency (EA)’s flood risk management team since September 2010, with more than half of those in roles specifically tasked with avoiding floods, despite ministers’ pledges to protect frontline jobs, the CCC warns.
Key pieces of legislation designed to reduce the risk of floods by improving drainage from new properties have not been properly implemented, despite being recommended by the 2008 Pitt review into the floods the previous year, which left 13 people dead and 45,000 homes flooded.
A trend for households paving over their gardens is also exacerbating the risk of flooding, with regulations to ensure that patios and driveways are of a ‘permeable’ design also not being enforced, the CCC said.
The committee warned earlier this year that current government spending plans were more than half a billion pounds below the amount needed simply to prevent flood risk rising above current level.
Maria Eagle MP, Labour’s shadow environment secretary, said: “The Government’s failure to get to grips with the increasing impact of climate change threatens our national security.
“The report for the Committee on Climate Change makes it clear that the Government’s current plans for flood management will result in more homes being at risk of flooding.”
A spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "Building our resilience to climate change is important for everybody, which is why we developed the first National Adaptation Programme published last year setting out ongoing actions for government, businesses, local councils and communities.
"We are committed to addressing the risks from climate change - by increasing awareness and making far-sighted decisions we can address these risks, save money and safeguard our homes and communities for the future.
“We are spending £3.2 billion over the course of this parliament on flood management and protection from coastal erosion which is more than ever before.
“We have also made an unprecedented 6 year commitment to record levels of investment in improving flood defence right up until 2021.”
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Chris Evert: 'I'm getting a little worried for Serena Williams'
by JOVICA ILIC | VIEW 111860
Serena Williams has failed to win a Major title in three consecutive seasons for the first time in a career! The American claimed the 23rd trophy at the Australian Open 2017 over her sister Venus, taking a break to give berth to a child and returning in 2018.
Targeting that elusive 24th Major crown, Serena dropped everything on four most notable tournaments, reaching back-to-back finals at both Wimbledon and the US Open in the previous two seasons. It wasn't to be for the American, though, suffering four painful losses and hoping to make that extra step in 2020.
After an early loss, that didn't come in Melbourne, preparing for Roland Garros and Wimbledon when the coronavirus halted the action between March and August. Wimbledon had to be canceled for the first time since 1945, and Serena turned her focus on the home Major in New York, seeking the seventh title and the first since 2014.
The veteran reached the semis for the 11th straight time, making a strong start against Victoria Azarenka before losing ground to propel the Belarusian through. Ready to give it a shot in her beloved Paris, Serena went to Europe and trained at Mouratoglou Tennis Academy, seeking the first Roland Garros title in five years.
The American won the first-round match before withdrawing with an Achilles injury ahead of the clash with Tsvetlana Pironkova, missing another chance in the quest for the 24th Major title. Williams will have to take a couple of weeks to recover, hoping to get ready at 100% ahead of 2021.
Serena Williams had to withdraw from Roland Garros with an Achilles injury.
Another American legend Chris Evert is a bit worried for Serena, praising her qualities but wondering will her fitness follow the other elements and give her more chances of fighting for the Major titles.
In the first round in Paris, Serena defeated Kristie Ahn 7-6, 6-0 in an hour and 41 minutes, securing the 66th win in Paris and the 357th at Majors. In New York, Williams toppled Ahn in straight sets in the first round, repeating that in Paris on Monday after a challenging opening set that lasted for 72 minutes.
As it turned out, Ahn had nothing left in the tank after that, allowing Serena to produce a bagel and open the title chase before that injury that ended her run. "I'm getting a little worried for Serena. I thought her better chance was at the US Open; I didn't think it would happen at the French Open, and it depends on her commitment to her fitness level.
The tools, shots, power and mentality are there; she is brilliant in those aspects. However, I still feel that she can get a little bit leaner, and that will help her to get quicker around the court and get those sharp angles, getting in the better positions for shots," Chris Evert said.
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“When you see it, it’s kind of heart wrenching. And I think the city felt that it was too soon after the 1900 storm, the wounds were still hadn’t healed. And so they rejected it at that time.”
