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CORONAVIRUS: Governor Ron DeSantis EXTENDS Florida State Of Emergency
May 8, 2020 May 8, 2020 bocanews318
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has extended Florida’s State of Emergency for 60 days — just minutes after announcing the Palm Beach County may move to “Phase One” reopening.
From the Governor’s Office:
WHEREAS, on March 1, 2020, I issued Executive Order 20-51, directing the Florida Department of Health to issue a Public Health Emergency due to COVID-19; and
WHEREAS, on March 9, 2020, I issued Executive Order 20-52, declaring a state of emergency for the entire state due to COVID-19; and
WHEREAS, on March 25, 2020, President Donald J. Trump approved my request and declared a Major Disaster due to COVID-19 in Florida; and
WHEREAS, on April 29, 2020, after consulting with my Task Force to Re-Open Florida, I issued Executive Order 20-112, my “Phase 1: Safe. Smart. Step-by-Step. Plan for Florida’s Recovery”; and
WHEREAS, I, as Governor of Florida, am committed to providing all available resources and assisting all Floridians and our local communities with their efforts; and
WHEREAS, no state of emergency declared pursuant to the Florida Emergency Management Act may continue for more than 60 days unless renewed by the Governor; and
WHEREAS, the impact of COVID-19 poses a continuing threat to the health, safety and welfare of the State of Florida and its residents.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, RON DESANTIS, as Governor of Florida, by virtue of the authority vested in me by Article IV, Section 1(a) of the Florida Constitution and by the Florida Emergency Management Act, as amended, and all other applicable laws, promulgate the following Executive Order, to take immediate effect:
Section 1. The state of emergency declared in Executive Order 20-52, will be extended for 60 days following the issuance of this order for the entire State of Florida.
Section 2. To the extent Executive Order 20-112, Phase 1: Safe. Smart. Step-by-Step. Plan for Florida’s Recovery, amended or extended any executive order related to COVID-19, the referenced executive orders shall remain in effect, as modified.
Section 3. All actions taken by the Director of the Division of Emergency Management as the State Coordinating Officer with respect to this emergency before the issuance of this Executive Order are ratified, and he is directed to continue to execute the State’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan and other response, recovery, and mitigation plans necessary to cope with the emergency.
Section 4. Except as amended herein, Executive Order 20-52 is ratified and reaffirmed.
Tagged Florida emergency news
CORONAVIRUS: BREAKING TV Update For Weekend Starting May 8th – Phase One Reopening, Boca, Delray, Boynton
CORONAVIRUS: CITY OF DELRAY BEACH SAYS FACIAL COVERINGS NOT NEEDED
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In Delivery, Industry Roundup, Last-Mile, Retail
Bringoz October 2019 Roundup2019-11-072020-03-29/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/bringoz_logo_white.svgBringozhttps://bringoz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/website-blog-thumbnail-1.jpg200px200px
Bringoz October 2019 Roundup
he logistics and retail industries are constantly changing. A lot has happened over the past month. It can be a little overwhelming trying to keep track of everything. Luckily, we’ve been doing that for you. Here’s a look at eight news stories from the past month to keep you up to date on what’s happening in the retail and logistics industries.
Amazon Makes It's Inevitable Grocery Store Expansion
Amazon has signed more than a dozen leases for stores in the Los Angeles area, and seems to be advancing with plans to open a new brand of grocery stores. Amazon looks to appeal to the mass market, by creating a brand separate from Whole Foods. The company’s plans dictate that it’s looking to build an experiential retail concept under one roof. Read more here.
Ford Will Launch AV Delivery & Ride Hail Service in 2021
Ford announced plans to launch a commercial autonomous vehicle service in Austin, Texas, starting in 2021. Ford plans to offer delivery and ride-hailing services in target markets including Austin, Washington, DC and Miami-Dade county. Ford’s ambitious approach of launching in three cities may seem risky, however it may be exactly what’s needed to stay ahead of the competition. Read more here.
*This is not the van mentioned below
DHL Unveils New Electric Delivery Van
DHL’s StreetScooter subsidiary has unveiled a new version of its popular all-electric delivery van, and they announced that it is coming to the US and China. DHL, one of the largest logistics companies in the world, started its StreetScooter subsidiary to build electric vehicles for its own fleet. The company is now emerging as an important electric vehicle manufacturer. Read more here.
New York Revolts Against GrubHub
Restaurant owners say Grubhub’s business model has forced dependency, cut into their profit margins, and cannibalized their customers. As a New York City Council investigates, the New York State Liquor Authority is considering a rule that would require third-party delivery apps to charge restaurants a flat fee or no more than 10% of the total order for their services, or else be listed as partners on the restaurants’ liquor licenses. Read more here.
Walmart is Launching InHome, a Grocery Delivery Service
Walmart is launching a new service that will deliver groceries and put them away in your fridge. InHome grocery delivery is a membership program that is being rolled out for $19.95 a month. Shoppers must purchase a $49.95 smart door lock kit or smart garage door kit, which comes with free installation and one month of free unlimited grocery delivery, and they never have to step foot in a supermarket again. Read more here.
DoorDash & Other Food Delivery Services Creating Their Own Restaurants?
The three largest brands (DoorDash, Grubhub, and UberEats) have all expanded beyond simple delivery with virtual restaurants. The food delivery industry is reaching a turning point as restaurants complain of excessive fees, the economics are absent, and competition is fierce. These conditions that might cause delivery services to get their fingers into the food they’re delivering. Virtual restaurants are a testament to such. Read more here.
Best Buy Takes on Amazon With Next-Day Delivery
Best Buy has modernized its supply chain, allowing 99% of its customers to get free next-day delivery on thousands of items through its website. The retailer has seven automated warehouses and three metro eCommerce centers. By shipping online orders from it’s stores and distribution centers, Best Buy can offer faster deliveries just in time for the holiday season. Look out Amazon, your competitive edge is slowly deteriorating. Read more here.
McDonalds Wants to Predict Your Order
McDonalds is turning to artificial intelligence and machine learning to create the data centric internet shopping experience in brick-and-mortar stores. The company’s machine learning technology could change how consumers decide what to eat, and more importantly—make them eat more. The food industry is becoming increasingly interested in implementing tech, a model that’s been pioneered by Dominos. Read more here.
To learn some news about Bringoz and how we can help fulfill your logistics needs, contact info@bringoz.com.
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Manchester United reminded of the difference a year makes by starting crucial week against Burnley
As Manchester United prepare for a night which could see them move top of the Premier League table for the first time…
By admin , in Sprots , at January 12, 2021 Tags: Football, Manchester United, Premier League
As Manchester United prepare for a night which could see them move top of the Premier League table for the first time this season, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is determined not to get ahead of himself.
Every question about this budding title challenge has been met with the same answer over the past few weeks and it was repeated several times on Monday afternoon.
“As I’ve said,” the United manager would reiterate, “the league table doesn’t matter now but you pick up points and when you get to March and April, that’s where the league will be decided.”
Yet in the quieter moments before tonight’s late kick-off at Turf Moor, even if he refuses to look too far forward, Solskjaer may be tempted to look back at the last time his side played Burnley.
It is nearly a year since two unanswered goals by Chris Wood and Jay Rodriguez secured Burnley’s first win at Old Trafford in 57 years and consigned United to their eighth league defeat of a season spiraling down the drain.
Solskjaer was six points off the Champions League places, thirty behind leaders and eventual champions Liverpool having played two more games, and under greater external pressure than at any other time of his tenure.
At his post-match press conference, back when such things were conducted in cramped rooms rather than over Zoom calls, there was a sense of blood in the water for the very first time.
Solskjaer looked tired and downcast, and he said he understood the frustrations of the supporters, even if their anger was directed at the Glazer family ownership and executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward rather than him. “At the end, you do feel disillusioned because maybe they do,” he admitted.
But United were unequivocal in their backing of Solskjaer over the days that followed, as they always have been in such fraught and uncertain moments, and that show of faith could yet be repaid handsomely.
Rather than thirty points off the pace, United are level with leaders Liverpool. This time, they are the ones with the game in hand. Beat Burnley, then beat Jurgen Klopp’s side at Anfield on Sunday and they will be six clear of the reigning champions at the halfway stage.
Is it any wonder why some are touting this to be the biggest week at Old Trafford since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement?
Solskjaer is right, though. That assessment is a little excitable. It is still very early in an unpredictable year.
“We are better off this season than last season compared to the same time last year,” he admitted on Monday. “We’ve won more games, scored more goals, played better football. That’s a positive but as I said, no-one remembers January league tables. For us, it’s just about developing this team and improving.”
Even so, if United do go top tonight, it will be the first time that they have graced the summit this late into the season since the last of Ferguson’s titles. In that sense, it would be symbolic: a sign that the club has the potential to contend again after the best part of eight years in the doldrums.
Solskjaer said he is “very happy” with his players’ mentality now, having sensed the mood gradually shift during his two years in charge. “I expect them to go into every single game with a mental readiness, to work hard for your team to win it and the results will come.
“We have some good characters in the team, the dressing room is louder, it’s more vocal,” he added. “We’ve got Nemanja Matic, who has won it a few times. Juan Mata, Edinson [Cavani], Bruno [Fernandes] coming in.”
And it is Fernandes, more than any other player, has been the catalyst. Take the league table from his arrival last January and United already sit at the top, hence why Solskjaer singled him out while speaking about his squad’s hunger for success.
“I think he wants to feel part of a team that is going to be challenging for trophies,” he said. “We have more players that can grab the situation.”
That defeat to Burnley happened to be United’s final league game before completing Fernandes’ £47m arrival from Sporting Clube de Portugal. Solskjaer was asked on Monday whether the transformative effect which that signing has made will tempt him into the mid-season market again.
He politely explained that this time around, he does not feel the need to. “The situation is different now from a year ago.”
Roma chosen by Qatar to become the PSG of Italy
Eager to expand their European investment to Italy, a Qatari fund have expressed their interest in t..
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The K-1 is an Internal Revenue Service tax document allocating the respective net income and/or losses to the respective owners. It is provided to the owners upon completion of the annual tax return. Each line on the K-1 identifies to the owner how much to include in the respective sections of their personal tax returns from the business operations.
The average person may not realize this, but the most notable joint venture in existence today is the National Football League. It figuratively owns every Sunday in the fall of each year. It is an association of 32 clubs agreeing to compete with each other, i.e. engage in athletic entertainment. Each venturer is its own business entity; the league generates its own revenue stream (mostly TV rights) and shares these profits with its members equally.
Aggregate and Entity Theories of Partnership
A partnership is defined as an association of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners a business for profit. The premise is built around the notion that the combined power of the partners exceeds the sum of the value the partners could generate independently.
What is an S-Corporation?
Within the family of corporations, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) grants tax free status to S-Corporations. It is strictly an IRS term. In the IRS code, there are several subchapters pertaining to corporations; Subchapter S identifies and regulates S-Corporations. In essence, S-Corporations are a pass through entity meaning that all income, losses, credits and special deductions are pass-through to the stockholders of the company.
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bobby robson newcastle
one looking at later drug development research. Here we will try and explain what this involves: Clinical trials are scientific research studies that examine different aspects of patient care including new methods of prevention, diagnosis or treatment. Under Sir Bobby Robsonâs management Newcastle finished 11th in his first two seasons, then placed in the top 5 in his final three seasons ⦠âSo, it was like âwow, if the guy is this committed to me, I want to be playing for him and Newcastleâ. A gentleman who transcended football, Sir Bobby Robson was one of the game's greatest managers and one of the North East's favourite sons. Moving to East Anglia a year later, he transformed Ipswich Town from a second division side to FA Cup winners in 1978 and UEFA Cup winners in 1981, becoming England manager shortly afterwards. Some trials look at different ways of giving existing treatments, while others look at the effects that a particular treatment has on patients’ quality of life. Trials usually have guidelines as to who is eligible to take part. He also played for the England national team. The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation has provided funding to Newcastle Clinical Trials Unit, for a cancer trials team. He was an actor, known for Bayer 04 Leverkusen vs Newcastle United (2003), Match of the Eighties (1997) and Match of the Day (1964). However, you can opt out Bobby Robson Az 1988-as Európa-bajnokság nagyon rosszul sikerült Anglia számára. Knighted in 2002 for services to football, Sir Bobby brought a cultured brand of football to Newcastle borne of his long years in charge of some of the world's biggest clubs and the England team. Not quite. A gentleman who transcended football, Sir Bobby Robson was one of the game's greatest managers and one of the North East's favourite sons. He scored four goals in 20 games for them. Remember, it is entirely your own decision. His statue stands proudly outside St. Jamesâ Park, and many of the Toon faithful long for the days when Robson took charge of the side. Our ambition is not only to provide the best possible care today, but to ensure that our patients of tomorrow have access to increasingly improved diagnosis and treatment. 12. Sir Bobby Robson is the Toon's favorite son. He arrived at St. Jamesâ Park early in the 1999/00 season as the answer to a crisis following the teamâs poor start to the campaign under Ruud Gullit. Newcastle United boss Bobby Robson and Leeds United boss David O''Leary dish out some orders during the FA Carling Premiership match played at St James Park, in Newcastle, England. These guidelines help ensure the welfare of those taking part, and to work out who will be best suited to take part in a trial. Sir Robert William " Bobby " Robson CBE (18 February 1933 â 31 July 2009) was an English association footballer and manager. We use cookies on this website to make your visit an easier and faster experience. Knighted in 2002 for services to football, Sir Bobby brought a cultured brand of football to Newcastle borne of his long years in charge of some of the world's biggest clubs and the England team. Each new treatment goes through strict testing before it is offered to patients as an established treatment. Even the best get it wrong. Once all of the details have been explained and you have asked the questions you want to ask, you will be given written information, so you can take it home, think it over, and talk to your family, friends and GP before making a decision. In an exclusive interview with the Newcastle Chronicle, Dyer has ⦠Kieron Dyer: "He [Graeme Souness] came in ⦠As part of your care and treatment with us, we may have approached you about taking part in a clinical trial or research study. Many of the everyday routine treatments we now use have come about from testing done in previous trials. Contact: (0191) 213 8453 – Sir Bobby Robson Unit Reception. Some studies compare a new treatment against a placebo to test if the effect of the new treatment is a true one or not. Nothing special about a Premier League home win for Sir Bobby Robson's men? This is called informed consent. Kieron Dyer has revealed his 'biggest regret' in football - getting Sir Bobby Robson the sack at Newcastle.. A research radiographer also works in the later drug development team and there are clinical trials officers within the unit. If you are selected, you will be able to talk to the doctors and the research team about the details of the trial – the kind of treatment you will receive, possible side effects, and what extra tests might come as part of the trial. That was the day Alan Shearer scored his wondergoal against the Toffees. A statue of Sir Bobby now stands at the South West corner of St. James' Park, while a bronze bust of the great man is located in the players and officials' entrance at the stadium. Sir Bobby had wanted to separate himself from his staff, because he wanted that respect there, too â even behind the scenes, he was pulling all of the strings. NCCC is the national lead in a hereditary breast and ovarian cancer trial using a new class of anti-cancer drugs developed in collaboration with Newcastle University. St. Jamesâ Park Strawberry Place Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4ST, You can turn high contrast on again via the link in the footer to our, He arrived at St. Jamesâ Park early in the 1999/00 season. Consecutive defeats to a resurgent Everton and a 6â2 home thrashing by Alex Ferguson's side killed off Newcastle's title hopes, but Bobby Robson and his team was able to brush off the challenge from Chelsea to finish 3rd in the Premier League, entering the qualification rounds for the Champions League in the 2003â04 season. Bobby Robson was born on February 18, 1933 in Sacriston, Durham, England as Robert William Robson. Kieron Dyer gives insight into Lee Bowyer bust-up and playing under Sir Bobby Robson at Newcastle. There will be the name of a contact person if you have any problems, and your GP may also be told that you are taking part in a trial. Universally loved and respected, his popularity embraces the town as much as Newcastle United, a soccer club he managed with great distinction. Sir Bobby Robson and Jose Mourinho interacted at Barcelona in the 1996/97 season While Joseâs group were getting beaten 1-0 at Boavista, 800 miles away, Sir Bobbyâs group where suffering the exact same fate in the house toCharlton Jose confesses, if things had actually been simply a bit various, he would have been at Robsonâs side that day. Getty Images The crazy thing is, after Iâd retired and read his book, I learned what he was going through at Newcastle with his cancer â at the time, you would not have known for one minute. That Robson, who later became Sir Bobby, was honored by both Ipswich and Newcastle, that he is referred to as more than a manager, and that the people speaking highly of him in the film include Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and the Barcelona legend ⦠If you agree to take part, you will be asked to sign a form saying you understand that you are agreeing to take part in a clinical trial. Former Newcastle United owner Sir John Hall says he will never forgive the players that got Sir Bobby Robson sacked. Sir Bobby guided the Magpies to third place in the Premier League that season but the failure to get past Partizan Belgrade in the 2003/04 Champions League qualifier was a major setback. - Sir Bobby Robson's superb reaction to Newcastle defender's red card The promising youngster was set for talks with the Gunners, but an all-night conversation with the ⦠The whole process of testing can take years. This means that you may be the first to benefit from ground-breaking new treatments, by helping our Clinical Trials Unit with trials for potential new therapies developed by the Northern Institute of Cancer Research, Cancer Research UK and the international pharmaceutical industry. He was married to Elsie Robson. Sir Robert William Robson CBE (18 February 1933 â 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. Clinical trials play a key role in the development of new cancer treatments and we are proud that our experts here in Newcastle have developed two major new cancer drugs in recent years and are leading the way in stem cell harvesting. You can turn high contrast on again via the link in the footer to our accessibilty page. Sir Bobby Robson was a unique character in football, a man universally loved due to his spells in charge of the likes of Ipswich Town, Newcastle United, Barcelona and England.. Perhaps most fondly remembered for guiding England to the semi-finals of Italia 90, Robson was thought of equally as fondly on the continent, where he managed PSV, Sporting Lisbon, Porto and Barcelona. Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre Contact: (0191) 213 8453 â Sir Bobby Robson Unit Reception Our ambition is not only to provide the best possible care today, but to ensure that our patients of tomorrow have access to increasingly improved diagnosis and treatment. After ending that and the following season in mid-table, Sir Bobby led Newcastle to fourth-placed finish and qualified for the Champions League. His book is an inspiring portrait in words and pictures of a large vibrant city in the north east, proud of its history, its architecture, its culture and its great soccer club. âYou look at the managers, and ⦠By Damian Mannion 31st July 2020, 9:02 am. When Sir Bobby Robson took over as manager of Newcastle United in September 1999, he described the appointment as "going home". sir bobby robson cancer centre rises to meet covid-19 challenge By Liz Luff On 16 November 2020 In Uncategorized The COVID-19 pandemic has created many challenges for the NHS and for some patients on clinical trials has even led to the cancellation of treatment. This involves laboratory tests and then testing with patients as a clinical trial. Clinical trials contribute to our knowledge and understanding. Turn off Incredibly, in the 2002/03 campaign, United qualified for the second group stage despite losing the first three Phase One group matches â the first team ever to do so. of receiving cookies. He later left captain Alan Shearer on the bench for Newcastle's ⦠His impact was immediate; United ending a home goal drought by demolishing Sheffield Wednesday 8-0 at St. James' Park - Alan Shearer scoring five of the goals. McManaman went on to join Barcelonaâs arch-rivals Real Madrid on a free transfer in 1999, by which time Robson had enjoyed a second stint in charge at PSV Eindhoven. How are new treatments developed and tested? A man he still refers to, out of deference, as simply "Mr Robson". I’ve no doubt that it is one of the best facilities of its kind, not just in this country, but in Europe.". They also help improve the standard of patient care we deliver, as the treatment offered comes from sound evidence from earlier trials. If you continue to use our site, we'll assume that you are happy to receive cookies from our site. I think Sir Bobby was so affectionately loved by everyone at Newcastle United and he is still sorely missed to this day.â Become a Patron! The clinical team in the Clinical Trials Unit is made up of two teams: A senior research sister leads each team with the support of research nurses and other support staff. A fifth-placed finish 2003/04 brought Newcastle a UEFA Cup place, but after a poor start to the following campaign, and with no Champions League football, Sir Bobby's managerial reign came to an end. All money raised by the Foundation goes towards funding clinical research into new anti-cancer drug therapies. It will clearly state that you are allowed to leave the trial at any time if you want to, and you don’t have to give a reason. Jose's soft spot for Newcastle is because of Sir Bobby Robson, his close friend and mentor. Tweet. This tradition of excellence is continuing in the NCCC with the establishment of the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre, a dedicated clinical research facility set up by the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and supported by the generosity of people from all walks of life in the North-East.
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stephen.hunt@bellmedia.ca
Articles by Stephen Hunt
'Who are we now?' High Performance Rodeo moves to Instagram in pandemic
Fan-less Flames bring back 50/50 draw back online
Crowsnest Pass RCMP investigating death of mountain climber
Former Flame Jay Bouwmeester retires after 17 NHL seasons
State of local emergency declared on Stoney Nakoda First Nation
Charges filed against Innisfail man in relation to August head-on collision near Sundre
Fog advisory issued for Lethbridge and surrounding areas
2 Drumheller residents face drug-related charges
Man charged in connection with Lethbridge vehicle-pedestrian collision
Funeral for slain Calgary police officer to take place Saturday
City issues more than two dozen tickets for non-compliance with mask bylaw
Mod Box Studios offer space for remote workers
1 injured in Wednesday shooting in Crescent Heights
Anyone need a mechanical bull? Ranchman's relics up for auction
Pedestrian struck by vehicle in downtown Calgary
Auburn Bay family builds a winter ice oasis in backyard
Alberta COVID-19 cases drop as 17K Moderna vaccines arrive in province
Since joining CTV in July 2019, Stephen Hunt has worked as a digital producer, covering everything from city politics to mean coaches to the energy industry and beyond.
Based in Calgary, Alberta, Stephen has also reported from Los Angeles, New York, Japan, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Beijing and New Orleans.
As a digital producer, he specializes in general topics. He also is a board member of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association, and the Calgary theatre critic for the Globe & Mail, as well as an occasional country music critic for the Calgary Herald, where he worked as an entertainment reporter from 2006 to 2016. He’s a produced and published playwright whose works have been staged in New York, LA, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Orlando, and published in Best American Short Plays, as well as a screenwriter and author. He also served as assistant producer on the Sundance Award winning documentary, Americanos: Latino Life in the U.S., working with Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning actor and director Edward James Olmos, in 2000.
As part of the Calgary Herald newsroom, Stephen won a group National Newspaper Award in 2014 for Postmedia’s coverage of the 2013 Calgary flood. In 2019, he was nominated for an RTNDA award for a multi-media article he wrote for CBC, where he worked as a digital associate producer and web writer from 2017 to 2019.
He taught journalism at Mount Royal University in Calgary and has been an adjunct professor at the creative writing department of the University of British Columbia since 2007, teaching playwriting in the optional residency online class.
Stephen speaks English, some French and a bit of Spanish.
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The Supreme Court of New Hampshire Affirms Opinion for American Honda Motor Co.
James M. Campbell of Campbell Campbell Edwards & Conroy, Boston, Massachusetts represented American Honda Motor Co., Inc. in a Petition for Attorney’s fees filed by the dealership Autofair Honda (“Autofair”) against American Honda Motor Co., Inc. arising out of fees incurred by Autofair in a Protest it filed with the New Hampshire Motor Vehicle Industry Board. Autofair’s Protest related to American Honda Motor Co., Inc. ‘s proposal to charge back certain claims for warranty work by the dealership which had already been paid for by American Honda Motor Co., Inc., following a warranty audit at the dealership. After oral argument, the New Hampshire Motor Vehicle Industry Board allowed American Honda Motor Co., Inc. to make certain charge backs, and disallowed a majority of the proposed charge backs which were still in dispute at the time of the Board hearing. The Board explicitly commended American Honda Motor Co., Inc.’s and Autofair’s conduct in the warranty audit, and the positive changes which resulted from the audit.
Following the Board’s Decision, Autofair brought this action for Attorney’s fees, arguing that it was entitled to attorney’s fees under RSA 357-C:12, as the Board had implicitly found that American Honda Motor Co., Inc. violated RSA 357-C in ruling in favor of Autofair. Autofair filed a motion for summary judgment on this basis. Honda filed a cross-motion for summary judgment, arguing that it had not violated RSA 357-C, as it had not actually charged back any amount, and pointed to the Board’s Order for support that no violation was found by the Board. The Court granted summary judgment in favor of American Honda Motor Co., Inc., agreeing with American Honda Motor Co., Inc.’s position that no violation had occurred and that the Board had explicitly refused to find that American Honda Motor Co., Inc. had violated RSA 357-C. Autofair appealed the Court’s decision. After the parties filed their initial briefing, the relevant statute was amended to include a definition for the term “charge back,” which would, if applied retrospectively, alter the analysis of American Honda Motor Co., Inc.’s conduct as potentially violative of RSA 357-C. The parties submitted supplemental briefing, with Autofair arguing that the amended statute should apply to this case retrospectively, as the amendment was remedial only, and with American Honda Motor Co., Inc. arguing that the amendment affected the substantive rights of the parties, and therefore must only apply prospectively. After consideration of the amended statute, the New Hampshire Supreme Court determined that the amended statute affected the rights of the parties and therefore, could not be applied retrospectively. The Court then affirmed summary judgment in favor of American Honda Motor Co., Inc., agreeing with the Superior Court that there was no violation of the statute in affect at the time by American Honda Motor Co., Inc., and that the Board’s decision did not find a violation by American Honda Motor Co., Inc.. View Full Opinion
On September 29, 2014 The Supreme Court of New Hampshire denied Autofair 1477 L.P. d/b/a Autofair Honda (“Autofair”)’s Motion for Rehearing or Reconsideration, relating to the Court’s earlier Opinion affirming the trial court’s entry of summary judgment in favor of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. (“AHM”). The Court’s denial of Autofair’s motion confirms the Court’s earlier decision that the amendments to RSA 357-C may apply prospectively only, and that AHM did not violate any portion of the statute which was in effect at the time of the disputed conduct. View Full Opinion
James M. Campbell of Campbell Campbell Edwards & Conroy, represented American Honda Motor Co., Inc. in this case.
The Supreme Court of New Hampshire
< Previous Result: After almost four years of litigation, Worcester County Superior Court issues a ruling for Rule 26 (b) (2) and (b) (3)Class Decertified
Next Result: Bambino v. Toyota Motor Corp. >
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UNITED STATES v. BOZOVICH
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee v. Mark BOZOVICH, Defendant–Appellant.
Before WOOD, Chief Judge, and POSNER and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges. David E. Hollar, Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Hammond, IN, for Plaintiff–Appellee. Michael W. Bosch, Attorney, Bosch & Dedelow, Highland, IN, for Defendant–Appellant.
Mark Bozovich was convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin. He now appeals, seeking a new trial or at least a lower sentence. Bozovich argues that he is entitled to a new trial on the theory that the district court erred by allowing the government to cross-examine him well beyond the scope of his direct testimony. He also argues that his 235–month prison sentence was based on an erroneous drug quantity finding. We affirm both the conviction and the sentence.
I. Rule 611(b) and the Scope of Cross–Examination
Bozovich testified in his own defense at his trial about his criminal record and his heroin addiction. This direct testimony was intended to show that Bozovich was an addict, not a conspirator in heroin distribution. The government then cross-examined. After some preliminary questions about Bozovich's employment and earnings history, the cross-examination homed in on a statement Bozovich had made to a pair of DEA agents before he was arrested on the conspiracy charge being considered here. In that statement he had told DEA agents about who supplied him and his associates with heroin.
Bozovich's lawyer objected to the questioning about the statement, asserting that it was beyond the scope of direct examination and hence impermissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 611(b). The district judge overruled the objection and the government proceeded with its questioning. Bozovich admitted most of the contents of the statement, in which he identified a number of people who supplied heroin to him and others. On re-direct, defense counsel tried to establish that while Bozovich sometimes shared his heroin with friends who were sick from withdrawal, he did not participate in a conspiracy to distribute heroin.
Rule 611 governs the mode and order of examining witnesses, and it gives broad discretion to the district judge to manage the process to promote determination of the truth, to avoid wasting time, and to protect witnesses from harassment or undue embarrassment. Rule 611(b) provides more specifically: “Cross-examination should not go beyond the subject matter of the direct examination and matters affecting the witness's credibility.” The standard under Rule 611(b) is whether the cross-examination was “reasonably related to the subject matter of direct examination.” United States v. Harbour, 809 F.2d 384, 388 (7th Cir.1987). Determining the “subject matter” of the direct examination is not an exact science, and “both the United States Supreme Court and our court have liberally interpreted the extent of the defendant's direct examination for purposes of establishing the proper scope of the cross-examination,” id. at 388–89 (brackets omitted), quoting United States v. Green, 757 F.2d 116, 120 (7th Cir.1985).
Our standard of review on appeal is the deferential “abuse of discretion” standard, United States v. Carter, 910 F.2d 1524, 1530 (7th Cir.1990), which requires us to keep in mind the trial judge's more immediate feel for the case and the fact that the judge ordinarily must rule on the question without full knowledge of what cross-examination is likely to show. The deferential standard of review under Rule 611(b) is consistent with our cases emphasizing that “management of cross-examination is peculiarly committed to the district court's discretion.” United States v. Studley, 892 F.2d 518, 529 (7th Cir.1989), quoting United States v. Castro, 788 F.2d 1240, 1244 (7th Cir.1986) (internal quotation marks omitted). The district court here did not abuse its discretion under Rule 611(b).
The defense theory of this case was clear. Counsel for Bozovich began his opening statement: “I represent Mark Bozovich; Mark Bozovich, heroin addict.” He quickly conceded that Bozovich bought heroin, used heroin, and sometimes even sold heroin. He just as quickly denied, however, that Bozovich conspired to distribute heroin. Defense counsel ended his opening statement by posing these rhetorical questions to the jury: “Was it a conspiracy? Was it really? Or was it just a bunch of people getting high together?”
The direct examination of Bozovich by his counsel, in particular the questioning about his drug use, advanced this theory. Bozovich testified about how long he had been a heroin addict—approximately five or six years—and how expensive his heroin addiction had been at its height—approximately $100 a day. (At sentencing the district judge took $100 to be the price of a gram of heroin.) Bozovich described his multiple attempts at recovery followed by relapse. The direct examination concluded:
Q. So you lost your home. You've lost your kid. You've lost your girlfriend, all because of your addiction?
A. Yeah. And overdraft on my bank account. They closed it probably about eight months ago, nine months ago.
Q. And you can't stay off of it, can you?
A. No, I can't.
On appeal, Bozovich frames the scope of direct testimony narrowly as his heroin addiction, so that “the only proper cross-examination would have been for the Government to try and prove that Bozovich was not addicted to heroin.” In our view, though, it was not an abuse of discretion for the district judge to view the scope of the direct examination more broadly as Bozovich's heroin use, including his suppliers and his ability to pay for the heroin over the years in question. Those were the principal subjects of the cross-examination. By testifying on direct about his heroin purchasing habits and the motives for his purchases, Bozovich “opened himself up for cross-examination” as to those topics. See Harbour, 809 F.2d at 389.
According to the government, Bozovich had admitted in his statement to DEA agents to buying heroin from several suppliers, buying heroin in quantities much larger than $100 a day, and brokering drug deals among his associates. On cross-examination Bozovich accused the agents of lying about some aspects of his statement, but the accuracy of different versions of events is for the jury to decide. It is enough to withstand scrutiny under Rule 611(b) that the district judge could reasonably treat these subjects as “matters reasonably related to the subject matter of direct examination.” Id. at 388.
II. Drug Quantity for Sentencing
Bozovich received a 235–month prison sentence, the low end of the 235– to 240–month guideline range the court calculated for the offense. The sentencing range in this case, as in most drug cases, was driven primarily by estimating the quantity of drugs for which the defendant should be held responsible. The district judge determined that Bozovich was responsible for conspiring to distribute between one and three kilograms of heroin, which produced a base offense level of 32. Bozovich argued instead that he was responsible for between 400 and 700 grams, which would have produced a base offense level of 28. If the right answer were somewhere in the middle—between 700 grams and one kilogram—the base offense level would have been 30.1
Bozovich's offense level was raised by four levels (two for possession of a weapon and two for obstruction of justice), and he was in criminal history category III. Lowering his base offense level by four levels would have reduced the low end of his range to 151 months, or about one-third. A two-level reduction would have reduced the low end of the range to 188 months, or exactly one-fifth.
A convicted defendant has a “due process right to be sentenced on the basis of accurate information.” Ben–Yisrayl v. Buss, 540 F.3d 542, 554 (7th Cir.2008), citing United States v. Tucker, 404 U.S. 443, 447, 92 S.Ct. 589, 30 L.Ed.2d 592 (1972), and Townsend v. Burke, 334 U.S. 736, 741, 68 S.Ct. 1252, 92 L.Ed. 1690 (1948). In applying that general principle, however, it is “well-established that a preponderance of the evidence is all that is required for a factual finding of drug quantity under the Sentencing Guidelines, due process concerns notwithstanding.” United States v. Medina, 728 F.3d 701, 705 (7th Cir.2013). Determining drug quantities under the Sentencing Guidelines is often difficult, and district courts may make reasonable though imprecise estimates based on information that has indicia of reliability. See, e.g., United States v. Hollins, 498 F.3d 622, 631 (7th Cir.2007) (“[T]he sentencing guidelines permit some amount of reasoned speculation and reasonable estimation by a sentencing court.”) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted); United States v. Rodriguez, 67 F.3d 1312, 1325 (7th Cir.1995) (“Recognizing that drug dealers ordinarily do not use invoices and bills of lading, we have held that sentencing courts may make reasonable estimates as to drug quantities.”).
Our standard of review on appeal is clear error, which is a “highly deferential standard of review.” United States v. Hankton, 432 F.3d 779, 789 (7th Cir.2005). At the same time, while “a district court does not automatically commit clear error when it fails to use the most conservative calculation possible,” United States v. Longstreet, 567 F.3d 911, 929 (7th Cir.2009), a district court choosing among “plausible estimates of drug quantity” should normally “err on the side of caution,” United States v. Beler, 20 F.3d 1428, 1436 (7th Cir.1994), quoting United States v. Walton, 908 F.2d 1289, 1302 (6th Cir.1990).
For guideline purposes, the drug quantity attributable to Bozovich can be approached in terms of what he purchased or what he sold and what he used. Normally we would expect the first amount to equal the second. Lacking records that document those amounts, the district court had to do its best to estimate. Here the district judge drew on testimony about how much heroin Bozovich sold and testimony about how much heroin he purchased to arrive at two independent estimates of drug quantity. Both estimates are imperfect, as are the ways they were calculated. But in this endeavor, precision is not be expected or required. What matters is that both of these estimates were conservative and both were over one kilogram, the drug quantity the district court used to calculate the guideline range. This “extremely conservative finding” by the district court does not constitute clear error.
One estimate of the drug quantity attributable to Bozovich focused on his sales of heroin. This estimate would necessarily underestimate the drug quantity attributable to Bozovich, since under the guidelines participants in a drug distribution conspiracy are held responsible for amounts they use as well as amounts they sell. United States v. Wyss, 147 F.3d 631, 632 (7th Cir.1998).2 Using this estimate is thus one way in which the district judge used conservative factors in in his drug quantity finding.
The judge also used conservative assumptions to estimate how much heroin Bozovich sold. One witness estimated that Bozovich sold 40 grams of heroin per week. Two other witnesses also testified about his sales of heroin, one saying that he observed these sales and the other saying that he bought heroin from Bozovich. Bozovich admitted that he frequently acquired heroin in large quantities, which suggests an intent to resell. He also told the DEA agents that his acquisitions of heroin, and hence his potential resales, spanned a six-year period, or at least so testified one of the DEA agents. Bozovich testified that he told them three to six years, probably closer to three. Ultimately the district judge found that the conspiracy lasted six years, and we have no basis to upset that finding. Based on all of that testimony, the district court calculated that even the conservative assumptions that Bozovich sold just 20 grams of heroin per week for just 52 weeks of the six-year conspiracy would make Bozovich responsible for at least 1,040 grams of heroin.
The second estimate of the drug quantity attributable to Bozovich focused on his purchases of heroin. Bozovich told the DEA agents that sometimes he would buy up to $300 of heroin a day from just one of his suppliers. Another of his suppliers testified that Bozovich would buy approximately five grams of heroin every four or five days. And, again, the conspiracy persisted for six years. Based on all of that testimony, the district court conservatively assumed that Bozovich purchased an average of just four grams of heroin per week for five years of the six-year conspiracy. This estimate also holds Bozovich responsible for at least 1,040 grams of heroin.
Bozovich attacks these estimates in two main ways. First, he derides much of the testimony on which these estimates are based as “what junkies said about other junkies.” That is one reason why estimates should err on the low side, and the district judge heeded that caution. Also the jury must have credited some of the government witnesses in finding Bozovich guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury may well have done so for the same reason the judge did: “their testimony is generally consistent in that each establish[ed] that Bozovich was purchasing large quantities of heroin over an extended period of time and that some portion of that heroin was being sold.”
Second, Bozovich maintains that these estimates must take account of the time he spent in drug treatment during the conspiracy. Even if the district judge had not taken account of this time in treatment, that would not constitute clear error. Bozovich admitted that he was not free of heroin during his attempts at rehabilitation. In any event, though, the assumptions the district judge used in both of his estimates were more than conservative enough to allow for this factor.
The case Bozovich cites that is most helpful to him is United States v. Beler, 20 F.3d 1428 (7th Cir.1994), but that case is still quite different from his. In Beler we vacated a sentence when the drug quantity finding underlying that sentence was supported only thinly if at all. The drug quantity in Beler was based on the testimony of one man. He was a “cocaine addict and government informant,” id. at 1435, as Bozovich emphasizes. Central to our holding in Beler, however, was the fact that this witness testified at trial without providing a drug quantity. Instead, he submitted two affidavits after the trial. The affidavits were inconsistent with each other and with his trial testimony. In the face of such competing and shifting stories from the sole witness, we held that the district judge had not scrutinized the drug quantity evidence sufficiently before making a finding. Id. at 1433–35. Because the district judge here made a clear credibility finding and otherwise carefully scrutinized the drug quantity evidence, Beler does not control.
1. These calculations were based on the 2013 version of the Sentencing Guidelines in effect at the time of sentencing. Amendment 782 took effect on November 1, 2014 to reduce by two levels the various base offense levels. Amendment 788 makes Amendment 782 retroactive for purposes of 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) after November 1, 2015.
2. While Wyss answers the argument that the personal use amount of a participant in a drug distribution conspiracy should not count under the guidelines in a drug quantity calculation, it does not foreclose the argument that a conspirator who is primarily a personal user should receive a lower sentence in light of the 18 U.S .C. § 3553(a) factors. Defense counsel made that argument at the sentencing hearing and the district judge did not err by rejecting it. After the judge had already made his drug quantity finding and calculated the sentencing range, counsel for Bozovich then made an argument for the exercise of sentencing discretion. He argued that Bozovich was buying heroin because he was “addicted to it, not as a part of the conspiracy.” The judge reminded defense counsel that Bozovich was also responsible for “a rather substantial amount of heroin that was being dealt.”
HAMILTON, Circuit Judge.
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Discover more about MX records and A records to see exactly where they stand in the DNS system.
When you add a domain name as hosted in some account, you usually set a pair of Name Servers to direct it to that specific provider. On their end, 3 records are created automatically right after the domain is added - one A record and two MX records. The first one is a numeric address, or IP address, that “tells” the domain address where its site is, while the other two are alphanumeric and they show the server that manages the e-mails for that particular domain name. The website and the e-mail hosting are generally considered to be one thing, when they're in fact two different services. Having different records for them will enable you to have them with different providers if you wish. As an illustration, some new company could have outstanding uptime for your website, but you might not want to switch your emails from your current host and by using an A record to point the Internet domain to the first and MX records to have the emails with the second, you can get the best of both providers. These records are checked whenever you want to open a website or send an email - in any case, the service provider whose name servers are used for the domain address will be contacted to retrieve the A and MX records and if you have set records different from their own, the right web/mail server will then be contacted and you are going to see the needed site or your e-mail is going to be delivered.
Custom MX and A Records in Shared Hosting
If you have a shared hosting account from our company and you would like to direct either your site or your emails to a different company, it'll take you literally just 2 clicks to do so. Our Hepsia CP comes with an easy-to-use DNS Records tool, where all your domains and subdomains are going to be listed alphabetically and you're going to be able to see and modify the A and/or MX records for any of them. If you wish to use a different email provider and they ask you to create more MX records than the default two, it's not going to take more than a few mouse clicks either to add them. You could also set different latency for these records and the lower the latency, the greater the priority a certain MX record will have. The propagation of every record that you modify or set up won't take more than a few hours and if necessary, you'll also be able to set the so-called Time-To-Live value, that shows how long a record will remain active after it is changed or deleted.
Accessing and changing the A or MX records for each of your domain names or subdomains is very easy if you purchase a semi-dedicated server plan through our company. The accounts are maintained via our in-house built Hepsia CP, which features a section dedicated to the DNS records of your domain names. The latter will be listed alphabetically and you could click on each of them to see both the A and the MX records. Changing any record is as simple as typing in the new one in a text box and saving the change, so even when you have never dealt with such matters before, you'll not experience any issues if you choose to move your site or e-mails to some other service provider while keeping the second service with our company. If needed, you can also create additional MX records and set a specific priority depending on the instructions of the new provider.
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In Spain at last: Arturo Barea on Unamuno
Senior Research Fellow Associate at the Elcano Royal Institute | @WilliamChislet3
Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) would seem an odd choice for an essay by Arturo Barea (1897-1957), best known for his autobiographical trilogy The Forging of a Rebel, first published in the UK in the 1940s after Barea arrived there in exile after the Civil War.
When the War started in 1936, Barea, the son of a washerwoman and self-educated (he left school at 13), supported the Republican cause. Unamuno, the 72-year-old philosopher and professor of Greek at the University of Salamanca, backed Franco’s uprising, and, as a result, was sacked as Rector of the University by the Republican government. Franco reinstated him, but then got rid of him again after Unamuno’s famous confrontation with General José Millán Astray on 12 October 1936 in the university’s auditorium. In response to Millán Astray shouting “¡Muera la inteligencia!”, Unamuno replied “Venceréis, pero no convenceréis”
When Barea was given the choice to write an essay on Unamuno or Ortega y Gasset, he did not hesitate to choose the former. By then the philosopher and novelist was viewed sympathetically among Spanish exiles for various reasons, including his period in exile (1924-1930 under the dictatorship of General Miguel Primo de Rivera) and his intellectual honesty. His Del sentimiento trágico de la vida had been published in English in 1921, with an introduction by Salvador de Madariaga, and Unamuno received honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge in 1936.
Barea’s essay was published in England in 1952 and in Argentina in 1959, two years after his death. It has now, in May 2020, finally been published for the first time in Spain, with my preface.
Barea regarded Unamuno’s struggle for a ‘new’ Spain as more honest and democratic than that of Ortega y Gasset, who theorised that the country could be saved by the intellectual elites. Barea felt attracted to Unamuno. In his earlier essay Lorca: el poeta y su pueblo, published in 1944, Barea wrote “La tragedia de Unamuno era que tenía que protestar contra tener que morir, a sabiendas de que la aniquilación de su existencia llegaría implacablemente.”
Barea’s wife Ilsa also had a connection with Unamuno as she had translated for Cyril Connolly’s prestigious magazine Horizon in 1941 the account by the also exiled Luis Portillo (father of Michael) on the confrontation with Millán Astray, although Portillo did not witness it. That version was taken by generations of Spaniards as definitive – and used by Hugh Thomas in the first edition of his ground-breaking book on the Civil War first published in 1961 – and has since been disproved as not exactly how it happened.
In little more than 100 pages, Barea covers for the general public the philosophic and religious dimension of Unamuno, the “problema nacional” (the conflict between Spanish tradition and the opening toward Europe), his tragic sense of life and his ambition as a poet. “No hay español pensante que no haya sentido, voluntaria e involuntariamente, la influencia del pensamiento aguijoneante, estimulante, irritante y humiliante de Miguel de Unamuno,” Barea concludes.
Unamuno by Arturo Barea (Espasa), €19.90.
https://williamchislett.com/arturo-barea-archive/
William Chislett curated the exhibition on Arturo Barea for the Instituto Cervantes in 2018.
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Catching up with Maggie Ginestra
Helen Hale, on left, and Maggie Ginestra in Philadelphia.
If you’re familiar with Atlanta’s art scene, chances are you’re familiar with Maggie Ginestra. After arriving in the city from St. Louis in 2012, Ginestra quickly became an instigating force wearing different hats: artist, poet, collaborator, administrator, curator, and organizer. She was half of the duo that conceived Sumptuary, a creative performance/art series at MINT gallery in 2014. She continues to facilitate the Walthall Fellowship, WonderRoot’s yearlong program for emerging artists, which has her returning to Atlanta on a regular basis.
Ginestra relocated to Philadelphia in late 2014 with dancer Helen Hale, another former Atlantan. We checked in with Maggie to see what they’re up to.
Andrew Alexander: Hi, Maggie. I guess you’re calling from Philadelphia, correct?
Maggie Ginestra: Yes. I’ve been dividing my time between Philadelphia and Atlanta. The Walthall Fellowship in Atlanta meets every two weeks so I’ve been back to Atlanta every two weeks since I moved here. It’s been cool to live in two cities and have two homes. I don’t think I’m particularly good at it. You have to pack your home on your back. Atlanta feels like home in that when I go there I have my collaborators and my friends and my family. I fall into their arms and we catch up on the million things we’ve been thinking about and doing. There’s a rigor and vibrancy to the conversation. And then I come back to Philadelphia, which, because of my travels, has developed a kind of monastic vibe. Philadelphia isn’t inherently a quiet place but it has winter a little more than Atlanta. I have my desk and my nun’s bed and my slow discoveries of this town. It’s a very meditative and literary world I’m getting to build here.
AA: My understanding is that you’re living with dancer Helen Hale, working on a performance?
MG: Yes. I totally moved here to live with and work with and sync with Helen Hale. I don’t think we knew what that would look like going into it. We had worked together before through the Walthall Fellowship. I had presented her as part of Sumptuary [a project co-created with Mike Stasny]. The conversation was always very open and investigative. I moved to Philadelphia kind of trusting that energy. I showed up in my little car in August and we signed the lease on a little place to live and have a dance studio together. It’s a two-story row house in South Philly. Downstairs is open living space with a wooden floor; we basically don’t have any furniture. There was this ’70s South Philly decor thing, with large mirrored walls. So we have a large mirrored room as our space.
The morning we went to sign the lease, Helen told me an idea she was having about a duet. It suddenly became a container for our ideas. We now have a full-length performance that we’re going to present a first draft of in our home starting March 4. It’s called Gem n’ I. It’s the first in a series of living room dances we’re going to present that won’t necessarily be by us, but we thought we’d start with ourselves as guinea pigs. People will find a record there of Helen and I coming towards each other as collaborators: one movement artist and one poet. There’s some poetry and speech in the piece. There are two characters that live in and maintain this winter world. It’s pretty playful. It lets a dream world that you might have in the winter because you’re not out in the real world as much exist in a living room.
Helen Hale and Maggie Ginestra performing Gem n’ I, the first in a series of “living room dances” they plan to present.
AA: What sort of things have you observed and experienced about creating in Philadelphia versus creating in Atlanta? What have you perceived as some of the strengths and deficits in each place?
MG: These first few months, traveling back and forth from Philadelphia to Atlanta to meet regularly with the Walthall Artist Fellows, I may have developed a caricatured awareness of both places. Atlanta is the bosom, where my inventive and nurturing art family is hard at work building futures: WonderRoot is blossoming; Elevate, Dashboard Co-op and MINT gallery are strong containers for experimentation; Art Papers has wild ghost tentacles; GSU is pumping out young mavericks; ACAC and MOCA GA are beautiful flags we are learning to wave. My plane lands in Atlanta and I descend into rich tales of the next best thing. It’s fantastically energizing. The bosom, and the brawny shoulders.
And then, Philadelphia is the sailboat. I get on board and feel buoyed by fullness and a bit windblown by new vocabulary. Which makes it sound like New York City, but Philly’s a sailboat, not a speed boat. Here, everyone on board is a crewmember and we’re not going too fast to see landmarks on the horizon. FringeArts has a new permanent space, which is a re-orienting of the landscape. The Whole Shebang opens in South Philly next month and will draw rigorous makers together who are hungry to share knowledge—I think it will have huge impact. Vox Populi, Fidget, FringeArts again, Temple Contemporary, Fleischer Memorial, Artists U, Slought Foundation, ICA … I’m making it out to these places for the conversation so far, more than the performances and openings. People are making time to think about the making, so I don’t feel too out of step to calmly rise each morning to a stack of books, a rehearsal with Helen, and a field trip to a room of new people who seem bursting with urgency and yet are incredibly calm.
AA: I’m curious to hear your thoughts about the completion of one of your largest Atlanta projects, last summer’s Sumptuary.
MG: Mike and I finished that feeling really positive and really, really exhausted. We built something that was almost intentionally unsustainable, as a gesture towards imagining new sustainabilities. I felt like we did meaningful work. Some of the artists we commissioned through Sumptuary said they felt like they made steps forward in their process through it. There’s just nothing cooler than that. A lot of artists tried something new because it was this uncharted territory that had some clarity and rigor around it. We had some really great conversations with people who came often or even every night. I like to fantasize that new ideas were birthed there that Mike and I don’t know about.
AA: You said ultimately it wasn’t sustainable. It was such a fantastic project that it’s somewhat sad to hear the word “unsustainable” attached to it. Do you really think that model is something that couldn’t be here all the time?
MG: We built it as an intensive. I think it could be retooled to exist. It was hard. The whole thing was an art project. Our learning how to run a bar was a performance for us. Richland Rum gave us a beautiful case of rum that lasted the length of the run, which then turned into profit for our artists, but that’s not sustainable long-term. Mike and I tended bar for free for five weeks. Sumptuary could have evolved to look more like a gallery or more like a bar. We wanted to do something more deeply immersive and to give all the profits to the artists and see what that felt like.
AA: One of the things you seem particularly good at is “turning a page,” that is, starting something totally new and different. I think a lot of people get stuck in a rut because they find something they’re good at, they do it for a while, and then they start thinking that’s all they can do. Any advice for others about turning pages and starting something new?
MG: I think part of the reason my work keeps changing is that I’m often half of it. I’m learning now about what it is that Helen and I make. I had a really beautiful time learning about what Mike and I made. What looks like page turning is actually a collaboration-centric life. If we zoomed in a microscope on little old me, I might be providing some pretty similar stuff, like an interest in feeling that the structure that houses the work is as much the work as the content. Or an interest in having a very human touch on every element of the work, like my absurd insistence on hand-stamping every piece of currency that was part of Imaginary Millions. It was a dumb move but I like to touch everything. I would never have made Sumptuary by myself. It was something so synergetic between Mike and I. I want synergy in my life, as a state of unknowing or faith.
Sumptuary was deeply collaborative. The piece Helen and I are making, I think neither of us would make it on our own. I think I’m much smarter when not on my own. That’s why I keep moving. I’m excited about getting older and some of my collaborative relationships getting long …. My advice would be, for men and women alike, to get in touch with your feminine energy, which will spiral nonlinearly, and is not very goal oriented! But I’m realizing I have always had a pretty unshakeable trust in mine, and my wild turns of the page have led me again and again to deeper love and learning.
Andrew Alexander is an Atlanta-based critic who covers visual art, dance, and theater.
Helen Hale rehearsing at the Icebox.
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Non-fatal shootings on the rise compared to last year in Indianapolis
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- 2016 has gotten off to a violent start in Indianapolis.
So far this year, the number of non-fatal shootings are on the rise.
Overnight, three more people were hurt in two separate shootings on the east side. Two men were injured just after midnight on South Linwood. One was shot in the arm. The other suffered leg and head wounds.
An hour later and less than a mile away, a woman reported being shot in the leg outside a home on North Bosart Avenue. The two shootings aren’t related, but they did scare neighbors.
“It’s nonsense. There’s no reason for it,” said neighbor Alexandra Mcintire.
So far in 2016 there have been 150 non-fatal shootings. That's up from last year when there were 108 at this time. The year before in 2014 there were 110 non-fatal shootings.
Still, police say they're working to bring those numbers down.
“Chief Riggs is going to be adding more detectives to the aggravated assaults unit. That is the unit that investigates non-fatal shootings,” said IMPD Sgt. Catherine Cummings.
Specifically, last week the IMPD graduated a new class of recruits. Some of those newly sworn in officers will be assigned to investigate non-fatal assaults.
The 150 number is personal for Alexandra because her boyfriend got shot in the leg two weeks ago in a different crime.
“It literally hit home. I mean my boyfriend is one of those 150 that got shot after 2016 started,” said Alexandra. “The doctor said if it was 4 inches to the left, he would have bled to death.”
Unfortunately, it’s not just non-fatal shootings that have gone up. This year’s criminal homicide numbers are also slightly higher compared to last year at this time, with 36 murders this year compared to 33 last year.
Police say those are not trends they can reverse overnight.
“This is not just law enforcement problem. This is something that has taken many years to get here and it’s going to take a lot to fix it,” said Cummings.
Police say one of the things that makes it so hard to cut down on non-fatal shootings is that in many of the cases the victims refuse to cooperate with police to help catch the shooters.
So far no arrests have been made in either of the overnight crimes.
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CSC, working with a coalition of currently and formerly homeless youth and families, district/chartered public schools/city/county/social service is trying to dramatically reduce youth and family homelessness in Minnesota
“Eyes on the Prize” Presentation on being named to the Hall of Fame, National Alliance of Public Charter Schools
A Great District/College Collaboration
Welcome Aaliyah Hodge, CSC Senior Consultant
Prince, Passion, Persistence, and Open School
Learning and Teaching with Fire: Lessons from HBCUs and Tribal Colleges
CSC Mission
The Center for School Change works with educators, parents, business people, students, policy-makers and other concerned people throughout the United States to:
Increase student achievement, as measured by a variety of methods.
Raise high school and post-secondary graduation rates.
Improve student attitudes toward learning, their schools, and being positive, active, contributing members of their community.
Promote greater understanding of young people who can and should be allowed and encouraged to help make a positive difference in their communities by combining classroom work and community service.
Strengthen communities by building stronger working relationships among educators, parents, students and other community members.
Since 1988, funding for the Center has come from the Annenberg, Bigelow, Blandin, Best Buy, Bradley, Otto Bremer, Cargill, Carlson, Frey Foundation of Minnesota, Bill and Melinda Gates, General Mills, Joyce, Minneapolis, Peters, Pohlad, St. Paul, St. Paul Companies, TCF, Travelers, Rockefeller, Wallin, and Walton Foundations, the Carnegie Corporation, the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Initiative Funds, the Minnesota and U.S. Departments of Education, and many individual donors. We are deeply grateful for this support.
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Surveyors want immediate regulation of rental sector – and an end to S21
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors wants the government to implement recent recommendations to regulate the agency industry, starting with the private rental sector.
In a policy paper supporting the recent findings of the Regulation of Property Agents working group, RICS says more must be done in the immediate to bring transparency and standards to the rental sector.
It says that despite the growing size and importance of the sector, continued government interference has led to landlords leaving the market, decreasing stability and standards for tenants.
RICS‘ paper calls for the government to adopt an industry approved Code of Practice immediately. This should be implemented whilst waiting for a new regulator and subsequent standards to be established through RoPA.
RICS believes the way to raise standards in the sector is to ensure that all property agents are regulated to a single, established residential property code – and the institution is itself creating a new rental sector Code of Practice, to be released this autumn.
However, RICS warns against rent controls, as recently advocated by the Mayor of London.
The institution says this will not help affordability in the long run, which comes down to a lack of supply across all tenures rather than issues of private landlords.
It suggests that the Build To Rent sector offers the potential to deliver the homes needed to alleviate the affordability issues caused by a lack of supply.
Less popular with the lettings industry may be RICS’ support for the removal of Section 21 also features in the paper – but it urges government to streamline the court processes for landlords wanting to repossess their properties under Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988 before changes are made to Section 21.
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All about Tiffany & Co.
In this piece, it’s all about Tiffany & Co!
If we were to ask you to name a famous fine jewellery house, it’s more than likely that among the Cartiers and Van Cleef & Arpels that the name Tiffany & Co would pop up. With stores and concessions in almost every major city in the world, and a sales plan that seeks to encompass every income, it’s not only one of the world’s best known jewellery brands, but one of the world’s best known brands, full stop.
But when did it all start?
The roots of Tiffany & Co lie in a business founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young, initially as a “stationery and fancy goods emporium”, selling mainly stationery items, named “Tiffany, Young and Ellis”. In 1853, the name was changed to Tiffany & Company, when Charles Tiffany took control and established the first steps into luxury items and jewellery.
One of Tiffany & Co’s most famous marketing tools, their mail-order catalogue – now known as the Blue Book – was first issued in 1845, the unmistakeable shade of blue chosen by Charles Tiffany himself. Their focus on luxury and quality was rewarded when, in 1867, Tiffany was the first U.S. firm to win an award for excellence in silverware at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Their reputation for high end design was given added prestige in 1878, when Tiffany & Co. won the gold medal for jewellery and a grand prize for silverware at the Paris Exposition.
In 1887, Tiffany bought a selection of the French Crown Jewels, when they were put up for sale by the Third French Republic (we can’t help thinking that the jolly old French made a major boo boo here, but hey, c’est la vie!) This move resulted in much publicity and further solidified the Tiffany brand’s association with high-quality diamonds. This purchasing of fabulous European jewels and jewellery had been started in 1848, by Charles Tiffany, who went on a buying expedition to Europe, buying up heirlooms and family pieces from the increasingly impoverished European aristocracy.
The Tiffany engagement ring was designed in 1886, using a unique six-prong device that maximises the gemstone’s sparkle, allowing light to hit the stone on all sides. It’s still in production today and we can’t even begin to guess how many fingers sport this ring. Personally, we’d choose a bespoke design from Christopher Evans any day…!
Made it to the movies
In 1961, Tiffany & Co made the silver screen, in the eternally fabulous film, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, starring the incomparable Audrey Hepburn. Hepburn played Holly Golightly, an eccentric good time girl in search of a rich, older man. She loves Tiffany, she says, because:
“It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there, not with those kind men in their nice suits, and that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets.”
It was in 1969 when the brand released their now iconic Return to Tiffany keyring, a design that has since inspired one of their bestselling collections globally. In 1974, new designer Elsa Peretti joined Tiffany, and later was responsible for another of Tiffany & Co’s most iconic pieces, the Tiffany heart.
Tiffany & Co isn’t all silverware and mass production of course. They were responsible for introducing the peachy-pink gemstone morganite in 1910, named for financier JP Morgan by Tiffany’s chief gemmologist, Dr. George F Kunz. Kunz himself has the pink gemstone Kunzite named after him, of course, following its discovery in 1903. In 1968 Tiffany made the fabulous blue gemstone Tanzanite one of the world’s most sought-after gems, and in 1974 they introduced the green gemstone Tsavorite, which they named for the Tsavo National Park in Kenya, where it was discovered.
Over the decades their collections of high jewellery have revealed some of the most beautiful pieces ever designed, with breath-taking use of coloured gems, from sapphires and tanzanite to tourmaline, aquamarine and zoisite.
It’s clear that Tiffany means different things to different people, but whether you’re in the market for a one-of-a-kind piece of couture jewellery, or a Tiffany key-ring to call your own, the arrival of anything in a pale blue box, adorned with a white ribbon, is sure to set your heart beating harder.
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← Photos of Spirit of Cork Award 2017 by Erich Stack
Sermon at the Funeral of the Reverend Adrian Moran in Christ Church, Rushbrooke, County Cork →
Announcement of Appointment of New Incumbent of Cobh and Glanmire Union of Parishes
Following a meeting of the Diocesan Committee of Patronage in the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, the Bishop, Dr Paul Colton, is pleased to announce the appointment of the Reverend Paul Arbuthnot as Incumbent of Cobh and Glanmire Union of Parishes in the Diocese.
The Reverend Paul Arbuthnot was born in Northern Ireland in 1981, attended Downshire School, Carrickfergus and Belfast Royal Academy. He studied history at Trinity College Dublin where he was awarded first a Bachelor in Arts degree, followed by a Master in Arts and a Master in Letters (M.Litt.). He was awarded his Bachelor in Theology degree in 2010 and was ordained deacon that year and priest the following year. During his time at TCD he was a lay vicar and choral scholar at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and also worked at the National Concert Hall.
His first curacy was in the parish of St Paul, Glenageary in Dublin (2010 to 2012). From 2012 to 2015 he was Minor Canon and Precentor at St Albans Cathedral, St Albans in England, and from 2015 until February this year he was Minor Canon and Sacrist at Westminster Abbey. Since then he has been working with the Salvation Army as Events and Marketing Manager at Oxford Street in London.
He now wishes to return to parochial ministry, and to Ireland, and will take up this, his first incumbency, early in 2018. As well as music, reading, current affairs and travel, Paul is an avid Northern Ireland football supporter, and a season ticket holder at Leyton Orient. Perhaps Cork City FC will have a new fan!
The Reverend Paul Arbuthnot
This entry was posted in Announcements, Appointments, Clergy, Diocese. Bookmark the permalink.
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বোর্ড অফ ডিরেক্টরস
Home > বোর্ড অফ ডিরেক্টরস
Vice Principal Dr. Md. Abdus Shahid MP
Email: chairman@gmail.com
Vice Principal Dr. Md. Abdus Shahid, MP was the former Chief Whip of Bangladesh Parliament. He is an elected Member of the Parliament consecutively 5th time from Moulvibazar. He heads several committees and government institutions like the House Committee, All Party Parliamentary Group on MDGs, WTO, PRSP Bangladesh Development Forum and National Tea Company Ltd.
Currently he is a Member of the Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure, Standing Committee on Public Accounts, House Committee, Petition Committee in the 10th Parliament of Bangladesh.
Being a Management graduate from Chittagong University in 1971, Mr. Shahid started his career as a teacher at Kamalgonj Public College in 1973 and he was vice principal of Kamalgonj College. Now he is a Senate Member of two public universities: National University and Dhaka University. He was a Syndicate Member of Sylhet Agriculture University and Senate Member of Shahjalal Science & Technology University, Sylhet. Mr. Shahid is involved in different social and humanitarian activities as well. He is a Life Member of Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and Bangladesh National Society for the Blind.
Mr. Shahid has got a dynamic political career starting as a student leader. He took part in many movements and activities including the Six-Point Movement in 1966 and 11-Point Movement in 1969. Then he actively participated in the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971. From a talented student leader, he soon emerged as a young Awami League activist and later became a prominent leader of the Party.
Mr. Shahid has been working on issues like HIV/AIDS, human trafficking, democracy, good governance, poverty alleviation for a long time. Currently he is holding the office of the Chairman of the Bangladesh Parliament Members Support Group on Prevention of HIV I AIDS and Human Trafficking. He is a member of the committee on a UNDP sponsored project titled Strengthening Parliamentary Democracy Project of the Parliament.
Mr. Shahid is sponsor shareholder and Chairman of Chartered Life Insurance Company Ltd.
Vice Principal Dr. Md. Abdus Shahid, MP was the former...
Shykh Seraj
Position: Vice Chairman
Email: vice@gmail.com
Mr. ShykhSeraj is a renowned journalist and agriculture development activist in Bangladesh. He is the man behind the historic revolution in the agriculture sector of Bangladesh, who empowered the sector through media. He gave the farmers a voice for their fundamental rights. A Geography graduate, he pursued a career in journalism.He is the Director and Head of News of Channel I, first digital channel in Bangladesh.
He received numerous awards and accolades for his services to his chosen sector. He was awarded Bangladesh Government’s Highest National Award ‘EkusheyPadak’ in 1995. He received American Ashoka Fellowship in honour to his poverty alleviation programmes through media. He also received the UN’s FAO Boerma Award in 2009 for his effective development journalism to fight against hunger. He received the BCA Golden Jubilee Honour Award 2010 (UK) and House of Commons Honorary Crest, 2011 (UK) for his pioneering contribution towards increasing public awareness of all aspects of agriculture and development in both the electronic and print media.
Mr. ShykhSeraj is Vice Chairman of Chartered Life Insurance Company Ltd. He is Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Company.
Mr. ShykhSeraj is a renowned journalist and agriculture development activist...
Mohd. Noor Ali
Mr. Mohd. Noor Ali is a successful Entrepreneur, Business Leader and social worker. He is the Managing Director of Unique Group and the Westin Hotel (Dhaka). He is the successful Entrepreneur of Real Estate, Tourism, Telecom, Power, Insurance and Financial Institution. Mr. Noor Ali holds the responsibility of Chairman in Eastern Bank Limited and now conducting responsibility as Chairman in EBL Securities Limited. He is the Chairman of Bangladesh Association of Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), Vice-President of the Korea Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Director of Federation of Commerce and Industries. Freedom Fighters Mr. Noor Ali after obtaining a Masters Degree in Social Science from Dhaka University started his business career.
Mr. Mohd. Noor Ali is a successful Entrepreneur, Business Leader...
Niaz Ahmed
Representing Golden Oil Mills Ltd.:
Mr. Niaz Ahmed is an emerging entrepreneur in Bangladesh. Being a business and law graduate, Mr. Niaz Ahmed started his career as an advocate. Later he started chemical business and within a very short time established himself as a successful businessman. Currently He is Managing Director of Golden Oil Mills Ltd and Golden Emporium Ltd. He is Director of Al-ArafahIslami Bank Ltd, Islami Commercial Insurance Company Ltd., Bangla Tel Ltd, Jibondhara Solutions Ltd,BD Link Communication Ltd, AIBL Capital Market Service Ltd. He is a Trustee of South Asia Foundation and the Director of Southeast University.
Mr. Niaz Ahmed is Director of Chartered Life Insurance Company Ltd representing Golden Oil Mills Ltd. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Company.
Mr. Niaz Ahmed is an emerging entrepreneur in Bangladesh. Being...
Md. Nurul Akter
Representing Energypac Power Generation Ltd:
Mr. Nurul Akter is the most emerging & renowned business personality in Bangladesh. He is the leader of one of the largest business conglomerates in Bangladesh. He is the CEO and Director of Energypac Electronics Ltd. and Director of Energypac Power Generation Ltd. EnergypacAgro Ltd. Tec Advantage Ltd. Energypac Fashion Ltd, Energypac Infrastructure & Development Ltd.
Mr. Akter is a graduate of Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET)
Mr. Nurul Akter is the most emerging & renowned business...
Gulam Mustafa
Mr. Ghulam Mustafa is a leading business personality of the country. He is the Managing Director & CEO of Prantik Express Ltd. and Prantik Travels & Tourism Ltd. which are related to Freight Forwarding and Manpower Exporting business. Apart from Manpower Export, they are also engaged in Global Logistics Industry and their services are: Air Freight, Ocean Freight, Rail Freight, Trucking customs Brokerage, Removal & Relocations, Warehousing and Distribution, Project Handling and Documents. Born at Feni in the year 1950 Mr. Mustafa is a son of renowned teacher and grandson of an illustrious lawyer. He did his M.A. in Economics with honors’ from Chittagong University in 1976. Mr. Ghulam Mustafa is married to Ms. Ann Kaiser Sultana Ranu, an M.Sc. in Psychology from University of Dhaka. They are blessed with two sons and a daughter.
A valiant Freedom Fighter Mr. Ghulam Mustafa is also involved with various socio-cultural organizations. He is a Rotarian and served as President of Rotary Club of Dhaka in RY 1999-2000. A frontline Freedom Fighter Ghulam Mustafa was the commander of a unit of pioneer platoon of 10 East Bengal Regiment (EBR). He was a Staff Officer to the C.O of 10 East Bengal Regiment during War of Liberation and fought gallantly against the 15 Balooch Regiment and 24 Frontier Force Regiment of Pakistan Occupation Army. The fierce battle called “Second War of Belonia Bulge” where Mr. Mustafa fought gallantly, have been included lesson curriculum of Bangladesh Military Academy and many other Military Academies of the world. This illustrious personality has been honored with more than 100 awards from local foreign countries which in short are CIP (5 times), Fellow of the World Bank, 3 Gold Medals for business ethics, professionalism and humanitarianism in business, Golden Key of Manila city by its Mayor, Arthakantho Business Award and so on.
Mr. Ghulam Mustafa is sponsor shareholder and Director of Chartered Life Insurance Company Ltd. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Company.
Mr. Ghulam Mustafa is a leading business personality of the...
Md. Jahangir Alam
Representing GPH Power Generation Ltd:
Mr. Md. Jahangir Alam is a man of Wisdom & energetic businessman. After completing education from Government College of Commerce, Chittagong in 1980 started his career by joining in a private service.
He has derived vast proficiency in trading on Iron & Steel, Cement, Bitumen, CR Coil, Zinc Ingot, Agro-food, Industrial ventures etc & has been running these trading for the last 24 years. Initially he established business house named Jahangir & Others in 1987 which subsequently incorporated as Jahangir & Others Limited in 2003. Later he has set up M.I. Cement Factory Limited, Indo Steel Re-Rolling Industries Limited, Chittagong Capital Limited and involved with establishment of many other organization. Mr. Jahangir Alam has established himself as one of the business leaders in Bangladesh. He is the Chairman of M. I. Cement Factory Limited, Crown Power Generation Ltd., Crown Polymer Bagging Ltd. Crown Mariners Ltd., Managing Director of GPH Ispat Limited, GPH Power Generation Ltd., Indo Steel Re-Rolling Industries Limited, Jahangir & Others Limited, Chittagong Capital Limited, Director of Premier Cement Mills Ltd. Premier Power Generation Ltd. And Asia Insurance Ltd. He is also actively involved with the following social organizations:
Founder Member of Independent Chittagong University of Bangladesh (IUB), Bangladesh
Advisor to Governor, Lions District 315-B4, Bangladesh
Life Member of Chittagong Ma O Shishu Hospital
Executive Committee Member of Bangladesh Lion Foundation
Member of Bangladesh German Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Executive Director of Auto Re-Rolling and Steel Mills Association
General Secretary of Chattagram Iron – Steel Utpadak and Banik Samity
Member of Bangladesh Ex-Cadet Association
Mr. Jahangir Alam is a man of commitment which he strongly maintains during his day to day business operational activities. He leads a very simply life as everybody saw him.
Mr. Jahangir Alam is Director of Chartered Life Insurance Company Ltd representing GPH Power Generation Ltd.
Mr. Md. Jahangir Alam is a man of Wisdom &...
Md. Rezaul Karim
Mr. Md. Rezaul Karim is a renowned business personality in Bangladesh. He is the leader of one of the largest business conglomerates in Bangladesh. Mr. Karim is the Managing Director of Kohinoor Chemical Company (BD) Ltd., Reedisha Knitex Ltd., P.A. Knit Composite Ltd., Reedisha Spinning Ltd., Reedisha Texstripe Ltd., Reedisha Printing and Packaging Ltd., and Reedisha Trading and Distribution Company. He is the Chairman of Bangla Tel Ltd, Jibondhara Solutions Ltd, BD Link Communication Ltd. He is Vice-Chairman of Islami Commercial Insurance Company Ltd. Mr. Md. Rezaul Karim is the Director of the Midland Bank Ltd and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Midland Bank Ltd. In addition, he contributes to the nation by leading different business and social organizations. He is the current President of Bangladesh Cosmetics and Toiletries Manufacturers Association. He is also a Director of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), South Asia Foundation and the Chairman of Southeast University. Mr. Rezaul Karim is deeply involved in formulating various national business policies for the social well being of the nation.
Mr. Karim is is sponsor shareholder and Director of Chartered Life Insurance Company Ltd.
Mr. Md. Rezaul Karim is a renowned business personality in...
Mohammad Nazim Uddin Khan
Mr. Md. Nazim Uddin Khan is a British businessman of Bangladeshi origin. His professional life started from insurance business and he established himself as a successful activist, businessman and entrepreneur. He operates hotel, restaurant and housing business in United Kingdom and the primary Health Care Service Organization in Middle East.
Mr. Khan is sponsor shareholder and director of Chartered Life Insurance Company Ltd.
Mr. Md. Nazim Uddin Khan is a British businessman of...
Shamshed Ali
Mr. Shamshed Ali is a Bangladeshi origin British businessman. Being an engineer, he established himself as environmental health specialist. Later he achieved different advanced degrees on Finance and Business Management from reputed universities.
Mr. Shamshed Ali is sponsor shareholder and Director of Chartered Life Insurance Company Ltd.
Mr. Shamshed Ali is a Bangladeshi origin British businessman. Being...
Mohammad Golam Sarwar FCA
Position: Independent Director
S M ZIAUL HOQUE
Position: Chief Executive Officer (Acting)
Email: md@charteredlifebd.com
Mr. S. M. Ziaul Hoque has joined as Additional Managing Director & subsequently he has given the responsibility as CEO (Acting) of Chartered Life Insurance Company Limited who is a young dynamic career professional with superb track record in Insurance sector in Bangladesh, contributing for business expansion through different distribution channels by ensuring operational efficiency.
He has started his career as a Management Trainee at American Life Insurance Company (Alico) a concern of AIG’s Life Insurance Business, presently known as MetLife. Before joining at Chartered Life Insurance Company Ltd, he worked at Pragati Life Insurance Limited as General Manager (Operations) where he led Group Operations, Claims & Customer Experience and Financial Service Delivery. He also led the Innovation and Alternative Distribution Channel (ADC) of Pragati Life Insurance Limited.
Chief Executive Officer (Acting)
Mr. S. M. Ziaul Hoque has joined as Additional Managing...
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The Puritan Lifestyle in the 1600s
LESLIE JONES MCCLOUD
The English Puritans had been trying to change the Church of England to allow the Gospels of Christ to be read and interpreted freely, but the Church was resistant. Instead, they encouraged emigration to the American colonies, which was a difficult life.
American Puritans
Puritan Life
1 English Puritans
Middle class Puritan landowners who moved to America soon established their freedom of religious worship. They created trade relationships with established countries. They wanted economic advancement to be based on ingenuity rather than class, privilege and aristocracy, as it was in England. In England, Oliver Cromwell led the English Parliament in the fight for change. He and the leading Puritans fought the nobility and eventually won. King Charles I was beheaded in 1649. Cromwell's death in 1658 brought the Puritans to another crossroad, so many more Puritans fled to the American colonies.
2 American Puritans
The area between the Charles River and Massachusetts Bay become known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony, one of the largest Puritan settlements of the 1600’s. Nearly 200 Puritan settlers died or returned to England because of the unrelenting northeast climate during the first few years, but by 1630, 20,000 had migrated and elected a governor. It then overtook Plymouth Colony. New England was the Puritan stronghold, but outside New England Puritan influence was weakening.
3 Puritan Life
Many settlers no longer felt a connection to the new English rulers and instead focused on developing their new government. The important decisions were made by the clergy, and women had no role in church or government. In 1636, Harvard College was started for the purpose of training Puritan ministers to govern. Church leaders started many colleges and public schools for the citizens. The goal was to train students to read and interpret the Bible individually. Meetings took place in church and the taverns as Puritans had always favored beer, wine and rum and the discussion of politics. They wanted to re-create their life in England. The church, tavern, and watchtower were always built together in case of attack. Men were armed at church, as they were in constant danger of attack by Native Americans. By 1692, claims of witchery had filled Puritan jails. Historians say it is because of the class divide between strict, poor, Puritan rural farmers and wealthy Puritan landowners and merchants who lived in town.