By Laura RiceJanuary 13, 2021 10:32 amArts & Culture, History
Taylor Greenwalt
Sculptor Doug McLean with his statue honoring victims and survivors of the Great Galveston Hurricane.
Sculptor Doug McLean started his work on a statue honoring the victims of the 1900 Galveston hurricane and flood a little over three years ago. But he based his design on photos from a piece from 1904. The original work was done by Pompeo Coppini, a sculptor famous for several projects in Texas – including the University of Texas at Austin’s Littlefield Memorial Fountain.
But the city of Galveston didn’t support the completion of that original work and it was lost to time except for a couple of photographs.
One of two remaining photograph’s of Pompeo Coppini’s original plaster.
McLean said when a friend showed him the photos of that statue of a soaked and windblown woman caressing two children, he was inspired to finish it.
“It was really the emotion on the woman’s face that really attracted me,” McLean said. “And so my first attempt on this was to actually try and recreate that emotion and strength in that woman’s face.”
He said he wanted to honor the original work but also needed to add his own interpretation.
“I was only working from two photographs, from two very specific angles,” McLean said. “So everything else in that sculpture was something that I had to develop myself. And so that was a real, real challenge.”
He said he drew on his own experiences to fill in the blanks.
“Having lived through several hurricanes, including Ike and Alicia, I truly understood the anxiety and the emotion involved when everything around you is destroyed,” McLean said. “So I had my own personal feelings that were involved in it that helped me sort of to express that emotion.”
McLean’s original bust interpreting the 1904 statue.
McLean said the raw emotion in the statue that may have originally been “too soon” for Galveston officials, is what he really wanted to draw out. He said the other primary focus is maternal power.
“Women were so much a part of the rebuilding and restructuring of Galveston after the hurricane,” McLean said. “They were so much involved in the governmental structure and the educational structure and the arts and culture. And they were the ones responsible for bringing so much back to the island. So that maternal love and devotion that’s shown in that sculpture, to me, really impacts it.”
The sculpture, titled “Hope,” is currently being cast in bronze in Smithville, Texas. It should be installed in a new Galveston park at the end of January or early February.
City of Galveston rendering of the statue's proposed position in a new city park between City Hall and the new Fire Station.
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The American University in Cairo launched a massive research initiative that would ask Arab scholars and thinkers over the next three years to find answers to a crucial question: what does the future hold for the Middle East?
By Amina Fahmy and Madeleine Hall
Inauguration ceremony of the “Al-Mostakbal: The Middle East Looking Forward.” Cairo. April 14. 2019.
In April of this year, the American University in Cairo launched a massive research initiative that would ask Arab scholars and thinkers over the next three years to find answers to a crucial question: what does the future hold for the Middle East? Underlying this question is an implicit aim to rectify the region’s past—largely dominated by outside powers throughout most of its recent history—while overcoming the challenges inherent to both an uncertain international system and a Middle East rife with turmoil. In the inauguration ceremony of the “Al-Mostakbal: The Middle East Looking Forward,” Arab panelists laid out their visions for the future.
Two important themes emerged throughout the talk. First, young people should become a top priority in the region moving forward. Arab states must employ a more robust and technologically forward education policy, and include youth in public life and political decision-making. Second, what makes up Arab identity is still open for debate in any future conceptualization of the Middle East.
Moving forward with the assertion that young people are critical to the future of the region, the next apparent question was how to empower them. Panelist Haifa Shaker Abu Ghazaleh, the assistant general-secretary and head of the social affairs sector at the League of Arab States, posed several questions about the way in which the education system as well as the needs of the job market are likely to change in the Arab World. “Will schools and colleges look the same way in the thirtieth century, and will the traditional teacher-centered model still be in use in light of new technological developments? How can we protect Arabic from extinction as hybrid forms of the language and its many dialects grow in popularity among young people on social media? Is the curriculum of today no longer compatible with future generations of Arabs?” Abu Ghazaleh concluded by urging for changes to the education system to better equip young people to meet the shifting needs of the job market.