1 The Puritan Army Takes Up Arms against the King in the English Civil War, End Time Pilgram
2 The Puritans Rise Up in the 1600s to Dominate English Parlement, End Time Pilgram
3 Puritanism, Puritans
4 The Historic Present: What Caused the Revolutionary War?
5 Discovery Education: Life in Salem 1692: Salem Witch Trials
Leslie Jones McCloud is a professional writer who has worked as a reporter for City News Bureau of Chicago, Chicago Defender Newspaper, Alliance News, Post Tribune, Boca Raton News and Crusader Newspaper during her eight year career. She has also worked at WJOB in Northwest Indiana and WTLC in Indianapolis. Ms. McCloud holds a B.S. degree in Journalism from Indiana State University.
About Colonial Life in Massachusetts
Religious Influences in the Colonies
What Were the Original Goals and Purpose of the American...
Religious Beliefs in the Dutch Colonies
Life in the Americas in the 1600s
Interesting Facts About Colonial Life in 1769
What Kind of Government Was Used by British Colonists?
Politics in the Colonial Southern Colonies
Religious Beliefs in Colonial New Jersey
Religion's Effects on the Culture of the Puritans
What Is the Conflict Between Puritans & Anglicans in...
Religious Pluralism in the Southern Colonies
Main Reasons New England Colonies Were Formed
A List of the Contributions to the United States Political...
Reasons for the Founding of Massachusetts in 1630
Did the Puritans Support Religious Toleration?
Culture of Iran Before the Islamic Revolution
Daily Life of Colonial New Hampshire
Did Farmers in Shays' Rebellion Protest the Constitution?
Puritan Facts About Daily Life
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Stonehouse: Revisiting a historical collaboration
By Bham Co:LAB Staff / 27/03/2013 / Stonehouse Gang Clubhouse, The Collaborative Blog / One comment
We received a call this summer asking whether we would be interested in working with a youth club on a collaborative project. It was from somebody purporting to be from The Stonehouse Gang, a name nobody at the school was familiar with at first. We do receive a lot of similar calls every year but many do not turn into anything concrete. However, this call was different.
They hooked us in with their claim that we worked with them several decades ago, a fact that no current member of staff had prior knowledge of. We were intrigued so arranged a meeting. Sure enough, after the first visit we soon began to learn how important that phone call may become.
The Stonehouse Gang is a youth group based in Selly Oak, South Birmingham. It was founded by Harry Webb, a newspaper reporter in Birmingham all the way back in 1938, after being motivated to provide a positive contribution to the community after watching the film “Boys Town’ at a local cinema. The trick it seemed, was to encourage local boys, normally up to no good, to attending a Sunday School on the Stonehouse estate – not as school – but as a gang (in secret). The youth club still survives to this day and is an active organisation in the local community. It is the youth club headquarters where the gang forged a link with the Birmingham School of Architecture many decades ago.
Forward to today, Trevor Franklin, the club secretary, sounds proud when recounting the tale of how the club house was constructed and even provided us with Harry Webb’s autobiography The Stonhouse Gang Story. Chapter 9 is most relevant – ‘By the Young for the Young’.
The club resided in convereted timber huts for almost 20 years since its founding until they were not fit for purpose. In 1957, with limited funds, Harry wrote to the president of the architect’s association to see if any local architects could assist them. A young architect’s name was put forward, James Roberts because he also taught at the Birmingham School of Architecture. For some years, the school had been pioneering a ‘lively new approach’ to teaching with ‘[final] year students to be involved in new building projects, from the stage of surveying through to planning and then seeing the scheme right through to its conclusion.’ (Webb, 1978 p.99).
James was inspired by the proposal and the school already had a reputation of successfully working on live projects with the city council. Along with the students, it was upon their request to move their clubhouse site to the current Burnel Road site for a simpler design solution. With a budget of just £7500, the collective design from the students was put through planning and built by Johnnie Johnson a local builder (who also studied at the School of Architecture). Webb quips that a significant amount of the build cost was absorbed as a donation from Johnnie. The actual amount has never been disclosed but it is seen as a generous philanthropic gesture on behalf of the builder.
From reading further into Harry’s commentary on the design process, the nature of the collaboration between the students and the youth club members is strikingly similar to how we asked our current students to work with them this year…
The trainee architects had done a fine job. They had given up time to go along the the Gang’s hutments to discover what the needs were. They played games with the youngsters and chatted to them about the use they made of the rooms. The Gang’s voluntary helpers told them of activities they would love to undertake if only they had the space. The students got the “feel” of the Gang work and very capably translated it into the bricks and mortar of Burnel Road.
Our collaboration with the club is of a different scale – to include the refurbishment of the old clubhouse and to remodel the interior with new facilities whilst providing a sustainable approach to the maintenance of the building. However, the legislative and financial process will be very different to the one the first students undertook and so this new project will be ongoing for a few more years yet. We hope it will be as successful and used as the original.
The project was completed with the foundation stone laid by John Hunt, conquerer of Everest. An original letter from Stonehouse’s archive illustrates the communication between the then Head of School and Harry Webb (above). James Roberts went on to set up his own practice working on notable projects such as the Rotunda and Smallbrook Ringroad.
Webb, H (1978) The Stonehouse Gang Story Figaro Press, Birmingham
Mike Dring
See http://www.bigredbook.info/harry_webb.html for a picture of the gang and Harry on telly…
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Griffin Moore Brandon Peters Bo Melton James McCourt Greg Schiano Max Melton Chase Brown Mike Epstein Alex Palczewski Noah Vedral Lovie Smith Artur Sitkowski Sports Men's soccer Soccer Men's sports College sports College football Football
Illinois Big Ten Rutgers
McCourt's late field goal sends Illinois past Rutgers 23-20
By MATT SUGAM - Nov. 14, 2020 06:58 PM EST
Illinois running back Mike Epstein (26) scores a touchdown past Rutgers linebacker Tyshon Fogg (8) during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020, in Piscataway, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) — When it was clear the game would be coming down to his kicker, Lovie Smith had no doubt the third time would be the charm for James McCourt in the waning moments of a 10-point comeback.
McCourt overcame two long misses in the fourth quarter to hit a 47-yard field goal with three seconds left to lift Illinois past Rutgers 23-20 for the Illini’s first win of the season.
“It’s tough when you miss a couple of field goals, but we have all the confidence in the world in him,” Smith said. “We just wanted to get him that opportunity. A lot of things had to happen to get that chance, but we’ve seen him do that before. The other field goals we attempted were in range, so was the last one, so no thought at all, he’s done that before.”
Rutgers’ offense came out quick, with quarterback Noah Vedral finding Bo Melton on a 29-yard pitch and catch to cap off a six-play, 75-yard drive to make it 7-0 just 1:57 into the game.
While starting quarterback Brandon Peters was missing his third straight game following a COVID-19 test, backup Isiah Williams got the start after his quarantine ended. He was the fourth starting quarterback of the season for Illinois (1-3, 1-3 Big Ten). After having 12 players out due to COVID-19 protocols against Minnesota last week, it was just Peters, who was on the sidelines in street clothes, and redshirt freshman tight end Griffin Moore — who did not make the trip.
Rutgers’ defensive lineman Mike Teverdov stripped Williams, cornerback Max Melton recovered and the Scarlet Knights took it over on Illinois’ 29-yard line with 7:52 left in the first quarter. That set up former Rutgers soccer player Ambrosio Valentino for his first career field goal attempt, a 29-yarder, for a 10-0 lead.
Illinois answered courtesy of Williams, who had five-straight carries, and finished it off with his first score on a 3-yard touchdown run. The redshirt freshman finished with a game-high 192 yards rushing on 31 carries to overcome a 7-for-19 passing effort.
“Our run defense has actually been pretty decent up until this,” said Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, whose team gave up 338 total rushing yards. “This is option football with a very elusive option quarterback, and he did a great job. He really was electric.”
Rutgers (1-3, 1-3) closed the first-half scoring with a 26-yard field by Valentino to make it 13-7.
Illinois made it 13-10 with 8:59 left in the third quarter after McCourt hit his first FG attempt of the season from 29 yards.
Rutgers countered with Melton having a career-long 66-yard touchdown reception on third-and-10 for a 20-10 lead with 7:43 left in the third. It was Melton’s second two-score game of his career. He did it for the first time two weeks ago against Indiana.
Illinois responded with a six-play, 60-yard touchdown drive. Running back Mike Epstein scored on a direct snap from a yard out to make it 20-17 with 4:54 left in the third, before McCourt tied it at 20 early in the fourth quarter on a 23-yard field goal.
McCourt missed a 54-yard field goal with 7:20 left, setting up Rutgers with good field position; however, Vedral threw his second interception of the game on third-and-three, and gave Illinois the ball back on its own 26-yard line. The Illini drove to Rutgers’ 28-yard line before McCourt missed wide right from 45 yards with 3:07 remaining.
Vedral then threw his third pick with Rutgers having first-and-10 on Illinois’ 37-yard line with 67 seconds to go. McCourt finally made good with the game winner and gave Illinois its first lead of the game at 23-20.
Isaiah Pacheco had 134 yards on 20 carries to lead Rutgers, while Chase Brown added 135 yards on 17 carriers for Illinois. Vredral finished 21-of-34 for 259 yards and two touchdowns.
“I was just not good enough,” Vedral said. “I have to be more accurate.”
After a hot start, Rutgers’ offense could never really find its way, and Vedral’s interceptions proved to be costly as Illinois chipped back into the game, eventually taking the lead for the first time on a game-winning kick.
STARTING SAFETY OUT; TACKLE DOWN
Rutgers was without safety Brandon White, who was on the sidelines in street clothes. The Ohio State transfer and former Rose Bowl MVP has 21 tackles and an INT in three games. Illinois right tackle Alex Palczewski hurt his right knee on the first drive and was on crutches on the sidelines for the rest of the game.
QB CONUNDRUMS
Peters is expected back from COVID next week, though Williams is expected to be utilized as a runner for the Illini. Meantime, Rutgers coach Greg Schiano was asked if he’s thought about pulling Vedral for once-ballyhood recruit, redshirt sophomore Artur Sitkowski. While he has a strong arm, Sitkowksi has a 53% completion rate for his career, throwing five touchdowns and 20 interceptions.
Illinois will seek back-to-back wins with a trip to Nebraska (1-2, 1-2 Big Ten) next Saturday, who just secured its first win over Penn State (0-4, 0-4 Big Ten).
Rutgers will host struggling Michigan Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
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The End of the Encyclopedia Britannica Print Version Brings Back Memories
When I read that Encyclopedia Britannica was ending its 244-year print doors, it brought back memories, but not of Britannica.
Encyclopedias meant a lot to my mother. She never finished college, but always had a keen thirst for learning. The most insignificant question would send her scurrying to her the World Book Encyclopedia for answers with illustrations.
My mother was frugal and definitely not an early adopter. (I was 12 years old before she bought our first television.) But when the World Book encyclopedia salesman came calling, her toughest decision was picking the color of the cover (she chose the white leatherette) and deciding where the bookcase that held the treasured set would be placed.
Original World Book Encyclopedia 1960 ad from eBay
World Book, Inc. began in the early 1900’s through the publishing house, Hanson-Bellows Company. At first they were publishing a general purpose reference tool called The New Practical Reference Set. But wanting their reference work to be easier to read and more engaging that other encyclopedias at the time, they sought the help of Wisconsin academic Michael Vincent O’Shea. He spent two years editing and reshaping the works.
In 1917, the first set loaded with thousands of detailed illustrations and photographs was published in eight volumes. Among the people I grew up with, owning a set of World Book Encyclopedia was highly prized.
As Britannica goes completely digital, the final print set will be available for $1395. Of course, there’s an app available as well.
Now that Britannica’s announcement has spread, the sale of the final print version has skyrocketed as collectors recognize the value of a vanishing form. Sales went from selling 60 sets a week to 1,050 sets a week and are being sold by some second party retailers for twice the price. The company will hold on to a few sets for museums and such.
The end of the print version of Britannica does not mean the end of the company. On the contrary, they are heavily involved in their digital products and will continue to create and promote those.
World Book may well decide to follow suit and end their print version as well, but the memories of combing through those slick pages learning about many things in our pre-Google days will last forever.
Filed Under: digital, encyclopedia, end of print
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Area Counties Available for Natural Disaster Funds
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today announced Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Sonny Perdue, approved a natural disaster designation for 43 Upstate New York counties that suffered heavy rains and severe flooding during the 2019 farming season. This designation allows communities hurt by extreme weather to access certain federal assistance, such as emergency loans and other aid programs, from the Farm Service Agency (FSA) to help recover their losses.
Specifically, Albany, Allegany, Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Chautauqua, Chemung, Chenango, Clinton, Columbia, Delaware, Erie, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Genesee, Greene, Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Livingston, Madison, Monroe, Montgomery, Niagara, Oneida, Onondaga, Ontario, Orleans, Oswego, Otsego, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Schuler, Seneca, Steuben, Sullivan, Tioga, Washington, Wyoming, and Yates Counties were designated primary natural disaster areas and farm operators in these counties are eligible for FSA emergency loans, provided they meet other requirements.
Additionally, farm operators in Broome, Cortland, Dutchess, Orange, St. Lawrence, Tompkins, Ulster, Warren, and Wayne Counties are also eligible for assistance.
“After weathering a brutal farming season last year, the USDA’s disaster designation will provide much needed assistance to farmers and growers throughout Upstate New York,” said Senator Schumer. “From corner to corner of the state, I have seen firsthand the aftermath of last year’s severe rain and flooding. Thankfully, this disaster declaration means our Upstate farmers and growers will have access to critical emergency loans and more, at a time when they need it the most.”
“I’m pleased that the USDA has approved natural disaster designations across Upstate New York for counties that suffered extensive damage due to severe weather during last year’s farming season,” said Senator Gillibrand, member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. “This will allow FSA emergency loans and other assistance to flow to communities that need it. New York has a strong farming tradition, and it is past time for our farmers to get the help they need to recover. I will always do everything I can to ensure that New Yorkers have the resources to rebuild.”
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MANDEL + ZAKARI
“It is very fluid. We go to the beach, and while our daughter is running off into the ocean, we might be talking about the work. It is integrated into our lives. There is no separation between work and leisure.”—Chantal Zakari
Mike Mandel + Chantal Zakari: Graphic Arts + Photography Faculty, SMFA / Boston MA
thecorner.net
What is your collaborative process?
Chantal: Our collaborative work is about discussion and analysis. We collaborate on every level of the project. The production is a shared load. It depends a little bit on skills, but it also depends on who has time to do each piece.
Mike: Chantal comes out of a design background, and I am a photographer. We have those different histories and different perspectives to bring to a project. But we consider ourselves partners in every aspect of the project. Our current work, Shelter in Plates, is a series of commemorative plates designed as a response to the military lockdown in Watertown, where we live, during the manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; we were both involved in the concept and design of the work.
Chantal: There were SWAT teams everywhere: in our streets, looking in our backyards, and peeking under porches. In our part of the neighborhood, they only looked into our backyards. A block south from us, in a five block area, people were walked out of their homes with their hands up. That area has a lot more Middle Eastern immigrant families. They were entering apartments with guns, walking people out of their homes.
Shelter In Plates
courtesy of mandel + zakari
Mike: It was basically martial law without martial law being declared. We had to shelter in place, as was requested by the governor and the mayor, just staying in the house while all of the police and SWAT teams came in and investigated. We collected all of this imagery, video stills, thousands of bits of information about this event from the Internet. For the past few months, we had already been thinking that we were going to do something about Watertown’s military legacy, because Watertown has one of the first national arsenals. There is a whole military history to the town, and we wanted to speak to that in our work. But without even having to do any research, the imagery came to our house on April 19, 2013.
Chantal: We do a lot of socially engaged work. We like being involved in social issues and activating the public and creating a dialogue. All of this imagery that we had collected about the manhunt in our neighborhood was of houses that we knew and recognized. The idea that we came up with was to design commemorative plates. We found a company in Colorado to fabricate the series of six plates. We designed them with images that we found online and then coupled it with Victorian floral embellishments to mimic the genre of commemorative plates. We were able to produce them cheaply enough so that people who may not typically collect art, were able to buy them. Now our plates are hanging in dining rooms in Watertown and throughout the country. It is not really activist art per se, but it engages the audience in a discussion and a dialogue.
Mike: There was another community effect when we were recognized by the local media. We were interviewed on radio and TV because the Watertown Chief of Police tried to stop the project. So when the police got involved, we just folded that into the piece. We got our attorney to respond to him, and the attorney’s letter became part of the presentation—all six plates hanging in a gallery with a letter from our attorney to the police identifying the interference as an act of intimidation parallel to what they were doing on April 19 by walking people out of their homes.
Can you elaborate on the role of collaboration in activist work?
Mike: One activist artwork that we collaborated on was The Election Campaign, when I ran as a write-in candidate for Town Council to engage our community about the issues surrounding a Walmart store that was trying to get approval to come into Watertown. At the last moment before the town elections, we chose to have me run to challenge this issue, and Chantal was the campaign manager. We got hundreds of people to help on the campaign. We made flyers and websites; I gave speeches to community groups. I was literally only a candidate for the two weeks before the election.
Mayoral Election Campaign
Chantal: The aim was not to win the election, but rather to activate the community about this issue. Even after the election, we continued the work by raising money for a billboard we designed, which we installed right where the proposed Walmart was to be built.
Mike: Walmart withdrew their application after our billboard was up for two months. And, I almost won the election. We lost by 89 votes. But almost winning is better than winning, because we created all of this community involvement.
The State of Ata
Chantal: Previously, we worked on The State of Ata for 14 years, which resulted in a book and a series of exhibitions. Beginning in 1997, we went to Turkey yearly to photograph in the streets. The focus of the project was the symbolism of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s (founder of modern Turkey) imagery as displayed in public spaces. We shot photographs, interviewed people about current politics, and visited archives. Ataturk represents a secular and modernized Turkey; a Turkey that is different from what Iran has become. This imagery can be a liberating image, but for the religious, it becomes more of an oppressive image of limited freedom.
We created opportunities for people to pose in front of his image by setting up a photo studio in the middle of the street. On one occasion, there was an Islamist protest march, and I stood there with a tiny little image of Ataturk, and Mike took a picture. That picture ended up on the front pages of the national newspapers, and I was labeled as, “The Girl of The Republic.” That picture then became a publicly recognized symbol of the current political conflict in itself.
How do you work as team?
Chantal: It is very fluid. We go to the beach, and while our daughter is running off into the ocean, we might be talking about the work. It is integrated into our lives. There is no separation between work and leisure. Now that we have a daughter, things are a little more complicated; time is more structured, but in between her soccer practices, there might be a moment where we talk about work. “Where should we produce these plates? Did we like the first test that came in? Is the color quality good? Should we do this image or that image?” There isn’t really a specific time that we call “studio time” or space that’s called a “studio.”
Mike: Chantal has her space, and about two feet away I have my space, so we are easily able to communicate while we are working. Sometimes we are working independently, but with the opportunity to collaborate 24-7.
How does your studio inspire your collaboration?
Chantal: A lot of artists and designers are talking about this idea of a “post-studio.” Twenty years ago, you needed a studio to be a “valid” artist, but now, if I have my laptop, I can make work anywhere. I don’t even have that much space in our studio. We have one empty wall where we tape things up as we go along, but that’s about it. It’s not the modernist ideal that the artist has a luxurious studio and a loft with a lot of space because you are making these giant canvases. There are still people who work like that, but that’s not the only way to practice anymore. A lot of that came through the design community, because the designers were really the first artists to work on the computer.
How do your design and photography backgrounds come together?
Mike: The main issue is the conceptual frame for the project. Once we figure out the strategy, then it’s about production. Chantal has more layout skills, and I do the photography. It naturally divides up, but it also connects very easily.
Chantal: Even when I design a page, we first decide how it is going to look, and we both decide on changes. We should clarify this term design, because when people ask, “Are you a designer or an artist,” there is some complexity about this. Other people might define it differently than we do. For me, every artist is a designer; the painter designs her canvas, and the photographer his photographs.
Previous AZIZ + CUCHER
Next AARON GOTWALT
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IL Appellate Court Reverses $3.2 Million Asbestos Verdict Based on Insufficient Evidence of Causation
The Illinois Fourth District Appellate Court recently reversed a $3.2 million asbestos jury verdict entered against a roofing material manufacturer. [1] In Krumwiede v. Tremco, the court found that the plaintiff presented insufficient evidence of causation, entitling...
The Future of Forum Non Conveniens in Question in IL
Proposed House Bill 5044, which is currently in committee in the Illinois General Assembly, seeks to amend the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure to expressly abolish the doctrine of intrastate forum non conveniens, a development that would further solidify Illinois as...
2019 Asbestos Lawsuits Remained Numerically Consistent, Geographically Consolidated
Highlights: The number of asbestos lawsuits in 2019 remained steady from 2017 and 2018. The jurisdictions where The Cook Group focuses its practice—New York City and Madison County, IL—once again hosted the majority of mesothelioma claims filed nationwide. Lung cancer...
NEWS FLASH: Florida Supreme Court Extends Jury Trials Suspension Until July
The Florida Supreme Court announced that due to the COVID-19 virus, the current suspension of all jury trials in state courts is extended until July 2, 2020. Future extensions will be considered if needed. All Florida state court COVID-19 emergency orders and...
Florida’s Fourth DCA Upholds Summary Judgment On Causation For Defendants
Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal in Robert J. O’Donnell and Sandra O’Donnell v. W.F. Taylor Co., Inc., et al., recently upheld a Palm County Circuit Court’s final judgment granting five defendants’ companion motion for summary judgment on causation. The...
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Join the mailing list for the latest news and a free download ?
Ortus (single) : CD
Hand made, signed hard coppies of the new single "Ortus" including bonus track "Take Me Higher". Please allow two weeks to make and post. Price includes postage to UK but please get in touch for postage prices if you live outside the UK by dropping me a line at courteousthief@hotmail.co.uk
"Take Me Higher" had some great covarage from 6 music when it was first released as a single a couple years ago but it wasn't until latterly that it came to my attention that when I released it for streaming, I compleatly balls'd it up 😳
So technically, it wasn't released.... Hurahhh!
So yea, this will be number 2. I'll be going back to record number 3 next month and I'll go from there.
I'll be making some hand made ep's that will be up for grabs when it's done and maybe peeps can get in touch to customise them in some way.
Enjoy 🎉
Man, it's been a weired few weeks all over the world. Who ever though that one day we would not be allowed to leave home or go to work for weeks on end? It's the kind of thing that movies are made of.
It's been so sureal that it's literally only just hitting home and the (WTF was that) has now arrived. I know I've been one of the lucky ones through this and it's given plenty of time to reflect on life and what matteres and what dosent so much. Its forced myself and a lot of others out there to re evaluate their lives, to count ourselves fortunate to be alive and to make the most of it too.
It's opened my eyes and its taken a world wide pandemic to do so, how fucking insane is that???
So do the things you love, be who you want to be, be kind, have empathy and love your friends and familly.
Were here for a good time, not a long time.
Some of my earlyest memories are of being on my dad's fishing boat, an old timber boat called Corral Star, brought over to Rhos when the breakwater was first built. More arrived over the years, a lot of characters from diferent places. A lot of them use to drink in the old Rhos Abby hotel just off the beach.
One by one they left for one reason or another.
The financial crash killed off most of it and now there is only one boat left skippered by a loverly bloke, trained up by my old man who is now retired. He's called Jack, or captain Jack as I like to call him. Long may he sail on calm seas and hopefully the industry will come back again one day.
It has ReEeEallY finally happened, the new album "Oceans Of Your Mind" has been released. Its out there on a whole lot of streaming platforms that are too many to mention as well as for download from the community label, CEG Records website. Click to listen and download it HERE (hope that link works)
I'm still working on some hard coppies and progress is being made SLOWLY. Unfortunately that's a bit of the downside of being a DIY musician with a day job, nothing gets done quickly around here. The good side is, you get the freedom to do what you want, when you want and that's pretty cool.
Anyways, go check it out and let me know what you think.
Peace 🤙
However, I'll be releasing a new track from the forthcoming album "Oceans Of Your Mind" on the 9th of March on CEG RECORDS. Track is called " Creatures Of The Night"
I'll be sending out a preview pretty soon via the mailing list. Join it Here ?
So, it's true that there is an album finished that will be released in the not too distant future. It's all been coming together slowly over the past couple of years but I have so many new tracks that I want to share with you, so, I will be posting demos on my new page "demos and free stuff" where there is also a donate button.
If the urge grabs you and you feel like donating towards more studio time for me to record some new tracks then you can do it there.
If you don't then that's also fine, we will still be friends and you can just hang out and listen to what's already out there on the tinterweb.
Peace and love❤️
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Philippe Vanrie
CEO, European Business & Innovation Centre Network
European Business & Innovation Centre Network
Philippe is an engineer who started his career at the University of Brussels (ULB) and then joined the first European EC-BIC in Liège (Socran).
After leaving Socran, he entered the private sector where he held senior Marketing and Business Development responsibilities within several SMEs leaders in their markets, most notably in the Agro and Food Industry.
Philippe joined EBN in 1992 and became responsible for technical assistance to the EC-BIC programme. He worked closely with the European Commission and directly for more than 50 BICs, Incubators and other Business Support Centres. Philippe also initiated and conducted pilot schemes in the field of academic and industrial spin-offs, clustering, business cooperation, local development and technology transfer.
He was appointed EBN CEO in the summer of 1999. He is committed to ensuring the performance and the reputation of EBN and their Network Members are of the highest standards.
Panel 2: Capital Markets Union and SMEs
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Dixit (Game Review)
As one of the more distinctive games in the Apples to Apples genre, Dixit has gained a lot of popularity over the past couple years. Though I’m not the target audience, I have to say the attention is well-earned. One game every few months is enough for me (sometimes more than enough), but it’s interesting, and I can play it with people who wouldn’t otherwise be interested in games.
Dixit is by otherwise little-known designer Jean-Louis Roubira, but artist Marie Cardouat deserves at least as much credit. After all, the first thing anyone notices about it is the evocative artwork. Each card is wordless, with a dreamlike, almost menacing, picture. They’re almost too weird to work for a family game, but the creativity and soft focus make them more interesting than off-putting.
The mechanics are solid, too. Players take turns being the storyteller, who must say a word or two about one card and then play it face down. Everyone else plays a card they think matches the description, and then each player except the storyteller guesses which one was played originally. Points are, of course, earned for choosing right and for convincing other people to choose your card.
All of that may sound like a typical Apples to Apples-style game, but Dixit is the only game I’ve seen like it that actually provides a balanced gameplay. First of all, almost everyone at the table is making a quick, simultaneous choice, which feels a lot less arbitrary than a single leader choosing one person to get a big bonus. But also, the storyteller’s goal is to have at least one person choose their card, and at least one person choose wrong! This forces them to be creative, offering hints that aren’t too strong, especially since a lot of the cards have similar themes. This resolves a lot of the issues that plague similar games. There’s no motivation to be especially clear or vague, and if the description is well-chosen, other players will have to play cards that are also only slightly like the description. There are real choices every round.
Playing with the same cards over and over does get tiring quickly (even if you buy some expansions), and it can be difficult to catch up if someone else gets a lot of points in the first few rounds. As I mentioned above, this isn’t the kind of game that usually grabs me. I definitely respect how well it fills the niche it aims for, though, and it’s a great choice for a lot of people. Dixit is proof that games with popular appeal don’t have to be lazy and unbalanced.
(Images taken from Board Game Geek. Follow the links for the originals and photographer credits.)
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Time: Fri Oct 3, 2014, 4:00PM - 6:00PM
Location: Carey Auditorium, Hesburgh Library
Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin is an Irish musician. As a pianist, composer, recording artist, and academic, he holds the Professorship of Music at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, which he founded at the University of Limerick.
Francis O'Neill was Chicago's superintendent of police from 1901 to 1905. In this recital lecture, Ó Súilleabháin will explore Chief O'Neill's personal collection of music, which O'Neill donated to the Hesburgh Libraries.
Following the lecture, please join us for a reception hosted by the Hon. Aidan Cronin, Consul General of Ireland, in Rare Books and Special Collections (102 Hesburgh Library).
Irish writer Patrick McCabe, author of THE BUTCHER BOY (1992) and BREAKFAST ON PLUTO (1998), both shortlisted for the Booker Prize, will be present at the reception for the announcement of the Hesburgh Libraries' acquisition of his papers.
The reception will also celebrate the recent publication by the Notre Dame Press of COIRE SOIS, THE CAULDRON OF KNOWLEDGE: A COMPANION TO EARLY IRISH SAGA by Tomás Ó Cathasaigh, the Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Irish Studies in the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University.
Sponsored by the Cushwa Center, the Keough-Naughton Institute, the Hesburgh Libraries, and the Consul General of Ireland in Chicago.
Event Flyer (PDF)
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Public sector Co. to launch iron ore producer with EGP 500m licensed capital - Daily News Egypt
Business Public sector Co. to launch iron ore producer with EGP 500m licensed capital
Public sector Co. to launch iron ore producer with EGP 500m licensed capital
The approval was given at the board’s meeting, on Sunday, with the new company set up for the purpose of extracting and trading iron ore and other minerals.
Alyaa Stohy November 30, 2020 Comments Off on Public sector Co. to launch iron ore producer with EGP 500m licensed capital
The Board of Directors at the Egyptian Iron and Steel Company (EISC) has approved the establishment of a new company with licensed capital of EGP 500m as part of its restructure process.
The new company’s issued capital is EGP 195.3m distributed on 976.8m shares with nominal value of 20 piasters per share.
The EISC also gave majority approval to split up the company horizontally, according to the book value based on the financial statements in June. The step comes as one of the means of restructuring the company into two companies, with one parent and the other spun-off.
Moreover, the EISC will reduce the nominal value of its share from EGP 2 to EGP 1.80. The move is to maintain the same amount of shares at 976.8m, provided that the issued capitals of the parent and spun-off companies are EGP 1.75bn and EGP 195.3m, respectively.
The parent company will remain listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) after reducing its capital data. The spun-off company will also be registered on the EGX, after it receives the commercial registry.
The EISC indicated that this is in light of previous decisions in October to separate mines and quarries activity from the company. The new company will be established and assigned, in order to allow for an evaluation committee to be established.
Earlier, EISC contracted with the Abdul Shaheed Law Firm to finish the legal procedures for separating the company’s mines from its factories and establishing a new company with the existing mines.
The company stated that the offer included a precise review of the implementation of all works in four phases. This comes in addition to specifying a short period for the implementation of that work based on the recommendations of the committee formed for this purpose.
Topics: Iron Public sector Co.
https://dailyfeed.dailynewsegypt.com/2020/11/30/public-sector-co-to-launch-iron-ore-producer-with-egp-500m-licensed-capital/
Grand Egyptian Museum obtains ISO certification for environment, quality management
Egypt participates in ministerial meeting of EU and Southern Neighbourhood
Egypt’s Shoukry, EBRD discuss ways to enhance cooperation
Egypt, Germany discuss launch of Debt Swap Programme’s 3rd tranche of €80m
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By Bill Bonner
Bill Bonner Posted
Today is the day we celebrate the unique American experience with "pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells and illuminations." But, in this DR Classique, first published on the Fourth of July, 2003, Bill Bonner can’t help but notice that America has changed quite a bit since the Declaration of Independence was signed…
"This is a society of true believers. The belief in democracy, market economics and the importance of religion is far more pervasive here than Marxism ever was in Russia."
– Michael Ignatieff, The Daily Telegraph
It is the Fourth of July. Should we hang out the red, white, and blue bunting from our office balcony…or the black crepe? Should we whine about the America we have lost, or give a whoop for what we have left of it?
That star-spangled banner still waves, but does it still fly over the land of the free, we ask? Or over a country with a spy camera on every street corner…a nation so deeply in debt that freedom has become a luxury it can no longer afford?
Whatever direction we take, we trip over a contradiction. Things always seem to be black and white at the same time.
That is why we took up tango, dear reader. People who dance the tango or write poems don’t let contradictions bother them. They glide across the floor and enjoy themselves. As far as we know, no serious tango dancer has ever committed suicide. It’s the mathematicians and engineers who blow their brains out.
An ideologue or a mathematician cannot tolerate contradiction. His little world has to fit together neatly, like a crossword puzzle. It is ‘cat’ in one direction and ‘day’ in the other. Each intersection has to work perfectly.
But that is not the way real life or real people work. A healthy woman loves her husband, but often hates him too. She has two eyes, and sees a slightly different view of him with each of them. What is wrong with that? Likewise, even a man with only a single eye cannot help but notice that the world is menaced by inflation and deflation at the same time…and that America is both free and un-free at exactly the same moment.
What we have come to dislike about the neo-conservatives is not that their view of the world is right or wrong – for how could we know? – but that it is so small. They are true believers in a very tiny world…one with no room for mystery, contradiction, ignorance or humility. It has to be small; otherwise they could not understand it.
Neo-cons think they can see what no mortal has ever seen: the future. That is the twisted genius of the ‘Preemptive Attack’; they stop the criminal before he has committed his crime!
They think they can know what no mortal has ever known: not only what is good for himself and his country…but what is good for the entire world. And they intend to give it to them, whether they want it or not. In today’s email box, for example, George W. Bush himself sends us the following message:
"…liberty is God’s gift to humanity, the birthright of every individual. The American creed remains powerful today because it represents the universal hope of all mankind."
Here we will take a wild guess: there are probably more than a few bipeds hobbling around the planet for whom the "American creed" is not so much a hope as a dread.
But the president continues:
"We are winning the war against enemies of freedom, yet more work remains. We will prevail in this noble mission. Liberty has the power to turn hatred into hope."
"America is a force for good in the world," continues the leader of the world’s only super-duper power, "and the compassionate spirit of America remains a living faith. Drawing on the courage of our Founding Fathers and the resolve of our citizens, we willingly embrace the challenges before us."
America’s citizens, meanwhile, are deeply in debt. They see little choice but to back the system, such as it is. Free or un-free, they could care less. Just keep the money flowing. They have come to rely on government. They need Fannie Mae…and unemployment insurance…and social security…and jobs…and the Fed…and fiscal stimulus. Or, at least, they think they do.
After 50 years of the Dollar Standard boom, the average American finds himself less free than ever. He is a slave to the highest government spending and biggest public debt burden in history…and to the heaviest mortgage and other private debt load ever. He has mortgaged up his house…he has taken the bait of credit-card lenders. Now he has no freedom left; he must keep a job…he must pay attention to the Fed’s rates…he must have an interest in George Bush’s government (for now he depends on it)!
"July 4 should be about celebrating freedom and independence," wrote Richard Benson, published in this week’s Barron’s, "yet the bankers are the only people jumping for joy. Never have Americans owed so much in terms of their total debt, the ratio of total debt to income and the amount of cash flow the debt needs to serve it. Americans used to believe that if they were debt-free, they were free. Today, Americans just want the freedom to borrow more, even if it means they are on the way to becoming enslaved by their debt."
The average citizen is only a few paychecks from getting put out of his house. He no longer has the freedom to step back…to reflect…to think…to wonder about things…or enjoy the contradictions. Instead, he must listen to the words of economists as if they meant something…and bow before the politicians who control his livelihood…and place himself at the beck and call of every government agency with a dollar to spend.
The message from George W. Bush concludes with an endearing personal note, in which "Laura joins me in sending our best wishes for a safe and joyous Independence Day…"
Laura who, we wondered? Oh yes…the First Lady.
How we got to be on a first-name basis with the woman, we don’t know. We have never even met her. Why she should wish us a happy day, we don’t understand. But these are the peculiar, baroque eccentricities of America that make it such an endearing place to its citizens and such a rich treasure for contemporary ethnologists and stand-up comics.
They, too, will wonder about the contradictions. Why do Americans celebrate "freedom" ever more loudly, while becoming ever less free…? How can they crow about the "home of the brave" when they attack pitiful, third world nations that can’t defend themselves? How can they ballyhoo their own independence when their armies occupy two foreign nations?
Most people will ignore the contradictions altogether. Many will see them as hypocrisy. Some will be outraged. And a few will hear the off-tempo tango beat, and enjoy the holiday anyway.
Your editor,
July 4, 2008 — Paris, France
Bill Bonner is the founder and editor of The Daily Reckoning. He is also the author, with Addison Wiggin, of the national best sellers Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the Soft Depression of the 21st Century and Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis.
Bill’s latest book, Mobs, Messiahs and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics, written with co-author Lila Rajiva, is available now.
We’re in Charles de Gaulle airport, escorting Edward, 14, off to summer camp. A loud siren has gone off. We looked up. No one reacted to it. And then the siren came from another part of the airport. Still, no reaction. Occasionally, people look up from their papers…soldiers with automatic rifles continue their patrols.
Then, we heard a chant. This was not an airport alarm, this was a group of protestors…trying to disrupt the airport. Why? We never figured it out…
It is Independence Day…and Americans have never been more dependent on the kindness of strangers. The foreigners have some $4.8 trillion on currency reserves – most of it dollars.
Most Americans are enjoying their picnics and fireworks today. But here at The Daily Reckoning headquarters in Europe, we recognize no national holidays and only take a break when we can’t get an Internet signal. There’s always something to reckon with.
Today, for example, marks the 232nd anniversary of the day when colonists in North America decided to bite the hand that fed them. Supported by the English crown…defended against the French and the Indians by English soldiers and English money, nevertheless these traitors, rebels, and terrorists wanted to decide for themselves how they would be misgoverned.
"No taxation without representation," was their beef.
Too bad they couldn’t have lived long enough to see the mess their descendants made of the place. Taxation with representation turned out to be much worse. From an estimated tax rate of less than 5%…the current lifetime rate – when you add up the accumulated effect of federal, state, and local income, sales taxes, road taxes, death taxes, capital gains taxes…and other taxes – is well over 50%.
But times change. And people come to think what they need to think when they need to think it. Less than three generations after declaring independence, the yankees decided they would rather kill their brethren in the South than permit them the same liberty. And now, 5 generations later, the United States has become the world’s leading empire…and reserves to itself the right to decide what form of government other nations will have – even those half-way around the world.
Alas, the Brits found that bossing others around was an expensive enterprise. The British Empire provided order all over the world – which was a boon to commerce. But under the protective wing of the empire, other economies – without the expense of such a huge military establishment – proliferated like lice. By the beginning of the 20th century, both the American and German economies were bigger than Britain and growing faster.
Now, America bears the expense of policing the world. And its rivals take advantage of Pax Americana to pile up dollars and steal market share.
T. Boone Pickens calls it the "greatest transfer of wealth in history." He’s referring to the oil market, where Americans take money out of their pockets and use it to buy gasoline; the cash ends up in the hands of the oil exporters – notably Russia, Venezuela and the Arab states. But the transfer of wealth goes back further than today’s high energy prices…
It began with the easy money policies of the Fed following the crash of ’87…and the free-spending habits of the American people and their government. The more Americans borrowed and spent…the more money ended up in the hands of foreigners. Normally, the mountains of American cash building up overseas would have caused inflation at home and landslides in the currency markets. But Asian exporters could make things cheaper and faster than American manufacturers. This, combined with technological improvements and just-in-time inventory techniques, tended to hold prices down. Prices looked so stable, central bankers thought they were geniuses and continued to pump out cash and credit. Then too, the strangers were exceptionally kind; normally they would have dumped their dollars on the world market – provoking a currency crisis. Instead, the Asians lent the cash back to the United States – thereby giving Americans even more rope to hang themselves. They could use the credit to buy more stuff – from the Asians. They didn’t need more stuff. They didn’t need bigger houses. And they didn’t need big SUVs to drive them to distant jobs and shopping malls. But that’s what over-reaching is all about – buying things you don’t really need with money you don’t really have.
Gradually, the Chinese developed more industries and more infrastructure. Soon, they were competing not merely on price…but on quality too, just as the Japanese had before them. And then, as they accumulated more and more money, they began to compete with the developed countries not only far raw materials – but for food. First, the price of oil shot up. And then, Americans (and Brazilians) tried to replace fossil fuel with fuel made from corn and sugar cane. This pushed up the price of grains. Corn has risen 64% in 2008 alone. Soybeans are up 37%. Oil itself is 50% more expensive. (Yesterday’s trading left it unchanged – at $144 a gallon.)
"This whole economic phase is about taking Americans down a notch," we told a friend over a glass of wine yesterday afternoon. It really is a classic case of imperial over-stretch…where Americans reached too far…spent too much…borrowed too much…and lived too high. Now, they’re facing a major correction – with falling living standards, falling wealth, falling power, and falling prestige. There’s no way out…the best they can do is to take their medicine as gracefully as possible. There are no magic levers Ben Bernanke can yank. No miracle knobs he can turn."
We should add that it’s not only Americans who are being taken down. The British too are facing a correction of their own.
"British economy falling into an American-style slump," says the headline in the International Herald Tribune.
No wonder. The Brits borrowed even more than Americans and now have more debt than we do.
*** Yesterday, the bank of the Europeans, led by Jean-Claude Trichet, decided to fight inflation, albeit in a modest way. The ECB raised rates a quarter of a point, just as it had threatened to do, bringing its key rate to 2.25% higher than its U.S. equivalent.
This puts the Anglo-Saxon economies in a tighter bind. Their economies are weakening rapidly. But higher interest rates in Europe make it tough for them to cut rates further in the United States and Britain.
The U.K. stock market is down nearly 20% over the last 12 months. Consumer confidence is at its lowest point in 18 years. And Charlie Bean, deputy governor of the Bank of England says Britain faces "the most challenging set of circumstances since at least the early 1990s and possibly earlier."
Houses are falling in price in Britain. Banks are tottering. Building companies are being written down.
This report from the Sovereign Society provides more details:
"Residential mortgage debt as a percentage of the economy is at a record 51% in the U.K. In Denmark and even in famously ‘conservative’ Switzerland, it is near or just above 100%.
"And you can bet this housing mania spread into other parts of the European economies. In Britain, consumer debt now totals $1.4 trillion pounds, more than in any other country in the world – including the U.S., with five times the population. At the same time, British home owners now owe 164% of disposable income, compared to only 138% for the U.S.
"The European housing boom has also dug deep into the financial markets. Even at the real estate peak, for instance, Residential Mortgage Backed Securities totaled less than 1% of GDP in the U.S. Yet in Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Britain they range between 3% and 7.5%.
"And yet Denmark, Spain, the U.K. and Ireland have begun to register falling housing prices, with projections of as much as 9% losses this year. No wonder Denmark became the first European economy yesterday to announce that it has officially fallen into recession. More may soon follow suit – especially Ireland, Britain and Spain."
Meanwhile, over on the western shore of the Atlantic, the Dow rallied slightly yesterday…up 72 points. The dollar managed a little bounce too (it’s fallen 41% since George W. Bush came to the White House). And gold trading left the yellow metal down $11 at $935.
"US jobs disappear and wages stagnate," is another headline in today’s IHT.
Job losses have continued for 6 months straight. For those still working, salaries are going down, says the IHT, "just as workers face record-high prices for gasoline and food."
Barack Obama said the problem illustrated the "failed economic policies of the past eight years." He should have gone back further. The problem began 25 years ago – or even further back. Americans got the idea that if they called themselves ‘free,’ they would be free…and if they called their economy a ‘free enterprise economy’ it would make them rich – no matter what they did.
What makes people rich is not free enterprise, but what you do with it. And here, we let you in on the secret. If you want to get wealthy, work hard…and make sure your expenses are LESS than your income. Yes, less. That’s the way it works.
*** Finally, police in Kentucky arrested a woman and charged her with trading sex for gasoline. The local prosecutor said it saddened him to see people selling their bodies for gasoline. She was charged with conducting a business without a proper license.
Out with the old gods and in with the new. Here’s Bill Bonner on why the issue of Civil War statues goes way beyond monuments to a different time…
About Bill Bonner:
Since founding Agora Inc. in 1979, Bill Bonner has found success in numerous industries. His unique writing style, philanthropic undertakings and preservationist activities have been recognized by some of America’s most respected authorities. With his friend and colleague Addison Wiggin, he co-founded The Daily Reckoning in 1999, and together they co-wrote the New York Times best-selling books Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt. His other works include Mobs, Messiahs and Markets (with Lila Rajiva), Dice Have No Memory, and most recently, Hormegeddon: How Too Much of a Good Thing Leads to Disaster. His most recent project is The Bill Bonner Letter.
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One Of Two Brothers Hit By Car While Riding Lawn Mower On Route 17 Has Died
Two brothers are in critical condition after being hit by a vehicle while riding a lawnmower. Photo Credit: Ramapo Police
Click here for an updated story: ID Released For Man Killed While Riding Lawn Mower With Brother On Route 17
One of two brothers hit by a car while riding a lawn mower on Route 17 in Sloatsburg has died, according to the Ramapo Police.
The incident took place around 8:45 p.m., Sunday, May 19, when Ramapo Police responded to the crash along Route 17 near the intersection of Washington Avenue, said the Ramapo Police.
According to police, the Sloatsburg brothers, ages 29 and 30, were driving the riding lawn mower when the attempted to cross Route 17 and inadvertently drove into traffic and were struck by a 2006 Honda that was traveling southbound, police said.
One of the brothers, who was unidentified, died earlier Monday, May 20, police said.
The operator of the Honda remained on scene and cooperated with police.
The two brothers were treated by Rockland Paramedics and Sloatsburg EMTs and transported to Hackensack Medical Center with multiple serious injuries and are in critical condition.
The Ramapo police Crash Investigation Unit, along with the Ramapo Detective Bureau is currently investigating.
There have been no summonses or charges at this time.
This is a developing story. Check back to Daily Voice for updates.
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75-Year-Old Man Dies Of Heart Attack After Taking COVID-19 Vaccine
The Israeli health ministry has said a 75-year-old man from Beit She’an died of a heart attack two hours after receiving vaccination against COVID-19 on Monday morning.
It was learnt that the man had preexisting conditions and had suffered from heart attacks in the past. Chezy Levy, the Director-General of the Health Ministry, has launched an investigation into the incident.
“We share in the grief of the family,” he said in a statement. He was injected at around 8:30 am at a Clalit Health Services Clinic. He stayed at the facility, as is customary, for a short period of time to ensure he had no side effects. When he felt well, the clinic released him.
According to Levy, the early discoveries do not reveal a link between the man’s death and his inoculation
75-Year-Old Man Dies Of Heart Attack After Taking COVID-19 Vaccine, Covid-19
National Theater Renovation: FG Has No Money – Lai Mohammed
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Home › Dart Blog › IRE Audio: Dart Panels on Veterans & Human Rights in Latin America
IRE Audio: Dart Panels on Veterans & Human Rights in Latin America
The 2014 IRE Conference in San Francisco featured for more than 100 panels, hands-on classes and special presentations.
At the 2014 Investigative Reporters & Editors Conference in San Francisco, the Dart Center hosted panels on human rights and veterans issues. Scroll down to listen to the full audio recordings.
Investigating Human Rights in the Americas
Alberto Arce, Alfredo Corchado, Jeff Kelly Lowenstein and Richard Marosi discussed how to gain access to official and unofficial documents, work sensitively with sources and navigate issues of personal safety in countries where public records are not readily available and reporters face real threats of bodily harm.
Alberto Arce joined the AP in February 2012 as a correspondent in Honduras. Arce grew up in Gijón in northern Spain and has a political science degree from the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Alfredo Corchado was born in Durango, Mexico, grew up as a migrant worker in California and later moved to Texas. He has worked for the Dallas Morning News since 1993, currently serving as Mexico Bureau Chief. He has also worked for The Dallas Morning News in Washington and has covered Cuba.Previously he worked for several news organizations including The Wall Street Journal in Dallas and Philadelphia. His reporting has earned several awards, including The Maria Moors Cabot prize and the Elijah Parrish Lovejoy prize. He was a 2008-09 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He recently published his first nonfiction book, Midnight in Mexico.
Jeff Kelly Lowenstein is a Lecturer in the Journalism Department at Columbia College Chicago and the former database and investigative editor at Hoy. Starting in July 2013 he spent a semester as a Fulbright Scholar at the University Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile. His work has received local, national and international recognition, including an IRE Award in 2013.
Richard Marosi, a staff writer for the LA Times, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2013 for his stories on the fate of thousands of illegal immigrants who were deported to Mexico in recent years. He has covered Mexico's drug wars, producing a series on the Sinaloa drug cartel and sharing an Overseas Press Club award. In southeast Los Angeles County, his corruption investigations contributed to the indictment or ouster of more than a dozen politicians and city officials.
Click here to listen to the panel audio.
Investigating Veterans Issues
Aaron Glantz, Michael Phillips and Bruce Shapiro discussed how to tell stories at the local and national level and to dig into the difficulties faced by veterans.
Aaron Glantz is a reporter with The Center for Investigative Reporting. His work has appeared in dozens of national media outlets including The New York Times, the PBS Newshour and ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer. In more than 10 years covering the Iraq War and veterans, Glantz has reported on the sieges of Fallujah and Najaf without U.S. military protection and authored three books, most recently “The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans." Glantz is a 2011 Dart Center Ochberg Fellow.
Michael M. Phillips has been a reporter in the Washington Bureau of The Wall Street Journal since 1996. Since 2001, he has traveled to Afghanistan and Iraq to cover U.S. troops in the field. At home, he often writes about veterans issues and the aftermath of the wars. He covered the tsunami in Sumatra, the earthquake in Haiti and Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf coast. In 2013, he wrote The Lobotomy Files, a Wall Street Journal series exposing the Veterans Administration's use of drastic brain surgery to treat mentally ill World War II veterans.
Bruce Shapiro is the executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma, based at the Columbia Journalism School. An award-winning reporter on human rights, criminal justice and politics, Shapiro is a contributing editor at The Nation and U.S. correspondent for Late Night Live on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio National. He is the author of “Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America,” and teaches investigative journalism at Yale University.
Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE)
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New Details Revealed for Disney Vacation Club Tower Being Built Adjacent to the Disneyland Hotel
We have new details on the Disney Vacation Club tower that is set to be built at the Disneyland Resort thanks to a permit filed recently with the City of Anaheim. The proposed tower will be seven stories tall and will contain a total of 393 rooms for a total of 484,377 square feet.
The description of the new DVC tower will include a restaurant, lobby, sales area, and deck area and pool restroom building. However, internal information indicates there may not be a restaurant in the building like the permit suggests. The restaurant could be a simple grab-and-go location, or the scope of the work has been altered.
The Disney Vacation Club building would be built in the land adjacent to the Frontierland Tower of the Disneyland Hotel and Steakhouse 55. Amenities include a fitness center, a community hall, an outdoor water feature, and a hot tub.
No opening date was listed for the new tower, but reports state that it is slated to open sometime before 2022.
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Where is Clemson University located? A geography lesson and more facts about the soccer program
Clemson University’s Memorial Stadium, where the Tigers play football, is not easy to miss. And in 2020, it’s hard to miss that Clemson is very good at soccer too.
That didn’t stop an assistant from stopping me on my one trip to the Clemson campus in South Carolina to whisper in my ear. “Hey, do you know the guys who play there?” he asked, then paused for dramatic effect. ” They are quite good,” was the auction. Yes, two national titles since 2016 rate Dabo Swinney’s Tigers as “pretty good.”
But while most people know how good Clemson is at soccer, fewer people know exactly where Clemson is. It is not in a major metropolitan area. If it weren’t for college, Clemson, South Carolina wouldn’t be well-known. But add a thriving university and a strong soccer team to any equation, and that will put a place on a map.
Where is Clemson University?
https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/c/fd/clemson-map-110520_dfukhksgwlbg14ynqoiy6c4xt.png?t=-1706491459&w=500&quality=80
Clemson University is located in the city of Clemson in upstate South Carolina. The university has an undergraduate enrollment of close to 20,000, which actually outnumbers the city’s population. The red marker near the top center of the map above points to Clemson.
Clemson is located about a half hour southwest of Greenville, South Carolina, the largest city near Clemson. If you travel further northeast from Clemson, the first major metropolitan area you will arrive in is Charlotte, North Carolina. Head southwest from Clemson and you’ll eventually make it to Atlanta.
Information on Clemson’s Memorial Stadium, Death Valley and Howard’s Rock
Clemson football plays at Memorial Stadium. The maximum capacity of the stadium is 81,500. Clemson keeps total ventilators below 20,000 during 2020 with COVID-19 protocols.
Memorial Stadium opened in 1942, and at the time cost $125,000 to build. It originally had fewer than 30,000 fans, but the success of the soccer program over the decades brought with it the addition of seats. Clemson has won more than 70 percent of its home games in its history.
The nickname “Valley of Death” is due to several reasons. First of all, the stadium is located in a small valley. Second, the university cemetery used to overlook the football field. And third, the teams have claimed to have been “killed” at the hands of the Tigers.
Howard’s Rock is located at the top of the hill beyond the east end zone. Players touch the stone before entering the field for home games. It’s a stone from Death Valley, California that was a gift to Clemson’s coach Frank Howard in 1966.
How many national championships has Clemson Football won?
Clemson soccer has won three national championships. They are as follows:
1981: Clemson defeated Nebraska in the Orange Bowl to finish undefeated and be named national champion. The Tigers were led by
2016: Clemson beat Alabama in the college football playoff final, 35-31, on January 7, 2017. Shaun Watson was named offensive MVP.
2018: Clemson again beat Alabama in the college football playoff final, this time 44-16, to win the national title behind first-year quarterback Trevor Lawrence on January 7, 2019.
Who is Clemson’s soccer head coach?
Clemson University’s head soccer coach is Dabo Swinney.
Full name William Christopher Swinney, Dabo played college football as a wide receiver for Alabama. He trained in various capacities with the Crimson Tide from 1993-2000, then joined the Clemson staff in 2003. In 2008, Swinney became Clemson’s interim head coach, winning the title full-time in 2009.
In his career as Clemson’s head coach through Nov. 1, 2020, Swinney is 137-31. The Tigers have been 10-6 in bowl appearances and 6-3 in the college football playoffs, including two national championships.
Swinney is called “Dabo” because his older brother used to call him “Dat Boy” and the name stuck. Famously Swinney said she didn’t know her real name until third grade when she took a scan tron test.
Why does Clemson wear purple uniforms?
Clemson’s official colors are known as Clemson Orange, Regalia Purple, and Fort Hill White. This is why Tigers sometimes break out uniforms that are primary purple. Even many of her orange and white looks have a purple accent.
Tigers do not usually wear totally purple uniforms and have a relatively poor record use them. In 2019, Clemson broke the purple unis against non conferencing for Wofford in a landslide victory.
Clemson Tiger mascot and push-ups
The Clemson mascot setup features a Clemson Tiger and a Clemson Tiger Cub, which is essentially a smaller Tiger costume. They have no names beyond “Tiger” and “Tiger Cub”.
Every time Clemson scores, the Tiger does push-ups. The official Clemson website follows tiger push-up records, and Ricky Capps holds the all-time single-game push-up record for 465 during an 82-24 win over Wake Forest in 1981. The career record is held by Mike Bays, who did 2,216 push-ups between 1994 and 1997.
www.sportingnews.com
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Fernando Viotti
Senior Advisor - CEO of Highline
Fernando Viotti is a Senior Advisor to Digital Colony and President at Highline do Brasil (“Highline”).
Prior to joining Highline, Mr. Viotti was a Director at Patria Investments. Before joining Patria, he worked at Greentech Capital, a private equity firm in Brazil dedicated to investing in renewable energy, environmental services, sustainable agribusiness and forestry. At Greentech, Mr. Viotti was involved with the execution, development and monitoring of investments in several industries. Mr. Viotti also worked as a consultant at McKinsey and Promon.
Mr. Viotti graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering from Escola Poltécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and holds a specialization in Capital Markets from Faculdade de Economia e Administração (FEA-USP). Mr. Viotti is fluent in both Portuguese and English.
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The Crichton Trust is delighted to start 2021, with news of a new Chief Operating Officer role at The Crichton and to welcome Craig Renton, who has recently been appointed to take on this new role from Mid-January.
This vacancy, originally planned for 2020 following a senior leadership re-structure, attracted a number of high calibre candidates, all eager to help shape the strategic direction of the 85-acre parkland estate at The Crichton in Dumfries. The appointment comes at a crucial time as The Crichton Trust and partners emerge from the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Craig, who lives locally with his family, is extremely passionate about the region and in creating opportunities that will enable and encourage all generations to live, learn, work and thrive in Dumfries and Galloway. Craig has held various executive leadership roles and has extensive experience in leading teams, delivering change programmes, reviewing business and IT systems and processes, training and development, governance, project and financial management, strategic and operational performance and in developing and sustaining significant partnership and stakeholder engagement initiatives.
Chief Executive of The Crichton Trust said: “I am delighted to announce the recent appointment of Craig Renton as the new Chief Operating Officer at The Crichton Trust. Craig has an excellent track record in strategic leadership and management in various sectors and will be a welcome addition to our existing Executive Team. This appointment comes at a time when our strategic and operational leadership needs to be at its very best. 2020 was a challenging year for everyone including The Crichton Trust, we continue to adapt to meet those challenges and we are determined to successfully lead The Crichton Trust out of this pandemic and to build on the legacy of The Crichton to ensure it continues to thrive and adapt to our new world. The focus for 2021 and beyond, is to ensure our longer-term vision is ambitious, achievable and sustainable. In order to do this, we need to strengthen our strategic and operational leadership. I look forward to welcoming Craig to the team and feel confident that he will help us achieve our ambitions and to protect the wellbeing of our people, place and partners in these challenging times.
”After a rigorous recruitment process, Craig is excited about his new role and the opportunity to support the growth of The Crichton. He said: “I’m hugely excited to be joining the team at The Crichton and I can’t wait to get started! The Crichton and Dumfries and Galloway as a whole, has so much potential and I really believe that with drive and ambition, we can achieve so much. I am grateful for the opportunity to join such a skilled and experienced team and I hope to use my leadership experience to support and enable colleagues to do their job and to deliver excellence in all parts of the organisation. As we transition from the challenges of 2020, I very much believe that The Crichton will be at the heart of the South of Scotland’s growth and development now and into the future and I look forward to supporting Gwilym and the rest of the team in entering new and emerging markets and in achieving the ambitious goals of The Crichton Trust.”
The Crichton Trust takes its responsibility to protect and develop the legacy of The Crichton seriously and as such will publish a new strategy in 2021. As well as defining the core assets of The Crichton, the document will outline a number of new projects and initiatives that are set to shape the emerging future of The Crichton, including the imminent launch of Crichton Central, the new co-working, innovation and collaboration space at The Crichton.
There will be exciting opportunities to support and invest in The Crichton over the next few years and although there are still many challenges to overcome, The Crichton Trust team and the wider Crichton Community remain determined to protect the asset of The Crichton and to build back better in response to not just the disruption of the pandemic but the climate emergency, our ageing society and the emergence of the future economy.
The Crichton Trust is delighted to start 2021, with news of a new Chief Operating Officer role at The Crichton and to welcome Craig Renton, who has recently been appointed to take on this new role from Mid-January. This vacancy, originally planned for 2020 following a senior leadership re-structure, attracted a number of high calibre candidates, all eager to help shape the strategic direction of the 85-acre parkland estate at The Crichton in Dumfries. The appointment comes at a crucial time as The Crichton Trust and partners emerge from the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Craig, who lives locally with his family, is extremely passionate about the region and in creating opportunities that will enable and encourage all generations to live, learn, work and thrive in Dumfries and Galloway. Craig has held various executive leadership roles and has extensive experience in leading teams, delivering change programmes, reviewing business and IT systems and processes, training and development, governance, project and financial management, strategic and operational performance and in developing and sustaining significant partnership and stakeholder engagement initiatives. Chief Executive of The Crichton Trust said: “I am delighted to announce the recent appointment of Craig Renton as the new Chief Operating Officer at The Crichton Trust. Craig has an excellent track record in strategic leadership and management in various sectors and will be a welcome addition to our existing Executive Team. This appointment comes at a time when our strategic and operational leadership needs to be at its very best. 2020 was a challenging year for everyone including The Crichton Trust, we continue to adapt to meet those challenges and we are determined to successfully lead The Crichton Trust out of this pandemic and to build on the legacy of The Crichton to ensure it continues to thrive and adapt to our new world. The focus for 2021 and beyond, is to ensure our longer-term vision is ambitious, achievable and sustainable. In order to do this, we need to strengthen our strategic and operational leadership. I look forward to welcoming Craig to the team and feel confident that he will help us achieve our ambitions and to protect the wellbeing of our people, place and partners in these challenging times.” After a rigorous recruitment process, Craig is excited about his new role and the opportunity to support the growth of The Crichton. He said: “I’m hugely excited to be joining the team at The Crichton and I can’t wait to get started! The Crichton and Dumfries and Galloway as a whole, has so much potential and I really believe that with drive and ambition, we can achieve so much. I am grateful for the opportunity to join such a skilled and experienced team and I hope to use my leadership experience to support and enable colleagues to do their job and to deliver excellence in all parts of the organisation. As we transition from the challenges of 2020, I very much believe that The Crichton will be at the heart of the South of Scotland’s growth and development now and into the future and I look forward to supporting Gwilym and the rest of the team in entering new and emerging markets and in achieving the ambitious goals of The Crichton Trust.” The Crichton Trust takes its responsibility to protect and develop the legacy of The Crichton seriously and as such will publish a new strategy in 2021. As well as defining the core assets of The Crichton, the document will outline a number of new projects and initiatives that are set to shape the emerging future of The Crichton, including the imminent launch of Crichton Central, the new co-working, innovation and collaboration space at The Crichton. There will be exciting opportunities to support and invest in The Crichton over the next few years and although there are still many challenges to overcome, The Crichton Trust team and the wider Crichton Community remain determined to protect the asset of The Crichton and to build back better in response to not just the disruption of the pandemic but the climate emergency, our ageing society and the emergence of the future economy.
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By Sierra Tavasolian | Published Apr 29, 2016
Literary Awards are great ways for new authors or writers to make themselves known. Most awards have a “new author” or “first novel” category, but even when they don’t, awards are great ways to find books that fit your interests. Whether they be based on genre or demographics, literary awards help bring authors and readers together. They also honor authors who have come before them, either named after or renamed for authors who are influential in whatever field the award is for. Here’s a list of literary awards and the amazing authors they’re named for:
Agatha Awards
Photo: AFP / Getty Images
Named after prolific author Agatha Christie, the Agatha Awards were created to celebrate Cozy Mystery writers. The first awards were given out in 1988, for Best Novel, Best First Novel, and Best Short Story. Now, 28 years later, awards are given out for Best Contemporary Novel, Best Historical Novel, Best Nonfiction, Best Short Story, and Best Children’s/Young Adult. Christie’s novels, over 70 of them, are said to be the third most widely published books (coming after Shakespeare and the Bible), and are considered the bestselling novels of all time. While known for her mystery writing, she also published 6 romance novels under the pen-name Mary Westmacott.
Did you know? Christie was once the subject of an investigation by the British Intelligence Agency MI5. In her novel N or M?, the character Bletchley—a British Officer in possession of wartime secrets—was a little too close to the real live codebreaker, Dilly Knox, a close friend of Christie. MI5, afraid Christie knew government secrets, had Knox question her about the character, to which she replied, “Bletchley? My dear, I was stuck there on my way by train from Oxford to London and took revenge by giving the name to one of my least lovable characters.”
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, or popularly The Edgars, are awards given out by the Mystery Writers of America. Spanning decades, The Edgars have existed since 1946. Awards are given out for Novel, First Novel, Paperback Original, Fact Crime, Critical/Biographical, Short Story, Juvenile, Young Adult, and TV Episode. There are also Special awards, including Robert L. Fish Memorial, Mary Higgins Clark, Grand Master, Raven Awards, and Ellery Queen Award. The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, named for classic mystery and horror author of the same name. What higher honor could a mystery writer ask for?
Did you know? Although we know him as Edgar Allan Poe, due to his difficult relationship with his father John Allan, he often went by Edgar A. Poe—or he made up a name!
Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction
Photo: Courtesy of Andalusia Farm
The Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction is named for the prolific writer of the same name. The awards have been awarded to two to three short stories a year since 1983, chosen through a blind selection process done by the University of Georgia Press. O’Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, in addition to numerous reviews, criticisms, and essays, over her lifetime. Though she lived a short life, dying at age 39, O’Connor made a name for herself in the Southern Gothic genre, often tackling issues of religion, race, and morality. The award, given to an author through a blind selection process, is announced at the end of the summer.
Did you know? After being diagnosed with Lupus, O’Connor moved back to her family farm Andalusia in Georgia, where she raised 100 peacocks. A lover of all types of birds, O’Connor raised her peafowl, as well as ducks, ostriches, emus, and toucans.
International Dylan Thomas Prize
Named for the Welsh poet, the International Dylan Thomas Prize is an award created to celebrate young writers. Dylan Thomas, born in Swansea, began writing as a teenager, and publishing his works in literary magazines and earning a name for himself. Established in 2006, the prize is awarded to the author of any English language novel written by an author under the age of 39, intending to inspire and celebrate young writers. The award is chosen by a panel of judges and announced, in partnership with Swansea University, in mid-May.
Did you know? One of the factors that led to Thomas being discovered and publishing a collection of his own works was the attentions of T.S. Eliot, Geoffrey Grigson, and Stephen Spender, who first read one of Thomas’s poems in a magazine.
SIBA’s The Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize Long List
Photo: Peffrey Vock / Getty Images
First awarded in 1999, The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) focuses on works about the South, or by Southern authors. Originally, the SIBA Awards focused on Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Children’s literature. However, the awards have grown, now including Cookbooks, Mysteries, Thrillers, History & Life Stories, and Young Adult categories. On March 1st, they changed their name to The Pat Conroy Souther Book Prize, named for the late, influential Pat Conroy. SIBA Director Wanda Jewell, talking about the name change on their website that Conroy “has not just written some of our favorite books, he has been incredibly generous in his support of readers, of booksellers, and of other writers. The world of southern literature is a rich place today because of the encouragement he extends to new authors and the commitment he has always shown towards the southern literary community.”
Did you know? Pat Conroy grew up as an Military Brat, a supporter of research identifying and understanding children who constantly moved around with their military family, submerged in military culture, and who were often personally affected by war.
The Coretta Scott King Book Awards
Awarded to authors and illustrators of African American Children’s literature, the Coretta Scott King Book Awards are named to honor Coretta Scott King and her work and courage to brotherhood, work she started with her husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. King worked alongside her husband during the Civil Rights Movement, stepping into a leadership position after her husband’s death. As a leader in the Civil Right’s Movement, King became active not only in the struggle for Racial Equality, but also in the LGBT+ and Women’s Movements. King was responsible for making Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a national holiday. The award is decided by the Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table and announced early during the year.
Did you know? Coretta King founded The King Center in 1968, which acted as an archive of many of MLK’s works, and went on to file the wrongful death lawsuit Coretta Scott King, et al. vs. Loyd Jowers et al., the case that found the Loyd Jowers, his conspirators, and other U.S. government agencies guilty in the assassination of her husband.
The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
Sir Walter Scott was the founding father of historical fiction. Waverly, the western novel that established the historical fiction genre, became so popular that, even though published anonymously, became the signifier of all Scott’s later novels—they weren’t written by Sir Walter Scott, but were instead “From the Author of Waverly.” The prize itself, established in 2009, is awarded to novels nominated by their publisher and published in English, and whose first publication runs in the UK, Ireland, or the Commonwealth. The first literary prize to be awarded to the genre of historical fiction. The Walter Scott Prize, one of the biggest literary prizes in the UK, is announced at the Borders Book Festival in June.
Did you know? Not only was Sir Walter Scott a master of words and history, he was also a successful treasure hunter. In 1818, after receiving permission from the Prince Regent, future King George IV, Scott and a small team discovered the lost Crown Jewels, earning him not only fame, but a baronetcy as well.
Not to be confused with the Hans Christian Andersen Literary Award, this award is considered the highest honor that a children’s book can receive. The Author’s Award has been given since 1956 and the Illustrator’s Award since 1966, giving this award a history nearly half as long as Andersen’s own legacy! The award is given through the International Board on Books for Young People, and announced in April.
Did you know? Some people believe that The Little Mermaid was based off of Andersen’s own feelings for his friend Edvard Collin, who—like the prince in Andersen’s original tale—did not reciprocate his feelings.
Wilder Award
Photo: Julie Jordan Scott / Flickr
The Wilder Award, also known as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, is named for the author of the Little House on the Prairie series for children. This award is given to an author or illustrator whose books have made a lasting impression over a period of year in the U.S. The award celebrates not a book, but a creator of children’s literature who created a body of work that left a mark on American children’s books. The award is given out by the Association for Library Services to Children, a branch of the American Library Association, at the beginning of the year.
Did you know? The Little House on the Prairie series was based off Wilder’s childhood experiences in a settler family.
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This is the video for the latest single and title track from artist Jo James‘ new EP Back Home out now.
The Austin-based soul/indie rock vocalist delivers an endearing and loveable groove in this infectious and heart-opening single.
You may recognize Joe from featured on Season 17 of The Voice. He has performed at festivals with greats like Leon Russell, Dr John, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds. James also backed Robert Randolph at the NOLA Festival and played guitar for Capital Records Pop artist, Fletcher.
Music has always been a safe haven for James growing. Through his teen years, he battled with obesity and depression. Once he learned to fully accept himself for who he was he realized that was the most important thing to overcome his problems. With his music, he wants to encourage others to show love to those around us and most importantly ourselves.
The album is an homage to his wife, Chelsea, who in September 2019 was impacted in a very serious way by Ulcerative Colitis. He wanted to bring awareness to this disease that is quite often misunderstood.
This track has been praised by outlets like Pop Culturalist and V13 calling it “…music to lift our spirits” and a “soulfully reassuring voice.”
This song has a loving message and the video is a great complement that will bring a smile to your face. He has a neo-retro sound that evokes the likes of Motown sou, funk, and R&B with an effortless charm and jubilance that everyone can appreciate.
Watch below and for more information on Jo James check out his official website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages.
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1) Which of the following nuclear power plants in India has set a new world record for operating uninterrupted for the most number of days?
a) Kaiga Atomic Power Station
b) Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant
c) Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project
d) Kakrapar Nuclear Power Plant
• The indigenously developed Kaiga Atomic Power Station (KAPS), Karnataka has set a new world record among pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) with one of its units operating uninterrupted for more than 940 days
• The previous record for continuous operation was held by a unit of Pickering Nuclear Generating Station (PNGS) of Canada which operated continuously for 894 days and a few hours
2) Who among the following recently became the first Indian to win the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals tournament?
a) Saina Nehwal
b) K Srikanth
c) PV Sindhu
d) Parupalli Kashyap
• PV Sindhu made history by becoming the first Indian to win the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals tournament.
• This was her career’s 14th title but the year’s first. Prior to this in 2018, she has won silver at the World Championships, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Thailand Open and India Open
3) India’s first railway university National Rail and Transportation Institution has been opened in which of the following states?
b) Bihar
d) Gujarat
• India’s first railway university has been inaugurated in Vadodara, Gujarat
• This is a big step by the national transporter towards professional education and training in the railway sector.
• The National Rail and Transportation Institute (NRTI), deemed university in Vadodara, is India’s first railway university and only third such in the whole world after Russia and China.
4) Who among the following won men’s Hockey World Cup, 2018?
a) France
b) USA
c) Belgium
d) Netherlands
• Belgium won the Men’s Hockey World Cup 2018 defeating Netherlands by 3-2 in the final played in Bhubaneswar
5) The Information Fusion Centre (IFC) for the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) launched by the Indian Navy is headquartered in
a) Panaji
b) Gurugram
c) Visakhapatnam
• The IFC has been established at the Navy’s Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) in Gurugram, which is the single point centre linking all the coastal radar chains to generate a seamless real-time picture of the nearly 7,500-km coastline.
• Through this Centre, information on “white shipping”, or commercial shipping, will be exchanged with countries in the region to improve maritime domain awareness in the Indian Ocean
first Indian to win the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals tournament India’s first railway university National Rail and Transportation Institution men's Hockey World Cup 2018 nuclear power plants The Information Fusion Centre (IFC)
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Bipartisan Coalition Rejects Democrats’ Call to Pack Supreme Court
September 25, 2020 /0 Comments/in Courts & Law, Elections, Must Read, Policy, Politics /by The Daily Signal
A bipartisan group dominated by former state attorneys general is pushing back against proposals from congressional Democrats and progressive activists to pack the Supreme Court by adding more justices.
“We feel that court packing, adding or for that matter subtracting justices for political advantage, is wrong,” former Tennessee Attorney General Paul Summers, an independent, told The Daily Signal. “It would denigrate the rule of law [in favor of] the rule of men. It undermines the independence of the Supreme Court.”
Summers is part of the Coalition to Preserve the Independence of the Supreme Court, which calls itself “Keep Nine” for short in a reference to the nine justices on the high court.
The coalition, with 27 members, has grown to include former members of Congress and former governors.
The organization is promoting a 13-word constitutional amendment that says simply: “The Supreme Court of the United States shall be composed of nine Justices.”
On the cusp of President Donald Trump’s nomination of another woman to fill the Supreme Court seat of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last week, some Democrats have insisted that adding justices would be appropriate revenge for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s stated intention to hold a confirmation vote on the nominee.
Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., tweeted about the Kentucky Republican: “Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an election year. If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a force in House Democrats’ freshman class, also has indicated support for packing the high court.
“I believe that also we must consider, again, all of the tools available [at] our disposal, and that all of these options should be entertained and on the table,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters Sunday.
Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an election year. If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court.
— Ed Markey (@EdMarkey) September 19, 2020
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., reportedly told fellow Senate Democrats on Saturday that “nothing is off the table for next year” if Republicans move to fill the vacant seat on the high court.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., echoed Schumer in tweeting: “If Republicans recklessly & reprehensibly force a SCOTUS vote before the election—nothing is off the table.”
If Republicans recklessly & reprehensibly force a SCOTUS vote before the election—nothing is off the table.
— Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) September 19, 2020
Passing a constitutional amendment to preserve the current total of nine Supreme Court justices would not be easy, Summers said, but noted that the process of amending the Constitution has been completed 27 times in the nation’s history.
“It will be hard to pass a constitutional amendment, but it will be harder on the country to denigrate a separate and equal branch of government,” said Summers, who was Tennessee’s attorney general from 1999 to 2006 and later served as a state appeals court judge. “If one party packs the court, then another party will win power and pack the court, and you could have 27 justices or more.”
A former Democratic attorney general from Virginia, Andrew Miller, contacted Summers about allying with the “Keep Nine” coalition.
“Court packing by one party would almost inevitably lead to retaliatory court packing by another party, undermining the independence of the court and potentially the rule of law itself,” Miller said in a written statement.
Exactly 231 years ago–on Sept. 24, 1789–Congress created a six-member Supreme Court. That same day, President George Washington signed the legislation and nominated the first chief justice and five associate justices. The Constitution doesn’t specify a total number, though, and it varied in the 19th century until stabilizing at nine since 1869.
A constitutional amendment to keep the court at nine justices “should be seriously considered,” said John Malcolm, director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
“All of this talk about court packing is dangerous and divisive,” Malcolm told The Daily Signal. “The number is not set in the Constitution, but nine has worked pretty well for a long time.”
Voters support a “Keep Nine” amendment by a 3-1 margin, according to a John Zogby Strategies poll cited by the coalition. Democrats back the amendment by a 2-1 margin, the poll found, while self-described independents and moderates back the proposal by nearly 4-1.
Other coalition members include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican who also served as the first U.S. homeland security secretary; former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican who also is a former attorney general; George Jepsen, a Democrat who was Blumenthal’s successor as Connecticut’s attorney general; former New York Attorney General Robert Abrams, a Democrat; and former California Controller Steve Westly, a Democrat.
During his second term, President Franklin Roosevelt tried to add justices to the Supreme Court and force the retirement of others when the high court ruled against certain New Deal programs. However, fellow Democrats stepped in to oppose the move.
It’s not a better idea today, Summers said.
“There was an attempt by FDR to pack the court,” Summers said. “It just divided the president’s allies and emboldened his opponents.”