Chairman of the Cairo-based Al Ismaelia For Real Estate Investments Karim Shafei added that by some estimates, nearly 75 percent of the jobs of tomorrow have not yet been created, pointing out the generational gap between Arabs under thirty and the rest of the region’s population, exacerbated by the rise of social media and instant access to information. Shafei went on to argue that despite the region’s youth bulge, young people clearly lack genuine political representation and roles in governance, posing a question that remains largely unanswered: what does the engagement of young people and women in the public sphere—which for many began with the protests of the Arab Spring—mean for the future of the region?
The issue of identity in the Arab World opened up questions of who should identify as Arab and whether the nation-state remains the best model of governance. Mohamed Benaissa, former minister of foreign affairs of Morocco, argued that “There is no one Arab world,” noting that he would divide the region into three distinct areas—Arab–African countries, Gulf states, and the Levant. The two most important problems facing the so-called “Arab World,” he added, lie in governance and societal stability within the context of cultural and religious pluralism. His advice? To engage the Arab people directly in state-building, drawing parallels to the 1972 book To Build with the People by Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy, famed for including poor communities in the process of developing sustainable building techniques in Upper Egypt.
Amre Moussa, former secretary general of the League of Arab States and former Egyptian minister of foreign affairs, took Benaissa’s point even further, suggesting that there was not a single Arab people, but a number of different ethnic and religious groups, such as Copts, Kurds, and Amazigh, that should be considered Arab. He argued for unity across state lines on this basis, in order to value true peacemaking over simply ensuring security. Peace, he argued, would encourage cultural exchange and economic cooperation, and would move the region forward as a whole—possibly creating a regional system that resembles the European Union.
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Palestine Nasser Alkidwa stressed that it is important to undo the fragility of Arab countries, which Alkidwa traced back to the arbitrary fashion in which borders were drawn across much of the Arab World following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. He argued that the construction of those borders carried the seeds of continuous conflict in the region such as in the cases of historical tensions between the Arab World and Israel as well as the threat of ongoing Israeli expansionism in the Golan Heights and the West Bank. Following this logic, he called for the defense of the nation-state as a fundamental building block of the region and championed security cooperation in the Arab World in light of Israeli and Iranian policies.
Perhaps the talk was never meant to lay out a cohesive path forward for the MENA region at this time, which will perhaps be a hefty task in the years to come. What it did do was reinforce the importance of education and call into question long held beliefs about identity and the roles of certain political groups in the region. This opportunity for Middle Easterners to do so without a colonial voice present was indeed a unique one, and perhaps the first step forward in carving out the region’s future.
Tags: Al-Mostakbal Future GAPP Middle East
Thinking Arab Futures
Oriental Hall, etc.
Women and Education in the Arab World
The World To Be
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Giuseppe Armani Ada
Jan Saia Gallery
Jan Saia Pearls Of Wisdom is eligible for layaway in 3 equal payments of $283.33 over 60 days.
As an option you may also pay for Jan Saia Pearls Of Wisdom using Paypal or with your Amazon Account(*select items). Please note that all orders must be delivered to a physical address verified by Paypal or Amazon. These options are not applicable for orders to be delivered to Military or International destinations.
Pearls of Wisdom - CEA188
NOTES: MEDIUM: EMBELISHED GICLEE ON CANVAS.
Pearls Of Wisdom by Jan Saia is signed by the artist and comes with a certificate of authenticity.
Jan Saia bio
Jan Saia's masterful modern still life paintings are abundant with talent and unforgettable style. Her innovative technique is part traditional painting, part sketching with a paintbrush dipped in color. "When I lay a color down," she explains, "I usually lay it down knowing that I am going to put something on top of it that you can see through." As her paint is applied to the canvas, timing becomes an essential component in the process. At a precise point in time, she lets the piece set before returning to it in order to work with the paint's altered viscosity. This creates new dimensions in both color and texture. "It's a timing thing that you learn by doing," she relates. With her unique still life paintings that are carefully tooled with personal style and technique, Jan has taken one of the most traditional art genres and reinvented to create her singular style. But long before the brush hits the canvas, another lengthy and entirely different process takes place. Jan creates the "scene" she will paint with actual vignettes composed with a collection of objects. She does not paint from photographs like many artists. "I really paint what I see," she says. "I'm not painting detail - I'm painting relationships. The inspiration comes from visual things outside of painting. It isn't necessarily art – it could be anything. In one piece, it could be the vase, while in another the main subject is really about how the light is running across the top of the table and off the edge of a plate." A setup can take a few hours to a couple of days to put together, and sometimes she may work on one for days before scrapping the whole idea altogether. "I don't chase it around – I know what I want," she says. Jan had an aptitude for drawing as a child, entering and winning many art shows. In high school, her interest in art blossomed even more. "I wasn't so concerned with drawing something just right," she recalls. "I was more interested in just letting the subject tell me what it wanted to do, which is unusual for a 16-year old. That's when I started having instructors tell me I should continue with art." Professionally, however, she pursued a career in interior design, where she focused her efforts for several years. Then, Saia began taking instruction from a still life and portrait painter. "He followed the old masters style," she says. "The basis of my paintings is still like this - very tonal in the value relationships and how the light falls on form, like a Rembrandt sort of thing. It's not just objects I'm capturing on canvas, but the relationship of what's around the objects as well." What continues to inspire her? "I get inspiration from a lot of things," she says. "I might be into color at one phase, and I like to see how one color plays off the other, and I evaluate how I'm actually seeing it. Then I try to create that in my own little vignette. Textures, rhythm, negative space, form - I'm interested in how the objects play off one another." For Jan Saia, life and art are indistinguishable from one another. "It's all one big work in progress," she explains.
Jan Saia Orchid & Ceramics
Jan Saia Magnolias
Jan Saia Wishful Thinking
Jan Saia Peonies And Silver
Jan Saia Bountiful
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List of events happening at the Ridgefield Playhouse
Pictured is the Ridgefield Playhouse. Here is a list of the events that are going to take place at the venue in the town from December 17 through January 1, New Year’s Day.
Carol Kaliff / Hearst Connecticut Media
“Buttons: A Christmas Tale” Dec. 17, 7 p.m.
“Meeting The Beatles In India” Dec. 18, 7:30 p.m.,
“The Beatles Limited Edition Prints & Books” Dec. 18, 11:30 p.m.
“A Slightly Wicked Holiday Show” Dec. 19, 4 p.m., 8 p.m.
“Magic For Humans (At Home)” Dec. 20, 2 p.m.
“Babe” Dec. 20, 3 p.m., 7 p.m.
“The Polar Express” Dec. 23, 7 p.m.
“Clueless — 25th Anniversary” Dec. 27, 1 p.m., 5 p.m.
“Almost Famous” Jan. 1, 7 p.m.
“Reza — Edge of Illusion” Jan. 10, 4:30 p.m.
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Guilty Conscience
Bill Cerone as Mortimer, a Cowboy
Bill Cerone has just two screen credits: he appeared in the dramatic TV series, "Channing" (1963–1964) as Bob in the episode, "The Potato Bash World," and in THE RIFLEMAN as Mortimer in "Guilty Conscience" (episode 137).
Chubby Johnson as Old Man
Tommy Nolan as Hab Carreway
Tom Nolan, born Bernard Girouard, is a Canadian film and television actor, and also a writer. He has appeared in more than 50 movies and television shows during a career spanning more than five decades. He has written for several publications, including the "Los Angeles Times" and "Village Voice."
Nolan has had roles in various memorable films, including minor parts in the musical drama "A Star Is Born" (1954), starring Judy Garland and James Mason; the romantic drama "An Affair to Remember" (1957), starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr; the drama "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1989), starring Elizabeth Taylor, Mark Harmon and Valerie Perrine; and the superhero action drama "Batman Begins" (2005), starring Christian Bale, Micharl Caine, Ken Watanabe and Liam Neeson. He also portrayed Johnnie Mulligan in the romantic comedy "Kiss Me, Stupid" (1964), starring Dean Martin, Kim Novak, Ray Walston and Felicia Farr; he played Vic in the romantic drama "The Grasshopper" (1969), starring Jacqueline Bisset, Jim Brown and Joseph Cotten; and he was cast as Vance in the romantic comedy "Pretty Woman" (1990), starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. Nolan guest-starred in several popular television shows of the 1950s and 60s, including the suspense anthology series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1955–1962), the family drama "Lassie" (1954–1974), the macabre anthology series "Thriller" (1960–1962) and the war drama "Combat!" (1962–1967). He also had a recurring role as Judy O'Connell in the western "Buckskin" (1958–1959).