Fred Lucas is chief national affairs correspondent for The Daily Signal and co-host of “The Right Side of History” podcast. Lucas is also the author of “Abuse of Power: Inside The Three-Year Campaign to Impeach Donald Trump.” Send an email to Fred. Twitter: @FredLucasWH.
Help The Daily Signal Cover the New Supreme Court Nominee Fairly
He’s a Friend of Supreme Court Prospect Amy Coney Barrett. Here’s What He Has to Say.
Democratic Socialists say, “America should be more like socialist countries such as Sweden and Denmark.” And millions of young people believe them…
For years, “Democratic Socialists” have been growing a crop of followers that include students and young professionals. America’s future will be in their hands.
How are socialists deluding a whole generation? One of their most effective arguments is that “democratic socialism” is working in Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Norway. They claim these countries are “proof” that socialism will work for America. But they’re wrong. And it’s easy to explain why.
Our friends at The Heritage Foundation just published a new guide that provides three irrefutable facts that debunks these myths. For a limited time, they’re offering it to readers of The Daily Signal for free.
Get your free copy of “Why Democratic Socialists Can’t Legitimately Claim Sweden and Denmark as Success Stories” today and equip yourself with the facts you need to debunk these myths once and for all.
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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.
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With Senators Like These, No Wonder America’s In Trouble
October 1, 2018 /0 Comments/in Courts & Law, Must Read, Policy, Politics, Social Issues, Waste, Fraud and Abuse /by 2ndvote .com
As the smear campaign against Judge Brett Kavanaugh continues, it is clear that the anti-Trump resistance has brought out the worst in many Democratic Party Senators. Senators Chris Coons of Delaware and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii are Exhibit A in the cutthroat, gutter-class attacks to which Republicans must put a halt.
First, it was Hirono who told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Kavanaugh’s pro-life beliefs make sexual assault accusations against him believable. The block quote below highlights just one of the at least three times she mentioned Kavanaugh’s pro-life beliefs in a discussion about sexual assault:
TAPPER: Doesn’t Kavanaugh have the same presumption of innocence as anyone else in America?
HIRONO: I put his denial in the context of everything that I know about him in terms of how he approaches his cases.
As I said, his credibility is already very questionable in my mind and in the minds of a lot of my fellow Judiciary Committee members, the Democrats.
So he comes, and — when I say that he’s very outcome-driven, he has an ideological agenda, is very outcome-driven. And I can sit here and talk to you about some of the cases that exemplifies his, in my view, inability to be fair in the cases that come before him.
This is a person that is going to be sitting on our Supreme Court, making decisions that will impact women’s reproductive choice. He has a — he very much is against women’s reproductive choice.
TAPPER: Mm-hmm.
HIRONO: And I can tell you two very important cases in which he applied the same standard, but came to totally different results to make it much harder for women to get this kind of coverage.
So there’s — there are so many indications of his own lack of credibility. And I put that in a context.
TAPPER: It sounds to me like you’re saying, because you don’t trust him on policy and because you don’t believe him when he says, for instance, that he does not have an opinion on Roe v. Wade, you don’t believe him about this allegation about what happened at this party in 1982? Is that fair?:
Coons’ comments were, if possible, actually worse than Hirono’s. At least she’s just being a party hack, albeit on a critical issue. (Though she’s also a hypocrite — Hirono is a supporter of Planned Parenthood despite the abortion company’s complicity in hiding sex abuse.) Coons is a Yale Law graduate, which means he knows better than to say that Kavanaugh has the burden of proof regarding innocence.
Yet that’s exactly what he did on MSNBC:
Mr. Coons said that Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez “have nothing to gain” and have put themselves “at legal risk” by accusing Mr. Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in his teen years.
“It is Judge Kavanaugh who is seeking a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court and who I think now bears the burden of disproving these allegations,” said Mr. Coons in a Monday interview on MSNBC, “rather than Dr. Ford and Deborah Ramirez who should be dismissed with slanderous accusations.”
This pathetic effort at #Resistance to President Donald Trump’s excellent nominee would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious. It’s past time for the hackery to stop and for Kavanaugh to be approved to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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EDITORS NOTE: This column is republished with permission.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Supreme-Court-1320x742-e1538391242985.jpg 360 640 2ndvote .com http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png 2ndvote .com2018-10-01 06:58:512018-10-01 06:58:51With Senators Like These, No Wonder America’s In Trouble
The Senate Must Sue Obama to Block the Iran Nuclear Treaty by Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D. and Lee S. Bender, Esq.
August 30, 2015 /3 Comments/in Courts & Law, National Security, Policy, Politics /by Jerry Gordon
When we published “How Best to Overturn the Iran Nuclear Pact” in the August 2015 New English Review, we reviewed several options. One proposal suggested by Dr. Robert B. Skalorff entailed direct litigation by Congress before the Supreme Court under provisions of the US Constitution seeking a ruling treating the Iran nuclear pact as a treaty requiring advise and consent of the Senate . We wrote:
That proposal entailed independent Congressional litigation on demonstrable Constitutional legal grounds regarding executive overreach. If the Senate was granted standing on direct appeal, based on the B. Altman SCOTUS ruling, it might result in a predisposed SCOTUS rendering a positive ruling thus quashing the Iran nuclear pact. Further, the ruling might unfetter the hands of any successor to President Obama on inauguration day in 2017 to undertake remedial actions. Such actions might reduce the current existential threats to both the US and Israel.
In furtherance of that original proposal we are publishing the following article by Dr. Robert A. Sklaroff and Lee S. Bender, Esq. which expands upon the original concept noting support from Constitutional law experts and applicable case citations.
The Senate Must Sue Obama to Block the Iran TREATY
By Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D. and Lee S. Bender, Esq.
When Congress returns from recess after Labor Day, one of the most pressing issues on the agenda is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known commonly as “the Iran deal.” Much has been discovered since the Corker-Cardin-Menendez bill was enacted, including the White House’s and State Department’s deceit which influenced the Senate to abandon its constitutionally-provided role regarding treaties.
Now it might take a lawsuit spearheaded by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to reverse not only the damage to the Constitution but also potential damage to America and our allies as a result of the provisions of the Iran nuclear-deal.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has overwhelming justification to sue President Obama over the JCPOA which constitutes a treaty and thereby must be ratified by a 2/3-vote of those present prior to implementation.
Such a suit could ultimately prompt the Supreme Court to disclaim Obama’s portrayal of this document as an Executive Agreement. It could also sustain the overwhelming will of the American people–according to polling data—to trash this “legacy” effort, for reasons that have been exhaustively detailed.
Blocking implementation of the Iran nuclear-deal would thereby necessitate the legislative branch triggering a confrontation between the judicial and the executive branches.
Two essays {authored by RBS} published in The Hill explored the legalities of this initiative, focused on its “treaty” [July 29] and “rule-of-law” [August 25] components.
In the interim [USA Today, August 5], Professor Alan Dershowitz recognized that a Supreme Court opinion challenged the President’s power to enter into long-term deals with foreign powers without the consent of Congress. He cannot avoid Congressional oversight by simply declaring an important deal with foreign powers to be an executive agreement rather than a treaty [Gibbons v. Ogden]: “[G]eneral and permanent commercial regulations with foreign powers must be made by treaty, but…the particular and temporary regulations of commerce may be made by an agreement of a state with another, or with a foreign power, by the consent of Congress.”
Two other authors, legal-authority Andrew C. McCarthy [National Review Online, July 17] and accomplished-author Caroline B. Glick [Jerusalem Post, July 21] also claimed the deal is a treaty, but none of these columnists proposed a remedy that would force a clash with this out-of-control Obama Administration. Jerry Gordon has detailed, comprehensively, “How Best to Overturn the Iran Nuclear Pact” [New English Review, August 2015].
The drip-drip-drip of news about details of the deal as well as “secret” side arrangements that has emerged this summer congeals into two major rationales for such litigation, addressing both specifics and lack of transparency. Specifically, multiple side-deals between Iran and the IAEA satirize the concept of “anytime, anywhere surveillance” but, perhaps more important, Obama and his cabinet-members “inexplicably” failed to reveal this information to Congress as secrets. Moreover, the Administration also misled Congress and the American public about the nature of the deal and the resulting preservation of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and right to continue advanced research that will provide it with a bomb when the pact expires in a mere decade to 15 years.
The “legislative intent” of the Corker-Cardin Bill (Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015) was focused exclusively on Iran’s nuclear program, contrasting with the final pact the Administration concluded that was expanded to allow lifting of conventional-weapon sanctions. Iran sought—and was granted—this specific concession at the very end of the negotiations. This was outside what the Administration had originally advised Congress about the parameters of this deal, focused on nuclear-weapons capability and not conventional weapons (or ICBMs). Thus, the final version of the Iran nuclear-deal encompassed issues, such as weaponization, that the Administration did not disclose to Congress before it debated and passed the Corker-Cardin Bill.
(Other facets of the negotiation were also misrepresented by the Obama Administration prior to when Kerry inked the deal. For example, although release of American prisoners was not ultimately achieved, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 21, 2015 that the Administration’s negotiators “continue to insist” that Americans held in detention be released.)
This pattern of deception started before the Corker-Cardin Bill was passed in May. It was even maintained by Iran when the Tasmin News agency reported [June 15] “Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani reiterated that negotiations between Tehran and six major world powers solely focus on nuclear topics, dismissing any talk of military subjects in the talks.” And, reflecting the persistence of the deception, it was manifest one week prior to when the deal was signed [July 14] during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing via testimony from Defense Secretary Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dempsey that the arms embargo, pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1929, was not to be lifted [July 7].
Thus, overall, absent the ability to review all relevant data, the Senate (1)—cannot render an informed judgment, consistent with its “advise/consent” role, and (2)—cannot be viewed to be facing a 60-day deadline, for the Corker-Cardin Bill mandates that this “clock” start “ticking” only after the database has been completed.
Refusal to provide copies of side-agreements to Congress continues unabated, as per testimony on August 5 by chief-negotiator Wendy Sherman and IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano. We now know why normally-sedate Senator Corker exploded (“We cannot get him to even confirm that we will have physical access inside of Parchin”) because such inspections have been serially outsourced by Obama to the IAEA and then, we learned more recently, by the IAEA to Iran.
The “toughest inspections-regime in history” forces America (and the world) to allow Iran to provide proof that Iran is not making nukes in Iran.
Perhaps more ominous is the dismissive posture adopted by Secretary of State Kerry [July 28] when confronted by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. The innocent hypothetical was unambiguous: Would he “follow the law” governing existing congressional sanctions if Congress voted to override a veto? The elitist reply challenged rule-of-law: “I can’t begin to answer that at this point without consulting with the President and determining what the circumstances are.”
Could BHO go rogue?
The ability of the Supreme Court to exercise “judicial review” is rooted in the Supremacy Clause, was affirmed in 1803 [Marbury v. Madison], and has never been tested again to this day.
But, because the Supreme Court does not command any enforcement-military, the remedy for potential lawlessness is unclear. Indeed, this concern would extend to any nullification effort by the President related to the prospect that the Supreme Court would declare the Iran-Nuclear Deal to be a “treaty” rather than the “executive agreement” the President has potentially improperly considered it to be, to skirt congressional oversight and approval.
These concerns were predicted [May 7] and corroborated [July 23] in essays that presage the current crisis [by RBS, both published in The American Thinker]. They were confirmed in an e-mail exchange by noted constitutional scholar, Dr. John C. Eastman [the Henry Salvatori Professor of Law & Community Service at the Dale E. Fowler School of Law at Chapman University and Founding Director of The Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence]: “First, because only a ‘treaty’ is the Supreme law of the land, a mere executive agreement could not overturn statutorily-imposed sanctions.” Eastman continued in an e-mail, “And neither, in my view, could a change in the constitutionally-mandated default rule for adopting a treaty. Second, if that is true, then members of the Senate who, collectively, had the votes to prevent ratification of a treaty would have standing to challenge the process that negated their vote. That’s the Coleman v. Miller case on all fours.” This 1939 landmark decision ensured that Congress was empowered to specify a deadline by which an external entity was to affirm proposed legislation, such as a Constitutional amendment.
The Ottoman-Islamic defeat at the “Gates of Vienna” in 1683 is on the verge of being reversed by Obama/Kerry and their P5+1 partners, again in Vienna; the irony is that the West is validating Iranian-Islamic supremacism. It seems only the U.S. Senate can rescue (Judeo-Christian) Western Civilization from the Administration’s collaboration and perfidy.
The Senate must definitively impose a limit to the President’s executive lawlessness before a constitutional crisis erupts. Resolution by the courts may be the most effective way to check and to balance the scales that Obama has usurped.
Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D. is a physician-activist and may be contacted at rsklaroff@gmail.com. Lee S. Bender, Esquire, is an attorney, activist and co-author of the book, “Pressing Israel: Media Bias Exposed From A-Z.”
RELATED ARTICLE: Iranian national arrested in Hancock County, Mississippi accused of tackling deputy, making terroristic threats
EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/obama-secreat-iran-deal.jpg 360 640 Jerry Gordon http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png Jerry Gordon2015-08-30 10:09:012015-08-31 07:31:42The Senate Must Sue Obama to Block the Iran Nuclear Treaty by Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D. and Lee S. Bender, Esq.
Harbinger II: You thought same-sex marriage meant America is going down? Wait a month!
June 29, 2015 /4 Comments/in Commentary, Politics, Religion, Social Issues /by Dr. Richard Ruhling, MD
The Harbinger was about a series of events that needed explanation in Cahn’s best-selling book that warns of impending judgment. Harbinger II needs little explanation except to note that the Supreme Court decision for same-sex marriage came on a date that resonates with biblical meaning for what’s happening and may be confirmed within weeks.
One reason the Bible is the #1 best-selling book is because most people who read it seriously gain the conviction that it is God’s Word. They also know that the highest court in the U.S. is not really supreme. In the end, God is the Judge and we should pity the poor “justices” whose opinions of what is good for America put it past the tipping point.
The Supreme Court decision came the 9th day of the 4th Jewish month, counting from the new moon crescent. That’s the same date that “there was no bread for the people of the land,” Jeremiah 52:6. This is not about a literal famine in America, but it has a spiritual application. Christ likened bread to God’s Word in Matthew 4:4. In our parallel, we don’t have God’s Word and we are spiritually starving.
We can know the “Supreme” Court decision is Harbinger II a month from now if judgment falls as it did in the chapter above when Solomon’s Temple burned a month later on the 10th day of the 5th month, Jeremiah 52:12. It was the end of an era, like we may be now.
In 70 AD, Herod’s Temple burned, again on the 10th day of the 5th month, according to Josephus. Again that date signaled the end of an era.
That would be July 27 on our calendar. We won’t need to wait for economic collapse that many expect this fall. We won’t need to have a foreign invasion [actually that’s been going on for years, thanks to congress being sold out to a global agenda, and we already have civil and racial strife.
A new book, The Alpha & Omega Bible Code suggests that an earthquake initiates the biblical scenes of Revelation, but we haven’t recognized it because it’s encoded:
It’s encoded as a trumpet in Revelation 1:10, because using the Alpha Code, we find the first place “trumpet” is found in the Bible is Exodus 19:16 when Mount Sinai shook at God’s presence in a mini-Judgment Day in the presence of God and His law.
The earthquake is encoded again as the roaring of the sea in Revelation 1:15 because that’s the context of the call of Isaiah to prophetic office when “the posts of the door moved” but five verses earlier, we see the roaring of the sea (no chapter divisions in original Hebrew text).
The earthquake is encoded as a ‘knock’ in Revelation 3:20 for the lukewarm church of Laodicea that ended in an earthquake circa 63 AD. Type and antitype?
The earthquake is encoded as a lion’s roar in Revelation 6:1 where John heard thunder—it was the Lion of Judah, Rev 4:7; 5:5. The Lord shall roar…the earth shall shake; Joel 3:16.
An “earthquake” occurs before the seven trumpets in Revelation 8:5,6.
An earthquake is again encoded as a lion’s roar before the seven thunders in Revelation 10:3.
An earthquake is shown to initiate “the day of the LORD” in Joel 2:10,11. Zechariah 14:1,5 says, “You shall flee as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah.” (#2 above)
This brings up the idea of evacuation. Christ said, “As it was in the days of Lot…the same day that Lot left [fled] Sodom, it rained fire…” Luke 17:28,29. Should Christians consider leaving cities?
Christ said, “When you see the abomination that causes desolation standing where it does not belong… flee,” Mark 13:14, NIV. Early believers understood Christ’s reference to military and when the Roman army came under Cestius in 66 AD, they fled and were spared the siege by Titus in 70 AD. Military?
What about JADE HELM [Homeland Eradication of Local Militants]? Is this not an abomination that causes desolation? How does our government get away with this except a congress that’s strangely sold out to a New World Order agenda where current freedoms won’t fly?
So when we celebrate our freedoms this coming weekend, it may be bitter-sweet, knowing this may be the last such celebration this country gets.
A major U.S. earthquake on July 27 would bear a double message: “The time of God’s judgment is come and “the Bridegroom comes, go ye out to meet Him.” Revelation 14:7; Matthew 25:6. The message of judgment is clear, but why the “midnight cry” message from Christ’s wedding parable?
God came as Judge to Egypt where there was a cry at midnight (Exodus 12:12,29,30) and God took Israel out to the wilderness [flee] where they made a covenant and He later said, “I am married to you,” Jeremiah 3:14.
God regarded the covenant as a marriage and Paul included the Exodus in “all those things happened to them for examples…ends of the world.” 1Corinthians 10:1,11.
Christians have misunderstood Christ’s wedding parables. This is implied by the women being asleep with their lights out, Matthew 25:5. But now it’s vital to get it right, because not getting into the marriage implies a serious loss of destiny.
The Alpha Code shows the first use of the midnight cry in Matthew 25:6 is Exodus 12:29,30, so that history is for us as Paul confirmed (above).
In expectancy of possible judgment on the 10th day of the 5th month, Bible-reading Christians and Jews should fast and pray on the 9th of Av—the 5th month as Zechariah 7:5 suggests. That was because the temple was destroyed then. It could be the end of our great society and the beginning of end-times.
In summary, three passages link current harbingers to a need to flee the cities.
Christ’s warning in Luke 17:28,29. The Supreme Court decision is a link to Lot (Sodom)
Mark 13:14, NIV for military as an abomination that makes U.S. desolate (HELM: July 15)
Zechariah 14:5 links fleeing to an earthquake: July 27? Why not save this article to review then.
The 9th of Av (when many Jews fast and pray, Zech 7:5) falls on Sunday. It would be wonderful if churches everywhere were filled with people who cared enough about America to skip supper and come to church for prayer. Maybe “Wonderful Numberer” arranged it so we have no excuse?
Elijah had the guts to pray for judgment to fall in order to turn Israel back. Do we? Isn’t it time?
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/earthquake-1.jpg 315 584 Dr. Richard Ruhling, MD http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png Dr. Richard Ruhling, MD2015-06-29 05:38:142015-06-29 05:38:14Harbinger II: You thought same-sex marriage meant America is going down? Wait a month!
SCOTUS Says You Can Be Sued for Unintentional Discrimination by Walter Olson
June 26, 2015 /0 Comments/in Courts & Law, Must Read, Social Issues /by Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)
Stop calling it fair housing law. If it was ever a matter of fairness, it isn’t now.
Under today’s 5-4 Supreme Court holding in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, you can be held liable for housing discrimination whether or not you or anyone in your organization intended to discriminate.
Instead — to quote Justice Anthony Kennedy, who joined with the Court’s four liberals in a 5-4 majority — you might have been influenced by “unconscious prejudice” or “stereotyping” when you lent money or rented apartments or carried on appraisal or brokerage or planning functions.
What you did had “disparate impact” on some race or other legally protected group, and now you’re caught up in potentially ruinous litigation in which it’s up to you to show that you had a good reason for what you did and could not have arranged your actions in some other way that had less disparate impact.
The decision is quite broad in its implications. For example, in employment discrimination law, where disparate impact has long been legally established, it is increasingly legally dangerous to ask job applicants about criminal records, or carry out criminal background checks on them before a job offer, for fear of disparate impact.
Is it still safe to ask such questions of prospective tenants in your apartment building? Better ask your lawyer.
The case hinged on statutory interpretation, and as Justice Alito’s dissent makes clear, King v. Burwell wasn’t the only case decided today in which a majority mangled the clear meaning of a law’s text to get the result it wanted.
As Justice Ginsburg was frank enough to note at oral argument, “”If we’re going to be realistic about it…in 1968, when the Fair Housing Act passed, nobody knew anything about disparate impact.”
On the contrary, the law’s text specified that it was banning decisions taken “because of” race, and to find a loophole the majority was obliged to fall back on an incidental clause banning the making “unavailable” of a “dwelling,” which we are meant to believe snuck in a huge new area of liability.
As the majority stresses, many appeals courts did go along with a liberal interpretation. But the Executive Branch did not — in 1988 it took the position before the Court that the law did not permit disparate impact claims — while Congress hedged the issue in later enactments so as to keep all sides on board a compromise.
Despite ridiculous claims (like that in a Vox headline) that the Court today “saved” the Fair Housing Act or that a contrary decision would have “gutted” it, the great majority of litigation under the Act has been on disparate-treatment complaints (which, as Alito notes, can already use disparate impact as evidence of pretext.)
But the Obama administration, as I’ve documented elsewhere, has launched a huge effort to turn disparate-impact law into an engine of revolutionary changes in local government and housing practice, introducing, for example, such concepts as a local government obligation to pursue subsidized federal housing grants and to enact laws forcing private landlords to accept Section 8 tenants.
As the four dissenters make clear, a compliance and litigation nightmare now looms for many in real estate, finance, and local government as they try to dodge liability.
“No matter what [Texas] decides” in the case at hand on locating low-income housing, for example, one or another group “will be able to bring a disparate-impact case” based either on the theory that projects should be put in poorer areas (which enables building more of them) or in affluent areas (which will benefit some future residents).
If you have time to read only one bit of today’s opinion, read Justice Clarence Thomas’s separate dissent. Thomas brilliantly recounts the EEOC’s successful subversion of its own founding statute, culminating in the Court’s profoundly mistaken opinion in Griggs v. Duke Power, the employment case that founded disparate impact theory.
“We should drop the pretense that Griggs’ interpretation of Title VII was legitimate,” he writes. It’s a tour de force — and already being denounced vehemently on the Left.
This post first appeared at Cato.org.
Walter Olson is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/woman-in-front-of-picture-of-labarenth-e1435351049694.jpg 318 640 Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)2015-06-26 16:39:292015-06-26 16:39:29SCOTUS Says You Can Be Sued for Unintentional Discrimination by Walter Olson
The Left Will Always Blame the GOP on Obamacare
June 24, 2015 /0 Comments/in Courts & Law, Featured, Healthcare, Politics /by Dan Bongino
With the 2016 elections right around the corner, conservatives must begin immediately preparing to rebut the massive Democratic Party/mainstream media, symbiotic messaging operation. I read a piece this week by the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent that summarizes the far Left’s new Obamacare messaging strategy in the event of a Supreme Court loss in the King v. Burwell (Obamacare subsidies) case.
Here is a short summary of where we are. The far Left is terrified that the Supreme Court is going to rule against the Obama administration in King v. Burwell, essentially voiding the Obamacare subsidies in the states using the federal exchange even though the legislative language in the law regarding the “subsidies” was written this way to punish states for failing to set up state exchanges. The far Left and the Obama administration are disputing this point despite clear, videotaped evidence of Professor Jonathan Gruber, one of Obamacare’s lead architects, stating otherwise.
Now, the Obama administration has never let videotaped evidence of their prior contradicting statements dissuade them from continuing to lie to the American people (i.e. “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. Period.”) but, in this case, their lies are especially egregious because their plan to withhold subsidies from states that refused to set up a state exchange was designed to punish the citizens of that state for not complying with Obamacare. When the punishment backfired because of public opposition to Obamacare, and support for the governors and legislators who refused to comply with its exchange language only increased, they went with plan B: lie. As usual, after their strategic miscalculation they are desperately trying to find a way to blame Republicans for this disaster, although not one Republican in the House or Senate voted for the final version of Obamacare.
The far Left’s messaging strategy to avert political disaster because of their tactical miscalculation regarding the Obamacare subsidies is to say that the Republicans have “taken away” the subsidies and pin the blame on Republicans if the court rules against the Obama administration. But, here’s the catch; the Dems destroyed our already-troubled healthcare system all by themselves by unilaterally supporting Obamacare. The reason the Obamacare “subsidies” (which are your tax payer dollars given back to you after the government takes a cut) are necessary is because insurance costs are exploding because Obamacare forces Americans to buy expensive insurance they do not want and do not need. And the reason these “subsidies” may be taken away is because the Democrats unilaterally wrote and passed the law this way to punish Americans for resisting this legislative debacle.
Unsurprisingly, when you combine the mandate to purchase health insurance policies, which included multiple unwanted and unneeded services with the community rating and guaranteed issue provisions designed to redistribute costs according to government edicts, you have a recipe for explosive healthcare cost growth. Of course, none of this was a mystery to the Republican Party when they warned America about the coming storm of healthcare premium hikes, a warning the mainstream media largely downplayed to ensure the “wizard” stayed well-hidden behind the curtain.
So here it is in a nutshell: Obamacare was shoved down your throats using parliamentary trickery. Obamacare forced you to buy expensive insurance you don’t want or need at dramatically inflated costs to compensate for the redistributive, big-government, effort to price-control the health insurance market. Obamacare taxed you to gather a honey pot of money. Obamacare then used this honey pot of taxpayer money to “give back” to Americans to pay for their new, and more expensive insurance.
You will never fix this legislative disaster by doubling down on absurdity. The economics won’t work because they can’t work. The Republican Party must prepare their counter message right now to explain to the American people the horrible tsunami that Obamacare has created. If we allow the far Left to continue to distort markets, engage in massive income redistribution operations, and instill more big-government coercion schemes to force compliance on the American people by simply pledging to prolong the misery by “fixing” the subsidy system and continuing the misery, then we are no better than the president who lied to us to sell us this jalopy.
EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the Conservative Review. The feature image of the Supreme Court building is by Tom Williams | AP Photo.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/supreme-court-building-e1435154094792.jpg 323 640 Dan Bongino http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png Dan Bongino2015-06-24 09:56:162015-06-24 09:56:16The Left Will Always Blame the GOP on Obamacare
Anti Bible Christians
May 21, 2015 /in News, Religion, Social Issues, Video /by Bill Finlay
Homosexual marriage is gaining some strange allies. “Christians” who reject what the Bible says on the subject.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Christians-CROSS-e1488897801750.jpg 385 640 Bill Finlay http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png Bill Finlay2015-05-21 16:34:462015-05-21 16:34:46Anti Bible Christians
Ten things you need to know about the U.S. Supreme Court “gay marriage” case being heard April 28, 2015
April 26, 2015 /in Courts & Law, Featured, News, Social Issues /by MassResistance
On April 28 the US Supreme Court case will hear oral arguments for the case that will essentially decide whether “gay marriage” is a previously unknown “fundamental right” enshrined in the US Constitution, similar to the Court’s 1973 abortion ruling.
The US Supreme Court building will be ground zero for the latest assault on the nation’s culture.
What was once a fringe, unthinkable idea is now on the verge of being imposed on the entire nation.
What is happening? Here are ten things to know about this case:
1. How we got to this point
The popular sentiment against “gay marriage” in the United States has been overwhelmingly one-sided at the ballot box. Since 1998, 30 states have passed constitutional amendments banning it. Some of these amendments were passed by huge margins (as high as 80%). This appeared to everyone to be an insurmountable obstacle to the “gay marriage” movement.
After losing in state after state, the homosexual movement realized that it could never overturn these amendments legitimately. In very blue states, using massive amounts of money, they were able to successfully lobby legislatures and sway elections. But the amendments across the country were a problem.
So they decided to focus on perfecting the strategy that worked in Massachusetts in 2003: using the courts and hand-picked activist judges, along with very shrewd manipulation of the legal process and well-funded legal teams and political strategists. They crafted a plan to get the state amendments declared unconstitutional.
This strategy took advantage of the LGBT lobby’s well-funded propaganda push over the last few decades in law schools, law firms, and judicial chambers, as well as a fresh new generation of radical federal judges appointed by Barack Obama.
Starting with California in 2009, where a homosexual judge overturned the Proposition 8 vote, they soon picked up momentum. Across the country, the various cases began sailing through the state and federal courts largely unimpeded. It was quite frightening for all of us to watch.
Other factors helped keep it going. The almost universal unwillingness of the legal teams on the pro-family side to aggressively confront the other side’s arguments gave them a free pass on what could have been difficult issues to overcome. And a number of pro-gay “marriage” Democrat (and RINO Republican) Governors and Attorneys-General simply refused to properly defend the cases and/or appeal them after losing.
Using both state and federal courts, the LGBT lobby has now gotten activist courts to “overturn” 26 of the 30 state constitutional amendments. (Some of these cases are still being appealed.)
But on November 6, 2014, their string of successes hit a snag, as the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Ohio constitutional amendment. However, since this disagreed with the other Federal District Court rulings, it bumped the case up to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear it and make a broad decision.
2. How the 14th Amendment is used to push the radical agenda in the courts
In all these cases (as in countless other “progressive” legal challenges over the years) the radicals have used twisted interpretations of the US Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment to advance their agenda through the courts.
The Fourteenth Amendment says:
The “due process” and the “equal protection” clauses are the hammers used to smash the existing laws and constitutional amendments. Along with that, the LGBT lawyers start with the assumption (which our side does not refute) that “sexual orientation” constitutes a class of citizen (based on an immutable characteristic, etc).
Regarding the “equal protection” argument: They argue that “gays” are not allowed to marry the ones they love, but heterosexuals are. They say that “gays” are thus “demeaned,” made “second class citizens,” and kept “unequal” – and this causes them terrible harm.
They further argue that not recognizing “gay marriages” from other states is a violation of due process because of the Constitution’s “full faith and credit” clause.
Of course, this is all legal nonsense. The answer to their “equal protection” argument is simple: Under the law, every person can only marry someone of the opposite sex. The marriage laws apply to every person equally. No legal expert we’ve consulted has disagreed with us on that reasoning. And everyone gets the same “due process” under it. Unfortunately, to our knowledge these points are rarely used to buttress our side’s argument.
Furthermore, the “full faith and credit” clause was never meant to be used to alter the meaning of the word marriage (i.e., plural marriages, incestuous marriages, marriages to young children), but only the application to a marriage case (or a divorce, etc.,) where the meaning of the word marriage was commonly agreed upon. It’s pretty simple – unless you’re an activist judge.
3. What this case is specifically meant to decide
The case is officially named Obergefell v. Hodges, which is a consolidation of four “gay marriage” cases previously brought before the Sixth Circuit.
According to the court documents, this case addresses only two specific questions:
1) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex?
2) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state?
On April 28, a total of 90 minutes is allotted for oral argument on question #1, and a total of 60 minutes is allotted for oral argument on question #2. As discussed above, in any normal circumstance this would be a no-brainer.
Not surprisingly, there have been dozens of amicus briefs filed for this case. (You can read them here.) Most of those filed by our side discuss the importance of marriage in society, the historical roots of marriage, how imposing “gay marriage” would divide the country, children needing a father and a mother, etc. None that we’ve seen actually addresses the two questions regarding the Fourteenth Amendment which this case is about. We can only surmise that people are assuming that the Justices are not actually focusing on strict constitutional law but on these unrelated issues.
4. The lawyers arguing this case on April 28
The competition to represent the pro-family side was definitely not as intense as for the “gay marriage side.”
Arguing for the pro-family side: Eric E. Murphy is the current Ohio State Solicitor, who won the appeal before the Sixth Circuit after losing in District Court. John J. Bursch was Michigan State Solicitor from 2011-2013 and has argued eight times before the US Supreme Court. According to news reports, Bursch’s current firm, Warner Norcross & Judd, supports “gay marriage” and has refused to be involved in this case to help him.
Both attorneys have a good reputation for competence.
Eric E. Murphy, State Solicitor
30 East Broad Street, 17th Fl.
eric.murphy@ohioattorneygeneral.gov
John J. Bursch
Michigan Dept of Attorney General
BurschJ@michigan.gov
Arguing for the homosexual “marriage” side: Alphonse A. Gerhardstein is a prominent civil rights attorney from Cincinnati. Mary Bonauto is the celebrity lesbian attorney for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, who won the original Goodridge “gay marriage” case in Massachusetts in 2003. We at MassResistance know Bonauto well. She argued the lawsuit against us (unsuccessfully) in the infamous “Fistgate” case, and we have debated her on television.
We don’t know much about Gerhardstein. In our opinion, Bonauto is not particularly impressive.
Alphonse A. Gerhardstein
Gerhardstein & Branch Co. LPA
432 Walnut St., Suite 400
agerhardstein@gbfirm.com
Mary L. Bonauto
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders
30 Winter Street, Suite 800
mbonauto@glad.org
(Contact information is from Supreme Court filings.)
5. Anticipated problems with our side’s arguments
The other side’s arguments rarely bother dealing with the strict constitutional meaning of the text in question. They are almost exclusively based on the assumption that “sexual orientation” constitutes a legitimate legal “class” of people who are “born that way,” and as such have innate rights as a “class.” The concept of a “class” of people is foreign to the text of the Constitution. But it has nevertheless been accepted by courts for decades and undoubtedly by a number of the Supreme Court Justices.
That concept must be vigorously confronted and debunked. Unfortunately, our lawyers have been afraid to do that. Instead they concede to it and attempt to make a persuasive argument within those absurd boundaries — i.e., every child needs a mother and father, marriage is an institution for procreation, etc. This strategy almost always fails.
Why does our side avoid a strong argument? The answer falls into two categories:
1. Fear of being accused of “animus.” Our lawyers have internalized the idea that any perception of “animus towards gays” in their arguments will alienate the Justices. After all, gays are a “class” of people. This forces out any discussion of anything that debunks that, such as the horrible medical consequences associated with homosexual behavior: diseases, addictions, mental health problems, domestic violence, lower life expectancy, etc. Or any suggestion that is an immoral, unnatural perversion. Or the proven damage to children raised in same-sex households.
2. Pandering to “rational basis.” There is an extra-constitutional concept that judges have the authority to overturn a law if it doesn’t appear rational to them. Whether or not it was “rational” to a legislature or to the people makes no difference. Thus, the LGBT lawyers simply state that it’s “not rational” to exclude the class of “gays” from marrying whomever they want. It’s been one the basis for overturning constitutional marriage amendments. Our lawyers fear being judged “irrational” if they bring up the uncomfortable aspects of homosexuality, so they stick to the “comfortable” arguments.
It’s about time to quit doing what doesn’t work. Our fear, unfortunately, is that the lawyers on our side have been working closely with pro-family establishment lawyers in Washington DC (and we all know who they are) who are anything but aggressive or confrontational on these issues.
6. When the Court will issue a decision
The Court will issue its ruling before its current term ends in late June – i.e., within two months.
7. Why Justices Ginsburg and Kagan must legally recuse themselves from this case
Federal law 28 U.S. Code § 455 states:
Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
In the past year Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan have performed same-sex “weddings.” Ginsburg told people that the acceptance of same-sex “marriage” reflects “the genius of our Constitution.”
Kagan’s aggressive advocacy for LGBT “rights” goes back to her years as Dean of Harvard Law School (2003-2009), and is thoroughly documented in our MassResistance report.
Ginsburg and Kagan are unquestionably biased on this issue and by law mustdisqualify themselves from this case. Failure to do would call into question the legitimacy of the (feared) ruling on this case, at the very least. Furthermore, a near-universal interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s “due process” clause(above) includes the right of impartial court proceedings. Having biased judges violates that.
Motion for Recusal. We have been informed that Attorney Andy Schlafly (son of Phyllis Schlafly) has drafted a Motion for Recusal, under section 28 USC 144,which will be filed by one of the state Attorneys-Generals in Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan or Kentucky who have standing in the case. According to Mr. Schlafly, “This will be the first time in the history of our country that a Motion for Recusal will have been filed against U.S. Supreme Court Justices because the above codes are for Federal District Judges, yet the principle of recusal can be expanded to all federal judges including Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
8. Bill filed in Congress to remove the Court’s jurisdiction on marriage
It is possible for Congress to restrict the Federal Courts from hearing certain types of cases.
Article III, Section 2 of the US Constitution gives Congress the ability to restrict the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and federal courts:
In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.
In the case of marriage, this probably should have been done at least a decade ago. However, this past week, some action was started.
Rep. Steve King, (R-Iowa), filed a bill to block the federal courts, including the U.S Supreme Court, from hearing or deciding cases involving the definition of marriage.
Rep. King’s bill is titled Restrain the Judges on Marriage Act of 2015. “This bill strips federal courts of jurisdiction to hear cases related to marriage. The effect of the bill would prevent federal courts from hearing marriage cases, leaving the issue to the States where it properly belongs,” said Rep. King on his website.
Will the RINO Republican leadership in the US House and Senate go along with it? We will see. And then Obama must sign it …
9. The latest in the Court’s long history of illegitimate usurpation of power
The problem of the federal courts acting as unelected rulers — contrary to the intent of the Constitution — is not new. In 1861, in his first Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln condemned the Supreme Court’s power grab then:
If the policy of the government upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties, in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.
Over the last several decades it’s only gotten further out-of-control.
In 2005, the Hoover Institution published a paper by Lino Graglia, a law professor at the University of Texas, titled “Constitutional Law without the Constitution: The Supreme Court’s Remaking of America” that described it very well. An excerpt from that article:
The central fact of contemporary constitutional law, however, is that it has very little to do with the Constitution. Nearly all the Supreme Court’s rulings of unconstitutionality have little or no basis in, and are sometimes in direct violation of, the Constitution. Their actual basis is nothing more than the policy preferences of a majority of the Court’s nine justices. The power to assert that the Constitution prohibits any policy choice of which they disapprove has enabled the justices to make themselves the final lawmakers on any public policy issue that they choose to remove from the ordinary political process and to assign for decision to themselves. Over the past half-century the justices have chosen to make themselves the final lawmakers on most basic issues of domestic social policy in American society. These include issues literally of life and death, as in the Court’s decisions on contraception, abortion, capital punishment, and assisted suicide; issues of public order, as in its decisions on criminal procedure, public demonstrations, and vagrancy control; and issues of public morality, as in its decisions on pornography and homosexuality. These are the issues that determine the basic values, nature, and quality of a society. In essence, the Court now performs in the American system of government a role similar to that performed by the Grand Council of Ayatollahs in the Iranian system: voting takes place and representatives of the people are elected as lawmakers, but the decisions they reach on basic issues of social policy are permitted to prevail only so long as they are not disallowed by the system’s highest authority.
That’s what we’ve been up against: Nine justices appointed for life who have made themselves the unelected legislators over us all.
10. Immense pressure from the homosexual movement
It’s difficult to describe the enormous amounts of money and sophisticated planning, political maneuvering, and pressure tactics that the homosexual lobby has used in this nationwide march through the federal courts. Millions of dollars have flowed to them from major US corporations and wealthy donors. Adding to that is the flood of major media support (including even FOX News!) that the LGBT movement enjoys. Needless to say, it’s unbelievably one-sided.
On the other hand, most wealthy conservative donors have made their peace with the LGBT movement and have abandoned their support at a time when it’s needed most. And virtually no corporations donate money to the pro-family side of this issue.
The LGBT movement has used its resources and power very aggressively. In just the last several weeks, hundreds of corporations and high-profile politicians, including Republicans, have publicly told the Supreme Court that they want “gay marriage” imposed on America by the judiciary. Virtually the nation’s entire legal community now refuses to even engage cases involving challenges to “gay marriage” — an unprecedented turn of events.
Will this push a majority of the Supreme Court Justices over the top? In any other time in history, this case would have been laughed out of any courtroom. So anything is possible.
By any objective measure, this whole case is a mockery of actual Constitutional law. Yet, the odds are that Ginsburg and Kagan will not disqualify themselves and enough of the rest of the judges will rule to force this insanity on all of America — and which among other things will surely lead to the further persecution of people of faith.
Should the worst happen, we’ll certainly have it rubbed in our faces as quickly as possible. As happened in Massachusetts in 2003, the first thing we will see will be adolescent screams of joy and jumping in the streets by the homosexual radicals, celebrated spectacularly in the mainstream media.
But what about our side? We have to fight back, that’s for sure.
What does that mean? There has been a lot of talk about pro-family “civil disobedience” and “taking to the streets.” But let’s be honest. When the Left threatens civil disobedience the local police schedule double shifts (often to protect them). But when we do it, nobody really pays attention. To most conservatives civil disobedience is not mowing your lawn for three weeks or posting strong articles on FaceBook – not exactly rioting.
And the legal system will surely come down even harder on anyone disobeying the new rulings, as well as state and local non-discrimination ordinances.
MassResistance has some ideas. But let’s hope the worst doesn’t happen.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/supreme-court-gavel-e1491861039862.jpg 419 640 MassResistance http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png MassResistance2015-04-26 11:36:052015-04-26 11:36:05Ten things you need to know about the U.S. Supreme Court “gay marriage” case being heard April 28, 2015
Is God Behind Ominous Signs for 2015?
January 3, 2015 /in Commentary, Science, Social Issues /by Dr. Richard Ruhling, MD
Only He can do the Solar Eclipse and Passover Blood Moon.
The unique timing of a solar and lunar eclipse to mark the beginning of the biblical year in the spring is an omen of when He did so in Egypt when judgment fell as Israel put blood on their doorpost two weeks later at Passover. This spring’s Passover will see a “blood moon”–a token of judgment?
Wasn’t it God who said, “The sun shall be darkened and the moon turned into blood before…the day of the Lord,” Joel 2:31. It will happen this spring!
Furthermore, the solar eclipse on March 20 and a “blood moon” two weeks later on Passover supports this year as a unique parallel to Exodus 12:2 when God indicated the beginning of the biblical year and two weeks later, Israel put blood on their doorposts for Passover, verse 7.
And what is Passover? It’s a time of judgment. God said then, “I will execute judgment,” Exodus 12:12. Will He do it for America?
Billy Graham said, If God waits much longer, He will have to apologize to Sodom. Many cultures have a problem with homosexuality, but Sodom “paraded” it, Isaiah 3:9, NIV. Welcome to the US where gay parades flaunt sin as Sodom did.
When asked about the sins of “the end of the world,” Christ said to “learn a parable of the fig tree,” Matthew 24:32. A day or so earlier He had cursed a fig tree that offered promise of fruit because of its many leaves and the nature of the tree in that locality, but it, like the Jewish nation then, was fruitless with empty promises.
Can we see any parallel to America today? Given great light and a Constitution like the 10 Commandments that favors self-government so there is little need for others to tell us what to do. But preachers failed America as they depreciated the 10 Commandments as the works of the law that do not save us.
It’s true that we can’t earn salvation by keeping the 10 Commandments, but as a standard to live by, we need them and we need government to support them, but we have a “Supreme Court” that favors opposing principles destined for the take-down of America.
The majority of the Supreme Court justices are Catholic and the majority of congress is catholic (little “c”–not Roman Catholic, but universal—go along to get along, with no stand except for political gain.) And how we got a Muslim bisexual in the White House with a fabricated birth certificate is amazing.
Just as Christ gave a sign of the times by cursing a fruitless fig tree and the next day it was withered, we are about to see a rapid withering of America with an onset of judgment. Many have predicted it, including Billy Graham, but it has to have biblical timing.
Harold Camping was probably right with his idea of http://MayJudgmentDay.com but wrong to connect his May date to a rapture and he didn’t have the advantage of the unique timing for the solar and lunar eclipses that will mark this spring.
EDITORS NOTE: Dr. Richard Ruhling offers a dozen parallels of the US to Egypt, that received the plagues of God’s judgments, in his ebook, Exodus 2, available as a gift on Saturday, January 3 at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EN63UR2 He also offers The Fall of America free January 3 at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L1V2I84 (both 99 cents regular price)
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/BloodMoonJ.jpg 348 593 Dr. Richard Ruhling, MD http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png Dr. Richard Ruhling, MD2015-01-03 07:24:232015-01-03 07:25:20Is God Behind Ominous Signs for 2015?
Why Are “Gay” Activists Freaking Out over the Hobby Lobby ruling? by Peter LaBarbera
July 6, 2014 /in Courts & Law, Healthcare, Heathcare, Social Issues /by Americans for Truth About Homosexuality
It’s easy to understand why hard-core feminists with their frenzied, overblown “War on Women” rhetoric would be outraged by the Supreme Court upholding Hobby Lobby’s right as a Christian-run corporation not to be forced to provide abortifacients to its employees through an Obama-care mandate. (See Hillary’s misinformation on the decision HERE.) But why are liberal “gay” activists freaking out over the Hobby Lobby ruling?
The case was never about denying women birth control, but you wouldn’t know that from the “reporting” by liberal media and hyperventilating “progressive” bloggers. Hobby Lobby still provides 16 forms of birth control as a health benefit to its employees, but its founders—along with another Christian-owned corporation, Conestoga Wood Specialists—sued HHS over being forced to provide four contraceptive methods that could terminate a fertilized egg.
Hobby Lobby’s founders, David and Barbara Green, are committed Christians who believe that life begins at conception and should be protected. To quote the Court decision, “Hobby Lobby’s statement of purpose commits the Greens to ‘[h]onoring the Lord in all [they] do by operating the company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles.’” So strong is the Greens’ commitment to Jesus Christ that they have lost countless millions of dollars in profits over the years by closing their 500 craft stores nationwide on Sunday.
Now, one would think that obtaining cheap, subsidized contraception would be low on the priority list for homosexuals, seeing that two men or two women by themselves cannot produce a child. Nevertheless, Big Gay Inc is in a tizzy over the Supreme Court decision—because Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby isn’t really about contraceptives but rather whether Americans like the Greens will be free to live out their religious convictions.
Immediately after the decision, feminists flew into a rage, circulating crude versions of Justice Ginsburg’s dissent and distortions about women being denied birth control by their “male bosses.” Too bad most Americans will never read the actual Hobby Lobby decision—which lays out two diametrically opposed, competing visions about freedom of conscience and the role of government in these United States.
Freedom of conscience vs. Big Government
Hobby Lobby’s owners, David and Barbara Green, seek to use their business to glorify Jesus Christ. Their 500 stores across the country are closed on Sundays, costing the Greens many millions of dollars in profits.
On the side of preserving and even expanding Americans’ religious liberty were five judges: Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia and Thomas. In his concurring opinion Kennedy writes:
“In our constitutional tradition, freedom means that all persons have the right to believe or strive to believe in a divine creator and a divine law. For those who choose this course, free exercise is essential in preserving their own dignity and in striving for a self-definition shaped by their religious precepts. Free exercise in this sense implicates more than just freedom of belief….It means, too, the right to express those beliefs and to establish one’s religious (or non-religious) self-definition in the political, civic, and economic life of our larger community.”
On the other side—of Big Government overriding citizens’ religious beliefs, restricting conscience exemptions to federal mandates, and putting federal power behind expanded access to entitlements–were Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Breyer and Kagan. In fact, Ginsburg spends nearly two pages in her dissent [see pp. 24-25] defending the idea that Obama-care’s provision of subsidies for IUD’s (intrauterine devices) –one of the four contraceptives resisted by Hobby Lobby as a potential abortifacient—is a “compelling government interest.”
As much as Ginsburg believes the majority’s “immoderate” reading of Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) is too broad, hers is too narrow: she ends by arguing that exemptions under the RFRA should be limited to explicitly religious organizations—leaving for-profit Christian businessmen like the Greens unprotected.
The bigger government gets–in both its “social justice” mission and the amount of goodies it gives out as “entitlements”—the greater the threat to Americans’ right to freely exercise their faith. This is precisely why homosexual activists are nervous about Hobby Lobby’s victory. If the nation’s highest court grants that even very large “closely held” family businesses like Hobby Lobby (which has more than 13,000 employees) possess a religious liberty claim under RFRA, then surely small family businesses like Elane Photography in New Mexico—owned by Jonathan and Elaine Huguenin—should have the right not to use their creative talents to serve homosexual “weddings,” which violate their Christian faith.
Sure, Justice Alito explicitly states that the Hobby Lobby decision is narrow and does not apply to exemptions from nondiscrimination laws. But reading the majority’s language, it is hard to imagine that the same five Supreme Court judges would force mom-and-pop bakeries—or Christian husband-and-wife photographers like the Huguenins—to violate their faith by forcing them to participate in immoral “gay weddings.”
Ginsburg, on the other hand, is quite ready to deny Christian-owned businesses the freedom to live out their convictions in the public square. Why? Because they make a profit—precisely the legal dichotomy shot down by Alito and his four allies on the Court. Ginsburg specifically cites the Elane Photograpy case as evidence of the slippery slope of RFRA/religious-liberty legal claims that she believes will result from the Hobby Lobby decision.
Some libertarian homosexuals like University of Minnesota law professor Dale Carpenter advocate for limited religious exemptions to pro-homosexual nondiscrimination laws. But other, left-leaning homosexual activists—far more vocal and dominant in the LGBT political sphere—are on record defending the absurd proposition that faith-impelled small businessmen who refuse to serve homosexual “weddings” are the moral equivalent of the KKK, resurrecting an “anti-gay” version of Jim Crow laws.
Because, you see, not being able to use the government to force devout Christians, Orthodox Jews or Muslims to take pictures at or bake a cake for a homosexual “wedding”—when there are plenty of competing wedding businesses that would gladly do so–is analogous to Blacks in the 50’s being denied the use of “Whites Only” public restrooms and water fountains. Right. Go ahead and try making that case to a Black American.
Homosexual militant Wayne Besen denounced Hobby Lobby as one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever: “Because of this decision, business owners will have enormous leverage to impose their religious beliefs in the workplace, and to coerce employees into abiding by them,” he warned ominously. Besen is hardly alone on the LGBT side in arguing that anyone who enters the stream of commerce—essentially every small business—should be barred legally from “discriminating” against homosexuals.
Last year, the New Mexico supreme court essentially agreed with Besen by unanimously upholding the Huguenin’s “anti-gay discrimination” conviction (including a $6,000 fine) for politely declining to shoot photos at a lesbian “commitment ceremony.” One of the justices, Richard Bosson, asserted in a concurring opinion against the Christian photographers: “In the smaller, more focused world of the marketplace, of commerce, of public accommodation, the Huguenins have to channel their conduct, not their beliefs, so as to leave space for other Americans who believe something different.” That, the judge said, is the “price of citizenship.”
One Nation, under Tolerance?
One wonders: is this the same America that was founded by men and women fleeing religious persecution and government tyranny? Incidentally, the same Wayne Besen above is leading the “gay” activist crusade to ban pro-heterosexual change therapy for minors—succeeding in California and New Jersey. Besen applauded the Supreme Court for denying cert on a legal challenge to the California case, thus paving the way for the ex-“gay” therapy ban in that state. This is yet another LGBT assault on liberty, self-determination and parental rights.
The reality is, religious and moral freedom are in grave danger in the USA. Pro-life advocates must realize that powerful homosexual groups like Human Rights Campaign—who have long worked hand-in-hand with the pro-abortion lobby—are now joining with radical feminists to deny religious Americans their right to refuse pro-abortion and pro-homosexual government mandates.
I believe Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby portends well for the right of small-business-owning traditionalists to preserve at least some of their Christian principles and integrity by not celebrating sexual immorality. However, pro-family advocates should not get too excited about the Supreme Court—which has already seriously constricted Americans’ freedom to organize against pro-homosexual laws. (See Roemer v. Evans, a 1996 Court decision written by Justice Kennedy that struck down Amendment Two, a statewide measure passed by Colorado voters that barred all levels of state government from enacting “special rights” laws based on homosexuality.)
Justice Kennedy: Hero to Homosexuals
The same Justice Anthony Kennedy who sided with the Hobby Lobby majority also wrote theatrocious 5-4 decision in United States v. Windsor eviscerating DOMA , the bipartisan Defense of Marriage Act signed into law by Bill Clinton. That paved the way for pro-homosexual-“marriage” judges across the United States to overturn popular defense-of-marriage amendments and laws in one state after another, most recently in Kentucky.
Kennedy is regarded as a hero by LGBT activists, the brave enforcer of their fallacious ‘homosexuality-as-a-civil-right’ equation. In striking down a core provision of DOMA, he sounded like a “gay “ activist as he arrogantly portrayed opponents of same-sex “marriage”—even the congressional creators of DOMA—as hateful bigots insensitive to the plight of homosexual-led families. Cleary, Kennedy believes that allowing homosexuals to “marry” is a “compelling government interest” —which is why many veteran conservative observers like Maggie Gallagherexpect to see the Supreme Court nationalize “same-sex marriage” when the appeals of judicial take-downs of state marriage amendments collectively reach the Court in the not too distant future.
If Kennedy again aligns with the four judges who dissented on Hobby Lobby to create a federal “constitutional right” for homosexuals to “marry”—thus overriding those state amendments—it will mean that millions upon millions of business owners effectively would be forced to provide marital-type benefits for their homosexual employees. To many people of faith, this equates to rewarding sexual immorality with their company’s hard-earned profits, of which they are stewards and through which they seek to honor God.
Christians and religious-minded citizens don’t leave their faith at home or in church—and they shouldn’t lose their First Amendment liberties—just because they make money. This is the essence of the Hobby Lobby decision, but how will it fare against the rapidly emerging liberal legal consensus of homosexual “marriage” as a supposed constitutionally protected “right”?
Most Americans have not thought through the far-reaching ramifications of legalizing “gay marriage.” For one, every child in a public school will be taught that “marriage” between two men or two women is morally equivalent to the real thing. And if “gay” relationships are equal, according to the Left’s simplistic “Love is Love” formula, then homosexual sex must be taught alongside natural sex in health classes. (Remember: we mustn’t judge!) Social engineering of this sort deeply offends faith-motivated parents and it will surely lead to escalating legal challenges pitting religious freedom against “gay” activism.
The “zero-sum game“ cultural war between First Amendment/religious liberties and homosexual “rights” in America will go on for decades. Homosexual activist lawyers are playing for keeps and expect to win. We should be thankful for the Hobby Lobby victory, but sober about the direction of U.S. courts. For as the Greens, Huguenins and many others like them have learned the hard way, “diversity” is liberal code for mandatory “progressive” conformity, and the New Tolerance isn’t really tolerant after all.
ABOUT PETER LABARBERA
Peter LaBarbera is a former reporter for the Washington Times and is president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH.org), based outside Chicago. He can be reached at americansfortruth@gmail.com or by phone at 312-324-3787.
RELATED ARTICLE: Corporation wants to know if employees are ‘ally’ of homosexuals
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Supreme-Court-2014.jpg 376 620 Americans for Truth About Homosexuality http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png Americans for Truth About Homosexuality2014-07-06 13:50:162014-07-16 16:38:57Why Are "Gay" Activists Freaking Out over the Hobby Lobby ruling? by Peter LaBarbera
Massachusetts abortion clinic “buffer zone” law now before U.S. Supreme Court
January 24, 2014 /in Must Read, News, Policy /by MassResistance
Could likely be overturned, despite “big lie” strategy by activists. National implications. Could a big defeat for the national abortion lobby be coming?
Last week the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the case that could overturn the so-called“buffer zone” law in Massachusetts. Experts across the political spectrum are saying that the Court is very likely to strike it down — affecting similar laws across the country. It would also be a victory for a group of unbelievably dedicated pro-life activists in one of the most pro-abortion states in America.
Pro-lifers stand behind yellow line 35 feet from abortion clinic entrance as uniformed Planned Parenthood guard (left) watches.
This case, McCullen v Coakley, has generated a lot of high-profile emotion among the pro-abortion Left. After the Court heard the arguments the case made the front pages of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Boston Globe.
The Massachusetts buffer zone law requires people with a pro-life message to stay at least 35 feet from the entrance of an abortion clinic, even if that includes a public sidewalk or street. But pro-abortion people affiliated with the abortion clinics can go in as close as they want.
The law is the Massachusetts liberal establishment’s effort to silence the opposition at a critical point in a woman’s decision whetherto abort her child. It allows one type of speech on a public sidewalk, but prohibits opposing speech. Thus it’s considered a major First Amendment case.
Montana and Colorado have both have statewide buffer zone laws, and many cities and towns across the country have passed municipal buffer zone laws similar to the Massachusetts law.
Why the Massachusetts law was passed
More than anything else, pro-lifers in front of abortion clinics such as Operation Rescue in Boston (OR-Boston), run by Bill Cotter since the late 1980s, is the reason the buffer zone law in Massachusetts was passed. Several days a week throughout the year, pro-lifers conduct prayer vigils and informational counseling outside of abortion clinics in Boston, Brookline, Haverhill, Worcester, Springfield, and North Attleborough. They don’t let up.
And they are very effective. Since 2003, OR-Boston has saved 875 babies from death through their counseling efforts. That is a breathtaking achievement. Most pro-family groups do very good work, but how many can say they actually save lives? Hundreds of people are walking this earth who would have faced a violent death in the womb had it not been for these people. And that’s what makes OR-Boston’s efforts so despised by the pro-abortion Left and the mainstream media.
VIDEO: Bill Cotter of Operation Rescue Boston talks about the organization and its ministry. [Life Matters TV
10 min 6 sec]
There’s no question that if there was no pro-life presence at these abortion clinics there would be no buffer zone law in Massachusetts.
Like much of Operation Rescue around the country, OR-Boston is primarily Catholic. The people who undertake this mission tend to be deeply spiritual, tireless and dedicated people. Many, like 77-year-old Eleanor McCullen (lead plaintiff in the suit), have been doing this for decades in every season, in all kinds of weather.
Eleanor McMullen is the lead plaintiff in the case. At 77 years old, she is still out there with OR-Boston saving young lives.
Prior to 2000, there were some attempts by the abortion lobby to pass a 25-foot buffer zone bill, but it was blocked by pro-lifers in the Legislature’s leadership.
In 2000 the US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in the Hill v. Colorado case, upholding a Colorado law establishing an 8-foot “bubble” around abortion customers within 100 feet of the facility, from which pro-life counselors were banned. Shortly after that, the remaining pro-life leadership compromised under pressure from the abortion lobby and Massachusetts passed a law similar to Colorado’s.
But even that was not satisfactory for the abortion lobby. So in 2007 the Legislature, by then dominated by pro-abortion politicians, passed the current law banning any pro-life counselors from entering an area 35 feet from an abortion clinic entrance, demarcated by a bold painted line. Not surprisingly, the liberal federal courts have upheld the law, despite its obvious constitutional issues.
However, the makeup of the Supreme Court has changed considerably since 2000 and it has agreed to revisit this. Many veteran court-watchers think that the current judges will likely reverse the position taken in the 2000 ruling and side with the plaintiffs.
In addition, noted First Amendment experts across the political spectrum have said the Court got it wrong in 2000. As the New York Times described the situation:
The Supreme Court’s 2000 decision has been harshly criticized, including by prominent supporters of abortion rights.
Laurence H. Tribe, the Harvard law professor, said the decision was “right up there” among the candidates for the worst blunders the Supreme Court committed that term.
“I don’t think it was a difficult case,” he said at the time. “I think it was slam-dunk simple and slam-dunk wrong.”
Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment lawyer, said the Massachusetts law was no better than the one upheld in 2000.
“The protections of the First Amendment do not evaporate the closer one comes to an abortion clinic,” he wrote in an email. “Access must be protected; so must speech.”
The 2000 decision was decided by a 6-to-3 vote, with Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in the majority. They have been replaced by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., and their votes may alter the balance.
In his dissent in 2000 in the Hill case, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said the majority opinion contradicted “more than a half-century of well-established First Amendment principles” and for the first time approved “a law which bars a private citizen from passing a message, in a peaceful manner and on a profound moral issue, to a fellow citizen on a public sidewalk.”
Operation Rescue Boston activists (left and below) outside of abortion clinics.
Also fighting it in the Massachusetts Legislature
In each of the last few legislative sessions, MassResistance has filed a bill to repeal the buffer zone law. The current bill is H1478. It was heard before the Judiciary Committee on July 9, 2013. It’s still alive, but admittedly repealing it is an uphill fight on Beacon Hill.
So for any effective change, it’s really up to the Supreme Court.
Defending the buffer zone
Reading the broad news coverage of this case and the “PR campaign” surrounding it, one can quickly see why the Massachusetts buffer zone bill has continued to be supported despite its obvious constitutional problems, and why the lower courts have bowed down before it.
The public and political support of the buffer zone law in Massachusetts has been extremely well crafted by Planned Parenthood the abortion lobby. To put it bluntly, this is a textbook case of how the lies of liberals, when repeated constantly, become institutionalized and virtually immune to challenge.
Basically, the constitutional issues are pushed aside and instead the public is constantly reminded about the alleged necessity of stopping violence and vicious harassment directed at abortion facilities and the women coming there for abortions. That is the mantra that is repeated over and over again to the point that it has become accepted as if it were fact.
The 1994 Salvi incident
Virtually the entire “buffer zone” strategy grows out of one incident nearly twenty years ago.
On December 30, 1994, John C. Salvi III, a 22-year-old man who was not affiliated with any Massachusetts pro-life group, entered two Brookline abortion clinics and opened fire, killing a receptionist. He was subsequently diagnosed as a schizophrenic and claimed that “the Mafia and KKK” were out to get him. He stood trial and was convicted of murder in 1996. Later that year he committed suicide in prison.
At the time it was a major media event in Boston, was obsessed over for months from every angle, generated a considerable amount of hysteria against all pro-lifers, and thus became seared into the collective psyche of the region.
(Ironically, say the pro-life advocates, no one gets convicted for the violent murders that routinely take place inside the abortion clinics — of the pre-born children.)
Since then, Salvi’s name has been continuously brought up by pro-abortion activists to psychologically connect him with the (often elderly) Catholic sidewalk counselors, who in fact had nothing to do with him. As Saul Alinsky would point out, never let a crisis go to waste.
A strategy of dishonest scare tactics
That false “guilt by association” has opened the door to the abortion lobby’s unending dishonest but very effective scare tactics. It has leveraged the Salvi violence from two decades ago into a complete mischaracterization of all pro-life activists today.
Any time the buffer zone law is discussed, the abortion lobby talks in emotional terms about intimidation, violence, and screaming that supposedly goes on in front of abortion clinics which women seeking abortions and the staff must endure. It’s certainly enough to make a reasonable person who doesn’t know the truth agree that something must be done.
But it’s all a lie. There is no documented evidence that any violence, assaults, harassment, etc., by pro-lifers has taken place. Nor has the pro-abortion lobby ever presented any actual evidence. There haven’t been any arrests of pro-lifers for assault or similar harassment. As Bill Cotter points out, each abortion facility has numerous video cameras constantly trained on the pro-lifers outside. But they’ve never been able to come up with any video proving their claims against the OR-Boston people.
Moreover, we’ve been told that police records show that the police consider the pro-lifers to be extremely well-behaved — especially compared to Occupy Boston and the like.
Such hostile behavior would actually be counter-productive for pro-lifers. Yes, they sometimes show graphic signs of aborted babies (which is the truth; they are dealing with murder and death, after all). But pro-lifers realize that a certain demeanor is necessary or they will not save any babies.
The big lie: Some recent examples
Nevertheless, the mainstream media continues to repeat the outrageous disinformation from the pro-abortion activists without any challenge whatsoever.
Here are some recent quotes from newspaper articles about the U.S. Supreme Court case:
Boston Globe 6/24/2013:
Rosanna Cavallaro, a law professor at Suffolk University, said the court probably would focus on the “competing interests” between protesters’ right to free speech and clinic patients’ right to be left alone. “Do you have the right to speak with a bullhorn right up to someone’s face?” she asked. “At some point, speech becomes intimidation and harassment.”
Boston Globe 12/29/2013
“Someone should be able to go to a health care clinic, without being yelled at, screamed at, without being harassed,” said [Massachusetts] Attorney General Martha Coakley,
Boston Globe editorial, 1/20/2014
The protests that buffer zones are designed to contain are the loud, intimidating, and physical demonstrations that tend to surround abortion clinics just as often as, say, the Supreme Court.
Boston Globe editorial (quoted above). The mantra gets repeated. “It’s like an echo chamber,” says Bill Cotter.
New York Times, 1-15-2014
Massachusetts has “a long history of crowds around these [abortion clinic] doors or even of violence,” replied [Jennifer] Miller, an assistant [Massachusetts] attorney general.
The state’s attorney general, Martha Coakley, who is the lead defendant in the suit, said the 35-foot buffer zone created by the 2007 law was a necessary response to an ugly history of harassment and violence at abortion clinics in Massachusetts, including a shooting rampage at two facilities in 1994.
The Guardian (UK) 1/15/2014
Lawyers representing Massachusetts said the buffer zones werenecessary to stop women from being harassed or prevented from entering clinics by crowds of protestors, and insisted it was impractical to draft legislation that differentiated this from “peaceful conversation”.
[Planned Parenthood CEO Marty] Walz said the “bubble” zone law was difficult to enforce, and that protesters aggressively approached anyone who entered the zone. She said she visited the Boston clinic in 2007, only to be confronted and intimidated by a large protester. “I had one of the protesters literally standing inches from my face, screaming at me, at full volume,” she said.
Planned Parenthood CEO Marty Walz (quoted above) was previously a Mass. State Representative. In 2007 she sponsored the Buffer Zone bill for Planned Parenthood. In 2012 she left the State House to work full time for Planned Parenthood.She also carried water for the homosexual lobby and other radical Left causes. At left, as a State Rep, Walz applauds during Governor’s signing ceremony for the Transgender Rights and Hate Crimes bill on Jan. 19, 2012.
[MassResistance photo]
There’s plenty of harassment and intimidation — against pro-lifers!
On the other hand, there is plenty of harassment, intimidation, and occasional violence in front of abortion clinics that isn’t ever covered in the media. It’s directed at the pro-lifers — by abortion supporters.
Pro-lifers often get horrible, vulgar things screamed them, things thrown at them from cars, and occasionally even cars careening toward them. There’s plenty of evidence of that. They are also treated badly by pro-abortion cops.
This is an example of the anger directed at pro-life counselors.
But the media is psychologically wrapped up in the myth of pro-life violence. Bill Cotter relates that a few years ago a Boston Herald columnist wrote about an ugly scene where an angry man at an abortion clinic was arrested and began kicking in the police car doors until he could be restrained. The Herald article portrayed him as a pro-life activist. But the Boston Police Department’s police report said that the man was actually a companion of a Planned Parenthood customer, who had gotten into a heated argument with the Planned Parenthood staff.
Court’s decision months away
It’s expected that the Court’s decision will come sometime in June.
We’ll stay on top of this. We sense a victory is in the works.
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US Supreme Court is Undermining Science and Society
December 23, 2013 /in Courts & Law, Environment, Must Read /by Alan Caruba
The Supreme Court has taken up another case based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s campaign of lies that carbon dioxide is the cause of “climate change” and claims about the quality of air in the United States. The Court is composed of lawyers, not scientists.
At this point in the present era, the Court has made rulings that run contrary to the original, clear intent of the U.S. Constitution and has wrought havoc on our society.
In 1973 it ruled that the killing of unborn babies was protected and millions since then have been deliberately killed. It extended protection to sodomy and same-sex marriage. It is destroying the fabric of our society that has served Americans well for more than two hundred years.
It ruled that the Affordable Health Care Act was a “tax”, enabling the Obamacare to be unleashed with the subsequent loss of health care plans by millions of Americans, often the loss of their personal physician, and the requirement that deeply-held religious opposition to contraception and abortion be negated by a law that requires their beliefs be overruled and denied.
In 2007, I wrote a commentary that was published in The Washington Times. I criticized a Supreme Court ruling that carbon dioxide (CO2) was a “pollutant”, opening the door to the EPA’s rapacious intent to control all aspects of our lives based on this lie that is used to justify its war on coal-fired plants that provide nearly half of all the electrical energy we use daily. “CO2 is not a pollutant,” I wrote, “It exists in the Earth’s atmosphere and every blade of grass and every tree depends on it.” It plays no role whatever in the Earth’s climate.
The Clean Air Act and revisions passed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s. The original regulation of air pollution was a good idea, as were the laws affecting clean water, but the EPA has since used pollution to impose a vast matrix of regulations that do not reflect the fact that the nation’s air and water is now as clean as it ever can be.
Carbon monoxide emissions have fallen from 197 million tons to 89 million tons. Nitrogen oxide emissions fell from 27 million tons to 19 million tons. Sulfur dioxide emissions fell from 3l million tons to 15 million tons. Lead emissions fell by more than 98%. Particulate emissions (soot) fell by 80%. The air in the U.S. is considerably cleaner, but the EPA’s assertions continue to be made to expand its regulatory power and to attack the sovereignty of the states.
A case that was recently argued before the Court is another EPA effort to rewrite the Clean Air Act, asserting that it be given authority to regulate the flow of alleged “pollution” between “upwind” states and those who receive particulates and gases under its control. Some 27 states are considered “upwind” and those states along with all others have their own air control laws. In states that are more heavily industrialized and which have a large number of coal-fired plants on which the EPA wants to impose expensive standards that have no basis in fact.
A coalition led by Texas of more than a dozen other states brought a case, Environmental Protection Agency v. EME Homer City Generation, opposing the EPA’s regulatory re-write of the Clean Air Act. In August 2012, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the EPA which appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Wall Street Journal noted that “The D.C. Circuit only rarely overturns EPA rules, which shows how out of bounds the cross-state regulation is. The Supreme Court should overturn it for violating the federalist intentions of Congress, but there is also the added judicial incentive to show this increasingly rogue agency that it can’t rewrite the law as it pleases.”
The U.S. has been harmed by the many laws whose justification is based on the totally unscientific hoax regarding CO2. During the 101st and 111th Congresses, there were 692 laws introduced containing the term “greenhouse gas” when, in fact, CO2 is NOT such a gas, playing no role whatever in trapping warmth to affect the weather and/or climate of the Earth.
Stringent domestic laws and regulations, moreover, do not take into consideration the role of many other nations whose emissions are far greater than those produced here. However, reducing their emissions will have no effect on the Earth’s climate. The Earth is in what will likely be a lengthy cycle of cooling based on reduced solar radiation. It recently snowed in Egypt and in Israel where snow has long been a rarity.
The Obama administration’s “war on coal” has used the EPA to inflict an attack on the nation’s capacity to provide energy and the EPA has not ceased from using every ruling it has imposed to degrade the nation’s ability to maintain and expand the industrial base it needs to provide for economic growth, an increase in jobs, and the sovereign right of states to determine their own response to the need for clean air. The U.S. is a republic composed of separate republics.
At this point, control of the nation’s air and water quality should be returned in full to the states and the EPA should be eliminated as the threat to the nation it has become. The Supreme Court has played a role in this threat, ruling without any attention to real science, traditional values, and the clear intent of the Constitution.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/us-supreme-court-building-e1578998406662.jpg 370 638 Alan Caruba http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png Alan Caruba2013-12-23 15:35:382013-12-23 15:35:38US Supreme Court is Undermining Science and Society
Florida Churches changing bylaws after gay marriage ruling
September 4, 2013 /in Courts & Law, Featured, News, Regulation, Social Issues /by Dr. Rich Swier
Prophecy News Watch reports:
Worried they could be sued by gay couples, some churches are changing their bylaws to reflect their view that the Bible allows only marriage between one man and one woman.
Although there have been lawsuits against wedding industry businesses that refuse to serve gay couples, attorneys promoting the bylaw changes say they don’t know of any lawsuits against churches.
Critics say the changes are unnecessary, but some churches fear that it’s only a matter of time before one of them is sued.
“I thought marriage was always between one man and one woman, but the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision said no,” said Gregory S. Erwin, an attorney for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, an association of Southern Baptist churches and one several groups advising churches to change their bylaws. “I think it’s better to be prepared because the law is changing. America is changing.”
In a June decision, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that defined marriage as between a man and a woman for purposes of federal law. A second decision was more technical but essentially ushered in legal gay marriage in California.
Kevin Snider is an attorney with the Pacific Justice Institute, a nonprofit legal defense group that specializes in conservative Christian issues. His organization released a model marriage policy a few years ago in response to a statewide gay marriage fight in California. Snider said some religious leaders have been threatened with lawsuits for declining to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies.
Dean Inserra, head pastor of the 1,000-member City Church Tallahassee, based in Florida, said he does not want to be alarmist, but his church is looking into how best to address the issue.
Inserra said he already has had to say no to gay friends who wanted him to perform a wedding ceremony.
“We have some gay couples that attend our church. What happens when they ask us to do their wedding?” Inserra said. “What happens when we say no? Is it going to be treated like a civil rights thing?”
Critics, including some gay Christian leaders, argue that the changes amount to a solution looking for a problem.
“They seem to be under the impression that there is this huge movement with the goal of forcing them to perform ceremonies that violate their freedom of religion,” said Justin Lee, executive director of the Gay Christian Network, a nonprofit that provides support for gay Christians and their friends and families and encourages churches to be more welcoming.
“If anyone tried to force a church to perform a ceremony against their will, I would be the first person to stand up in that church’s defense.”
Thirteen states and the District of Columbia now recognize gay marriage.
Some Christian denominations, such as the United Church of Christ, accept gay marriage. The Episcopal Church recently approved a blessing for same-sex couples, but each bishop must decide whether to allow the ceremony in his or her local diocese.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Florida-Church-e1386714279671.jpg 473 640 Dr. Rich Swier http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png Dr. Rich Swier2013-09-04 06:00:302013-12-10 17:24:52Florida Churches changing bylaws after gay marriage ruling
Catholic Bishops file amicus brief in support of Defense of Marriage Act
February 2, 2013 /in Featured, News, Policy, Social Issues /by Dr. Rich Swier
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on January 29, 2013 filed amicus briefs in the United States Supreme Court in support of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8, both of which confirm the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
DOMA was passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton in 1996 and defines marriage for federal and inter-state recognition purposes. Proposition 8 is a state constitutional amendment approved by the citizens of California in 2008. Both laws are challenged because they define marriage exclusively as the union of one man and one woman.
Urging the Court to uphold DOMA the USCCB brief in United States v. Windsor says that “there is no fundamental right to marry a person of the same sex.” The brief also states that “as defined by courts ‘sexual orientation’ is not a classification that should trigger heightened scrutiny,” such as race or ethnicity would.
It added that “civil recognition of same-sex relationships is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition—quite the opposite is true. Nor can the treatment of such relationships as marriages be said to be implicit in the concept of ordered liberty, such that neither liberty nor justice would exist if they were sacrificed.”
USCCB argued that previous Supreme Court decisions “describing marriage as a fundamental right plainly contemplate the union of one man and one woman.”
The USCCB also cautioned that a decision invalidating DOMA “would have adverse consequences in other areas of law.”
In a separate brief filed in Hollingsworth v Perry urging the Court to uphold Proposition 8, the USCCB states that there are many reasons why the state may reasonably support and encourage marriage, understood as the union of one man and one woman, as distinguished from other relationships. Government support for marriage, so understood, is “recognizing the unique capacity of opposite-sex couples to procreate” and “the unique value to children of being raised by their mother and father together.”
The USCCB brief states that “[T]he People of California could reasonably conclude that a home with a mother and a father is the optimal environment for raising children, an ideal that Proposition 8 encourages and promotes. Given both the unique capacity for reproduction and unique value of homes with a mother and father, it is reasonable for a State to treat the union of one man and one woman as having a public value that is absent from other intimate interpersonal relationships.”
The USCCB brief adds that “While this Court has held that laws forbidding private, consensual, homosexual conduct between adults lack a rational basis, it does not follow that the government has a constitutional duty to encourage or endorse such conduct. Thus, governments may legitimately decide to further the interests of opposite-sex unions only. Similarly, minimum standards of rationality under the Constitution do not require adopting the lower court’s incoherent definition of ‘marriage’ as merely a ‘committed lifelong relationship,’ which is wildly over-inclusive, empties the term of its meaning, and leads to absurd results.”