Nolan was a child actor when he made his appearance in THE RIFLEMAN, appearing in one episode as the character Hab Carreway in "Guilty Conscience" (episode 137). He guest-starred in a few other westerns, including "Rawhide" (1959–1966), starring Clint Eastwood, "Wagon Train" (1957–1965), starring John McIntyre and Ward Bond, and "Gunsmoke" (1955–1975), starring James Arness.
Lee Patrick as Leota Carreway
Lee Patrick was an American film and television actress. She appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows in a career spanning more than 45 years. A veteran character actress, she played roles ranging from the "other woman" Maggie Biederhof in the noir film "Mildred Pierce" (1945), starring Joan Crawford, and the flinty Elvira Powell in the prison drama "Caged" (1950), co-starring Eleanor Parker and Agnes Moorehead, to the ditzy socialite Doris Uspon in the musical comedy "Auntie Mame" (1958). Patrick is perhaps best-remember for her role as Henrietta Topper, wife of Cosmo Topper, played by Leo G. Caroll in the fantasy comedy series "Topper" (1953–1955). Patrick guest-starred in the crime dramas "The Untouchables" (1959–1963), starring Robert Stack, and "77 Sunset Strip" (1958–1964), starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. She made one appearance in THE RIFLEMAN, portraying Leota Carreway in "Guilty Conscience" (episode 137). She also guest-starred in the western "Wagon Train" (1957–1965), starring Ward Bond and later John McIntire as the wagon master.
An aging Southern belle and her teenage son arrive in North Fork and immediately identify Marshal Torrance as her long-lost husband and father of the boy. An astonished Micah denies all, but it takes Lucas' investigation and discovery of "Charming Billy," a gambler who looks exactly like Micah, to clear up the confusion.
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C/O Mat Reding from Unsplash
Opinion,Politics |
The plight of the Uyghurs must be recognized as genocide by the international community and students have a responsibility to advocate for their human rights
cw: genocide
What is happening to the Uyghurs? Depending on who you ask, you will receive helpfully pedantic descriptions such as: “education,” “vocational training,” “repression,” “violent suppression,” “cultural genocide,” “postmodern genocide” and “demographic genocide.” The first two, offered as explanations by the Chinese state are fictitious to the point of absurdity. Similarly, the finger-wagging condemnations of “repression” and even “violent suppression,” while ostensibly denouncing the treatment of Uyghurs evade more significant criticisms.
Rather incomprehensibly, most accusations of genocide invariably insert a qualifier — “demographic,” “cultural” and “postmodern” — perhaps to make the charges more palatable, less alarming and less meaningful. The fundamental question remains: is this a genocide, in the true sense of the word?
Unfortunately, previous experiences with the matter furnish us with the answer. The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was signed by China in 1948, lists the actions that qualify as genocidal when they are inflicted with the intent to destroy, entirely or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. One such condition is the infliction of severe physical or mental harm on members of the group.
Since 2014, the Chinese government has routinely and arbitrarily imprisoned Uyghurs in “re-education camps” — essentially concentration camps where detainees are tortured, starved and beaten, subjected to waterboarding and electric shocks and psychologically tortured. Testimony from escaped detainees and their families can hardly fail to convince even the most dispassionate judge that such actions constitute serious physical and mental harm. This is genocide.
Under said UN convention, that should be enough to constitute genocide. However, we are fortunate enough to be supplied with enough evidence so as to be excessive in our exposition. Another condition for genocide is the undertaking of activities to prevent births within the group.
An investigation by the Associated Press revealed that Uyghur women were: forcibly implanted with an intrauterine device; underwent unwanted sterilization, abortions and pregnancy checks; were force-fed birth control pills and injected with unknown fluids; had their children removed and placed in orphanages; and were sent to camps for giving birth to multiple children.
Between 2015 and 2018, the birth rate in some ethnically Uyghur areas had plummeted more than 60 per cent. To all appearances, these actions can only be aimed at dramatically decreasing the Uyghur birth rate and ultimately reducing the size of the group until it is easily assimilable. This is genocide.