“Marriage, understood as the union of one man and one woman, is not an historical relic, but a vital and foundational institution of civil society today,” the USCCB brief states. “The government interests in continuing to encourage and support it are not merely legitimate, but compelling. No other institution joins together persons with the natural ability to have children, to assure that those children are properly cared for. No other institution ensures that children will at least have the opportunity of being raised by their mother and father together. Societal ills that flow from the dissolution of marriage and family would not be addressed—indeed, they would only be aggravated—were the government to fail to reinforce the union of one man and one woman with the unique encouragement and support it deserves.”
The USCCB brief also notes that “Proposition 8 is not rendered invalid because some of its supporters were informed by religious or moral considerations. Many, if not most, of the significant social and political movements in our Nation’s history were based on precisely such considerations.Moreover, the argument to redefine marriage to include the union of persons of the same sex is similarly based on a combination of religious and moral considerations (albeit ones that are, in our view, flawed).As is well established in this Court’s precedent, the coincidence of law and morality, or law and religious teaching, does not detract from the rationality of a law.”
USCCB notes that a judicial decision invalidating Proposition 8’s definition of marriage would have adverse consequences in other areas of law.
“[R]edefining marriage—particularly as a matter of constitutional law, rather than legislative process—not only threatens principles of federalism and separation of powers, but would have a widespread adverse impact on other constitutional rights, such as the freedoms of religion, conscience, speech, and association.Affirmance of the judgment below would create an engine of conflict in this area, embroiling this Court and lower courts in a series of otherwise avoidable disputes—pitting constitutional right squarely against constitutional right—for years to come.
0 0 Dr. Rich Swier http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png Dr. Rich Swier2013-02-02 08:29:192013-02-02 08:29:19Catholic Bishops file amicus brief in support of Defense of Marriage Act
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What should we learn from the story of the rich man and Lazarus?
What can we learn from the parable of the persistent widow and unjust judge?
In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, why would someone in heaven want to cross the chasm to hell?
What can we learn from the man of God and the lying prophet?
Why does the Bible say Jesus is the first begotten of the resurrection of the dead when Abraham seems to be resurrected in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus?
What can we learn from the life of Absalom?
"Dives" is the Latin term for "rich man." (Luke 16:19-31)
ESV - 19 There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores.
Scott Broberg Fig Tree Ministries
The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is a COMPLEX parable.
We must first remember that is a parable. Parables are stories told to convey a difficult message. The story draws the listener in and engages them at a deeper level than simply delivering 'bad news' directly. Jesus loves to use parables to deliver difficult messages to those who oppose him.
The use of a parable in story form allows the listener a process of "self-discovery" as they digest the story internally.
The message of this parable is directed at the priests who are the religious leaders of Israel and who, at the time of Jesus, were wealthy and corrupt. Much of their wealth was gained at the expense of the people of Israel - the same people the Priests were supposed to be caring for.
How do we know it is directed at the priests - and in particular - the High Priest at the time of Jesus, Caiphas?
1. The rich man represents the wealthy priests. The priestly garments contained "purple" and "fine linen" - Exodus 28:5.
2. The High Priest and the temple priests were of the Sadducee sect of Judaism. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead in the afterlife: Acts 23:8.
3. The name Lazarus is a first-century Greek variant of the Hebrew name Eliezer (see Hebrew scholar Tal Ilan, Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity). Eliezer was the gentile servant of Abraham who would have "inherited" all of Abrahams blessings (Genesis 15:2).
4. To "recline at Abraham's side/bosom" is an expression that indicates you are the second guest of honor at the "end times" banquet (see Isaiah 25:6-8; Matthew 8:11-12; Luke 13:28-30). The disciple John was the second guest of honor next to Jesus at the Last Supper (John 13:23).
- Jesus is indicating to the Priests that they will not take part in any inheritance of Abraham's descendants. Rather, the inheritance of Abraham's blessings is going to go to the gentiles - as represented by Lazarus/Eliezer.
5. In Jesus' day there was a former High Priest (6 AD-15AD) - Annas - who was still hanging on to power through his sons - who all served as High Priest (Luke 3:2). Annas was like the "Godfather." Annas and his family were wealthy and corrupt.
Caiaphas, who was the current High Priest, had FIVE BROTHERS. (Eleazer, Jonathan, Theophilus, Mattias, Annus).
This is why Jesus includes the detail about "five brothers" (Luke 16:28).
As I stated earlier, this is a complex parable. Jesus includes many details that would have been understood by his first-century audience. It is harder for us to recognize the details.
The message is a warning to those in power - then it was the Sadducees - but we can apply this to any religious authority at any time that enriches themselves at the expense of the community they are supposed to be shepherding.
If you hold religious authority - watch out how you wield your power. Do not enrich yourself at the expense of your flock or you will find yourself left out at the final banquet.
3 days ago • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report
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KALEO MOVES FIGHT OR FLIGHT TOUR TO 2021
Thursday, June 25, 2020 - 10:30pm
30 City Tour Kicks Off in San Francisco on April 15
Elektra/Atlantic recording artists and GRAMMY-nominated band KALEO moves their Fight or Flight Tour to 2021.
“The health of our fans, our crew and communities around the world remains our number one priority,” shares KALEO. “We have made the decision to move our Fight or Flight Tour to 2021 with all of that in mind. We are excited to celebrate the power of live music together again when the time is right.”
Launching in San Francisco on April 15, 2021, KALEO is set to perform at venues across North America including The Novo in Los Angeles, Terminal 5 in New York, The Anthem in Washington, D.C., Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and many more through July 19. Tickets are available for purchase HERE.
With new music on the horizon, every order of two (2) or more tickets purchased online for select KALEO Fight or Flight Tour stops includes one (1) physical or digital copy of their upcoming album.^ Tickets purchased for rescheduled 2020 Fight or Flight Tour dates will remain valid for 2021. Full routing of rescheduled dates below.
Last month, KALEO announced their upcoming album Surface Sounds, initially scheduled for June 5, 2020, will be released at a later date.
“Due to the global impact of COVID-19 travel bans and mandates, we are unable to complete our original plan to release Surface Sounds on June 5,” shares KALEO songwriter and frontman JJ Julius Son.
“We know you have waited a long time for new KALEO music and want to thank you for your continued support and patience,” continues Julius Son. “We are still so excited to share this album with you when it is ready.”
Since wrapping a nearly non-stop touring schedule supporting their major label debut A/B in 2018, Julius Son has been in the studio off-and-on for two years, allowing for a combination of globe-trotting and meticulous tinkering, resulting in a spectrum of sounds recorded around the world – in North America, South America and across Europe. The final product is refreshingly free of calculation, with Julius Son allowing each tune to dictate its path while simultaneously leaning-in to his blues, folk and rock inclinations.
KALEO has released four tracks from Surface Sounds, including lead singles “I Want More,” praised by Texas Monthly as a “tender-yet-tough anthem,” and currently Top 10 and climbing the Triple A chart, and “Break My Baby,” described by Loudwire as “hooky and groovy, showcasing the range of [Julius Son’s] vocal and a gritty, bluesy approach.” KALEO followed the singles with “Alter Ego,” and most recently, “Backbone.”
A/B spawned three hit singles for the Icelandic rock band – the GRAMMY-nominated “No Good,” the gold-selling “All The Pretty Girls,” and the chart-topping, 2x Platinum-certified “Way Down We Go,” which was used in over two dozen television shows, leading it to No. 1 on The Hollywood Reporter’s Top TV Songs chart.
For updates and more information, visit OfficialKALEO.com, or follow on Facebook.com/OfficialKaleo, Twitter @OfficialKALEO, Instagram @OfficialKALEO, and YouTube.com/KALEOOfficial.
Since the release of their gold-certified breakthrough album, 2016’s A/B, Icelandic rock band KALEO—led by frontman/songwriter JJ Julius Son—has taken their music around the world. The album spawned three hit singles – the GRAMMY-nominated “No Good,” the gold-selling “All The Pretty Girls” and the chart-topping, 2x Platinum-certified “Way Down We Go” which was used in over two dozen television shows from Grey’s Anatomy to Riverdale, leading the No. 1 single to top The Hollywood Reporter’s Top TV Songs chart. After amassing over 1 Billion global streams, 39 international certifications, and countless sold-out headline shows spanning from London to Moscow, KALEO has proven to be a worldwide phenomenon. Known for their electrifying live performances, KALEO completely sold out their first U.S. headline tour and was a standout at Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo and recently were hand-picked to open stadium dates for the Rolling Stones. Since KALEO wrapped a nearly non-stop 3-year touring schedule in support of A/B in October 2018, Julius Son has been in the studio working on the highly anticipated follow-up, Surface Sounds on Elektra/Atlantic. Lead singles “I Want More,” and “Break My Baby” are out now, as well as “Alter Ego” and “Backbone.”
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HomePublicationsReinventing Technology Assessment for the 21st Century
(Originally posted on http://wilsoncenter.org/program/science-and-technology-innovation-program.)
New Report Calls for Citizen Participation to Inform Decision-Making on Science and Technology
WASHINGTON—A new report from the Science and Technology Innovation Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars defines the criteria for a new technology assessment function in the United States. The report, Reinventing Technology Assessment: A 21st Century Model, emphasizes the need to incorporate citizen-participation methods to complement expert analysis. Government policymakers, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and citizens need such analysis to capably navigate the technology-intensive world in which we now live.
The U.S. Congress set a global precedent in 1972 when it created an Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), but then reversed course in 1995 by shutting down the OTA. In the meantime, 18 European Technology Assessment agencies are flourishing and have pioneered important new methods, including Participatory Technology Assessment (pTA). By educating and engaging laypeople, pTA is unique in enabling decision-makers to learn their constituents’ informed views regarding emerging developments in science and technology. pTA also deepens the social and ethical analysis of technology. European pTA methods have been adapted, tested, and proven in the U.S. at least 16 times by university-based groups and independent nonprofit organizations.
“We style ourselves as living in a ‘technological society’ and an ‘information age,’” notes report author Dr. Richard Sclove, “yet we lack adequate information about – of all things! – the broad implications of science and technology.”
As the pace of technological change quickens and the Obama Administration moves forward on its Open Government Initiative, the time is ripe to institutionalize a robust national TA capability incorporating both expert and participatory TA methods. The Internet and social networking capacities make it possible to organize such an endeavor on a distributed, agile and open basis, harnessing collaborative efficiencies and supporting broad public engagement.
“In the 15 years since OTA was closed, TA has progressed significantly in Europe. It is time for the U.S. to institutionalize a serious, continuous and nonpartisan capability to assess the broad social, ethical, legal, and economic impacts of emerging science and technology in areas such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and earth systems engineering,” said David Rejeski, who directs the Wilson Center program.
In the report, Dr. Sclove recommends creating a nationwide Expert & Citizen Assessment of Science & Technology (ECAST) network that will combine the skills of nonpartisan policy research organizations with the research strengths of universities and the public outreach and education capabilities of science museums. Founding partners in ECAST include the Science and Technology Innovation Program at the Wilson Center,, the Boston Museum of Science, Arizona State University, ScienceCheerleader, and the Loka Institute.
Report author Richard Sclove, Ph.D. is founder and senior fellow of the Loka Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making science and technology responsive to democratically decided priorities.
The report can be downloaded at: ReinventingTechnologyAssessment
Presentation Slides are available at 21st-cent-ta-in-us-20-april-2010
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Weather correspondent Dylan Dreyer’s early days in broadcasting media
Dylan Dreyer was born as Dylan Marie Dreyer on August 2, 1981, in Manalapan Township, New Jersey. Unfortunately, no details of her childhood days and educational background could be traced. However, we do know that she was interested in broadcasting media, most probably the weather broadcast, since her early days.
Dylan is the granddaughter of Doris Milke. Doris was a “record-setting winner” of a TV game show - original The Price Is Right.
Dylan has Bachelors in meteorology from the Rutgers University. She started off her career through Pennsylvania-based WCIU. She also worked for Providence, Rhode Island-based WJAR, and Boston-based WHDH. She worked in the NBC affiliate WHDH from 2007 to 2012.
In 2013, Dylan got into a car accident, while on the route to cover a snowstorm. The accident caused her a mild concussion. Active in the television industry since 2003, Dylan Dreyer has contributed more than a decade in the field and has accumulated a notable amount in her account. Reportedly, Dylan Dreyer is an owner of approx. 1 million USD net worth.
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Tag: isabelle buckley
NOSTALGIC MEMORIES OF MY YEARS AT THE BUCKLEY SCHOOL
The phrase College Begins at Two welcomed the students every morning at the entrance of The Buckley School, a private school in Sherman Oaks, California. It was imprinted on a wooden sign which greeted me from age 8 (when I matriculated) until age 18 (when I graduated). There is truth and profoundness in that phrase — but not in the “Tiger Mom” (or Bret Easton Ellis, Less Than Zero) sort of way.
In a previous post I wrote about L.A. PRIVATE SCHOOLS, I mentioned that I was fortunate to attend The Buckley School “where the teachers held Stanford degrees and PhDs.” Yes, the caliber of the teachers and the academic rigor were a huge part of the appreciation and enjoyment; however, in retrospect, what I appreciate most is something bigger. What I appreciate now is that the intent of education pioneer and founder Dr. Isabelle Buckley was to instill fundamental lessons of life’s rudiments. Not for a student, but for a human– prepping us for adulthood. Her “College Begins at Two” methodology conditioned her students to achieve a high level of critical thinking, self-confidence and an unquenchable appetite to better oneself and one’s environment. These are the lessons that began at two.
The succeeding words may seem a bit rah-rah to prospective parents; but these are heartfelt words that flow from my memories. My Buckley experience was so formative to me that I cannot help but express enthusiasm and broadcast the pros. My reflections are all predicated on what I received from Buckley, an experience that my fellow alum friends, who have kids there today, indicate still endures.
I’m not saying that Buckley is the right school for every girl or boy. It is hard for any school’s structure, size, philosophy, curriculum, student body to be the right fit for everyone. But, it ended up being the right school for me — and here’s why:
Passionate Teachers
Among the teachers, 10 hold doctoral degrees and 59 have a master’s degree. I don’t mention it to be boastful on behalf of the school, rather because I have found a direct correlation between how far the teacher has gone in their education with their passion for the subject they are teaching. Makes sense, right? Usually, only someone who has lived and breathed philosophy or bio or English lit for 8 years loves it THAT much. That passion has a direct trickle down effect to their students. You can’t fake enthusiasm and dedication. My A.P. bio teacher, Mr. Tozer, was a hair shy of Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting. He insisted that we use smelly and colorful pens when taking notes so we could use all our senses in the learning process. I can recite the digestive and circulatory system to this day. (And my career is far from the science field.)
Dr. Holbech, my history teacher never accepted a regurgitated textbook answer or a recitation of facts from his students. He taught Socratically and made us think deeply. He wanted the political theorists’ concepts applied to examples in real life situations so he could trust we really understood the theories and weren’t getting by via rote memorization. He was one of the first to teach me not to accept fact as fact,but to question. He didn’t want book smarts, he demanded intellect.
I have Señora Ippolito’s language mastery tricks to thank for being facile in Spanish, English teachers Ms. Hood and Mr. Robbins to thank for my love of words and books. Miss/Coach Sherman was feared and loved by all. She was insanely smart and tough — but students and other teachers loved and revered her because her toughness was backed by merit. She, of course, is now Dean. I could go on with examples of many others.
Accessible Teachers
The teachers were always approachable, accessible and non-intimidating. They were always enthusiastic to answers questions and to pursue topics further. The small setting was probably a big factor behind their accessibility — the school has an 8:1 student-teacher ratio, so their availability was heightened by mere math alone.
By the time you reach high school, the administration and teachers already know who you are, your background, your strengths/weaknesses, your interests and could leverage that knowledge to help foster your growth.
Intimate Environment Leading to Lifelong Friendships
The small student body was conducive to encouraging strong friendships and peer relationships. Most of us had grown up together since elementary school — so we knew each other during our hours of braces, girl/boy scouts, bat/bar mitzvahs, puberty and voice changes, drivers ed and first concerts. We played sports together, camped together on outdoor educational trips, crammed for finals together at someone’s house and showed up for a late night music show in support of one of our classmates. There was so much camaraderie, so much history. My experience was that the school itself was competitive — but there wasn’t an undercurrent of competition among the students. There was no zero-sum mentality. If there was academic stress, then there was commiseration and camaraderie, not competition. For some, the small student body might seem limiting; but for me, it worked.
Buckley may have a reputation of being a school that housed many rich and spoiled kids. I think that can be a reality at many L.A. private schools —by the sheer tuition alone, those who have the means are the ones whose kids attend. And yes, for sure, many of my classmates were fortunate. But, with only a few exceptions, the majority were not entitled or spoiled. They studied hard, worked outside jobs, volunteered after school and on weekends at various community service projects, protested vivisection with classmates at the Federal Building for animal rights, started a petition to make the school environmentally friendly, etc. Affluence actually faded into the background. From my experience, being smart was cool, being athletic was cool, being talented was cool, being rich wasn’t a consideration.
To this day, most of my closest friends are from my Buckley childhood; 3 out of my 4 bridesmaids were classmates. In the land of Los Angeles, where so much can be superficial and opportunistic, it turns out that my childhood Buckley friends are the down to earth ones who would back me at any moment or house my family if we ever fell on hard times. We have been known to employ one another in the event someone loses a job, and we support Buckley alum owned businesses. And regardless of one’s success, it’s rare for a classmate to forget about old friends. My good friend/classmate not only hosted the entire class at his family’s house for our 10 year reunion, but he invited the entire class to his wedding last summer. Real, life-long friendships were formed — and that is a priceless gift.
Buckley makes a concerted effort to diversify their student body. Equal female/male student/teacher ratios, ethnic/religious/cultural diversity, and so on. There was no, “I’m not racist. One of my best friends is black!” The student population was wonderfully mixed. Indian/Iranian/Pakistani/Korean/Chinese/Thai/Egyptian/Israeli/African/Bahamian/White European/Jewish/Muslim/Catholic/Hindi in my class alone. We were colorblind—we grew amidst diversity, internalized it and advocated for it before we knew it was a social statement.
In terms of financial diversity, it appears that they are making strong strides to provide financial aid and in so doing augment the socio-economic spectrum that further helps round out the student body—this while preserving the confidentiality of the assistance. While I was there, their financial aid program was just evolving, and yet even then the assistance was rarely known. Ensuring diversity was and is an elemental part of Buckley’s emphasis on providing learning opportunity as well as perspective. I am proud to say that I am now the Vice President of the Buckley School Alumni Board — and providing financial aid is at the forefront of our priorities.
No Limits, No Pigeonholing
It sounds cliché, but this small liberal arts school created well-rounded students. It’s not like in Clueless (or any John Hughes movie for that matter) where there are the jocks and the geeks. Here, you were encouraged to do everything. You could be the MVP and team captain of your Varsity sports team, the lead in the Spring Musical, play in the school band, be Student Body President, a member of the National Honor Society and the editor of the Students’ Voice newspaper — simultaneously.
The school’s climate and the encouragement of the teachers/coaches fostered the confidence to pursue anything and everything. Many of the students were renaissance students – hyphenates before hyphenates were a thing. There was no hierarchy of learning. Art, drama and music were as valuable as the sciences and you were allowed to be committed to all. I was able to play sports, sing in choir, act in student council, serve as a co-founder of the ecology club (which still exists to this day), and still have the ability to have a blast socially with my friends.
I actually credit Buckley for giving me the confidence to pursue different things and multitask in my adult years. Be an attorney. Aim for a black belt after I turned 30. Start writing. Become a wife and a parent. It’s never-ending. To this day, I’ve never experienced a glass ceiling or felt confined to a defined role. Buckley taught me to never be complacent and to always shoot for more. Buckley reminded me that I am my own construct.
Preparation for College
Variety of coursework / AP courses / Art courses
Buckley’s curriculum was built around a core of requirements (science, foreign languages, etc.) with varying levels of difficulty. Courses were offered at the honors level or AP level — and an arts level if the student required a less rigorous pace. The visual arts program offered generous options — metal and enameling, ceramics, sculpture, painting, and more, all taught by Ms. Mahony. In fact, the art room for me was my before-school safe haven. Ms. Mahony would allow me to come in early and work on my craft before the bell rang and before my friends arrived. It is also where I would sometimes go on rainy days during lunch to obsess over a piece and could also stay dry.
I believe Buckley’s wide variety of honors and AP courses is a major reason why I was granted admission to UC Berkeley for college. Aside from the educational rigor and mental preparation, there are mere mathematics involved in the admissions process. The UC system calculates your GPA based on a weighted scale. Because of the voluminous amount of applicants, most can’t be admitted these days with a 4.0 at UCLA or Berkeley; however, if your courses are taken at an AP or honors level, the grade is weighted or bumped up. You can graduate with a 5.0 and therefore be much more appealing to the UC Board of Admissions.
Ability to Navigate the System
Funny enough, the small and intimate setting of Buckley prepared me for the huge university bureaucracy of UC Berkeley, which has a student population of 36,000. Buckley prepared me at a small scale how to navigate the bureaucracy, administration, even politics, how to protest something, how to get a club off the ground, and how not to be intimidated by authority figures. I learned from a smaller context that you don’t need to sit back passively and accept the status quo, you can question things, be heard by adults and create change.
Buckley taught me that everything is accessible. You just have to believe it. My best friend Dr. Nooshin Razani and I started the Buckley Ecology Club (Students’ H.O.P.E. Students Healing Our Planet Earth) from ground zero (drafting a petition, meeting with the principal, asking a teacher to mentor us, etc.). We saw a void in the school and we sought to fill it. We wanted something, and we received the administrative support, and enthusiasm from our elders and community to accomplish it.
Then, when I was a sophomore at Berkeley, I had the courage to approach my awe-inspiring and intimidating Black Panther / Civic Activist / Sociology Professor, Dr. Harry Edwards, one of the largest and smartest humans I have ever met. I knocked on his door and told him I wanted to be his Head Teaching Assistant and laid out the reasons why. I worked for him for 3 years until I graduated. I realize now that I used the skills I learned and practiced at a small school and applied them in a bigger setting.
People always ask me how I got that job. It was a coveted position since he was a celebrity of sorts — insanely smart and the spiritual adviser to the San Francisco 49ers. His lectures were packed with 500+ students. I owe (or blame) Buckley for having the confidence and know how to ask for what I wanted.
Last, but certainly not least, was the FUN. This is probably what I remember most about Buckley. IT. WAS. FUN. The kids were FUN, on campus and off campus. There was always creativity and music and video making and camraderie. Our class would get together on weekends or after school to shoot movie videos, comedy sketches, make noise (!) and just have good quality kid fun.
So, that’s it. Those are the highlights of my Buckley memories. Buckley taught me how to think, how to question and how to do. I don’t know if that translates into being a “successful” adult, but I feel it prepared me for life. Even more important than the actual content of the subjects learned was being conditioned to constantly seek to better myself and those around me. Dr. Buckley’s methodology taught me to think critically, to strut through life with self-confidence, to get things done and gave me a hunger that prevents me from ever strolling through life complacently. These invaluable life lessons… these are what begin at two.
+ All photos courtesy of The Buckley School.
+ ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON BEYONDTHEBROCHURE.COM
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HIV Modernization is a complex and nuanced topic. Use this summary guide to understand the basic concepts behind our HIV Advocacy Project. This brief description also discusses the current legislative efforts of HB 427 and SB 626.
HIV Advocacy Talking Points
Florida leads the country in the rate of new HIV transmissions. Equality Florida’s HIV Advocacy Project is a new statewide initiative to curb the rate of new transmissions in our state. The HIV Advocacy Project was born from the need to address this important public health issue as it still disproportionately affects the LGBTQ community. The project consists of a statewide public education campaign to inform residents of the dangers of stigma, misinformation, and the current Florida outdated HIV-specific laws, which continue to serve as a disincentive for people to seek testing and treatment.
HIV Modernization Movement - Why This is Important
- Florida is one of 32 states and two US territories that has HIV-specific laws that are outdated and in need of modernization to align with the current science of HIV treatment and prevention. These laws continue to be used against people living with HIV regardless of intent to harm others or actual transmission having occurred.
- These laws work against public health policies, perpetuate the stigma of HIV, and discourage people from knowing their HIV status. In Florida, people living with HIV can be found criminally liable for up tp to 30 years in prison if they fail to disclose their HIV status to a consensual partner before any type of sexual contact. Someone can be convicted of HIV transmission even when transmission is impossible or if transmission does not occur.
- Florida’s laws criminalizing people living with HIV disregard the varying levels of risk of the full range of sexual behavior. It ignores biomedical advances that prevent people living with HIV from transmitting HIV to their negative partners or any preventative measures taken by either party.
- People living with HIV who are in treatment oftentimes become “undetectable.” The Center for Disease Control recently published a memo stating that “people who achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load pose no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner.”
HB 427 and SB 626: HIV Prevention
- HB 427 and SB 626, sponsored by Rep. Nicholas Duran (D - Miami) and Sen. Jason Pizzo (D - Miami), is bipartisan legislation that aims to modernize HIV statutes to bring them up to date with current medical advances in HIV treatment and prevention. They seek to address the current stigma against people living with HIV and hope to increase the number people getting tested, treated, and to undetectable status.
- HB 427 and SB 626 update statutes by:
- Allowing people living with HIV to donate organs when deemed medically appropriate by a physician this has the potential to save thousands of lives.
- Clarifying that criminal transmission of HIV includes an intent to transmit and only when the negative partner is unaware that the other person can transmit a sexually transmitted infection.
- Aligning criminal transmission of HIV with criminal transmission of all sexually transmitted infections in Florida.
- Clarifying that people living with HIV who are in treatment, use prevention methods, and meet the CDC’s definitions of “undetectable” pose no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to negative partners.
- HB 427 and SB 626 do not impact prosecution of those who people who seek to harm others by intentionally transmitting HIV. It is, and will continue to be, illegal to intentionally transmit HIV to a negative partner.
- Regardless of HIV-related laws, there are a number of criminal statutes in Florida that protect people from deceptive or malicious transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Laws that specifically single out people living with HIV only serve to further marginalize and stigmatize which in turns erodes efforts to get people into testing and treatment.
- We all want to be able to earn a living, provide for our families, and live long and healthy lives surrounded by family, friends, and loved ones. Florida’s HIV criminalization laws dehumanize people living with HIV and create a climate of fear, mistrust and danger for communities that already experience marginalization.
- HB 427 and SB 626 will save the state hundreds of thousands of tax dollars and relieve pressure on an already strained criminal justice system. Current law unfairly punishes and incarcerates people who have no intent to do harm and, in most cases, when no harm is done. If we believe that our criminal justice system’s laws should be fair and effective, these statutes should be the first on our list for modernization.
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The Fears of Henry IV
APPENDIX ONE
Henry’s Date of Birth and the Royal Maundy
When I began the research for this book, Henry was the only Plantagenet king whose date of birth was in doubt.1 As a consequence, and because of the importance of ascertaining his age in relation to Richard II, a considerable amount of time was devoted to this problem at the outset. The result is a short essay entitled ‘Henry IV’s date of birth and the royal Maundy’ which will appear in the journal Historical Research. Readers wishing to check the methodology and sources used should refer to that article. What follows here is simply an explanatory note on the complications of the date of birth itself and the establishment of the part of the royal Maundy custom which relates to the sovereign’s age.
Henry was almost certainly born on Maundy Thursday 1367. Because it was such an important day in the Christian calendar, he commemorated his birthday on Maundy Thursday, not on the calendar day (15 April). In itself there was nothing unusual in this, for medieval people expressed their birthdays in terms of a saint’s feast day (i.e. Edward II spoke of his birthday as St Mark’s Day, not 25 April, and Edward III spoke of his as St Brice’s Day, not 13 November). What is unusual in Henry’s case was that the feast on which he was born was a moveable one. Thus he celebrated his birthday on a different day each year. This seems very strange to us, but it was not that uncommon in the middles ages; King John even started his regnal year on a different day each year (having been crowned on Ascension Day), with the result that his administrative or financial years were all of different lengths.
As a result of this, it is likely that Henry did not know the calendar date of his birth. If he had asked to know the exact date, he may have been told that no significant saint was celebrated on that day. So there was a good reason to continue celebrating it on Maundy Thursday. In addition, Richard II was very proud of his birth on the Epiphany; so Henry, by drawing attention to the fact that he was born on Maundy Thursday, could demonstrate that Richard was not the only member of the royal family to be so favoured by God. Indeed, by performing the traditional pedilavium (feet-washing) ritual, Henry was able to contrast his own royal humility with Richard’s style of self-interested absolutism.
An interesting by-product of this research has been the identification of the origin of the current Maundy tradition of giving alms according to the sovereign’s age next birthday. Henry himself started this tradition, on Maundy Thursday 1382, which he celebrated as his fifteenth birthday. Previously kings and other members of the royal family had made Maundy Thursday donations to thirteen, fifty or two hundred paupers (thirteen being the number of men present at the Last Supper). But in 1382, when his father gave him the money to make the usual donations of alms to thirteen paupers, Henry added the money to spread his donations among fifteen, the same number as years in his age. In later years he gave money, clothes and shoes, but the number always corresponded with either his age last birthday or his age next birthday. By 1388 the tradition had been taken up by his wife, Mary, who made a donation that year relating to her own age (eighteen), and his sons did likewise. Thus, when Henry V ascended the throne, Maundy Thursday became a sort of ‘official birthday’ for the king. The Yorkist kings dropped this custom, perhaps remembering it as Henry IV’s birthday, but even if its origins had been forgotten, it had already become a potent Lancastrian custom. Henry VII resurrected it shortly after his accession, and there is plenty of evidence that it was being adopted by many Lancastrian sympathisers in the early sixteenth century (following a similar pattern to the wearing of Lancastrian livery collars). The later Tudor monarchs perpetuated the ceremony and added to it, and thus handed it down to modern times.2
It is somewhat ironic that the one royal date of birth which has been unknown to historians for so many years is actually the one still commemorated by the sovereign to this day.
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The Miami Children’s Museum is one of the most prominent tourist attractions in Miami, especially those that attract the family.
The museum was established in 1983 and was then named the Miami Museum of Youth and in 1993 the museum was expanded and moved to Watson Island near downtown Miami to an area of 56,500 square feet.
The Miami Children’s Museum is one of the 10 largest and most important museums in the United States of America in addition to being the only museum for children in Miami County.
The museum has fourteen interactive exhibition halls, and also offers seasonal camping during the holidays.
The best activities at the Children’s Museum in Miami
• Walk around the museum and watch live educational performances there.
• Enter the halls of drawing and coloring and shapes for the family and the family with the children and participate in the coloring and cutting and pasting together and spend the most beautiful happy times.
• Participate in birthday parties for children who coincide with the days they are in the museum and enjoy this big party for a group of children and their families together inside the museum, the kids will have much fun.
• Children enter the interactive electronic games rooms and spend a fun and exciting time.
• Have lunch in a restaurant in the museum and enjoy the interactive atmosphere in it.
$ 18 for tourists (children or adults)
Miami Children’s Museum Hotels – Miami
Mi Miami Hotel 4 stars one of the best hotels in Miami is less than 5 minutes’ walk from the Children’s Museum
The hotel got very good reviews for the location, cleanliness, staff.
Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay four stars is a 5-minute drive from the Children’s Museum of Miami
The hotel got very good reviews in all respects.
Miami Children’s Museum site
The 7 best activities in Miami American Zoo
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US on fire – what next?
The angry wave of riots that has swept the United States undoubtedly came as the most serious challenge to President Donald Trump since his election in 2016. The significance of this unrest transcends the usual pre-election scenario though, laying bare its deep-seated causes and the impact it may have on the ability of the United States, as a bulwark of Western civilization, to play a dominant role in the world.
Such an analysis brings to mind similar events that have happened during the past two decades elsewhere in the world, above all in Europe. Essentially, the protests that rocked France at the end of 2005 are similar to the violent actions that we now see happening in the streets of Los Angeles and other US cities. Moreover, the riots that flared up in the Paris suburbs became the precursor of the “migrant crisis,” which left Europe bitterly split over the issue of whether or not to let in refugees and illegal migrants from the Near and Middle East, and Africa. That crisis became a significant factor in the UK voters’ majority decision to exit the European Union, in the growth of anti-Brussels sentiments in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and the deepening crisis in Germany’s relations with other “locomotives of European integration.”
From this particular standpoint, the US protests are more “inclusive.” During the 2005 street protests in France, divisions ran along social, territorial (outskirts vs. center) and religious (the most active rioters were Muslims, including the followers of the most radical forms of Islam) lines. Therefore, there were “external” factors being played out versus traditional French (Belgian, German, etc.) society. This triggered the crisis that eventually engulfed the whole of Europe, a crisis that was largely a “clash of civilizations” in line with the well-known concept of the US political scientist Samuel Huntington, who argued that future wars would be fought not between countries, but between cultures.
It is by no means coincidental that the French media has in recent days been openly gloating over what is going on in the United States.
“Come summer, it is hard to imagine forces that will be able to prevent this depressed nation from slipping further into insanity,” the Paris-based newspaper Le Figaro wrote. [1]
However, the nature of the unrest that swept through US cities following the tragic death of George Floyd is fundamentally different because first, it is inherently an American one as the confrontation is two-pronged concerning the African-Americans’ role and place in society and the state, the degree of the protection they have, and second, the financial and other consequences that all Americans (regardless of their area of residence, religious affiliation and skin color) have suffered in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and associated nationwide restrictions and socio-economic losses. To an outsider, this confrontation is unfolding as part of the “we are them” dichotomy, just like it was in France in 2005-2006. However, while in France multiple socio-political and ethno-confessional demographics played the role of “others,” the US protests are spearheaded at federal and local authorities and their institutions (primarily the police), as well as at financial circles personified by the Federal Reserve System (the Fed) and Wall Street.
“As the coronavirus pandemic continues to pummel the economy, many Americans are now decreasing their retirement contributions, but some are raiding their retirement accounts to pay for essentials. A new survey found 3-in-10 Americans dipped into the funds meant for their golden years,” the MagnifyMoney website pointed out. [2]
US financial analyst Lance Roberts takes an even more pessimistic view of the situation. He sees the case of George Floyd as just the tip of the iceberg of social injustice: “America was not prepared financially for the downturn caused by the pandemic. The Americans are angry, financially stressed, and the visible face of their ire has become Wall Street and the Fed.” [3]
“Citizens’ legitimate calls for change must be heard and acted upon, not ignored and repressed,” warns US analyst Michael Shoebridge in the June 3, 2020, issue of The Strategist. He believes that this already difficult task is now being complicated by “the particularly volatile environment of a US presidential election campaign being conducted in the middle of a tragic and destructive pandemic and an economic crisis, both of which are affecting the poor disproportionately.” Furthermore, the killing of George Floyd presents “a newly-reopened wound of police violence against African-Americans.” According to Shoebridge, “managing multiple crises and divided citizens is what democracy and the rule-of-law are designed for.” Therefore, “leadership matters at such a time in a democracy and Trump and his use of presidential power […] will play a defining role. Trump’s words will also be key, either as catalysts for further violence or, if he chooses to change the direction of his rhetoric, calm and unity,” he added. [4]
“Media, politicians, the public — all of us — have underestimated the training and capability of left-wing extremists, who are united in purpose. All the parts of rioting serve a purpose. Looting and fires destroy local economies. Riots can overwhelm the police and even the military. All of this leads to a destabilized state. America is brave and beautiful. She is not invincible,” the UK edition of The Spectator warns. [5]
The Central and East European countries that financially, politically and militarily align themselves with the United States, are taking particularly close to heart the events now unfolding in cities across the US.
"The image of the United States as the center of Western civilization is crumbling right before our eyes. Will it be able to restore it? Isn’t it time for us to ask ourselves whether we should pin all hopes for our future and security on the US?” the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita wonders. [6]
However, President, Donald Trump is second to none when it comes to financial and economic maneuvering and the desire to put out emerging cash crises both at home and abroad, including with the help of the Fed’s printing press. He has already outlined his election priorities, and, as always, they are mostly economic ones, such as measures to kick-start production, reduce unemployment, cut down the foreign trade deficit, and counter China. If implemented, they would help mitigate the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic, solve some of the most hard-hitting socio-economic problems and win Trump good points in the upcoming election race amid the current economic difficulties (according to the World Bank, global exports dropped by 11.9 percent in March alone, compared to the same period of last year). [7]
Meanwhile, Trump’s opponents are not sitting on their hands either and are trying to make maximum use of the current riots, which are probably their only way to discredit their opponent in the upcoming elections in November. Therefore, one can expect the protests to acquire a new quality, and both Republicans and Democrats to use the general radicalization of the public sentiment to toughen domestic and foreign policy, which, in turn, would have a direct bearing on many geopolitical processes and will destabilize the economic situation in the world.
The views of the author are his own and may differ from the position of the Editorial Board.
[1] https://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/monde/emeutes-aux-etats-unis-l-amerique-entiere-est-devenue-un-campus-universitaire-20200601
[2] URL: https://www.magnifymoney.com/blog/news/early-withdrawal-coronavirus/
[3] URL: https://ru.investing.com/analysis/article-200270196
[4] URL: https://regnum.ru/news/polit/2970684.html
[5] URL: https://spectator.us/andy-ngo-antifa-american-insurgency/
[6] URL: https://www.rp.pl/Komentarze/306019917-Haszczynski-Wizerunek-Ameryki-sie-sypie.html
[7] URL: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4364811?query=%D0%95%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0
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'''''Presbyter''''' is, in the [[Bible]], a synonym for ''[[bishop]]'' (''episkopos''), referring to a leader in local Church congregations. In modern usage, it is distinct from ''bishop'' and synonymous with '''''priest'''''. Its literal meaning in Greek (''presbyteros'') is "elder." == History == The earliest organization of the [[Christian]] churches in Palestine was similar to that of [[Judaism|Jewish]] [[synagogue]]s, who were governed by a council of elders (''presbyteroi''). In [[Acts of the Apostles|Acts]] 11:30 and 15:22, we see this collegiate system of government in Jerusalem, and in Acts 14:23, the [[Apostle Paul]] ordains elders in the churches he founded. Initially, these '''presbyters''' were apparently identical with the '''overseers''' (''episkopoi'', i.e., [[bishop]]s), as such passages as Acts 20:17 and [[Book of Titus|Titus]] 1:5,7 indicate, and the terms were interchangeable. Shortly after the [[New Testament]] period, with the death of the [[Apostles]], there was a differentiation in the usage of the synonymous terms, giving rise to the appearance of two distinct offices, '''[[bishop]]''' and '''presbyter'''. The bishop was understood mainly as the president of the council of presbyters, and so the bishop came to be distinguished both in honor and in prerogative from the presbyters, who were seen as deriving their authority by means of delegation from the bishop. The distinction between presbyter and bishop is made fairly soon after the Apostolic period, as is seen in the 2nd century writings of St. [[Ignatius of Antioch]], who uses the terms consistently and clearly to refer to two different offices (along with ''[[deacon]]''). Initially, each local congregation in the Church had its own bishop. Eventually, as the Church grew, individual congregations no longer were served directly by a bishop. The bishop in a large city would appoint a presbyter to pastor the flock in each congregation, acting as his delegate. == Modern usage == The [[Orthodox Church]] often refers to presbyters in English as ''priests'' (''priest'' is etymologically derived from the Greek ''presbyteros'' via the Latin ''presbyter''). This usage is seen by some Protestant Christians as stripping the [[laity]] of its rightful priestly status, while those who use the term defend its usage by saying that, while they do believe in the ''priesthood'' of all believers, they do not believe in the ''eldership'' of all believers. Presbyters are often referred to as ''Father'', though that is not an official title. Rather, it is a term of affection used by Christians for their [[ordination|ordained]] elders. Priests are often styled as '''Reverend''' (Rev.). [[Archpriest]]s and [[Protopresbyter]]s are styled as '''Very Reverend''' (V. Rev.), while [[Archimandrite]]s are styled as '''Right Reverend''' (Rt. Rev.). [[Monastic]]s who are ordained to the priesthood are known as ''hieromonks''. == Sources == *Liddell & Scott, ''An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon'', pp. 301, 668 *''The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary'', p. 2297 *''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed.)'', p. 1322 ==External links== *[http://www.saintelias.com/EtiquetteKK/Greetings/Greetings_elia.html Church etiquette (Ukrainian tradition)] (including '''how to greet a priest''' or bishop) [[Category:Clergy]] [[Category:Priests|*]]
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(Redirected from Latin music (genre))
Music from Spanish and Portuguese areas or sung in either language
This article is about the genre of music. For music from Latin America, see Music of Latin America. For other uses, see Latin music (disambiguation).
Early-1900s in the United States
Derivative forms
Latin R&B
2021 in Latin music
Latin music (Portuguese and Spanish: música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all genre for music that comes from Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking areas of the world, namely Ibero-America and the Iberian Peninsula, as well as music sung in either language.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
1 Terminology and categorizations
Terminology and categorizations[edit]
Spanish singer Julio Iglesias was recognized by the Guinness World Records in 2013 as the best-selling male Latin artist of all time.[8]
Because the majority of Latino immigrants living in New York City in the 1950s were of Puerto Rican or Cuban descent, "Latin music" had been stereotyped as music simply originating from the Spanish Caribbean. The popularization of bossa nova and Herb Alpert's Mexican-influenced sounds in the 1960s did little to change the perceived image of Latin music. Since then, the music industry classifies all music sung in Spanish or Portuguese as Latin music, including musics from Spain and Portugal.[4]
Following protests from Latinos in New York, a category for Latin music was created by National Recording Academy (NARAS) for the Grammy Awards titled Best Latin Recording in 1975.[9] Enrique Fernandez wrote on Billboard that the single category for Latin music meant that all Latin music genres had to compete with each other despite the distinct sounds of the genre. He also noted that the accolade was mostly given to performers of tropical music. Eight years later, the organization debuted three new categories for Latin music: Best Latin Pop Performance, Best Mexican/Mexican-American Performance, and Best Tropical Latin Performance.[10] Latin pop is a catch-all for any pop music sung in Spanish, while Mexican/Mexican-American (also to referred to as Regional Mexican) is based any musical style originating from Mexico or influences by its immigrants in the United States including Tejano, and tropical music focuses any music from the Spanish Caribbean.[11]
In 1997, NARAS established the Latin Recording Academy (LARAS) in an effort to expand its operations in both Latin America and Spain.[12] In September 2000, LARAS launched the Latin Grammy Awards, a separate award ceremony from the Grammy Awards, which organizers stated that the Latin music universe was too large to fit on the latter awards. Michael Greene, former head of NARAS, said that the process of creating the Latin Grammy Awards was complicated due to the diverse Latin musical styles, noting that the only thing they had in common was language. As a result, the Latin Grammy Awards are presented to records performed in Spanish or Portuguese,[13] while the organization focuses on music from Latin America, Spain, and Portugal.[14]
Since the late 1990s, the United States has had a substantially rising population of "Latinos",[15] a term popularized since the 1960s due to the wrong and confusing use of the term "Spanish" and the more proper but less popular term "Hispanic".[16] The music industry in the United States started to refer to any kind of music featuring Spanish vocals as "Latin music".[17][18][19] Under this definition, Spanish sung in any genre is categorized as "Latin".[20] In turn, this has also led to artists from Spain being labelled as "Latin" as they sing in the same language.[21]
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Billboard magazine use this definition of Latin music to track sales of Spanish-language records in the United States.[22][23] Billboard however considers an artist to be "Latin" if they perform in Spanish or Portuguese.[24] The RIAA initiated the "Los Premios de Oro y Platino" ("The Gold and Platinum Awards" in Spanish) in 2000 to certify sales of Latin music albums and singles under a different threshold than its standard certifications.[25] Billboard divides its Latin music charts into three subcategories: Latin pop, Regional Mexican, and tropical.[26] A fourth subcategory was eventually added in the mid 2000s to address the rise of Latin urban music genres such as Latin hip hop and reggaeton.[27]
1940s–1950s[edit]
The term "Latin music" originated from the US due to the growing influence of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the American music market, with notable pioneers including Xavier Cugat (1940s) and Tito Puente (1950s) and then accelerating in later decades.[2][3] As one author explained the rising popularity from the 1940s: "Latin America, the one part of the world not engulfed in World War II, became a favorite topic for songs and films for Americans who wanted momentarily to forget about the conflagration."[28] Wartime propaganda for America's "Good Neighbor Policy" further enhanced the cultural impact.[29] Pérez Prado is the composer of such famous pieces as "Mambo No. 5" and "Mambo No. 8". At the height of the mambo movement in 1955, Pérez hit the American charts at number one with a cha-cha-chá version of "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White".[30] El manisero, known in English as The Peanut Vendor, is a Cuban son-pregón composed by Moisés Simons. Together with "Guantanamera", it is arguably the most famous piece of music created by a Cuban musician.[31] "The Peanut Vendor" has been recorded more than 160 times,[32] sold over a million copies of the sheet music, and was the first million-selling 78 rpm single of Cuban music.
The Brazilian bossa nova became widespread in Latin America and later became an international trend, led especially by Antônio Carlos Jobim.[33] Rock en español became popular with the younger generation of Latinos in Latin America,[34] notably including Argentine bands such as Almendra.[35] Mexican-American Latin rock guitarist Carlos Santana began his decades of popularity.[36]
Salsa music became the dominant genre of tropical music in the 1970s. Fania Records was credited for popularizing salsa music, with acts such as Rubén Blades, Héctor Lavoe, and Celia Cruz expanding the audience.[37] In the late 1970s, an influx of balladeers from Spain such as Julio Iglesias, Camilo Sesto, and Raphael established their presence on the music charts both in Latin America and the US Latin market.[38] In 1972, OTI Festival was established by the Organización de Telecomunicaciones de Iberoamérica as a songwriting contest to connect the Ibero-American countries (Latin America, Spain, and Portugal) together. Ramiro Burr of Billboard noted that the contest was considered to be the "largest and most prestigious songwriting festival in the Latin music world".[39]
Main article: 1980s in Latin music
In the 1980s, the Latin ballad continued to be the main form of Latin pop music, with Juan Gabriel, José José, Julio Iglesias, Roberto Carlos, and José Luis Rodríguez dominating the charts.[40] Salsa music lost some traction, and its musical style changed to a slower rhythm with more emphasis on romantic lyrics. This became known as the salsa romantica era.[41]
Enrique Iglesias, son of Julio Iglesias is known as the modern King of Latin Pop.
Bolero music saw a resurgence of popularity with the younger audience. Mexican singer Luis Miguel was credited for the renewed interest due to the success of his album, Romance (1991), a collection of classics covered by the artist.[42] By the mid-1990s, Latin pop music was dominated by younger artists such as Menudo alumnus Ricky Martin, Colombian teen Shakira, and Julio's son Enrique Iglesias.[43] Around the same time, artists from Italy such as Eros Ramazzotti, Laura Pausini, and Nek successfully crossed over to the Latin music field by recording Spanish-language versions of their songs.[44] In the Regional Mexican field, Tejano became the most prominent genre. Selena helped push Tejano music into the mainstream market with her albums Entre a Mi Mundo (1992) and Amor Prohibido (1994), although the genre's popularity declined following her death in 1995.[45] In the tropical music field, merengue, which gained attention in the 1980s, rivaled salsa in popularity.[46]
In the mid-2000s, reggaeton became popular in the mainstream market, with Hector 'El Father' Tego Calderon, Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, and Wisin & Yandel considered to be the frontiers of the genre.[47] In the tropical music scene, bachata mus esic became popular in the field, with artists such as Monchy & Alexandra and Aventura finding success in the urban areas of Latin America.[48] Banda was the dominant genre in the Regional Mexican music field.[49]
By the turn of the decade, the Latin music field became dominated by up-tempo rhythms, including electropop, reggaeton, urbano, banda and contemporary bachata music, as Latin ballads and crooners fell out of favor among U.S. Latin radio programmers.[50] Streaming has become the dominant form of revenue in the Latin music industry in the United States, Latin America and Spain.[51] Latin trap gained mainstream attention in the mid-2010s with notable artists such as Ozuna, Bad Bunny, and Anuel AA.[52] In May 2013, Christina Aguilera appeared on Mexican singer Alejandro Fernández's cover of "Hoy Tengo Ganas de Ti" from his album Confidencias.[53]
Numerous computer science and music experts have reported a common error on streaming services such as Spotify. Overlooking mainstay artists in catch-all genre terms such as Latin music, potentially causing a categorical homogenization of musical styles; incorrectly miscategorizing musicians and songs from heritage styles, such as Norteño, New Mexico music, Duranguense, and Tejano music, leading to underperformance of these styles on their platforms.[54][55][56][57]
Latin music portal
Billboard Top Latin Albums
List of best-selling Latin albums in the United States
Category:Latin music by year
^ Morales, Ed (2003). The Latin beat: The Rhythms and Roots of Latin music From Bossa Nova to Salsa and Beyond (1. Da Capo Press ed.). Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. p. xiii. ISBN 978-0-306-81018-3. Retrieved September 10, 2015. Including Spain, there are twenty-two predominately Spanish-speaking countries, and there are many more styles of Latin music.
^ a b Stavans, llan (2014). Latin music: musicians, genres, and themes. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. xviii, 838. ISBN 978-0-313-34396-4. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
^ a b Lawrence, Larry; Wright, Tom (January 26, 1985). "¡Viva Latino!". Billboard. 97 (4): 53, 62. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
^ a b Flores, Juan; Rosaldo, Renato (2007). A Companion to Latina/o Studies. Oxford: Blackwell Pub. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-470-65826-0. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
^ Llewellyn, Howell (November 25, 1995). "ShowMarket to Focus on Development of Latin Music". Billboard. 107 (47): 72. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved July 30, 2015.
^ Arenas, Fernando (2011). Lusophone Africa: Beyond Independence. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 220. ISBN 978-0-8166-6983-7. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
^ Stavans, Ilan; Augenbraum, Harold (2005). Encyclopedia Latina : history, culture, and society in the United States. Danbury, Conn.: Grolier Academic Reference. p. 201. ISBN 978-0-7172-5818-5. The term Latin music identifies a wide range of genres and styles generated in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula
^ "Julio Iglesias receives world record certificate in Beijing". Guinness World Record. April 2, 2013. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
^ Gebesmair, Andreas (2001). Global Repertoires : Popular Music Within and Beyond the Transnational Music Industry. Taylor and Francis. p. 63. ISBN 9781138275201. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
^ Fernandez, Enrique (June 18, 1983). "NARAS Takes A Welcome Step". Billboard: 73. ISSN 0006-2510.
^ Fernandez, Enrique (November 1, 1986). "Latin Notas". Billboard. 98 (44): 40A. Retrieved March 22, 2015.
^ Lannert, John (June 21, 1997). "LARAS Formed To Expand Latin Work of NARAS". Billboard. 109 (25): 6, 92. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
^ Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa (September 12, 2000). "One Little Word, Yet It Means So Much". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
^ Fernandez, Enrique (March 5, 2000). "After Birthing Pains, Latin Grammys Should Grow Strong". Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
^ Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo (2008). Latinos: Remaking America. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25827-3.
^ González, Juan (2011). Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-311928-9.
^ Avant-Mier, Roberto (2010). Rock the Nation: Latin/o Identities and the Latin Rock Diaspora. Continuum Publishing Corporation.
^ Edwards, Bob (September 13, 2000). "Profile: Latin Grammys at the Staples Center in Los Angeles". NPR. Archived from the original on February 25, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
^ Barkley, Elizabeth F. (2007). Crossroads: the Multicultural Roots of America's Popular Music (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. p. 232. ISBN 978-0-13-193073-5. The U.S. record industry defines Latin music as simply any release with lyrics that are mostly in Spanish.
^ Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa (December 26, 1999). "The Loud and Quiet Explosions". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
^ Cobo, Leila (April 18, 2019). "What 'Latin' Means Now, In Music and Beyond". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
^ "RIAA 2015 Year-End Latin Sales & Shipments Data Report". RIAA. 2015. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
^ Cobo, Leila (January 5, 2012). "Latin Sales Down Slightly In 2011, Digital Latin Sales Up". Billboard. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
^ "Rosalia's Best New Artist Nomination: What It Means To Latin Music". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. November 20, 2019. Retrieved June 11, 2020. Note: we are considering Rosalía an artist who falls into the “Latin” category because she performs in Spanish or Portuguese
^ "RIAA Updates Latin Gold & Platinum Program". RIAA. December 20, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
^ "Billboard's Latin Charts Switch To SoundScan". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media: 4, 71. July 10, 1993. Retrieved January 19, 2013.
^ Cobo, Leila (May 21, 2005). "New Latin Charts Bow". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media. 117 (21): 10. ISSN 0006-2510.
^ Furia, Philip (2004). Skylark: The Life and Times of Johnny Mercer. Macmillan. p. 263. ISBN 978-1-4668-1923-8.
^ O'Neil, Brian (2005). "Carmen Miranda: The High Price of Fame and Bananas". In Ruiz, Vicki L.; Sánchez Korrol, Virginia (eds.). Latina Legacies. Oxford University Press. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-19-515398-9. the power that Hollywood films could exert in the two-pronged campaign to win the hearts and minds of Latin Americans and to convince Americans of the benefits of Pan-American friendship
^ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/pérez-prado-mn0000310383
^ Giro, Radamés 2007. Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba. La Habana. vol 4, p147
^ Listed in Díaz Ayala, Cristóbal 1988. Si te quieres por el pico divertir: historia del pregón musical latinoamericano. Cubanacan, San Juan P.R. p317–322. [list fairly complete up to 1988]
^ Taffet, Jeffrey; Watcher, Dustin (2011). Latin America and the United States: A Documentary History (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-538568-7. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
^ Candelaria, Cordelia (2004). Candelaria, Cordelia; García, Peter J.; Aldama, Arturo J. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture in the United States. 2. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 690. ISBN 978-0-313-32215-0.
^ Olsen, Dale; Sheehy, Daniel E. (2008). The Garland handbook of Latin American music (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. p. 458. ISBN 978-0-415-96101-1. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
^ Ruhlmann, William (2003). "Carlos Santana: Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
^ Bernstein, Arthur; Sekine, Naoki; Weismann, Dick (2013). The Global Music Industry Three Perspectives. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-135-92248-1. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
^ Salaverri, Fernando (November 3, 1979). "Spain Establishing the Latin European Link". Billboard. 91 (44). ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
^ Burr, Ramiro (January 5, 1991). "Mexican Quartet Captures Top OTI Prize". Billboard: 61.
^ Cobo, Leila (November 29, 2003). "The Prince's 40-Year Reign: A Billboard Q&A". Billboard. 115 (48): 28.
^ Pietrobruno, Sheenagh (2006). Salsa and Its Transnational Moves. Lanham: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-7391-6058-9.
^ Holston, Mark (September 1, 1995). "Ageless Romance with Bolero". Américas. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
^ Powell, John (2005). Encyclopedia of North American immigration. New York: Facts On File. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-4381-1012-7.
^ Obejas, Achy (April 4, 1999). "Italian Artists Conquer Latin Music Charts". Chicago Tribune. Tribune Company. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
^ Saldana, Hector (August 16, 2015). "Tejano music enjoyed a decade-long golden age". San Antonio Express-News. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
^ Rodriguez, Nelson (September 1, 1998). "A look at contemporary Merengue. - Free Online Library". Latin Beat Magazine. thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved July 7, 2019.
^ Resto-Montero, Gabriela (January 25, 2016). "The Unstoppable Rise of Reggaeton". Fusion. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
^ Cobo, Leila (August 15, 2009). "Tropical Paradise". Billboard. 121 (32): 31. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
^ Henderson, Alex. "Me Cambiaste la Vida – Rogelio Martinez". AllMusic. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
^ Cobo, Leila (September 10, 2014). "Latin Noise: We Want Our Ballads". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved September 8, 2015.
^ Melendez, Angel (April 25, 2017). "Why Are Spanish Songs More Popular on YouTube? Billboard's Leila Cobo Knows". Miami New Times. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
^ "Trap's Latin American Takeover". The Fader. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
^ "Hoy Tengo Ganas De Ti [feat. Christina Aguilera]: Alejandro Fernández". Amazon.es (Spain). May 14, 2013. Retrieved October 11, 2013.
^ "Spotify Pivots on Global Cultures Initiative, Alarming Music Industry". Rolling Stone. October 4, 2019. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
^ Hepworth, Shelley (January 1, 2020). "Streaming spells the end of the 'ownership' era of music, but are we ready to let go?". The Guardian. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
^ Lucero, Mario J. (January 3, 2020). "The problem with how the music streaming industry handles data". Quartz. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
^ "Spotify and streaming services are breaking cultural music on a worldwide stage". RouteNote Blog. February 6, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
Stavans, Ilan (2014). Latin music: musicians, genres, and themes. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-34396-4.
Morales, Ed (2003). The Latin Beat. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81018-3.
"1992 International Buyer's Guide to Latin Music". Billboard. 1992. ISSN 1074-746X.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Latin music (genre).
What Is Latin Music? About.com
Latin Music Genre Overview AllMusic
Latin Music Billboard
Latin Music USA PBS
American Sabor
Online music stores (iTunes Store)
Single (Extended play (EP), 12" single, Cassette single, CD single, Maxi single)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Latin_music&oldid=1000349055"
American styles of music
Lusophone music
Spanish-language music
Radio formats
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Amrita Sher-Gil
Amrita Sher-Gil (January 30, 1913 – December 5, 1941), an eminent Indian painter, was the daughter of Sardar Umrao Singh Shergil and Antoinette, a Hungarian lady. Her first notable work was "Young Girls", which made her an Associate of the Grand Salon in Paris in 1933; she was the youngest ever Asian to receive this recognition. Her quest for the rediscovery of the traditions of Indian art began at an young age but was cut short by her death at a prime age of 28. Mughal school of painting and Pahari schools of painting and the cave paintings at Ajanta greatly influenced her paintings. She was considered a prominent woman painter of 20th century India. Her legacy is comparable to that of the Masters of Bengal Renaissance. The Government of India has declared her works as National Art Treasures. She was sometimes called as India's Frida Kahlo.
1.1 Sikh Heritage, Amrita Shergil
2 About Amrita Sher-Gil
Modern art has led me to the comprehension and appreciation of Indian painting and sculpture. It seems paradoxical, but I know for certain that had we not come away to Europe, I should perhaps never have realized that a fresco from Ajanta... is worth more than the whole Renaissance!
In "Toward a Development of a Cosmopolitan Aesthetic"
"I am an individualist, evolving a new technique, which, through not necessarily Indian in the traditional sense of the word, will yet be fundamentally Indian in spirit. With the eternal significance of form and color I interpret India and, principally, the life of the Indian poor on the plane that transcends the plane of mere sentimental interest."
Amrita Sher-Gill: Art and Life: A Reader (page xvii)
Sikh Heritage, Amrita Shergil[edit]
Amrita Shergil. Sikh Hertigae. Retrieved on 7 December 2013.
Towards the end of 1933 I began to be haunted by an intense longing to return to India, feeling in some strange inexplicable way that there lay my destiny as a painter.
In 1933, when she wanted to return to India.
Europe belongs to Picasso, Matisse and many others, India belongs only to me.
When Amrita returned to India because her experience in a metropolis, after the initial excitement had died down.
The life of Indians, particularly the poor, pictorially....with a new technique, my own technique...and this technique though not technically Indian, in the traditional sense of the word, will yet be fundamentally Indian in spirit.
Her decision after coming to India in 1935.
...was to interpret the life of Indians and particularly the poor Indians, pictorially.
Proclamation of her mission when she painted "The Beggars and Woman with Sunflower".
Traditions that were once vital, sincere and splendid and which are now merely empty formulae, [nor to imitate fifth rate western art slavishly] break away from both and produce something vital, connected with the soil, something essentially Indian.
Amrita to her contemporary painters.
She was very fair and there was an expression of weariness in the lovely liquid dark eyes. Her little finely curved and red hued lips seemed like drooping rosebuds and were sealed as if it were in silence eternal....she seemed as if she guessed the cruel fate which had been meted out for her by the Rani and Rajah and her other rich but distant relations in whose hands she seemed a helpless toy.
At the age of 12, her description of a bride at an Indian wedding.
I am always in love, but unfortunately for the party concerned, I fall out of love or rather fall in love with someone else before any damage can be done.
About her love life
Modern art has led me to the comprehension and appreciation of Indian painting and sculpture. It seems paradoxical but I know for certain that had we not come away to Europe, I should perhaps never have realised that a fresco from Ajanta or a small piece of sculpture in the Musee Guimet is worth more than a whole Renaissance.'
In 1934 on her new art form
I shall in future be obliged to resign myself to exhibiting them (her paintings) merely at the Grand Salon, Paris, of which I happen to be an Associate and the Salon de Tuileries known all over the world as the representative exhibition of Modern Art, and to which I have been invited to participate in the past, a distinction I may add that few can boast of.
Statement made when her painting was rejected by the Simla Fine Arts Society in 1935.
Revelations. Ellora magnificent. Ajanta curiously subtle and fascinating-I have for the first time since my return to India learnt something from somebody else's work.
Her surprised reaction on seeing art work in Ellora and Ajanta
The Brahmacharis as the most difficult thing she had ever done....don't you think I have learnt something from Indian painting?...I don't know whether it is a passing phase or a durable change in my outlook but I see in a more detached manner, more ironically than I have ever done.
In a letter to Karl Khandalavala in 1937 after she had done three paintings on south Indian villagers - The Bride's Toilet, The Brahmacharis, and South Indian Villagers going to Market.
These little compositions are the expression of my happiness and that is why perhaps I am particularly fond of them.
On Her paintings from January to May 1938 done at Saraya including Elephants Bathing.
I was positively stunned and have straight away become a votary of Mathura art to the exclusion of all the other and later schools.
At Mathura where she saw Kushan sculpture for the first time and she proclaimed.
It is dreadful to think of Paris in German hands but what preoccupies me still more is what is going to happen to modern French art and the younger artists.
In June 1938 Amrita and her husband fled from Fascist dominated Hungary.
I was positively stunned and have straightaway become a votary of Mathura art to the exclusion of all the other and later schools. I had some of the things in reproductions but never dreamt they were so magnificent. With the possible exception of Mahabalipuram I don’t think I have seen anything in Indian sculpture that I liked so much.
In Dalmia, Yashodhara (15 January 2013). Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life. Penguin Books Limited. pp. 152–. ISBN 978-81-8475-921-1.
About Amrita Sher-Gil[edit]
The self-portraits display the artist moving from girl to woman to artist as she explored a sensuality that ranges from the heavy-handed to the subtle. Sher-Gil casts herself in a serious light in her Self-Portrait with Easel (1930), moving deliberately from the domestic and the intimate context of the nineteenth-century woman artist to the monumental and majestic poses recalling those of Rembrandt and later Van Gogh. Indira dressed as a European gentleman with Amrita dressed as her female partner.
At stake was not only a serious and viable artistic career as a woman, but the development of a subjectivity that was being defined through the self-portrait. conscious of being both muse and maker, Sher-Gil took on the position of artist and object with a double consciousness of being both.”
Above two quotes by art historian Rakhee Balaram in the self in making AMRITA SHER-GIL. Kiran Nadar Museum of Arts.. Retrieved on 7 December 2013.
Art in India was never the same after her comet like appearance. There are only a few moments in the history of art which pinpoint a new departure, a new direction. Such a moment in the history of modern Indian art was the appearance in the mid-thirties of Amrita Sher-Gil with whose paintings contemporary paintnig in India took shape and demonstrated the possibility of a contemporary style and expression that were, at the same time, of the soil and in direct continuation of the great national past.
Ruby Von Leiden in amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941). Learnpunjabi.org. Retrieved on 7 December 2013.
She [Sher-Gil] melded the Western and Indian idioms and did not, like many other artists of her time, attempt to find an authentic ‘Indian’ mode or weave together a nationalist agenda.
Yashodhara Dalmia on the artistic attitude of Sher-Gil in Toward a Development of a Cosmopolitan Aesthetic. Contemporary Aesthetics Organization. Retrieved on 7 December 2013.
A life cut tragically short, but with more colour perhaps than one may find in her work.
Amrita's life was more colourful than the bright colours she used in her paintings—this is a good look at it.
Above two quotes by Khushwant Singh in "Hamari Amrita". Retrieved on 7 December 2013.
that she was really a virgin because she'd never experienced the spiritual equivalent of copulation: she had many lovers but they'd left no scar. I'll leave a scar.
Comment by Malcolm Muggeridge her lover.
An Indian with a measure of European blood, she returned to India to shed her acquired skin....She saw her country with new vision and has left a legacy of pictures simple and grand...as a tribute to the Indian countryside and its people.
Maic Casey in Mitter, Partha (2007). The Triumph of Modernism: India's Artists and the Avant-garde, 1922-1947. Reaktion Books. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-86189-318-5.
Rose water and raw spirit...weird amalgam of the bearded star gazer and the red haired pianist pounding away at her keyboard.
Malcolm Muggeridge who had an serious affair with her in The Triumph of Modernism: India's Artists and the Avant-garde, 1922-1947, page=46
I didn't know how much truth there was to gossip of her being a nymphomaniac, but I was eager to get to know her.
Khushwant Singh in the self in making AMRITA SHER-GIL. Kiran Nadar Museum of Arts. Retrieved on 7 December 2013.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Amrita_Sher-Gil&oldid=2902898"
Painters from India
Hungarian Jews
Hungarian painters
People from Budapest
Punjabi people
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Just Communities of Arkansas (JCA)
With its roots in preceding organizations, Just Communities of Arkansas (JCA) is a social justice and equity organization based in Little Rock (Pulaski County) that educates individuals of all ages on the value of diversity. The organization’s mission is to create “a place where every person is valued, every voice is heard, and everyone has a fair chance to succeed.” Over time, its focus has expanded from fighting religious and racial bigotry, with recent work increasingly centered on issues such as immigrant and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights.
After a quarter century of efforts, the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ) organized a field office in Little Rock in 1964. To match its broadening mission, in the mid-1990s, the national organization changed its name to the National Conference for Community and Justice, maintaining its acronym NCCJ. In 2005, facing a financial crisis that ultimately resulted in the shutdown of its office, the national NCCJ shifted from its traditional structure with power concentrated in the national organization to a collection of autonomous regional offices like that in Little Rock. Soon thereafter, the Arkansas NCCJ moved away from its mother organization and became, first, Just Communities of Central Arkansas (JCCA) and then, in 2009, Just Communities of Arkansas.
During its initial years in Arkansas, NCCJ was active in the education of teachers in how they might improve religious and race relations. The organization formed its Youth Council in 1966. NCCJ was also a base of support for the Arkansas Council on Human Relations in its civil rights work. More visibly, the regional director of the NCCJ hosted, for a brief period, a half-hour television and radio series titled New Horizons in Human Relations.
The organization highlighted a Humanitarian of the Year at its annual Brotherhood Dinner, identified as the first integrated social event in the city. The first recipient, in 1964, was former congressman Brooks Hays. At the height of the civil rights era, the second dinner was disrupted by a bomb threat that led to an evacuation before the completion of the program. In the early years, the large dinners were televised live. The dinner remains a hallmark event for the organization. Over the years, honorees have included governors and other political leaders, religious leaders, business leaders, athletes, and actors.
In the 1970s, NCCJ expanded its work into new turf such as criminal justice and labor relations. Still, the organization stayed true to its roots in interreligious dialogue work such as providing Christian and Jewish speakers throughout the public school system after the broadcast of the high-profile television mini-series Holocaust. In 1979, the Arkansas region was lauded for its program on biomedical ethics; it laid the foundation for the development of a medical ethics department at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).
A series of workshops promoting interracial dialogue among youth and adults was begun in the late 1980s and early 1990s as religious issues became less of a focus of the organization’s work. These included the Anytown summer camp for youth (renamed Ourtown for Teens in 2006), an anti-prejudice workshop for all teachers and staff members in Pulaski County’s three school districts, and the Ourtown adult program for civic and community leaders.
In 1987, the organization created a second award, honoring Catholic priest and social justice advocate Father Joseph H. Biltz. This award, recognizing one or more individuals or groups engaged in significant social change work, is given annually at JCA’s Gathering of Friends event. In 2000, the organization began an annual walk in downtown Little Rock, now called Walk for Community, as a major community event and fundraiser.
JCA, more recently, has expanded youth work to younger children, with a focus on combating bullying. Topically, the educational work was expanded to a series of panels called “Straight Talk,” in which LGBT Arkansans and their family members explain what it is to be LGBT in the state. While JCA occasionally engages in advocacy work through public statements and joining litigation as a “friend of the court,” the organization continues to focus its efforts on educational activities.
Just Communities of Arkansas. http://www.arkansasjustcommunities.org/ (accessed August 20, 2013).
Shepherd, Ruth D. The Company We Keep: 50 Years of Arkansans Creating Just Communities. Little Rock: Butler Center Books, 2013.
Jay Barth
Racism Seminar
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UAE’s Mohammed bin Rashid, Mohamed bin Zayed receive Qatari Sheikh Sultan bin Suhaim
The visiting delegation was hosted at Al Bahr Palace on Monday. (Twitter)
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Monday 19 February 2018
The Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, on Monday received Sheikh Sultan bin Suhaim Al Thani and his accompanying delegation.
محمد بن راشد ومحمد بن زايد يستقبلان سلطان بن سحيم آل ثاني ويرحبان به في بلده الثاني، ويؤكدان على العلاقات الأخوية والتاريخية التي تجمع الشعبين الشقيقين pic.twitter.com/cPPWgIFwCa
— محمد بن زايد (@MohamedBinZayed) ١٩ فبراير، ٢٠١٨
The visiting delegation was hosted at Al Bahr Palace on Monday. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid and Mohamed bin Zayed, welcomed Sheikh Sultan to the UAE, affirming the deep fraternal and historic ties that bind people of both countries. Sheikh Sultan congratulated the UAE leaders on the safe return of Sheikh Zayed bin Hamdan to the homeland.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid and Mohamed bin Zayed, welcomed Sheikh Sultan to the UAE. (Twitter)
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai; Sheikh Ammar bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, Crown Prince of Ajman; Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler’s Representative in Al Dhafra Region; Sheikh Nahyan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation; Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs; Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chief of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince’s Court; Sheikh Omar bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation; Sheikh Khalid bin Zayed Al Nahyan Chairman of the Board of Zayed Higher Organization for Humanitarian Care and Special Needs, ZHO; and Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance also attended the meeting.
Despite Turkish reservations, Qatar, ExxonMobil plan oil drilling off Cyprus
Round two in the boycott of Qatar
Why was Qatar absent from a map inside the Louvre Abu Dhabi?
How Qatar has planted mines of extremism
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Sea lice kill wild salmon in Canada
Parasites, particularly lice, engender the population of wild salmon on the west coast of Canada. Wild pink salmon around the Broughton Archipelago may die out during the period of ten years just because of parasites coming from nearby fish farms, a study says.
Sea lice are natural parasites that usually attach to adult salmon with little ill effect and have little contact with vulnerable juvenile salmon. The situation changes when the fish farms move in, according to a study to be published Friday in the journal Science.
In natural conditions, the adult salmon that carry the sea lice aren't in the migration channels and rivers at the same time as young pink and chum salmon, so the little fish are rarely exposed.
When fish farms move in, hundreds of thousands of adults are raised in floating net pens anchored year-round in the channels where the young wild fish migrate. The study suggested that the density of fish farms reached a tipping point in 2001 that triggered a killer sea lice infestation.
When West Coast salmon catches in the United States crashed in the 1990s, farmed salmon filled the gap in supermarket coolers. Global production has been growing ever since.
The study found that sea lice infestations around salmon farms in British Columbia's Broughton Archipelago, north of Vancouver Island, have reached a density so high they are killing juvenile wild pink salmon at a rate fast enough to drive local runs to extinction within another four years.
"This is the first time scientists have had enough detailed data to actually measure the impact of sea lice on wild salmon populations," said Martin Krkosek, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate at the Center for Mathematical Biology at the University of Alberta.
The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which regulates salmon farms and is responsible for protecting wild salmon, said the study overstates the risks, which are not consistent with figures for pink salmon returns since 2002, when populations collapsed.
"They are asking us to believe 80 percent mortality is from one source," said Brian Riddell, head of the salmon science branch of the department's Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, B.C. "That's simply unrealistic."
The authors suggested that the simple solution is to move fish farms out of salmon migration corridors, but Riddell said that was impractical given the prevalence of wild salmon.
Alexandra Morton, a co-author and director of the Salmon Coast Field Station in the archipelago, said wild salmon are surviving commercial fishing but not sea lice.
"The trajectory is much steeper than we expected," she said.
Ray Hilborn, a professor of fisheries at the University of Washington who was not associated with the study, said he replicated the analysis and agreed with the conclusions. But the stream surveys are far from exact, he said.
"It is a very localized effect," not likely to threaten pink salmon populations in general, he said.
Wild pink salmon are not a commercially important species, but they are an important food source for orcas and other salmon in the ocean. They also provide food for bears and other wildlife and nutrients for trees.
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Lisbon NATO Summit: Time for reflection
NATO is the anathema of today's international community, serving no purpose other than pandering to the needs, whims and caprices of the arms lobby which gravitates around the White House, creating a supra-national umbrella apparently lending credence to its expansionist policies.
As billions of people around the world wonder how they are going to put a crust of bread on the table at dinner time, Lisbon's luxury hotels are all booked up for the visit of the NATO delegations, representing many of the countries which spent centuries siphoning off resources under imperialist policies, destroying peoples and cultures and committing massacres.
And as the NATO delegations gather for the conference, there is an enormous cloud on the horizon, so enormous it blots out the sun illuminating NATO's very existence: what is NATO?
NATO began as a military and political alliance to defend the North Atlantic space against attack, a mutual defence agreement guaranteeing a massive response to any attack on a member state way back in 1949, over sixty years ago. Most of Africa was still ruled by imperialist powers, the ink was not yet dry on India's or Pakistan's treaties of independence from the British Raj, Queen Elizabeth II (who today is celebrating almost her diamond anniversary, 6 decades, on the throne) was just a royal princess, Churchill was yet to have another term as Prime Minister of the UK.
This attack never came, mainly because the Warsaw Pact was essentially a defensive military alliance, and therefore any talk about NATO "winning" the Cold War is ridiculous, and proof of sour grapes by those who knew very well that had NATO ever started hostilities, the Soviet Union would have obliterated its forces and the main cities of its member states within minutes.
So when the Warsaw Pact dissolved voluntarily on July 1, 1991 following the voluntary dissolution of the USSR and the reshaping of the geo-political space it had occupied between January 19, 1990 and December 31, 1991 why did NATO not follow suit?
Thousands of pages have been written on this topic but let us condense them into one or two: NATO exists on one level, a military one, with pretexts to perpetuate its own existence existing on another two, the political and social areas. And the more we study, the more we see that the military arm of NATO is the head of the octopus.
Pretexts, indeed, because when the Warsaw Pact dissolved, NATO lied, giving various pledges over the years that it would not station "substantial combat forces" on territories belonging to the former Warsaw Pact. Yet NATO subsequently did expand, creating new markets for its weapons and creating new sources of financing for Washington's wars.
That having been said, the rest is easy to explain. Take for example the trillion-dollar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (the need to finance an expansionist policy based upon control of the Earth's energy resources, not by Lisbon, or Tirana, or Copenhagen, or Brussels, but by Washington).
It is easy to explain when we see that the Pentagon likes to dole out military contracts for weaponry tested in the battlefield, hence the need to create more conflicts and the more member states involved, the greater the sense of legitimacy.
It is easy to explain when we see that under NATO's able management, the opium production in Afghanistan, suppressed by the Taleban, has increased not four, nor fourteen but forty-fold. It is easy to explain when we see the need to create an ever-wider umbrella of legitimacy to guarantee that those responsible for NATO's war crimes will never be held accountable. Added to this, under NATO, Afghanistan has also become the world's leading supplier of hashish.
As a military alliance, NATO is an abject failure, restricted to paying off the Sunni militia in Iraq not to attack and to paying the Taleban to accompany NATO convoys in Afghanistan, while it is common knowledge that neither the Taleban, nor Al Qaeda, can be defeated by this multi-national force.
As a political grouping, how constitutional is it for NATO member states to support fellow members whose ex-leaders are the subject of arrest warrants for war crimes at the ICC in The Hague?
And as an organization which is trying to forge a social vector to justify itself, who or what is NATO and what right does it have to supplant the efforts of the UNO? And here lies the crux of the matter: in an international community with a United Nations Organization supposedly responsible for the resolution of international conflict and crisis management and now without a Warsaw Pact, where does NATO fit in?
The only option open to NATO in Lisbon is to do the decent thing and disband, as a mutual and multilateral token of goodwill. Yet this will not happen, for the psyche behind NATO is sinister and not decent and the organization is anything but multilateral. Ask Portuguese President Anibal Silva about the time he was Prime Minister, cowering in a bunker, at the time of the first Gulf War, and the pressures NATO exerted at the time upon the country which now hosts the Summit...
Now, if NATO engaged Russia and the CSTO with a view to creating a worldwide rapid reaction force, integrating it into a UNO which was universally respected, nobody would have an axe to grind.
To note, the anti-NATO organizations gathering in Lisbon must remember that they represent the anti-NATO international community and as such have the obligation to behave in a way which respects the law and does not bring the image of those who have fought long and hard for justice against this violent anachronism into disrepute.
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Benjamin Collard: The former Young Boys prospect keen to make an impact in his father’s homeland
No Comments on Benjamin Collard: The former Young Boys prospect keen to make an impact in his father’s homeland
Benjamin Collard longs for a return of a more direct style of play. It may not be a popular opinion for someone who has spent the majority of their career playing in Switzerland but maybe it is his English heritage which wants him want to get stuck in more than others.
“Yes in these days I miss the crosses because in Switzerland all coaches want to play the new Barcelona tiki-taki style and that has affected the way people tackle as well,” he says. “In England you would not get even a card but in Switzerland it would be almost red.
“So I think I have a lot of English blood in my body!”
Collard is a midfielder who is born and raised in Switzerland but his Derbyshire through and through father has clearly had an impact. The 24-year-old still visits his father’s side of the family in England regularly, especially to visit his older brother. His upbringing in Switzerland came after his father met his Swiss mother in London before the pair then decided to relocate to the continent.
He arguably may not have had as good of a football upbringing if his parents had never decided to settle in Switzerland. The midfielder grew up in the academy of 12-time Swiss League winners Young Boys, playing alongside some of the country’s best prospects.
“Of course, the time I spent there was amazing,” he says. I still have a lot of friends I knew from that time like Florent Hadergjonaj (Huddersfield Town) and Michael Frey (Fenerbahce), especially. We were a very good side in this time and beat clubs like Basel and Zürich.
“We trained in the stadium all of the time because it was synthetic grass so it was perfect. I learned a lot and still support them in the Champions League and in the Super League.”
Playing for Young Boys meant he grew up learning to play the Swiss way under some of the country’s best coaches but that does not mean his heritage did not affect his style of play. His Derby County mad father seems to have affected the way his son likes to play football.
Collard (far right) with teammates at Naters Oberwallis
“I can play in midfield almost everywhere, it depends on the tactics of the club, but most of the time I have played winger or number ten. I like to shoot and dribble and of course, because of the English style, I like to cross the ball, like Beckham in the old days.
“When people see me play, I think they would say I play like the a young Samir Nasri, back when he was at Marseille. I’m courageous and try to make things happen.”
After leaving Young Boys in 2010 as a 16-year-old, he went on to spend several years in the youth setup of fellow Swiss Super League side FC Thun, playing for their U21 side in the fourth-tier. Collard’s favoured crossing style paid off as in three seasons with the U21 side, he contributed 14 assists.
In 2015, he joined fellow fourth-tier side Zug 94 in the north of the country before deciding to venture abroad for the first time.
“I was at Zug at the time and I wanted a new adventure,” he says. “I know an agent from Greece and he asked me if I wanted to play over there so without much thinking, I said yes and went.
“I played there in Crete for a team called Almyros before I joined Niki Volou.
“I had a one season contract and stayed at the hotel of the president. It was a good time and I’d never seen as much sun in all my life. With my English colour I got sunburned everyday but I enjoyed life very much and we had good games.”
During his time with Niki Volou in the third-tier, he played alongside English forward Sadik Balarabe before heading back to his native Switzerland to join third-tier club Köniz and then joined Naters Oberwallis in 2017 where he has been since.
This year, he’s made eight appearances so far with his side sitting just above the relegation spots before they headed into the near five month winter break. Having played in the third and fourth tiers during his career, the level has always been of a high standard.
“There are players that live on playing football but most of them work alongside football.
“I think the league is quite competitive. We have good training pitches and train as hard as the professionals. We play in the cup games too and sometimes the teams in this level win against the Super League sides like FC Luzern so as you see, it’s not too far off the standard.”
Still only 24, Collard has a lot more to give in his football career and time for him to complete an ambition of his.
“Of course why not?” he says in reply to the question of whether he’d like to play in England. “I’m very interested in English football from Premier League to League Two and I try to watch as many games I can.
“I was once in Manchester and played a friendly game with a local team against Bala Town from the Welsh Premier League. I played well but they couldn’t afford much salary so I came back. I don’t play for money but I wouldn’t have been able to afford the rent.
“England is always in my heart and I love the country very much.”
It’s clear that the midfielder has a passion for his father’s homeland and with time on his side, he may well get the chance to make an impact in the leagues of the country which he feels very much attached to.
Tags Benjamin Collard
← Sandy Walsh: The successful Dutch youth international who has a strong English heritage → Sam Tillen: An English abroad legend who has built a life in Iceland
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SOLD OUT | Webinar: European Excellence in Sustainability Sharing Sessions – Green Financing
UPDATE: This event is SOLD OUT. Thank you for your interest!
A rapidly changing climate represents a potent, unprecedented and irreversible threat to habitats, societies and economies around the globe. In 2015 almost 200 leaders signed the Paris Climate Agreement, committing countries to transition to a lower carbon economy and limit the global average temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.
Over the past years, many countries have introduced new initiatives and financial products to expand sustainable finance. Despite this encouraging momentum, the deployment of private capital for sustainable finance is still constrained due to a variety of institutional and market barriers. Public finance alone may not be sufficient to meet the demands for sustainable finance as the global economy continues to grow and poses increasing burdens on our resources and ecosystems. Join us on the 28th of April and discover how the public and private sector will help us transition from carbon-intensive activities to a cleaner future.
During this Webinar on Sustainable Finance, three European companies: ING, Swiss-Re and the World Gold Council will present their sustainability initiatives and projects to EuroCham members, government representatives, stakeholders, university students and alumni. Following the presentation, the speakers will be joined by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the World Wildlife Fund representative to share their knowledge and best practices. The discussion will be moderated by a professor from NUS Business School. The session is in proud collaboration with SwissCham Singapore.
Federico DONATO, President of EuroCham
Barbara PLINKERT, EU Ambassador to Singapore
5:20 pm Opening and introduction of the speakers
Johan SULAEMAN, Associate Professor, Dean’s Chair NUS
ING, Herry CHO
Swiss Re, Ieva SEGURA COBOS
World Gold Council, Andrew NAYLOR
Moderated by: Johan SULAEMAN
Additional Panellists:
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Gillian TAN
World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Dr. Helena WRIGHT
Herry CHO
Head of Sustainable Finance Asia Pacific
Ms Cho launched ING’s Sustainable Finance regional franchise in 2017, and spearheaded the regional sustainability direction since 2015. She leads the origination and execution of sustainable finance transactions including green/social/sustainability bonds and loans in Asia Pacific, and broader sustainability advisory. Her clients include leading banks, corporates and conglomerates in the region.
Ms Cho leverages on a broad financial background having worked in Mergers and Acquisitions Advisory, Capital Structuring and Advisory, and Equity & Debt Capital Markets for ING. Currently based in Singapore, Ms Cho has previously worked in Hong Kong, London and Amsterdam. She has led a number of sustainable financing firsts in the region across green and social bonds/loans, and sustainability linked loans where the loan pricing is linked to ESG performance.
She is on the Executive Committee Board of International Capital Market Association (ICMA)’s Green/Social/Sustainability Bond Principles, the sustainability lead on the APAC regional committee of ICMA and on the Asia Pacific Loan Market Association’s Green Finance Committee to shape the sustainable finance markets in this region and globally. Ms Cho is a regular speaker in high profile conferences and events, and holds a combined Bachelors and Masters (MBioch) Degree in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, UK.
Ieva SEGURA COBOS
Head of Regulatory Risk Management Asia
Swiss Re Asia Limited, Singapore
Ieva has recently moved to Singapore to head Swiss Re’s Regulatory Risk Management Asia. In this role, she develops Swiss Re’s advocacy strategy in key policy areas such as climate change and sustainability, tech and digital regulation, and ensures that the company has clear positions for engagement with regulators and policymakers across the region. She also has responsibility for identifying and monitoring sustainability and emerging risks for the business in Asia.
Prior to this role, she was based in London and led Swiss Re’s regulatory team for Europe, Middle East and Africa. In that capacity, she worked closely with the European institutions and regulators in developing insurance regulation on sustainability topics, including the taxonomy for sustainable investments. She also acted as an Associate Chair of the Reinsurance Advisory Board, an external body of Europe’s largest reinsurance firms, and a member of the Board of Directors of the European Financial Services Roundtable, which represents the interests of Europe’s largest banks and insurers.
Originally from Lithuania, Ieva holds a Master’s from the London School of Economics (UK) in International Political Economy and a BA from the University of British Colombia (Canada) in Economics and International Relations. Before joining Swiss Re in 2015, she worked in the Strategic Partnership team at the World Economic Forum (Switzerland) and at the UK Parliament.
Andrew NAYLOR
Executive Director, Head of Public Policy
Andrew Naylor joined the World Gold Council in 2016. He is head of ASEAN, Australia, Japan and Korea. In this role he is overseeing the expansion of the World Gold Council’s activities in the region, including a renewed focus on investment. He is also global head of public policy and is responsible for the Council’s regulatory and policy initiatives.
Prior to the World Gold Council, Andrew worked for international consultancy firm Cicero Group advising financial institutions on foreign investment, the regulatory reform agenda and trade policy in Asia and Europe. Andrew sits on the management committee of the Singapore Bullion Market Association (SBMA). He was a board member of the European Chamber of Commerce in Singapore from 2012 to 2019. Andrew regularly gives broadcast media commentary on global and political economic developments on the BBC, Sky News, Channel NewsAsia and CNBC. Andrew has a degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and the College of Law of England and Wales.
Executive Director Financial Markets Development Department
Gillian Tan is the Executive Director of the Financial Markets Development Department at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The department aims to promote a vibrant financial market in Singapore, with a focus on developing the capital market, asset management and insurance sectors, and to foster a sound and innovative technology, payments and exchange infrastructure.
Dr. Helena WRIGHT
WWF Singapore
Dr. Helena Wright is Vice President at WWF in Singapore where her work focuses on sustainable infrastructure and energy finance, including leading on the topic of sustainable infrastructure finance in WWF’s global network. Prior to joining WWF, Helena worked for think tank E3G on sustainable finance and has also worked for the UK Government on international climate finance. Helena has previously worked for the United Nations based in Bangkok, and has advised businesses on renewable energy and resource efficiency. She has published several book chapters and articles on sustainability in peer-reviewed journals, and was a contributory author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC). Helena completed her PhD and Masters degree at Imperial College London, and holds an undergraduate degree from Cambridge University.
Johan SULAEMAN
Dean’s Chair and Associate Professor Finance
Johan SULAEMAN is a Dean’s Chair and an Associate Professor in the Department of Finance at the NUS Business School. He is currently the Academic Director of the NUS MSc (Finance) Programme. He recently served as the Research Director of the Centre for Asset Management Research & Investments (CAMRI). He obtained his PhD in Finance from University of Texas at Austin (McCombs). He received his Masters of Financial Engineering (MFE) from the Haas School at the University of California, Berkeley, and his BSE in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan.
He teaches in various educational programs, including executive education, in courses involving portfolio theory, equity, fixed income assets, options, futures, investment strategies, and risk management. His current research interests focus on the effects of geographic factors on various economic outcomes. He also works on research questions related to the effects of ownership structure on corporate decisions, and the role of various economic agents in disturbing and maintaining market efficiency.
STUDENT TICKETS ARE NOW SOLD OUT – thank you for your interest.
There are limited student tickets available.
Registration Guidelines – For All Registrants
Step 2: Prior to the event, a Zoom registration link will be sent if payment has been received. (Payment by PayPal, PayNow/ PayLah/ QR Code preferred). Please watch out for this second email.
Step 3: Using the link provided in the second email, register on Zoom (requires the same First Name, Last Name and Email that you used for registration on the EuroCham website).
Step 4: Upon successful registration on Zoom, you will receive a confirmation which you can save on your calendar. Please enter the virtual meeting 15 minutes prior to the start of the event.
TICKETS ARE NOW SOLD OUT – thank you for your interest.
EuroCham Members and Supporting Organisations - S$15.00
Students - S$0.00
EuroCham Event
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Eurovision 2020 Reviews – Armenia
Reviews by eurovisionunion May 13, 2020
A once strong Eurovision nation, Armenia has struggled in recent years to make it to the final. They have two non-qualifications in a row, which is unprecedented for Armenia, so this year they were hoping that Athena Manoukian would change that with her song, Chains on You.
Out of all the national selections this year, Armenia had arguably one of the weakest selections, which didn’t bode well for the nation, considering they have not qualified for two years in a row. Winning the selection was Athena Manoukian with the song Chains on You, and over social media I saw promises that Athena was one of Armenia’s biggest vocalists – but maybe that set the bar a bit too high for me.
Watching the performance at the national final, I was not impressed. It was a total mess, the vocals did nothing for me, it was hard to understand the lyrics, and the backing music was underwhelming. Armenia remained towards the bottom of my list this year, until the revamp was released.
Well played by Armenia, because they managed to turn an underwhelming song into something I actually enjoy listening to, but of course, this applies to the studio version alone. The music has a heavier ethnic tint, and just overall feels better produced than before. There were some small structural changes in the song which work well, but the revamp just gave that extra kick to the song. Even though I enjoy it a lot more, what continues to cast doubts in my mind is the fact that her vocals were underwhelming in the live performance. It was so hard to hear what she was saying, and that does still apply to the studio version, although it was worse in the national final. With the verses leaning more towards rap, the pre-choruses and choruses absolutely need to be nailed, as it’s the main time that her vocals are really on show.
The music video definitely gives off Beyonce vibes, and Athena really fits into the fierce pop category. She is visually confident even though her vocals weren’t spectacular in the national final, but I suspect that Armenia had more in the bag for Eurovision itself. A strong light show and good choreography is all this song needed, but they may have included a big prop on stage.
Athena was chosen in a national selection, thus making it difficult to determine which direction the Armenian broadcaster will go. They have jumped between internal and public selections in recent years, and have NQ’ed in both scenarios. Based on the poor selection this year, I would stick with Athena next year and either give her a song selection or just really put focus into that song. Sticking with ethno-pop seems like a good idea, but perhaps a song that sounds a bit more authentic, rather than trying to really push the rap idea might help Armenia return to the final.
I originally didn’t place Armenia as a qualifier at all, but with the revamp and knowing their capabilities to stage an act gave me some doubts. There was some wiggle room in the second semi-final, so qualifying could have been possible but those vocals needed to be spot on. Even then, it would have been borderline. Armenia has some work to do to get back on track at Eurovision, as I think they have lost their spark.
Ethnic, tempting and contemporary. The Armenian song for the late Eurovision Song Contest 2020 ticks a lot of the boxes that gave them success in the past. Athena gave a good vocal performance of the song, but still I was not fully convinced about its chances in Rotterdam. The song appears to be memorable, but it isn’t offering anything new or refreshing within the genre. The composition lacks something unique. This can be enough for a narrow qualification, but not more than that. The song has the potential to grow on someone, but Eurovision songs don’t always get that chance with most viewers.
On paper, the act is fitting with the theme and vibe of the song ‘Chains on you’. Athena also does a good job in her presentation. However, I don’t fully believe her. It’s like she is playing to such a naughty performer, but perhaps she isn’t really like that at all. I feel like the act was made up for her, and it is not something that she is really comfortable with. For me this affects the credibility of the act. Something which usually works in the televote results, people can’t be fooled. Interesting fact is that this act did better with the jury than televote in Armenia, whilst you would expect it the other way around.
The Armenian lips about Eurovision 2021 are still sealed. Athena was not chosen by the broadcaster directly, so perhaps they have gotten second thoughts and want to do another preselection in 2021. Or they just haven’t set their minds to Eurovision again after the cancellation. Either way, Armenia has been silent thus far. I think it would be nice to see Athena at Eurovision. I am curious to hear her perform something completely different and see how she does that.
Armenia was not predicted a top-10 in the semi finals with the bookmakers, thus making Athena a non-qualifier. I don’t know that, but I can’t say I was fully convinced with their chances. Somehow I did not believe the performance by Athena, and credibility and sincerity are one of the main keys to success at Eurovision. There is still some work to be done for Armenia towards 2021.
Brandon: 6/10
Selim: 8/10
Heath: 5/10
Kaitlin: 6.5/10
What do you think of Chains On You? Follow our Eurovision 2020 reviews here.
2020ArmeniaAthena ManoukianChains On YouEurovisionEurovision 2020Eurovision ReviewsOpen UpReview
2000 and Whatever – Croatia
Eurovision 2020 Reviews – Bulgaria
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Anthony Sargent
Anthony Sargent studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University while concurrently busy as a conductor and singer, and then spent 13 years in radio and television production and presentation at the BBC, including working as Head of Artistic Planning for the BBC Proms festival and for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and independent work as a record producer with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and other orchestras and choirs. He then moved to London’s Southbank Centre as Artistic Projects Director responsible for leading much of Southbank’s original programming and major festivals. Moving to Birmingham for ten years as the City Council’s Head of Arts, he created and implemented Birmingham’s first Arts Strategy and was also responsible for leading the city’s largest scale and most ambitious arts projects such as the 10-year festival of the 20thC, Towards the Millennium, developed jointly with Sir Simon Rattle, and the year-long citywide music festival that launched the Arts Council’s Arts2000 annual series of UK cultural festivals. Concurrently he represented Birmingham on the Culture Committee of Eurocities.
In 1999 Anthony rejoined the BBC in the senior management of their nationwide radio & TV Millennium Music Live festival, at the time the most ambitious music festival the BBC had ever staged, then in 2000 he was invited as founding General Director to establish, open and lead Sage Gateshead (architect, Norman Foster), the international centre for music and musical discovery on Tyneside, winning the UK’s largest single arts sponsorship achieved at that time outside London and leading the integration of 3 separate entities to create the centre’s new management team. Five years after opening Sage Gateshead had a turnover twice the original projections, commercial income 4x and education income 5x the original projections. While at Sage Gateshead Anthony was elected Chair for 3 years of the New York based International Society for the Performing Arts and was a Board director of ECHO, the European Concert Hall Organisation.
In 2015 he moved to Canada to lead Toronto’s Luminato international arts festival as CEO as it entered its second decade - launched with the 10th Anniversary Festival entirely staged in specially designed facilities in Toronto’s spectacular Hearn Electricity Generating Station, the only public event ever to have been held in the immense, decommissioned and ruined building, achieving the highest level of earned income in the festival’s history. During Anthony’s five years Luminato was re-positioned for its second decade with all three tiers of Government, corporate partners and individual donors, artists and audiences, the media and cultural communities throughout Canada, connecting Luminato organically with all those communities.
An awardee of the CBE, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and Honorary Doctor of Music, on leaving Sage Gateshead Anthony was awarded The Freedom of the Borough of Gateshead, the highest honour UK municipal authorities can bestow, after receiving (jointly with UK football legend Sir Bobby Robson) the Hotspur Award, given for outstanding contribution (”with bold endeavor”) to the development of North East England.
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Heather Ross, MD, MHSc, FRCPC, FCCS, FACC
Head, Division of Cardiology
Peter Munk Cardiac Centre
Heather Ross, MD, MHSc, FRCP (C), FACC, FCCS is the Head, Division of Cardiology at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at UHN and Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is the Site Lead for the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, and currently holds the Loretta A. Rogers Chair in Heart Function and the Pfizer Chair in Cardiovascular Research. She received her MD from the University of British Columbia, her Cardiology training at Dalhousie University, and a postdoctoral fellowship in Cardiac Transplantation at Stanford University, California. She earned her MHSc in Bioethics from the University of Toronto.
Dr. Ross has had numerous leadership roles including President of the Canadian Society of Transplantation in 2005, Executive of the International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation (ISHLT 2002 – 2005) and ISHLT Secretary Treasurer 2007-2010. She has served 11 years over two terms on the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Council, and is a past president of the CCS. She spent 6 years on the Board of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Academy. She served 4 years on the Executive of the Heart Failure Society of America. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. She is the past Ted Rogers and Family Chair in Heart Function 2010-2017. She has published over 300 peer reviewed articles and won numerous teaching awards including the University of Toronto Teacher of the Year (2017), and the UHN Department of Medicine Michael Hutcheon Mentor Award (2017). In 2015, she was named by Canadian Geographic as one of the top 100 modern day explorers.
THE HF QUEST: DECODING THE EVIDENCE TO TRANSFORM HEART FAILURE OUTCOMES
HFREF AND IN-HOSPITAL INITIATION: CLINICAL EVIDENCE
THE HEART FAILURE CONTINUUM AND THE LIVED EXPERIENCE: PERSPECTIVES FROM DIAGNOSIS THROUGH TRANSPLANT AND BEYOND
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Diverse Learning Key to Students’ Future
UAEU Experts Consortium Discusses the Future of Education in the Digital Age
Al Ain, UAE, 6th February, 2020 - From customised curriculums to more real life experience preparing students for the workplace of the future, experts discussed ways to help the UAE’s education system step into and beyond the country’s 50th anniversary.
At a special panel on the education of the future held at United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) on Tuesday, students, parents, members of industry and academics discussed the ways institutions, curriculums taught and teaching methodology can be adapted to better match the country’s massive technological advancements.
Dr Aquib Moin, astronomy and space science faculty at UAEU, said better connections between academia and industry would be vital in this next chapter: “There are gaps, there’s something missing from these systems, something the students aren’t getting and a gap between teaching and learning which is revealed when they face the real world. Until that time, they don’t find themselves dealing with those issues during their academic lives.”
His sentiments were echoed by panelists at the event, held in preparation of Expo 2020 Dubai, where the university will be hosting a pavilion themed around the future of education, using the world fair as a test bed for the education of the future through its student-led ‘Pathfinders Program’. The university’s pavilion will tackle issues including overcoming unemployment and identifying the skills and curriculums of the future, engaging the country’s youth and parents as key contributors to this new model.
Prof David Thomson from UAEU’s biology department, said the time has come for the UAE to have a more customised system of its own, as it reaches its 50th anniversary, rather than simply basing its formulae on international models, in this new, more mature age. "The evolution that we’ve seen in the last almost 50 years has to a large extent been achieved by following other well established models. Following an international model can give effectiveness and credibility and it is important not to lose that but I think if we sat down to address what we’re trying to achieve, it has to be something catering more closely to the UAE and its unique needs,” he said.
Speaking at the event as guest panellist, Prof Christoph Meinel, Dean of Hasso Platter Institute, Germany, said digital transformation means there is no way the education system globally cannot transform with it. “Digital transformation needs to address the education system, not only the gap which exists, but the speed of change. With IT the change is so fast,” he said. Its system in Germany is an open platform, bringing students together to collaborate and offering its content free (openhpi.de). “This means the role of the teacher is changing. When there are 10,000 people participating in a course you can be sure among those, someone knows more than the professor. This invites others to contribute but not every professor is ready for that. It’s very successful and helpful though.”
Organisations using the platform include World Health Organisation and Volkswagen. “With things like Coronavirus, it’s vital to have good knowledge spread round the world quickly,” he said, something such online educational platforms can transmit and share far quicker than any conventional institution.
Students need greater exposure to the vast range of subjects available in the UAE’s educational wide ranging institutions from colleges and vocational institutions to universities, said Dr Fareed Alameeri, R+D Ecosystem, ADEK, suggesting this must happen from as early as six and seven years old. "Students in sixth or seventh grade need to be exposed to the community, facing life, and this is crucial, because by that exposure, you’ll expose them to options that might spark their interest as they grow older. This is why we notice in our community that students are guided more by parents, friends or colleagues rather than igniting their own sparks of passion.”
Shifting the emphasis purely from academics into a more holistic system, he says is critical, giving the pupils opportunities to develop skills from music to languages, and as they get older, allowing them to take on internships to experience first hand, the world of work. “Those are the opportunities which help them decide their major and future. At university level, we need customisation for curriculums to suit individuals. There needs to be diversity. This will prepare students for their workplace, employability and their future,” he said, suggesting that a more systemised approach connecting universities to industry, must be a goal for the country moving forward.
Dr Yehya Al Marzouqi, Executive Director at Tawazun said, “Our achievements in the UAE speak for themselves but if we sit complacently we will nosedive and the university system has to come along as well,” agreeing that it is students as young as six and seven who must be the targeted, helping them develop character from school age.
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Accrington ST HULL City
Accrington ST vs HULL City Summary
Accrington ST 6 33 17 25 17 550% 550% 317% 125% 375%
HULL City 2 38 20 32 19 650% 650% 210% 350% 350%
Accrington ST vs HULL City head 2 head
Accrington ST
League One league table
1 Lincoln 11 6 1 4 17 13 19 10 7 2 1 15 5 23 21 13 3 5 32 18 42 14 1.50
2 HULL City 9 6 0 3 10 6 18 11 6 2 3 22 13 20 20 12 2 6 32 19 38 13 1.60
3 Portsmouth 10 4 3 3 14 8 15 9 6 2 1 18 7 20 19 10 5 4 32 15 35 17 1.70
4 Doncaster 10 6 2 2 19 11 20 8 4 1 3 13 9 13 18 10 3 5 32 20 33 12 1.80
5 Peterborough 8 6 1 1 20 8 19 11 4 2 5 10 12 14 19 10 3 6 30 20 33 10 1.60
6 Accrington ST 8 5 2 1 9 6 17 9 5 1 3 16 11 16 17 10 3 4 25 17 33 8 1.50
7 Charlton 10 4 3 3 18 16 15 11 5 3 3 15 12 18 21 9 6 6 33 28 33 5 1.60
8 Ipswich 11 7 0 4 14 12 21 8 3 2 3 11 10 11 19 10 2 7 25 22 32 3 1.30
9 Crewe 11 6 2 3 17 10 20 10 3 2 5 11 14 11 21 9 4 8 28 24 31 4 1.30
10 Sunderland 10 3 4 3 10 11 13 9 4 5 0 14 4 17 19 7 9 3 24 15 30 9 1.30
11 Fleetwood Town 10 5 3 2 16 7 18 10 3 2 5 12 11 11 20 8 5 7 28 18 29 10 1.40
12 Oxford United 9 4 2 3 14 10 14 11 4 2 5 16 17 14 20 8 4 8 30 27 28 3 1.50
13 Blackpool 9 5 1 3 11 10 16 11 3 2 6 9 13 11 20 8 3 9 20 23 27 -3 1.00
14 Gillingham 11 4 1 6 10 14 13 10 4 1 5 13 13 13 21 8 2 11 23 27 26 -4 1.10
15 Plymouth 12 7 2 3 19 16 23 9 0 3 6 9 21 3 21 7 5 9 28 37 26 -9 1.30
16 Milton Keynes Dons 10 3 5 2 14 11 14 11 3 2 6 12 14 11 21 6 7 8 26 25 25 1 1.20
17 Shrewsbury 9 1 5 3 11 13 8 11 4 4 3 10 12 16 20 5 9 6 21 25 24 -4 1.10
18 Bristol Rovers 9 3 1 5 10 15 10 9 3 3 3 10 12 12 18 6 4 8 20 27 22 -7 1.10
19 Northampton 12 3 3 6 8 17 12 9 3 1 5 11 19 10 21 6 4 11 19 36 22 -17 0.90
20 Rochdale 10 1 5 4 10 18 8 10 4 1 5 20 19 13 20 5 6 9 30 37 21 -7 1.50
21 AFC Wimbledon 9 2 2 5 14 18 8 11 3 4 4 11 15 13 20 5 6 9 25 33 21 -8 1.30
22 Swindon Town 11 4 1 6 13 18 13 10 2 1 7 15 25 7 21 6 2 13 28 43 20 -15 1.30
23 Wigan 10 2 3 5 12 19 9 10 3 1 6 9 16 10 20 5 4 11 21 35 19 -14 1.10
24 Burton Albion 11 2 2 7 17 27 8 12 1 5 6 12 23 8 23 3 7 13 29 50 16 -21 1.30
Accrington ST Last Games
- + + + - - 0 - ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? - + + - - + + + - + ? ? ? ? - + + + 0 + 0 + + - + 0 ? ? ? + - ? ? ?
HULL City Last Games
- - + - + + + - + + - + + - + - ? + + + + + + - + 0 + - - - ? ? + 0 ? + ? ? ?
Accrington ST Results
HULL City Results
Accrington ST Goals
HULL City Goals
Accrington ST Strength
HULL City Strength
Accrington ST Goals (Last 30 games)
HULL City Goals (Last 30 games)
Accrington ST Scorers (Last 15 games)
Colby Bishop 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 6
Dion Charles 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 5
Joe Pritchard 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 4
Cameron Burgess 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2
Lewis Mansell 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Jonathan Russell 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Joe Fryer 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Ryan Cassidy 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Michael Nottingham 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
HULL City Scorers (Last 15 games)
Mallik Wilks 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 4
Tom Eaves 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4
Josh Magennis 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4
James Scott 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
Martin Samuelsen 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
Greg Docherty 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2
Reece Burke 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 2
Callum Jones 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Hakeeb Adelakun 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
Keane Lewis-Potter 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
Lewie Coyle 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
Accrington ST Bad Boy (Last 30 games)
Sean Mcconville 21.11.2020
Dion Charles 26.09.2020
Harvey Rodgers 07.03.2020
Joe Pritchard 01.02.2020
HULL City Bad Boy (Last 30 games)
Accrington ST 1.67 0.83 1.67 0.79 1.63
HULL City 1.17 1.50 1.17 1.64 1.38
Accrington ST vs HULL City
Accrington ST takes the 6th position in the league table with 33 points. This is the 17th of 46 team game in the tournament.
Accrington ST has the same number of points with the nearest team on top and can score 87. In addition, the distance from the TOP-4 is zero points (87 points are possible). The nearest pursuer has the same number of points with Accrington ST and can score 75 points. The goal difference is 25:17. The Accrington ST defensive line is one of the TOP-4 in the tournament.
HULL City is in the TOP-4 with 38 points. This is the 20th of 46 team game in the tournament.
The difference with the nearest team on top is 4 points (HULL City can score 78 points). In addition, the distance from the first place is 4 points (78 points are possible). The nearest pursuer is 3 points lower and has the opportunity to score 81 points additionally. The goal difference is 32:19. In addition, the HULL City offensive line is one of the TOP-4 in the tournament.
Accrington ST Stats
The team scored 23 points оn its own field in 10 last matches, with the following results 7 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss. The difference between scored and conceded goals is 13-9. The average number of goals is 1.3. The average number of cards in 10 last matches is 2.3.
Leading players in the last 15 matches in all tournaments: Colby Bishop (6), Dion Charles (5), Joe Pritchard (4), Cameron Burgess (2), Lewis Mansell (1), Jonathan Russell (1), Joe Fryer (1).
HULL City Stats
The team scored 17 points when playing away in 10 last matches, with the following results 5 wins, 2 draws и 3 losses. The difference between scored and conceded goals is 20-10. The average number of goals is 2. The average number of cards in 10 last matches is 2.5.
Leading players in the last 15 matches in all tournaments: Mallik Wilks (4), Tom Eaves (4), Josh Magennis (4), James Scott (3), Martin Samuelsen (2), Greg Docherty (2), Reece Burke (2).
QPR have completed the loan signing of Hull defender Jordy de Wijs. The 26-year-old Dutchman first joined the Tigers in 2018 and has since made 76 appearances.
Former Hull and Ipswich defender Alex Bruce has announced his retirement. The 36-year-old, son of Newcastle manager Steve, revealed the news via social media on Monday.
Burton expect their game at Hull to go ahead as scheduled on Saturday despite a coronavirus outbreak at the club.
Burton are waiting to discover if this weekend's clash with Hull will go ahead after a number of their first-team squad and staff tested positive for coronavirus.
22 October 2020, 11:04 sportsmole.co.uk
Hull full-back Lewie Coyle is out of Saturday's League One clash with Peterborough as he begins up to six weeks on the sidelines.
20 September 2020, 11:45 sportsmole.co.uk
West Ham United will be looking to bounce back from Saturday's Premier League defeat at Arsenal when they take on Hull City in the third round of the EFL Cup on Tuesday night.
Another of the EFL's pilot events to test the return of spectators has been cancelled, with Hull's match against Crewe now back behind closed doors on public health grounds.
Marcelo Bielsa took full responsibility for Leeds' poor display after they crashed out of the Carabao Cup to Hull 9-8 on penalties.
Hull clinched a deserved upset at Leeds in the Carabao Cup second round after winning a penalty shootout 9-8. Tigers defender Alfie Jones scored the decisive penalty after Leeds had been fortunate to force a 1-1 draw through Ezgjan Alioski 's stoppage-time equaliser.
Leeds winger Ian Poveda insists his side's intensity levels will not drop when they take on Hull in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.
Leeds United will be looking to put their opening-day Premier League defeat to Liverpool behind them when they face Hull City in the second round of the EFL Cup on Wednesday.
20 August 2020, 08:43 sportsmole.co.uk
Hull have completed the signing of Rangers midfielder Greg Docherty for £400,000. The former Scotland Under-21s international spent Tuesday at London's Harley Street Hospital undergoing a medical and has agreed a three-year deal - with the option of a fourth.
Rangers midfielder Greg Docherty is close to completing a £400,000 switch to Hull, the PA news agency understands.
7 August 2020, 08:50 sportsmole.co.uk
Hull have signed defenders Lewie Coyle and Josh Emmanuel to address their lack of right-back options. Former Fleetwood player Coyle has moved for an undisclosed fee on a three-year deal, with the option of a fourth in the club's favour, and will try and help the Tigers out of League One.
Hull manager Grant McCann has been given a vote of confidence from the club's owners following relegation from the Sky Bet Championship.
23 July 2020, 09:45 sportsmole.co.uk
Hull's last-day defeat at Cardiff confirmed their relegation to the third tier for the first time in 15 years. The Tigers were in the Premier League during the 2016/17 season, so why did it all go wrong?
The Championship season reached a thrilling climax on Wednesday evening but there was heartbreak for Hull, Charlton and Wigan who finished in the bottom three.
Neil Harris hailed Cardiff's "huge achievement" of making the Sky Bet Championship play-offs and hopes momentum will carry his team forward after sending Hull down.
Cardiff City head into their final-day clash with League One-bound Hull City knowing that their Championship playoff fate is in their own hands.
Hull are on the brink of dropping into League One for the first time since 2005 after Luton won 1-0 at the KCOM Stadium to enhance their own survival chances.
Crisis club Hull City will be looking to bounce back from a humiliating defeat last time out when they take on fellow bottom-three side Luton Town on Saturday afternoon.
Hull boss Grant McCann apologised to the club's fans after their 8-0 thrashing at fellow Sky Bet Championship relegation battlers Wigan.
Wigan scored seven goals in an incredible first half as they thrashed fellow Sky Bet Championship relegation battlers Hull 8-0 at the DW Stadium.
The Latics scored seven first half goals in the clash between Championship relegation battlers to set or equal a number of records
Wigan boss Paul Cook is without Danny Fox for the crucial Sky Bet Championship clash with fellow relegation contenders Hull at the DW Stadium.
Wigan Athletic play host to Hull City with the opportunity to move 12 points clear of the Championship relegation zone, the margin required to avoid the drop when their points deduction for entering administration is enforced.
Hull put in a predictable and ponderous performance in defeat to Millwall but manager Grant McCann remains confident of beating the drop with three just matches remaining.
Ryan Leonard 's second-minute stunner sealed Sky Bet Championship play-off hopefuls Millwall a narrow victory at beleaguered Hull.
9 July 2020, 10:33 sportsmole.co.uk
Hull City and Millwall with both be looking to bounce back from respective defeats when they go head-to-head at the KCOM Stadium in Saturday's Championship clash.
Bristol City are back in Championship action for the first time since sacking boss Lee Johnson as they take on strugglers Hull City at Ashton Gate on Wednesday evening.
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Home » News » Celebrity » Meet The 34 Finalists Competing In the 2020 Miss Tourism Nigeria Pageant
Meet The 34 Finalists Competing In the 2020 Miss Tourism Nigeria Pageant
Out of 40 hopefuls, 34 finalists have been shortlisted for the next stage of Miss Tourism Nigeria 2020.
By voting, the beauty queens will receive a straight automatic entry into TOP 15 and the chance towards becoming the NEXT Miss Tourism Nigeria.
The Miss Tourism Nigeria contest is centered on celebrating the beauty of an African woman and the finale comes up on Sunday, November 29, 2020.
Meet the ladies:
Meet The Finalists Competing For The 2019 Miss Tourism Nigeria Pageant
Nigeria’s biggest tourism pageant, Miss Tourism Nigeria is here again and the finalists for this year’s event which would take place on June 29th have…
Meet The 37 Contestants For 2018 Most Beautiful Girl In Nigeria (MBGN) Pageant
The 2018 edition of the Most Beautiful Girl In Nigeria (MBGN) beauty pageant has officially started. The 37 contestants that will be participating from all…
Miss Tourism Nigeria Is Here Again And Here Are The Beautiful Contestants Participating
It’s that time of the year again. Yes, it’s the 7th edition of Miss Tourism Nigeria and the list of the contestants has been…
Meet All The Winners From The #MBGN2018 Beauty Pageant Contest
The 31st edition of the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria beauty pageant contest was brought to an end yesterday, 21st of September,2018 which held at…
MBGN 2018 Winner, Anita Ukah Makes It To Top 30 At The 2018 Miss World Top Model Awards
A few months ago Anita Ukah of Imo state emerged the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria 2018. This means she not only gets crowned as…
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END THE CONFEDERATE STRANGLEHOLD
Oppose the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Atlanta, November 9th at 1PM, 2019
On November 7-11, 2019, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) held their annual convention at the Marriott Century Center in Atlanta. FLOWER organized the largest, loudest, most energetic protest in the history of the UDC convention.
The police not only barricaded the entrance to the Marriott hotel, they blocked the entrance to the entire Century office park. The cost of lost business as a result of this paranoid move is the fault of the UDC and also the Marriott, who had previously been warned that they would face financial and social consequences if they allowed a hate group convention on their property.
ALL OUT ATLANTA
ATLANTA ABOLITION
THE ATLANTA STRAIGHT EDGE
ATLANTA ANARCHIST BLACK CROSS
THE MAKE IT RIGHT PROJECT
GRANDMOTHERS FOR PEACE (ATLANTA)
ANSWER COALITION ATLANTA
WWP ATLANTA
NAACP ATLANTA
YDSA GEORGIA TECH
Who ARE the UDC?
The United Daughters of the Confederacy were founded in 1894 as a hereditary organization to commemorate the Confederacy. In its early years, the UDC worked hand in hand with the KKK and promoted the “Lost Cause”, a propaganda narrative that sanitizes slavery and erases the history of Black people. Racist monuments erected by the UDC litter the landscape of the South to this day.
The UDC has been facing more scrutiny and opposition in the last several years, including public counterprotesters at their last annual convention. Despite surface rhetoric denouncing white supremacist terrorism, they still continue their usual tactics when it comes to defending their racist monuments, using their extensive financial resources to sue and countersue. But they are increasingly vulnerable. We are on the verge of wounding the UDC where it hurts the most: their pocketbooks and their reputation. We hope to draw enough negative attention to their annual convention that the next one becomes harder or impossible. As more and more people condemn UDC racism and their membership rolls decrease, they will no longer be able to indulge in their racist lawsuits and ultimately cease to exist.
ARTICLES ABOUT THE UDC:
‘The lost cause’: the women’s group fighting for Confederate monuments
The Guardian, November 2018: “Taxpayers indirectly underwrite the group’s work. Each year, the Virginia budget awards the state UDC tens of thousands of dollars for the maintenance of Confederate graves – more than $1.6m since 1996. UNC-Chapel Hill said it had spent at least $390,000 since the Charlottesville riots for extra security around Silent Sam.”
7 things the United Daughters of the Confederacy might not want you to know about them
Salon, October 2018:“It’s helpful, in the midst of any conversation about this country’s Confederate monuments, to understand who put these things up, which also offers a clue as to why. In large part, the answer to the first question is the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a white Southern women’s ‘heritage’ group founded in 1894.”
The group behind Confederate monuments also built a memorial to the Klan
Facing South: the online magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies, June 2018: “Perhaps nothing illuminates the UDC’s true nature more than its relationship with the Ku Klux Klan. Many commentators have said the UDC simply supported the Klan. That is not true. The UDC during Jim Crow venerated the Klan and elevated it to a nearly mythical status. It dealt in and preserved Klan artifacts and symbology. It even served as a sort of public relations agency for the terrorist group.”
TWISTED SOURCES: How Confederate propaganda ended up in the South’s schoolbooks
Facing South: the online magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies, April 2019: “Where does it come from, the ignorance that has been on display of late? In the college-age photos of white men, now elected officials, in blackface? In the simulated Klan lynchings for yearbook laughs? In mischaracterizations of black slaves as ‘indentured servants?’ In the denials that slavery was the central cause of the Civil War? [….] The poisonous Lost Cause lessons were taught to multiple generations of Southerners to uphold institutionalized white supremacy — in part through public school curriculums shaped by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). More famous these days for their controversial Confederate monuments, the UDC had an almost singular focus on making sure the Lost Cause propaganda was so ingrained in the minds of Southern youth that it would be perpetual. Their most effective tool? School textbooks.”
SPLC Extremist Files: Neo-Confederate
The Southern Poverty Law Center: “In this regard, neo-Confederacy is best viewed as a spectrum, an umbrella term with roots dating back as early as the 1890s. It applies to groups including the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) of the 1920s and those resisting racial integration in the 1950s and 1960s.”
‘Loyal Slave’ Monuments Tell a Racist Lie About American History
The Nation, March 2019: “Perhaps no monument more overtly attempts to corrupt both history and morality than the Heyward Shepherd marker in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Erected in 1931 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), the white-Southern-ladies group responsible for the majority of Confederate monuments, the Shepherd memorial was the result of a campaign that began at the turn of the century. Tennessee UDC member Mary M. Solari in 1905 called for the construction of a loyal-slave monument, declaring it would ‘prove that the people of the South who owned slaves valued and respected their good qualities as no one else ever did or will do.’ The choice of Harpers Ferry for the location of the marker, given the generic working title of ‘Faithful Slave Memorial,’ underscored the UDC’s reactionary pro-slavery agenda.”
The Costs of the Confederacy
The Smithsonian, December 2018: “Significantly, Virginia disburses public funding for Confederate graves directly to the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which distributes it to, among others, local chapters of the UDC and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Since 2009, Virginia taxpayers have sent more than $800,000 to the UDC. The UDC, a women’s Confederate heritage group with thousands of members in 18 states and the District of Columbia, is arguably the leading advocate for Confederate memorials, and it has a history of racist propagandizing.
Time to Expose the Women Still Celebrating the Confederacy
The Daily Beast, November 2018: “‘The UDC always had ties to the Klan,’ says Heidi Christensen, former president of the Seattle UDC chapter who quit the group in 2012. ‘But the connection became more overt in the 1910s. You’ve got Birth of a Nation, and then the second rising of the Klan, and you see [the UDC] openly revering the KKK and defending them as saviors of the white southern race during Reconstruction. Those things made it clear they were loyal to the Klan and saw them as heroes. And in some ways [the UDC was] sort of like the KKK’s more feminine, genteel sister organization.’”
List of monuments erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (Wikipedia)
Incomplete list of the many monuments erected by the UDC.
The UDC in Numbers
monuments, buildings, plaques and other tributes to the Confederacy
States with UDC Chapters or Divisions
Years of racist lies, “Lost Cause”, and “Loyal Slave” propaganda
MILLION DOLLARS in public money spent in the last decade on all Confederate monuments
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Watch Latest Turkey Movies and Series
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Dr. Wonser’s U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters
William Hawkins & I. H. Wonser
The green glass Dr. Wonser’s U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters example is considered one of the top western bitters. Green examples have been dug in Auburn and Petaluma, California. Broken green examples have been dug on the California-Nevada border and in Carson City, Nevada. A number of undamaged and many broken examples were dug in Virginia City, Nevada in 1998.
Three examples of Dr. Wonser’s U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters in the Museum.
Our museum is really fortunate to have three examples of Dr. Wonser’s U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters gracing our shelves. One in deep aqua, this example in green and an example in amber. All from the Richard T. Siri collection in California.
See the museum example of a Dr. Wonser’s U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters in amber
See the museum example of a Dr. Wonser’s U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters in green
Dr. Wonser’s U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters was the invention of I. H. Wonser who lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Whether he was really a doctor is unknown. In 1863 he was listed as Issac H. Wonzer (sic), Indian Root Bitters, s w c Spring and W. Water in the 1863 Milwaukee, Wisconsin City Directory. The spelling is odd because the 1868 Milwaukee directory lists an Israel H. Wonser, Bitters Manufacturer, rear 47 2d. In 1864, there is a Janesville, Wisconsin news clipping mentioning I. H. Wonser and his American Indian Root Bitters. This all is in reference to the predecessor of Dr. I. H. Wonser’s U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters.
It was in Milwaukee that I. H. Wonser met William Hawkins. While they initially operated as partners, Wonser took more of a silent partner position and is not well documented historically. Their Dr. Wonser’s U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters advertisements first appeared in November 1870. This was the same year they entered the product in competitions in California.
William Hawkins was born in 1814 in Rhode Island and moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1840 where he established himself as an accomplished machinist. He left his wife and family and moved to San Francisco somewhere around 1861 where he worked for the Union Foundry. Hawkins then went to the Reese River region of central Nevada for a period of time but soon returned to San Francisco and took up the machinist trade again until he partnered with I. H. Wonser to sell bitters. By 1875, he had returned to his old profession of machinist until he died in 1884. He was buried in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. One has to wonder if he actually made the mold and took it west.
The bottle itself is interesting in that it has been made in two variations. Both are the amber-colored examples. One variant has a configured base with a sharp edge and a stepped ledge going into a concave circle with a small center dot. The more often seen variant has a rounded edge base with a semi-shallow kick up with center dot, the aqua examples also share this mold feature. I do not consider the different style tops to be a variant, this is just a difference of lipping tools used for the completion of the mouth.
Warren Friedrich
We first start seeing advertising in 1870 as William Hawkins displayed seven dozen of his Dr. Wonser’s U. S. A. Indian Root Bitters at the San Francisco State Fair on September 1st of that year. Hawkins also placed advertisements in the San Francisco Daily Examiner newspaper on December 17th, 1870. The location of his manufactory and depot was located at 418 Sacramento Street in San Francisco.
Trade Mark and Name Application for Dr. Wonser’s U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters
W. M. Hawkins applied for the U. S. A. trade mark name for his bitters on June 3rd, 1871. This was reported in the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper on June 5th. Again Hawkins entered his Dr. Wonser’s U. S. A. Indian Root Bitters in the 1871 State Fair and on September 25th, 1871 received a diploma award. Another advertisement appeared in the Wine Dealers Gazette, a monthly publication in the December 1871 issue. The advertisement stated:
This great remedy strikes at the root of every disease, which lies in the liver and the blood. They are not like the many poisonous compounds with which the country is flooded, under the name of Bitters, which are made of refined poison and gall, and seasoned up to suit the taste. They contain no alcohol, and their effects do not die out, but on the contrary, are lasting and beneficial. For Piles, Constipation, Chronic Coughs, Dyspepsia, Fever and Ague, Kidney, all Billious and Most Chronic Diseases.
W. M. Hawkins, 1871
By the mid 1870s, the Dr. Wonser’s brand was sold to McMillan & Kester who were the successors of the Turner Brothers. In 1865. McMillan & Kester put out an aqua square bottle called Dr. Wonser’s U.S.A. Bitters. We have an example in the museum.
Dr. Wonser’s U.S.A. Bitters – FOHBC Virtual Museum
Dr. Wonser’s U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters Illustration
W 146 DR. WONSER’S ( au ) / U.S.A. / INDIAN ROOT / BITTERS // c //
L … Dr. I. H. Wonser’s U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters, Distributor and Manufacturers, San Francisco
11 ½ x 3 (5 ½ ) LTC, Applied mouth, Amber (Yellow to Olive amber), Rare; Green, Extremely rare.
Deep kick-up, Aqua, Applied mouth, Rare
10 ½ x 3 (5 ½) CM,
Variation in height could be misleading. Other measurements indicate both bottles could have been blown in the same mold. Sixteen flutes on the shoulder, two rings on the neck.
The green color example is considered one of the “Top” Western Bitters. Green examples have been dug on the California-Nevada border and in Carson City, Nevada. A number of undamaged and many aqua examples were dug in Virginia City Nevada in 1998.
San Francisco Chronicle, August 8, 1871
Support: Reference to Bitters Bottles Supplement by Carlyn Ring and W. C. Ham. Use of Dr. Wonser’s U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters illustration courtesy Bill Ham.
Support: Additional bottle images from Jeff Wichmann, American Bottle Auctions and the FOHBC.
Read More: Dr. Wonser’s U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters – Looking at Some Information and Colors
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Getty Images/Daisy-Daisy
We’ve reached the mop-up phase at the end of the fractured school year, the worst that most of us have ever seen. The consensus view, unsurprisingly, has been that the past few months have been a disaster. School districts were caught flat-footed and unprepared for the pandemic. With many not taking attendance, grading student work, or giving feedback, what students have experienced since March can barely be described as even education on life support. The New York Times notes that the abrupt switch to remote learning “wiped out academic gains for many students in America, and widened racial and economic gaps.” The Wall Street Journal struck a similar tone in its own somber dispatch headlined, “The Results Are In for Remote Learning: It Didn’t Work.”
These bleak assessments might even be a little too sunny. A cloud still hangs over the fall—Will it be business as usual? Remote or blended learning? Staggered schedules?—that make coherent instructional planning a challenge. What comes next is anyone’s guess, but the air of uncertainty hovering over the resumption of school in whatever form it takes can only be bad for kids—particularly low-income and marginalized students who have the most to lose from stops and starts in their schooling and are least likely to benefit from online learning.
To date, most of the planning oxygen for restarting schools is being consumed by thinking through the logistical and financial hurdles: how to structure schooling to contain and mitigate Covid-19 and how to pay for it all. Surprisingly little attention is being paid to exactly how teachers are supposed to deliver coherent and effective instruction—whether it’s online, back in classrooms, or both—in schools that are now being organized around public-health imperatives, not pedagogical ones. As Canadian policy researcher Paul W. Bennett points out, “Classroom design and seating since the 1970s has tended to focus on creating settings that support ‘active learning’ and reputedly ‘progressive’ teaching methods, such as learning circles, cooperative learning, and project-based groupings.” A substantial majority of the 3.7 million teachers at work today have been trained and professionally invested in teaching methods that insist, as Bennett notes, that “teaching children sitting in rows is detrimental to student engagement, widely considered an end in and of itself.”
In other words, even in schools and districts that resume face-to-face teaching this fall, teachers will be asked to teach in ways that are not merely foreign to them but which they’ve been trained to believe are bad for kids. Whether that’s true or not is open for debate, but the fact remains we’re asking millions of teachers to forget how they’ve been trained to teach and run their classrooms—a jarring pedagogical transition that has gone almost entirely unremarked upon.
Local conditions are sure to dictate what form schooling will take when it resumes a few months hence. For those that will remain in online-only (or mostly) mode, Brian Greenberg, CEO of the Silicon Schools Fund, offered some smart analysis at Education Next on the traits that have made some schools more successful than others in transitioning to remote learning. “You can predict the way schools responded to the COVID crisis based on two factors,” he wrote, “(a) experience using technology and (b) the functionality and flexibility of their school culture.” This matches precisely my own reporting on New York City’s Success Academy, which appears to be one of the standouts in the transition to remote leaning. But let’s be clear: It is simply not possible to create the “organization, culture, teamwork, and flexibility” that Greenberg cites between now and September. As I wrote in City Journal, Success Academy is “reaping the harvest of the habits, expectations, and culture that [founder Eva] Moskowitz has carefully built for more than a decade.” If you don’t have that, it can’t be built from scratch over a single summer with no schools, students, or parents.
Moreover, it may be a struggle to sustain the advantages Greenberg identified, even at schools that have been relatively successful in rising to the challenge to date. As AEI’s Rick Hess and Nat Malkus point out, no matter how uninspiring was the forced march to remote learning, it came with the “massive advantage” of hitting in March. “Most students had been seeing the same teachers and classmates nearly every weekday since September,” Hess and Malkus noted. “This head start will be gone come fall.”
Depressed yet?
In all, it’s hard to be optimistic about what comes next. We don’t have the luxury of throwing our hands in the air, but a certain hard-nosed clarity is warranted, and certainly, more attention to the nuts and bolts of teaching and learning in our recovery plans. And we should also be on our guard against advocates and enthusiasts determined not to “let a crisis go to waste” or lulled into complacency by anecdotal stories about the surprising upside of remote learning for some students. If I were to summarize the lessons of the past few months, it would be that everything works for someone, nothing works for everyone, and that regardless of the form and format of schooling, the well-resourced and motivated student—or one with engaged and pushy parents—has an advantage. But we knew all of this already. The pandemic has merely provided a reminder.
One final thought. I emailed Doug Lemov to get his views on all this. Doug has done as much as anyone in the past two decades to identify and spread effective teaching practice; he and his Teach Like a Champion colleagues have met the remote learning challenge head-on, working with dozens of districts and schools that are working to adapt to all of this uncertainty. Traffic to the TLAC blog where teaching videos are posted have almost doubled, an encouraging sign of the earnest good efforts teachers are making to adapt to the new uncertainty. But he’s clear-eyed about the challenges. “There’s a limit to how good a lesson can be when you’re trying to interact with your students through a keyhole in the door,” he wrote back.
“As one of my colleagues put it, there will be a few things online learning does better and a few students it serves better, but on the whole, it will probably be overwhelmingly negative and regressive in impact,” Lemov said. “There are going to be a lot of Ted Talks with the word ‘reimagining’ in the title based on those small silver linings. It’ll be like watching the highlights of the best plays from your team’s 3-13 season.”
Editor’s note: This essay was first published on Education Week’s blog Rick Hess Straight Up.
Robert Pondiscio is senior fellow and vice president for external affairs at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. He also teaches civics at Democracy Prep Public Schools, a network of high-performing charter schools based in Harlem, New York. He writes and speaks extensively on education and education-reform issues, with an emphasis on literacy, curriculum, teaching, and urban education. His 2019 book, How the…
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Lugansk People’s Republic to use Rubles
February 27th 2017 – Fort Russ News –
– DNI News – translated by J. Flores –
The basic unit of currency in the Lugansk People’s Republic starting March 1st, 2017 will be the ruble, the corresponding resolution was published Monday on the website of the Council of Ministers of the LPR.
“The Council of Ministers of the Lugansk People’s Republic decides: 1. To establish that the basic unit of currency in the territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic is the Russian ruble”., according to the decision of February 21st.
The website reported that the decision shall enter into force on March 1st.
EconomylprNovorossiaRuble
Ukrainian interior minster states there is a “quick release plan for Donbass” [+video]
The Fraud of Modern Humanitarianism
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Release Year: 2018 // Director: Emilio Estevez
“There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our successes.”
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Anything is possible in a library, because anything is possible in the pages of a book. So perhaps it’s fitting that the setting of Emilio Estevez’s latest offering is a public library, because The Public is a small film with big dreams.
Years ago, the Cincinnati Public Library saved Stuart Goodson’s life. Now, he works there, living a life of predictable, comfortable routine. His apartment is filled with books and potted plants. He tops take-out pizza with homegrown tomatoes and basil because it’s cheaper that way. He knows the names of the homeless regulars who spend winter days inside the warm library. And even the absurd requests of patrons—“I need a color photograph of George Washington.” “Can I get a life-size globe?”—don’t faze him.
But then he gets listed as a defendant in a lawsuit against the library, starts to fall for the girl next door, and the cold snap ravaging the city claims the life of one of his homeless friends—all in the span of twenty-four hours.
As if that’s not enough to upend Stuart’s world, Jackson, a homeless veteran, announces just before closing time that the shelters are full, and since he and the other homeless regulars aren’t keen on the idea of dying from exposure overnight, they’ve decided not to leave the library.
Stuart pushes back on the idea reflexively, but comes around in a manner of minutes. Before anyone quite knows what’s happening, nearly a hundred homeless people, Stuart, and a coworker, Myra, have barricaded themselves in one corner of the library, and Stuart becomes the accidental face of this protest.
It’s also where the story starts to wander.
Up until this point, I’d bought into the film in a way that almost surprised me. The Public is the kind of film that’s not shy about the fact that it has something to say, and while more on-the-nose than a lot of films, it didn’t fall prey to the perils of preaching.
But as soon as the police, the press, and the city DA showed up, the story took a nose dive.
Basically, the DA is an asshole running a losing campaign for mayor. The negotiator, Bill Ramstead (Alec Baldwin), is preoccupied with trying to find his son, who struggles with addiction and has gone missing. And the police want an excuse to use their riot gear.
By the time the credits rolled, I was significantly less interested in the film than I’d been when the story started. Was The Public about homelessness? Addiction? Overuse of police force? The value of public spaces? Fake news? Civil disobedience?
Yes . . . but at the end of the day, it all felt jumbled, a well-intentioned film that went off the rails by trying to tackle too much too quickly.
Tagged with Emilio Estevez
Previous post: Queen & Slim Next post: Citizen Kane
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Burnham Beeches 1949
I just could not resist posting these TWO images of Burnham Beeches – shot in that lovely soft and bright colour process of the day.
These pictures were take in 1949
Burnham Beeches has been used in many films as a location but never used better than in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men filmed in the summer of 1951 – just two years after these photographs were taken.
Bobby Driscoll with Captain Flint
My previous post was all about Walt Disney and his family in Norton Disney Lincolnshire, when he were over here overseeing the filming of Treasure Island in 1949. This item covers the actual film :-
I have just come across this wonderful still – a publicity still from Treasure Island 1950 ( film released in 1950)
Bobby Driscoll came over here for a few months in mid 1949 to star in the Disney film – made at Denham Film Studios. Apparently he had to get a work permit and had difficulty with this but when he did, it was for a limited time. Consequently all the scenes that he played in had to be completed quite quickly so he would comply with the Government regulation at the time. This was, after all, only 4 years after the end of the war.
Actually I do think that his parents were taken to court over his outstaying this period – and below is information I have located on this situation :-
Treasure Island was filmed in the United Kingdom, and during production it was discovered that Bobby Driscoll did not have a valid British work permit, so his family and Disney were fined and ordered to leave the country. They were allowed to remain for six weeks to prepare an appeal, during which director Byron Haskin hastily shot all of Driscoll’s close-ups,using his British stand-in to film missing location scenes after he and his parents had returned to California
Walt Disney in Lincolnshire
Dated 30 July 1949 – as reported the events of Walt’s brief visit.
Norton Disney, Lincolnshire, England.
Above : Walt’s Two Daughters at Norton Disney
Above: Walt Disney’s Wife Lilian and Daughter at Norton Disney, Lincolnshire in July 1949
Walt, his wife and two daughters arrived just after lunch in the village. Walt had scratched in his diary before strolling off to point his cine-camera around the village – and these are stills taken from that colour film. Other fading photographs show Walt absorbed in the search for facts about his family name at the village of Norton Disney just West of Lincoln.
From what I can find out Walt and family were on their way up to Scotland – and Inverness in particular before returning to Denham Film Studios for Treasure Island planning.
See below as Walt Disney chats on the set to Robert Newton
Peter Cushing as Mr Darcy 1952
We go back to early 1952 for this BBC Television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in which Peter Cushing played Mr. Darcy – a play which would go out live in SIX episodes from 2 February 1952. In those days BBC was the ONLY channel available – and in my memory as a child, it provided very good and varied entertainment – although I do remember a performance of the opera Rigoletto which went out at what would now be called ‘peak time’ and we were less than impressed.
It is a sobering thought in these days of mega money for the stars, that in a contract signed on 13 February 1952, it is revealed that Peter was paid just 28 Guineas for playing Mr. Darcy.
Peter went on the play in quite a number of BBC plays in the early fifties with his fee being 45 or 50 Guineas for each job he did. Things changed dramatically for his income when he was first cast in the Hammer Film The Curse of Frankenstein followed very quickly by Dracula and The Hound of the Baskervilles – and then on an on in these very successful films.
Below – a picture of Peter busying himself at home – and to the right a picture of his beloved wife, Helen.
Wharf One Cafe in Cairns Australia – Interesting Film Show
WHARF ONE CAFE – Cine Bar Cairns
Tonight’s silent film with live music accompaniment has been rescheduled until Wednesday April 5. 2017
Filmed in Tahiti in the 1920s, capturing the untouched beauty of the Pacific Islands.
Come for a mid-week sunset session on the inlet and enjoy the live music to black and white film experience.
This was the first film in which Leo the MGM lion, roared during the introduction.
Because there were no sound facilities in Hollywood, Douglas Shearer took the completed silent film to New Jersey, where he added a synchronized music score and sound effects.
Though the film’s credits claim it was shot on location in the Marquesas Islands with ‘authentic’ islanders, it was actually shot 900 miles away in Tahiti.
This was MGM’s first sound picture, and premiered in Hollywood at Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Friday, 3 Aug 1928.
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(Patna) I am a hair dresser and I have been working for the past 13 years now. I started working after class 10 in a salon. I told myself: ‘it is alright, there are a lot of people who have to work out of necessity and my family needed my support’. At that point in time, it was very challenging to grow in this profession in Patna as there was no training institute or centre. I also realized there were a lot of prejudices against this profession. Working in a salon meant that you were perceived to be unable do anything else in life and were also viewed to be part of a prostitution racket. There was no respect. But gradually, when I started going to big cities and abroad for trainings, I realized there was a lot of scope in this profession. I also questioned if this was such a low level job, then how come doctors, engineers and scientists are involved and creating beauty products and equipment.
After I got married, I thought I might have to give up my work, but my husband was very supportive. He said that I had worked hard to achieve this and so if I want to continue then he was there to support me.
Ten years ago I started this salon in a space of just 350 square feet. In 10 years you can see the growth – now there are 10 salons and 125 employees and I am managing all of them. I have my salons in other cities as well.
I hire women from poor families who are unskilled and uneducated and have no means to support their families or have no support from the families. I train them for this job and see them doing well in their career and in life. I also realised that women are very dedicated to their work. In many cases, men earn livelihoods but women not only earn but also look after their family and home. There are some women who get up at 4-5 am in the morning, send their children to school, cook for everyone at home, go for work from 10am to 8pm and finally get back home around 9 pm. It is very challenging for them but they still enjoy their work. Gradually, the career scope has increased for them with better salaries and better training. My salon is at the 4th position in the entire eastern region in India, which also includes big salons in Kolkata. This is a big deal in Patna too. I hope to go even further.
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To Benjamin Franklin from Francis Hopkinson, 23 April 1770
Phila. April 23d. 1770
My Lord North being at the Head of Affairs and having show’d an Inclination in my Favour upon an Application made in my Behalf by Mrs. Johnson makes me flatter myself that, something or other may possibly be obtain’d for my Benefit. To this purpose I have wrote to the Bishop of Worcester, and as he is in the Country during the Summer Season have told him that you will be so kind as to let him know by a Line if any proper Opening should offer.2 When a Person is asking a Favour they may as well put in for a great Matter as a small One. I have therefore thought that if Beckford should compleat what he has been so long about and really and truly die, an immediate and close Application by my Friends for the Collectorship of this Port might possibly meet with Success.3 If you are not pre-engaged in this Matter may I presume so far upon your Friendship as to Request that you would keep a watchful Eye upon that Post, and if it lies in your Way give me your Interest. I am more than half inclin’d to take a Trip Over to England so as to return in the Fall either to push my Fortune in this Way or to settle a more enlarg’d Plan of Trade. With Compliments to my good Friends Mrs. Stevenson and Daughter I am obliged for want of Time to conclude more hastily than I intended with Assuring you that I am at all Events Your sincere and affectionate Friend
Addressed: To / Dr Franklin / Craven Street / London / per Packet
Endorsed: F. Hopkinson April 23. 1770
1. See above, XII, 125 n.
2. Miss Sarah Johnson (1715–95) was the Bishop of Worcester’s sister; she lived with him and inherited his fortune when he died in 1774. Walter Money, “The Family of James Johnson …,” Bristol & Glos. Archaelogical Soc. Trans., VIII (1883–84), 332. Hopkinson was related to the Johnsons and, much more indirectly, to Lady North; he had tried once before, without success, to use this route to favor. Above, XII, 124 n; George E. Hastings, The Life and Works of Francis Hopkinson (Chicago, [1926]), pp. 140, 147.
3. We find the reference to Beckford incomprehensible. William Beckford, M.P. and Lord Mayor of London, died in June, 1770, and as far as we know had no connection with the customs service. The collector at Philadelphia at the time was John Swift (1720–1802), and we have had no more success than Hopkinson’s biographer in unearthing a Philadelphia Beckford: ibid., p. 166.
“To Benjamin Franklin from Francis Hopkinson, 23 April 1770,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-17-02-0064. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 17, January 1 through December 31, 1770, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1973, pp. 128–129.]
From Hopkinson to Franklin [28 March 1768]
From Hopkinson to Franklin [22 October 1778]
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Girl (disambiguation)
The Girl (2000 film)
The Girl (album)
Play (Brad Paisley album)
Días Que No Vuelven
Play (UK magazine)
Girl (Vertigo)
Girl or The Girl may also refer to:
Girl (film), a 1998 film starring Dominique Swain
The Girl (1987 film), a film directed by Arne Mattsson
The Girl (1996 film), a TV film directed by David Wheatley
The Girl (2000 film), a film directed by Sande Zeig
The Girl (2012 independent film), a film starring Abbie Cornish
The Girl (2012 TV film), a film directed by Julian Jarrold
The Girl (2014 film), a 2014 Chinese film
Girlhood (film), a 2014 French film
Girl (comics), a set index article
Girl (UK comics), a comic published by Hulton Press, 1951–1964
Girl (Vertigo), a 1996 mini-series by Peter Milligan
Girl Comics, a title from Timely Comics, Atlas Comics and Marvel Comics
The Girl (novel), a 1978 novel by Meridel Le Sueur
"Girl" (short story), by Jamaica Kincaid
Girl (novel), a 1994 novel by Blake Nelson
Girl (band), an English all-male glam rock band
Girl (Dannii Minogue album), 1997
Girl (Eskimo Joe album), 2001
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Girl_(disambiguation)
The Girl is a 2000 American/French romantic drama film directed by Sande Zeig. It is a love story set in Paris between "the Artist" (Agathe De La Boulaye) and "the Girl" (Claire Keim), based on a story by Zeig's partner Monique Wittig. It was negatively received by critics.
The film is narrated by Agathe De La Boulaye as "The Artist". She is obsessed with a nightclub singer (Claire Keim) whom she calls "The Girl". One night the girl takes the artist to the hotel where she lives and they make love. The girl, who does not usually sleep with women, tells the artist that it is "just one night" but they begin seeing each other. The girl continues to see men and the artist has a long term lover, Bu Savè (Sandra Nkake), who accepts the artist's obsession.
The artist draws and paints the girl, but gradually grows frustrated with her work. She notices a man (Cyril Lecomte) watching her and the girl. The man behaves aggressively and possessively towards the girl. He starts following the artist and sends threatening letters to the girl telling her to get rid of the artist. The girl refuses. The man follows the artist and tries to attack her. The artist asks advice from Bu Savè, who gives her a gun.
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/The_Girl_(2000_film)
The Girl is the sixth studio album by Swedish singer Charlotte Perrelli, released on March 14, 2012. The first single was Perrelli's contribution to Melodifestivalen 2012, "The Girl".
The week before the album was due to be released, Perrelli wrote on her blog "It's always great fun to release a new album, to get to work with songwriters / producers and to create is a good thing and I hope I get the opportunity to [do this] for the rest of my life. I love my work. I have now worked out a new style and a new sound with a bunch of awesome people, I'm happy with the result and hope you will like this [new album] as much as I do."
"The Girl"
"Little Braveheart" (feat. Kate Ryan)
"Just Not Tonight"
"In The Sun"
"Dark To The Light"
"Closing Circles"
"No More Black & Blue"
"Any Love That Is Love"
Charts, certifications and sales
The album debuted at number 7 on the Swedish Album Charts, spending more than half a month inside Sweden's Top 20 albums chart.
Chart Run: 7-17-45
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/The_Girl_(album)
Play, also known as Play: The Guitar Album, is the sixth studio album by American country music artist Brad Paisley. It was released on November 4, 2008 (see 2008 in country music). Like all of his previous albums, Play was released on Arista Nashville and produced by Frank Rogers. The album is largely instrumental in nature, except for five vocal tracks. One of these tracks, "Start a Band" (a duet with Keith Urban), has been released as a single and has become Paisley's ninth consecutive Number One country hit, and his thirteenth overall. The album cover photograph was taken at Bristow Run Elementary School in Bristow, Virginia.
Play is largely an album of instrumentals, though Paisley sings five duets with other vocalists, including B.B. King, Buck Owens, and Keith Urban. King and Urban both play guitar on their respective duet tracks. Another track, "Cluster Pluck", features James Burton, Vince Gill, Albert Lee, John Jorgenson, Brent Mason, Redd Volkaert and Steve Wariner. The Buck Owens duet is a song which Owens co-wrote. It is not strictly a country music record, featuring jazz guitar and a song described by Paisley as "very heavy metal." The final track, "Waitin' on a Woman", was first included on Paisley's 2005 album Time Well Wasted, and was later re-recorded as a bonus track to 2007's 5th Gear, from which it was released as a single. The version featured here includes guest vocals from Andy Griffith, and is the version used in the song's music video.
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Play_(Brad_Paisley_album)
Días Que No Vuelven is the debut album of the Mexican pop band Play. Released in 2006 in Latin America, the album produced the singles "Días Que No Vuelven" and "Pense".
"Algo Natural"
"Hora de Cambiar"
"Días Que No Vuelven"
"La Luz Que Llevas"
"Juntos Otra Vez
"Pense"
"Todos Somos Unos"
"Corazon Abierto"
"No Se Que Decir"
"No Pienso Dicerte Nunca Adios"
"Amor Mio"
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Días_Que_No_Vuelven
Play (stylized as PLAY) is a monthly magazine produced by Imagine Publishing in the United Kingdom, which reports on Sony's PlayStation product range. It is the UK's longest-running PlayStation magazine, and is in its 20th year on sale as of 2015. The print publication is available worldwide, as well as digitally on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad via a distribution agreement with Pixel Mags. As well as being sold in the UK, PLAY is also sold in Australia. Though because of the distance between the two countries, Australia is one month behind, so some of the information may be inaccurate or old. Prior to issue 249, PLAY came with a covermounted DVD every issue.
Luke Albigés - Deputy editor
Liam Warr - Designer
Paul Walker-Emig - Staff writer
Drew Sleep - Production editor
Imagine Publishing website
Play UK magazine overview and publishers' information
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Play_(UK_magazine)
Girl is a three-issue comic book limited series written by Peter Milligan and drawn by Duncan Fegredo. It was published in 1996 by Vertigo comics, an imprint of DC Comics.
The story follows the exploits of fifteen-year-old Simone Cundy, a resident of Bollockstown (a fictional English location), as she attempts to make sense of her uncontrollable apathy and discontent for life (early on, she cites girls, boys, the lottery, pop-stars, clothes, sport, tampons, television, Bollockstown and living among her chief dislikes). However, upon meeting Polly, the "blonde version" of herself, Simone struggles to maintain the line between reality and her imagination, all the while trying find some purpose in her rotten life.
Girl at the Grand Comics Database
Girl at the Comic Book DB
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Girl_(Vertigo)
junoplay.com
howthegameshouldbeplayed.com
larsandtherealgirl.com
playthechessmaster.com
livetheredrocks.com
playthelist.net
playthelist.org
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La reprise générale des championnats est prévue en principe début mars, et tout doit être terminé fin juin avec la fin des matches aller et des play-off, organisés pour déterminer le classement définitif. Pour cette saison les matches de coupe sont annulés." ... ....
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Un nouveau logiciel malveillant a fait son apparition sur le dark web. Il s’agit de Rogue, un malware capable de surveiller l’ensemble des activités réalisées sur un smartphone infecté ... Les chercheurs en cybersécurité de chez Check Point ont repéré le malware sur des forums du dark web ... Malgré les mesures de sécurité, il arrive que des applications malveillantes parviennent à se frayer un chemin sur le Google Play ... High-Tech. Android ... ....
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Home Cameras Nikon Z6 II review | TechRadar
Nikon Z6 II review | TechRadar
Black Friday Sale ends in
Nikon Z 6II Mirrorless…
Nikon Z 6II FX Camera Body…
Check out more Black Friday Sale deals from these top retailers:
Two-minute review
The Nikon Z6 II is the follow-up to the company’s first full-frame mirrorless camera, the Z6. Now over two years old, the Nikon Z6 has become one of our favorite mirrorless cameras. But there’s still room for improvement, and with the Z6 II Nikon has opted to retain the core spec and design of the Z6, while addressing its weaknesses.
To that end, pretty much all the main features of the Z6 II are inherited from the Z6. This includes the excellent full-frame 24.5MP BSI CMOS sensor, which delivers images with excellent levels of detail, plenty of dynamic range and a very good high-ISO noise performance.
Compared to one of the Z6 II’s closest rivals, the 20.1MP Canon EOS R6, the extra pixels here give you that bit more flexibility when it comes to framing and cropping, whereas the EOS R6 has a slight edge at higher sensitivities. Comparing the Z6 II to its other close rival, the Sony Alpha A7 III, there’s really not much between them when it comes to results.
While the sensor remains the same, Nikon has equipped the Z6 II with a second EXPEED 6 image processor. This brings a number of performance improvements, most notably an increase in burst shooting speed, from a maximum of 12fps to 14fps. That’s faster than the Alpha A7 III, and a match for the EOS R6 (although the R6 can shoot at 20fps using its electronic shutter).
The extra processor has also allowed Nikon to improve on the 273-point AF system that’s in the Z6. As well as general performance improvements and the ability to focus in darker conditions, human and animal eye/face detection are now available in Wide area AF mode. It’s a solid system that’s great for general photography, although if you’re going to be shooting lots of action (or portraits), then the focusing systems in both the EOS R6 and A7 III have the edge here.
The Z6 had a strong set of video specs, including the ability to shoot oversampled 4K for footage with plenty of detail. For the Z6 II, Nikon has tweaked the video capabilities to enable 4K capture up to 60p, although this won’t be available until around February 2021 via a firmware update. The Z6 II also gains a number of output options that include the capture of 10-bit HLG HDR footage to an external recorder.