This is not to say that the charges of, say, cultural genocide are any less morally repugnant; they are simply not enough. An article first published in the Financial Times argues that our society has “fetishized” genocide as the ultimate, virtually uncommittable horror — historical memory has set the bar too high. Such a view of genocide makes possible only retrospective acknowledgment, thereby obstructing efforts at prevention.
Shall we then settle for milder, qualified accusations and hope for an equally mild response? Certainly not. What is needed now is the civic and political courage to stand behind that coda to one of humanity’s greatest failings, “Never Again,” and ensure that the genocide of the Uyghurs is recognized, terminated and prosecuted.
University students have a long and venerable tradition as progressive champions of human rights. From the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley campus to climate change advocacy, university students have a unique cohesion and shared experience that makes organization and protest against injustices a successful weapon of change.
As the Canadian government moves towards recognizing the Chinese government’s policy as genocide, the McMaster University student body, along with other groups in Canada, have the responsibility to advocate for oppressed peoples around the globe. Letter writing campaigns, opinion pieces, protests, raising social awareness — these are all actions we can and must undertake to stop the Uyghur genocide and ensure that the “Never Again” does not happen again.
Nina Sartor
Letter to the Editor: Chinese state propaganda in the Silhouette—seriously?
The Reach Series: how a basketball player takes his own experience into a workshop
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Trump cuts U.S. ties to WHO and blames China
By Edward KeenanWashington Bureau Chief
Fri., May 29, 2020timer3 min. read
WASHINGTON—Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump announced that in the middle of a global pandemic, he is “terminating” the U.S. relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO), making permanent a suspension of funding he announced last month.
Why? Because of China, he said.
“The world is now suffering as a result of the malfeasance of the Chinese government. China’s coverup of the Wuhan virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world,” Trump said, saying it was a coverup the WHO participated in under pressure from China.
The U.S. calls for significant reform to the organization have not been met, he said. “China has total control over the World Health Organization.”
However, experts have warned that a WHO without American participation and funding would give China more influence and control over both the organization and global health efforts around the world.
“What would an international organization be like without the United States?” Robert Bothwell, an international relations expert at the University of Toronto’s Munk School said to me recently. “Obviously, it would start performing in ways that simply ignored American views.”
That’s exactly the scenario laid out this week by Amanda Glassman and Brin Datema of the Center for Global Development, who wrote that without the involvement of the United States, and with correspondingly increased involvement and funding from other countries including specifically China, the WHO would likely pay less attention to U.S. public health goals and areas of strategic importance. “The United States created the WHO and the United Nations system. If there is a problem, the United States should name it and fix it, rather than giving up its seat at the table,” they wrote.
Similarly, Oxford University Global Health Researcher Luke Allen (who has consulted for both the WHO and U.S. government) wrote in The Conversation late last month that withdrawing U.S. funding and involvement only serves to weaken the America’s disproportionate influence on global policy and strengthen China’s. “Withdrawing from the international stage also leaves a superpower-sized leadership hole that only China can fill. If Trump wants the WHO to be more effective and less China-centric, then surely the remedy is more U.S. engagement, not less.”
Trump’s halting of funding to the WHO last month was greeted with widespread condemnation by experts in global health who said both that the organization was not to blame for the slow U.S. response, and that withdrawing funding for the organization in the middle of a deadly pandemic was irresponsible. Robert Redfield who head the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Trump’s administration then said he continued to have a “productive public health relationship” with them.
At his Friday press conference, Trump made the WHO announcement alongside several other changes in China policy, including ending special recognition of Hong Kong as a separate entity in trade and travel matters. He also announced new measures to curtail Chinese access to American university intellectual property and to the U.S. finance industry.
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“Our actions will be strong. Our actions will be meaningful,” Trump said.
The question, in the case of the WHO, is if the actions are more likely to backfire.
Immediately after Trump’s announcement, Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the CDC, tweeted, “Turning our back on WHO makes us and the world less safe.”
Edward Keenan is the Star’s Washington Bureau chief. He covers U.S. politics and current affairs. Reach him via email: ekeenan@thestar.ca
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