With the Z6 II using the same design as the Z6, there are few surprises when it comes to build quality and handling. The magnesium alloy body parts, weather sealing and comfy grip make the Z6 II feel more durable than rivals, while Nikon has managed to squeeze in a UHS-II SD card slot alongside the XQD/CFexpress card slot, resolving one of the key weaknesses of the Z6.
There’s no getting around the fact that the updates found in the Z6 II are modest at best; however, while existing Z6 owners shouldn’t be tempted to upgrade, if you’re looking for a quality full-frame mirrorless camera you’re not going to go far wrong with the Nikon Z6 II. While rivals might outclass it in some areas, the Z6 II has consistency on its side, performing strongly across the board. If you can live without the upgrades though, do check out the Z6 – it’s still on sale for now, and the money you’ll save over a Z6 II will go a long way towards a new lens.
Nikon Z6 II release date and price
The Nikon Z6 II launched on October 14, 2020
It costs $2,600 / £2,549 / AU$4,399 with the 24-70mm f/4 lens
You can also buy the Nikon Z6 II body-only
The Nikon Z6 II was announced in October alongside the Z7 II, and is available to buy now.
Like the Z6, the Z6 II can be purchased with the excellent Nikon 24-70mm f/4 S standard zoom for $2,600 / £2,549 / AU$4,399. If you’re looking to upgrade or invest in a second body you can buy the Z6 II body-only for $2,000 / £1,999 / AU$3,399, while those looking to pair the Z6 II with their F-mount DSLR lenses can add the FTZ lens adapter for around $150 / £150 / AU$250.
The Nikon Z6 II will naturally be compared to Sony’s Alpha A7 III, while the arrival of the Canon EOS R6 means many will also see that camera as a key rival. The A7 III is almost three years old now, but it still packs a serious punch and will cost you in the region of $2,880 / £2,650 / AU$4,640 with Sony’s 24-105mm f/4 G, which is a little more versatile than Nikon’s kit lens.
The EOS R6 is also priced a bit higher than the Z6 II at $2,799.99 / £2,849 / AU$4,799, although this comes bundled with the relatively slow and variable-aperture 24-105mm f/4-7.1 lens, which isn’t quite a match for the lenses paired with the Z6 II or A7 III.
Design is virtually identical to the Z6
Now features a second card slot
Tilt-angle display not perfect for video
The Nikon Z6 II arrives just over two years since the Z6 launched, and Nikon has opted to keep the new camera’s design virtually identical to that of its predecessor.
While this might seem unimaginative on Nikon’s part (and also a way to save some R&D costs), the decision to use the same body is no bad thing – the Z6 is one of the best-handling mirrorless cameras out there, with controls falling easily to hand and key settings quick to access. The joystick (officially known as the sub-selector) is also weighted nicely, while all this is complemented by a large and comfy hand grip and well-defined thumb rest.
Simply put, the Z6 II is one of the most pleasant mirrorless cameras to shoot with.
Sticking with the same design does, however, mean the Z6 II uses the same tilt-angle display as the Z6. This shouldn’t be too much of an issue if you’re predominantly shooting stills, but those shooting video (and self-shooters in particular) might be disappointed not to see a fully articulating vari-angle display worked into the design of the Z6 II.
That gripe aside, the Z6 II feels really durable, with magnesium alloy top, front and back covers, and the same excellent level of weather sealing as Nikon’s pro-spec DSLR, the D850.
Not everything has stayed the same though. One thing that compromised the Z6 was its single XQD card slot. While this is a media format that can be incredibly reliable, XQD cards are significantly more expensive than even the best SD cards.
Nikon listened to complaints about this, and on the Z6 II it’s managed to squeeze in a second UHS-II SD card slot to accompany the XQD/CFexpress slot. The addition of the SD slot makes the camera more accessible to more users, while those upgrading from the Z6, or who already use the XQD format, will be able to use their existing cards.
There are benefits when it comes to shooting too, with the extra slot providing options for simultaneous backup, overflow storage or recording JPEGs while the XQD/CFexpress slot takes care of raw files.
Full-frame 24MP BSI CMOS sensor
3.69 million-dot electronic viewfinder
4K video recording up to 60p
For the Z6 II, Nikon has opted to stick with the same full-frame 24.5MP BSI CMOS sensor that’s in the Nikon Z6. This enables a native ISO range that runs from ISO100 to 51,200, and which can be expanded to ISO50-204,800.
While the Z6 II keeps the same sensor, Nikon has managed to squeeze in a second EXPEED 6 processor. This delivers a number of improvements, the most notable of which is an increase in burst shooting speed to an impressive 14fps, up from an already quick 12fps on the Z6.
The Z6 II also uses the same 273-point AF system as the Z6, though there have been some improvements here too. Overall performance has been improved, while human or animal eye/face detection is now available in the Wide-Area AF modes, rather than just the Auto-Area mode. Focusing in low light should also be better, as the Z6 II can focus in light levels as low as -4.5EV (improving on -3.5EV of the Z6), while a low-light AF mode sees the Z6 II able to achieve focus at an incredible -6EV.
The Z6 already had some impressive video credentials, and the Z6 II improves on these further. As well as using the full width of the sensor to capture 4K footage at up to 30p, the Z6 II is also able to shoot 4K60p.
A little caveat here though: there will be a 1.5x crop when shooting at this rate, and the upgrade won’t be available until around February 2021 via a firmware update. The Z6 II will also be able to continue shooting when connected via USB-C for recharging, which wasn’t possible with the original Z6.
Other key features remain the same though, including the excellent 3.69 million-dot electronic viewfinder (EVF) and 5-stop in-body image stabilization (IBIS) system.
Fast burst shooting speed
Very capable AF performance
Better battery life than the Z6
While the Nikon Z6 II can shoot at 14fps, the details are in the small print – at this maximum rate, you’re limited to 12-bit raw files and a single AF-point.
If you want a little more dynamic range in your files, and want to take advantage of the Z6 II’s tracking AF, this drops to a still very good 12fps – that’s faster than the Alpha A7 III’s 10fps, and a match for the EOS R6’s 12fps (though the R6 can shoot at up to 20fps using its electronic shutter). The buffer should be more than enough for most scenarios as well, with the Z6 II able to handle 124 12-bit raw files or 200 JPEGs at its highest frame rate.
The Z6 II’s 273-point AF system has 90% coverage across the frame, which is good in isolation, although it’s left trailing the 693-point system in the Alpha A7 III and the class-leading 6,072-point AF system in the EOS R6.
Those predominantly shooting people (or pets) might favor the systems in the Z6 II’s rivals, as they’re a bit more sophisticated when it comes to eye and face tracking, but the Z6 II still does a very good job here, locking quickly and accurately on to the subjects we tested it on.
It’s a similar story if you’re tracking subjects – use the Z6 II in isolation and you’ll be very impressed with the speed of acquisition, but it’s not quite a match for the EOS R6 (which uses pretty much the same AF system as the flagship Canon EOS-1D X Mark III).
The built-in 5-stop image stabilization system in the Z6 II is a consistent performer. Again, it’s not quite as impressive as the EOS R6’s 8-stop system (which is lens-dependent), but you can happily shoot at super-slow shutter speeds and come away with sharp, shake-free images.
Another key area Nikon has addressed with the Z6 II is the battery. The Z6 could only achieve an official figure of 310 shots (though it performs better in real-world scenarios), and the Z6 II gets an improved EN-EL15c battery that’s rated for 410 shots using the LCD and 340 with the viewfinder. This is a welcome improvement, although here again the Z6 II still lags behind rivals like the EOS R6 and Alpha A7 III.
Image and video quality
Same image quality as Z6
Excellent sharpness and detail
Good high-ISO performance
As we’ve mentioned, the Z6 II uses exactly the same sensor as the Z6 – and that’s good news, as results from the Z6 were pretty much class-leading.
The full-frame 24.5MP BSI sensor in the Z6 II delivers excellent levels of detail. If you need to regularly print above A3 you might be swayed by the 45.7MP sensor in the Z7 II (or the D850), but the resolution on offer here should satisfy most shooters.
Thanks in part to the back-illuminated technology in the Z6 II’s sensor (which is missing from the lower-priced Z5), it performs well across the sensitivity range, delivering great results at higher ISOs, although if you’re shooting JPEGs it’s worth bearing in mind that the default noise reduction can be a bit heavy at higher ISOs, which can result in the unnecessary loss of detail.
Dynamic range is also very good if you’re shooting in raw, with plenty of flexibility in post to recover detail in the shadows and pull back highlights.
A quick note on lenses to conclude – the 24-70mm f/4 is a solid choice that performs very well, but since its launch more than two years ago Nikon’s S-series lens range has expanded significantly, and includes some excellent f/1.8 primes and f/2.8 zooms.
Should I buy the Nikon Z6 II?
Buy it if…
You’re looking to upgrade
If you feel like you’ve outgrown your current Nikon DSLR (or Z50 for that matter), the Z6 II is a great upgrade. There’s certainly enough of a jump in features and performance to make it worthwhile, while the FTZ adapter makes it easy to use your existing lenses. Add in the excellent image quality and you’re onto a winner.
You’re looking for a versatile and lightweight travel camera
With a rugged build, plenty of advanced features and a sensor that can cope extremely well with a range of lighting conditions, the Z6 II is a great option for travel. Partner it with a couple of primes or Nikon’s 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR superzoom and you’ve got an excellent setup for travel or walkabout shooting.
You’re looking for something to complement your Nikon DSLR
If you’ve got a full-frame Nikon DSLR such as the D850, the Z6 II is a sound choice for a second body. Not only does it give you a chance to try out a mirrorless camera if you haven’t already, it brings a different set of tools to your kitbag, including improved video capabilities over a DSLR. You’ll be able to happily use it alongside your DSLR with your existing lenses, and the Z6 II is perfect for those times when you want to travel light.
Don’t buy it if…
You want to upgrade from the Z6
There’s no question that the Z6 II is an improvement on the Z6, but unless you’re desperate for a second card slot or want to shoot faster bursts, it’s not worth upgrading. Nikon has been good at issuing firmware updates for the Z6, especially when it comes to autofocus, so if you’ve got money to burn, get some new glass.
You’re not going to have much left for lenses
Nikon has done a solid job of turning out a series of S-line lenses for its new full-frame system in the last couple of years, but with the exception of the 24-50mm f/4-6.3, the most affordable lens for the Z6 II is the 50mm f/1.8 at around $500 / £500. This may not be an issue if you’ve already got some F-mount lenses you’re bringing over with your DSLR, but it could be a bit limiting if you’re new to the system.
You’ve got a load of F-mount lenses
If you’re tempted to switch to mirrorless and already have a stack of F-mount FX lenses for your DSLR, you might be better off looking at Nikon’s excellent D780. Combining the best bits of a DSLR and a mirrorless camera (it uses some of the tech found in the Z6), the D780 is one of the best DSLRs you can buy, and an excellent partner for your F-mount lenses.
IINikonreviewTechRadarZ6
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Conventional wisdom: Would a stand-alone conference center thrive in Alachua County?
People invested in the local tourism industry are considering the implications of building a stand-alone conference center. But the jury is still out on whether it’s a worthwhile investment and where the funding to build it would come from.
A question of demand
A report issued in March by the proposed developer, NPI, paints an optimistic view of the center’s projected impacts — and of the demand for it.
The state, city, county, public schools and water district will all benefit from the development, according to the report “A report on the economic impact of West 38th hotel, proposed conference center, and associated commercial
development in Gainesville, Florida” prepared by Impact DataSource, NP International and Burns Development group.
The report states the center is slated to bring in $56 million of net benefit to those entities over a period of 10 years. It’s also projected to create 476 jobs directly and 202 jobs indirectly.
It says the figures are conservative and consistent with those used in the May 2010 PKF Conference Center and Hotel Analysis commissioned by the Community Redevelopment Agency on behalf of the city and county.
According to the report, the West 38th project started taking shape 15 years ago when the city, county and UF began coordinating with
the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization to lay out the 64-acre, $104 million mixed-use development. This development would include a hotel, a proposed conference center, retail space and a parking garage.
“The inclusion of the proposed conference center is in response to the need for meeting and function activities accommodating about 500 attendees,” the report states. “Gainesville is currently losing this potential tourism and economic activity to Orlando, Tampa, and Tallahassee.”
For many local business leaders, there is no question about demand for more conference space locally.
Adrian Taylor, vice president of regional initiatives for the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce, said that ever-expanding
research initiatives at UF necessitate more meeting space near labs so academic travelers can “see the actual research in action.”
As an example, he noted that RTI Surgical — an Alachua-based surgical implant manufacturing company with a global reach — hosts annual conferences. But because the company has expanded and “outgrown their particular region,” he said the company is not able to have conferences “in their backyard.” “People who say ‘There is not demand locally’ don’t understand how business is expanding locally,” he said. “We know that there is demand locally.”
He noted that several publicly traded corporations based in the region lend support to that theory.
He also said that a Chamber case study of communities similar to Gainesville lends credibility to the concept of a stand-alone conference center.
Taylor said the Chamber analyzed community dynamics in Greenville, South Carolina; Columbia, South Carolina; and Athens, Georgia. An aggregate report on the study’s findings is in the works.
Columbia is getting a stand-alone convention center, he said, and the organizer expressed surprise that Gainesville did not have a similar facility.
“He said he doesn’t know why Gainesville doesn’t have a convention center already,” Taylor said.
Critics of the plan have said the area doesn’t have enough regional attractions to make groups want to hold conventions here. But Taylor said the case study proves otherwise.
“None of them have beaches. None of them have Mickey Mouse, but people say we can’t attract conferences because we are not Orlando,” he said. “None of those entities have those things, but they have still been successful.”
He noted that of the three cities in the case study, Athens was the only that has a university. For that community, he said, its stand-alone conference center is quite viable and the same would be true for Gainesville.
“Because of the power of the research and the things that are happening there, it makes it a reliable option,” he said.
But Tony Trusty, general manager of the UF Hilton, disagreed. He said the Hilton looked at market studies to determine whether it should expand its conference center, and the results indicated “no.”
Trusty said the hotel hosts about 160 conferences per year. Of those conferences, only about eight have more than 200 attendees. And he said these relatively small conferences are not due to limited space at the Hilton’s convention center. In all, Trusty said the Hilton’s convention center could accommodate 1,200.
So, why aren’t events maxing out the space? Trusty said it’s simply because the demand isn’t there.
“It does not exist,” he said.
A question of funding
According to the proposed developer’s report, the conference center would be considered a public-private partnership. It would be funded through a $25 million bond given by the development company to the county. Revenue from the county’s tourist development tax – also known as the hotel room bed tax – each year would eventually pay off the bond.
The “bed tax” regulation comes from Florida Statute 125.0104 and gives local government the purview to collect up to 6 cents per dollar to funnel toward projects that would increase tourism to the area.
But some local business leaders argue that the conference center would not achieve the desired effect.
Trusty said using bed tax money is risky because its ability to attract tourism is yet unproven. If it failed to bring in out-of-town traffic, he said, the venue would turn into a place for locals’ events such as weddings.
“If that model didn’t work, you’d basically have a catering hall,” he said. “And now you’re going after weddings because you couldn’t get conferences. There are no bed tax dollars in weddings, but it was built with bed tax dollars.”
Susan Perkins, general manager at the Hampton Inn near I-75, expressed similar concerns. She predicted that people in town will use the center but that it won’t be successful bringing in out-of-towners.
A question of alternatives
Perhaps stand-alone conference space isn’t the best way to meet the community’s needs, some local professionals surmise.
Megan Eckdahl, the Hampton’s director of sales, said it’s wiser to use facilities that are already in place. She suggested that with some tweaks, the UF campus could become a better place for larger groups to book events.
“UF has a huge convention center at the Reitz Union, but they don’t utilize it because of parking,” she said.
To make the campus conference space more feasible for large groups, Eckdahl suggested adding another parking garage near the Reitz Union. She said that “would be smarter than building the convention center.”
Trusty presented another idea. He suggested imposing a deed restriction on certain properties so that hotel developers would have to include
a certain number of square footage for meeting space.
“So you start to have private industry build the city you want, and you don’t have to spend [public] dollars to get it,” he said.
But for now, County Commission Chairman Lee Pinkoson said it’s a bit premature to talk about specifics. He noted that the proposal has not officially come before the commission.
“As far as the county is concerned, I don’t know what our level of involvement would be… We haven’t had any discussion on how it will
be funded,” he said. “We haven’t gotten any information besides private conversations where I referred [the developer] to staff with questions.”
He also said it’s unlikely that, if approved, the convention center would be able to garner funds from the bed tax.
“Most of the dollars are committed,” he said.
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« Nintendo eShop Update – Super Meat Boy Forever, Among Us, Defentron
Ghostrunner review for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One »
Cyberpunk 2077 impressions for Xbox One, PS4
Previews, PS4, Top Stories, Xbox One
Having spent a week now with the Xbox One version of CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, I wanted to post up my current impressions, but I’m still a ways off from having a finished review. I’m assuming I’m roughly midway through Act 2, currently spending a great deal of time tackling side missions and exploring the borders of Night City, and all in all, I’m mostly enjoying my time with the game. It certainly isn’t perfect, and Cyberpunk 2077 absolutely needs some work, but so far it seems pretty OK to me, but not really extraordinary in comparison to other open-world RPG’s currently available.
So let’s talk a minute about the console experience so far. I currently have access to an Xbox Series X, and an Xbox One X. I do not have an OG Xbox One, so I can’t speak to performance there, but I will say there is a noticeable difference between the Series X and One X. My Series X experience has been really solid, outside of some weird lighting issues, I think that Cyberpunk 2077 looks and runs pretty well on that platform. I’ve not had any hard crashes, I’ve had one momentary freeze that resolved itself, and the framerate has been pretty solid overall in “Quality” mode. You’ll see a bit more variation in framerate when switching to Performance mode, enough so that I think you’re generally better off sticking to Quality for now.
Dropping down to a One X, it’s certainly a rougher experience. Framerate gets pretty hitchy, I’ve encountered multiple instances of the game freezing up (which seems to be tied to city district transitions) and I’ve had a couple of complete crashes. Admittedly I’m not spending a lot of time with the game on the One X, from what I’ve seen and experienced things are definitely rough if you’re playing on an Xbox One platform. I’d imagine an original Xbox One is even worse, and there’s plenty of impressions out there now that sorta solidify that assumption.
Outside of performance, Cyberpunk 2077 feels like a solid open-world action game with RPG mechanics tossed in. This is not The Witcher 3 with sci-fi on top, instead, it’s more comparable to something like the Bethesda Fallout titles or the more recent The Outer Worlds, except the shooting feels better and more in line with a standard FPS. As V (your character’s name), you’ll run around Night City, looting all sorts of junk, gear, and weapons, take on quests from various NPC’s, hijack the occasionally pedestrian vehicle, and do some general exploring. The map is pretty expansive, Night City itself looks pretty sharp, and traversing around the world is generally pretty fun.
V can be upgraded in a number of ways. Clothing items carry armor stats along with optional perk slots, there’s a solid variety of weapons consisting of pistols, shotguns, SMG’s and more, and even some melee weapons if you decide to build your character around that. As you complete quests or perform repetitive actions, you’ll level up and gain skill points, which can be slotted into a variety of skill categories. Each skill category has it’s own skill tree, usually multiple trees in each category, so you can really build V up in a number of fairly unique ways. I’m going for a pretty generic assault build focused on pistols, assault rifles, and crafting as a sub-skill of sorts, but I could also see the appeal in focusing on a melee build, or a netrunner build that would work like a mage or magic-user in the world of Cyberpunk 2077.
That said, while I find myself mostly enjoying the game, I’m also not necessarily blown away by it. I like the world setting, the neon-soaked seedy streets and alleys definitely deliver that cyberpunk aesthetic really well. But the actual mechanics of the game don’t feel all that different from any other open-world RPG on the market. The setting goes a long way, but it would be neat to see the game eschew some of the more tried and true stuff we’ve been inundated with over the past 15 years and go for something a little more unique to match the futuristic setting. I hesitate to fault CDPR too much on this since I’m still generally enjoying it but looking back over some interviews in recent years that detailed intended mechanics and features, you’re left feeling that maybe at some point they decided to just settle on actually getting the game to market.
In addition to that, despite numerous delays that already occurred, it’s not hard to tell that the game should have been delayed a bit longer. There are a hefty number of bugs that you’ll inevitably encounter, and depending on your tolerance for this, it could easily be enough to put you off of playing the game until these things are fixed. I think I’m so accustomed to open-world jank at this point that much of what I’ve encountered doesn’t get to me, but I certainly don’t expect anyone to look past some of these issues. Whether it’s poor path-finding by NPC partners, the occasional instance of getting stuck in the environment or having your summoned vehicle fall through the world over and over again, you’re going to encounter some rough moments with Cyberpunk 2077 right now.
I’ll have more thoughts on the game in the near future, particularly about the story and characters, when my review goes live in the near future. But for now, I’d say you should factor in your tolerance for open-world buggy launch games, along with your available platform options, if you’re considering picking up Cyberpunk 2077. You’re going to encounter issues on both of those points, some of which are going to be hard to look past in the game’s current state.
Note: CD Projekt Red provided us with a Cyberpunk 2077 Xbox One code for review purposes.
Cyberpunk 2077 – Xbox One (Video Game)
Manufacturer: WB Games
Tags: cd projekt red, cyberpunk 2077, ps4, ps5, xbox one, xbox series x
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Here We Go Again: Anonymous Tries to Hold the Canadian Government Ransom
Once again, the hacktivist collective Anonymous is threatening a spectacular security breach, this time, against the Canadian government. Yesterday, Anonymous hackers told the National Post they’d stolen sensitive Canadian national security documents. They’re prepared to release said documents if the officer who fatally shot a British Columbian protestor last week is not arrested by Monday at 5 p.m., Pacific time.
This could be a very serious big deal, or a total load of bunk.
Anonymous would like us to think it’s the former. To give the claim some legs, Anonymous members sent the National Post a document, apparently from the Treasury Board of Canada, which details cybersecurity upgrades at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Canada’s spy agency. The paper—whose authenticity has not yet been verified—includes discussion of cabinet approval of millions to dollars to “extend the Service’s (CSIS’s) secure corporate network environment to its foreign stations.”
Anonymous members told the Post they’ve spent several months breaching Canadian government websites, and have other sensitive documents and files that they’re prepared to release as well.
James McIntyre, a former member of Anonymous, was shot last week while wearing the iconic Guy Fawkes mask at a protest. The Canadian government has already faced a string of minor cyberattacks as fallout from the shooting.
Canadian government officials say they’re monitoring the situation closely, but deny Anonymous’s claims that CSIS computers were hit with distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks last weekend. Other experts, however, tell the Post we shouldn’t get too complacent:
Gabriella Coleman, a McGill University professor who is a leading academic expert on Anonymous and author of a recent book on the hacktivists’ history, said the action outlined to the Post “definitely matches the style” of current Anonymous operations and seems credible.
“People now carry out [Anon operations] with a lot more security and seriousness in mind,” she said. “This should be taken seriously.”
It’s tough to say what, if anything, this will all amount to, but a healthy dose of skepticism is warranted. Many, many Anonymous threats have turned out to be nothing but hot air. But one way or another, Anonymous is proving yet again that it’s still capable of causing a major ruckus.
[National Post]
Contact the author at maddie.stone@gizmodo.com or follow her on Twitter.
I have a question; why does Anonymous not do this to China or Russia or nations in the ME? Is it that they support those places? or is it that western nations are easier to hack?
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Revival for a Black Enclave in Pittsburgh
Lynette Clemetson, The New York Times, August 9, 2002
Most people look puzzled when Steven Radney talks about moving from a quiet town south of Pittsburgh into the Hill District, one of the poorest, most beleaguered areas of the city. When they ask gingerly what he hopes to gain from the move, Mr. Radney answers, ”an experience.”
”When I look around here, I don’t see it as it is,” said Mr. Radney, a 29-year-old designer and engineer standing in front of an abandoned brick row house that he hopes to renovate. ”I see it as it could be, because I know what it was.”
What it was was one of the nation’s most prosperous predominantly black communities, and Mr. Radney is one of a growing group of middle-class blacks returning as part of a slow-brewing residential shift that some researchers call black gentrification.
It is a phenomenon playing out in various ways in other historic black enclaves around the country, like Harlem and parts of Washington and Chicago.
Known to locals as simply The Hill, the 1.4-square-mile cluster of neighborhoods perched here above downtown Pittsburgh was home to jazz greats like Stanley Turrentine and Art Blakey and writers like August Wilson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who has set many of his plays in the area.
The Hill housed The Pittsburgh Courier, once the nation’s most influential black weekly newspaper. It was home base for the Pittsburgh Crawfords, the Negro National League baseball team that fielded Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell. Referring to The Hill’s heyday of 1930 to 1950, the Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay called the district ”the crossroads of the world.”
But political and social change pitched The Hill into a downward spiral. Hopping joints where legends like Duke Ellington jammed until dawn deteriorated into crumbling shells. Corners that hummed with commerce descended to the drone of drug addicts and dealers. That more recent image of The Hill was said to inspire Stephen Bochco when he created the police drama ”Hill Street Blues” in the 1980’s.
Now black professionals like Mr. Radney, who grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, are part of a push to recapture some of The Hill’s colorful past. More than 500 new residents have come into the neighborhood in the last five years: retirees, families, corporate employees, teachers, artists, athletes — most of them black.
‘We’ve diluted our strength moving to far-out places,” said Justin Laing, 32, a program director at a nonprofit organization, who grew up in Silver Spring, Md., and who recently bought a house in The Hill with his wife, Bonnie, and two children. ”I figure, we’re black, we might as well face it and try to rebuild our communities from a position of strength.”
Whites and other ethnic groups are also looking at the area. Black residents say they welcome the diversity. But for many blacks, who say they have borne the burden of integration — moving into white neighborhoods only to have whites leave — rebuilding The Hill on their own terms has special significance.
”This is about rewriting the notion of progress and success, of race and space,” said Monique Taylor, an associate professor of sociology at Occidental College in Los Angeles, who recently completed a book on black gentrification in Harlem. ”It is a statement that some of our ideas about how to make racial progress are stagnant.”
The process, if hopeful, is far from easy. There are concerns that new development will homogenize the character of the district and squeeze out the poor. Class differences play out daily. Poorer residents complain about stuck-up newcomers. Middle-class residents worry about sending their children to area schools.
But the cross-section of people is reminiscent of the district at its creative and intellectual height. A critical stopping point in the early 1900’s for migrants in search of work on the railroads and in coal and steel mills, The Hill was, at the turn of the last century, a rich ethnic stew of blacks, Jews, Irish, Italians, Lebanese, Syrians and other groups. By 1930, fueled by the rush of black Southern migrants hungry for opportunity in the North, the neighborhood had become predominantly black.
Black doctors, lawyers and business owners gathered in prestigious social associations and set up social service agencies to help the poor. People from all classes met at neighborhood hot spots. There were haircuts and gossip at Woogie’s Crystal Barber Shop, $1.25 steak dinners at The Crawford Grill, sweet potato pie at Nesbitt’s Pie Shop, late night jazz at the Savoy Ballroom and weekly salvation at dozens of churches.
The atmosphere was chronicled in black and white by Charles Harris, The Courier’s renowned photographer who was known as Teenie and shot more than 80,000 pictures of life in the district.
”The Hill was a conglomeration of everything and everybody,” said Robert R. Lavelle, 86, who oiled presses at The Courier as a young man before founding a real estate agency, which has operated in The Hill for more than 50 years. ”It was black people running their own lives, and we loved and cherished it because it was all we had.”
Much of the neighborhood’s spirit was crushed — literally — in the mid-1950’s when the city demolished the lower part of The Hill as part of an urban renewal project, displacing 8,000 residents. The destruction was carried on by the 1968 riots, the crack epidemic of the 1980’s and the steady outflow of middle-class blacks to other neighborhoods.
By 1990 The Hill’s population had plunged to slightly more than 15,000 from more than 50,000 in 1950. Most of the remaining residents were poor and living in public housing.
Since the mid-1990’s, more than $300 million in government and private money has been committed to tear down dilapidated buildings, rebuild public housing and provide upscale housing. The diversity in development reflects a mix of aspirations.
Margo Roberson, 35, a flight attendant from Kentucky, moved into The Hill last year with her husband, Erik, who has a window-blind cleaning company. The Robersons own a 2,300-square-foot home in Crawford Square, a $34 million development that combines market-rate and subsidized housing.
Taneika Hillman, 30, born and raised in a Hill District housing project, rents a two-bedroom apartment in the same development, through a low-income housing assistance program, for herself and her 8-year-old son, Michael.
Crawford Square, which has grown to more than 400 households since the first residents arrived in 1993, provides both families with unique comforts. The Robersons can prepare fancy parties in their stainless-steel kitchen. They can also get home-cooked soul food and old stories from Mrs. Barney Moye, a grandmother figure who lives around the corner.
For Ms. Hillman, Crawford Square provides a safe environment and positive images for her son.
”We swim in the same pool, use the same fitness room as doctors and lawyers and teachers,” she said, standing in front of an American flag near her doorway and a picture of Uncle Sam, whose face she and Michael have colored brown. ”Michael thinks it’s just natural, like he can be just like them.”
But Crawford Square, and other new and soon-to-be-built developments like it, are also a source of tension. People complain that the complexes look like the suburbs plopped down in the city. Others fear subsidies for low-income residents will be phased out, and that rising prices will eventually squeeze the poor out of the market. A single-family home in the development recently sold for $310,000, blocks away from homes that would have sold for tens of thousands five years ago.
Many people also worry that while most residents are black, they are not the primary stakeholders.
”A multimillion-dollar development is only going to turn into a multimillion-dollar ghetto if you don’t create an economic base and social structure whereby residents can control it on their own,” said James F. Henry, executive director of The Hill House Association, a social service agency that has operated in the area for more than 30 years.
The city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, which carried out the 1950’s plan that demolished the lower Hill, controls roughly 70 percent of the district’s main business corridor. Though it has financed much of the new residential property, its plan to tear down the Ellis Hotel, a once-favorite haunt of musicians that had previously been a Y.W.C.A. for Negro women, has inflamed old resentments.
”The character of this neighborhood is what gave Stanley the juice, gave August the juice, gives me the juice,” said Jorgé Myers, 44, a local artist who boards up crack houses and creates sculptures and paintings from their decaying structures. ”The government and these developers are taking away our juice.”
Increasing black ownership, many believe, will ease tensions. The Hill Community Development Corporation is spearheading a project to refurbish the New Grenada theater, a 1927 art deco building once known for its 12-cent movies and now a historic landmark.
Macedonia Baptist Church, with a growing population of black professionals, has bought 32 properties in the last five years to convert to places of worship, counseling centers and low-income housing.
”The Hill is Jericho Road,” said the Rev. Jason Barr Jr., Macedonia’s pastor. ”Every day there is a challenge and opportunity to be a Good Samaritan.”
Amid the growing sense of optimism, The Hill is still rife with despair. ”Ain’t none of this got nothing to do with me,” said one young man, who declined to give his name, as he walked down one of neighborhood’s more tattered streets.
But plenty of residents say they believe such attitudes can be turned around. Last month, a throng of neighborhood residents turned out for the ribbon-cutting of The Hill’s newest office complex, One Hope Square. Irvin E. Williams, the project’s developer, was born and raised in The Hill, and he and his wife, Janiceé, have filled the building with businesses committed to the neighborhood’s success.
As painters applied finishing touches to shops and offices, patrons streamed into the first store open for business, the Sittin’ Pretty Salon and Day Spa. Owned by Fletcher and Shenita Jones, both raised in Hill District housing projects, the spa’s walls reflect the tapestry of the neighborhood.
In the barber’s station hangs an old Teenie Harris photo of Woogie’s Crystal Barbershop. In the shop’s rear room is a painting by Jorge Myers made from the windowpane of a former crack house. Under the picture is a massage table — for The Hill’s newer residents who expect such luxuries and the longtime residents who have dreamed of them.
”This is it, our whole story, all right in here,” said Mr. Jones, 31. The next chapters in The Hill’s story remain a work in progress.
Originally published here: https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A00E1DE143AF93AA3575BC0A9649C8B63
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Flipkart Rejigs Top Management Ahead of Possible IPO
India’s biggest e-commerce company Flipkart’s chief executive and co-founder, Sachin Bansal, will step down and be succeeded by its other co-founder Binny Bansal, in a move viewed by some as a step towards a stock market listing.
Binny, who was chief operating officer before the rejig, launched Flipkart in 2007 with Sachin, who will now take the role of executive chairman. The Bansals, both former Amazon.com Inc employees, are not related.
The management changes come amid talks that the company is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States, with the potential to become one of the biggest listings by an Indian company abroad.
Flipkart’s finance chief told Reuters in May last year that it would remain private for at least three years.
However, a banker familiar with the company, said on Monday that the separation of the offices of chairman and CEO will help Flipkart to focus on medium-to-long-term plans, including IPO preparations, while ensuring smooth running of its daily operations.
Flipkart has benefited from the foreign funds that have sloshed into India’s growing online retail sector and bankers have expected it to start moving towards a public listing to raise fresh funds and enable some of its early backers to crystalise their investments.
Goods sold through e-commerce are expected to total $220 billion (roughly Rs. 14,71,102 crores) a year by 2025, up from an estimated $11 billion (roughly Rs. 73,555 crores) last year, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a recent report.
Flipkart sells everything from cellphones to suitcases and cosmetics, competing with home-grown rivalSnapdeal and Amazon’s Indian unit. Current investors include Tiger Global Management and Accel Partners.
In his new role as Flipkart chairman, Sachin will provide strategic direction, mentor the senior leadership, look for new investment opportunities and represent the company in external forums, a company statement said on Monday.
As the new CEO of Flipkart, which is currently valued at about $15 billion (roughly Rs. 1,00,302 crores), Binny will be responsible for all operations and will lead all corporate functions including human resources, finance and legal.
Flipkart is betting on the hundreds of millions of Indians in smaller towns turning to online shopping for products that are not available from local retailers, boosting growth as increasing numbers gain internet access currently available to only 252 million of India’s 1.3 billion population.
“Today, we are in a very strong leadership position with over 60 percent market share of the m-commerce market, 50 million customers and clear leadership in smartphones and fashion,” Binny said in the company statement.
“The journey ahead is equally exciting and challenging.”
Twitter Briefly Removes @Names From Replies on iOS; Brings Them Back After Negative Reception
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Wednesday, August 21, 2019 at 9:47 pm | כ' אב תשע"ט
Harav Chaim Brisker, zt”l.
In 5694/1934, the Reichstag entrenched the power of Hitler when it appointed him head of state and commander in chief of the German armed forces.
5578/1818, The Komarna Rebbe, Harav Alexander Sender, zy”a.
5608/1848, Harav Dovid of Zablitov, zt”l, author, Tzemach Dovid.
5717/1957, The Belzer Rebbe, zy”a, Harav Aharon Rokeach.
Harav Chaim Soloveitchik Of Brisk, Zt”l
Harav Chaim of Brisk was born in 5613/1853 in the city of Volozhin. His father was the Gaon Harav Yosef Dov, zt”l, who was then serving as a Rosh Yeshivah in Volozhin. A few years later, Harav Yosef Dov was appointed Rav in Slutzk, and it was there that Rav Chaim received his earliest chinuch.
As a young boy, he was recognized for his extraordinary talents. His quick, clear grasp, his sharp wit and his ability to penetrate to the heart of the matter were evident both in Torah and in worldly matters.
When he was about 20 years old, he married the daughter of the Gaon Harav Rafael Shapira, zt”l, son of Harav Leibele Shapira of Kovno, zt”l, and son-in-law of the Netziv of Volozhin, zt”l.
Rav Chaim settled in Volozhin, and his unique method of learning had an immediate impact on the yeshivah. In 5640/1880 he was appointed Rosh Yeshivah and began to deliver the remarkable Gemara shiurim that made him renowned in the Torah world. For 12 years he gave shiurim and guided thousands of students, many of whom later became famous Torah leaders.
During the last years of the yeshivah’s existence, when the queries, complaints and edicts of the Russian government increased, nothing was decided without Rav Chaim.
In 5652/1892 the Russian government closed the yeshivah of Volozhin and Rav Chaim moved to Brisk, where his father was serving as Rav. That year, his father passed away and Rav Chaim was appointed to fill his place.
The Brisker Rav vehemently opposed the evolving Zionist movement, as well as other popular new factions that did not totally adhere to the dictates of Torah and yiras Shamayim.
His influence on Torah learning increased in Brisk. Torah leaders recognized him as the Gaon of the generation, and yeshivah students all over saw him as their teacher.
The Brisker Rav’s derech halimud was an eternal, if revolutionary, breakthrough in the yeshivah world. In Brisk one breaks down the many components of a sugya and discerns their minute differences in order to resolve seeming contradictions.
Rav Chaim headed the rabbinate in Brisk for over 20 years. When World War I broke out and the residents of Brisk were forced to leave the city, Rav Chaim traveled to Minsk.
In 5678/1918 he was permitted by the authorities to travel to Warsaw and from there, with his health declining, he headed for Otvotzk, a suburb of Warsaw that also served as a health resort. That same year he was niftar on Tuesday, 21 Av, and was buried in Warsaw, adjacent to his grandfather, the Netziv.
In 1787, inventor John Fitch demonstrated his steamboat on the Delaware River to delegates from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
In 1910, Japan annexed Korea, which remained under Japanese control until the end of World War II.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed welfare legislation ending guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanding work from recipients.
In 2003, Alabama’s chief justice, Roy Moore, was suspended for his refusal to obey a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of his courthouse.
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Tag Archives: Comparative Advantage
Exxon and Squatter Economics
By George P. Brockway, originally published August 7, 1989
DEAN ACHESON once remarked wearily that if anyone, at any time, found him agreeing with any Indian on any subject whatever, that person should have him certified immediately. His judgment was no doubt colored by his experiences with V.K. Krishna Menon, who wanted all North Korean POWs shipped home whether they wished to go or not.
My feelings about standard economics are similar, perhaps because one summer, in a youthful fit of self-improvement, I spent many hours reading Frank Taussig’s introductory textbook when I could have been sleeping in the sun. My recollection is that Taussig, who was a big man in his day, started off by talking about Robinson Crusoe. I have since come to doubt that Robinson had anything to do with economics at all. So far as I know or Professor Taussig said, he never bought or sold anything, or used money.
One by one the classic laws have lost their savor for me. David Ricardo‘s Law of Comparative Advantage was an early loser, and I wrote three columns[1] about it six or so years ago. The notion that producers are profit maximizers and consumers are utility maximizers attracted my attention last year, and the Law of Diminishing Returns a couple of months ago. I’ve even dropped a hint or two concerning the Law of Supply and Demand, and might supply a column about it, if I detected any demand.
I’m ashamed to say that in one of my early columns I made a slip and endorsed the proposition that free competition in a free market makes for the most efficient allocation of scarce resources. As Abraham Lincoln[2] replied when requested to apologize for saying that Simon Cameron would not steal a red-hot stove, I now take that back.
The issue is in the news because of the great Valdez oil spill. Some excitable people want to punish Exxon, but they have been patiently told it would be inefficient to do so. Encouraged by the sound of their own voices, the naysayers add that it would be inefficient to impose further restrictions on the exploitation of Alaskan oil, and also that an increase in the gasoline tax would distort the allocation of resources. They urge, too, a relaxation of the already relaxed standards of gasoline efficiency (that word again) for new automobiles. Red-blooded Americans, if given their druthers, would prefer very big cars that can go very fast; therefore they should be allowed to put their money where their preference is, and the speed laws should be lifted while we’re at it.
The more beguiling advocates of free market theory admit that sooner or later oil will run out. They are confident, however, that the spur of possible profits will drive some mad scientist to invent a way of using crab grass or zucchini for fuel (as some tried to use dandelions for rubber in World War II), thus rehabilitating suburban agriculture and saving the automobile. In the meantime, they argue, as oil gets scarcer and the price rises higher, those willing to give up coarser pleasures are entitled to enjoy the daintier pleasure of burning gasoline in fast cars, fast boats and fast snowmobiles. Their willingness shows that is the efficient thing to do.
Let’s examine the proposition, not from the point of view of ecology or even of national security (where it’s a clear loser), but from the point of view of logic. Is economics really about the allocation of resources at all? To answer that question, we have to be able to say what a resource is. How about this: A resource is something that is useful or necessary to make something else, a component of an economic commodity.
(At this point there is a side issue we ought to deal with. The Education President tells us that a trained labor force is an essential resource in our struggle with Japan and Germany for the hearts and moneys of the world. But a labor force is not a thing; it is human beings, and human beings are ends in themselves. Trade is for human beings; human beings are not for trade. They are not a resource or a means to anything else. To treat human beings as means is the ultimate sin. I know that George Bush is a kind and gentle man who does not always mean exactly what he says. But if we are to read his lips, he should watch his tongue.)
So resources are things, objects. Natural resources are things untouched by human hands, lying around ready to be picked up or dug up or fished up, and used. Economic resources are also scarce. There is no point in talking about them if they are not scarce. Taussig (if my memory serves after all these years) gave air as an example of a noneconomic resource, the reasons being that there was a lot of it, and that no one could figure out how to bottle it and sell it. We’ve made progress, however. If you’re in the hospital and they decide to pep you up with oxygen, you’ll find $100 a day added to your bill. And Los Angeles knows that breatheable air would be impossibly expensive.
But of course not all scarce natural objects, even those that could be readily packaged, such as bluebird nests, are natural resources. Leon Walras, the patron saint of marginal utility analysis, credits his father Auguste with the notion that an economic good has to be useful as well as scarce. This does not seem a remarkably difficult advance in thought. It does not really advance us very far, either.
Maybe you are not clever enough to think up uses for bluebird nests, and maybe no one is; that does not mean a use will never be discovered or invented. Think of petroleum. If you had asked Adam Smith about it, he would have shrugged his Scotch shoulders. It was a sticky, stinky substance where it appeared, as in the notorious fields near Cumae, rendering useless the land that harbored it. Or you might have asked Karl Marx about uranium. He would never have heard of it, for one thing. What kind of resource is something you never heard of. On the other hand, ancient man mined and traded obsidian, which, apart from the art and tools the ancients made of it, is now of no interest to a Harvard Business School graduate.
From these random samples we can infer that the usefulness of objects is not something inherent in them. As it happens, there is no dispute on this point. W. Stanley Jevons, who shares with Walras the distinction of having invented marginal utility, put it this way: “The price of a commodity is the only test we have of the utility of the commodity to the purchaser.” A half century earlier Jean- Baptiste Say had characteristically introduced an intermediate and indeterminable abstraction: “Price is the measure of the value of things, and their value is the measure of their utility.”
In our day, Gerard Debreu, a Nobelist and probably the world’s foremost mathematical economist, is in agreement with Jevons and Say. “The fact that the price of a commodity is positive, null, or negative,” he writes, “is not an intrinsic property of that commodity; it depends on the technology, the tastes, the resources … of the economy.”
(Please forgive another side issue. Noting the word “resources” before Debreu’s ellipses, I confess myself puzzled, since in a subsequent passage he says, “The total resources of an economy are the a priori given quantities of commodities that are made available to (or by) its agents.” It would appear that the price of a commodity depends, at least in part, on resources, and that resources are commodities-a line of argument that looks suspiciously circular to me.)
ONE WAY or another, then, we come to the conclusion that it is not so easy to say what economic resources are. They are useful, yes, but neither petroleum nor uranium nor a bluebird nest is, in and of itself, useful. Indeed, if you don’t know how to use them petroleum is nasty and uranium is dangerous. But our economy does know how to use them, up to a point. So they are resources for us. They are resources for us because of the way our economy is organized.
The organization of our economy is, as the marginal analysts say, a price system. (Like Oscar Wilde’s cynic, we economists know the price of everything and the value of nothing.) Every price is dependent on every other price in a delicately beautiful equilibrium. It is this balanced price system that allocates resources. If tomorrow morning some bright fellow comes up with a use for bluebird nests, the supply of and demand for them (the story goes) will set the price for them. Not only that, but as the demand for bluebird nests develops, the demand for some other things must decline. But other resources (including, sad to say, human resources) are shifted into the bluebird nest industry, restoring the equilibrium. Everything is properly allocated again.
Bluebird nests are now a resource, not simply because they are rare and a use has been found for them, but because they fit into the price system. That is crucial. The market does not so much allocate resources as tell us what resources are.
What, then, becomes of efficiency? It disappears. It is not separately discoverable, for resources are resources because the market says so, and their allocation is efficient only because the market says so. The market is not a better way of allocating resources; it is the only way. This is what the theory says.
Having said this much, it has uttered nonsense. If you really want to learn about resources and their allocation, you should go, not to Wall Street, but to someplace like World Watch Institute, which publishes an annual report called State of the World that explains the consequences of what we are doing and tells how we could do better.
Nonsense is always dangerous. The horror story that “The Market Knows” damages the ecosystem. It also destroys economics itself, reducing the whole exercise to a defense of the status quo. True believers in the market apparently do not understand this, for they are very liberal (if you know what I mean) with advice about the sorts of issues we mentioned earlier – finding a way to make Exxon pay, restricting further exploitation of Alaskan oil, and so on. Yet these matters, as they now stand, are part of the present system. Changes in favor of the oil industry are no less an interference with the market than are changes in favor of the world and them that dwell therein.
Once any sort of change is admissible, every sort can be argued up or down. In the 1850s, Stephen A. Douglas proposed squatter sovereignty (allowing the territories to vote on slavery), which appeared to be impartial but actually favored the South. In their renowned debates, Lincoln forced Douglas to admit that slavery could be voted down as well as up. That won Douglas the Senate seat, but cost him the Presidency two years later. It would be lovely if we could come to understand the vacuity of squatter economics.
[1] If This Be Rabble-Rousing, Appearance and Reality, For a Labor Theory of Right
[2] Readers should see the upcoming link about “stealing a red-hot stove.” The author attributes the quote to Lincoln but it was, according to Wikipedia, Thaddeus Stevens talking TO Lincoln.
Starving all the Way From the Bank
TO WRITE THIS I had to turn off a television show featuring a rock star, eyes closed in rapture or agony or something, moaning an expression of his solidarity with the people starving to death in Africa. I should-and shall-leave the task of commenting on TV performances to Marvin Kitman. I will even resist the temptation of recalling the Stan Freberg skit of a few years ago in which he asks everyone to stop at a certain hour of a certain day and tap dance for peace.
There is no question that our fellow citizens’ capacity for pity and terror has been stirred by the pictures they have seen of the starvation in sub-Saharan Africa. There is no question that they want to help in some way. It would be pretty to think of them beginning by wondering how the tragedy came about. For anyone ready to take that necessary initial step there is a new book available called Debt Trap: Rethinking the Logic of Development. Yes, I am afraid that to understand starvation in Africa you must start with money and banking, because they are the roots of the problem.
The author of Debt Trap is Richard Lombardi, a former vice president of the First National Bank of Chicago. His office was in Paris, a nice place to have an office, but he was in charge of lending in both French-speaking and English speaking Africa, and he traveled widely and steadily in those countries. What he saw troubled him deeply, for he is an intelligent and compassionate man. To think about the situation in greater depth he took a leave of absence and became a research associate and Thursday Fellow in Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. The result is his important and enlightening work.
Lombardi lays out the connection of starvation with banking roughly as follows: People starve because they cannot get food. They cannot get food because they either do not grow it or have no means of securing it from those who do grow it. In Africa they do not grow so much food as they used to, since many farmers have moved to the city and many more have switched to crops for export, like sugar and coffee and cola nuts. Their governments have induced them to switch to export crops to earn foreign exchange. The governments need foreign exchange to try (unsuccessfully) to meet the interest payments on their foreign loans.
Why do they have foreign loans? It comes down to Gertrude Stein‘s answer when she was asked why she had written Tender Buttons: “Why not?” As Lombardi tells it, the world’s big bankers bought the oil sheiks’ OPEC winnings on the Eurodollar market and then jet-setted around the Third World peddling the money. The bankers called this recycling; actually, it was salesmanship.
The bankers happened to launch their maneuver at about the time that the Third World nations, almost without exception, were in trouble with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The bankers could offer assistance because they had money and also because they had a new vision-not of banking, but of what they came to describe as “world financial enterprise.” Lombardi credits (if that is the right word) this vision to Walter Wriston, who transmogrified the First National City Bank of New York into Citicorp in 1967. At any rate, the “Citicorp Concept” was reverently discussed in the business press and widely emulated by David Rockefeller‘s Chase Manhattan and the rest. The hairy details I’ll leave you to read in Lombardi’s book, only noting Wriston’s fatuous dictum, “But a country does not go bankrupt.”
The stage was now set. The Third World needed (or wanted) money; the bankers had it (or knew where they could get it). And the bankers had convinced themselves that all Third World loans were risk free. What happened? In 1960, Lombardi tells us, Third World debt totaled $7.6 billion. Today, a quarter of a century later, it is nearly $1 ,000 billion that is, $1 trillion, or an increase of roughly 12,000 per cent. The sum is not owed to the banks alone. UN agencies are heavily committed, as are our Export-Import Bank and its counterparts in other First World nations.
All of this occurred because those who count in both the First World and the Third World have been acting out what Lombardi (using an unlovely but fashionable word) terms a “paradigm.” Two components of the paradigm we have discussed here before: Ricardo’s Law of Comparative Advantage (“How Our Sun May Rise Again,” NL, July 12-26, 1982), and the notion that a growing GNP cures all ills (“Sinking By the Numbers,” NL, May 2, 1983). A third principal component, perhaps not now so prominent as the others, is the theory of Walt Rostow (Lombardi erroneously calls him Walter) that developing societies invariably pass through five stages: “the traditional society, the preconditions for takeoff, the takeoff, the drive to maturity, and the age of high mass consumption.” A dream world.
In the grip of this paradigm, everyone began pushing the Third World to modernize and industrialize. The Export – Import Bank and its ilk underwrote sales of steel mills and sugar refineries and atomic energy plants. The national airlines of countries of fewer than a half million souls, most of them tribesmen with neither the need nor the possibility of flying anywhere, bought fleets of Boeing 747 jumbo jets. The World Bank lent money at low rates for roads and airports and dams and other infrastructure. The UN “Development Decades“ favored an urban focus, precipitating a population shift from farm to city. The demand for agricultural exports accelerated the shift, because export crops tend to be more efficiently handled by agribusiness than by customary methods.
Under such prodding the Third World’s GNP rose even faster than the Development Decades had hoped. But Third World debt rose faster yet. This outcome, which should be a puzzle to true believers in the GNP, threatened to swamp the UN agencies. The IMF (then as now) counseled austerity, meaning cut imports (or, more frankly, reduce your standard of living) and expand exports (done by lowering wages and, again, your standard of living).
At that point in time (as Watergate taught us to say) the Citicorp Concept flashed across the horizon. Gone was the old-fashioned bankerly attempt to evaluate the business prospects of each enterprise applying for a loan. In its place was the actuarial notion that lots of risks are safer than a few. Risk itself disappeared because countries did not go bankrupt. Recycling could go on merrily as long as Third World countries could be induced to borrow money at a point or two over what the bankers had to pay for it on the Eurodollar market.
It turned out not to be difficult to induce Third World countries to borrow, what with everyone advising them to do so and especially with fewer and fewer questions asked. Lombardi has some horror stories to relate. A billion dollar steel mill in Nigeria is too sophisticated to use the low-grade ore it was originally intended for. Zaire has the longest transmission line in the world, and no particular need for it at either end. A loan to Costa Rica was underwritten by a banking syndicate on the basis of a news article in Time.
At least some of the borrowers were foolish like fox terriers. They didn’t bother to buy so much as a new presidential palace with the money, instead sending it straight to numbered bank accounts in friendly Switzerland. Periodically, statesmen who had that kind of foresight were overthrown, and their successors opened up their own numbered accounts. No one knows how many billions thus disappeared. The critical fact, however, is that the bankers lending the money didn’t care; they lent the money to countries, not to individuals, and countries don’t go bankrupt, even when they are stolen blind.
Of course, countries whose debts have increased 12,000 per cent in 25 years do usually have trouble meeting even the interest payments. So the IMP urges austerity; food is in short supply; starvation looms-chronic starvation, not the sort that results from a natural disaster.
LOMBARDI paints the unhappy picture with great fervor. He emphasizes that the Third World’s troubles are not merely those of an exploding population. The population problem certainly plays a role, but in the improbable event of zero population growth troubles would remain. The key is breaking that paradigm.
Lombardi suggests ways this can be done. He also shows the trouble the paradigm has caused and will cause in the First World-that is, to you and me. For when bankers lend money to Brazil to buy a steel mill or to Tunisia to manufacture blue jeans or to Taiwan to keypunch data into American computers via satellite, Americans lose their jobs.
The apostles of the Law of Comparative Advantage (a.k.a. “free trade”) counter that building the Brazilian steel mill and the Tunisian garment factory and the Taiwanese data-processing equipment makes jobs for Americans, and to a degree they are right. An hour or two at, say, John F. Kennedy Airport in New York will convince you that Boeing has sold (with Export-Import Bank help) an awful lot of747s to foreign airlines you never dreamed existed. Still, unless we are prepared to give our airplanes and steel mills and wheat and corn away, someone has to pay for them-that is, the loans the bankers have made for us have to be paid off. If they can’t be paid off, our friendly bankers will surely find ways to transfer the bad debts to us taxpayers. And if they are paid off, Third World austerity programs will throw Americans out of work. “When bank credit to Mexico stopped in 1982,” Lombardi observes tellingly, “more jobs were lost in the following six months in the United States than in the three previous years of a depressed U.S. auto industry.”
Banking, in short, is not an innocent enterprise. It can cause starvation in the Sudan and unemployment in Cincinnati. Faulty practice flows from faulty theory. Faulty banking theory flows from faulty reading of history. Lombardi devotes several chapters to this question, and though I don’t always agree with him (in particular, I think he misunderstands evolution), I certainly applaud his effort. I therefore earnestly commend his book to your attention.
A useful supplement to the foregoing is The Dangers of “Free Trade,“ a new booklet by Professor John M. Culbertson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Culbertson details the mischief caused in both the Third and First Worlds by the Law of Comparative Advantage, then suggests new trade policies suited to the actual situation of the actual world we live in. He makes a strong argument for conducting international trade between nations (rather than between private citizens or firms), and he makes a persuasive case for bilateralism (showing that he’s not afraid of unconventional thoughts).
Appearance and Reality
A DELUSION appears from time to time in philosophy whereby appearance and reality are so separated that, as Charles Peirce observed, their connection is like that of a freight train held together only by a feeling of good will between the engineer and the brakeman in the caboose. A corresponding delusion suffered by many economists is that there is a real economic world underlying the actual one in which we live and have our being.
Classical economists are especially prone to talking about the real world rather than the actual one. They investigate the “real” GNP, not the “nominal” GNP (the quoted terms aren’t the same as those of medieval philosophy, but they give rise to similar difficulties); real interest rates, not nominal ones; real wages, not money wages: These investigations seem sensible and down to earth. Money, after all, is only good for what it can buy.
It was one of the marks of John Maynard Keynes‘ genius that he saw through at least some of the confusion this causes. At the very start of The General Theory, he showed why labor is concerned with money wages, not with real wages, to the bewilderment of classical economists. “Since there is imperfect mobility of labor,” he explained, “and wages do not tend to an exact equality of net advantage in different occupations, any individual or group of individuals who consent to a reduction of money wages relatively to others will suffer a relative reduction in real wages, which is sufficient justification for them to resist it.” He noted further that no specific wage negotiation can have a great enough effect on the general price level to make the latter worth considering by either party. High wages in Detroit have a slight and remote effect on the prices of the food and clothing automobile workers (and automobile magnates) buy.
Conservative businessmen nevertheless argue for “reality,” and not only in labor negotiations. Thus we hear much talk about the real interest rate, and how – regardless of what you thought when you talked with your friendly banker about a loan – until recently it was very low, or even negative. The nominal interest rate is what the banker was going to charge you; the real rate is generally determined by subtracting the rate of inflation from it (Keynes reasonably thought the deduction should be for future inflation, but that is obviously a guessing game and so not properly scientific).
If in 1980 you screamed when your banker reluctantly offered you a 16.5 per cent mortgage, he could sweetly point out to you that, what with inflation then running at 13.5 per cent, he was really asking you for only 3 per cent (plus, naturally, several mysterious fees and “points”). Moreover, if your tax bracket was, say, 30 per cent, he probably noted that your tax deduction for interest paid would amount to almost 5 per cent, putting you ahead of the game. You may have wondered who was keeping score.
The competing architects of the mishmash that is Reaganomics are agreed that your banker was correct in his reasoning. Messrs. Martin Feldstein and Donald Regan, Paul Volcker and Jack Kemp, all chant in unison that the economy suffers because rich people don’t have enough incentive to save. In particular, they don’t make long-term investments because they fear that when they get their money back it won’t buy as much as it does today. (The few I know seem to fancy buying extra condos here and there, and that seems like a long-term investment to me, but let that pass.) At this writing, when the real interest rate as calculated by your banker is at an all-time high, those with money to lend are (they would be shocked to learn) following Keynes in allowing not for present, but for future, inflation, which they evidently guess will increase.
Here Reaganomics has a stock answer: Make the rich richer. Considering what has been done so far, it’s hard to imagine what remains to be done, yet we need not doubt that pressure will be steady to reduce taxes in the higher brackets and to reduce income in the lower.
The anonymous White House and the palpable Representative Kemp (R-N.Y.) say in addition that the Federal Reserve Board should reduce the interest rate. Chairman Volcker replies that he could do so for a short while by increasing the money supply, but that resulting fears of inflation would send the long-term rate through the roof and would soon drag along the short-term rate, too. In brief, it is argued that the lenders’ search for real interest would make the nominal interest rate too high for anyone to borrow. Even though we may not like what is being done to us, it is for our own good.
T O CHECK on this argument, we must look a little more closely at the meaning of “realism” in economics. Does it in fact make sense to disregard money values and concentrate on real values? I will say that it does not.
In the actual world, where we do our actual buying and selling, it is money values that we do – and should – pay attention to. Keynes satisfied his tastes for old books and new paintings by speculating, mainly in commodities and currencies. He used his winnings for (among other purposes) buying paintings at the Degas auction in 1918. The real value of the paintings he bought for himself and urged others to buy was not about to change and, by definition, could not change. But the money value, as he anticipated, changed dramatically. He needed money to pay the money price for the paintings before it went up; the real values of either commodities or paintings had nothing to do with the case.
And of course it is impossible to say what the real value of those paintings was or is. Some of them I’d not give house room to, except for their sentimental association with the great man who once owned them. As far as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the GNP Deflator is concerned, the value of the paintings is nil. They don’t count; and to value them in terms of Smith’s or Ricardo’s or Marx’s labor theory would be ridiculous, as it would be ridiculous to attempt to apply Keynes’ wage unit to them. Since there is no way of saying what their real value is, it seems quixotic to insist that they have any in economic terms.
Nor are the paintings unique. The market basket of the CPI includes many items I would not give house room to and many others – entertainment, for example – that can be connected with a labor theory of value, or with any other “reality,” only by dint of the most laborious of gyrations. A theater ticket can be counted in the CPI because it is bought, that is, because it has money value. What its real value may be is beyond calculation.
The mere fact that the CPI is not the all-purpose market basket for all seasons, and that other indices (including many of the same items) have to be devised, indicates that the alleged reality shifts as the sands. In any event, like Keynes with his paintings, I need money to buy the things I want out of the baskets; and the more money I have, the more things I can buy. Regardless of the rise or fall of real values (whatever they might be thought to be, and however they might be determined), I’ll be able to buy more if I have more money. Why then should I not join other workers in resisting a reduction in my money wage?
In this I am no different from the investor (or speculator) who resists a reduction in money interest. Regardless of the so-called real rate, his choice is between the money rate and nothing at all. Like the unfaithful servant in the parable, he can bury his money, but that won’t help him. Or he can spend it, and that will help the economy. But if he wants to invest, he’ll have to follow the money rate of interest. In the end, he will compare the results of various investment strategies in accordance with the amounts of money they earn. Realism has nothing to do with it.
If This Be Rabble-Rousing
A FRIEND has taken exception to my proposal to limit or forbid the importation of foreign manufactures that threaten to destroy important domestic industries because of low prices based on the exploitation of local labor (“The Way to Protect,”November 14, 1983 NL, September 19). He says his freedom would be unacceptably abridged if he couldn’t buy a Japanese automobile, because he thinks they are better made than ours. He doesn’t deny that Americans are thrown out of work when our industries are shipped abroad, but he is confident that their distress is only temporary and perhaps not altogether undeserved. Besides, he objects to the word “exploitation” as old-fashioned rabble-rousing.
Two questions are mixed together here. The first I find difficult to take seriously. It is nowhere writ – not in the Bill of Rights, not in the Magna Carta, not in the Sermon on the Mount, not in the Code of Hammurabi – that my friend has a right to buy a Subaru, no matter how well it may be made. For various pragmatic or prudential reasons, the government will not interfere with his use of money except reluctantly and after due reflection; yet many uses are now routinely denied him, and there is no use that cannot, in principle, be denied. Money is, after all, a social, not an individual, creation. The issue is not whether denial is legitimate, but whether denial in this particular case is reasonable.
The other question is one of fact. In setting forth my proposal, I specified two steps that would have to be taken before barring a given import: “First, we decide that certain of our important industries are threatened in our home market by severe competition from foreign industries. Second, we determine whether that threat is made possible by wages or conditions that we would consider “exploitative.”
Now, whether these conditions apply to Subaru or not can readily be determined. I repeat: It is a question of fact, not of theory. For the purposes of our argument, my friend conceded that the conditions do apply, and that thousands of Americans in Detroit are thrown out of work because of Japanese labor policies. He nevertheless maintained that in the long run not too much suffering would be caused by the collapse of the American automobile industry; and that if suffering is caused the way to alleviate it is directly through the dole, not by forbidding the importation of Subarus.
I’m afraid that no doubt exists about the suffering, and it is by no means confined to the automobile industry. As I have previously said, as long as the American standard of living is higher than the Oriental standard of living, there is nothing whatsoever that cannot be manufactured more cheaply there than here. This goes for high-tech industries even more than for smokestack industries, because the technology of the former is in fact simpler and the capital requirements less extensive.
Nor is there any doubt that very little of the suffering we have so far seen will be alleviated by the so-called recovery. What’s going on now does not fit into the late Joseph A. Schumpeter‘s theory of new industries – ” railroad construction in its earlier stages, electrical power production before the First World War, steam and steel, the motor car, colonial ventures” – Ieading the upswing of fresh business cycles. The only new industry now on the horizon is high-tech, which, as noted, is high-tailing it for the Orient, and is not a big employer anyhow. For this reason, all the vague talk of retraining the millions of our unemployed fellow citizens is cruel nonsense. Retraining for what?
My friend is a compassionate man and is willing to consider the problem. Like Mr. Micawber, he expects something to turn up, but in the meantime he is willing to institute the dole (he is not a Reaganite) and to pay for it with a progressive income tax.
I am not one to say that it could not be done. Indeed, I say that it should be done. It is little enough. A dole at the poverty level might seem a bonanza for a part-time textile worker; it is a disaster for a veteran automobile worker who has saved a little money, started a family, bought a house, and nurtured the American dream. If, as some tell us, he was overpaid, then the dream was a fraud.
That is one side of the problem: the unconscionable cost to American workers of my friend’s assumed right to buy a Subaru or a Hong Kong sports shirt. The other side is the cost to my friend in taxes. Being in thrall to classical economics, he wants to balance the budget. At present rates, the Federal income tax raises about $285 billion, leaving a deficit of about $200 billion. A poverty-level dole would cost another $100 billion; a halfway decent dole would be double that. Thus to do what my friend wants to do would require income taxes one and a half times (if he doesn’t balance the budget) to two and a half times (if he does balance) those now in force. A flat tax at that rate of increase, let alone a truly progressive tax, would be a lot to pay for a Subaru. And millions of our fellow citizens would be condemned to aimless, hopeless lives.
Against this dreary scenario, my friend raises the specter of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, sponsored by reactionary Republicans in 1930 and ever after blamed by junior high school civics texts for the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, World War II, the Cold War, and innumerable minor irritations. The analysis doesn’t rise even to the level of post hoc ergo propter hoc[1], for the Great Depression was already well under way when Smoot-Hawley was passed, while fascism had been in power in Italy for eight years, and was rapidly growing in Germany.
An interesting thing about Smoot-Hawley is that its original impetus came from distress on the farms. Although by the time the bill was passed, duties were raised on almost everything under the sun, the presenting complaint in President Hoover‘s call for a special session of Congress was largely agricultural. Today there is again distress on the farms, but its cause is different. This time no one is underselling us in our domestic market, or in our international market. The trouble, instead, is that the Poles and others who want our wheat haven’t anything to pay us with. (Except, my friend says, golf carts: Would you have believed that almost all carts on American golf courses were made in Poland?) The Poles have coal for sale, but so have we-and so do the Germans, the French, the Belgians, the British; (One of the “reindustrializing” schemes that has been advocated and, for all I know, implemented involves rebuilding the port of Norfolk to facilitate the export of coal to God knows whom.)
Since the Poles can’t pay us for our wheat, we had to fall back on our ingenuity. The solution was simplicity itself: We lent them the money. Partly we lent it as a nation through the Export-Import Bank, and partly we had it lent for us by our friendly bankers. Of course,
Chase and Citibank and the rest didn’t exactly use our money; they used the Arabs’ money, deposited with them because of the high interest rates the Federal Reserve Board encouraged, allegedly to fight inflation. Just as bankers become unwitting partners of debtors to whom they lend too much money, however, we as a nation have become the unwitting partners of the banks that now have shaky foreign loans far in excess of their assets[2].
THE UPSHOT of all this is that we the people of the United States will in effect pay our farmers for the wheat that is in effect given to the Poles. I have nothing against the Poles, but it occurs to me to wonder why it is better to give our wheat to them than to poor fellow citizens, whom we expect to feed themselves on a supplement of less than a dollar a day. Charity should no doubt be world-wide, yet it should certainly begin at home.
The result of the banks’ loans to Brazil et al. in many ways is worse. The Brazilians invested the money (which, you will remember, couldn’t be lent to New York City because it was a “bad risk”) in building up their industry, particularly steel. Thanks to their low wages, they are now driving American steel out of the world market and to a considerable extent out of the domestic American market. To repay the loans, though, Brazil has to export still more steel and import less of whatever it imports. It must adopt what the bankers and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) aseptically refer to as austerity measures. This means reducing Brazil’s standard of living, and consequently paying its steel workers even less than at present.
If the bankers’ scheme succeeds, by no means a certainty, additional American steel workers will lose their jobs. Should the scheme fail, the banks will come crying to Uncle Sam to bail them out (they’re already lobbying for an increase in our contribution to the IMF), and we will in reality have given Brazil the steel mills that are destroying our industry and putting our fellow citizens out of work.
A very high percentage of foreign trade follows the patterns I have outlined, distorting economies everywhere to the principal benefit of bankers. There are, naturally, many things we want or need to import; oil (because we are too witless to cope with our energy requirements), tungsten, chrome, bauxite, coffee, and there are many things we can, without special government assistance, export to pay for them. But the necessity, or even the desirability, of foreign trade has been grossly oversold.
Trade is one of the modes of civilization (that is what makes economics a humanistic-and ethical-discipline). Trade also adds to wealth – the wealth of individuals, of nations, of the world. It does this by increasing and rationalizing employment, for wealth is the product of work. When trade expands employment for both partners, the prosperity of both is advanced, and David Ricardo’s Law of Comparative Advantage (see “How Our Sun May Rise Again,” NL, July 12-26, 1982) can be said to apply. Conversely, when trade brings about unemployment for one of the partners, its advantage disappears. Trade will always result in some unemployment in a competitive situation, and the unemployment will be compounded where the competition is based on gross wage differentials. If Japanese citizens were to buy up the output of Korea’s nascent automobile industry in preference to Subarus and Toyotas, Japanese wealth would be decreased, and you may be sure that the Japanese government has imposed effective restrictions.
Microeconomically – that is, company by company-foreign trade can be very attractive. Once a company is successful in its home market – factories built and paid for, experience gained – it takes little extra effort to open an export business, and economies of scale will make that business extraordinarily profitable at the margin, especially when stimulated by tax incentives. The profitability of multinational conglomerates is enhanced by their ability to manufacture where wage scales are the lowest (and declare their profits where taxes are the lowest).
When we shift from microeconomics to macroeconomics – from firm to nation – we find (as we frequently do in such shifts) that we have committed the fallacy of composition. What is good for each firm individually is not necessarily good for the nation. In the circumstances we have been discussing, some (not all) American exports are being paid for by us in the shape of high interest rates that inordinately benefit a few, and we will doubtless bear the further cost of rescuing banks in danger of failing. On the other side, some (not all) American imports are being paid for by individual citizens in the shape of shattered prospects and grinding poverty.
These outcomes are not divinely ordained. They are the result of policies deliberately, albeit perhaps blindly, adopted. If this be rabble-rousing, as I told my friend, make the most of it.
[1] A logical mistake which assumes that when things happen in a sequence that means that the second event was dependent on or caused by the first.
[2] Reading this in 2012, post the late 2000’s mortgage fiasco, I can change this sentence by replacing “shaky foreign loans” to “shaky mortgages” and not have missed a beat.
Reply to Netzer – Letter re How Our Sun May Rise Again
Oriental Labor|
The apparent clincher in George P. Brockway’s “How Our Sun May Rise Again” (NL, July 12-26) is his rhetorical question about explaining “the steadily increasing prices of electric irons and TV sets and cameras and automobiles, despite their being produced in the allegedly more efficient and assuredly lower wage Orient.” Steadily increasing compared to what? All the items he mentions have had small increases in price over the years relative to either the overall price level or disposable income.
Consider the following data on average annual increases from the end of 1970 to the end of 1971: Disposable income climbed 10.2per cent and the consumer price index for all items rose 8.1 per cent. Meanwhile, the prices of new automobiles and footwear went up only 5.1 per cent; household appliances, 4.8 per cent; apparel, 3.8 per cent; and television sets, a scant 0.3 per cent. All these are consumer goods that were heavily affected by imports from East Asia, especially the last two items. The answer to Brockway’s question is that his factual premise is all wet, not for the first time.
Brockway is also careless in describing the theory he sets out to overturn (by assertion). Like other valuable insights, the principle of comparative advantage was elucidated somewhat imprecisely by its formulator, David Ricardo, and has been refined in the 165 years since 1817. The principle does not depend on the trans-national immobility of capital. It is valid as long as some factors of production are geographically immobile to some extent: physical capital, mineral resources, skilled labor, entrepreneurial talents, whatever. Clearly, such immobilities are ubiquitous, otherwise there would be no differences in wages and other returns to factors of production among nations or among the regions of one nation. (The principle, pace Ricardo, does apply within a single country.)
Ricardo would not have discarded his law, nor would he have been as pessimistic as Brockway is about the American capacity to come up with “sunrise” industries. More likely, he would have remarked upon our repeated success over the years in replacing “sunset” with “sunrise” industries. To be sure, the international transmission of industrial knowledge and skills, as well as capital, is swifter than it was in the past. But that swiftness tends to raise, not lower absolute standards of living here “and elsewhere, although it reduces the disparity among industrialized countries’ standards of living, which is a good thing, not a bad one.
Dick Netzer is agile at the old debater’s trick of answering resoundingly a question different from the one asked. When I said that various items produced in the Orient are steadily increasing in price, I meant precisely that. Netzer says that their prices haven’t gone up so much as disposable income, which is another question. Since his statistics, if they prove anything, prove my point, I’ll refrain from questioning his choice of dates or inquiring into the effect of shifting exchange rates or comparing the behavior of the prices of American-made versions of these products with those of the same products produced in the Orient.
As to the history of the Law of Comparative Advantage, I certainly do not question that refinements have been made in it since David Ricardo formulated it 165 years ago. As a practical matter, however, these are beside the point: The present putative Oriental advantage is the result of cheap labor and often unsafe working conditions. (Chinese doctors are good at reattaching chopped-off fingers and arms, because they have so much practice at it.) It would be dishonorable to treat American workers as Oriental workers are treated, and it is dishonorable to throw our citizens out of a job in furtherance of Oriental exploitation.
The Ricardian argument, moreover, implicitly requires that workers displaced by the transfer of their industries abroad will immediately find comparable positions in industries that (for some reason the theory cannot explain) stay home. My factual premise, which Netzer unaccountably thinks is “all wet,” is that millions of Americans are out of work because we have exported their jobs, and that billions of ‘dollars’ worth of American plants are standing idle because we have exported their industries.
It may be that, as Netzer says, I am too pessimistic about the prospect of coming up with sunrise industries to replace sunset industries. If the real world were as optimistically fast-paced as he pretends, I should think he would at least have suggested a few sunrise industries to relieve my gloom. And I’d dearly love to have him explain why certain industries are sunset here but sunrise in the Orient, unless the difference lies largely in wage scales and working conditions.
Finally, I must diffidently point out that the rhetorical question Netzer has tried unsuccessfully to answer is only one of three that I asked, and the least important at that. And I really must object that I did not and would not rely on a rhetorical question in the middle of my essay as a “clincher.” I have more respect for my readers than Netzer allows.
How Our Sun May Rise Again
A NOTE IN Thomas Balogh‘s stimulating new book, The Irrelevance of Conventional Economics, tells the following story: When Professor Paul Samuelson was asked by a Harvard mathematician to name “one proposition in all of the social sciences which is both true and non-trivial,” he confessed that this was a test he always failed. “But now,” Samuelson wrote, “some 30 years later … an appropriate answer occurs to me: the Ricardian theory of comparative advantage; the demonstration that trade is mutually profitable even when one country is absolutely more or less productive in terms of every commodity.”
The anecdote is worth attending to because the so-called Law of Comparative Advantage is the foundation of most arguments for free international trade, and the dogma has been sanctified by practically all economists, liberal or conservative. The law thus provides at least part of the justification for deeds such as GE’s closing an electric iron factory in California and replacing it with one in Singapore (see “America’s Setting Sun,” NL, June 14).
As expounded by David Ricardo in The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation–one of the half dozen most influential books in the history of economics-the law develops like this: Suppose (there goes an economist imagining things again!) that a certain amount of wine exchanges for a certain amount of cloth. Suppose that in England it would take a year’s labor of 100 men to make the cloth, and of 120 men to make the wine, while in Portugal the man-years required are 90 and 80, respectively. In these circumstances, it would be to Portugal’s advantage to make only wine and England’s to make only cloth, with the countries then exchanging the surpluses: Portugal would multiply its wine output 2.125 times ([90 + 80] ÷ 80), and England its cloth production 2.2 times-and since the cloth and the wine are equal in value, both countries would come out ahead.
I say that the law is false in the modern world, however, and I say that Ricardo knew why [editor’s emphasis]. “Such an exchange,” he observed, “could not take place between individuals of the same country. The labor of 100 Englishmen cannot be given for that of 80 Englishmen, but the labor of 100 Englishmen may be given for the produce of the labor of 80 Portuguese, 60 Russians, or 120 East Indians. The difference, in this respect, between a single country and many, is easily accounted for, by considering the difficulty with which capital moves from one country to another, to seek a more profitable employment, and the activity with which it invariably passes from one province to another in the same country.”
Ricardo went on to declare that “feelings, which I should be sorry to see weakened, induce most men to be satisfied with a low rate of profits in their own country, rather than seek a more advantageous employment for their wealth in foreign countries.”
What Ricardo could not foresee, and what his modern followers have overlooked, is that the new multinational corporations fail to share the feelings of patriotism or indeed of prudence that he ascribed (somewhat naively even in the 19th century) to the capitalists of his time. Today capital flits freely from here to there, moving as indifferently from the United States to Singapore as it did in Ricardo’s day from London to Yorkshire.
The results of this movement are neocolonial exploitation in the Third World and spreading unemployment in the industrial West, leading in turn to Reaganomic doctrines of lower wages, less concern for worker safety, disregard for the environment, and abandonment of consumer protection. Teenage girls now making electric irons in Singapore, though exploited by our standards, may be better off for the moment than they were before GE hired them. But the mature American men and women who lost their jobs when GE abandoned its plant in California are irremediably worse off. Many-perhaps most-of them, having worked with reasonable faithfulness (at least matching that of GE toward them) for 15-20 years, may never find a comparable job as long as they live.
This sort of thing is happening every day in what Lester C. Thurow calls “sunset” industries, and if you believe in the Law of Comparative Advantage, you see nothing wrong with it. Singapore produced irons will be (possibly) less expensive than California-produced irons, and American capitalists and consumers may benefit even though American workers will certainly suffer. We now have a good many” sunset” industries: textiles, steel, shipbuilding, electronics, optics, and of course automobiles. We also have 10 million unemployed.
Professor Thurow fears that our whole economy, except for service industries and agriculture, will be shipped abroad. He proposes a massive national R&D effort to identify “sunrise” industries and to channel investment into them. It would, he says, be better to underwrite the development costs of such hopeful undertakings than to shore up doomed firms like Lockheed and Chrysler. The professor points, too, at the Japanese experience, claiming that Japanese prosperity results from just such cooperation among big government, big finance and big business (in Japan there is no such thing as big labor).
The Japanese model gives me pause. I wonder what is to prevent the Japanese from moving into our new “sunrise” industries. The challenge comes not just from the Japanese, I hasten to add: GE and dozens of other multinationals are as American as apple pie; yet the effect on American workers of their operations in Singapore and Taiwan and Mexico is in no way different from that of Toyota and Panasonic. It was not so many years ago that we had a “sunrise” industry making TV sets and today that sun is slipping into the western ocean. I can’t see why the yet-to-be-invented “sunrise” industries won’t suffer the same fate in due course. As Ecclesiastes had it: “The sun also goeth down.”
So what is to be done? Well, nothing, according to the Law of Comparative Advantage. Its adherents may drop a tear for GE’s former workers in California and sigh at the wasteful abandonment of the Ford plant in Mahwah. But they steadfastly accept these disappointments, secure in the stern faith that the long-run result will be lower prices and hence a higher standard of living for American consumers.
Three questions occur to me. First, how long will the run be? Second, how will unemployed American consumers get the money to pay the promised lower prices? Third, how do you explain the steadily increasing prices of electric irons and TV sets and cameras and automobiles, despite their being produced in the allegedly more efficient and assuredly lower-wage Orient? I leave the questions rhetorical.
Discard Ricardo’s law, as he surely would have done, and you may find it is precisely at this point that the Japanese have something to teach us. A much complained-of fact is that it is exceedingly tough for American firms to establish branches in Japan or even to obtain Japanese import licenses. This is partly bureaucratic bungling, partly preserving foreign exchange for essential imports, and partly requiring foreigners to produce goods in the Japanese way if they want to sell them in Japan.
These matters, it is important to notice, have little to do with tariffs in the usual sense. What is being protected is less Japanese fledgling industry than customs, and the Japanese don’t propose to allow them to be corrupted for any number of pieces of silver. As has long been noted, tariffs inefficiently shield new or weak industries. Import regulation, on the other hand, does help preserve a national way of life.
THIS IS a very sound approach, and one that we have taken as well, albeit not always for the right reasons. President Eisenhower, for example, restricted the importation of oil in the mistaken belief (yes, I credit him with having been merely naive) that he was protecting a war industry (our war-making ability would rather have been enhanced by keeping our oil in the ground and using foreign oil in peacetime). An accepted provision of Cordell Hull‘s Reciprocal Trade Agreements bans products that are “dumped” -that is, sold at a loss. And we quite reasonably refuse entry to automobiles that do not meet our safety standards, to drugs we judge to be harmful, to beef from cattle we believe to have been infected with hoof-and-mouth disease.
In short, we have long acted to protect Americans as consumers and Americans as entrepreneurs. If we protected Americans as workers in the same way, we’d have less trouble with “sunset” industries.
It is easy to foretell that multinational corporations will fiercely resist giving up the American market for products manufactured cheaply abroad. Moreover, they will succeed in mobilizing some consumer organizations and doctrinaire free-traders in their behalf.
There will also be those who worry, quite properly, about employment in the Third World. The reply here is that to break out of their underdevelopment, the nations of the Third World will have to encourage trade among themselves. If goods manufactured in the Third World had to be sold there, the multinationals would be constrained to produce what the Third World needs (maybe neither irons nor calculators) at prices it can afford. That way lies increasing prosperity, instead of neocolonialism and permanent poverty.
From our point of view (which is the only basis for our legislation), it is futile to try to prevent the flight of American capital abroad even if we wanted to. It would be easy to avoid the concomitant harm done to American workers, though, and to stop encouraging the flight of capital. Such protection would be no harder to handle than present regulations about drugs and diseases.
Unless we come to understand that the Law of Comparative Advantage no longer holds, and unless we therefore do something to protect American working men and women-in other words, us-we can expect industry after industry, no matter how thoroughly researched and comprehensively planned, to vanish with the setting sun. And as we continue to force additional millions of our fellow citizens onto the relief rolls, we can expect our standard of living to fall steadily lower among the industrial nations of the world.
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Dendias: Turkey creates an explosive situation in the Eastern Mediterranean
With Turkey announcing a new illegal NAVTEX, a navigational notice, over six Greek islands, there is no doubt that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has escalated tensions in the Aegean.
“Ankara has created an explosive situation in the Eastern Mediterranean, with successive NAVTEXs in areas covered by the Greek continental shelf,” Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said when speaking at the Economist’s 16th online conference on Cyprus.
“Turkey is responsible for destabilizing the region,” he continued to stress at the online conference entitled “Energy diplomacy in turbulent times.”
He stressed that Ankara has created an “explosive situation” in the Eastern Mediterranean, with successive NAVTEXs in areas covered by the Greek continental shelf, with the Turkish research vessel Oruç Reis carrying out illegal activities.
The Oruç Reis.
The actions of the Turkish research vessel violates the Law of the Sea, as well as the sovereignty and sovereign rights of Cyprus.
Dendias pointed out that Greece systematically seeks cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as in the wider region.
“This is demonstrated by the tripartite and multilateral schemes that the country is promoting, such as with Egypt, Israel, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, as well as with other countries,” he said.
He commented that the EastMed Gas Forum, which was recently established as an international organization, is receiving a positive response from other important international actors, including the United States.
As he said, this direction includes the bilateral maritime demarcation agreements that Greece recently concluded with Italy and Egypt, as well as the political agreement with Albania to refer the issue to The Hague, as well as the similar demarcation agreements that Cyprus has concluded with Egypt, Lebanon and Israel.
At the same time, he noted that cooperation initiatives in the region are open to all interested countries, provided there is respect for international law and the principles of the United Nations Charter.
“Turkey seems to perceive energy as a pretext to advance its expansionist ambitions in the region, not hesitating to jeopardize regional peace and stability, disregarding UN decisions on the Cyprus issue, with provocative and persistently delinquent behavior towards Greece,” he said.
Dendias then highlighted that Turkey has “involvement in the crises in Syria, Libya and elsewhere,” and is “instrumentalizing immigration and religion.”
He also noted that Turkey treats the energy deposits in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone as an opportunity to blackmail the government of the Republic of Cyprus, allegedly invoking the rights of Turkish Cypriots, who are themselves victims of Turkish agenda.
“And no one can focus on the energy sector without ignoring the key issue, Turkey’s refusal to recognize the Republic of Cyprus, a member state of the United Nations and the European Union,” he said.
Finally, the Foreign Minister reiterated the potential for progress, development and stability offered by energy, when, as he said, “the path of diplomacy, cooperation and international law is chosen, in contrast to the prospect of widening inequalities and endangering peace.”
Tags: AEGEAN, Cyprus, Dendias, East Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean, EastMed Gas Forum, Egypt, Erdogan, greece, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Mediterranean, Navtex, Nikos Dendias, Oruç Reis, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, The Hague, Turkey
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Koch Institute partners with HighRes Biosolutions to build state-of-the-art screening facility
The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT has selected HighRes Biosolutions to implement modular and flexible automation for its newly implemented screening facility. HighRes will provide The Koch Institute, which is revolutionizing the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of cancer, with two screening systems that will be linked using HighRes’ patented dockable cart-based automation platform. Investigators at the Koch Institute as well as other MIT affiliates will use the new systems for both genomic and biochemical approaches to fighting cancer with a particular interest in studying combination treatment synergies.
The first HighRes system will be dedicated to a cell culture-based genomic approach to oncology. The self-contained system will generate thousands of discrete lentiviral constructs targeting a multitude of genomic locations. Using RNAi technology, these specialized viruses enable researchers to selectively “knock down” the function of specific genes and proteins in cancer cells, resulting in the identification of pathways and individual disease contributing factors for various forms of cancer.
The second HighRes system will be used for more typical biochemical and compound screening strategies. This multifunctional, fully-automated system will be equipped for quantitative biochemical and protein assays, high-content imaging studies and compound screening for lead drug discovery. Besides integrating liquid handlers, plate washers/dispensers and various end point readers, the system will maintain proper sample handling throughout any process with the use of barcode readers.
These biochemical and genomic screening systems will be physically linked through mobile storage devices via HighRes’ cart and dock-based automation platforms. The ability to dock and undock virtually any integrated device allows for quick and simple interaction between automation platforms and the rapid reconfiguration of systems to perform nearly any assay. This flexible and modular approach to automation also enables researchers at the Koch Institute to conduct all assay development on the same devices (either online or offline) that eventually will run their high-throughput screens.
“Bringing in advanced automation to support the experimental needs of our oncology research community represents an important milestone for us. These customized and yet highly flexible facilities paired with biologically-validated compounds and reagents will provide important new platforms to support the broad research interests of our MIT community,” explains Robert Urban, Executive Director of the Koch Institute at MIT.
“We are excited to have some of the best cancer researchers in the world working with our systems.” explains Chris Pacheco, Director of Life Science Technologies at HighRes Biosolutions. “I truly believe this group of biologists will be able to fully appreciate our flexible approach to laboratory automation and will take full advantage of its benefits in unforeseeable ways. We’re excited to see how our systems will adapt to their experimental designs.”
About the Koch Institute
The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research (pronounced “coke”) is a cancer research center affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Institute is one of six National Cancer Institute-designated basic research centers in the US. The Koch Institute (KI) was launched in October of 2007 and is physical home to ~25 MIT faculty members from both the Schools of Engineering and Science and convenes over 1,000 researchers from across the MIT campus. KI fosters and funds interdisciplinary collaborations in five key research areas: nanotherapeutics, detection and monitoring, metastasis, mapping drug sensitivity & resistance pathways, and cancer immunology.
HighRes Biosolutions, Inc. (www.highresbio.com) is the leader in the design and construction of innovative robotic systems and laboratory devices used by pharmaceutical, biotech, and academic research laboratories. HighRes accelerates drug discovery, high throughput genotyping, siRNA screening, next-generation sequencing sample prep, biorepository science and molecular diagnostics with highly flexible, expandable and modular integrated systems, bench-top devices and consumables that are easily configured (and reconfigured) to create research environments conducive to achieving breakthrough results.
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Newsom CA. The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice: Edition, Translation, and Commentary.; 1985. Publisher's Version
Niditch S. The Symbolic Vision in Biblical Tradition.; 1983. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Using the developmental history-of-traditions approach, Susan Niditch leads the reader to a new understanding of the interrelationships between twelve symbolic visions found in the Old Testament: Amos 7:7-9, 8:1-3, Jeremiah 1:11-12, 1:13-19, Jeremiah 24, Zechariah 1:7-17, 2:1-4, 2:5-9, 4:1-6a, 4:10b-14, 5:1-4, 5:5-11, 6:1-8, Daniel 7 and 8. Four visions from 2 Baruch and 4 Ezra are also studied briefly.
Pentiuc EJ. West Semitic Vocabulary in the Akkadian Texts from Emar.; 2001. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Part 1 of this study is a glossary with comparative analysis of non-normative Akkadian forms, Hittite and Hurrian words, West Semitic lexemes, and words of uncertain origin, with special attention given to the West Semitic forms. Part 2 consists of grammatical observations pertaining to the West Semitic forms, under the headings orthography, phonology, and morphology.
Press MD. Ashkelon 4: The Iron Age Figurines of Ashkelon and Philistia.; 2012. Publisher's VersionAbstract
In this volume, Dr. Michael D. Press publishes the complete Iron Age corpus of terracotta anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines from the Leon Levy Expedition. Adapting a methodology of typology, iconography, and iconology, Press lays out his theoretical framework for analyzing and understanding the figurines of Ashkelon and those from Philistine cultures. Throughout this study, which covers nearly six centuries of Philistine life, the well-dated archaeological contexts of the figurines are stressed as much as their form and decoration. With an uncanny eye for form and detail, Press succeeds in changing our understanding of Philistine iconography while providing a model of method and theory that could be applied to the coroplastic art of many cultures.
Propp WH. Water in the Wilderness: A Biblical Motif and Its Mythological Background.; 1987. Publisher's Version
Qimron E. The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls.; 1986. Publisher's VersionAbstract
In 1986, Elisha Qimron published the first comprehensive study of the Hebrew language of the scrolls from Qumran, examining the orthography, phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary of the language. The study also includes a subject and word index. Even now, over twenty years later, his work remains the standard reference on the subject. Recognizing the need to keep it available, this paperback reprint has now been issued by the Harvard Semitic Museum/Eisenbrauns.
Rubin A. Studies in Semitic Grammaticalization.; 2005. Publisher's VersionAbstract
This groundbreaking study examines the historical development of the Semitic languages from the point of view of grammaticalization, the linguistic process whereby lexical items and constructions lose their lexical meaning and serve grammatical functions. The author first provides an introduction to this process, followed by a comprehensive overview--with abundant examples from ancient and modern languages--of how it is exemplified in Semitic. Three successive chapters are devoted to in-depth studies of specific cases of grammaticalization: the definite article in Central Semitic, direct object markers across Semitic, and present tense prefixes in modern Arabic and Aramaic dialects. Drawing on evidence from many non-Semitic languages, from recent developments in the field of historical linguistics, and from traditional comparative Semitics, this book represents a major contribution to the field of comparative Semitics.
Sanderson JE. An Exodus Scroll from Qumran: 4Qpaleo Exodm and the Samaritan Tradition.; 1986. Publisher's Version
Schuller EM. Non-Canonical Psalms from Qumran: A Pseudepigraphic Collection.; 1986. Publisher's Version
Seow CL. Myth, Drama, and the Politics of David's Dance.; 1990. Publisher's Version
Smith MS. The Origins and Development of the Waw-Consecutive: Northwest Semitic Evidence from Ugarit to Qumran.; 1991. Publisher's Version
Stager LE, Schloen DJ, Master DM. Ashkelon 1: Introduction and Overview (1985-2006).; 2008. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Since 1985, the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, directed by Lawrence E. Stager of Harvard University, has been a leading American archaeological project in Israel. Now, the work of the project is being collected in ten final report volumes published by the Harvard Semitic Museum. The first volume, Introduction and Overview (1985-2006), spans more than 700 copiously illustrated pages, many in full color, and includes subjects ranging from microscopic DNA to monumental architecture. In addition, Volume 1 includes plans and descriptions of every architectural phase excavated during the course of seventeen field seasons and reveals the archaeological sequence of the site and aspects of the city plan from the Bronze Age to Crusader times, with special emphasis on Canaanite (Bronze Age) and Philistine (Iron Age) Ashkelon. The chapters in this volume, by more than three dozen contributors, combine to describe Ashkelon's cultural constants and contingencies over la longue durée (3000 BCE to 1500 CE). As a result, Ashkelon 1: Introduction and Overview (1985-2006) will be an indispensable resource for investigating the maritime and terrestrial history of the southeastern Mediterranean littoral.
Stager LE, Master DM, Schloen DJ. Ashkelon 3: The Seventh Century B.C.; 2011. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Ashkelon 3: The Seventh Century B.C, written by Lawrence E. Stager, Daniel M. Master, and J. David Schloen has won of the 2012 Irene Levi-Sala Book Prize. The Irene Levi-Sala Book prize award is dedicated by the Sala Family Trust, London, to the memory of Dr. Irene Levi-Sala, who was a gifted archaeologist and maintained a keen interest in the culture and archaeology of Israel. The purpose of this prestigious prize is to encourage and reward high quality publications, both scholarly and popular, on the archaeology of Israel against the wider context of Near Eastern history and archaeology.
The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon continues its final report series with a study of the city destroyed in the campaign of the Babylonian king Nebuchadrezzar in December of 604 B.C. In this era, Ashkelon’s markets linked land routes from the southeast to a web of international Mediterranean merchants, and this volume describes the Iron Age bazaar where shopkeepers sold the goods of Egypt, Greece, Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Judah. In addition, in another part of the city, a winery produced a homegrown vintage for distribution abroad.
This volume spans more than 800 full-color pages illustrating the range of imported and local artifacts recovered by more than ten years of excavation. The twenty-eight chapters, by more than two dozen contributors, combine to describe Ashkelon’s pivotal role in the economy and politics of the late seventh century B.C. As such, Ashkelon 3: The Seventh Century B.C. is a indispensable resource for those interested in the Iron Age history of the Eastern Mediterranean and the study of trade and economy in the ancient world.
Steiner RC. Early Northwest Semitic Serpent Spells in the Pyramid Texts.; 2011. Publisher's VersionAbstract
New: Seven high-resolutions scans are now available online for browsing key images of the pyramid of Unas in detail: Antechamber, North Wall (right) and West Wall | Antechamber, West Wall | Sarcophagus Chamber, East Wall | Sarcophagus Chamber, West Wall | Sarcophagus Chamber, West Gable, center | Antechamber, East Wall, upper | Antechamber, East Wall, lower
The earliest connected Semitic texts known to modern scholars are usually thought to be East Semitic texts from Mesopotamia, written in the cuneiform script. In this monograph, Richard C. Steiner deciphers Semitic texts that are even earlier--Northwest Semitic texts in hieroglyphic script that have been "hiding in plain sight" among the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom.
The Semitic texts are embedded in two series of Egyptian spells designed to protect the king's mummy against snakes. They are orthographically distinct from the rest of the Pyramid Texts, characterized by exceptional phonetic spelling reminiscent of the "group writing" used to write foreign names and texts in later times. Most editors of the Pyramid Texts have considered them unintelligible.
The Semitic and Egyptian passages in these spells are mutually elucidating. The Egyptian context contains phrases that reveal the meaning of corresponding Semitic phrases as well as clues that reveal the origin of the texts. The Semitic, in turn, helps to clarify the Egyptian, bringing a degree of cohesiveness and order to a group of spells that previously seemed like a hodgepodge. As Robert K. Ritner writes in his foreword to the monograph: "We have thus gone from a string of isolated invocations, many of them gibberish, to a coherent logically constructed, tripartite ritual with a recognizable beginning, middle, and end. This seems to me a remarkable advance."
Stone ME. Features of the Eschatology of IV Ezra.; 1989. Publisher's Version
Talmon R. Eighth-Century Iraqi Grammar: A Critical Exploration of Pre-Halilian Arabic Linguistics.; 2003. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Arabic grammatical thinking provides one of the richest and most significant contributions of medieval Islamic sciences to the history of human civilization. For the first time, this book traces down its formation during the second century of Islam (eighth century A.D.), before the age of the famous Halil b. Ahmad and his disciple Sibawayhi. Some 240 excerpts extracted from the earliest sources of the eighth and ninth centuries create a unique database, which is then analyzed critically. Consequently a clear scheme emerges of the sophisticated grammar of this pre-Halilian era. As a result, Halil's and Sibawayhi's revolt on this tradition is considered in detail.
Tappy RE. The Archaeology of Israelite Samaria, Volume 2.; 2001. Publisher's VersionAbstract
In this comprehensive study, Professor Tappy rounds out the study of the Iron Age strata at Samaria that he began with the first volume of this work, published in 1992 (The Early Iron Age through the Ninth Century, HSS 44). Tappy's goal is to provide a thorough-going analysis of prior archaeologists' work at this important north Israelite site, with a view to providing a complete reconstruction of the depositional history of the site during the Iron Age. The two volumes together are important, not only for the history of the city of Samaria, but for the archaeological sequences of the Iron Age in northern Israel.
Tappy RE. The Archaeology of Israelite Samaria, Volume 1: Early Iron Age through the Ninth Century B.C.E.; 1992. Publisher's Version
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PLAYING WITH MYSELF (by Tom Russell)
Tags game design, game play, solitaire
Like many folks these last few weeks, a lot of my recent gaming has been solitaire. This isn't all that unusual for me: I tend to spend a fair amount of time playtesting things solo to ensure that they are mechanically sound before I inflict them on other human beings. (That's a lesson I quickly learned in my salad days after a particularly disastrous playtest which ended with all my testers regarding me with a disconcerting and piteous mixture of bug-eyed horror and strained, polite smiles.)
That's probably my primary reason for playing games solitaire - as part of my job and my craft. Heck, when you get down to it, that's probably my primary reason for playing games period, regardless of how many people are at my table: my interest in games generally, and in wargames specifically, is primarily a professional one. That doesn't mean I'm dispassionate or anhedonic, or that my interest is purely mercenary - only that my desire to play games is strongly driven by my desire to make games, and that desire in turn is influenced in part by the fact that it pays the bills.
Obviously, that's not the reason most people play games. For many, it's an inherently social activity, to the point where the idea of a solo game is inconceivable to them. "If I'm going to play by myself, I'll just play a video game." They'll even go as far as to say that a solo game isn't really a game: at best, it's a puzzle to solve or a task to ease the boredom.
That kind of thing really bugs me. It might not be a game they're interested in playing, but that doesn't mean it's not a game. Like, I wasn't super-interested in watching Grey's Anatomy, but I'm not going to say it wasn't a television show. It most assuredly was. What do you mean, "was" isn't the right word - it can't still be on, can it? It's been on for sixteen years?! That can't be, I remember it coming on just a few years agohmygosh turns out I'm old.
The point that your ancient, decrepit narrator is making is that solo games are games, and solo play of multiplayer games is a perfectly valid way to experience them. This might be surprising to some folks who have asked me for "solo versions" of and bots for my 2P and 3P+ designs, and gotten a flat if polite "no" in response. The short version is that the dynamics I am interested in at those player counts are quite different than the ones I explore in solo-only designs. Those dynamics are in a way achingly human, and in converting them to a flowchart format, something essential is irretrievably, irrevocably lost.
A flowchart can't decide whether to screen an attack or absorb it in Table Battles, or to block passage of a Law in This Guilty Land. I mean, it can, but the whole thing is structured as a sort of game of chicken - "if I do this, will they do that?," and on the other side of it, "they've done this, do they want me to do that?" That can't be something that can predicted by chart priorities, and it can't be up to a random die roll either - it needs to be a human brain making the decision, trying to outthink the person sitting on the other side of the table.
Now, that person and that brain might be the same person on both sides of the mapsheet, acting in the grand and venerable "play both sides to the best of your ability" tradition of wargaming. This originated out of necessity; even in their hex-and-counter heyday, wargames were a niche concern, and it was difficult to find face-to-face opponents.
In his Complete Wargamer's Handbook however, James Dunnigan mentions another reason: "a preference to play without an opponent, so that the player may exercise his own ideas about how either side in the game should be played without interference from another player. Wargames are, to a very large extent, a means of conducting historical experiments. So another player just gets in the way most times." (Emphasis mine.) While I think Dunnigan is overstating the case a little, it's consistent with his emphasis on simulation - his conception of wargames as a sort of mathematical science.
That's not my own take on it - wargames are more art than science I think, and I don't see their purpose as recreating or simulating history so much as engaging with it. But part of the appeal of what I would still term "simulation gaming" is pulling the levers and watching what happens; part of the pleasure, and the educational value, is observing the model at work, and then thinking about, and arguing with, the results. That's what makes these sorts of games more than mere diversions, and why I think the most important and serious work in the medium is being done in this sphere. They push against the conceptions of what games are, expand the limits of what games can do.
This is perhaps doubly true, at least in theory, of solo-only games. That serious, contemplative, introspective quality of games that center observation of a model arguably makes for an inherently solitary pursuit. Solo games can play to the strengths of simulation games, and simulation games to the strengths of solitaire play. I say "in theory" however because this potential is largely unexplored. I've heard promising things about the games of Joel Toppen, and some of R. Ben Madison's more recent and ambitious designs, but a sizable number of solo-only wargames remain, to put it uncharitably, either variations on whack-a-mole, or a sort of paper rollercoaster, randomly generating a narrative while you're along for the ride.
Perhaps that's one reason why I dislike those sorts of popular solo wargames. They can be so much more than that.
Well said, Tom.
I generally play alone, by preference and usually necessity.
I always liked doing this, for the reason JFD states… and trying out your own ideas leads to making variants of existing games, to designing whole new games about what you want to see and play… slippery slope, that.
I have frequently remarked about the GMT COIN series games, all of which were designed to have 2-4 human players, is that easily 70-80% of the questions we field on boardgamegeek.com are about some aspect of implementing the solo “bots”.
It’s as if once people are provided with a flowchart to trace through or a card to read, all their imagination and free will flies out the window.
If the bots were not there in the first place, they would figure it out themselves most likely… though someone could counter that a multiplayer game in this system, where the nature of each player faction is so different, is enough of a challenge in the first place without a bot to even help a new player figure out what is important to a player faction…
I do know some people use the bots this way, as a learning tool.
Others seem to use it as yet another exercise in parsing, to show they can outwit a piece of paper.
Apr 03, 2020 Brian Train
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Home Opinion Columns In Tune with June
In Tune with June
June Sturz
On a journey towards happiness
Learning about the life of Kelsey Grammer was difficult. You’ll understand why when I tell you more about him. He was born in 1955 (you do the math) in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the son of Sally Cranner, a singer and actress and Frank Allen Grammer, a musician and owner of a coffee shop and a bar and grill called Greer’s Place. He had one younger sister. The actor and his sister were raised by their mother and grandparents in New Jersey (hooray – let’s hear it for New Jersey). However, the family relocated to Florida (so hooray for Florida). His grandfather died when Kelsey was 12 but wait – here’s the hard part. Two years later in 1958 his father was murdered, and in 1978, his sister Karen was raped and murdered at the age of 18. In 1980, his two half-brothers died while scuba diving in the Virgin Islands. As an aside, it’s even hard to simply write about all this.
However, Kelsey Grammer attended a private preparatory school in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and it was there that he began to sing and perform on stage. And here’s more good news – Grammer actually won a scholarship to the prestigious Juillard. In spite of all his early life with such tremendous losses, he picked himself up, dusted himself off and found kindnesses throughout his life. I clearly remember him on television as Frazier. Actually, that became one of the most successful spin-offs in television history. His well-known voice and mid-Atlantic accent made him popular for voice-over work. That voice has been featured in many commercials.
Okay, breathe deeply because now, you’ll read about his personal life. Grammer has been married not one time, not two times, not three times – yes, four times. He has seven children. Grammer’s life has been filled with legal cases, drug abuse issues and health problems. The actor has been able to clean off his old concerns and come out fresh. “There are a million things I still want to know. Sixty-three is better than thirty-eight. I’m just full of life.” He’s on a journey to happiness. I’m reminded of Robert Frost – “I have miles to go before I sleep.”
Give us more humor
Who is Patricia Marx? Frankly, I didn’t know that I was enjoying her humor and writing. Here’s an example of her humor: “Why don’t you write my eulogy now so that I can correct it?” Obviously, it’s quite clear that Patricia Marx is an American humorist and writer. I read her work since she currently works as a staff writer for the New Yorker. The lady also teaches at Princeton University and at one of my favorite places to visit, the 92nd Street Y. Oh yes, this lady is a very fine humorist and writer.
She was born in Abington, PA, and she earned her B.A. from Harvard University. I’ve enjoyed her work since it’s been appearing in the NY Times, the New Yorker, Vogue and the Atlantic Monthly. To her credit, she has written several humor books and children’s books. If you enjoy humor, there’s also 1,003 great things to smile about and if you’re really interested, her novels include Him, Her, Him Again, the End of Him. Most of her work brings a smile or, at least, a grin. Listen to this one: How to Regain Your Virginity – and 99 Other Recent Discoveries about Sex. If you enjoy humor, here’s another Patricia Marx quotation:
“What Every Skinny Woman Knows about Dieting – and Won’t Tell You.” I’ll find myself watching for her work. Among other things, she teaches screenwriting and was the first woman to be elected to the Harvard Lampoon. These days we’re looking for happy news, so Patricia Marx, please give us more of your humor.
Paul Franklin Dano, born June 19, 1984, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer and musician. I clearly remember him before his career involved acting, directing and even playing music. How come? I saw his acting portrayal of musician Brian Wilson. That earned him a Golden Globe nomination in the category of best supporting actor a few years ago. He now enjoys a career in several areas: acting, directing, music, and singing. So where did all of this come from? Let’s start with his early life. Dano is the son of Gladys and Paul Dano and he spent the first few years of his childhood in Connecticut. At age 10 – yes, 10 – Dano became noted for classical plays. He acted in his first film role when he was only 16. Finally, when he appeared in three feature films, many awards came his way.
He has been in a relationship with actress and screenwriter Zoe Kazan since 2007. They have a daughter and he gushes about that baby just like my grandson Zachary gushes about his first-born. He raves about everything that baby does. No matter what it is, he says, “Good job.” Dano says, “One day that’s going to stop. Not everything is going to be good.” Paul Dano admits, unconvincingly, “It’s so so exhausting.” Parenthood has permanently altered his priorities. He and Zoe Kazan are glad to admit that they just have to make time for the same things. Again, that reminds me of Zachary and Linds. Eventually, they will discover that it all takes a lifetime to figure it out.
Oh, there’s something else to say about Paul Dano. He is the vocalist and lead guitarist of the band Mook. I hope Zoe Kazan enjoys their sound.
In Tune with June!
A Wonderful Play
Dealing with Snow this Winter
Many Thanks at the End of a Tough Year
ENLIVENING OURSELVES
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Slow Down, You Move Too Fast
What do these words have in common? “Savor,” “relish,” ” “luxuriate,” “stroll,” “muse,” “dawdle,” “mosey,” “meander,” and “linger?” We rarely use them, because we rarely do them. We don’t have time. We’ve got so much to do, so many balls to juggle, so many miles to go before we sleep. I’ve been thinking about this […]
What do these words have in common? “Savor,” “relish,” ” “luxuriate,” “stroll,” “muse,” “dawdle,” “mosey,” “meander,” and “linger?”
We rarely use them, because we rarely do them. We don’t have time. We’ve got so much to do, so many balls to juggle, so many miles to go before we sleep.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot since I posted the blog “The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time” two weeks ago. It prompted a passionate outpouring of comments from people feeling overwhelmed by the relentless demands in their lives, and the sense that there’s no way out.
We’re all wired up, but we’re melting down. We’re dancing as fast as we can. Stroll? Mosey? Linger? That’s what slackers do.
I’m not suggesting this is a new phenomenon. “More, bigger, faster” has been the rallying cry of capitalism for more than two centuries, since the advent of the industrial revolution. I first wrote about this subject 25 years ago in an article for Vanity Fair titled “Acceleration Syndrome: How Life Got Much, Much Too Fast.” Even then it was before anyone had cell phones or an email address, and before Google, Facebook, texting, and tweeting existed.
But the acceleration has accelerated — crazily so. The speed of our digital devices now sets our pace and increasingly runs our lives. Any doubt? See if you can turn off your email for a day, or even for a few hours, or try holding the attention of a 12- year-old who has a smart phone in her hand.
I like getting more done, faster, as much as the next guy does. But I also recognize how costly it can be. Speed is the enemy of depth, nuance, subtlety, attention to detail, reflection, learning, and rich relationships — the enemy of much, in short, that makes life worth living.
Last week, my wife and I accompanied my older daughter, a theater director, to a play called “Gatz” at the Public Theater in New York City. The show is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The script is the novel itself, which the main character, Nick Carraway, reads from the stage over six and a half languorous hours between 2 pm and 10 pm. There are two 15-minute intermissions and an hour and fifteen minute break for dinner.
Honestly, this is not the sort of event I would have chosen to attend, but it was a gift from my daughter. To my amazement, I found it riveting. I savored and luxuriated in Fitzgerald’s elegant sentences, and I became so immersed in the story and the era Fitzgerald so vividly evokes, that my attention rarely wandered. I felt enriched and enlivened by the experience. It has stuck with me.
Speed is a source of stimulation and fleeting pleasure. Slowing down is a route to depth, more enduring satisfaction, and to excellence.
How would you feel if you knew the surgeon operating on you was racing through your surgery, while checking email, and writing texts along the way? I notice my own impatience if the Internet doesn’t come up fast enough on my phone when I’m walking from one appointment to another.
Am I nuts? It makes me think of a line from Simon and Garfunkel’s 59th Street Bridge Song: “Slow down, you move too fast. You got to make the morning last.” Why can’t I just take a deep breath when I’ve got a free moment, and appreciate my simple aliveness?
Here’s one reason:
The faster we move, the less we feel, which may be a primary reason we move so fast. Most of us are more worried, uncertain, and insecure than we care to acknowledge, even to ourselves. Moving fast keeps those discomfiting feelings at bay.
So we deify doing. Just think about this senseless but venerable cliché: “No rest for the weary.” Really? Isn’t resting precisely what the weary ought to be doing?
To savor is to enjoy and appreciate something completely. It necessarily takes time and requires slowing down. So how might you build more savoring into your life? Try one of these:
Designate one meal a day — or even one a week — during which you take the time to notice the aroma, flavor, and texture of what you’re eating.
Curl up in a favorite chair at some point after you return home from work and spend at least a half-hour reading a book purely for pleasure.
Take the time to really listen to someone you love — to give that person the space to speak without interruption, for as long as it takes.
Choose a place that interests you — it could be in the city or the country — and spend a couple of hours just exploring it without any specific end in mind.
Buy a journal, and before you go to bed, take a few minutes to reflect on what you feel grateful for that day, and what went right.
Above all, slowly build more strolling, dawdling, moseying, meandering, musing, lingering, relishing, and savoring into your life.
Read more on Managing yourself or related topics Time management and Work-life balance
Tony Schwartz is the president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working. Become a fan of The Energy Project on Facebook.
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The hepatitis C infection in Iran: a policy analysis of agenda-setting using Kingdon’s multiple streams framework
Masoud Behzadifar1,
Hasan Abolghasem Gorji ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6328-19251,
Aziz Rezapour1 &
Nicola Luigi Bragazzi2
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes a large number of deaths annually worldwide. Policies play an important role in regulating healthcare agendas and prioritising of health-related issues. Understanding these priorities is very important in health. The objective of this study was to investigate HCV-related issues and their influence on agenda-setting in Iran.
A qualitative design was used. Data were collected by carrying out a review of documents and interviews. A comprehensive search was conducted to identify documents related to HCV-related policies in Iran. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with both purposive and snowball sampling of 14 interviewees related to the HCV programme in Iran, including government officials, civil society, development partnership members and academicians. Documents and interview data were analysed manually and using MAXQDA Version 10 software. Kingdon’s multiple streams framework was used to guide data analysis.
The factors which influenced HCV-related agenda-setting were lack of proper information of the HCV epidemiology before the 1990s, lack of diagnostic facilities, neighbouring countries with high HCV prevalence, the stigma of HCV, high prevalence in prisoners, international evidence and high costs generated by HCV. The factors related to policy were effective treatment methods, drug production inside Iran, Iran Hepatitis Network, support outside government group elites and academicians. The factors related to political will were international influence, changes in the government and parliament support.
The findings of this study showed that there are various national and international factors that play a role in shaping HCV-related policies. It seems that, if HCV is put into the agenda, it can be eliminated in Iran by 2030 by supporting and implementing appropriate programmes from decision- and policy-makers.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes a large number of deaths annually worldwide [1] and has become one of the key healthcare challenges [2]. It is estimated that 1% of the world’s population (approximately 71 million people) is infected with HCV [3]. Despite the introduction of direct-acting antiviral drugs in different countries, with preliminary promising results, the number of deaths due to this infection continues to increase [4]. The high cost of the drugs used, the limited capacity of laboratories and other facilities, the lack of financial resources in the health sector and the lack of support for many policy- and decision-makers in low- and middle-income countries represent some major barriers to the proper access to treatment of patients with HCV [5].
Various countries worldwide have implemented appropriate policies to reduce the incidence and mortality of HCV, whilst designing and developing plans to control this public health problem in the years to come [6,7,8]. To control HCV, effective policies are needed that require the efforts of international, regional and national stakeholders. Participation of these stakeholders creates a high political commitment and mobilises all resources to implement these policies [9, 10].
Advocacy in HCV control programmes has led to achievement of effective patient treatment and management goals as well as a reduction in the costs of medicines through the establishment of pharmaceutical companies to produce medicines locally overcoming the need to buy them from third countries [2]. Additionally, advocacy of the country’s stakeholders is an important and vital element integral to healthcare policy [11]. To prevent, control and cure a disease, new policies need to be implemented or existing policies must be changed [12], both of which are very complex policy processes [13]. Policy- and decision- makers decide on the various issues affecting the health sector, including the amount of personal interest, the magnitude of the topic, the available scientific evidence, political and social considerations, the efforts of interest groups and their impact on the topic. All these issues can influence the decision of health policy- and decision-makers of whether to place a topic on their agenda [14]. Thus, various factors can impact on the process of agenda-setting and should be taken into consideration [15].
Existing policies to control HCV can accelerate the process of reducing, and even eliminating, its burden if they are taken seriously by policy- and decision-makers and put on their agenda [16]. When a major issue, such as HCV, is put into action, comprehensive support for the issue will make policies work properly; thus, the role of policy- and decision-makers in the success or failure of an important policy is of crucial importance [17]. For an issue like HCV to become a priority, complex processes are undertaken; the priority of a policy or programme is defined by the degree of policy- and decision-makers’ attention to financial, human, and technical issues and resources that can be used or mobilised to implement that policy [18].
HCV in Iran is an important public health challenge and should be addressed by health policy- and decision-makers. Despite the low prevalence of HCV in the general Iranian population, the infection is on the rise [19]. It is expected that, in the near future, this infection will be the most important cause of deaths related to hepatitis in Iran [20]. Its high prevalence is particularly alarming in high-risk groups such as injecting drug users (IDUs) and prisoners [21, 22]. Undoubtedly, HCV should be placed on policy- and decision-makers’ agenda. Policies play a vital role in health issues related to community health, and therefore understanding the relevant factors that can impact on the process of agenda-setting is very important.
The present investigation aimed to better understand HCV-related issues and their impact on policies in Iran. To achieve this, Kingdon’s multiple streams framework was deemed suitable for the purpose and, as such, was selected for this study. This framework is an appropriate technique for the planned analysis in that it enables the exploration of HCV-related issues and the effects they have on the process of agenda-setting. Being this the first analysis on HCV-related issues and their impact on policies in Iran, the investigation was conducted at a macro-level (national level), rather than focusing on a single region or province.
The theoretical framework
Kingdon’s multiple streams framework is one of the most used conceptual tools for understanding the process of policy-making, including policies in the field of healthcare. This instrument enables scholars to capture the different steps of the policy-making process, including how policies are developed and implemented and which are the obstacles (lack of interest, lack of clarity and ambiguity, among others) that hinder the full implementation of a given policy. In detail, Kingdon’s framework includes three elements or independent streams. Providing appropriate conditions for an interaction among these three issues will cause opportunities to be created and will facilitate the process of agenda-setting by policy- and decision-makers [23]. As previously mentioned, this framework can be used to explain how different policies have addressed various topics in the health sector [24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32].
One of these streams is the ‘problem’ stream. This stream includes indicators, focusing events or feedback mechanisms. Indicators include issues that health policy- and decision-makers, researchers, doctors, and other stakeholders can achieve in their daily routine monitoring activity or scientific research. Policy- and decision-makers can use these indicators to determine the impact of a topic and evaluate different scenarios about them. Some examples of these indicators include the outbreak of a disease, the rate of death from road accidents, the shortage of manpower and increased healthcare costs. Focusing events such as a tragedy, a crisis or a disaster can trigger policy- and decision-makers’ feedback on a given issue. Many indicators alone cannot determine the importance of an issue, which is rather given by the complex interactions among indicators. Within Kingdon’s framework, several actors, such as government officials, the media, interest groups, industries, legislators and constituents, as well as other stakeholders, play a major role.
The second of Kingdon’s streams is the ‘policy’ stream. This stream involves potential solutions to the problem and allows individuals and groups to work on a solution to further develop it. Actors involved in this process can include lawmakers, special interest groups, policy entrepreneurs, professionals, academicians and industry researchers. These people can provide different alternatives or problems, issues and situations in order to influence the process of agenda-setting. Factors such as the level of support for individuals and groups, costs, industries and past experiences can also influence the choice of alternatives.
The final stream in Kingdon’s model is the ‘political’ stream. National mood, shifts in administration, media influence, interest group advocacy campaigns, elections and ministerial changes can have an impact on the process of policy- and decision-making. In addition, legislators and administrators also have an influence on political processes.
Based on Kingdon’s model, the interaction of these three streams determines the process of agenda-setting. Policies are implemented effectively when all of these streams converge, resulting in a policy window. Policy entrepreneurs can facilitate this process and create opportunities for policy progress. As previously stated, the aim of this study was to investigate the determinants of the process of agenda-setting of HCV-related issues in Iran.
Data were collected by carrying out a comprehensive review of relevant HCV-related documents and interviews.
A comprehensive search was conducted to identify documents related to HCV issues and policies, contained in scholarly publications as well as in the grey literature in Iran. The websites of the different pertinent ministries and related organisations, such as the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME), the Parliament (Majlis), the Iranian Judicial system, the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare, the State Prisons and Security and Corrective Measures Organisation, the Red Crescent, the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation, and the Ministry of Sport and Youth, were consulted. Additionally, scholarly databases, including PubMed/MEDLINE, ISI/Web of Science, EMBASE and Scopus, were searched from January 1990 up to July 2018, using a string of keywords related to the topic under study. Google Scholar was used to retrieve the grey literature. Concerning the search strategy, the following keywords were selected: (policy OR policies OR plans OR programs OR strategies OR solutions) AND (‘hepatitis C virus’ OR ‘viral hepatitis’ OR HCV) AND Iran.
National guidelines, training manuals and handbooks, health reports, national health plans, international, national and regional policies, health protocols, non-governmental organisation (NGO) reports, and HCV-related laws were also searched; this search was done independently by two authors in order to identify all documents.
Semi-structured interviews
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with both purposive and snowball sampling of 14 interviewees related to the HCV programme in Iran, including government officials, civil society, development partnership members and academicians. These people were involved in the planning, decision-making, policy-making and support of HCV programmes.
Interviews were digitally recorded and saved using a tape recorder. During the interview, a handwritten note was also prepared. The interview time was between 45 and 70 min. Interview data accuracy was achieved by reviewing the handwritten texts by interviewees and using their complementary comments as well as involving well-trained researchers in the process. In addition, two experts in the field of qualitative studies monitored the whole interview process. The use of an integrative method, including note-taking during interviews and a sampling method ensuring maximum diversity, provided data reliability and transferability [33].
With regards to policies concerning HCV, the following questions were asked:
Problem stream: What challenges still unresolved and unaddressed make HCV a problem in Iran?
Policy stream: What solutions have been found and adopted by individuals or groups to address HCV-related issues in Iran?
Political stream: What are the political factors that can influence the effective adoption of HCV-related policies in Iran?
Analytical approach
Data extracted from documents and interviews were analysed both manually and using MAXQDA Version 10 software for content analysis. Following familiarisation with the data and a preliminary analysis of the interviews, initial codes were prepared and, after removing the same duplicate codes, they were interpreted and finally assigned under the themes of Kingdon’s multiple streams framework (problem, policy and political streams). The principles of content analysis were applied to guide and inform the data analysis.
Written, informed consent was obtained from each participant after a clear and thorough explanation of the study objectives and assurance of the confidentiality of one’s own identity. Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the authors’ institute prior the commencement of the investigation.
According to Kingdon’s framework, the effective factors associated with HCV-related issues and policies, which can be described as a priority in Iran, can be analysed and subdivided into the problem, policy and political streams.
Problem stream
Lack of proper information on HCV before the 1990s
The participants stressed that, until the 1990s, there was not enough information on HCV in Iran concerning the number of patients with HCV and the epidemiological and clinical burden of the disease. Indeed, no attention was paid to this disease, and remained inadequately addressed by the healthcare departments and institutions. Only after the advent of contaminated blood, HCV began to be considered as an issue by policy- and decision-makers.
The respondents stated that, in the same years, laboratory facilities were limited in their ability to diagnose the disease due to the costs, and therefore many people were not able to identify their illness due to lack of diagnostic facilities.
Neighbouring countries with high prevalence of HCV
The participants stated that the prevalence of HCV in Iran is lower than in its neighbouring countries, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, which have a high HCV prevalence rate. The movement of people from these countries to Iran, especially those at a higher risk, could cause the transmission of new cases.
Transit from Afghanistan and increased number of addicts
The respondents declared that Afghanistan, the largest producer of narcotics in the world and one of Iran’s neighbouring countries, is one of the main trafficking routes. Hence, the number of IDUs in Iran has increased and, according to the available scientific evidence, the prevalence of HCV among these individuals is high and has raised serious concerns.
HCV and stigma
The respondents stressed that, for cultural and religious issues, the stigma of HCV is high in Iran. Due to low awareness among people about HCV, many of them consider HCV-infected individuals as HIV-positive, which has isolated patients and made them refrain from pursuing their diagnosis and treatment. People with HCV have fear and anxiety, and are not willing to collaborate with physicians and be treated because they feel blamed for their condition.
High HCV prevalence in prisoners
The respondents stressed that the various studies have shown that HCV levels in prisoners are higher than in other populations in the community. The high-risk behaviours that exist in prisons can provide the basis for the high prevalence of this disease. On the other hand, prison officials, for various reasons, are not willing to cooperate fully with diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, and they have problems with providing prisoners with syringes.
International evidence
The participants stated that, in its 2017 report on hepatitis, WHO announced that the Middle Eastern region, including Iran, has a low-moderate HCV prevalence, except for some areas with high levels of HCV infection. However, according to this report, the death rate from hepatitis has increased between 2005 and 2015, and is alarmingly high for Iran.
High costs of HCV
The respondents stressed that the costs generated by HCV treatment and management are high and many patients are not able to pay for them. The MoHME’s funding for this disease is limited and therefore the lack of attention to these patients causes serious problems for them and other people in the community. The MoHME alone cannot afford all HCV-related costs. If patients are not supported, they will avoid treatment, causing many people at risk of contracting HCV to actually contract it.
Increased HCV in IDUs
IDUs are considered worldwide as one of the most important high-risk groups for HCV infection. They represent an alarming issue for all countries, including the health sector in Iran.
Policy stream
To combat HCV, various alternatives can be used in the areas of prevention, screening and treatment. Hence, these alternatives can help policy- and decision-makers to find ways to eradicate HCV in their country.
Effective treatment methods
The participants stressed that, in recent years, drug treatments for HCV have led to an effective option for managing this disease, with many countries having used available therapeutic solutions for eradicating this disease. Support from the MoHME in Iran provided the basis for the treatment of these patients. Establishing a diagnostic network in governmental laboratories and delivering patient medications would provide a way for better interventions to improve the status of HCV patients.
Drug production inside Iran
The interviewees declared that the support of pharmaceutical companies plays an important role in the process of treating and managing HCV patients. Expensive drugs necessary for curing this disease can be a barrier to the treatment of patients. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies in Iran, with private and government sector investments, have started producing HCV drugs and significantly curbing their prices.
Iran Hepatitis Network (IHN)
The respondents stressed that individuals and groups at home and abroad supported HCV control programmes. The IHN, a government-affiliated entity, consists of specialised physicians, laboratory staff and experts in the field of HCV providing annual training, identification and treatment of HCV patients, and screening of people at a higher risk with high levels of protection. The IHN’s activities are unique – the IHN has been able to offer prevention and disseminate high-quality information. It has also been able to convince many political groups in the community that HCV should be given more attention. People in this network all have a high level of expertise in HCV-related areas.
Support outside government groups
The interviewees stated that the NGOs and community-based organisations play an important role in preventing crime and social exclusion. NGOs represent a social capital for governments. These NGOs have advocated HCV prevention policies in recent years. Various campaigns that have led to increased awareness among the general population have, to some extent, contributed to the improvement of information on the disease. Campaigns in schools, universities, drug addiction centres and parks organised by these NGOs have raised awareness of HCV. Moreover, with the participation of the people, stigma towards HCV patients has decreased.
Elites and academicians
The respondents stressed that elites and academicians doing research in the field of HCV can be very effective in prioritising the disease. Professor Reza Malekzadeh is Deputy of Research and Technology of the MoHME in Iran; he has been the minister of health in previous years and is one of the most renowned academic figures in Iran and the world. His views on specialised committees such as the Hepatitis Committee and meetings with other organisations for HCV are important and can therefore influence their decisions. He has been able to encourage pharmaceutical companies to produce HCV drugs and he also plays a valuable role in providing scientific evidence and research studies.
The judicial system supports harm reduction programmes in prisons
The Iranian judicial system has effectively supported harm reduction programmes among prisoners and has paved the way for the implementation of other ad hoc prevention programmes.
Political stream
The respondents stressed that the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) played an important role in emphasising the fight against HCV, and one of the goals to eliminate HCV has been identified by the year 2030. The SDGs have made Iran’s policy- and decision-makers to be willing to commit to achieving the goal of eliminating HCV by 2030.
Changes in the government
The respondents stressed that, with the start of the government of President Rouhani, health promotion was introduced as one of his most important campaign slogans. In 2014, the Health Transformation Plan started with a variety of goals. Over time, different goals have been considered, introduced and gradually achieved. Additionally, the control of infectious diseases such as HCV was a serious target. With the launch of this plan, health was seen as a serious priority among Parliament and decision- and policy-makers in Iran. Appropriate funding was allocated to the plan, leading to the development of less advanced areas that did not have a good health status.
Parliament support
The participants stated that, when matters are considered by the Parliament, the required rules are passed faster and more accurately. Certified people at the Parliament’s Health Commission try to find new sources of funding for health-related issues, including HCV, in order to achieve better health and reduce mortality among members of the community. Individuals in Parliament in many cases can help to improve the health status of the community and can change the cultural perspective of society with new and appropriate laws.
Policies play an important role in regulating the process of agenda-setting and prioritising of health-related issues. Understanding these priorities is very important in the field of healthcare. The use of Kingdon’s multiple streams framework in this study helped us to examine the different dimensions and factors of HCV-related issues based on three streams (namely, problem, policy and political will) in Iran.
The results showed that, if properly understood and effectively utilised, the use of conceptual frameworks, such as Kingdon’s theoretical tool, can provide an appropriate and deep understanding of the impact of several health-related issues on policy- and decision-makers.
HCV epidemiology in Iran
Indicators in the public and private sectors can be utilised as warnings for policy- and decision-makers. Existing evidence and scholarly studies on the epidemiology of HCV in Iran indicate that the incidence/prevalence rate of this disease is not high yet many people with this condition are not aware of their infection state [34, 35]. Furthermore, due to the easy transfer within neighbouring countries, the transmission of various diseases has made health policy- and decision-makers more aware of the disease with regards to the specific regional situation [36]. People from various neighbouring countries to Iran undergo numerous trips to some of Iran’s religious cities. Many Afghans entered the Sistan and Baluchestan province via the Eastern border of Iran, and given the higher prevalence of HCV in Afghanistan, there is a risk of transmission and contagion from these travellers. In the past, there have also been some similar experiences with viral hepatitis [37].
HCV drugs and related costs
Health policy- and decision-makers look for cost-effective alternatives since HCV treatment, prevention and management can be costly for the country’s health system [38]. The existence of effective HCV therapeutics able to eradicate the virus should stimulate policy- and decision-makers to find solutions in order address this disease in a sustainable way [39]. The cost of HCV treatment is indeed high and, according to the global guidelines and suggestions from health institutional bodies, the HCV drugs should be included in the list of essential therapeutics [40]. Many patients are not able to start or complete their treatment due to a lack of financial support from the health departments and lack of insurance coverage [41]. Policy- and decision-makers in Iran stated insufficient funding for the provision of drugs and medicines to treat HCV patients. Furthermore, medications were limited and the Ministry of Health was confronted with important limitations regarding the availability of drugs. Drug production inside a given country can reduce local drug prices. Indeed, Egypt’s experiences in drug production and the subsequent reduction of drug prices are a good example to follow [42]. Further, encouragement and support from the Iranian Ministry of Health has raised interest from pharmaceutical companies to produce drugs within Iran, with a subsequent reduction in the cost of these medications. Additionally, insurance companies are also keen to cover the cost of drugs and treatment for patients since this is significantly lower than before.
Involvement of stakeholders in the process of decision- and policy-making
The role of policy communities as groups that involve individuals with expertise in a field is important in providing ideas and innovations in the field of healthcare policies [43]. IHN consists of specialised network of people who play a very important role with regards to HCV-related issues. The presence of people who, in the past, have served as important managers in the MoHME’s network can provide good ideas for enriching, developing and effectively implementing HCV-related programmes.
Disagreements between associations and groups often occur when discussing various issues; however, in Iran, given the importance of controlling this disease, good convergence has been established between many groups, NGOs and the IHN. Indeed, various groups and NGOs in Iran are trying to focus on HCV issues regardless of their own interests, with integrity and team work to achieve the elimination of HCV. According to Kingdon’s model, one of the destructive effects of fragmentation between groups is insecurity and instability [23], and lack of consensus due to different orientations [44]. However, despite the diversity of groups involved in the treatment or management of various diseases, including HCV, their activities are being carried out in pursuit of the same goal – the fight against HCV. Further, there can be many actors in relation to a policy [45]; these actors can be either inside or outside government. Within the government, employees of the Ministry of Health, government groups and organisations give their support for the elimination of HCV, and outside the government body, private groups and companies have agreed to implement HCV control programmes [46].
The convergence of different stakeholders leads to more attention from policy- and decision-makers [47]. Although people in the various groups have different goals, if an important issue such as HCV, the elimination of which is critical for the overall community health, is on the agenda, this convergence can be valuable [48].
Global actors and their influence on HCV-related policies in Iran
The findings of this study presented some of the influential factors in the political stream impacting on HCV elimination policy in Iran; globalisation is one of these factors [49]. The Millennium Development Goals experience and commitment by countries to achieve them in 2015 showed that policy- and decision-makers from various countries are keen to increase the quality of life for people in terms of health indicators [50]. Unfortunately, the Millennium Development Goals did not focus much on HCV, likely leading to the increasing epidemiological burden (prevalence/incidence rate) of the disease in the past years. Conversely, all countries within the SDGs have pledged to eliminate HCV by 2030 [51].
Local political events and their influence on agenda-setting
Elections and changes in government are among the most important political events that can have meaningful effects in prioritising a given policy [52, 53]. The new Iranian government, which was settled in 2013, announced healthcare as one of its slogans. After winning the election, health policy- and decision-makers enforced a healthcare reform. In the first step, the goal was to reduce people’s out-of-pocket expenses and to spread health equity [54]. Over time, various programmes have been implemented in this reform, and the increase of access to health services in less developed regions and high-risk individuals has also been of interest to policy- and decision-makers; programmes to control various infectious diseases were also included in this package. The most important part of this reform was the allocation of new financial resources for health. Therefore, policy- and decision-makers, with more financial resources, tried to expand their financial support for different patient groups, with HCV seemingly receiving more attention in light of the new conditions [37]. As individuals are involved in the decision- and policy-making process, they usually support certain policies, creating coalitions and striving to prioritise given policies [23]. The existence of influential people can facilitate the process of agenda-setting since their position allows them to convince policy- and decision-makers to focus on a given policy [55]. In the Iranian Parliament, certain individuals can convince other decision- and policy-makers to focus on issues such as HCV. In recent years, the Iranian parliament has supported health sector programmes and has adopted good laws.
Window of opportunity and policy entrepreneurs
According to Kingdon’s model, if all the three issues of problem, policy and political will are linked, the likelihood of an issue being on the agenda is very high [23]. Thus, the ‘window of opportunity’ for HCV appears to be open in Iran. Policy-makers have different and appropriate evidence to take advantage of this opportunity window.
When the goal of HCV elimination by 2030 was set as a target by WHO in the SDGs, a new opportunity window was created. WHO, with the cooperation and commitment made by all countries and through the cooperation of all stakeholders, has made many efforts towards the achievement of this goal. With the implementation of the Health Transformation Plan, the Iranian government has begun to prioritise health-related issues and HCV has also been of interest both to decision- and policy-makers.
The documentation on infectious diseases has indicated that Iranian decision- and policy-makers are, indeed, interested in controlling HCV. On the other hand, not all stakeholders have shown the same level of interest and commitment towards the development and implementation of some HCV-related policies.
The interviewees stated that the most important HCV-related actor, the MoHME, is acting as a policy entrepreneur, but needs the support of all the other stakeholders.
The existing scholarly literature focusing on policy processes in low- and middle-income countries analysed by means of Kingdon’s multiple streams framework is rather limited. Few studies have explored such topics. A recently published investigation, conducted in Kenya [56], addressed some of the major health challenges this country is experiencing and the obstacles hindering the full implementation of intersectoral collaborations and actions focusing on health promotion. In Iran [57], a qualitative case study approach was employed to address the ‘Health in All Policies’ programme; Kingdon’s model was utilised at the micro-level (province level) and political commitment and policy entrepreneurs were found to be the two most relevant leverages in the political process. In Cameroon [58], the policy analysis of performance-based financing in the healthcare sector showed the importance of setting a dedicated team in order to implement and pursue the policy. The process of decision- and policy-making was also influenced by other factors, including available media information, scientific evidence, and previous policies and experiences.
Other studies are from developed countries, such as Ireland [59], Canada [60] and United Kingdom [61]. In Ireland [59], Kingdon’s multiple streams theory has been used to analyse and provide recommendations regarding diabetes care. Authors were able to describe the non-convergence of the politics stream due to the lack of support from health service management, changes at the level of the organisational structure and lack of adequate funding. In Canada [60], the theoretical framework was used to investigate HPV vaccination-related issues, underlining how the existence of cost-effectiveness models and advocacy of stakeholders, including citizens and HPV-affected politicians, influenced the government in deciding to fund the immunisation campaign also for male subjects. In the United Kingdom [61], using this model, the author was able to uncover continuities and discontinuities in the problem, politics and policy streams over the past 70 years of the British National Health Service.
All these studies have found Kingdon’s multiple streams tool to be informative and useful in providing an accurate analysis reflecting the different stages and steps of decision- and policy-making, in terms of opportunities, obstacles and challenges.
This study has some strengths and limitations that should be properly acknowledged. The strengths include the use of a well-known conceptual framework (Kingdon’s multiple streams model), which enables scholars to collect relevant data and to perform an accurate analysis of HCV-related issues and their impact on policies in Iran. Kingdon’s model is, indeed, a valuable structured tool, which focuses on the different aspects of the processes of policy- and decision-making. Besides methodological rigor and transparency, another strength of the present investigation is given by its novelty, in that it explores a topic usually overlooked in the existing scholarly literature. There is, indeed, a dearth of data and information about healthcare-related decision- and policy-making in low- and middle-income countries.
On the other hand, this study suffers from some limitations. For instance, the sample of participants was not completely representative of the entire civil society. Moreover, the study design was cross-sectional and not longitudinal. Finally, the focus of this article was national and not regional, and it failed to address the cultural and social differences that may exist in different provinces of Iran.
Based on the above-mentioned shortcomings, further research is urgently needed in the field. Future studies should employ a larger sample size, perhaps utilising a randomised sampling technique, and a longitudinal study design in order to capture time trends and temporal patterns. Additionally, a regional focus should be adopted in order to collect relevant actionable data useful for policy- and decision-makers at the meso- and micro-levels.
The present study examined HCV-related issues as a priority for Iran’s healthcare system using Kingdon’s multiple streams framework. The findings of this investigation showed that there are various national and international factors that may play a role and influence the process of agenda-setting. The epidemiology of this disease as a global challenge, the support of various groups and the existence of political changes in Iran are among the factors that have led HCV to be considered a priority. It can be anticipated that, if HCV is put on policy- and decision-makers’ agenda, HCV can be eliminated in Iran by 2030 by supporting and implementing appropriate policy programmes.
HCV:
IDU:
IHN:
Iran Hepatitis Network
MoHME:
Ministry of Health and Medical Education
NGO:
SDGs:
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This study was part of a PhD thesis supported by the School of Health Management and Information Sciences, University of Medical Sciences, Iran (IUMS/SHMIS_1396/9423557001).
Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Masoud Behzadifar, Hasan Abolghasem Gorji & Aziz Rezapour
School of Public Health, Department of Health Sciences (DISSAL), University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
Nicola Luigi Bragazzi
Masoud Behzadifar
Hasan Abolghasem Gorji
Aziz Rezapour
MB and HAG designed the study. MB collated data. HAG and MB analysed the data. HAG, AR, NLB and MB performed the study drafting, final revision and grammar editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Correspondence to Hasan Abolghasem Gorji.
The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences.
Behzadifar, M., Gorji, H.A., Rezapour, A. et al. The hepatitis C infection in Iran: a policy analysis of agenda-setting using Kingdon’s multiple streams framework. Health Res Policy Sys 17, 30 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-019-0436-z
Kingdon’s multiple streams framework
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Issue Brief: Medicaid Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment as a Source of Funding Early Intervention Services
By: Jane Perkins
The term “early intervention services” refers to formal attempts by persons outside of the family to work with the child and family to address cognitive, emotional, and resource limitations that exist in the child’s environment. These services target the first few years of life and include health, education, and social services. Health services include comprehensive diagnostic screenings; nutrition services; behavior therapies; physical, speech and occupational therapies; day treatment; family support services; and health education describing expected developmental milestones.
Congress has provided for the coverage of early intervention services in a number of federal statutes. For example, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act provides federal funding for developmental and behavioral services infants and children under age three who have developmental delays or are at risk of delays.1 The Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant allows federal funding to ensure maternal and child access to quality health services and to increase the numbers of young children who receive check ups and needed follow-up care.2 This issue brief focuses on Medicaid, particularly the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit, as an important, but underused source of federal funding for early intervention services. It will summarize the importance of early childhood intervention and then discuss how early intervention services can be provided as EPSDT.
“All children are born wired for feelings and ready to learn.”
National Research Council and Institute of Medicine (2000)
The Importance of Early Childhood Intervention Services
The National Research Council and Institute of Medicine recently issued a voluminous report, From Neurons to Neighborhoods, that presents scientific evidence showing the importance of early childhood development and early intervention services. It finds that the
brain and nervous system undergo their most dramatic development during the first few years of life. From birth to age five, children develop foundational linguistic, cognitive, emotional, social, and moral capabilities upon which subsequent development builds. The differences among what children know and can do are obvious by kindergarten. These differences are strongly associated with social and economic circumstances, and are predictive of subsequent academic performance. Redressing these disparities through early intervention services is critical, both for the child and for society. Parents and other regular caregivers are “active ingredients” of environmental influence during a child’s early years. The report also finds that very young children can experience deep and lasting grief, sadness, and emotional impairment. Given the short- and long-term risks that accompany early mental health impairments, there is an urgent need to address the severe shortage of programs and professionals with the necessary expertise.
Though this report provides crucial support to proponents of early intervention services, the effectiveness of these services has been previously documented in a variety of studies. For example:
Breast-feeding is recommended by pediatricians to help infants grow and to anchor mother-infant interactions. A survey by The Commonwealth Fund found that mothers are much more likely to breast feed when educated and encouraged to do so by their doctor or nurse and when they receive post partum home visits by nurses.
Consistent reading times and daily home-life routines have been shown to influence healthy brain development in very young children. The majority of low-income parents surveyed by The Commonwealth Fund wanted information from providers on how to optimize their child’s development, including information on how to discipline the child, toilet training, and sleep habits. (Unfortunately, the vast majority of low-income families reported these matters were not discussed during visits with providers.)
Educating parents about infant communication has resulted in significant differences between the intervention group and the control group regarding sensitivity to communication cues and social-emotional growth-fostering behaviors.
Guidance from the pediatrician during office-based visits has resulted in intervention group infants showing advanced vocal imitation compared with the control group and the intervention mothers being rated higher on their interactions with their children.
Education and assistance provided to mothers in an intensive care unit nursery had a significant effect on the cognitive development of low birth weight infants, to the point where their development approximated that of normal birth weight infants.
Home-based parent-training of low-income, African-American, teenage mothers of pre-term infants resulted in their infants rating higher on standardized intervention tests than control group infants.
The children of mothers who participated in a high-risk prenatal/early infancy home visitation program of health education experienced fewer accidents and emergency room visits, compared to a control group. These mothers initiated breast feeding more frequently and improved the home environment more frequently than the control group.14 A fifteen year follow-up of the children when compared to control groups, showed them to have experienced fewer instances of running away and fewer arrests, lifetime sex partners, cigarettes a day, and days having consumed alcohol.
Findings such as these establish the following potential benefits of early intervention services for low-income children: improved emotional and cognitive development, improved educational outcomes, increased economic self-sufficiency for the parent and later the child, and improvements in health-related indicators such as reproductive health and substance abuse. While only a few studies have compared the costs and benefits of these services, a 1998 study by researchers at the RAND Corporation concluded that early childhood intervention services are a potential source of cost savings.
Unfortunately, many children are not receiving the early intervention services they need. Ignorance about funding sources has been one impediment. Many states and health care providers operate under the impression that only limited early intervention services can be covered through Medicaid. To the contrary, the Medicaid Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment service can be used to cover a broad array of early intervention services.
Identifying At-Risk Children Through EPSDT Screens
Medicaid-eligible children and youth under age 21 are entitled to receive EPSDT. EPSDT is a comprehensive benefit that includes: screening, diagnosis, and treatment services and outreach. Four separate screening services—medical, vision, hearing, and dental—must be offered at pre-determined, periodic intervals. From birth through age five, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends fourteen medical screening visits.20 For Medicaid-eligible children, the medical screen must include:
a comprehensive health and intervention history which assesses both physical and mental health;
a comprehensive, unclothed physical examination;
appropriate immunizations;
laboratory tests (including lead blood testing at 12 and 24 months and otherwise according to age and risk factors); and
health education, including “anticipatory guidance to the child (or the child’s parent or guardian).”
The EPSDT screen is an essential early intervention service. Properly focused, this screen can be used to diagnosis developmental problems and risks and to provide health education to the child and family about expected developmental milestones and activities for maximizing the child’s early growth. Therefore, it is critical for health care providers who are treating young children to know the full scope of EPSDT. A variety of avenues can be used for disseminating this information, including regulations, Medicaid managed care contract requirements, provider manuals, provider bulletins, provider training, and EPSDT screening forms.
The EPSDT screening form is a pre-printed, uniform encounter form that a number of states have developed for providers to record and track activities that occur during a child’s visit. Copies of the completed form typically are placed in the child’s medical record and may also be sent to the Medicaid agency. Use of these forms has been associated with improved well-child visits. In recent years, some states have developed sets of screening forms that focus on ageappropriate activities.
At least 27 states have developed EPSDT screening forms for participating providers. The National Health Law Program recently reviewed these screening forms to determine the extent to which they target early intervention services. Table 1 shows that a number of states’ forms place at least some emphasis on early intervention. In particular, the following should be noted:
Diagnostic assessment. All of the forms specifically required a diagnostic assessment. Nine states included age-specific prompts (e.g. Arizona, Maine, and Texas). For example, for the 15 month visit, some forms ask whether the toddler can point to one or more body parts, walk well, feed self with fingers, listen to a story, put blocks in a cup, and wave bye-bye.
Nutritional Assessment. All of the forms included reference to nutritional assessment. Fourteen included a question about the Women Infant and Children (WIC) program, and ten specifically addressed breast-feeding and formula.
Vision, Hearing, Speech, and Dental Assessments. All of the forms required vision and hearing assessments. The majority also included either a dental assessment or a referral to dental care. Nine of the forms included a speech assessment.
Health Education. Virtually all of the forms referred to health education, counseling, and/or anticipatory guidance. Ten included age-specific prompts (e.g., postpartum adjustment, reading to the child). For example, for the three year visit, some forms ask about eading to the child, dental care, limiting TV, eating healthy foods, and/or referrals to Head Start.
Social Service Referrals. Fourteen forms suggested a referral to the WIC program. Several forms, and most notably West Virginia’s form, included referrals to other social service agencies, including early intervention, family planning, further health education, and Head Start.
In sum, the effectiveness of EPSDT screening forms has been well documented. A number of states have included information on these forms to prompt EPSDT medical screeners to provide age-appropriate early intervention screening and make needed referrals for follow up services and treatment.
Covering Early Intervention Services as EPSDT Treatment Services
If an illness or condition is diagnosed during a screen, EPSDT requires state Medicaid agencies to “arrange for (directly or through referral to appropriate agencies, organizations, or individuals) corrective treatment.” EPSDT benefits include all of the services that the state can cover under § 1396d(a) of the Medicaid Act, whether or not such services are covered for adults. Table 2 lists these services. In addition, the Medicaid Act says the service must be covered for a child if it is “necessary . . . to correct or ameliorate defects and physical and mental illnesses and conditions[.]”
The Medicaid Act, § 1396d(a), does not uniformly list covered services using the terminology that health care providers may use when describing an early intervention need. In these cases, it must be determined whether the service described by the provider fits within a category that is included in the Medicaid Act. In other words, Medicaid can cover the early intervention service only to the extent that the service fits within a Medicaid service category.
Table 3 lists a range of early intervention services, showing which Medicaid service category, if any, the service may be coverable through and whether the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued any specific statements regarding coverage of the service. Table 3 shows that CMS has approved EPSDT coverage of a number of early intervention services, including:
intervention assessment of the child,
assessment of home life and of parent/child relations,
nutritional assessment and diet instruction,
health education and anticipatory guidance to the child and family,
basic living and social skills development,
child and family counseling,
parent skills training, and
case management.
In addition, CMS has recognized Medicaid coverage to fund preparation and use of pocket-sized records for young children (sometimes called “health passports”); health diaries for new mothers; telephone support services to children and their families; brochures, videos, and newsletters that are explicitly directed at assisting Medicaid-eligible individuals to access Medicaid services; and home visiting programs that include parent education. CMS has discussed limits, however:
• Medical necessity. The service must be medically necessary; in other words, it must be needed to “correct or ameliorate” a physical or mental condition.
• Focus on the child. Family members may be included in health education, case management, counseling, and therapy; however, the services must be directed exclusively toward the treatment/benefit of the child. For example, if directed exclusively to the treatment of the child, mental health services can include individual, family, and group skills training, family psychotherapy, and family skills training. However, the services cannot extend to a point where they become a means of treating persons other than the Medicaid-eligible child. As recently noted by CMS in reference to case management services, “[P]olicy permits contacts with non-eligible … individuals to be considered Medicaid case management activity, and to be billed to Medicaid, when the purpose of the contact is directly related to the management of the eligible individual’s care. It may be appropriate to have family members involved in all components related to the eligible individual’s case management.… On the other hand, contacts with non-eligibles … that relate directly to the dentification and management of the non-eligible[’s] … needs and care cannot be billed to Medicaid.”
Text has been truncated. For full publication text, download document.
Comments to OMB on Proposal to Change Poverty Measure
Mara Youdelman
The National Health Law Program submitted comments urging the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to reject a proposal…
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Human rights activists at a protest in Islamabad | AFP
Waris Shah’s epic on Heer’s life and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s documentary on Saba Qaiser’s plight are about two protagonists who have many things in common, a river just being one of those. Both come from Punjab. Both made life choices that their fathers did not approve of. Both received punishment for their defiance — one was shot at and thrown in the water to die, the other was coerced into marrying someone against her will.
Punjab, as seen through the literary imagination of Shah in his narration of Heer’s travails, appears little different from what the province looks like from whatever little is known about Qaiser’s story in Chinoy’s Oscar-winning documentary (one only wishes that Chinoy, like Shah, had addressed a local audience in a local language). Patriarchy, violence against women, the link between a family’s honour and the love lives of its women – or lack thereof – are all common themes between them. That may suggest that nothing has changed in this part of the world, over the centuries, as far as the treatment of women is concerned.
Well, the law on violence against women has changed recently. And Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has promised that another one – on honour killing – will also change soon. Most women’s rights activists are ecstatic (as are Pakistan’s donors in the West); the religious right is aghast (as are the custodians of desi culture). Everyone in between is puzzled about the intrusive nature of a law that gives state officials access to the bedroom of a married couple and the near impossibility of its implementation within a society steeped in the culture of compromise and cover-up.
Also read: The sole voice: Women's rights activist, Nighat Said Khan
The overlapping of religious edicts and common law adds another layer to the confusion. After the state criminalised honour killings in a previous bout of pro-women legislation in 2004, the killers started using the Islamic provisions of diyat in their favour — paying their way out of trial and punishment.
A lot seems to have changed, but Punjab still continues to look the same. Why? One of the basic reasons is that those who draft the laws do not know the ground realities (doing it mostly in accordance with what the donors ask for) and those who oppose them are unwilling to tackle social and moral problems, except through religious orthodoxy.
Promulgating laws for regulating the collective life of a community is the primary responsibility – as well as the essential mandate – of a state. So, yes, there is nothing wrong with enacting laws, especially ones made to support the marginalised sections of society such as women, children and minorities. But then the state should have the will – and the capacity – to implement those laws.
We have a law against dowry? Do we even know that it exists? The same overzealous officials who ensure that wedding functions come to an end before a certain hour in Lahore have never bothered to find out how much money is being spent on dowry in the same weddings. The same government that has put a ban on serving more than a single dish at wedding receptions never takes the trouble to find out how much money is being spent on the jewellery a bride gets from her parents. We also have a law against child labour and one on minimum wage. How many times does the state swing into action against those who employ children or who pay less than minimum wage to their workers?
Also read: Kishwar Naheed — the phenomenal woman
Religion, too, is a universally accepted part of life in our society. So, yes, there is nothing wrong if people (both as individuals and groups), want to live honest, pious and charitable lives, especially if it means ensuring that they do not unjustly profit from other people’s miseries and do not voluntarily cause harm to the weak and the infirm. But, then, the custodians of religion should have the courage to be innovative (as many of their predecessors have been in the past) when a religious point of view becomes incongruent with social, economic and judicial realities. So many traditions that religion once allowed are no longer practicable; slavery being the most obvious example. The mullah who agreed to authenticating Heer’s marriage against her will and the mufti raving and ranting against a documentary on a case of attempted honour killing both appear to be utterly incapable of that innovation. And that intransigence of the religious establishment is another common theme in women’s stories from yore; and also those of the present.
Sharif’s promised law on honour killing will face the same approval (from the women’s rights activists and the West) and disapproval (from the mullahs and the leaders of religious parties) and the twain shall never meet. The two sides need to take into account the reality of life as it is lived in the cities, towns and villages — rather than as it is presented in documentaries made in a foreign language and sermons given in another foreign language. Without that, the treatment of women in Punjab, and by extension in Pakistan, will see little, if any, improvement.
Sampath Mar 12, 2016 03:53pm
Change in social attitudes is the real change. But to say that making laws and bringing out problems in the media is useless is not agreeable either. Any support to help social change should be welcome. Law is one thing. Enforcement is another. But if law itself is not there, there is no question of enforcement.
Agha Ata Mar 12, 2016 07:35pm
Two things are stronger than any law (In Pakistan): One is the relationship which has always been stronger than law, and the second thing is LORE.
shereen Mar 13, 2016 12:53am
1. Please don't compare Ms Chinoy with Waris Shah. The later was a labour of love where the maker spent his money. The former, thats her livelihood; she earns with documentary films and they don't get funded in our land. 2. When has any law protected a regular person in the so-called land of tpure? So my question is why are we questioning women protection law? There's child labour, safe water and sanitation, smoking in buildings, over speeding. I could go on.
AXH Mar 13, 2016 08:47am
Those who are sitting in the Parliament and legislating are mostly from feudal background. They believe that a woman's place is in the four corners of the house. How can we expect from these people to pass any positive judgement on this subject?
Daulat1 Mar 13, 2016 11:29am
Laws are absolutely essential in any civilised society. There are always some honest and committed policemen, prosecutors, judges, bureaucrats and even politicians who will play by the rules. 'Infrequent' becomes 'often', which matures into 'nearly always' with the passage of time. All one needs is persistence and patience.
Nasiroski Mar 13, 2016 02:51pm
The biggest hurdle is the change of mindset, social behaviour and the attitude of people; laws are only meant to be deterrents anyway. Pakistan needs to do away with religiosity/clergy fast if it has to survive like a decent nation.
juggernaut Mar 13, 2016 07:21pm
Our universe is created on the idea of balance-so why not to have that balance when implementing some law.To bring change in society/mindsets there is a need to implement these changes in sort of quasi manner(quasi doesn't mean to be held/wait for decades).But better to be avoided a knee jerk reaction.I have heard of conducting a survey on social Media.But in this case Consensus of general masses is needed (BTW General masses don't reside on social media) . On funny note,some of the provisions from the bill seems to be inspired from X Men (2014) movie (GPS Trackers and stuffs).No wonder one can feel that there seems to a lot of fan following of 'gender reversal role play'(such stuffs can easil be found on internet) in punjab. Now they are going to materialize this fantasy into reality.
pak Mar 14, 2016 12:48am
people see women like never even seen s single one before.
Keti Zilgish Mar 14, 2016 01:14am
Whenever laws contrary to one's desires are enacted are we obligated to cooperate with their enforcement? If not the state will not be able to successfully enforce them. As long as we are forcing ourselves to follow Anglo-Saxon evolved representative democracy we must do so fully and also import from the Anglo-Saxon world their Jury system of decision-making no matter what its limitations. Representative Democracy is incomplete without the Jury System. They both evolved together in the West and their present state is a reaction to the atrocities that were committed by both sides during the crusades. Personally I prefer revolution to reaction and "Those who make revolution half-way merely dig their own graves."
Faheem Mohamedi Mar 14, 2016 03:38am
Each individual can bring change. A simple smile a little help can make a difference. Forget the big changes let's all of us commit to helping the under privilege . Believe me if we each do are part we will make a change .
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« Hefty Jazz & Classical Recital
Folk Songs & Classics at Piano Recital »
Classical Guitar & Horn Recital Tonight
Young, a classical guitarist, will perform at 7:30 p.m. tonight
Tonight, Thursday, May 13, at 7:30 p.m., there is a rare classical feast for you at the Stephens Center at the Idyllwild Arts Academy.
Young, a classical guitarist from South Korea, and Seann, a French Horn player from the U.S. will entertain and delight you with their music.
Although still in high school, these two young men are accomplished artists and have been accepted to good, if not great, schools. Young is going to the Peabody Institute, a musical arm of Johns Hopkins University.
“My family was so happy that I got into a university,” Young said.
Just three years ago, Young arrived at Idyllwild Arts from a boarding school in Canada, where he first learned how to speak English. You would never know there was any struggle, because the confident young man speaks fast, and got nearly straight As, except for one B in History.
He learned how to play classical guitar from a famous guitarist in Korea. After one of his concerts, his mother introduced Young, and asked him if he’d teach him how to play. At that time, the famous guitarist was only performing, and didn’t have any students.
“I think she was persistent, and convinced him that I would be a good student,” Young said.
He studied with him for years before going to Canada, then the U.S. As it turns out, the Peabody Institute was the place where his teacher studied too. He considers himself lucky for the connection, and the opportunity to learn at such a fine music school.
His play list was not available at press time. But, for a guy who was listed 16th in the world for being the fastest video game player, you can imagine how he can play.
Seann (far L) played in many recitals this year
Seann, the French Horn player, is just as serious a student. Earlier this month, he played in several recitals, including one for Mariya, a bass player, and A-Tao, a bassoonist.
“I like helping other people out,” Seann said. “It’s good practice for me to learn different pieces.”
For every recital, Seann would wear a white shirt, jacket and tie. Sometimes, the bow tie was borrowed from another student, but he looked professional just the same.
Each Wednesday afternoon, Seann would travel to the L.A. area, and Young to Pasadena, for their music lessons. Two and a half hours each way, plus an hour-long lesson, (then sometimes waiting for other students) made for a long day. However, like most music students, these lessons are the highlight of their week. Even when they return at 9 p.m., and still have homework to do.
Sometimes, Seann would talk to his teacher philosophically about his playing, his music choices, and also where to go to school in the fall.
“But with the help of a few good friends, and God, I decided to attend the Julliard School of Music,” he said.
Just for the record, getting into Julliard is not easy. They accept few students, and rarely give scholarships. However, Idyllwild Arts Academy now has two French Horn players attending there, including Kathryn, a senior from last year, and now Seann. They would have lessons together each week, and now they will be playing together again.
Although both Young and Seann are quiet, modest guys, their music is big and loud. This is their senior recital, their last moment in the spotlight in front of their peers. They’re going to be great. And anyone who gets a chance to attend tonight’s recital, you will be pleased to say the least.
The event starts at 7:30 p.m. at Stephens Recital Hall on the Idyllwild Arts campus. For more information, call (951) 659-2171 or visit www.idyllwildarts.org, and click under “Academy” and “Center Stage.”
Young Seann group
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 13th, 2010 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Idyllwild Arts Academy, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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999 Lake Drive, Issaquah, WA 98027, Seattle, Washington, PO Box 34331, United States
T: (425) 313-8100 F: (425) 313-8103 E: costcocare@costco.com
As of 2019, Costco is ranked # 14 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
Greenpeace 2018 Supermarket Seafood Ranking, #15
100-top Most Powerful Brands By Tenet Partners, CoreBrand, 2020 (#76)
Brand Finance Best Retail Brands By Brand Finance, 2020 (#8)
BrandFinance Global 500 (100) By Brand Finance, 2020 (#77)
Fortune Global 500 (100) By Fortune 2020 #33
Fortune U.S. 500 (100) By Fortune 2020 #14
The 50 Most Innovative Companies By BCG ,The Boston Consulting Group 2020 #30
The Top Most Loved Brands By Morning Consult 2020 #42
World’s Most Admired Companies By Fortune 2020 #9
Leesah Blanchard
Best Company for Diversity 2019
Best Company for Women 2019
Best CEO 2019
Best Company Culture 2019
Best Company Perks & Benefit 2019
Best Company Work-Life Balance 2019
Best Company Compensation 2019
Best Company Happiness 2019
Best Leadership Teams 2019
Best CEOs for Diversity 2019
Best CEOs for Women 2019
Best Marketing Team 2019
Best Sales Team 2019
Best Company in Seattle 2019
Best Company Outlook 2018
Costco won for Best Company Culture 2018
Best Company Perks & Benefits 2018
Best Company Seattle 2018
Best CEO Seattle 2018
Best Company Leadership 2018
Best Company Managers and Best Company for
Professional Development 2018
Best CEO, Best Company for Women 2017
Best Compensation 2017
Best Companies in Seattle 2017
Best Company eNPS 2017
Best Teams and Best Company Outlook 2017
Costco Sustainability
Sustainability Commitment 2018
Biggest scandals to ever hit Costco
Costco: Disclosure regarding human trafficking and anti-slavery
Costco Wholesale is a discounted warehouse club established in Seattle in 1983 by Jeff Brotman and Jim Sinegal, who had a vision to offer consumers discounted merchandise.
Costco’s Success in the warehouse club industry is from their business model which entailed generating high sales volumes and rapid inventory turnover by offering fee-paying members attractively low prices on a limited selection of nationally branded and selected private-label products in a wide range of merchandise categories.
Costco is a membership warehouse club, dedicated to bringing their members the best possible prices on quality brand-name merchandise.
With hundreds of locations worldwide, Costco provides a wide selection of merchandise, plus the convenience of specialty departments and exclusive member services, all designed to make your shopping experience a pleasurable one.
Costco Wholesale is a multi-billion dollar global retailer with warehouse club operations in eight countries. They are the recognized leader in their field, dedicated to quality in every area of their business and respected for their outstanding business ethics.
Despite their large size and explosive international expansion, they continue to provide a family atmosphere in which their employees thrive and succeed. They are proud to have been named by Washington CEO Magazine as one of the top three companies to work for in the state of Washington.
Sustainability is remaining a profitable business while doing the right thing. The following principles and responsibilities will help sustain business for the long term as the company continues to grow globally.
Sustainability Principles:
For Costco to thrive, the world needs to thrive. Costco is committed to doing their part to help. They focus on issues related to their business and to where they can contribute to real, results-driven positive impact. They do not have all of the answers, are learning as they go and seek continuous improvement.
Sustainability Responsibilities :
Take care of their employees.
Support the communities where their employees and members live and work.
Operate efficiently and in an environmentally responsible manner.
Strategically source their merchandise in a sustainable manner.
After a 10-year moratorium on teak, in 2015 they began selling a limited amount of outdoor teak furniture that was 100% Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. Today, all teak sold at Costco is 100% FSC-certified.
Costco has a transparent Disclosure Regarding Human Trafficking and Anti-Slavery
Costco has a Confidential Ethics Hotline for Suppliers – a confidential tool available for use by any supplier who has reason to believe a Costco employee or supplier is in violation of Costco’s policies
Supplier diversity – In order to represent a diverse supplier base, Costco is committed to providing opportunities for qualified local minority-owned and women-owned suppliers in the communities where we do business, when possible.
Costco encourages anyone who is aware of violations of the law or our Code to notify their management, Costco’s Code of Conduct Compliance team, or utilize Costco’s whistleblower site: costco.ethicspoint.com
Costco’s goals for Kirkland Signature items are that they: provide our members with high-quality products at the lowest possible price; are respectful of the people or animals who produce them; and/or are respectful of the environment in the way they are produced, grown, harvested, processed, transported and packaged.
Goals and Strategy Costco’s sustainable packaging goals are to ensure packaging: protects the product, complies with laws and regulations, reduces materials, and communicates effectively with members.
As with all packaging, their first goal is to reduce the amount of packaging while still protecting the product’s integrity. Fiber used for paper-based packaging should come from known sources, should be procured legally from well-managed forests and should not contribute to deforestation.
Costco has plans to expand APANA Intelligent Water Management Systems to Australia, Asia and Europe.
Costco is aware of its responsibility to design and construct its sites and buildings in an energy-efficient, sustainable and environmentally responsible manner. Costco’s warehouse designs are consistent with the requirements of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), an internationally accepted benchmark for green building design and construction. In Shanghai, China, Costco’s Minhang building qualified for the Green Building Design 2-star certificate.
Costco continues to improve the design and construction of its buildings, as technological advancements in these areas and building materials improve. Improved engineering and design has resulted in the use of less materials, such as columns and I-beams, while providing more strength. Costco prefers full metal buildings in order to use the maximum amount of recycled material and reduce construction and maintenance costs.
To reduce the use of virgin resources, materials are selected that utilize high percentages of recycled content. Examples include:
The prefabricated structural steel system is comprised of 80% recycled content.
Costco often incorporates existing structures into its designs.
Metal building insulation utilizes ECOSE® Technology, which contains an average of 76.98% recycled content.
Recycled asphalt is used in some new parking lots with recycled concrete as a base material.
Other Sustainable Features
When and where it makes sense, Costco incorporates other features into its buildings to reduce the use of resources and to save money, such as:
Roofs maintain a reflectance rating of .68, emittance of .25 and SRI of 63, lessening the heat gain on the roof.
The erection efficiency of the structural system and envelope reduces the overall construction duration, saving time and money.
High-efficiency restroom fixtures save 40% more water.
Mechanical heat from refrigeration systems is captured to preheat hot water tanks.
Sustainable Landscaping
Site designs take into account the surrounding environment and ecosystems, are mindful of wetlands and habitats, and preserve natural wonders. Examples include:
Landscapes exceed minimum requirements in order to create high impact and beautiful landscapes appropriate to the location.
In comparison to typical development standards, Costco provides larger trees, greater planting density, drought-tolerant species, native vegetation and less manicured lawns
In 2017 Costco piloted a program in Covington, Washington, to use goats to remove unwanted vegetation around the water retention pond. This saved the company money in landscaping costs and eliminated the need for herbicides to kill unwanted vegetation. Costco continues to look for opportunities to expand this program where it makes sense.
Comprehensive Water Management Systems
By installing Apana water metering systems, Costco locations can now:
Detect, in real-time, mechanical failures that can be resolved quickly and can now better track operational water waste to allow more efficient water use and/or reduced water usage
Use less water so that less energy is needed to operate water systems, which in turn reduces Costco’s carbon footprint and expenses
Create an enhanced awareness of water use and stewardship throughout all facets of operations
Groundwater and Irrigation Systems
While landscaping is important for the beauty it provides, as well as the preservation of natural habitat, Costco also understands the need to be responsible regarding irrigation, and managing stormwater and water quality.
Costco uses the APANA platform to reduce water waste and protect assets such as parking lot surfaces, retaining walls, and building foundations. This helps to avoid costly repairs by detecting issues early and making timely repairs. Other structural and operational enhancements include:
Integrating native and drought-resistant landscaping materials to minimize irrigation
Utilizing smart technologies and subsurface irrigation to improve efficiency and to reduce water waste in irrigation systems
Installing bioswales to preserve groundwater and to prevent runoff in some locations
Vertical Integration Facilities
In 2019, Costco began selling chicken and romaine lettuce produced in new vertically integrated facilities, which are described in more detail in our Kirkland Signature™ and Environmental Impacts pages. Both facilities have been designed with water preservation, re-use, efficiency and treatment in mind.
Costco worked with the City of Fremont to expand the City’s wastewater treatment plant in order to ensure that the wastewater generated at the chicken plant is treated before returning to the local watershed. In addition, through a process of air chilling, we anticipate substantial water savings in comparison to typical water chill processing. The APANA Intelligent Water Management System was also installed at this facility.
At the romaine lettuce greenhouse, we anticipate that 80% less water will be used in comparison to conventional farming and that there will be 0% wastewater runoff.
Costco exceeds the requirements and is a member of WaterSavers®, a designation by the International Car Wash Association awarded to car washes that meet strict water usage criteria. When Costco began monitoring daily water usage in 2015, significant reductions in water used per wash were realized immediately. The net result was a 50% reduction as a result of:
Installing simple digital water meters to help graph gallons used per wash and spikes to identify leaks or equipment malfunctions that are wasting water
Installing water main shut-off valves after recognition of discrepancies between closing and next-day opening readings that indicated a significant amount water use when the car wash was closed
ENERGY EFFICIENCY & ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
Costco continues to implement new and improved systems and technologies in order to save energy and reduce its carbon footprint throughout our locations worldwide. Examples include:
Energy Management and Lighting Management Systems are used throughout North America to allow operators complete control of heating and cooling set points, lighting schedules, and system troubleshooting.
Since 2017, facilities have been installing high-volume, low-speed fans to ceilings on the sales floor and in the tire shop. These fans work in conjunction with existing HVAC systems to decrease temperatures in the summer by up to 10 degrees. In the winter months, warm air is circulated from the HVAC lessening run time.
In FY19, Mexico implemented a new energy measurement project that provides real-time monitoring showing energy savings for refrigeration, HVAC and lighting.
In FY19, Taiwan exceeded its goal by over 100% to decrease its usage of electricity, gas, and water through training, better use of energy systems, and better conservation practices.
In order to stay abreast of changes, Costco:
Participates in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Building Alliance, the National Renewable Energy Lab and other conferences to evaluate and share new energy efficient technologies with both government and private industry.
Held training sessions worldwide in 2019 to share and learn from each other best practices, to increase awareness about the importance of climate change, and to learn how to reduce our carbon footprint and save energy, all of which in turn save money.
Costco continues to increase the number of locations using solar photovoltaic systems. At the end of fiscal year 2019, Costco has 111 warehouses using solar power in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, and Puerto Rico, plus in Spain, France, the UK, Taiwan, and Japan. Some locations use solar power in the parking lots. These systems are projected to generate 92 million kilowatt hours (kWh) per year.
As of the end of FY19, the conversion to LED in older U.S. buildings that began in 2016 is mostly completed, with an estimated energy savings of over 235 million kWh per year. In addition, LED conversions continue for locations outside of the U.S. All lighting in new construction utilizes LED technology.
In 2017, Costco began piloting the use of fuel cells as an alternative source for generating on-site electricity. As of the end of FY19, we now have eight locations in California powered by fuel cells that generate an estimated total of 49 million kWh of energy annually and have four additional locations under construction. To date Costco has found the following benefits:
Lower demands on existing electric utility infrastructure
Lower overall combined power and natural gas expenses
Costco recognizes that refrigerants have a major impact on the warmth of the atmosphere and is exploring ways to do our part to reduce the temperature of the planet and the depletion of the ozone layer. Here are some examples:
Continue to explore new refrigerant technologies and carefully select refrigerants that further reduce the Global Warming Potential (GWP) and GHG emissions and do not contain ozone depleting chemicals
Migrate to CO2 refrigerants where it is operationally viable and as of the end of FY19, CO2 is currently in use in locations in Canada, Spain, the UK and Iceland
Ceased using HCFC refrigerant in new and replacement refrigeration in commercial equipment and air conditioning systems
Continue to improve the efficiency of HVAC and refrigeration systems through new technologies such as variable speed drives and more efficient motors, while meeting more stringent requirements for heating, cooling and humidity control
Adhere to best management practices in the installation, maintenance and decommissioning of equipment to reduce leakages and impact on the environment
Installed insulated doors to the walk-in refrigeration point of sale coolers. These doors allow the POS coolers to maintain temperature more easily while putting less stress on the refrigeration system. The estimated annual savings is 95,000 kWh per location.
Costco continually works to enhance and streamline its compliance with environmental regulations, including an Environmental Compliance Executive Team, that together with regional compliance managers and field auditors, oversees compliance programs in the U.S. To remain attentive to any issues or changes in regulations, the Compliance Managers meet regularly.
The Executive Team comes together three to four times a year. These meetings include representatives from numerous departments in the company and the meetings are used to review and implement programs and policies – and to continually improve training programs, procedures and communication.
In 2019, we held the first of our planned on-going annual global environmental operations meetings, which was attended by key environmental people representing all regions where we operate worldwide. The purpose of the meeting was and will be to share best practices, review compliance, discuss upcoming projects, with the goal of creating a consistent and global approach to environmental compliance.
WASTE DIVERSION FROM LANDFILL
In fiscal year 2018, Costco reported a diversion rate of 71%, with five regions reporting. In fiscal year 2019, the global diversion rate increased to 73%, with an increase to nine regions reporting. They are working to develop reporting systems that will measure their diversion rate for all regions where we operate. Costco’s current goal is to divert 80% of waste generated within their global operations. Examples of their waste management diversion programs include donations, anaerobic digestion, recycling, composting, and animal feed and waste to energy programs. Costco is committed to expanding these programs through partnerships, efficiencies and technologies. Please view this summary of their global waste diversion.
Costco has grown its program with World Vision to donate first-quality items that used to be destroyed, recycled or returned to the supplier. In fiscal year 2019, we donated to people in need in 30 countries. More information can be found in the summary, which contains a list of the items donated and some stories that illustrate the impact of these donations.
Besides providing items to people in need valued at over $76.2 million for fiscal year 2019, efficiencies are also gained, including reduced trips to the landfill and savings on trash fees for both Costco and their suppliers.
Unsold rotisserie chickens are repurposed into deli entrees. Examples include:
Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken Enchilada Bake and Chicken Pot Pies sold in the U.S.
Red Alfredo Chicken Penne and Honey Glazed Chicken Legs sold in Japan
BBQ Chicken Wings, Chicken Enchiladas and Chicken & Mushroom Lattice Pie sold in the U.K.
Costco recycled over 7.42 million tires in the U.S. in fiscal year 2019. While some tires are resold, over 85% are recycled into several different beneficial uses, including tire-derived fuels used primarily in cement kilns; crumb rubber used as an additive for road surfaces or pervious surfaces around roads, sidewalks and pathways; mine reclamation; daily landfill cover; and decorative mulch.
Costco has established a recycling program for paper in our offices and warehouses to capture paper printed for our everyday operations. In fiscal year 2019, they recycled over 5.5 million pounds in the U.S. They continue to move to paperless programs when applicable.
Recycle to repurpose
In fiscal year 2019, Costco also recycled 414,580 pounds of expanded polystyrene (foam) in the U.S. This material is densified and distributed to manufacturers that make picture frames, crown molding and other polystyrene products. Plus, Costco was able to recycle 1.7 million pounds of scrap metal, which made its way back into local commodities markets to be made into something new.
In fiscal year 2019, 103 Costco warehouses sent 7.5 million pounds of organic materials to feed cattle and hogs. Feeding animals theirr inedible waste is important because it reduces the demand to generate new feed resources. Additionally, our warehouses divert organic materials by supporting local donation programs to:
Animal sanctuaries/rescue centers
City zoos
Industrial Uses
Much of their organic waste is now recycled into usable products, such as organic fertilizer, biofuels and electricity. In fiscal year 2019 in the U.S. they diverted over 58.4 million pounds of material from landfills. Examples include:
7.3 million pounds of chicken grease produced from rotisserie chickens were recycled, the majority of which was converted into biofuel;
37.1 million pounds of meat and bone scraps were processed through the rendering program;
302,525 pounds of organic waste was converted into certified organic liquid fertilizer
Anaerobic digestion programs were rolled out in 3 marketplaces
Over 60 warehouses in the U.S. send organic waste to commercial compost facilities to create a nutrient-rich soil conditioner. Warehouses have sent 17.3 million pounds to compost facilities.
Landfill or Waste to Energy (WTE)
Compactors that are hauled to waste-to-energy facilities may include organics in their mix of waste. These items are used to generate energy. Their goal is to continuously move food waste up in the hierarchy, and out of landfills and waste to energy.
Greenhouse gas emissions Costco is a global retailer that strives to be a responsible global citizen. They agree with the many scientists, economists and others who have concluded that global climate change is a serious environmental, economic and social challenge. It warrants an equally serious response by governments and the private sector, because global climate change impacts people, animals and plants. Costco wants to do their part to lessen the impact and will continue to explore ways to lower their carbon footprint, source merchandise responsibly, and preserve natural resources and support alternative opportunities such as carbon sequestration.
We also recognize that the subject of climate change is significant for a number of our members and investors. It is also a risk factor for certain aspects of our business*.
Continuing to focus our expertise on reducing costs and improving efficiency is, they believe, the best way to reduce their impact on the environment. By way of example, in 2019, Costco continued to:
Reduce their energy usage
Support and explore alternative energy programs such as energy from solar and fuel cells
Improve their refrigeration management systems, and begin to convert to refrigerants with a lower GWP, including installing CO2 systems
Expand efficiencies in our transportation and logistics, which reduce the number of trucks on the road and fuel needed for the trucks used
Reduce the amount of waste to landfill through our expanding Waste Management Programs
Support employee transportation programs to reduce the amount of cars on the road
Purchased electricity for the company is the largest source of their carbon emissions and represents a significant expense. By reducing energy usage directly, their emissions and energy expenses will be reduced. Some examples:
In Japan, Costco upgraded their lighting systems. The Kanazawa Seaside location received an award from the Yokohama city government for reducing CO2 emissions by 300 cubic tons, which exceeds 10% savings.
We reduce emissions by purchasing source-based renewable energy when available and continue to add solar panels where feasible.
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Inventory
Tracking and reporting their GHG footprint is evidence of their commitment. They have a corporate energy program to track greenhouse gas emissions. Starting with reporting year 2018, the data collection process has been upgraded to include source data collection at the facility level for all regions of our operations. They have ceased installation of HCFC refrigerants, ozone-depleting substances, in new and replacement refrigeration and air conditioning systems.
For the 2018 reporting period, Costco voluntarily participated in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), established by the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, and this year’s inventory included all regions where we operate. Costco Wholesale reports Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions to align with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Reporting Standard.
Scope 1 Direct Emissions include all natural gas and propane provided to owned or controlled facilities used for heating or food processing and manufacturing. Included in direct emissions are diesel used by Costco’s truck fleets, refrigerated trailers and yard haulers; propane to power mobile floor scrubbers; jet fuel for corporate jets and fugitive emissions from leakage of HFC refrigerants from refrigeration and air conditioning equipment.
Scope 2 Indirect Emissions are for purchased electricity and are the largest component of GHG emissions.
Costco’s warehouse designs have 3 Silver LEED Certifications
Costco is committed to sourcing its wood, paper and fiber-based products from certified well-managed forests, which can include certifications from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) or Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)
Costco is a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and is committed to ensuring that the palm oil contained in Kirkland Signature™ products is responsibly and sustainably sourced (currently at 82%)
Costco is aware of its responsibility to design and construct its sites and buildings in an energy-efficient, sustainable and environmentally responsible manner. Costco’s warehouse designs are consistent with the requirements of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), an internationally accepted benchmark for green building design and construction
Conducted trainings in 2018 in regions worldwide to share best practices and increase awareness about the importance of climate change, how to reduce the carbon footprint and how to save energy, which in turn saves money.
All lighting in new construction utilizes LED technology. Costco rapidly converts lighting systems in older buildings where it makes sense for financial, engineering and operational reasons. The LED conversion project began in fiscal year 2016, and as of the end of fiscal year 2018, 1,166 LED retrofits have been completed – with a total estimated energy savings of 206 million kWh per year.
By using less water, less energy also is needed to operate water systems, which in turn reduces Costco’s carbon footprint and expenses.
Costco encourages its employees to find alternative methods of transportation to reduce energy consumption and emissions. The Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) program began more than 20 years ago at the corporate office with 18 vanpools, and now features 68 vanpools (vans, fuel, maintenance and insurance are provided by five transit agencies). Costco also has vanpools at its San Diego, Los Angeles and Mexico City regional offices. Many employees carpool. Costco offers employees subsidies to vanpool and to purchase monthly bus passes. Costco currently has 15 locations (including the corporate office) that support 42 electric vehicle car charging stations that supplied over 86,000 kWh of charging service.
Waste also is used to generate energy. Costco currently has 46 locations in the U.S. that send trash to a waste-to-energy facility, essentially making these locations landfill-free. This program represents 43.7 million pounds of post-recycled waste that generated 12,011,368 kilowatt hours of renewable energy, enough to power 12,534 homes for a month. The goal is to expand this program where feasible.
Costco has a corporate energy program to track greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. They have ceased using HCFC refrigerant, an ozone-depleting substance, in new and replacement refrigeration and air conditioning systems.
Costco supplier Nice-Pak incorporates sustainable practices into the production process that reduces water, energy, CO2 and waste to a landfill.
One example is Windset Farms that grows tomatoes in greenhouses through sustainable practices that include water and energy conservation, the use of renewable energy, and recyclable packaging
Costco uses solar photovoltaic systems in 109 warehouses
Costco lives by its Supplier Code of Conduct in how they approach their business. This Code is global in its scope, and applies to all suppliers and their facilities, as well as their manufacturing facilities. In order to align with international standards, it is derived from the policies, standards, and conventions of the United Nations (UN) and the International Labor Organization (ILO), as well as other leading independent standards such as the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) and Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP).
Costco’s Supplier Code of Conduct
Ultimately, the Code was established to protect the human rights and safety of the people who produce, process and/or harvest the products they sell, while recognizing and respecting the cultural and legal differences found worldwide. To this end, Costco:
Prohibits slave labor, human trafficking, illegal child labor, illegal prison labor, physical and sexual abuse, bribery or attempted bribery, and health and safety conditions posing immediate risk to life and limb
Expects their suppliers to comply, at a minimum, with the applicable labor and environmental laws and regulations of the country where the merchandise is produced
Encourages their suppliers to work to achieve “Above and Beyond Goals”
Allows suppliers to use legal prison labor, to support rehabilitation and restitution, under specific conditions, which are outlined in their Global Policy on Prison Labor
Waste to Energy: Waste (organic and non-food) also is used to generate energy. Costco currently has 46 locations in the U.S. that send trash to a waste-to-energy facility, essentially making these locations landfill-free. This program represents 33.2 million pounds of post-recycled waste that generated 9,130,000 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy, enough to power 9,530 homes for a month.
Since 2008, Costco has partnered with APANA™ to implement an Intelligent Water Management System. Costco continues to drive operational efficiency by using this program to lower overall operating costs through the elimination of waste in water and sewer use. Ultimately, this reduces related energy and maintenance costs. Using the APANA program, Costco is able to monitor real-time water use, detect inefficient consumption, and guide operators to quickly identify and reduce waste
APANA Water Management Systems are currently installed in every warehouse in North America and Japan.
By diverting waste from the landfill, Costco increases the efficiency of waste hauling from their locations, which reduces fuel consumption, CO2 emissions generated from transportation, and hauling costs. Costco continues to examine waste disposal programs to maximize efficiency and to reduce costs. For example, Costco uses Wastenet™ to monitor waste pickups and reduce trash hauls by 8.9% in locations using this service. This maximizes efficiency and ensures that compactors are hauled full. In addition, less waste to landfill reduces Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions caused by methane that is released from decomposing materials in the landfill.
Conducted trainings in 2018 in regions worldwide to share best practices and increase awareness about the importance of climate change, how to reduce the carbon footprint and how to save energy, which in turn saves money
Costco is committed to sourcing its wood, paper and fiber-based products from certified well-managed forests, which can include certifications from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) or Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). The certification is dependent upon numerous factors, some of which include the current available supply for each product, the geographic origin of the product and the country where the product is produced. These certifications help to ensure that the needs of the forest ecosystems and their communities are balanced with conservation of our forests for future generations.
In 2018, Costco began in earnest to work with all of our suppliers to continue to convert Kirkland Signature paper products to certified programs. As of the end of fiscal year 2018, 95% of Kirkland Signature paper products are from certified well-managed forests, which include FSC, SFI or PEFC.
Hearing Aid Specialists through its partnership with the International Hearing Society. Costco helps train hearing aid specialist candidates in the U.S. As a result, Costco has helped over 700 people achieve a new career as a hearing aid specialist since 2006.
The majority of Kirkland Signature chocolate products are made from cocoa sourced through sustainable programs, some of which are from Costco’s Sassandra Cocoa program. The Sassandra Program (“Program”) is a partnership with Costco, Blommer and Olam, which began in October 2009 and is named after the Sassandra River in the southwest region of Cote d’Ivoire. This is the original location of the cooperatives from where we source our cocoa beans. This program is exclusive to Costco and is designed to provide quality product that is traceable, improve profits and livelihoods for the farmers/cooperative members, and introduce respectful environmental practices.
In September 2017 Costco established a Green Chemistry management team in partnership with the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. This partnership helps to guide Costco’s strategic plan for managing chemicals of concern within its supply chain.
In 2017, Costco completed a 14-month partnership project with IDH Sustainable Trade Initiative, Winrock International and Cargill to develop a draft Protocol for Oil Palm Independent Smallholders for Sustainable and Responsible Management of Peat Areas.
Secondary SDGs: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16
Costco Wholesale communicates in great detail about their commitment to sustainability. They hold key sustainability-related certificates and also have a number of rankings and awards. They have demonstrated their commitment to sustainability in not just one but various aspects of their business, showing that they take it seriously.
Costco has been accused of different scandals over the last decade, which could bring into question their credibility. However, in several instances in which accusations were brought against Costco (e.g. supplier conditions, gender bias lawsuits), the company has acted swiftly and reasonably in effort to rectify their mistakes. Taking quick action to resolve their mistakes speaks volumes about the company’s integrity and good will. The company achieves a rating of B.
The company is very transparent with its goals and progress. Their sustainability agendas can be easily found on their website or in their sustainability report. Costco certainly targets specific SDGs in its approach to sustainability, though they could benefit from communicating this aspect more specifically in relation to each and every SDG. By doing this, along with making their targets more specific, the true measure of their progress would be more prominent.
Costco commits to human rights, responsible sourcing, and seeks out suppliers that have industry-recognized certifications
Costco’s buyers work with their suppliers to continually improve the quality of Kirkland Signature products, expand traceability, provide a fair return to people in the supply chain, and facilitate access to global or regional markets
Costco believes a fair return is more than the price paid for the item. It includes programs that (1) support farmers/workers and their communities through training for higher yields, quality and adaptation due to climate change; (2) pay premiums for high-quality products; and (3) improve health, education, housing, clean water and nutritious food for farmers/workers and their communities
Costco has worked to incorporate sustainability into the foundation of their business through investing in solar energy and harvesting biofuels
Costco demonstrates that they strive to pursue energy-efficient and sustainable alternatives in virtually every aspect of their business
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$250 million JobMaker plan to restart Australia’s creative economy
Thousands of jobs across Australia’s arts industry will be backed with a new $250 million targeted package to help restart the creative economy and get the entertainment, arts and screen sectors back to work, as they rebuild from the impacts of COVID-19.
A range of new grant and loan programs will roll out over the next 12 months to different parts of the arts sector to support the $112 billion creative economy and the more than 600,000 Australians it employs.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the commercial arts and entertainment sector was one of the first sectors to be impacted by COVID-19 and will be one of the last to come out of hibernation as social distancing restrictions are eased.
“Our JobMaker plan is getting their show back on the road, to get their workers back in jobs,” the Prime Minister said.
“We’re delivering the capital these businesses need so they can start working again and support the hundreds of thousands of Australians who make their living in the creative economy.
“These measures will support a broad range of jobs from performers, artists and roadies, to front of house staff and many who work behind the scenes, while assisting related parts of the broader economy, such as tourism and hospitality.
“This package is as much about supporting the tradies who build stage sets or computer specialists who create the latest special effects, as it is about supporting actors and performers in major productions.
“Many in the sector will find a new way to operate while the current social distancing measures remain in place and while that won’t be easy I know there’s a strong desire among all Australians to see the return of gigs, performances and events.
The support package includes:
Seed Investment to Reactivate Productions and Tours – $75 million in competitive grant funding in 2020-21 through the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund. This program will provide capital to help production and event businesses to put on new festivals, concerts, tours and events as social distancing restrictions ease, including through innovative operating and digital delivery models. Grants of varying sizes will be available, from $75,000 through to $2 million.
Show Starter Loans – $90 million in concessional loans to assist creative economy businesses to fund new productions and events that stimulate job creation and economic activity. The loans program will complement the RISE Fund and will be delivered through commercial banks, backed by a 100 per cent Commonwealth guarantee.
Kick-starting Local Screen Production – $50 million for a Temporary Interruption Fund, to be administered by Screen Australia, that will support local film and television producers to secure finance and start filming again, supporting thousands of jobs in the sector. Filming of new productions has largely been halted as insurers are not providing coverage for COVID-19.
Supporting Sustainability of Sector-Significant Organisations – $35 million to provide direct financial assistance to support significant Commonwealth-funded arts and culture organisations facing threats to their viability due to COVID-19, which may include organisations in fields including theatre, dance, circus, music and other fields. The Government will partner with the Australia Council to deliver this funding.
Creative Economy Taskforce – establishment of a ministerial taskforce to partner with the Government and the Australia Council to implement the JobMaker plan for the creative economy.
Minister for Arts Paul Fletcher said the comprehensive package will deliver jobs and give creative and cultural experiences back to Australians.
“We are backing over 600,000 Australians in the cultural and creative sectors whose work contributes $112 billion to our economy. These sectors have been hit hard during the pandemic, and the Government’s investment will play an important role in the nation’s economic recovery,” Minister Fletcher said.
“We are injecting $100 million per month into the arts sector through the JobKeeper program and cash flow assistance, delivering an important lifeline for many businesses, but as social distancing restrictions ease, our plan supports businesses getting back on their feet and getting people back in jobs.”
Following the successful development of COVID-19 safe working guidelines to support the reopening of our National Collecting Institutions and the screen sector, the Government is working with the Australia Council to develop broader guidelines for the arts and entertainment sector to protect the public and workers. The Prime Minister will also seek approval from National Cabinet to give our entertainment industry greater certainty about the timetable for them to be able to re-activate their business, so they can better plan their path forward.
In coming weeks, the guidelines for the grant and loan programs will be released and the members of the Creative Economy Taskforce will be announced.
This plan builds on previously announced measures, including the injection of $100 million per month into the arts through JobKeeper and cashflow support over April and May; $10 million for regional and remote organisations; $7 million to Indigenous Art Centres; $10 million to Support Act to assist with mental health and crisis support; the Australia Council’s $5 million Resilience Fund and flexible management of existing funding agreements with Government.
This package also builds on the Government’s investment of $749 million in the arts and cultural industry in 2019-20 – the largest amount ever provided to the sector. The package is in addition to the support being provided by state and territory governments, totalling more than $170 million.
For more information about COVID-19 and arts support visit: www.arts.gov.au/covid-19-update
Posted by Neena Badhwar on Jun 25 2020. Filed under Australian News, Community, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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John Abraham roots for the cause of animals
Actor John Abraham : (File Photo: IANS)
Mumbai, (IANS) Actor-producer John Abraham feels there is a need to change mindset when it comes to how we treat animals. He adds that animals should be treated at par with human beings.
“Animals should be treated at par with human beings,” said John, who has extended support to the cause by featuring in the video of the song, “Unleash”, sung by iAmAnimal, whose real name is Kunal Avanti.
“The hero of the music video ‘Unleash’, in which I feature with Jacqueline Fernandez, is the cause of animal welfare and, all the credit goes to Kunal Avanti for creating it. I don’t support cutting down trees and hampering wildlife for the sake of development,” he added.
According to John, those in power must raise their voice in support of the “defenceless”.
“I try and correct people in my way. In our country, when a child sees a dog, he is taught that it can bite, but there is nothing more loyal than a dog. So, it is the mindset that must be changed,” he added.
The actor continued: “I am against hunting, and certainly don’t it when people throw stones at or beat animals. I’d love to use my force to knock such people out cold. The music video is not about asking people to turn vegan. It’s about treating animals humanely. We all need to lend a voice to the ones that don’t have one, and we all need to fight for a healthier planet.”
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Tell Me Everything
April 26, 2016 May 24, 2019 thelalatheoryLeave a comment
Hey again everybody. As I told you, I had surgery a week or so ago. Since then I’ve been too distracted by pain and the weird pain medication I’m on to concentrate on my own thoughts, so I’ve been reading like a demon to keep myself company. I find it interesting to note that for some reason, the type of writing I have the biggest appetite for right now is short-form memoir. Short-form memoir by women, that is. Women who are writing about grief and love, illness and death, their bodies and their families and their drug of choice. The blood and guts of their lives.
And god almighty, is there a lot of that kind of writing out there. I’ve been reading poorly edited junk on xoJane, the guilty pleasure web magazine I feel the need to “check” at least once a day when I’m bored. (Current headlines include: “I Hooked Up with Someone’s Boyfriend, and I Don’t Feel Guilty.” At least someone doesn’t feel guilty!) I’ve been reading better essays on similar (and similarly gendered) subjects in Lenny, Lena Dunham’s frankly excellent feminist email newsletter. In today’s issue the actress Amanda Peet has a smart, touching piece about her fear of aging, and the admiration she feels for her less-vain sister, who’s a physician. Plinking around the internet with no real destination, I discovered an Australian journalist named Julia Baird who writes for the New York Times‘ OpEd section, and I read a bunch of her stuff, including a recent piece about the cancerous tumors she had growing in her abdomen. I’m not usually much for medical details but I read all the ones she laid out in that essay, and it was pretty good. The writing, I mean, not the subject matter. That was pretty bad.
From there I found my way to a writer and Moth storyteller named Tara Clancy, who I hadn’t heard of before. She’s good too! I got a huge kick out of the essay she wrote about the neighborhood bar her dad took her to when she was a kid, and the oddball, loving community they found there. And just this minute I remembered about Samantha Irby, who is one of my new Internet favorites but who I have so far failed to write about on this blog. Not long ago I discovered hers, and found her to be one of the most refreshingly frank and funny writers I have ever read. I plowed through her book of essays, Meaty—it is hilarious and totally original—and am waiting (sort of) patiently for her to finish her second one, which according to Facebook she is writing this very moment. Keep at it, lady!
Let me be clear: I have always been more interested in women’s stories than in men’s, and I also favor autobiographical work to novels, though I do read a ton of fiction. Memoir is the kind of writing I do myself, in my essays, zines, and books. These stories give me life, as both a writer and a reader. In the week or so since I got sick I haven’t had the energy to read much long-form writing, but I have started one book: Eileen Myles’ Chelsea Girls, which she calls a novel but is understood to be based on her own life. It’s as wonderful as I expected it to be, and even more unusual.
But I’m surprised to find how much I’ve needed it now, this female company. Why do I find it so comforting, and so useful, to hear women talking truthfully about their own lives? Maybe I don’t have enough female closeness in my life (though honestly, I talk to my mother so much, and so exclusively, that a pair of walkie talkies would be as useful to me as my overpriced cell phone). Maybe it has to do with, ya know, SOCIETY, and the fact that women’s behavior is so circumscribed that we don’t often say how we feel in a day-to-day kind of way. Whatever causes it, I have the the most intense longing to hear people tell the truth, and it never goes away.
Memoir is tinged with a certain sense of inferiority, at least in the eyes of the kinds of writers who think they need an MFA in order to be writers—though there are plenty of folks who break through the stigma of it in order to be respected as serious artists, as Myles has. (But then, she’s a poet first.) Writing fiction “from life” is looked down on, too. I think this attitude is stupid, and I have developed a pet theory about it as well: I think it’s sexist. So-called domestic fiction, “personal” essays—hell, anything where the writer cops to having, like, FEELINGS—these are so often the areas of expertise of women writers, and that is the only reason they are considered less worthwhile, less intellectual, less important. Don’t tell me it’s because there are so many bad memoirs. There is so much bad EVERYTHING, and you don’t rule out whole categories of experience because you didn’t like that one thing you had that one time. I’m not gonna stop eating pizza entirely because they make it too greasy at the place around the corner. STRETCH YOURSELF, PEOPLE.
Lucky for me, I don’t give a flying fuck on a rolling doughnut—I got that from the comments section on xoJane!—about literary careerism and elitist nonsense. That’s why I know that good writing is all around us, waiting to be discovered—because I’ll read literally anything, just to see what I think. Some of the best things I’ve read have been in zines and on blogs that few others have read, and were written by people who will most likely never find a large audience for their work.
Anyway, when all’s said and done, reading other people’s personal discoveries—whether those people arrive at them within the confines of a poem, or in the shimmering moments of a beautiful, lyrical novel, or at the end of a painful essay, like a birth—this gives me more joy and wisdom, entertainment and company, than almost anything else. It feels fucking good to write the truth, too. It’s like Myles says in Chelsea Girls: “I always think it’s such a secret story, this one, I just need to tell this story for me or else I will burst.” (Me too.) She goes on: “It’s lonely to be alive and never know the whole story. Everyone must walk with that thought. I would like to tell everything once, just my part, because this is my life, not yours.”
And it does, it feels like a secret, it is a secret until you tell it.
Tagged eileen myles, feminism, Lena Dunham, literature, memoir, Tara Clancy
February 3, 2016 July 20, 2017 thelalatheoryLeave a comment
Well THAT was a fucking letdown. JEEZ.
When was the last time someone you greatly admired gave a talk that made you feel so confounded and pissed off and disappointed that you literally ran out into the night but still missed your train, and then in your pain and confusion got on the wrong train and ended up in a suburb you’ve never even heard of even though you grew up taking these stupid trains because the one you got on by accident was an EXPRESS, and then you had to call home for a ride cuz it was cold and you were wretched? What, that hasn’t happened to you? Well I guess you were smart enough not to place your emotional and psychological well-being in the hands of the Penn Humanities Forum last night.
I’ve been looking forward to hearing Terry Castle give her talk at Penn for months now. It was initially scheduled for November and then got pushed back to February. No problem, my calendar flips by at an alarming rate these days anyway, so I decided I could handle the wait. But this is thing—I really, really looked forward to this. I love(d) Terry Castle. I have thought of her as a genius. She is so funny, and has such a fine, nuanced, unusual mind that she’s one of my favorite critics to read on contemporary culture and queer and gender issues, and one of my favorite writers, period, when it comes to the even more personal stuff that she writes about, i.e., her own life. She teaches at Stanford in California, so getting to see her at a university right here at home (the one I graduated from, go Quakers!), was a rare treat. She was appearing as part of a yearly, academic-year-long conference called the Humanities Forum that is open to the public and pretty reliably excellent. Every year I look through the schedule and choose a few lectures that I am excited to attend, and this year I hit the ceiling when I saw one of them would be given by one of my personal writing heroes. I could go hear Terry Castle say surprising, funny stuff in person, for free! Lucky me.
Maybe I should tell you that I gave some thought to what I’d wear to this lecture, because I think, rather a lot, about what I’ll wear every time I go anywhere, and about what those clothes—and other aspects of my physical appearance—might communicate to the people who will see me. In the end, I chose my trusty skin-tight black jeans because I think they’re becoming AND cool. I wore a little makeup, too, like I usually do. None of this was a very big deal and it didn’t take me away from my more SERIOUS, INTELLECTUAL interests for any longer than, say, I don’t know, putting on aftershave or organizing my fucking fishing lures would have done. Just so you know.
The talk was held in Penn’s Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, which happens to be one of my favorite places in the world. We knew the subject of the lecture: “I’m not a woman, I’m a not-a-woman,” which was Castle’s own coinage (obvi) to describe that unusual sort of woman who manages to live outside of the constraints of expectations of behavior and attitude that are typically placed on women. People who “fail” to “be women,” either willfully or because they can’t help it. It’s an interesting idea, and one I’ve given a lot of thought to myself.
Castle’s list of Western women through history who met these criteria—most of them artists or dramatic performers, since that’s her own personal bent—was a kind of queer history, but it was more complex than that. Claud Cahun, Eleanor Roosevelt, Madonna, Susan Sontag, Susan Boyle, H.D., Gertrude Stein. What do they all have in common? They are “not-a-woman” women. Some of them are gay, some aren’t. Some are cross-dressers, and some are skilled at and interested in cultivating the kind of female beauty that appeals to straight men. Some do not possess those skills but seem basically unaware of this fact, so uninterested in it are they. In one way or another, all of them have managed to circumvent, ignore, flout, or knowingly use to their own purposes the traditional gender role of a [heterosexual] woman.
It’s an interesting and provocative topic, though I’m sorry to say I didn’t find what she had to say about it especially deep or enlightening. I kept waiting for her to surprise me with these points, and she didn’t, much. This didn’t make me want to throw rotten eggs at her, though. That impulse came later, when Castle got to the part she prefaced by saying “You may want to get out your rotten eggs to throw at the stage now.” That’s when she read a passage from Karl Abraham on the female castration complex that frankly stunned me. I wish I could share the damn excerpt but I haven’t been able to find it because I don’t know what she was reading from. Abraham was Freud’s collaborator and best student, and Castle herself admitted to being a mostly unreconstructed Freudian, so brace yourself: She read two paragraphs in which Abraham explained that women wish they were men, whether they realize it or not. It’s like a penis envy thing, ya dig?
Does this seem true to Terry Castle? It does, yes. Does she think that an attraction to masculinity or a masculine presentation indicates a desire to be a man? Yep, she thinks that too. Hideously, Castle’s (admittedly anecdotal) evidence that all women would like to be men is that, when she has asked some women whether they would have chosen to be born male, if they had been given that option before birth and all other things being equal, they either said yes, perhaps they would, or they threw up such “walls” of anger or denial that they must simply be kidding themselves, and on some down-deep, sublimated, fucking Freudian subconscious level do actually wish they were men. So here we have Castle gas-lighting the people who disagree with her, which I must say is very … manly of her. She gave the weirdest little half-apologetic, half-angry, “what do you want me to say” sort of smile after she said these things. Like, Don’t get mad at me! It’s nature! Or perhaps, This is awful and I feel bad, but I’m saying it anyway. Also, fuck you!
Castle’s penis envy idea struck me as boring and dumb and wrong, since I—a real person, who was sitting right there—am a woman who likes being a woman. Theory debunked, dog! And you know, what exactly does Castle mean by “being a man”? She never really said. I assumed she meant having access to experiences, or to a way of being in the world, that women have historically not had (though some of us do now, sort of). But maybe she meant having a penis, plain and simple. Do you wish you had a penis, those of you who do not currently have one? Yes? No? If you answered yes, would that prove Castle’s point? Does the penis make the man? Aren’t these questions kind of retro? I grow tired.
But not too tired to go on complaining about this, because I had another problem with Castle’s talk, and that was the way she discussed gender vis a vis transgenderism. As I understood her, she seemed to be saying that she considers a person who is making a male-to-female gender transition to be a sort of polar opposite of her because of their desire to be a woman, or perhaps an exaggerated example of a cisgendered woman who really enjoys “being a woman,” in the sense that she likes those social markers of, maybe, wearing long hair and / or makeup and / or pretty “women’s” shoes. Like, no. Not all transwomen like those things and want them for themselves, first of all. And as I understand it, that’s not the fuck at all what being transgender is about. I mean, being a transwoman might include desiring to “look like” a woman and / or enjoy girly things like experimenting with different types of makeup, and maybe in a larger sense also gaining membership to the sisterhood of understanding and sharing those things with other women. MAYBE. SOMETIMES. Just as many cis-women do not wear makeup and / or subjugate themselves to men in order to attract them (you’re not the only one, Terry Castle!), many transwomen do not do those things either. Anyway, as I understand it, a transwoman is a person who was assigned the gender identity of male at birth but who knows that they are actually female, and any outer expression of this (via manner of dress, a name change, or a change in bodily presentation that may or may not be surgical) is an expression of the gender that was already there. I winced down to my toes listening to her talk about these “men” who “want to be” “women.” Did I misunderstand her? I might have, that’s totally possible. Please tell me I did.
She brought up Caitlyn Jenner a couple times, once to say that some comment Caitlyn made in an interview that she just wants to share makeup tips with her girlfriends (or something to that effect) was incomprehensible to her. Which, okay, fine, it’s a big world, there’s room for Caitlyn Jenner’s AND Terry Castle’s differing attitudes toward makeup in it. But she also said that she considers this kind of activity to be so pointless and degrading that she can’t understand why anyone would choose it. Huh? This is gender studies? Sounds more like some Cool Girl shit to me.
One of the ideas Castle brought up that I rather liked was her suggestion that some Not-a-Woman women are Femme Fatales: She named Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich, Madonna and Lady Gaga. (Interestingly, these Femme Fatales are all also “gay icons,” a fact I don’t remember Castle bringing up.) She considers them to be outsider women, but ones who are interested enough in worldly gain that they knowingly, self-consciously amp up those feminine markers in order to get what they want. (Unlike lowlier, regular, yes-a-woman women, I guess, who just brainlessly, helplessly participate in some master-slave set-up every time they look in the mirror and put on their lipgloss.)
Is this feminism? Hahaha, nope, but then Castle didn’t say it was. It’s not scholarly either, a fact she also acknowledged. So what is it then? A personal, idiosyncratic, mostly eloquent disquisition on the subject of gender. There’s a place for that, for sure. Furthermore, I greatly appreciate a little controversy in these kinds of conversations. After all, her talk got me writing this blog post, trying to articulate my own ideas, and I’m thankful for that. Nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned conversation starter. I just—I’m shocked at how poorly thought-out her ideas seemed to be, and how insulting her perspective on the topic was. Sitting there, I felt humiliated, as though she’d tripped me just for the pleasure of watching me fall down.
There are two more things to say about last night’s lecture. First, Castle told us that she’s only presented the ideas in this talk once before (she didn’t say where), and there were some prominent feminists in the crowd, Vivian Gornick among them. Apparently she was ENRAGED. Second, Heather K. Love, the Penn professor who was the Topic Director for the Humanities Forum this year, introduced Castle by saying that she agrees with the people who have called Castle our greatest living critic. Hearing this made me smile, since I’ve been so admiring of Castle too. Then, after Castle had gone off the rails and wrecked her train right there in the auditorium—and during the Q&A—Love chimed in with something useful. She said that she has long been interested in the same women Castle mentioned, for the same sorts of reasons, and that she personally sympathizes with Castle’s lack of interest in makeup (or whatever; I’m having the damnedest time encapsulating the “regular woman” category), but she likes to keep her personal taste separate from her politics and would like to see enough change in the world that no one should have to conflate wanting equality with wanting to be a man.
So thank goodness for Heather K. Love. But I still have so many thoughts.
I am reminded of a talk I heard last year, given by the extraordinary war photographer Lynsey Addario. She has made beautiful pictures of, among other subjects, Afghan women living with extreme restrictions on their daily lives. Addario is interested in, and actively seeks, justice for women around the world. And yet someone in the audience asked some question or other about these women, and Addario reminded us that many of the women she met in Afghanistan are happy and that, though they were all too well-mannered to say such a thing, she knew many of them felt sorry for her, putting herself at risk to do her work, alone; what some of us see as personal liberty is viewed by some others as the unfortunate circumstance of a person who has no one to care for them. Make no mistake, yours is not the only way of looking at the world.
I’m also thinking about the Barbara Pym novel I read a few weeks ago. It’s one of her first, Excellent Women, a hilarious and touching comedy of manners that deals with midcentury, just-after-the-war-and-still-all-bombed-out-and-deprived England. More specifically, the England of bachelor vicars and their quirky households, “nice” families with comically impeccable manners, socially awkward lonelyhearts, blazing eccentrics, and spinsters. OMG, spinsters. There are few topics dearer to my heart than that one. Spinsters, bluestockings, Pippi Longstockings, Ramona Clearys, Jessica Vyes. Tomboys! I’m straight—and now I’m married, to a man—and I have aligned myself with all of these identities for at least some part, but more or less all, of my life.
In Excellent Women—in the Jane Austen tradition—we have a main character who is an unmarried woman over the age of 30 and who ponders that situation pretty often. Mildred Lathbury lives alone in a flat with a shared bathroom in a boarding house, and because she is churchy and not married, she finds herself lumped in with a category of women who can always be counted on to help her married friends with their more sophisticated problems. She is one of the condescendingly-referred-to “excellent women” who are always on hand serve the tea. In a piece on Pym for The Guardian, the novelist Alexander McCall Smith writes, “Men, young and otherwise, were to form a major focal point of [Pym’s] writing; men, wryly and sometimes wistfully observed by a single female character, bring both excitement and disappointment – and mostly the latter – to the heroines of all her books. Excellent Women is as much about men as it is about women; the excellent women who populate this novel are excellent because they have been described as such by men.”
The wonderful joke of the book is that Mildred doesn’t view her life as dire at all; if anything she seems to feel a bit above the silliness of romance. She has almost-romances, though, and goes on dates, and her observations of these are hilarious. She sometimes feels lonely or left out, but she also seems curiously undriven to get to the social place where her married friends dwell. The wistful thing that Smith mentions is also certainly there; she has a touch of the kind of admiration of men that Castle talked about, though Pym’s treatment of it was vastly less ham-fisted than hers. Mildred is a type of woman that has always interested me, probably because, in my commitment to singleness and the vocation of my writing, I was so much this way myself for such a long time. Why do these ladies not want to do what most women want, or feel obliged, to do? In what way are they different? Why do some women remain different in these ways even after marrying? (Frida Kahlo, with her bisexuality and separate house away from her husband, comes to mind; she was incidentally one of Castle’s not-a-woman women too.) The answers are as varied as there are types of individuals, and failing to acknowledge this on a deep level seems like simple misogyny to me, which feels like the worst kind of treachery coming from a woman who loves women.
I don’t know, dude. Whatever the hell it was that happened last night, it was bad enough to make me get on the wrong train. Maybe I should stay in for a while.
Tagged alexander mccall smith, barbara pym, caitlyn jenner, claud cahun, eleanor roosevelt, feminism, gender, gertrude stein, joan crawford, lady gaga, lynsey addario, madonna, marlene dietrich, sexuality, susan boyle, susan sontag, terry castle, upenn
That girl, she holds her head up so high I think I wanna be her best friend
September 23, 2015 September 23, 2015 thelalatheoryLeave a comment
Years ago, when I was trying my hand at internet dating, I made friends with a guy from one of those sites, and we’d sometimes talk over the chat function. I asked him whether he’d ever gone out with a girl from another website, and he told me no, because “There are too many sluts on there.”
“WOW, I can’t believe you just said that to me,” I answered. “I don’t like that word. Don’t say that about anyone.” In response, he sent me a girl’s profile photo from the site, in which she was leaning over toward the camera with the word “slut” written across her chest.
Showing me that photo didn’t excuse his calling her (or anyone else) a gendered slur, especially when he was talking to another woman, in my opinion. But it was thought provoking. What does it mean when a woman calls herself a slut, as opposed to when a guy calls her that? How about when other girls are the ones saying it, and everyone involved is 11 years old? Or when it’s the 90s and it’s Kathleen Hanna, and she’s performing on stage and she’s mad as hell?
And what about now? Where do we stand with the word slut? I think it depends on who you ask.
In 2011 the Slutwalk was born. If you’re unfamiliar with that event you can read about it all over the internet, but in a nutshell, a group of women at a college in Toronto were enraged when a cop who had come to their campus to share self-defense techniques with them suggested that women could avoid physical attacks from men by not dressing in a “slutty” way. It wouldn’t have been the first time they’d had that idea run past them, I can tell you that. But I guess they were wishing it would be the last. They organized a rally that they called the Slutwalk, and the idea–and, I daresay, the name–caught on all around the world. We did a Slutwalk here in Philadelphia that year, and I was proud to participate in it. I met up with everybody in a small park downtown, and we marched with our signs and chants through the streets to City Hall, where speakers addressed the crowd.
But I had such complicated feelings about that name. I liked the idea of angrily taking it back–a la those riot grrrl punks who I so admired as a teenager trapped in a Catholic school lockdown–but, I don’t know, I didn’t really want to say it. I surely didn’t want to write it–not on my sign, which bore the slogan “DON’T PARTICIPATE IN GIRL HATE”–and not on my body.
I had to take the subway to the rally because I have to take the subway (or the bus, or the train) everywhere, because I don’t drive. Staying safe in public is something I spend a portion of every day thinking about, and that day was no different. Riding public transportation alone with the word SLUT anywhere on my person seemed like a bad idea.
I’m not mad that the event was called the Slutwalk; I get it, and more than anything I appreciate being asked to think about these ideas in more, and more nuanced, ways. But I was far from the only one who had issues with it. That day at City Hall, one of the speakers was the filmmaker Aishah Shahidah Simmons, who said that she initially planned to skip the protest altogether because of the name, but decided to agree to speak about that very idea. She explained that many Black women in particular felt alienated or attacked by that word because they don’t have the same privilege white women do to “reclaim” it. What I heard was that the use of the word SLUT is one more way in which non-white women are made to feel ostracized from Feminism with a Capital F, which is so often, and so destructively and annoyingly, a white, middle-class, ivory tower sort of thing. Simmons’ talk (and other voices as well) made a big impact on me, and on the rally’s organizers too. The event has been renamed (somewhat clunkily) The March to End Rape Culture, and it’s still going strong. We’ll be marching again on October 3rd, which is why I’ve been thinking about this damn word again.
I’ve been reading SLUT, a play developed by Katie Cappiello, Meg McInerney, and the members of The Arts Effect All-Girl Theater Company. It’s a fictional story about a rape that was inspired by true events (which ought to go without saying) and is told in the realistic voices of girls in high school. In the print edition I’m reading, the play is preceded by several teenage girls telling their own stories of victimization around this word and its ideas. It’s one story after another of bullying, school-administration bullshit, humiliation, confusion, coercion, and sometimes physical attacks. These stories are disturbing because they are so very ordinary. They’re coming-of-age stories, in a way. I’d go so far as to say that no girl gets to grow up without being initiated into the SLUT mindset, and for many of us it’s a violent introduction. It makes me so angry, thinking of older women having gone through this stuff before me, and young women dealing with those same things now, but some days it just makes me feel blue.
But you know, the heart is a muscle the size of your fist: keep loving, keep fighting. The organizers of the March to End Rape Culture have been selling original art to raise funds for the event, so I spent a couple weeks embroidering the words NO, NOPE, and NO SIR! onto pretty floral tea towels. I’m going to make another sign and march again. (I think this year’s one will read TRUST GIRLS on one side and BELIEVE WOMEN on the other.) I’ve got my TRANS-INCLUSIVE FEMINISM ALWAYS badge to wear, and I’ll sew my self-defense patch onto the back of my sweater: It’s a picture of a woman kicking a dude in the crotch. I like it because when I first saw it, it made me smile. Once in a while, though, it makes me cry.
Tagged demonstrations, feminism, kathleen hanna, misogyny, philadelphia, rape culture, resistance, riot grrrl
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Mr. Stewart
Revision as of 11:16, 5 February 2011 by Mikel (talk | contribs)
Mr. Stewart, as seen in Sonic X
Mr. Stewart is a character from the anime series Sonic X, he is a government agent who is disguised as a teacher to keep an eye on Sonic and co. by the President.
He teaches Chris Thorndyke and his classmates, such as Danny, Frances, and Helen. He always looks out for the kids in his class.
He is also a fan of Chris' film actress mother, Lindsey Flair.
Mr. Stewart is voiced by Andrew Rannells in English, and by Michio Nakao in Japanese.
Retrieved from "https://info.sonicretro.org/index.php?title=Mr._Stewart&oldid=167096"
Sonic X Characters
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Home > Debate > Problems of the Arab and Middle East regions > Regaining hope in Rojava
Regaining hope in Rojava
Monday 29 August 2016, by Jo Magpie
This is a revolution in consciousness, not only in politics, and it has transformed the lives of countless women and men for generations to come.
Sometime in early February, I was excited to receive an invitation to participate in a women’s delegation to Rojava, the de-facto autonomous Kurdish majority region in northern Syria. The delegation was open to women journalists, activists and lawyers, and would be timed to coincide with International Women’s Day.
I arranged to go with two people I hadn’t met before: Ali, a friend of a friend, and Kimmie who I had interviewed over Skype for my book about female hitchhikers. She had already hitchhiked all around West Africa solo and had been blogging about Kurdish and Middle-Eastern issues recently, so she seemed like a good candidate for an adventure. None of us had any idea what to expect, not really. But we are all very open, flexible, and up for a challenge.
We needed that determination and flexibility to cross the border from the KRG – the Kurdish Regional Government in the north of Iraq – to Rojava. We had been informed that the border was “in the personal hands of” Massoud Barzani, the Prime Minister, and that we would need to get permission.
I had grown sceptical from years of organising in social movements: was I about to see a revolution with my own eyes?
This proved unimaginably difficult, as nobody able to give the permission is willing to answer the telephone or email. To add to this, around the time we began planning our trip, Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party, who are allied with Turkey, decided that the border crossing was no longer open to freelance journalists. Soon after that it was no longer open to any journalists, except for representatives of very large and well-known media agencies. Since we visited, the border has been completely closed down.
We finally got permission after two days of emails and phone-calls from our hotel room in Zakho, and a full day waiting at a checkpoint just before the official border crossing, a river that slices between the two countries. You cannot imagine the excitement we felt on that rusting blue boat as we drifted across the waters to Syria.
I had grown sceptical from years of organising in social movements: ecological, anti-militarist, feminist, movements for democracy, campaigns against fracking and motorways and airport expansion and wars, and wars, and wars. What I had learned was this: we can make tiny changes, we can have small successes, but what we are fighting is so much bigger than us. I learned to do positive action for its own sake, rather than dreaming of success. I learned how to not let defeat cripple me. But now, was I about to see a revolution with my own eyes?
We managed to arrive just in time for International Women’s Day and we marched alongside thousands of women in colourful and ornate dresses, whooping and singing, through the streets of Derbesi – a village sliced in half by the Turkish-Syrian border. “Jin! Jiyan! Azadi!” we chanted – woman, life, freedom! Many of the women and girls carried flags or banners. All of them smiled at us with warmth in their eyes, even the women guarding the march with ageing Kalashnikovs, who kissed and hugged us just like all the other mothers, sisters and grandmas we met that day.
Over the next few days we had a whirlwind tour of projects. We visited a women’s health centre in Serekaniye, run by a highly committed young doctor from the Netherlands on very scant means, with three Kurdish co-workers who she is training up. Between dealing with patients, Dr Ronahi answered our questions patiently, always smiling, switching between Kurdish, English, Turkish and Arabic. “Some women walk for many miles to reach the health centre from villages,” she told us as a small group of women in black chadors arrived with children in tow.
What we saw was way beyond feminism as we know it.
The health centre was opened by Weqfa Jina Azad a Rojava, the Foundation of Free Women in Rojava, who are aiming to open a women’s healthcare centre and a preschool in every neighbourhood in every city in Rojava. We also visited two preschools that they have already opened, as well as a women’s academy.
It was becoming obvious after only the first couple of days that we had all massively underestimated the scale of this experiment. I had known about the women-only armed forces as they have been heavily covered by western media, and I had heard a lot of talk about the strength of feminist movements in the region. But what we saw was way beyond feminism as we know it.
Women in Rojava have completely taken control of their own systems in every aspect of their lives, from healthcare to education to law-making and justice, as well as three separate defence forces and an independent economic body.
Across the region, the society is organising itself into a coordinated democratic system that works from the bottom up, like a tree. This system is called democratic confederalism, and it comes from the ideas of Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the PKK.
In this system, people first meet together at the local “commune” level, which can include a whole village or from 30 to 400 or more households. The communes then send elected, rotating delegates up to the next “neighbourhood council” level, comprised of the coordination boards of 7 to 30 communes. From there delegates go up to the District People’s Council. Decisions are made at the level they affect and all representatives are elected, with one male and one female for every post.
There are commissions to deal with issues such as defence, economics and justice. There is a separate Women’s Council at every level, and women-only commissions that work together with the general commissions, such as the economics commission. Kongira Star is the women’s movement umbrella organisation which, like all other commissions and public bodies, are represented in The Tev Dem, or Movement for a Democratic Society.
Many laws have recently been passed in Rojava, thanks to the strength of the women’s movement. They have outlawed polygamy and forced marriages and brought the minimum legal age for marriage to 18. Women now automatically get custody of their children in the case of a divorce. Women facing a wide range of issues can now go to the Mala Jin or Women’s House. So far, there are thirteen Mala Jin in the Cizire canton alone.
Problems they deal with include husbands taking second wives, forced marriages, inheritance issues and domestic abuse. As a house of justice, the Mala Jin takes a mediation approach, involving discussions between all affected parties where possible – a couple, a family, two or more families or tribes – and finding a solution together. In serious cases, the women of the Mala Jin can decide on a punishment for the perpetrator, such as a period of banishment, or they can send him to the official court system, where he may face prison, though the women we interviewed in the Mala Jin expressed a strong wish to move away from prison and other non-restorative forms of punishment.
The women’s economy unit, or Aboriya Jin, are largely involved with co-ordinating co-operatives. They told us proudly that they had just given a grant of 700 cubic metres of land to a group of women who are going to use the land collectively. They also talked about a seed bank project that is being developed. Later, we had the chance to visit a cooperative that is just being set up.
The Greenhouse Project is a little piece of heaven in what used to be the front-line. This is where I saw trees and even a butterfly for the first time in Rojava, and where the air is the cleanest. A woman with mischievous charm and a contagious energy showed us around the project she is setting up. After everything is running smoothly, women from eighteen communes will take over from her and grow food collectively, as a cooperative. They are also establishing an on-site education facility to teach women farming skills, traditionally seen as men’s work.
A great deal of importance is vested in education at every level of every system. A huge percentage of the population is illiterate. The Kurdish language was banned by the Assad regime in Syria, as well as by the neighbouring Turkish state, and the region kept economically poor. Add to this an incredibly patriarchal culture with entrenched ideas about women and we can begin to get an idea of how incredible this transformation really is.
Women are now attending academies where they learn about a wide range of topics, including the history of the region, leadership and responsibility, ethics, law, democratic politics, the system of Rojava, legal self-defence, the autonomy of women, ecology and more. Classes are taught on women’s history, based on Ocalan’s sentiments that “Housewifisation is the oldest form of slavery”. This is really radical stuff. Women in communes, villages and refugee camps are being taught about their own bodies and reproductive systems, challenging centuries of shame and self-hatred. Lessons are participatory, involving discussions and debates rather than the traditional top-down teacher-student dynamic. Classes are also taken out into the community and organised within communes and councils.
Women have their own separate defence forces at three different levels, which are run alongside, but independently from, the male forces. Aside from the YPJ – the women’s military force, which has been the subject of many western documentaries and news reports, there are the asayish, who are often described as being like a police force, and the HPC, the newly formed civilian defence force.
Criticism and self-criticism are built into the system at every level. Women in the organisations we visited often asked us, “Do you have any criticism for us? What could we improve?” Women in Jineology or “women’s science” study and critically analyse feminist movements in other countries, as well as other kinds of social systems, liberation movements and ideologies, including feminist, anarchist, socialist and libertarian movements and ideas. They see western feminist movements as highly reformist.
The second week
Our second week in Rojava was very different from the first. We were no longer treated as visitors, no longer on a tour, but were a part of the fabric of Rojava. We were staying in the newly opened International House, taking part in daily activities like cooking collective meals, participating in somewhat lengthy meetings about household issues, going to Kurdish language training and social events alongside other European people who have chosen to live in Rojava – people who are making documentaries, people who are founding projects, people who have been fighting or are in the process of training to fight.
This is where I began to understand what life inside Rojava could really be like for me if I stayed.
We all thought about staying. For me, these thoughts were always fleeting. I had a husband waiting for me back home, unfinished commitments and responsibilities that made staying impossible, or at least highly irresponsible. Ali changed her mind several times, but ultimately decided it wasn’t quite the right time to make such a large spontaneous decision. But Kimmie decided to stay.
Saying goodbye to Kimmie was tough. The day we left, she came with us in the car as Jiyan – the woman who had been our translator, guide and friend – drove us back along the seemingly endless road, through a string of cities and villages interspersed with the same oil wells and dreary countryside, then into some mountains, and finally the river that divides Syria from Iraq.
This revolution is not only bottom up, it’s also inside out.
I remember feeling that I was not quite the same person who had been in the little rusting blue boat two weeks earlier, seemingly a lifetime ago.
The day after we left Rojava, the border closed. Since that day, nobody has been able to enter or leave legally, except a handful of medical professionals. People leaving by irregular means are arrested and imprisoned in Iraq.
Rojava is now facing an escalating crisis: not only sandwiched between ISIS, Assad and a very angry Turkey, but the supply route has been cut and a large scale famine is on the horizon. The chemical fertiliser that the agriculture depends upon has now run out and crop production has decreased dramatically. Only a third of the usual wheat harvest will be produced this year. Food and fertiliser imports have ceased because of the embargo. The region must become completely self-sufficient, and fast.
Some friends in Rojava are now raising funds for an ambitious project to transform the region from a chemical-dependent wheat monoculture, into a diverse organic farming culture. The plan is for the region to make all of the organic fertilizer it needs by collecting biological waste from the towns, villages, and farms, alongside a full education programme to teach residents how and why they should separate waste.
All these years of organising in social movements in Europe taught me that hope was futile – but I was wrong. There is a real revolution happening now, in my lifetime, and it’s more beautiful than I imagined possible. It isn’t perfect, nothing ever is, but the strength, love and determination of the women in Rojava has shown me what struggle really means. They have shown me the real meaning of solidarity, and they have given me hope.
People ask me if I think this revolution will last, will somehow make it. I don’t know what the future will bring. But I do know that this revolution is not only bottom up, it’s also inside out. This is a revolution in consciousness, not only in politics, and it has transformed the lives of countless women and men, perhaps for countless generations to come.
In some ways, the revolution has already won.
regaining-hope-in-rojava_a4675.pdf (PDF - 115.8 kb)
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Jo Magpie
Jo Magpie is a freelance journalist and writer, with a passion for freedom of movement, hitchhiking, Kurdistan and the wider Middle-East. Between writing about borders and revolutions, she is working on a book about long-term solo female hitchhikers. Follow her on twitter at @Jo_Magpie
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Radu’s movie recommendation: Hawaii
March 16, 2018 March 16, 2018 ~ Radu Sava
For this weekly recommendation I’m going to try something new. I’m going to recommend a Romanian movie. And it’s not because I’m a patriot or I like Romanian cinema. I actually find it very boring and dull. I feel it lacks imagination and heart. But this movie isn’t about something being funny or fast paced. It’s about a feeling. Of despair, of hope and of a better life.
It’s the story of Andrew( Andrei in Romanian) who is a taxi driver in Bucharest, in 1988. For those who are not familiar with Romanian History, it was the worst period of the communist regime. Former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was trying to make savings for the country so the people had electricity, heat and TV only a couple hours a day. Not to mention that you had to spend hours in line at the market for a bottle of milk or bread. Meat was in the market only for the holidays. So one day Andrew and his father are taken to the US embassy in Bucharest were they find out that Andrews uncle who escaped the country 20 years ago had died and had left them a lot of land in Hawaii worth 3 million USD. From that moment, Andrew tries to obtain a passport so that he can go to Yugoslavia, where he could claim his inheritance. If he would try to claim it in Romania, the government would just take it away, since private property was a myth in those times. But as Andrew tries to make ends meet and make the life of his family better, by doing small contraband through his connections, he is being watched by the deadly Securitate, the Romanian secret police…
The term of Hawaii is masterfully used in the movie, as being the total opposite of what life used to be in Romania during those times. It shows a depressed population, resigned in their life, without freedom, where you had to be careful with everything you said and did. Where the Securitate had more than 11000 employers and more than half a million informants and where anything you said against the Communist Party would earn you a place in jail. Where people were happy to receive some pork meat for the holiday. Where a little girls only wish for her birthday was to receive a chocolate cake with bananas. That was Romania in 1988. So this is why the tittle Hawaii is so important. Because it represents everything the Romanians wanted during those times and is the total opposite of that reality. Hawaii represents summer, warmth, freedom, prosperity.
One of the most powerful scenes in the movie is when both Andrew and his father are in the US Embassy and are asked if they would like coffee or something to eat. They answer with extreme wonder : “Is it real coffee? Is that real Coca Cola?”, because these things could not be found anywhere else.
Although the director is Spanish, he is very well documented in Romanian history and delivers a masterfully sad picture of the era. The lead actors, both Andrew and his father portray characters who cannot find their place in that society, always feeling like they cannot breath. They wish for a better life, a life of freedom, but are condemned to live of fear. Another great character is Andrews sister, who is resigned woman, always saying:” We get what we need. It is honest and it is just”. I think she represents the greatest crime that the communist regime did to Romania: they created people who cannot adapt anymore to a different way of life and who do not even dare to dream and hope anymore.
So taking into consideration that today is the Romanian National Day, I would truly like to recommend this amazing movie that can take you on an epic journey to a different age and that will make you cherish the freedom that you have more than anything else.
Posted in Articles, irevuo, movies, Reviews ArtblogculturemoviesReviewthoughts
Next ›Throwback… uhm… Monday
2 thoughts on “Radu’s movie recommendation: Hawaii”
That does sound sad Radu, and I am thankful for where I was born. Grateful that my ancestors did not remain in Germany those 198 years ago. The world moves too slowly in too many parts of the globe. There are those who say that everything happens when it is supposed to, and I am certain they weren’t living in Romania when they said it.
Radu Sava says:
I was born right after that time frame. In some cities people had it pretty good, because someone knew someone. But it most cities, you had to stay in line for hours for some bread and cheese. Not to mention electricity, heat… Those were exotic things in that time
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